Category: Personal Branding

Legal Branding Local Branding Personal Branding

7 Tips for Becoming a Successful Brand Manager

Steven 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.

Local Branding Personal Branding

8 Outstanding Customer Service Tips

Steven on October 30, 2019

Having outstanding customer service is the best way to make your business stand out from the competition and keep customers loyal and buying your products. If you want to ensure that you are giving the best that you can, follow the tips listed below.

1. Know Your Products

This may seem like a given, but you may be surprised at you and your staff’s inability to answer some of your customer’s most common questions. Before you are able to offer outstanding customer service, make sure you and all your employees know the products inside and out and can anticipate and answer any questions that might arise.

2. Have Trained Staff

Every person on your team should know what is expected of them when they interact with customers. Even if it’s not in their job description to have contact with customers on a daily basis, you never know when they might have to fulfill this role. Make sure they know how to talk to and act around customers. This will ensure that customers get the best service no matter who they talk to on your staff.

3. Be Respectful

Often, when a person is dealing with customer service, there will be emotions involved. That person might be upset or disappointed about your product or service, and they may not be able to keep themselves under control. When you and your employees deal with this person, be respectful of the customer’s position and don’t let you or your employee’s emotions make the situation worse.

The goal is to make the customer feel better about what happened—they may not always walk away happy, but they should walk away in a better mood when they approached. It can be hard to deal with an emotional individual, but if you and your employees stay calm and cool, this will ensure that the problem can be worked out without anyone else getting upset.

4. Listen

Listening to your customers is one of the most important aspects of giving outstanding service. Not only does it involve hearing what they are saying, but it also means taking into account their tone and body language. These can giveaway that the customer is upset, and listening to what they have to say will help you find the best solution to their problem.

5. Be Responsive

It can be incredibly frustrating and upsetting for a customer to be looking for service and be denied. Whether they are trying to talk to someone in person, on the phone, or online, the longer they have to wait, the more their emotions are going to take over. It’s better to let them know that someone isn’t available at the moment but will get back to them as soon as possible than to just leave them hanging. It still might make your customers upset, but at least they’ll know that someone will be getting back to them.

Of course, you can’t just say that someone will be getting back to them and not follow through. Make sure the customer is contacted in the promised timeframe to deliver outstanding customer service and make them happy.

6. Correct Customers the Right Way

There was a point in time when the motto was that the customer was always right. This led to a lot of problems and people who felt entitled—even though they weren’t. When a customer calls in to get service and you or your employees know they have been misinformed, make sure to correct them in the right way.

Consider saying something like, “I would really like to help you, but you have been given some incorrect information.” This lets them know that you will still work with them and opens them up to the correct information.

7. Get Feedback

If you really want to know how to improve your customer service, ask the customers directly. You can do this through surveys or by having ScoutMI Mystery Shopping come in and scout out the place. This will let you know what is being done right and what needs to be improved.

8. Be Kind

The most important thing you can do to have outstanding customer service is to be kind. It takes no effort to say nice things and make a customer feel good, but it can have a lasting and mood-changing impact.

Legal Branding Local Branding Personal Branding

3 Most Important Tips for Positioning a New Brand in a Fast-changing Market

Steven on October 29, 2019

Modern business world is full of buzzwords we’ve all heard, though we may not always know exactly what they mean. “Positioning” is definitely one of those that people often use, without actually knowing its right meaning or what it entails. Basically, it refers to trying to find a place for your brand in the minds of your customers, who would hopefully choose products offered by the same brand they’ve learned to love and trust. While positioning takes place, it’s one of those things you should start working on as soon as you set up a company. To help you understand what that means, we’ve prepared the following tips, which should help you do it properly.

Know the competition and market

Each company has its strengths and weaknesses and your task is to find those that belong to your competitors. Once you identify them, you can move to analyze their strategies, objectives and target groups and identifying the niche which you could dominate. Equally important is to know your target audience and market, so that you could create valuable content that would not be just advertising your brand, but also providing value and engagement. The more engaged people are, the more likely they are to opt for the brand whose messages they respond to. When addressing your audience, make sure you insist on your unique selling point(s), so that you can distinguish your company from the rest. Finally, don’t expect everyone to love your company, but focus on your target audience. They will be your most loyal and faithful customers and it’s vital you position your brand among them as the one that provides the most for the money they’re ready to spend.

