Results for: content marketing

Start-Up Business: Turning Your App Idea into a Business

Steven on April 23, 2020

Coming up with novel ideas is something we’re all capable of. Everything single one of us has woken up in the middle of the night or sat up straight in the bathtub with a lightbulb flashing over our heads, marveling in wonder at how brilliant our imaginations are, and how great we are at dreaming up new ideas and concepts. This, in itself, is nothing particularly special. What is special, however, is finding the resources, energy, and motivation to transform those ideas into something real, tangible, and – perhaps most importantly – profitable.

If you’re able to take these next steps with your mobile app ideas, then you’ll quickly make yourself stand out from the crowd… and the vast majority of ideas never making past the initial stages.

Taking Steps to Mobile App Success

Why do so many mobile apps never get transformed into businesses? Well, there is no shortage of reasons why this is the case. However, perhaps top of the (rather long) list is the undeniable fact that making mobile apps work as businesses is something that takes real-time, real effort, and real planning and validation.

Thankfully, there are plenty of steps mobile app developers and budding business people can take in order to help their ideas progress, and in order to gain success from the very earliest stages of development. In this blog, we’re going to look at some of the absolute essential actions you should be taking if you want to see your mobile app business take off… and they’re a lot simpler and easier than you might expect. Remember, these aren’t absolutely foolproof hacks for success, but they will establish good practices, and they lay the foundations on which mobile app business success can be built.

Identify Your Audience

Knowing your target audience isn’t just essential for mobile app businesses, it’s a key part of launching any business. It’s all too tempting to say ‘my app is for everybody’ – this isn’t going to get you anywhere.

If anything, you need to be narrowing down your target audience as much as you can, and identifying the key criteria which set your ideal market apart from others. Once you know exactly the type of people your app is for (and we mean age bracket, income level, job status, lifestyle, etc, etc, etc), you can start tailoring everything from your marketing efforts to your app design to appeal directly to them.

Research Your Competition

Once you’ve figured out who your app is for, and you know exactly what your app does and why it does it, the time will come to really check out the competition. Unless your idea is something completely novel and unique, there will be other apps out there offering very similar or identical solutions; your job is to research what difficulties they overcame, what their audience loves and dislikes about their app, and how you can take the concept one step further.

Clearly Define What Your App Is

Apps come in all shapes and sizes, styles, and uses, and the market can be massively confusing for those seeking solutions for their mobile devices. Your job is to define your app as clearly as possible: make sure that, from the very first moment, your audience can identify exactly what your app does, who your app is for, and how your app can make a positive difference. For example, you are developing an app for tracking calories, you might want to define the benefits of tracking calories and who can benefit from using the app.

This will help with everything from your listing on the App Store etc, to the way your app is marketed and used.

Carefully Consider Branding

Make no mistake: branding is of the utmost importance when it comes to your app business, as this will define how your app will be seen and received on the marketplace, and it will create that all-important first impression among countless competitors and distractions.

There’s plenty of information out there on the net regarding which colors communicate which ideas, and how logos, emblems, and slogans can make a difference, and we’d encourage you to spend some time getting used to the way branding can be key to getting your message out there. At some point, as your plans grow and start to become finalized, you’ll most likely need to start delegating certain tasks. Bringing in a branding or marketing expert and a copywriter could be one of the best decisions you make unless you’re confident you have the time and objectivity to really make it work by yourself.

Get It Out There

Once you’ve put the time in following the above steps (and believe us, this is far from an exhaustive list as you’ll also need to assemble a team of dedicated partners, and spend time costing your business venture), you’ll be ready to launch. While this is an exciting time, it’s also a period that requires plenty of preparation in order to get the most lucrative results.

You know the nature of your app better than anybody, so you’ll hopefully have a clearer idea of how to launch and what the launch will need. A website and some key social media platforms are surely essential, and most apps nowadays come with mailing lists and preview lists, too. Sites like the beta list can help you identify and target early adopters and influencers, and if your app has local appeal, then events, happenings, and parties might be appropriate, too. No matter how you approach your launch, your goal should be the same: to get people talking about your app, using it, and having the best possible experience with it. If your launch manages to do this while drumming up excitement, then you’re onto a winner.

Well, there you have it – Messapp’s guide to turning those ideas into a reality and making your mobile app ideas into a business that works for you. We’re specialists in mobile app development with years of top-level experience, and we’re confident we can assist you in making your concepts fly. Get in touch today to speak to a member of our team; it’s the first step towards success.

About the Author

Though a lawyer by trade, Vasily Malyshev found his passion for mobile tech, self-taught design, and development. He is the founder of Messapps, one of the top New York app development companies. Today, in addition to working with Messapps, Vasily is also teaching app development and marketing at New York University and regularly invests in other tech startups.

