How To Make A Lasting First Impression For Your Brand

A small business owner shaking hands with a client after making a good first impression of his brand

In today’s competitive landscape, making a strong first impression for your brand could be the difference in someone choosing your business over a competitor’s. If you want your small business to stand out in the market, it’s essential to craft a memorable brand image that will resonate with your target audience.

In this blog post, we’ll explore some effective marketing tips to help your brand make a positive and lasting first impression.

How to Make a Lasting First Impression for Your Brand

Uncover four key insights into crafting a brand presence that leaves a lasting mark on your customers and prospects alike:

Plans for a brand to make a lasting first impression on a desk
How can your brand make a lasting first impression?

1. Establish a Professional Website

In the digital age, having a professional website builds credibility and attracts customers. Your website serves as the online face of your brand, providing visitors with valuable information about your products or services.

To ensure your website makes a positive first impression, your website should be . . . 

  • User-friendly. Visitors should find your website easy to navigate and understand. Your site should have a flow to make it seamless for users to explore with clear CTAs (calls to action) to move visitors toward making a purchase, booking a service, or contacting the business.
  • Visually appealing. There’s a science to color and design, and visitors will see right through a website that had no time and effort put into its design. Your website shouldn’t be filled with ads, difficult-to-read fonts, or eight different colors.
  • Mobile-responsive. Some of your client base might be on a computer. Others may be on a tablet or mobile device. If you want your site to attract the highest possible number of visitors, then it must be accessible across multiple devices.
  • Optimized for SEO. Optimizing your site for search engines will improve your site’s visibility and attract organic traffic.

Takeaway: Establishing a professional website that is user-friendly, visually appealing, mobile-responsive, and optimized for SEO will help make a positive first impression for your brand.

2. Maintain an Active Social Media Presence

Social media platforms offer a valuable opportunity to engage with your audience and showcase your brand’s personality. But have you ever visited a company’s Facebook or Instagram account and realized they hadn’t posted in a few months? Visitors are often left to fend for themselves or become “detectives” in finding the information for which they’re searching.

That’s why consistently posting relevant and engaging content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Nextdoor, or other platforms can answer the questions for which visitors might be searching all while helping your brand build awareness and establish credibility in your industry.

Aside from posting consistently, here are a few ways you can actively engage with your clients on social media:

  • Respond to comments and messages promptly.
  • Stay up-to-date with current trends.
  • Note what type of content with which your visitors engage, and then share more of that content on your platforms.

Takeaway: Build positive brand awareness by maintaining an active social media presence through consistent posting and active engagement.

3. Invest in Quality Creative Assets

Compelling creative assets are essential for capturing the attention of your audience and conveying your brand message effectively. Invest in high-quality assets, including photography, videography, graphic design, and marketing materials, to convey professionalism and attention to detail.

Similarly, well-crafted copy that speaks to your brand’s values and resonates with your target audience can help you make a memorable impression and differentiate your brand from competitors. Whether you collaborate with in-house creatives or contract with a marketing agency like Paragon Marketing Group, we recommend having talented professionals create visually stunning content that reflects your brand’s personality and values.

Takeaway: Investing in high-quality creative assets can help your brand stand out and leave a lasting impression on potential customers.

4. Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Delivering exceptional customer service is key to making a positive first impression and building long-term relationships with your customers. Your branding never stops at the sales or marketing side. To maintain a positive reputation and establish your brand as one where people want to give their business (and continue giving their business), you need to provide extraordinary customer service. A few ways you can accomplish this include:

  • Responding to inquiries and concerns quickly. If there’s been an issue with a client’s service or product, one of the best ways you can manage the problem is by responding quickly so that the client understands they’re a priority. Often the way in which you defuse a tricky situation can become more memorable than the issue itself.
  • Address customer feedback and reviews thoughtfully. As a small business owner, it’s never easy to receive a critical review or negative feedback. But that doesn’t mean you can’t respond professionally, even if the review was unkind or untrue. Plus, other prospective clients will be watching and reading what you respond. How you respond will tell them whether or not your business is worth considering.
  • Go above and beyond to exceed customer expectations. There are so many ways you can accomplish this. Whether you offer a special discount, give extra attention to detail to a customer’s account, follow up on service where a client had concerns, or even offer a listening ear, you can always find a way to exceed expectations. Your customers will not forget how you made them feel.

