Let’s face it, marketing can be hard! In each marketing blog post, we hope you’ll find the information you need for your business marketing success.
Protecting Consumer Privacy and the Value of First-Party Data
In an age where information and transactions flow freely online, it is almost impossible to manage a business without a web presence. Yet this technology comes with some unique challenges. Unlike traditional brick and mortar, its much harder to see who is shopping from you or even how many consumers show interest in your products…
Content is King
In today’s world, many business owners are becoming cognizant of the fact that effective internet marketing services can help their companies remain on track to perpetual growth. However, many of these corporate leaders possess little knowledge regarding which steps should be implemented to help their companies excel in the online world. If this is your…
Brand History: Start at the Beginning of the Brand Book
As I mentioned in the last post, we’re going to be building our sample Brand Book on the Rubber Duckie Brand. The reasons for choosing this brand over any other are varied but include being a “duck,” not having vigilant brand guardians searching the web for every unauthorized mention, and being both iconic and well-known.…
Do You Enjoy Working on Your Website?
Websites. Lately I’ve been talking with lots of business owners about their websites, and the stories out there about them are truly terrifying! I’m astonished! When did it get to commonplace for service providers to hold their clients’ hostage to their services? To ignore, to intimidate, and to charge an arm and three legs for…
5 Reasons To Have 5 Reasons
I need to write more blogs with a number of why to or reasons to, so I decided to write a blog on why I should do it more often… First reason, a blog that is associated with a number of reasons why to or why not to, is going to be read much more…
When paying for facebook ‘likes’ is a GREAT thing
What is a Facebook ‘like’ worth, is always a hot topic, so many different perspectives and rarely can you find the same answer with the same dollar figure attached to it. There are so many different variables, like what business you are in. Social Media has proven to be a GREAT medium to get the…
The American Dream Can be Your Brand
A bit of a rant today — I’ve seen several situations recently where an individual has overcome some pretty impressive life challenges, pulled themselves up against the odds, conceived of, and opened a business that is operating that business in the black in this economy. Any of those alone would be a significant accomplishment, but…
What’s Your Competitive Landscape?
Finding your unique niche in the market is both critical and necessary for your brand’s success in the marketplace. One very good method for identifying holes needing to be filled in your marketplace is a perceptual map. This can be particularly useful if your brand is not yet established, yet you know roughly what you…
What’s Your Logo Saying About Your Brand?
Logo. Your brand needs one. It represents your company, it communicates the subtext of your brand in one nice, neat, package. Ada Stoy defines a logo by saying ,”A logo is not just a piece of graphics – it is something that echoes a business’s brand through the use of symbols, fonts, images, colors, and…
Starbucks without Limitations
By now you’ve probably heard that Starbucks has introduced a new logo, with intentions of moving into the realm of Apple and Nike — a logo without words. It’s a bold move, and one that not many companies have the brand equity to pull off – however, given Starbuck’s significant marketshare they are positioned better…
We Can’t All Speak The Same Can We?
We see the blogs every day 5 ways to do this, 10 ways to do that, this is how you need to do social media. If we all operated our social media the way the guru’s say, then what would separate social media from everything else. One of the things I enjoy about social media is…
Why Should I Care About Your Offer?
Is your business volume not quite where you’d like to see it right now? Thinking of doing some advertising to drive traffic to your business? Great idea! But before you get too crazy, please stop to consider why the consumer should care. Ask yourself, if I were the consumer, “Why do I need Hep Five?”…
If Organization Networking Why Not Social Media Networking?
For years local business owners have joined networking organizations and clubs. Local Chamber, 20/30, Rotary, BNI, just to name a few. Some are exactly what they are networking, and some are disguised as charitable although we know that 90% of the reason we are involved is for the networking. Most clubs/organizations then have sub-committees that…
Email Newsletters – Powerful Communication Tools
Great marketing is about layering. It’s about creating many different channels of communication that all support each other and build on each other. We’ve previously talked about using traditional media to augment your social media efforts, but how many of you use an email blast-newsletter to communicate with customers and potential customers? If the answer…
Branding Foundations
Every brand needs to be built on a strong foundation. While the materials the blocks are made of change from company to company, their purpose, form, and necessity do not vary. The first foundational block of your brand is the vision you hold for your company. Why does your company exist? Where are you going?…
Visual Identity on a Budget
Brand strategy and positioning, image attributes, and brand architecture can become overly complex when there are hundreds of thousands of dollars involved. Many small to mid-size companies (with fewer than 500 employees) want the same thinking and quality that define a major branding initiative. It is just too expensive. Seeing no alternative, these companies search…
Brand Marketing: Service. Community. Value. Substance.
As usual, brand marketing is almost always on my mind, and as I was watching this exceptional TedxPennQuarter video by David Armano and David flashed a slide up that said: Service. Community. Value. Substance. While David was talking about social communities, the reality is he also published the recipe for creating an amazing brand and a successful business.…
Brand Development Doesn’t Have to be Expensive
I’m continually amazed at how often we in the marketing profession, and those in business, assume that brand development has to be expensive! This misnomer is honestly come by, though, because in good times, it’s easy to spend a lot of money on updating your brand image. But having cash ready to spend isn’t a prerequisite to…