Digital Natives. Small Business Focused. Minnesota-Based.
Blue Ox Websites & Marketing is based in Minnesota, with remote employees across Central Minnesota and the Twin Cities. We love helping small businesses, startups, and nonprofits get found online so they can spend less time worrying about their website or marketing and more time serving customers.
We’re dedicated to strengthening our local economies and communities, which calls for resilient businesses. Most of our team members stay with us for 8 years or more, not just because we build great websites, but also because we value learning, teamwork, remote work, and family.
What Drives Blue Ox
Mission
We build innovative websites and honest marketing strategies to help small businesses and nonprofits grow—and make a bigger impact in communities.
Vision
We’re here to grow alongside local small businesses and nonprofits, building lasting partnerships that help communities thrive.
Guiding Values
Creativity: Custom solutions, not cookie-cutter.
Reliability: We show up and follow through.
Approachability: No jargon, no gatekeeping.
Community: We grow with the businesses and nonprofits we support.
Remote First
At Blue Ox, we prioritize flexibility and choice while focusing on making meaningful connections with our coworkers and clients. While we’re primarily virtual and WFH, our teams meet in person a few times per year to celebrate accomplishments and brainstorm big, new ideas.
Benefits & Perks
Flexible PTO & Company Holidays
Prioritized work-life balance, with flexible PTO and 23-25 observed days off.
Family Planning
Paid family and medical leave, including for adoption.
Employer-Matching 401K
50-100% retirement matching.
Perks & Stipends
Monthly internet and equipment allowances to support remote work.
Learning & Development
Mentorship from senior team members, conferences, certifications, and online learning opportunities.
And More!
Meet the Blue Ox Team
Meet the team! We’re a small, local crew of real people who care about helping businesses succeed online.
Employees
Logan Gruber
ReFounder / Marketing Director
Base: Sauk Centre, Minnesota
Tenure: 2016
Katie Carlson
Designer / Developer
Base: St. Cloud, Minnesota
Tenure: 2015
Kelsey Meyer
Designer / Developer
Base: St. Joseph, Minnesota
Tenure: 2017
Jonathan Gamble
Writer / SEO
Base: Cottage Grove, Minnesota
Tenure: 2024
Zeineb Kadhkadhi
Social Media / Designer
Base: St. Cloud State University
Tenure: 2018
Jen Gruber
Social Media / Designer
Base: Sauk Centre, Minnesota
Tenure: 2024
Careers At Blue Ox
Application
5 Misguided Myths About Social Media Marketing
/in SEO, SocialSocial media marketing has been of interest to marketers and business people since at least 2007, but has been steadily popular since 2011 according to Google Trends. The need to fill your funnel from your fans and followers has grown, as has the mythology around the process of doing so.
Let’s take a look at some of the most misguided myths social media marketing manifests
1. Social Media Marketing Is Free
Sure, signing yourself and your company up for a social media account is free, and you may think that since you aren’t paying to advertise on the platform you can get away with your marketing plan for free!
The truth is, no matter what you do on social media, your marketing is going to cost you either time, money or both.
Your team’s time and effort are valuable, and the more of it you pour into your social media marketing campaign the better ROI you will likely see. However, time and effort cost the business money, so just know that nothing is free.
2. Social Media ROI Can’t Be Measured
When most people first start utilizing social media for marketing, they focus on the metrics in front of them: likes, shares, comments, etc.
But it’s important to go beyond these metrics and focus on two things at the same time: building a community, then driving that community to your website/landing page. In order to know if you’re building a community, you focus on those likes, comments and shares. To know if you’re converting people from your social media page to your website or to a sale, you’ll need to utilize Google Analytics and build trackable links for your social media posts.
3. Every Social Media Platform Is Valuable
Depending on your industry and needs, you’ll need different social media platforms. The demographics who use the site, it’s functionality and purpose, as well as how it is accessed will all play into whether the platform is valuable to you and can be used to increase sales.
For instance, a consulting business will see a lot more ROI on investing in LinkedIn, while a restaurant will see better results through Facebook and Pinterest or Instagram. You may not have the resources to tackle multiple sites at once, so be sure you choose the right ones to concentrate on.
