Want To Browse All Our Articles?

The Power of Data: How Marketing Analytics Drive Success

In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, where strategies and trends evolve at breakneck speed, one thing remains constant: data is king. It's not just a buzzword; it's the foundation upon which successful marketing campaigns are built. In this blog post, we'll...

read more

Influencer Marketing: Amplifying Your Brand’s Reach

Introduction In today's digitally-driven world, marketing has evolved beyond traditional advertising to encompass a powerful strategy known as influencer marketing. With millions of social media users, influencers have become the vanguards of modern marketing, holding...

read more

Micro-Influencers: Small but Mighty

Micro-influencer marketing is a digital marketing strategy that offers greater potential returns for your time and money. Instead of working with high-profile influencers with millions of followers, you can approach smaller, niche influencers with more engaged and...

read more

Website Experience Mistakes That Hurt Your Brand

With many businesses looking to increase their customer growth rate, they must evaluate strategies that can help maintain customer satisfaction. Building a consistent, solid website experience can be valuable for this endeavor because it boosts brand reputation. There...

read more

How to Maximize Inbound Marketing Effectiveness

The path to inbound marketing success is filled with landmines, but it doesn't have to be that way.  Inbound marketing is the strategy of creating and sharing content with the goal of gaining the attention of potential customers. It focuses on providing valuable,...

read more

The Content Marketing Pathway

Many content types contribute to a comprehensive content marketing strategy. The timing of delivery for each piece is as important to your success as selecting the right tactics. The following is an overview of the typical flow of content in a content marketing...

read more

How to Build Trust With Online Customers

Trust is a critical component of any long-term relationship. Whether you're trying to sell someone a product, get them to buy into your vision, or convince them your company has their best interests in mind, trust is key. Building trust with customers is even more...

read more

How to Prepare Your Business For the Holiday Season

With the holiday season approaching, it's important to prepare your business for the upcoming rush. The lead-up to Christmas often involves more customers and higher sales, but your business needs to be ready to deal with the holiday rush to take full advantage of its...

read more

How To: Email Marketing for Your Cannabis Business

For years now, the United States has become more and more lenient towards the use and distribution of cannabis. A number of states have outright legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and many others allow for its medical usage. It's no surprise that many people...

read more

9 Remote Business Tips Anyone Can Use

Remote businesses are all the rage, especially since the enforced quarantines of 2020 proved that they were viable to a large number of people. However, if you are planning on setting up a remote business - or are planning to convert your current company into one -...

read more

How to Create a High-Converting Landing Page

You've probably heard that a landing page is key to a successful online marketing campaign. But what makes a landing page effective? And how can you create one that converts visitors into customers? This post looks at the anatomy of a high-converting landing page and...

read more

Small Business Tips: How to Run a Stellar Event

One of the best ways you can promote your small business is through running a business event. Big events catch attention, create word-of-mouth, and can endear you to your target market. However, running them can be an ordeal in itself. Simply creating an event is...

read more

9 Reasons Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working

Content marketing is a powerful way to build your brand and gain customers. It's an effective way to increase awareness of your product or service, but only if you spend time creating valuable content relevant to your readers. If you're not getting results from your...

read more

5 Reasons to Consider a Marketing Agency for Your Business

Trying to market your own business is often a big challenge. Focusing on marketing also requires a lot of time and plenty of energy. Choosing to use a marketing agency is often an excellent option for many businesses due to the numerous benefits. These professionals...

read more

Boost Your Content Reach with Shoulder Niches

Content should be at the core of your online marketing strategy. Sometimes it's easy for your content to reach a wide audience, but if you are in a niche industry, your blog posts or website content may not be getting much attention. It's not your fault - you just...

read more

Professional Business Cards

Over the years we’ve developed an amazing partnership with TKS Security. We’ve helped them build internal policy and procedures, presentation decks, logos, building signage, vehicle decals, brochures, digital marketing, eCommerce programs, and much, much, more!...

read more

5 Lead Generation Tips to Grow Your Business

If your goal is to attract more customers by generating quality leads, then you need to do everything you can to maximize the number of leads that you initially draw into your sales funnel. However, if you already know that, then your next question may be how exactly...

read more

Career Boosters: Reframing Negative Language

"I can't do that right now." "You should have just come to me." You may not have realized it but these phrases are negative in nature. Many people assume that negative phrases make them look tough and no-nonsense, but they can actually be hurting your personal brand...

read more

5 Tips for Impressing Your Customers

Impressing your customers is one of the most important things that you can do as a business. As a business owner, you probably understand that each happy customer you create can become a cheerleader for your business. This creates word-of-mouth advertising, and it's...

