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Why You Should be Using WordPress in 2022

Choosing the right website builder can be tricky because there are so many different ones out there. You need to be able to ensure you are using the correct builder that will fit all of your future website’s wants and needs. One of the most popular and easiest open-source content management systems to use is WordPress. This site combines all types of simplicity for its users and developers to make the process of starting your website easier than ever. Its flexibility and easy-to-use aspects allow you to make all different types of sites. With numerous amounts of features, plugins, and SEO friendly, WordPress is able to turn your dream website into reality.

Free Themes and Plugins:

There are over a thousand themes and plugins that WordPress offers for free. Yes, you read correctly, FREE. Many websites offer different themes, but it takes hours to download them. With WordPress, all you’ve to do is click “Install” and you can customize your theme to make your website something unforgettable.

Various plugins allow you to improve your website in certain aspects that you desire. For example, one of the most popular plugins is “Yoast SEO”. With this plugin, you can directly enter information that will help your SEO on the page you want to improve. Other plugins allow you to make your website faster, create online stores and add contact forms.

Easy to use Functionalities:

Are you scared because you’re brand new to it or it might be your first time? WordPress is like riding a bike; once you know how to do it, you never forget (if you’re reading this and don’t know how to ride a bike, I’m sorry).

WordPress has a very simple dashboard with various menu options that are self-explanatory. Also, WP gives you the ability to create different pages, customize the design, add navigation, etc. to help your site in many ways.

One of the main reasons why users are hesitant about website builders is because of technical issues that they may not be familiar with. But with WordPress, you don’t have to worry because the website regularly releases core updates that you can easily install with one click.

WordPress can be overwhelming at first because it offers so much, but is that really a bad thing? Even though it has many features, they’re all there to make your life easier when creating your website. 

SEO Favorable:

You can have the most awesome and creative website, but it’ll be worth nothing if no traffic comes to your site. Many website builders focus only on making your site look pretty and don’t care about important things like SEO.

With WordPress, search engine traffic always comes first. We won’t get all nerdy on you so to sum up a long story short: WP is loved by major search engines like Google. There’s also a special plugin called “All in One SEO” that’s easy to use and helps your website get more traffic. WP helps you focus on keywords, meta description, and gives you specific advice on what needs to be improved on each page when you install an SEO plugin.

A fast website is the essence of a successful website, especially for your visitors. Waiting for a website to load to find what you want is just as bad as waiting at the Chick-fil-A drive-thru. Luckily, WP is built for speed with lightweight themes, dedicated plugins, and content delivery networks.

Blogging for the win:

As far as WordPress has come, it actually started as a blogging platform. If you want to publish your blogs, WP is the fastest and easiest way to do it. With a few clicks, you can manage your content, view comments, and make any necessary changes.

Blogs are great for SEO purposes and provide engaging content to users who visit your website. The Yoast SEO plugin will help you optimize your blogs for search engines and future visitors so that you get as much traffic as possible.

Just like any other page on your website, you can customize your blog page the way YOU want to. With WordPress, you can design headings in certain colors, insert images, add links, and many more features for your blog page.

 

It’s 2022 and if you’re not using WordPress for your website, you’re really missing out. WP gives you the power to make your future website a fantastic experience for your visitors. With customization and SEO capabilities, your website can grow in more ways than you ever imagined. WordPress doesn’t care if you’re a beginner because it’s the most user-friendly website on the market and will help you become an expert in just a few weeks. WordPress is the key to a successful website in 2022 and for years to come.

5 Social Media Trends for 2022

Want to stay ahead of the game on social media? A solid social media presence is very important, and trends are always evolving and growing different ways to engage your audience. Using these trends are a great way to get people involved and increase engagement. Check out these new trends to spice up your social media presence.

1. Video Content –

With the success of TikTok, other platforms like Instagram and Facebook have spiked their video content with clips like Reels to engage audiences. It’s predicted that by 2022, more platforms will include videos in their social feeds. Short videos have become a trendy way for brands to sell their products in an entertaining way. Video content is one way to increase your engagement and join the trend.

