Brand Strategy Niches

Posted on August 28, 2013 by ianotr

Brand Strategy Niches

Surround Your Brand Niche With Familiar Associations

You may have the most unique niche in the world, but in order for online followers to embrace it you need to shape your brand strategy so that the niche relates to things that are already familiar to your audience. It sounds like a paradox, but the secret to followers connecting the dots is to relate your unique concept with the world they already know about. That does not mean catering to the lowest common dominator, which is the direction many big marketers still follow. You can enjoy just as much success by relating your unique products with qualities that everyone naturally appreciates.

Market Leadership

Followers gravitate toward leaders not by chance, but because of magnetism and the ambition to follow a winning path. A leader can be defined in many ways, but your brand strategy will have an enormous edge if you can define leadership as being the first in history to introduce your niche. Newspapers and TV news teams are always looking to document new inventions or ideas so that they can say they covered it first. Another way to sell your brand as a leader is to report statistics that reveal your brand has generated a widespread response. You can create a news story by appearing at a trade show and then report that your product was exposed to thousands of people.

Another way to convey leadership is to be interviewed by a local publication or website, in which you can give exclusive insight about your industry that no one else has covered before. You can discuss problems that are beneath the media radar then offer sensible solutions. People also equate leadership with innovation. By offering ideas for the future, you can help shape your image as an authority figure. Almost every company boldly states the What and How of what they produce or the service they provide. Differentiate yourself and build your brand around Why. Never forget that leadership is a perception regardless of how your industry ranks leaders. Always find ways to communicate how your brand is ahead of the competition.

Things We All Share

Even though you don’t want your brand strategy to create the impression that it means all things to all people, you are justified in associating your brand with things we all share as individuals. The environment, for example, is something we all share. There’s a green revolution going on that continues to gain strength due to high energy costs and reports about dangerous chemicals in our food, water, air and soil. Since you are building your brand online, you’re already participating in the environmental movement. Assert your participation, which gives your brand credibility, whether it’s by going paperless, reducing the need to waste gas or communicating online instead of through snail mail.

We also all share a love for music and entertainment. So find pop culture items that connect with your brand, such as songs, movies, sports, fashion or hobbies. Use a popular quote, for example, as a metaphor for your product. Or explain how an underlying problem you are trying to resolve with your product is reminiscent of a scene from a popular movie. Let your imagination go wild in creating associations between your products and existing fads, either from the past or present. This type of brand strategy reflects how people communicate on social networks.

Creative Colors

Everyone loves colors. One of the first things we learned about as children was how to use crayons. Your logo needs to be simple with four colors or less, which saves money and creates a memorable image. But since everyone loves pictures with multiple colors, find as many attractive photos as possible and associate them with your brand by sharing them on social networks and your website.

Take the Lead in creating your Brand Strategy Niche Download our eBook

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web Solutions a web development company building marketing websites since 2000 with offices in Canada, USA, Europe and South America.
OTR Web is a Value Added Partner with HubSpot.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

SMB Web Design

Posted on August 27, 2013 by ianotr

SMB Web Design

Many business websites were designed with no purpose other than existence. However, the evolution of marketing and the Internet has transformed the business website into lead, traffic, and sales generating a multi-functioning marketing tool. The undeniable benefits of a well-designed site has caused several business owners to ponder over which provider can deliver the best product for the best price in the least amount of time as possible.

With three apparent options, business owners may employ the shade-tree web designer, who also doubles as a nephew that creates pages from his bedroom after school. After the nephew, they can choose either a do-it-yourself website builder or enlist the services of a the professional web design company. In either case, you must take the lead and ensure your website meets your expectations and produces the desired results.

Take the Lead by Understanding These Terms in Web Design

Inbound marketing is the notion of attracting customers to your site by providing the information that users are searching for. The most effective inbound strategies are developed and incorporated into the fibers of the web page.

Copywriting refers to all of the text that appears as content on the page.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about making your website more visible on a search engine results page. As one of the primary objections of any web site, getting seen is directly correlated to high revenue. The most effective SEO campaigns are the result of being interwoven into the creation of the website.

Search engine friendly refers to the ease that search engine crawlers are able to index and find your page.

