Category: Legal Branding

Legal Branding

Can I Sue For Negligence During Childbirth?

on January 6, 2020

The short answer, yes! Negligence by medics at childbirth can endanger life. The infant or the mother might develop injuries that inflict stress and financial burden on the family or worse even, the child or the mother might die. The bottom line is that medical negligence is unacceptable, and if this is your current predicament, you can sue the negligent party for damages. Let’s delve deeper into what you should know about birth injury claims and how you can fight for your rights in such a scenario. 

Birth Injuries and Claims Explained

Injuries during birth are common but when they are severe, then legal processes should be followed to handle the issue. The common birth injuries include the likes of maternal infection, hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, stillbirth, uterine rupture, cerebral palsy, and cord compression among others.

Birth injury claims are the lawsuits filed against a healthcare provider or the hospital because their negligence led to injuries on the infant, the mother, or both. Compensation is supposed to cater for the economic damages caused by this including medical expenses and lost wages, and the non-economic such as pain and suffering. 

It is important to note that birth injuries should be taken so seriously. They can affect the development of the child or the ability of the mother to take care of the child or herself for as long as a lifetime!

How to File a Birth Injury Claim 

You have every right to sue negligent medical care at birth. To file a birth injury claim and get compensation, you should have proof that the attendants were acting carelessly. The first thing is always to show that there was a doctor-patient relationship. Negligence can be shown in many ways. For example, there are cases where the doctor or midwife might leave a patient (you) unattended, prescription of wrong medications, poor care of the child, use of inappropriate medical procedures and tools, or leaving patients in the hands of inexperienced medics, etc.

The key to a birth injury claim is to collect as much information as you can about the hospital and what transpired during childbirth.  The next critical step is to hire an attorney who specializes in handling personal injury claims and precisely birth-claims. Personal injury lawyers at www.keithwilliamslawgroup.com can help you in such a situation. This will be such a relief because lawsuits in their natural state are hard for a layman, and especially if you are in physical or mental pain. If you cannot collect the information, a birth injury claim lawyer will handle the task. Also, the lawyer will help in the estimation of costs and lead in negotiations to ensure fair compensation for you. 

The Outcomes of a Birth Injury Claim

Generally, there is no standard amount that you can get from the lawsuits because each case is different. The results depend on the extent of injuries and the negotiation skills of the lawyer. 

Final remarks

Childbirth is eagerly awaited both by the mother and the family. That’s why it’s sad when that moment is tarnished by health complications due to medical negligence. If that’s happened to you, seek legal justice through a skilled birth injury lawyer who will help fight for your compensation.

Legal Branding

How to Find a Personal Injury Lawyer in New York

on January 3, 2020

Finding the right personal injury lawyer in New York can be quite challenging, especially if you are new to legal matters. You are not alone and frankly, there are many lawyers in New York. But, not all of them are the best suited for personal injury lawsuits. In this regard, we have compiled a few tips to help you find and hire the right attorney for your personal injury case. 

Finding a Personal Injury Lawyer in New York 

1. Specialty 

For starters, as you search for a personal injury lawyer, you will realize they are quite a number marketing their services in New York. Don’t just hire any lawyer but instead look into what they are good at and if they are right to fit your case. For example, if you want to file a lawsuit after a motorcycle accident, then a firm like Jacoby & Meyers Accident Lawyers would be best suited for the job owing to their track record of handling lawsuits involving motorcycle accidents in New York. Yes, there are different types of personal injury cases thus working with a lawyer that understands your specific situation is definitely a plus.

2. Level of experience 

Again, you should also look to work with a lawyer who has handled similar cases in the past. A good and qualified personal injury attorney can predict the multiple ways in which the case can unfold and prepare a strong argument for your case. Remember, the defense will also create a solid argument to avoid compensation so you need someone who can anticipate every angle to the case and this is something that comes with legal knowledge and experience.

3. Know the Lawyer Handling Your Case

If you are consulting with a legal firm then you should care to know who will be handling the case. This is especially the case in firms with many lawyers and it’s to avoid being juggled around during the process. You can even do your own background check to determine the suitability of the assigned lawyer. Also, inquire about the lines of communication and only proceed to sign up once you are fully convinced that the firm will be able to give you the right legal representation. 

4. Willingness to Take your Case 

It is one thing to find a competent personal injury attorney and another to identify one who will accept your case wholeheartedly. Some lawyers will decline cases if the compensation is low but that shouldn’t discourage your pursuit for justice. You should know that attorneys examine personal injury cases differently and they have varying capabilities. This means that what may be rejected by one lawyer may be taken up by another. So, pick an attorney who will make your case personally and be willing to fight for you to the latter.

