Protecting Your Business’s Brand

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Your business’s brand is your business. It is what consumers think of when they see your business, and it is what they see when they think of your business. It is the image that your business gives off about itself and it is what your business is known for and as.

So, yes, your business’s brand is of the utmost importance! And, you need to protect this brand with your life. To see how that is done, make sure to read on.

Manage your digital assets

Today, a lot of a business’s brand can be found online and wrapped up in all of its digital assets, i.e. all the things that exist online that your business has a right to use, such as photos, logos, presentations, etc. So, digital asset management is important. It is important that you manage your assets and know exactly where they are and how they are being used at all times. And, only when you embrace this very important form of management will you be able to be sure that your copyrighted online material is not being misused or being taken advantage of anywhere, even in the darkest crevices of the Internet.

Something else that you can do to manage and protect your digital assets is to set up Google Alerts. Basically, what this would do is alert you every time your brand is mentioned or used in any way online, meaning you can act quickly to tackle the situation should it arise.

Get registered

If you truly want to protect your brand and your trademark, then you need to get them legally registered. You need to get them legally registered because that is the only way you are going to protect them to the absolute full extent.

When seeking to get your trademarks registered with your country’s Patent and Trademark Office, you should most certainly enlist the services of a trademark attorney to assist you. You should do so because the process of getting registered in this field can be long and tedious, and one false move on your part could see the whole venture crumble.

Always think globally

Of course, it is pivotal that you trademark your brand in the country that you trade in because then your direct competitors will know not to infringe on your intellectual property. But, you should always be thinking globally when you seek to protect your brand.

You should always think globally because different countries have different rules and laws in place in regards to copyright. What this means, simply, is that just because you are protected from brand theft in your country, you might be so covered across the globe. In China, for instance, the trademark system works on a ‘first-to-file’ basis, meaning that even if you’ve used a trademark before in your country, it will not legally be yours in China until you go through all the red tape that that country asks you go to.

Your business’s brand is its most important asset, and you need to protect it as much and as well as you can.

How To Prepare For Your Next Marketing Event

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When it comes to getting your business noticed, marketing is essential. This can be done through emails, leaflets, and on social media, but conferences, exhibitions, and trade shows are also important. As any business owner should know, if you fail to prepare for these types of events, you should prepare to fail. If this is your first event, and you don’t know how to prepare, the tips below should be able to help you out.

1. Do Some Research

Don’t just head to whatever event your competitors are going to; You need to make sure that it’s the right event for you. Before you do anything else, make sure that you do plenty of research on the event to make sure that it benefits you in some way. You can do this by checking out the social media pages of the event, their blog, their visitors and exhibitors, and videos of past events.

2. Outline Your Goals

Once you’ve found the right event for you and your business, you need to figure out what you want to achieve by attending the event. If you simply want to use it as a networking opportunity or to increase brand awareness, then a simple tabletop display will suffice, but if you want to sell products, then you’ll need to bring enough with you to meet the demand.

3. Plan Your Display

Whatever your goals for the event, you need a creative and eye-catching display. If you don’t get it right, you’ll have little to no interest. Tabletop trade show displays by Exhibe Corporation and similar companies are designed professionally and ensure that you will stand out from the crowd. Just make sure that you find out any restrictions or requirements for your display, to ensure that it’s not too big.

4. Prepare To Talk

If you are planning to talk at the event, you need to make sure that you put a lot of thought into what you’re going to say. You will need to be able to speak about your business without reading off a piece of paper, so having some pointers and using a power point is a great way to jog your memory while you’re talking.

5. Organize Your Business

Taking members of staff out of the office for a day is going to have a big impact, no matter how large your business. To reduce this impact, you need to make sure that your business is organized, and that everyone knows what they should be doing while you’re not there.

6. Sort Your Transport

You can’t expect your members of staff to get to the event themselves, so make sure you have a meeting to discuss your options. Of course, if people are willing to drive themselves, they can, but it might be more sensible to hire a minibus for the day.

Marketing events are a great way to build brand awareness and generate sales, but only if you’re properly organized. Pay attention to these tips to make sure that you are.

Can You Manage Your Website’s SEO Strategy?

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Businesses need websites to promote themselves to prospective clients, and creating an effective site is a science, and indeed an industry, all its own. Whether you choose to build your own site or employ a specialist to do it for you, all your efforts will be in vain if you don’t get your website to the top of the search engine rankings. It’s hard to move on business and marketing websites for references to SEO and how important it is, but is it something you can manage yourself or is it the digital equivalent of brain surgery – best left to the experts?

