Growing more leads begins with taking a balanced approach Attracting and sustaining sales leads is at the top of any business’ priorities. It’s always a continuous challenge to find quality prospects—whether you’re a B2B or consumer marketer. While every marketer is looking for ways to grow leads, it also seems like there is never a […]

Make Sure Your Online Reputation Reflects the Real You It’s obvious to anyone who spends any significant amount of time online and on social media that opinions, hot takes, reviews, reactions, and all manner of personal editorial are unavoidable. No matter how overwhelmingly and unassailably positive your content or message might be, there always seems […]

The Design Census is a partnership between the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and Google that, in 2016, surveyed professionals in the design community on various aspects of their workplace. David Franek, president of TDC, participated in a project in which he was invited to create a visualization of data from the survey. One […]

Client relationships are strengthened more effectively in face-to-face meetings than through technology Nowadays there are all kinds of ways to conveniently contact and stay in touch with one another any time—mobile calls, emails, texts, etc. There are even technologies, such as Skype, FaceTime, and Google Hangouts, that take things a step further and enable us […]

How to make your marketing voice and messaging more transparent and effective Has the following happened to you recently? You’re watching a TV commercial. As the spot plays, you see and hear things that make little or no sense to you at all. By the end of the spot, you have absolutely no idea of […]

Make your destination the place to be With most of the country in the midst of some nasty winter weather now, it’s likely that millions of people are turning their minds to balmier or simply more pleasant locations—and making getaway plans accordingly. If you’re marketing a vacation spot, a weekend day trip, a convention location, […]

The power of narrative and Trump’s iconic message Nearly two months later, we’re all still shaking our heads over Trump’s election victory. He overcame jaw-dropping personal indiscretions, leveraged fear and distrust of immigrants, and bombarded the public with half-truths and full fabrications during the campaign on a daily basis. However, one of the most—if not […]

How to attract more interest and spur action There are countless non-profit and charitable organizations today with noteworthy and noble purposes. Whether you’re fighting social injustice, searching for a medical cure, helping the impoverished, or supporting a political candidate, your cause often faces a major battle in having its voice and intentions heard. You might […]

Keep these guidelines in mind to find better images Stock photography is an important part of virtually any marketing department’s toolkit. It’s usually more convenient and cost-effective to use stock photos than to hire a professional photographer. However, many of the stock photos you’ll find in online photo libraries, especially those that are royalty-free, often […]

A guide for associations and nonprofits In many ways, association branding or nonprofit branding is no different than branding a product or service. A good association brand should highlight what makes the association unique, identify what audience it serves, and convey the purpose of the organization. Seems clear enough, right? However, there are some dynamics […]

Success stories with a second act Who doesn’t love a brand comeback story? There are dozens of great narratives around iconic brands that have at some point in their histories resurrected themselves from near extinction. They prove that a troubled brand can always have hope for a revival. Well, that is if its stewards have […]

Missteps that diminish your website’s user experience Websites have been around since the early 90’s. In other words, for the past 25 years or so, we’ve had plenty of time to assess, understand, and define what a good website experience is like. Of course that experience is always evolving as site-building tools and technologies advance. […]

Establishing trust early is key to attracting leads When you think of traditional lead generation, more often than not, intrusive outbound techniques come to mind. These include print ads, mass mailings, cold calls, and door-to-door visits (surprisingly still around). However the days of holding all the information, pushing it out to prospects through these channels, […]

Preparing yourself is key to getting more done In this day and age, we’re obsessed with getting more done in less time. Multi-tasking is our norm. Technology enables us to accomplish things in minutes that decades ago would have taken weeks. We have a need for speed and productivity 24/7/365. But this continuous ratcheting-up of […]

We are surrounded by increasing amounts of content today that is generated by consumers. And not surprisingly, that content reflects an extremely wide range of quality and/or professionalism. However, as we have come to accept user-generated content and imagery as a normal part of the marketing landscape, we have also shifted our view of the […]

According to Jupiter Research, 81% of people online find what they are looking for through a search engine. To be featured more prominently on a search result page, and most importantly, be more attractive to people searching online, companies boost the visibility of their websites through organic search or paid search. There are a lot […]

When you talk to clients about what they want from their agency, the answers seem pretty similar—fresh thinking, great ideas, and dedicated senior-level people working on their business. But what else do clients want and think about, but not always say? Category knowledge and experience In many cases, clients like to pick an agency based […]

We all want to be better writers, don’t we? Whether or not writing is a major part of your profession or responsibilities, we often think that it’s tough to significantly upgrade the impact or readability of our copy without taking drastic action—such as taking a writing course or putting in hours of practice. Which is […]

