by Christine Marr | May 2, 2012 | Branding, Interactive
In today’s market environment we want information instantly and that goes hand in hand with web site performance. We increasingly have a shorter attention span and more and more the concept of brand loyalty is taking on a broader definition than, say, a decade ago. The most relevant reason for all of these to have occurred rests on the “internet”… and more specifically, web sites. It is a property that has taken its place in the brand conversation in junction with social media. No longer can you separate the two. Both combine to provide a stronger brand presence and brand premise. So how can you maximize your ROI on your web site performance and social media. How can you develop, build and maintain that elusive relationship with your consumers, audience and market.
The short answer is that it is no longer important only to get visitors to go to your site… your site is now the basis of the total social media umbrella. Enhancing your web site performance is key. Your web site should be the gateway and the destination through your other social media properties such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Branch Out, Pinterest…. How to do that?
Here’s a quick list:
1. Navigation should be intuitive and make sense. Make your visitor comfortable, it should be easy for them to find what they want from the home page. It goes without saying that you need to look at your competition and see what they are doing. However, you must determine what will provide optimal user experience for your target. The faster and easier the navigation, the more customers will return to your site and stay longer.
2. Content is king… it is important to address your customers’ pain. Do this visually for greatest impact…. and do this copy wise for clarity of position as well as keyword optimization. Find out what keywords are “key” to your industry and speak to them. I am not suggesting that you place every key word on every page… that’s not going to do well. Exercise judgement and common sense. Seasoned marketing professionals and writers will know how to do this well. Make sure you provide your target with a clear understanding of what their pain is, what their needs are and how you can help eliminate their pain. Connect with them on an emotional basis.
3. Again….content is king… it’s important to get in your target’s radar by providing them relevant and timely information. Gone is the the brochure-type of web site. Sites that don’t allow for fresh updates, new posts or tips are losing a huge opportunity in engaging with their customer base and developing a dialogue and relationship with customers. Write tips or mini articles…. share them on Facebook, tweet….regularly and consistently. This will to a long way in gaining the trust of your customers and convince them that you can answer their pain. Blogging is great for keeping your content fresh, so you are found more often.
4. One more time….content is king…. it is no longer important to only get visitors to go to your site… your site needs to motivate them to spend time browsing through your pages withe information that is relevant to them, so much so that they feel compelled to provide their information on your website so then you can engage them on a one to one, or digitally or as part of your community. This is what is called inbound marketing. Create relevant information that lives independently of your site… but still adds value to your potential customers… and adds value to your brand. Web sites need to be built integrating forums or blogs, and providing fresh and diverse information on the home page to continually improve SEO (Search engine optimization) and get found. More importantly this provides a very effective way to generate leads and integrate sales initiatives.
5. Create buzz and excitement driving people through facebook, LinkedIn and traditional and digital media. We are currently running a campaign for Kressmann Wines through Facebook, Twitter, digital and print ads. In less then 24 hours we received over 1400 likes on Facebook and have now started engaging with our community. We are constantly commenting and interfacing with our customers and of course, driving them to the web site as well! This can easily be done in the b2b arenas, niche markets and for community businesses. The digital arena allows for such precise slices of target segments so every dollar you spend is accounted for and relevant!
6. Information, not data, is key as success is in the measurement….! Track your site’s and social media progress and traffic, and respond accordingly. It’s not about just creating a promotion and just leaving it alone. You need to work it! It’s important to set your google analytics properly so you can respond and react to the information you are receiving. Metrics are important to evaluate where your visitors are coming from, why, and what actions they have taken once they land on the site.
7. Keep it fresh… is not only a good adage for food, but for web sites too. Monitor your site on a regular basis. Monitor every page of your site, catch broken links or improve on the elements, make sure pages load quickly. Revisit the site with fresh eyes and fine tune accordingly. Don’t let it go stale. Too often, sites get all the attention when they are being developed and then left alone. That’s a sure way of not being in harmony with the market!
Simple, compelling, engaging, fresh, exciting and trackable. Make your site work for you! Achieve inner peace with your site… Ohmmm.
by Miriam Hara | Apr 20, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Creative
We’ve all said it before… but I’ll say it again. Brand is so much more than a logo, than a positioning statement. These establish the brand premise and the foundation to build the brand culture. A true brand must be bold, must stand apart every time it speaks to the consumer. It must always be authentic to its premise. It must reinforce its uniqueness and authenticity with every piece of communication… whether it’s an e-initiative, an ad, outdoor campaign, digital campaign, website, customer letter, greeting card and, yes, even a sign on the wall.
It has always been my belief that every detail that is viewed by the target market is an integral piece of the brand building process. I have always correlated building brand to building a house. The logo and the positioning statement are the foundation of the brand. Then the framework, dry walls, windows all have to be added…. to support and build the “total vision” of the house.
This “building strategy” recognizes the need of investing a little more in say, a business card or a leave behind , and is as integral as a full scale advertising campaign. Okay, I hear you asking the question… what do I mean by “investing a little more?” This is what I mean: look at every communication piece and ask the number one question… “How do I make my brand the sole owner of this piece?” Is it only colour? Is it simply by stating the brand’s offering? Does the initiative I am working on speak to my Brand and communicate my Brand solely… only and truly? Is it moving beyond the mundane, true and tried initiatives that have been done… offering no intrinsic value, no additional wow effect to my target audience? Does it assist in making my brand stand apart…even before they read it…as soon as they see it?
