Every month for over seven (7) years now.

That’s how long I’ve been writing blogs for an ad agency in Phoenix … ReThinc Advertising and Public Relations.

I can remember my digital manager explaining to me the value of content. How my commentary on all things marketing would benefit the company’s organic search positioning. I wasn’t given a great deal of direction … just write and “do your best to make it relevant to what we do.”

OK … cool. I was a journalism major. I can do that.

Beyond a guest blog or two from an intern and an occasional masterpiece from my better half, I’ve had to come up with over eighty-some odd topics that compel a person to take the time to read what I wrote while also satisfying the amorphic search parameters that Google uses to control the universe.

Admittedly, I was more concerned about keeping the reader informed and entertained than I was enhancing our search position. This is readily evident when you visit the archives to read such riveting titles as Raisin’ Brand, Can I Yelp You, and of course, Up to Bot.

But it worked, and here’s where you really need to pay attention, as everyone wants to enhance their organic search position.

Optimize Your Content for Search, Keep it Engaging and Create Means to Distribute Your Content to Your Target Audience

Regularly infusing your website with relevant content that is properly optimized for search is one way in which you can improve your organic search rankings. Writing a blog about specific aspects of your business that a consumer may be seeking is one way of achieving that goal.

To me, writing for the sake of enhancing your search position is great, but it should be written in a way that perpetuates your brand’s voice while also engaging your target customer. In simple terms, if you’re an ad agency, write like an agency, or better stated, write with marketing expertise. This will engage your audience, compel them to read your content, and perhaps even share it. (hint, hint)

You can do your own sharing when you engage in off page SEO. Essentially, this means executing a robust email marketing campaign, posting your content on social media, and most advantageously, having another company share your content on their site with a backlink.

All these wins start with engaging, informative content.

How To Improve Your Content Strategy

A typical obstacle for many businesses is having someone who is willing and able to commit to writing content on a regular basis. This person must possess some level of expertise and the ability to articulate their thoughts in writing.

Simply put, not everyone is a journalism major.

A relatively new development has been the use of video content transcribed for purposes of search enhancement. Some people are more comfortable speaking to a camera than interacting with a keyboard. This works too, but I personally recommend that you utilize a professional videographer as nothing looks more unprofessional than a self-made propped up cell phone video. I’ll acknowledge a few exceptions and please, I’m not confusing the issue with good social content that you can shoot with your phone. I’m just saying that good video content should have some level of professionalism. If it doesn’t you can be compromising your brand instead of enhancing it.

Good content then becomes an opportunity for ad agencies like us. That opportunity, however, takes a significant amount of preparation to be done correctly. We don’t want to speak for a brand that we don’t know inside and out. To some degree, we must also become experts in your field. The ability to be accurate and genuine varies on the complexity of your business. Selling couches is much easier than writing about infertility issues or rehabilitation for addiction.

Lastly and probably most importantly, in order for your content to really be maximized, it must also be housed on unique pages on your website. So, if you have an aspect of your business that is readily searchable by your potential customers, it is a best practice to have a page on your site that has imagery and content specific to said services. The best example I can give you is a hunting analogy. If your company sells clothes specific to bowhunting in the desert, then a page with optimized content dedicated to that product is optimal. A blog on the subject is also beneficial.

Brands fall short when they “check the box” on content. This leads to content that is brief, unengaging, and not optimized for search. A page on your website that is not optimized nor supported with fresh blog content is more common than you might realize.

ReThinc Advertising Fills the Void for Brand Content Creation

So, what can a full-service ad agency like ReThinc Advertising and Public Relations do to help you get your content game in order?

First, we’ll have a detailed conversation regarding your business, your industry, and more specifically, your primary competitors. We’ll need to identify the brand attributes that compel your clients to engage with you while also understanding why you are better than your competitors.

We’ll then analyze your website to ensure it’s properly structured, optimized for search, and provides a solid user experience. We’ll also make sure there’s an appropriate place to post your blog content.

