Catchy Jingles: The Key to Successful Advertising

Creating a jingle

When it comes to advertising, businesses are always looking for ways to stand out and grab the attention of potential customers. One effective way to do this is through the use of catchy jingles. Jingles are short, memorable tunes used in commercials and advertisements to promote a product or service. They have been a staple of advertising for decades, and for good reason: they work.

The Power of Jingles

The influence of jingles lies in their ability to stick in the minds of consumers. A catchy tune paired with a memorable slogan or product name can create a lasting impression that stays with people long after seeing or hearing the ad. This is why jingles have been used in advertising for so long—they are a proven method of getting people to remember and engage with a brand.

Things That Make Jingles Effective for Advertising

Memorability

A jingle that is forgettable defeats the purpose of using one. It should be easy to sing or hum along to and stick in the listener’s mind long after the ad ends. It should also be catchy—something that people will find themselves singing or humming throughout the day.

One way to make a jingle memorable is to use repetition. Repeating a catchy phrase or melody multiple times throughout the ad can help it stick in the listener’s memory.

Brand Message

Your jingle should also communicate your brand message clearly and effectively. It should reflect the tone and personality of your brand and convey your unique selling proposition. If your brand is fun and playful, your jingle should reflect that. 

Timing

The jingle should be introduced early in the commercial so that viewers or listeners have time to become familiar with it and associate it with the brand. It should also be used consistently across all advertising channels—from TV and radio to social media and print ads—to reinforce the brand message and ensure the jingle becomes synonymous with the brand.

How to Create a Catchy Jingle for Your Ads

A poorly crafted jingle can do more harm than good, turning potential customers off the brand rather than drawing them in. Meanwhile, a too cheesy or annoying jingle can be a major turnoff and damage the brand’s credibility. So how can businesses ensure they create an effective jingle?

One key is to work with a professional jingle writer or music composer with experience creating successful jingles. These professionals understand what makes a jingle catchy and effective and can help businesses create a tune that truly resonates with their target audience.

You should also test your jingle and see how your target audience receives it. Conducting focus groups or surveys can help you gauge whether your jingle is effective or needs some tweaking. Listen to feedback and adjust to ensure your jingle resonates with your customers.

Final Thoughts

Jingles are a powerful tool for businesses looking to promote their products and services. However, you must ensure your jingle is catchy, memorable, and resonates with your target audience. Remember, a great jingle can be a significant change for your business, so invest the time and effort to create one that truly reflects your brand and connects with your customers.

Discover the power of KillerSpots Inc. as your digital marketing agency and transform your business with our proven jingles. Our team has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in creating engaging marketing strategies to help you stand out. Elevate your brand and drive more sales with our innovative approach to digital marketing. Contact us today to learn how we can take your business to the next level.

The Power of Jingles in Advertising: Why Is It So Effective?

meeting

Jingles have been an integral part of advertising for decades. They are short, catchy tunes that promote a company’s brand, often accompanied by a memorable slogan. Jingles aim to create an indelible connection between the consumer and the product, making them a powerful tool in the world of advertising.

Let’s dive into the reasons jingles are so effective and continue to dominate the advertising landscape:

1. Emotional Connection

Music has a natural ability to evoke emotions, and jingles are no exception. In fact, jingles are specifically designed to create an emotional response from the audience. When a jingle successfully resonates with a listener, it can create a strong emotional bond between the consumer and the product or brand.

Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to remember and engage with a product if they have an emotional connection to it. Jingles leverage this emotional response to create brand loyalty and encourage repeat purchases, ultimately contributing to the success of a company’s advertising campaign.

2. Memorability

One of the primary goals of advertising is to create a lasting impression on the consumer. Jingles are an incredibly effective way to achieve this goal due to their innate memorability. They use repetition, rhyme, and melody to create a catchy tune that is difficult to forget.

A well-crafted jingle can be recalled by the listener long after the advertisement has ended, ensuring that the product or brand remains at the forefront of their mind. This memorability contributes to brand awareness and can influence purchasing decisions, making jingles a powerful advertising tool.

3. Reinforcement of Brand Identity

Jingles are an excellent way to reinforce a brand’s identity and message. A catchy tune combined with a memorable slogan can effectively communicate the key aspects of a company’s brand, such as its values, target audience, and unique selling points.

By consistently associating a specific jingle with a brand, consumers begin to recognize and associate the tune with the company and its products. This recognition contributes to brand awareness and can help to strengthen the overall brand image in the minds of consumers.

4. Cross-Platform Adaptability

In today’s digital age, advertising campaigns often span multiple platforms, from television and radio to online videos and social media. Jingles are versatile tools that can be easily adapted to fit a variety of formats, making them an ideal choice for multi-platform campaigns.

A well-designed jingle can effectively convey a brand’s message in just a few seconds, making it perfect for short-form media like radio spots and social media ads. Additionally, jingles can be easily integrated into longer advertisements, such as television commercials and online videos, providing a consistent and recognizable auditory cue across all platforms.

5. Nostalgia Factor

Finally, jingles have been a staple of advertising for decades, leading to a strong sense of nostalgia associated with the format. Many consumers fondly remember jingles from their childhood, and this nostalgia can create a powerful emotional connection between the listener and the brand.

Advertisers can capitalize on this nostalgia by creating jingles that evoke a sense of familiarity and comfort. This connection to the past can contribute to brand loyalty and encourage consumers to choose a product or brand based on their positive associations with the jingle.

Conclusion

Jingles continue to be a powerful tool in the world of advertising due to their ability to create emotional connections, foster memorability, reinforce brand identity, adapt to multiple platforms, and evoke nostalgia. By leveraging these strengths, advertisers can develop engaging and memorable campaigns that resonate with consumers and drive brand awareness and sales. The power of jingles should not be underestimated, as they have the potential to leave a lasting impact on the minds of consumers and contribute to the overall success of a company’s marketing efforts.

KillerSpots Inc. is the best digital media advertising agency, offering a whole host of services covering social media to radio production and more to ensure one’s digital marketing needs are fully met. If you want to craft the best jingles for business, work with us today!

TOP 5 REASONS WHY A JINGLE FOR YOUR BUSINESS IS A SMART INVESTMENT

jingles for business

Why Your Business Needs a Jingle: The Benefits of Investing in a Killer Jingle from the Killerspots Agency.

In today’s competitive marketplace, it’s more important than ever for businesses to have a strong and memorable brand identity. And what better way to achieve that than with a catchy and memorable jingle?

At the Killerspots Agency, we specialize in creating top-notch jingles that will help your business stand out from the crowd. But you might be wondering, what are the benefits of investing in a jingle for your business?

  1. Increased Brand Recognition

One of the biggest benefits of a jingle is that it helps increase brand recognition. A jingle is a short, memorable tune that is associated with a brand or product. It’s like a musical logo that sticks in people’s minds, making it more likely that they’ll remember your business when they need the products or services you offer.

  1. Increased Ad Recall

Another benefit of a jingle is that it increases ad recall. A jingle is often used in commercials, and when a jingle is memorable and catchy, it can help people remember the ad and the product or service being advertised.

  1. Increased Emotional Connection

Jingles can also help create an emotional connection with your target audience. A jingle that evokes positive emotions can help create a positive association with your brand, which can lead to increased customer loyalty.

  1. Increased Effectiveness of Advertising

Jingles are also an effective way to grab attention and make your ad more memorable. A jingle can be used to break through the clutter and make your ad stand out, which can lead to increased effectiveness and ROI.

 

  1. Increased Reach

A jingle can also help increase the reach of your advertising. A jingle that is played on the radio, television, or in stores can be heard by a wide audience, which can help increase brand awareness and drive sales.

At the Killerspots Agency, we understand the importance of having a strong and memorable jingle for your business. That’s why we work closely with our clients to understand their unique needs and create a custom jingle that perfectly aligns with their brand and target audience.

We have a team of experienced and talented musicians and sound engineers who will work to create a jingle that is not only memorable but also unique and fitting to your brand. All of our jingles are 100% custom.  Every note and every lyric are completely custom made for each of our clients.  The Killerspots Agency has hundreds of talented voices, some of today’s best musicians and gifted, creative jingle producers on staff to create the perfect, Killer Jingle that engages our clients’ audiences.

We also understand the importance of staying up to date with the latest trends in music and sound, that’s why we use cutting-edge technology and techniques to create jingles that are not only memorable but also sound great and are in sync with today’s audience.

Our team is also experienced in creating jingles for a variety of industries and we have a proven track record of creating jingles that drive results.  Listen to our demo and you’ll hear the Killer difference guaranteed. We also offer jingles in several different languages including, English, Spanish, French and many more.

Don’t let your business get left behind in the competition. Invest in a jingle from the Killerspots Agency and watch your brand recognition, ad recall, emotional connection, and ROI soar.

 

Contact us today to request a free quote on how we can help your business stand out with an original, custom business jingle.

6 Steps for the Best Small Business Web Design

Small Business Web Design

Is your small business online? You may already be aware of the importance of social media for your business, but is your website optimized for maximum lead conversion? And do you know the best small business web design and user experience (UX) strategies to make your site beautiful and user-friendly?

In 2022, design is king for your website. In fact, a survey found that 50% of consumers believe that website design is important to a company’s brand. But user interface (UI) or UX is also incredibly important. UX/UI involves how users interact with your website, and how easy or difficult it is to navigate. In the same survey referenced above, 42% of users reported that they would leave a website because of poor functionality.

So, for the best possible client experience, you want your small business website to be responsive, elegant, and easy to navigate. But how do you go about this? Where do you start with small business web design?

Designing a small business website is a time-intensive endeavor, and there are many factors that affect web design or UX choices. However, there are some general rules of thumb to keep in mind. Keep reading for our top small business web design strategies to improve your small business website.

Step One: Set Up Your Site

You may already have a website for your small business, but if you don’t, you’ll need to start from the ground up. First, choose a Content Management System, or CMS, to develop your site. There are many CMS on the market to choose from, but the easiest are platforms that have a simple front-end design experience. Font-end design experiences, included in CMS like WordPress and Squarespace, allow you to visually design your website without needing extensive coding knowledge.

After you’ve chosen your CMS, you will need to choose a host and domain for your site. A web host is where your website files are stored, and many hosting platforms will cater to a particular CMS. For example, Bluehost markets itself as a WordPress hosting site. WordPress itself also offers hosting services with WP engine.

