This Time, It’s Personal: Creating Your Unique Brand Identity

Kim PierceallMarketing

Sometimes in the quest to promote our businesses we can get sucked into trying to look like everyone  else. Mimicking the qualities of successful people is fine; it can help us improve and try on new ideas or approaches. But you must stay connected to the core of what makes your brand unique or you risk disappearing into a sea … Read More

Improving Engagement in Email Marketing

Kim PierceallMarketing

email marketing tips

Email Campaigns: 3 Simple Steps to Improve Your Reach Show of hands: Who is using email to stay in touch with clients/customers and VIPs? Excellent. Now, are you keeping an eye on your response rate? As email continues to be the most important tool for work, getting people to read and react to your incoming message can become more daunting … Read More

Time to Go Mobile

Kim PierceallMarketing, Website Design, Web Management

Time to Go Mobile

Does your web site work for those on the go? Can someone find your business online “single-handedly”? Think about it. Where are they when people look at your website? If you have a business that targets other businesses, do your clients and prospective clients tend to work on the road or at a desk much of the day? Do you … Read More

How Do You Know When to Redesign?

Kim PierceallMarketing, Running a Business, Website Design, Web Management

When to Redesign

New clients often sheepishly shake their heads as they admit how long they’ve been meaning to update their brochure, web site, fill-in-the-blank. Whether it’s time or money or ever-slippery priorities, small business owners and other harried types know that they should point some of their fractured attention toward marketing in order to lure new customers/clients. But how can you tell … Read More

Ode to a Fridge: Why Design Matters

Kim PierceallCommunicating and Writing, Marketing

Why Design Matters

I have an unusually deep fondness for my refrigerator. If there was a fire, I would grab the crazy cats first, then give a longing look at the fridge and say goodbye, knowing that saving it wouldn’t be possible. Or logical. Or even sane. Mentioned this to a client once and — rightly so — got a look of puzzlement … Read More

Finding Your Voice: Who Are You on Social Media?

Kim PierceallCommunicating and Writing, Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Finding Your Voice on Social Media

You’re starting to get the hang of it. Posting updates on Facebook, creating a page for your business and maybe dipping into the river of noise that is Twitter. But how are other people “hearing” your voice? Do you come off like a knowledgeable and engaging business person? A super chatty wanna-be celebrity? A vague, disconnected cipher? Honing your “voice” … Read More

Are YOU the Master of Your Domain?

Kim PierceallMarketing, Running a Business

Are You Master of Your Domain?

Imagine if you had to pay an annual fee for the privilege of using the address for your office. What if you didn’t know or remember exactly who “rented” that privilege to you or where to go to keep it? You might find someone else has snatched it up or some interloper masquerading as the keeper charges you three times … Read More

Translating Marketing Trends for Small Biz, NFPs

Kim PierceallCommunicating and Writing, Marketing

The 2010 Kellstadt Marketing Group Symposium held this spring for DePaul University alums, students and grad students offered some intriguing insights into what they called the Next Gen. Much of these sessions serve marketers in corporations looking to expand and innovate on a grand scale. But the Grotto approach is to glean what we can from the big guys and … Read More