Digital Branding

Berks County Industrial Development Authority Gets a New Website & Logo

October 23, 2019 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

In May 2019, Berks County Industry Development Authority (BerksIDA) sent out a request for proposals for a new logo and website design. BerksIDA selected DaBrian Marketing Group to create or redesign BerksIDA’s logo and modern website for a modernized look and feel.

At the time, BerksIDA was one of many departments or organizations hosted on the County of Berks website. The brand of the organization was not identified on the site, and it was a challenge to locate their information on the massive website. The domain was owned and managed by the County of Berks, so the ability to update content or images required the resources of the county administrators.

We built BerksIDA, a new website that is customizable and easily accessible to have changes made. We also moved them to their own domain and worked with the Berks County webmaster to redirect the necessary pages. The website now has the capability for 3rd party integrations to expand or improve functionalities so it can be utilized as a business tool. With it’s new responsive design visitors can now enjoy the browsing experience on mobile, tablet, and desktop.

We worked with BerksIDA to create a simple logo that captures the regional context of Berks County, maintains some of the elements, and updated the marketing collateral. The marketing collateral consisted of new letterhead, business cards, DaBrian Marketing Group also created a print ad to be used in local publications for BerksIDA.

“It was a pleasure working with the staff at BerksIDA. They were very professional group of individuals who offered a lot of helpful incite throughout the course of the project.”
– Mark A. Mapp, Creative Director at DaBrian Marketing Group

About Berks County Industrial Development Authority

Berks County Industrial Development Authority (BerksIDA) was established by the County Commissioners on May 7, 1969, in accordance with the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Law (Act 102 of 1967, P.L. 251, formerly the Industrial and Commercial Development Authority Law). BerksIDA is committed to serving the residents of Berks County and their elected representatives, the County Commissioners, by implementing their plans, strategies, and initiatives for economic development. BerksIDA utilizes all of its legal powers, skills, relationships, and resources to accomplish its mission. BerksIDA’s primary focus is on financing, acquiring industrial land, developing specialized industrial parks and the infrastructure development necessary for economic development to occur.

If you need help with grant writing, site development, or financing, contact the Berks County Industrial Development Authority (BerksIDA) for assistance.

Mohnton Company Website Redesign – Keystone Maintenance Services

January 16, 2019 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Keystone Maintenance Services, or KMS, is another great example of some of the work we do here at DaBrian Marketing Group. KMS is a company based in Mohnton, PA that specializes in supplying and servicing cranes, hoists and other material handling equipment. They provide other services as well, such as welding, concrete, and electrical work.

The majority of the work we did was in the site redesign. KMS wanted to make changes to their brand identity, and they came to us for guidance. Our Creative Director Mark Mapp was able to come up with a brand new logo and color scheme and then translated these elements into a new and improved look & feel on their website. Updated images were also added and then optimized, so as to not slow the site down. The result was a cleaner, more modern looking site. We also aimed to improve functionality and usability with the redesign, improving the architecture and adding more Calls to Action and homepage links. Our goal was to make it easier and more intuitive for users to contact Keystone for questions or a quote. At the end of the day, one of the most important jobs of a website is to generate leads, so this was an important aspect of giving our client a good finished product.

Another item we were tasked to do for Keystone was copywriting for their site — specifically for the New Equipment and Expanded Services sections. Admittedly, I didn’t know much about the crane and material handling industry when I was first tasked to write these pages. I looked across the web for companies within a similar sector and read their on-page copy to get a sense of the terminology used within the industry, as well as what users want to know about all the different types of cranes serviced and supplied by KMS. Once I felt comfortable writing about the subject matter, I started putting pen to paper (figuratively.) I tried to adopt a casual but informative style when writing the copy and made sure to hit on Keystone’s key differentiators — namely their broad service area and devotion to 24-hour breakdown support.

About Keystone Maintenance Systems

Keystone Maintenance Services Corporation is an industrial maintenance service company founded in 2001 and located in Mohnton, Pennsylvania.

Keystone Maintenance Services provides specialization in overhead crane, material handling, and industrial controls systems. At Keystone Maintenance Services, they are dedicated to the safety and productivity of your cranes, hoists, and other industrial equipment. From simple jibs and hoists to complex control systems, they are uniquely qualified to inspect, repair, and modernize all of your material handling equipment. Additionally, Keystone Maintenance Services has expanded capabilities over other “crane service” companies. Keystone Maintenance Services can provide additional services that range from rigging, equipment installation and relocation, fabrication and millwright services, as well as researching and supplying required spare/replacement parts.

4 Steps To Find Your Brand Voice

July 19, 2018 by Michael Sanders Leave a Comment

Congratulations! You’ve just launched a new service and are eager to create a strong online presence. Or perhaps you’ve just been given the green light for your business’s first website redesign since Al Gore invented the internet. Either way, you’re ready to start the process of crafting a winning digital brand strategy. However, before you start shouting your message to anyone and everyone, there are some important things you need to consider.

