We had the pleasure of working with the awesome team over at Signature Breads on a new website. Signature Breads tasked SRG with updating their brand identity, which we then helped bring to life through the web.

Signature Breads is an independent, employee owned bakery specializing in par-baked breads for restaurants and supermarkets. They have been operating bakeries in Chelsea, Massachusetts and Tempe, Arizona for nearly 30 years and proudly serve customers in all 50 states.

The bulk of the site is their bread guide, which is 100+ breads, each with their own detail page consisting of nutritional facts, ingredients, allergens, baking instructions & more. The bread guide is broken into 13 categories for easy navigation. If you still can’t find what you are looking for you can use the keyword search tool. We built a custom backend application so that the Signature Breads team can add, remove and update breads on as needed basis.

Another nice tool that we developed is the Baking Instructions Tool. Many of Signature Breads clients need a quick and easy way to find the best and most efficient way to prepare the breads before serving to customers. The Baking Instruction Tool offers this type of convenience. You simply choose your bread, indicate whether it’s frozen or thawed, choose your oven type – convection vs conventional – and then you’re immediately presented with time & temp instructions.

There’s plenty of other great content on the site that you need to check out!

The post Signature Breads Site Launch appeared first on Blue Ion.

We recently launched a new site for the team at Places Real Estate. Places is an expert in Charleston luxury homes, Charleston real estate, and the Lowcountry’s most sought-after communities. Places is about more than finding you a house. They strive to match your lifestyle with the most desired places and properties that the Charleston real estate market has to offer. Their local agents are experts in Charleston luxury real estate and know the Lowcountry landscape and communities.

The site is packed full of features including new listings by area, area & neighborhood guides, handpicked homes curated by the Places team, integrated Instagram feeds by area, and beautiful imagery throughout.

We also built easy-to-use back end tools so that the Places team can easily update their Handpicked Homes, Featured Listings and Agent profiles.

Check out the site and let us know what you think!

The post A New Place for Places Real Estate appeared first on Blue Ion.

We’ve been running AdWords campaigns for a Charleston based restaurant that has an awesome outdoor patio, which is located on a street with heavy foot traffic. A healthy percentage of their business comes from individuals simply walking by the restaurant or from individuals searching for breakfast or lunch spots online. About ~50% of those searches are coming from mobile devices reinforcing the fact that these individuals are on the go looking for somewhere to grab a quick bite.

As you could imagine, their business is heavily reliant on the weather being nice – foot traffic, outdoor patio, people on the go with mobile devices. In fact, we discovered this to be true by comparing revenue on rainy days to revenue generated on days where there was no rain. On days when rain fell, revenue was in fact down. So what can we as digital marketers do with this information?

Queue Google’s AdWords Scripts!

AdWords has a great tool (er, function) referred to as a Script, which allows you to pull in third party data to dynamically change settings with in your AdWords account. In this particular scenario, we implemented the AdWords Weather Script, which pulls information from the OpenWeatherMap API. At a simplified level, we are running this weather script on the hour every hour. The script checks the weather at OpenWeatherMap and if there is a return of precipitation, we run a command that decreases our keyword bids by 50%. The script then runs again in another hour and if there is no indication of perception, the script reverts the 50% decrease back to the original amount.

You could imagine the amount of work it would take to change these bids manually when its raining and then revert the bids when the rain stops. The Script has helped save a tremendous amount of time from a management standpoint as well as budget for the client, which can then be used at better, more beautiful times of the day!

Have you used scripts within AdWords? If so, which ones?

Learn how to setup your own AdWords Weather Script here.

The post Save Your Budget from a Rainy Day appeared first on Blue Ion.

The Bean in Millenium Park

The Bean in Millenium Park II

Jay Pritzker Pavillion in Millenium Park

Graffiti in West Town

Au Cheval

Graffiti in Wicker Park

Cubs Game

Take Me Out to the Ball Game at Wrigley Field

The post Chi-Town appeared first on Blue Ion.

It’s been a little over 3 months since making the move to the Upstate. Although a difficult decision to leave behind the Lowcountry after 11ish years, the transition to the Upstate has been rather smooth and exciting. I wanted to provide a quick update on both life and work. And as always, more to share in the coming months!

Life

As I said in the above, the transition has been rather smooth. My wife is originally from Greenville so already having a family base living up here has been great. My side of the family is scattered all over North America so having family living right down the street is somewhat new and great all at the same time!

My wife and I also have some of our closest friends living in Greenville… hence the “exciting” part. It’s been great moving to a new area and already having a group of established friends as making new friends is one of the hardest things to do when moving to a new place.

