Culture, community, concerts, fine food, family, green lawns, and shady sidewalks — Ridgefield is rich in life’s treasures. Now an alliance of town business leaders wants to get the word out with a marketing campaign.

“There’s so many great things happening in the town — whether the cultural, the commercial, the community — I think it’s time we let the world know,” said Wayne Addessi, proprietor of Addessi Jewelers and owner of a block of Main Street storefronts.

Addessi is organizing an effort to market Ridgefield using multiple platforms — video, social media, print — highlighting Ridgefield’s arts, cultural and business communities.

He wants it professionally done, and has gotten commitments totaling $15,000 toward a $25,000 goal.

“It starts out with promoting the cultural assets that we have. If we could drive more people to visit those assets, they’re going to come into the town, do some shopping, visit Main Street, go to a restaurant,” Addessi said.

“The most important driver is the cultural, and the second is the restaurants, and from there you’re going to visit the shops — you might find Adam Broderick, or the Ridgefield Bicycle Shop.”

The campaign will be broadly focused, promoting the entire town’s varied assets.

“We’re not going to sell anything. This has to be an organic approach,” Addessi said.

“It’s not just Main Street. The driver behind the success of Ridgefield is the cultural assets we have here.”

Origins

Addessi started about three months ago. At a meeting to discuss a potential “first-floor retail” regulation, he felt more regulations and restrictions weren’t the solution. How about a positive direction? Tell the world about the town Ridgefielders love. He spoke to Economic and Community Development Commission (ECDC) members Paul Levine and Arnold Light.

“We want to promote culture, community and commerce in the town,” Light, the chairman, told the ECDC’s August meeting.

“Wayne would like our support and input,” Light said.

Addessi planned to meet with them Tuesday, Aug. 29.

Authorization

The selectmen voted Aug. 23 to authorize an account to accept donations and disburse money for the campaign — lending the town’s accounting capacity.

“That’s our participation, if you will,” said First Selectman Rudy Marconi. “This was a request from the ECDC.”

He added, “It’s probably the most active and productive ECDC we’ve had in many years. They are getting things done.”

Digital and print

A strategy document outlines Addessi’s concept: “… to develop a public relations and marketing campaign that will target residents, business owners, and visitors within the community of Ridgefield, Conn., and a strong focus and reach into the surrounding 25-mile radius and into New York.”

“It would highlight Ridgefield’s “cultural, commercial and community assets and convey the benefits we offer…”

Addessi envisions “working with a content developer, we will create a series of videos” showing off the town’s assets.

“…We will work with a local Public Relations agency that will help us develop clear and consistent messaging around our campaign and secure local, regional and national press to support the messaging,” Addessi’s strategy outline says.

“We will brand our town, convey the ideal message all through digital effort along with print as well.”

In an interview, Addessi spoke of video footage — overhead drone shots, inside close-ups of Ridgefielders talking about their town.

“The videographer is going to visit iconic locations throughout Ridgefield, the commercial assets and the cultural,” he said.

Addessi used Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shop as an example.

“Why do I visit Deborah Ann’s? Talk to the kids who are eating ice cream,” he said. “ … At 3 o’clock, the kids with the backpacks, going to Deborah Ann’s.”

Too many silos

Addessi’s plan would create “an internal communication infrastructure” allowing organizations to share plans.

“There’s so many silos in Ridgefield. Everybody’s doing something, but we’re not communicating that well,” he said.

A firm hasn’t been chosen, but Addessi wants public relations professionals to ensure the effort is consistent, and doesn’t lose momentum as volunteers drift into other priorities.

He envisions at least a year-long effort that would be continually updated.

“What we’re thinking about is each month we’ll have a great story to tell, we wanted to do it monthly,” he said, “The story of The Playhouse, the story of the Prospector. Then you have the stories of some of the great restaurants in town …

“We want to get the word out to the rest of the world what’s happening here.”

Compare analytics and open rates from before video use and after

If you haven’t already been using videos in your email marketing, implement it in one of your upcoming campaigns and then compare the difference in open and click rates. This will help give a fair assessment on key factors like: Whether the video content and design or layout is working for your audience, whether you need to change the format and structure of the video presented in the email, etc.

Don’t stop after the first try

If at first you notice no significant rise in number of clicks, conversions or open rates, try to change the layout or content flow (text) of the video, then try implementing it again and compare results. There could be other points to think about if your Vmail doesn’t work the first time. Reassess the length of your video, was it too long? Was it not long enough? Was it share-worthy content? Or, how can you tweak it to make it more social-media-share-worthy?

Break the monotony

An email marketing campaign needs a good mix of formats like text, video, GiFs, memes and illustrations depending on the audience, the message and where the prospect is in terms of the sales funnel. Marketers should not force fit videos, but leverage the power of showing over telling at the point where it could best impact effectiveness.

Colby adds, “At this point in time, video is one of the most shareable, engaging content mediums out there. In fact, according to Social Media Today, 50% of marketers who use video in email see increased click rates, sharing, and forwarding. But make sure to follow best practices: Because of limited email client support, we wouldn’t recommend directly embedding a video in an email marketing campaign. Instead, use a thumbnail image or GIF that links out to a mobile-optimized landing page.”

Video + Email: a powerful performance boost

The use of tools, tech and creativity that is complimented by real-time analytics allow marketers a strong base to assess performance of their email campaigns instantly. This gives them the chance to constantly refine their strategy and improve ROI to optimize results. Moreover, the 3 elements of – technology, creativity and easy-to-use tools have combined to enable marketers today to create interesting interactive elements that can drive a performance boost to every email marketing initiative.

Let’s look at this example, shall we?

