Does all of your effort on search engine optimization, help or hurt your brand? It’s easy to miss the brand impacts of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) while you are working to ensure that customers can find you online. Search strategy is deeply interwoven with the experience that potential customers have with your brand.
Outsourced marketing is a reality for small, medium, and even large companies. We know this. It can't be helped. Whether it's niche digital advertising, rebranding, or website redesigns... even large organizations have to outsource niche expertise. But, have we considered the cost... the major disadvantages of perpetually outsourcing our marketing? Could serial, outsourced marketing be damaging our brand story in a way we never took the time to realize?
Over the last two years, the demands placed on customer service have created a pressure cooker for companies. For many companies, it was a significant customer service stress test, with extended wait times, dropped calls, and slow or non-existent follow-up.
The NY Times calls it the "age of anger", in which otherwise calm adults devolve into fits of rage over customer service problems. Industry leaders call it "a different level of mean." This challenge can seriously damage a brand.
We're honored to make this distinction, and we relish what this means for the company this year and beyond!
Part of the reason we were chosen for this distinction is because of a belief that we hold. And we aren't the most outstanding growth marketing consultancy because of what we do, but what other agencies do, or rather, don't do:
We believe that the current marketing agency model is unfair, and we believe there is a different way.
And here's where we stop talking about us, and start talking about the problems we have encountered with traditional agencies and even inbound agencies.
Updated January, 2023
You might be surprised to hear that Coca-Cola, among other major brands like Nextdoor and Oregon State, have built attractive websites on HubSpot CMS. Even more, they are tapping into important parts of their brand story. If you’re looking into this solution for your own company, or want to take branding cues from big names, it can be helpful to explore these 7 examples.
Retail, especially it's local expression, has been one of the last to get relief from COVID shutdowns. Almost every town and city now has boarded up or vacant retail. We know from news and our own conversations that many of those stores aren't coming back. While big box stores have continued in-person and added lots of delivery and pick-up options, the smaller stores that give personality and social context to our communities have been shuttered.
Mission, vision, and values are standard fair for organizations that want a strategic focus. These are important elements that should guide a mission-minded organization.
We're hearing about story selling, why stories, and story-based marketing. A brand story is more than the application of story telling to your brand. Here's the difference. The use of stories is a technique or an approach in sales, marketing and communication that is certainly effective. But without a careful process, it won't ever rise to a brand defining level.
It's always a shock to see yourself on public display, especially on the cover (here's the magazine so you can be shocked too). It raises obvious and immediate self-doubt about needing better photos and the ongoing battle for the receding hairline. While it's much better than being put up on the post office wall, it's still a pretty humbling experience. But if you're working to build a company, a little boost always helps. Here are some lessons about being on a magazine cover:
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