7 essentials to brand awareness

brand awareness.

Recently Paragon has taken on a new effort of working with non-profits to help them grow. We feel it is very important and the more we give the more we receive.

While visiting these non-profits it is amazing how many of them have no brand guidelines. Now, this is not only for nonprofits, but with small businesses, as well. What is a brand guideline you ask? A brand guideline is how people view your company or non-profit. It is how they recognize it is you. Brand guidelines are a roadmap to automatic recognition of who you are.

 

Here’s what should be included in your brand guidelines.

  1. Your history, vision and your top values for your organization.
  2. Your mission statement including what we call “tone of voice” requirements. Yes, the tone of voice is important and must be spelled out as to what can and can not be said and how!
  3. Color palette is essential. Typically your logo will decide this for you but if you have a two color logo then add a couple of colors that you feel go well with it and stick to them.
  4. Where and how your logo can be used is one of the most important things that you will spell out. Can it be used on certain types of materials and on the website? How much white space around your logo? Can it be combined with any other logo? Does it always have to be color or can you do black and white? What sizes are allowed to be used? All very important.
  5. What fonts are people allowed to use is another one that needs to be thought of. There are literally thousands of fonts out there so do not leave it to chance. A good rule of thumb is having 1-3 options of fonts.
  6. What type of photos can be used with your logo? Not only the style but will you require special lenses, lighting. Maybe with your brand, you only want black and white with people in it.
  7. Please provide examples of the following: a business card, letterhead, brochure or pamphlet. Maybe provide a picture of proper use and unproper use of your logo.

Now, none of this matters if nobody knows about it.  Then you are not really creating a brand. Every time you send out your logo to anybody include these guidelines. If they don’t understand them then ask for a proof prior to print or publication. You must know where your logo is and how it is being represented at all times!

 

The first step to a successful Email Marketing campaign. Understand the law!

These are the words, Know the rules, written on a blackboard.

Email marketing is one of the highest converting forms of advertising. Starting email marketing involves many factors, however, the most important factor is the law. I myself have made mistakes that made an email not conform to the law and I completely missed it. That is one reason why I want to make sure that people don’t make the same mistakes I have.

 

The biggest law out there has been the Can-Spam act that was signed into law in 2003 by George Bush. I won’t bore you with all of the political words but I will tell you what the law says in simpler terms.

 

  1. You must have the email address that the email is coming from. You cannot hide your email or not tell people who you are in it. This should either be a person at the company that is responsible for this or the company name. Either one shows the receiver what is happening and more importantly from where it’s coming from.
  2. Be honest and forthright. Your subject line should be straightforward and honest. Say in the subject line I have an offer for a free consultation for you, that better be what is in the email. Do not say, “I have a gift card for you” and not actually give one. You cannot say, “I have a gift card for you” and then it turns out to be a contest. You must be willing to give what you say. If you are sending an ad then say, “ad from ……”
  3. Where you are located is very important to this rule. Really, this should be important to you anyway as it shows that you are a reputable company. In this rule, it is required that you have a physical address in the email.
  4. Offer your recipient the opportunity to opt out of future emails. The law states that you have 10 days to remove them from your list but I would highly suggest you do it within 24 hours or before another email goes out, whichever comes first.
  5. If you are using a company to send emails on your behalf then make sure they are conforming to these laws. It is you that will get fined and not them. You have to make sure you are working with a reputable company at all times.

 

Recently, we have also been hit with a new rule called GDPR or General Data Protection Regulations. This was created in Europe and took effect on May 31st. I would highly suggest that every company conforms to these rules as you do not know when your site will be viewed outside of the country. A lot of the same rules apply as the Can-Spam act.

  1. You must get all data legally and you cannot spam to add to your email list.
  2. There must be a purpose for the email and they must opt-in for that purpose. You can not use their data for ANY other purpose without explicitly asking and getting permission.
  3. You must confirm all data is accurate. I would suggest sending an auto email to confirm the data prior to adding them to a list.
  4. You will only keep the data as long as you need it. If it is a 6-week campaign then you cannot use it for another campaign after the 6 week period.
  5. Confidentiality is the most important new rule. In the past, you technically had the ability to sell your list to others and make some extra income off of it. Although I have never done this, I heard it was pretty lucrative at times. It cannot be done the same way now. Permission must be given to sharing data across multiple entities. You must have security systems on all data to ensure that nobody can take data without your knowledge.

 

Understanding the laws of email marketing is the first step in starting a campaign. Without this understanding, your email programs will fail and you may or may not be fined. The personal information of individuals is very important to keep secure and not shared. Most email programs do conform to these rules so I highly suggest you use a program like Constant Contact or MailChimp.  

www.paragonmarketinggroup.com

 

Why is video needed in your Marketing mix?