5. Reputation 

You don’t want an attorney’s scarred image to trickle down to you and hurt your case. In that case, you should avoid lawyers who have a questionable reputation. Seeking legal services from such attorneys or legal firms is likely to hurt injury claims and you might lose the case. To avoid this, do a background check to find out what is in the public domain that could tell you more about the reputation of the lawyer

Final Word

These are just but a few key tips that will help you hire a personal injury lawyer. As you might have noticed, finding the right personal injury lawyer in New York isn’t that hard but only if you do your own homework! 

Legal Branding

Why Is Income Protection A Necessity?

on January 3, 2020

Every year millions of people find themselves unable to work due to sickness or different injuries. They are unable to fend for themselves and their family due to a lack of income. There has to be some way to pay the bills and stay afloat to get through these tough times. Income protection insurance will come in handy in such situations. Read below to learn more about how and why income protection is a necessity in today’s world.

What is Income Protection?

Income protection insurance is also referred to as sickness insurance sometimes. It is a policy that is made for the long-term. Income protection is designed to help you with cash benefits if you are unable to work due to an illness or injury. Having an income protection policy ensures that you get a regular income until you are able to get back to work. Some of the features of the policy are given below.

  • It acts as a part of your income if you are unable to work due to temporary or permanent disability. 
  • The payment continues until the end of the term or until you restart work. 
  • The cash disbursement starts as per the schedule set by the insurer. It usually starts after the end of sick leave or after the other insurance payment stops. 
  • It offers cover for a wide range of illnesses that prevents you from working.
  • There is no cap on the number of claims that can be made during the policy term.  
  • Premiums can be drawn based on your budget and you can pay more to get more coverage.
  • It can be availed even by self-employed individuals.

Reasons to have Income Protection Insurance

Many people hesitate at the thought of having an income protection plan as they have to make payment for premiums for the long term. But the upside is, it gives you peace of mind that you are covered financially for most situations. Moreover, there are many insurers who offer policies at affordable premiums making it worth the initial investment. The insurance policy can potentially give you up to 75% of the income in case of illness or injury. That can help in fulfilling many purposes. Given below are some of the major reasons income protection helps families. 

Keeping up with Payments

When you are lying in the bed due to an injury or illness, repaying debts can be a worrisome problem.  Additionally, there is a need to cover the daily expenses too. If you have a mortgage, credit card debts or any other debts it can all quickly add up leaving your finances in a mess. According to experts at InsuranceHero.org.uk, having an insurance protection plan will be a great help to people with debts. It also helps those who don’t have enough funds to last until they recover. The insurance cover provides up to 75% of your income. This ensures that your debts are paid and don’t pile up. You only have to worry about the recovery and nothing else. 

Provide Protection for your Family

Raising a family is not easy even when you have a stable income. There will be a lot of expenses, especially when raising kids. Most parents work extra to bring home the income they need to lead a comfortable life. When one of the partners is unable to work, there is a lot of financial strain and burden and can impact family life. If you have income protection insurance there is no need to worry about your family. This is possible because there won’t be a major loss of income. Your family is still well cared for irrespective of your health situation. 

Can be used to treat a sick child

If a child suffers a serious illness or injury, one of the parents will have to take time off to take care of the child. The parent taking time off means there is a loss of income. Other types of insurance policies will not provide any financial assistance as the parent is healthy and capable of earning. Additionally, the financial support that you get from the government may not be enough to cover the expenses. All this can lead to tremendous pressure which can be overcome by an income protection policy. These can be customized to opt for extra features like family cover where benefits are paid to the parent. It is paid from the period the parent stops working until the time he/she returns to work. 

Some Policies cover Redundancy 

Depending on the type of policy, a monthly benefit is paid if you are unemployed for a set period of time, for example, 3 months. That will help you pay the mortgage and other payments for at least a few months. The cap, which is in redundancy, should be involuntarily paid and you can remain unemployed for a set period of time only. 

Income Protection is Additional Protection

There are many insurance policies that are essential in your financial portfolio to cover yourself and your family against unforeseen circumstances. Income protection insurance is also very much needed as it can cover for any disabilities that will stop you from making income even for the short term. It acts as a supplement to other policies including the worker’s compensation. Income protection acts as an extra layer of protection to those injuries that are not covered under worker’s compensation. 

It can happen to you too

Many people lead their lives with the assumption that nothing can go wrong. They think that they will be able to provide a consistent income for their family and themselves and retire at old age. But often, there will be setbacks in life even if you are healthy and careful as there are certain things which are out of your control. By planning for such unforeseen instances carefully, you can lead a happy life. 

