Brandsplat

hello@brandsplat.com | (800) 299-5498
Ghost Written Content In the Voice of Your Brand

  • Home
  • Estimates
  • Content
  • Clients
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • BEX Analytics

Archives for November 2013

November 28, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

Post with Slideshow

Follow Us

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Google+
[wzslider]

This is some dummy copy. You’re not really supposed to read this dummy copy, it is just a place holder for people who need some type to visualize what the actual copy might look like if it were real content.

If you want to read, I might suggest a good book, perhaps Hemingway or Melville. That’s why they call it, the dummy copy. This, of course, is not the real copy for this entry. Rest assured, the words will expand the concept. With clarity. Conviction. And a little wit.

In today’s competitive market environment, the body copy of your entry must lead the reader through a series of disarmingly simple thoughts.

All your supporting arguments must be communicated with simplicity and charm. And in such a way that the reader will read on. (After all, that’s a reader’s job: to read, isn’t it?) And by the time your readers have reached this point in the finished copy, you will have convinced them that you not only respect their intelligence, but you also understand their needs as consumers.

As a result of which, your entry will repay your efforts. Take your sales; simply put, they will rise. Likewise your credibility. There’s every chance your competitors will wish they’d placed this entry, not you. While your customers will have probably forgotten that your competitors even exist. Which brings us, by a somewhat circuitous route, to another small point, but one which we feel should be raised.

Filed Under: Weekly Five Things You Might Have Missed

November 28, 2013 By Dawn Walnoha Leave a Comment

Great Content Will Always Rule: SEO, Meet OAO

Follow Us

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Google+

Here’s another little something we’re thankful for this Thanksgiving: The emergence of an acronym that might finally help us beat back the demands of search engine optimization (SEO). Online Audience Optimization, or OAO, echoes what we’ve been saying all along: Write it well, and they will come.

Essentially, OAO utilizes a massive realization: People like to read and learn and explore, not just search. You know this. We here at Brandsplat know this. And now it seems the rest of the Internet is catching on, too. It really is as simple as it should be: Write something worth reading, worth sharing, and then step back and watch it fly. So unless you are uploading a catalog and want Google to know that your super-special square lacquered trays come in fifteen different colors, including aubergine, tangerine and aquamarine, you don’t have to count characters or cram all the keywords into the first half of your sentences. 

So what do you need to know to take advantage of this new approach?

1. Relevance is an inside job — OAO allows us to focus on our message rather than playing a game of cat-and-mouse with our prospective audience members. If something is key to communicating with your audience — be it a single word, a phrase or a philosophy, it ought to be communicated first to all members of your internal team, including your webmaster and content writer. Every word on your website should be relevant, says Linda Ruth at Media Shepherd — to your audience, not just to Google’s algorithm of the week. By sharpening your vision, YOU ensure that you’re as relevant to your audience as possible.

2. Yes, Virginia, you really can stop obsessing over keyword density — Google’s most recent update, Hummingbird, continues the company’s quest for its algorithms to act as human as possible, meaning it now looks increasingly for organic content that provides real information rather than list a bunch of words. Yes, you could go out and learn all about long tail subjects, but wouldn’t it make more sense to continue writing as a human for other humans? Why not stay one step ahead of the machine?

3. Audience participation remains vital — Either way you slice it, both SEO and OAO reward time that your audience spends interacting with your brand. SEO puts that amount of time into a calculation which boosts your search results ranking, while OAO’s rewards are more intrinsic (visitors stick around and buy! Imagine that!). Either way, your site is strongest with fresh content that gets visitors talking, be it through comments, polls or sharing across platforms on social media.

4. You’re still not expected to do it all yourself — One potential catch related to the rise of OAO is that many people will make the mistake of believing they now can handle all of the content production for their company. After all, they’re human, and they know how to write for other humans. And certainly this is the case. But what they probably don’t have is more time than they used to before they heard the term “online audience optimization,” meaning that no matter how human they are, and no matter how well they write, they’re still going to have just as much work in their inboxes as they did before. That’s why the smartest of humans hire us to assist them. You direct, we execute, they visit and BAM! Everybody goes home in a limousine.

But you tell us, dear readers: What is it you’ll miss the least about translating your thoughts into Googleze? Sound off in the comments section below!

Filed Under: Brand Engagement, Digital Engagement, Online Brand Management, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing

November 24, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

Neighborhood (video)

Follow Us

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Google+

This is some dummy copy. You’re not really supposed to read this dummy copy, it is just a place holder for people who need some type to visualize what the actual copy might look like if it were real content.

If you want to read, I might suggest a good book, perhaps Hemingway or Melville. That’s why they call it, the dummy copy. This, of course, is not the real copy for this entry. Rest assured, the words will expand the concept. With clarity. Conviction. And a little wit.

In today’s competitive market environment, the body copy of your entry must lead the reader through a series of disarmingly simple thoughts.

All your supporting arguments must be communicated with simplicity and charm. And in such a way that the reader will read on. (After all, that’s a reader’s job: to read, isn’t it?) And by the time your readers have reached this point in the finished copy, you will have convinced them that you not only respect their intelligence, but you also understand their needs as consumers.

