Branding is perhaps the most important facet of any business--beyond product, distribution, pricing, or location. A company's brand is its definition in the world, the name that identifies it to itself and the marketplace. A model may be beautiful, but without a name, she's just "that girl in that picture." Where would Norma Jean be without Marilyn Monroe, or who would imagine Coca-Cola as just a soft-drink manufacturer? A brand provides a concrete descriptor to customers and competitors alike, a name for a product or service to distinguish it from anything else. Bob may run a hobby shop, but trying to advertise as "The hobby shop a guy named Bob runs down the street a ways" is financial suicide. Each customer will have to describe the shop, who Bob is, and what the shop does every time someone asks about it. This makes the process of recommending a good hobby shop too much work for the average customer, and far too much work for a user looking for hobby shops on the Internet. A customer looking up Bob's hobby shop will have an easier time of it if he or she knows to refer to it as "Bob's House of Hobbies," and the customer can then refer others to Bob's hobby shop by name, increasing the potential advertising exponentially. Developing a brand involves more than just picking a catchy name and placing an ad in the newspaper--a brand is more than a unique string of letters denoting a particular product; a successful brand is a mnemonic trigger that makes a consumer feel a certain way when the brand is thought of. For those who drink cola-flavored soft drinks, which is more appealing on a hot day: a cold cola soda, or an ice-cold Coke? Coca-Cola has spent 100 years developing their particular brand of cola-flavored soda as a refreshing beverage and a seminal representation of a market segment. Coca-Cola has used a combination of direct marketing, give-away techniques, and multi-product cross-branding to achieve maximum brand recognition and visibility in not only its immediately competitive market, but in markets as diverse as Coca-Cola branded race cars and housewares.Brand loyalty is an integral part of building a brand, as consumers usually have a choice of products in the same market segment, and so a successful company will come up with a way to keep consumers re-buying their product or coming back to their location rather than going to a competitor. These brand loyalty-building efforts may come in the form of coupons, incentives such as many grocery chains' technique of "grocery discount cards" or "loss leaders," meant to draw consumers into the store, where they will hopefully buy products along with the discounted fare at a higher profit ratio. In exchange for these discounts and grocery cards, many companies collect information about buying habits and average spending amounts, the better to tailor advertisements and better-focus future promotional efforts. Once a consumer is hooked, brand loyalty tends to result in higher sales volume, as well as loyal customers being less sensitive to price changes of their favorite brands (within reason, of course), as well as less sensitive to competitors' incentives. Studies have shown that it takes 5 times as much money to gain a customer as it does to retain one. That's 5 times as much money as could have been spent on other things.A brand is who your company is, and what it is selling--it is as important as naming a baby, and should require the same amount of effort to develop it, but if done well, can mature into a successful and profitable adult. Sponsored By Williams Money Group© 2008, Wholesale Pages UK. All rights reserved.
About the Author
William King is the director of All Wholesale UK, Wholesale Pages and Wholesale-Canada. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.
©2008 Williams Money Group- All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Branding Fiasco -- Better Be Who You Say You Are! by: Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE / Williams Money Group
Our experience as customers offers great instruction into the concept of branding. Come with me on a recent "experience" and you'll see what I mean. Here's the situation:
I want to order an 800 number. On my AT&T bill is a customer services number. I call it. A voice mail gives four options. None of which I want. Just TRY to get a representative. I am instructed to dial another number. I am given three options. Hit 0 for operator and the disembodied voice says I have called after hours. The hours are 7am - 10-pm Monday- Fri. Eastern Standard Time.
Fine. It is now 4am Monday in California. They should be open. By 4:30am in CA I have called repeatedly and punched in all the prompts until I am ready to punch someone. I am still told by a disembodied voice that the offices are closed. I try another number. This time, I reach a computer voice.
Computer:"I'll try and help you. Tell me in your own words what you want."
Me:"Toll free service."
Computer:"I'm sorry. I did not understand. Let me tell you what services we offer..."
Me:"I want a person"
Computer:"Tell me, in your own words, what you want."
Me:"Toll free service!"
Computer:"I am sorry. I do not understand what you want."
Me:(screaming) "I want a person."
Computer:"I am sorry. I..."
SLAM!!!!
I call 00 in frustration. "Operator!!"
Operator: "How can I help?"
Me:"I have been trying without luck to get someone in customer service. I have been caught in a voice mail hell with an atavistic voice. How do I talk to a person?"
Operator:"I am sorry you are having problems. You can talk to a supervisor."
Supervisor:"Can I help you?"
Me:(heatedly) "I want to ask about a toll free number. I have dialed three numbers and cannot get in. It says the offices open at 7am and now it's almost 8am EST!"
Supervisor:"Oh, sometimes they forget to turn off that message so the phones can ring through. We have to call and tell them."
Me:(incredulously) "You mean the PHONE company has employees who do NOT know their first order of business is to turn on phones to answer customers!"
Supervisor:(calmly) "I am sorry. Let me give you a different number than the one you have been calling. You need to call the office for AT&T 1-800 Easy Reach.
"Easy Reach?!??!?" Who are they trying to kid! I call this "Impossible to Reach".
Branding Lesson #1: Your name sets up an expectation. Live up to it or suffer.
There is a promise established in what we advertise and name things. Southwest Airlines had thought to create a baggage claim delivery time slogan. Then they realized that due to the configuration in a few of their terminals, to quote such a time was almost impossible. They dropped the campaign even though it would have been true in MOST of their sites.
Branding Lesson #2: Your business sets up an expectation. If you don't deliver for yourself - how can you deliver for the customer?
A phone company that doesn't answer the phones is a scary thought. We'd expect it of any other business, but the phone company!! If you own a paint store and your store is in sorry need of paint, what does that say? If the waiters in a restaurant cannot tell you about food on the menu because they never get to eat it, what does that say? Look at your business with critical eyes. Would you do business with you?
Branding Lesson #3: The past never counts. The present creates the brand.
It is the actual in-the-moment experience that creates a brand in a customer's eyes. Brand is a living entity that is re-earned, renewed, or revoked with every interaction. Advertising only creates awareness. I am convinced the very best, most unique, most competitive maker of a "brand" is the well-trained, empowered employee who can disregard systems and procedures in order to continue a human interaction. As more organizations substitute technology for people, the company that answers its own phone and get humans connected in short order will win the day.
(c) 2008, McDargh Communications. All rights reserved.
Reprints are appreciated and must include byline, contact information and copyright.
©2008 Williams Money Group- All Rights Reserved
I want to order an 800 number. On my AT&T bill is a customer services number. I call it. A voice mail gives four options. None of which I want. Just TRY to get a representative. I am instructed to dial another number. I am given three options. Hit 0 for operator and the disembodied voice says I have called after hours. The hours are 7am - 10-pm Monday- Fri. Eastern Standard Time.
