Can I Afford Digital Marketing During Turbulent Economic Times?

How Much Can I Afford?

A Three-Pillar Approach to Resilient Marketing Strategies that Work It’s no secret that we’ve all been facing strong economic headwinds. Many national and global factors have contributed to rising prices and interest rates, as well as changes in how consumers spend and how business gets done. Business owners are taking a close look at their […]

5 Tips for Using LinkedIn for B2B Marketing

the person clicking on LinkedIn page

Our Experts Weigh In on How Social Media Marketing Applies to B2B Businesses Gone are the days of LinkedIn only being used as a job search tool. The platform is now an invaluable social media channel for reaching and winning over prospects – especially for B2B companies. It’s long been thought that B2B marketing and […]

What Does It Mean to Optimize Your Website for SEO?

Tolls and Notes about SEO concept on blackboard

Everything You Need to Know About Driving Customers and Clients to Your Website If you’ve ever considered marketing your business online, you’ve probably heard of search engine optimization (SEO). Even so, if you’re not thinking day-in and day-out about digital marketing strategies like a leading SEO agency near you does, you may feel a little […]

5 Reasons AI Will Never Beat a Human Copywriter

Businessman touching the brain working of Artificial Intelligenc

Why You Should Reconsider Using a Robot to Boost Your Local Search Optimization and SEO (for Now) If we had a nickel for every time we’ve heard about AI copywriting in the past few months, we’d have enough to buy every employee a Twitter Blue subscription with change to spare. AI copywriting isn’t something that […]

2022 Year in Review: The iFocus Marketing Digital Scrapbook

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Our Team and Expertise Took Our Clients to New Heights While everyone else was experiencing 2020-Round-3 as the years blurred together, iFocus Marketing tackled some serious feats of digital marketing in 2022 and stayed on top of the latest trends. In fact, our dedication to constant improvement is deeply rooted in the need for continuous […]

How to Find the Perfect Marketing Partner for Your Business

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Don’t Forget to Consider Digital Marketing Companies Near You, Not Just Traditional Ones It doesn’t matter your industry: if you want to grow your business and make conversions, you need a digital marketing strategy to propel you. The best way to get a strategy for yourself – even if you don’t know much about digital […]

5 Reasons You’ll Love Working at iFocus, a Digital Marketing Agency in Kansas City

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Our Team Brags About Our Culture, Flexibility, and Dedication In 2021, readers of The Pitch KC voted iFocus Marketing the best digital marketing agency in Kansas City – but even if they hadn’t, we’d still think we’re pretty great. Our mission – to help our business partners achieve measurable outcomes through our custom digital marketing […]

Conducting Successful Continuous Marketing Check-Ins

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Auditing the Results of Your Digital Marketing Strategy The modern digital marketing strategy is always in flux, which should come to no surprise to anyone. Customers change, trends evolve, and search engines like Google are always adjusting their rules and changing their algorithm. As the best digital marketing agency in Kansas City, we’re not afraid […]

Kansas City’s Best Marketing Agency Took Home Precious Metals at the 2022 AMBIT Awards

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We Offer Award-Winning PPC, SEO, Social Media, and Lead Generation Services Our digital marketing strategists and service-line experts work hard to deliver the best possible marketing results for all our clients, and those efforts pay off with impressive data that proves what we’re doing is working. And sometimes our efforts return such big results that […]

Top 4 Resources Our Ad Agency in Kansas City Uses to Streamline Your Marketing Efforts

digital marketing efforts

Digital Marketing Becomes More Effective When You Utilize Important Analytics Understanding the information your marketing campaigns gather is imperative to optimizing your efforts and ultimately getting your message in front of the right people. When you know where to look and how to break down your marketing data, you can gather a more robust picture […]

iFocus Brag Book: What Have You Done During Quarantine?

