Content marketing is a powerful and strategic way for a business to build an engaged following. High-quality content can boost page traffic, improve audience engagement, and increase a business’s credibility and authority. However, great digital content depends on a variety of factors. Here are some important things to consider when writing content for websites or social media posts.

1. Create a Terrific Headline

The headline is the most important part of an article since it must get a reader’s attention before they choose to read the rest of the content. Spending extra time refining a headline can improve the overall performance of the content. Using numbers or questions are two ways of creating headlines that make viewers want to read more.

2. Know the Intended Audience

A good headline is just a start to getting a reader’s attention. To get someone to read a page or post, the material must not only get their attention but keep it. Writing for a very specific audience helps hold their attention. Address the specific challenges or questions of the intended audience.

3. Analyze the Competition’s Content

Research content of similar businesses and observe which topics get the most comments or engagement. Use their content to generate ideas of compelling subjects for the audience and write on similar themes. Differentiate the content by adding specific brand elements that distinguish the content from competitors.

4. Conduct Research Before Writing

When writing content, take time to fully research the topic. Explore what content is currently published and generates engagement with the intended audience. Use Google’s Keyword Planner to search topic popularity by search volume. Once the content’s topic is determined, research the content. Then add credibility by including stats, precise data, and links to credible sources.

5. Share Actionable Tips 

Actionable tips, unique processes, and step-by-step instructions are all popular types of content across a wide variety of audiences. Share valuable information readers can implement or apply right away. The more valuable or relevant, the more likely they are to share it. Focus on problems the target audience struggles with and the business solves.

6. Develop a Unique Brand Voice

The brand voice is the personality attached to a brand and includes elements like tone, character, and language. Consistency is extremely important for creating a memorable brand voice. Many businesses create a reference sheet identifying specific brand voice elements and terms, especially when the company has multiple content creators. Developing a brand voice starts with analyzing key elements of the business, including its core values, website, and digital assets.

7. Optimize All Content With Best SEO Practices

Digital content is formatted much differently than print or newspaper. Explore best practices for optimizing online content, like short sentences, short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and how to use keywords properly.

Writing effective content can increase a business’s organic traffic. Using these tools, such as compelling headlines and optimized content, can go a long way toward improving a website’s performance. Contact the expert design team at LMH Agency to create a solid and unique brand identity, from brand voice to logo to all other visual assets, and improve results from content marketing.

Google Ads are an affordable and effective way to drive qualified prospects to your website. As a business owner, you must have a clear strategy and a solid understanding of this tool to get the best ROI. If you need help, we obsess over paid advertising to get the best results. Unfortunately, many service-based businesses make three big mistakes with Google Ads. Avoiding these errors can help you jumpstart your lead generation and get the best return on your advertising investment.

Mistake 1: Choosing the Wrong Keywords

The first mistake plumbers often make with Google Ads is choosing the wrong keywords. The goal is to use keywords that your target audience uses when they search for help online. For instance, “plumbing repair” may be too vague and attract people searching for DIY solutions. However, the keywords “reliable plumbing services” are more specific and clearly indicate the user is searching for a service. You can even go a step further to include your local region, city, or neighborhood.

Choose Effective Keywords

Thoroughly research your target market to understand exactly what words they’re most likely to use in a search. Proper keyword selection is one of the most important (and most challenging) aspects of digital marketing. Discover which keywords your ideal customers are using and also what keyword trends are common for the region. Other helpful tools include Wikipedia, blogs, and the phrases that appear at the bottom of Google’s search results. There are so many creative ways to find the best keywords, you just have to do a little research.

Mistake 2: Not Optimizing Keywords in Ad Copy

The second mistake many plumbers make with Google Ads is not properly optimizing keywords. Quality Score is a Google Ad metric that impacts whether ads appear on a search result. Optimizing the keywords in your paid ads is important to receiving a good Quality Score and getting the ad displayed on relevant search results.

Optimize Keywords

Proper keyword optimization can be challenging. Keyword optimization involves research and analysis to choose the best keywords and keyword sets for a company’s products or services. Tools like Google Keyword Planner can identify keyword variations and show the search volume for individual keywords and keyword sets. When optimizing keywords, it’s important to avoid overusing keywords, a tactic known as keyword stuffing and not put every possible keyword into the ad content. Including the keyword in the title and URL of the landing page is another optimization method.

Mistake 3: Sending Ad Clicks to a Business’s Home Page

This one happens all the time. The most effective ads send users to a designated landing page with a strategic purpose (such as filling out a form to receive an email) instead of a business’s home page. Directing visitors to a properly optimized landing page that effectively answers the user’s search query improves the Quality Score and advertising results.

Create a Powerful Landing Page

The most awesome landing pages have a single call to action (CTA) that guides users to perform a certain behavior, such as submitting their email address to receive a checklist relevant to the page’s content. This way, you can add your prospect to your company’s mailing list whether or not they contact the business. This is really helpful because you can use your mailing list to send targeted emails to encourage them to schedule a service with you or even use this list in further targeting your paid advertising.

Since Google Ads are so complex, a skilled marketing and digital service agency that loves getting results through paid advertising (like our team at LMH Agency) can manage your Google Ad campaigns from start to finish and provide the best return on your investment.

