This month Brand Advance was the proud winner of a free lunch for 25 at Chipotle. David Brim (CEO and Founder of Brand Advance) was selected as the winner when his company card was pulled from a large bowl containing the business information for several different local individuals and businesses. The lunch was greatly appreciated, as it gave our team members the opportunity to enjoy delicious food and good company in a relaxed environment. With this year off to such a wonderful start and our team has been working very hard, and this was exactly what we needed.

Companies everywhere should be aware of these types of giveaways and if possible, should try to implement something similar. Not only does this type of strategy give business owners the opportunity to collect information on local customers, but it also creates a sense of goodwill which can lead to a lot of positive buzz.

For a free consultation on how you can implement similar marketing strategies please contact Brand Advance at 407-219-0031 or toll free at (800) 928-8305.

View photos from this event at: www.flickr.com/photos/brandadvance/

It is a new year, and new marketing trends have started to take place online. Having an SEO optimized site is important when it comes to achieving online success, and these emerging technologies can approve to be very beneficial if you are looking to practice the best SEO techniques for the new year. Individuals with an online presence as well as internet marketers everywhere should be aware of these recent SEO trends:

Social Media in Search Results:

Bing.com started the trend of having social media in search results when it integrated twitter feeds into their SERPs. Shortly after, Google released “Google Caffeine”, which also pulls from twitter as well as relevant queries. This means that any tweets, posts, or conversations will be posted online in search results in real time. This tool allows individuals and businesses to put themselves in the public eye by simply being active and engaging in these social sites. However, there is a flip side to this, negative comments posted can show up just as easily.

Facebook and E-Commerce:

Sources from Facebook have spilled the latest news about this popular networking site. Supposedly this year Facebook is going to introduce E-Commerce pages. This will allow users to save a lot of money that would otherwise be used on paid advertising, and could really help businesses grow quickly.

Speed Matters:

Fast websites are usually well optimized, and in the mind of popular search engines, having a fast site means having a better user experience. Search engines may start taking into account the speed of websites, which could directly affect SEO rankings. As mentioned above everything is moving to real-time, and it’s important that your site is quick and efficient if you want to keep up with the SEO trends.

Keep up with the Popular Search Engines:

Although Google is still the number one search engine, there is a new big rival that is up and coming. Bing.com has become very popular because of its refined search results, and its good hold of conversation rates. Yahoo is slowly declining in popularity, so it is key to know which search engines people are actually using.

Get involved and start taking advantage of these new trends. To find out how Brand Advance can assist you in strategizing as well as implementing some of these tactics, contact us today for a free SEO consultation.

Like a parent with children on opposing basketball teams I have sat in marketing department meetings and listened to internet marketers and traditional marketing experts banter back and forth about how the customer was won.
 
  In internet marketing it is relatively easy to track a campaign’s effectiveness -click a button and you know which landing page your customer came from, put a tracking code in your email marketing and measure the response, have customers text a certain response,-your mobile marketing works, etc. However campaign specific ROI has always been difficult to measure in print and traditional mediums. Which print ad worked? Did they like this media piece? Was it the campaign we launched this month or last month that worked? How do you quantify how many visited the website through the suggestion of a print medium? The convergence (buzzword bingo) of integration of print and online marketing are key factors in the success of your marketing team, but how does a team go about doing that?
 
A technology that has been on the world stage since 1994 is the answer. 
 

QR Codes are coming to a town near you!!
 
The quick response codes, better known as QR codes, are already huge in Japan and in the European market. (Ergo my reference to the Japanese cultural infusion of the 80’s in the title ) These QR codes are exploding in popularity in the American marketplace. They are in magazines, business cards, newspapers, advertising flyers, posters, even buildings, and tattoos. (taking internet dating to a whole new level). The act of linking real world objects to the web is called hardlinking or real world hyperlinking. 
 
 Here’s how it works. You take a picture with your QR reader enabled mobile device. This software is usually free or relatively inexpensive to download. The code directs the phone’s web browser to your web site, a landing page, or to an affiliate. (I clicked on a movie poster QR code and it took me a portal where I could buy the ticket online.) This quick and convenient way for your customer to go from print media to the web also allows the traditional marketer a way to track and measure the ROI of various campaigns.

Since David an I agree that getting a QR code Tattoo for Brand Advance may be a little much I will leave you with this link to the weather channel utilizing Android and QR codes.

Robert Urban

Social Media can be an extremely powerful way to grow your business if utilized correctly.   There are many aspects of your business which can be improved by integrating social media into your marketing strategy.  For example social media can be used as a customer service channel, a tool to conduct market research, a way to strengthen relationships with existing customers, a platform to build relationships with new customers, a tool to increase brand awareness and so much more.

Below is a great video of Best Buy’s CMO Barry Judge talking about how Social Media is utilized by Best Buy.  The video also touches on Barry’s thoughts on social media as a whole.

Brand Advance is excited and eager to assist you in crafting your social media marketing plan.

One thing to remember is that if you’re not utilizing social media to connect with your target audience/consumer, chances are your competitor will.  Contact us today for a free consultation.

