Branding Archives - Epic Marketing

Mixing Up Media Buying

Posted on July 15, 2019 at 1:33 pm.

It takes several elements to put together a well-balanced media mix, just like a seven-layer dip. While each layer is great on its own, putting refried beans, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cheese, onions, and tomatoes all together create the perfect game day snack. The same is true for creating the right media mix, while each media channel is (usually) a decent outlet individually, putting together the right mix can increase the performance of all platforms.

Walking down a red carpet to a formal gala with a seven-layer dip in hand probably wouldn’t go over well. But showing up to watch the Superbowl with one would make you the MVP of the party. It’s important to evaluate your entire situation before determining the mix. The client’s budget, target audience, industry, and market are just a few of the factors that have to be considered when putting together a media mix. You’ll need to understand which mediums you can afford, which ones will reach your target audience, how much media is needed, what the effective spend amount is for each platform, and how they will perform.

Ingredients

But wait! Before you can create a seven-layer dip, you need to decide what layers will be going into it. This dish is particularly flexible as you can simply add or replace one layer with something else. For instance, if you don’t like the taste of onions, you can replace it with black olives. If you’re not a fan of either, you can have a six-layer dip. With the wide variety of both digital and traditional channels, it’s important to know the value of each medium and how they work with the other media in the mix. (Remember in FRIENDS when Rachel made a Thanksgiving trifle dessert and added a layer of beef between the custard and banana layers?) Be sure not to have an outlier channel that throws off the flow or results of the campaign.

Ratio

Like any recipe, there are key ingredients and those that are used only to enhance the flavors. Too much, or too little, of one thing can ruin the entire dish. Similarly, putting together a media mix can be a delicate task. There is no one-size-fits-all media mix that can be used for every client. Knowing what the right amount is for each medium is something that takes strategy, time, and possibly even trial and error. It’s vital to know how much money it takes to be effective on each platform. For instance, you’d never be able to run an effective radio branding campaign with a mere $100. Some mediums have budget minimums for this reason. Know the point of diminishing return on digital media channels so you don’t overspend. Remember, like a seven-layer dip, to make the mix colorful. Utilize the different media platforms to reach your audience in multiple ways.

Developing a strong media mix takes a combination of strategy and creativity. Each client is going to have a different mix depending on their specific needs. In my experience, the budget is among the most important key factors to the plan. Depending on what the budget is, opportunities will either be open or closed for the media mix. There are many strategies of how to spend the budget and it takes some creativity to get everything to work together. If you are looking to advertise your product or service, reach out to me so I can try to help put together a powerful media mix for you.

Launching a Brand New Product: Tricks, Tips, and Traps

Posted on March 30, 2017 at 2:31 pm.

Written by Jared Cannon

Picture this: you just purchased that new piece of camping equipment you’ve wanted and you can’t wait to head to the mountains and see what it can do. But you’re not sure if it’s any good. Before your trip depends on it, you’d love a little guidance or even the chance to give it a test run.

That’s how you can feel when your business begins offering a new product or service. You’re really excited and can’t wait to get out there and tell everyone about it! This is really going to change lives, right? Well, maybe not change lives exactly… But new is better, right? So, where do you start? How do you get the word out about your latest and greatest idea? What obstacles might prevent your newest product from being instantly successful? Here are some key tricks, tips, and traps to keep in mind when venturing out from your main offering into something new and different.

One of the biggest roadblocks for a new business idea is budget. We recommend setting up a budget specifically for promoting the new service or product separate from other marketing expenses. This ensures that the new initiative is funded without depleting any existing promotions. Often, we encounter a situation where the client became overly-focused on the newest offering at the expense of tried-and-true services only to hit a painful surprise when overall sales sag. Don’t fall into the tempting trap of focusing all of your energy or resources on the new and ignoring what’s been working for you!

Another way to safeguard your latest success is to make your marketing effort fun! Creative social media campaigns are the perfect way to start the conversation. Begin with a plan and know what you want to say about the new service. A giveaway, contest, discount, or other incentive is a great place to start. This creates fresh new reason to engage and educate your fans that creates increased awareness for your new idea at the same time. And stick to it! The length of time you run a fun, fresh awareness campaign is vital to its success. Not days or weeks, either. Typically you’ll need 3-6 months for a new effort to gain traction and be able to honestly measure its effectiveness.

Offering a brand new service is thrilling but can be tricky to implement. If you have any questions or uncertainty about what methods you could be using to market your new service, Epic Marketing can help. We have the resources and expertise to take your company to new heights.

5 Common Misconceptions about Marketing

Posted on March 14, 2014 at 7:00 pm.