Next, we’ll look at your content strategy. What are you doing to communicate your message to both current and potential customers? Email is one component of that but so is social media. Public relations plays a role as well. In fact, PR can get us some of the important backlinks we talked about in paragraph ten.

Lastly, we’ll tie it all together to align with your marketing messaging. This will give your brand the cadence it needs to be its best. All it took was some guy with a journalism degree and a super smart digital manager.

Want to learn more about the value of great content and its role in making our brand successful? Send me an email at ed.olsen@rethincadvertising.com or give me a call at 602-284-6722.

Perhaps I’m just another victim of the news cycle or maybe I’ve just been through this a few times in my fifty-plus years traveling around the sun but it seems to me that we just might be in for a rough economic road here in the near future. And by near-future, I mean next Tuesday or sooner.

Recessions are defined quantitatively, meaning that certain indices need to reflect specific data before we allow reporters to use the R word. The gross national product (GDP) typically has to show two consecutive quarters of negative growth in order to qualify for a recession. During first quarter, the GDP pulled back by 1.6% which is 17% less than my stock portfolio declined. On top of all that we can see the effect of high gas prices on everythings as even a bag of Skittles is way more than it used to be.

Speaking of Skittles, let’s remember too that our current and former political leadership dumped money into the market like candy. It’s no wonder that it now takes more money to buy anything and everything. This is the very definition of inflation. Unfortunately, the only way to fight inflation is with recessionary measures that slow demand.

Some good news shows U.S. manufacturing and non-farm payrolls showing growth while unemployment dropped from 3.9% to 3.6%. Consumer spending remains tepid and real personal income is actually pretty solid so perhaps we should all start watching less cable news and just get on with our lives.

So … a relatively mixed bag of economic news that, coupled with a Fed that is continually raising interest rates, tells me that a recession is inevitable. All of the aforementioned factors lend me to believe that it will be a moderate recession that is longer lasting but less traumatic than what we saw in 2008.

How do difficult economic conditions affect your marketing efforts?

In simple terms, a slowing economy means that you’ll see a corresponding decrease in your profit margins. Given all that we talked about in the first five paragraphs, it does seem like pretty much every industry will feel some effects of the pending slow down.

It’s not the least bit uncommon for companies to respond to difficult economic conditions by cutting expenses. Marketing is an expense that can be cut with seemingly less pain than other expenses that companies incur. Oftentimes, it’s the first line to be affected when the economy slows.

Rightfully so.

I know you weren’t expecting that answer but you probably weren’t expecting lots of things these days. I wholeheartedly understand that difficult economic times require companies to cut their marketing budgets.

How do you effectively cut your marketing budget during a recession?

This, like many things, is much easier said than done. The complexity of attribution (figuring out what is working and what is not) is just that, complex. It’s particularly difficult with campaigns that have top-of-the-funnel push elements (billboards, pre-roll video, etc.) as well as pull elements (POS, pay per click, etc.). Since attribution is readily more evident with pull elements, brands tend to cut push elements first and deepest.

A better strategy is to take a much more holistic approach to cutting your marketing budget. What is happening in your industry? Any new trends? What are your competitors doing? Are there any new players in the space? Start there.

Next, look at your company and the marketing efforts you are currently putting forth. There are too many variables to address with one blog post but in general terms look at each component you are currently executing. Regardless of what type of marketing you’re doing, there are always ways to cut your budget responsibly.

Traditional Marketing Strategies in a Recession

For any type of traditional media look to flight your ads to help minimize expense. This can be done with each and every type of traditional media in the market. If you’re already flighting you may need to eliminate a station, move your schedule to be more seasonal or perhaps be even more judicious with your flighting. Adjusting platforms (i.e. moving from TV to radio) is also something to consider as long as you look at including congruent assets (like outdoor with radio) to maintain your top-of-mind awareness.

Traditional media is sold by vendors who hire deeply talented sales professionals. They know their stuff and they also know what’s happening in the world. Give your account executive (and perhaps their manager or better yet, media superhero Jim Knapp if he’s available) a chance to guide you to the very best way to maintain your brand’s presence while at the same time, cutting your budget. No one is happy with a budget cut but a good rep should know their product, know your brand, and most importantly, know how to get the most out of the budget you invest with them.

