What Is A Corporate Identity Kit Anyway?

Customers will recognize your company via your brand, and one of its crucial building blocks is its logo. This acts as a foundation for the marketing materials of your firm – from business cards to stationery and advertisements to website leaflets.  A powerful emblem can easily express the key details of your organization because it is illustrated by the proper image. This sign will be the representative of your business, narrate the tale of your trade name, and provide an advantage over the competition.

The question is, are your clients fully aware of your company? Do all of them know about your services and goods, and are aware of the benefits they can get from purchasing them? If you replied yes to both of these queries, then your organization is most likely a dominant force in the market. But there is no reason to panic if you replied no to any of these questions. All you have to do is ask for a corporate identity kit from a reputable firm.

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All lines of business need to have their own distinctive and unique corporate identity. This is just as important to a merchant who is working alone as it is for the large conglomerate with extended market coverage.

In essence, this special professional kit takes care of all the aspects that are related to the brand image of your company. At a basic level, it refers to the logo, although in a sophisticated manner, this involves aspects such as how the emblem is applied and the location of the sign.

How is a corporate identity kit created? It is best to let a reputable branding and creative company work on this, as they can invent concepts that will be efficient and memorable corporate identities. These ideas are converted into your official website, packaging for your products, labels, envelopes, business cards, letterheads and logos.

Is Digital Marketing Possible Without Content Marketing?

Call it whatever you like: custom or corporate publishing; branded or private media; or custom, corporate or branded content. Whatever the name is, the goal of content marketing remains the same: to create fresh, relevant articles and copies that will help individuals and companies engage and obtain a target audience. Ultimately, the intent is to get customers to act on what the website urges them to act on (e.g. sign up for a newsletter) so businesses can derive profit or gains from such action.  

But like most marketing strategies, it is best achieved when it is delivered in an artful sense. A company's ideas, products or services must be communicated well, without seeming like  are pitching a sale. More than the intention of selling, businesses should offer written material that sparks insight and makes the readers wiser as consumers, as individuals. Essentially, this strategy encourages businesses to provide consistent and reliable consumer information and in return, they entrust their business  to you.

This concept has been tried and proven to be highly effective – reason why both small-scale businesses and major global companies incorporate this tactic in their daily business routines. Nowadays, consumers have become wise enough to scrutinize traditional media. Majority skip TVCs, glossy magazine ads, even banner ads or buttons, making traditional forms of advertising less relevant and less effective by the day. If that's the case, how do businesses thrive then?

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Many industry luminaries agree that if traditional media has become somewhat a thing of the past, content marketing is the present and the future. You see, in these times when we are barraged by information from companies of all sizes trying to win us over with their items and services, the latter is that refreshing break  from a chock-full of spammy, non-valuable information. It lets companies do the pitch subtly and intelligently, while challenging consumers to think differently.

Studies show that 80 percent of company leaders make business decisions based on various well-written  materials instead of advertisements. Out of this population, around 70 percent state that good content brings them closer to a company, and 60 percent swear that it helps them arrive at sound decisions.

With this strategy in place, customers actually (finally) anticipate information  from your end,instead of automatically chucking it into the recycle bin or paper shredders upon receipt. If done efficiently, it creates a deep connection between you and your customers, thereby encouraging them to read the data you present. It allows you to formulate and send sales data that are desired and at times, even asked for by consumers. Because it offers value and relevance, versus simply making a sales pitch.

Now you would ask, is digital marketing ever possible without the lending hand of content marketing? Obviously not in this time.

Introducing the Google Cache

What is this Google search feature and what is its purpose? When you visit their official search engine and type a string, the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) presents the links that are related to the search. There will be an additional link that reads “Cache”. If you click on this instead of the provided search result, you will be taken to a different version of the page. This is normally an older rendition of the webpage, and Google simply uses this product for presentation purposes.

Google Cache may be good for certain websites that are being viewed for historical or nostalgic reasons, but this might not benefit e-commerce sites and their services or goods. Consider this: if your company used to sell something at a high amount a month ago, you could lower it to half its former price to boost your sales. The problem is that Internet savvy potential customers and marketers may use the cache link for price point testing to see how much the product used to cost. These individuals might get the wrong impression and adversely affect their perspective on the product’s overall value, so it is best that this data is not accessed easily.

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So that your official website is not cached by the search engine giant, you need to be aware of how Google analyzes your site the moment that spiders navigate it. One way you can work on this is by using a special form of Meta tags. Compared to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) tags, they do not have an effect on the appearance on the targeted page. What they do is give information on the webpage like the keywords that are incorporated in the content, the data on the webmaster who made the page, and the time stamp that indicates the page’s last update.

Before you optimize your pages for Google Cache, keep in mind that your Meta tag source code has to be able to adapt to various web browsers, because each product has software bugs.