A domain is the web address that a user types in to find your website. Domain names should be simple, short, and relate to your business. If possible, use a keyword in your domain name that would be searched to find your business. For example, if your name is Hannah and you own a shoe store, you could register the domain “hannahshoes.com”. Robert with a consulting firm could register a domain like “robertsconsulting.com”.

Step Two: Choose Your Site’s Purpose

Next, you need to know the purpose of your small business website. Will you be selling products online? Or is your site geared toward generating leads for a service you provide? Do you own a restaurant and your patrons are looking for your menu? Or are you a content creator, and you want to display your work for future clients? The purpose of your website will largely determine the layout and types of pages, as well as the overall branding and design. We’ll go more into detail in the section about pages.

Step Three: Decide on Design and Layout

Now that you have your CMS, domain, hosting, and the purpose of your small business website, it’s time to start designing. You can design your website using a template or create your own from scratch. Either way, first you will need to choose the overall look and feel of your website. What colors and typefaces are you using? Are you using images as design elements, or sticking to a more text-based design? Whatever you choose, keep it simple and stick to a defined color palette, typeface, and header style on every page. The more consistent your design, the more visually appealing your site is to your visitors.

Next, choose a layout for your information. How is your content organized? Most users will expect these common elements, so make sure you include them in your layout:

  • A header with a navigation bar.
  • Your logo or business name.
  • Contact information that is easily accessible.
  • Footer navigation.
  • Social media links.

Many websites now have a one-page, scrolling design, where the tabbed pages in your navigation bar transition from one to the next simply by scrolling. This layout is popular due to the increased prevalence of mobile internet traffic, where scrolling rather than clicking is the preferred method of consuming content. Choose the design that’s best for your small business website and your customer experience.

Step Four: Choose Your Pages and Create Content

With a design and layout in mind, it’s time to create your pages and fill them with content. Depending on the kind of small business you’re operating, you will want to emphasize different pages further up in your hierarchy. Restaurants will want their menu page front and center, while companies that provide services will need to list and describe those services first. Your pages will vary, but make sure you at very least include the following:

  • About Page
  • Services Page or Pages
  • Contact Page
  • Privacy Policy Page (A Legal Requirement)
  • Terms and Conditions Page (Also Required)

Next, you’ll need to fill your pages with content. Make sure to have enough information on each page, but not too much to prevent visual clutter. Present information in an easy-to-read format, such as lists or bullet points, with clearly defined headers so visitors can find what they’re looking for more easily. Most web users skim read to find what they want to know, so utilizing headers is a great way to make sure your important content isn’t lost in excess fluff.

Step Five: Optimize for SEO

Once you create your content and organize your site layout, you will need to optimize your small business website for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Ensure that your small business website follows SEO best practices, including organic use of keywords, appropriate alt text for images, and updating meta descriptions within your search engine optimization tools. These SEO strategies will ensure your site ranks positively within search engines, increasing the chances of your target audience finding your website. You can check out this guide for some SEO best practices you can use to increase your small business website’s search engine rank.

Step Six: Optimize for Mobile Devices

To build off of the last point, SEO and mobile optimization go hand in hand, as Google has recently switched to mobile-first indexing. Users also respond more positively to sites that are optimized for mobile. So, making sure your website is fully optimized for all devices is key to gaining and retaining lead conversions.

Approximately 55% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, and 93% of users surveyed report that they would leave a website if it wasn’t optimized for their device. Utilize the responsive design settings in your CMS to design for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, so your small business website works smoothly and looks sleek across all devices. Images and text elements should be resized to fit the screen, and navigation menus should be compressed into a hamburger menu, so the navigation is mobile-friendly.

Get a Killer Small Business Web Design from Killerspots

Are you not sure where to start designing your small business website? Killerspots’ web design team creates beautiful, responsive websites for our clients, no matter what industry they’re in. Learn more about our web design services and get in touch with us to get started today.

What Is a Brand Voice? How to Define Your Unique Brand

what is a brand voice

Sometimes the word “brand” brings to mind one of those catchy radio commercial jingles you hear over and over. The hard truth is, that a brand’s voice is a cornerstone for any company.

Statistics show that if you implement your brand voice consistently, throughout your company, you’ll see your revenues increase.  This increase can be as high as 20 percent. Building your brand is the key to your company’s future success.

Learn more here on what is a brand voice all about and how to build one that establishes your company’s identity. When you develop this identity now, you’ll guarantee faster growth in your company’s future.

Why Is Branding So Important?

The most familiar brands in the market today have the power to cement a lasting impression on their target customers’ psyche. Buyers will often recognize these products and company names and connect with them on emotional levels.

Building a brand will attract a loyal following. These believers will know what they can expect from your product and will learn how to trust you.

Building a brand can also help you attract your future workers to come work for you. You’ll see that potential employees want to work for your enterprise and become a part of its familiar name.

Potential business associates might want to collaborate because they know about your positive reputation. Investors will start knocking on your door because they want to collaborate with a recognized name in your specific industry.

The History of Branding

Early branding history standouts in this country included brand names such as Tide and Lipton. These companies designed what’s known today as brand management science.

These companies knew how to speak to customers and learn what their values were and what was most important to them. Once they found out what emotional value a customer had for their product, they would create a tone that promoted that product based on this value.

These companies identified their customer’s values before their competitors did. They also learned that they could charge a higher price for their products if a customer believed that they offered the best value as compared to their competitors.

What Is a Brand Voice?

A company’s brand voice means how they talk to its customers. A brand voice directed to a target audience should have its own style and come across as true to the company’s persona and values.   

Think of a brand voice as the tone in which you communicate with your friends, family, work colleagues, or spouse. Just like there is a specific way you communicate with these people, there’s also a way to communicate with your customers.

Buyers will buy more from those brands that create emotional connections, rather than with brands that deliver uninspired messaging. Think of your brand tone as to how your company says something, less than what they say.

Types of Brand Voice

Brand voice can range anywhere from intellectual to playful. Some of the most common brand voice examples you’ll see in the market today include:

  • Aggressive and strong
  • Sweet and elegant
  • Weird or out-of-the-ordinary
  • Inspiring and positive
  • Funny
  • Aggressive and strong
  • Simple or considerate
  • Highly emotional.

How to Find Your Brand Voice

The first step to building your brand voice is to identify the core elements of your company’s products and name. These elements should tell the world who you are and what customers can expect when they do business with your company. These core elements include the following:

Identify Your Company Values

Create a brand voice that mirrors what you believe is important so that you can align it with your company’s top priorities. One simple way to do this is to have your company’s on-hold messaging recording outline your company’s products and values.

You should also link your brand to your company’s mission. When you do, you’ll show your target audience why you are their best choice to meet their specific needs.

Know Your Customer

Understand your customer’s values and desires. When you do, then you’ll be able to create a compelling tone that keeps their loyalty and persuades them to visit your business over and over again.

What do your customers need right now? Are those needs going to shift in the future? When you know how to appeal to your buyers, you can shift your strategy and market to them in the future as well.

Know What the Competition Is Doing

Lipton and Tide knew this point all too well. They learned early that if they took the time to find out what the competition could (or couldn’t) do, their products could outpace what these other products could do.

Make a note of what didn’t work for your competitors. Then you can avoid making the mistakes they made.

Test, Review, and Adapt Your Voice

Review and experiment with your brand tone on your printed and electronic platforms. Write some sample blog posts for your website, using your new brand voice. Ask for feedback from your colleagues.

Review how your tone interacts with other components of your brand.  Is your voice consistent with your website, letterhead, or business cards?

Does your logo send off a different impression? Does your tone conflict with the logos or colors you’ve chosen to represent your business? Check to be sure that these other branding vehicles don’t conflict but work consistently together to avoid confusing messages.

Schedule Time to Review and Adjust Your Brand Voice

It’s easy to forget about developing your brand voice throughout your hectic work schedule. With all of the other day-to-day obligations fighting for your attention, it might be tempting to think that a brand voice can develop itself.

Just remember that building your brand tone is an investment in your company’s future. Make time to look at your messaging to make sure you aren’t sending conflicting signals.

What Are Your Next Steps?

It’s a time-consuming exercise to build your brand voice. Make it a habit to set aside time to observe what the competition is doing. Make strategic adjustments in response to a customer’s online feedback.

Don’t forget to check our website for more helpful information on what is a brand voice all about. Let us help take your enterprise to its next best level by contacting us today. 

What Is a Sound Logo? How Sonic Branding Can Help Your Business + 5 Top Examples

Sound Logo Netflix

If you own a small business, you already know branding is incredibly important. Branding is the process of creating a perception of a product, service, or company. More importantly, branding is what makes your business distinct in the minds of your consumers. A total brand image should tell your customers what your company does, what your values are, and how they should think about your company.

Branding is accomplished primarily through visual means. Logos, website design, and even the style of writing used in all written and web communications are what most people think of when they consider branding. However, branding can also be accomplished via audio. Most audio branding is accomplished by jingles or radio advertising. But there is another aspect of audio branding that many companies miss:

The sound logo or audio logo.

What is a Sound Logo?

Sound logos are part of an overall marketing strategy called sonic branding. Sonic branding uses sound instead of or combined with visuals to evoke a particular message for a brand. A sound logo is a short sound clip, no more than a few seconds long, that can accompany a visual cue or stand in the place of a visual logo. This strengthens the recognition between the visual and the product/company because the human brain is especially in tune with audio cues. In fact, the brain has a faster reaction time to auditory stimuli than it does to visual stimuli. So, a sound logo is a powerful tool companies can use to cement their brand image into their customers’ minds.

Audio logos are also especially powerful because humans are hard-wired to have emotional responses to sound. Music or other audio cues are processed in the emotional center of the brain. This emotional hub also is responsible for memory recall. For example, a listener can hear a piece of music that makes them feel happy or sad, and they immediately recall memories associated with those emotions.

The right sound logo can evoke powerful emotions in customers that a company can use to its advantage. An expert sound designer can craft an audio logo that triggers the right emotions so that your product or service is viewed favorably by your audience.

But how is this done? Well, consider the following five examples of audio logos. These top companies use these sound logos as part of their overall sonic branding strategy, to great success.

Top 5 Famous Examples

1. Netflix

The Netflix sound logo is one of the most recognizable sound logos of the streaming age. It’s also one of the shortest. At just two notes, the “ta-dum” sound that plays when the app loads on your device is a great example of the emotional power of sound. What do you feel when you load up Netflix and this sound plays? Are you excited about binge-watching? I know I am.