Ok ok ok… we already know what you’re thinking. You think that Email Marketing is another wasteful initiative that just spams your clients/prospects. You might have even already tried this effort yourself and had seen quite the loss. 

But we are here to tell you that email marketing is pretty much the opposite of wasteful, and actually has one of the highest returns out of any digital strategy out there. 

“WHATTT?” – You.

Let us give you the facts.

In a world full of technology, about 56% of the global population has internet access, and almost 100% of that 56 has an active email address. This tells us that more than half of the world is using the internet and able to receive emails. 

Just look at your inbox, for example!  All of your subscriptions and email updates you like to receive from your favorite companies are strategies put in place to get you to buy into something-whether it’s their product, or even just to keep you interested or informed. 

Regardless, Email Marketing is a great way to stay connected with your clients and to engage with your prospects. It has a 4400% ROI and produces phenomenal results.

In fact, by 2022, Radicati estimated that 4.25 billion email users will maintain 1.86 email accounts on average. As of 2019, 4.33 billion people have access to emails, and 3.93 billion use emails. 

With mind-blowing numbers like that, we know you’ve got to be sold by now. But for skeptics out there, we’ll break it down even more based on where and how you should implement email marketing. 

Social media

Most email service providers have premade footers with social media icons for you to include links to your Facebook, Twitter, or other social pages. 

You can also set up your campaigns for easy social sharing. In other words, your subscribers can click a button, or copy and paste a URL, to share a campaign the same way they’d share a landing page.

Finally, you can embed user reviews, posts, and your own social feeds so your subscribers can connect with you wherever they hang out online.

Urban Outfitters put this visually pleasing email together to highlight their hottest posts (and products) according to their Instagram audience. Take note of the share buttons at the bottom of the email, too.

Content marketing

Email is the perfect tool for promoting your best blog posts. 

77% of people prefer email for permission-based advertising. It’s easy to forget that social media is technically permission-based because it often doesn’t feel that way.

With email, people have voluntarily given you their email address, so you know they want to hear from you and read your blog content. 

Marketing Sherpa found that 19% of people unsubscribe from mailing lists when brands are constantly trying to sell them something. It’s actually in your benefit to prioritizing blog posts, podcasts, tips, tutorials, videos, infographics, and other valuable content through email over promotional material.

You can make good use of your content with stunning newsletters and custom RSS feeds. U.S. Outdoor Store always includes a perfect ratio of interesting content and promotions in their email campaigns.

Webinars

People who follow your social pages won’t always see your posts unless you promote them (which could cost you)—so these are not the best places to advertise something like a webinar.

With email, however, your subscribers genuinely want to hear from you, so they’ll be more likely to respond favorably to your webinars.

Real-world events

Social media can be dicey when promoting events. You often need to share a lot of valuable information to get people to act, and the posts are shown out of context or out of order. 

With email, you can create an onboarding sequence for your events. It offers you the option to spend time explaining the attendees and the event’s goals. You can also easily embed links so readers can RSVP and add the event to their calendar. 

Taking control of your audience access and analytics

Email service providers don’t hold your audience hostage and make you pay to access analytics. You can easily learn about your subscribers and use that information to improve the performance of your future campaigns.

You’re also able to keep track of your most active and engaged subscribers, which will help you send retargeting campaigns—both through email and social media—so you’ll always know where to devote your marketing resources. Plus, you can identify patterns, trends, and possible new markets.

Email marketing is one of the most heavily scrutinized marketing methods in our post-GDPR world. At first, that thought might make marketers cringe. 

But it’s actually a good thing because it means brands must prioritize the privacy of subscribers over their own data collection. 78% of customers say they’re more likely to trust companies with their personal data if it’s used to personalize their experience through channels like email.

Since email gives you unrestricted access to your subscribers’ behavior, you can learn more about their interests and habits to create targeted campaigns. Personalization is important—even mandatory—going into 2020. 

To further personalize your emails, guide other digital marketing campaigns, and even plan future business decisions, send out surveys to your most loyal and active subscribers to collect quality data.

You’re not in control of the relationship—and that’s okay.

More than 75% of people prefer email marketing because they’re in control of the relationship. For consumers, email is a refreshing break from intrusive social media ads. Why? Because if they see something they don’t like, they can simply unsubscribe. 

Plus, email is highly regulated through GDPR and anti-spam laws. This hopefully doesn’t scare you, because these are good things. 

People will always know exactly how and where you got their email address. Since you’re only collecting email addresses from people who choose to hear from you, you’ll never waste money on your campaigns.

Encourage your subscribers to take more control over the relationship

Marketers gain the trust of their subscribers when they encourage them to take control of their inbox.

How do you do this? Insert a link to a preference center at the bottom of all your email campaigns and prompt all new subscribers to fill out that page. 

According to Marketing Sherpa’s survey, 45% of people unsubscribe from mailing lists because they receive too many emails (either from a single brand or in general). Another 91% of people unsubscribe because they aren’t happy with the content—either the campaign is too promotional, generic, or uninteresting. 

A preference center lets your subscribers tell you exactly how often they want to be emailed and what type of content they want to be sent. Here’s an example of a preference center by Brooks Running.

