News - Icon Visual Marketing

How to keep marketing in uncertain times

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 04:55:04 GMT

In tough and uncertain times, it’s very tempting to trim marketing budgets but that approach is very shortsighted and needs to be examined carefully. Instead, consider seeing marketing as an important part of long-term growth.

During difficult times, it is the innovators that rise to the top. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were many productive marketing advances and many companies that grew exponentially as a result of embracing them. One big change occurred in how products were brought to the market, leading to huge growth in home deliveries for example, for many companies. Overnight, many innovative companies had to rethink their whole marketing strategy. Those that panicked didn’t survive. Those that transformed, thrived.

Instead of making blanket cuts across the board, eliminate inefficient spend and reinvest in high-growth areas. This gives your company the chance to weather that rough patch and create opportunities to rebound strongly.

In our experience, businesses that continue their marketing programs during downturns come out faster and stronger. If you took the opposite approach and cut your marketing spend, your competitors gain share of voice and ultimately sales.

Here are a few things we’ve learnt during our 20 years as a thriving marketing agency:

Maintain continuity

During a downturn it’s very tempting to compromise on many aspects of your business. Continuity is essential during good and bad times.

Your brand’s core values should be embraced during these times. This flies in the face of commercial pressures for compromise on aspects like quality, transparency, service or whatever it is that sets you apart.

In our experience, brands that remain present during economic downturns remain relevant to customers, keeping existing ones happy and attracting new ones. Some of your customers may have less disposable income or have prioritised their spend in different places but keeping in front of them is still important.

By being the visible and consistent company, when they do have money to spend, you’ll be high on their shortlist because you they may think your product or service is the only option that seems to be available. Your competitors, who’ve cut budgets are much less visible and to some may be invisible.

Stand out from the crowd

As well as maintaining continuity you’ll be able to stand out from the crowd if you maintain or increase your marketing spend while your competitors are cutting their budgets.

Often during economic downturns, it’s the norm rather than the exception to cut marketing budgets, but by doing so they are reducing their share of voice to potential customers. By continuing with your marketing program, you will fill the void left in their wake.

It is also likely that media companies are also experiencing a downturn in sales, so you can buy at better prices, particularly in large-scale digital marketplaces.

So, you get the double benefit of paying less to reach more customers and having less competitors to distinguish your business’ products or service from. A win, win.

Focus on the marketing activities that work best

A turbulent economic environment is a great time to bring discipline to your marketing program. It doesn’t necessarily mean cost cutting, it could involve redeploying resources to your most relevant and successful marketing activities that have proven their worth.

By employing accurate measurement tools you’ll be able to identify the areas you need to put your focus on. Now is not the time to experiment, but the time to stick with the activities providing the best results.

Maintain and nurture relationships

Most businesses are successful because they maintain and nurture relationships in good and bad times. Relationships with customers, suppliers, distributors, and staff are all essential to run a great business. You know the adage that retaining existing customers will always be easier than acquiring new ones.

Many companies make the mistake of sacrificing relationships when faced with economic hardship. And it’s true that there will be difficult choices to make but making knee-jerk decisions will not help you survive the bad times.

This period could be an opportunity to create advocates for your brand and business, while your competitors are cutting ties with theirs. For example, going above and beyond for customers in tough times will not be forgotten, and it’s more likely that they’ll recommend your product or service to others.

Need help with your next marketing campaign?

If you need help re-prioritising your current marketing strategy or raising your brand profile right now, Icon Visual Marketing can help.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we have a team of marketing strategy experts who can help you stand out from the crowd even during an economic downturn.

What is paid, earned, shared and owned media?

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 01:00:00 GMT

Media is complex. Much more than it used to be. Since the dawn of the internet and rise of social media, the number of media options has exploded. For a marketing manager, they are like pieces of a puzzle, interconnecting and working together.

So, how does a marketing manager make the pieces form a nice, big, beautiful picture, to successfully stand out not only amongst the competition but above the vast array of media noise?

American digital marketing expert, Gini Dietrich, identified four types of media: Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned. She called it the PESO model . Here we look at the four types of media. We describe and analyse each one and discuss how they all fit together.

What is paid media?

With the impact of the internet and social media, paid media now encompasses much more than television, radio, and print media. Often called sponsored content, paid media includes social media and web banner ads.

Paid media is a great way to quickly reach your target audience, but as the name suggests, you pay for the privilege.

Examples of paid media include:

Search ads
Media advertising
Affiliate marketing
Advertorials

You can be specific with your target audience and only pay for your ads to be seen by particular demographics. Think of it as like paying to put an ad for a motorcycle in a motorcycling magazine. You’re reaching the people most likely to be interested in your brand or product.

You will normally use paid media if you have a specific target in mind. For example, if you are launching a new product or a new offer, running a competition or making an announcement. How much you want to spend depends on your budget and this will often determine which platform or channel you use, along with target audience and desired outcomes.

Commonly used channels for paid media include streaming services such as Spotify, YouTube, and digital TV channels.

Tracking paid media

While often difficult to accurately track its effectiveness, paid media is usually tracked in terms of reach by media monitoring. Digital paid advertising is easier to track with Google Analytics. The tracking allows you to adjust your paid media to be more effective.

What is earned media?

Earned media describes the attention you receive from sources that you do not control or pay for. It originates voluntarily from other sources. This includes review sites, media outlets, and blogs that mention your brand. While these mentions are valuable for readers to discover, word-of-mouth mentions from friends or acquaintances are often more beneficial when trying to convert a passer-by into a customer. Earned media is usually seen as independent and therefore trustworthy.

Examples of earned media include:

Word-of-mouth endorsements
Media coverage and publicity
Industry awards
Organic online reviews
Third party testimonials

Tracking earned media

While sometimes difficult to track, earned media can be highly effective for its trustworthiness. Monitoring hashtags is a way to check on your earned media. Icon Visual Marketing has the resources to track earned media by checking the reach and effectiveness of influencers, online reviews, and media coverage.

What is shared media?

Shared media is when your brand or product is mentioned in media, particularly social media. It could be posts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and LinkedIn. Like earned media, shared media may come from any source, including other companies, customers and anyone else who feels compelled to mention your product without your prompting.

Examples of shared media include:

Social media content
Content that relies on sharing

Shared media is usually generated by your customers and followers. You have no control over shared media, which can be wonderful if your product creates a buzz on social media but disastrous if you have an issue that creates negative attention. Things can go viral quickly and it’s out of your control.

Shared media is ideal for engagement, consumer interaction and generating a conversation about your brand. It can often spread to an audience you might not be able to reach through paid media.

Tracking shared media

Shared media is impossible to accurately track, as you have no control of where and when your brand is being mentioned. Many people don’t use hashtags when discussing your brand on social media, and those mentions often fly under the radar.

What is owned media?

Owned media is content over which you have control – you control the content, and you control who sees it. It’s what you create, publish, and share on channels of which you manage. Owned media can be hosted or shared.

Owned media includes:

Websites
Social media accounts
Blogs
Podcasts
Email marketing
eBooks and whitepapers
Newsletters
Videos

Owned media is the best place to showcase your brand and its positioning. This is the media you control, so the overall strategy is to demonstrate what your brand is about and what you have to offer. It’s your best avenue to demonstrate thought leadership.

Each piece of content needs to have a purpose and direction. It should have a single overall message about your brand – to increase leads or brand awareness or educate existing leads. It should fit in at some point of the marketing sales funnel.

Sales & Marketing Funnel

You content should be SEO-friendly . It needs to not only be something people would click to read, but it also needs to be original and of good quality. It should contain images, graphs, infographics, videos or other visual devices to make it authoritative, on topic, interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention, and strong enough for search engines to direct people to.

It should also be measurable. You should be able to see how much interest is taken in your content so you know what attracts and engages people and what does not. The aim is to continually improve your content.

If you would like help publishing your brand’s owned media, Icon Visual Marketing has an expert team that produces owned media content for clients every day.

Tracking owned media

Owned media is the easiest of the media types to track. You can check on clicks on pages of your website and how many people open your emails, and the click-throughs you receive.

How the four types of media work together

In a perfect world, all four forms of media work in harmony to give your brand the desired path down the marketing funnel, that being awareness, engagement, and conversion.

Often, one form of media can drive another. For example, your paid media can be the starting point for earned media. Your owned media can generate shared media.

The greatest value is where the media overlap. It is recommended that you lead with media that provides the best strength for your campaign.

When the four overlap, it means the content you are producing is being seen and shared. It is giving your brand great awareness and engagement, which hopefully leads to conversion and sales. Unfortunately, you can’t force all four types of media to overlap. But with a good strategy and strong creative, you have a good chance to make those pieces interconnect and generate sales.

Making sense of the media mix

Media marketing is a complex web of channels and platforms making it a challenge to master. Under the PESO model, it’s when the four types of media, Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned are used strategically and overlap that you gain the best use of your marketing dollar.

Icon Visual Marketing uses the four types of media to develop a marketing strategy that will serve your brand in the most efficient way. Icon works with you, as part of your marketing department, with experts across all fields of media and the creation of strategies and campaigns.

Keen to learn how we can develop a marketing strategy that works for your business? Contact us today for an obligation free chat.

Icon celebrates 20 years in business

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 23:47:42 GMT

When we launched in 2003, the trend in agencies was to provide a specialist service, like creative or media buying. But we saw the opportunity to offer full-service marketing to our clients, taking the pain away from managing multiple agencies with multiple processes.

We’ve chosen to continue to base ourselves in the Macarthur region, moving to Campbelltown in our current office nearly six years ago.

This has enabled us to build strong working relationships with many companies in our region including property developers, builders, manufacturers, local Councils, venues, and many more. We’ve also worked with loads of companies outside the region which is becoming so much easier with the aid of technology. We’re not just suppliers, but genuine business partners.

I’d like to thank the many clients I’ve worked alongside in the past 20 years and look forward to continuing many of those relationships.

The other key component of any successful business is the people that work within it. I’ve been so fortunate to work with some amazing people at Icon, many of whom are long-term current employees. Sometimes it’s been sad to say goodbye to fabulous people, but I’ve always wished them well, and felt content that Icon has contributed to their growth as a person, and to their career development.

I wish I could thank everyone personally because there have been so many wonderful humans who have worked for Icon over the past two decades.

The years of Icon have presented many challenges and plenty of learning curves. But more than anything, I reflect on them with affection and gratitude as I have watched it transform from an idea to a living, breathing reality. Bring on the next 20.

6 Steps to Creating a Content Strategy

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 22:30:00 GMT

If marketers learned anything from the COVID era, it’s the importance of remaining agile with their plans and strategies. That includes content marketing strategies. During those uncertain COVID times, the savvy marketers read the landscape, adapted their strategies, and continued to thrive.

At any time, it is essential to have a content marketing plan, constantly review it and be prepared to revise it. Sydney marketing agency, Icon Visual Marketing can help you, just as we have helped many great brands adapt their content marketing over the last 20 years.

What is a content marketing strategy?

A content marketing strategy is the development of a plan using content to achieve business goals, including customer purchases, building relationships with customers, and building brand awareness.

Content includes:

written text, such as social media posts and website copy,
visual images, such as videos, still images, logos and lockups, and
audio, such as sound bites, recorded messages and music.

Source: https://www.ubermetrics-technologies.com/

Why is a content marketing strategy important for your business?

A content marketing strategy is important for your business because it:

Helps you work towards your business goals
Attracts new customers
Creates trust in your existing and potential customers
Invites engagement
Encourages a call to action, including sales conversions
Helps you compete with other brands
Helps you to maintain an awareness level

Steps to creating a winning content strategy

Creating a content strategy is straightforward but takes planning. At Icon Visual Marketing, we can help you create a content strategy that fits in with your business plans and your brand personality, achieves results and helps your business thrive.

1. Determine your goal

As there are several directions to take with a content strategy, you need to clearly define your goal. Do you want to raise brand awareness? Do you want to sell product? Do you want to change public perception?

In any marketing strategy, you should follow a Marketing Funnel:

At the top of the funnel is Awareness . Brand Awareness refers to the familiarity of consumers with a particular product or service, differentiating it from competing brands. Obviously, your customers need to be aware of you before they can make a decision to use your products or services. You need Awareness before you can proceed further down the funnel.

The next step in the funnel is Engagement . Brand Engagement is when your customer interacts with your brand and is a more intimate step in the funnel than Awareness. The better the engagement, the more loyal your customer is likely to be. Engagement includes when a potential customer clicks on your social media post or ad, or visits your website, taking their relationship with your brand a step beyond Awareness.

The last step in the funnel is Conversion . This is when your customer makes the conscious decision to purchase your product or service and is the ultimate goal for any business.

Your content strategy can fit anywhere in the funnel. The clearer the goal, the easier it is to set a path towards reaching that goal.

2. Define your audience

Understanding who your audience is will help you create and publish content that reaches the right people. Consider variables such as age range, income, location, likes and dislikes, news source, etc. It all helps to define your audience. They are your audience. It’s fine to have thousands of followers on social media, but if few of them fall into your audience category, they’re not going to engage with your brand. It’s quality over quantity. The more you know about your audience, the better.

Ways to define your audience include:

Conduct research
Talk to your existing clients
Define your desired audience
Refer to data such as Google Analytics
Create personas
Analyse competitors and their activity

Sydney marketing agency, Icon Visual Marketing, can help define your audience using all the methods listed above.

3. Audit your content

An audit of your content can reveal an astonishing amount of information, and help you understand what is working and what is not.

These questions and more can be answered in an audit of your content:

Is your content up to date?
Does it serve a purpose?
Is the message correct?
Is the hierarchy of messages correct?
Does it work for SEO purposes?
Are you getting sufficient click-throughs?
What are your bounce rates?
What is the average time a visitor spends on your website?
Are your eDMs performing?

Icon Visual Marketing can audit your content to see if it is helping your brand.

4. Check your content management system

A content management system (CMS) is a term for the software that you use to create your website. Common examples are WordPress , Joomla , and Duda which make it easy to create websites without specific training. You can choose one based on what your business is, for example, Joomla is great for large businesses where as Duda is ideal for small businesses.

It’s important to choose the right CMS so you’re not wasting time and money with a system that doesn’t suit your purposes. A good marketing company can recommend what you need quite quickly. Speak to us at Icon Visual Marketing and we can set your straight. We can also build your site, switch over to a CMS that better suits your needs if necessary and host it for you.

5. Choose which content channel is best for your brand

Generally, you wouldn’t choose just one type of content. You would use several, and importantly it should all work in harmony. All your content should link, build upon a message, and all have a similar tone of voice. You don’t want your messages conflicting. Some might speak to different audiences, but in the long run, all your content should look like it belongs to the same family.

Above we spoke of the Marketing Funnel. It applies here as well. Different messages suit different types of content.

For example, if you like to raise brand awareness, you might use paid advertising on LinkedIn, paid search advertising on Google or invest in some blog writing. If you want to make conversions, you can use paid Facebook advertising or eDMS (email marketing).

Choosing the best content would be done by considering your brand character and the audience you want to reach. For example, if your audience is on Facebook, you would naturally use that channel as opposed to a more youth-oriented channel such as TikTok.

6. Manage your content

It’s important to maintain control over your content. It should remain fresh, relevant and accurate. You don’t want expired messages being appearing. For example, on social media, your posts might show the date of posting. So a visitor to your socials can see if your posts are current or out of date. Being dormant on social media can make it appear as though your company no longer exists.

Content should be set to a plan. For example, social media posts should be posted at regular intervals. Content such as eDMs should be sent to subscribers on a planned basis rather than ad hoc.

By managing your content, you are managing what messages your audience is seeing and when they are seeing them. Icon Visual Marketing has extensive experience in managing content for clients. We can give you a content planner or we can set it for you.

How often should you update your content marketing strategy?

There is no definitive answer to the question of how often your content marketing strategy should be updated. A content marketing strategy should be updated as often as necessary. As mentioned in the first paragraph, it’s important to remain agile and ready to adapt to market pressures. Conditions might depend on the industry and environment you are in.

A highly competitive market would mean you would be constantly reviewing and updating your strategy. If you are in an industry where online content is not a priority, you would not need to update your strategy as often.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we are always working with clients, reviewing, and updating their content strategy. We can do the same for you across all media and all content variations.

Creating a content marketing strategy will help you achieve your goals. It’s important to remain agile and review your content strategy as often as necessary. Icon Visual Marketing is a Sydney marketing agency with 20 years’ experience creating marketing content strategies for large and small clients. We can help you. Contact us for a free quote.

6 TikTok Marketing Strategies for Brands

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 23:52:40 GMT

In a few short years, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. In Australia it ranks sixth in terms of popularity of social media platforms and has over one billion users globally. Every day, the average user spends 52 minutes on TikTok. In Australia the figure is 26 minutes a day. These are impressive figures.

When something becomes that popular it becomes a magnet for marketing. And the people at TikTok understand that and have made it easy for brands to use their platform as a unique way of promoting products and services.

Source: https://www.ubermetrics-technologies.com/

Why TikTok marketing?

It’s important to understand that TikTok is growing and is a handy channel to use. Once you grasp how TikTok works, it is relatively easy to use and add to your marketing portfolio. Whether you’re a TikTok expert or new to the platform, Icon Visual Marketing can help you make your mark on TikTok.

According to TikTok, 92% of users globally take action after watching a TikTok video. It has proved to be a highly profitable app in terms of generating revenue.

TikTok is more popular with females than males, and most popular with people aged 18-24.

Although it’s designed for entertainment, TikTok is set up to help brands, and offers tips and advice on how to use the platform for effective marketing.

How does TikTok work?

TikTok is a very visual channel where users create brief self-made videos. TikTok has its own editing tools, effects, filters, music and sound bites that you can add to your video. Videos of dancing and lip-syncing are very popular. Because of TikTok’s format of brief, amusing videos people tend to stay on it for a while, scrolling through content.

Like other social media platforms, people can ‘like’ and comment on videos. Videos can also be shared to other platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook.

TikTok strategies and tips for brands

At Icon Visual Marketing, we understand that getting your head around a new type of social media might not be appealing to you. But hopefully, you’ll understand that you can give your marketing a huge boost by embracing TikTok and using it to your advantage. We’re happy to guide you and we can also manage the account on your behalf, just as we manage the social media accounts for many of our clients.

We recommend setting up a TikTok business account (rather than simply a personal account). Having a TikTok business account allows you to see your analytics, which means you see the data of your audience interaction. It will allow you to see what’s working and what’s not.

If you’re ready to tackle it yourself, here are some tips.

1. Post new content regularly

Frequently posting content is a good thing on TikTok. You'll gain followers and interaction. The more you post, the more your videos will have a chance of capturing the eye of people you want following you.

2. Make your content interesting

It goes without saying, but your content should be interesting enough to hold someone’s attention for a brief amount of time. As with all social media, it’s easy to scroll past something, so capturing attention in the first few seconds is crucial.

Also, avoid creating videos that are too slick. People don’t want professional ads on TikTok. They want informal home-made amusement. It gives the viewer a closer connection with the creator.

3. Keep up to date with trends

If you’re on TikTok, you should know about the latest trends on the platform.

Themes, music, videos, influencers, hashtags, challenges, effects – can all ‘trend’. Latching onto a trend can help your videos be seen by a wide audience. You can check the latest TikTok trends at a dedicated TikTok trends page.

A popular trend that marketers use is to create challenges. You can set up a challenge and invite people to share videos of themselves having a go at it. Here are some TikTok challenges that have been popular.

TikTok allows you to easily add effects to your videos. Effects gives you the opportunity to make your videos distinctive – but you should avoid the temptation to overdo it.

4. Use hashtags

The use of hashtags is one of the best ways to spread the word about your videos. They categorise your video so when people search under those categories, your video might show up. You would normally use hashtags that are associated with your video. It’s important that you make the most of hashtags on TikTok if you want to be successful.

5. Use influencers

Influencers are people who have built up a large following on social media. They are not necessarily celebrities but are often people who have produced a large number of quality, attention grabbing videos of a particular category. As a business, you can identify influencers that could be associated with and endorse your brand. They can reach potential customers where other forms of paid advertising might not. They will expect a payment or reward to act on behalf of your brand.

You might not need one of the top influencers to get your message out there. Micro-influencers can be more effective for you to reach your niche target market.

6. Use TikTok ads

With TikTok Ads, you can pay to have advertising on TikTok. Many world-famous brands use TikTok Ads effectively to reach a wider audience. It can put your content up front with your audience.

TikTok Ads is an opportunity to be personal. Avoid making polished ads or sharing your quality YouTube content on TikTok. You can show everyday people using your product or show demonstrations and behind the scenes footage of your product.

Create a TikTok strategy for your brand

The first step in your TikTok marketing journey is to make a plan, bearing in mind that TikTok is more about creating brand aw areness than generating sales. Consider all the points above as well as the timing.

Who is your audience?

Establish your audience so you can speak at their level about things that are of interest to them.

Is your audience on TikTok?

The audience demographics on social media platforms change, so it's important to establish whether TikTok is the right place for your brand.

What do they want to see?

Social media platforms each have their quirks and idiosyncrasies. TikTok is no different. The content you put on TikTok should suit the format.

Does TikTok align with your brand's identity?

Understanding the demographic of those on TikTok will help you know whether it suits your brand's identity.

Are your competitors on TikTok?

If your competitors are on TikTok it might be a good idea to also have your brand on TikTok. If they aren't on TikTok you could have the space to yourself.

What is the best time to post on TikTok?

Determining the best time to post on TikTok takes trial and error. Getting the timing right can add a lot of views, likes, and shares to your post. The best way to find out is by trial and error.

How to open a TikTok business account

By choosing a TikTok business account, you will have data at your fingertips. You can see your audience statistics and determine what’s working and what isn’t.

To open a TikTok business account, download and open the TikTok app.

Create a new personal account
Tap Profile in the lower right corner
Tap Edit Profile
Switch to a Business Account (tap the three horizontal lines on the top right, click on settings and privacy, click on account)
Click on Switch to Business Account

Icon Visual Marketing is highly experienced at using social media to create awareness and engage audiences. Our team of experienced digital marketing strategists can work with you to create and implement a TikTok strategy template which will give you direction on planning and launching successful campaigns and tracking the performance to ensure your TikTok strategy is on target.

Icon's unique TikTok identity

Icon Visual Marketing has a unique channel on TikTok called Local Connexions. Launched in October 2022, Local Connexions is not about Icon but is instead a community service identity providing information about points of interest and events in Sydney’s Macarthur area. It’s a unique way Icon is both discovering, testing, and demonstrating the power of TikTok. We invite you to check out @Local Connexions on TikTok.

Have we convinced you about TikTok?

Given its popularity, there is no denying that TikTok is a potentially powerful social media platform for your brand. It’s a matter of understanding its unique character and the way it is used to become successful as a marketer on the platform. If you want to integrate TikTok into your marketing plan, then contact us today.

Do social media ads work?

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 22:12:11 GMT

Social media advertising is an effective and cost-efficient way to build awareness, generate leads, and increase sales. It is an effective tool to help influence consumer decision making along the path to purchase.

Social media ads can be found across a variety of different social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube. All of these social media channels provide excellent ways for brands to reach their target audience.

Social media ads are particularly successful because they can be tailored to the user’s interests, needs, and even location. Not only do they align with the audience’s personal interests, but they can also be interactive, encouraging people to engage with your brand’s content.

At Icon Visual Marketing our clients often ask us ‘'why is social media advertising effective’, and we tell them complement other marketing activities and form a key part of many of our campaigns.

What are social media ads?

In simple terms, social media advertising is a form of internet advertising that allows you to reach potential customers on social media. This can include display ads on your favourite social media site, like Facebook or Twitter, or consist of a sponsored post from an influencer with a Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter account.

Social media ads are particularly impactful because they allow you to deliver your advertising message to your potential buyers throughout their decision making journey.

Social media advertising is different from traditional advertising due to its sophisticated targeting capabilities and enables brands to connect with the ideal buyers based on their geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics/traits.

Why is social media advertising so important for the marketing funnel?

A marketing funnel is used to represent the steps your customers take from brand awareness to purchase, and social media advertising can play an important role across many different stages.

The upper funnel marketing activities are focused on making sure you have brand awareness among prospective buyers. The middle funnel is ensuring your brand is part of the consideration set when a customer is actively researching their options. And the lower funnel is doing everything you can to convert known active buyers to purchase your product.

Social media advertising can be used in each of these stages to help guide your audience along the customer journey.

Reasons why you should advertise on social media

There are many reasons why you should advertise on social media including:

Reach new customers
Low cost of entry
Gain audience insights
Wide range of formats

1. Reach new customers

Social media advertising allows you to reach out to and connect with new people who may benefit from your products or services.

Social media ads target users based on their interests, behaviours, and other demographic data, and can reach people who may not know about your brand or that your products or services even exist. By seeing your prospecting ad, they may realise that they could benefit from your product or service.

2. Low cost of entry

Compared to traditional advertising, the cost of social media advertising is significantly lower, so it is ideal if you only have a small budget.

3. Gain audience insights

Using the built-in tools of social platforms, you can understand audience breakdowns and how they relate to performance. On Facebook, for example, you can view a particular audience’s age and gender breakdown, relationship status, education level, job titles, location, device activity, and more.

By using reporting, audience insights, and ad placement-specific features, you can gain valuable information to target your prospective customers. You can also use these learnings to apply them to other advertising platforms.

4. Wide range of formats

Each social platform has its own ad specs, placements, and formats, but there are common denominators across platforms. You can also use a range of images, video footage within horizontal and vertical formats and really mix it up. An option that has become popular is the ‘reels’ or ‘stories’ format. It can be found in organic posts but also for social media advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.Compared to traditional advertising, the cost of social media advertising is significantly lower, so it is ideal if you only have a small budget.

How effective are social media ads?

You can measure the effectiveness of your social media campaigns and your return on investment by tracking your results. On Facebook, this information is built directly into its Ads Manager platform, making it possible to view your budget's performance and analyse return on ad spend, cost per website purchase, cost per lead and much more.

You can directly track how your ad spend is performing, making it possible to cut under-performing campaigns and ramp up successful campaigns to bring even more results.

What social platforms can you advertise on?

There are many social media platforms to choose from, and each comes with an audience that brings different advertising potential. When deciding which social networks to use, it depends on who you’re trying to reach and which social platform that audience favours.

Popular choices include Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, but there is also Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Facebook

Facebook has almost two billion daily active users, making it one of the most popular social media platforms today. It has built-in tools that are great for optimising and targeting, enabling marketers to create a true buyer’s journey within the platform.

It’s an ideal platform if you have a good understanding of your niche audience and you’ve determined that they are big Facebook users.

Instagram

Instagram has around 500 million daily active users and is particularly popular amongst 18 to 34-year-olds. It’s a very visual platform so needs to include high-quality photography, both still and video to stand out from the crowd.

YouTube

YouTube boasts an audience of over two billion monthly users, is especially popular with younger audiences and reaches more adults aged 18 to 24 than any television network. YouTube is the obvious platform for long-form video content, but it’s also focusing on competing with TikTok and Instagram in short-form video.

For YouTube advertising to be successful you need to understand who your niche audience is and whether they are on YouTube.

Need help creating your social media advertising campaign?

To help you incorporate social media advertising in your next campaign, you need the help of a professional digital marketing agency like Icon Visual Marketing.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we have a team of digital design and strategy experts who can develop your digital strategy , create your display ad assets, and execute, optimise and report on your campaign performance.

Why use a video marketing agency?

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 01:19:17 GMT

The use and impact of video has never been greater. YouTube, TikTok, Reels, LinkedIn and more – videos are everywhere. We watch them for entertainment, education, advertising and simply passing the time.

Consequently, marketing agencies have embraced the power of video content to spread brand awareness, offers and information. And it has clearly proved to be an effective medium. According to Hubspot, 99% of brands who already use video will use it in the future .

Billions of people use YouTube every day. YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google. All brands should be harnessing the power of YouTube.

These days, it’s important that brands have access to professional video production services, which can be achieved via a video marketing agency, such as Icon Visual Marketing.

Why are videos popular?

With the widespread use of videos, here are some reasons why they have become so popular:

Visually pleasing: watching a video is more entertaining than diagrams or written words.
Easy to digest: watching a person explaining something verbally and visually is more comprehendible than reading about it.
Catch the eye: movement is far more captivating and engaging than still images.
Authority: a video is usually perceived to be from an authority, so it is often trusted.
Mobile friendly: watching a video on a smart phone is easier than reading text on the same device.

A great example of the impact of videos is when people are having trouble understanding how to assemble a new product or make it work efficiently, they turn to YouTube. Consider a person with limited English trying to assemble an item where the printed directions are in English. Videos don’t necessarily need someone to understand the language as long as the visual demonstration is clear.

Sources:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-video-consumption-is-changing

https://au.oberlo.com/blog/youtube-statistics

WHy are videos popular with brands?

Many brands now have video worked into their marketing strategy somewhere . Whether it’s to educate staff or to announce a new product, the impact of videos makes them highly popular.

Demonstrate your company’s expertise
Communicate your brand’s message in a clear and precise way
Increase your brand’s recognition
Help establish a brand personality
Generate leads within your target audience
Are a cost-effective method of marketing with positive ROI
Have flexibility to be used across various platforms, such as eDMs, social media, website, POS, online streaming services
Lead to viewers spending more time on your website
Help your website’s SEO

Want to create videos for marketing but don’t know how to go about it? At Icon, we have a professional in-house video production team that can give you ideas about topics to focus on that suit your brand, produce engaging videos, and advise where to publish the videos for maximum exposure.

What are the steps of video production?

Depending on your budget and desired finished quality, there are several steps involved in producing a video. These include:

Concept development, script writing and storyboard creation
Pre-production, talent acquisition and location scouting
Production, filming (on site, drone footage, etc), direction, and styling
Post-production, editing, music and voiceover recording

A good marketing agency will have in-house video production skills and facilities and know specialist contractors that will complement the range of services required to create professional videos.

Icon Visual Marketing can produce quality videos for you that engage with your audience. We can advise you of the standard of production quality you should use to give you the best ROI. If it’s a quick video that doesn’t need high production quality, we can do it easily and quickly. If you want something more elaborate, say, television production quality, we can produce that as well.

Examples of videos produced by Icon Visual Marketing include:

Product advertising
Display houses
Housing estates
Personal messages
Sales videos
Personnel presentations
Product releases
Offers
Brand information
Educational and training

One of the most important elements of video production is ensuring it is seen by the right people. Icon Visual Marketing can create a digital marketing strategy that ensures your video goes to the right channels and is seen by your key audience.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, you can benefit from video marketing. If you would like to know more about the video production services available at Icon Visual Marketing, a free quote and how we can help you make better business decisions, please contact us .

Six core Google display ad sizes with examples

Sun, 09 Oct 2022 22:37:40 GMT

Selecting the right size Google display ads for your campaigns will increase the reach and effectiveness.

Google display ads are seen by potential customers who visit sites across the Google Display Network. The websites that publish your ads ultimately have control over which size ad gets featured so you need to choose the most popular sizes but also a variety to achieve your advertising goals.

When running Google display ads you introduce your business to a specific target audience who is likely to be interested in your products or services. This may help you to reach a larger or completely new audience than simply through a search.

What are Google display ads?

Google display ads are shown on the articles, videos, or websites that consumers browse. With Google Ads, you may share your ads on the Google Display Network, a collection of over two million websites that reach over 90 per cent of Internet users across the globe, based on their previous online activity.

Five benefits of Google display ads

Google display ads are personalised based on the searcher's previous online activity making them very effective. The five key benefits we’ve identified are:

Increase sales of your product or service
Generate high-quality leads
Boost website traffic to your site
Influence consumer purchasing decisions
Build greater brand awareness.

What are the six core ad sizes?

There are many size options for Google display ads but by choosing the six core sizes you’re likely to achieve more success.

Choosing the right Google display ad sizes for your particular situation can have a huge impact on the overall success of your campaign. Even if you have the skill to create eye-catching display ads if you choose the wrong sizes you won’t get them in front of the right people at the right time.

Before you begin your campaign, you need to know what the most common Google display ad sizes are. Read on to learn more.

The six core sizes are 160x600 , 300x250 , 300x600 , 320x50 , 336x280 , and 728x90 .

1. 160 x 600

Known as the wide skyscraper, this tall ad is great to keep your audience engaged as they scroll down the page. Google reports that this is a popular size and suggests a combination of text and display versions to gain the best results.

2. 300 x 250

Called the inline rectangle or medium rectangle and is reportedly one of the most widely-used banner ad sizes on the Internet. It’s typically used in the middle of pages to break up the text so it’s likely to be noticed by anyone who reads or scrolls down the entire page. They are often used for video ads.

The 300x250 banner ad is a great place to start if you’re new to Google display ads.

3. 300 x 600

Known as a half-page ad, this Google display ad is large so it grabs the user’s attention. According to Google, the 300x600 is one of the fastest growing sizes by impressions and is indicative of a trend where publishers are offering more visually impactful ad sizes that are preferred by brand advertisers.

4. 320 x 50

This 320x50 is called a mobile leaderboard or smartphone leaderboard and is most commonly used as an ad on mobile phones. As one of the smallest ad sizes, it can be very effective if used in the right way. They are especially useful as they can reach users at a different point than usual desktop ads.

5. 336 x 280

Known as the large rectangle, the 336x280 ad has a large range of sites and publishers that like to use it. Like the popular 300x250 inline rectangle it can be embedded in the text of an article where more eyes will see it as they scroll down.

5. 728 x 90

This size is called the leaderboard because it generally appears at the top of the page. It has largely replaced the 468x60 banner that previously dominated this space. Make sure you’re buying the top-of-page slots as opposed to the bottom ads which are viewed less frequently.

Campaign success with Edenvale and Narellan Town Centre

Two of our clients, Edenvale and Narellan Town Centre, use display advertising as part of their broader marketing campaigns.

For Edenvale, a leading alcohol-free winemaker, our display advertising is split between always-on campaigns and shorter seasonal campaigns. Our always-on campaigns focus on driving brand awareness amongst our target audiences and are typically refreshed quarterly to allow the campaigns time to build momentum. Our shorter seasonal or promotional campaigns, such as Dry July and Summer, are created as needed in support of our overall strategy to drive traffic to the website or e-shop.

For Narellan Town Centre, our display advertising campaigns are geographically targeted to specifically reach residents within a 10 km radius of the shopping centre. The campaigns support the brand’s marketing efforts around its key pillars – family, fashion, and food. Each month we refresh the creative to target a new pillar eg: Spring/Summer Fashion Catalogue or focus on a new promotion eg: Easter or Mother’s Day.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we focus on six ad sizes for display ads, combining the top performing and best placed ad sizes for desktop and mobile banners.

For both Edenvale and Narellan Town Centre we find that the medium rectangle and mobile leaderboard ads are consistently in the top performing ad sizes for both impressions and conversions, with the desktop leaderboard size also performing consistently.

Need help creating your Google display ads campaign?

To optimise your next Google display ad campaign, it is important that you choose the top-performing ad sizes with the right Google display ad specs for your ad placements that are most likely to generate impressions and conversions for your campaign.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we have a team of digital design and strategy experts who can develop your develop your digital strategy , create your display ad assets , and execute, optimise and report on your campaign performance.

5 User Experience Challenges & How to Improve End User Experience

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 22:47:16 GMT

The importance of UX (User Experience) to any website can’t be understated. How an app or website works is even more important than how it looks. Customers who find a website or app confusing and difficult to use will more than likely go somewhere else. That’s why companies have dedicated staff who are trained in UX design. Naturally, there are challenges that need to be addressed and overcome to improve the end user experience.

What is the role of a UX Designer?

A UX designer ensures the human user can navigate and understand a website or app. A UX designer uses research, data analysis and testing to design the customer journey. This is different from the role of a graphic designer who is more focused on the visual aesthetics of the website or app.

At a glance...skills of a UX Designer

Res earch
Product knowledge
Consumer behaviour
Problem-solving
Collaboration
Testing

At a glance...the process of UX design

Learn about the users
Identify the needs and pain points
Create ways to answer needs
Create a prototype
Test the design

What challenges does a UX Designer face?

UX designers by nature are problem solvers. Like any role, UX designers have unique challenges to overcome. The earlier these challenges are addressed, the better the chance of a good outcome. Here are some problems that UX designers might encounter.

1. Role description

Understanding the specific role of a UX designer can be confusing. A UX designer is not a graphic designer. Nor are they a web developer. When briefed, the UX designer needs to understand the user’s journey so they can make it as smooth as possible.

Solution

The UX designer and the web designer should collaborate to ensure they are both working towards the same end goal.

2. Limited time and budget

The next challenge is having adequate time or budget to do what they need to do. This often comes as a direct result of Challenge 1. It might sound easy to make a small change, but for the UX designer, that might take some time to get right.

Solution

Understanding the process of the UX designer’s work will help towards allocating them adequate time and budget to solve the problem.

3. Clear customer journey

Clarity is essential on any website and app. Make it difficult to read and navigate and you’ll lose that visitor you’ve worked so hard to attract.

Solution

The UX designer uses research to understand the customer journey, which could be in industries with which they are unfamiliar.

4. Keeping up to date with technology

The UX designer uses tools, such as plugins, to do their work. Those tools are continually changing, advancing, evolving. The UX designer needs to keep up with the speed of technology to ensure they are using the best tools. They also need to make the right choices about which tools to use among the countless tools available.

Solution

Ongoing training will help the UX designer stay familiar with the best and latest tools and techniques.

5. Problem Solving

Problem-solving is the essence of the UX designer’s role. A good UX designer thinks creatively to solve problems.

Solution

A clear outline of the problem and desired outcome will help the UX designer solve an issue.

How can Icon help you overcome your user experience challenges?

The web development and UX team at Icon have a wealth of training and experience. We’ve helped many great companies make their websites run smoothly with advanced UX. As your user experience agency, we can help your marketing team or web team iron out the bugs in your system.

You can learn more about what our web team can do for you here .

Our team can also help developing a web strategy that will grow your business. Importantly, we take an interest in your business first, understanding the way you work and your objectives.

You can learn more about our digital strategy work here .

If you need a UX designer, you should consider outsourcing locally rather than hiring internally. Using Icon’s experienced UX team can be far more effective and cost-efficient than hiring your own UX designer.

How to improve the end user experience

For the non-UX designer, it can be difficult to understand exactly what the UX designer does and how important they are to the website or app. For the UX designer, their objective is to make the website or app as easy to navigate as possible.

1. Understanding the product

The UX designer will not necessarily be an expert in the product or brand of which the website or app is about. Like anyone working on the website or app, they should immerse themselves in the product or brand to understand it so they can present it in the best way. For example, at a clothing eCommerce site, creating a logical sequence of category filtering of clothing and the hierarchy of choice, in terms of gender, brand, colour, size, etc.

2. Understanding the customer

Just as important as understanding the brand is understanding the customer persona. What path will they expect to take or want to take? Research with customers will help this, as will prior experience with the type of industry for which the website or app is being created.

How many times does a customer need to click before they get to the final purchase? With every step, you’re giving them a chance to change their mind. Good UX design makes navigation smooth, fast and efficient for the customer.

A UX designer will ensure the site is tested before it goes live to ensure that the user experience is smooth and logical.

3. Clear communication

It is essential for the marketing manager to brief the UX designer correctly. Good briefs produce good work. The UX designer needs a thorough brief to understand the path the customer should be taking.

4. Making the site intuitive

Users expect a seamless journey from one page to another, from one device to another. The customer needs to be engaged throughout the journey, no matter where they are. The omnichannel experience needs to be perfect.

How can Icon help improve the end user experience?

The role of the UX designer can’t be understated. It’s worth communicating with your UX designer to hear the challenges they are facing and ways that they can be overcome.

If you need assistance improving your UX, talk to the team at Icon. We have highly trained and experienced UX designers on staff. Whether it’s setting up your website or app from scratch or you just need some adjustments to make it sing, we can step in and do what you need.

Our UX designers have experience across many industries, including eCommerce sites. We can also host your website to ensure it’s running at peak performance and ensure that your customers are travelling smoothly from one page to the next, and help convert them through the sales process.

Interested? Contact us today or call us on 1300 138 984 for an obligation free, confidential discussion about how we can improve your website design.

How to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 02:40:18 GMT

Whether you own a small, medium, or large business, you can benefit from hiring a specialist digital marketing agency. But when do you know you need one? Where do you look? What do you look for? We’ll tell you how to hire a digital marketing agency.

Digital marketing is a specialised business and one that is constantly evolving. A marketing agency with digital specialists on staff will help you cut through the murky waters of digital marketing and help your brand shine.

A good digital marketing agency will work with you to achieve your objectives. It will enhance your brand with performance marketing – marketing that you pay for based on results.

It’s recommended that you look for an agency that will complement your existing strengths and fill in the deficiencies – one that will work with your team and leverage their strengths, rather than act in place of your staff.

Do you need a digital marketing agency?

Naturally, you will be asking yourself if your business will benefit from hiring a digital marketing agency. Will the time and cost invested be worthwhile?

Here are some great reasons why you might need a digital marketing agency:

1. Bring strategies up to date

Ask yourself, how out of date are your company’s marketing strategies? It can be alarming how quickly you can fall behind. It’s possible you are not even aware of how far behind you are in digital marketing resources and strategies.

Many companies coast along on their success, but it can almost be guaranteed that one day they will need to do some internal soul searching and realise they have some catching up to do. There are countless examples of that in the marketing world, particularly as a result of the upheaval caused by COVID. Discussing your current marketing strategies with a digital marketing company will give you an idea of where you stand.

2. Supplement a skills deficiency

Do you understand the digital space and how it works? It’s not easy keeping up with social media trends, marketing techniques and email strategies.

What about interpreting your website’s data? Where does your current traffic come from? Where do your leads come from?

A digital marketing agency can give you all the answers. They can read First Party Data and interpret it to your advantage.

3. Relieve your frustration

Perhaps you want to achieve something but are frustrated with your team or with the marketing agency you currently use. It’s time to look for an injection of energy, fresh ideas, and new approaches.

A digital marketing agency should be able to provide strategies to reach your objectives and will work within your brand guidelines and marketing team’s parameters to make it happen. They will be experienced in the execution of marketing plans, which should overcome your frustration.

4. Catch up to competitors

What are your competitors doing? Are they growing while you’re treading water? They might have some digital marketing know-how that you don’t.

Have a word with us at Icon. We can recognise where and how to improve your digital marketing and have your competitors looking over their shoulder at you in no time.

5. Embrace new strategies

Much has changed since COVID turned the world upside down. Marketing strategies changed significantly, with the need to ‘re-connect’ after the enforced lull. This is the time to re-connect and thrive.

It might be re-connecting with lost customers, contractors or even your staff. Marketing agencies know how to help you re-connect, even if it means using innovative strategies.

Here's a great 4-minute read on marketing in the new age: Social Selling

6. Set new business goals

What are your business goals? Have they changed since COVID lockdowns have ended? There’s every chance they have – or should have. It might be time to re-assess your business goals.

If you currently use a marketing agency and they aren’t kicking goals for you, it’s time for a change.

7. Have more time to shine

We understand you’re busy. A digital marketing agency can relieve the pressure and do the marketing legwork while you focus on other areas of the business. It’s good to know that a good digital marketing agency will carry on with its work without having to soak up too much of your time.

How to hire a digital marketing agency

Some agencies specialise in servicing large brands with big budgets while others prefer to work with small to medium-sized businesses. So, you should look for an agency that will care for your business.

When searching for a digital marketing agency, you could ask for referrals, or you could simply research via a search engine.

Many of the clients we get at Icon Digital Marketing come by word of mouth. There’s no better way to gain business than by referrals. It means our existing clients are so happy with us that they would recommend us to their business associates.

Do they have the team that can do the work you need? Do they have the experience? Ask for profiles of the marketing team. And you can also check the company and individuals on LinkedIn .

Icon Visual Marketing offers a complete range of digital marketing services:

Look for a marketing agency that is an accredited Google Partner . Icon is an accredited Google Partner, which means our Digital Marketing Specialists are Google certified, and continuously meet Google’s performance standards by showing growth in our client base and participating in ongoing training.

They should have a website that you can relate to. Chances are their website will reflect what they do for you. Do they produce regular blogs? It’s an easy way to see if they keep their own website up to date. And what about the content of their blogs? The topics of their blogs will focus on a core part of their business. So, it’s a great place to see if they do the work that your brand needs.

What about their social media? If your goal is to improve your brand’s social media presence, the marketing agency’s own socials should be active and top-notch.

Is their digital team Australian-based? If not, you could be dealing with different time zones, which might affect your deadlines. They also might not have the local knowledge that you need.

And finally, they should be people you can relate to, who you can trust and with whom you will be comfortable in a business relationship.

Check out some of the great work that Icon has completed for our clients.

Advantages of hiring an agency rather than in-house staff

Can hiring a person in-house have all the digital marketing specialties that you need? That’s highly unlikely. Hiring the right marketing agency will give you everything you need under one roof. You’ll have a single person touchpoint, i.e. a business manager who will look after your account and filter the work through to the appropriate people in their team.

Using an agency instead of in-house staff makes it easier to ride the highs and lows. You won’t have staff under pressure in busy times and you won’t be paying for unproductive staff during lulls. Plus, you don’t need to worry about sick leave, annual leave, parental leave, Superannuation, etc.

A digital marketing agency will work with you to create a clear plan. If it’s social media, they will create a social media calendar and can publish posts for you that will be seen, liked and shared, and will promote click-throughs to your website.

It’s good to go with a full-service agency. You might need part of their services now and more in the future. You’ll avoid using multiple companies.

They will be experts in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is an intricate skill that constantly evolves. It’s easier to have a digital marketing agency to take care of it for you as they will have SEO specialists who can consistently get your website pages high on the search results organically (ie. without having to pay the search engine for it).

Read how we helped a tyre manufacturer achieve a page one position on Google organically .

If you have decided that it’s time to give your digital marketing a new lease on life and hire a marketing agency, well done. We hope you find the right one and of course, the team at Icon Visual Marketing will always be happy to chat with you to discuss how we can help your brand. Or connect with us on our socials .

What is eCommerce website development? Your Handy Guide

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:03:49 GMT

The COVID pandemic has had a significant and lasting impact on the way we buy and sell items, particularly in the online realm.

And although COVID-19 has accelerated the growth of eCommerce transactions around the country, Australia still lags behind other major countries and is below the global average rate of 22 per cent. So there is still great scope for further expansion of this sector. In a research report by CBRE, they forecast the penetration rate will reach, if not exceed, 20 per cent by 2025 .

This is why you need an eCommerce website to enjoy some of that success.

But what does the term eCommerce web development mean? And more importantly, how can you develop a successful eCommerce website that’ll drive results for your business?

We’ll help you answer those questions in this article, so read on.

What are eCommerce websites?

There are two broad categories of eCommerce websites:

Vendor website where the site is built for and run by an individual business. This option gives you control over everything regarding your eCommerce website. But it also means you need to invest in the development and running of the site.
Multi-vendor online marketplaces like eBay feature products and services from many sellers. Using a multi-vendor site means you don’t have to build and maintain your website, but it also diminishes the control you have.

When you think about eCommerce you most likely think of consumer goods, but there are several types of products or services sold via eCommerce:

1. Physical Goods

Items like clothing, electronics and furniture are all products that need to be stored in a warehouse ready to sell and ship out to customers.

2. Services

A myriad of services can be sold online via eCommerce sites like tutoring, consultations of many kinds, lessons, and more.

3. Digital Products

The internet is a perfect vehicle to sell digital products online like software, music, e-books and more. During the pandemic lockdowns, this category grew exponentially as people were unable to access many of their favourite things face-to-face.

Why is eCommerce website development important?

For any online business, your eCommerce website is your shop window and store, so you need to invest in quality web development with the help of an ecommerce website designer to get great sales results.

Web design is important, but even more important is user experience, also known as UX. By providing customers with a good user experience, you’re going to attract customers and in turn, increase sales.

User experience focuses on ensuring that your eCommerce website is user-friendly and provides a fluid journey from start to finish. All elements of your site have to be easy to find, and very straightforward to make a purchase. Today’s online shoppers are very savvy, and they expect a good user experience, or they will go elsewhere.

1. Create a plan

It might be tempting to rush off and launch a website so you can start racking up sales, but without a plan, you’re heading for failure.

You need a strategy and goals that align with your company’s business plan and marketing plan. Things to think about in the planning stage are your target market, your product range, your sales and customer service goals, and more.

If you’re starting an online business that replicates your bricks and mortar business you probably already know a fair bit about your target market, but by moving online you need to think about extending that.

On your eCommerce website, everything must be tailored to your potential customers, so the more you know about them the better.

2. Purchase a domain

If you have an existing business and you're adding an online component, chances are you already have the right domain name ready to go. But if you’re starting a new business, you’ll need to find a domain name. It should be short, memorable and representative of your brand.

There are many websites where you can search for domain name options and then register your ideal domain name. Our tip is to keep it simple and go with your existing business name if it already exists.

3. Choose a platform

There is a myriad of options when choosing the right web host and platform for your eCommerce website. If you’re doing it yourself, you’ll need an eCommerce platform that helps you create your site from scratch with customisable options so your website looks great and represents your brand.

Or you can hire a professional marketing agency that can provide professional web design and eCommerce web development .

4. Design your site

Design doesn’t just refer to the graphic design elements, but also the layout of your eCommerce website. If design isn’t your thing, then hire an ecommerce website designer .

The first step is to create a sitemap that will include the pages and content for your site. Pages should include essentials like:

Product/service listings
Checkout process
Customer service
Shipping & delivery
About Us
Contact Us

5. Build your website

It’s important that your eCommerce website looks good and provides a good user experience, but equally important is the back-end development. Also known as web-coding it ensures that your website functions well. It can be done manually if you have the skills or more commonly using a content management system (CMS) like Wordpress.

By using a CMS, most of the coding and back-end development elements will already be in place.

6. Launch it to the world

Now you’ve built your new site, you’re probably itching to launch it but do not rush before the site has been thoroughly tested, particularly within the purchasing section.

Ask a few trusted advisors to take the site for a test run and once you’re fully satisfied it’s time to launch, hit go. The launch should be followed by your marketing strategy to tell the world about it.

The 10 essential qualities of a successful eCommerce site

1. Fast load times

Slow page loading will turn customers away before they’ve even seen what you have to offer. To ensure you keep your page speed high, stick to a simple design, reduce the size of images, minimise the use of plugins, and more.

2. Clear, easy navigation

Ensure that your navigation is clear and easy, making it simple for potential customers to find what they are looking for. Look at other eCommerce websites that you know are successful and learn from their expertise.

3. Enticing design

An eCommerce website with an enticing design will attract potential customers, keep them on the page, and reflect your brand in a positive way.

Design needs to be simple, uncluttered and help customers navigate to your products or services. If it’s not your thing, then hire an ecommerce website designer to help.

4. Efficient shopping cart

An efficient shopping cart is essential to your success. It needs to be clear, concise and not intrusive. Customers should be given the option to sign up for an account, or to purchase as a ‘Guest’, making it fast and efficient.

There should also be strong ‘calls to action’ throughout the process and strong statements like ‘Order complete’. Once again, visit successful eCommerce sites to see how they set up their shopping cart section.

5. Secure payment options

Your customers need to know that their details will be kept secure, so you need to set up the payments section correctly using industry standards. Step one is to purchase and install an SSL certificate. Then talk to your bank about setting up online payments.

6. Clear imagery and descriptions

7. Effective call to action

Call to actions need to be used throughout the process so that buyers know where to head next. Typical call to actions include ‘ Proceed to checkout ’, ‘ See more products ’, ‘ Place order ’, and more.

8. Multi-channel customer support

You need to make it easy for your busy customers to contact you. Provide clear contact details and give customers several options like a contact form, email address, and phone number. You might also offer contact via various social channels.

9. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Like all websites, you need to make sure you focus on SEO with your eCommerce website, so you rank highly in search engine results. This involves including the right keywords, and ensuring your site is well-structured, easy to navigate and quick to load.

10. Social channels

Use your social media presence to promote your eCommerce website but also to allow customers to interact. Choose the appropriate social channels depending on your potential customers and where they put their social media focus. Include social links on your website, and monitor your social channels regularly to ensure you respond in a timely fashion.

What role does a web developer play?

A skilled web developer works in the background to ensure that potential customers can seamlessly navigate your eCommerce site to find what they're looking for and make a purchase easily and safely.

Need help creating your eCommerce website?

At Icon Visual Marketing, we have a team of digital experts including web developers and web designers in-house who are experienced at creating eCommerce websites from scratch or modifying your existing site to include eCommerce. Contact us today for a no-obligation discussion on how we can help you and a free quote.

SEO: The Fundamentals

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 00:11:09 GMT

For years as a Marketing Manager, I was aware of SEO as an evolving complex beast at the whim of Google and its algorithm updates. I had worked with outsourced agencies who charged a lot and with some that charged very little. The question that I really couldn’t answer for myself was: “What are they actually doing???”

Now years later with training and experience I can understand and teach others about the fundamentals of SEO, and I’m pleased to say that it isn’t complex.

How long does it take to “work” on SEO?

Well, that’s probably the bad news. There is low hanging fruit, but SEO is a bit like a piece of string – it’s as long as you want it to be. You can always be working on it to help your various pages rank better and help search engines understand what answers you offer its searchers.

After all, that’s why SEO agencies exist. It can be cheaper to employ an agency who can spread the cost of the various tools used amongst all clients and give you a better return.

What is SEO?

SEO is the art of acquiring traffic from various sources, mostly search engines, and point them to the digital assets that we or clients own.

What SEO is not?

Buying traffic
A scam or illegal, or black hat
Against Google’s terms of service
Just for Google
A fast / quick fix
Difficult
“Advertising”

There are three major areas of SEO that you can focus on when tackling the problem.

1. Document Relevancy

It’s important that the pages you’re trying to achieve a high ranking on search engines are answering the questions that they are asking. If you were to ask a store clerk, “Hey, what aisle are the bananas on?” and they answered, “We sell all types of groceries including medical goods, food and drink, and various meats,” it doesn’t really answer the question, does it?

You can’t just create a page that satisfies your ego to talk about how good you are. It needs to be relevant. A good question to start is: “What is our target audience searching for?” And to do that, you need to work out: Who is our target audience?

2. Attention and Authority

The more we align our pages with the words users are searching for, the more we create a healthy relationship with search engines. A user’s interaction with our pages begins to inform them that the user had success in finding the answer they were searching for.

The metrics, like incoming links, news and downloads, time on site, etc. all tell search engines that we are helpful. If I was to use the store example above, it would be like a user asking, “Hey, where are the bananas?” and the store clerk says, “Here’s a map of the store, would you like to download it? It can help you find all our products.”

3. Technical Optimisation

Don’t be daunted by the technical side. If you have access to your own CMS of your website, there are many ways that you can have a positive impact on your own SEO. Essentially what we are doing in optimising content is making it easier for search engines to find our pages. After all, we both have the same goal – help answer users’ problems. This can be done in several ways: title tags, body copy, URL, alt tags, linking, site speed, etc.

Remember that 75% of clicks on Google go to the top 5 results for your keyword. So, if you sell “Diesel engine parts western Sydney” and you don’t come up on the first page of Google, it’s unlikely that your target audience is finding you easily.

Need help with your SEO?

We have a team of digital experts in house who are proficient at analysing and diagnosing the best bang-for-your-buck SEO steps to help you begin ranking on search engines. Contact us today for a no-obligation discussion on how we can help you.

Why it’s a good time to outsource your marketing

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:03:57 GMT

It’s common knowledge that there is a skills shortage across Australia. The pandemic has caused more upheavals to the workforce than expected. The ‘full stop’ on overseas visitors filling gaps in the workforce has never been felt more than right now.

The unemployment rate in Australia is at its lowest since 1974 . Businesses are finding it difficult to recruit qualified staff, despite companies offering higher wages . Furthermore, a huge number of staff are coming down with illnesses, including COVID and the flu, which is creating ongoing shortages. This is being experienced across all industries.

The shortage of staff creates added stress on those turning up for work each day. It’s forcing prices up as supply chains break down.

Despite the change in federal government, there is no relief to the skills shortage in sight.

It’s common for companies to reduce staff numbers to cut costs. However, this is not always the best answer. It can create even more pressure on your loyal staff and make things even more difficult for you to recover. And let’s face it, none of us want to let staff go. Apart from the personal difficulties it creates for the staff that leave, it keeps the remaining staff looking over their shoulder.

Every company’s goal should be to move forward, because if you’re not moving forward, you’re in effect moving backward. Even if you think you’re lying still, or dog-paddling, keeping your head above water, you’re falling behind without realising it because competitors are moving forward. And recovery is a tough climb. To re-connect with success can be an overwhelming challenge.

Your aim should be to thrive

At Icon Visual Marketing, our outlook is: aim to thrive . To tackle problems head on and find solutions rather than let them overwhelm us. And if your company is dog-paddling, we can help you get back into a graceful freestyle.

That’s why now is the right time to outsource your marketing and engage the services of an experienced marketing agency.

And we suggest looking no further than the experienced team at Icon Visual Marketing.

We can step in and seamlessly take care of just about any marketing role , even on a temporary basis, including:

We also have a sister company, Orange Canvas who can help with all aspects of retail marketing, franchise marketing, and eCommerce growth.

With the help of an experienced marketing agency, you can concentrate on other parts of your business knowing that your marketing is in skilled hands.

To many, the initial reaction could be that it is going to cost too much to outsource your marketing. However, we believe engaging a marketing company such as Icon is a shrewd business decision that will reap rewards for your business and brand, and not just in the short term. Here’s why:

You save time and money on recruitment
You don’t need to train new staff
You avoid overheads associated with maintaining staff
You don’t need to buy or hire new equipment or software
You have a complete range of marketing skills at your disposal
You instantly have a wealth of experience to help you
You can pick and choose the services and skills you need

The experienced Icon team will bring new insights, fresh ideas, approaches and strategies. We can set targets that could be even higher than your in-house team could reach.

So how do you find the right marketing company?

Referral by word-of-mouth is a great start. Another is to check websites and social media and see who has the skills and experience to focus on your needs.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we offer a full range of marketing services. We have been around for almost 20 years and worked successfully with clients from a huge range of industries , demonstrating that we are adaptable as well as dependable. We have a cohesive, friendly team of people who are experts in their fields. We’re always happy to meet you and chat about how we can help your business thrive.

Ready to talk to the Icon team?

How to create a successful eCommerce website

Sun, 29 May 2022 23:15:01 GMT

People, businesses, brands everywhere are selling online. For some it’s a hobby or side hustle, for others it’s a serious business with goals and KPIs. If you fall in the latter, then this article is for you. We’ll tell you how to build a successful eCommerce website that will attract customers and achieve results.

Let’s assume you run a small to medium sized-business and have a good range of quality products that customers want to purchase. Some businesses will set up a store on Amazon, eBay, or Etsy. It’s easy but it does come with compromises, not the least of which is that you are always selling under their brand and subject to their regularly changing terms and conditions.

The best way to have control over your online store is to create your own eCommerce site. That might sound complicated and time consuming, and we won’t skirt the issue – it can be. But you will have complete control over your brand, products, and data.

We’ll mention here that there is an easy and effective way to have an eCommerce site – that’s to engage the services of eCommerce experts such as Icon Visual Marketing.

Icon can create your online store in a style that suits your brand. We can maintain it and manage it. We can do the marketing, such as social media posts, blogs , and paid search advertising . We can even take care of storage of your product and fulfilling orders . In other words, while you maintain complete control, you can place everything about your eCommerce website in our experienced hands.

From our years of experience in building and promoting eCommerce websites, we’ve built a list of tips and recommendations of everything you need to know to get started. So read on.

Design of your site

Ensuring you have a good eCommerce website design is critical.

Your site should be:

easy for people to navigate,
easy for people to buy from, and
a store where people have trust in your brand.

The look and feel of your site is very important. Get these things wrong and you’re doomed from the start. If you’re not in a position to invest in a custom designed eCommerce site, there are many good website templates you can use that give you an ideal starting point, such as Shopify.

Many eCommerce shoppers today are browsing and purchasing on their phones. Therefore, you should ensure your site is mobile friendly and responsive so it can be used across all devices: computers, tablets and phones.

Concise 'About Us' page

Everyone has a story, and your customers often want to know yours.

Having an ‘About Us’ page:

gives people background about who you are,
gives customers trust in you, and
distinguishes you from your competition.

Include a page about yourself and your background. This little bit of personal information can make a world of difference to your site. It gives your brand a human touch and adds personality. It means you’re not being secretive and gives your customers some degree of trust in you.

Keep it short and to the point. A long-winded story may come across as over-indulgent.

