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Brand Equity and Mascots?

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WHen I built my blog in 2006 it was completely by accident that I stuck to some sort of branding in the form of an insect (the title of my blog is “A Bugged Life”). Four template changes later, I’ve managed to keep this brand and it’s been known by the local community. I’ve contemplated on going crazy with the idea by building a full mascot outfit of a huge cute bug which can be displaced during new media events. Mugs, tees, stickers — yeah you get the idea.

What sort of personal branding have you done as a blogger to enhance your equity in other spheres apart from the online space? Have you gone crazy with the idea or are you happy with the way your blog is now? Is your blog ubiquitous, allowing it to take on many shapes even off the Internet?

I write this in reference to the resurrection of UK’s Ask Jeeves — based on surveys, despite Jeeves’ departure from the Internet in 2006, he still brings forth a lot of brand recall as “Jeeves” is easier and more fondly remembered than a corporate logo. And in Asia, just look at the brand recognition Ajinomoto has achieved with it’s “Dapur Umami” online cooking class.

Four Steps to an Effective Marketing Campaign

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Marketing can be extremely complex, confusing and daunting all at the same time. The burden of launching a good marketing campaign doubles when you juggle this responsibility with several other tasks. This is the exact predicament which dentists find themselves in. They are not just the ones who supervise hygienists and other members of the staff, attend to patients and manage everything that happens in the clinic; they are also the brains behind any practice’s marketing strategy.

In a bid to try to simplify things, dentists should understand that there are really just four elements in any successful marketing campaign – audience, timing, offer and message. [Read more…] about Four Steps to an Effective Marketing Campaign

How to Conduct Multiple Social Media Searches with One Lookup

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The social media search engine normally lets a person carry out searches of multiple of dozens of social networking sites. Social media can be described to be the social networking system  where people get to interact on a social forum. It is meant to keep the friends updated about their social affairs. The social media may also be used by companies to to communicate about their products, recruiting new hires, receiving feedback about their products among many more. There are huge companies which have enrolled so many employees through the interaction on the social media. There exist numerous search engines today which are free that gives one the opportunity to search several search engines with just one look up. So just how does this happen? [Read more…] about How to Conduct Multiple Social Media Searches with One Lookup

The Pros and Cons of Article Marketing

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Article marketing is a lot like writing a press release. You write an article about the field in which you specialize, make it available for publishing by other Web sites and publications and, hopefully, garner attention and business when others publish it. How will people know where the article came from? Just like in a press release, there’s a “resource box” (essentially a biography with a link back to your site) which should be attached to each article no matter where it’s published. If readers find your article useful, they can click back to your site and learn more about you and your business. [Read more…] about The Pros and Cons of Article Marketing

The Right and Wrong Way to Use Social Media Marketing for Blog Growth

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Earlier this week, I wrote a post that explained the differences between social media marketing and content marketing.  Bloggers can use both methods of marketing their blogs in order to drive traffic to them.  In fact, you’re probably already doing social media marketing and content marketing activities.

But what are the right and wrong ways to market your blog on the social web?

My new book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, will be released any day now (you can check out a free bonus chapter here), and one of the things I talk about in the book is the difference between social media marketing success and failure.  There are three primary “rights and wrongs” that you need to be aware of as you venture into the world of the social web to promote your blog, grow your audience, and reach your goals.

I call these “rights and wrongs” the 3 Cs of Social Media Marketing Success or Failure, and the chart below can help you understand what these 3 Cs are all about.

Bloggers, just like businesses, who allow the online conversation to flow and let their audience take control of that conversation and experience that content in their own ways will achieve social media marketing and content marketing success.  However, those bloggers, just like businesses, who try to control the conversation and limit the flow of content across the social web will fail.  I clarify this concept in my book by explaining,

“There’s a fine line between behaving on the social web in ways that help you build bridges and acting in ways that cause those bridges to collapse (taking your messages along with them).”

Only you can decide whether you want to fully leverage the power, reach, and influence of the social web by giving up control and releasing your content into the virtual world.  You’ve already started by publishing a blog.  The rest is the easy part.

If you remember nothing else from my posts here on Performancing.com, remember this:

There is no bigger opportunity for businesses of any size (including bloggers and online publishers) to level the playing field, build their brands, and reach their goals than the social web.  You’re already there.  Let it work for you.

So what are you waiting for?  Get out there and publish amazing, shareworthy content and let the compounding effect of blogging deliver long-term, organic and sustainable growth for your blog!

Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing Through Blogging

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In the worlds of business and marketing, blogs can be an extremely valuable tool for both direct and indirect promotion.  However, it’s not as simple as saying blogs are a form of online marketing, because they can be part of a traditional online marketing plan (including banner ads, video ads, and so on) or part of a social media marketing strategy or content marketing strategy.

But what is the difference between social media marketing and content marketing?  The truth is they overlap a lot, so the concepts can become even more confusing and overwhelming.  In order to understand how these two forms of online marketing compare and contrast, check out the explanations below.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is defined as any form of direct or indirect marketing that promotes a business through the conversations and sharing which occur on the social web.  For example, Twitter updates, Facebook posts, forum posts, and comments published on blogs, videos, images, and so on are all social media marketing tactics.  Even the one-click sharing of links that happens across the social web is a form of social media marketing.

The primary objective of social media marketing is not only to start conversations and encourage sharing right now but also to keep those conversations and sharing related to your business going in order to indirectly promote your business well into the future.

Social media marketing also helps you directly market your business.  For example, you can post a discount code for purchases on your Twitter profile or announce a new product on your Facebook page.  Direct marketing tactics are used to motivate consumers to perform an action in the short-term as opposed to the long-term marketing objectives tied to ongoing conversations and sharing.