Stay at the forefront of automation and technology

Think the hottest marketing technology is only accessible to big brands with massive budgets? Not so. 

Email service providers give you access to cutting-edge automation features to create a human experience that 84% of customers say is the key to winning their business.

• Segmentation
• Customer journeys
• Post-purchase communication
• Re-engagement
• A/B testing

The importance of email marketing has only grown over the past few years. We’ve discussed a lot in this article, so here are a few things we hope you take away:

• Almost everyone who has internet access has at least one active email address
• Email makes it easy to integrate all of your digital marketing campaigns
• Email marketing gives you the chance to build personal relationships with your audience
• Your subscribers are in control of the relationship—and that’s a good thing.

The final details…

It’s a big step to invest in Email Marketing and there is a lot of research that needs to be done before you start buying programs and building campaigns. 

First, you need to know your goal. Would your email campaign serve as a simple monthly newsletter? Or even maybe a complex drip campaign that would need to send SMS texts or even take payments? With our current technology, you pretty much have the Burger King option when building out a strategy- Have your way! 

It’s best to analyze the demand of your customers/prospects and what’s best for them when strategizing what type of emails should go out. In most scenarios, you should have multiple campaigns serving different purposes. 

If you are unsure, hit up your LMH Agency, we will help you determine your first steps. 

Welcome business owners and decision-makers alike! Today, I’m giving you exclusive access to our team here at LMH. Okay maybe not exclusive, you can walk into our office and any of us would be happy to talk to you. That being said, I’ll be walking around our office speaking with different team members to give you insight from experienced members of the industry. Stick around and you just might learn something. 

Account Management

Reagan Rugh

After spending some time working at a law firm, Reagan transitioned into the world of marketing. With now four years of experience, Reagan loves helping businesses grow and enjoys the balance of creativity and logic that marketing requires. 

Insight

Reagan believes her work as an account manager is a crucial part of the projects she works on. After speaking with her about the importance of communication she said “communication, at times, can be the single key factor of why a relationship lasts in this industry.” As an office neighbor, I’ve had the privilege of working with Reagan on a daily basis since I was an intern low on the totem pole. (I’m still low on the totem pole, they just pay me more now.) The first thing I noticed about Regan’s style of account management was her accountability and communication, so when I spoke to her about this blog it was no surprise to me that she mentioned the importance of communication. 

Key Takeaway

Communication is a crucial part of a successful relationship between marketers and business executives. Successfully getting your point across directly affects your ability to achieve your goals. When communication is a priority between both parties, projects are completed more efficiently, saving you time and increasing your ROI. 

Mike Fitzpatrick 

Next, I made my way over to Mike. With 8 years of account management experience here at LMH, Mike knows the ins and outs of working with business owners to help communicate their goals to our team. 

Insight

When I asked Mike what he felt the most important thing about working with clients was he replied “one of the most important things for me is my relationship with clients. I’m always like “what’s up, let’s go grab a burger.” He values personal relationships and the benefits that come with them, such as trust. Mike knows that transparency is a key factor in relationships. He creates monthly reports for CPC (cost per click), website traffic, top pages of clients’ websites visited, and more for each of his clients. The result? Long-lasting relationships. Mike encourages clients to take advantage of new technology like heat maps. Heat maps show you where you’re losing visitors on your website. A heat map report provides key insight into the optimization of your website. In marketing, it’s important to take advantage of every opportunity for improvement. 

Key Takeaway

When you’re hiring marketing agencies to grow your business, an excellent relationship has a higher ROI than any investment you could make. When a solid relationship exists between a business executive and an account manager, it makes it easier for both parties to trust each other and help each other achieve their goals.   

Photography & Videography 

Next, I made my way upstairs where I found Geoff.

Geoff Braugh

6 years ago, Geoff picked up a camera professionally and never put it down. As a partner of LMH, Geoff knows how to work a camera at a professional level to give clients what they need. 

Insight 

When I asked Geoff what was important about custom photography he told me “custom photography makes your website and social media stand out from the crowd.” After further discussion, he added “brand cohesiveness is important. Hiring one agency that develops your brand guidelines, website, and photography will ensure cohesiveness.”

Custom photography will help you stand out on your website through headshots, custom office photos of your team, and more. The right website photos help your customers feel like they know you. 

Key Takeaway 

Custom photography is an essential part of your marketing efforts. If you’re looking for an extended list of marketing services, be on the lookout for an agency that can cover all of it to ensure consistent branding. 

Sean Whitmore

Sean first got his start in the production world after dropping out of college. He had a love for music and music production and knew that he could provide valuable content to artists. After realizing how difficult it was to navigate in that industry of production, Sean decided to switch over to commercial work, which is what he’s been doing for the past 10 years. 

Insight

Sean was another office neighbor of mine for some time. When I asked him why clients value his work he told me the work he does is “like having a stranger come to your home, their first impression walking in is everything, if it’s cluttered, unorganized, and doesn’t look very good people make judgments. However, if it’s clean, tidy, and looks presentable with great design and is intriguing people align with it and are more likely to stay and become friends with you.” Sean added “clients can expect a very structured, realistic approach with our work that will be well thought out, cinematic, and story-driven. Story is the biggest key to everything that I do.”

