It's 8 AM on a Monday morning. I just dropped two kids off at school and one at daycare. The entire trip is about an hour of driving with constant chatter - sometimes laughing and giggling, sometimes whining or crying, usually just a lot of questions and bickering.After my parental duties are finished for the morning I check out by listening to the 70's station on satellite radio and Player's Baby Come Back is streaming through the speakers. What a great classic song as I let out a sigh of relief.I look at the car to... Read more →

Marketpath is honored to have Marketpath CMS, our easy to use website content management system, named as one of the industry’s Top Content Management Platforms by Website Magazine. Last month, Website Magazine selected Marketpath CMS as one of their Top 50 Web Content Management Platforms (CMS), based on extensive evaluation criteria. Although Marketpath is primarily focosed on the small to mid-sized businesses and organizations, Website Magazine's rankings included solutions focused on all areas: enterprise level, small business, open source, etc.                                                  Website Magazine (www.websitemagazine.com) presents expert information for website and marketing professionals on how to succeed... Read more →

The St. Margaret's Hospital Guild, one of Indianapolis’ most respected and longest running volunteer groups, recently launched a new website to promote their organization’s good works and their annual Decorators' Show House and Gardens project.2013 Show House (April 27-May 12)Proceeds from the annual Show House, running April 27th - May 12th, benefit Wishard Health (Eskenazi Health) and a variety of their services and programs.  And this year’s house is extra special, featuring Indianapolis’ historic Schnull-Rauch House, located at 3050 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis.   Visit the new St. Margaret’s Guild and Decorators’ Show... Read more →

The typical business owner has a fairly stable gauge for assessing success. Solid revenue, a strong sales funnel, and opportunities for growth. Sure, there are plenty of other metrics you can apply, but these form the core. How a business owner goes about establishing that foundation, however, is open for discussion. At the very least, passively waiting around for the phone to ring is a bad idea. You have to proactively get business.For many companies, hard sales tactics don’t work. Small businesses frequently can’t afford a dedicated sales team. In many cases, the owners know they’re... Read more →

Some people just get it. They find perfect pictures for every page or post on their website with ease. They tend to match up high-level concepts of content with some abstract vintage photograph. These people are highly creative, probably avoid wheat products, and do their best work at a coffee shop while sipping a $5 latte.Then there's the rest of us. We really suck at this and our graphic designer (if we're lucky enough to have one) has no problem telling us repeatedly. But they're so busy with other tasks that asking for a simple... Read more →

I loved these things in my single digits. Heck, I would still love playing with them now if I had any because I truly enjoy building things. That is one part of my childhood I'm happy to say I've always carried with me into my (gulp) late thirties. Give me a bunch of sticks and I'll build something fun or useful out of them. And the name is perfect for these little guys, isn't it? Tinker Toys. Toys meant for tinkering. And that's what made them so great. The tinkering part. Try this, then try... Read more →

It's 2013, you've survived the zombie apocalypse, and with the new year comes an opportunity to inject fresh energy and ideas into your content marketing. So let's get back to the basics a bit and walk through the fundamental elements of a good content marketing initiative. I think it's a good idea to occasionally review the basics in any project, especially as the project evolves into a bigger, more complex animal. This ensures you don't fall off course and that you stick to the general guidelines.Content marketing is the essential ingredient for Marketpath's... Read more →

Casey-Bertram Construction, a leader in Indiana demolition services, launched their new website (www.casey-bertram.com) this week.  The site, which was designed and optimized by Marketpath and features our easy to use web content management system, positions Casey-Bertram as Indiana’s demolition services expert.With 20 years of experience, Casey-Bertram has been a leader in the Indiana demolition market for quite some time, with demolitions projects involving Indiana landmarks such as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Eli Lilly, the Indiana Convention Center, and the Indiana State Fair grounds.  Casey-Bertram even provided demolition services for ABC's... Read more →

Every website project that Marketpath does follows the same process.  There is a hefty discovery portion of the project where we’ll discover everything from target audience & goals for the site, to design elements that will be utilized.  One question we always ask is about actual content on the site.  Who is going to write it?  What are you targeting?  Are you a good writer? Unfortunately, the content creation portion of a project is usually the portion of the projects that drag out the longest.  There are usually three different approaches to it (listed here from worst approach to the... Read more →

