Mary Baum Email & Phone Number

St. Louis County, Missouri, United States

Owner and chief Presser of RacquetPress, a full-service (largely digital) agency to the tennis industry and selected other clients.I'm one of about 500 people who help build and test WordPress, the software that runs 34% of the top ten million sites on the web. And one of about 30 people who are at this moment spending most of their time getting the next major version out the door come March 31, 2020.So it goes without saying that I build websites. But it's not like I forgot how to move a sales needle with traditional tools. I still do a bunch of event marketing with printed collateral, direct mail and email. Every April I become a magazine publisher, selling ads and chasing down artwork for the 20-page program that helps fund a tennis tournament.And once the program goes to print, I pick up my DSLR that's a little outdated, and a little beat-up, and shoot the entire event, because it's a damned poor shooter who would blame her camera for lousy shots.So if you've got a business problem you'd like some help with after May 2020, and you're ready to see what it's like working with -- as my friend Jim Lowe calls me in an endorsement below -- Hurricane Mary, get in touch! You just might get some rain.

St. Louis, Columbus, Phoenix, Orange County And More

I speak at 3-6 WordCamps a year on design and development:How to make a WordPress site look like anything and when you should - or shouldn't.Hint: Your users are your customers too ...

St. Louis

I've helped put on five St. Louis WordCamps and counting.I'm also launching a WordPress Meetup in the Antelope Valley of California, where I've spent most of my time since fall 2013. We'll be here most of the time until September 2017, then probably spend our winters here.

Lancaster, Ca And St. Louis, Mo

I named my branding firm Marginhancers because your brand drives your ability to price at sustainable profit margins.But hard as I work to get the branding right, branding is not brand. It's just packaging - a small part of the whole.The bigger part is on you: your products and services, your people, your customer service.If those things are working, my job is easy. I can give everything a coat of paint that will speak a special language to folks who have a lot in common with the people who already love you.People who are happy to pay for the experience you deliver. So you can set your pricing accordingly.Profitably.Margin-hancingly.

I was reading an article about web development a few days ago and came across this description of the home page: "the most important square foot in your business." I had to agree.But here's the good news: We all get the same 786,432 pixels to work with (That's the product of 1024x768.) Big or small. Fortune 500 or mom 'n pop. So here are a couple of questions:If your home page is your face to the world, what are your 786,432 pixels saying about you -- and more important -- promising your customers?And if you sell to big business: if that home page -- and the whole marketing package -- made you look like a bigger company, what would that do for your ability to generate leads and close sales? To make bigger deals, and more of them?

By training and temperament I'm both a writer and an art director. On campus at Maritz, I was senior management's personal creative machine, developing everything from that business unit's company brochure to flyers for cleanup day around the office.I was also a proposal queen, developing concepts and writing (and art-directing, a first for the company at the time) proposals for business meetings, videos and direct marketing programs.To this day, the VP of marketing of a Maritz operating unit is one of my two top clients.

Some highlights: Print ads that sold enough product to cover the cost of the magazine space.Regional sweepstakes that brought in more entries per market, on average, than some of those markets had people.A host of other marketing, advertising and promotional concepts that attracted attention and still speak to the human heart.And never, ever talked down to the reader.

Bfa, Graphic Communications

Activities and Societies: Played Ladies' Interclub and ran the Sunday night mixed-doubles group at Frontenac Racquet Club. FRC is now my.

Semiotics, The Theory Of Signs And Symbols

Activities and Societies: WBRU Radio, news and sports broadcasterI probably spent more time at WBRU than I did on academics, where I.