Home → Frequently Asked Questions about Marketing and Brand Development
What is Brand Development?
- Brand Development is taking control of every aspect of your corporate identity branding and molding it into what you need it to be to maximize the profit potential of your business. Your corporate brand identity is much more than just your logo or the sign on your door. It is defined by a broad spectrum of things, both large and small, both obvious and subtle, but they all combine to produce the overall brand image of your company. Brand Development is your corporate effort to ensure that your brand is perceived by the public in the manner that you desire.
How will focusing on Brand Development help my company?
- Whether your market is large or small, narrow or wide, how you are perceived by your customers and potential customers is of critical importance to the success of your business! Maintaining a focus on corporate identity branding will inspire confidence in your customers and in time will result in a sense of brand loyalty among them. This will ultimately drive more business to you and generate more sales and more profit for you. A strong brand image can even increase the perceived value of your product or service, perhaps allowing you to charge more money for the same service, again increasing your profits. (think Nike: $20 shoes, $100 price tag… it’s all about the brand image!) The money you spend with Mandalay Solutions as your branding agency can return to you many times!
How much will it cost to develop my brand?
- Your branding strategy should be a part of your overall marketing plan. How much you spend will depend on the size and scope of your business. Experts agree that 5 to 10% of your annual budget should be spent on marketing, and corporate identity branding should make up a large part of that. If your company is in the first few years of business, or you are in the midst of rebranding or creating a new brand image, you’ll want to devote a significantly larger portion of your budget to corporate identity and branding. After your brand is established, you can spend less on brand marketing to merely maintain your brand positioning. However, you
should never make the mistake of ceasing your brand marketing efforts altogether.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of getting the content of your website to appear near the top of the list of search engine results for terms that are important to your business. The process begins with thorough research to determine what aspects of your business people are actually searching for on the internet. This research provides a list of terms that can be used to determine what key pages your website needs to have, and what basic information should be presented on each page. However, you shouldn’t assume that high search engine ranking is enough! It usually is not. Content is king!
My website ranks well in Google, where is my business?
- You’ve taken the time and/or paid good money to have your website optimized for popular terms related to your widget. You’ve patiently waited as your website grew roots in the search engines and began to rank well. Now, you’re ranked 2nd in Google, first in Yahoo and Bing, and you’re even seeing a fair amount of new website traffic… but… nobody is buying! What’s missing?
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is only part of the equation. Getting internet users to find a link to your site and click on it is the easy part. Your website then needs to engage the reader with quality content that will inspire them to BUY whatever you are selling. We call this “conversion”. “Converting” a website visitor into a sale is the ultimate goal of SEO and of your website in general.
- Visitors who don’t find your website can’t be converted, so you can’t disregard SEO. But, you can’t stop there, either. To get and keep the interest of your visitors, you need a design that is pleasing to the eye, a layout and menu system that makes information easy to find, depth and quality of content that establishes you as an expert in your field, relevant photographs and imagery, and well-written copy among many other things.
- Sometimes it is also necessary for you to review your SEO and compare to your actual website results. It could be that your SEO is effective… but is driving the wrong people to your website. People who aren’t really interested in your product won’t buy it! We recommend regular quarterly performance reports of your website to keep a solid grasp on how your website is REALLY working for you and how it can be improved.