Income protection is a smart way to plan for the unknown. With that, you are guaranteed that no matter what injury or illness you suffer, you can stay afloat till you get back to work. Additionally, the quality of life of your family and yourself is not compromised. 

Legal BrandingLocal Branding

How to Motivate eCommerce Staff

on December 9, 2019

Each owner of the eCommerce goes through several stages in its development.

First, a person has a thought and a desire to create an online store and start doing e-commerce. After that, it is time to choose a niche for the online store, create a site, search for suppliers and conclude contracts with them. In the final, if everything goes well, the shop opens and starts working.

The first year of work for any online store is not easy. Especially if for its owner this type of business is “terra incognita”. 

All this time, the owner of the online store must retain motivation to engage in the chosen business and strive to transform from a single employee to a full-fledged owner of commercial resources, sales from which will be carried out by hired staff.

At a new stage of development, when hired employees will appear in the online store, the business owner will have to think about what and how to motivate sellers, couriers and other employees of the online store.

If you, as the owner of an online store, think that the “labor exploits” of your sellers are inspired by the same incentives as you – this is a fatal mistake.

To begin with, feel the difference – you are a business owner who has gone from a vague idea that once originated in the head, to its implementation in the site and the entire infrastructure of the online store.

The seller who came to you to work, guided by completely different considerations: someone needs to start working, someone to feed the family, and someone just likes the process of trade and communication with customers.

All this should be taken into account if you think about how and what you can motivate the employees of the online store.

Why do you need motivation at all?

In any HR manual, you will find a definition of motivation as “what motivates us to take action”.

Let us also remind you that motivation is usually divided into two categories: material and non-material (gratitude, diplomas, titles like “the best seller of the month” and many other options).

Now you have to evaluate your employees and understand the incentives they are inspired by. As mentioned above, they are different for each person. Some are best motivated by money, while others are best motivated by an increase in the status or gratitude announced by the company’s management publicly.

To find out the hidden motives of your employees, which allow them to work more efficiently, you can use the questionnaire, when among the mass of questions there are those answers to which you are most interested.

If your store has at least 2-3 salespeople, it is quite logical to arrange a competition between them, having developed the planned indicators and those control points at which a person can claim a bonus. The main thing is that the conditions of the game were transparent and honest and did not change “in the course of the play.

The motivational scheme starts at the moment when your sellers exceed the plan.

Group of people on a business meeting late in the evening

Simple options for motivating online store staff:

The simplest way to motivate the employees of the online store (if it is a question concerning material motivation) – is a fixed salary plus a percentage of sales above the plan or a fixed bonus for overfulfillment of this plan.

The question arises, what percentage should you pay? Should I pay it off the turnover or sales? All these answers should be found by the owner of the online store, but Magento advanced reports definitely will help you. It is necessary to take into account only that bonuses, interest to sellers for overfulfillment of the plan and any other monetary incentives should be profitable, justified and paid from additional sales, and not to reduce your usual profit.

As for the intangible options for motivation, here the owner of the online store can show their own fantasy (taking into account the individual characteristics of their employees). As mentioned above, the most common option may be a competition between sellers or public gratitude from the management to the most distinguished employee this month.

Conclusion

The motivation of your employees allows you to reach new heights in your business and get additional profit, so it is worth thinking about the implementation of any motivation scheme for the staff of your online store. Remember that not everyone and not always motivates only money. Approach the creation of a motivational scheme creatively, try a few options until you find the most suitable one for your case.

Legal Branding

Equity Release Schemes For The Elderly

on November 29, 2019

The average life expectancy of people across the globe has increased over the last few decades thanks to modern medicine and nutrition. That means being old does not mean living on pills and resting the whole day. People are healthier, agile and active and post-retirement they look to accomplish things they could not during their working days. They are taking up new sports, going on international vacations and much more. But these involve considerable expense which their retirement savings may not be able to afford. 

What is Equity Release?

Equity release schemes are products that help the homeowner over the age of 55 years to use the money (equity) tied up to their homes to come up with income for their needs without having to relocate. Many elderly homeowners are looking to release tax-free cash from their assets through equity release, and the money borrowed can be taken as a lump sum or in installments or a combination of both.  There are mainly two types of equity release options:

  • Lifetime mortgage
  • Home reversion

Lifetime mortgage

In this type of scheme the loan is secured on your home provided you have the ownership and this amount need not be rapid till the end of the mortgage term or till the property is sold or the borrower dies or moves to a care home. This option is further categorized into: 

  • An interest roll-up mortgage: The interest gets added to the principal amount and the entire amount has to be paid at the end of the mortgage term or when the house is sold. The loan can be availed as a lump-sum or as a regular payment. 
  • Interest-paying mortgage: The interest does not roll-up on the money borrowed as the payments are made on a monthly or ad-hoc basis. The principal loan is recovered when the house is sold or the mortgage term ends. The loan can be taken as a lump sum, and some options allow you to pay off the capital too before the end of the term. 

