Ever since the second shutdown of dine-in services in Michigan, we’ve been working hard to help restaurants make moves to stay open and stay safe. After two lockdowns and nearly eight months, here’s what we’ve found works.
Online sales were always going to be on the rise in 2020, but with a global pandemic finding a renewed foothold in the US as we hit peak holiday shopping, it’s going to explode.
Just last weekend, Michigan introduced a number of new restrictions designed to curb the dramatic rise of COVID-19 cases as the holidays near. Here’s what businesses need to know. As has been the case since the pandemic began in March, certain industries are much more affected by the necessary restrictions set in place to slow … Continued
If you’ve recently logged in to your LinkedIn account and thought you logged into Facebook by mistake, you’re not alone. LinkedIn recently underwent a dramatic redesign that makes the user interface far more modern, easier to use, and strikingly similar to Facebook’s UI. The new look comes at a time when things are looking really … Continued
Few industries have been hit quite as hard by the pandemic as your local restaurant. Since March, businesses of all kinds have faced challenges in the ways they do things, but for restaurants, it’s been especially tough. The past several months have been a test of how restaurateurs think on their feet. The transition to … Continued
Pepsi versus Coke. McDonald’s versus Burger King. Chevy versus Ford. Nike versus Adidas. Kind Bar versus Clif Bar. While it may not be a top-level brand fight yet, the energy bar competitors have been marketing heavily on negative energy. That’s a bad call right now.
At larger companies, there is a sales team and a marketing team. Back in the long-ago times when people worked in offices, those teams may work on different sides of the building, unable to even peep over the top of their cubicle to put a face to the email address that reaches out every couple … Continued
If you roll through October with one thing in mind as a business owner, make it this. Whatever habits your customers create over the next six weeks, they’ll have those same habits for the next six months. Or more.
You and your team put a ton of work into creating the perfect content for Facebook. You read all the blogs to find out which kinds of posts do best and what time to post. Finally, after much hard work and planning, you hit publish on the most badass post you’ve ever done and… crickets. … Continued
The events industry has been hard-hit this year due to the pandemic. Many organizations that depended on revenue from in-person events, tradeshows, and conferences have been left scrambling to convert in-person experiences into comparable (and profitable) digital events. As many of these organizations have found out, it’s not as easy as canceling your venue and … Continued
We’ll be the first to admit to deriding and mocking the humble QR code. Whenever it came up as a part of the design or a wider marketing campaign, it almost never made sense. Why? People just don’t use QR codes. Until now.
Earlier this week, we sent Wes to the Michigan Society of Association Executives’ Fall Golf Outing, hosted at The Medalist in beautiful Marshall, MI. The event represented the first in-person meeting for MSAE since March, and Wes’s first event representing the Q+M squad. We sponsored a Game Box, pitched a tent, stacked the cooler with … Continued
My grandma always insisted that we never talk about politics during the holidays. In the rare instances something even remotely political crossed the dinner table, perhaps tailing a basket of dinner rolls, she’d stop, look down, and stay quiet until the offender noticed their faux pas. For brands, election season might feel a bit like … Continued
In full transparency, you’d be hard-pressed to find any of the Q+M squad at a golf course under normal circumstances. In theory, golf should be totally up our alley; funny pants, alcohol consumption before noon, and the opportunity to whack a ball as far we can? That should be our thing, but for no particular … Continued
This year, holiday shopping starts in October. Early October. Some experts are even putting a date on it: October 10, 2020.
Some companies still have marketing budgets. Does yours? If not, we’ll tell you what it is and one proven way to calculate just how much ad spend should be tucked away. I’ll admit it. I worked in digital marketing for about two years before I actually put a pin through my ego and looked up … Continued
After doing your research, writing, drafting, then re-writing a blog post for your business or organization, the big moment has finally arrived. You hit publish and your hard work is now shared with the world! Huzzah! Doves are released into the air, fireworks explode majestically in the distance, and the users of the Internet flock … Continued
We didn’t just add one more superstar to the Dream Team. We added youth, creativity, and a whole lot of talent, too! We’re pumped to welcome Q+M’s newest team member, Nikki Schroeder!
Like any marketing effort, social media offers different horses for different courses. Depending on the brand and the purpose, Twitter might do some things better than Instagram, LinkedIn might be more useful than Facebook, and TikTok…well, it’s out there.
Whether you’re new to advertising on Facebook or an old hand when it comes to paid social marketing, one thing should be obvious: you should know the basics of the platforms you’re advertising on. By that, I mean you should be able to answer basic questions pertaining to the cost and effectiveness of adds on … Continued
It was inevitable, really. When Facebook sees a competitor on the rise, Zuckerberg has only two plays. One, he buys the company, piling up stacks on stacks on stacks in front of aspiring young developers who, history tells us, love to pocket the money and run out the door to their next venture. The other … Continued
On the right side of Twitter’s user interface (at least, on your laptop) is, what should be, a marketer’s dream. The “What’s Happening” section can almost be considered the pulse of what the Twitter community is talking about and engaging with on the platform at any given moment globally, nationally, and locally. As a marketer, … Continued
As we dial into yet another Zoom call with clients we really do miss seeing in person, one of the most common questions we hear is a really, really good one. No matter the industry, no matter the project, nearly every discussion comes down to something along the lines of this one idea. What do … Continued
First, it was the holiday creep. Christmas decorations in September are now the norm. But pumpkin spice lattes in August? That’s a promotion that might put a bad flavor in customer’s mouths.
This week, some Instagram and Facebook users were notified of a “new” messaging experience arriving on their smartphones. The long-awaited combining of Facebook Messenger and Instagram’s direct messages finally appears to be coming to fruition. When this initiative is complete, any Instagram, Facebook, and eventually WhatsApp user (all Facebook properties) will be able to message … Continued