Dabrian Marketing Group

DaBrian Marketing Group accepted into Forbes Agency Council

October 3, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

DaBrian Marketing Group, a full-service digital marketing agency located in Reading, PA, has been accepted into the Forbes Agency Council, an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies.

DaBrian Marketing Group joins other Forbes Agency Council members, who are hand-selected, to become part of a curated network of successful peers and get access to a variety of exclusive benefits and resources, including the opportunity to submit thought leadership articles and short tips on industry-related topics for publishing on Forbes.com.

Forbes Councils combines an innovative, high-touch approach to community management perfected by the team behind Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) with the extensive resources and global reach of Forbes. As a result, Forbes Council members get access to the people, benefits and expertise they need to grow their businesses — and a dedicated member concierge who acts as an extension of their own team, providing personalized one-on-one support.

Daniel Laws, Principal Owner of DaBrian Marketing Group shares his enthusiasm on joining, “We are excited to receive the invitation and acceptance into Forbes Agency Council. The community provides access to key contacts, media exposure and will help DaBrian Marketing Group further cement our leadership role within the Pennsylvania and the digital marketing industry.”

Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, says, “We are honored to welcome DaBrian Marketing Group into the community. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to curate successful professionals from every industry, creating a vetted, social capital-driven network that helps every member make an even greater impact on the business world.”

For more information about Forbes Agency Council, visit https://forbesagencycouncil.com/. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com.

Which Social Media Sites Are Right For Your Business?

September 27, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

For 2016, Statista reports that 78% of U.S. Americans have a social media account. You can assume that most of your customers, clients, and employees are all part of this percentage (because really, who doesn’t actually have a Facebook?). So, reaching your customers through social media marketing should be easy… right? Not exactly. Most of us aren’t on every social media platform, so picking any random one will not guarantee you’ll reach the right people. Utilize the ones that your industry’s audience frequently uses while creating a social media marketing strategy to raise brand awareness and connect with your customers.

Let’s find out. Are you using the right social media channels for your industry?

Home and Garden

Within the home and garden industry, your job is to create a beautiful space for your customers. This should easily be carried over onto your social networks. A unique social channel that works extremely well to aid in becoming a thought-leader of this industry is Pinterest. Pinterest is essentially a way to organize your innovative ideas and thoughts. Whether you design home decor or landscaping, you can create specific Pinterest Board’s based on certain areas of the home or by specific locations. Better Homes and Gardens has created 185 today of everything from holiday boards, to casserole dishes, to one called “Let’s Get Organized.” Users can follow the page itself or only the boards that pertain to them.

Hospitality

Instagram works great for companies who offer entertainment, lodging, and tourism locations. It is used for sharing a feed of videos and pictures that can be edited directly on the application. One piece of advice when creating a strategy for Instagram is to maintain the same look throughout each post. This could be one particular filter or border for every picture you post. While this is not essential, it does help with brand consistency. Staples, an office supplies company, simply adds their branded Staples’ name to the right-hand corner of each image.

Non-Profit

Most non-profits have a lot of freedom on how to promote their services. Snapchat offers a lot of room for customization and building brand awareness that can definitely be taken advantage of. First off, a non-profit location could design a geotag that can be used by its guests when they visit. This will allow friends and families to see where they are volunteering and visiting. Another idea would be to allow a few departments access to the Snapchat account. If it is an Animal Rescue League, the head of the cat room, kennels, and any other department can easily share the adoptable animals and the day-to-day routine of what it’s like to work there.

Ecommerce and Retail

Ecommerce and retail businesses where you are selling a variety of products should be simple to run Instagram, Snapchat, or Pinterest for. Michael Kors, an apparel and accessory retail store, sticks to a common theme for a certain period of time. The company will take a seasonal color or pattern and promote it in roughly 8-12 photos before moving on to another one.

