Author: Storm Bennett

The 9 Most Recognizable Commercial Jingles

Do you feel like your market is having trouble remembering your company’s name?

Have sales numbers been lagging as of late?

Are you concerned that your current marketing strategy just isn’t as effective as you’d hoped?

Maybe the solution isn’t to invest in social media influencers or spend hours writing blog posts that might not even get read. Instead, why not consider writing a catchy jingle for your company?

Jingles appeal to everyone, help people to remember your information, and they don’t have to get updated to get with the times.

Just think about some of the catchy commercial songs you remember from decades ago!

Read on for a list of the most popular commercial jingles ever, and get some serious inspiration for how to come up with an awesome jingle of your own.

1. Kars 4 Kids

Interested in donating your car?

If so, then you already know to call Kars 4 Kids, a nonprofit who helps to fund childhood education using cash from selling used vehicles — even those in rough shape.

The jingle is incredibly catchy, and it also includes the organization’s phone number and a brief description of the services they offer.

Effective jingles do exactly that — and it helps that the commercial also features children playing the instruments for the jingle themselves.

2. The Oscar Meyer Song

No list of catchy jingles would be complete without a mention of what is arguably the most famous jingle of all time:

The Oscar Meyer song.

The celebrated jingle was written in just an hour in 1962, and spurred many contests, imitations, and of course, sales for the company.

One of the biggest reasons for its success?

It was written by experienced jingle composer Richard Trentlage, who also created jingles for V8 and McDonald’s.

3. Empire Today Carpet

If you need your carpet cleaned, chances are you already know exactly who you’re going to call:

Empire Today.

The familiar “800-588” scale jingle gets stuck in your head almost immediately, and the bouncing animations of grey-haired men cleaning the carpet help it to stick around.

Jingles that include contact information are especially beneficial to smaller, niche businesses.

4. Huggies Diapers

With children everywhere desperate to prove to their parents that they’re “big kids now,” it’s no wonder that the Huggies pull-ups diaper’s jingle took off the way it did.

Plus, combine a catchy tune with adorable videos of babies waddling around, and you’ve got a recipe for instant success. The jingle is still used today, and has helped make Huggies one of the most popular diaper and baby brands of all time.

5. The Kit Kat Jingle

If you’re in need of a “break,” the Kit Kat’s commercial jingles urge you to find someone who will break you off a piece of their candy.

The jingle has been a popular hit since 1986, and usually features images of someone snapping off a delicious chunk of a Kit Kat bar. Chances are good that you won’t be able to resist getting a piece of candy after hearing the song.

6. Meow Mix

It’s tough to imagine how a company could make the sounds of cats meowing not only into a jingle, but also into a good jingle.

The creativity of the “Meow Mix” jingle is what sets it apart from the competition and makes consumers remember it so well. We’re sure that the cute images of cats and kittens certainly don’t hurt, either.

Interestingly, the company decided to retire the beloved jingle in 1996, but once they realized how much customers missed it, they decided to bring it back to the airwaves in 2012 — much to the satisfaction of cats who “want chicken” everywhere.

7. Doublemint Gum

Are you ready to double your pleasure and double your fun?

If so, then you already know that it’s time to reach for a piece of Doublemint gum. This iconic and lively jingle helped to make Wrigley’s an incredible success, and people certainly still sing the jingle today.

8. Folger’s Coffee

What’s the best part of waking up?

For coffee lovers everywhere, the famous Folger’s jingle reminded us that it’s “Folgers in your cup.”

Coupled with a close-up shot of the Folger’s coffee tin and a nice cup of morning joe, this is certainly one of the most well-recognized commercial jingles ever. It’s still used today and has had no problem standing the test of time.

9. McDonald’s

Are you “lovin’ it?”

Thanks to one of the most popular jingles from fast-food giant McDonald’s, the answer is probably “yes.”

Sure, other fast-food chains (think Subway’s “Five Dollar Footlong” jingle) have created some pretty catchy tunes over the years. However, nothing quite comes close to the familiar five-note intro to McDonald’s, “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle.

The best part of the jingle?

For many, it’s the little-known fact that Pusha T wrote it.

Ready for Commercial Jingles of Your Own?

While this list of popular commercial jingles has no doubt been a fun trip down memory lane (and has gotten at least one jingle stuck in your head) we hope it’s done more than just that.

You should stop to consider just how much of a long-term impact jingles can have on a brand, and how they can set you apart from your competitors.

Are you interested in developing a jingle for your company to run on the radio or online?

If so, then we want to help you make it happen.

Reach out to us to learn more about our jingle-writing process, and get ready to have everyone signing your company’s tune.

Your Guide to a User Friendly Website

People are busy, always on-the-go while looking for the next big thing. Consumers expect companies to keep up with their needs. Otherwise, their digital experience won’t fit in with their life in the real world.

So how do you give customers what they want?

With a user-friendly website, you can make your customers’ lives a lot easier. UX design could also boost your business.

According to research, a well-designed user interface could increase conversions by 200%. Meanwhile, a better user experience design could increase conversions up to 400%.

By now, you’re probably wondering what user-friendly web design entails. Keep reading to discover what makes a good website through user-friendly design.

1. Start Responsive

Most people keep up with the world from their smartphones.

According to research, 61% of site users will choose a competitor’s mobile-friendly site over one that’s not. Meanwhile, 45% are less likely to visit a site a second time if they had a poor user experience.

To develop a user-friendly website, you first need to keep your mobile users in mind.

Make it easier for people to use your website from their smaller screens. This can include creating a mobile-friendly or responsive site.

To optimize for mobile users, keep navigation, font sizes, and buttons in mind. Photos and videos should all scale for smaller screen widths.

Otherwise, your mobile users will end up pinching and zooming out, trying to see your content.

2. Simplify the Nav

People can’t explore your website if the navigation is difficult to use.

For a user-friendly website, simplicity is key. Make sure the navigation is easy to use and understand. Try not to complicate the nav with multiple tiers, either.

Instead, minimize the number of sub navigations you use. Make sure each page is named appropriately and clearly. That way, your site visitors can get around without struggling.

3. Show Your Logo

How will site visitors recognize your website is yours?

Branding is also an important component of user-friendly web design. People expect to see your logo in the top left corner. They should also have the ability to click on the logo to return to the homepage.

For additional branding, keep your color scheme and imagery in mind.

Keeping branding consistent throughout the design will help avoid confusion. If people switch from one page to the next and encounter a completely different design, they might think they’re on a different website.

Branding helps improve user experience by creating a seamless path from one page to the next.

4. Speed It Up

30% of consumers expect a website to load in one second or less.

If it takes forever for your pages to load, people might leave. After all, they’re busy. When one website takes too long to load, they’re likely to leave and take their business elsewhere.

Use this tool to test your website speed. The site will also give you recommendations so you improve your site speed. For example, you might consider using Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).

AMPs follow a set of standards meant to improve the mobile web experience.

AMP helps speed up your pages by optimizing your content. This feature is best for websites that don’t require additional javascript or sophisticated functionality.

If your website is a little more complicated, you can create a Progressive Web App. These pages create an app-like experience for mobile users. The web page will look and feel like a mobile app without directing users to the app store.

Both of these page types are designed to improve user experience by speeding up that experience.

5. Set Up Search

Make it easy for your visitors to find what they’re looking for.

Set up search functionality on your site. Most user-friendly websites display the search bar in the top right, above the navigation.

Adding search functionality will streamline the user experience. Instead of wasting time searching through pages one by one, your visitors can immediately find what they need.

Great websites that simplify the user experience also show site visitors your company is ready to help.

6. Clarify CTAs

Your CTA, or call-to-action, clarifies what you want people to do on that page. For example, you might want visitors to fill out a form or call your company.

Placing visible CTAs on the page will help you direct your visitors to take action. When you make the CTA clear (and easy to find), visitors won’t have to wonder about what you want them to do.

Use an eye-catching color for your CTA button.

Meanwhile, make sure the button also resizes for mobile devices.

7. Clear Up the Content

Seeing a lengthy paragraph will make your visitors tired before they start reading.

Instead of giant blocks of text, break it up. Try to condense each paragraph to a few sentences, or shorten your sentences. You can also use headings, subheadings, and bullets to break up the text.

Reorganizing your text will improve readability.

Since people are always in a rush, making the text easier to skim and digest will keep your site visitors from leaving.

8. Balance It Out

Once you improve the text for your user-friendly website, consider your imagery.

It’s important to create the right balance of high-quality images and text. Otherwise, you could risk overstimulating your visitors.

Stay careful not to overcrowd the page. Many companies are moving toward minimalistic design. This design uses more white space, allowing the content to breathe.

9. Make It Easy to Share

Use social media to your advantage. Make it easy for visitors to share your site content.

To do this, add social sharing buttons to your content. Making it easier for visitors to share your content will invite new customers to your site.

10. Add Accessibility

Accessibility for disabled, blind, or elderly users is important as well.

Consider following these guidelines to improve your web design for these visitors. That way, your site is easy to use for anyone who visits your site.