Takeaway: By prioritizing customer satisfaction, you can create a positive reputation for your brand and earn the trust and loyalty of your audience.

Here’s a Quick Recap:
  1. Establishing a professional website that is user-friendly, visually appealing, mobile-responsive, and optimized for SEO will help make a positive first impression for your brand.
  2. Build positive brand awareness by maintaining an active social media presence through consistent posting and active engagement.
  3. Investing in high-quality creative assets can help your brand stand out and leave a lasting impression on potential customers.
  4. By prioritizing customer satisfaction, you can create a positive reputation for your brand and earn the trust and loyalty of your audience.

Crafting a strong first impression for your brand is essential for small businesses looking to succeed in today’s competitive market. By following these marketing tips and investing in your brand’s online presence, design, and customer service, you can create a memorable and impactful brand image that resonates with your target audience.

To learn more, please visit our website at paragonmarketinggroup.com or call us at 262-443-9092 to learn more. We’re here to help you elevate your brand and make a lasting impression.

Why Your Website Content Matters

A computer on a desk with a website on screen, showing the value of good website content

Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. While visual design sets the stage, it’s your website content that informs, engages, and compels visitors to become customers. High-quality website content should be a top priority for small business owners looking to drive leads and sales online.

Why Does Your Website Content Matter?

Let’s review some of the biggest benefits your website and business will experience from having high quality content:

Two working professionals working on their website content
Why does your website content matter?

Provides Value for Visitors

Excellent website content should educate, engage, and add value for visitors. But before you can think of how your website content can achieve these action items, put yourself in the shoes of a website visitor and ask yourself, “Why are they viewing my website?”

Once you know that answer (you may have multiple answers), your website needs to provide solutions. Consider these ideas:

  • Offer tips and how-tos. Depending on the products or services your business offers, this can be really helpful for both current and potential clients. If you want to include more detailed, in-depth information about your products/services, consider having a blog on your website.
  • Provide an explanation of products/services. Ever hear the saying, “Can’t see the forest for the trees”? While you know your product or service inside and out, odds are that most people do not. It’s a delicate task to explain what your products/services are in a cohesive, structured way while not providing too much content or detail but also offering enough information so viewers aren’t confused.
  • Share local information. Where is your service area? Who is your target customer? Sharing helpful information about the areas you serve, how your business fits into the area, and any relevant contact information will make it simple for your ideal customer to work with and contact you.

Providing truly useful content keeps readers engaged and spending more time on your site.

Takeaway: Creating high quality website content by offering tips, providing an explanation of services, and sharing local information will provide value to website visitors.

Boosts Your SEO

Well-written, keyword-focused website content also aids search engine optimization (SEO). While the use of AI to help create content can be useful, it can’t completely replace a human writer or optimize your content for SEO.

You can write the best content, but without properly utilizing relevant keywords throughout natural-sounding copy, search engines like Google won’t be able to understand your pages’ topics. Not having your content indexed by search engines will directly impact how high you can rank in search results.

The moral of the story? Optimized content attracts more qualified organic traffic to your site.

Takeaway: High quality content optimized for search engines will help you rank higher in search results and drive more traffic to your website.

Supports Your Overall Marketing

Your website content isn’t just the hub that anchors all marketing efforts driving traffic to your site – it’s also the only digital “salesperson” operating 24/7 for your business. Just like your branding should be consistent across all graphic design, web design, and print materials, so should your web copy align with and support campaigns across social media, PPC ads, email marketing, and more.

Strong, consistent content better converts that traffic into leads across channels.

Takeaway: Your web copy is an integral part of your marketing that requires consistency across all relevant marketing channels.

Enhances the User Experience

If you’ve ever been on a website and were unable to find the information you’re looking for, clicked links that turned out to be broken, or couldn’t understand the information provided, you might have decided that business wasn’t worth working with, given your negative experience.