2. Behind the scenes content

With the video and TikTok trends comes behind-the-scenes content. Many small businesses have jumped on the trend and are showing the behind-the-scenes of how their products are made. Just as the do-it-yourself trend was popular a few years ago, customers are getting a glimpse into how their products are made and how their company operates. The customer can get more involved in the products, which increases sales and followers.

3. Interactive Posts

Interactive posts have increased in the last year as more and more people work from home or even from their cell phones, and this trend isn’t going away anytime soon. This trend is popular on Facebook and Instagram, but LinkedIn has also expanded its survey-like posts. Interactive posts are a great way to gauge your followers’ reaction with a simple slider or poll. Offering your followers something fun like a quiz or poll will increase their engagement and give them something to look forward to.

4. Shoppable posts

As more and more businesses turn to social platforms to share their products and reach customers, shoppable posts make it easier for customers to shop from their phones. With swipe features, embedded product links, and automatic product tagging, you can seamlessly connect your ecommerce brand to your social media by tagging images of your products in your posts for direct purchase.

5. Carousels

Carousels are still new to social media, but they’re growing in popularity on Twitter and Instagram, and are predicted to become even more popular by the middle of 2022. A carousel is a series of 5-10 texts or images in a single social media post that can be viewed by swiping or clicking. It’s a way to show lots of content, but only in one post, either for education or entertainment. It’s very popular with photographers showing multiple images from a photo shoot, or clothing brands introducing a new line or collection.

Why is Lighting Important for Professional Photos

The importance of proper lighting in photography.

Lighting is a key factor in creating a successful image. Lighting determines not only brightness and darkness, but also tone, mood and atmosphere. Without lighting, you can’t create and expose a clear image. The light brings out the sharpness and details of the subject, so it’s very important that you expose the subject well.

Therefore, to take the best photos, it’s important to properly control and manipulate the light to get the best color and luminosity for your subject. By changing the lighting and shadows precisely, you can best highlight your subject and take the best professional looking photos.

When it comes to lighting, natural light is the best option for headshots or other professional photos, but sometimes it’s not the easiest option. If you’re shooting in the studio, lighting will be your best friend.

Positioning light

Scott Headshot

Where you place your lighting is very important and will have a big impact on how your subject is lit. Depending on where you place your studio lighting, your subject will look different in your photos and in the final result.

If the light is behind the camera and aimed directly at your subject, it’ll look very flat. Lighting from the side will bring out the subject better and create a small shadow that creates more of a 3D look. Tip: Make sure you match the height of the studio lighting to the height of your subject. If the shadow is too big, the photo will look more dramatic, which could be too much for a professional photo.

If you want to create a silhouette effect with headshots, you can keep the light source behind the person and use a strong light source to create a striking silhouette photo.

Hard light

If you’re using studio light, depending on the subject and the room, it can create too harsh a light for a professional photo. If the light is that harsh, it can cause too many shadows behind the subject or on the subject’s face.

If you add a diffuser to the light source, the harsh light and shadow can be reduced. This will also defuse imperfections on the subject and give it a healthy glow, like natural sunlight would.

Once you’ve achieved the best possible lighting with your studio setup, you can also edit the images in Adobe Lightroom. With the editing software, you can change color, balance, and temperature, enhance tones, sharpen, reduce noise, and crop images.

Lighting can make a big difference when taking pictures, because you want your subject to look as good as possible. Learning to use light to your advantage and get the best possible results from your setup will set your work apart from your peers and put you on the path to becoming a professional.

CAPITALIZING ON CONVENIENCE

2021 is the year of the customer, no doubt. The idea of digital transformation started as a vision but quickly shifted into our reality one year ago. The ever-evolving world wide web is no stranger to change, yet the demand for digital developments has never been higher.

A pandemic and thousands if not millions of panicking businesses later, if we have learned anything this year, is that we cannot always be prepared for what comes our way. Several web trends that morphed into musts, seemingly overnight, all stem from one main goal improving the consumer experience. A business must win the customer over, and Power On is here to tell you how to implement the top trends into your web development for a successful 2021.