Website Goals: 10 Tips for a User-Friendly Website

Give the people what they want! With these tips for a user-friendly website, you can improve the user experience for anyone who visits your site. The better the user experience, the more likely visitors will become paying customers.

Why Your Business Needs an Inbound Marketing Strategy

Let’s bring it in! Inbound marketing (also known as content marketing) allows you to increase traffic to your company’s website. Once you attract visitors, you can engage and delight them with your content.

When done right, an inbound marketing strategy allows you to turn website visitors into paying customers.

Better yet, you can encourage those customers to come back for more through brand loyalty.

In fact, inbound marketing through content costs 62% less than outbound marketing and produces three times as many leads.

Still on the fence? Keep reading to learn the six benefits of developing your inbound marketing strategy.

1. Inbound is More Effective Than Outbound

Outbound marketing strategies such as flyers and billboards aren’t going anywhere. While they can help you increase brand awareness, these tactics aren’t always effective.

Think about it. Flyers go out to anyone within a certain location. That means you’re not targeting your ideal customer.

Then, you have to hope the message sinks in. Even with a strong call-to-action (CTA), there’s no guarantee people take action. If they do, how do you know that lead came from that flyer?

Sometimes, outbound marketing strategies come off as interruptive and annoying.

Think about the last time you watched Hulu or a show on TV. The commercials distract from the show you’re watching, just to make a sale.

Since you can’t always match an outbound campaign to the right audience, some of the ads end up irrelevant to the people who see them.

An inbound marketing strategy, on the other hand, allows you to choose a more effective route.

Instead of interrupting someone’s experience, inbound marketing strives to help make the consumer’s life easier. By creating content your audience wants and needs, you’re showing customers you’re an informative resource. This also creates a more authentic experience for your customers.

The precise targeting also ensures companies avoid wasting their marketing budget.

Instead, you can find your ideal customer and show them your expertise through your inbound marketing strategy.

2. Target Throughout the Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s journey moves from awareness to consideration to decision. Before your website visitors becoming paying customers, they go through all three steps of this journey.

With an inbound marketing strategy, you can guide people along their buyer’s journey.

With a billboard, you only have one chance (and a few seconds) to make an impact. With inbound marketing, you can target potential customers along every stage of their journey.

For example, let’s say someone visits your website. Maybe they put an item in their cart, then leave. With remarketing, you can show them digital ads of that same product.

Then, you can remind them to return to your website to complete their purchase.

In this example, the prospect starts with awareness—they know about your product. They consider buying your product, but instead abandon their cart. With remarketing, you can spark awareness again, then help the consumer to the decision-making step.

If you don’t have an e-commerce site, the useful content on your website can also guide site visitors along the buyer’s journey. Blog posts and case studies can answer questions, inform consumers, and direct them toward the decision to call your company.

Either way, you’re directing a site visitor straight towards a sale.

3. Continuously Build Your Audience

With inbound marketing, the goal is to attract prospects and convert them into leads. Once they’re interested, you want to close the sale and turn a lead into a customer. Finally, you want to delight customers so they help promote your product.

Inbound marketing uses a number of tactics to help you build this audience.

During the “Attract” stage, you can use blogging, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and advertising.

Then, you can use a form or chatbot on your landing page to convert visitors.

Email marketing and CRM integration can Close the deal. Then, surveys and referral programs can Delight customers into becoming promoters.

4. Personalization Pays Off

34% of consumers are more likely to make an unplanned purchase if a brand personalizes content.

With an inbound marketing strategy, you can split your audience into buyer personas. These personas make it easier for you to personalize content per their interests.

Traditional marketing uses a “one message fits all” approach. With inbound marketing, you can focus on customers at a more personal level. This makes it easier for you to build trust with your prospects and turn them into customers.

5. Save Time and Money

Don’t waste time with leads that don’t have any interest in your business.

With an inbound marketing strategy, you can focus on the people already searching for your product or service online. These are people who want to buy already.

Inbound marketing allows you to attract these prospects to your website.

Instead of wasting time pushing a product or service they don’t need, you can attract people who already want what you offer. This makes it easier for you to attract qualified leads using content that aligns with your audience’s needs.

Inbound marketing also uses automation. You can automate tasks to save yourself time and money. These tasks include email marketing, social media posts, monitoring, and reporting.

When you save time and money marketing, you can spend more time and money on what matters: your business. As a result, you’re able to increase your ROI and compete with bigger companies in the industry.

6. Measure the Success

You can’t accurately measure a flyer or billboard’s success to boost brand awareness.

With inbound marketing tactics, however, all the data you need is a click away. You can generate reports and measure the success of your campaigns. Then, you can make informed decisions for improving campaigns in the future.

With inbound marketing, you can also set goals and milestones. If you’re falling short, you have the data in hand to show you want needs improving.

Bring It In: 6 Reasons You Need an Inbound Marketing Strategy

It’s time to bring in new business. With an inbound marketing strategy, you can attract, convert, and delight your customers. Then, you can optimize your campaigns for continuous success.

Stand out from the competition. Contact us today to grow your company using an inbound marketing strategy!

Marketing Basics for Business

Marketing for a business in today’s world is, without a doubt, more demanding than ever before. The days of merely listing a company name and number in the phone book are over. Nowadays, it is almost expected of companies to market themselves everywhere. Whether that be by word of mouth, on television, social media, advertising out in public, or all over the Internet. To create a thriving business and client-base, it’s important to make sure your business is well marketed. Below are a handful of tips to start promoting and marketing your business.

Establishing Identity

A crucial element to stand out in a marketplace among your competition is finding a unique identity. A common way for people to recognize a company is by the company’s logo and color scheme.

Deciding exactly what your company stands for is the first step. Making your company’s core beliefs and mission as clear as possible is necessary. You need to show why consumers should choose you over competitors. Allowing your brand to develop a personality can help consumers easily relate to you and remember your company.

Knowing Your Audience

You should be creating different content for your audience. This should be based on whether they are old or new customers, or if they’re not sure. Taking the time to get to know and understand the demographics, interests, and niche of the market that you are trying to appeal to is crucial for success. You want to make sure that the content that is being created is targeted toward the appropriate audience. Remaining relevant and valuable to your audience is important to remember.

Website Creation and Maintenance

In today’s world, it is very important for a successful company to have a website. Think about it. People nowadays go straight to Google to learn about things that they want to know more about. Whether it’s to find new restaurants in the area, a place that sells a specific type of light bulb, or even to find a place for your child to go to daycare, the Internet is the fastest way to find the answers that people need. With a website, people can look up information anytime, anywhere, and not have to wait until regular business hours. Having a presence online makes it much more likely for customers to trust you. Making sure that the website has a modern, easy-to-navigate, and mobile-friendly layout will promote more frequent visits. This allows the opportunity for new customers to jump on board.

The website should be navigable enough to allow anyone that visits the website to be able to find any information that they might be looking for. This may include details about the business, products and/or services being sold, and even contact information. Providing this information in a clean and organized manner allows users to obtain a sense of how professional and credible your business might be. This allows customers to decide whether or not they’d like to learn more.

Social Media

Getting into the swing of social media and how to use it appropriately as a business or professional can be tricky. One mistake that businesses often make when starting on this journey is diving in too quickly, all at once. Starting with one simple Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram profile to let consumers know that you exist is a great start. Getting your name out there on your social media platform of choice is a great way to introduce your business to so many potential new client opportunities. Hiring a social media manager may end up being a great option. This would ensure that posts are scheduled to be shared regularly (perhaps weekly, if possible).

Social Media Content

What kind of content is necessary to share on social media? Every business takes a bit of a different route. One of the more popular options is using social media as a platform for customer service. Through the use of Twitter, customers can directly reach out to you. They can ask any questions or concerns that they might have, and feel like they’re speaking to an actual person. Not just some automated machine or bot. Social media may also be used for promotional purposes. Even so, it is very important to not overdo this side of things. The last thing you want is for people to feel overwhelmed with ads and promos that seem like spam. Having a nice balance of the content shared on a business social media page is very important for this marketing strategy to be successful.

These marketing tips are an easy way to build a client base (or grow your current one), engage customers, make your business more readily accessible, and to stay relevant. Although these are not the only options that are available to market your business, they are a great place to start!

Have any questions? Contact us today!

Desktop vs Mobile Advertising

People checking mobile and desktop devices

Smartphones are here to stay. 257 million Americans had a smartphone in 2018, and that number is only going to rise as the years go by. People do everything on their phones; text and call each other, browse social media, read books, and surf the internet. Finding a way to advertise to those users can go a long way to spreading brand awareness. But there are some key differences between internet advertising on a computer and advertising on a mobile device. Let’s go through desktop vs mobile advertising.

Real Estate

The biggest difference between mobile devices and a personal computer is the available space. With a computer, space is hardly ever an issue. Even with the smallest laptops, full-screen browsers offer plenty of space to display menus, banners, navigation tools, and columns for text. Mobile devices are another story. Even with a tablet, the available space for different compositions is limited. Keeping in mind how your website or ad will be displayed on a phone or tablet will help improve reactions to your brand.

