Brand Development Archives - Stevens & Tate Marketing

Marketing on TikTok: Strategies to Engage the TikTok Generation

November 21, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Trending /by Dan Gartlan

In the world of marketing today, a new generation has emerged—the Gen Z, or “TikTok Generation.” With the youngest entering their teens and the oldest approaching 30, this digitally native, socially conscious group has become a powerful consumer force. Marketing on TikTok offers an exciting way to reach them, but this generation is notoriously hard to engage. However, with the right strategy, you can cut through the noise and create genuine connections that make your brand stand out to these young consumers.

1. Understanding the TikTok Generation

The TikTok generation grew up fully immersed in technology and is considered the first true digital-native audience. For them, social media is more than a content-sharing tool—it’s a lifestyle and a central hub for news, entertainment, learning, and connection. Thus, to reach them effectively, brands need to be present, engaged, and focused on building real connections on these social platforms. Remember, authenticity is key: the TikTok generation wants content that feels genuine and speaks directly to their lives.

With this in mind, let’s explore some strategies that can help brands engage meaningfully with this audience on TikTok and beyond.

2. Leverage Influencer Marketing

Influencers hold a significant place in the hearts of the TikTok generation. From celebrities like Hailey Bieber sparking trends with a single post to micro-influencers with dedicated, niche followings, influencers offer a direct path to Gen Z’s attention. And if a big-name influencer doesn’t fit your budget, micro-influencers are a fantastic alternative; their audiences are often loyal and highly engaged, ready to act on trusted recommendations. The key is finding influencers who align with your brand’s image and giving them creative freedom. While providing basic guidelines can ensure brand alignment, avoid trying to overly control their process. Letting influencers create content in their authentic style builds trust and gives your brand a more relatable, human touch.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by rhode skin (@rhode)

Hailey Bieber Instagram

3. Prioritize User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content is the heartbeat of TikTok. For the TikTok generation, peer recommendations and real-life stories carry more weight than traditional ads. Encouraging your audience to create UGC through hashtag challenges, Duets, and other interactive features invites them into your brand’s story. For example, campaigns like Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” and Starbucks’ “White Cup Contest” show how UGC can generate massive engagement, especially on platforms where algorithms often prioritize this type of content. By creating challenges that are fun and easy to participate in, you’re not only inviting your customers to be part of the brand, but also empowering them to share their experiences, expanding your brand’s reach organically!

Coca-Cola – “Share a Coke”

Starbucks – “White Cup Contest”

TikTok is built on the power of bite-sized stories. Think about the last time you picked up your phone—maybe even to read this. How many times did a notification, ad, or the urge of checking another app divert your focus? Given today’s shortened attention spans, particularly among digital natives, it’s vital to catch your audience’s attention immediately—those first three seconds are crucial. Craft videos that quickly convey emotion, humor, or a unique perspective, and stay in tune with trending sounds, memes, and styles. Here’s a bonus tip: repurposing successful TikTok content on Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts can extend your reach without the need for additional production time, letting you engage multiple audiences efficiently.

Behind TikTok’s playful exterior lies a powerful repository of analytics that can be leveraged for precision marketing. Tracking engagement rates, shares, and watch time can reveal which content is resonating and help refine your approach. Testing different ad formats—like In-Feed ads, Hashtag Challenges, and Branded Effects—lets you pinpoint what Gen Z finds most engaging. Marketing on Tiktok is all about creativity, making the platform an ideal testing ground for new ideas while also providing clear, measurable insights to guide future campaigns.

Also Read How Creativity and Data Driven Marketing Help Develop Marketing Campaigns

6. Building Community through Engagement

For the TikTok generation, social media is a space for self-expression and community, not just for following brands. Direct interactions—whether responding to comments, engaging in live videos, or creating Duets—show that there’s a human side to your brand. By fostering community and collaboration, you’re not just marketing a product; you’re building genuine connections. You can also collaborate with other brands that share similar audiences, joining forces for campaigns that amplify your message and broaden your reach. In today’s digital landscape, a loyal, invested community will be your brand’s strongest advocates.

Also Read Brand Marketing Strategy: Community and Advocacy

7. Connected TV and Streaming Ads for the TikTok Generation

Let’s step away from social platforms for a moment and explore another often-overlooked channel: Connected TV (CTV). CTV refers to any TV that connects to the internet, allowing users to stream content from platforms like Hulu, Peacock, and Roku. As users continue to migrate from traditional TV to streaming, CTV ads and ads on streaming platforms offer new ways to reach Gen Z. With CTV, brands can blend storytelling with precision targeting, capturing attention on a larger screen and at a time when users are more receptive to content. By pairing TikTok’s creativity with CTV’s focused reach, you can build cross-platform strategies that resonate with the TikTok generation wherever they are.

