As a marketer, you’ve undoubtedly been asked by your boss or your CEO to explain the ROI of a certain project or initiative. Marketers are often challenged to prove that their efforts have made an impact and that the budget spent was worthwhile. This push for ROI is common but overlooks some of the most valuable data points we have. While stats like web traffic and email engagements can’t be directly equated to a sale, they can tell a story. At ODEA, in addition to focusing on the elusive “return on investment”, we believe analytics give specific insights into what READ MORE >>
Yolo. Totes. Awesomesauce. Cray. Are you cringing yet? Me too. Trendy things, from clothes to cars to food, all have a shelf life. We believe words have expiration dates too, especially when a perfectly innocent word transforms into a buzzword. The rise and fall of buzzwords are especially true in marketing and branding, where they have a distinct season of popularity before plummeting into the abyss. Harold Evans says in his book, Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters, that “…clarity and wit, not trendiness, are the goals of quality writing.” Over time, buzzwords eventually lose not only READ MORE >>
“If you’re going to lead, lead with grace and compassion.” – Michelle Obama As a three-year user of HubSpot, I was thrilled to finally attend my first Inbound. And it was worth the wait! While I came back to work with a wealth of knowledge, several Word docs of notes and a notebook filled with chicken scratch revelations, I have condensed my learnings into seven key points. I hope they inspire you as much as they’ve inspired me! 1. Create the conditions for your creativity. Piera Gelardi, Refinery 29 My very first session was Piera’s insightful keynote. She READ MORE >>
If you are new to the world of content marketing, you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed when it comes to planning your blogs, eBlasts and social media posts for the week. How do you know what to write about? When should it be shared? What did we post last week? That’s where a content calendar can make your life easier. Content calendars can take many forms depending on how you like to stay organized. Regardless of what yours looks like, the goal is simple: keep track of content that you’re planning to send out in the future. The elements READ MORE >>
Curious about what we’ve been working on lately? As always, our projects run the gamut. From web design to branding to signage and more, we’ve had a lot of fun with our clients so far this year (and ourselves!). Check out our project highlight reel featuring a few of our favorites from the last few months: ODEA Business Cards ODEA Office Signage Big River Steel’s Grand Opening Micro-Site WelComb’s Retail Packaging READ MORE >>
You may have noticed that at ODEA we live and breathe BOLD. But what does bold really mean? We’ve each picked out an example of marketing out in the world that we find bold. As you’ll see, bold can take on many forms. What does bold mean to you? JJ’s pick… Inside Abbey Road with Google Why is it BOLD? “For something to be BOLD, it needs to be big and to stand out from the rest. I can’t think of anything bolder than Abbey Road Studios. It is where many popular songs were recorded from The Beatles to the READ MORE >>
We’re huge proponents of inbound marketing. But before we go into the reasons why you should be using the inbound methodology, we should probably tell you what it is! For a detailed description, you can read our whitepaper on inbound marketing. If you want the short and sweet version, read on: Outbound marketing focuses on reaching OUT to your target audience with advertising, buying email lists, sending direct mail, cold calling, etc. Inbound marketing focuses on using content that educates or entertains to draw your target audience IN. Typically, your audience is directed to your website where they READ MORE >>
More than 15 million people or companies use MailChimp. Constant Contact has over 600,000 customers. HubSpot stands at about 25,000 users. Are you one of the millions of businesses using email marketing? We’d guess yes. In conversations with our clients and peers, we’ve been noticing some common misperceptions regarding email marketing. So, we thought it was a good time to debunk some of those myths. Email Marketing Is Free MYTH! Of course, many organizations pay for an email distribution service. However, this myth goes even deeper than a minimal monthly fee. A major mistake we see clients make is treating READ MORE >>
As a marketer, where are your efforts focused most within the sales funnel? We’d be willing to bet you’re heavily involved in the top. Creating awareness. Attracting leads. Blogging. Tweeting. Emailing. And, depending on the size and efficiency of your sales team, we’d also be willing to bet that leads are stalled in the middle and the bottom of the funnel. Why? Because while marketing is concentrated on enticing new leads, existing leads advance down the funnel into the conversion stages. However, they aren’t feeling the love there. Often, there are little to no marketing efforts targeted READ MORE >>