Try to keep your call to actions simple on a mobile page. One link to a cart or a contact page is more than enough for a mobile page. Keep the text to one column and make sure it scales for mobile. There’s nothing quite as annoying as having to zoom in and out of a text, scrolling across the page, just to read it.

Optimization

While utilizing the available real estate and space you have for mobile, it is also vital you optimize your page for mobile users; or use a mobile-specific page. Many websites’ navigation relies on mouse hovering, holding your cursor over a link to show more menus. This doesn’t exist on mobile. There are no cursors, only fingers. Having a system that relies on something not there is only going to annoy and frustrate users.

Videos

Videos are another sticking point with mobile users. Many websites will load a video when users access the site. Maybe it’s a news story, maybe it’s an ad. Whatever it is, it must load. This isn’t a problem with a computer over Wi-Fi. Wireless internet is pretty fast nowadays, so bandwidth isn’t a big deal for some at home. Using mobile data, however, is not as quick. You have limited bandwidth on mobile and having a video load right out the gate may slow down site load times.

Adobe Flash is installed on close to 90% of computers, so designing an ad running on flash isn’t a terrible idea for desktop. But for mobile, flash isn’t nearly as popular. It runs only on a few versions of Android operating systems and is completely banned by iOS. That means if you have an ad based on flash, anyone using Apple products won’t see it.

Know Which Ads to Use

Knowing what types of ads to run when interacting with mobile users is crucial. Most people, while using a computer, are sitting down, focusing on the screen in front of them. Often, they’re working or doing something that needs a computer specifically. Longer ads work well here because they’re captive audiences. Mobile usage is different. Users are more likely to use their mobile devices in between activities that require their attention. Browsing social media on the train during their commute, texting a friend while in the waiting room of an appointment, shopping online while on their couch during a commercial break. Mobile devices have used a distraction for most, something to fill downtime with. Keeping your ads short for mobile is ideal. If it’s too long, people might get bored and move on.

Conclusion

There are some key differences between desktop and mobile marketing. Being aware of these differences and knowing how to utilize the advantages and avoid the disadvantages is important. Having a mobile-optimized site is ideal. This way you can take advantage of the benefits of both formats without having to tip-toe around the detractions of the other format. You can tailor ads for the focus you get from a computer user and use the higher interaction rates of mobile users. If you have any questions, contact us here!

The Importance of Jingles

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head all day? You whistle it out every time you stop at a street light? Well, that’s the power of an effective jingle. We all know some iconic jingles; McDonald’s, State Farm, Subway, Kit Kat, songs that have become ubiquitous with the brands that have used them. I’m sure everyone reading this can whistle “I’m Lovin’ It” off the top of their head. And maybe now you have a craving for a Big Mac. Good jingles can do that for a company. So having a good jingle is a crucial step. Let’s look at the importance of jingles in advertising.

Why you should be utilizing Jingles in your advertising

It leaves a lasting impact

Jingles have the benefit of being memorable and entertaining. They aren’t someones disembodied voice talking to the audience. Music, and by extension jingles, is personal. It invokes emotion and can grab people’s attention. Good jingles are catchy and memorable. They can stay with you for the rest of the day after just one listen. If you fail to capture the audience’s attention, then your advert can fall flat and be unremarkable for the consumer.

Choosing the right song

It’s no secret that music can affect one’s emotions. Picking the right song that conveys the right emotional notes for your brand is crucial. If you find the jingle annoying, you can almost guarantee the mass audience is going to find it annoying as well. The jingle will be associated with your brand. If it makes people feel angry or sad, then those emotions are going to reflect on your brand or product. Picking a happy, easy-going song can help improve your audience’s reaction to your song.

You can also go the route of picking a snippet of a song by a band you like and using that for your campaign. Honda did this a few years ago when they released their latest model of the Civic. Set to Empire of the Sun’s “Walking on a Dream” the commercial was a hit. I would suggest, if you go this route then you should avoid overly popular songs. These songs are played over and over again on the radio and can grate on some listeners. You don’t want to be associated with that fatigue.

Helps with Brand recognition

We all know some iconic jingles: The Old Spice whistle, McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ it”, Rice Krispy’s “Snap, Crackle, Pop,” and we can probably all break off into song on the first note. We associate those jingles with the brands, and even if you don’t eat McDonald’s or use Old Spice, you’ll think of them as soon as you hear the jingle.

If you pick a song, then hopefully every time someone hears that song they’ll think of your brand or your campaign. The song can even come to represent your brand, giving you an iconic sound. Which will be associated with your brand or company for years to come. Every time someone hears that song or the first notes of your jingle, they’ll think of you.

Conclusion:

The importance of jingles can not be understated. Jingles are still very relevant in today’s radio advertising world. Having an effective jingle can help increase brand awareness and recognition. Finding the right jungle for you is important, so don’t take the matter lightly. If you get it wrong, then your brand could end up being associated with negative feelings. If you get it right, you could end up with an iconic sound just for you. Using music to express emotion is a powerful tool in a company’s arsenal. If you have any questions about the importance of jingles or want help writing your very own, contact us here!

jingles Marketing radio TV

Reach of Radio

Radio is a timeless source of entertainment for all ages in the United States. As such, radio is also an important vehicle for advertising. Earlier I’ve written about some tips to get your message to the largest amount of people. Now I’m going to write about the commercial reach of radio.

Who’s Listening?:

Radio reaches more than 243 million American adults each month. That’s about 96% of US adults listening to the radio at some point each month. Every week, 94% of adults listen to the radio. This has been true for a number of the past few years and is comparable to the 94.9% that listen to the radio in 2001. These numbers haven’t changed much over the years, even with the introduction of iPods and music streaming. So it’s reasonable to assume they won’t change anytime soon.

If we break it down further by generations, we can see some of the specifics of demographics. 95% of Millennials listen every month. 97% of Gen Xers and 98% of Boomers listen to the radio weekly. 44.6 million Hispanics and 34.5 million African Americans listen to the radio each month (96% and 97% respectively). Radio reaches most Americans regularly, whether it be driving in the car, listening at work, or having it on at home.

According to reports, those who are more educated and have a higher annual income, listen to radio more often. As you move from not working to working, levels of education, and average annual income, the higher percentage of people listen. For example, 71% of working people in the survey listen to the radio, compared to 61% of non-workers. 74% of degree-holding people listen to the radio, 62% of those with some college, and 56% of those with no college. On the salary side of things, people who make less than 25k have about a 50% listening rate in that demographic. 61% of those in the 25k-$44.9k range, 68% of those in the $45k-$74.9k range, and 75% of those in the $75k+ range.

Why do people listen to the radio?

Finding why people listen to the radio is helpful information when you begin crafting your ad campaign, but the answers tend to be less than helpful. Targeting a popular DJ is always a good shout for a consistent audience but surveys show that only about 24.5% of people listen to the radio for its DJs or show hosts. Most people listen to the radio because it’s free and convenient to listen to in the car. About 57% of the 18-34 demographic listen because it is free. That number rises as you get older with 61% and 66% in the 35-54 and 55-75 age groups respectively. There’s no single reason why people listen to the radio. 200 million people listen to the radio every month for a variety of reasons. Here’s the full list from Deloitte.

Conclusion:

TV and Newspapers have struggled in recent years, but Radio has stayed relatively consistent. The TV has seen a 50% decline in viewership from the younger demographics in the past few years, and newspapers as a medium are struggling. Radio doesn’t have these problems, and it’s just as relevant now as it was 20 years ago. That means it’s still a viable platform for advertising and marketing. Any more questions? You can contact us here!

radio radio commercial production reach

Hashtags and Digital Marketing

Social media is an important part of our world. Utilizing the platform in your business is also an important task. But how do you use the hashtag in digital marketing? We first have to start with what a hashtag is. Hashtag is the name for the pound sign (#) in the social media world. It began being used as a “hashtag” by Chris Messina in 2007 on twitter. Its purpose is to group posts and other content into easily accessible pathways for users. It is called a “hashtag” rather than “pound sign” because “pound sign” in the UK refers to “£” rather than “#” which is called “hash,” “gate,” and sometimes “octothorpe.”

Today the hashtag is almost ubiquitous with social media, being embraced on almost every platform ranging from Twitter to Instagram to Facebook. The hashtag has entered the cultural zeitgeist, it’s been embraced, it’s been parodied, and it’s been used in everything from disaster relief to weddings to advertising. This means that the hashtag is incredibly useful for online advertising and social media engagement, but how do you use it? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out; here are some tips to utilizing hashtags in your digital marketing.

1. Find the right words for your brand

A Hashtag is a word or set of words that can easily group things. They act as a keyword that people can use to search for tweets and posts related to whatever it is they’re interested in. That means that the words you choose as your hashtag are vitally important to its response from social media. Using big words, more than a couple, or difficult to spell words could hamper engagement and response.

