professional blog Archives | Alter Impact Orange County Website Design

Developing a Strong Brand For Your Business

A brand is defined as a name, term, sign, symbol or design that is used to identify the goods and/or services of a seller. Simply put, your brand is what differentiates your business from the rest. A business’ brand exists in every single interaction with their customers including their marketing materials, shared images, and their online presence including posts on social media websites. A strong brand is able to successfully communicate what a company does and how it does it, while establishing trust and credibility.

Developing a strong brand involves commitment and a high level of marketing knowledge and experience. In order to create a professional brand that accurately portrays your business to your intended audience you must start with a strong foundation. Creating a strong brand involves:

Focusing on what makes your business unique
If you want your brand to stand head and shoulders above the rest, it should focus on what makes your business unique. A professional brand tells a story and relays what sets your business apart from others in your industry.
Growing your community both online and offline
Successful companies understand that if people trust a brand’s community, they will extend their trust to the brand itself. In our modern world, businesses both large and small have many opportunities to build both online and offline communities. Online communities include Twitter and Facebook and professionally maintained blogs.
Building exceptional products and services
Even the strongest brand suffers when they deliver average or below average products or services.
Having a good name and a strong logo
A strong brand is easily recognizable. A strong logo reflects your company, builds trust and helps pull your brand together.
Clear communication with potential clients
Your company’s voice is the language and personality used to deliver your branding message and reach your customers. What you say is just as important as how you say it.
Staying consistent
A common mistake made by many small businesses is to change their messaging based on their audience. This type of inconsistency will only confuse your customers. Always stay consistent when presenting your brand.
Proving you stand for something
Strong brands typically stand for or against something in order to connect emotionally with their customers.
Keeping your promises
Happy customers are your best source of referrals. Failing to keep your promises is the quickest way to tarnish your brand.
Empowering your customers
Nurturing relationships with your customers will ensure that they share your ideas and your brand with their own networks. When a company helps its customers succeed, those customers will help the company’s brand succeed.
Delivering value
Value doesn’t necessarily mean having the lowest price. It might also mean operational excellence, product leadership or excellent customer service.

Alter Impact has helped hundreds of small businesses create a successful brand. For more information, please contact us today.

Why You Need To Keep Your Website Updated

When was the last time that you updated your website? If you aren’t regularly updating your website then you are probably being overlooked by prospective clients and the search engines. This is because when your website looks outdated, visitors are more likely to leave, believing that you aren’t keeping up with the times. Similarly, if your website contains the exact same content every single time that the search engines re-index your page, then your rankings will eventually fall. In order to keep your website updated, you should consider:

Adding new content
Adding new pages
Updating the look of your website
Updating the images on your website
Introducing new sales and specials regularly

Perhaps the best thing that you can do to update your website is to add new content as often as possible. Every single time that you add new content, the search engines reward you for it. This is because the search engines believe that websites with newer content are more relevant than websites with older content. In fact, there is no better way to tell the search engines that your business is relevant than by adding new content regularly. One of the best ways to accomplish this is with a well written blog. A professional blog has the ability to keep the content on your website fresh, and attract your intended audience.

Adding new pages to your website can also increase your search engine rankings and it shows visitors that you are a viable, growing business. Additional pages might include a gallery to show off your latest work, or profile pages for each of your employees.

Updating the look of your website shows that you are current with the times and conveys an air of success and the image that your company is doing well even during an economic downturn. Updating your website allows you to expand your business and add new features such as a news feed, blog and social media outlets. Additionally, a redesign of your website can boost your ranking with the search engines.

If you offer products or services on your website, it is always a good idea to hold sales or offer specials in order to keep people interested. If your prices never change, visitors to your site might believe that you are not interested in your business anymore. However, if visitors see that you are holding a sale, they will feel as though you have an active business.

Alter Impact can help you update your website. For more information please contact us today.