Planning & Strategy

When Building Your Website, Call In Your MVP; And I Don’t Mean Your Most Valuable Player.

engineering diagrams

If you are running a business chances are you either have a presence on the web or will in the future. For many businesses, especially those just starting out, a simple out-of-the-box website solution may be all that you need to meet business and marketing goals. But for other businesses looking to capitalize on the strengths of the internet and emerging technologies, a custom website or application can be far more worthwhile. Making the transition to a web-based app is easy for some and difficult for others, but there are ways to avoid spending loads of cash on specialized labor to end up with a web product that does not yield a return on your investment. The solution is to let the MVP drive the process. No, not the Most Valuable Player; the Minimal Viable Product. Find out how this iterative approach can save you a ton of time and money and keep you from wasting any.

What We Can Learn About Marketing From Ralphie’s Aunt Clara

disappointment opening gift

Holiday gift giving and marketing actually have a lot in common. They both fill needs, solve problems, make life easier, and hopefully, make people happy. To make either work, you have to know a little bit about who you’re reaching and think about what makes them happy.

100 Mojitos will help your marketing and sales

mojito

Businesses often fail at establishing goals. This is a serious mistake because setting goals is critical for knowing if a process, product or service is succeeding. Enter the 100 mojitos. My favorite restaurant is Victor’s Cafe in New York City. Needless to say, they make a mean mojito. But how many mojitos does it take to make a successful day? As it turns out, 100.

5 (more) things to ask before you hire a web developer: the wrapup edition

question marks

Before writing this post I did a quick scan online to see what questions other people were suggesting. What I found interesting was that the questions leaned toward the technical and practical aspects of development, but my questions lean toward the professional and “service side” of development.

Want to hire a web developer? Find out if they proactively offer advice.

question mark in notebook

When you hire a developer, you should be thinking beyond the rote development of your site to its potential. There are plenty of people who are proficient in HTML, CSS, SEO or [insert acronym and/or technology here] but that doesn’t mean they’re going to build you a successful website.

Ready to rock your marketing? Have a cup of tea.

teacup and pot

I love tea. Black, green, herbal… breakfast, pomegranate, chai… any time of the day, any flavor… except maybe peach. Here’s what I learned from a cup of tea and how it can help you take your marketing from successful to exceptional.

Photo management: it’s not just for photographers and geeks

photos

This post was inspired by the complete frustration of working with clients who not only lack photo management skills, but also seem to lack any concern for the problem. In fact, most of them don’t perceive a problem at all. This is dedicated to everyone who has spent time or money on product photos, field photos, stock photos or any photos at all that are important to your online and offline marketing efforts.

Do you want your project team to communicate effectively? Then don’t use email.

Buddha on desk

As web developers and marketers one of the most important things we do, however large or small the job, is project management. All the brilliant ideas and forward thinking strategies in the world will fall apart without a well-prepared plan. And even a well-prepared plan will fall apart without effective communication between team members.

Three things to consider when hiring in-house staff for your marketing (or anything else)

business meeting

As a web marketing agency we are called upon by our clients to create and execute ideas, but many times, we work alongside the marketing departments of those companies and are called on to offer our opinion on who would be a good hire for their internal staffing needs. Here are three of our suggestions based on our experience.

Why Pay A Professional to Help You Build Your Business Online?

planning documents

Finding the right people to help manage your online business isn’t easy. In fact, it’s getting harder every day. To an uneducated consumer, a simple Google search for web design services can be overwhelming. In this post, we’ll discuss some of the things that consumers looking for these services need to be aware of.