Marketing with Purpose

Stacy calls Monica the “idea factory”. And blog topics just happen to be her favorite thing to produce in idea factory mode.

In this episode, she’s firing up the factory to give you blog ideas out the wazoo AND share her framework she uses to make sure organizations are blogging about the right thing to meet the right people where they are. 

Join us in this “what to blog about” workshop style episode designed to transform you into a purposeful blog idea generating machine!

Read the fully formatted blog post to accompany this episode at: [link to episode on MayeCreate.com]

Thank you to our featured resource sponsor:
What to Put on Your Website https://mayecreate.com/resource/what-to-put-on-your-website/

We’ve been honing in on our “why” at MayeCreate this year.  Studying the concept introduced by Simon Sinek, reading the Power of a Positive Team, redefining our core values, and updating our mission statement.

It’s been an incredible way to learn about each other and why we do what we do. MayeCreate’s “Core 4” (our senior team) has been together for over 10 years so we know in our gut why we keep at this business and website building thing.

But as we bring on new team members and refine our marketing efforts, we felt like we needed a documented why and purpose to guide us.

So with all this self-evaluation we’ve been doing, when Monica heard about Ian Chamandy, owner of Blueprint Business Architecture who helps organizations define the one thing that makes them uniquely remarkable – in 7 words or less…

She had to know…HOW!?!

Monica has a virtual stack of Google Docs piling up with all of her notes from this year, so HOW ON EARTH could she break it down into 7 words or less?

In this episode, Ian explains how it all comes together in 3 easy steps and morphs into a talisman to design how your organization is managed and how it will communicate.

Get the full transcript and episode summary on our website: [link to episode]

In a world dominated by flashy visuals and fleeting social media trends, you might wonder, "Is blogging still relevant?" 

9 out of 10 marketers use  blogging to achieve their content goals (SEMrush, 2023). That’s because it works. Blogging drives traffic to your site and traffic drives leads. Companies that blog have an average of 67% more leads each month than companies without blogs. (DemandMetric).

I know what you’re thinking, “But Monica, search is changing, right? So will blogging still work?”

True, back in April with our Guest, SEO expert, Nina Gibson cautioned that, search is changing but blogging is rolling with the punches. 75% of marketers believe that AI-enabled search engines will positively impact their blogs. (HubSpot State of Marketing Report, 2023).

So, bloggins is far from dead. Blogging isn't just about churning out boring AI generated paragraphs of text either; when done right blogging establishes expertise, drives traffic, and powers your marketing. 

In this episode I’m breaking it down and covering the most common questions I hear about blogging like:

Do you really have to blog and how often should you do it?

How do you set it up?

How to attract visitors. Ideas for monetization.

Mistakes to avoid and even how to measure success.

Monica’s brain turned into an idea factory while interviewing this week's guest, Shannon Houchin, owner of Roadside Republic.

Yes, this episode is all about the success of roadside stands selling peaches, which is really fun all on its own. AND it’s also packed with ideas to locally market your business or organization.

So.

Before you do another carwash or bakesale for your nonprofit…

Before you choose the next location for your business…

Before you decide on a marketing tactic to connect with a local audience…

You need to listen to this episode. 

Because Shannon promotes her 200 roadside produce stands across three states so she is a master at hyper-local marketing. Monica almost shut down her company and started selling peaches after talking to her (and she’s only kind of kidding).

Shannon explains everything from exactly how she chooses the right location, to what to say on Facebook to get people excited and coming back for more.

Come hang out with Shannon and Monica and get those ideas flowing!

Get the full transcript and episode summary on our website: https://mayecreate.com/blog/hyper-local-marketing-shannon-houchin/

Featured Resource: Marketing on a Shoestring
https://youmayecreate.com/marketing-on-a-shoestring/

I hear alot about nonprofit boards. 

(Sometimes as web designers we get mistaken for marketing therapists…aaaaand tech support…)

But while we work with boards to build websites…I don’t have to manage one. My advice in that area is limited at best. I do, however, see first hand how an engaged board could make marketing your nonprofit a WHOLE lot easier.

