strategy – The Brand Chef | Branding and Marketing Communications Des Moines, Iowa

Good Social Media Engagement While Social Distancing

By Spoke Communications, LLC on April 16, 2020 / brand management, brand monitoring in social media, Branding, Communications, dick's last resort, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Marketing, marketing in social media, Social Media, social media best practices, social media mentions, target stores, Twitter

Tags: blog, brand marketing, CreateWOWmarketing, Des Moines, Facebook, Iowa, social media marketing, strategy, thebrandchef

Engaging brands on Twitter and Facebook and other various social media channels have a unique challenge when it comes to truly building community and support behind their brands. Do brand managers monitoring their social media experience engage every tweet and post that mentions their name, product, service or industry? How appropriate is it to “chime in” on conversation streams with advice and “promotions?” And when is the line crossed from Good Social Media Practice to Something Dangerous? Below, we’ve put together four helpful tips to remember when it comes to being a good steward of your social media brand. While

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Food for Thought: Email Marketing in a Time of Crisis

By Spoke Communications, LLC on March 26, 2020 / crisis communications, customer support, email strategy, Marketing, Social Media

Tags: Andrew B. Clark, blog, brand marketing, Email, Email marketing, marketing communication, marketing des moines, marketing strategy, social media marketing, Spoke Communications, strategy, The Brand Chef

WHAT IF… and just go with me for a second, here… WHAT IF your current email marketing campaign offered more than a 10% discount on your damn widget? WHAT IF your email marketing, in times of crisis, offered HOPE… offered UNDERSTANDING… offered RELIEF?

Food for thought…

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Weathering A Crisis Storm – Focus on The Long Game

By Spoke Communications, LLC on March 17, 2020 / Branding, communication strategies, coronavirus, covid-19, crisis communications des moines, Education and Training, Marketing, Public Relations, public relations des moines, SPOKE News

Tags: Andrew B. Clark, blog, brand marketing, brand strategy, marketing communications, marketing company des moines, strategy, The Brand Chef, thebrandchef, TRUE branding

Weathering a business crisis requires a focus on the long game. When considering your crisis messaging strategy, be firmly focused on transparency, consistency and calm to assure your employees & customers that tomorrow will be a better day with better opportunities.

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Better Security and WordPress Hosting

By Spoke Communications, LLC on February 11, 2020 / brute force attack, Case Studies, des moines makrketing company, des moines website design, des moines website host, digital marketing, Digital Marketing Case Study, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Marketing, web design, web development, web hosting, web security, web site security, website development, website hacking, website hosting, website security, wesite design, WordPress, wordpress design, wordpress security

Tags: Andrew B. Clark, blog, des moines iowa, Spoke Communications, strategy, technology

We were notified shortly after 3AM that brute force attacks and complex access attacks were increasing exponentially on a few of our client sites. With properly protected sites, we only had to go in and block a few (dozen) IP addresses, but with attacks jumping by MILLIONS, we’re happy to have had the protections in place to begin with. We were able to make quick work of locking down all of our sites and fending off the attacks.

What do YOU do when your WordPress Web site is attacked?

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Thinking Outside The Gift Box – Holiday Marketing Ideas That Mean More

By Spoke Communications, LLC on November 27, 2019 / Marketing

Tags: #GivingTuesday, Andrew B. Clark, blog, brand marketing, charitable marketing, corporate marketing, customer marketing, different marketing ideas, happy holidays, holiday marketimng ideas, holiday marketing, holiday promotions, marketing ideas, nonprofit marketing, restaraunt marketing, seasonal marketing, special marketing, Spoke Communications, strategy, The Brand Chef

’Tis the season – *groan* – for junk mail, needless promotional ads, spammy inboxes, and more! As consumers, the Holidays are a whirlwind of “too good to be true” offers and “hurry before it’s too late” pitches. With that and the absolute inundation of digital media with political pontification, advertising, and news (loosely used), “The Season of Giving” starts to feel a lot more like shore leave on Anything Goes Island. “Wear your rubbers, it’s getting nasty out there!” Ho Ho Ho? As marketing professionals, it’s our duty to not only help our clients promote and sell, but to engage