Social Media Marketing Takeaways

While this blog is focused on one particular social media platform per industry, you should never only devote your time to only one social media platform. Take the time to create a plan for a few social media accounts that will work best for you company and will reach your target audience. Common social platform, such as Facebook and Twitter, are two platforms that any industry should be utilizing since they are the most common for all demographics and businesses.

If you do not know how to begin with social media marketing or have any other questions, let us know in the comments below, or contact us today!

How To Create a Remote Workspace: Part One

September 20, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

In today’s digital world, we can get more done faster and efficiently than ever before. Working in a digital environment can eliminate files floating around the office and even free up being tied to a physical desk or phone. Perhaps your company is making the move towards a more virtual based environment. But if not careful, the latest technology can hinder our work speed if we don’t use it properly. So an important question is, how do you stay organized in a digital world?

Task Managing in a Digital Workspace

Don’t Decorate Your Computer With Sticky-Notes

Maybe, you’re a long time pro using to-do lists. Perhaps, you are like some who decorate your desk and computer screen with a multitude of colorful post-it notes (I’ve been guilty of this myself). The problem with that is, they can get lost easily or become overwhelming, even an eyesore which can distract you from your workflow.

There are many tools designed to keep track of what needs to get done. Explore your options depending on your needs. Is the task just for you to remember or does it involve collaborating with someone or a team? How involved are your tasks – are there multiple steps or sub-tasks to accomplish your action items? Here, at DaBrian Marketing Group, we use a few tools. One tool we use is called Wrike, which allows us to create personal project tasks or collaborate on tasks with the team and clients. We also use Google Calendar to keep track of when we get those tasks done. Some of us also like to use Google Keep to make quick to-do lists or simple reminders. The nice thing about many of these options is that more and more of them allow you to sync across devices, so you can access them whenever or wherever you are. Getting in the habit of using some sort of task management will help free up brain space to devote towards other things. It will also give your goals a reliable structure by having the plan to get things done from any location.

Online Calendar

Keep It Updated

Get used to relying on one central point to organize the events in your life to avoid overbooking or losing track of what’s important. Using a calendar through your email account is a great way to have access to your plans no matter where you go. You can pull it up on your smartphone while walking the dog or log in from any computer while away from the office. When using an online calendar like Google Calendar, you can even adjust your settings to share the calendar with colleagues. They can see when you’re busy and when you’re available without disclosing what you are doing. You can even create a shared calendar for the office to schedule a time to collaborate.

Use Notifications

It’s easy to get sidetracked, so using calendar notifications is a great way to keep you on pace with your daily workflow. You can set reminders to notify you through email, text message or pop-up on your screen.

Set It and Forget It...For Now

Don’t waste time entering the same information over and over again. When you add a new event or task to your calendar and you know it’s part of a weekly, monthly or even yearly routine, use the repeat setting! You’ll be thanking yourself down the line.

Go With The Flow

Don’t feel like you have to add a task for every hour of the day. Life can be unpredictable, so allow some wiggle room in case a meeting goes longer than expected or an immediate problem pops us. Make sure you give yourself enough breathing room for breaks. You’ll work more efficiently if you leave some flexibility in your schedule.

Hold Yourself Accountable

You put that event task on your calendar for a reason, so don’t ignore it! Using your phone or computer to keep your life in order can help a lot, but it can’t accomplish your tasks for you and if we aren’t honoring the schedule we set out to do, then the digital tools become useless.

These are just a few tips on going digital. It may take some time to transition and get used to new habits but over time your work will allow you to be more mobile. Next time, I’ll address how to keep all your important information and documents mobile. These are just some things that have worked for us. Have you made changes towards a digital workspace? What has worked for you? Leave a comment and let us know!

DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC. Offers Businesses the Opportunity to Learn More About Online Advertising

September 16, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

DaBrian Marketing Group, a Google Certified Partner, will hold a Google Connect education event provided by a Google employee on September 28, 2016.