Focus on USP

No-one will opt for a product that offers the same as a similar, already well-established competitor’s product. Customers have to believe they are buying not only the product but some other unique feature as well when choosing your product over a competitor’s. That’s why you need to focus on all useful attributes of your brand, especially if other companies lack them. It could be your more favorable price, outstanding client care or coverage. Companies operating in Australia, for example, understand that locals react to specific strategies, which is why they turn to experts in the field and hire a brand design agency from Sydney, which can help them position their brand in the best possible way locally. Remember that what works well in one market doesn’t have to be the best option elsewhere, which is why it’s important to pinpoint the particular demands of local markets.

Nothing is carved in stone

What you really need to understand is that no strategy is unchangeable. As a matter of fact, you have to constantly revise and adapt your strategy, since the conditions in which you operate are changing. That means that even if you’ve opted for the right approach from the beginning and you see that you’re getting the results you were hoping for, there is no time for rest. Your strategy needs to be tested constantly and continuously. This includes harvesting data from surveys, groups, and interviews and processing them in a way that you receive some valuable information, which will be the cornerstone of your adapted strategy. What this will help you achieve is position your brand as a forward-thinking one, which is always ready to meet the demands of the market, rather than one which takes its time to respond to the ever-changing shifts in consumers’ preferences and priorities.

If you position your brand correctly, i.e. apply the right positioning strategy in the right way, your brand recognition and awareness will be truly well established. Your particular strategy will depend on the circumstances in which you operate and your niche. However, it’s vital that you constantly monitor the situation and adapt your strategy to maximize the results. These three tips will surely help you with that.

Personal Branding

7 Reasons Why Every Artist Needs To Invest In Music Promotion

Steven on October 24, 2019

The music industry is growing at a rapid pace and so is the competition in the landscape.

The number of artists out there is so large that you cannot expect to be noticed unless you are really good and have had some serious voice training from a reputable vocal coach. Additionally, the way you present your brand and music makes a world of difference. Do you think that you can survive and thrive without a proper promotional plan in place? Of course not, because like every other commodity, you need to sell your music as well. There are many more reasons why you need to invest in music promotion, whether you are a budding newcomer or an established artist. Let us list them for you.

Sells your music

When artists release their albums, the main motive is to make money by selling them. If you want to boost sales, you must absolutely have a music promotion plan in place. Unless people know about your album, they will not buy it. So it is mandatory to showcase it across diverse channels, which is exactly what a music promotion strategy aims to do. Once music lovers know about the latest release, they are bound to check it out and buy it if they like what you offer.

Gives you a cross-channel presence

A typical music promotion plan aims to promote your music across diverse channels. Whether it is press releases, radio announcements, online advertisements or promotion across live streaming channels, it has you covered everywhere. Having a cross-channel presence is a big plus for any artist because the audience is everywhere. Rather than being confined to one channel, they search their favorite songs and albums everywhere. Being available across channels connects you with them.

Unlocks new opportunities

Beyond selling your albums and establishing your presence in the industry, there is much more that music promotion can do for you. It can help you unlock new opportunities in terms of collaborations with other artists and bands. Further, you may even get more work and win sponsorships for your events. These opportunities will not come unless you get the exposure and other artists and sponsors know that you actually exist.

Extends your fanbase

Once again, you can leverage a multi-channel presence to extend your fanbase. According to this agency, your music promotion should not focus on just selling your album. Instead, it should aim to consolidate your fanbase so that they keep buying your music in the future as well. Further, a big fanbase serves the purpose of making you popular through word of mouth. A good music promotion strategy surely helps you in this context as well.

Strengthens your reputation

Another benefit of investing in music promotion comes in the form of a stronger reputation in the industry. Being visible and selling more gets you the recognition you want. More importantly, it strengthens your reputation as an artist. Investing in music promotion is, therefore, a small price to pay if you want to establish yourself in the industry, grow your reputation and sustain in the long run.