Key Takeaway 

When I asked Sean what executives should be cautious of, he told me “when brands are looking for a video producer they will run into a few different options, 1. Freelancer- these are great and cost-effective but lack strategy and bandwidth. 2. Production house- Production houses specialize in video production, which is awesome, however, lack an overall marketing strategy. 3. Agency- An agency will have resources to accommodate the overall marketing strategy that produces full campaigns to bring the brand vision to life which includes but isn’t limited to video production. Luckily with our agency, we have an in-house video production department as we started off solely doing video production.”

Website Design and SEO

After speaking with Sean, I whipped out my phone and gave Chris a ring.

Chris Wielinski

After working at an advertising agency in 2010, Chris began his own agency in 2011. As a LMH Partner, Chris specializes in search engine marketing, which is designed to drive traffic to client’s websites, thus driving revenue and business growth. Chris noted that experience is a key factor in both of these departments. 

Insight 

Chris takes pride in our agency’s web design and SEO services. With over 10 years of experience, Chris noted that it was important for business owners to watch out for inexperienced SEO agencies adding, “Most agencies push their labor offshore, but you get what you pay for. Offshore labor does not understand the US market as well and there is a huge difference versus using in-house labor. Making sure an agency is experienced in SEO and web design is a must to make sure your project is completed correctly.”

Key Takeaway

Make sure that you are hiring an experienced SEO company that knows how to work in the market you are located in. 

Graphic Design

Next. I made my way back upstairs to speak with one of our graphic designers, also named Chris. 

Chris Harrison 

Chris entered the world of graphic design by creating t-shirts, fliers, logos, and more for his band over 10 years ago. He has experience creating graphic assets for clients of all sizes.

Insight

After over 10 years working in graphic design, Chris knows that it’s key for people to have something to attach themselves to. Chris provides just that. “If you have a symbolic culture that people can attach themselves to you will be more successful,” he said. Chris’s work in graphic design is an essential step in bringing our client’s branding to life. His ability to create consistency in client’s visual branding is impressive. 

Key Takeaway

 A marketing agency without a quality graphic designer isn’t really a marketing agency. Make sure you’re doing the proper research into who you’re working with and the members of their team. When it’s time to bring your visual branding to life, you’ll want an experienced designer at your disposal. 

Danny Braught

Last but not least I spoke with Danny Braught, one of the founders of LMH. 

After working at another agency for a few years, Danny began his own national magazine publication. After clients began requesting projects that were outside the publication’s scope, Danny decided to start LMH.

Insight

When I asked Danny about what clients should expect from our work he said, “Our work helps clients grow by assisting them in telling the story of the business for branding purposes as well as following it up with proven marketing and advertising strategies that deliver new leads to their businesses.” He added, “Customers can expect our team to treat their business like it is their own and do what is in the best interest of the client and help guide them through the process of growing their business.”

Danny added that businesses should ask agencies they are interviewing questions about their culture, specialties, transparency, and communication to determine whether or not they are a good fit.  Another important question to ask is who retains ownership of accounts. Some agencies will lock you in by holding ownership of various accounts, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to move forward without them, especially in the case of a strained relationship. 

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for an advertising and marketing agency, make sure to have a full understanding of who you could be working with. Always do proper research and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Upon selecting an agency, make sure that they are putting the effort in to build a transparent and genuine relationship with your business. If you have any questions about any of the services we offer or projects we have worked on in the past, don’t hesitate to get in touch with any of us here at LMH! If you found this blog to be helpful, check out other blogs from our team here.

Let’s get started…

Here at LMH, we consider ourselves to be experts when it comes to the written content on social media (we hope you agree). What better way to explain the steps of writing your own blog, than on ours! Writing a blog post is like learning how to ride a bike for the first time. You can watch tutorials (or read articles about how to write an awesome blog post) but nothing prepares you quite like getting on the bike and pedaling. You get the analogy. 

Blogs are a great way to drive more traffic to your business. They also give your business a platform to show your stuff and gain credibility. You know that blog posts are key to growing your business, but you don’t know how. In this post, I will show you how to create content that your readers actually want. Let’s get started. 

First Steps

The first step to creating a great blog is research. Be prepared to spend a couple of hours researching, and then a couple more. Put your thinking cap on and let the ideas come to you when you least expect them to (yes, thinking counts as research). Writing an outline with your research is a great way to save some time down the road because your blog will turn out organized and easy to follow. Using keywords and refining the search term based on date allows you to find relevant articles quickly. Writing on topics that interest you is a plus, but bloggers should strive to take any topic and make it interesting. While I talk about research, I think it’s important to emphasize credibility. Don’t forget to check your facts! Wikipedia was never a reputable source in high school, and it most certainly isn’t now. 

It is also important to know your audience, and what they want from your blog. Most readers decide in the first 2-3  seconds whether they will stay on the page, so first impressions are everything. Different industries have certain keywords and questions that members are asking. Will you answer those questions? There are many free resources available to gain insight into your audiences, such as Quora or Twitter’s advanced search engines.