01 PROGRESSING WITH PWA’S

Progressive web applications (PWA’s) are one of the top web development trends we will see picking up speed in 2021. Although they are not new, we are seeing an increase in the implementation of PWA’s due to ease of development and the fact that they do not need to be downloaded for use. PWA’s combine the best qualities of code and wifi-less native apps to create an enjoyable, immersive, and reliable customer experience time after time. Regardless of network availability, or device, the front-end technology of a PWA is always available to the customer. If you need help visualizing an example of a progressive web app- think of the online presence of companies like Uber and Starbucks. These apps are available across devices and desktops for a simple and seamless experience across the board. PWA’s are a no brainer for businesses that have an existing web presence, considering PWA’s fall under the umbrella of the world wide web. As a website, all of the search engine optimization (SEO) work you put in was not in vain, PWA’s are relevant to maintaining your search presence and ranking.Progressive web applications can improve web-ranking and even open new markets for your service.

02 NO NONSENSE NAVIGATION

On the other side of optimization, single-page apps are becoming more useful to those looking for a dynamic, real-time platform to share smaller sets of data. Single page apps or SPA’s eliminate unnecessary navigation by providing all of your data on one screen. Think of Google Maps. A majority of the information within the page will stay the same regardless of where you are trying to go. However, by dynamically altering only certain elements within your page (the destination you need to get to), the app can update at a much faster pace, with a much more user-friendly layout. While a web page may take more than 200 milliseconds to load, SPA’s load almost instantaneously SPA’s are great for a linear user journey but do not count on your single-page app to boost SEO performance.

03 ONE WITH THE CLOUD

Convenience is key- which is why cloud-based technology is here to stay. In the age of remote work, the cloud is becoming increasingly relevant and necessary. From marketing all the way to remote medicine, cloud computing has transformed the way we have done business in the last year, and it will only accelerate from here. In 2021, we can expect an emphasis on cloud security as more businesses begin to rely on cloud technology to store and access their data on demand.

04 HEAR US WITHOUT VOICE ACTIVATION

Is there anything more user-friendly than being able to tell your phone what you want, and it does it for you? That is why voice search navigation is gaining popularity this year. Statistics suggest by 2020 50% of all searches were voice-activated. Voice search navigation allows the user to search, set up appointments, and buy practically anything just by speaking into their device. The user convenience could benefit you, too. In the coming year, it is vital to optimize your page(s) correctly so that your business is one of the first results on a consumer’s voice search.

 05 CHECK OUT CHAT BOTS

Artificial Intelligence and automated solutions have vastly improved in the last couple of years, which is why chatbots are seen much more frequently. Chatbots use the information provided on your page to automate an answer to basic questions for first-timers or any other visitors to your site. In 2021, expect bots to cater more directly to human behaviors. Chatbots with more human elements are more appealing to users, making them more likely to return. Implementing automated chat responses also decreases the need for human customer service representatives, all while improving the customer service experience.

06 ACCELERATED MOBILE PAGES

Mobile devices and smartphones have completely transformed internet usage. As technology improves, speed is one of the most sought out features- the faster, the better. Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP is an open-source framework that was developed by Google that is optimized for mobile browsing and created with speed in mind. AMP’s are meant to help develop websites that limit loading time, increase framework flexibility, decrease bounce rates, and allow for mobile search engine optimization (SEO).

Staying up to date with the newest trends creates a world-class experience for users to look forward to, opens a new range of markets for your services, and improves your web ranking. Reach out if Power On Marketing can help your business implement any of these trends.

MARKETING AUTOMATION: A GAME-CHANGER FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

As technology improves, so does marketing. Once an art of its own, marketing has now morphed into a hybrid discipline combining art and science to create a powerful tool in the age of digital marketing.

Every team needs balance. Start by implementing automated marketing to transform your firm by delivering personalized messaging that will be more impactful and engaging to your customers and prospects.

• Am I bothering my leads with generalized information?