HTML5 code is the new Internet language that offers an impending focus on multimedia without the need for plugins. HTML5 was developed to allow low-powered devices like smartphones to run heavy content. Additionally, it allows for the development of universal or cross-platform mobile apps. Overall, HTML5 offers significantly more control over the design of your page.

Cascading Style Sheets 3 (CSS3) is responsible for the style and design of the page. CSS3 bolsters the capabilities of a web designer with enhanced aesthetic appeal and functionality on the website.

The Nephew or Friend of a Friend

While your nephew may offer the most cost-effective method for website creation,
it is highly doubtable that your nephew will be able to create the functionality that is required. With the amazing growth of HTML5, newer and more appealing features are consistently being created. If your nephew is not familiar with the newer code, your site will quickly begin to look old compared to the other sites that use HTML5. In addition to having to develop your own web content (rather than making use of professional copywriters), your nephew will in all likelihood completely negate the importance of intertwining SEO and inbound marketing into the core of the website.

Take the Lead with a Do-it-Yourself Website Builder

DIY site builders are excellent for start-ups and entrepreneurs who want to get their website online quickly and then perfect the site along the way. With a template website, your page won’t break the bank or consume too much of your time. The all inclusive DIY website builder removes the coding process from website design and replaces it with the benefits of drop-and-drag. To begin, you simply choose a template and personalize it with your own tweaks and changes until it looks how you envisioned. DIY website builders also allow you to choose your domain name, work at your own pace, and web hosting is included with the DIY builder. Many DIY builders can generate a mobile-friendly version for smartphones.

There are however pitfalls. One of the major downsides of DIY website builders is the lack of customization in creating a website that reflects your corporate brand. Instead, the DIY website builder offers templates, which can leave a generic impression on visitors. As for SEO, you are left to optimize the page yourself and that can be a daunting task. Many time business owners using the DIY site builders quit in frustration due to the complexity of using the tool itself.

The greatest benefit of using a DIY website builder is the ability to work on your page at your individual pace and the low cost involved. If you have the time (remember also the cost of your time) and are willing to learn about SEO and copywriting as well as the actual DIY website builder tool, then the DIY website builder can be a good solution for you and your business.

Take the Lead with a Professional Web Design Company

Everyone knows that two heads are better than one. A professional web design company uses collaboration from copywriters, graphic designers, SEO professionals, software developers, inbound marketing strategists, project managers and several others to produce fully functional and highly attractive websites. The effectiveness of a professional web design company is the result of a team effort composed of different backgrounds. By using industry experts, a professional web design company delivers highly functional, unique, responsive, and profitable websites with both SEO and inbound marketing effectively interwoven into the website architecture and content.

With the many benefits of using a professional web design company, one disadvantage can be the upfront cost. Even with some services being a la carte, employing a design team can seem to be costly. In addition, a professional web design company will generally take approximately five to eight weeks to complete the site by the time they layout the navigation, create the design concepts, develop buyer persona’s, interview the key parties, research key phrases and then write the web content.

Creating a website that works for you and your clients takes time, no matter whether you do it yourself or hire a web team.

Take the Lead Download the OTR eBook – 10 Step Checklist Website Redesign

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web Solutions a web development company building marketing websites since 2000 with offices in Canada, USA, Europe and South America.
OTR Web is a Value Added Partner with HubSpot.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website Development requirements Contact OTR Web.

time to redesign your website when

Posted on August 26, 2013 by ianotr

Time to Redesign Your Website When …

A good website is the key to a successful online presence. It provides a solid foundation for you to build upon and expand your brand. Unfortunately a bad website can cause everything to come tumbling down. Poorly designed websites drive potential customers away in droves. Some studies have even shown that visitors have less trust in companies with poorly designed websites. Don’t feel too bad, outdated and poorly designed websites are a common sight across the web. Choosing the right web design company and avoiding a few simple pitfalls can help bring your online business out of the 90’s and into the 21^st century.

Even you can’t find your page on Google

Improving visibility is probably the number one thing you can do to improve your website. Sites designed with poor SEO end up buried in search results and reducing your traffic. You could have a perfectly designed site, but without proper SEO no one will ever see it. It would be like the Mona Lisa only ever displayed on the fridge at Da Vinci’s mom’s house. A proper SEO centered design can push your website to the top of the search results and expose your brand to a much wider audience. Remember however there is only one opportunity to make a good first impression. Take the lead with a well designed website created with SEO built within the sites architecture.

