14 Power Facebook Tips to Build Your Brand and Business

If you are not using your personal Facebook as a tool to build awareness for yourself or your company's brand, you are missing out on arguably the world’s most powerful, free marketing tool. Yes, I did say “free.”

Facebook is used by more than half of the world’s online population, and by the end of 2015 it had more than 1.5 billion monthly users. In addition, the average smartphone user spends one out of every five minutes on Facebook. AOL had a dream to monopolize the Internet in 1985. Facebook has realized that dream today.

“I have a business page and my personal page is for friends and family.” Well, it’s time to start using your personal Facebook to build your brand, business and awareness. There’s Snapchat, Whatsapp, and a host of other fun platforms to interact with friends and family.

Your business page can sometimes be effective but since these pages are a major source of revenue for Facebook, it’s difficult to get a lot interaction on them without paying a lot. Spending $100 in Facebook advertising to get 2000 views (what value that has is unclear), 27 likes, and 6 clicks is not worth it. Facebook decreases the organic reach of posts on these pages – they are like playing the slots at a casino: you always hear about someone who walks out ahead, but the house wins 97 percent of the time.

The good news is that your personal page can get a lot of attention if you use it right - and it is free. Here are 14 Facebook tips, that will maximize your reach, likes, and interactions, which will drive awareness to you and your business.

1. Be Professional

Your Facebook page should look serious and be representative of your brand, business, or whatever it is you want to promote. Do not post things you wouldn’t want co-workers, customers, or suppliers to see. You don’t want to alienate or turn off potential followers. As a rule, don’t ever make a post about partying, drinking, or anything vulgar. One off-putting post and you will lose a friend or follower -- and you won’t even know it.

2. Smart Security

Allow your posts to be publicly visible. Nothing your posting should really be private and you want as many people to view your posts as possible. At the same time, go to the setting: “Who can add things to my timeline?” and set to “only me.” Turn on approval of all tags before they appear on your timeline. You don’t want other people’s thoughts on your wall and you don’t want to be tagged at the strip club -- as someone’s joke.

3. Be Friendly

Friend people often and approve all friend requests from real people. Like any social-media platform, the goal is to have as many followers as possible, but be wary of fake accounts and decline those invitations.

4. No Politics

No one should be able to easily determine your political views. I always take into account what a potential customer, who is opposite of my political views, would think of my posts. If you need to vent, there are many closed groups on Facebook where you can.

5. No Whining and Complaining

No one wants to hear about bad service at the DMV, the traffic, the boil on your toe that burst, or how bad your life is. If I wouldn’t say it to a first date, I won’t post it on Facebook. Face your problems, don’t Facebook them.

6. Play Tag Fairly

It is appropriate and good technique to tag people who are in pictures or are with you at an event because it increases viewership and makes your post available to their followers too. However, do not tag people in posts that have nothing to do with them for the sake of getting their attention.

7. Rock Your Profile Picture

If your profile picture has you shirtless or is of you taking a selfie in a mirror, immediately stop reading this article and go change it. You look ridiculous. This is not LinkedIn, so you don’t necessarily have to have a professional headshot, but you do have to have an interesting picture. You want to have a picture that represents you or your brand and creates a conversation. The goal is to get people to interact with you anyway you can. Sometimes when I have little to post about, a change in my profile picture can generate a lot of interest. Here’s an example of how I worked a post with my profile picture.

8. Like a Lot

The more you like someone’s posts the more of their posts you will see -- and they will see more of your posts. When you pass by a post and don’t click "like," Facebook thinks you really don’t like that person’s posts and will stop showing them to you. I like hundreds of posts everyday (unless I really don’t like it). I also don’t stand on ceremony -- even if someone doesn’t like my stuff, I’ll like his/her posts anyway. It’s good for me.

9. Like Comments

Like every comment on your posts. If a person took the time to comment, you should acknowledge it because it builds interaction and rewards him/her for doing so. He/she will be more likely to interact again and Facebook will be more likely to show them your posts. The goal is to get as many likes and comments on a post as possible.

10. It’s a Happy Birthday

Wish every friend “happy birthday.” I do it as my morning ritual. It’s a chance to increase interaction with friends and see what they are up to. Sometimes it even reminds me that I need to contact them for some business or personal reason.

11. Always Post with a Picture

Never make a text-only post. Picture posts get much more attention from the viewer and Facebook promotes those posts more. Even if it’s just a holiday wish to your Facebook friends, make sure to use a picture. As an example, here is my Thanksgiving post, which is just a simple statement, but the picture sends it big.

12. Instagram Is a Post Booster

When possible, post a picture on Instagram and click the “share to Facebook” button. Not only does it give your picture two chances to get noticed, Facebook promotes Instagram pictures more than pictures posted directly.  And you have the ability to edit the post on Facebook later, adding comments and picture tags. A recent picture I took in Seattle, is a great example of this technique.