• Are my emails and campaigns generating sales?

• How much contact and personalization is too much?

• How do you automate touch points in a meaningful way?

TRACKING IS MARKETING AUTOMATION’S BEST FRIEND

Automated marketing platforms allow businesses to monitor almost every aspect of a lead’s journey with your company. From social media and website engagement, marketing asset management, and more, your entire team can access all the information available for any given lead. Knowing exactly which recipients are opening your emails and which parts they interact with will increase internal communication and understanding while providing your team more cognizance to nail the sale.

Tracking insights go beyond single contacts. Once you successfully integrate marketing automation into your business, it will become your one-stop-shop for tracking. Reviewing real-time campaign analytics, specific link clicks, and actionable tasks will help identify activity and trends to increase lead retention.

DETAILS ON DEMAND

One of the most useful characteristics marketing automation platforms have to offer is that they use cloud-based technology. Just like Apple iCloud, if you update the platform in one place, that information is now instantly available to everyone who has access. This remote access to lead information on demand is exceptionally beneficial in streamlining the communication between your marketing and sales teams.

Cloud-based marketing automation platforms keep everyone on the same page and allow for transparent, real-time communication across all departments on your team. This leads to fewer mistakes and more opportunities to create dynamic content for specific personas.

New leads, key performance indicators, and additional metrics at your fingertips will empower your sales team to close on personalized packages when the perfect opportunity arises, allowing for a more seamless experience for your customers. Not to mention, simplified metrics will illustrate the bigger picture for your entire team to grasp so you can make data-driven improvements.

IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN AUTOMATE IT

Automation is a crucial function to look for when choosing the best platform for your small business. Whether it be mindless administrative responsibilities or building long-lasting sales and marketing campaigns, marketing automation tools are there to help your business succeed.

Marketing automation can benefit your small business by eliminating mindless duties while expanding your company’s horizons. For example, improve conversion rates and keep leads hot with triggers and filters to target individual prospects. Add leads to lists immediately, segment lead nurturing by creating personalized subject matter, and get notified when a lead is ready to buy; marketing automation is genuinely a game-changer!

Automation tools like visual workflows and dynamic landing pages facilitate more personalized content that may be more interesting and informative for that specific client.

BOOST ENGAGEMENT

Combining multiple tools in one platform gives you a well-rounded idea of each marketing strategy you are using and what works for your business. Taking the insights you gather from automation software and implementing changes accordingly will boost your engagement because your prospects will connect with your work more naturally!

Adopting a marketing automation system will level up your leads, boost your return on investment, and increase client satisfaction, all while improving communication and eliminating busywork.

What is holding you back? If you think your small business could benefit from marketing automation software, reach out today!

5 TIPS FOR BEATING THE INSTAGRAM ALGORITHM IN 2021

Did you know that on average, a measly 10% of your total Instagram followers see the content you post on their feed? Do you tend to notice posts from 3+ days ago while you mindlessly scroll down your home page? With this madness, it was only a matter of time until influencers and marketing gurus would dig up how to hack their way up your feed! After all of the speculations that we have come across, Power On Marketing is ready to drop five tips for beating the aggravating algorithm, in no specific order.

01 MEANINGFUL INTERACTIONS

As the story usually goes – quality is more important than quantity in life and on Instagram. One of the best ways to hike up your Instagram feed positioning starts with genuine engagements with your followers and who you are following.

Likes are out, saves are in! While any Instagram user appreciates a like on their post, it has become apparent that likes do not really matter. Some accounts cannot even see the number of likes any given post has. Therefore, saving a picture to your collections has become an extremely helpful tracking metric. Not only that, but the more saves a post has, the more likely it is to appear on more of your follower’s feeds, higher up on the feed, and perhaps even make it to the explore page.

Use your words. Friends love to drop a simple emoji under your pictures to show support, but the devil is in the details! Word on the street is that comments that contain more than four words will prove to the insightful algorithm that your content is worthy of more views.

