New School

New School is a full-service digital marketing, branding, web design, advertising, and creative agency based in Muskegon, Michigan, with an additional presence in Grand Rapids. The agency works with businesses and organizations that want more than a collection of disconnected marketing services. Instead of pushing a standard package, New School takes time to understand each client’s goals, audience, competitive environment, challenges, and opportunities before recommending a practical path forward. The result is a more focused marketing approach built around the business itself—not around a generic formula.

The agency’s philosophy is simple: businesses should not have to settle for outdated marketing, vague promises, or work that looks impressive but does not support meaningful growth. New School combines strategy, design, technology, content, and promotion to help clients communicate clearly, reach the right people, and turn attention into action. Whether a company is trying to generate more leads, launch a new service, strengthen its brand, improve its website, enter a new market, or bring several marketing activities under one coordinated plan, the team looks for the most useful mix of services rather than recommending work simply for the sake of doing more.

A Strategy-First Approach

Every successful marketing effort begins with understanding. New School starts by listening to the client, learning how the organization operates, reviewing current marketing activity, examining the competitive landscape, and identifying what makes the business meaningfully different. This discovery process helps the team avoid assumptions and focus on the issues that matter most. Sometimes a company needs a stronger website. Sometimes the real issue is unclear positioning, inconsistent branding, weak search visibility, ineffective advertising, or a lack of useful content. In many cases, several areas need to work together.

From that foundation, New School develops a customized marketing strategy designed around the client’s objectives. The plan may include web design, search engine optimization, local SEO, branding, digital advertising, video production, graphic design, content development, social media, public relations, print materials, or a combination of services. The goal is not to make marketing more complicated. It is to bring the right activities together so that each part supports the others.

Branding and Rebranding

A brand is much more than a logo. It is the impression people carry with them after interacting with a company. It includes the organization’s values, personality, visual identity, voice, positioning, promises, and the overall experience it creates for customers. New School helps businesses develop brands that feel clear, credible, distinctive, and consistent.

The branding process begins with discovery and research. The team looks at the company’s mission, goals, audience, competitors, current reputation, and future direction. This helps reveal what the brand already represents and what it needs to become. From there, New School can develop brand positioning, key qualities, personality, messaging, voice, and a visual identity that supports the strategy.

Brand identity work may include logo design, typography, color systems, imagery, graphic elements, slogans, messaging, and supporting creative materials. The agency can also create brand guidelines that explain how these elements should be used across websites, advertising, social media, print, presentations, signage, video, and other customer touchpoints. These guidelines help internal teams and outside partners present the brand consistently.

For established companies, New School also supports rebranding. A rebrand may be needed when a business has outgrown its original identity, entered new markets, changed ownership, expanded its services, merged with another organization, or simply no longer looks and sounds like the company it has become. The agency approaches rebranding carefully, preserving useful recognition where appropriate while creating a more relevant identity for the next stage of growth.

Web Design and Website Development

A website is often the first meaningful interaction a potential customer has with a business. It should explain what the company does, make the visitor feel confident, answer common questions, and provide an easy path to take the next step. New School designs and develops websites with both the user experience and the client’s business goals in mind.

The agency’s website process considers structure, navigation, content, visual design, mobile responsiveness, speed, calls to action, search visibility, and brand consistency. A successful website should look professional, but appearance alone is not enough. Visitors need to find information quickly, understand the company’s value, and know what to do next. New School works to reduce confusion and create a natural journey from the first page a person visits to an inquiry, phone call, form submission, appointment, purchase, or other desired action.

New School has years of experience in web design and continues to adapt as technologies, user expectations, and search standards change. The team builds websites that represent the client’s brand while considering practical issues such as mobile use, accessibility, performance, content management, and future growth. The aim is to create a website the organization can be proud of and that provides lasting value to customers.

Search Engine Optimization and Local SEO

A strong website only creates value when the right people can find it. New School provides search engine optimization services designed to improve visibility, relevance, and the overall quality of a company’s online presence. The agency looks at SEO as a long-term business channel rather than a set of shortcuts.

Its SEO approach may include technical optimization, keyword and audience research, website content, local landing pages, blog strategy, metadata, internal linking, structured data, mobile usability, site speed, crawlability, indexing, website architecture, and authority-building activities. The team works to align search optimization with what real customers are looking for, helping the website answer useful questions and present services in a clear way.

Technical SEO helps search engines access, understand, and organize a website. New School can review elements such as page structure, URL organization, mobile performance, security, XML sitemaps, structured data, and other behind-the-scenes factors that affect search visibility and user experience. These improvements create a stronger foundation for content and ongoing optimization.