Digital Marketing in a Recession

On the digital side you should, if you haven’t already, make sure you are executing a properly structured email campaign as that is truly the most cost efficient way to engage your audience. Work to grow that audience and be sure you’re always providing value to someone’s inbox. Mind you cadence as opt outs are no bueno.

Learn more about email marketing here.

Organic social media is also the prize in the Cracker Jacks box when it comes to cost efficient digital marketing. The problems most brands have is that they don’t do this properly. This leads to low engagement, poor results and of course, nausea and vomiting. Paid social can also be a good move but it’s not for the faint hearted. Sounds self-serving but I do recommend the assistance of a good marketing firm with both paid and organic social media. You could otherwise be spinning your wheels and not accomplishing the important goal of making your marketing efforts more efficient.

On the SEM side I would recommend that any belt tightening be done with great scrutiny. Despite what your Google rep says a broad term search might not be right for you so tuning up your search campaign would be in order during difficult times. Of course, engaging in practical, search enhancing SEO is also highly recommended. Difficult economic times tend to bring out the worst in vendors. Use caution when you get served an ad from an offshore company stating that they can make you first in organic search while also making you two inches taller.

Want to read up on SEO? Click here to revisit our blog on the topic.

My not so final thoughts on marketing during a recession

Marketing is always easier when you have an unlimited budget. Having worked in media, marketing, and sports for 27 years I’ve yet to work with that client. I want to say too before we wrap up that some businesses can actually do well in difficult economic times. These exceptions can adapt well to the slowdown and perhaps offer a way for people to soften the blow of less money, less opportunity, and more stress.

ReThinc Advertising is one of those companies. We don’t welcome an economic slowdown but we are ready for it.

I personally believe that difficult times bring out the best in people with talent. My people have talent and as a company we’ve taken steps to prepare ourselves for what could be a challenging time.

Remember, “All captains show mastery in calm seas…” (thanks Bob Freeman). Stewarding your brand to marketing success during a recessionary period is possible, it’s just not easy. If your company needs help in evaluating just where to make cuts in response to these difficult times, contact me at ed.olsen@rethincadvertising.com.

I don’t think I’m being dramatic when I say that successful marketing is one of the great secrets of the universe. Anyone who’s ever engaged in a marketing campaign knows that it can be as mysterious as black holes in space, the pyramids in Egypt, and my wife’s dating history (before me of course).

I personally really like to play up the difficulty and importance of solid marketing, because I have a sister who’s a nurse and a brother who was a police officer for 32 years. That’s a lot to live up to at family gatherings.

Solid marketing might not save lives but it does put expensive, gluten free crackers in the pantry. There are ways to market more effectively and today we’ll explore one that you may not know a lot about.

How do I maximize my marketing investment?

Well, that’s easy, right? You simply hire a full-service marketing agency in Phoenix whose name rhymes with tea drink. (I had so many better ones but the editors said no…) If you can’t do that let’s start with one of the more important steps many brands skip, especially when they buy directly from advertising vendors.

A critical early step to formulating an effective marketing campaign is creating customer personas. This is purposefully plural as for most brands, customers vary in age, gender, and more importantly, behaviors.

To keep this blog less than a 10-minute read, I’m going to assume that all of us recognize the value of relevance when it comes to brand messaging. It’s critical for your campaign to deliver relevant messages to relevant audiences.

Because the egg always follows the chicken, you must therefore spend time analyzing your audience.

Since I’ve practically confused myself at this point, I think it might be time for a real-life example as well as shameless self-promotion. Our sister sports agency (Line Drive Sports Marketing) handles the marketing efforts for the Peoria Sports Complex, which is the spring training home for the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres. The people who attend these games (as well as the people we want to attend these games) can be “generally” categorized as follows: local older people, out-of-state fans of both teams, local fans, millennials, local families and Peoria residents.