Written by Jared Cannon

[Updated: August 2018]

The concept of marketing is a very murky one. This is because marketing is the root of many different means of promoting your business. As a result, it’s easy to confuse the idea of marketing with the true purpose of marketing.

Digital Marketing Myths

We encounter a lot of reasons why companies think marketing isn’t right for them. Most of the time these reasons stem from failed attempts at marketing, and many of these failed attempts are a result of common marketing misconceptions. We can’t say it enough, there is so much more to marketing than just having a website, placing an ad, wrapping your car with graphics, or throwing up a billboard. The purpose of marketing is to implement a strategy that raises awareness about your business and persuades people to do business with you.

With that being said, there is a science to it and that is why there are professionals specializing in marketing. Below are five common marketing myths:

Marketing Myth #1: Marketing is Advertising—Well, yes and no. Without advertising, marketing is much less effective and without marketing, advertising can be a waste. In order to truly grow your business, you need both. Advertising is a branch of marketing through which your services can be presented to your audience, whereas marketing is the essence of reaching them.

This client invested in both an advertising and marketing campaign for their company. Through the efforts of traditional marketing and advertising and digital marketing, they continually see over 800 unique, quality leads.

Marketing Myth #2: Marketing is a waste of money—When this thought comes to mind, you’re effectively saying that your service or product is a waste of money. Think about it, you want to grow your business but you’re not willing to invest in marketing it, so aren’t you kind-of saying you’re services are not worth promoting? You’ve already invested in your business, now it’s time to invest in growing it. Without marketing, your business will have a very hard time getting you a return on your investment.

Marketing Myth #3: It takes too long to see a return on my marketing investment—If this is the case, your marketing strategy just might be the wrong one. There are a bunch of marketing opportunities out there and some can provide fast results, while others are more of a slow burn. Having marketing experts as a resource (who have been there and done that) will help you to know which strategies will bring rapid results and which strategies will build brand loyalty.

Speaking of rapid results – let’s put into perspective how quickly you can see an ROI if you invest in your marketing. This client saw a 200% increase in site traffic through digital marketing efforts like SEO, PPC and Facebook Advertising over the course of 4 months.

Marketing Myth #4: A friend of mine is a designer and can help me market—This is true, your friend can design something for you and help you market your business. But does your friend know how to design and target the audience you need to grow your business? Oftentimes, people put together a look for their business without considering the feel of that look. Professional designers and marketers know not only how to create a look, but also a feel for your business, instilling trust with your customers.

Marketing Myth #5: I just want to put a little bit of money towards marketing until I see results, then I’ll invest more—Is this a good marketing strategy? Maybe, maybe not, actually most likely not! We’re not trying to be the bearer of bad news here, but like we mentioned earlier, marketing is an investment in yourself and your business. Would you hire a personal trainer and say I’ll workout with you once every other week, and once I start seeing results, I’ll workout with you more? Common sense tells us you won’t see real results from putting forth minimum effort, you have to push the limits. When it comes to marketing, it’s important to strike a balance between what you can invest and what you should invest. There are strategies available that will get you amazing results for the best price, and having experts in your corner will get you there.

If you truly want your business to grow, marketing plays a key role in making this happen. Having a preconceived notion of what marketing is or isn’t only hurts your business opportunities. Marketing will help you reach the right audience, at the right time, through the right resources, with the right approach, and when executed correctly… it will succeed. To learn more about the campaigns we’ve run for our various marketing clients, check out Epic’s case studies!

The Importance of a Market Analysis

Posted on April 18, 2017 at 9:58 pm.

Written by Nick White

A complete market analysis is a cornerstone of a successful marketing and advertising campaign. All too often companies neglect to perform a thorough market analysis and are left to the bleak alternative of guesswork. Market analysis is a strategic management strategy that provides an analytical approach to answering some of your companies most difficult questions:

Who are our customers?
How competitive is the current market landscape?
How risky is entering this market?
How efficient are our branding efforts?

Most business plans start on a hunch that a product or service could sell or be beneficial to someone. That may have been enough to launch your idea off the ground, but in order to keep your business plans thriving, it’s important you get accurate and concise answers to these questions and to perform a SWOT analysis.

What is market analysis?

A market analysis is a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the external market and your internal resources. Thorough market analysis adequately assesses opportunity, value, risk, customer purchasing behavior, competition, and economic entry barriers and regulations.

3 Reasons Market Analysis is Important

This strategic management strategy does not tell you exactly how you should run your marketing campaign or position your company’s brand. However, it provides analytical insight that allows you to steer your company and brand around barriers or obstacles that could have impeded or completely halted your company’s progression. So, while there are many, let’s focus on the top 3 reasons market analysis is important.

1. Market Analysis Puts Your Customer First

Not long ago, Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christensen, shook up the marketing world when he asked, “What job are people hiring your product for?” This simple question opened a door for those selling commodities to differentiate themselves from their competition.

