The Impact of Volunteer Time Off for Your Employees & Company Culture

volunteering at Thistle Farms

At some level, every human wants to make a positive difference in the lives of others. We may want to make an impact while feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day to make it a priority. Volunteer time off (VTO) makes it possible to balance giving back and collecting a paycheck. When coupled with a company’s mission to create a thoughtful work environment, VTO can boost an organization’s reputation and company culture. 

Since Green Apple was founded, we’ve placed great emphasis on the importance of community outreach and have offered pro bono services to nonprofits and organizations across Tennessee, including Survivor Fitness and Thistle Farms. Now, every member of the Green Apple team has the opportunity to receive paid time off to volunteer with organizations of their choice. 

How Volunteer Time Off Works

Companies that offer paid time off for volunteering typically give one or two days a year to do so. Hours that can be used for volunteerism are usually separate from PTO for other uses like vacation or sick days. 

Green Apple provides 16 hours a year of volunteer PTO. The system at Green Apple allows us to choose our own activity and submit a request for time off to volunteer on our own. In addition to volunteering on our own at the place of our choosing, we also volunteer as a team several times throughout the year. In 2022, Green Apple began volunteering with Thistle Farms. Since then, we’ve been working to strengthen our relationship and expand our support for the organization. In December 2023, Green Apple CEO Samantha Owens Pyle joined the Thistle Farms board and was appointed as the organization’s first External Affairs Chair in July 2024. In this role, Samantha (joined by several Green Apple team members) has collaborated with Thistle Farms’ Marketing Director and Vice President of External Affairs to develop a comprehensive strategy aimed at achieving record-breaking Q4 results in fundraising, retail sales, and volunteer engagement.

Benefits for All 

Paid time off for volunteering is a win-win-win situation. For starters, a UnitedHealthcare study shows that of the respondents who volunteered in a 12-month period, 93% said they experienced an improved mood, and 79% reported lower stress levels. There is a real link between personal happiness and productivity at work. By encouraging your employees to volunteer, you may boost their mental health, which would benefit the whole company.

volunteering at YUMEast

Studies show that companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147% and are 21% more profitable. In a recent blog, we also suggested several other strategies to boost employee engagement and morale. 

Volunteer time off can be a workplace perk that helps your company stand out from the competition. Adding VTO to an existing list of people-supportive perks (such as remote work and flexible schedules) will also have an impact on engaging current and future employees alike. 

Finally, VTO is a great way to build camaraderie among your team members while they give back. Members of the Green Apple team recently participated in YUM!East, an annual fundraising event benefiting Fannie Battle Day Home in Nashville. Our team in Charlotte also volunteered their time for a cause benefiting the Move For Jenn Foundation. 

TN Titans stuff the bus

Acknowledging social responsibility and volunteerism in your marketing is even a powerful way to leverage your company’s community to create deeper, more personal connections with your customers. 

VTO is a growing employee perk that can set your company apart. A strong internal culture not only attracts top talent but also boosts your external brand, making your business a sought-after place to work and partner with. Ready to align your recruitment, engagement, and brand strategies? Green Apple Strategy can help. Contact us today to build a strategic plan for long-term success, and don’t forget to sign up for The Core, our monthly newsletter, via the Subscribe button in the footer below for the latest marketing insights and inspiration delivered straight to your inbox!

Marketing Planning and the Perfect Timing [A Guide]

Strategy is so important to us that it’s part of our name. So naturally, we are big proponents of planning ahead when it comes to your marketing strategy. The short answer to the question of this blog’s title is that it’s never too early to begin crafting your approach to next year’s marketing strategy. Today, we’ll take a deeper dive into the reasons why that’s true. We’ll also highlight a few factors to consider while you’re doing that advance marketing planning. 


Benefits of an Annual Plan

With sufficient planning, you can keep all of your marketing efforts organized, maintain audience engagement with quality content, and adapt to changes in your industry faster. All of this means you’ll give your business the ability to thrive and stay one step ahead of the competition. 