Fine. It is now 4am Monday in California. They should be open. By 4:30am in CA I have called repeatedly and punched in all the prompts until I am ready to punch someone. I am still told by a disembodied voice that the offices are closed. I try another number. This time, I reach a computer voice.
Computer:"I'll try and help you. Tell me in your own words what you want."
Me:"Toll free service."
Computer:"I'm sorry. I did not understand. Let me tell you what services we offer..."
Me:"I want a person"
Computer:"Tell me, in your own words, what you want."
Me:"Toll free service!"
Computer:"I am sorry. I do not understand what you want."
Me:(screaming) "I want a person."
Computer:"I am sorry. I..."
SLAM!!!!
I call 00 in frustration. "Operator!!"
Operator: "How can I help?"
Me:"I have been trying without luck to get someone in customer service. I have been caught in a voice mail hell with an atavistic voice. How do I talk to a person?"
Operator:"I am sorry you are having problems. You can talk to a supervisor."
Supervisor:"Can I help you?"
Me:(heatedly) "I want to ask about a toll free number. I have dialed three numbers and cannot get in. It says the offices open at 7am and now it's almost 8am EST!"
Supervisor:"Oh, sometimes they forget to turn off that message so the phones can ring through. We have to call and tell them."
Me:(incredulously) "You mean the PHONE company has employees who do NOT know their first order of business is to turn on phones to answer customers!"
Supervisor:(calmly) "I am sorry. Let me give you a different number than the one you have been calling. You need to call the office for AT&T 1-800 Easy Reach.
"Easy Reach?!??!?" Who are they trying to kid! I call this "Impossible to Reach".
Branding Lesson #1: Your name sets up an expectation. Live up to it or suffer.
There is a promise established in what we advertise and name things. Southwest Airlines had thought to create a baggage claim delivery time slogan. Then they realized that due to the configuration in a few of their terminals, to quote such a time was almost impossible. They dropped the campaign even though it would have been true in MOST of their sites.
Branding Lesson #2: Your business sets up an expectation. If you don't deliver for yourself - how can you deliver for the customer?
A phone company that doesn't answer the phones is a scary thought. We'd expect it of any other business, but the phone company!! If you own a paint store and your store is in sorry need of paint, what does that say? If the waiters in a restaurant cannot tell you about food on the menu because they never get to eat it, what does that say? Look at your business with critical eyes. Would you do business with you?
Branding Lesson #3: The past never counts. The present creates the brand.
It is the actual in-the-moment experience that creates a brand in a customer's eyes. Brand is a living entity that is re-earned, renewed, or revoked with every interaction. Advertising only creates awareness. I am convinced the very best, most unique, most competitive maker of a "brand" is the well-trained, empowered employee who can disregard systems and procedures in order to continue a human interaction. As more organizations substitute technology for people, the company that answers its own phone and get humans connected in short order will win the day.
(c) 2008, McDargh Communications. All rights reserved.
Reprints are appreciated and must include byline, contact information and copyright.
About the Author
Eileen McDargh is founder of McDargh Communications, a consulting and training company specializing in inner and interpersonal skill development for the purpose of improving the life of a business and the business of life. Sponsored By Williams Money Group
©2008 Williams Money Group- All Rights Reserved
Friday, September 26, 2008
What is Branding and Why Do You Want It? by: Susan Dunn, Internet Marketing Coach
Talking about branding is like talking about leadership. There are coaches and courses which purport to “teach” leadership, but as we all sense – that’s why we want so badly to learn it – leadership comes from character and inner qualities. It’s an extension of beliefs and values the person holds and then acts out in their life, an integral part of their personality. You can’t pick up “character” in a seminar. It comes from years of reading, work on yourself, exposure to great literature, great art and great people, and plain out experience.
Leadership isn’t going to a seminar and coming back saying, “Let’s do a mission statement,” it’s being so devoted to mission yourself others can’t wait to get around you, find out what it is, and partake of it.
Leaders lead because other people want to follow them. There’s no other reason. Not the paycheck, not the stick … just that feeling when we get with someone – “Hey, I want to go where they’re going. Count me in!”
Leadership isn’t a surface thing, and neither is branding. It’s what you stand for, your personality. It’s your soul and what you’re about.
Fiddling around with your logo and business card are superficial things. They make an impression on your consumer, yes, but they don’t have power; they only have “veto” power. No one ever booked your services because of your business card, but someone may have vetoed you because of it. There are some terrible business cards out there, and people DO form immediate and initial impressions. I’m thinking of the therapist I know who – believe it or not – has a neon fuschia business card. This is not the person I want doing therapy on me or anyone I know.
On the other hand, I never looked at an attorney’s business card – they’re all the same, even the same font – and said, “This is the man I want to represent me in court.”
The way you get your brand across is projecting your personality – who you ARE – in every aspect of your business. What your webpage looks like, the wording, the inclusion of quotes or not, graphics, the way you handle your customers, how well you deliver products, promises and services. Your products and your style.
We bond with businesses the same way we do with people – through their personalities.
When I think about Dave, God rest his soul in peace, and Wendy’s, I think ‘just a comfortable place to be.’ Actually I knew Dave, our kids played soccer together, and he was just the same way in person as he was on the t.v. screen. Now THAT’S branding.
Branding means starting with your values and beliefs, projecting these into everything you do, and going forward from there.
EXAMPLE
When I went into coaching, I did so because I wanted to help people, but in my own way, according to my beliefs and values. Coaching is not therapy, but one thing that frustrates me about therapy is the tight scheduling. You can be in the middle of “And then the man put a knife against my throat…” and your session is over.
I wanted to remove this element from my coaching practice. I wanted to be known for exceptional service, commitment and connection. I wanted to be a place people could come in their warp-speed lives and know they would receive the time and attention they deserved.
How we handle “time” is an important part of our personalities. Here are some of the ways I play with time to project my brand:
–My website is loaded with information that takes a long time to read.
–My website takes a long time to load. We are not in a hurry here.
–Each of my Internet courses comes with the opportunity for unlimited email with me. Learners are free to respond, react, question and dialogue with me for the duration of the course.
–I answer each email individually.
–I don’t use autoresponders anywhere in my practice.
–I don’t arbitrarily limit the time of the coaching session.
–I don’t require a contract. The time is open-ended
–I don’t ordinarily book clients back-to-back. This isn’t an assembly-line.
–I offer the Don’t Die at 50 Weekly Organizational Calendar© but wait til you see it. It isn’t talking about “polish your shoes.”
–I deliver my ebooks personally, that is by email with a note. Sure this could be an autoresponder thing, but that’s not my style. If someone has the courtesy to buy something from me, they deserve the courtesy of a personal note.
