Knowledge

Insights from our team.

Big or Small, Plan for it All; Event Planning as Marketing

Big or Small, Plan for it All; Event Planning as Marketing

If you’ve ever entertained guests in your home, you know that successfully pulling off even a small-scale event takes a little bit more planning than just sending invitations and...

A Sign of our Times: Building and Environmental Signage

A Sign of our Times: Building and Environmental Signage

From awnings and hanging signs, to directories and sandwich boards, signage at your office is a crucial form of visual communication with your visitors. Building or environmental signage...

The Versatility of Stickers and Vinyl

The Versatility of Stickers and Vinyl

You may be wondering why, exactly, you are bothering to read an article about stickers and their role in marketing. How much more could there be to know besides that you order up a bunch...

Getting Into Retail: From Packaging to Pitch

Getting Into Retail: From Packaging to Pitch

As an entrepreneur, nothing excites quite like the word ‘sales.’ And getting your product into a retail store is a great way to start getting them. But how do you approach retailers...

Press Kits & the Art of Self-Promotion

Press Kits & the Art of Self-Promotion

What is a press kit?

Press kits are the means by which you let members of the media, retailers, and others fully experience your product or service, and get to know your brand....

Launch It Like It’s Hot: Product Launch Planning

Launch It Like It’s Hot: Product Launch Planning

You’ve created a product, perfected your packaging, and now you’re ready to introduce it to the world! But… how do you do that? Launching a new product is an important moment for...

Good Things Come in Good Packaging

Good Things Come in Good Packaging

If you sell a product, chances are you’ve also had to consider how you package it for your customers. Does it come in a bottle, jar, box, or bag? Is it vacuum-sealed, taped, held...

Photography: More Than Point and Shoot

Photography: More Than Point and Shoot

A picture is worth a thousand words. What words it “says” can have a big impact on your product or brand.

Camera technology has gotten to an astoundingly good point in the past...

eCommerce vs Traditional Commerce

eCommerce vs Traditional Commerce

What is eCommerce?

eCommerce is a catchy term for any commercial transaction that is conducted electronically on the internet, be it from a mobile device, tablet or desktop. Most...

Our Work: FourBridges Financial Group Website

Our Work: FourBridges Financial Group Website

There’s a phrase we tell every single one of our clients, when it comes time for us to build or redo their website. “We can build you a website that launches an actual rocket into...

There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

The formal practice of public relations can be dated back to the early 20th Century. Since then, “public relations” has been defined in a lot of different ways as its role has...

Beyond the Brochure, Your Website as Digital Collateral

Beyond the Brochure, Your Website as Digital Collateral

So many discussions about websites and a brand’s internet presence today center around applications and eCommerce. While more and more companies are moving toward this kind of online...

Our Work: For Convergent, Targeted Search Engine Marketing is Key

Our Work: For Convergent, Targeted Search Engine Marketing is Key

When it comes to online advertising, one of the most valuable benefits is the ability to collect and analyze data about the campaign. Data is neither positive nor negative in and of...

The Basics of Pay-Per-Click Advertising

The Basics of Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-Per-Click advertising, or PPC advertising, is the overarching term given to any digital advertising strategy where the advertiser pays based on the number of clicks an ad receives,...

Say Hello to SEO

Say Hello to SEO

While still in the early years of the internet, it became clear that there would need to be a way to organize and find the information that was becoming available on numerous websites....

Putting Your Customers to Work, Affiliate and Loyalty Programs

Putting Your Customers to Work, Affiliate and Loyalty Programs

During certain times of the year, whether that’s the holiday season or a particularly busy season for your specific industry, it can be harder than normal to catch the ear of potential...

Christmas In July, Preparing Your Holiday Marketing

Christmas In July, Preparing Your Holiday Marketing

It’s six months into the year and your marketing agency just gently reminded you that it’s time to start preparing for the upcoming holiday season. Your shoulders tense up, and your...

Our Work: CAPS Aviation Class Training Surveys

Our Work: CAPS Aviation Class Training Surveys

There’s no better feedback available than what you can learn from your current or previous customers: from how they heard about you and their purchasing experience, to the likelihood...

Leave Media Planning to the Professionals

Leave Media Planning to the Professionals

Media planning is the process of determining which media to use and what type of advertisement spots to buy to either support your company’s overall marketing strategy or a specific...