Picking a word related to your brand, product, or service is also important. Some companies have it easier here than others. For example, all Coca-Cola need to do is throw a #coke at the end of a tweet and they have an instant engagement platform. It’s simple, and it’s synonymous with their product to the point that any tweet containing it will immediately hearken back to Coca-Cola.

2. Engage with Trending topics

Engaging with the topics and trends that are popular at the moment is a great way to find expand your brand influence. Find a trending hashtag that relates to your brand or service and engages with it. Using these trending topics are a great way of spreading your brand to more customers. These topics are relevant to people’s lives at that moment, so if you can engage in a way that is also relevant or promote your product when they are thinking about the problem it solves, you can leave a lasting impact on them.

3. Keep it simple.

As stated above, keep your hashtag short, the more words, the harder it is to read. With multiple words, capitalizing each new word is a good way of signifying the breaks between words. This makes your hashtag easier to read and less confusing for the consumer. Keeping it simple also means limiting the number of hashtags in each post. One or two, maybe three, but the fewer number of hashtags in a post the better and more sharable it is. #Putting #a #hashtag #before #every #word #is #annoying #to #read, and will put consumers off. The simpler the hashtag and the post, the easier it is for people to share.

4. Incentivize.

Use your hashtags to promote a deal or giveaway your doing. Give people a reason to use your hashtag, and thus do your advertising for you. A solid discount on a service or a product for using the hashtag or engaging with your social media can a long way in getting a response.

5. Engage with your audience.

A hashtag gives you a way to connect with people talking about the same thing, so actually, talk with them. Listen to what they’re saying, respond and craft your next campaign to utilize the feedback you’re given here. Coming up with a hashtag and making a post is an easy part, now you get to do the leg work and respond to it. They’ll engage with you for a reason, maybe it’s just as simple as saying they like your product. Maybe they’ll tell you something you can do better. Be open and willing to adapt and you can go a long way.

Conclusion

Social media is a platform that grows by the day. It has its customs and language. Being able to utilize those things are an important part of making the most out of social media. Nothing is more ubiquitous with social media than the #hashtag. The hashtag is a part of modern culture and knowing how to use it to its fullest potential can give you a leg up in expanding your business and brand. Keep these things in mind the next time you start a social media campaign. If you have any questions, contact us here!

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Radio vs Digital Marketing

Pros and cons of Radio and Digital Marketing

What is the most effective form of marketing for your company? Digital marketing vs Radio marketing? Well that’s really a question only you can answer, but here I will break down some pros and cons of each medium to make that decision easier.

Radio vs Digital Marketing

Pros:

Radio:

A proof advertising on radio is that you can target a specific audience with your ad. Radio stations often have a specific demographic that it caters to. If your target demographic matches the one a radio station serves to, then you can easily reach by purchasing ad spots on the station.
With the right timing, radio advertising can be relatively cheap. If you know the demographics your targeting and what station cater to it, advertising during off times can be cheap and effective.
A radio ad is more personal than an internet banner ad. With radio, you can tell stories, personally talk to the listener, which makes you more memorable and favorably received.
Advertisements can be easily made. Radio ads can be as simple as a 30-second copy you pay the radio station to read for you. The more produced your ad is, the better returns you’ll find, but simple is still effective.
Since radio ads are relatively easy to produce, the turnover time on ads can be quick. Going from idea to finished ad on air can be a short process if it’s not overly complicated of an ad.

Digital:

Digital marketing can reach a massive audience. The internet is a global infrastructure, and buying ad space on the web can reach a global audience.
When you advertise online, you have faster response rates to your service. When someone sees an ad that his helpful to them, they’ll often go immediately to that website. If you answer their problem, then you’ll have their business rather quickly.
Helps you expand your customer service. If you advertise or have a presence through social media then you can interact with customers at a near-instantaneous rate. Answer a customer concern, posting an update on your page, or responding to a comment builds a relationship with customers and brings you into a favorable light in their minds. Relationships mean repeat business and brand loyalty which can drive future sales.
Online marketing is fast. It doesn’t always have to be a banner ad or a side ad designed professionally. Sometimes just posting a promotion on your social media is enough to get people talking about your company. Just Chipotle tweeting something like “free burritos today” or something of that sort, will see interactions with their brand rise exponentially for that day

Cons:

Radio:

Radio spots during peak hours can be expensive because stations know they reach the most people. There is a reason for the price, as these spots are the most effective ones and where you’ll see the most return on your money, but they’re expensive nonetheless.
Not every product will thrive on the radio. Certain products and services either can’t be sold on audio alone. Services that answer problems listeners might be facing on their drive home from work do the best with radio advertising. This is especially true for places like restaurants that answer the question “What’s for dinner?” Keep in mind that when you decide to advertise on radio
Some radio listeners block out the radio or change the channel when ads come on. This is hardly surprising, people use the radio as background noise, or only want to listen to music, no matter the music. When the ads come on they’re either not listening or they change the channel and don’t even hear your ad. Repetition is one way to fight this, and is essential for any successful radio campaign, read this post to learn more about it!

Digital:

Digital marketing is going to take up a lot of your time to keep up with it. Staying on top of all the comments and questions, and making sure your social media is up to date and engaging with your customer base can be a time drain. It may not be expensive to start a digital campaign, but it can sure take up your time during the day.
You lose some control. When you advertise on digital platforms, and especially on social media platforms, you’re at the mercy of those platforms. Algorithms can bury your ad if it doesn’t create enough interaction (or if you didn’t pay enough) which creates a negative feedback loop, just pushing it down. If a site or platform goes down for whatever reason, then you no longer have it to advertise on, and if you lose internet service or power for a day, then you’re no longer able to engage with your customer base.
First impressions matter more here than in some other places. You have mere seconds to leave a favorable impression on someone online, if you fail then they’ll move on and forget about you. You have to be captivating and enjoyable in those first few instances, which can be difficult to get right.
There can also be some negative reactions online. Some people can be annoyed with your ads, sometimes they might feel wronged by you for whatever reason, or they can just be there to mess with you. This is a fact of working on the internet, and can sometimes have a negative impact on your perception online if not handled properly.

Conclusion: Radio vs Digital Marketing?

There are a lot of pros and cons to both sides of this argument. Ultimately, both forms of marketing have their advantages, and thus their place in any marketing campaign. Which one you do is entirely dependent on your company, your product or service, and what you can afford to do. Both can be successful, and both can fail, making sure you understand the pros and cons of both will help you avoid the later. For more information or help with either form of marketing, contact us here!

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The Basics of Typography

Words are an important part of our lives. We use them on a daily basis. We type them on computers, write them on paper, and speak them to each other. With all this being said, we can assume that words are also important in advertising. It’s almost important how you present these words. Here we are going to breakdown the basics of typography, and how to use it.

Typography is a term that refers to the style, arrangement, or appearance of typeset. It is the font, the bolds, the italics, the size of the text, and the layout you choose.

Readability is the most important part of any print or web media. And choosing the right background, the right font, and the right font color are all vital to this. Avoid textured or busy backgrounds. These are both distracting and make the text hard to read. Keep the contrast between the background and text high, as the more contrast there is, the easier it is to read. Also, keep good spacing on your page, don’t bunch up your text as it makes it harder and more frustrating to read. Too small of text can be frustrating for readers and may end up driving people away from your copy. Finally, use contrast throughout your page. The contrast between colors, but also contrast between sizes and images on the page. Larger text is a good way to direct attention to certain topics of the page.

Font

Choosing the right font is an important decision to make. There are two different types of fonts. Serif and sans serif. Serif fonts have little tails on the letters, and stroke lengths change through letters. An example of serif fonts is Times New Roman.

Sans Serif, or “without” serifs, fonts do not have the tails on letters, and stroke lengths are consistent throughout the letters. An example of sans serif is Arial.

Serif fonts are considered by consumers to be more traditional. They represent the structure and a sense of establishment. Sans serif fonts, however, represent more modern sensibilities. They represent a more casual setting.

Display vs Text

The next two distinctions between fonts are the differences between display and text fonts

Display fonts are meant to draw attention to themselves. They’re bold and guide the eye across the advertisement. They might be stylized, they might not be, but most are not supposed to be read for more than a few words. Think about any Coca-Cola ad you’ve ever seen. The Coca-Cola logo is iconic, whenever you see that cursive you think of coke. Whenever you think about coke you see that cursive.

Text fonts are the opposite of display fonts. This font is used for continuous reading, it’s simple and easy on the eyes. We see it so much that we take it from granted. We see text fonts in newspapers, magazines, books, webpages, even this blog. It goes unnoticed because it’s simple, easy on the eyes, and your eyes move easily across the page from word to word.

Finding the right balance between display fonts and text fonts is crucial for any ad, webpage, or piece of media. If you overuse display fonts, you run the risk of annoying the reader and pushing them away from your ad. If you underuse the display font, then you run the risk of people never reading the ad in the first place. Too much copy and people will get bored and move on. Too little copy and people might not know what you’re selling.