Home reversion

In this type of scheme, the complete or a part of the home is sold to a reversion company. That company will in return provide payment in lumpsum or in installments. A lease will be granted to the homeowners so that they can remain in the home for the rest of their lives, a more detailed synopsis can be seen here on how the scheme works.  After the company sells the property post the death of the owner or when moved to permanent care, the reversion company gets the proceeds depending on the share of the property sold. 

Who can get an equity revision scheme?

There are a few conditions to be eligible for this scheme:

  • For a lifetime mortgage, the borrower should be 55 years of age or more.
  • For a home reversion plan, the borrower should be 65 years or older. 
  • The property you are using for equity revision should be your main residence and should be in good condition
  • It is not suitable if you have dependants
  • If there is an earlier loan on the property, the value of equity release will be based on the current market value of your home and the outstanding loan amount. 

If you decide to go for an equity revision scheme consult a specialist to understand if it is right for you. Sometimes selling a business needs to be considered in succession planning and equity release.

Digital BrandingLegal BrandingPersonal Branding

9 Rules to Create an Awesome Business Website

on November 28, 2019

Table of contents

  • Introduction
  • 9 Rules to create an awesome business website
  1. Define your website’s purpose
  2. Pick an easy-to-remember domain
  3. Get an eye-catching logo
  4. Make your website mobile-friendly
  5. Keep the pages uncluttered
  6. Keep it easy to navigate
  7. Place your contact details above the fold
  8. Have a clean & compelling CTA
  9. Keep your website’s design simple
  • The final word

Introduction

In today’s fast-changing business ecosystem, an online presence is a must for any business — from brick-to-mortar. No matter whether you’re a seasoned business owner, if you have not created an effective website yet in this changing environment, you may lose significant business opportunities.

So no matter whether you’re just getting off or an established business owner having no online presence, building a website is inevitable. As per a recent study published by Bazaarvoice, online research greatly impacts the in-store shopping decisions. The report, The Robo Economy demonstrates that about 82 percent of smartphone users consult their phones on shopping they’re going to make in-store, while around 45 percent read reviews before they purchase.

Considering the latest shopping trends, having a business website to attract buyers is crucial to growing your business. But what are the fundamentals of creating one such website? For many business owners, creating a website seems daunting. They think that creating a website needs extraordinary skills and cutting-edge tools and technologies. But it’s not true. You’ll need to know just a few rules to create a powerful business website.

Here are the top 9 rules to create an awesome business website:

1. Define your website’s purpose

Before you go ahead with the website development, it’s important to identify the purpose of your website. What do want to achieve?

You must clearly understand what your USP (unique selling point) is and what is your plan to come across. Merely knowing your industry and determining the content strategy is not enough.

Once your fundament purpose is defined, your focus should shift towards determining the actions that you want from your visitors to take after they land on your site. Is the website just for information, or to sell products/services, or to get signups?

The answers to those questions will significantly give you an overall idea of how your website design should be.

2. Pick an easy-to-remember domain

Selecting a domain for your website is tricky. Your domain or web address should be so easy and sticky that anyone after seeing it can remember for a longer period. Don’t include any number as it can confuse surfers and dashes. Also, such web addresses are not SEO-friendly.

Pick a dot com domain as most people are familiar with this extension.

3. Get an eye-catching logo

Images and symbols are the most effective way of communicating your message. A logo, which is often called the face of the company, is crucial to convince your customers. People will make a perception of your company based on your logo. In fact, a logo should be one of the most essential branding investments. You must not create your logo design casually.

Apart, you should also take care of other graphic design elements of your website. If you’re not sure which graphic design and logo fit your business website, hire a professional graphic designer to get them done.

4. Make your website mobile-friendly

The number of Smartphone users worldwide is growing rapidly. As per the Statista, Generation Z shoppers use a Smartphone while making an in-store purchase. They use smartphones for comparing products’ features, prices, and reviews. Therefore, it becomes imperative to have a smartly designed mobile responsive website for your business if you plan to run a successful business venture.

5. Keep the pages uncluttered

Studies have suggested that website visitors love to read clear, precise and short information. A website having too much and irrelevant information, it simply diverts visitors’ mind which leads to increased bounce rate. Give ample blank space on your web pages to breathe in. Also, whitespace increases the readability of your copy. Make sure that text and graphics on your web page are in good proportion and present a clean page.

