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Digital Branding vs Digital Marketing

Brand

Digital branding is the process of using digital assets to create an online brand identity.  This identify can be expressed on virtually any digital channel, like your website, social media profiles, digital ads, and content marketing. Done right, digital branding allows you to create stronger digital marketing campaigns.  These campaigns can then help build a powerful presence in the digital sphere. Digital marketing is any marketing that uses electronic devices and can be used to convey promotional messaging.  In practice, digital marketing typically refers to marketing campaigns that appear on a computer, phone, tablet, or other device.  What Exactly is the Difference then Between Digital Marketing and Digital Branding? Because the digital assets are used in both digital methods, it can be difficult to identify the difference.  However, the focus and intent of each is what makes them different from each other. Digital marketing is designed to capture new leads and ultimately sell them products or services.  Digital branding on the other hand uses assets to establish relationships and engage customers in interactions with the brand. They both have the intention to grow the customer base, enhance sales, and grow the company.  However, digital branding goes about it in a different way.  Instead of focusing on the product or service like digital marketing, it shows the effective of the brand.  The branding approach strives to portray the bigger picture of the company.  Whereas marketing approach puts emphasis on the specific products or service being presenting in the marketing.

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SEO Factors for 2023

Web Design

Seach Engine Optimization (SEO) has been around since the early 2000s.  The components that effect results have individually changed over time, but the main focus has remained the same. Quality Content Wins Every Time SEO does contain technical aspects that effect search results.  Those can include your site’s structure, anchor text, URL structure, and much more.  However, those are not the only components that determine your placement in search results.  The true backbone of SEO continues to be high-quality, relevant content.  If that is in place, the components listed above provide icing on the cake.  If relevant content is key, what does that include?  Below are some considerations for establishing content: Keywords play a role, but the context of those keywords is more important. Search engine crawlers still come visit your website, but they are a little smarter today.  They are capable of analyzing your context now and find secondary keywords that are related to your keyword. Keyword-rich titles, meta descriptions, alt attributes, H1 tags, and URLs play an important role. These components help search engines identify that your website is relevant, which helps with their ranking of it. Length of content is important, but not as important as relevance. It isn’t as much about the amount of words and length of information today as it is about the context of that information.  Length and number of words still play a role, but it’s not as important as providing relevant information for the page visitor. In a nutshell, your content needs to be created for humans first, Google second.  People will be searching, finding, and reading the information on your website.  Therefore, it needs to be organized in a manner that helps them gain an understanding.  With that said, search engines will also be visiting your web pages.  In doing so, information and keywords need to be placed strategically to get them to rank you for the terms you deem important.

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Graphic Design Is Worth $45.8 Billion

Graphic Design

According to an IBISWorld report, the graphic design sector was worth $45.8 billion in 2021.  Of this figure, a segment of this calculation, logo design and branding, accounted for about $3 billion globally.  The United States industry alone was worth $12.7 billion.  Throughout it’s history, graphic design has typically grown year to year by 2.8 percent.  However, in recent years, graphic design has grown a stunning 4.1%. As a business, you might be asking why these facts matter to you.  A business is constantly working to establish their brand and get people to have brand awareness.  Today, social media and the internet are the best ways to connect with your audience.  But those environments are very cluttered and busy.  Therefore, getting your visitors attention becomes key.  One of the best ways to get their attention is through unique graphics.  These graphics are what graphic designers can help you establish.  Did you know that 90% of the information transmitted to your brain is visual?  Did you know that 40% of people respond better to visual information over text?  By using well-designed graphics online, you can help your message jump off the screen, grab the viewers attention, and establish a conversation. Still aren’t convinced?  Here is some proof! Facebook posts that contain images get 2.3 times the interactions than without Twitter updates with imagery get 150% more retweets than without Utilizing relevant imagery with your blog posts can increase traffic by 62.5% If you want to break through the clutter online, look for places to enhance your connection opportunities by utilizing graphic design.

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What is Content Marketing?