Show-Stopping Headlines

Creating a show-stopping headline should be a high priority. Your headline determines the amount of traffic that visits your page, therefore it should be top-tier. Interesting headlines are the “clickbait” of journalism, just make sure they still make sense with your article. Instead of “How to ride a bike”, you could write, “How to conquer the scariest thing on two wheels”. Which one would you pick?  Point made. Here are a couple of examples of our favorite headlines to date:

• “Cows lose their jobs as milk prices drop”
• “Safety meeting ends in accident”
• “City unsure why the sewer smells”
• “Murderer says detective ruined his reputation”

Although these headlines are comical, they do their job. Readers are drawn to the articles that pique their interest. Sometimes, an outlandish headline is exactly what you need to get eyes on your blog. 

Don’t Forget the Word Count

Now you’ve made it to the third step, writing your post! A successful blog should be long enough to get your point across, but not an essay. In my case, a blog post should be long enough to avoid an angry message from my boss (nervous laughter). Feel free to “brain dump” or let your brain flow with ideas from your head onto your paper. 2,000 terrible words are better than no words. Then, you can go back and delete the nonsense, leaving a myriad of perfect sentences. Looking back, I often find sentences that can combine to make perfect pairings and sound awesome together. Not everyone views your perfect sentences on a computer though. In the twenty-first century, it is important to remember that most content is consumed through cell phones. Knowing this information, you might want to bold important ideas so you make sure they are seen. This brings us to our next point. 

Enhance Your Post

A blog with only words is a boring blog. In order to WOW your readers, there are many elements that can be added to your post. Use images to add visual understanding and clarity. This will also allow the reader to picture steps in their head, thus increasing the chances of them remembering your post. You can add graphs, photographs, drawings, and even videos. Different fonts, colors, underlines, and elements such as arrows make your blog interactive. 

Your blog should be a call to action, with defined steps on how to get to an end goal. Explain complex topics clearly and make sure your message is clearly conveyed. This is not the time to leave things to the imagination. After researching your topic, you should cover a lot of ground with your new knowledge! Creating subheadings to break up your page makes the information more manageable for your reader. Most people will only skim for specific information, and that ok, as long as they can find it quickly.

Sprinkle In Some Humor

On top of artistic elements, add humor to your blog. After writing, you can go back and add *quirky* bursts of comedy to your blog. Subtle, yet appreciated is the way to go when it comes to blog humor. You can even make running jokes throughout the piece. I could have made another bike joke to wrap up this paragraph, but I chose to save my readers from the pain of reading another one of my analogies. 

You’ve written your blog, now what? 

Congratulations on your work of art, or literature in this case. Before posting for the world to see, make sure you proofread your work. Typos decrease credibility and just look plain stupid. It also helps to read your post aloud to check how it all flows together. Having a team of editors review your work is a great way to receive feedback. Sometimes, moms and colleagues make the best editor in chief. Don’t be afraid to change things at the last minute if you want to. Blogging is not about perfection, but about creating (WOW that was deep). 

Still need help? Get in touch with our professionals at LMH Agency! 

Happy Blogging.

Let’s dive in…

Ok so picture this. You’re going downtown to meet up with a friend for lunch. While you’re waiting outside for them you notice them walking down the street. They have on some fly-as-hell brand new Nikes that you have never seen before. You give them props on their kicks and head inside.

Here’s the question: In this imaginary scenario, how did you know they were Nikes? You’ve never seen them before, so it’s not the design that you recognized. Just because they look good doesn’t automatically attribute them to being made by any particular manufacturer. So how did you know? It’s the logo. 

It doesn’t matter what item it is, if you see it with a swish you automatically associate it with Nike and all that they have built their brand identity to be. That is the power of a logo that people love. But how does one create a logo that is recognizable and beloved? That is what we’re going to be discussing today, and that is what I hope you can learn by the end of this blog. 

Creating a new logo can be a daunting task but the process isn’t as bad as it seems. The logo creation process can be broken into two basic stages: research and design, or more simply put planning and execution. 

Planning

The planning stage of this process is where you gather up all of the useful information you might need in designing your logo. The first step in planning is to do a full inventory of what you’re looking for in your logo. This step is essentially a journey in asking questions to understand what the goal of your logo is. Examples of these questions include:

-Why do you want or need a new logo?

-What do you want people to think of when they think of your company?

-Which brands do you look to as being similar to yours?

-Which brands do you want to avoid being associated with?

-How will you measure the success of your new logo?/ What is the goal of your logo?

-Who is your target audience and what do they respond to?  

The key here is to actually write out your answers. This is important for two reasons. One, it allows you to easily compile your research when you’re done. But two, it also gives you insight into your brand that you had never fully thought through before, and it can be a kind of self-discovery experience about your brand. Once you have completed your inventory of questions you will want to summarize them into a strategy that gives an overview of your business and brand. You can then move to the next step of researching which is an investigation.

The investigation is where you dive into the basics of design to educate yourself on the different ways that font colors and shapes can affect people. For example, the color red is associated with passion, danger, joy, and love. The passion and danger is exhibited in logo’s like Red Bull and Supreme while brands like Nintendo and Lego play off of the joyful aspect of Red. Red isn’t the only color with associated emotions though, all colors have them and the same is true for fonts and shapes. The investigation step is where you explore what colors, fonts, and shapes resonate with your brand identity. Once you have an understanding of what design can do to the human psyche and emotion you can begin to compile brand inspiration. This step is the gathering process.