Everything I produce and the way I deliver it is branded.
How about you?
BUSINESSES HAVE PERSONALITIES
Paul Temporal, author of “Advanced Brand Management,” asked people to describe two competing companies’ personalities “as if they were people” and here’s what he got.
People defined Company A as “sophisticated, arrogant, efficient, self-centered, distant and disinterested.” Company B, the competitor, they defined as “easy going, modest, helpful, caring, and approachable, and interested.”
Not surprisingly, 95% of the people said they’d rather do business with Company B, and, not surprisingly, Company B was way ahead in the competition.
START WITH YOUR VALUES & YOUR BELIEFS
When you think about branding your business, sit down and think about what’s important to you and what you want to project. Then make sure everything you do speaks of this. In other words, walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk
If it’s your intent to treat customers with respect, operationalize the term and make sure you’re actually doing it. Respect isn’t a concept; it’s an action.
Modernizing your image (logo, collaterals) “won’t effect a change in brand values,” says Temporal. “The heart of the brand remains the same – what it stands for or its personality.”
Consumer perceptions of quality, service and other intangibles are your brand, and what keeps them coming back for more. Are you approachable? Are you interested? Do you care? Do your actions show it? Your customers won’t be fooled and they have choices.
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
Leadership isn’t going to a seminar and coming back saying, “Let’s do a mission statement,” it’s being so devoted to mission yourself others can’t wait to get around you, find out what it is, and partake of it.
Leaders lead because other people want to follow them. There’s no other reason. Not the paycheck, not the stick … just that feeling when we get with someone – “Hey, I want to go where they’re going. Count me in!”
Leadership isn’t a surface thing, and neither is branding. It’s what you stand for, your personality. It’s your soul and what you’re about.
Fiddling around with your logo and business card are superficial things. They make an impression on your consumer, yes, but they don’t have power; they only have “veto” power. No one ever booked your services because of your business card, but someone may have vetoed you because of it. There are some terrible business cards out there, and people DO form immediate and initial impressions. I’m thinking of the therapist I know who – believe it or not – has a neon fuschia business card. This is not the person I want doing therapy on me or anyone I know.
On the other hand, I never looked at an attorney’s business card – they’re all the same, even the same font – and said, “This is the man I want to represent me in court.”
The way you get your brand across is projecting your personality – who you ARE – in every aspect of your business. What your webpage looks like, the wording, the inclusion of quotes or not, graphics, the way you handle your customers, how well you deliver products, promises and services. Your products and your style.
We bond with businesses the same way we do with people – through their personalities.
When I think about Dave, God rest his soul in peace, and Wendy’s, I think ‘just a comfortable place to be.’ Actually I knew Dave, our kids played soccer together, and he was just the same way in person as he was on the t.v. screen. Now THAT’S branding.
Branding means starting with your values and beliefs, projecting these into everything you do, and going forward from there.
EXAMPLE
When I went into coaching, I did so because I wanted to help people, but in my own way, according to my beliefs and values. Coaching is not therapy, but one thing that frustrates me about therapy is the tight scheduling. You can be in the middle of “And then the man put a knife against my throat…” and your session is over.
I wanted to remove this element from my coaching practice. I wanted to be known for exceptional service, commitment and connection. I wanted to be a place people could come in their warp-speed lives and know they would receive the time and attention they deserved.
How we handle “time” is an important part of our personalities. Here are some of the ways I play with time to project my brand:
–My website is loaded with information that takes a long time to read.
–My website takes a long time to load. We are not in a hurry here.
–Each of my Internet courses comes with the opportunity for unlimited email with me. Learners are free to respond, react, question and dialogue with me for the duration of the course.
–I answer each email individually.
–I don’t use autoresponders anywhere in my practice.
–I don’t arbitrarily limit the time of the coaching session.
–I don’t require a contract. The time is open-ended
–I don’t ordinarily book clients back-to-back. This isn’t an assembly-line.
–I offer the Don’t Die at 50 Weekly Organizational Calendar© but wait til you see it. It isn’t talking about “polish your shoes.”
–I deliver my ebooks personally, that is by email with a note. Sure this could be an autoresponder thing, but that’s not my style. If someone has the courtesy to buy something from me, they deserve the courtesy of a personal note.
Everything I produce and the way I deliver it is branded.
How about you?
BUSINESSES HAVE PERSONALITIES
Paul Temporal, author of “Advanced Brand Management,” asked people to describe two competing companies’ personalities “as if they were people” and here’s what he got.
People defined Company A as “sophisticated, arrogant, efficient, self-centered, distant and disinterested.” Company B, the competitor, they defined as “easy going, modest, helpful, caring, and approachable, and interested.”
Not surprisingly, 95% of the people said they’d rather do business with Company B, and, not surprisingly, Company B was way ahead in the competition.
START WITH YOUR VALUES & YOUR BELIEFS
When you think about branding your business, sit down and think about what’s important to you and what you want to project. Then make sure everything you do speaks of this. In other words, walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk
If it’s your intent to treat customers with respect, operationalize the term and make sure you’re actually doing it. Respect isn’t a concept; it’s an action.
Modernizing your image (logo, collaterals) “won’t effect a change in brand values,” says Temporal. “The heart of the brand remains the same – what it stands for or its personality.”
Consumer perceptions of quality, service and other intangibles are your brand, and what keeps them coming back for more. Are you approachable? Are you interested? Do you care? Do your actions show it? Your customers won’t be fooled and they have choices.
About the Author
©Susan Dunn offers personal and professional development coaching, Internet marketing and article-writing services (www.webstrategies.cc/articles.htm ). Visit her on the web at www.susandunn.cc and mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE ezine.
Sponsored by Williams Money Group
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Corporate Branding and Professional Logo Design by: Ray Smith / Williams Money Group
Any business with the minimum interest to be successful should concentrate on developing their corporate image and when I say “any business”, I mean it, absolutely any business—even if it’s a mom-n-pop shop. “Corporate image” might be a big word for such small ventures, however, what I meant by that is how the business wants themselves to be perceived by their customers. Irrespective of the size of the business it is very important to determine how do you come across to your potential customers? How do you compare to your competitors? These factors are largely determined by your branding and marketing strategies. Branding tools like logo designs, business cards etc goes a long way in creating your corporate image. Any marketing communication material should ideally have your corporate logo on it, which would give more credibility for your business as well as help your client to perceive your business as a professional enterprise.