2. Intel

The Intel audio logo is one of the most well-known technology audio logos in history. And on its surface, it may sound simple. A five-note mnemonic, the logo lasts about three seconds. But it’s actually a multi-layered sound comprised of many instruments playing the catchy sequence of notes. You can probably hum it without playing the video above, it’s that pervasive.

3. THX

THX is focused on high-quality sound, so what better way to set audience expectations than with an exciting, engaging, and loud sound logo? A full orchestral suite glissando, the logo starts soft and transitions to a mind-bogglingly loud climax. The THX logo was a staple of many cinematic experiences of the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. When you hear this logo, you know exciting things are going to happen.

4. T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s melody is instantly recognizable and iconic. The bright and catchy 5-note trill is an earworm that most people can hum by heart even if they aren’t a T-Mobile customer. Combined with the bright pink T-Mobile logo, the mood and brand image they convey are clear and target modern audiences.

5. Apple

Sound logos aren’t just used in advertising. Audio cues of all kinds are pervasive across Apple’s product lineup. The most recognizable are the Mac startup noises as outlined in the video above. Apple does sound design very well, bringing forth a nostalgic and trustworthy image as a power player of a tech company. You can even hear examples of their expert sound design in the actions you take every day on your iPhone. From the swoosh when you send an email, to the ding-ding of a text message. These sounds are unique to Apple and instantly bring forth their brand image when heard.

How Can My Business Use an Audio Logo?

Now that you’ve listened to these examples and you know the value of an audio logo, you may be wondering how you can create one. If you aren’t an experienced sound designer or if you don’t have a strong brand image in mind, it can be difficult to know where to start.

Killerspots’ sound design and graphic design team can work together hand in hand to help you create a sound logo that will plant your business on the map. First, we can sit down with you and go over your existing visual logo to talk about its message. What colors are you using for your business? What message and mood are you trying to convey? Is your brand punchy or is it warmer and welcoming? How do you want your customers to feel when they see your visual logo and hear your audio cue?

The answers to these questions will guide our branding experts through the design and development process of your audio logo. Once we have a clear idea of your message, then the magic can happen.

And it really is magic. Check out our audio logo and one we made for master entrepreneur and CEO, Storm Bennett:

We Can Hear Your Sound Logo Now

Combined with an overall brand strategy, utilizing an audio logo for your business can set you apart from your competitors. Partner it with a killer jingle or radio campaign, and you have the perfect recipe for a brand that sticks and eventually, a loyal customer base. Get in touch with Killerspots today to find out how we can create an audio logo for your brand that will become synonymous with your business image.

Brand Marketing : 6 Benefits of Investing in Custom On-Hold Messages

Brand Marketing

The scenario’s not new: you call up a company to make a payment and are met with an annoying, robotic voice placing you on hold. Next, the repetitive elevator music comes, and you’re in for a long hour waiting on the phone. 

The problem is that roughly 60% of customers in this situation will hang up. That fact still holds true today. That’s why it’s so important to have custom on-hold messaging that speaks to your brand marketing efforts and keeps clients engaged. 

So, are you ready to learn all about the benefits of implementing a custom on-hold for business calls? Check it out in this guide to customized on-hold recordings!

1. Improve Brand Recognition

When clients call your business, they’re looking for individualized support. And when you have a standardized run-of-the-mill recording, there’s no way to create that personal connection with your callers. 

Instead, your business blends into the countless others that use the same on-hold greeting or music. What could have been the chance to connect with clients becomes a lost opportunity. 

When you add on-hold recordings, however, you give yourself the chance to make your brand voice heard and to reinforce your messaging. You can promote what your company is about, strengthening your brand. 

Remember, every interaction you have with a customer is a valuable business opportunity. It’s important to make use of those interactions and maximize them.

2. Create a Professional Image 

Let’s play out a scenario here. Say you’re on the phone with two different companies. Both of them place you on hold.

One business gives you an engaging message in a professional tone, describing their new product line. The other throws you into a dark void of silence, forcing you to wait in boredom for a representative to get back to you. 

Using a custom on-hold message helps diminish some of the boredom associated with waiting on the line. And it gives you a chance to show off your business’s professionalism. 

The reason why this is the case is that customers’ first impressions, which are sometimes your on-hold messages, make a huge difference as to how they perceive your business. The better your hold messaging is, the more professional your business seems.

3. Boost Your Revenue

This might seem strange, but hear us out on this one. When customers hang up the phone, you lose potential business. And when you lose business, you lose business revenue. 

Companies might think that investing in custom on-hold messages is a wasted expense. However, if you consider the fact that the majority of clients will hang up the phone due to poor on-hold messaging, it’s actually a good investment.

By investing in custom on-hold messages, you can make the wait-time seem shorter, too. This keeps customers on the line because they don’t realize how much time they’re on the line. That connects you to them and enables you to pitch a sale much faster. 

Finally, you can actually include information about new products in your on-hold messages. This could entice customers to make additional purchases that they hadn’t originally planned on.

4. Keep Callers on the Line

A major part of keeping customers on the line is having strong on-hold messaging. That’s because many customers who are left to wait in silence end up hanging up the phone!

Keeping callers on the line is important. Even though sometimes it’s unavoidable to put clients on hold, it’s still important to make sure that you do everything you can to make the experience a positive one. 

When you use custom on-hold messages, you can make the experience more positive. Plus, you can actually make it more productive by offering information or product recommendations as part of your recording. 

Using your on-hold message as a place to offer client education reduces the likelihood that your clients will hang up because you make it a more pleasant and useful experience overall. 

5. Create a Better Customer Experience

What’s surprising to many businesses is that custom on-hold messaging actually keeps customers less stressed than using silence or simple music.

Reducing stress and frustration during the on-hold experience is critical because it ensures that your customers are in a positive frame of mind once they finally get through to you. Then, they’ll be more likely to buy.

In addition, providing a positive customer experience can lead to more loyalty. When individuals know that the on-hold experience with your team is pleasant, they’re more likely to call you in the future if the need arises. 

Lastly, when you provide customers with a positive experience, they’re more likely to recommend your business to others. That can lead to boosted sales and customer bases. 

6. Control Your Content

If your current on-hold sound is silence, you don’t have this issue. However, if you use music in your on-hold service, you need to be aware of licensing regulations. 

Businesses that don’t comply with licensing laws can actually wind up in big trouble for using copyrighted content on their on-hold calls!

By creating custom on-hold content, however, you’re in control of what gets played back to customers. You don’t have to worry about licensing issues or about run-ins with the laws since it’s your original work. 

Build Your Brand Marketing With Custom On-Hold Messages

Having custom on-hold messages is a fantastic way to improve your brand marketing strategy. It’s a better way to connect with clients and keep them engaged with your business. 

If you’re ready to get started improving your brand, give us a call. Together, we’ll position your business for success and increase customer engagement through expert marketing strategies. 

Radio Ad Production: Brand Voice Vs Tone

Radio Ad Production

The radio advertising industry expects a $19.58 billion global market size in 2022. This value grew from about $18.34 billion in the previous year. With this is the projection of the industry’s recovery from the impact of Covid-19.

Covid-19 caused a massive loss in every industry there is. With more businesses trying to recuperate, the demand for advertising services is increasing.

The radio ad is one way to introduce and create retention for your brand. Radio is perfect for promoting strategic advertising messages at a moment’s notice. And it comes with cost-effectiveness as a bonus!

There are things to do before working with a radio station for your advertisement. Before anything else, you should introduce who you are as a brand. Be clear in identifying your brand voice and your brand tone.

Do you want to know more about brand voice vs tone?This article will help you differentiate the two and lead you on how to use both in crafting your content.

What Is Brand Voice?

The brand voice always reflects the personality of your brand. It means that your brand voice reflects your principles and goals as a company. Because of this, it should remain the same over time unless you opt for rebranding.

Brand voice is how you communicate your distinct perspective to your target market. It incorporates all your communication techniques, including your spoken and written language. It also reflects your brand image, including trademarks, banners, and marketing strategies.

What Is Brand Tone?

The brand tone is how you use your brand voice to reflect your brand personality. It makes use of your brand voice to create a strong connection with your market. Your brand voice remains consistent throughout all your communications, while brand tone changes.

The brand tone you choose depends on circumstances and the potential audience. It reflects the ad context’s uniqueness while being consistent with the brand.

Brand Voice Combined With Brand Tone

Always consider your brand’s voice when drafting content for your company’s advertisement. The range of communications you develop for your company must represent this voice.

The voice could be serious or humorous, or classy. The sky is the limit, but it should still represent the brand.

With this in mind, your brand tone must be consistent with the type of communication you wish to create. The circumstances will define whether the brand tone will be light or otherwise.

Brand voice vs tone shouldn’t be your focus. Instead, incorporate the two together to make your marketing strategy more effective.

Know the distinctions and focus on establishing your company’s voice. Until then, come up with various tones that you may use in different scenarios.

How to Find Your Brand Voice

Establishing your brand voice is the foundation of all your communications. Your brand tones will also rely on this. Thus, your campaign materials, video, and audio advertisements must adhere to your voice.

To find your brand voice, here are tips you should consider:

Analyze Your Mission and Vision Statements

Again, brand personality should reflect your values. And where can you find your company’s core values? You can find them within your mission and vision statement.

It will help determine how your marketing efforts relate your values to your brand.

Assess Available Content and Messaging

It’s time to undertake a quick assessment if you already have material or copy that you’ve created. Take a look at your advertising strategies.

Then, take notice of any messaging or tone patterns that are consistent. Check to see if your present tone of voice reflects your brand’s beliefs and mission.

Pay great attention to the elements that have the most satisfactory results. These could tell you the most about your target audience’s preferences.

Audience Feedback

Create a simple survey to see how your audience perceives your brand if you already have an audience. It will help you gather more ideas to establish your brand voice faster.

Consistency Is Key

Establish clear guidelines for your employees to refer to while creating content. It maintains your company’s brand standard. It also ensures that every asset you develop is consistent with the brand.

Achieve consistency even if several different people are creating content for your brand.

How to Find Brand Tone

Once you have established your brand voice, it will be easier to identify your brand tone. Consider the following tips when crafting your content:

Know Your Audience

It all depends on who you’re trying to reach. You can then create a voice tone that’s appropriate and well-received by the target audience.

