SpeyerGraphix Branding Blog

A very good article. This addresses issues that no one ever talks about but certainly knows about. We all have to go through this at some point or another if we want to get noticed.

by Lisa Barone, August 15, 2008

Conference networking is one of the most compelling reasons for professionals to attend events in their niche. However, for introverts, the only difference between conferences and your horrifying experience as a 13-year-old in P.E. is that you wasted a considerable amount of money to feel tortured and uncomfortable.

You shell out $1,500 to attend your industry’s premier conference, go through the hassle of coordinating time off work and accept that you will be paying out the nose in travel, eating and lodging expenses. Then, when you get there, you don’t speak to anyone in the sessions and spend the afterhours hidden away in your hotel room flipping through the same nine television channels. For three days, you avoid the Birds of a Feather lunches, hold up the walls during social functions and effectively meet no one. Read more.

by Bill Kennedy

Recently, a client of mine asked if I could start running ads for her house in the local newspaper.  I explained to her that my internet advertising was much more effective, and cited the numerous studies that have proven such.  It got me thinking, though… how much of a dinosaur is print marketing?

I think that it all depends on the TYPE of marketing that you do.  If you’re just running image ads, or ads with no direct response marketing aspect, then the ad is basically pointless.  On the other hand, direct response marketing still has a place in the print ads. Read more

Have you ever come across a site that is so irritating to look at that you wish you could blacklist it from the Internet? There are a few sites out there that are just plain repulsive because they are not user friendly, ugly, take too long to load and a variety of other reasons. In order to make a site successful and have high viewer response, there are a few basic web design ideas to avoid like the plague!

Crummy Content

Content is by far one of the most important parts of a website. It can help a business gain traffic as well as increase sales and viewer interest. Ignoring your content is website suicide. This does not mean posting a ton of links instead of tangible articles on your resource page. Create or edit articles and information that is attention getting and newsworthy. Also, do not link every word on your article to an off- or on-page; it is distracting and unnecessary. When writing fresh content, leave the jokes to the comedians. People may not understand your humor and can even be offended by it. This will most certainly drive viewers away from your site.

Terrible Text and Bawdy Backgrounds

After you have some content, do not ruin it by making it unreadable. Avoid fancy scripts, centered text, flashing items and overuse of bold and italics. Pick a script that’s easy to read and bold/italicize only what’s important like subheads, keywords and focal points. Next pick a background that does not take away from the text. For example, white text on a black background, dark text on a dark background and light colored text on a white background is not appealing and sometimes difficult to read. You want to attract ever type of reader in every age group, therefore keep your text and backgrounds simple and neutral. Confusing text and background combinations highlights chaos and a lack of control. This is not the message you want to send to potential clients

Keep it Simple

The last thing your business needs is for Internet users to run away from your site for good. Make it easy on yourself and on your viewers by keeping your web design simple with a branded look and salivating content. Solid web design can help your business keep customers searching your content. Remember to just keep it simple.

SpeyerGraphix specializes in building and marketing strong and clear branding strategies that take full advantage of the latest developments on and offline. We have over 25 years of experience in helping businesses and corporations create branded images for products and services, helping to convert visitors into buyers. To learn more about branding and its benefits, log on to http://www.speyergraphix.com or email Bob Speyer at bob@speyergraphix.com

When I open my Gmail, the upper right hand side always has ads that are related to my mail. For example, if one of my clients sends me an article on glyconutrients, ads for vitamins and supplements appear. This type of marketing is known as behavioral targeting and will soon be sweeping the nation.

Knowing where people are searching or what articles they are reading can help you eliminate the guesswork and to plan your next marketing strategy. Instead of having your marketing team research and calculate what would work for certain demographics depending on psychology and location, you can have them look at people’s pathway data instead. This will help your team discover what people want. You can gear special offers, e-reports or product and service launches toward people who might actually be interested based on their online behavior. Take my client for example, if she finds out that more people are interested in phytonutrients, she could promote her services and offer a FREE phytonutrient sample for the next 50 people to sign-up.

Increase Your Brand Awareness

Behavioral targeting can also be used for online branding, leading people of all interests and geographical locations to your website. When you send out ads to people who are searching in your field of expertise, people will respond whether it is simply brand awareness or click to your site. If the people you are marketing to have been searching in your field of expertise, it is only a matter of time before your brand is established in their memories.