This is a business team gathering around a laptop.

According to Wordstream, viewers retain 95% of information from watching a video compared to retaining 10% from reading the same information. This trend is astonishing to me but also understandable. When I look back at things I buy online or things I learn, it is the same for me. As a matter of fact, I think it may be worse because I can’t read a long article with my attention span but I can definitely watch a video or listen to a podcast. At this point, I am wondering how much more to write and how to line it up. According to that statistic, I should end it here! However, please continue and choose to be the 10%, then please go and watch the video or listen to the podcast to remember the rest.

 

Every good content marketing strategy encompasses a mixture of different things: blog, video, social, web, ads, and podcasts. Obviously, it is called content marketing for a reason! Think about those things, how many of those strategies can you incorporate into a video? The big question that we always get is, why?

 

  1. According to the same article on Wordstream, a video on your home screen can increase conversions by up to 80%. Who can’t use more leads?
  2. Video creates a personal touch that you can’t get anywhere else. The old saying, “People do business with people they like” is still important today. It may actually be more important because of the internet.
  3. According to an article written by Vidyard, 65% of viewers watch more than ¾ of a video. This is not even close to what people read!
  4. Search Engine Optimization asks you to link and backlink as much as possible as long as it is relevant content. What can be more relevant than you talking about your product on a video?
  5. Content Marketing Institute says that audiences are 10 times more likely to engage, share, and comment on a video than they are a blog or social post.
  6. Last but certainly not least, email is more seen and more returned with a video in the message.

 

About a year ago, a friend of mine told me that he was going to start doing a weekly video newsletter along with his regular newsletter. I got his newsletter and I fully admit that I only read about half of it on a regular basis. Since he started doing a video newsletter every Monday, I have learned so much about what is happening and what he is doing. I never knew most of that information before, even though I received his regular newsletter. This is an example of the power of video at its finest and a perfect reason to incorporate video into your marketing campaign.

 

The big obstacle that you will face with this is yourself. Most people do not like to be on video and admittedly, I am one of them. I believe I have a face for radio but I do videos on a regular basis because that is what is being asked of me by our clients. In the next article, I will talk about what you will do with a video once you have it.

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.

What are the top 5 things to do as a B2B Marketer?

This is an overlook of a city.

Whether you have a small, medium, or large business the essentials are the same. If you are in the B2B marketplace there are essential marketing trends that you must follow. Marketing for B2B is unique because you are not trying to get consumers, however, a lot of the same principles apply.

 

  1. First you have to have a story and you have to tell it properly. Your story should involve things like when you opened, who your owners are, and the history of the company.  However, most people do not think of the most important things. You have to show relevant content and education.
      1. Relevant content talks more about why you created the product, why employees like being there, and what sets you apart from your competitors in that space.
      2. Education includes what certifications you have regarding the work that you do, what classes or degrees you have, and what makes you an expert in the field that you are promoting!

 

  1. You need to be easily found. In the digital world that we live in, you have to have your correct information showing in the digital world. There are some basics that you have to do.
    1. Listings have to be keyworded and the proper information relayed to the top site across the internet. This applies to sites like Google, Apple and Yahoo. It is essential that you show the same accuracy and same information across the web.
    2. Your SEO has to be top of mind. There are two different kinds of SEO however. There is on page SEO and off page SEO.
      1.  On page SEO includes things like:
        1. Metatags
        2. Title tags
        3. Heading tags
        4. Submitted site map
      2. Off page SEO includes things like:
        1. Facebook
        2. Twitter
        3. Instagram (If needed)
        4. LinkedIn
        5. Blogs
        6. Podcasts

 

  1. Paid advertising is a very useful tool for B2B because you can be specify who you are trying to advertise to. You can advertise to a purchaser of your product specifically. There are many forms of paid advertising but here are the top 5 to use:
    1. LinkedIn
    2. Facebook
    3. Google Adwords
    4. Bing Ads
    5. Instagram

 

  1. Reputation Management is a very important part of your world. There are literally hundreds of sites used to review a company. You must be able to see the reviews and have the ability to respond to them in a timely manner. You can do this by not only getting your listings updated and tracking them there, but you can also set up a Google Alert. This way, anytime somebody mentions the company name on the web you get an email and you can go to that site to respond. Responding quickly and correctly shows everything about you and your customer service. The last thing you want to do is argue with the person that left the review. The second worst thing is responding with a blanket response that looks like every other response you have put out there. Be sure to individualize your responses.

 

  1. Create a one on one online conversation with every person you can. They contacted you so they obviously want to know more. People do business with people they like so make sure you are pleasant, to the point, and direct. People do not have time to spend hours trying to find an answer. That is why they messaged you, so give them what they want. The important part of this step is to also educate them.