Online customer support

At some stage, one of your customers is going to need your help. If you’re not there to help, you will probably lose the sale.

Your online customer support should be:

easy to find and use,
responsive, and
friendly.

Ensure you make it clear where they can go to seek your help. Respond quickly and honestly and be sure to address the enquiry. The best eCommerce sites are very efficient when it comes to customer support. It’s their way of fighting for every sale and keeping every customer happy.

Good payment options

A range of payment options will make it easier for your customers. Some of the most popular payment options include credit card, PayPal, and AfterPay.

If you want customers from outside of your country, they should be able to buy from you without barriers such as conversion rates or payment options that are not available in their country.

As an adjunct to this, you should make your guarantee and money-back policy clear. Be as customer-friendly as possible because people will shy away from sites that have restrictive policies. Avoid using a negative, authoritative tone on your site listing all the things people can’t do. Instead focus on what they can do.

Marketing your store

There are numerous ways to spread the word about your eCommerce store. Some you should consider include:

Social Media
Email
Influencers

Social Media

You can reach your audience for free using social media. But if you want to boost sales, you should try using their paid advertising services.

Regular posting to social media is a good idea as it keeps your brand top of mind and can reach a wide audience who might not be aware of your store. It also demonstrates that your store is active, giving people confidence in purchasing from you.

Paid social media advertising is highly targeted so you’re not paying to have your ad in front of people who have no interest in your product.

Social media gives you analytics so you can quickly see how effective your advertising is and where improvements can be made.

Remember to include links to your social media pages on your eCommerce site so people can follow you and keep up with your latest news.

Email Marketing

Another effective method of marketing your store is by email marketing . Emails are very effective at attracting customer attention and can be personal and targeted. They are also perfect for communicating offers, discounts, and competitions.

Of course, you need to build a database of clients to send your emails to. This is something that builds over time and there are several ways to go about it. If you want help in building an email database, talk to the team at Icon Visual Marketing.

Engage Influencers

Another way to market your store is by using influencers . Influencers can promote your products to their followers, reaching people you might not be able to reach. This can be measurable, and you should be discerning about which influencers you choose.

Writing blogs

Many people underestimate the power of the blog. Blogs are a great way to:

give more information about specific topics,
keep your online presence active,
be perceived as a topic expert, and
generate visitors to your website.

Search engines love blogs. That’s why at Icon Visual Marketing, we’re consistently writing and posting blogs for our clients as well as for our own website (like the one you’re reading now).

There is an art to creating blogs. But the bottom line is to be original, use good spelling and grammar, and ensure your headline explains what the article is about.

Using SEO

Many people underestimate the power of the blog. Blogs are a great way to:

give more information about specific topics,
keep your online presence active,
be perceived as a topic expert, and
generate visitors to your website.

Search engines love blogs. That’s why at Icon Visual Marketing, we’re consistently writing and posting blogs for our clients as well as for our own website (like the one you’re reading now).

There is an art to creating blogs. But the bottom line is to be original, use good spelling and grammar, and ensure your headline explains what the article is about.

Reading your data

Your data is powerful information . Data is the information that you receive about the interaction between your website and the visitors it is attracting. It helps you make business decisions about your store and where you need to focus your marketing.

First party data helps you to:

understand information about your customers,
reach the right customers, and
communicate effectively with your customers.

Google Analytics is a service offered by Google that tracks and reports your website behaviour, giving you information beyond sales figures. Google Analytics provides business insights and information such as telling you how many people are visiting your website, their age and where they are from.

You’ll can learn far more about your customer with your own eCommerce site than you will with third party marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.

What if you don't have the time or skills?

First party data helps you to:

understand information about your customers,
reach the right customers, and
communicate effectively with your customers.

You’ll can learn far more about your customer with your own eCommerce site than you will with third party marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.

Want our opinion?

Whether you already have an eCommerce site up and running that could be improved or if you want someone to build it from scratch, talk to the team at Icon Visual Marketing. We are confident that, like all our eCommerce clients, you will be pleased with the results.

Why you should look for a full-service marketing agency

Mon, 16 May 2022 00:53:58 GMT

Small to medium-sized businesses can benefit from the expertise and professional services of a full-service marketing agency.

A full-service agency can do everything for you in-house – digital and non-digital. You might not need all the services they provide, but you will benefit from their creative ability to identify ways to promote your business that you might not have considered.

How can a full service marketing agency help?

You will save money, save time and strengthen your marketing with the complete professional approach to your brand’s direction that a full-service marketing agency can offer.

The perfect time to approach a full-service agency is when:

Your business is devoting time to marketing that you should spend on core areas of the business
You are stuck for ways to lift your brand’s exposure
You don’t have the expertise or networks to achieve what you want for your brand.

A small agency usually has all-rounders who may not specialise in the area you need, whereas, a full-service agency has the team with the specialised skills to give you a complete range of marketing solutions .

For example, at Icon Visual Marketing, we have specialists in social media marketing , SEO , web development , copywriting , graphic design , public relations , printing , conference management and more.

What does a full service marketing agency do?

Small marketing agencies are often niche – specialising in specific areas of marketing or in specific industries.

A full-service agency will consider your brand in its entirety. They will audit your current marketing, analyse it and conduct appropriate research to develop a marketing plan that aligns with your business goals. They are generally adaptable – capable of servicing businesses in most industries.

A full-service agency will not simply deliver the job but be focused on solutions that help you grow. Icon Visual Marketing can help you with strategies to take your marketing to the next level and beyond. We’ll help you connect with customers, new and old, with bespoke tactical marketing strategies that work.

Marketing follows trends and it evolves. A full-service marketing agency will be up to date on details of the latest strategies and technologies.

It’s important, as a business, that you shift focus when it’s needed. Consider how the details and rules of social media are continually adjusted. Specialists in a full-service agency are more likely to be aware of changes than those with broader less-specialised skills in a niche agency.

What services does a full service marketing agency offer?

Full-service agencies offer solutions for all advertising and marketing. Icon Visual Marketing provides the following services:

These services cover all marketing needs a small to medium sized business might have.

Will a full service marketing agency be too expensive?

Being full-service doesn’t necessarily mean expensive. Marketing agencies, such as Icon Visual Marketing, offer services that cater to your needs. You can choose which areas of marketing you need and work to a budget.

The bottom line is that you could save money using a full-service agency because they already have systems and processes in place that will benefit your brand. They have trained and experienced experts on hand that can be called upon to do the work you require.

What is Odee?

Icon Visual Marketing has a unique online, automated marketing system that’s ideal for small to medium businesses. Called Odee , the system gives businesses powerful marketing resources they might not otherwise be able to afford or even knew existed. Odee allows small to medium-sized businesses to take control of their marketing at a reasonable cost.

Odee gives you a detailed, tailored marketing plan that includes an in-depth competitor analysis, and an easy-to-use digital marketing dashboard. Odee also gives you access to a comprehensive suite of marketing services, that you can scale up or down as needed, to grow your business.

When it’s time to re-look at your marketing, it’s time to engage the services of a full-service marketing agency. Icon Visual Marketing is a full-service agency with an experienced, highly skilled team who can deliver marketing strategies and executions that will work for your brand.

Millennials want value alignment

Tue, 03 May 2022 01:41:57 GMT

By the year 2025, Millennials will make up 75% of the workforce.

Making up such a huge proportion of the workforce means that the Millennial-mindset has an overbearing influence on the state of employment.

Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, don’t consider income as being the primary reason for job satisfaction. Because of this, we’ve seen in the last 15 years that workplace loyalty has dropped. It’s rare to see a CV with a long tenure, anywhere.

Bear in mind that we are currently in a job-seeker’s market. LinkedIn, Seek and a plethora of other sites make job-seeking easier than it’s ever been, and there is a large supply of jobs available.

In my day, kids had to print their resume and awkwardly hand it in at shops to try and get a job. That’s what I did. The trend today seems to be more about job hopping to increase salary and find more fulfilment. And it’s becoming a cultural norm!

What does this have to do with purpose and value?

Millennials are the first generation to start talking about ‘purpose’ being important to them. A 2016 survey found that 83% of Millennials would be more loyal to a workplace if it cared about more than just company profit, and 94% of those under age 38 wanted to use their skills to benefit society, not just profit.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t limited to the young. Purpose-driven brands are booming across all age groups.

"94% of those under the age of 38 want to use their skills to benefit society, not just profit"

All of us benefit from the internet. Sites like Glassdoor allow anyone, anywhere to research what it is like to work for specific companies, compare salaries and get reviews. You can even simply Google what the average salary is for your job position. It may not be the employer’s responsibility to increase pay if an employee feels theirs is unjust. But the result has created a higher turnover of staff where expectations aren’t met.

Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, are also following a similar trend. By 2025 they’ll make up to almost 30% of our workforce. They are the first generation to care MORE about purpose than salary.

I remember when I started working, it felt like a cardinal sin to ask someone about their salary. It was like asking a woman her age! You just didn’t do it. It was considered impolite. Now it’s commonplace to be transparent and share salary inside and outside of work. Discussions around the gender pay gap have created a consistently revolving hot topic. It’s all out on the table. But pay has becoming secondary. Staff want PURPOSE within their job AND they want to be paid well for it.

One of the movements that COVID propelled forward was the “great resignation”. It forced introspection and brought to the light the things that really matter – relationships, family and health. What if I was to die from this disease tomorrow? Would I be content knowing that 50% of my time is spent working for this organisation?

I read a lot, and one of the books that has made an impact on me is Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness. I was deeply affected by his passing in 2020. I found his story compelling, his leadership style admirable and Zappos (his company) was at the forefront of purpose-led culture. In his book, Tony says that 50% of our happiness is determined by your genes. Another 40% is determined by what you do, and the last 10% is situational.

So, 40% of what you do can be split into three areas: work, home and social life. We spend one-third of our life working, and it can either be something we look forward to or something that brings us down.

But what business impact do feelings have? Well, this might shock you.

Employees who are happy at work take 10 times fewer sick days
Employees who are happy at work are 12% more productive
Companies where employees are happy outperform competitors by 20%

So how do you even begin to start the journey of working on the company culture?

It starts with gathering the facts: where are we actually at? Then, looking forward, what is our ideal state?

Wayne Deeth, Senior Consultant in People & Culture at Icon Visual Marketing, works with management teams across Australia to realign them against their values and bring company-wide change. He helps companies work towards goals that are tangible both for management and the workforce. In short, creating a happier environment where the proof is in the pudding. Output goes up and with that, revenue also goes up.

Does that mean that we need to fabricate a purpose if we don’t have one? No, definitely not.

David C Baker, the expert’s expert in business, says he doesn’t “understand why we’re trying to find so much meaning in our work. It should be enough to arrange things so that you provide an honest impact for an honest fee. It’s true: some of you do have a remarkable platform for helping your clients fund cancer research or change something that you believe in deeply, but the rest of us are doing our jobs and that’s still glorious.”

If you have a purpose, then align yourself to it, and if it fulfils the consumer problem and your business problem – even better. Classically, the easiest way to pinpoint your purpose, besides earning money, is to ask: “Why does my business exist?”

Stay tuned for the next blog in this series:

Branding vs Marketing - why do I need to understand the difference?

The many benefits of improving your website user experience

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 23:04:14 GMT

Every Australian business needs a website to showcase its services or products, and all websites need to provide a great user experience, otherwise, the money invested is wasted.

In the recent Federal budget, the importance of a business website was reiterated when the Treasurer announced that all eligible businesses can deduct $120 for every $100 they spend on services that support their digital capability, which could include spending on websites.

The Government said more than 3.6 million businesses with an annual turnover of less than $50 million would be able to claim an additional 20 per cent deduction on costs incurred on business expenses and depreciating assets that support “digital adoption”.

Why do you need a best practice website?

A best practice website provides visibility for your business, superior digital performance, and ultimately a great user experience for your customers and potential customers.

There are many reasons your website should reflect your business.

First impressions count

Potential customers will look at your website when they are deciding whether they want to do business with you or buy from you. This could occur either before or after they meet you or visit your store or office, but if your website doesn’t reflect your product or service they may look elsewhere. A professional website can also increase your credibility by proving you are an active Australian business with current contact details.

No website or a bad website means you may lose business

If you don't have a website, you're missing out on opportunities for customers to identify who you are and if they want to spend money with you. As well, having a dated or poorly constructed website can also be detrimental to your chances of attracting new customers.

Generate quality leads

Expand your reach

With a professional online presence, your reach can be expanded well beyond your suburb, city, state or even country, depending on your target market.

What makes a professional and functional website?

Many aspects come together to make a professional and functional website including design, function, content, imagery, ease of use and more.

Well designed & functional

Your site should reflect your brand, and your products and services, so your website needs to be visually appealing, polished, and professional. Utilise white space and uncluttered layouts with quality photographs and graphics to let your message shine through.

Just as important is the speed of your site to load. The old adage ‘pay peanuts get monkeys’ is very true with website services so if you spend very little on a business website it is unlikely to do the job you need it to do. Every page needs to be fast and functional and look good too.

Easy to use

User Experience (UX) plays a major role in encouraging users to visit, understand and stay on your website. All websites should include obvious, logical navigation with a clear hierarchy. Look at other websites that have these qualities and learn from other organisations’ websites including your competitors.

Websites tend to have trends, almost like fashion trends and successful companies will follow those trends. Website users then get used to a particular type of layout so if your website follows the same trend, users will find it easier to navigate and find what they are after.

Optimised for mobile users

Research tells us that many internet searches are conducted on small mobile devices so your website needs to be optimised for mobile users. Optimising for mobile will improve both the experience of your visitors and your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) rankings.

Use fresh, quality content

Assume your customers and potential customers will have a very short attention span and create copy that is succinct and interesting. This will depend on your audience and what you are trying to convey so use language that makes sense to your users. Make sure your content is free of typos and accurate and keep it up to date.

Including blogs and social media updates are great ways to add fresh content, which keeps visitors returning and helps with SEO.

Optimised for search

So you’ve done all the work to set up a great looking website that reflects your business and brand, but you also need to attract people and that’s where SEO comes in.

Even if you’re not an SEO professional there are small things you can do to make sure your copy is searchable. There are many tools available online that help you identify the words and questions that potential customers use in search engines to find businesses like yours.

Icon can improve your website's user experience

Icon's content , creative and digital teams work together to create and optimise websites that deliver results for B2B businesses, large and small.

Read more about the work we do for our clients , drop us a line or call us on 1300 138 984 for a free audit of your cross-channel marekting.

Connecting the dots – how does cross-channel marketing improve your results?

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 04:08:58 GMT

At Icon Visual Marketing, we are focused on connecting and re-connecting marketers with their customers. And a great way you can do this is with cross-channel marketing.

Cross-channel marketing is very effective and should be an essential part of your strategy. It gives you the ability to keep your brand in front of your audience – meeting them where they are at.

What is cross-channel marketing?

Cross-channel marketing is integrating various customer experiences to lead them on a journey – which could see them jumping from channel to channel but at the same time heading in the one direction.

Let’s skip the jargon.

Imagine you send your customers a marketing piece, such as an email with an offer. Different customers will make different decisions. Your customers could:

Choose to ignore the email
Click on a link in the email that takes them to your website
Make a purchase
Put something in their cart but not purchase
Send you an enquiry.

You need to be ready to react to what the customer does and lead them back to hopefully make that purchase, by allowing for all options.

Cross-channel marketing clicks in.

For example, if they don’t react to your email, you could send them an automated follow-up email the next day. (You wouldn’t send that email to someone who made a purchase).

If they make a purchase, you could send them a receipt by email with an offer on the next purchase.

If they put something in their cart but didn’t make a purchase, you could send them an email with an extra discount to entice them back to finalise the purchase.

Cross-channel marketing doesn't exclusively involve online marketing. Any form of communication can be used, depending on where your customers' eyes could be.

At Icon, we have a number of clients in the building game. The cross-channel marketing we do for them includes creating a consistent message while maintaining their website, ensuring their SEO is getting them on the first page of Google, preparing and sending eDMs, looking after their social media, and creating videos for their YouTube channel.

This is just one example. We look after other marketing channels for other clients as well.

The important thing is connecting the dots so our clients' customers are led on a streamlined, cohesive journey with consistent messages that are on-brand.

It's about meeting your customers where they are with a message that's integrated across the board.

Increased engagement with cross-channel marketing

Streamlined use of cross-channel marketing can increase customer engagement and increase your results. It makes the customer journey a personal experience, which is an ideal goal for any marketer. Customers who feel as though the business is speaking directly to them will be more likely to continue shopping with them.

That’s one of the great strengths of cross-channel marketing. It can feel like it’s on a very personal level with the customer. The customer feels like the brand knows them, cares for them and their needs.

The importance of connecting

At Icon, one of the words that drives us is ‘connecting’.

Connecting with your audience;
Connecting with your customers; and
Connecting with your staff.

Cross-channel marketing is very much about connecting. Read our blog on Social Selling and the importance of connecting post-COVID.

Cross-channel marketing takes strategic thinking. You need to consider the customer journey and the messages the customer will receive at each stage. If you don’t have the time or the know-how to create this very effective customer journey, it might be time to speak to us at Icon Digital Marketing, because we do that sort of thing every day.

One of the great benefits of good cross-channel marketing is that it is measurable. And you can collect data on your customers to improve their journey. First Party Data is some of the most valuable information you as a marketer can possess.

Using Icon for your cross-channel marketing not only gives you access to your First Party Data, but we will analyse it for you and recommend further strategies to take based on the data.

Cross-channel marketing is different from multi-channel marketing and omni-channel Marketing.

Multi-channel marketing

Using different channels independently to capture your audience. For example, producing a brochure, Instagram Reels and eDM all independently promoting the same thing, directing people to your website.

Omni-channel marketing

Integrating various channels which all communicate with each other so that no matter at which stage the customer is at, the online and off-line store knows the customer pattern and journey. For example, a customer searches for an appliance at an online store and can check availability at the local bricks & mortar store so they can collect same day.

How can Icon help with cross-channel marketing?

At Icon Visual Marketing, our marketing experts can develop a cross-channel marketing strategy to reach your audience. We simplify the complicated, amplify voices, measure results and help make the clients we partner with understand and make decisions backed by data.

Read more about the work we do for our clients , drop us a line or call us on 1300 138 984 for a free audit of your cross-channel marekting.

Social media and the rise of social selling

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 23:26:24 GMT

You don’t need me to tell you that the world has dramatically changed. But are you aware of the extent to which the business marketing world has changed and how it affects you?

I have spoken to many business leaders recently, and they acknowledge that marketing is more important than ever. There is a need to re-build hope and confidence in the future; for businesses to break free of the uncertainty of Covid and thrive once again. The key strategy is to approach marketing on a different level. Ironically, it’s the old way of marketing, but in a different way. It’s about building connections and relationships, like the old days of marketing. You could say everything old is new again… but in a different way. That’s social selling. It’s the new way to sell the old-fashioned way.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we’re thought leaders in social selling and helping our clients integrate it into their B2B business plans. You might already be social selling without realising it. But you mightn’t be doing it to its full effectiveness. If you don’t have your head around social selling, read on and be enlightened on B2B marketing in 2022.

Covid has stirred the pot

One of the greatest social impacts of the pandemic has been the enormous rise in ‘working from home’. Many employees regard it as being so convenient that they are reluctant to go back to the office. Meanwhile, employers have seen the benefit for them with reduced incidental overheads, such as the cost of office cleaning right down to no longer needing to provide coffee and biscuits. Not to mention reduced sick leave.

However, there are also the negatives. The buzz of an active office environment, where staff bounce thoughts off each other, is missing. Quick face-to-face discussions about small matters don’t happen anymore. In sport, they call them the ‘one-per-centers’. They’re small but important discussions. And the good old bonding sessions are gone, like staff lunches and Friday drinks after work. There are many cases where people who work with each other have only met through Zoom calls.

A by-product has been the rise of the hybrid workforce, which is simply a combination of staff working remotely while others come into the office. How do you approach that from your own team working as a hybrid workforce, and from that of your customers or potential customers doing the same? It all needs to be considered. And how does that fit in with social selling? Read on.

Why does marketing in 2022 look different?

We’re heading towards the post-pandemic era. And it is going to be quite different to where we were three years ago. Businesses must be ready because the way of doing things in the past is not going to cut it in the future.

People want to feel comfortable in a sceptical world. Scammers have infiltrated every part of online media. Spam emails have been around forever, but now they’re even texting our phones. Our challenge as marketers is to drive fear out and invite certainty in. Overcome the scepticism and build confidence.

People have changed jobs, changed careers through opportunity, uncertainty, or necessity. The ‘Great Resignation’. So, your customers might be dealing with different members of your team. Your team might be dealing with different customers. Businesses have different decision-makers at the helm. New relationships need to be built.

Businesses that had been reluctant to offer online selling pre-Covid, like Bunnings, were forced to open an online store. Supermarkets and other stores offered contactless ‘click and collect’. They had no choice. Luring people to the store wasn’t going to be enough. The competition reacted, and they needed to as well.

It’s the same theme for all of us. We need to exploit the online world. And it’s a challenge for those who aren’t familiar with it. The thing is that it changes rapidly. We can be experts in our business, but when it comes to online marketing, many people come up short. It’s simply not what they’re used to. But we must adapt in order to thrive. There’s no choice.

Every year the Roy Morgan Risk Report rates Australia’s most trusted businesses . Who came out number one in 2021? Woolworths. Why? Because they spent millions of dollars reassuring us that they were doing everything they could to protect us during the pandemic. They did what they had to do to create trust in the consumer during uncertain times. They recognised that building trust was an essential marketing tool.

People have become accustomed to staying at home, not being able to go out. Their routines have changed. Their personal goals have changed. Their lifestyles have changed. We need to tap into that.

Media is more personal, so marketing needs to be more personal, but personal through online channels. Online is not just somewhere we visit – it’s where we live. People are online more than ever, and so your business needs to cut through the noise. Having ads thrown at us is no longer the lead marketing strategy. You’re marketing is competing with YouTube, banner ads, pop-ups, emails, scrolling media, Spotify, Netflix, it’s endless. Literally endless. That’s a lot of noise to break through.

Despite the competitive noise, people want to engage in meaningful relationships online. But how do they connect better online? That is the challenge we need to overcome for B2B businesses to thrive.

Many of the marketing managers I’ve spoken to have said search rates are significantly down. So, searching strategies need to be smarter. We need to attract attention before we can engage, and it’s more difficult than ever.

Experiential marketing is where we are heading. No matter what business you’re in, you need to get on board or be left behind.

What is social selling?

You have no doubt heard of social media – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and many more. But what is ‘social selling’?

Social selling is using social media to identify and interact directly with customers and prospects. The objective is to create a relationship based on trust and understanding, build an aura of subject authority and attract loyal customers with the ultimate goal: convert the relationship into sales.

With social selling, team members and sales reps are encouraged to use social media to share content, engage with prospects, have conversations, answer questions and provide solutions, giving them and your brand visibility and credibility. The focus is on building meaningful relationships, trust and credibility.

It’s not about hard selling, it’s about creating long-term relationships. It’s not advertising products, it’s building connections.

Social selling is a very personal, strong and successful method of customer and brand engagement.

People love social media. It has become a global phenomenon. It’s understandable that businesses use it for sales. But with the flick of a finger, we can scroll past a message that doesn’t instantly grab our attention. That’s a harsh reality for work we’ve invested time and resources in.

Why has social selling emerged as essential marketing in 2022?

Now that face-to-face selling is reduced, how do we build relationships with people and customers we can’t meet in person? This is where the real value of social selling comes in. Making connections online is more important than ever.

The irony is that social selling is about building personal relationships like we used to. However, it’s doing it in an online world. Everything old is new again – but different.

This has one benefit where the geographic sales area could be considered redundant, and the scope has become somewhat unlimited.

How to start social selling

You might already be doing it without even realising it. The key steps to social selling are:

Publish content that reflects you and your brand.

Publish original content of authority, such as blogs, videos, case studies and podcasts. The content should be original work and should be shareable. It shouldn’t be simply an information dump. It should include tips and personal insights. This adds value to the information and offers more than being something people could just find out by googling the topic.

By producing thought-leading work, the right people will be attracted to your social media pages and website. You are perceived as an expert, creating confidence in potential customers who have a need to be fulfilled. It’s important to support the work by publishing it on social media platforms.

Be observant of people online.

You need to ‘cast your line where the fish are’. Identify and follow relevant businesses and people on social media. See what they talk about. Build connections. Like their work and comment on their tweets or posts. Share content that is relevant. Interact with them, particularly those with a problem for whom you have a solution. Make yourself known without being too intrusive.

Build trust by passing on your knowledge.

Display your knowledge by working social media and eDMs. You don’t need to overtly push your product or website. You’re imparting knowledge, building trust, establishing yourself and your business as authorities.

You should set up and follow relevant hashtags. Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram are good platforms for using hashtags.

Marketing is not piecemeal. Your social selling needs to work in unison with your overall marketing plan. It all needs to gel and be holistic. If the company you’ve handed your marketing to doesn’t think beyond the project, you might need to look elsewhere. Are they looking at the big picture or are they just doing the job they’re paid to do?

Start social selling today

Social selling may seem straightforward, but it takes time and perseverance to get it right. As experts in the digital marketing space, Icon Visual Marketing can help you and your team build your social selling skills. We can create content that generates leads. Icon has produced many great and successful blogs for our clients. We can coach your sales team on how to stand out on social media and engage with the right people. We look at the full scope of your marketing and ensure it’s in harmony. Icon can help you thrive in 2022.

Read more about the work we do for our clients , drop us a line or call us on 1300 138 984.

Using your business data to thrive in 2022

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 22:16:06 GMT

As the owner of a full-service marketing agency, I consider our main objective is to always help our clients grow. We do this by providing them with the roadmap ahead so they can make great decisions, and ultimately create a thriving business.

But as we navigate out of the pandemic into an uncertain 2022, the game has changed. Strategies and activities that once had an impact are no longer as powerful. For example, across the board we have seen a reduction in search volume, i.e., people looking for specific services. Historically, this was always a great channel for lead generation.

However, collectively the data is painting a different picture. As we look at our own data sets, there is a very clear scenario in 2022:

1. Customer journeys have become more complex with increased touch points;

2. People are more reticent to proceed unless they are confident of the outcome; and

3. Business owners are wanting to better understand the activities, technologies, and strategies their company employs.

So, from a big picture position, the reluctance of business owners and CEOs to be assertive in wanting to grow means a collective rethink for 2022.

But how do companies thrive when uncertainty and fear abound?

It may be surprising to know that the answer is right there in our hands. Can you see it? Feel it? Analyse it? The variable that will help us all navigate towards being a thriving business is the data that we have at our fingertips. Every company has it. The skill is in knowing how to interpret it.

Let’s briefly define it.

Data is the information that you are collecting from your website and digital marketing activities. We call it first party data . It’s your own data and can provide you with many valuable insights.

This data can:

· Come from your website and socials e.g. organic or campaign data, or

· Be stored in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, e.g. offline transactions, phone calls, etc.

Most businesses have access to multiple data sets that can collectively help provide the roadmap for the future.

First party data, or your own data, is the best source of information you have.

It is your greatest asset to:

· Create a benchmark for your business,

· Analyse and act on trends, and

· Make well-informed decisions.

From a sales and marketing perspective in 2022, the focus is on building thriving businesses by better understanding client/user experiences and behaviours.

We seek to understand by asking the following questions:

· How are people engaging with our brands?

· What does the client/user experience look like?

· What are the changes in online behaviours compared to 12 months ago?

· How are they reaching out or engaging?

· What problems are they trying to solve?

Combined with data collected offline, first party data can provide us with the answers to these questions.

Our strategies are based on this information and will ensure that the outcomes line up with your business objectives.

A clear example of this is in the home builder market. The lack of new land combined with an increased demand for housing has meant that more and more home builders are moving into Knock Down Rebuilds (KDR). Only 2 years ago, this sector represented less than 30% of new enquiries. Today KDR represents around 90%.

The impact of this change has meant that the client journey is being reconsidered. A Knock Down Rebuild customer is going to ask very different questions to someone building on a vacant block of land. The first party data is vital in understanding which changes need to be made to enable us to pivot towards new trends such as this one.

Summary

Your own data or first party data is one of the greatest assets your business has. The roadmap for thriving in 2022 is based upon understanding the picture it is painting for you.

At Icon Visual Marketing, our life’s work is helping companies thrive . Implementing solid strategies using first party data provides you with the certainty you need to thrive .

Get in touch with us to learn how we can help you interpret your first party data and help your business thrive in 2022.

Send us an enquiry or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Marketing to a Niche Audience

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 23:54:00 GMT

What is Niche marketing?

Niche marketing is a highly targeted form of marketing. Using niche marketing, businesses promote their products or services to a specific and well-defined audience.

By utilising niche marketing, an organisation has less wastage because their messages can be very targeted, rather than taking a scattered approach where you attempt to reach a very broad audience, most of whom will not buy your product or service.

To engage in niche marketing, companies must first identify their niche.

What is a niche market?

Every business has a target audience, a group of customers who most benefit and accept the product or service you are offering. Within these target audiences are also smaller subgroups also known as niche audiences.

They share certain characteristics and have specific wants, needs, and preferences. These niche audiences are a rich source of marketing opportunities .

A niche market does not necessarily mean a small market but does involve specific target audiences with a specialised offering.

Define your market segments

When you set up your business to appeal to everyone, it ends up appealing to no one because you are a small fish in a big pond. No one is going to notice you with all the other noise out there. You’ll get lost in a sea of bigger more established businesses and experts.

However, marketing to a niche audience means you are competing within a narrowly defined market segment with a highly specialised offering, which means your business is now the ‘big fish in a small pond’.

For any business, holding the majority market share in a niche market is a great achievement. But on the flip side, for a business that wants to keep on growing, pushing beyond the niche market is a must.

Understand your market for successful niche marketing

Niche marketing works well when you understand the market. A thorough understanding of your market means you can identify the unique needs of your potential audience, provide new and compelling products, tailor your products in the right way, communicate efficiently with the target group and identify how you will position against your competitors.

Targeting a niche market is often where many small Australian businesses start, with a single product that is of a single benefit to a niche segment of the market. By focusing on a niche market segment, small businesses can focus their resources on this subset of the market.

Niche marketing can be recommended as a start out business-building strategy to most effectively utilise limited marketing budgets.

Rather than equate niche with “small,” think “refined.” As in targeting the needs, motivations and self-interests of a consumer group with such precision as to maximise the clarity of what would give you a competitive advantage in their eyes.

Benefits of niche marketing

In a keynote presentation to Brandworks University, consultancy firm Lindsay, Stone & Briggs defined the benefits of niche marketing.

When marketers get it right, what they offer the niche is so valued by them:

The marketer can charge a premium, reaping higher margins.
Can platform the brand to drive share of wallet.
Can experience rapid growth that makes up for the narrowness of the target.

Advantages of marketing to a niche audience

When you get niche marketing right the advantages will give you a competitive edge with less competition, brand loyalty, lower marketing spend, higher profit margins, and you’ll be seen as an expert.

1) Less competition

One of the benefits of a niche market is having little or no competition. When you have a highly specific product or service, there will be fewer companies out there with the same offering. The more specific your product or service, the fewer companies there will be to compete against for customers, however, there will also be less customers looking for your product or service.

Reduced competition is only a benefit of niche marketing when there is a significant audience to compete for. Kristen McCormick, a US-based Marketing consultant notes, “If your competitors aren’t targeting a niche because they can’t meet their needs, then that’s great news for you. If they aren’t targeting that market because it’s not lucrative, then you may not be at an advantage.”

2) Brand loyalty is built through strong relationships

Niche marketing makes it possible for businesses to build their brand loyalty. When you are engaging with fewer people, you can focus on the quality of those engagements and on nurturing your relationships. And as you are building your products and services specifically around this customer’s needs, you are a true partner rather than a supplier.

3) Lower marketing spend with niche marketing

Marketing to a niche audience makes it easier for you to save on your marketing dollars. Instead of taking a shotgun approach to marketing, ie the more is better philosophy gaining the attention of the largest possible crowd in the hope it will encourage purchase, marketing to a niche audience can be highly targeted and therefore more cost-effective.

4) Higher profit margins

Niche businesses are often high-margin businesses. Customers don't mind, or necessarily realise, they are paying a little extra because they are only able to get that service from that company or under its brand.

5) You are the expert

When your business has a specific niche market, you are seen as the expert in your field, the ‘go-to’ for the right answers. It’s difficult to be an expert in everything, but when you specialise in a niche market, you can define your skills and expertise in one area, attracting those who need your specific services.

Disadvantages of marketing to a niche audience

If you undertake niche marketing well, there are very few disadvantages but you should be aware of some of the pitfalls which include the impact of new competitors and growth limitations.

1) Impact of new competitors

It’s the global nature of business that when a company creates a new service or product, it’s only a matter of time before a competitor comes along. When marketing to a niche audience, the impact of a new competitor can have a much more dramatic effect than when the audience is bigger. Strong relationships and brand loyalty can help to provide some level of protection for businesses.

2) Limited growth

By its very definition, a niche market is defined and limited, which will affect the opportunities for growth for your business. However, growth can be found within your niche audience, or by defining new niche audiences for your existing product or service, or even a new one.

Niche marketing examples

Icon Visual Marketing has conceived and implemented many successful niche marketing campaigns for many of our clients. A recent successful niche marketing campaign was for specialist railway supplier Delkor Rail . Delkor Rail has a very niche B2B audience due to the highly technical nature of their railway track and rolling stock products, many of which are unique in the market place.

Niche marketing solution

With such unique and industry-changing products, brand awareness was the number one priority. A combined SEO and Content strategy was put in place by Icon to ensure Delkor Rail was top of search and of mind. As the program grew, the strategy also encompassed LinkedIn organic to drive authority in this field. Delkor Rail also participates in global conferences.

Niche marketing campaign results

Off the back of projects in Australia and thanks to content being widely distributed about these successes, Delkor Rail began in-track trials with Heathrow Airport and has a global customer base that includes work in Canada, Spain, Mexico, UK and Russia. Their unique offering has become a critical part of the delivery of many projects locally as well including Sydney’s Metro and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

10 niche marketing examples

Every business will have their own niche markets, but here are 10 niche market examples to help get you started:

People focused on health & fitness
Travellers
Gamers
People interested in anti-aging treatments
Business owners in a particular industry
Residents of your suburb (or within a certain radius of your business)
Road cyclists
Tennis players
Car restoration enthusiasts
First home buyers

How can Icon Visual Marketing help with niche marketing?

At Icon Visual Marketing , our marketing experts can develop a marketing strategy to reach your niche audience. We simplify the complicated, amplify voices, measure results and help make the clients we partner with, understand, and make decisions backed by data.

Read more about the work we do for our clients , or call us on 1300 138 984 for a free audit of your digital marketing programs.

B2B trends to expect in 2022

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 02:03:30 GMT

With the pandemic still having dramatic effects on businesses worldwide, keeping on top of B2B marketing trends and including them in your 2022 marketing plan is as important as ever. It can determine where your marketing resources and efforts should be directed.

We’ve consulted several worldwide B2B marketing experts to identify the top trends B2B marketers can expect in 2022.

1. Make measuring ROI of marketing a priority

Number one on the list of expected B2B marketing trends in 2022 is to prioritise monitoring ROI (return on investment) of your marketing activities – identifying what’s working and what isn’t.

That’s easier said than done as some platforms are far easier to track than others.

Facebook marketing continues to be an ROI winner – it’s quick, cheap, and easy to measure. It’s important to know that social media marketing is now overall the number one marketing channel, beating even brand websites and emails.

As a B2B marketer, you should be monitoring the ROI of your marketing activities to ensure you’re getting a big enough bang for your buck.

2. Choose influencer marketing to grow your audience

With online shopping at an all-time high, it has become crucial for your brand identity to be relevant in the social media sphere . Influencer marketing has ballooned and will only get bigger in 2022.

Needless to say, marketers are turning evermore to influencers. Influencers can reach an audience whose attention you might find difficult to grab with other paid marketing.

The smart strategy is to choose the influencer wisely. A well-chosen micro-influencer can have a greater impact than one with a larger audience where your product gets lost in the maelstrom.

3. Create case study endorsements for effective marketing

Quite simply, case studies are inspiring . They are living demonstrations of your product in practice.

Case studies help to explain the product or brand in situ and how it can be a success for potential customers.

Case studies can be produced in various formats. Videos are a highly effective and easy-to-digest form of information and are quickly growing in popularity – see point 6 below. They can be used across multiple platforms and don’t take a great deal of time or money to create.

4. Increase brand awareness for long-term success

Brand awareness is the key driver to securing long-term trust and loyalty. It is seen as being even more important than increasing engagement, advertising products, lead generation and deal closure. Clearly, marketers are thinking long-term.

A key word is ‘trust’. Paying attention to customer needs is vital, which needs to be supported by a reliable product with ongoing enhancements.

Many people have been almost expecting businesses to fail during the pandemic. That’s why it’s important to maintain contact and awareness , and let customers know you are still there for them. Strong brand awareness will help you ride out the highs and lows of current consumer behaviour and help you emerge as robust as ever.

5. Use an online content approval system

With remote working at an all-time high, an online proofing tool for your creative content is essential for many brands.

It keeps track of the creative process, who has seen a job and who has made changes without the need for traditional forms of communication. It’s a powerful tool to ensure content filters through the approval process while maintaining an audit trail.

An online content approval system could streamline your creative workflow.

6. Use video channels for marketing

Video storytelling has become the fastest growing type of content. The rise of TikTok is largely responsible, and so too is the increased use of YouTube. It has been shown that viewers retain significantly more information from a video than from text.

TikTok now has over 1 billion monthly active users and is hard to ignore as a marketing channel. Many brands are using it to reach their audience and present product demonstrations in a creative way.

While Facebook and Instagram remain popular, LinkedIn should be considered as a platform for posting B2B videos. As always, it depends on your audience to get the best results.

7. Improve your website

It’s important to get the CX (customer experience) of your website right. Websites that are difficult to navigate or are slow to load are a turn-off for users.

Google hates slow-loading web pages and will punish them in the rankings. Marketers are realising that reducing load speed will help their page rank higher, leading to greater click rates.

Furthermore, personalisation of websites can add a powerful new dimension to your website. By using Automation capabilities, content on your website, such as headlines and images, can be personalised to the individual.

Keep an eye on…

AI (Artificial Intelligence) helps to make content creation more efficient by leveraging customer data to anticipate their next move and improve the customer journey. It’s a growing force in B2B marketing.

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are becoming big business. Non-fungible, in simple terms, means unique and irreplaceable. Think of it as buying a piece of online art and having exclusive ownership. B2B marketers are using it to provide tokens to access limited edition content.

And… genuinely help a charity

Another expected trend in 2022 is that brands will be seen to align themselves more closely with charities and social causes.

Instead of jumping on the cause of the day and simply sharing a social media post as a show of support, companies will devote genuine resources to supporting a charity or social cause throughout the year.

Icon helps you stay up-to-date

Keeping up with marketing trends in the B2B world is not easy. There are so many choices, so many avenues, so many demands. It can seem like you need to turn your strategy around on a dime.

It’s good to know that Icon Visual Marketing is here to help.

Our expert B2B marketing team can help you keep your marketing plan on-trend and relevant.

We can work with you to map out a strategic plan and make the most effective marketing choices, ensuring your goals are met, your brand identity is strengthened, and you come in within budget.

Read more about the work we do for our clients , drop us a line , or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.

What the death of the third-party cookie means for your business

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 22:00:16 GMT

If you read any marketing publications, you’ll no doubt have read about the phasing out of third-party cookies by Google. What does that actually mean for digital advertising and data gathering, and how might it affect your digital marketing in the future?

Firstly, it’s worth revisiting what cookies and specifically third-party cookies are. It’s a term that gets bandied about a lot, but it can be talked about in a very smoke and mirrors way.

What are cookies?

Cookies sound a lot more delicious than they actually are, and as fans of Australian English we should really rename them ‘Bickies’!

But that aside, cookies are pieces of code. Originally, they were invented to store the memory of the internet browser locally for the user’s convenience. From those beginnings evolved an industry built on the precise ability to track, identify, and segment users from their internet browsing patterns.

There are generally two types of cookies: first-party and third-party. First-party cookies are directly stored by the website you visit, allowing website owners to collect analytics data, remember language settings, and perform other useful functions that provide a good user experience. These cookies are not affected by the changes coming from Google.

Third-party cookies are created by domains that are not the website that you are visiting. These are usually used for online-advertising purposes and placed on a website by adding scripts or tags. A third-party cookie is accessible on any website that loads the third-party server's code.

Online advertising is the most common use of third-party cookies. It uses the data to create user profiles and then present personalised ads. If you’d been on one website and looked at something you were considering buying, and then headed to a completely different unrelated website, and seen a display ad with the exact product you viewed, then third-party cookies were in play.

Why is Google phasing out the use of third-party cookies?

In short, internet users are demanding greater privacy including transparency, choice, and control over how their data is used. Google recognises that it needs to evolve its services to meet those demands.

The third-party phase-out was initially announced in February 2020, and recently they pushed the phase-out date to late 2023. They have also subsequently announced that they won't be building "alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”

What does it mean for marketers?

As with any major change in digital marketing involving the privacy of data and advertising, marketers are scurrying about, worrying about the future for them; but there is no need to panic.

These changes will impact some areas of the marketing and advertising space, while other tactics will still stay pretty much the same. It’s only those who relied heavily on third-party data or individual data for online audience targeting strategies that will even see a change.

Google quite deliberately set a long time frame for the phase-out and has pushed the end-date out a couple of times as well, to allow new alternatives to emerge. This could be seen as a new opportunity for skilled and adaptable brands.

As a marketer, you should always be looking to the next thing and not rely too heavily on technology that you cannot control. These changes will push innovative marketers to develop clever alternatives and ads that reach their target audiences without using ‘annoying pop-ups’.

“Internet users are demanding greater privacy including transparency, choice, and control over how their data is used.”

What role will Icon Visual Marketing play?

At Icon Visual Marketing, our digital marketing experts are already thinking well beyond third-party cookies and keeping up with innovations and trends.

Our in-house digital marketing experts work tirelessly to create and optimise ongoing digital campaigns that ensure your business is easy to find online.

Icon Visual Marketing’s Digital Marketing team is expert in optimising, managing and creating effective and cash flow positive digital campaigns. We are a results-focused Australian digital marketing agency with our eyes on ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), and ROI (Return On Investment) when it comes to the digital strategy we curate for your business.

Read more about the work we do for our clients , or call us on 1300 138 984 for a confidential discussion on your digital marketing programs.

Marketing and culture – are they really such strange bedfellows?

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 23:56:59 GMT

P is for People

You may be surprised that People and Culture Development has been added to the growing list of services we offer at Icon. You might be asking - What does marketing have to do with culture and people?

Depending on which school you went to, the discipline of marketing is said to have four Ps – Price, Product, Promotion and Place, or perhaps even seven Ps - Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process, and Physical evidence. Regardless of how many Ps are in your mix, there is always one central P in mine – People. In marketing terms this is often described as follows:

“People are not just those who you are selling and advertising to. It includes staff, salespeople, customer service teams, and anyone involved in the marketing and sales processes. You want your employees to be effective and perceived positively by customers.”

From my perspective, this definition is too limited as it does not take into account the many people who work in the background to support those in the front line, and therefore creates a dystopic culture. Those important people who look after clients in the background and those who work for operations are left out of the picture. This model creates a framework of mistrust between us and them. How often have you heard the internal arguments, where the sales teams are fighting for their client internally, where the internal staff are only interested in a different set of parameters. The People component of marketing should include every employee no matter their role.

What does branding have to do with it?

Now let’s look at branding. I think branding in this over-hyped marketing world is more important than ever. While there are many definitions, I personally like this one.

Branding is the experience our clients feel when they buy our product/service. Branding is to be measured by our clients and the experience they receive. Success is therefore much more wholistic.

It’s the same theme for all of us. We need to exploit the online world. And it’s a challenge for those who aren’t familiar with it. The thing is that it changes rapidly. We can be experts in our business, but when it comes to online marketing, many people come up short. It’s simply not what they’re used to. But we must adapt in order to thrive. There’s no choice.

Every year the Roy Morgan Risk Report rates Australia’s most trusted businesses . Who came out number one in 2021? Woolworths. Why? Because they spent millions of dollars reassuring us that they were doing everything they could to protect us during the pandemic. They did what they had to do to create trust in the consumer during uncertain times. They recognised that building trust was an essential marketing tool.

From the first phone call or shop visit to the sales conversation, the buying experience, to the quality of the product, delivery and presentation, great branding is in the hands of the whole team. It requires a whole company attitude to ensure what you promise, you deliver.

The great challenge for all businesses in this global economy is that our brands are defined by the experience we provide our customers, not just the product we sell. If the growth of the online revolution has taught us anything is that it’s easy to buy it cheaper somewhere online. To build an e-commerce website and to sell something is the easy part.

Why do people buy from you?

As a good marketer, you need to understand why people buy from you, and in exploring this question you need to focus on the remaining Ps in your marketing mix.

The answer to the question about why people buy from you is a simple, yet powerful five-letter word – TRUST.

Trust is a word that can be whispered, shared and 100 per cent experienced. Trust is both a diamond if understood well, or a bomb if experienced poorly. Trust invokes the highest forms of emotional wellbeing we have. We are all very careful with whom we trust. Trust is both a force field when experienced well or incredibly fragile when broken. We all build our lives on the unseen virtue of trust.

However, we can never assume we’ll have trust in selling our business. Trust me I am a salesperson. Trust us we are a bank. It’s hollow, right?

Trust is the reason why people buy from you or your company, over and over again. But how do you build trust in your organisation? What is the great link in building our people and branding in our marketing plan? How and what does trust look like in your organisation?

Why should your clients, staff and other stakeholders trust you?

In a world where we are all being marketed with increased veracity every day, trust is one of the key reasons why people are making the buying decisions they do. The Millennials amongst us are looking for authenticity in the brands they purchase like never before. They engage with their brands. They connect with their brands to ensure they match their values. They are the ones that are driving the questions – Why should I trust you? Why should I buy from you?

In saying that they trust a particular company to deliver what they promise, they are ultimately saying I trust the people to deliver, to support, to provide the experience, and to deliver the promise. Within any organisation that involves many of the people who work behind the scenes to deliver.

Trust is built on authenticity and belief

Household brand names all around the globe use brand ambassadors to try and create a position of trust with consumers. But not all companies have the budget for expensive ambassadors and influencers.

I believe the real answer to building trust in your brand or company is not the expensive ambassador/influencer but in the genuine connection or experience. Trust is built on a foundation of authenticity and belief.

I know that these sound like lofty ideals. Yet all our work over many years, across many industries has proven one of the key reasons why companies are successful is that staff and clients like and trust them.

Company culture is glue

If the link between the two Ps of positioning and people is trust, then the glue that holds it all together is company culture.

The definition of culture is very simple – “It’s the way we do things around here”.

A great culture fosters behaviours that encourage belief in the company mission and values, and therefore all the people who work for the organisation are empowered to deliver. Put simply, there is purpose in everyone’s work, and it follows that clients love what you do. I love what I do. A great culture is not perfect or utopian. A great culture is transparent, open and lives its values.

Conversely, a poisonous culture is ugly; people feel they are not valued, and their work has no purpose.

I know this has been a long introduction to answer my question – Why has Icon Visual Marketing introduced People & Culture into our services?

The secret to company growth

Our work over many years has indicated that a company can only truly grow successfully if all the people who work for an organisation believe in, and live and breathe the mission and the values of the business.

Trust is the reoccurring theme of success. Trust is experienced by our clients, but more importantly it’s the trust the staff have in themselves, the company, and the whole environment in which they operate.

Trust is built on Culture. Culture is built on values and behaviours. And behaviour is built on “this is what we do” and “what we say we do”.

Culture at Icon

I’ve learnt about the importance of culture in my own business. We’ve experienced rapid growth and that came at a large cost. The growth meant that we lost ourselves while we were delivering great work, something was broken. I could not put my finger on it. A lot of soul searching made us realise that we had drifted into no man’s land. We were not actively working towards delivering the promise of trust and giving our clients and our people the best experience, we could.

A review of our culture showed us that that we were saying one thing and doing another. The journey, the skills and the tools are the subject of another blog, but suffice to say for this article, re-establishing trust for the team at Icon, has meant that we don’t take our culture for granted. Culture is at the heart of trust. Trust is at the heart of what we deliver to our clients, and trust is the reason why our team chooses Icon.

As icon has grown and evolved over the last few years, culture and personal leadership have been a driving force for change.

Trust is at the core

As I reflect on the many discovery sessions I have conducted over the years, trust is the reoccurring core for all successful companies. As marketers, our job is to create the promise of what you can expect when you buy a product, or you use this brand. The internal culture of a company will determine how well that promise is realised.

This is why have we introduced People and Culture to our list of services. Experience has shown me that everyone wants to work for a great company, and often it's left to chance or a personality. Yet culture and leadership are too important to leave to chance or one person. Over the years we have worked hard to understand how to deliver trust to our stakeholders.

So, for the team at Icon, for us to truly deliver on our promise of helping companies grow, helping companies build their culture is one of the greatest measures of success.

If this resonates with you, pick up the phone and give me a call on 1300 138 984 or email me directly at joe@iconvisual.com.au .

When does a marketing agency become a consultancy?

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 19:23:31 GMT

When I am presenting our company to a new client, I always refer to Icon as a consultancy, not just another agency. The difference is far greater than it initially might appear.

The traditional view of an agency is that they take a brief and the brief is executed. Success is measured by how well the brief is executed. Simple enough one would think. After all, that is the job of an agency. However, the whole premise of success is built upon one assumption – that the brief is right! Let me illustrate my point.

A new client will call and say they need a new website. Okay we say, no problem, we can assist with that. Before we proceed any further, we ask the all-important question – Why do you need a new website? A few minutes later and with some more questioning we realise that it’s not a website or a new campaign that needs to be built but a totally different solution. The current website is fine, maybe just a few updates are needed, and a new campaign is a great idea, but several smaller tasks are less costly that can be tried to ensure that our thinking is right.

If we accepted the client brief as presented, we may have produced the website, but on delivering it, we realise it was not a website they needed at all.

In our journey from agency to consultancy, there is one question that defines our difference. A simple question that opens a plethora of possibilities.

“What is the problem you are trying to solve?”

In asking that one question we are left to explore the many business variables that make up the solution. As we all know in an increasingly complex world where the line of marketing / sales / customer service / culture are increasingly blurred and intertwined, to solve a marketing problem is to first understand the business models that sit as the foundation.

“What is the problem to be solved?” may seem like a simple enough question, but as we explore the possibilities, it is often not just one problem, it’s multiple problems. The skill of a great consultancy is to understand what problem needs to be solved and which problem we are solving. As well as what are the business frameworks and variables that are inhibiting success.

We might end up building a new website or exploring a new campaign, or we might simply need to look at our customer service scripts. The execution is the easy part; there are many great agencies that can help you execute.

What success looks like is better understood if we first know the problem to be solved. In answering that problem, the consultant is the person you need in your corner.

What makes a great agency? A great agency is first and foremost an amazing consultancy!

Want to know more? Call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.

Why you should keep marketing your business during a pandemic

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 05:58:14 GMT

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic has taught all of us so much about running and marketing a business.

At times we’ve all been tempted to pull the covers back over our heads but there’s always hope on the horizon so most of us have soldiered on. For those whose businesses were adversely affected, it’s also been tempting to pull down the shutters, but a crisis is often a time to recalibrate or change direction.

We’ve all read inspiring stories about business owners pivoting and taking their business in a new direction. For some, they’ll never return to their old way of doing business, for others they’ll incorporate some of the new with the old.

Marketing during a pandemic

Whatever happens in your business you should still maintain a presence in your market during a long crisis like the COVID pandemic and be poised ready when the pandemic subsides.

At Icon Visual Marketing we’ve learnt to continue to work with our clients on innovative marketing projects. Here are a few things we’d recommend:

Know your market

Knowing your market was important before the pandemic, but it’s even more important now. Understanding who your customers and potential customers are, and what you can offer them has been highlighted over the past 18 months.

Think about a popular local restaurant that was overflowing with customers before the pandemic. When lockdowns meant they could no longer have in-restaurant dining, they had to quickly move to a take-away or meal-kit model. Those who already knew their customers well were ready to use their database, and already established communication channels like social media to instantly reach out to them. Those who didn’t have any marketing channels in place were disadvantaged.

Communicate with customers

Communicating with your customers and potential customers has never been more important. How you communicate and what you need to say will depend on your individual circumstances.

For example, if you run a previously thriving travel business and you cannot book and plan new trips for customers, you can still communicate what you’re doing behind the scenes. You might be working hard to cancel and rebook for some customers and be researching future trips. All of this can be communicated to ensure you’re not forgotten when the pandemic subsides.

Alternatively, you might run a business that is booming like a fitness products retailer. You still need to let customers know what stock is available, when new products will be arriving, and more. When the tide shifts and you’re no longer in high demand you don’t want to be forgotten either.

Re-strategise your marketing program

A time of prolonged crisis can also be an excellent time to re-strategise and make sure your marketing is working for you.

Once again, the focus will depend on the status of your industry or business. If you’re unable to operate as normal you might have additional time on your hands that you can use to formulate your post-pandemic

marketing strategy.

If you’re crazy busy you shouldn’t drop the marketing ball altogether. You might find you’ve got the opportunity to find new markets for an existing product or to broaden your geographic spread.

For example, you might operate a retail store that usually sells to local people, but the pandemic has meant you’re now selling online. Once you move online you can sell to a much larger geographic area, and you need to recalibrate your marketing efforts to reflect this.

Review your automated marketing activities

Automated marketing activities

can be a great way to save time and reach your market cost-effectively but they shouldn’t be ‘set and forget’. Some methods or messages you used before the pandemic might now be inappropriate or even offensive so make sure you review them.

“Communicating with your customers and potential customers
has never been more important.”

Maintain your current marketing budget

In times of crisis and particularly prolonged periods like the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s really tempting to cut budgets, but it can be very short-sighted.

It can actually be a good time to increase your marketing spend, particularly if your competitors are cutting their budgets. Use their lack of marketing presence to show that you’re still in business, innovating and growing.

Keep creating content

If your business is adversely affected by the pandemic, it’s tempting to stop sharing content . However, it’s important to keep creating and posting fresh information. You want your customers to know that you’re still in business and they want to know the relevant information about the pandemic. This could be centred around hygiene, deliveries, product availability, product changes, and much more.

It could also be a great time to start a blog where you begin to establish yourself as a thought leader or ramp up your use of a neglected social channel like LinkedIn.

How has Icon Visual Marketing fared?

Like many businesses, at Icon Visual Marketing we’ve had to adapt to the changing environment during the pandemic. Our people are working from home but are still productive and able to meet with our clients via video.

We’ve encouraged our clients to keep their marketing activities in place and guided them to change direction where required. We’ve also started working with new clients during the pandemic, and plan to continue well after it has faded away.

Read more about the work we do for our clients , or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.

Employee wellness starts with feeling secure

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 01:17:20 GMT

The COVID pandemic has shone a spotlight on the wellbeing of all employees. That’s not to say it didn’t matter before, but for businesses like Icon Visual Marketing, whose staff are now primarily working from home, the pandemic has brought new challenges.

For Icon, wellness is about a positive mindset for our people.

It starts with working with our people to ensure they are clear about success in their job. Once that’s established, we work with them to track their progress and celebrate their successes. The manager’s role is to support employees to be successful as they track their achievements, rather than waiting for managers to tell them they are doing well.

Feelings of wellbeing are fundamental to the overall health of an individual, enabling them to successfully overcome difficulties and achieve what they want out of life. Past experiences, attitudes and outlook can all impact wellbeing.

At Icon we consciously and proactively build for wellbeing as part of good practice. It benefits each individual and it also benefits the company.

Late last year, and early this year we held a series of workshops with all staff in the room, which is rare for a medium-sized firm like Icon. We asked our people what we needed to do in the future to grow and prosper, and we’re now implementing some of what we learnt.

"For Icon, wellbeing is just good business practice to ensure optimum performance."

In establishing our wellbeing program we’ve learnt a few things that are worth sharing:

Personal leadership coaching

Each employee has personal leadership coaching with a coach or manager. This includes a monthly one-on-one session that focuses on the individual and how they can improve. The focus is on support and how they can take control, rather than what the company wants from them. It is a safe place where they can be vulnerable and receive guidance on great success at work and beyond. It benefits everyone.

Wellness leave

At Icon we’ve recently introduced extra leave for each staff member to take every month to focus on wellness. In some ways, it’s just reframing because they may have taken leave before but for less positive reasons. It’s an acknowledgment that “I’m okay and I want to stay okay”.

Vibe committee – the fun stuff

Our committee of enthusiastic staff works behind the scenes to organise fun stuff like fun virtual meetings, birthday cakes (when we’re in the office), care packages, nice little extras like moisturiser and fresh flowers in the office bathrooms, and more.

Flexible work arrangements

Before the pandemic we offered flexible work arrangements for many of our staff – part-time roles, working from home, starting early/finishing early, and more. The pandemic has taught us that a lot more of our people can successfully work from home so no doubt there’ll be more flexibility in the future.

Incorporating wellness at work for all our people is an investment in the future and reflects our corporate values. It’s a long-term strategy, and we hope that our people will enjoy success at Icon and beyond.

Are you really engaging your customers?

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 23:00:02 GMT

You can’t build engagement without first building relationships. Strong relationships with customers are the saving grace your business can draw upon when inevitable problems arise, or when there is temptation from the competition.

Customer engagement is the conscious effort to build trust and relationships with the people who are buying what you are selling. It encompasses all the ways you connect with customers – face-to-face, emails, phone calls, conversations via social media , websites , community forums, and more. Creating a strategy around these interactions is a great way to build loyalty.

Think of suburban restaurants during the COVID lockdown periods. Overnight most restaurateurs had to shut their doors to diners and rely completely on take-away. Those that had a customer engagement strategy in place with communication channels in operation were immediately able to contact their customers with take-away offers, home delivery options, and more. No doubt they fared much better than those who had to wait for their customers to contact them.

Five ways to create better customer experiences

Here are a few tips for creating high-value engagement and delivering a better customer experience. Follow these and you’ll unlock customer experiences that deliver value where your customers most crave it.

Develop emotional connections by making your marketing more human

Customers find it much easier to engage with a brand that has a personality, and you can achieve this by making your company more relatable and more memorable.

One of the most effective ways to build emotional connections and show your personality is to prove that your customers are dealing with an actual person and not just a nameless, faceless corporation.

You can do this by introducing the people that work for your organisation through channels like email , social media, your company website, or more. Instead of replying to social comments with an anonymous brand logo and no name, use a real person’s name for a strong impact.

The same applies to blog posts on your website. By including author bylines (name and title) and short biographies, you allow your customers to get to know you and begin building a relationship. You can also invite some of your people to become brand ambassadors so they are the face of the community, which further personalises your brand. This can also work for the business owner or CEO.

“Customer engagement is the conscious effort to build trust and relationships with the people who buy what you sell.”

Build a community

Online communities cultivated through websites or online forums have been around for many years – because they work well for engaging customers.

Online communities and forums allow you to directly engage your customers by answering their questions, having discussions that are relevant to your industry, keeping them updated, and sharing information that they care about.

Using social networks like groups on Facebook and LinkedIn also allows you to build a community. But beware that every now and then these social platforms change and you cannot control the rules that change with them.

Listen to your customers and ask questions

Being able to constantly liaise with customers is both a good and bad thing. Good because you can respond to problems as they arise, but bad because you need to monitor communication channels 24 hours a day.

This means you need to have systems in place that can be scaled up or down depending on the frequency of feedback or interaction that occurs. Highly responsive companies are quick to nip service problems in the bud through tactful communications. This can head off issues that would otherwise go viral from well-connected customers.

Your communication with customers does not need to be completely reactive. You can also be proactive and ask questions that invite responses. Questions offer a prime opportunity to understand what your customers and potential customers want. The responses you receive are not only an easy way to engage customers, but they also offer direct insight into where you should take your business next.

Offer customers real value with educational content

This new era of engagement marketing means that you lead with content marketing, rather than with products or services. Your content marketing must be truly useful and of genuine value to your customers for it to be a part of a meaningful engagement strategy.

One way to make your content more engaging is to focus on educating your customers without including the hard sell. By adding value to your customers’ lives via content marketing, you will cement yourself as a genuinely helpful organisation that they’ll want to do business with – when they’re ready to do business.

“Your communication with customers does not need to be completely reactive. You can also be proactive.”