13. Timing Is Everything

The timing of posts is crucial because Facebook promotes your post to more of your followers  if and only if it gets likes and comments quickly. This sometimes requires trial and error to see when your followers react best. Posting business related posts late at night is a sure fail. Similarly, making a post that is more personal during the middle of the work day is not going to be effective either. I have had a lot of success with posting late afternoon and early evening on weekdays and mid-afternoon on weekends. Avoid posting anything business related in the hours before a holiday begins.

14. Be Interesting and Informative

Content is king. A post that says, “It’s hot out” is not going to get the same viewership and interactions as one with a cool picture of an egg frying on the hood of your car. Similarly, a post that tries to sell a product is a no-no. You can tell about the features of a product or service without obviously selling it. Every post you make should be thought out carefully on how it will build your brand and increase interactions -- and keep your friends wanting to see more from you. Use humor when appropriate because making people laugh always draws them to you. Finally, don’t be overly narcissistic. My rule is for every self-promoting post, I also try to have a few posts that make fun of myself. You want people to like you.

These 14 tips will get your posts more likes, comments, and shares on the largest social platform on earth. You will be creating an image of yourself, your brand, and your company that people are attracted to. That is what any good marketing campaign should do.

Facebook is free and now you know how to use it. So what are you waiting for?

By MATT SWEETWOOD

CONTRIBUTOR

Marketing & Business Consultant • Speaker • Author

7 Ways to Build a Million-Dollar Brand

Almost everything I did to reach these people was FREE. However, it did require a lot of patience, strategy, and creativity. If it is your goal to reach millions of people, you can do it with consistent effort and determination. It was less than a decade ago when you had to hire a public relations firm to reach millions of people. 

Big companies would buy full-page spreads in magazines, purchase television time, and even run advertisements on billboards all over the highways. Small business owners had no chance unless they started with bigger companies. However, times have changed. Nowadays, almost every social media opportunity is free. You can build a website for less than $10. You can find speeches, interviews, magazines--all for FREE.

At my company, Dignify Designs, we show business owners how to maximize their brands by employing the right strategies. To be noticed in this world, you're going to have to optimize your brand to appeal to those you want to serve. In short, the secret to your brand will be to show your audience who you are, not just tell them. Moreover, the power of branding must be used carefully. It's easy to get distracted with all of the avenues of self-expression. With the many vehicles out there, you must choose the one that works best for your brand and master it. To build a million-dollar brand, you need to caress your tools constantly until you build your dream empire.

1. Show Legitimacy

Think about the people you admire the most in business. They are very legitimate. They have a following. They have an actual business name. They write for big publications. They have professional photos. They have positive reviews. They have interactive websites. Some of them even have a Wikipedia page! If you show people you mean business, they'll trust you. 

2. Google Yourself

What shows up when you Google yourself? If you have party photos, old resumes, and other useless information, you're only hurting yourself. While it's great to share your personal life, you don't want to go too far and show the world what you're doing when no one is looking. Keep clear cut profiles that show the utmost professionalism.

3. Create Content

 Sumner Redstone is known for saying, "Content is king." Today, it's truer than ever. However, your content must be CONSISTENT and DIFFERENT. There's a ton of inspirational people who are trying to do the same things, but get little results. Your content must be original and thought-provoking. You also want to produce content that is 'shareable' with the world.

4. Leverage Social Media

These days, you can use social media from your phone. You can also set posts to deliver while you're sleeping. By utilizing my favorite social-media avenues (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube) and learning about new ones (Snapchat, Instagram, Periscope), I can reach hundreds of thousands of people each day. Start by making at least 10 posts per day across all social-media platforms and you'll be recognized by many. 

5. Build a Following

People who purchase my products and services have been loyal followers for a long time. I have thousands of loving fans who "check-in" every month. Every day, I'm winning the hearts and minds of those who are looking to obtain financial freedom. They tell me, "Daniel, you're the best at what you do. That's why I follow you." I love those kinds of fans.

6. Promote Advocates

As you become more well known in the marketplace, people will want to help. One quick trick if you're extra busy is to hire an intern at the local university. Interns will help your run your social media and put together some of the graphics necessary to appeal to your audience. You may also want to get your "competitors" to share, comment, and like your work. 

7. Never Compete

The surest way to fail in building a million-dollar brand is to emulate others. There are too many carbon copies in every industry. You must not look at the work of others with envy or contempt, nor should you compare your products and services with another person. However, you should create an empire so large that your former "competitors" start asking you for help. 

We live in a world where we can reach someone who lives thousands of miles away. If you're only doing business locally, you are hurting your chances substantially. Use these suggestions to build an international empire and you will be able to reach millions of people in just a matter of months, or years. If you're serious about building your brand, please feel free to reach out. 

by Daniel Ally

You Don't Need Much Cash to Implement These 5 Essential Marketing Strategies

When your business first launches, it’s important to build a good foundation for growth. You need to make your business visible, start attracting a first round of customers, and start creating a reputation that will carry your brand forward -- hopefully for many years. Unfortunately, new business owners face a number of unique marketing challenges that their more-established counterparts have long forgotten about.

• Limited resources: Most new businesses have little working capital and few team members. Spending that money on marketing or hiring a marketing expert is demanding for most early-stage businesses.