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Continual Learning is Our Self Care Stay-at-home orders where we’re headquartered near Kansas City, Missouri, began on March 24 and sent our teams home to serve our clients remotely. As it turns out, saving up to two hours a day in commuting times gives a person extra time to check off some important tasks on […]

Take Advantage of Falling Digital Ad Rates this Month

Another Reason to Keep Marketing During Coronavirus Summer 2020 Olympic Games: Postponed. Major League Baseball: On hold. Wimbledon Championships: Cancelled altogether. Democratic National Convention: Pushed back. COVID-19’s effects on big, important events certainly weren’t unexpected, with shelter-in-place and quarantine orders in place across the country and in most places in the world. After all, you […]

Small-Business Financial Resources for COVID-19 Hardships

For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been sharing information about digital marketing tactics during crises situations, like coronavirus. It’s especially important to take great care to ensure your small-business marketing content is appropriate for these uncertain times, when emotions are running high. Digital marketing is incredibly important to maintaining your share in the marketplace […]

COVID-19 Update: Navigating Amazon Ads

With the whirlwind of news updates and shelter-in-place orders around the country, businesses are being forced to adapt to continue serving their customers and maintaining a strong flow of business. Global mega-retailer Amazon is no different. They’ve had to shift their focus and shipping processes in order to handle the effects COVID-19 has produced in […]

The Dos and Don’ts of Marketing During a Global Crisis

You probably didn’t realize the amount of emails you had to unsubscribe from until you saw the COVID-19 statements come in from every business you’ve ever interacted with. It seems like every company put out a message regarding safety and health in relation to COVID-19 and their business processes. This poses a few questions for […]

Coronavirus – COVID-19 Best Practices

Marketing Communications Best Practices for the Coronavirus Pandemic The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus has driven many businesses into a frenzy of the unknown. The potential spread and CDC recommendations have affected every industry’s operations, customer service, and potentially their bottom lines. Large national and global organizations have begun responding to these concerns with email […]

Social Media Best Practices & Habits for 2020

By now, everyone has set new business goals for 2020 and the rest of the coming decade. As digital marketing experts, especially in the field of social media, we strive to have the most insightful, entertaining content on the market. Social media becomes a more crucial aspect in everyday marketing efforts each year and we […]

Data Regulations in the Digital Age

With great (data) power comes great responsibility. Learn what regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and the ePD mean for your business’ digital marketing efforts.

Facebook Cracks Down on Advertisers With the Impending Presidential Election

There’s no escaping it. The 2020 presidential election will be here before we know it. The debates have begun and you’ve probably already noticed ads popping up in your newsfeed. With the influx of political ads already hitting the masses, and given the unique impact of online political ads on consumers in the previous election […]

Meet Marilee, our Social Media Account Coordinator!

What do you do at iFocus? My title is Social Media Account Coordinator. Day to day I plan and schedule content for some of our clients and grow their social media followings. I also dive into their analytics to see what posts perform well and what people engage with. What is your social media background? […]

The Tea on Gen Z: Marketing Practices for the Upcoming Generation

Generation Z is the world’s most populous generation, comprised of teens and young adults. Gen Z is made up of young people born between 1995 and 2010. Earlier this year, Gen Z surpassed Millennials in number to make up roughly thirty-two percent of the population. As this generation ages, they will continually have more power […]

Meet Kristina, our Senior Account Advisor!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I started with iFocus in July 2018. Describe what you do. I am a digital marketing strategist who works directly with our clients to discuss what marketing strategies and tactics would be best utilized to meet their individual business goals. I LOVE helping my clients accomplish their […]

Meet Connor, our Social Media Specialist/Account Coordinator!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I have been at iFocus for eight months now. Describe what you do. My job has many hats. My official title is Social Media Specialist/Account Coordinator. I work on the social media management team creating and managing content for client social pages. I also do some geofencing, […]

The Importance of Geofencing in 2019

Geofencing: What is it? Ever notice ads on your smartphone being catered specifically to your life? We’ve all had this experience before. You walk into the grocery store. As you’re using your phone to check your social media feed while waiting in the checkout line, you notice an ad on your feed for a product […]

CREATIVE TRENDS THAT WILL HELP YOU STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD IN 2019!

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out!” -Dr. Suess Over the past year, you may have seen an increase in popularity of certain design trends. Gradients, duotones, minimalism, bold typography, and vintage are among the popular design trends of 2018 that helped brands stand out against the rest. While some of those […]

Hiring Today’s Talent – How to Identify Potential for Success

7 Traits of Highly Successful People Introduction What is the growth potential of your business? It all starts with the potential of the people you hire. Your business will grow when you lean into challenges, strategize in the face of obstacles, and collaborate fiercely. This takes guts. It is hard. But knowing where to look […]