Mobile users can’t navigate your site

Responsive web design is the future of the internet. When was the last time you sat on a bus or in a waiting room without being surrounded by at least three or four people browsing on a smartphone or tablet? Responsive web design is a design principle which provides your website with adaptability to allow it to be compatible and usable on a wide variety of devices. From the smallest smartphone to the largest display possible, a responsively designed site will work on any size display.

Your users took a wrong turn

A good website should be as in depth as it needs to be, but still simple to navigate. Your business may be complex, requiring a lot of information to get your idea across. However, this doesn’t mean your site has to be complex as well. If your users need more than 2 or 3 clicks to navigate back to your homepage, you may need to reconsider your layout and your web design company. If they have to use the back button on the browser … well enough said!

Your site loads slower than Windows

A website that takes more than a few seconds to load is almost as bad as a site nobody can find. Poorly designed or overly complex websites can slow down loading times and drastically reduce your visitor’s experience. The longer it takes to load, the more frustrated people become and the more likely they are to look elsewhere or as they say in the industry “bounce away”. Additionally, search engines like Google take average loading times into consideration with site rankings.

If your website falls into any of these categories, don’t feel too bad. The good news is these problems can be fixed by the right web design company. At OTR Web Solutions we pride ourselves on results. Our professionally designed and developed websites are world class. By incorporating proven design principles with cutting edge techniques, OTR helps you take the lead and put your business a step above and beyond the competition.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

SMB Branding Series Conclusions

Posted on August 24, 2013 by ianotr

SMB Branding Series Conclusions

Your small business branding strategy should be a long term plan. Forget about quick results so that you won’t be disappointed by the duration of time it takes to orchestrate an effective campaign. Remember that like investing, nothing is guaranteed, but a wise investment in time, care, research and execution has a better chance of paying off than trying to cut corners. Your success depends mainly on sharing expertise and creativity with online followers.

Determination Beats Playing It Safe

The internet has certain powerful aspects that other forms of media don’t have. While traditional media like television and radio have expensive gatekeepers that limit access to large audiences, the internet allows you to creatively build a vast empire of content without anyone’s permission. The more unique and valuable content you can offer, the more likely search engines will assist you in your mission to develop a vibrant interactive online community.

Determination to provide better and more elaborate content than competitors is the gold standard for a successful small business branding strategy. Playing it safe by avoiding the vast amount of work needed to create powerful online resources is a sure path to an unsuccessful marketing campaign. So if you’re going to attempt inbound marketing, make sure you go all the way. Brainstorm with experts who have a proven track record with developing websites, blogs and social media interaction so that you arrive at a solid strategy.

Make Your Brand Shine

Last century the commercial craft of outbound marketing – the practice of saturating a market with interruptive advertising messages – was the best way to dominate competitors. All along small businesses were not able to compete on this level, as the players who spent the most money on repetitious advertising raked in the biggest return on investment. Hard selling worked when big businesses used their massive advertising budgets to drown out smaller competitors through media saturation.

But now in the internet age a more consumer-friendly approach known as inbound marketing is taking over. Consumers now spend more time researching products online before they make purchases. They have become skeptical of too many exaggerated advertising claims and false promises. So they read reviews by other consumers and learn directly about products through websites, blogs and social media. The internet is here to help deliver your message better than any medium has ever done for small business, so take advantage of it and prosper.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

SMB Branding Help

Posted on August 23, 2013 by ianotr

SMB Branding HELP!

Developing your SMB branding and social media strategy is clearly not a fast easy job. It can literally take months for such a campaign to kick in. Anyone who promises overnight success is most likely a scam artist since search engines don’t guarantee results and can take months to index websites, blogs and social media. On top of that content must be comprehensive or the search engines may ignore the content. It does take quite a bit of work, but the good news is that there are plenty of inbound marketing companies to turn to for help.

Choosing the Right Inbound Marketer

Unfortunately, not every inbound marketing company has your best interests in mind, there are many that have their own best interests in mind. The internet is filled with scam artists looking to make a quick buck and the easiest prey are newbies looking for direction. If you haven’t yet learned about how branding works online, take some time to learn the basics then choose a company that meets your checklist of requirements. This list should include affordability, flexibility, clear communication skills, white hat SEO knowledge, content development skills, social media skills, blogging skills and a successful track record.