Where do graphics and typography collide—and create something totally unique and fun? Right here. These calligrams illustrate meanings, actions, and associated concepts of words right within and around the letters of the words themselves. So take a break from whatever you’re doing and enjoy a bit of cleverness and whimsy in the middle of your […]

We have long been fans of direct mail. Sometimes we believe that we are among the few folks who still understand and appreciate the art and science behind this medium. At the same time, we have done our share of email marketing over the years and recognize it as an effective tool as well. We’re […]

Awards are nice–but bottom line results are better It’s wintertime, which means it’s Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe awards season. Let’s think about that. What happens if Leonardo DiCaprio wins an award or two? His stock rises further and he gains even more popularity. He starts dating yet another beautiful swimsuit model. His asking price […]

Land that marketing job with these simple steps When you hit the streets looking for that first marketing job, you’re probably aware that there are thousands of other individuals just like you. While folks with more job experience have an advantage, you can still be an attractive candidate in a number of other ways. Here […]

Every company naturally wants the best and brightest employees under its roof. But aside from the skills to do his or her job, and a willingness to work with others, what traits mark the kind of folks who are valuable assets to your business and brand? Below are seven characteristics or habits to look for […]

So you’ve finally convinced your boss that your company needs to reshape its brand from the ground up. Congratulations—that’s a major accomplishment already. But now that you’ve gotten the green light, do you know where to start? Do you have an overall strategy or process in place? How do you know that your new brand […]

Recently we completed a set of TV spots for our good friends at Patient First. While long hours and multiple shoot locations were involved, the production was still a great experience from beginning to end (much thanks to the support and coordination of Lucas and Al Krost of The Branching). Here’s a gallery of photos […]

Everyone wants the content that they present to the world to be as SEO-friendly and attractive to readers and search engines as possible. But until recently, maximizing the attraction of your content was thought to be the domain of web wizards with secret knowledge of how to outsmart Google’s algorithms and crawlers. The one thing […]

When almost any organization unleashes its marketing folks or agency on a new branding, content, social media, or public relations campaign, everyone’s attention is generally turned in one direction. The main questions on everyone’s lips are “How do we engage new prospects?” or “How do we get customers into our stores more often?” or “How […]

You’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king.” It’s true nowadays especially in marketing, where content has being accepted into the royal inner circle. Today’s consumers have cast a skeptical eye or have even completely tuned out “ad speak.” They are pretty much immune to hard sell tactics and look for any way possible to […]

In a recent Q&A session at Facebook headquarters, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the social media giant is working on developing a “dislike” button. “What people really want is the ability to express empathy,” Zuckerberg said. “Not every moment is a good moment.” People have been asking about a “dislike” button for years, but according to […]

Warning: the following content will seem highly biased, subjective, and one-sided. Well, too bad. That’s because we’re talking about WordPress—the widely used content management system that’s at the heart of millions of websites. At last count, more than 60 million websites are built with it. That’s a lot of love. Why is it so popular? […]

Memory shortcomings can be attributed to many things—aging, disease, genetics, and even alcohol and artificial sweetener consumption. But perhaps the most common reason, especially among younger generations, is also the most surprising: the Internet. More specifically, it’s the ability to instantly find the answer to almost any question on the Internet. There’s no need to […]

In the latest update to Chrome, Google has taken a large step towards squashing Adobe Flash. Chrome will no longer autoplay Flash animations; it will require users to click to start them, which very few users are likely to do. In contrast, ads built in HTML5 will continue to be autoplayed. The September update to […]

It’s probably not news to anyone that the heart of any meaningful branding effort is a positioning statement. It’s the anchor, the foundation, the cornerstone, the whatever-analogy-you-want-to-use-that-signifies-something-is-really-important. Without a well-thought out, research-based positioning, a brand carries no real weight—and no compelling reason for people to buy into it. So when you’re going through the process […]

We all love celebrities. Whether they’re film and TV stars, athletes, comedians, or real-life heroes, we want to wear what they wear, eat what they eat, and drive what they drive. Advertisers have long been paying celebrities serious coin to endorse their brands—here’s why: The qualities of the celebrity transfer to the brand Famous actors […]

Let’s say you have a place that’s ideal for a specific purpose—a vacation getaway, convention hot spot, weekend day trip, etc. How do you establish a brand or positioning that gets to the heart of your appeal in an engaging and exciting manner? How do you ensure that your outreach meets the emotional and practical […]