Personalise customer experiences

You can take advantage of the wealth of data that digital marketing offers to provide personalised recommendations based on user behaviour. For example, through email and social ads, you can target your current customers and provide personalised recommendations based on past purchases or browsing behaviour.

Through digital marketing, you can contact customers who have visited your site, filled a shopping cart, and left without purchasing to remind them. The same technique can be used with remarketing ads on social media, where you show customers what they left behind.

Read more about the great marketing moves we make with our clients.

Why Google My Business is important for your SEO strategy

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 23:00:03 GMT

Google My Business is a freely available tool that can help level the playing field for small and medium sized businesses who compete with larger companies for the same customers.

Designed to promote small and medium businesses that may otherwise be lost in the glut of information online, Google My Business can bring more foot traffic and online visitors to your business and grow your revenue. It is also a pivotal component of local SEO that helps make your business easier to find through tools like Google Search and Google Maps.

So, if you’re in business and you don’t have a Google My Business profile, it’s worth setting one up. And if you already have a Google My Business profile, it’s worth reviewing it and ensuring that it is fully optimised and performing on all cylinders for your business.

What details are included in a Google My Business listing?

Businesses with accurate Google My Business listings are much more likely to be considered reputable by customers searching locally. So, what information should you include in your listing? When creating your Google My Business listing, be sure to complete each of the following fields:

Business name
Business description
Street address
Business hours
Website
Photos
Reviews

The more complete your Google My Business profile is, the better it will perform for your business, so it’s worth taking the time to populate it with information your target audience will find useful and informative, while highlighting the best things about your business.

Inputting your business information into your Google My Business profile isn’t overly hard but optimising it so you are using this handy business tool to its full potential can take a bit of work, consideration, and technical nous.

It requires using relevant SEO keywords at appropriate places in your Google My Business profile, ensuring that your profile is rich with key information about your business, and matching your Google My Business details with what’s on your company website. It can also include answering FAQs about your products or services, and regularly adding photos relevant to your business and customer base.

“The more complete your Google My Business profile is, the better it will perform for your business.”

Five ways an optimised Google My Business listing will benefit your business

An optimised and complete Google My Business listing can dramatically improve the local SEO ranking for your business.
Your Google My Business listing integrates with Google Maps, which makes it easier for potential customers to locate your business using the ever-popular mapping and location app.
Customer reviews, if your customers have created them, will be displayed under your Google My Business profile. This gives your business real-world credibility that can help sway potential customers who find your business through Google search engine results pages and are trying to evaluate your credentials.
It creates a great first impression of your business for online, where potential customers can instantly view all essential information about your business.
Using your Google My Business profile, potential customers can send messages directly to your company’s phone number or company email via the Google My Business interface.

How to get started with Google My Business

If your business doesn’t already have a Google My Business listing, your first move is registering and claiming your business on the platform. You’ll then be asked to verify that it is indeed your business, which may take a few weeks to process.

Once your location is established and verified, go through your Google My Business listing and optimise every aspect of the listing that you can. Add, review, and tweak your listing as needed.

Need a hand? Our Digital Marketing team can work with you to set up and optimise your Google My Business listing to ensure it’s firing on all cylinders for your business.

How content marketing forges deeper customer relationships

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 01:06:00 GMT

With the state of play in business today, consumers and buyers are more empowered and enabled than they ever have been. They are well and truly in the driver's seat, with a firm grip on the steering wheel. And whether yours is a B2B or a B2C business, you’re likely facing an uphill battle to get their attention, let alone convince them to do business with you.

Often your target audience will more or less make their decision to buy from or to bypass your business before they ever contact you directly. So, if you’re looking to charm them with your beguiling phone manner or with a flashy in-person sales pitch, well, that chance may never come. And this is where a carefully considered content marketing strategy can make all the difference for your business.

What you get with a content marketing strategy

Content marketing is the key to building an engaged audience for your business. In fact, Seth Godin noted more than a decade ago in 2008 that “content marketing is all the marketing that’s left”.

A well-considered and well executed content marketing strategy that adds true value to your target audience enables your business to intercept the attention of its buyers in ways that are favourable to those buyers.

“Favourable” is the key word here. Content marketing is not about thrusting a steady stream of overzealous “buy now” messaging at your target audience. Such blunt tactics are tone-deaf and will likely cause more harm than good, and are, ironically, the opposite content marketing.

Rather, content marketing is about adding meaningful value to the lives of your ideal customers via content that educates, informs, and, ultimately, helps them in some tangible way and makes their lives easier.

“Content marketing is the key to building an engaged audience for your business.”

How content marketing facilitates conversations

When done right, the positive and engaging experience that stems from a great content marketing strategy is that those buyers will come to your business when they are ready to buy. Remember, content marketing is not about selling, and certainly not about compelling a purchase decision right now.

Rather, it’s about facilitating conversations, engaging your ideal customers and taking them on an informative, educational, and often enlightening journey that compels them to seek more information about you and what you do.

It’s laying the foundation that will grease the wheels for them to buy from you – when they reach the point of purchase. Content marketing is also an opportunity to show your potential clients how you think and why you do you do.

When your content marketing strategy is really humming on all cylinders, you won’t need to ask your potential customers for their business. This is because your content marketing has already given them the confidence, the business case, and all the justification they need to seek out your products or services. They feel like they already know you and know the value you can give them, which paves the way for a positive relationship.

“It’s important to not confuse content activities with content marketing activities.”

Content versus content marketing

It’s important to differentiate between content, and content marketing, as they are not one and the same. In fact, they serve very different purposes, even if from a distance they may appear to be the same thing.

Content is ubiquitous in your business – it’s your sales content, event content, customer service content, product content, and campaign content, to name a few common examples.

These types of content support your brand and your products, but they are not created for your customers. Rather, they are invariably created for your boss (i.e., the business owner, or business manager). This means that content (as outlined above) is doing very little in terms of reaching, engaging, and converting your target audience.

This is where content marketing comes in to do the heavy lifting, and why it’s important to not confuse your content activities with content marketing activities in your business.

Read more about our content marketing services or contact us today for a confidential discussion about your business.

How to convince your boss that marketing matters

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 23:08:13 GMT

So, you’ve just landed a great in-house marketing job. It’s a newly created position and the CEO, managing director, or business owner has an accounting or engineering background and doesn’t understand marketing all that well.

The leader of the business, and their senior management team, knows that they need to up their marketing game. However, they need convincing that you need a budget and support in your new role.

This is not an uncommon scenario that in-house marketing professionals face. In-house marketing managers often struggle to convince their bosses that marketing matters, and that it is worth allocating a respectable budget to.

Here are a few surefire arguments to present to the executive team that marketing is always a worthy investment.

See it through their eyes

Your boss probably oversees multiple areas in your organisation. Marketing is only one part of a much bigger picture, so any changes or time spent learning about new marketing tactics might seem overwhelming to a manager who already has a lot on their plate. Of course, having just hired you, they want to encourage you to try new things, but if it doesn’t go well, they could be in the firing line.

You need to see things through their eyes and understand how they will perceive value. Your boss might be focusing largely on numbers like ROI, profit margin, or even market share, so you need to frame your arguments for support on boosting those numbers.

You might be focused on various metrics, but these might not obviously align with your manager’s daily goals or even pain points. In short, you need to speak their language.

“In-house marketing managers often struggle to convince their bosses that marketing matters.”

Your level of involvement in developing the company’s goals and strategy will depend on your level of seniority. If you’re in a junior role you may not have a seat at the executive table, but you should still insist on access to the broader company goals and strategies.

You need to understand the big-picture business goals and how those goals are measured. Once you know what the target is, you can use your expertise to formulate what strategies and tactics are best to employ.

As you already know, marketing works best when fully integrated into all aspects of business strategy and function. So you need to convince your senior management team to provide access to the key information and direction.

Get some ‘quick wins’ on the board

There are many things you can do on a small initial budget and experiment with to get quick evidence for success, to argue for a bigger marketing budget. For example, using organic social media content can be very cost-effective.

Often when you mention social media to non-marketers they just think of expensive video content and paid advertising campaigns. But well-crafted organic social content can be really effective and powerful. By curating and creating fantastic content using existing company assets and resources, you can get great results.

“Some marketing metrics are more important than others, but none of them should be cast aside altogether.”

Back it up with data

Marketing metrics are the most important thing in your arsenal when selling your ideas to your senior management. Metrics provide the evidence that your marketing activities really work.

There are a multitude of metrics for measuring the effectiveness of your well thought out marketing campaign or marketing activities. The trick is knowing which marketing metrics matter the most.

Some marketing metrics are more important than others, but none of them should be cast aside altogether. It’s how you use them together that makes all the difference. Being able to pick the right metrics to measure the effectiveness of your marketing can be the difference between gaining true clarity and heading in the wrong direction.

Some marketing metrics may be fantastic for measuring success sometimes, and not so fantastic at other times. It all depends on your platform and the intent of your marketing campaign.

Do you need a little help with getting the leaders in your business to buy into your strategic marketing plan? Icon Visual Marketing has a team of marketing professionals who can support in-house marketers. In fact, we currently do this for many of our clients . Get in touch and let’s make great marketing moves together.

What is digital marketing and why do I need it for my business?

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 02:53:43 GMT

In short, digital marketing is simply any form of marketing that happens online.

Popular digital marketing tactics and channels include:

Social media : Using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and more to promote your brand by publishing valuable and engaging content.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) : Enables you to increase your website’s organic ranking to increase traffic. The higher your website ranks in a Google search, the more people will find your website.
Content marketing : Helps you to bring valuable content to customers. The focus is on value and creating content that will attract new customers.
Pay-per-click (PPC) : Drawing paid traffic to your website. As an advertiser, you pay the publisher every time your ad is clicked.
Video marketing : Used to promote your brand or product, show behind the scenes of your business, share stories, and testimonials.
Email marketing : One of the oldest forms of digital marketing that has one of the highest returns. It involves sending personalised emails to a database of prospects and existing customers.

Why does my business need digital marketing?

Digital marketing has the power to bring opportunities and growth to your business. There are loads of compelling reasons why you should use digital marketing. Here are our top six reasons why your SME business needs digital marketing:

Your customers are online

According to a report published by Datareportal.com , there were 22.82 million internet users in Australia in January 2021, which equates to 89 per cent of the Australian population using the internet. Nearly 80 per cent of internet users are active social media users, and the average time that users aged between 16 and 64 years spend on the internet is a whopping six hours and 13 minutes, every day.

Based on those figures alone, it should be quite clear that your business needs to be speaking to your customers and potential customers through online channels. Even if they hear about you through traditional channels like word-of-mouth or conventional marketing, they’ll head online to learn more. If potential customers can't find anything about you online, chances are you'll lose them.

“Digital marketing is simply any form of marketing that exists online.”

Digital marketing is affordable

Digital marketing is generally more affordable than traditional marketing. Businesses can market through email, social media, and SEO-driven content marketing at a much lower cost than they might spend to produce and distribute print advertising or develop and place ads on radio or television.

Part of the reason why digital marketing is so affordable is that it is very targeted. With digital marketing, you can target your audience more precisely than traditional marketing methods. Once you’ve identified who your ideal customers are, you can input important information about them and use that information to target your digital marketing efforts. This makes it much easier to reach the right people with the right message.

It’s easy to track and monitor digital campaigns

Unlike traditional media, I digital marketing it is easier to monitor and measure your campaigns, which allows you to adapt and drive better results. Using simple online tools, you can easily track your campaign’s ROI and other indicators to see if it is delivering valuable results for your business. Metrics can include impressions, open rates (emails), clicks, likes, shares, comments, conversions, and more. The type of metrics you track will depend on the channel and what you want to measure.

With digital marketing, you can also monitor your campaigns as you go. If they need tweaking, you can make immediate changes on the fly and implement them straight away. This allows you to get more out of your campaign and spend your budget more wisely.

You can provide an interactive and personalised experience

Through digital marketing you can send reminder emails to customers who have visited your website, filled a shopping cart, and left without making the purchase. The same technique can be used with remarketing ads on social media, where you show customers what they left behind.

You can become part of the conversation about your brand

Social media marketing is an increasingly popular digital marketing tactic that allows you to be part of the online conversation about your brand. Nearly 80 per cent of Australian internet users are active social media users so you can’t afford not to be there.

Through consistent engagement and posting of valuable content, you can work to develop a stronger relationship with current customers while also starting a conversation with potential customers. By answering questions and concerns through social media, you can also improve customer service and contribute to a better overall online reputation for your brand.

“With digital marketing, you can target your audience more precisely than traditional methods.”

Your competitors are doing it

And if for no other reason, you should be investing in digital marketing because we guarantee that your competitors are already doing it. The best part is, you can check what your competitors are doing and take note of it. But don’t just copy what they are doing. Instead, create a better strategy that drives more customers to your website, social channels, and more.

Digital marketing at Icon Visual Marketing

The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing and Icon Visual Marketing keeps up with those changes. We work with SMEs across Greater Sydney to develop and implement digital marketing strategies and techniques to grow their business. We also constantly monitor and analyse results and report on those results to our clients.

Read more about the work we do for our clients , or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.

Do I need social media for my B2B business?

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 04:01:18 GMT

For B2B businesses it’s especially important to get into the mindset of your target audience so you can authentically share your company’s story and drive traffic to your website. When you consider whether a social platform is right for your business, it’s important to understand who is connecting on a specific platform, and for what reason.

But before you dive in, you need to answer two important questions:

What are your company’s business objectives?
How will social media marketing help to achieve them?

When B2C businesses use social media they are often focused on selling, but in B2B it’s more subtle. The focus is on creating brand awareness, educating audiences, and building credibility and trust. It’s also important to ensure your social media strategy ties in with your broader content marketing strategy.

Creating brand awareness

Successful B2B enterprises need to spell out who they are, what sets them apart from their competitors, and what they value as a company. For many, social media is a great place to achieve this by providing a place to share content that highlights these three things.

Educating audiences to increase credibility

The majority of B2B buyers do independent research on the businesses they deal with and want to ensure that the companies they support are credible. One great way to show your credibility to potential customers is to educate your audience, and social media channels are a great avenue for sharing.

Building trust

In the business-to-business space, the critical outcome is building trust. Things like testimonials, positive reviews, and accolades are all great for sharing via social media.

It doesn’t matter if your product or service is very technical or niche, customer engagement can make your brand feel more personable.

Focus on the most B2B-friendly platforms

It’s important to understand who is connecting with you on a specific social platform, and for what reason. Not every social channel is going to work for your business, so choose your social media channels strategically ; don’t feel like you have to use every social media platform just because it’s available.

Here are some recommendations for how your B2B business can use each of the most popular social platforms:

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the number one channel for most B2B social media programs. It should be a core component of your B2B lead generation and content marketing strategies. It is the one social platform catering to connecting business professionals.

Twitter: You should consider Twitter in your B2B social media mix because its short-message style can help companies provide quick morsels of information. Twitter can also be an integral component of customer service communication.

Facebook: Facebook is primarily used to connect with family and friends, but it can also be used to help businesses communicate with prospects and build their community. However, be aware that just because your customers and potential customers use Facebook in a personal capacity, that doesn’t mean they want to focus on business while using it. There is a place on Facebook for B2B marketing. It just requires a little more nuance.

YouTube: YouTube should be considered in your social media plans because content marketing on YouTube leverages the sight, sound, and emotion of video to strengthen your brand and engage your audience. This is the perfect social channel for how-to tutorials, interviews, presentations, and video advertising.

Instagram & Pinterest: Instagram & Pinterest can also play a role in the social media mix for certain B2B businesses, particularly if your business has strong visuals because both platforms are focused on images rather than words. These channels are fantastic for your more visual content – eye-catching images and short, engaging multimedia content.

“Not every social media channel is going to work for your business, so choose your channels strategically.”

Social media and Icon Visual Marketing

The social media landscape changes rapidly, and the most important thing is that no social media strategy should be set in stone. Icon Visual Marketing’s content and creative teams work together to define and execute social media strategies that deliver results for B2B businesses. Read more about the work we do for our clients , or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.

How to create a B2B social media marketing strategy

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 23:46:48 GMT

If you run a B2B business and have decided to invest in social media marketing, you first need to set your social media strategy.

This involves deciding which social media channels to use, and how to use them – i.e., what types of content you will post, how frequently you will post, and how you will measure the success, or otherwise, of your social media activity. You also need to think about how your social media strategy will connect to your broader content marketing strategy.

Defining your social media strategy

To define the social media strategy for your business, make sure you clearly answer the following questions. Doing so will provide the rationale that will justify and drive your investment in social media marketing.

Why do you want your business on social media?

Decide what your overall goals are, and what business objectives social media will meet. What metrics are you going to measure to track progress and adjust as your strategy unfolds?

Who is your target audience?

You should already know the answer to this question. If not, you need to identify who your customers or potential customers are, as well as their interests and needs. Doing so will give you insight into how they use social media, and what social media platforms are best for communicating with them.

What type of content are you going to share?

Every business has interesting stories to tell. You just need to identify them. To set your social media strategy, you can organise your social media content into specific categories, such as educational, informational, humorous, and news.

Don’t forget that this is social media, so you want to give your content a personality that will appeal to your target audience. Yes, this is business, but it is still essentially about encouraging human interaction. And it’s not all done just with written words.

Be sure to throw into your social media content mix some multimedia content, such as video, audio files or podcasts, live streaming, animations, and infographics. It might also be appropriate to share user generated content and repost industry content that you find interesting.

“Don’t forget that this is social media, so you want to give your content a personality.”

How often are you going to post?

Create a social content calendar so there will be consistency in your social media marketing across all channels. Each channel that you choose to use needs its own calendar. There may be some crossover from channel to channel, but don’t be tempted to just post exactly the same content on each channel. It needs to be tailored to the channel, whether it’s for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Pinterest.

At Icon we typically recommend clients focus on two to three channels rather than post on every social media platform. It depends on the channel and the type of content as to how often you should post.

Rolling out your strategy

With your social media strategy defined, all that’s left to do is to create the content that aligns with the strategy, schedule content for posting, and measure the results. There are many social media management tools aimed at SMEs that make scheduling, posting, and measuring easy, including Hootsuite, Agora Pulse, Later, and Sprout Social, and more.

It’s also important to ensure someone in the business is not just scheduling your social posts, but also monitoring your social channels and promptly responding to questions or reviews from your users.

“The most important thing is that no social media strategy should be set in stone.”

Get your employees involved

Who better to highlight the human side of your business than the people who keep your business running? Employees can help amplify your social media content by encouraging them to share it and comment on it. Doing so will expand the reach and engagement of your social content. This is particularly true on LinkedIn, where individual profiles often have far greater reach than company pages.

Social media and Icon Visual Marketing

Read more about the work we do for our clients , or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.

Top Sydney digital marketing trends in 2021

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 23:28:49 GMT

Digital marketing is a rapidly changing field, but even in rapidly changing fields there are important trends present. So, without further ado, here are our top digital marketing trends for 2021. Understanding them and how to make them work for you will put your business in good stead for the remainder of 2021 and beyond.

Tracking protocol changes: The death of cookie tracking

Apple’s iOS 14.5 software update for iPhones, which launched in April of this year, includes an App Tracking Transparency feature, whose default setting doesn’t permit apps installed on iPhones to use your data for targeted ads. It also doesn’t permit sharing of your location data with advertisers or sharing your advertising ID or any other identifiers with third parties.

However, tracking won’t simply disappear, as Google Analytics’ GA4 is now capable of gathering data without cookies by using machine learning, a method of data analysis that automates analytical model building. This enables Google Analytics to gather certain marketing insights, such as the possibility of customers making a purchase and behavioural reporting in Google Analytics – all without the need for tracking via cookies.

“Google Analytics GA4 is now capable of gathering data without cookies by using machine learning.”

SEO, Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, and E-A-T

Expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness – the three key ingredients for credibility. Together, they form E-A-T , and are critically important when it comes to Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. Google rates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness highly when determining which webpages to serve users on search engine results pages (SERPS).

In the eyes of Google’s bots:

Expertise means a high level of knowledge or skill in a particular field and is evaluated mainly at a content-level.
Authoritativeness is all about reputation, particularly among other experts and influencers in your industry. It’s when others see your website as the go-to source of information about a topic.
Trustworthiness is about the legitimacy, transparency, and accuracy of the website. This includes having things like contact information, content accuracy, and reputable sources.

93% of all online interactions start with a search engine. So, as much as possible, ensure that everything you publish on your company website and social pages demonstrates your expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

Google’s Core Web Vitals and desktop users

Core Web Vitals are the specific factors Google considers important in a webpage’s overall user experience . They focus on the performance, responsiveness, and visual stability of a webpage, and together they influence the “page experience” UX score Google gives every webpage.

“Ensure that everything you publish on your company website and social pages demonstrates your expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.”

At Google I/O, Google’s annual developer conference, in late-May, Google announced that performance improvements from optimising Core Web Vitals will soon not only benefit mobile rankings but will also soon also impact search rankings for desktop users.

So, regardless of whether your website is getting most of its traffic from mobile or desktop users, ensuring that your core web vitals are sound is now more important than ever for organic traffic.

Google’s Knowledge Graph & your SEO strategy

The Google Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base of entities and the relationships between them. “Entities” may include tangibles (people, places, and organisations), and intangibles (colours, concepts, and feelings).

So, what do Google Knowledge Graphs have to do with organic search and your SEO strategy ? Well, the Google Knowledge Graph serves both users (who get more relevant search results) and marketers (who can use it to entice more traffic to their site). Google Knowledge Graphs return more relevant search results by enabling Google to:

better understanding search intent;
better accommodate voice searches; and
provide more brand visibility and authority in the search results it serves.

Here are a few technical SEO activities and other actions you can take that will help improve the chances of your SME business getting mentioned in a Google Knowledge Graph:

use schema markup on your site to structure your data;
create a Google My Business profile for your business;
create a wikidata.org entry;
Be consistent in your online presence, including your content, and branding.

At Icon, our in-house digital marketing experts work tirelessly to create and optimise ongoing digital campaigns that ensure your business is easy to find online. Get a FREE digital marketing audit and learn how to grow your business.

How to take your family business to the next level

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 22:51:19 GMT

SMEs are often described as the backbone of Australia, and a large subset of SMEs are family-owned and run. But just because a first-generation family business has grown and thrived, that doesn’t mean it will continue to prosper when a second generation takes over. Successfully making that transition requires strategic planning.

Many family-owned companies fail when they let family conflict and emotion drive change, rather than relying on proven strategies. And it’s never too early to put those strategies in place. It’s important to note that succession is not a singular event, but a process of transitioning the family business to its next stage of development.

How to transition business decision making to the next generation

Two key transitions need to take place. The first is handing over the most senior decision-making roles to the next generation, and the second is assigning ownership and control of the business.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we’ve worked with many family businesses over many years, and here are a few key things we’ve learned that all family businesses can benefit from following.

Start early

When it comes to transitioning the family business from one generation to the next, the sooner you start planning, the better. Continuity and planning are critical for achieving a long-term legacy. A very well thought out strategic plan provides much-needed stability to the family business management without any challenges and tensions during the passing of the baton to the next generation of family members.

A strong and successful continuity plan must identify the challenges that will be faced by the siblings, cousins, and large groups of business owners and shareholders.

“Family businesses have a unique opportunity to leverage their special status in their marketing activities.”

Structures need to be put in place to ensure strong leadership, effective decision-making, and the protection of family wealth and family relationships. Without a succession plan, the business will have a high structural risk and family relationships could be left in tatters.

An effective plan should consider the views and core needs of individual family members, whether they are active in the business or not, that sets clear expectations on family members, and which is in the best interests of the family and the business.

Succession and succession planning also benefits from having a family governance structure in place. So having a plan, having governance frameworks for family and the business, and having time to prepare the next generation for the role of leadership.

How to market your family business

Research published by Harvard Business Review and Forbes shows that customers prefer products and services from family-owned businesses and are more likely to buy from them than other businesses. This means that family businesses have a unique opportunity to leverage their special status in their marketing activities. This applies at any time during the succession from one generation to another, but it’s particularly important when there is internal change.

“At Icon Visual Marketing, we’ve worked with many family businesses over many years.”

Family businesses can build on this trust in their marketing and through their customer interactions to differentiate themselves from corporate competitors. Australian companies like Victoria-based dairy food company Bulla actively promote their family-owned status.

The Bulla company website proudly tells the story of the company’s founding in 1910 by Thomas Sloan, who later partnered with his brother in law and other family members to launch Bulla nationally. Today, on its website the company proudly honours its status as a leading Australian family business.

“Bulla remains one of Australia’s largest family-owned dairy producers. The Sloans, Anderson and Downeys all still operate the business in harmony today. Our family craft the best of Australian Dairy to share with the world. Our vision is to continue to spread joy through supplying our tasty Bulla dairy products across Australia, and remain well-loved by true Aussie families for generations to come.”

It’s also important to include branding and marketing strategy as part of general business planning and continuity, including succession planning.

Other resources that can help

The free Introductory Guide to Family Business Succession Planning is available on both the Family Business Australia and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman websites.

How Icon Visual Marketing can help

Icon has a long track record of working with family businesses in Greater Western Sydney and beyond, with many, many successful campaigns over our 18 years in business.

At Icon, we start every working relationship with a strategic marketing workshop that is designed to get to the very heart of your business. The whole process aims to clearly establish the unique position your business has in the market and how you can best leverage this for great marketing results.

Get in touch with us today by phoning 1300 138 984 or via our website .

Federal Budget 2021: Benefits for small and medium-sized businesses

Mon, 24 May 2021 23:19:26 GMT

SMEs were among the winners in Federal Budget 2021 handed down by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on May 11. From a financial perspective, initiatives announced include the expansion and extension of government support in relation to full expensing and loss carry back.

There’s extra funding for training, upskilling, and apprenticeships, which will be particularly welcome in sectors suffering skills shortages, such as IT and Agriculture.

Spending has also been increased on the digital economy, which will help SMEs to streamline productivity, and improve cash flow with reduced administration and faster payments. These initiatives will bring down the costs of doing business.

Indirectly, SMEs that support the infrastructure sector will benefit from an additional $15.2 billion for a range of infrastructure projects, including highway and rail upgrades around the country, and freight hubs like the Melbourne Intermodal Terminal.

Federal Budget 2021 highlights for SMEs

Here are our five key takeaways for SMEs from Federal Budget 2021 and how your business can take advantage of them.

Financial bonuses

The temporary investment tax incentive announced in last year’s budget has been extended for a further 12 months, until June 30, 2023. Businesses with a turnover of up to $5 billion will be able to deduct the full cost of any eligible assets they purchase for their business, including the cost of improvements to existing assets, until 30 June 2023.New Paragraph

“Spending has been increased on the digital economy, which will help SMEs to streamline productivity and improve cash flow.”

Similarly, companies will be permitted to carry back tax losses for an extra 12 months from the 2020, 2021, 2022, and now 2023 tax years to offset previously taxed profits in the 2019 tax year or later years.

Training, upskilling and apprenticeships

There is extra funding for training, upskilling and apprenticeships, which will be particularly welcome in sectors suffering skills shortages such as IT and Agriculture.

An extra $1.5 billion has been earmarked to hire 100,000 apprentices and trainees in the next year as the government extends one of its most successful job creation programs for the second time. Under the program, employers will be reimbursed 50 per cent of an apprentice’s or trainee’s wage for the first year, up to a cap of $7,000 a quarter.

Additionally, almost $130 million has been allocated to encourage entrepreneurship through the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) and the Entrepreneurship Facilitators Program support people who want to start, run and grow their own business.

Digital economy strategy

The Federal Government will provide $1.2 billion over six years from 2021-22 for its digital economy strategy . Small businesses are set to benefit from this strategy that will include changes to the tax treatment of intangible assets, access to digital technology advice, and funding to accelerate the take up of e-invoicing.

To benefit SMEs, there is $53.8 million over four years to create a National AI Centre and four AI and Digital Capability Centres to drive and support SMEs to adopt and use transformative artificial intelligence technologies. Over three years, $15.3 million will be spent to promote and accelerate the adoption of e-invoicing by businesses and across all levels of government.

Cutting re d tape

Small businesses can also expect to benefit from the government’s $10 million investment in regulatory technology. This funding will go toward the development of new digital tools that will help employers understand and comply with modern awards, which is a considerable burden for many SMEs.

“Small businesses can benefit from new digital tools that will help employers understand and comply with modern awards – a considerable burden for many SMEs.”

Additionally, small businesses are set to benefit from the government’s $134.6 million deregulation package , which aims to help employers comply with workplace law using tech solutions.

The federal government’s deregulation package, announced as part of the federal budget, is intended to support Australia’s economic recovery by, “cutting red tape for businesses interacting with government”.

More funding for the Employment Contract Tool

The government will spend $7.2 million over three years to improve the Employment Contract Tool , which helps employers make employment contracts that comply with workplace law. The tool, which already exists at business.gov.au , allows employers to download an employment contract and letter of offer, saving time and money.

How Icon Visual Marketing can help

At Icon, we work with SMEs to help them grow their businesses and solve business problems by building customer connections through innovative marketing programs. But we also act as business advisors who understand the challenges SMEs face every day.

Need a partner to help you connect with your customers? Contact Icon today on 1300 138 984 and let’s work together to get your customers returning again and again.

2021 continues to challenge home builders and residential property developers

Sun, 25 Apr 2021 23:27:42 GMT

2021 continues to challenge home builders and residential property developers

As we move deeper into 2021 and edge closer to the end of another financial year and a new federal budget, home builders and property developers are facing a number of industry-wide challenges.

The Federal Government’s much-lauded HomeBuilder grant, which has helped prop up the home building industry since June 2020, officially concluded on April 14, while JobKeeper payments to employers also recently came to an end on March 28.

There’s no doubting the success of the HomeBuilder grant scheme, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison announcing that the total anticipated renovations or builds nationally under the program was 42,000.

The conclusion of these COVID-related economic subsidies and stimuli, coupled with industry-wide challenges around materials supply, pose clear challenges for residential builders and the property market as a whole for the remainder of 2021.

The pandemic effect

History will show that Australia managed the pandemic well and is in a much better position than most other economies. Typically, recessions cause lingering impacts on the economy and households, but the pandemic economic recovery is unique due to its speed.

Our return to economic growth minimises the long-term adverse impacts on employment, the participation rate, and wage growth, which obviously has a major impact on residential housing. The residential building industry was also fortunate to experience less interruption throughout 2020 than many other sectors.

In fact, the ability to continue to operate, as well as the stimulus measures, have produced a boom in detached home building. Many indicators have reached record levels following the growth in demand for detached housing that followed the announcement of HomeBuilder in June 2020.

According to industry bodies such as the Housing Industry Association (HIA) , new home sales in the December 2020 quarter were almost 100 per cent higher than for the same period the year prior. Loan approvals also reached record levels in the same quarter, and an increase in building approvals and loan activity has also been observed.

Once again, according to the HIA, all of this indicates a strong level of new detached home construction through 2021 and into the first half of 2022.

The impact of lower immigration and geographic shifts

However, it’s not all good news for the residential building sector. The impact of the curtailing of overseas immigration will eventually impact detached housing because many new immigrants build new homes when they settle in Australia.

In its forecasting, the HIA assumes that overseas migration will recommence in 2022 but that it will not return to pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2024.

Similarly, the National Australia Bank (NAB) suggests that for the residential construction sector to fully recover, population growth will need to return.

Migration has recently driven two-thirds of Australia’s population growth and relative to ABS 2017 projections there will be 500,000 fewer people than otherwise by June 2021 if borders remain closed. NAB suggests this equates to 190,000 fewer dwellings than otherwise being demanded.

Land shortages also a factor

Another issue that has recently arisen in South West Sydney is available greenfield land for new housing. In Catherine Park Estate , for example, in the past few months there have been potential buyers camping out for several days to secure a desirable block of land. While this is good news for developers, it’s not so desirable for homeowners.

According to a leading builder, this type of demand for land is not good because it limits housing choice and limits what people can do. Commenting on the issue, Mark Maloney from ANSA Homes said, “it’s back probably to pre-2014 levels when we saw that sort of frenzy in the market – with people camping out for land, and fighting, and security in the lines at ballot allocations for land”.

Challenges ahead for developers and builders

Moving forward, home builders will be tasked with thinking creatively and strategically about their brand identity and how they manage their business. To grow their businesses, home builders will need to carefully consider how they engage and support their customers as they navigate market conditions through the remainder of 2021 and beyond.

How Icon Visual Marketing can help

Icon has a long track record of working with land developers and home builders across Greater Western Sydney through dozens of successful campaigns over nearly two decades.

At Icon, we start every working relationship with a strategic marketing workshop designed to get to the very heart of your business. The whole process aims to clearly establish the unique value proposition that your business has in the market and how we can best leverage this for great marketing results that help to drive sales and grow businesses.

So you’ve hired a marketer – here’s how to support them

Sun, 11 Apr 2021 22:47:19 GMT

A step that many small to medium-sized business owners take as their business grows and evolves is to hire a marketer. But there’s a bit more to it than simply hiring an in-house marketer and tasking them with bringing in more business.

You need to ensure that they have a respectable budget to work with, as well the support, understanding, and trust of the entire leadership team.

Six steps to empowering your in-house marketing manager

Here are the six key things you must do as the business owner to ensure that you get the most out of your in-house marketing manager, and that they get the most out of their new role with your business.

Fail to do any of these six things and you risk clipping their wings and hampering their efforts to actively affect change and grow your business.

Include them in strategic decision making and information sessions

As the CEO or business owner, you need to make sure that marketers are involved from the strategy phase forward, assessing the market and customer needs from day one. The specific level of involvement will depend on how senior the marketer is within the organisation.

As the business leader, the best way you can help your in-house marketer is by ensuring big-picture business goals — and how those goals are measured — are clear. If your marketers know what the target is, they can use their expertise to determine the best strategies and tactics for hitting those targets.

In doing so, they will innovate, test, adjust and continually report on progress until the goals are met, or exceeded.

“Marketing works best when fully integrated into all aspects of business strategy and function.”

In some cases, your in-house marketer may be part of your leadership team. And in that case, they should be fully involved in developing the firm’s overall business strategy , including the marketing strategy.New Paragraph

If they are less senior, it would be more appropriate to share the company’s vision and strategy. Marketing works best when fully integrated into all aspects of business strategy and function, so you need to give them access to key information and the direction the company is taking.

The business leader needs to make sure that all employees – including sales, marketing, manufacturing, admin and more – understand and share the same vision, goals, objectives and expectations.

Provide them with a budget

If you expect your in-house marketing professional to achieve tangible results, you need to provide them with a tangible and realistic budget. As the old adage goes, you get what you pay for.

It may be that you already have some funds set aside that you have previously spent with a marketing agency, or on marketing activities and this could be the starting point for your new marketing recruit.

It’s likely that the first job your new marketer will undertake is reviewing your existing marketing strategy and refining, restructuring, or overhauling it. Once developed, this strategy will lead to marketing plans and activities that will require an investment and a proposed budget.

Make marketing every employee’s support role

In many ways, marketing is the responsibility of every person you employ. Every employee’s elevator speech, social media update, communication with customers, and sales presentation is as much a marketing function as the activities generated by your in-house marketer.

So it’s important to ensure that your employees work together in cross-functional ways so they all share the same vision, and project the same company image.

“Supporting innovation and creativity will drive growth in your business.”

As the leader in the business, you need to buy into the marketing strategy and lead by example. Do that, and then others will follow, helping your marketer accomplish their goals sooner due to everyone in the business pushing in the same direction.

Value creative ideas

If you allow your marketer to try new things and value creative ideas , you will be making the most of their expertise. When employees are not afraid to fail and are allowed to spread their wings, they will push themselves further.

In short, supporting innovation and creativity will drive growth in your business. Not every idea will be a winner, but by letting your marketer take calculated risks, you will foster a culture of innovation that leads to success and employee retention.

Set realistic metrics

Ask your marketer to track, analyse, and report on the impact of all their activities. Make it their responsibility to look for ways to improve their efforts and better engage with prospective customers. This should also include the evaluation of competitors and industry trends.

You may need to invest in digital tools and technology that will enable your marketer to closely track and measure the effectiveness of your company’s marketing activities. If you can’t measure it, then you can’t review, refine, and improve it. If you’ve hired the marketing professional, they will possess data-driven marketing skills and be capable of proving the value of marketing to your organisation.

Give them support where support is needed

Bringing on an in-house marketing manager is a fantastic move for taking your business to the next level. But an in-house marketing manager is but one individual, and it can be unrealistic to expect them to work weekly miracles without any support.

“A full-service marketing agency can enable your in-house marketing manager to deliver truly meaningful growth.”

As their efforts to grow your busines through marketing start to take root, your marketing manager may need some outside help. It could in digital marketing , content creation , web development , graphic design , or something else.

A full-service marketing agency can work with your in-house marketing manager to enable them to deliver truly meaningful growth in your business through strategic marketing activities. Importantly, this is not about your in-house marketing manager not being able to fulfill their duties; it is about empowering and enabling them to take your business to the next level.

As a full-service marketing agency, Icon works with in-house marketers client-side to help them bring to life the creative marketing plans that they may not have the bandwidth to deliver on their own.

What to do when organic growth stagnates in your business?

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 01:08:15 GMT

It’s a common story that we hear from potential clients – my business growth has stagnated and I don’t know what to do next. But like so many scenarios in life, there’s no one way to grow a business, so there’s no one reason why it slows down, stops, or declines.

Popular reasons why business growth can stagnate

Before you take any action, you need to find the cause or causes of the stagnation in your business. From our experience, the most common issues are:

complacency;
owners/founders who try to do everything;
high turnover of customers and staff, and
not undertaking any strategic marketing.

Let’s take a look at them one by one:

Is your business suffering from complacency?

One of the most under-recognised, and therefore overlooked, risks is complacency. Lots of small businesses fail in their first few years, so once a business has been established the owners or managers tend to relax and get comfortable. And that’s when a business can stagnate.

It is important to stay vigilant and constantly assess not only the performance of your business but also the potential changes and threats to your industry.

You only need to look at how so many businesses adapted in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic affected many industries. Most business owners could not afford to be complacent. Conversely, the pandemic caused massive growth in many areas but it was also hard to manage for business owners.

“One of the most under-recognised, and therefore overlooked, risks is complacency.”

One way to deal with potential complacency is to set short, mid, and long-range goals, and develop strategies to reach them. These goals should not be set and forget. They need to be constantly reviewed and measured appropriately.

Owners/founders who try to do everything

In the early stages of business growth, SME business owners will play many roles out of necessity. But a growth mindset means that when the time is right, they hire experts to fill the more time-consuming roles.

As a business owner, you should strive to stop doing things that you don’t do very well and instead focus just on the things that you do the best. It’s one of the most common small business mistakes because it’s so easy to try to do everything yourself.

You don’t have to hire an army of people, but be sure to delegate the menial and repetitive work and focus on making business decisions and managing your employees. The first stages of this might be a bookkeeper and a virtual assistant. Further down the track, it might be a marketing agency and a business coach.

Address high turnover

It is cheaper to retain than to acquire, and that applies to your employees, suppliers, and customers . The first step is monitoring and tracking the churn rate of each of these. You might have a gut feel for the turnover rates in your business, but until you actually track them, you’re just guessing.

When employees leave, it’s costly for your business because it takes time and money to find and train replacements. That’s why as a business owner you should reduce staff turnover as much as possible. These tips might seem like common sense, but it’s surprising how many small business owners forget about the basics:

Hire the right people.
Offer competitive pay and benefits.
Give praise.
Show the career path.
Allow flexible work schedules.

As for customer churn rates, if you want to learn more about what your customers want, then go and ask them. It takes a bit of work, but developing a great relationship with your customers and building a loyal following has many benefits, including continuing business growth.

Undertake strategic marketing

Without a strategic marketing plan , your company runs the risk of becoming directionless, wasting money on channels that aren’t bringing you results, and losing out on potential customers to your competitors.

We all think we know how to promote our own product or service, but the truth is usually we think we know, rather than actually know. There’s likely a wide range of potential customers for your business, and you need a deep understanding of your customer base to reach them. One of the best ways of doing this is by developing buyer personas , customer journeys, and empathy maps.

“Without a strategic marketing plan , your company runs the risk of becoming directionless.”

Here are a few basic steps you need to take in putting together a successful marketing strategy:

Identify your target customers.
Research your competitors.
Establish what makes your product/service different.
Choose your channels.
Break down your sales funnel.
Create marketing goals and measure them.

If that all sounds like something you can’t accomplish alone, it could be time you engaged a marketing agency.

How Icon Visual Marketing can help

At Icon, we start every working relationship with a strat egic marketing works hop that is designed to get to the very heart of this question and your business. The whole process aims to clearly establish the unique position your business has in the market and how we can best leverage this for great marketing results.

A strategic marketing workshop is a great tool to delve back into where you first wanted to take the business and work out why it has stagnated. We look at what you want for your customers and how you want the world to view you.

Find out more about how happens in our strategic marketing workshops .

Franchising Spotlight: Local Area Marketing with sister company Orange Canvas

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 22:55:18 GMT

One of the many challenges for franchisors is leading the marketing efforts of their franchisees. Franchisors want to help grow their franchisees’ businesses, but local area marketing can pose many challenges that non-franchised businesses just don’t encounter.

After all, franchisors need to ensure that a group of individual business owners adhere to a marketing plan that is bigger and broader than any individual franchisee who is a part of it.

Marketing can become a strain on the marketing manager in the franchisor’s head office when every enthusiastic franchisee has their own ideas that they believe will be most effective for their local area. But if the marketing manager tries to support all of these varying, individual marketing activities, it often becomes detrimental to the overall marketing plan for the brand.

“Australia’s 1,300 franchised businesses include more than 98,000 individual franchised outlets and employ nearly 600,000 people.”

Indeed, it can even be harmful when multiple people can control the voice and patterns of a brand, as can be the case in franchised businesses. It can tarnish the consistency of the brand and be detrimental to the strength of the overall brand in the market.

The significance of franchising in Australia

It’s important to acknowledge the significant contribution that franchised businesses make to the Australian economy. Compared to similar Western countries, Australia has a higher-than-average percentage of franchised businesses.

The Franchise Council of Australia notes that there are more than 1,300 franchise networks in Australia. Collectively, Australia’s 1,300 franchised businesses include more than 98,000 individual franchised outlets and employ nearly 600,000 people.

Launching a local area marketing support system for franchised businesses

The only way to grow a franchised brand and gain momentum is to precisely replicate the business model and marketing strategy across all territories, regardless of location or size. This is a challenge that all franchisors and their head office marketing manager need to overcome.

The difficulties of achieving brand consistency in local area marketing led Icon to launch its sister brand, Orange Canvas , in 2016. Orange Canvas offers bespoke, strategically designed solutions that support franchised businesses with modernised and strategic local area marketing systems that promote brand and marketing consistency.

“We have built a simple solution that allows franchisors to set their brand free safely.”

Our centralised online marketing hub ensures that both the brand and franchisees are receiving the marketing support they need. Orange Canvas offers a unique blend of marketing solutions that collectively deliver a simple local area marketing brand management solution.

What we’ve learned from working with franchised businesses

Here are five key things we’ve learnt from working with franchised businesses through Australia over the last five years.

Be consistent

The key to successful local area marketing is making sure your messaging is consistent and memorable. Brand and marketing consistency helps build awareness, allowing customers to easily and immediately recognise your brand.

Provide clear guidelines & instructions

To control the consistency, franchisors need to set strong guidelines for the use of their logo, brand, and other marketing materials, and provide clear instructions for its use. This can be done via a digital system, saving time and providing checks and balances.

Help them tell your story and theirs

There are plenty of opportunities for franchisees to market their individual business, and in turn your overall franchise brand. This could include business milestones like anniversaries, sales promotion activity such as an annual clearance sale, or seasonal events such as the start of spring.

Make it scalable

The local area marketing strategy should include a baseline program provided by the franchisor that is compulsory for each franchise holder. This can be controlled by an efficient online system and then scaled up as required.

Measure & report results

The results of your marketing activities must be measured. Digital systems allow for much stronger reporting on marketing activities than what was available in the pre-internet era. As a franchisor, you should look for a system that can provide regular reports on your entire network’s marketing initiatives and their effectiveness.

Partnering with franchisors and their marketing managers

Orange Canvas products and services were specifically designed to make life easier for marketing managers at the franchisor’s head office. Our systems help franchise marketing managers to better support the franchisor and their franchisees by plugging directly into their marketing plan, alleviating the time and cost of local area marketing activities.

Today, Orange Canvas is a leading supporter of Australian franchised businesses. We have built a simple solution that allows franchisors to set their brand free safely to their network. We take care of sourcing, production, logistics, warehousing, and distribution of marketing tools to your network.

Visit orangecanvas.com.au to find out more about how Orange Canvas works with franchised businesses.

Public Relations Spotlight: Establishing educators as thought leaders

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 04:39:01 GMT

When Macarthur Anglican School approached Icon Visual Marketing to help raise awareness of the school as a premier education institution in Sydney’s south west region, our team of PR specialists got to work.

We conceived a thought leadership media campaign that set Macarthur Anglican School apart from its competitors, while also establishing its senior staff as opinion leaders.

Thought leadership demonstrates that an organisation and its people have authority and reliability. Industry thought leaders are seen as go-to people both for their expertise, as well as for their reputation for excellence.

It’s not a popularity contest; rather, it is about building a solid relationship of trust. It’s something that cannot happen overnight. It takes a conscious and committed effort to establish an organisation as a legitimate thought leader, so after six months of the program with Macarthur, we’re only at the beginning of the journey.

Multiple thought leaders

The school’s headmaster, Dr David Nockles, is already a well-known leader within the education sector in NSW, having authored a book on education research. But while Dr Nockles is a key part of the thought leadership program, we also wanted to involve other senior staff members, such as Dean of Studies, Kylie Elling, and the Head of Innovation and Research, Rebecca Fitzpatrick.

Key audiences

The thought leadership program that Icon developed and is currently rolling out for Macarthur is aimed at reaching several key external audiences. These include:

· Parents, carers, and grandparents of students,

· Potential students and their parents,

· Potential teachers and staff,

· The general community,

· Media, including local news media and education sector publications, and

· State Government departments and agencies.

“Thought leadership demonstrates that an organisation and its people have authority and reliability.”

COVID provided a catalyst

As much as the COVID pandemic created many challenges at Macarthur Anglican School, it also provided an opportunity to show how the school was proactively handling a very difficult period.

Our first media release focused on the home schooling that all schools were forced to adopt almost overnight. This was covered in local media and education publications.

We followed this up with a piece about bringing students back to school as the pandemic eased, showing that Macarthur was acting responsibly – but also in the interests of its students. This again re ceived local m edia coverage .

From there, we talked about the preparations the school had in place for any COVID outbreak, which again demonstrated how the school put its students and teachers first in any planning.

We then turned to the work the school and its teachers had done during the pandemic to streamline the curriculum. Within this media release, we quoted the school’s Dean of Studies Kylie Elling. Her quotes were picked up in an article about the same subject in the A ustralian Financial Re view – quite a coup.

Beyond media coverage

The story we placed for Macarthur about streamlining the curriculum was also noted by NESA , an influential NSW Government agency, providing Icon with an important contact for future work.

To round out the COVID series of media releases, we focused on the results of a survey of parents and their views of COVID online learning. Once again, we gained local media coverage.

Our final stories for 2020 moved away from the strong COVID issues that highlighted the early stages of our PR campaign. The final two stories are focused on the value of student wellbeing and the importance of a good teacher/student relationship to learning.

The latter part of the campaign is now gaining traction and will continue to be rolled out across 2021.

How to create effective email marketing

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 22:56:11 GMT

A man named Gary Thuerk, who at the time was Marketing Manager at Digital Equipment Corp, was credited with sending the first mass email to 400 people some 40 years ago. Oh, how the times have changed. Today, email marketing is much evolved and truly sophisticated.

There’s a lot more to email marketing than merely sending emails to your customers and prospects. You need to understand who your customers are and what they are actually looking for from you.

If you run an SME business, email marketing is essential for staying connected and top of mind with your audience.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is part of a digital marketing strategy using emails to develop relationships with prospects and customers. An effective email marketing strategy converts prospects into customers and can turn one-time buyers into repeat customers.

E-newsletters are often top of mind when developing an overall email marketing strategy. But e-newsletters are only one piece of a comprehensive email marketing program.

“Email marketing is all about expectations, and it’s up to you to set them.”

Your email marketing can also include emails that persuade the recipient to take some sort of action, such as download more information or purchase a product or service. These could include:

Welcome emails that are triggered when a user subscribes and agrees to receive marketing emails from your company.
Promotional emails including coupons and special events.
Retention emails that engage with current customers to ensure they remain engaged and continue to use your product or service.
Nurture emails, a timed email series with additional information or benefits for a subscriber that aims to “close the deal” once they have shown interest in your brand.

One major advantage of email marketing is that you can automate the entire process using sophisticated tools.

Planning an email marketing campaign

There are several steps involved in email marketing that you’ll need to follow before you launch your first campaign.

Step 1: Get permission

If you already have a database, you’ll need to ensure that you have permission from each person to send them regular emails. Sending unsolicited emails is not only illegal, but also discourteous and unlikely to impress your email recipients. Ultimately you need to establish your credibility, explain what the emails are for, and get people interested in receiving them.

Step 2: Set expectations

Email marketing is all about expectations, and it’s up to you to set them. If your call to action is strong, and your follow-up is consistent, then you can count on a positive response. However, if you promise to send one email per week and instead blast your database daily, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

This is why the first follow-up email is so crucial to the success of your email marketing efforts. Keep it short and succinct without leaving any important details out.

Step 3: Develop great content

The most compelling newsletters mix truly helpful and impartial information with product/service messages. Use your newsletter as a way to further your relationship with your audience rather than to pitch them. Save the pitch for unique updates, offers, and announcements.

Step 4: Use automation tools

An autoresponder does just that – it automatically sends out emails that you schedule in advance. By scheduling a set of emails to send in advance, you can keep in touch with your database recipients regularly.

It also allows you to keep your promise about email frequency. Your helpful, informative newsletters will help to furth develop the relationship. That way, when you do need to announce a new product or sale, you can count on the fact that you’ve already been in touch. Since you’ve built up a relationship over several months or years, you’re much less likely to annoy your readers.

Understand email analytics

The three most important analytics in email marketing are open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribes. First, your open rate explains how many people open your emails.

A good open rate (and you can check this by looking at averages for your industry) will tell you how well you’ve your audience. If your open rate is low, it usually means you have a lot of unengaged subscribers. You need to rethink how (and if) you are providing value to your audience and managing expectations.

The click-through rate shows how many people clicked on a link in your email. If your click-through rate is low it indicates that your message is either not targeted enough, or simply not getting through.

“We are an ActiveCampaign partner and use the platform for email marketing and marketing automation.”

Finally, your unsubscribe rate tells you how many people have clicked the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of your email. If your unsubscribe rate is high in relation to your subscription rate, you’ve got some serious work to do to improve your email marketing.

Work with an ActiveCampaign partner for marketing automation

Marketing automation is increasingly being adopted by successful SMEs, and we have found that businesses that invest in marketing automation enjoy a return on their investment.

At Icon Visual Marketing, as part of our digital marketing service we work with SMEs and other organisations to help create strategic and effective email marketing strategies. We are an ActiveCampaign partner and use the platform for email marketing and marketing automation to help our clients to efficiently deliver memorable customer experiences.

How marketing automation can support your sales team

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 23:58:27 GMT

While we call it ‘marketing automation’, technology and software solutions that fall under that banner do as much for marketing teams as they do for sales teams.

Marketing automation helps marketers and marketing departments to more effectively and more precisely market across multiple channels online and to automate repetitive yet essential tasks. And in doing so, it helps sales teams to identify potential customers and automate the process of nurturing those leads to sales-readiness more effectively.

While marketing is much bigger than just sales, when it comes to marketing automation, what’s good for marketing is also very good for sales. Some argue that marketing automation actually does more for sales teams than it does for marketing teams.

What is marketing automation?

The term marketing automation describes software and technology packages that help businesses to more effectively market across multiple channels while automating repetitive tasks. The processes and actions that it automates are those that nudge prospects closer and closer to a time and place where they are ready and open to being approached by your sales team.

In doing so, it takes a lot of the man hours and manual handling out of the process of getting potential customers to the point where they are open to being directly approached by your sales team. Data gained through marketing automation can also be used to inform your choice of marketing activities.

“Marketing automation helps marketers to more effectively and more precisely market across multiple channels.”

Importantly, marketing automation platforms and CRM software are two very different business tools that work together and complement each other. While your CRM is customer-centric and provides a comprehensive view of your customers, marketing automation focuses on delivering personalised marketing campaigns and messaging to specific customer at specifically the right time.

In doing so, marketing automation will help you to streamline your marketing activities, automate marketing campaigns and gain customer insights based on data.

The relationship between marketing automation and sales

Marketing automation helps support the sales cycle by more effectively ensuring that your sales team has access to a steady flow of qualified leads.

When marketing automation is strategically and precisely planned out, it will help to shorten your sales cycles and enable your sales teams to more efficiently close sales. Here are four ways that marketing automation can support your sales team.

A clear, real-time view of customer behaviour

Marketing automation gives your sales team the power to observe the activities of prospects in real-time. For example, all interactions prospects have with your email campaigns, social channels, and website can be observed and automatically logged in your CRM.

“Data gained through marketing automation can be used to inform your choice of marketing activities.”

These interactions can be monitored, with real-time alerts sent to your sales team (through your CRM) when actions, such as contact forms filled in, specified links clicked, or eDM campaigns viewed, have been completed.

All of this provides sales teams with real-time information telling them when the right time is to reach out to the lead and how to best serve each specific lead’s specific needs at that specific time. Without these insights, the activities and timing of your salespeople may actually be doing more harm than good when it comes to closing sales.

Get the right leads for better conversion rates

Nothing frustrates a salesperson more than spending hours calling and emailing leads who never make a purchase. Marketing automation reduces such instances through lead scoring, which enables marketing teams to effectively screen leads and only forward leads to the sales team when they’re ready to be converted.

Through marketing automation, marketers will define rules for scoring leads by aggregating their behaviours and characteristics. Monitoring the quality of the lead through marketing automation means only leads that are ready to have a sales conversation are passed on to the sales team.

Weeding out cold leads and only passing on leads that are ready to have a sales conversation increases the efficiency of your sales team, while also avoiding cold calling and potentially scaring off leads that are barely lukewarm.

Strategic lead nurturing

With marketing automation, cold leads don’t simply stay cold and unattended to. Rather than left to get colder and colder, they get gently massaged and nurtured over time through strategically considered and timely distributed content marketing.

Instead of having a competitor capture their attention and draw them away, marketing automation enables you to deftly nurture them through targeted content and emails until they become sales-ready.

Empower sales team with email automation

With marketing automation, your sales team are empowered to set up their own email marketing campaigns to follow up in a personalised way with more customers.

Lead-enabling and relationship building personal details such as first and last name and position in the company can easily be pulled into your email campaigns from your CRM to personalise them for each lead. Your salespeople can also set up and enforce rules that allow them to send these emails at optimal times and frequencies.

Are you ready to make the jump?

More efficient and strategic lead generation inevitably leads to business growth. Automating some of the steps and processes between marketing and sales will enable your business to put more time and effort into nurturing the leads that have real potential. Doing so will free up time for bigger picture tasks, such as reviewing b usines strategy , which may not get the attention they deserve.

The role of customer experience in increasing sales

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 00:55:25 GMT

Some business owners may roll their eyes at any mention of the term ‘customer experience’. But the reality in all businesses is that attitudes towards customer experience, and investment in it, directly impacts sales.

No longer only embraced by big businesses, progressive companies, and consumer-facing businesses, today customer experience, or CX, is empowering businesses of all shapes and sizes to achieve true customer intimacy. Through a company-wide commitment to CX, your business will increasingly get better at:

anticipating your target audience’s needs;
solving their problems before they ask you to solve them; and
creating friction-free and memorable experiences.

And when you’re doing all of those things, your business will be rewarded with sustained sales success.

What is customer experience?

Customer experience is your customers’ holistic perception of their experience with your business or brand. Importantly, customer experience is not the same thing as customer service.

“Attitudes towards customer experience, and investment in it, directly impacts sales.”

Customer service is a piece of the CX puzzle, but CX is larger than customer service. It includes every touchpoint a customer ever has with your business, including:

navigating your website;
speaking with your customer service representatives;
how they receive the product/service they bought from you;
what they read about your business in the media; and
how they are treated both before the sale and after the sale.

Great CX requires a customer-centric mindset, and its two primary touchpoints are people and product. For the benefits of great CX to be fully realised, customer centricity needs to be a company-wide initiative, as important for customer-facing team members such as sales representatives as it is for non-customer facing staff.

The intrinsic relationship between CX and sales

Whether directly or indirectly, everything you do impacts your customers’ perception of your business and influences whether they choose to buy from you again or take their business to one of your competitors. So, a great customer experience, including reducing the friction of customer complaints and returns, is key to maximising repeat business and sales success.

“A great customer experience is key to maximising repeat business and sales success.”

All business models can benefit from improving their CX because putting customers first is always good for business. When CX becomes a company-wide priority, your business will achieve:

increased customer loyalty;
increased customer satisfaction; and
better word-of-mouth marketing, positive reviews, and recommendations.

Professional sales training is often used by businesses to review their processes, identify opportunities to improve CX and to better connect CX to sales success.

Five focus points for lifting your CX game

So, knowing that providing a better customer experience will empower your sales team and lead to better sales conversion rates, how can you get started on elevating your customer experience?

If you’ve identified that the CX you are currently providing customers isn’t up to scratch, there may be some low-hanging fruit that you and your leadership team can address to turn the tide. Here are five starters that can help your business turn the tide on CX.

Address company culture

Build a customer-centric company culture where every employee, from business leaders to junior staff, buys into the vision. In practical terms, this means knowing your customers – perhaps with the help of buyer personas – better than anyone else and helping them to be as successful as possible.

Make listening to your customers your top priority

If truly knowing your customers is the goal, then the path to success seems simple. But it’s more than just listening to your customers; CX-centric businesses make their customers’ concerns and frustrations priority number one.

Create memorable human experiences

In this 21st Century digital era where non-human, impersonal touchpoints such as AI, chatbots, and automation are aplenty, the human touch is more important than ever. Providing memorable human experiences will not be lost on your customers; they will remember them and they will remember you.

Reduce friction as much as possible

Customer service and customer support play a major role in delivering a frictionless, streamlined experience for your customers. Review and simplify your customer support system – make it as easy as possible for your customers to access help where they most need it. Prioritise simplified self-service where possible, and embrace transparency and honesty.

Reply quickly

This simplest of the five, but no less important. Reply to your customers quickly, and often. Don’t under-estimate the impact this will have on your customers. Your diligence won’t go unnoticed.

The importance of UX in web design

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 22:11:59 GMT

User Experience, or UX, is a critical component of designing a great and effective website. UX is all about creating a positive connection between your customer and your product and relates specifically to how your customer feels when interacting with a product.

In website design , creating a great user experience comes down to understanding the needs of your business and the needs of your target audience. It’s about connecting your business goals to your customer motivations and creating solutions that achieve good outcomes for the business while also solving the needs of your customer (or potential customers).

When you drill down to its essence, great user experience in website design is making strategy tangible. While in the previous decade of website design, the main priority was putting as much information as high as possible "above the fold", today UX and web design is a much more precisely considered craft.

When a UX expert works with a web developer to design and create a new website, the conversation is all about answering one very specific question for each design element. And that question is, “how does this contribute to the overall goal of what we want the user to do?”. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t belong on your website.

Your company website: Good UX or bad UX?

Incorporating good UX design into your company website design greatly increases the likelihood that users will stay on your site and perform a call to action.

So, how can you tell if your company website in its current form offers a pleasing user experience or a jarring user experience? While we can often instinctively tell if a website provides a good user experience or a bad user experience, there are specific website design traits that contribute to UX being good or bad.

Here’s a list of key design traits found in all websites that offer great UX. How many can you find on your company website?

“Great user experience in website design is making strategy tangible.”

The “what” is crystal clear

When a user lands on your website, they should understand what service or product is being sold within seconds. Any longer and you risk losing them.

Emotionally engaging

Your branding , including your specific combination of fonts and colours , all works together to deliver an emotionally engaging buying experience.

Fast loading

A fast-loading website is an obvious must-have. Don’t underestimate the power of a slow-loading website to drive visitors away.

Mobile-first design

Today, good UX in web design mandates that websites are based on a mobile-first design.

Correct rendering

Your website needs to render correctly on all industry-leading web browsers and platforms, ensuring it provides acceptable UX regardless of how and where the user is accessing it.

