Archives for July 2014

Why Your Small Business Employees Should Volunteer

July 30, 2014 by Dabrian Marketing Group 3 Comments

Volunteering Benefits Everyone

Picture this: You’re in Pennsylvania in the middle of July. It’s 2 o’ clock on a Saturday afternoon, 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and you’re directing traffic with the CEO of your company and your coworkers–sounds crazy, right? Except that you’re volunteering for one of the greatest events of the year in your community, the Berks Humane Society Annual Pints for Pups. You find yourself surprised that even though you already spend 40 hours a week with these folks, you’re thrilled to be donating your time to a great cause and building even better relationships with your coworkers.

For the most part, we all understand the value of volunteering in our local communities–as Idealist points out, the personal benefits include developing new skills, making new professional contacts, and getting some unplanned exercise. The benefits to the community are also clear, but the question is, “How can volunteering benefit your small business?”

Team Building

Benefit number one: team building. Team building is a great for a few reasons: it can help improve employee communication and problem-solving, as well as encourage appreciation of team members. One of the downsides of teambuilding is that the costs of day-trips or meals out can add up quickly–even for a small team of people. Volunteering, however, is generally free of direct cost (and can even come with super cool perks, like tickets to the event you’re volunteering at). The added benefits of volunteering (as noted above) make it a great team building exercise.

An Opportunity for “Good PR”

Benefit number two: good PR. It’s often been said that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and while you may fall on either side of the argument, there is certainly such a thing as good publicity. Volunteering generally means being out in the public, which means it’s a great opportunity for asset creation: taking photos, shooting video, and crafting a press release (which can be great for SEO). As an added perk, you can use this kind of PR not only for showcasing your business as a whole, but also your employees (and who doesn’t love a little recognition?).

Opportunities for Skills Development

Benefit number three: a chance to see what other skills your employees have. In addition to team building and good PR, volunteering can provide your team with opportunities for skills development. Maybe you’ve always thought John the Copy Writer would be a great team lead, but his work duties keep him too busy to test the waters. While volunteering, John was assigned a leadership role and–just as you suspected–he nailed it. Once you get back in the office, you’re able to show John that you recognized his leadership skills and you’d love to discuss some further training/bringing on an intern for him to oversee/insert other awesome development here. Getting your employees out of their normal circumstances allows you (and sometimes them!) to see what other skills they may have that you weren’t previously aware of.

Go Forth and Do Good

The benefits are clear–and they’re for you, your team, and your business. With a triple play of such awesomeness, what are you waiting for?

Have you successfully instituted company-wide volunteerism? How’d it go? Share your story in the comments below!

5 Tips to Jump Start Your Mobile Analytics

July 25, 2014 by Daniel Laws 1 Comment

Danny Laws, our principal owner, senior digital strategist, and chief dreadlocks connoisseur, covers his top tips to adopting mobile analytics*.

Learn to get your strategy in gear, your solutions configured, your reporting streamlined, and more!

Transcript

Hi, my name’s Danny Laws. I’m the principal owner of DaBrian Marketing Group. I’m also one of the co-chairs with Philadelphia Digital Analytics Association. I want speak to you today about mobile analytics. One of the things that we’re talking about mobile analytics right now in the space is that mobile search is on the rise, mobile usage is on the rise, whether it be a
tablet or a smartphone, and we want to talk about how to jump start your ability to collect that information and what you should be considering in order to get you moving down the path.

The first thing that we recommend here is connecting mobile analytics with business value. So what we talk about from a business perspective is, are we looking to increase brand awareness from a mobile perspective; are we looking to cut costs; are we looking to become more efficient. By walking down this endeavor of mobile analytics, is it going to help position the company better in the long run? Those are some of the things you need to be considering from a value perspective.

The next thing that we recommend is is aligning the mobile analytics with the overall strategy, so whether it be a lead generation audit, part of an auditing process, part of discovery or education for internal purposes, you want to align that back to the organization’s high-level goals and objectives to make sure that it’s part of the plan, and that it’s going to influence what’s happening within the plan.

So the next component would be implementation or to implement with best practices. There are number of analytical platforms as well as mobile analytics platforms you can leverage in order to capture the data. What I say to that is “Great, but at the same time we need to configure, we need to implement best practices.” We need to implement the appropriate filters, the appropriate segments and slice and dice the data, get the cleanest possible view that we can in order to better analyze that information.

So you want to make sure that you’re implementing with best practices regardless of whether or not it’s Google, Webtrends, SiteCatalyst, you name it. You want to make sure that everything is configured appropriately or to the best of its ability.

