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Sales and marketing: the most complicated relationship since Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. What was always intended to be a great partnership is often met with frustration, a lack of communication, and inefficiencies. Sales always wants more, better leads, and marketing always wants sales to close more of the leads they do get. Sound familiar? This…

If I were asked to give an estimate of how many people I’ve heard having bad or underwhelming experiences with other agencies versus those who have had good experiences, I would have to say that I’d guess that it’d be a 50/50 (bad) or 60/40 (underwhelming) split, respectively. At some point in your life you’re…

As a digital agency working in the fields of web design and web development, we're frequently asked about web hosting options and which hosting platform we recommend. There is no one correct answer; site traffic, features, and the client's budget are all important considerations when choosing a web hosting package. The majority of our clients…

UX & Content Strategy - Better Together Plenty has been written about creating better user experiences. Perhaps even more still, the importance of content. After all, content is king... But to silo them into separate initiatives, or to rank user experience and design over content is misguided. After all, you wouldn't purchase a high performance sports car…

Looking for some helpful resources on the topic of search engine optimization? You've come to the right place. We've compiled a list of fantastic SEO resources, from blog posts to infographics, to serve as a hub for all things search. This is a collection of content that our team has used and recommends, especially for…

For beginners and even experts, the task of choosing a font to brand an entire company with can be daunting. After all, there is an endless stream of fonts to choose from. For this matter though, I’ve compiled what I believe are the must-knows and what goes through my head before yelling, “This is the…

So, your company's website has been up a while and it's time to go back to the drawing board and start working on the next incarnation of the site. It's 2016, and for many–if not most–businesses, the company website is the most common point of introduction to the public. It is therefore critical that your brand…

"You can do digital marketing without personas. You can also run without running shoes. Would I recommend it? No sir." - Bryce Mikkelson I just opened up this blog post by quoting myself. No, I didn't choose to do so because I love quoting myself (I do); I did so because finding an accurate and…

With three similar graphic design positions under my belt, I can say that each company I’ve worked for has ran in a completely different environment. Each company used their own set of tools and resources to help their workflows, whether that be a waterfall, iterative waterfall, scrum, lean software development, or any other type of…

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. - Sun Tzu By now most people have heard of—or at least have a basic understanding of—what digital marketing is all about, at least tactically speaking. While it’s good that most people have a general knowledge of what…

I love the world of digital marketing and SEO. Love it. The strategies and tactics involved in this field are fun for me, and one of the best feelings you can experience is when you help a client succeed. It's definitely something I'm passionate about, which makes what I'm about to write about all the…

After explaining our web design and development process to a client (or prospective client), we're often greeted with "huh...interesting. I've never heard of anyone doing it like that before". It's true, our process is unique and sometimes takes someone a bit longer to wrap their head around, but we believe we're justified in our decision to…

With three similar graphic design positions under my belt, I can say that each company I’ve worked for has ran in a completely different environment. Each company used their own set of tools and resources to help their workflows, whether that be a waterfall, iterative waterfall, scrum, lean software development, or any other type of…

Tl;dr - Get to know your audience / personas, then change your narrative to connect with people, not companies. Most B2B businesses approach marketing from a “we have a service/product to offer you, you should buy into us because of xyz...” perspective. I would go so far as to say that that 90% of the…

It's an exciting time to be a marketer. At the time of the post, it is May, 2016, and digital marketing has never been more exciting. The power of content marketing, the constant growth of social media, big data and insights into SEO are all serving as the catalysts to growth for organizations all over…

By now, I'd be pretty surprised if you haven't heard the phrase "Content is King." These three words are everywhere. While I could write an entire blog series on why the "content is king" phenomenon doesn't paint the entire picture of SEO (context has never been more important), I thought that one of the most…

Tl;dr - 1. Forget specific rank positions. 2. Focus on topical optimization. 3. Rinse and Repeat. Search Engine Optimization / SEO is a fickle thing. You’ll find many SEO agencies suggesting different SEO strategies which have different timelines, tactics, costs, etc. attached to them. While using SEO is a good thing to help your business…

