10 Reasons To Use WordPress
Wordpress is free. Yep, you heard me right. Wordpress costs you nothing. All you need is a webhost and a domain name. Wordpress becomes your site. Originally designed for blogs, Wordpress has evolved into arguably the greatest content managment system available. ...
The Importance of Multi-Channel Marketing – Part 2
While enduring one of the worst economies ever, many small businesses have been forced to abandon efforts of growing their business in favor of simply surviving. As economists debate over stabilization, one thing is becoming clear; there is still a very real market...
The Importance of Multi-Channel Marketing – Part 1
Multichannel marketing is a technique using several different methods to reach a customer. A channel might be a website, an email newsletter, a direct mail piece or a social media campaign. The objective of the marketer is to make it easy for a consumer to buy in...
Why Do Good Websites Cost So Much?
You’re using WordPress…Aren’t you just changing colors, fonts and logos?? Well, we certainly CAN do that for a much lower price point, but then your “business billboard” ends up looking prettier but is still hung in an unlit alley somewhere in the unvisited and...
Do the FONTS You Choose Contain Important Information?
“Just pick something nice!”I hear that ALL the time. How important is a font in your branding and collateral? I believe it is as important to your collateral/identity package as your logo and/or your color palette. Ever hired a law firm that used Comic Sans in their...
Where in the WORLD…
SO, IT'S OFFICIAL! AFTER 7 YEARS ON THE CORNER OF 7TH AND HAWTHORNE, WE BID S.E. ADIEU! As a new chapter unfolds in the 15 year story of Hawthorne Media, we have joined forces with longtime friends Rede Group and set up shop somewhere in the Rose Quarter area. Follow...
To Flush Or Not To Flush…
The rapid succession of gradually elevating shrieks from the basement couldn't have come at a more unexpected time. Our Friday morning started with a gentle awakening followed by an accepting sigh as I rolled over in bed and looked out the window at the cool and damp...
What is Social Media Marketing
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING? It is word-of-mouth marketing on hyperdrive. Customers can share their experiences immediately and with everyone they are connected to.It is a way to be heard by thousands and thousands of people you may not know–instantly. You have...
5 Simple Listening Tricks
Do you have trouble focusing on what your client (or potential client) is saying? Do you feel like it is obvious to them that you are unengaged? Does your self-consciousness make you feel or seem disconnected with the conversation? Is all you are thinking about what...
Fully Editable Websites Under $500? No WAY!
Uhhh...Way? With the advent and successive evolution of WordPress and the Open Source revolution that is really only just beginning, NOW is the perfect time for you to catch the wave and upgrade your web presence to include a fully user-end-editable website starting...
Maximize the Impact of Your Business Facebook Page
Facebook makes the claim on its advertising page that there are 400 million active users. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to learn how to use Facebook for marketing your business. In fact, businesses are giving Facebook more priority over their corporate websites...
INBOUND Marketing? Of COURSE!!!
Most of you may not know the difference between Outbound Marketing and Inbound Marketing. It's not any more complicated than it sounds. Outbound Marketing consists of what I used to call Conventional Marketing Techniques: trade shows, seminar series, email blasts to...
FREE Wibiya Toolbar Keeps Viewers on Your Website Longer
Cool factor aside, the NEW, IMPROVED Wibiya toolbar brings an amazing interactive functionality to even the most dull and static sites. It is incredibly easy to configure, is very intuitive at least as far as my web marketing and social media strategies and needs go,...
See How Easy It Can Be?
For those of you who visit this site regularly, you will notice a huge difference in the design and layout. We are experimenting with a few new WordPress Themes and want to show you how easy and affordable it can be to change up the flavor and dynamics of your blog or...
5 Tips to Clarify Your Message
It seems that every time you look around, you find more complex solutions to the most simple marketing problems.. reaching your audience, effectively communicating, and helping customers advance their business forward. Let's see if I can simplify it for you.From my...
4 Easy Ways to Improve Your Online Marketing Success
IMPROVE YOUR ONLINE MARKETING IN 4 STEPS Hey all. Happy Friday. "Online Marketing" is a term that makes most small business owners cringe. That usually means to them that they have to generate content, to blog, to reach outside of their comfort zone, to make...
WPF 101: WordPress For GrownUps
This Fall I am going to offer a weekly series of courses for those of you who have WordPress sites but are having trouble figuring out exactly how to get them to work FOR you and not against you. I haven't yet decided the dates and times but STAY TUNED! They will be...
5 Tips to Rock Your Social Media
These days, everyone and their mother has a Facebook page, a Twitter handle and a YouTube channel. But as any creative agency worth its salt knows, that’s just the tip of the social media iceberg. To avoid sinking your client (not to mention your own business) like...
What You DON’T Say CAN Help You!
TRY REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY! To think that you can "Think ahead" for every potential client that comes along is not only a recipe for disaster, but is also, at the very least, impossible. Trying being who you are as a business and not saying anything. Put ALL of your...