For example, you wouldn’t associate a humorous tone with a business-oriented company. Likewise, you wouldn’t make serious content for companies with children as its market.

Message Channel

The adoption of particular speech tones varies depending on the communication channel. Lighter and friendlier tones are more popular on social media platforms. You can apply these tones in venues such as Instagram and Twitter.

Email, phone, and online conversations, for example, need serious and heavyweight engagement. For reliable and engaging content, it’s critical to know how to use the proper tone in each medium.

Know Your Material

It covers what kind of material will communicate your tone and message. Types of communication materials include advertisement posters, TV ads, and radio ads, among others.

For instance, a radio Christmas jingle works well at grocery stores. However, it’s inappropriate for some establishments where you can only pin poster ads.

Produce the Best Radio Ad Your Brand Has Ever Had

Knowing the difference between your brand voice and brand tone is essential. But knowing how to incorporate these will produce your perfect radio advertisement!

Brand tone and voice are different, but you need both to communicate your brand’s message.

Above are the things you should note when considering radio ads as a marketing strategy. We hope this article helped you differentiate a brand voice from a brand tone.

Radio ad production may seem a little burdensome but not as hard with our guidance. Work with us! We do radio ad production, jingles for business, studio rental, graphic design, and more!

Maintaining Brand Voice In Radio Ads: Key Tips & Tricks

Maintaining Brand Voice in Radio Ads

Since the 1890s inventors and creators alike have been experimenting with the radio and how to get the best performance out of this piece of technology. In recent times, radio is used to promote advertisements.

But, building a brand voice on this medium can be tricky. For example, how can you create a script that highlights all the positives of your business and also convey empathy, connection, and understanding to your target audience? 

Well, thankfully, this article will give you everything you need to write a radio Ad that makes your brand voice shine! 

Grab a cup of coffee and let’s begin…

Tips for Nailing Your Brand Voice in Radio Ads

Before you spend hours Googling good ad examples, you should know the benefits that business radio ads can bring to your company. From raising awareness of your brand to boosting traffic to your website. 

Think of radio as your secret weapon in the modern marketing world. If done correctly, you could start seeing incredible results in no time! 

So, how do you make radio ads that fit your brand voice?

1. Write for Your Audience

Everyone knows that having a strong brand voice is one of the most important parts of any business. It can help you reach more people and build a better company reputation, especially if you are just starting out. 

So, when you’re brainstorming ideas for radio ads examples, make sure you take into consideration your target audience. You’ll have to think about all the details including language, tone, and personality. 

2. Make It Imaginative

Even though radio is about listening, that doesn’t mean that you can conjure up some imaginative visuals in your audience’s mind. Stories have the power to persuade, entice, and take someone on a journey. 

If you craft a compelling script, it can be just as convincing as watching an Oscar-nominated film. Plus, stories give you the perfect opportunity to highlight your brand voice!

3. Sympathize and Connect

Some of the most successful custom radio ads for businesses aim to sympathize with the target audience. If you show an understanding of the struggles and pain of your consumers, they will want to listen. 

Half the battle of creating the best radio ads is making the listener feel understood. Once you’ve managed to offer a solution to their problems, there is a higher chance that people will want to reach out for your services. 

Therefore, sympathizing and connecting with your audience is essential when writing the script. 

4. End With a Call-to-Action

The best content ends with a call-to-action that will direct people towards your business. In radio, it’s no different. You want to end the script with a memorable call-to-action that will drive traffic to your website. 

As the listeners will be driving you should make this part short and snappy. The more concise and clear, the better! 

5. Provide Rewards

Who doesn’t love a reward, right? Offering a free trial, a discount, or another special offer could seal the deal with your audience and motivate them to use your business. 

If you make the reward time-limited, this could encourage people to act fast and reach out quickly. A little incentive could be the finishing piece to a great radio script. 

6. Less Is More

When it comes to time, a radio ad is one of the shortest timeframes available for advertising. You only have around 30 seconds to relay information and grab the attention of your audience. 

Try not to overcomplicate your message and make it as simple as possible without losing any important meaning or information. Determine your goal and write every word towards it.

If you start feeling frustrated, just bear in mind that the ROI on radio advertising is huge, so it’s worth every minute! 

How to Keep Your Brand Voice Consistent 

Once you’ve created your brand, the next part is about keeping your message consistent. If your consumers buy into a brand, they expect it to stay the same.

The first way to keep consistency is to be clear on your mission, values, and goals. Transparency goes a long way when building a brand, so make sure your audience knows exactly who you are and what you want to achieve.

Decide What You’re Not

As well as being transparent, it’s important to determine what you don’t want to be. You can even contrast your brand against others that you want to avoid to make your message clearer. 

For example, if you’re an SEO agency, you want to provide clients with in-depth research and not fluff. So, you could write something like, “Unlike other SEO agencies, we focus on research, not fluff…” Get the picture?

Make a Brand Style Guide 

During the creation process, you should take notes of the different aspects of your brand. It’s a good idea to create a guide for copywriting, graphics, fonts, images, colors, and other branding material. 

If you have all this information in one place, it will be easy to brief your team or introduce a new client to your brand. Plus, it helps keep everything consistent. 

When you work with an agency, a style guide will be a lifesaver when you need to explain your business. If you work with Killerspots for your radio ads you will save lots of time discussing your brand voice if it’s all on paper. 

Killerspots have been creating radio ads since 1999 so they know what they’re talking about. 

Make Your Brand Voice Shine With Radio Ads

Listening to the radio when you’re driving down a long road surrounded by nature is one of the few times in life that you can relax. The last thing you want during those moments is a loud, forceful radio Ad to ruin it. 

That’s why spending time getting your brand voice the best it can be and creating a pleasant-sounding radio Ad is crucial. It could make or break the future of your business. 

Therefore, Killerspots is the only place to go for high-quality content creation that will give your listeners something wonderful to listen to. 

Ready to find out more? Get in touch today!

Sonic Branding: How Can Creating an Ad Jingle Help Your Company?

ad jingle

There are as many ways to advertise a business as there are products to sell. In today’s marketplace, many businesses focus on web advertising, boosting their presence on social media or popular websites.

As a result, modern companies may be missing out on a tried and true method of advertising: the ad jingle.

Though the idea of an ad jingle might seem quaint today—a relic of the days of radio—the reality is that businesses can reap substantial rewards when they create a jingle.

Jingles are part of a marketing strategy called sonic branding. Sonic branding is all about getting a business’s message into a person’s head through audio advertising.

Several of the biggest brands in America have already discovered the benefits of sonic branding. This article will explain how every business can benefit from a well-crafted jingle.

Jingles Work Across Media

One of the biggest advantages of using an ad jingle is that companies can slot them into any advertising that uses audio. Commercials, online videos, radio ads—all of these can be enhanced with the addition of a snappy jingle.

When a company uses a jingle, they become omnipresent. There are very few places a jingle can’t reach.

If a customer is in a car, they might hear the jingle on the radio, or on a music streaming service like Pandora. At home, they may hear the jingle while watching television or checking out YouTube videos.

A jingle may even reach customers who are on the phone. On-hold messaging is an important feature of many call centers; a company can insert their jingle into their messaging to reinforce it to their customers.

As technology advances and platforms change, new ways to use jingles emerge. For example, podcasts are a growing market for advertising and a natural fit for jingles.

As an entirely auditory medium, podcasts are often considered the modern-day equivalent of radio shows. Radio has always been a good medium for jingles, and podcasts are, too.

A quick jingle at the beginning or middle of a podcast can be a huge boon, especially if the podcast has a wide audience or an obvious tie to the product.

Jingles Establish a Brand

A jingle is a concise, memorable way for a company to establish a brand identity. Both lyrics and melody can influence how customers view a company based on their jingle.

If a company is looking to establish a specific tone, music is a great way to do so. More importantly, the words can paint an idealized picture of the company.

If a jingle makes a company sound fun and exciting, then suddenly “fun and exciting” are phrases that people associate with that company. The idea that the brand is fun and exciting is reinforced every time people hear the jingle.

Great jingles are fun and catchy, giving customers positive brand associations.

There’s a danger here, too. Like a sitcom character with an annoying catchphrase, a bad jingle can become frustrating to customers.

Much like a logo, a jingle is one of the first things people will associate with a business. The last thing a brand wants is for a customer to roll their eyes every time their jingle comes on!

Jingles have the power to make or break a company’s public image, so it’s crucial to get them right. There are several tricks to maximize a jingle’s potential, as well as some pitfalls to avoid.

An Ad Jingle Offers Flexibility

One of the hallmarks of a great jingle is that it is extremely flexible. This isn’t referring to its ability to be deployed in many mediums—even a bad jingle offers that kind of flexibility.

Jingle flexibility instead refers to the capacity for the jingle to be remixed and reused.

Times change. Companies change. What works today may not work—or may not make sense—tomorrow. A jingle should be able to keep up.

The most obvious example of this is changing the music slightly. A company might alter the key of the jingle, or even transplant it into a different genre to change up the sound.

This can help bring advertising in line with a new direction the business is taking, or to adjust to a more popular style of music as cultural tastes shift.

On the other hand, it might just be a simple way to freshen up a long-running ad jingle. An occasional refresh grabs people’s attention, drawing focus onto the new sound (and the advertisement behind it).

The best jingle can also get a lyrical tweak from time to time. If a company is running a special promotion, for instance, they may wish to change a line in their jingle to reference the current deal.

Even a small change from the norm can grab a customer’s attention and help the ad stand out—as long as the original jingle is firmly established.

Cost-Effective Marketing

In terms of efficient ways to advertise, it’s hard to beat ad jingles. This is largely because they are so versatile, with one jingle featuring across countless other forms of advertising.

Every company wants to save money, and some may hesitate at the idea of hiring a jingle service. The thing is, the up-front cost is minimal when considered against the utility of the jingle itself.

Hiring a jingle company should be thought of as an investment, not an expense. By paying the price for a single jingle, a business gains an asset that can be used in virtually any kind of marketing campaign.

Yes, that includes print campaigns—once a customer hears a jingle enough times, even reading the words will put the jingle in their heads. They won’t need the music; they’ll supply it themselves.

Of course, some companies may be tempted to forego the cost of hiring a jingle company and simply work out a jingle themselves.

This is not an advisable move.

As pointed out earlier, a bad jingle does more harm than good. If a company doesn’t know what they’re doing and puts out a jingle that people find annoying, they’re only going to drive customers away.

