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Checking-in or checking-out?

by with No Comment Internet Advertising

Summertime brings with it many wonderful things, including the all-important family vacation.  We’re all busy people, and there are definitely times when it would be nice to unplug completely and get away from work entirely.

DanMatt Media is a family-owned and operated business, and we are a service-based provider.  We don’t manufacture or produce any products, which means we have to be available to our clients when they need us.  I’ll admit, with two young children my wife and I don’t take many family vacations, but I do travel multiple times each year for work.  Additionally, I typically play in two or three out-of-state golf tournaments each year.  With advances in technology (smartphones, wifi on airplanes, etc) it has become very easy to stay plugged into work even when you can’t be in your office.  But is that a good thing?

You can approach this argument from both sides.  On the one hand, everyone needs to step away from work and decompress from time to time.  No doubt about it, that’s just healthy for us.  And vacations are an ideal time to unwind and get away from the pressure and difficulty associated with business.  But on the other hand, if you are a service-based company like we are, you need to make sure that your clients are well taken care-of, and that their needs are met even when you cannot physically be in your office.  You wouldn’t want the emails to pile up and go unanswered, and you certainly wouldn’t want a crisis to spring up and not be handled properly and expediently.

My solution is to check-in for an hour or two every day when I’m out of the office.  That way I can make sure that our clients are receiving the high level of service that they have come to expect from us, and I can stay on top of any issues or problems that may arise when I’m gone.  By limiting my time to an hour or two a day, I can still enjoy my “time off” and decompress, without the worry that I’m too far out of the loop.

That’s what works best for me.  How do you handle time away from the office?

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Is Olympia Fields Country Club overrated? Not in my book.

by with No Comment Internet Advertising

Golf.com, a website that I enjoy visiting quite frequently, just published a list of their 10 most overrated golf courses in the world (http://www.golf.com/photos/10-golf-courses-get-too-much-love).

Ironically, three of those courses were in my college hometown of Chicago (which I consider to have the best collection of golf courses outside of the state of New York).  I’ve played all three of the ones listed in the Chicago area, and I agree with one of them (Medinah).  But Olympia Fields North, which I’m set to play again in a few weeks during their National Fourball Championship, should not be on the list.

Olympia Fields CC is a great, old-fashioned club located in the southwest portion of Chicagoland.  They have two golf courses, the venerable North course (where Jim Furyk won his only major championship in the 2003 US Open) and the recently renovated South course.  The North is long, difficult, and tree-lined, but there are still opportunities for birdies.  Good shots are rewarded, and bad shots are punished.  It’s a scenic and classic test that I very much enjoy playing.  It has all the design elements that one would look for in a great course (length, elevation change, difficulty, water hazards, trees, and bunkers).  I’m not sure what Golf.com thought it was missing, but I haven’t seen anything lacking.

Truth be told Olympia Fields North is not in my top 10 favorite golf courses, and it’s not even my favorite golf course in Chicagoland (that would be Skokie CC), but it is deserving of its place among the Top 100 golf courses in the country.  If you get a chance to play it, I highly recommend that you do.  And the photo above is the beautiful par 4 third hole at Olympia Fields North, just to give you a sense of the grandeur of the place.

SEO company Philadelphia

What are you looking for in an agency partner?

by with No Comment Internet AdvertisingOnline Marketing

Typically I write one of these blog posts a month.  They usually take the form of an essay on either work-related topics, golf, or a timely event (like last month’s entry on March Madness).  But for the month of April I thought I might try something different.  Namely, I’d like to ask the handful of people who read my blog posts what they are ideally looking for in an agency partner.

Giving our clients the services they need at the prices they can afford is a difficult balancing act.  Often the budgets we have to work with are less than what we would like to have in order to guarantee success, but I’d like to think we do a good job with what we’re given.  If you’ve read these posts you know that customer service and transparency are a key component of our agency, and every DanMatt Media client receives both no matter how much they’re spending with us.

But what I’d really like to find out is where our future clients place their priorities.  Is price the most important factor when choosing an online and offline agency to help grow your business?  Is expertise and business acumen the first thing you look for when you select an agency to partner with on your digital marketing campaign?  Are you looking for a balance between the two?  Is your ROI the deciding factor when you make your choice?

I would like to invite anyone reading this post to share some quick feedback on what you would look for in an agency partner.  It’s always helpful to have outside opinions, and we welcome them.  You can send your feedback to info@danmattmedia.com, and I promise you it will be read, reviewed, and taken to heart.

