7 Tips for Content Marketing for Small Business

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), half of all small businesses fail after five years.

One of the main reasons they fail? Unsuccessful marketing initiatives. Long gone are the days when word-of-mouth marketing is enough to sustain your business.

The good news is this is something you can control. While digital marketing is a vast field, exploring it can be exciting. From building marketing campaigns to creating impactful website content, there is so much you can leverage to ensure potential customers can find your business online.

Today, we will guide you on how to make a small business content marketing strategy. Let’s get into what you need to know about content marketing for small business owners!

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a broad term that includes many types of online marketing, such as:

  • Email marketing
  • Influencer marketing
  • Online marketing
  • Search engine marketing
  • Social media marketing
  • Thought leadership marketing

Further, there are many types of content that you can create in content marketing, like:

  • Articles and blog posts
  • Case studies
  • Checklists
  • Customer testimonials and reviews
  • eBooks
  • Email newsletters
  • Infographics
  • Landing pages
  • Memes
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Social media posts
  • Templates
  • Video content
  • Webinars

The possibilities are truly endless and offer lots of opportunities for you to connect with your intended audience.

Is Content Marketing Effective for Small Businesses?

Yes, content marketing for small businesses is incredibly effective compared to other types of marketing. You'll especially reap the rewards when you focus on creating a consistent tone and high-quality content that delivers value to your customers.

What do we mean by that? Creating a content marketing strategy that solves a problem, answers a question, or gives something of value to your customers ensures they don’t feel “sold to” or like you’re pawning off a gimmick on them. Read on for tips to feel authentic and not like a sales pitch.

Key Questions to Ask Before Starting Content Marketing

To create the best content, there are some questions you should ask yourself before crafting your strategy. Consider the following:

  1. What is my expertise?
  2. Who is my target audience?
  3. How can I make exciting and valuable content for my audience?
  4. Which channels should I post on?

7 Tips for Content Marketing for Small Business Owners

After you answer the questions above, you can start drafting your content marketing strategy. We’ve compiled some content marketing tips based on our expertise and some of the industry experts to help your small business succeed:

1. Determine Your Target Audience

Who do you want to attract? By understanding your customer base, you can retain existing customers and attract new ones. Think about what they like to read or what content they want to consume. What are their pain points? What platforms do they like to hang out on? How do they share information?

The more you know about your target audience, the better you can speak directly to their needs and desires. This helps refine your content and better connect with viewers.

2. Create a Content Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is essential so you can create a calendar of content to follow. A content calendar allows you to create content in bulk and have it read to post without needing to stress about it last minute. It also allows you to be strategic in how you post.

Whether you plan to focus on search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research or following TikTok trends, by creating a content marketing plan, you can then track what is working and what isn’t. Then, you can alter the strategy to ensure the best results.

3. Determine the Correct Channels to Use

Knowing where to focus your content marketing efforts can be confusing with so many social media platforms. While being on several platforms is helpful, you don't need to be active on every single one.

For instance, if you offer business consulting services and want to connect with other professionals, LinkedIn is a great place to be. But if you’re an eCommerce store selling vegan, cruelty-free makeup, you probably want to be active on Instagram and TikTok.

If you plan on being active on multiple platforms, repurpose your content. There is no reason you can’t change the format of the content and cross-post it on numerous channels to reach a wider audience with minimal effort. Adjust your tone and format to reflect that platform’s style.

Then, use social media metrics and Google Analytics to track the progress of your content. This ensures you’re posting in the right places.

4. Solve Real-World Problems

This is a biggie: every piece of content you create should serve a purpose. Great content always presents a solution or provides a helpful suggestion to the audience.

Remember, your audience trusts you and views you as a thought leader. Thus, it’s better to create in-depth content that doesn’t sound generic or repetitive.

When you solve problems for your customers, they’ll stick with your business as it evolves.

5. Use a Variety of Engaging Content Forms

With so many types of content you can create, don’t stick to just one format. Mix it up to keep customers interested and reach a broader audience. But, again, you don’t need to make every type of content.

For example, create an email list so you can talk to customers directly in their inboxes instead of waiting for them to see you on social media. Post a mix of infographics, videos, and photos on your social media pages.

Whatever content you create, always include a call-to-action (CTA). This encourages viewers to interact further with your business long after they’ve viewed the content.

6. Be Consistent

Building brand awareness through consistency is essential to building trust with your audience. If your message or quality starts to slip, your viewers will notice, and they may abandon your company. It makes you come off as untrustworthy.

Yes - we know you may run out of ideas or lose your enthusiasm as you continue with content marketing. But this is precisely why creating a plan and calendar is crucial to keep your efforts on track and consistent. If you have a plan in place, you can keep your momentum going when you feel uninspired or perhaps your last post didn’t do as well as you’d hoped. Not every post will go viral. And that’s ok! Some are a springboard for your heavy hitters.

7. Be Careful Creating Content With AI

Creating content with AI can seem like an easy and effective way to create relevant content while staying on top of marketing trends. But you do still need a human touch. Search engines notice AI content creation when it feels mechanical, and they don’t like it.

