With the rise of DIY website builders and freelancers offering budget-friendly options, it might be tempting to cut costs and create a website on your own or hire the cheapest available option. That's a great idea in some cases, but this decision can lead to a high costs in the long run. In [...]
We've seen the problems first hand. A cleaning company that paid a monthly service for an otherwise “free” website. But they weren’t getting any leads, but they couldn't update the content and code to make it work. A construction company who also didn't own their website, but paid a marketing company per lead. [...]
They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is especially true when it comes to your website’s home page, which is often the first thing people see when they want to check out everything your business has to offer. Maximizing the effectiveness of your website goes beyond just styling [...]
Your website is one of your best vehicles for generating leads. Though this requires a strategic approach that goes much deeper than your SEO best efforts and a flashy graphic saying “Click Here to Learn More.” Effectively generating leads from your website design draws on several important factors that lead to things like primary calls [...]
Every day it seems like there’s some news story in the media or online advertising with vivid graphics touting the amazing power of AI content generation. It’s filled with promises of improving efficiency, helping you save time, and taking content creation off your to-do list. It can all be very tantalizing. Though you’re only right [...]
Google continues to advance and evolve its suite of tools to help users and businesses make helpful connections. This includes updating Universal Analytics to the newest, fourth version of Google Analytics known as GA4. Though it isn’t just a slightly updated iteration with a few extra bells and whistles. GA4 has some major upgrades including [...]
The 21st Century economy is proving to be as fickle as it is volatile with the very serious risk of declining sales and economic slowdowns seemingly always on the horizon. Business owners of every stripe, scale and industry need to be smart about positioning themselves for short-term success as well as long-term planning to insulate [...]
A lot of effort is put into designing a logo that looks good and represents your brand image memorably. It can be a very fun process if you’re starting out from scratch, getting your feet wet with a merger, expanding into a splinter brand, or just giving your current brand image a facelift. It’s so [...]
Your company’s website is like a digital street address. It’s where your company lives online. It’s a place to build awareness, attract and expand your audience, as well as engage with visitors in a way that provides them with a robust experience. At the same time, your website also needs to be a place where [...]
Building a thriving business in the 21st Century requires you to stay on top of a lot of technical concepts. Two of the most fundamental are marketing and branding. While it might sometimes feel like they are used interchangeably, there are some very distinct differences between the two and the strategies that drive them. In [...]
It seems like every few weeks internet gurus, IT professionals, and webmasters are dropping some new acronym in the world of digital marketing to boost the functional evolution of the internet. One of the more commonly known terms is SEO or Search Engine Optimization, which dovetails into SEM or Search Engine Marketing. The two things [...]
Social media has become one of the most powerful methods of developing brand awareness and identity by connecting with a broad range of users. Not to mention being a great way to promote sales and drive the kind of conversion rates that elevate your success. Though it’s not enough for your small business to [...]
Being able to consistently grow your SMS marketing list can sometimes be understandably challenging. There are a lot of factors at play, each of which needs to be taken into account as part of a larger marketing strategy. Text message marketing via SMS messages statistically has a 98% open rate. As optimistic as that sounds, [...]
Email marketing can be one of the most effective forms of digital marketing. Though it does take time to maximize its effectiveness. Being able to accurately understand how your e-mail marketing campaign is performing requires minding a multitude of important metrics. Knowing how to measure the results of your e-mail marketing campaign, starts with clearly [...]
Internal linking is one of the most important SEO strategies to help improve a site’s ranking on popular search engines like Google. Yet it is also one of the more neglected link-building tactics glossed over by a lot of web designers and site managers. Like a lot of SEO best practices, the keys to successful [...]
The truth is, a professional photoshoot encompasses far more than anything even the best smartphone camera and filters can ever hope to accomplish. Ultimately, professional photos are visual compositions that have just as much science to them as art. Pulling off professional photoshoot calls for a lot of planning, a discerning eye, the right equipment, [...]
When you sit down and think about it, a lot of 21st Century companies are known by their domain name just as much as they are their brand name. A lot of discount travel companies and online vendors even work their domain names into their brand messages. This makes picking the right domain name for [...]
It’s a fact that eCommerce is here to stay and has an honest shot to take over the world. These days you can literally buy anything online, from groceries to pharmaceuticals, small appliances, large appliances, furniture, alcohol, and even cars. If you buy it, they will come to deliver it to you somehow. However, the [...]
TikTok has taken the world by storm, which includes blowing up on the marketing scene as one of the most effective ways of reaching millions of people via uniquely creative video content. Of course, this means that brands are embracing this bold new platform and all the new marketing possibilities it offers. Of course, for [...]
In the world of 21st Century business brand awareness plays a critical role in separating you from your competition with branding opportunities such as environmental branding. Especially on the internet where all too many marketers will happily try to mimic your graphics and content to steal a piece of the pie from unsuspecting consumers who [...]