The object of inbound marketing is to fuse the best ideas of content development with the best ideas of online marketing. This fusion is known as inbound marketing, which is a broad campaign to get people to engage with your brand online instead of bombarding them with interruptive advertising. A subset of inbound marketing is content marketing, which involves tailoring content and social media to attract users through search engines. Content marketing can also be a subset of outbound marketing, which involves reaching customers through various media exposure.

Content Development

The success of your SMB branding and social media strategies rides mostly on the quality as well as the quantity of content development, along with communication skills and SEO expertise. Online content comes in many forms beyond web pages, blogs and social media. Effective content tools that attract online surfers include videos, photos, webinars, podcasts and infographics. You can also go deeper into details with whitepapers and eBooks. Content marketing can also involve direct interaction with clients through emails.

When it comes to SMB branding and social media strategy, you should only work with companies that know a lot about your business and goals. This entire campaign hinges on product knowledge and the way it is presented to users to build trust and brand loyalty. The last thing you need is a company that only understands the tech side of the internet without much concern about your actual business. Make sure that the company can articulate your business model.

Metrics

A credible inbound marketer will provide metrics that help you gauge the effectiveness of your campaign. Modern marketers will use software to measure analytics that can be summarized as metrics. An important metric for all online businesses is bounce rate, which is when a surfer visits a website then immediately leaves without further exploration. High bounce rates of 50 percent or higher need to be improved down to 20 percent or lower.

The number of visitors to your website, blog or social media profile is another universally important metric. Tracking the growth of this development provides indicators whether or not the campaign is working. Ecommerce metrics definitely matter if you are selling products online. You should also be aware of what percentage of customers disengage with your site before completing a purchase. This information will help you refine your content development, product pages, SMB branding and social media strategy.

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web Solutions a web development company building marketing websites since 2000 with offices in Canada, USA, Europe and South America. OTR Web is a Value Added Partner with HubSpot.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

SMB Branding and Social Media

Posted on August 22, 2013 by ianotr

SMB Branding and Social Media

In the 21st century small business branding is most effectively achieved using a variety of online tools, particularly social media. Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest are popular social media networks where you will likely reach the most followers, but you may also want to explore social networks that specialize in your industry. Independent musicians, for example, will find ReverbNation very useful when combining it with Facebook. If you want to simplify social media and narrow your focus on one platform, then Facebook is definitely a winning choice.

Building a Base

Social networks are excellent for building a base of online followers. Platforms like Facebook allow you to create a public business profile page and invite people with similar interests to become friends. You can build an audience of thousands of people who will see your daily posts. With Facebook you have the option of who gets to view your posts and who can respond. It’s up to you if you want to deliver one way messages about your business and industry or if you want to allow feedback from your friends.

You can build marketing lists from social media and track who your top followers are. Attracting thousands of followers gives you the opportunity to not only deliver your message instantly to people, it gives you better insight on the tastes of your target market than can be gained from typical market research. Each day you can learn a lot how your followers feel about other products and activities beyond what you have to offer. This in depth information can inspire you to provide creative new solutions that may not be met by current market conditions.

Sharing News and Views

As a social media participant, you are able to post a variety of information about your brand. You even have the flexibility of going beyond your brand and sharing wider information that appeals to your market. You can post news stories or songs that associate with your brand. It’s a way of expanding your dialogue with followers beyond the predictable jargon of your industry. Social media is powerful for small business branding because it lets you be your own journalist instead of waiting for the media to tell your story. You can also provide links to your website and blogs that can go into much more detail.

Facebook allows you to express your brand with your own videos, audio and photos in a seamless way. YouTube is also considered a social network because it allows people to subscribe to your channel and post comments. At one time online video was complex and expensive, but YouTube has made it simple. You can host your videos on YouTube for free then link to them on Facebook, your website and other online resources.

Social Interaction

Facebook’s “like” button has become important in many ways to small business branding. Every time someone likes your profile or post it is perceived as an online vote. These votes can add up to big numbers and attract more attention, which can fuel more likes. You can also bond with others by liking their posts. If you’re the only one who likes an individual’s post, they will probably remember your positive gesture.