We then devise ads that would appeal to each one of these demographic groups and then serve them on platforms that make sense for each group. For instance, our millennial campaign emphasizes the social aspect of spring training and might include images of attractive people wearing flannel shirts and wispy tank tops drinking beer. Instagram is a good platform that would make the most sense to serve ads to this age group.

The result: more millennials attending games at Peoria Sports Complex, BOOM. We essentially do the same process for the remaining personas using images, messaging and platforms that are relevant to each. Make sense?

Marketing success was ultimately driven by the very critical step of creating customer personas as a guide for ad creation.

How can you create your own customer personas?

This is relatively easy but then again, so is changing the oil in your car and how many of you change your own oil?

That’s what I thought.

My best advice to you is to not overthink things. Analyze your product or service for what it provides and who would be most likely to purchase it. Careful not to create personas for your exceptions unless you really have something new and exciting to offer them. Outliers can be a way of growing a business and differentiating your brand (aka targeting men for a new day spa), but you must be sure to create an accurate customer persona to market to them effectively.

It’s also good to be very specific. You should literally individualize a customer persona in order to have a greater understanding of how you can better influence their consumer behaviors. This represents the bullseye you are aiming for with your marketing efforts. Anything in and around that can help you to grow your business.

We don’t typically name our personas but companies with in-house marketing staff oftentimes do. This helps non-marketing types (aka management) to better understand what you’re executing while also making any internal analysis a little more light-hearted.

Can your customer persona change?

I’m compelled to say something really smart here but the real answer is well, yes … kind of and candidly, that doesn’t sound so smart, does it?

A good marketer should always be aware of shifting audiences, consumer preferences, and other things like economic pressures that you can’t control. All these make us more important than nurses and policemen when it comes to making you safe. (Are you listening, mom?)

So yes, depending on your business, the type of customer you appeal to may change. When it does, having a well-defined customer persona will help make any pivots easier. Back to our spring training example, the lingering pandemic and the labor disruption forced us to put greater emphasis on everything local. We had to adapt our outreach quickly to respond to conditions out of our control. Customer personas made that process easier and ultimately, more effective for the client.

Personas are the secret to effective marketing.

Customer personas allow your brand to create and serve more effective marketing messages to your most valuable audiences. They represent the baseline step for the creation of all types of collateral assets from websites to brochures to TV ads and even business cards. If you haven’t taken the time to formulate customer personas for your business, doing so will make your marketing as well as your bottom line more prolific.

Want to learn more about customer personas or perhaps debate the value of marketing to our society? Send me an email to ed.olsen@rethincadvertising.com or give me a call at 602.284.6722.

I’m not a big fan of acronyms. I mean, they’re pretty common these days, and they do come in handy when you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about. Lots of industries (including marketing) rely on acronyms to make us sound smart and to scare off aggressive solicitors. It’s like an alphabetical defense mechanism.

Whereas a lot has been said (and written) about our favorite acronym SEO, I’m here to talk more specifically about Local SEO, and how you can use this to impress your friends while attracting customers to your business.

Let’s first start by defining Local SEO as a ‘complicated subset’ of SEO. Ironically, Complicated Subset was the name of a popular new wave band back in the ‘80s … but that’s not really relevant to what we’re talking about, is it?

Local SEO is the ultimate Google power play as it can vary by category and by location. This does two things; confuses people that own businesses and provides Andrew with a significant amount of job security.

Why is Local SEO Important to My Business?

This is easy … kind of like me and Sunday morning.

Local SEO makes your business easier to find on search. This is specifically relevant for businesses that serve their customers face-to-face at a physical location. It plays into the seeking consumer’s need for relevancy based on their location. In simple terms, Local SEO expedites the search process for the consumer with cash money seeking your product or service.

It rarely gets any better than that.

Local SEO Really is Complicated

Well, yes and no … getting it set up isn’t necessarily difficult but establishing and maintaining a solid ranking is a different matter altogether.

