Company Branding And Why It Matters

Company Branding And Why It Matters

Company branding is a marketing technique to create a name, design, and symbol that is easily recognizable. When seeing a company’s branding that’s done right, you should be able to easily identify it. This is because branding is used to identify a product or service, and distinguish it from the competitors on the market. There are many areas that are used to develop a company’s branding. The marketing techniques used include logo design, advertising, customer service, social media presence, and more. All of these elements need to work cohesively, creating one unique and engaging professional reputation. But why is company branding so essential for a business’ success?

Why Is Branding Important?

Company branding is meant to be a true representation of who you are as a business. This is why your brand is critical to your success as a business owner. Distinguish yourself from your competitors and show your clients and consumers what they can expect from you with your company branding. Furthermore, you must always make sure your company branding is up to date to ensure a memorable impression is being made.

Company Branding Gets Recognition

Company branding is how a business gets recognition, it’s how a business becomes known to consumers. Your company’s logo and brand colours are the face of your company, and they should be featured in all of advertisements and other marketing strategies. Don’t be afraid to spend some money getting your logo designed by a professional. A graphic designer can help you make your logo powerful and memorable, which allows your company to make an positive impression at a glance.

Branding = Business Value

A company that is well known is more appealing to the average consumer, and creates a more appealing opportunity for future investors. This is how company branding will help you generate business, as it gives you more leverage in your industry. A successfully branded company will notice its client base increase drastically over a short amount of time.

Improves Employee Morale

Job satisfaction is higher for employees who believe in their company’s image and what it stands for. When an employee works for a strongly branded company they are more likely to truly stand behind the brand. This means that the employee will have a higher degree of pride in their work. This shows that it is fulfilling to work for a company with successful branding that is held in high public opinion. However, even with successful branding it can take time to build up the perfect roster of employees. Sometimes you need to sift through a seemingly endless pile of resumes until you find the right person.

Finding Brand Success

Branding is beneficial for a business in very many ways, and sometimes you need a bit of help to achieve the perfect brand for your business.  This is why great company branding will have people begging to work for you and buy from you. So if your business is struggling with company branding, reach out for a free consultation. We’d be happy to help!

Prospect Solutions – November, 2018

Digital Marketing Vs. Traditional Marketing

Digital Marketing Vs. Traditional Marketing

The world is an ever changing place, and right now we are in the middle of the digital age. Marketing professionals everywhere are stuck in a certain debate about which technique is better: Traditional or Digital Marketing? Many professionals believe that digital marketing is taking over the marketing world. Let’s find out if they’re right.

Defining Traditional and Digital Marketing  

Traditional marketing includes many facets, mostly involving tangible items. These marketing items include print ads in newspapers and magazines, brochures, business cards, and billboards. Word of mouth and commercials on TV and radio are also typical avenues  for traditional marketers to explore.

Digital marketing is currently evolving, and will continue to evolve as long as technology is advancing. Some of the strategic avenues that digital marketing professionals explore include websites, YouTube videos, banner ads, and social media. When you break it down, digital marketing can seem very similar to the traditional marketing route. The key difference between them is that digital marketing focuses on the use of digital devices. By using digital marketing, people will be able to find you from the comfort of their own home. This happens by surfing the web and coming across your company’s content and brand.

Digital Marketing’s Advantages

When choosing digital marketing, the results are much easier to measure. This is because you can see the statistics right in front of you. Another massive advantage found in digital marketing is that your audience is not limited. The internet allows your company’s content to reach an infinite amount of people. You can also control your marketing strategies better by varying your target markets for each campaign. Furthermore, digital marketing is a technique that is very interactive, especially when using social media. You get to interact directly with your audience and hear about what matters most to them. There can be plenty of direct contact between the audience and the business which means that the business can get some very valuable consumer feedback.

Can There Be A Balance?

As a marketing company, it is imperative to know all of the most up to date and buzz worthy methods of marketing. Our world has transitioned into a very digital environment, so it is key to use this to your advantage. Ebooks, online magazines, and reviews all happen in the online space now, as more and more of our time is spent on all things digital. It’s common sense to invest in a digital marketing campaign, due to this rise of the digital age.