• Limited knowledge: Even if you have an expert on your team, you have no brand history, which means you have limited information on how certain messages might play with your demographics.

• Greater risk: You aren’t as established, so one bad message can completely blow your reputation. Plus, if your marketing campaign fails, you’ll be out a proportionally larger sum of money.

With all these challenges in mind, it’s no wonder why some new business owners avoid marketing altogether. But marketing isn’t a superfluous investment -- it’s a necessary one if you want your business to grow. Instead of opting for marketing or no marketing, think about the specific strategies you can adopt to minimize your risk, compensate for your lack of experience and knowledge and attract customers while still remaining affordable.

These five important marketing strategies usually get the job done.

1. Branding

Branding comes first, no matter what your business is or what other marketing strategies you choose to pursue. Branding is your differentiating brand identity. It sets you apart from the competition and gives your customers something familiar and consistent to start building a relationship with.

The trick is that your brand needs to convey some emotion or some idea in a concise, visual and interactive way and do so consistently across all your messaging channels. Executing this is difficult but important -- because if your branding is inconsistent or poorly thought-out, the rest of your marketing initiatives might fail before they even begin. Spend some time developing an ideal brand for your business.

2. Content marketing

Content marketing is the next foundational pillar almost every business needs. You need a business blog and other forms of content that communicate your expertise to your audience -- and attract new people to your brand. It shows people what they’re getting by working with you, increases brand trust and positively influences purchasing decisions.

Beyond that, it serves a role as fuel for search engine optomization, social media, email marketing and dozens of other marketing campaigns. In case that hasn’t yet convinced you, understand that there’s no minimum budget for content -- you can get started even if cash is tight.

3. Search engine optimization (SEO)

The vast majority of people find their news, information and potential purchases through search engines alone. Getting your business to rank for those searches is a near necessity in the modern world. Paid advertising can get you there quick, but organic ranking can get you there for a long time. And if you’re doing content marketing anyway, it won’t take much extra effort. If national SEO seems too competitive or too intensive for you, local SEO is always an easier, more affordable option.

4. Social-media marketing

Social media marketing isn’t a magic formula that will earn you thousands of customers or millions of dollars, but it offers a few unique advantages that make it a necessary staple for new businesses. It’s easy. It’s free (mostly). It can enhance other marketing strategies. And it can grow really fast if you support it properly.

To get started, syndicate your cache of content and start reaching out to people individually. The more you engage with your community, and the more unique content you push, the wider your audience will grow.

5. Email marketing

Despite email marketing being passed over as a relic by entrepreneurs chasing the next great technology, email marketing is still highly effective -- and cost efficient to boot. Using your content as fuel to give users something of value and tying in some kind of social media integration, email marketing can serve as a type of glue to hold your other strategies together.

It also gives you recurring opportunities to reach out to an interested, dedicated lead pool, giving you compounding returns as your number of subscribers grows. As long as your offers are valuable, this strategy will eventually pay off.

Every business is unique and will have distinct marketing needs, but for the most part, these marketing strategies can work for anyone. They’re foundational building blocks for even bigger and better campaigns and can be effective on almost any level of budget. If you’re just starting out, start small with a moderate targeted investment and only scale up as you feel more comfortable and acquire more capital to invest.

by Anna Johansson

5 Digital-Marketing Tactics to Ditch in 2016

Keeping abreast with what works in digital marketing can be a constant catch-up game. Fickle consumers jump from channel to channel. Google updates its search algorithm. Keeping up with Facebook’s monthly changes requires constant education. Because of all of this change, it can be hard to keep on top of which digital tactics still work -- and which are no longer relevant.

Read on to understand which digital-marketing tactics you should consider ditching in 2016.

1. Having a desktop-only accessible website

The mobile website living separately from the desktop website no longer flies with Google. The dominant search engine has made it very clear that a traditional website that doesn’t adjust to the user’s screen size won’t be as visible as one that does.

Google knows its users access their search engine while on the go and wants to serve its users in the best way possible. To make itself look better, it must reward the websites most accommodating to how customers search the web today -- in the car, the Starbucks line and even in the corporate meeting.

Websites must be fluid not only for the user, but for the business owner’s convenience as well. Having a mobile website built on a separate platform runs the risk that information from site to site will be inconsistent. Contradictions erode consumer trust. Handling social media and directory updates creates enough extra work. Having to upload new information to additional sites become cost and time ineffective. The bottom line is that the traditional desktop designed website will lose rankings and visibility.

Despite Google’s clear messages that websites must be mobile-friendly, many small and medium-sized businesses have not converted their websites to mobile-friendly design. To check if your website is mobile friendly, enter your url into Google’s “Mobile Friendly Test Tool.”Google will quickly tell you if and why your website does not render in an effective way on tablet or smartphone. Small fonts and links put too closely together are a few factors that make a website impossible to navigate and access on a small screen. Get your website mobile today to keep customers coming in.

