Building a Better Mousetrap for B2B Content Marketing

Building a Better Mousetrap for B2B Content Marketing

B2B marketers must shift their mindset to ensure that originally produced content aligns with both customer needs and company goals and objectives Article adapted from Association of National Advertisers The theory that compelling content alone is enough for B2B marketers to achieve their business objectives is evaporating fast. According to research conducted by the content…

How B2B Brands Can Better Monetize LinkedIn
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How B2B Brands Can Better Monetize LinkedIn

Article adapted from Association of National Advertisers (ANA) LinkedIn’s rapidly growing number of online tools is helping B2B marketers make valuable connections With its combination of breadth and ease of targeting, high level of member engagement, and extensive database to aid lead-generation efforts, LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for marketers ranging from long-established B2B…

What’s the Impact of Apple’s Pro-Privacy Moves for Retail’s Efforts to Personalize Customer Experience?
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What’s the Impact of Apple’s Pro-Privacy Moves for Retail’s Efforts to Personalize Customer Experience?

Retailers seeking to enhance personalization of their customers’ experience should take note of the potential impact of Apple’s recently unveiled pro-privacy enhancements for its Safari web browser. The need for high motivation and transparency of opt-in for customer loyalty programs has never been more critical for retailers. At its annual developer event, Apple announced an…

Customer Loyalty Accelerator Launches 4-Month BOOSTER Package to Enhance Its Clover Rewards App
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Customer Loyalty Accelerator Launches 4-Month BOOSTER Package to Enhance Its Clover Rewards App

Merchants using the Customer Loyalty Accelerator (CLA) app on the Clover POS now have a groundbreaking new package of benefits that will automatically ensure easy program implementation and an immediate, undeniable program ROI. “Customer Loyalty Accelerator’s newly launched 7-Point BOOSTER package demonstrates a deep commitment to our clients’ success by igniting greater revenue growth through…

Why Choose WordPress?

Why Choose WordPress?

WordPress saves costly testing time. There are many benefits WordPress website content management software offers. This article discusses one of its biggest benefits when implemented correctly and efficiently: it saves costly testing time. In 2001, I began specializing in custom built-from-scratch websites for businesses and organizations – big and small. I was fascinated by the…

Long Painting’s work on Husky Stadium and The Golden Gate Bridge showcased in new website

Long Painting’s work on Husky Stadium and The Golden Gate Bridge showcased in new website

Long Painting, the 13th largest painting commercial company in the U.S., went big with a beautiful new, state-of-the-art responsive 50+ page website, launched this month by Ad Ventures Design & Marketing. The site is designed to prominently showcase big portfolio photos of impressive work done for Husky Stadium, The Golden Gate Bridge, and Swedish Hospital….

SERENDIPITY? Small World?

SERENDIPITY? Small World?

A chain of events over a two-day period brought smiles to our faces and made us wonder if there was a little serendipity in the air.Here’s how they unfolded… ThursdayAd Ventures writes an article about GTmetrix, our favorite website testing tool, and how our new site at TakeYourBusinessPlaces.com scores a double A / A when testing with…

Phinney Ridge Neighborhood is Seattle’s Hottest

Phinney Ridge Neighborhood is Seattle’s Hottest

Our office neighborhood is hot! How cool is that? #1 in Seattle and #7 nationwide! See for yourself – we’re at 302 N. 72nd Street, in the heart of Phinney Ridge. “Phinney Ridge neighborhood is Seattle’s hottest neighborhood and the seventh-hottest …in the country, according to Redfin.com. The Seattle online real estate company said it determined…

How our website’s speed made the grade

How our website’s speed made the grade

Our site, TakeYourBusinessPlaces.com, speed scores rock.Page speed score is 96% (A).Yslow score is 90% (A.)Pingdom performance grade is 98/100. High Speed score = better user experience, better SEO. How’d we pull that off? – Not by compromising the site by limiting graphics or page count. (Our page count in this site is 66+ pages and loaded…

A top 25 graphic design and web design firm

A top 25 graphic design and web design firm

For the 7th year in a row, Ad Ventures has made the top 25 graphic design and web design firm lists for 2013 in the Puget Sound Business Journal – Seattle! We’re thrilled! The Business Journal serves multiple cities nationwide from Seattle to Phoenix to Washington D.C. and is an industry leader covering business news from a local, regional…

THEY’RE BAAACKKK! Inline Mini CSS Scrollbars for Maximum Maneuvering Functionality

THEY’RE BAAACKKK! Inline Mini CSS Scrollbars for Maximum Maneuvering Functionality

Remember those “mini vertical scrollbars” that were big in websites many years ago, but faded away as an outdated design trend? They are back and back big because their important role in function won over design. And with today’s technologies, good developers can easily customize vertical scrollbars to look great on your site. Inline vertical…

MBA website recognized with best website award

MBA website recognized with best website award

The website that Ad Ventures Design & Marketing designed for the Master Builders Association (MBA) of King & Snohomish Counties has won the Association Excellence Award in the Communications category for best website.MasterBuildersInfo.com was recognized with this award in April 2013 by the Executive Officers Council (EOC) of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)….