Although behavioral targeting is new, it is gaining popularity in becoming the next big thing in marketing. As with many brand new marketing strategies, inconsistencies arise. However, behavioral targeting when applied right can produce better results, increasing your click-through rate and exposing your brand.

Targeting the Right Solutions Get Results

SpeyerGraphix specializes in building and marketing strong and clear branding strategies that take full advantage of the latest developments on and offline. We have over 25 years of experience in helping businesses and corporations create branded images for products and services, helping to convert visitors into buyers. To learn more about branding and its benefits, log on to http://www.speyergraphix.com or email Bob Speyer at bob@speyergraphix.com

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but are they the right words? A marketable and effective website has words and good SEO copy on the homepage, front and center. Do not turn your webpage into a brochure. If you are losing traffic or want to increase it, look for the right keywords and copy to put on your homepage. No room? Take off a few pictures. Leave only the ones that clearly display your brand. Believe me; your website will survive without the flashy visuals. Think about it this way, how long does it take someone to look at a few pictures? A few seconds? A minute, maybe two? To keep people looking at your website, you need the power of the pen.

People want to know what you do and how you can help them “instantly”. They do not want to search your site to find answers to simple questions. If a site is too confusing or does not have enough content, surfers will simply leave and take their business elsewhere. Click here to see what happens when you take away Amazon.com’s copy. It’s pretty difficult to navigate your way around the site without the words.

Granted some graphics, if relevant, are ok. However, be careful on which ones you choose. You want your graphics to relay your brand image, tell a story and be effective. Think of images like keywords. They must relate to your business, be searchable, unique and interesting. Avoid flash and other movable graphics, unless they have a time limit. These items are distracting and pull potential customers away from your site’s content. Tell your web developer or copywriter that you want word content that is clear, to the point, and branded. That way you can keep viewers on your site and coming back for more.

SpeyerGraphix specializes in building and marketing strong and clear branding strategies that take full advantage of the latest developments on and offline. We have over 25 years of experience in helping businesses and corporations create branded images for products and services, helping to convert visitors into buyers. To learn more about branding and its benefits, log on to http://www.speyergraphix.com or email Bob Speyer at bob@speyergraphix.com

The human mind is a remarkable thing, but it can also be fooled. Everyday, whether we want to or not, we are bombarded by advertisements and marketing in magazines, on TV, radio, billboards, etc. Almost everywhere we look, we see ads and brands telling us what we need, adding to our own views and preferences even creating a placebo effect.

Stan Reents, PharmD writes in his article “Don’t Underestimate the Power of Suggestion” about how placebos affect the human mind in various studies. One example was a taste test study on different types of vodka. The subjects were asked what their favorite vodka was before the test. However, the results showed that many rated their favorites poorly. Why did they insist that one brand of vodka was their favorite when their taste buds said differently? The answer can be said in two words: brand loyalty.

Brand loyalty is when a consumer buys and continues to buy a specific brand, because he or she believes the product’s features are better. This can be done either consciously or unconsciously. This explains why some people in the above study preferred certain brands of vodka over others despite their liking to them. Those brands favored must have had the right images, features and prices to create a higher perceived level of quality.

Creating an online brand will give consumers an image of your company and add interest to your products and/or services. Your job as an online marketer is to try to break the habits of the consumers that buy your competitor’s products by offering something fresh, new and better. If you suggest that your product is better, it puts the possibility out there.
Now I’m not advocating lying to potential consumers or offering products and services that are of poor quality. The idea is to sell the best quality that you can offer and to market a specific image in order to attract potential clients.

You want to distinguish your brand from your competitors but in an interesting, positive, and memorable way in order to leave consumers wondering if they should give your products and/or services a chance. Once you have a clear and strong brand image, your products and/or services become something more, a brand. They stop being items and start being something better, different and not imitable.

SpeyerGraphix specializes in building and marketing strong and clear branding strategies that take full advantage of the latest developments on and offline. We have over 25 years of experience in helping businesses and corporations create branded images for products and services, helping to convert visitors into buyers. To learn more about branding and its benefits, log on to http://www.speyergraphix.com or email Bob Speyer at bob@speyergraphix.com