Logo design is an absolutely indispensable part of corporate branding strategy and should always be assigned to professional logo designers. A professional logo designer is not just a graphic designer but he should also have ideas about branding and positioning of business. Depending on your requirements he will create a logo that would successfully exude the nature and attitude of your business. He also needs to understand the media in which you are going to use your logo; it can be web, print, electronic media (TV commercial etc) or a mixture of all of these. The logo should be compatible and equally attractive wherever you might choose to use them. While working on any of our logo design orders we ( http://www.mycorporatelogo.com/customlogodesign.htm )always try to capture as much as information possible, from the client.
Basically there are 4 types of logos, glyph, alpha-glyph, alphanumeric or a combination of any of these. There are a number of factors that should be looked into to determine what would be the ideal solution for you. A professional logo designer or a specialist logo design firm can definitely help you with decision making in this aspect.
Types of Logos
Glyph: This includes symbols, icons, pictures etc that represents your company. These are most widely used for secondary communication rather than business logos, except for few like, Apple. Glyphs though used rarely as logos, if created properly by talented logo designers can be extremely sophisticated and create a deep impact as a corporate identity. However, we need to be careful that glyphs need to be done by well experienced professionals, an amateur attempt can simply male your logo unattractive and useless and might even cause loss of credibility to your business.
Alpha-Glyph: An alpha-glyph logo uses a letter from the name of the company to graphically convey the nature of the business. At times picking the first letter of the company name and designing it in a particular way also do this. Ideal examples of this type of logos can be seen with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), IBM, Honda, Motorola, and Oklahoma State University. This type of logo is also not used very commonly and shares the same advantages and disadvantages as the glyphs.
Alphanumeric: This is a very common type of logos and is also used by some of the most reputed and well-known companies in the world. To name a few, Microsoft, Sony, Fed Ex etc. These logos are nothing but the name of your company written in a unique way with typographical effects. The typographic treatment gives a unique look to the logo and there is generally no issue with getting a Trademark. These logos are comparatively easier for amateurs to create however to get the best effect from an alphanumeric logo it’s always better to work with a professional logo designer. Choice of font, color, letter spacing etc can make big difference in creating an impressive corporate logo.
Combination Logos: This is the most common type of logos and is found everywhere. Most of these are actually glyph or alpha-glyph with an alphanumeric company name. It is the arrangement of the company name and the image and their color combination that plays the most instrumental role in the effectiveness of the logo. Some good examples of combination logos are UPS, Red Hat Linux and Intel.
Placing your corporate logo on all marketing collaterals including business cards, brochures, flyers etc helps you to mark those collaterals as your company property and establish your corporate identity.
Logos and marketing materials are integral part of a company’s brand establishment strategy. A logo done by an amateur can ruin the credibility of your business in no time but when done by a professional logo designer can definitely add value to your business. A professional logo designer can help you to decide which type of logo is best suited for your business and can make people perceive your company as a huge corporate house with much credibility even when it might be just an one man shop.
It’s the image of the company that matters, if you intend to portray a positive and impressive image of your company go for a professional logo design today.
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
Logo design is an absolutely indispensable part of corporate branding strategy and should always be assigned to professional logo designers. A professional logo designer is not just a graphic designer but he should also have ideas about branding and positioning of business. Depending on your requirements he will create a logo that would successfully exude the nature and attitude of your business. He also needs to understand the media in which you are going to use your logo; it can be web, print, electronic media (TV commercial etc) or a mixture of all of these. The logo should be compatible and equally attractive wherever you might choose to use them. While working on any of our logo design orders we ( http://www.mycorporatelogo.com/customlogodesign.htm )always try to capture as much as information possible, from the client.
Basically there are 4 types of logos, glyph, alpha-glyph, alphanumeric or a combination of any of these. There are a number of factors that should be looked into to determine what would be the ideal solution for you. A professional logo designer or a specialist logo design firm can definitely help you with decision making in this aspect.
Types of Logos
Glyph: This includes symbols, icons, pictures etc that represents your company. These are most widely used for secondary communication rather than business logos, except for few like, Apple. Glyphs though used rarely as logos, if created properly by talented logo designers can be extremely sophisticated and create a deep impact as a corporate identity. However, we need to be careful that glyphs need to be done by well experienced professionals, an amateur attempt can simply male your logo unattractive and useless and might even cause loss of credibility to your business.
Alpha-Glyph: An alpha-glyph logo uses a letter from the name of the company to graphically convey the nature of the business. At times picking the first letter of the company name and designing it in a particular way also do this. Ideal examples of this type of logos can be seen with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), IBM, Honda, Motorola, and Oklahoma State University. This type of logo is also not used very commonly and shares the same advantages and disadvantages as the glyphs.
Alphanumeric: This is a very common type of logos and is also used by some of the most reputed and well-known companies in the world. To name a few, Microsoft, Sony, Fed Ex etc. These logos are nothing but the name of your company written in a unique way with typographical effects. The typographic treatment gives a unique look to the logo and there is generally no issue with getting a Trademark. These logos are comparatively easier for amateurs to create however to get the best effect from an alphanumeric logo it’s always better to work with a professional logo designer. Choice of font, color, letter spacing etc can make big difference in creating an impressive corporate logo.
Combination Logos: This is the most common type of logos and is found everywhere. Most of these are actually glyph or alpha-glyph with an alphanumeric company name. It is the arrangement of the company name and the image and their color combination that plays the most instrumental role in the effectiveness of the logo. Some good examples of combination logos are UPS, Red Hat Linux and Intel.
Placing your corporate logo on all marketing collaterals including business cards, brochures, flyers etc helps you to mark those collaterals as your company property and establish your corporate identity.
Logos and marketing materials are integral part of a company’s brand establishment strategy. A logo done by an amateur can ruin the credibility of your business in no time but when done by a professional logo designer can definitely add value to your business. A professional logo designer can help you to decide which type of logo is best suited for your business and can make people perceive your company as a huge corporate house with much credibility even when it might be just an one man shop.
It’s the image of the company that matters, if you intend to portray a positive and impressive image of your company go for a professional logo design today.
About the Author
Ray Smith is a marketing Expert with years of experience in different industries and specialized knowledge on branding and internet marketing.
Sponsored By Williams Money Group
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Corporate Branding – Don’t Forget Your CDs! by: Adam Platzer / Williams Money Group
Companies have been branding their collateral materials such as letterhead, envelopes, business cards, etc. for years. In fact, we often identify a company by its familiar logo or special color scheme. Branding works!! At the same time, many companies send customers and vendors large files, proposals and presentations on CD-Rs. Since CD-Rs have become the “new and more efficient” way of exchanging important information, it would seem that more companies would find it valuable to brand their CD-Rs also.
Most CD-Rs purchased by businesses come from retail office supply stores. These generic CDs usually have the logo of the retail store or disc manufacturer printed on the label. So why promote the store that sells the media? Companies are missing an excellent opportunity to brand themselves in this manner!
