social media

DaBrian Marketing’s New Year’s Resolution For 2017

January 3, 2017 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

With a new year comes new and exciting opportunities. At DaBrian Marketing, we’re committed to constantly improving our internal efficiencies, as well as your business’ digital marketing efforts. This year we asked members of our team (including the furry ones ?):

What’s your professional New Year’s resolution?

“Get my certification in Quickbooks. Help contribute to the efficiency overall at DaBrian Marketing Group.”

“Simplify and improve the efficiency of meetings to allocate more time to take actions!”

“Learn basic Java Script for PPC Automated Scripting and achieve Bing Partners status for DaBrian Marketing Group”

“Dominate the local market through various Local SEO methods, especially local link building/earning. Improve both our’s and our client’s video marketing efforts. Continue to obtain certifications and accomplishments related to SEO.”

“Earn three or more additional social media/inbound marketing certifications. Stay knowledgeable with the latest trends for social media, email, and video marketing. Find the best possible opportunities for each of our clients and DaBrian Marketing to get the most exposure on their social media platforms. I want to see our efforts go viral!”

“Explore new possible methods and strategies to help further improve our efficiencies as an agency, and the communication amongst clients.”

“Continue to develop my skills in graphic design and web coding.”

“Expand my education in HTML, HTML5, PHP, Javascript and responsive web design as a whole. Help our team become more efficient with client & internal processes. Also, being more involved in blogging and social media.”

“Finally catch my tail.”

“Be a better boy.”

“Expand the reach and visibility of the company & service offering while consistently differentiating us from the competition.”

What’s your New Year’s resolution for 2017? Tell us in the comments below!

Bank Marketing: Creating Your Bank’s Brand

December 27, 2016 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

If you are not careful, a bank can easily become a faceless organization—making one virtually indistinguishable from another financial institution. That is why even though a bank is offering a service which is considered a NEED, not a want, a branding message is vital. Banks have print, digital, and branches that need a consistent message and look. This message is something that should carry across mediums, devices, and generations. To improve your bank’s marketing and financial success, utilize these bank branding guidelines.

Effective Bank Marketing Starts with Your Employees

External branding is visible to each and every customer, or potential customer, who walks into your bank or researches your firm online. However, without internal branding, it is easy to let this message slip away. Your employees must carry the message, value proposition, differentiation and “live” the brand that you have clearly defined. Your slogans and taglines should be more than just statements; they can be shown through actions and customer interactions. Every employee should understand the bank’s branding. These employees will become ambassadors for the firm and may be responsible for carrying the message to both existing and potential customers.

Guidelines for Branding Your Bank

You need to put together a list of guidelines for your brand so that it appears consistent across all mediums. What font or typography will you use? How will the logo be placed? What color(s) will be utilized? Keeping these consistent is vital. Think about how the brand will be delivered, both in person and digitally, to ensure there are no mistakes. The smallest inconsistency can be magnified when published. As far as for use in your physical locations, you may need to hold training sessions with your employees on how to display any brand elements, too. Finally, don’t forget to cover yourself from a legal standpoint. Protect your logo and other branding elements and make sure you are not stepping on other toes.

Creating Your Bank’s Brand

When your bank is branded, it becomes more and more necessary to take advantage of your digital assets. Even if you don’t plan to use them today. Claim social media platforms when they become available. Get listed in the major directories. Additionally, you may wish to research reputation management and how it can benefit your bank. In certain cases, this can be necessary to give your company the right look and feel.

What the bank’s unique value proposition?
What differentiates them from other banks?
What’s the voice, style, and tone of the bank?

The answers to these questions will help you as you work to create your brand and make it “live” in the hearts of your customers.

Humanizing Your Brand

Your brand doesn’t just exist on paper, so it is important to “make it human.” Continuously reinforce the brand with your staff, customers, vendors and outside firms. This extra effort will go a long way in reinforcing what you stand for and creating something that will not only serve you well today but grow with your bank and become the core of what you are and how you serve those around you.

For more information about bank marketing and branding, leave a comment below or contact us today!

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!

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.

For more information about Social Media Marketing contact us today or leave a comment below!

