Category: Marketing

The power of social media can never be undermined in the age that we are living in. From people posting pictures of every meal they eat to any new endeavors that they have taken up – it is something that is trending and is here to stay.

With social media expanding majorly, so are new apps making their way into people’s lives. But, why is Facebook so hyped up? Why doesn’t any other social media app doing the same networking as Facebook is? Let’s explore more:

Why is Facebook a Hub for Networking?

From creating groups to posting things as your status, your approach to marketing can be as creative as it gets. For instance, you want people to spread the word about a new venture you’ve taken up. Gone are the days where word of mouth was a thing, and was reliable.

So, about your new venture, you can first start off by posting it as your status, giving a brief of what your venture is all about and sharing it amongst your friends. Now, this move will give your Facebook friends an update on what you are doing.

You could create a page for your new venture and share a few snazzy pictures – you can even use the trending hashtags so that people can relate to what they’re seeing.

You could ask your friends to share this page for your new venture – this way you are not limiting your circle to only your friends, but expanding to friends of friends. This could be considered promotion of the business on a minuscule level. But what you are really doing is spreading the idea of your new venture around.

Connections are Everything

Networking is key to get the word out there – and we mean it. It is imperative to make those meaningful connections with people to bolster the growth of your business. Let’s get to the facts – over two billion people use Facebook every month. With such high numbers as Facebook users, it becomes a lot easier to connect.

For every minute an average American spends on his/her phone, he/she is using either Instagram or Facebook. What better way exists than to use Facebook’s very own messenger to connect? With seamless communication with the right people, you will see your new venture booming into business.

Literally, everyone has the messenger installed on their phones. You can take advantage of this to maneuver your business in the right way. And it works the other way around too.

For instance, if your friend’s friend is interested in knowing more about this new venture, then all he/she has to do is ping on you on Facebook – that really is a start!

About Facebook Ads

With advertising on Facebook, what you need to consider is the people that you want to connect with are right there. Facebook offers a wide audience where you can relay the message and communicate with the right audience by capturing their attention in a way that might perk their ears up.

You can find your audience easily. What we mean is, you can cherry-pick your audience based on demographics, behaviors and contact information. This way you can easily know if your information is making the right impact or not. You can then improvise on your technique and methods to appeal to your audience in a better way.

Now that you have found your target audience, how do you keep them hooked? The hook is essential. Imagine if some content that you are interested in is available on the Internet, but it is presented in a drab or haphazard manner.

Would you still read the content with the same amount of enthusiasm as you had when you started off? We’d like to think not. So, to address such issues, Facebook ad formats are not only eye-catching, but they are also flexible and versatile. What we mean by this is that these engaging ads work on virtually every device and connection speed.

And, the best part? You can measure your results against what you started. You can use various ad reporting tools that Facebook has to see how the ads have made an impact. The reports for these ads are reader-friendly – the reports are visual and easily understandable at a glance. So, essentially, this platform makes it easier for you to know where you started off and where you stand currently – gives you a comprehensive analytics data of your page.

We’d consider such promotion and branding not only cost-effective, but also result driven. If you think that something is not working out in the right way, you can always tweak how you are promoting your business in a way to entice your target audience. You can always have break points in between to measure the impact so far.

Promote Virtually Everything

The traditional and conventional word-of-mouth does work when the audience is limited to a close circle. But, if you are aiming for promoting your business in a faster way, then you need to put your new venture out there and sell it in a way that tempts your audience.

And, this concept does not have to be limited to just a new business or a venture. It could be for selling your used stuff or even procuring what you are looking for.

So, don’t limit Facebook to just chat with your best buddies. Go on, and explore the world of Facebook in a way to give your new venture a definition.

About the Author

Sameer Panjwani is the Founder & CEO of Mondovo.com, an online marketing toolset that helps you track your rankings, monitor your site stats, and research your competitors. A man of many talents, Sameer is currently on a mission to help 1 million businesses grow organically through his products and services.

Facebook – https://facebook.com/Mondovo

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Mondovo

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/mondovo

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/MondovoSEO

When you’re more focused to build up a business with the involvement of all elements then you might think designing a logo is not so important. But you’re wrong it is.

A logo is a first to grow up your brand image and it gives an identity to your business. If your logo is strong enough, for sure nobody will stop you to touch the horizon.