Brainstorm if your website really needs social widgets like Tweeter feed etc. If the widget content doesn’t meet your purpose, remove it right away to make your page clutter-free.

6. Keep it easy to navigate

Creating a different website by using attractive Flash presentations may look tempting, but it might be a little difficult for your customers to quickly find what they are looking for. Therefore, it’s always advised to take the medium route when it comes to your site navigation. You should use drop-down lists with clear headings which present on every page of your website, incorporate a site map and the search bar at the top right-hand side so that it can be easily traced.

7. Place your contact details above the fold

What’s the benefit of having a website if no one knows how to get in touch with you? Of course, such a website is of no use. In fact, a website must include a “Contact Us” tab on your home page. Make sure that the contact us page contains information such as your address, phone number / mobile number and email address so that your potential customers can easily reach you out should there be any business related query.

Also, put social media links, either at the header or footer, if you use social media to connect with clients.

8. Have a clean & compelling CTA

Once the visitors have found something interesting on your website, you would like them to take an action — buy a product/service, call, sign up or download. Make sure that all of your pages have relevant call-to-action buttons/links that are clear. Also, the area around the CTAs must be clutter-free. If possible, keep them above the fold so that visitors do not have to scroll down to find the call to action.

9. Keep your website’s design simple

Avoid using fonts, colors and animated gifs which you think can distract visitors from the focus point. Keep the paragraphs short and informative, the ideal length of a paragraph is less than six sentences. Also, use bullet points that draw readers’ attention thus increasing readability.

The final word

Having a website for every business is crucial in the present day shopping environment where most shoppers search online before they finally reach a buying decision. This article aims at guiding new entrepreneurs and established business owners with no online presence alike to create an awesome business website. I hope these 9 simple rules will guide you through the process.

Cheers!

About the author

Campbell Joef is a graphic designer and blogger associated with Designhill.com , a custom designs marketplace, I generally write on topics custom clothing, concerning design and education logo, ecommerce, start-ups, small business.

Legal BrandingPersonal Branding

Importance of ID Badges in Company Branding

on November 28, 2019

The use of ID badges in all companies regardless of how big, small, or what they do is highly recommended. Any company that is not using them is missing an opportunity to take its brand to higher marketing levels. These badges have a significant impact in brand creation and promotion. Beginners have a better opportunity to compete with big brands if their employees and visitors are wearing branded ID badges.

Preparing the Right ID Badge for Branding

It all starts by preparing the ID badge that your business deserves. The procedure requires innovative minds and a reputable design and printing expert.

The journey starts with the preparation of the company logo. The company theme colors should be maintained, but they should be vibrant and clear. A visible logo that strikes a balance between size and visibility is perfect.

You should utilize both sides of the ID badge when you want to brand your company. While the main face of these promotional badges should have the name of the employee and logo, the backside can have less important information like a bar code to access the doors. This will leave the front face for the logo and perhaps the company slogan.

Many people ignore the ID badge strap, but this is another opportunity to promote your brand. Although it should not be too wide, medium-width straps can also be printed with the company name and logo for more promotion.

The last consideration to make is to ensure that the ID badge is durable. Both the design and the material used play a significant role in this. Thus, working closely with reputable experts will be a benefit to this project.

Why ID Badges are Important in a Company

As mentioned, the primary goal is to increase brand recognition. Yes, any visitor or person who interacts with your employees will note your newly designed logo, slogan, message, or any other information. They can remember the name of the company once they see it on the badge. But this badge goes way beyond this.

  • Improves employee confidence – A good ID badge displays the identity and sometimes the title of the employee. As they work, they feel that they are an important part of the company. Therefore, they will serve the company with a high level of confidence. This creates an excellent brand ambassador in the long run.
  • Better customer relations – Both customers and employees relate well when there is an identity. Many customers feel better when they know the name of the employee who is serving them. Because the badge increases employee confidence, the level of customer satisfaction increases as well.

Conclusion

All companies should have an ID badge for all employees. They are an excellent brand promotional tool that serves many other purposes as well. As seen from the above insights, it is easy to create a useful ID badge design if you use reputable designers. When the project is completed, you will definitely enjoy the fruits that will come forth.

Legal Branding

5 Factors Affecting the Success of Your Small Business

on November 25, 2019

Being a business owner sure does sound nice. Not only that you get to be your own boss but there’s also a potentially unlimited income that we all dream of. Contrary to what many people believe, there’s much more to running a business than coming up with a good product idea. There are many factors that contribute to how successful your small business will be and being aware of them is a huge plus. With that said, let’s take a look at five factors affecting the success of your small business.

