Welcoming Chris Baum as President of Epic

Written by

I took a leap of faith sixteen years ago and founded Epic Marketing because I saw a desperate need for accountability and a results-driven focus in Utah’s competitive marketing scene.

Over the years, we’ve worked hard to build, grow, and nurture a talented team full of passionate people that care about helping business owners solve complex marketing problems. It’s been incredibly fulfilling to positively impact so many entrepreneurs and business owners over the years. And I feel a special sense of pride and gratitude for having the opportunity and the support from our local Utah community to build Epic into what it is today.

Epic has grown a lot since we started. And we’ve come to a point where our leadership team needs to expand if we’re going to continue to grow. That’s why I’m pleased and proud to announce today that Chris Baum has accepted the position as President of Epic Marketing.

As anyone who knows Chris can attest to without any overstatement, he is a very unique talent in this market. He personifies the professional values we have here at Epic, and just as important, he’s had a career full of rich experience—and I believe he has the ability to lead our company from where we are today, as a well-respected leader in the industry, to where we want to be in the future.

Chris was the Executive Vice President of Sales and Broadcasting for the Utah Jazz and also served in several executive-level positions within the Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment group. He oversaw marketing and advertising sales efforts for the Utah Jazz, Salt Lake Bees, The Tour of Utah, The Salt Lake City Stars, Jazz Gaming, Megaplex Theatres, and The Zone Sports Radio Network. Chris is also a native Utahn who loves to backpack, travel anywhere and everywhere with his wife, and get outside with his kids and grandkids.

He understands media, marketing, and the customer experience to an incredible degree. But above all that, I know Chris shares my same passion for building relationships and helping clients grow their businesses.

I am incredibly excited about what the future has in store for our partners as Epic begins this new chapter with Chris. I am “big on people”—I believe that we are on a journey in this life to do our best to lift the people around us through positive and healthy interactions. While this isn’t always the outcome—despite our individual efforts—here at Epic Marketing, we do our best to lift others by the work that we do and the relationships that we cherish with each one of our partners and clients.

Please join me in welcoming Chris Baum to our agency and ushering in a new era of continued hard work, collaboration, opportunity, and prosperity for our clients and the community we serve.

Thank you all.

-Nick White
CEO & Founder, Epic Marketing

5 Basic SEO Tips Every Business Owner Should Know

Written by

Generally speaking, SEO helps your business be relevant to a target audience, increase site traffic, build brand awareness and improve user experience. SEO is a long term strategy that requires serious dedication. Approaching SEO can be scary, but it’s ok to start small. Small changes can gradually lead to great success. Here are a few “starting small” SEO tips:

Know Your Current Ranking

It’s hard to know if your SEO strategy is working effectively unless you know your current position and THEN monitor progress. Before starting a new strategy, track your current rankings.

So – how do you monitor your ranking? There are various tools designed to help you do this. If you’re just getting started, there are a number of free tools to help! You can start with tools like Traffic Travis, RankWatch, and RankScanner. One thing to note with free trackers – they don’t store your rankings over time. So, every month (or however often you are checking), I suggest exporting the list and comparing it the next time you check. There are also some great tools that cost money like SEMRush, WebCEO, and Ahrefs. These paid tools often have more features in their database. This could include things like audits, keyword research options, competitor information, etc.

Pay Attention To Keywords

It’s hard to discuss SEO basics without mentioning keywords, they should be the center of every optimization strategy. Keywords are search terms that people use to find relevant content online. Understanding how your target audience is searching and the keyphrases they’re using will help you better know what kind of content to optimize your website with. Use the keyphrases, and their synonyms in the headings, subheadings, meta descriptions, image descriptions, and web content.

It is important to note that using too many keywords could adversely affect your ranking. Google could label your site as spammy and penalize you for keyword stuffing. Always try to strike a balance. The balance I try to stick to is a keyword density of 2-2.5%. The content you write for your website or blog, shouldn’t be stuffed with keywords, it should be informative and answer the questions the user came to your site to get answered.

Create Internal and External Links

Most beginners underestimate the importance of links. Links are an integral part of SEO basics because they help to increase traffic to specific pages of your website. When creating content, always incorporate relevant links to other pages on your site and link externally to other authoritative sites. Ensure you use keyphrase focused anchor text that highlights what is contained on the page you are linking to. This will increase the chances of your page appearing when internet users search for the anchor text.

seo for beginners

Include Relevant Image Info

A key to SEO is understanding how bots crawl your website, but more specifically, your images. Bots (also known as crawlers) only read the text and overlook images. So file name, alt tags and image descriptions help them to know what the picture is all about. All image elements should include the key phrase, but also describe what the image is. Google is smart enough to know when you’re trying to trick them by stuffing more keywords. Your site or page could be penalized for making your content hard to understand for sight-impaired people.