Gives you the branding edge

As an artist, your vision should extend beyond just selling. Establishing yourself as a brand is key to success. When it comes to branding, only an excellent promotional strategy can help. It is unlikely for even the most talented artists to succeed without promoting their music. Therefore, investing in music promotion does not remain a choice if you want to get the branding advantage for your musical offerings.

Brings a competitive advantage

As the industry grows, the competition increases too. New artists are emerging and new releases are coming up every single day. Not being visible can leave you behind in the race. What you really need to do is to stand apart from the competitors and churning out great music is not the only thing that will help. Besides producing good music, you also need to ensure that it reaches your audience. This is only possible if you have a result-focused promotional plan in place.

Now that you know the significance of music promotion, you will be more than keen to invest in it. What really matters at this stage is finding a promotion partner that can create a great strategy for you. Although you may try promoting yourself independently, an agency with the right skills, expertise, and experience knows what goes into making a plan that gets you tangible results. After all, you would want great results fast so that people know you, buy your music and propagate it as well.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

9 Blog Promotion Tactics That Every Blogger Should Know

Steven on October 22, 2019

As far as working from home jobs are concerned, blogging is one of the highest-rated activities or businesses that an individual can run. Blogging does not require a college degree nor does it require years and years of technical training. It does, however, require passion, great grammar command and the willingness and tenacity to work. Many people hear about blogging and think that it is a breeze, an easy way to make money. The truth is, it is very difficult to make money from a blog unless you have what it takes. This means you have to have great content, garner a sizeable and commendable audience, and most of all, have the necessary know-how in effective ways to monetize your blog. Monetizing your blog is the ultimate test when it comes to blogging success. This involves extensive marketing for no matter how monetized your blog is, if it does not get the necessary and right traffic, it will still be useless to you. Getting your blog noticed and standing out from the millions and millions of blogs online today is no easy task, it takes quite a bit of skill. Here are 9 blog promotion tactics by http://socialmarketway.com that every blogger should know.

Go social

Other than Google, social media sites command the highest amount of online user traffic today. Facebook is second only to Google. Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and the rest are not so far behind. This means that these social media sites are where your audience is to be found on a regular basis. If you want to effectively direct this substantial amount of traffic, then you need to engage with the community in general, the easiest way to do this is through these social media sites. The thing to remember is this, a social media campaign can look a lot like spam. This is mainly because people come here to interact with one another and share ideas. Unless you are actually contributing to the conversation in a meaningful way, simply posting a link to your blog will be considered spamming and this will result in you getting banned. You need to interact with the community. This involves taking an interest in what they are discussing and contributing relevant information which you can then link to or from your blog.

Target a ‘sharing’ audience

This should be part of your strategy. Try as much as you can to make your target audience the sharing type. There is certain demography of people that is more likely to share material online than others. Audiences that include people looking to lose weight, bodybuilders, technologically astute people, and serial shoppers are all examples of audiences that will willingly help spread the word about you and your blog. This is provided the content is relevant and useful.

Guest blog

Once you have found a niche, look for other authoritative sites and blogs within that niche and guest post on them. This involves writing articles, following forum threads and interacting with the site administrator and the audience. Once you have gained their trust and your opinion is valued, you can simply request the site administrator to let you link back to your blog. This way, you will gain their audience and hopefully the people they recommend.

Appeal to the vertical markets

You have to make your blog an authority with relevant content as well as offering solutions to the society at large. This means FAQ pages and several ‘How To’ articles. Feature different industry trends with credible and verifiable statistics. Once this is done, your blog will be regarded as a valuable resource and this will keep people coming back.

Participate in forums and discussions

These are platforms where likeminded people go to hold meaningful discussions. Once you have found your niche, find all the highly-trafficked and relevant forums and actively participate. Give relevant advice and links to actionable and useful information. As part of this advice, you can send them over to your blog. Remember, these are serious people and spamming will NOT be tolerated.

