Attention Small Business Owners!
Say hello to Kafe Digital Marketing at the Small Business Expo on June 9 at NYC's Javits Center. Drop by and talk to the Marketing gurus at the Kafe Digital Marketing table. Get some food and refreshments and see what else is in store. We're really excited to meet new people, strut our stuff and just have a grand ole time.
It seems like a fitting venue considering that Cheryl, the owner of KAFE, graduated from Stuyvesant High School at the Javits Center. We're taking this as a sign that we're moving on to an exciting new world of partners, clients and growth.
Be sure to stop by our table and say “Hey!”  It'll be easy to find us — just look for the beautiful woman with pink hair … 🙂
For more info on the Small Business Expo, visit here: http://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com/
What Leaders Don’t Get About SEO
It’s Not A “Bonus” or Add-On
Anyone who is treating search engine optimization as an optional add-on is behind the competition. Not to mention they are missing an indispensable part of their online market. Organic search has become a crucial part of every business.
Being not only found on Google but ranking high enough to be quickly and easily visible is important because that is where the search will begin and from where your traffic will flow!
Surprisingly, your placement within Google rankings is impacted greater by external factors!
When you have links from other websites within your genre, that hold prominence Google counts that in your favor. The more traffic from these links the better it looks for you! Right from the start, SEO should be woven into the fabric of your marketing campaign.
SEO is Not Your Customer!
It doesn’t matter how great your Search engine optimization is if your product is out of touch with your customer. Google is making a huge change, and it includes your customer’s feelings! Google cares about their business too. They will not keep ranking your site if your reviews are poor.
There is No Installing SEO Plug-Ins
Internal link architecture, navigation, website structure, information architecture, and much more are all included in technical SEO. There is no way to click a box and magically have all your search engine optimization fall in line.
Businesses everywhere are losing traffic and opportunities because leaders do not understand or lack the skills to dominate organic search. Experienced SEO specialists can make your business bloom by strengthening your marketing campaign and prevent pricey errors like slow websites from needless plug-ins and failing to audit your site.
It’s All About Data!
Understanding search marketing takes pre-planning and periodic auditing and SEO experience. You need the data and to get the data you need to do the research. You need an expert to research what kind of content you should have, where your audience is to focus your social media, and whether or not paid traffic can boost your reach turning traffic into paying customers.
Only an SEO expert can hit all those points and make your business stand out rather than sink to number 10 or worse. By combining the efforts of your PPC and your SEO experts, you are creating a powerhouse team. This is where you can make your budget work for you rather than watch your pockets empty into projects with little return.
Search Engine Optimization Won’t Fix Your Product/Service
SEO is for getting you out there and getting you seen and reachable. It is about making you approachable and keeping you at the top of your game. However, nothing can fix a product or service that simply is not up to par.
You cannot blame SEO if you simply are not producing what your clientele wants. SEO is not a Band-Aid for a broken product. Your SEO team may be working overtime to bring you to the top of search engines, and your social media may be rocking out some great content. Nevertheless, if your product or service is not at a quality, that produces good reviews – Google will sink you fast.
You have to trust your SEO team and listen to your customers if you want to rank in the top search engines in 2015.
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Measure your Brand Expansion with our Presence Tracking and Traffic Metrics
Do You Know if You are Getting Enough Brand Exposure?
How would you know if your online marketing efforts, such as SEO, are helping to boost your brand?
We all know that results from an SEO campaign takes time. But we also know that there are additional benefits to doing SEO – not just search engine rankings.
And this is the same for other digital marketing services.
There is a much more significant and long-term benefit to doing SEO, Local Buzz, Social Media Optimization, Pay per Click Advertising, Retargeting, Online Reputation Management, among many other online marketing services.
Theproblem is, how do we measure that benefit? And what is that benefit? Hmmm.
You are Not Alone.
Thousands and thousands of business owners are in the dark when it comes to measuring brand performance. Brand exposure, recognition, recall, and reputation— these are factors that translate to direct website visitors, returning visitors, customers, and loyal customers.
Without a way of measuring this, you will have no idea how much brand expansion you are achieving through your online marketing efforts.
Sign up now for our [Tracking and Metrics Software]! [add link to landing page]
You are in a Constant Race Against your Competitors for Brand Preference and Loyalty.