Marketing on TikTok is about more than just catchy videos. It’s a strategy rooted in authenticity, creativity, and a community-focused approach where your brand’s personality can truly shine. Gone are the days when brands could rely on being at the center of the customer journey; today, the people are. Embracing these shifts and connecting with Gen Z on their terms is essential to staying relevant and influential in today’s market. So, what’s stopping you from taking the leap?

Do You Know Your AIQ? Key AI Marketing Strategy Insights for Every Marketer

October 17, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Trending /by Dan Gartlan

AI is no longer an emerging trend—it’s a core component of advanced AI marketing strategy. But how familiar are you with leveraging AI to optimize your campaigns? Think of your AIQ (Artificial Intelligence Quotient) as a measure of how effectively you incorporate AI into your marketing efforts.

In this article, we’ll explore how you can boost your AIQ by understanding six of the most powerful applications of AI:

Ready to explore your AIQ? These strategies will guide you on your journey!

Key AI Marketing Strategies

1. AI-Powered Personalization: Tailoring Experiences for Every Customer

AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data in real-time is revolutionizing how brands personalize customer experiences. Particularly, you can leverage AI to analyze user behaviors and preferences, allowing your brand to deliver content that truly resonates with your audience—think of how Spotify curates your music playlists or how Netflix recommends movies. But today’s AI goes further than just product suggestions; it focuses on crafting a unique journey for each customer. Whether you’re sending personalized emails, tailoring website content, or providing individualized offers, AI helps ensure that the right message reaches the right person at just the right time. Have you explored how AI might enhance your personalization strategy and foster stronger connections with your audience?

2. Predictive Analytics: Data That Drives Actionable Insights

AI doesn’t just analyze past behavior—it takes things a step further by predicting future trends and customer actions. With predictive analytics, AI digs into historical data, identifying patterns that help marketers anticipate customer behaviors, like churn rates, buying habits, and product demand. You might think, “Well, predictive analytics has been around for years.” That’s true. What AI does differently is that it really supercharges the process, analyzing millions of data points in just minutes. This leads to faster, more accurate decision-making, giving marketers an edge in optimizing campaigns and strategies. For example, tools like HubSpot’s predictive lead scoring help prioritize high-potential leads, streamlining efforts to focus where it matters most. In this way, instead of relying on manual data analysis, AI now does the heavy lifting for you, making decision-making more efficient.

3. Sentiment Analysis: Measuring Customer Emotions at Scale

To maintain a strong reputation and build lasting trust, understanding how your audience feels about your brand is crucial. That’s where AI-powered sentiment analysis steps in. What is sentiment analysis? It’s the process of using AI to analyze customer feedback, social media activity, reviews, and other textual data to determine the emotional tone behind the words. This gives you actionable insights, allowing you to adjust your messaging and offerings in real-time. For instance, if customers start expressing dissatisfaction with a product or service, AI can flag the trend early, giving your team the opportunity to address issues before they escalate. Ultimately, this ability to read customer emotions on a large scale enables marketers to create a more authentic, customer-first strategy.

When it comes to optimizing your ad campaigns, it’s no longer just about trial and error. Instead, AI takes the guesswork out of ad targeting and budgeting by making real-time adjustments based on performance data. More specifically, AI-driven platforms tap into data like user behavior, engagement metrics, and demographic information to determine where and when your ads will hit the mark. On top of that, these platforms are always fine-tuning things—adjusting bids, placements, and creative elements—to help you get the most value from your investment. The end result? Smarter spending, higher engagement, and better overall ad performance!

Businesses of all sizes can leverage AI as a supportive tool to enhance content creation—whether it’s generating ideas, producing drafts, spotting trends, or improving SEO strategies. As a result, marketers can shift their focus toward high-level strategies like creative development. However, it’s important to note that while AI streamlines these processes, it’s not without its limitations. For instance, AI can sometimes miss the mark on tone, making content sound impersonal or robotic. Issues like content quality or accuracy can also arise. To avoid these pitfalls and ensure the content feels genuine and aligns with your brand’s voice, human oversight is still crucial. After all, it’s about finding that sweet spot where technology and creativity work hand in hand!