Post Fresh and Relevant Content

An effective way to ensure your site has fresh content is by adding a blog that focuses on relevant topics. The blog will attract a significant number of readers, educate them on the subject and convert some of them into loyal customers. A blog gives you opportunities for internal and external linking and allows you to demonstrate your authority on the subject matter.

Content must be fresh, relevant and engaging. The idea behind a blog is not only to show search engines that you’re an active member of your community but also to become a resource for tips and tricks in your industry.

Even though SEO can be a complex topic, with a base knowledge of what your SEO starting point is, you can create a long-term game plan to scale the SERPs. If you’re on information overload, contact us today! Our team of SEO experts is ready to help.

A Guide to Google Posts: Connect with More Clients

Written by

When someone searches your business on Google, you want to be front and center. To do this, you need to incorporate PPC ads and have your Google My Business profile filled out completely. To add to this, Google introduced a feature in 2017 that lets you include a post with your local listing to tell customers and potential customers about:

• Events

• Products

• Promotions/specials

• Announcements

For local businesses, this means your listing stands out and gets more views and clicks to your site. This also helps current customers stay connected with what’s happening at your business. Your Google post should be brief, useful and call your customers to act on something.

Here’s an example we created for Epic. You’ll see that it shows on desktop and mobile.

Here’s what it looks like on desktop:

marketing google post

Here’s what it looks like on mobile:

ad agency utahIf you click on the post, you can see more info:

epic marketing agency utah

How to Create a Google Post

Log into your Google My Business listing and select “Posts”

digital marketing utah

After clicking on that, you’ll see a field that says”Write your post.”

From there you can add photos, descriptions, make it an event and add a button.

marketing company utah

Keys to Writing a Great Google Post

Post type: What are you sharing? Are you holding an event? Are you promoting an offer or special deal? Does your business have exciting news to share? Whether it’s to encourage customers to buy something or to announce a new change, consider what you want the post to do and what action people should take after reading it.

Photo: Your photo should draw attention to your post so that it stands out. The resolution should be 720px by 540px and should be simple yet direct.

Title: If you’re posting an event, you have the option of describing your event in 58 characters.

Detail: Although Google suggests keeping your description between 100-300 words, you have a character limit of 1,500. Be clear about what the event or offer includes.

Call to action: What do you want your customers to do? Include instructions like “Buy now”, “Reserve a spot”, “Call”, etc.

**Quick note: You don’t need to include your business name as it already will appear in the post. It’s recommended that you use all of the fields Google provides you with to maximize your impression.

To learn more about Google posts, get more tips and see more examples, visit the Google My Business Help Center or if you have additional questions for our SEO experts and your business, contact Epic Marketing today!

A Recipe for Success: A Perfect Blend of Digital and Traditional Marketing

Written by

A comprehensive marketing campaign has the ability to increase brand awareness and attract qualified customers. Integrating both digital and traditional marketing has been proven to reap more benefits than a one-dimensional approach. Although some marketers believe the two contrasting practices are in conflict, they can complement each other in order to obtain the best results possible.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing has numerous benefits.  With the ability to go viral, a well-executed digital marketing strategy is essential for any campaign.

  • Cost-Effective

Digital marketing gives your business the power to advertise effectively while reaching a wider audience and producing new revenue. Additionally, not only is digital marketing economical, but it’s a fast way to promote your brand.

  • Measurable

Digital marketing campaigns are trackable, measurable, and cable of being altered in order to improve results. For example, email marketing allows you to track who has opened the email, who clicked on links, etc. The data makes it easy to measure your progress and quickly adapt your entire marketing strategy to obtain better results.

  • Highly Targeted

With digital marketing, you can target your campaign to only the people who are interested in what you’re selling and develop opportunities to engage with your target audience.

Benefits of Traditional Marketing

Your customers don’t just stop online and your advertising shouldn’t either. Traditional marketing can be extremely beneficial in boosting your bottom line. Consider the enormous impact of billboards, print ads, mailers, business cars, and television and radio commercials. These proven techniques have high success rates and are an effective way to reach a broad consumer base.

Integrating Digital and Traditional Marketing Techniques

Utilizing a combination of digital and traditional allows your product/service to be spread across different channels, therefore reaching a larger audience.  Depending on your target audience, you can tailor fit your marketing efforts accordingly. As a full-service agency, Epic Marketing has the resources to create the right package of services for each client. From print, radio and television ads, media placement and creative design to branding and digital marketing, we adapt broad-spectrum marketing solutions to each case for strategic, cost-effective and concrete results.

 

 

The Importance of Visual Identity for Start-Ups

Written by

In a world where visual content is dominating, your company’s identity and brand are in the constant forefront. By mastering your visual identity, you’ll be capable of making a strong and impactful first impression. Creating your own business can be a challenging task, and with so many aspects to look at, visual identity can be overlooked. We recommend the following in order to make your start-up stand out.

Establish Credibility

Unlike large, established corporations, start-up businesses may have a trickier time identifying their brand and establishing credibility. Often times, start-ups can end up with generic logos and a non-cohesive message. To be truly successful, your audience must believe that you’re the real deal. This can be achieved by having a strong visual identity along with unique messaging that effectively portrays your company.

