Post on 27-May-2015
description
A KICK-ASS GUIDE TO CREATING THE ULTIMATE INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGY
FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Brandignity is a Naples, FL full service inbound
marketing company that is devoted to helping
our clients build their brand and market their
business’ websites online. As search engines
evolve they require a more comprehensive web
marketing approach to all SEO related efforts.
At Brandignity we put on our best “marketing
hats” for every inbound marketing project we
take on. We think that search engine rankings
are important but so is building a business
brand through proactive internet marketing
and branding efforts. Efforts that over time,
will naturally build a websites strength and
power which ultimately will lead to increased
search engine rankings. If you have any
questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at
866-250-4541 or email at info@brandignity.com.
“ We don’t mind if your project is big or small, we get it done for you.”
Quoted on
TABLE OF CONTENTS Proper Website Design & Branding 4
Onsite SEO 7
External SEO 10
Local SEO 13
Social Media 16
Pay Per Click Advertising 19
Reputation Management 22
Email Marketing 25
Content Marketing 28
Mobile Marketing 31
CHAPTER ONE Proper Website Design & Branding
Your website is the primary way people will get
interested in your brand. You can be funny or formal,
interactive or informative, but there are certain
essentials you need to have in a good website.
Follow the tips below to make sure your site is
as well-designed as possible.
Up-to-Date Design
What do you think of when you see a website
with nothing but plain text or a site that has a lot
of animated GIFs? You probably think that the
designer hasn’t entered the 21st century yet, and
thus take the brand as a whole a lot less seriously.
Keep these principles in mind:
• Don’t turn your customers off by having an
outdated website. That means no excessive
use of animated GIFs or other poor
graphical choices.
• Keep things clean and easy to read. Check
color and font size.
• Use navigation bars to allow mobile users
easy access to your site.
• Make your site as clean, modern, and
responsive as possible.
Good, Solid Branding
From Amazon.com to Microsoft to McDonald’s,
the most successful companies have consistent
branding throughout the site. You should make
sure your logo is prominent on each page within
your site. Ideally, displaying the logo in a header
or on a navigation bar is the best way to go. Keep
your color themes and visuals consistent with
your logo in order to create brand synergy.
Everything about your website should scream
your brand’s name.
Conversion Aspects
Once somebody has visited your website, how do
you keep in contact with them? Your homepage
should include at least one way to convert a
“ Not having proper website design can be the make or break of your online success.”
5Chapter One: Proper Website Design & Branding
Brandignity • info@brandignity.com • 866-250-4541 FREE WEBSITE ANALYSIS
one-time visitor into a regular customer. One
potential conversion aspect to explore is a lead
form, which is a way that people can use your
services in exchange for their name, address,
and other important contact info. Putting up an
option to join an email list is another great choice,
since it helps your customers by letting them
know when you have new updates while also
making sure that you have a broader reach
with your promotions.
Separate Services Sections
Your homepage shouldn’t be very text-heavy. If
you have a number of different services to offer,
you should make sure that each service has its
own separate page. This will not only help avoid
information overload from customers visiting your
site, but it will also improve your overall traffic.
Search engines like Google will rank you higher if
you have a number of useful, informative sections
rather than just clumping everything together on
one page.
Keep Code Clear
While the coding behind a website isn’t something
the average customer sees, it can influence your
search engine standings. Keeping your coding
clear and easy to understand is great in case you
have a change in staff and somebody else takes
over the website. Garbled code or sites with a lot
of junk code that doesn’t appear on the site often
get flagged as potential spam pages in Google and
other major search engines. The clearer and more
concise you are, the better. This goes for text your
customers can see as well as code which they
can’t see.
These are the basic guidelines you should follow
when developing or editing your brand’s website.
These tips will ensure a better search ranking,
more traffic, and a better conversion rate.
A few additional resources:
• http://www.brandignity.com/2013/10/what-you-
need-to-know-about-responsive-web-design-
and-seo/
• http://www.brandignity.com/2013/05/impact-of-
web-designing-on-online-advertising/
• http://www.brandignity.com/2013/12/guidelines-
to-save-your-seo-from-these-7-website-design-
blunders/
6Chapter One: Proper Website Design & Branding
Brandignity • info@brandignity.com • 866-250-4541 FREE WEBSITE ANALYSIS
CHAPTER TWO Onsite SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short,
has changed a lot in recent years but remains an
important part of marketing your brand online.