The Importance of Brand Voice

First, you need to establish your brand’s voice, or how you plan to consistently express your brand through words. While images, videos, and podcasts have grown in importance, text-based communication remains critical to online marketing. Relatable language lends credibility to your message and can contain the keywords that your customers are searching for.

While you can certainly improvise and have some success, by not having a defined brand voice you risk confusing your audience with different messages. And since 83 percent of customer loyalty is driven by trust, mixing your messages makes turning first-time customers into returning customers that much harder.

Instead, consider how you’re going to communicate your value before you start a conversation with the audience. The process can be broken down into four easy steps:

1. Define Your Major Brand Traits

Think of a few words or phrases that describe your business, your product, or your culture. Are you professional or fun? A thought leader or a product innovator? Whatever words or phrases you choose, these brand traits will form the foundation of your company’s marketing efforts and the cornerstone of your brand voice.

The characteristics should reflect the value you aim to provide. Do your B2B customers want to hear that you’re adventurous? Maybe not. But if you sell gaming products, that trait might resonate with a large segment of your target audience.

2. Convey Why You’re Different

Odds are, the traits you’ve chosen to reflect your company aren’t exactly unique. We get it: here at DaBrian, we’re also quirky and authentic. Remember, you’re trying to reach the same buyers as competitors in your industry. This means there’s a good chance that you’re all defining yourselves in similar ways. However, if you can move past the “what” and the “how” to convey the “why” to your listeners, you can quickly set yourself apart from the crowd.

The WHY is about what a company believes in, not about what you make or how you make a profit. So extend each of your key defining traits so that they begin to tell a story. If one of your traits is “irreverent”, have a plan to explain why you’re irreverent. People want to hear your David vs. Goliath origin story, not the latest software features you offer. Influential companies link their purpose with their brand voice to convey why they are different.

3. Give Your Voice a Break and Listen Up

This is a key step that many companies skip in their rush to spread their messages. Don’t forget that the audience you’re trying to reach probably has its own way of communicating. Take a break from developing your own brand voice and tune in to what your peers, competitors, leads, and customers are saying.

Every industry has jargon that you need to be careful to include – or avoid – in your own messaging. Brands that fail to embrace the language of their target audiences come off as outsiders who don’t care about the people they want to work with. Companies that listen develop stronger brand voices, and come across as consultants instead of the latest in a long line of product pushers.

4. Put Brand Voice into Action

Once you’ve agreed on a few unique traits for your brand voice and confirmed that they align with your audience and industry, it’s time to put your plan into action. Extend your voice characteristics to include a few practical “do’s” and “don’ts” for your marketing team. If your brand voice includes “passion”, you might give the direction to include strong action verbs and to take a stand, even on controversial issues. You might also tell your marketers to avoid passive voice and lukewarm endorsements.

Lastly, make sure your team is on-board. Your brand voice needs to be clearly articulated to everyone in your organization as part of your overall brand guidelines. Go through examples of content that hit the mark. And show content that misses the mark, and make suggestions to fix it. Doing so will provide clarity for your content team and ensure that your brand voice is consistent across your marketing channels.

Conclusion

Developing your brand voice is crucial to conveying your brand’s personality and authenticity to potential customers. With just a few unique traits that resonate with your target audience, you’ll be on your way to digital content that builds brand awareness and customer loyalty.

For more information about brand elements to consider when designing digital content, contact us or leave us a comment below!

To Bid Or Not To Bid on Your Branded Keywords?

April 9, 2018 by Justin Miller 1 Comment

As a PPC manager for an agency, I have heard multiple reasons from clients why not to bid on their own branded keywords. “Branded searches should lead to Organic/Free clicks” is definitely the most common. But what if it doesn’t… what if a search for your brand leads to a competitor’s sale?

Let’s say a potential customer is looking for you, but he or she found your competitor instead because you assumed branded keywords generated free organic traffic to your site. That’s a loss for you and a win for your competitor. Who would want that?

Does Paying for Branded Keyword Clicks Help or Hurt Your Bottom Line?

If your competitor is bidding on your brand name and you are not, there is a good chance their ad is showing above your Organic listing. This means they are likely stealing clicks which could be leading to sales. This would definitely be hurting your bottom line!

If you are bidding on your branded keywords, you should easily have a high Quality Score and therefore, should only need a minimal bid to capture the #1 position. This would prevent competitors from stealing potential clicks and sales away from you. However, does it help your bottom line or just do damage control?

Fortunately, studies looking at running Pay per Click (PPC) for keywords that you already rank for organically have already been analyzed and written. Thank You, Search Engine Land (@sengineland) and Google Research (@googleresearch)!

The Research is in – Bidding on branded keywords does not steal from your own organic clicks, but rather leads to incremental clicks, leads/sales, and revenue! The question is not longer “To Bid or Not To Bid?” instead it should be “Why aren’t you bidding on your branded keywords?”

Have any questions concerning PPC? We would love to hear from you via Facebook, Twitter, or comment below. If you are looking to build, protect, and/or improve your brand awareness, we can help you with that, too.