Connect with your community! Interacting with your followers goes beyond saving their posts. There is no harm in direct messaging someone if you like their story. If you are totally impressed with a non-conflicting post, go ahead and share it to your story or send it to someone via DM’s. Shares are like saves in which they can really boost engagement and post placement!

02 POST MORE VIDEOS

IGTV Series, Reels, and other video-friendly amenities are available to Instagram users, so why not get the most out of these free materials and tools!

Social media is all about brand exposure and trend-setting. Instagram video content allows for exactly that, in a shorter time frame than most.

Video content like a reel is storytelling at its finest, and your brand should see it as an opportunity to pitch your services.

Consumers appreciate realistic ideas of products before making their purchase, and data shows that a buyer is much more likely to check a company’s social media before heading
to their site. That means your page could make or break that sale!

03 CREATE EPHEMERAL CONTENT

How often do you post stories or go live? Ephemeral content is only available for a limited time, but it can make a huge difference in your brand’s Instagram presence.

Posting content that is only available for 24 hours at a time lets users know that you are present on the platform.

Try to create stories with relevant and exciting topics that promote the use of questions and polls. This encourages more one on one interactions that could form into leads for your company. These short and sweet interactions also increase your personability, which will build trust between you and your clients so they will never second guess if they are in good hands.

Ephemeral content moves quickly, so you must keep up! Try to post at least a few stories a week, if not each day, to keep your audience active.

04 CONSISTENCY IS KEY

The more you visit the app, the more chronological your feed will become. We recommend scrolling all the way through your feed until you see the “You’re all caught up!” message. While it can mean viewing the same posts a couple of times, your feed will be more likely to reflect the most recent content.

As we touched on earlier, quality is better than quantity. However, if you are sharing more <STRONG>high-quality</STRONG> content, your followers will inevitably see more of you on their feed.

Life Hack: you can also go to the “Go Live” tab to see how many of your followers are currently online. This creates a better understanding of popular times for you to post and engage!

Play around with optimal posting periods for your niche; you want to post when your audience is most active. Going back to our trick to see how many users are online, once you find a time frame that works for your business, try to post future content around that time as well.

05 SCREEN TIME MATTERS

Just like Apple is tracking what you spend so much of your time doing on your phone, Instagram does this within their app! Like most companies, they are more interested in how to monetize from their app than anything.

The easy answer is advertising. People are more likely to see ads if they spend a lot of time snooping around. The longer you keep people on the app, the higher your insights will be.

Get creative – unique content will naturally draw more attention. Sharing more than one photo at once with carousel posts can extend a user’s stay on your page as well!

Again, the longer you can keep your viewers on the app, watching your stories, IGTV series, and creeping down your feed, the more Instagram will reward you!

Conquer the Instagram algorithm in 2021!

 

HUMAN CONNECTION IN MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA

So much business is done digitally, from email to Zoom meetings, we are increasingly reliant on our technology to connect us. However, it is essential to remember that we are connecting to human beings when it comes to our marketing. We need to embrace our humanity to create that human connection. We need to act as though the person behind the screen is sitting right in front of you. Effective marketing focuses on appealing to the individual and not creating messaging just for the masses.

Connecting with your audience and knowing their desires and wants is essential for any business to be successful. As the technology age is growing, people often forget or do not realize that marketing and social media, when strategized properly, can rely heavily on the studies of psychology to understand to whom they are appealing.

Many of you might remember a lesson from high school English class on Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Let’s walk through the three modes of persuasion used to connect to an audience and then delve into how you can apply them to your marketing strategy to increase sales and overall ROI.

TIP! Getting to know your consumer takes knowledge and research. One of the best tips to create a better provider and customer relationship is through appealing to the customer’s senses and emotions.
01 ETHOS

Ethos is the appeal to someone’s ethics. You can leverage this effectively if you have the right credentials for your brand to do so. Does your brand use all-natural products? Is your business animal testing free? Vegan? GMO-free? Are you considered ethical, and why? Appeal to your audience’s ethics by talking about why your product is better for them, others, or the environment rather than your competitors. The other way to appeal to ethos is to offer a donation to charity for every purchase. Charitable donations boost your standing as ethical in the eyes of other human beings that value helping the community.

