Helping Manufacturers & B2B Marketers Navigate SEO Strategies

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Strategy  

For B2B marketers and manufacturers, navigating SEO strategies can be a daunting task. Do you talk about your product? Your staff? A standout system you’ve implemented? … There’s so much more to effectively being seen on search than that. I’ve put together some of the most impactful tactics we’ve used with our B2B marketing and Manufacturing clients. Check out the latest post from SPOKE Communications to learn how you and your team can navigate SEO and create strategies that convert!

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

How to Stretch Out Your Content Strategy

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy  
stretch content strategy

Ah, yes. The daunting craft of consistent content creation. A promotional video for YouTube. A post for the web site. A photo or graphic or video snippet on Instagram. A handful of tweets. And don’t forget to share them to SnapChat, LinkedIn and Facebook. Post an explainer vid on TikTok. And on and on. It’s exhausting! Or is it? In the decade-plus I’ve been developing content strategies for businesses and organizations, staying ahead of the content creation cycle and maintaining consistency always comes down to one simple thing: capitalizing on good content. So I’m going to give you a little

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

Better Security and WordPress Hosting

By on   /   Blog, Case Studies, Digital Marketing Case Study, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Strategy, Technology  
des moines wordpress host

We were notified shortly after 3AM that brute force attacks and complex access attacks were increasing exponentially on a few of our client sites. With properly protected sites, we only had to go in and block a few (dozen) IP addresses, but with attacks jumping by MILLIONS, we’re happy to have had the protections in place to begin with.  We were able to make quick work of locking down all of our sites and fending off the attacks.

What do YOU do when your WordPress Web site is attacked?

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

Businesses Stand Out Through Strategic Communications

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Branding, Marketing, Strategy  
strategig marketing communications

Well, thank you, Captain Obvious. Who would think otherwise? But did you catch the “Strategic” part? While the headline seems overly apparent, we’ve witnessed time and time again businesses from solo entrepreneurs to mega-conglomerate Fortune 500s miss the mark when truly strategic communications would have helped. Whether they miss an opportunity to speak up on a business-relevant event or their news feed is so full the brand focus and target of the message is lost, businesses need to make sure communications strategies are in place at all times. Much of this falls under Brand Communications and Public Relations Strategies. What

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

5 Free Action Items for Better Digital Marketing in 2019

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy  
free digital marketing for 2019

Okay, 2018 is over and we can all look back and take a deep breath. Suffice it to say, 2018 was “Interesting.” Many cringe-worthy moments. Many upturned industries. Many marketing mistakes. At the same time there were some brilliant marketing events as well. All things considered, it’s time to set up the blocks that tumbled down in 2018 and start building for a more impactful 2019. To help us all get some traction in 2019, we’ve put together 5 action items you and your team (if you have one) can use to make sure you’re on the right track just

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

The Basics: A Content Marketing Strategy Checklist

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Marketing, Strategy  
content marketing strategy checklist

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

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

Content Marketing Drives More Than Your Blog

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Branding, Education and Training, Marketing, Strategy  
content marketing drives more than your blog

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

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

The Most Important Digital Marketing Question You Need to Answer

By on   /   Blog, Interactive Media, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Technology  
digital marketing company in des moines iowa

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

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

4.5 Tools To Get Digital Marketing Right

By on   /   Blog, Industry News, Interactive Media, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Technology  
des moines digital marketing tools

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

More Marketing News →
Back to Top

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

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training, Industry News, Interactive Media, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy  
facebook advertising tips

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

More Marketing News →
Back to Top