Sass & Sage: Marketing Made Simple

Did you miss us? Sass & Sage is back this week after our spring break with an amazing and insightful Episode 11! This week, Dylan and Lynne welcome Mike Richwalsky, Principal at Gas Mark 8, to discuss web hosting. Gas Mark 8 is a digital marketing agency based in Cleveland and the UK that serves nonprofits, education institutions, and small businesses. Mike is Dylan and Lynne's go-to backend developer whose decades-long career includes web hosting. In this week's episode, the trio discusses the fundamentals of web hosting, the various types of hosting available, and the traps that organizations inadvertently fall into. Plus, we highlight the newfound importance of strong web hosting with the impending release of Google's page experience algorithm update this summer. Gain the knowledge about web hosting to be dangerous in your hosting provider search in this week's episode of Sass & Sage!

This week's episode of Sass & Sage is all about Search Engine Marketing (SEM), specifically Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC). That's a whole lot of acronyms, right?! This week, we aim to break down and demystify organic and paid search. In this episode, Lynne and Dylan discuss the fundamentals of on-page and technical SEO—highlighting the sheer importance of content—and dive into paid search on the Google Ads Search Network. Interestingly, many business owners believe that SEO and PPC are either the same tactic or mutually exclusive. In fact, you can use SEO and PPC together strategically to boost the success of your marketing efforts! Learn all about organic and paid search this week with Sass & Sage!

This week, we're talking all about web design—specifically how web design can go very wrong, very fast. Designer extraordinaire Kayla Kogelnik comes back on the show to talk about the dos and don'ts of web design with Dylan and Lynne. In this episode, the trio discusses the common trends they see with poorly designed websites. Often, in trying to differentiate themselves from competitors or industry players, businesses sacrifice user experience and the mobile-friendliness of their websites. Moreover, many organizations believe that there are only two options to build a website: an inexpensive drag-and-drop builder or a five-figure custom development project. The trio also talks about finding a middle ground when designing a website, balancing design and functionality, and understanding that investing in a website sets a business up for success long-term.

Sass & Sage took the week off last week, so we hope you enjoyed a break and caught up on some of our past episodes. This week, we dive into customer relationship management systems (CRMs). This term is ubiquitous in the digital marketing industry, but what does it mean for business owners? Dylan and Lynne discuss the core of CRMs and how they have evolved from old-fashioned Rolodexes to versatile, powerful additions to your MarTech software stack. Plus, the duo examines the difference between contacts in your CRM and "engaged" contacts and how blurring this line can misrepresent your results and give you an inaccurate picture of your marketing efforts.

This week, Sass & Sage ventures into organic social! Specifically, we embrace the notion that social media is not only used for generating leads. Social media helps you educate your audience, which is another tactic in nurturing prospects down the funnel. In Episode 7, we discuss the four common social media platforms businesses utilize—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Lynne and Dylan discuss the core purpose, benefits, and disadvantages of each platform to give you the knowledge you need to post on social media. Plus, the duo touches on the common shortcomings they have observed with businesses on social media. Two takeaways: do not use the same post across all platforms and embrace posting on fewer platforms stupendously rather than all platforms poorly.

This week, we're excited to have Kayla Kogenik, a graphic and web designer extraordinaire, on the show to talk about design best practices! Many business owners or small marketing teams design graphics for print and digital mediums—social media, flyers, websites, and the like. However, not all of these conform to what we consider graphic design best practices. In this week's episode, we head to design school as Kayla outlines some simple things businesses can do to design stellar graphics that present their brand effectively. Plus, we touch on the benefits of working with a graphic designer and how allocating some of your organization's marketing budget to hire an experienced designer can elevate your brand's appearance and results.

Just because many of us are home does not mean that your business cannot become the most talked about in town! This week, Dylan and Lynne dive into Local SEO. While many business owners associate SEO with ranking #1 for keywords on Google, in reality, we're concerned with showing up at the top of the search results page. Local SEO best practices, particularly Google My Business, can move your organization to the top of Google without much effort and money! Learn all about Local SEO, Google My Business, the power of reviews, and the way to include locations in your website copy in this week's episode of Sass & Sage.

This week, we're talking all about keywords on Sass & Sage! Imagine this: you have a product or service and describe it using a particular vocabulary. How can you know whether these words match what your target prospects search for on Google? In Episode 4, Dylan and Lynne discuss the resources available to help business owners find and use the right keywords to describe their brand. Plus, the duo highlights the impact of using terms no one else uses to describe your business—even if you have a gorgeous website and engaging content. Organizations that use the wrong set of words will likely see difficulty getting any organic search traction to their website! Learn all about keyword research, search volumes, and more in this week's episode of Sass & Sage!

Despite this episode's title, we promise it's not full of numbers! In Episode 3, we're tackling marketing budgets—specifically, how to allocate enough money to your budget based on your revenue goals. Often, businesses base their marketing budgets on the previous year's numbers rather than the current year's goals. Dylan and Lynne discuss how to make your marketing strategy large enough to support your quest for growth, especially with young businesses. The duo also gives some tips on how to decrease marketing overhead and effectively spend across channels. Luckily, there's no need to bring your financial calculator to this episode!

ROI, KPIs, funnels—oh my! Episode 2 of Sass & Sage is all about buzzwords. Despite their catchy nature, buzzwords rarely produce any meaningful marketing endeavors. Business owners often latch onto these words without digging deeper into what each means. For example, KPIs (or Key Performance Indicators) is just a fancy word for data. In this episode, Dylan and Lynne emphasize the importance of looking past the face value of buzzwords to see if the term applies to a given business or industry. Plus, Dylan and Lynne break down how marketing strategies differ between businesses (even in the same industry) and how that's okay! Grab your notebook and dust off your marketing dictionary as we redefine buzzwords and squash some marketing strategy misconceptions!