Traditional marketing does still have it’s space, but digital marketing will allow you to become much more successful. Communicating with your clients and consumers has never been easier! You can even personalize your web pages and social media profiles to help connect with your clients. If you’d like to take the leap by using digital marketing campaigns, schedule a free consultation call with us. We’ll help you start off on the right foot, and we can’t wait to get started for you!

Prospect Solutions, October 2018

 

Instagram Marketing Builds Businesses

Instagram Marketing Builds Businesses

When people think of Instagram, they usually think of swiping, liking, and scrolling through thousands of images on a smartphone. What many people have not yet realized is that Instagram Marketing is a fabulous new tool that can be used to help grow your business’ customer base. When used correctly, Instagram Marketing has the capability to grow a business exponentially, as it is much more than just a social media platform.

Instagram Keeps Your Name in Conversation

Instagram Marketing is extremely valuable because it is a strategy that encourages customer participation. With your business profile on Instagram, you get to interact directly with your fans, clients, and customers daily! They see your posts, and have the ability to “like”, “comment” and “follow”. When they do, be sure to reply and engage with them as well. It’s important to keep the conversation going. The more they recognize your brand and content style, the more likely they are to engage with it. They might even tell their friends about you! Instagram Marketing works best when combined with your other marketing efforts, so be sure to fuel your Instagram Marketing content to other social medias and content from your business.

Building Social Trust

The concept of “social trust” is one of the key factors in why Instagram Marketing works so well. Having a business profile on Instagram allows you to build a personality for your business. This is key in establishing your brand in a sea of other businesses and corporations. Be authentic about yourself and your business. Instagram Marketing can give your followers a “behind the scenes” look on your company’s day to day and inner workings. This will make them more likely to trust your business.

Strengthen Your Relationship With Your Followers And Potential Customers

There are many Instagram Marketing strategies that can be used to strengthen your relationship with your followers and potential clients. With Instagram ads you can reach the people who matter most to you. This is done by using their detailed criteria selection for who sees your advertisements. Furthermore, you also gain access to the data of who is viewing/liking your ads and what they are generally like. This allows you to get to know much more about your customer base. Companies who leave out Instagram Marketing from their social media strategy lose out on an otherwise unreached customer base. Who knows how how many potential clients/consumers you’re missing out on!

Conclusion

The world of marketing is constantly evolving, and the best businesses will be keeping up with all the new  social media strategies to help grow their business. Instagram Marketing strategies and tools are not something that you want to miss out on, and there are many more strategies that we didn’t get a chance to highlight in this article. Still not sure where to start? Contact us to get a head start on your Instagram Marketing fine tuning.

Tips On Getting Inbound Leads Via Paid Website Traffic

Tips On Getting Inbound Leads Via Paid Website Traffic

Tips On Getting Inbound Leads Via Paid Website Traffic

People  often call me for a Free Consultation  and say that they invest most of their marketing budget into inbound leads via paid website traffic. They believe that the fast and simple way to get leads is via Pay-Per-Click  (PPL) advertisement on Google, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.  I agree with them because PPL  does deliver results, but for a hefty fee!
With paid advertisement , you get website traffic as long as you keep paying for it. Pay-per-click advertisement does not help you build your online reputation, which is invaluable for your website ranking with search engines. Getting inbound leads via paid website traffic may not be the best use of your marketing dollars.

What percent of the overall website traffic to your website is actually converting into leads?

There is no point in spending hundreds of dollars with pay-per-click advertisers and having website visitors drop off  because your site has poorly written content and bad navigation and images.

Are you getting the right website traffic?

If want to get the best ROI on inbound leads via paid website traffic, target your most desirable customer.Ask yourself a question: “What are my best paying and most loyal customers REALLY buying from me? What keyword would they use to find me on the internet?” This suggestion alone can save you a lot of money and increase your marketing ROI.

To achieve the best ROI on inbound leads via paid website traffic, consider various pay-per-click advertising companies.