No need to be wary about trying new AI marketing tools, but make adjustments and leverage AI tools in the right way to get effective content. Purely AI-generated content is typically not “out of the box” publishable, so make sure you are bringing life to your content so that it will perform well on search engine rankings.

Work With Content Marketing Experts

With this guide on content marketing for small business owners, you can develop a winning content marketing plan that shows results.

But we know you may still feel overwhelmed by all the information. So whether you’re all out of marketing ideas or just have no idea where to begin, let’s have a chat! We happen to be a very personable group of creative enthusiasts who love talking about all things marketing and digital!

Contact us at EraserFarm to learn how our team of marketing experts can help your business with its content marketing strategy. We’re happy to help.


What are Creative Services | Your Guide to Creative Services

PR Newswire reports that the creative agency market will have an incremental spend of more than $320 billion between 2021 and 2026. The increased spending for creative services proves that businesses need fresh ideas to keep their customers interested and engaged.

But what are creative services exactly?

Creative services are basically creativity for hire - like writing, design, and production - that give your business some oomph. They handle the creative messaging that lets the world know your business exists. You can tap into these services at design studios, advertising agencies, and branding agencies. Creative agencies play a vital role in helping businesses stand out in their market and increase profits. So why should your business consider hiring one? Let’s see what makes them worth your while!

What Services Does A Creative Agency Offer? 

A creative agency provides marketing initiatives and creative solutions to help businesses improve their marketing, ad presence, and brand identity. They can help your business with any creative strategy, work, or promotion. This includes:

  • Advertising, brand, content, marketing, or social media strategy
  • Measurement and analysis
  • Content creation
  • Communication services such as media buys, paid placement, sponsored content, influencer marketing, and PR

You’ll find the following positions in a creative services company:

  • Account manager
  • Art director
  • Brand and content strategist
  • Copywriter
  • Creative director
  • Campaign director
  • Editor
  • Graphic designer
  • Producer
  • Videographer
  • Web designer or developer

How a full-service creative agency provides its services can vary from company to company. For example, some creative agencies work within a specific industry, such as plumbing or HVAC. Other agencies may only work in-house for a large corporation. At EraserFarm, we’ve worked with many clients in diverse industries, such as food and beverage, medical, and nonprofit sectors to invigorate the brand voice and get messaging out there to be seen and heard. We love showcasing what our teams have created - take a look at  our creative work to see some of our best creative projects to date. Creative agencies can offer an extensive range of services, but we’ll focus on four of the most common services available below. 

Advertising Services

Most businesses don’t have the knowledge or bandwidth to create and execute a successful advertising campaign. They also often know what they want to say, but don’t know how to say it. Thus, a creative agency will generate advertising ideation based on market research to understand the target audience and oversee the execution of the campaign. And they’ll do it in a way that sounds like your authentic brand. Depending on the campaign, the agency may need to hire out some of the services. For instance, the designers at a creative agency can create a billboard, but they may need to hire another company to print and hang it.

Consulting Services

You can hire a creative agency to consult with your business on a variety of topics. Some common examples include:

  • New products or services
  • How to lower marketing overhead
  • New markets and demographics to target

If you require consulting services for many aspects of your business, a full-service agency in your area is your best bet.

Design Services

If your business needs to revamp its image or create new promotional materials, a creative agency can help. Whether you need a new logo, design templates, or even new signage, you’ll want the design expertise of a creative or design agency.

Digital Services

Digital marketing has increased global touchpoints, but IT demands can be intimidating unless you have experience in the field.  With the growing importance of technology, many creative agencies now offer expert digital services. Using digital services can create an entirely new user experience. Even making technical advances to your website or app can go a long way with new and returning customers. Digital offerings can also give your customer an immediate answer or pathway to a solution for those with an urgent need, or even entertain them. 

What’s the Difference Between a Creative Agency & Other Agencies? 

A creative services company is an umbrella term that can include other agencies. Different agencies you may be familiar with include:

  • Ad agencies
  • Design agencies
  • Digital agencies
  • PR agencies
  • SEO agencies
  • Social media agencies

While these agencies have a specialized focus, a creative agency usually encompasses more than one of these services. For instance, when a business works with a digital agency, they are working with a company that focuses on a specific digital space instead of a company that has a more diverse list of services.

How Can a Creative Services Company Help Your Business? 

There are many ways creative services can help grow your business. Below we highlight the top five benefits to consider.

Brand Strategy & Identity

Your brand identity drives every aspect of your business, such as

  • Your tone
  • The design of your website and business cards
  • How employees speak to consumers
  • Your pitch to prospective clients

A creative agency can help you craft a brand identity that aligns with your target audience. Then they will create a brand strategy that is the driving force behind your business. This includes everything from copywriting and graphic design to brand standards and competitive analysis.Having a polished brand identity and strategy can help make your business recognizable and memorable.

Brand Engagement

After implementing your brand strategy, a creative agency can help you analyze how well customers respond to it. Examining and interpreting data is crucial in driving brand engagement.Your business can use the data to take actionable steps toward increasing customer engagement.