Meet Corrie Castro, Our Social Media Manager!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I’ve been with iFocus for almost a year. Time just flies by! Describe what you do. I’m the head of our social media department, so I curate and oversee all of our organic social media content. I’m also in charge of all of our paid social advertising […]

Meet Brandon Davis, an SEO Specialist!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I have been working at iFocus for about a year and a half now. Describe what you do. My primary role is SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which focuses on helping companies rank higher organically on major search engines for keywords relevant to their business, so their website […]

Social Media Advertising Summer Updates

As you’ve likely heard at some point recently, Facebook has been making several rounds of updates to their algorithm – again. Facebook’s algorithm is pretty much changing daily, or so it seems, right?! It’s hard to keep up with the constant changes Facebook makes to its platform and advertising. Many things have changed over the […]

Meet our Creative Director, Jessica!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I’ve been working at iFocus for a little over two years. I started in February of 2016. Describe what you do. I’m the creative mind behind all that is iFocus. I help develop graphics for our clients in any form needed – display ads, website graphics, social […]

The Life of an iFocus Intern (in GIFs)

If you’ve been following us at all on Facebook, you may have seen that we welcomed a summer intern into our office a few weeks ago. While interns are traditionally considered the coffee-getters, we at iFocus like to think we bring value to our interns by giving them ample opportunities to gain real-world experience and […]

Understanding Consumer Behavior in 2018

As many of you know, the way consumers engage with mobile devices is constantly changing. As an essential part of marketing your business, you can and should take time to educate yourself about how consumers are engaging with brands so you know how to market to them throughout their digital journey. Consumer behavior is always […]

Meet Jackie, a Senior Account Manager!

How long have you been working at iFocus? Since December 2016. Describe what you do.  I am an account manager and problem solver extraordinaire! What does a typical workday look like for you? Reviewing account strategy to ensure our clients’ campaigns perform to the best of their ability. Do you have any nicknames in the […]

The Power of Design: A Social Experiment

“In most cases at least half of our experience of food and drink is determined by the forgotten flavor senses of vision, sound, and touch.” – Charles Spence Design plays a huge role in many decisions consumers make. Design evokes emotion – and emotion makes decisions. When our Director of Ops ran into an article […]

GDPR: Why it Matters for Your U.S.-Based Business

If you’ve been checking your email in the last two weeks or so, you’ve likely gotten a notification from one or more third-party vendors notifying you of privacy policy updates thanks to GDPR. In case you haven’t seen these emails, they go a little something like this, On Friday, May 25th, the General Data Protection […]

Father’s Day Marketing: Winning Strategies to Celebrate Dad

Although it feels like we just celebrated all of our wonderful mothers, Father’s Day is already quickly approaching (if you’re bad with calendars, it’s on Sunday, June 17th). With just under a month to plan, you may be thinking you have plenty of time to find the perfect gift for your old man. But when […]

Meet our Digital Trailblazer, Amy VanWagner!

How long have you been working at iFocus? A little over a year. Describe what you do.  Sales. Work with all kinds of clients on their marketing needs in the digital space. This will vary from client to client but it always comes down to reaching their goals. What does a typical workday look like […]

Google Analytics is a Must-Have, not an Afterthought

As an agency, we at iFocus offer a lot of innovative, cutting-edge solutions to your digital marketing dilemmas. Depending on your business goals, we can craft a custom plan tailored to your geographic area, your target demographics, and your intended success metrics. Part of what makes our job fun is the opportunity to collaborate with […]

Organic Social Media Engagement is a lot Like Speed Dating

Whether you’re single, married, or somewhere in between, chances are you probably have a Facebook profile. Generally, in the dating scene, the first place to do a little background creeping investigating is on the potential suitors’ social profiles, right? Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your past relationships), you can’t leave reviews on personal profiles. Facebook […]

The What and Why of Gmail Ads

For over a decade, email marketing has been the household staple for many marketing professionals to increase brand awareness and boost their return on investment (ROI). This isn’t without merit – the ROI of email marketing is undeniable, at a whopping 3,700% on average. Similarly, email marketing conversion rates blow other tactics out of the […]

Meet our Marketing Musketeer, Dillon Lewis!