read more

10 Big SEO Trends to Think About in 2021

As your business transitions into 2021, there will be certain changes in search engine optimization (SEO) to consider as you approach your strategies for the next year. In many ways, the SEO landscape will remain familiar, but like every other aspect of digital...

read more

5 Key Changes in Ecommerce That Will Affect 2021 and Beyond

In 2020, a pandemic shook up a lot of people's lives in many ways, and it also had an impact on many facets of business across nearly every industry. With so many people forced to stay home more often, they turned to eCommerce, which has only flourished even more as a...

read more

The Complete Guide To Content Creation

Content creation is a vital part of running a website. It helps with SEO, gives users a reason to engage with your site, and keeps them coming back for more. Yet what's the best way to go about making compelling content for your site? According to current estimates,...

read more

Technology-Based Marketing: Top 4 Common Mistakes

Everyone is online these days. 4 billion people own a smartphone and 1.7 billion people have social media accounts. Marketers understand today's push towards technology, which makes marketing technology one of their biggest assets. So, does that mean all marketers...

read more

Digital Signage Trends

We think that digital signage still has a bright future. Need convincing? Here are our digital signage trends to watch out for.

read more

10 Business Branding Mistakes You Need to Avoid

Branding is more than a business logo and a color scheme. Branding is the opportunity to express why people should be buying from you. Branding is also not a one-off exercise. A brand needs to be nurtured, developed, and protected. Start-ups and established businesses...

read more

5 Email Marketing Tips That Add Customer Value to Your Emails

Did you know something as basic as communicating with your customers is essential in any business venture? One of the most common methods of online marketing is through email. With a good email marketing strategy, you can grow your business and gain more sales. Are...

read more

Website Launch: PaceMate™

Today we’re excited to announce the launch of another new website! We worked with Fierce Strategy + Creative to help bring their website design to life for their client, PaceMate™. You can check out their brand new custom built website here: PaceMate.com

read more

7 Powerful Ways to Use Instagram SEO to Market Your Business

Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps, hosting over 1 billion active users. If you're running a small business, social media like Instagram can help you grow. Like websites, you can use SEO to improve the visibility of your brand. In this article, we...

read more

5 Signs It’s Time To Scale Your Startup

The decision to scale up your startup is not to be made lightly. However, so many companies have failed to strike when the iron is hot, simply because they could not tell that the iron was hot in the first place. You need to keep your eyes on the horizon and take your...

read more

5 Steps to Building a Useful Competitive Analysis

Building a successful business involves looking inwards to develop the kind of irresistible offering that becomes a household name, but that is not the only aspect involved. You also need to study the competition. Only by studying the competition can you truly refine...

read more

Why Every Business Should Consider Content Marketing

If you have an online business and aren't taking advantage of content marketing, you're missing out on a significant portion of potential traffic. Every day, users make billions of queries on Google and other search engines. This traffic is a goldmine for your...

read more

7 Ways to Give Your Website Conversions a Boost

All businesses should have a website, a place customers can place orders and research the products they need. However, not all companies have fully optimized their website for conversions. If you want your company to succeed, you need the sales funnel firing on all...

read more

No Blog Post Ideas? Try These 3 Content Creation Techniques

Do you need to come up with blog post ideas for your website? Creating content isn't only essential to keep your SEO score up, but it's also a great way to market your business to your demographic. It also helps keep your brand relevant and prevent it from getting...

read more

Types of Digital Marketing: Develop your Outreach Strategy

Did you know that 72 percent of the American public uses social media? That means that the majority of Americans are online and being exposed to many types of digital marketing. As a business owner, you just can't afford not to have a digital marketing strategy in...

read more

Creating Sensational Marketing Copy to Drive Sales

Not very many companies reach their goals without heavily investing in marketing. This doesn't always involve running ads or creating deliverables, though. In fact, copywriting is an essential sales skill that can drastically increase your revenue if implemented...

read more

What Is Dedicated Web Hosting and How Does It Work?

Web hosting is an essential service that's required when launching a website. While you can develop a website offline, it won't attract any visitors until it's uploaded to a web hosting server. Not all forms of web hosting are made equal, though. Dedicated is...

read more

Website Launch: Nablus Soap Co.

