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Archive for the ‘Branding’ Category
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
One of the biggest mistakes YouTube marketers make is thinking they’ll get a rush of traffic from their uploaded videos. More often than not, the referrals from YouTube are pretty low. That’s because people go to YouTube to watch videos. They are not looking for websites to visit. They want to be entertained or informed.
That doesn’t mean, however, that marketing through YouTube has little or no value. It actually has a lot of value.
But what about rankings?
If you think that uploading vidoes to YouTube and then embedding them on your website is going to improve your website’s rankings, then you’ll be disappointed by that too. More than likely, those embeds will help YouTube rank better. If you own the channel those videos are uploaded to, then your YouTube channel could see a rise in rankings based on number of video embeds and social shares. That’s not a bad thing as it means your brand will have one more ranking than it did before. That’s great for reputation management.
The real benefit to marketing through YouTube, however, is in branding. YouTube is one of the top 5 most trafficked websites online and the second biggest search engine. That means you have a powerful marketing medium.
If you can get your YouTube videos in front of a lot of eyeballs, that’s powerful branding. And it’s the true value of marketing through YouTube. Forget about rankings and traffic.
Tags: Branding, online marketing, Reputation Management, search rankings, traffic, Video Marketing, website rankings, YouTube
Posted in Branding | No Comments »
Monday, February 25th, 2013
An article in Wired Magazine’s online edition this morning discusses Amazon’s new rival – Google. You might ask, “Why does Amazon need a rival?” And that’s a good question. But the answer is just as good.
It’s not so much that Amazon needs a rival as it is that consumers and brands need Amazon to have a rival.
Here’s a quote from the article:
“Amazon can show they’re a friend to small and medium-sized businesses by offering them a platform that allows them to sell,” he says. “What they don’t do is allow you to control your own brand.”
That’s very important. You can sell a ton of your product through Amazon’s storefront, but how many people know they’re buying your product? Or do they care? All they really know is that they are buying what they need from Amazon.
If you really want to increase your repeat sales and have people coming back for more, telling their friends about you, and more, then you need to sell your brand. That’s a lot different than moving product, which Amazon is good at. But to sell your brand, you need your own storefront and your own fulfillment process. That’s the only true way to control your brand.
Of course, along with the online storefront, the fulfillment process, and everything else that comes with e-commerce, there also comes search engine optimization – being found in Google. So Google is the natural candidate for becoming Amazon’s next big rival. They have the financial clout and the motivation. Are you ready to pick sides? Or do you see taking sides even necessary?
Tags: Amazon, brand management, Branding, e-commerce
Posted in Branding | No Comments »
Thursday, January 31st, 2013
If you’ve built a solid online brand and find yourself having to rebrand your business online for one of various reasons, then you should count the cost before you start. Is rebranding really necessary?
If it is, there are some definite costs, and I mean beyond the dollars and cents.
For instance, if you have to get a new domain name to correspond with your new business domain, then when you redirect your old site to the new domain you’ll likely lose some search engine rankings. The bright side is you can regain those for the new site, but you might have to work extra hard to build up their authority. A new domain starts at line zero where age and authority are concerned.
You’ll also have to count the cost of rebranding your other assets. You might, for instance, have to establish a new Twitter account, or rename your old one.
With your Facebook, you can request a name change. That requires the approval of Facebook. It’s a relatively easy process, but it does require you taking some action. With Google+, you just go to your business page and change the name.
You’ll also have to rebrand your YouTube account, LinkedIn persona, newsletters, podcasts, and anything else online that carries your old brand name. That means more work. For each additional aspect of your business that you have to rebrand, there’s a cost – even if it’s minuscule.
Sometimes, rebranding is necessary. If you find that it’s unavoidable for your business, try to mitigate the costs as much as you can.
Tags: Branding, newsletter, online branding, online business, rebranding, web domain
Posted in Branding | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013
More and more, branding is becoming the important thing online. It’s not SEO. But I’d say that SEO is now becoming a part of the overall branding efforts of serious online marketers.