Ideally, a good annual marketing plan should be high-level, since things change all the time, and act as a guide for multiple stakeholders. This approach is especially helpful for large teams working to stay on the same page and obtain the same end goal. An overarching marketing plan can unite your sales team, your business development team, your in-house and outsourced marketing team, and your C-suite executives.  It’s a useful tool that can help create a streamlined and focused tactical plan that everyone can get on board with. 


Planning for the Busiest Times of Year

While long-term planning is ideal, you should plan at least six months ahead of your busiest time of year. Regardless of whether your busy season is summer or the holidays, giving yourself ample time to prepare is a sure way to drive optimal results. If you’re not sure when your brand sees the most business, it may be time to run an audit on your social media, website traffic, and other indicators of surging interest. With the right data, you can create a solid marketing funnel that can translate increased interest and search queries into qualified leads and sales. 


Strategic Planning 

Rather than using last year’s ideas or “institutional wisdom” to drive your planning decisions, embrace a mindset of data-based continuous improvement to develop a marketing plan based on your organization’s long-term strategy and vision. Data analysis can also help you hone and direct your annual marketing budget. Although it can be tempting to follow a gut feeling about where your leads are originating, the data may indicate a different funnel. For instance, while social media is essential for building brand integrity, email marketing may have more ROI in your annual revenues.  


What Happens When You Need to Pivot?

The best laid plans of mice and men… often need to be reframed in the light of your analytics! While that’s not exactly how the Robert Burns quote goes, it’s definitely something we focus on at Green Apple. The best marketing strategies are nimble and should allow you to drop one strategy or double down on an effective tactic if the data backs it. Don’t be concerned if you need to scrap your current strategy and recalibrate! That should be an expected part of the marketing planning process, and it means you’re committed to an evidence-based approach. If you need help interpreting the data or you need help collecting more information points, we’re here to help. Don’t hesitate to turn to an outsourced marketing team to support your in-house team with all the initiatives they’re launching. 


Let Us Help You Achieve Your Goals

Need some help getting started on next year’s marketing goals? Check out this Green Apple guide to start planning! Our team is here to help you build an effective strategy to help your brand achieve its business goals.

Kayla Reyes Promoted to Client Relations Specialist

Kayla Reyes

Green Apple Strategy is excited to announce Kayla Reyes’s promotion to Client Relations Specialist. Kayla joined Green Apple as an Assistant Client Relations Specialist in 2021. For the past year and a half, Kayla has leveraged her detail-oriented skill set and relationship-focused approach to lead project management efforts for a number of Green Apple clients. Kayla’s ability to “keep all the plates spinning” by effectively communicating between Green Apple’s team, our Orchard members, and clients has been an invaluable asset for our team. During her time at Green Apple Strategy, Kayla has leaned into every opportunity to grow professionally and learn about the unique characteristics of each industry for the clients she serves.  

To recognize and celebrate Kayla’s hard work and dedication, we wanted to highlight a few specific ways her promotion will empower her to make an even greater impact on our clients.

Offering Strategic Direction and Leading Collaboration 

In her new role as Client Relations Specialist, Kayla will focus on providing leadership and strategic direction for the clients she serves. This shift will allow her to leverage her natural abilities to focus on the end goal and identify areas of improvement to accelerate marketing efforts. She will work closely with Sam Pyle, Olivia Cooper, and others on the Green Apple team to help develop marketing strategies and manage individual projects outside of our client’s ongoing scope of work. 

“I am excited about the opportunity to work with clients on ‘bigger picture’ ideas,” Kayla shared. “I love collaborating with our team to care for our clients and support their marketing needs.”  


Balancing “Day-to-Day” Marketing and the Bigger Picture

In her previous role as an Assistant Client Relations Specialist, Kayla has seen (and managed) all of the steps that make an effective marketing strategy come to life. From brainstorming ideas to analyzing results, Kayla knows what it takes to execute a successful campaign. Her experience will be an invaluable asset for our team as we develop strategies and ideas based on a client’s specific goals and budget. 

“Learning the daily aspect of marketing management has helped me recognize all the little steps that go into helping our clients achieve their goals,” Kayla said. “I’m grateful for the ability to use that knowledge to help our clients make more informed decisions about their marketing campaigns.” 

