LookupPage Blog | Professional Web Presence and Visibility

Incorporating Taglines into an Online Brand Presence

At times companies spend so much energy developing their online brand presence that they regretfully forget some very simple marketing strategies that still work, even in today’s digital age.  Alongside a great brand is a great tagline.  Companies electing not to develop one of their own are being neglectful in their marketing campaign.  When a tagline is combined with strategies to build an online brand presence companies can see an exponential growth in customers.

Taglines are everywhere.  Nike and “Just Do It” are synonymous.  Taglines are used so often and invade our subconscious associations with the product they represent so well that we rarely even notice them.  That is exactly why every company should develop their own tagline to coincide with developing their online brand presence.  There are professionals in PR and marketing whose whole professional existence depends on creating custom taglines for companies while simultaneously building online brand presence and usually companies are well advised to hire them rather than try and develop their own. 

For those choosing to try creating their own tagline independently there are a few guidelines to follow.

1)      Be original and unique

2)      Articulate the company’s mission and qualities

3)      Associate with the target customer base

4)      Accentuate the company’s advantage over the competition

5)      Communicate the goals of the company’s product or service

Once a tagline is created it should be used online for all marketing.  The company blog should incorporate the tagline into every post.  Every forum post or comment post done in the name of marketing should include the tagline.  Every email signature of every employee should proudly display the tagline.  Not to beat a dead horse, but once a successful tagline has been created it cannot be used too much.  The more a target customer associates that ideal with one’s company the more likely they are to remember the company. Online brand presence depends completely on customers thinking of a specific company for a specific need.

While many companies love to micromanage their PR and marketing teams to truly create and maintain a success online brand presence the two teams must work together. Even if a company consists of two employees and all the marketing is farmed out, every single member of the team must work together in every strategy to make an online brand presence be big and be real.

 

Increasing Online Brand Presence with YouTube

For a while now all the experts have been throwing out suggestions on how to increase rank on search engines.  Incorporating video into one’s website or online brand presence is just one of the ways to do this.  Many people are confused by how to do this and intimidated by the thought alone and therefore avoid it in lieu of simpler methods of increasing online brand presence like starting a Twitter account.

We understand the intimidation and would like to simplify the process for all those companies that wish to improve their online brand presence but have yet to step into the exciting world of video.  Before setting up the webcam and shooting the first movie every company should understand exactly what how powerful YouTube is and what it can do for their online brand presence.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

And words are worth quite a lot as well which is why YouTube is such a great marketing tool.  By combining both companies are able to give customers a behind-the-scenes look at their company.  Companies can use video to offer tutorials for products or service, show new items before they’re available or introduce new employees and showcase their talents.  Regardless of what a company posts on YouTube about their company the result can only be positive and encourage an online brand presence.

Engaging Customers through YouTube

Some of the most successful advertising campaigns in the past few years have been run entirely by a company’s customer base.  Coke threw out a challenge to their customers to create unique videos portraying interpretations of Coke’s newest marketing slogan and awarded prizes to winners.  Other companies have followed suit and encourage new and emerging artists to post their videos with casting votes for their favorites.  Through this subtle product placement a company can grow a larger customer base and increase their online brand presence.

Including YouTube Videos in the Company Blog

Anyone these days can embed a YouTube video into a blog making it a wonderful way to increase rank on search engines, engage readers and break up the monotony which afflicts many blogs.  Whether it be an interview, a how-to guide or a funny video by adding it to the company blog it will aid in building the company’s online brand presence – guaranteed.

While YouTube might be a little daunting to those not familiar with creating videos it is a necessity in today’s marketing world.  Any company not yet utilizing the website should spend some time exploring YouTube checking out what the competition is doing because chances are the competition is already using it and increase their online brand presence.

Make-Over Your Facebook page for Enhanced Online Visibility

By now everyone understands the power social media can give a business in terms of marketing and creating an enhanced online visibility. Facebook, being the most popular social media site to date should be the focus of your company’s social media campaign.  With that said there is no better time than this week between Christmas and New Year’s to do some remodeling of your Facebook page. 