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization; it simply means there are certain things you can do with your website that will result in search engines listing it closer to the top of the results list when someone searches for terms that are relevant to your business. That’s the simple part; the complication is how this is most effectively achieved. Different search engines use different algorithms (the combination of factors and how much weight is applied to each) to rank search results, and they are not inclined to transparency when it comes to providing details of their methods. Added to this, algorithms are regularly changed and updated according to a search engine’s development programs.

Tackling SEO yourself

There are some elementary steps you can take to lay the basis for a sound SEO strategy, based on some of the more static principles that algorithms take into account:

• Ensure your site has quality content and is well-written. This is a fundamental requirement, and algorithms place significant weight on the quality of your content.

• Include links to relevant, quality sites. Use sites that have the authority and high traffic for their subject area. The higher the quality and authority of your links the better your site will be rated.

• Get backlinks from other websites to your site. Again, concentrate on authoritative, popular sites. You will need to make connections with other website and blog owners, and you will need to add links to your site in exchange for them adding your link to their site.

• Use appropriate keywords in your metadata and content to highlight the relevance of your business to terms people are searching for.

It can be a time-consuming process to research where you want your site to be linked and agreeing on terms with the hosting site. There is no reason why, with time and dedication, you shouldn’t be able to accomplish this work yourself but remember to keep educating yourself about SEO methods and updates to the algorithms.

Professional SEO services.

Given the huge impact SEO has, it’s no surprise that there are a lot of companies offering marketing and SEO services. Some companies have experience and expertise that can be very effective in formulating a successful strategy. If you are contemplating this option, be sure to find a reputable company like Dymic Digital SEO, and avoid the scammers and the companies that are simply not very good at their job. If you’re contemplating this solution, do some research on the results of companies you are interested in and view their case histories. You can also consult forums and find out what other customers have thought about a company’s services.

Taking a middle path

If you have the skills, time and interest, you may want to deal with some elements of SEO yourself and leave the more complicated aspects to professionals. As long as you can work in harmony with your SEO company, this can achieve successful results. You need to be clear about what each of you is responsible for, and be open to the SEO advisers on every aspect of your strategy to ensure a good working relationship. If you have staff who are interested and capable, you could assign the best candidate to take charge of your SEO. You would need to facilitate appropriate training courses to enable them to be effective in the role and make sure they continue to develop their skills.

Assessing the success of your SEO strategy

Before you begin, whether you are doing it yourself or employing specialists, you need to know how well your website is performing. Use tools like Google Analytics to see how much traffic you’re generating, how many click-throughs and how many conversions. Once you have the figures, compare them every month to see what is improving and what isn’t, so you can adjust your strategy to aid in increasing site views and purchases or inquiries. Reviewing progress and results is a vital step, the same as with all your marketing activities, for without knowing what actions have increased sales, you can’t address any issues and find ways to fix them.

Where to go for help if it’s not working

If after repeated efforts you are still not seeing improved results, it might be time to engage a professional company. The competition for ranking position is fierce, and there are many other websites all clamoring to take the coveted page one positions. You will be at an advantage if you operate in a very focused niche because there will be far fewer relevant results to be retrieved. However, if you have a product or service with general appeal, you will be vying with hundreds or thousands of other businesses, and there are only a few who can make it to the front. If you are determined to or have no choice but to go it alone, you should at least do as much research as you can on optimizing your SEO so that you have the knowledge to make the right changes.

Don’t underestimate the power of SEO to make or break your company. Your website could be beautifully designed and full of exceptional high-quality content, but if it’s not marketed well, you’ll never get high levels of traffic visiting the site. Most people looking for products and services look to a search engine for information, and if you’re not on the first few pages (preferably page one) you’re unlikely to be seen, so give SEO the time and attention it merits.

Reactive marketing: what is it and why should you do it

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News travels fast, and is easily shared thanks to the increasing role of social media in the lives of consumers and the businesses they engage with. Indeed, there are many advantages to this connectivity beyond the social aspect; people can instantly mark themselves ‘safe’ after natural disasters or violent attacks, and ‘good news’ stories from around the world inspire on a daily basis.

With this greater, and faster, connectivity between news sources, businesses and end consumers, it’s now more crucial that brands use dynamic and agile marketing strategies; adopting a timely, reactive approach. So what is ‘reactive advertising’ and why is it important?

