SEO vs. Content: Not a Battle After All

October 12, 2009

Search Engine Optimization gets people to your site. It boosts your page rank. It performs magic tricks, prints money and cures cancer. It’s the golden god of content management, at times, and it’s the number one goal of a company: get your name out there, and get it noticed.

If I sound a little sarcastic, you’ll have to understand that I’m a writer. Which means I have one goal over any other: create interesting content.

It’s this goal that makes me cringe when people say that SEO is the most important part of putting together a successful Web site; that copy should be manufactured with the robotic eyes of a search engine in mind.

And it’s this goal that often leads me astray, railing against SEO in the name of art and literature and everything the act of writing stands for.

Because the truth is – SEO isn’t king. And neither is content, anymore. Seems that both have to work in harmony.

See? Now I’ve just upset both sides of the debate.

There are two arguments in the battle. For SEO champions, it’s, “If your content is good, but no one sees it, is it worth it?” And for the content wonks, it’s “If you get people to your site, but they aren’t interested in staying, is it worth it?”

The real answer lies somewhere in between. It isn’t all or nothing for either side. You need both. In fact, one should naturally lead to another. Great content should generate positive SEO, as great content relies on communicating in a way that gives the reader exactly what they came for. And great SEO means you’re covering all of your bases – that you’re thinking for the masses instead of your little corner of intelligentsia.

It means more than compiling lists of regurgitated facts and keyword-laden copy. Conversely, it means more than developing beautiful prose more akin to Steinbeck than Sergey. It’s right in the middle. It’s what we sought out when we redesigned our Web site. And it’s helped us in both cases: better content and better search results.

No, it’s not SEO über alles. Nor is it content without regard to searchability. Simply put, it’s writing the way people will read. Will think. Will care. It’s managing content logically and creatively.

It’s copy written for robots and people. How futuristic. Are you doing it?

By Corey

Filed Under Technology, Marketing, The Process

18 Years and Counting

October 1, 2009

The story goes something like this.

Every year for our anniversary – and any other event worthy of staying late and enjoying each other’s company: holiday party, staff retreat, etc. – Lynell and Tammy whip together a “Weird” Al Yankovic-style parody of a classic song.

Usually a dance is developed. Typically, there are costumes.

This year, for whatever reason, the theme was “Grease.” Maybe it’s because HenkinSchultz turned 18 this past Wednesday. Or maybe Lynell just had a wig she needed to use before returning it to the costume store.

Or maybe… well, who knows, really.

All that matters is that we had a lot of fun celebrating our last days as a child – and first days as an adult. We can smoke now! (But we can’t drink, and we’re still six years from renting cars.)

Anyway, thanks to all who have made the past 18 years so fantastic. And Happy Anniversary to us!

Wine and Beer

Lynell as Sandra Dee

Just Singin'

Joe's Card

"We're the One That They Want."

HenkinSchultz shirt

(Visit our Flickr page for the complete set.)

By Corey

Filed Under HenkinSchultz

On Humor, Vitamin Water, and Steve Nash’s awesomeness

September 21, 2009

Vitamin Water is not Gatorade. It’s not even Powerade. In the “refreshment that passes as sports drink” category, it tends to lean more toward those weird Ginkgo Bilbao-infused concoctions and tea-flavored Snapple.

That being said, Vitamin Water understands its place on the market. It’s natural. It’s got vitamins. And while it will never overtake the heavy hitters, it’s vying to be the most creative and most beloved.

50 Cent is a part-owner. And Steve Nash is the lead spokesperson. And this is their newest viral sensation: a “flavor creator” through Facebook.


What we learn: Steve Nash is hilarious. Retro-cheesy is in. And having a sense of humor about your brand is important.

This is not to say every company should start hiring clowns and wiener dogs to perform abridged Shakespeare for every television spot, or that an insurance agency should eschew years of brand management and stability only to hire Carrot Top as a spokesperson. But when the opportunity arises, it’s important to understand the value of taking your company a little lightly.

Don’t drop common sense for the sake of a laugh. Never let amateurs take hold of your company’s name. Understand that - even in the face of humor - careful planning and execution takes precedence.