Our Work: Everyday Hands Domain Recovery

Our Work: Everyday Hands Domain Recovery

Everyday Hands is a Rochester-based company that gives individuals and business an extra set of “helping hands” in a variety of situations. Whether you have an aging parent who needs...

Our Work: Finger Lakes Opera Print Advertisements

Our Work: Finger Lakes Opera Print Advertisements

Just because advertising is trending into the digital realm doesn’t mean all other forms of advertising are dead. Earlier this year, we were tasked with finalizing the marketing...

Our Work: Fort Knox Credit Union Balance Transfer Preroll Videos

Our Work: Fort Knox Credit Union Balance Transfer Preroll Videos

Fort Knox Federal Credit Union was launching a new credit cards balance transfer campaign, and turned to Grid to help build momentum and promote the campaign. In addition to in-branch...

Our Work: Pointe Progress Patreon Campaign

Our Work: Pointe Progress Patreon Campaign

At Grid, think it’s important that all of our team members pursue hobbies and interests outside of work, to keep their lives balanced and fulfilled. Our President, Cassandra Moffitt,...

Our Work: CAPS Aviation Rebrand

Our Work: CAPS Aviation Rebrand

In 1983, Neil Looy founded Corporate Air Parts and Services, a humble maintenance and repair station for JetStair aircraft. Over the past 30 years, the business has evolved into a...

Our Work: Finger Lakes Opera Marketing Plan

Our Work: Finger Lakes Opera Marketing Plan

Finger Lakes Opera has been delighting patrons with their productions of grand operatic masterpieces since 2013, complete with spectacular sets, dazzling costumes, inventive staging, and...

Email Marketing for Fun and Profit

Email Marketing for Fun and Profit

It’s a familiar routine for everyone with an email address. You load up your inbox for the first time of the day and find two or three email campaigns sent by companies you’ve...

Our Work: GMR Associates Email Drip Campaign

Our Work: GMR Associates Email Drip Campaign

GMR Associates, a Rochester-based expert in the development and administration of benefit plans for the construction industry, regularly collects large numbers of warm leads through a...

Our Work: FourBridges Financial Group Branding

Our Work: FourBridges Financial Group Branding

Not every business venture is planned as far in advance as your marketing agency would prefer you plan. Such was the case for FourBridges Financial Group, who came to us looking for...

Beyond the Banner: Digital Audio and Video Advertising

Beyond the Banner: Digital Audio and Video Advertising

You may have heard the term “banner blindness,” which is the idea that consumers have been conditioned over time to scroll past or otherwise ignore digital advertisements on...

Our Work: Great Northern Heating & Air Vehicle Graphics

Our Work: Great Northern Heating & Air Vehicle Graphics

Vehicle graphics have presented us with some of our favorite in-office moments. We congregate in groups, we talk to ourselves, we act out scenarios, and we measure each other. All in a...

Our Work: Vnomics Photography Shoot

Our Work: Vnomics Photography Shoot

Our marketing tasks aren’t always performed from behind a desk or in front of a computer. Sometimes, in fact, the only way to get the results you need is by going out there and getting...

Our Work: Land Shark Social Media Campaign

Our Work: Land Shark Social Media Campaign

The Land Shark Instant Survival Shelter and Stealth Bag is a safety and survival product designed to protect the user from extreme heat, cold, and exposure to the elements. The product...

Tweet, Like, Follow and Pin: Advertising on Social Media

Tweet, Like, Follow and Pin: Advertising on Social Media

It was in 2013 when the scales first started tipped – spending on internet advertising surpassed spending on newspaper advertising (the second largest ad medium) for the first time (...

Social Media is Serious Business

Social Media is Serious Business

If your business isn’t using social media, what are you waiting for?

These days social media is simply everywhere. And we’re not just talking about online. Anyone who has recently...

Our Work: Whitefish Credit Union’s “Take a Break” Summer Vehicle Loan Campaign

Our Work: Whitefish Credit Union’s “Take a Break” Summer Vehicle Loan Campaign

For most consumers, car payments are a major part of their monthly expenditures. In 2015, over $1 trillion in vehicle loans were made, with the average monthly payment hovering just...