3 hours… thats all it takes to get home (yes, I still call Charleston home). This transition would be completely different if I had to catch a plane (cue pilot Rich Yessian) every time I wanted to head back. 3 hours = 3ish podcast episodes… I find myself not wanting to get out of the car when I arrive.

Lastly, to keep this super broad, I find that there are two types of people in the world – those that love the beach and those that love the mountains (yes you can be both). It’s been great being on the water all these years, but I’m excited about camping, hiking and all that the mountains have to offer. See you on the trail!

Work

I’m a firm believer that if you follow your heart and make decisions that are best by you and your family, all will work out in the end and that’s exactly what happened here. What started with me quitting Blue Ion in order to make this move (worst day ever), quickly transitioned into “well what are YOU doing up there?” to “don’t look for a job, we’ll figure something out”. And that’s exactly what happened.

I’m currently working out of Textile Hall, which is a great co-working spot in Greenville’s up and coming West End also known as The Village or the Arts District (good article here on co-working spots in GVL). Textile Hall is part of a larger non-profit, Mill Community Ministries, which focuses on developing under-resourced communities for success. Connected to my office are two additional initiatives; 1.) Village Wrench – a bicycle shop working to develop leaders in the community by building the value of hard work and social responsibility through bicycles; 2.) Mill Village Farms – a market that helps transform vacant properties into gardens to grow locally-sourced produce for communities that often have limited access to fresh and local foods. While I’m only renting a desk from Textile Hall, it’s been nice to feel like I’m part of something bigger.

Getting plugged into the community up here hasn’t been too bad either as there are events on event on events. ZeroDay at Co-Work Greenville, Tech After 5, Technically a Coffee, Business on Tap to just name a few. It’s been fun networking and getting to know the community through these great events.

Lastly, we already have some cool and fun projects lined up in the area. I’m excited to be able to share the teams amazing talent from back home!

Hello Greenville.

The post Hello Greenville appeared first on Blue Ion.

For Thanksgiving, my wife’s family and I rented a cabin on Beech Mountain in North Carolina, which was great!

What was even better was having a morning out on the Emerald Outback Trail System with some fancy mountain bikes rented from Headquarters Bike & Outdoor. HQ Bike + Outdoor is a really great mountain biking shop at the base of Beech Mountain – they specialize in bikes, gear, repairs and rentals. After chatting with JC (who rented me the bike) I was bit nervous to tackle the trail as he noted that he had to walk his bike through various parts. Not having mountain biked in my adulthood, I was bit terrified hearing that coming from a veteran mountain biker. Regardless, we loaded up the bikes and traveled on.

Below are some shots from the day – we hit every trail except for the West Bowl Connector. And yes, we had to walk the bike through some parts. All in all, a great ride and fun day outside on the trail.

The post Mountain Biking the Emerald Outback Trail appeared first on Blue Ion.

We had a fun time designing a tee for The Village, which is hip little district in West Greenville. The Village is where Blue Ion’s newest office is located, so it just made sense.

We’re selling the tees at The Mill Village Market so swing by and snag one! 50% of the proceeds are going back to the community. For this particular design, we’re donating the proceeds to The Village Wrench. The Village Wrench works to develop leaders in the community by building the value of hard work and social responsibility through bicycles.

The post The Village Tees appeared first on Blue Ion.

We recently launched Greenville Today, our first Greenville based website since moving to town. GVLtoday started as a daily newsletter consisting of all things Greenville as well as some broader topics around the Upstate and South Carolina. As their subscriber base grew, they quickly saw a need for home on the web, which ceased to exist previously.

Luckily for us, our new office is located across the street from the GVLtoday team. Naturally, introductions were quickly made and a website soon followed.

Much of the design was handled internally by their team so we played more of a strategic and programmatic role in the build. In doing so, we developed a suite of tools to meet their needs:

• The site is built on a “multi-site” platform so that it can easily be replicated for new cities such as Columbia and Charleston.
• Ability to Feature specific stories on the homepage.
• Categorization of Trending and Best Ever stories based on number of views.
• Several custom post types to handle & display content in different ways.
• Integration with ad serving software.
• Social sharing tools.
• Ability to log in and comment via Facebook and / or Google.
• As well as a couple of other tools that have yet to launch… more to come.

Cheers to the hustle and handwork of both teams throughout this build. More to come with this one!

The post GVLtoday Site Launch appeared first on Blue Ion.

Always willing and happy to help out our neighbors, Village Wrench, when needed. We helped put together the above ad promoting their 2017 Village Pillage event, which is a fundraising event put on with the hopes of gathering new or slightly used, donated cycling gear.

