Holiday Marketing Checklist

As we approach the holiday season, it is important we understand the power of the holidays on our businesses sales. This year alone the National Retail Federation expects sales in November and December to generate $678.75 billion. This is the season for shopping and attracting new customers—don’t miss out on your perfect chance to reach your target audience. Follow these simple steps for the perfect holiday marketing strategy.

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The Intern’s Farewell

As my final semester of college comes to an end, I’ve had the chance to reflect on all the opportunities I have been given along the way that exceeded just my education. While I have had prior internships, HMG Creative was a unique challenge for me that I will be forever grateful for. Working with HMG, I got exposed to inbound marketing, a topic that I had not yet covered in school or working for other agencies. Not only has HMG connected me with the digital industry, it has motivated me further to pursue a career in this field.

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Meet Natalie, The New Kid on The Block

Hi! My name is Natalie Matthews and I am ecstatic to begin as the new social media and marketing intern at HMG Creative, this semester. Born and raised in Clear Lake, Texas, I have enjoyed dancing competitively for twelve years with my older sister and traveling alongside the rest of our family in our free time. I am an avid cooking show viewer, occasional chef for one and dedicated consumer of all things sweet. You can often find me making my way around Town Lake while listening to some of my favorite artists, ranging from Frank Sinatra to Katy Perry. I am passionate about empowerment, the alleviation of poverty, education and positive living.

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Shopping Without a Basket: How E-Commerce Is Shaping The Consumer Experience

When is the last time you have walked into a store just to try on that shirt and redeem the coupon you received via email last month? The last time you’ve checked the reviews on that electronic you’ve been anticipating for a year, just to wait in line for 6 hours on the day it is released at Best Buy? Is it that we are becoming more impatient and comfortable with a screen controlling our purchases? Or could it be that buying online is the most efficient and economical option for today’s society?

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Tips And Tricks If You Use Slack

Slack is the fastest growing business application in history. Launching in 2014, Slack is a platform that connects teams with the apps, services, and resources they need to get their daily work done. With access to over 1,000 apps and a strategic API, Slack works with partners and developers globally to create apps and integrations that make your work more efficient, automates tasks and brings better content into your conversations in Slack. Not only is it a great tool for communication and project management, it also creates a more social work environment by allowing individuals to send quick emojis and gifs. We love Slack, so we thought we’d compile our favorite Slack hacks.

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Eight simple ways to take advantage of Black Friday

The holidays are here, and so are the year’s best discounts. Whether you are a shopaholic ready to binge, or a shopaphobic, you should take advantage of all of the savings Black Friday has to offer if you’ll be doing any Christmas shopping. Black Friday shopping can be daunting, so we came up with some tips to make the most of your holiday shopping.

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Is your web URL missing the ‘s’ in https?

Throughout history, we have seen a direct correlation between the rise in population and the rise in crime rates. This has held true in the digital space as well with cyber thefts as the fastest growing crime in the U.S. From intruders to hackers, it is imperative now more than ever we as professional marketers secure our websites to protect both our business and our users. Google has recently campaigned for website owners to convert to HTTPS by rewarding secure URLs with a minor SEO boost. Google currently holds 77.43% of the market shares, making SEO vital to the success of your business’ site.  Not only is making the switch the ethical thing to do, it’s quickly becoming a necessity.

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Six Reasons Why Font Matters

In history classes growing up, we’ve studied the importance of the printing press and how it led to a revolution: the rise in literacy rates and the spread of knowledge across the world. More recently, however, we have encountered another revolutionary invention that democratized the digital world and pioneered graphic design. The introduction of the Macintosh computer in 1984 changed the design world forever with its featured font menu. After taking a calligraphy class at Reed College, Steve Jobs understood the importance of typeface and later integrated this feature into his computer. This type menu has transformed design forever and become an integral part of artistic composition. As you devise your branding and marketing efforts, keep in mind the importance font plays in identifying with target audiences, gaining the attention of consumers and creating an image that resonates with them.

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Three Webinars for Growing Your Business

Webinars have evolved and become an excellent learning tool, extremely personable outlet for marketers to reach their prospective audiences and helpful in connecting with others in like industries. In the ever-changing industry of digital marketing, continued learning is imperative in order to stay ahead of the game. These three webinars will help you understand the latest trends in marketing and how to integrate them into your marketing plan in order to see tangible results.

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Workplace Acronyms You Should Know

In today’s fast-paced, deadline-driven work environment, we have little time to write a well-crafted paragraph when conversing with our colleagues. Messages need to be written and exchanged quickly, with no time for too much detail. Keep things at work moving with our list of workplace acronyms:

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