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 Pick Your Blog Topics – A Few Top Tips
/in How To, SEOHaving a blog for your business is an invaluable addition to your overall SEO strategy. However, to generate the results you need to bolster a competitive online presence requires consistency, quality, and relevance. Consistency can be achieved relatively easily by creating a plan. Quality and relevance are not always as simple. If you are adept at writing, have someone on your team who is, or have hired a professional writer or SEO company, it will make your life a bit easier. However, it can often be challenging to come up with a topic to write about. Furthermore, if a writer or SEO firm is providing your blog content, how can you be sure that they are relevant to your target audience? Fortunately, there are some ways you can employ to help come up with topics on your own, or check on the usefulness of topics provided for you.
Does the Blog Topic Make Sense?
One of the primary purposes of a blog is to generate traffic to your site, to demonstrate your expertise in your field, and to increase conversions. Because of this, it is crucial that the topics you choose be relevant to your audience. If you are a construction company, posting blogs about the latest fashion trends will not likely do much for your traffic (or your image). Put yourself in the place of your ideal customer, consider the topic, and ask yourself if it would be relevant to your business focus.
Is It Helpful?
There is certainly a place for blog topics that are general interest pieces. For example, providing a history of your market or how your product was invented may drive traffic simply because it is interesting to read. However, most blogs really gain traction when the topic solves a problem for your reader. If you sell high-performance engine parts, perhaps a blog about how to improve gas mileage may be a wise choice. The blog post does not have to be strictly dependent on your product or service alone, but may provide a solution to a general problem that can be tied back to your product or service at the end.
Is It Fresh?
There is perhaps nothing more damaging to your blog traffic than posting topics that have been over-covered, or that provide no fresh information. Again, there is a place for recycling content and finding ideas from other blogs on the web. However, the blog should either provide the information in a better way than has been done before or should have fresh information not found on every other similar blog or website. Keep it fresh, look for ways to improve on what’s already been written, and consider ways to say it in a way that is easier or more beneficial.
Can It Lead To A Clear Call To Action?
If you were writing purely for your own enjoyment, or as a personal outlet for your creativity, you could write anything you wanted without having to consider if your audience takes action on it. For your business, however, your blog topic should provide you with the opportunity to pull it all together for your reader and prompt them with a call to action. If you cannot easily relate the content to such a call, whether it be to contact you for a consultation or purchase your product, it may prove to be a waste of effort.
Writing a successful blog for your business should be done carefully and intentionally. Following these steps and doing your research can help you leverage your blog in ways you never imagined possible. The time it takes to choose the right blog topics and craft blogs that make that sort of difference may not be a possibility. If that is the case, look for time to block out blog work in your schedule, or seek out an SEO firm or content writer that can do it for you. The investment will be well worth it and an excellent way to an exceptional ROI.
“Cohlaboration” With Cohlab
At Cohlab, we have worked closely with many businesses to help them achieve great success in their SEO efforts. Our team can help you with your blog topics, as well as provide you with comprehensive SEO and web design services that ensure you become a force in the search engine results. Use our complimentary Digital Marketing Scorecard to gain valuable insight on how your website rank compares to others. We are also glad to answer any questions you may have and provide Cohlaborative digital marketing solutions to meet your company’s needs.
Measuring your Marketing Automation ROI: Digital Marketing ROI Series
/in Analytics, SEOAs part of our digital marketing ROI series, we are going to learn how to measure your return on investment (ROI) for marketing automation. Marketing automation refers to software that automates your marketing processes for you. Automation is specially designed to help you prioritize and execute all of your marketing tasks in a more efficient manner. The goal is to help free up your time and streamline your tasks without compromising the quality of the content your website produces. Automation also has the added benefit of allowing marketers to reach their goals faster.
To generate more revenue, you need to drive traffic to your website, convert it into leads, and convert those leads into paying customers. You can also use it to define quality leads you can move through your funnel. Marketing automation helps you do all this and more, but how can you measure your ROI?
Calculate Traffic Generated to Your Landing Page
A common marketing automation technique involves sending out emails and newsletters with information that will attract potential clients to your website. Calculate the number of visitors brought to your landing page. Use tools like Google Analytics for this task. Google also offers a variety of webmaster tools that are useful for tracking traffic and length of each visit to your page.
Monitor Contact Interactions
Monitoring traffic is the first step, but you also need to monitor all interactions with your contacts. Which links do they click on, and what content are they downloading? All these actions can be used to calculate the number of potential leads. The data also gives you an idea of what kind of content your clients want. Create content to reflect the demand.