We attended Blog Indiana 2012 last week and came away with a new viewpoint on the SEO industry.  The two day conference was packed with speakers on various topics, but somehow, SEO always popped into their presentations.  The highlight, for me, was Doug Karr giving a presentation titled “SEO is Dead” (full slides at the link).  Even with the linkbait-like title, I was immediately intrigued with the topic.SEO, or the process of gaining higher rankings for search phrases, has been around for around for about 15 years.  It has gone through hundreds of changes as search engines have... Read more →

I’m not all together sure there is a more dynamic industry than online marketing.  With new tools, networks, tactics, and things to pay attention to debuting every day, how can anyone keep up?  It is a full-time job just staying on top of the latest trends, let alone rolling them out into a marketing campaign.  Gone are the days of launching a website with some keywords in the title tag and getting results.  Gone are the days of paying an SEO firm to "magically" gain rankings.  Gone are the days where this stuff was, well…easy. ​Are you... Read more →

We met with a prospective client last week to discuss their upcoming website redesign & development project.  This prospect is your typical small business where the owners make all of the decisions without much input from the rest of the staff.  There isn’t a dedicated marketing department, nor is there a “techie” on staff.  If you’re a small business owner, this situation may sound familiar…and you can vouch that it’s not easy.Any vendor selection process is an exercise in analytical skills.  The two owners that we met with aren’t website guys.  This whole process is... Read more →

When the time comes to hire an SEO agency to help boost your online presence and rankings, chances are you’re going to have a lot of questions.  This is okay.  I’ve been in and around the industry for close to six years and I am no expert.  Whether you’re a novice, someone who knows enough to be dangerous, or a seasoned veteran looking for some help, these 5 signs will help you eliminate a lot of so called “experts”. Guaranteed 1st Page RankingsNo SEO company can or should offer a guarantee for first page rankings for your... Read more →

So, you’ve taken the plunge and launched a corporate blog.  Congratulations!  All of the people that have been telling you for years that it’s a must finally won out, right?  Now, the hard part is here…making it actually worthwhile.  If you just said “Wait, what?” I don’t blame you.  Nobody told you that it was going to be difficult and time consuming.  Nobody told you that it’s not just as easy as throwing up a random thought here and there.  So, if that was your strategy, think again.  Here are 5 common mistakes businesses often... Read more →

On June 20th, TJ Furman from Marketpath was lucky enough to join Lorraine Ball and Allison Carter of Roundpeg on their weekly small business marketing podcast, More Than a Few Words.  The topic was content creation strategies and why just having a blog might not be enough.If you're struggling to come up with content ideas that are interesting, we urge you to listen to the podcast and formulate a plan.  You can listen to the full show here: Podcast Powered By Podbean If you have any additional ideas or want to join the conversation, make sure to leave... Read more →

So, here we are, a little over a year removed from the JC Penny link buying debacle, and another major SEO player has gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar.  I won’t go into detail about the latest case of blatant link buying, as you can find the details somewhere else, but I feel like the issue is worth revisiting.The Equivalent of Buying LinksThe Link Buying ProblemIn case you’re unfamiliar with the tactic, some SEO companies out there purchase links on their client’s behalf to help boost rankings.  This black hat tactic has been... Read more →

Maintenance is a topic that has been on my mind quite a bit lately. Maintenance of my lawn, house, vehicles, finances, children, diet, relationships, hair, and clothing are just a few of the things that must be maintained on a regular basis. Marketpath also requires regular maintenance of our finances, infrastructure, culture, client relationships, custom software, and much more. The key to success is maintaining items in small doses on a regular basis (i.e. performing small tasks here and there). The more consistent I am with regular maintenance, the more likely major problems won't appear. Failure to maintain... Read more →

Traditional outbound marketing and advertising have taken a backseat to “Content Marketing.”  Instead of buying ads, banners, and search rankings, companies all over the web are turning to this relatively new form of attracting and gaining clients and customers.        Content marketing is the creation of unique content for use in     blog posts, videos, white papers, images (infographics), how-to guides,     case studies, to gain more leads and acquire more customers.If the content is unique and interesting, the message can spread across the web quickly.  Users and search engines alike have begun to pick up on this trend, bringing their... Read more →

We’ve covered this topic a bit before on our blog, but recent data that has come to light makes it worth revisiting.  The question is, being a small to medium sized business (SMB), is it time to take a hard look at software-as-a-service (SaaS) for your content management needs?  The short answer – yes.  The longer answer – SaaS CMS platforms have come a long way over the years and provide companies with flexibility and reliability that installed or open-source systems lack. It's Time to Consider SaaS CMSAccording to CMSWire, it is estimated that 34% of... Read more →