People Will Remember a Jingle

One of the biggest benefits of a jingle is that it sticks around in people’s heads. Particularly catchy jingles are called ‘earworms’—tracks that burrow into a listener’s brain and refuse to leave.

Research has shown that music has strong ties to memory. The human brain likes to sort information into chunks of data, and songs (a combination of lyric and melody) are like pre-built chunks for brains to store.

As a result, a listener is much more likely to remember a musical jingle than a more straightforward description of a business.

It’s the same concept as a college student using a mnemonic device to study for a big test. Adding a tune or a rhyme to information helps lock it into one’s mind more securely.

This is even more advantageous for long-running jingles. If a company uses the same jingle for decades, then it can become nostalgic—and nostalgia is a powerful force in marketing.

Perhaps the best example of this is McDonald’s classic “I’m lovin’ it” jingle, which many adults have been hearing since their childhoods.

It’s no coincidence that such a massive and successful brand also has one of the most recognizable jingles in the world!

Music Connects to Mood

Memory is not the only part of the human experience that music links to. A person’s mood can also be affected by music—and that means that a jingle can influence mood, too.

Music is one of the most powerful mood enhancers in the world. There’s a reason action films have bombastic soundtracks while dramas often stick to quiet, classical music; the sound sets the tone for what’s happening.

The music of a jingle can summon emotions (positive and negative) in a listener, and it’s important for a product to provoke the right emotional response.

In much the same way that a jingle builds a brand’s identity, it should also direct a user’s feelings about a product.

For example, a high-energy techno sound might be catchy and memorable, but it’s the wrong choice for a jingle about a new medication. The music tells the customer to get excited, but the product is much more serious.

That dissonance will confuse and upset people.

The reverse is also true: a theme park jingle shouldn’t have a subdued and somber jingle. That will make listeners associate the park with sadness.

Ideally, a business should aim for music that promotes positive emotions. That way, the company’s ads will put a smile on the listener’s face–and the listener will ascribe that smile to the business.

Ad Jingles Boost Business

Using an ad jingle is a great way for any business to advertise. A jingle can reach thousands of people across many types of media, and a great jingle will stick in people’s heads. Hiring a jingle company is a smart investment!

Ad jingles are just one example of the powerful marketing tools available to businesses today. To take full advantage of the best marketing strategies, get a quote from the Killer Spots Agency.

7 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Design Service

web design service

It is no secret that owning a website offers rewards. It can increase sales, leads, and brand awareness exponentially. But there is one catch- your website design will make or break it.

According to Standford’s credibility research, web design determines 75% of company credibility judgment. Will your website make the cut?

As there is so much riding on your business website design, do not cut corners. Hire a web design service. There are so many benefits to doing this but do not just pick the first company you come across. 

You need to find the right company to envision the web design experience you want visitors to have. And there are several factors you can consider to help. Trust us— there are over 83,150 web design businesses in the US and plenty more freelancers.

Keep reading to pick the right web design service for you. And so you can save your time for other important matters, such as growing your business!

1. The Service You Need

There is a difference between web developers and web designers. Designers focus on designing business websites, whereas developers build them. Some companies offer both services, but it is an important place to start.

Many companies offer more than a web design service. They will provide packages with, too, such as to optimize site speed. Remember, you can use a service even if you already have a website to improve your current design. 

2. Time and Cost

What is your budget? There is no use blowing all your money on a popular option out of your price range. You might need to save some budget for other areas, such as social media advertising

There will be a web design service that is affordable for you. If you are not sure what is an acceptable rate, start by comparing designer fees. 

Also, how much time do you have? And how long will it take the company to create your business website design?

Small companies may have lots of clients when you need your site, so always check how long it will take them. And if the quoted price includes all fees! For example, do they offer ongoing customer service if you run into a problem?

3. Online Customer Reviews

A company can make big promises and look great on paper, but how do you know they will deliver? Online customer reviews. 

Online customer reviews will tell you a lot about the company’s reputation. Do not just look on their site. Be sure to check out independent review platforms and customer testimonials. If there is not much information out there, reach out to one of their clients. 

You can also ask about their office space. There are plenty of competent freelancers out there, but a company usually has a location too. Be wary of scams if there’s no reviews or location listed. 

4. Mobile-Friendly Business Website Design

Around 50% of all web traffic is from mobile users. And with the human attention span now under ten seconds, you need to engage visitors quickly. Otherwise, watch your bounce rate soar.

If the service does not offer mobile-friendly options or experience, look elsewhere.

Often you will see a mobile-first web design experience. This is when the company focuses on a mobile design first. It is not a required web design skill but a good indicator of their web design experience. 

5.  Their Style

What type of business web design do you want? Your style can make or break user engagement. Your website can be a fantastic way to build brand awareness or drown in the Google ocean of competitors. 

Pick a company that can match the design you want as much as possible. If you are not sure what you want, ask them for ideas. They should be able to offer ideas and draw-ups.

After all, according to Adobe, 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if it is unattractive. So you need a web design service that can get it right!

It is no good going with a site designing business websites in a minimalist way when you want the opposite look.

Consider if you have any specific requirements. For example, do you want video content, lead generation features, or animations? With so many web design companies out there, you do not have to settle for a ‘no.’ 

Always be upfront, and keep searching if it does not feel right. There is a company with the expertise out there to fulfill your vision (as far as web design can go, at least!)

6. Similar Web Design Experience

So, you have a company in mind that has the skills and web design experience. But do they have similar clients to you?

Checking out the company’s clients will give you an idea if they can fulfill the promises they are making. If they do not have similar clients to you, it does not mean you should not use them. But it certainly helps confirm whether your business website design can be done. 

Do not be afraid to ask for a portfolio. Usually, web design experience is on the web design service website. 

7. Rapport  

You want to feel comfortable with whoever is creating your business website design. What happens if you are not happy with something, but you are too afraid to tell them?

As they say, the customer is always right. The web design service should make you feel comfortable sharing your goals. 

If you ‘click’ with the web design service, they are more likely to understand what your wants and needs are. And make them happen! You might have to work with the company long-term, so if it does not feel right, it is best to move on now. 

The Best Web Design Service for You

It is worth the search for a web design service. The road may feel long, but like many areas of business, you cannot cut corners if you want results.

Do not choose a cheap service with limited credentials. And do not opt for a business website design style not authentic to you. You will end up more out of pocket long-term when you realize how damaging it is to your business.

So, consider these factors for a positive web design experience!  

Killerspots agency offers award-winning web production with no commitment. Are you interested in learning more? Contact us today! 

7 Strategies to Build Brand Awareness in 2021

brand awareness

Did you know that it takes 5 to 7 impressions for a brand to be remembered and become recognizable? Building a brand is an ongoing, evolving process that requires adaptation and hard work. 

Brand awareness is a foundation to building a brand successfully, it lays the groundwork for brand recognition and brand recall. 

So how do small businesses or enterprises ensure that their strategies are promoting brand awareness into and throughout 2021? Keep reading to find out the 7 best ideas for better brand awareness. 

Brand Awareness And Conversions 

Focusing on brand awareness can bring a myriad of advantages and benefits to your brand and business. One of these advantages is the fact that by deciding to increase brand awareness, you’re likely to see an increase in conversions and sales. 

The two are strongly tied together. 

Why is that?

Having a strong brand awareness means that people will remember your brand, and will be able to recall your products and services easier. The key to brand awareness is that potential customers will begin to relate your specific product with your brand, and remember it in their time of need. 

Brand awareness creates trust with your audience, and by doing so, eventually converts them to customers. Which is how brand awareness will increase your conversions over time. 

There are three key things that brand awareness can do your business: 

  1. It can drive traffic to your website 
  2. It can increase lead generation and conversions 
  3. It can increase referrals and word-of-mouth marketing 

The one way to ensure that your brand awareness efforts are working for you is by using different strategies. 

1. Begin With a Plan 

Brand awareness should never be done on a whim with no strategic goals in place. This is why the first strategy you should have, is to have a strategy. 

Sounds a bit counterintuitive, doesn’t it? 

But marketing efforts should never be implemented without a solid plan as its foundation. This means you need to be able to measure brand awareness success. 

You need a plan for your brand awareness campaign. Ask yourself, what do you want to achieve with your marketing? What do you want to achieve with your brand awareness? 

Are you looking for more subscribers? Are you looking for more followers or a higher engagement rate? 

The absolute fundamental part to creating a successful brand awareness campaign is to know your audience. This is all forms part of the plan that you’ll create. So, start with your audience, what is their demographic? Where will you find them? Who are they? 

Once you’ve nailed that down, you’ll want to have measurable goals in place for the duration of your plan. How else are you going to know if you’re improving or if your strategies are working? 

2. Develop Your Brand Persona 

Some brands don’t see the importance of a cohesive brand persona across their platforms, and this is a mistake. 

You should develop a brand personality and voice that’s going to be the rule for how your brand is presented online, and offline. Part of this strategy is how you plan to make your brand relatable to your audience. 

If your brand evokes emotional reactions in people, it will be more memorable, and that’s how brand awareness and brand recall work. Work on your brand’s personality. 

How are you going to get people to relate to it on an emotional level? 

3. Content Is Key 

One strategy you should focus on is your content marketing. Through content, you can achieve many things. 

Focusing on your content marketing means that you need to have an understanding of the type of content you’ll be creating and publishing, and how this content is relevant and relatable to your audience. Content marketing is usually the heart of your brand’s digital marketing tactics. 

There’s no point in creating a brand awareness campaign if there isn’t relevant content to interest your audience. Having content that solves a problem or issue for your audience or your customers, is ultimately what will drive conversions. 

In-depth information within your content will be valuable to the performance of your brand awareness efforts. 

4. Consider Influencer Marketing 

Influencer marketing has grown exponentially over the past few years, and there’s good reasons why. 

Your strategy for influencer marketing is once again built upon the foundation of knowing your audience and knowing them well. Partnering with an influencer who is talking to your ideal target audience is how the system works. 

There are two things to consider though:

  1. If you’re looking simply for increased brand awareness, then you’ll want to search for influencers who have a large following and that’s all 
  2. If you’re looking to increase sales, then you’ll be looking for an influencer who is niched in your industry and can help convince their following to buy your product or service 

Did you know that 89% of marketers say that their ROI (Return on investment) is higher with influencer marketing than with other channels? 