Filed Under: Weekly Five Things You Might Have Missed

November 22, 2013 By Benjamin Porter Leave a Comment

5 Laughs About Black Friday You Might Have Missed

Follow Us

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Google+

148051378 

It’s hipper than ever to bash Black Friday. After several years of making fun of ourselves and our love/hate relationship with capitalism through memes, we’re now warmed up and ready to go. Good thing too, as more and more stores have stopped waiting until Friday itself to treat our OCD (Obsessive Christmas Disorder). And though it’s also hip to pledge not to shop on Thanksgiving, we bet a bunch of you will be buying under the table via smartphone between courses. (That doesn’t count… right?)

However you do (or don’t) shop this year, here are five ways to keep your sense of humor intact while the world around you falls apart:

1. Identify your smug: Hate the whole capitalistic shebang? Read this funny piece by our friends over at dealnews.com and self-diagnose exactly which camp of hate you belong in. (No tents required.)

2. Break out one of these bad boys: If a picture is worth a thousand words, these sweaters are worth at least that many snickers. Where else but Amazon could you find so much irony in one place — on sale, no less? And while we’re not sure who this cat Alex Stevens is, he’s got a standing invitation to the Brandsplat holiday staff party.

3. South Park’s still got it: Going out anyway? Need inspiration? Get your Game (of Thrones) on with this fantastic South Park sendup of Black Friday. Team PS4!

4. RetailMeNot brilliance: Who’s got its own line of someecards? This fabulous brand. Whether you’re updating Facebook at 2 a.m. while standing in line, or dishing snark after getting what you wanted online, there’s a card for every type of Black Friday shopper.

5. Keep things in perspective: This one is more sad than funny, because America. Sigh.

Let us hear from you, dear readers. Are you running stadium stairs in hopes of besting your PR for flatscreens, or will you  be (smart)phoning this Black Friday in? Sound off in the comments section below!

Filed Under: Brand Engagement, Digital Engagement

November 21, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

Responsive First: Delirium works fine across all devices

Follow Us

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Google+

elirium-responsive2
This is some dummy copy. You’re not really supposed to read this dummy copy, it is just a place holder for people who need some type to visualize what the actual copy might look like if it were real content.

If you want to read, I might suggest a good book, perhaps Hemingway or Melville. That’s why they call it, the dummy copy. This, of course, is not the real copy for this entry. Rest assured, the words will expand the concept. With clarity. Conviction. And a little wit.

In today’s competitive market environment, the body copy of your entry must lead the reader through a series of disarmingly simple thoughts.

Filed Under: Weekly Five Things You Might Have Missed

November 19, 2013 By Dawn Walnoha Leave a Comment

The New Realities of Brand Engagement, Sochi Olympics Edition

Follow Us

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Google+

167481461When a brand engagement opportunity comes along, we marketing folk evaluate the amount and type of potential exposure for our brand vs. the cost of the sponsorship. If you’re a mom-and-pop trophy manufacturer, you’re not going to bat an eye before sponsoring a local little league baseball team. If you design custom archery bows and arrows, attendees of the Renaissance Festival circuit would be good targets. And if you’re a mega multinational corporation like Procter & Gamble, you ski jump at the chance to support the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

But agreeing to sponsor the Olympics recently turned from a no-brainer — at least for any company that could afford to — into a test of a company’s petition-response time. What used to be as simple as putting your company’s logo on a sign near the finish line or airing feel-good television ads in between figure skating events now requires that brands decide exactly how they feel on social and political issues — issues that often have nothing to do with the products they sell — before stepping on to an international stage.

The 2014 Winter Olympics in otherwise sleepy Sochi, Russia, for example, are being used by LGBT and humanitarian advocates as a platform to call attention to mistreatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons in that country. You’ve likely heard of the recently-enacted Russian “anti-propaganda” law which bans public support of the LGBT community. It means that even foreigners — including those who visit to see the Games — who do not observe it may be arrested and detained for up to 15 days before being deported. Russia now also prohibits its LGBT citizens from adopting children and will not allow adoptions by single foreigners from other nations that recognize marriage equality.

Obviously, these acts don’t sit well with members of the LGBT community and its advocates, and they’re calling on Olympic sponsors to speak out for equality or pull their sponsorships. And while it’s fair to say that when Coca-Cola, GE and Visa signed on the dotted line years ago to ensure their spot as top sponsors, they weren’t prepared for this, it’s also true that this level of consumer-brand engagement is the new normal.

“We live in interesting times as brand marketers,” writes Brad Fuller, U.S. managing director for marketing agency Rivet Global. “The stakes of brand marketing are higher than ever. Consumers today look at their relationships with the brands they buy as an implied contract, one in which a brand is obligated to support the wishes of its consumers in return for loyalty. Brands that don’t get that, especially larger companies that tend to be more visible, run the risk of losing the deep consumer relationships they have worked so hard to achieve.” 