Word association time: when you think of the phrase "modern web design", what immediately comes to mind? Styles change, and fads come and go, but a lot of what we've seen change in web design over the past several years is the result of a fundamental shift in mindset. The responsive mindset For the past…

Like most marketers, I’m willing to bet that your daily to-do list is pretty full. Managing press releases, working on that new sales collateral, getting that email newsletter out...there’s a lot going on. All of these activities can make important marketing pieces, like social media management, take the backseat - and sometimes, get left on…

Creation - the accessible to anyone and everyone. With the Internet being the complete toolkit to us creators, we can do anything. With a website, we are the business owner. With a digital camera, we are the photographer. With a 3D printer, we are the product designer. And with clipart, we are the graphic designer.…

One thing I’ve learned during my time in the agency world is that I am downright spoiled when it comes to data and tools. Since my job involves a heavy amount of research and strategy, I spend a lot of my time reviewing charts, graphs, dashboards, and spreadsheets (you can say I’m really starting to…

It seems that a necessary component of every successful marketer today is a love of tools. No, not hammers and hacksaws - I’m talking about software. We’re now at the point that there is a digital solution for nearly every need an in-house marketer may face. Email marketing, social media scheduling, content distribution, search engine…

Since the early days of widespread public internet use, website security certificates (frequently referred to as SSL certificates) have been predominantly associated with e-Commerce. The reason is obvious - the financial information transmitted during an e-Commerce transaction is extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, and it's therefore crucial--to both the buyer and the seller--that this…

Tl;dr - 1. Set a budget. 2. Find a partner you can trust and share it with them. 3. Build something awesome. Budget. This is one of the most cringe-worthy words spoken when starting a website project. Depending on which side of the project you’re on, it can be a strategically used word, or it…

True story: About a year ago, I attended a digital marketing conference where I ended up sitting at a lunch table with a marketing manager for an outdoor equipment eCommerce company (they sell tents, hiking shoes, backpacks, etc.); We’ll call him Jim. After some small talk about how fantastic our sandwiches were, he started telling…

“We need more leads.” Isn’t it funny how four simple words strung together this way can be the phrase of nightmares for in-house marketers? That’s because it often represents the schism often found between marketing and sales: sales wants more leads, and marketing wants sales to have a better close rate. Sound familiar? This all-too-common…

About Me I’m a passionate website and application designer who enjoys the challenge of information architecture. I live by my three second rule: If it takes longer than three seconds for me to navigate anything, I ain’t staying. I have appreciations for material design, derpy doodles and positive people. I believe one should better the future…

About Me Greetings! I'm Bryce Mikkelson, the resident Digital Strategist here at Regal. If we were ever to work together, I'd be the one shaping the strategy for your new website, creating your digital marketing plans, and doing all sorts of project management (not to mention copywriting). I consider myself a storyteller. It's a good…

small businesses are looking for cost effective ways to rank higher on search engines like Google, driving traffic to their Web page without investing tons of money. here's how. SEO I can't lie, there's more to rankings than passion. But you guessed that -- there's always more. Before we get to the way passion can…

we have a website. what else do you want? three things for starters: Good design: mobile friendly, professional and cohesive, not confusing Good content: pointed, researched, persuasive, often blending informative facts and emotional storytelling A search engine optimization (SEO) strategy…done by a professional Investing in a good web developer can get you all of these…

Not everyone can afford (or wants to pay for) professional web design and development... and hey, you know what, we get it. You're a new business, or you're just not that invested in being serious with the internet. It's cool. But did you know that more often than not, especially with the internet, you get…

Honing your web copy is a sink or swim proposition. Precision copy is the latest summit our industry has set its sights on. After all, SEO doesn’t convert, content does. It’s not just your static website content but social outlets too, email auto responders... everything. Some people would say copywriters are essentially social scientists. Compile the…

