Inbound Marketing Blog

Save the date! Coming up on October 2nd is a sales and marketing event that you won’t want to miss named HubSpot on Tap! From 3:30 to 6:30pm, we will be serving up some marketing and sales tips and tricks accompanied by craft beer, unique cocktails and delicious food at The Knickerbocker inside New Holland Brewing’s Grand Rapids location.more

In our video blog series, Minds of MINDSCAPE, a member of our team will share a few words of wisdom about their particular area of expertise.more

In our video blog series, Minds of MINDSCAPE, a member of our team will share a few words of wisdom about their particular area of expertise.more

In our video blog series, Minds of MINDSCAPE, a member of our team will share a few words of wisdom about their particular area of expertise.more

Several weeks ago, I was invited to participate in the first ever Sales Services Kickstarter program hosted by HubSpot’s David Weinhaus and Dan Tyre. I have to admit, being an operations guy, I was somewhat hesitant because the last job on the planet I would ever consider myself to be qualified for, would be a sales job (Kudos to all you salespeople!) Nevertheless, my agency founders asked me to lead the initiative to build and grow our Sales Services so I accepted the offer and braced for what I expected to be a bumpy ride! After a five week online course, I’m happy to say that I not only made it through unscathed, I actually learned some things I’d love to share! 1. Sales Services are a natural fit for a marketing agency. Consumers are smarter and more empowered now than at any other time in history. According to Aligned to Achieve, 70% of a buyer’s research is complete before they reach out to sales. That’s a lot of research! And when that knowledgeable prospect reaches out to a salesperson and hears anything that doesn’t align with what they already believe they know to be true, that creates risk. And risk causes people to pause - that kills deals.more

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Last year, I attended an event where the speaker told a story that really just stuck with me. He shared the highlights of a conversation he recently had with a “fifty something” male executive. The exec shared his frustration over the rapid rate of change that was happening in his business, "the market" and basically every aspect of the world. He finished his rant by saying, “I HATE CHANGE!”more

It’s no mystery that it’s critical to intimately understand the personas you serve if you want your marketing to be successful. Once you identify where your personas congregate online, you can observe their conversations and identify the problems they’re struggling with. More importantly, you can see the exact words they use as they search for solutions to their challenges.more

As marketers, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to move leads through the buyer’s journey and keeping them happy all the while. But what about once someone is actually a customer? What steps are you taking to make sure that your happy leads convert into happy clients and customers?more

If you are a seasoned marketer or event coordinator, then you know know that even the simplest of marketing and networking events are often more than they appear. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that the event is a success! Take a free lunch and learn (like the ones we host each month) for example. They are a fun, laid back, information filled hour and half. Lunch and Learns are a great way to meet others in attendance and also leave with some great nuggets that you can immediately implement in your own marketing efforts. Sounds simple enough to pull off, right? But there is a lot more going on behind the scenes of this casual lunch event, than meets the eye. Let’s take a look! First we thought about our buyer personas. We considered who our ideal client is and how we can host an information session in a way that is appealing to them. Well, we achieved this by: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