Most people tend to keep all their eggs in the same basket and invest most of their money in Google or Facebook. Often Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can offer much cheaper pay per click rates and get you better qualified website visitors.

Consider investing at least 50% of your monthly marketing budget into non pay-per-click marketing channels.  Differentiate and invest in social media prospecting, organic SEO, business networking, new content, video, email, better website, telemarketing, CRM and others.

Why You Need LinkedIn

Why You Need LinkedIn

LinkedIn was founded by Reid Hoffman and associates in the late winter of 2002, and was launched in the summer of May 2003. Since its inception, LinkedIn has grown immensely as a social media platform for business professionals, while still retaining its core value of “Relationships Matter”. Here are some of the key ways LinkedIn can help you with your professional business growth.

Instant Potential Leads at Your Fingertips

LinkedIn has a tool called Sales Navigator that allows you to find endless B2B marketing prospects. The search engine has a large number of criteria options to help narrow down the perfect leads for your team. The criteria ranges from length of employment, to seniority, to industry targets, and more! More sales opportunities means the ability for more business growth, and the sales possibilities are endless with Sales Navigator.

Building Your Network

Building your professional network has never been easier thanks to LinkedIn. Industry professionals from all walks of life are on this social media platform, meaning the connection prospects are limitless. You gain access to someone’s connections as soon as you add them to your network. This allows your networking community to expand with every professional you add to your connections.

Industry Knowledge

With LinkedIn, it is so easy to stay up to date on all the nuances of your Industry. This is due to postings of blog and articles by industry professionals on a daily basis. Also, you also can see industry leaders and colleagues post on their personal profiles, which allows you to stay integrated in all the facets of your industry. This creates more business growth opportunities for you.

Endorsements and Recommendations

LinkedIn is also able to help you on a much more personal business level. Endorsements and Recommendations are great opportunities for business growth, as they can only be provided to you by people in your network. These tools are essential, as they help you build social trust within your industry. These written posts  show up on your profile for everyone to see, helping you make more connections.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is an amazing tool that is free to use, with paid options available to increase your outreach and potential. It is also just one of the tools that Prospect Solutions Inc. uses to help you grow your business.

Click here to find out more about us and how to make your business achieve its maximum potential!

 

SEO Tips and Tricks

SEO Tips and Tricks

What is SEO?

According to Wikipedia, SEO is “is the process of affecting the online visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results—often referred to as “natural”, “organic”, or “earned” results.”  Oftentimes, Search Engine Optimization is one of the most important tools, bringing  customers to your website and converting these leads into long-term clients.
Read on for some useful SEO tips on how to optimize your site’s rank.

Importance of Keywords

First, imagine yourself in the shoes of your consumer – what would you search for, when looking for your product? Most likely, you would search for something that best describes your product, or in SEO words: Keywords. If you are not sure what keywords are more likely to come to consumer’s mind when Googling your product, there are many free tools that can help you to find the most popular searched keywords on the internet.  You might consider free tools such as Wordtracker or SERPs. Once  you have discovered the keyword that is popular and accurately describes your product, the last step is to simply implement this keyword in as many places on your website, as possible.

Become User Friendly

While plugging in the keywords will partially help your Google rank, you have to remember about your potential customers. This i s where user friendliness of your site comes into the picture. Have you ever come across a site that just won’t load or is super difficult to navigate? This is the type of site you want to avoid. By enhancing your website’s usability, mobile friendliness and   engaging content for all, your rank on Google will surely jump a couple of pages ahead. Furthermore, you will generate a higher rate of potential leads coming out of your website!

Conclusion

There are many other SEO tips and tricks you might consider using, such as Social Media Management, cross-linking and Public Relations. Don’t have the time to optimize your site? Contact us for a free consultation how to optimize your Site’s Rank today!

Social Media Strategies for Recruiters

Social Media Strategies for Recruiters

Social Media Strategies for Recruiters to Generate More Job Leads and Boost Placement Rates

As a recruiter, finding qualified candidates can be tough, but perhaps even more challenging is finding enough job vacancies in which to place your candidates.  Social media strategies for recruiters are vital in order to:

  • Grow and maintain a steady stream of job leads.
  • Stay up to date with the latest market trends, skill bases, and industry news.
  • Keep an eye on what their competition is doing.
  • Create a greater selection of roles they are likely to recruit for.