Presently, there are a bunch of companies revolving here and there offering services like financial advisor branding, web development and digital marketing. But the truth is if your brand doesn’t have an attractive and proficient logo design, you lose the success. The proper and up to the mark logo design is only appreciated when you have in-depth knowledge of the context.

Most of you may confuse between logo designs, branding and identity design but all these aspects have a different meaning. At the end, their motive is same; they represent the true image of business or product. In almost all cases, logo is the first priority to understand business belongs to what. Suppose if you use a logo to represent financial advisor but that logo is more associated with restaurant then this will hurt the business’s present reputation.

Let see some logo design facts that impact on your brand image.

• A professional designer team to emit what is real
• A powerful logo influences customers
• Smart symbol in logo design can indicate the whole story of your business
• Bring the brand to the next level
• Perfect logo design leads traffic to a site

When a customer wants your business services, they first look at the logo. They will prior make an image in their mind about your business. Whenever you create a logo make sure that is unique and impressive at first glance of the user.

This defines every detail you have used in the logo design will put a heavy impact on your brand.

Color:

A coloful logo looks amazing in its own shadow. And as we all know colors can elicit feelings. The proven results show that colourful logo design puts more impression on potential customers. The research said, 84% of people make their decision on the basis of color you used to design a logo.

Symbols:

A logo is incomplete without the use of sign, mark or word that represents the motive of a business. The companies like sticky IT specializes in websites can guide you what is good for your brand. The English alphabets can also be employed in logo design and it can be a memorable design for users.

In the mad race of competition, go with innovative and classy looking logo designs. A logo is well presentable if it helps you to understand the main idea behind its building.

Google is indeed one of the most used as well as loved browser and trust me it is continuously going to evolve and yes the techniques which we use in will also upgrade and improve according to the time. Talking about the techniques of SEO for financial advisors and that too in 2019 is on its way to enhance their traffic so as to engage more of the customers to their invention.

The search engines which we are used to are customer friendly and intelligent as well because of which more of the traffic is getting involved with such search engines. Talking about the traffic which is received by the mobile device is huge as more than 95% of the people have this advantage of using a Smartphone, which makes it one of the most important aspects for you to make your business flexible enough to get load on a Smartphone as well!

Though this is just one of the appropriate method new trends are being used by the companies to beat their rivals! As we stay ahead in this New Year we have concluded some of the best SEO tips and tricks to make you stand still in this throat cut competition.

Let’s get started then!

1. Conduct an SEO Audit:  One of the best ways to stay ahead is to conduct an SEO audit especially when you are eagerly looking forward to optimizing your website. Though, it’s hard for you to fix every broken link without realizing about it.
2. Understand Consumers’ Needs: Another important aspect that some people might ignore is to understand the needs of the customer because it’s hard to enhance your popularity if you actually don’t know where to put your emphasis on. The thing which you can do to overcome this issue is to hold a feedback form or even take help from various social media platforms.
3. Get Mobile-Friendly: As discussed mobile devices are one of the most used smart devices which makes it quite clear why it is important for you to enhance the flexibility and the scalability of your website!
4. Improve Your Site Speed: Enhancing the speed of your website is a major concern as if you wonder that it can take up to 10 seconds for your page to load, then trust me you are very wrong and moreover just because of this reason you might have lost much of your clients. One must make it a point to get their website load within 3 seconds anything more than that is just not appreciated.
5. Use Local Listings and Local SEO: Yes, it is important for you to update your website according to the local SEO listening as still there are half of the audiences there who still prefer to visit a store.
6. Optimize Your Keyword Research: This might sound very traditional, but yes it is one of the most relevant tips which one must keep in mind, because if you tend to use irrelevant keywords then it might not reach to your targeted audience.
7. Use Compelling Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Using this tip helps you to enhance the quality of your content as if you don’t make your content informative and innovative it would be tough for you to reach it to your audiences. When you use an appropriate tag it makes your content more discoverable.

Read this blog for detailed information.

Branding is one of the most essential steps for the business irrespective of the size of the industry may it be a small scale or a large scale industry, and if you are eagerly looking forward to coming on top, then my dear this is indeed a magical potion for your business. The main reason why more of branding is encouraged is very simple as poor branding would not only degrade your reputation but also could spell disaster, especially for your sales.

But this is not what most of the industries understand and tend to neglect their online branding. The main thing which they don’t understand is that these techniques such as financial advisor branding techniques help the industry of financial advisory to highlight their main services thus improving the reputation of the company and the same goes for other industries as well.