Digital Branding Legal Branding Personal Branding

6 Tips for Developing an Agile Brand

Steven on April 20, 2020

Change is constant and rapid in today’s time of doing business. The ability to adapt to change is not a luxury but a necessity. This makes it important for businesses to develop an agile brand. Brands should be quick to keep up with market trends and customer behaviors, among other things. In this short post, we’ll talk about some of the best ways to develop an agile brand.

1. Learn the Basics

It is difficult to develop an agile brand if you do not know the fundamentals of how to do it. With this, you need to study. For instance, one thing that could help would be taking a change management certification course. While there are many things that you can learn from the latter, one of the most significant you could learn would be how to create an agile and competitive company or brand that can stay attuned with the fast-changing marketplace.

2. Be Adaptive

To build an agile brand, you need to be nimble. To do this, learn how to take a risk. Do not be limited by your desire to be consistent. Take the case of Netflix as an example. It has changed its business model several times before it finally found the most profitable. By being adaptive, you are demonstrating that you are willing to bend a bit to keep up. Your brand strategy must be able to flow and flex with change.

3. Collaborate

An agile strategy for building a successful brand capitalizes on collaboration. By working together, you can create better solutions, which will be instrumental in the success of a brand. To build a collaborative environment, there is a need for openness and creativity. The more an organization learns to collaborate, the bigger is the room for improvement.

4. Build the Right Team

Speaking of collaborating, building an agile brand also calls for the need to have a competent team. Gather some of the brightest minds within the organization. The team should have people who can quickly implement novel strategies depending on current trends.

5. Implement Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping refers to the quick fabrication of several models. Agile brands should create beta versions of a brand strategy simultaneously. Instead of introducing one strategy and testing its feasibility, an alternative approach is to introduce multiple strategies at once, test, and see which ones will work the best.

6. Be Timely

To be agile, your brand needs to be timely. One of the best applications of this would be when it comes to releasing your marketing campaigns. Your materials should be relevant and well-timed. For instance, if it is Christmas, you need to release holiday-themed ads. By doing this, you can appeal more effectively to the emotions of your target audience.

We are living in a fast-paced society where businesses must keep up with the changes. With this, it is crucial to building an agile brand to meet the changing demands of the market. Take note of our recommendations above to make this possible.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

How to Come up with Topics for Your New Blog

Steven on April 13, 2020

Starting a new blog can be scary. Terrifying, even. It’s important to note that coming up with topics for your blog doesn’t have to be intimidating. There are a few things you can do to ensure you never have difficulties coming up with something interesting to write about, and they aren’t as difficult as you may think. In fact, they are actually pretty simple.

We’ll be going over some of those tricks in detail, so if you’re ready to start learning, keep reading.

Take Some Time to Brainstorm Ahead!

First, you want to start with a good old-fashioned brainstorming session. This is because taking the time to brainstorm topics is a major must when starting a new blog. With all the fake news out there, you’ll need to have unique ideas and supporting evidence, if you want your blog to stand out from the get-go.

Before you can come up with an entire list, though, you need to get the ball rolling and write down one or two of the topics that are already swirling through your mind. Even if you can only come up with one idea at the beginning, it’s all you need to get started.

From there, you simply need to change scope.

Let’s say, for example, you want to write a blog post about the importance of marketing. This is a pretty broad topic on its own, but if you change the scope, it opens up a world of opportunity. And before you know it, your one idea has turned into 6 or 7.

You can also write about topics like the importance of organic marketing, the most recent changes that have happened with marketing strategies in your niche, the differences between marketing on different social media channels, and much more.

All it takes to successfully change scope is a different perspective, a good brainstorming session, and the willingness to take some time to plan ahead.

Use Content Tools Like Google Analytics to See What’s Working

With that being said, though, you also want to make sure the topics you come up with will work. That means using content tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, and ClickFunnels to keep an eye on how your blog posts stack up against the competition.

When audience members read content, they’re looking for a number of things, including easy-to-read layouts, mobile functionality, engaging copy, and accurate search engine optimization. Having the data from each blog post at your fingertips can give you the ability to analyze whether your topics and overall blog can satisfy those needs.

No Need to Look Far: Write About Topics That Concern Your Site!

No matter how well thought out your blog topics are, there’s no chance they will perform well if they don’t fit in with the content on the rest of your website. So if you’re having trouble coming up with blog topics, look no further than that topic! Most notably, your site’s security.