The next thing that I would say is to measure what matters to the mobile audience specifically, so that you can better impact what’s happening to those customers and for what they’re seeing, whether be resolution, whether it be device, whether it be operating system, you name it. You want to be measuring what matters to that audience, and when we speak to that we talk about the journey. So as an example, you might want to take into account the device, the behavior, the outcomes, and then analysis of the information that’s happening from your mobile audience and consider what’s happening, and take that into account.

The last component of this is to make decisions that impact customers. Ideally, user behaviors simplify the process, make it easier for them, make it a better process overall to help impact their ability to download information, to view information, to make a purchase, to fill out a form, whatever it might be.

Once you get to this process, it’s important that you continue to target, whether it be from a device perspective, whether it be from a platform perspective, you want to target and test what you can to improve and continue to impact customers in the way that they interact with your mobile site, with your site, whether be from an informational perspective or from an eCommerce perspective, to be able to impact those components.

With that being said, my final recommendation is just to do it. Pull yourself together, allocate some time, get the ball rolling, and seize the moment while search traffic is on the rise and people are continuously getting access to mobile. If you have any questions, any comments, don’t hesitate to comment on our blog, to hit us up on Twitter, or to reach out to us direct. Thank you very much, hope you have a good day. Good hunting.

A One-Two Punch Approach to Email Analytics

July 17, 2014 by Dabrian Marketing Group 4 Comments

You might think that video, animated gifs, or infographics are email marketing’s best friends. Let’s face it, email campaigns with all that rich content are bound to get you heaps and heaps of…results.

Okay, let’s stop there for a second.

The thing is, email is caught between two really important areas of marketing—technology and audience. On one hand, technology allows marketers to increase the functionality of an email, bringing it to life with animation and beautiful, cutting-edge designs. On the other, email is the marketing medium most susceptible to spam (and has the most universal consumer protection laws associated with it).

Today, many marketers are stuck with what is arguably a necessary marketing tool and the challenge of proving its effectiveness. I’m here to tell you that the amount of opens a campaign receives or the number of people who click through are no longer enough. These are metrics that you cannot directly tie to sales, goal achievement, or anything else that matters to you.

By the end of this post, though, you’ll have a much better idea of what to look for in the way of email analytics. For the purposes of this post, we’ll define analytics as the strategic use of data and measurement to make a certain marketing channel better. Consider what follows a checklist of the most important considerations when proving your email marketing’s worth.

Integration

As far as email marketing platforms go, you’ll be conducting your search among a sea of proprietary platforms. This definitely isn’t a bad thing, as custom solutions give you access to great support and consistent improvements and enhancements over time. The minor downside is these solutions’ inability to “play nice” with other platforms. In order to unlock the true potential of analytics, you’ll need to start by tying your sources of data together. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a mail-order, vegan pastry company decides to begin running email marketing campaigns to support their digital marketing, which predominantly takes place on social media. This company has a website which offers the ability for customers to place orders and process payments. In this case, we have separate sets of data in play:

Analytics data from website sessions (pageviews, bounce rate, etc.)
eCommerce data from the order system (transaction information, popular products, etc.)
Social media data (follower interactions, engagement, etc.)
Email campaign data (opens, bounces, click throughs, etc.)

As far as these platforms go, integrations are the only way to connect them to one another. Integrations most often take place natively or at the API level. With integrations between platforms, the vegan bakery in our example can differentiate email traffic to its website from social media traffic, understand how well a promotion targeted to its social media following performs in comparison to an email blast, or cater offers to past customers via subscription options during the checkout process. And that’s just with a few basic integrations.

With various platforms “playing nice” with one another, data will be more comprehensive, insights will be much more granular, and a clearer picture of your target audience will begin to develop. Once the data begins filtering in, you’ll need to be sure it’s leading you toward better decisions. That’s why the second step is…

Customization

Having readily-available, integrated data is one thing, but actually making it understandable is another entirely. Whether you’re showing progress to your internal team, your manager, or your client, raw numbers will get you nowhere fast. The task of turning numbers and graphs into insights and action can be an imposing one, but here are some quick tips to make the process easier:

Add context to your reporting

With your reports (in PDF format or otherwise), add text that ties the information back to a goal or objective.

Filter and segment data

Grab information that’s specific to a campaign or a particular audience segment. Be as granular as your solutions allow.

Strive for automation

Rather than repeat the same reporting process month after month, look to automate the process. Some solutions provide scheduled reports, shared assets, widget-based analytics, or some other way to access information in a streamlined way.