Get rid of such tips would eventually let the progress of your company to slow down. So, to be your savior we have compiled this article with some of the most common mistakes that every industry should get rid of in 2019.

Common Branding Mistakes:

• Being Monotonous

Before putting your branding in front of your audience maker it a point to sit back and go through whether it is standing out or not! One of the most important steps that you must consider is to make your content look more attractive. The content that you provide must be specified to your particular service or product and talking about being generic, it must be avoided!

• Branding Which Doesn’t Suits Your Business

The second most important thing that you must consider is to make your branding according to the type of your business. The main reason why this method is suggested is that if you make it according to your industry it will help you to showcase the relevant content, eventually targeting the most relevant audiences.

For an instance, financial advisor branding is only relevant to the financial advisor industry which helps them to target the most relevant customers.

• Going With the Flow of the Trend

The other point to keep in mind while you are working on your branding is to make it look more fresh and modern, but this we don’t suggest you to solely follow the trend, but something out of the box would make it look perfect!

Use the type of branding which inspires you and makes you feel that yes, this is exactly what is required for the promotion

• Not Responding Well on Social Media

Social media platforms are one of the most crucial steps that one must look into, before moving any further. Most the consumer base which you will be receiving for your business will be from these social media platforms.

So, ask questions about your services respond to the queries of your customers and maintain a well-established relationship which your audiences.

Bottom Line!

Branding is necessary for the promotion of your business as it helps your services to reach to the most relevant audience and that too across the globe. The techniques which you must bring in use should not only reach to your customers but also should convert them into your trusted customers.

Writing is something which is known to be very important for your business or website, especially if you are looking out to enhance your online presence. But the problem arises here when you don’t understand where you should start and where you must end, this is where the website copywriting services come into play!

After all, it’s better for you to hire a professional rather than going on the right track because it will not only affect your online presence but will gradually be the reason for your revenue loss.

So, further, in this blog we will provide you with some good reasons that why one must hire a Professional Copywriter.

• A Professional Exactly Knows What to Highlight and Capture

When you hire a professional, you very well know that they are pro in their field, which makes it pretty obvious that the content they will be providing will be quality content, as they know what to highlight and capture.

• Say BYE-BYE to Grammar Issues

It’s hard for everyone to be skilled with their grammar skills; however, everyone is quite aware of the fact that web content must be free from mistakes. This is exactly where a professional website copywriter service comes into play as they are best with their skills of grammar.

• Professional Produces a Content Which Gets Results!

Your main objective to hire a professional is to get content which is best in quality, free from spellings and punctuation errors and to get the best ROI.

After all, that’s our main priority!

At sticky IT, with the help of the professional’s persuasive writing skills, you can easily sit and watch your business reach the heights of its potential.

Having a blog these days makes smart business sense. Providing content that relates to your market niche is an effective way to direct traffic to your website.

If people search for a product or service, it’s only natural that they would seek out the industry experts to gain the information they require. That eventually converts to more customers for you if you are the expert that’s providing this information.

The downside to this is that writing blog articles within your product niche can be exhausting and exhaustive. Eventually, you’re going to run out of interesting things to say, even if only temporarily. There are only so many blog articles you can write about health insurance before you hit a wall.

How do you keep your blog interesting and engaging enough that people still want to visit it month after month, year after year?

One solution is to go off topic and write articles that aren’t related to your products and services.

Cue the sound of braking tires.

It may seem counterproductive to go off-topic. It can be, if you stray too far from your niche. It would be strange and even disconcerting if a personal finance blog started writing about the latest hairstyles. 

If you keep the content relevant in some way, however, it can be beneficial in a number of ways.

It helps to grow your website traffic organically

We’ll use the example of a blog that specializes in mortgages. Sure, there are plenty of articles you can write about the different types of mortgages on offer but before long you might find yourself in a hole that’s pretty dry and not particularly exciting for the content creators of the content consumers. 

However, there’s a whole host of articles you could write that are not directly about mortgages, but that is relevant to those interested in the housing market.

Sticking with this example, think about the array of subjects that the average home-owner or potential homeowner might be interested in. There’s a world of topics to explore. 

Subjects such as home renovation, interior design, how to add value to your home, how to pick the perfect house, and how to save for a deposit are all going to attract people to your website without writing about mortgages directly. These are all interesting subjects that people want to know and read about, enticing them to your site and improving your brand recognition and thought leader status.