Milwaukee's Regal Creative Awarded with Silver Award for Website Design from AIVA International Davey Awards Milwaukee, WI (JANUARY 14, 2015) - Third Ward digital agency, Regal Creative, was selected from nearly 4,000 entries for a Silver Award for www.VICICapilli.com. The 2014 Davey Awards judged entries from across the US and around the world, and honored…

In part one of this series, I signed up for, and set up an identical test Wordpress site on, five popular web hosting packages, each being specifically marketed to Wordpress users. As physical proximity plays a key role in determining page load time, I was interested in the physical location of each hosted test site.…

The Regal team recently worked with b2b leaders, addressing how to be competitive moving beyond 2015. Quite a bit of the strategy portion was addressing how technological innovations will impact acquiring, retaining and restructuring their workforce. I use the term “economic Darwinism” to explain the shifts that impact employer-employee relations. It’s apropos to talk about…

I've been working with, and thinking about, web hosting a lot lately. My last post, which offered general tips on choosing a web host, made me want to dig deeper and put some of the more popular web hosting options to the test. Great reliability, and a responsive support team are both incredibly important but tricky to…

    When I first began my career in marketing, it was in the healthcare industry. During that time, I was fortunate to work along side an outstanding Alzheimer’s advocate named Nora. Nora would start presentations by helping the audience have empathy for people with dementia—which is not the same as sympathy. Understanding how someone feels…

Before (or during) a website build for a client, one of the most common questions we receive is "who should I choose for web hosting?" Although no specific solution is right for everyone, criteria does exist which can be very helpful in finding a good web hosting option, and perhaps more importantly, eliminating bad ones. Public…

It is not uncommon for brands to unknowingly create jarring digital user experiences, which inadvertently send their hard won customers to their top competitors. Usually the culprit is a lack of integration (siloing) of sales and various marketing functions, which in the end leads to measuring KPI's based on tasks instead of results. A study…

  As a strategist, one of the most common issues clients request help with is increasing conversion. Essentially, they want to increase revenue. Don’t we all. The most common reason for conversion issues is rooted in a lack of empathy for their target audience. Every company has a wealth of expertise on what they do.…

As humans, we have the most complex social behavior of any living organism on earth. Our unconscious understanding of self preservation extends beyond ourselves, and physical survival requires the interdependence of a variety of groups for mutual aid and support. This includes coupling, friend and family systems, employment networks, neighborhoods, government agencies, and extends into…

I’m about to age myself here, but I think it’s important to frame this up. When I was my daughter’s age, our phone was on the wall in the kitchen and it had a cord. Our phone “upgrade” was replacing the standard Ma-Bell cord with a super-long one, whereby allowing one to stretch around the…

If you’re not deep into tech news, you might not know that Google purchased DeepMind Technologies, a London-based company specializing in artificial intelligence, for $400 million. Integrating artificial intelligence (IA) is a top priority for Google, and the reason why relevancy is becoming increasingly important to Google’s Algorithm implementation. “To improve rank, the important thing…

This past Wednesday evening, I flew out to Boston for a two-day conference: The Email Design Conference (TEDC), presented by Litmus. I was incredibly lucky to have my ticket to the conference provided by the awesome team at Postmark (thanks so much, Natalie, et al.)! The conference, which was held at the beautiful Seaport World…

As a Milwaukee SEO company, we always have to discuss and pitch our services to clients in a way that connects with them, and shows them that we're the right choice for their organization. Keywords and rankings are always part of the conversation, naturally. Since the beginning of search engine time, there was the inherent…

Yesterday, Apple held their much anticipated iPhone event (the video is available here). As expected, Apple released two new phones, the flagship iPhone 5S and a plastic, entry-level iPhone, the iPhone 5C. The iPhone 5C offers little in the way of new features (from the original iPhone 5), while the iPhone 5S shows its most…