Today we're excited to announce Nablus Soap Company's new online store! You can check out their brand new WooCommerce website here: www.nablussoapco.com Nablus Soap Company sells a variety of wonderfully scented, all natural, olive oil soaps. This soap is created...

read more

(Video) Build Your Blog Calendar in 7 Easy Steps

Did you know that 53 percent of marketers in organizations with effective content marketing have a content marketing plan? It's important to have a content planner such as a blog calendar to organize your marketing efforts. Start building your content calendar in...

read more

(Video) Easy Tips To Improve Your Website: Week 8

Today is the last installment of our 8-week journey highlighting easy tips to improve your website. For almost two months, we've been dishing about ways you can make your customers feel more confident in your product or service (which in turn should help you increase...

read more

Easy Tips To Improve Your Website (Series): Week 7

Over the past 6-weeks we've been discussing simple tips that can make a positive impact on your company's website. Each tip is easy to implement, and designed to help you increase your website's performance and minimize any lost opportunities. So far, we've discussed:...

read more

Easy Tips To Improve Your Website (Series): Week 6

If you’ve been following along, by now you’ve written an amazing tagline, explained how doing business with your company is easy, and added strong calls-to-action. Today we’ll explore adding testimonials to build social proof.

read more

Easy Tips To Improve Your Website (Series): Week 5

It seems like only yesterday when we began this 8-week journey with you. So much has changed in the world around us as we continue to hunker-down in various states of "social distancing". While we're all experiencing some degree of discomfort, many small businesses...

read more

3 Easy Steps for Improving Your SEO With Internal Links

Building backlinks can be a difficult, time-consuming, and arduous process. Frankly, the whole process of building external links for your website kind of sucks. However, studies show that link building is a critical component to getting ranked in search engines....

read more

Easy Tips To Improve Your Website (Series): Week 3

A few weeks ago we began our series of eight easy changes that you can make to your website right now to start driving more leads, increasing sales, and growing your business! Every tip is easy to implement and should help you increase leads and minimize lost...

read more

5 Actionable Ways to Keep Your WordPress Website Safe in 2020

Are you an in-house WordPress webmaster determined to keep your site safe? Have you heard "horror stories" about WordPress security and want make sure that your site don't become the next target? Rest assured that there are easy ways you can help prevent cyber attacks...

read more

(Video) Easy Tips To Improve Your Website: Week 2

A week ago we began outlining easy changes that you can make to start driving more leads, increasing sales, and growing business via your website! Each of these recommendations is easy to implement and will help you increase sales while reducing lost opportunities....

read more

How to Create a Company Blog (And Why You Need One)

What if there was a secret weapon to leads and conversion and you could start using it today? Good news! There is one: your blog. A company blog is one of the greatest ways to situate your business as a thought leader in your niche while telling the world about your...

read more

(Video) Easy Tips To Improve Your Website: Week 1

Like most business owners, you’ve probably created a website that showcases your business offerings, products, and services... and (just taking a wild guess here) you probably built your website in an effort to grow your business and make more money, right? Here at...

read more

Freshwater COVID-19 Update

We know that our hosting and digital marketing clients rely on us to keep their websites functioning and their campaigns optimized. For that reason, we wanted to send you a personal note to let you know how Freshwater Agency is dealing with the COVID-19 situation.

read more

Creating Content 101: How to Define Engaging Content

What if you had all the customers you wanted but no way to retain them? The best conversion and retention strategy for consumers is solid customer engagement. But most businesses are too busy trying to define engaging content to actually create it. We're here to cut...

read more

Click Here! How Does PPC Work?

What if building your brand and expanding your marketing was just a click away? PPC is a powerful tool to help businesses of all sizes expand and evolve. However, many business owners are too busy asking "how does PPC work" to take advantage of it. That's where we...

read more

Website Launch: Mawby Microsite

The secret is out, Mawby’s new wine subscription service is here! We helped design and create a new microsite to showcase the new subscription.

read more

The Small Business Guide to Building a Successful Brand

Building a strong brand is essential for establishing a trustworthy reputation within your industry and letting potential customers know what to expect from your business. Small businesses often overlook the importance of branding, but successful branding gives your...

read more

Lead Generation Tips for Plumbers

Plumbers and plumbing companies stay busy year-round making repairs, installing new plumbing, and performing maintenance tasks. Unlike some businesses that have a specific target audience or seasonal market, a plumber's services may be needed by a huge variety of...

read more

Website Launch: Utility Reduction Analysts

Today we're excited to announce the launch of Utility Reduction Analysts's new website! You can visit their new WordPress based site here: https://utilityreduction.com/ Utility Reduction Analysts (URA) is a national company that works hard to save their clients money....

read more

Website Launch: Westshore Plumbing & Heating

Today we're celebrating the launch of Westshore Plumbing & Heating's new branding and WordPress site! You can visit the new website at: westshoremech.com At Westshore Plumbing & Heating, their team has over 26 years of experience in the mechanical trades....

read more

Launch: Selfie Signs

We’re excited to announce the launch of Selfie Signs’ new website! This shiny new site was created to highlight an amazing new product created by Britten, Inc. called FOAM3D.

read more

Launch: Interactive Aerial

Today we celebrate the launch of Interactive Aerial’s new website! This new WordPress based website was designed to help drive sales for the company’s Legacy One Drone and features enhanced analytics.

read more

We’ve Moved!