Another positive to branding with this type of media is in the perceived value of the media itself. People tend to keep CD-Rs because they are perceived as something of value.
To make sure that you don’t miss this important branding opportunity, here is the solution! Find a CD duplication vendor who will provide your company with branded media. Yes, you too can brand your company by arranging to have your logo screen printed on each piece of blank media you purchase (ours is pictured above). Also, the quality of the media will be much higher than the media you purchased at the retail office supply store.
When artwork for your company logo is created for CD-Rs, enough room should be left on the disc to write specifics about the disc’s contents, such as version number, serial number, a date, a person’s name, etc. A process called Perfect Printing is an option for customizing this information after your company logo has been screen printed on each blank disc. The combination of your screen printed logo and the Perfect Printing of specific content will give your media a more professional look. Furthermore, anyone looking at your discs will see your company name over and over again.
So, what are you waiting for? Start branding your media today!!!
Sponsored By Williams Money Group.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Branding - More Than Just a Statement - A Memory Scar
Conjure up in your mind broad rolling meadows with runs of cattle or stock of some type, all discriminate by virtue of a registered brand. That's a most common and accepted understanding of branding.You have just now used your mind to develop a picture that promises easy recall. You may not yet be aware but there's always a new secret marketing aid being developed and made available ... nearly every day of the week. I'd be one of many that could point out who the target group is for all of these hidden treasures and industrious salespeople. But if you're reading this, then take a bow and a large step forward! You are in fact the "demand" component of the supply that's being generated. Now what happens when you also join the ranks of the industrious? It doesn't take a whole deal of thinking to recognize that you can easily get lost in the traffic, especially if you are starting up a business of your own. Being known as an absolute is a very real way of defeating some of that traffic; not the only way but a very effective one.Your general copy writing and headline creation tactics certainly help the cause but in a saturated market environment you need to embrace every advantage.Exactly what then, can you do, to be noticed? Question well asked and the answer ..... consider branding yourself. The reason branding works is that it gives individuality to the value you provide to those that come to your site. If they don't come to your site then its through your e-mails, e-zines, blogs and advertisements. It makes folk recall your Site and perhaps even prompts them to bookmark. Do it right and they might even opt to scan for forthcoming product that carries your brand name. You'll be far more noticeable if you can create something that settles on someone's mind. Catch the imagination of your readers, use unique or quirky themes and make that difference that magnetizes your audience. By way of example, let me relate a branding experience using a quick story.... tangent if you will.There's a huge red rock located in the middle of Australia that was at one time known as Ayers Rock. More recently it has adopted the term Uluru. The rock and the country around it belong to a group of Aboriginal people called Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara. So, the people also have been renamed and are now referred to as "Anangu" because it's easier. These people have a history rich in story and in this case they identify the various faces of the rock using that approach. One saga goes something like this..... A long, long time ago, in the time of the Tjukurpa, which the Aborigines call the dreamtime, the animals gave shape to a rock. There was a young woma python, or Kuniya, that was passing by and was surprised by a group of Liru, which are venomous snakes. Kuniya, not being from that area, was affronted by the Liru who threw spears at the python and killed him. So hard did they throw their spears that the points made holes in the rock. The Pythons ancestor, also a Kuniya, was so angered by this that he killed one of the Liru with a stick. So, on the west face of the rock there are holes that are said to be from the points of the Lirus' spears and on the south face of the rock, Kuniya the woma python can still be seen as a dark wavy line on Uluru. Now the story in itself doesn't mean a whole lot but if you are ever able to visit Uluru, you will happen to find a south and a west side of the rock that now has individuality because it's been branded. To any one else this is simply a rock but to you, you now know there exists Western and Southern rock walls that hold special understandings. These are unique and remembered even if not in the original light. Get yourself branded and stand out from the rocks that exist in your niche marketplace. Start with your ads, an article or two and build from that into your website. Regardless of what appearance might do to enhance any efforts, it's generally how you stick in a customer's mind that produces results.
About the Author
Dave Jones is a business promoter hoping to encourage new starters into improving their financial futures Sponsored By Williams Money Group
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
About the Author
Dave Jones is a business promoter hoping to encourage new starters into improving their financial futures Sponsored By Williams Money Group
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Internet marketing and keyword search - why with branding?
by: Angelique van Engelen / Williams Money Group |
| Online marketers are busy mapping that magical space where the overlap between real life and the internet is at its most poignant. Where else would they be looking than where real people are actually s p e l l i n g out what they are planning to buy - searches on the web? Every online marketer does it. Buying keywords like crazy. But that is just about how much you hear when you try to focus on this area of internet marketing. It's a wild goose chase and it's unlikely a method will materialize in any recognizable form until the dust has settled. If it ever will. The keyword business is about the most competitive business transacted over the web, so -as with most of the information on web related business- it's unlikely you will come across any lengthy piece with a comprehensive overview of what's going on where. It's somewhat ironic that it's live and learn because in theory, the marketing community should be in its walhalla with the arrival of the internet. Hasn't it been the marketing dream for centuries to get to the stage where a potential customer takes an action? At the end of a marketing ploy, in offline terms it's called the hit, the transaction, the sale, closing the deal. The specifics of keyword buying may be intransparent, but slowly more information is being gathered about the process of online buying. It is striking that this is not exactly a reversal, from the offline process, but slightly. From the beginning onward, the marketer can count on a lot more commitment from his potential customer simply because targeting is so much more specific if the process kicks off with the customer's action. Keyword marketing is much more powerful compared to the offline marketing techniques, simply because it is the customer's actions that set off the spiral. To forego the keyword search as a marketer means you miss out one vital element in the communication cycle your client goes through before purchasing a product. Inefficient marketing was mainly the issue leading to the demise of the dotcom sector earlier on and, having learnt their lesson the hard way, marketers are now finding out more about what customers really want before launching campaigns. From the customer's own words. Sounds great in theory. In practice, the landscape is bewildering to say the least. Having the rights to certain keywords means you are dominating the results that search engines will present to people who type in those words. What is so great about this is that unlike in the real world, online marketers have way more insight into what makes people buy. Because they have access to what actions customers take even before they would be onto them had they been in the offline world. Mountains of gold on the horizon. But the sector is still showing a lot of vulnerability and online marketing is in dire need of improvement simply because the phenomenon is so new. The big advantage to customers is that people can find what they are looking for faster and more efficiently than on any other medium. But still the gap between what customers are specifically looking on the web for and what they are offered is considerable. Customers are too often puzzled, searching a product on the web and finding lists of items with brands totally alien to them. If an online campaign is not backed by offline action, its chance