If you hope to rank high on the major search
engines, you need to tune up your site’s SEO
using the following guidelines.
Keyword Research
The most important part of SEO is knowing
what keywords to use. Your keywords should be
something that is relevant to the content you
are posting and that people are likely to type in
a search for. Keywords don’t have to be limited
to just one word, either – a two- or three-word
phrase can work just as well if it is a common
search term. Many search engines provide
statistics as to which keywords are most
popular. Among those, the most commonly
used tool is Google’s Keyword Planner, which
is focused specifically on the world’s most
popular search engine.
Inserting Metadata
When people find a search result leading to your
page, the default description will usually be a
random selection of text pulled from your website.
You can get better control of the way your site
appears to interested searchers by using a
metadata description. This is a simple HTML
tag that you put in as part of the header on any
given page. By making the metadata description
concise, accurate, and engaging, you will attract
more casual searchers to your website.
“ Onsite SEO is the foundation to everything you do moving forward.”
8Chapter Two: Onsite SEO
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Structuring your URLs
Your site’s URL addresses don’t matter to anybody
but the computers, right? Wrong. While search
engines and bookmarks are the most common
way that people access a website, many people
still use URLs to navigate. Keeping your URLs
short and easy to remember will help users
find specific sections of your site easily. Search
engines also tend to rank sites without a lot of
subdirectories in the URLs higher. When you
have multiple words in your URL subheading,
make sure to separate them by hyphens instead
of underscores, as some search engines filter
out underscore-heavy URLs and give them a
lower ranking.
Generate Good Content
While there are all sorts of SEO tricks you can
use to boost your search rankings, absolutely
nothing beats high-quality content. You should
make sure that everything you produce on your
site is relevant to your brand, engaging to the
user, and updated regularly. Avoid redundancy
whenever possible and listen to feedback carefully.
New search algorithms have been ruthless about
dropping rankings for low-content sites, so
putting up the best quality possible is the best
way to survive in the modern SEO environment.
Optimize your Images
The average user waits a grand total of three
seconds for a website to load. If the site hasn’t
fully loaded in those three seconds, the user
gives up and goes elsewhere. Optimize your site
through these notions:
• Reduce the file size of any images you post to
your site to speed up loading times.
• Give your images a descriptive name and include
an alt-text tag, as search engines look for both
these items during image searches.
• Name your file in a clear and distinct manner
so the image can be found in search engines.
Generate a Sitemap
A sitemap is a piece of HTML or XML code
that gives search engines a full layout of your
website. Generating a sitemap gives search
engines a way of determining the key focus of
your website and including it in related searches,
even if those searches don’t use your preferred
keywords. XML is the most common sitemap
format, although both work quite well. HTML,
however, is probably best used for text-heavy
sites only rather than Flash or media-
heavy websites.
Your onsite SEO determines the way in which you
present yourself to the rest of the world. Think of
it as a job interview for your website – the better
the presentation, the more likely people are to
take your website seriously.
9Chapter Two: Onsite SEO
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CHAPTER THREE External SEO
Your web traffic isn’t determined by what’s on your
site alone. You should also be aware of how your
website interacts with other similar sites. This
is called external SEO and it is an area of focus
for Google and other search engine leaders. The
better you manage your external SEO, the more
successful your site will be.
Safe Linking
Have you ever fallen in with a bad crowd? Just
being around certain people marks you as a
potential troublemaker. On the Internet, search
engines view your site by the “crowd” it is in,
which in this case is determined by links to and
from the website. Avoid creating link directories,
as these often get marked as spam. Also make
sure not to link to low-content sites. If such sites
link to your website, do what you can to get those
links removed. The links to and from your website
are often seen as a direct representation of the
type of content you have on the site.