When in doubt, test and compare

This goes for subject-lines, template designs, and messaging. Once you find what works, do that consistently.

As you consider the email analytics options available to you, there are a few big factors to keep in mind. The first is limitation. No matter your final platform choice, regulations will always dictate the types of information that are accessible to you. But this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to gather actionable insights into the return of email marketing as an investment.

Another item to keep in mind is that successful email marketing is about more than the platform you choose. You could pay hundreds per month, but without a strategy or an ongoing optimization process, it’s likely that you won’t be able to justify the cost. Understanding the “big picture” is vitally important with any digital marketing channel, particularly one as ubiquitous as email. You’d be doing your organization a great injustice if you didn’t decide to take advantage of the latest advancements in marketing tech. You just need the right data to back it up.

What’s your solution to the email ROI puzzle? Shout it out in the comments below!

The 5 Different Logo Types and Your Brand Identity

July 11, 2014 by Mark Mapp 17 Comments

Introduction

In my last blog on the basics of designing a logo, we covered principles to follow when designing one of the most important identity pieces for your business. We learned that a successful logo design should be simple, yet versatile enough to be placed on a variety of different media. Visually, its design should appear to be memorable and timeless, yet stay appropriate to its audience.

When working to develop a logo, one big consideration is the type of design you choose. There are wealth of resources out there that cover various logo styles, but in my experience, there are 5 that are most prevalent and also most important. Let’s get started!

1. Symbol / Icon

The symbol or icon logo benefits from being the least complicated style yet the most flexible of all the other logo types. Symbolic/Iconic logos should be able to stand on their own without the company name association. This type of logo should only be utilized by large or international companies where language could play a huge role in consumers not being able to recognize the brand.

According to a study administered by Tastyplacement.com, only 6% of the top 100 companies in the world implements this type of logo. In other words, startups and other new business ventures should likely stay away from relying on a simple image to define their brand. However, I believe that every business should gradually move towards developing a symbolic/iconic logo because to me it represents a level of awareness that comes with overall success.

2. Word Mark

The second type of logo is known as a word mark. Roughly 37% of the top 100 companies worldwide are represented by this type of logo (via Tastyplacement.com). These logos consist of a type font which is styled or manipulated to convey the identity of a business. Even without being styled or manipulated, fonts tend to give off their own impressions. For example:

● Italic – motion, change, timely, continuous

● Bold – strength, power, stability, security

● Script – formal, refined, elegance, prestige

● Hand Written – friendly, playful, happy, childish

Word mark logos are ideal for new startup businesses because it helps customers familiarize themselves with both the brand name and, ideally, a bit of the brand culture or personality.

3. Letter Mark

Letter mark logos are very similar to word mark logos in that they are created using typefaces; however, there is greater focus on just using first letter, initials, or an abbreviation of a company’s name to convey their brand identity. Unlike word marks that may contain a simple graphic for clarity, letter marks tend to be exclusively typographic.

This type of logo is best suited for companies with longer or hard to pronounce names. Companies with names that sound or appear generic can also benefit from letter mark logos as a means of differentiation. As an example, if a friend of yours told you that he was watching a show on “Home Box Office,” you probably wouldn’t have a clue what he was talking about. You may think he was speaking about some new cable network, but “Home Box Office” is none other than the vastly-popular cable channel HBO.

4. Combination Mark

Logos that integrates both a symbol/icon with text (word marks) are known as combination mark logos. According to Tastyplacement.com, 56% of the top 100 companies globally uses this type of logo style. A couple of benefits with developing a combination mark logo for your company are:

Having both a symbol and a word mark to represent your company gives you an additional level of flexibility on how your brand appears to customers. As your business grows and changes, parts of the mark can be altered, combined, or separated, but always retain a level of consistency. Many businesses today are following this trend.
Combination mark logos are also easier to register as a trademark than stand alone symbol/icon type logos. Many symbol/icon logos can appear similar without uniquely styled text (word marks) associated with them.

5. Emblem

Emblem logos can be considered combination marks to a degree. They are similar because they both include a symbol and text; however, unlike combination marks, emblem style logos are more integrated and enclosed to appear as one single graphic.

Because of this, emblem style logos cannot be presented as separate identity pieces like a combination mark logo, which gives them very little flexibility, especially in print applications or when resizing. This type of logo is very popular in the automobile industry as well as in the sporting world. Emblem style logos tend to resemble a badge or an official seal.