of survival will drop dramatically. Many product campaigns are faltering because adverts are simply being thrown in a surfer's face in irrelevant contexts, they are annoying or ill timed. ONE big area where online marketers are not taking enough heed of the expertise of their offline peers and where they might lose the battle, is branding. Too much direct mail-type marketing means that credible, trustworthy branding is unlikely to occur. Type in a generic search term for a product and find yourself amazed at the outcome. Reading the results, you'd think you'd landed on Mars. Branding the old fashioned way is a lot more time consuming than any internet marketer will naturally be inclined to think. Branding is an exercise of timing, planning, researching and optimised launches. It takes time before people are used to new products. Psychological studies confirm time and again that we buy what we think is safe, comfy, familiar, nice, soft, handy, easy, whatever the word to indicate a certain comfort zone that creates an entry for marketers. It's a known fact that you first need to see a product about umpteen times before it has become a part of your reference frame. If you don't believe this, move to a foreign country, visit a supermarket and try not to feel totally lost. It's impossible. Only if we are familiar with a product brand, we think that purchasing it will better us. If we don't have at least a vague positive idea when we purchase a product, no brand building has been done or not enough or it has not connected with us. Although branding of products offered online is something quite new, it is quite amazing that outright stupid mistakes are made here. Where online marketers are often wrong is where they are measuring search engine advertising the way they would direct marketing. True, much of search engine advertising resembles direct marketing, but realistic measurement of people's attitude towards the products advertised, should include more than only whether or not they buy it. Brand measurement takes place when all the responses are analysed, even why a product is not purchased or not immediately or not at a specific platform. In forgetting to measure any customer behavior outside the conversion rate, they completely forego the power of branding. They don't realize how much greater click through and conversion rates would be if their brands were recognized and trusted by that same audience. Here is an example of just how effective a campaign can be when branding's taken seriously. The marketers have got it so right, that their campaigns themselves have become an overnight brand known for controversy. Called Gatoring, after the company that made the software enabling it, this advertising has come under scrutiny of the courts. What people are upset with is that popup ads are thrown on competitors' sites. If are looking for a particular brand of car for instance, a popup of a competing brand would pop up. Despite its dubiousness, gatoring shows just how effective online marketing can be - when marketers do their homework. About the Author Angelique van Engelen is a writer at a Netherlands based content writing agency. Email her at AngeliquevanEngelen@contentclix.com Sponsored by Williams Money Group |
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
Friday, September 5, 2008
Think Beyond Today and Start Branding Your Future by: Raymond Johnston Jr/ Williams Money Group
One of the subjects that has been thrown around
a lot lately is branding. I guess it is something
that I have done for years without realizing it.
Yet once I really started thinking about it, I
realized that it is something too many people
spend no time or money doing.
The large companies spend millions doing nothing
but getting their name in front of customers.
I have not had a television in years but the
normal routine of people has probably not changed.
A commercial comes and people are off doing the
dishes, off to the bathroom or finish filling
out your list of things to do for tomorrow.
Even though the mind set of people is to other
things while the commercials are on, advertisers
still spend huge money to get their name mentioned
in a 30 second spot. Why? Even though a lot of
people are doing other things, they still hear
Drink Pepsi or Coke is the one.
Sure these people want you to watch the commercial
and by running it over and over, they hope to
accomplish this. But the real branding here is
for you to hear or see their name. The more you
see it, the more likely you are to remember it
when you are making a decision on what to spend
your money on.
When banner ads stopped producing the kind of
response they once were, prices for them started
dropping. If you need to pay bills this week, it
is not the method of advertising that you would
want to choose but for branding it is great.
A few hundred thousand banner impressions can
do wonders for your name recognition. And today,
with a little shopping around, you can get them
very cheap.
I keep a constant watch on Ebay for banner
impressions. Watch a few auctions and get a
feel for what kind of prices they are going
for. Then start watching for some good deals.
There are a lot of places that will put your
banner on their site with unlimited impressions
for a month, two months or even more.
There have been a few companies lately offering
unlimited banners for the life of their site.
Banners may not be the road to getting rich if
you are trying to sell them but they sure can
be a nice way to get a little name recognition
for the advertiser.
A little word of caution here. Check out the
person who is auctioning off the product. Ebay
allows feedback on every transaction and you
can get a pretty good picture of what kind of
person you are dealing with. Make sure you
check before bidding.
Here is a link to the section that has banner
auctions.
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/category11763/index.html
So many people think they have to get a return
on their advertising investment today. You will
find those who are very successful are always
looking towards tomorrow.
Start thinking about the long term when spending
money on advertising. A little money on branding
yourself each month will go a long ways towards
assuring your business success in the future.
Think beyond today and start branding your future.
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
a lot lately is branding. I guess it is something
that I have done for years without realizing it.
Yet once I really started thinking about it, I
realized that it is something too many people
spend no time or money doing.
The large companies spend millions doing nothing
but getting their name in front of customers.
I have not had a television in years but the
normal routine of people has probably not changed.
A commercial comes and people are off doing the
dishes, off to the bathroom or finish filling
out your list of things to do for tomorrow.
Even though the mind set of people is to other
things while the commercials are on, advertisers
still spend huge money to get their name mentioned
in a 30 second spot. Why? Even though a lot of
people are doing other things, they still hear
Drink Pepsi or Coke is the one.
Sure these people want you to watch the commercial
and by running it over and over, they hope to
accomplish this. But the real branding here is
for you to hear or see their name. The more you
see it, the more likely you are to remember it
when you are making a decision on what to spend
your money on.
When banner ads stopped producing the kind of
response they once were, prices for them started
dropping. If you need to pay bills this week, it
is not the method of advertising that you would
want to choose but for branding it is great.
A few hundred thousand banner impressions can
do wonders for your name recognition. And today,
with a little shopping around, you can get them
very cheap.
I keep a constant watch on Ebay for banner
impressions. Watch a few auctions and get a
feel for what kind of prices they are going
for. Then start watching for some good deals.
There are a lot of places that will put your
banner on their site with unlimited impressions
for a month, two months or even more.
There have been a few companies lately offering
unlimited banners for the life of their site.
Banners may not be the road to getting rich if
you are trying to sell them but they sure can
be a nice way to get a little name recognition
for the advertiser.
A little word of caution here. Check out the
person who is auctioning off the product. Ebay
allows feedback on every transaction and you
can get a pretty good picture of what kind of
person you are dealing with. Make sure you
check before bidding.
Here is a link to the section that has banner
auctions.
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/category11763/index.html
So many people think they have to get a return
on their advertising investment today. You will
find those who are very successful are always
looking towards tomorrow.
Start thinking about the long term when spending
money on advertising. A little money on branding
yourself each month will go a long ways towards
assuring your business success in the future.
Think beyond today and start branding your future.
