Inbound Marketing Blog

Do you go to sleep at night dreading the next day? Are you more concerned with making money than you are for your own happiness? I am amazed at how many conversations I witness where the entire content is filled with complaints about their job. As I listen to lack of enthusiasm and perceived hatred for the occupation or company these people count on to sustain their lives, it baffles me as to why they’d continue to put themselves in such a horrific position.more

In a recent strategy development session with all the creative folks here, I had asked a couple of the team members to take notes for me since my whiteboarding abilities are… well, not very structured. After our session, I asked a new team member to start putting together the findings in our standard format. He struggled a bit to pull everything together and it was at this point I realized we did not have a good way of thinking through strategies and documenting them in a way that could be easily understood.more

How to better connect sales and marketing management to impact the bottom line. Sales and marketing management can be complex, often with marketing and sales teams becoming dissatisfied with each other. Why? Many of the areas where the wedge between sales and marketing teams can come from is the feeling of each “owning” the customer, or the customer experience. Yet, no one department owns the customer. Marketing is there to identify who the best target audiences are and pursue them. Then your sales team begins the sales process with qualified prospects.more

On April 10th many of our team members had the chance to attend an American Marketing Association of West Michigan luncheon featuring speaker Jure Klepic. The Web as we know it is undergoing fundamental change as it moves away from its current structure of information and links. The new Web is being built around people not data; a profound change that impacts business strategy, design, marketing, and advertising. Therefore, Jure contends that influence is no longer about numbers - it’s about people.more

Brands Get a Facebook Face-Lift! You've likely noticed a few changes in your Facebook brand page lately. In case you haven’t, you will soon. Facebook announced that the Timeline feature is now available for brand pages. The new pages will mimic user profiles, allowing brands to display their history and provide a rich experience for the user. With the recent upgrades, it's important to make sure that your Facebook page conveys the right message! The new interface changes a variety of commonly used features currently available to page admins. Here is an overview of the most important changes that page admins need to be aware of:more

As the customer service rep for Mindscape, one of my biggest challenges is breaking down the communication barrier that exists between tech-heads, like myself, and clients who may not have a strong background in computers. I often find myself explaining the same few topics over and over to many of our users; so I’ve decided to make a quick reference guide to some of the most common ideas that come up during web development. This should help you wrap your head around some of the more complicated areas of your website and hopefully provide some insight as to how your site and the web in general works. And don’t worry, I’ll leave out all of the technical blabber in an attempt to make it as easy to understand as possible. Enjoy!more

Have you ever had a house built, or an addition added to your house? Did it go like this? ***** “Good day, Mr. Architectman, I would like you to build a home for me,” Chris VonClient said. “I would be happy to help, Chris. How big do you want the house to be?” Andy Architectman responded, tilting his head to the right so that he could hear Chris better. “I was thinking we needed three bedrooms and two bathrooms. So I don’t know, two thousand square feet?” Chris was not really sure what he wanted, but he had a vague picture in his mind. “Two thousand square feet, eh? Hmm. Yes. I can see it now. That’s enough for a big kitchen, vaulted ceilings, a den in the basement, a living room upstairs. Wait, you do want a basement, right?” “Oh, that’s a great idea, Mr. Architectman. A basement is just what we need!” Chris was excited. He could see the house better already. “Alright then. We can get started next week. How’s $150,000 sound and we’ll be done by September?” Andy was quite sure he knew exactly what Chris wanted. “Perfect! Thanks Mr. Architectman!” *****more

There has been a lot of buzz around the office of the new LogMe In service called Join.Me. If you have not heard of it yet, then I would suspect you will within the next year. It is an easy-to-use, no sign up required, screen sharing, mini webinar, Web application. That is a lot of very positive descriptive words for a single product, but they pulled them all off quite elegantly. Last week, I had a perfect situation to test it out, and the following is my quick review of their product. For those unaware of my after-hour endeavours, I am one of the founders of a local cycling team. We call ourselves D2 Racing (self promotion never hurt anyone!) One of the benefits of having such a group is the endless supply of guinea pigs for my learning and testing; unfortunately, they are always the ones to receive the brunt of my “experiments.” With the vast majority of us having very busy schedules, it is almost impossible to have a physical meeting so a virtual meeting appeared to be the right solution for our problem.more