Food Cart Websites
Does anyone you know run a micro restaurant or a food cart and has a marketing budget to match the size of their kitchen? Through May 31st, Hawthorne Media is offering a Late-Spring special on one-page food cart websites for all of the fine fast fare folks in that...
Midnight Sun Massage
More than just relaxation, Midnight Sun Massage in Northeast Portland offers short and long term care for chronic pain, injuries, accident, rehabilitation, repetitive motion strain, stress and more; utilizing techniques such as Deep Tissue, Trigger Point,...
Equinox Naturopathic Medicine
Equinox Naturopathic Medicine is a Santa Barbara naturopathic health center for the whole family. At Equinox Naturopathic Medicine, we believe that the body has an incredible wisdom and inherent ability to heal itself given the proper guidance. Under the care of Dr....
FINDING PORTLAND is here!
PORTLAND, OREGON – At the TEDx Portland conference, held on Saturday April 21, 2012, Uncage the Soul, the video production team behind the acclaimed short "Finding Oregon," revealed its latest timelapse piece, titled "Finding Portland," which today is made available...
Introducing the NEW SmurtFone!
A new invention from Hawthorne Media: The SmurtPhone. Missing the comfort of hauling around a 3 pound handset? Tired of having complete locational freedom to communicate? Try SmurtFone: "Today's Answer to Yesterday's Questions." (Tangled Coiled Cord sold separately.)
Keeping Folks on Your Website Longer
5 Ways to Keep People on Your Website Longer by Guest Blogger Kaya Singer of Awakening Business Solutions A website is one of the first things most small service based business owners focus on. Once your site is up and live, you feel real, and then of course you want...
7 Tips on Acheiving ROI in Social Media Marketing
Seven great tips from eMarketer’s free report on achieving ROI in Social Media marketing. Establish clear marketing goals for your product or brand, and then identify social measurements that directly support those objectives. Organize your measurements and metrics in...
Ford’s Social Media Guidelines for Employees
I thought this was very interesting. The general etiquette for smaller businesses should be the same as employed for large businesses. Solidify your message Know your target audience Maintain brand integrity Be honest and respectful Use common sense A small brand can...
Corporate Design, Small Biz Budget
Affordable and creative Small Business Marketing for all clients – that's the mission of Hawthorne Media Group. And because deadlines are just as important as budgets, We are proud to be able to deliver all of our services as rapidly as possible. Please call or email...
Google LOVES LinkedIn!
There is one way to guarantee new clients. Wind up on page one of a Google search for your appropriate industry! EASY RIGHT?? Recent studies show that NINETY PERCENT of people will never click to page two. I know that is an arbitrary figure, but it HAS to be close to...
Psssst!! Google LOVES LinkedIn! Pass it on…
There is one way to guarantee new clients. Wind up on page one of a Google search for your appropriate industry! EASY RIGHT?? Recent studies show that NINETY PERCENT of people will never click to page two. I know that is an arbitrary figure, but it HAS to be close to...
QR Code? You’ll soon be seeing them EVERYWHERE!
A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan,...
You should be using BIZNIK.com!
If you are a small business owner, you need to be using BIZNIK.com! Please visit Island Graphics' BIZNIK page at: http://biznik.com/join/david-sparks Everyone's linking in these days. But is anyone really connecting? If you're someone who thinks about business...
RIP Floppy Disk!
If you’re of a certain age, you probably have a history with floppy disks. The moniker dates back to your first forays into computer games and later came to signify those multicolored, hard plastic contraptions you used to store college papers or work presentations....
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION #1
Aaron Yeagle at www.transmutationsciences.com asked us: What should a business expect to pay for quality logo design? Why do some designers charge different rates for different uses?" FIRST OF ALL, WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR There are a couple of online logo design...
OK, So NOW What? 5 Great (NET)Working Resolutions.
1- Get Out of Your Comfort Zone Remember when Facebook was just one of many niche communities popping up and competing for our attention? Sometime in 2010, Facebook will surpass 400 million registered users worldwide, though the notion of “Facebook fatigue” is being...
Logos/Marketing With a Sense of Humor…Our New Years Resolution!
Do we always have to take everything about business identity and marketing so bloody seriously?? Don’t get me wrong here…I don’t aim to underestimate the value of logo designing. But, it seems like all the logo design topics available on the internetnet reveal it as...
The Power of Positive Thinking
Image is such an important part of the human decision-making process, that there are those out there that might even say "Image is EVERYTHING!." (Actually, Andre Agassi said that for Canon, but let's not go there!) Well, it's certainly not everything, but never...
Trust Us to Help You Turn Over Your New Marketing Leaf
With the end of the year approaching, there are only two questions you have to ask yourself with regard to your marketing projects in 2009. Did they work or didn't they. If they DID, then you have two more questions to ask yourself: Should I do more of the same? or...
How Can YOU Stand Out???
WHY IS DESIGN SO IMPORTANT? You can't do everything on your own. Who has the time? You need ideas, someone to help you with color selection, photo selection or graphics, even what paper or production process to choose. You need professional help. Good Graphic Design...