What is reactive advertising?

You’ve seen it before, even if you are less aware of the marketing term: when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced their divorce, Norwegian Air launched a print ad in UK newspapers offering low-cost flights to Los Angeles under the headline ‘Brad is single.’ This – and many stunts like it — fall under the category of ‘reactive advertising.’

Reactive marketing capitalizes on newsworthy events as the inspiration for quick turnaround, and short-lived, ad campaigns. They are not always tongue-in-cheek, as with Norwegian Air; reactive ads are also a solid means for brands and businesses to make clear their stance on politics, culture and ethics. For example, see Patagonia’s response to The Administration’s recent protected lands policy change.

Why businesses should be reactive

The presence of brands and businesses in social media means consumers expect these companies to act more like people, and less like corporations. Investing in reactive marketing is a quick and easy way to do this, along with hiring an expert team of social media managers to control your company’s tone of voice and digital content. If you reach your audience with relevant, topical dialogue, your engagement levels will increase on the whole.

Shifting media spend into smaller-scale, nimble reactive advertising can save you money too; gone are the days of huge annual payouts for marketing campaigns, instead momentary media requires short bursts of activity with lower overheads and less planning time.

If you want to learn about Affiliate Marketing, then check out the The Ultimate Beginner Guide For Affiliates.

How to be reactive

Firstly, you must be crystal clear on your company’s values and ethos. Only then will you be able to react to a news story, in a way that’s advantageous to you commercially — if not, you risk doing damage to your brand perceptions in the public eye. Keep abreast of the latest news stories on a platform such as Worldnewshub.org, and when a conversation comes into public debate that you could chime in on, don’t hesitate to act.

Being reactive is your chance to influence, too. So if you feel strongly about a news event, and wish to inform, enlighten or reeducate your audience on the matter, then you can via a reactive marketing campaign.

Of course, you must sense-check any reactive messages with your board of directors or group of stakeholders; lest you take a misstep. However, in the game of reactive marketing, time truly is of the essence.

How to properly execute an online review management program

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article00As a business owner or manager, if you are thinking about assembling an online review management program, you are already on the right path to managing the reputation of your company online. Properly executing an online review management strategy in order to benefit your company takes some critical thought, training, and repetition, but the payoff is ultimately being able to provide potential customers with professional profiles that are truly indicative of the quality service and goods you provide.

Executing on Your Online Review Management Program

If you are looking to make sure the process you’re implementing is successful, you’ll want to make sure that you are constantly checking in with staff and the results to see what’s working and to detect weak areas early on if any exist. We always recommend auditing your current online reviews prior to putting a new plan in place, so that you can set goals appropriately and log progress against the original values.

As you are setting up your review management program, make sure you also appoint a single person (whether this is yourself, a manager, or another staff member) to head this project. By allowing this program to “free float” between staff members, it is more likely to get dropped by the wayside or slip through the cracks when it comes to execution. Similarly, make sure you are scheduling time each week to review progress.

Once your plan is in place, you’ll want to complete the following steps:

Set Expectations

Part of your online review management program is going to consist of setting expectations, or goals. This could mean that you’d like to have 5 new reviews left on your business’s Google My Business profile within two months.

But setting expectations should also mean that you are clearly outlining that you expect staff to treat customers, clients, or patients with a set level of quality care. Similarly, let staff know that you’d like them to ask each customer for a review and to ensure that they specify a designated professional profile, like Google.

These expectations should also be held for yourself; are you asking for reviews and working to ensure that customers have a positive experience? Make sure the expectations surrounding this program are entirely positive and aimed at bettering the company as a whole.

Follow up with Staff

Once your online review management program has been set into action, make sure you’re taking time each week to check in with staff. Ask them what kind of reactions they get from customers after they’re asked to leave a review to see if an alternative method, like using a reputation management software that sends text messages, may work better.

Make sure you’re also asking staff how they feel! Do they feel awkward when asking? Has one staff member developed a great flow of conversation that leads into asking for a review much more seamlessly? These are details that should be shared and accommodated to make sure everyone is successful.

Review the Results

At set intervals, you will want to make sure that you are reviewing the results. By this point, your goals and expectations should be realistic, so seeing one review gained after two weeks of action shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a failure.

Reviewing results monthly and quarterly may be a good way to see trends and manage outcomes by working one-on-one with staff to develop better methods of asking for reviews!