Wheelhouse Marketing Blog

Ok, it’s time to point out an ugly truth that affects a ton of marketing. We don’t like being the ones to do it, but we care about you too much to just sit back and let you waste all your hard work. Hey, it’s no one’s fault, and we’ve all done it at one point or another, usually early on in our business infancy. It’s the tendency to slap something together, throw it up on the internet, clap yourself on the back and leave it there for God knows how long. It hurts us to watch because it usually leads to a bad disappointment for good people who just don’t know better. Maybe it’s a website you haven’t updated in ages, and are slowly killing your SEO in the process. Maybe it’s your blog you haven’t posted to in 6 months. Or, maybe it’s your banner ads, put together without rhyme or reason. The latter is our focus for today, or more specifically, why your banner ad is falling flat. 

Look, not every product on the market can be a sexy, shiny object. The reality is that sometimes aspects of life require products or services that are, well, just plain boring. Does the average person get their kicks chatting about retirement plans? Likely not. How about medical equipment? Yeah, that one’s not exactly a rip-roarin’ time, either.

In today’s world, a bad web design just can’t be ignored. The internet has been around long enough that there are a million of options out there for users, plenty of which are more than decent. There’s just too much competition a click away for you to afford having a shotty website. But to have good website design, you’ve got to know what it looks like, and sometimes more importantly, what it doesn’t look like.

Knowing the difference in an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) and an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) is as key to your business’ success as a business plan. It means you’ve got a buyer’s journey mapped up and have streamlined what the buying process look like for your customer. But what if you’ve never heard of an MQL versus an SQL? Hey, you can’t know what you don’t know. But have no fear, because today we’re defining the difference, breaking down the stages, and determining when the transition from one to the other takes place.

Terms like “The Sales Funnel” always sound more vague and complicated than they truly are. While it may sound like something only a well-seasoned marketer would know what to do with, it’s really just industry speak for the sales process. The term “sales funnel” is helpful because the visual is accurate to how you cast your net when it comes to converting leads to paying customers. 

We’ve been watching SEO grow up for a long time now. We marveled at its birth in the late 90's and were there for those awkward and painful years in the early 2000's. Today, we marvel at how SEO has truly come into its own. A lot has changed over the years, and if you’re still treating SEO like it’s 1999, boy do we have some SEO tips for you. Let’s step back through the wormhole to take a look at what it meant for how to do SEO then, versus now. Hopefully, your SEO practices fall into the latter category. 

We’ve dabbled in goal-creating a little bit in the past, but never have we sallied forth into the sacred territory of how to write SMART goals. SMART goals are what separate the men from the amoebas, the idle dreamers from the all-out hustlers. But to set SMART goals, one must actually understand what they are, which is exactly what we’re covering in today’s post.

There are lots of forms of marketing out there, and the reality is, they’re not all created equal. While each type has its time and place, some forms are more dated than others. Queue: traditional marketing. This is your father’s marketing, and his father before him. Marketing methods like door-to-door mailers, radio spots, and television commercials would all fall into this time capsule of a bucket. But we’re not the type to rail on something without reason. Traditional marketing just doesn’t offer your business the absolute best of the marketing world, which is exactly what we want for your business. Here are just a few reasons why traditional marketing ought to be history when it comes to your marketing strategy. 

Whether you’re Eliud Kipchoge, sprinting out a 2:01:39 marathon time (that’s 4:38 a mile, y'all), a procrastinator ready for change, or a business owner trying to increase foot traffic, it’s important to have measurable goals. No matter who you are or what your goal, it’s much better aimed at when it’s got some measurement backing it up. Today we’re taking a look at why you need to set measurable goals and exactly how to do just that.

Starting to create marketing videos can be a scary thought - expensive equipment, fine-tuned skills, or even rejection. Taking this leap into the world of video does involve risks but they might not be as intimidating as you think. Plus, video can offer some impressive and unrealized marketing potential. Continue reading to find out why your business NEEDS to start using video marketing.