As the calendar flip races upon us, it’s time to once again check in on your marketing game plan. The ODEA-ites have rounded up their top tips as we all buckle up for what appears to be a wild ride in 2025. READ MORE >>
In the ever-evolving landscape of SEO and search tools, Google reigns supreme – until now. Enter OpenAI’s Search GPT, the bold new contender shaking up the throne. For marketers and business owners who want to stay ahead of the curve, it’s time to get the lowdown on the advancements to make smarter business decisions. Here’s what you need to know about SearchGPT. What Is SearchGPT? SearchGPT is a search engine like Google, but it’s a whole new level of intelligence. When you type a search term into Google, a majority of the time it throws a bunch of links at READ MORE >>
For one week, let’s tally up all the unsolicited emails and voicemails offering to help us sell our business or buy another. We could even turn it into a contest—think “guess the number of jellybeans in the jar,” but with unrequested pitches instead of jellybeans. Closest guess wins! With $796 billion US dollars worth of deals announced in the first quarter of 2024 (and forecasts showing the momentum to continue into 2025) thanks to Boomers and elder Gen X’ers stepping back, businesses are changing hands again after a slow 2023. Consolidation is touching every industry we know so, like us, READ MORE >>
Hi there – have we met? If not, I’m Chelsi, marketing manager and content specialist at ODEA. I have a hand in writing content for ODEA and our clients. On any given day, you can find me with my headphones on with music blasting while pecking away at my keyboard. Most likely, filling a Microsoft Word document with thoughts, insights, and facts about adhesives, steel, technology, new tax laws, or something in between. About a year ago, I created an account for ChatGPT 3.5 to check out my competition. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot that can compose responses that READ MORE >>
If your inbox looks anything like ours, you know that email marketing is still alive and well years after CAN-SPAM and GDPR regulations went into effect. With new client opportunities in Europe and some of our existing clients closing on M&A activities that expanded their reach internationally, we brushed up on all things General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to make sure we’re following best practices when sending email campaigns across the pond to businesses in the EU and UK. What you need to know about GDPR GDPR, which came into effect in 2018, aims to protect individuals’ personal data and READ MORE >>
At first, I was telling my team I thought professional services, such as marketing firms like us, would be transformed by AI but those of us 50+ could keep on (largely) as we were. It would take years for what we do to be taken over by the AI bots. The 20- and 30-somethings were the ones who needed to reinvent themselves. Or so I thought. Then ChatGPT came on the scene. Then Claude. And Gemini. And too many others to name. I slowly realized the transformation I originally thought would take at least a decade was happening in months, READ MORE >>
There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to the lifespan of a typical website. If you Google, you’ll get a page-worth of answers ranging from 2 to 2.5 years. It seems a tad quick, even for the internet. But to be fair, a website revamp depends on your site and your market. When looking at typical B2B websites, you could probably double or even triple that number. That gets you in the range of every 5 to 7 years to consider an entire website refresh. This includes significant site structure updates like reorganizing your services categories or READ MORE >>
I read a recent Gartner report that proposed the new role for B2B sales teams was “sense-making”. Their research indicated 44% of millennials did not want to interact with a sales rep at any phase of their B2B buyer’s journey. That means B2B sales pros must reinvent their role. Gartner proposed their best way to service prospects was to make sense of all the content we marketers have been producing for years now. This is an interesting concept for sure. But shouldn’t we marketers be helping to make sense throughout the buyer’s journey as well? We already know B2B buying READ MORE >>
I know. We should have told you. You may not have even noticed. But we took a break during the second half of 2022 – from social, from blogging, from everything involved with our own marketing. Why? I can blame it on “busy”. I can say we concentrated on clients’ projects instead of our own. I can justify it as “research” on what happens when you stop marketing. And all that is true. But equally true is that we were short-staffed, still working out the kinks in our “new normal”, and more often than we liked, we were feeling drained, READ MORE >>