5. Mobile Optimization 

You may read ‘Mobile Optimization’ and think wait, that’s just a tactic for digital marketing, how will it help with brand awareness?

Well, did you know that there are 3.5 billion mobile users globally? And these users spend about 2 hours per day on their mobile. 

This means one thing, if your online brand awareness is not optimized for mobile viewing, then you’ll be losing out on a large potential audience. You need to make sure that your website and all your content is suitable for viewing on any device. If your content is mobile-friendly, it makes for content consumption easily. And thus, puts your brand in front of more eyes, and increases your brand awareness. 

6. Promote Brand Loyalty 

One strategy that you absolutely have to implement is the promotion of brand loyalty. The idea behind brand loyalty is that you should be building long-term, sustainable relationships with your audience and your customers. 

One surefire way to promote brand loyalty is by creating membership scenarios for your audience and customers. This can be achieved by using the idea of exclusivity to sell the concept to your subscribers. 

What do we mean? 

Well, imagine subscribers get a monthly coupon for a small discount on your products or services, it makes them feel in a way that they belong to an ‘exclusive’ club and gives them a sense of belonging. 

Through brand loyalty, you can build communities that interact and engage with your brand continuously online, and in turn, these brand-loyal audience members will increase your brand awareness to people in their digital environment. 

7. SEO Is Still Important 

We’re all familiar with the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and what it can do for our websites, but what can it do for our brand awareness efforts?

Through SEO we look to achieve one thing, and that is increased traffic to our website. Through many different SEO tactics, our websites and our brands land in front of many, many more eyes. 

SEO tactics such as the use of social media marketing, keyword research, and local SEO efforts will all work together to give your brand more online presence and thereby create higher brand recognition. 

By focusing on your SEO, you’ll be killing two birds with one stone, you’ll be driving traffic to your website and promoting lead generation and you’ll be increasing brand awareness. Here are some of the SEO tactics you can include in your strategy:

  • Perform an audience audit and ensure that you understand who you’re targeting and how you plan to do this 
  • Through your audience audit, you’ll discover the foundation for your keyword research and this is a fundamental part to creating a successful SEO strategy 
  • Focus on link-building, if your brand is present on other reputable websites of other well-known brands, you’ll drive both traffic and brand presence 
  • Focus on local SEO efforts and make sure that you’re front of mind when it comes to local search engine results 

Through SEO you can place your brand in many more ‘places’ online and thereby increase your brand awareness. Ensure that your SEO efforts are measurable though, as you’re going to want to be able to measure how successful your SEO has been in contributing to your overall brand awareness efforts. 

You can use Google Analytics as a way to measure this and analyze your traffic. 

The Beauty Of Brand Awareness 

The thing about building brand awareness is that nothing is going to be an overnight success. You need to be willing to put in the groundwork and build a solid foundation for each of these brand awareness strategies. 

Measure your progress and performance periodically to ensure that you’re getting the results that you want, and to decide if your strategy needs to be adapted. 

Partnering with a reputable agency on your brand efforts can be advantageous in the long run, as they come with vast experience. Contact us if you’d like to start building brand awareness right now. 

The Benefit of Strong Logo Design for Your Brand

Logo design

A killer logo is critical to the success of your brand and organization. After all, you want your brand to be clear, recognizable, and persuasive so you can attract clients and build your business. Pulling together the right design elements into a logo can elevate your brand — and your sales.

Curious to learn more? Keep reading to understand why you need to prioritize logo design when building your brand!

Strong Logo Design Makes a Strong First Impression

First impressions are everything, right? And you want to make the best one possible when you’re establishing a brand. That’s where a dynamic logo can set you apart from the crowd.

With a logo, you need a design that plays into your consumers’ expectations for your brand. Think about what kind of tone you want to communicate. What colors, shapes, and icons can come together into a fresh and appealing logo?

By having a strong logo, you’ll make the right impression on potential customers. People have busy schedules and a lot of interests competing for their attention, so you need to hook them right away. They’ll be more likely to check out what you have to offer within your brand if they are wowed from the start.

How do you make that first impression? You hire experienced designers who can listen to your expectations and craft the perfect business logo design.

Hiring the right design team is a big piece of the branding puzzle since you need designers who can capture your brand with well-chosen design elements and a little originality. Work with your graphic designer to help them understand the mission of your organization so that you can make that strong first impression.

The Right Shapes Can Work Wonders

Recent studies suggest that the shape of a logo impacts the way a customer understands an organization. What does that mean? It means that when it comes to graphic design for logos, you’ll need to choose your shapes wisely.

Think about how you want your audience to perceive your brand. Do you want them to see you as friendly and service-oriented, or efficient and commanding? Do the research to know who your target audience is, and find ways to incorporate the visual qualities best suited to that audience.

It’s also important to determine what visual qualities work best. These will depend on your goals. An experienced graphic designer can choose the right tools for the job, and then walk you through the design theory behind their choices.

When it comes to shapes, curves and rounded lines tend to create a sense of warmth and approachability. So if your brand serves people in a very direct way, curves can be a wise choice within your brand identity.

Sharper lines and edges suggest professionalism as well as brand strength. A simple, more sever design might communicate that your brand is forward-thinking and cutting edge. Keep the corners sharp and the details minimal.

If you and your designer do opt for text, talk it over with them. Make sure you’re clear on the visual difference between serif and sans-serif fonts. They project very different images, so know which one serves your brand identity better!

You’ll Communicate Your Brand Clearly

Your brand logo needs to communicate your product or service clearly. If it doesn’t, you risk losing potential customers to your competitors.

If you’re real estate agent, for instance, it makes sense that your logo would communicate a sense of orderliness and structure — or maybe even an image of a house. With logo design, the goal is for someone who hasn’t seen your mission statement or anything else to be able to have some sense of what your brand represents.

A good rule of thumb is to show your logo design to other people for feedback. These can be friends, family, coworkers, or strangers. A good designer will be open to feedback and work with you to make sure that you’re satisfied.

Logos Make You Instantly Recognizable

You want a logo that people will recognize in any context. This is a challenging goal to achieve, but it is possible through excellent design work. And excellent design work means that even a simple shape or abstraction can speak volumes about who you are and what you do.

In today’s competitive world, consumers have grown distrustful of advertising that says too much. Advertisements that make false claims or seems too good to be true actually can damage a brand. This means that heavy-handed, text-heavy logos are falling out of favor.

Clean and comfortable logos are the better way to go. Brands like Nike have stayed relevant in part because of their memorable designs. Everyone knows the Swoosh, and there’s nothing aggressive about it.

Paying for a logo design might seem like a big upfront investment, but it’s one that pays off in the long run. And don’t think you can design something on your own if you don’t have a design background. It’s better to hire the right designer so that your logo looks professional and not amateurish!

When you’re developing your brand logo design, aim to create something that people will recognize whether it’s on a poster, website, or article of clothing. Brand recognition is huge, and you don’t want your brand to get lost in the shuffle.

Logos Help With Social Media Marketing

It’s important to leverage social media to showcase your brand, too. The days of relying on print materials are gone, so upping your digital game is crucial to your brand’s success. Set up social media accounts and use your brand as your profile picture whenever possible.

So much of social media is visual, so logos offer an easy way to engage new clients. With the average person spending over 5 hours on their phones each day, people are encountering so much visual content — and at a rapid speed. Make sure that your brand logo is active on a number of social media platforms as part of your marketing strategy.

Assign your savviest employee to handle the responsibilities, and make sure to document the metrics so you can see how your audience responds to your logo. If you notice that your logo is not translating into an audience or new sales, look into making some revisions.

You’ll Build Visual Consistency

From a branding standpoint, nothing is worse than an inconsistent public image. If the text and colors on print materials differ from those on Instagram, you’ll confuse your audience. And if the text is serif in one place and sans-serif in another, you won’t be building brand consistency.

With a logo, you create a clean symbol that you can include in any branding materials, whether digital or print. Think of it as a stamp or seal. Everything else you write or design should complement and enhance your logo.

And make sure that your logo works well in black and white. While most digital platforms will allow you to use color, be prepared for other formats — like print media — where you may be limited to grayscale. Design a logo that has enough contrast and clarity to translate to black and white formats effectively.

Ultimately, consistency is the key. Since part of your goal is to draw in new customers, keeping your logo uniform and clear is an essential step to creating a strong brand. Your brand will be more memorable and easier to recognize in a crowded field of competitors.

You’ll Build Brand Loyalty

You want your customers to come back, right? If customers have a good experience with your product or service, they’re more likely to do that. That’s why you want them to make a strong visual association with your brand — and a logo can help you do that!

Aim for a design that is timeless and not gimmicky. Designs that are based on trends will feel stale quickly. Things like drop-shadows, gradients, and handwritten text might seem like fun design choices at the moment, but you might be sick of these trends a year from now.

If your design has staying power, your clients may be more interested in sticking around, too. A logo that changes frequently could suggest that your brand is unreliable.

The Bottom Line

Good logo design has the capacity to elevate your organization’s visibility and sales. With some research and collaboration, you can build a brand that people will know and want to come back to. Make sure logo design is the next thing you pursue to strengthen your brand.

When you’re ready to craft the perfect logo, contact us and we can work with you to realize your vision!

10 Ways to Measure Brand Awareness

measure brand awareness

80% of people crave good stories but wish brands were better at it. Creating a business brand is about telling your story. It’s about customers purchasing something and experiencing your story. Your brand should listen to your customers and communicate with them about their needs. This is why you need to measure brand awareness.

You need to see if you are listening to the needs of your customers. You need to figure out if your customers are feeling that your brand is about them and not you.

Here are 10 ways to measure brand awareness that can help you create or boost your brand to your customers.

1. Surveys

Surveys are an excellent way to measure your brand awareness. You are measuring how familiar people are with your business and what you do.

You are assessing how recognizable your business logos and products are with customers.

Surveys can be done by email, telephone, a website, or you can ask a customer in-person.

The goal is to see how well people recall your brand.

You can also see how videos promote your brand’s message in this blog post.

2. Check Your Website Traffic

You can use Google Search Console to check and optimize your website traffic.

Over a span of months, you can see on Google Search Console how much people are clicking or visiting your website. It gives you other data on what’s working on your website and what’s not.

Your website also gives you an indication if people are positively engaging with your business brand.

You can also check blog traffic and social shares in your website traffic to give you an idea of how people react to your brand.

3. Social Listening

Social listening is about why, where, and how people are talking about your brand.

