Essential First Marketing Steps for New Business

first marketing steps

Are you interested in, or already involved in the process of building a new business? Alongside creating and introducing a valuable product or service to the public comes the responsibility of marketing your business to connect with consumers and help your company’s vision become a reality. A company’s potential is only as strong as it’s marketing strategy. That being said, there are a handful of first marketing steps that we consider absolutely essential to any growing business.

Branding

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover…” A popular phrase that continues to hold its meaning in relation to people..but in business? Branding plays an integral part in converting prospects to clients. In a sense, a company’s logo is their first impression – something you only get one shot at. Your company’s logo should be created by a professional known for producing quality work, and be supported by strategic planning that relates the design to your product or service.

Functional Website

A company’s website is their main attraction as far as web presence is concerned. That’s a big deal. Whether someone is seeking out more information about your product, the company in general, or contacting you, your website is more than likely where they’ll first land. Functionality is key here. While complex and intensely interactive webpages can be a plus, sacrificing load time or compromising media in the name of flash is not recommended. Finding the perfect balance between interactivity and functionality while maintaining your marketing plan’s strategy is a sure fire path to creating the optimal website for your business and brand.

Social Media

In the technological era that we live in, information and communication have become innately accessible. Anyone in the world with access to a computer can quickly review a company’s selling points, initiatives and even their personal voice. By creating and managing a personality on social media outlets, businesses give themselves avenues of directly connecting with their consumers. Prospective and current customers utilize tools like Facebook and Twitter to review, shop, and ask questions, making the active maintenance of these social profiles a key to influencing publics and expanding business.

E-mail Marketing

“E-mail marketing?” you might be asking yourself. Yes – e-mail marketing. A final addition to our list of essential first marketing steps, e-mail marketing is still as alive as ever. Not only does this medium of communication allow regular contact and influence upon your most targeted market, but it also allows you to aggregate consumer data over time. E-mail list subscriptions do well to ask for birthdays, location, and gender of those who sign up as these figures will help to further define your audience while also showing which segments of your target market are most responsive.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and connect with professionals to strategize and build your marketing plan by implementing these essential first marketing steps for new businesses.

Blogging for Business

blogging for business

If you run a business, small or large, chances are you’ve questioned whether blogging for business is worth it. The answer is a resounding yes! Blogging not only helps drive traffic to your website, but also establishes your voice to potential and returning customers. Here are a few of the biggest positive impacts blogging for business offers:

Increase Web Traffic

These days, virtually everyone relies on search engines to answer any and all of their burning questions. Where your business ranks on popular search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo! greatly impacts  your online visibility – so much that search engine optimization (SEO) is the biggest focus of blogging for business. Better search engine ranking, achieved through keyword usage and compelling content, leads to increased website traffic which inevitably leads to improved digital return on investment (ROI.)

Establish Yourself as an Industry Authority

Whether someone is seeking out information about your company or relating to your company’s practices, blogging is an easy stepping stone to becoming recognized as leaders within your industry. Create content that answers people’s questions or sheds light on information pertaining to your brand that isn’t readily available elsewhere on the web. Each time your potential customers rely upon your information, your business takes a step further in being more widely recognized and more highly regarded.

Connect with Your Audience

When it comes to connecting to your audience, blogging is a major factor. B2C communications like blogging for business help to establish a more personal connection with potential and returning customers. It also gives them an avenue of interacting with your business by allowing them to leaving feedback in your comments section – a good way to collect contact information as well! Be sure to respond to interaction to make your communications even more personal.

Spread Your Reach

Blogging shouldn’t be done just for blogging’s sake. When writing posts, make sure you are focused on especially compelling content. Avoid creating pages that will naturally result in bounces – people entering and immediately exiting your site. Captivating information along with creative copy will urge readers to share your posts on their own social media platforms thereby connecting your business blog with brand new consumer segments.

Take Control of Your Business’s Identity

Considering the basis technology now occupies in our lives, there is probably a ton being said about your business on the web. Why leave the comments to others when you can be in control of the particulars. Make sure that people searching for you are receiving accurate and complete information by ensuring that your top Google results are the right ones.