Conclusion

Typography is an important part of any design. There are a lot of fonts out there, and a lot of choices that aren’t easy to make. Hopefully, this blog has given you some more information on this vast sea of choices. Whether you go with serif text, sans serif, or plaster your company in the flashiest display font you can find. Any questions about typography? Or want to get into touch about getting the design just right? Contact us here.

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Everything You Need To Know About Landing Pages

You’ve sent out your email campaign, paid to put your ads on every webpage google could find, what’s next? Your website? Well ideally you want your customers to find you, but how will they find whatever specific product or discount or service you’ve just spent so much money on advertising. The answer is landing pages.

WHAT ARE LANDING PAGES?

Landing pages are web pages that allow you to capture a visitor’s information through a conversion form. A good landing page will target a particular audience, like that email campaign you just did. Creating landing pages allows you to target a particular audience, offer them something of value, and convert a higher percentage of your audience into leads. Landing pages can also capture information about who’s visiting your page and what brought them there.

Landing pages also give your offers places to live. Any special offers you might be running have a specific spot where visitors can trade their information for the offer. This allows you to gain some new customers, information about your demographics, and new leads to maybe sell to. The new leads give you fuel for other marketing campaigns. Maybe they didn’t bite on the original campaign, but they were engaged enough to respond, so another campaign might do the trick. Landing pages also give you information on what your consumer base is engaging with, as well as insights as to the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD LANDING PAGE?

HEADLINE:

The headline of a landing page is the first thing visitors see when they arrive at the web page. Headlines should be clear and concise, summing up what the offer is in simple, plain words.

COPY:

The copy of the landing page should be simple and short. It should clearly express what the value of the offer or product is in a plain and compelling way to attract the customer. Keeping it short is essential. Having a quick turnover from access to the conversion of the customer is ideal.

KEYWORDS:

Your page title, headline, headings, and copy should have keywords to optimize for search engines.

SOCIAL SHARING:

You should enable links to your social media and links that allow the visitor to share your offer on their own social media. This should go without saying, but you want them to share your products around for you.

HIDDEN NAVIGATION:

You should hide your site’s navigation on landing pages, or at least minimize it. This will reduce irritation for your customer, focusing the page on the specific product or offer the page is promoting. It will also decrease distractions for the visitor, and stop them from easily leaving the page.

CONVERSION FORM:

A simple form that allows your visitor to trade their information for the offered product. Keep it simple, name, email, maybe a phone number if you absolutely need it.

IMAGE:

A good quality image that gives visitors a tangible idea of what they’ll receive. Give them a reason to want to sign up, something to want.

THANK YOU PAGES AND RESPONSES:

After they sign up for your product, send them to a thank you page. If they give an email, send them a response email with either the offer or if it’s a service something of that sort. Be sure to give them a reassurance that you’ll be in contact with them soon.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:

The more conversions on your page, the better. While this may seem simple, it is important that every offer you have has a landing page. This allows you to track the numbers of separate campaigns you’re doing and how successful they are. Minimize the distractions. Earlier I mentioned that you should do away with the navigation links of your website, and that’s to reduce the distractions. The entire point of a landing page is to get the visitor to sign up for your product, reducing the complexity and extra links on your page will help to achieve that. Keep the page “above the fold.” That is don’t make the visitor scroll on your page. Keep everything on a single page that sells everything at once. This makes it simpler for the visitor to sign the conversion form and the simpler the better here. Have any questions? Contact us here!

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6 Tips For Better Audio Recordings

AUDIO RECORDINGS

If you’ve ever recorded yourself with your phone, or on your computer, then you know just how hard that is to hear. When you craft something like a radio ad or an audio message for your website, headset microphones just don’t cut it. So how do you improve the quality of your audio recordings? Here are some tips for better audio recordings.

1. Get the right kind of equipment.

This might sound like a no brainer, but it is incredibly important. Headset microphones might work on a phone call, but anything beyond that, your audio quality is going to take a hit. Buying a USB microphone to plug into your computer can seriously improve the quality of your recordings instantly. Also, getting a good pair of headphones is a must. Quality headphones allow you to hear the sounds and quality as you record. This will prevent you from realizing later while you’re editing that your recording is useless. Another key piece of equipment is a pop filter. A pop filter is a fabric screen in front of your microphone. The purpose of a pop filter is to cut down on the plosive sounds the speaker makes when they’re close to the microphone. The noise made from the p,t,k, and the b,d,g sounds can cause a pop in the recording. A pop filter works to cut down on that.

2. Get the right software

Getting the right software, like the right equipment, can really take your recording to the next level. Audio recording and editing software is an important part of getting a finished product out there. Audition, part of the Adobe package, is some of the best out there, with others such as Cubase and SADiE being good options as well. Be sure when you record, you record each audio source into separate channels. Record someone talking into one track, music into another, a second person into a third and so on. This will really help you when it comes to editing and releasing the track. For example, if you record all of it on a single channel, then if someone blunders in a speech, you’ll struggle to fix that blunder without fully removing all audio from that section. It is also important to know the difference between mono and stereo for recording. In monaural sound, one single channel (signal) is used. It can be reproduced through separate speakers, but all speakers are copies of the original signal. Stereophonic sound uses more than one channel. You can use two different channels and make one channel feed one speaker and the second channel feed a second speaker. This is used to create directionality, perspective, and space. Usually, you want to record speech in mono and music into stereo.

3. Make sure your audio recordings sound natural

This is probably the hardest part of audio recordings to get right. You want to make sure your recording sounds natural like it’s someone talking to you in their kitchen. But you don’t want background noises like dog barks, cars driving by, or refrigerators running. This can be a challenge to get right. Recording speech with the microphone close to the speaker will minimize any disruptive background noises. Whenever your recording is done, then spend a few minutes recording the ambient background noises of your location. With these sounds you can lay them in post under the talking, bring the volume down to non-disruptive levels, giving your recording a sense of warmth and welcoming. Making sure speech flows naturally is also a key part of post-production. Cutting out any hesitation words like “err” or “ahh” will help make the speech clear for the listener. Knowing when to change the flow of speech is also important, and breaths can be added to pause and edit the flow.

4. Find the right space to record

Finding the right space to record can really improve any audio recording. Walls, tables, and tile can bounce audio waves back into the microphone, severely hurting its quality. Carpet, furniture such as couches, and non-parallel walls do a good job of either absorbing sound or reflecting it away from the microphone. Small rooms are also better for recording, as there is not as much of an echo, Soundproofing is also easier in smaller rooms. Making sure your equipment, like the microphone and pop filter, are attached to objects that are not constantly being bumped or touched will cut down on audio blunders. Renting out a recording studio is also an option and it will have all the amenities and soundproofing you need.

5. Always be prepared

Make sure your equipment works before using it. If you ever do offsite recording, make sure your equipment works before leaving. Do a test recording. Getting to a site and realizing something doesn’t work is a pain and can cost you time and money. When you’re at your studio, make sure you have backups of everything, as you never know what might break or go wrong. Stay in control of whatever you’re doing. If you’re interviewing someone, make sure you keep hold of the microphone, as it allows you to dictate the pace of the conversation. Make sure you’re prepared before you begin recording. Don’t waste your time or your money by fumbling through the first takes of a recording.

6. Have fun with your audio recordings

Have fun with your work. Your audience can tell when you’re genuinely having a good time and when you’re forcing it. Having fun will let your audience have fun as well. Know the demographic you’re playing to and be sure to know what you’re going to say. But have fun with it

CONCLUSION:

Hearing is one of the most important senses humans have. Making something that is pleasurable on the ears can go a long way in helping your product, service, etc. Investing in the production quality of your recordings can also go a long way in making your audio better. Whether you’re making a radio ad, a podcast, a news interview, or a voiceover for a video, using these tips, or going to a studio, can really help you make quality products. For more info about audio recordings, contact us here.

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The Importance of Advertising on Radio

Photo by Gavin Whitner

Is Advertising on Radio Still Profitable?

Radio is one of the cornerstones of the American entertainment market. According to Nielsen Ratings, radio reached 93% of American adults on a weekly basis in 2018. That’s millions of people who listen to the radio. They listen on their commutes to and from work, while they work, or while they’re around the house. So how do you tap into that kind of market potential? How does advertising on radio work? Well, this blog will attempt to tackle the lasting importance of advertising on radio.

The first question we must ask, is advertising on radio still an effective way of increasing sales? This is a hard thing to quantify and varies from city to city, but the short answer is yes, it is. A longer answer would be that in 2017 a New York radio station called Westwood One partnered with Nielsen Catalina Solutions to try and quantify the profits of a personal care brand’s radio campaign. The study showed, that a radio campaign ran from March 2017 to September 2017 brought an 8% sales to boost among male AM/FM listening households. The study showed for every $1 spent on AM/FM radio advertising for the male care brand, there was a return of $1.23 and parent brand saw a return of $11.96. Based on this study, it’s safe to say that radio advertising is still alive and thriving in the world.