Animate Your Brand with Cartoon Character Logo Designs

Animation and comics are gaining popularity because they are being used as tools that help business websites effectively communicate complex ideas to different audiences, even if the company feels staid or if the topic is about a serious matter.

The creative teams behind cartoons and comics design know that this medium has the ability to strike a non-intimidating and familiar chord with many markets. It takes advantage of particular forms and conventions to express narration or speech, or to encourage emotional or sensuous responses. Instruments such as speech balloons and text boxes show dialogue and communicate information, while panels, the layout, gutters and zip ribbons can facilitate the progression of the narrative.

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If you want your brand mark to look appealing and distinct, it is a good idea to apply animations. They can make your design eye catching and attractive, and convey any message solely through body language and their expressions. Be inspired with these concepts and examples:

Employ animated characters
It is a commonly used style of emblem crafting. Using illustrations in a monogram provides a broad margin for imagination and makes it pleasing to everyone regardless of their age. Examples include:

Fido Dido (used in 7-up commercials): Even if this character only exists in print media and TV ads, his popularity has given the beverage firm a personality. This made the drink likable to individuals of any age.

The Mermaid (used by Starbucks): The green border that engulfs the white and black sketch of a mermaid is known around the world. The mermaid gives off a sweet smile that is exotic and alluring, making it the best cartoon representation of this enterprise that takes pride in its coffee products.

Employ realistic characters
An interesting concept is using comic drawings in your brand, while creating an image that almost copies an actual photograph. You have the freedom to tweak the expressions or body language in inanimate objects like in cartoons and comics design, while retaining its realism. An example is:

The Duracell Bunny: This pink bunny is a stuffed toy with a motor that was filmed in a real-life situation. Many people will recognize the battery brand by noticing the shades, the pink fur, or the marching drum.

Get Top Search Engine Rankings with Link Building

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about employing tactics to make a particular website secure top ranking in search engines. The most commonly used methods for effective SEO involve content submission, keyword research, organized pages with appropriate titles and descriptions, and social media integration. But all these routines will depend on link building to fully function.

Think about it. Even if you posted an excellent article on a social network, if you did not include a backlink - or link that points to your website – readers will have a difficult time finding the source of the article.  Your efforts to obtain a high search engine ranking will be wasted. People thought that link building was a thing of the past, particularly when the algorithm revisions occurred, but this SEO method will remain a significant part of search engine ranking.

Google’s Panda update has made internet marketers, bloggers and webmasters more cautious about how they go about their links. This sophisticated update provides further analysis on websites, and here are some link building tactics you can use:

Quality over quantity

Webmasters and bloggers are usually concerned with the quantity or the amount of links they have. An example involves 10 links with a PageRank score of 4 or more that are said to offer more than 50 links taken from websites that are ranking poorly. While it is vital to build links from top ranking websites, these links will not always be available, particularly if the high ranking site was banned or demoted due to the algorithm update. If you are able to create around 5 to 10 high quality links for your internal resources or blog, you will still earn a good PR score.

Read more at Qualities of Perfect Links for SEO

Focus on a niche you are familiar with

A frequent error of bloggers and webmasters involves collecting links from websites that have nothing to do with their niche. For instance, it will be strange to find backlinks to a pharmaceutical site if your website is talking about the latest mobile gadgets. With careful analysis, you might spot other sites that share your niche and have inbound links you can gather.

Introduction to PPC Advertising

It is defined as a form of sponsored Internet advertising that is applied in a broad variety of websites (this covers the search engines), where advertisers only pay when a site visitor hovers their cursor over the ad and clicks it. This is the reason why it is called “pay-per-click”. It is an inexpensive method of promoting your official site and your products while allowing other online marketing plans to boost the official site’s search engine ranking potential.

PPC promotions operate similar to a silent auction in a way. The advertisers will put a bid on phrases or keywords that they hope will market their websites to their target audience based on their internet searching and purchasing habits. The moment a user types an inquiry in the search engine and an advertiser’s keyword is in it, or if the user lands on a web page that has content which is related to the advertiser’s chosen phrases or keywords, the page might show the pay-per-click advertisement. The SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) would normally display the aforementioned link at the top or upper right of the search results where the users can easily spot them. Other sites will place these ads in the area where it is the most advantageous for the advertiser and the website.

Going back to the search engines, the webmasters will regularly separate the natural search results from the pay-per-clicks by labeling the ads with “Sponsored Links” or “Sponsored Ads”. This will also make them more obvious on a web page that is filled with text or other objects that are vying for the attention of the user.

At the end of the day, this type of promotion is beneficial to both web users and advertisers. The target audience will be aware of the advertiser, and the advertiser will only be charged whenever a site visitor clicks on their PPC link. The users on the other hand get to choose from sites that could be related to what they are searching for without bothering with despicable pop-ups and banners that distract and flash.

