Marketing Strategy

Between meetings in a Denver coffee shop, a spare laptop charger helped a stranger finish a job interview, and the chat afterward turned into a possible new client. Worst case, a stranger got help landing a job. This short story asks what you can do today to help someone, and how that goodwill can come back to your business.

A good landscaper doesn’t sell you two trees and a water feature off a menu. They look at your yard first. Wild Iris works the same way, and this post lays out the process we follow with each client: assess where you stand, build a strategy around your goals and budget, plan, implement, analyze and reassess every month.

QR codes are everywhere, from restaurant tables to a $16 million Super Bowl ad, but they aren’t always the right tool. This 2022 guide covers where a QR code helps (tickets, sign-ups, reviews, booking) and where it frustrates people, plus the company that printed 100,000 books before noticing the code didn’t go to its website.

Before you start anything new this year, make sure what you already have is working. This January 2022 post lays out a five-step check you can do yourself for free: test your website forms, confirm Google Analytics and Search Console are collecting data, claim your Google Business Profile, and update your listings and social pages.

After an ADA compliance presentation, someone asked the speaker to step out and show off her floral Dr. Martens. The shoes weren’t the message, but they helped people remember it. This 2021 post asks what makes your business memorable and offers simple ideas, from handwritten notes and birthday cards to a signature color and a frequent buyer card.

Starting with iOS 14, Apple made it much harder for apps, websites and emails to track what you do. Written in 2021 by Chris Hanson, this post explains what changed, why it’s good news for your privacy, and why it also makes advertising costlier for the local businesses and non-profits that rely on targeted ads.

Toss one stone into a pond and the ripples fade before anyone on the far shore notices. This 2020 post uses that image to explain drip campaigns: why no one can promise a message will go viral, and why timing each new message and watching how the last one landed gives your marketing more reach.

In fall 2020, COVID pushed restaurants, retailers and medical offices to do business online, fast. This post makes the case for making it easy for customers to find and buy from you, with two client stories: a retailer whose online sales ran nearly 300% over the year before after a rebuild, and a restaurant set up for online ordering.

Originally written for a chamber of commerce newsletter in 2020, this checklist covers seven free things you can do yourself. Update your chamber listing, post a Hot Deal, send an email newsletter, claim your Google listing (then called Google My Business), fix your social media details, schedule a few posts and request an SEO and website health report.

Written on the first day of fall in 2020, this post compares a seasonal refresh of your storefront with your online presence. It suggests reviewing your Google listing, newsletter and social media each season, checking that hours and specials are current, and changing up posts that have settled into a predictable pattern.