Should Business Owners Think in Terms of Systems?

Business owners should think in systems. Flowing processes, branches, and patterns. Or so we’re told … our education is in design, programming, and writing…

“Process” used to be sort of a dirty word around here. We didn’t want to be formulaic. We didn’t want to treat every client the same way. We wanted to invent ourselves anew for every project. It sounds pretty great in theory.

In actuality, it lead to a chaotic workflow, poor communication with clients, and a general feeling of aimlessness. Not to say we were ashamed of the work we were putting out; quite contrary. But we were making things harder on ourselves and our clients by not thinking about processes. Something had to change.

Almost a year ago we started working on a process manual. It’s incredibly hard and cathartic work. So much of what you do as a company happens by instinct. Putting it in writing takes lots of perspective. But we kept at is, and we ended up with a lot of incredibly useful information.  (more…)

Koalas Don’t Take Much Action, But We Did!

We came across something over the long weekend that caught our eye for a few different reasons. It’s a website geared toward saving Koalas. And it’s why we’re the proud new adoptive parents of Kirra, a joey from the Pine Koala Sanctuary in Australia.

Koalas are Awesome … and Endangered.

They’re cute, fluffy and spend an insane amount of time munching on eucalyptus leaves while watching the world go by. What’s not to like? It’s sad, though. They really never recovered from the fur trade frenzy of the 19th and 20th centuries, and now there’s even more threatening their existence. Things like logging, urban development and disease are causing the Koala population in Australia to diminish with every passing year.

We Took Action.

We like Koalas as much as the next guy, so when we came across this site we were instantly intrigued. But what we found caused us to take physical action – we adopted one! The creators of the website have done something really cool with their fundraising efforts by making it incredibly personable. They practically made it impossible not to participate. You can adopt an actual Koala, which we think is way more fun than just giving money to an organization. Or you can join the Koala Army, document a Koala spotting, shop around, and even plant a tree that will help invigorate the Koala’s natural habitat. There are so many ways to get involved, you can’t help but take action somehow.

We really think these guys are doing the fundraising thing right. So on that note … Save the Koalas!

Get More out of Google Adwords with Sitelinks

Sitelinks show up directly underneath the main search result, and point to pages deeper within the site. They make it easier for the user to get where they’re going – before they even actually get to the site.

Here’s what they look like:

You can choose the most relevant pages to your users, and make them available right out of the gate.

Here are some other benefits to making sitelinks a part of your Adwords Campaign:

• Quick setup: It only takes a few minutes to implement.
• Improves CTR: The better your CTR, the better your quality score.
• You can use landing pages to drive traffic: Running a promo? Create a sitelink for it.
• You’re essentially showing more ads in one search result. Each sitelink can act as its own ad!
• Link to your social media networks: You don’t have to link within your site – you can network straight from the search results page.

Sitelinks are a great way to make your users’ search experience quick and painless. Why not take advantage? If we’re managing your Adwords account for you, you probably already have sitelinks in place. But give us a call to chat about it anyway – we enjoy talking about your business!

Happy Birthday to Us!

Today’s a big day for Entermotion – we turn 10!

We’ve spent the past 10 years doing what we love, and we feel incredibly lucky to have such great clients who let us do it every single day.

So we’d like to thank our clients for a wonderful start, and raise our glasses to the next ten.

Cheers!

Cultivating Creativity from Frustration.

Tony Fadell said it here, and when he mentions his creativity comes from frustration, we think it makes perfect sense.

Getting Frustrated is the Easy Part.

You’re a consumer, which means you probably use the products you buy. If the product doesn’t work like you expected, you (understandably) get frustrated. For example, you just bought an instant juice maker in an attempt to eat a healthier lunch. But it leaves little chunks left behind instead of fully juicing, which you’re unhappy with. At first, you don’t care why it’s not working, you just know that what you’re using isn’t good enough. Then the wheels start turning … you want to improve it and you subconsciously come up with ways to do that. “If only the blades were closer together…” or “If I’d have invented this, I’d have included another speed setting.”

But you’re thinking “I’m not frustrated at work, so how does this pertain to fostering creativity in my professional life?” But we think it has everything to do with it. Because while creativity doesn’t always come from frustration, we think it comes most easily this way. And if you recognize your thought process when you’re fed up, you can use it even when you’re not ready to throw that instant juice maker through the window.

What’s Really Going On?

Before we get into how you can use frustration to generate the next big idea, we think it’s important to understand a little bit about what goes on inside our skulls. There’s a very important thing happening in our brains when we get frustrated. (more…)