As much as we loved our location at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, we've found a new location that better fits the needs of our clients! After our team took a short stint working remotely, we finally moved into a new location that has all amenities we need to...

read more

Pros and Cons of Prebuilt WordPress Themes

There are several great reasons to use WordPress and the vast plugin and theme ecosystem is a big one. Themes built exclusively for reuse or resale can be a fantastic solution when time or cost issues arise.

read more

Website Launch: The GTAMC

Today we celebrate the launch of the new GTAMC website! This new WordPress based website was created to give the members of the council a place to share information, register for events, manage their membership…

read more

Instant Search Is Dead

According to a statement given to Search Engine Land, Google’s search feature that gave users results while typing is officially dead. Apparently, Google is ditching this 7-year-old feature because of mobile.

read more

My New Assistant

My New Assistant is Smarter Than Yours! 360i, a New York-based digital agency recently built software that analyzes and compares the performance of smart assistants like Google Home and Amazon Alexa.

read more

The Whole Package

Check out the new packaging, soon to be hitting the shelves of a grocery store near you! We’re excited to show off the new packaging that we designed for one of the worlds best providers of dried fruit.

read more

Site Launch: Dick & Jane’s

Today we celebrate the launch of Dick & Jane’s new website! Salon owner and stylist Sarah M. had a mantra that she used throughout the development process—keep things simple. And that’s what we did.

read more

May the 4th Be With you

It’s the fourth day of May, meaning it’s our favorite geeky “holiday”! In honor and celebration of this joyous occasion, we’re counting down our top ten favorite Star Wars quotes. May the 4th be with you!

read more

Smart Display Campaigns

Google announced that they’re going to be rolling out “Smart Display Campaigns” beginning today. According to the Inside Adwords blog, Smart display campaigns use machine learning to…

read more

Digital Viewbooks Project Launch

We’re super excited to announce the launch of another cool digital project! We recently completed the development of a pair of digital viewbooks for Interlochen Arts Academy, and they turned out really great!

read more

Moving Content Away From Hubspot

Let me start this off by saying this… I love the inbound marketing model, I like Hubspot, and I think Hubspot is great! In my opinion, it can be VERY valuable to the right company or organization, but…

read more

New Magento eCommerce Website

Today we celebrate the launch of Graceland Fruit’s new website redesign. You can check out their shiny new custom Magento eCommerce and B2B website at: GracelandFruit.com

read more

Filtering WooCommerce By SKU

We’re huge fans of WooCommerce! We love it, we love developing with it, and we love using it. But the fact that there is no way of filtering WooCommerce orders by the SKU really bugged us—until now!

read more

A New Brand For Blue Caribou Cafe

When a local cafe owned by a wonderful family was recently forced to rebrand -- we knew that we just had to help. Blue Caribou Cafe in Beulah, Michigan was served with a cease-and-desist letter from coffee giant Caribou Coffee Company Inc. and  didn’t have the money...

read more

Google Home

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced today that 20 percent of all queries on its mobile app and Android devices are voice searches. That’s 1 out of every 5 searches, and this trend will only continue to grow.

read more

April Fools 2016

The internet is a place for serious business. People use it to hold boring business meetings, give Amazon their credit card number, connect with other professionals on LinkedIn.

read more

Website Launch: Toss The Bag

We just finished design and development on a website for a new client! TossTheBag.com is a really fun company that makes super creative and dare we say “luxurious” bean bag toss games. Learn More.

read more

Why WordPress?

WordPress is one of the most popular, flexible, easy-to-use content management systems available with a thriving ecosystem and huge developer pool. We recommend it over any other CMS.

read more

Raleway: The Next Papyrus?

Is there becoming an over-saturation of the popular font, Raleway? We think that it’s definitely looking that way. Join us as we explore the possibility that Raleway could soon become the next Papyrus!

read more

Introducing Clockwork!

A big thank you to Paul Stebleton and TheVillageTC.com! They wrote a nice little piece introducing Clockwork Agency this week — we’re really excited to help our clients achieve great things!

read more

Website Launch: TKS Security

Today we’re celebrating the redesign of TKS Security’s website! TKS Security focuses on keeping clients safe, so we focused on design and ease of use.

read more

Google | The Rise of Mobile

Google announced a pretty big change to its ranking algorithm—one that’s undoubtedly going to impact rankings in mobile search results. Mobile has been big for a while, but now Google’s gone all in!

read more

Let’s Get Started

Reach your goals, create more opportunities, increase sales, and starting growing your organization today. By partnering with the Freshwater team, you can leverage our years of experinece and technology-based marketing solutions to grow your business and acheive success!