Wheelhouse Marketing Blog

For small to medium-sized businesses, having the right tools can mean everything when it comes to their success. When you're running an SMB (small to medium-sized business), there are always more tasks than can be done, more hours required in a day than are realistically available. With business owners facing such an enormous amount of responsibility, the tools they employ become indispensable. Business is a battle, and going in with the wrong tool can be like jumping out of the trenches with no more than a water gun in your hand.

While it’s still unsure how Instagram’s latest like policy will change the face of influencer marketing, we think it’s safe the say that the marketing niche certainly won’t be going anywhere. So much so, that by 2020, influencer marketing is projected to be a $10 billion industry. That’s billion. With a “B.” With so much focus (and budget) on influencer marketing, you’d assume that most marketers can track what the ROI of their influencers are. But you know what they say about assumptions.

When it comes to marketing, we all know that infographics are essential. It's like knowing that you need a chain on a bike to make it go. Visuals should be a significant part of your marketing arsenal, sitting holstered, and waiting to be deployed at any time.

There are loads of responsibilities that come with being a good Chief Marketing Officer. One that may not be listed on a job write up but is vitally important is the need to constantly have your eye on market trends and what they mean for your department. That’s why we’ve put together the top five trends we think any CMO worth their salt is watching this year. Let’s go!

If you’ve got a website up and running, congratulations, you’ve entered into the 21^st century. If you’re collecting data on that website, double kudos. You’re doing more than the average small business, as only 45% of them actually track their data. If you’re actually assessing that data to improve your overall marketing, well then hot dang, we think you deserve all the gold stars. But if you’re sitting in your office, heaped in data that’s drowning you, we’re here to help! Today’s blog is the lifeboat that will steer you to five strategies to analyze your traffic, asses your data, and untangle your results for a better overall strategy. So pick up that icy whistle and blow, because we’re coming for ya!

This week, we’re kicking off a mini-series on all things infographics: why they’re valuable, the do’s-and-don’ts, how to craft them, and more. So go grab your favorite pillow, the popcorn, and hunker down, friend. We’ll be sitting around this campfire for a while as we spill all the dirt on what makes a powerful infographic and how you can use them to light up your business.

There’s a saying that's become popular with the ever expanding availability of the internet. It goes a little something like this, "These days, everyone’s an expert.” It has a two-fold meaning. There’s the obvious, which is human beings’ tendency to spend one afternoon reading into a certain subject matter and suddenly they’re an aficionado. It’s a rough reality, but not as bad as the second meaning (unless you’re the poor soul stuck talking to that guy at a party). The second is that with the internet comes the ability for users to self publish. These are the really dangerous experts. And with their continual emergence, Google is having to work harder and harder to determine what out there is good content, and what is, well, just plain crap.

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. 

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. 

When we typically sit down with a potential client to explore their goals and vision for their website project, we ask them if they have Google Analytics set up on their current site. Most of the time the response is yes, but occasionally we are met with a blank stare. For those who do have Google Analytics, we are always curious about how they use the tool. This helps us find out how truly engaged they are in their digital marketing efforts. Those who are leaning on that data to understand the impact of their marketing efforts have a much better understanding of their results, their audience, and their goals. Those who don't use Google Analytics are a bit lost. If you are one of the lost souls of Google Analytics, this blog is for you. I am are going to break it down to give you the lay of the landscape and help you get up to speed on using the tool to understand your website traffic.