Mandel Marketing
“Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith, and perseverance to create a brand.”
– David Ogilvy
Services
Market Research
We research marketplace opportunities, provide SWOT reports, data analysis, competitive sets, and more. Our marketing tactics and services are all framed by strong research that supports our recommendations. We only trust our gut when we’re ordering pizza. (Anchovies, pickles, and sea salt? Yum!)
The Batphone
Sometimes you’re not really sure what you need. Or sometimes you just need an ear, some advice, or a quick POV on a new opportunity. The Batphone is, quite simply, access to our brilliant minds for a quick strategy session. Call us anytime.
Words of Wisdom
Every business decision—whether it’s hiring new talent, switching vendors, or launching a marketing campaign—comes down to one critical question: what’s the return on investment? For marketers and business leaders, measuring ROI is both an art…
An interview with marketer Brooke Colglazier.
Books, Movies, or Shows That Have Motivated Entrepreneurs We tell ourselves stories in order to live. — Joan Didion, “The White Album” (1979) Here at Mandel Marketing, we really believe in the power of storytelling. This goes…
From Shakespeare to Startups: 10 Professionals Show How A Business Degree Isn’t Everything These days, the line between what you study in school and what you do for a living is blurry–and as the people…
Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept in the workplace—it’s here, in your inbox, your Slack threads, your pitch decks, and maybe even this sentence. (Maybe not.) As tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and…
Top Website Creation and Hosting Software Choices for Your Needs When it comes to creating and hosting websites—whether for your own brand or for clients—there’s no shortage of options. WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy,…
Smart People Say These 10 Marketing Podcasts and Audiobooks Are Worth Your Ears—Here’s Why We asked 10 actual marketing professionals—people with job titles, LinkedIn profiles, and the occasional unpaid intern—to tell us their #1 recommended…
Effective Writing Prompts and Their Impact on Writers Most writing prompts are forgettable.They’re vague. Overused. Or so abstract they stall more than they spark. But the best writing prompts—the ones professionals return to again and…
11 Crucial Professional Communication Tips from Career Experts At Mandel Marketing, we work with clients across industries to help refine not just their external messaging, but also how their teams communicate internally. In fast-moving workplaces,…
Sales Enablement Strategies That Drive Success From messy pipelines to consistent performance, startup leaders reveal how dedicated sales enablement and sales development hires transformed their sales marketing outcomes—and what pitfalls to avoid. What Even Is…
HubSpot, GA4, and Beyond: What Marketers Really Track to Prove Social ROI When it comes to tracking social media management, vanity metrics are easy to chase—but harder to justify. For today’s marketing leaders, it’s no…
Are Social Media Influencers Worth Anything? A quarter into the 21st century, and social media influence is no longer just a buzzword. It’s a measurable, strategic asset that brands are leveraging to reach highly targeted…
Because hope is not a marketing strategy. Sometimes–especially when money gets tight–management and business owners will take for granted that a marketing strategy isn’t necessary, or that it’s too expensive. They recategorize it as a…
Are Your Sales and Marketing Teams At War? Sales and marketing are often treated as separate disciplines—divided by workflows, KPIs, and even office walls. Not good, we think. When these two functions operate in sync,…
How To Define Your Ideal Customer Profile and Why It Matters In theory, the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a tidy exercise: define your target audience, build messaging around them, and watch qualified leads pour…
Everyone’s talking about ABM. Why? In this article, the advertising and branding experts at Mandel Marketing gathered insights from thought leaders on Account-Based Marketing (ABM). We’ll see how ABM is effective for targeted B2B strategies,…
Uh-oh. Handling difficult clients is an inevitable part of running a business, and how a company responds can mean the difference between a lost relationship and a loyal advocate. Whether it’s a frustrated customer facing…
Flow like a river, ideas and production. The “state of flow” is that elusive zone of peak productivity and deep focus. Like obscenity, it’s hard to define but you know it when you see it….
