We love a bold story at Element Three. It’s what we’re all about. To write a bold story takes a great deal of work that starts with some solid strategy and planning long before designers are picking out color palettes or typefaces. But your story is only going to be as bold as it looks.... The post Leveraging Visuals to Build Your Brand appeared first on Element Three.

How important is company culture? More than ever over the past few years, companies have begun to realize the importance of crafting a strong company culture––and for good reason. Studies are pouring in that show the positive effects of a positive company culture, with statistics like: Companies with an established company culture have a turnover... The post 5 Ways Company Swag Boosts Company Cult...

Programmatic is a hot topic in the advertising world. But honestly, how it is defined and what is or is not “programmatic” is often unclear. Hopefully after reading this you’ll not only get an understanding of what programmatic advertising actually is, but also learn tips for picking the right partner and running successful programmatic advertising... The post How to Start Running Programmatic Adv...

Another year, another terrifying amount of growth in the marketing technology landscape. Based on Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology Landscape, the amount of marketing technology available in 2017 grew about 40% from 2016, and now this year has grown by 27%, meaning the sheer volume of options to build out a marketing stack is larger than... The post Breaking Down the Stack: Defining the Full Ch...

Now over 80 million members strong, millennials have beat out baby boomers as the largest living generation in the U.S. And with their digital-savvy mindsets and devices constantly at their fingertips, they’re also the most distracted generation of all time. 95% of millennials are doing other things while shopping—watching TV, waiting in line, dining with... The post Marketers: 4 Ways to Prove to ...

What is a brand’s identity? Many people consider the logo to be the lone component of the brand’s identity. Yet, a brand is an experience. From the very first time you hear about it on social media to the moment you see the logo or use the brand’s product or service, you’re engaging with something... The post 10 Elements You Can Use to Help Develop Your Brand Identity appeared first on Element Thr...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the drama that brought Mark Zuckerberg all the way up to Capitol Hill. But just in case you somehow missed it, the gist is this: Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, stole private data from Facebook users to influence voters in the 2016 presidential election.... The post What Does Living in a Post-Cambridge Analytica World Mea...

Jim Crowell spent the early part of his professional career trading commodities for a hedge fund based out of Austin, Texas; his passion, however, was truly in fitness. As the fitness industry began to take hold in the early 2000’s, Jim successfully opened and sold multiple gyms in Pittsburgh, PA, before moving to join the... The post Opex Fitness Interview: Driving Demand in a Crowded Marketplace...

Remember sitting in economics class in high school and learning about that one theory that would stick with you forever? I’m talking about TINSTAFL—“there is no such thing as a free lunch.” From that point on, anytime someone mentioned a free meal, TINSTAFL popped in your head. You knew deep down that no matter how... The post 5 Questions You Have to Ask Before Launching a Paid Media Campaign appe...

In today’s professional landscape, 51% of workers are actively looking to leave their current jobs and 73% are open to hearing about new opportunities, which means it’s more important than ever to engage your workforce if you want to win the talent war—and that includes keeping the talent already within the walls of your organization.... The post Bringing Core Values to Life: A Look at “Stay Curio...

One of the first, most basic questions that companies ask themselves when weighing the decision to partner with a modern marketing agency is, “Can we afford it?” If the answer to that question is no, I encourage you to ask yourself a more difficult question next: “Can we afford not to?” If you dig deep—and... The post 5 Ways to Burn Money with a Full Service Agency appeared first on Element Three.

Loyalty is a virtue. But it has to be earned to truly mean something. That’s true in life in general, but it also goes for marketing. Customers won’t just stay loyal to brands because they’re there—you have to earn the loyalty of the people you sell to. Let’s talk about brand loyalty. We’ll investigate some... The post What Brand Loyalty Means for Your Business—and Why It Matters appeared first on...

As marketers, we’re always seeking new ways to more effectively connect with our audiences. Over time in the marketing trenches of e-commerce, I’ve realized how critical it is to structure campaign messaging to best align with the actual needs and language of our customers. Going inside the minds of our customers often requires empathetic marketers... The post 5 Keys to Effective Mobile Conversion...

As martech continues to explode, our team decided to enter the 2018 Martech Stackie Awards on behalf of our own agency as well as some of our clients. The premise is pretty simple—illustrate your own marketing technology stack in a fun, informative way. We couldn’t wait to get started. We paired up some of our... The post What We Learned from the 2018 Martech Stackie Awards appeared first on Eleme...

