…you need to read this. Cutting-edge web design, excellent SEO, and an active social media presence will do very little for your business if there is no foundation for these strategies to build upon. You need professional etiquette, marketing basics, and conceptual ideas before you can dive into digital marketing.

In any business, regardless of the industry, companies need to be where there potential customers are. Would a toy company be at a local home show? I sure hope not! And while on that topic, not many people should be at a home show ;-). Back to digital marketing, should design/builds be on Snapchat? Is all the hype about it really better than Facebook for the design/build industry? Find out.

Getting the most out of everything you do requires looking at the entire puzzle - not just each piece. So step back - look at those core foundational elements - customer service, logo, sales process, and everything else that keeps your business running everyday... before you spend a s*** ton of money of marketing.

Anna talks about how to apply the still-very-true approach of growing your design/build business with referrals - except this means to expand your definition of what a referral really is today. And it's not just people sharing your info with one another while they're visiting someone's home. Referrals are indeed - online reviews! So stop skipping this part. ASK FOR REVIEWS!

Why are you going to your hosting company for a website design? Why is your computer technician your website design guy? IT and design are not one in the same. And website design isn't a skill that comes from IT. Stop mixing the two up! In this episode #3 of HalsteadTV, Corey shares his thoughts on this frustrating mix-up that produces websites that look like they're from 1995.

Online reviews are one of the more subtle arts of inbound marketing. Business owners are often confused and disappointed about the lack of reviews they receive from happy clients. Many times the initial reaction is simply to just shrug and move on, assuming that there isn’t anything that can be done to bolster their online reviews.But it’s not true! We've compiled some useful rules to help you understand why you need to work on getting online reviews and who are the best customers to ask.

In this episode 2, Anna talks about the four action items that design/build professionals need to take (online) in order to take advantage of the biggest opportunity this industry has ever had! Go!

Consumers (that includes you) absorb and retain any given content 3X better when communicated in visual form. It's no wonder virtual and augmented reality devices are really starting to peek interest from a marketing standpoint. This blog includes an infographic that perfectly describes why VR and AR tech are gaining so much traction as business marketing tools.

It’s not only what you say but how you say it. We’re talking about tone of voice (ToV), and in content marketing, tone can have a big influence on users’ perception of your brand. It may not seem like it, but there’s quite a difference between “Hello.” and “Howdy!”. It’s the difference between formal and casual voice, and it could be the difference between losing and making a sale.

Professional email signatures are concise passages that include promotional information, like contact details, and are automatically included in your emails as footers. An effective professional email signature is essential in order to leave a lasting impression on your audience. Although email signatures should be as unique and personalized as ordinary signatures, there are certain properties that can make them more desirable and others that should be avoided at all costs. Consider the following tips if you're looking to create an impactful email signature from scratch.

An award-winning architectural firm needed a cutting edge website that was easy to update in-house and that captured the essence of their firm and it’s work. HALSTEAD delivered.

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, refers to a type of online advertising which targets the people who have visited your website but haven’t made a purchase, signed up for a free trial or completed any other ‘conversions’. This group is known as ‘bounced traffic’ and consists of approximately 98% of a website’s total traffic. Retargeting campaigns anonymously follow these users to other sites and advertise your brand to them again, ensuring that you maintain their awareness and encouraging them to revisit your website and become a customer.

Facebook users will visit your business’ page driven by a certain need or desire that you promise to fulfill, but this doesn’t guarantee that they will follow through and engage in business with you. The call-to action feature on your Facebook page serves to keep these people ‘hooked’ and is a mechanism through which they can interact with your business without leaving Facebook’s convenient platform or doing any searching of their own.

Quality data about your customers and potential customers is key to running a successful business. In days past, collecting this sort of information was a time consuming process involving weeks of gathering data and transcribing that research into readable charts and reports. Now this sort of information is readily available: fully compiled and ready to work with, provided you know how to read and use it. Introducing Facebook Audience Insights.

Lehigh Lawns & Landscaping, based out of Wappingers Falls, NY, has spent the last 30 years providing landscape design, fertilization, maintenance, and commercial snow management services. As one of the largest landscaping companies in the area, Lehigh needed a way to better attract and communicate with the many different types of target customers. Their previous SEO and website limited their ability to attract these potential opportunities.

The new website came with the bells and whistles needed to promote this now Christmas destination Christmas Tree Farm. Starting with the overall look and feel, the fonts, colors, and overall style all represent the farm's brand: classic, cheerful, celebratory, and elegant. And since the company had limited images, we used all stock images that looked local and relevant to the area as well as the business type. Everything really spoke to and resonated with Cockburn Farm's target customer.

Dating as far back as the early 1980s, marketing co-op programs and marketing development funds (MDFs) have played a large role in the marketing industry. It made logical sense in previous decades for businesses to set aside a portion of their budget for co-op marketing. But is just as wise as it recently waste invest in this kind of marketing technique? Are co-op marketing and MDFs still an investment, or are they become solely an expense? 

Halstead Media transitioned The Gorilla Hook to an ecommerce friendly platform using Squarespace. From shipping to inventory, the new platform gives endless flexibility to managing pricing and orders. 

D.L. Hickman & Son, based out of the Newport Beach, CA area, is a high-end, landscape construction company. Hickman relies on landscape architects to create the design for the very complex landscape installations that their staff completes.

No matter the size or market of your landscaping, design, or construction business, you should be updating your company blog to help with your website traffic and leads. But with numerous variables in play, it can be difficult to determine the frequency with which you should be blogging. We're here to help provide some clarity!