Blog : Digital Advertising

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Successful Content Marketing Campaigns

Content marketing is the technique for creating and sharing free content to provide the consumer with an additional level of product interaction. It is meant to attract new customers and to encourage current customers into developing a loyal, repeat business. But, it should be more than a portion of a company or product. It should be used as a tool to engage your audience.

Four successful content marketing campaigns:

  • Birchbox – a monthly subscription service that provides an array of carefully selected beauty samples to customers. They use content marketing to enhance the online shopping experience for their customers. Birchbox features articles about personal grooming, fitness, and popular beauty products to engage its customers. This has been the key to Birchbox’s success, allowing Birchbox to create an interactive experience for customers as if they were in a store.
  • Red Bull – the energy drink maker uses its content marketing to blend in with the community that enjoys its products. Red Bull specifically chooses to be associated with extreme sports through their advertising. They provide featured videos, films and photos of extreme sports and stunts to associate high energy with the essence of its community.
  • MasterCard – the financial institution uses their content marketing to create a hassle-free, convenient way for costumers to enjoy MasterCard’s features. On the MasterCard website, MasterCard offers features such as a saving calculator and debt FAQs to assist customers with their finances. To minimize inconvenience for it’s customers, helpful videos and ATM locators are located in its “Priceless Pointers” section on its website.
  • Kraft – the international food conglomerate, mastered the use of content long before it was a popular marketing technique. Kraft’s website features recipes, tips, ideas, and videos to assist customers with their products. They understand the power of connecting with their customers. Kraft has created a forum where customers can go beyond simply sharing their recipes. Customers experience those products on a most basic human level – while breaking bread. Kraft expanded its brand from simply selling their products to forming an online community that has become ingrained in the lives of its consumers.

A company’s content marketing has to be relevant to the company’s mission, products, and services. It should allow customers to consistently learn and engage with a brand. As content marketing continues to grow, it proves to be more of a long-lasting relationship than a trend. Content marketing will continue to be a necessity for companies to grow and actively engage their customers.

Contact Colure’s team to discuss marketing strategies for your business. See how a focused approach on your project can dramatically modify your performance in the marketplace.

SEO For Small Businesses
Ken Bodine

SEO For Small Businesses

Efficient search engine optimization (SEO) is vital to every business. Regardless of size or industry, the critical need to analyze your internet data is key to every business owner. Small business owners are often challenged by not having a staffer dedicated to looking after these affairs. This frequently leaves business owners facilitating both the mechanical end of their business and needing to extend themselves to cover their digital concerns.

Keeping a few tips in mind can help you as wade through these waters:

  1. Never consider you website complete. Because of the dynamic nature of the market, your clients, and your business, you need to constantly tweak your site. It cannot be seen as static, nor can your business.
  2. Learn the mechanics of Google. They’re a dominant force in the internet industry today. In order to understand how your site will interact with the internet, you need to learn how Google operates. Here are three SEO tools to investigate:
      1. Google Webmaster Tools – Explore these tools. They will help you understand how Google views your site and provides you the tools to interact with Google.
      2. Google Analytics – Here you will learn the statistical background of your customers.
      3. Google My Business – Set up a ‘Google My Business’ account. This is a social networking platform to share digital content with businesses and customers. By establishing an account, you increase your visibility across the entire Google network. One of the most critical things to do here is to categorize your business properly. Google allows you to place your business into two of five categories. The purpose for this is so Goggle can better understand your business and is able to provide cleaner search placement results.
  1. Be sure that your content is relevant and up to date. When a customer looks at your page you’ll have less than eight seconds to hold their attention. Make the effort to keep your data current and competitive. It’s important to have clean, easy-to-access information for your customer’s needs.

No matter your size or need, clean and efficient SEO operations are critical to everyone. Colure Media is a advertising and SEO company in New york. We can help your organization rise to the surface in the search engine rankings and organic traffic. If you are interested then contact us now

Project management tools for advertising agencies
Ken Bodine

Project management tools for advertising agencies

Project management tools are designed to help agencies to bring their projects from conception to completion. The ways in which you manage every idea, resource, and staffer will affect your ultimate destination. Given the span of variables in the creation process, it’s impossible to find one simple answer to meet everyone’s needs. Whether you are a team of one or 50 members, success is built upon a systematic approach.

A simple starting point to determine your PM (project management) needs, is to look back at your last three projects. What went wrong? What worked well? Was your problem time management? Was it information management? Was it the way you utilized your teams? Were you able to reconcile your billable hours against your accounts? Did you have an organised plan of attack or did you feel as though you were trying to round-up a bunch of wild cats?

The completion of your project is based on the premise that you have a solid footing in project management. This requires being able to wear multiple managerial hats. When it comes to project management skills, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. It’s critical to identify what skills you have mastered and which may need a bit of help. It’s safe to say that almost everyone needs a bit of assistance with at least one skill. 

An organised approach to your project is critical. Here are a few tools that can help you and your team better understand your project needs. Each of these applications has their own feel; all of these are strong tools to move you closer to a successful completion. 