“It’s been such a joy to watch Kayla grow since joining the Green Apple team, and I’m excited for that to continue in her new role,” said Samantha Pyle, Owner and Chief Strategist of Green Apple Strategy. “Her dedication to creating exceptional results, along with her infectious positive energy, is so valuable for our clients and our team.”

Graphic Design Hacks for B2B Businesses

Today’s B2B businesses have more access than ever to affordable, user-friendly design apps. With a few clicks and perhaps a few YouTube tutorials, anyone can create logos, websites, e-newsletters, and more in just minutes. But how do you know if your graphic designs are helping—or hurting—your B2B business? 

Simply put, good graphic design is important. To put you on the path to success, our team at Green Apple is happy to share some of the best practices we use when developing a graphic design strategy for B2B clients. While there is so much to learn about creating an effective design, we hope this list will inspire you to love and appreciate graphic design as much as we do.
 

Graphic Design for B2B Best Practices


Choose Colors, Fonts, and Logos Wisely

Before you begin any graphic design project, ensure you have a logo, fonts, and colors that appropriately represent your unique brand. For example, a technology company will choose a different font than a creative marketing agency. Likewise, a childcare center will choose different colors than a high-end restaurant chain. Together, these elements tell a story about your brand—you just need to make sure it’s the correct one!
  

Create a Brand Guide

You’ve taken the time to ensure the logo, colors, and fonts accurately represent your brand. When used consistently across all design channels, these key elements establish a strong brand identity. Now, you’ll want to create a brand guide. 

A brand guide is an internal, digital home that lists all the details of your fonts (such as names, typeface, and size), color names and numbers, preferred logo size, and how it can and cannot be used. Make this guide available to anyone working on your B2B graphic design. This way, no matter who is doing the design, a cohesive look and feel can be maintained. Remember: we need this cohesiveness to build a strong brand identity.
 

Focus on the Client

Graphic design for B2B should focus on the experience of the end user, not on the likes or dislikes of the designer. With so many beautiful design elements to choose from, it can be easy to get distracted by our own personal preferences. However, the best graphic designs are created with the user’s experience in mind. 

Focusing on UX means ensuring web designs are mobile-friendly, concepts are easy to understand, calls to action are clear and easy to act on, and all text is supplemented with easy-to-digest photos, videos, and infographics to maintain your audience’s attention. Graphic design for B2B should take your audience on a journey—and make it worthwhile for them to stay on the site.
  

Strive for Visual Clarity

There is much to be said for white space regarding graphic design for B2B. At best, too much information and visual clutter waters your message down and confuses your audience. At worst, they don’t know what action to take, so they don’t take any at all! Let your design focus on one directive or key point at a time. Your audience should be able to intuitively navigate your design, and the design should clearly specify what actions you want a user to take. 

With that in mind, be bold with your CTA  by using stand-out colors to encourage your audience to take action. If your website is blue, a CTA button in a vibrant shade of orange will pop on the page, engage your audience, and enhance click-through rates.
  

We Design with Leads in Mind

The best B2B graphic design strategies work to move the needle in terms of ROI. Our team at Green Apple is here to be a partner in creating effective design elements that support your business goals. Contact us to learn more about our approach to creating visually compelling B2B graphic design to attract more leads and land more clients. 

Five Marketing Myths

Marketing is a critical component of any business’s strategy. When executed well, the right concepts can increase brand awareness, customer acquisition and retention, engagement, and sales. Even with these proven benefits, some businesses hesitate to invest in marketing.

Our team at Green Apple Strategy has compiled a list of the most common marketing myths and misconceptions we encounter as marketing professionals. We hope it helps you advocate for your marketing budget!

Marketing Myths and Misconceptions 

MYTH 1: Marketing, advertising, and public relations are all the same. 

One common marketing myth is that if your business invests in advertising or public relations, you do not need to spend additional resources on marketing. While the three components work beautifully together and can overlap, they serve different purposes.

Public relations builds positive relationships with your audience, while advertising turns them into new or repeat customers. Marketing bridges the gap by taking your audience from awareness to solid business leads primed to make a purchase.