Ease of navigation

Your website needs to be easy to navigate, via an uncluttered, easy to use navigation menu. Your navigation menu should run down the left-hand side of your homepage, or along the very top of your homepage.

The three-click rule

Any page on your website should be findable in three clicks or less.

Visual ease

All visual elements (diagrams, infographics, etc) need to be as easy as possible to understand.

Seamless and frictionless

Interacting with your website – whether it be completing a contact form, registering for your newsletter, or making a purchase – needs to be as seamless and frictionless as possible.

This includes enabling the use of existing login systems (Facebook, Google, etc) to make logging in or purchasing an easier experience.

CTA buttons: Keep it simple

Clickable call to action buttons use as few words as possible.

On form validation progress communication

When users have to complete something before moving to the next step, include communication that clearly explains how to do so.

Examples of UX and web design done right

Apple : Amazing visuals, clean and easy to use navigation, great CTAs, an easy to buy experience.

Airbnb : Clean and engaging layout, great photography, amazingly easy and smart search navigation, emotionally engaging.

Examples of UX and web design done wrong

Craigslist : Too much blue, overwhelmed with links, navigation is confusing, isn’t mobile responsive.

Arngren : Just a complete overload of advertisements. No proper navigation, and a horrible mix of colours, to name but a few.

Don’t reinvent the wheel

When it comes to website design and UX, the wheel has already been invented. We would never discourage outside the box thinking, but it’s worth sticking to the tried and true when building your new company website.

For business owners or marketing managers who know they need a new company website that offers better UX but don’t think they have the budget for it, template website designs can be the right option. Templated websites have come a long way in recent years, and because they are based on tried and tested designs, they ensure great UX while being economical to build.

How buyer personas help sales teams succeed

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:48:42 GMT

Buyer personas are the key to preparing and empowering your sales team for success. To paraphrase the great Chinese military general and strategist Sun Tzu, if you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result.

While your potential customers are certainly not the enemy, Sun Tzu’s theory also applies to sales. That is, the more your sales team knows about your typical buyer, the easier it will be for them to secure their business. Buyer personas are essential because they enable salespeople to truly know who they’re selling to.

Without thoroughly researched and precisely crafted buyer personas, your sales team is essentially going in cold. And you know what they say about poor performance and the Six Ps of Planning .

Buyer personas key to understanding your customers

While today information is more accessible than it’s ever been, helping your sales team to truly understand your target market isn’t simply a case of finding their profile on LinkedIn or other social channels and peering into their professional history and personal life. Nor is it simply reading the About Us page on a company website.

“Without thoroughly researched and precisely crafted buyer personas, your sales team is essentially going in cold.”

A buyer persona is a fictional, generalised representation of your ideal customers. While fictional, buyer personas are most effective when grounded in fact. When well researched and precisely created, buyer personas provide a truly deep understanding of the kind of person or organisation that needs or wants what you’re selling.

Buyer personas equip your sales team with the essential customer information needed to precisely speak to the concerns, challenges, desires, and goals of your target audience. They instruct your salespeople on how to talk to prospects in a nuanced, personally tailored way. As such, they should be the secret weapon of your sales team.

The critical questions that buyer personas answer

When you have highly researched and precisely created buyer personas, your sales team will have the answers to many questions about the customer that are essential for sales success. These include answers to questions such as:

What is their position and job title?
Are they a decision-maker in their company?
What is the size of their company?
What is their gender and age?
What are their pain points?
What are their goals?
What would they like to accomplish in the next year?
What is their combined household income?
What are the problems they regularly face, or are currently facing?

Once you have all of this important information, you can use it to define two essential things:

Common objectives that buyers will likely provide to your sales team during the sales process; and
How your sales people can best facilitate the sale by countering those common objectives.

How to create buyer personas

Well-developed buyer personas will reveal common misconceptions and barriers of entry that your target audience might have towards your business.

The best way to create effective buyer personas is to base them upon facts and thorough research. Start by seeking first-hand insights from your existing customers; the more recent, the better. Interview them, if possible, while also seek informed insights from market research organisations, sales training experts, and strategic marketers .

How buyer personas can turn the tide in your business

When you invest in developing precise buyer personas for your sales team, you will soon notice that frustration and fear over lack of leads will subside, replaced by incremental and sustained improvements in sales.

“The best way to create effective buyer personas is to base them upon facts and thorough research.”

But with buyer personas in hand, it’s not just your sales team that will be better positioned to succeed. Your whole business will enjoy greater success, simply because the information and insights in great buyer personas are useful for all key decision-makers in your business, from managers to marketers.

As part of our sales training service , we help businesses develop highly researched, in-depth buyer personas that provide sales teams with the critical insights needed for sales success.

Federal Budget 2020 recap: SMEs need to focus on supply chain vulnerabilities

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 03:04:07 GMT

In this fifth and final part of our series on the 2020 Federal Budget and SMEs, we examine how supply chains have been disrupted this year and how the Federal Government’s focus on supply chain is critical. We will also look at the role businesses need to play.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed supply chain risks across the world, and no one has been immune. Everything from national healthcare stockpiles to individual business inventory has been impacted. All Australian organisations must grapple with the ramifications and examine what the long-term impact on their supply chains will be.

Companies large and small that purchase overseas goods or export goods are the most obvious, but even the smallest local service businesses are impacted because they buy goods in order to operate.

For many, the disruption of supply chains is the single greatest threat, and all businesses should be exploring supply chain diversification to boost their resilience. Business owners should also be broadening their client base to spread risk

Research demonstrates the impact

A new joint survey from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) found that maintaining supply chains continues to be one of the most challenging issues for Australian businesses to overcome during the pandemic.

In September 2020, ACCI and UniSA undertook a joint study of the challenges facing Australian businesses operating during and after the initial impact of COVID-19.

“Business-to-business trade was crippled by supply chain disruptions.”

The survey showed business-to-business trade was crippled by supply chain disruptions, with more than a third of businesses planning to diversify their supply chains over the coming year.

The survey also highlighted that while supply chain diversification is viable for larger businesses, SMEs may experience difficulty with dual-sourcing methods. Addressing these difficulties may require access to digital infrastructure and technology and business advisors.

Supply shock become demand shock

From an economics perspective, early in the pandemic we were in supply shock, where there were less workers producing less output. This moved into demand shock, where people buy less and buy different things to what they normally purchase, making it very hard to predict what goods to provide, or services to offer.

Any business that has an extensive presence in, or direct ties to, areas affected by COVID-19 should assess their organisation’s exposure so they can appropriately support key stakeholders, employees and customers.

Even before the pandemic of 2020, companies that were heavily exposed should have had plans in place. COVID-19 is by far the biggest shock to supply chains, but it is not the only one in recent times. In 2010, for instance, the eruption of a volcano in Iceland cost airlines billions as flights were grounded due to ash.

The following year, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan caused car maker Toyota to cut production by 40,000 vehicles, costing the company millions each day.

And COVID-19 is not the first disease to threaten supply chains. In 2009 the H1N1, also known as the swine flu pandemic, reduced GDPs around the world.

Federal Budget Supply Chain Resilience Initiative

In the 2020-21 Federal Budget the government pledged $107.2 million for the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative to support all Australian businesses.

The Government has proposed to issue a set of Sovereign Manufacturing Capability Plans that will identify vulnerabilities in Australia’s domestic and international supply chains, starting with health and medical products (and possibly also food and food services, and chemical and plastics) and extending to other sectors.

“Sovereign Manufacturing Capability Plans that will identify vulnerabilities in Australia’s domestic and international supply chains.”

From 1 July 2021, companies will be able to apply for a share of the $107.2 million in funding over four years where they address an identified supply chain vulnerability. SMEs in particularly should be applying for this type of assistance.

The Federal Government is also supporting business through initiatives such as the recently signed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement. The RCEP will help businesses to explore new options to help them future-proof their businesses.

How we can help

Icon Visual Marketing currently has clients who have critical supply chains, and we know we can support other Australian companies as well. We have expertise in helping organisations grow their business.

At Icon , we work with many SMEs to help them solve business problems by building customer connections through innovative marketing programs. We are business advisors who understand the challenges SMEs face every day.

* This is the final part of our five-part series digging into Federal Budget 2020 and outlining what it holds for SMEs. Read part one , part two , part three and part four now if you haven’t already.

Federal Budget 2020 recap: SMEs to benefit from government focus on manufacturing

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 04:17:09 GMT

In this fourth part of our series on the 2020 Federal Budget and SMEs, we examine how the Federal Government’s focus on manufacturing will benefit SME businesses.

Up until earlier this year, commentary around Australian manufacturing was focused on moving more and more manufacturing offshore with local manufacturing focused on small-scale and innovation. Who would have imagined we could experience something so big that it would radically shift many people’s thinking in such a short time?

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the frailty of international supply chains, and the importance of making goods locally, thus reviving hope for a manufacturing resurgence in Australia.

Demand for Australian-made

There is a big rise in demand for Australian made goods. A recent Roy Morgan poll showed 52 per cent of Australians have a higher preference for Australian-made products than prior to the start of the pandemic. The same survey also showed 89 per cent believe more products should be manufactured in Australia.

“A key focus of Federal Budget 2020 is on business competitiveness and the revitalisation of manufacturing.”

In a matter of months, companies made changes that would normally take them years to achieve. To the Federal Government’s credit, this trend has led to an investment incentive that is a testament to the government’s commitment to restoring business confidence.

Federal Budget response

The government’s response to the pandemic in Federal Budget 2020, coupled with other recent measures, has highlighted the central role that manufacturing can play in recovering from this event and its importance in bolstering Australia’s economic resilience.

A key focus of Federal Budget 2020 is on business competitiveness and the revitalisation of the manufacturing sector.

With the support of various levels of government, manufacturing can play a key role in stimulating the economy as we emerge from the pandemic by creating more jobs, bringing production onshore, and upskilling current employees to work in conjunction with automated tools.

Modern Manufacturing Initiative

While many of the government’s policy changes will benefit all Australian businesses, the recently announced Modern Manufacturing Initiative is focused on six industries identified as critical and strategic.

The Government announcements note that these industries have been identified as critical to our national sovereignty, where reliance on global supply chains represents a risk to Australia’s security, or industries where we have a comparative advantage that is thus far unrealised.

The six national manufacturing priorities are:

Resources, technology and critical minerals processing;
Food and beverage manufacturing;
Medical products;
Clean energy and recycling;
Defence industry; and
Space industry.

For businesses already operating in one of these six critical industries, now is the time to act and take advantage of the incentives on offer. The government is looking for industry plans to be put in place by April 2021, which doesn’t give businesses much time to act.

“Now is the time to act and take advantage of the incentives on offer.”

Businesses in these six sectors will have access to grants and co-investment into large projects. These grants and investment opportunities can also be coupled with the increased instant asset write-off allowance to further boost business. .

Opportunities for agile SMEs

In addition, agile SME businesses that don’t currently operate in the manufacturing sector may be able to capitalise on opportunities presented within Federal Budget 2020’s manufacturing initiatives.

During the pandemic, we saw businesses change direction and get involved in large-scale manufacturing of goods like PPE and hand sanitiser. These types of changes may lead to a more permanent change of direction for businesses in complementary categories

The recent changes have shown that Australian manufacturers can compete on a global scale. And it’s often been the smaller, more agile Australian manufacturers that are leading the charge. By working smarter and more efficiently, manufacturers in Australia can be globally competitive.

How we can help

Icon Visual Marketing currently has clients in many of these six national manufacturing priority industries, including Food, Defence, and Resources/Recycling, and we know we can support other Australian manufacturers as well. We have expertise in helping manufacturers grow their business.

At Icon , we work with many SMEs to help them grow their businesses and solve business problems by building customer connections through innovative marketing programs. We are business advisors who understand the challenges SMEs face every day.

* This is part four of a five-part series digging into Federal Budget 2020 and outlining what it holds for SMEs. Stay tuned for part five shortly. Read part one , part two and part three now if you haven’t already.

Federal Budget 2020 recap: Embrace digital to fast track business success

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 02:34:58 GMT

In this third part of our series on the 2020 Federal Budget and SMEs, we focus on digital services for businesses and the opportunities for SME business owners to take advantage of everything on offer in the recently handed down Federal Budget.

Like many aspects of business in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by Australian businesses and consumers. This has enabled many SMEs to transform their operations and continue to trade – and even thrive – through the crisis.

Digital technology comes in many forms. It’s not just one thing; rather, when we talk about digital technology, we are talking about everything from:

email communication;
digital marketing;
infrastructure & data;
customer relationship management;
social media strategy;
business analytics;

marketing automation;
cloud storage;
cyber security;
website development;
e-commerce; and
inventory management.

For business owners, managing directors/CEOs, and in-house marketing managers, embracing digital technologies and tools can save you time, help you find new customers, and enable you to become more efficient. When working in unison, embracing digital will put you ahead of your competitors.

A recent Deloitte Access Economics report found SMEs with a higher level of digital engagement achieved 28 per cent more revenue growth and earnt 60 per cent more revenue per employee than those companies with low-level digital use.

How Federal Budget 2020 can help you become more digital

As part of its economic recovery plan, the Federal Government is undertaking a comprehensive program to improve the ease and security of digital technology for SMEs.

Federal Budget 2020 included $800 million to improve access to digital services for businesses to aid in the post-COVID economic recovery. $420 million of this package is allocated to speed up the government’s plans to create a single national business registry, which will cut red tape for small business operators.

“SMEs with a higher level of digital engagement achieved 28 per cent more revenue growth.”

Deloitte Access Economics report.

The funding package also includes $257 million to expand the government’s Digital Identity Program to enable more secure and convenient engagement with government services.

Plus, there is $2.5 million in 2020-21 to support an industry-led Digital Skills Finder Platform to enable SME employees to more easily find digital skills training courses for reskilling and upskilling in digital literacy.

The Government also announced further deregulation activities designed to facilitate the ease of doing business for SMEs, including changes to Fringe Benefits Tax, insolvency and industrial relations reforms.

How to move your business to digital

To take advantage of these Federal Budget 2020 measures, SME business owners need to ensure that they are up to speed on digital technology for their business. Here are some of the key first steps leaders in SMEs – whether CEOs, managing directors or marketing managers – can take to

Develop a website to market your business

Consumer research around buying habits shows that customers are now more likely to search for goods and services online, even if they also visit a physical outlet. A functional and attractive website can tell potential customers all they need to know about your business, as well as improve organic visibility with search engines such as Google.

“SME business owners need to ensure that they are up to speed on digital technology for their business.”

Content that is descriptive, including titles, keywords, service descriptions and images, will help search engines to locate your website and ensure your target audience can readily find your business.

Use digital marketing and social media to promote your business

Marketing your business through digital channels can open up new markets outside of your physical location, as well as helping you increase your reach within your local area.

Digital marketing tools such as social media (organic and paid content), email marketing , SEO, PPC advertisin g and content marketing can help your business stand out from the crowd and attract more customers.

Set up online sales and booking capability

Ensuring that you have a mobile-friendly website that loads quickly and includes an e-commerce platform or online booking capability can help meet customer expectations and improve access to broader markets. An e-commerce platform can also help reduce time-consuming manual tasks and simplify inventory tracking and stock management.

Automate your business processes to free up your time

Using business software, such as modern cloud-based accounting software platforms, can make data entry and invoicing simple, seamless, fast and efficient. As the business owner, you can then redirect the time and money saved back into growing your business.

How can we help

At Icon , we partner with owners, managing directors/CEOs, and marketing managers of SMEs to help them solve business problems and grow their business by building customer connections through innovative marketing programs. As experienced business advisors, we understand the challenges SMEs face every day.

* This is part three of a five-part series digging into Federal Budget 2020 and outlining what it holds for SMEs. Stay tuned for part four shortly. Read part one and part two now if you haven’t already.

Shining a spotlight on innovation in Australian manufacturing

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 03:39:06 GMT

Even before the COVID pandemic, there were plenty of doom and gloom stories about Australian manufacturing. But look a little closer and it’s clear that there’s still plenty of local manufacturing success stories in many sectors and throughout Australia.

The manufacturing sector in Australia has indeed been gradually shrinking. In the late 1950s and early 1960s manufacturing accounted for just under 30 per cent of Australian GDP , which was its all-time peak. Since the 1970s, rapid growth in the services sector has seen manufacturing’s share of output decline. It now accounts for just 5.7 per cent of Australia’s total GDP.

Despite its declining share of GDP, the manufacturing sector’s absolute output has consistently grown for most of that time. So much so that in 2020 Australia is making more things than ever before – and we are making them better than ever before as well.

CSIRO: Embrace the circular economy to grow

A 2016 CSIRO report into advanced manufacturing in Australia notes that, “Australian manufacturing can and must be a thriving component of Australia’s economy through the application of advanced manufacturing technologies, systems, and processes. The sector will focus on pre-production (design, R&D) and post-production (after-sales services) value-adding, sustainable manufacturing, and low volume, high margin customised manufacturing.”

The CSIRO also concluded that opportunities will also emerge for businesses that embrace the circular economy concept, taking responsibility for whole-of-life impacts.

Businesses can achieve improvements to resource efficiency through waste reduction, recycling, remanufacturing and reuse. This includes energy-efficient products and products designed with recycling, recovery and collaborative consumption in mind.

Australian manufacturing alive and well

Australian manufacturing is alive and well and will continue to flourish over the coming decades. Icon has the privilege of working with great Aussie manufacturing innovators like Leussink and Foamex that continue to evolve and grow.

Leussink: Four decades of Australian engineering innovation

Based in the Illawarra region south of Sydney, Leussink is an engineering business with over 40 years’ experience and an ever-growing range of capabilities. As a second-generation family-owned business, Leussink has been providing complete design, fabrication, and machining services and solutions for all industry sectors for over four decades.

Leussink recently invested $1 million to future proof its state-of-the-art workshop with the acquisition of a lathe to precisely machine metal parts. The new lathe has doubled the capacity of metalworking in the workshop and will complement their existing lathe, allowing the business to increase the size of the items they work on as well as the capacity.

“Australian manufacturing is alive and well and we will continue to invest in it. We’ve been competing with overseas companies for years and the COVID pandemic has brought new work our way because overseas suppliers cannot guarantee supply or the same quality that we offer,”

Jason Leussink, Managing Director, Leussink.

Leussink provides its clients with:

world-leading welding and fixturing solutions (tables and accessories) from Germany that promote accuracy and efficiency;
world-leading metrology solutions (arms and accessories) from Italy that deliver the highest accuracy for part qualification;
bespoke mechanical engineering services;
equipment performance reviews that highlight potential upgrades and improvements; and
ongoing services and technical assistance as needed.

Foamex: Australian innovator in expanded polystyrene

Australian owned and managed, Foamex constantly strives to find new and innovative uses for expanded polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS) for commercial and residential purposes.

A nationally recognised leader in sustainable building and insulation solutions , Foamex has a wide range of products . It is the only polystyrene producer in Australia to manufacture all of its polystyrene products locally, to strict Australian quality control standards.

Foamex has been supplying polystyrene products to the Australian market since 1982 and has built strong relationships with builders, engineers, architects, designers, and specifiers throughout the country.

In early 2020, Foamex won a $1.4 million contract to supply EPS blocks for the massive West Gate tunnel project in Melbourne’s west. For this particular job, there was a requirement for the EPS to fit within bridge cages. Foamex was able to achieve this by through hot wire profiling so the exact profile dimensions could be achieved.

“Our state-of-the-art equipment enabled us to create the customised profiles required by the client, which also have excellent yield. This means there is very little wastage, making it cost-effective while meeting the brief and engineering specifications required.”

Justin Kelsey, Managing Director, Foamex

Tracking trends in manufacturing

Icon has a long and successful history of helping Australian industrial and manufacturing B2B businesses grow. Part of our success in working with manufacturing businesses is our ability to understand the specific pain points facing their business, and also their industry as a whole.

We’ve learnt the industry from the inside out; in fact, our founder and Managing Director Joe Papadatos worked in industrial manufacturing prior to forming Icon in 2003.

We track manufacturing industry trends because it’s important for us to understand both the challenges and opportunities of our clients and potential clients.

To plan and execute effective marketing strategies for our clients , we need to understand current and future trends in manufacturing, such as those brought on by the COVID pandemic and other external influences.

Icon has extensive expertise and experience in creating marketing plans for manufacturing industry leaders and knows how to work with manufacturing and industrial companies to help them grow.

What you need to know about SEO in 2021

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 02:30:23 GMT

Like most things in business, there are competing interests and priorities when it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO), meaning there is no one size fits all solution.

Businesses need to make their website and content findable in the massive ocean that is the world wide web. And that’s no small challenge when you consider that there were over 1.74 billion websites accessible through the internet as of in January 2020. Digest that number, then consider how many individual web pages there are for internet users to land on.

No matter what your business or industry, you can bet that in your own backyard there are other businesses clambering over each other to attract the same internet users to their site that you are. Search engine optimisation ( SEO ) is key to achieving this. It’s why companies pay for professional SEO services, and it’s why multi-disciplined marketing agencies employ qualified SEO experts.

Getting your target audience to first find your website, and then getting them to click through to your site on search engine results pages (SERPs) is the first challenge. You then have to present a compelling reason for visitors to stay on your site by providing them with engaging and valuable content as well as an intuitive and streamlined user experience. So, how can you satisfy these two masters?

SERPs and word counts

For any business promoting itself through a website , it’s all about demonstrating your expertise, authority and trustworthiness. The reality is that search engines like Google, Bing and others only care about your content inasmuch as it answers the user’s search query. Search results are not a collection of “good” content; they are a ranked list of content that best satisfies what the user is looking for. So, don’t be afraid to disrupt your own business or your current content plan in order to serve searches. In the long-term, this will yield better results.

The key lies in making sure that you cover your topic in a manner that answers the search queries that your target audience is typing into search engines. Whether that takes 500 or 10,000 words, aim to create the best resource available for your target keyword.

Content creators don’t like to hear that, because it’s easier to write with a total word count in mind rather than a seemingly arbitrary number. But SEO writing is bigger than just how many words you write. It’s about how you write them in a manner that best answers the search queries your target audience is entering into Google, Bing and other search engines.

If content is king, then the user is queen

The old adage in SEO circles is that if content is king, then the user is queen, and she rules the universe. So, ask yourself, “Is my content matching the intent of the visitors I’m actually receiving?”. When creating content for your website, make user intent your key consideration when it comes to word count.

Ask yourself why your users are coming to your webpage and what are they looking for. In the 21 ^st Century us humans are an impatient bunch, so give visitors to your web page what they want first to satisfy their search intent, and then give them a reason to stay on your page.

It’s worth noting that longer content typically leads to more inbound links from other websites, which in turn leads to better rankings (and more organic traffic). However, writing, say, 10,000 words and repeating yourself in your content for the sake of reaching a predetermined word count is not the answer. However, do write 10,000 words if that’s how many you need to satisfy the user intent of your target audience.

A simple formula for SEO content planning

When it comes to your content marketing strategy, SEO is certainly a key piece of the puzzle. But it is only one of many pieces of a very big puzzle with many moving parts that requires precise skill and expert knowledge to complete. To get started, here’s a simple formula for SEO content planning.

Use a search engine such as Google or Bing to search the keywords you want your webpage to rank for.
Identify which pages from your competitors are ranking highly for those keywords.
Determine what qualities those pages possess.
Create content that’s better than that.

Finally, while keyword-oriented SEO gets much of the attention in marketing circles, it’s important to note that keyword-oriented SEO works best when implemented hand-in-hand with technical SEO.

Need a hand to solve the SEO puzzle for your business and create content that appeals to both your target audience and to search engines? Let Icon’s digital marketing and SEO experts take a look.

Federal Budget 2020 recap: Strategic planning essential for recovery

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:53:52 GMT

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us believed that it would last a mere few months and we’d soon all go back to business as usual. But as the months have worn on, the wiser of us have come to accept that there will be definite, long-term changes that impact the economy and SME businesses.

Australia will be a very different place over the next few years and success will come to business owners who plan for the changes, rather than waiting for the business world to return to its old ways.

Rather than see this as a negative, we encourage SME business owners to see it as a positive and consider how their business can adapt, grow and even thrive in the current business climate.

A robust strategic plan

In short, no business will succeed long-term without a robust strategic plan . But stepping back from your business and looking at it objectively to create an effective strategic plan is challenging. It takes time, energy, and honesty.

An essential component of planning, particularly in such turbulent times, is understanding and leveraging the many incentives and stimulus help on offer from the Federal and State Governments to fuel the economy.

“We encourage SME business owners to consider how their business can adapt, grow and even thrive in the current business climate.”

For example, the Federal Government announced in its 2020 budget last month that businesses will be incentivised to invest through the removal of limits on the Instant Asset Write-off program. There will be no limit on the expensing of asset purchases up until June 2022. Federal Budget 2020 estimates that this measure will save businesses in Australia $30bn in taxation payments over the next three years.

This type of benefit needs to be factored into strategic business planning, rather than seen in isolation to buy a shiny new vehicle or piece of equipment.

Having your strategy properly mapped out to take advantage of the range of government initiatives announced in Federal Budget 2020 will be critical. It’s important that SMEs invest time into understanding how Federal Budget 2020 will enable them to seize opportunities and avoid threats.

The strategic planning process

Through research, discussion, and goal setting, the strategic planning process helps you and your employees to understand the current status of your business and where it’s headed. You might be equipped with the right skills to undertake this type of critical thinking and strategic planning yourself, or you might need to call on outside help .

One of the benefits of strategic planning is choosing the direction the business is heading. This allows you and your team to focus on working towards achieving your specific business goals. Having clearly defined goals is important; without them your plan is just a pipe dream.

“An important part of the planning process is regularly reviewing and evaluating your business’s performance against the plan.”

The strategic planning process is not complete when you create that very important first version of your plan. An important part of the planning process is regularly reviewing and evaluating your business’s performance against the plan and the goals you set.

Plan with a new mindset

Don’t plan with a mindset around a return to the way things were prior to COVID-19. Plan to move forward based on how things are now, and how they can be in the future, for your business.

Uncertainty will not go away, particularly in the short-term, and it will be how you manage with the uncertainty that will see your business succeed or fail.

The fluid environment will keep businesses and consumers cautious through the final months of 2020. But if we can continue to manage the health situation and build some economic momentum in early 2021, then a full-blown economic recovery is on the cards over the next two years. Prepare to take advantage of it by working on a forward-learning strategic plan now.

How can we help

At Icon , we work with SMEs to help them grow their businesses and solve business problems by building customer connections through innovative marketing programs. We are business advisors who understand the challenges SMEs face every day.

* This is part two of a five-part series digging into Federal Budget 2020 and outlining what it holds for SMEs. Stay tuned for part three shortly. Read part one now if you haven’t already.

Reproductive thinking Vs productive thinking

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 00:18:12 GMT

I was amazed after coming back from a client meeting once, not so long ago.

“Wow! That was a great meeting,” said my colleague.

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

“They just loved the proposal,” she replied.

I raised an eyebrow. What?! I had the polar opposite opinion about the meeting we’d just left. To me, the meeting wasn’t a success at all.

My boss at the time told me that some people just aren’t wired to read the room, or people, for that matter. The idea that we are all wired differently freaked me out a little.

“When the average person is asked to find the needle in a haystack, he or she will stop once they find a needle. I, on the other hand, will go through the entire haystack looking for all the possible needles.”

- Albert Einstein.

So I started doing some research into creative thinking and strategy in the hope of better understanding myself, and why, as a creative, I think the way I do. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t automatically programmed to fail in my job.

The key difference between producing and reproducing

The idea of reproductive thinking and productive thinking came across my screen a few weeks later when I read an article on the topic, which compelled me to then dig a little deeper.

Reproductive thinking can be thought of as inherited thinking. It can be dangerous in an agency e nvironment where you’re constantly being asked to increase the pace of your work and become more efficient with your output.

When this happens, creatives can be forgiven for shutting off the part of their brain that is used for productive thinking and simply reverting to reproductive thinking. It’s our natural human instinct to revert to the path of least resistance when the pressure is on.

Perhaps it’s because creatives believe that their colleague who wrote the brief understands the client better than they do. Or perhaps it’s because they’re carrying scar tissue from being told one too many times that their work is “off brief” and to in future, “please just stick to the brief”.

So, you cut out that hour of creative thinking that you were going to invest into the job, and instead you take as gospel that inherited information you were handed. You use it to produce some fantastic looking output that could be featured in an art gallery…but unfortunately it will never contribute to solving the business problems for the client.

“Telephone did not come into existence from the persistent improvement of the postcard.”

- Amit Kalantri.

Client Services can be forgiven for thinking, “hey, this is the creative’s job. I tell them the problem and they give me back the gold. It’s not my job to care about the output!”.

Who owns creative thinking and strategy?

So, where does the responsibility lie then for the creative thinking? Let’s call it ‘strategy’. If strategy is only done upfront and then falls into a ‘set and forget’ pattern, then creatives (everyone in Business Services, really) and Client Services inherits it. This reduces us to mere reproductive thinkers. The path has been set – and don’t you dare veer off it. This is what we’ve decided, this is what the client has signed off on, so this is exactly what we’re going to do.

When we become so reproductive in our thinking that we fail to question the set strategy, then over time we are simply setting ourselves up for failure. We close ourselves off to the litany of other great options that may be uncovered through a healthy dose of creative productive thinking. Instead, we become mere ‘brief takers’.

The problem with reproductive thinking is it’s confined and only draws on what John Cleese calls the, “closed mind” . It’s playing it safe. It sits in a comfortable, neat little box that we know has worked before. It doesn't ask the critical question of, “what if?”. To think outside the box, our thinking can’t be confined to the box. Doing what you’ve always done will only get what you’ve always gotten

It’s important to note here that challenging the strategy after it has already been set does not amount to doubling up of work. It’s simply about uncovering new possibilities.

Embrace the power of productive thinking

So, what is productive thinking then? Productive thinking is solving a problem with insight. Insight enables us to peek behind the curtain. If your insight tells you that your target audience loves the colour blue, would you base your design on the colour yellow? What if your client’s existing branding focused on yellow and not blue? With the insight you have gained through productive thinking, you can confidently present the case that the client should use less yellow and more blue.

The responsibility for insight and creative thinking sits with all of us. In order to help each other and deliver great work for clients, we all need to be asking the right questions. Compiling the brief needs to be a collaborative effort. Let’s not be so presumptive as to think that any one individual has all the answers.

To start, when looking at your target audience, ask questions like:

How does my offering make their lives easier?
What problem can I solve for them?
What are they reading during the day that I might come alongside with my own content that will add value for them?
What is the historical ad data telling us about their on-site activity?
What are craving to see more of?

Good luck!

Six tips for connecting with customers: Part 2

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 22:20:28 GMT

According to The Global Consumer Trends Reopening Report from market research firm Dynata, following the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia in March, three in five Australians (59 per cent) say they prefer small businesses over large companies. That’s a 20 per cent increase over pre-COVID consumer sentiment.

That’s great news for the more than 2.3 million actively trading small businesses in Australia. But how can small business owners capitalise on consumers’ preference for the smaller end of town to grow their business?

Six steps for building meaningful connections with customers

As a full-service marketing agency and business consultancy that has been helping to grow SME businesses in Sydney for nearly 20 years, we have found that developing meaningful connections with customers is essential for growing a business.

In part two of this two-part blog, let’s look at telling your unique story, creating a marketing plan, and content marketing. If you missed out on part one, you can find it here

Tell your unique story

The art of creative storytelling is an essential aspect of branding. The goal of any branding effort is to create a narrative that connects with your audience. And to do that, your brand has to tell a story that resonates with your customers and potential customers. If done effectively, sharing your story adds depth to your business brand, allowing it to grow and evolve as you generate interest.

A brand story is more than content and a narrative. Your unique story isn’t just what you tell people, it’s also what they believe about you based on the signals your brand sends. That unique story is a complete picture made up of facts, feelings and interpretations, which means that part of your story is told by others.

If your business doesn’t offer a compelling story than you are just another commodity and have no way of differentiating your business. Creating a brand story is about building something that people care about and will buy into. You need to think beyond the utility of your products or services and strive for the creation of loyalty and meaningful bonds with your customers. At Icon we can help you do just that.

Create a marketing plan

One of the first things we do with our clients at Icon is to facilitate a strategic marketing workshop . From that session, we create a marketing plan that provides a roadmap for how together we will promote your products and services to your target market. This requires research, time and commitment, but is a process worth investing in because it can greatly contribute to business success.

In creating your marketing plan, we work with you to:

Identify your target market and understand how your product or service meets their needs.
Identify your competitors and what your target customers think about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
Position your brand, products and services so that your target market sees your business as better than, or different from, the competition.
Map out a strategy to reach your target audience, including the messages, channels and tools you will use.
Set specific and measurable goals and time frames for your marketing activities.

Utilise the power of content marketing

Using content marketing , we help you build trust with your audience, improve conversions, connect with your customers, and generate leads. Today, customers expect high-quality, consistent content from their favourite brands.

Great content is an important marketing asset. Done well, it can create a positive experience for your potential customers and compel them to come back for more.

Relevant content helps your business build a relationship with your audience. It allows you to answer questions and interact with your customers. By giving value without asking for anything in return, your audience is more likely to trust your advice and recommendations.

Content marketing also has the potential to generate leads. If an audience connects with your content, they’re more likely to be interested in purchasing from you in the future.

M issed part one of this blog? Read it now .

Federal Budget 2020 recap: Helping SMEs tackle the recession

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 00:29:36 GMT

The Federal Government delivered its 2020 budget last month, and as was expected it was full of stimulus goodies for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The day after the budget was delivered there was plenty of media coverage about the different budgetary items, but most were quickly forgotten as the news cycle moved on. For this particular budget, it’s worth going back and reviewing the many benefits to SMEs.

The importance of healthy SMEs to a buoyant Australian economy cannot be overstated. SMEs make up 99 per cent of the economy and employ two in every three Australian workers. As SMEs grow, so does the economy, employment and access to new and diverse marketplaces. Even for those who don’t work for SMEs, their survival and continued growth are critical to the continued growth of our country.

This particular budget, aimed at shifting SMEs from tackling the pandemic to tackling the resultant recession, is unlike any other. We can’t just return to ‘normal’ and expect everything to be hunky-dory. COVID and subsequent containment measures have driven significant changes in the attitudes and behaviours of customers, employees and businesses, so adjustments are needed.

In Federal Budget 2020, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg provided tax incentives, wage subsidies and mental health support for SMEs. It’s great to see this important sector receiving recognition for the key role it plays in our economy. It also provides recognition for just how many SMEs have been doing it tough as a result of the pandemic.

SME Guarantee Scheme

One aspect of Federal Budget 2020 is a refreshed and expanded SME Guarantee Scheme to help SMEs emerge from this very challenging period.

This extension of the government-guaranteed loan scheme increases the previous scheme of a 50 per cent guarantee against loans up to $250,000, to now offer the same guarantee against loans of up to $1 million, with unsecured or secured lending.

“In Federal Budget 2020, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg provided tax incentives, wage subsidies and mental health support for SMEs.”

These loans are also now permitted to be used for a broader range of purposes, including business investment and growth, with loan terms of five years, an increase of two years from the Phase 1 scheme.

This is great news for a business like Icon Visual Marketing. As an SME, we can reap our own benefits, but it also provides additional scope for us to help our clients grow their businesses.

Moving from survival to growth

This initiative is an example of the Federal Government moving beyond merely helping SMEs survive the immediate impacts of the pandemic, and focusing on rehabilitating SMEs so they can succeed in the post-COVID world. We believe the expansion of the scheme will help bridge the gap between survival and growth.

At Icon, we work with SMEs to help them grow their businesses and solve business problems by building customer connections through innovative marketing programs. We are also business advisors who understand the challenges SMEs face every day. We consult with SMEs and help them to develop and implement strategies for sustained growth.

* This is part one of a five-part series digging into Federal Budget 2020 and outlining what it holds for SMEs. Read part two now.

Write off the cost of building your new company website

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 22:59:02 GMT

Astute business owners are always looking for ways to reduce their tax bill by purchasing and writing off assets at the most financially favourable times.

Common items that businesses write off include machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, computers and computer accessories, phones, tablets, and furniture.

Find out what it’s like to work with Icon

But did you also know that costs associated with less tangible – yet no less essential – business tools, such as the cost of building a new company website, can now also be written off as an asset?

Building a company website is now tax deductible

As outlined by the Australian Taxation Office , business owners can write off the costs associated with building and running their company. And following the recently announced Federal Budget, that now includes the cost of building a new company website for your business.

“Our experienced web developers work with our creative, content, and digital marketing teams to strategically design, plan, build, and launch new websites.”

“If you create or maintain a website for your business, you may be able to claim the associated expenses as a deduction,” explains the ATO on its website . “You can depreciate the expenses of a website over time. You can also claim a deduction for some ongoing expenses associated with running and maintaining your website in the year they occur.”

Web development services at Icon

Icon’s web development team works with businesses of various sizes and in various industries to help them create new company websites that will not only look great, but that will also perform great for their business.

We have experience in creating websites that deliver results for Australian SME businesses. For some clients, that means a completely custom-built website. For others, it’s a simple yet intuitive templated website design that can be launched quickly and cost-effectively; and for some clients it’s purely an e-commerce portal.

Our approach to web development is to first listen, learn, and understand how our clients want to use their website. We then draw on our knowledge of customer journeys, user experience, data science, and customer experience to create the website that will precisely serve the needs of the business.

Icon’s Head of Technology, Michael Jackson, says that it’s not just about making your new company website look great. It also needs to:

· be truly engaging;

· provide fantastic UX (user experience);

· be easily findable organically by search engines; and

· drive new business inquiries.

“At Icon, our in-house team of experienced web developers work with our creative, content, and digital marketing teams to strategically design, plan, build, and launch new websites for our clients,” Jackson says. “All website design and development happens at our Sydney head office.”

Six tips for connecting with customers: Part 1

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 04:05:51 GMT

As we chart our way out of the COVID pandemic, Australian consumers are hungrier than ever to support small businesses. But, as always, the key to growing a business is building meaningful connections between your customer and your brand.

How to build meaningful connections with customers

To make sure your small business puts its best foot forward, here are the six ways that Icon Visual Marketing can help you build lasting connections with your customers and capitalise.

Clearly define your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Your UVP is a statement that clearly tells your target market how they will benefit from using your products or services. A well-considered UVP concisely communicates how you will add value to your customer by addressing their needs and solving their problems. It also explains what makes your offer different from the competition.

A key part of a strategic marketing plan, a UVP is not necessarily overtly stated. Rather, it lives in internal documents that are shared across your business. It acts as a guide to ensure everyone who is marketing, selling or speaking about your product is on the same page when it comes to language and selling points.

When it comes to creating your UVP, the best place to start is to put yourself in the shoes of your core customer. Using active verbs for your UVP is one of the most effective ways to communicate your product’s benefits to your audience. Using active language helps the potential buyer see the value in what the product or service does, rather than what it looks like.

Develop your brand identity

Your brand identity is much more than just your logo. It’s everything from your logo and typography to the packaging and customer experience style you choose.

A brand identity is made up of what your values are, the story you tell about your product or service, and what you want your target audience to feel when they interact with it. Essentially, your brand identity is the personality of your business and the promise you make to your customers.

“A brand that establishes an unforgettable face, and maintains that face consistently over time, develops credibility and trust with its customers.”

So why have a brand identity? Because it makes your product more memorable, and more authoritative in the marketplace. A brand that establishes an unforgettable face, and maintains that face consistently over time, develops credibility and trust with its customers.

The more cohesive and consistent your brand identity is, the easier it is for others to understand and connect with your company. At Icon Visual Marketing we create your brand identity with you and help to pick the right visuals and content to represent your business through the prism of your brand identity. It’s about maintaining a consistent style and tone to support your business’ brand.New Paragraph

Develop your key messages

Think of key messages as the foundation of your marketing strategy and communication plan . Once developed, your key messages should be used in all communications with your target audience. Key messages are not taglines; rather, they are factual statements about your business. You don’t need to memorise and repeat them word for word, but they should be used as guidelines and included naturally in all of your content marketing activities.

There are several important factors to keep in mind when creating key messages. They should be:

· Believable and backed up by evidence.

· Distinctive and attention-grabbing.

· Purposeful to generate further investigation by your audience.

· Kept brief.

· Written in simple language to make them accessible to the broadest possible audience.

· Positive but not exaggerated.

One of the most important reasons for using key messages is the level of consistency that they help develop. The messages should remain the same across every platform available to you. Even public relations campaigns should include your key messages.

Keep an eye out for part 2 of this two-part blog to learn how telling your unique story, creating a marketing plan, and embracing content marketing can further help your business build meaningful connections with your target audience.

CASE STUDY: Helping City of Parramatta Council promote Church Street restaurant precinct

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 04:00:15 GMT

Creating a social video campaign to promote local restaurants as we emerge from COVID

The problem

Parramatta’s Church Street dining precinct in the heart of the Parramatta CBD is a popular destination for Parramatta locals and visitors. The downturn in patronage due to the COVID pandemic, meant that restaurant owners on Church Street needed help to raise awareness that their venues were still open for business.

This coupled with businesses along Church Street being impacted by the construction of the Parramatta Light Rail project, which had closed down the street to all traffic. The popular dining area had become noisy and unattractive, turning patrons away from dining at the local establishments.

City of Parramatta Council needed a creative solution that would remind patrons that the restaurant precinct on Church Street was still open for business – both dining in and takeaway.

“The City of Parramatta Council’s City Engagement and Experience team needed an attention-grabbing social video campaign that would connect with the community,” explains Icon Business Partner Erica Williams. “Our job was to conceptualise and create something that would entice locals and visitors to return to the Church Street dining precinct.”

Icon Visual Marketing was tasked with producing a video that would form part of the Go Local campaign targeting residents and those living within a 30-minute radius of Parramatta. Other way round – COVID was the main driver for this campaign – PLR was secondary – see item 11.g in the attached Council minutes – this program was officially endorsed by Council as part of its initiatives initiated in response to COVID.

The solution

Icon’s creative team and marketing strategists began sketching out a script and storyboard for a fast-paced, colourful, and vibrant video. The video would be crafted around the core theme of highlighting the wide range of dining options available on Church Street without favouring a particular outlet. It was also important to take the focus off the construction zone by not featuring the actual location.

“Our job was to entice locals and visitors to return to the Church Street dining precinct.”

Erica Williams, Business Partner, Icon

Icon’s video production team developed three concepts and produced storyboards and script synopses that were presented to the City of Parramatta Council team. The creative execution selected – ‘Pass It On’ – involved the passing of an object, such as a piece of cutlery, from scene to scene, seamlessly.

The Icon team filmed all video footage in one studio location against a green screen, which meant a cost-effective production and timely delivery for City of Parramatta Council.

“Filming using a green screen wasn’t without its challenges for our Creative team,” says Icon’s Head of Creative, Glenn Robinson. “But it was a strategic decision that ensured that we delivered great content cost-effectively and to the client’s timeline.”

Local Parramatta identities – including NRL football players, actors, and City of Parramatta Lord Mayor Bob Dwyer – were featured in the video. Also featured were several local residents and restaurant staff of different ages and backgrounds, which helped to showcase the cultural diversity of Parramatta.

The fun and vibrant video is hosted on the Discover Parramatta website and was shared through City of Parramatta Council’s social channels.

The results

The ‘Pass It On’ promotional video was praised by the City of Parramatta Council stakeholders, Church Street restaurateurs, Parramatta locals, and visitors to Parramatta.

And the results are a testament to its effectiveness. So far, the campaign has delivered the following results:

· Above-average ad scores.

· High impressions, reach, and interactions.

· Increased website traffic.

· Drove 6,000 visitors to local Parramatta listing websites.

· Over 24,000 unique visitors to Eat & Drink content on the Discover Parramatta website.

The benefits

City of Parramatta Council received positive feedback from many restaurateurs along Church Street, who saw noticeable increases in business following the release of the ‘Pass It On’ promotional video.

Find out more about Icon, our video services, and how we can help your business grow, or call for a chat on 1300 138 984 .

The future of Australian suburbia and what it means for builders and property developers

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 04:21:52 GMT

The COVID pandemic has had many unexpected consequences, and for the army of office workers who once squeezed into CBDs around the country for work, there’s been a sizeable shift to working from home.

This inner-city exodus has led to a revival of many suburban shopping strips and communal areas, as those working from home seek local services and good coffee to break up the working day at home.

Many experts and industry commentators are predicting that there will be a fundamental shift in the number of people working from home in the future – even as we emerge from the pandemic. As a result, many homeowners are rethinking what they now actually need in a home.

Because many home owners are using their homes differently today than they were prior to COVID, home builders need to rethink what their standard home designs look like.

Home buyers will favour designs that facilitate how they now use their home, so more and more homebuilders will need to keep their fingers on the pulse of what the market is demanding. Rather than being reactive, moving forward home builders will need to innovate with truly smart designs, as simply offering standard cookie-cutter designs will no longer appeal to home buyers.

And this trend will also carry over to greenfield property developers, who will look to further incorporate convenience and amenities into their new communities to meet the new expectations of home buyers.

Suburban shift provides opportunities

In March, when seemingly overnight office workers set-up their workspaces in their homes, it felt like a very temporary situation. But as the months continue to wear on, it is clear that we aren’t looking at a quick fix. What was considered temporary will, for some, became a permanent arrangement.

“Home builders will need to innovate with truly smart designs, as simply offering standard cookie-cutter designs will no longer appeal to home buyers.”

In time many office workers will likely return to their high-rise towers, but some will never go back. Employers of all sizes will increasingly offer a hybrid model where employees work part of every week from home and part from the company office.

Company offices themselves will also change. The office towers of the future will increasingly be based around open plan shared office spaces as individual companies require less floor space as staff continue to work from home. Architects and commercial property developers will need to design around new requirements from tenants.

But not everyone can work from home in comfort. Residential builders and property developers will do very well coming out of the pandemic as suburbanites relocate to more suitable homes, or even knock down their existing home and rebuild. The builders and developers that anticipated the changing requirements of home buyers and have adjusted their offer accordingly will be the ones that most benefit.

Post-COVID suburbia

Social commentator Bernard Salt predicted a resurgence of the great Australian dream in a recent column in The Australian . “In post-corona suburbia, what matters is authenticity, reality, personal relationships, the home, and the community,” he explained.

He goes on to say that suburban Australia is springing to life as local retail strips are rediscovered, local businesses are being supported, bike paths and parks are being frequented – all injecting new life.

“In post-corona suburbia, what matters is authenticity, reality, personal relationships, the home, and the community.”

At the core of his premise is the fortressing of the Australian suburban home. Australian families are spending more time at home so they’re seeking numerous living areas that offer privacy, multi-purpose spaces, cosy alfresco areas, open-plan areas where the family can gather without being on top of each other, and media rooms for Friday night movies.

Icon Visual Marketing and the property sector

This is the sort of trend that we track at Icon because it’s pertinent for our clients in the residential building and property development industries to understand how the needs of their target audience are evolving. To plan effective marketing programs we need to understand important demographic shifts , like those caused by the COVID pandemic.

It’s a trend that is affecting both our local region in Sydney’s South West, but also the broader property market across the country.

At Icon we have extensive expertise and experience in the property sector. We know how to work with land developers and residential builders to help them achieve their goals. Over the last two decades we have helped bring to life some of the most successful new residential communities in South West Sydney and beyond, including Harrington Grove , Catherine Park Estate , and Gregory Hills .

As well as property developers, we have extensive experience with a wide range of homebuilders, from large builders ( Beechwood Homes ), to mid-tier niche builders ( ANSA Homes ), to specialist custom builders ( Berkley Homes ).

Are you really building brand trust with your customers?

michael@iconvisual.com.au (Steven Kleina) — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 05:05:02 GMT

The late, great Steve Jobs so eloquently said that, “a brand is simply trust”.

Trust in brands has been eroding for many years. But the power of trust cannot be underestimated. Building trust and meaningful connections is a major differentiator between business success and failure. And it’s easier than you might think – because business owners can create trust by focusing on solving customer problems, rather than just focusing on selling things.

Brands that built trust by truly helping and providing value to customers have firmer foundations for the future. The key to building meaningful connections with customers is being clear, consistent and transparent in how you communicate and engage with them, and Icon Visual Marketing’s branding experts can help with that in many ways.

Book a free consultation to discuss building brand trust with your customers.

Why is brand trust important?

Brand trust is one of the most important factors in customer purchase decisions. When people trust your brand, they will have more confidence in your products and services. They will make an effort to seek you out, even if you’re not the cheapest or most convenient option.

But brand trust is earned, not given, and many businesses have a long way to go in gaining significant support from customers. To build trust, you can’t just run a marketing campaign about how reliable you are. You need to develop trust little by little.

“When people trust your brand, they will have more confidence in your products and services.”

Brand trust is more important than ever because today’s consumers are bombarded with options. What was once a choice between a couple of brands is now a global mix of hundreds, which has customers asking who they know and trust before purchasing.

By building trust, your one-off customers are more likely to become repeat customers. And their positive word of mouth will likely deliver new customers for your business. With repeat purchase comes profitability. You also need to create traction, which leads to repeat purchase. It is trust that is the essential ingredient in building traction for a customer to purchase your product or service over and over again.

How do you build trust?

Building trust takes time, commitment and consistency in all aspects of your business. At Icon Visual Marketing we advise our clients on how to build that all-important business trust. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Embrace transparency

Transparency when discussing your business is a crucial factor in eliciting trust. It doesn’t mean you have to reveal all of your commercially confidential information, but it does mean you need to be open with people.

Transparency is essential not just for your relationships with your customers, but also with employees, investors, and other stakeholders. For example, you should let customers know you’re using their data. And when sharing information, always veer towards oversharing rather than under sharing. The less information key stakeholders have, the more they will guess or make assumptions.

How you prove your transparency depends on your particular business. Transparency, for example, could be communicated by publishing third-party research about your products, divulging ingredients for your products, or responding openly and honestly to queries on social media .

Be authentic through brand storytelling

Authenticity is at the heart of trustworthiness. Consumers today are not interested in the big sales pitch or waffly marketing spiel. They want to know who your brand is and what the people behind the brand stand for, and we have helped many businesses to unearth these details.

You can demonstrate your authenticity by facing up to negative interactions in a timely manner. Respond to negative feedback, address complaints, engage with your customers offline and online, and when you make a mistake, own up.

Be authentic by telling stories, which can better engage your customers and help develop a relationship. You want to appeal to their emotions and thereby, build trust.

Offer consistent customer experiences

Customer service can be seen as simply transactional, like answering a question, helping pick out the right product, or solving problems. But when done well it can build relationships with your customers.

That’s when it’s called customer experience rather than just service. If you keep your customer interactions timely, consistent, honest and transparent, you will provide customers with a personalised experience of your organisation.

“The less information key stakeholders have, the more they will make assumptions.”

The better the experience your customers have, the more likely they are to trust your brand. They are more likely to buy from you again, and recommend your business to others.

Use social proof

The concept of social proof is that people see your online interactions as ‘proof’ of your authenticity and transparency. These interactions could be product reviews and testimonials, social media post and comments, blog posts, or even media coverage.

Social proof works by tapping into the basic human instinct to follow the actions of others, and building trust and credibility. The idea is that since so many other people behave in a certain way, it must be the correct behaviour.

Social proof conveys trust, which is a key factor in converting customers, particularly when they are purchasing online. Showing potential customers that a business has many satisfied customers through testimonials and user reviews helps to build trust that a business is legitimate and trustworthy.

Wollondilly Shire Council – ‘Love The Dilly’ Campaign

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 05:23:52 GMT

Our experience working with local government means you have access to an agency that truly understands how councils operate and measure success. That understanding also enables us to envision what local businesses in your area require in order to grow and become profitable.

The Problem?

In early 2020 we were approached by Wollondilly Shire Council to create a campaign that would help raise awareness about all that Wollondilly Shire has to offer and entice visitors from across greater Sydney to visit the region. After the devastating fires over Christmas and the subsequent floods, local businesses were struggling and needed help fast.

The Solution?

Tasked with creating a broad and impactful campaign, the Icon Visual Marketing team had a deadline of little more than a week to deliver a multi-channel campaign with a variety of creative executions. The comprehensive campaign would cover:

Video and photography : Storyboard, production of video and photography assets for use online, on social media channels and press.
Studio : Campaign logo, design of all creative assets including digital and social ads, landing page, promotional materials.
Online media management: Google Display Network ads and social media ads.
Web : Development of a landing page.
Production of promotional items : T-shirts, stickers for use by shopkeepers, bumper stickers for use by residents and a media wall.
Media relations : Media release and media management.
Local radio campaign : Script writing and media management.

The Result?

Our team was able to deliver this broad campaign on time, on budget, and, most importantly, to the expectations of Wollondilly Shire Council. The campaign, still in its infancy, has received news coverage and widespread awareness via social media.

Our extensive experience, creativity and strategy enabled us to work collaboratively with Wollondilly to cover the entire remit of their needs. Traditionally, councils have tended to typically work with several organisations to cover their marketing needs. The benefit of working with Icon Visual Marketing, is we can cover all your marketing needs.

The benefits?

The benefits of course, are many – it’s more efficient, more cost-effective, more convenient, and ultimately means there’s less administration tasks to manage. Simply put, there’s less to worry about, leaving more time for council teams to focus on other critical tasks.

How public relations can help your business

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 03:29:00 GMT

Compelling storytelling is an incredibly powerful way to communicate with your potential customers. The goal of public relations is to build mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and its core audience.

The use of effective storytelling adds value to this process by enabling you to communicate in a language that your audience can understand and relate to. Evoking positive associations of your brand with your audience is key to business growth .

In short, public relations coverage is earned media – content that appears in print, online, or in the broadcast media that is there because an editor or journalist believes it is of genuine interest to their audience. It has earned its place. It has what journalists call a news angle – a new ground-breaking product, interesting new research, or perhaps a powerful human interest story.

PR campaigns can create a lasting legacy of trust

When done well, a public relations campaign can have a visible and instant impact. But more often public relations builds a narrative and the credibility of a company over the long-term to create a lasting legacy of trust.

While public relations can function independently, it works best when part of a marketing program. As an experienced multi-disciplined marketing agency in South West Sydney, Icon Visual Marketing uses PR as part of our broader marketing campaigns for clients.

PR strategy helps establish APG Workforce executives as thought leaders

For client APG Workforce, public relations is playing a key role in establishing the workforce management company’s senior executives as thought leaders in their industry.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in late March 2020, Icon Visual Marketing has used the power of storytelling to gain media coverage in a number of industry publications like Dynamic Business , Food & Drink Business , My Business , The Fifth Estate and more. The stories focus on the views of the company’s senior executives on the effects of the COVID pandemic on the Australian workforce and the role of short-term hire as we emerge from the pandemic.

The marketing program we built for APG Workforce includes a revised website, brochures, social media (both organic and paid), print and online advertising, and tender writing, with public relations playing a starring role in generating media coverage. Public relations is also being used to reposition APG Workforce as a leader in workforce management rather than as a labour hire and a recruitment agency.

Every business has a story to tell

While some clients have stronger news stories to tell than others, there is PR potential in most company’s stories. They won’t all make it to prime time news, because public relations messages are often targeted to a specific industry or a particular geographic location.

In the case of APG Workforce, we want to reach a number of niche audiences such as business owners, human resources specialists and specific industries.

Just about every business has a story to tell that will interest a media outlet. A public relations professional has to be an expert at seeing an organisation through the eyes of the editors and program directors, assembling the facts that the media would use, and giving them material at precisely the right time.

A PR specialist must ensure that any form of communication is clear, honest, and unambiguous so that the messages are easily understood by the respective target audiences.

Together, let’s tell your story

If you’re a client of Icon Visual Marketing, we’d be happy to talk to you about how public relations could work for as part of your marketing program. If not, then let’s work together to tell your story through public relations and provide the right pathway to grow your business.

Every business has a story to tell. Let us help you tell yours with a public relations campaign. Call us today on 1300 138 984 and let’s work together to get your story published and in the hands of your target audience.

Digital marketing metrics: What really matters for your business?

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 03:43:14 GMT

There are a multitude of metrics for measuring the effectiveness of your well thought out marketing campaign or marketing activities that make oh so much sense in theory. Without the help of a multi-disciplined marketing agency with a skilled digital marketing team , it can be hard to know which are the best metrics to measure yourself against.

The trick is knowing which marketing metrics matter the most. But can we let you in on a little secret about marketing metrics? They all matter. Yes, all marketing metrics matter – but it’s how you use them that matters the most.

Marketing metrics matter – all of them

Some marketing metrics are more important than others, but none of them should be cast aside altogether. It’s how you use them that makes all the difference. Being able to pick the right metrics to measure the effectiveness of your marketing can be the difference between gaining true clarity and heading down the rabbit hole in the wrong direction.

To throw a spanner in the works, some marketing metrics may be fantastic for measuring success sometimes and not so fantastic at other times. It all depends on your platform and the intent of your marketing campaign.

For example, fast food restaurants don’t spend huge amounts of their marketing budget on display advertising to increases conversions on their website. They do it to raise awareness of their brand and increase brand recognition, which then makes the activities they invest in at the bottom of the marketing funnel more effective.

A quick word on conversions

A conversion is the end goal for all marketing. Typically, “conversion” is defined as when your marketing moves someone from being an observer or follower of your business to being a customer of your business. But it’s murkier than that, and that’s where a skilled marketing agency can work with you to provide the right pathway to grow your business .

If you’re going to invest in marketing, you need to know that everything can be a conversion. It all depends on the goal of your campaign. For example, a page view can be a conversion – if the campaign is Display – because the goal of a Display campaign is to increase page views on your website. Display campaigns are not about driving new sales enquiries, so measuring them in terms of sales is missing the point.

How to segment your marketing metrics

Digital marketing metrics can generally be grouped into five channels. Each channel has its own key value metrics and secondary value metrics for gauging effectiveness. Let’s take a look at each channel and look at how to measure the effectiveness of your marketing in each.

Electronic Direct

Mail (EDM)

Electronic Direct Mail, or eDM, is the modern-day mainstay of direct marketing that removes the middleman and connects brands directly to their audience via email promotions.

Key value metrics: Click-Through-Rate, Conversion Rate, Unsubscribe Rate
Secondary value metrics: Open-Rate, Bounce Rate

Programmatic Display Advertising

Display marketing is the advertising we get served when surfing the internet on our smartphones, tablets and computers – still images, videos, animations, text links are the media used. Its success is measured in impressions: how many times your ad is served to someone browsing the internet.

Key value metrics: Viewable Impressions, CPM, Click-Through-Rate.
Secondary value metrics: Sessions, Bounce Rate.

Search Advertising (PPC)

Search Advertising, or PPC (Pay-Per-Click), is digital advertising designed for search networks. Its success is measured in a different manner to Display – i.e., by the amount of times viewers click on your ad, not how many they see your ad. You also don’t pay until someone clicks on your ad, hence the name Pay-Per-Click, because you only pay if people click. This can be one of the most cost-effective forms of digital advertising.

Key value metrics: Conversions, CTR (Click-Through-Rate), CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition).
Secondary value metrics: CPC, Quality Score

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing offers plenty of avenues for further engaging with your target audience, provided it’s guided by a strategy. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN all offer opportunities to connect with your audience, as do newer social media platforms like TikTok.

Key value metrics: Sessions, Conversions, Frequency.
Secondary value metrics: CTR (Click-Through-Rate), Post/Page Likes/Follows.

Organic Search

Organic search is the unpaid results (i.e. excludes advertisements) we get presented with when we type something into a search engine, such as Google. A search engine presents results ranked based on their relevance to the search term entered. Relevance is determined by SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and keywords, the algorithm Google uses is based on 200 known ranking factors – but these can change at any time.

Key value metrics: Conversations, Session Duration Time, Bounce Rate.
Secondary value metrics: Keyword Rankings

What is a marketing plan and why your small business needs one

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 23:34:00 GMT

A marketing plan helps you plan for the future – it’s a roadmap that can help you get from where you are to where you want to be. As your business matures, a little structure can help you guide it through the next phase clearly.

A successful, growing business is a business owners’ dream, but as your business grows the path forward may not be as clear as it once was. This is where having a marketing plan based on the broad marketing ecosystem can help take you forward.

As the business owner, pat yourself on the back. This is an exciting time for you and your team, and it’s about to get even more exciting. So, buckle up!

What is a marketing plan?

Often even successful business owners may understand marketing activities but are not confident to determine which are the best tactics to implement, when to engage them, how much to invest and why.

Developed in collaboration with a multidisciplined marketing agency, a marketing plan is a detailed roadmap of strategic, creative and integrated marketing solutions to grow your business. By outlining the marketing strategy that will take your business forward, a marketing plan uncovers insights that help you to better understand:

What’s in a marketing plan?