Creating credibility for your brand should be a priority, as well. You can apply ethos by being a reliable brand with stellar reviews and a positive reputation. Get creative with how you play on your clientele’s ethical sense using different vocabulary, facts and creating a conversation between your customers themselves, not just between you and the customer. With the proper wording, you can drive your customer straight into your waiting arms and away from your competitors.

02 PATHOS

Next comes pathos, very similarly applied to marketing as the ethos is, but this appeals to your customer’s emotions instead of ethics, which are separate in human beings’ minds. With pathos, you are less trying to boost your credibility as a brand but instead play on your consumer’s feelings towards your brand and products. Those feelings could be sympathy if you have an excellent ethos appeal, but for the ones who do not have the strongest appeal to ethos, there are other emotions to play on.

For example, let’s say you are a technology software company attempting to sell your consumer protective technology to prevent data hacks and breaches. You might use pathos to instill fear into your customer. This emotional trigger will then, in turn, motivate them to buy from your company out of the fear of potential hacks looming around the corner. Fear and wanting are great motivators.

Scarcity is another powerful emotional motivator. Highlighting an almost SOLD OUT product hits on customer’s FOMO, fear of missing out. FOMO is an incredibly effective driver, especially amongst the millennial generation. Everyone wants to be a part of what everyone else is doing, so utilize that when creating your marketing materials to appeal to that sense of desire and the feelings of being left out.

03 LOGOS

The last one to consider is logos. Logos is the appeal to logic or reason. Logos is the ideal tactic to utilize when you are appealing to the logical thinker. Have your audience asking themselves:
do I need this? Is this practical? Is this a good deal? If they ask all those questions and the answer is yes, you appeal to their logos. Offer exclusive deals, explain to your customer why they NEED this product. How can it benefit them, do not leave any stone unturned when explaining the benefits of what you have to offer for your client in the present and the long run. These customers who respond to logos need the maximum amount of information you can provide them, so do not be afraid to overshare. Draw on history, statistics, or client reviews to convince your buyer because knowledge is vital for compelling logos marketing.

As marketers and business owners, we must not forget that we are selling to human beings, not phones or computers in a world full of technology. It is time to bring back the human touch of marketing and advertisement; Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are just one example of ways to ensure that our marketing materials will possess the human touch.

Psychology plays an invaluable role in the marketing world because it truly is just studying human behavior. Trend tracking is also a meaningful way to determine how well your consumers might react to the marketing materials you are putting out on the internet and via social media. There are so many different ways to track the results, so it is imperative that your brands try out multiple avenues of appealing to your customer before settling on one strategy. Test different ideas out and see which warrants the best results for you before pushing a full-scale marketing plan with the entirety of your budget.

Watching human behavior and tracking consumers’ trends can help you increase sales and stay on top of your brand’s next big move. Try out Ethos, Pathos, and Logos this quarter and see if you see any difference in your brand’s growth and ROI!

Human connection in marketing is huge! We’re here to answer your questions!

ADAPT YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY

In our current uncharted territory, everyone’s business is subject to rapid change. Here at Power On Marketing, we highly advise a plan that is proactive and a plan that will adjust and adapt as you lead your company and team during these unprecedented times and in the future. The way we speak to customers, and manage brands is changing, don’t get left behind.

Finding your voice during such tumultuous times can be a struggle. It becomes even more difficult during a landscape that is changing daily. With the challenge, though, comes opportunity. Businesses are presented with the chance to show their integrity and also what they stand for. All of this though has to be done sensitively, to not make light of present situations or turn people away. When selling a product or service well-suited for these difficult times, there is a fine line that does not come off as exploiting tragedy and chaos.

HOW DOES THIS ALL TIES INTO YOUR MARKETING, YOU ASK…

Your customer may never know how your business reacts to these events internally, but your social media and marketing are at the forefront. The face of your company is what foot you put forward online. Marketing sets the tone for how customers will perceive the brand during difficult times.