Include your blog in everything about you

This means that you should always mention your blog whenever and wherever your name appears. In your bio, your online resume, your other websites, your email signature, your internet profile, your social media accounts…anything that features you should also feature your blog.

Utilize bookmarking sites

Making use of social bookmarking sites can be a very resourceful way of gaining backlinks. These are ways through which you can widely advertise your blog without paying for it. You can always opt for paid advertising.

Make your content SEO friendly

When it comes to blogging, the number one rule is quality content. In your struggle to churn out high-quality content, make sure that it is SEO friendly. As mentioned earlier, only the various search engines like Google have more traffic than social media sites. This means that the majority of organic traffic can be found in search engine page results. Properly optimizing your blog content gives you an added advantage of getting this organic traffic.

Use web analytics

This is similar to carrying out a survey. Analytics gives you a break down on where most of your traffic comes from, which pages and content they spend more time and what they actually think of your blog. Paying attention to these statistics and tweaking your blog in accordance with the results will go a long way in improving your performance. It is a way of giving the client what he/she wants.

Call to action

Sometimes you just have to be blunt and tell your readers what you want them to do. In every article or comment you make, find a way to include actionable and relevant information that can link back to your site. This way you can simply tell them to click over to your blog for further information. They know what they are getting and you are not being vague about asking them to switch over.

These are 9 Blog Promotion Tactics That Every Blogger Should Know. However, what you need to remember is this, for your blog to succeed, you need to be passionate about what you are writing. Without this passion, you will not be motivated to churn out high-quality content consistently, which is the core of every blog.

Personal Branding

What To Consider When Choosing an Affordable Office Chair

Steven on October 18, 2019

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that a chair is one of the most important things in an office and this is because that chair is the one thing where you have to spend the rest of your day. In simpler words, you and your employees all will be spending more than half of the day sitting in a chair in a position that already adds a lot of stress on the structure of the spine. Now with all that stress on your back, you don’t want to make things worse for yourself, right? Well, if not, then this article is a must-read for you. Today we are going to jot down the basics that you need to consider when choosing the right ergonomic office chair.

It’s imperative to have an ergonomic office chair that supports good posture and keeps your lower back as stress-free as possible. There are several types of ergonomic office chairs available in the market, but not all types can be comfortable and suitable for all people. This is the reason why you should always do proper research, check out sites like officechairist.com, and then make a final purchase decision without any rush.

Speaking of purchasing an office chair, here are the things that you need to consider in this regard.

Tips For Choosing an Affordable Office Chair

1- Comfort

The very first thing is, of course, comfort. If you are comfortable in a chair and if you know it’s not hurting your posture, then you shouldn’t give it a second thought and just purchase it. People have this misconception that the more expensive a chair is, the more comfortable it will be. You need to forget the price tag for a while and first check the comfort. Sit in the chair and get up once you know that “this is the one”!

2- Material

Even chairs are made up of different materials, and usually, people opt for the leather ones, but if you don’t like the sound and feel of leather, no worries because you can always opt for some other material and for some other chair. Believe it or not, the material matters a lot, and it also should be of high quality if you want the chair to last longer with you. You see, sometimes the comfort level is excellent, and the posture maintained is great too, but the quality of material used to make the chair is so poor that it starts wearing. This is the reason why you should opt for high-quality material so that the chair is durable and worth your money.

3- Seat Height

The next is the height of the seat. Your seat should be easily adjustable so that even if someone else comes and sits on it, he or she can adjust the height of the seat accordingly. The best seat height that works for most people lies between 16 to 21 inches off the floor. So, if you don’t know much about the heights and the adjustments, then just opt for the measurement we just gave.

Conclusion

These are some of the main things that you need to consider before buying an office chair. Consider the tips we gave and of course, make a budget first. These chairs vary a lot in prices, so it’s better to have a budget and then follow it during the purchase. Again, never opt for the chairs that are too pricey because the price is just a figure, and people can easily fool you with expensive tags and low-quality chairs. Check the comfort first and then buy the chair!

