Creating an online presence is one thing. Having an online presence that grabs and maintains attention is another.

August Ash exists to help local companies develop their identities on the Web in a way that communicates effectively, reflects professionally, as well as improves revenue and profitability. We’ve worked hard to establish a reputation for offering web design Minneapolis businesses and non-profits can use to their advantage.
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Last month, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal published its annual list of Top 25 Web Development and Design Firms in the Twin Cities. August Ash was included in the list, which ranked the highest-performing local companies by overall revenue.

August Ash (AAI) has grown to 21 full-time employees over the course of the firm’s 11 year history. Despite finding itself in the company of firms with as many as 140 employees, AAI has a proven track record of increased sales and revenue even in the midst of formidable outside economic conditions.
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The secret’s out that social media can be used to the advantage of businesses and organizations of just about all walks. And even though for some owners the details are still sparse and the benefits are unclear, there’s a growing willingness to open up shop in an unfamiliar land. As long as it will pay off.

So does it pay off?
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Why pay for traffic in search engines’ paid listings, if you can achieve high organic rank - the gift that keeps on giving with traffic, leads, and sales?

First, to digress a bit and to speak to an area near and dear to our hearts, high organic rank isn’t really free anymore.

With more and more business turning to online marketing, and in large part to search engine marketing, the competition for the first few listings of the search engine results is only growing. The sites ranking at the top of the results for competitive terms are paying in some way - either directly paying a search engine optimization/marketing company or paying with their own time and resources.
See our blog post “Search Engine Optimization: Not As Exciting As Magic” for much more on this topic.

But, now on to our main point:
Why would you need paid search advertising once you’ve achieved high organic search engine rank?
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Yesterday, the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) announced its winners of the 2009 Excellence in Marketing and Communications competition. The contest, an annual event since 1990, rewards airports around the country based on the criteria of how well their marketing and communications efforts reflect on airports, flying, and the stakeholders.

Among the competition’s nearly 250 entries overall, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (part of MAC) ranked second for websites.

Earlier this year, August Ash launched the brand new, redesigned website for MSP. The new website features a cleaner, simpler appearance, with an assortment of real-time tools to assist visitors.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport will be recognized at the ACI-NA 18th Annual Conference & Exhibition in October for its honor. August Ash is honored by the opportunity to partner with the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Congratulations on your latest accomplishment, MAC!

Just about every discussion about social media includes the famous, or infamous, question: “What’s the ROI on social media?”

You may be getting closer to having an answer for your clients or your boss. A study from Wetpaint and Altimer Group confirms that communicating with customers through social media correlates with better financial performance.
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At August Ash, we’ve been fans of Magento since it was first released in March 2008. The open-source community agrees, with more than 85,000 of us responsible for over 750,000 free downloads of the e-commerce platform.

With community interest so great, Magento’s creator, Varien, decided to step in with a paid version, the Magento Enterprise Edition, on April 15, 2009.
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s a trite expression, but in the world of business, it’s never been more relevant than it is right now.

Consider the most significant business tools and technologies that have emerged in the past 10 years. For that matter, look at just the past three years. We’re operating in a more advanced marketplace than we were 36 months ago.

Scores of new business owners every day are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of online tools such as e-commerce, blogging, and social media avenues like Twitter and Facebook. Advertising budgets, too, are phasing out phone book ads in favor of modern solutions such as pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns. (more…)

We’re not the only people talking about it.
The Internet.
More and more people are putting their money into online advertising and leaving other media.

A Forrester Research report predicted an 11% increase in interactive marketing efforts over the next year. Read more about that here.

People are turning to the Internet for more than just marketing, though.

A study from Forbes Insights and Google found that the Internet has become the most valuable information resource for US senior level business executives.
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New website: check.

List of keywords you’d like visitors to search and find your site: check.

Searching Google to find your site for these keywords: nothing…

Your site is nowhere to be found. At least not without digging to the dark depths of the search results - which everyone knows is anything beyond page three of the results. (more…)