So, what do you need to know before you start your advertising campaign? Let’s take a look at ad space.

Buying Ad Space

In advertising on radio, “when” you advertise is almost as, if not more, important than “how” you do it. Choosing consistent times to broadcast is a crucial part of building a consistent listener base to sell your product. Repetition is one of the most important parts of radio advertising. How often your ad plays, and when and where you play it is also something that can affect how successful your campaign is.

Ad spots are broken down into 15, 30, and 45-second-long commercials, and radio stations have an inventory of 18 minutes every hour for advertisements.

Radio ad times are broken down into day-parts, not into hours. The parts are:

AM Drive Time (6 AM to 10 AM)

AM drive time is one of the two most heavily trafficked times on radio times. That makes it one of the two most desirable times to play your ad. This is the morning rush hours, when people are driving into work, and gives you the largest number of listeners. People tend to be the most receptive during the morning drive. All this makes this time one of the most expensive times to buy radio spots, along with its afternoon counterpart.

Midday (10 AM to 3 PM)

Many radio stations tend to lose listeners at this time, as everyone is getting out of their cars and heading into work. This is also the time when people listening has the most predictable habits. Listeners here tend to more loyal to certain radio stations or shows, making a conscious choice of turning on the radio while not in their car. Popular talk radio shows like Rush Limbaugh also happen during this time. While this time may not have the most listeners compared to other points in the day, listeners here tend to be more engaged and a good ad can effective here.

PM Drive Time (3 PM to 7 PM)

Like its morning counterpart, evening rush hour corresponds with some of the highest numbers of listeners as people drive home from work. This day-part is very desirable, especially for restaurants and entertainment advertisements as people look for ways to spend their night and suffer from choice fatigue. This slot also tends to be expensive for ad rates.

Evening (7 PM to Midnight) and Late Night (Midnight to 6 AM)

These two slots have the lowest number of average listeners as most people are not in their cars, and television is a more popular form of entertainment during these time slots. While listener numbers might be low during these slots, those listeners tend to be the most loyal, as they’ve made an effort to listen to the radio as their nightly entertainment instead of watching TV or other forms of entertainment. Rates for advertisement can be low during this time, and if the market is right for your product, it could be a very important impact on your sales.

Writing the Ad

Writing an Ad for radio can be a daunting task, and further producing it can be even more so. Here are some tips:

Make sure your ad gets people’s attention. Make sure your ad is well written and attention-getting.
Hiring a professional voice actor is one way to get a voice that really gets your attention
Get your point across in one or two simple, powerful and easily conveyed messages. You have less than a minute to sell your product.
Have a Call to action. Give the listener a reason to go out and get your product right now. Have a special limited offer that runs out in x number of days to incentivize the listener to make a purchase soon.
Clearly, state the next step the listener takes. If you have a brick and mortar store, give them a location. If you have a website, then give them the URL. While you have their attention, use it to tell them where to go. Most radio listeners are already driving, so tell them where to go next for whatever solution you’re selling them
Have plenty of repetition. As stated above, repetition is an essential part of any successful radio advertisement. Repetition of the product within the ad really solidifies said product in the listeners head. Repetition, and consistency, of when, what station, and what ad you run is vital to selling your product. Research suggests that at least 15 ads be played in a week. If you do a short run of 60 ads or so, having that ad appear at the same time will give you the best results
Hiring an ad agency with professional writers could be extremely helpful here. An agency is there to make every piece of information as easily digestible as possible for the consumer. Agencies know how to write an ad with all the features crucial to making a successful broadcast. You can also make the add whatever you want when going through an agency.

Demographics

Choosing what radio stations you broadcast your ad on is important, as not all radio stations are created equal. Each station has a certain demographic that it mostly caters too. Businesses should be cognizant of those demographics and their own target audiences, choosing stations that best fit. If you’re advertising for a nursing home, then pop hits might not be the best choice of stations. Follow the statistics for the best results:

Country music is the most popular kind of radio station and receives the largest number of average listeners in the US
Talk radio, including news, sports, etc. is the #2 type of radio station. It attracts a larger number of high-income and highly educated individuals.
70% of males in the 45-54 age demographic listen to Classic Rock Radio stations but only reaches the #4 spot overall for male listeners
Over 72 million people listen to Contemporary Pop at least once per week.

Remember, you’re not buying a commercial to sell your product, you’re buying an audience to sell your product to.

Conclusion

Advertising on radio allows you to organically spread your message to many people without much effort on your part. Anyone listening to your ad, whether it be while driving in a car to or from work, or while working in their yard using radio as background music, will hear and subconsciously store your product in their mind. You don’t need to encourage engagement either since engagement is an inherent part of the radio. Your product will spread just by the fact that it’s on the radio.

Advertising on radio is far from dead. In fact, it reaches millions of people on a weekly basis. Radio gives you an audience to sell to, all you have to do is make the pitch. Be sure to follow the tips above, do your own research. You can contact us here if you want to start your radio campaign now.

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Website Building Process for Business

Building a website is a vital part of any business in today’s world. The internet is an everyday tool almost everyone in the world uses, and having a website enables you to engage with an ever-growing customer base. There are a lot of options out there to build a website, and whether you go to a code your own, go to website building service, or hire a professional developer/designer, the choice isn’t an easy one.

Website Building Sites

If you’ve watched many videos on YouTube or listened to any Podcasts in the last few years, then you’ve probably seen ads for services like Squarespace or Wix. These sites offer the ability to create your own professional looking websites through their company. These are website building sites. They are straightforward, easy to use, and give people the ability to create websites without years of education in coding. You pay these services, and they give you some templates for websites and online stores. Like anything though, there are pros and cons to everything. So let’s look at some of the most popular website builders out there:

Wix

Wix is one of the most popular and highly rated website building sites out there. It comes in a multitude of different price packages for whatever your needs might be ranging from free to $500/month. Some of the features that Wix offers are mobile optimization, an online store option, domain name, and social media integration. Wix has an easy to use and intuitive editor with over 300 different templates, giving you a wide array of personalization capabilities. One of its best points is the drag-and-drop editor that allows you to essentially point and click your way to a beautiful website.

One of the biggest downsides of Wix, however, is that it’s not the most SEO friendly platform out there. Poor SEO can really slow down the organic growth of your platform. The ease of its user interface is also something that can eventually hamper Wix since it can make large changes difficult to do. It also makes customizing your site in your own unique way difficult, do to the cookie-cutter nature of these services. Wix also makes it difficult to export your website data if you ever want to change services, and for any decent-sized company, the more expensive premium packages are the only ones worth considering.

Pricing for Wix :

Free: Free

Combo: $14.50/month

Unlimited: $17.50/month

Business Basic: $25/month

Squarespace

Squarespace is a big competitor of Wix. While both offer very similar services, they each have their own fans. Squarespace really excels at making visually aesthetic and beautiful websites. With gorgeous templates, you can really make a memorable impression on anyone who visits. Squarespace also has the drag-and-drop feature that makes website building simple and intuitive. The backend design, or the user interface for its customers, is also beautiful, which gives off a polished and measured feel to it. Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support that is helpful and always there should any problem arise.

The biggest slight against Squarespace is that it is not very customizable. Beyond the templates offered by the service, there is very few, if any customizable options to really give your website a personal touch. Like any template service, Squarespace suffers from the fact that everyone uses the same set of designs. While the websites themselves can really look beautiful, they also look just like any other Squarespace website, so making a website that really sticks out can be a challenge. One of Squarespace’s biggest selling points is its eCommerce options, and while they’re solid, there are a lot of better options out there can be used. If you want a website to sell your merchandise, Squarespace probably shouldn’t be your first stop.

Pricing for Squarespace:

Personal: $12/month

Business: $18/month

Online Store (Basic):$26

Online Store (Advanced): $40

WordPress

WordPress is probably the oldest website building sites on the market, and arguably the most popular. A primarily free blogging website, WordPress offers people the opportunity to post their own thoughts giving them a platform. Since 2003, they have expanded, like its competitors, into a website builder that thrives on template designs and user-friendly interfaces. With a simple design which allows its users to easily and freely edit their websites, WordPress has made a name this market. There are also a wide variety of 3^rd party plugins that allow going beyond WordPress’s offering.

Although the service has been around for over a decade and a half, its offerings are somewhat limited, and the user interface, while intuitive, can be frustrating at times. The templates are also limited and offer minimal customization for personal branding.

Pricing for WordPress:

Free: Free

Blogger: $3/month

Personal: $5/month

Premium: $8/month

Business: $25/month

eCommerce: $45/month

Professional Design

The last option you have is to go to a professional designer or firm. This can be expensive, probably much more expensive than using one of the previously mentioned services. Though it is more expensive, there are some definite upsides to it as well. Firstly, you get the ability to personalize your website to a greater degree than any of the template-driven services. This allows you to have a more unique website, a more unique user experience for your visitors. A professional developer can create a user experience tailored to your target clientele. That alone can help drive sales or other business-related conversions.