2. Not updating your website.

Beyond mobile accessibility, Google also closely watches how often users click and convert on your website. While it was once speculated that Facebook channels would overtake websites, research tells us that consumers return again and again to a company’s website for in-depth information on the corporation, product and contact details.

Google takes this habit seriously and wants company websites to serve visitors’ needs. Again, like the mobility demand outlined above, Google is laser-focused on delivering quality answers from quality websites.

The place-holding or basic website that acts primarily as a two-dimensional, digital brochure doesn’t win higher rankings from the search engines. The site must be attractive, easy to navigate, timely and constantly updated with quality content.

A/B testing can help your site win better user engagement and sales or other conversions. More, Google interprets users quickly bouncing away from your website back to the search results as a signal the site offers content that’s irrelevant to the search query. To succeed in digital marketing, make sure your website fulfills a need and constantly addresses that need with timely, relevant content.

3. The spammy link

Google changed the determination of quality in 1999 when it decided that, rather than have an editorial team review websites and make subjective judgments, it would derive value of a website by the number of other websites linking to it. In other words, the digital thumbs up in the form of backlinks provided a more accurate reflection of a site’s usefulness.

Unfortunately, business owners and unethical search agencies sullied Google’s trust of backlinks as indicators of the authority of a website. These entities gamed Google’s system by creating backlinks from artificially created sites with poor-quality content and irrelevant information. Google’s strong staff of PhDs and computer engineers rectified this black- hat SEO with the Penguin update, which penalizes websites without authentic backlinks coming from relevant and reputable websites.

Today, Google rewards the quality, robust content that earns backlinks naturally. SEO companies have become big content generators. Keep in mind, too, that in addition to signals from other sites, Google’s staff of editors spot-check a website’s content to make sure it’s relevant to certain search queries. Companies without meaningful and helpful content, products and backlinks drop in the rankings quickly. After all, Google doesn’t want to deliver a poor product.

4. The superficial social channel

Social media marketing progressed so quickly, many companies were thrilled to get cover images and some content -- any content -- up over the past few years. They felt convinced having a presence on social media would prove their credibility.

Companies that overlook the opportunities social media provides to connect one on one with customers do so to their detriment. Studies show that social media has become one of the big three of customer support, alongside telephone and email.

But where those emailing a company expect a response within a day or so, a study conducted by Edison Research reveals that 42 percent of those contacting a company through social media expect a response within 60 minutes, and 24 percent expect a response within 30 minutes. Further, consumers expect the social-customer service team to work all night and through the weekend.

Long gone are the days when companies avoided social media for fear of negative comments. We’ve all learned negative comments happen whether we’re there to address them or not. Now, most marketers view criticism as an opportunity to educate customers and showcase a committed, responsive customer-service department.

5. Single display and Facebook ads

Typically just 2 percent or fewer website visitors convert on the first visit. Sales professionals have always known that it takes seven to nine contacts before the sale is closed. If the website is the digital salesperson, shouldn’t it have the opportunity to follow up on initial contacts?

Google and Facebook have made this possible through re-targeting -- which Google calls re-marketing. When a visitor lands on a website, a cookie or short piece of JavaScript is placed in their browser. After they leave your site, this cookie pings the re-targeting platform to put certain ads on the next pages the visitor goes to.

That’s why, when you spend some time on a hover-board site or when you next go to WebMD or Facebook or your favorite blog, you see an ad for the hover board. It follows you around the web. WebMD, Facebook and some blogs also have a relationship with the re-targeting platform that acts as a clearinghouse or middle man to deliver ads to appropriate publishing platforms. The WebMD page you see won’t be the same WebMD page a friend sees even if you use the same URL. Ads served to your friend will be different and based on her previous Internet activity.

When done right, re-targeting helps move the prospect down the sales funnel. It re-engages them after they leave your page. The era of a single display ad that shows up on one blog in the same place every time is coming to an end. Today’s technology enables advertisers to target one customer at a time and lure them down the attention, interest and desire path to action -- the sale.

Each digital-marketing tactic a business chooses must depend on the size of the business, its unique selling proposition, its audience demographics and its ideal buyer’s journey. No digital-marketing technique is a one-size-fits-all solution, but we’re confident that if you avoid these tactics and mistakes, your digital marketing efforts will be improved in 2016.

What are some digital-marketing tactics that you said goodbye to in the last year? What will you be focusing on in 2016?

by Matt Walker, CEO and Founder of Main Path, Inc.

6 Unusual Habits of Exceptionally Creative People

I expend a huge amount of my time and energy writing books and articles and working to keep my company innovative. I’ve developed an obsession with some of history’s most creative minds in the hope that I might learn some tricks to expand my own creative productivity.

Some of the things I’ve learned are more useful than others, and some are simply too weird to try.

Steve Jobs, for example, routinely sat on toilets, dangling his bare feet in the water while he came up with new ideas, and Yoshiro Nakamatsu (inventor of the floppy disc) would dive deep under water until his brain was deprived of oxygen, then write his ideas on an underwater sticky pad.

Weird ideas aside, I’ve developed a pretty good understanding of the habits of some of history’s most creative minds. There’s enough commonality between different people that I’ve distilled their habits into strategies that anyone can follow.