The principle at play in Professor Christensen’s idea can be summed up in just one sentence,

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole.” – Theodore Levitt

Once we discover that people are hiring our services or products we realize that our competitors are not always what we think. A morning bagel’s competition might be a fruit smoothie, or an ice cream sundae’s competition could be a pastry. These things are often competitors to the problem of morning hunger or late-night dessert, yet they are not always sold by the business you would generally consider your “competition.”

Market analysis allows you to optimize your service or product for the job your consumer is hiring it to do.

TAKE A LOOK AT HOW WE INITIATED A REBRAND THAT RESULTED IN 6.5X WEB CONVERSIONS.

2. Market Analysis Forces Companies to Look Inward

Starting your own company or managing one is often accompanied by a dose of egoism. It’s difficult to look at your product or service offering from a truly objective perspective because of how much you have invested. Market analysis forces companies to look inward and ask, “Why would consumers come to us?”

Critically acclaimed author Simon Sinek prompts business owners to think differently in regards to how they sell. He says, “People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.”

He asks us to compare the following sales pitches:

“We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. Want to buy one?”

Versus:

“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?”

This principle is especially important when your product or service is tied to the consumer’s self-actualizing vision of themselves. This benchmarking principle is more apparent in the apparel business than any other. Take the members of the surf culture around the North Shore of Hawaii, for example. Do you think they care how breathable the fabric of their t-shirt is? Or the thread-count of their hoodie? No. Their predominant want is to identify with a brand that helps them feel like their best self.

Market analysis forces companies to consider how their product makes their consumer feel and to what degree that feeling is driving the purchase decision.

TAKE A LOOK AT HOW WE TURNED AN INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM’S BRAND FROM COMMONPLACE TO CONTEMPORARY

3. Market Analysis Helps Determine Your Unique Sales Proposition

Though they are not always semantically agreed upon, there are five ways a company can differentiate their product or service in order to make it appealing to customers. Market analysis enables you to determine which of these methods of differentiation would be the most effective way to enter the market through strategic control.

Brand- Companies differentiate themselves by brand by standing for something or associating their brand with a cause.
Ex: TOMS’ slogan is, “One for One.” Their initiative to give shoes to the impoverished and shoeless is built heavily into their branding strategy. This branding strategy seeks to resonate with empathetic people who can turn a common purchase into one that helps others.
Product- Companies differentiate themselves by product by positioning themselves as the highest quality product on the market.
Ex: BMW’s slogan is, “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” Their branding and marketing goals set out to position themselves as the best car someone can own in the minds of their consumers.
Service- Companies with organizational structure differentiate themselves by service by offering a one-of-a-kind experience for their customer; this is typically done by showing exceptional customer service.
Ex: Nordstrom’s mission statement begins with, “To provide outstanding service every day one customer at a time.” Nordstrom’s has been accredited for having an extremely lenient return policy, swift response time to customer inquiry via email and even social media. Their brand is built around treating their customers with care and they are therefore retained.
Price- Companies differentiate themselves by price by positioning themselves as the most affordable or even the most expensive.
Ex: Wal-Mart’s slogan is, “Save money. Live better.” After Wal-Mart introduced their price matching program, they successfully branded themselves as the most affordable grocer by doing just that, literally being the most affordable.
Audience- Companies differentiate themselves by audience by branding their product or services to specifically aid or benefit a certain group or type of person.
Ex: Whole Foods’ brand is reflected in their motto, “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet.” Because their branding stands for healthy living, it often resonates with healthy people. Because of this people are often willing to pay more for the shopping experience.

Take a look at these two e-commerce Cheerio’s offers. Can you guess which one is from Wal- Mart and which is from Whole Foods?

Using market analysis to determine your entry point and your unique selling proposition is crucial for creating a sustainable business model.

Marketing analysis is the first step to making data-driven decisions in your business plan. Get in touch with our marketing team to see how we can assist you with finding your brand voice and your audience.

Marketing Psychology 101: How to Get Inside the Mind of Your Target Market

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The Danger of False Advertising

Posted on April 6, 2012 at 10:00 pm.

Written by Nick White

In the healthcare industry, false advertising claims are not taken lightly. Recently, a prominent chiropractor and marketing consultant was fined $1.125 million in a fraud settlement for making unsubstantiated claims about the DRX-9000 traction device.

According to the filed complaint, the Danville chiropractor sold marketing materials to chiropractors nationwide that falsely promoted the DRX-9000 as “patented,” breakthrough medical technology, “approved by the FDA,” and “developed by NASA.” These claims were determined by officials to be false and that they preyed on a vulnerable audience. Additionally, he received sales commissions from the manufacturers of the device.