6. Dynamic Pricing: Staying Competitive with AI-Driven Flexibility

AI’s ability to process data in real-time is a game-changer for dynamic pricing strategies that can adapt on the spot. Whether it’s shifts in supply and demand, changes in competitor pricing, or customer buying patterns, AI helps keep your prices competitive while maximizing profits. This is especially useful in e-commerce and retail. For example, if an item isn’t selling well, AI can lower the price in real-time to stimulate sales. This way, you can quickly respond to market trends and optimize your revenue. While AI dynamic pricing offers immense benefits, it’s important to also consider the ethical implications involved. To successfully navigate this future, businesses must prioritize transparency, fairness, and consumer trust. In this way, you can harness AI’s power to not only drive sales but also build lasting customer relationships and achieve long-term brand success!

Boosting Your AIQ for Marketing Success!

AI is fundamentally reshaping marketing, making processes more data-driven, precise, and efficient. By embracing AI marketing strategy—like personalized customer experiences, predictive analytics, sentiment analysis, and dynamic pricing—you can elevate your AIQ and keep your brand ahead of the competition. So, what role does AI play in your current marketing strategy, and what additional steps can you take to amplify its effectiveness?

Also Read Considering The Pros and Cons of Using Artificial Intelligence In Marketing

Using Your Brand Story To Reach Millennials In Business

September 5, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Storybranding /by Dan Gartlan

Millennials are the largest generation in the workforce today and they’re taking on important leadership and decision-making roles. In fact, nearly half of all B2B researchers are Millennials.

As a group, Millennials change jobs much more frequently than previous generations. So every six months, you may find yourself having to reintroduce your brand to a whole new group of buyers.

How do you convey your brand’s core values and competitive advantages in the best light to reach this younger generation of buyers?

In order to connect your brand with today’s prospects and customers, make storytelling a part of your content creation and messaging. Effective storytelling not only captivates Millennials but also strengthens Brand Development by conveying your brand’s values in a compelling and meaningful manner.

Stories Are Memorable

A good story creates lasting impressions of your brand. Stories distinguish your brand from the competition, and consumers are going to remember emotion, characters, and conflict from a story longer than they will remember facts about your product or service.

To put it simply, if you tell a good story that emphasizes who your brand is and what your brand believes in, people will remember it.

Stories Are Easy To Understand

Brand stories are effective, because they inform in a format that readers already know and understand. Stories are made up of three basic components: beginning, middle and end. When developing a brand story, think about those components in terms of the past, present and the future. The past highlights the challenge or the problem that your brand set out to solve. The present showcases how you solve that challenge. And the future demonstrates your success and suggests continuation of that success moving forward.

Click here to learn what brand development is and how it works.

Stories Create Trust

Millennials are more likely to connect with a brand when they believe in that brand’s core values. When Millennials are researching a purchase, they are looking at dozens of different companies, each time wondering, “Why should I buy from you?” If you engage those buyers, and answer that question with a story that is built around your core values, then you’ve built an emotional connection and the trust of that customer.

Stories Show Your Brand’s Personality

Is your brand fun and quirky? Serious? Hip? Thought provoking? Innovative? Intellectual? Dedicated? Whatever it is, your story should reflect that.

Your story should highlight your personality and showcase what is different and unique about your brand. It should demonstrate your values and what motivates and inspires you. This will bring your brand to life and create a human element that allows customers to develop an emotional connection to your brand through effective Brand Communication.

Stories Are Sharable

Strong brand stories will spread through social media. Enhancing your story with visuals and videos will expand the reach of your story and make it even easier for others to share.

Current research shows that 62 percent of Millennials are more likely to buy if a brand engages them online. Sharing your brand story will help build relationships between your brand and the growing group of Millennial buyers.

What’s Trending in Marketing for August 2024

August 29, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, News & Insights, Trending /by marketing intern

Welcome to our August 2024 edition of “What’s Trending,” where we bring you the most relevant marketing trends and insights. Stay informed and ahead of the game with our curated collection of marketing trends and reports in summer 2024.

Noteworthy Marketing Trends and News

Increase in Subscriptions

Subscription-based services have been becoming more and more common lately, and are expected to continue to grow in popularity. These services provide companies with recurring revenue. Subscription-based services also increase customer value, and can be used to incentivize higher engagement. Consumers especially value subscription offers that are tailored to customer preferences. Read more.

