Proliferation

Jul 14
0

Key Members of a Successful Content Marketing Team

By | content marketing, Utah | No Comments

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it is safe to say that it takes an entire team to create quality content. Content marketing can be difficult to master, but when done correctly — content marketing has the power to exponentially build business. From Utah to Europe, content marketing draws in consumers and functions as the driving force behind great online business.

If your business, be it located in Utah or beyond, wishes to grow its content marketing capabilities, it need only to create the content marketing dream team.

Strategists

No content marketing campaign is complete without the help of a strategist. A strategist looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing a businesses and helps generate content pertinent to those areas.

The strategist helps the team find the best places to put content, the best topics to write on and the most effective way to reach audiences.

Writers

You won’t have content if someone does not create it, so without writers, content marketing is non-existent. Quality writing is always in style and the better the writing, the better for business. Writers must incorporate SEO and know the voice of each client individually.

Designers

In an increasingly digital world, it is important that a marketing team use designers. Designers lay the content out in a way that is easy to read and easy to find. If readers can’t navigate the content, they are not likely to continue reading, thus designers are vital.

Designers are the bridge between visual and textual information. Without them, a content marketing team would be nowhere near complete.

The prefect content marketing team does not end there, though. For each individual business, other content marketing team members can be added to create a perfect and personalized team. Whether you’re in Utah or beyond, great content is generated by a great content marketing team.

Jul 13
0

The First Advertisement Was Aired 75 Years Ago

By | advertising, commercials, Utah | No Comments

Advertising agency employees from Utah to the East Coast use the month of July as one of remembrance. No, we aren’t mourning a loss. Seventy-five years ago, on July 1, 1941, the first legal commercial ran during a baseball game and television would never again be the same – except for baseball, that’s always the same *yawn*. This date is a reminder of the continuous cycle of innovation.

The Illegal Ads

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) originally ruled that advertisements weren’t allowed on television. Advertisers across the country were about as bothered by that fact as Tyrion is bothered by being short (“Game of Thrones” spoiler: he’s not).

Ad men thought television lacked the prestige that came with traditional media. As the men who “drink and know things”, they weren’t questioned. Radio reached 90 percent of American homes. It was hard to picture anything that could top that.

In the 1930’s the rebels of advertising who proved to be “bad to the bone” created product placement. The announcer of the baseball game ran an ad for Proctor & Gamble, Socony Oil and General Mills. He held a bar of soap, wore a cap and sliced a banana into a bowl of Wheaties — though it’s hard to imagine how awkward this looked, the loophole was a doorway for advertisers.

The First Legal Ad

Television’s first legal commercial was reminiscent of the radio ads that would run. Bulova, a watch company, ran a grainy, shaky, 10-second ad during another baseball game. During the live ad the announcer read, “America runs on Bulova time.”

The first ad cost Bulova’s advertising agency a whopping *gasp* $4 to create and didn’t even reach those in Utah. Television has now become a $70 billion market place.

The Future of Television

What was once considered the bread and butter of the advertising agency industry is now questioned for its viability. In an age where viewers can skip the commercials to see if Khaleesi will finally rule the seven kingdoms, it leaves professionals from the state of Utah wondering where the innovation will shift next.

Jul 11
0

Why you Should Hire an Actual Agency to do Your SEO

By | SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

If you have a small business in Utah you may feel that your SEO needs are covered easily by yourself or whoever runs your company website. If your business starts to grow, your SEO needs are going to change, and hiring an actual SEO agency is going to be your next step to stay ahead of the game.

The Touch of Professionalism

No matter how nice your website or blog may look, at one point you’re going to want a professional writer who understands how to boost your personal SEO to be part of your company. At Fusion 360 for example, every writer has either an English degree or a Communications degree. With those credentials you know you’re hiring people who know what they’re doing and will do their best to represent you.

Secrets of the Trade

As a Utah business owner, you probably have more to deal with than where your placement on Google is. While you make the perfect cupcakes, find the best wedding dress or serve the best burger in the state, let someone who has studied the interstices of SEO standings and are positioned to help drive traffic to your business. There’s plenty you don’t know about how SEO moves, and keeping up to date is just one more thing between you and your business goals. Why waste the time when you can hire someone else to do it?

Worth the Cost

You wouldn’t have become a successful business owner if you weren’t smart about money, so value vs. cost is always on your mind when hiring out. Think of this though: How much more could you be making if you were at the top of Google listing for your Utah business? When you have the crowds flocking to your business, the more you’ll have to do to get done, so free up some hands with an SEO agency.

Jul 08
0

Print v. Digital: Why Your Money Should Be on The Digital Future

By | digital marketing | No Comments

Plenty of digital marketing firms struggle when deciding where to allocate portions of their marketing budgets. Should you go all in on digital? Should your split your budget down the center and drop some bread on print? Maybe ditch the paper goods altogether?

The reasons for going all-digital for your marketing strategy are many, though there are still plenty of marketers (and of course, print publishers) making a pitch for print advertising. Is there any credence to their words, or is print really breathing its final breath?