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

You walk into your office with a sinking feeling in your stomach. At best, it can be described as uncomfortable, at worst, a crippling dread. Following the scent of coffee, you sleepwalk into the office breakroom. Empty greetings of "morning" accompanied by blank stares greet you; you take little notice, murmuring a hollow reply of your own. You grip the handle of the pot containing your saving grace and splash the liquid gold into a mug —you don't remember how it got in your hand. You wander aimlessly around the office until you find your desk. Plopping into your charcoal chair, you turn on your computer and attempt to start the day. It is Monday morning. You have a weeks work ahead of you. And you are a zombie. No determination, no inspiration, no MOTIVATION . Let's ge t you into working human condition, shall we? Below are five ways you can fight your Garfield-like tendency of hating Mondays so you can start your work week off right. 1. Identify the problem Monday mornings are a struggle for most people. In fact, one of my favorite quotes alludes to the idea that even those who adore their jobs hate Mondays. It is this: "Even art gets up at 8:00 am on Monday." Regardless of if you are a rockstar or a corporate accountant, we can all relate to the struggle of getting out of bed and putting ourselves to work. However, we all have different reasons for WHY this is a struggle. For some of us, it may be leaving our spouse and children behind for the day. For others, it may be that we find no enjoyment in our jobs. Still, others may simply hate leaving the cozy comfort of their beds. If you want to conquer Monday mornings, you need to identify what it is that you hate so much about getting up and going to work. Then, you need to make a change or come to terms with this problem. 2. Early to Bed Early to Rise If you are having trouble getting motivated, the issue may not be with your job; it may be that you don't sleep enough or that you sleep too much. As recommended by the National Sleep Foundation, most working age adults (adults 18-64 years old) should get 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Any more or any less and you may find yourself groggy and slow to start in the morning. If you want to start your week off right, get to bed early Sunday night, get 7-9 hours of sleep, and wake up early enough to give your brain a little start up time. EXPERIMENT: If you have a job that allows for a flexible start time each morning, go to bed early and see when you naturally wake up. This is a good way to find out how much sleep you need each night and waking up naturally (instead of to the jolting screeches of an alarm) can be incredibly pleasant. 3. It is the weekend, relax One reason you may not be feeling motivated at the beginning of your work week is that you haven't actually given yourself a break - you are rundown from the last work week which somehow extended into your weekend. Sometimes working over the weekend is inevitable, but giving yourself time to recharge is absolutely essential to maintaining your motivation and quality of work. Unplug for the weekend when you can. Avoid taking any work-related calls or checking in on any projects. Give yourself a break from the constant stream of emails that come your way and enjoy your weekend. This is not shirking your duties, and while you may feel like this will put you behind, you will be more prepared for Monday morning which is when you'll really need your energy and focus. 4. Plan Ahead What does your Monday morning look like? If your first hour of work involves repeatedly "checking" your email, logging onto your social media accounts, or staring at a random list of tasks—you're doing Monday wrong. Instead of coming into the office with no game plan, and really no direction, give Zombie-Monday you a break! Before you leave the office on Friday, make a list of what you want to accomplish on Monday. Revisit your list Sunday night before bed, so it will be fresh when you wake up in the morning. If you do this, you'll be able to walk into the office confident about what you need to get done. You won't get bogged down with the usual mundane Monday tasks you perform while trying to figure out what to do with your day. 5. Get Creative, Get Analytical, Get Monotonous All of us are motivated by different things, and all of us receive little bursts of motivation at different times throughout the day. If you plan according to your usual Monday morning disposition, you may be able to motivate yourself right when you walk into the office, or you may not NEED any motivation at all. If you know that you are going to be brain dead Monday morning no matter what you do, then plan to tackle your tedious weekly tasks right when you walk in the office. Send out all necessary emails, check in on any current projects, plan all of your meetings, schedule all of your time, etc. In contrast, maybe all you need to get yourself going is a creative project. Maybe you just need something to get excited about, something that will spark that passionate energy. If this is the case, plan something like a brainstorming session for Monday morning. Sit down with a few of your coworkers and pound out a few hundred ideas for your current project. Planning to your disposition will allow you to utilize your time in the most effective way possible and you may not have to make a single change to your routine. You gave one (or all)of these tips a shot, now what? Well, now the Monday morning scenario plays out a bit differently. Now you walk into your office with a strange light feeling in your stomach. The smell of coffee fills your nostrils, but you pass by the office break room, already feeling awake as can be. You pass a coworker and let out a "good morning" that tumbles around the office like a too-loud laugh. Numerous sets of unfocused eyes meet yours and became alight with something akin to wonder and surprise. You make your way purposefully to your desk. Sitting down in your charcoal chair, you turn on your computer and start the day. With this new-found energy, you have the motivation to more effectively get your day to day work done. If you are looking to inject this same energy into your digital marketing efforts, consider contacting us. After all, MINDSCAPE is a digital marketing agency that helps companies in multiple industries improve traffic, improve conversions and get better results. We are waiting to hear from you!more