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March Madness? You bet…

by with No Comment Internet AdvertisingMarket ResearchOnline Marketing

The calendar says it’s March, and you know what that means.  Everyone will be talking about March Madness.  Typically that refers to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship (more on that below), but there are other things around here that contribute to March Madness too.

Work:  I suppose every month has some work madness built into it, and March is no exception.  Why?  Well Q1 is always one of the busiest times of the year for us.  We’re launching new initiatives to make our online and offline services more attractive.  We’re designing and implementing new marketing campaigns on behalf of our clients (especially the ones we picked-up in the beginning of the year).  We’re recruiting new affiliate marketing sources to run our performance-based offers in 2015.  It’s a busy time of year, but we’re on top of it.  When it comes to business, a little madness is a good thing.

Kids:  If you have children (particularly young children) then you already know that every month is chock-full of madness, but if not let me explain.  Fighting.  Sickness.  Ear infections.  Tantrums.  Attitude.  It’s not localized just to March, but since the weather is cold and the kids are indoors, you tend to notice it more this time of the year.

Basketball:  OK, here’s the real definition of March Madness.  The conference tournaments are beginning shortly.  After that, the NCAA selection committee will seed the teams and the national tournament will begin.  In our offices we have Duke fans, Maryland fans, and even a single Northwestern fan (yours truly).

Duke enters the month ranked in the top 4 in the nation and looking to punch their ticket to the Final Four.  Maryland enters the month ranked in the top 15 in the nation and looking to make a deep tournament run.  And Northwestern?  They’ll be sitting out the post-season as they do every year, but fear not, they’re getting better.  Another 2 or 3 years and my alma mater will be making their first NCAA Tournament appearance.

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Why I love Valentine’s Day!

by with No Comment Internet Advertising

Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite times of the year.  Part of the reason is because I’m happily married to a beautiful wife, but the truth is I really love Valentine’s Day because it is one of the two biggest times of the year for online flower sales (Mother’s Day being the other).

DanMatt Media happens to have a very large national flower retailer as a client.  One who has been with us for almost 15 years.  We handle both their online and offline marketing, and we put a lot of time and energy into the account at this time of the year.

What this flower client really loves about us is our commitment to customer service and our performance-based marketing channels.  Performance-based marketing takes the risk off of them, because they are only paying us for the orders we generate.  Whether that is on the print side (pay per call) or on the digital side (email, banner/display, and social media marketing) we are able to drive thousands of orders for them during Valentine’s Day, with no risk to the client.

What does all this mean for you (the handful of people who read my blog posts)?  Well, if you have a product you’re looking to sell online, we may be able to help you on a risk-free, pay-for-performance basis.  Get in touch with us today to see if it’s a fit!

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What Winter Means To Me

by with No Comment Internet Advertising

It’s time for our first blog post of 2015, and here we find ourselves in early January.  The holidays are over and everyone is settling back into work.  We’re gearing-up to make 2015 a great year, and while I have a few minutes, I thought I’d write about what winter means to me…

1. It’s cold outside:  We have offices in both the Denver, Colorado and Washington, D.C. areas.  Neither of those locations are particularly warm in the winter.  That means no golf,  scary driving conditions, and occasional school closures.  It’s the last one that really gets to me.

2. I’m excited for our prospects in 2015:  We ended 2014 on a high note.  Q4 brought a couple of new clients, record online flower sales in October, November, and December for one our largest customers, and the addition of our new, low-cost, local SEO option.  2015 is going to be a great year for DanMatt Media and for our clients.

3. The college basketball season is underway:  My alma mater (Northwestern University) is currently 10-5 with a great young coach.  Their prospects have never been brighter.  And of course, Duke (the other team I root for) is 13-0 and ranked #2 in the country.  For the moment, life is good.

4. The NFL playoffs have arrived:  The Redskins went a dismal 4-12 this year and were eliminated from the playoffs while I was still playing golf outdoors, but my adopted hometown Broncos won the AFC West and are hosting the divisional playoff game this Sunday.  It’s a bit of a long shot, but I’m hoping for a return trip to the Super Bowl.

5. The tournament golf season is on the horizon:  It’s about this time of year that I really look forward to playing in a few of my favorite amateur golf tournaments when summer rolls around.  It’s also the time of year when I forget that I only get out to play once a week, and that I’ll never be as good as I once was.  Typically reality starts to set-in sometime around mid to late June.  But for now, I’m full of optimism.

