A participant at my recent presentation to the PMI of Willamette Valley asked me, “How can my small business benefit from marketing, if the business is a government contractor in a highly specialized niche?” At the time, my reply focused on employing market research and business intelligence to simply develop a business model that would […]
What is WordPress, and why do I need it?
As web designers, we tend to “talk tech” without starting at the beginning. This can leave you wondering about the basics, like “Why would I want to convert my business website to WordPress?” What is WordPress? First, the basics: WordPress is an open-source, database-driven content management system. (In other words, it’s a software platform: Not […]
In defense of profit
A business that does not make a profit, will go out of business. If you are running a business, you must earn a profit if you want to stay in business. Strangely, some consumers seem to regard profit as an “evil” concept. And in response to them, I’m taking a stand in defense of profit. The […]
Success through Marketing
Success for your small business boils down to the bottom line. You want to increase your profitability. You want to grow your customer base. How can you grow your business? Get more customers and increase your profit margins with marketing. Marketing is the key to business success. Marketing helps you communicate with customers and prospects. […]
Marketing like a Dandelion
The humble dandelion has a lot to teach a small business owner about marketing. Marketing like a dandelion is marketing that is visible and contagious. The dandelion’s vision of a perfect world is a world covered in dandelions. In practice, this may be a bit extreme. In principle, if you are a business owner, be […]
HealthCare.gov and the Importance of Usability Testing
When issues related to web design make the headlines, it’s a teaching moment that can help move the whole web design industry forward. In this case, the well-publicized problems with the Federal health exchange website strongly point out the importance of usability testing. Not an optimization issue This is a follow-up to my earlier post, […]
Rebranding Part Three: The Website Redesign Process
This post has been a long time in the making. I started this rebranding project for Mardesco in late July. Three months later, I have to recognize that even though I’ll still be tweaking the website a year from now, the website redesign is more or less complete, and it’s time for me to follow […]
Rebranding Part Two: The Logo Redesign Process
The logo redesign process is a core component of any deep rebranding campaign. Brand messaging is an essential part of marketing. A logo design is the first and most obvious brand message. This post is part two in Mardesco’s series on “Rebranding the Branding Company.” Last time I discussed why we decided to rebrand, and […]
Why Rebrand?
I’ve decided to re-brand the branding company. Mardesco is getting a new look, a new logo, a new website, a new presentation. This is the first post in a series about the rebranding process. I guess in order to understand why I’d decide to rebrand the company, you have to know what the old brand […]
The high cost of easy money
Obtaining business financing is an essential topic for any business plan. Recently, I was thinking about the problem of raising capital to fund a growing small business. Obtaining funds for working capital is something that many small business owners must wrestle with regularly. It turns out there can be many pitfalls and unexpected traps. As […]