I sure do wish I had a magic board motivating fairy godmother I could loan out to you. A lovely little winged creature to pixie dust your board right on into shape.

But alas, my access to board managing fairy godmothers is limited…actually it’s pretty negligible.

So today I’m bringing the next best thing…

11 inspiring nonprofit leaders — sharing their actionable advice on the best ways to get your board involved with your marketing efforts. 

Read the fully formatted blog post to accompany this episode at: https://mayecreate.com/blog/nonprofit-board-marketing-engagement-strategies/

Featured Resource: Year End Campaign Planning Checklist

https://mayecreate.com/resource/year-end-campaign-planning-checklist/

Choosing the colors for your brand is a combo of art, psychology and science. 

Aaaaand unfortunately there aren’t hard and fast rules to follow. There are, however, quite a few things to consider before putting the final stamp of approval on your logo and brand colors. And that’s what this episode is all about.

Monica talks you through choosing the right logo and brand color combo to:

Read the fully formatted blog post AND watch a quick tutorial on planning your brand pallet in Canva at: https://mayecreate.com/blog/good-logo-colors-best-combinations/

Happy coloring!

P.S. If you want to know more about color theory - how colors work together, affect your emotions and how you perceive things - check out our previous episode/blog post combo!

Featured Resource: Marketing on a Shoestring

https://youmayecreate.com/marketing-on-a-shoestring/?utm_source=mayecreate_CTA

Have you ever stopped to think about why red dominates fast food chain brands while banks gravitate towards green? 

It’s because colors impact everything from our mood to our appetite. And those branding pros know color is just one more tool in their marketing tool box. Between 62% and 90% of a product’s first impressions are determined by its colors.

If you've ever wondered why your logo's color matters or what they mean, this episode is just for you! 

MayeCreate’s co-art directors, Monica and Tyler, teamed up to plan this long anticipated and totally dorky chat explaining the basics of color theory and how different colors make people feel.

Read the fully formatted blog post to accompany this episode at: https://mayecreate.com/blog/color-theory-for-brands/ 

P.S. Stay tuned for our next episode too!  We’re putting all this color theory into action explaining how to choose good logo and brand colors with a tutorial to do it yourself!

Featured Resource: Marketing on a Shoestring

https://youmayecreate.com/marketing-on-a-shoestring/?utm_source=mayecreate_CTA

If you have a really small marketing department, (like maybe just a quarter of a person ) this episode is for you.

MayeCreate's own marketing team waivers between a half and full person (and at least one dog) depending on the day, so when Sarah said she had tips to get it done faster, we were all ears.

In this interview Sarah shares her 4 C framework to get organized, get results and most of all…get it done:

Dig into each of the 4 C’s with Sarah and I, PLUS get the skinny on the tools she loves that keep her marketing running.

Get the full transcription and show notes for this episode at: https://mayecreate.com/blog/4c-content-marketing-method-sarah-block/ 

Tyler and Rebecca, MayeCreate’s lead developers, are super, mega smart.

Everyday we find new reasons to be thankful to have them on our team.

And in today’s episode you get to meet them as they lift the hood to peer inside the websites at MayeCreate and document the WordPress plugins they deem good enough to make the cut. 

They explain:

Monica shares her favorites as well and jumps in from time to time and translate their tech awesomeness for our less techy listeners

Read the fully formatted blog post to accompany this episode with links to all these awesome plugins at: https://mayecreate.com/blog/good-to-great-wordpress-plugins/

A pretty website is one thing. One that sells is quite another.

And writing copy that sells is not easy! It’s a marriage of education and psychology, both an art and a science.

In this episode, our favorite sales copywriter tells just how she does it, workshop style!

Tiff Carey digs deep into levers we can pull for major conversions including:

Transform your copy from pretty to profitable with Tiff's advice!

Get the full transcript and links to Tiff’s contact info on our website: https://mayecreate.com/blog/creating-a-sales-page-that-sells/