Video Marketing

Video marketing often helps improve a business’s success on social media and search results. Data shows that video content generates leads and enhances engagement. Although anyone can do their own video production, having the professionals of a creative agency handle your production is best. They can take care of the strategy, scriptwriting, post-production, and everything in between. This will give your video marketing what’s called “high production value,” so that your messaging shines through and gets your customers interested in what you have to offer.

Social Media

Social media marketing may seem easy to handle in-house, but realistically, building a strong social media presence takes a lot of time and effort. When you join forces with a creative agency, you don’t have to worry about spending hours figuring out which platforms to join or what content to create. Instead, a creative agency can easily help your business develop a winning social media strategy.

Digital Marketing

The world of digital marketing is admittedly overwhelming, making it difficult to know where to spend your ad dollars. However, a creative agency can use data to understand where your customers are on the internet and how to reach them best.

Should you invest in SEO, content marketing, or PPC marketing? The professionals at a creative agency will be able to tell you, and they’ll craft a plan to maximize that investment.

Get Started With Creative Services in Tampa

At EraserFarm, we offer a personalized, boutique creative agency experience. Want to create brand loyalists? We know how to do it. Need help with an overall marketing strategy? We got you! Our agency is small - on purpose. Our team works closely with each client to create tailored marketing and creative solutions that build an emotional connection with your consumer. 

We’d love to have a chat. Reach out to us today to book in, and find out how we can help grow your business.


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What is Website Content | Website Content & Its Importance

According to HubSpot, 75% of internet users don’t scroll past the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) when searching online. Thus, your website must appear on the top of SERPs in order to gain new website visitors.

Creating high-quality website content is one of the best ways to snag that coveted real estate. But what is website content, and why is it important?

Continue reading to learn everything you need to know.

The Definition of Website Content

Let’s start with the question, “What is content for a website?”

Content refers to any creative element on a website. It includes everything from applications and data to archived e-mail messages and images.

Therefore, website content is any of the following on your website:

  • Text and writing
  • Multimedia
    • Audio content like podcasts and recordings
    • Visual content and photos like infographics and videos

Why Website Content Is Important

There are numerous reasons why your website content and content marketing are vital to the success of your business. First, web content provides your customers with valuable information. This keeps them coming back to your website.

But more importantly, when potential customers search online for solutions to a problem your company solves, you want to be their go-to choice. So, having high-quality web content is a top strategy to get your business in front of the eyes of new customers.

To do this, you need to implement search engine optimization (SEO) into your content strategy. If you need assistance with improving your website’s SEO, Eraser Farm’s content marketing services can help.

Types of Web Content

As you may have gleaned already, there are different types of web content. Let’s review three common types of content.

Written Content

Any copywriter will tell you that written content comes in many forms, including

  • Blog posts
  • Case studies
  • Checklists and FAQs
  • eBooks
  • Templates
  • Website copy
    • Calls to action (CTAs)
    • Heading and subheadings
    • Homepage
    • Landing pages
    • Product descriptions
    • Testimonials
    • White papers

You add written content to your web pages as text blocks or within images. You always want your written content to be unique and free from plagiarism.

You also want to add internal links to your website copy to help readers access more information.

Search intent for written content can be divided into four categories.

Informational

Informational intent is when someone is doing research. The most common type of informational intent is broad search queries.

For example, if someone types “digital marketing” into Google, they likely want more information about the topic. They probably don’t want to purchase any tools or software to help them with their digital marketing strategy.

Informational keywords correspond to the beginning stages of the marketing funnel, “discovery” and “interest.” Content ideal for informational keywords includes

  • Guides
  • Listicles
  • Opinion pieces

Transactional

Transactional intent is when the customer is one step away from making a purchase or at the “conversion” stage of the marketing funnel. Using transactional keywords in your written website content helps to generate more sales. Examples of these keywords include:

  • Buy
  • Discount
  • For sale
  • Near me

Customers often combine these keywords with the brand or product they want to buy. Web pages best for transactional keywords are

  • Discount pages
  • Landing pages
  • Product pages

Navigational

Navigational intent is for those customers who know where they want to go. These customers will search for specific brand names, products, or services they are interested in.

For instance, if someone wants to buy a Prada bag, they might search “buy Prada bag.”

Navigational intent is for those who are at the “interest,” “consideration,” and “retention” stages of the marketing funnel. Website content best for these keywords includes the following pages:

  • About
  • Category
  • Pricing

Commercial

Commercial intent is for customers in the “consideration” stage in the marketing funnel. These customers are interested in your product and could make a purchase.

For example, if someone searches for “best bookkeeping software,” they probably want to purchase bookkeeping software. While commercial keywords may include brand names, other common examples include:

  • Top
  • Review
  • Vs

Web content ideal for commercial keywords is:

  • Comparison posts
  • eBooks
  • Product reviews, roundups, and tutorials
  • White papers

Video Content

Video web content is any content format that features or includes video. Some examples are

  • Animated GIFs
  • Customer testimonial videos
  • Recorded videos
  • Live videos
  • Vlogs
  • Webinars

Video content is becoming increasingly popular with social media posts, which you can repurpose on your website.

Interactive Content

Interactive web content is any material that conveys a message by encouraging user participation. This allows the experience to go from passive consumption to active engagement.