Google’s Matt Cutts let the cat out of the bag at SXSW this year and explained that Google would be rolling out a change to their algorithm that actually penalized overly optimized websites.  While he didn’t say what Google was considering “overly optimized”, there has been some speculation as to what it could be."Stop trying to game the system...write better stuff"First things first – Too Much Onsite SEOThis will actually be a pretty common find once Google rolls out the change.  For years, people have been taught to put their top priority keywords in the title... Read more →

I just finished up with a sales meeting and demo of our product.  The potential customer knows they need help (which is a great first step), but even better, one thing was said that made me note they are ahead of the game when it comes to understanding why they need help (going beyond the usual “we need more traffic” statement).  The company admitted they had no idea what their prospects called their products.  Of course they use their industry lingo, but how many different terms could be used to describe their product,  Judging by how many different synonyms he... Read more →

Writers block? Perhaps this can help you find an easy topic for your next blog post. Six topics that might provide a jackhammer to get through the blockage.1) What does your organization do best?Every one has a core competency and strength. What is yours? Why are you the best at it? Avoid being overly blatant, though. Instead provide some examples of why you are the best and let your audience come this conclusion by themselves. Don't tell them. That just gets annoying. It might be fine for a rush hour radio commercial but not in a blog... Read more →

Everyone’s new favorite social network, Pinterest, has been creating front page news for a few months now.  The site has had an explosion of users and has garnered attention because of it.  And just as anyone who follows this sort of thing closely could predict, with the explosion of users came the marketing expert’s advice on how to use it for business.  There are hundreds of blog posts titled “X ways to use Pinterest for business” and “X has crazy, stupid success on Pinterest, and your business could too!”  Before you go jumping onto the bandwagon, there are... Read more →

Marketpath is not an SEO company.  We have never tried to be an SEO company.  We will never try to be an SEO company.  Now, if you’re an existing client, you may be saying to yourself “Wait, these guys had an SEO phase during our project…what gives?”  If you’re an avid reader of our blog, you may be thinking to yourself “Two out of every three articles these guys post mentions SEO…what gives?”  Well, both questions would be warranted, but allow me to retort (said in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice, of course).SEO is... Read more →

Here at Marketpath, we help companies redesign and launch brand new websites with an easy-to-use content management system on the backend.  One challenge that we often run into, however, is gathering compelling content from our clients.  This is a widespread problem, not limited to just Marketpath’s client base, but to anyone that is redeveloping their online presence.  The dreaded “okay, now what do we say?” question always seems to arise.Does your content make me want to do this? Unless you’re paying an outside PR firm or freelance copywriter to write your website copy, it’s... Read more →

Your website isn’t maximizing its value if no one can find it- right?  That’s why Marketpath includes on-site search engine optimization (SEO) services with every website design we provide our clients.  But optimizing a new site is only the beginning.  To improve your rankings with search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, you’ll need to have a living, breathing site that continuously provides new, relevant content for your target audience. Marketpath makes it easy to add content to your site, but that’s just the start.  Marketpath CMS also provides SEO tools that allow you, the... Read more →

Are you starting to outgrown your current web content management system or blogging platform? Migrating your website or blog to a new content management system can be an intimidating task, depending on how much content your current site has.  But no matter what the reason for the move (capability, cost, support, etc.), there are a few steps that you should ensure are handled carefully while performing the migration.  First things first:Get Your ContentWhether this means getting into a database and downloading all of the previous content or posts, or copying the content manually, don’t shut the old site... Read more →

Search engine optimization, for many, can be an extremely daunting and intimidating task. Many of our own clients struggle with the very basics when we are building their sites, which is why we help them out in the beginning.  In an effort to help SEO newbies and first-time website owners, I am prescribing the minimum effective dose for SEO.  For anyone not familiar, the minimum effective dose can essentially be defined as the minimum amount of dosage or activity (i.e. change) needed to produce the desired effect. This term is often used in the world of exercise science... Read more →

This is our second post in our “How Easy is Marketpath CMS” series.  Last week, our video showed you how simple it is to add SEO friendly images to your website using our easy CMS.  This week we’ll demonstrate how effortless it is to add a video to your website using our web content management system for small businesses.   The best way to enhance your organization’s online marketing is to give your team a solution that makes managing and marketing your website easy.  With Marketpath, you don’t need technical experts adding unnecessary time and cost to your... Read more →