One way to create a chain reaction of new followers is to visit the profiles of friends and comment on their posts. When people respond to your comments it can inspire them to add you as a friend or vice versa. Social media will be most effective for small business branding if you avoid random friends and streamline your list to focus on loyal followers.

Take the lead in Social Media – Download the OTR Web eBook

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web Solutions a web development company building marketing websites since 2000 with offices in Canada, USA, Europe and South America. OTR Web is a Value Added Partner with HubSpot.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

SMB Branding Strategy

Posted on August 21, 2013 by ianotr

SMB Branding Strategy

Developing a small or medium business branding strategy is essential for success. Any business, big or small, needs to work on this process as a top priority. Authentic products that live up to their claims are now the main key to winning customers in today’s crowded marketplace. The main reason for this type of marketing evolution is that consumers now take customer reviews much more seriously than TV, radio or newspaper advertising.

Consumer Problems

Consumers are bombarded with tons of marketing messages every day and have learned to tune out most of them, at least on a conscious level. People only have so much time in a given day to concentrate on what they need to buy to resolve issues in their lives. Your brand needs to provide specific solutions to consumer problems that you have researched and understand. Developing a product that mirrors other popular but ineffective products that leave customers unsatisfied is the wrong path. Your goal should be more than just making quick profits.

You should develop a brand that overshadows competitors by resolving problems that they can’t. The way to win the attention and trust of consumers is read their reviews online of similar products and study their complaints. Figure out what would make them happy and deliver it through your products. Stay within your means of production and take note of what’s special about your solution. In other words, create strategies by thinking beyond what’s already available on the market.

Product Solutions

Once you have developed a product that satisfies customers by outperforming competitors, you need to plan a strategy on how to communicate the product’s benefits to your market. Avoid hyperbole that makes the product seem bigger than life, which was part of last century’s mass marketing philosophy just to sell units. In the internet age consumers are much smarter researchers and it takes more effort to win their trust. You can earn much more credibility by delivering what you promise instead of making big promises that trick people.

Your products will likely get positive praise if they exceed customer expectations, which gives people positive energy and confidence in taking credit for help others find effective solutions. If your products only meet or fall short of expectations, there’s a good chance the reviews will be more lackluster at best and have no effect at stimulating a chain reaction of positive reviews. Staying ahead of the curve should be your focus.

Communicating the Brand

A small business branding strategy will likely not involve expensive advertising, which is a gamble even for big businesses. Instead, you should pay attention to inbound marketing, which involves techniques associated with web content development designed to attract search engines and users. It also involves engaging with customers and potential customers online through blogs, social media, email, newsletters. The era of hard selling is ending and is being replaced by a series of informative resources that culminate into a sales funnel that points toward online product pages.

Throughout the inbound marketing process you should take a subtle approach that avoids sales talk. It’s better to initiate products with a wealth of information that begins with social media and blogs, in which you will have the opportunity of exchanging valuable information with curious people. Then you can direct them to further resources, such as your website, blogs and newsletters. From there you can provide direct links to your product pages where they can make purchases after you have led them toward making informed decisions. Any additional advertising you do in your small business branding strategy should give reasons for customers to visit your website.

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web Solutions a web development company building marketing websites since 2000 with offices in Canada, USA, Europe and South America. OTR Web is a Value Added Partner with HubSpot.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

SMB Branding Small Business Blogging

Posted on August 20, 2013 by ianotr

SMB Branding : Small Business Blogging

Small Business Blogging is an invaluable tool to deliver your message. Think of writing a business blog as an opportunity to teach your readers about the core values of your brand. An opportunity to convey the excitement you feel for your business, services and/or products. Having said that your business blog is not the place to blatantly sell your services or products, but it is an excellent vehicle to deliver well thought out messages that generate interest and convey your expertise.

Another reason small business blogging is so important is because search engines give favorable rankings to informative blogs. Writing effective blogs that attract a loyal following involves detail, accuracy and personality. Part of achieving this goal is to avoid, stretching the content to meet a certain word count. While word count is essential to meet the standards of search engines, it doesn’t do any good to try to write fluff that lacks depth just to fill up a web page. Blogging requires effort and expertise and anything short of that may not generate desired results.

