With 2012 already under way, there is already talk of explosive predictions. This includes what we should expect to see in web design. With new coding developments, more use of technology, and techniques, it is already starting to look like a Michael Bay-esque kind of a year in design. So let’s take a look at [...]

Get excited – the Marketing Sherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report is here! This 200+ page report summarizes information gathered from 2,735 email marketers, with the goal of being the industry standard for email marketing. Some of the most interesting key findings include: 67 percent of organizations plan to incre

If you work in the IT industry, you’ve been hearing about big data for years. These large datasets give users insight into business trends, aid in scientific research and discovery, and much more. The idea of mining big data to uncover meaningful insights can be carried into B2B communications as well, albeit on a smaller

This BtoB magazine headline caught my eye: “CMO Council finds only 9% of agencies doing a good job expanding capabilities.” Ouch! Its hard to thrive as an industry when you are lagging behind the evolutionary curve like that. Apparently, 22 percent of the more than 250 senior marketers surveyed feel their agenci

Over the last week, a couple of things happened that made me think about the importance of language and localized content, especially in a business setting. The first thing was humorous in nature. A Japanese department store posted English language signs in its windows for a sale using an unfortunate four-letter expletive.�

Over on the AdPulp blog, Dan Goldgeier bemoans how infatuation with new technologies are killing the craft of advertising. “Are the fundamentals worth teaching and practicing anymore?” he asks. Well, yes. It’s true that many are playing with social media, mobile devices, and the like without applying basic lessons tha

I first covered this new thing called Google+ in this blog post last June. After a skyrocketing launch, adoption rates plateaued, then dropped off. Many new users signed up for an account but have not been as active with it as with their other SoMe channels (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). As G+ pages were only for [...]

I love this time every year. People are so full of optimism, vowing to keep their New Year’s resolutions and make this year the best yet. Some resolutions might stick and some might not, but the point is to make this year better than the last. Yes, that’s right – optimize 2012! This principle of optimization [...]

If you’re like me, you read a lot of marketing-related newsletters, blogs and publications. Every year about this time, there is a bevy of articles and posts discussing which strategies worked best last year or which tactics will have the greatest success this year. As marketers we spend a lot of time thinking about what�

Are you that guy? Every new project begins with a wall o’ sticky notes. All is well in the early stages of planning–those friendly little brightly colored squares can move wherever and whenever with ease. Each note is a part of your grand design of how the project will run. You know who is doing [...]

If clients don’t know you personally, your written word is the best evidence they have to assess you, and for many people, clear writing infers clear thinking. To make the best impression, use your best writing style.

With the holiday season upon us, we are reminded that helping others is the best gift anyone can give. Keep in mind that a good way to help is to volunteer your professional talents! By volunteering professionally, you are not only providing a service that you know you are good at, but you end up [...]

Nothing says “holiday season” like delicious recipes and tasteless sweaters. In that spirit, we are happy to bring you the annual McBru Holiday Greeting. Enjoy our online recipe book, or click the link at the end to download a PDF version to reference all year round. We hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful holi

We all know a strong call to action is a must for online advertising, but just any old CTA isn’t good enough anymore. In the early days of online advertising a simple “Click Here” on your banner was enough. Now, people are more savvy; they want to know why they should click and what will [...]

Tonight I laughed so hard I cried. First, it was the amazing bird watching guide. Then, it was the T-Pain mic set. But wait, there’s more. A zebra-striped snuggie wrapped in a Sham-Wow! cloth. Pretty cool, huh? I thought so, until I saw the Star Trek flask. It was a night of nights all around, this [...]

That’s a great headline. I admit it. I couldn’t click on the link fast. Why was he naked? What did he do while he was up there? What happened? I needed to know more. What does this have to do with B2B marketing and influencer relations? In this case it’s about making sure when you reach [...]

Over the last couple of years, augmented reality (AR) has been touted as the next big thing in marketing technology. The possibilities for this technology seem limitless. The ability to enhance real world settings with relevant overlays of information and visuals to create a complete,  immersive, experience is a marketer�

Project management is more than overseeing the completion of tasks and meeting milestones. Project management is more accurately “people management”—working with all sorts of people, from fellow staff members, to vendors and freelancers—in a joint effort to get the job done. Are you a Dinosaur or the Siloist? Is you

When we present creative concepts, ideas or executions to our clients we hope that we have nailed it on the first try and all that’s left to do is to ship it. That is not usually the case. We try hard, but we also recognize that design is an interative process. Refining our work with [...]

How do Portland’s digital marketers connect with customers, the latest tactics, great local resources, and the top local network of professionals? Portland State’s Digital Marketing Conference brings together a variety of top-notch sessions on social, mobile, and digital strategies, so attendees can tailor their confere

A recent study by Toolbox.com has provided some validation to the sweat equity put in to social media campaigns for IT vendors of products and services. The report contains a lot of interesting data, but I was most interested in the fact that more than 76% of decision makers and purchasers of IT products and services [...]

We recently conducted research for a client who wanted to better understand how their customers prefer to access and consume technical information. The respondents were a mix of software developers and IT staff and management. The project produced many interesting insights including one chart that speaks to preferences by a

This article in the New York Times today caught my attention: “Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard).” We’re all about technology B2B here at McBru, so we focus the majority of our marketing efforts on engineering types. Through research we’ve conducted and analyzed, we know the U.S. falls

McBru had a wonderful treat with no tricks on Halloween when the daycare across the street brought their kids over for some “trick or treating”. Our employees were filled with glee seeing the little children in their cute costumes. Some kids dressed up as Transformers, Superman, a storm trooper, Captain America, a cowg

This Marketing Sherpa blog post on social email marketing caught my eye because we recently redesigned a client’s email template and this was a hot topic of discussion. What’s the best way to implement social sharing buttons within an email? What do you expect socializing these emails to do for you and your list? Blogge

I’m preparing a spokesperson training for one of our clients, which got me thinking a lot about messaging. More specifically about how in depth B2B focused companies should get when they are talking about their products. I think intrinsically we all know that less is more, but I’ve found when you actually sit down and t

When we’re clearing new ground in strategy or creative development, we’re often asked, “What is the best practice for this approach? For that design element?” It’s our job to know what our peers in the industry are doing and learning. No one has an exclusive on the great ideas and techniques. But breakout work rel

It was a shock to the whole world when Steve Jobs had passed away. As a designer all I could say was “What will the world be without him?”. His ideas revolutionized the world and especially revolutionized my industry. I remember when they came up with the “I am a Mac, and I am a [...]

The term ‘canary in a coal mine’ originated from earlier days when miners would bring the birds with them to serve as early detectors of toxic gases. If the canaries showed signs of sickness, the workers would put on masks or hightail it out of the mines. Social media is taking on the role of the [...]

With Steve Jobs’ passing, the world has lost one of the great technology visionaries and innovators of all time.  Steve Jobs made us think about technology as art, bringing an aesthetic to computer design that truly redefined the way many of us thought about our desktops, laptops and eventually our MP3 players, smart