Friday, July 25, 2008

Putting a Face to a Name: Developing a Company Brand

Posted by Ephran Price
By: Johnny Albertson

The business world is all about first impressions. If a customer likes what they see right away, they are likely to invest. This is what makes branding so important. Your brand is what consumers will initially encounter when introduced to your company. You want your brand to entice potential customers to dig deeper and further explore what your company has to offer. With any luck, they will like what they see!

How to Develop a Brand
Begin by identifying your target market. You branding strategy will depend heavily on this factor. For instance, you will choose different approaches depending on whether you are marketing to wealthy, retired men or adolescent girls.

The spending habits, interests, age, gender, education level, and many other factors will play into your branding plans. Similarly, your target market will also dictate where you make your brand visible. If a wide margin of you potential customers read the New York Times, you'll want to advertise there. If they are a more tech-savvy bunch, making your brand well known on the Internet will become a priority.

Once you know who you are trying to speak to, you have to figure out how. Decide what makes your company unique. What distinguishes you from the other guys? Why should a customer come to you instead of the competition? It is in developing those unique selling points that gives a face to your company.

Perhaps it is dependability, innovativeness, or creativity that sets you apart. Regardless of what it is, choose a couple of stand-out qualities and focus on them in the branding process.

Getting Your Brand Noticed
There are several ways to make your brand known to customers. The two main methods are the visual approach and the verbal approach. Any company would be wise to utilize both.

The visual approach involves a specific look to your brand that will be recognized no matter what the context. The best way to do this is through a logo. While it is helpful to have several versions of your logo to fit into different promotional settings, it is essential that a common "look" is maintained throughout.

Remember: what the eyes see, the brain remembers. Whether it be an identifiable font or a memorable graphic, the visual side of branding has become increasingly important in our media-saturated culture.

The verbal aspect of branding is directly connected to the visual. Sometimes they are one in the same, other times the words appear alone, away from the established "look." The wording involved in the brand becomes evermore vital when separated from the visual.

Choosing a good name for your company is part of the branding process. Be sure to choose a name that is descriptive. Don't get too creative with made-up titles that "sound cool." They might be pleasing to the ear, but they won't be remembered by the brain. Whether a customer sees the brand name with your logo or in a newspaper article in plain text, they should instantly recognize it.

A tagline can also be helpful in bolstering the brand. Taglines should always be short and sweet. Something clever or catchy will stick in the memories of customers the same way an attractive logo will.

Marketing With Confidence
You thought coming up with a brand was challenging, now try maintaining it. A devotion to your brand displays a devotion to your customers. It also shows that you have confidence in your product. Consumers will perceive that confidence and subconsciously internalize a feeling of trust for your brand.

It is that positive gut-reaction that you want. A creative, confident brand is generally the face on a creative and confident company, and that is something any customer will notice and remember.

Keyword Articles: http://www.keywordarticles.org


Johnny Albertson is a musician, blogger and writer. Visit his blog, Beatin' the Blues for more insights and pearls of wisdom. Johnny uses Article Marketer, an online article distribution service, to build a brand name for himself.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Set Smart Goals

GOAL SETTING IS A SKILL, and unfortunately, it's not something that's usually taught in school. Studies have shown that less than three percent of people actually write their goals down. And it's this SAME three percent who accomplish more than all the others put together.
If you want to get better at setting and achieving goals, here's an acronym that will help you focus and have more success reaching your objectives.

Set SMART goals.

SMART stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Action-oriented
Realistic
Timely

SPECIFIC. Achieving goals demands focus. Our mind needs specific targets to work effectively. It can't operate well with vague generalities. State exactly what you wish to accomplish.

MEASURABLE. Many people set goals they'll never know whether or not they've attained. "To be successful--to be more knowledgeable," aren't goals because there's no benchmark. Be sure to have measurable goals with a deadline.

ACTION-ORIENTED. It's much easier to measure things being done. What are the action-steps you’ll take in the process of achieving your goal?

REALISTIC. This is your call. What's realistic to you may not be to someone else. Your objective has to be within the realm of YOUR believability. If you can't envision yourself doing it, you won't.

TIMELY. A goal must have a target date. If you desire to make a million dollars, but don't set the timeline for it, it won't be motivating. A deadline too far in the future is too easily put off. A goal that's set too close is not only unrealistic, it's discouraging.

If you keep these things in mind as you plan your goals, you'll meet with more success and have more fun doing so.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

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Monday, July 7, 2008

Advice for the Beginner when Searching for an Internet Home Based Business Income Opportunity

by: Ephran Price
by: Leonard Bartholomew

Internet home based business income opportunities can be a great source of income. They allow a person to work at home, following their own schedule and making money through an already established system. For the beginner, though, they can be confusing and a source of frustration. There are some things everyone should know before requesting information about a home based business income opportunity.