Goals

Ask any entrepreneur out there and they’ll tell you that setting business goals is a must when running an organization. It’s just that without a list of clearly-defined goals, you and your team members simply won’t know what to strive for in your operations. Not to mention that by not setting goals, you actually make it more difficult for you and your employees to stay motivated. If you don’t have one already, make sure you come up with a list of realistic goals for your business and revisit it every now and then.

Marketing

Another thing no business can survive without is marketing. Obviously, your goal is to attract as many customers as you can and maximize your profit. In order to do this, you first have to know more about your customers and develop the right marketing strategy for your business. Luckily, small businesses can now promote their products without breaking the bank. Valid product schema markup significantly helps products get found online. For example, you can set up social media pages for your business and use them to interact with people on the web. Plus, there are traditional marketing channels such as radio commercials and promotional products.

Finances

There’s no need to say that money is the most important thing in any business. If your company isn’t making money, there’s no point in operating. Dealing with business finances isn’t easy and it’ll probably take you some time to get a hang of it. Just have in mind that keeping your personal and business finances is recommended as it makes doing your taxes much easier. Another smart thing for business owners to do is invest things earnings in things such as forex. Connect with experts at Ever Forex and you’ll be able to make just enough to help your business move forward.

Business relationships

Knowing the right people can do your business a huge favor. There are so many small businesses out there and by connecting with other entrepreneurs, you open up new opportunities for your business. For example, you and another company can start a buddy marketing system where you promote each other’s products for free. One of the best ways to meet the right people is to attend networking events and be on social media platforms such as LinkedIn.

Employees

Chances are you’ve already heard people say that your employees are your most valuable asset. They’re right. Without your staff members, the company wouldn’t be able to operate and you’d be forced to shut down. Some entrepreneurs believe they can do everything themselves but they soon realize that wearing all the hats is just impossible. Bringing in the right people, on the other hand, is quite easy and it allows you to focus all your time and energy on your core operations. Be careful when conducting interviews and do everything that’s in your power to keep your employees happy.

Want to achieve success faster?

If you want to achieve success significantly faster with a small business, consider buying an existing business for sale. This will allow you to trade under an already established and trusted brand name in your local area. You will also get access to the previous business owners’ proven methods of success. This is invaluable, especially if you are a first-time business owner. Suppose you would like to learn more about the types of businesses for sale. In that case, we recommend you visit a trusted directory of business opportunities such as Businessweek, where you can find a wide range of different business opportunities, from small businesses for sale all the way to medium-sized and large businesses for sale.

Over to you

The life of a business owner isn’t as easy as some people would have you believe. Only by keeping a close eye on each of these factors do you get to see your business become relevant in the industry and start competing with large corporations.

Legal BrandingLocal Branding

10 Tips To Accelerate The Growth Of Your Business

on November 13, 2019

Building traffic to your site is a necessary part of doing business that can be achieved by accomplishing one task at a time. Very rarely does a website become an instant hit and go from no visitors to 50k overnight.

Take advantage of traffic in the organic listings with a ranking on the first page of search results. 70-80% of people focus on organic listings because they believe they are more inclined to find credible information than the paid listings.

In fact, organic traffic represents a 5.66% more times the opportunity than a paid advertisement. 

Push your site to the top of the SERP’s by incorporating the following tips and strategies that will give your website more ranking ability to drive more traffic.

  1. Perform regular maintenance
  2. Make your site faster
  3. Improve mobile-friendliness
  4. Assign your keywords
  5. Establish search intent
  6. Link to and from internal pages
  7. Use alternate forms of media
  8. Optimize for SERP features
  9. Improve your credibility
  10. Build an audience

Perform regular maintenance

Establish a regular routine for when you run a site audit to avoid any errors that may contribute to a drop in ranking. As time goes on, every website will begin to generate errors-especially if there is content being added regularly. Errors could be anything from indexing issues to duplicate content.

An SEO consultant will run a site audit before the start of an SEO campaign. This keeps the data on the new project accurate and relevant. Eliminate any errors that arise before the campaign starts so there is no interference with how the page is being ranked.

Here are a couple of tools you can use to create a report on the errors your site is generating:

Make your site faster

Page speed is an on-going battle and should be a regular item on your to-do list. There is always something you can do to make your site faster. Google has openly stated that page speed is a ranking factor they use so staying below the industry average (three seconds) is one way to give your website a competitive edge.

Run a page speed test on any of the following sites to get a score on the speed of your site and the details for what exactly is slowing your site down. You can use any one of the following tools:

There might be items in your report that are complicated to fix however there are changes you will be able to make to improve the speed of your site. 

