Inbound Marketing Blog

If you haven’t heard, Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is currently embroiled in yet another major PR gaffe for his 2006 quote: “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.” Alas, this isn’t yet another blog about how his company is contributing to bullying and eating disorders.more

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about the internet. It isn't real. Yes, you can log on the internet and it will show you things. You haven’t imagined it. In that sense, it’s real. But it isn't real like a car or a building or a plane. Those objects can be touched. Those objects have to be built. And those objects are not easy to change once they are in use. Product recalls are what happens when “real” products have to change. On the internet, it’s a whole different story. One day a website has just one page, the next day there are a dozen. One day something is broken, the next day it isn't. One day you can’t build a thingamajig, the next everyone is thingamajigging.more

First impressions…always available, never able to recreate. At least for the same audience. What’s the impression you make to your different audiences? Whether online or off; within your peer groups; your customer meetings or your personal interactions. Do you really put the time/energy into making it memorable (in a good way). Or do you rely on the same ‘ole same ‘ole, because it works pretty well. Well, whichever option you use, it has a result. My challenge to you is to reflect on those results. Are you getting what you want, or are you settling for what you receive?more

This post has been republished here from its original source. As the years come and go, the types technology we use to access the web change and our approach to web design and development changes along with it. What made a good website five years ago does not make a good website today. When meeting with new clients, one of the first questions I ask is "What sites do you like and what do you dislike?" The answers are all over the board, but what I don't really see are examples of beautiful, modern websites that represent what it means to have a real online presence today. It becomes difficult for clients to understand what to expect from a modern website, as most of the sites they are seeing on a daily basis are not the types of sites we are striving to create at MINDSCAPE. This article aims to describe what I think constitutes a modern website in 2013, highlighting the way web design has evolved over the past several years. My hope is to illustrate to our partners the technology that's available to us today and why you should be taking advantage of it.more

This word is used often, maybe too often. Because it is so open to translation. Accountants value the word value – see it’s a verb and noun, differently than a sales person. And a sales person interprets value differently than a customer. You can be sure a hiring manager looks at the value of a candidate differently than the candidate considers the value of employing him/her. But, if a candidate even goes through this process, they’re ahead of most.more

First off, let me be clear. There are many situations when it makes sense to own the source code to any web asset a business may own. Integrated web services with back office operations, complex enterprise security or just a really unique web experience where the code becomes intellectual property. These are all examples where ownership, title rights and interest to every line of code, is recommended. But, in terms of most web site needs, do business owners really want to own the actual technology that their website site is on? There are many in “the industry” that would find that question profound. I think it’s a question worth asking and one that isn’t asked enough.more

What is a QR Code? “Quick Response Code” is that weird looking square bar code you've probably seen in print ads or on a postcard, and for half of you, maybe even have scanned (per eConsultancy). A user can scan this bar code with a smart phone and be taken to a landing page to take a specific action. A few months ago, Forbes Magazine proclaimed QR Codes dead, but are they really? Like many new tech trends, the world may have moved too quickly and customers may have dismissed their usage too quickly to really allow marketers to embrace them properly.more

It’s easy for digital novices to be intimidated when people throw around terms like “SEO” and “PPC” and “URL,” if they speak another language in their daily work lives, like accounting or manufacturing. I recently broke one of my own rules by bandying phrases like these during an initial meeting with a new partner. After I was politely interrupted by a brave engineer, “Excuse me, but what is SEO?” I realized with regret that I had started at level three when I should have started at level one.more

Remember the last time you multi-tasked? Are you listening to music, talking to another person or engaging in your mobile device while reading this post? Then you are multi-tasking as you read. Good for you! Or not. We’ve become a society of multi-doer’s. In fact, it seems almost impossible to escape this lifestyle, except for those rare occasions where we’re remote and unable to access technology. But even then, we’re likely to be performing something other than just having a conversation or engaging in a specific task. But, at what cost?more

Language is one of the most important aspects of our culture. Early communication among humans was limited to characters and drawings. Gradually, we learned how to form more sophisticated versions of these symbols into words. And words were formed into sentences which lead to the ability to write stories. Today, we’re still storytelling. Stories usually impact our communication most effectively. They’re more memorable than facts alone and they evoke some type of emotional response for the reader. Our agency is filled with storytellers. You read many of them here, in our Mindscape blog. Our stories span many topics, but the intention is consistent. We’re trying to help our partners better understand their businesses, their clients or working with us. And in a way that informs, has meaning and provides inspiration.more

When you think of improving your visibility on local searches, do directory listings immediately come to mind? Perhaps it’s time that they do! Local directory listings play an integral role in boosting your organic search rankings and building your credibility. Turning to Google or Yahoo for information has become second nature for most, and directory listings have come to dominate the local search results pages. Search engines and individuals both heavily rely on directory listings to have as much accurate and consistent information about a business as possible. Business listings that show up on local searches are free to add and claim, meaning they’ll take up little of your time and none of your money, thereby producing results with little effort on your part.more

