3 Ways to Own Your Smart Marketing

By David Mills
on February 15, 2016

Finding the right mix for your marketing budget requires ongoing vigilance and regular adjustments. The shift toward digital media has pushed many organizations into a significant learning curve that can result in smart marketing.  Much of the decision-making ends up being a wrestling match between "what we’ve always done" and attractive new opportunities. Beyond the tactical decisions over how much to allocate to various media, there lies a bigger opportunity.

Getting Found with Local SEO Services

By David Mills
on February 12, 2016

Understanding how to evaluate and plan for local SEO services is an important part of digital marketing strategy for companies with both B2B and B2C products and services. Local search has become a big opportunity for any business that can define where their target customers live and work.

What is local SEO?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is continuing to change as the primary search engine providers (Google, Bing, Yahoo) make changes to their search results, which are all based in complex algorithms. SEO is really the art and science of presenting your product or services, while helping people who are searching for what you offer. One of the most important recent developments is the shift to localizing search results—the search engines now prioritize information that is geographically closest to the searcher.

The KISS Acronymn & Your SMART Marketing

By Chad Alexander
on February 07, 2016

Let me start by saying that I tried to fit three acronyms into this blog, but just couldn't make it happen. As you likely know, SMART is an acronym for defining how to create rock solid objectives, goals, targets, etc. So, how do we get SMART marketing? Getting SMART about your next big marketing push can help you out tremendously.

Nine ways to get a return on your email investment.

By David Mills
on October 08, 2015

THE LONG STORY, SHORT

Email is not dead. It may not be as cool, trendy, or techy as the latest social network. But, it has higher click-through rates. And, companies that use it can generate twice the number of quality leads at one-third of the cost. As a way to tell your story and empower customers to share your message, email is hard to beat.

Mentoring: Pass It On.

By David Mills
on September 28, 2015

THE LONG STORY, SHORT

Mentorship is about lending your story to help write a new one. Whether it's the smooth on-boarding of a millennial, or the strengthening of your overall employee base, mentorship fosters powerful stories. Organizations are given incredible depth as a result of mentoring.

Better Marketing - Who is Your Brand Storyteller?

By David Mills
on September 15, 2015

No matter how much effort or money we invest in building our brand, there are two groups of people who ultimately decide how a brand story is shared. Employees and customers are the real brand storytellers. They define the value, reach, and impact of a brand. Success is achieved when we understand the role they play in our company narrative.

The Internet called your website. But, no one answered.

By David Mills
on July 15, 2015

Yes, the Internet called. And it got smarter.

It wasn't really the internet, as a whole. It was web browsers -- namely Google, Bing, and Yahoo -- that were looking for real content on your website.  As you know, these powerful search engines "crawl" your website on a regular basis. They are constantly indexing its content and structure. Since the end of 2013 search engines have learned something new, they want content that looks a lot more like a real conversation (its called "semantic search").

The Brand Story Your Website Is Telling

By David Mills
on May 15, 2015

Your website is telling stories about you.

Digital storytelling reaches beyond the news and content that you post, to the web technology that delivers your brand.  A web or social encounter is often the first experience your customer has with your business or nonprofit.   Visitors to your digital properties are not just reading or seeing your story, they are experiencing it through the medium of your web properties.

One Step at a Time: Agile Web Development

One Size Does Not Fit All

When you purchase a new car, with the exception of the color and available options, you get something almost identical to the one in the showroom.  Effective websites should never be like that; a "one-size fits all approach" in websites usually means that it won't really serve any of your needs. Your brand, your logo and graphic elements, photography, videos and content along with the unique needs and preferences of your customers should shape the way your website works and feels. So while we benefit from the use of large scale open source software, what a customer finds on your website should be unique to your business.  Their web experience is often the first impression of your company, and for most businesses, you need that impression to lead to customer action that results in an appointment, sale or visit.

How to Make Your Brand a Story

By David Mills
on March 05, 2015

Culture Shift

You don't have to look far to see the shift toward story-based marketing. A quick glance through a magazine, prime-time television, even the latest Super Bowl ads makes it clear – stories are working as a way to tell brand stories. This is an important change in marketing trends, part of it due to the power of social marketing.  Significant industry experts report that multiple corporate brands – ExxonMobil, Dow, Google, and IBM to name a few – have all upped the messaging related to their corporate story.