One of the first things a person needs to know is that to find these opportunities all it takes is putting the phrase ‘internet home based business income opportunity’ in a search engine and clicking search. This will populate a mile long list of results. From there a person can simply start going down the list and requesting information from each opportunity. This, however, is a big mistake and one that the person will likely regret.

Requesting information from a home based business opportunity usually involves endless numbers of phone calls and emails. That is why requesting information is one of the last steps a person should take. Additionally, simply requesting information before ever reading about the home based business income opportunity then the person is wasting the time of the person who owns the business opportunity. When they make contact they are going to have to explain everything and if the person is not interested in even the basic concept then they’ve wasted their time that could have been spent growing and maintaining their business.

The best course of action when looking into home based business income opportunities is to first go about finding them in a more effective manner. This means instead of hitting up the search engine, a person should try to find representatives that are willing to talk to them and answer their questions. A person most likely knows people who are representatives of home based business opportunities that they can ask about their business. They can also follow banner advertising or links from websites.

Next after speaking with someone or reviewing the website completely, a person can request information if it looks like something they would be really interested in. This usually involves entering an email address, phone number and name. Then the person will be contacted either via phone or email. This allows a person to only speak to business owners that offer an opportunity that they are really interested in.

By going about finding an internet home based business income opportunity through this method a person will save themselves and the busy professionals plenty of time. They will be able to focus their efforts on finding business opportunities that really suit them instead of wasting time on the phone or emailing someone about an opportunity that they are not really interested in. It is a win-win situation for both the opportunity seeker and the business owner.


About the Author
Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science. Find all of the elements of an extraordinarily simple online home based business opportunity that you can prosper with.

Source: Free Blog Articles

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Google - Should you use text or graphics with Google Adsense?

By: MayBhisham

Google Adsense provides advertisers and publishers with the opportunity to place adverts in both text and graphic format.

As advertisers decide to put adsense into their website over banner advertising, the question still remains. Which is the best for advertisers and which is the best for publishers?

On one hand advertisers may feel that image adverts are more responsive yet less likely to stimulate a sale. On the other hand text adverts may convert more, whilst being less visible to the consumer.

Text based adverts are considered the least intrusive of the two formats. However does that mean that Graphic advertising is better? Consumers are used to graphic advertising from signing into free email accounts, and from using other web based services. Through being used to graphic advertising they have almost programmed their selves to ignore it. Through the adverts being untargeted, the consumer is used to brand advertising which they feel is generally less purposeful. This may cause the consumer to ignore the graphic advert from the assumption that it will be the same.

Text adverts are not forced upon surfers. Through being less obvious some people will not see them at all, however those who do see them, and read them are significantly more likely to click on them. This is for a number of reasons, but the first is that they provide more information. Generally, someone who is reading text on a page is not going to be fully satisfied by what they read, and if they check adsense adverts they will most likely read something which will further supplement whatever their intention is next. With an image advert, it is far more of a gamble for the surfer.

Graphic advertising is often paid per impression. This is because the advertiser may be trying to promote their brand, instead of promoting a specifically useful service. They therefore are assumed to have worse conversion rates, and with this text adverts are in the consumers eyes more effective. However, if the text contained within an advert was placed in graphic format, which would be the most effective? Well firstly it can assumed that the surfer will be more likely to view it, however if their were multiple image adverts appearing next to each other they may feel overwhelmed.

Graphic adverts are also harder to regulate. Let’s consider Google allowing adverts to be changed frequently and without regulation. The advertiser could claim affiliation from the website they are advertising on, and contain keywords such as “ipod” which cannot be contained within a text advert. Although more regulation and quality control could be in place, a pornographic image for example could be made to appear in an advertiser’s adverts unknowingly.

Text adverts also have a broader market appeal, as advertisers don’t generally have the in house resources to create an image advert, but do have the in house resources to write a text advert. This could mean that a wider array of advertisers find text advertising accessible, through text adverts being less burden on the advertiser, and being easy to change.

Text adverts are also cheaper for the advertiser to create, where as a graphically designed advert may cost in excess of $200. Through removing this fixed cost advertisers may be willing to allot a higher rate to advertising itself; thus benefiting the advertiser and the publisher.

Text advertising appears to be the preference of the advertiser. They pay a CTR (click through rate) and only receive targeted traffic. This removes risks from businesses that previously had to worry that adverts were not only seen, but clicked on and stimulating sales. As CPC (Cost Per Click) is more relevant to text adverts, advertisers are able to gain exposure without needing a high click through rate to be effective.

The big brands are willing to advertise in both formats however the broad market appeal of text inevitably makes it the winner. As flash websites disappear with image adverts, it is becoming clear that text and information is the preference of the website users.

Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips and hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to Google Adsense, do please browse for more information at our websites.

Article Source: http://www.ApprovedArticles.com


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