Reading, Pennsylvania – DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC, leaders in online advertising and digital marketing solutions, will host a Google Connect event from 11:30am to 1:30pm on September 28, 2016. The event will be hosted at DaBrian Marketing Group’s offices at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201 in Reading, Pennsylvania, and will feature Tim Reis, Director of Performance Agencies, and David Chung, Mobile Site Transformer, at Google. This event is only available at Google Partner locations. Reis and Chung’s live-streamed presentation will focus on online advertising capabilities and Google Adwords.

According to Google, 74 percent of people get frustrated with website offers, ads, and promotions that appear to have nothing to do with their interests. In addition, 76 percent of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a business within 24 hours, and 28 percent of those searches result in a purchase. This event will help businesses to gain a better understanding of what their company could and should be doing to effectively use online advertising, delivered straight from a Google employee who specializes in this work.

“In discussions with potential clients, they often assume that Google AdWords is just search which simply is not the case. We help clients to identify opportunities that align with their business, geography, and target audience,” says Daniel Laws, Jr, President and CEO of DaBrian Marketing Group. “Through this event, businesses can discover the true power of Pay per Click advertising and how DaBrian Marketing can manage their ad campaigns that will successfully allow them to stand out amongst their competitors and gain the leads they want most.”

DaBrian Marketing Group is a full-service digital marketing agency and Google Certified Partner that specializes in pay per click advertising, online advertising, and Google Adwords. They are local experts and offer their clients extensive experience with the Google AdWords platform and certifications. The company is able to access frequent updates from Google directly because of a close professional relationship they have developed when they need advice. This Google Connect event is free of charge and lunch will be provided. To register, visit the online registration page.

DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC.

DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC provides clients with the most innovative digital marketing solutions to solve their business challenges. Their diverse staff has a commitment to analytical measurement and analysis as well as their commitment to a community, job growth, and talent retention in the local area. For more information, visit DaBrianMarketing.com.

Contact Information

DaBrian Marketing Group
Email: Search@DaBrianMarketing.com
Phone: 610.743.5602

Source: DaBrian Marketing Group

Writing to Personas: The Human Side of SEO

September 6, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

In the beginning, search engines were merely a shell of what they resemble today. Previous algorithms placed a heavy focus on keywords within content and other on-page factors (Meta tags, titles, and descriptions). With such a simple ranking process, people began to abuse the system with “black hat SEO techniques” such as keyword stuffing and cloaking.. As the quality of search results began to diminish, the algorithms were updated (and continue to be). Many previous SEO methods are now penalized, and the primary focus has shifted to improving the user’s experience by better understanding the searcher’s intent.

1. The UX: A Top SEO Ranking Factor

Search engines such as Google and Bing, are a business, just like yours. Their goal is to provide customers (those using search) with the best experience possible by giving them the most satisfying search results. In order to deem what would be “most satisfying,” search engines attempt to match relevancy to the searcher’s intent by evaluating other user’s experience and their personal experience (if applicable). If search engines see that a site has a high bounce rate (when a user views only one page and then leaves the site), or if the time on site and pages per session are relatively low, they will take that as a bad sign and reorder their rankings based upon performance. Other websites that users consistently bounce to and stay on will be seen as providing a better user experience for a specific search term/topic and will improve in the rankings.

So when creating content for your site, know that yes, you should still focus on keywords within the copy and other on-page factors (meta tags, titles, and descriptions), but you also need to place yourself in the user’s shoes. By offering your business’ message in a clear, concise manner that matches the searchers intent, more than likely the user will stay longer, explore more of your site, and possibly perform an action you deem a conversion (contact submission, phone call, direct sale, etc).

2. Developing Personas

Before developing content, most people create an outline and plan that contains main focal points, what the desired actions of the readers are, and when and how the message will be disseminated. Shouldn’t your target audience be taken into consideration during this planning process as well? Businesses need to develop personas that encompass different segments of their target audience’s interests, roles, and concerns. This way they can determine which topics are most relevant, and how to shape their message to be most effective.