Common examples of interactive content include

  • Animated infographics
  • Calculators
  • Quizzes

The difference with interactive content is that brands can understand if and when readers have consumed their material and even gain feedback.

Interactive content significantly heightens the user experience, thus increasing engagement.

The Difference Between Good and Bad Website Content

Good website content understands your target audience or buyer personas and uses appropriate language and style to connect with them. It also answers questions that people are searching for and presents a solution to a problem.

Most importantly, quality copy builds rapport and trust with readers.

You can follow these content marketing tips to help you better understand more about high-quality content.

Conversely, bad web content hasn’t clearly defined the target audience or tries to reach the largest audience possible. It also attempts to sell products or services without building trust.

You can identify bad content when the company uses first-person pronouns but doesn’t ever mention the customer (you). Likewise, businesses should never go on and on about how great their product is without proof.

Further, relying solely on photos and videos or posting huge blocks of dense text is not advisable.

How to Create Good Content for Your Website

It’s not enough to know the difference between good and bad. You also need to understand how to create quality content that keeps readers coming back for more.

Here are some tips to follow:

  • Create unique topics and target niche subtopics
  • Diversify with multimedia content
  • Research to maintain trust and authority
  • Format for readability
  • Know your search intent and call to action
  • Use data to measure content performance

Content Creation Experts

Now that we’ve answered the question, “What is website content?” you have a much better idea of how to create fantastic web content to get your website in front of more peoples’ eyes.If your business needs help with its online marketing, let’s have a chat! Contact us at EraserFarm to learn how our team can help you with your creative and content strategy.


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What Is an Advertising Agency? | The Ultimate Ad Agency Guide

Today, quality alone is insufficient to sustain a business; you also need to portray your products and services in a manner that attracts customers. If you do not have your own marketing staff specializing in this area, it can be difficult to achieve effective results with your advertising. The solution, oftentimes, is outsourcing your advertising tasks to an ad agency. 

Advertising agencies are a type of creative agency that ensure your products and services attract your target audiences while staying consistent with your brand’s image. Their aim is to create impactful, visually powerful content that captures your target market’s attention and brings customers to you. Let’s look at their work in detail:

The Objectives of an Advertising Agency

Your advertising agency’s job is not as simple as to entice people to buy your products; in addition, their focus is on generating brand awareness and putting your story out in a way that you gain loyal audiences. While their primary goal is to get viewers to respond to your call to action, their secondary role is far more intricate – and perhaps more critical – and involves influencing people’s attitudes and perceptions. 

An effective advertising agency will keep your brand in the minds of your consumers, ensuring that when the consumer thinks about buying a product or service in your business niche, your business will be the first one they consider. 

The Functions of an Advertising Agency

The services performed by an advertising agency can include: 

Market Research

No effective advertisement can be planned without knowing your industry’s current market landscape. You may not have the best technology to stay on top of all market trends on your own, but an advertising agency makes it their job to know. 

Advertising agency experts monitor trends in consumer preferences and know what elicits the right responses. More importantly, they track your competitor’s marketing strategies to design advertising campaigns that distinguish you from other companies in your niche. As a result, your campaigns are planned after carefully considering all external and internal market factors. 

Design

Designing an effective advertisement is arguably the most important yet challenging aspect of marketing. It’s resource-intensive, time-consuming, and requires careful planning. It’s an advertising agency’s job to design ads that are impactful but stay true to your brand’s values and stories. They won’t make you choose between your brand’s culture and their version of a good ad; instead, they will integrate both of these into a combination that lands you customers who share your values.  

Media Planning

A well-designed advertisement will be of no use if you do not use the right platforms to leverage it. Advertising agencies know the trends in electronic media consumption, so they’ll design your campaigns accordingly. This goes beyond looking at popularity statistics, including your audience’s age, demographics, geographical region, and your product’s niche. Their strategic approach will ensure that your efforts and budget are spent in the right direction.

Endnote

To a business owner, their brand means more than a source of income. The brand story and connection – and the effort that goes behind design and creation – can be hard to portray if you do not have the right talent working for you.

An advertising agency will take this burden off of you and use its expertise to create content that represents you and lets consumers build connections with you. We’ll recommend that you outsource your marketing campaigns to experts so that you can focus on what you’re best at. Contrary to popular belief, the smaller an agency, the more closely it will work with you

Start the discussion today and contact EraserFarm for a consultation with a multifaceted advertising agency dedicated to communicating your brand’s unique personality.


What is a Creative Agency? Creative Agencies Explained

Developing long-term relationships with your clients and maintaining their interest in your brand is not easy; it requires patience and work. Marketing plays a significant role in this case: it elevates your brand’s reach and increases the potential value of your goods and services. Creative agencies are crucial in this regard, as they can enable you to implement strategies that ultimately increase profits.

Navigating the world of varying creative agencies to get this support can be tricky. Below, we will comprehensively break down how creative agencies work for you in this article, as well as introduce the major types of creative agencies.

What Is a Creative Agency?

Creative agencies typically offer a range of services that help strengthen a brand’s marketing, ad presence, and overall brand personality. If you require any innovative strategy, work, or publicity, enlisting the services of a creative agency should be your plan of action. While you know your brand and target audience best, a team of creative and marketing professionals is the key to communicating these things most effectively.

