We believe it’s important to try to be a good neighbor and a responsible resident of planet Earth. That starts with small things: like picking up trash; conserving energy; reducing the waste we send to the landfill; and cutting the number of miles we drive.

We’ll keep looking for ways to do more, but here are a few of the things we’ve put energy into lately:

• We are happy to report we were recently recertified by BRING’s RE:think Business program, which helps businesses learn to operate with a lighter environmental footprint and then recognizes those who meet their criteria.When we were first recognized in 2010, there were just seven other certified businesses. Today, we’re thrilled to see we are one of more than 60 (including our fine client Burley).
• We are one of EWEB’s Greenpower business partners, supporting clean, sustainable electricity.
• This week, we have 92 percent employee participation in the 2013 Business Commute Challenge, a local effort to cut the number of people driving alone to work each day.
• And we also recently learned we’ve been selected as one of the 100 Best Green Companies to Work For by Oregon Business magazine. But we’ll tell you more about that after the awards luncheon later this month.

The post It’s easy being green! appeared first on CAWOOD.

Some say traditional advertising is passé. Of course, that’s not true. Not yet, anyway! What is true is that successful companies know how to maximize their marketing investment by integrating well-planned and effective digital and traditional marketing methods.

Here is one way we’ve done that. Since blue chip started publishing, our ad has appeared on its back cover. This month’s ad asks a simple question: What if this marketing team worked for you? The answer: You’d Be Known! That’s because we bring creativity and pragmatism, innovation and tradition, energy and proven experience.

We repurpose each month’s ad through Facebook, a blog post, and mentions in our e-news. We also complement our blue chip ads with Community Leaders Together ads that highlight how our staff gives back to the community.

Watch for our next ad, which will feature 25 nonprofit organizations that received volunteer services from our staff. We’re proud of what our community does to help each other, and we salute our staff for their community involvement.

Our business has grown as a result of offering highly–targeted strategic integrated marketing services. The blend of advertising with digital repurposing has clicked with our clients and positively affected their bottom lines.. Here’s what Russell Hoeflich, vice president and state director for The Nature Conservancy of Oregon, said: “You and your team hit a home run for us! Your work ethic, team approach and capacity to quickly assimilate complex information and convert into compelling text and graphics is inspiring.”

Remember, a successful business never stops asking what if? And, we’ve helped thousands of businesses over the years answer that question and drive bottom line results. We can help you Be Known too!

The post We advertise. Do you? appeared first on CAWOOD.

From noon – 1 p.m. that day, we’ll don gloves and CAWOOD apparel, head into the neighborhood and pick up litter. And as we mentioned on our Facebook page, anyone is invited to join us!

Stay tuned to our Facebook and Google+ pages, along with our YouTube channel, for a video of the day’s activities and interviews with those participating!

The post Earth Day in Eugene appeared first on CAWOOD.

It used to be, companies simply told consumers what to purchase, be it a car, food, etc. They espoused the benefits of their products through TV or radio ads, or by going door-to-door selling their wares. This was, and is, push marketing. The advertiser is literally pushing their message to you.

Of course, this type of marketing remains popular. Just turn on the TV. There aren’t any fewer commercials airing; in fact, there are probably more than ever. Or open your mailbox. Yep, the “junk” mail is still there. This tells us two things: one, push marketing isn’t dead (and never will be), and two, it still works. As much as people say they hate commercials, look at how many watch the Superbowl to see what Doritos or Taco Bell will do next.

But it’s not the only strategy anymore. It should be used in concert with pull marketing. Pull marketing involves creating content, sharing it and building your brand. Much like the “If you build it, they will come,” line from “Field of Dreams,” businesses are now sharing (and customers are finding) useful information on Twitter, education posts on Facebook and SEO-optimized blog posts like this one.

That’s right, this blog post is marketing to you as you read it. Can you feel it? It’s being written by a CAWOOD employee but nowhere in this post do I talk about CAWOOD’s marketing prowess, our amazing videography skills, our – oh, wait, sorry.

What I am doing is providing information to an audience that hopefully finds it useful. If they can take away a few nuggets and apply them to their business, that’s great. If they find an area where we can help, even better.

Along with social media marketing’s various platforms, other examples of pull marketing are search engine marketing (where your website’s listings appear in front of relevant searchers), speaking engagements, white papers and podcasts.

Understanding the difference is the easy part. It gets more challenging finding a successful combination of these strategies for your business!

The post The difference between push and pull marketing appeared first on CAWOOD.

So, what if we asked folks around Eugene some intriguing “What if” questions, had our videographer film their answers, and showed them to all of you?

Introducing the CAWOOD “What if …” video series! You can check out the first two, and all future installments, on any of our social media channels – YouTube, Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn.

If you have ideas for questions, let us know on our Facebook page!

The post CAWOOD “What if…” videos appeared first on CAWOOD.

And while we could list five, even 10 reasons, we’re going to give you just three, which are probably all you need!

1. The stats

• With more than 12 million American users it’s the third most popular social media network in the United States.
• 28 percent of users have a household income of more than $100,000
• According to a study by Convertro, Pinterest represented 17.4 percent of social media revenue for e-commerce sites in April 2012, up from just 1.2 percent in Q2 2011. The data was taken from 40 of its clients, most of which are top-500 Internet retailers.
• According to a Bizrate report, 69 percent of online consumers who visited Pinterest found an item they’ve purchased or wanted to purchase (compared to only 40 percent who visit Facebook).

2. People love photos

Pinterest is all about photos – pinning and sharing your own, re-pinning and liking others, and discovering things you just have to have (through photos!). This is why Facebook weighs posts with photos more heavily and is currently rolling out a new, more image-focused Newsfeed. It’s why Instagram has 100 million monthly active users.