Business and Niche Profiles
The Yellow Pages is a thing of the past for most
businesses, but there are still lots of directories
you can take advantage of in order to promote
your brand. The size of your industry and your
target customer base should determine whether
you go for a national directory, which has more
listings and a broader reach, or regional directories,
which has fewer listings and a more targeted
audience. If you have the resources and the desire,
you can also target both national and regional
directories to get the best of both worlds.
Content Marketing Techniques
Content marketing can be used for external SEO
in addition to onsite SEO. Connect with other
similar sites and brands that will cooperate with
you and set up a content sharing program. This
can include the following:
• Adding the occasional guest blogger or expert
from another website.
“ Your links tell a lot about your authority in your industry, the better the links the better your SEO outcome.”
11Chapter Three: External Seo
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• Issue targeted PR releases at sites that have the
audience you want to reach.
• Use eBooks and white paper to prove users with
content they can take from your site and can
share as they see fit.
Video Marketing
Using sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, or
Vimeo to host ads or video content about your
brand can help you reach a whole new audience.
You can also get a leg up on the competition with
shorter videos through services like Vine. Make
sure you use strong content in the description of
these videos and include keywords if applicable.
You should see a video description as a sort of
mini-site that tells people about your brand.
Building External Relationships
In almost all industries, it’s not what you know
but rather who you know. You should make sure
to touch base with bloggers and journalists
connected to your industry so you can build a
positive relationship with them. You should also
make sure you generate excellent word of mouth
through strong social media offerings and a
comprehensive link profile. The more people
know about you, the more they will trust you.
By managing your external SEO as thoroughly
as you handle your onsite SEO, you will have a
remarkable advantage over your competition.
SEO is all about how you present yourself, and
following these tips will place your brand in the
best possible light.
12Chapter Three: External Seo
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CHAPTER FOUR Local SEO
Do you have a physical storefront or the type of
business where local customers are extremely
important? If so, you need to focus at least some
of your web marketing on local SEO to make sure
you bring them in. Some suggestions on how to go
about this include the following.
Google, Bing, and Yahoo!
The three biggest search engines on the web –
Google, Bing, and Yahoo! – all have local
directories you can tap into. Additionally, new
search algorithms are placing more emphasis on
location so people in Philadelphia, for example,
can find chiropractor services in their area even if
they just type “chiropractor” into the search field.
Google Maps allow you to go even further, providing
specific directions to your business and even a
street view that allows people to immediately
recognize your storefront, even if they’ve never
been there.
“ You can build new foot traffic to your business by being extra visible online.”
14Chapter Four: Local SEO
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Foursquare
Foursquare is an app for mobile devices that can
help you drive foot traffic to your location. Users
of this app check in at certain participating
businesses and receive a number of points,
badges, or another reward. They can then travel
to the next location in their area. If you join
Foursquare, you are increasing the odds that
somebody will step into your storefront, even
if only briefly.
Groupon
If you have coupons or deals you can offer as a
promotion, Groupon is a great option for you. The
biggest benefit to this system is that if too few
people sign up for the offer, nobody gets it. That
means you can determine what level of discount
is profitable for you but still have protection if it
doesn’t reach the right number of people. There is
no upfront participation cost, so you can easily take
advantage of this opportunity if it makes sense for
your business.
Online Coupons
If you prefer a more traditional coupon strategy,
there are still a number of online venues that can
work for you. You can place special discounts up
on sites like Coupons.com or CouponClipper.com,
both of which have a Local Offers section. You can
also look outside traditional coupon sites, offering
online coupons through local news sites or even
on such venues as Craigslist.org
Google AdWords
One of the most popular ways of marketing a
brand these days is Google AdWords. These ads
appear right alongside search results and can be
embedded into certain content. The two big
advantages that AdWords has over similar
services are the robust analytics options and the
high level of customization. Through simple IP
exclusion and placement targeting, you can make
sure your ads get focused on a local area without
paying a high cost.
Implementing a Strategy
Some of the options listed above require more
than an automatic signup. You will get more out
of Foursquare, for example, if you have a strategy
in place before you sign up. This may mean
allying with other local businesses to make sure
that there is a clear path that leads Foursquare
users to your front door. You should also
implement a content strategy along with any
of these moves, emphasizing information that
will attract a local audience and calling out
your deals wherever possible.