So, what important details will a marketing plan give you and how will it help you chart the best way forward? Here are a few of the most important takeaways that a marketing plan developed by a multi-disciplined marketing agency can arm you with.

SWOT analysis

By unearthing and defining the S trengths, W eaknesses, O pportunities and T hreats that will help or hinder your business on its path forward, your marketing plan will pinpoint the best way forward for your business.

Target market

Your marketing plan clearly defines the audience that most wants and will most benefit from using your product or service and can include details like age group, gender, where they live, hobbies and personal interests.

Unique value proposition (UVP)

Your unique value proposition defines the promise of value that you deliver to your audience. By defining your UVP, your marketing plan defines what it is that you do that no-one else can.

Creating your marketing plan

To uncover the insights needed to create a marketing plan, we’ve found that the best first step is a marketing workshop. This is where your leadership team gets in a room with a multidisciplined marketing team and together discuss and define essentials like:

Marketing workshops are designed to challenge you, and in doing so the process unearths a roadmap of strategic, creative and integrated marketing solutions to grow your business. It’s about working together to decide the best way to get you from where you are to where you could be.

Rolling out your marketing plan

Now comes the truly fun part – rolling out the strategic activities in your shiny new marketing plan and watching them drive your business forward. But you don’t need to do this yourself.

Continuing the collaboration, your full service marketing agency can develop, deliver, publish, and optimise the strategic activities in your marketing plan. Partnering with an experienced, multi-disciplined marketing agency will ensure consistent quality and enable all activities, from creative services to website development to digital marketing , to be delivered by one team.

With a multitude of marketing disciplines under one roof, Icon provides an aligned plan to grow your business, with checks and measures in place to make sure we continue to stay on the right path. Let’s work together to understand your journey and build a pathway to get you there. Call us on 1300 138 984 to get started.

The future of work and what we’ve learned in 2020

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 05:14:55 GMT

There’s no subtle way to spin it – the last few months have been incredibly challenging for everyone. Employers, employees, clients, parents, students, children, essential service workers, the elderly, politicians; anyone and everyone has had their fortitude tested to its limits by COVID-19.

While business as usual hasn’t yet returned – and things may never return to exactly how they were pre COVID-19 – as a society we are slowly and cautiously reacquainting ourselves with something that somewhat looks, smells and feels a little like “business as usual”.

Embracing

business as usual

Running your business in an isolated world is never easy. As a multi-disciplined marketing agency serving SME businesses in many industries, rising to the COVID-19 challenge has required us to let go of ‘business as usual’ and embrace ‘business as unusual’. To do so, we needed to forget about the certainties and ‘best practices’ of the past and embrace a cultural change. Instead, we have had to lean into new, yet-to-be fully tested approaches for how we would run our business and serve our clients.

B ut ‘business as unusual’ isn’t easy. Change is never easy and doing things differently can get some people a little flustered, and for good reason. It requires letting go of long-held beliefs, making space for new ways of thinking, and taking a leap of faith into the unknown.

At Icon Visual Marketing we have embraced the changes forced upon us and over recent months have seen how adapting to the new normal may offer new, long-term benefits for us and for our clients. We quickly adapted to business as unusual so we could continue to serve our clients. In some cases that meant upending how we engaged with some of our oldest clients, which has led to us taking a closer look at how we might collaborate and communicate differently moving forward.

We have embraced video conferencing for virtual meetings and platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams have been extremely helpful for keeping us connected with our clients, and for keeping our internal teams connected. Our way of presenting to clients has changed, dramatically in some cases, and in many ways we are now more efficient – because we’ve had to be.

Moving forward during a crisis

During COVID-19 we have had new staff come on board, as well as new clients start working with us. An open, positive, and supportive frame of mind and a can-do attitude has helped us continue to serve our clients and do what we love over the last few months. And it has proven successful for our team, our business, and our clients.

We have kept our office open for staff who preferred to work in the office, while also setting up and supporting our staff to work from home. While remote working for the majority of staff isn’t an option for many businesses, we have been lucky to be able to offer it to most of our staff. We have seen many of our clients do the same too.

The changing

nature of work

Because many businesses didn’t have any other choice but to offer remote working options for their teams, attitudes, and habits around the nature of work and where we do it have changed. And things may never go back to what they were.

However, as anthropologist Dave Cook states, opinions from academics and the media are split on remote working. Some talk up the benefits: cutting out commutes, increasing quality family time and productivity and achieving a better work-life balance. Others believe that flexibility comes at a cost: losing social interaction, nuance and community, and potentially becoming less productive.

It’s true that remote working simply doesn’t work for all businesses – or for all employees in some businesses. As a business community, what we’ve seen in recent months is a look at how remote working could play out for businesses who can and are willing to offer it as an option. Regardless of what industry you work in or the size of your business, there are lessons here for all of us.

Learnings and looking beyond 2020

While the pandemic and isolation has been extremely challenging, it has forced all of us in business to creatively push onwards. As a business community we have embraced innovation and challenged our thinking around how we engage internally with our own team and externally with our clients.

Looking ahead, the learnings will guide us all long after COVID-19 passes and we are excited about formalising what we’ve learned into how we operate moving forward. We are inspired by seeing our clients and other businesses in the community doing the same and pivoting, rising to the challenge, and successfully navigating the path forward.

June: An update from Icon Visual Marketing regarding COVID-19

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 03:21:00 GMT

We have worked carefully as a team over the last few months to ensure that we followed all COVID-19 restrictions around social distancing and the workplace. We changed how we ran our business and how we helped our clients continue to run their businesses.

As restrictions ease, our team is slowly but surely transitioning back to working in our office in South West Sydney. Importantly, we are doing this carefully and by following the recommend guidelines from our government leaders and health experts.

What we’ve learned

Over the last three months our teams have communicated daily in new ways, embracing virtual meetings through platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. We also leaned on these platforms for virtual meetings with our clients. We have learnt a lot during COVID-19 – both in terms of how we connect internally, as well as how we connect externally with our clients.

Many of the positive learnings we discovered as a business during COVID-19 will be adapted based on client feedback and implemented as part of how we do business long after the pandemic.

Moving forward, the Icon leadership team is regularly communicating with staff to ensure that we continue to follow the guidance around social interaction and group gatherings while in the office – and even how to act when travelling to and from the office.

Let’s talk

As we look beyond the pandemic, the Icon team is currently available for face to face meetings with clients, but together let’s ensure that we remain mindful of good practices around COVID-19. These include regularly washing our hands, physical distancing, and following guidance around how many people can be in meeting rooms of certain sizes.

As we chart our way out of the pandemic, we remain as optimistic and as committed as ever to supporting our clients and our staff. We look forward to catching up with you in person when the time is right.

Please contact your client service team at Icon Visual Marketing if you have any concerns.
We can be reached on 1300 138 984.

Business leadership: Look to the past to chart the way forward

Wed, 20 May 2020 00:22:00 GMT

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic blindsided us, the Australian economy appeared to be slowing, with bushfires, floods, and weak wages growth dampening consumer spending. At Icon Visual Marketing we too were thrown off a little, but we quickly refocused and drew on some great historical examples of business resilience to stay positive.

It would be really easy for us and many other small and medium-sized Aussie companies to pull down the shutters and ride out this period, But we’re determined to emerge stronger than ever and are committed to helping you manage your business in this crisis .

When we look back on other business downturns, we find some great examples of organisations that actually started when many companies around them were failing.

While Australia’s 2020 recession will likely dwarf those that came before it, we can use our business resilience and emerge stronger by understanding how to manage our business in times of crisis using both new and proven marketing tactics.

A few stories that have inspired us about business leadership during uncertain times include General Motors, IBM, Disney, and even technology behemoth Microsoft.

General Motors launched during a major business panic

The so-called panic of 1907 was recognised as the first global financial crisis of the 20th Century when the New York Stock Exchange plummeted by 50 per cent in just three weeks. The panic itself lasted just six weeks, but its effects were felt for two years and many companies struggled to stay afloat.

But rather than seeing it as a deterrent, William C. Durant saw it as an opportunity and used his business leadership to form General Motors in 1908 with the purchase of the Buick Motor Company. He then followed this by scooping up a further 20 automobile firms and turned his experience in making horse carriages into making cars.

In 2020 General Motors remains a very successful global organisation that’s demonstrated business resilience for more than 100 years. Its 2019 revenue reached US$137.2 billion, and today General Motors is even producing 50,000 face masks a day to help battle COVID-19 in the US.

Computer giant IBM launches amidst two-year panic

IBM, another US household name, also had its early days impacted by a financial downturn, this time in 1911. Originally known as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), it was founded in June 1911 by Charles Flint.

IBM got its start selling commercial and business machines right in the middle of a two-year panic. While many industries experienced double-digit declines in activity, Flint showed amazing business leadership and CTR thrived, eventually changing its name to IBM.

Under its new IBM name, CTR went on to become the leader in technology that would support the digital revolution, making billions along the way. Today IBM is pioneering developments in artificial intelligence using its Watson platform and recently recognised three Aussie women for their AI leadership .

Everybody loves a fairy tale, especially when times are tough

The wonderful world of Disney started when brothers Walt and Roy Disney started Walt Disney Productions in 1929, right when the Great Depression which would go on for years, was gathering steam.

The brothers showed huge business resilience, and perhaps they understood that the world needed to smile more than ever before. When the rest of the country was deep into the Great Depression, Walt produced the first-ever full-length animated musical feature at the cost of $1.5 million. It appears as though the Great Depression was never going to curb Walt’s ambition.

Mickey Mouse's adventures buoyed Americans through the Great Depression and kept Disney's business afloat. In 1937, the studio released its first full-length feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Today, Disney is a major player in TV streaming and could reach 200 million Disney+ subscribers by 2025 .

Microsoft launches in the immediate aftermath of 1975 recession

While Bill Gates has received plenty of criticism for market domination, you can’t help but admire his business leadership. In 1973, an oil crisis coupled with a stock market crash led to a 16-month recession where the US economy took its worst hit in 20 years.

This significant economic decline didn’t stop Bill Gates and Paul Allen from developing their new computer software business, Microsoft, which launched in April 1975, just days after the recession was considered officially over. Within a decade, the company grew substantially and has continued to set standards around the globe for computer software and systems.

How will your business emerge from COVID-19?

At Icon Visual Marketing we know that we’ll look back at the COVID-19 pandemic and see business success stories emerge. There’s already been plenty of business growth with video conferencing, sanitiser manufacturing, and loads of online services, to name a few. But there will surely be plenty more, so watch this space.

Icon Visual Marketing is a full-service marketing agency in South West Sydney. Call us on 1300 138 984 if you’d like to discuss how we can help with your COVID-19 exit strategy.

How to run your business in an isolated world

Fri, 15 May 2020 03:18:00 GMT

While there is no doubt that COVID-19 has restricted businesses from operating as they normally would, it has also presented enormous opportunities. Watch our Managing Director Joe Papadatos run through the three areas that will assist you the most in running your business in an isolated world.

How to help your team work from home during COVID-19

Wed, 06 May 2020 05:40:50 GMT

Almost overnight companies from the smallest to largest had to quickly adjust to allow their people to work from home. It threw up a whole lot of challenges, particularly for organisations that hadn’t previously provided this option.

By necessity, the initial steps focused on the practical aspects, like computer hardware and remote access to servers and so on. But now that that has been sorted, business owners now need to think about the wellbeing of their remote workers. While perhaps not as obvious, this is just as important.

At Icon Visual Marketing we already offered working from home options to a lot of our people, but we quickly adapted to the COVID-19 situation and made working from home available to everyone. For us, the only exception has been our warehouse and print/production team – because they can’t do their job from home.

Here are seven top tips for quickly moving to have your employees work from home.

1. Embrace technology

Hopefully you already have some systems in place to quickly move your employees to work from home like the provision of laptop computers. At Icon, most of our people already use laptops so it was easy to move to the new model. You might also have to look at ways in which your people can access computer systems, servers, etc. to ensure they can seamlessly continue their work.

2. Ensure your employees work set-up is safe

When your team is working from home, you have a duty of care for your employees to ensure they can still work safely. Provide information about the ideal home office set-up including the importance of a comfortable chair that is set to the correct height of their computer.

This will reduce the chance of your employees having neck or back strain that could lead to serious health problems further down the track. If practical, offer to loan them the unused office chairs from your premises for the duration of the working from home period.

3. Have a daily

check-in

Remember that your people are used to a certain level of social interaction with their colleagues when they come to work and working from home eliminates that contact. Set up a system that provides a daily team check-in, which could be via a system like Microsoft Teams or even by using the humble telephone.

4. Communicate a lot

In uncertain times like the COVID-19 pandemic, your people need more reassurance than ever. Most experts agree that you can’t overcommunicate with your staff during a crisis. Take into account that your people will have different preferred communication styles. Some will prefer the more traditional written email, while others will like video communication or even something more visual, like an infographic. To communicate effectively, be prepared to meet these different needs.

5. Manage expectations

Just as you would do when your people are working in an office, you need to guide your team to figure out what they should do and create realistic expectations for their work. These are uncertain times, so empower your team leaders to be successful by clearly stating both the tasks and the reasons behind them, and help the individual teams understand exactly how you will measure success.

6. Focus on outcomes, not the activity

It is simply not possible to manage every aspect of the work done by a remote team. This particularly applies when your team is distributed across different home locations. Instead of focusing on activity or hours worked, focus on the outcomes, and measure your team’s performance accordingly.

7. Encourage

your team to take

regular breaks

Just like when your people are working in the office, it is very easy to get caught up in a task and spend hours at your desk without a break. Encourage your team to take regular breaks to reset their bodies and minds. Maybe even send calendar invitations to remind them not to sit for hours and hours without taking a break. Or send them a list of suggested stretches like these recommended by the NSW Institute of Sport .

By nailing these seven tips, you’ll have happier and more productive people – all of which will shine through in their work during this challenging COVID-19 period.

The power of the other marketing Ps during COVID-19

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:53:37 GMT

The Ps of marketing are as old as marketing itself. Whether you are in the 4 P camp or 7 P camp, the Ps (product, package, price, place, promotion, people, and placement) are the arrows in your marketing quiver and your marketing strategy is the bow. When executed well, together they solve all sorts of business problems.

Yet when things get tough the immediate reflex is to take a carving knife to the marketing budget. Is this because marketing has no relevance in a crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic? Or is it because we have simplified and reduced marketing from four (or seven) Ps to merely one P: promotion (also known as advertising)?

Marketing during

COVID-19.

These are just some of the areas where marketing can assist in ensuring that you not only survive COVID-19 but grow through it and beyond it. If you are still unsure of how best to respond to the current crisis, I invite you to reach out to Icon Visual Marketing for assistance in navigating this road. Let’s do it together!

Look beyond promotion

Advertising may consume the lion’s share of costs in your marketing plan, but it is only one of many arrows in your marketing quiver. Keep promoting your business across other channels considering all your options to stay connected with your customers.

As COVID-19 upends society and business, what are the key things you can do that will ensure that your marketing does its number one job of helping to connect you with the people who want to buy and use your product or service?

Here are a few examples of actions to consider under the other Ps of marketing that will help you navigate COVID-19.

#1 People:

Do you know why your customers choose to do business with you? Do you know what they are truly buying from you? They are not just buying a product or service; they are buying a specific solution to a specific problem.

Now is a great time to better understand your customers. Drill down into the root cause of their problem and get to the true reason for why they buy from you.

It may help to survey your customers. Hearing their thoughts, such as why they chose you over your competition, will help you to better target your product or service to them and also to new customers. It will also help you to better understand your value. Do you offer better service? Is your product better? Are you the most cost-competitive?

I have found the following question (and survey answers) really helpful when seeking information about our customers:

Why do you buy from my company?

1. You help solve problems.

2. You make me feel special.

3. You are convenient.

4. There is no one else.

5. Your service answers all my queries.

6. Easy to deal with.

7. Your quality is fantastic.

8. Other [please specify].

Your customers’ answers will help you to better understand your own business from the point of view of your clients. And once you understand that, you will know how to best communicate your value to them and what products and services you should be offering them. You may be surprised – in a good way – by their answers.

#2 Positioning:

There are many aspects to this point. But let us use this time to better understand our competitive environment.

In today’s digital-first world it is really easy to see what your competitors are doing to reach and engage customers. Make a checklist of the competitors you are up against and then scale them between 1-5 for the following questions (include yourself in this matrix).

1. How informative is their website in your opinion?

2. Can you easily view their website on both your mobile and desktop screen?

3. Can you find what you are looking for?

4. What is the key message the website is sending?

5. Does the website have a strong call to action (i.e. helping the client to make contact)?

6. Are the contact details easy to find?.

7. Do they have a strong social presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram?

8. Is their website current?

Understanding your competitors will help you to understand how you are positioned in the market. And once you understand that, you will know what activities you need to undertake to ensure that you are clearly and consistently communicating your difference – or your unique value proposition – to your customers.

Helping you to manage your business in a crisis

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 23:38:00 GMT

Small and medium businesses often need a helping hand during large-scale crises that impact the economy, and that is certainly the case with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Certain industries and sectors are feeling the impact of COVID-19 more than others, but we want to reassure you that there are creative ways to turn these challenging times into new opportunities.

Necessity is the mother of invention and across many industries businesses are now changing the way they do things. From hospitality to retail to the building industry, entire sectors are rethinking their offer and finding inventive ways to pivot their service to meet the new needs of their customers during this pandemic.

Take KFC, for example, which was one of the first foodservice businesses to ban instore dining at all its Australian locations. Instead, KFC focused on improving the customer experience through its delivery and drive-thru service, while also trialling a “kerbside service” for click and collect orders.

This is just one example of how crises compel innovative thinking, and there have been many more so far during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Helpful crisis advice and resources

As a business, we want to help keep you updated with information as it comes to hand to help you guide your business through the COVID-19 pandemic. We have compiled a list of helpful information and resources from the Australian Government, Harvard Business Review , Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN, to name a few. We hope you find these below resources helpful as you guide your business through 2020.

> Guidance from the NSW Government can be found on the Small Business Commissioner’s website.

> Read expert tips on how to lead your business through the Coronavirus crisis on the Harvard Business Review website.

> Up to date COVID-19 information from the NSW Health department can be found at the Health NSW website.

> If your staff are used to being in the office but are now working from home, send them to The Conversation website for tips on how to be productive and still feel connected to their workplace when working from home for an extended period.

> Brand communications and social media advice is available direct from Facebook , Twitter , and on LinkedIN via the Communicating about Coronavirus (COVID-19) group page .

> Read advice from a crisis management expert on how to defuse coronavirus panic on the Quartz website .

We’re here to help

To help you through this time of uncertainty and to help ease the pain, we are providing free business strategy consultations to business owners in Sydney.

Together let’s review where you are at and how your business can refine its offer – or indeed pivot altogether into new markets – to take advantage of the new opportunities that are out there. We will help you find and define them to ensure that your business remains healthy and successful long after the COVID-19 pandemic ends. Remember that isolation doesn’t mean alone . We are in this together.

Call Icon on 1300 138 984 today.

Six tips for managing your business in times of crisis

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 22:17:00 GMT

Most of us are not well-versed in dealing with pandemics, and as we forge onwards through COVID-19 it can seem overwhelming. If you’re an SME business owner, these are particularly challenging times. But don’t let anxiety tempt you into poor decision making. Here are six tips for managing your business in this tough business environment that we find ourselves in in 2020.

Resist short-term thinking:

It’s only natural that the immediate response in a crisis is to slash costs and focus on what will generate revenue in the ‘now’ rather than in six months’ time. Any cull needs to be strategic and done with the right mindset. Take a moment to rethink and evaluate your decisions with a clear mind, after all, marketing still has a role to play in tough times and your business activity needs to reflect this.

Adjust your marketing strategy, don’t drop it:

In uncertain times, marketers must stay flexible with their marketing strategy and activity. With updates coming through almost daily, it is important to be proactive and focus on the overall goal of the business and what can support this at any given time. By having a pipeline of ideas ready to roll out at short notice, your business remains flexible and has a better chance to thrive through this time.

Don’t alter your brand proposition:

In the unknown, it’s tempting to alter a brand’s fundamental proposition or positioning. Perhaps you might think moving down-market may save you some money and find new customers, but in reality, you’re likely to alienate your existing loyal customers. Rather than altering your brand proposition, think of ways you can reach new customers that share a similar interest to your brand. This way, years of hard work is not undone for a short-term fix.

If your business is booming don’t be complacent:

Although business may be booming, it’s important to remain proactive and not become complacent. Continue to maintain momentum within your business so that if anything changes, your business is still moving forward.

Focus on quality over quantity:

If your marketing efforts focus solely on quantity over quality, you’ll find that fewer leads will convert, and more sales resources will be wasted. Commit only to programs in which quality is a key attribute, whatever that quality looks like for your business. Look at ways in which these leads can deliver interested prospects, provide contact information and offer performance reports.

Focus on tried and true marketing:

In uncertain times, it is always a good idea to stick with tried and true marketing techniques. While these activities should form the foundation of your marketing activity, as the landscape changes, it’s important to look at other channels and how they can assist you with cut through during these periods. 2020 will be a challenging year. But as the saying goes – pressure builds diamonds. We know we will all come out the other side stronger, in one way or another.

A message from Icon Visual Marketing regarding COVID-19

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 04:20:00 GMT

We understand how important it is to continue to navigate your business during this challenging COVID-19 time and we wanted to reassure you that Icon will continue to offer our full range of services to you. The focus of your program may need to change for the short-term, and we are here to help you adjust to the circumstances as required.

To ensure we keep our physical distance, we ask that we meet with you via video and teleconferencing, ensuring that we continue to offer you strategy, marketing, and communication support during this period.

In case you are not aware we do have inhouse expertise in issues and crisis communication, which may be relevant for your business. Please reach out if you require assistance.

Our office will remain open, albeit a higher number of staff working remotely.

From a proactive perspective, we are bringing our teams together to identify those strategies and opportunities that are relevant for all of our clients during this period. We will, of course, be doing this with the utmost sensitivity to the gravity of this current crisis.

We remain optimistic despite the seriousness of this pandemic and know that we all have an opportunity to lead by example and assist all of our clients to do the same.

Please contact your client service team at Icon Visual Marketing if you have any concerns.

ICON Visual Marketing awarded preferred supplier to local councils for Media, Advertising & Creative Services (LGP719)

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 02:48:00 GMT

LGP is a business arm of LGNSW, the membership association for all councils in NSW. Established in 2006, LGP focuses on creating procurement efficiencies and building procurement expertise, saving councils time and money.

The LGP allows local councils to access the best products from a panel of suppliers, without the need to conduct formal tenders on a project by project basis. Becoming a member is no easy task and selection requires meeting stringent criteria involving product, quality, customer service, and pricing.

“We are very excited about partnering with the LGP,” says Joe Papadatos, Managing Director of ICON. “We’ve worked hard to pitch our services and orient our business towards adding value and efficiency to local council operations. We are confident that our services provide outstanding performance for small to large scale jobs for media, advertising & creative services.

“We’re located in the south west region of Sydney, which places us in a great location to service Councils in the greater west. However, we can work with Councils all over Sydney and the state of NSW.

“One of the aims of the LGP is to forge strong relationships with LGP Approved Contractors. These relationships are not just legal via a contract, but they also form strong working relationships where there are common goals and mutual benefits for both sides. Being appointed to an LGP panel and having approved contractor status is highly sought after, so we’re really honoured,” added Papadatos.

For more information on ICON Visual Marketing, call 1300 138 984.

Why billing by time is the enemy for Professional-Service Businesses?

Thu, 17 Oct 2019 06:11:00 GMT

Traditional marketing for service-based businesses is a challenge for any business owner, you need to immediately showcase your value, and then put a dollar figure to what your time is worth. Marketing a serviced based business is one of the most difficult areas for a marketing professional, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work, you just have to work it harder.

What is a service-based business?

A service-based company typically is any company that sells time as its product. Examples are legal and accounting services, Doctors, physiotherapists, life coaches, counselors, architects and management consultants, to name a few.

When a company must sell time as its unit of measure, you need to be very clear to the client what they are receiving for that fee.

For example, an accountant will change by the hour and may produce an estimate to do the work.

A lawyer can never guarantee how much its going to cost to resolve a matter – they can only use past experience to estimate.

Life coaches charge by the hour and after the hour is complete may or may not have achieved the goals and then are placed in a dilemma to continue or to ask to charge more, or is it worse stop in the middle of a session and tell the client we will take this up next time leaving the client unsatisfied and undervalued?

The traditional model of selling time is a one-way road to dispute, disappointment and loss.

When time is the value being sold, the question in the eyes of your client is what do I get for your time? How long will it take for you to do this job. What happens if it goes over? How much extra is this going to cost? Or worse still get the job done and then send a huge invoice which is going to be questioned.

The difficulty serviced based business have is that in not defining your value of your offering or outcome of your work, you create confusion for your clients who are never sure of what things costs or what they are getting for their money.

The traditional model of using time as the only measure of value, means that you have effectively commoditized your product. You create uncertainty and insecurity and apprehension. The very thing a good brand seeks to avoid. A great brand seeks to deliver a great experience that is built upon promises.

A great way to create a successful brand for a serviced based business is to productize your service. That is to package time and expectation and experience in one price.

For example, an accountant can charge by the hour to get a tax return done, or he can advertise a flat fee for a successful tax return. The second has proven to be successful because client understand the costs the outcomes and the value.

The more a serviced based business can productize its offering, the better its able to deliver a higher level of client satisfaction.

Australia’s booming professional services sector

According to AFR, Australia is fast on its way to becoming a professional services nation – the business services sector is becoming more important to the economy and a much larger employer, as industry becomes increasingly specialised and more willing to have non-core work done by external providers.

This change has come about, in part, because new technology has pushed down the costs of communication and logistics, and allowed a range of processes to be automated, according to the head of the Reserve Bank's economic analysis department, Alexandra Heath.

The business services sector now employs about 20 per cent of the workforce – one in five of all Australian workers. [i]

Icon Visual Marketing has extensive experience consulting to professional services firms, focusing on customers needs and value to deliver strategies that have proven effective. Contact us now by calling 1300 138 984 for a free one-hour marketing consultation to see how we can grow your business.

[i] https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/australia-is-becoming-a-professional-services-nation-20170911-gyerey

Why is font choice important for every business?

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 05:51:20 GMT

Fonts are a key part of graphic design but are often the forgotten relative of the more showy elements like colour and shape. In truth, a font does everything from representing a brand to increasing a brand’s legibility.

Unconsciously, the choice of font can tell us so much about a business. In website design, font choice has a huge impact on how readers perceive your brand right from their very first visit to your website. It can affect user experience, interests, navigation speed, and many other aspects.

Just like the emotional reactions we have to colour in business design, fonts also have a psychological impact on people. So, when using fonts for your business, you need to choose a font with the right “personality” to match your brand. Or you need to hire a professional graphic design agency that has the skills to choose the right font to reflect your business in all its representations .

"Fonts can be very evocative, and elicit a wide range of responses from the people viewing them. The emotion generated from font choice is directly tied into the shape of the letters and our psychological response to those shapes."

Fonts are originally shaped by hand

Although the representation of fonts is typically through electronic or digital mediums, each font was actually originally shaped by hand, either using pen and paper or within a design program, giving the font a real human element.

When the right font is used, it is seamless and almost unnoticed, but get it wrong and it stands out and is jarring. Choosing a font that is counter to what your brand represents will create a confusing experience for your customers. The choice of font can literally make or break a piece of design work, reflecting its own personality onto the page. It should deliver the right emotions to the reader and set the tone that will bring the words to life, while reflecting the industry it is intended for.

Instead of an image, we use a font as the visual interpretation of the words on the page, and this enables them to be read with the feelings that the graphic designer intended.

Consistency

is the key

It is also important to be consistent with font usage. Once you have chosen a font or font family to represent your business, it should be used for all written material, including documents, presentations, signage, websites, packaging, corporate stationery, advertising, video graphics, and more.

There are literally thousands of fonts to choose from today, but some organisations go to the extent of spending thousands of dollars on creating a bespoke font, unique to them, in order to stand out from the crowd. This is usually only done by very large organisations, because to do it right, the cost can be prohibitive.

Fonts can be very subjective, and everyone has their specific preferences, just like they do with colour. But there are some basic rules that apply. The key thing to consider when choosing a font is whether or not it has the right tone of voice for where it is being used. Part of any design strategy should be choosing a font that creates a good user experience for your customers and underscores the feeling and purpose of your business.

Know your font families

There are four major categories of fonts:

1. Serif eg. Times New Roman

Letters that have short lines coming off the edges.

Considered formal and traditional and are well suited for print design.
Great for premium brands, as they convey elegance, prestige, heritage, and authority.
Give a visual anchor to characters, contributing to their solid and traditional feel.
Improve readability of lengthier amounts of text, delivering a professional and trustworthy impression.

2. Sans-serif eg. Helvetica

These letters are created without serifs.

Viewed as casual and playful.
Work well in digital designs.
Sans-serif fonts make for a clean, intuitive reading experience, particularly in digital form.
Evoke an informality that works well for blogs, personal websites, and casual business cultures.

"Fonts should be chosen with care and used very consistently by businesses to reflect the ‘personality’ of the organisation. The psychological impact of using the right font should not be underestimated."

3. Handwritten

E.g. brush script

Anything that mimics handwriting is considered a handwritten font.
Cursive fonts, for example, are often used in formal invitations.
Great when you’re seeking out a personal connection with your audience, as it graces a brand with an intimacy not found in more traditional fonts.

4. Decorative

E.g. bespoke fonts developed for logos but used beyond the logo

These are informal fonts that are entirely original.
Interpreted as quirky, creative and fun.
Highly stylised, usually custom creations.
Evocative and unique, with extra flair.

The Icon difference

Icon Visual Marketing has been a Google Accredited Partner since the 2011. Our digital team are highly qualified and certified across all Google Partner AdWord Platforms. Contact us now if you think your Google spend isn't working as well as it used to... because odds are, it isn't.

The power of product videos

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 03:15:00 GMT

Today we have more mediums than ever through which we can disseminate content. Traditional marketing mediums such as print, radio, television, direct mail and telephone, while still crucial, are no longer the main players. Welcome to the age of video marketing.

Borne out of the necessity for easily digestible, engaging content that requires minimum commitment from the audience, video has fast become one of the most commonly used marketing mediums. One form of video that is increasingly being leveraged for marketing is product and demonstration videos.

How effective are product demonstration videos?

Video has fast become one of the most powerful mediums for selling products, building a reputation and growing a brand. Customers are hungry for easily digestible content that they can skim quickly to obtain all the information they need. Video is the most effective medium for easily digestible content. How effective?

Why create a product demonstration video?

One of the most effective sales tools of any business is a product demonstration. Actually showing a potential customer how your product works will always be more powerful and productive than merely telling them how it works.

Having that one-on-one moment with the client to show them how the product works, has an increased success rate of getting a sale than having to read 20 pages of marketing collateral.

So, how can a business economically replicate the success rate of a private one-on-one product demonstration? They create product demonstration videos.

Creating content to grow your business

For over 16 years Icon Visual Marketing has been helping businesses grow, and realise their potential through creating marketing strategies and business plans that incorporate effective content strategies. Video creation and production is one of our core services.

We have a fully operational production studio with the skills and expertise to create cutting edge product demonstration videos, pre-rolls and animations. We can also work with you to create a video content strategy to grow your brand.

Contact Icon Visual Marketing today on 1300 138 984, or fill out our Online Enquiry Form to start your journey to business growth and prosperity.

I’m too small to have meaningful data

Wed, 29 May 2019 08:13:00 GMT

Data is the buzzword of every industry at the moment. Data, data, data.

Data-driven marketing, data-driven sales, data-driven product development – everything, it seems, is being drive by data.

Companies such as Qantas Frequent Flyer and Woolworths Rewards show us how ‘big data’ – a term that describes the large volume of data (both structured and unstructured) that inundates a business on a day-to-day basis [1] – is mined to help persuade customer purchasing decisions and increase sales at the big end of town.

This big data is comprised of millions of data points collected from millions of people. With this much data at their disposal, these large companies can build customer personas with a high percentage of accuracy. This enables these companies to accurately predict the sales patterns of their customers – even brand new customers who have just signed up.

Making data work for small businesses

But what if you are not Qantas or Woolworths? What if you are a small business? Surely you are too small to have meaningful data? Well, not really. You’d be surprised at what data you already have in your business.

If you use MYOB, Xero or some other accounting software, you already have a range of data points at your fingertips. After a whizz around the reporting tab, you should be able to run some very simple reports reports on:

These three data points alone can inform a wide range of marketing and sales activities, such as:

Building a bigger data set

But what if we take the conversation further? What other data points could you mine to make meaningful decisions in your business?

If you are a retailer you possibly have a POS system. In the B2B world, that would be your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

With a POS system and a small rewards program, you can build a picture of your client demographics. After all, customers are often willing to give away information when there is something in it for them. And over time, you gather more information from them from various online or in-person opportunities so you can build out these personas.

A great CRM will enable you to build a strong understanding of who your client is, where they come from and what they buy from you. From here, we can gain a strong understanding of why they buy from you.

So far, we have built a strong product strategy from our data and we know the value we bring to our customers. We know who our customers are, what they buy from us and how we can connect with them. But how do we know where to best reach new customers?

Using analytics software to expand your data sets

If you have a website and use analytics software such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics, a quick look at your results can help build a customer journey map. This is a map showing where clients can search for you and how many steps it takes for them to contact you, visit you or call you.

Once you include data from your analytics platform, you have formed a fairly complete picture and can build this into a brand, social, content and lead strategy for your business.

There are so many forms of data that exist within your business. The power of this new world is not in the individual data sets. But the integration of the data sets to drive strategy.

The new language is not focused on sales/marketing funnels, but rather on marketing ecosystems. Analysing the customer data in our business enables us to report, review, analyse and strategise against our objectives to create new, more effective marketing activities …and then start the process all over again based on the new customer data we now have.

If you are ready to talk about the data in your business and how you can use it to make meaningful business decisions, contact us today on 1300 138 984

Marketing Workshops: clarity, direction and purpose

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 10:13:00 GMT

Starting or running a business is not the easiest of tasks. While you may have a great product or service offering, where do you go from there? What’s your brand or business message? Do you create a website? Or a social media business page and advertise through that? What about the age-old question of, “Where do you see your business in five years’ time?”?

Okay, that last one is mainly associated with job interviews, but it is no less relevant for a business. Your business may just be starting out, or has been running for 10 years, but understanding where it is headed and how to get there are two of the most crucial elements for a successful business. The ideal way to lay down a strategic marketing roadmap is by participating in Marketing Workshop run by Icon Visual Marketing.

What is a marketing workshop?

The aim of a marketing workshop is to get to the very heart of a very simple, yet fundamentally important question: “Why should people buy from us?”. Well, why should they? Why should a consumer or business choose you over your competitors?

Approximately 95% of businesses we conduct a Marketing Workshop with answer with one of the following:

While each is a worthy statement, these are not answers any one business can lay claim to with any real authority.

The purpose of an Icon Marketing Workshop is to get to the very heart of “Why should people buy from us?” through unearthing your true value to your customers, and then leveraging that to position you better within your market.

What’s involved in an Icon Marketing Workshop?

The whole process of an Icon Marketing Workshop is to establish the unique position your business has in the market, and how we can leverage it for great marketing results. So, what does this process include?

This process ensures that we are focusing on the core values that make up your business, and the drive behind why customers are buying from you.

After the marketing workshop?

So, what happens after all the above has been completed? What tangible resource does Icon give you following a Marketing Workshop?

Once Icon has completed your Marketing Workshop, we then get elbows deep in developing promotional, advertising and sales strategies. You will then shortly receive a full written analysis, target market breakdown and a clear branding strategy, including recommendations to drive your business forward.

The interactive Icon Marketing Workshop will be personally facilitated by Joe Papadatos, Director of Icon Visual Marketing. Learn more about our Marketing Workshops in this short video.

Icon Visual Marketing has been helping businesses with their marketing needs for more than 16 years. To find out how we can assist you, contact us on 1300 138 984 for a confidential discussion. Alternatively, fill out our online enquiry form and we will be in touch.

Traditional marketing now part of a wider ecosystem

Sun, 31 Mar 2019 10:36:00 GMT

To some, traditional marketing – practices such as advertising , public relations , branding and corporate communications – is dead. The reality is quite the opposite: traditional marketing is now part of a much wider marketing ecosystem.

Marketing evolves with technology and with the times. Print, radio and TV advertising remain popular marketing mediums, but the number of marketing channels has greatly increased. Companies still need to reach and engage with their customers in their chosen medium, but in 21st Century marketing the number of mediums is much broader.

So, it’s not traditional marketing that’s dead, just traditional views on marketing. Alongside traditionally dominant mediums such as print and television, there is now an intricate ecosystem that companies need to leverage to get their marketing message to their customers.

Good marketing strategies involve a balanced use of traditional channels with modern channels such as social media, online video and search engine marketing.

What is a marketing ecosystem?

A marketing ecosystem considers all available marketing strategies and leverages a selection of the most effective channels to efficiently and effectively meet marketing objectives. Each element of the established ecosystem supports the other. Whether it’s an online video that asks customers to participate in a social media initiative, or a digital banner that directs potential customers to the brand’s website.

Elements of the marketing ecosystem work harmoniously together to achieve desired outcomes, such as building brand awareness (Tier 1), earning trust and engaging customers (Tier 2), generating leads and sales (Tier 3). Assessing all available marketing channels and determining the best for reaching your target audience can provide greater impact for your overall objectives.

How can Icon help create your ecosystem?

The first step Icon takes in establishing your business’ ecosystem is creating a marketing strategy . This marketing strategy will map out and provide a clear strategic direction your marketing efforts should take.

A good marketing strategy gives you a map and provides a clear direction on where you should go with your marketing efforts as well as giving you insight on what methods are going to reach your customers in the most appropriate channel.

The overall marketing communications strategy should be the main driver for any marketing ecosystem. A great marketing strategy should:

Investing in a six or 12-month marketing strategy will lay the groundwork for how you can successfully market your business and reach your customers. A good plan also gives all team members direction and faith that there is a bigger picture that they are a part of. Let the plan lead you, not the activities.

Does your brand or company have a personality? The importance of having a brand personality.

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 03:16:00 GMT

Have you ever found yourself gravitating towards someone? As though every time they’re around you feel at ease? And if so, do you remember what it was you liked about them? Were they bubbly, friendly, thoughtful, caring, considerate or approachable? If so, then it’s a good chance that you liked their personality, and because of their personality the memory of them has stayed with you.

Brands and businesses are exactly the same. The ones that really stick out are the ones we find a connection with, or something to like about them. But what is ‘Brand Personality’?

It is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name. The aim of developing a brand personality is to give consumers something they can relate to on a personal level, something beyond the price or the features and benefits of the product.
One of the most iconic companies to champion brand personality is Virgin.

Established in 1970 by (now) Sir Richard Branson, the brand itself is synonymous with customer service, a friendly and open nature that’s also quite adventurous. In fact, on their ‘Our Brand’ page it states:

“ Whether in banking, travel, entertainment, health and fitness or communications the Virgin Brand has become one of the most desirable brands in the world. The Brand's backbone is its values; providing heartfelt service, being delightfully surprising, red hot, and straight up while maintaining an insatiable curiosity and creating smart disruption ."

It's pretty hard to argue they don’t deliver on that statement. But it’s true, the Virgin personality is that of someone who will go out-of-their-way to help you out or resolve a matter, but in a delightfully surprising way.

Staff at Virgin spend 4 weeks training to live up to the persona of the Virgin brand. For a call centre for example, the focus is not how much time spent on the phone, but how many problems we solved and customer satisfaction. If supervisors feel they could offer the customer a better experience, they would call back the customer to see if they had any further questions or issues. They actively embraced the brand’s persona of providing heartfelt service.

Another brand that has one of the most recognised brand personalities in the world is Nike.

The iconic ‘Just Do It’ slogan was born in 1988 during a meeting, and Nike have never looked back. The phrase itself speaks to the competitive nature of their customers. It challenges them to be better than they are by getting out there and just do it. These three “simple” words have shaped the company and how it communicates to their consumers for the last 30 years.

Not all ‘brand personalities’ will be as iconic as the ones above, and they don’t need to be. Your brand’s personality just needs to resonate with your target audience and their what they are looking for in your brand or business.
The importance behind the personality is that it can be the driver for many facets of your business, like the way you communicate to your customers and the channels you use to communicate. It can drive processes you have in place to better serve your customers needs, making things more efficient or affordable.

Having a brand or business without a personality means you will only ever be able to compete on two things; quality and cost.

But if your company has developed a personality that resonates with your customers, your product could be more expensive than your competitors and your customers would still choose you over them.

Customers are after more in a brand than just a product, they want an experience they can boast about and tell their friends.

At Icon, we can help your brand develop its own personality through getting to know your target audience and give them another reason to choose your company and your products.
Feel free to call us on 1300 138 984, or fill out our Online Enquiry Form and we will respond to you as soon as possible.

When Google is no longer enough? How to market when throwing thousands at AdWords is simply not working?

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 03:15:08 GMT

The year 2000 was important for many reasons. The new millennia, Sydney Olympic games and launch of a little advertising vehicle called Google AdWords with ads running on the right side of the screen. At the time, 350 advertisers were beta-testing the program.

Today, globally, Google serves over 30milllion search ads per day, the Google Display network has millions of properties, including YouTube and Gmail, and Google Shopping Ads are estimated to make up 15% of the total ads placed via Google AdWords.

Google AdWords has been the go-to advertising platform for many companies to reach their potential new clients. And it’s been a successful strategy for many small or medium businesses to compete in their field.

"It has become the modern-day yellow pages, when AAA Plumbing would get you listed above BBB Plumbing and therefore more calls".

The Self-Serve AdWords campaign set up system has made it more accessible for businesses of any size to run advertising campaigns – some with a higher degree of success than others depending on their understanding of the program. While any business can run campaigns, there is a high level of skill and knowledge that is invested to ensure the campaign is successful, delivering high quality leads through your website within your allocated budget. However, with so many simply throwing money at the platform, it as seemingly become a quick fix for many burgeoning businesses and industries.

As a marketing agency we are constantly confronted with the idea that the most searched words do not actually represent many of the businesses we work with.

T he face we want to show to the market is not necessarily what they want to buy. We all want to offer a range of services to our potential customers, but this is not what they are searching.

Letting user

experience drive results

Our many years as a Google Partner has shown us that it is the user experience that drives the search results – sometimes regardless of what we want to be known for. It is useless being known for a niche term when there are 10 searches nationally per month on that search term.

As the digital world matures, competition for specific products or services keywords becomes greater and the complexity of the search term is directly linked to the Google algorithm. It is time to ask ourselves, is the use of AdWords as a lead generating tool enough?

Over the last 12-24 months we have seen an increase in competition as more and more companies explore paid AdWords as a lead generating mechanism.

As a Marketer of many years, the one thing the digital world has given us is an accountability to better understand what people are searching for. To better understand the journey they take to make decisions and the roads it take to make that decision.

"You need to be able to take what the user wants and take them on a journey of your full-service offering.".

The power of lead attribution

The ability to attribute leads to the variety of digital pathways is both very powerful and rewarding. As the complexity of the digital offering is growing, as business owners and marketers it is the information that we can gather that tells the story of success. It is no longer good enough to have people present data, with the comment that says that’s interesting?? Data must yield information. Information must yield activities. Activities must yield results.

If your agency or digital people is just presenting a complicated report with lot of interesting facts. CHANGE agency or find a new digital people. The digital story will provide a pathway of activities and much to the surprise of many the answers may not be all digital. The lesson over the last 10 years of digital transformation is that there has never been a time when an integrated approach to lead generation is needed more.

To rely on Google AdWords alone will yield diminishing results in the absence of a plan and an integrated approach. If you are relying on just one activity to reach your next customer, that sound you hear is the sound of Silence.

The Icon difference

Icon’s New Direction

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 00:28:00 GMT

While marketing is at the core of our DNA, Icon offers so much more than marketing advice and activities.

We’re built around the mandate that we are here to grow our client’s business, whatever it takes. We do not confine ourselves within the realm of marketing alone, but consider ourselves part of our client’s team, helping to drive their business forward.

Because of this mantra, we felt that we needed to create elements that embraced our mindset and the way we approach our client’s business issues and problems. Elements that we could rally behind and rationales that were more than words, but a mantra we live by.

What are our new elements?

The Heart = Passion

Icon has the heart to delve deeper in to your business to find the pain points halting growth. To look beyond what has been to see what can be. The potential of your business is what gets out hearts pumping, which in-turn gets our strategic and creative pulses racing to drive your business further.

The Engine = Drive

This is where the hard work happens. Where we roll-up our sleeves and get our hands dirty solving your problems. Like the engine of a car, our machinations may be out of sight, but the results are the renewed driving force coursing throughout your business.

The Brain = Insight

This is the magic that drives all other outputs. Insight is the ability to see your business’ worth, its strengths and weaknesses, not to mention opportunities, and use them to help your business connect the dots between strategy, marketing and creativity, and show how they come together harmoniously.

The Books = Knowledge

The collective knowledge that Icon brings to any business across marketing, strategy, web, digital and creative, is extensive. Plying our trade for many decades, our skills and practices are finely tuned instruments for growing businesses.

The Plane = Spirit

Existing businesses need spirited explorers to help them discover and navigate their way through modern practices, technology and ideas like unchartered territory. Icon believes in ‘smart’ exploration of creative marketing practices. We don’t just push boundaries, we push the ‘right’ boundaries

These elements will be our guiding lights when tackling a client’s problem and working on solutions to solve those problems.

Icon is now an NSW Government ICT Panel Partner

Fri, 14 Sep 2018 06:20:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing is pleased to announce that after a series of questions, challenges and Hunger Games-like battles (kisses then raises two fingers in salute), we are now on the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Panel as a preferred supplier for the ‘NSW Government for Creative Advertising and Digital Communications Services - SCM2701’.

This panel is a centralised location where government departments can look to pre-qualified suppliers who have proven expertise and experience. Icon has qualified in two official categories - Creative Advertising Services and Digital Communications Services.

Icon is over the moon to become a preferred supplier to the NSW government.

We’ll make this state great one campaign at a time.

Local Marketing Tips from local Sydney Marketing Agency

Sat, 01 Sep 2018 21:14:00 GMT

There is a point for most businesses when the innovation that launched them is no longer unique and the word of mouth that drove customers to you is a distant memory. For some business owners, they think big. Billboards on freeways, new bells and whistles website, pouring more in to Google. Whilst these activities can be essential to many overall marketing strategies, it is easy to forget about the local marketing tricks that helped to build your business in the first place. Here we use our expertise as a local Sydney marketing agency to give you some tips on how to use cost effective local marketing activities to grow your business.

As our Managing Director Joe might say, “every now and then you have to get down and dirty. ”

This is especially true for business that have a bricks and mortar footprint like retail location, or localised client base. Whether you are an established Sydney dental surgery or a builder with display homes in three locations, the growth of your of business could be dependent on your local presence in the market. Full service Sydney marketing agency, Icon Visual Marketing has worked with clients of all sizes and wants to share some of these tips with you.

In a world of shrinking attention spans, some of the oldest tricks in the book are the ones with cut-through. We’ve put together a list of classic marketing tactics that local businesses shouldn’t forget.

1. Sponsor a local sports team

Even if your kid doesn’t make the cut, putting some support behind a local league team can quickly open up conversations with potential new customers. An investment of almost any size can go a long way and get your brand on the back of a jersey. Further, an activity like this can foster goodwill within your local community, building the overall value of your business.

2. Direct Marketing Mailout

We hate junk mail just as much as you, which is why we’d encourage a little more thought go in to a mailout before you head down to Officeworks with your word document. A discount offer, a branded stationery item or perhaps a magnetised yearly calendar are all ways to get your brand on the kitchen table or fridge door.

3. Social Media & SEO

An organic social media presence can help you build a network of fans and like-minded businesses around yours. Ensuring a consistent, well-managed presence is the greatest difficulty, especially if you are short on time. However, if you are a small business it is in the interest of the owner or a director to spearhead this. You might not think that Instagram is the place where a plumbing business might score a sub-contracting job on three townhouses – but you would be surprised what can come of a few sincere comments, likes and follows.

On top of that, ensuring you have the correct information listed and optimised on Google My Business means you are more likely to appear in searches. Encouraging your customers to review you once you have provided a product or service will help to build your profile and entrust you to new customers.

4. Partner up with a complimentary business

Not all businesses complement each other. We wouldn’t recommend a lawyer hangout near a construction site, but there are many alliances that could introduce new customers to your business. For example, a hairdresser and a beautician might be well-informed to recommend one another or collaborate on an offer. Perhaps your landscaping business could recommend a painter or as a real estate agent you are constantly recommending a conveyancer.

Long-term networks are often the basis of many successful businesses, so never under estimate their potential.

While these ideas are a good way to start your thinking, Icon Visual Marketing believe the best way to ensure marketing success is with a robust Marketing Plan, built upon the very foundations of your business’s value.

Smaller business will benefit from a strategic marketing plan just as big businesses do. A strategic marketing plan will ensure any activities will be in line with target markets, goals for the business and are realistic in terms on delivering leads that will turn into sales. It will help you develop marketing activities that will be more appealing to customers.

You’re never too small to set yourself of the path for business success. Contact Sydney based full service marketing agency, Icon visual marketing today to see how you business can start to grow. 1300 138 984

The power of PR: Read all about it

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 21:16:00 GMT

PR is earned coverage. It involves providing relevant information to journalists and other stakeholders with the view to developing relationships and securing media coverage and exposure. Meanwhile advertising is paid coverage; space is ‘purchased’ and an advertisement is developed and placed.

PR is generally a more cost-effective medium. By providing a hook for the journalist to grab onto, the resultant coverage is free. Which means that the only costs are for the PR professional’s time. In contrast, advertising comes with hefty costs for the space, along with the additional time required by a designer to create and finesse the artwork.

The below Full Page Editorial Icon gained with The Sunday Telegraph has an estimated AVE (avertising value equivilancy) of $64,847.

Then there is the issue of engagement. When reading a magazine, listening to the radio or watching television, your senses are often more alert to the articles or stories than they are to the ads. Research has backed this up, consistently finding that not only are people more likely to engage with the PR-generated content, but that they are also more likely to believe it.

PR in the modern world means that there is an endless list of mediums to utilise. Whether in print, online, social media, events or broadcast, we are consuming information all day, everyday, in every way possible. This means there are endless opportunities to engage with relevant stakeholders in the first instance, but also that messages have the power to linger. The beauty of online communication is that it remains live and relevant until a consumer is ready and looking for it. And in a world where people are constantly Googling everything, it’s nice to know you have a stake in that. Of course, that’s not to discount the other mediums, which each have their own merits.

Embarking upon a PR campaign is a big deal and can bring a wide scope of experiences for the company in focus. Being broadcast as an expert in the industry is a big responsibility but ultimately one that will lead to greater brand recognition and customer exposure. There will inevitably be interview opportunities with the media, or speaking opportunities at industry events, which may require senior members of the company to develop and finesse those skills if they haven’t already. But it is always worth the effort.

Following the hard work, there is the sheer thrill of seeing or hearing one’s company or name out in the world. When it comes to media coverage, there is no guarantee of what will run (or whether it will indeed run at all) which only adds to the rush. Like many things that are worthwhile, there is always a lot of hard work and a touch of luck involved.

As PR professionals, we are forced to think in a different way as well. It is no longer simply about the information we want to convey, but rather what the media and the public want to hear. We need to find angles that interest these groups whilst remaining relevant and truthful, always working to get the key messages to the people who need to hear them.

Advertising and PR both serve very different purposes and are both beneficial parts of many marketing campaigns. However, the power to truly connect goes one step further with PR and therefore brings stakeholders that little bit closer to your message.

Ask us today for our PR Coverage reports for a wide range of clients across varied industries including property, insurance, finance, food and beverage and more.

Google now insists on mobile-first design & fast page load speeds imperative

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 09:02:00 GMT

In April this year, Google announced plans to change to mobile first indexing.

Websites will now be crawled first on mobile, then desktop. This doesn’t mean that desktop page content will no longer be crawled or indexed, but Google is making it clear that the future is very much mobile and for businesses and brands whose website isn’t optimised for mobile, there could be serious consequences.

According to Mumbrella, in Australia, mobile market share is 39%, compared to desktop at 51% and tablet at 10%. While desktop usage here remains dominant, mobile is growing fast, and the tech giant wants to ensure its users are delivered the best possible content experience on the device they use the most. [1]

In a blog post announcing the change, Google explained the change, “Mobile-first indexing means that we’ll use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they’re looking for.” [2]

What does this mean for your business website?

If your website does not have a responsive layout, has a slow loading speed or poorly designed navigation and content, your ranking is likely to decrease if you don’t optimise your site for mobile before the shift.

How does this shift website design?

“The idea is to start designing for the device with the most limitations first [the mobile] and then add functionality as you go for devices with bigger screens and more capabilities [tablets and PCs], because this way even the most limited version will already include the most important functionality.” [3]

Responsive sites that serve both desktop and mobile should be fine, if they are following best practice guidelines. These sites are doubly valuable as they rank well on both mobile and desktop because the design changes depending on the size of the screen being used.

Google recommends that the content for separate mobile and desktop sites be the same, including metadata.” ?For those businesses considering a site rebuild, it is imperative to both design for the mobile user experience first and ensure to lead with mobile SEO-best practice.

Fast-page loading speed is more important than ever and will become even more important from July …more on that soon.

[1] https://mumbrella.com.au/time-is-up-because-googles-mobile-first-world-is-finally-here-508876

[2] https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html

[3] https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/06/mobile-first-business-strategy.html

Tick Tock Tick Tock– That’s Google’s deadline counting down for HTTPS migration

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 04:58:53 GMT

Google has announced a July 2018 deadline for when Google Chrome will begin explicitly warning users if a site is insecure. HTTP sites will be all deemed insecure and be penalised by losing rankings in search returns. HTTPS sites, that is sites with a current SSL Certificate, are deemed secure.

T he warning has been impacting website users since the announcement last year.

Why is Google

blocking my site?

Google doesn’t see this move as blocking sites or unfairly target businesses, but as part of there strategy for a more secure browsing experience.
From the Google Security Blog:

“For the past several years, we’ve moved toward a more secure web by strongly advocating that sites adopt HTTPS encryption. And within the last year, we’ve also helped users understand that HTTP sites are not secure by gradually marking a larger subset of HTTP pages as “not secure”. Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as “not secure”. [1]

What's the difference between HTTP and HTTPS?

In simple terms, the S at the end of HTTP deems it a secure site, meaning all communications between your Google Chrome browser and the website are encrypted and cannot be intercepted, which is important for customer privacy sensitive financial information. The Not Secure warning for HTTP sites doesn't necessarily mean that data transmitted to and from the site will be intercepted, or even could be, it merely means there's no public assurance.

3 reasons you need an SSL before the deadline

Here are three reasons why you need a SSL Certificate urgently:

Don’t Disappear on Google - If you don’t get a SSL Certificate, from July1, expect your organic search rankings to take a hit in visitors.

Don’t block visitors – Google Chrome is making it difficult for users to navigate past the NOT SECURE page. While savvy Chrome users know how to navigate past this warning, many will simply click back and go to another site, likely your competitor’s website.

An SSL Certificate encrypts the data passing between your site’s server and a user’s internet browser (e.g. credit card details, name). Your customers are entrusting you with this information, you need to demonstrate you are doing the right thing and protecting it.

How do I get a secure HTTPS website?

Getting a secure site and not being penalized by Google Chrome is a simple process of applying an SSL (Secure Sockets Lock) certificate to your website. Having an SSL certificate installed will display the green “Secure” padlock which will give your customers an element of trust in your website.

Icon can help you secure your site and not be penalized by Google Chrome. Call today on 1300 138 984 and ask to speak to Trevor or Michael.

How car wraps can build your brand awareness

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 09:36:00 GMT

A report into commuting in Australia showed that we spend 4.4 hours a week, or 53 minutes a day for a five-day working week, travelling to and from work. And that doesn’t include the rest of the day when we are travelling around the city for work.

So, we are on the road, a lot. That is what vehicle wraps are such an effective branding tool for your business. Stunning full colour graphics convert your car into premium advertising space.

Strategic and creative, car wraps can be used for long-term advertising or short-term product or event promotions and are great if you are a locally based business.

Simple is best

But some car wraps work better than others. What are some simple rules to follow for the most effective vehicle wrap.

Focus on the visual - Ignore the urge to put a lot of text on your wrap. People have a hard time processing text, especially while driving. Instead, use bold images that convey your message in a powerful way.

One key takeaway - If the viewer needs to work too hard to figure out the primary brand messaging, it’s an opportunity lost. Car wraps aren’t the same as a print ad where the viewer has time to read and re-read. What is the one primary takeaway you’re hoping to leave with the viewer and focus on that.

Is using my vehicle as an ad a tax write-off?

It’s a common misconception that using your car for mobile advertising can be a tax write-off. If you have business advertising put onto your motor vehicle, the actual cost of the advertising (signwriting) is tax deductible as it is directly related to deriving business income – the same as a sign out the front of a business premises.

However, to claim any deduction for the motor vehicle running costs the normal rules for motor vehicle deductibility apply, where effectively it is the business nature of each trip that determines the amount that can be claimed.

Is there limitation to what I can put on my car?

Not really, the only limitation is the car itself, but often the shape of the car helps us to create a custom design that suits that car shape and size. Custom vehicle wrap marketing is designed to show off your brand. They’re totally customised to represent your product or service accurately.

With a custom vehicle wrap, you can’t be ignored: your brand is out there, on the freeways, bridges and parked in highly visible areas.

Icon Visual Marketing can custom design and print your next car wrap to start building your brand across the roads of Sydney. Call us today on 1300 138 984.

'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet' What’s in a brand name?

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 20:27:00 GMT

'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet'? is Juliet’s argument that it doesn’t matter that Romeo is from the family’s rival house of Montague. What really matters is what something is, not what it is called.

This statement, written over 500 years ago by a little-known playwright called Shakespeare, is still relevant today when we think about branding.

Think about some of the world best known brands, Coca Cola, Nike, Hungry Jacks, McDonalds, Apple, Google.

These words are simply words, or in some cases not even, until you have an interaction or experience with the brand.

What is it that makes children beg for McDonalds, even though they don’t eat the food? What is it that is elusive and mysterious about Coca Cola to a child even though they have never tried it. Simple. It’s called marketing.

Steve Jobs understood the value of talking about company values, of elevating the messaging to tier one so people connected with the brand, not just the product.

The name doesn’t matter. After all, where does the Apple brand come from? From Jobs bio “ I was “on one of my fruitarian diets” and had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating .” And according to Steve Wozniak, they wanted their start-up to be in front of Atari in the phone book. Sometimes its as simple as that.

Here in his 1997 keynote, he addresses the very core of marketing and the what a brand stands for.

“ Even a great brand needs investment and caring if its going to maintain its relevance and vitality. Clearly Apple has suffered in this area in the last few years and we need to bring it back. The way to do that is not to talk about speeds and feeds, its not to talk about bits and megahertz.

“What we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that well.

Apple is about something more than that! Apple at the core, its core value, is that we believe that people with passion can change the world. And we have the opportunity to work with people like that in both big and small ways.

And so what we’re going to do, in our first brand marketing campaign in several years, is to get back to that core value. A lot of things have changed, the market is a totally different place to what it was a decade ago, the product is different, the sales and distribution strategy is different we understand that, but values and core values, those shouldn’t change.

The things that Apple believe in at its core, are the same things that Apple stands for today. ” [1]

Your brand is important, its how you choose to represent yourself in the marketplace. But as for what that brand is, its less about the name itself and more about the values and story behind it.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAEVBvN8Q6Q

Make video work for you in 2018

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 18:58:00 GMT

It was once said that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” however in reality in 2018, a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. With the need and reliance upon customer engagement growing exponentially, video has been found to be the best and most efficient way of engaging your customers.

At Icon Visual Marketing we specialise in helping companies move their businesses to the next phase through modern marketing practices, as well as harnessing alternative forms of communication for more impactful results.

In 2017, Icon Visual Marketing were proud to work on a wide range of video projects, from small 30 second social media clips to six-minute engaging corporate profiles, we can do it all. View our 2017 showreel below to get some inspiration on how we can make video work for your business in 2018.

The marriage of design and content in website creation.

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 20:46:00 GMT

There was once a time where web design and content were siloed, destined never to meet until their union on a web page. However, times and viewing habits have changed thanks to advancements in mobile technology and content consumption behaviours.

