There are two aspects of business that can truly work hand in hand. These important aspects of business are blogging and branding. One can play off the other and both working together can give your business the boost it needs. Most successful blogs, when you examine them are successful because of good branding on the part of the author.The same is true when you already have a great brand — blogging can help promote your brand. Blogging brings to your business a piece of the puzzle that so many businesses need to integrate in order to have an online presence. Without a business blog, you risk falling behind your competition and not getting to the level of business success you hope to achieve.In today’s business world, the blog has replaced the business card (well, not quite!). Blogging will help you to create additional value in your business. The businesses that combine blogging and branding together are without a doubt, the most successful. This is due to the fact that a well-branded business blog gives people something to remember and keeps them coming back for more. It also provides your readers something to get excited about and in turn they will share it with others, write about it on their own website or blog, linking back to yours and sending more fans and followers your way.Blogging also allows for interactivity in your business with your clients. You can use it to create a community of fans and build up a subscriber base simply by aggregating your blog feed. Once you do so, however, it is important to blog consistently and constantly. You also want to be sure to stay true to yourself, your personal brand and your business brand when you blog.Keep in mind that everything you put online must be consistent with who you are and what you want people to know about you, your business and your services. Your blog is your communication tool. It helps you to establish credibility and establish you as a thought leader in your niche community.A blog helps you get found easily by the people searching for solutions that you provide. When someone Google’s your name you want to be found and found quickly. Quite frankly in today’s society if you cannot be found online, you don’t exist.The bottom line is this: a well-branded blog helps promote you and your business, helps you get found online by your prospective clients, and helps to establish your expertise and credibility.
How to Choose Web Design Company?
Web Design CompanyThere are many people on internet who call themselves as web designers and web design companies. Many people do it for fun, as a hobby or part-time. Web design companies full-time operations are way to go.. Web design companies doing it for living will take your project seriously. Make sure your web design company has done enough research on internet technologies.5 firm steps for finding the right Web design company for you1. Assess your needs:A professional Web design company will work with you rather than for you. It will help you in defining your organization’s requirements. Still, you should have a basic idea of what your web site can do for you. Will it serve as an informative catalog? Will it grab new clients? Will it strengthen relationship with your existing clients? Will it serve the needs of your workers?There are few initial requirements your organization should aware of:The intended audience for the Web siteThe intended goal of the projectAnticipated budget for the Web siteHow the project will fit into a larger marketing/corporate schemeThe individuals/departments within your organization responsible for the projectThese initial requirements will help you finding web design firm best suited for your project. You should document them and use them as a basis for evaluating each web design firm. This document will serve as your benchmark to measure each web design firm.2. List Generation:You can use many ways to search web design firm. There are strengths and weaknesses on selecting a method to search for web design firm. Combination of different approaches will be your best bet in hunt of web design firm for your project.Competitors’ web sites:Look for web sites of organizations that you like, mainly web sites of your competitors. Sometimes you have to look for web sites other than your industry. Mostly, web design firm includes site credits (example: developed by 4MDESIGNERS). You can simply visit web design firm’s web site and carry on your analysis. If you cannot find the credits on the site, feel free to contact the organization and ask which Web design firm is responsible for the web site? You can at least have some comments about that web design firm from the organization you will be contacting.Ask your Social Circle and Family:Ask your friends, colleagues and family which web design firm designed their web site, or if they otherwise recommend a web design firm. Find out what they liked or disliked about web design firm and about web site they developed for them. Few companies’ produces better results when they are given Start-Finish task while few are more inclined towards doing particular task.3. Short ListBy considering above mentioned you organization should create a short list of 4-5 web design firms that are best suited for your project.Evaluate their work:When its said evaluate, it means you have to evaluate their portfolio, kind of web sites they have developed. If you want to sell products online, you should look for proven ecommerce solutions web design firm has developed.It’s essential that you research a web design firm’s work so you can evaluate their potential and quality standards. A web site does not have to be flashy or very interactive to hit the deck, but you must appreciate web design firm’s design