Even if you have an online store or rely on clientele
from around the world, having a strong local base
is good for most businesses. When you establish
that, it makes everything else in marketing
much easier.
15Chapter Four: Local SEO
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CHAPTER FIVE Social Media
Social media isn’t the wave of the future – it’s the
wave of the present. Even now, you probably have
multiple ways to access at least one social media
network, be it through your computer, phone, or
tablet. Social media is also a powerful marketing
tool, especially if you follow this advice.
Share Content Frequently
Any major updates to your website, such as a
section redesign, new feature, or new blog entry,
should be added to your social media channels.
Some of the most clickable social media
posts include:
• How-to guides
• Press releases
• General interest blog topics
Make sure that you not only include something to
entice people to click on your link but also include
an image of some sort, since the image will draw
more attention than plain text will.
Make Frequent Status Updates
New content isn’t the only thing you need to
share on your social media channels. You should
also make frequent status updates on all your
networks. These updates could include something
about your brand or they could be general interest
topics that tap into whatever is trending at the
time. The idea behind a status update is to show
the personality behind the business so customers
can form a personal connection with you.
Engage Followers
Follower engagement is one aspect of social media
that a lot of businesses drop the ball on. Creating
contests and quizzes, regardless of the prize
offered, is a great way to generate interest in your
brand. Using Instagram and other photo-sharing
services for a contest is also helpful in this regard,
as you can get some very artistic and interesting
uses of your brand that go out to thousands of
different potential customers.
“ Social media is all about sharing and engaging. Get your audience to reciprocate an action.”
17Chapter Five: Social Media
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18Chapter Five: Social Media
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Social Advertising
Never underestimate the power of ads on social
media sites. You can take out advertising space on
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other sites in a
targeted way that gives you control over what age
groups, regions, and other key demographics see
the ad. This is a great way to generate more
followers, which in turn increases your brand’s
overall reach. Every new follower has several
dozen friends who are also potential
new
customers.
Remarketing
Some visitors might show interest in a social
media post but not visit your site. Maybe they’re
multitasking or maybe they want to check it out
later. Remarketing makes sure that these
potential customers get a gentle reminder
through the form of another ad in the future.
AdRoll is the most popular remarketing site out
there, but there are numerous alternatives as
well. This is a good non-intrusive way of making
sure that potentially interested parties remain
aware of your brand in the future.
Social media is a goldmine for a clever advertiser.
Many companies these days even employ individuals
whose main purpose is to maintain various social
media networks and keep people engaged. While
you don’t have to go that far, following these tips
will give you the chance to turn your social media
pages into major hubs of activity and get many
new customers in the process.
A few additional resources:
• http://www.brandignity.com/2014/01/a-guide-in-
optimizing-your-social-media-accounts-to-get-
traffic/
• http://www.brandignity.com/2014/01/3-tips-on-
how-to-monetize-your-social-media-following/
CHAPTER SIX Pay Per Click Advertising
One of the oldest forms on online advertising,
Pay Per Click or PPC for short offers a simple
cost-to-effect ratio where a user displaying your
ad is paid a small amount each time a visitor
clicks on the ad. One of the biggest benefits of
PPC ads is that it allows you to recruit website
owners and many other independent parties to
do your advertising for you. No matter how
widespread your ad becomes, you only pay when
it successfully draws people to click on it.
Google AdWords and Bing Ads
When you enter any search term, you are almost
certain to see some ads on the screen before you
see the results. On Google and Bing, these ads
show up either at the top of the page or to the
right of the search results. Both of these search
engine giants use an ad system that allows you
to customize your audience and tailor your own
specific meta description. Make sure you use all
“ Pay Per Click advertising can give you instant visibility right next to the biggest players in your industry.”
20Chapter Six: Pay Per Click Advertising
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the SEO principles discussed earlier when designing
these ads in order to get the most benefit out
of them.
Social Media PPC
Most of the major social media networks, including
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer PPC
advertising that you can take advantage of. This
approach works best if you want to target the
Generation Y group that grew up in the 1980s, as
they are the primary users of these sites. Social
media PPC allows you to combine words and
images in an attractive package and can be
modified so that only specific users or groups
of users are able to access the ad.