Take your recruiting skills to the next level with the following social media strategies:

 

Wield the Power of LinkedIn

Leveraging more job leads can be done with surprising ease on LinkedIn, a social media site for professionals. Customize your profile to attract leads and join LinkedIn groups for the industries you’re recruiting for. Post, comment, and share often to establish your online presence in your niche industry.

One of the most powerful tools for recruiters to use on LinkedIn is the jobs database where you can search companies with job openings. Update the career interests section and then use the “jobs you may be interested in” feature that compares your profile settings against 300,000+ jobs in the database, practically hand-picking your ideal job leads!

 

Explore Other Online Platforms and Social Media Strategies for Recruiters

LinkedIn isn’t the only useful social media tool for generating leads. Find job vacancies on Twitter by using the advance search option to locate company Twitter handles, as many companies will tweet job openings. Even Facebook has launched their own job search feature that filters jobs based on your profile, interests, and desired industry.

Approach your search like a job-seeker would. Where are they looking for work? Find and follow any other blogs or websites targeting people on the hunt for work.

When you’ve found a website with good job lead potential, use a news aggregation tool like Feedly to stay alerted for new updates without having to constantly revisit each site for new content.

Become the Go-To Recruiter in Your Industry by Following these Social Media Strategies

Once you’ve generated more job leads, the goal is to build long term relationships with your ideal prospective clients. Create trust over time by listening to your clients’ recruitment needs and make each interaction about them.

Stay top of mind with both your candidates and clients after filling a role for them by routinely interacting with their social media posts and groups. If you took the time to establish an authentic relationship with them, they will come to you first when they are in a position to hire again.

Nurture your network and you’ll establish yourself as the go-to recruiter for your niche industry.

 

Conclusion

Success as a recruiter can be found through creating genuine relationships and utilizing social media tools. By creating a larger pool of job leads, you can zero in on quality prospects that will give you the placement opportunities most tailored to your niche and expertise.

 

 

4 Reasons Why Your Marketing Department Is Not Successful

4 Reasons Why Your Marketing Department Is Not Successful

Why Your Marketing Efforts Aren’t Successful

Many companies and entrepreneurs have claimed that marketing simply doesn’t work for them. But these are usually the same business owners who lack a structured strategy and take a short-term approach to marketing. Businesses that go this route often see a lack of progress or any real long-term results. They end up frustrated and feel that their marketing efforts were a waste of money.

But having the right marketing strategy can make or break a company. If you are struggling to see success with your marketing efforts, here are the four mistakes you could be making:

No Dedicated Budget for a Marketing Department

Instead of investing in a dedicated marketing department, many businesses settle for smaller campaigns. They are often one-off efforts that entail hiring a contract telemarketer or an SEO freelancer to promote their web rankings overnight. But a successful marketing strategy takes time to build, and should be an ongoing effort. Temporary marketers will come and go, resulting in a lack of any real long-term results. Having a designated budget for a permanent marketing team is essential to achieve long-term success.

Marketing Department is Isolated From The Rest Of The Company

Don’t isolate your marketing efforts to just your marketing team. The whole company should be a part of your marketing strategy. Providing stellar customer service, for example, has become a critical part of a successful marketing campaign. Positive reviews and feedback from customers will generate more business and build the company brand.

No Integrated Marketing Strategy

With the rise of the internet, integrated marketing has become more important than ever. Marketing is most impactful when the message remains consistent both online and offline. This means combining traditional methods, like newspapers or billboards, with online methods such as social media. Marketing campaigns are most successful when they are time-bound and measurable with KPIs or CRM tools. The data gathered from a campaign can help your marketing department understand what works and what doesn’t for when they plan the next one.

Not Staying Current with the Latest Marketing Tools

Outdated marketing tools are almost as bad as no marketing tools. Invest time and money to finding the best CRM technology for your business. Send your marketing team for training on a regular basis to keep their skills up to date. This is critical in order for your marketing department to stay competitive and on par with the rapid pace of change in today’s digital world.