Cybersecurity is a major issue for every website owner, including you, and it can provide a broad range of topics for you to write about. Some examples might be the best way to ensure the backend of your website is secure and the best way to establish strong security initiatives among staff members.

How-To Guides Are Always Great and Really Popular!

If all else fails, you can never go wrong with writing how-to guides! These have been shown to perform well on a regular basis, especially in the online blog space.

Think about it.

One of the most common things people do is Google the answers they’re looking for. Your goal with how-to guides is to walk your readers through a process they don’t yet know how to do and provide them those answers.

Write What You Know

No matter what your blog is about, it’s always going to be possible to come up with topics. All it takes is a little time, a new perspective, and excitement regarding the experience your readers will receive when they click onto your content. What is more, there are plenty of writing and editing tools and services like ClassyEssay which apart from providing academic writing help can also assist you in creating catchy headlines and high-quality content on various topics for your blog.

And if you ever struggle to come up with new topics, just take a moment to breathe and walk through the strategies we outlined above. You know about more than you think, and there are plenty of people out there who want to pick your brain about every aspect of whatever your overall branding focuses on.

So go out there and start writing. You’ve got this!

Digital Branding

8 of the Best WordPress Automation Plugins for Advertising That You Need to Know

Steven on March 23, 2020

Gone are the days when you need to do everything manually in order for your business to run. Nowadays, you can simply install automation plugins on your WordPress website, and then let it do its magic.

Doing so allows you to free up some time that you can use for things that matter to make your business grow. Migrating from Shopify to WooCommerce has become a great automation process which can be easily done almost by everyone.

8 Best WordPress Automation Plugins

That said, we have listed down eight best WordPress automation Plugins that you need to know:

SEO on WordPress

1. Yoast SEO

Search engine optimization takes time before you can see the results. However, you can make it less cumbersome with the help of the Yoast SEO plugin.

What this WordPress plugin does is that it automatically runs your content to check for any SEO-related issues. This includes knowing whether you generously used your primary and secondary keywords.

It also runs a readability test on your content to ensure that you can provide top-quality content to your site visitors.

But more than anything else, Yoast SEO is known for making it easy for you to optimize every content on your website.

For one, it allows you to easily add keyword-rich title tags and meta descriptions. Second, this plugin comes with a snippet preview, which lets you show how your title tags and meta descriptions will look on search engine results.

2. Social Warfare

Although Google would not admit it, it appears that there is a positive correlation between social signals and search engine ranking. Hence, you will need a social sharing plugin such as Social Warfare to help you generate all the social signals that you can get.

Here’s the thing: If you want to drive tons of traffic to your website, you will need to employ social media marketing. And this is where Social Warfare could come in handy.

It features customizable and mobile-responsive social sharing buttons that are both beautiful and fast. It allows you to connect most of the popular social networks on your website, and then you can choose where you would like the social buttons to appear.

But what makes this WordPress plugin popular with the best Facebook advertising agency is the fact that it does not slow down your website.

3. AdSanity

This is a beginner-friendly ad management plugin that lets you insert ads anywhere on your website. You can do this using AdSanity’s widgets and ad inserter button.

In addition, this plugin allows you to keep tabs on your ads’ views and click-throughs. That way, you would know how to optimize your campaigns.

The basic plan costs $49 per year that comes with a license each for a public domain and local domain.

As long as your website runs on WordPress 3.9 or later, MySQL 5, and PHP 5.6, you can make AdSanity run on your site.

Wordpress plugins

4. Ad Inserter

If you are looking for a solid and well-developed advertising plugin for WordPress, you might want to know what Ad Inserter can do for you.

It allows you to add an ad or a line of programming code on your WordPress website. This means you can use this plugin for different kinds of ads, from AdSense to Affiliate ads.

But what’s great about Ad Inserter is that it lets you insert ads at any point on your post without writing a single line of code. You can also exclude a page in case you do not want it to have any ads.

5. Advanced Ads

Meanwhile, if you are looking for something lightweight, you might want to give Advanced Ads a spin.

This plugin does not only let you manage your ads, but it also allows you to optimize it. That way, you can get the most out of your campaign and get as much ROI as you can.

Advanced Ads come with ad rotation, ad injection, and ad widgets support, plus the following features:

Manage and display unlimited ads
Duplicate and schedule ads
Set expiry times on ads
Inject ads from any ad network
Get Google AMP support
Inject ads anywhere on your content

6. Ads Pro Plugin

Available in Codecanyon as a premium plugin, Ads Pro Plugin lets you manage, sell, and display advertising space on your WordPress website. It is like BuySellAds, but without the third-party.

This WordPress plugin also comes with a template and grid system. That way, you can see matched and user-friendly ads on your site. You can also run targeted display ads based on location, schedule your ads, and you can choose on which device your ads will appear.

