The grass will only grow with a little rain. But you'd like it if the rain would fit your schedule better... On this special episode of The Briefcase, BGR's Aimee Thibodeau says, "How about that weather?", as she, alongside host Ric Tyler, sits down to talk about convenience: how to receive it, how to create it, and what to do when outside forces won't give you any. What You'll Learn:

• In a business like an airport, you're depending on outside conditions you can't control for maximum efficiency. And if you can't control the weather, you can always control the messaging.
• Crafting an understanding between your business and your clientele allows for much less strain between the two.
• Achieving this understanding is as simple as making sure what can be made convenient is.

Want to hear more about Bangor International Airport? Check out On the Fly, a BGR podcast by Sutherland Weston! Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/

Your business is an interaction between your customers and yourself. Often, that interaction can show you something you're not seeing yourself. On this special episode of The Briefcase, BGR's Aimee Thibodeau is here to talk about listening. When you're open to client suggestions, you might be handed the key to greater business.

What You'll Learn

• Sometimes the idea you're looking for is found in some fresh perspective. That fresh perspective isn't necessarily from your staff, but from your clients.
• It truly is the little things that count: making a client's experience even slightly better shows them that you're listening.
• Do not be afraid to look to your competition and contemporaries as well. If they have something that's working, it might work for you as well.

Want to hear more about Bangor International Airport? Check out On the Fly, a BGR podcast by Sutherland Weston! Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/

During a shopping trip, Ric Tyler and his son saw an interesting display in a supermarket. And even two weeks later, they still have it in their minds. But they didn't want the product, and they didn't buy a thing... so how did the installation work its magic on them? On this episode of The Briefcase, Ric breaks down the power of memory marketing, and how a recollection can turn into a recommendation— all it takes is a little time. What You'll Learn

• A piece of marketing needs to stand out, even if it doesn't get you to buy.
• Because sometimes, marketing doesn't have to be about getting you to buy. It just has to be about getting you to remember.
• Don't be discouraged if you don't get immediate results: even if they didn't buy something today, they might consider it tomorrow.

Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/

What does it mean to be optimized for AI? How will your website fare in the great shift to AEO and GEO, compared to the old SEO? On this episode of The Briefcase, Elizabeth Sutherland of Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications looks to the future of marketing and teaches us how fruitful it can be to optimize... for the wrong reader. What You'll Learn

• How people search and how AIs search are two quite different functions. People look for impressions, while programs look for information.
• How to change your website's language to optimize for AI overviews.
• How one small edit can transform a page from zero to hero in AEO and GEO optimization.

Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/

LD54. This simple phrase is putting a lot of businesses on edge recently, because with it, the rules will soon be turned upside-down. On this episode of The Briefcase, Elizabeth Sutherland of Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications sits down to discuss the Pay Transparency in Job Postings law and why businesses in Maine are nervous about showing their homework. The story is not as cut and dry as the layman may believe: The law isn't the hard part.

What You'll Learn

• LD54 will require businesses to disclose the pay ranges of their hired positions.
• The issue this presents for Maine businesses, especially smaller Maine businesses, is that many are staffed by small numbers, with far more informal hiring measures than others.
• Previously, many of these businesses determined employee salaries based on what the hiree had previously made, or what wages were in similar fields. There were no hard and fast numbers to go for, and now those numbers must be established.

Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/

The DECD (Department of Economic and Community Development) here in Maine has published a report on the total sales of the state. And things are, on the whole, looking up. Several sectors are overperforming, and job growth was on pace with the national average. But if you look around and ask someone what's happening... it won't reflect as such. On this episode of The Briefcase, Elizabeth Sutherland of Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications takes a look at the numbers and explains just how important it is to show your growth.

What You'll Learn

• According to the DECD, sales, jobs, and domestic trade as a whole are steadily growing near the national average.
• There is a gap between the macroeconomic results and the ground-level business view, which finds security in stable audiences and the status quo. But now is not a time to be still.
• If your business is growing, make sure you act like it. There are audiences that will want to see that you are in growth mode.

Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/

Returning from the Maine Insights Lab with fresh new ideas is Elizabeth Sutherland, CEO of Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications. On this episode of The Briefcase, she talks about how Maine-based businesses view their Maine-based audiences. There's a tendency to view your audience as one large group, with a single view and a single mind. But in truth, each business has an audience, and each audience is made up of different groups. Can you determine what minds make up your audience?

What You'll Learn

• When looking at it through the marketing lens, there are three different 'types' of Mainers to look out for. Each one's viewpoint is different, so keep them in mind!
• For most businesses, they'll have to craft their message to resonate with each one of these demographics to make a difference in their sales.
• Location largely does not dictate the demographics of the audience of a business in Maine.

Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/ You can read the full mini report on The Maine Insights Lab website.

SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization". AIO stands for "Artificial Intelligence Optimization". So, what does "GEO" stand for? On this episode of The Briefcase, Makalia Hickey, Sutherland Weston's Digital Content Strategist, explains the changing world of searches, and how to ensure that you're not left behind in the great GEO race.

What You'll Learn

• GEO increases your chances of your business appearing in ChatGPT, Claude, or similar AI engines' responses.
• To master GEO, one must first get a handle on SEO. For many, this is the first hurdle they must clear. For others, this is a goalpost they need to move on from.
• GEO has not replaced SEO- yet. While you want to stay ahead as a business, you don't have to fully break from what's worked before. There is still some time.

Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/

"How many times have you sent a message and it wasn't received the way you intended?" There are intricate nuances to the way we speak beyond the words we use. Punctuation and prose carry different intonation to each and every reader, and this means that communication breakdowns are not as uncommon as you'd hope.On this episode of The Briefcase, Ric Tyler brings in Dan Cashman, Public Relations Director at Sutherland Weston, to talk about the connections we struggle to form over email, text, or social media, and the ones that flourish when you meet in person.

Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/

Makalia Hickey, Sutherland Weston's Digital Content Strategist, returns from a trip overseas with an insight into the state of AI in London... Where is it? On this episode of The Briefcase, Makalia walks us through the differences in how AI is being used across the pond and the surprising way it might just work over here, compared to AI over there.

What You'll Learn

• Whereas in the US AI is being heavily advertised as a consumer product, it isn't in the UK. It's being utilized in different ways, which does not require the consistent convincing that it does in the States.
• The consumer culture in London and the greater US is full of differences, but it could perhaps find footing in a unique marketing area like Maine.

Got a question for the Sutherland Weston team? Connect with us at https://sutherlandweston.com/