“It’s just easier to buy from someone you’ve heard of.” What is brand equity? It’s best explained through a simple exercise. What are the brands that come to mind when you see this list of needs? I need to… blow my nose. make a paper copy. overnight this package. catch a ride. When you have…
I’m a corporate marketing drop out. I understand what gets cut first in hard times – marketing. One of my previous roles was significantly downsized, which led to me working independently on the side for many years before running an agency full-time. That downsize was the birth of Hot Dog Marketing, and guess what year…
When I tell other business owners that half of our business comes from online leads, they’re visibly shocked. And then I always have to follow up that statement with, “Well, I’ve been marketing online for 5 years now.” And they breathe a sigh of relief. This conversation takes place once a week. And that sigh…
Why Marketing Services Shouldn’t be Treated Like Just Another Vendor Looking for a vendor to “just take care of this?” You have a company that takes care of your coffee? Why not find a vendor to take care of your SEO or Social Media? There are plenty of large sales organizations that are happy to…
Visual Branding: Why the Visuals Tell Most of the Story I don’t intend to dismiss the value of words. We say frequently, around the office, that “words matter.” When we spend hours crafting a message that we hope accurately reflects the client’s brand, our team often discusses individual words for an hour just to get…
Your business needs marketing to find its customers. Small businesses and start-ups often leverage more time and muscle than dollars when it comes to their marketing plans. For example, their marketing might be purely event, networking and partnership marketing – things a sales team can drive. Their hard marketing expenses are probably limited to a…
If you’re thinking about a new website in 2019, then think about investing in the new project wisely. While it’s hard to know exactly how make a site that won’t be outdated in a couple of years, you can rely on these upcoming trends to make sure your designing something forward-thinking and will continue to…
Last month, we tackled referral traffic and how it works with your online marketing program. This month, we’ll tackle what you need to know about bringing visitors back to your site and keep them there. Your Goal in Online Marketing:Establish Your Business as the Most Relevant and Obvious Choice Online Your strategy for achieving this…
Introduction to the Social Media Machine and Referral Traffic Search Engines drive 94% of all website traffic. And drumroll please . . . 94% of that search engine traffic is Google. 90% of searchers haven’t made up their mind about a brand when they start their search, and 50% of people are more likely to…
Hint: The Answer is Yes, but It Requires a Shift in Your Culture In 2017, 70% of small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) increased their marketing budgets and included more digital marketing in their overall strategy. Clearly, CEOs of SMBs felt like they were missing out on something. But, by the end of the year, how many sat…