Six of these strategies stand out because they have the power to change the way you think about creativity. Give them a try, and you’ll reach new levels of creative productivity.

1. Wake up early.

Not all creative minds are morning people. Franz Kafka routinely stayed up all night writing, and William Styron (author of Sophie’s Choice, among other best sellers) woke up at noon every day and considered his “morning” routine to be staying in bed for another hour to think.

However, early risers make up the clear majority of creative thinkers. The list of creative early risers ranges from Benjamin Franklin to Howard Schultz to Ernest Hemmingway, though they didn’t all wake up early for the same reasons. Ben Franklin woke up early to plan out his day, while Schultz uses the time to send motivational emails to his employees. For many creative people, waking up early is a way to avoid distractions. Ernest Hemingway woke up at 5 a.m. every day to begin writing. He said, “There is no one to disturb you and it is cool and cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.”

The trick to making getting up early stick is to do it every day and avoid naps—no matter how tired you feel. Eventually, you will start going to bed earlier to make up for the lost sleep. This can make for a couple of groggy days at first, but you’ll adjust quickly, and before you know it, you’ll join the ranks of creative early risers.

2. Exercise frequently.

There’s plenty of evidence pointing to the benefits of exercise for creativity. Feeling good physically gets you in the right mood to focus and be productive. Exercise also forces you to have disconnected time (it’s tough to text or email while working out), and this allows you to reflect on whatever it is you’re working on. In a Stanford study, 90% of people were more creative after they exercised.

It’s no surprise that so many creative and successful people built exercise into their daily routines. Kurt Vonnegut took walks into the nearby town, swam laps, and did push-ups and sit-ups, Richard Branson runs every morning, and composers Beethoven and Tchaikovsky both walked daily.

3. Stick to a strict schedule.

It’s a common misconception that in order to be creative, one must live life on a whim with no structure and no sense of need to do anything, but the habits of highly successful and creative people suggest otherwise. In fact, most creative minds schedule their days rigorously. Psychologist William James described the impact of a schedule on creativity, saying that only by having a schedule can we “free our minds to advance to really interesting fields of action.”

4. Keep your day job.

Creativity flourishes when you’re creating for yourself and no one else. Creativity becomes more difficult when your livelihood depends upon what you create (and you begin to think too much about what your audience will think of your product). Perhaps this is why so many successful and creative people held on to their day jobs. Many of them, like Stephen King, who was a schoolteacher, produced their breakout (and, in King’s case, what many consider his very best) work while they still held a 9 to 5.

Day jobs provide more than the much-needed financial security to create freely. They also add structure to your day that can make your creative time a wonderful release. The list of successful, creative minds who kept their day jobs is a long one. Some notable individuals include Jacob Arabo, who started designing his own jewelry while working in a jewelry shop; William Faulkner, who worked in a power plant while writing As I Lay Dying; and musician Philip Glass, who worked as a plumber.

5. Learn to work anywhere, anytime.

A lot of people work in only one place, believing it’s practically impossible for them to get anything done anywhere else. Staying in one place is actually a crutch; studies show that changing environments is beneficial to productivity and creativity. E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, said it well: “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” The same is true for any type of creative work. If you keep waiting until you are in the perfect place at the ideal time, the time will never come.

Steve Jobs started Apple in his mom’s garage, and JK Rowling wrote the first ideas for Harry Potter on a napkin on a train. When you have a creative idea, don’t wait—put it into action as soon as you can. Recording that spark of creativity may very well be the foundation of something great.

6. Learn that creative blocks are just procrastination.

As long as your heart is still beating, you have the ability to come up with new ideas and execute them. They may not always be great ones, but the greatest enemy of creativity is inactivity. Author Jodi Picoult summarized creative blocks perfectly: “I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it—when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands. If you have a limited amount of time to write, you just sit down and do it. You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” Picoult’s comment describes all creative activity—the only way to stay creative is to keep moving forward.

Bringing it all together

In my experience, you must get intentional about your creativity if you want it to flourish. Give these six strategies a try to see what they can do for you.

by TRAVIS BRADBERRY

Co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and President at TalentSmart

Rebranding Your Business In 2016: 5 Things To Consider

The most overused tagline for advertising around the new year is “New Year, New You.” Moving to a new year suggests to us that we can start over and do some things differently. For businesses, a new year means new budgets and new strategies.

For some businesses, it means building a new identity through rebranding.

When discussing a rebrand, it’s important to look at your business and the industry to see what changes have happened. Rebranding is not something that should be done frivolously, because it is expensive and will have a lasting impact on your business. As such, it is in your business’s best interest to consider your reasons for rebranding. A rebrand does not provide your business with the direction and purpose; it happens because you have both of those. Maybe what your business needs is a refresh.

As you consider the reasons for rebranding, look at these five areas and the predictions for 2016 to help you not only decide whether to rebrand, but also know how to do it successfully.

Demographic Shifts Among Consumers

Demographic shifts are happening regularly as new groups step to the forefront armed with buying power and new consumer trends. Appealing to this new group of consumers is one of the most compelling reasons for a business to rebrand.