MYTH 2: Small businesses can’t afford marketing. 

Small businesses may have smaller budgets, especially when just starting. It can be tempting to forgo marketing efforts to conserve cash flow. But, without an intentional plan to grow your customer base, your bottom line will eventually become stagnant.  

The right marketing strategies are proven to gain new and repeat customers, resulting in a positive, long-term return on your investment.

MYTH 3: My customers will not respond to today’s marketing channels. 

Modern marketing channels rely heavily on producing a high volume of quality digital content. This can include web, email, blogs, videos, podcasts, and multiple social media channels. Depending on your industry and customer demographics, it can be tempting to think that today’s best practices will not work for you. It could even be intimidating to tackle new approaches, like the ever-changing landscape of social media. In our experience, every business can form the right mix of digital marketing products. You are a subject matter expert with valuable insights to share with customers. With more than 3.7 billion people on social media and 85% of the U.S. population having a smartphone, your audience is already online – your business can meet them there too.
 

MYTH 4: Anyone can do marketing. 

While it’s true that any business can benefit from a marketing plan, not just anyone should create it. When it comes to popular tactics like content creation, you may be able to tackle the more straightforward aspects on your own – things like an occasional blog post, email, or mastering one social media channel. For maximum reach and engagement, you’ll want to increase your content creation to a level that keeps you top of mind with your audience.

Hiring a staff member to keep up with the content demand empowers business owners to focus on other growth aspects. If a full-time staff member is outside the budget, an experienced freelancer or marketing agency can be an excellent strategic partner.

MYTH 5: Marketing efforts should pay off quickly.  

Investing in marketing is like investing in the stock market –a long game. Create a strategy, do the work, and stay consistent, and you will see results. With many of today’s marketing practices taking place in the digital landscape, it will take time for your online efforts to pay off. Continue creating, posting, sharing, and optimizing for SEO. Over time, your content will move up the search engine results page, you’ll become recognized as a leader in your industry, and you’ll see results.

A Partner in Marketing Strategy

Green Apple is here to assist in developing a marketing strategy that works for your business. Our team would be happy to discuss your needs. Contact us to learn more about our effective approach to marketing and get started on a strategic plan that can work for you

Improve Employee Recruitment with Strategy and Creativity

Our team at Green Apple is acutely aware of today’s tight labor market. We listen to reports that tell us job openings are continuing to decline. Since opening our doors in 2012, we have learned to adapt to the many changes and challenges outside our scope of influence, including shifts in the labor market. Our team quickly pivots when necessary and has applied strategic and creative thinking to the recruitment and hiring process with outstanding results. Here are a few of our top tips for finding, recruiting, and retaining employees: 

Where to Recruit 

With much of our lives intersecting with the digital world, recruiting also needs to shift online. But rather than relying on mass online job boards, our team strives to be more intentional with where we conduct our employee searches. 

Green Apple’s current openings are shared on LinkedIn, where we can vet applicants based on their profiles and see if we share any connections. We also network with an online marketing group and post to the online job boards at our respective alma maters. Because we are products of those schools and programs, we already have a good idea of the knowledge and skill set their graduates will bring to our team. 

There is immense value in the quantity and quality of applicants we can reach online, but we still enjoy recruiting in person. We regularly attend local college career fairs to get to know potential graduates. While this helps us find talented employees, it also promotes brand awareness and fills our pipeline with potential applicants.  

Consider Unconventional Arrangements

During the coronavirus pandemic, the world discovered a new way of working. Remote work was an excellent fit for our team and allowed us to bring the best talent on board, no matter where they lived. 

More and more companies are forgoing remote work in favor of a complete return to the office. While this may be necessary for some lines of work, we found it was not for ours. Strategy and creativity can be performed anywhere and are not bound by office walls. With this in mind, Green Apple maintains a hybrid work environment. We are 100 percent remote, with available space to gather in person for meetings, brainstorming, team building, open-space working, and team collaboration. 

Ensuring a Good Fit 

So you’ve found a potential employee you think will be perfect for your job and company culture. Recruitment can be costly, so it’s important both parties are happy from the beginning. How can you ensure it’s a good match? The Culture Index can help. 