How to evaluate a marketing piece and increase the brand ROI of that piece. Here’s a simple way that will help you in answering the question.
If a competitor can replace your logo with theirs, change the colour and the words and use everything else that you’ve developed than you haven’t created a unique brand piece. This question works whether you are evaluating an ad, a flyer, a billboard, a sales aid, a leave behind, brochure, etc…
So how do you create a brand piece that no one can “take” from you. The answer is easy:
Create it so that it reflects your Brand Offering and USP… and I don’t just mean plopping a logo, and making everything in your brand colours (although that is must!). The initiative has to speak to the Brand Culture, position in personality, in format, in copy style. This is the only way that competitors can’t mimics your brand or “take ” your initiative and make it their own… because they can’t deliver on the promise or on your brand’s USP… only your brand can.
In short: creating brand ROI is the first step in achieving business success.It is obvious that Brand must provide ROI. But what should be the expectation of delivering on brand ROI? Is it reasonable to expect brand ROI immediately? Is it reasonable because you have a website and a logo to expect that your brand initiatives are done and all other initiatives just need to follow through? Today, more than ever, halfway measures and “me too look alikes” will damage the performance of you brand and believe me, that will definitely effect the brand ROI.
I look forward to your comments and discussing your point of view. I invite you to join in the conversation! If you got here via a link from a friend, or Linkedin, I invite you to join the conversation on marketing, branding and design… sign up on 3H hoopla! here.
by Christine Marr | Feb 10, 2012 | Advertising, Business Success, Social Media
We live in a fast-paced market…but when is good enough not good enough? With the new way of communication, technology has starting re-writing our language and the way we communicate, especially in professional communications. That is totally acceptable, as language too must evolve with the needs of the society it serves. It wouldn’t be the first time that the English language has changed. Today, we communicate so fast when we text message, tweet, post Facebook updates… this need for speed makes us just want to get the message out to our audience, regardless of spelling, grammar, punctuation.
Maybe I am showing my age… however, I believe that there is increasingly a blur between our personal communications and our professional communications… and really that shouldn’t be. Business is business, and if you start your first impression with a typo or poor grammar because it’s an e-zine or digital media, it doesn’t make it all right.
Is misspeling and poor grammar accepaible in bisiness? Okay, I jest. I know that this is really an extreme, but believe me when I say, even one misspelled word sends out the same message as a whole bunch misspelled words, poor grammar and even poorly written copy.
Below is an e-blast message as an example. Shouldn’t brilliant ideas also include great execution? Does having no rules imply that anything goes… and with it your brand and business? When I received this I was shocked.What is proper etiquette here; do you gently tell the sender/author that they have a typo?Recently I caught the same saw the same sort of issue on a Linkedin profile and and I sent a private message. Isn’t Linkedin a professional environment where the first impression counts
Bad spelling, poor punctuation and grammar can say many things about your business…it’s not talking about you… and it says that you do business carelessly. When we communicate on the internet, 99% of the time it is done by the written word. Spelling errors in business will make you appear unprofessional. Avoiding common misspellings and grammatical errors ensures that your writing is clear, precise, and comprehensible, making a positive impression on readers, which is particularly important in business communications. What’s the issue and how hard can it be? It couldn’t be any easier to check spell and re-edit your grammar with all the tools like spell check found in most and all software… It’s not 100%, but at least it’s a start.
The need for speed and cutting costs have made businesses accept good enough and I don’t believe that’s a good strategy. Think about the investment that businesses make about building their brands/business only to have it undermined by the need to communicate to their potential customers/clients quickly. At the end of the day that’s a high price to pay.
Am I starting to show my age? Am I not going with the flow? I’d like you to share your comments about this.
by Miriam Hara | Jan 12, 2011 | Branding
Psychographics is an approach to marketing that uses personality, value, belief and lifestyle as a measure. It has always been around, but technology is the vehicle that is now tapping into it. Any market target is multi-dimensional in digital advertising – more than the rigid dividers of age, ethnicity or financial means. Online networks are the inclusive grouping of minds, and so commodities have to speak to that psychic presence – you have to speak to the psychographics of the demographics.
Smart technology is taking a page from Freud, and accessing the psyche. Google TV recently formed an alliance with Jinni, an Israeli company that has developed a semantic search-and-recommendation engine, which it bills as being based on “content genetics and user psychographics.”
Psychographics are the glue, connecting certain demographics, and speaking to an underlying emotional character – sometimes subconscious. Ascent app, a new fragrance questionnaire app from Estée Lauder tries to tap into this unconscious, aiming at a “higher awareness” of consumers’ personal fragrance using psychographics along with other psychological measures. According to The Independent UK, this application allows users to “discover” new fragrances they might not know they would have liked by heavily factoring in emotion and lifestyle into the selection process. Blurring the unit from consideration to purchase of product as a feedback loop.
It’s the 3-D way of marketing.
mph
Miriam P. Hara
Chief Creative Officer
3H Communications Inc.
3h.ca
