by Francois Muscat | Sep 17, 2018 | Digital Media Marketing
Did you know that your corporate identity influences consumers and their purchasing decisions? Now you do! It should, therefore, be clear that a consistent corporate identity is vital to ensure that your company will be recognised, remembered, loved and shared. But, crafting your corporate identity entails more than giving free rein to a designer. So, how do you create a strong corporate identity that sets your business up for sustainable success? Follow the 8 steps below, and you can’t go wrong:
Plan Your Company Strategy
It is pointless to create an identity that is only relevant to your current position. Your new identity has to be based on where you are going, so keep your business strategy for the future in mind.
Assess Your Existing Distinctive Brand Assets
Brand assets are much more than just your logos, your font or your existing colour palette. It expands into all the brand elements that are associated with your business, even the themes that you use in your advertising or office spaces. Ideally, the public should still recognise your brand even if your logo is not used. Think of the Savannah ads that were instantly recognisable simply based on Barry Hilton’s dry humour and the dimly lit pubs.
Know Thine Enemy
Invest in market and competitor research. That will enable you to know what everyone else is doing, so that you can identify what is uniquely yours.
Out With the Old, In With the New
Once you know what differentiates you, think about what you should keep and what you are willing to (or should) let go. Remember, you not only want to be recognised for what you do, but also for being unique in your category, so make your selections with that in mind.
You Are As Good As Your Partner
Use a professional agency (with trusted talent) to help you develop your brand identity. They must be able to translate your brand values into something simple (yet striking), visual and current.
Rome was not Built In A Day
Do not be alarmed if the first draft is nothing like what you had in mind. It takes time, patience and going back to the drawing board (often!) to create your new identity. Be open-minded; listen to what your agency has to say and trust your team and the process.
On Your Marks, Get Set, ‘Logo’
Brand identity is about so much more than just a logo: colours, fonts, spacing, iconography, imagery, brand assets, the list goes on. You want to achieve longevity. So, focus on a digital-first approach by designing for digital and dynamic environments. Then, build the concept out into the static environment.
Design for 2030
Do not perfect your brand identity for everything that your business is today – be a futurist and develop a brand identity for what your business will look like in 2030.
A successful new corporate identity should have impact, differentiate you from the rest and offer ease of application across multiple channels. It should keep the loyalty of your current clients, while attracting new customers with your more relevant and progressive brand.
by Francois Muscat | Sep 10, 2018 | PPC
Are you investing in paid online advertising but battling to get the results you envisioned? Here are a few reasons why your PPC campaign may not be converting the way you thought it would:
You Aren’t Using Landing Pages
If you’re going through the effort of setting bids, crafting ads, researching keywords and optimising your strategy, then you better be creating landing pages for your ads as well. All too often, customers spend time on every aspect of their paid online advertising without considering what people will read and experience when they decide to click on your ad.
The landing page that your potential customer is sent to should reflect the messaging in your ad. Besides using the same keywords, the content on the page should contain everything they need to progress through the sales funnel and contact you or buy the product then and there. Focus on establishing trust and authority, give them all the pricing and warranty information they need, and show them why they should turn to you when they are ready to spend money.
You’re Not A/B Testing Enough
Virtually any PPC campaign can be optimised with slight tweaks and changes. Creating an effective PPC campaign requires investigating different approaches to keywords, targeting and bidding. The more you test your ads, the better you will get at creating a strategy that consistently leads to conversions.
Your CTAs Aren’t Clear
Landing page content is different to the content on your website or blog in the way that it promotes and sells what you are advertising. The calls to action need to be clear and compelling. Experiment with clickable buttons and other design elements to make your calls to action stand out from the rest of the content on your page.