The best part? It is 100% free from Adblocker!

Meaning, you have more than 20 ways to display your banners ‒ including Google AdSense.

Wordpress user in action

7. Quick Adsense

Quick Adsense is a well-known free WordPress plugin you can use for ad management. And it is not just limited to Google Ad Network. You can use the plugin to display hosted ads and third-party ads as well.

The cool thing about this ad management plugin is that it is easy to set up, and its settings page allows you to manage ad codes and choose how and where you want to display your ads. Mind you, you can display your ads on the sidebar using the custom ad widgets.

Here’s a caveat, though: Quick Adsense does not come with advanced features. And you can only save 10 ad codes at most.

8. DoubleClick by Google

Powered by Google, as the name implies, DoubleClick is a web-based ad selling and serving platform. It gives publishers an edge when it comes to reliability and cost-effectiveness.

But what makes DoubleClick great is that you can run a competition for the same ad spots, be it on Adsense or on third-party ad networks. And then the ad management platform will automatically select which is the best-paying ad for the spot.

It also comes with a reporting tool, which allows you to measure how your ads are performing. That way, you have an insight into the effectiveness of your campaigns. The only issue with DoubleClick is that it can get a bit complicated to setup.

Do you know other WordPress plugins that can help a website owner to run display ads effectively? We’d like to know it in the comments!

Digital Branding

SEO for Recruitment

Steven on March 18, 2020

So recently I came across a post on Reddit and that’s what led me to write this blog.

But first, what is Recruitment SEO?

Those to know what it is, please skip this part.

SEO is a concept which generally talks about optimizing your website so that your website can be found by the right type of audience. In your case, it might be people who are looking for jobs, but to be specific you would likely want to target people who are looking for a specific type of job, the one you are willing to advertise. Or the one which is vacant and you don’t feel like spending money on. That’s SEO in a nutshell.

Moving on, now what you know what Recruitment SEO, you should also know what SEO is, a lot of people relate SEO to Google, which is not. SEO is Search Engine Optimisation. SEO is generally performed on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and etc. You need to choose in which Search Engine you’re interested in. For this blog, we are going to proceed with Google.

For this article, I assume you already have a website, if not, you can proceed to read these two articles:

How to create a Recruitment Website?
How to host a jobs page on my Website?

Moving on, SEO is full of myths, you have to try and literally experiment each and everything because how SEO really works in only known to those Google Engineers who are working on Google Search Engine, others are simply guessing.

1. Fix Performance Issues

The very first thing you should do is to check how good your website is performing:

Just to GTMetrix & enter your website name there and press go. You’ll get a report, which is something like this:

If it’s not A, don’t worry. You can read a few basic things over here:

Simply reading these will help you figure out what needs to be done. Google loves fast websites, and this will ensure you’ve got a snappy website.

2. Fix your title and description

Next is working on your meta titles and meta descriptions, you need to need to have these for your website, this is what Google reads and your website visitors as well. You can edit this part by looking into your website code. Make sure to keep Meta title under 60 characters and meta description under 160 characters. The best idea to create appealing meta title and meta description is to use keywords in the description and also in the meta title. Keywords are those words that your audience might find useful. For example: If you have vacancies for an iOS Developer, you can add “iOS Developer” in your meta title and meta description.

3. Verify your website on Google Search Console

This will help you understand your website visitors. GSC helps you to collect valuable keyword data which can be used to understand what people are using to reach your website. Click on this link and then click on add property to add your website https://search.google.com. It’s simple as compared to its benefits.

4. Make sure you have these files are on your website

Robots.txt and Sitemap.

You need to have these two files in your website directory. To wrap it up in short, robots file will get Google to know whether to scan your website or not and a sitemap will let Google know how to read your website.

5. Get Backlinks

The secret ingredient is backlinks. A backlink is a link coming from other websites to your website. You can’t simply create a good looking website and hope for candidates to flow in. Get backlinks, but how?

Create content and exchange your content among other blogs. Ask your friends to link your website when you give them a piece of content. The more, the better. Do the above and you’ll notice a significant change in your candidate flow.

About the Author

Sagar works at Recruit CRM (Recruitment Agency Software) as a Product Marketing Manager. He looks after its Digital Marketing Activities all day long.

Legal Branding

Promote Your Business Effectively With Perfectly Designed Outdoor Vinyl Banners

Steven on March 8, 2020

You can improve the chances of discoverability of your promotions as well as enhance its impact on the passersby when you use vinyl banners.

