Marketing Archives | Spoke Communications, LLC

The Basics: A Content Marketing Strategy Checklist

By Andrew Clark on October 30, 2018 / Blog, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Marketing, Strategy

Would you expect to walk into an interview without prepared questions? What about teaching a class – wouldn’t you expect the instructor to have a lesson plan? Then why do so many companies embark on content marketing without a strategy? We see it all the time. “We have a newsletter. We send it out every quarter.” Nothing more… No targeted information… No actionable items… No measurement… No strategy? And generally, that’s the extent of it. How do people do business like that?!? Your content marketing HAS to come with a strategy. If there isn’t thought behind the effort what is

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The Value of Email Marketing

By Andrew Clark on October 23, 2018 / Blog, Brand Marketing, Case Studies, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, SPOKE News, Strategy

Email marketing, for some, remains a mystery. From list procurement to communications strategies to drop schedules and more, the intricacies that go into an effective email marketing campaign make the channel somewhat difficult to grasp, let alone manage. But if done properly, and with purpose, an email campaign can not only raise brand awareness within your target audience, but increase actions that benefit your bottom line – whether that means taking action on a goal or mission, or clicking through to purchase a product or schedule a service. We recently sat in with a local marketing communications class where the

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Content Marketing Drives More Than Your Blog

By Andrew Clark on July 31, 2018 / Blog, Brand Marketing, Branding, Education and Training, Marketing, Strategy

Content Marketing? Blogging? Digital PR? Journaling? E-News? We’ve heard a number of terms for it, but whatever you call it, it’s important. Content Marketing (what we call it here at SPOKE) is a strategy that should be present in every aspect of your marketing plan. It builds brand narrative and reinforces market knowledge and authority all while being infinitely packageable and a valuable source of sales support. Bring Clients Closer By Building Your Brand Narrative: Brands need to communicate. It should be core to their nature. By telling stories (Content Marketing) Brands increase the ability to connect to their target audience

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Do You Have Clear Video Marketing Strategies?

By Andrew Clark on April 12, 2018 / Blog, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Marketing, Strategy, Video Marketing

Video Marketing is becoming more prevalent every day. Whether it’s streaming Facebook live videos or higher-end produced pieces, it’s become such a valuable tool that companies looking for better engagement, better brand representation and clear, concise messaging are jumping into the video marketing game. For over a decade, the SPOKE team has been producing videos for our clients. Added to an effective content marketing plan, video offers the end users, the client’s target audience, a strong connection with imagery, messaging, and branding in a sweet, entertaining, encapsulated package. Here are a couple samples from recent projects SPOKE produced for client video

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How Leaders Can Mitigate “That’s Not My Job”

By Andrew Clark on March 1, 2018 / Blog, Brand Marketing, Marketing

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“That’s not my job” Where did that phrase even come from? Now, I may be a “man of a certain age,” but when a company is building a customer-centric workforce, the words “That’s not my job” should NEVER cross a team member’s lips. Is this a by-product of downsizing? Corporate America has lost its sense of loyalty to its employees, forcing a loss of loyalty and pride of job from its employees. Workers are carried along on the wave of “each man for himself”, afraid to extend a hand for fear of having it bitten. Whatever happened to the “One

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Diving Into SEO – A Visual Guide

By Andrew B. Clark on January 16, 2018 / Blog, Education and Training, Marketing, SEO, Strategy

Our clients love this SEO visual guide. We think you will too! SEO guides are abundant and ever-changing. Some are useful while others tend to create more confusion than help. With our clients, we’ve created a simple SEO visual guide to help them in Web site development and management. The guide offers a unique perspective to working with your Website as a “Landing Zone” for those jumping into Google (or other search engines) to search for your products or services. At the 10,000 foot view, you have the basics: Do your keyword research Creating a sitemap.xml for your site Submit

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The Most Important Digital Marketing Question You Need to Answer

By Andrew B. Clark on September 22, 2017 / Blog, Interactive Media, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Technology

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Do you want to understand digital marketing, or do you want someone to handle it for you? It’s an important and honest question. It can help you decide where your time is best spent and what’s most important to you. We have clients that know they need digital marketing, but don’t understand what it is, where to use it, and how they’ll find value. It’s important for us to educate our customers on what digital marketing is and how to measure its value. We should note that not every business will use digital marketing the same way, nor will they

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Good SEO and Our Godly Misconception of “Time”

By Andrew B. Clark on May 10, 2017 / Blog, Education and Training, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy

You want what? In less than a week? Give me a break!” — God. Alternate title: “An Act of God Can’t Get You To The 1st Page of Google Any Quicker.” Okay, duck and watch out for stray lightening bolts… Here we go. I blame God… yes, GOD for the misconceptions of time so prevalent in the business word today. Seriously, stay with me here… If God can create the Earth, the wind and sun, the plants and animals, and all we see, feel, and touch in 6 short days, why can’t your marketing team do something about getting you

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4.5 Tools To Get Digital Marketing Right

By Andrew B. Clark on March 24, 2017 / Blog, Industry News, Interactive Media, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Technology

This is the industrial age of digital marketing. What’s hot today will soon be yesterday’s cold fish. It seems like just a short 12 months ago, we were working on Vimeo engagement strategies and backing off email campaigns. And now, well, email is back on the table and Vimeo is no more than a greasy skid mark on your iPhone. Digital is fickle at best. But as new tools and new technologies are developed, the opportunities to build customer connections are better than ever. Digital marketing is still marketing. It’s just a variety of new tools that make it different

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Facebook’s Little Advertising Shell Game: Why You Should Do More Than Boost Post

By Andrew B. Clark on February 24, 2017 / Blog, Education and Training, Industry News, Interactive Media, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy

It’s tempting. There it is, click it. “Boost Post.” – C’mon, BOOOOOOOST IT… Everyone is doing it. I triple-dog dare you! Or… should you take the leap with bigger Facebook Advertising strategies? Yes, it’s the Facebook Advertising one-click answer – like peer-pressure. In one simple click, you purportedly get a “boost” to your business post; promising more eyes, more action, and more customers. But if you’d paid attention to recent changes on Facebook, you would have witnessed the “Business Management” interface updates as well as the focus put on actual Facebook Advertising through the platform. Considering the abundance of recent

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