These agencies provide strategy-building, content creation, measurement and analysis, and communication services. They comprise a team of experts that can uphold your brand’s needs. This team can include an art director, a creative director, producers, videographers, writers and editors, web designers and developers, and account managers—among other specialists that may make their agency unique.

Types of Creative Agencies

There are a variety of creative agencies you can choose from to cater to your unique requirements:

1. Digital Agency

Businesses can obtain an advantage over their competitors and engage with customers much more effectively by using online methods. A digital creative agency focuses on developing the design and marketing of your products and services available online. They enhance your online presence by creating mobile and web applications that incorporate social media marketing, online ads, and campaigns.

The agency may also focus on search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure your content ranks well in search results. Search engine optimization is a practice where search engines are studied for their algorithms to determine what causes search results to rank higher than others. When these fundamentals are applied to a marketing campaign, the visibility of your brand in searchable online spaces is front and center.

Since they also collect information regarding how well your implemented online campaign is performing, they can guide you on audience engagement, the do’s and don’ts of social media advertisement, and click-through rates.

2. Advertising Agency

This type of agency aims to promote your products and campaigns in a way that stimulates the interest of audiences. A creative advertising agency strategizes to increase your customer pool by attracting new consumers while ensuring that the existing ones remain loyal.

These experts conduct market research, obtaining data regarding the latest trends and brand perception. This allows them to effectively pinpoint placements for created ads and improve brand popularity. They also have connections with media outlets, which makes the advertisement process much smoother for their clients.

3. Design Agency

A design agency’s job is to make products and services look attractive so that they appear much more enticing than their competition in the targeted market. This entails the designs of both digital services and products.

Designers will create style layouts for mobile or web page marketing tools; for example, websites and e-newsletters. Similarly, packaging design is just as vital as your product—the packaging is the first thing that a consumer will see and collect information about the product from. Design firms provide product and packaging designs that make your product look attractive while retaining its functionality and convenience.

Endnote

Running a successful business with the proper marketing strategies requires that you put effort into crafting your content. Working with a creative agency that is friendly, responsive, and aligns with your brand image and values can get you the content you need, while most effectively spreading the word of what your business has to offer.

Investing in this type of partnership ensures your content is created carefully and makes a great impact. Start the discussion today and contact EraserFarm for a consultation with a multifaceted advertising agency dedicated to communicating your brand’s unique personality.


4 Content Marketing Tips that Will Elevate Your Content Game

There are almost endless ways to build a brand for a company, with content marketing being high on the list. A content marketing strategy creates and distributes consistent and relevant brand information to keep a hold of your audience’s attention and, ultimately, make greater returns on your investments. As the market is becoming increasingly saturated, competition between businesses is also on the rise, making marketing content the proper way more essential than ever. In this article, we’ll provide you with a few ways in which you can improve your content marketing style.

Use Varying Content for Different Social Platforms

Social media platforms are integrated into almost everyone’s daily, normal routine. Be it the comments section on blog websites or link sharing on landing pages, social media is everywhere. Social media marketing trends are constantly evolving, and many businesses struggle to adapt to these quick changes, costing them market value. A good digital marketing strategy should have the ability to bring in your complete digital footprint under one umbrella, but this does not mean using that same post everywhere. Whatever content you create, you should determine ways to tailor it to different social media platforms. For example, post witty quotes on Twitter, use images and videos or go live on Instagram with a new product, and provide excerpts on Facebook. Make the most out of your social media presence.

Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Engaging, quality content will resonate with your audience far more than monotonous, repetitive information. Many business owners and entrepreneurs believe that if they just put out enough content, their company will gain the exposure and awareness they desire.

Back in the day, this would’ve been an acceptable marketing policy, but Google searches now make it extremely clear that relevant, quality content is the best way to attract attention. You want to create content that your users and prospective clients actually enjoy reading to ensure they keep returning for more.

Cater to Various Audience Needs

The internet is always brimming with educational information, which is why businesses keep churning out blog posts and articles as a way of promoting their brand. However, most companies tend to overlook that everyone learns in a different manner, so creating general, rigid content may not always be the way to go about the process.

Articles aren’t the only option to familiarize your audience with your products or operations. Sounds and visuals are an important part of brand marketing too. Initiate a podcast for your auditory learners, design slides for your visual learners, and organize webinars for people that like reading, writing, and learning through auditory stimulation. This will let audiences connect with you better.

Incorporate a Style Guide

The increasing marketing efforts by businesses everywhere have created the need for brands to stand out. Presentation matters. Consumers should be able to associate a particular style with your brand’s products and services. Your marketing strategies should appear cohesive and complement your established values, goals, and beliefs. Style guides are indispensable in this regard. A style guide will take care of the tone of voice, font type, linking preferences, overall goals, image preferences, and several other factors. As your brand develops, your style guide should also evolve to cater to changes in your business.