Our Work: Client Affiliate Program Gives Boost to Bottom Line

Our Work: Client Affiliate Program Gives Boost to Bottom Line

At Grid, many of our clients are business to consumer – selling products either online or through brick and mortar retail stores. One of these clients, who sells outdoor adventure...

For Radio Advertising, it’s About Being on the Same Wavelength

For Radio Advertising, it’s About Being on the Same Wavelength

Just shy of a hundred years ago, a New York radio station aired the first paid radio advertisement for a local apartment complex, and with that commercial radio was born. At first, radio...

Print Advertising’s Not Quite Dead Yet

Print Advertising’s Not Quite Dead Yet

Mention the word “marketing” and so many people are transported to the world of Mad Men, when print advertising ruled the world. Newspapers and magazines flourished throughout the...

Outside the Box with Outdoor Advertising

Outside the Box with Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising, also known as out-of-home advertising, is any form of advertising that primarily reaches the audience while they are outside of the home, and often relies on the...

Our Work: United Airlines & Glacier Park International Airport Outdoor Advertising

Our Work: United Airlines & Glacier Park International Airport Outdoor Advertising

Now Boarding

Glacier Park International Airport (GPIA) offers convenient access to destinations throughout Northwest Montana, including the “crown jewel of the continent,” Glacier...

Our Work: Whitefish Credit Union School Spirit Visa® Debit Card Campaign

Our Work: Whitefish Credit Union School Spirit Visa® Debit Card Campaign

Whitefish Credit Union, the largest credit union in Montana, takes pride in the amount of financial education they provide to their members, especially to younger audiences who may be...

Production Value: Delivering Great Videos

Production Value: Delivering Great Videos

There’s a buzz of excitement, an almost electric atmosphere, when you’re on a video shoot. It can feel magical when you get a great take, for the people in front of as well as behind...

Presenting the Presentation Deck

Presenting the Presentation Deck

Presentation; just the word can strike fear into the heart of even the most experienced professional. While there are many reasons to dislike giving presentations, such as anxiety over...

There’s More to Promotional Products Than Putting Your Logo on a Pen

There’s More to Promotional Products Than Putting Your Logo on a Pen

Take a look around your office. Chances are you’ve got at least one promotional product hanging around – a pen, mug, mousepad or hat imprinted with another company’s logo. You may...

Trade Shows: What You Put In Is What You’ll Get Out

Trade Shows: What You Put In Is What You’ll Get Out

Trade shows (also called trade fairs, exhibitions or just expos) are organized events where companies within a specific industry show off their products and services, and meet with...

Business Collateral - Easy to Do, Hard to Do Right

Business Collateral - Easy to Do, Hard to Do Right

Business collateral is an, admittedly, fairly vague term used to reference a wide variety of printed or digital pieces of marketing material, and is often referred to by similar names...

If You Build It, Will They Come? How to Plan a Business Launch

If You Build It, Will They Come? How to Plan a Business Launch

“If you build it, they will come” makes for a great movie catch phrase, but it’s horrible business advice. Something more close to the truth would be, “If a tree falls in the...

Our Work: Corporate Air Parts Business Cards

Our Work: Corporate Air Parts Business Cards

It began with a phone call received at noon on a Wednesday afternoon. Corporate Air Parts, our client who specializes in corporate aviation equipment and safety training, was in a bind...

Home, Home on the Web - All About Website Hosting

Home, Home on the Web - All About Website Hosting

In order to truly understand what website hosting is and how it works, it’s important to first understand more about what a website is. A website is a set of interlinked files, each...

Much Ado About Domains

Much Ado About Domains

If you’ve ever gone through the process of launching a new website, or even taking over the management of an already established one, you’ve probably been faced with conversations or...

Our Work: Three Heads Brewing Rebrand

Our Work: Three Heads Brewing Rebrand

With their new location almost finished and ready for operation, Three Heads Brewing, a craft beer brewer in Rochester, N.Y., wanted a fresh new logo to go along with their change in...

The Importance of Market Research

The Importance of Market Research

To be successful in business you have to have an understanding of your own products or services, your customers, your competitors, and your industry. Market research is the process by...

Your Logo, The Visual Representation of Your Brand

Your Logo, The Visual Representation of Your Brand

A logo (which is an abbreviation of “logotype”, meaning “word imprint” in Greek) is a graphic emblem used by organizations to promote public recognition. What we understand today...

