Marketing Strategy

You expect your accountant to tell you when the numbers don’t add up. Your marketing agency should too. Here’s why a good one will push back on a brand color that hurts readability, an SEO plan that casts too wide a net or a timeline that isn’t realistic, and why that honesty is what you hired them for.

A hotel bar served coffee in the morning and cocktails after 2PM, and turned away every guest who wanted one with the other, even though both sat on the same counter. That’s a common business gap. Here’s how listening to client requests led Wild Iris to add content writing, and how a local realtor built a downsizing service.

Your agency sent the invoice and the content is showing up. But who actually built your website, and who (or what) is writing your social posts? Here are four plain questions to ask about outsourced web work, AI-written content and recycled material, so you know you’re getting the work you paid for.

Who owns your domain, your Google Analytics and Ads accounts, your email list, even your phone number? If the answer isn’t you, changing agencies can leave you starting over. This post shows how businesses give up ownership without realizing it and what a healthy chain of ownership looks like.

Reports, dashboards and monthly calls can make an agency look busy without moving your business forward. This check-up helps you revisit why you hired them, spot pricing tied to your ad spend, and ask whether your website is actually getting better. If your leads vanish the moment the ads pause, you’re paying for dependency.

Some businesses pay for Google Ads for years and never build organic search visibility, so leads dry up the moment the ads pause. This plain FAQ explains the difference between organic SEO and pay-per-click, why some agencies push ad spend, and how to tell if your marketing leans too hard on paid clicks.

Run ads when it’s slow, post more when someone suggests it, change a few colors on the website. Reactive marketing is common, and it’s a big reason results feel inconsistent. Written heading into 2026, this post walks through a year-end review, setting realistic goals and getting your website, social media, blogs and newsletters working toward the same plan.

When someone searches “best plumber near me,” you’re up against national chains and big ad budgets. SERP Zero is Wild Iris’s name for winning that customer before the search ever happens, through social posts, community sponsorships, newsletters and networking, so people look up your name instead of your category.

Page one of Google in a few days and a flood of new customers? That’s not how marketing works, and expecting it leads straight to “marketing doesn’t work.” This post sets realistic expectations for SEO, traffic, engagement and paid ads, and explains why ten well-matched visitors beat a hundred who bounce.

When Colorado businesses had to close their doors in 2020, the ones that kept going leaned on the basics: updated Google Business Profiles, email and accurate websites. This look back covers what worked, including Denver’s Tessa Delicatessen, whose daily orders nearly doubled after it added simple website ordering, and why the same habits still help today.