Lowe’s is Rebranding

Lowe’s is rebranding. The home improvement retailer is now calling its retail media network “Lowe’s Media Network.” They will be launching four new channels this year: direct mail for install services, in-store audio, paid search, and email. Lowe’s will also be expanding placements on their app. Read more.

Skin Care Pop-Up Event (With A Bus)

Neutrogena is hosting a Boost Bus pop-up event on August 31st and September 1st in Toronto. People will have the opportunity to talk with skincare experts to learn about skin vitality, protecting the skin, and hydration. The event will have games and prizes in addition to product samples. Read more.

Improving Your Marketing Program

6 Tips for Improving Brand Communication

Brand communication is how your company communicates with their current and future customers. Good brand communication builds and maintains brand loyalty among customers in addition to setting your company apart from the competition. It is a core aspect of a company’s strategy and is important to the company’s success. Click here to learn six tips for improving your company’s brand communication.

5 Ways to Improve Your Display Ads

Display advertising is a kind of online advertising that uses copy, images, and other visual elements. They come in many different formats like banner ads, video ads, interactive ads, and more. The benefits of display ads include brand awareness, visual appeal, performance tracking, and targeting capabilities. Click here to learn five ways to improve your display ads.

The Website Redesign Process- Why Content Comes First?

Redesigning a website is a time to boost the brand image, refresh the look and content of the website, and update all the product listings and sales offers. Learn why copy should be refreshed on your new and improved website, and how to do it. Read more.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Say Goodbye to Third-Party Cookies

Due to their users’ concerns about data privacy and protection, Google is currently phasing out third-party cookies. This will be finished in 2025. Being able to use third-party cookies to track user behavior across sites has allowed for audience segmentation and the use of targeted ads. To keep gathering consumer data without third-party cookies, offer rewards to users who give you their information and keep utilizing first-party cookies. Read more.

User-Generated Content

Consumers’ desire for authenticity on social media platforms has given rise to user-generated content. Many customers do not trust advertisements, but they trust content made by real people. In the past five years, search engine interest for “user generated content” has increased by 200%. Read more.

Ethics and Sustainability

Your product or service alone is no longer enough. Today’s consumers care about the values of the brand selling that product or service, particularly the values that pertain to social and environmental responsibilities. This has prompted brands to partake in and showcase ethical and sustainable practices. Read more.

Extreme Personalization

The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is allowing marketers to tailor digital experiences to individual consumers better than ever before. This personalization through AI will allow marketers to give consumers inclusive experiences. AI can also assist marketers in understanding their audiences and delivering content to consumers in local languages. Read more.

6 Tips for Improving Brand Communication

August 27, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors /by Dan Gartlan

Brand communication is how your company communicates with their current and future customers. It influences customer relationships and shapes how the brand is perceived. Good brand communication can build and maintain brand loyalty among customers. It can also set your company apart from the competition. A good brand communication strategy will showcase your brand’s personality and your unique value propositions in addition to highlighting what it is that makes your products/services distinguishable from those of your competitors. It’s easy to see why good brand communication is important to a company’s success. Here are 6 tips for improving your company’s brand communication.

1. Focus Your Messaging On Benefits:

Consumers choose to buy products/services that will positively impact their life. Use testimonials or real-world situations that showcase other customers experiencing positive results. This allows potential buyers to envision themselves enjoying your product/service. Tell your customers how your product/service will help or benefit them rather than just listing off information about it. This will more effectively convince them to choose your product/service over your competition’s alternative. Many products/services offer similar features, but the way those features translate into tangible benefits for the consumer can set your product/service apart. Explaining how your product/service uniquely meets customer needs provides a convincing reason for customers to choose your product/service over those of your competitors. Making this differentiation is especially effective in crowded markets where there are a multitude of available options.

2. Keep It Consistent:

Visual branding elements help create the specific feeling and experience you’re trying to evoke from your brand. Keep your visual branding elements consistent across your social media posts, website, and all brand communication to increase brand recognition and build a cohesive brand identity. Visual branding elements include your logo, typography, imagery, color scheme, and more. Brand recognition can increase by 80% when you use a signature color. Having your visual branding differ across brand communication can confuse customers and look sloppy and unprofessional. The lack of cohesion can make it more difficult for customers to develop a distinct and lasting impression of your brand. It can also weaken your brand’s credibility.