The Village Wrench’s mission is to transform under-resourced communities by empowering others through bicycle repair, bike learning, and cycling educational opportunities. Village Wrench’s vision is for under-resourced communities to thrive by developing leaders in our community who value hard work and social responsibility.

You can learn more about the 2017 Village Pillage here.

The post 2017 Village Pillage appeared first on Blue Ion.

We’re excited to welcome the newest member of our Blue Ion marketing team: Kyle Mensing.

Kyle is the first employee to join the Blue Ion Greenville office. He comes to us way of Greer Development Corporation where he helped attract and place new businesses in Greer, SC. In addition to finding and analyzing commercial real estate, he’s helped many Greer businesses succeed digitally via an array of marketing campaigns.

Welcome to the team, Kyle!

***

What three words would your family use to describe you?

“Afraid of gerbils”. Not lying, I asked.

A six-year-old child asks you if Santa Claus is real…. What do you say?

Where are your parents? Didn’t they teach you not to talk to strangers?

What would your pet say about you if we asked for a reference?

The dogs would say that 80% of the time I feed them on time every time, then they would compliment my cuddliness. The cats would probably say something rude because they’re jerks.

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?

Last fall my wife and I went apple picking in North Carolina with some friends. As we all know, the best apple picking technique requires climbing the trees. As I was doing my best Rhesus monkey impression the leg of my jeans snagged on my knee and made a lovely rending sound. They had ripped from crotch to knee along the inseam. I finished the day with a flannel shirt tied cockeyed around my waist and an unceasing torrent of laughter from my apple picking companions.

What makes you a Unicorn?

Ever since the operation it’s no longer the horn so I would say my luscious mane, multi-faceted skill set (I can break a wide variety of things), and a voice that is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus.

Describe the color yellow to someone who is blind.

It’s smooth like a banana, warm like the sun, and tangy like French’s mustard. Alternatively, FEDD00.

If you could get rid of any one state, which would it be and why?

Pennsylvania. It takes too long to drive through. Seriously, it lasts forever.

Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer?

Gatherer I suppose, I don’t look too hard for stuff at the grocery store. I don’t “hunt” for it, if you will.

What is always in your refrigerator?

Beer, cheese, butter, and bacon. All the major food groups basically.

It’s 5pm. What are you drinking?

Depends. 5 pm and I just finished cutting the grass? Probably a PBR. 5 pm and at the office? Either water or whatever Casey just handed me.

You have to spend one week on one ride at Disney World, which one do you pick?

Swiss Family Treehouse, because it seems easy to habitate. Or Space Mountain, because Space Mountain is awesome.

You’re having a bad day, what makes it better?

Hugging my wife and petting my dogs. And laughter, which the aforementioned trio usually provide.

How many Cruises have you been on and which was your favorite? Why?

4, but it’s really like 2 1/2 because I just kind of repeated each itinerary. Alaska, because I like mountains more than beaches.

If you could choose only one song to play every time you walked into a room what would it be?

The Final Countdown by Europe (the band, not the continent).

What do you want to do when you grow up?

TBD, but something fun.

The post Welcome to the Team Kyle Mensing appeared first on Blue Ion.

The post One Year in Greenville appeared first on Blue Ion.

Many of us here at Blue Ion have a love for the outdoors. This love is fulfilled & strengthened through many different activities – hiking, cycling, camping, soccer, gardening, surfing, flying, running, fishing, hunting. So it was a no brainer to take all we’ve learned and continued to learn to use for a greater good: to celebrate the outdoors and inspire people to go way out there. Introducing Blue Ion Outpost.

We consider this a brand within a brand, a business within a business. A way for us to pursue something important and work in a broad area of interest that we love, with like minded brands.

There is so much research and focus on nature & outdoor deficit disorder – too much time inside, at a desk, in front of a computer or phone. Whole generations are now growing up without any connection to the outdoors. At Blue Ion, we’re working to be part of the solution rather than continuing to sit behind the computer screen and be part of the problem. This is our small way of trying to help.

So if you know a brand that encourages and helps people connect with the natural world, lets take a hike and chat about it. We’d love to hear about the stuff you’re working on, working through and working over — and see how we can help.

Let’s go way out there.

The post Introducing Outpost appeared first on Blue Ion.

We consider ourselves a digital company, but always love the chance to create something tangible for clients. R.S. Quality, a color coded cleaning tool supplier (yes, this industry exists) needed their catalog updated as it had been a few years. We had already been doing a lot of paid media and PR work for them so when they mentioned the need to update their catalog, we were excited to take on the challenge.