Users should be able to easily navigate and find information on your site. Here are a few ways you can achieve this through your website content:

  • Write descriptive headers that are clear so visitors can quickly scan and jump to the sections most relevant to them.
  • Include bulleted lists to help break up dense paragraphs and highlight key takeaways, which helps retain reader attention.
  • Use ample paragraph breaks to make the content less intimidating and easier to digest so readers are not confronted with a huge wall of text.

Add internal links to improve user experience, allowing visitors to seamlessly navigate to other related pages of interest. This keeps visitors on pages longer, and viewing more content rather than quickly clicking away.

Takeaway: Well-written and organized website copy results in a positive user experience that keeps people on your site longer and viewing more content overall.

Increases Leads and Sales

Informative, engaging website content educates consumers so they feel confident doing business with you. By consistently providing valuable information through your copy, you establish expertise and credibility. Readers see you as an authority they can rely on for solutions related to your products or services.

Here’s an example of how this might look on a buyer’s journey:

  1. First, they may land on a blog post from a search, learning about their problem. 
  2. Second, they read about tips for evaluating solutions, building desire.
  3. Finally, more content compares options and outlines your process, nurturing leads.

With each stage, viewers become more qualified due to the knowledge they’ve gained from your website content. They feel assured you understand their needs and can provide the right solution.

In this way, useful copy moves prospects through the sales funnel, turning cold traffic into engaged subscribers, qualified leads, and finally loyal customers. Your website content plays a central role in attracting and converting visitors throughout the buyer’s journey.

Takeaway: When every piece of website copy, from blog posts to service pages, focuses on addressing needs, solving problems, and clearly communicating value, website visitors can become qualified leads and loyal customers.

Here’s a Quick Recap:
  1. Provide value: Creating high quality website content by offering tips, providing an explanation of services, and sharing local information will provide value to website visitors.
  2. Boost SEO: High quality content optimized for search engines will help you rank higher in search results and drive more traffic to your website.
  3. Support marketing efforts: Your web copy is an integral part of your marketing that requires consistency across all relevant marketing channels.
  4. Enhance user experience: Well-written and organized website copy results in a positive user experience that keeps people on your site longer and viewing more content overall.
  5. Increase leads & sales: When every piece of website copy, from blog posts to service pages, focuses on addressing needs, solving problems, and clearly communicating value, website visitors can become qualified leads and loyal customers.

At Paragon Marketing Group, we understand that creating great website content requires an investment of time and resources. But the payoff in increased visibility, traffic, leads and sales makes it well worth it.

If you need help with your website content, contact our team to perform an audit of your current site and revamp the copy to deliver better results. Let us optimize your 24/7 online salesperson through high-impact website content.

To learn more, please visit our website at paragonmarketinggroup.com or call us at 262-443-9092. We’d love to hear from you.

4 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Website

Getting a small business website

If you own a small business, at some point you’ve probably been told you need a website. But with social media networks and so many cheap or free website options out there today, you might question how you should go about creating a website or whether you should even have one in the first place. Is it even necessary for your small business to have one . . . ?

4 Reasons Having a Website Is Critical to Your Business

At Paragon Marketing Group, we’ve fielded every type of question about websites, from why social media isn’t a replacement for a website, to the benefits of getting a website for your business, to why getting a cheap or free website might not be the best idea.

So today, we’re going to answer our clients’ frequently asked questions about websites.

Why do you need a website for your small business?

1. Client Question: Why Is Social Media Not a Replacement for a Website?

We’ve all heard someone say, “I have a Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok page. I don’t need a website.” So then why are social media platforms not a replacement for a website for small businesses?

Paragon’s Answer:
  • You don’t own social media pages. Facebook, Instagram, or any other social network can and will go down from time to time. You don’t have control over social media platforms’ appearance or features.
  • You’re limited with SEO options when you don’t have a website. When people use search engines, your website can be optimized for local searches to attract an audience.
  • Websites offer credibility. And people buy from businesses they know, like, and trust.
  • You can have a consumer’s full attention with your website. Rather, you have to compete for it on social media.
  • Websites are far more multi-functional than social media posts. Websites can include resources, a blog, have ecommerce capabilities, be promotional, and informative.
  • You don’t have a landing place without a website. You can’t direct your social media traffic anywhere that will cause your customers to convert when there’s no destination to direct traffic.

