Today, research drives the data and decision-making behind the world’s biggest brands. So why wouldn’t you use research and data in your own brand messaging? I recently coached a client through a brand value study that revealed some pretty clear paths to connecting to their core audience – paths they’d overlooked before… Click the link to read about more —>
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How to rank higher through organic SEO is still one of marketing’s biggest mysteries. Paying for top-of-the-page listings is one (expensive) way to get eyes on your website, but these 5 simple tips can get you to a more relevant and more impactful position on Google, Bing and other search engines… Click through to read more!
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The late, great Yankee, Yogi Berra was a prophetic quote machine. One of my favorites has always been, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” As silly as it sounds, it’s powerful advice. When it comes to measuring marketing performance, it’s imperative to plan your path to success. With that, until you know where you’re starting (setting the benchmark), how do you know where that path will go? Setting the benchmark is important in data-driven marketing campaigns. If you have a program that measures against specific KPI (Key Performance Indicators), but have no benchmark
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There’s a certain level of excitement when we get to design vehicle graphics for clients. I mean, who doesn’t love to see their work THAT BIG!?! But every time we’re asked to scale graphics to these extremes, we stop and consider the BIG 3 challenges of BIG DESIGN. Design for resolution Design for movement Design for brand consistency So, when Capital City Fruit out of Norwalk, Iowa brought their latest delivery van concept to us for a brand wrap, before we even opened the vehicle CAD schematics and our design software, we started thinking. What could trip us up on
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WHAT IF… and just go with me for a second, here… WHAT IF your current email marketing campaign offered more than a 10% discount on your damn widget? WHAT IF your email marketing, in times of crisis, offered HOPE… offered UNDERSTANDING… offered RELIEF?
Food for thought…
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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?
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Today, I hit 300 stories… This is a special milestone for me and SPOKE Communications. Not only from a content marketing and P.R. aspect, but because from the day I started this career I wanted to do nothing but help people tell their stories. Whatever the application – graphic design, photography, videography, copywriting, illustration, public relations, education and training, I live to tell stories. Today, I hit 300 stories (for one client).
Can I help you tell your story?
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Direct mail marketing programs are not dead. They should be an integral part of your Direct Marketing Strategy. Contrary to every social media super star’s testimony to the contrary, when you use “Snail Mail” to send something of value to a customer or a prospect, it’s going to get noticed. I don’t care who you are or what your thoughts are when it comes to checking the mailbox, if there’s something in there with weight, or girth – better yet, if it makes noise – you’re going to open it. And for a marketer, that’s 90% of the battle. We
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We made a couple text edits and sent the client a new proof of the mailer. Through the beauty of technology, we watched as they opened the email, clicked on the proof, glanced over the last round of edit requests, and snap – off to press! But something was bothering me. It was negligible, almost like a shadow that I could see out of the corner of my eye but never quite catch. Deadlines. Because of deadlines, I sent the approved art off to press anyway. That was Friday. Today, only a few days later, we’re re-ordering the print run.
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Sometimes I get so laser-focused on the “day-to-day” that I forget the joy in what I do. Outside graphic design, outside web development and maintenance, outside content writing, outside video, outside all of the “tasks,” I love (pronounced “luuuuuuuv”) strategy. As Marie Kondo says, “It sparks Joy.” I love the why. I especially love the how. There’s little more exciting to me than a blank slate laid out in front of me with a goal on one end and a deadline on the other. So, Andy, how do we make the two connect? Today I set aside the “day-to-day” and
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