Legal Branding Personal Branding

Why Branding Doesn’t Cost as Much as You Think

Steven on October 15, 2019

Branding is one of the most essential components of a successful advertising strategy. While it’s vital to get the word out about the goods and services your business offers, it’s all for nothing if you can’t communicate why customers should work with you. You need to emphasize the special qualities that make your business stand out in a crowded market.

Good branding doesn’t have to be fancy. Like all the essential components of a quality marketing strategy, a little branding goes a long way. There are ways to establish your brand identity even when you don’t have a big budget.

Here are seven ways you can create an effective branding strategy for your company while spending much less than you’d expect.

1. Build Your Identity

Your branding should communicate the core elements of your business’s identity, as well as what services you provide and what industry you work in. You don’t have to hew to industry trends, but your branding should give customers an idea of what your company does with just a glance.

You can start with in-house graphic design if you’re not ready to outsource. Free design and branding tools like Canva or Looka can help you develop logos, graphics and promotional material for your company.

When your business expands and you want to invest more in branding, you’ll also have a good starting point for the designers you work with. Even if not professional, your homemade branding will show others what you consider to be your business’s values and major appeal.

2. Know Your Audience

Market research can take many forms, but it has to get done somehow. Surveys and test ad campaigns are some good ways to gather information.

Once you have a healthy amount of data or a good feeling about your lay of the land, you can start building customer or audience personas. Personas — archetypes of the people you want to sell to — will help you structure your branding strategy by clearly outlining what you think your audience is after.

One example of a persona you might use could be a DIY enthusiast who is after supplies and information. They want knowledge that is reliable, straight-to-the-point and a little rough around the edges. You can then use this simplified version of your audience to inform your branding.

3. Establish Your USP

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is what makes you different from the competition. Identify your USP, then use it to guide your brand voice and demonstrate why customers should choose your company.

“High-quality” and “customer-focused” are phrases that every business wants to use to describe itself. You’ll need to be more specific, and really dig into why your company does what it does.

How many years have you provided top-tier customer service? What kinds of projects have you worked on? How have you overcome challenges? Do you offer something with unique features that no other business can compete with?

Eventually, you may loop back around to describing your business as customer-focused and one that delivers high-quality products. It’s not the best place to start, though. People have heard it before, and they want something a little more substantial.

4. Care About the Consumer

Value your customer’s time. Bad business writing costs smaller companies an average of $420,000 every year. That’s because when you ask customers to slog through marketing-speak without speaking directly to them, they tune out.

There are many different tips and tricks you can use to grab a potential customer’s attention in both branding and writing. However, one of the most effective philosophies to have — which will help make your overall strategy more successful, no matter what you do — is to care about the customer. Treat their time as more valuable than your own. Good branding earns every second it spends in front of a customer’s eyes.

This can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Start with your research, put yourself in your customer’s position and build on your USPs.

5. Be Part of Your Community

You can create better branding by making your business a part of your community. Better local contacts will help you stay on top of the latest developments and also build a network that will help you know what people need. You’ll also be building relationships with local personalities or industry influencers that you can leverage or build into powerful marketing partnerships.

6. Go Big on Visuals

When designing any part of your branding or marketing strategy, you have an opportunity to use visual design to underline and strengthen your message.

Follow the basic visual design principles that professional graphic designers use. These guidelines will help you reduce clutter, strengthen your message and be clearer in your branding. All this will help your marketing do a better job of communicating what your business offers to customers.

7. Remain Consistent

Especially at first, keep your branding consistent. Repetition is how customers become aware of your company. If you are cycling between logos and branding you don’t have faith in, it’s less likely for you to become familiar and recognizable. You should avoid iterating on your strategy too often. Slowing down will help your message stick in customers’ heads and also give yourself a chance to collect data on what works — or doesn’t — in your current branding strategy.

This also means establishing a consistent web presence, like a blog or set of social media accounts. It will communicate to customers your company’s core mission and beliefs, as well as what your business can do for them. Blogs, interestingly enough, are one of the most trusted forms of information on the internet. A professional-looking blog with some informative, relevant content can help you explain how your business stands out from the competition.

There are other practical reasons for being consistent in your online presence. If you haven’t posted in several months, it can leave potential customers with a bad impression of your brand — or worse, lead them to believe you’re no longer in business.