Landing Page Optimization
Once you have traffic starting to trickle in thanks
to PPC ads, you should examine the landing page
that people are reaching and make sure it is
properly optimized to maximize your conversion
rate. This involves making sure that you have a
lot of related content and sales connected to the
selling point that brought the customer to your
page in the first place. For example, if you sell
digital cameras, make sure you also have
accessories available from your landing page
so customers who have already bought a camera
can still outfit their purchase with something
you are selling.
Ad Copywriting
Good copywriting needs to be present in any PPC
ad. Ad copywriting should take advantage of your
brand’s specific strengths, but also of your
competition’s weaknesses. You shouldn’t refer to
a competitor by brand name, but if the brand is
popular enough you can easily bring up flaws that
others have experienced and then emphasize how
your product addresses them. PPC is just like any
other advertising – good copywriting and effective
content is extremely important.
In the end, PPC is something you should approach
like any other sort of marketing, but you should
make sure to recognize the specific perks of PPC.
You can customize these ads in ways that you can’t
customize others, and the ability to specifically
target search engines and social media networks
gives you the ability to target key demographics
with ease.
A few additional resources:
• http://www.brandignity.com/2014/01/a-guide-in-
optimizing-your-social-media-accounts-to-get-
traffic/
• http://www.brandignity.com/2013/12/3-ways-
to-find-new-keywords-and-expand-your-ad-
words-presence/
• http://www.brandignity.com/2013/11/how-to-
get-creative-with-your-ppc-campaigns/
21Chapter Six: Pay Per Click Advertising
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CHAPTER SEVEN Reputation Management
The classic song goes, “I don’t care about my bad
reputation,” but that doesn’t apply to businesses
at all. Your brand is built on your reputation.
Negative press or bad word of mouth can destroy
you even before you properly establish your
business. The problem with bad press is that
almost everybody who is moderately successful
receives it at some point. When your reputation is
on the line, what do you do to defend your brand
The Proactive Approach
One option when it comes to reputation management
is to be proactive and make sure you stop bad
press before it even starts. This requires a lot of
effort in terms of identifying potential sources that
could harm your reputation and squashing them
before they start. You might need to make
alterations within your own company in order to
respond to issues brought up before they reach
wide circulation. Alternately, you can have your PR
team focus on keeping your brand in a positive light,
emphasizing ways it helps others and any
philanthropy your company might do. You
shouldn’t go on the attack and tear down other
brands too much, as this may lead people to
perceive you as a bully.
The Reactive Approach
For those companies that have less time or resources
to invest in proactive PR, the reactive approach can
often work as long as you stay vigilant. If you are
going to be reactive, you need to make sure you are
wired into the news as much as possible. Follow every
newsfeed that might connect to you so you know
exactly what others are saying about your company.
When a PR disaster does rear its ugly head, its time
to go into overdrive and make sure the problem is
addressed as quickly and effectively as possible. The
reactive approach is easier on company resources but
still requires a team of people who are very skilled
when it comes to communication so they can put
metaphorical fires out fast.
Using Active Content
Whether you choose to be proactive or reactive about
your reputation management, your greatest tool
“ Create a buffer between you and any negative material that might rear its ugly head.”
23Chapter Seven: Reputation Management
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is making sure you have lots of high-quality
active content that promotes a positive image
of your company. Some active content you can
consider includes:
• Let your customers get to know your employees as
people. Doing so gains you valuable empathy and
allows you to get the benefit of the doubt from your
customers when something bad happens.
• Generate active reputation content through press
releases that highlight the ways you are helping
your community and providing valuable services to
the public.
• Include employee profiles with pictures to show
your customers what kind of people work there.
The key to reputation management is to combat it
with preparation and content. The more you reinforce
the notion that you are a valuable asset to your com-
munity and the more you emphasize the personalities
of your employees, the better a chance you will have
of people giving you a moment to explain any lapses
or problems that might come up.