Learn How Many Leads Turn to Sales
Bringing in new contacts using automation won’t do any good unless they generate sales. Determine how many of your leads convert to sales. Use the data to calculate your closing ratio. The closing ratio formula is calculated by dividing total sales with total proposals or inquiries generated by the automation marketing.
Prioritize Contacts that Generate Sales
Use the data you collect to build lists of potential return clients. Develop and send these contacts specially tailored emails promoting your content. Your primary goal is to create new leads, but you can use this method to capture additional information about your established customers, and create special offers that can lead to more sales.
Schedule Social Media Posts and Track Responses
You can use marketing automation tools to schedule your company’s social media updates and promote your content directly to your clients. Track their responses and respond to any queries viewers have. Positive responses mean your automation campaign is working.
Setup Automated Reports
Automation tools can provide you with reports on how your campaign is doing. Set up automated reporting and stay informed. You can also set up automation alerts based on how your leads behave. If your campaign isn’t effective, find out why and work to reinvent the problem.
At Cohlab, we fully understand the importance of knowing your marketing automation ROI. That is why we do take the time to ensure you understand both the tangible and intangible results of your digital marketing efforts. We “cohlaborate” with you on proving out your marketing ROI, and our strategy has been greatly successful for digital marketing clients. Use our complimentary Digital Marketing Scorecard to gain valuable insight on how your website rank compares to others. Our team would love to speak with you and answer any questions you may have. Our mission is to provide you with Cohlaborative digital marketing solutions to meet your organization’s needs.
Measuring your Marketing Automation ROI: Digital Marketing ROI Series
/in Analytics, SEOAs part of our digital marketing ROI series, we are going to learn how to measure your return on investment (ROI) for marketing automation. Marketing automation refers to software that automates your marketing processes for you. Automation is specially designed to help you prioritize and execute all of your marketing tasks in a more efficient manner. The goal is to help free up your time and streamline your tasks without compromising the quality of the content your website produces. Automation also has the added benefit of allowing marketers to reach their goals faster.
To generate more revenue, you need to drive traffic to your website, convert it into leads, and convert those leads into paying customers. You can also use it to define quality leads you can move through your funnel. Marketing automation helps you do all this and more, but how can you measure your ROI?
Calculate Traffic Generated to Your Landing Page
A common marketing automation technique involves sending out emails and newsletters with information that will attract potential clients to your website. Calculate the number of visitors brought to your landing page. Use tools like Google Analytics for this task. Google also offers a variety of webmaster tools that are useful for tracking traffic and length of each visit to your page.
Monitor Contact Interactions
Monitoring traffic is the first step, but you also need to monitor all interactions with your contacts. Which links do they click on, and what content are they downloading? All these actions can be used to calculate the number of potential leads. The data also gives you an idea of what kind of content your clients want. Create content to reflect the demand.
Learn How Many Leads Turn to Sales
Bringing in new contacts using automation won’t do any good unless they generate sales. Determine how many of your leads convert to sales. Use the data to calculate your closing ratio. The closing ratio formula is calculated by dividing total sales with total proposals or inquiries generated by the automation marketing.
Prioritize Contacts that Generate Sales
Use the data you collect to build lists of potential return clients. Develop and send these contacts specially tailored emails promoting your content. Your primary goal is to create new leads, but you can use this method to capture additional information about your established customers, and create special offers that can lead to more sales.
Schedule Social Media Posts and Track Responses
You can use marketing automation tools to schedule your company’s social media updates and promote your content directly to your clients. Track their responses and respond to any queries viewers have. Positive responses mean your automation campaign is working.
Setup Automated Reports
Automation tools can provide you with reports on how your campaign is doing. Set up automated reporting and stay informed. You can also set up automation alerts based on how your leads behave. If your campaign isn’t effective, find out why and work to reinvent the problem.
At Cohlab, we fully understand the importance of knowing your marketing automation ROI. That is why we do take the time to ensure you understand both the tangible and intangible results of your digital marketing efforts. We “cohlaborate” with you on proving out your marketing ROI, and our strategy has been greatly successful for digital marketing clients. Use our complimentary Digital Marketing Scorecard to gain valuable insight on how your website rank compares to others. Our team would love to speak with you and answer any questions you may have. Our mission is to provide you with Cohlaborative digital marketing solutions to meet your organization’s needs.