The Entrepreneur Brand

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Branding, Education and Training, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, SPOKE News  
branding entrepreneur des moines iowa marketing communications

I had the honor of heading down to southern Iowa last night to talk to the Entrepreneurship students at South West Iowa Community College (SWiCC). My charge was easy enough; explain the steps I’d taken through entrepreneurship and how branding affected my decisions and the development of my business. But then I thought a bright-eyed group of burgeoning entrepreneurs deserved more than my typical “TRUE Branding 101” spiel. This presentation required a little “from the heart?” A little “I’ve been in your shoes?” Maybe this needed to be a little more personal. Of course, branding for entrepreneurs is paramount. “Without

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Happy GOOGLE Mobile-Friendly Day!

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Branding, Design, Education and Training, Industry News, Interactive Media, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, SPOKE News, Strategy, Technology  
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Mobile-friendly? What, you say? Yes, over night, the powers at Google changed their algorithms for search to require all sties to be “Mobile-friendly” or be excluded from mobile search. You can read more about their changes here: http://cre8wow.me/1yLU6XM This change is a great advantage to you and all of those that keep their sites current with search compatibility best practices. As Google enacts these changes, sites NOT mobile-friendly will no longer be indexed for mobile search results. Yes, you heard right… NON MOBILE-FRIENDLY SITES WILL NOT SHOW UP IN MOBILE SEARCHES AFTER TODAY! While standard desktop search will not be

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Social Media Marketing CAN Help SEO!

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Education and Training, Social Media Marketing  

The argument continues about the value of your social media marketing on SEO. I’m here to say it once and for all, Social Media Marketing CAN Help SEO! Having accounts in FaceBook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest et al., isn’t the end all and be all for your social media marketing efforts. That, at best is a “Level 1” effort of a good 4-Level potential program.  With strategy, content and the right marketing communications partners (yes, you need help and CAN NOT do it alone), the integration of social media into your marketing plans can boost Search Engine Page Positions (SEPP) as well

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Use Video To Generate Interest In Your Brand

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Education and Training, Social Media Marketing  

A client asked me the other day, because I work quite a bit in video, if I encouraged others to use video to generate stronger interest in their brand.  Generally… YES.  But why? At the time, I couldn’t give him a definitive answer. I use many sources to create interest in the brands I manage, so to single out video made it difficult to communicate the sole benefit to their brand. Eventually, the conversation diverted to other topics, but I just couldn’t forget the question. So, out of curiosity, I clicked on the YouTube link on one of that customer’s

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Photography As A Communications Tool

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training  

Have you become victim of the digital world of photography? On Friday the 5th of May, CreateWOWmarketing presented the following photography in communications deck to the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives.  In our presentation, we discussed the use of photography as a STRATEGIC communication tool as well as showed the audience some tips and tricks for making their photos better – from better photo composition to photography styles and mediums that would enhance their communications needs. Then we broke out into groups and shot some test photos using some of the styles and techniques mentioned in the presentation. Overall, it

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Social Media = ENGAGEMENT Not Numbers!

By on   /   Blog, Social Media Marketing  

Most of us realize by now that a big number of followers doesn’t immediately equal ENGAGED, RELEVANT or INFLUENTIAL followers, but after a recent conversation, I found this bared repeating. “A big number of followers doesn’t immediately equal ENGAGED, RELEVANT or INFLUENTIAL followers…” We had a client mention wanting to have many more Twitter followers and Facebook fans then they do presently. When pressed as to why, there wasn’t a clear answer. Social media can’t be thought of as a way to create “instant sales” but, instead, as a communication tool to truly build your brand. Companies and businesses never

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VIDEO: “Are You Too Big To SMILE?”

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing  

CreateWOWmarketing travels through rural Iowa asking the simple question, “Is your brand too big to smile?” Finding that small town courtesy and respect seems to reflect in a size of company brand as well, Andrew B. Clark (The Brand Chef) questions why and how your brand could benefit from just a simple smile. 🙂

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There IS No FREE Lunch!

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training  

The marketing communications business is often misunderstood in terms of value, benefit, and, unfortunately, getting paid. As a creative services firm, prospects often ask communications professionals (us) to do work for free – also known as “speculative creative” or “pitching” in order for the client to determine whether or not they will hire us. It’s the old “try the milk before you buy the cow” scenario and it happens in the marketing communications profession on a daily basis. While some marketing professionals succumb to this dog and pony show in the hopes of getting paid if their results are satisfactory

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