What is White Hat SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization refers to the procedure of impacting the visibility of a web page or website in free or organic search results in search engines. Generally, the more frequent and earlier (or higher ranked) a website shows in search results, the more web traffic it gets from anyone who is looking for related information online. SEO tactics can be split into two extensive groups: methods that are supported by search engines (White Hat SEO) and techniques that involve some form of deception (Black Hat SEO).

When it comes to internet marketing, SEO techniques are a welcome tool to use. It is crucial for people to look into some of these processes and be familiar with them so that they can carefully choose which method they will try. Each tool will provide a different result, depending on the effort put into it, but they do produce satisfying results when used properly. It is advisable to perform White Hat techniques instead of the Black Hat ones since unscrupulous methods will ruin a company’s Internet marketing efforts in one way or another and the site that uses Black Hat will eventually lose traffic and ratings. So that business owners can safeguard their ranks and lists, and show the search engines that their official website is ethical, significant and professional, they should use White Hat SEO.

Here are some commonly used White Hat SEO tactics:
  

Article Marketing
This tool has existed for a long time and is still efficient today. In article marketing, content will be written before it is spread throughout internet article directories. All of the submitted pieces will be composed of a resource box, summary, the body and the title. A link to the official website can be placed in the resource box or the body of the article. This is known as a backlink. The trick here is writing a lot of content and distributing it to online article directories to earn web traffic via natural visitors.

Press Releases and Bookmarking
Like article marketing, these methods can execute White Hat SEO well. The press release is distributed like articles are, but it goes to press release websites instead. Bookmarking is basically inputting a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or a link to the official site in social bookmarking pages. The bookmarks will build backlinks and earn traffic via people who click the link. These tactics should also improve the site’s ranking in search engines.

More information at Why White Hat SEO Is A Must In 2013?

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What Is Google Penguin?

Google, the search engine giant, recently gave its program algorithms a boost with the Penguin update. It has been one of the most discussed topics within the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) community because of the strategies they need to tweak to be able to comply.

A year ago, most of the major revisions focused on the Panda update, and it was followed up with the release of Google Penguin to work with all the updates. If you are a new webmaster who is not aware of what this update is about, keep reading.

This search engine update was released on April 24, 2012. According to the official blog, the Penguin update is an important algorithm change that looks for “webspam” (a term for keyword stuffing). It is designed to bring down the rankings of those sites that may be violating the present quality process of Google.

Those who employ the conventional black hat SEO gimmicks (including keyword stuffing) will receive warnings from the Google updates, and the placement of improper outgoing links which are directed to a particular site is not a good idea either. Webmasters should have Google Webmaster inspect their accounts in an event of a notice from the search engine giant about a likely penalty because of spam activity.

How will you keep your site in the good side of Google updates? Here are some tips:

Always check your keywords

When the update started, all Internet users were happy because it would prevent over-optimization. The problem is that some webmasters changed their sites to the point that they were not optimized anymore. It all comes down to keywords.

Do not just stick your keywords in after writing the content. This will appear unnatural. Incorporate your keywords in your articles as you compose.

Your Link Building must feel unique

Your keyword links must be less than your brand name links. Ensure that your precise URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is used. Your profile’s links will look natural if you add actual words like “visit us here” or “Click here” instead of a URL.

SEO Advice for Startup Organizations

People who are in search of information on the Internet often revert to Google as their top search engine of choice for its ease of use and navigation. If any website wants to obtain high levels of traffic, its website link has to appear on the first page of the search results when certain keywords are typed. Google applies a complicated algorithm when ranking websites. Only a few employees are made aware of this special source code, as anyone could use this for unscrupulous purposes, like banning legitimate sites. People who work in an SEO company or those who know SEO (Search Engine Optimization) have been formulating ways to control search engines like Google for years. These firms formerly employed tricks like scattering hidden keywords around the website, but the current algorithm is smart enough to detect such artificial methods. There are natural, organic methods to help your site rank high in search engines like Google by bringing in a lot of web traffic.

“Content is king.”

As overused as this cliché is, your website needs a constant stream of content to keep search engines from indexing it, and the visitors coming in. Your content must be related to your website’s general content or business idea. Abstract content will result in low search engine rankings, leaving your visitors confused or mislead, possibly abandoning your site permanently.

Submit content to top ranking websites

If your website offers good content, you can place a backlink and share it with social media, Ezine sites or blogs. These sites will publish your work for their subscribers to see, and in turn, visitors can either post your articles on their profiles or visit your site through your backlink. This will benefit you and the sites you submitted to since both of you will get more traffic and a higher search engine ranking.

Focus on potent keywords

After your firm establishes its business or website concepts, make sure you do your homework on keywords. Keywords are terms that an individual types in search engines when looking for information. While Google is flexible enough to accommodate searches in the form of questions, you would want the link to your site to appear on the first page of the results whenever someone types a specific word. A site which uses keywords and Google tools efficiently is guaranteed to zoom to the top of search engines.