Suggested Project Management Tools:
  • Tomsplanner.com This is a simple, Gantt chart subscription service. This offers a strong starting point to organize your thoughts. This is a great place to organize a project’s multiple needs and resources.
  • Basecamp.com Organize your teams’ efforts around multiple projects. This system works well by internalizing conversations.
  • Wrike.com This platform likes to expand its communications across email platforms.
  • Getharvest.com This system does a great job of integrating your various finances.
  • Pivotstack.com offers a multitude of services from PM, accounting, and communications.

Every journey begins with a first step. Be sure that you move your project forward, towards a successful destination. To contact Colure’s Project Managers to discuss your visions for successful software development, advertising marketing and concept development. 

Ken Bodine

The power of the “Alex From Target” Campaign

In November 2014, a simple photo of some guy at working at Target was posted on the internet. As a result, untold thousands of people have been going crazy trying to learn more about him. The now cultural icon #alexfromtarget was born. Who is he? Where’s he from? And a lot of girls are asking “Is he single?” The simple answers to a number of those basic questions are answered in a posting from LinkedIn.

The amazing aspect of this story is not that a lot of folks are interested in this guy from Texas. The take-home message is the recognition of how a simple moment in life was specifically manipulated into a breathing, growing internet sensation. It became a very successful media campaign. This is the untapped potential energy (and financial value) of the Internet. This highlights the specific resource that every marketer and advertiser dreams of manipulating.

What is the “Alex From Target” campaign and ‘does it actually matter’?

Consider the implications of being able to motivate millions to comment, to have them make a social comment about their own lives. Imagine bringing people to action just because they saw an image of some guy putting something into a bag. ‘What is the purpose of this campaign?’ That question falls into a far distant second place behind the reality that focused social media has motivated masses of people to action.

As content creators and storytellers, we must know how to share our ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Being able to motivate your audience is a mission-critical goal. Connecting with your audience is at the heart of any media campaign.

In 1989, film director Phil Alden took a group of moviegoers to an obscure cornfield in northeastern Iowa. There, a voice told us “If you build it, he will come…” Those simple words became a catch-phrase that changed the cultural landscape of a generation. If you ever have the pleasure to actually stand upon home-plate at the ‘Field of Dreams’, in Dyersville, IA (as I have), you will feel the magic.

Both of these are strong examples of how a simple idea became a cultural event. Have faith in your ideas, belief in your dreams and clarity in your visions. Whether you plan to write a simple blog or to engineer the most incredible mobile application, keep in mind that any social movement begins with a simple idea.

Contact Colure’s storytellers and software engineers to express your dreams. We hope 2015 will bring your dreams to fruition.

Marketing mobile applications
Ken Bodine

Marketing mobile applications

How should you approach the marketing of your newly designed mobile application? Competition within the mobile apps market has never been more fierce. Both Google Play and The Apple Store each offer over 1.3 million apps available for download. Each day, the competition grows tighter. The fight for market share grows tougher. At every turn, someone smarter, faster, and possessing a potentially better mouse trap releases a new application.

So how do you compete? How do you possibly fight for elbow room on the worldwide stage? How do you struggle against a competition with seemingly endless resources? The answer is to be smart in the way you prepare for the fight. To paraphrase an ancient (4th or 5th Century) text ‘the best victory is achieved when the war is won before the battle begins.’

Create a Marketing Strategy

  • Establish a solid Pre-Launch Strategy

Before you spend your limited resources on development, you need to know if you have a place in the market. Do your homework with a competitive market analysis. Find out if there is a viable market for your product. If so, use this exercise to define that market. You must know exactly who are your customers, the market, and your competition. Learn these things before you begin your development. If not, you are wasting your resources.

  • Maximize social media

Create an impressive demo video of your product or service. Utilize social media to maximize your message. Craft your message to reach a very specific audience. Be sure that you are marketing your ideas is a way that communicates to your customer base. You can’t just toss out an app and expect people to find it. Create media kits you’ll provide to industry icons who review and promote new applications.

  • Maximize the resources of the app stores

If you plan to release in one of the major application stores, be sure to research how to best make use of their resources. Find out how other competitors have marketed their products and learn from their experiences.

Regardless of your strengths, you must first understand your own weaknesses. No matter how smart, how fast, or how rich you are, there is always someone faster, smarter, better and less expensive than yourself. That’s a reality of life. Position yourself to compete in the marketplace wisely. Learn from the mistakes of others. Grow from the guidance of those who have successfully completed the process. Be sure you understand that while you may feel your plan may be battle-ready, your competition will do everything they can, to destroy your market share.

The failure to plan is planning to fail.

Contact now to Colure Media for establishing a focused plan of attack for your mobile application.

Application (app) Store Optimization – ASO
Ken Bodine

Application (app) Store Optimization – ASO

App Store Optimization (ASO) is the act of improving the visibility of an app amongst the competition.

Proper marketing for your application is critical to your business’ success. Customers must be able to

easily find your app, and have all of their questions answered within a very limited space.

According to a 2013 Forrester Research report, 63% of apps are located in app store searches.

Today’s app marketplace is ruled by two major app stores – Google Play and the Apple Store.