Unfortunately, a brilliant idea alone isn’t enough. Success hinges on effectively connecting that idea with its intended audience. (We here at Mandel call it “marketing.”) But it’s not always clear when a startup or early-stage…
AI isn’t coming. It’s already here. Seems like everyone is talking about artificial intelligence these days, and we here at Mandel Marketing are no exception. We use AI selectively to improve our business and our…
Where Is Marketing and Advertising Going in 2025? Nobody can predict the future. But we can take an educated guess. Here at Mandel Marketing we’ve been in this game for decades, and we’ve watched the…
Contextual Advertising Is Coming Back As we move towards a privacy-centric online environment, “traditional” digital methods of targeting audiences are becoming less effective. (We say “traditional” in quotes because it’s all still relatively recent.) Enter…
Wait, WTF is a creative brief? A creative brief is a document that you give your ad agency (or graphic designer, or nephew/intern, or whoever) that tells them what you want. A well-crafted creative brief…
Is SEO going to change in 2025? Yeah, probably. But how? This is what everyone wants to know. The problem is, we can’t predict the future. But we can ask our community of thought-leaders and…
Do SEO Like The Pros Everyone is talking about SEO these days (at least, when they’re not talking about politics or what the hell is going to happen to TikTok). It’s all going to change…
Branding Building and Performance Marketing: Can They Coexist? Performance marketing delivers the numbers, that’s true. But it’s the brand that builds lasting value. Smart advertisers know it’s not an either/or equation (think of Steve Jobs…
Raise Domain Authority With These Lesser-Known Strategies SEO is a difficult game of chess where the rules are always changing. This is because everyone is doing what everyone else is doing, and when the search…
WTF is Content Pruning, and Why Is It Important? We all know that maintaining a healthy website is essential for improving search engine rankings, driving traffic, and converting visitors into customers. We talk about it…
Marketing is hard. There are so many variable at any given time, and most business owners need to focus on running their business, closing deals, and actually doing the work–which is why fractional CMO services…
The Tortured Artist Gets A Job Many of us want to be artists when we’re kids–or at least we love doing art—and if you’re reading this article, you probably did, too. But art is hard….
The Everpresent Conundrum: Art vs. Business Those of us with creative personalities have no doubt faced, at least once in our lives, the problem of how to remain true to our artistic selves while keeping…
“I think boring is the ultimate sin.” — David Ogilvy, The Unpublished David Ogilvy (1985) It’s hard not to be boring. One way to avoid it is to be scary. This, unfortunately, doesn’t work that…
WTF do I do about writer’s block? Okay, first thing: take a deep breath and relax. This is actually pretty good advice for any problem you might be having. It doesn’t actually solve anything, per…
Marketing Failures Aren’t The End Of The World Social media distorts reality. People post how amazing their lives are, the wonderful trips they go on, and the beautiful dishes they eat. That’s fine, but it’s…
Finding Online Tools For Your Business The internet is a big place. And with every angel startup investor throwing billions of dollars at every project on the planet, the internet keeps getting bigger. But as…
The brand-building process is often misunderstood by startups, with some founders viewing it as an afterthought or something to be addressed once the company is more established. Others argue that startup branding is fundamental to…
Okay, so you have a damn good idea and a damn fine go-to-market strategy. You’re full of vim and vigor and vinegar and ready to work those 25-hour days to become the next [insert your…
So you’re looking for help with a go-to-market strategy for your startup, huh? Well, we suggest hiring Mandel Marketing as part of our Fractional CMO services–but short of that, here are some great online resources,…
Craft a Digital Presence That Resonates With A Strong SEO Strategy In the frenetic world of startups, where innovation is the currency and agility is the competitive edge, establishing a robust digital presence is not…
Why Branding is Crucial for Startups: The Key to Unlocking Growth and Investment In today’s hyper-competitive market, the landscape for startups is fraught with marketing strategy challenges. Whether fully funded or seeking capital, startups face…
Use This Guide To Craft an Unstoppable Go-To-Market Strategy For Your Startup In the world of startups, where innovation thrives and the stakes are high, a well-crafted go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the compass that guides…
Marketing Myths Abound, Don’t Fall For Them! You’ve likely come across some of these misconceptions about marketing, often touted as “conventional wisdom” or as things that “everyone knows.” Don’t be misled! Rather than relying on…