Conversely, uniform visual branding elements create a sense of familiarity among customers. It also fosters trust and increases brand recognition. In order to maintain consistency when it comes to visual branding elements, you should create and follow a brand style guide that includes your logo, typography, imagery, color scheme, and any other necessary specifications. Doing so will make sure that your external partners, as well as your own team members, produce consistent visual branding elements to represent your brand.

3. Strategically Select Distribution Methods:

Brand communication will do you no good if it is not distributed properly. When distributing brand communication (emails, posts, etc.), it is important to consider two things. One is the best way to distribute the content itself. The medium you utilize for disseminating your brand communication should align with the kind of content you are sharing. Social media should be used for sharing visual content, LinkedIn is best for sharing professional content, etc. Match your content to the appropriate platform to guarantee that your message is delivered in the most effective manner.

The other important thing to consider is the best way to distribute the brand communication based on who it is for. Understanding your audience is necessary to select the best distribution methods, as different demographics have different preferences receiving brand communication. For example, the best way for your brand to communicate with Baby Boomers is different from the best way to communicate with Gen Z.

4. Use Images With Real People:

What would make you want to buy a bag of chips more, a picture of a bag of chips or a picture of someone with a huge smile on their face while eating some of the yummy chips? Images that feature real people create an emotional connection with your audience. They also help your potential customers picture themselves using your product/service. To show consumers that your product will make their life better, show them pictures of people enjoying your product rather than a picture of just the product. An additional reason to use images that feature real people is that it makes customers more likely to perceive your brand as trustworthy, which fosters a stronger brand connection.

5. Pay Attention To Your Headlines:

Make your headlines compelling and clear in order to catch your audience’s attention. The ideal headline length is approximately 6-8 words. Headlines that are too short can be vague and confusing. Headlines that are too long are often skimmed over by readers, or ignored all together. A headline that is too long and packs in too much information also leaves nothing for the subheadline to do. This brings us to our next point.

6. Pay Attention To Your Subheadlines:

A subheadline should support the headline, and include details that expand on it. Again, do not go overboard with the length. If your subheadline is too long, you risk overwhelming your readers, causing them to skip over it entirely. The ideal headline length is approximately 10-30 words. This range keeps the text readable while also allowing you to provide details. Remember to avoid redundancy. Your subheadline should expand on your headline, not repeat it.

Brand communication is a core aspect of a company’s strategy. It influences customer relationships, shapes how the brand is perceived, and sets the company apart from their competition. Use the 6 above tips to improve your company’s brand communication.

What is Brand Development and How Does It Work?

August 6, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Brand Positioning, Directors /by Mark Beebe

A successful business depends on your ability to strengthen your brand reputation and generate brand awareness. To do that, you need to develop a strong brand. Your brand consists of a lot of different elements. Those elements combine to create a brand identity that separates your business from your competitors. Brand development is the ongoing process of creating and maintaining that brand identity.

What is Brand Development Exactly?

Brand development is a process of creating and differentiating your company’s image, products, and services from your competitors. It is like creating a promise to customers, and consistently delivering on that promise. With that in mind, the following are steps you should take to develop your brand:

1. Determine Your Brand’s Purpose

If you don’t know your purpose, neither will consumers – and that’s not going to help you when it comes to generating brand awareness. In order to set brand goals and to evaluate how your brand is performing over time, you will need to have a clear understanding of what your brand’s purpose is. Exactly why does your brand exist? What problems does your brand solve? Why should consumers care about your brand? A strong brand needs to have a well-defined purpose.

2. Differentiate Your Brand From Your Competitors

One of the things that define the strength of your brand identity is your ability to differentiate it from other competing brands. If consumers can’t tell the difference between you and your competitors, it means your brand is weak. Develop your unique selling proposition to help your brand stand out in a crowded field. Doing so will also help you craft your message. Being able to stand out is arguably one of the most important facets of a successful brand.

Read More: Developing A Brand Marketing Strategy By Determining Your Company’s Make Or Break

3. Identify Your Audience

The success of your brand will depend on whether or not you reach an audience that engages and relates with your brand. However, if you’re targeting the wrong audience, you will fail massively when it comes to building a strong brand identity and establishing a stellar brand reputation. If you don’t target a specific audience (as in, you attempt to reach everyone), your message won’t reach the right people. If you know who your audience is, you’ll be able to create content that’s more helpful and relevant to them, which will only help to boost your brand awareness and brand authority.

There are many ways that you can identify who your audience is. Use the information that you’ve collected from your opt-in forms and from previous customers. Use your social media data. Request customer feedback. All of this information can help you figure out the demographics of your audience as well as their wants and needs. Use this data to develop buyer personas, thereby allowing you to address every different segment of your target audience.