Many businesses have been content to market to those originally called Baby Boomers. Now known as the Aging Boomers, this consumer group will shift into an elderly group who are more concerned about living off their retirement fund and spending their fixed income on health care and other essential products. Your business will not be able to survive if you continue marketing to the same consumers.

Many businesses have already recognized this and tweaked their marketing to reach a new growing group known as millennials. Studies are predicting that by 2017, this consumer group will be spending $200 billion annually. If you are not reaching this group by next year, you will have lost your opportunity.

As you build your plan for rebranding, it is important to learn from your consumer and understanding how your brand will be relevant to them.

• What do millennials value?
• Do these value align with our brand?
• What problems does our brand solve for millennials?

These are some questions to consider to help you determine how your brand can continue to market your products long-term to Millennials. You may discover that all your business needs to is to revitalize and create a new campaign that speaks directly to this new audience.

Personification of Your Brand

Your brand is more than your logo or your business’s name — it is your business’s identity. Going through rebranding process means that you need to give your brand an identity, complete with a personality, values and interests. Determining WHO is your brand is the only way to start differentiating your business from others in the industry.

There are various ways to identify your brand’s personality. These exercises can have you finding the car or celebrity that is most similar to your brand. For some businesses, personification leads to the creation of an easily identifiable character like the Aflac Duck or the Keebler Elves.

One of the most important brand characteristics for millennials is whether or not the brand fits their personality. Your business needs to have your brand personified in a way that will invite your new customer base in and make them just as loyal as they were before the rebrand. When you take a minute and strategically engineer your brand’s personality, you see what kind of customer experience you want to shape. This process will help you plan your strategy and define other aspects of your rebranding including communication.

All-Encompassing Communication

When you see your customer experience laid out, it becomes easier to identify every touchpoint for your new customer base. The most noticeable touchpoint is always the tone of the new brand’s communications directly to the customers.

The biggest headache for consumers is when a rebrand happens. There is a sense of betrayal as their favorite brand tosses aside everything that they used to know and love to try and get a new audience. The way your business communicates the story for the rebranding will determine your success of maintaining your current customer base while bringing in a new one.

A shining example of navigating this post-rebrand customer communication was displayed by Utah marketing agency Eli Kirk  following its recent acquisition of Riser and the rebrand that followed. The merging of the two firms into EKR meant merging customer bases, as well. Bill Brady, President and CMO of EKR, and his team knew that communication would be critical during the transition.

Accordingly, Brady and the folks at EKR crafted 50 case studies to serve as the foundation of the brand’s new website. Clients from both sides of the merger are featured in the content, so both groups  feel a continued partnership with the agency while gaining exposure to its expanded capabilities and clientele. Brady attributes an extremely smooth merger to the process of creating content that would make all clients feel at home while getting them excited about new possibilities for their own brands. “The content we created has made the transition extremely smooth. We haven’t dropped a single client—everyone is really excited about what’s happening,”   he said.

The story is critical to be communicated, but also the tone and voice of the new brand will be the consistent thread to carry customers through the rebranding experience. Your customer needs to know from the beginning that their important values are not lost in this new direction.

Ever-expanding Technology

Technology has continued to play a big part in any business’s future. From the launch of Apple Pay this year and to the rise of Snapchat, there is always going to be a new channel or a new technology tool that will be adopted by your customers and may affect your business model. During the rebranding process, your business has to look into the future and consider how people may be communicating in the future.

This year, many websites were hit with Mobilegeddon and most experts express that this is only the beginning. If you haven’t considered mobile technology for your product or even website, you are already behind the crowd. When your business rebrands, you can make the changes to help your business grow in a new direction more quickly than if you had tried to do a refresh.

Content Remains King

Regardless of all these changes and meetings you are having, your content still reigns as king in the castle and cannot be neglected. Remember EKR’s case studies? Through content you will effectively communicate your new identity to your new consumers. You must make sure that your content remains true to your business’s values and purpose.

The rebranding process can also give you the chance to expand beyond your current content media and channels to your new audiences. Old Spice turned their business around and built a YouTube channel by rebranding through a campaign. “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” video has now received almost 52 million reviews and their YouTube channel has amassed over 500,000 followers. Old Spice realized their rebrand opened new doors to sharing their content that made more sense for the new millennial audience.

The new year is a few weeks away and while others may be rushing to finish holiday gift shopping and plan budgets for 2016, it’s a great time for your business to take a minute and consider whether it’s time to rebrand. Or as others say, “Out with the old, and in with the new.”

By Laurel Teuscher

10 Christmas Email Marketing Tips

If Christmas is magic, the build-up is manic. You could definitely be forgiven if you currently feel like you are spread as thinly as bread sauce on Boxing Day. But that doesn’t mean your marketing has to suffer. Here are ten, easy-to-integrate tips that will keep your email campaigns sparkling this festive season.