If you’re reading the Mandel Marketing blog, then you probably already know that email marketing is one of the most important and effective tactics in your marketing strategy for businesses to reach potential customers. But…
As with any product or service on the internet, including online training modules, there are thousands and thousands of options. Maybe even millions. So how do you decide which platform to use? We here at…
How To Prepare For SEO Changes in 2024 and 2025 SEO changes are coming, and we want to help prepare you and your team for them. Mandel Marketing is all about SEO, and now, so…
If you’ve checked out Phillip Scott Mandel’s new book, An MFA For Your MBA, you’ll know there’s a big discussion about the value of graduate programs–both the Master’s in Fine Arts in Creative Writing and…
Despite all the talk of SEO and content marketing, sales development and email marketing, and everything else we do, the fundamental service that Mandel Marketing provides is communication. We help companies, brands, and individuals say…
In a previous post, we discussed how to become one of that coveted group of freelance writers in the world: tips, tricks, and opportunities. This freelance writing guide is only one half of the equation,…
Whether you have a full-time job or are trying to carve out your path as a solo entrepreneur, freelance writing can be an excellent way to make some extra money. Many freelance writers who start…
Did you know that corporate blog posts are one of the most popular type of content marketing? That’s why nine out of ten marketers use blogging to achieve their content goals. (We do, obviously.) But it’s…
Balancing Engagement and Unsubscribes in Email Campaigns If you’ve ready our founder’s book, An MFA For An MBA, you’ll know that Phillip Scott Mandel loves puns but despises “cutesy” writing, especially in the workplace. He also…
Can You Learn To Write? As Martin Amis said, as quoted in the bottom of our website, “All writing is a campaign against cliché.” But writing well is hard, and cliché is easy. So what…
Influencer Marketing: Exploring The Hype Here at Mandel Marketing, we provide a lot of digital marketing services: from SEO and content to email and paid search. But there’s still a lot more out there. Some…
Is Backlink Building Impossible, or Just Merely Difficult? The answer is yes. All SEO professionals know that backlink building is a Sisyphean task, and if you don’t think so, then you haven’t been doing SEO…
Oh, the magic of a great business book. The classic trope of a hard-charging, inspirational, and insightful business book abounds, on the dusty shelves of now-empty corner cubicles, in the dark corners of dark libraries,…
Some Free Business Writing Advice From The Experts In May 2024, Mandel Marketing founder Phillip Scott Mandel published a business writing advice and communication book, An MFA For Your MBA. The book is full of…
How To Fix Those Pesky Common SEO Mistakes Sometimes it seems like all we do here at the Mandel Marketing blog is write about Search Engine Optimization. Well, first, it’s not true. We write about…
The Benefits of Hiring a Fractional CMO We all know marketing is crucial to building your business. But some companies don’t have the need or resources to hire a full-time CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), even…
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Is Confusing, Difficult, and Complex Right? Well, maybe not. Luckily for all of the small business owners and marketers out there, the helpful folks at Mandel Marketing have gathered insights from…
Are Paid Sponsor Backlinks A Good Strategy For SEO? Everyone’s talking about SEO. Well, okay, people are talking about AI, and war, and democracy, too. But in the Mandel Marketing world–the world of digital marketing–we’re…
Client Spotlight: Little Monsters Universe (Ecommerce) Today we’re talking with Tina Salmanowitz, a former science teacher and founder of a beloved homeschool education brand, Little Monsters Universe. Tell us about Little Monsters Universe. Little Monsters…
In today’s digital age, search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for any business that wants to be successful online. This is especially true for new ecommerce businesses, which need to find ways to stand out…
Grow Your Startup Quickly and Efficiently With a Fractional CMO This statistic might throw you bright-eyed entrepreneuers for a loop, especially if you’re still in the planning phase of your startup, but nine out of…
The Ultimate Guide To Sales Enablement and Sales Development Sales enablement, also known as sales development or sales marketing, is the strategy and process of successfully providing marketing representatives with the necessary resources to convert…
Jump-Start Your Creativity With These 30 Helpful Business Writing Prompts Writing is hard. Every writer knows this, because they’ve spent time at the desk, staring into space wondering what in the hell to write about….
I’m Going to Be an Author! Thinking about writing your first book? Even to an entrepreneur or a business leader, writing a book may seem like a daunting task. Perhaps to become the leader you…
Writing great copy doesn’t just happen. Learn about advertising creative here.