Stand Out From Your Competition

With so many companies, it’s vital to have a unique selling point to stand out. Inventing a visual identity gives you an approach that few have. Create cohesiveness among every element, including logo, color scheme, fonts, graphics, e-blasts, website, business cards, etc. Visual identity can define a company and create a brand love and loyalty, which will resonate with your customer base for years on end.

Design

Good design makes it easier for customers to engage with your content. A meaningful and compelling design is equally important as content. The overall look of your brand is undeniably essential in order to find new customers and boost sales. A cohesive visual identity will capture the attention of leads while providing a fresh and unique feel.

Interested in creating a visual identity for your business? Contact us today at 801.657.4383 for a free consultation. Our marketing experts will help your business reach its full potential.

 

The Power of the Slogan

Written by

A slogan is a fantastic way to convey value proposition. Through the use of a motto or phrase that represents an idea or purpose, communication to your intended audience helps to make your product or service memorable.

Commonly referred to as a “tagline,” a marketing slogan is traditionally “catchy” and (hopefully) captures audience members’ attention and influences their association with the slogan and the product it is representing. By doing so, the hope is that the brand becomes identifiable and increases conversion (i.e., purchases).

Think for a moment about what you think of when you hear the following: “Just Do It,” “I’m lovin’ it,” or “got milk?” Your mind automatically jumps to the Nike swoosh, the McDonald’s golden arches, and the widely-recognized milk mustache. Perhaps you were reminded that you love your running shoes and need a new pair, that your kids have been particularly good this week and deserve a happy meal and an hour in the “playplace”, or that you’re running low on milk and need to do a store run. If this is the case, then these slogans definitely accomplished what they were intended for.

As with the above example, a slogan helps your brand stand out, highlighting the core of your messaging. It beckons the question, then, what makes an advertising slogan successful?

Essentially, smart advertising should deliver results. It does no good to have a corporate jingle or catch phrase that audience members are still left wondering, who was that company? A successful slogan ought to direct consumer preference toward your product and hopefully positively influence their buying behavior. Your slogan should be creatively appealing, and traditionally pair an adjective with a describing noun.

In essence, catch what your company or brand stands for in as succinct a manner as possible. When in doubt, it’s always beneficial to consult your marketing or advertising agency for guidance. If your current slogan is not working for you, or you feel that your company could benefit from a refresh, contact the marketing and advertising experts at Epic Marketing. We specialize in brand identity, messaging, and all-things creative.

Internet Marketing Jargon: Decoded

Written by

You may hear us use some of the following terms about the rapidly growing world of Internet marketing. If “conversion rate” wasn’t your first spoken word, here’s a quick guide to understanding some Internet marketing jargon:

SEO: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (organic) search results. Local search results – an entirely different ballgame – are also important if your business has a physical address. Countless factors affect a site’s search engine rankings, such as site design, load time, over- or under-use of keywords, number external links – the list goes on and on.

Algorithm: PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn)). Got it? Ok, neither do I. Google’s algorithm is highly complex – and that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. An algorithm is a mathematical equation that enables search engines to quickly rifle through over 60 trillion web pages and deliver us the best search results possible. As if this isn’t complicated enough, Google makes changes to its algorithm 500-600 times a year. You go, SEO’s.

Analytics: A web marketer’s bread-and-butter, analytics is used to measure, collect, and analyze website data for developing actionable insights that help us make informed marketing decisions. Basically, we get a “behind the scenes” look at who’s visiting your site, when, for how long, etc.

Conversion Rate: A metric to describe the percentage of those who take a desired action. Said desired action depends on one’s individual goals, which could be taking advantage of a free consultation, subscribing to a newsletter or blog, completing a survey or making a purchase. Basically, conversion is the process of turning website visitors into customers.

Content: Content is a piece of information that exists to be digested, engaged with, and shared. Content typically comes in the form of a blog, social media post, advertisement, photo, or website copy. “Content is king” is a (wildly overused) phrase you may hear, describing how good, relevant content is crucial for search engine rankings, conversion, and more.

Keyword: Keywords are single words, or strings of words – called “keyword phrases” – that are strategically selected and incorporated into web content to optimize a page for both search engines and humans. Keywords represent what a page is about and should be integrated through a page’s content in a way that is natural and subtle to avoid “keyword stuffing” – an SEO tactic that Google considers to be a big “no-no.”

Responsive Web Design: This is the practice of developing a website that adapts according to how someone is viewing it. A responsive site will provide an optimal viewing experience across a wide range of devices – laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc. This is crucial, because mobile site visits are quickly surpassing desktop and laptop numbers.

These are only a few of the many buzzwords in the ‘dictionary’ of Internet Marketing.

We want to hear from you! Tweet some jargon you may not understand to @epicmarketing and we’ll give you the 4-1-1.