As marketers, we hear it all the time—websites should be evolving. Iterative. Improving. And we agree. An iterative website not only keeps up with your audience, but it also saves you massive cash in the long run. Complete website overhauls are no joke, after all. So if we know an iterative approach to a website... The post Conversion Rate Optimization: The Gateway to a Truly Iterative Website app...

“How do we stand out from the competition?” It’s a question marketers have been trying to solve since, well, forever. One brand that’s seen success? Roadtrippers. If you’re a road trip junkie, you’ve likely heard of them, used their tool, or consumed some of their content. With over 5.5 million trips booked to date, Roadtrippers... The post 4 Things Marketers Can Learn from the Roadtrippers Brand ...

Previous winners of this marketing technology award include Microsoft, Cisco, and Aprimo. SAN JOSE (April 25, 2018) – Element Three, a full-service marketing agency based in Indianapolis, has won a 2018 Stackie award for a movie-themed visualization of its marketing technology stack. The award given at the MarTech® conference in San Jose, Calif. was one... The post Element Three Claims Coveted Sta...

How can you tell if your creative is successful? It seems pretty straightforward: look at the data. Did your campaign get the results you and the client wanted? Did leads or sales skyrocket? Did you sell out opening day? Did click-through rates go through the roof? Was engagement higher than before? If you’re measuring outcomes... The post How to Audit Successful Creative, Beyond the Numbers appea...

“One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.” – Voltaire Whether you’re leading a marketing department, marketing team, or marketing initiative, if you’re sitting at the tip of the marketing spear for your organization, it’s really easy to get stuck in status quo mentality when making... The post 5 Strategies for Building Your Marketing Budget ...

Superfluous apostrophes are running rampant. You see them everywhere you look: grocery store aisles, blog posts, and signs for everything from antiques to extra-value meals. It seems like people no longer know the difference between the plural and the possessive. If that reads like something from Eats, Shoots & Leaves, I can’t help it; misplaced... The post Rebels Rejoice: 6 Writing Rules You Can ...

We live in a time of change, where financial markets, capital investments, and entire industries can shift rapidly. Where startups disrupt old ways of doing things. And where the consumer is in charge, expecting consistent content delivered across devices. So it’s no surprise that businesses can fall behind or fail to distinguish themselves in such... The post How to Reimagine Your Boring Brand ap...

In my time at Element Three, I have heard the words “why did they decide to do a RFP?” more times than I can remember. It is never said with an air of superiority, but rather with genuine curiosity about why a company elected to go the request for proposal (RFP) route. You see, at... The post Hiring a Marketing Agency? Rethink Your RFP Process appeared first on Element Three.

The web just keeps getting harder, better, faster, and stronger, and that’s mostly due to browsers. Browsers are advancing and adopting new features more rapidly than ever before, giving developers the ability to create better experiences for our visitors without having to wait years for full browser support. So, what does this mean for you?... The post Why You Should Stop Ignoring New Web Browser...

Running paid campaigns can be complex and often involves failure, at least at first. But you can’t throw away every campaign that doesn’t perform right out of the gate. It’s crucial you establish a process for troubleshooting underperforming paid campaigns, as it’s an ongoing process to improve performance. In this article, we’ll outline three major... The post 3 Symptoms to Look for in an Ailing ...

The tech sector has been an incredible force driving innovation in America for decades, including the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple. Large conventional tech hubs such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, New York City, and Seattle have all seen the benefits of the tech sector’s rise. But in 2018, more cities... The post 6 Takeaways from Researching the Nation’s Top Tech Cities app...

In my time at Element Three, email has been one of the hairiest marketing endeavors I’ve been involved with, which might be surprising considering the other awesome, complicated work we do on a regular basis. The reason is that email seems like it should be simple, but there’s a lack of understanding of the complexity... The post 3 Variables That Will Make—or Break—Your Email Marketing appeared fi...

Imagine visiting a website that just seems to get you. The images are relevant to the things you like, and might even be a location close to you or something you’ve recently seen. The words are spot on, and headlines show exactly what you’re looking for. Freaked out? Maybe a little. But I have news... The post Website Personalization: What Is It (and Do I Need It)? appeared first on Element Three.

You might be confusing the marketplace about what products and services your company offers without even realizing it. Many companies that have been in business for a long time, especially those that have grown over the years through acquisitions, gradually become a multi-layered mix of new and legacy brands, each with their own verbal and... The post Why Brand Architecture Matters, and What You C...