Why Your Small Business Needs Digital Marketing

August 8, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group 4 Comments

As a business owner, your time is precious, budget is limited, and your hands are always full with a thousand different things. Currently, you have a website and are running ads in the local newspaper, but you know it’s not enough in today’s digital world. In order for your small business to be competitive in your respective industry, you need to utilize digital marketing.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Digital Marketing Agency

By hiring a qualified and reputable digital marketing agency, you will gain an entire team focused on your goals and objectives without the additional salaries and benefits to your payroll. As easy as it is to hire a digital marketing firm, you can just as easily fire them if they’re not performing to your standards. You pay for performance. Simple as that.

You will have more time to focus on your area of expertise. There are a lot of facets involved in digital marketing as you can see in the word cloud below.

You don’t have the time to learn it all, let alone manage it effectively and efficiently. You will quickly become overwhelmed. Hiring a certified partner agency with the likes of Google, Bing, Hootsuite, and Big Commerce, you won’t have to waste time training employees. An agency will allow you to hit the ground running as you and the agency focus on the areas of expertise you each possess.

Digital Marketing Helps David Fight Goliath

Digital marketing helps level the playing field. Done properly, it allows you to reallocate your marketing investment and target the audience you want to reach more efficiently. An agency will utilize their expertise and experience and be able to show exactly what is working and what’s not via analytics. The best practices large corporations use are the same ones an agency will (or should) be using. Let them use their expertise so you can use yours.

The fact is, many companies are still not utilizing digital marketing, so there is a real opportunity to grow quickly. This is especially true when you can eliminate the learning curve and hire a certified partner agency right from the start. They live and breathe SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, click-through rates, and conversion rates. An agency understands that your success is essential for their success and ultimate survival. That is a rather big motivation, wouldn’t you say? So you’ve waiting long enough, hire a certified partner agency before your competition does.

For more information about our digital marketing services, leave a comment below or call us for a free consultation!

Stay Connected With a Social Media Certified Partner

August 1, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

What’s all this Hoot-n-Holler about Hootsuite?

Hootsuite is a social media management program which helps consolidate a variety of social media platforms into one location. From Twitter to Facebook to LinkedIn and even YouTube, Hootsuite gives us the ability to check posts, images, comments, reviews, likes, hashtags, and more all on the same page.
We can create individual posts to immediately share or schedule it for a later date and time. We can also bulk-upload an entire month’s worth of content at once. It shortens links (called ow.ly links) within the posts to allow for more room to write (which is extremely helpful with Twitter’s limit of 140 characters).
Hootsuite has many integrations. If you use MailChimp for your email marketing or WordPress as your website builder, there’s an app to include updates and track your activity. Tracking information through Google Analytics can be easily transferred into a Hootsuite analytics report for an easier way to disseminate the results.

Team Up With Hootsuite Certified Partners

Being Hootsuite certified requires us to take lessons on how it operates and pass an exam with a grade of 95% or higher. We understand the platform and know each of its capabilities (and there are a lot, believe us). As an agency partner, we have a point-of-contact on their staff that will immediately answer any questions or assist in solving any issues. Whenever any changes occur within the platform, we are the first to be aware of them. We are on Hootsuite every day monitoring the accounts, responding to customers, and making recommendations for your company, so we are completely knowledgeable on what it can do.

Hootsuite’s Analytics reports display just how well your social media accounts are performing and we always explain them, thoroughly, for you to understand.
Since we’re in-the-know, you’re in-the-know. You will never have a slacking social media marketing campaign if you’re on our team.

How We Use It to Help Your Company’s Social Media Marketing

Whether you have a campaign that you’re interested in implementing or you’re not sure what you should be doing with social media, we will work with you to get started. Whatever ideas you may have, we provide you with feedback on what will work the best. We work with you to develop a unique hashtag, customize the imagery, and figure out the distribution of posts across all accounts.

We will track specific keywords, hashtags, and geocodes (those are keywords within a particular location). Whenever someone mentions your industry or business, we will know about it. We will collaborate with you in order to provide the best customer service to your digital customers or prospective customers. We will represent your brand in its entirety; from tone of voice, to language, to imagery and video.
We won’t let you struggle like this social family.

If you’re ready for a kick-ass social media marketing campaign to connect with an assortment of current and potential customers, chat with us about what we can do for you.