Time, Investment & Understanding

Businesses often put off using social media as a strategy to grow their business for three reasons; time, investment and understanding. Time is an investment, and like all investments we expect, or hope, to see a return. Many business owners never invest their time or money into social media because they don’t understand how to use the various platforms and therefore can’t verify their return on investment. Getting started with social media isn’t a complicated process and in fact we’ve broken it down for you in bite-sized steps, but firstly you need to understand why you even need a social media presence.

To fully understand the benefits of SEO and Web Design you must know the importance of search engines and how we as a society use the internet. Today consumers expect items as quickly as possible and worthwhile content. The result is more localized searches, more content per page and fast load times.

The longer a website takes to load, bounce rates go up, and conversion rates fall dramatically. While paid search results are successful, investing in SEO to improve organic search results is far more beneficial. Over the past decade, the way we access the internet has evolved, mobile use since 2009 has grown by leaps and bounds. Phone calls coming directly from a search engines continue to rise and show no sign of slowing.

View the benefits of SEO & web design below...

Advertising in this day and age has become more confusing and daunting for the vast majority of business owners.  No longer are we in an era when a newspaper ads and billboards will be sufficient.  Digital advertising continues to rise, according to Forbes, by 2021 digital ad spending in the US is projected to be nearly $130 Billion.  Marketing today is a fast-paced and cutthroat industry, what worked a few years ago may not be as effective today. 

Standing out and understanding how to reach a captive audience can be difficult, which leaves businesses struggling to compete.  Many small businesses neglect advertising initiatives, avoid digital platforms or choose not to advertise at all.  

The key to any marketing initiative is understanding the difference between these two terms.  Both terms identify potential individuals with interest in a product or service; however, these terms are not interchangeable.  A market is an extensive set of individuals, and this could be an entire country, region or gender within a select age category.  A target audience is generally much smaller and might consist of a few hundred individuals within a large market who have specific interests.  For brands and companies who have a broad appeal and or high demand the target audience may be close in size to the entire market.

Identify A Market

Identifying a profitable target market is usually the first step before narrowing in on a target audience.  There are a few main factors to be evaluated to find a market; including market size, growth potential, future profitability, number of competitors, and the general demographics of the population.  The demographics of the market will reveal consumer demands, buying habits, income, and lifestyle.  With these demographics, a company can begin forming sales initiatives, product pricing, advertising campaigns, and product packaging.  

Considering rebranding or have you already begun the process? Do you have a strategy?  Moving forward with rebranding can be overwhelming if not properly planned and researched!  Setting up a strategy before work begins can reveal weaknesses, blind spots and additional resources needed to make rebranding successful. Without a strategy any rebranding effort could fall flat, leading to higher cost and additional changes before turning a brand around. A rebrand is more than just creating a new logo and flooding social media with pretty pictures and hoping for the best.  First, begin outlining why a rebrand is needed and what the final goal is. The strategy will be complex, thought-provoking and unique to every company or product. Without a strategy and proper research, it is impossible to know why or how extensive the rebranding needs to be and what steps need to be taken first. 

Have a Purpose

Knowing when and why rebranding is needed is the first step for any strategy.  The reasons for undertaking a rebranding can vary drastically A partial rebrand to revamp a website or updating an outdated logo might be the simplest solution in many scenarios for your business.  A full rebranding can lead to a name change, new messaging, new logo, imagery and much more.  However big the rebranding campaign is, a strategy needs to be in place to begin researching and identifying which steps need to be taken and the resources involved. Simply put, have a strategy, know where to start, and identify the objective. Rebranding needs to be done for the right reasons and never an impulse reaction. Rebrand due to slow sales or bad marketing isn’t a reason to burn down the old and start new.