"Try-before-you-buy" companies that allow customers to see a design before paying for it are cropping up a lot in the field of graphic design. They might be in the form of crowd-sourcing, logo design contest, cookie-cutter logos and websites. To a business owner wh...
Your brand is central to all of your marketing and public relations, letting customers know what they can expect from you. A memorable brand will define your business, separate you from the pack, and create loyal customers. So how you do you build a effective brand...
Writing is easy, right? Sure! Stick words on a page and watch the ideas flow like a raging river. That’s a great approach if you’re in a writing group with a pack of your friends. But it dies a swift and ugly death when marketing a product or service. Converting a...
Anyone that has used Google to search for a new pair of running shoes, concert tickets or new motorcycle tires has seen Google AdWords. These are the simple, text ads that appear on the right side or top of the search page. AdWords is Google's online advertising pr...
IdeaBank has been around for more than 30 years. I've been with the company for most of that time. When I was in college, I dreamed of being a "big agency big shot." But now that I've experienced the kind of work small shops like ours produce, I'm convinced that bi...
You know what advertising is. And you have a good idea of what goes into marketing. But what is "branding"? Despite what you may think, branding does NOT entail wrestling our clients to the floor and marking them with a red-hot iron. It DOES mean burning an image...
Outsourcing. Just the word has developed a negative connotation and thoughts of calling your credit card company to have a discussion about the new interest rate with someone in India who doesn't know a thing about interest rates! But does outsourcing always have t...
With "offshore" commerce and non-English speaking Americans becoming increasingly important markets for goods and services, Idea Bank is helping a number of our clients reach out to a culturally diverse audience. Spanish translations of existing advertising and mar...
Like all forms of marketing communication, email isn't for everyone. But, most companies will find that email marketing is effective and cost efficient - both Business-to-Business (B-to-B) and Business-to-Consumer (B-to-C). Perhaps the best aspect of email marketi...
It's interesting that one of the first budget casualties in an economic downturn is often a company's advertising and marketing efforts. While reducing expenses is certainly appropriate in a down cycle, it's also important to keep in mind that the nature of a cycl...