Millions of apps are being marketed to an ever growing audience. How you position yourself against

the competition can determine your success in the marketplace.

Before you start, you must have a crystal clear vision of your company, your application’s functions,

your specific audience, and the mechanisms you’ll use to bring those parties together. The way in

which you craft the release of your new application is as critical as the design of the application itself.

ASO Ideas

These are a few key themes for your app store listing:

  • Optimize your Title – be sure that the title is clean and simple. This is the biggest opportunity to describe your application and its function to the audience. Try to keep it under 25 characters. It’s tempting to be ‘cute’ with an app name. Be sure you keep your focus when you select the name.
  • Optimize your Keywords – Separate all keywords with commas, no spaces. Be sure to leave no empty spaces in keywords area. Empty spaces are wasted characters – don’t waste opportunities to squeeze in possibly one more word into the keyword area. Maximize your searchability with crafted words.
  • Description – This is your key opportunity to explain your app to the world. Be sure that you are focused in your words. Check the limits for text allowed in each posting. If you need, hire someone who writes professionally, to maximize this opportunity. Here, you must be crystal clear with your customer. Be sure to address the ASO needs of both your human and search engine audiences.
  • Unique Icon – Each app should have a unique visual icon that identifies the application. Try to avoid words in the icon.
  • Screenshots – Most customers examine the screenshots to see if they like the ‘feel’ of the app’s layout.
  • Fill out the “What’s New” area – Update this area frequently, as changes are made to your app. This demonstrates that you are actively listening to the needs of the customers and the industry.
  • Preview everything – Be sure the layouts are displayed the way you intended, before publication.

These are the foundations for any ASO effort. Be sure that you enter the marketplace with a strong

footing. Contact now the Colure staff about both building and marketing your next mobile application.

Why is the mobile app industry worth $25 billion?
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Why is the mobile app industry worth $25 billion?

Mobile apps usage continues to grow. They’re a tool used by more and more companies. As the volume of applications grow in the business world, so do the dollars spent on app development. In a MarketsandMarkets report, the mobile app industry will be worth an estimated $25 billion (US) in 2015. Does your company need a mobile app developed? If so, how will you proceed?

You need to keep a few thoughts in mind while you consider developing an app:

  • The first questions you should ask yourself are, “Is this a task-oriented mobile app?” “Does it have a function, a purpose?” “Is it filling some void in the market?” “If so, specifically – what is that need?” Don’t put out an app ‘just to put out an app’.
  • This app should be the justification for all of the effort, pain, time, money and stress that you and your staff will allocate for its creation. In other words, ‘will it be worth all of the effort?’
  • Who is my target audience? Am I putting this together to help my customers understand my services or products? Am I creating this to aid my sales staff to better market their products? Will this app help streamline our employee’s workflow by eliminating paperwork?
  • Is it affordable? Should we try to do this ourselves or hire an outside firm to do the work? Is it possible to go mobile on a budget?

Your answers will help shape your course of action.

Here are several other considerations that may modify your choices. Remember that:

  • customers establish a strong connection between the value of your website and the value of your company. They will make the same connection between the quality of your app and quality of your company. If your app comes off as cheesy, or as having little value, that same correlation may very well be made to your company.
  • affordable apps can be made quickly and cheaply, but the real value is measured in terms how that app connects to your customer. If your customers see ‘older looking’ graphics, or find less functionality in the application (than should be reasonably expected), those deficiencies will translate into a loss of customer trust in your company.
  • To you, what is the true value of your customers’ experience? To which level do you honestly appreciate their quality of interaction with your company? To which extent are you willing to invest to provide a positive, proactive experience to your customer?
  • What happens if there are problems with you mobile app? Will you have support, if any (in terms of expertise and time) to help you? What happens if things go sideways?

In the end, the questions of quality, support, cost (expenses vs. effort), and the cost-benefits gained will determine how you establish your budgets for the application. You know your business better than anyone else. If you are not impressed with the application, there’s a good chance you customers too, will not be impressed.

With that said, apps have a critical role in today’s business world. They facilitate function and access. As with everything in life, you only have one chance to make a good 1st impression. Be sure that your app is the finest that it can be, for both you and your customer. Embrace the challenge. Speak with Colure to define your application’s development and marketing.

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Advertising Rule of Thumb

Advertising Rule of Thumb “Advertising expenditures account for $5.8 trillion in economic output in the U.S. or 20 percent of the $29.6 trillion in total economic output in the nation. Advertising driven sales of products and services help support 19,753,994 jobs, or 15%, of the 133.4 million jobs in the United States.  Every dollar spent on advertising generates just under $20 of economic output, and every million dollars of ad spending supports 69 American jobs.”

(Source: IHS Global Insight found that in 2010)

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Yesterday’s Old Phone Book

Yesterdays old phone book is today’s new “search engine”

Have you used a search engine in the last week? 95% of the searches used a search engine to find their product (67% alone on Google) 1.2 trillion – Number of searches on Google in 2012. Where is your product when your consumers search for it online? Are you truly optimized? (Source: Google Official History, Comscore)

phone book