Social media marketing helps small business owners build brand awareness, create more entry points to their content and branded destinations across the web thanks to the power of the compounding effect of blogging and social media participation, and develop relationships with potential customers and online influencers around the world.

Content Marketing

Content marketing works both online and offline and includes any form of content created and shared for the purpose of directly or indirectly promoting a business.  The popularity of content marketing has grown significantly thanks to the widespread accessibility of online social media tools that enable anyone to publish amazing, shareworthy content.

For example, blog posts, online videos, press releases, articles, ebooks, and so on are all forms of content marketing that help to establish your expertise and add value to your target audience’s lives.  In fact, content published for the purpose of indirect marketing might not even be related to a business but does help people, which means it can indirectly build a brand simply because that content aids in building consumer trust.  Furthermore, it might get shared and discussed!  That’s where the power of content marketing comes from — adding value through the publishing and sharing of meaningful, useful content.

The best content marketing plans incorporate a variety of online and offline tactics that lead directly to social media marketing through sharing and conversations.  Bottom-line, content marketing allows small businesses to establish credibility, trust and loyalty because it helps people or interests them.

Therefore, content marketing and social media marketing should not operate in separate silos.  To be truly successful in promoting your blog, business, or brand via the social web, you need to integrate your content marketing and social media marketing activities.   Simply publishing a great blog post and forgetting about it won’t help you.  Instead, you need to publish that amazing content and let the world know about it, consume it, and hopefully, talk about it and share it with their own audiences using the tools of social media so you to reach your goals.

Image: stock.xchng

Give Your Blog a Marketing Boost with Press Releases

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The press release doesn’t get the credit it deserves in the 21st century.  For longer than most of us have been alive, press releases have been a useful marketing and publicity tool that businesses, non-profit organizations, schools, and more use to tell the world about the great things they’re doing.  While press releases might not be quite as important to an integrated marketing strategy as they once were, they can still benefit businesses.

Guess what?  Press releases can benefit bloggers, too.

Did you know that there are a variety of websites where you can submit your press release for free publication and sometimes limited distribution?  While it can costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars for full press release distribution through a site like PR Newswire, there are other sites that can help you spread the word for a much smaller investment.  Of course, these sites won’t give you the instant reach that full press release distribution through a site like PR Newswire can, but it can create entry points for your blog via incoming links, and it can put your name and messages in front of audiences that may not already be visiting your blog.  In other words, press releases play an important role in a content marketing strategy.

The trick is knowing where to submit press releases and knowing how to write one so it doesn’t simply read like an article or worse — a marketing pitch.  No one is going to read or share your ad disguised as a press release.  Remember, press releases should be written as journalistic pieces that provide newsworthy information to a broad audience.

Here are some tips to write a great press release:

  • Write in the third person.
  • Include a quote from a key player if possible.
  • Include the date of the release and city of origin.
  • Write a descriptive title without using sales language.
  • Include a boiler plate description of your blog or website at the end of the press release with a link.
  • Use search engine optimization techniques to drive traffic to your press release.
  • Keep the length to about 4-6 paragraphs (1-page).
  • REPORT don’t SELL.

Once you write your press release about the great things happening on your blog (for example, if you bring on a new writer, win an award, launch a new service, and so on), it’s time to spread the word.

Following are several sites that offer free publishing as well as a few sites that offer both free publishing and limited distribution:

Keep in mind, just about anything can be turned into a news item with a bit of thought and planning.  Give yourself some credit for the work you do and spread the word by writing a press release and letting it loose on the Web!  Be sure to include a link in your press release to your blog as well as your contact information!

Image: stock.xchng

Applying Color Marketing Research to Blog Design Strategy

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I’m a marketer by profession, and one of the areas of marketing that I find very interesting is color marketing, which focuses on how color affects consumer brand perceptions and purchase behavior.

Did you know that you can apply color marketing theory to your blog’s design?  It’s true.  Your blog is a product, and you should market it as such even in its design.

Following are some statistics culled from marketing research over the years that shows how color can affect consumers, just as color can affect your blog’s audience and their willingness to keep reading your blog after they find it.  If you have any doubt that color can affect your blog’s success, keep reading!

Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%. That means color could have a significant affect on how well visitors to your blog remember and recognize your blog on future visits.  Recognition is the first step to building a brand, so it should be an important part of your blog’ design, too.

Ads in color are read up to 42% more often than the same ads in black and white. This statistic can apply to online content, too.  In other words, if your blog is devoid of color, it could miss out on a significant amount of visits and page views.

Color can improve readership by 40%. If you want to keep visitors on your blog longer and make sure they read your blog posts from start to finish, use color strategically both in your blog’s overall design and within the formatting of your individual blog posts.

Color can improve learning from 55% to 78% and comprehension by 73%. That means if you’re trying to teach your audience something, color can help significantly.  Certainly, highly technical blogs would benefits considerably from the strategic use of color.

Tests indicate that a black and white image may keep a person’s interest for less than two-thirds a second, whereas a color image may hold a person’s attention for two seconds or more. If you want to get your audience’s attention and hold it, use color images on your blog.

So what do you think?  Are you using color in the most appropriate and effective ways on your blog?  It can make a big difference in terms of readability, shareworthiness, and loyalty.  Stay tuned to Performancing for more color marketing theory.  I’ll follow up on this post next week with information about color meanings, so you can evaluate your blog to ensure you’re using the best colors to attract the right audience and meet your goals.

Image: stock.xchng