Web designers and front-end developers are very interested in the market share of the various web browsers. Not because we're nerds, but because usage statistics dictate whether or not we need to design, and moreover, code, the web sites we create to support legacy web browsers. [pl_alertbox type="warning"] Okay, part of it is because we're…

Update: Check out Vladimir Sobolev's Youtube Embed Player Customizer for way more options and a coding-free method of customization. As the third most-visited site on the web, YouTube is unquestionably the most popular method of online video distribution. YouTube does have its strongpoints: anyone can post an unlimited number of videos for free, basic analytics…

Ready for a word association test? Tell me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the phrase animated GIF. Did you just picture a mid-1990s amateur website? Perhaps one created by your uncle, and hosted on GeoCities? If you didn't, here is a great example of a common use of animated GIFs…

While "LinkedIn" is a great website, remember that it's also a company, a company that knows how to innovate and productize very well. They have created a web service for professionals that has allowed us to connect, find jobs, increase sales, help others, generate content, and more; all of which is absolutely fantastic. But like…

As online marketers, we follow user trends closely, including Litmus' monthly report of Email Client Market Share. Even a casual observer of email users has noticed that mobile email use is increasing; the speed of the increase might surprise even the most tuned-in email marketers. Email opens increased 48% in 2012 and 138% over the…

  For over a decade now, eCommerce has been an integral component of the lives of consumers. In fact, eCommerce sales have more than tripled since 2003. Mobile web use has also exploded, increasing by 39% over the past year. Naturally, the number of consumers making purchases via mobile devices is on the rise. As…

During the past several years, mobile web use has exploded. Currently, mobile devices account for about 12% of web traffic in the US, and this number is widely expected to continue to grow rapidly. Apple devices, which account for about 50% of mobile traffic, offer a handy feature called "Add to Home Screen," where users…

As a local business owner, your lifeline is based on foot traffic to your retail location, or local leads for your services. SEO, websites, etc. were "easy" to do in the earlier part of this last decade, but have become increasingly more difficult and competitive as large brands and other businesses in your market step…

If you read our blog often, you know that we love MailChimp. MailChimp is an easy-to-use, affordable, and incredibly full-featured email newsletter service that's used by us, as well as many of our clients. Email marketing and social media are two of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing channels currently available, and SocialPro combines them…

We see them all the time: "Like us on Facebook!", "Tweet this to your friends!", and to a lesser extent (sorry, Google), "+1 this page!". The vast majority of these requests are ignored. What causes us to share X with our friends, but not Y? What's people's motivation behind sharing the things they do on…

Out of the box, Wordpress sites are very easy to manage, and come with a lot of helpful features built in. Thankfully, the developers of Wordpress don't try to include every feature anyone could ever want, as this would make the CMS harder to administrate, and would decrease performance. If your Wordpress site is lacking…

Looking for an easy way to increase subscriber engagement in your email newsletter? Why not try video? Video attracts interest for a number of reasons, including: It's a change of pace in users' workdays. Many people spend a large portion of their working hours reading, and video can give them an excuse to take a…

If you're using an iPhone with iOS 6 installed, you may have seen, or even used, Apple's new app, Passbook. Passbook aims to replace coupons, tickets, and customer loyalty cards with one centralized application. Instead of scanning your gift card at Starbucks, the barista can now scan your phone. Your new balance gets updated in…

It has long been suggested that having a web server located in close physical proximity to the majority of your user base is an important element to having a fast web site. This assertion makes sense in that the closer one computer is to another, the shorter the distance data has to travel. Additionally, when…

If you've ever spoken with a web designer for more than five minutes (myself included), you've heard complaints about Internet Explorer's non-standard methods of rendering web pages. While Google, the Mozilla Fondation, and Apple (makers of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, respectively) have made every attempt to adhere to web standards, Microsoft (creator of Internet Explorer),…

Quality content and great design are paramount to conversion optimization of your email marketing. But perhaps when you send matters as much as what you send. As most of us can observe from our own behavior, most users decide whether to read, save, or delete emails soon after the messages hit their inboxes. A great…