 

The world has changed in many ways for marketing in a B2B business. If you follow these things however, statistics show that your success is imminent. The olds days of networking to get your business does not work the same. Millennials do not go to networking meetings like most of us have or do today. They would rather attend a seminar or online virtual meeting than go to a one on one meeting. It is important for the future of all of us B2B businesses that we adapt to them and still hold true to what got us where we are today.

Top 8 tactics for Restaurant marketing

A marquee sign that reads BUZZ installed into a bark textured wood wall beside a white tiled commercial kitchen and serving area.

Restaurant marketing is not the same as marketing a non-restaurant business. Restaurants work off of reputation, quality and environment. When we market a restaurant we take these things to heart. Here is our top 8 things we suggest making a restaurant program successful.

  1. Photography: Hire a professional to take pictures of your menu items. People are visual and visit restaurant’s because food is appealing. Great visuals equals great food to customers.
  2. Digital Listings: Digital listings are how search engines find your restaurant. The most important sites are Google, Apple and Yelp for a restaurant. There are 72 that should be updated on a regular basis. Last thing a restaurant wants is for customers unable to find your restaurant online, wrong address, invalid operating hours or incorrect items no longer available.
  3. Geo-target ads: Sites like Google adwords, Facebook or Twitter use 4 different tactics if applicable. Text ads, Display ads, Video ads and Retargeting ads.
  4. Online Ordering: Use an online ordering system like Zuppler (no need to offer delivery to do this). Allows for ease of use 1 page site enabling local business to order food for meetings or lunch. These systems also will take payments and integrate with POS systems, send you a text, Email or send the order directly to a printer installed in your kitchen.
  5. Social media: Mobile is the way of life and social media is imperative to your success in Marketing. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will be the most important three. These sites can display the environment that they will dine in. Social media creates a relationship with the potential patron prior to them visiting the restaurant. You can feature an employee, feature a patron or show pictures of events happening at your location.
  6. Reviews: Reviews are the lifeblood of a restaurant. However if you don’t ask for a positive review it most likely will not happen. Negative reviews are 10 times more likely to be made than positive ones. You must ask, make it simple and educate where to go. Train your staff to say “If you believe you had a good experience today please go to Google or Facebook and tell us about your experience.” Print this information directly on your receipt and place placards around the restaurant asking for reviews. The more you get the better search engines find you.
  7. Community: Be a part of your community. Patrons love restaurants supporting their community. This includes working with local non-profits and sourcing from local growers. Most people believe in helping their community not for prestige or publicity, but it is the right thing to do. Restaurants can do the right thing and gain publicity.
  8. Rewards: Contests to promote traffic, things like Fishbowl business card is a brilliant way to get email addresses. Offering a free lunch once per month you now have the ability to send them special offers or updates to events. You can invite to your Facebook Twitter or Instagram.  It is a WIN/WIN situation for everyone.

 

Following these steps you will have a great leg up against your competition. You will obtain new patrons and retain them. Consistency is key with these, so stay on top of it or better yet hire somebody like us to do it for you!

How is your budget doing? How about your leads?

This is an image of measuring your budget.

It is very important that you keep up with your budget on a regular basis and track what your Cost per lead or cost per sale is. Ultimately you should be keeping this up on a regular basis however at minimum you should do this quarterly.

The first step is to determine how much you have spent on marketing so far. Hopefully you have been tracking this independently if not I am sure your accounting department has. Hopefully either you or they are keeping track of where the money is going. Not only that it is going to marketing but where in marketing it is going.

The next thing to determine is how many total sales you have for the the quarter. Again you should be getting this information on a regular basis from your sales team so this should be something you know but if you do not then find out from your sales manager. This should be broken down by new sales and existing sales. This should also be broken down by the amount of sales and the amount of leads. In short, how many appointments the sales reps ran and how many appointments the sales reps closed.

Now here comes the math:
Marketing spend/amount of leads = Cost per lead
Marketing spend/amount of sales = Cost per sale

I suggest you go further as well. Hopefully you have been asking where leads are coming from, television ads, radio ads, web, and social are just some of the categories. You should be able to get this same information from your sales if in fact you did get it.

Here comes the math again:
Marketing spend for category/leads from category = Cost per lead for category
Marketing spend for category/sales from category = Cast per sale for category

When you set up your budget I showed you how to do this same thing for your budget. How are your actuals working towards these numbers? What category is trending higher than budgeted? What category is trending lower than budgeted? What should you be focusing on for the next quarter to fix the differences? This is how you know that you are on track with what you budgeted and expected and this is how you stay on top of your budget make it adaptable.

Event Marketing. How to do it right?

This is the text Events, with a red liquid v.