Asana, a business productivity tool uses interesting video-based emailers to help their new subscribers transition from email to the tool. Imagine being in the shoes of an employee whose company is transitioning from email to a productivity tool. Wouldn’t it just save you a whole lot of time to go through a video tutorial that’s delivered straight to your inbox?

What the future holds

Colby says, “Soon, we’ll see interactive email really start to catch fire. Whether it will be done well, with purpose, or poorly as the hot new thing to imitate (likely both), you’ll see start seeing it more and more in your inbox.”

EJ McGowan, General Manager at Campaigner adds, “One thing we will see a lot more of in email marketing in the future is artificial intelligence. For email marketing, AI promises even more personalization for subscribers, which can ultimately boost interaction, engagement and conversions for businesses. As AI integrations and applications become more commonplace, their use cases and benefits will extend from enterprises to small- and medium-sized businesses, leveling the playing field and helping them compete.”

“Personalization is already a critical email marketing element and something we will see to an even greater degree in the future. In our digital age consumers expect to be catered to in a manner that is relevant, authentic and shows a brand truly understands them. The fact of the matter is that if marketers are not consistently delivering new, personalized content, consumers’ interest will begin to stagnate and they will eventually unsubscribe. Email content is going to continue to be more personalized as senders are able to gain access to more information from different sources. Additionally, receivers of email will be able to customize their experience by choosing how often and even when they want to receive content.”

“Cross-device marketing is making its way into the spotlight. It’s becoming increasingly less common for a consumer to make a purchasing decision that involves just one device — a trend that is expected only to be magnified with coming generations. Therefore, it’s crucial for brands to craft extensive cross-channel strategies spanning all devices and multiple platforms. We’ll see more emails crafted for optimal experiences across desktops, tablets and smartphones to create a fluid and seamless reading, browsing and shopping experience.”

So are you all set to amp up your email marketing with the use of rich videos?

Judge Garcia appeared to block three provisions of the law, including one that stated that local government entities and officials may not “adopt, enforce or endorse” any policy limiting the enforcement of immigration laws.

Lawyers for those suing the state said prohibiting local officials from endorsing a particular viewpoint violates the First Amendment. Judge Garcia wrote that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed with that argument when the case goes to trial.

“The government may disagree with certain viewpoints, but they cannot ban them just because they are inconsistent with the view that the government seeks to promote,” Judge Garcia wrote. He added, “SB 4 clearly targets and seeks to punish speakers based on their viewpoint on local immigration enforcement policy.”

Some of the law’s most contentious provisions allow police officers to question the immigration status of a person whom they have arrested or detained, including during routine traffic stops, and create a system of harsh penalties for those who try to “materially limit” immigration enforcement, including removal from office for elected or appointed officials and criminal misdemeanor charges for sheriffs and other law enforcement officials.

In his ruling, Judge Garcia said that the law’s provision banning policies that limit enforcement of immigration laws was unconstitutionally vague and failed to define the specific prohibited conduct. The provision, the judge wrote, “ascribes criminal and quasi-criminal penalties based upon violations of an inscrutable standard, in a manner that invites arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement against disfavored localities.”

Texas vowed to appeal Judge Garcia’s decision, setting the stage for the case to be heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, one of the country’s most conservative appeals panels. Judge Garcia, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, was a Democratic state lawmaker in the 1980s.

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Critics of Senate Bill 4, including the police chiefs in Houston, San Antonio and other large cities, said it would open the door to racial profiling of Hispanics and prevent legal and undocumented immigrants from reporting crimes to the police. Latino and civil rights groups call it a “show me your papers” law that echoes the one enacted by Arizona in 2010 that led to lawsuits and boycotts.

Supporters of Senate Bill 4 say that opponents have distorted its intent and potential impact. They said the law has a provision specifically prohibiting racial profiling and argued that a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 that upheld part of the Arizona law put the state on solid legal ground. The Trump administration’s Justice Department has also defended the Texas law, filing statements of interest in the case.

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“U.S. Supreme Court precedent for laws similar to Texas’ law are firmly on our side,” Mr. Abbott said in a statement. “This decision will be appealed immediately and I am confident Texas’ law will be found constitutional and ultimately be upheld.”

Civil rights lawyers and Latino groups praised Judge Garcia’s ruling, calling the law racist and unconstitutional.

“The court properly struck down virtually all of what was perhaps the harshest anti-immigrant provision in modern times,” said Lee Gelernt, who is the deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and who represents the border town of El Cenizo and other plaintiffs in the suit.

Judge Garcia upheld the law’s provision that police officers can ask about the immigration status of those they detain or arrest. But he blocked the provision mandating that local jurisdictions comply with immigration detainer requests from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Judge Garcia said that by prohibiting local officials from declining a detainer request, the law also prohibited officials from questioning whether there was probable cause to support the detainer requested.

In his statement, the governor suggested that the judge’s blocking of that provision would make Texas less safe. “Because of this ruling, gang members and dangerous criminals, like those who have been released by the Travis County sheriff, will be set free to prey upon our communities,” Mr. Abbott said.

Critics of the law, however, including local officials in San Antonio, disagreed. “The city and the San Antonio Police Department have cooperated and will continue to cooperate with federal law enforcement’s reasonable requests,” San Antonio’s city attorney, Andy Segovia, said in a statement. “However, SB4 attempted to remove any discretion from local law enforcement in how to best serve the residents of San Antonio.”

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Arkema manufactures organic peroxides at the Crosby plant. According to a safe storage manual by AkzoNobel, a rival chemical manufacturer, that class of chemicals is considered “highly combustible.” At high ambient temperatures, “a violent combustion or thermal explosion” is possible, the manual says.