Momentarily slowing down your online marketing efforts could mean your competitors overtaking you and eating their dust.
Do you want your competitors to win the customers that should have been yours? And this is all because you didn’t have a clearer map of the race?
Unless you can see the bigger picture, you may miss opportunities to ramp up your campaigns and exploit avenues where your brand is more effective at connecting with your potential customers. You may miss the momentum of your brand expansion if you even decide to put a campaign on hold because you think it’s not performing as expected.
As a result, instead of growing your brand and sales exponentially, you may see them startto plateau. You may see them starting toslow down or decline. And when you decide to start again, your competitors may have already taken your place in your customers’ hearts and minds.
Let me explain.
The more you expose your brand online, the stronger it gets. And the more you pick up momentum for brand reach expansion.
In a racetrack, the faster and smoother you go (without stepping on the brakes unnecessarily), the more you are racing efficiently. You cover more track for every drop of fuel you burn than anybody else in the race.
Where is Your Brand Heading? You Need to See the Bigger Picture.
You need to see your brand’s performance with an effective presence tracking and website traffic metrics that we provide. You need to see how much your brand has been moving and expanding across the online world.
What do you need to see?
Here are the basics:
- Referral Traffic
- Social Traffic
- Search Queries
- Direct Traffic
Referral Traffic
If your website gets a lot of referral traffic, this means that people are reaching your website via external websites that link to yours.
Where does referral traffic come from? You could be getting this traffic from online directories your website is listed on. Referral traffic could also come from national or regional news sites, or news sites in your industry that have picked up your press releases or content and have placed links in their stories to your website. People could also be reviewing or recommending your business, products, and services by putting links to your website on their blogs.Lastly, people could be talking about your brand and linking to your website in online forums.
Social Traffic
Your social traffic comes from your social media accounts, such as your LinkedIn profiles and posts,Facebook profiles and posts, and yourTwitter profiles and posts. Alternatively, social media users may have shared some of your content on their profiles, or may have linked to your website via their comments.
Search Queries
With our online presence tracking and website traffic metrics, you will see how many branded search queries you’ve been getting from the major search engines. Branded search queries are search queries that contain your brand name, company name, product or service names, and any terms or phrases that are associated with your business.
If nothing turns up yet, our technology will detect any search terms you’ve come up for in the search engines’ results even if it is in the 100th page of the search results. Our advanced online presence tracking and website traffic metrics will detect such search queries and track them on the fly.
Branded search queries indicate that people recall your brand name. Branded search queries also indicate that people are interested in your business, and are trying to look your business up in the major search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo).
Direct Traffic
Direct traffic is a result of people typing in your domain name or website address directly onto the address bar of their web browsers.
Direct traffic indicates that people remember your website address. If they are typing your website address from memory, this means that they have seen it somewhere!
Direct traffic may come from people who saw your traditional ads—such as your print ads in newspapers and magazine, your billboards, or your brochures and flyers.
On the other hand, if you are not running any traditional advertising campaign, then your direct traffic is the result of your online marketing campaigns. People have clicked a link leading to your website on a search engine result, on a blog post or blog comment, on a local directory, on a social media profile or post, or on a promo link.
You made such an impact on them when they were browsing your website—with your awesome content, articles, and videos; your attractive promos; as well as your overall branding—that they’ve returned to your website by directly typing your website address. They may even have bookmarked it! What’s more, they may have passed along your website address—“brand.com”—to their colleagues, friends, and family.
An increase in your direct traffic indicates that your brand reach has expanded beyond links, search engine results, and referrals. A marked increase in your direct traffic also indicates that you are now getting word of mouth referrals, and that your brand is being remembered by customers and prospects.
Hence, if you continue to build and optimize your brand with us, it may well be on its way to your customers’ and potential customers’ hearts.
Online marketing and branding is not just about dominating the online world; neither is it just about dominating search results. It is about winning the hearts of your target market.
What to Do
You want to race ahead of your competitors in the online marketing terrain, right? Of course you do!
While you focus on reaching the prize, we’ll give you a bird’s-eye view of your online marketing and website performance, as well as your brand expansion through our advanced online presence tracking and website traffic metrics tool.