Your business will be noticed easily and at the same time bring potential customers towards it. The best part of it is that it will become the highlight of a local event.
On the other hand, if you use these vinyl banners in front of your storehouse, it will enhance the exterior of the premises and at the same time will advertise your business to the world.

You can make these banners tailored according to your specifications to make it even more attractive and elegant.

Ideally, these outdoor vinyl banners come in a variety of sizes, big or small, in perfect form and color, making these a real asset for business marketing and brand promotion. This is because these banners are:

Gorgeous
Tough and
Flexible.

It is the sturdy vinyl material that makes it the best option for outdoor advertising as it will withstand the harsh weather conditions, hell or high water, and be intact.

Designing the banner

When you design the outdoor vinyl banner, there are two most important things to keep in mind.

First, you must keep your brand in mind to make your banner effective and stand out in the crowd. It is the message of your brand that you want to convey to the people.
Secondly, you must consider the right color to use in your design. There is no reason that the brightest of colors will fit your design and your existing brand.

Therefore, when you choose the appropriate color or colors for your banner make sure that you consider the different associations that different colors have.

For this, you will need to consider the types of emotions the colors evoke and what you want from the viewers. You must make sure that the choice of color is on point because it is the first thing the viewers will notice in your banner. Colors are also subjective to different cultures which is why you will need to study your target audience while choosing the colors.

Here is a list of colors to make your selection process easier:

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
Pink
Black
White
Brown
Gray

No matter what type of color combination you choose, make sure that you use them all in moderation so one does not overpower the other and your actual message is lost in it.

The banner sizes

Lastly, you must also determine the size of the banner to incorporate all your design ideas in it. To choose the right size you must tape measure the spot you want to put it up. Also, consider the size of the fonts you want to use for the text so that these are not far-spaced or cramped in it.

Sometimes, specific types of vinyl banners will come in specific sizes but when you want to customize it, you will need a much bigger banner than 10 to 12 feet in width and 3 to 4 feet in height.

Legal Branding Personal Branding

8 Effective Strategy to Improve Your Business Growth

Steven on March 6, 2020

So you decided to grow your business. But the question is how?

There are a lot of probable growth strategies that are available, everything from exploring new markets, crafting new products, to making an acquisition. Most organizations make their own unique combination of strategies.

What’s important here is to select the best approach that is well-tailored for your overall strategic plan.

That’s because it is easy to lose sight of the big picture, especially if you have placed your focus on non-strategic growth opportunities.

In this post, we will explore eight effective strategies in improving your business growth:

1. Invest in systems

If you’re trying to do everything on your own, then chances are, you’ll be limiting yourself to the prospect of growth.

A business that’s powered by systems is one that could handle multi-layered demands of expansion. That’s why it’s crucial to have a solid CRM, as well as a powerful e-commerce software that helps you focus on the important aspects of business expansion and growth.

Check your current operations and see what elements are repetitive or monotonous. Also, make it your objective to outsource and automate as much as you can. That way you can focus on the growth of your business.

2. Improve your homepage

Apart from improving your SEO efforts, and making purchases and sign-ups easy, make sure that you have a perfect homepage as well.

A majority of visitors who land on your site aren’t ready to buy anything. It’s also likely that they’ll land on your homepage. If it looks cluttered and difficult to navigate, then they’ll move on to your competitors.

If your web copy is terrible and it doesn’t show your product’s value, then they won’t be won over. If this something that you can’t do alone, you can tap other agencies’ help by typing something like “outsource website design Philippines” on Google for example.

Sometimes, making a simple change, such as making improvements on your homepage, can boost your revenue tremendously.

3. Focus on analytics

Large companies and tech giants like Facebook and Amazon have realized the value of using data. You should, too.

As a business owner who owns a website and social media pages, you can use freemium tools to gather insights from your customers.

For instance, using Google Analytics helps you gather insights on page visits, average time on site, bounce rate, how an audience arrives on your website, and so on. That way, you’ll know where to focus your marketing efforts.

Another analytics tool that you can use is Unbounce, especially if you wanted to know how you can optimize your landing pages and boost your conversions.

4. Research the competition

If you’re figuring out what you can offer your target customers, then you have to research your competition.

You can use tools like AdBeat and Similar Web, to be able to gain x-ray lenses to your ad copy, all your landing pages, and other stages in the funnel.

It also lets you uncover the online strategy of advertisers. Search for ads that are running for the longest time, and try to emulate those. That’s one of the best ways to scale your business.

If it’s working for your competitors, then chances are, it will work for you as well.

5. Always have a backup plan

As your business grows over time and processes become more and more complex, making quick adjustments can be rather difficult.

Having a backup plan in place in case there are emergencies and unforeseeable circumstances could help you better deal with inevitable bumps along the road.

