Food For Thought:  Is content still king or does Google Chrome rule when it comes to content targeted Ads?

Today I was browsing the web using Google Chrome for a dog grooming service. After doing my research at various grooming sites I opened another tab in Chrome to browse the recently added designers portfolios on Styleapple.  We currently have one ad space for Google Ads, which 99.9% of the time shows Ads relevant to the content on our pages. i.e. design schools,  freelance design jobs, web design firms, etc.  However today it showed an Ad for a dog show. A DOG SHOW?   Hmm. 

I browsed the current content on Styleapple to see if any of the recently added designers were doing doggie portraits or developing websites for dogs to no avail.  Then I thought: Does Google believe that your previous searches are more important than the content on the current web page?

 What do you think:  Is Google Chrome smarter than a 5^th grader ?

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Ok, we've done it. We have now created the ultimate marketing tool on the web... It's free, easy to use and combines business and pleasure. It's called Social Media. Social Media has leveled the playing field for many new design businesses. You now have the opportunity to market your product or services for cheap, no TV required. So no longer can you brand yourself by simply having a bigger marketing and advertising budget than your competitor's... Now you need to do a little more, you need to think, be creative, be smart and be relevant.

Now you have to find a new way to be competitive, innovative and "special" to your demographics. What am I talking about? I'm talking about getting back to basics. That is, focusing on your core asset, your product or service. We are all guilty of seeing a great idea out there, and wanting to improve on it. But if you plan on improving it, improve it in a huge way, or if you plan on providing better service, go all the way - pick up your client's dry cleaning, if it's on the way...

Don't just add 2 more features to your competitor's product or keep your business open a few more hours than your competition and expect to make a splash. Really give your potential clients something they can sink their teeth in. Spend your time on building a valuable product and less time on figuring out who is following you back on Twitter. Lisa Barone at Outspoken Media wrote a great post on this very topic, A Great Product Needs No Advertising. The market is officially saturated with the basics. We've got all the basics we will ever need, seriously. It's time to go hard or go home.

So here you are, just coming out with a new product probably similar to your competitor's product - the only difference is that everyone knows your competitor, and no one knows you exist. What is the first thing you do?

Create a website? No!

Sign up on as many social media sites as possible? No!

See if you can get Oprah to interview you? No!

The first thing you do is take a breather. That's right, sit back, relax and clear your mind.... then make a decision. A decision to jump in without a life jacket. To go for it with everything you've got. Because at this point in the game, second guessing your motives is no longer an option. Get your mindset right first before wasting your time and money on something you'd like to "try".

Find your market and vow to give them exactly what they need and everything they want. Vow to become the go-to brand for your specific product or service. Put your bags down because you'll be here for a while. Once you've made the decision to succeed, everything else, including temporary setbacks and failure, becomes a part of the process, hence managing your expectations, while keeping you in the game until you've become branded.

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UPDATE 3/2/2009:

 Found an interesting article on Advertising Age from a tweet by Dan Schawbel @danschawbel detailing a Personal Brand/Corporate Brand conflict with Ford Motors.   Interesting read. 

You can read part 1  of this series here:  Is Your Company’s Logo Design F*#$%ing Up Your Brand Image?

 Branding by definition implies a level of trust in your product or service, something that your clients and customers can depend on.  Apple for their innovation and service, Google for their quick and relevant searches.  A part of building a true brand aside from having a great product or service is the consistency of the brand’s image and actual brand message across multiple media platforms. 

But who is responsible for  your company’s brand message?

A few years ago a company’s  advertising and PR departments  were the gate keepers of their information and decided what and how the information was disseminated.  Now with the introduction of Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Styleapple,  your company’s blogs, etc,  you find that people are no longer interested  in what the company has to say directly, rather they seem to be gravitating to information being shared through employees and company executives themselves. 

I would personally rather follow Steve Jobs updates rather than  Apple, Inc. updates on Twitter (if I had to choose)  Given the gloomy recollection of corporate information and how difficult it was to understand exactly what their press releases were about, I think that  bad taste in our months  still lingers…  even if it’s now disguised as a Twitter bird dressed up in Facebook clothing.  Taking a phase from our most recent American political election  “You can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig” 

Frankly, Social Networking has drastically changed the way companies will build their brand images going forward, where your most valuable assets  become even more valuable  (Employees  and corporate execs now takes center stage in how well a company’s brand is communicated to the masses)  The important thing is to make sure the message is consistent and clear when your company’s brand becomes a sum of its parts or rather, a sum of your employees personal brands. Take a look at  How to Lay The Brand Foundation For A Consulting Business  Blogger, Dan Schawbel  for a bit more insight of how to start a cohesive branding strategy when your business has to manage your employee’s personal brand.

