Ashley Daniels

When you think about creating content for your business, I’m sure the first thing that comes to mind is creating content that will benefit your customers and help move them along in their buying journey; content like blogs, videos, and content offers. You know, all the things that we and other marketing blogs, spend a majority of our time talking about and dispensing advice on creating.more

One of the key elements of a brand are the fonts used in your print and marketing materials. Which makes sense because they are the thing that presents one of the most important things in your materials, the copy. I would be willing to bet you’ve probably spent a lot of time searching for and selecting the font that you feel best represents your brand and your message.more

Photo credit : HBOmore

Your brand is a bit like a puzzle. It's made up of many pieces that all fit together to create the overall perception that people have of your organization. In our blog post last week, 3 reasons your branding should evolve, we made the case for changing elements (or puzzle pieces if you will) of your brand gradually over time, rather than drastically changing everything all at once. One piece of your brand, that can be updated relatively easily, is your social media.more

As anyone who is involved in the world of e-commerce knows, it's a tough industry. You have to deal with a variety of external forces that aren't necessarily going to work in your favor. You face competition from the entire Internet, competing with businesses all over the world who offer the same products that you do. And if you do break through all the noise and get someone to shop with you, they might be shopping from a desktop, phone or tablet. Then you have to make sure that no matter what device they're on, they have a great shopping experience. If they don't, that might very well be the only time that they shop with you.more

We've all heard it a thousand times, "You have to walk before you can run". You have to learn the basic aspects of something before you can move on to the more complex ones. This holds true for almost everything in life, including learning how to write proper CSS (the style language that defines fonts, colors, margins, background images, etc. on a website).more

Recently, a hot topic in the photography and videography space is the use of drones. While the more widespread accessibility of drones has allowed people to capture footage that wasn't otherwise available to the regular citizen who didn't own a helicopter or plane. But as with many new technologies, there are debates around regulation and safety.more

So, you've created a fantastic marketing email, the copy is eloquent, the template design is beautiful and you have a click-worthy CTA. Now you have to make the dreaded decision, when should you send this email?more

Are your marketing emails not performing quite as well as you might like in terms of click through rates and conversions? Improving email performance doesn’t have to mean completely overhauling your email templates or coming up with an entirely new email strategy. Sometimes making a few small changes can make a huge difference, particularly if they are ones that make your emails easier to read and more visually appealing.more

I was going about my day today, texting friends, checking emails, perusing social media, I realized that no matter where I looked, I encountered GIFs (or Global Interchange Format). They were being used in Facebook ads, emails from my favorite stores, I even saw a few popping up in website content.more

In eCommerce, providing user paths that meet a user's secondary needs can have a significant impact on revenue.more

A few days ago I was doing some research for a client and came across an article called, "Just Keep Scrolling! How To Design Lengthy, Lengthy Pages". There are portions of this article that are a bit technical and geared toward designers and developers, but you don't have to be a professional to get something out of the post. Here are the high points of the article that can be beneficial to anyone in marketing (or anyone with a website, really).more

I have a co-worker who is known to say "work smarter, not harder." He's always looking for ways to make the work we do quicker and more efficient. If there is an app, website or other tool out there meant to help with digital marketing processes, I can almost guarantee he's tried it.more

Lead generation. It's one of the greatest areas of concerns when it comes to digital marketing. The prospect of bringing in new customers for your business is super exciting. They are your lifeblood after all. So it's no surprise that when you have an awesome email campaign or content offer, you want to let every “lead” you have know about it. However, as great as your content might be, it probably has a different level of value for each of your leads.more

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever left a web page with in minutes of arriving, because it wasn't easy to find the information you were looking for and quickly navigate to it? I'm sure that all of us have done is once or twice. In marketing, we like to refer to this quick exit after visiting only one page as "bouncing".more

I want you to think back to elementary school. What do you remember most? A favorite game you played at recess? A favorite lunch that your mom used to pack for you? How about a favorite school subject? One of the things that I remember most about elementary school is my favorite subject, Reading & Writing.more

In recent years, it seems like Facebook has been tweaking their algorithms every few months. Many of these changes have made it more difficult for marketers to share content with their full audiences because of a decline in organic reach. One way around this is creating paid Facebook campaigns that are specifically targeted to certain segments of your audience.more

The days where your college website could skate by on pure information and a design comparable to that of a hotel lobby brochure are long gone. You need a little more to make your website unique and appealing to the wide variety of people who visit it (alumni, current students, parents and especially prospective students). There are a plethora of website designs and content trends that you can experiment with to set your school’s website apart.more

A few weeks ago, MINDSCAPE decided to have a party at our office in honor of National Margarita Day. We laid out the snacks, mixed up the drinks, and invited the other tenants of our building to mix and mingle. Our building is home to a staffing agency, a construction company and a few non-profits (so businesses and organizations that don't have much in common other than sharing a geographic location). But everyone had a great time and we all had the opportunity to meet some people we might not have otherwise . Yes, we could have just invited other marketing professionals; but we wanted to expand our horizons, branch out, meet new people and build a little good will in the community. The MINDSCAPE margarita party got me thinking about how interacting with new people for the benefit of your organization and networking can take many shapes and forms. The idea of branching out can be applied to your organization's social media efforts. Follow people and organizations in your community and interact with them.more

Throw away your laundry list. How a good story can make your content more compelling. The other day I was perusing Netflix, trying to decide what to watch. In its infinite wisdom, Netflix suggested one of my favorite shows, Mad Men. For those of you who aren't familiar, Mad Men is a period drama set in the 1960's at a New York advertising agency. The plot is full of drama, intrigue, and — marketing wisdom? Let me explain. On Mad Men, the advertising agencies focus on creating elaborate campaigns to sell products to consumers, we're talking storyboards, characters, themes and in-depth narratives, almost like they were creating mini-movies. Things usually culminate with the suave leading man, Don Draper, giving a grand client presentation telling an amazing story. It happens that the same imaginative thought process and crafting of storytelling narratives used by Mad Men can be — and should — be applied to creating content for your B2B website.more