Our Work: Yarn Culture Wander / Wool Retreat

Our Work: Yarn Culture Wander / Wool Retreat

Every effective marketing campaign begins by asking three questions:

  1. What am I trying to say or promote?
  2. Who will be the most interested in learning about this?
  3. How can I get...
An Analysis of Google Analytics

An Analysis of Google Analytics

Google Analytics is far and away the number one analytics tool in use on the web today. In 2014, it was reported that 67% of Fortune 500 companies use Google Analytics, with somewhere in...

How to Build a Marketing Plan

How to Build a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is an essential road map for your business, and is as critical to your success as hiring talented and motivated team members. Your products and services will not sell...

Our Work: Whitefish Credit Union Flathead County Fairgrounds Sponsorship

Our Work: Whitefish Credit Union Flathead County Fairgrounds Sponsorship

Sponsorships are a fantastic way for businesses to increase their reach and credibility, while reinforcing brand perceptions and driving more traffic to their various touchpoints, such...

The Hows and Whys of Compelling Copy

The Hows and Whys of Compelling Copy

Understanding the fundamentals of copywriting can put you on a path to marketing success. Although copywriting is only one tool in the marketing tool box, it’s as influential and...

The Value of Sponsorship

The Value of Sponsorship

Sponsorships can be a difficult area of marketing to branch into, especially if it’s your first foray. What sort of sales will you get out of a hanging banner at a school baseball...

The Case for Drones

The Case for Drones

A (Very) Brief History of Unmanned Flight

Drones have been in use since the early 2000s. The first wide-spread application? You probably guessed it – the United States military. The...

2014 Internet Advertising Revenue Report

2014 Internet Advertising Revenue Report

The IAB’s Internet Advertising Revenue Report for 2014 was published yesterday, and if you don’t plan to read the whole thing (really, we don’t expect you to) we’ve wrapped up a...

What is Direct Mail?

What is Direct Mail?

Direct mail is a term used by marketing agencies to refer to any sort of marketing collateral that is mailed to someone’s home or business. This can (and does) include things such as...

Four Best Sales Practices for Using Social Media

Four Best Sales Practices for Using Social Media

​Social media marketing is here to stay, and if your business hasn’t hopped on that bandwagon it’s definitely time you start thinking about it. Gary Galvin of Salesforce published...

The Cost of a Cheap Business Card

The Cost of a Cheap Business Card

We’re all heard them - radio ads that offer “free business cards” from large, national print companies. But just like everything else that’s advertised as “free”, there are...

Smart Billboards Pick You Out of a Crowd

Smart Billboards Pick You Out of a Crowd

To the most drivers, it might look like a standard billboard advertisement, displaying ads for things such as the Porsche 911. But as soon as a Porsche approaches, the messaging changes...

How to Minimize Your Trade Show Costs

How to Minimize Your Trade Show Costs

Michael Williams of Synchologic spoke with Whitney Archibald of Exhibitor Online Magazine, and gave her an amazing rundown of how his company almost never pays full price to exhibit at...

Google Analytics: Your Hardest Working Employee

Google Analytics: Your Hardest Working Employee

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free service which enables website owners to track invaluable data about its users in order to provide a better platform on which to...

How Does Google AdWords Work?

How Does Google AdWords Work?

Google AdWords is a system that allows businesses to pay Google to show their advertisements to people who use Google to search for certain keywords. What advertisement Google decides to...

The Internet Explorer Countdown

The Internet Explorer Countdown

Every web developer understands the feeling of testing a website in IE for the first time. It’s a much-discussed topic of frustration for both designers and developers. Many major...

The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

Entreprenuer recently put up a great article called “The 10 Commandments of Great Copywriting”. Although the author positioned this list towards copywriting for email marketing, we...

Do Billboard Advertisements Really Work?

Do Billboard Advertisements Really Work?

We’ve heard the question from clients many times over the years - do billboard advertisements really work? When I challenge them to notice their own behaviors while driving, I often...

The Turtle or the Cornflake

The Turtle or the Cornflake

Marketing in a Down Economy

The strength of our economy is questionable at best these days. The unemployment rate is hovering around 10 percent, the Dow seems to go everywhere but up,...