An effective corporate identity is the foundation of an effective marketing program. The most creative print ad or television commercial will have little to no effect if your company is perceived as a fly by night operation that can’t meet your prospects needs. That’s why it’s so important to put the development of your company’s corporate identity in the hands of a professional who can objectively present an image that will inspire trust in your prospects. This is a critical step in your company’s marketing plan and should be treated as such.

If you plan to create or revise your own corporate identity you will need to take into several factors:

• Who is your target market?
• What image do your want to present to your prospects/clients?
• What image do your competitors present?
• How can you stand out from your competitors?

Are you trying to boost your business with a short term promotion? Are you trying to land a new client that would create a windfall for your business? Are you trying to make a name for a small start up company? Then you are going to have to be bold to make an impact. With all of the claims made in advertising coupled with the sheer volume of advertising, if you want any chance of making a serious impact, you’re going to have to be really bold . I’ve been told by clients that they wanted to double their weekend business but were only willing to offer a 5% discount. Let’s be realistic - a 5% discount isn’t going to motivate anyone, and if that’s all that you can afford to discount then you should probably take a few night classes on business management at your local community college. If you want results, offer a huge discount, a 100% money back guarantee, a free six month trial or something along those lines. Make your offer stand out and you’ll see results, make the same offer that everyone else is offering then you can expect to blend in with them.

If you have spent more than a few hours on the internet then you’ve probably noticed a variety of page titles, ranging from bland and non-descriptive all the way to downright misleading. Most cases of poor web page titles are due to a lack of understanding. For example, have you ever seen a web page title that read some thing like:

“Blue Widgets, Blue Widget, The Blue Widget Company, Best Blue Widgets, Cheap Blue Widgets, Wholesale Blue Widgets, Buy Blue Widgets”

That is a case of a website owner using outdated SEO (search engine optimization) techniques in an attempt to improve their ranking. Not only does this not work, it also drives real people (the ones who would otherwise be purchasing these wonderful blue widgets) away.

You have also probably seen websites where every single page has the same title, which is usually the company’s name. While this isn’t a case of a website owner trying to manipulate their ranking, it also isn’t helping them increase conversions.

Both from an SEO perspective and from a overall marketing perspective, the most effective title is one that offers an accurate description of the page, yet short enough to display completely in the search engine results pages. In most cases, 60 characters or less will be adequate to describe a web page and still display completely in most search engines.

As we prepare for yet another hurricane (hurricane Wilma) here in the Sunshine State , we thought we should give you a few tips for ensuring that you will be able to more easily return to business after a natural disaster.

1. Pack all of your marketing materials, computer hardware and essential files in garbage bags, tie the ends closed and then place these packages into plastic bins with tight lids.
2. Back up all of your data on DVD ROM or better yet, off-site.
3. Plan for an alternate location to conduct business from in the event that your office becomes unusable.

Probably not, at least not in the near future, but it is beginning to get a lot of attention from the companies that have the resources to invest in it. With TiVo offering consumers the ability to eliminate commercials, advertisers have had to resort to more creative ways to reach their target market. Staples took advantage of this with the desk apprentice, Home Depot has done it on TLC’s Trading Spaces, and the Audi A8 achieved an amazing level of exposure in the Transporter 2 movie trailer.

So just how new is this idea of product placement? It’s not new at all really. It’s commonly known in the industry that the product launch of Hershy’s Reeses Pieces was jump started through product placement in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , but it goes back even farther than that ? Mobil oil used it in a 1949 film featuring Harpo Marx called Love Happy.

Product placement is well outside of the budget of most businesses but if you think creatively, you can find ways to use small scale product placement in your favor. A sports drink manufacturer could provide free products to an up and coming athlete, a furniture company could lend their furniture for the set of an independent film, or a clothing company could offer their outfits for a music video. What can your business do?

Since many terms related to search engine optimization are often misused or misunderstood we’re posting a list of common terms and their definitions.

Keyword phrase

The phrase that a person types into the search field of a search engine.

Anchor text

The clickable portion of a text link.

Backlinks

Links from other websites pointing to your website.

Meta tags

The tags in a web page that describe what the page is about. This includes the title tag, keyword tag, and description tag. These tags are not seen by most visitors and carry very little weight in the ranking of a page.

Keyword density

The density of a particular keyword phrase in relation to the rest of the text on that page.

On page SEO

Search engine optimization that is conducted on your web pages such as proper use of heading tags, meta tags and content.

Off page SEO

Search engine optimization that is conducted on pages outside of your website such as link building campaigns.

Page rank

A measure of the importance that Google places on a particular page. This score can be seen with the Google toolbar.

Reciprocal links

Links that are obtained when one website places links to another website in exchange for said website doing the same in return.

When we were little kids most of us were taught to say thank you, but as we grew older it somehow became less important for some of us. What many of us fail to realize however, is that this simple act of gratitude can help to make us more successful by separating us from the majority of other people. So then next time a prospect gives you the opportunity to earn their business follow it up with a personally written thank you card or when a client places an order, include something free at no additional charge to them. You could even make a charitable donation on behalf of one of your major clients. The possibilities are limited only by your creativity.

You’ll be doing the right thing and improving your business at the same time. You can’t beat a win/win situation!

Most businesses invest in marketing and advertising each month but overlook another vital investment that they are already making. That investment is their employees. I’ve said before that your employees can make or break your company, and recently I ran into a very poinient example of that fact.

I was on the telephone with UPS trying to track down a shipment that had to be intercepted so that we could get it to a client sooner. I spoke to a woman at UPS about this and she took all the necessary steps to make it happen. After two hours had passed and I had not received a phone call saying where we could meet the driver to get the packages, I called UPS back. This time I spoke to a gentleman who seemed to be new. He insisted on telling me all the reasons that this could not be done. Fortunately I had dealt with this situation before and knew that it could. After a great deal of frustration I ended the call and called back, this time speaking with another woman. This woman was one of the best customer service reps that I have ran into in a long time - she handled everything and went far above and beyond to fix the situation and make everything work for us. Before long, we got the packages and delivered them to our client.

The attitude of the gentleman that I spoke to, unfortunately, seems to be the norm in customer service these days. UPS is in a fairly unique position due to their almost monopolistic position in the market, but most companies would quickly loose customers if they handled them this way. The attitude of the last woman that I spoke to, however, was completely different and actually solved my frustrations on the situation. The best marketing campaign in the world will fall flat if your employees do not treat your customers right, while the best employees can often multiply the effectiveness of an average marketing campaign. To get the most out of your marketing dollars you should make sure that your employees are properly trained on how to deal with customers and occasionally use “mystery customers” to spot test them.

The term “guerilla marketing” has been used to describe many types of marketing, often times erroneously. In it’s simplest form, guerilla marketing is using unconventional or outrageous techniques to generate exposure for a company, product or service. It is most effective when the techniques used relate in some way to what is being marketed, for example ? a performance car parts manufacturer would probably see impressive results with a campaign utilizing a branded custom car placed at various car and race related events while a home builder would likely not see any results at all from the same campaign.

Effective guerilla marketing comes from a combination of a strong understanding of traditional marketing and the application of unconventional thinking. There is a lot more to it than simply pulling an outrageous stunt. In depth research on your target market and your competition must be conducted followed by detailed planning. Keep in mind that guerilla marketing can often take longer than other methods of marketing to generate initial results but will usually deliver larger rewards in the long run.

In an effort to regain the market share that they’ve lost to search giant Google, Yahoo has been releasing new tools at an astonishing rate such as their site explorer. Their most recent tool is Mindset which helps tailor your search results based on the type of information you are looking for (shopping or researching).