How long have you been working at iFocus? My first day as an intern was May 10th, 2016, and my first day as a full-time employee was January 3rd, 2017. Describe what you do. Currently, I am acting as a utility player by wearing three hats: Marketing Coordinator, Graphic Designer, and Paid Search Support. If […]

A Marketing Plan for the World’s Best Mom

What would we do without our lovely mommas? After all, they did give us the gift of life! They were there for us during our first days of school, cooked every meal for us, took care of us when we were sick… Moms have been there for every step of our lives! Did you know […]

Rank Higher with iFocus Marketing’s Three Essential 2018 SEO Strategies

Now that we’re nearly a quarter into the new year, we can start to reflect on SEO strategies from 2017 and see where we’re headed in 2018. We’ve seen continued growth with mobile users as expected; citations decreasing in importance for local SEO; semantic search (analyzing searches to improve accuracy by understanding the searcher’s intent […]

Meet our Leader of Search, Zach Kinser!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I have been with iFocus Marketing for two wonderful years. Describe what you do.  I manage our Search Engine Optimization team (I know, what a mouthful). Essentially, my job is to improve our clients Organic Search rankings to increase website traffic and conversions. What does a typical […]

Get Your Customers Egg-cited for Easter!

We’ve been “egg-stra” busy this month at iFocus Marketing dying eggs, devouring bunny-shaped sugary treats, and preparing businesses for a successful Easter season! Although, Easter is religiously recognized as more than an occasion to break out your Sunday best or to hop around the yard in hunt of eggs, roughly 80% of Americans celebrate the […]

Is Your Facebook Paid Strategy in Order for the Rest of 2018?

Have you heard? Organic reach is steadily declining for the world’s most powerful social platform. In order to counteract this as a business, you will need to have a fully developed social media advertising strategy for paid ads. Facebook offers a large variety of advertising from single images and multi-image carousel ads to sophisticated retargeting […]

The Use of Buttons in the Digital Space

In today’s digital world, buttons are everywhere. Every website you visit has a navigation bar that’s filled with buttons. Those websites probably also have strong call-to-actions placed somewhere on the page. Every app you use requires you to push a button to trigger a command. Every digital ad you see has (or should have) a […]

Play Cupid With Digital Marketing This Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is coming, whether you like it or not. Even if you hate it, you can’t hate a huge opportunity to market your brand online! Especially right after the dead cold of winter when you haven’t had much foot or website traffic. We’re sure a lot of you struggled in January trying to get […]

Scheduling Posts is Now Available on Instagram! (Kind Of)

You can (FINALLY) quit holding your breath… After an extended period of time, the number one request to Instagram by their 16 million customers, including the iFocus Marketing social marketing team, has been the scheduling and publishing of content. Instagram officially announced on January 30th that their API has been updated to the Instagram Graph […]

Advertising Olympics: Which Brands Took Home Super Bowl Commercial Gold?

Another year, another Super Bowl in the books, and with it, another batch of buzz-worthy Super Bowl commercials. Unlike some years past when mediocrity and lame attempts at humor have underwhelmed spectators of the marketing sport, this year featured a number of brands that really raised the advertising bar. From clever spoofs to classic movie […]

Meet our Director of Opportunities, Whitney Toates!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I have been working for iFocus for about one and a half years. I started at the end of July in 2016. Describe what you do. I am the Creator of Opportunities (aka Regional Sales Manager) at iFocus. I support two of our major client groups by […]

The Decline of Organic Facebook Reach

  Are you seeing a decline in organic reach on your Facebook page? Many are trying to increase those numbers by putting by boosting posts or running like campaigns on their business pages to get likes. We started seeing a decline in reach in 2012 when only 16% of Facebook fans from a business were […]

How to Increase Instagram Engagement (While Maintaining Tact)

Let’s be real. We all want more Instagram comments! Not only is increased engagement a sign that your social content is performing well, but it also gives you a chance to start a conversation with potential customers. So how do we increase user interaction? There’s a way to boost your Instagram engagement without coming across […]

Say Goodbye To AdWords Review Extensions

Starting this month, January 2018, Google will no long show Review Extensions along with ads. In February, they will be wiped from AdWords, historical data and all. Sayonara, Review Extensions, it’s been real. Review Extensions launched back in 2013 – with issues. They originally showed in place of lines of ad text which, for advertisers […]

All the Facebook Updates You Don’t Want to Miss in Q1

Facebook has released some great new information and potential new ways for you to market your business on social media in 2018. Some of these changes and new items are industry specific, but some are for everyone and every product. Not only do these additions to the social media juggernaut allow you to target specific […]