2. Client Question: What Are the Benefits of Having a Website?

So now that we understand why social media can’t replace a website, what are the biggest benefits of a small business having a website?

Paragon’s Answer:

3. Client Question: Why Is Getting a Free or Cheap Website a Bad Idea?

We’re all trying to save money and cut corners today, but why do we recommend someone get a professional website designed rather than go the free or cheap route?

Paragon’s Answer:
  • A free web address (domain) can appear unprofessional. Do you think consumers will take a site like [email protected] seriously?
  • Free websites often come with irrelevant or inappropriate ads. These ads often look tacky and unprofessional, and they’re usually unrelated to your business entirely.
  • Your website could get shut down at any time since you don’t own it. Being free means you don’t own your site, which means you can’t control what happens with your site.
  • Your information can be sold to third parties with no repercussions. Today, these companies trade information, and you may start receiving email and phone spam, even though you didn’t give your information to third-parties directly.
  • Many free website services have little security and can often distribute malware. Unfortunately, free or cheap websites lack the security you need to protect not only business information, but also any other information you store on your computer.
  • You don’t want to have to redo it a year from now when it no longer meets your needs. What can seem great upfront often fails to meet your needs as you grow and may become more work in the long term for you.

4. Client Question: What Is Web Hosting/Maintenance, and Why Do I Need Them?

In marketing, we hear a lot of terms get thrown around, like “web hosting” or “web maintenance.” But many people have no idea what these things are, much less understand why they’re really important.

Paragon’s Answer:
  • Web Hosting
    • A web hosting service gives your site a place to live and allows your website to be live. If you want your site to be visible, then you must get web hosting.
    • Essentially, web hosting provides a secure place to store online content; it’s like a digital repository.
  • Web Maintenance
    • Web maintenance keeps your site up-to-date and running smoothly.
    • It’s every business owner’s worst nightmare for the company website to go down. That’s why we’ll test for any issues before it goes live, keep it up-to-date, and scan for any hackers or malware.
Here’s a Few Takeaways:
  1. Social media profiles like Facebook or Instagram are not replacements for a business website.
  2. 70% of consumers will visit a store because of information found online is one of the biggest benefits of having a professional website.
  3. Web hosting and maintenance are necessary to keep your website secure and running smoothly.

If you’ve been considering getting a professional website for your business, we hope we were able to answer a few of your questions.

At Paragon, we understand how critical having a website can be in your small business’s success. As always, we want to be a resource for you. So as you have questions, we’ll be here to answer them.

Want to learn more about this topic? Check out our podcast, the Main Street Marketing Podcast, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your audio platform of choice.

Top 10 Marketing Mistakes

Circling marketing mistakes in pink highlighter

“Don’t be a fool and make these marketing mistakes.”

Um . . . what?

We promise this isn’t a prank or an April Fool’s Joke. We’re not calling anyone a fool. Rather, as a small business, one of our biggest desires is that other business owners not make some of the most common marketing mistakes we’ve seen over the last several years.

Don’t Make These Top 10 Marketing Mistakes

Now maybe you’ve made some of these. Or maybe you’re looking for some tips on how to avoid making these mistakes. Either way, here are the top 10 marketing mistakes we’ve seen:

Business owner pondering what marketing mistakes he's made
Have you ever made any of these marketing mistakes?

Mistake #1

Your business doesn’t have a website OR your website is outdated.

Having a sleek, professional, and updated website is a vital part of your web presence. Not only will a website help your customers find your business online, but it will also give your business more credibility than organizations with just social media sites.

Mistake #2

You aren’t thinking about your mobile viewers.

More customers are conducting business, making purchases, and scheduling appointments on their phones today. So every business needs an attractive, functional, responsive, and mobile-friendly website that will serve your customers where they are and encourage them to spend more time on your site. Because more time on your site means a higher likelihood of them making a purchase.

Mistake #3

You don’t know who your audience is, where to find them, or how to reach them.

This is where marketing strategy comes into play. If you’re just throwing content onto the internet, there’s no way you can track, measure, or even hope for success. Determining who your target audience is (and where to find them) is a crucial step you should take before deciding which marketing channels to use.