If your Google Business Profile is properly set up, your category isn’t overly competitive, and you live in a nice city like Lockhart, Texas, you might show up when someone searches your category on Google. Or, you might not. This is where Local SEO and Sunday morning are nothing alike. On a desktop, your profile shows up on the right margin. On a cellphone, where 63% of searches happen, you show up right smack in the middle of the screen where even my mom can find you. But wait, there’s more. A properly optimized Google My Business page also places you on a map shown to a person conducting a relevant search. This is actually how I met Stephanie, but that’s a story that also lacks relevance right now.

Through the magic that is the internet, a properly structured Google My Business page readily provides everything a customer needs to do business with you. This includes a shortcut to your website, contact information, and even a map for the directionally challenged.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, I’ll add that your Google My Business page also has a ‘click to call’ button that allows consumers to call you without burning a single calorie. This is euphoric for modern American consumers and just what you need to make mo money … which is what owning a business is all about.

To put this in more literal terms, if you search ‘dry cleaners near me’ you’ll get served a handful of options depending on where you are at the time. Remember, the wizard that is Google always knows where you are…just like Santa Claus. Those options are typically ‘dry cleaners’ that have a properly structured and optimized Google My Business page in near proximity to where you are doing the search. If you don’t have one, you don’t show up, and guess what? Santa Claus can’t find you either.

How Do I Address My Local SEO Needs?

Step one is to “claim” your Google My Business page, which involves a little blood work as well as an old-school confirmation process that involves the US Postal Service. Your next step is to provide Google with all the information they need to create your profile. Part of this process requires you to upload files, which can be scary for those of you born before 1978.

So far, none of this sounds too intimidating, yet many companies either choose not to do it, don’t know how to do it, or don’t know Andrew’s cell phone number. The truth is, showing up in an advantageous position is dependent on a lot of factors that change quite frequently.

And before you raise your hand and ask … Here’s the why and how a business can solidify their local SEO position in their given marketplace:

• 1. Make sure you have a complete Google Business Profile
  2. Have lots of positive reviews from your customers
  3. Add relevant terms to the search query on your profile
  4. Make sure you load geo-tagged images and videos related to your business
  5. Keep your profile updated with content that features keywords that are relevant to your business

Building highly functional and properly optimized websites is a core competency for ReThinc’s marketing team. Simply put, it’s what we do … it’s our jam (which sounds so much better than the words ‘core competency’ which implies that I’m just not fun anymore).

We make clean, contemporary, and user-friendly websites. From a cost to quality standpoint, I think we’re an industry leader when it comes to designing and developing websites.

In the past it’s always been our strategy to turn everything over to the client (maintenance, hosting, etc.) once the website is complete. This was, in our minds, the right thing to do. Other agencies that we compete with weave in monthly fees for hosting and maintenance. We saw that as a less than appealing business practice, disingenuous, and very Dick Cheney like.

We were wrong. Skip to paragraph 12 if you want.

The Digital Back Alley and Fraudulent Hosting Charges

Some time ago, we received a letter in the mail stating that we needed to pay our annual fee to retain our current domain. A website domain in simple terms is the address where your website is found. For us, it would be staging-rethincadvertising.kinsta.cloud.

To be clear, there is an annual fee to keep your website live, but that’s paid to a service platform like GoDaddy or wherever you originally purchased your domain. In America, it’s almost always GoDaddy.

This letter looked official, was properly creased and even had big tech words on it like ‘official’ ‘term’ ‘hosting’ and other terminology that made it look like we’d lose our domain if we didn’t pay something like $129 by October 1st. The problem was, that it wasn’t from the service platform where we purchased our domain.

All good. We knew it was a criminal enterprise sending this letter because this is what we do for a living, plus Andrew wasn’t working from home that day. No big deal … letter discarded.

Two months later we got another letter which is pretty much identical to the last except they asked for a little bit less money and didn’t use as many big words. This got my attention. It also got the attention of two of our clients who received similar letters.