So while you’re racing ahead at 100 MPH, we’ll provide you with the dashboard that will display your brand expansion intelligence.
Call or email us for a free consultation on our [Metrics Software].
Or sign up now for our [Metrics Software]! [add link to landing page]
Branding: Build It and They Will Come. Optimize It and More Will Come
“Build it and they will come.” This could be your branding mantra.Customers are looking for brands they can identify with. Customers stick with brands that share their beliefs and aspirations.
Give your brand a personality. Make sure that it has the right mixture of characteristics that appeal to your target customers. Jennifer Aaker, professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, summarized brand personality into five dimensions:
- Sincerity
- Excitement
- Competence
- Sophistication, and
- Ruggedness
These five components comprise what is known as the “Dimensions of Brand Personality”. [Read more…]
9 Tips for Serious Brand Optimization for Businesses
Having a brand is beyond having a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these to identify products and services and to differentiate them from others. Having a brand means having a set of values or associations that your target customers make with your company, products and services.
First question: What set of values does your target customers associate with your brand? Second question: Do they even know your brand exists?
You need to pay attention to this, and you need to start today.Because if you're not taking your brand seriously, how do you expect potential customers to take your business seriously? In today's competitive market, you just can't let that happen, can you? That’s why we put together an infographic and listed eight tips you can start using today to build your brand.So… are you building your brand every day? What benefits do you stand to get? What challenges will you face? Discover the answer to all these questions and more below.
Know your Target Customers and Build your Brand’s Personality around Them
Like humans, brands also possess or project a certain type or a mix of personalities. In “Dimensions of Brand Personality,” a study published by the Journal of Marketing Research, Jennifer Aaker, now a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, summarized brand personality into five dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. In the infographic, you’ll see defining characteristics for each dimension. For instance, a brand that imbues “sincerity” is perceived to be honest, domestic, genuine, and cheerful. Therefore people who value these characteristics tend to prefer brands with this personality.
The idea here is to identify the personas of your target customers, and identify your brandas well, using a mix of these dimensions. Then, build and shape your brand around thismix of dimensions. This way, you’ll be able to align your brand persona with your target customers or identify what customers to target based on your brand personality. These dimensions are helpful, especially for small businesses that are just beginning with the creation and strengthening of their brand.
Build your Brand Slowly but Surely or Fast and Strong. Either way, You have to Build it
According to Millard Brown’s Brand Dynamics Pyramid, the value of a business is directly proportional with the value of the brand. If you want to grow your business, you need to build your brand. Analyzing five years of stock market data, the company found that strong brands are more likely to increase their share price than companies with weak brands. “Strong brands are more likely to grow,” the report stressed.
What’s more interesting here is Millard Brown’s pyramid relates how brand strength affects consumers’ expenditure for that brand. This time, brand is inversely proportional with “share of wallet,” or share of category expenditure. For instance, brands at the bottom of the pyramid or those with “presence,” eat up only 12% of spending for that category. On the other hand, those at the peak of the pyramid, or brands with bonding with consumers, account for 40% of wallet share.
You need to move your brand from merely having presence in the market to be performing andeventually having a bond, which is the peak of the pyramid. By moving it up the pyramid, you are also raising the value of your business.
Connect Your Brand to Your Customers
Your brand needs to be able to reach out to your customers and connect with them. Only then will you be able to benefit from it. The biggest benefit perhaps is customer loyalty. According to Nielsen, 62% of your potential customers prefer to buy new products from familiar brands rather than switch to a new one. Be a familiar brand and your customers will stick with you.
Having a connection means being aligned with your customers’beliefs and earning their trust. According to Edelman research, 92% of global online consumers want to do business with brands that share their beliefs. Customers also want transparency on how products are made and sourced. Will they trust what you say? Put your brand on the line, and they will.Some 69% of global consumers trusted product information on branded websites in 2013, up from 60% in 2007, according to Nielsen.
You Need to Market Your Brand Too
While focusing on other aspects of online marketing (search engine optimization or SEO, paid advertising, etc.), is necessary to market your products or services, you cannot take branding for granted. You also need to put focus on marketing your brand as well. Businesses seem to be getting this right as “brand awareness” is the No. 1 goal of today’s content marketing initiatives.Some 79% of respondents agree, according to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.