Built Green is working Washington’s neighborhoods with a new online identity

Built Green is working Washington’s neighborhoods with a new online identity

Built Green has a new online identity!  See their website just launched last week at http://www.builtgreen.net/. Ad Ventures worked with Aaron Adelstein, Director of Built Green, to create the new identity and website design that educates Washington new home buyers that “we can turn our neighborhoods from grey to green one house at a time.”  Roughly…

Bing’s new logo works well as an integrated design element, not so much as a stand-alone

Bing’s new logo works well as an integrated design element, not so much as a stand-alone

While at the “Bing Ads Connect” agency seminar in Seattle on Tuesday, I heard that some of Bing’s employees don’t like Bing’s new logo.  Well, if it weren’t for the logo, Bing’s new power point presentation and other marketing collateral wouldn’t be so killer.  Wow! Hundreds of pages of unique templates with infographics that delighted…

The Napoleon Food Co. cooks up a modern, new “old-world” website

The Napoleon Food Co. cooks up a modern, new “old-world” website

What got cooked up recently in Ad Ventures’ digital kitchen? A new website for The Napoleon Company, a 100+ year-old specialty fine food importer with well-known food items such as olive oils and cooking ingredients distributed in hundreds of grocery stores throughout the Northwest. The recipe handed to us from Napoleon staff included instructions to…

New Cascade Water Alliance website launched

New Cascade Water Alliance website launched

Ad Ventures is pleased to announce the launch of the newly redesigned website for Cascade Water Alliance, a municipal corporation in Washington state.This is the third edition of the website Ad Ventures has created for Cascade since our original contract began in 2003. Three websites in ten years by Ad Ventures? Yes, because Cascade keeps…

Search Engine Marketing Companies: A Hit or a Miss?

How to tell if an internet marketing company is likely a miss…before you hand over thousands of dollars for the intangible. For a true SEM professional, it takes less than five minutes to review a so-called internet marketing specialist’s website to determine if they know their stuff or not.  After all, it’s logical to think that…

The importance and impact of a good website

The importance and impact of a good website

Everyone gets the value of having a website to promote a business, right? Sure, but do they understand the full potential value and the importance of having a website that reflects the same high standard their business represents? Surprisingly, not everyone does. There are still plenty of what we in the business call “first generation”…

If you don’t think your hosting matters, think again.

I’ve noticed over the years that website owners don’t seem to give their website’s hosting much thought.  They should. You might be surprised to learn how much the quality of your hosting directly impacts how Google and Bing rank your site. So if SEO and website user experience are important to your business, you should…

Way to Stand Out

An 8th grader named Safaa Abdellatif from Evergreen Middle School sent a letter to our office today asking about design and photography careers and what graphic designers do on a daily basis. Normally, a letter like this would go on that “to do later if ever” pile because we get hundreds of letters and calls…

What happens when you ask for “custom” WordPress but get “template” WordPress?

It ain’t pretty. You think you contracted a custom WordPress website, only to find out three months into it that you’re locked into specific photo dimensions and layouts . . . You complain, ask for changes and three weeks later the changes haven’t been done yet. This cycle repeats, and repeats again. Why? Probably because…

Identity theft and why we switched our BBB (A+) dba to “Ad Ventures Design.”

Identity theft and why we switched our BBB (A+) dba to “Ad Ventures Design.”

Our official Washington-licensed company name is Ad Ventures Marketing, Inc. which was also our “dba” (doing business as)  for 20 years . . . until one day . . . about five years ago.  On that day we did  a quick check-in to BBB make sure our A+ rating was still intact.  What followed was an…

A Unique and Beloved Online Memorial Website Comes to Life

AdVentures Design & Marketing of Seattle, WA, announces the launch of www.BelovedSamoa.com, the first online memorial member-based website of its kind to celebrate the lives of Samoans all over the world. It started with a kernel of an idea from Beloved’s founders that Ad Ventures sowed and nurtured for the last year, developing the business…

Freestone retains Ad Ventures Design & Marketing to market new home communities online

Freestone Companies has retained Ad Ventures Design & Marketing to market new home communities online and build upon their success as a top ranking Washington builder. A new website, along with new branding and positioning, will guide prospective home buyers through a dynamic visual tour of ten Puget Sound area new home communities. Recent recognition for…

LUNCH AT RAY’S BOATHOUSE Hardworking Ad Ventures’ Staff Breaks to Celebrate!

LUNCH AT RAY’S BOATHOUSE Hardworking Ad Ventures’ Staff Breaks to Celebrate!

A celebratory luncheon at Ray’s Boathouse, conveniently located across the street from Ad Ventures’ design studio, starts with a round of cell-phone inspired photos. And it follows with one round of drinks, and multiple rounds of jokes, stories, laughter and getting to know each other even more. Congratulations to Heather on her 8th anniversary as…

Do you really have the rights to use all the photos in your website? What you don’t know could cost you thousands.

If you’re not sure you have all the rights to your website images, stock photo companies have vastly improved their capability to let you know if you don’t. They’ll let you know you are in violation in the form of a letter…and a potentially hefty bill for several years of back usage. To protect their…