For example, the size of images is a major issue that slows down a lot of sites. Using a tool of your choice you can replace your images with smaller versions to speed up how fast they load.

Here a few tools to use:

For the other items on your report, you may see things like inline and minify CSS and JavaScript. These may present more problems if you’re not savvy in speaking those languages. There are plugins and CDN (content delivery network) solutions that can help to do most of the heavy lifting for those issues. We recommend checking out a handpicked collection of the best resources to learn Javascript.

Try using W3 Cache plugin, as it’s the most widely used for many of the issues that slow down the load time (minifies HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) This plugin can also be integrated with your CDN.

Cloudflare is a popular choice in CDN’s and they offer a free version that is effective in improving your page speed, security, and overall website performance.

Improve mobile-friendliness

Canonical tested one million websites for mobile-friendliness and found that 24% of the website failed the test. This statistic shows the opportunity to outperform competitors in mobile-friendliness.

Image source: https://canonicalized.com/mobile-friendly-study/

Although 99% of websites made today are made for mobile devices, there are sometimes structural elements that should be addressed to make your site mobile-friendly. Test your site out on Google’s Mobile Friendly Test to get a score for the mobile-friendliness of your website.

There may be small adjustments to make that would improve the user experience and make your site more competitive. 

Common issues on responsive sites include buttons being too close together or script running too close to the edges of the screen. Issues like these are small adjustments for your developer and will contribute to your competitiveness.

Assign your keywords

Every piece of content that is created for a website should start with extensive keyword research. This is to determine the best target keyword to optimize for as well as the keyword cluster to include on your page.

If two or more pages are optimized for the same keyword, it leads to keyword cannibalization. This will restrict rankings when search engines see two or more pages competing with each other.

Optimize your pages for a target keyword that includes the keyword synonyms associated with your topic. Make sure each page is optimized for a different keyword cluster in order to give it the most competitive edge.  

Establish search intent

Semantic search has forced the need for deeper levels of research in order for a website to appear in a top-ranked position. Search engines are ranking pages that can best answer a query based on the content they’ve provided.   

Your content must be able to satisfy the user who searches your keyword. If the content on your page leads a user to bounce from your site and continue looking elsewhere they obviously were not satisfied with what you’re providing.

The ability to satisfy search intent is a major ranking criterion that is measured through the content provided and the engagement statistics it generates. Dwell time, click-through rate and bounce rate are all measures of how much a user liked what your site offered.

Get to the source of search intent by finding exactly what users typing in your keyword want to read about. You may be offering the product they ultimately will buy but finding what content they engage in reading about your product will boost the interest people have in your content. 

Search forums and social media groups to see the pressing issues and problems people face so you can write about the solutions to those problems in your content.

Link to and from internal pages

Using internal links will enhance the optimization of your pages and spread link equity to give your pages more authority.

Use keyword anchor text links to signal what the page is about and lead users to related content that they will find helpful or interesting. 

Signal the importance of a page to your site can be emphasized by the number of links pointing to it from other pages within your site. Create the hierarchy of pages within your site by linking to the most important pages the most times.

Use alternate forms of media

Increased competition and a growing awareness of SEO has placed even more emphasis on producing original content that stands out from the competition. Use alternate forms of media to make your content stand out and rank higher in the search results.

People retain 65% of the information from articles with images as opposed to 10% without images. Videos are shared 12X more on social media than links and text posts combined. Podcasts are also taking off with more Americans listening more frequently (up 32% on a monthly basis) than ever before. 

Use as many variations of media when it comes to differentiating your content from your competition. Use what your competitors are using AND what they’re not using to outperform their pages in every way possible.

Optimize for SERP features

For the first time ever, in 2019 Google searches have produced more than 50% zero-click searches. That means that more than half of the searches that are made on Google end up on a Google property with no click at all made to any websites.

The emergence of featured snippets, local packs, knowledge cards are all sucking away the clicks that can be made to any organic listings. If you aren’t optimized for the SERP feature that appears for your keyword, you’re losing out on targeted traffic.

One of the highest converting sources of traffic is from localized searches. 46% of all searches have local intent making local SEO a lucrative addition to driving traffic to your site.

Improve your credibility

Backlinks are still one of the largest ranking factors search engines use to determine the credibility and authority of your website. Ahrefs studied almost a billion pages and concluded that more backlinks equals a higher ranking.

Choose from a variety of methods to build links to your page. The more links you build the more authority your page receives. Get your links from credible sites within the same niche. Keep in mind that websites with higher DA will have a bigger impact on your ranking and improve your site’s authority.

Build an audience

One of the best ways to instantly get eyes on your content is to post to your social media network. If you don’t have one it’s never too late to build one.