How do you manage your company’s brand when your employees are actively involved in Social Media Networking?

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Does Social Media Networking Really Influence Your Brand Reputation?

According to the latest  Marketing Sherpa “Chart of the Week”  Social media networking absolutely influences your brand reputation. 92% of companies polled said that social media marketing is effective in building their brand reputation.  Some of the other interesting numbers included:  Increase Brand Awareness? :  91% said yes, Increase search Engine Rankings? : 87%  said yes, and Increase Website Traffic: 87% said yes.

Building your company's brand reputation can be both tricky and fragile in today's social media driven economy. However, if managed correctly building your brand image online can be both interesting and potentially lucrative for you. Even in an economic downturn your clients and customers are still actively looking for you online. Effectively utilizing search engine marketing coupled with the right social networking tools can advance your business from startup to simply becoming a star in your industry.

As you know I’m CEO of Styleapple - The Branded Designers Social Network.  We help designers and design companies with their online or digital branding strategies.   Recently I’ve come clean admitting that I am indeed, a social media junkie,  which on the web is almost impossible to stay sober.  Social Networking sites are everywhere.  The trick is to know which ones are best for your business. 

Some of the social networking tools I currently use for marketing and promoting my business are Twitter, Twitterfeed,  LinkedIn, Flickr, Styleapple (A social networking site we've developed to promote and market design companies brands), The Branded Designers Blog, Designfloat,  Digg, Small Business Brief, and Sphinn to name a few.

Your first step is to find social networking communities where the members are either the demographics of your customers, clients or potential business contacts. Take an active role in discussions and really make an effort to be ‘social’ , offer your help and expertise in asking and answering group questions. A great resource on social networking do's and don'ts is  Eric Brantner Article on the 10 Secrets of the Best Social Media Users 

You can also find a great list of social media sites with descriptions of the kind of industry and benefits of each site from the following two articles:  48 Social News Websites You Can Use and 10 Great Places To Promote Your Designs.

Social media marketing has been tried and tested, no more excuses. This is a great time to build your design company’s brand, whether you’re a startup or have been around for a while.   Take the time to learn, engage and reap all the benefits of becoming  ‘SOCIAL’

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You know you're good when you can create a viral YouTube video about inbound marketing while using inbound marketing techniques to effectively promote your inbound marketing business. Simply Genius, Kudos to the guys at Hubspot. 

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Since this is the final month of elections for the Presidency of the United States - Election Day November 4, 2008.  I've decided to dedicate the next four weeks on the elections and show how social networking and branding can be effectively utilized.  That being said, I wanted to share with you what I believe is the most effective branding strategy in recent American history.

After watching the vice presidential debates last week It struck me that I'm in the middle of a very historical event.  I've never been so engaged in American politics before.  Seriously, this has been such  an experience to be right in the middle of what will go down in history as one of the most notable periods in America - the probable election of the first African American President in American history.

What's even more interesting is how clearly branding played a major role.  Two years ago Senator Barack Obama was a name that no one knew or cared about.  Two years later Senator Barack Obama is positioned to becoming the first African American president of the United States.   Knowing the colorful history of Blacks in America you could easily see why this event is simply extraordinary.   With that said.  I'd like to give credit  to Senator Barack Obama and his campaign for an exceptional campaign thus far by effectively creating a brand in 2 years what simply would  take other companies or organizations decades to accomplish.  

The Obama campaign proved that by effectively utilizing the tools of social media one can take down arguably "the most powerful Democratic family in a generation - one that understood the power of money in politics and commanded a network of wealthy donors that has financed the Democratic Party for years" - the Clintons.   Of course it goes without say that many factors played a role in the success of  this campaign thus far, some of which can be seen simply by a visit to the Barack Obama's website - http://www.barackobama.com/.  This website is a blueprint for anyone looking for a reference of an absolutely flawless machine of effective internet marketing which by the way has helped propelled this campaign to raising nearly half  a billion dollars in donations - A political campaign record.  So how did they do it?  Well,  I will attempt to dissect certain marketing elements that I believe assisted in the extreme success of this campaign and hope  that I can shed some light on areas where you can improve your  marketing efforts in your design businesses.

 For the next few weeks I will be talking about:

• The role social networking played in the success of the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign
• Branding and Logo Design - The techniques and strategies used to effectively brand Senator Barack Obama as the "CHANGE" candidate.
• SEO and inbound marketing efforts that help create an influx of web traffic to the Barack Obama website.
• Website esthetics, ease of use and how the Barack Obama website manages the customer's buying cycle and website conversion
• The advertising and marketing tools that contributed to effectively reaching even more supporters to help build the campaign base.
• Final results of the 2008 American Election 2008.