This is the time of year that event marketing becomes a very important thing for most people. The question is, how do you do it and how do you do it right? For a perfect event marketing effort you need to take full advantage of all the free things you can. If your budget allows, then take advantage of some paid advertising also. Here is a timeline of when things should be done and some resources to do so:

16 weeks prior to the event you should send out an email to your database. In this email there should be a story of why you are doing the event. If possible or if you have them, you should have a sponsor also write a story about why they are involved. Guest blogging gives a lot of validity on the event. Social media announcement is key to this step and an event on social media should be created. Last but not least, find at least three local social media influencers to help you promote this event. Invite them to the event personally and thank them for considering coming.

14 weeks prior you should send another email and write another blog about new things that have been solidified for the event. Maybe you have a new sponsor or a new member, or maybe you have another portion of the event that you didn’t publicize before. This is also the time that you should be issuing your first press release. Utilize sites like PRLOG.com to get it out to the media. Find local editor emails online for the local papers and make sure you send them a personal copy of the press release. If your budget allows, this is the time to create an event and start publicizing on Search Engine Marketing and Paid Social. Everybody thinks that they should spread the budget evenly for the next 14 weeks, I challenge that. If you have $280 for 14 weeks of advertising do not advertise at $20 per week. Your final couple of weeks are going to be the most important to get the public to the event so save at least 50% of the $280 for the final 3 weeks. Ultimately, you want to spend 25% of the amount in the final week of registration or the final week prior to the event. Obviously continuing to post on social media regularly is very important to the success.

Here is where the timing gets skewed. Our biggest success is when we take the remaining time and spread things out therefore maximizing the amount of times people see the event. Emails and blogs should be posted every 3 weeks. Social Media posts should go out 1–2 times per week. Regular press releases should be sent at week 10 and then every 3 weeks with the last one going out 1 week prior to the event.

The final week prior to the event, you should send out your last email, your last press release, and turn up your social media to at least three times that week. You should check in with your influencers to verify that they are coming, then make your final checklist to assure everything is ready. Make sure you turn up your paid advertising and maximize who it goes to. This is also the time to do retargeting and make sure everyone that has been to your website sees the event again. Also, reach out to your local papers and see if they are going to be able to come to the event.

Now, here is were most people fail. The event is done, everything is cleaned up, and you want to take a break because it has been a whirlwind these last couple of months. I am sorry to say it but, NO it is not time to relax yet. You have three days to get a follow up email out thanking people for coming. Send out surveys via your multiple advertising directions to see how everybody enjoyed the event. Follow up with media to see what they thought and if and when the media will be running an article or video about the event. Once you get all of this, you share it and write a press release about the success of the event. Include quotes from executives about how they felt the event went and quotes from the people that came. It is time to start promoting for next year! Isn’t it grand how the job of a an event marketer never ends?

Marketing and Community volunteering. Do they go together?

This is a compilation of Community advocate words.

Let me give you the short answer, YES definitely volunteer!! This would not be a blog if I just left it at that though, as I need to make sure this article is SEO friendly. Many of us do things for others and being a good corporate citizen, we will take on community needs quite often. As a company, we take on about 10 of them in total. Even though we are a small business, we have a belief that the more we give the more we get. Our belief in this philosophy is so strong that our president requires us to be a part of something. We have youth coaches, board members, and volunteers all as part of our organization. Admittedly though, we have never really taken any credit for anything we do. We do it because we love it; we believe in the organization and their cause. That is where we are right and wrong at the same time.

We are right because morally it is the right thing to do. One of the organizations that we help take care of is our veterans, which we all should have a responsibility to. Some other organizations we are involved with are taking care of our children and of families that do not have the money for health insurance. Last but not least, we help churches with marketing for new members of a congregation and also internally with current congregates. We believe that God has put us in a position to help and that is why we HAVE to do it.

However, we are wrong as well. We are wrong to not take the credit for helping. We are wrong in not trying to advertise that we are helping a great organization. Ultimately, if you think about it, we are helping the organization and ourselves at the same time. By us saying that we are helping the organization we are telling more people about the organization and the mission they believe in.

This can be a double edged sword however. You want to check into the organization before you start supporting them. A few things we take a look at are location, financials, leadership and their overall goal. Remember that your name is going to be attached with this organization so you want to make sure that they are a reputable company that supports the mission they created. We have all heard of large organizations that have a reputation for extravagance. The amount of money you donate does not go directly to the mission. I personally have heard of admin fees reaching 80% or more. So, make sure you do your homework first and make sure that you not only want the mission, but the organization is one that you can offer your full support to as well.

So, YES you should take credit for your generosity. You are helping them as much, if not more, than you are helping yourself. Whatever you decide is right for you and your organization, your heart is in the right place. Charitable organizations depend on people like you to improve and enhance the mission they set into motion.