That just about does it.  Winter isn’t my favorite time of year, but hope springs eternal for a great 2015.  Hope you feel the same way!

mobile search engine optimization

How do you know which advertising channel is right for you?

by with No Comment Internet Advertising

Here at DanMatt Media we’re pleased to be able to offer our clients a wide variety of online and offline advertising and marketing solutions.  Our offline channels include print, radio, and television advertising.  Our online (digital) channels include SEO, SEM (paid search), IYP (Internet Yellow Pages), web design, and affiliate marketing (email, banner, and social media marketing).  But how do you know which channels will work well for your business?

The easy answer is to ask us.  A quick call or website submission is all that is needed to get the ball rolling.  We’re always happy to evaluate a potential client’s business and create custom quotes for them.  But as a general rule of thumb, the following guidelines tend to apply to most situations…

Radio and television advertising typically works well for most companies with larger advertising budgets.  These forms of advertising are effective but expensive, as you need enough budget to be able to saturate the air or radio waves with your message.  For example, a single radio spot once a week isn’t going to get you anywhere, but 6-8 of them will.  It typically takes at least $5,000 per month for radio and $10,000 per month for television to run an effective campaign.

Print advertising (yellow pages, magazines, and outdoor advertising) is our other traditional channel, and this medium works very well for service-based companies (plumbers, dentists, electricians, lawyers, etc).  It can work well for companies that sell a product too, but it’s variable.  Print also has the advantage of a performance-based offering, our pay-per-call option.  With pay-per-call our print clients only pay for the valid phone calls that they receive, so it’s risk-free advertising for them.  We were one of the very first agencies to offer pay per call to our clients, and it has worked beautifully for many, many years.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) marketing works well for almost every client.  85% of all the search engine traffic on Google and Bing is routed to the organic side of the page, and that’s where SEO ads are found.  SEO ads run 24/7 and are highly effective ways to get your company in front of your targeted audience.  Best of all, with the addition of our new local SEO plans we are now able to help smaller businesses who service a single metro area.  Our SEO plans start at only $299 per month and there are no longterm contracts to sign.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is our other search engine offering, and it too works well for almost all business types.  Paid search is a highly effective way to advertise your product or service, it’s completely targetable to just about anyone, and typically generates results very quickly.  All of our SEM campaigns include monthly reporting at no additional charge, and can be fully customized to fit any business need.  SEM requires a larger budget than SEO, as paid search ads only run when there is enough budget to keep them up.  But when paired with SEO it’s an excellent one-two punch to give you a complete online presence.

Lastly, our affiliate marketing channel, which includes banner/display, email, and social media traffic, is an excellent performance-based offering that works well for online product sales and lead generation campaigns.  In other words, if you’re selling a product online, or you’re looking to generate leads through an online form, we can help you.  Many of these campaigns offer the advantage of pay-for-performance, which means our clients only pay us for the products we sell or the leads we generate.  There are no upfront costs and no longterm contracts to worry about.

We have a lot of services to offer our clients, and in many cases several of these options are used to create a comprehensive online and offline advertising campaign.  We specialize in bringing our clients increased business at the best rates possible.  If you’re looking to grow your company, give us a call or send us a website request.  We’re here to help!

 

iPhone 6

The new iPhone 6; as reviewed by a regular Joe

by with No Comment Internet Advertising

Having just picked up a new iPhone 6, I thought I might take this opportunity to comment and review Apple’s latest product.  I thought that a review from an everyday guy approaching middle-age might be useful, as opposed to the typical reviews you read from 20 year old geniuses who speak a completely different language than the rest of us.

I’ve been an “Apple guy” for quite some time.  It started about 8 years ago when I traded in my old Sony Vaio laptop for a shiny new Apple iBook.  I had that iBook for about 4 years before trading up for a Macbook Pro, which I still use as my work computer today.  I even have an iPad Air, which comes in quite handy when I travel for business (you know how much legroom the airlines offer in economy class these days).

I had the original iPhone all those years ago, and eventually traded it in for an iPhone 4.  Fast forward some 4 years later and I’m now the owner of the new iPhone 6.  In fact, about 2/3 of our staff uses an iPhone (various models) and about the same percentage of us use Macs for our work computers.

I didn’t have any trouble choosing the iPhone 6 over the 6 Plus.  Both appear absolutely huge to me, but the smaller iPhone 6 still fits in my pants pocket (the 6 Plus is ENORMOUS, and looks like a tablet that has been put on a vegan diet).  The 6 is considerably thinner and lighter than my old iPhone 4, and has a remarkably sharper resolution on the screen.  Battery life and processing speed are similarly impressive, as is the new camera (which I only really use to take pictures of golf courses and my kids).