6. Build an email list

One of the effective ways in growing your business is by building an email list. It means that you need to have a lead magnet. And if you have a lead magnet, it means you need to create a sales funnel.

See companies like GetResponse, Aweber, ConstantContact, Drip, and ConvertKit to build and manage your list.

7. Form strategic partnerships

Forming strategic partnerships with the right companies can certainly make a difference. It allows you to reach a large customer base quickly and easily.

But identifying the key companies to partner with is often easier said than done.

Here’s a piece of advice: Look for companies that complement your own. Get in touch with them and propose to them opportunities on how you can work together.

8. Host a webinar

Webinars are an effective way to promote a product or a service. It can also help a business scale quickly.

Webinars also have an automated selling tool for taking any service or product in the market and reaching a large audience fast.

Overall, they’re a fantastic medium for captivating your audience to make a purchase.

Final Thoughts

Scaling your business is hard and needs considerable time and effort. You’ll be wearing many hats, and you’ll be interacting with customers regularly. Eventually, all of these would take a toll on you.

Fortunately, there are ways to grow your business.

There are hundreds of resources about business growth strategies available online. Picking the right ones and applying them to your business will take your business to the next level, as you grow over time.

Personal Branding

Branding An Engineering Firm

Steven on March 2, 2020

Branding engineering and related architectural and construction firms take more than having a good logo designed and deciding on a mission statement that summarizes the aims and values of the company.

Good branding goes hand-in-hand with marketing strategies and will ensure that people recognize who you are and what you stand for. It represents a promise to your clients that tells them what they can expect and differentiates your firm from others operating in the same engineering niche as you.

Your brand will emanate from who you are, what you want your engineering business to be, and the way your clients and potential customers perceive you and your firm.

But one of the greatest challenges is that engineering firms, like architectural and construction companies, don’t offer products for sale. Rather, they are service-based and so their offerings are intangible and based on experience rather than physical performance or functionality.

Additionally, any business that offers services may have diverse offerings with multiplex values. All of these need to be associated with the brand and highlighted in some way.

Branding Tips for Engineers

1. Role of a Good Logo

Having said that branding is more than having a good, identifiable logo and mission statement, it’s important to recognize that both these elements still form a vital part of the branding process:

A good, well-designed logo will reflect both the name and mission statement of your business in a simple visual manner. If the color is used, this must be carried through all visual branding for consistency.

The mission statement will define the fundamental purpose of the business and identify the services offered. When engineers formulate a mission statement they need to know who their potential clients or customers will be.

Visual elements make any brand recognizable, which takes us back to the logo and colors are chosen if any. You will use these on letterheads, corporate communications, brochures, and possibly clothing or giveaway items like pens or caps. With reference to the two logos above, people will immediately recognize that you represent a business called Altitude Branding or New York Engineers.

But that is just the beginning. You also need to have a vision of where you want the business to go and what you hope to achieve.

2. Defining the Brand

Engineering is a broad field and many firms specialize. Perhaps you want to brand your company as a mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineering firm or perhaps a business that offers top-quality heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) engineering services. Maybe you want to focus on mechanical engineering services or fire protection services including sprinkler design.

Alternatively, you might want to brand the firm as a business that offers a wide range of services that all embrace energy-efficiency and sustainability.

Whichever emphasis you choose, successful branding will ensure that your company’s name is commonly associated with the top services you offer.

Once you have identified where the business is currently positioned in the marketplace in terms of both goals and competition, you can define the brand and the promise it offers. The definition should also identify the values the business incorporates.

3. Manage the Brand

Most successful brands are properly managed, and an engineering firm’s branding should be no exception. A brand management team, either employed or out-sourced, will (or should) keep the identity of the brand alive and on track.

While recognition of visual branding will be helpful, it’s what the brand stands for that is important. One way to share the brand voice is to make sure that when the business communicates on any level it sends out a consistent message. Another way is to encourage and empower those working within the firm to integrate the values of the business into their daily lives and the way they operate independently and with the rest of the team.

Make everyone – employees and members of the management team – feel as if they are ambassadors of the brand and know how to communicate the message of the brand in a positive way.

Managing the brand will also require regular evaluation to ensure the business stays on course and achieves its goals. There will likely be a learning curve and goals might change. But when branding is successful, customer loyalty will increase and the business will start to demand a higher market share of its particular engineering niche within its physical area of operation, Chicago or New York for example.

Updating Branding

Your engineering firm may already be branded, but is it still working for you? The truth is, it’s not unusual for businesses to need revamping and refreshing every three to five years.