Let’s break down a few reasons why print can still be useful for marketing and explore why your best bet might be dropping cash on the digital future.

PRINT-V-DIGITAL

Jul 07
0

The Difference Between Content Marketing for a New Company vs. an Established Company

By | content marketing | No Comments

Content marketing is an art and sometimes it can be tricky to discern just what your company needs in terms of content marketing. Professional content marketing firms from Utah to Europe know the ins and outs of the marketing world, and whether your company has been around for 50 years or it is just starting, a content marketing firm can help.

Though many similarities exist, there is a difference in the approach to content marketing between new and establish companies. If young Luke Skywalker does different training exercises than established master Yoda, it stands to reason that new companies should be practicing different content marketing techniques than established companies.

New Companies

New companies often have a lot to figure out, and content marketing voice is one of those things. The voice and tone selected in the early phases of content marketing follow a company throughout its lifespan. Finding an appropriate voice is vital because this voice will be a part of every aspect of the company.

After a voice has been established, it is important that a formal strategy is created and plans and budgets are made. Without written plans, your marketing strategy is merely a wish.

In the beginning, do not over-exert yourself as you begin to grow an online following, this will come with quality content and time. In your efforts to create quality content and not over-exert though, don’t be afraid to branch out and try something new.

Established Companies

With a brand image and voice already well known, the biggest trick for established companies is remaining relevant in content marketing. No matter if your company resides in Utah or beyond, it is important to keep your content evolving.

Social media now plays a large role in content marketing because it connects Utah businesses not only with Utah but also with the world. Established companies often forget that in order to survive, they must adapt. Some companies refuse to adopt social media and because of that, marketing suffers.

Both established and new companies must be willing to make changes and sacrifices when it comes to successful content marketing. No matter the age of the company, with the right attitude and a solid creative team, success is attainable.

Jul 01
0

A Decade of Web Design Failure: What We Can Learn

By | web development, website design | No Comments

Within the past decade of website design and website development, there has been a lot that has been accomplished — and there have been things that we have been able to learn, both good and bad from both the successes of the good websites and the failures of the forgettable ones. Here are just a few things to take away in case you are hoping to up your website design game and create a website that is both attractive and efficient.

Believe in Yourself and Your Website

The first thing you can do to help yourself on your path to great website design is to believe in yourself and the content that you create. Being good at something like designing a website is very similar to being good at anything else. It takes a lot of practice and determination, but on top of that, you have to have a confidence and belief in yourself that you are great and that you can do great things if you simply put your mind to it. By simply having confidence in yourself, you give yourself the room to try new things and know that it is ok to fail, because those failures are going to lead you to your biggest successes.

The Four-Second Rule

The four-second rule is based off of the idea that you and anyone that visits your site should be able to take one look at your site and be able to decipher what it is about and what it is for in about 4 seconds or less. If your users cannot do this, then your website is too complicated and in need of some simplification.

Keep Constant Contrast

The definition of contrast in website design is the difference in visual properties that make an object distinguishable from other objects in the background. As this relates to your website, you simply need to make sure that the most important parts of your website are distinguished from the rest of it. By doing this, you also make your website much easier to navigate.

Navigation Is Key

The final tip is to make sure that the visitors to your website do not get lost in trying to navigate to different pages around your site. Just because you designed it and can figure it out, obviously does not mean that everyone can. The best thing that you can do is have other people such as friends or other website design professionals come and test your website and give you feedback on where you can improve the most and what aspects you succeed at.

Jul 01
0

What You Should Learn About Your Web Design Firm Before Hiring Them

By | web development, website design | No Comments

Looking for a new web design firm? Before you hire them, have you taken a look at some of their previous work? Here are some things you should learn before hiring a website design firm. Finding a firm that fits with your company is very important. Before starting the process, decide what you are looking for in a web design firm.

Previous Work

Possibly the most important thing when hiring a website design firm is to see their previous work. If the firm does not have a very good return rate with customers and do not keep clients long, that is probably a sign that they do subpar work. Try a find a firm (such as Fusion 360) that has a great history with past clients and has greatly improved their online reach.

Find Out Their Vision

Before hiring a website design firm, it is important to find out what they want to do with your company. Find out their vision and where they see your website going and make sure that what you see and what they see match. A great way to test this is to give them your idea beforehand and then let them set together a plan of what they would do. This is something that can be done before hiring the firm.

Talk to Current & Past Clients

If possible, reach out to current and past clients of the agency and see what they will say — all of Fusion’s clients will say we’re great. Ask what they like and what they dislike and how their business has performed since hiring the firm. Find out what they are good at and make sure that they make enough time for all of their clients.

Learning about your web design firm before hiring them is very important. It could be the difference between going out of business and business booming. Choosing a great firm could become a turning point in the history of your company.

Jun 29
0

What Cord-Cutting Means for Cable Companies

By | marketing | No Comments

It was only a few years ago that the cable TV industry was laughing off the idea of cord cutting. At the time, it appeared to be fringe movement by a few frustrated customers and a handful of upstart millennials. Today, the cable companies wish they had been right.