For the last example I decided to showcase DaBrian Marketing Group. Our logo would be classified as a combination mark because it consists of a word mark, a symbol, and a tagline. This type of logo is ideal for our company because we are a small and only made up of 9 employees. We are not well known outside of our coverage area therefore the combination mark logo serves us best.

Are you looking to design a new logo or take your current one in a new direction? Join the discussion in the comments!

It’s Called SOCIAL Media, People

July 2, 2014 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Since the days of yore (back when MySpace reigned supreme), social media has been used as one thing above all else: a really great time waster. The reason social media exploded into being an integral part of our daily routines was because it entertained us. It allowed us to fill the gaps between our facetime by simulating it, and it was fun. Facebook came along as the MySpace reincarnate, and then Twitter gave us all the means to hear straight from the mouth of pop culture (I’m lookin’ at you, Bieber). Now, this isn’t to say that the “fun” social megdia platforms haven’t become more informational (see Facebook’s 2014 baby “What’s Trending”), so not every post or tweet needs to be witty or make your audience “LOL.”

But it still holds true that you’re more likely to scroll down to the video that “John and 3 other friends” shared of that cat pawing the keyboard (yes, almost 36 million of us watched this) than to read the mostly informative articles listed over there on the right hand side. So now my question is, why are so many brands struggling to grasp the very concept upon which social media was founded?

What Brands Are Doing

How is it possible to take a world-renowned brand of liquor coupled with a new flavor that resonates with a younger audience, and make it boring? Well, the folks behind Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey’s @JackHoney have found the answer. Instead of socializing with the fun-seeking young people who love their product, they have chosen to push a steady stream of advertisements driven by a less-than-stellar hashtag:

Listen, Jack. I respect you. I may even love you. But this incessant self-promotion misses the point. I beg you to take a look at Hootsuite’s all-powerful Rule of Thirds. Only ⅓ of your content should shamelessly promote your business. Throughout May 2014, that number was over 88% for @JackHoney. Not to mention, not a single tweet was sent as a direct interaction with your audience. You were tweeted at nearly 350 times in the month of May, yet you responded to none of those who took the time to try to connect with you.

If you’ve managed to pull yourself away from the feline-driven noise in the digital space, you’re probably aware that food and beverage conglomerate, Nestlé, has come under fire for their production tactics. This has led to some serious blowback from consumers through their social profiles.

When you receive interaction from your followers, you have two options. You can either respond, or you can ignore it. A Crisis Management Strategy (to handle situations like this) should always be on hand to aid in the formation of a response, but in Nestlé’s case, they have taken the opposite route. They have chosen to not respond at all, leaving consumers with nothing but a public forum to berate them, rightfully so or not. The criticism that has plagued their Facebook since February is showing no sign of cease-fire.

My point is, Nestlé, if you choose to continue to ignore these consumer complaints (as delicate as the situation may be), then you may wish to consider jumping ship and removing your social media profiles altogether. Social media is intended to initiate/facilitate a conversation, and if your profile resembles the likes of pissedconsumer.com with your refusal to join the conversation, then it’s time to call it quits. It’s called SOCIAL media, Nestle.

What Brands Should Be Doing

Taking Risks

Talking smack on an NFL team, particularly during the Super Bowl, certainly qualifies as a risk. But when handled with a brand-consistent message (and a little bit of playful humor), that risk becomes a reward pretty quickly:

Developing a Personality

Regardless of the nature of your brand’s personality (humorous, sincere, informative, etc.) it’s something that needs to be established. Perhaps the most prominent way of accomplishing this is to speak in first person. There may not be a more widespread consumer complaint in the 21st century than talking to a computer. Charmin is a prime example of how humanizing your brand (tastefully) with a consistent brand voice is a key to social success:

And (Shocker) Being SOCIAL

Similar to the class clown in high school, outlandish seems to resonate with us on social media. Just ask the folks at Skittles. They are widely praised for their use of social because of their unique witticism and their sarcastic interaction with consumers. Something as simple as retweeting them could warrant a response:

Perhaps the best lesson to learn from Skittles is that they don’t overcomplicate things. They promote their brand in multiple ways, but they also talk to people (what a concept!). Tell me that @Idk_ImMegan didn’t just become a Skittles fan for life. Bravo, Skittles.

Social media presents brands and consumers with the remarkable opportunity to interact with one another on a level we hadn’t experienced before. Once marketing teams understand that this interaction is a two-way street, their brand’s unique personality can shine through. And once that happens, their customers will definitely take notice. After all, it’s called SOCIAL media for a reason.