To make it more interesting I've decide to do a comparison of the two candidates running for president:  Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain and see if we can deduce who is utilizing their  marketing  efforts most effectively.   So stay tuned - the next post will be on The Role Social Networking Played in the Success of the Barack Obama's  Presidential Campaign.

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Lately, I've been monitoring the traffic to my website very closely.  Depending on the day or what article I post, which ones are picked up or published essentially  dictates what referrals sites show up on my beautiful pie chart :) 

Recently I've noticed an upward trend  of visitors  coming from the Google image search.   Google search accounts for roughly 40% of my daily traffic,  about 20%  of that comes from Google image searches.   This doesn't mean  you  should immediately  go and upload as many images as possible to your website or blog (let's face it, an image search is just that, more than likely your conversion rate on an image search is not worth discussing unless you're iStockphoto, Getty images or the likes)  but why not take the opportunity to maximize the effectiveness of something you're doing anyway.  For example when you're uploading an image to your blog or website,  make sure the image is relevant to the content and the name of the image adds value . For example  if you're writing  a blog about logo design, calling your image, image 1 doesn't help, instead  logo design 1 or company logo design  might be a more effective name. Placing keyword rich titles and relevant alt tags are all very important to identifying your images.  

So the next time you're uploading an image to your blog or website try not to blow off the minor details to quickly see the preview of your gorgeous layout :)  Instead take some time to implement the image details that will give your website the edge in Google ‘s image search results. 

Web Design Library wrote a great article on the "9 ways to increase website traffic  using Google image search" The article goes into detail on implementing alt tags anchor texts and even how to set up the enhanced image search feature in Google Webmaster tools.  It's a worthwhile read. Now,  Is content still king, of course it is, but why not supplement your King with a Queen - your well named , title, tagged  and enhanced image Queen.

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I would like to make a quick point of reference to one of my past sales experience.  I remember back in the day when I was a sales executive  at New York Health and Racquet Club , a New York City based health club.  Our monthly sales quota was to sell about 60 gym memberships per month at a premium price of $2100/yr.   Imagine having to talk to someone you just met and tell them to write a check for $2100 after 10 minutes.  Very daunting task to say the least, but still obviously doable - we met our quota quite often.  But  there is something not being said here. 

You see we had two types of clients coming into our club:  The first was the client who just walk off the street and into the club and the other was a client who knew of our service, quality and reputation (And this was mainly due to the pre-sales efforts incorporated in our sales cycle)    So I'm sure you can guest which client or customers became members more often... The ones with the background of our company of course.  No surprises there.  So if that is indeed the case offline.  Why are we not taking the same initiatives online?  Especially now that more and more of our business income is coming from our website and online efforts.  There are many things  that can assist in the pre-sales process,  including the obvious ones, email campaigns, newsletters  and company design blogs; but what about your website itself? 

Don't get me wrong,  I'm a big fan of blogging to share just this kind of information to your clients; as a matter of fact  Jacob Cass, a well respected graphic designer wrote an article on why logo design does not cost $5.00 in which he outlines his thought process when designing and also justifies his price even before the client hires him. BUT....  How many clients are going to be able to read that article before hiring:  How about those who simply come to your website and is looking for  some direct information regarding your products and services and is not a regular reader or a subscriber to your design blog.  This is why I recommend having a website that truly engages and provide a sense of  understanding and guidance keeping front and center the thought process your customers.

A great example of this is Studio Grafik, A Logo Design and Branding company with a website  that is very simple but has a very effective presentation of their products and service.   They give a quick summary of the client job request,  some thoughts on how they approached the design (1) , showed the completed logo and presented their branding efforts in different mediums, i.e.  Print (2) and website layout (3) and breaks down the logo to its bare mininum to expand on their thought process (4)  This kind of detailed outline of projects engages  and provide a sense of security to the client that this company know their business, even before any phone call or email has been sent.  This is a great pre-sales technique.   I've layout  the flow of Studio Grafik presentation of  one of their clients,  Sublime//ip  for your reference.

What are some of the techniques you've used in your design business for engaging your clients/customers on your website?

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I like it when I can go to one place and get everything I need. Like Walmart or Target, you can buy face wash and have a slice of pizza while waiting on line. I even wrote an article on tips on choosing a web designer and outlined a list of things a customer should look for when looking to hire (another combo deal) but after taking a second look at my recent post I realized that I was a little unfair and would like to clarify a few things; specifically the relationship between web designers, SEO and internet marketing consultants.