While many of these website builder services have some SEO, going through a firm or a professional will open up a wider array of options to optimize your traffic. It’s a design firm’s job to understand these processes and how to apply them. A professional will tailor a website perfectly to what your business needs.

While cost is always going to be a major downside of hiring professionals, another downside is the time to launch. With any of the aforementioned services all you need to do is point and you have yourself a website. Hiring a professional is going to take time to prepare everything. Your time from hire to launch might be a couple weeks in this situation. The tradeoff for this, though, is that your website is entirely unique to your business and a lot more complete than using a builder yourself.

Conclusion

Ultimately, every website is a commercial decision. Whether you’re a hobbyist trying to display what you’ve made, or a Fortune 500 trying to expand their brand, having a website is important. So is how you make it. This should be a business decision. You’re the only one who knows what your business needs and what it can afford to do. Make sure you consider all the facts and do your own research to find what option fits you best.

Have any questions about the website building process? Contact us today!

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The Basics of Color Theory in Design

The Basics of Color Theory in Design

Color is the first thing we perceive. If something moves past you in a blur, it’s not the shape that leaves an impact, it’s the color of the object. As such, color is a cornerstone from which you should build any logo, branding, or design. Colors can leave lasting impacts and memories for consumers, and can even be associated with products or companies on color alone. When you think of McDonald’s, you think of the golden arches. When you see a red can of soda, you think Coke, just as you think Pepsi when you see blue. Color is an important part of perception and making sure the colors you choose are aesthetically pleasing to the eye is just as important. This post will show you some of the fundamentals of color theory, how to use these theories, and practical applications.

The Color Wheel

Like any concept, the best place to start is at the very beginning. For the color theory that would be the color wheel.

The color wheel is an illustrative guide of color hues around a circle. There are twelve hues, or pure colors, that make up this wheel, separated into three different categories: Primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. The primary colors are Red, Yellow and Blue. These three colors form the basis of all other colors. Secondary colors are green, orange, and purple, and are made when you add one primary color to another primary color, creating a new color. For example, red + yellow is orange, Red + Blue is purple, and blue + yellow is green. Tertiary colors are the six colors you get when a secondary color is added to a primary color. There are six of these colors, creatively named red-orange, red-purple, etc.

The color wheel can be broken down further into two different categories, warm colors and cool colors. Warm colors are your reds, yellows, and oranges. These colors evoke feelings of happiness, comfort, and energy. Cool colors are your greens, blues, and purples. These colors promote such feelings of calm and tranquility, harmony and nature. They can also invoke feelings of sadness and depression, so a balance between cool and warm colors should be carefully considered when making any design.

Color Theory Schemes

Since we’ve mastered the color wheel, it’s time to look at the basics of color theory and design; color schemes. An important item to consider when designing should be that it is aesthetically pleasing. This can be done by using color schemes. Color schemes are choices in a color that create a uniform style and appeal.

Here is a rundown on a few of the most prevalent schemes you’ll see:

Complimentary Colors:

Here the colors are sitting directly across from each other on the color wheel: such as Red-green, Blue-orange, yellow-purple.

This scheme really makes images pop because of the contrast between the colors emphasizing each other. Be wary of overuse, though, as this scheme can be harsh and exhausting after extended use. Think of all the red and green you’re sick of by the end of the Christmas season.

Split-Complimentary Colors:

This is similar to complementary colors, this takes colors directly opposite of each other on the color wheel. This is different, however since they use the two colors directly adjacent to the complimentary color. Think yellow with red-purple and blue-purple. Since the colors are not directly complimentary the contrast is not as harsh, meaning it is softer on the eye, but still does a good job of accenting the colors.

Analogous and Accented Analogous Colors:

Analogous colors are three colors that are all directly next to each other on the color wheel. This scheme is best used with one color being the primary focus with a second that supports it and the third to accent the other two. This scheme gives a pleasing aesthetic that is uniform and can be used to direct attention and action on a website for example.

Accented is the same as analogous colors, using three directly next to each other, but here you add the complementary color of the primary hue of the three to accent and add contrast to the theme.

Triadic and Tetradic Colors:

Triadic are three colors that are evenly spread around the color wheel from each other. These colors do a good job of creating contrast and tend to be very dynamic and bright. But these three colors also do a good job generating harmony together.

Tetradic is four colors, two sets of complementary colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel forming a rectangle. Here you want to be careful of the balance between warm and cool colors to avoid clashing.

Emotion

Color theory can also be used to evoke certain emotions. Much like how cool and warm colors have certain feelings associated with them. Check out this handy guide on what emotions certain colors can evoke.

Application

After designing your logo, you now have to get that logo out there and make sure that the colors you painstakingly picked are replicated on all the platforms you use. This is important since printing on the surface, producing on TV or the internet and mixing paint on a canvas can all change the perception of the colors of your logos.

So far, we have talked about the RYB color wheel, which is how we perceive color in the world. But how does a computer replicate that color through ones and zeroes, or a printer match that color without having 600 cartages of ink on hand? They do this through two different color models, the RGB (Red Green Blue) and the CYMK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key [black]) models respectively.

RBG Model

The RGB model is an additive color mixing model. It uses three colors to create more colors by mixing light waves together, these lights being red, green and blue. If you have ever seen a pixel of a TV or a computer monitor then you’ve seen the three lights. Computers can make new colors by changing the intensity of the different colored lights, mixing them together and making new colors. This works on the that the way we perceive color in nature is the reflection of light waves off of objects. This model instead projects those light waves onto our eyes, making similar colors.

CMYK Model

The CMYK model is essentially the opposite of the RGB model and is the most widely used model in color printing. Instead of projecting the light onto our eyes, this model relies on the reflection off of the paint or ink. This model is a subtractive one, instead of an additive one, much like the RYB model. The colors absorb certain wavelengths of light, meaning the color reflected from the surface is without that wavelength and thus without that color. Cyan, for example, does a good job of subtracting red light, so thus the reflected color is blue and green mixed together. CMYK is a similar model to RYB, but the cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) of this model offers a wider array of printing color.

These models do a good job of replicating colors, but they are both different, so alterations are possible. Colors will not appear exactly the same even within the same model. Sometimes changing based on the manufacturer or even the age of some screens or ink. To have a consistent design across all platforms, you must be cognizant of all of these differences and prepare accordingly.

Conclusion on Color Theory

Understanding the basics of color theory can go a long way when designing anything. Knowing how colors work, how they interact with each other, and how to apply those designs can leave an impact on all who see it. Color theory is a fundamental part of life and thus should be a fundamental part of any design, logo or brand.

Have any questions about color theory or design? Contact us here.

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SEO Optimization Tips for Spring

SEO Optimization for Spring

Since website performance and SEO optimization is affected by things such as bad links, sloppy code, and poor content, it is a great time to do a semi-annual tidying to eliminate any problems. What does something like this do for search engine optimization efforts? Here are a few ways to be sure any essential SEO areas that tend to collect internet ‘dirt’ is cleaned.

Analyze with Analytics

Using analytic software such as Google Analytics and run a full array of reports normally monitored, especially important ones like site and page errors. Error reports are the most significant and probably the lengthiest. As much it may seem like doing such work could be put off – don’t do it! Every error detected by analytics tools is one more that is affecting website efficiency.

Inspect your site.

Start the process with a crawl of your site to collect the data you’ll need. Use a crawler such as Deep Crawler (which is especially helpful for sites on Angular, the front-end platform) or Screaming Frog. Crawlers help you identify all manner of metadata and site errors, as well as the server header status for each page. Each of these data points will identify an area that needs attention.

Review Your SEO Optimization

Since it can be somewhat difficult to systematically review websites for SEO, content, and other aspects, adding this job to the twice-yearly cleaning can help make sure it actually happens. Be sure content is correct and complete; review upcoming content ideas to be sure of current relevancy. Discover the latest trends in SEO and coding; update any techniques or HTML to benefit the overall website.

Site Errors

The annoying truth of the matter is that site errors need to be fixed. Many will be simple such as dead links or URLs with typos; others may be quite important. SEO reports can point out errors such as pages missing header tags, nonworking links, and other such information. Troubleshooting site speed may show other types of problems that unknowingly exist. It may be tedious; however, it is necessary to fix page issues regularly. This will improve site speed and result in fewer problem pages on the website.

Social Profiles

Check those important social media pages to be sure that they work, especially for any unknown issues. Be sure links from main websites to different social pages are not broken, out of place, or have been forgotten. Such problems should be corrected quickly, as this can potentially affect website traffic both to social sites and back to the corresponding website.

Claim Your Local Listings

Just like with social media, the more local listing sites you’re on, the better. Find out where your company should be online and start claiming your businesses profiles. Most, if not all of these sites are free and require very little effort to claim. Once you’ve done so, start filling out the profiles with relevant and useful information including products/services, location(s) and contact information. Be sure to save all the credentials for these listings as you may need to update them over time as new products/services come out, you change locations or need to change contact information.