In the gathering process, you simply search for brands and logos that interest or resonate with you and begin to compile them. It is important to put thought into this part but don’t overthink it. The gathering is similar to a Pinterest board. Go in knowing what you’re looking for but don’t overthink the selection process. The whole point here is to simply amass a collection of logos that resemble your goals. Once you have gathered these logos, you need to do some analysis on what stood out about the individual logos and see where you find similarities.  If for example, you resonated with both the Airbnb logo and the Adidas logo that could be a sign that triangular logos are your thing. Whatever it is, the overarching qualities from your compiled logos are probably attributes that you either purposefully or subconsciously chose because they fit into your brand’s identity.

After you have finished all three of these steps all you have to do is put all of your research into one central folder and you will have guidelines for the design of your logo. This is the second part of creating your logo: the execution. 

Execution 

When you’re designing your logo there are some tenets of all great logos that are important to remember. All great logos are simple, unique, and versatile. 

Simple is huge. Often people looking to design logos want to say so much about their company and their brand that they overcomplicate something that should be simple and legible. Less is more with logos, so when you’re designing your logo always ask yourself, “can this be simpler?” By keeping your logo simple it is more recognizable at first glance. Busy logos are hard to read and most of the time your consumer base only has a glance to see, recognize, and associate your logo with your brand and ultimately your company. 

The next tenet is uniqueness. While it is nearly impossible not to have an influence on your logo making it one of a kind is hugely important. If your logo can be easily conflated with another it doesn’t matter how great your design is. The whole point of your logo is to be a symbol of your company, if it reminds people of another company you won’t have any financial gain from your logo design.

The third and final tenet is versatility. This is the easiest tenet to forget when designing your logo. Versatility essentially means that your logo looks good no matter how you apply it. A good logo can be on a 1×1 inch design in the corner of an advertisement or on a giant billboard. Think about the ABC logo, it can be displayed on a light background with its usual dark circle light lettering, but it could also be displayed on a dark background with a light circle and dark lettering. If your logo only works in certain circumstances it is a limited logo. 

These are the three biggest principles of logos that will help you in killing your logo design. 

With all the knowledge you have the green light to start designing your logo. Some useful tools to start this process are a sketchpad and pencil or in the digital space, there are tons of helpful resources. One tool LMH loves to use is the Canva Logo Maker. It’s free and is useful in getting you started with your logo. Vectr and Adobe illustrator are alternatives though Illustrator isn’t cheap. It is important here to treat your logo like a paper. Your first logo will likely not be “the one.” It is more like a rough draft to be edited so keep an open mind. 

Revisions

Once you have completed your logo design ask yourself “how could it be better?” “Is it timeless?” and “how is this logo best used?” Take the answers to these questions and go back and tinker. Run a comb through the entire design until it is a logo that you absolutely love. Once you love your logo, it is time to set up guidelines for using it.

A misused logo is a useless logo so know your logo’s strengths and weaknesses. If your logo doesn’t have thick bold and dark lines, it probably should not over photography. Ask yourself “How is my logo best used?” and write it down. Once you have these guidelines you are ready to implement your logo. 

Creating a logo people love is not an easy task. However, it doesn’t have to be something that you put off or neglect because “it’s too difficult”. Creating your logo is a process and it can be a fun and rewarding process. Here are a few parting tips to get you through the process. 

Be persistent. It can be hard at times to get a logo that you feel exactly personifies your company. If you’re struggling, don’t give up you will hit a breakthrough. Bring in others. A team of creatives is ultimately more creative than the best of designers, so be sure to include others and ask for outside opinions. Have fun. Ultimately, you are creating a logo that people will associate with your brand forever, and there is a lot of pressure in that. Don’t let that pressure get to you, have fun, and enjoy the process. 

Get in touch with us here at LMH. Our team of expert designers has years of experience and knows how to set you apart with a logo that fits!

The holidays are just around the corner and it’s time to momentarily adjust your social media game. Let’s talk about how you can add a little thanksgiving, Christmas, or whateverfloatsyourboat spirit to your profile. 

Tip #1 Headers

It’s a good idea to update your profile picture and profile header to reflect whatever holiday you want to show spirit for. Think of it as a full-fledged campaign without the ad spend 😉 For Thanksgiving, consider adding a turkey running across the bottom of your headers. For Christmas, maybe add a Santa hat to your logo. Most people enjoy getting into the holiday spirit. Use that positive association with your brand to attract new clients and reinforce your relationship with existing clients. You can create custom designs on Canva with ease. 

Tip #2 Scheduling 

Don’t make someone on your staff be responsible for posting on the day of a holiday. Schedule your holiday posts a few weeks in advance to make sure you don’t miss a beat and everyone gets to enjoy their holiday. We use services like Buffer and HeyOrca to schedule our posts. These services make posting social media content easier before with their easy-to-use design. Download their phone apps to make the process of scheduling social media posts a breeze!

Tip #3 Share Your Spirit

Does your business have an annual Christmas party? If so, consider sharing photos from the party with your social media followers to give them an inside look and make them feel more like part of the family! Toy drives and company outings are other great things to promote on your social media pages. The idea is to show your clients that your company is a family, not just a business trying to take your money ;).