In many cases, design was the driving force behind the creation of a website. Over ten years ago there was a trend in website design known as ‘Above the Fold’ (ATF), where the aim was to ensure all content was located above the ‘fold’ of a laptop screen (no scrolling needed). Which is basically the bottom of the screen, as indicated in the image below:

In fact, this method was originally conceived for newspapers, where it made sure the exciting content was displayed at the top, enticing people to buy the paper from the newsstand. [1]

However, with the advancement of screen technology, the requirement for ATF started to lose its meaning and relevance. With further technological advancements within the mobile device space, people have grown up with mobile phones and tablets, and are now accustomed to scrolling for more content.

Therefore, where this design principal once drove the creation of websites, audience expectation and willingness to scroll down, means content and design have to work hand-in-hand to please a new generation of content consumers. By design and content working together, sites are not only more aesthetically pleasing, but also more efficiently streamlined in terms of content flow.

What does this mean for business? It means higher engagement, a higher rate of leads and a higher rate of conversions, due to a more strategic approach to website creation.

Where design principals may once have dictated the Call To Action button be at the end of the page, it may now be more relevant to have the CTA in the middle of the page due to the way the copy has been written.

Also, with the incorporation of video and images in to a site’s design, copy could now be reduced from a wordy paragraph to a punchy sentence. That one line may have a better impact on clients than a whole page of writing.

Icon Visual Marketing can take these modern website creation principals and help further your company’s goals. To start the conversation feel free to call us on 1300 138 984, or fell free to use our Online Enquiry Form , and we respond to you as soon as possible.

[1] https://web-savvy-marketing.com/blog/say-goodbye-to-the-fold-and-say-hello-to-a-positive-user-experience/

Independent and Full Service: Icon Visual Marketing celebrates 15 years

Mon, 29 Jan 2018 20:24:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing is today is celebrating 15 years in the marketing industry as a wholly independent, full-service marketing agency . Founded by Joe Papadatos on 30 January 2003 with just one staff member, Icon Visual Marketing has since grown to more than 40 employees offering a full range of marketing services.

Based in the expanding Macarthur region of Sydney, Icon Visual Marketing provides marketing solutions for companies across all the country. Its integrated structure comprises a large strategic marketing department, creative department integrating copywriters and video producers, Google accredited digital marketers, web designers, PR team, production warehouse team and administrative staff.

Year after year, the company has continued to grow in numbers and breadth of skill, combining to be a strong force in the Australian marketing sector.

Icon Visual Marketing has a broad range of B2B and B2C clients from a wide span of industries that include home builders, land developments, aviation, manufacturing, cleaning, FMCG, recruitment, and medical.

The Icon philosophy is based on love, service and people. Love comes in the form of sincerity, hard work and commitment to amazing outcomes. Service is evident in every interaction and the drive behind the betterment of the marketing craft. People are staff and clients, they laugh, work, cry, create and strive to achieve.

Building on Icon Visual Marketing’s broad experience in the direct selling industry, Orange Canvas by Icon Visual Marketing was founded in 2016. Orange Canvas is an online retailer which provides tailored solutions for national and international businesses looking for print, business tools, e-commerce, incentives, recognition programs, conference support and engagement programs.

The role of the blog has changed. But to what?

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 02:47:00 GMT

Blogs are one of the oldest forms of content distribution on the internet. In fact, they have been around for over 20 years in some form or another.

It’s generally recognized that the first blog was Links.net, created by Justin Hall, while he was a Swarthmore College student in 1994. Of course, at that time they weren’t called blogs, and he just referred to it as his personal homepage. [1]

A few years later the term ‘weblog’ was coined and from there shortened to ‘blog’, naturally. At the time blogs were used as a way for people to express themselves by writing stories, theories and expressing their opinions with a more global audience.

During the early years of blogging only a few platforms cropped up, of which the most well-known was LiveJournal. Several years later LiveJournal became Blogger, and is largely responsible for bringing blogging to the mainstream.

One of the biggest growths for blogging was in early in the 2000’s. In 1999, according to a list compiled by Jesse James Garrett, there were 23 blogs on the internet. By the middle of 2006, there were 50 million blogs according to Technorati‘s State of the Blogosphere report. [2]

Yet the turning point for blogging was during the US 2002 Senate Race between Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Senator Strom Thurmond. While Lott praised Thurmond, he did state that Thurmond would have been better off if he had been elected president back in 1948, which was a comment on Thurmond’s strong support of racial segregation. But it wasn’t the mainstream media that picked-up and reported on the comments, it was the political bloggers who lead the charge on breaking that story. As in-depth blogs were starting to become bigger during this time, this really made the mainstream sit-up and take notice.

As blogs started to become more popular, and their information more relevant, it was only a matter a time before businesses could see the potential of having their own blog.

However, when Search Engine Optimisation became air-important to businesses and keywords were the buzzwords, blogs went from being in-depth topics to SEO fodder. Blocks of copy with keywords sewn through them so often they became almost unreadable. However, over time Google’s SEO spiders were put through some major changes when they realised that much of the content they were ranking, was basically gibberish and added nothing new to the conversations already on the internet.

As with any type of business, Google looked at what was happening and made the appropriate changes to redirect where it wanted things to head, and that is towards better quality content.

Welcome to the Panda Update.

Google’s Panda Update is a search filter introduced in February 2011 meant to stop sites with poor quality content from working their way into Google’s top search results. Panda is updated from time-to-time. When this happens, sites previously hit may escape, if they’ve made the right changes. Panda may also catch sites that escaped before. A refresh also means “false positives” might get released. [3]

It was only a matter of time before the full effect of the Panda update was felt, and sites that once ranked on the first page were lost. Marketers and communications managers started to take notice and content quality started to lift. For their efforts, the pages started to rank on the front page again.

While many companies still don’t see blogs as anything other than an exercise in SEO, and how long they can try and fool the spiders with sub-par articles. Yet on the other end of the spectrum, some businesses see blogs as a great way to help build their brand. They are using blogs to write content that appeals to their audience, while establishing their brand as an industry thought leader.

Personally, I believe blogs serve a better purpose as a way for a business to establish themselves as an authority figure within their industry, as well as somewhat of a mentor through the advice and information they distribute through their blogs.

Yet, there is more to information sharing than just writing blogs. Trends have shown that images and video are proving to be quite impactful with audiences, especially when spread through social channels.

Yet blogs are an integral part of a business’s marketing plan. They can be planned anywhere from one year in advance, or they can be written on the spot and distributed within hours, where as some other mediums require far more preparation and planning in order execute their ideas. Another important factor they play within the marketing plan is being able to direct the creation of other content. If planned far enough in advance, there may be enough time to create a video based on the blog, or inspire an alternative perspective that can be covered in a video or photoshoot.

Icon Visual Marketing’s team of knowledgeable marketers will be able to help you establish your content direction, while our talented creative team, consisting of writers, graphic designers and videographers, create content that will represent the essence of your company.

[1] https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/03/a-brief-history-of-blogging/

[2] https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/03/a-brief-history-of- blogging/

[3] https://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-seo

From a tiny village to the global village: evolution of day-to-day life

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 02:54:00 GMT

My Nonna often recounts tales of walking from her tiny Southern Italian village to the neighbouring town in pursuit of basic grocery and household items. There was no pharmacist, no shopping centre and certainly no supermarket to quickly pop into and grab a ready-to-bake meal. Clothes were sewn with love and patience, and when they no longer fit there was always someone who was just the right size for them. Sore tummies, head colds and scratches were all remedied with natural ingredients that were found in the garden or the cupboard; there wasn’t a single tube or blister pack in sight.

Today she and my Nonno lead a very different life in their suburban Sydney home, complete with air conditioning and a Coles supermarket just down the road. In spite of the creature comforts afforded by modern life, there are some things she continues to do the way she always has, teaching us about how quickly life has evolved in such a short time and how instantaneous and commercial it has become.

There are no Donna Hay cookbooks in her cupboards, no Jamie Oliver programs playing on her television screen. All Nonna’s recipes are stored safely in her memory, safe from the perils of shattered screens and full storage. There are no cups or teaspoons in her repertoire; instead ingredients are measured in handfuls and pinches. She is always willing to put new spins on old favourites in the name of research and development, and even these variations are replicated with precision from the depths of her cerebral recollection.

Cash

There is no such thing as an automatic machine that dispenses money to Nonna. There is a bank, a blue book and a nice teller who helps you with anything finance-related. And there is absolutely no need for a credit card. If you don’t have the cash, you don’t need it. This completely eliminates online shopping and any other online activity, which would be a real shame if they were connected to the Internet.

Holidays

Booking tickets to travel interstate or back to the Motherland to visit family used to be a marathon event. They would save up for a year, call the travel agent, make an appointment and drive there and back, exhausting themselves before even setting foot on a plane. Now we simply jump online and book tickets, accommodation and tours in half that time, having compared the best rates and formed a Pinterest board of places to visit well in advance. We can snap up tickets for a bargain price, making international journeys far more accessible and broadening our cultural experiences.

Communication

The melodic ring of the landline is always guaranteed to chime again and again during any visit to Nonna’s house. Without going to visit each other in person, it is the only real way for her to communicate with her wide network of friends and family. There are no text conversations back and forth, instant messenger chats, tags on Facebook or calls via Bluetooth in the car. There is the old-fashioned Telstra phone hanging on the wall, and another in the bedroom for her to settle in for a long chat, away from all the noise in the kitchen.

Community

Making a life for themselves in a new country would have been challenging for my grandparents, and indeed for all migrants. To soften the blow they surrounded themselves with family and friends from the old country, all living nearby and visiting each other with great frequency. They shared a familiar language, a common worldview and similar life experiences. They also shared recommendations on the best butcher, greengrocer or electrician, utilising word-of-mouth advertising in all its glory. Now we simply Google it or advertise any jobs we may have for tradies to pitch for.

Our lives may look very different on the surface. My house has chargers at every power point, a modem that constantly flashes and I have never actually had a ‘home phone’, yet on a fundamental level Nonna and I aren’t all that dissimilar. We both love cooking, we are always in touch with our family and friends and we both have travel stories that we share with one another.

Marketing is very much the same. There are always exciting new techniques and channels that seemingly change the face of how we communicate with the public, yet at its core the strategies and basic principles are very much the same. As marketers we constantly have new and exciting tools at our fingertips, just like Gen Y is always bringing home a new gadget to do that old job. It is human nature to search for something better, something that will make life easier and something that everyone else has. Yet at the core of who we are as people and as marketers, our vision is and always has been the same – we just have new ways of expressing it.

Eighteen for ‘18 - Marketing tips for the New Year

Tue, 19 Dec 2017 01:06:00 GMT

Here are eighteen tips for 2018 that all business owners should do to ensure continued growth and continued success for the year ahead.

MARKETING STRATEGY

References

[2] https://simplymeasured.com/blog/influencer-marketing/#sm.000009886711jddv2zxqc8th6czzt
[3] https://neilpatel.com/blog/content-marketing-trends-2018/
[4] http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/a-minute-of-video-is-worth-18-million-words-according-to-forrester-research-1900666.htm
[5] https://www.kunocreative.com/blog/digital-marketing-in-2018-and-beyond
[6] https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/complete-white-paper-c11-481360.html#_Toc484813971
[ 7] https://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/2018-digital-marketing-trends-01962489#ACkFqubz1Js44jSt.99
[8] https://www.brafton.com/blog/strategy/11-exciting-b2b-marketing-trends-you-need-to-know-for-2018/
[10] https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/ux-design-trends-2018

Why you urgently need SSL to avoid website penalties!

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 21:01:00 GMT

Did you know that a little green padlock could save your business? Really!

It’s true. From last month, you will find out just how important a little green padlock can be when website browsers are turning customers away from yourwebsite by telling them it’s simply “not trustworthy.”

Why would Google do that to me?

Google Chrome are going to clearly alert users if they are on a secure (SSL) or insecure (non SSL) website. Other browsers such as Safari and Firefox won’t be far behind.

The above safety warning examples are what users will see when browsing websites, and those without SSL certificates that are deemed NOT SECURE could possibly scare your customers away.

Not enough of a reason?

Say your customers don’t worry about the security warning, well what if they can’t find you at all? Websites without SSL Certificates will also soon be penalised and likely drop-down rank in search engine results, meaning this will likely impact your visibility on the web.

What is an SSL Certificate?

It is a beacon of hope in the swirling ocean that is the internet. It lets potential customers easily identify that your site is secure for them to visit and interact with. It lets them feel safe in the knowledge that only the right people will have access to their information.

Without an SSL certificate, it is possible that information submitted to your website can be intercepted. This includes – passwords, usernames, credit card numbers, sensitive information and documents being submitted to your site by users, visitors, clients / employees.

If you are unsure if you have SSL Certificate, you can check here .

So, what can I do?

Contact us today so we can provision and manage the SSL Certificate on your behalf. Call 1300 138 984 or contact us online .

Sharper, faster, more diverse: Icon’s printing press goes next level with new Wide Format Latex Printer

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 10:04:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing has recently invested in a new state-of-the-art printer that is set to enhance the quality, speed and breadth of its print output. The HP Latex 315 Printer will allow Icon’s printing arm to experiment with new materials and capabilities to produce exciting results for both indoor and outdoor printed items.

Among some of its most striking features is the ability to print on a wide array of materials – even textiles. And wide it is – allowing us to print up to 1.37m wide.

Printers that just print on paper are old school. With the new Wide Format 315 printer, we can in-house product vinyl pull up banners, adhesive vinyls, wall papers, t-shirts, posters and more. And best of all for our customers is our quick turnaround times as we control the print cue.

Clients can now receive printed materials that are fit for purpose, items that resonate with their target audiences and seamlessly blend in with their other marketing activities. Print is heading in new and exciting directions, and this recent addition to Icon’s kit means it can remain an industry leader in the field. The quality of items printed is exceptional; at 1200dpi, they are dependable, crisp and professional.

In a fast-paced agency such as Icon, turnaround times can often be short. Therefore, it is exceptional to note that prints are instantly dry, reducing the turnaround time required and thus enabling Icon to better service its clients. The new Latex Ink is also odourless, meaning the benefits extend to Icon staff on a health level as well. In the interest of continued workflow, many parts can be replaced by the trained user to eliminate the need to call out a technician. Better yet, the days of standing by the printer are gone, with the new app that means it can be managed from anywhere.

To ensure the best results the first time, the HP Latex 315 Printer automatically corrects imperfections to avoid the need to reprint, should an error occur. It is also advantageous in the long term as prints are scratch resistant, so they will last longer and look as good as the day they were produced. This is not only better for the environment, but also makes better business sense.

Attribution, reporting and the customer journey – Highlights for Icon Digit’ers from recent Google Masterclass

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 00:54:00 GMT

Last month, Icon had the pleasure of again attending Google Partner Masterclass, Sydney 2017. Hosted at the massive Carriageworks in Eveleigh, Sydney. The conference has certainly grown since Icon started attending in 2011 and the number of local Google agencies could fit in into two smallish meeting rooms at Dockside.

Google Masterclass is held annually and gives the team an opportunity to come together to learn about the latest offerings from google in the digital marketing space. Icon Visual Marketing have been attending Google Masterclass for over six years and each time we find it rewarding and come away with our heads buzzing.

The theme for 2017 was artificial intelligence and machine learning, and how the rise of these technologies will impact the agencies of the future .

The keynote delivered by Dave Booth from Cardinal Path, set the excitement for the day, showing how Google agencies could use new technologies in our day-to-day activities, to deliver better strategic results for our clients. Every year, Dave sets a new benchmark in presenting and this year was no different. With his engaging attitude and deep knowledge, he easily kept us enthralled throughout his keynote.

This year, we have asked some of the attendees what were their greatest learnings from the 2017 Google Masterclass, Sydney.

Jerremy Leedham, Senior Digital Marketing Analyst

Data, attribution, and reporting was a major focus for the day which was awesome, obviously.

From my perspective my four key learnings were:

Brendan Roy, Digital Marketing Executive

The consumer journey is more complex than ever. 10+ sources are consulted before making a purchase, 90% of consumers who own multiple devices switch between screens to complete a task.
Technology has changed everything. People now have a huge selection of devices, channels, and content to choose from, across multiple platforms. This creates a lot of fragmented data which can be hard to track and action for advertisers

We all need to be vigilant in capturing consumers along the ever-expanding funnel. How? Relevant messages, relevant times, on relevant devices at the right moment.

Amanda Griffin, Digital Marketing Executive

15% of all search queries are brand spanking new – it’s impossible to target everything manually, to plan and optimise for things that haven’t actually happened yet. So we need to further embrace AI and machine learning.

How we can use this to help our clients? We already do this in a sense –by using keyword insertion into our ads which update ad headers based on the users search query and the closest linking keyword. However, we can, and are, going further – testing just this week dynamic search ads which “help you reach people who are searching for your products and services—without the need for you to actively manage keywords or ads” – opening more strategic and optimisation time (like I said – still early testing days!)

Thanks Icon digital team for getting excited for the 5,000 different ways to use data and in taking all the analytical information and making sense and meaning of it. The Icon Digital Marketing team work closely with Google to ensure our campaign get cut-through and deliver against the marketing objectives. Our custom Icon Insights is a monthly report where Icon deliver the data of each campaign but most importantly attach analysis and recommendations for our clients. Contact us today if you are interested in what the data in your website means and how it can be improved.

Swimming not sinking in the flood of content marketing

Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:18:00 GMT

Content marketing is a relatively new term within marketing, however the role of creating content within marketing is nothing new. Previously, copywriting was mainly concerned with advertising headlines and slogans, if you wanted something longer like a brochure or sales flyer, sometimes the PR would be given the task or an agency who specifically created marketing collateral.

When a website needed to be built, the content was simply copied from the corporate brochure and hey presto, you had a website. “I can tick that off my marketing list and never have to worry about it again.”

And then came the first wave of content marketing - companies publishing as much as they wanted on their websites and on blogs and social media platforms, as well. As marketers, we were told that Google needed updated content on our website to help with SEO – so we wrote and wrote, not always relevant, and too often we published words for the sake of words and we thought we had it down pat.

We would publish pages, search engines would ingest them, searchers would find them with keyword queries, and good content would earn links and rise in rankings. Content marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) were joined at the hip.

According to Marketing Land’s Scott Brinker, “The second wave of content marketing moved from text to richer, more visual content, such as videos, infographics, slide presentations, and beautifully designed e-books and white papers.

While not always optimal from an SEO perspective, this rich and visual content was often much more compelling in the eyes of its human audience. This second wave corresponded with the growth of social media marketing. Content was increasingly produced to encourage “shares” on Twitter and Facebook.

But as more companies have jumped on the content marketing bandwagon, the river of content has become a flood.”

So how do you swim, not sink, in the flood of content marketing? The key is simple – relevance.

Whatever format, length or style you choose for your content marketing – making it relevant for your audience will guide you to achieve your goals.

Are Content Marketers the New Agency Rock Stars?

Fri, 06 Oct 2017 23:17:00 GMT

In their book, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, authors Al and Laura Ries use an Aesop fable to show that “Advertising is the wind, but Public Relations is the sun” In the fable, the wind and sun compete for who is the most powerful. The wind tries to blow a coat off a man but fails, however when the sun shines, the man simply takes off his coat, highlighting that while advertising (the wind) tries to use force, PR uses suggestion and influence.

Fast forward 15 years since the book was published and the marketing landscape is a whole lot different. Advertising and PR are still important, but it has been the rise and rise of content marketing that is truly having the most impact. In a way, content marketing is simply making PR more customer-centric and using stories and information to influence buying decisions.

In an article looking at content marketing trends for 2018, Rebecca Lieb, an Analyst at Altimeter Group, and author of Content - The Atomic Particle of Marketing highlights the importance of content marketing.

“N o marketing is possible without content. Social media doesn't work without content, and neither does paid advertising. If there wasn't content ... all you'd have would be empty squares and rectangles and blank video.

“Once you begin to view content as the starting point for all marketing efforts, you can more appropriately map the right content to the right stage of the buyer journey .

“ Without content, not a thing moves forward in the entire marketing landscape. That's why I call it the atomic particle. It's one of the building blocks .”

Stories have always helped us connect and as we have evolved, each new communication platform creates opportunities and challenges, especially for brands.

“Brands have learned that promoting themselves doesn’t work. Ultimately it’s the stories that allow brands to connect with their audience. The future of marketing is extreme customer-centricity.

Brands have to stop promoting themselves and create content that people actually want to consume ,” said Michael Brenner, Head of Strategy at NewsCred.

“ Social media is not a strategy. It is one of the channels we use to consume content and connect with people. It is the evolution of what started with the dawn of the internet and the move to digital, mobile and cloud-based systems of communications. These are just the pipes. Content is the fuel . ”

Creative Directors were once the cool kids in agency land, followed by the marketing strategy team and the creative designers. But with every facet of marketing more and more relying on content marketing for success, and needing to draw upon their skills and creativity, perhaps the content marketers are the real rock stars of the agenc y.

Icon extends Google Partner accreditation

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 18:36:00 GMT

As a Google Partners since 2013 and part of the Google accreditation program since 2010, we are well-versed in all aspects of AdWords and have a specialist team devoted to paid search marketing for our clients.
Being a Google Partner means that we deliver quality customer service, offer a competitive advantage to clients, and have received training to help grow businesses online.

To maintain Google Partner status, Icon’s team members must take certification exams in AdWords Fundamentals, Search, Display, Shopping, Video, and Mobile Advertising. We also attend a wide range of Google training sessions and conferences to ensure we are keeping up with Google Advertising best practice.

As a Google Partner, Icon Visual Marketing has earned Google’s marker of trust and quality, ensuring that your campaigns are managed by certified individuals that have displayed high proficiency with the Google AdWords and Analytics platforms. Icon Visual Marketing can help you make paid search work for your business with digital marketing services that will grow your brand awareness and increase converting traffic to your website.

Why your marketing activities, and agencies can’t afford to be siloed!

Fri, 25 Aug 2017 07:26:00 GMT

Your day was most likely filled by managing agency briefs, checking their work, checking it against each other for integration, checking it against your internal marketing objectives. Managing the agencies was a job unto itself.
Every agency since the golden days of advertising have lauded integration as the key, however, very few could deliver thanks to their siloed practices and processes. Full service agencies were only full service within those siloes – full service advertising, full service digital – never truly able to act as your one-stop outsourced marketing team.

Icon Visual Marketing have been a full-service Sydney marketing agency since the beginning. Integrating new marketing tools and mediums along the journey to ensure we can continue to deliver on marketing strategies, and programs, regardless of the activities required to achieve the objectives.

That is how we have grown our business now to over 50 professionals with a range of backgrounds and skills all working together to deliver integrated marketing strategies and programs. We don’t silo any of our teams. Sure we may have some walls, but their only purpose is to hold up the ceiling and be something we can pin ideas to and map out strategies. Most of our time is working collaboratively in open spaced communal areas, or the privacy of our boardrooms brainstorming and think-tank sessions.

Contact Icon Visual Marketing today if you prefer working with one agency, and a team who communicate, not through you, but to each other. An agency who can manage your marketing programs from under one roof, as an integrated and collaborative team.

Icon introduces Orange Canvas

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 23:24:00 GMT

Over the last five years as Icon has expanded its product offerings, we have expanded our direct selling services as well, so extensively that this part of the business needed its own people, processes and infrastructure. And so, Orange Canvas was born.

Icon is Moving - 5 June 2017

Sun, 28 May 2017 09:41:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing started in 2003 offering marketing and print management services from a spare room in Joe’s house.

Fourteen years later, ICON has grown from a one-desk, all hands-on deck operation to an organisation of 40 people in seven departments and a full-suite of service s. Over that time, we have upgraded and updated our offices to make room for more people, bigger projects and greater thinkin g.

In 2017, we are making another move.

All of Icon Visual Marketing will be relocating to our new office and warehouse location at 12 Frost Road, Campbelltown.

Saying goodbye to our home in Camden has not been easy, but to put it simply – we just don’t fit here anymore!

On Friday June 2, 2017 we will be limited in our capacity to delive r some of our services such as design, web development and printing. Our Marketing Team, however, will still be online to manage any questions you may have. Please feel free to contact your Marketing Account Manager in the lead up.

From midday Monday 5 June, 2017, Icon will be back to business and looks forward to continuing to work closely with you.

As you might imagine, this is a very exciting time for ICON and we look forward to inviting you to our new offices in the future.

Our new contact details are
Icon Visual Marketing
12 Frost Road, Campbelltown NSW 2560
Tel No. 1300 138 984
Fax No. 02 4655 6599
Email addresses remain unchanged

Why it’s important to celebrate (and promote) business anniversaries

Fri, 19 May 2017 04:31:00 GMT

It doesn’t matter if your business is turning two, 12, 25 or 238, marking your company’s anniversary with a celebration can be a powerful sales and marketing tool .

Promoting your business anniversary can help with employee morale (recognising their hard work shows they mean more to you than just filling seats), business relationships (by acknowledging the important role your customers have played in your longevity) and raising awareness about your business.

Acknowledge your Customers

During many business celebrations, we can tend to overlook the customers and don’t necessarily make them part of the celebration. After all, your customers are the reason your business is still in business. Making them a big part of the celebration can strengthen your business relationship, because it shows you value and view them as a partner and contributor to your success, not just an account.

The most important audience for your campaign consists of the customers who supported you through the years and who continue to patronize your business. You should not only make them aware of your celebration, you should include them in it.

So, when you’re planning your next anniversary, consider how to include your customers. Think beyond the simple ‘Thank You’ and reinforce the reasons to continue the partnership by showcasing how you have grown together.

Show, don’t tell.

Business longevity and growth is a testament to good management, good products and good service. But just telling your customers you are ‘doing well’ doesn’t convey your success as well as showing them. Never underestimate the power of a good ‘Where we’ve come from’ presentation.

The It's Time 50 Years Logo was a custom design Icon developed for the Direct Selling Industry to help show their history and longevity. This logo was chosen from many to win the Direct Selling Australia award in 2016 and be used across all DSA marketing in 2017.

Whether you’ve been in business for 5,10 or 20 years, a simple slideshow of the history, and humble beginnings, of your business will leave a lasting impression.

Not sure it’ll work?

Go outside to your garage, open the door and just stare at what lays inside. Then think about Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, etc… All of them started in a garage just like yours and are now global success stories. Now think about how knowing their origins impresses itself upon you when compared to where they are now.

That is how your customers and prospects feel when they see your origins side-by-side with the present

Acknowledge your employees and their contribution

Celebrating work anniversaries shows your staff that you appreciate them as much now, as you did when they started, and the successes of the business is a shared success amongst everyone in the company. Work anniversaries are not only an ideal time to celebrate, but also to reminisce and reflect. They are perfect for remembering the fun times, sharing some laughs, and reflecting upon not just the achieved goals, but also the ones that failed because they demonstrate an ability to learn from mistakes and adapt.

HR Consultant, Sharon Lauby talks about the importance of celebrating the contribution of your employees, “Smart companies realise that their people and service set them apart. Work anniversaries are all about recognizing people and their contributions. When done right, anniversaries remind employees that the company cares about them and wants them to succeed.”

Looking forward

While it’s great to recognise historical milestones, and relive past moments, it is also important to look to the future and the make sure customers and employees alike will be with you on this journey.

The psychology of colour in branding

Sat, 04 Feb 2017 04:48:00 GMT

Choosing the right colour scheme for your corporate branding is extremely important. The right colour and combination of colours can deliver on something so much more powerful than words: emotions. And getting it just right will elicit a very specific emotional connection from consumers to your brand – something that all businesses aim for.

The four psychological primary colours

Colour psychology in brand and logo design

While a brand’s logo is made up of several visual cues, such as shapes, symbols and words, the number one visual component that people remember the most is colour. In fact, colour increases brand recognition by up to 80%.

Even further, in a study on the impact of colour on marketing , researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on colour alone, depending on the product category.

The above colour chart is by no means exhaustive, but it offers a great start to the psychology of colours and how you can consider them in your branding and marketing. And it’s not only colours that contribute to the psychology behind your brand and logo design; even your choice of fonts impacts the psychology of your brand.

Icon Visual Marketing is a full-service marketing agency in Sydney. Our branding experts are skilled in the choice and use of fonts for all graphic design work. Call us on 1300 138 984 for a free one-hour marketing consultation to see how we can grow your business, or complete the form below and we will be in touch

1. http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/psychological-properties-of-colours

SEO News: Mobile-First Indexing

Sun, 22 Jan 2017 22:10:00 GMT

Many months ago, “ mobilegeddon ” occurred wherein mobile-friendly websites would get a visibility boost in search engines over their desktop-only counterparts for searches that occurred on mobile.

Google is now experimenting with “ mobile-first indexing ” which takes this one step further. Experimenting is the keyword – this hasn’t gone live as standard practice yet.

This change means that no matter what device is used, Google will look at the mobile version of the website before looking at the desktop version for their indexing. This is a big change.

As we know, mobile design changes how things are displayed and what’s displayed. As an example, placement of on-site elements is an important factor in SEO i.e. above-the-fold or near above-the-fold content is perceived as more important than the below-the-fold content (as a generalisation). If – for example – on desktop, you have content that appears at the top of the page but on mobile it now appears at the bottom of the page, what will happen is that the ranking of element importance will be taken from the mobile version, not the desktop version. Further, if certain website elements disappear on mobile e.g. an HTML table, that content will not be considered when indexing and ranking the website.

Essentially, if you haven’t yet moved to a responsively designed website, you are behind and need to update your web presence as soon as possible.

Globally, mobile searches have overtaken those on desktop. Australia is sitting at 55.1% desktop; we’re expected to tip over to mobile-dominance soon.

The value in creating a compelling story – a look at Cabbage Patch Kids

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 12:07:00 GMT

For those who weren’t around for the great Cabbage Patch Kids craze of the 1980s, it’s hard to convey the intensity of it. There were fistfights between parents, near riots outside stores and endless shrieks of hysterical children desperate to get their hands on the dolls.

In Australia, at Toys R’ Us, these dolls still retail for $120. However, one without its official adoption papers is hugely marked down to as low as $50 because of missing so called “adoption papers.” That 60% extra margin is the power of marketing.
The creator of the Cabbage Patch doll doesn’t just make a doll, he creates a story that surrounds it. Cabbage Patch Kids are ‘born” at Babyland General Hospital, where women are dressed as nurses, an adoption oath and papers is administered for each and every Cabbage Patch Doll. Each with a name, a unique look and adoption papers owners of these lifelike dolls.

A recent Huffington Post article pinpointed how brand use storytelling and emotional connections to stand out, to not become so commoditised there is no brand loyalty.

Because when there is commoditisation, products and services are compared on rational terms alone - price, performance, quantity - and the lowest cost manufacturer wins.

According to Huffington Post , to stay away from the cycle of commodotisation means “we need to keep people acting irrationally, much like they act when they are in love. The ingredients of this love are mystery, sensuality and intimacy - and in building and curating the relationships people have with our brands we must always think about how we are sustaining mystery, appealing to each of the senses, and getting intimately close and personal.”

After all, where there is mystery, there is margin.

Cabbage Path Craze 1983 - Image Source Bloomberg

The Millenial Myth & How to keep your brand relevant in 2017

Tue, 20 Dec 2016 04:17:00 GMT

As brands look forward to 2017, commentators chime in with pitches for what they believe will be at the forefront of the marketer’s mind in the year to come. Millennials, of course, feature high on this list.

Millienials; the illusive demographic whose life and work behaviours have marketers scrambling to find new and exciting ways to grab their ever-shrinking attention spans. They are the young kids you hear about in a boardroom discussion; those notoriously unreliable, unpredictable and dangerously empowered consumers that threaten all you know. The Millennial generation have been puzzling the minds of CMOs since the term was first coined by William Strauss and Neil Howe in 1987 to describe the future graduating class of 2000.

Since then, a grossly undefined generation of people have been cloaked with the blanket term ‘Millennial’ to explain a demographic that brands can’t seem to catch up to. Whilst there most certainly is a generation of younger people that have come to adulthood in tandem with new technologies and unfettered access to communicational tools, they aren’t that different to the generations before them.

Looking at Millennials as a new and undeciphered demographic doesn’t serve a marketer any more than saying baby boomers like houses and worked hard. Understanding macroscale demographic trends will rarely help you to influence a person’s purchasing decisions. Unfortunately, it is imperative to understand more about your customer than just the year of their birth and that they are on Instagram.

Whilst identifying your target market and customer is an essential piece of the puzzle, puzzling your marketing staff with the pursuit of a generalized stereotype is only going to make for a disappointing year of communications cut-through.

The under-defined group that have been labelled Millennials aren’t that different from the generations before them (apart from the obvious chronological definer). In most cases, they have the same fundamental wants, needs and desires as everyone does as they move into and through adulthood. The major differentiation point for this new generation is their use of new technologies to communicate, but that’s not news to anyone.

What may be news, however, is that they are quickly becoming one of the most stereotyped and misunderstood generational groups. A Google search on the subject matter will find blogs, speeches and gurus all conveying images of an entitled generation that are unreliable, impatient, self-absorbed and lazy. On the more positive side, these same people are looking for purpose, feedback and personal life balance in their work. You might be reading some of this and nodding your head frantically, and while there is a degree of truth to those adjectives, there isn’t much in the way of empirical research to support it.

In fact, there is more research suggesting that all age groups are seeking out such things, equally. For example, a multigenerational study conducted by IBM of 1,784 employees from companies across 12 countries and six industries, uncovered that a strikingly similar percentage of Millennials (25%) want to make a positive impact on their organisation as Gen Xers (21%) and Baby Boomers (23%).

It’s true that this study looks at the professional lives of the younger generation, however there is a lot to learn from the career motivations of a generation as such pursuits will undoubtedly influence their purchasing decisions.

As young people begin to fill the ranks of organisations across Australia (and the world) it will be up to businesses to cement their relevancy for not just the current, but also future, generations.

Brands need to be clear from the start about their market orientation, before they begin implementing a broad communications plan. Simply making a place for Millennials in your strategy is not enough to catch the interest of the younger generation. Brands now need to show that they are driven by a purpose beyond a profit and loss. Their actions should demonstrate authenticity, not paid spokeperson-icity. Carefully considering how and where your brand should be aligned is crucial to ensuring this experience, for both workers and consumers.

As the more robust studies are demonstrating, these ‘kids’ are interested in the same things as Gen-X and the Baby Boomers. Perhaps it isn’t that a new generation is asking for new things, but rather everyone is asking for something new.

Taking pride in growing as part of Sydney’s booming South West

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 11:23:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing is a full-service marketing agency based in the South West of Sydney. We pride ourselves on offering employment for people to live and work in the local community , a rare opportunity for staff to not have to commute out of the region to maintain a high-level career with opportunity and prospect.

From a small sole business in 2003, Icon Visual Marketing has grown to become a large employer of over 40 highly educated experts in business and marketing professionals in the South West region of Sydney.

The premise and basis for growth is simple, Icon deliver honest and realistic business and marketing programs that help clients to reach their next customer . This authenticity and transparency has seen the agency weather gloomy economic conditions to continue to grow and flourish. Of the 40 staff currently employed by Icon, their skill sets range from business and marketing experts, web developers, graphic designers, print and production managers, Google accredited digital marketers as well as operations and administration support staff to keep the agency on track.

The South West region of Sydney is where we choose to live and work . For previous generations, growing up in the Western suburbs of Sydney meant commuting to larger regional centres or leaving the area all together to build a successful career. This is no longer the case. The growth of the entire South West Sydney region is offering opportunities for career advancements like never before and Icon takes our commitment to the economic development of the area very seriously. Core to the heart of Icon is to provide opportunities for highly skilled and talent staff to stay within the region to work.

As such, over three quarters of Icon Visual Marketing staff live locally or have ties to the local Sydney South West area and have commutes less than 45 minutes for their work.

Icon wins creative Direct Selling Australian competition with award winning logo

Fri, 02 Dec 2016 05:05:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing recently took part in the Direct Selling Association of Australia competition to come up with a logo that helps them celebrate 50 years in existence while also looking forward to the next 50 years.

Competing against other branding agencies, Icon's creative team worked closely together to come up with a distinct style and look that truly conveyed the celebration of 50 years old while looking forward to the next half century. Congratulations to the Icon creative team. We are certainly proud of you and that your design will be featured so prominently as the DSA celebrates its Gold Anniversary.

Are billboards still effective in the world of property development marketing?

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 01:02:38 GMT

In an increasingly digital world, it’s easy to forget about real life and the day to day interactions and transactions that people make. The rise of social media and new technology has led many companies to increasingly rely on digital marketing campaigns, however in many industries, especially in the hotly contended Australian property development market, traditional strategies like outdoor media shouldn’t be discounted.

In an article focusing on property development marketing, Marketing Magazine , highlighted the way property marketing has adapted to new digital channels while still maintaining that traditional media still has a role.

There wouldn’t be a property in Sydney that wouldn’t be online, the channels we’re using to reach people are changing. Traditional media still has a role – a lot of property is bought by people in the local market, so direct mail flyers, billboards and print advertising in relevant media are still effective – but are increasingly viewed as supplementary to digital marketing.

Billboard Marketing.

Billboard marketing is a highly effective form of marketing for property developments, where it is often the challenge of the marketing team to sell a vision and a lifestyle that are little more than a promise that this is what will be delivered.

Billboards are not a call to action medium, they are there as a supporting medium to build brand awareness and increase brand recognition. A billboard strategy should support your other marketing campaigns, of which digital can be a major factor.

The massive shift toward online and social media marketing does not mean more traditional forms of advertising, such as billboards, are dead. Rather it gives property developers more opportunity to build their brand story, and tell it across a range of marketing platforms.

5 Ingredients of Successful B2B Marketing – Your Secret Marketing Recipe Card

Fri, 25 Nov 2016 01:18:00 GMT

5 ingredients don’t seem like alot to underpin a whole corporate marketing strategy, but some of the best recipes can be made just by combining the right five ingredients. The key here is combining the right ingredients in the right order. And that’s where we come to the right five ingredients for successful marketing.

In a recent report, High Performance B2B Marketing 2016 – 17 , when B2B marketers were asked to define the key elements to successful B2B marketing, these answers fitted into five key areas. Andrew Dalglish, Director of Circle Research, were commissioned to produce the report by B2B Marketing . In in his introduction, he clearly defined these key areas.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESSFUL MARKETING

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Strategic Vision
4 cups fresh Marketing Plan
1 cup packed Marketing Tools
200g Marketing Tactics
2 tablespoons Salt-reduced Review , Reporting and Analysis

METHOD

NUTRITION

Adding the right ingredients to your marketing at the right team delivers a high-energy marketing team with a vision and strategic direction to follow to deliver successful business and marketing outcomes.

The Power of Video is the Power to Connect

Tue, 15 Nov 2016 21:19:00 GMT

Video is an extremely important and integral part of modern marketing. Whether it is being used to promote your business, inform your clients or tell a unique story, the medium is so versatile that not only the delivery can vary greatly, but also the style and look!

Video has become one of the most used marketing tools for modern businesses – offering a gateway for connecting people and business. It is a very powerful way for you to communicate your value and brand and build a strong relationship between you, your customers and prospective audience. It is the most effective way to help tell your story. Video can be aligned to form an integral part of your marketing strategy.

Your video should be about the viewer

Any video you create should engage the viewer from the first second. It should also give them value and entice them to share it to other potential viewers. Keep it short and to the point. Online videos should vary between 15-30 for ads or 1 to 2 minutes for testimonials, brand videos and corporate video. People should know what your video is about immediately and how it will benefit them to keep watching.

If you engage your viewers with quality content, they will also share it with others. They will spend longer on your website and more time interacting with your brand.

Who is using video?

When it comes to reach, video is unstoppable. YouTube receives more than one billion unique visitors each month, which is more than any other internet channel, other than Facebook.

What video does for your company?

Many people view brands in a positive light, after viewing interesting video content from them. After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online.

Here are more reasons why video works

Video: It really works! Video is the most engaging medium in terms of communicating information and entertaining audiences. Video helps businesses increase brand awareness, generate leads, and ultimately, increase sales.

Video covers a variety of learning styles and visual looks. Some people prefer to read, others like to listen or watch. Some people are more engaged with a simple style, whilst others are more engaged with a visual feast. With video, you can do all these things so it can be tailored for any audience or brand!

WHY USE ICON VISUAL MARKETING FOR VIDEO?

We can conceive, create and deploy many various types of video rich website banners, visual backgrounds and targeted advertising on webpage/social media channels.

Icon Visual Marketing can help you make your website into a rich media hub, where your future customers will be immersed and completely engaged in your content and offerings. Icon Visual Marketing can help you execute any of these styles of video, taking charge of the entire project, allowing a streamlined and effortless process.

Salesman wanted to work 24/7 365 days a year – Only Google Need Apply

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 09:05:00 GMT

This is an awesome job opportunity for only the most powerful salesman in the world. You get to take advantage of the 2,161,530,000,000 people already using you to search for something, everything, your products, your services and your competitor’s products and services each year.

To fulfil this job role, you will need to

To succeed in this job role, you will need to simply sell our products and services to new customers EVERY SINGLE DAY .

In return, we will offer you updated fresh content on our products and services that will help you “sell” our business, social signals that will help you see our great presence on social media and remuneration that is commensurate with the quality of leads and sales you deliver to your business.

This is not a temp role or a part time position. We expect you to work hard every day 24/7 365 days of the year.

NB – This role does not apply for the Australian labour laws. Therefore, we do not need to provide annual leave, sick leave or any personal time off.

My Time at Icon - insights from Intern Laura

Thu, 03 Nov 2016 04:05:00 GMT

For the last few months, Icon was grateful to have Laura work with us as an Intern as part of her Uni course. In her last week, we asked Laura to let us know what she learnt at Icon and to share some insights of what it is like to be an intern at Icon.

Why did I do this internship?
Hi, my names Laura. Being in my second last term of university, with only 2 subjects left, I decided it was essential to get some experience under my belt. Having already undergone three years of uni, I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Uni, although providing in-depth knowledge of marketing’s theories and concepts, didn’t provide the real world experience necessary. I needed more. I needed to know the underlying differences between each marketing function, how businesses worked, what interactions with real clients were like and what did I actually enjoy and dislike?

Luckily enough, I scored myself an internship with Icon Visual Marketing. To my advantage they run a full-service marketing agency, handling everything a business needs to devise, set and implement a marketing plan and strategy. I knew this would be the perfect place to get my head level with what the marketing industry has to offer, and generally how a business as a whole works.

Of course my first day was quite scary. I was heading into a workplace where I knew no one, and was feeling unsure about the quality of my skill set. Luckily, my worries quickly left as I was warmly welcomed by the whole team, and was quickly put to work (Which I love, since I always need to keep busy).

My first couple of days involved meeting the teams and discovering essentially, what Icon had to offer. I was placed with Alex and the marketing team, who were my point of reference throughout, providing me with valuable insight and feedback.

What did I do?
Sitting with the various groups and watching their work process was the initial step to find out which areas I was interested in, and how each of the groups interact. Whilst IT and accounts were already out of the picture for me, learning more about the creative, marketing, production, digital, web, operations and other business service areas was essential.

Each of the team members were kind enough to go out of their way and guide me through their practice, and show me how each of their jobs differed. I was given a few research tasks to undertake which helped the marketing team develop competitive analysis, and marketing reports. Gaining this first-hand experience helped me put my marketing knowledge into practice.

Being involved in many strategy meetings enabled me to learn more about the clients, what Icon had to offer, and generally all the tiny details which go into a marketing job. Being able to see all the concepts and theories which I learnt in uni, be applied in a real situation was one of the best things I gained from interning at Icon. Social media, consumer behaviour, the 4 P’s, everything became clearer. Watching how each of these aspects interacted, how they should be measured and maintained and how critical workplace and customer relationships are, became vividly evident through the entire experience.

I was also lucky enough to help out in production quite a few times during my internship. Although it’s not necessarily related to the side of marketing I’ve been interested in, it was a good time filler, and immersed me in the entire business.

As time went on, I was slowly being involved in more marketing activities. Making briefs, helping review work and providing my own ideas on how to improve current jobs. As I was constantly involved with most areas of the business, I was slowly guided towards where I wanted to head in life. Being part of a real business was a turning point, where I critically started thinking about which aspects I liked most, or didn’t enjoy so much.

Was it beneficial?
This experience was definitely one which provided me with the right tools to exit into the workplace with. One very important aspect I learnt was the value of a good managing director. Joe would come in and liven up the place, creating a comfortable workplace. His positive reinforcement and constant checking on how I was going really helped me feel welcome.

Overall, it was one of the most beneficial experiences I had undertaken. I now know where I want to head in the future (and it’s not where I was initially heading), and have a stronger understanding of the importance of working in a place that you love and with people that only motivate you.

Informative or annoying? Walking the fine line of Social Media postings

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 08:59:00 GMT

Informative or annoying? Walking the fine line of Social Media postings

A recent study showed that a large portion of brands don’t have dedicated, full-time social media managers, but run their profiles in 10 hours or less per week. Given that social media is likely to be combined with a range of other job responsibilities, having a strategy and plan for social media will help give you enough time to get important things done, and also avoid the mistake of delivering poor engagement.

One of the keys to managing social media well is to not sign up for every social media channel available just because they are new or the “popular kid on the block”. Choose the right few channels for you, don’t over commit your resources and remember, once you start social media, you need to maintain your company presence to have any impact.

Amongst their 29 rules for social media, Buffer Social have included the top five general rules around posting to social media networks which applies across the board to all networks.

Informative versus annoying is a fine balance that social media community managers strive to achieve given that they are trying to engage with an audience but not harass them to the point of negativity. We want to provide value, but we don’t want to go overboard. Where’s the fine line? And exactly how fine is it? This may be different for each channel.

How often to post on Facebook

Social Bakers studied three months’ worth of Facebook content from major brands and as a general rule found that posting once per week on Facebook was so low as to lose connection with your audience and posting more than twice per day was crossing the line into annoying.

How often to post to Twitter?
If you tweet too much there is a higher chance that the engagement with your followers will decrease, while the same thing happens when you don't tweet on a daily basis.
Studies have shown that after the third tweet your followers lose their interest in the content that you are sharing.

How often to post to LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a little different to the above social media players in that it is directly aimed at the business community. Posts on LinkedIn need to be longer form and more informative and hence the recommended number of posts is once per day.

How often to post to Google +
While many see this social network as one of the weaker networks, it’s important because it’s a Google property and therefore can help your business be found on Google more often. Post all your content to Google + as part of an effective SEO strategy.

Now you’ve answered the why, how, what and when of social media and can move on to your next challenge – providing valuable and engaging CONTENT.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/3029019/work-smart/the-social-media-frequency-guide-how-often-to-post-to-facebook-twitter-linkedin-a

Why blogging is important for B2B marketing?

Wed, 31 Aug 2016 21:58:00 GMT

The 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report published in May 2016 examined the industry trends into how marketers are using social media to grow their business. However the report also had some interesting figures around the growth of blogging for B2B marketing and its importance to overall B2B business.

Specifically, the report found that blogging is more important for B2B marketers than B2C marketers. However while B2C marketers place more importance on visual content, B2B marketers have realised the increasing importance on visuals and plan on increasing their use of video and visuals for online marketing.

In the B2B sector, a minimum 57% of a typical purchase decision is made before a customer even talks to a supplier which doesn’t leave much time for changing customers’ opinions. And with the internet being the number one source of information, content marketing is more important than ever for B2B businesses hoping to differentiate themselves from the competition and give potential clients an answer to the question, “Why should I buy from you?.”

If you haven’t started content marketing or haven’t updated your website news section for some time, it’s not too late to start.

A content marketing plan will ensure your content will tie in to your overall marketing strategy goals and ensure your time spent creating content isn’t wasted.

It’s not too late to embrace content marketing, or work with an outsourced team who can help create a strategy that is manageable for your business or take on your entire content marketing. Icon Visual Marketing have a range of experience content developers across a wide range of specialities and industries ready to get your content marketing strategy started today.

4 ways you can use content marketing to improve your website rankings

Mon, 15 Aug 2016 04:16:00 GMT

In the past, if you wanted to improve the overall ranking of your website, you would have to learn metadata, title tags, headers, H1-H3, etc. and details that programmers speak of in code and jargon. While these aspects are relevant, there is lots you can do yourself to improve the ranking of your site. It’s called content marketing, and aside from your time spent creating and sharing content, it’s all free.

Content marketing is based on information sharing and generosity and recognises that consumers are researching and looking for answers themselves before ever making contact with your company.

Here are four ways that your content can improve your website rankings.

#1 Lots of rich information about your industry, services, and products - and update it regularly.

The main way that search engines rank your website is through the information on each page of your site. Not to say that each page needs to be a mini essay stuffed with as many keywords as possible, but by using each website page to include relevant and interesting information, you’ll be providing Google with SEO gold. Updating your website with new pages, new media, and new information will all help grow the organic ranking of your website for your relevant keywords and Google searches.

#2 Regular, fresh updates with new content (like a blog)

Ongoing content creation is one of the best things you can do to improve the search engine rankings of your website. A news module, or a blog, on your website means you can easily and quickly share industry news, information about new products or services, and offer tips and product knowledge information specific to your company.

Content marketing is a great way to demonstrate your competitive edge. Using a mix of video, images, and words, you can continually demonstrate industry superiority and show different facets of the business that your customers are likely to be interested in.

Content marketing comes in a range of formats. Keep it interesting by delivering a range of different content types like:

While content should be keyword rich and support your targeted keyword and search strategy, your articles are first and foremost to be value-adds for readers, offering insights, tips, trends, information, or advice.

#3 Regularly sending out email newsletters

Your corporate database is another great place to start to where to share your content. Create a monthly or quarterly newsletter that consistently offers quality content relevant to your target audience. By consistently sending out eNewsletters, you aren’t relying on customers to remember to come back and visit your site; you‘re delivering interesting content directly to their inbox.

The open rate and success of your email newsletter will often depend on the age and quality of your corporate database. Mail Chimp has created a guide for industry based benchmarks on open rates and expected click through rates for specific industries that can be used as a guide.

#4 Sharing your content on social media

Social media is great for sharing quality content. Posting to your company LinkedIn or Facebook pages with a link back to the full article on the website is a great way to get relevant visitors onto your site to explore your range of products or services offered.

Social media is a great engagement tool, used effectively for getting closer to customers and understanding their interests and needs

When using social media for your business, there are some general best practice guidelines you should adhere to.

Content marketing - as in having an up to date website with regularly updated content and sharing the content to customers and social media - works best when it is part of an integrated program. When done together, you are getting the maximum reach out of every piece of content you are create.

Icon Visual Marketing can help your business take advantage of content by recommending the right platforms and tactics to maximise your exposure and engagement with existing and potential consumers. For content marketing strategies that take your goals in mind, contact Icon Visual Marketing on 1300 138 984.

Is digital always the answer? Spend on digital takes the lion’s share of Marketing Dollars

Thu, 11 Aug 2016 03:44:00 GMT

Digital marketing channels and programs integrated into marketing strategies and plans have long proven to effectively deliver on marketing and business goals and objectives.

According to 2016 State of Marketing report digital accounts for an ever-growing share of marketers’ activities, channels, and budget
s. This year marks a tipping point, with marketers spending more than two-thirds (70%) of their total budget on digital marketing channels.

In marketing, many of us can be accused of suffering from shiny new thing syndrome when it comes to digital marketing channels. We get so hung up on the new technology of digital media we can forget to make sure it aligns with our marketing strategy and overall business goals.

However before throwing the entire marketing budget online, it is important to know that before the internet , smart phones and 24/7 access to everything everywhere, marketers had effective marketing strategies that worked. The difference to then and now is that there were simply not as many channels as marketers have access to today.

Popular blogger, Samuel Scott , when talking about the integration of traditional and digital marketing summed it up well, “The Internet is just a new set of communications channels. Digital marketing is really just doing direct marketing, sales promotion, personal selling, advertising, or publicity via a specific collection of communications channels that we call the Internet. ”

At Icon Visual Marketing we use digital marketing to generate product and service leads, sales, build brand awareness and generate customer insights, but we also integrate this into other forms of offline marketing in order to meet your business and marketing goals. Contact Icon Visual Marketing today if you are interested in growing your business with a team who isn’t distracted by shiny new things syndrome.

How content marketing works in the B2B sector

Thu, 04 Aug 2016 02:30:00 GMT

In the B2B sector, a minimum 57% of a typical purchase decision is made before a customer even talks to a supplier which doesn’t leave much time for changing customers’ opinions. And with the internet being the number one source of information, content marketing is more important than ever for B2B businesses hoping to differentiate themselves from the competition and give potential clients an answer to the question, “ Why should I buy from you? .”

Content strategies in the B2B sector focus on getting the right information in front of the right audience at the right stage of the buying cycle.
While early B2B content marketing strategies were centred on each piece of content being a mini whitepaper or technical document, this is not the most effective strategy.

Delivering a mix of information types that range from solving simple issues to video how to’s and whitepapers deep diving into more complex issues, B2B content marketing is really about getting information in front of your audience at the right stage of the buying cycle.

According to B2B Content Marketing: 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends paper from Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy compared with last year (32% vs. 35%), even though the research consistently shows that those who document their strategy are more effective in nearly all areas of content marketing.

Your content strateg y should start with what are the objectives and goals for your content marketing and creating a mix of content that targets your audience at the various stages of the buying cycles.

An important next step in creating and effective B2B content marketing strategy is to u nderstand your audience and what are their motivations and pressure points . Doug Kessler, Creative Director & Co-Founder, Velocity Partners Ltd stated , “Content that understands its audience will be good content. Content that doesn’t can’t be.”

With a clear picture of who you are creating content for and what is the overall aim for your content strategy, mapping topics and content ideas to match your ideal audiences will help steer the direction for your content.

Content marketing is an effective marketing program which focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content online in formats such as written articles, videos, graphics, surveys and more. For B2B businesses, it can be a highly effective strategy that targets your audience at all stages of the buying cycle, helping inform them and drive their decision to do business with you.

Icon Visual Marketing are experts at developing strategic marketing programs for B2B company’s which include comprehensive content marketing Programs. Contact Icon to speak to our expert B2B marketing team today to discuss your business.

CASE STUDY - Facebook marketing drives French café celebration for Bastille Day

Mon, 01 Aug 2016 21:50:00 GMT

Local events and in store promotions are an effective marketing strategy used to drive in-store traffic and sales. Traditional marketing with the addition of social media can widen your audience and attract more people than ever.

Icon recently worked closely with King Street bakery café Bakers Maison to create a major event for one of the biggest days of their calendar year –Bastille Day, the French National Day of celebration.

Creating the Event
As a traditional French-style bakery, each year Bakers Maison commemorate the momentous day of French democracy. Icon saw this as an opportunity to celebrate and promote the store by offering free croissants with purchase for the hard-working people of Sydney, starting from 7am until 6pm. The afternoon then saw patrons offered some of the best of France with a free wine and cheese tasting.

Attracting Visitors to the Event
To attract an audience to the store to try the coffee and croissants for the first time, Icon worked closely with the Bakers Maison team to create an in-store event using Facebook and other social media channels to promote the event and build awareness in the Sydney CBD.

Icon achieved significant awareness of the event using paid and organic online promotions of the event as part of the overall marketing strategy. This was done using a targeted Facebook media advertising campaign that pinpointed key geographic locations within the city.

Measuring the numbers

If you are running a Facebook page and trying to attract an audience to your promotion, Facebook Events is a great tool. Facebook Events are easy to set up and combined with targeted online advertising options, let you specifically pinpoint the audience you want to invite to the event.

Since the event, Bakers Maison have continued to attract new customers as well as gain new patrons whose first experience with Bakers Maison was on during the Bastille Day event. The increase in social media activity generated by the event has also continued

Icon Visual Marketing are experts at creating and executing promotions and events to match your marketing strategy and deliver on your marketing goals. Contact Icon today to discuss how we can help grow your business through a range of marketing activities including in-store promotions and events.

Why it’s not too late to start content marketing to build your business?

Fri, 22 Jul 2016 02:25:00 GMT

Content marketing is an effective marketing program which focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content online in formats such as written articles, videos, whitepapers, infographics and podcasts for example.

Content marketing is based on information sharing and generosity and recognises that consumers are researching and looking for answers themselves before ever making contact with your company.

The value of content marketing for your business is twofold. Firstly is acts to attract and retain customers by delivering consistent value added information and secondly, for ensuing search engines are regularly indexing the site and delivering more relevant visitors to your website. Good quality content is SEO gold.

There is no doubt the Internet and social media have changed the way people seek and gather information. Putting content out in the world where people are looking for it helps them find you.

If you haven’t started content marketing or haven’t updated your website news section for some time, it’s not too late to start.

A content marketing plan will ensure your content will tie in to your overall marketing strategy goals and ensure your time spent creating content isn’t wasted.

A great place to start on what topics you should be writing about is your call centre or sales staff. Ask the front line staff what customer questions do they get most often and use your first pieces of content to address the answers. This will not only make it better for customers to find the right information online but hopefully help the call centre direct customers to the answers.

Once you start creating content, you’ll soon realise it isn’t as scary as it first seems, and like with everything, the more you do it, the easier it gets.

It’s not too late to embrace content marketing , or work with an outsourced team who can help create a strategy that is manageable for your business or take on your entire content marketing. Icon Visual Marketing have a range of experience content developers across a wide range of specialities and industries ready to get your content marketing strategy started today.

New marketing opportunities for the new financial year

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 03:55:00 GMT

With the new financial year here and a new marketing budget for 2016/17, knowing where to allocate your budget, even if it is limited, will set you in good position for success for the coming 12 months.

The best way to choose where to allocate your marketing budget is to first develop your marketing strategy . Your marketing strategy includes reviewing previous campaigns and programs to see what has worked previously and what has delivered the best ROI as well as investigating new marketing tactics that perhaps haven’t been used before.

Planning your marketing strategy and tactics for the new financial year is key to developing a clear marketing plan that will set your marketing in the right direction .

Taking the time to look at your own business instead of just your clients can be a challenge, but the insights you’ll gain will be invaluable to help your business grow.

No one knows your business better than you. Often you are so intrinsically involved in every aspect of your business, you simply don’t have the time to sit back and really think top line about your business.
Icon have developed a Strategic Marketing Workshop process that has proven effective for hundreds of clients to help set them on the right marketing direction. Going through the process during a strategic marketing workshop ensures that we are focusing on the core values that make up your business and why customers are buying from you. After setting your marketing strategy, Icon work with you and your marketing budget to set a realistic and detailed marketing plan.

Give us two hours of your time and we will work with you to get to the heart of your business.

Is social media a marketing strategy or a marketing channel?

Wed, 13 Jul 2016 06:31:00 GMT

Social media is one platform of many, a tactic that does a great job of supporting online and offline marketing campaigns but doesn’t work on its own. Smart marketers have realised that social media doesn’t work on its own as a marketing strategy. According to Forbes magazine , this distinction itself will shape marketing strategies and budgetary consideration in the new financial year.

A lot of marketers are guilty of falling in love with the technology at the detriment of strategy and other tried and tested activities that deliver results which can be more successful when integrated with social and online.

Just as other forms of marketing have their place in an integrated marketing strategy, social media should be considered as part of a multi-channel digital approach to successful marketing strategies and campaigns, but not used in solitary.

If you are struggling to integrate social media into your overall marketing strategy, you’re not alone. While many businesses have active social media, many of these are still not fully integrated into their marketing strategies or reported on from an ROI perspective.

No one media is absolute or almighty, just as radio and online work well together, most media depends on each other for support, to promote and to deliver customers to your business.

Good marketing strategies involve a balance of traditional strategies while relying on technological advances and new customer engagement tools to ensure the best form of communication possible to existing and potential customers.

Icon Visual Marketing are a full service marketing agency, specialising in creating and executing integrated marketing strategies and plans. We love social too, but we recommend and use it as a part of your overall marketing strategy, not as your actual marketing strategy.

Google awards Icon for excellence in online advertising campaigns

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 20:29:00 GMT

Icon is proud to have been awarded the new Google Partner Specialization badge for excellence in Search online advertising campaigns.

Icon has been a trusted Google Partner since 2013 and has been part of the Google accreditation program since 2010. Icon’s team of experienced and knowledgeable digital marketers are all Google certified online advertising specialists and spend each day focusing on delivering the best online advertising results for a wide range of clients.

According to Google, Specialization badges are awarded for based on the following criteria:

Google also look at a number of things to determine the level of product expertise, including how you're implementing the AdWords product for your clients, if you're growing your usage in the product area, if you're retaining your clients in that product area, and other related factors.