It’s not surprising that business owners are spending more to build their brand. A survey by the CMO Council and Vizu, a Nielsen company, found that indeed 63% of marketers planned an increase in their online brand advertising budgets. Some 20% said they will raise their brand spending by at least 20%. Despite this budget trend and brand marketing benefits,many owners still struggle in adapting.
Brand-building Challenges Businesses Face
As mentioned earlier, the primary purpose of content marketing for majority of businesses is to build brand awareness. Business owners understand that for them to build their brand, they need to reach out to their target market with engaging branded content. But why are they struggling implementing this?
According to a research by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute, there are a number of challenges that marketers face in effectively using content for marketing. The biggest setback is lack of budget, with 52% of marketers citing this reason. Producing enough content (51%) and producing the kind of content that engages (49%) complete the top three challenges.
Twenty percent of businesses are responding accordingly by raising their budgets. They are realizing the necessity of branding.As for the other two challenges, they are outsourcing.Writing (64%) and design (54%) are the top services outsourced.
9 Tips How to Seriously Build Your Brand
If you are serious in building your brand – and with all honesty, you should be – you need to start today. Don’t know where to begin? Here are a few tips to help you get started.
- Go for a Professional Website Design for Credibility – Studies published by Stanford University found that 75% of Internet users judge the credibility of an organization based on the design of its website. A separate study on websites, meanwhile, found that 94% of all the factors mentioned for rejecting or mistrusting a website were design-related. Needless to say, professional web design plays a crucial role in establishing your business as a trusted brand.
- Get Exposure via PPC Remarketing –Pay per Click Remarketing displays your ads to people who have left your website and visited another site within the Google Display Network.The network includes Gmail and YouTube, and two million other sites.Plus, studies show that even if your ads are only seen and not clicked (called “impressions” in PPC), they can still have an effect on viewers.
- Use Social Media to Influence Followers – People like to follow brands on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. Make sure your accounts are properly branded—with your logo and tagline. Upload a primary photo, a striking banner and a nice background image, and post delightful, persuasive content regularly.
- Generate Buzz around your Brand in your Locality and Niche – Optimize your local listings and publish engaging content that turn visitors into customers and loyal customers. This will make your brand more visible on local listings searches. Put out promos to delight your customers with your brand and increase purchase and loyalty. These promos will generate buzz through your blog, social media accounts and will spread across the social media space. Local searches end in a purchase. Seventy-eight percent happen with buyers using mobile phones, 77% with tablets and 59% with PCs and laptops.
- Manage Your Online Reputation –Online Reputation Management or ORMaims to keep your brand trustworthy. Pay particular attention to responding to negative comments and encouraging happy customers to give testimonials.Seventy percent of global consumers trust online consumer reviews. Make sure that you have lots of 5-star ratings and that these are visible all over the web.
- Use Video & Article Content –According to CopyPress, featured articles (62%) and video (51.9%) generate the most attractive return on investment for marketers. Respondents surveyed by CMI and MarketingProfs agree.The top five formats used by content marketers (social media, onsite articles, e-newsletters, videos, and blogs) use articles or video.
- Write & Share Articles to Introduce and Build Your Brand – Whether appealing to business decision-makers or customers, producing articles is the best choice, according to studies. Articles are preferred over advertisements. No wonder, as Forrester points out, 79% of surveyed marketers reported that their organizations are shifting to branded content.
- Reach Out to Your Target Market with Videos – Videos have such a wide reach. Accenture found that 90% of consumers watch online video. Its reach is still growing. According to Cisco, Internet video traffic will account for 69% of all global consumer Internet traffic in 2017. Want your brand to reach your audience? Go video.
- Influence Purchase Decisions with Videos – Not only will your brand be able to reach customers through videos, you can also influence purchase decisions.Some 96% of consumers surveyed found videos helpful for making online purchase decisions. Even executives (59%) prefer watching product videos than reading text, said Forbes. What better way to sell your brand than through video?
Take Your Branding Seriously… Today!
If you have been neglecting your branding because of budget constraints, lack of guidance or as a matter of choice because you don’t think it’s necessary, then you need to rethink this. Branding allows you to connect with your target market, convert potential customers into actual buyers, and earn their trust and loyalty. You need to take branding seriously. You need to start today.