The catalog ended up being 49 pages, which showcases their entire product offering. It starts with their Manifesto, which our in-house copy pro, Erin, crafted for them. We felt that this would really set the tone for the pages that followed. Tyler, Art Director & self proclaimed Bench Seater, took it from there. Using a combination of the old catalog as well as a massive spreadsheet of edits, he laid out all 49 pages, 12 sections, 100’s of products and so much more than I don’t even know about.

The result? The most badass color coded product catalog you’ve ever seen (even if it’s the only one you’ve ever seen!)

The post R.S. Quality Product Catalog appeared first on Blue Ion.

I had the privilege of riding with Team Left Hand of Left Hand Brewing for the “Bike MS Breakaway to the Beach” ride earlier this month. Bike MS is much more than just a bike ride; with each pedal stroke we’re helping the organization reach it’s goal — a world free of MS.

This was a two-day bike ride where you could chose to ride 30 miles, 50 miles, 75 miles or 100 miles each day. Each rider was asked to donate a minimum of $300, but so many went way beyond. Because of so many awesome people in my life, I was able to raise $836, which helped our team generate the most out of any team – $63,796! The event as whole raised a total $235,842. That’s pretty amazing for a one weekend bike ride.

I look forward to another amazing weekend next year! #CrushMS

The post Bike MS Breakaway to the Beach 2017 appeared first on Blue Ion.

A little late to posting this one, but we launched a fun website for Roch’s Fresh Foods last Fall. Roch’s is a 4th generation family business, started in the 1930’s bringing the freshest fruits and vegetables to retail and foodservice customers all over southern New England. Today, they operate a state-of-the-art HACCP certified distribution warehouse in West Greenwich, Rhode Island and a Roch’s Fresh Foods Specialty Market in Narragansett.

We helped tweak the logo slightly, just to make it a bit more modern; wrote a manifesto that helped define Roch’s larger purpose and then moved into website development.

The post Roch’s Fresh Foods appeared first on Blue Ion.

We had the pleasure of collaborating with the rad crew behind Grok 2017 to create some badass pint glasses, which I wanted to share here.

But what is Grok you ask?

Grok is a gathering point for design and technology professionals. An intentional collision of highly skilled digital makers and the industries, opportunities, and problems they can most powerfully tackle. Specifically, it’s an event encouraging creative teams and individuals to think differently and share the best & new ways to do things on the internet.

Thanks to Atlas Local for allowing us to be part of it all and to Growler Haus in The Village for pouring the beer! Until next year…

The post Grok 2017 Pint Glasses appeared first on Blue Ion.

What’s a performance marketer? It’s someone passionate about marketing that gets results. Specifically, results related to their clients, projects, and daily work. And they’re agnostic to the marketing channel or idea that gets them there – at the end of the day they just want to know if it worked. They’re constantly asking if it can be done better, faster, or smarter.

If that sounds like you, we’ve got an immediate opening to join our new Greenville team.

We’re specifically looking for someone that lives in or is willing to move to Greenville, SC, with 1-2 years experience, but we are flexible for the right candidate.

You can download the full job description here, or read on for a few specifics that we’re looking for. We understand that the person that has all of these skill sets after just a couple years might resemble a unicorn… but we’ve got a couple of those already, so we know they’re out there. And we want more. Send any questions or a resume to casey@blueion.com.

Here’s a quick summary of what we’re looking for:

1-2 years as a marketing leader – demonstrated success in planning, execution, tracking and reporting on a range of online and offline media, across a variety of brands and industries. This is a client-facing role where your opinion and leadership is requested – and required.

Paid media expert – experience in planning and managing paid media campaigns on multiple platforms (Facebook, Adwords, etc) and be able to explain their benefits and appropriate mix based on client goals. You will be required to manage these accounts on a day-to-day basis, put together monthly reports and outline new initiatives moving forward to help achieve clients goals.

Data geek – solid experience using, manipulating, and making sense of data. We don’t care what analytics program you’ve used, but you better know how to take a mass of data and make it simple for our clients to understand.

Testing champion – have an understanding of conversion rate optimization techniques including A/B testing and landing pages.

Understanding of content & SEO – know the basics of on-page optimization, why one site ranks better than another, and how SEO has evolved the last few years.

Production leader – experienced in managing external and internal team collaboration (clients, designers, programmers, writers, photographers, etc) and developing strong, long-term individual and team relationships; ability to prioritize, focus and lead a number of initiatives at once.

Process and performance champion – continually seeks new methods and processes, from planning through reporting, and foster a productive, exciting and rewarding work environment.

Creative and technology advocate – demonstrate a true passion and curiosity for all things creative and digital.