Icon Visual Marketing can help you make paid search work for your business with digital marketing services that will grow your brand awareness and increase converting traffic to your website. As a Google Partner, Icon Visual Marketing has earned Google’s marker of trust and quality, ensuring that your campaigns are managed by certified individuals that have displayed high proficiency with the Google AdWords and Analytics platforms.

With 37% of marketing dollars being spent on paid search advertising , it’s simply not feasible for businesses to ignore the power of online search advertising. Take advantage of the digital space and make paid search advertising work for your business by contacting Icon Visual Marketing today!

How B2B companies can build an ideas resource centre to build their brand!

Mon, 30 May 2016 03:45:00 GMT

For many decades, B2B marketing has relied on trust, word of mouth and customer loyalty. Traditional marketing wasn’t seen as something B2B companies needed. But times have changed. B2B businesses who rely on a key number of clients to drive their business need to ensure those customers understand why they buy from you, what it is that makes your business stand out from the competition, not only domestic but the huge range of cheaper foreign imports available in most business sectors.

We know our business is different. We know what makes us unique and why customers should choose use. But for years, we’ve talked to customers about technical superiority, our customer service, product features and benefits. But when was the last time you had a conversation about what makes you company uniquely different. The core of your business. Your Unique Selling Point that makes up your brand.

In today’s highly competitive business environment if you have a business, you have to have a brand, and if your brand is selling your company short, you need to do something about it.

Branding will give you a competitive edge, create trust and emotional attachment, makes purchasing decisions easier. A strong brand can command a premium price, and most importantly a strong brand can make the actual product features or benefits of what you are selling insignificant.

The huge growth of digital marketing means that any business can affordably reach even the smallest target and most niche market online, so suddenly your brand matters a great deal more than ever before.

All marketing activities in the B2B market should be directed to establishing, developing and maintaining successful relationships with customers. B2B Sales teams should provide value adds to their clients, not only should they provide solutions to business problems, but they should identity potential business challenges for their clients and recommend solutions. The buying cycle in B2B is a lot longer than retail of consumer environment, therefore you need to build and establish trust with the buyer at brand, product and service levels.

Content marketing is one such way to demonstrate your company’s competitive edge. Using a mix of video, images and words, you can continually demonstrate industry superiority, show different facets of the business that your customers are likely to be interested in. And while you’re there highlight business benefits as well as technological superiority and product features and benefits. All these areas go into making your brand stronger.

For every business, branding reflects who they are as a company. Icon Visual Marketing's team of specialist B2B marketing consultants can assist you in helping to establish your key value proposition for your markets or major customers. The determination of your value platform is critical to successful B2B marketing . Understanding your product or service from a holistic position will provide your business the distinct advantage you have been looking for and a platform for significant growth.

10 Indicators it's Time to Update Your Site

Mon, 16 May 2016 03:32:00 GMT

With the ever-evolving nature of technology and the web, ensuring that your website is up-to-date with every single digital advancement is just not financially feasible. However, there does come a point when your website is just too out-dated to remain competitive. These ten indicators will help you decide when that time comes so that you're updating your website's design at a time when it's actually necessary.

Did you find this infographic handy? Download it here !

Killing it in Content – A brief guide to Content Marketing

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 21:40:00 GMT

According to the Content Marketing Institute , C ontent marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behaviour. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy.

At the core of your content marketing should be interesting and useful content that adds values to consumer’s lives and can help solve the problems they have.

A new Australian report looking into the B2B Marketing Outlook 2016 has this week been published by Green Hat in association with ADMA, Marketing Magazine and B2B Marketing UK.

Two of the key findings of the report were around the importance that businesses are attaching to content marketing

Quality content is required to effectively drive inbound traffic. According to Social Media Today , “Too many companies believe that only their product must provide value. But in fact their communication should provide value as well.”

Content marketing is your chance to earn trust and become a resource centre, delivering content that solves problems; answers questions and can inspire action. We need to earn the right to pitch. Today, companies need to be respectful of their customers, to contribute to their lives in ways that are relevant and meaningful. Today, it’s more important than ever to deliver value over and above your products and services.

The main purpose for your content is to be a resource for your audience – by building value and trust with your audience, you will gradually earn the right to ask for a sale.

Where do I find good content?

Start with your own internal staff and they questions they answer to customers every day. Your own FAQ guides, internal processes, areas on innovation. Share the type of information that you know your customers are interested in.

What types of content should I be creating?

Content marketing comes in a range of formats. Keep it interesting by delivering a range of different content types.

How do I “share” my content?

Social media is great for sharing quality content, posting to your company LinkedIn or Facebook pages with a link back to the full article on the website are a great way to get relevant visitors onto your site to explore your range of products or services offered.

Your corporate database is another great place to start. Create a monthly or quarterly newsletter that consistently offers quality content relevant to your target audience.

As with most things in marketing, consistency and planning are key. If you are like 77% of businesses and see the relevance of content marketing to help grow your business, ensure you have a strategy as to how content marketing will be used, how and who will create it and how you share it. Once you have decided on a plan of action, do it consistently.

Spotlight on Property Development Marketing

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 03:22:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing have worked closely with many leading property developments to set marketing strategies, develop brand identities and establish the development’s position within the community.

Our specialist property marketing consultants have worked with an extensive list of national property developers, including Walker Corporation and Lend Lease, as well as locally-based developments such as Harrington Grove and Gregory Hills.

In today’s tougher property climate , the importance of the right positioning and marketing of your property development is essential, with the power somewhat shifting from the developer into the hands of the buyer.

You need to have clear points of difference and unique selling features as opposed to the other seemingly similar offerings that are in the same area.

Connecting with buyers

Understanding who your potential buyers are is key to connecting and engaging with them. It is vital to not only understand the financial commitment they are making by buying into your development, but also their emotional motivations . After all, this is possibly the house they will raise their children in, a community in which they will put down roots, and where they will make lifelong friends from neighbours. Essentially your development is where they will make a happy life for themselves and their family. This understanding needs to be considered when building a marketing strategy to connect with the right target market.

Tools to engage with your target market

There is no doubt that digital and social media are great tools to use to connect with your target audience, but that does not mean that offline strategies should be entirely passed over in favour of new online strategies.

Print Advertising

Research shows that local print advertising is still the strongest marketing tool to deliver brand awareness for a new or reinvigorated property development. Print advertising can drive awareness of the different types of housing and lifestyles available as well as drive enquiries through strong, call-to-action advertising. Knowing the areas where your potential buyers are coming from avoids wasting advertising dollars outside of the realistic catchment areas. Capturing postcode data through your enquiries as well as testing advertising placements in different regions will give you the insights you need to make considered decisions about where to spend your advertising dollars.

Billboards

There is no doubt that billboards are a major part of property development marketing. Not only are people seeing the development and the progress stage it is up to, but they also see what the delivery will look like and envisage the lifestyle that they could be living.

Website

Your property development website is a key tool to start selling on the promise of what your development will deliver. The imagery and content of the website will allow potential buyers to understand the key features of your development as well as to start to understand the key points of difference.

An interactive master plan is a great tool to show website visitors what blocks are available. This visual tool allows prospective residents to see the proximity to local neighbourhood centres, parks, access streets, etc.

Sales Office and Marketing Collateral

Delivering on the expectation of the customer experience has often started with advertising and a visit to your website, but the Sales Office is where it gets real. When a customer has taken the next step by visiting your Sales Office, you need to continue to deliver on the customer expectation you have so far achieved via one way communication only. The Sales Office, marketing collateral and frontline sales staff facilitate the journey of the potential buyer along the sales process that could make them your newest resident.

Digital Channels

In 2016, being an industry leader means having visibility across all digital channels and social spaces. There is no doubt digital can hold a place in helping buyers along all levels of the sales funnel, and should be used in partnership with the above mentioned offline activities.

Social media is key for engagement. Updating regularly and allowing interaction with residents and potential buyers can go a long way to building the community that your development is promising.

The scope of any property development marketing strategy is to deliver an integrated communications strategy, including social media, PR and online and offline activities with the overall business objectives in mind.

Before launching into marketing activities, building a long term marketing strategy that includes pre-launch, launch, ongoing selling and activities that can be used when the market slows down.

Icon Visual Marketing are experts in working with single property marketing projects as well as large multinationals on multiple development projects . We have the experience and knowledge in successfully engaging the target market for your property development, as well as continuing to drive leads and sales for the many years it can take to fully realise a new community.

5 step process to Website Design and Development

Tue, 05 Apr 2016 01:59:00 GMT

Many web development companies shroud their design and development processes in mystery, jargon and secrecy. Here at Icon, we have our processes and procedures, but our transparency and communication ensure the client understands every step of the way and is involved in the final delivery of a website.

So below, we outline the five step project management process to ensure your website meets with business goals and objectives and that your project is delivered on time and on budget.

Step 1 - Discovery Phase

The Discovery Phase is a critical planning process when designing and developing websites. It is here that we work with you to understand more about your business, your overall objectives and where your website will fit in with your overall business model and plans.

Step 2 – Details Phase

Once the initial business questions are answered, the details phase of the project then starts going into more specific online goals such as

Keywords for your business

Part of the details phase is to develop a targeted keyword list that wil form the basis of website content – making sure optimum SEO is already being planned for before any design or copy. The keyword list is developed with a balance of relevancy to the business, popularity on search engines and a mix of competitive keywords and phrases.

Step 3 – Design Phase

The initial planning and discovery that is set out in the first two phases is now put into practicality and transformed into stylish design.

Target audience is one of the many factors taken into consideration for design, encorporating the right elements that will attract visitors and keep them interested as well as providing a clear path to action.

The design phase includes the development of Google friendly SEO website copy.

Phase 4 – Development Phase

Once all the elements are in place, the website project moves to Icon’s in-house development team to take what is just artwork and turn it into your interactive website.

As every detail has been planned and thought out from the beginning, your website, when you see it in action as a test site, should meet and exceed your expectations, bringing to life online tools, images and navigation elements.

Phase 5 – Deployment Phase

Once all content is uploaded and the test website is approved, Icon will run final checks to ensure site functionality and compatibility. The overall project is carefully checked including indexing with major search engines and setting up reporting functionality.

When the new website has been verified, the website is made live to everyone on the internet and digital marketing campaigns are put into action to immediately drive traffic to your new website

Icon uses a five step project management process to ensure your website meets with business goals and objectives and that your project is delivered on time and on budget.

Step 1 - Discovery Phase

Step 2 – Details Phase

Once the initial business questions are answered, the details phase of the project then starts going into more specific online goals such as

How is the success of the website going to be measured?

What types of content will you present on the site, how often will they be updated and who will manage the updates?

What social media are you using or planning to use and how can this be integrated into the site

Do you plan of selling directly from online?

Do you require a private login section?

Keywords for your business

Step 3 – Design Phase

The initial planning and discovery that is set out in the first two phases is now put into practicality and transformed into stylish design.

The design phase includes the development of Google friendly SEO website copy.

Phase 4 – Development Phase

Once all the elements are in place, the website project moves to Icon’s in-house development team to take what is just artwork and turn it into your interactive website.

Phase 5 – Deployment Phase

When the new website has been verified, the website is made live to everyone on the internet and digital marketing campaigns are put into action to immediately drive traffic to your new website

Ignore digital marketing at your peril.

Wed, 30 Mar 2016 09:44:00 GMT

A new Australian report looking into the B2B Marketing Outlook 2016 has this week been published by Green Hat in association with ADMA , Marketing Magazine and B2B Marketing UK .

The report, now in its sixth year, looks at best in class analysis and how to measure marketing activity using this insight into best practice.

Jodi Sangster, CEO, ADMA summed up the results of the report.

“2016 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for B2B marketers as the investments in digital transformation are starting to be seen.

“Budgets continue to be on the upward trajectory with digital now accounting for just over 30% of total spend. Another transformative shift is the move towards content marketing, with marketers allocating almost as much of their budget to content marketing as they do to traditional marketing. It will be interesting to see how this trend tracks in 2017 as content marketing moves to the peak of the Gartner Hype Cycle.”

Some of the key findings of the report included

According to Gartner Digital marketing has gone mainstream; 98% of marketers affirm that offline and online marketing are merging. A third say digital techniques are fully incorporated into their marketing operation.

Content marketing and digital marketing in general go hand in hand. With most businesses focused on increase in revenue and increase in leads generated, the digital channels cannot be ignored and need to be more closely integrated with all other marketing activities, digital and traditional

“B2B marketers who have not fully embraced technology to improve conversion and engagement should make this a 2016 priority or risk losing relevance,” concluded Sangster.

A new Australian report looking into the B2B Marketing Outlook 2016 has this week been published by Green Hat in association with ADMA, Marketing Magazine and B2B Marketing UK. The report, now in its sixth year, looks at best in class analysis and how to measure marketing activity using this insight into best practice. Jodi Sangster, CEO, ADMA summed up the results of the report. “2016 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for B2B marketers as the investments in digital transformation are starting to be seen. “Budgets continue to be on the upward trajectory with digital now accounting for just over 30% of total spend. Another transformative shift is the move towards content marketing, with marketers allocating almost as much of their budget to content marketing as they do to traditional marketing. It will be interesting to see how this trend tracks in 2017 as content marketing moves to the peak of the Gartner Hype Cycle.” Some of the key findings of the report included

How can avocado on toast cost $16.50?

Tue, 29 Mar 2016 01:40:00 GMT

The regular price range of avocado is between around $1.50 and $3 each. But adding a sprinkle of spice (Himalayan Rock Salt anyone?), and mashing it but calling it something different surely can’t be worth the $16.50 price tag. Tell that to the thousands who can pay a 400% mark up for brunch each weekend.

These people aren’t foolish, they know what an avocado is worth. So why are they willing to pay it? Because it’s about the experience of going out for breakfast or brunch, the lovely notion of a long lingering meal with family or friends fresh in the morning that they are buying.

And good cafes, cafes that are buzzing from dawn till well into the afternoon, know this. The breakfast market is getting bigger and bigger, and the number of cafes competing against each other are rising to match this.

In a recent article, The Courier Mail reported that diners are paying up to $12 for bread and butter, $2 for condiments, and even a dollar for scrambling an egg. According to Restaurant and Catering Australia deputy chief executive, Sally Neville, “Labour makes up 45 per cent of costs. But more people than ever are eating out, and the reality is that if the value isn’t right, people will not engage with a business. So if they are going back, they must be happy with the experience being delivered.”

Delivering on the experience and expectation of going out for breakfast or brunch is what the $16.50 price tag delivers. As with any marketing, the product or service needs to deliver on the built up expectation the customer has formed, or you’ll never get a return customer. If the experience delivers, the customer won’t complain about the $16.50 price tag, and will come back time and time again.

Not to just pick on the avocado, below are some more price comparisons for breakfast food thanks to The Courier Mail.

Restaurant vs home cooked

1 x Poached egg $4.50 v 12 x barn laid large eggs $4.90

Tomato side $4.50 v 1 truss tomato $0.98

Spinach side $4.50 v 60g baby spinach $2.00

Mushrooms side $4.50 v 500 grams $5.98

Slice sourdough toast $2.50 v Sourdough loaf $4

I’m astounded that cafes can charge up to $16.50 for simple dishes such as avocado on toast, dressed up with buzz words like “crushed”, “crumbled” or “smashed”. Isn’t that what we do at home with the back of a fork? Aren’t they just different ways to mash an avo on a piece of bread? The regular price range of avocado is between around $1.50 and $3 each. But adding a sprinkle of spice (Himalayan Rock Salt anyone?), and mashing it but calling it something different surely can’t be worth the $16.50 price tag. Tell that to the thousands who can pay a 400% mark up for brunch each weekend. These people aren’t foolish, they know what an avocado is worth. So why are they willing to pay it? Because it’s about the experience of going out for breakfast or brunch, the lovely notion of a long lingering meal with family or friends fresh in the morning that they are buying. And good cafes, cafes that are buzzing from dawn till well into the afternoon, know this. The breakfast market is getting bigger and bigger, and the number of cafes competing against each other are rising to match this. In a recent article, The Courier Mail reported that diners are paying up to $12 for bread and butter, $2 for condiments, and even a dollar for scrambling an egg. According to Restaurant and Catering Australia deputy chief executive, Sally Neville, “Labour makes up 45 per cent of costs. But more people than ever are eating out, and the reality is that if the value isn’t right, people will not engage with a business. So if they are going back, they must be happy with the experience being delivered.” Delivering on the experience and expectation of going out for breakfast or brunch is what the $16.50 price tag delivers. As with any marketing, the product or service needs to deliver on the built up expectation the customer has formed, or you’ll never get a return customer. If the experience delivers, the customer won’t complain about the $16.50 price tag, and will come back time and time again. Not to just pick on the avocado, below are some more price comparisons for breakfast food thanks to The Courier Mail. Restaurant vs home cooked 1 x Poached egg $4.50 v 12 x barn laid large eggs $4.90 Tomato side $4.50 v 1 truss tomato $0.98 Spinach side $4.50 v 60g baby spinach $2.00 Mushrooms side $4.50 v 500 grams $5.98 Slice sourdough toast $2.50 v Sourdough loaf $4

Importance of the right message at the right time

Sun, 21 Feb 2016 19:12:00 GMT

In a hectic world of blogging and social media posting, it can be easy schedule your posts and online content well in advance to save you time in the future.

However, this morning we are reminded about the importance of timing in all posts that you do. Alongside news of the disaster that has occurred in Fiji from destructive Cat-5 cyclone Winston, was this travel news article – Fiji vs Bali. Which destination is better . Seems very insensitive given the breath of the disaster in Fiji and the millions it will take to get it back on it’s feet, and as a top tourist destination for Australians.

A week ago, when this article was probably approved and scheduled, there was nothing wrong with this post. But in light of the weekend disaster, perhaps someone should have realised it wasn’t really the right time to post it.

As with all marketing, including online, keeping in mind the right message at the right time is of the upmost importance.

Planning for Business Success in 2016

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 03:20:00 GMT

Why do so many New Year’s resolutions fail? Or diets that start so strong on day one never make it past day eight? It is inherent to human nature not to plan past the initial idea of wanting to do better and therefore never making a solid long term plan for success. This is also true when it comes to business growth.

Planning is the key to success. As the old adage says, failing to plan is planning to fail. Starting strong in 2016 will put you on the front foot for a successful year ahead so it is really worth thinking about your business and marketing strategy that will help grow your business in 2016.

It may be hard to predict what opportunities and threats your business may face in 2016, but having a solid business and marketing plan in place will reduce the likelihood of your business growth being stunted by this unpredictability.

Putting the cart before the horse

Strategy must set the course for your marketing. While there are a myriad of marketing activities that you can undertake to grow your business, setting a marketing strategy before you start actively promoting your business will ensure these strategies are in line with the goals for the business, will effectively ‘speak’ to your target markets, and are realistic in terms of delivering leads that you can turn into sales.

The ability to think strategically about your business is very different to planning tactical activities. Your marketing strategy is the overall guide to what you are trying to achieve. These are essentially your goals. Your marketing plan then becomes the more detailed translation of the exact tasks you are going to undertake in order to deliver your business goals.

Developing a marketing strategy and following a set marketing activity plan for the time ahead is key to a successful business year. These act as a map for us to follow and is an effective blueprint for the year ahead.

WHERE DO YOU START WHEN BUILDING YOUR 2016 MARKETING PLAN?

Review, Reflect and Reveal

Learning from the past is a key tool in business planning for the future. A thorough review needs time for reflection, complete honesty and an open mind. It is not a time for criticism or regrets. It is a time for learning and planning. Look at all aspects of your business from the point of view of your staff and your customers and go through the finer details of your customer service to ask yourself:

• What went well? Why?
• What didn’t go so well? Why?
• What do you want to change? Why?

Aligning Marketing with Business Goals for 2016

All businesses have goals, whether they are financial, quality related or customer focused. Such goals can include growing new customers in a particular region, or increasing retention rates and brand loyalty. Unfortunately when some businesses plan their marketing strategies, they do it in isolation. By focusing on the tactics, and often the budget, instead of how the marketing strategy can support and help achieve the business goals, businesses are creating a marketing vacuum.

So where do you start? To begin writing your marketing strategy, each business goal should be broken down to understand how the goal can be achieved. A solid marketing strategy will help deliver your business goals. For example, if your business goal is to increase client retention to 75 per cent, marketing activities to help deliver that can include sales training, loyalty programs, pricing strategies or direct and online marketing campaigns that target existing customers and drive to deliver the retention goals of the business.

Each business goal needs to have a marketing strategy to support it, and each of these marketing strategies needs to:

• Clearly define the target audience. For example, in the case of increasing client retention, this would be existing customers.

• Highlight what the touch points are with those customers and how can we increase them to grow loyalty and retention in this case.

• Define what the unique selling proposition is for those customers buying from you and how can you better communicate this.

• Include pricing strategy to reward loyalty. For example, think No Claim Bonus strategies.

• Include measurable results.

• Include specific promotional tactical elements.

Marketing strategies developed in isolation from their overarching business goals are simply marketing tactics that you hope will work. Building a marketing strategy that addresses each of the business goals will more clearly define your marketing program and more likely lead to success.

Digital for Success in 2016

Digital marketing strategies are often very daunting to everyone except those in the industry. But if you haven’t already embraced digital media as a viable marketing channel for your business, you have already fallen far behind the competition. Digital marketing is not just a major factor for success in 2016, it’s a necessity.

So how can we harness digital marketing strategies to achieve our business goals? Again, spend a conscientious effort on devising those business goals and then break them into achievable tasks. Applying a digital stratagem will be much easier if you are clear about your intentions and direction.

Local Area Marketing is imperative for local franchisee success

While your franchise itself is typically a national business, the franchisee is locally based. They serve local customers and provide services to the local community. It stands to reason that localised marketing strategy is essential to your fundamental goals as it targets your core business. By getting your local marketing right, you are well on your way to achieving successful outcomes.

Targeting your local area sales potential can be greatly enhanced by the contemporary way in which we now seek out products and services. The personalised way customers now search for businesses has made it even more imperative for franchisees to advertise specifically to their local area, especially when it comes to an online presence.

Luckily, this is an area where there are no tricks – simply basics to get right. By taking the simple steps to ensure that your Google My Business and Bing Places for Business listings are correctly created and optimised, you have established yourself a powerful online presence. Keeping your information consistent across your digital presence is also vital to ensuring high visibility in local area searches.

The Map Pack available through the key platforms will target your greatest local exposure. With more than eighty-five different ways to appear in a search, you must be optimising your search-ability for every possible term and option. By nailing these key, simple digital steps you can significantly increase your local profile as well as your online presence.

Embrace the Power of Social Media

While the franchise industry’s success has been defined by uniformity and consistency, the advent of social media tools is extensively shaking up these notions within the industry. Social media can be a powerful marketing tool when used successfully to find new customers and connect with existing customers in a personal way. Franchises and franchisees are smart to take advantage of social media as it is an incredibly inexpensive way to brand and market every business’ services to target markets within their own, personal domain.

The key to using social media as a franchisee is understanding how building a community and increasing your online visibility will help with your bottom line. And it achieves these outcomes by doing just that, increasing your visibility and therefore likelihood of influencing a sale. Social media does not ultimately create sales directly as in a one-on-one conversation, but can strongly influence and educate your target markets about you and your offerings.

The key to social media success is to not get hung up on the tools and technology but to focus on how you can use them more effectively to:

• Increase the visibility of your brand and that of your franchisee business;

• Build and cultivate your professional networks;

• Develop and grow relationships with customers and influencers;

• Engage in real-time, two-way interaction with people, including answering queries;

• Publish and distribute original content that demonstrates your expertise;

• Share curated links to relevant information that adds value to the lives of your customers;

• Communicate directly with your community of followers, advocates and supporters; and

• Ultimately generate new leads and boost sales for your business.

If you are looking to social media to boost your business, understand that for most businesses, social media is an influence to a sale, just one place a potential customer will go to find out about your business.

Social media is an important business communication tool because it is a way to communicate and engage with loyal customers and to grow your customer base. Marketing can be highly complicated and its inefficient or misinformed use can be unnecessarily expensive without the rewards.

Solid and successful marketing strategies thoroughly understand your essential business goals, and work towards these at all times. And these need not be the height of sophisticated marketing theory. It is more important to comprehensively pin down the basics before acting on grander scales.

Your successful 2016 relies heavily on the business goals and marketing strategies you carefully consider now, so take the time to really concentrate on these as you begin this new year.

This article appears in the Jan/Feb 2016 issue of Business Franchise Australia & New Zealand

5 things you need to know for an online shopping website

Fri, 05 Feb 2016 02:14:00 GMT

A recent study by CitiXsys found that 85% of Australians are regularly shopping online, and 52% of people surveyed find online shopping more convenient than in-store. Given that online sales are an increasing trend in Australia, is your business or website ready to capture online sales?

Building an eCommerce-enabled website was once only the domain of major retailers and businesses, but it is a lot simpler a process than you might think. Here are five things you need to know to build your online shopping experience.

Icon Visual Marketing are experts at designing and developing highly effective eCommerce websites that are easy to update and each month deliver sales. Contact us today to ask about how we can help your business grab some of the increasing sales being made online.

Kicking your business growth goals in 2016

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 15:17:00 GMT

As manufacturing continues to decline as an industry sector, both in terms of employment and output, it is medium-sized enterprises, or companies with revenue of $1 million-$100 million, who will continue to experience the fastest levels of growth, according to the report, A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050 by Ibis World.

This growth in medium sized business will in large be due to the trend to outsourcing by households and businesses, creating new entrepreneurial opportunities.

According to the same report the standalone small business will eventually become a thing of the past.

The 2015 thinkBIG study conducted by RSM highlighted that medium sized Australian businesses continue to face a myriad of challenges in the current business environment and this is unlikely to change in the near future. Disruptive technologies and innovation are accelerating the need for change and are having a profound impact on many traditional business models and their revenue streams. To compete effectively, businesses must adapt and evolve quickly to respond to what is becoming the new “norm”.

Competition for customers and share of wallet is intensifying and now, more than ever, business owners need to be better connected to customers with a real focus on sales planning as part of their overall business ¬strategy.

Australian small and medium businesses that are ready for change and have strong, strategic plans in place are likely to succeed.

TOP strategies for growth according to RSM thinkBIG Australia 2015 report

Business planning
Business planning has always been important but it has never been more so than now. Markets are intensely competitive and businesses must have a plan in place to avoid being left behind. And while it may be hard to predict what opportunities and threats your business may face in 2016, having a strategic marketing plan in place will reduce the likelihood of your business growth being stunted by unpredictability.

What to include in your business plan is up to you. It can include action plans, financial and business goals, marketing, operating and management plans. Whatever the areas are that your business needs to focus on should be included in the business plan.

Rather than seeing planning as a chore, see it as updating an essential road map that sets the direction of the business. The time spent on planning will help clarify the vision for the company.

Businesses that do have a plan outperform those that do not plan.

Businesses are undergoing significant structural change. Technology is driving what is termed the ‘digital disruption’, which is the change that occurs when new digital technologies and business models affect the value proposition of existing goods and services.

Businesses who understand that, in order to stay ahead of the competition, they need to transform their business to embrace ¬technology, will continue to achieve business growth through innovation and change.

Icon Visual Marketing offers companies of all sizes strategic business and marketing consultation which brings to structure and process to your marketing.

By working with Icon Visual Marketing, your business marketing plan is not a program set in stone. Our ongoing consultation allows for your plans and tactics to be continually reviewed, improved and updated, reflecting your growing or moving target market and product range. Call Icon Visual Marketing today on 1300 138 984.

Will Social media increase my sales?

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 14:14:00 GMT

So, you’re the marketing person for a medium sized business and your boss sides up to you in the lunchroom and puts you on the spot by asking, “Will social media increase my sales?” Um, splutter splutter, what does the boss know about social media. Who told her?

So, how do you answer? Yes you know social media is important, yes it can help the company, but can you guarantee that it will drive sales for the company. Do you want to put your job, your reputation on the line by telling the boss that social media will fill the sales funnel and increase sales across the business?

Social media can be hard to quantify in terms of its direct correlation with sales, not what the boss wants to hear right. But that in no way means that social media can’t be used to grow your business and customer base.

Here are eight valuable ways that social media can work for your business.

Top 10 Benefits of Outsourcing to a Marketing Agency

Mon, 23 Nov 2015 20:16:00 GMT

In marketing the decision whether to outsource your marketing or build a team in-house can be difficult and challenge the traditional way your business runs. We look at it this way. Unless you find the ‘mythical marketer” with the right mix of strategy expertise to build you a solid marketing experience, combined with the skills to implement a calendar of marketing activities including digital marketing, creative design as well as web programming , then your in-house marketing has already grown to be at least three people who have a wide range of skills and capacity to deliver on your marketing function. And that’s an expensive team when you take into account for the hidden of maintaining internal fixed marketing assets including attrition, lack of support, unable to scale when needed etc .

Here are the top ten reasons we see why it’s a great benefit to outsource your marketing team.

Icon Visual Marketing is a Sydney Marketing Agency who are engaged as an outsourced marketing team for a wide range of businesses and corporation. Icon focus on focused on delivering strategic marketing plans and campaigns for clients from small to medium businesses to larger companies with a range of marketing programs. By engaging Icon Visual Marketing as your outsourced marketing team, you get access to our highly experienced and knowledgeable team.

When the market softens, it’s time for marketing to go to work

Fri, 30 Oct 2015 02:40:00 GMT

The last few weeks has seen a slowdown in the Sydney, and Australian, property market, with news across the country reporting slowing auction clearance rates and property on the market for longer than has been seen in the past few years. While the property market has been hot for a while, what about other industries that don't operate during such booms?

It’s during a softening and quieter market when sales are slow that real marketing needs to go to work.

So how should you approach marketing spending in times of financial challenge? When things get soft, what is the best action to take?

If you want to have a competitive advantage when the market gets soft, stay calm and get clever. Marketing and selling in a difficult economy requires a different approach than during a more prosperous economy. It’s challenging, but not impossible.

When the market get quiet, it’s time for real marketing to go to work. Icon Visual Marketing is a full service sales and marketing agency who work closely with clients across a range of industries to deliver marketing that reaches your next customer.

Key Take Aways from the 2015 Google Analytics Conference

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 19:19:00 GMT

As it does every year, the 2015 Google Analytics Conference continued to share insights, trends, business challenges and digital updates direct from the global team of Google. The Icon Digital Marketing team attended the 2015 conference in Sydney and were provided a great round up of the current and oncoming challenges faced by data analytics and digital marketing industries.

Marketing Co-Ordinator and Social Media aficionado Leroy Soeterboek enjoyed 2015 as his first Google Analytics Conference. He has put together below the key take aways that businesses can learn from the conference and how Icon will be using the information to drive success for all clients not just on digital campaigns but marketing strategy and business planning.

“ The most apparent theme from speakers was the importance of clear and concise communication of not only complex analytical anomalies and discoveries but also of the fundamental questions that drive its collection and analysis. The speakers outlined the importance of structured frameworks within organisations that could be used and improved over time to achieve data driven goals.

An organisation can sculpt a stronger understanding of how data analytics can help them by focusing on the business objectives. By involving all relevant departments these objectives can be turned into an analytically driven hypothesis, which is simply an assumptive statement that can then be tested via the use of Google Analytics. This is where clear and definitive language is needed to communicate between departments. To break it down, you want to use your business and marketing objectives to create this assumptive statement around your analytics data, then create a set of questions that can prove whether this statement is true or false. This can take time and resources, however the rewards can be huge as you begin to leverage the flood of information to benefit your business.

Alas, finding the correct questions to ask around data collection and analysis can be the greatest challenge, as all the data in the world is useless unless the problem it meant to solve is completely understood. At times, the most obvious questions can point toward a better understanding of the problem.

Once the problem has been properly deciphered, it is then a matter of delivering a set of goals that are bounded by a specific timeframe and budget, this requires a solid framework that is understood by all vested stakeholders in your organisation.

A definitive and accessible language is paramount. Make sure everyone is flush with the vocabulary. Language is one of the most crucial frameworks you need to take the most from your data. The overall success of a digital analytics campaign is dependent on the communication that links all your stakeholders.
By collaborating and communicating on every level, an organization can establish a transparent and effective analytics campaign.

The results of a campaign are then only as strong as the story you can tell at the end, so being able to communicate the analytical discoveries to everyone in your organisation in an interesting manner is also of great importance.

As you can see, good communication along with analytical expertise are essential at all levels of management when constructing a digital analytics campaign . “

The speakers and their presentation topics culminated to provide a holistic overview of the complex issues that digital analysts, marketers and their clients face on a day to day basis.

The Micro-Moment: Businesses’ Next Frontier

Fri, 11 Sep 2015 02:56:00 GMT

As part of Icon's ongoing commitment to being at the forefront of changes in digital marketing , our digital marketing team recently attended the 2015 Google Partners Masterclass in Sydney. Once again, Google did not disappoint with their extensive research into consumer behaviour in our digitised society. This year, it’s all about the micro-moment. Here’s what we learnt.

What is a micro-moment?

Labelled as the “new battleground for brands” by Google , the micro-moment is all about those in-the-moment actions that consumers take during their day. Statistics show that consumers don’t wait until they’re at a desk to start product research or commit to a purchase – they’re committing right as the need arises on their mobile devices. If you’re not there in their moment of need, then you’re missing the opportunity to sell before you’ve even delivered your sales pitch.

The smartphone has truly driven the rise of the micro-moment. The ability for consumers to research a product, solve unforeseen problems, or work towards a goal via a device in their pocket has attributed to a fast-paced consumer lifestyle in which purchases can be settled within seconds. For businesses, that means more opportunities but less time to be found and less time to impress. In fact, according to research conducted by Google:

These are automatic actions that make up part of our everyday actions - micro-moments where consumers don’t even think twice and just grab a smartphone and go. Businesses need to be a part of these micro-moments to thrive.

Become a part of a solution.

A large component of the micro-moment is becoming a part of a solution for the consumer. By doing so you’re capturing the audience that needs it on-the-spot and if the research is any indication, that’s a large audience. Often-times, it’s the moments that businesses overlook that can become your biggest champion. For example:

In both of these scenarios, the smartphone will help to influence the consumer’s next purchasing decision. If you’re not on the map for that group of friends looking for a close-by restaurant, they’re not considering you. If you’re not on the first page for those parents looking for a new cake mixer, you’ve lost an opportunity to gain some new brand loyalty. If you’re the store and you don’t have a compelling offer that puts you above the competition, there’s no reason that the consumer will choose you.

It’s a vicious battleground to navigate through but the victors here will enjoy a new stream of customers who know exactly what they want. You just need to provide.

Being in the micro-moment

Being in the moment with the consumer is where savvy businesses are seeking to be but it’s easier said than done. It requires a strategy and a unique understanding of the position in which your brand sits in the context of these micro-moments. Are you on Google My Business or Bing Places for Business? Are you using paid search to put yourself upfront for competitive terms on mobile devices? Are you tailoring your offers to new and returning customers? Are you leveraging news, viral content, product launches, and more? Are you receiving a steady stream of positive reviews? If you’re not, the chances are that your competitors are.

There’s a lot to consider and it can be difficult for businesses that are already struggling for time. But you can’t ignore the effect of mobile on the customer journey otherwise you’ll find yourself on the back foot. For more information regarding Google’s micro-moment research, check out their dedicated webpage or contact Icon Visual Marketing on 1300 138 984 for help discovering where your brand sits on the ever-changing customer journey.

Can social media really boost my business?

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 03:27:00 GMT

Social media is a great engagement tool, used effectively for getting closer to customers and understanding their interests and needs, however many business are unsure if the time and effort they put into social media is having any direct impact on the bottom line.

The key to social media is understanding how building a community and increasing your online visibility will help with your bottom line by just that, increasing your visibility and therefore likelihood of influencing a sale, not sales directly from social media.

According to Business Victoria, a guide for small businesses to help start, run and grow businesses , the key to social media success is to not get hung up on the tools and technology but to focus on how you can use them more effectively to:

If you are looking to social media to boost your business, understand that for most businesses, social media is an influence to a sale, just one place a potential customer will go to find out about your business.

Don’t expect to have a Facebook and instantly, business will improve. It needs to be part of an integrated online strategy, with all parts working together to deliver new customers.

Is Social media worth the time for small business?

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 01:14:00 GMT

Small business owners are renowned for wearing all hats in the business – bookkeeper, sales manager, marketing manager, handyman, and accountant and HR manager. Now there is a new force small business owners are wrangling with – Social Media.

There is no doubt that social media usage across all platforms has increased. In Australia, 30% of small to medium businesses have a social media presence, overwhelmingly focusing on Facebook as the platform of choice.

The Sensis Social Media Report 2015 has shed some insight into why many small businesses feel frustrated with the perceived lack of results from social media regardless of how much time they are spending on social platforms.

Just 16% of all small businesses are measuring any results from social media and over 80% of these businesses have failed to form a strategic plan for their social media presence.

Social guru Ted Rubin isn’t surprised one bit at small businesses not understanding how to position their social media to help grow their business—and told Forbes Magazine it’s because the small business community’s expectations of social media platforms that is creating the gap.

Forming a social media strategy and a plan including objectives and expected outcomes, and measuring them, is key to the success of building social media that delivers results. Expectations from social media need to be planned upfront and drive the way your business will use social media.

“Return on relationship takes time,” Rubin says. “People are being sold on social as a place to generate leads, but it’s really a place to build loyalty, answer customer service questions and to build a community.” These things take time, he says, and commitment to the platform, but in his experience they have proven to be the value that does result in an increase in revenue. How? Through trust and loyalty.
“Any business owner small or large will say that’s the win,” Rubin says. “If people trust you they’re going to be loyal. If they’re loyal, their average order will be higher, the frequency of their purchases will be higher and the life expectancy of them as a customer will be longer.”

The Australian Sensis Social Media Report 2015 concluded that “Those SMEs who have embraced social media were more confident about their business prospects and reported better sales, profitability and employment performance than those without a social media presence. They were also more likely to be seeking growth and many expect to spend either the same or more on social media in the coming year.

The social media space continues to offer real opportunities for businesses seeking to better engage with customers and potential customers however quite a few are missing out on this opportunity by not having any presence. Businesses using social media should have a strategy and invest the necessary time, money and resources implementing it and measuring its effectiveness to maximise the benefits for them and their stakeholders.”

According to Social Media Today , “At its best, social media marketing can increase your small businesses visibility, give you a bigger reach and engage your current and future customers.”

To come back to the original question, is social media worth it for small businesses, to get closer to customers, have a portal for two way communication and build loyalty and trust, then yes, social media is definitely worth it for small businesses.

Social Media and SEO: A Symbiotic Relationship

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 03:54:00 GMT

Any search engine specialist who’s in the know will tell you that social media and search engine optimisation work in tandem to bolster your visibility online. However, breaking down the symbiosis between the two isn’t easy. That’s because while the data behind social media and organic performance tell us that nurturing your social activity will grow your organic results, not many have analysed why.

Unfortunately, you can’t expect to create your social media accounts and have your organic results grow overnight. There is strategy involved and ignoring the strategical element will reflect poorly on your ROI.

The Authority Factor
Authority, or site trust, is recognised as a vital factor for gaining visibility in search engines whether that be via ranks or other placements. Building that authority is a multi-faceted process, and nurturing your social media is only one part of developing that authority in the eyes of search engines. With the increasing integration of social networks into Google – for example, social media profiles in the knowledge graph or tweets within search results – it’s not difficult to draw the conclusion that Google respects the influence a thriving social profile can make to people’s perception of a business.

And that’s not a perception held by search engines – it’s consumer behaviour, too. It’s easier than ever for consumers to conduct research on the businesses they’re purchasing from and one of the first ports of call is an organisation’s social network presence. If you’re not there, you could be losing business before your sales pitch has even started.

The New Link-Building
While links were previously king for driving your website to the top of the search results, they were too easily manipulated. As a result, search engines are clamping down on black-hat tactics and are looking into alternative measures of audience approval for websites, and social media is just one of those new metrics. In fact, it’s arguably easier to grow your link profile via social media compared to traditional methods as much of the work is crowdsourced. You needn’t ask for your link to be shared across the web – it’s just natural behaviour in social networks if your content is social-friendly.

Ripe with Signals for Local
Social Media is especially important for local businesses. Local SEO has a number of signals that are especially nurtured to gain ranking for local queries, or queries affected by a searcher’s detected location, and these signals marry well with the capabilities of social media. Multiplying your online presence with social profiles while help you build a consistent Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) that Google will look upon favourably. Couple this with reviews on platforms such as Facebook and Google+, and you’ll find that your local visibility will grow considerably.

Social Media – It’s Mandatory
No matter the industry you’re in, social media isn’t just an option – it’s an expectation from the customer base, and it can’t be ignored. Not only do you open up a dialogue with your potential and returning customers, you also provide a number of signals to search engines which will aid in growing your search visibility.

At the end of the day, social media is where the conversations are happening and that’s where your business needs to be to flourish in this digital age.

Fill in the marketing gaps with a Sydney outsourced marketing agency

Sun, 16 Aug 2015 02:51:00 GMT

A recent report has demonstrated the very real gaps in marketing talent, technology and strategy and highlights the very real impact they are having on bottom line business performance.

The marketing industry is advancing at an unprecedented rate, the rapid technology shifts, the reliance on digital and online marketing channels that just five years ago didn’t exist is creating seemingly insurmountable gaps in market talent, technology and strategy.

Businesses are looking for these hybrid, almost mythical marketing managers, who somehow have the right mix of strategy acumen, executional know how and there finger on the pulse of the ever changing world of digital marketing. However is it fair to ask that one person, or a small team, be wholly responsible to having all the skills and knowledge needed for modern day marketing? It’s almost impossible.

The Mythical Marketer , even if they do exist, have the limitations of time and reality, no one person can do it all. In the report, 90% of companies recognised that they lack the necessary digital skills in key areas of social media, mobile and performance monitoring and analysis and 96% feel the breadth of marketing skills needed to succeed has increased dramatically . However one of the most telling statistics is that 75% of the marketers surveyed themselves feel their lack of skills is impacting revenue in some way.

Building an internal marketing department that has all the necessary skills, knowledge and experience can be overwhelming and near on impossible to cover all the skills necessary, which means then having a range of small niche agencies also engaged to manage projects and specific areas of marketing. That’s getting to be an expensive team.

Outsourcing to a Sydney marketing agency like Icon Visual Marketing provides access to expertise in every marketing discipline−from an experienced team of specialists that can be scaled to suit projects of any size and scope. Such flexibility represents the most critical benefit of marketing outsourcing: You only for the services used for when you need them.

We draw experienced and knowledgeable staff who have previously worked in big agencies and corporations who come to the agency as they are interested in doing a great job for clients without a lot of the pomp and excess that can go with marketing agencies.

Businesses large and small can benefit from working with an outsourced marketing agency such as Icon where for less than a Marketing Coordinator salary you get access to over 35 marketers who have high level strategic and hands on implementation experience in all areas of marketing.

Icon Visual Marketing is a Sydney Marketing Agency focused on delivering strategic marketing plans and campaigns for clients from small to medium businesses to larger companies with a range of marketing programs. By engaging Icon Visual Marketing as your outsourced marketing team, you get access to our highly experienced and knowledgeable team.

How can I control what is being said about me online?

Mon, 03 Aug 2015 19:51:00 GMT

Fake negative reviews about your business
Negative consumer reviews posted on a review platform which does not reflect a reviewer’s genuinely held opinion and are motivated by a personal dislike of a business or its staff can cause substantial harm.

Businesses affected by fake negative reviews have the right to complain to the platform which publishes the review and to relevant regulatory authorities.

Guidance on negative reviews about your business
The use of platforms as a forum for personal reprisals against staff or business owners is inappropriate. Businesses affected by personal vendettas should notify the review platform immediately, identifying affected reviews, and providing reasons.

In extreme circumstances, businesses which are the victims of ongoing harassment or serious threats through fake negative reviews may also consider contacting Police. Affected businesses should also notify the review platform immediately, providing them with reasons and any evidence of relevant fake reviews.

The consumer watchdog warns that those posting fake reviews for reprisal or as part of a personal vendetta face fines of up to $220,000 and that amount can increase to more than a million dollars for companies.

But what should you do about genuine negative online reviews? See our article about how to respond with Negative Reviews online

What does your content give customers they don’t have?

Fri, 31 Jul 2015 03:39:00 GMT

Content marketing is highly effective in building your online profile, demonstrating your knowledge of your industry while growing your credibility in your field. It’s a powerful tool to share your specialised information.

However when creating content for online , whether it is blog articles, video presentations or social media posts, it still needs to provide value add to customers, delivering interesting and relevant information that helps solve their problems.

According to Social Media Today , “Too many companies believe that only their product must provide value. But in fact their communication should provide value as well.”

Content marketing is your chance to earn trust and become a resource centre, delivering content that solves problems; answers questions and can inspire action.

The main purpose for your content is to be a resource for your audience – by building value and trust with your audience, you will gradually earn the right to ask for a sale.

Risks with Social Media for the Medical Industry

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 19:51:00 GMT

It’s safe to say that social media isn’t just a fad; it’s an evolution in the way we communicate, and that means that medical practitioners will need to be educated in how to use it. Most people already know how important social media can be to building a trustworthy face for your medical business, but there are risks associated with social media and medical professionals that must be considered in your marketing before you think about diving into the deep end.

During the training and education for medical professions professional standards are reiterated and reemphasised continuously. This doesn’t end with face-to-face interaction, and this is where many medical professionals are falling into the traps. While social media can be a great tool to grow your practice, it can also mean risky business if medical professionals are not maintaining the same level of medical professionalism they would in their interactions with patients.

Due to the risks, many practitioners would prefer to avoid social media all together but this is becoming increasingly difficult as it integrates with our daily lives. However, as a joint-initiative by the AMA , NZMA , AMSA , and NZSMA suggests, medical practitioners will need to embrace the digital world while still maintaining professional standards. So, what are the risks, and how can you avoid them?

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a well-known professional standard for medical professionals; many patients are well-versed in this standard too. And yet, with social media and how easy it is to share information, it’s commonplace for medical professionals to have a lapse in judgement and betray this confidentiality agreement by sharing patient information online, whether that’s to a public forum or private group.

Defamatory Statements

Defamatory comments should not be posted by people involved in your medical practice or responded to under any circumstance. These can lead to a civil claim with substantial monetary compensation needing to be paid.

Boundaries

It’s easy to allow patients to glimpse into your personal life with social media, but this can lead to a violation of patient-doctor boundaries. It’s wise to avoid online relationships with current or former patients, such as being Facebook friends or Twitter followers. Instead, consider medical practitioners may consider a professional page for themselves or their medical practice and communicate with patients through this channel.

Data

It’s not unreasonable to assume that once it’s on the internet, it’s there forever. This should be kept in mind whenever you decide to interact online in a professional capacity. This is true for existing and aspiring medical practitioners; unflattering media or comments that you have online can really come back to haunt you when it comes to finding employment, gaining referrals, or even new patients.

Privacy

Privacy is a dominant talking point this decade. If you’re on social media, take the time to go through all your privacy settings and ensure that they’re appropriate for you.

There’s a lot to consider with social media in the medical profession, but it can’t be ignored. That’s also why your marketing department needs to be well aware of the restrictions placed upon the medical industry in their marketing both online and offline. Icon Visual Marketing Medical Marketing team are experts in these limitations, and work exclusively with the medical industry to make ethical marketing strategies to grow your practice. If you need some guidance with your social media pages or digital marketing strategy , enquire with Icon today.

Case Study - Swiss Army knife shows success in Marketing to niche markets

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 04:59:00 GMT

They listen to their niche markets

Victorinox makes 35,000 knives each day – indeed the Swiss Army still carry the Swiss Army knife by Victorinox today. However the company has had it dark times.

In the wake of 9/11, sales of the Swiss Army knife dropped by almost 30% due to industry wide ban on carrying knives and pocket tools onto any flight, domestic or international. Instead of crumbling under this unforseen external threat, Victorinox responded by producing Swiss Army knives without knife blades – a flight version if you wish. They also relied on their extensive product diversification platform and listened to their customers to create a specific Swiss Army knife for a range of niche markets.

For bike riders there is the Bike Swiss Army Tool, a Golfers Swiss Army Tool includes a tee punch and ball marker and the Skipper Swiss Army Tool is a must have for all yachtsman and boating enthusiasts.

This might seem like small markets to go after, but its these niche markets where, if you provide a specific solution to meet their specific problem – like the Skipper Swiss Army tool to undo ropes and shackles - you will have a very loyal audience who are you most fanatical brand advocates.

Victorinox have also branched out into producing luggage and clothing – a good example of diversification. Now almost 50% of total sales are from newer product categories.

Benefits of professional medical marketers setting up your website

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 01:35:00 GMT

There are many steps to setting up a website; domain name registration, setting up hosting for your website, email addresses, design of your website, creating content, developing the website so it is easy to find on the web as well as integrating with any social media you may have or need.

As marketing experts, Icon's Medical Marketing Division take care of it all for you. When we work with you to develop your medical practice or specialist website, we have an initial discussion with you and then our expert team go away and start the process, planning to ensure the website will deliver on your objectives before any design or content is ever developed.

We ensure your involvement throughout the process, however we don’t burden you with the pressure of having to come up with all the ideas or content yourself. Our creative team are professionals who design creative and functional websites and our medical writers create compelling, medically written content that both educates your clientele and invites enquiries for your services.

Having our team of medical marketing specialists set up your website means that it is set up correctly from the very beginning. You can be assured that your website will deliver on your overall marketing objectives and be ready for ongoing optimisation programs to continue to increase your website traffic and online enquiries.

Industry Spotlight: B2B Marketing

Sat, 04 Jul 2015 05:03:00 GMT

B2B Marketing is the specialist field of understanding and communicating the challenges of communicating often complex and technical business products and services to niche business markets.

One of the keys to successful business to business marketing is the understanding that, regardless of what service or products you are selling, that while they are buying on behalf of a company, your buyers are still individuals at the end of the day. As individuals buying for a company, many of the values and needs still apply, however they may just need to be highlighted in a different manner.

Guiding a business buyer through the buying journey can be a gradual process, marketing strategy and communications should be used to lead them to the right end result. Ultimately, business buyers want to make the right decision for their company at a range of levels and therefore the sales process is often much slower than a B2C purchase.

So what is a business buyer looking for from you?

Assure them they are making the right decision
When buying on behalf on a business, there is even greater pressure to make sure you are making the right buying decision, that the product or service you select solves the problem and fits the bill. So it’s the B2B marketer’s role to help buyers to feel confident and comfortable in their buying decision.

Make them look good
A similar thought process, when buying on behalf of a company we, as B2B marketers and suppliers need to help them look good to their bosses and management. After all, their job in part relies on their ability to make the right choice.

Value add
Businesses and people are busier than ever. So most B2B buyers are looking for a supplier who can provide tailored solutions that account for unique challenges and priorities.

Ease of doing business
Your processes and people are a big part of B2B buyer experiences. If you product is the absolute best but you aren’t easy to do business with, buyers will simply turn elsewhere.

And very importantly in the B2B marketplace, your buyer generally isn’t just one person. It’s a range of roles who all have their own agenda in mind. Your Unique Selling Proposition needs to appeal to the business on a range of levels, often the reason why the selling cycle can take so long.

Icon Visual Marketing's team of specialist B2B marketing consultants can assist you in helping to establish your key value proposition for your markets or major customers. The determination of your value platform is critical to successful B2B marketing. Understanding your product or service from a holistic position will provide your business the distinct advantage you have been looking for and a platform for significant growth.

Can medical practices advertise online?

Wed, 24 Jun 2015 01:20:00 GMT

Changes over the last fifteen years, mean that medical practices and businesses can use a variety of media and marketing opportunities to advertising services and attract patients.

Done properly, medical marketing and advertising can grow your business, attract the patients you want, connect more with existing patients and build your reputation in your field.

An effective online medical marketing strategy is especially ideal for medical practices looking to grow business and attract a larger network of patients and referrers.

While there are no restrictions on medical business from advertising online , they still must meet the legal advertising regulations that govern all Australian medical practices and practitioners.

The Medical Board of Australia provides a comprehensive guide to what is acceptable and legal in marketing and advertising by medical practitioners.

Section 39 of the National Law states that health services must not be advertised in a way that:

Penalties can be harsh for a doctor or medical practice that breach these guidelines. Doctors may have to face court, pay fines, penalties or damages, refund money or run corrective advertising.

Icon’s Medical Marketing Division are specialists in advertising and marketing for medical businesses. Contact us today t o talk about how we can create a medical marketing strategy to help grow your business and build your patient and referrer network.

Three simple questions to clear and concise marketing

Mon, 15 Jun 2015 03:35:00 GMT

When formulating your marketing messages, it is essential to be clear, concise and thoughtful to whom you are talking to make the most impact from every communication.

If you try to use each communication or advertisement to be all things to all people by providing too much information, in a complicated and confused way, odds are your message will get lost and any action you were trying to encourage and promote will fail.

Each time you are putting together a social media post, an advertisement, a newsletter, think about three things:

Answering these three simple questions will make sure you are single minded in your approach. The clear advantage of being clear and concise is that people know what is expected of them and be more likely to complete an action.

Even in Cuba the power of a brand shines strong

Thu, 14 May 2015 11:43:00 GMT

The changes in Cuba’s economy and loosening power of the socialist regime has led to the rise of a new class not before existing in Cuba – entrepreneurs. A group of people who finally freed from government work can go out and create their own businesses and place in the Cuban economy.

One such business is La Pachanga, an upscale burger bar which understands the market and by all accounts is building a very successful business by understanding the power of the brand and delivering positive brand experience at every touchpoint.

While capitalism is still a dirty word in Cuba, there are a small growing middle class in Cuba who are using their former government employment to build their own successful businesses. Sergio, owner of La Pachanga burger bar is definitely on a winner.

The strong brand and logo are cited as, “the most important thing we’ve done to date, it’s the only way clients get know the brand.

“In Cuba, nothing like this has ever existed before.”

Everywhere in this burger bar the brand stands strong and proud, every opportunity is taken to highlight the brand to customers to build brand loyalty. Sergio knows the importance of brand in every way, opening up a VIP air-conditioned section in what was previously his master bedroom, only allowing access to local celebrities.

The main restaurant is no drag either. Bright coloured tables and service staff all feature the La Pachanga brand, with owner Sergio stating that the brand is “like Superman, but it’s Super Pachanga, you eat the Pachanga burger and you become stronger.”

The power of a brand, regardless of economy or industry sector can never be overlooked. Icon Visual Marketing are experts in building brands and marketing programs to promote brand loyalty. Contact us today to discuss your branding needs

Using your brand to attract the right talent

Fri, 01 May 2015 11:20:00 GMT

A strong and motivated sales force armed with your high quality product is the foundation to building a successful direct selling company . After all, your sales team are the public face of your company and it’s the positive experiences they deliver that will be most important in building long term customers.

Increased competition in the direct selling market space has seen more choice for sales agents to choose the company and brand they want to work with. To set your company apart and to entice the right talent, the power of your brand can make all the difference.

After all, it’s the power of the brand and the knowledge of the brand in the wider community that will help them along their way to be a successful sales agent.

Your brand is one of the most valuable assets of your business – it’s what sets you apart from your competitors. And your brand isn’t just a word or a logo, it’s all the aspects of your business that your customers hold valuable and why they keep coming back.

The key to attracting the right sales team is essentially delivering a position in the market for which your brand represents and is known for. Building a brand is more than just advertising and marketing; it’s about creating an emotional connection at every touch point.

The starting point of a brand strategy is to work out what the company stands for. What is the single most important value that the company presents to the world?

Strongly marketing your brand’s culture and what it stands for is the strongest way you can attract the right sales agents for your brand. After all, your sales force are unique, they are looking for a company to work with that they can be passionate about and are confident in selling it to their friends and family. They are relying on the strength of your brand to open the door to peoples home to host parties and sell your product.

By carefully managing a strong brand, you build credibility, have more influence on your target market, and motivate and attract the right talent.

MOBILEGEDDON - Google shaking up mobile search 21 April 2015

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 19:16:00 GMT

Changes to the Google search ranking signal have started changing how websites appear in mobile search. Claims are that more than half of Australia's biggest companies will "disappear" from Google on mobile devices as the US technology giant changes the way it ranks searches.

According to the Google Webmaster Central Blog, “Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

When it comes to search on mobile devices, users should get the most relevant and timely results, no matter if the information lives on mobile-friendly web pages or apps. As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns.

If you are unsure of how mobile friendly your website is, Google has provided a mobile-friendly test t o check.

If a web site is found not to be mobile-friendly, there is a good chance that from 22 April 2015, it will see a sudden drop in visitors.

Is your website effected by Mobilegeddon. As experts in building and designing responsive websites, Icon Visual Marketing can make your business website mobile so you can be ready for Google’s new mobile friendly world.

Contact Icon Visual Marketing online or call us on 1300 138 984 .

Take the Google Mobile Test Today

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 18:22:00 GMT

If you are unsure of how mobile friendly your website is, Google has provided a mobile-friendly test to check.

Social Media and Its Influence on SEO

Mon, 20 Apr 2015 20:11:00 GMT

When it comes to social media, little has to be said about its potential to accelerate a business’ growth. In fact, for many businesses, the presence of an official company account on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are no longer optional; they’re a necessity.

And yet, social media isn’t just about increasing your digital footprint and improving your community liaising efforts. When managed correctly, social media and search engine optimisation – or SEO – can work in tandem to deliver a great experience for your new and returning customers, and potentially give your organic rankings a nudge in the right direction.

Search engine algorithms are forever-changing in effort to match the habits of their users, so it’s no wonder why social signals are held in such high regards. In fact, according to Searchmetrics’ SEO Rank Correlations and Ranking Factors 2014 , social media signals accounted for six of the top ten ranking factors for high-performing websites in organic search results. That means not just visibility on the social media platforms your business is on but may also mean more visibility for user search queries.

Even so, the relationship between Social Media and SEO isn’t just a one-way street. Just like social media can drive visits to the website by aiding your organic rankings, SEO can aid your social media efforts by driving people to your social media pages and helping to increase your click-through rate on posts. This is done by optimising your website to utilise social metadata to improve how your website appears when linked to in social posts.

Social Media and SEO strategies are fine on their own, but an integrated marketing plan that allows the pair to work together can allow the pair to achieve even greater results. Take advantage of the ever-growing digital space by enquiring about a digital marketing solution from Icon Visual Marketing today!

Is SEO the Dark Arts?

Tue, 14 Apr 2015 03:16:00 GMT

There are some out there who would have you believe that SEO is a magical, mythical creature that is full of dark, black magic using tricks and sorcery to get you to their website. If someone is telling you that, it’s probably because they don’t understand it or can’t do it.

In years gone by, some dubious web businesses were definitely using unethical tricks – such as hidden text stuffed full of keywords, or having thousands of URLs – to gain higher rankings that were not necessarily relevant to your search. However several Google algorithm changes later and a general clean-up of those who were using such black hat techniques have seen SEO become and effective and indeed necessary marketing tool.

The goal for search engines is to mimic human behaviour. As such, to be highly visible in search engines, your website needs to be user-friendly which, in turn, will make it accessible to search engines. Effective SEO programs work on making websites as user-friendly as possible, ensuring the right content can be found from people’s search queries.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) have changed over time and focusing solely on where you rank for a, b or c keyword is no longer viable. SEO concerns itself with not only the state of your website and it’s accessibility for users and crawlers, but also external factors such as social media, business listings, business profiles – anything external that’s online that may affect your business’ visibility on the web.

SEO is a solid business tool that can indeed drive visitors and customers to your website.

Search Engine Optimisation is most effective when partnered with content marketing programs that feed fresh and relevant information to Google frequently. This ensures that your site is constantly being crawled, indexed and ranked by Google and of course other search engines.

When you create solid content focused around topics and areas of interest, you almost always receive far more (and oftentimes better) traffic from this content than keyword stuffed articles which often have a high bounce rate as they are nonsense.

The above image shows a client website when SEO and content marketing we’re set up and managed effectively by the Icon Digital Marketing team.

Icon Visual Marketing can deliver these same types of results for your web traffic with a combined SEO and content marketing program. Contact the Icon’s Digital Marketing team today to discuss increasing your website’s presence on the web.

5 Reasons Why PPC Marketing Can Help Your Business

Sat, 11 Apr 2015 21:51:00 GMT

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing shouldn’t be underestimated as a solid digital marketing strategy for your business. In fact, PPC Advertising can often be the big driver of leads to your business if it’s properly managed.

Here are 5 reasons how Pay Per Click Advertising can really help your business grow.

1) You only pay when an interested person clicks your advertisement.
Unlike a traditional advertisement where you pay a set amount regardless of performance, PPC advetising only costs you when an interested customer clicks on your ad.