4. Implement A Unique Voice

Your brand needs to be relatable to your target audience. As such, you need to incorporate what you know about your target audience’s demographics to develop your brand voice. The voice is the personality that you create for your brand to communicate with your audience. For example, Uber’s brand voice is considerate and direct. Old Spice uses a masculine and humorous voice. Nike has an inspirational voice. As you can see, the voice a company uses in all of its marketing and communication efforts defines a big part of its brand identity.

5. Create A Distinct Brand Aesthetic

The look of your brand needs to be recognizable as it will help to make your brand identifiable. The log is an important part of this. Some of the most successful brands in the world are recognized by their logo. For instance, the Nike swoosh or Apple’s apple with a bite taken out of it. These logos are so well known that they don’t even need the company name to accompany them. Keep in mind that aesthetic doesn’t just refer to the logo — it also refers to the type of font used to display your company name as well as the color combination associated with your brand. For instance, Facebook is associated with blue and McDonald’s with red and yellow.

6. Maintain Consistency Across Channels

The biggest mistake you can make is to make adjustments to your branding based on the channel you’re on. For instance, taking on a more serious tone on LinkedIn and then using a more informal and joking tone on Twitter. Or using different visual elements on social media than you use on your website. Such inconsistency will hurt your brand identity because your audience will become confused over who you are.

The importance of Brand development plays a pivotal role in the success and sustainability of a business. These are the steps that you will need to take to develop your brand. Keep in mind that brand development is a long-term strategy. Every marketing decision you make affects your brand and contributed to your brand’s identity, reputation, and awareness. As such, you need to take these steps to ensure that your brand development starts off with a strong foundation.

Ten Ways to Use Google Trends to Increase SEO

June 24, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

Most people love free SEO tools. Google Trends is one of the most underused free tools; it is a place marketers can use to get their finger on the global pulse. Increase SEO using Google Trends in the following ten ways.

Ways To Use Google Trends for SEO

1. Start Big and Narrow Down

The latest Google Trends dashboard is much simpler and allows you to explore various topics before narrowing down. Therefore, begin by entering a broad or all-encompassing keyword and then drill down. For example, the Worldwide feature allows you to focus on a certain market geographically. The word umbrella will peak at different times depending on the location. You can also filter your search by time selection and category, enabling you to increase SEO by targeting a wider region.

2. Use Specific Search Options

Get advanced insights using options like image search, Google Shopping or news search. Digging deeper into your queries can increase your chances of identifying a new trend. You can also click Rising to see the top keywords.

3. Context is Key

Google Trends operates in a relativistic manner. Today’s results are not compared with popular trends; rather, with the prior keywords you entered, meaning results vary according to various factors like timeframe. Therefore, never overlook the context and avoid personal blind spots when trying to increase SEO.

4. Target by Location

A cursory use of the tool usually focuses exclusively on keywords. To get the most relevant results, incorporate location into your mix. Focus on specific and relevant regions and sub-regions.

How Your SEO Benefits From A Long Term Strategy

5. Trend Predictions

It is easy to identify trends that leave a trail, but that is not very helpful as most marketers are using that data. Predict trends to gain additional insights. Identify potential trends by filtering according to specific countries or categories. Today’s health story may not be a headline on Google Trends; however, it may help you spot topics to watch out for.

6. Use Long-Tail Phrases

It may be difficult to rank high on the SERPs for a phrase like “Caribbean Cruise”, but you can make it to the top of the search results using a long-tail variation of this phrase.

7. Use Top Charts

Click on the Top Charts icon on the upper left to view Google’s version of Billboard Top 100. Do not confuse it with the trends most individuals are seeing. You can sort between Most Searched and Trending to glean more relevant information.

8. Video Optimization Data

For example, if you posted a video on YouTube about how to avail discounts on Caribbean cruises, you can switch from web to YouTube search to explore related topics and queries. You can also sort by Rising or Top to capture more YouTube traffic.

9. Cyclical Trends

If you are optimizing your wedding boutique, even a simple search will reveal that most weddings do not compete with holidays. With some aforementioned strategies, you can determine a few additional keywords to carefully direct your future posts to better handle each cyclical trend.

10. Avoid Misreading the Trends

Advanced and sophisticated use of Google Trends allows you to move a step or two beyond your current insight to determine if there are any blind spots. For example, never trust one snapshot to tell you the whole story; instead, get a broad view of different timelines to figure out what else is happening.

