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Are You Brand Worthy?
Branding is one hot topic, although it is wildly misunderstood. To make things even more confusing, branding is often tossed in the same basket as marketing which makes its application to an entrepreneur or sole-practioner even more unclear.
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Company Logo Watches – The 30 Times a Day Reminder of Your Business
Watches bearing your company logo are a different prospect to other corporate branded items. Their higher perceived value makes them premium items, although in reality branded watches can be purchased for less than $5 a piece, making them remarkable...
Greasing the Path to Success: Finding the Confidence to Step Up to Key Moments
Whether it’s making a prospecting call to a promising business contact, giving an informal “elevator speech” to a networking group, or attempting to close a transaction, there are certain key moments when putting your best-dressed foot forward...
Quick Tactics To Brand Your Business And Make More Sales
This may come as a surprise... to you, but Branding is more than just Logo and Business or Product Name recognition.
Branding is "The total emotional and intellectual involvement your prospects and customers have with your business and...
“The Hidden Traffic Strategy That Skyrockets Your Profits”
If you agree that traffic is the true currency of the web, then you’d want to read this article very carefully…
Every web site owner and Internet marketer with a commercial goal understands the true value of the visitor, studying the synergy...
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Ten Basic Steps For Building A Web Site That Works
"1. Assemble a web site development plan that is integrated with
your overall marketing processes; the content should be
consistent with offline materials, the graphics/images don't
have to be identical with traditional media, but should be
consistent with your overall branding, style guide, usage of
colors etc.
2. Hire a web site design firm that understands your market
position and one that won't get ""geek crazy"" - meaning they
are so in love with their own design capabilities, your site
gets bogged down with graphics, plug ins, GIF garbage, etc. But,
conversely, check your ego at the door when you work with your
design firm - I've see so many good web site designs get ruined
by clients who can't or won't listen to what we tell them!
3. Pay attention to ""load times,"" how long it takes a web
site to load on a 56 KBPS modem (this is an industry average),
if its more than 12-18 seconds you may experience the ""click of
death"" - the site doesn't load quickly and the surfer is gone.
Of course, if your targeting broadband customers who are
reaching your site via ISDN or DSL then you can build a site
that incorporates multimedia-ready content that may include
streaming audio or video, or Shockwave or Flash capabilities -
go ahead and let those digital geeks get carried away with
cutting edge content!
4. Dare I say it, ""keep it simple"" - make your site easy to
move around in, build a menu structure that is consistent with
industry standards, local menus (for a page or section) on the
left and global menus (overall site navigation) at the top
and/or bottom of each page, keep as much information ""above the
fold"" (above the cutoff point at the bottom of a monitor),
don't make people use horizontal scroll bars unless absolutely
necessary.
5. Inculcate ""digital speed"" into your overall site design,
your client/customers should be able to get to their desired
area of your site within one or two mouse clicks; they will
quickly get frustrated if they have to click-through multiple
menus to find information they are seeking.
6. Develop content that is web-enabled, people don't read web
site content like they do offline media, keep your paragraphs
short no more than two to three sentences, build in white space
with your content, include links in your pages - don't try to
tell your whole marketing story on your site - get people to
call you (hello the telephone still works!), e-mail or fill out
a profile form (see below).
7. Make your site permission-based marketing ready - I love
Seth Godin's ""Permission Marketing"" book,
http://www.permission.com, and we recommend it to all of our
clients
- he champions building a long term relationship with a
customer by asking their permission to continue to market to
them and incorporating value/information in all marcom
processes.
8. Ensure your site is optimized for Search Engines by
identifying 8-12 keywords that people will use to find your
site, then incorporate these keywords in your site content (to
drive relevancy with s/engine spiders/bots) and then manually
submit your site to the top ten search engines. We don't'
recommend most of the free or $19.99 specials available; yes,
all will get your registered with the s/engines, but getting
listed on page 75 of 350 pages (for example) won't really drive
qualified traffic to your site, you need page 1-3 listings on
the top ten engines to really drive qualified traffic.
9. Delve into your log server files to uncover ""digital
tracks"" made through your web site - your log files are raw
files that show how and from where (in most cases) people
accessed your web site, where they went on your web site, how
long they stayed, etc. Web Trends is the defacto industry
standard, http://www.webtrends.com/default.htm, but we use and
recommend a market-experienced firm in Europe, Fantomaster, Ltd.
to our clients http://www.fantomaster.com - they have a suite of
Search Engine products that can be downloaded for free or
purchased.