Even if your business doesn’t sell tangible products that you can take photos of, you can still participate. All you need is a smart phone or a camera. Take CAWOOD for example. We don’t sell widgets, but we do produce cool logos, print ads, websites and more for our clients. Boom! These are photos. We also have fun in our office – more photo (or video) opportunities. Yes, you can post videos, too, for even more engagement.

3. Increased traffic to your website and other social channels

Each of your photos is allowed a link. So when a user clicks on an image, you can take them anywhere – your website, Facebook page, Twitter page.

In May 2012, Whole Foods had been on Pinterest just 10 months and Twitter 4½ years. At that time, Pinterest had passed Twitter as Whole Food’s No. 2 source of online referrals and was up to nearly half the referral traffic of Facebook.

Further, each photo on Pinterest not only gives users a chance to re-pin or like it, but share it across their own social channels.

That’s it! Three short but compelling reasons to use this free, growing and easy-to-use tool to reach a wider audience.

Still thinking it’s not for your biz? Tell us why!

The post Three reasons to use Pinterest for business appeared first on CAWOOD.

Put these two statistics together and what do you get? The fact that you should not forget about Yelp.

A local directory service with social networking and user reviews, Yelp had more than 100 million monthly unique visitors as of January 2013, up from 71 million on the same time last year. And by the end of Q4 2012, “Yelpers had written more than 36 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists.” -Yelp.com

Business pages on Yelp also rank well in Google search results. For example, a search today for CAWOOD Eugene, Oregon puts our Yelp page at No. 7 on Page One of said results.

Much like having a presence on Facebook, claiming and optimizing your Yelp business page is becoming a must for any B2B or B2C organization. By claiming your page, you can brand it with your logo, company photos and a link to your website. Yelp also includes areas on the page where you can provide company and owner information.

When someone reviews your business, Yelp allows you to thank or respond to the reviewer. So if someone posts a review that is not of 5-star caliber, you can leave a reasoned response.

If you haven’t yet, it’s time to claim your business page. Once that’s done, encourage friends, family, clients and customers to post reviews.
If you need some help along the way, let us know!

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A few days ago, Facebook announced a new look to its News Feed, touting it as “The best personalized newspaper in the world” and saying will better personalize users’ content.

With this change comes the following updates:

• Users can sort feeds to see just photos, stories from people and brands they follow, stories about only close friends, and more
• A larger, more visually-appealing News Feed emphasizes photos and videos
• Articles posted will include a larger image and a longer summary

If you’ve seen your ticker disappear but no change in the look of your News Feed, you’re not alone. Facebook is rolling the changes out slowly. But, as it did with Graph Search, you can get a look at what’s coming and add your page to a waiting list, here.

The post My Facebook ticker disappeared! appeared first on CAWOOD.

Every project and every client has its own dynamics and needs. But regardless of the project scope or parameters, a few basic guidelines are tried and true, all based in communication:

1) Establish intended outcomes, parameters, timeline and budget early in the process. While this may change as the project progresses, clear expectations at the get-go are critical to the project’s success.

2) Communicate well and often. Good communication is an important part of CAWOOD’s “Collaborative” value. Remember that a key to communicating well is the ability to listen.

3) Be clear about next steps and task delegation. At the end of each meeting, clearly state new assignments, who’s responsible, the time frame and deadlines. Sometimes two people can be a part of the same conversation and walk away with different understandings, so it’s always best to be sure you’re on the same page.

4) Keep good records of communication. After each meeting or phone call, recap the discussion and decisions made in writing, including next steps. Use your judgment; depending on the project or client, summarizing every meeting or phone call might be a bit much.

These four guidelines could seem obvious and simple, yet they are fundamentals for successful project management. It’s like doing drills for a sports team practice to stay in shape for the big game. Though sometimes tedious, athletes realize that perfecting the basics leads the way to a win.

At its core, project management is about communicating. And more communicating, just to be clear.

The post Communication is key to project management appeared first on CAWOOD.

Let’s begin with the definitions:

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the art and science of acquiring high-ranking organic placement in the results page of a search engine (SERP), such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. SEO increases a site’s accessibility to a search engine and improves the chances that its pages are spidered by said engine.

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. It is the act of increasing a website’s visibility in search engines through optimization and advertising. In this respect, SEO can be seen as a subproduct of SEM. But in many cases, SEM is the strategic use of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) listings in SERPs. These are purchased ads that appear at the top and right hand side of a search results page.

By definition, one seems to be free and the other comes with a price, right? Not so fast.

While a PPC ad costs the advertiser each time it’s clicked and an organic listing’s click fee is $0, SEO is not without a cost.

SEO is a time-consuming, ongoing process. As the definition states, there is an art and a science to letting Google know that your site is there and its pages are worth indexing – keywords must be researched, content (that speaks to Google and your audience) must be prepared, links must be garnered, and so on. The cost of SEO comes in the form of planning, strategy, execution and monitoring.

A successful SEM campaign demands similar planning and strategy levels, and comes with a fee for each click. So SEO must be the better way to go, you say. Hold your horses again, hoss.

One of the biggest differences between SEO and SEM is in the amount of control the advertiser has. With SEM, you get to pick which of your site’s pages show up for which keywords, and where on the SERP they’ll rank. With SEO, those choices are up to the search engine.

The truth is, for many businesses, a strategy that includes both SEO and SEM is the way to go. If done correctly, these tactics combine to attract new customers and produce a healthy ROI.

The post What’s the difference between SEO and SEM? appeared first on CAWOOD.