You can see what people are saying on social media when it comes to your brand. You can also ask questions to generate responses.

Social listening means you are checking social engagement, social media traffic, and how often your leads are converting.

4. Leads

A consistent flow of leads is a good measure of how well your brand is performing.

It gives you an idea of people who are seeing your brand and recognize it. You should, however, assess how many leads are coming in on a week to week basis.

You should figure out how many leads are coming in and how many are converting.

5. Revenue

How many leads convert will reflect what your revenue is.

Seeing how your revenue fluctuates gives you an idea of how many customers you have and how well they recognize your brand.

You should specifically see if you have returning customers or life-long customers, which gives you a better idea of how many customers come back based on your brand and how they feel about it.

6. Video Metrics

If your business has a YouTube channel or has informational videos on your website, it can give you an indication of how well customers recognize your brand.

Video metrics include comments and clicks. You are checking to see if your customers respond to video.

Although video is becoming more popular, you shouldn’t use it as the only metric to evaluate how your customers feel about your brand.

7. Search Volume Data

Similar to website traffic, you can also see how people find your brand organically without paid advertisements.

You are looking at metrics that see how people found your brand based on the products they searched.

This method is also an effective way to see how your brand compares to your competitors. You are seeing if people after they find your site, are clicking and purchasing or going to competitors’ sites.

8. Earned Media

Earned media refers to all the mentions and referrals you get without paid forms.

You are seeing how many people or businesses are mentioning you without your involvement. It’s a testament to how many people recognize your brand and want to mention it to others.

There are some online tools that can measure earned media. These tools can give you an idea of the number of clicks and posts from social media sites.

9. Check Reviews

Another important metric to measure your brand awareness is to check online reviews.

You should check Yelp and Google and see what people are saying about your business. It’s a good measure of what people think of your business and what kind of review they leave.

It also gives you feedback on what you can improve in your business.

More importantly, you can see what people remember most from your business, which also gives you an idea of brand awareness.

10. Employee Brand Advocacy

Lastly, employee brand advocacy is measuring how many employees talk about your business.

An example is using actual employees in advertisments instead of paid actors. By doing this, you are showing how authentic your business is.

Employees understand everything about your business, which is why they are great advocators.

In addition, employees understand your brand, your mission statement, and the story you telling. It’s one of the most authentic ways to spread your brand.

You can measure employee brand advocacy by looking at post engagements, conversions, web traffic, and other metrics.

Overall, this list of 10 ways to measure your brand awareness can give you understanding of what your customers think of your brand. The overall goal is to achieve a postive message and these 10 ways can help you achieve that goal.

Why You Need to Measure Your Brand Awareness

The goal of why you measure brand awareness is to see how well people recall your business, your story. You want people to buy something and feel the story around something they bought.

Brand awareness is checking how people recall your business identity, your business story. You can boost your brand by when you understand how your customer perceives it, how aware of it they are.

For more information on marketing, you can contact us here.

Why Is Audio Such an Intimate and Effective Advertising Medium?

effective advertising

Effective advertising in the digital age often is a matter of tell-don’t-show, in a manner of speaking. Sure, you still have to use concrete language and tap into the target audience’s emotions. More and more, however, that can be done through the sense of hearing rather than sight or touch.

We’re talking about audio advertising and the compelling power it has to reach educated, diverse markets. In the following article, we’re going to explore the reasons audio is so intimate and effective for this market. First, however, let’s look at whether the audio hype is myth or reality. 

Is Audio Effectively Better for Advertisers? 

Anecdotally, audio seems like a viable platform for advertisers to get their messages in front of the right people. One look at the plethora of podcasts, streaming platforms, and radio listeners will tell you that. What do the numbers say, though? 

Well, 40% of surveyed consumers use voice to purchase something every month. Furthermore, over half of podcast listeners have annual household incomes of $75,000. Most listen to around seven podcasts per week as well.

We know from this data that the use of voice-related applications is on the rise from both user-activated and consumer standpoints and that the people listening are on-the-rise with more money to spend than the average person. Ever wondered why it’s that way? Here are some reasons.

1. Listener Behaviors Are Well Established

Podcast sponsorship is a pretty safe bet for getting into the audio advertising market. That’s because podcasts easily can list their subscribers. In fact, it behooves them to have that kind of transparency.

Also, given the niche focus of most podcasts, you know automatically what type of behaviors and preferences these users have established. You really don’t have to do as much legwork to figure out everything.

2. Listeners Subscribe Based on Their Trust of a Personality

Something else podcast marketing has going for it many other forms of advertising do not is a built-in endorsement. See, listeners choose a host or team to listen to because they’ve already been engaged. Engagement is built on trust.

The relationship with podcast marketing differs from even radio advertising, which wears the stigma of corporate sponsorships and one-size-fits-all. Podcasts are built around interests, and influencers in this arena understand that when they welcome an advertiser aboard, they’re indirectly adopting acceptance of the brand they’re pitching.

You, as an advertiser, benefit from the intimacy that influencer has established. That can be a win for everyone involved with the right offer.

3. They Are More Forgiving of Audio Interruptions

The standard video commercial doesn’t play to a captive audience. They get up, check the chicken in the oven, use the restroom, or catch up on chores until their program-of-choice is back.

Audio advertising usually plays to a captive audience driving to and from work or handling something work-related at their desks. They are far more forgiving of these interruptions because a) audio advertising usually is shorter (20 seconds to a minute per break), and b) it’s generally tailored to whatever piece of content they’re listening to.

In other words, they find the advertising shorter, more relevant, and easier to digest. As a result, they’re going to be willing to listen instead of redirecting their attention somewhere else. 

4. They Continue to Adopt Audio in a Variety of Forms

The captive audience thing is so important when you think about those primary ways your audience consumes audio content or audio stories. Whether it’s through podcasting, listening to a streaming service like Pandora or Amazon Music, or playing a radio app, the audience is mentally ready to engage.

5. Listeners Also Appreciate the Conservative Size of Audio Files

Data usage is a growing concern for consumers trying to control costs. Downloading audio files goes quick and smoothly over a Wi-Fi network, allowing your audience to listen whenever and wherever they choose.

Ways to Use Audio to Your Advantage

Now that you know why this form of advertising and content consumption is so intimate and effective for your target audience, you need to shift your focus to how you can use this knowledge and formatting to your advantage. Here are some quick suggestions. 

Content First

Start by being a consumer first. Listen to the programs and platforms you’d like to capitalize on. Note how long each advertising spot is, when it appears, and what type of information it covers.

From there, invest in high-quality equipment for shooting and editing. Use layers to enhance the sound quality and noise cancellation to buffer out any remaining distractions. Last but not least, test multiple ads across several programs and platforms to learn what works.

Add Color and Background

Beyond the content itself, listen deeper for maximum effect. By that, we mean to note any use of background music and sounds. Find ways you can incorporate those effects into your own advertising.

Make sure you have permission or the legal right to use whatever you choose for adding to the end-listener experience. This especially is important for longer-form advertising like audio stories (see Reid Hoffman’s Masters of Scale podcast for examples of this technique done right). Lastly, choose the right voice-over person for your ad. 

Partner with the Right Creator

Tailor an offer to the specific audience. That means partnering with a content creator in your niche. Someone who can deliver the right target market for your product or service. 

Change It Up

Use different content creators and change up your messaging and offers. There’s no better way to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t then trying to best your best effort. 

Review Your Results

Pay close attention to the analytics. Using promo codes on special offers that are tailored to that audience is the best way to see if you’re getting an adequate return on investment. 

Audio Is Effective Advertising Because Listeners Choose You

We recommend audio as one of the most effective advertising methods because it’s one of the only venues where the listeners choose you. By that, we mean they’re more likely to stay engaged with your content than other forms of advertising. 

Good luck as you build your audio advertising campaign. If you need professional assistance in any or all of the above-mentioned areas, contact the Killer Spots Agency today.

How to Make Brand Videos That Enhance Your Company’s Message

brand videos

While developing their marketing strategies for 2020, more companies have decided to add brand videos to the mix. In fact, marketers who use video in their branding grow revenue 49% faster than non-video branding. However, you need to make sure your videos properly portray your brand first.

Don’t rush it. Instead, make a plan and stick to it!

Here are eight tips to help you improve your brand videos this year. With these tips, videos can communicate your brand and help you connect with customers.

Ready to give your brand a boost? Get started with these eight essential tips for the best brand videos!

1. Determine Your Goals

The first step to creating the best brand videos is to determine what you’re hoping to achieve in the first place. 

For example, are you trying to increase brand awareness for your company or a new product? Maybe you want to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Either way, video marketing can help you get there!

Knowing your goals will help you determine what type of content to include.

If you want to expand your brand, create videos that are entertaining or inspiring. Make your videos so engaging that viewers can’t help but share them. 

If you want to establish yourself as a thought leader, consider sharing your expertise. For example, you can create an educational how-to video or provide product demonstrations. You can also create a complication of facts and stats that are relevant to your industry. 

Maybe you want to inspire people to visit your website. If that’s the case, create a teaser to pique your audience’s interest. Then, you’ll entice them to click over to your website for the full content.

Brand videos can help you drive sales as well. For example, you can use videos to demonstrate new products or provide customers with helpful tips. You can also create branding videos that include a limited-time offer to encourage purchases.

Determining a goal for your branding videos can keep your videos focus.

Then, you’re more likely to achieve your goals!

2. Know Your Audience

In order to create videos that resonate with your audience, you need to know your audience first.

What problems do your customers face each day? What solutions can your product or service provide them? What videos will pique their interest?

Consider creating buyer personas for your customers. Separate them by:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Marital status
  • Location
  • Income
  • Shopping behavior
  • Interests

Then, determine what your audience is already searching for. You can explore the videos your competitors have already created to see what works—and what doesn’t. What video elements do viewers respond to the most?

Maybe you’re addressing an audience that doesn’t know a lot about your industry. In that case, you’ll need to create branded videos that explain the basics. If you’re talking to experienced customers, on the other hand, you can focus on providing them with additional value. 

Your messaging will differ based on your target audience. By catering your content to a specific audience, you’re more likely to attract them to your brand.

3. Use Your Voice

Your company brand consists of different elements, including your voice, tone, personality, color scheme, and logo. Since your brand videos are an extension of your company brand, they need to include some of these elements. This includes your voice and tone. 

Take a look at your website copy. How do you speak to your customers? What words and phrases do you often use?