We want to provide you with a four-step plan to define different scenarios that are arising, monitor customer’s reactions, and plan forthe upcoming marketing changes caused by the issues throughout the world and society.

01 SCENARIO ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING

Define theoretical best, worst and moderate scenarios that could play out during the crisis from the perspective of the business, its customers, and critical partners. Work with peers in other departments like HR and finance to develop the scenarios as they apply overall to the business. However, marketing must not rely simply on the high-level corporate scenarios but must go further for their department and brand. Marketers must drill down to identify the specific challenges that customers, the brand and the marketing organization could experience in each scenario, and identify actions to take. For example, if the best case “business as usual” scenario involves ad purchases during the Tokyo Olympics or an industry tradeshow, a worst-case scenario in which that event is canceled should identify alternative ways to reach customers.

02 LISTEN FOR CHANGES IN CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR

Long before the coronavirus emerged, consumer trust in both government and large brands had begun to erode. People want any excuse to shop local or support small businesses. The current climate has made it even more of a plus to shop smaller, and we see smaller brands emerge from the ashes. Here are some ways to use that in your marketing tactics and keep the ball rolling:

Listen. Now more than ever, it’s essential to know what customers feel and do, and why. Determine who your ideal customer is and make sure you are speaking to them, but unlike the ways of the past, don’t just speak to one person, but make sure not to exclude other voices that might vary.

Stay true to your brand, but don’t alienate. When marketing your brand needs to support customers while still staying true to what you stand for also but what you can and cannot deliver at this time

03 PREPARE FOR CHANGES

During a crisis, it is highly likely to see hiccups in the average production of daily activity for your company. Nothing is business as usual anymore.

In the marketing industry, we have to adapt clients messaging to reflect the mishaps and realities as they roll out day by day. So it is more important right now than ever to be ready to go with the flow and think quickly on your feet. Some steps to take to make this process either could be:

Avoid promises. Set realistic goals and realities for your customers, so you do not over promise and disappoint. Evaluate current policies and consider rational changes — for example, allowing cancellations or extending payment terms.

Go fully digital. Now is a better time than ever to promote yourself online. Make sure people can shop for your company online and that your social media presence is accessible.

Increasing your digital marketing budget. Prioritize your spending, and do not forget to include all things digital for it to adjust to this technology world-driven shift.

04 SHIFT THE MARKETING PLAN

Now that you know changes are right around the corner shift your marketing plan to address them. With preparation and awareness, you will not only succeed but thrive in what is being seen as such a trying time.

Anticipate the future and create suitable action plans to stay ahead of the market disruption pick value-added partners.

BRANDING: THE LIFELINE OF ANY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

For any business, branding can truly affect the level of success you can achieve.  A brand is much more than a pretty logo. It’s what sets you apart from your competition while motivating employees.  Many proven business’ tend to give less attention to branding and focus more on funding and product development. This can be costly; branding is a huge component in building any business. Here are just a few reasons why you should focus more on branding:

GET NOTICED

In a world where most markets are saturated, the best way to stand out from the competition is brand recognition.  The advantage of being the first business to pop into someone’s mind when they are contemplating who to buy a product or service from is astronomical.

INCREASE VALUE

The importance of your company’s brand can be measured in dollars and cents. Having a strong brand ensures you will be top of mind in your target market, which in turn increases market share, sales and public image.  Brands are so valuable that larger organizations will put the value of their brand on their balance sheets.

PROVIDE DIRECTION

A solid brand can do wonders for employee loyalty. When employees have a clear understanding of the common goal, everyone works harder and overall office morale increases. This also lets the public know exactly what the intentions of the business are.

CONSISTENCY

Branding helps keep the overall image of the business consistent across all public outlets.  This, in turn, makes the brand stronger. In order to successfully stay consistent across all mediums, businesses must create a clear identity for what the brand stands for and apply this to all products/services offered.

In the end, your brand should represent a compelling promise to your target market and current customer base that is delivered at every level of the business.

Power On Marketing