But if you have the chance to have a little fun, do it.

Your customers will thank you. The viewing public will thank you. All you’ll do is look a little more human. A little more memorable. A little more desirable.

(And, if possible, hire Steve Nash to help you out.)

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising

A Web Message From HenkinSchultz

September 17, 2009

The New HenkinSchultz Web Site!

(And now a message from the corporate sponsor…)

We’d like to take a moment to re-introduce www.HenkinSchultz.com.

What? Re-introduce? Huh?

Well, yeah. We’ve re-designed the site. It’s been up for a few weeks, but this is the official launch, my friends, so let’s rock this joint.

But it’s more than a re-design. It’s a re-imagining of what our Web site is here for: namely, providing content to current and potential clients and the community as a whole. Our clients wanted more access to the awesomeness we’re providing, and we were happy to oblige.

So we’ve got constantly updated portfolios, HenkinSchultz’s Greatest Hits, easy contact to all of our other outlets – Facebook, Twitter, Post Haste – and the same devotion to our people.

It works because we’re all in on it. Every employee has a chance to update as necessary. It’s crowdsourcing at its best: when it works together for one common goal and not against each other for a cheap fix.

So welcome. We like what’s going on over at www.HenkinSchultz.com. And we hope you do too.

(We return you to your regularly scheduled Post Haste post.)

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Technology, Post Haste, HenkinSchultz, The Process

A Letter to Your Customers

September 15, 2009

Letters of Note compiles famous and important letters from famous and important people. As you can imagine, some are staggering in their meaning – Ghandi’s letter to Hitler, for instance, or the letter Winston Churchill wrote for his wife in the event of his death.

But, above all, these letters all have one thing in common: they represent communication in its rawest form – words on paper, no sound, no video, no Flash; just the bare bones message of one person’s desires and thoughts.

The art of communication depends on words as much as it does design, technology or media mix. In fact, in this humble copywriter’s opinion, it needs words above anything else.

In marketing, each word is carefully chosen to influence and clarify. When you think about it, every message a business sends out to the public is simply a letter from company to customer. Every ad is an open letter to the viewers. Every Web site is a letter to someone who stumbles upon it.

Which means the decorum of letter writing should always be evident. Are you being clear? Are you presenting an argument for change, or are you simply making a joke? Are you being genuine, or is your message false?

If you were sending your advertisement to someone, would they want to continue correspondence? Are you offering anything worth responding to?

Maybe Hitler didn’t heed Ghandi’s request. But it certainly wasn’t for lack of clarity or influence.

By Corey

Filed Under The Process

UX by MTLB

September 8, 2009

We’ve been thinking about the cross between impressive technology and customer usability a lot around the HenkinSchultz offices as of late.

So it’s a pretty awesome surprise that my good friend (in a strictly “blogging-on-the-same-Internet” sense) Bill Green of Make the Logo Bigger summarizes the User Experience discussion in a series of Pac-Man and vehicle side mirror analogies.

From “Why is this user experience [swear word] so hard?”

However, if I want to incorporate more features into my Facebook page, the effort it’s taken hasn’t been worth it. A simple thing like incorporating YouTube videos or my Flickr account has been a major pain. I’ve wasted so much time with what I thought “should” be an easy task, and still not gotten it right.

It’s like Pac Man: I just need to get from Point A to Point B, but instead, I have to do a bunch of stuff first and avoid some very bad things along the way.

Cue endless pokes and virtual beers thank you very much.

(If Pac Man isn’t to your liking, then how about this metaphor: Trying to do something on Facebook is like entering your front door by first going through the garage, then walking around the house.)

Read the rest here. And rock on, Bill Green. Keep fighting the good fight for all of us.

By Corey

Filed Under Technology, Design, Criticism, The Process

Sandwich Artistry

August 20, 2009

This past week, Craig and Cami proceeded to take our pre-lunch hunger pains and rake them over the coals of agony as they turned our studio into a veritable sandwich shop for a Dakota Provisions photo shoot. Though we’ve done hundreds (thousands?) of photo shoots, this one was by far the most attractive.

If you like sandwiches, that is.