4. Social Media Marketing Is It’s Own Strategy
Truly, social media marketing is best done in conjunction with a series of other strategies, like content marketing, search engine optimization, reputation management and more.
Content marketing helps you build content on your website worth sharing, which then draws people through to your website and makes them more likely to convert.
Search engine optimization helps your website flow better and become easier to read and navigate while making it rank higher in search engines, meaning people are more likely to enjoy working with you and like or follow you.
Reputation management helps monitor and direct people to leave you positive reviews on sites like Facebook and Google, which are also social media sites. This means your social sites will pull more weight with people, making them easier to convert.
5. Making Social Posts Mobile-Friendly Isn’t Worth It
If you still believe mobile phones aren’t where people do most of their web browsing – as well as nearly all of their social networking – you are living in the past. Nearly 80% of social media time is spent on mobile devices these days, so it’s extremely important to make sure you’re optimizing your social media posts for mobile devices. You may be writing them on a computer at work, but that’s not how your followers are going to read them!
How Small Businesses Like Yours Are Leveraging Search Engine Optimization
/in SEOWhen it comes to trying to capture the attention of potential customers online, search engine optimization is key to your online success, especially for small, local businesses! In fact, in 2016, searches containing “near me” – i.e. auto repair near me, tacos near me, etc. – increase 34x since 2011!
This means customers near you are looking for your category of business, but the question is: are you appearing in the search results? Because a huge amount of the traffic from a search goes to the first three results on the first page of google. And very few people head to the second page of results.
Let’s look at how you as a small business can make search engine optimization (SEO) help build your business! And remember, we’re always available to talk.
The below statistics were supplied by The Google Mobile Playbook.
Producing High-Quality, Local Content
One of the best things you can do to boost your SEO ranking is to create high-quality, engaging and local content. This content is what will help searchers convert into customers, giving them the information they need to make a decision and providing a link to the product or contact and location information so they can come to the store and make the purchase.
In regards to local, mobile searches, 51% of searchers will visit a store after completing the search; 48% of them will call the store; and, 29% of them will visit the store and complete the purchase quickly. This means local searches are extremely valuable, and creating content geared toward them is rewarding.
Employing An SEO Firm To Clean Up Data
Another way of boosting your SEO to get further up the rankings is to clean up the data behind your website.
It’s usually a good idea to hire an SEO firm like ours to go in and clean up these bits, such as page titles, descriptions, dead or misdirected links and organizing the sitemap. Everything needs to be geared toward your business and streamlined to give you the best ranking for the keywords your business needs.
Contact us anytime to learn more about how we can help you climb the rankings and capture more customers searching for your products or services locally!
How Small Businesses Like Yours Are Leveraging Search Engine Optimization
/in SEOWhen it comes to trying to capture the attention of potential customers online, search engine optimization is key to your online success, especially for small, local businesses! In fact, in 2016, searches containing “near me” – i.e. auto repair near me, tacos near me, etc. – increase 34x since 2011!
This means customers near you are looking for your category of business, but the question is: are you appearing in the search results? Because a huge amount of the traffic from a search goes to the first three results on the first page of google. And very few people head to the second page of results.
Let’s look at how you as a small business can make search engine optimization (SEO) help build your business! And remember, we’re always available to talk.
The below statistics were supplied by The Google Mobile Playbook.
Producing High-Quality, Local Content
One of the best things you can do to boost your SEO ranking is to create high-quality, engaging and local content. This content is what will help searchers convert into customers, giving them the information they need to make a decision and providing a link to the product or contact and location information so they can come to the store and make the purchase.
In regards to local, mobile searches, 51% of searchers will visit a store after completing the search; 48% of them will call the store; and, 29% of them will visit the store and complete the purchase quickly. This means local searches are extremely valuable, and creating content geared toward them is rewarding.
Employing An SEO Firm To Clean Up Data
Another way of boosting your SEO to get further up the rankings is to clean up the data behind your website.
It’s usually a good idea to hire an SEO firm like ours to go in and clean up these bits, such as page titles, descriptions, dead or misdirected links and organizing the sitemap. Everything needs to be geared toward your business and streamlined to give you the best ranking for the keywords your business needs.
Contact us anytime to learn more about how we can help you climb the rankings and capture more customers searching for your products or services locally!