Tip #4 There’s nothing more original than original

Ask your clients to submit original content to be posted on your page. For example, if I were Starbucks, I’d be asking customers to submit photos of our holiday cup in the snow or with Santa. This is a good opportunity to show your followers what your product or service looks like out in the real world instead of in a professional studio setting. Make sure the photos are high quality before you post and give photo credit in your caption. Forgetting to give photo credit goes against proper social media etiquette. 

Tip #5 Stay active on engagements

Engaging on social media is essential to growing your social media pages. Engaging with hashtags like “#wishlist” is a good way to get your product or service into the minds of consumers during a time when people are spending more money. Be sure to pay attention to the latest trends and keep an eye out for popular hashtags. Growing your page takes work, use the holiday season to your advantage, and spread good vibes, you’d be surprised how far a funny or kind comment will go. Block of at least an hour to interact with people on social media. Experienced social media managers will know which locations, hashtags, and users to seek out when doing engagements. 

Tip #6 Promote or host a charity event 

Let’s dive into tip #5 some more. Consider hosting a charity event where customers or employees can make a difference in the community. There are families across the country that can’t afford the luxuries of holidays. A toy or food drive is a great way to make a positive impact in your community. Toy drives don’t require lots of money. You can set a couple of larger boxes outside your office and let people donate what they can afford. Before the holiday season ends, find a donation location in your city that will make sure the toys fall into good hands. 

Tip #7 Run a poll

Polls are a great way to figure out what your audience wants! On Instagram, you can run polls on top of a photo. It’s a great way to spice up your content and obtain valuable insight into your followers. To run a poll, tap on the sticker icon and then select the poll sticker icon.

Tip #8 Don’t forget to post the day of

Make sure you’re scheduling a post the day of! Gift cards and cash are common holiday gifts, make sure you’re getting your brand out there as people are receiving these gifts!

Tip #9 The Power of the Discount Code

Discount codes are a great way to convert on-the-edge buyers into customers. Run a promotion that saves your customer a little money and watch the orders flow in! 

Tip #10 Don’t Forget Stories!

On a recent quarterly earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg stated that stories were the future of social media. It’s important to utilize all of the tools made available to you on social media. If you can do something on social media that people will see, you need to be taking advantage of that to promote your business. 

Tip #11 Create Festive Filters

 Filters are another great way to get your brand out there. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all allow 3rd party filters. Here is an example of a Starbucks geofilter: Geofilters are a great way to target customers in your area or any specific area of your choosing. 

Tip #12 Reach for action not likes 

The goal is to turn followers into customers. Try creating a single piece of content that encourages customers to take action and engage with your brand. It should be eye-catching but also needs to fit into the overall theme of your social media page.

Tip #13 Create Urgency 

Create limited-time offerings to snag the business of those customers that missed out on the discount code. Limited 2 for 1 offers are a great way to grab attention while the limited timeframe will encourage customers to take action immediately.

Tip #14 Hand Over The Keys 

If you really want to try something new, consider handing over the keys to your social media page to a well-known influencer that fits with your core values. Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook have the features necessary to create a seamless transition into a social media event with a host. Follow these steps for a successful social media takeover event: 

1. Find an influencer that fits your brand and interests your followers/customers.
2. Announce that they will be taking over your social media for a certain amount of time.
3. Set guidelines for the influencer to follow while in control of your page. 
4. Have the influencer post stories and photos about their life and how your product or service affects them. 
5. After the takeover event, add the story posts to your highlights for free evergreen content!

For example: If Patagonia wanted to do a social media takeover event, they could hire an influencer in the rock climbing community to post throughout the day while using Patagonia products. 

This provides Patagonia with credibility while also giving your potential customers an idea of what your product looks like in the real world. 

Why do a social media takeover?

• Takeovers create urgency in the mind of your customers. 
• Takeovers increase brand awareness.
• One in three social media users defers to social media making a purchasing decision.
• Forty percent of consumers purchase something after seeing an influencer use it.
• Social media takeovers get your products in front of an audience of your choosing.

Always make sure you’ve got branded images, clever captions, and a call to action ready to go. Just like any other time of year, you should be trying to stand out from the crowd. 

Now is a good time to get creative and come up with content that drives action. People tend to be in a good mood during the holidays, use this to your advantage and promote a little holiday spirit on your social media page. If this blog has been helpful, check out our other blogs here. If you want to take your social media game to the next level, get in touch with our team here at LMH and see why we have over 90% client retention since the creation of our firm. It’s been a pleasure, happy holidays!

“Ads are the Cave Art of the Twentieth Century.” – Marshall Mcluhan. 

Does anyone remember the days when we used yellow pages, encyclopedias, and books to search for information? With instant access to all the info we need, why would we do it the traditional way? Studies show that Google processes more than 40,000 searches per second, which averages to around 3.5 billion searches a day. 

So here’s the real question, what is stopping you from using Google Ads for your business when your product/service is most likely being searched through the web? 

Now before we completely sell you on this incredible and absolutely necessary marketing initiative, it’s important to understand Google Ads, why it’s vital that you promote your business through search engines.

What are Google Ads? Should I Google it? 

Let’s start with the simple question running through your head right now: What exactly are Google Ads? 