Why Branding Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

Branding is one of the most important parts of any marketing strategy — and it’s worth the investment. However, good branding doesn’t have to be expensive. A solid plan does not require glossy graphics and fancy web design to work. Instead, good branding is about knowing your audience and communicating with them in a way they’re receptive to.

Any company can benefit from basic design and branding principles. While bringing in a professional agency can be a good idea in the long term, smaller businesses with less to spare for marketing don’t need to wait — branding doesn’t always need a big budget.

For the end, here is the research about brands with strong personalities and how it influences their purchasing decisions.

Source: Adzooma

About the author

Lexie is a branding enthusiast and web designer. She loves checking out local flea markets and taking her Goldendoodle on hikes. Follow her on Twitter @lexieludesigner and check out her design blog, Design Roast.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

Top Tips for Boosting Retail Brand Awareness

Steven on October 7, 2019

In the world of retail, if you don’t have a brand, you don’t have much at all. Without one, you risk entering the market (and possibly exiting one rather quickly) as yet another nameless name on the shelf, one often purchased by accident when mom sends her kid to the store to get the product that actually sits next to your product on that same shelf. Your brand is the key reason for your buyers to come back, the key reason they wear or use your product, to begin with.

But just having a brand is also not enough in the ever-growing realm of retail. To make sure you get in front of the right audience, and preferably in front of enough people so that your chances of boosting sales are high, you should use all of your creativity and marketing know-how to grow your brand awareness every day. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind that will help you enhance your presence in the retail universe and grow your chances to become a household name.

Diversify your content creation

From the SEO point of view, as well as that of pure credibility, content is your best, if not your only bet in the oversaturated world of retail. Mere fluff-laden blogs with an occasional keyword here and there will no longer cut it to help your brand stand out in search engines, especially for common phrases such as “quality sneakers” or “best prom dress”. People want personalized, highly selective experiences, and they expect you to provide them through every bit of content you produce. That includes all of your product descriptions, every blog post, and every video you add.

From your website content, the kind you share on social media, all the way to the content you allow and inspire your users and customers to create (such as product reviews, blog posts, and videos), you need to make sure that your content pool is diverse, trendy, and up to date. Of course, brand consistency also needs to permeate all of your content efforts, to allow your brand to emerge no matter where, when, and who creates and posts is.

Build a stellar web presence

Your website is your retail brand’s greatest asset, and it can make or break your efforts to increase sales, engage more customers, reduce the number of abandoned carts, and inspire reviews. In fact, stellar website design needs to reflect your brand’s values perfectly and to serve as its most trusted vessel to convey your brand’s messages. It’s the key to keeping your retail brand memorable and to make sure it stands out among so many others that have similar offers.

Not to mention that a great part of your website’s design includes its ease of navigation, its loading speed, and of course, its visual appeal that will determine how long your customers will stay interested, linger on your site, or how often they’ll decide to go through with the purchase. No modern retail brand can survive without a spotless website, hence the need to regularly update your digital presence to ensure consistency as well as a wonderful user experience.

Work with influencers

Influencers play a great part in increasing brand awareness in the retail industry. They are the digital versions of our traditional word-of-mouth recommendations, they are relatable, and they have a vast pool of followers eager to look up to them, mimic them, and make the same choices based on their preferences. Therein lies the rub: handpicking influencers to work with is far better than investing in random collaborations that are short-lived. Consider it a commitment that will skyrocket your retail brand’s awareness in the eyes of your audience and soon-to-be audience.

From locally-based micro-influencers all the way to major players on social media as well as celebrities, you have numerous opportunities to build and grow your brand’s digital presence through such collaborations. Make sure that the influencers you choose are, of course, in line with your brand’s values, and that they actually have access to people that fit your target market. Because the only thing worse than no brand awareness is having any awareness in the wrong crowd.

Partner up with the right people

Are you a small retail brand that specializes in a certain wearable? Or do you own a chain of stores that sell different brands in different locations? In both scenarios, working with the right local people means gaining more exposure in the right locations for your brand. For example, if you’re a larger retail business, you can benefit from supporting a smaller local brand by working on a project to add their accessories to your stores, while they support your effort to enter the local market by giving you a share of their shelves.