Your web designer should not be your SEO consultant or your internet marketing consultant for one simple reason. He might charge you double for his services... and rightfully so. You'd be getting two professionals for the price of one. Don't get me wrong I still think a SEO savvy web guy is probably someone you should keep on your short list but I don't think it's the norm in our industry yet. As the website design industry becomes more competitive; you'll begin to see the ‘all in one' philosophy become more prevalent. SEO, internet marketing consulting and website design is an inevitable marriage primarily due to the intense competition on the web for designers bidding for new projects and companies competing to be on Google's top 10 SERPS. In fact, I think SEO marketing companies should be cozying up with as many web designers and design companies across the globe as humanly possible-it just makes good business sense to me.

When creating a website it's crucial to design it with your customers in mind, identified by individual needs. David Meerman Scott calls these individual identities your buyers personas in his recent book on Marketing and PR. It's no longer about how cool your site looks but rather how effective your website is. As we are at the last phase of design for styleapple.com- a portfolio and job site for designers and design companies. we had to take a step back and rethink our website appeal and answer a few basic questions:

• Who are our demographics, i.e. web designers, graphic designers, design companies, pr firms, etc?
• Are we answering all the initial questions a new visitor might have, like what's this website about or where do I find the freelance jobs?
• Are we giving them the option to identify themselves once they arrive on the site? i.e. creative pro, design company, etc.
• Are we giving them the information they need once they've identified themselves? For example a designer might be interested in creating a design portfolio, browsing creative job listings or looking for new inspiration.
• Are we providing adequate information to answer our site visitors questions? i.e. why should I join Styleapple? , how will creating a portfolio help with my getting new projects?, how can posting a job help me find the right talent?
• Are we revealing the full functionality, product or service that the website offers? i.e. this site will give you additional exposure outside of your website, provide you with a personalize URL for client review, give you an opportunity to meet other creative pros like yourself?
• Are we giving them options of solutions? i.e. posting your portfolio online will help in getting your work noticed by potential clients or signing up for job alerts will send you updates when new projects become available?
• Do we have appropriate conversion forms at the time our site visitors are ready to take action, buy or subscribe, i.e. create portfolio, sign up for job alerts, or post a job forms?

You should not expect your web designer to answer these very important questions for you. I would suggest consulting with an internet marketing consultant or someone who knows about internet marketing to discuss this process as it is vital to your company's website success. David Meerman Scott's book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" is a pretty good read and gives some great tips when designing or redesigning your company's website.

Is it too much to ask a web designer to know SEO and Internet marketing techniques to maximize your website effectiveness? What's your opinion?

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I'm sure it's no surprise to you that the phrase "Free Download"  is more popular that the phase "Buy Now" in the eyes of your site visitors.  As a matter of fact just out of curiosity I looked up the  search volumes for each phase and found  that customers are searching for  "Buy Now " roughly 860 times per month whereas  "Free Download"  claims roughly 89,000 visitors per month.  No surprise there but as a designer and businessman, the question becomes how can you get a piece of the "Free Download"  search volume pie without losing your shirt giving away all your products and services?

Designers and design companies  alike should  be using  the free download  strategy as an effecitve internet marketing tool to engage new customers.  Giving away  freebies like web templates, graphic images, fonts, tutorials, and Photoshop brushes are all great ways of engaging your site visitors.  Great free stuff gives your customers a chance to get familiar with your company's brand and services which will put you on their short list for future purchases.  Here is a list of 5 great benefits for implementing  the "free download"  marketing technique to increase your bottom line:

1. Free downloads can assist in an increase in your opt-in email list. This can lead to building customer relationships though email newsletters and promotional offers. Being consistent and informative will put you on the short list when your clients are ready to buy.
2. Free downloads of products and or services has viral marketing potential, if what you're offering is worth telling friends about - your site visitors will surely tell their friends and colleagues about it, who in turn will tell their friends and colleagues about your free offer and before you know it... you're viral - sending an obscene amount of traffic to your website.
3. You can offer a free software download or trial of your product with limited functionality that can be easily upgraded to the fully functional paid version with all the bells and whistles your customers really wanted in the first place.
4. Free download of graphic or fashion images can be a great source of free advertising for your design company. Many people use images on blogs and websites and throughout social media networks. Be sure to place your web address and copyright information on the images or request that your site visitors credit the images to your design company though backlinks or photo credit on their websites.
5. And lastly, by simply having the phrase" free download" as part of your page content helps when users are searching by keywords, which is a great way to end up on the SERPs of major search engine for the 89000 customers looking for "free downloads".

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