Writing Skills

You don’t have to be an expert blogger to be successful at blogging, but you do need to be an expert at what you’re writing about. You also need to understand both creative and journalistic writing, since blogs are a mix of both styles. Unlike college term papers, blogs are more personalized communiques. At the same time, blogs need to convey the same type of detailed knowledge found in academic papers or newspaper articles. Blogs are unique from traditional professional writing because they come from both the analytical and emotional brain hemispheres.

The term “infotainment,” which merges information with entertainment, is a good way to describe a blog. It needs to be thorough and factual, yet fun in its approach. If you understand your language and its grammar, then you’re ahead of the game. If you understand how to break those rules and still have credibility, then you’re further down the road. Use the best elements of AP style and technical writing as part of your blog’s foundation. Then balance it with the best elements of casual conversation that do not interfere with the integrity of your subject matter. Remember that blogging is hard work, but it’s also an enjoyable presentation.

Updating Content

Make blogging a regular instead of occasional practice. One blog per month at least keeps you in the game, while one blog per week has a better chance of developing loyal followers. Fifteen to twenty blog posts per month will over time create significant results in bringing in new readers and generating leads for your business. Ultimately, blogging every day is the best policy, provided the content is useful. One new blog per year is almost guaranteed to do nothing, unless it’s a comprehensive and compelling eBook.

If you do not have the time for small business blogging, consider outsourcing the work to an agency you trust who can provide a constant stream of useful information. Many SMB’s and even large corporations outsource their blogging to Inbound Marketing Agencies who can tailor your blogs to a specific tailored Inbound Marketing strategy for your business. An Inbound Marketing Agency will among other things create Calls To Action on your page, which lead to content specific Landing Pages, that have offers and will generate leads and website traffic. Another benefit of an agency is they will will have a group of writers with a consistent writing style and personality for your blog. It is a good business practise to monitor all outsourced blogs to ensure they don’t become shallow, which can happen from writer burnout. If you are writing yourself be certain to avoid redundant messages within the same blog or information that’s already widely known. Each blog should feel at best like a fresh suspense thriller with an insightful climax to problems, delivering clear solutions. The most successful blogs lead readers through the sales funnel toward product pages…known as Inbound Marketing.

SEO Knowledge

An enormous edge for effective blogging is SEO knowledge. Every blogger needs to base their blogs on keywords that point to a brand or theme. Business blogging is not about selling but it can be about brand development. The readers will decide if they will make a purchase based on the information they learn from the blog. The blogger’s job is to inform and entertain, not really to persuade. Search engines favor informative blogs, not advertisements. Even though SEO has been pitched by marketers as a deep science, it’s certainly not an exact science that guarantees results. Learning white hat techniques and avoiding black hat techniques gives the business blogger a huge advantage over their competition.

Take the Lead to Remarkable Content – Download the OTR Web eBook

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

Brand Strategy Your Brand Niche

Posted on August 19, 2013 by ianotr

Brand Strategy Your Brand Niche

Your brand is the nucleus, the lifeblood and the star of your business. But brands mean nothing these days unless they are associated with either a niche or a series of niches. Explore what corners of the market allow you to be number one at your craft then use that niche or those niches to give your brand soul and meaning. The more competitors you face, the more defined your niche must be to stand out in the crowd. Ultimately, niche marketing will help your brand establish market leadership.

Originality and Imagination

The key to capturing attention in today’s noisy marketplace full of brands is to stand out, not to blend in. If your brand offers nothing different from the next brand, the

Putting Paint to Canvas

consumers have no reason to choose your brand over others. If your brand tries to be all things to all people with vague promises then consumers will likely be more satisfied with brands that provide them specific solutions. Instead of diluting your brand’s image by trying to be as generic as possible, be more memorable and adventurous by taking leadership of specific consumer problems and providing solutions that excite people and inspire word of mouth positive reviews.

The power of imagination is what drives both technology and innovative business models. A niche can reflect an existing market but it can also be created with pure imagination. The most powerful niches are hybrids of existing markets and new twists. Remember that you can define a niche any way you like and if you’re the only one doing it, you’ll be the leader in that niche. Your brand will have a huge advantage if it connects three keywords in a creative way and your site comes up on top in searches for that keyword phrase.

