Marcus Burk | Digital. Marketing. Kommunikation.

Home Office in the Corona Crisis – and beyond?

For almost a year I have been working remotely in my home office as Head of Marketing at the WordPress agency Inpsyde. The change to a company that works 100% remotely was a consciously chosen step for me – and for many at that time unimaginable. In this article I want to share my experiences and take a look at how the coronavirus made the home office possible for almost everyone.

Google’s Ranking Factors: The Complete List

The years end is close and I’m upside down in keyword research and analysis for 2020. I’m asking myself all kinds of questions, which I of course “google” and I came across Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List (2019). Even if the title implies something else, this list has no claim to completeness or truth – because Google’s ranking factors remain secret. But the list helps every now and then when you ask yourself how the search engine will deal with one or the other change, SEO tactic or strategy.

Fun Fact: Google has made great efforts to ensure that the neologism “(to) google” is not included in dictionaries as a synonym for “researching something in a search engine”, in order to avoid disadvantages under trademark law. However, it is OK to describe the term with “search in the Google search engine”. (Quelle: NZZ)

Full Stack Digital Marketing

A few years ago I came across this great article from Lauren Holliday about her way to Full Stack Marketing – and since then I have returned to him almost every year. And every time I read it, I can’t help but nod my head. It resonates with me as few other articles do. But why?

That’s what I’m trying to explain in this article. And I also want to show what a Full Stack Digital Marketer (FSDM) is by my definition. Why I see myself as one, how I went there and how everyone can find their own way to Full Stack Digital Marketing.

Open Source: Why do people work for free?

On one of these warm summer evenings on a garden fest, I told in a group of friends that I work for a WordPress agency. A befriended entrepreneur answered, “Ah, WordPress! That’s great, everything’s free, I’ve done our whole website with it!”. It only took a short time until he pushed afterwards: “Why do they do everything for free, don’t they want to earn any money?

We talked about Open Source, the community behind WordPress and the free web. And that when everyone works together on something, a strong ecosystem is being created from which everyone can benefit – and ultimately everyone can earn money from.

But the question still stuck in my head. And I had to think about this post about a developer who uploaded over 14,000 commits to a GitHub repository in 20 years.

Corporate Blog Barcamp 2019 Recap

I attended the Corporate Blog Barcamp 2019 and wrote down what I experienced there with almost 90 other communicators, bloggers and content marketers in my Recap in the Inpsyde Blog.

8 Tips to Write an Awesome Explainer Video

This week I wrote a script for an explanation video. These 8 tips from Column Five’s blog were a great guide to communicate the messages in a well-structured and clear way.

Even though explainer videos have become almost hackneyed, they are very valuable for companies and viewers. Because they are able to transport complex information quickly and easily.

Content Styleguide – A perfect Example

Every website, every blog and every professionally maintained social media profile needs a content style guide. A style guide regulates, as the name suggests, the style of how to do something. This is useful because the guide is operationally at your side. He is the tactic that complements the content strategy.

The ultimate Typography Guide. Or: How to turn into a Design Snob

I’m not really that deep in design. Although I define myself as a full-stack marketer, my specialized skills are clearly in strategy, conception, text and the digital realization of the whole – even as photo or video. And even if I have a good eye and some taste: Good designers then deliver the certain something that we are denied as normal mortals.

One of those good ones is Pablo Stanley, who wrote one wonderfully pointed Guide about Typefaces.

The Type Snob

And how to turn into one

A recommendation for anyone who chooses and combines ~~fonts~~ typefaces for the Web – or wants to let the Design Snob hang out: https://thedesignteam.io/the-type-snob-f221969a884b
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9 Brand Design Elements

Anyone who works as an entrepreneur, designer or marketer will sooner or later come into the situation of building a new brand or changing an existing one.

We do not have to think so gigantically big and in mega brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Apple or Microsoft. It is the little things and design elements of a brand that promote recognition. And that works for the self-employed or medium-sized company next door just as much as for a personal brand.

Philip VanDusen manages to present the 9 most important components of a brand design for designers and entrepreneurs in less than 10 minutes.

Getting Things Done: Natural Planning Model

I’ve been a big fan of David Allen and his Getting Things Done (GTD) system for stress-free productivity for years. As the saying goes? A clear mind has a full trash bin.

Unfortunately, I have an on-off relationship with time management and self-organization systems. The only constant I’ve successfully practiced for years is the Natural Planning Model that David introduces in this Tedx Talk. A truly wonderfully simple tool to define the success criteria and next steps in a task.