Mistake #4

You don’t know who your competitors are or what they’re doing.

As a small business, you have to work even harder to get your message out there when you have competitors. Learning who your competitors are and what they’re doing — as in what’s working and what’s not — is vital to help you differentiate your business from the competition.

Mistake #5

You’re under-utilizing OR over-utilizing your social media channels.

Most people are on at least one social channel, if not several. This is great news, because that means your customers are ready and waiting for your business to interact with them! But successful social media requires a plan. Are you posting once every 6 months, or 6 times a day? You don’t want your audience to forget about you, but you also don’t want to annoy them. Come up with a plan and then consistently post to your social channels.

Mistake #6

Your business is difficult for your customers to find.

Before you can build trust with potential clients, listing your business in leading directories will make your business visible and easy to find. Plus, making your business easy to find in leading applications, search engines, and other directories will provide the validity your business needs to be established online.

Mistake #7

You’re hoping rather than creating a well-thought plan and strategy to accomplish your marketing goals.

We often don’t put enough stock into our plans. It’s so much easier to come up with a few marketing goals and then hope for the best! But marketing goals shouldn’t be just unfulfilled New Year’s resolutions. Schedule time to come up with a plan (or contact us so we can help you make one!), write down all your goals and your plans to accomplish them, and then start executing.

Mistake #8

You aren’t distinguishing your products/services from your competition.

For better or worse, you know you’re not the only business owner selling your product or service. You likely have local, regional, and national competitors vying for the same customers as you. That’s why it’s so important to differentiate your product or service. Ask yourself what separates you from all your competitors. Why should customers buy from you rather than from someone else?

Mistake #9

You’re trying to do all the marketing yourself OR you’re not doing any marketing at all.

Perhaps you’re trying to figure out how to market your business, or maybe you’ve even wondered how much money you should spend on marketing per month. Have you ever wondered how you’re supposed to have time to do all your marketing while trying to run your business? Whether you need to delegate marketing responsibilities to other staff or outsource your marketing altogether, we recommend not trying to do it all yourself. In fact, that’s where our company tagline comes into play: “You run your business, we run your marketing.” If you’re interested in outsourcing any of your marketing, we’d love to help you.

Mistake #10

You consider marketing an expense rather than an investment.

Like all things in life, it’s much easier to focus on the short-term than the long-term. Yes, it does cost money to outsource your marketing, but as a marketing agency, we stand by the belief that it’s so much more a long-term investment in your business rather than a short-term expense.

Let’s face it — no one is perfect at marketing. No business owner has all the answers and can do everything perfectly. In a way, we’re all fools to an extent, because it’s impossible to know everything. And even if we did know everything about running a business, our time can’t fully be dedicated to marketing our businesses.

And that’s really where we come in. At Paragon Marketing Group, we understand exactly what it’s like to feel overwhelmed. We know what it’s like to wear all the hats and juggle all the balls. We’ve been in your shoes before. And that’s why it’s so important that we not only help other small businesses like us, but also be a marketing resource that you can access whenever you need.

Want to learn more about this topic? Check out our podcast, the Main Street Marketing Podcast, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your audio platform of choice.

Websites—The Face Of Your Business

Websites—The face of your business.

Websites. They’re the face of your business, your first impression on consumers, and a way to communicate with customers. Check out what you can do to update your website and what customers are looking for!

Personalization

In our previous blog, which you can find here, we talked about what it means to brand yourself – this includes your website! If your logo has certain colors in it, make sure you’re using that across your entire website. Keeping fonts, pictures, and color consist not only shows people that you have a clear brand, but they get to know you on a more personal level.

Ease of Navigation

Have you ever clicked on a restaurant’s website to try and order food and can’t find their phone number? How about frustrations with trying to schedule an appointment online? You may not realize it, but all of these small difficulties add up to a person’s impression of not only your website, but your entire business. If people can’t find it, how are they supposed to buy it? Use tabs to clearly label where things can be found. If you know of something that takes more than a couple of clicks to access, try adding a search bar to your website. You can also study the patterns of the use of your website and see where certain things can be fixed.