Digital Marketing

Content marketing is the creation and promotion of content assets.  The intent is to create brand awareness, enhance traffic, establish leads, and expand a customer base. Below are some options that content marketers use in their marketing strategy: Blog posts.  Blog posts are very influential with helping enhance your expertise in your niche.  By regularly writing and publishing new articles to your company’s website, you generate organic search traffic for your business.  These new visitors become new leads to convert into customers. E-books and whitepapers.  E-books, whitepapers, and other long-form content can be used to extend the education of your website visitors.  Offering these forms can also be used as a means to gather the reader’s contact information.  This in turn will establish more leads and ultimately new customers. Infographics.  Some readers prefer to be shown information as opposed to you telling them.  Infographics and other visual forms of content is an excellent way to present your concepts to them.  Audio & Video Content.  Our history shows that people like to obtain audio content through television and over the radio.  With the enhancements of technology today, each of us has the opportunity to provide audio and video content through online sources.  Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

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Brand Pricing Strategy

Brand

Value is one of the top-level components customers use to determine their personal interest in a brand.  Therefore, choosing prices becomes an integral brand pricing strategy for a brand.  Below are two useful recommendations when determining value and price. Reasonable Prices People often establish a reasonable pricing in their minds for a category of products or services.  A “reasonable price” is the price at which people expect or determine to be acceptable for a certain type of product.  Here are some common factors that might affect reasonable prices: Past pricing experiences Pricing references (competitive prices, pre-sale prices, manufacturer’s suggested prices, channel-specific prices, marked prices before discounts, substitute product prices) Current price comparisons with other brands Presentation of pricing whether shown as a whole product or pricing per quantity / unit Consumer Sensitivity What flexibility is there in the price setting that might cause changed behavior amongst the population of consumers?  It is important to know how a brand’s price or change of it will impact consumer response and sales.  Some business people think that simply raising the selling price of an item will ultimately enhance the business’s bottom line.  But some situations have proven that doesn’t always hold true.  If a brand chooses to change their pricing, it becomes important that they prep the customer based with information to justify their reasoning for the change.  In doing so, customers tend to continue to stay loyal to the brand and product. If you are seeking assistance in establishing pricing that reflects the quality of your brand, be sure to get in touch with us here at MatthewVermeer.com so we can assist you in this process.

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Choose WooCommerce

Web Design

Four Reasons to Choose WooCommerce as Your Ecommerce Platform Choosing an eCommerce platform can be a very stressful process.  You know you want the best platform that makes the shopping experience smooth and easy for your customers to use.  On top of that, you also want one that offers the best security and support to ensure you and your customer’s data is safe and secure. There are many different platforms to choose from.  While there are many opinions about which platform to go with, my platform of choice is WooCommerce, which is an open source eCommerce plugin from WordPress. FREE! Most eCommerce platforms will cost you extra money.  It might be perceived that because WooCommerce is free that it is a basic platform with limited options.  However, that is quite far from the truth!  It offers detailed options that help make the management of transactions smooth and efficient.  These options include order tracking, customer engagement tools, changing delivery statuses, use of discounts, tax settings, inventory management, multiple shipping options, and coupon coding.  It basically has everything one would want from an eCommerce store option. Ease of Use WooCommerce is an extremely friendly and easy to use platform.  Beings it is a WordPress, which is known for it’s ease of use, plugin, it is also easy to use itself.  Since 53% of all websites are designed on the WordPress platform, using WooCommerce is natural choice since it functions and operates like WordPress. Customizable Not only is WooCommerce free, but it can be extremely customizable with additional FREE plugins to add functionality to your store.  The extensions can include applications and services to enhance your accounting system, different payment options to accept, enhanced marketing to your customers, different reports, and so much more.  With all the WooCommerce extensions and plugins available, the combination and options are endless for customizing your eCommerce store.  Having customizable options, the web design of the website can then be consistent with the brand image that is desired.  Great Reputation WooCommerce has been around since 2011.  Over this time, they have enhanced and expanded their functionality.  It has become very well known for being super reliable and user friendly.  If you have any questions on how to complete any tasks associated with the platform, their customer service support is very user friendly as well.  To date, WooCommerce is the platform of choice on 29% of eCommerce sites.  Of all WordPress eCommerce websites, 94% of those use WooCommerce.  These facts alone show it is trusted, reliable, and the best option. So if you are looking to make a decision on which platform to use to build your eCommerce store, look no further than the user-friendly, easily customizable platform in WooCommerce. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

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Five Visual Communications with Graphic Design