Content is another important part of SEO. New School helps businesses develop relevant website pages, location-focused content, articles, guides, videos, and other resources that connect customer needs with the company’s expertise. Rather than filling pages with repeated keywords, the focus is on creating information that is useful, understandable, and aligned with the questions people ask during their decision-making process.

For businesses that depend on customers in a particular city or service area, New School also provides local SEO support. This can include optimizing business information, developing location-relevant website content, strengthening directory listings, supporting review strategies, and improving the consistency of the company’s name, address, phone number, hours, and other key details across the web. Local SEO can help a business become more visible when nearby customers search for the products or services it offers.

Digital Advertising and Paid Media

Digital advertising can give businesses a direct way to reach potential customers, but successful campaigns require more than simply turning on ads. New School helps clients choose appropriate platforms, develop the message and creative, define the audience, manage campaigns, and improve performance over time.

Services may include search advertising, display campaigns, social media advertising, video advertising, remarketing, and other forms of paid digital promotion. The exact mix depends on the client’s goals, audience, offer, budget, and customer journey. A company trying to generate immediate leads may need a different approach from an organization building awareness for a future campaign or promoting an event.

New School combines creative thinking with data and ongoing optimization. The team pays attention to how the message, design, landing page, targeting, and offer work together. If an ad attracts clicks but the website does not build confidence or make the next step clear, the campaign will struggle. Because the agency offers both advertising and web services, it can look beyond the ad platform and improve the complete experience.

Marketing Planning and Campaign Development

Many businesses know they need marketing but are unsure where to begin or how to connect the pieces. New School helps turn broad goals into an organized plan. The agency can review current activity, identify gaps, set priorities, define audiences, clarify messaging, select channels, and develop campaigns that are realistic for the organization’s resources.

A marketing plan may cover lead generation, brand awareness, customer retention, product or service launches, recruitment, community engagement, event promotion, market expansion, or other business objectives. New School works to establish a clear purpose for each campaign and determine how success will be evaluated.

Campaign development may bring together strategy, copywriting, graphic design, photography, video, landing pages, email, social media, digital ads, print materials, public relations, and sales support. Keeping these elements aligned gives the audience a more consistent experience and helps the organization make better use of its time and budget.

Video Production

Video can help a business explain ideas, demonstrate products, introduce its people, share customer stories, promote events, support recruitment, and build a more personal connection with its audience. New School provides professional video production for companies and organizations that want content with a clear purpose.

The agency can support the process from concept and planning through filming, editing, and final delivery. Depending on the project, video work may include brand stories, company overviews, testimonials, product demonstrations, training content, recruitment videos, social media content, event videos, interviews, digital advertisements, or television commercials.

New School understands that effective video is not only about production quality. The story, message, audience, pacing, visuals, and distribution plan all matter. The team works with clients to determine what the video needs to accomplish and how it will be used across websites, social platforms, advertising, presentations, email campaigns, and other channels.

Graphic Design and Creative Services

Clear, consistent design helps people recognize a company and understand its message. New School’s graphic design services support both digital and traditional marketing needs. The agency can create materials that follow an existing brand or develop a new visual direction when the organization needs a refreshed identity.

Design work may include logos, brochures, advertisements, social media graphics, presentations, reports, sales materials, event collateral, signage, newsletters, direct mail, digital campaign assets, website visuals, infographics, packaging, and other branded pieces. The team considers not only how something looks, but also where it will be used, who needs to understand it, and what action it should encourage.

Content, Social Media, Public Relations, and Traditional Marketing

Although digital channels are central to modern marketing, many businesses still benefit from a thoughtful combination of online and offline communication. New School has experience across content development, social media, public relations, traditional print, photography, online and mobile advertising, and other forms of media.

Content can help a business explain its expertise, answer customer questions, improve search visibility, provide useful resources, and stay connected with its audience. New School can help shape content topics, messaging, writing, design, and distribution so that each piece supports a broader strategy.

Social media support can include planning, content development, graphics, videos, campaign ideas, paid promotion, and guidance on the platforms most relevant to the organization. The goal is not simply to post frequently. It is to communicate with purpose and create content that fits the audience and the brand.

A Collaborative Working Process

New School’s process can be summarized through strategy, design, and execution. Strategy begins with listening and understanding. Design turns the objective into a clear creative solution. Execution brings the plan to life through organized production, technical skill, communication, and attention to detail.