At this point, we realized that some deprived individual(s) were targeting small businesses in an effort to defraud them. Of course, being good Americans, we immediately blamed Dick Cheney but after some discovery, we realized he had nothing to do with it. Regardless, we felt like that was a good place to start.

Domain Registry and Domain Listings are Not Legitimate Companies

The letters source from two companies, Domain Registry and Domain Listings. They live on a throne of lies. Paying them money does NOTHING to keep your URL safe, secure or in your name as the owner.

After receiving a very threatening letter from Mr. Cheney’s publicist (or attorney, whatever), I decided to notify the postal inspector that a fraudulent scheme was being perpetrated on small businesses owners across America. They placed me on a 45-minute hold and then informed me that there was really nothing they were going to do about it. This even after I told them that I was friends with Dick Cheney.

Our next step was to send out a gently worded email from Stephanie to our clients warning them about this letter. That got the word out because Stephanie (unlike me) has a 100% open rate on her emails.

So, here’s an interesting flex topped with a gratuitous backlink.

In 2021, ReThinc Advertising was named one of the top places to work by the Phoenix Business Journal. After you navigate the paywall, you can read the article here.

Before you hit delete and move on to that riveting Old Navy email that undoubtedly showed up right after ours, stay with me until the end for your WIIFM (what’s in it for me) takeaway.

ReThinc is a relatively small operation in the big field of marketing. I believe we have twelve some odd employees, but that’s only because I sometimes count Erin Melde and Erin Redd as two different people. If you worked here, you’d understand.

The Best and Biggest Small Digital Ad Agency in Phoenix

At last count, there are something like six thousand ad agencies of various sizes that offer marketing services in Arizona. This includes the ‘big, full-service’ shops with real live receptionists, clever names, and amazingly talented people like LaneTerralever (mash-up), Lavidge (rhymes with Savage, clever, no?), OH Partners (please don’t say I-O), and RIESTER (I before E except after C). It also includes a whole bunch of super awesome mid-sized agencies*, smaller agencies like us and guys like Norman Pitcher who provides marketing consulting services from his home in Quartzite. Norm (as we affectionately call him) still uses a fax machine, has a horrific nose hair issue, and has an operable VHS player attached to his television set. Norm sold Yellow Pages advertising in rural Oklahoma in the late 70s.

Where does that leave ReThinc, and more importantly, where is this blog heading? Well, being named one of the top places to work is critical to our ability to be one of the best and biggest small digital ad agencies in Arizona. You see, to be able to provide extraordinary results in a crowded and competitive market, we have to have great people who don’t have discernible nose hair issues working for our clients.

Mission accomplished: our secret is our people. Having a positive working culture means we don’t have to constantly reinvent ourselves every six months. My favorite part about this award is that it’s driven internally, meaning our employees voted us one of the best places to work (not Andrew’s mom or Stephanie’s ex-boyfriends). That’s refreshingly validating.

A ‘smaller’ agency in the big field of marketing requires of us to do things in a big way, which we do every day. Beyond our amazing design team, my digital team must stay apprised of the many dynamic changes happening in search and social media. I’m grateful for the talented people that make that happen.

ReThinc Advertising is a Full Service Digital Ad Agency

Well beyond the obvious SEO play I just made and the stellar competition from all these ad agencies are self-help platforms that promise marketing results as soon as your credit card payment clears. Yes, you can make your own website and yes, you can go to Staples and have your brochure made. That’s entirely legitimate if Norm is falling short of your expectations.

Self-service platforms save you money, are turnkey, timely, and make Norm look like he works for Saatchi & Saatchi.

I fully recommend self-service marketing platforms for people looking to increase their Girl Scout cookie sales, encourage sign ups for Little League, and revive their stagnant Mary Kay cosmetics business. Beyond that, you should really be seeking professional help to grow your business.

Wait, What’s In It For Me?

Working with a hard-charging (and happy), full service digital ad agency means your account gets more attention than you might get in a larger, more commoditized self-service platform. Not to mention the attention (or lack thereof) you might receive from a bigger national agency located offshore in a place like Florida or Malaysia, which, ironically, have never been seen in the same room, ever.