Parting Thoughts

The content you build and choose to convey your business’s brand, vision, and the message is dependent on the marketing approach you adopt. By marketing content that is in tandem with your company’s values, you can maximize your reach and develop long-term relations with your targeted audience.If you’ve been struggling with content marketing, go on and take a step back to look at things with a fresh perspective with the tips provided above. To learn more about the approach to content marketing—or to start your journey in building an airtight brand personality—contact our team at EraserFarm today.


How to Create a Winning Brand Strategy for Your Business

I am a huge proponent of brand strategy. Shocking I know. It's a no-brainer yet many clients bypass it. Well, according to research, it takes about 5 to 7 impressions to start creating brand awareness. Every business needs a strong brand that people can easily recognize and relate to. When consumers recognize your brand immediately, they pay attention to ads, recommend your company to others, and become repeat customers if they like your products or services.

Now, with only seven seconds to make the first impression, you need to bring your A-game if you're going to create a winning brand strategy. Here are ways to create a winning brand strategy.

Define Your Brand's Purpose

Your brand's purpose is what it stands for and what it hopes to achieve. It should be something more than making money. Nike, for example, doesn't just make shoes and clothes — they inspire people to be their best selves. Harley Davidson isn't just about motorcycles, they stand for freedom and the open road. Knowing your brand's purpose makes it much easier to create marketing messages that resonate with your target audience. You can also use it as a guideline for your business decisions.

Create a Strong Brand Identity

Your brand identity is what makes your brand unique. It's what people remember about you, even when they can't remember your name or product. Apple is an excellent example of a brand with a strong identity. Their logo, colors, and marketing messages are instantly recognizable to consumers worldwide.And their work, well, it's spectacular, to say the least.

And like them, your brand identity should be consistent across all channels, from your website to your social media profiles to your print materials. Use the same fonts, colors, and logos throughout so that people know they're dealing with your brand.

Create a Strong Brand Personality

Your brand personality is what your brand sounds and feels like. It should be unique, just like your brand identity, and should be reflected in your marketing campaign. For example, Apple's brand personality is sleek, modern, and minimalistic, while Harley Davidson's brand personality is rebellious and edgy. Think about the words you would use to describe your brand and use them to create a voice for your brand.

Develop a Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy is how you plan to reach and engage your target audience. It should include tactics like online advertising, PR, and content marketing. You also need a brand strategy that fits within your larger marketing strategy. It's essential to understand how you're going to reach your target audience every time, not just when it comes time for big campaigns. You can use tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner to determine which ad networks are the best match for your brand.

Use Social Media Strategically

Social media is an integral part of any good brand strategy for many businesses. Customers want brands they can engage with in meaningful ways. With the right brand management in place, social media becomes a powerful tool to engage your customers and build brand awareness at the same time. There are plenty of brand management tools out there, so it's just a matter of finding one that fits your brand.

Be Consistent With Brand Messaging Across All Channels

Your brand identity is how you present your brand to the world. Whether you do it through your products, a marketing campaign, or social media. It should be consistently presented across platforms so people can identify it immediately and relate to it easily. If people see different messages on Twitter than they do on Facebook or Instagram, they might not know which brand they represent. Now, most processes are not that easy, and you may need professional help, so hire a brand strategy agency.

Build Brand Loyalty Through Brand Experience

The brand experience is what your customers feel when interacting with your brand. That's whether trying out a product or interacting with customer service online. Brands like Disney and Starbucks have built their success on providing great brand experiences that create loyal customers and raving fans. Your brand experience should be consistent across all channels, from your website to social media profiles to customer service interactions. Every touchpoint matters. Make sure everything aligns with who you are as a brand and what you stand for at every point in the journey.

Create Brand Associations

Brand associations are the images and feelings your brand evokes in consumers' minds. Associations can be positive or negative, but they have to strike a chord with your target audience if you want brand recognition. For example, Old Spice is associated with virility. Dove is associated with nurturing women's self-esteem. Both brands are successful because their brand associations are clear and resonate with their audiences.

Get Brand Reviews From Experts and Existing Customers

Getting brand reviews from experts in your industry plays a significant role in brand recognition. You see, people respect third-party endorsements. They'll be more likely to trust the authenticity of your brand if it's been recommended by an expert they respect. If you don't have any brand reviews yet, ask some of your satisfied customers for recommendations. Use these reviews in future marketing and sales materials and on your promotional channels, website, social media platforms, print materials, etc.

Analyze Your Brand Competition

It's important to know your direct brand competitors because these are the people you're competing with for brand recognition and sales. However, don't stop there. You should also study how other brands in your industry get their message across to determine what works well and what doesn't work at all. If possible, try to get a copy of an annual brand report produced by an industry association or research company. You'll see which brand strategies are working best in your business niche. Compare this data to your brand strategy to see if there are any gaps between where your brand is now and where it needs to be for success.

Measure Brand Success Using Key Performance Indicators

To know if your brand strategy is working, you must track progress and measure it against your goals. You can achieve this by setting up key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracking them over time. KPIs can vary depending on your brand and business. However, common ones might include brand awareness, website traffic, leads generated, or social media engagement. By tracking these metrics regularly, you can see how well your brand strategy is working and make necessary adjustments along the way.