REM Creative Group – Best Practices Blogging for Business

Blogging for SEO and business expansion is not the easiest of tasks, especially to business owners and executives who spend their days locking down deals and managing operations. Luckily, REM Creative Group in Miami is ready to create and foster your business blogging efforts to help achieve your business goals! Contact us today for more information.

REM Miami Social Media Trends for 2015

Miami social media

A new year is upon us, and with it comes new business challenges and opportunities. As a Miami social media agency, we at REM understand that social media provides big and small businesses with chances to connect with new prospects, improve conversion rates and bolster existing relationships. Online based B2C communication has become an integral factor in the success of businesses in today’s tech-savvy culture. So much so in fact, that consumers almost equate the online profiles of businesses with those of their friends and family. Your business’s Facebook, Twitter, Google + or other landing page is highly regarded as the most personal connection point available to anyone on the other side of your inner workings’ veil. That being said, let us examine methods for fine tuning your social media practices and suggest an affordable solution in the form of a Miami social media marketing agency.

miami social media

Balance Your Posts 

While it is safe to assume that your social media followers are interested in what your business has to offer, it is even safer to assume that their interests do not end there. When deciding on what content to share on your social channels, try to create a ratio of posts that focus on adjacent content. Four out of five times, you want to post information that will be relevant to your brand and customers. Save that other 20 percent of your sharing to promote what’s really important to your business and bottom line. Your followers will appreciate the adjacent content, thereby driving interaction and helping your online voice to avoid taking on the persona of a pushy car salesman.

Create Content

Simply said but not so easily accomplished, creating content is a major factor in gaining and keeping the attention of prospective and current audience members. Provide people with the answers they need regarding a topic you are (or want to become) the authority on. Blogging is an especially useful way of creating content as it provides collateral for all of your social platforms while creating virtual avenues leading to your landing pages and hopefully, revenue!

Dominate Social Real Estate

Social media real estate can be thought of as the space your posts occupy as well as their interactivity within that space. Many social media practitioners recommend using at least some type of imagery for each piece of content shared. The visual weight of photos will greatly increase the likelihood of wandering eyes finding your posts. Videos are also especially useful in attracting otherwise inattentive eyes – especially true for autoplay enabled platforms such as Facebook.

miami social media

Find Your Optimal Timing

Simply put, the goal of social media is to bolster your business through compelling information that is presented to the largest and loyalest faction of your audience. In order to accomplish this, a certain frequency of sharing is necessary, but it is imperative that you don’t over-share and drive away your audience. Finding the time of day in which your posts receive maximum attention and interaction using various platforms’ analytics tools or external tools such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social will help avoid the pitfalls of poor social timing and frequency.

Engage Your Followers

You’ve found balance in your sharing, created content that supports your business goals and customer’s mindset, incorporated visuals to expand your social real estate and found the optimal post times for each of your platforms. Now what? Perhaps the most important aspect of social media management, and easiest, is to engage your followers! Reply to messages, tweets and comments, like other’s posts, offer insight where applicable and even follow influential and especially loyal socialites. There is nothing like a (even semi-) personal response from a business that you care about. Follower engagement will go a long way in the future of social media.

 

Miami Social Media Marketing Agency

Do you want to connect with more customers, build your business and increase your brand’s reputation and loyalty? Contact us at REM Creative Group to find out how we can help your social media and other marketing efforts from our office based in sunny Miami, Florida. We are the leading Miami social media agency when it comes to personalized and committed service to growing your small or large business!

 

Web Design “Wish List”

Good design is good business

Here we are in the middle of yet another holiday season, and we love it! But with the New Year around the corner, have you done everything you can to position your business for success in 2014? Don’t worry, no one has it all figured out, and even the experts need to take a few minutes to reflect. One thing is clear, consumers are turning to the web more than ever and if your online presence is stellar, you could be losing out. Now is the perfect time to start brainstorming on how to making your website work for you, instead of the other way around. Take a few minutes to create a web design “wish list” and lay out exactly what you need to make 2014 your best and most profitable year yet.