Happy employees work harder on key skill sets that the best smallest-big agencies have to provide to retain your business. Oh, and by the way, your business matters, meaning you don’t have to be a seven figure client to get our attention. We thrive by staying ahead of change, frequently analyzing key performance indicators, and providing marketing services in a way that gives you confidence that every dollar you invest in is spent properly.

That’s what we do, and I’m happy to say that we’re happy to do so.

*Quick Sidebar
Shout out to The James Agency … I can’t come up with anything clever about their name, they too were named as one of the best places to work. Well-deserved! The people over there are happy, energetic and have incredibly nice teeth.

The holidays are upon us and the pressure of adapting a holiday limerick into something clever is weighing heavy on me. Adding to my creative anxiety is an untimely bout with Covid which has robbed me of my sense of smell, taste, and ability to leave my room. Apparently, it also clouds your thinking, which may be evident with my attempt to poke fun at one of the largest, most successful companies in the world.

Read to the tune of UP ON THE HOUSETOP…

Up on the laptop just in time
Out jumps good ol Amazon Prime

Down through the driveway, it’s no frills
And quite suddenly, lots of bills

Ho, ho ho! Who wouldn’t go? Ho, ho ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Up on your laptop, click, click, click
Down through the street comes your brown box pick

Two weeks out, supply chain hell
Can’t get gifts, it makes you yell

All my stuff off the coast it lies
Makes me want to scream and cry

Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go? Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Up on your laptop, click, click, click
Down through the street comes your brown box pick

Next comes your groceries, what a sham
Looks like your fruit has turned to jam

The driver that drops off stops and laughs
He ate your cookies and hasn’t had a bath

Ho, ho ho! Who wouldn’t go? Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Up on your laptop, click, click, click
Down through the street comes your brown box pick

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Owning a business can be a very overwhelming experience. There’s a lot to navigate, especially in today’s marketing environment, where consumers may (or may not) find you based on a quick and admittedly unscientific way of searching for you on the internet. It’s just not quite as cut and dry as the yellow pages used to be.

For those of you < 30, the yellow pages was a printed (yes, printed) book that magically appeared on your doorstep once a year. It contained business listings as well as poorly done ads that helped people find businesses.

Now we have search, which sometimes takes place on your computer and sometimes (more often than not) takes place on your phone.

The interesting thing about search is that instead of turning to “P” for plumber, a consumer (and potential customer) may write I HAVE A PIPE LEAK into their search engine of choice (probably, Google).

What’s important to you as a plumber and as a business owner is that you show up first when the consumer types in I HAVE A PIPE LEAK in the search bar. (Stay with me here as things are about to get weird.) In very simple terms, you could show up if you’ve purchased this specific search term in its entirety: I HAVE A PIPE LEAK (no capitalization required). If you purchased the term PIPE LEAK you may also show up. If you purchased the term I HAVE A, stop reading and call me immediately.

But wait, there’s more.

You might show up organically if your website is properly optimized to this specific search term or terms relative to it, also referred to as search engine optimization or SEO.  So, if you recently wrote a blog entitled I HAVE A PIPE LEAK or you have a well-written section on your website about WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE A PIPE LEAK, you may also appear on the first page of the search results and accomplished a very important and valuable feat in the world of marketing.

That seems so very simple, doesn’t it? Why, then, is SEO a $65 billion dollar industry annually?

Well … because it’s not that simple. Whereas I appreciate everyone who weathered the first five paragraphs of set up on this blog (Hi Steve! Hi Kent!) I do want to assure you that there is a pay off of sorts coming. Here it goes …

Optimizing your website for search is typically done by marketing professionals. This is very much dependent on the size and/or complexity of your business. A plumber, for instance, is a highly competitive industry reliant on search as the need arises. (I HAVE A PIPE LEAK) What do you do if you are a small business owner that doesn’t have the money to pay someone to optimize their site?