Call-to-Action

This one may seem obvious, but is often overlooked. You can have all the testimonials, photos, videos, and customer reviews that you want to validate the quality of your business, but if there’s nowhere to lead your customer to buy a product or an email to reach out to, how do they move forward with your services? Make sure there’s a, “contact us today,” or, “click here for more information,” etc. to point your customers in the right direction.

Updated Content

If you haven’t uploaded recent customer reviews, photos, or blog posts in a while, how do prospective customers know how you’re growing and developing? Having reviews from 8 years ago is great to show that your business has been about quality since day one, but how are consumers going to know how your business is doing now? Also, constant stream of uploading shows loyalty to your business and customers.

Social Media

People want to stay in touch and see what’s going on! Maybe you’re a heating and AC service company; chances are, customers don’t need your services on the daily or weekly. If you provide links to your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., your customers can stay in the know with your business and get to know you on a more personal level! That way, when it does come time for an HVAC tune up, they’ll know exactly who to call.

Personalized About Page

When it comes to making a business transaction with a new company, people want to know not only what your business offers, but how you got started, what your business’ morals are, and how you like to work. Including these things lets your customers get to know you on a more personal level. Would you rather do work with a company that provides their title and a bare minimum description of their services, or do you want to work with someone who is transparent and honest?

Validation and Testimonials

We touched on this one earlier, but this can really make or break providing services to a prospective customer. Showing before and after pictures of your services, video testimonials, or even written reviews from current and past customers lets consumers know how you run as a business, and of course, other people’s experience working with you. If your business takes pride in quality service for low prices, or treating your customers like family, make sure your customers are there to back you up! It only takes a couple of minutes to reach out to your customers and ask them to leave a review for you.

You have a lot of competitors. Make sure your competition has nothing on you! Be honest with prospective customers, stand out with your own personalized touch, and be open and consistent with communication.

Cybercrime affects Small Business

This is a blue circuit board with a blue lock in front.

We have all heard the word Cybercrime and we know that we need to protect ourselves. What most small businesses do not understand is how much it affects them. We have heard all the stories from the news about the big companies getting hacked and information being leaked. What we never hear about is the small businesses that get hacked on a daily basis. According to a survey done by CNBC less than 2% of American small businesses say that they are concerned about getting hacked.The big reason why is, “We are the little guy, they don’t want to hack us.” This thought process is incorrect and is exactly why you should care more than the big companies.

Hackers know that you do not have the time, money, or knowledge to protect your site like the big companies do. Therefore, your website is targeted more than any other. Just because you only have 100 clients or 1,000 clients does not make you immune. It makes you a perfect candidate for hackers. They can go in, get what they want, and get out without anybody knowing. What’s better is that because you are a small business, the word that you got hacked won’t go out to everyone in the world because it won’t be considered a big story.

So, what can a small business owner do to protect themselves? More importantly, what can a small business owner do to protect their customers? Well, here you go!

1. Make sure your website is on a secure server. You have a lot of options when it comes to hosting your website. We highly suggest that you find out what equipment or software your host has to combat hacker attempts.

2. Redundancy is very important. Make sure your host has more than one copy of your site. Having multiple servers in different locations would be ideal. This way, if one location gets hacked then they can quickly change over to a backup copy.

3. Consistent security scans. Security scans should be happening weekly on your site or at the minimum monthly. If you keep up on your security scans you will remove any trackers that may have attached to your site in-between scans.

4. You must be updating your site monthly at the minimum. By staying up to date you are also keeping away any new hacks created by having an old version of the theme or integrations your site requires.

5. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypts any conversation that you have with the customer, the website and your office computer. This item is so important that Google is now requiring this if you want your page to be found on Google. It is required as of June 1st to have it. You’ll know you have one by seeing HTTPS:// instead of HTTP:// in your URL.

By following these steps we cannot guarantee that you will never get hacked or that your information will never get out. Hackers are getting smarter and smarter every day and nobody can ever guarantee that. What we can tell you is that by following these 5 things you are giving your clients and yourself the best protection you can.

6 steps to retail marketing

This is a view of a mall from the top floor.