But to be honest the new iPhone 6 isn’t really that different from the previous models (the 5 and 5S).  Apple Pay is a nice idea, but it isn’t really something that I envision using anytime soon.  The built-in Health app is nice, but it’s a lot of work to upload everything you’ve eaten and all the exercise you did, and who wants to feel worse about that donut you ate at 3 pm while sitting at your desk?  Most of the other features haven’t changed from past iterations.

Is the new iPhone 6 worth the price?  Probably not for a guy like me, who doesn’t get all that excited about the newest and greatest tech gadgets.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s a nice phone, with a slim design, a lightning fast processer and a great screen.  But it’s bigger than I’d like and costs more than it should.  But would I get it again?  Yeah, sure.  Especially because I tend to hang onto these things for 4+ years.

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Low Cost SEO: You asked for it; we delivered

by with No Comment Internet AdvertisingOnline Marketing

You’ve probably heard that old saying, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too”…

Here at DanMatt Media we’ve never claimed to be the cheapest advertising agency in the business. We’ve always placed our client’s needs, our commitment to customer service, and our dedication to quality and integrity at the forefront of what we do. We do that even when those values create higher prices that prevent us from signing a new client. After all, the true measure of ROI is not how much you invest in something, but rather what you get in return.

During the last few years we’ve had to turn away quite a few potential clients. Not because we couldn’t help them to grow their businesses, but because they could not afford our rates for local SEO marketing. These were companies that we knew we could help, but we couldn’t offer them a solution that fit into their budget. And neither of us benefit when these potential clients are forced to work with partners that deliver substandard SEO marketing.

Out of those frustrations grew our new, low-cost, local SEO solution. We’re still offering the same great customer service, the same commitment to our client’s needs, and the same dedication to quality and integrity, but at a vastly reduced rate. These local SEO campaigns will focus on clients who serve a single state or metro area (for example; the Washington, DC or Denver, CO metro areas). They will involve small numbers of highly relevant keywords, custom link building, and unique content, and of course they will still include our monthly reporting at no additional charge. Best of all, we are offering our new local SEO solution with no long-term contract. That means clients can cancel at any time, and are not locked into anything for the long-haul.

We’re excited to expand our suite of digital marketing solutions to include a new low-cost, local SEO option. This new offering gives DanMatt Media the ability to help virtually everyone to grow their operation, while at the same time remaining true to the values that have kept us as leaders in the online and offline advertising industry for the past 20 years.

And that old saying above? Well, maybe it is possible to have your cake and eat it too!

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Oak Hill East; My Kind of Golf Course…

by with No Comment Internet Advertising

September brings with it a lot of great things.  The start of the NFL season, cooler temperatures, the leaves changing colors, and pumpkin bread at your local Starbucks.  But for me, the best thing that September brings is the John R Williams Invitational, at historic Oak Hill Country Club.

Oak Hill Country Club, located just outside of Rochester, New York, has two world-class golf courses.  The West course is a Donald Ross design, and it’s a real treat to play.  But it’s the longer, tougher, more famous East Course that I really love.  The East Course is the only course in the world to have hosted every major men’s golf championship that moves around (the US Open, the PGA Championship, the US Amateur, the US Senior Open, the US Senior PGA Championship, and the Ryder Cup).  Just last year it hosted the PGA Championship, won by Jason Dufner.  But every September the club opens its doors for their annual invitational for nationally-ranked mid amateur golfers.  And I’ve been fortunate enough to get that invitation for the last few years.

Oak Hill East is a traditional, tree-lined golf course that has every design element a golfer could want (trees, rough, bunkers, water hazards, and elevation changes).  Here in the Denver area we have several classic, tree-lined golf courses that have some of those same design elements (including Cherry Hills Country Club, which is hosting the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship this week), but none of them can hold a candle to Oak Hill East.  For starters, Oak Hill East plays at least 500 yards longer than any of the courses out here in Denver, due to the lack of altitude.  Second, there are at least 10 times as many trees at Oak Hill as there are at any course here in Colorado.  And finally, the piece of property that Oak Hill sits upon is just better than anything we have here in Colorado.  There really is no comparison.

For a guy who loves classic, old, tree-lined golf courses there is no better place to play than Oak Hill’s East course.  It is literally my favorite golf course in the world.  If you ever get the chance to play it, I recommend you drop everything and do so.  And the picture above?  It’s the world famous 18th green at Oak Hill East.