1. Stay steady with your sender field

Do not underestimate the value of a familiar name in a crowded inbox. The sender field allows your reader to see exactly who the email is from. A Christmas-themed pun on your business name can be fun, but if in doubt consistency is the best policy.

2. Make your subject line a cracker

If there’s one part of your email worth laboring over, it’s the send title. It’s the single biggest factor in determining whether or not your readers open your email or hurl it towards the trash can. Getting the right mix of words can be a challenge, but the following is best practice:

• A total of 50 characters (including spaces) or fewer
• Don’t repeat anything from the sender field
• No typos or spelling mistakes
• Nothing too salesy or spammy

Be original. Be enticing. Speak to your reader’s fears, needs, desires, doubts or ambitions. It’s also a good idea to use split testing to find out which of your send titles is most effective at driving open rates.

3. Find your festive spirit

Whether it’s adding a Santa hat to your logo or adding snowflakes to the background of your email, a sprinkling of seasonal imagery can bring lots of festive charm to your emails. Just stay on the right side of kitsch. If your email makes the average Santa’s grotto look reserved, you may have gone too far.

4. Optimise for mobile

There’s no two ways about it: your email has to display well on smartphones and tablets. More than half of all emails are opened on a mobile device. That means if you fail to cater for mobile users, you might be alienating more than half of your email list. Scary stuff, huh? The best way to check how your email is performing mobile-wise is to send a test to yourself and open it on your own device. Easy.

5. Keep it brief

When it comes to email marketing, less is more. The average person’s inbox is as cluttered as Santa’s toyshop and regularly pelted with new emails. Brevity is a skill you’d do well to master – and your reader will respect your efforts. Besides, nothing shouts louder than simplicity. If it takes longer than a minute or two to absorb your message, it might be time for rethink.

6. Monitor your email frequency

Again, it’s about respecting your reader’s time – or rather lack of it. Bombarding your list with multiple emails is unlikely to get results. Worse, your unsubscribe rate could surge. Keep your list happy by exercising a little restraint.

7. Write for an audience of one

It makes no difference whether your email is being sent to 10 people or 10,000. Try to get into the habit of building a mental image of your model reader andcrafting a message that speaks to them directly. Crude example: “Hope you have a merry Christmas” is more engaging than “Hope you all have a merry Christmas”. Imagine yourself having a conversation with your reader in person outside a coffee shop. One-to-one. It will help your writing pop.

8. Don’t hide your hyperlinks

You want your reader to click through to an article? Or browse your latest products? Or fill in a survey? Then cast an eye over your email design to make sure your hyperlinks and CTA buttons have all the zing they need to stand out.

9. Be smart with segmentation

Targeted marketing is more effective than scattergun campaigns that take a catch-all approach. You need to be prepared to produce different content for different list members at different times. Example: let’s say you have an online shop and you notice that a customer’s first interaction with your business was last Christmas. Segmentation allows you to send an email to last year’s festive purchasers with vouchers that can be put against another purchase this year. Hey presto — you’ve turned a one-time customer into a repeat purchaser. The more you know about your list subscribers, the more potent segmentation becomes.

10. Check, check and check again

Marketing and urgency rarely go well together. If you are rushing to get a campaign into the digital ether, there’s no substitute for checking your content with a fresh pair of eyes. Do your links go to the right page? Does the design look as it should in the most popular email clients? Is the writing free of typos and spelling errors? It’s worth checking — really checking – before you hit the send button.

Let’s wrap this up…

Clever creative and gorgeous email design is all well and good, but you can’t beat doing the simple things well. Remember the basics of email marketing and you will be on your way to festive outreach that gets results. 

by Jeremy Taylor

5 Marketing Changes Small Businesses Need to Make in 2016

Whether your small business marketing is thriving or falling flat, it’s still important to perform a marketing audit of 2015 to see what’s working and what’s not. But don’t just put what’s working into overdrive for the New Year. Instead, treat these techniques as important assets within your 2016 marketing plan -- but don’t stop there.

The upcoming year promises to be a game changer for small business marketing, especially those who have largely skated by with the help of social-media marketing and a decent referral network in place. Indeed, there are a number of immediate changes small businesses can -- and should -- make if they want to see skyrocketing growth and success in 2016.

Here are five ways to get started:

1. Focus on relationship marketing.

Forging ongoing, personal relationships with consumers is nothing new. But how that evolves in 2016 goes beyond just being helpful to customers, staying in touch and offering exemplary service. Relationship marketing will see explosive growth in 2016, especially as more consumers turn to their smartphones for shopping reviews and advice.

Focusing on short term wins won't work in a world where consumers are shifting their focus to ongoing service and relationships with brands and are looking to their peers to see which companies offer the best buying experience.

Take Starbucks, for example. The coffee giant has been quietly mastering the ins and outs of relationship marketing for years, so much so that it’s now a seamless part of their marketing plan. Stores frequently offer afternoon discounts or free cups when you bring in your same-day morning receipt, change up their seasonal drinks and treats based on customer feedback, and offer their online subscribers rare, small-lot Starbucks Reserve coffee delivered fresh to their door.