Marketing in the retail world can be a lot of fun. It also can be very time consuming and monotonous. However, without marketing in the retail world, you will not maintain or grow. Retail has an attrition rate and it doesn’t matter how long you have been in business or how great of a reputation you have, there still has to be marketing. You have to replace the people you lose yearly or you might as well shut your doors right now. How do you do this, is the question and how do you do it well?

1. It all starts with building a brand. You have to have a brand recognition or you will not grow. When people think of the typical products you sell, you want your name to come to mind first. In marketing, there is a rule called the rule of seven. Now, some marketers will say it is the rule of 10 or a rule of 5, regardless, it is still important that you follow it. A person must see your brand 7 times before they start thinking about you for a certain product. How those 7 times is achieved can be hard, however, the rest of this blog explains a few tricks.

2. How you are found is important and that is where listings come into the equation. There are literally hundreds of sites that your business should be listed on depending on exactly what your product is. Personally, I believe that if you are listed properly on the top sites then the rest will follow over time. What people do not realize is that everything HAS to be exactly the same across all of your online listings, right down to the dot in the same place.

3. Social media marketing is going to give you the most bang for your buck. Depending on your demographic you will utilize Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Anyone of these 4 are going to be important, however, the two most important are going to be Facebook and Twitter. The most important thing with these platforms is to not post just 1 time per week about your store and expect people to flock in. You have to post regularly and you have to not only educate the consumer about you but also about your products.

4. You have to create a personalized experience. Just as we talked about social being important well, so is mobile marketing. It is said that 58% of people will look on cell phones before they look for your store on a desktop or laptop. With the world of artificial intelligence growing it is very important to learn new ways to use personalized mobile marketing in order to attract new clients.

5. Reward programs are becoming very popular. Create an awards program through email marketing and offer a free product for being a member of your newsletter program. Once you start getting emails from consumers, do not miss a single month of sending newsletters out. I would suggest that you send out an email at a minimum of bi-weekly. One can be a newsletter talking about anything new that you have done and the other can be an offer of the month for members of the group.

6. People will come in and spend more if they know you are supporting the community. Your local chamber of commerce or business group will have a list of events that are community-based in order to help you find a great charity or event to support. Once you find one, offer your support or sponsorship then market about your contribution. Millennials today want to know that you support a charity or local event. They will remember that and come back to you because of it.

Having a retail establishment is a very exciting and fun thing. In today’s world, you have a great opportunity to provide a great location for people to get what you need. The more people that know who you are, the better. With the digital world, you have a great opportunity to tell the world about you! Have fun with it but remember to be respectful and responsible. You will be successful with these suggestions.

Why do I need an SSL for my Website?

Before I explain why you need one I should probably explain what it is. A SSL is a Secured Socket Layer. It is a level of security that is put on your website to keep all information encrypted between the clients computer and the main server that it is talking to.

Imagine going to a store and you paying by credit card. They write down your credit card number, your address, phone number and all other important information and they put it in a drawer. How many people will see that throughout the day? How many people will have as much information as they need to steal from you? I would say that is pretty unsafe, correct? So why would it be okay to give information on a website that does the same thing and makes it easy for hackers to take your information? It wouldn’t!

By installing a SSL certificate it takes your information and encrypts the information prior to sending it to the main server, you are sending it to the site you are purchasing from.

  1. There are a few reasons why you need to have a SSL.
    It affects your rankings. Google and other sites give priority to sites that have https:// instead of http:// in the url. As a matter of fact it is expected that in the future it will be required to have a SSL on all sites.
  2. Your clients want to know that they are safe, whether you accept credit cards or not. We are in a world of knowledge and people are educated more than ever because of the internet so they look for the little lock icon or the https:// on a site.
  3. Hackers are getting smarter everyday and it is now quite possible for them to get information through back channels within the URL to your clients desktop, laptop or mobile device.

So why doesn’t everybody have them? It is an expense is the simple answer. We have seen SSL’s range from about $65 to $85 per year. Small businesses do not like the additional expense and have not found a reason to spend it. For 23 cents a day I feel it is worth keeping your clients information safe, don’t you?

Why Do I Need Video?