Geographic Niches

Once you come up with a creative niche that has impact, you will likely want to come up with more, since it’s so fun to test the untapped terrain of keywords waiting to come together. If your brand is national you should come up with different regional niches and if your brand is local you should try experimenting with different neighborhood niches. Even though there are millions of websites, many website owners still haven’t figured out that search engines love geographic niches. In other words, there are still wide open opportunities for niches based on the combination of geography and imagination. “El Paso Organic Restaurants” is just one example of an untapped niche in Google.

Market Your Niche

Sometimes it takes months for your web pages to show up in search engines, but in the meantime you can create a mountain of content about your niche. Make sure each web page has a unique title within the title tags of your HTML. Ideally, you will want to include keywords in each title that describe your niche. Avoid duplication of titles so that the search engines do not consider them spam. One page might be titled “El Paso Organic Salads” while another might be titled “El Paso Organic Fruit Juice.”

Niche marketing on the web comes down to creating several meaningful web pages or blogs about your niche, linking them together and then attracting visitors to your series of pages. Use social media, newsletters and email as well to direct people on your marketing list to your content pages that ultimately lead visitors to product or coupon pages. For every unique product create a separate web page that contains 500 to 2000 words of informative compelling text and a visually attractive image. Always let fun and creative energy guide your niche marketing strategies.

Take the Lead in your Branding Strategy and discover your Niche Market.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

Brand Strategy : Domain Names

Posted on August 16, 2013 by ianotr

Brand Strategy : Domain Names

If you are trying to launch a new brand or product, start with a domain name that you can own online. It’s always best for a brand name and domain name to be exactly the same to avoid confusion. Instead of being set on a particular brand name, make a list of possible names from brainstorming and then find out which ones are available. From there narrow down the list and choose the best name.

Short Domain Names

There will always be a big advantage to short domain names because they are easy to remember, whereas long names are easy to forget. Most viable ideas for domain names with four characters or less were taken back in the nineties. So avoid naming your brand without first checking its availability in the WhoIs database. This tool will let you know instantly which names are available and who owns them. Some owners who have parked domains for the future may be willing to make a deal with you. You might also try an alphanumeric name with six characters or less.

If the domain of your dreams has already been taken, try other extensions such as “.net” or “.biz.” Keep in mind, however, that .com is the most popular domain and has the most credibility unless you plan on starting a nonprofit organization (.org) or a learning institution (.edu). You can also come close to your desired domain by adding a word associated with the brand. If you’re in the restaurant business, for example, and you wanted “Rocky Ridge” but it was taken, you might check something like “RockyRidgeCafe.com.” Certain long domain names are ok if they can be easily read and broken down into two or three words, such as “CaliforniaArtCollectors.com.” Such a name is particularly helpful if it encompasses your top three keywords.

Search Credibility

The closer you can get your domain name to match your brand name, the easier it will be for search engines to index your site. If you intend for your brand just to be marketed on a local level, consider using the name of your city or neighborhood as part of your domain, even if it’s a bit long, which can be an advantageous exception to the rule of focusing on short domain names. Search engines like to be more comprehensive than phone books when listing local businesses and including your locale helps identify your site with your region.

Avoid long domain names that read more like sentences or don’t readily make sense. The last thing you want to do is confuse the search engines. You can invent words or combine words that no one else has done before as long as the domain is easy to read and remember. Search engines will place more importance on your web page titles than anything, so don’t worry too much about how search engines view domain names. You should be more concerned if your target market will connect your brand with its domain name.

Multiple Domains

It’s perfectly acceptable and strategic to have more than one domain name for the same website. You may be able to own both a .com and .net for your brand’s domain. You don’t necessarily have to promote both extensions in your marketing, since all that matters is people find your website. One reason you may want to have multiple domains is if you are developing a national brand and want to have a separate domain for each state or major city. The same idea applies to international brands using different domains for different countries. However if you use multiple domain names, you must either have your web developer create a 301 permanent redirect so all of the domain names (URL’s) are directed to the same website or have different content on each of the domains. Do not get caught in the duplicate content trap! Lastly try to choose names that are instantly recognizable.

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web Solutions a web development company building marketing websites since 2000 with offices in Canada, USA, Europe and South America. OTR Web is a Value Added Partner with HubSpot.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.