Need help with your pay per click advertising and digital marketing strategy? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Sep 10, 2018 | Digital Media Marketing
Whether your eBook is 10 pages or 100 pages long, you undoubtedly spent multiple hours writing, editing and polishing it to get it perfect. If you have already published your eBook on your website or even an online marketplace like Amazon, you need to make sure that you are continuously driving people to your download or ‘buy now’ landing page. Here are a few tips to market your eBook like a pro:
PPC Marketing
If your initial downloads have started to wane, it is time to bring in the big guns. A paid Google advertising campaign is one of the most effective ways to boost your content’s visibility.
The reason why PPC is a great way to market an eBook is that you are giving away free advice. Instead of linking to a product page or a sales pitch, a Google user will see that you are providing educational content. When it is time to buy, they will remember where they got the advice that helped them solve a problem.
Guest Blog
Reach out to industry news sites and other platforms that your potential customers visit. Write guest posts related to your field of expertise and use your eBook as a call to action. Instead of telling people they should contact you when they are ready to buy, the approach of giving them more information for free will help you build a relationship with them. Be sure to ask for email addresses so that you can keep in touch with people who download your eBook.
Email Marketing
If you have already let your existing clients know that they can download your eBook, then you need to expand your reach. Gather contact details of people you meet at industry events and people who contact you with queries so that you can send them a series of emails with links to your eBook.
Do you need help marketing your eBook? Then get in touch with WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Sep 3, 2018 | Content Marketing
How can you create better content that shakes people awake and makes them read every word, click every link, and watch every second? How can you create content that people want to consume? Here is a simple formula to tell better stories:
Content needs to be story driven. If you start with a story, people want to pay attention, and they want to listen. People like stories and there are three parts to a story:
- Context – state the situation that led to the story
- Inciting incident – this is usually a conflict of some kind
- Resolution – this is where you can state how the conflict was resolved
Think about how you can turn pieces of your existing content into better stories. Case studies, for example, are a great opportunity for better storytelling and content marketing.
Many times, companies create stock-standard, dull case studies that list the client’s name, the product that was specified for their project, and the result. Consider how much more interesting this case study would be if you gave more context to the situation. Tell the reader what industry the client is in and what challenges they were facing. Then you could go on to tell how your team went about determining what type of products or services were needed to resolve the situation. Then, you could have before and after photos showing how you successfully overcame the challenge.
Virtually any content that you post can be improved with better storytelling. If you’re posting team photos, tell your audience who the people are, how long they have been with your company and what they are working on. Give people more context, more conflict and more resolutions for fuller, better stories.
Do you need help with your content marketing, social media marketing, or digital marketing? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Sep 3, 2018 | Digital Media Marketing
Is your digital strategy harming or helping your online reputation? Here are 4 customer service mistakes to avoid in the digital age:
Deleting Negative Feedback
Many of the brands who are leading in the digital space know that this is a definite no-no. If a customer complains about service or posts a negative comment on your page, you should not delete it (unless it is highly offensive and full of profane language). The best action to take is to respond publicly, so that people can see that you take negative experiences with your brand seriously. Ask the person for more information so that you can solve the problem for them.
Not Creating A Seamless Experience
If a person complains about a brand on Facebook and someone like a social media manager follows up with them on this platform, they expect to not have to explain the entire problem from the beginning to a new person. If you are directing complaints to a customer service centre or a product specialist, give the person the necessary background that is needed to solve the customer’s problem.
Misleading Information
If communication in your business units is lacking, having a digital marketing team can create a divide from other departments, such as a sales team or an above-the-line marketing team. If your business is advertising an in-store promotion, then this information should be available on your digital platforms such as your website, blog, and/or social media platforms as well. Promotional information and pricing information need to be consistent on all your platforms. If not, your customers may feel that they are being misled.
Poor Grammar
Not everyone is a copywriter, but this does not mean that you should make peace with spelling and grammar errors in your business. Everyone – from your customer experience agents to your social media managers – needs to be able to communicate fluently in the languages that your customers speak.
Need help with your digital marketing, SEO, social media marketing or content marketing? Then contact WSI OMS today.