Our team at Brand Advance is excited to add Robert Urban as our new Chief Operating Officer. Robert comes with much talent and experience that will aid in the growth of Brand Advance, including extensive experience in sales and marketing operational strategy and staffing implementation.

After being honorably discharged from the Marine Corps Robert has held various roles of responsibility highlighted by serving as the recruiting practice director for Raretec Consulting, an international recruitment and consulting firm, and acting as the Chief Marketing Officer of CareerPledge, a SAAS technology firm. His areas of expertise are in combining technology, sales, and marketing best practices to create an incredible service offering and client/customer satisfaction. He has acted as an executive marketing/technical implementation consultant to many of the fortune 500 companies and has delivered staffing and operational enterprise strategy across multiple verticals for all sizes of business.

His role with Brand Advance is to assist the CEO in concreting processes and operations, act as a marketing consultant to various companies, and lead business development through effective management of the sales team.

Robert’s business philosophy is resonant to Occam’s razor-”simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one.” He is also the founder of Orlando Marketing Executives Networking Group and involved in nonprofit organizations helping veterans with PTSD. He currently resides in Orlando, Fl and in his off time, he enjoys spending time with his son and girlfriend, playing guitar, chess, and fishing.

Robert, myself, and the rest of the Brand Advance team look forward to growing your business in 2010 and beyond.

Earlier today I came across some good information about social media I thought I’d share with my readers.  The first was a presentation I found on slideshare on social media which I embedded below:

1. Have a plan.

Do some research on the social media networks out there and devise a plan. Target the top 3 sites, create a profile, and answer the question “What’s in It for Me?” You should have a target goal for each social media site. It could be generating more traffic to your site, get more sales, build brand identity but gaining XXXX amount of followers. In the end, make sure the voice is the same throughout, so you keep brand identity. Have commitment, as social media takes time to grow.

2. If you are the expert in your field, show it.

You know the most about your company and your field of expertise. Provide information that will help your followers understand your brand. The more you show brand identity, the more your followers will be your brand advocates.

3. Provide links and measure the click-through rates.

People on Twitter love to learn new things. They follow interesting people because they are adding value. One way to add value is to link out to relevant articles, blogs, or your own website. If you’re having a sale on a particular item, link straight to that page on your website. Be sure to use URL shorteners like bit.ly or budurl.com so you can track the amount of clicks your link received. That way, you can see how many customers are listening on a particular tweet.

4. Measure your results.

Use engagement tools like TweetDeck or Hootsuite to monitor your brand. You can set up keyword alerts so that you see what Twitter users are talking about and who is talking about it. Measuring your results shows you what is working, what to improve, and gets you closer to your goal.

5. Listen to your customers and brand advocates/detractors.

Comcast does a great job in listening to their customers. They ask the question, “How can we help”, and they answer to each and every customer. Even hearing your detractors can help your brand—you’ll learn what can improve about your business. Think of social media like a focus group—you test out your brand and you get feedback.

6. Provide Your Email

Complex problems need more attention. Providing your email will help customers talk beyond 140 characters. Also, when the customer has different options in how they can receive customer service, they’ll be happy to choose their preferred method to contact you.

7. And Most of All: Be Social

Talk to your friends, fans, and followers. Listen to what they have to say and respond to them. Provide new information and link your blogs to your Facebook Page, Twitter, and any other social media site you may belong to.  You’ll see your traffic rise in no time.

The value of social media is endless. Your competitors are out there, are you?

Any marketing initiative whether traditional marketing, search engine optimization or social media starts with understanding your buyers or potential customers.  You do not want to take a “One size-fits-all” marketing approach that targets everyone, but appeals to nobody.  By understanding your customers and segmenting them into very distinct groups you will be able to reach each segment with the message that resonates most to them.

To do this we recommend developing buyer personas for each of your target customer groups.  A buyer persona is essentially a mini-biography for each of your target customer groups.  These buyer personas will be the basis of your keyword research, content strategies, link building and more.

Developing Buyer Personas
Steps

1) List all of your customer groups (customer groups): You want to break your customers up into as many segments as possible which will enable you to develop specific content, keyword phrases and messages that will drive the most results.

2) Rank the list of customers from highest priority to lowest: This can be done by evaluating each group in terms of highest purchasing power, most influence, easiest to reach, highest frequency/concentration etc.

3) Start Creating the buyer persona profiles for your top customer groups

After prioritizing your core customers begin developing buyer personas for each one.   Talk or survey your customers or at the most basic level try to think like them.  You should then answer the following questions about each of your buyer personas (customer groups)….

• What are your target customers goals and aspirations?
• What are their problems?
• What types of resources do they use to find information?
• How can we reach them?
• What sorts of images/multi-media are appealing to them?
• What websites and publications do they read?
• What makes them tick?
• What phrases would they use to search for your product, service or the information above?

Going through that exercise will give you a great starting point for your online initiatives.

Hi Everyone!

If you’re wondering why we haven’t built up our blog yet here it’s because we just launched this site.   We went through a re-brand and re-design of our company website.   We’re a relatively new company based in Orlando, Fl  made up of  experienced designers, developers  and marketers.  There will be many more posts coming in the near future.

Stay tuned

In the mean time you can view my blog here: http://davidbrim.org

David

Our blog will be coming soon!