Monthly Archives: September 2020

BUSINESS BRANDING ON A BUDGET

Digital Marketing, ,

 

 

The term “branding” packs a big punch. While business branding is certainly no small feat, it is important to note that virtually anyone, with any budget, is capable of doing so. Branding really just refers to the deliberate actions that a company or person takes to get people to see them in a distinct way, separate from their competitors.

While attainable by any standard, branding a business takes a concerted, consistent effort. Far too many companies fall into the trap of believing that branding just means picking a color scheme and a logo. On the contrary, however, properly branding a business reaches into every facet of the company – from marketing to sales and from customer service to internal operations. The ability to send a consistent brand message will set any company apart from the competition in a meaningful way.

When thinking about some of the most effective branding to date, your head probably goes to large corporations like Google or Apple. And that makes sense, these organizations have done a phenomenal job of casting themselves in a strategic, calculated light. But what about the smaller guys? How can small businesses across the country brand themselves without breaking the bank? Is it possible to achieve successful business branding on a budget? Absolutely.

Today, we will dive deeper into how small companies can make big difference in how customers and prospects view their businesses. Let’s crack the code of business branding on a budget.

8 Tips for Building Your Brand on a Budget

It is important to note that business is creativity and innovation is not reserved for major corporations. Branding does not have to be expensive. You do not need to hire a branding company to come in a do a $50,000 overhaul. While branding requires an immense amount of work, it does not necessarily require an immense amount of money.

Investing in business branding can mean a lot of things, and we think that time is the most promising investment. Dedicating the time to really strategizing a brand identity for your company can pay back in dividends. The ROI associated with proper brand overhauls speaks for itself. As such, it is important to approach any brand changes with this in mind. The ROI may not come tomorrow, but over time you will see growth in new business and increased customer loyalty.

One of the biggest mistakes a company can make is thinking that they have lost the chance to re-brand. Some of the most well-known companies have gone through dozens of business branding iterations until the right one stuck. Leaning the right resources and platforms, any company can brand themselves in a cost-effective way.

The following are some of the most important tips for building your brand on a budget:

  1. Create a true voice and identity for your brand and ensure that everything from there on out represents that voice and identity
  2. Define your brand values and communicate them in a tagline
  3. Ensure that your logo represents your brand identity and if it doesn’t, rethink it
  4. Take a look at the aesthetic of your website and social media presence to guarantee they reflect your brand
  5. Layout specific, actionable social media groundwork and stick to being consistent
  6. Write authoritative, meaningful articles for your website that position your brand as an industry leader
  7. Keep the customer service department in tune with the branding shifts and confirm that they are speaking to customers with the same brand voice
  8. Get all hands on deck – the entire company must be in the know about any branding changes and trained on how to best exemplify the brand in their respective roles

The average buyer has changed drastically over the last couple of decades. These changes have brought new expectations that a company must do more than fulfill a need or want, they must do so in a way that truly resonates. Branding is the key to meeting these expectations and building a loyal following.

Are you looking for help in branding or re-branding your company? Big Customer Network is here for you. Contact us today to learn more.

10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Digital Marketing, SEO

 

Best practices surrounding digital marketing and search engine optimization are abundant. While the industry changes rapidly as a whole, SEO professionals have grown accustomed to explaining a simple, cardinal, and timeless rule of SEO: focus on the end-user, not Google, and your site will perform well. Of course, this is a massive oversimplification, but the concept rings true.

Google’s algorithm is an extremely complex system that ranks websites that are best able to answer the inquiries of the searcher. When SEO “best practices” first hit the scene, white hat and black hat digital marketing professionals hit the ground running. While Google no longer ranks those websites that employ black hat strategies, the lines have blurred a bit when it comes to deploying a plan that actually works. Even some white hat techniques that used to work may now result in a site being penalized. As such, it is extremely important to keep a finger on the pulse of SEO strategy for today and tomorrow.

The competition runs rampant in most industries and that means SEO professionals are tasked with being efficient, smart, and fast in order to optimize with both short-term and long-term strategy in mind. Google’s algorithm can feel like a moving target, updating in an overwhelming frequent fashion. This often causes the SEO industry rumor mill to work in overdrive and can muddy the waters of myth and truth.

From message boards to blog posts, digging through the internet for accurate, timely SEO tactics can be a major headache. As a result, SEO professionals have fallen victim to deploying SEO strategy that ends up being a major mistake. Today, we aim to uncover some of the most common SEO mistakes made in order to avoid them in your own marketing plan.

The Most Common SEO Mistakes

SEO used to be one of the most straightforward aspects of digital marketing, but as the internet adds millions of pages each day, the intricacies of SEO have evolved tremendously. From keywords to content strategy, from title tags to link building, and from off-page SEO strategy to data analytics, the list of “basic” SEO principles seems endless.

