The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

James Schulman

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What Do You Really Want Out of Your SEO Marketing Campaign?

The world is your oyster, and so too are your SEO opportunities. Given the vast possibilities for digital marketing, it’s imperative to zero in on your focus before proclaiming “SEO is the goal!” Because what does that even mean anymore? Honestly, nothing without a refined focus. Keyword stuffing is not going to take you where you want to go, but where do you want to go and why? Before embarking on an SEO marketing campaign, step back and ask yourself what you really hope to achieve with your efforts. Then, devise a strategy to go out there and do it.

Defining Your SEO Goals

When most people think of search engine optimization, they’re envisioning all the ways they can climb to the top of search result ranks faster. To that end, there are several things you can do, but it may not be the only thing you want to do. Before deciding on the means to the end, you need to know the end. What is the motivation behind doing what you want to do? 

First, consider your priorities:

  • Do you want to rank first in search results (and why)?
  • Do you want more phone calls each day?
  • Do you want fewer clients for more money?
  • Do you want to establish lasting relationships with your clients?

These and other priorities will guide your SEO strategy because there is an SEO for each of these motivations, they’re just all different. 

An SEO for Your Goal

Now that you know your goal, you can build out your SEO marketing campaign. For example, if your goal is to rank first in search engine results, you’ll need to make sure your site structure, speed and usability are at peak performance. This falls more broadly under the scope of technical SEO. When focusing on technical SEO, you’ll conduct a site audit and ensure all the behind-the-scenes tags and meta descriptions are complete, your site is mobile friendly, you have proper heading structure, lots of backlinks, etc. It’s more of a one-and-done exercise.

As you look to establish lasting relationships with your clients and grow your business, however, you need to prioritize more than just rank. You also need to demonstrate authority and answer questions. 

Part of the playbook here is ensuring you deliver consistent, quality content that reads well (hello, blogs). Moreover, with the AI overview feature on Google and a steep increase in user-activated voice search, it’s even more critical that your site delivers. That means it answers more questions and does it better than the rest.

As you mull over what you really want out of your SEO marketing campaign this year, don’t hesitate to bounce your thoughts and ideas off us. We’re here to help you reach your marketing goals strategically and effectively. Call us today to schedule a consultation. 

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How to Set Your Small Business Up for Marketing Success in 2025

The start of a new year can bring on a feeling of freshness and enthusiasm for small businesses. Even if your fiscal year doesn’t align with the calendar year, January still beckons renewal. It should also be a time for reflection. If you want to set your business up for marketing success this year, and we mean really set your business up for success, we recommend taking a full and complete step back, like all the way back. To the very beginning.

Build Your Foundation for Marketing Success

The foundation for any marketing strategy lies in establishing your core values, vision and goals. You can’t go out into the world to market your business if you aren’t able to clearly define your business focus and process for delivering success. 

No matter if you’re a startup or an established business with decades of success under your belt, it’s always a good idea to step back and revisit the foundational components that make your business tick. Here are some areas for your SMB to reflect on:

  • What are your core values?
  • What vision do you have for your business?
  • What is your process for delivering success?
  • What is your focus for this quarter, this year, the next 3-5 years?

Though this exercise takes a little time and effort, the results are fruitful. For one, it brings your priorities back into clear focus and prevents them from getting diluted by the dozens of other tasks that inevitably fall on your plate. It also establishes accountability for your goals and ultimately drives your marketing strategy.

Armed with fresh insight and renewed focus, you can map out your short- and long-term goals and ensure your marketing plan directly supports those goals. 

Success Begets Success

Setting your small business up for marketing success in 2025 is all about going back to the basics. Revisit your core values, vision and focus so you can ensure that your marketing efforts support your overall business objectives. If you need guidance, accountability or a team ready to implement an effective marketing strategy that supports your goals, turn to us at The Found Gen.  

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What to Expect in the World of Marketing in 2025

Ready or not a new year is upon us, and with it comes uncertainty tinged with opportunity. While no one knows quite what the year will bring, we are all poised to make our predictions. No doubt technology will continue to play an ever-increasing role in the ways we interact with products, services and each other, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon traditional marketing tactics. 

On the contrary, now may be the perfect time to lean into that which we can control – the content you post on your website, the emails you send to your prospects and clients, and other tried-and-true marketing strategies that yield results year in and year out. 

New Year, Same Game Plan

As you begin putting your 2025 marketing strategy in motion, bright, flashy objects will surely garner your attention. Generative AI, voice search, viral videos and more will all be relevant and impact how we market our businesses. They just shouldn’t dominate your focus. If you let your eyes veer too far off the mark, progress will suffer. 

Likewise, social media is another bright shiny object we love to hate, and at the present moment, it finds itself going through some serious upheaval (see Twitter, Meta, TikTok). As a business, you should be prepared for big changes on platforms you don’t have control over.

Instead of putting all your eggs in one marketing basket (especially a basket you have no control over!), stick with what works – put your efforts into blogging, email marketing, and more traditional or outside-of-the-box strategies rather than relying heavily on social media this year. Your future marketing efforts will thank you.

As we wade into the waters of 2025, stay focused on your short- and long-term goals. Avoid the temptation of getting swept up in what everyone else is doing and take charge of what you can control – building relationships, sharing insight and serving up solutions that meet your clients’ needs. Our team at the Found Gen is here to help. Call us today to schedule a consultation. 