Branding is such a massive topic that you can write an entire book about it (actually, there are already several hundred books in existence about this very thing). Hell, you can have a course in…
As streaming services like Netflix and Hulu continue to expand, more and more people are finding the traditional cable and satellite TV experience to be a hassle not worth the cost. It makes total sense…
Mandel Marketing is excited to share that we have been recognized as one of the premier digital marketing agencies in Austin and nationally by UpCity! To be successful in advertising today requires the right team,…
So what is content marketing, anyway? Content marketing is a powerful form of marketing that focuses on producing useful and pertinent content that will reach a defined audience to engage them and attract them to…
Check out our guest post on the Upcity blog, where we discuss content marketing and copywriting! Is Content Marketing The Same As Copywriting?
The Advertising Creative Concept Creativity is the soul of advertising. It’s the fundamental concept that drives business success, giving life and meaning to messages about a brand’s products and services. And if you’re not being creative…
The Mandel Marketing Guide to Ad Tech In recent years, technology has affected all sectors of business and nearly everything else in the world, from communication and medicine to learning and entertainment. Sometimes technology has…
How To Make Content Marketing Work For You Did you know there are around five billion active internet users and more than four billion social media users worldwide? Put simply; there’s a ton of opportunity…
Want to learn about marketing and advertising but don’t have time to read? Podcasts and audiobooks have become an integral part of our lives, since we can learn something new by listening at our own…
When it comes to photography for marketing and advertising, creativity and vision are only half the battle. Images play an essential role in marketing and advertising because they tell a story, convey a brand’s message,…
Everyone’s a photographer these days. But are they? Ever since high quality cameras have been added to phones, everyone thinks they’re a professional photographer. But then people look at the pictures they actually take with…
What should a business do during a recession? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer to this question, as all businesses–from entrepreneurs and startups to mid-size businesses and beyond–will all face different sets of circumstances when a…
Today, we’re talking to Shannon Perri of Chris Perri Law, a criminal defense firm based here in Austin, Texas. Shannon runs the day-to-day operations of the firm, while her husband Chris does the lawyering. Tell…
Because SEM ain’t just a river in Egypt Paid search ads (also known as search engine marketing, SEM, PPC, and Google Ads) represent a valuable tool in digital marketing. According to some random recent stats we found,…
Taking inspiration from books new and old In order to be a great writer, you need to be a great reader. Anyone who takes writing seriously knows this. It doesn’t mean you need to read…
3 Crucial Professional Networking Tips For Business Owners Networking is essential for business owners, but it can be difficult to know where to start. In this article, the business development team at Mandel Marketing will…
A Guide To Startup Marketing Digital marketing for startups can be a daunting task. There are so many things to do and so little time! But don’t worry, we’re here to help. We provide a…
In this interview, Phillip Mandel talks with Daily Ad Brief on their segment, “More 2 Digital.” They discuss the “wild west” of digital media, and how privacy concerns must be balanced with marketers’ desire for…
In this guide, we discuss what performance marketing is, how it works, and why you should consider using it for your business.
What Happens When Brand Names Become Synonymous With The Product? One might think the holy grail of marketing is to have your brand name become a verb, such as Googling (or a cliché, like “holy…
Tips and Tricks for a User-Friendly Website Websites are powerful marketing tools, and because of this, we at Mandel Marketing take web design and web development seriously. Websites for a small business are often the…
In our second client spotlight, we’re talking to Michael Glavich, the CEO of tech startup, JuggCMP. Michael is a veteran Business Accelerator, specializing in productizing and marketing emerging digital technologies to Enterprise executives. He’s worked…
Advice From A Social Media Marketing Agency In this article, we’re discussing 6 prevalant myths about social media marketing that you need to stop believing right now. Social media marketing is as popular as ever,…
A Storyteller’s Guide To Social Media Don’t leave the engaging stories just to movies, books and tv shows – bring storytelling into your social media marketing strategy. Humans connect with stories-it’s in our DNA and…
Many brands want to make the best use of social media in their marketing mix. It can be fun, it’s ubiquitous, and it doesn’t require a million-dollar television ad spend. However, before you even begin…
When you are looking for the best way to market your website, it can seem like there is a never-ending list of things that need to be done. However, one thing that doesn’t get talked…