No matter how big or small a company may be, having an online presence means having an SEO strategy. Marketers and business owners who hope to keep traffic flowing to their websites must do their best to avoid the following SEO mistakes:

  1. Failing to optimize for local search
  2. Focusing on generic keywords instead of specific phrases
  3. Not using Google Analytics to its full capacity
  4. Producing irrelevant, lean, or outdated content
  5. Putting more emphasis on traffic than conversion
  6. Neglecting an internal linking strategy, which includes optimized anchor text
  7. Disregarding the importance of unique meta descriptions and title tags
  8. Paying too much attention on the number of links, instead of the quality of links
  9. Creating content that adds no value
  10. Adding a ton of pages instead of optimizing and updating current pages

Some of the above mistakes may seem simple, but you would be surprised to find how many SEO “experts” commit them every single day. Either by oversight or a lack of a centralized strategy, SEO mistakes can have a long-lasting impact on a website’s ability to rank.

The reality is that SEO can truly be infuriating. Google’s algorithm aims to reward quality sites and punish poor quality sites, and this means that it is constantly being tweaked and corrected. The good news is that a solid SEO foundation should protect your website from any drastic drops in rankings, no matter how drastic the algorithm update. However, it is easy to become complacent and fail to revisit some of the SEO tactics employed years ago.

Take the time to evaluate how your SEO strategy is working and whether or not it meets today’s standards. At Big Customer Network, we are SEO experts with years of experience in getting our clients to rank. Contact us today to learn more about our SEO services.

The Key Differences Between Content Marketing and Copywriting

Content Marketing, Digital Marketing

 

Content marketing has spent a lot of time in the limelight over the last couple of decades. As search engine optimization and digital marketing strategy has grown dramatically, content creation has continually been at the forefront of that growth. The terms content writing and copywriting are often used interchangeably, but the reality is that they are not the same.

In the early days of SEO, marketing agencies often labeled all of their content creators “copywriters”, but this is a mislabel dependent upon their particular duties. While both content writing and copywriting are critical to any successful, well-rounded content marketing strategy today, knowing the difference between the two writing methods is critical.

From intent to style and from SEO to utilization, putting pen to paper (well, putting fingers to keyboards) requires a deep understanding of purpose. Without underscoring the variations between content writing and copywriting, a content marketing plan is destined to suffer.

Content Writing Basics

When it comes to content marketing, most people think that content writing simply means creating content. While that is certainly part of it, content writing goes far beyond the straightforward concept of writing words to be digested online. Today, beneficial content writing means creating high-quality content pieces that add value to a subject matter. Value typically comes in two forms: entertainment or education.

While content writing may indirectly facilitate sales that is not its main purpose. Instead, content writing serves to build a company’s reputation, engage customers and prospects, and entertain those interested in the subject matter. Some of the most common forms of content writing include:

  • Blog Posts
  • Case Studies
  • E-books
  • Email Blasts
  • Evergreen Articles
  • News Articles
  • Social Media Posts
  • Tutorials
  • White Papers

The above forms of content writing are typically long-form and can generate leads, drastically improve search rankings, create a devoted fan base, and eventually drive sales.

Copywriting Basics

Copywriting, on the other hand, serves a much different purpose. In fact, the essence of copywriting is to persuade, not to entertain or educate. While there are instances that copywriting can both entertain and educate, the intent behind the words is to get the reader to take a specific action. As a result, copywriting plays a critical role in the sales process. When a company is running an ad or creating a sales pitch of any kind, copywriting lays the foundation for communicating with prospects.

A copywriter must maintain a finger on the pulse of what makes prospects take action. Things like understanding what type of trigger words to use and how to best formulate phrases that elicit emotion is key. Some of the most common forms of copywriting include:

  • CPM Ads (Cost-Per-Mille)
  • PPC Ads (Pay-Per-Click)
  • PPC Landing Pages
  • Product Pages
  • Sales Emails
  • SMS Ads
  • Social Media Ads
  • Website Sales Copy

The above forms of copywriting are typically short-form and are an essential component in the sales process for companies employing any kind of digital marketing strategy.

The Value of Writing

Whether using content writing to engage an audience or copywriting to convert them to customers, there is an undeniable value in written words in the content marketing world. The intention behind those words is what differentiates copywriting and content writing, but both forms of content creation are extremely important today.

A comprehensive digital marketing strategy must include content marketing, and that means launching a range of initiatives to properly promote a brand. As such, an incredible article may rank organically on Google, thus piquing the interest of a prospect. Then, that same prospect may see a Facebook ad whose copywriting is so compelling, they decide to make a purchase. In both cases, content is at the heart of the marketing plan.

At first glance, the differences between content writing and copywriting may seem nuanced. However, a deeper dive reveals the important differences between the two. While one is no more important than the other, marketers must understand the difference to successfully deploy a content marketing strategy.