Story Collaborative recently completed a series of focus groups on millennial with the assistance of Honestly Magazine and the team at Workforce & Community Education from Germanna Community College. Focus group participants provided insights into their habits, preferences and life challenges which we combined with other research to shed light on strategies for effective business communication. This is the first of several articles.
The story part of the brand is important too because the impressions that people have and share about our companies aren’t just fleeting observations-- they are stories that get told over and over again, woven into the broader life narratives that people remember and take with them into all of their relationships.
Your website is full of owned assets, especially if the content is ranking high in Google search. Since the content you write on your website is entirely your own, and AdWords are merely rented for a premium, this makes your website very valuable. If you don't have a good SEO strategy, that's the first place you can invest for a return. Remember that relevant and fresh content should be part of any SEO strategy.
We live in a visually demanding world -- we need graphics for almost everything in marketing. That means involvement with designers is a part of daily life. It's especially true if you're committed to keeping on-brand web content, emails, and social posts. I've learned a few things about working with designers in the last 10 years. (At least they don't laugh at me quite as often.) In this short video, Amy Alexander, our brand guru (not self proclaimed), shares some of the common questions that she gets working with business and organizational leaders.
The web marketing world is full of SEO (search engine optimization) offers. They often tell stories of wild new amounts of business using back room magic. One that was shared recently promised 111% more traffic in just 14 days! Usually more web traffic is better, but SEO packages that deal only with structure and links miss the reality of customer behavior---especially if they resort to risky or unethical tactics. Without addressing what the web searcher finds when they arrive on a site, SEO can miss the main point of building valuable web traffic that creates real customers. Both the search engines and potential buyers are looking for valuable content.
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We need marketing that truly connects in order to deliver qualified customers. An effective sales funnel that doesn’t feel like sales at all comes from the warmth of an engaging story. In turn, those story-based activities deliver customers who are engaged with the experience - engaged with you. With so many media choices, allowing customers to experience your brand story from the beginning—while still ensuring the greatest number of qualified leads from our marketing investment—can be a challenge.
Our assumptions about how to manage sales and marketing, along with our sales funnel, have to change to fit new buyer behaviors that have been shaped by technology.
Writing a great set of brand guidelines is well worth the effort. Guidelines surrounding your identity are unique because they provide an opportunity for employees, designers, writers, stakeholders, and outsiders to interact with your brand. Suddenly, an employee can be your greatest promoter, catching the vision of your organization.
How do you know what you are spending your money on, or how you can measure your return on investment? Sorting through the offerings can be difficult if you aren't a SEO expert. Here are five ways to know that current or potential services aren't up to par.
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