Meet Taylor O'Reilly - the Newest Member of Our TMC Family

When I was in high school, I played in a bunch of bands, and like everyone else, we had a MySpace page. But I hated how boring it was. I would go around to bigger bands' pages and see that they had added cool features… or what we thought was cool at the time at least, and said “There is no reason I can’t figure out how to do this myself.” So I did. Soon I started getting asked at shows who made our page, and when I said it was me, I actually started getting paid offers to do it for other people. From there it just sort of took off to full websites, eCommerce, web apps. It’s definitely been a journey and a lot of learning. For anyone wanting some cringe nostalgia, just Google image search “myspace page.” What were we thinking?

What makes up a “good website” in your opinion? It’s all about the homepage sliders, right?

Ha! I’m not trying to be harsh, it's just the truth. It’s 2022, please for the love of my browsing experience, stop using sliders.

To me, a good website is like any good design -- a balance between form and function, informative and fun, and built with the user in mind. There isn’t going to be a one size fits all solution, but design/branding consistency and visual hierarchy play large roles in this regardless of the type of site you are building. There is a reason your users are coming to your page. Play into that. Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries and experiment a little.

Aside from years of contracting, we know that your most recent experience and expertise in digital marketing was from your time working with Constant Contact. Can you give us one small hint (aside from your entire blog post about why buying contact lists really sucks) of what components make up a “good” email marketing campaign?

Keep it simple! Most people are looking at emails during the small windows of free time they have and usually on a mobile device. This means you do not have a lot of time or screen real estate to get your point across. Having a clear message that can be conveyed quickly to the reader that will leave them feeling more informed on one topic is leaps and bounds more valuable to your business than trying to fit 10 pounds of content into a 5-pound email. You feel me?

Also, I can’t stress this enough -- know your audience. No one is ever going to care about your business as much as you are and that’s 100% okay, but you need to ask yourself, “Is this information important to my readers or just me?” It’s a hard distinction to make sometimes but you’ll be better off for it. Give your reader a reason to want to engage with you.

We work with food, and obviously, it means a lot to us. Luckily, you live in a diverse area and have access to some pretty outstanding places. What’s your favorite type of food? How about a restaurant in your area? Why?

Veggie Galaxy in Cambridge is my spot. Most people don’t know this about me, but although I do eat meat occasionally, a majority of the time I eat mainly vegan. Veggie Galaxy is a vegetarian/vegan diner that I have been going to for over well over a decade now. If you go, get the buffalo seitan mac and cheese and save room for any dessert they have. They’re all amazing.

Tell us a bit more about you. What are your passions? Hobbies? Do you have any pets that we may get to hear barking occasionally on zoom calls like the rest of us?

I do! Her name is Chanel, but we just call her Nelly or sometimes Bean. She was a rescue from TN and we think she is a Pitbull/Lab mix. She spends all day with me and is nice company to have when you work from home. When I’m not hanging out with her, I’m usually either making music, hiking, cooking, or just hanging out around the city with some friends. I’ve also started branching into video game programming, which has been a lot of fun too. I feel like I'm always trying to experience or learn something new. It keeps life exciting.

Please join us in welcoming Taylor to the TMC Digital Media family!