Additional resource:
• http://www.brandignity.com/internet-marketing-
services/online-brand-reputation-management
24Chapter Seven: Reputation Management
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CHAPTER EIGHT Email Marketing
What is the most effective form of online
marketing in the world? You might say SEO or
social media, but while those are important,
email marketing has been the best way to get
conversions for years. Not only is email marketing
effective, but its dominance in terms of conversions is
unlikely to change in the next few years. Because
of this, you need to make sure to have a strong
email marketing strategy. The tips below will help
you get started.
Gathering Email Contacts
Nobody likes to get unsolicited emails, so you will
need to make sure that you build your email list
from a group of people that specifically want to
hear from you. The best way to accomplish this is
to have a signup section for your email lists. This
can be as simple as a box on your landing page
that allows interested parties to put in their email
addresses. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to provide
incentives to get people to sign up. Offering coupons,
special deals, and other incentives is a good way
of making sure that people seriously consider
signing up for your emails. Let customers know
what sort of benefits your emails offer and you
will be very surprised at the positive response
you receive.
What to Include in your Emails
Once you’ve built your email list, what do you
offer? In addition to coupons, company news, and
the occasional employee profile, you can repurpose
certain parts of your website to make sure your
employees get the featured content you want
everybody to see. This can include blog entries or
even top stories that can be found on your homepage.
Yes, this might mean that your customers will be
less inclined to check certain parts of your website
if they can expect all the relevant content on a
regular basis, but you should remember the
conversion power of an email list. If you provide
relevant links alongside your content, your
customers are likely to click and return to
your website.
“ An oldie but a goodie. Email is still one of the most powerful forms of marketing when done right.”
26Chapter Eight: Email Marketing
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Promote your Content via Email
As a way to provide additional incentive for people
to sign up for your email list, you should provide
special content to those who have joined the
group. This can include previews of upcoming
information on your website, which gives your
most dedicated customers a sort of sneak
preview. It can also include special content that
people who aren’t on the list can’t access. If
you make this content multimedia, such as an
exclusive video or podcast, it becomes even more
desirable. This is a good way of turning your email
list into something exclusive that people always
want to become a part of.
Your email marketing can take many different
forms. No matter how you use the list, however,
it always represents one of the best ways to turn
casual readers of your website into regular
visitors and then into customers. Even in a
world of social media and mobile-friendly
websites, email still makes the world go ‘round
and is an extremely valuable marketing tool.
A few additional resources:
• http://www.brandignity.com/2014/01/8-email-
marketing-resolutions-for-2014/
Example of leveraging your blog content with email:
27Chapter Eight: Email Marketing
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CHAPTER NINE Content Marketing
It is well established that content is king,
especially with modern search algorithms such
as Google Hummingbird. But how do you go about
creating good, consistent content? Follow the
advice below and you will surprise yourself.
Blog Writing
Blogs are incredibly popular in this day and age
because they land in that sweet spot between
informative content and personal interest. If you
don’t currently have a blog section on your site,
you definitely need to add one right away. Ideally,
you should update your blog on a weekly basis at
least – preferably more. Once you have the blog
set up, consider bringing in the occasional guest
blogger for cross-promotion purposes and to provide
something new and interesting for readers.
Press Releases
Press releases are a good way of keeping your
readers up to date on the latest development
within your business, but they don’t have to be
limited to your website alone. When you develop
press releases, make sure you distribute them to
industry news sites so you can maximize your
exposure to readers. Press releases are usually
best when kept short and concise, with a maximum
length usually not exceeding 1,000 words unless
you have some extremely big news to share.
Articles
The meat of most websites is the article content
you provide. Your articles can cover a variety of
different topics as long as they remain relevant to
your brand. The ideal word count for these articles
is usually between 300 and 800 words, which
allows them to be informative without going on
too long. You should also make sure your articles
remain as timeless as possible, since they will be
on your site for the long term.
Videos and Images
We live in a visual society. People don’t mind
doing some reading, but they tend get much
more engaged when they have something to
look at. Videos are a good way of managing this,
“ Content marketing has proven to be one of the most important ingredients in online marketing”.