We will give you free consultation on our brand optimization services so you'll know how you can seriously build your brand and benefit from it. Call us now or send us a message so we can schedule your free consultation.
Getting Ready for a Joint Venture Giveaway
There are many things you can do to get ready for a Joint Venture Giveaway even before receiving your first invitation. As a contributor to a joint venture giveaway, you can expect to receive a significant increase in traffic to your website as well as general discussion about you and your product. Put your best foot forward!
Preparing your product and getting your website ready are two very important steps for preparing to participate in joint venture giveaways. [Read more…]
How to Find Joint Venture Giveaways
You may have heard something about joint venture giveaways. Most people who have participated in one probably talk about the unbelievable benefits. That’s all well and good, but you have to know where you can find them before you can participate.
Joint venture giveaways are events promoted by lots of joint venture partners. The goal is to build their lists as they give away free products and services to members that sign up. These ventures can include big name Internet marketers as well as the novice marketer all in one place. It is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to grow their business. [Read more…]
Benefits of Participating in a JV Giveway
There are many benefits to participating in a Joint Venture (JV) giveaway.
The biggest benefits are the opportunity to build your list, expand your community and generate leads for your business. Both participants and contributors to JV events reap huge rewards. [Read more…]
How Joint Venture Giveaways Work
Joint venture giveaways are an excellent way to build your list within your target market. Those who attend and those who participate are trying to reach the same goal – business growth. Here is a brief overview of how these ventures work.
First Things First
To participate in a joint venture giveaway all you have to do is sign up and register for the giveaway event. Sometimes you will visit one site and opt-in to receive your free “goodies”. Other times, you will visit numerous sites to receive the giveaways. When the event starts, you will have access to dozens or even hundreds (depending on the number of contributors) of free and helpful goodies for your business. [Read more…]
What Are Joint Venture Giveaways
Customers are the reason that you stay in business. Getting a lead on your target market is not always an easy process. Building a list takes time and effort. One highly effective way to build your list is to take part in joint venture giveaways.
Sounds Good But What Is It?
The name makes it sound great but what exactly does it mean? A joint venture giveaway is an event where business owners provide free products in order to draw in customers. By partnering with other business owners, you are able to connect with members of their community and share what you have to offer. In turn, your community learns about the other joint venture partners participating.
Everyone loves freebies, potential customers included. Joint venture giveaways aren't just any freebie. Joint venture giveaways are an opportunity to showcase what you have to offer. They are an opportunity to share your talents and skills with a whole new audience and therefore what you giveaway is important and should offer real value.
Joint venture giveaways are often created around an event such as a Telesummit or a particular holiday. Since the events we are discussing are online events, the free giveaways are almost always digital in nature. This allows potential customers to instantly receive your free giveaway.
There are many products that you can give away. EBooks and article packs are very popular and, if you are not a writer, can easily be picked up from a PLR site. Have you made a video? Recorded an interviewed you did with someone? These are all very popular and easy to pull together giveaways.
How You Can Participate
Joint ventures can be general or specific. For instance, some joint ventures are created to inform people about creating traffic for their website or how to get free publicity. Others might be more general such as self improvement or health. Be on the lookout and keep your ears open and you'll hear about many joint venture giveaway opportunities.
There are two ways to be involved in a joint venture giveaway. First you can participate and get involved. Find out what is being offered, sign up and take advantage of the giveaways. You may find that you will learn about new tools, memberships and products that can help you in your business.
Another way to participate in a joint venture giveaway is to be a contributor. As a contributor you would be one of the many business people offering a free giveaway. In exchange for your giveaway, members are required to opt-in to your list. This is an excellent opportunity to grow your list and impress potential customers with your terrific giveaway.
From the highly recognized Internet marketer to a newbie, anyone can take part in joint venture giveaways if they are serious about building their list and growing their business. When you hear about a joint venture giveaway, step forward and ask how you can participate. While some events are closed, many business owners will be honored that you wanted to participate and welcome you to join in, especially if you have good content to offer. After all the more businesses who participate in the giveaway, the wider the audience that all participants can possibly reach.