Check out their sandwich artistry below.


The Set Up

Setting up the shot.

The Staging Ground

The casting call.

The Finishing Touch

You’d be surprised the difference that one tomato made.

The Turkey on Rye

The Close-Up

The Full Meal

Yeah - that’s a tasty beer in the background.

To see the set, check out our Flickr page.

ProTip: Those tomatoes look pretty fantastic, right? Well, those drops of faux perspiration aren’t coming from the tomato – they’re manufactured. Karo syrup, actually. See? Food photography is both artistic AND educational!

By Corey

Filed Under Design, HenkinSchultz, The Process

Defending jingles

August 11, 2009

Jingles are primitive. Jingles should be reserved for local companies on AM radio. Jingles show a disregard for the listener’s intelligence. Jingles are hacky and stupid.

Jingles get a bad rap, especially by some enlightened advertising experts.

But you know what? They work. They work really well.

Sometimes, too well.

Take my daughter, Sierra. Though we try to keep it at a minimum, she sometimes breaks through our barriers and steals a few minutes of television. Which means she sometimes takes in the fruits of my industry’s labors: television advertising.

So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when, upon spotting a yogurt cup, she began singing.

“ACTIVIA!!!!”

My wife and I looked at each other. Did she… Was that… Wait, here it comes again…

“ACTIVIA!!!!”

Though the pronunciation needs work, the pitch was perfect. It was the Activia jingle. And we couldn’t have been more surprised if she’d buzzed her hair and begun acting like Jamie Lee Curtis.

Admittedly, I was kind of proud.

For me, these jingles aren’t cheap or grating – they’re part of my nostalgia. To this day, I can’t see the name “Mennen” without humming the three-note tag jingle. I still have the Carnival Cruise “If You Could See Me Now” jingle running through my head from time to time.

You have the same memories, I guarantee. Maybe not the same songs, but most certainly something similar – something that keeps that brand’s name alive in your mind long after you’ve turned off the television. It could be something ancient - the short burst of a jingle that signed off old Diet Coke spots - or something more recent.

So before you go slagging on the artistic merits of jingles and their place in popular customer, think of it from an advertising standpoint.

They work. And they can be a lot of fun, too.

(As long as we ignore Subway’s entire history of jingles. Those have all been preeeetttyyy awful.)

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, The Process

t,y,p,o,g,r,a,p,h,y

August 5, 2009

As a copywriter, I love when ads can get away with using a font-only treatment. Like these ads for the Kaya Skin Clinic from Y&R, Dubai. (Click images for full-size)



(And, if you don’t get it: “pausing the effects of aging.” Get it? Comma humor! Grammarians rejoice!)

Via AdBlogArabia

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising

Post-It Notes as Creative Release

July 28, 2009

More often than not, the daily grind of office life leads us as creative types – not just here at HenkinSchultz but everywhere – to go off-grid. We naturally seek an outlet for our stray thoughts. Some of us blog, while others dabble in parody or some other kind of non-productive-yet-still-incredibly-important release.

It’s from this off-grid thinking that Tammy, one of our longest tenured designers, developed an inspired art series using the most pedestrian of canvases.

Post-It Note art.

Every weekday morning, Tammy doodles on a Post-It Note and displays it on a smiley-faced stress ball, which sits propped on the cubicle wall separating her and close friend (and similarly long tenured designer) Lynell.

Seriously. Every. Single. Morning.

It didn’t begin as anything so lofty, to be honest. It began as a little “Happy Birthday” message to Lynell. Which became, “Happy Day After Birthday.” Then, “Happy 2 Days After Birthday.”

As the days progressed the message became more and more interesting, until the birthday wasn’t even the main focus anymore. It’s currently 25 days before Lynell’s birthday. But equally important: It’s National Hamburger Day.

Just as equally important: Tammy’s making sure every day comes with a little creative release.

So, what do you do to keep things interesting?

(You can see a bi-weekly sample of Tammy’s Post-It Note Art on our Flickr page, or as part of HenkinSchultz’s bi-weekly e-Newsletter.)

By Corey

Filed Under Design, HenkinSchultz

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