APRIL 2023 HEARTBEAT

The team at Heartland Marketing Group offers clients a combination of skill, imagination, execution, and service. We believe our best efforts fall short if the interaction with us fails to delight those who trust us to tell their stories. We’re not perfect. We are devoted to continual growth and mutually beneficial interactions.

Providing skill and service for a treasured group of clients have been a group of 19 HMG team members.

Founder and President Barbara Campbell Determan provides not only inspiration and direction but genuine care for her staff. It takes courage to own a small business and for 40 years successfully navigate the competitive marketplace, intricacies of HR, and compliance as well as be the sales lead. Capitalizing on her interest in agriculture and, specifically, pork production, Barb’s Heartland Marketing Group has helped dozens of companies reach their marketing communications goals.

We cannot neglect the contribution Steve Determan makes to the company’s success. As business manager, he handles all accounting functions but has served as HMG’s IT person as well. We appreciate all he brings to the table, almost always behind the scenes.

Vice President Ann Trimble-Ray keeps the wheels turning for the busy team with project management, client service, and copywriting skills. Whether the mission is coordinating all of the elements of a complex, multi-layered job or writing a social media post of 144 characters or less, Ann offers each task the same care and timely response. Unusual but true, this has been her first and only job out of college with 35 years at HMG a point of pride for her and the team.

For the last eight years, Katie Ketelsen has served HMG’s clients with outstanding graphic design for print and digital assets. With an eye for style and understanding of audiences, Katie develops ads, eblasts, icons, logos, documents and more bringing together the desired message with a readable, contemporary look. In a business where adrenaline drives projects to sometimes unreasonable deadlines, Katie remains calm and creative.

HMG’s two contract staff members provide much-needed graphic design assistance. Willing to take on anything from tiny digital ads to catalogs of over 50 pages and reports of over 80 pages, their creativity brings a new dimension to our team we value and appreciate greatly. Tobias Becker grew up on a Kansas farm and has worked in the agricultural realm for years. Angela Weitzel lives on a farm now and has years of experience as well.

Over 40 years, HMG’s clients have benefitted from the contributions of a great group of team members including (alphabetically): Kelli Berg, Dawn Christiansen, LuAnn Cook, Marlys Engle, Kathy Feilmeier, Whitney Free, Deb Galvin, Jen Hoaglund, Nancy Houska, Abby McQuillen, Monica Nedved, Jill Nesheim, Janelle Steele, Janine VanVark, and Kelly Werner.

As Heartland Marketing Group celebrates being 40 and fabulous, we look forward to gathering not only with clients but these good folks who have been part of our long-term success. We offer our thanks to each for their part of our story!