Rand Fishkin makes predictions every year about the direction of search marketing and social media. This year, he continues that tradition. Interestingly, he’s got some predictions for Google+, Google search criteria, and co-citations. If he’s right about any of this, and he’s usually at least partially correct, then that spells one thing – branding is the new content.
How Google+, AuthorRank, and Co-Citations Move Your Branding Forward
Google+ has not become an essential element of SEO – yet. But it is becoming important for branding purposes, just as most social media is. But I do believe that using Google+ long term could improve your search rankings. Especially in the local SEO space because you have to have a Google+ account to claim your Google Places listing.
On top of that, if you are an author (and online everyone is an author or publisher, or both), then implementing Google’s rich snippets for authorship is an essential element of SEO. Maybe not yet, but all the leaders in online marketing expect it to happen at some point in the future. I agree.
Thirdly, co-citation is something that requires a little explanation. Anchor text is diminishing in importance. More and more, search marketers are seeing evidence of brands being mentioned alongside specific keyword phrases and this is causing brand pages that do not include those search phrases to rank for the keywords anyway. That just proves my point that branding is the new SEO. Google+, AuthorRank, and Co-citations are all a part of that change.
Tags: AuthorRank, Branding, co-citations, google, online branding, search marketing, SEO
Posted in Branding | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
Pinterest has announced that businesses are welcome. Being one of the fastest growing social networks for the past year, a lot of people flocked to Pinterest to set up an account. And a lot of those users have been businesses. Now there’s good news. You are no longer “just tolerated;” you are welcome.
If you don’t have a business presence at Pinterest currently and you are ready to add a visual branding element to your social networking, you can set up a business brand page. If you do have an account in a business name, then you can convert that account to a business brand page. The new direction also includes new features.
Here are a few new features that your business can take advantage of at Pinterest:
- Add a Pin It button to your business website
- Add a Follow button to your website
- Invite people to follow your Pinterest boards from your website
- Add Pinterest branding to your marketing brochures and other collateral
I encourage you to check out sample business pages and find out how you can use Pinterest brand pages to promote your business more effectively.
Social media marketers have a lot more options available to them today. You are not relegated to Facebook and Twitter any more, though you can incorporate them into your overall marketing plan alongside Pinterest and other services.
Tags: Branding, Pinterest, Social Media, social networking
Posted in Branding | 4 Comments »
Monday, October 15th, 2012
You’ve likely heard of Facebook brand pages, but did you know there are 4 top social media websites that currently allow brands to build their very own brand page for marketing and lead generation purposes? It’s true. Here are 4 popular social media websites where you can currently build brand pages.
- Facebook - Facebook led the way with brand pages. They were the first social network to open up this possibility to businesses and I believe it should be the first brand page you build. There is a ton of potential for traffic generation and lead generation with Facebook brand pages.
- Google+ – Google+ made a big splash online last year when it launched and subsequently introduced Google brand pages. There is a good chance that your brand pages on Google+ will enhance your search engine optimization efforts as long as you don’t engage in spam. Use your Google+ brand page wisely and it will return positive results.
- Twitter – Not long after Google+, Twitter introduced brand pages. First, Twitter brand pages were open only to specific brands for testing purposes. Twitter calls its brand page product “Enhanced Profile Pages.” Regardless of what you call it, though, it’s a great opportunity for businesses to make better use of Twitter for enhanced traffic and lead generation.
- Foursquare – Foursquare is not as popular as the other three social media sites, but it’s growing in popularity every day. This site has recently become even more important by enhancing its local search opportunities for marketers. I can see a day when Foursquare could become the most important local search engine online. But for now, take advantage of its opportunities for building brand pages.
Social media has a lot of opportunities for businesses. These are just four. Use your brand pages at these social sites wisely and they’ll pay dividends for years to come.
Tags: brand pages, facebook, Foursquare, google, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Branding | 5 Comments »
Monday, September 10th, 2012
61% of marketing agencies see social media as primarily a brand awareness tool while 64% of agency clients see it as a brand awareness tool.
Respondents to a survey by Econsultancy were allowed to pick two channel categories under which they consider social media to fall. Among those channels included:
- Brand awareness
- Marketing campaign
- Content marketing
- Customer service
- Lead generation
- Retention
- Sales
I didn’t participate in this survey, but I think I would have answered along with the majority of marketing agencies and selected brand awareness and content marketing as the two primary purposes for social media.