A fairly quick assessment will tell you if it’s time for renewal or a revamp. Consider if:

The existing branding is outdated. Just updating your logo might make a huge difference.
Your services have changed or you might have shifted to a different engineering niche. If so, the branding message must change too.
Your branding isn’t achieving the response you anticipated. Start by redefining your target market and then adapt your business image to match. If this doesn’t work you might have to start afresh.
Objectively assess whether branding is consistent through all elements of the business from business cards and your website, to the office environment. Inconsistency can be confusing and it tends to look unprofessional.

Updating branding is much like the buildings that engineers help to renovate and restore! Everything needs a change from time-to-time. Don’t feel bad – just do it.

About the author

Michael Tobias is the founder and principal of Nearby Engineers and New York Engineers, an Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Company in America. He leads a team of more than 30 mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection engineers from the company headquarters in New York City, and has led numerous projects in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, and California, as well as Singapore and Malaysia. He specializes in sustainable building technology and is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Digital Branding

Top 5 Website’s Features to Become Mandatory in Following Years

Steven on March 1, 2020

Internet marketing is the most important way of reaching new customers today. Web design is the presentation of your expertise, the way you approach new users or clients, so it is indeed extremely important that quality your website is optimized for your target group. Before we go deeper into the most influential aspect of Internet marketing – features for your website, let’s discuss how a good website is different from a great website.

Is Your Website Good or Great?

Today, it is way easier than 5 years ago to design and develop a decent website within a few days. Progress of different tools made it now, more than ever, possible to launch a fine looking website with less coding than before. Website builders, templates, themes, and layouts are there as well to help you upgrade a simple site to the professional one. Plus, with improving your website you are enhancing your business opportunities!

Considering all listed above, and the fact that internet users are accustomed to seeing websites all the time, on all their devices, it is necessary to have a superior quality website in terms to keep your customers interested! Everyone browsing the internet today can draw a distinction between cheap (PBN, community) site or custom and highly efficient one. Aesthetics have been improving over the last few years, so now we all want impressive features and super cool design.

Besides visuals, a “great” website provides smooth handing – what is also important nowadays to point out: “user friendly experience”. There is no space for a great site to “fail to perform” – it has to keep going on any task with no glitch.

Here are the 5 features we found extremely important to keep implemented and up-to-date to your site in order to rock it up on the www:

1. Invest in your site – chose features smart!

One of the main issues a lot of small or new businesses face at the first stage of developing their online appearance is – lowering the cost for the website in terms of having more budget for the following stages. If you really want to offer tangible value to your visitors and potential shoppers, then don’t hesitate to invest in certain features for your website. Your website should offer tangible value for visitors – so use interactive features to utilize the services available on the site. Customers love to create a sense of interaction, so think about the optimization of emails and offering them the news they are really in need of! Browse for the best WordPress web-design company which can help you with a custom website with totally unique features!

2. Keep in touch – chose the right and unique contact forms

Let’s not keep in look at how your content should be relevant and awesome in terms of visitors to assign to your contact forms. Also, let’s imagine that you did your homework and almost everyone wants an update from your awesome website!

Contact forms are there to help you get through your audience, and keep them informed. You should use them to introduce on-trend new features, frequently asked questions, personal touch or some “unique” offer for loyal customers!

3. Everybody loves Polls!

Here human nature already played a big role! All of us love to participate in discussions. More than ever, on the internet, those discussions can be “anonymous” – well not quite anonymous but you can “hide” under some pseudonym if needed.

Your site is there for people, so what people need- you provide! Make amazing polls from time to time or some other interactive features where people can vote or choose and that way feel needed from your site. Make people more involved in your business and they will come back to you!

4. What is going on behind the scenes?

No need for explaining this in detail – everyone loves to gossip and to see what it is “really” like to do something. So for having people more interested in what you do, a smart move is to do behind the scenes videos or blog posts or images, where you can share some of your funnies and fails. We are all human beings, we all fail – so why not share your weak spot with others?

It can only make you stronger 🙂 Also – don’t forget to add value to those videos, for instance why you chose to do that type of business and what exactly inspired you.

5. Reveal-Based Features

Sometimes we are attracted to things we can’t have. These characteristics are of great value when we talk about customer engagement and online marketing. One way to use this for your business is to introduce a sense of excitement among the visitors. For this purpose, you could try introducing reveal-based features. For instance, you can add games that require all the users to do a certain action prior to accessing the promotion.

Maybe those certain spots made you think more about why is it mandatory to have a super great and highly effective website, in the ocean of average or decent sites. Measure pros and cons and get into the game of “how to engage more”! Many Software development company in Houston follow the above mentioned principlesin roder to attract the visitors.