Marketing companies have been watching the cord-cutting movement closely. What started as a small trend has grown into a formidable movement away from traditional cable TV subscriptions. The number of households that subscribe to cable TV has steadily declined over the past several years; A 2010 study by Experian showed that 4.5 percent of U.S. households were cord free. By 2015 that number had climbed to 7.3 percent. Providers of paid TV are losing an average of 350,000 subscribers each quarter.

What does this mean for the future? Research conducted by TransDigm Group Incorporated shows that in 2011, 101 million households in the United States subscribed to cable TV. The research predicts that at current rates, that number will decline to 95 million households by 2017.\

Marketing companies recommend that cable providers closely monitor the millennial movement. Forrester Research reports that by 2025, 50 percent of American adults under the age of 32 won’t pay for cable TV subscriptions.

This slow but steady move away from cable is undoubtedly affecting cable TV providers financially. The average TV customer pays $123 a month for cable. At the current rate of subscriber loss, cable companies are losing an additional $43 million a month each quarter in subscription fees.

To combat this loss, many cable providers are turning to marketing companies for ideas. Several have begun offering slimmed down subscription packages that feature fewer channels for a cheaper price. Others are creating their own versions of online streaming services, such as Dish Network’s “Sling TV.” Methods may vary, but the key to cable companies staying afloat through the cord-cutting movement is adaptation.

Jun 28
0

“It’s Not You, It’s…” How to Tell Your Client They’re Wrong

By | marketing agencies | No Comments

“You’re tacky and I hate you…” Not everyone can take the “School of Rock” approach when telling someone they’re wrong. When it comes to marketing agencies, that approach would get a slap in the face from a client.

There’s a fine line between being direct and too frank. Feedback promotes honesty, which can build trust. So how does one tell their client that they are absolutely, astronomically wrong on every level without hurting their feelings?

Step Back

Do not groan and do not call them names, even if they suggest Comic Sans font. Take a deep breath and smile, even if you’re only talking on the phone. Remember the client knows best, even if they’re walking into a train wreck like a new relationship with Taylor Swift.

Ask Questions to Clarify

Marketing agencies need to get into their client’s point of view. Empathy is a powerful skill. Think back to your last painful college group project — that you got stuck doing all the work on, freaking Karen from economics — and how you wanted your thoughts and input to matter.

Clarify what they don’t like. Get input from the client as to how they think they want to fix the problem. This way you can find a suitable replacement to incorporate into the work you’ve already done.

Explain Your Process

At this point, use facts, data and your personal experience to make it clear why you chose what you did. I put emphasis on the fact that you need to explain, not defend. They hired you for a reason and should respect your feedback. 

Let It Go

You read that right, pull an Elsa and let it go. The most important skill marketing agencies can perfect is the ability to do what the client wants. If your client is immovable with their decision, sign the release of liability and just do it. Their business is their baby, and through trial and error they will perfect their message. You just take your platinum blonde braid and head back to Arendelle, because the cold never bothered you anyway.

Jun 27
0

Why Are People Cutting the Cord?

By | content marketing | No Comments

Cord-cutting, or the move away from traditional cable TV providers, is an undeniable phenomenon. It reflects the digital revolution that’s happening everywhere from digital marketing companies to grocery stores. This move toward apps and internet streaming begs the question: Why?

Digital marketing companies believe the psychology behind the cord-cutting movement is more than the standard “fewer people are willing to pay huge amounts of money for channels they never watch” answer. The reasoning behind the shift is different for each group of cord-cutting consumers — cord-cutters, cord-reducers and cord-nevers.

Cord-Cutters

Cord-cutters are individuals that completely stop subscribing to cable and satellite TV, instead turning to internet streaming. These people fall closest to the standard answer above; they are sick of paying an average $123 a month for cable TV and have decided to do without. They tend to be people in their 30s and early 40s, young enough to catch the Netflix craze but old enough to have already been paying for their own cable subscriptions. 

Cord-Reducers 

Cord-reducers, on the other hand, tend to encompass an older demographic — people in their late 40s and upward are less likely to cut the cord completely. Instead, they reduce their cable consumption by purchasing smaller packages or select channels. This demographic is more hesitant to move completely to internet streaming, simply because their viewing habits were built solely upon the standard airwaves and cable subscriptions.

Cord-Nevers

Cord-nevers make up the largest group of cord-cutters. Technically, cord-nevers are a class of their own because they never had cords to begin with. Cable companies should fear them more than any other group; recent research shows that 2015 marked the first time the number of cord-nevers exceeded the number of other cord-cutters. The study further predicts that by 2025, 50 percent of adults under the age of 32 won’t pay for cable.

Instead of consciously rejecting cable and satellite TV subscriptions, college students and young professionals are simply bypassing them altogether. Digital marketing companies believe that growing up in the millennial-friendly world of “on demand” means that cord-nevers built their viewing habits upon internet streaming — and don’t intend to change anytime soon.