Frank Reed at Marketing Pilgrim seems to equate “brand awareness” with Likes and Shares. I think that’s a rather surface-area observation. Marketers have always seen brand awareness as attempting to plant a brand name into the consciences of its audience members. That may be done through Likes and Shares, but it doesn’t have to be. An online viewer will remember something more if they interact with it, and Likes and Shares can be ways to get people to interact with a brand. But those aren’t the only ways.
Brand awareness often has to do with simply getting your message in front of your target audience. You may not make the sale today (because someone just might not be in the market for your product), but if they remember you when they are in the market, because you touched them enough times on social media, then you can affect your bottom line. That’s brand awareness.
Tags: brand awareness, content marketing, online marketing, Social Media
Posted in Branding | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012
I knew it would happen eventually. I’m actually surprised it’s taken this long. But Google has finally announced that Google+ custom URLs are on the way.
When these are finally rolled out, there will be a huge run on Google+ custom URLs. You’d better hurry to get yours fast.
There are thousands of John Smith’s in the world. But there will only be one google.com/+johnsmith. Only one. And what a powerful custom URL that will be for the person who snags it. Instant branding, instant reputation management, instant enhanced SEO, and instant social network on steroids. If you’re not on Google+ yet, I’d suggest you secure your profile right now so you can be in line when Google+ announced custom URLs are available for everyone. You can bet the first people to get theirs will be Google+ members.
Google has already attacked content farms and link farms. They are forcing everyone who owns a website and does any Internet marketing toward a narrower content funnel, which means you have to use your content wisely. Owning your own Google+ custom URL will be one of those wise moves to make.
As Google moves toward unification of all of its services, it will be even more imperative to own your own custom URL. Be thinking about what that URL will be.
Tags: custom URL, google, online branding
Posted in Branding | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
When it comes to marketing your business, you have to give some serious thought to priorities. One question that you’ll have to answer early on is this: Is branding or SEO more valuable to your business?
As much as I believe that SEO is unavoidable, when it comes down to pure marketing value, branding is a lot more important. You can brand your business through SEO, but you can’t SEO your website with branding. And that’s an important distinction.
Many companies have gone online to build a website and start marketing only to consider how they will rank in the search engines, and nothing more. These days, many companies will think about SEO and social media, and that will be it. But you have to think about consumer perceptions as well. And that’s where branding comes in.
Branding is a total marketing perspective. It’s what you do to plant your company’s name and image into consumers’ minds. There are many ways of doing that, however.
You can do it with SEO. You can do it through social media. But I wouldn’t limit my branding efforts to just those two channels. You want all of your channels to drive home your message. But once you’ve branded your company and you’ve achieved a certain level of top-of-mind awareness, then your SEO and social media will be a lot more effective.
Tags: Branding, SEO, Social Media
Posted in Branding | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 22nd, 2012
Just because your business is small doesn’t mean it has to look small. You can look like a big brand with just a little effort. All it takes is a little planning and some ingenuity, then the elbow grease to go with it. OK, scratch the elbow grease. You aren’t tiling your kitchen floors. But you do need to work hard.
Branding is a strategy. To achieve success with it you need one key ingredient: Consistency.
But that’s not all you need. You can be consistently boring. What you want to do is build your brand and that means connecting with your audience in thoughtful ways over a period of time. Here are 4 ingredients to great branding that every small business owner should know:
- Create a logo that is simple, easy to recognize, and that speaks to your audience. This is harder than it sounds, but it can be done. Make your logo stand out. You do want people to associate it with your business.
- Choose colors that compliment your images and your message. Make them attractive to your audience.
- Be consistent. Pick a header and go with it. Don’t keep changing your logo and color scheme.
- Persistence. Just as you want to be consistent, you also want to be persistent. Stay the course. When you get bored with your logo and branding elements, your audience is just starting to recognize them. The last thing you want to do is change them.
By branding your small business you give it a little bit more edge and room for success. You’ll be glad you did it that way.
Tags: Branding, small business
Posted in Branding | 6 Comments »
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