Every website owner's goal is to increase traffic to their site. But what if your site gets too much traffic in a short period of time? Will your site go down? Will it run so slowly that impatient users will leave prematurely? From having your site linked to from a major blog, to a traditional…

Adding video to your website can be a great way to add interest and educate your visitors. You spend time writing scripts, shooting footage, and carefully editing your videos; they look great, and you're confident people are captivated by them. You've seen a higher conversion rate since adding video to your site. Great! But just…

SEO (and online marketing in general) is a funny thing. What we find most interesting about it is peoples perception of what is involved and what should be focused on. The hard truth is that there is no cut and dry process that works for everyone, and the reason for this is that, not every…

Introduction If you've recently purchased an Apple device, or are just a fan of Apple products, you may be familiar with Retina displays. Retina displays feature a pixel density so high that Apple claims the human eye cannot distinguish between individual pixels. You can find Retina displays on current iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, and MacBook Pro…

Yesterday, Wednesday October 3rd, SEOmoz from Seattle put on a great online marketing event that focused on SEO, social media, conversion optimization, and more at the Harley Davidson Museum. It was a fantastic event that was kicked off with an hour of networking, drinks and appetizers, and ultimately just getting excited about actually having a…

Our industry is full of buzz words - SEO Link Building Meta Tags Inbound Marketing Etc., Etc., Etc. And while all these "buzz" words are good, and stick in peoples minds, we find that once these get in a persons / businesses head, they tend to stick there and be focused on. For example, there…

For nearly a decade, Adobe's Creative Suite has been the definitive software package for web designers (among many other types of designers). While the power of Creative Suite applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator is undeniable and unrivaled, the cost has been prohibitive for many aspiring designers. The current version of Creative Suite, version 6,…

The most popular term at the moment in web design circles could very well be "responsive design", and for good reason; after all, responsive web design isn't some meaningless buzzword, it's a whole new of thinking. Responsive design is all about creating a flexible user experience, which automatically adapts to the user's device, whether that…

Inbound Marketing. Some people know what this is, some have just heard of it, and a lot have no idea what it's about. Inbound marketing is a combination of many different (typically) online-based marketing efforts that revolves around consistent delivery; and more importantly, great content. Wait no, scratch that - amazing content. Outbound marketing, as…

Google recently published in their Webmaster Central blog that they recommend responsive web design for mobile SEO as compared to different, device specific versions. A short explanation of responsive web design is: web design that uses one set of HTML and content for all users, on all devices. The content and layout is controlled by…

Google Penguin update was released on April 24th, 2012 as an algorithmic update that effects anchor text distribution, external link profiles, and the general disregard for webmaster guidelines as set by Google. Websites affected by this update will generally see a reduction in traffic due to the devaluing of links that are pointing towards their…

As long as they have existed, webmasters have had the desire to choose the fonts users saw when visiting their sites. During most of the history of the Internet, this was generally limited to the fonts a user had installed on his or her computer. Font embedding technologies have slowly evolved, and we're finally at…

Two goals that all web site owners share are keeping visitors on their sites longer and ranking higer in organic search results, and there is an easy and low-cost way that can help achieve these goals: a content delivery network (CDN). What is a CDN? In short, a CDN is a network of servers that…

Since the general public began using the internet in the 1990s, web designers and site owners alike have been frustrated by the limited number of typefaces available to them when creating websites. Despite the fact that most computer users have a multitude of fonts installed on their machines, the selection of typefaces from machine to…

If your company's website uses a content management system, you probably use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor to create and modify content on the site. Many WYSIWYG editors are very powerful, but with power comes responsibility, and this responsibility is often ignored by CMS end users, who try to do…

Social media is an incredibly popular, and ever-expanding way for businesses to reach their customer base, and at the forefront of social media is Twitter. Millions of companies use Twitter for a unique way to promote their brands, but how can you best use your company's Twitter page to convey your brand's message? Although Twitter…