The Culture Index is an assessment that evaluates how people communicate, solve problems, and use or alter their innate traits to adjust to their work roles. It is one of the first steps in our application process to help determine if someone matches the position they applied for. The candidate will move on to the interview phase if their Culture Index indicates a match. This process helps Green Apple add the right people to our team who can best serve our clients and help reach our strategic goals. 

Join Our Marketing Team

Over the years, we’ve built a creative recruitment approach that has shaped and supported our team. If you’re looking for insights on creating a marketing team or are interested in joining our team at Green Apple, we’d love to connect. You can check out our current openings or learn about the services we can provide for your business.

A Guide to Alt Text for SEO

According to HubSpot, nearly 38 percent of results that appear on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP) are images. Essentially, when users search the web page for answers, they are met with many images in addition to the standard text results we’ve come to expect. Initially, images were identified by the file name and tags associated with them. With the rise of AI, images can now be identified and categorized using deep learning networks. As part of a healthy blogging strategy, tagging images is essential in order to make them searchable.   

This is where alt text, short for alternative text, comes into play. In this blog post, we’ll explore the purpose of alt text and how your brand can use it to optimize your ranking in a search engine algorithm.
 

What is Alt Text? 

Alt text, also called alt description, alt tag, or alt attribute, is a brief sentence containing detailed information describing a webpage’s pictures. The concept was originally created to improve web accessibility for people who use a screen reader online. For example, those with visual impairments cannot see the images on a webpage, but the screen reader can relay the image description, resulting in a better user experience. Alt text is also helpful in filling in the blanks when images do not display because a webpage does not load properly.
 

How Does it Improve SEO?  

Alt text has quickly become a best practice when it comes to SEO. In addition to improving the user experience, alt text improves search engine optimization. When a user searches a topic on Google, web crawlers scan the internet for the most relevant information to display in search results. Web crawlers also scan text descriptions of photos—and skip over those without alt text. 

Including relevant descriptions of your photographs, images, buttons, and other visual elements means search engines will index this content when populating results pages.
 

Writing Alt Text for SEO

To write effective alt text for SEO, keep the original intent in mind: user accessibility. Although it can be tempting to use this real estate primarily for keywords, you want to be sure that your image description will make sense to someone who may not see your photo. 

For this reason, write alt text in sentence form to keep it sounding natural. The text should also be as descriptive as possible, linking the image to the context of the article. For example, for a photo of a charcuterie board, you could describe it as “a tray with meat and cheese,” but a better description might be “a round wooden board filled with assorted meats, cheese, vegetables, and fruit.” The goal is to communicate the entire visual content of a photo, picture, or illustration.

Additional best practices for writing alt text include keeping phrases to 125 characters or less. Any longer, and you risk screen readers cutting off the description mid-sentence, resulting in a frustrating user experience.
       

Benefits of Using Alt Text for SEO

Using alt text as part of a greater digital marketing strategy for SEO and accessibility can also increase website traffic. As stated in the opening of this post, nearly 38 percent of Google’s search engine results are images—images that appear on the main results page! 

Because your images now have text descriptions, web crawlers can read them and include them in SERPs. As such, your content may appear in both image and text results, creating multiple avenues for visitors to find your page. 

Improving SEO means making all your content work for you, including content you have already created. If you have images on your site that do not have alt text, set aside some time to add them. Doing so could be an effective and efficient way to maximize your website’s current content and move the needle on your SEO.
 

Let’s Optimize Your SEO

Green Apple Strategy offers a unique approach to helping small businesses optimize their SEO efforts. Our team would love to collaborate with you on finding goal-driven solutions that reach your audience. Contact us today to learn more.

Meet the Team: Jordan Forbes

Jordan Forbes is the Assistant Client Relations Specialist at Green Apple Strategy, a marketing agency in Nashville. She is a liaison to clients and provides project management and administrative support.

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Event Planning 101: Best Practices for Marketing Agencies

Planning a special event can be overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start. Green Apple Strategy has more than a decade of experience solving problems through a variety of strategies and tactics—including event planning. From conceptualization to day-of logistics for in-person or virtual events, our team has learned many valuable lessons along the way. Here are our pro tips to make the most out of your next event!  