Keeping a consistent voice in your brand videos will show people your brand is consistent, too. 

As a result, customers are more likely to recognize your content on different channels. 

4. Visualize Your Brand

Remember, your brand is composed of visual elements as well. Try adding your brand colors to your videos. This tip can help people recognize your company’s content. 

You can incorporate your company colors in the background of your video. If your office walls are painted with your company colors, try filming there! You can add photos, text, or other visual elements to your videos as well.

Adding elements that match your overall brand will help you tie various brand materials together.

Don’t forget to add your logo as well! Some companies include their logo as a watermark in the corner of their video. This can help improve brand recognition even as people continue watching your video.

5. Choose a Style

There are many video styles you can choose from. These include:

  • Culture
  • Interviews
  • Events
  • Product reviews
  • Tutorials
  • Presentations
  • Vlogs
  • Webinars
  • Testimonials/reviews
  • Animations
  • Behind-the-scenes
  • Live streaming

Consider your target audience and goals. Then, choose the type of video style that will best help you achieve those goals.

6. Shoot & Edit

Once you have a plan in place, start shooting! Consider creating a script beforehand so you can make sure to keep on track.

Don’t forget to end your video on a strong call-to-action (CTA). A compelling CTA can help you increase conversions and sales. According to this report:

  • Mobile video consumption grows by 100% each year
  • 90% of customers report videos help them making purchasing decisions
  • 87% of online marketers are using video content
  • Adding a video to marketing emails can increase clickthrough rates by 200 to 300%
  • Embedding videos on your landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%

After creating your video, edit it thoroughly. Take this time to create a transcript, which can improve your search engine optimization. That way, more people find you and your brand videos!

7. Get It Out There

Once it’s perfect, start sharing your new video. Consider where your customers spend their time. This can include social media platforms, YouTube, or your own blog.

Don’t forget to optimize your videos with target keywords to expand your reach.

8. Analyze & Optimize

After a while, review your data. Which videos are your viewers responding to? Study each video’s analytics, including views, shares, and other metrics.

Then, use this data to optimize your future videos! That way, you can expand your viewership each time you film. 

Enhance Your Company’s Image: 8 Tips for Making Brand Videos

Expand your brand! With these eight tips, you can make brand videos that resonate with your customers.

Ready to stand out from the competition? Contact us today to get started!

4 Website Design Tactics That Improve User Engagement

web design

The success of a website design is determined by user engagement. However, what does this mean? As a business, the ultimate engagement you are seeking is a product purchase or a quote request. Nonetheless, if visitors are not interacting with your website design, you are not making sales.

No matter the business, it is essential to create a user engagement strategy. You may have a beautiful website, but if it is not easily usable than engagement and the site’s effectiveness will be low. So, what website design tactics will improve user engagement?

Easy Navigation 

The longer it takes for a visitor to find the information they are looking for, the more likely they will become frustrated and leave. Easily understood navigation is a must. A visitor should find what they are looking for in 3-4 clicks. Once they leave your site, they will find what they are looking for somewhere else.

Stickiness 

Each time a user visits your site, it dramatically increases the likelihood of a sale. In marketing, this is called effective frequency. It takes repeated exposure to your marketing message to make a sale. Therefore, use a blog to share content valuable to visitors, creating a reason to engage and return.

Social Media Integration 

Social signals are an important form of user engagement, and search engines use this behavior to determine a website’s popularity and reliability. Ensure your site encourages following your social media accounts, and provide tools to share your content. Again, this goes back to creating content valuable to visitors.

Become Mobile-Friendly 

Smartphones are increasingly becoming the preferred method for accessing the internet. If your site is not viewable and usable on a mobile device, visitors will become aggravated and move on. A responsive website design will adjust your site based on the device while preserving the content and function.

What haven’t we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like more website design tactics that will improve user engagement, or need additional information, please contact us.

Seven Sales Strategies the Best Reps Use Daily (and 9 Rookie Mistakes to Avoid)

sales strategies

Who are the superstar salespeople you admire?

Is it David Ogilvy, who literally wrote the manual on sales strategies, or Dale Carnegie, who convinced you it was possible to win friends and influence people?

Whoever your sales icons are, they weren’t born overnight. It took years of fine-tuning their skills to become the amazing salespeople they are. While there’s no shortcut for hard work, we do want to help you streamline the process to achieving sales success.  That’s why we gathered the most secret secrets from the best salespeople to share with you as you start on your path to becoming a master salesperson. But, as any good seller knows, what you should do is as important as what you shouldn’t do, which is why we’ve also compiled some of the most common, yet easiest mistakes to avoid.  If you’re ready to start to become like your sales heroes (or even surpass them), nailing down these sales strategies skills is the first step. Ready, set, go!

7 Expert Sales Strategies the Best Reps Use

1) Sell benefits, not features.

Research by Impact Communications found 70% of people make purchasing decisions to solve problems, while only 30% make decisions to gain something.

Although your product may have a lot of features that will add to a business, they are more likely to buy something that solves an existing problem. That’s why you want to present them with benefits that reduce the problems the company faces.

2) Set and stick to your ideal buyer personas.

Efforts spread too thin are inefficient and ineffective. Use ideal buyer personas to help you understand the “why” of your ideal customer.

Your buyer personas, which are detailed descriptions of different types of ideal customers for your product, should outline more than basic demographic information, and get to the heart of why a customer needs your product.

By setting clear ideal buyer personas and sticking to them, you’ll stop wasting time with supremely unqualified prospects that suck your energy away from people who could really benefit from your product.

3) Spend time wisely.

Time is money in the sales world, and beyond knowing your ideal buyer personas, you need to have a plan of action each day to maximize your productivity. In fact, the 2014 Sales Execution Trends by Qvidian found that 59% of a salesperson’s time is not spent selling, but is wasted with hunting for sales resources.

Start each day by understanding your goals, and have a clear plan for how you’ll accomplish them. Find a sales or project management platform that can help you keep a strict schedule to maximize productivity.

Another way to increase sales strategies productivity is to limit multitasking. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it takes you twice as long to get a single task done when your brain is pulled in a million different directions. Give yourself a time limit to finish one task at a time; you’ll be more efficient and have a better understanding of what actions are time sucks and when you can get the most accomplished.

4) Personalize your message.

The best salespeople know that developing a personal connection with your clients is the key to success. Start relationships off on the right foot by sending personalized messages to prospects and avoiding “one size fits all” scripts.

Identify the prospect’s unique pain points and tailor your message to address how you can solve those needs. When a prospect feels like you care, you’ve already made the greatest first impression possible, without even stepping inside the room.

5) Make your process measurable.

In order to learn and grow, your process should be measurable, which means you should have a process for collecting quantitative (useable numerical data) and qualitative (details that help you gain an understanding of underlying motivations) information about your process.

To gather both types of information, practice being obsessive about your process. Keep track of each move you make from initial contact to closing the deal and use that information to pinpoint weak spots. You should also keep track of how many cold calls, follow ups, and meetings you do each day. The goal is to document everything so you can optimize your process.

When you do find weaknesses, make improvement actionable, instead of just telling yourself to “do better.” This will give you specific direction on how to improve, and also help you monitor your success.

6) Take notes.

As smart as you are, you don’t have perfect memory (and if you do, we want to hire you). It’s important that you record the promises you make to clients so you can deliver. You also want to take down feedback and important information about their business; clients should never have to repeat themselves, so pay attention.

Additionally, taking notes does more than give you a hard copy of the conversation—it shows clients you care. Take notes using a pen and paper. This gives clients the impression that you’re more attentive and involved in them than if you simply used a laptop or your phone.

7) Tap into the buyer’s emotions.

Use emotion-centric language to address a buyer’s concerns, since our brains rank feelings above logic when making a decision.

Answer objections with the words “feel,” “felt,” and “found,” and work phrases like “I know how you feel…” and “When this customer used the product they felt…” into your presentation.

9 Rookie Sales Strategies Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make

Feel like you’ve got a lot to practice tomorrow? Well we aren’t done yet! Instantly jump from sounding like a beginner to a seasoned pro by avoiding these mistakes most new salespeople make.

1) Don’t forget to define a goal for meetings.

Every interaction with a prospect or client should have an end goal. Make sure you outline the purpose of every meeting and have a metric to measure your success at the end.

2) Don’t be your only advocate.

There’s a limit to how many bold claims you can make about you and your company to a client. Collect endorsements from objective advocates to back you up.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from other clients. According to the Dale Carnegie Group, 91% of customers say they’d give referrals, but only 11% of salespeople ask.

3) Don’t make too many follow-up calls to unqualified buyers.

If a buyer is unqualified or clearly not engaging with you, drop it. Don’t waste time on impossible sells.

Master salespeople take the guesswork out of this step. Use 20 Miles to help you track when emails are opened, which attachments are viewed, and how long the prospect spent going through your files. You can use this information to follow up with the prospect with a targeted pitch, now that you know what about your product is interesting to them.

4) Don’t forget to listen.

If you listen to the prospect’s needs instead of overselling them you can directly answer how your product can soothe their pain points. Master salespeople believe you need to see, hear, and process that information before speaking.

5) Don’t leave a meeting open-ended.

Remember to set clear next steps that outline expectations and prompt action from both parties. If you leave a meeting unsure of what the next step should be, send a simple and straight-forward follow up email asking for clarification.

6) Don’t distract clients with irritating crutch words.

Practice pitches beforehand so you can cut out “umms,” “hmms,” “ers,” and “ahs.” These distracting non-words weaken your argument and lose the client’s attention.

7) Don’t bail on commitments.

Don’t develop a reputation as a salesperson who lacks follow-through. Build trust by keeping your word, or stop making promises you can’t keep.

8) Don’t ignore the budget question.

You can easily waste time pitching a service that’s way beyond your prospect’s budget. Ask questions about their budget upfront so you can determine how high they prioritize your service and you can better tailor your offer to fit their needs.

9) Don’t use statements instead of questions.

You want your close to be firm, but not ambiguous. After a prospect agrees to work with you, clarify the sale with a pointed question. Don’t assume you know the final deal without confirmation from the decision maker.

In truth, the secret to becoming the ultimate seller is practice, practice, practice. Understand your own sales strategies process as much as possible and educate yourself constantly.

For more details, visit Hubspot partner Killerspots.com, Inc.

CREDITS:  Written by Nicholas Little

HubSpot-certified-partner