4 Top Marketing Tactics for a Visible Brand 

Seo, google changes, mobile friendly, RankBrain

4 Top Marketing Hacks to a Visible Brand.

Often if business isn’t where you want it to be, it feels like the grass is greener on the other side. It also feels like someone else has a market advantage, like Seth Godin suggests in Purple Cow. You are a brown cow and they are a purple cow. Other people have better staff, lower wages, some unknown X factor, or they just know how to cut more corners.

In the sense that we can buy anything anywhere, in today’s global market, there is a lot of grass, and if you are the cow, there are a lot of cows. We can’t always compete with staff in other countries, certainly not on price, potentially not on quality or service.

To stand out, you must be unique, like a purple cow in a herd of brown cattle. This is not a new concept, it’s been around for quite a while now, thanks to Seth Godin, who said it well in Purple Cow. We’ve now reached the point where we can no longer market directly to the masses. We’ve created a world where most products are invisible.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that we are desperate to find good stuff that solves our problems. The best way to succeed is to create variation; “the good stuff that happens when people who care create something special”. 

Amazon is offering next day and same day service, Airtasker, Uber and AirBnB are replacing conventional hotel, transport and service oriented business options. There are a million online and overseas options for almost every business including digital strategy. 

So how do we get that market share, and become the purple cow? For those who don’t want a diminishing market of word of mouth, being found online is key. To do that you need a great strategy, a strong brand and a unique offering, which is indexed by Google and can be found easily.

Here are 4 FREE Top Hacks to determine the strength of your brand.

Hack 1: The only way to stand out on the market is to be remarkable and innovative, present and available.

That means great content that speaks about your brand intelligently, has a different spin on your product or service. Your communication must speak to your ideal audience effectively, be easy to read and talk outcomes for THEM, not about YOU or WHAT you do.

It’s your WHY that makes the difference to your brand. If you need to get how your WHY becomes your purple cow, have a listen to Start with WHY by Simon Sinek. His golden circle diagram shows how speaking about your WHY is a superpower for brands like Apple. 

Hack 2: Be Mobile Optimised

Every website now needs to be able to be displayed on several kinds of devices. We have Apple and Android, tablets, mobiles and desktops.

While we used to be able to get away with a desktop version of our website, the last year or so Google has recognised that more than 50% of all searches online are done via a mobile device. Now that Google downgrades you for not having a mobile friendly site, it’s essential that you do, especially to remain on the front page of Google.

Top Tip:Testing the mobile usability of your site is absolutely key to being found online.

Google will now prioritise your site if it is mobile friendly and penalise it if it is not.

This is more than just whether your website theme adapts to being viewed on a mobile device. It is also to do with how fast it loads, how large the images and videos are when they appear, how large and easy the text is to read.

For example, whereas on a written document, a 12-point font (8 or 10 sometimes) are readable, online it’s better to go for 14 to 16 point fonts. Images should be simple and not too complicated. If you’re thinking infographics that tell a complicated story, STOP. It’s not about how clever you are, it’s about how much your client can pick up what you’re putting down.

Top tip:A Mobile responsive layout will turn from two columns side-by-side to one column above the next. It’s important to test the column order so that the mobile version makes sense.

To find out whether your website is mobile responsive, I’ve found a great comprehensive guide to testing the mobile usability of your site. Enjoy.

Hack 3: Speak plain English

As a copywriter, I sometimes have clients who want their content to be more complicated. This is a no no for two reasons.

Firstly, the point of your communication is to help people take the next step and engage with you. It’s not about how smart you are, it’s about getting your client to the enquiry or buying stage.

Secondly, Google ranks for and is searching by terms that are written in plain English by the general public. If you want to look good, by all means you can own a dog grooming business. However, if you want to rank well, you’d better be focusing on the term ‘dog wash’, because THAT’s what people search for.

Rankbrain is also about finding those little niches where your client asks an everyday question and you answer it well in plain English. That’s a Google AI algorithm that is ranking your website.

Top Tip:learn how to speak plainly. Use a product like the Hemingway Editor to get you found.

Hack 4: Discover the Superpower of SEO

SEO is the equivalent of a full-page ad in the yellow pages, and it is the superpower of internet advertising. It’s no longer an optional extra, it’s essential.

What’s more, it’s cost effective as long as you get the right level of service for your business. Whereas Google AdWords forces you to niche into one simple idea. SEO creates a whole matrix of interlinking ways for your brand to be found.

Like most marketing strategies, SEO is an exponential strategy, where you start at the beginning, then get greater and greater returns. However, as an ongoing strategy it is far more effective than a high spend on Google AdWords for a far wider reach of outcomes. You can have every product listed, instead of just one. You can service your ideal target market and a second or third as well.

Once you have an effective SEO provider and a strategic, data tested approach, like ours, your brand will be highly visible to your target market. That means more leads, on an ongoing basis, to your wider audience every day. Not just when you spend on Adwords.

Top Tip:If you’d like to know how your site is performing for SEO purposes, please contact us for a complimentary report. We’d love to see your brand reach the first page.

What’s our Purple Cow?

Our purple cow is three unique offerings.

  1. We educate people on immediately implementable principles in marketing, via blogs, email and video. 
  2. We offer Done For You strategic brand building programs where we manage the project for you.
  3. We act as your digital agency, with tested partners and all the options and people you need, so that you don’t have to coordinate anyone else.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the read and please employ the tools that we have offered.

Last Top Tip: go find your business equivalent of the purple cow, or ask us to help.

Either way, enjoy the green grass. Breathe it in. Maybe have a (virtual?) roll down the hill on your next sunny day.  

Related Tags: Strategic Brand Management | Digital Marketing Plan

About the Author Emma Sidney

Emma Sidney is a copywriter who captures the essence of her clients thoughts and aspirations and translates them into real identifiable results online. As a digital strategist and thought leader Emma takes the content and powerfully adds value through context while explaining the digital space exceptionally well to her clients. Everyone wins when Emma writes.

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