3. Speaking to Your Target Audience

To ensure your users will have a satisfying experience, your message must speak to their interests and concerns, all while using their specific terminology. For example, for a B2B company, content around a similar topic would change drastically dependent upon which audience they are writing to. If the message is crafted towards business owners, the content will heavily focus on financial benefits such as ROI. Whereas if the message is directed towards marketing managers, the content should focus more on the process of specific services, and areas of improvement.

The same is true for a B2C business, except instead of focusing on a hierarchy of positions within a business, they target specific traits within a demographic. Their message should speak to a specific audience based upon factors such as geographic location, age, employment, education, etc.

Regardless of the industry you’re in, you need to make sure your content speaks to the message your audience wants to hear. Writing for a persona as compared to blindlessly writing, could be the difference between just a page visit, and a page that leads to a conversion. Also, to guarantee you’ve provided your users with all the information necessary, encourage questions and comments for further discussion/elaboration via comments or email. This way they’ll never need to travel to a competitor’s site to discover answers to the questions you failed to address.

Conclusion:

Writing strictly for search engines is a thing of the past. In order for your site to truly perform well, you must put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Before you create content, develop the personas of your business’ audience. Map out their interests, roles, and possible questions. Then, develop content intended to enhance their user experience.

For more information regarding about SEO and Content Marketing, please leave a comment below or contact DaBrian Marketing today!

By: David McDowell

Does Your Company Exist Without Social Media Marketing?

August 22, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Your nieces, nephews, children, grandparents, and even great-grandparents are all on social media. Do you actually exist anymore if you don’t have a social media account? In today’s society, it’s our way getting to know someone. When we want to see what someone looks like, figure out when a birthday is that we forgot, or find out what someone has been up to these days, we check Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat. So, if this is how we get our news about each other, why doesn’t your business have a social media marketing strategy to get to know “these people” or should we say, your customers?

1. Immediate Customer Service

Whether you’re tagged directly in someone’s post or if someone mentions your company’s name at all, you can track what they’re saying about you. Directly responding to them publicly will show the customer you want an open and honest relationship with them.

2. Social Media Marketing will Humanize Your Brand

As mentioned through customer service, building relationships with your customers will further your lifespan as a company because customers will trust you. People don’t want to see advertisement after advertisement of you trying to get them to buy your product. People like seeing other people! Show off your employees, post about the holidays you celebrate, and give your company personality! Research by Texas Tech University shows it’ll bring long-term brand loyalty once you do.

3. Expand Your Company’s Reach

Traditional marketing can be limited at times. A billboard will soon become unnoticed by townies which limits its worth. Social media allows your company to be everywhere and anywhere at any time of day. A customer may tag you in a post boasting about your wonderful product or service which may be seen by someone outside your target audience. This customer may do the same and this process will be repeated over and over again. (and if you have ecommerce built into your website, they can buy your product from anywhere, too!)

4. Drive Customers Directly to Your Website

Whether it’s an organic post or a paid ad, interesting content will get people to click their way right to your services’ or products’ pages. Social media advertising is relatively cheap (as low as $0.10 per click sometimes) which means a higher return-on-investment (ROI). Paying for a few clicks to lead to one sale is definitely beneficial! Daily monitoring of engagement on what content your followers are interested in with further help your overall marketing strategy and what you should be focusing on. (That’s where we come in!

5. Outdo Your Competitors

Your competitors are already using social media to connect with their customers and possibly, your customers. Since social media boosts brand loyalty, it may be hard to steal customers back from your competitors. Share interesting customer stories, pictures, gifs, videos and more to get people to follow what YOU have to say, not your competition.

While there are many more reasons you should be utilizing social media marketing, these few mentioned should be the most relevant to convince your company to invest in it. Strategizing for each specific platform you could be utilizing will positively impact your business and your customers will also thank you. Not sure which platforms will be most effective for your industry? Stay tuned for my next blog.