Enhanced Online Visibility – Comment on Fans’ pages

Most employees don’t have a lot to do this week and busy work is a chore but necessary to any successful marketing campaign.  Unlike the typical office Facebook is hopping this time of year as people are sharing pictures and comments about their holiday festivities and New Year’s plans.  To really jumpstart your company’s enhanced online visibility for the upcoming year utilize this week by commenting on your Fans’ pages.  Once that is done every one of their Friends will see your comment and your company by default.  This is a great way to interact with your Fans showing that you value them and spread the word of your company.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Offer Something Spectacular

With everyone giddy with gift giving and getting they will jump when your company offers an extraordinary deal available only to Facebook Fans.  Of course, add a caveat that they have to comment on your company’s page or on their own page or invite Friends to either get said great deal or be eligible for winning it (in an effort to boost your own enhanced online visibility).  To make the offer enticing and stand out in a crowd of many companies vying for your customers’ money and mouse clicks, make the offer appropriate and worthwhile. Most people aren’t going to waste their time for a lousy 10% off their next purchase.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Have a Relevant Gimmick

With so many holidays packed into this time of year it’s easy to come up with a unique way to project your Facebook page into other’s lives.  Throw an online New Year’s party.  It’s easy and free and will attract attention from your Fans.  Add several reminders each day about the online New Year’s party and make sure to add promotions and discounts.  One idea is to give out prizes for the best New Year’s photos posted to your page. 

Regardless of what your company does with its Facebook page, do it now.  By utilizing this downtime during the holidays your company has an opportunity to seriously boost its enhanced online visibility and gain new customers.  

 

Improving Enhanced Online Visibility – Links and Keywords

In previous posts I have talked about certain characteristics websites need to possess in order for search engines to rank them higher creating, in turn, an enhanced online visibility.  The top-dog of search engines, Google, released its Panda updates to the Google algorithms in early 2011 knocking the SEO world on its back.  The changes in how they ranked pages was huge and if the April release of Panda was the megaquake then the six minor changes since then have been aftershocks.  Thankfully, Google announced in December 2011 that Panda was taking a vacation until January 2012.  At last, a chance for everyone trying to increase their rank on Google and build their enhanced online visibility can breathe for a few weeks.

We say, no! This is not a time to rest.  This is the perfect time to revamp one’s website checking for anything and everything that may be lowering the page rank and reducing its ability to cultivate an enhanced online visibility. By spending a few weeks while Panda is away (and getting ready for the next attack) cleaning up a company’s website, they’ll increase their enhanced online visibility and be in a better position to fight new changes when they come around.

Enhanced Online Visibility and Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is when an unscrupulous website identifies keywords pivotal to their enhanced online visibility and then fills fluff pages with said keywords.  The result is page after page of useless words used to lure unsuspecting searchers to a website.  Panda really cracked down on such underhanded methods of increasing rank and now companies must be mindful of the amount of keywords used per page of content.

Enhanced Online Visibility and Broken Links

Links break. Unfortunately search engines use broken links against a website featuring them.  While most broken links are unintentional and companies don’t even realize they are there, they will be a detriment should the Panda find them.  This is the perfect time to test every link to ensure that they are live and functional. 

Enhanced Online Visibility and Professional Clean Up

While these are just a few suggestions for companies wanting to build their enhanced online visibility in 2012 they are important.  To really make the most on a website and launch online visibility into the stratosphere a company’s best bet is to turn to professionals.  They have the knowledge and resources to stay on top of problems, anticipate changes to search engine algorithms and make subtle changes to websites should the need arise.  When committing to increasing one’s enhanced online visibility trusting the work to a professional is usually the best choice.

Three Reasons to Create a Company Blog to Build an Online Brand Presence

There are of course many more reasons to have a company blog than the three that are mentioned in this blog post.  In fact, there are very few reasons NOT to have a blog! Regardless of the size of the company or what product or service they are providing blogs are useful when wanting to increase online brand presence.  In short, blogs are great for building rank on search engines, are chalked full of information for investors, customers and partners, and they are a window into the soul of any company.

Building Online Brand Presence – Get Recognized by Search Engines

Search engines love fresh content and keywords.  Blogs are the ideal way to incorporate both into a company’s website.  It’s recommended that content be added or changed on a website at least three times a week for webcrawlers to be impressed.  Keywords must naturally be added to that content. Even though it may sound easy in theory the arrangement of keywords and content is more art than science and realistically requires experts in SEO marketing to get it done right for online brand presence to be truly increased.

Building Online Brand Presence – Up-to-Date Information

Nothing is more annoying or disappointing than visiting a website only to find it hasn’t been updated in a year.  Every business changes constantly as do their industries.  Blogging is a way to ensure that up-to-date information is conveyed to customers, investors and partners in a non-threatening, non-preachy tone.  When writing a blog one should always remember that the post is not about selling the product or service, but rather about sharing information if they truly want to be read and build their online brand presence.