Legal Branding

How to Keep Yourself Moving If You’re Feeling Stuck at Work

Steven on February 27, 2020

It is easy to get stuck and feel bored at work. This is likely due to the fact that you’re not encountering any challenges enough, not having proper work to do, or just getting tired of doing the same mundane tasks daily. Regardless of how the issue could be, boredom at work can lead to negativity, lack of inspiration and effort which is something you don’t want to put yourself in. Here are some essential ways to get rid of the agonizing feeling of boredom and make your working life exciting again!

1. Visualize Success

Visualization has been adopted by people to imagine their desired outcomes and successes. This exercise allows one to achieve their task or goal with complete focus and confidence. Mastering this skill will help you and the professional CV writing service you team up with demonstrate all your strengths and achievements on your CV if you decide on a career change. Visualization assists in developing a creative subconscious which promotes generating unique ideas. Take for instance, while sitting down with your colleagues for a brainstorm session, encourage everyone to visualize to develop a theme for a marketing campaign.

Practicing visualization is a straightforward method. Sit in a comfortable spot, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and let your imagination take its course. Construct a visual in your mind that represents the dream or your goal that you want to accomplish. Maintain your focus on the imagery and affirm yourself that you can attain it. Keep practicing it twice a day as part of your daily routine so that you can accelerate your achievement of those goals and dreams.

2. Talk to your boss or supervisor about the problems in your job

The best way to resolve this issue is to go directly to your superior so that they can help you out. You can discuss handling more challenging work or tasks, preferably that fits your interest. This approach would certainly benefit both sides as you get to improve and learn more while helping the company by filling up the gaps in areas that require more support.

This is your opportunity to exercise your ability and time to its fullest by going beyond your boss’s expectations. Once you have completed the repetitive and mundane tasks, invest your remaining time on duties that are beyond your job scope. Over time, your boss will recognize your work ethics and commitment. The opportunity to climb your career ladder would be within your grasp.

3. Pick up new skills when you have downtime

If you have plenty of spare time during or after work, take this opportunity to expand your knowledge and learn new skills. Arming yourself with new knowledge can be beneficial to you as well as getting rid of the sense of feeling stuck at work. If you are looking for resources, here are some of the best e-learning platforms to pick up any skill that you need.

Skillshare: platform focused on creative education. Topics covered from graphic design, music production to fine art and cooking. Other technical classes include data science, analytics, and e-commerce as well.
Udemy: over 80,000 different courses, Udemy is one of the best online learning platform marketplaces. Not only it covers professional skills, but Udemy also covers hobbies as well ranging from growing plants to playing video games. That being said, there are not many well-known instructors that use Udemy as the main learning platform.
Coursera: an online course marketplace that is mainly catered for professionals. Coursera features some of the world’s best companies and universities in the world. Courses include arts, humanities, sciences, business, IT, languages, personal development and many more.
LinkedIn Learning: platform tailored to business professionals. There are over 1,000 courses on topics such as project management, web development, and digital marketing. It’s also one of the best platforms if you’re looking at your skill up-to-date. LinkedIn Learning also provides certification for you to include in your profile, displaying your expertise and improving your online resume.

If you are still unsure of what to learn, general skills can be fun and useful to learn at making you a more well-rounded person. Some of the best general skills that you should consider picking up include:

Speed reading
Learn a new language
Learn how to draw
Learn basic photoshop
Photography
Gain the ability to be humorous

4. Find positivity in your job

Regardless of what your job is, there will always be a positive side in your profession. Whether it’s being helpful and supportive of others by creating value in their work or just being able to engage with people, you will find something that you enjoy doing with your career. Another approach is to volunteer to lead in a project, instead of waiting for work to be assigned to you and get stuck with the same mundane task. In this way, you can have more freedom over your work and establishing a better impression of your superior for your willingness to lead projects.

Most importantly, surround yourself with positive people at the workplace because they can provide you with the motivation to achieve your goals, empower you to make the changes to succeed and cheer you on your success.

5. Build momentum through achieving small success

No matter how mundane your job is, obtaining success is still a catalyst that provides joy when you completed tasks and being recognized by your peers. Appreciating your small successes and the small steps you take can be the tipping point between failing and succeeding. The lack of appreciation and gratefulness can also lead you down the path of not being able to see the significance of your own small successes. Last but not least, reward yourself for achieving your small goals. This could be anything from treating yourself to your favorite meal or a drink. Always having something to look forward to is the best approach to train your brain into creating motivation.

About the Author

You Jing is a content writer who writes about career and lifestyle topics to inspire job seekers and employers alike on their journey to work-life balance, empowerment, and transformation in their career path.