As a smaller retail brand, partnering up with a complementary business in the neighborhood can help you gain the right exposure, too. For example, we all know that coffee goes delightfully well with scones and muffins. If you have a brilliant recipe for cinnamon rolls or pumpkin pie, why not work with local coffee shops to offer your lovely goods in their stores? Multiply that by a range of different collaborations of local nature, and you’ll quickly gain more traction for your brand.

The retail world is fast to change, and those who cannot adapt tend to fade into oblivion. Use these tips to stay one (or several) steps ahead of the competition and stay relevant to your audience, no matter where they are.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

Your Logo Is A Brand Awareness Solution

Steven on October 3, 2019

When you see the logo where a bite has been taken out of the side of an apple, then you understand immediately that the logo belongs to Apple, Inc. A business logo has a subtle effect on its customers. Customers will associate your trademark with a good feeling and a pleasant experience when they see your logo.

One part of starting an LLC is to have your Articles of Organization created. This outlines the basic details about your company such as the company’s name, address, and registered agent.

The right logo for your business is a type of brand awareness solution to take your investment to the next level of success. Your logo represents your business name and helps to set you apart from your competition. Your logo needs to present a strong yet friendly impression.

As you grow your business, your well-planned logo will also give your business prominence allowing more people to know all about your goals. Logos widely represent business loyalty and honesty.

When your business, its products, and/or services welcome customers and the public with quality, your logo will bring customers to you because it will be your logo that they will look for.

Does a logo have any legal standing? No, there are no legal requirements to register your business logo. However, to protect it from being used by someone else, you should register it as a “trademark.” Your specially designed logo should be registered with the U.S. Intellectual Property Office.

Legally, your logo must follow certain rules, that include the following:

The logo should not contain any offensive material
The logo must not be misleading
The logo should not contain or describe what your business represents
The logo cannot be a commonly-used statement, phrase or a collection of everyday words

Lastly, you must conduct logo research to ensure that your logo likeness is not used by another business in the U.S. or globally.

There are around five things that a good business logo should have:

1. What’s In a Name?

When Apple was first created, its logo featured the apple plus its name on the right side. Now, as a global brand, it no longer needs a name—just its logo. Your early business startup is small, therefore your logo should include your brand name. Your startup will require a good deal of exposure and using a logo with your brand name will keep your name in the public’s eye.

2. Coloring/Fonts

Did you know that there is color psychology in logo designs? Logo coloring is to invoke emotions within people to become your future customers. For example, black represents tradition or authority; red represents boldness and excitement; green represents peace and newness, while blue represents strength and confidence.

Choosing the right font for your logo is not as easy as it sounds. Your business logo will need to look at size and typeface. Play around with fonts but be careful when you use “script” fonts because your business name or wording could become illegible.

3. Adaptability

You may design a logo for your startup business, but since your plans involve growth, your logo must remain relative or adaptable to your expansion plans. Remember, a logo symbolizes your entire brand, not just what you are asking the public to buy right now. Your logo is the personality of your company that will appear on all your paper products like letterhead, business cards, and more.

4. Simple Is Best

Have you noticed the simplicity in logo designs today by the leading brands? Simple wording has nothing to do with your business being the new horse out the gate or whether you have been operating for years. Simple logo designs convey more meaning than you think. It is a less complicated process in your creation of what will reflect the nature of your business.

5. Consistency

What your logo concept requires is consistency. There is no such thing as using your logo too much. Use it often and widely with the services you provide, with the products you design, and on all outgoing and in-office correspondence. Large brands whose logo says it all began by flooding the market with its design and name. A small business should also use its logo in a variety of scenarios.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Using Big Data for Influencer Marketing

Steven on October 1, 2019

Influencer marketing is estimated to become a $10 billion industry by 2020. One of the major reasons for this is the high ROI that you can get from it. In fact, almost 90% of all marketers feel that its ROI is greater than that of other marketing modes.