In today’s day and age people are very visual in nature. I know that at my house my kids are watching videos all the time. What amazes me even more is that I talk to people who say they are too busy to talk or to decide or even to go to the bathroom. However, those same people message me and say “Did you see the video on youtube? Wow, it was amazing”. Then I look at the video and it was the latest fails of the week. This is the world we live in now! People do not have the time to do as much as the world moves quickly but they can always watch the latest video.

Here is where reality crosses with marketing. We get calls everyday about video because that is what we do. Everybody wants to make a video that goes viral to promote their company. Did you know that less than 1% of videos go viral? To say that anybody has the secret sauce to make a video viral would be a lie. Not to mention, is the best representation of your company really a viral video? Viral videos are silly or show what not to do a lot of times. However, if you can get a 6 second video ad during the pre-roll of a viral video, it makes a lot of sense. The key to it is making the most out of 6 seconds. That we can do!

Having a video on the homepage of you website increases conversions by 80%. This statistic varies based on who you look up the statistic with; however, there is one common theme. Video gives you more conversions than words. Think about how many conversions you currently have from your site. Now think of how much your website costs you per lead. Who wouldn’t want the cost per lead to go down and the amount of leads to go up?

What do we record? You are not looking to be the next viral video so stop thinking it. You are wanting to show why someone HAS to have you as their vendor of choice for the project they have or why they have to buy the product they want from you. You do not have to reinvent the wheel but you do have to tell them why you! I have said it many times. Know the why of what you do. Why do people come to you? Why do people need you? Why do you exist as a company? If you answer those questions in a 15–30 second video then you can watch your leads roll. Do not try to shove 50 years into 30 seconds. It will not show well at all. Show the why now! I believe that there’s a place for history videos, bio videos and product videos, however, that place is not on your homepage. Furthermore, you should absolutely have those videos as well. Those videos should be throughout your website and they should all link to your Youtube page therefore fulfilling one requirement of content marketing.

So in short, should you have video as part of your overall strategy? YES, for sure and definitely!

To Be Found Or Not To Be Found, That Is The Question

This is a woman searching something on Google on her laptop.

When you go into your phone and you type in air conditioning repair you get a list of people nearby that do that, right? Imagine if you are the business owner and somebody is 20 feet from your location and they type in air conditioning repair but your name doesn’t come up? That would probably upset you, correct? Well that is because you are not listed correctly with the major search engines. The last I checked there are over 700 online directories that you can be listed on. Do all of them make sense to you? NO.

There are many directories that are specific to industries that do not make sense for everybody. If you are a doctors office then it makes sense to be listed on WebMD however if you do AC repair then it does not. How do you know which ones you should be listed on? How much time does it take to go into each one individually and make sure everything is exact. That is where a Marketing company comes in with listing expertise.

Listings are very important to SEO for a website. There are a lot of decisions that have to be made with listing and no matter how little you think they are it is very important that you make decisions prior to starting the project. Decisions like Spelling Avenue or using Ave with or without a period? What phone number do you want to use? What email? What are your hours? If you are a restaurant do you want the menu? What pictures do you want to use? What keywords do you want to use? These all seem like basic things but they are very important because ALL of your listings need to be EXACT across all platforms!

Furthermore if you take this project on yourself you have to go in and fix these on a very regular basis. There are crawlers that will go in and change the information within 6 days of fixing it. At first it is one or maybe 2 sites. After 30 days over half of the sites you fixed are changed. That is why it is much more cost effective to work with a Listing Power user service like we are. We constantly fix listings and once they are fixed the crawlers can not change them. There is a fee of course, however how much would it cost you to have to go in and fix them all the time?

What I hear all the time is that I will hire an employee to do this and make sure I stay up to date. Let’s figure this out mathematically. You pay an employee $10 per hour to go in and fix your listings and keep them up to date. Each listing service will take about 30 minutes to fix. That means you are paying that employee $360 every time they have to go through all 72 sites. Now only about half of them get changes monthly. So you will have to pay an employee $180 every month to keep them fixed. These numbers do not include taxes, insurance and all the extra payments you need to make for every employee you have. For a listing professional to come in and have them constantly fixed it will cost you between $100 – $150 per month. So the math is easy right?