Google Ads is a paid advertising platform that uses a pay-per-click (PPC) in which you pay for each click or impression your ad receives. The more traffic you receive, the more $$ you’ll pay as an advertiser. The good news is these leads are well-qualified, good-fit customers who were served your ad most likely during the exact moment they were searching for information on your product or service.  These ads are both desktop and mobile-friendly and can be displayed through the Google Search Network or through the Google Display Network. (we’ll talk about the two later.) The benefit of using Google Ads is simple. Google’s advanced technology allows you to serve ads to your ideal customer at the time they’re wanting to know more info… so you can avoid being that annoying person behind the ad that no one wanted to see come across their phone (We’ve all been there.)

Let’s Break It Down.

Bear with us…there’s more. To really understand the importance of using Google Ads for your business, you must understand all aspects of the platform and how to measure success with certain metrics.

So we already know that Google Ads displays your ad to your potential audience or customers who are interested in your product at the time. But what you might not have known, is that Advertisers actually bid on certain keywords or search terms, and the winners are placed at the top of search result pages. 

“ Wait, so you’re telling me I have to compete with other ads to get ideal traffic.” – You when you read the paragraph above. 

It should be no surprise that with business comes competition. But with the right tools, you can become a competitive player in your field. Now let’s open the toolbox: 

AdRank and Quality Score.

AdRank, in a nutshell, is the determination of the order of competing ads on a Search Engine Results Page. (SERP) The ad with the highest rank gets the top position, the second ad gets the second-highest position, so on and so forth. It’s basically a popularity contest. The popular kids get noticed more, while the less popular kind of fly under the radar. (Damn, this one hit home.) To learn more about how to improve your AdRank, read this article.

Your Quality Score is one of the factors that determines your AdRank. This score is based on … you guessed it… the quality of your ad and how relevant it is to your target audience. Google measures this by how many people click on your ad. This is called a click-through rate or CTR. Essentially, the more relevant your ad is, the better it will perform. Although, having a high CTR does not necessarily mean that your ad is performing well on the back end. It’s also the user experience of the landing page your ad directs your audience to. For example, You can go on a date with someone because they’re good-looking, but if their personality is horrible you’ll most likely have an underwhelming experience. 

Focusing on your Quality Score involves making sure your ad copy and CTA is exactly what the prospect expected. 

Location

When creating your Ad, it’s important to use a location that is geographically strategic to ensure you’re reaching the correct audience. For example, If my product is golf clubs, I will most likely pick a radius around a popular golf course. For better results, it’s vital that you don’t serve ads in locations not relevant to your product. Google actually hates this, and your AdRank will absolutely suffer. 

Keywords 

Let’s pretend we’re still on this horrible date with the person who had a bad personality. Maybe it was their choice of words? If they had used the correct keywords, maybe you wouldn’t have left abruptly leaving them the bill due to a horrible match.

Keyword research is extremely vital to ensure that you’re matching your content with the searcher’s intent as much as possible. Google is basically the Bumble of ad platforms, meaning they will match your ad with your prospects’ search queries based on certain keywords you had selected for your ad. 

If you’re still selling golf clubs, you probably don’t want to use the keywords “dog treats” when selecting a set of phrases. (We know this is a reach, but you get the point.)

Match Types

So how do I find the perfect match? Using match types when creating your ad gives you some room to pick either the most ideal candidate possible or the person who may not have all the qualities you need, but are still a good choice. 

Match types tell Google whether you are looking for an exact match or anyone who has searched your keyword that’s a semi-related match. You can learn about the different match types here. 

Ad Extensions

Looking for more bang for your buck? Ad Extensions are free and give prospects more reason to interact with your ad.  These extensions include extra site links, a call button, maps, offers and promotions, and pricing. These give your prospects more reason to click on your ad compared to your competitors, who may not be utilizing extensions. 

Now that we’ve emptied the toolbox, let’s move on to what you SHOULDN’T do. 

Do not search your own ad…I repeat…

Of course, you’re going to want to see your beautiful ad, but doing so can actually hurt you.

Google ads use artificial intelligence that studies the behavior of the prospect and serves Ad at the most ideal time. So, what someone may see 1 minute, will not be what someone else would see 5 minutes later. Remember that advertisers are bidding against each other using the same keywords, so different ads may pop up in different rankings at any given time. 

This is why it’s essential to look at reports on a monthly basis, allowing data to aggregate so you can look at trends, versus making decisions on small factors of your campaign. 

Another reason you shouldn’t search your own ad is if you do happen to come across yours,  the likelihood of you clicking on it is slim, and if you don’t, you’re telling Google that your ad isn’t relevant, which will impact your Quality Score. If you have a low Quality Score, it gets more expensive for you to run ads since your Cost Per Click will increase. 

And lastly, if you repeatedly search your own ads without clicking, you’re eventually going to be ghosted by your own ad. Google will block your IP address in response to you desperately trying to find a way to look at your ad. Let Google do its magic and consult with your marketing experts at LMH, who can provide a report on how your campaign performs. 

The Final Chapter

Whew… now that we’ve completed a few chapters of information, you should feel more comfortable about Google Ads and how it can benefit your business. It’s important to remember that we live in a world where you have to pay to play. However, if you play your cards right, you’ll be able to increase your business and make yourself a key competitor in your industry.