As the interest in influencer marketing grows, more brands are starting to incorporate it into their marketing strategies. However, a successful influencer marketing campaign isn’t easy to execute. You need to plan a lot beforehand and find the right influencers to collaborate with as well.

Numerous steps, such as figuring out who your target audience is, planning your budget, optimizing the content, and tracking your progress make it complicated. However, big data can help you do all of that with ease. Through big data analytics, you can use your data to find and create new opportunities for your brand.

Here’s how you can do so:

1. Calculate Your ROI

It’s crucial to calculate the ROI of your influencer marketing campaigns to understand how successful they were. For that, you need to keep track of your engagement, reach, sales, and more.

However, almost 84% of marketers say that calculating an accurate ROI from influencer marketing campaigns is challenging.

When your campaign doesn’t meet your expectations, you should consider analyzing how you can manage these losses. To do so, all you need is big data and a solid tool like Google Analytics. You need to figure out how much value the campaign brought your brand. This should be compared to the amount that you’ve invested in the campaign.

If you find that repeatedly your returns are less than your investment, you may need to rethink your strategy. In some cases, you may have to end your partnerships with specific influencers as well.

2. Find Relevant Influencers

One of the biggest challenges that brands face is that of finding suitable influencers for their campaigns. In fact, about 50% of marketers say that finding fake followers and engagement is their chief marketing challenge.

Finding influencers manually can be quite a task. You need to go through every influencer’s profile to check if they are authentic. In this case, too, big data can come to your rescue. Through big data, influencer marketing platforms can create a database of influencers from a variety of niches and locations.

Using these databases, you can simplify your search for the perfect influencers for your brand. There are many platforms like Influence.co, where you can find relevant influencers and reach out to them. Influence.co takes it a step further by allowing you to post your campaigns on the website so that interested influencers can approach you instead.

Apart from helping you find relevant influencers, big data can also help you find genuine influencers. The engagement data and audience metrics can help you make an informed decision quickly.

3. Decide on a Direction

There are multiple options available for brands to partner with influencers. You can launch a variety of different campaigns that are aimed at different goals.

However, deciding on the goals is quite a task in itself. You must decide what your specific goal is. For example, it could be to increase your website traffic, generate more engagement, or get more sales.

Big data can help you make a more informed decision about your goals from influencer marketing. Your sales data will be able to give you a better idea of what you need to do to improve your brand. It’ll also help you decide on an ideal influencer who can best help you achieve your goal.

For instance, say your own footwear business, and most of your sales are coming from Instagram. In this case, you should consider partnering with an influencer on Instagram who showcases footwear regularly. This type of collaboration with a relevant influencer could help you increase your sales.

4. Reaction to Updates

It’s necessary to change your approach with time to grow successfully. Marketing trends keep changing dynamically, and you must adapt in order to stay relevant. Big data can help you do so by keeping you updated with the latest changes in digital marketing.

Such an analysis beforehand can help you take the right steps to increase the performance of your campaign.

5. Creating Engaging Content

The content that you use for your influencer marketing campaigns decides how well the campaign will perform. If your content isn’t authentic or seems forced, it may not be effective with your target audience. This can lead to the loss of your credibility.

It’s best to give your influencers complete creative freedom. Most influencers value this, and at the same time, it’s better for your campaign too. Influencers know their audiences better than you do so they know what works for them.

You can, however, provide general guidelines to your influencers. Big data can help you with content in this case as well. Based on data from tools like Mention, you can see what’s trending in your niche. You can monitor keywords, brand names, and topics to figure out what type of content is most effective with your target audience.

By staying on top of the latest discussions in your niche, you can create great content that your audience will connect with.

Final Thoughts

Big data is very helpful when it comes to influencer marketing. It helps you make more informed decisions based on solid data.

You can calculate your ROI and find relevant influencers for your brand using data. At the same time, it can help you create better content and help you remain on top of the latest changes in marketing and in your industry. Lastly, it can make the process of setting a goal for your campaigns easier too.

Are there other ways big data can help marketers improve their influencer marketing campaigns? Let me know in the comments.