sense. Also, consider hiring a firm familiar with your particular industry.When evaluating web design firms, note geographical location of their clients. A Web design firm that has worked with clients in many geographical locations will have a more global approach to your Web site.Avoid Freelancers:Don’t select a freelancer for your project on a freelance basis, to design and develop your organization’s web site. It is rare to find a single person capable of handling all development, visual, technical and web marketing elements that make an effective web presence. More over, by depending on an individual, your organization is at risk of losing its time and money should anything occur to that one individual?Determine what other products/services the Web design company can offerWhat kind of value-added products or services can the design firm offer? Internet Marketing and Web site promotion? Newsletter or email campaigns? If your organization is not currently dealing with a print design agency, for example, this might be a factor for dealing with one group over another. Similarly, can the firm provide database and software development should your organization wish to Web-enable some of its existing systems or processes?During this stage, your organization should make contact with the potential Web design firms that are on your shortlist.4. Get Quote/ProposalsGood web design firm will always be ready to submit a proposal for your website along with defined timeline, deliverables and terms & conditions. When evaluating proposal, look how they communicate with you using their website and digital documents.Maintain a list for each proposal, consisting of its strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of the respective Web design firm based on its other materials (Web site, portfolio, brochure, case studies, etc.).5. Evaluate ProposalsAfter your organization has received all proposals, review and compare them with each other. How do they fare in terms of presentation? Do they present upgrade paths for your project, going beyond the needs of the immediate goals outlined?6. Think ahead.Over the past year, many of web design companies of different sizes have emerged, closed their operations or cut back. It’s important to ask web design company about long-term relationship.
Product Launch Marketing – The Five Secrets to a Successful Launch
When planning out your product launch marketing plan for a new business, new product or new service you may want to consider using a launch type model to let the world know about what you now have to offer. When doing this, you want to consider several key strategies that will help you better execute your roll out. Use these 5 secrets to increase your chance of a successful new product introduction.Secret Number One for product launch marketing is to realize you are about tohold a conversation with your customers. OK, some won’t buy from you, but for now please think of everyone who is going to read anything about your up and coming product launch as a customer. If you do this, your mind set will be right and talking “with” customers is always more successful than talking “to” prospects.Secret Number Two is planning and producing enough content in advance. Sounds simple, but you wouldn’t believe the number of people who start a product launch without having the product launch marketing material in place. Yes you are going to make changes and some of the material will by its very nature be dynamic (answers to questions, blog posts on news items that support your launch story etc.) but you can write most of it well in advance. In fact secret number two is “write your product launch marketing material in advance!” (just in case there was any doubt!).Secret Number Three is to remember what might be called old school marketing techniques. Today, we tend to look to email and posting articles etc to social media sites. However, if you have either a small list or perhaps a product with a high enough value you might consider using physically mailed pieces to complement your web campaign. A series of Post cards with an “all will be revealed” type copy and a simple web address will often work wonders. If you absolutely have to get someone, send a FedEx letter and you can almost guarantee that they will open it.Secret Number Four is toproduce a JV marketing plan for the new product launch. This means seeing the launch through an affiliate’s eyes and producing the sort of marketing materials that are going to make them want to support the launch. Great emails, great give-aways, an irresistible offer and a sales page that closes. When all that is in place you want to add in a JV competition into your marketing plan with great prizes and then tell everybody how they are going to be rich off the back of your fantastic launch.Secret Number Five is planning to over deliver. This means as you create your marketing strategy to launch your new product, you should add in additional content that will only be revealed, either at the actual launch, or even during the week of the launch. Launches that absolutely crush the numbers will capture all the hard core followers and then go on to convert a significant number of the doubters by turning a good offer into an irresistible offer, often by revealing content at the last minute.So, there we have five secrets that you can lock into your product launch marketing. Conduct the launch conversation with everyone as though they are already a customer. Produce your marketing material well in advance of the launch. Consider old school marketing techniques for a different approach. Make it easy for your affiliates to support you. Finally, over deliver and your launch is practically guaranteed success.