Meet our Director of Account Management, Josh Selig-Votaw!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I joined iFocus in April of 2016. (2 weeks before getting married, which I highly do not recommend) Describe what you do. My time is spent working with our clients in many ways. In my role, I also work with the internal teams and Account Management teams […]

Twitter Officially Enables 280-Character Limit

Twitter

Have you ever crafted the perfect tweet? It was relevant, relatable, catchy, and… more than 140 characters. Your options now are: A. Forget your masterpiece. B. Decide which grammatical crime you’re going to commit. C. Wait – There’s a third option?! Yes – there is! Twitter began testing a doubled character count this past September […]

Avoid Holiday Marketing Horrors

Holiday Marketing Horrors

Christmas is the biggest shopping season of the year, in stores and online. And it’s the most important time for businesses to make sales. According to Ad Roll, some companies can account for 30% of their annual sales in that heavy four-week period between mid-November to mid-December. It’s safe to say that digital advertising and […]

Meet our Director of Sales, Ryann Dowdy!

How long have you been working at iFocus? I joined the iFocus team full-time in April 2017. Describe what you do. I support our direct and partner sales teams. Whether it’s help with product pricing and ideas, or in-field sales calls and coaching, I do what I can do to make our sales teams and […]

“Why does my business need social media?” they asked.

There are many benefits to social media marketing. If your business doesn’t have a Facebook page now a days, users will turn away! It’s the easiest way to learn and contact a business you are interested in – whether it be your favorite restaurant, clothing store, or potential job! Here are the top 4 benefits […]

Meet The Team Questions: Sydney Feipel

How long have you been working at iFocus? Since we started (one year and eight months-ish) Describe what you do. Much of what I do involves managing our programmatic display campaigns, which includes anything from submitting new campaigns, updating campaigns, making optimizations, making small campaign edits, etc. I also manage our internal team, so I […]

Meet The Team Questions: Andrew Lukes – CEO

How long have you been working at iFocus? I joined iFocus in May of 2016. Describe what you do. I spend a lot of my time acting as a resource for the team – encouraging, assisting, challenging, motivating, directing. What does a typical workday look like for you? I’m up pretty early, usually around 5AM […]

The Art of “Relevant” Stalker Marketing

That is so creepy. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard this phrase when I explain to people what I do for a living, I’d be sitting on my own private beach right now. Other phrases I hear on a regular basis include: Oh, I hate those ads. You mean those pop-up […]

The Value of a Mobile-Optimized Website

Today, nearly 90% of Americans are active online. But, as hard as it is to believe, PC sales are actually declining. So how are all those people getting online? Many of them are doing it through smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Almost everyone in the country now owns a cellphone, and around 80% are […]

Websites Still Matter, but Promotion is Essential

With so much happening on social media these days and so many searches going through mobile devices, it may come as no surprise that we have literally had business owners ask us, “Do websites still matter?” The answer is that yes, absolutely, websites still matter, maybe now more than ever. However, to get the most […]

What Is Native Advertising and Why Does It Work So Well for Brands?

When it comes to getting your message in front of readers and potential customers, you have a lot of options at your disposal, not to mention a lot of online “noise” to compete with. So how can taking advantage of native advertising help your brand stand out from the crowd even while you’re blending in? […]

What Your Customers and Prospects Want from Your Web Content

In the day-to-day hustle to keep your website humming along smoothly and stocked with SEO-friendly content, it can be easy to forget what the ultimate purpose of your content really is. Sure, web content is a great way to build your keyword base and improve your page rankings, but it only does that by also […]

Social Media Should be a Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy

As hard as it is to believe in this age of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Google Plus, social media actually hasn’t been around all that long. Facebook only showed up in 2004, and Twitter is barely over a decade old. Even the blogging platforms that dominate so many of our websites only started […]

Putting Geo-Fencing and Location-Based Marketing to Work for Your Business

Let’s say a potential customer drives by your dealership every day on their way to and from work; how do you let them know about the discount that you’re running on oil changes when they can use it? Or your restaurant is just around the corner from a busy shopping area, and you’d like to […]

6 Ways to Tell if Your Content Will Be Effective for SEO

By now you’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king,” but when it comes to maximizing SEO, content can take many forms, from product pages to blogs, articles to whitepapers, infographics to videos. One thing that just about every piece of content has in common is that a fair amount of work usually goes into […]