Creating the Best Brand Strategy: Everything You Need

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business. A strong brand strategy can help you to connect with your target audience. It'll help you stand out from the competition, and achieve success in today's crowded marketplace. With the tips provided in this guide, you should be able to create a winning strategy. That said, if you need help getting a good brand strategy together, please give us a call, and we'll work together.


marketing agency

7 Awesome Benefits Your Business Gets From Working With a Digital Marketing Agency

About 68% of online activities start with a search engine. Unfortunately, the majority of people (75%) never look beyond the first page of search results. If your website doesn't appear on the first page, you need to update your marketing. With help from the best digital marketing agency around, you can reach more customers online. They'll help you generate more website traffic, leads, and sales, too. Otherwise, you could miss a chance to reach customers. Your competitors are likely appearing in front of those customers instead.

On the fence about hiring a digital marketing agency? Here are seven benefits to consider first. After discovering these reasons to work with an experienced marketing team, you can make a more informed decision for your business. Read on to learn more today!

1. Access to Experts

How much do you know about search engine optimization (SEO)? Are you up-to-date with the latest web design and development trends? What about Google's Core Web Vitals or Instagram's algorithm changes? You're already trying to become an expert in your field. You shouldn't have to become a digital marketing expert, too. Unfortunately, failing to keep up with the latest trends could cost you customers. Consumers might think your brand is old and outdated. They might turn toward competing brands that appeal to their interests instead. Before that can happen, hire a digital marketing agency. You can leverage their experience and expertise. With their help, you'll never fall behind the latest trends. Instead, they could even help you become a trendsetter in the industry. Consumers will notice you've upgraded your digital marketing strategy. They'll recognize your effort to remain informed about their concerns, too. These consumers might feel more inclined to choose your business.

Failing to remain up-to-date with the latest marketing trends could hurt your business in other ways. For example, Google updates its search engine algorithm constantly. These algorithm changes might impact your search engine rankings.

Lower rankings might make it more difficult for consumers to find you online.

Meanwhile, you could waste money with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising if you lack experience and expertise. You might unintentionally blow through your advertising budget on day one. Instead of risking it, look for an experienced digital marketing agency. They'll remain available to answer your questions and keep your strategy up-to-date.

2. Ongoing Attention for Campaigns

Once you start developing digital marketing campaigns, it's important to keep an eye on them. Many businesses make the mistake of "setting and forgetting" their campaigns. If you're neglecting your campaigns, it could cost you money.

Instead, consider the benefits of working with a marketing agency. They can keep an eye on your campaigns for you. They'll also know which key performance indicators to track. If your campaigns aren't meeting set benchmarks, your digital marketing team can make the necessary improvements. They'll know how to analyze and optimize your campaigns, setting every digital marketing strategy up for success. Then, you can generate more leads and sales. Optimizing your campaigns will boost your ROI, too.

Once you hire a digital marketing agency, you can use the time you would spend watching your campaigns on bigger tasks.

3. Improved Targeting

Are you reaching a broad audience with your current marketing strategy? Not every message will appeal to every consumer. In fact, about 74% of consumers get annoyed when content has nothing to do with their interests. About 45% won't spend time with branded content that doesn't align with their interests. Consider working with an experienced digital marketing agency that understands the importance of precise targeting. Segmenting your target audience into smaller buyer personas will help you personalize your messaging. Then, you can connect with customers based on their needs and interests. Improved targeting will help you save time and money. You can optimize your campaigns to improve your ROI, too. In fact, about 80% of consumers are more likely to shop when brands personalize.

Personalization could lift sales by 10% or more while improving your marketing ROI by eight times, too.

4. Better Tools

If you're not using the right tools, you might struggle to make informed decisions regarding your campaigns. For example, you'll need to gather keyword research before creating optimized content. Otherwise, you might choose keywords that have a low search volume. An experienced digital marketing agency will already use the tools needed to improve your campaigns. You won't have to spend time learning how to use these tools, either. Instead, rely on your marketing team to handle it for you.

5. Gain a Unique Perspective

It helps to gain an outside perspective. If you're too close to your business, you might not realize there are issues with your campaigns. You could struggle to improve your messaging, too. Gaining a unique, outside perspective could set your campaigns up for success.

Look for a marketing company that has experience working with businesses like yours, too. You can leverage their experience to further boost your campaigns.

6. Create an Omnichannel Approach

Remember, you're busy enough trying to grow your business. Handling an omnichannel marketing strategy as well can feel daunting. If you're not utilizing an omnichannel approach, however, you could miss the chance to reach customers.

The best digital marketing agency will know how to reach your customers on different marketing channels. They'll know how to create a cohesive customer journey, too. For example, you can promote your business on social media while engaging them through emails. Improving the customer journey could help you generate more leads and sales.

7. Save Time and Money

You don't have to take time away from your business and customers to focus on your campaigns. Neglecting your campaigns, however, could cost you opportunities. You might miss the chance to grow your business. Before that can happen, hire a digital marketing agency. They can save you valuable time, optimize your campaigns, and ensure you don't waste money. Instead, they can boost your ROI to set your business up to grow!

