by Joseph Graves | Feb 5, 2014 | Articles, Business
You are at the heart of your business. Your company most likely began with a dream and your willingness to work hard to make that dream a reality. Your passion was channeled into creating logos and an identity to define who you are and what you will be contributing to the marketplace.
However, more than likely, when you began to run your business, dreaming quickly became a thing of the past and the day to day tasks became the true reality. Sometimes, in order to be successful we have to push our dreams and desires aside so that we can manage the nuts and bolts of business. Once business begins to get busy, that becomes the most time consuming part of each day because the finished product or service is what will pay the bills.
Although time passes and your company evolves, your days are filled with goods and services, orders, management tasks, financials and more. You know the website that you created six years ago needs to be updated and the logo colors don’t reflect who you are anymore. Even though you know it is important, you aren’t able to make this stuff a priority right now.
Then you call Workshed…
We come in and reignite that passion in you. We put you back at the heart of your business, but take care of the work. Now, it’s our job to make your dream the reality so that your business can catch up with your imagination. Relax, you’ve earned it.
by Joseph Graves | Jan 28, 2014 | 30 Day Blog Challenge, Workshed News
Superstar or Slacker?
If your website was an employee, what type of an employee would it be? Would it be a superstar or a slacker? Fortunately, great websites (unlike employees) can be built.
Simple not Easy
Creating an awesome (a technical term describing effectiveness) website is one that compels visitors to take action and contact you about a service or product. To build a superstar employee style website, you have to understand the company you are making the site for , their customers, and a whole slew of other disciplines ranging from accounting to psychology; not to mention graphic design and web development.
Connect the Dots
At Workshed, we’ve individually and collectively spent a lifetime exploring the different elements of successful businesses. We know what it takes to create not only a superstar website, but how to leverage the information we gather into improving other areas of your business as well. One of the most interesting aspects of what we do is learning about a new business for the first time. To hear your successes, challenges, and goals with objectivity allows us to gain an understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (yes I just worked a SWOT analysis into a post). From their the challenge is to translate that raw information into words, images, and code that accurately represents the personality of your company.
Fire the Slacker
If your website and marketing isn’t routinely bringing in new business and making your life easier it’s time to cut your losses and hire a new one.
HIRE A NEW WEBSITE
by Joseph Graves | Jan 24, 2014 | 30 Day Blog Challenge, Articles
We believe in using inbound marketing to attract clients rather than ‘interruption marketing’ where you pester customers to buy from you. Think of inbound marketing as Connection Marketing. You connect with your ideal customers by helping them.
How does inbound work?
It starts with knowing your goals.
- Who are you hoping to attract? (Ideal customer)
- Where do they live on the internet/social media? (Demographics, gender, lifestyle, etc)
- How do you deliver meaningful content to them? (Content strategy)
- How is that content created and distributed? (Who does the work)
The Plan
Next we create a plan for meeting the defined goals. We determine when and how the content will be delivered then create the infrastructure to deliver it to our target audience. The keys to effective infrastructure are:
- A robust, mobile-responsive WordPress website typically built on a supported framework that complies with web standards (search engine friendly)
- Social Media platforms used by your ideal customer/clients with links to and from your website
- Email marketing campaigns with great analytics like MailChimp
- Website analytics and reporting
Content is King
With the right infrastructure in place, it’s time to create content. Our agency makes awesome content that connects with your ideal customer. We determine the best medium to communicate your message; video, photography, articles, e-books, white papers, newsletters and more. Then we distribute it via our infrastructure and continually measure the results.
That which is measured improves
Next, we measure and report the results. Since the data is gathered in real-time, we can quickly see what is working well and what isn’t and make adjustments fast. Being nimble ensures that our client’s marketing budget is being maximized and that we’re generating a real ROI (return on investment).
Nothing in life is a sure thing (except death and taxes perhaps), but inbound marketing is pretty darn close to a sure thing when it comes to bringing in more business from the customers you want. We’re ready to help you grow with inbound marketing. Let’s talk.
by Joseph Graves | Jan 23, 2014 | 30 Day Blog Challenge, Articles
A Little History
For those of you unfamiliar with my (Joe’s) other life, I’ve spent the last 12 years (until Tuesday that is) as an investment adviser helping clients prepare for and maintain their retirement. While researching investments, I had the opportunity to acquire knowledge about a wide range of topics from a diverse mix of sources. Initially the focus was specific companies, then it expanded and I began to look at entire industries, and ultimately the economy as a whole. Along the way, I started sense that something was missing; an important piece to the puzzle that was being ignored.
That missing piece was and is local investing.
The Key
Most of the reasons for local investing are beyond the scope of this post, but one important factor is the re-circulation (or local multiplier) rate. The re-circulation rate is one measurement used to determine how long money stays in a community (and gets reused over and over); since the turn of the century it’s fallen from 25-30, to less than 10. A declining rate is like ajr slowly leaking from a tire, if not fixed it goes flat. With a city or town, it’s how they lose their vibrancy. Reversing that trend is why I decided to leave my primary profession and why I bought Workshed with Brian.
How Will That Help?
You might be wondering how a website/ marketing company can help fix the economy. By working with local businesses and entrepreneurs directly (at Workshed) we are able to see first hand what is working, what is missing, and what’s needed to operate a sustainable (as in earning enough money to stay in business) business. Access to capital is part of that equation, but so is access to the knowledge, wisdom, and experience of others. With every project, we learn a little more about how to make that happen and can share it with past and future clients. So far, we’ve achieved modest success with the client’s we’ve worked with, and our work is positively contributing to their sales!
If you need help with something business related give us a call, we don’t have all the answers, but so far we haven’t been stumped.
But Wait There is More!
And another thing, don’t let cost be an issue. We won’t do a project if we don’t think it will generate a positive return for our clients and we are willing to offer payment arrangement to accommodate most budgets.
GIVE US A CALL
by Joseph Graves | Jan 22, 2014 | 30 Day Blog Challenge, Articles
Computer code touches nearly every aspect of our modern lives. Even if you don’t plan on making a living by writing it, it’s probably a good idea to at least have a basic understanding of what’s going on. Heck, you might even enjoy it.
One [free] resource I’ve used is Code Academy. They do a great job of breaking the lessons down into easily digestible chunks with exercises to help you understand what’s going on.
Give it a try and let us know what you think. You never know, maybe you have a talent for the binary?
