Marketing with Purpose

If you've been watching your blog traffic drop and wondering if blogging is dead—this episode is for you. Short answer: blogging still works. But the 2015 playbook (publish 4+ posts a month, chase keywords, watch the traffic roll in) is dead. The goal changed. It's not about driving massive traffic anymore. It's about proof—proving you know what you're doing, getting cited by AI, and building cred...

Every third question we get these days is about AI.  "Is it going to kill Google?" "Do I even need a website?" "What does this mean for my business?" So we figured it was about darn time we talk about it ourselves from the angle we do best - websites.  Yes, AI is changing how search works. Heck, AI is changing how AI works. But for most businesses, the impact is more "interesting shift" than "five...

The internet changes faster every year. And 2025 said, “hold my beer.” How people find you, whether they trust you, and if they even visit your website - all of it changed. Again. And if you’re not paying attention, you could be losing customers without even knowing why. The internet in 2026 isn’t the internet we built websites for five, ten, or fifteen years ago. Traffic is down. Tracking is hard...

You wake up to 47 emails about cryptocurrency, someone wants to sell you SEO services (the irony), and three bots are VERY concerned about your website's performance. You know the drill. You delete five, ten more appear. You silently cuss technology and consider just shutting down your contact form entirely and making people send carrier pigeons instead.  You, my friend, are NOT alone. AND you don...

Ever stare at your computer thinking "there HAS to be a better way to do this"? Like that task at work that takes 3x longer than it should. The one everyone complains about but nobody fixes. You know it needs to change. You might even know HOW to fix it.  But telling your boss? That feels risky. What if they think you're just complaining? What if you come across as difficult? What if they say no a...

Quick question: If someone landed on your home page right now, would they know what you do in nano seconds? Or would they have to scroll, squint, and guess? Most home pages fall into one of two traps: they're either cluttered and confusing, or they're an image desert with no actual words explaining what you do. Either way, visitors can't figure out what you offer—so they just leave. Your home page...

Your year-end campaign emails are probably amazing. Your social posts? On point. Your stories? Compelling. But if your website doesn’t back it up during December, none of that matters. We've seen it happen too many times. Nonprofits pour everything into their year-end campaigns only to have the donation process fall apart at the very last step. So Stacy and Monica made you a checklist.✨ This podc...

Since the DOJ rolled out new ADA website compliance rules in March of last year, we’re busy updating sites—and answering a lot of questions about what it all means. The one big sticking point in client conversations is linked documents. PDFs, Word files, slide decks—anything you link to is now considered part of your website. That means those documents must meet ADA accessibility standards too . E...

If your website is turtling - and not in the good ninja turtle way, but in the slow-crossing-the-highway way - everyone's noticing and cringing. Here's the deal: while you're sitting there wondering why your site is loading at turtle speed, your competitors' sites are loading in milliseconds and stealing your sales. That sucks. But figuring out what’s wrong can feel like rocket science. Tyler, Reb...

We're celebrating MayeCreate’s 20th birthday with something special - the whole team sharing their biggest lessons learned along the way. From "don't polish a turd" to "imposter syndrome is loud, but good design is louder," these hard-won insights aren't just about building websites - they're about building a life and career you actually love. Hear why getting uncomfortable is your secret weapon,...

Businesses everywhere are slapping whatever ChatGPT spits out onto their website. And then they wonder why it sounds like every other company out there - or worse, like it was written by a very polite robot. With human website traffic tapering and bot traffic on the rise, every single human visitor is precious. You can't afford to lose them to generic, robotic content that doesn't connect. Here's...

So... have you heard about these new ADA web accessibility rules yet? If your first reaction was "Oh great, another thing I need to worry about," we totally get it. But honestly? This stuff isn't as scary as it sounds, and in the end it's actually going to make your website better for everyone. Here's the deal, the Department of Justice finally gave us actual deadlines (April 2026 and 2027, depend...