Set for Business Success: 7 Benefits of Partnering With a Digital Marketing Agency

Don't miss the chance to grow your business. So consider these seven reasons to hire a digital marketing agency. With help from an experienced team, you can set your business up for lasting success.

And, of course, don't worry about handling your campaigns alone. We're here to help.

Contact our team today to get started.


what does a marketing agency do

What Does a Marketing Agency Do?

In today's day and age, the internet is not an optional endeavor for businesses. In fact, by the end of 2021, experts are predicting that offline global revenue will be down by 20%. This is pretty scary news for small or medium-sized businesses that count on offline sales to survive. Fortunately, with the help of a great marketing agency, you can keep your business thriving in the years ahead, both online and off.

So what does a marketing agency do, you ask? These experts are responsible for taking the everyday challenge and time-consuming task of marketing off your hands. Of course, the benefits of using their services go much further than this. Follow along to discover exactly what a marketing agency can do for your business today.

What Does a Marketing Agency Do?

The answer to this question relies entirely on what 'kind' of marketing agency you're thinking of bringing on board. Some agencies focus only on specific tasks such as social media or SEO while others have a team of professionals that work together on your entire marketing approach. The latter is referred to as a full-service marketing agency.

For the sake of simplicity, let's tackle what these full-service agencies really do for your business. Your full-service offerings will break down into two categories:

Digital Marketing Strategies

Digital marketing includes all of the online avenues your business needs to stand out. A digital marketing team will work together to create a cohesive experience for users and drive traffic to your website.

The digital areas they will tackle include:

  • SEO (search engine marketing)
  • Content marketing
  • Mobile marketing
  • Video marketing
  • PPC advertising
  • Email marketing
  • Social media marketing

As you can imagine, each of these tasks is a full-time job in itself. For example, your SEO strategies will include both on-page and off-page SEO to not only make your website user-friendly but increase its visibility across all platforms.

We'll dive into the benefits of these strategies later.

Offline Marketing Strategies

While your online approach is growing increasingly important, it is still vital to tackle offline marketing strategies too. By integrating your offline marketing with your online approach, you'll be able to get the most out of both strategies to maximize your impact.

Your offline marketing may include:

  • Radio and broadcast advertising
  • Print ads
  • Events
  • and more

The Benefits of a Using a Marketing Agency

So why not develop these marketing strategies on your own? Even if you have a strong understanding of how marketing works, taking on these tasks for your business is simply unmanageable for many business owners. Beyond the sheer amount of time it takes to carry out marketing correctly, the landscape of marketing and advertising is continually changing, making keeping up with your online and offline approach a huge commitment. In addition to the time and headache you'll save by outsourcing these tasks, you'll also experience the following benefits:

Fresh Perspective and Ideas

It can be easy to get stuck in a rut, especially when it comes to marketing. Oftentimes, what worked in the past on social media campaigns or brand advertisements isn't compliant with new algorithms or trends. This is why companies will have great success for a while and then plateau or drop off overnight. While you may know and understand your brand the best, an outside perspective can help you tackle those roadblocks and plateaus to continually see results.

Increased Relevant Traffic

Even if you're rising up in the ranks on Google, your SEO strategies could still be unbeneficial to your business. This is because you could be targetting keywords or audiences that won't help you grow. Because your marketing team is so well versed with their techniques and research, you'll notice an impressive difference in the quality of your audience. Instead of reaching uninterested consumers or ones way beyond your buying radius, you'll have increased website traffic that actually matters to your business.

Improved Brand Awareness and Reach

While there are many objectives to marketing, perhaps the most coveted result is brand awareness. Exposure to your brand is essential to gain customers, earn trust, and establish authority. Fortunately, by tackling your marketing with a full-service approach, you'll increase your brand awareness on multiple platforms. This increased awareness then directly impacts your reach. The more active and available you are in your marketing, the more customers will begin to see and remember your brand.

Expert Knowledge and Experience

When it comes to marketing, there's a ton to learn. While learning about the ins and outs of SEO and social media campaigns is doable, it's likely something that you just don't have time for as a business owner. Beyond this, as you learn, you'll inevitably make mistakes. While these mistakes are all a part of growing, they can cost your business quite a lot of money and energy to fix. Because marketing experts are so well versed in their job, they are far less likely to make these big mistakes, and if they do, they are tracked down much faster. Couple this with years of experience understanding what does and doesn't work in your industry, and it's clear how advantageous bringing on a pro can really be.

Cohesive All-Around Approach

Finally, by taking your entire marketing campaign to one agency, you'll have the clear-cut advantage of consistency. Your customer's trust relies on your brand having a consistent and cohesive experience on all platforms. Without agents that understand what's going on from platform to platform, they won't be able to create that unified approach. Beyond this, with insider knowledge on your entire campaign, the different elements of your marketing can work together to drive traffic exactly where it needs to be!

Your Marketing Strategy for Success

Now that you know the answer to your burning question, 'what does a marketing agency do?', you can set forth with confidence. From choosing a marking agency that suits your needs to understanding the benefits you can expect to see, we know you'll be on the right track with your marketing strategy.

Ready to experience the difference for yourself? Get in touch with us today to discover how we can transform your marketing approach for success in the ever-changing market.