Category: SEO

Marketing blog

How To Create Your Brand Identity In 3 Simple…

Brand identity is simply how a business would like to be perceived by their consumers.

The main components of a brand – The logo, name, tone – are created to reflect the value the business is trying to bring to it’s customers.

Did you know colour alone can increase brand recognition by up to 80%?

So how can we create a brand identity in 3 simple steps without hiring out a branding agency on our small business budget?

How To Create Your Brand Identity In 3 Simple Steps!

Mission Statement

A mission statement outlines your companies purpose and what drives you as a business. For example, Nikes mission is to;

‘Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world’

Your mission statement should include what you want to achieve by starting your company. So have a think about the following.

  • Why do you get out of bed on the morning?
  • What gives you the edge over your competitors?
  • What inspires you and what is your passion?

Strong brands are very clear about what they stand for and why they are unique.

Your Vision

Your vision is what drives you forward and should be brought to the forefront every time you hit a bump in the road.

Your vision is not just about what your company does, but what it represents and it’s ‘ideal’ future for it’s consumers. For example – to give EVERY athlete the choice to go vegan by offering high protein lunches and snack bars.

Getting back to basics, why did you start your business? ‘ I have a dream…. that someday……’

Brand Values

The most important part of your brand identity as these set of rules should be known AND followed by all your employees.

Your brand values will guide your behaviour, almost like a code of honour, and your company culture will be set around them. They reflect your ethics, principles and beliefs. Have a think about the following;

  • Simplicity is key, just a line or two for each value
  • Write to inspire
  • Are your values relevant to your brand/ products/ services?
  • Can they be used in everyday office behaviour?

Let’s take a look at an example, the BBC.

Our VISION – ‘To be the most creative organisation in the world’

Our VALUES – ‘ Audiences are at the heart of everything we do, creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation.’

Summary

By creating a strong mission, vision and value statements, you help to create a strong identity and a sense of community.

Are you a small business that needs assistance finding their brand identity? Maybe you need a fresh start and need assistance bringing your brand to social media and creating engagement with potential consumers?

Get in touch today! I am a London-based marketing consultant with experience working fro major global brands and offer affordable solutions for startups and small businesses.

 

 

 

 

SEO

How We DOUBLED Our Traffic In 6 Months! (…

I have lost count of the amount of posts I have come across hooking me in with an incredible title promising an increase in traffic and leads, but with little to none visible proof available. I feel that transparency is incredibly important when your are trying to back up your theory, especially when using a title such as ‘ How To Double Your Traffic’!  Because of this, I have included our data taken from our google analytics over the last 6 months since we started our business blog back in the beginning of May 2016.

Might I just add that this was all done without any paid traffic or google adds! 

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A more in depth look…..

traffic

We also managed to DOUBLE our targeted London Audience!

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AND our UK traffic;

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When it came to increasing our social media presence, we saw a 3,000% PLUS increase!

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As for organic traffic, once again a fantastic result;

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But HOW did we manage such an extraordinary increase in traffic?

This is how we achieved it;

  • Created a business blog
  • Posted valuable content 3 times a week
  • Created highly shareable Infographics
  • Created ‘How To’ content rather than trying to cold sell
  • Joined relevant Facebook business groups and Google Plus groups to share our content
  • Tweeted 3 x a day

Our leads have been steadily increasing thanks to these marketing procedures and we are currently more than doubling them on a monthly basis (although some info we will keep to ourselves when it comes to our clients!)

Do you want to know more? How to create a business blog? How to double your Pinterest following? What about the 5 biggest content marketing mistakes?

Everything we have learn’t to create such incredible results can be found in our popular small business blog!

SEO

Does Your Website Have These 6 Essential Elements?

‘75% admit to making a judgement about the credibility of a website based on it’s website design.’

Isn’t that a scary thought? Luckily, with so many free website templates on sites like Wix and WordPress, including plugins to cover everything from a Twitter feed to a subscription box, gone are the days where web designers can charge an extortionate fee. The market is just far too competitive!

For example, you can hire a website designer for as little as £25 an hour on Upwork! But for the startups and entrepreneurs who would like to test their creative abilities and create their own, let’s take a look at my top essential elements all websites should have.

A fantastic homepage is broken down into 3 elements 

  • Content
  • Tech
  • Visual design

Ideally, your homepage design needs to captivate your visitors, educate them on your brand and encourage them to click onto other pages.

The 6 Essential Elements Of A Website

‘Above the fold’ is a term meaning the first page your visitors will see when they land on your homepage.  This is why it’s so important to make the design as clutter free and user-friendly as possible.

  • Social Media Buttons –  Social media buttons placed at the top of your homepage allow your users to see you regularly engage and have a social media presence. When it comes to followers, numbers are vital, and a company that has built up thousands of followers tends to be viewed as more trustworthy.
  • About Tab – I would recommend this to be the first tab on your homepage. What do you do? How does your service and product differ from others? What are the benefits to the customer? More importantly, what is your vision and why have you decided your product/service could make such an impact on a possibly over saturated market?
  • Font – Fonts have been proven to greatly influence how a visitor feels about your brand. I remember our I.T tutor at school drumming into us that a formal letter had to be in the font of ‘Arial!’. Thankfully we are a lot more opened minded today and instead value the ability to make a font unique to our brand. Just avoid using too many writing styles on your homepage. Try to use bold or headers to make your point instead.
  • The Pop up – Pop ups have the ability to create warm leads, or have your visitors leaving the page within 10 seconds out of annoyance! I recommend setting your pop up to appear at least a minute after the visitor has landed on your platform.

          The aim of a pop up is to create warm leads by visitors adding their email address and subscribing to a monthly            newsletter. You can then market special offers on a monthly basis to try to close the sale down. After all, they                were interested enough to sign up to you in the first place, you’re halfway there!

  • Pricing – A recent client told us they had searched the internet for an idea on how much it would cost to purchase a social media package. Out of the 10 websites they visited, only one was transparent enough to show their prices and as luck would have it, that site was ours – Designated PA. Worrying about your competitors seeing your pricing is one thing, but having potential customers leave instantly as they do not want to email or call is quiet another.
  • Contact Details – Have you lost count of the amount of times you’ve searched high and low for contact details on a site, just to find them in small print at the very bottom of the page? Surely the point is to make you as accessible to potential customers as possible? Think about creating a separate tab for your contact details above the fold.

Are you concerned how user friendly your site is? How about the quality of your visuals and your content? Get in touch with our digital marketing team today and let’s create a unique and user friendly platform that sets you apart from your competitors.

Contact – Info@designatedpa.com or telephone us on +44 (0)207 952 1460