Conclusion
A short-term, poorly strategized marketing effort will result in your company “winning battles but losing wars.” A business leader who truly committed to their company’s long-term success will make the proper investment their marketing department. Find marketing success for your business by growing an in-house team, or investing in an outsourced marketing department.

How to Turn Instagram Followers into Leads

How to Turn Instagram Followers into Leads

Pictures are worth a thousand words. Today, almost every business has an active Instagram profile, but does not know how to turn Instagram followers into leads. Here are some useful tips on how to monetize your Instagram marketing:

Understand Your Target Audience

Sometimes, unresponsive Instagram posts could be simply a result of your poor knowledge of your followers. Make sure to design and write your Instagram posts with the target audience in mind. Before scheduling your next daily post – make sure to do your research, and know who is listening.

Appreciate Your Followers by Following Back

The best way to connect to a potential client is to contact them directly. If you are looking to turn your followers into leads, it’s important to let them know are aware of their existence. Next time you receive a notification of a new follower, make sure to follow them back, or even send them a quick Thank You note and ask them to check out your business website. Perhaps, this could be your next big client!

Highlight  Your Current Clients

Whether you are a service industry or manufacture products, it is important to let your audience know that your are customer-focused. Highlight and Cross-Market with your current customers and clients, especially if they are a small business just like yours. Your current clients will be happier than ever, and your potential clients will be dying to learn how to get into your next post. Make sure not to forget to @tag some usernames!

Conclusion:

There might be over 50 different methods on how to engage your Instagram followers. With over 15 years of marketing experience, we decided to share the three top methods that worked best for our business clients. Not sure where to start?
Contact us to get a head start on fine turning your marketing and turn Instagram followers into leads.

5 Reasons You Should Hire Marketing Temps

5 Reasons You Should Hire Marketing Temps

Why Businesses Hire Marketing Temps

Many business owners may find today’s marketplace environment to be fast-paced and competitive.  As a business owner, you need every advantage you can get, in order to stay flexible while getting the job done. That’s why more and more companies are turning to experienced temporary employees. Short-term marketers, communication specialists and lead generators are the answer to staying ahead of the game.  Here are five reasons why you should hire marketing temps.

More Staff Power

Maybe you have more work than staff to complete it, or maybe you’re struggling to finish an important project. You don’t always have to increase company’s headcount in order to employ more workers when you need them. Hiring a marketing temp is a cost-effective and flexible solution. Plus, when you hire marketing temps, your permanent employees will appreciate the company’s equal distribution of work.

Budget Restraints

Today’s companies have to be careful about budgets and bottom lines. A marketing, communications or lead generation temp is a great way to get more help without breaking the bank. Because it’s a short-term relationship, you are in control about how long the temp stays in the company, without overspending your finances.

Cover Staff Absences

Key employees will sometimes be absent from work for weeks or even months at a time. It could be because of maternity or family leave, a sabbatical or perhaps an extended illness.

A major advantage of using temps is their flexibility. They’re available with little lead time and there’s no commitment to hire them permanently once their contract is up. With an experienced professional to help fill the gap, you won’t lose your valuable time.

A Short-Term Specialist

Marketing in today’s digital world requires many different skill sets. You may need someone with very specialized skills, but not enough to justify a full-time position. By bringing in digital marketing, digital strategy or content marketing temps, you can tap into the special expertise of these marketing professionals. By taking advantage of their knowledge short-term, your company can prosper over the long-term.  

Experiment with Ideas

If you have some ideas you want to try before you commit, a marketing temp is a low-cost, flexible alternative to adding to a new position. It’s a solution that will allow you to test a new position before making a final commitment to hire someone full-time.

Conclusion

In today’s fast-paced world, hiring marketing temps offers many benefits and can provide you with extra help when your business needs it the most.

We’re here to help you find the right short-term marketing, communications and lead generating staff to meet your needs. Contact us today for to find the best marketing temps for your business!