Nonprofit Marketing Tips for 2017

February 27, 2017 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Nonprofits have several challenges in attracting individuals for their causes and converting those individuals into donors. To successfully promote and supply aid to those causes, nonprofits’ marketing efforts need consistent branding, effective use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and efficient use of marketing budgets to grow donations.

Based upon the economic climate and the job market, getting millennials and other individuals to donate to your nonprofit will become increasingly challenging without the following tools.

Build Your Nonprofit Brand

There are so many great nonprofits that it can be difficult for yours to stand out. Building and establishing your brand will help. Start by defining your nonprofit. Clearly state what makes your organization unique:

Why should people donate time and resources to your cause?
How do you emotionally or personally connect with your donors?
How do you directly affect your cause?

Answering these questions will build awareness and credibility for your valuable service and distinguish you to donors, everywhere. Once your brand is built, all parts must be consistent within your disseminated content – your flyers, social media posts, and videos. Live it and show it!

Master Your CRM & Database of Donors & Volunteers

Email marketing continues to be an effective marketing channel for nonprofits. People like to see positive messages from companies that do good work. To get the most out of your email marketing, organize your CRM database to personally reach out to donors and volunteers.

Don’t just send mass emails; make them count by generating unique interactions with individuals through certain segments of your audience. Identify what information resonates with these individuals to provide them with relevant information.

TIP: Personalizing your message to an individual will make her/him feel more connected to your cause.

Direct Mail to Make a Direct Impact

Direct mail isn’t dead! According to Inman, baby boomers have a high direct mail response rate. It’s worth noting that this generation also controls 70% of all disposable income. So, they have the money to donate to your nonprofit – don’t miss this opportunity!

Use your CRM to measure responses and limit direct mail to audiences that are more likely to take action. In other words: target your direct mail to those people that are going to make your nonprofit an effective source of aid for your cause.

Grow Your Online Fundraising

Social media and Google for Nonprofits are great opportunities to increase your online fundraising through awareness and meaningful interactions. You can bring your nonprofit marketing story to life with YouTube, Google One Today, and Google Earth Reach.

These platforms allow you to create valuable relationships with like-minded individuals from anywhere at any time. Share and connect your online fundraising across the globe.

Measure Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and Market Smarter

Focus on measuring the ROAS of your marketing and fundraising campaigns. If a campaign didn’t yield results to justify the spending or effort, consider changing the approach or discontinue that campaign in the future.

With continuous shifts in demographics and consumer behavior, you’ll need to make informed decisions on where to allocate your time and money for long-term success. When you consistently measure the performance of your efforts through your ROAS, you will stay alert to those shifts.

What marketing struggles does your nonprofit consistently face? Tell us in the comments, below! While you’re at it, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter.

We Now (Officially) Offer Digital Branding Services

January 19, 2017 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

We Now Offer Digital Branding Services!

Create a digital brand that represents your business and speaks to your customers with DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC.

18 January, 2017 (Reading, PA) – DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC formally adds digital branding as another service at its agency. The digital marketing firm based in Reading, PA has experience connecting its clients’ marketing material from traditional, to print, to their expertise in digital marketing – creating that cohesive brand image all companies need.

Smart Insights reports that 47% of businesses utilize digital marketing without any defined strategy. The DaBrian Marketing team works with a variety of industries such as financial and consumer services, hospitality, healthcare, non-profit, and Ecommerce. The overabundance of companies struggling with their strategic branding led the company to officially add the service.

The company offers four types of digital branding services.

Branding Development: DaBrian Marketing takes your brand from what it is to what you want it to be with data-based analysis and personal evaluations
Name & Tagline Development: Get your name recognized for the unique service you provide
Logo Development & Corporate Identity: Create an identity that fits your company and speaks to your audience.
Strategic Marketing Plan: DaBrian takes you through the process of improving your business’ visibility to achieve your personal marketing goals.

Daniel B. Laws, Jr. understands the importance of connecting all marketing efforts and is ready to start 2017 with his agency’s new service offering. “For years, DaBrian Marketing has been providing clients with these services as part of a digital marketing plan. We’ve noticed clients [current and potential] consistently running into challenges such as conveying a clear plan, providing marketing materials in the appropriate format, establishing a brand identity, and measuring success. So, we have expanded our offerings to those companies that need help. ”

For more information on digital branding, request to speak with Daniel B. Laws, Jr. by visiting DaBrian Marketing Group’s website and filling out the “contact us” form.

About DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC
Founded in 2008, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC is a full-service digital marketing agency, focused on providing original and strategic digital marketing solutions for businesses, that want to create digital awareness, increase return on investment (ROI), and identify insights that not only will help achieve goals but will also help to increase your business’s efficiencies. DaBrian Marketing Group’s services include email marketing, digital branding, search engine optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click Advertising, web design, web analytics, social media marketing and more. Company headquarters is centrally located at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, Pennsylvania 19602. For more information about DaBrian Marketing Group, visit dabrianmarketing.com or call 610.743.5602.