Your business may not be able to ship free goods to all of its customers, but it’s the thought process here that matters. How can you go above and beyond in the relationships you’ve built with your clientele?

2. Get on board with mobile.

I’ve already touched on how mobile and exploding smartphone usage will impact relationship marketing in 2016. But there’s another reason small businesses need to fully adapt to mobile -- or prepare to be left behind. There are officially more searches on mobile than desktops or other devices, and Google has responded accordingly. The search engine now penalizes sites that aren’t optimized for mobile by giving more weight and relevance to those who do.

It may sound harsh, but in reality, Google is simply responding to what consumers actually want. Google knows that mobile now serves as a primary touch point for customers on the path to purchasing. That type of direct feedback and clarity works to the advantage of small businesses. Start thinking like an on-the-go and mobile consumer instead of relying on the same tactics that have been working online for years.

3. Embrace content marketing.

Content marketing has gone from being an emerging trend and buzzword to the mainstream norm. But that doesn't mean everyone is doing it right. Content marketing should incorporate the philosophies of relationship marketing and mobile in order to succeed. It also requires more robust content than simply throwing together a blog post and adding some links. More businesses now offer video content and free, in-depth white papers and infographics to compete.

Other companies have discovered the hard way what happens when you cut corners. Back in 2011, the New York Times found that JC Penney paid to have thousands of links point back to the retailer’s website, and incurred a Google penalty as a result. Overstock was also penalized for offering schools and students discounts in exchange for inbound links. Companies may have wised up to paying and inflating their inbound links, but that doesn’t mean they’re not trying to take short cuts. Google is working to identify and penalize sneaky mobile redirects that trick consumers into landing on specific content. Don’t get caught unprepared.

4. Create geo-precise marketing.

Small businesses can officially stop worrying about how to reach every consumer that could possibly want their goods and services: Geo-precise marketing and precision targeting is now leading the pack in consumer marketing. Businesses can use their analytics and purchasing data to identify zip codes that are extra active when it comes to purchasing -- or even use IP targeting to narrow down their focus to individual households.

Tools like Google Adwords, Facebook ads and just about any other serious advertising platform offer robust geo-targeting services that help businesses find the perfect consumer -- either around the corner or across the globe -- based on exactly where your buying power is coming from. By fine tuning their targeting, small businesses can increase their conversions by focusing their landing pages or content marketing campaigns to the geographic norms and preferences in the areas where their consumers are coming from.

5. Keep testing.

The importance of continued testing and experimentation will never change for large corporations and small businesses alike. Make regularly studying your analytics, tweaking your marketing campaign and testing the results a major part of your evolving marketing plan. The huge time commitment involved in testing may feel out of balance in comparison to actually executing your marketing plan. But failing to test and adjust your plan accordingly is fumbling around in the dark and expecting to find success.It just won’t cut it in 2016.

So now, I want to hear from you. What other marketing changes do you plan to make in 2016? Share your plans and what you hope to achieve by leaving a comment below.

by Sujan Patel

Managing Your Brand Is an Intangible Investment That Pays Off Big

We live in a return-on-investment-driven society that is obsessed with instant gratification. Whenever we implement a new product feature, make a pitch to investors, launch a marketing campaign, interview a key job candidate or make a sales call, we want to see tangible and immediate results.

Our obsession with seeing measurable business results can make it easy to forget the most important intangible investment we can make: managing our brands. When you do things to manage your company’s brand (or your own personal brand), the investments tend to eventually pay off tremendously. Journalists start randomly writing about your company. You start getting inbound emails from investors. Your product goes viral because of traditional “word of mouth” rather than because of any of the social features you’ve been deliberately pushing. Or your 1 year-old startup can raise $100 million and buy a 100-year-old manufacturing company.

The challenge is that the individual tasks needed to build your brand are often thankless. Collectively, however, they create exponential benefits. The only way to achieve a high level of brand strength is by making brand management a recurring part of your job. The following are some activities that can help you build your brand in the eyes of key people in your industry:

• Skype (or have coffee) with your top customers often.
• Write blog posts about your company's lessons.
• Attend industry events (and be social).
• Mentor other founders.
• Introduce like-minded friends to each other.
• Do favors for journalists.
• Send handwritten thank-you notes after a key meeting.
• Mail holiday cards to clients, partners and co-workers.
• Host a dinner for awesome people.

While none of these activities produce immediate or measurable results, they plant seeds of credibility that tend to grow exponentially over time. Building a strong brand means getting people to talk about your company and spread the word on your behalf. These things may not seem like the most tangibly profitable way for you to spend your time right now, but much of your future success springs from having made these cumulative small brand investments over several years.

Of course, it's often hard for a CEO to make time for brand management when there are so many other tangible concerns that require our day-to-day attention. I, myself, can be guilty of forgetting to invest in non-measurable activities for Brainscape, especially considering that I teach a class on building a metrics-driven culture.

But I need to remind myself that the strongest brands do not build themselves with metrics alone. By investing in thought leadership and intangible personal relationships, we can set ourselves up to reap large tangible rewards down the road.

by Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO, Brainscape