Fuller notes that new realities are changing brand engagement rules. First of all, what happens in another country doesn’t stay there (hello Internet). This global transparency means money spent advertising in markets on the other side of the globe can have ramifications here in America. And it doesn’t have to involve the Olympics, either. P&G, for example, is Russia’s top television advertiser and advertises on a television network in Russia that has aired controversial anti-gay comments by popular news personality Dmitry Kiselev. In response, American gay rights advocates and supporters called on P&G to pull all advertising from the station — one which is owned by the Russian government itself. So far, no comment from P&G, another top-tier Olympics sponsor.

Secondly, Fuller suggests that when today’s consumers support (i.e., purchase) a brand, they believe they also have purchased the right to influence the actions of the company behind the brand. Boycotts, petitions and demonstrations have rattled many a corporation into bending an ear to its consumers, who might more accurately be described as “constituents” going forward.

Finally, Fuller cautions companies that the days of staying out of hot political issues are numbered.

“Even if your brand or your company has taken no clear stand on an issue and chooses not to participate in the advocacy marketing phenomenon, sitting instead on the sidelines, you may still be drawn into the fray,” he notes. “Manufacturers today must be ready to respond when consumers demand their support, and they must also educate themselves about the consequences for their business. Even choosing to not respond is a response that may mean an impact on sales and brand image for the short or long term.”

Do you have a feel for this in your realm, dear readers? Tell us all about it below!

Filed Under: Brand Engagement

November 7, 2013 By Benjamin Porter Leave a Comment

Blog Like the Big Brands: Ipsos

Follow Us

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Google+

186941069

With the tagline “Nobody’s Unpredictable,” global independent market research company Ipsos makes a bold statement about what their potential clients can expect: that with the powerful research Ipsos brings to its prediction-making, anyone’s actions can be understood. Ipsos provides its clients with insight into six areas: advertising; marketing; media, content and technology; loyalty, quality and customer relationship management; opinion polls and social research; and survey management, data collection and delivery. Once Ipsos’s clients understand why the individuals in their target markets act the way they do, they can better select the best messaging to engage them.

“Nobody’s Unpredictable” also extends to the company’s North American blog, Ipsos Ideas Spotlight. It provides — predictably — just enough insight into the work Ipsos does to whet their potential clients’ appetites. Ideas Spotlight covers a wide array of subjects and frequently makes use of the knowledge experts inside the company who author the posts, from who’s watching what on TV (*cough* … Walking Dead … *cough*) to whether Mystery Shoppers or customer satisfaction surveys provide better insight into how a retail outlet is performing (the answer: they’re not interchangeable… use both!). Blog readers don’t get the same in-depth information the company provides to its clients, but the fact that the blogs leave us wanting more is no accident. They keep Ipsos’s name top-of-mind so that we already know the answer when we find ourselves asking, “Who can we call to find out more about that?” The media also take note of the snappily-written bits and keep Ipsos experts programmed into their mobile phones for regular interviews.

And while we here at Brandsplat think it’s a great idea to feature posts written by your employees, not every company is set up that way. Even if your company has subject matter experts who write well and manage to find the time to sit down and regularly compose a blog (so, yeah… maybe just Ipsos?), it’s still a good business decision to turn to content experts to help keep your blog fresh and interesting. We happen to know a few good ones.

As Ipsos would say, there’s nothing unpredictable about success.

Filed Under: Digital Engagement, Online Brand Management, Online Marketing

BRANDSPLAT creates articles, blogs, social media, and all written content in the voice of your brand. Our clients include entrepreneurs, personalities, mid-size companies, and some of the world's biggest brands.

Get our free Brandsplat Report.






    Search

    Categories

    • Analytics
    • Article Marketing
    • Blog Content Management
    • Blog Marketing
    • Brand Engagement
    • Brandcasting
    • Brandsplat Video Report
    • Business Development
    • Digital Engagement
    • Email Marketing
    • Facebook Management
    • Facebook Marketing
    • Five Things You Might Have Missed
    • General
    • Mobile Marketing
    • News
    • Online Brand Management
    • Online Marketing
    • Online video creation
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • SEO
    • Social Media Management
    • Social Media Marketing
    • Twitter Management
    • Twitter Marketing
    • Video Content
    • Viral Marketing
    • Weekly Five Things You Might Have Missed
    • Weekly Video Report

    Calendar

    • ►2020
      • September
    • ►2019
      • April
      • March
      • February
    • ►2014
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
    • ▼2013
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
    • ►2012
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
    • ►2011
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
    • ►2010
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
    • ►2009
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May

    Odds & Ends

    Guest Blogging Guidelines
    The Brandsplat Report
    Articles
    Home
    Content
    Clients
    Sitemap
    About
    Articles
    Brandsplat Report
    BEX Analytics
    (800) 299-5498
    hello@brandsplat.com
    Email
    http://twitter.com/@brandsplat
    http://linkedin.com/company/brandsplat
    http://brandsplat.com/videos/
    Copyright © 2019 Brandsplat | All rights reserved.