Breaking News: Humans are now the minority on the internet.  And no, this isn’t just tech drama. That's right. According to the 2025 Imperva Bad Bot Report , automated, aka bot, traffic has overtaken human activity for the first time in ten years, making up more than half—51% —of all internet traffic last year.  But don't worry, this isn't a Terminator-style apocalypse (yet). In this latest episod...

Well, we're almost 2 years into our 4-day experiment now. Which probably makes it more of a permanent fixture than an experiment. There's not really a manual though, so...things ebb and flow and we're navigating the bumps as they come. When we started sharing about our four-day work week adventure, we quickly realized not everyone wanted a four-day week. Some people were downright opposed - one ev...

After years of wandering trade show aisles like a couple of booth anthropologists, Stacy and Monica may have cracked the code on standing out without emptying your wallet.   We just dropped a new podcast episode that's basically our brain dump of every budget-friendly trade show hack we've discovered. Because let's be honest—those giant fancy booths with their LED walls and custom furniture? Yeah,...

Just like the other remaining humans on planet earth, us MayeCreaters survived this last year. And we like to think we’re humans who learn from the past and can use it with a heap of diligence and sprinkle old fashioned grit to chart our way forward to better things.  Fortunately, and unfortunately, last year was a little itchy so we learned a lot.  Like how to make stuff load faster and look pret...

The number one rule of good website navigation is: don’t make people think.   Which sounds pretty straightforward but somehow people still keep messing it up! And that is why we are publishing this recent public service announcement all about navigation.   Monica’s husband, Mike, sends her angry emails about sites with crappy navigation on the regular. He says he’s sending her “leads” …she thinks...

This time of year Monica always feels like marketing is like wrestling an octopus.  She sits at her desk, neck deep in spreadsheets attempting to befriend and calm the octopi - emails, social media, website updates… It’s a lot .  That’s why she’s always looking for ways to pin that marketing mollusk.  She went to Shelly Niehaus, her guest on this week’s podcast, for answers. Shelly is a business c...

As the resident master of 2D spatial relationships at MayeCreate (aka print designer) these days, Monica is pretty strategic when selecting the program for a project.  Over the past 25 years she’s learned the hard way how choosing the right program to start: Saves time Makes future projects easier Produces a better design So if you’re tasked with designing for your organization AND you find yourse...

Monica gets asked more and more frequently about how to get customers to leave reviews or make positive social posts for business. Which makes sense because marketing through user generated content is a powerful marketing tool. You don’t have to brag about your awesomeness because other folks do it for you Your raving fans create your marketing content for you PLUS Google and social algorithms LOV...

“I have a Chrome extension for that!” became Monica’s catchphrase at one point, or so Stacy swore.   The MayeCreate team isn’t far behind.   We’re bonafide Chrome extension junkies.  Some of us have collected so many we have to toggle them off and on so we don’t get overwhelmed! And we are forever recommending our favorite extensions to clients to save time and improve workflow.    Like anything e...

At lunch the other day a group of business people were complaining about how annoying their Google Business Profile is to use.  Aaaaand they’re not wrong. But managing your profile is a necessary evil…like going to the dentist - you don’t have to love it but you do have to do it. You want to show up when people search for you on Google, right? Your Google Business Profile determines 9% of your org...

If you’ve ever wondered, "How many emails should we send in our year-end campaign?" Turns out, you're not alone!  We get this question every year, and now, thanks to Jaime Freidrichs, a fundraising coach dedicated to helping small but mighty organizations succeed, and 71 nonprofit survey participants — we’ve got some real data to guide you. In our latest episode (and blog post), we dive into the f...

A few weeks ago, Monica gave some tips on what to include on a business card and briefly mentioned QR codes, promising to dive deeper later. In this podcast/blog, Monica does just that! Recording and writing this felt a bit like QR code therapy to Monica. Turns out she has some strong feelings about where, when and how to use them (I’m sure you’re super surprised ). So…in this week's episode Monic...