It’s a chance to be more creative

Going off topic gives you a chance to flex those creative muscles and create content with more style and personality. You can still be professional and reflect the tone of your business, but if your subject matter is personable and relatable then more people are going to be attracted to it. 

Adding a human touch will always endear people and create more loyal followers.

Keep things interesting for the creators

Another bonus of going off-topic is that it prevents you from getting bored of your own blog. This is something many people have a problem with once the novelty or initial excitement has lost its sheen. Too many bloggers give up blogging altogether at the first loss of interest. Those who persevere can become complacent, which leads to dull uninspiring articles.

Shaking things up keeps content creation interesting and more exciting for you as well as the audience that reads it. 

It attracts more customers

Many people will visit your website because they’re already interested in the products or services you offer. These customers may have arrived there after performing an internet search and may already be looking to buy. 

Blogging off topic, however, can help attract individuals that are not yet looking to buy your product or service but could be in the future.

As an example, the mortgage blog we talked about earlier could start producing articles about the rental market. People who rent properties are usually doing so until they can afford a mortgage. Writing content that’s relevant to them will turn them on to what you offer. They’ll be more likely to consider you in the future when they’re ready and able to buy their own house.

It can gain an increase in social media followers

Many content creators are seeking to write that one post that goes viral. True, a viral post can send your business into the stratosphere. It’s not easy to do though. And blogging within your niche limits the chances of it happening even more so.

Sharing a standard blog post about mortgage interest rates is unlikely to make the social media world explode. A helpful post on a connected topic, such as easy saving tips, is much more likely to get attention.

Going off topic broadens your audience. The more people you appeal to, the more they will follow you and share your articles.

So there you have plenty of reasons to go off-piste and start creating content outside your niche. Just remember to keep the content relevant to your target audience, if not laser-focused on your product or service.

At sticky IT, we can help you create interesting content for your Blog! Blogs are a great way to boost your SEO and make you a Thought Leader! Contact us to learn more !!

The Importance of a Logo and Branding

We often hear about the importance of logos and branding. What is the difference between the two and how can they affect your company’s image?

Your branding is the combination of graphics, colors, fonts, and images that help people identify your company, and identify with your company. It can extend to letterheads, internal forms, outdoor signage, uniforms, and more.

Your logo is the chief visual component of your branding. It’s the face of your company. It quickly becomes the single most recognizable thing about your company. Because it is scalable and anchors your branding, it acts as shorthand for your business throughout your advertising and promotional material.

It’s not enough to make your logo ubiquitous, however. You also need to make it good.

What Makes a Great Logo?

The best logos share several key elements. Yours should be:

• Appropriate to your business
• Memorable
• Uncomplicated (in form)
• Original

Why is your logo so important? Your logo represents your business.

Would you turn up to an interview, chair a crucial business meeting, or give an important presentation to clients without making some effort to be presentable? Now consider that your logo needs to be ready to do all of these things and more, 24 hours a day.

Branding – The Bigger Picture

You have a fantastic logo? Great! Many businesses sit back on the couch and grab the remote at that point. Don’t make that mistake.

If you have a well-balanced, evocative, memorable logo, but all the elements around it are amateurish and sloppy, what is the overall effect?

All graphical and typographical elements should look good alongside your logo. Your look needs to be consistent so that the messages you give to your customers and potential customers are cohesive.

The Effect of Your Logo and Branding

One of the reasons that businesses invest heavily in their logos and branding is because they have an instant psychological effect on customers and potential customers.

Consider that black logos suggests luxury and are popular with designer clothing and fragrance brands. Unsurprisingly, predominantly pink branding tends to be feminine, popular with brands from Barbie to Victoria’s Secret. Red and yellow in combination are known to make people want to eat, which is why so many fast food restaurants use these colors in their branding. Don’t believe us? Ask Google.

Your fonts convey messages too, both in your logo and throughout your marketing material. Solid, bold lettering, for example, suggests the solidity, authority, and strength of a business. This might work well for a legal firm, but is perhaps not so appropriate for a manufacturer of children’s fashion jewelry.

Add imagery appropriate to your values and your business and your branding can become even more powerful.

As well as instantly affecting the emotions of your audience, branding also works over time. As you build brand awareness, your look becomes familiar. This is good news. Do most people want to do business with a complete stranger or someone they are familiar with?

How to ensure that your logo and branding are the best they can be?