Building Online Brand Presence – Define the Company

It’s sad to say but for most industries companies selling a product or service are a dime a dozen.  The only way to stand above the crowd is to connect to customers.  Brick and mortar stores are a great method for doing just that but as the world is moving more toward the virtual one’s website must replace the colloquial richness storefronts used to offer.  By offering a blog customers can get a feel for one’s business while instinctively understanding the values and beliefs which make it unique and reputable.  Online brand presence is about setting oneself apart from the others.

The fact that people are reading this blog post is proof that blogging works.  Blogging is a great way to get information out to the public about one’s product or service.  An online brand presence depends completely on businesses taking the time to create a name for themselves which will be picked up by search engines and relayed to customers and potential customers.

The Importance of Web Content in Enhanced Online Visibility

By now almost all companies of any size understand the value of having a website for their product or service.  We’ve already covered within this topic keeping the website up to date if a company’s goal is to have customers visit more than once.  While smaller businesses may be able to take care of this task themselves, or some may choose to hire a professional to get it done right the first time, all sizes of businesses must keep their website interesting and as current as possible.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Fresh Web Content

Of course there are times when web content is tweaked because of changes in one’s business practices or calendar.  That is not the kind of changes we are suggesting.  When we say that in order to create an enhanced online visibility companies must keep their web content fresh and interesting we mean every so often shake thing up a bit.  Try a different writer.  Many companies specialize in keeping web content interesting and it would probably be in one’s best interest to investigate such services.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Stay Up-To-Date

There is nothing more disappointing for customers, or potential customers, than taking the time to visit a website only to find the last time it was updated was a year ago.  That Holiday package that wowed everyone last December leaves a bad taste in the mouth come August if it is still the feature on one’s Home Page.  Every company, no matter what the size, that wants to maintain an enhanced online visibility must not let their website content fall further than a few weeks behind.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Maintain Interesting Content

Understandably not every company can afford a website with fancy intros, multiple videos and cute apps to download, but every company wishing to establish an enhanced online visibility can keep creative, fresh and (most important) interesting content on their website.  If a company does not have a designer available to keep things interesting, it would be well worth the money to hire professionals.  If a website is not interesting no one will want to visit it.

Just having a website is not good enough anymore for companies wishing to create and maintain an enhanced online visibility.  While there is no secret formula to a website’s success it does take time and experience.  Not every company, small or large, has a design team experienced in the art of creating an enhanced online visibility through the company website.  Any company finding themselves in that spot should, if nothing else, take the time to talk to an expert in the field to discover options.

Use the Holidays to Build an Enhanced Online Visibility

The holiday season is a perfect opportunity for your small business to promote your product or service while simultaneously creating an enhanced online visibility.  Primarily this can be done through social media but with smart use of your website the same results can be seen.  People love to broadcast their lives to their many friends on social media.  Taking advantage of that and promoting the behavior with a subtle nod to your product or service is a quick way to get word of your company out to the masses.

Enhanced Online Visibility through Updates

People love to update their profiles as to their location especially during the holidays.  This is a great opportunity for businesses to get promoted through the best way possible – word of mouth.  Retail stores, restaurants, and other businesses should utilize this behavior and place subtle reminders around a store suggesting customers update their status.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words and Adds Enhanced Online Visibility

Just like your customers your business should update social media accounts with pictures.  If your store has a beautifully decorated display window dressed up for the holidays or new merchandise, by all means, post good pictures on your social media accounts!  This, along with a good enhanced online visibility marketing program will guarantee that more new customers walk through your doors or clicks on your website.

Holiday Packages Bring in the Customers

Everyone is looking for a deal around the holidays and your customers, and potential customers, are no different.  Creating holiday packages and then advertising them like crazy is a proven way to get new and existing customers coming your way.  One idea is to create a new holiday deal or package every day.  You can post it on all of your social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ - and include a link back to your website.  This takes a little extra time but the results are well worth it!

Regardless of what ongoing SEO marketing campaigns your business are engaged in during the year the holidays is an excellent opportunity to beef up sales and capture new customers.  With just a little planning and time devoted to the cause your company can transform the holidays into a customer-getting season.  Enhanced online visibility is about getting your company’s name out there.  Combining existing customers’ power to advertise through social media and holiday deals your company is bound to come out ahead.