In the inaugural Client Spotlight, we’re talking to Emmie Knox, the co-owner (with her husband, Louis LeSassier) of Assisting Hands Home Care in West Austin. Their company provides seniors, and others needing non-medical assistance at…
If you are not seeing as much traffic on your website as you would like, hiring a marketing agency can help boost your business’ blog through Google searches. Marketing is an important aspect when it…
Your Non-English Speaking Customers are Reading Between the Lines Note: This guest blog post was written by Marco Hanson, co-owner of Texan Translation I’ve been a Spanish translator for a couple decades now, and have…
If you write and maintain a professional blog for your company (or even a personal blog for yourself), it needs to be written well. A good blog provides regular, relevant content to its readers. This…
If you’re looking for a way to revamp your digital marketing strategy, it could be time to hire a local marketing agency to help you out. When you work with a local marketing agency Austin…
Immersing yourself in a captivating novel or film is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Whether you’re a fan of crime fiction or independent cinema, a carefully crafted narrative can make audiences think about the world…
Why should advertising and marketing agencies consider white label copywriting services? Sometimes an agency will take on a project or client for which they simply don’t have the resources–at least, not at the moment. Or…
This post is about a recherché topic that I think almost nobody but myself and a few other word-wizards could give two pennies about: the endless (that is, 99% settled and only applicable to snobs,…
When businesses aim to succeed in 2022, they must develop and implement tactics that impact growth quickly and efficiently. That’s why it’s important to stay on top of current marketing trends, while at the same…
Shit, it’s already 2022. How in the hell did that happen? Just a few minutes ago, my wife and I were sitting down to watch the entirety of Game of Thrones to wait out the pandemic, and then Tiger King…
Motivational quotes that we find inspiring. Read a few and then go out there and do something great!
Color psychology is a field of marketing that doesn’t get talked about enough–but it’s around us all the time, in the five thousand messages we get sent to our brains each day. And though you may…
Want to make more sales? We all do. Sales of goods and services make up an approximately $20 trillion market, and to capture some of that market share, you as a business owner – and…
Today we’re going to dive into what could be considered one of the world’s most boring topics: typography and fonts. Like streetlamps or trees, we see typography and fonts all day, every day, but never…
We started this company right before the economic downturn created by COVID. It was scary as all hell–but we persisted. Not everyone has the stomach for such risk, however, and they’d much prefer working for…
People think they know what branding is, because it’s a word they hear all the time. But branding, while indeed ubiquitous in the modern world, is, for modern humans, kind of like water, to fish;…
Ah, social media. Isn’t it weird how, not that long ago, such a thing didn’t even exist? Well, like Churchill always said, nostalgia is for fools and nursemaids. So let’s talk a bit about modern social…
The legalized marijuana industry is among the fastest rising industries in the United States, as many states currently have laws explicitly legalizing marijuana in some manner (or decriminalizing it)–and the industry is expected to expand…
On Looking and Seeing COVID pandemic boring.That’s the ungrammatical three-word sentence that’s been pounding through my brain for a few months now, and after my therapist advised me to “do something different,” (meaning something other…
When we first started Mandel Marketing back in 2019 (in the Before Times, right as COVID was about to ruin everything), we developed an acronym that powered it all: D.R.I.V.E. “DRIVE” is more of an internal theory…
Yeah, we know: trends come and go. But in the digital marketing space — or any advertising space, really — you have to be aware of what’s happening, and how to take advantage of it,…
I have been a professional writer for a long time, and I have spent a lot of time, energy, and effort improving my craft. Just as a doctor is always learning new healing techniques and…
You had to go and be a wiseguy. You had to search for the word “schmuck,” didn’t ya? Well, fine. Here’s to you.
If fifty marketing directors and two kegs of cheap lager were placed in a locked room, I would probably stay out of that room for a while. But when I did finally go back in,…
Your Brand Logo Is Very Important To Your Business. As a marketing agency, we had go through an extensive logo and brand creation process — not only because we believe it’s important, but because it’s…
Because even professionals get it wrong sometimes. Mandel Arketing… we put the “M” in “marketing.” Innovating the Future Of Advertising Innovation. There’s no “I” in Mandel. Mandel Marketing: More Important Than God. Not your grandmother’s…
What in the world? We started a company because we wanted to work for ourselves. Jay and I have been in advertising for a long time, and we’ve worked at tons of different places and…