About the Author
Raymond Johnston Jr is the publisher of Money For Hire Ezine. Sponsored By Williams Money Group
©2008 Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Branding, Sloganizing and Search Engine Marketing by: Ralph Tegtmeier / Williams Money Group
The descriptions search engines offer when displaying
search results are generally retrieved from two
sources:
a) the displayed page's title tag;
b) the displayed page's description meta tag or, in
default of same, the first characters of the page's
body text; the number of characters displayed is
limited, with some engines picking up a maximum of
150 characters, other offering slightly more;
c) the displayed page's keywords meta tag - while this
meta tag's content will not be excerpted for the
displayed text's description proper, it is one of
several factors determining which search results
are displayed at all and in which order (ranking).
(Note that this is a generalization - some, though
few, search engines refuse to take into account any
meta tags. Obviously, different rules apply in
their case.)
Both a), b) and c) should relate to the specific
page's content, not the web site's or its corporate
owner's overall theme! That is why they are placed
individually in each page's header in the first
place.
There is a popular misconception amongst web
marketeers regarding search engine positioning
mechanics, namely that web page meta tags and titles
are to be employed as instruments of branding.
However, if true at all, this would typically apply
exclusively to a web site's main or index page.
One of the metaphors commonly used in propagating this
erroneous marketing policy is that of the "business
card".
While it is true that a search result functions as a
site's public representation it must also be noted
that this should always relate to the specific page
displayed: anything else may legitimately be deemed
diversionary tactics, meaning that the page could be
penalized for "spamming". (Yes, the respective search
engines' definition of "spam" varies widely and is all
but consistent. Also, in several cases it notably
lacks a consistent logical basis, but that is not the
topic at discussion here.)
This aside, it should be remembered that it will be
both, a page's title and its description which will
induce a searcher to actually click on the link and
visit the site.
Hence, a page's description as displayed in search
results is more akin to a product precis or summary
than a general corporate business card and should be
construed that way.
A unified approach, presenting one and the same
promotional text on each and every page displayed
by the search engines, while seemingly making sense
from the corporate image point of view, actually
constitutes a severe and unnecessary self-restriction,
effectively hampering the overall online marketing
efforts.
A practical example
-------------------
Let's assume that you are running a used car
dealership with an online presence (web site).
Your company's name is "Honest John Autos Inc."
and your main corporate marketing slogan which made
you famous all over your home town is "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
You offer a fairly extensive variety of used cars
in your products palette, ranging from farmers pickup
trucks to vintage American autos, foreign luxury and
sports cars, etc.
Your web site has some 150 pages, all of which you
will submit to the search engines for indexing.
The pages are well focused and carry specific titles, e.g.:
- "50s Chevvy Beauties"
- "As good as new - Oldsmobile special offers"
- "Luxury finally made affordable - the Porsche
Paradise"
- "Agro Cars - the Pickup Center"
etc.
Now if you insist on putting your "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
slogan in every page's description tag, all you will
be able to rely on to pull visitors to your site is
your page title. But while it may appear to you that
the slogan is a nice marketing reinforcement of the
page title "Agro Cars - the Pickup Center", fact is
that you might as well qualify the title message with
a specific description which is a lot more to the
point in relation to the title - and to the surfer's
original request.
Hence, you might wish to describe your Agro Cars page
in a more focused manner, e.g.:
-----------------------------------------------------
"California's largest selection of second hand
agricultural pickup trucks - excellent condition, and
no-questions asked 30 days full refund guarantee!"
-----------------------------------------------------
(150 chars.), or similar.
This will usually be a far stronger incitement to
visit your page if the web surfer is actually a
serious buyer-to-be. It will also help pre-qualify
your web site traffic by eliminating visitors not
resident in California or perhaps not interested in
buying a pickup in another state than their own.
And there are even more advantages: the page will be
highly topical from the search engines' point of view,
which will normally improve its ranking considerably.
Since the page description will be indexed along with
the keywords meta tag and the body text, you will
increase your overall search engine coverage and
enhance the possibility of your page being found under
search phrase combinations you may not specifically
have optimized it for. (You can't do them all, and
some phrases and keyword combinations are so unlikely
or even contorted, it's highly probable you won't be
able to think of every possibility in advance.)
Thus, while you may be targeting the keywords or
search phrases "used cars", "second hand cars" and
"pickups", the example above may also give your page
a good ranking for combinations such as "+used
+pickups +guarantee" or "pickups California", etc.
Compare this to the limited scope of your "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
slogan!
So what about branding and sloganizing, then?
---------------------------------------------
Don't confuse the media you are working with!
And, of course, determine what your web site is
really about: do you actually want to sell products
and services online or, at the very least, draw
buyers to your brick-and-mortar sales rooms? In that
case you should proceed as suggested above, leveraging
the possibilities offered by keeping your page tags
flexible and focused.
But even if branding (without actually targeting
online sales) is all you care about, your web site
will still require some enticement to motivate people
to visit it.
You might offer some regular sports or betting
results, feature some online games, organize a
sweepstake, etc. These, too, will require focused and
well described web pages, else no one will come and
check them out. (Nobody will visit CocaCola's web site
merely for the heck of it or to imbibe their online
promo, unless they offer some entertainment and a prize
of sorts to do so.)
So there are some generic limits to conventional
branding on the web, and you will be well advised to
heed them. Search engines aren't the best medium to
try for it: you may sink a lot of money into the wrong
corner of the marketplace that way.
You may, however, push your branding considerably by
other activities than search engine optimization:
press releases, newsgroup participation, banner ads,
reciprocal links, online reviews, free trial
downloads, client testimonials, etc.
If you're interested in a professional, high quality
marketing package tailor made to your specific
requirements, we suggest you check out our strategic
partners at California based Wolfblast Interactive
Inc., <> - you won't get
better value for your money anywhere!
Remember that search engines are supposed to be user
tools, not mere brain dead corporate billboards! If
you want to make your mark and increase your
(preferably pre-qualified) search engine traffic, make
sure to service the user first: this will in fact turn
out to be the best investment in your search engine
focused online marketing.
Users will appreciate it if your search engine
rankings prove to be relevant, informative and
truthful. Just like you, they don't like wasting
their time on confusing, misleading or nondescript
search results.
And lots of studies have shown that search engine
optimization is actually the most cost-effective
marketing activity of all. It is bound to give you a
much bigger bang per buck for the simple reason that
it's a fairly lasting effect (at least, by internet
standards it is): Many of our clients are still
profiting today from search engine positioning work we
did for them 10+ months ago - no banner ad campaign can
beat that, not in absolute terms and certainly not for
that sort of money.
Search engines:
"Play them right, and they will feed you.
Play them wrong, and they will eat you."