Building Online Brand Presence - Your Virtual Business Card

I have to admit I’m not good with business cards.  When someone hands me one it usually gets tucked away in my pocket or purse. More often than not it ends up a victim of my washing machine.  In fact, I’ve always considered people who hand out their business card like candy to be annoying.  That was until I needed an auto body shop and remembered I had a casual acquaintance who owned a body shop.  I had forgotten the name of the shop, though. What to do?  Then, I remembered the business card.

After digging through my purse I found his card and a few days later was paying his company for fixing the dent in my bumper.  The moral to this story is that even though my friend’s incessant handing out of business cards borders on aggressive marketing, it is effective.  That is how one builds an online brand presence and gets more customers.

There are all kinds of tips and techniques for online brand presence building and increasing traffic to a company’s website.   While all the advice is completely well-meaning and in most cases highly effective the first step in building a company’s online brand presence is to think like my friend and see opportunities in every situation. 

The key to building an online brand presence is to remember when online the small business owner should always behave as if all their customers are watching.  By being cognizant of their movements and behavior on social media and forums they create opportunities to build an online brand presence.  There are a few simple steps that go a long way in developing an impressive online brand presence:

1)      Every online signature should include a website address. Period.  This includes Forum signatures, email signatures and social media.  One’s online signature is their business card and is how online brand presence is created.

2)      To reach more customers subtle promotion must be authentic and show thoughtfulness.  This means becoming active on industry forums.  Active does not mean constant pitching of one’s product or service.  It means becoming part of the community and adding valuable and thought-provoking comments.

3)      Business owners should become experts in their field.  Expertise demands respect.  The best way to showcase expertise is to create a blog.  By discussing all aspects and elements of one’s industry or product they will grow a customer base guaranteed.

Building an online brand presence is about more than just online marketing – it’s about creating a brand for one’s company and selling it.  The goal of every business owners should be to have a customer base who thinks of them first when a need arises; much like I did when I needed my friend’s body shop. 

 

Using Google+ to Increase Online Brand Presence

Small and mid-sized companies are always looking for inexpensive ways to increase their online brand presence.  Thanks to social media that can be done with no more investment that the time required to create and maintain a social media profile.  Facebook and Twitter have dominated the social media scene for the last few years but might have a run for their money with Google’s introduction of Google+.  This newest social media experience easily facilitates a company’s growing online brand presence and is easy to do.

Online Brand Presence at the Heart of Social Media

In essence social media turns every one of their users into a brand.  The more a person interacts with others within the realm of that website the more prominent their brand becomes.  Smart companies have realized this and have jumped head first into the cultural phenomena.  By creating a profile for one’s company current customers, potential customers and everyone in between can keep tabs on the company’s doings and receive constant advertising. Most important to building an online brand presence, though, is the daily reminders all one’s customers will have of a company’s product or service.

The Benefits of Google+ when Creating Online Brand Presence

Unlike Facebook and Twitter Google+ marketed their social media site at an older, more professional audience.  Also, regardless of whether one really likes Google+ there is no denying there are certain perks to belonging.  First and foremost the Google machine loves itself and when building an online brand presence raising Google ranking is the best method.  Google+ does have some advantages to its program and many experts in online marketing have already began to maximize these features to build an online brand presence.

No matter what size a company may be it is a best practice to draw as much attention to one’s brand as possible.  When that attention is free, it’s even better!  Social media is a free way to build an online presence.  While it may be free it is expensive in time commitment.  To utilize social media sites like Google+ one must be prepared to update their sites regularly, respond to comments, engage in on-going conversations and constantly look for potential customers.  Companies who make the commitment to Google+ can see immediate and long-term rewards, most importantly an increased online brand presence as demonstrated in higher Google rankings.

Building Enhanced Online Visibility Offline

When most companies begin hunting for strategies for increasing enhanced online visibility they immediately turn to the internet.  It makes sense, right? To increase online visibility one must do more online.  That is not necessarily true.  One article points out several simple steps a company can take to increase their enhanced online visibility with very little online activity.

The first thing all companies wanting an enhanced online visibility should work on is their stationary and business cards.  All paper products coming from a business should have important email addresses and the company website address prominently listed.  If a company has already taken the leap into social media stationary and business cards should also include Facebook, Twitter and any other social media information.

The same advice goes for all of a company’s print ads.  A lot of advertising dollars are put into print ads and companies need to make sure they are getting their money’s worth by providing the website address and especially social media information on all print ads for an enhanced online visibility. 