In today’s world, your competitors are waiting to file a complaint with your local DA for the smallest infraction. When it comes to your personal brand and livelihood, why leave the marketing responsibilities up to someone who doesn’t have your best interest in mind or who lacks the knowledge of federal and local advertising laws? Ultimately, the business owner is responsible, not the person or entity creating the marketing. Don’t put your business at risk! The use of unsupported content in your advertising material leaves the door wide open for lawsuits and fines.

Typically advertisers include deceptive or even false claims because they want to generate a better response. At Epic Marketing, we take every precaution to create content for our clients that is not misleading or illegal. Through our years of experience, we have learned how to effectively promote your business without putting you in harm’s way.

What Makes a Good Ad?

Posted on February 16, 2017 at 10:12 pm.

Written by Nick White

What is it that makes a good ad? Is it the pictures/video? Is it what is written or said? Is it the creative elements that cause you to feel something after you have been exposed to it?

We believe that a good ad is one that is written and designed to emotionally connect with its target audience. Once connected, your ad’s rhetoric strongly persuades its consumer to want the product or service. The individual recognizes a need for it and feels a sense of urgency until the purchase is made.

Nonetheless, this is all easier said than done. When you’re competing for ad space in 2017 there’s little vacancy for mediocrity. Anything short of disruptive or highly targeted ends up falling short. Here are some ad related statistics that will acquaint you with the advertising industry of today–

-In 2015, digital ad blocking grew globally by 41%.

-Approximately 90% of TV viewers report, “always skipping” ads on DVR.

–Adobe reports that only 8% of people pay attention to online ads, 16% for radio ads and 14% for billboards. Ads in apps and games bottomed-out at 5%.

There are a wide range of ad styles and each are appropriate depending on the product or service that is being offered. With that in mind, here are some things that, if done correctly, will improve the quality and response to your next ad:

Compelling Hi-Res Visuals

After experimenting with the effectiveness of online imagery, Dan Zarrella of Hubspot, reported that, “[A] 37% increase in engagement [was] experienced when Facebook posts include[d] photographs.”

Visuals are one of the first things people look at when viewing an advertisement. In advertising, the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words” really fits. For example, you can probably think of some advertisements you’ve seen that are mainly just an image with little text. The ad visual should complement the ad headline, copy, and overall message.

Take a look at how we optimized images and responsiveness for a client website to increase web form conversions by 550%.

Effective Headline

Without question, digital advertisers are in the business of capturing attention. Though you may have put hours, weeks or even months into prepping the content that’s behind the click, your headline is what must compel them to do so.

In regards to the average Google searcher, Forbes reports, “it now takes people on average about eight or nine seconds to find the result they want.”

Moz also reports, “80% of readers never make it past the headline.”

We naturally search the internet with impulsiveness and impatience. When it comes to search engines, we’re anxious to get from A to B as fast as possible. We reserve our consciousness and focus for our destination and not the journey. So it would make sense that we ought to create headlines that cater to our naturally click-happy audience.

Because headlines are implicitly the first thing your viewer pays attention to, your headline should be attention-grabbing but should also encompass the overall message in a short sentence. Headlines can be thought-provoking, strictly informative, humorous, etc., but effective headlines have one thing in common: they all leave their reader wanting more.

Well-written Copy

If your headline and visuals have been effective enough to keep viewers reading, well-written copy will be the next aspect of your ad that will compel viewers to take action. If Moz’s report about 80% of users never making it past the headline is true, that means, if we read between the lines, 20% of users do make it past the headline.

So what now? Ad copy should be creative, concise and easy to read but also have compelling and relevant content. Avoid using jargon or excessive information that doesn’t contribute directly to the overall message of the advertisement.

Calls the Viewer to Action

Without a strong call to action, your advertisement probably won’t get the results you’re expecting it to. A call to action is defined as something in the ad that gives them an incentive to call or contact you now. Your ad’s call to action should be well thought out and defined. Make sure that your contact information is clearly visible and not surrounded by clutter. Though you may feel it’s important that your visitors become informed, have a positive branding experience with your company or visit a high number of pages, remember you ultimately created your ad so people can convert.

See how we helped a new york city client achieve 386 unique first-time callers in a single month.

Here are some key factors to consider when crafting your CTA-

– More than 90% of visitors who read your headline also read your CTA copy.

– Making CTAs look like buttons created a 45% boost in clicks for Create Debate.

– Emails with a single call-to-action increased clicks 371% and sales 1617%.

Overall, great advertisements connect to their audience and provide memorable, informative, and compelling content that get viewers respond to the call to action. Need help creating great ads? Contact Epic Marketing to find out how we can successfully boost your digital marketing campaign with great ads.