1. Think about your key values.

Your business may be diverse, forward-thinking, cutting-edge, caring, family-owned, and environmentally-friendly. Trying to say all of that through your branding, however, is likely to lead to over-complication. Your logo and branding need to be focused. If not, you risk confusing your potential customers by giving them too many messages at once.

Consider the top three things that you want people to know about your business.

Now eliminate two of them.

2. Create and Use Brand Guidelines

Your logo and branding need to consistent across platforms, whether print or online. Inconsistency makes your business look amateurish.

By creating a brand guideline document, you can make sure that any designer – whether freelance or in-house – will understand how to recreate your logo and your brand’s style.

Include information about your logo, including preferred size and placement. Also include the font or fonts that your company uses. If you use more that one font, explain when to use each one. Also add the types of graphics, imagery, and photos that fit your brand.

Your brand guideline doesn’t need to look polished if you only intend to use it internally. It needs to be clear, to contain examples, and to be accessible by any designer you work with.

3. Employ Professionals

Content is King according to many, but let’s not forget about presentation.

Amateur branding instantly and inherently makes your company seem amateurish. Professional designers know how to evoke emotions in viewers through colors, use of white space, placement of images, and much, much more. Graphic artists have the skills to elevate homemade logos to a professional level. Even if a designer gives your Microsoft Paint logo an extra 10% of credibility, that 10% can make the difference between amateur and professional, between sale and no sale. A professional touch can be just enough to make a new customer trust you over your competition.

With good quality branding, you are investing in your business. Your potential customers will either see that and appreciate it, or they won’t notice your branding much at all, which is far better than having them discouraged by common, unsettling problems with logo, layout, and typography.

4. Tweak and Update your Branding Over Time

Modern tastes and trends change, so your logo might need updating from time to time.

As logos evolve, they normally become simpler. Starbucks, Shell, and Nike, for example, have all taken the step of removing their names from their branding. Consider, too, Nike’s tick, or McDonald’s Golden Arches. This scaling back reflects not only modern tastes but also that these businesses have achieved a coveted level of brand awareness where the name of the company is no longer required for the company to be recognized.

This removal of the brand name won’t apply to most small businesses, but the move to simplify logos and to be increasingly recognizable is worth remembering.

If you still think that customers don’t care that much about your branding, think again. When PepsiCo rebranded Tropicana in 2009, loyal customers demanded that they return to the original packaging. And when Gap changed its iconic logo with its tall white letters on a blue square, Gap customers complained so ferociously that the company changed it back within a week, despite the millions of dollars it cost to do so.

Finally, it is worth considering that the main problem with PepsiCo and Gap’s rebranding was not poor design but, arguably, that they dramatically changed the branding without changing their products. Branding and imagery are important, but they complement a business. Also, the public is quick to see through a company that attempts to use its logo and branding to say something that isn’t true.

Like a firm handshake or a confident smile, your logo and branding make powerful impressions. They can convince customers to do business with you. Then it’s over to you to make sure that your business lives up to its promises.

The right branding can help your business achieve the recognition, authority, and success that it deserves. Get in touch to learn more about how we can help you with your branding and how great branding can boost your business.

Contact Dan Stark: dan@sticky IT.com to hear about sticky IT’s process in designing the over 500 Logos we have created to date for the Financial Vertical.

Altastreet

Good graphic / logo design does not create itself. It takes research, time, talent, and a lot of work. The web is cluttered with thousands of designers that flaunt quick turnaround and cheap prices – and quick and cheap is exactly what they provide. Here at sticky IT, we take pride in every graphic / logo design job that comes to our table, giving it the time and attention it deserves.

So what is the sticky IT design process? Each graphic / logo project goes through the following design process:

Research

In order to design for an organization in the financial industry, it is vital that we know who we are representing. Time spent researching before we design does three things:

• Ensures that our designs will accurately represent our clients
• Produces designs that are relevant to a target audience
• Saves time and energy by avoiding unnecessary redesign

Brainstorm

Each design project goes through a process of sketching, brainstorming, and evaluation before completion. Good design rarely comes quickly and easily. Our designers approach every project from multiple angles to ensure that the best results are achieved.

Listen

Client feedback is essential to a successful end product. Our designers discuss each design with the client, listen to the client’s feedback, and offer their professional opinion on any decisions to be made.

Finalize

Each design is finalized and produced to the highest quality specifications possible. Final designs are presented in a variety of file formats and sizes to meet client needs.