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Join Us Thursday, January 19th Lunch & Learn How to Think Like Your Buyers We are happy to announce our first Lunch & Learn Workshop of 2017! We will be discussing how to build your buyer personas by thinking about who they are, their pain points and what motivates them. Class Starts Tuesday, January 24th CREATE & EXECUTE: CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY Our Create & Execute courses have been selling out fast! Why? Because with this course, we open our playbook and provide you with all the processes, tools and thinking you need to get started with your OWN content marketing strategy. Old Product Line Gets New Life What do you do when one of your old product lines doesn't perform quite as well as you might like online? This is a dilemma that one of our clients has been facing. So in December, we've been executing a rather aggressive plan based around pricing, traffic, and conversions. Here are the initial results. December 1st - 8th Spend as % of revenue: 63.3% Average Order Value: $47.69 Through December 8th, clearly our initial plan wasn't working as well as we needed it to. We reviewed the data, gained insights, made adjustments, and started to see better results: December 9th - 18th Spend as % of revenue: 14.4% Average Order Value: $169.87 While we are still working to improve the numbers, we're on target to achieve the lofty revenue goal we set for December that nearly matches what the product line has generated over the last 12 months. This focus has brought new life into this old product line that we expect will generate significant ROI for many months and years to come. To learn more about the results we've produced for our clients, head over to our website! 'Tis the Season for Giving We can get so caught up during the holiday season with rushing around shopping and attending holiday parties, we often forget that for a lot of people, the holidays are a hard time of year. This year MINDSCAPE, had the privilege to take part in the United Way's Adopt-A-Family program.The program matches sponsors with a local family in need this Christmas. We had a great time shopping for our adopted family, who are Burmese refugees with 2 small daughters. To keep up with the latest happeings at MINDSCAPE, like us on Facebook.more

Join us November 17th! 2016 Inbound Marketing Lunch & Learn Our Lunch & Learn Workshops have been filling up fast! Why? Because they give industry professionals a chance to come together and learn from one another. Join us and explore the challenges you are facing with colleagues and experts alike. If this is something you want to be a part of, sign up for a Lunch & Learn today!more

When you work in a creative industry where you are getting paid for your mind more than anything else, there is a lot of pressure to generate creative, useful ideas every second of every day. If you are anything like me, half of your time is spent blankly staring at the screen, trying to think of the perfect way to say something. So how do you combat these moments? How do you make sure that when you sit down to write, design, or create the ideas are going to be ready to flow?more

Join us October 20th! 2016 Inbound Marketing Lunch & Learn Our Lunch & Learn Workshops give industry professionals a chance to come together and learn from one another. Through the discussions and activities that make up a Lunch & Learn presentation, you will be able to pose the questions you have and explore the challenges you are facing with colleagues and experts alike. If this is something you want to be a part of, sign up for a Lunch & Learn today! Class starts October 18th! CREATE & EXECUTE: CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY MINDSCAPE has helped companies generate more leads, more sales and more profit for the past 15 years. Our processes have helped generate well over $1 billion of additional revenue for the clients we’ve served. We are opening our playbook and providing you with access to the processes, tools and thinking which have led to this success. We are excited to announce our 60 Day Create and Execute Program! Case Study Cornerstone University came to us looking to give their website a new look and feel, in the hopes that this would increase site traffic and application rates. To help Cornerstone meet these goals we improved the user experience by restructuring the sitemap and creating new user paths and new landing pages. In year-over-year comparison, of the old site in 2015 to the new site in 2016, Cornerstone saw a: 746% increase in the number of applications received 59% increase application conversion rate 541% increase in organic search visits to the homepage The proof is in the numbers, a better user experience = a better performing website. How to Get More Leads Through Conversion Rate Optimization Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a system for increasing the percentage of visitors that convert into customers or leads by taking the desired action (like downloading a content offer or filling out a form). Any changes that you think about making to your website to help improve conversions should be informed by user feedback and cold, hard facts like: Bounce rate - percent of people who leave the site after viewing ONLY ONE page Exit rate - percent of people who leave the site after viewing A SPECIFIC page Average time on site - how long a person is on the site during a single session Average page views - how many pages the average visitor goes through before leaving While analyzing the stats is crucial for optimizing your website, at the end of the day it's really all about knowing your target audience (or personas, in Inbound lingo). It's about knowing what they want out of a website experience and what types of content they are most responsive to. To read the rest of this post, visit our blog! David's House Ministries Walkaton At MINDSCAPE we love our clients! We had an amazing opportunity to really get to know one of our newer clients David's House Ministries this past weekend. We were blown away by all the hearts that are touched by the work being done at David's House. In broad terms the ministry provides care and facilities for adults with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain-injuries. But after spending a few hours with the families that attended the walkathon we learned David's House Ministries is so much more! It is peace of mind, a support system and an extended family for 37 residents and their families. If you would like to learn more about David's House Ministries you can request information or schedule a visit. Tell them the MINDSCAPE crew sent you!more