You do these four very simple steps to help your business be easier to locate for people who may type any number of things into a search bar when looking for your product or services:

1. Keep your website properly maintained. Websites are like cars … you need to keep them running properly by keeping everything updated. It’s not that difficult to do, take a little time each month to make sure your load speeds are not hindered by broken links or other issues that can happen to aging websites.
2. Don’t host your site on a cheap hosting platform. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of them out there. Bad hosting negatively impacts the searchability of your website as bad (aka cheap) hosting platforms slow down your load speeds which is off-putting to search engines.
3. Make sure you are creating fresh content for your website. This can be done by writing a blog or refreshing copy on your site to include terms that consumers use to find you.
4. Answer common questions in the fabric of your site that consumers may be looking for answers for. This is where a FAQs page becomes a valuable component of a simple portfolio site serving a small business.

You literally don’t have to call us or help to make Erin’s mortgage payment so that new customers can find you. You do have to practice some sensible tactics that will keep your site running smoothly and make yourself more visible in the search space.

Need more help or have questions about anything we talked about here? Ask Steve Melde or Kent Earle … they read every blog I write and are super smart guys. If you can’t find them, send me an email at ed.olsen@rethincadvertising.com. I’ll get you the answers you need to keep your website optimized for free!

“The creation of a consumer influencing ad campaign has many elements,” says everyone in the advertising business. I mean, cue up Captain Obvious for that line, no? But really, effective advertising consists of things like color, words, infographics and probably most critically … images.

Yet imagery is probably the most overlooked element of advertising assets for small to medium sized companies. Professional photo shoots can be expensive, and oftentimes local brands have a hard time rationalizing the investment. Companies with smaller ad budgets can’t afford expensive photo shoots with supermodels, exotic landscapes or food manipulated to look its tastiest.

Despite the setup, the next 180 words or so are not going to convince you otherwise, nor is it going to be a step-by-step guide on how to do things on the cheap. The truth is that imagery (static or video) is important, and brands that market themselves effectively understand this.

The conscious and subconscious mind processes advertising components differently and whereas I probably should quote some notable marketing PhD right about now, I’m just going to flat out say that imagery has a profound effect on the subconscious. I teach sports marketing at ASU (aka Harvard of the West) so if that’s not good enough for you, I don’t know what is.

Having professional, appealing imagery that’s a true representation of your brand and is favorable to your target audience can make all the difference between someone engaging or ignoring that ad you spent so much money to put out there. Great imagery can draw consumers to critical and persuasive information on an ad or website. This literally can be the difference between a new customer or another ‘soft’ quarter for your business.

What I’m saying here is that whereas I understand the monetary limitations that a smaller local brand may face, I don’t think you should skimp on imagery unless you’re OK with your marketing efforts being less efficacious. (see, I told you I was a teacher)

There are options. As your agency, we have access to numerous stock photo (and video) platforms that we can utilize to promote your brand. The trick is to use good stock photography or videos that are truly relevant to your brand, your product or service, and your location.

Another important factor to consider is not to overuse already ‘popular’ images. I’m sure we’ve all seen advertisements from different brands using the same stock imagery. It’s important to avoid that if at all possible.

Another option, and one that we readily encourage to help reduce reliance on stock imagery, is to conduct a limited photo shoot with a qualified professional photographer. You don’t need Tom Brady to star in it either. Proper planning, solid lighting, and deft execution can be affordable for your brand. Where you get into trouble is when you don’t have all three of these elements.

Quality video production can also be affordable. It requires all the same elements mentioned above while also needing some touches that are NON-NEGOTIABLE. Things like professional voice overs, clean, on brand graphics, solid editing, all create a finished product you can be proud of. And know too, that in 2021 your video assets can buoy your TV, OTT, or digital efforts but can also enhance your website, your email, and your social media.

At ReThinc Advertising, we have access to all that you need to make your collateral assets appeal to your target audience. We also have the expertise to guide you to what will be the best and most affordable representative imagery for your brand. It’s just important that you as the company seeking growth that you not be short-sighted when it comes to the photos and videos you use to represent your brand.