I have had many opportunities to help our client partners develop digital marketing strategies. One of the first things we require our partners to do is complete a Measurable Marketing Success workbook. It’s a pretty simple document that basically allows us to record our partners’ goals. It continues to surprise me how difficult a chore this can be for most companies. If a client partner engages MINDSCAPE the first step is to sit down and fill out this workbook. If the partner has never thought about goals or objectives before – this is a challenging document to complete. And it should be!more

99%. It is a number that induces feelings of security, reassurance, and steadfast. In most cases, this is a proclamation of surety that makes the boss happy. However, when it comes to computers, 99% simply isn’t perfect. So you’re ready to go forward with your new idea for a website. You start to do some research and find some hosts boasting of 99% uptime. Sounds good right? But what does that really mean? Let’s take a look: 365 day in a year, times 24 hours a day equals 8760 hours in a year. If your site is up 99% of the time, that means its down 1% of the time. 8760 x .01 = 87.6 hoursmore

Ahhhhh, the future is good. It has descended upon us, oh so subtlety and most of us never even realized it. The technologies available now make our lives incredibly more convenient than they were even 5 years ago. Don’t believe me? Here’s a list of my favorite tools that should change your mind.more

I have been meaning to finish the novel I started in college since, well, since I started it in 1998. That’s a whole lot of time spent thinking about it, fretting over it, and ultimately not doing anything about it. It seems there is always something more important to do or something easier and more enjoyable. Last year I made it a goal to finish writing a novel. Sure, it still was not the story I started back in college, but I was bound and determined to finish writing something. But there was still a hurdle in the way, and I am willing to bet that it is the same hurdle that many of you face when looking up at a goal from the ground floor.more

Being a part of this industry sometimes taints our team members’ perspectives of how others view our work. Like, doesn’t everyone understand why creating compelling content is so important? Or why managing your online presence by offering something of value to your stakeholders will make a difference for your organization? The answer is no. Which leads to opportunities for us to often begin a relationship with the process of educating. Just read some of the other posts from my team members, Rebecca Dutcher and Erin Jones. They begin relationships with our new clients, by sharing solutions we can provide. Sometime solutions for problems our clients don’t recognize exist. So, what does this have to do with my topic of blogging? Well, it’s really the same concept. Managing your personal presence online can make a difference for you – personally and professionally. And doing this by creating content (words or images) that is insightful, can help others.more

My dog loves to run with me. The minute I put on my running shoes, he heads to the bathroom where he knows I keep his leash. I don’t even think I love running that much. So, why is it that dogs love to go for a W-A-L-K? And why do young children just naturally want to run, skip, or hop. You hardly ever see a child under five that is just walking, unless being aided by the hand of an adult. Well, I can’t answer those questions, without looking more indepthly at the sociology of our society. What I can do is probe for ways to encourage myself and others to want to run out the door and face what’s next. The phrase above my kitchen door reads “carpe diem.” I don’t honestly feel like seizing the day, everyday. But, most days I do. I’m generally energized to take on the challenges of the day whether it involves work, teaching, running kids around or something just about me.more

Relationships change all of the time. Some are more lasting than others, depending on the circumstances. And today with technology tools like Facebook it’s much easier to continue relationships that might have otherwise ended. In another post, I talk about how we need to spend as much effort on our internal customer relationships as our external ones. But, what happens when that internal customer is no longer “internal” to our business? Natural evolution. People leave companies and move on to new opportunities. And organizations ask people to leave when their skills or performance no longer fit or there are financial constraints. The majority of us have experienced this, except for the few brave souls who have always been entrepreneurs or have only had one employer.more

Can you do without thinking first? Can you think without having done before? I’m not trying to begin a philosophical read here, but rather trying to share the context of a few conversations I’ve had in the last couple of weeks. Let’s recognize that we all need to be thinking all of the time, or life just doesn’t work. Some people just seem to be more purposeful about it. Not that all thinking should be purposeful, some of it should involve building dreams and seeking out possibilities. People who have the ability to create these types of visions within organizations are often called leaders. But, leaders don’t exist in specific positions, they’re among us at all levels of an organization. These individuals may have started out as the kids who always asked “why” and just never stopped. They are the Contributing Team Members (CTM’s) who always have a new inspiration to do something radical or make a minor change that improves a process or final result. These people have mastered the idea of “what ifs…”, but may have a more difficult time in carrying out these ideas.more

It’s the time of year when we’re feeling generous. We’re in the mood to spend money on others, even people we don’t know.more