Everyone has seen vehicles on the road with advertisements on the windows.  This is a great opportunity to spread the world about a company’s products or services.  Enhanced online visibility begins with getting the word out about a company.  By placing company decals with website address and social media info attached a company can advertise to thousands of potential new customers. 

Included in all good advertising campaigns are promotional gifts.  Whether a company has a booth at a trade show or is running a special in their store promotional gifts are handed out like candy.  While not everyone receiving the gifts are target customers one never knows who will give the gifts a once-over and show interest in the company.  By prominently placing the company website on all promotional items one will have enhanced online visibility and a growing customer base.

All these strategies are easily implemented in the real world and work great for companies of all sizes whether it be a multi-million dollar conglomerate or one with a handful of employees.  All too often when focusing on enhanced online visibility companies miss the forest for the trees.  By simply adding online information to all advertising and print materials, enhanced online visibility is one step closer to fruition.

Improve Online Brand Presence with Linking

One of the most important goals of any online marketing campaign is building an online brand presence through ranking with Google and other search engines. A company’s site ranking high in organic searches does not happen through serendipity, but rather through a specific, detailed approach combining many SEO strategies.  One of the easiest strategies with immediate results is to gain site traffic through inbound links from other domains.

A recent article explains step-by-step how and where to create external links to bolster online brand presence and goes on to remind companies the importance of inter-departmental cooperation in SEO marketing when increasing online brand presence is the goal. Many strategies are available when creating inbound links to company web content and creativity is the key.

One popular option is to create fun quizzes and surveys that will direct traffic to one’s company and product.  By aiming the quizzes at target audiences a company can expand their customer base and increase their search rankings. 

Another option is to utilize social media.  Best practice suggests that brands that utilize social media increase their online brand presence more than those who don’t.  By embedding links to a company’s site within social media (Facebook page, Twitter account, etc…) current customers are likely to click and land on one’s site accomplishing the inbound link strategy.

Placing a company’s link on a blog, social media account or other type of web page with a similar audience to that which a company has is a good way to increase customers, increase inbound link traffic and increase online brand presence.  Creating a company widget so that it can be embedded within blogs is a great way to easily accommodate.

Finally, working with PR teams can seriously increase a company’s online brand presence.  Every press release and partner project is an opportunity for SEO growth.  Links back to the company web site should be embedded in all promotional material and in partner sites.  By closely working with PR a company’s online brand presence can be greatly improved. 

While links alone will not create a brand or move a company website to the number one ranking on organic searches, when combined with other tried and true SEO strategies it can cause online brand presence to amplify dramatically.  Following a few simple steps, thinking outside the box and waiting patiently is about all a successful linking campaign needs to be a success. 

Build Online Brand Presence with Website Content

Most companies have already developed relatively effective websites to attract new customers, accommodate existing customers and, in general, make their product or service more accessible.  Companies who do these things probably see some increased traffic as a result of their online practices.  What most companies don’t realize, however, is the potential their website possesses.  By fulfilling all of customers’ needs with one website visit a company can increase not only their profits and customer loyalty but also bolster their online brand presence.

Companies Need to View Online Brand Presence Differently

Using blogs, forums, social media and aggressive advertising campaigns are great ways to increase online brand visibility, but while many companies are pursuing these things they look past what is already in their arsenal of marketing tools.  An established website is a company’s best marketing tool in establishing an online brand presence.  If customers already find their way to a company website for specific products or services they probably will stick around or come back if more information is available than they originally sought.

An Example of Online Brand Presence Building

That might sound a bit confusing so here is an example.  Say CompanyABC sells specialty dog food.  They already have an established market and customer base but want to expand their online brand presence.  By simply using what they already have (their website) they can increase both customers and website hits.  A little website redesigning and some addition of intelligent, educational web content could change business for CompanyABC in a big way.

To start out, they could add content on their website about dog breeds.  Although it has nothing to do with dog food, per se, it will interest visitors and keep them clicking on the site which in turn will build their online brand presence.  They could also create content explaining the benefits of specialty dog foods, provide links to published papers and articles backing up their claims.  They could even have guest writers who are professionals in the dog world like veterinarians and trainers. 

Suddenly, CompanyABC is no longer just a specialty dog food supplier but are experts in dogs and with smart writing can convince visitors there to learn about dogs to buy their products.  Online brand presence is as much about widening one’s web to catch as many potential customers as it is focusing advertising dollars on a target audience.  By spending a little extra money in developing quality website content establishing a company’s expertise in an entire field, a company can promote their business and sales to a higher level.