29Chapter Nine: Content Marketing
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especially considering that major streaming sites
like YouTube and Vimeo are constantly upgrading
their terms of use to make life easier for content
producers. If you want something visual without
getting on film, an infographic might be the way
to go. Infographics combine visuals with dense
information, giving you a great chance to educate
and inform. They are also easy to share and can
often go viral if you make them visually
appealing enough.
Downloadable Publications
Some content works best when people can
download it and take it with them on an e-reader
or smartphone. eBooks and white papers are both
good ways to provide quality content that can be
shared and distributed in a number of ways.
• eBooks are essentially regular books but in
electronic format. However, you should note that
they can be as long or as short as you want – a
10-page eBook can have the same impact as a
300-page manual.
• White papers are usually how-to guides but
sometimes contain other information. Both
of these are usually downloadable and can be
distributed off-site, so make sure your brand is
prominently displayed so people know where
they came from.
Everything currently done by every prominent
search engine out there is geared toward making
content marketing more important. If you can
follow these suggestions and build up solid content
now, you will be further and further ahead of
everybody else in the future.
A few additional resources:
• http://www.brandignity.com/2014/02/content-
marketing-strategy/
• http://www.brandignity.com/2014/01/5-secrets-
to-creating-really-responsive-content/
• http://www.brandignity.com/2013/11/5-inspir-
ing-content-ideas-for-your-blog/
30Chapter Nine: Content Marketing
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CHAPTER TEN Mobile Marketing
The percentage of users who access sales websites
via smartphones or tablets exceeded 50% in 2013.
This number is continuing to climb rapidly with no
end in sight. Because of this, no marketing plan is
complete unless it accounts for the mobile world.
You can provide the same content to mobile users,
but you need to make sure you customize the look
of your website so it can easily be accessed from a
phone or tablet.
Is your Site Mobile Friendly?
The first starting point in optimizing your website
for the mobile web is as simple as seeing how it
looks when viewed from mobile devices. Make
sure you test your site on both tablets and
smartphones so you can see what the different
screen resolutions do to your website. If you have
access to multiple devices, you should check your
site on those. For example, although an iPhone
and an Android Phone usually see a website in
the same way, they sometimes differ. The more
thoroughly you test your site, the more confident
you can be that it looks great on any device. If you
detect issues such as not all of the content
showing up appropriately, make sure you make
the necessary changes as soon as possible.
App Development
It’s very easy to develop apps for both the Apple
iStore and Android platforms. If you can think
of anything that can make your customers’ lives
easier, you should work to develop that into a
downloadable app. If you’re having trouble trying
to figure out exactly what you should develop, you
should consider looking at what others in your
field are developing. Don’t steal those ideas, but
do make sure you’re receptive as to what those
innovations do and how you might be able to
improve upon them. It’s usually best to offer new
apps for free, but if your development costs run
higher than you expect, you can consider putting a
price tag on it that can help your budget while also
being affordable.
“ More customers are accessing info on the go. Don’t forget about a mobile strategy”.
32Chapter Ten: Mobile Marketing
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Mobile Promotions
Mobile devices are rife with promotion possibilities.
You can:
• Provide downloadable coupons which provide a
discount either on your website or in a brick and
mortar store.
• Host “hot spot” events where people who gather
at a certain point get to download a special prize
or discount associated with your brand.
• Offer content that only activates if it is shared
successfully with a certain number of people.
The biggest benefit to mobile promotions is that
there is a lot of support from third parties, be it
a major name like Foursquare or a smaller
independent party. Find the promotion that fits
your business best and go to it. The response
you receive will almost certainly be impressive.
If your site isn’t mobile-ready, you are putting
yourself at great risk of falling behind your
competitors. If you’ve read any recent analytics
reports, you’ve almost certainly noticed a steady
increase in mobile traffic, so now is the time to
make sure you are ready to meet the needs of
those potential customers.
A few additional resources:
• http://www.brandignity.com/2014/01/how-to-
capture-offline-business-with-mobile-payment-
options/
• http://www.brandignity.com/2013/11/7-effective-
easy-mobile-seo-tactics-for-better-result/
33Chapter Ten: Mobile Marketing
Brandignity • info@brandignity.com • 866-250-4541 FREE WEBSITE ANALYSIS