 

First Things First

When planning an event, it’s tempting to jump straight to fun stuff like decorations, color schemes, and signature cocktails. But in the words of Stephen Covey, let’s put first things first. 

 

Before contacting venues and vendors, the date, time, approximate guest count, and budget need to be locked down. Now is a good time to start a spreadsheet to track invoices and payments from the very beginning. Next, create a timeline to help everyone involved stay on track throughout the planning process. Finally, think through items that will need to be designed. This may include save-the-dates, invitations, event logos, menus, branded items and décor, programs, handouts, signage, name tags, and other print or digital materials.

 

Pro Tip: Always get approval from your client before you design or book anything.

 

Planning Your Event

Once the date, time, budget, and guest count are determined, it’s time to move on to the details. Begin by asking your client to create the guest list and, if needed, offer your suggestions of people who should be included. If the event should be pitched to the media, you can include them on the invitation list as well.

 

Select a venue and determine food and beverage options. It can be helpful to ask the venue if they have any preferred vendors, as well as what chairs, tables, and linens they already have available. You also want to consider your venue when choosing entertainment, or vice versa. Consider music, photo booths, videos, and speeches. Each has different AV requirements to consider for making your event a success.

 

Now that your key decisions are made you can begin communicating with invitees via a  platform that makes sense for your event. You may need one with just RSVP capabilities, or you may need to sell merch and tickets, too. Plan on sending invitations at least 30 days before the event. Follow up with a reminder email two to three days before the RSVP deadline, a second reminder email two weeks out from the event, and a final reminder email the day before or the day of the event.

 

Finally, it’s time to add extra details that help make your event one of a kind. Consider creative décor and meaningful gifts for guests. Photography and videography can also surprise and delight if used correctly, such as part of live social media feeds, as complimentary takeaways, or in post-event videos.

 

Pro Tip: Check on requirements for event insurance, security, and any necessary permits or licenses. 

 

Begin Marketing Launch 

Now is the time to begin planning your PR strategy, so you’ll need to determine what press releases will go out, when they’ll go out, and what venues they’ll be featured in. Social media strategy is also a key part of event promotion. Create a content calendar to begin attracting attention well before the event is scheduled. And don’t forget about short videos! These can be used on several platforms to increase anticipation and serve as a sneak peek of the event. Finally, an email marketing strategy should be planned, designed, and deployed to pique the interest of your client’s email list. Don’t be afraid to provide multiple reminder emails with key pieces of information that attendees will need.    

 

Day-Of Logistics

Before the big day arrives, think through key logistics. Planning a couple of walk-throughs well in advance will help you mentally plan out the space before crunch time, including check–in and parking. You’ll need to plan where guests will enter and what they will do immediately upon arrival. Will they need wristbands, tickets, or an ID? Do you need a scanner, a cash box, or additional supplies for a smooth process?

 

Regarding parking, consider whether self-parking or valet will work best for your event—and let guests know ahead of time. You can even station event staff in the parking lot to assist if needed.

 

Pro Tip: Always give yourself extra time the day-of to set up and ensure everything is in order.

 

Post-Event Follow-Up

As part of your post-event follow-up, take to social media to recap the event. Plan out and schedule content, photos, and captions to build engagement with attendees and spread awareness for next time. It’s also a great practice to send thank you notes to everyone you worked closely with, including colleagues, clients, and vendors.

 

Pro Tip: Schedule a debrief session as soon as possible to make notes on what worked well and what can be improved upon while everything is still top-of-mind.

 

Canceling or Postponing Your Event

Sometimes things happen that are beyond your control. Even the best-laid plans can be subject to bad weather, health concerns, or scheduling conflicts. If the decision is made to cancel or postpone the event, there are steps you can take to mitigate confusion and keep your audience informed.

 

Let Green Apple Plan Your Next Event

Special events are a powerful tool that can be used to enhance your marketing goals. If you’re ready to build connections while increasing brand awareness, reach out to us for a consultation.