Marketing, websites, social media and search engine optimization (SEO) are the tools Katz & Maus uses to help business grow.
Hi, I’m Susan Maus, president of Katz & Maus Advertising in Minneapolis.
I like to say
that I began life as a journalist – at 10 years old I was writing a newsletter about our neighborhood that I distributed for 5 cents a copy. That meant for each copy I sold I had to write out (by hand) a NEW edition but, hey, there was more news by then anyway.
My next step was a paper route delivering the weekly newspaper. This included selling new subscriptions door-to-door and collecting subscription fees from all my customers. One lady paid me in Buffalo Nickels – which helped me understand the phrase “it all spends the same” as this was the 1970s and Buffalo Nickels were still relatively common.
In high school I was the first female sports editor of a national award-winning news magazine. My dad was really proud!
Eventually I went to journalism school and received my degree in magazines and graphic arts. Worked as a community journalist, then as a section editor at a daily.
Though I loved the writing, editing and layout parts of my job the role began to feel limiting. Found myself wondering, “Will I be writing the same feature story about the carrot in someone’s garden that grew to look like a pair of pants year after year?” I was working in Iowa at the time and each summer we’d get tons of calls just like that. As a farewell to the growing season we published a double-truck headlined “Mutants of the Bounty” with pictures of people and their odd-shaped carrots, zucchini, potatoes and eggplant. So yes, it turned out, if I stayed in newspapering this would be my lot.
Relieved that it had only taken me 7 years to figure this out I cast about for more fulfilling ways to use my writing, design – and now management and budding technology – skills.
My next step was to a technical college where I handled marketing, communications and media relations. And by “handled” I mean that I created every brochure, sell sheet, news release, catalog, direct mail, radio script, outdoor billboard and community event for the organization for the next four years. All of this was made possible with an Apple computer and a mobile phone the size of a brick.
Getting a taste of how to integrate marketing, advertising and communications led me to an account manager job at a small advertising agency. I enjoyed the work – but not the bureaucracy. Time to spread my wings.
In 1995 I founded Katz & Maus Advertising to provide first-rate marketing and advertising services to small and mid-sized companies. I learned every aspect of my clients’ business so that I could market what they had to offer and help them grow – and that is still my approach today!
More than 18 years later I’m capitalizing on the digital revolution by creating websites, email marketing, content and SEO that helps businesses grow and stay connected to their clients. View client testimonials