Helping Others One Walking Stick at a Time
Eight year old Jacob Studer is a businessman and philanthropist. As founder of Billings Best Hiking Sticks, he started small with weekly “driveway sales” but it didn’t take long before he grew to online distribution and local deliveries. These days Jacob channels both his business sense and his creativity to help raise money for local charities. His first charitable donation Read More…
Company Spotlight – Cool Water Jewelry
Cool Water Jewelry, a popular Montana small business, shares some great insight into their marketing strategies. What is the one thing most people don’t know about Cool Water Jewelry that you wish they did? We have been in business for 22 years, and we just opened our Cool Water Jewelry Factory-Outlet Store! What kinds of things do you do to Read More…
Global Health Outreach: Providing health, medical care, and assistance to families in Haiti
Ultra Graphics recently teamed up with volunteers from the Global Health Outreach to provide 500 coloring books to children still reeling from Haiti’s massive earthquake in 2010. Ultra Graphics is at it’s core a print and marketing communications company. But when those products serve to help others – even in small ways – it truly is a joy to participate. Read More…
Company Spotlight – Comfort Heating & Air Conditioning
Comfort Heating shares with us some great insight into branding and marketing a long-time local business. What is the one thing most people don’t know about Comfort Heating that you wish they did? That we are a second generation family owned company that has been serving Billings since 1983. What kinds of things do you do to ensure marketing initiatives Read More…
How Google Teaches Us To Be Better Marketers
Ah, Google… The all-knowing, all-seeing super-algorithm that intrinsically embeds itself in our lives on every screen, 24 hours a day. Gone are the days of having to visit a library and read books to solve a problem, learn a new fact, or settle an argument when an answer is a quick online search away. Google has wrangled the search-able internet Read More…
The Myth of “Self-Service”
I bought it. It was my dumb decision. My wife rightly questioned me, and yet I assured her it’d be great. We moved a few years ago, and one of the many joys of moving are unexpected expenses. We needed a washer and dryer. Rather than go to a big box store or even research online what I should purchase, Read More…
Introducing a Special Boy in a Special Way
At Ultra Graphics, the center of what we do every day could be summarized in one word: Communication. While that sounds nice and certainly gives us all a standard elevator speech to quickly explain our work, it’s easy to forget how truly significant that word is to the people our communication impacts. A recent project to print a cartoon book Read More…
Company Spotlight – Special K Ranch
Special K Ranch shares a unique perspective on marketing for a non-profit organization. What is the one thing most people don’t know about Special K that you wish they did? Special K Ranch provides life-long homes for adults, ages 18 and older, who have special needs. The ranch was founded with the vision of being a place its residents can Read More…
Marketing Return on Investment: Drowning in Data (Part 2)
“Drowning in data” is an apt summarization of the past few years for most modern marketers. 2015 began with a bang – or more accurately an explosion – of more marketing channels, media, and metrics. With many businesses increasing their marketing budget as a result of either the economy slowly nursing itself back to health – and owners realizing the Read More…
Marketing Return on Investment: Drowning in Data
“Drowning in data” is an apt summarization of the past few years for most modern marketers. 2015 began with a bang – or more accurately an explosion – of more marketing channels, media, and metrics. With many businesses increasing their marketing budget as a result of either the economy slowly nursing itself back to health – and owners realizing the Read More…
Case Study – MSUB Wine & Food Festival
Ultra Graphics is proud to announce a recently completed redesign of the MSU Billings Wine & Food Festival website. During the design and development stages, we identified and addressed a number of pain points related to the existing design and functionality. Working closely with MSUB Foundation we were able to rebuild a modern and functional website to house all the Read More…
Company Spotlight – Roger L Daniel Insurance
What is the one thing most people don’t know about your company that you wish they did? People know that we sell insurance – however most people do not know we are extremely proficient in creating income and protecting assets with different investment strategies. How did the downturn of the national economy impact your marketing efforts? Have you marketed differently Read More…
Marketing Tips From Google’s Search Quality Guidelines
Who’s got two thumbs and spent four hours poring over the recently released Google Search Quality guidelines? This guy* *I’m pointing my thumbs at myself There’s of course a ton of little tidbits that we can learn about SEO from a document whose initial purpose was to be a resource for actual quality testers for Google. A rarity for the search giant, Read More…
Quick Tip – How to trick your desktop browser into thinking it’s a mobile device
Google recently updated their Search Quality Rating Guidelines, and – no surprise – mobile experience now plays a bigger role than ever in determining search ranking. If you have the time, it’s a good read here. In light of Google’s newest guidelines, did you know that you can spoof mobile devices using Firefox to test your website on many different mobile devices, Read More…
Three Ways Bruce Lee Can Help With Your Marketing
Bruce Lee is unreal. I decided to YouTube the popular video “One inch punch Bruce Lee,” and while I watched him gracefully exert himself with some of the most impressive moves I’ve ever seen someone do (Seriously, who can nun chuck a ping pong ball?), he always did so with the least amount of effort required so as to not Read More…
Company Spotlight – Clark Marten Photography
Clark Marten, owner of Clark Marten Photography shares some insights into his techniques for marketing success What is the one thing most people don’t know about your company that you wish they did? Our name has been escalated over the years, but we’re a pretty relaxed and fun bunch of people. Our lunches are family style around a little table Read More…