The agency values long-term client relationships and works to become familiar with each organization rather than treating every assignment as a one-time transaction. This collaborative approach allows the team to understand the client’s people, internal processes, industry, customers, and goals more deeply over time.

Clients can expect communication, planning, and a willingness to explain why certain recommendations are being made. New School does not believe businesses should pay for services they do not need. The team aims to recommend the channels and activities that make sense for the client’s current situation and long-term direction.

Measurement is also part of the relationship. Marketing should support visible progress, whether that means more qualified inquiries, improved search visibility, better engagement, stronger brand recognition, higher-quality website traffic, increased sales opportunities, or another agreed objective. New School provides reporting and reviews results so the strategy can continue to improve.

Experience Across Different Types of Organizations

New School’s portfolio includes work for businesses, nonprofits, community organizations, cultural institutions, financial organizations, manufacturers, and other clients. This range of experience helps the team adapt its process while still respecting the differences between industries.

A manufacturer may need technical content, recruiting support, product photography, trade-focused advertising, and a website that explains complex capabilities. A nonprofit may need campaign messaging, fundraising materials, storytelling, event promotion, and an accessible website. A professional service company may need local SEO, trust-building content, lead generation, and a more polished brand. A retail or hospitality organization may need social media, advertising, promotions, photography, and a stronger customer experience.

The team does not assume that the same tactics will work for every client. Instead, it applies a consistent strategic process to understand the organization and then builds the right combination of services around its specific needs.

West Michigan Roots with a Wider Reach

New School is headquartered at 200 Viridian Drive in Muskegon, Michigan, and also lists a Grand Rapids location at 77 Monroe Center Street. The agency serves businesses throughout Muskegon, Grand Rapids, Holland, Grand Haven, Detroit, and other Michigan communities, while also working with clients nationwide.

Being part of the West Michigan community influences the way the agency works. Relationships matter. Reputation matters. Clear communication matters. Local businesses are often connected through customers, employees, suppliers, community organizations, and word of mouth. New School understands that marketing should build trust rather than rely on exaggerated claims or short-term tricks.

At the same time, businesses in West Michigan compete in a much larger digital marketplace. A local company may serve customers across the state, sell nationally, recruit talent from outside the area, or compete with much larger brands online. New School helps clients maintain an authentic local identity while presenting themselves professionally to a broader audience.

Who New School Can Help

New School may be a good fit for a business or organization that has outgrown its current website, needs a clearer brand, wants more qualified leads, is struggling to appear in search results, needs a coordinated advertising plan, or does not have all the necessary marketing skills in-house.

The agency can also help when marketing has become fragmented. A company may have one vendor managing its website, another running ads, a freelancer creating graphics, and an internal employee posting on social media, with no shared strategy connecting the work. New School can bring these activities into a more organized system and help everyone work toward the same goals.

Some clients need a complete marketing partner. Others need support for a specific project, such as a website redesign, brand launch, SEO program, video, digital campaign, or set of sales materials. New School can meet clients where they are and recommend a practical scope based on priorities and available resources.

Why Businesses Choose New School

Businesses choose New School because they want a team that can think strategically and also complete the work. The agency brings multiple disciplines together under one roof, including marketing strategy, web development, SEO, local SEO, branding, graphic design, digital advertising, video production, social media, content, print, photography, and public relations.

This integrated model helps create consistency. The brand strategy can guide the website. The website can support SEO. SEO insights can influence content. Content can be used in social media and email. Video can strengthen advertising and sales. Reporting can show which activities deserve further investment. Instead of operating as separate projects, the pieces can reinforce one another.

The agency also brings decades of experience without relying on an old-fashioned approach. New School continues to learn, test new ideas, use current technologies, and respond to changes in customer behavior and digital platforms. Its name reflects that mindset: question the status quo, keep improving, and find a better way to help the client stand out.

Start a Conversation

New School is ready to support businesses and organizations with web design, branding, SEO, local SEO, digital advertising, marketing strategy, graphic design, video production, content, and integrated campaign development. The first step is a conversation about the organization, the current challenges, and what success should look like.

Businesses do not need to arrive with a complete marketing plan. New School can help identify priorities, evaluate what is already working, and recommend the next most useful steps. Whether the need is a focused project or an ongoing agency relationship, the team aims to create marketing that feels authentic, communicates clearly, and supports measurable business growth.

New School is located in Muskegon and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and serves clients throughout West Michigan, across the state, and nationwide. To learn more, visit new.school or call 231-769-2642.

The agency welcomes conversations with teams that need a useful perspective, clearer priorities, or dependable creative support for their next stage.