©2008Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
search results are generally retrieved from two
sources:
a) the displayed page's title tag;
b) the displayed page's description meta tag or, in
default of same, the first characters of the page's
body text; the number of characters displayed is
limited, with some engines picking up a maximum of
150 characters, other offering slightly more;
c) the displayed page's keywords meta tag - while this
meta tag's content will not be excerpted for the
displayed text's description proper, it is one of
several factors determining which search results
are displayed at all and in which order (ranking).
(Note that this is a generalization - some, though
few, search engines refuse to take into account any
meta tags. Obviously, different rules apply in
their case.)
Both a), b) and c) should relate to the specific
page's content, not the web site's or its corporate
owner's overall theme! That is why they are placed
individually in each page's header in the first
place.
There is a popular misconception amongst web
marketeers regarding search engine positioning
mechanics, namely that web page meta tags and titles
are to be employed as instruments of branding.
However, if true at all, this would typically apply
exclusively to a web site's main or index page.
One of the metaphors commonly used in propagating this
erroneous marketing policy is that of the "business
card".
While it is true that a search result functions as a
site's public representation it must also be noted
that this should always relate to the specific page
displayed: anything else may legitimately be deemed
diversionary tactics, meaning that the page could be
penalized for "spamming". (Yes, the respective search
engines' definition of "spam" varies widely and is all
but consistent. Also, in several cases it notably
lacks a consistent logical basis, but that is not the
topic at discussion here.)
This aside, it should be remembered that it will be
both, a page's title and its description which will
induce a searcher to actually click on the link and
visit the site.
Hence, a page's description as displayed in search
results is more akin to a product precis or summary
than a general corporate business card and should be
construed that way.
A unified approach, presenting one and the same
promotional text on each and every page displayed
by the search engines, while seemingly making sense
from the corporate image point of view, actually
constitutes a severe and unnecessary self-restriction,
effectively hampering the overall online marketing
efforts.
A practical example
-------------------
Let's assume that you are running a used car
dealership with an online presence (web site).
Your company's name is "Honest John Autos Inc."
and your main corporate marketing slogan which made
you famous all over your home town is "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
You offer a fairly extensive variety of used cars
in your products palette, ranging from farmers pickup
trucks to vintage American autos, foreign luxury and
sports cars, etc.
Your web site has some 150 pages, all of which you
will submit to the search engines for indexing.
The pages are well focused and carry specific titles, e.g.:
- "50s Chevvy Beauties"
- "As good as new - Oldsmobile special offers"
- "Luxury finally made affordable - the Porsche
Paradise"
- "Agro Cars - the Pickup Center"
etc.
Now if you insist on putting your "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
slogan in every page's description tag, all you will
be able to rely on to pull visitors to your site is
your page title. But while it may appear to you that
the slogan is a nice marketing reinforcement of the
page title "Agro Cars - the Pickup Center", fact is
that you might as well qualify the title message with
a specific description which is a lot more to the
point in relation to the title - and to the surfer's
original request.
Hence, you might wish to describe your Agro Cars page
in a more focused manner, e.g.:
-----------------------------------------------------
"California's largest selection of second hand
agricultural pickup trucks - excellent condition, and
no-questions asked 30 days full refund guarantee!"
-----------------------------------------------------
(150 chars.), or similar.
This will usually be a far stronger incitement to
visit your page if the web surfer is actually a
serious buyer-to-be. It will also help pre-qualify
your web site traffic by eliminating visitors not
resident in California or perhaps not interested in
buying a pickup in another state than their own.
And there are even more advantages: the page will be
highly topical from the search engines' point of view,
which will normally improve its ranking considerably.
Since the page description will be indexed along with
the keywords meta tag and the body text, you will
increase your overall search engine coverage and
enhance the possibility of your page being found under
search phrase combinations you may not specifically
have optimized it for. (You can't do them all, and
some phrases and keyword combinations are so unlikely
or even contorted, it's highly probable you won't be
able to think of every possibility in advance.)
Thus, while you may be targeting the keywords or
search phrases "used cars", "second hand cars" and
"pickups", the example above may also give your page
a good ranking for combinations such as "+used
+pickups +guarantee" or "pickups California", etc.
Compare this to the limited scope of your "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
slogan!
So what about branding and sloganizing, then?
---------------------------------------------
Don't confuse the media you are working with!
And, of course, determine what your web site is
really about: do you actually want to sell products
and services online or, at the very least, draw
buyers to your brick-and-mortar sales rooms? In that
case you should proceed as suggested above, leveraging
the possibilities offered by keeping your page tags
flexible and focused.
But even if branding (without actually targeting
online sales) is all you care about, your web site
will still require some enticement to motivate people
to visit it.
You might offer some regular sports or betting
results, feature some online games, organize a
sweepstake, etc. These, too, will require focused and
well described web pages, else no one will come and
check them out. (Nobody will visit CocaCola's web site
merely for the heck of it or to imbibe their online
promo, unless they offer some entertainment and a prize
of sorts to do so.)
So there are some generic limits to conventional
branding on the web, and you will be well advised to
heed them. Search engines aren't the best medium to
try for it: you may sink a lot of money into the wrong
corner of the marketplace that way.
You may, however, push your branding considerably by
other activities than search engine optimization:
press releases, newsgroup participation, banner ads,
reciprocal links, online reviews, free trial
downloads, client testimonials, etc.
If you're interested in a professional, high quality
marketing package tailor made to your specific
requirements, we suggest you check out our strategic
partners at California based Wolfblast Interactive
Inc., <> - you won't get
better value for your money anywhere!
Remember that search engines are supposed to be user
tools, not mere brain dead corporate billboards! If
you want to make your mark and increase your
(preferably pre-qualified) search engine traffic, make
sure to service the user first: this will in fact turn
out to be the best investment in your search engine
focused online marketing.
Users will appreciate it if your search engine
rankings prove to be relevant, informative and
truthful. Just like you, they don't like wasting
their time on confusing, misleading or nondescript
search results.
And lots of studies have shown that search engine
optimization is actually the most cost-effective
marketing activity of all. It is bound to give you a
much bigger bang per buck for the simple reason that
it's a fairly lasting effect (at least, by internet
standards it is): Many of our clients are still
profiting today from search engine positioning work we
did for them 10+ months ago - no banner ad campaign can
beat that, not in absolute terms and certainly not for
that sort of money.
Search engines:
"Play them right, and they will feed you.
Play them wrong, and they will eat you."
About the Author
Ralph Tegtmeier is the co-founder and principal of
fantomaster Ltd. (UK) and fantomaster GmbH
(Belgium), a company specializing in webmasters
software development, industrial-strength cloaking and
search engine positioning services. Sponsored By Williams Money Group
©2008Williams Money Group - All Rights Reserved
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