Reputation management has always been an important facet of any successful business. Especially businesses that rely on local sales and customer loyalty. Though it is taken to a whole new level in the 21st Century, where things like internet advertising, reviews, and social media marketing have a powerful influence on all businesses. That’s why so [...]
Google’s sophisticated algorithms use a staggering number of criteria to assess organic rankings. Though many of them are simply more advanced technological variations of old-fashioned modes of communication. You see this showing up in how Google Reviews influence rankings, as a sort of 21st-century version of “Word-of-Mouth Marketing.” Though Google Reviews takes this concept a [...]
A lot of people think of Google ads as the ads that appear when they use the Google homepage search function. While it’s true that these are some of Google’s strongest positional Google Adwords, they represent just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Google Ad's reach and effectiveness. Google has done an [...]
Social media has become one of the most powerful marketing tools to attract attention, convert visitors and reward loyal customers with a robust experience. Of course, social media marketing also has a strategic element to it. Effective social media content, placement, and messaging all factor into things like your company’s brand image, as well as [...]
The legal industry is extremely competitive, with lawyers and other legal professionals relying on their internet presence to help attract new clients who truly need their services. Of course, this calls for a diverse law firm marketing strategy that encompasses several critical practices such as blogging, print, strategically placed digital ads, and industry-best SEO practices. [...]
These days brand identity plays a more critical role than ever before. Of course, one of the most important factors in building and maintaining a strong brand identity is a logo that stands out and that people will remember. Developing an effective logo to represent your company goes far beyond simply putting together a few [...]
Chances are you’ve heard the phrase “Content Is King” a time or three. While this is certainly true, it still has a lot of small business marketing managers wondering what type of content will drive the most traffic to their website, or improve their organic rankings on popular search engines? Over the course of the [...]
With everyone going green and becoming ecologically conscious, it’s all too tempting to hear a term like “Environmental Branding” and jump to the conclusion that it is all about positioning your business as being ecologically friendly. Though this might be a leap of logic that goes a bit too far as true environmental branding might [...]
Chances are if you’ve downloaded enough image files over the years, you’ve probably had a time or two where you ran into a vector file. In those curious moments your laptop, phone, or tablet probably popped up a bunch of different options to try to open it. Chances are also good that none or perhaps [...]
Google Business Profile is now your Google business listing headquarters! Change is inevitable, and while that’s especially true in the natural world, it is also true with internet technology and industry leaders like Google. Those in the know will note that Google is renaming “Google My Business” to Google Business Profile in a strategical attempt [...]
The famous philosopher Des Carte once said “I think therefore I am.” It was his statement about how one’s proof of existence starts with one's mind and how an individual understands their reality. It is from this wellspring that we use the mind to understand our problems as well as develop thoughtful solutions to them. [...]
These days the lines between public relations and marketing are more blurred than ever before. Though this still doesn’t take away from the fact that effective public relations rely on critical concepts that become increasingly less effective if they are used for marketing purposes. To help you better understand public relations practices and how to [...]
If you have been developing a new business website or you are embracing an updated redesign, then chances are you have heard the term API. Though exactly what it is and how it works can be a little hard to demystify. API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface. It is used by website developers [...]
If you have been looking for ways to improve your website’s ranking on popular search engine sites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, then chances are you’ve come across terms like “Search Engine Optimization” and SSL Certificates. Though what they are and how to use them strategically isn’t always clear. To help you improve the ranking [...]
Video content continues to evolve as one of the most effective mediums for connecting with clients and potential customers who visit your site for fresh and engaging content. When used effectively, it can also become a powerful vehicle for improving conversion rates and boosting sales. In this article, we will take a closer look at [...]
Generating the content and state-of-the-art functionality of your business website is often a labor of love that takes a lot of time and effort to get the way you want it to be. So, it’s no wonder why so many small businesses want to keep their website hosting and maintenance in-house. Though a lot of [...]
E-mail marketing is one of the most popular marketing strategies being used by companies of every scale. Though the concepts of the old-fashioned e-mail blast have seen decreased effectiveness in recent years. To the point where it needs some targeted and strategic reinvention. This includes making sure that the e-mail lands in the person’s primary [...]
Online customer acquisition is a serious challenge for a lot of companies. Especially when you consider the effectiveness can be a decreasing scale without a highly effective branding strategy to guide you. This includes things like pull marketing strategies, superior dedications to customer service, consistent branding, focusing on SEO, and effectively leveraging high-quality content, just [...]
Content creation has become a driving force in 21st Century commerce. Your business’ sales leads, current customers, prospective customers, and active audience members demand valuable content from you to earn their loyalty. This content needs to organically reach your intended audience or target market in a way that feels natural, if not even conversational. To [...]
When building a website for your business it is all too easy to get overly caught up in the nuts and bolts details of design, web hosting, and software features. Especially if you are a small business, a startup or just delving into building your first business website. The reality is that while you do [...]