If you’ve read this far, congratulations. You have a greater attention span than 99% of all humans. Email your resume or questions to casey@blueion.com.

The post Blue Ion Greenville is Searching for a Jr. Performance Marketer appeared first on Blue Ion.

A little late on posting this one, but our Greenville marketing crew recently settled into a new office at Atlas Local, a rad co-working space full of creators and entrepreneurs housed in the historic Brandon Mill. We love the energy here, the inspired workspace, and being a part of the West Greenville community. Oh, and did I mention that we have coffee on tap provided by Methodical Coffee, a beer fridge constantly stocked with brew from The Community Tap, game room, gym, movie theater, pool & outdoor lounge area? Yup. Come visit.

The post New Office for Our Web Design & Marketing Crew in Greenville, SC appeared first on Blue Ion.

6AM City is the machine behind the daily newsletter you receive if you live in Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, or Asheville – we know you’re subscribed and if you’re not, you should be.

6AM kicked off with launching in Greenville, which you can read an earlier post about how we helped with planning & building the GVLtoday website.

They’ve since launched their daily newsletter in Columbia, Charleston and Asheville plus more markets planned for the future. And of course, we’ve been there to support them along the way.

One of the key pieces of functionality for the original GVLtoday website was setting it up on a “multi-site” platform so that it’d be easy to replicate for new markets moving forward; all managed in the backend by their team.

We’ve since implemented some new tools. Potential advertisers now have the ability to submit & pay for an event listing, home listing or job listing directly from the website. So if you’re located in one of the above noted markets and you’re trying to get a little more attention for an event, job or home, I’d suggest listing it on one of the 6AM sites.

As always with this crew, much more to come in the future.

Cheers.

The post Your Daily Need-to-Know, at 6am appeared first on Blue Ion.

That’s exactly what the Witherspoon Platt + Associates (WPA) team is determined to do if you’re searching for real estate in Western North Carolina. We were fortunate enough to take part in their rebranding process and then develop a website that properly portrays their true identity.

I’m tempted to ramble on – telling you what WPA is, how they got started and what they’re about today – but why do so when these words have already been so eloquently spoken by our pro, in-house wordsmith, Jenny Badman. Take it from here Jenny…

About WPA

As a full service, conservation-focused real estate brokerage, we connect people to the beauty, history, and culture of Western North Carolina through both the built environment and land protection. Established custom-home architects Platt Architecture created the innovative and groundbreaking firm Conservation Advisors of North Carolina in 1998 to help landowners in Western North Carolina protect and conserve their valuable mountain properties; now, Conservation Advisors has grown into a unique and progressive real estate brokerage: Witherspoon Platt + Associates.

The WPA Manifesto

We call ourselves lucky to live in Western North Carolina – among ancient, well-worn mountains, waterfalls, sage-sloped valleys, rivers, and hidden creeks, forests and open meadows.

Not only because of this place’s intrinsic beauty but also because we’re part of its enduring story of days and seasons, first frosts and crimson falls, springs thaws and sun-soaked summers, afternoon thunderstorms and morning fog.

We find that people come to this part of the world for all kinds of reasons. Wanderlust. Fly fishing. Epic sunsets. Biking. Golf. Good people. Down time. Fun times. Peace. And a search for something they can’t quite name.

That search is the reason why we do what we do. From strapping on muddy boots and scouting property, determining exactly how and where a home can adapt or live like an extension of the land itself, or listening intently to a client’s needs and dreams, we’re committed to the real, daily work of serving people, of late nights on the computer and early mornings with contractors, because the end result is a place someone calls home, here.

Our roots in and knowledge of this special place – its secret, sacred spaces, its ravines and hollows and pastures and mountains, its people, history, and culture – are exceeded only by our love for connecting others to it.

Because to live here is to be constantly immersed in beauty – standing under the pounding cold power of Courthouse Falls, trekking along the knobs of Art Loeb trail, listening to the whippoorwill’s song – and devoting ourselves to its preservation. Not just because we want our children and grandchildren to see what we see – but because we simply can’t imagine a world without this place.

What we realized is that all of our exploring, hiking, fishing, talking, porch sittin’, beer drinking, music listening, and blackberry picking is just as much an internal journey as it is an external one. And it’s our duty to share that journey with everyone we meet.

We’ve come to know that this piece of land, this home, this place, this answer that we all seek is a personal, emotional, and soulful connection to something far greater than ourselves – and something quite simple. It’s understanding that as much as we want the land to belong to us, we first, and always, belong to it.

Witherspoon Platt + Associates
Find the place you belong.

The post Find a Place to Call Home in WNC appeared first on Blue Ion.