Social signals are a ranking factor so it definitely helps to have people sharing your page, however, the real value is in the traffic that flows to your page. Increased traffic brings more potential for new clients and a higher likelihood of your page being linked to by another website.

Continue to stay active in the social media site that is best suited to your industry. If you are producing good content, your audience will build over time and become an incredible asset for traffic generation.

Conclusion

These strategies are among the most influential ranking signals that contribute to pushing your site up in the rankings. Accomplishing each strategy effectively will move the needle and get your site to the first page of results, generate more traffic and fuel the growth of your company.

Christian Carere is an SEO consultant and the owner of Digital Ducats Inc. Christian specializes in SEO services custom-designed to improve traffic and lead generation.

Legal BrandingLocal BrandingPersonal Branding

7 Tips for Becoming a Successful Brand Manager

on November 11, 2019

A career in marketing is one of the most lucrative ideas that an aspiring professional should have in the business world. Why? Well, because there are more enterprises out there than ever before and even one-person startups often need consultation services from renowned brand managers. Still, how does one become a brand manager or, even more importantly, how does one become successful and gains renown in this field? Well, here are the top seven tips for becoming a successful brand manager.

1. Get some formal education

The first thing you need to do in order to be taken seriously in this field or even get a chance is to get some form of formal education. At the very least, you need a Bachelor’s degree in a field that’s relevant to branding or marketing. So, business, administration, or science are your safest bets. Science is particularly effective, seeing as how an efficient brand manager spends so much time analyzing and interpreting harvested data. Also, make sure that the university that you go to has all the right reputation and accreditation. Otherwise, you might find yourself in a bit of a pickle. 

2. Develop a necessary skillset

As always, a degree can only get you so far. In order to really make it in the field, you need to possess the right skillset. When it comes to being a brand manager, you need to have great analytical skills and attention to detail. Also, you need to possess a thirst for knowledge and self-improvement, seeing as how trends evolve and new emerge on a daily basis. Then, you need to know how to do the right budgeting and be resourceful with the budget you have. Lastly, you need to be creative and possess the right team working (even leadership) skills. With all of this under your belt, you just can’t fail.

3. Get some experience in the field

The next thing you need to understand is that no one has ever started as a brand manager. Before that, you need some experience in the field, in the form of an entry-level job or at least an internship at the esteemed branding agency. Then, you need a letter of recommendation (or a couple of them) as well as a professional portfolio. Any major project that you’ve collaborated on needs to be listed. Even more importantly, you need to understand that you’re not really doing this for the portfolio. You’re doing it for experience, so try to learn something from each of these projects.

4. Get tech-savvy

Due to the fact that you’ll mostly work in a digital environment (via collaboration tool) and employ services of those from the same branch, it’s incredibly important that you get tech-savvy as quickly as possible. Your smartphone is your office and the more specialized tools you get to use, the greater your efficiency will be. Even your payments need to become smarter, which is why you might want to apply for  a payroll card. With so many freelancers and telecommuters on your retainer, managing all of their wages becomes so much easier this way.

5. Focus on networking

One of the most important things in the field of brand management is definitely networking. Why? Well, because you can’t manage a brand on your own. You need content writers, web designers, analyst specialists, social media managers, and more. Even if you do some of these things (for smaller projects) on your own, you still may need someone to ask for advice when going gets tough. In other words, start mingling with professionals from your industry.

6. Keep growing as a professional

The field of branding, marketing, and brand management in general, is the one that evolves quite rapidly. This means that you’ll have to follow journals, do independent research, and keep attending seminars, trade shows, and keep taking courses on new trends. Also, regardless of how long you spend in the field, you can always use it with a bit of mentoring from someone a tad more seasoned than you. This is why networking is so important and should never be neglected. Furthermore, every single one of these courses and seminars that you get crossed off your checklist should be listed on your resume and included in your portfolio.

7. Build a personal brand

Previously, we’ve talked about a formal education, experience in the field, and seminars that you need to attend in order to grow as a professional. Well, wrapping all of this up in a unique nice-looking package can be even more important. What you need to bear in mind is the fact that building a personal brand takes time and patience. First of all, you need to make your own website, start a blog (this is paramount), and start producing some niche-relevant content. This establishes you as an authority within the field. You can also leverage your social media influence by being active on your social media profiles. Needless to say, LinkedIn always takes precedence.

Conclusion

In the end, one of the things you need to consider is actually talking to a brand manager and inquiring about their experience in the field. Ask them to tell you the truth about what it’s like, seeing as how it’s not an easy career path to tread upon. Only when you’re 100 percent certain should you proceed with some of these steps.

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