10. Think global in your overall site design - the greatest
Internet growth is occurring outside North America, so it is
essential to build a site that can be accessed easily by people
around the world. What issues do you need to look at? Load times
are very important (again), develop content that avoids
colloquialisms that may not be understood by others who may not
speak the same language, you may want to make your site content
available in diverse languages, there are a number of emerging
applications that will facilitate this process, ensure your
e-commerce capabilities can be utilized by all.
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and
marketing experience. He is the founder/CEO of a Northern
California based, privately held, profitable Interactive
Marketing Agency and Software Company, Intelective
Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, and can be
reached via e-mail at Lee@intelective.com. "
About the author:
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and
marketing experience. He is the founder/CEO of a Northern
California based, privately held, profitable Interactive
Marketing Agency and Software Company, Intelective
Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, and can be
reached via e-mail at Lee@intelective.com.
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| Brand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| The brand, and "branding" and brand equity have become increasingly important ... From the perspective of brand owners, branded products or services also ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Branding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Livestock branding, the marking of animals to indicate ownership; Human branding, ... Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branding" ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| AllAboutBranding.com : Home |
| Provides resources and opinions on branding. Includes brand development, management and communications. |
| www.allaboutbranding.com |
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| brandchannel.com | branding resource produced by Interbrand | brands |
| An international online exchange and resource about brand marketing and branding. |
| www.brandchannel.com |
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| Branding Company Corporate Branding Internet Brand Identity ... |
| Brand Identity Guru Inc. creates, develops and promotes powerful brands. Our clients enjoy an array of innovative, creative and powerful branding solutions ... |
| www.brandidentityguru.com |
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| Branding Blog |
| Branding and positioning news and opinion. |
| www.brandingblog.com |
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| Branding Asia |
| Free articles, news and columns on branding in Asia. Market research and Asian marketing. |
| www.brandingasia.com |
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| Pages tagged with "branding" on del.icio.us |
| All items tagged branding ??? view popular ... industrie./design and branding consultant specialists./ · save this. by kittim to design branding graphic ... |
| del.icio.us |
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| The Brand Called You |
| Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here's what it takes to be the CEO of ... |
| www.fastcompany.com |
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| Branding: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
| See all blog posts tagged with branding on Technorati. |
| www.technorati.com |
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| Mozilla Branding |
| The purpose of this document is to describe mozilla.org's branding strategy during and after the release of what has generally been called Mozilla 1.4. ... |
| www.mozilla.org |
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| What Brand Are You? A branding viral by The Design Conspiracy |
| What Brand Are You? has since been picked out as Site Of The Day by the likes of the Financial Times, Yahoo, USA Today and BBC News, and has received more ... |
| www.whatbrandareyou.com |
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| Julie & Company: Affordable branding, web design, graphic design ... |
| Julie & Company creates stellar branding, integrated marketing, advertising, web design, web development, Flash, trade show booths - all at affordable ... |
| www.julieandcompany.com |
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| Forty Media - Web Design, Web Development, Branding, Great Websites |
| a professional web design agency based in Phoenix, Arizona. |
| www.fortymedia.com |
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| Branding - Yahoo! Small Business |
| Find information to help grow your online business with business plans, Thomas Register, news articles and more. |
| smallbusiness.yahoo.com |
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| Lexicon |
| Lexicon Branding appears on KTVU News; Lexicon Branding creates Ridgeline for Honda, Viiv for Intel, and GameTap for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. ... |
| www.lexicon-branding.com |
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| Branding and Usability |
| We're finding that a site's usability can dramatically affect branding. ... There are two basic techniques for branding: direct experience and indirect ... |
| www.uie.com |
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| iMedia Connection: Research & Metrics - Branding |
| Majority of marketers feel branding opportunities -- online and offline -- aren't ... IAB case studies prove real-world power of online in branding mix. ... |
| www.imediaconnection.com |
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| Small Business Marketing And Branding |
| Small business marketing and branding advice and how-to guides for small business owners. Learn how to start and grow your own successful business. |
| smallbusinessbranding.com |
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| Beyond Branding |
| Beyond Branding, published in hardcover in 2003 and paperback in 2005, presents innovative business models for the survival of 21st century organizations. |
| www.beyond-branding.com |
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