Take Time Off to Get More Done
Wait…what? You may be asking yourselves, “Did I read this title correctly?” Yes, you did. Corona said it perfectly in their popular marketing campaign “Find your beach.” Corona suggests finding your place where you can unwind and rest your mind, and finding your place where you can detach from the busy and stressful world we…
Read MoreThe Benefits of Using an Ad Agency
Ad agencies can be called a lot of things; creative agencies, PR firms, marketing agencies, digital agencies, etc. Some agencies have specialties or focus in specific areas and that is often reflected in what they call themselves. The “definitive” Wikipedia describes ad agencies as “a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes…
Read MoreBe Committed to Marketing
Economic trends are cyclical and ever-changing. Business sales increase and decrease with changes in the market, industry and a wide variety of other factors. There will be ups and there will be downs, regardless of your product or industry. When you find yourself on one of the periodic downward trends and your sales have taken…
Read MoreAre you Overmarketing?
Recently, a prospect used the word “overmarketing” in a new business call when describing what one of their marketing challenges was. I hadn’t thought about overmarketing for a while, and it intrigued me, so I did some reading just to freshen up. One article I read asserted that Overmarketing implies the fundamental difference between selling…
Read MoreConverting Information Overload into Action
We operate in a digital world. As marketers, almost everything we do has some form of digital component. People are online now more than ever; at work, at home, on the go. In marketing communications, it’s our job to reach those people with relevant and engaging marketing and advertising messages. The good news about all…
Read MoreSEO for Voice Search
I’ve got two boys, ages 3 and 5. They’ve got 5 cousins, ages 9 and under. When they all get together things get kind of wild, and loud. Recently, 6 of the 7 were together at our house and it suddenly got quiet. As a parent, you immediately notice lulls in decibel levels and go…
Read MoreMaximizing Media Exposure at Trade Shows: Tips and Tricks to Get More Bang for your Buck
If you are in the outdoor industry, your thoughts and efforts are focused on the upcoming show season. Whether it’s the ATA, SHOT or any number of other trade shows, these events set the tone for the selling season which could make or break an entire year’s sales. For many exhibitors, this is the one…
Read MoreTis’ the Season…to Win with Email Marketing
Even though Black Friday has come and gone, research shows that the remaining weeks of the year are still some of the best email marketing result producers…especially for last minute holiday shoppers. Even though there might be preoccupation by outdoor brands to think about the upcoming show season and year, a final push through December…
Read MoreEmbrace Online Forums and Foster Online Communities
The conversation is going to happen with or without you. This is a fact and is also my standard response when people say they are afraid to get too aggressive with social media or want to avoid online forums. Outdoor brands are almost always followed and talked about extensively online because they draw enormous passion…
Read MoreA Map to Success with Content Marketing
Content Marketing can be a very valuable marketing tool. Many businesses have found great success utilizing Content Marketing programs to tell their company’s story and build their brand. Content Marketing drives website traffic, builds brand awareness and loyalty, positions your brand as an industry leader, generates leads and sales, and provides a platform for extended…
Read MoreBreaking Down the Content Marketing Matrix: Inspirational Content
In this series, we’re looking at the types of content most effectively used at various stages in the sales cycle. Our first two posts discussed entertaining content – designed to capture a new audience’s interest in a product. Today, we’ll look at a type of emotional content geared toward people who are further along in…
Read MoreMaking Sense of Real Time Bidding/RTB
Real Time Bidding, also called “Real Time Buying”, or “RTB” is an ad industry buzz phrase that’s been around for a few years now. If you haven’t figured out what it might mean to your business, you’re not alone. The concept is confusing, but it’s probably time to get your head around it. The Basics…
Read MoreMaking Sense of Programmatic Digital Media
Programmatic digital media is becoming more and more popular among marketers in the outdoor and agriculture industries because of the success many companies have had implementing programmatic digital advertising programs. We’ve been asked several times, “What is programmatic digital advertising, how does it work and why should we be doing it?” If you’ve found yourself…
Read More8 Tips for Creating Killer Mobile Content
Hear this: shoppers turn to mobile first, yet most marketers still construct their messages with a desktop first approach, and later port it to mobile. It’s understandable. Mobile rapidly overtook desktop. Even industries normally slow to adopt new technology have joined in. It’s all happened so quickly that many business sites still haven’t fully implemented a…
Read MoreBreaking Down the Content Marketing Matrix: Entertaining Content (Part 2)
In Breaking Down the Content Marketing matrix: Entertaining Content (Part 1), we took a look at several types of content that can be utilized to tell an entertaining story and attract attention to your company, brand, or product: viral videos, quizzes, contests, branded videos and games. If you haven’t read that yet, you might want…
Read MoreKnock Knock. Who’s there? INSTAGRAM.
If you haven’t added Instagram to your marketing mix, it is definitely worth considering. Currently, Instagram has over 400 million active users and those users stay active with 56% visiting the platform every day. Of those 56%, 35% report visiting several times a day. Who is on Instagram? Your customers are on Instagram. (Primarily the…
Read MoreFor Your New Product, It’s Showtime: 10 Tips for Promoting a New Product
Traditionally, new products in the hunting, camping and outdoor arenas are launched either at the SHOT Show, NRA Show, or Safari Club event. In reality, new entries into the market are launched during the dozens of distributor shows in January and February and throughout the year. If you’re planning to launch a new product or…
Read More13 Tips for Building Relationships with the Media
Everyone has heard the old saying… “This is really a people business.” This is certainly true with reporters and bloggers, who can be your best friends, and should be treated as such. If you think about a reporter as a customer, then you will be fine. Getting your message out is critical to your success…
Read MoreBreaking Down the Content Marketing Matrix: Entertaining Content (Part 1)
If you’ve ever been challenged to create organizational content, you know it can be a daunting task. Though creating great content (or great anything) is never easy, the first challenge is gathering enough information to get started down the right path. Companies marketing to the outdoor sports, agriculture, and midwest lifestyle categories have a lot to…
Read MoreMeasure the Offline World
I’m a numbers guy. I count the steps on stairways, know how many minutes it takes (and the precise distance) to get anywhere in town that I normally drive, and track fuel efficiency over time. It’s no wonder that when it comes to marketing programs, I track the living daylights out of them, too. We…
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