The Brand Identity Prism

June 18, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors /by Mark Beebe

When you think of brands, there are probably a few that come to mind. Brands that you use and see every day are the most prominent; Coca-Cola, Tide, Apple. These multi-billion dollar companies have worked tirelessly to reach their consumer base, and build strong a strong brand identity, and that is a large part of why they’ve prospered. Brand Identity is one type of identity to portrays the right image to its consumers. Logo, color palette, typography, and packaging are some of the visual components of the brand identity. It can be a little harder to narrow down a B2B brand that is as recognizable as the one mentioned above. Simply put, B2B brands spent less time focusing on brand development, and more time building impressive service packs and data for clientele. That is a big mistake; even B2B companies can significantly benefit from better brand identity. After all, the B2B space can be a crowded one, and the best way to set one’s self apart from the pack is by offering a unique and easily recognizable brand.

What is Brand Identity Prism?

Brand identity prism is a strategic marketing model that helps businesses to define and communicate their brand identity.

Why is Brand Development Important in B2B Marketing?

Brand development is what will set you apart in an often crowded marketplace. B2B consumers are drowning in a sea of sameness. In short, most B2B companies lack personality, which is a driving force behind consumer sales, and what makes the companies mentioned above so successful. To set yourself apart from the crowd, you should build a brand with a personality, with identity, and with something just a little flashy to get a foothold in an over-saturated market.

How is a Brand Identity Developed?

Developing a brand identity takes time and thoughtful consideration. Branding Specialist, Jean-Noel Kapferer has suggested every brand should use the brand identity prism to improve and alter their image. This prism includes personality, physique, culture, relationship, reflection, and self-image.

Personality is the way in which the world sees your brand. A b2b brand might want to be seen as cutting-edge or high tech. This character can be portrayed through logos and writing styles.
Physique is the physical manifestation of a brand’s identity. Strong, stoic or hip are all physique aspects that can be portrayed. This is done through color schemes, graphics and packaging art.
Culture is the way the brand interacts internally and with the world around them. Social media interaction and engagement is a good way to develop a brand culture, and allow other businesses behind the curtain to see what makes your company tick. When businesses and consumers engage with a company via social media, their personal perception of the brand identity improves.
Relationship is developed through interactions with current and potential clients. Branding and endorsements can be used to highlight the collaborative relationship businesses build with one another.
Reflection and Self-image go hand-in-hand. As a brand, you’ll want to reflect the values and characteristics you clientele wants to see in themselves. With the self-image part of the prism, you’ll also want to reflect how you feel about your own business. A prideful company is one that can be trusted, according to recent research.

Branding and identity does not happen overnight. Companies like Apple, Intel, Mastercard, and Coca-Cola have spent decades honing their brand and building an identity. Reaching a myriad of buyer personas, and identifying your needs as a business are the first steps in the construction of a branding strategy that will set you apart from the crowd. Utilizing the prism for development, however, will get you off to a good start.

How Your Web Page Speed Effects Your SEO and Google Ads Performance

June 7, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

For companies that already advertise to prospective customers on mobile devices, or who have organic search presence, there are numerous elements of their online presence that need to be checked, tested, and, where appropriate, changed. Implementing a robust SEO strategy is crucial to ensure visibility and competitiveness in the digital landscape. Knowing how to optimize your mobile site for speed will make all the difference to your search engine rankings.

The Importance of Testing Site Speed

The changes are going to make knowing the speed of a mobile site essential. Many tools permit site owners to determine their page speed to see whether enhancements are needed. Most of the tools that are available to test speeds are free and do not require administrator access to the website in question. That means that companies can check their competitors’ sites as well as their own.

Adjusting Mobile SEO Strategy for Google’s Speed Update

One such change that companies should consider is switching to Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). An AMP works by altering the source code of the website, thus directing the standard HTML page to a minimalist version of itself, the hosted AMP page. As AMPs are still so rare, they load exceptionally quickly. In initial Google testing, AMPs reduced load time up to 85%.
Local search should not be ignored, either. A Google Mobile Moments Study revealed that 40% of mobile searches have local intent. Companies also need to be aware that mobile search engine users enter queries differently than desktop search engine users; mobile queries tend to be much shorter.

