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
How To Get The Most Out Of Email Marketing Services
/in Email Marketing, How To, SEOEmail marketing services like HubSpot and MailChimp help you organize your mailing lists and send templated messages to many users at once. But not many people are using email marketing services to their fullest.
At Cohlab, we have some best practices we utilize for our clients’ email marketing services which we’re happy to share with you. For additional help, contact us anytime and we’ll be happy to assist you.
Get The Most Out Of Your Email Marketing Services
Get Permission
No matter how you are getting these email addresses (a sign-up at your brick-and-mortar, a form on your website, a giveaway or contest) people need to know what they are signing up for. Before you ever use email marketing services or gather a single address, be sure people are aware that:
Set Expectations
After a user agrees to be on your email list, send a follow-up email immediately to thank them, introduce yourself or your company, and remind them again what type of emails you will be sending to them. Most email marketing services like MailChimp and HubSpot have an option to set up an autoresponder when someone signs up for your email list.
Segment
Segmenting your email list is an extremely important aspect of email marketing services.
Someone who is on your list because they are a customer is going to be interested in different things than someone who signed up for an e-book. Similarly, your particular industry will have different segments, whether this is based on gender, age, job title, company, etc.
Each segment will likely be interested in a different aspect of your business. If you’re a restaurant, you probably won’t want to send info about your Senior Specials to the under 50 crowd, while information about Kids Meals should probably go to the 25-45 age group.
Most email marketing services will allow you to manually place email addresses into various segmented groups which you design. It isn’t rocket science, but it does take time to setup at the start.
Optimize
When preparing for email marketing services, be sure to optimize the actual content of them. For instance, subject lines of emails have been shown to be extremely effective at <50 characters and >70 characters. Between 50-70 characters, emails tend to be opened less often.
More specifically, emails with subject lines of <50 characters tend to be opened more often than any other length, while emails with subject lines of >70 characters see the best click through rates (on a link or deal within the email).
Overall, emails should be short on content. If you have a lot of content to deliver, put short summaries and link out to a blog post on the topic. In general, emails shouldn’t have more than about 200 words in the body.
Remember, for additional email marketing services help, contact us anytime!
3 Tips For Hiring The Right SEO Marketing Services Firm For You
/in SEOIf you’re here, you’re likely in need of a search engine optimization, or SEO marketing services firm, to help your company with its Google search rankings.
If you do a search for “SEO Firms” on Google, you’ll probably come back with dozens or even hundreds of results, depending on the size of the city you’re in. But how can you know which SEO marketing services company is the best fit for you?
Let’s take a look at some tips for hiring the right SEO marketing services firm for you, and of course, be sure to check us out to find out if we would be a good fit for you as well.
3 Tips For Hiring The Right SEO Marketing Services Firm For You
1. Set Goals/Examine Your Needs
What are you hoping to get out of a relationship with an SEO marketing services firm: reputation management, an SEO audit, ongoing SEO, local SEO, link building, PPC management, retargeting, content, or some other services SEO firms tend to offer?
If you’re unsure of what you need, it’s time to take a hard look at your business. Do you want to grow your sales by 10% over the next 6 months, or leads by 40% over the same time period? Is your goal an increased rank on Google searches for specific keywords, or do you just need help with generating consistent content?
Have a goal in mind so you can measure the success of your relationship with the SEO marketing services firm, and make that goal the center of your relationship with them.
2. Get References
When you look for an auto body shop, you look for good reviews, either online or in recommendations from people you know. You want to see success stories. The same goes for an SEO marketing services firm.
Ask them to show you work they have done so you understand their process, their metrics for success, as well as the companies they typically work with. If you’re a restaurant (B2C) and the firm has only ever worked with IT services companies (B2B), they might not be the right fit for you.
3. Make The SEO Marketing Services Firm Tell You Stories
When you hire a new employee, you don’t simply look at their resume and take their word for it. You ask them follow up questions and ask them for the stories behind some of their accomplishments. The same should go for hiring an SEO marketing services firm.
You want them to be able to tell you stories about their background, experience, successes and failures. It’s important to know how they react to different situations, because no business is exactly the same.
Setting clear goals, examining an SEO marketing services firm’s body of work, and having them tell you stories will help you hire the right SEO firm for your business.
For more information on what we do at Cohlab Digital Marketing and how we can help your SEO, contact us today.
3 Tips For Hiring The Right SEO Marketing Services Firm For You
/in SEOIf you’re here, you’re likely in need of a search engine optimization, or SEO marketing services firm, to help your company with its Google search rankings.
If you do a search for “SEO Firms” on Google, you’ll probably come back with dozens or even hundreds of results, depending on the size of the city you’re in. But how can you know which SEO marketing services company is the best fit for you?
Let’s take a look at some tips for hiring the right SEO marketing services firm for you, and of course, be sure to check us out to find out if we would be a good fit for you as well.
3 Tips For Hiring The Right SEO Marketing Services Firm For You
1. Set Goals/Examine Your Needs
What are you hoping to get out of a relationship with an SEO marketing services firm: reputation management, an SEO audit, ongoing SEO, local SEO, link building, PPC management, retargeting, content, or some other services SEO firms tend to offer?
If you’re unsure of what you need, it’s time to take a hard look at your business. Do you want to grow your sales by 10% over the next 6 months, or leads by 40% over the same time period? Is your goal an increased rank on Google searches for specific keywords, or do you just need help with generating consistent content?
Have a goal in mind so you can measure the success of your relationship with the SEO marketing services firm, and make that goal the center of your relationship with them.
2. Get References
When you look for an auto body shop, you look for good reviews, either online or in recommendations from people you know. You want to see success stories. The same goes for an SEO marketing services firm.
Ask them to show you work they have done so you understand their process, their metrics for success, as well as the companies they typically work with. If you’re a restaurant (B2C) and the firm has only ever worked with IT services companies (B2B), they might not be the right fit for you.
3. Make The SEO Marketing Services Firm Tell You Stories
When you hire a new employee, you don’t simply look at their resume and take their word for it. You ask them follow up questions and ask them for the stories behind some of their accomplishments. The same should go for hiring an SEO marketing services firm.
You want them to be able to tell you stories about their background, experience, successes and failures. It’s important to know how they react to different situations, because no business is exactly the same.
Setting clear goals, examining an SEO marketing services firm’s body of work, and having them tell you stories will help you hire the right SEO firm for your business.
For more information on what we do at Cohlab Digital Marketing and how we can help your SEO, contact us today.