It probably seems like a lot to go through twice a year; however, doing so can keep any website and its search engine optimization efforts functioning smoothly and reaching planned goals with very few concerns.

Have any question about SEO Optimization? Contact us here!

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4 Facebook Marketing Tips for Your Small Business

Facebook Marketing

Facebook marketing has become essential for any business to have a strong social media presence in the digital world. With over 2 billion monthly active users, there’s no reason to leave this section of your audience potential untapped.

To get started, here are 4 of our favorite tips for your small business to succeed on Facebook.

Post to Facebook at non-peak times

Every time someone visits Facebook, they could have on average 1,500 potential stories to see from friends, people they follow, and Pages. A majority of these posts published during the day with peak times between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET.

Engage your fans by asking questions

One of the most popular post types on Facebook? Questions.

It’s one of the recommended strategies by Post Planner, and anecdotally it makes a lot of sense for getting more comments, likes, and interactions from the community. The thinking goes that as Facebook notices people engaging with your content, future content stands a better chance of reaching more people.

Facebook Advertising

Social networks aren’t always the first thing companies think while building local marketing strategies, but Facebook advertising is an exception.

It’s an inexpensive way to advertise your business to the target audience. Like Google, Facebook also knows to buy and click patterns of all their one billion-plus users. They are experts in putting the ads in front of a relevant local audience.

Visual Content is King

Facebook marketing has turned into a very visual realm. Pictures and especially video are gaining more reach on average than text-based posts.

As humans, we are much better at remembering pictures than words. When you post a text-heavy post, your customers will only remember 10% after a couple days. But if you add in a picture, they’ll remember 65%. Your posts will have much more impact if you included a relevant image or graphic with it.

Have any questions about Facebook marketing or your strategies on other social platforms? Contact us here!

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How To Reuse Content For Your Business

Content is a great way to convert visitors, but it’s hard to consistently come up with new and engaging content. But there’s still hope. You can bring in more traffic, and convert more leads by simply repurposing your existing content. Here are some of our tips on how to reuse content for your business.

Turn Written Content Into Infographics

Transforming a long blog post, short articles, or text post into a visually appealing infographic is a great way for you to get your audience to better engage with your content. Actually, it’s been found that an infographic is 30 times more likely to be read than a text article!

It’s less time for a reader to process your information visually with pictures and graphics than just text. Breaking down your current content into more visual posts will help you get more bang for your content buck. Plus, it will get you more engagement from your audience. Parts of the graphic can also be repurposed as multiple image posts for Instagram or Facebook.

Turn Videos into Blog posts and Vice Versa

After you’ve created a video, you don’t need to just upload it and move on. Take the script you created for the video, or write a transcript, and use it as a basis for a blog post!

Or on the flip side, taking key points from a blog post and turning it into an informational video is a creative way to reuse written copy.

Blog Posts into Newsletter

To really get the most bang for your blog post, consider promoting your blog posts in a weekly tips newsletter. You hopefully have a solid list of email subscribers, but even the most dedicated of fans won’t catch every post you write. That’s where your newsletter comes in!

A friendly tips-oriented newsletter can showcase your best blog posts of the week, providing an extra nudge to get users on your site and reading your cream of the crop content.

Webinar into Video Content

Turning one of your webinars into reportable social media videos is a great way to extend the life of your content.

Webinars are a great way to engage with members of your audience, but not everyone can make it to your webinar when you host it. Instead of letting the footage gather dust, you can save, edit, or upload the footage to Youtube to give it life. You can either post the whole webinar, or you can edit it down to multiple short videos on specific topics.

This way no one misses out on your information. Plus, it can be used as an assist to drive visitors to your website.

Turn Longer Posts Into a Series

Why create one long post that no one will read when you can create a series of shorter posts?

If you have a longer blog post, consider dividing it up into a themed series of posts. The posts can help drive engagement, while the shorter lengths allow your audience to fully engage with the posts.

Having any questions on how your business can reuse content? Contact us here.

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Tips for Killer Emails

In today’s market, emails are one of the most effective ways to pique the interest of consumers.

But how do you make sure that your emails are effective? Here are some of our favorite tips for increasing the effectiveness of your email marketing.

1. Think About The Format

All your emails should be optimized for mobile. No matter the device someone reads your email on it should automatically adjust itself to fit their screen.

Luckily, optimizing for mobile is easier than ever before. The majority of emailing list providers automatically provide you with optimized mailing campaigns.

2. A Great Subject Line Equals A Great Open Rate

That fancy template you chose and great copy you wrote won’t matter one bit if people don’t open the message. Increase your open rates by writing intriguing yet concise and direct subject lines. You want to let your audience know what to expect in the email plus entice them to actually open it.

3. Clear CTA

The aim of most email marketing campaigns is to increase traffic to a site, sometimes a specific landing page. No clicks mean no customers, it’s that simple. Always try to include visually striking buttons with text that give readers more than one opportunity to interact with your content.

4. Watch Your Language

If your email is caught in a spam filter, your messages will never reach potential customers. You should avoid any sales-oriented language, using all caps, too many exclamation marks, and hyperbolic phrases like “BUY NOW!”. Poorly formatted HTML in your emails can also hurt how they’re handled. Every spam filter is different, so an email might pass through one filter but get flagged by another. The best way to keep your email out of the spam folder is to test it by sending it to yourself on different email accounts.

5. Add a Personal Touch

Personalization goes a long way. What a lot of marketers fail to grasp is that customers don’t want to be seen as a nameless face. They want to be acknowledged as unique human beings. This is relatively easy to do because all you have to do is indulge in some personalization.

Rather than sending out the same emails to everyone, use the feedback you’re getting to segment your email list. That way you can make sure customers feel like you’re reading their minds. Some people choose to invest in systems that will allow you to add people’s names to the subject line and body of the messages, but this approach is not for everybody. You can segment your mailing list, for example, by geography, age or purchase history and then send messages written specifically for each group.

6. Send Clean Emails

When sending your emails, you need to make your content is visually clean. To increase their readability and deliverability they need to be free from spelling errors, broken links, images, and aesthetically pleasing to your audience.

You should also use shorter paragraphs and ensuring that keywords and phrases relevant to your readers stand out. Including bullet points to help people skim the content and take in the vital points is a great idea to present your content in a clean and concise way. When using images within your email, be sure that they are relevant to your content and they have the correct keywords in their alt-text.

Have any questions about email marketing? Contact us here!

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Radio Marketing: The Pros and Cons

Radio is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you are thinking of ways to advertise your business. Especially in these days of social media and Facebook pages, radio might seem old-school. But radio marketing can be an important part of your media strategy. To do it right, you need to know the pros and cons.

Pros of Radio Marketing

The primary advantage of radio marketing is that it allows a brand and business to target a specific core demographic. Because radio stations have different formats, you can reach a specific group of consumers to raise brand awareness.

It’s affordable

If a brand and business is willing to advertise during low listener times, then getting their advertisement on the radio can be highly affordable. This is why it is so important to explore when a core demographic listens to the radio. The cost per customer, if core demographics can be targeted during off-times, can be incredibly low.

Reach

Radio doesn’t just reach a large number of consumers specifically, it reaches 93% of Americans, and radio is actually the number one in mass reach for adults 18 to 34. It also reaches people throughout the day, even when they’re at work, reaching 41% of listeners between 3 and 7 pm.

Repetition

In the world of radio, an advertisement can be repeated every few minutes and still feel fresh to the listener. If you imagine radio listeners are always spinning the dial and skipping commercials, you’re simply wrong. Nearly two-thirds of all radio listening occasions involve staying on the same station, and that jumps to a hearty 90% when looking at listeners who are loyal to the station. Coupled with the amount of time regularly spent with radio, that means listeners are sure to hear your ad sets. That also means it’s easy to build frequency and help lift brand and ad recall.

Target to a radio audience

There’s a lot of geographic, demographic and psychographic data out there to help brands reach the right audience, especially thanks to their loyalty. This means you can not only select the right station, but you can also select the right daypart based on the genres and shows they love most.

Cons

The primary disadvantage of radio marketing is that the information contained within the ad can be difficult to remember. There is no way for a potential customer to store a phone number, address, or brand name for later like they can with emails, print ads, and other forms of direct marketing. You have to rely on the consumer’s memory to write down key information.

No visual appeal

Humans are incredibly visual creatures, and that can help strengthen the impact advertising has on consumer recall. It can be easier to express certain complex ideas, like how to use a new kind of product, by showing the audience. That being said, the theater of the mind is still incredibly powerful. The right creative can paint a vivid picture in a listener’s mind.

Poor attentiveness and Fragmentation

A primary drawback to radio marketing is that people listening to it are often engaged in other activities, such as driving. Therefore, you don’t get the same level of attention with your ad as you might through other media. It can take many impressions before a listener actually hears your message.

Key times can get expensive

Many brands and businesses like to target key commuting times in their communities for their advertising. This creates a high demand for those times, which allows them to charge more for every spot. The best times often go to those who are willing to pay the most.

Have any questions about radio marketing? Contact us here.

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