Leveraging Search Console is a fantastic way to check in on a site’s usability. Using the following options under “Crawl Errors” can make a significant difference to usability:

Smartphone tab – It allows users to recognize any crawl errors that might be burdening their mobile pages
Fetch on Google – It allows users to to see how crawlers view the site and adjust accordingly for better indexing and ranking in search results.
Mobile Usability report – It precisely informs users about pages with mobile usability issues, along with detailing the nature of these issues.

How Will Google’s Speed Update Impact Your Google Ads Account?

The Quality Score algorithm, the algorithm that determines how much users pay per click to serve an ad on the Search Network, is heavily influenced by landing page experience. If a company’s site does not load quickly and does not convey beneficial information, the company will either end up paying a premium or realize that they are unable to serve an ad at all.

The Google Ads documentation recommends five ways to affect positive change regarding a site’s landing page experience:

Include relevant, compelling content
Be recognized as trustworthy
Make navigation simple and effective
Reduce load time
Make the website faster

In Conclusion

Google Ad users need to ensure they optimize for load time and landing page speed, and not just in terms of relevance. Companies should also contemplate making a move to AMP, ensure that their intent is on point, and make the most of the power of Search Console and page speed insights.

Creating a Brand with Social Listening and What Tools To Use

May 8, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Hubspot, Search & Social, SEO, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Social media marketing is an important part of reaching today’s modern era customers. Setting up social media accounts that prioritize providing good content can be challenging. In order for your brand to stick out, you need to learn what your customers are looking for and how to provide them with that content. This is referred to as social listening. Those who have social listening strategies worked into their social media marketing gain an edge over their competitors.

Social listening plays a key role in growing your business and increasing your company’s brand trust with its customers. The good news is that the ability to operate social media channels and create engaging content is right at your fingertips. If you are looking for ways in which you can handle all the comments, likes, and messages on your platforms, fear not because we have a strategy for you.

The below content contains ways in which you can learn about social listening as well as tools you can use to make the process easier.

Social listening is all about looking into your industry’s trends, comments, and content in order to gain insights into your brand experience. Social listening is critical for understanding how your customer feels about your brand which is commonly referred to as social media sentiment. Correctly using social listening is one of the most valuable ways to increase brand trust and create a loyal customer base. One good example of social listening is Netflix promoting a DIY sock that pauses the TV show. Netflix looked at what people were talking about on social media through comments, posts, and stories which lead to this creative invention.

Keeping up with the constant change in social trends can be difficult. Thankfully, there are many different tools and programs that can help brands keep up with trends.

Sprout Social is a premium service that helps brands and companies monitor data and trends on all social media platforms they are active on. It can also be useful for identifying social media goals that your brand can create based on the data. While Sprout Social is an excellent service and can help greatly with social media needs, they are more costly than some of the other social listening tools mentioned below.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a marketer’s dream program. Whether it be for creating inbound content, social media uploads, or advanced automation, HubSpot knows what tools a marketer needs. HubSpot has features that allow you to keep track of all social media posts, interactions, and total social media leads.

Learn more about social media campaigns here!

One of the big perks of HubSpot is the ability to easily work together with the sales team to use social media interactions as a step to making a sale. Furthermore, HubSpot is a free-to-use platform which makes it a must-have.

Also Read: Using HubSpot Lead Flows To Improve Conversion Rates

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a service that allows users to view and interact with their social media followers in an easy and convenient way. Hootsuite’s dashboard is able to keep track of all social media interactions whether it be messages, comments, likes, or mentions without having to leave the service.

In addition, Hootsuite provides top-notch analytics and reports from all social media accounts in use. This, along with the convenient dashboard, makes Hootsuite a premium service that competes with the likes of sprout social. Therefore, the cost of the service is noticeably different than free services.

Buffer

Buffer is one of the more user-friendly tools on this list. The software application allows users to “buffer” social media posts on many accounts. The user interface is very clean and not as complicated as some other services. Buffer can respond to comments across many platforms. There is a free version available to use, however, the service will be lacking some features.

SEMrush

SEMrush is different from many of the other services mentioned above. The platform is well known for its keyword research and online ranking data. The ability to manage social media accounts makes SEMrush a valuable service to have. Want to manage all your social media accounts in one place? SEMrush has you covered. You can also use many of the SEO and keyword tools to help monitor your social media accounts.

Social listening can be tricky. Keeping up with so many accounts and followers is no easy task. Thanks to services like Sprout Social, HubSpot, Hootsuite, Buffer, and SEMRush, marketers are able to keep up with demand. Now it’s time for you to start social listening utilizing these tools. Are you ready?