Graphic Design

Custom Logo Visual communications are established by designing a custom logo for your company.  Therefore, a company can help establish credibility, brand recognition, and positions it apart from the competition.  One of the leading influences in logo design is the use of colors.  Consequently, the business can greatly influence how it is perceived in the public.   According to color theory, some color combinations are associated certain perceptions.  Therefore, it is important to study the market trends in the industry and choose colors wisely. Advertising With advertising, the chances that your prospect will convert without a hero image, extensive graphic elements, and a clear call to action is very slim.  Therefore, the golden rule has become that images speak louder than words.  In conclusion, the addition and use of graphic design in advertising has become an essential component. Website A good web designer would have a strong graphic design strategy in place to help attract, engage, and convert visitors on the website.  Through clear messaging and convenient calls to action, prospects can get funneled to converted in a predictable way.  Therefore, it becomes vital for the website to be visually exciting and easy to use.  Consequently, a business needs to partner with experienced web and/or graphic design specialists that can help create a website that works best for your business. Social Media By using graphic design, you’re able to create visual communications with consistent branding across multiple social media platforms.  Therefore, a business can tie marketing efforts together.  This combination will lead to a more cohesive brand identity.  Consequently, you can brand your own graphics so your audience becomes more interested in your business and keeps them curious to see what is coming next.  This customization shows the public’s desire for unique and uncommon content. On the other hand, your profiles will fall prey to reposts and use of your content by others when you don’t use graphic design and branding.  As a result, this will take away from the authenticity, uniqueness, and ultimately your brand recognition.  In conclusion, it is very advisable to take the initiative and spend the money on custom images and branded posts for your social media content.    Marketing Graphic design enhances visual communication with a company’s marketing efforts across all channels and ultimately is the connecting piece for a professional brand.  Therefore, using it in all channels brings forth consistency in your marketing, which leads to easy recognition for customers.  As a result, this ease of recognition leads a customer to become comfortable with the brand, which will lead to credibility and ultimately more sales.  Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

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5 Types of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing

Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is actually a marketing tool more-so than a form of digital marketing. Google defines it as “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.” SEO is a science as it requires you to weigh different factors to obtain the highest possible ranking for your website. Today, the most important elements to consider when optimizing a web page include: With SEO, there’s no consistent rule to help get your ranking high. Google changes its algorithm consistently. Therefore, it becomes impossible to make qualified predictions. What you can do, however, is closely monitor your website’s performance and make adjustments as needed. Content Marketing According to Forbes Magazine, content marketing is a “marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” The goal of content marketing is to attract prospects that ultimately convert into customers. It does this differently than traditional advertising. Instead of enticing prospects with a product or service, it offers value for free in the form of written or visual material. Not sure if you buy into the value of content marketing? Here are some facts that might help change your mind: Content marketing can be tricky however. Content writers need write engaging material while also ranking high in search engine results. When the content is relevant, it can establish strong relationships with customers. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing engages people through online discussions. This helps drive traffic to the content while building brand awareness at the same time. The most popular platforms for social media marketing are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with LinkedIn and YouTube not far behind. Pay-Per-Click Marketing Pay-per-click (PPC) is posting an ad on a platform and paying every time someone clicks on it. Each PPC ad has 1 or more target actions that viewers are meant to complete after clicking an ad. These actions are known as conversions, and they can be transactional or non-transactional. Making a purchase is a conversion, but so is a newsletter signup or a call made to your home office. Whatever you choose as your target conversions, you can track them to see how your campaign is doing. Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing lets a person make some money by promoting another person’s business or brand. It uses a revenue sharing model to provide for the payment. As the affiliate, you get a commission every time someone purchases the item that you promote. Some affiliate marketers choose to review the products of just 1 company while others choose from multiple merchants. Whether you want to be an affiliate or find one, the first step is to make a connection with the other party. Many affiliate marketers choose to become affiliates with brands they use and trust themselves. However, this is not a necessity. If you need assistance with implementing any of these digital marketing options, please click here. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

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5 Key Benefits of Brand Recognition

Brand

Customer Recognition / Loyalty Brand recognition is King! When a customer sees unmistakable typography/images of a brand that they recognize, they’re more likely to grab that product than the multitude of others that are surrounding it. Why you might ask? Because it’s eye-catching and familiar. Once a shopper begins to recognize and buy the product, a good brand can keep them coming back. Over time, they will ultimately turn them into loyal “followers.” When a company puts a great product with engaging branding, a business will see their customer loyalty begin to grow and grow and grow. Builds Confidence Brand recognition exists to expand the original product or service. It pushes it forward by grabbing the customer’s eye and making them pay attention. Good branding is for the customer, but it ultimately benefits the company as it projects what they are all about. Shared Values When a customer can identify shared values with a company, they build a stronger connection with the brand and turn into loyal customers into the future. Consistency Once a company has established it’s philosophy, marketing, colors, typography, print, and website, it can start to design the rest of its branding efforts after it. When there’s a foundation established with branding, it makes the future marketing activities for the company much easier to develop and implement. Credibility When a business has created a solid brand strategy, it increasing its reputation within the industry as well as with the customers. Creative marketing combined with phenomenal customer service and attractive visuals will establish a company as a serious professional business. If you need help with your branding, check this out. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

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