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Are You Getting the Most (Business) Out of LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the social media platform for professionals, but it’s become so much more than just a place to share professional accomplishments, search for jobs, and connect with other industry professionals — it is a powerful tool to grow your business, especially when you apply some grassroots business development efforts. 

Why LinkedIn is Networking 2.0

Small businesses looking to grow their market share know they need to be on LinkedIn. What they don’t always know is the best way to leverage the social media platform to grow their business. 

Sure, optimizing your business profile is key, as is sharing valuable content and engaging with other people’s posts to improve your visibility and strengthen relationships, but there’s another networking strategy that may not have crossed your mind: grassroots relationship building – starting at the lowest levels of an organization. 

Here’s an example to demonstrate what we mean.

A client of ours wanted to grow their network and secure new business with a previously out-of-reach industry connection. Leaders of the two companies had never met and shared very few, if any, mutual connections. Our mission was to leverage LinkedIn in a way that would allow our client to break into this new relationship by establishing a pool of shared connections. 

Our first step was to connect our client with lower-level employees within the target organization. On behalf of our client, we reached out to numerous employees within the company, asked them to connect and, one by one, began building a network of shared connections. Slowly we worked our way up the organization chart by adding more and more employees from this company to our client’s LinkedIn network.

By the time our client reached out to the other business leader asking to connect, we had already built up a large pool of mutual relationships. Before the other business leader connected with our client, they saw the dozens (or more) shared connections and referrals, which led them to readily accept our client’s invitation to meet. 

These baby steps were instrumental in securing the new connection – and ultimately led to a new business deal between the two organizations. 

Need a Networking Nudge? Call us at The Found Gen for Help

Networking has always been the bread and butter of building a business. The same rules apply when leveraging a social media platform like LinkedIn. With patience and the right strategy, you can grow your network – and your business.

To learn more about social media marketing and getting the most out of LinkedIn, contact our team at The Found Gen today. 

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How Can You Get Quick, Custom-Designed Marketing Material for Your Business

Guess what? Real design takes real work. It’s not AI-generated. It’s not machine-driven. It’s creative, it requires extensive mental power to get an audience to visually relate to your brand, and… It. Takes. Time. 

Ask any designer out there – heck, even give it a try yourself on a site like Canva – and you will discover just how much effort goes into developing and delivering a polished, professional piece of marketing material. 

So, when any business is looking for a rush design project, they need to face the facts. They can pick two: good, fast or cheap. 

  • Need a rush job? You can get it fast and cheap, but it won’t be good. 
  • Need something fast and good? Expect to pay a premium for it.
  • Want good and affordable? Well, forget fast.

Of course, even when you do pick two, there’s always more to the story…

The Iceberg of Immediacy

Immediacy has a way of causing even the calmest of us to get a serious kick of adrenaline. At times, immediacy can’t be avoided. Events outside our control require us to act, and in those instances, we may need to make compromises in order to get the job done. 

But when rush job after rush job is the result of poor planning, it’s time to reevaluate your marketing strategy. We see it all too often, but what can be easy to forget in the heat of a rush job moment is that every time an urgent matter rises to the top, it means other priorities are effectively getting sidelined. All those other marketing goals you set for your team? Yep, they’re still there. They’ve just now sunk beneath the surface and are suddenly less and less attainable.

Can you get quick, custom-designed marketing material? Yes, for a price (and we’re not just talking budget there). Consider your marketing goals and business priorities as you weigh your alternatives and assess whether quick and cheap is worth it for your needs. If you want a second opinion, give us a call at The Found Gen. We’re happy to offer up our two cents (free of charge).

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How Often Should You Refresh Your Branding

Some brands seem to have life eternal – Nike, Coca-Cola, BMW. Everyone knows these and other power players of our time, and while they’re in a league of their own, even these big hitters have to make tweaks to their brand and image over time to stay relevant with their audience.

You should be doing the same, but exactly how often you need to refresh your branding can be a bit nuanced. Here are some things to keep in mind as you consider the question of how frequently to refresh your branding. 

Brand Evolution vs. Revolution

Trends evolve annually, but even the most fashion-forward of us aren’t going to refresh our brand that frequently unless it becomes necessary (like if you merge with another business or undergo a major business change). After all, brand recognition is built on consistency. Too many haphazard changes is just confusing.

Instead, it’s helpful to consider your brand’s look and feel in terms of an ongoing evolution rather than waiting to drop a full-scale brand revolution. This type of approach enables you to make smaller upgrades on a more frequent basis to keep your style fresh and relevant to your readers.

3 is the Magic Number

These brand refreshes should be considered every three to five years, though this may vary depending on the medium in question. For example, websites, email templates and social channels benefit from upgrades like a new font or other visual refreshes that modernize the brand every three-ish years, whereas printed materials can be stretched a bit farther. 

With everything, the general idea is that you’re always continuing to move forward – even if the updates are subtle. You need your brand to represent your business as it stands today (and tomorrow) – it can’t be stuck two decades in the past. If it is, you’ll immediately lose credibility before you even have a chance to earn it.

Call Us Today to Get Started 

If it’s been 8, 10 or (gasp!) more years since you’ve thought about your logo and brand, it’s time to call us at The Found Gen. We can help revive your brand and keep your messaging and design on point for the future.