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Old is New Again in Direct Marketing Strategy: “Lumpy Mail” Wins

By Spoke Communications, LLC on October 8, 2019 / Case Studies, Education and Training, Marketing, Print Design

Tags: Andrew B. Clark, blog, Client Case Study, design, digital marketing alternatives, direct marketing, direct marketing strategy, lumpy mail, mail marketing, marketing communications, marketing des moines, Marketing for sales, sales marketing, Spoke Communications, strategic marketing, strategy, targeted audience strategies, The Brand Chef

Direct mail marketing programs are not dead. They should be an integral part of your Direct Marketing Strategy. Contrary to every social media super star’s testimony to the contrary, when you use “Snail Mail” to send something of value to a customer or a prospect, it’s going to get noticed. I don’t care who you are or what your thoughts are when it comes to checking the mailbox, if there’s something in there with weight, or girth – better yet, if it makes noise – you’re going to open it. And for a marketer, that’s 90% of the battle. We

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Strategy Sparks Joy and So Much More

By Spoke Communications, LLC on August 7, 2019 / Marketing, Public Relations

Tags: Andrew B. Clark, blog, communications strategy, des moines iowa, des moines marketing, Marie Kondo, marketing communications, marketing company des moines, Spoke Communications, strategic communications, strategy, The Brand Chef

Sometimes I get so laser-focused on the “day-to-day” that I forget the joy in what I do. Outside graphic design, outside web development and maintenance, outside content writing, outside video, outside all of the “tasks,” I love (pronounced “luuuuuuuv”) strategy. As Marie Kondo says, “It sparks Joy.” I love the why. I especially love the how. There’s little more exciting to me than a blank slate laid out in front of me with a goal on one end and a deadline on the other. So, Andy, how do we make the two connect? Today I set aside the “day-to-day” and

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5 Tips On Writing Blog Posts To Increase Traffic

By abclark on September 10, 2012 / Community, Social Media, Twitter

Tags: Andrew B. Clark, better post results, blog, blog writing, blogging success, blogging tips, blogs, create wow marketing, CreateWOWmarketing, creative writing, Des Moines, Iowa, more readers, post tips, posts that work, reading, reading posts, SEO, seo posts, strategic writing, strategy, The Brand Chef, thebrandchef, tips and tricks, WOW, writing, writing tips

I’m often asked by clients and peers, “How do I (we) increase my site traffic? How do I (we) get more people to read the blog?” Well, it’s a matter of targeted marketing, brand consistency and good writing. All of which even the BEST writers, marketers and

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Put Away The Playbook – You Know This Already!

By abclark on November 6, 2010 / Marketing

Tags: Advertising Agency, agency, Andrew B. Clark, CreateWOWmarketing, Customer Service, Des Moines, football, innovation, interactive integration, Iowa, MadMen, Marketing, marketing plan, marketing strategy, NFL, plans, playbook, Social Media, social media marketing, strategy, The Brand Chef, West Des Moines

(This was originally posted on the CreateWOWmarketing Blog on 10/19/10) Have you ever seen a great NFL quarterback run to the sidelines and look into the playbook? Neither have I… So why is it that so many marketers out there are generating rote, boring plans for their

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You Can’t Rely on Gimmick Branding

By abclark on September 29, 2010 / Branding, Marketing, Nonsense, Rants

Tags: ad, Advertising, Anheuser-Busch X beer, brand, Branding, Des Moines, dumb advertising, gimmick, Iowa, Marketing, micro brew, MillerCoors, Sam Adams, strategy, vortex bottle

Differentiation. It’s one of the keys to good branding. Branding and marketing professionals have been beating that drum since the dawn of communication. But being “Different” in simple separation from the competition isn’t enough. Differentiation needs to add value. Otherwise what good does it do for the

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Posts Tagged strategy

Weathering A Crisis Storm – Focus on The Long Game

Better Security and WordPress Hosting

Thinking Outside The Gift Box – Holiday Marketing Ideas That Mean More

Old is New Again in Direct Marketing Strategy: “Lumpy Mail” Wins

Strategy Sparks Joy and So Much More

You Can’t Rely on Gimmick Branding

10 Minutes of TRUE Branding from the 2011 #140 Character Conference

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