Blog

Market Responsibly: Your Content Needs an Editor

March 19th, 2018

by Becky McKendry, Senior Editor, Public Sector Consultants

You eat, sleep, and breathe your brand; you can recite your elevator pitch backwards; and no one knows your customers like you do—not even your customers themselves. From defining personas to mapping journeys, you and your team have painstakingly crafted a strong strategy and the perfect content to inspire your audience to engage with your company. But guess what? You’re still not done. You need an editor. To some, editing may seem like a luxury or, at a minimum, a relic reserved for scholarly and literary applications. But in an increasingly digital world, speed and quantity don’t set your content apart anymore. Everyone’s got something to say, and they’re saying it quickly. In this race to produce more content faster, quality is falling... Read More

Marketing That Moves: AMAWM’s Mission for 2017 – 2018

September 7th, 2017

by AMAWM

Welcome back to another great year with the American Marketing Association of West Michigan. Over the summer, the AMAWM board got together, reflected on the previous year, and got to planning. Based on some surveys, general feedback, and conversations from members, it was clear what changes needed to be made and what our audience really wanted. This year, we have made it our mission to engage our audience in luncheons, workshops, networking events, and other resources that provide the education and take-aways they need to get their professional marketing efforts moving in the right direction. We want you to take what you learned and be able to apply it to real life marketing challenges. With that, AMAWM is proud to announce this year’s... Read More

Read and refresh! Good Reads for Marketers

August 7th, 2017

by AMAWM

Whether you’re reading beachside, poolside or inside somewhere air-conditioned this summer, soon to be fall – here are a few book ideas from some of our own AMA of West Michigan Board Members.   Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content, by Ann Handley Jason Dodge, Founder of BlackTruck Media + Marketing shares, “A little known secret at BlackTruck is that we have an expanding collection of business and marketing-related books on the shelf.” One of the books Jason recommends is Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley. He likes her fresh approach to online written content. “Ann’s insight on content is straight and to the point,” says Jason. Reading Everybody Writes is a great... Read More

3 Ways Avoiding Video Marketing Is Hurting Your Strategy

April 10th, 2017

by Megan Prangley

Are you one of the businesses who still isn’t producing video content for your website or social media channels? You’re not alone; some organizations worry that video marketing is just a passing trend, that it’s too expensive to keep up with, or that their target audience isn’t even watching them. These common misconceptions could do you and your organization a huge disservice. Any sized company across all verticals, even manufacturing, can benefit from even a few simple, thirty-second videos. If you’re afraid to take the leap into video, you’re missing out on the many intrinsic rewards. Keep reading for some of the ways your business is suffering due to a lack of video content. SEO Opportunities Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is an... Read More

2016 Marketing Year in Review

January 10th, 2017

by Dan Gibson

You’ve probably noticed the vast amount of discussion around how terrible 2016 was. We lost several renowned actors, musicians, entertainers, artists, leaders, and innovators in a year that was also filled with many tragic events, and an intense, closely covered controversial political race. Did someone say downer? While we agree 2016 was rough, we want to take a look back at the bright side of 2016 from a marketing perspective, and kick 2017 off on a high note by sharing some milestones and exciting happenings the AMA West Michigan Chapter experienced. We also want to mention several marketing headlines, hot topics, and trends from that past year that we envision will continue to strengthen in 2017. AMA West Michigan Chapter Headlines: Welcomed our... Read More

Fantasy Brands That Will Lead You to a Championship

September 8th, 2016

by Dan Gibson

We’ve all heard of Fantasy Sports and we all know someone obsessed with their team, consisting of real life professional athletes. I’ve played fantasy football for several years (being called a nerd is nothing new to me) and I’m still hooked, excited, and hopeful to win the league I’m in and the cash prize that comes with the title. The NFL regular season starts tonight and right now, I’m confident my team is the best! Don’t ask me what I think next week though… As I was researching and preparing for my league’s draft this past week, I started to think of other applications for the “fantasy” concept and thought I would explore how it can relate to brands. Yes, also nerdy. As marketers, the wheels... Read More

5 Key Elements to Effective Integrated Marketing

April 19th, 2016

by Dan Gibson

Kimberly Elmore, Marketing Manager and Creative Consultant for Gilson Graphics shared what effective integrated marketing means to her and how she keeps things highly creative and engaging. She explained how her unique skillset and background has allowed her to be both left and right brained in order to dwell in the grey area between logic and creativity. She believes that tension drives her to produce artistic marketing materials that make an impact. She showed examples of past work and explained the process of creating those pieces while also describing how effective they ended up being. She outlined 5 key elements that go into all campaigns, both for Gilson and their customers. These elements act as a guide when developing integrated marketing pieces so... Read More

Inbound Marketing: The Journey From Stranger to Customer

February 2nd, 2016

by Felicia Rowley

Did you know? AMA West Michigan is hosting MINDSCAPE’s very own CEO and Co-Founder, Pete Brand, this Tuesday, February 9th. This is the perfect opportunity for those looking to network, enjoy some lunch, and learn a little bit about the inbound marketing hype! As marketers, we know that this industry is constantly changing and evolving because of technology. Digital marketing has been what we call, “the future of marketing.” But for most of us, outbound marketing or “traditional marketing” has been our go-to approach. Methods like print ads, billboards, email blasts, television, and trade shows have been what we also call the “norm” of marketing. So how did we go from outbound to inbound? Simply put, the digital age has in a way... Read More

PR: The Original Content Marketing Recap

September 28th, 2015

by Rebecca Dutcher

Public Relations today is far more than news releases. Really, they are the reference point to a story – but it is the story that people connect with and engage with. News coverage or sharing by influencers in the social media space doesn’t start with your press release. It starts with building relationships, and maintaining them overtime. The Internet has changed the jobs of PR professionals (and marketers) over the last 10 years. Brands and companies never had to worry about those who did not like their products/services having a voice – however, the invention of the Web changed all of that. Robyn Luymes talked about how the web, influential bloggers and their voice forced brands to reevaluate the way they did business, their... Read More