Things We Believe

1) Visuals are important. People judge a book by its cover. Even you.   2) It’s not about you, your structure, or what you think you need. It’s about your audience.   3) An organizational website that drives no action is a wasted opportunity.   4) Small details can make big differences.   5) Search and social marketing are powerful, but much more so when part of an integrated content strategy.   6) Outcomes matter.... Read More

9 Steps to an Awesome Website

We’re very excited to let you know of the publication of our first eBook, entitled, “Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail: 9 Ways to Save Money, Launch Sooner, and Dramatically Boost the Effectiveness of Your Website.” It focuses on nonprofits, but its lessons apply more broadly. Even if this isn’t of interest to you currently, perhaps you have friends that can benefit. It would be great if you’d send them a link. We wrote the... Read More

Why Isn’t Your Website Generating Leads?

Your business lives and dies by the number of qualified leads (or potential customers) you can find. Is your business already generating enough leads? If you’re anything like most of the business owners and executives I speak with, the answer is no. What would it do for your business growth if your website was providing you with a consistently increasing flow of qualified leads? Or with lead intelligence that can help you decide where to best... Read More

Is Google Rewarding People Who “Buy” Friends?

Last week, Google did something that made me question everything I thought I knew about social media. It started with a conversation I had with a friend… My Friend: I’m thinking about hiring a company that buys Facebook “likes” for brands. What’s your opinion on that? Me: !? I reminded him that the real value of a “like” depends entirely on who is doing the liking. Buying Facebook “likes” is an awful lot like buying a huge email... Read More

Do You Have a Great Web Designer?

Many people can design beautiful web pages, but there are very few great web designers. A great web designer must be able to create beautiful web pages. But what if they’re not consistent with the brand? So… a great web designer must also understand brand design. But what if the pages look great and are “on brand,” but don’t drive any action? So… a great web designer must also understand the desired actions for... Read More

Google Takes Your Blog Headlines WAY More Seriously Than You Realize

(Looking for “6 Questions to Ask Before You Send Your Next Tweet”? Click here.) I made a mistake. Not a huge, horrible, life altering mistake, mind you, but a mistake nonetheless. The world will not end. I will get past this error in judgment. I will learn from my gaffe. What did I do? I failed to listen to my own advice. Read More  Read More

Want to Optimize Your SEO? Invest in Social Media

(Looking for “Does Facebook Reward Brands That Are More Romantic?” Click here.) Did you know this blog post you’re reading right now (and thanks, by the way) will help boost our search traffic simply by existing? It’s true.  But you know what’ll help us even more?  If you click on that little green “retweet” button you see on your right. Go on. Click it. We’ll wait. But wait — since when does... Read More

A Bit Off the Edge

“A Bit Off the Edge” is an occasional review of some of the best online marketing information we’ve found of late. Let’s get your Monday morning blahs out of the way right off the bat: Things could be worse. You could be Superman in 2010. And now, the news… *** Read More  Read More

My Twitter Summary of the Inbound Marketing Conference

A big thank you to Justin Levy, Chris Brogan and the New Marketing Labs team for putting together a wonderful event, the Inbound Marketing Summit at the home of the New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium, in Foxboro, Massachusetts this past week. Like any good conference, sometimes I was paying attention to the speakers. Sometimes I was networking in the back. The networking was invaluable and I was so pleased to have an opportunity to meet so many... Read More

9 Steps to Balanced Search Engine Optimization

SEO is important to help attract website traffic through Google and other search engines. However, there is a risk of going overboard with SEO. As an example, look at this blog post on the importance of home inspections. Clearly the author is attempting to optimize the page for keyword phrases like “home inspection” and “home inspector”. The author has done some good things with the copy to attract a high Google ranking (though... Read More