There is a certain level of pleasure that comes from making new connections about our history and the social web. Most people think this whole socialization thing on the Internet is new and sometimes it takes a short post by a well known Author to say otherwise. The only part that's new is the Internet. The socialization piece has always been around.Seth Godin's post today is titled "The most important page on the web is the page you build yourself." It's about user generated content and the demise of mainstream mass media. Read it. It's... Read more →

Marketpath CMS was built on the foundation of simplicity.  Everything we do is geared towards helping small businesses and organizations to be both more effective and efficient running their website marketing.  In our opinion, the best way to do that is to make things easy!That’s why anyone can manage and market their website using Marketpath CMS, our easy to use web content management solution. With Marketpath, you don’t need any technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.  Anyone can successfully market their website, adding new pages, blogging, inserting images and videos, managing event and calendars, creating web forms,... Read more →

Over the next few weeks, I will be quickly covering what we are calling "CMS Protips".  This series will feature, in no particular order, a list of tips and tricks to get the most out of your content management system and your website.  Let's get this started! Protip #1 - Automate your Homepage's ContentSince your homepage is most likely the most important page on your website, automating a much of the content as possible makes a lot of sense.  This automated content can consist of blog feeds, upcoming events, news, social media content, or any other type of data... Read more →

If you keep up a blog then you are probably well acquainted with comment spam. This is an inevitable fact of life if you allow comments on your blog (which you should in most cases). At Marketpath, we reached a point with our blogging platform where we were receiving a great deal of comment spam for our own blogs and many of our customers' blogs. Here's an example:Notice how well-written this comment is? Notice its perfect grammar and its amazingly descriptive word choices? That's sarcasm, of course. The good news is that if you are using... Read more →

For small-to-medium sized B2B companies without dedicated marketing departments, content creation can be a daunting task. You’ve been hearing that content is king for years when it comes to search engine optimization, but you just can’t quite put together a process for creating engaging content.  You may feel like your product or service is self-explanatory enough and doesn’t need to be discussed.  You may feel that your product or service isn’t sexy enough to have a blog post written about it.  Whatever the reason (or excuse), content creation  just isn’t being done…... Read more →

If you haven't followed the Netflix debacle, here's a quick overview:In July, Netflix announced it was raising prices on accounts that have both streaming and DVD rentals from $9.99 to $15.98. This actually reflected separate pricing for each service ($7.99 each). Customers were outraged. Netflix almost instantly lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers and was expected to lose a million total - mostly from the DVD-only side. By mid-September, the Netflix stock price was down 20%. Immediately following the stock sell-off and mass cancelation spree, CEO Reed Hastings sent a letter to... Read more →

As a high school junior in 1985, my family purchased our first computer, a Macintosh.  Little did I know at that time that twenty-six years later, I’d be writing a blog (heck the word didn’t exist yet) about the Mac and the founder of the company that introduced it, Apple.  Since that time, Steve Jobs personally has had a hand in revolutionizing the world of technology as well as at least five different industries:computers - Apple II (1977) & Mac (1984) personal computers, Mouse (1984) , iPad (2010)phone – iPhone (2007)music – iPod (2001)retail – iTunes Store (2001), Apple’... Read more →

I'm sure this topic is going to rattle the cages of some self-proclaimed social media gurus, or social media ninjas (as some call themselves). There was a time, just a couple years ago, when many of these social media consultants proclaimed that traditional marketing and advertising was dead and that social media was the new way to reach your target audience. They were wrong.We've had several years to gain insight into the power of social media and the best way to use it. What we've learned is that it isn't about customer acquisition. It'... Read more →

The purpose of most well-crafted business websites is to convert visitors into sales leads (or customers, if your site is ecommerce). There are many aspects that go into engaging your website's visitors and convincing them to give you their information. Some of these aspects are easy to modify and test, like the placement, size and color of call to action buttons. Others are a little more difficult and costly, such as an overall website design change.  However, the element that your site relies on to convert visitors to leads, the form itself, may be hurting your website's... Read more →

A mobile website or mobile ready website is simply an internet site optimized for viewing on mobile devices or smartphones such as the iPhone, Android or Blackberry.  Because mobile gadgets are smaller than computers (with smaller screens), full websites are often difficult to view and navigate via mobile devices. Mobile websites provide a better way for consumers to learn about your organization when they’re on-the-go and typically consist of a “stripped down” version of a website, with less information, prioritized or more important to the mobile user.Visit the Internet Marketing Dictionary for a detailed definition of... Read more →