In any type of business, building a strong brand identity is a key part of creating a thriving company. That goes double for small businesses, who rely even more on their reputation and the goodwill of their customers than their larger competitors do. Still, building a brand’s identity from the ground up is no easy […]
Branding
What’s Your Story? Did Someone Else Create It?
It is an old warning in the entertainment industry. Define your persona the way you want others to view you—before someone else defines you by comparing you to someone not as flattering as you would like. Sometimes you win when others define your story I have a friend in the music business who worked hard […]
How to Inspire Brand Loyalty with Purpose
Do you want your customers to love your brand? Would you like to break through the marketing clutter and inspire brand loyalty? Over the past few years, Americans have been making purchase decisions based on several factors, one of which has been gaining more ground. Many terms have been used to describe it such as, […]
How to Make Your Brand Culturally Relevant
Brands are becoming more culturally relevant today. Even small-medium businesses have joined the corporate giants in this endeavor. What does “culturally relevant” mean? In a new study report from Magna and IPG Media Lab, “Brands that are culturally relevant are brands that align well with cultural events, promote trends that define today’s culture, and support […]
Why Your Small Business Should Care More About Branding
Your brand is more about how people see your business than how you present your business. While there are some things you can do to change people’s perceptions, many businesses don’t fully understand branding or have limited time to put into it. Small businesses may struggle to find the time and resources to get the […]
Should Your Brand Be on Instagram?
A while back, I wrote about some of the trends that I thought would be shaping marketing in 2019. Visuals and video were among the tactics I said we would all be wise to explore in the coming year. I still know that’s the case and I thought we should take a more detailed look […]
4 Growth Tips for Modern Marketing Agencies
Thanks to low barriers to entry, low-cost tools, and widespread visibility, starting a digital marketing agency is not terribly difficult. Many firms have started from a home office and continued to be managed independent of a permanent location or commercial space. But there’s a significant difference between launching a digital marketing agency and scaling a […]
Old Navy Gets It Wrong
Previously, we took a look at how Crock-Pot dealt with the untimely death of a beloved TV character due to a faulty Crock-Pot cord and the social media backlash that erupted from that pretend but apparently emotional death. A situation that could have gone very wrong but Crock-Pot got it right. They didn’t get defensive or […]
Boost Your Branding: 7 Hottest Graphic Trends for 2019
Whether or not you put research, money and effort in to your brand, it will still be designed. Through many years of small business startups and made-from-scratch marketing, I’ve learned that crummy design can blight your business as much as sophisticated design can enhance it. Like the burned-out letter on the storefront sign, poor or […]
Your Social Media Needs a Stronger Voice. Here’s How to Get One.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are fantastic free business tools. They allow us to promote what we do, share relevant information, and engage with customers quickly and effectively, on a more personal level than ever before. When we get social media interaction right, the results can be instant and astounding. But used badly, social […]