Some people are simply born with great writing skills. For others, it’s an acquired and practiced skill. Whether you want to simply become a better writer or are looking to strengthen your writing skills, these four tips can help.more

The Super Bowl has aired, along with the much anticipated commercials those in our industry - and even those not in advertising - look forward to each and every year. In years past, a few would leak out on the Internet here and there, and buzz would generate prior to their actual air time. This year, we've seen an increase in ads leaked and viewed online before the Super Bowl which has created a lot of buzz on social and traditional media channels. The buzz spurred debate around the office about whether or not this takes away from the excitement of watching the ads during the big game. Our resident advertising junkies Christina Torri and Renee Achterhof debate the pros and cons of ad previews:more

Do you know what front-end programmers dream about? It is not an answer to the national debt, or if Democrats and Republicans can get along, or even if there is life on other planets. No, front-end programmers dream of something that seems entirely more difficult to attain. A front-end programmer wants a world where they can do their work one time and be done. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Most of us go through life completing a task and knowing that having completed the task, there is nothing more to do.more

I recently had a client ask me if developing a mobile application would help them with their SEO and search engine ranking. I love the question, so I thought I would write a quick post on it. From an SEO perspective, an app actually COULD influence ranking, but not how you might think initially.more

In the spirit of the new year, I’d love to see everyone resolve to make sure their website is working. No, I don’t mean I want to make sure you have a website that is functioning. I mean I want to make sure you’re getting value from it. I want to make sure it’s actually performing a function! If you have no idea how to do that or what I’m talking about, keep reading. What’s a goal, you ask? Well, in Google Analytics, a “goal” is the completion of some task on your site. Though goals can get pretty complicated, I’ll just cover the most basic and popular one here. Too often the optional complexity scares people off. I don’t want to scare you off, I want you to start measuring the effectiveness of your site!more

The MINDSCAPErs give back, delivering gifts to families in need through Family Promise of Grand Rapids It’s the start of 2012 - the holiday charitable giving push is coming to an end. The holidays are one of the biggest times for nonprofits. More than half of their fundraising is done between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. Have you seen the news updates? During this time of the year Goodwill receives so many of their donation totals. Why don’t we give more during the year? Why are we compelled to give only at the end of the year? What difference could we make if we gave all year long?more

It’s 2012. Is this the year your website will work as hard as you do? A well-planned, thoughtfully designed website that positions your business to grow like crazy using the power of the Web isn’t cheap. For a business owner or manager, it can be difficult to know just when to approve the investment in a new website. Below are some thought starters on when to pony-up.more

People determine the success of a business. They ultimately decide whether a company, business or organization thrives or is driven into the ground headfirst. So wouldn’t you want to do everything you can for your people and provide them an outlet for their needs? Don’t know how? The solution is very simple: people crave compelling content. People love stories.more

Recently I had the opportunity to look at the analytics for a potential client. I had been informed that their bounce rate was upwards of 66%! SIXTY SIX PERCENT? - Holy smokes! That means of all the visitors that come to the site, two thirds of them don’t find the content relative? As I looked at their site and the keywords driving traffic to it, I noticed that they had many branded keywords and even THOSE had a nearly 66% bounce rate. Something seemed really fishy to me – I mean, it was odd that someone would search for the brand name, land on the site and immediately leave.more

Vlogs are replacing blogs. They’re quick snip-its of information that would otherwise be typed up as copy and posted onto a website. A variety of information can be communicated in an entertaining, easy to understand format, and, when presented in three minutes or less, in a small amount of time. But how can it be that just a year ago – even a few months ago – writing was simply enough? YouTube and Vimeo have been popular video sites for years, but suddenly they seem to have burst with activity. Social media sites now allow sharing of entertaining videos through their platforms, and video content is increasing in views exponentially.more

Both online and traditional press releases do the same job: they spread the word about newsworthy information. Take a look at the similarities and differences, pros and cons of both traditional and online press releases.more

According to WebVideoMarketing.org, video viewing online has officially reached an all-time high of 15 billion as of this past May. 15 billion. The population of the world is 6.9 billion. Holy mega video hits, Batman. So does your marketing content include video? Whether you’re B2B, B2C or consume both markets, you could be missing out on a lot of business if you shy away from video marketing. Think about business videos you’ve watched. They may have had a team dedicated to organizing, filming and editing the video and had an entire studio where they could film. But your marketing department is on a budget…so how in the world are you supposed to create an amazing video like them?more