Consistent Content Marketing              

It used to be that a few great clients and word of mouth advertising were all you needed to build a customer base. The truth is, today’s consumer doesn’t have time to talk because they’re too busy trying to educate themselves online about your products and services. Do you have fresh, relevant and engaging information available for them? If you don’t, your competition will. Consumers are savvy and they need consistent, reliable and informative content, period. Develop a content marketing strategy and start redefining yourself as an expert in your field.

Mobile-Friendly Layout

The landscape is changing rapidly and mobile devices- iPhones, laptops, notebooks and iPads are quickly outpacing desktop computers as the preferred method for online browsing and buying. There’s no doubt, we’re in a mobile world and if you don’t keep pace, you’ll be left behind. Your website needs to be fully functioning not only from the office, but across all mobile platforms. That means images are clear and appropriately sized, content can be read easily and products can be found in a snap. If you opt not to go mobile-friendly, potential customers who do seek you out will most likely get tired of re-sizing, scrolling and having to squint to read about your business.

Functionality

Do you ever check to see how fast your site loads when you pull it up on Google? If it takes more than 3 seconds, you could be losing valuable traffic. How about your opt-in forms and contact boxes? Are they working properly? This “under the hood” stuff is important for reducing bounce rate and ensuring user experience is up to speed. Again, today’s consumer doesn’t have time to wait for slow websites or contact forms that don’t work, they’ll simply go somewhere else.

Optimized Social Media Engagement

Building relationships and drumming up conversation with influencers is an important part of building “buzz” for your brand. But unless your site optimizes these opportunities for social media engagement with the right access, you’ll have a hard time reaching anyone. Sounds simple, but maybe it’s time to revisit how easy it is to engage from your site. Do you have a comment section clearly visible at the end of your blog posts? Are you providing links to your Twitter account and Facebook page?

The New Year brings all kinds of new ideas and opportunities for business growth. But before moving ahead without a plan, take a few minutes to create a website wish list that can guide your efforts and maximize return on your investment in 2014.

Is Your Digital Marketing Strategy On Point for 2014?

digital-marketing

If you’re trying to grow a business, you may have heard a lot of buzz lately about digital marketing- web site optimization, social media, keywords… the list goes on and on. The truth is, with mobile technology, emerging platforms and social trends moving at breakneck speed, there’s a lot of ground to cover to keep your online campaign competitive. E-mail marketing, search engine optimization and content creation is a never ending job, taking up more time than you originally budgeted. But here’s the rub. Your online presence- your website and more importantly, your digital marketing strategy is what will define whether or not your business gets off the ground in 2014.

Maximizing Social Media Channels      

Whether we like it or not, social media is here to stay and it’s only going to get more intense into 2014. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ are offering businesses unparalleled opportunities to connect, engage and compel consumers to investigate brands, share experiences and develop loyalty. Emerging platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and others make it easier than ever to share video clips and pictures for real time value. The fact is, if you haven’t created a social strategy, the time is now. If you’re new to social media, let your current customers know that you’re getting involved. If they follow you, you build credibility and legitimacy even faster with happy, engaged customers from day one.

Web Site Optimization

Today’s online consumers are savvy. In fact, as of this past September, 54 percent of people use multiple platforms to browse the web. That means online shoppers are using both desktop and mobile devices like iPads to find products and services they want. Your website simply must be up to speed, optimized to reach as many users as possible. That means an aggressive SEO plan, regular updates and compelling content that targets keywords relevant to your audience.

Get Found and Offer a Superior Experience

How do you know if your site is optimized? Consulting with a professional website design company is the easiest way to ensure you’re getting the maximum exposure possible with optimized features, engaging content, superior visual design and more. Getting your target audience to your site is step one, but keeping them there by offering a superior visit is just as important. The fact is, online consumers recognize quality and they will reward you for it.

From search engine optimization to social media marketing to mobile-optimized websites, the key in 2014 will be to take full advantage of opportunities for growth by ensuring a strategic digital marketing plan. REM Creative Group is a South Florida creative agency with one objective- to wake up your brand. For expertise in website design, email marketing or website marketing, Miami businesses trust REM to maximize digital success.