That means a higher possibility of that visitor converting into a customer right off the bat. Why? Because your search advertisement will only appear when that customer has triggered its by typing in a relevant query. After that, if they’ve clicked your ad, you know that person is interested in your service or product; it’s now up to your landing page to get them to contact you.

2) Your budget is designed to suit to your business’ needs.
PPC Marketing isn’t static; it’s a dynamic strategy that can be changed to suit your business’ structure and budget, and it works best when used that way.

You can boost your budget in busy times when you’re certain you can convert visitors into customers, and lower the funds when it’s a slower time of year when people aren’t looking to invest in your services. And, because it’s pay-per-click, you know your budget is being effectively used by customers who are actually seeking your services.

3) PPC Marketing partners well with SEO.
PPC Marketing often returns fast results for businesses, and that partner well with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) programs that take time to start showing results. While you’re implementing those search engine best practices on your website and waiting for your organic listings to rise, PPC can drive visitors to your website and provide your business with a steady flow of work.

4) Expose your business to new markets.
PPC Marketing needn’t be focused on lead generation; in fact, it’s a popular tool for improving your organisation’s visibility on the web. By taking advantage of platforms such as Google’s Display Network, you can spread your brand name across the web and receive a boost in brand exposure. This is great for organisations focused on thought leadership, and can make your business a name that potential consumers recognise when they’re looking for a service that your industry provides.

5) Claim more visibility on search engine results pages.
Simply put, the more your business appears on search engine results pages, the higher the chance your website will receive a click. Along with the traditional ten blue links – or organic listings – in search engines, PPC Marketing can help you claim that vital top spot in the search results for popular keywords. Combine that with an optimised Google My Business listing, and you can potentially claim a majority of the top-third of search engine results pages, or all that above-the-fold area!

Don’t ignore PPC Marketing. It’s already taking a majority of the advertising funds in the digital space, and if you’re not there, it’s likely that your competition is. For more advice on how PPC Marketing can help your business grow, contact Google Partnered Icon Visual Marketing.

Pushing website design further

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 03:56:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing have been creating and developing websites for clients across a range of industries for many years, ensure the latest technology and optimisation is featured to deliver more website visitors and enquiries.

For the past three years, we have been building websites using the Google gold standard of website development, Responsive design , which ensures that the viewer’s experience is optimised for the screen they are using to search regardless of the size. And with changes coming from Google on 21 April 2015 , it’s more important than ever to ensure websites are designed with mobile viewers in mind.

Icon Visual Marketing has pushed this responsive design even further with the launch of our latest website for Catherine Park Estate. The website successfully conveys the majesty and beauty of the Estate, featuring the colours and richness of the history of the land and the lifestyle that will be enjoyed by residents of Catherine Park Estate.

With the Estate set to launch on 31 March 2015, the website has been built to allow people to register their interest in living at Catherine Park Estate and will continually be updated as the estate becomes available to residents.

Catherine Park Estate is the latest unique development from Harrington Estates , a development group that has successfully delivered the award-winning Harrington Park and Harrington Grove estates as pillars of Macarthur’s residential environment.

If you are interested in a website that sets you apart from the competition and is easy for customers to find and use, contact Icon Visual Marketing today.

Don’t risk your rankings – New Google penalties for not being mobile friendly.

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 07:58:00 GMT

Google has recently announced that its search ranking signal will soon favour mobile friendly websites in mobile searches , meaning non-mobile friendly sites are at risk of losing rankings and potential customers and sales.

According to the Google Webmaster Central Blog , “ Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results . Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

If you are unsure of how mobile friendly your website is, Google has provided a mobile-friendly test to check.

If a web site is found not to be mobile-friendly, there is a good chance that from 22 April 2015, it will see a sudden drop in visitors.

Responsive Design is today’s standard in building mobile friendly websites, a way to ensure regardless of the device that people are using to view your website, they are getting the best browser experience. Google has stated that responsive web design is the industry best practice.

Mobile search isn’t a “trend” it’s a fact that more and more people are going to be searching your site via mobile. Not convinced that your B2B target market is mobile users.

One easy way to know is through a quick Google Analytics report. Its as simple as three quick steps.

Odds are you will see a rise in mobile use of your website over this period.

You need to start preparing for what is being dubbed Mobilegeddon. As experts in building and designing responsive websites, Icon Visual Marketing can make your business website mobile so you can be ready for Google’s new mobile friendly world.

Contact Icon Visual Marketing online or call us on 1300 138 984 .

The Importance of Building Your Opt-In Email Database

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 02:25:00 GMT

Building an opt-in database of potential and existing customers is an important part of your marketing and business growth strategy. The ability to communicate offers, changes, relevant information, and sales in a cost-effective manner can increase sales, result in a higher rate of conversion than other online marketing activities, and widen the awareness of your brand and business.

The Australian Spam Act 2003 covers all electronic communications – email, SMS, faxes – and outlines that businesses must ensure that any messages are:

Many businesses rely on social media to send out offers, promotions, and information; however, the truth is that one of the huge advantages of email marketing is that most businesses achieve about a 20% open rate on email and a .3% opt-out rate . Compare that to social media where your news is likely to be lost in the constant information being delivered – or worse, never actually appears in your followers feeds. Email marketing is almost more important than social media, but admittedly not as shiny and new.

To build an opt-in database you should ask for email addresses at every touchpoint possible – in person, on the phone, when making a sale, or simply making an enquiry. Use every opportunity on your website to build your opt-in database. Offer a free regular email update which includes promotions, news, information, etc. Create whitepapers and interesting reports that people need to give you their email address in order to access.

Make it a regular business practice to always ask for email addresses and if they would like to receive offers, news, and promotions while also collecting the contact information.

Social Media: Just Another Form of Networking

Wed, 18 Mar 2015 21:18:00 GMT

When social media first began making its way into our lives many were ready to dismiss it as just another fad. Instead, social media persisted in permeating our social structures until it altered the very way we communicate with each other on a day-to-day basis. Whether you’re a fan of this interconnectedness or not, it’s hard to deny that social media has had a lasting effect on the way we share our lives with each other. However, is it really anything new? Well, yes and no.

Social Media is just another form of networking, and it’s one that you need to be involved in if your business is to grow. In fact, it’s arguably the biggest networking opportunity your business can take advantage of in this digital era. Facebook alone reported that 1.35 billion people are active per month on their social network as of September 2014; combine that with the fact that eighteen to forty-four year olds have been found to check their Facebook account up to fourteen times a day , and you quickly get a picture of how powerful social media can be for your business.

Nonetheless, social media isn’t easy to tame. Consumers nowadays are savvy, and have trained themselves to ignore traditional advertising that may be embedded on their timelines and newsfeeds. Marketers need to create content and media that not only catches the eye while potential customers scroll their feeds, but also entices those potential leads to follow the post. That means eye-catching visuals, provoking content, or an exclusive offer.

There aren’t many other avenues of advertising that allows your business to expose itself to potential customers up to fourteen times a day, and let’s not forget that that’s Facebook alone. When you consider the plethora of platforms in social media – Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn – the opportunities continue to grow. And, with platforms such as Hootsuite to make management of all those pages from one central interface easy, it leaves more time for you to brainstorm ideas to catch the interest of your digital visitors.

Icon Visual Marketing can help your business take advantage of social media by recommending the right platforms and tactics to maximise your exposure and engagement with potential consumers. For social media strategies that take your goals in mind, contact Icon Visual Marketing on 1300 138 984.

Ensuring Spam Act Compliance in Your Email Marketing

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 02:20:00 GMT

Since 2003, the Australian Spam Act has been in place to how regulate how businesses can communicate via email.

If your business uses any form of electronic marketing, including email and SMS marketing, there are three key areas that you must understand and comply with under the ACMA Spam Act .

1. Consent – the message must be sent with the recipient’s consent. The recipient may give express consen t, or under certain circumstances consent may be inferred from their conduct or an existing business or other relationships. Inferred consent may exist where you have an existing business relationship, where there is a reasonable expectation of receiving electronic communications.

2. Identify – the message must contain accurate information about the person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message and how to contact them. This includes the ‘from’ field and in the body of the message. If you cannot determine who has sent the message or feel the sender is not clearly identified, this may not comply with Spam Act requirements.

3. Unsubscribe – the message must contain a functional ‘unsubscribe’ facility to allow the recipient to opt out from receiving messages from that source in the future. Unsubscribe requests must be honoured within five working days.

According to the ACMA [1] , examples of unsubscribe include:

All commercial electronic messages must contain notification of how to unsubscribe from receiving further messages.

The ACMA send approximately 7,000 informal warnings to business each financial year informing them of breaches of the Spam Act. These informal warnings are effective in increasing compliance; however, failure to comply will result in fines being handed down.

The compliance side of email marketing is necessary. Both the financial and reputational consequences of failing to comply with the Spam Act are real.

Measuring digital marketing for success

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 00:28:00 GMT

If set up in the correctly with tracking in place, every aspect of digital marketing can be measured and tracked, analysed and reviewed so you can make real time adjustments to your digital marketing campaign and budgets.

Tracking software such as Google Analytics is a powerful tool to measure and track everything about visitors to your website which deliver insights so you can create meaningful campaigns that resonate with your audience.

Some of the areas you can track include:

With such a wealth of information available, clever marketers and businesses can create online and offline campaigns which will appeal more closely with their target audience. For example, if your highest value customers are female who like movies, creating campaigns that align with movie themes or incentivising purchases with movie tickets would most likely result in higher value purchases.

This is why monitoring more than just website traffic and visits is important. There is so much you can track; however, beware the sheer volumes of information. The real value in the numbers and graphics is what it means for your marketing; how it can help you get closer to your customers.

Icon has an expert digital and strategic marketing team who read reports and data each day and use it to create impactful marketing and sales campaigns.

What social media platform is best for a medical business?

Thu, 12 Feb 2015 01:28:00 GMT

Social media has become a popular way for people to communicate , but establishing your medical practice on social media isn’t as simple as creating a profile and putting up a few new posts! There are numerous questions your medical practice needs to ask itself before considering the creation of a profile on these new platforms to determine whether social media is right for you.

While it is true that medical practices need to be cautious of their presence on social media, it does not mean that your practice should dismiss it from your marketing plan altogether.

Social Media is a fantastic way to grow your medical business, generate credibility, and gain loyal clientele when used correctly. This necessitates that you take a step back from your practice and assess what social media presence your practice should have. Between Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram, where does your medical practice fit in?

You need not have a profile on each of these social networking websites, but you should have a profile on those that are relevant to your industry. Out of the list of social networks listed above – those are only the most popular platforms as of 2015 – Icon Medical Marketing would recommend your practice prioritise activity on Facebook and Google+.

Facebook

As of September 2014, Facebook reported that 1.35 billion people were active on their platform each month . That number alone is indicative of why we recommend your medical practice maintains an active Facebook page. For many, checking Facebook has become an hourly activity, with 18-44 year olds found to be checking Facebook up to 14 times a day according to the International Data Corporation . That is 14 different opportunities for your practice to be seen each day.

You have heard of the saying “if you’re not on Google, you don’t exist”, right? Nowadays, you can extend that to Facebook, too. However, like many other social media platforms, creation of the page alone is not enough. A successful medical practice will run a well-maintained and active page, and reap the benefits of heightened client loyalty and an influx of new patients over time.

Google+

People often reference Google+ as a “ghost town”, but any medical practice that wants to grow will find themselves with one of these pages. Google+ is part of the Google bundle, and simply put, you cannot ignore it as a platform for engagement and interaction. The creation of a Google+ page that is properly linked to your website, as well as well-maintained, will allow you to take control of more of that valuable search engine results page real estate, driving a higher click-through rate.

Many medical businesses will stop at filling out the additional information fields on their Google+ page, just enough so that they have a listing that will help searchers find their location. This is great, but it is not enough. Any social media update that you make to any other platform – especially those photo or video updates – should be pushed out to Google+ too. Because Google+ is integrated with Google’s search engine results, those updates will also be seen by searchers. By consistently having a stream of new, up-to-date social media postings to your Google+, searchers will see that you are an active and credible medical practice, which can potentially grow your client base.

In an increasingly digital world, social media is not just a fad: it is a shift in the way we communicate, and that means that the medical profession cannot ignore it. It is not easy, either. You need to understand which social media platforms are right for you, and ensure that you are updating them consistently whilst still operating within the medical guidelines.

Icon’s Medical Marketing Division works with medical businesses to development a digital marketing plan that will grow your business. For more information on integrating the digital space with your medical practice’s marketing strategy, contact Icon’s Medical Marketing Division today and grow your medical business online .

10 Ways to tell it’s time to revamp your website

Wed, 11 Feb 2015 04:26:00 GMT

While there is no specific expiry date on a website , there comes a time when a refresh and a revamp of your website makes good business sense. So, what are some key indicators that your website is no longer making the cut?

The power of video to build your brand

Fri, 06 Feb 2015 01:28:00 GMT

A lot of what goes into building your brand is simply telling your story. At its core, the heart of your corporate story is the voice of your brand.

Stories are as important now in the digital world as have been throughout time for people to learn their heritage and history.
And while it’s true that facts are important, it’s the stories that make us care, connect and respond.

Stories are in everything and everything can become a story. Videos are a powerful tool to tell your brand story , bringing to life the very core of your company and your brand.

When creating a video designed to build your brand , don’t try and cram everything your brand into one long, very dull, very informative video. When consumers are watching videos online, they are looking for short snippets of information, interesting and quick little videos where they can get what they want in no longer than 90 seconds.

When viewing videos online, people want information, they want to learn how to, and most of all be entertained. When you create online videos, you not only build your brand, but you build trust and become the authority when it comes to giving advice in your particular field of business.

Increase your visibility and presence with online video and present your brand story .

Digital Marketing beyond Google

Sun, 01 Feb 2015 11:26:00 GMT

It’s reasonable to think that your digital marketing strategy is really just a targeted Google strategy. After all, Google boasted a whopping 93% of search engine market share in Australia in 2013. However, your digital marketing strategy needn’t be reliant on just one search engine alone. There are other online services out there that can really round out your online marketing campaigns and deliver online leads and sales if you’d only reach out to them.

Big moves are occurring in the search engine game, and we’re seeing the resurgence of many old faces seeking to take a chunk of the search engine pie. Bing has already taken a hefty slice from Google, but we’re also seeing Yahoo! grow as a search provider with their status as the new default search engine in the Firefox web browser. Furthermore, with the Google-Apple deal reaching an end, we may see Bing and Yahoo! vie for the coveted default search engine spot for the Apple browser.

With all these moves, you simply can’t afford to not review your digital marketing strategy in 2015 and evaluate whether expanding your reach is a the right tactic to grow your business this New Year. So, what’s out there? Here are two considerations you may want to make for your digital strategy.

Help Customers Locate Your Business on The Map

Google My Business’ integration with Google Maps is a great way to make your business locatable for customers, but what else is there beyond Google?

Bing Places for Business

Bing Places for Business is Bing’s answer to Google My Business, and offers you all the tools needed to ensure users of Bing Maps are able to find your business, view opening hours, and get directions from wherever they are.

Apple Maps Connect

With Apple’s mobile market share, you can’t afford to ignore their spot in the marketplace. Maps Connect is a self-service solution for businesses to add their information to Apple Maps, ensuring that those using the iOS solution are able to direct themselves to you.

Cast a Wider Net for PPC

Google AdWords has been a long standing giant in the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) game, but it’s not the only player in the field. By casting a wider net, you may be able to grow your impressions and generate more leads for your business.

BingAds

Bing may have less searchers than Google, but it also has less competitors for PPC, which means you might find more opportunities there for your niche. Consider running a trial on Bing and compare how your Return-On-Investment (ROI) fairs!

Facebook for Business

Facebook and Google are in contention for the most visited website every month. That says something about the potential of Facebook Advertising for your business, and for many niches, it’s not a platform to ignore.

Despite Google’s dominance in the search market, it’s not the only player in the game. It’s important to look at the alternatives and assess whether it’s a worthy investment to augment your pre-existing programs with Google with another platform.

At Icon Visual Marketing, our expertise with analytics combined with our capabilities in digital marketing can ensure that you receive the best ROI for your advertising funds. Contact Icon Visual Marketing and expand your digital marketing program today!

How much should I spend on Digital Marketing in 2015?

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 21:22:00 GMT

As businesses examine their marketing budgets for 2015, many may be asking how much they should allocate to their digital campaigns.

In 2014, digital marketing surged ahead of other advertising segments and took a demanding 34% of market spend Australia-wide , and that number is increasing every month. Simply put, the digital space isn’t something that businesses can ignore any longer as more consumers turn to online platforms to conduct their product research and shopping.

How can you lure in the 60% of buyers that use social media to research before they buy without a digital presence ? You can’t, and that’s a substantial amount of potential customers that are lost before you’ve even had a chance to deliver your sale’s pitch.

Employing digital marketing strategies isn’t as simple as developing a decent-looking website. It’s no one-trick pony, and for a successful digital marketing campaign you need to consider a multi-faceted approach to your marketing plan , and that entirely depends on your business model.

For example: are you a restaurant owner? You might consider a responsive website design to take advantage of town visitors looking for a spot to eat, with a local marketing, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) , and social media strategy to aggregate positive reviews and a reputable image. If you’re in a more industrial business, maybe you’ll forgo the local marketing strategy and opt for a holistic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plan combined with e-mail marketing to establish your business as a thought leader in the industry. Again, your strategy – and your budget – entirely depends on your business model.

That’s why it’s so hard to pin down how much you should be spending on digital marketing, other than the fact that you should be spending on digital marketing. As the largest segment for spending for advertisers in Australia, you can be assured that if you’re not using digital advertising to market your business, your competition is.

Icon Visual Marketing offers a range of digital marketing services that work in unison to deliver converting customers to your business. The Icon Digital Marketing team combines Pay-Per-Click (PPC ) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) experts with social media aficionados, marketing professionals, web development specialists, and a creative design team to create a multi-faceted marketing plan that will help you reach your next customer.

No matter what business model you fall under, the fact remains that digital marketing isn’t something to ignore in 2015. For a digital marketing strategy that is tailored especially for your business, contact Icon Visual Marketing and discover how much you should be spending on digital marketing today!

Making Digital Advertising Work for Your Business

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 01:14:00 GMT

Digital Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) can be an important part of your overall digital marketing strategy. Using paid search advertising platforms such as Google AdWords and Bing Ads is a powerful strategy in your business’ marketing plan, delivering cost effective online leads and sales. When managed correctly and efficiently by AdWords Certified individuals or a Google Partner Agency , your online PPC advertising campaign can deliver a high return on investment (ROI).

A recent Australian report shows that digital advertising is the largest segment for spending for advertisers in Australia , with paid search accounting for $580m – almost 50% – of all expenditure in digital advertising!

If you’re not using paid search, your competition surely is.

PPC is a flexible and powerful online advertising solutions that most industries and business sectors can use to deliver immediate leads and sales results. So, how can you use paid online advertising to grow your business?

As the name says, with Pay Per Click advertising, you only pay when a customer actually clicks on your ad. So targeting the right message to the right customer at the right time has never been more important. By not properly targeting your advertisements, you could quickly exhaust your budget on the wrong clicks - users who then immediately leave your site in search for something more relevant to them.

By setting up your PPC campaign with the right ad groups, keywords, advertisements, and targeting options, your pay-per-click campaign will deliver better results while stretching your budget further.

Setiing up your campaign correctly is just the first step; ongoing management and campaign optimisation is just as important to continue to drive results from your online advertising campaign.

Set-and-forget isn’t a recommended strategy with pay-per-click advertising; instead, you should always fine-tune your budgets, keywords, advertisements, and targeting according to results. Unlike traditional advertising, online advertising can be adjusted in real time as often as you need.

Reviewing your PPC advertising results with Google Analytics is a powerful way to get the most out of your marketing dollars , as Analytics will give you the data you need to find out who’s most likely to purchase from you.

For example, using Analytics, a café owner may find that younger females interested in travel and indie rock are more likely to purchase from the store. Using this data, the café can drive other online and offline marketing activities, such as hiring indie musicians for live performances, or optimising ad copy for that particular target market. Coupling PPC with Analytics like this can work for any business!

While paid search advertising has massive potential for many businesses, it’s not something that can be implemented easily . A great pay-per-click campaign takes a thorough understanding of the paid search platforms as well as good marketing sense.

Icon Visual Marketing can help you make paid search work for your business with digital marketing services that will grow your brand awareness and increase converting traffic to your website. As a Google Partner , Icon Visual Marketing has earned Google’s marker of trust and quality, ensuring that your campaigns are managed by certified individuals that have displayed high proficiency with the Google AdWords and Analytics platforms.

With 37% of marketing dollars being spent on paid search advertising , it’s simply not feasible for businesses to ignore the power of PPC. Take advantage of the digital space and make paid search advertising work for your business by contacting Icon Visual Marketing today!

The importance of a marketing plan for success in 2015

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 21:00:00 GMT

It may be hard to predict what opportunities and threats your business may face in 2015, but having a strategic marketing plan in place will reduce the likelihood of your business growth being stunted by unpredictability.

Why do so many New Year’s resolutions fail? Or diets that start so strong on day one never make it past day eight? It can be human nature to not plan past the initial idea of wanting to do better – never making a solid long term plan of business growth.

Planning is the key to success. As the old adage says, failing to plan is planning to fail. Icon has developed a five step process to building your 2015 marketing plan.

Step One – Review
Reviewing the marketing campaigns, promotions and strategies that were and were not successful in 2014 is important when looking ahead.

Use every data resources available to you to track specific tactics to know what to repeat or replicate in 2015 or what tactics to dump.

Step Two – What are the measures of success?
Before you develop a marketng strategy that will help your business grow in 2015, you need to understand what are the measures of success for your marketing program. Setting these objectives and goals upfront will help you develop a robust marketing program to achieve each your goals.

Examples of goals for your business should be specific and have a target and time frame attached to them. For example:

"We want to attract 1000 new subscribers to by…”
"We will finalise the development of our new product range within three months and hold a public launch within six months.” or
"We will launch our services into new territory within three months and grow sales to 15% overall turnover in this territory within 12 months.”

Step Three – Achieving your goals
Building your marketing strategy is all about developing strategies and tactics that will help achieve each of your goals. This part of the plan should be specific about what will be done, when will it be done and who is responsible for doing it.

For example, a familiar goal fr expanding the business into a new territory and growing sales can be broken down into a series of individual activities such as:

Step Four – Budget
Setting a realistic budget is unfortunately one of the areas that can sometimes limit the scope of marketing activities. That is no reason not to still brainstorm some of the bigger ideas that can be executed later. If your just starting out or coming from a small customer base, budget realistically for tactics that will immediately work towards achieving your goals.

Step Five – Review
Continually review your marketing plan, your goals and activities plan. Goals can change, the economic climate can change and new opportunities that could not have been foreseen six months ago are not a real possibility. A marketing strategy shouldn’t be set in stone. Visit it and review it often to ensure your activities are working to achieve and exceed your goals.

If your not sure about how to get started on your 2015 marketing strategy, call us today to book in your strategic marketing workshop that will review your business to ensure that core brand values are on target and are being communicated

Top Trends for Digital Marketing in 2015

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 18:25:00 GMT

There's a lot to consider when trying to get a handle on what's important in terms of Digital Marketing Trends for 2015 .

From technology trends, Google algorithm changes, to changing business models and new social media platforms that offer even more ways to share, it's almost impossible to know what's coming next for Digital Marketing.

However, there have definitely been some key digital marketing experiences and trends that all businesses should be adhering to in their 2015 Digital Marketing Strategy .

Mobile-Friendly Responsive Design Makes Good Business Sense

Responsive Web Design is no longer optional or only for news or retail focused sites. Google themselves have stated that responsive web design is the industry best practice. This means that if you have a regular website – or even a second mobile version - Google may rank a responsive design higher than yours!

More and more busy professionals across all industries are spending more time on their smartphones than desktops, and more than half of all email is read on a phone. How does your website and content look on a smaller phone screen?

Email Marketing Continues to Prove A Successful B2B Marketing Tool

One of the most important things that you can do in any business is to create a database of email subscribers so you can easily communicate with your clients or potential customers on a frequent and consistent basis with industry news and tips and advice.

One of the huge advantages of email is that most businesses achieve about a 20% open rate on email and only a .3% opt-out rate.

According to Forrester , email marketing is still one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing.

"Your emails get delivered more than 90% of the time, while your Facebook posts get delivered 2% of the time,” says Nate Elliott, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester . "Plus, customers who want to stay in touch with your brand are almost twice as likely to sign up for your emails as they are to interact with you on Facebook or on other social media."

Constantly Changing and Evolving SEO

By the start of December 2014, Google has already released 13 updates to the Google algorithm , and these are just the big public ones we know about.

SEO is constantly changing – updates can drop your high ranking website to nowhere to be found in search. And it's not just Google we are talking about. Microsoft's Bing is gaining some ground and according to Jonathan Long in Entrepreneur magazine , "Firefox kicked Google to the curb and Yahoo will now be the default search engine for the browser. Google's deal is also up with Safari in 2015, and reports have both Bing and Yahoo! trying to secure that spot.

With options other than Google becoming more popular and accepted it will make it important to have visibility across these search engines in addition to just Google."

SEO isn't about tricking the algorithm. SEO is about ensuring your business' website gives your potential customers the best user experience possible, and ensuring that the users that come to your website are genuinely interested in your product or service. The best way to do this is for your website to work with search engine algorithms rather than seeking ways to fool them!

Make Your Content Marketing Informative and Entertaining

Content Marketing is more and more an important part of your digital strategy. Content Marketing is effective in building your online profile and demonstrating your knowledge of your industry while growing your credibility in your field. It's a powerful tool to share your specialised information.

Recently, Digital Marketing Evangelist DJ Waldow predicted that "2015 will be the year of HUMAN for digital marketers. Gone are the days of corporate-speak messaging and dull, boring campaigns. Instead, we’ll begin to see more marketers incorporate human-speak into their messaging – videos, pictures, humor, and human!"

There are a range of digital marketing options available and these will only continue to grow. The key is to use the right digital marketing channels that will deliver for your business.

Local Marketing Continues to Grow

Local Marketing has always been important for businesses, but it's more important than ever that your business is on the map and in your control. As search engines get smarter, more and more searches are being influenced by geographic factors. If you’re not in control of your business listing in search engines, you could miss out on a valuable customer stream!

Local Marketing isn’t just about your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP). Local marketing is about earning links, building citations, acquiring reviews, and owning your online business profile on those important websites such as Google My Business , Yelp, Bing Places, and Apple Maps Connect.

It's especially important to ensure that your business is on those mapping platforms so that you don’t miss that valuable mobile traffic !

It’s not all about the rankings

Search engine features are increasing, and it's no longer about who can rank in the top ten. In 2013, Dr. Pete Meyers from Moz showed the 85 different ways that you could appear in Google’s search engine results, and as we enter 2015, we can expect that number to grow as the search giants add more features to their search.

It’s imperative that your business be at the forefront as these features launch. Being the first to take advantage of new platforms such as Google My Business or structured data markup can boost your business’ visibility and give you a head start on the competition.

At Icon Visual Marketing, our digital marketing strategies involve activities to ensure that your online profile is held in high regard by search engines which makes it more likely that your next customer can find you. For a digital marketing plan that is tailored to suit your business, contact Icon Visual Marketing today!

Start planning your marketing strategy for 2015

Wed, 03 Dec 2014 19:12:00 GMT

While most people are focused on just getting through to Christmas, you can make your business stand out by thinking past that and laying the ground-work for a great start to 2015.

Christmas is here, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start planning for a successful 2015.

Starting back strong in 2015 will put you on the front foot for a successful year ahead so it is really worth thinking about your business and marketing strategy that will help grow your business in 2015.

A slow start to the year could leave you playing catch up for the rest of the year so, while you can focus on a strategic plan in January, you should think about February right now.
Planning your success for 2015.

While December can be a slow period many businesses and a busy period for others, January is typically a pretty quiet month across the board.

Use your time smartly during this break from the day-to-day demands of running your business to reflect on the year just gone and to prepare strategically for the year ahead.

Review 2014
Learning from the past is a key tool in business planning for the future. A thorough review needs time for reflection, complete honesty and an open mind. It isn’t a time for criticism or regrets. It is a time for learning and planning. Look at all aspects of your business from staff and customers point of view and go through to finer details of your customer service and ask yourself:

Set Goals for 2015
Start big. What’s your big vision and what can you do in 2015 to work towards this. Other questions you need to ask are:

Build your 2015
Designing and following a set marketing plan is a key to a successful business. It acts as a map for us to follow and is an effective blueprint for the year. We us it to plot in key dates, peaks and troughs, and develop your strategies and tactics. It should include your segmented target market and achievable goals and outcomes on your plan.
Icon Visual Marketing offers companies of all sizes strategic marketing consultation which brings to structure and process to your marketing.

By working with Icon Visual Marketing, your marketing plan is not a program set in stone. Our ongoing consultation allows for your plans and tactics to be continually reviewed, improved and updated, reflecting your growing or moving target market and product range. Call Icon Visual Marketing today on 1300 138 984.

What do penguins have to do with Google?

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:19:00 GMT

It's easy to tune out when your marketing agency or digital guru starts banging on about Google's Penguin, but when they mention pandas, pigeons, and penguins, they really aren’t just referring to the office pet.

Google is constantly updating their ranking algorithms to give their users – your customers – the most relevant search results they can. Google Penguin was one of these recent updates to the Google algorithm that targeted “black hat webspam”, or Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tactics such as keyword stuffing or paid backlinks.

But, how does this affect you and your digital marketing plan?

Prior to Penguin, keyword stuffing and paying for backlinks was an effective albeit unethical method for >ranking higher in search engines. Agencies often employed these techniques for their clients which gave them higher ranks but a low quality website and backlink profile. After the launch of Google's Penguin algorithm many of these businesses were penalised due to shady agency tactics which can ultimately result in lost revenue!

If your business has used a digital marketing agency in the past, it's important that you're well-informed about your business' online profile otherwise you may find that you've been penalised for activities that you were not aware of.

SEO isn't about tricking the algorithm. SEO is about ensuring your business' website gives your potential customers the best user experience possible, and ensuring that the users that come to your website are genuinely interested in your product or service. The best way to do this is for your website to work with search engine algorithms rather than seeking ways to fool them!

At Icon Visual Marketing, our digital marketing strategies involve actively monitoring your website's status in real-time to ensure that your online profile is held in high regard by search engines which makes it more likely that your next customer can find you. For a digital marketing plan that is tailored to suit your business, contact Icon Visual Marketing today !

Is your business ready for Christmas?

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 18:04:00 GMT

It’s already started. Just a day after Halloween the Christmas decorations are up in the shopping centres and Santa’s workshop is being prepared for family photos of crying children on Santa’s lap.

It should be no shock that shopping centres and retail are all over Christmas – it’s their biggest time of year. But what about your business? You might not be in retail, and your business might slow down over this time of year, but your overheads are still the same. And with less operating days to make profits, it can be a challenging time for business . So are there ways that you can make Christmas work for you?

Many service-based businesses or non-retail focused businesses neglect Christmas and the marketing opportunities it brings . Think it’s all just for retail – not so. There are sales and marketing opportunities for a wide range of businesses this festive season.

Don’t forget, Christmas isn’t just about gift giving. It’s about entertaining, having time to work around your home, taking family holidays, spending more time with friends and tackling projects that have taken a backseat all year – both business projects and personal.

So think laterally about how you can use the festive season to market your business , to look for new customers, touch base with dormant customers and try to grow your existing customers.

Why Google My Business Is A Must For All Business Owners

Sun, 26 Oct 2014 17:46:00 GMT

Google My Business allows you to connect directly with customers whether they're looking for you on Search, Maps, or Google+. The platform combines Google’s pre-existing local search services into one seamless and integrated approach that makes it easier than ever to update your business information across Google's vast search network. If you already have a website, Google My Business further enhances what you're already doing and provides more insights for users and more ways for them to find information about your business.

Getting your business listed on Google’s My Business platform not only ensures that you will appear in search engine results across multiple devices, it also makes it easy for you to share updates, see insights, read reviews, and manage the social interactions customers are having with your business.

By ensuring that your My Business information is up-to-date, you can take advantage of valuable search engine result real estate that is reserved for things like the local map pack, knowledge graph, and maps inlay. Ranking in the top ten is no longer enough; with more than eighty-five different ways to appear on Google's first page, it's essential to be ahead of the competition by appearing where they do not.

Icon Visual Marketing incorporates the set up of a Google My Business listing with our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy to ensure that your business is found across all the digital channels that are available to you. Contact Icon Visual Marketing today on 1300 138 984.

Reveal Your True Marketing ROI with Call Tracking

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 18:36:00 GMT

Which of your marketing activities are working? Which aren’t? What is your cost per lead or ROI?

Measuring the effectiveness of your different marketing campaigns is vital to delivering a Return On Investment (ROI) for your marketing budget and for planning your subsequent marketing campaigns.

Digital marketing reporting with Google Analytics gives you v aluable insights into people’s behaviour on your website and their online marketing activities, but what about the people who simply use the web for research and then prefer to pick up the phone and talk to someone?

It is important to track these types of leads so you can get a more accurate look at the results you are getting from your marketing efforts, and better understand which programs are working the best for your business.

IconCALLS is a call tracking solution that allows your business to better understand which marketing programs are generating leads for your business.

IconCALLS maps your incoming calls to your marketing activities so you can track multiple running marketing campaigns with ease. Each marketing campaign is given a unique 1300 number , and every call to these numbers can be tracked, analysed, and integrated with any online reporting system to provide you with meaningful data that will help drive your marketing plans and strategies.

IconCALLS is ideal for any business size, and allows you to see a bigger picture of your ROI and help businesses plan and grow more effectively.

See just how cost effective call tracking can be for your business. Call Icon Visual Marketing today to start effectively measuring your marketing campaigns to better understand your ROI and to ensure your valuable marketing dollars are delivering leads and sales.

Learning the latest techniques and trends directly from the experts at Google Analytics User Conference 2014

Wed, 10 Sep 2014 22:14:00 GMT

Myself and the Icon Digital Marketing team yesterday had the pleasure of attending the third annual Australian Google Analytics User Conference at the PowerHouse Museum Sydney. Icon has had a representative at each of the three Australian conferences.

Icon named finalist in prestigious property development award

Thu, 04 Sep 2014 21:43:00 GMT

Camden-based marketing agency, Icon Visual Marketing was honoured to be nominated a finalist in the NSW Award for Excellence in Marketing Residential Estates by the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) for their marketing work on prestigious local development Harrington Grove. The UDIA NSW Award for Excellence in Marketing Residential Estates recognises excellence in development project marketing, both before the project is developed and in the selling stages. In 2013, Harrington Grove was awarded the UDIA’s NSW/ACT Residential Development of the Year award and went on to be named as national winner in 2014. In presenting the award to Harrington Grove, judges specifically commented on the high quality of the marketing “The quality of the marketing, and the clever pitching of the Harrington Grove product as distinctive in the south-western Sydney market, is most impressive.”“Harrington Grove is truly the jewel in residential living; we are honoured to work alongside the forward thinking and truly innovative Harrington Grove team to deliver marketing and branding the delivers on the promise of Harrington Grove,” said Joe Papadatos, Managing Director, Icon Visual Marketing.“Icon Visual Marketing is proud to be recognised for its innovation and creativity in delivering marketing support for the best residential development in Australia,” concluded Papadatos.

Build value and trust before asking for the sale

Wed, 03 Sep 2014 19:22:00 GMT

Consumers are on average 70% of the way through the sales funnel before engaging directly with your brand. Content Marketing allows you to influence decision makers well before they have made up their minds.A 2013 survey by Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision-makers said they prefer to get information via articles, not ads. Seventy percent said content makes them feel closer to a company, and 60% said content provided by companies helps them make smarter buying decisions.Content marketing is about building value and trust before earning the right to ask for a sale. A 2013 article Building trust for your brand in today’s social age by Trevor Young further explained the value companies need to deliver before going into the hard sales pitch.“We need to earn the right to pitch. Today, companies need to be respectful of their customers, to contribute to their lives in ways that are relevant and meaningful. Today, it’s more important than ever to deliver value over and above your products and services.”Content marketing is your chance to earn trust and become a resource centre, delivering content that solves problems; answers questions and can inspire action.The main purpose for your content is to be a resource for your audience – by building value and trust with your audience, you will gradually earn the right to ask for a sale.

Why it’s important to set marketing strategy upfront!

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 20:12:00 GMT

You have a unique product or service – no one else can offer what you do. That’s how we all think of our businesses. But how to communicate this is paramount to a growing a successful business! Just how you differentiate yourself in the eyes of customers is key.While there are a myriad of marketing activities that you can undertake to grow your business, setting a marketing strategy before undertaking activities will ensure they are in line with target markets, the goals for the business and are realistic in terms on delivering leads that will turn into sales.The ability to think strategically about your business is very different to planning tactical activities. Your marketing strategy is the overall guide as to what you are trying to do – your goals – and then your marketing plan is the more detailed translation into what exactly what you are going to do to deliver your business goals. No one knows your business better than you. Often you are so intrinsically involved in every aspect of your business, you simply don’t have the time to sit back and really think top line about your business. That’s why Icon’s Strategic Marketing Workshops are so effective. Give us two hours of your time and we will work with you to get to the heart of your business. Going through the workshop process during a strategic marketing workshop ensures that we are focusing on the core values that make up your business and why customers are buying from you. After setting your topline marketing strategy, Icon work with you and your marketing budget to set a realistic and detailed marketing plan that can be executed by yourself or Icon as your outsourced marketing team.

You need to get on Google+ to boost your search rankings!

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 04:19:00 GMT

¹ . Statistics compiled by SocialMediaNews.com.au for July 2014 . Stats courtesy: Vivid Social Research Division . Figures correct as of 31/07/14

Key to Marketing during economic challenging times

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:43:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing talks about Key to Marketing during economic challenging times, learn more here.

Grow your business with an outsourced marketing agency!

Sun, 27 Jul 2014 19:02:00 GMT

Building an internal marketing department that has all the necessary skills, knowledge and experience can be overwhelming. You may find the right people who have knowledge and experience – but what about the hands on implementation?

Marketing is not just advertising and brochures. It’s about setting a marketing strategy that is in line with target markets, the goals for the business and realistic in terms on delivering leads that will turn into sales. The marketing strategy then dictates a range of marketing activities that can include digital, design, direct mail, social media, print advertising as well as in developing marketing and media strategies.

Unless you have the resources to have a marketing team of 10, then it makes sense to use an outsourced marketing agency.

Full Service Sydney based marketing agency

We are a full service Sydney based marketing agency – we have all these skills.

Icon Visual Marketing has over 30 experienced marketers who work across a range of teams including marketing and planning strategy , creative , digital , web development and print production. Our team all work in-house - not as contractors, outsources to us. We are a full service marketing agency - we don't outsource your work. So you know who you are working with and the experience and quality you can expect.

Outsourcing to a Sydney marketing agency like Icon Visual Marketing provides access to expertise in every marketing discipline−from an experienced team of specialists that can be scaled to suit projects of any size and scope. Such flexibility represents the most critical benefit of marketing outsourcing: You only for the services used for when you need them.

We draw experienced and knowledgeable staff who have previously worked in big agencies and corporations who come to the agency as they are interested in doing a great job for clients without a lot of the pomp and excess that can go with marketing agencies.

Businesses large and small can benefit from working with an outsourced marketing agency such as Icon where for less than a Marketing Coordinator salary you get access to over 30 marketers who have high level strategic and hands on implementation experience in all areas of marketing.

Open Source CMS vs Proprietary CMS – The Pros and Cons

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 18:54:00 GMT

Open Source CMS – Pros

Proprietary CMS

Both types of systems have their own advantages, I have left SEO out of this post intentionally as the SEO capabilities varies greatly from system to system, while all CMS platforms advertise they are ‘SEO Friendly’ the effectiveness of the SEO capabilities depends on the implementation of the developer and digital strategies behind the website – any website can have negatively geared SEO results if the CMS is not utilised for SEO correctly . (see related article Not all CMS are created equal for SEO )

There is no right solution; both systems can fit depending on your requirements. If you are looking for a corporately developed, professionally supported platform with (sometimes) lower upfront costs then Commercial/Proprietary CMS solutions would be recommended. However if you prefer the idea of a flexible, extensible and low (ongoing) cost solution which does not lock you in with one company then Open Source CMS solutions are the way to go.

A Content Management System is effectively the back end of your website – allowing users to publish, edit and modify content all without having to touch the website’s code. Great news for business owners who aren’t particularly tech savvy. Your CMS system should be simple enough that you can add pages, images, content and links without always having to go back to you web development company.

How industrial marketing can differentiate you in a commodity market

Wed, 16 Jul 2014 20:35:00 GMT

In today’s commoditised world, it can be hard to differentiate your product or service from the competition without freefalling into an all-out price war.

In industrial centred businesses , an integrated marketing strategy can provide points of differentiation to ensure potential customers value the benefits of your offering over those of your competitors without price being the only factor to compete in.

Successful positioning and differentiating yourself in the market is the culmination of determining what value your product or service is to your customers.

When a consumer purchases your services or products, they are buying more than a set of physical attributes. They are buying tangible product or service as well as the intangible values that you bring.

On top of the tangible (physical) product or service itself, intangibles increase the value of your product. The intangibles can include guarantees, service, credit facilities, delivery, installation, training etc. The intangibles can be defined as anything that you cannot touch or see but is valued by your customers.

It’s the understanding of how to market and communicate both the tangibles and intangibles that make up your brand that will establish your successful brand positioning and your unique place in the market.

Why SEO Matters?

Sun, 06 Jul 2014 19:26:00 GMT

Did you know 80% of customer contact comes through a search engine and a third of all clicks go to the company are the top of the Google search page? Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) improves website visibility (ranking) in organic (un-paid, natural) search results. The higher a site appears in the search results, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users.Organic search is considered as the most trusted source of search results as organic search results are completely based on websites relevancy.SEO isn’t a project – it’s a long term marketing strategySEO is a long term marketing strategy and should be worked on constantly as part of an ongoing medical marketing program that continues to set milestones and deliverables.The milestones for SEO shouldn’t be ranking highest on this keyword or that phrase; it’s to ensure your long term SEO marketing strategy is delivering viable sales leads to your business

10 signs that you need a new website

Wed, 02 Jul 2014 18:22:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing is a full service marketing agency that focuses on the delivering to our customers the right tools and solutions to sell and add value to your business. Icon's approach to web design is not just about attention grabbing aesthetics, but about functionality, ensuring that visitors to your site can navigate with ease and intent.

What is content marketing and how does it work?

Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:08:00 GMT

Put simply, content marketing is creating original and interesting content and sharing it you’re your corporate website, and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube. Content marketing is effective in building your online profile, demonstrating your knowledge of your industry while growing your credibility in your field. It’s a powerful tool to share your specialised information.

Content marketing is so effective because Google search spiders are attracted to their fresh content on your website and social media properties and index them often, growing your organic search keyword list and attracting more visits through organic search .

So, while content should be keyword rich and ideally support your targeted keyword strategy, your articles are first and foremost to be values add for readers, offering insights, tips, trends, information or advice. If you publish content to your site just for Google, then sure, you will attract visitors back on your keyword stuffed content, but they will bounce straight out as the content is not appealing or interesting – a factor which will have a negative impact on your SEO efforts.

Blogs
Most website platforms these days support Blog / News modules, a tool that you can use to quickly and effectively share new information. Blogs don’t need to be long written articles looking at every facet of a trend. Keep blog articles short and focus on one area – break down a subject over several articles to create a series. Each blog should support one key idea – and targets one keyword. Subscribe to the Icon Marketing blog here.

Some facts about blogging

Online presentations
It’s never been easier to share your presentations online. If you are in the business of regularly delivering PowerPoint presentations, with some simple online software you can record the presentation, add your voiceover just as you would if delivering the presentation online, and voila – instant online presentation.

eNewsletters
While much of the content in your website is designed for visitors to find your site and to click through (inbound marketing), eNewsletters are a way to push out your content out (outbound marketing) to any database you might have – customers and potential customers. By consistently sending out eNewsletters, you aren’t relying on customers to remember to come back and visit your site, you‘re delivering interesting content directly to them. Subscribe to the Icon Marketing eNewsletter here

Whitepapers
Whitepapers are a way to more deeply explore larger subjects and big ideas, often supported by research and new information. Whitepapers are a valuable source of information – and as such as recommend you request more user information in return for downloading a whitepaper – name and email address so you can build a database of likely potential customers who are interested in your content. Download an Icon Marketing Free Whitepaper here.

Infographics
Especially in highly technical areas, infographics are a great way to easily explain content and concepts. And especially when internet users just want information in bite size chunks, infographics are perfect for this. The human brain will be more likely to remember infographic information because the brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

How to guides
The term “how to” is searched in conjunction with Google search terms 18,000 a month in Australia. People look to the internet for advice and guidance and your how to guides can be a valuable source of information. Just like whitepapers, you can typically request user information in return for a how to guide.

Videos and animation
You Tube is the second largest search engine behind Google. Creating videos and animations and having your well optimised You Tube channel will help provide valuable content in a simple format as well as help with your SEO programs.

Icon can help your build your online content calendar so you always have something relevant to say to the right audience.

Icon Visual Marketing is not an SEO or Digital Marketing Company. It is a marketing company who understands that online and digital are part of your overall marketing strategy. Contact us to talk about your digital strategy and how it can fit in with your marketing goal

What customer’s really want – Top 10 customer expectations

Fri, 20 Jun 2014 03:29:00 GMT

A new report out from Optus business has highlighted the impact of bad customer service on the bottom line for a business and shown just how outstanding customer service has to be for a customer to recommend to a friend. The new 2014 Future of Business Report by Optus surveyed 550 business and government decision makers as well as 5000 customers from a range of different industries as part of the report .

Merely satisfying customers is no longer enough

Out of all those surveyed, 94% of people said they would recommend a business after outstanding customer service however only 17% would recommend after good customer service. So merely satisfying a customer and offering good customer service is no longer enough for customers.

Bad customer service unfortunately elicits almost 50% of people to tell a friend, colleague or family member about the bad customer service experience.

Creating greater customer loyalty and advocacy and delivering outstanding customer experience can increase revenue and efficiencies – yet most businesses don’t understand its financial impact.

The Optus report gave a Top 10 of customer expectations when interacting with a business:

4 minutes of Glory – 4 ways to keep website visitors for longer

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 18:29:00 GMT

At the 54 minute mark, Australia was hopeful. At 3.15am Thursday morning, we were 2 – 1 up against Netherlands. For 4 minutes, we thought we could do this, then Netherlands scored and well, you you know the rest. Shattered!For 4 minutes, we were captivated. In online marketing terms, 4 minutes can seem like a lifetime. If you could keep a visitor on your site for 4 minutes, your likelihood of converting a visit to a sale increases dramatically. Did you know on average it takes four and a half minutes to fill up a tank of petrol?Here are four tips to keep visitors on your website for longer Multimedia content – deliver interesting content in a variry of ways – video, webcasts, blogs etc Use internal links throughout your site so visitors can easily jump in and out of other areas of interest on your site Encourage visitors to interest – comment on posts, download a paper, post onto a forum, take a survey for example. Deliver the best visitor experience- with the majority of us access content through our smartphones, make sure your site is mobile friendly – responsive design is now Google best practice. BTW Did you know that Tim Cahill has scored more World Cup goals than Cristiano Ronaldo & Wayne Rooney combined?

Beware Shiny New Thing Syndrome in Social Media

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 17:43:00 GMT

There’s a scene in Finding Nemo where Dory, the forgetful royal blue tang fish, is in a sea of jellyfish but is distracted by one of the small shiny jelly fish – “I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come on, Squishy Come on, little Squishy.” Distracted, she then gets stung by all the jelly fish. She has shiny object syndrome. In a kid’s movie, it’s funny. In business, not so much!In marketing, many of us can be accused of suffering from shiny new thing or shiny object syndrome when it comes to social media. We get so hung up on the new technology of different social media we forget to link it back to our marketing strategy and for our social media to have a reason.Sometimes the lure of the shiny new thing is so tempting that business owners, marketing departments and entire organisations get distracted by it an lose business focus.. By pursuing every single shiny new object that comes into sight, businesses lose sight of their core business strategy and what has served them well so far.Regardless of the technology or latest app or social sharing site, never lose sight of the core business strategy and marketing strategy and simple use these technologies to deliver on your business goals.

How your marketing strategy should support your business strategy

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 03:51:00 GMT

All businesses have goals– whether they are financial, quality related or customer focused – such as growing new customers in XYZ geography or increasing retention rates. Unfortunately when some businesses plan their marketing strategies, they do it in isolation – focusing on the tactics and often the budget instead of how can the marketing strategy support and help achieve the business goals.To begin writing your marketing strategy, each business goal should be broken down to understand how the goal can be achieved. A solid marketing strategy will help deliver your business goals. For example, if your business goal is to increase client retention to 75%, marketing activities to help deliver that can include sales training, loyalty programs, pricing strategies, direct and online marketing campaigns all targeting existing customers and driving to deliver the retention goal of the business.Each business goal needs to have a marketing strategy around it – and each marketing strategy needs to: Clearly define the target audience – in the case of increase client retention, this would be existing customers, What are the touch points with those customers – and how can we increase them to grow loyalty and retention in this case What is the unique selling proposition those customers are buying from you and how can you better communicate it, Pricing strategy to reward loyalty – think No Claim Bonus Include measurable results Include specific promotional tactical elements Marketing strategies developed in isolation to understand the business goals are simply marketing tactics that you hope will work. Building a marketing strategy that addresses each of the business goals with more clearly define your marketing program and more likely lead to success.

Google Considers Responsive Design Best Practice – so should you!

Thu, 22 May 2014 03:01:00 GMT

Advantages of Responsive design website:

Accessibility and User Experience - Your website is accessible and easy to navigate regardless of the screen that is browsing it.
Managing your site is easier – One website means there is one backend database to manage – no more sub domains, updating content in different CMS program.
No Duplicated Content - Since in the responsive design only single URL is going to viewable in all devices so don't need two URL’s with the same content. Duplicated content can be a major source of SEO problems. When duplicate content is present, site owners suffer rankings and traffic losses, and search engines provide less relevant results.

Why you should outsource your SEO to a local, credible Sydney Digital Agency

Thu, 15 May 2014 01:03:00 GMT

Icon Visual marketing is a fully Google Accredited Sydney Digital marketing agency. Working with clients from a range of industries, our SEO programs continue to deliver sales leads to our clients websites, not just web traffic.

If you’re not on page one of search results, you don’t exist

Tue, 13 May 2014 19:21:00 GMT

Today, most purchase decisions begin with an online search. And if you don't appear on page one of the search results, you don't exist. A recent report by Ascend2, SEO Marketing – The most challenging obstacles to SEO success in the year ahead and how marketers plan to overcome them – found that Creating quality content is the most effective search engine optimisation (SEO) tactic.

More than half (57%) of the global professionals polled say quality content creation is one of the most effective SEO strategies employed by their company.

Other SEO efforts seen as effective include keyword research and management (47% say it is one of the most effective tactics), frequent website updating (37%), social media integration (32%), and frequent blogging (28%).

Free Branding Whitepaper available now

Sun, 27 Apr 2014 19:00:00 GMT

Branding is a long term and costly investment in the success of your business. By carefully managing a strong brand, you build consumer credibility, have more influence on your target market, and motivate purchases.

Building a brand is more than just advertising, it’s creating an emotional connection with the consumer, and that’s not always easy to do.

Our free branding whitepaper will show you why you need to build a strong brand for your business, give you tips on when to know its time for rebranding and demonstrate to you the importance of branding for all businesses.

Download our free Branding Whitepaper Now.

Social media’s impact on media multiplier effect

Mon, 21 Apr 2014 20:15:00 GMT

Before the explosion of online advertising and social media, the media multiplier effect was all the buzz. Put simply, the media multiplier was to pounding the consumers with the same marketing message through all channels at the same time. For example, the media multiplier has always demonstrated that where activities in a secondary medium—for example, radio or magazine—are able to evoke memories of the brand initially generated by TV advertising. These secondary effects extend reach and frequency and add a magnifying effect by surrounding the consumer with multiple messages. Consumers are more adverse than ever to advertising – so marketers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in how to get to their target audience.As media dollars shift from TV, print, and radio to digital, social and other media forms, it is more important than ever to ensure how media are working together, both uniquely and synergistically. The media multiplier effect is now extended beyond traditional advertising to multichannel marketing, both offline and online.Increasingly, the use of social media offers a media multiplier effect amplifies marketing messages far more easily than traditional methods. Even better, social media allows marketing campaigns to find, connect, and communicate with prospects on a one-to-one or one-to-many basis.Social media can influence your customer relationships, sales, repeat purchases, website traffic etc. Social media should be a part of your marketing strategy and system.

Video trends in digital marketing – Advice from Sydney Digital Agency

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:05:00 GMT

The phrase content is king is still a the mantra for digital marketing going into 2014, however we need to be looking past content as just text – 2014 is the year that will see visual content take over.

In an article titled, 10 digital marketing trends for 2014 , B&T magazine, predicted that

“The massive growth of infographics, Instagram and Vine reinforce the fact that we’re reading less and watching more. Visual media will dominate the market in 2014.”

YouTube is already the second largest search engine - YouTube processes more than 3 billion searches a month. 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute. It's bigger than Bing, Yahoo! Nearly 1 out of every 2 internet users are on YouTube.

Global giant Cisco forecast that mobile video will increase 25-fold between 2011 and 2016, accounting for over 70 percent of mobile data traffic by 2016.

With SEO being one of the most important digital strategies for all businesses online, video content will drive positive SEO results in 2014 with video more and more appearing on search results with thumbnail images driving users attention and clicks.

Video can be more and more used for lead generation with clever marketers integrating video campaigns into online marketing and advertising programs.
As a Sydney Digital Agency, Icon Visual Marketing develops unique video online content that will help boost your overall search results and drive online traffic and enquiries.

Social media is the new source of news

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 02:05:00 GMT

A new study from the US shows that 30% of all Americans get their news from social media – 59.5% of these from Facebook, 20% use Twitter as their main source and then You Tube and Google Plus next.

People are getting more breaking news than ever, sometimes as it happens, thanks to rapid-fire social networks such as Facebook. Often, such reporting is produced (or posted) by unofficial news sources (the reality is that anyone can report a sighting, an event, a comment heard), as the distinction between what is, and what is not news.

Social media is fast replacing traditional news sources. It’s not the news is dying - it’s the method in which news is delivered and received. Knowledge is and will forever be power. We just may not need to tune in to have someone read it to us much longer.

FREE Websites – You get what you pay for

Wed, 12 Mar 2014 20:44:00 GMT

Why pay for it when you can get it for free right? Wrong! A free web hosting company truly proves the statement you get what you pay for. You pay nothing so expect nothing in return get nothing in return. No service, no support, no Google searches, no space and the list goes on.

Any company that offers anything free has to make this up somewhere else. Often by tying people to long term contracts, or by compromising on standards, service and/or support. In some cases the cost is very simply that they make it impossible for you to ever transfer your site away from them.

Sure, free web hosting might seem like a low cost – or no cost – option to get your website online, however the many shortcomings of free web hosting far outweigh the monthly hosting fee of having a domain name website.

It is always better to own you domain name, because it allows ownership and customisation of your web site, giving you more freedom and flexibility than if you are using a free host. It will always be better to pay the dollars and get your own website name then to use a free hosting service.

New Privacy Principles in effect tomorrow but Small Businesses Exempt

Mon, 10 Mar 2014 22:27:00 GMT

Issues such as privacy, fair trading, spam and telemarketing have a huge impact on the ability to market a product or service. Complying with the relevant legislation and laws not only makes financial common sense: it creates a bond of trust with consumers.

There are now 13 privacy principles and they are now divided into 5 important categories:

One key point to note is that small businesses (with a turnover of $3 million or less) are exempt from the new Privacy Act unless they are :

In response to the new Privacy Principles, BRW recommends companies implement seven key steps to ensure compliance.

New B2B Marketing whitepaper now available

Thu, 27 Feb 2014 01:01:00 GMT

Icon has a new marketing whitepaper now available for free download – Strategies for more successful B2B Marketing.B2B marketing is a specialist area of marketing that concentrates around the delivery of products and services to business.Generally, the products and services are very technical in nature and require a different marketing strategy and implementation process to see sustainable sales growth and brand building.The role of marketing in B2B should be focused on two core goals: Feeding the Sales Funnel Establishing and maintaining personal relationships B2B marketing should be a major part of all stages of the sales process, including: Engaging the market using digital channels such as email marketing, web marketing, and social media marketing. Identifying prospects via market segmentation. Providing salespeople with the tools they need to demonstrate the value of the product or service. Tracking each marketing activity at every point in the sales process to understand which marketing activities are actually driving revenue. Marketing and Sales representatives want the same thing - but go about it in different ways. By focusing on your sales funnel, marketers and sales teams can be more effective.

The B2B Buyer’s Journey - Start's and Stay's Online

Wed, 19 Feb 2014 19:37:00 GMT

EVALUATION
Once, you would have been called by the B2B Purchasing officer and requested a demo of your product/ service as part of their evaluation stage – and at this meeting you would have the chance to tell the buyer all the features and benefits and sell the uniqueness of your business. However in today’s world, the B2B buyer is more likely to want to see what others have thought of your product before ever speaking to you.
They will scour review sites, social media and find everything that has been written about your business – good and bad – thanks to the internet. Here’s where your active social media and interaction on trade forums and review sites should be used. As not only will the customer find any negative comments about your business, they will also see how you reacted and responded. So make sure you aren’t just ignoring negative reviews or comments online – respond to customers, tackle the problem.

It’s imperative you use your digital assets to sell your company and your products. Know what customers are viewing on your website and reading about you online so you are with the buyer along each stage of their B2B buying journey.

Dealing with online negative reviews for your business

Wed, 12 Feb 2014 01:24:00 GMT

One of the concerns about using social media and being more present online to build credibility is “what happens if it attracts negative comments?” How can it be dealt with without harming your reputation?

Online reviews are now the second most trusted form of marketing, only behind word-of-mouth recommendations from family and friends.

49% of consumers state that they are more likely to visit a business after reading a positive online review, and 69% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Consumers have a range of options to voice their opinion of businesses and companies. Businesses and individuals have never been more vulnerable to negative or fake comments thanks to online review sites.
Studies reveal that as many as one in three online reviews could be fake.

The problem of fake reviews is now so widespread that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has made its priority tracking down those responsible for the online attacks. The ACCC have developed a fact sheet free for download – What you Need to Know About: Online reviews – a guide for business and review platforms.

Fake negative reviews about your business

Guidance on negative reviews about your business
The use of platforms as a forum for personal reprisals against staff or business owners is inappropriate. Businesses affected by personal vendettas should notify the review platform immediately, identifying affected reviews, and providing reasons.

In extreme circumstances, businesses which are the victims of ongoing harassment or serious threats through fake negative reviews may also consider contacting Police. Affected businesses should also notify the review platform immediately, providing them with reasons and any evidence of relevant fake reviews.

The consumer watchdog warns that those posting fake reviews for reprisal or as part of a personal vendetta face fines of up to $220,000 and that amount can increase to more than a million dollars for companies.

But what should you do about genuine negative online reviews?
If you receive a negative online post or review, you have to make a decision, not as to IF you should respond, but as to HOW you should respond.

Firstly, you should respond immediately and directly ensuring your response is empathetic and direct and not weighing into an argument. Remember, just as their review will be found be potential new customers, so will your response so turn this negative review into a positive.

How do I respond to a negative comment or review?
Be objective – read through any negative comments of the review and try and understand where your business went wrong in the eyes of the customer. Demonstrate strong empathy - You understand they are dissatisfied. Even if you don't agree with what they are claiming, try to avoid a debate. Create a meaningful, personal dialogue so you have a grasp on exactly what caused their dissatisfaction.

Be Honest – if this is experience is negative, is this something your business has been guilty of before and therefore potentially damaging your reputation with customers. • Use your real name and provide a way to contact you (if possible). It’s very important that potential customers see that a REAL person is responding to the review.

Write your reply with a calm voice and in a sincere tone . Use this as an opportunity to gain insights about your business from a customer and ensure you are sincere in your communications.

Don’t make promises you can’t follow through on . Don’t offer anything you aren’t willing to actually follow through on.

The key to remember is that a negative online comment or review can be turned into a positive – its how you handle it that matters.

For more information:
Further information on managing online reviews is available at www.accc.gov.au
Online reviews: a guide for business and review platforms is available at www.accc.gov.au/publications

Beware SEO companies promising the world

Tue, 04 Feb 2014 00:56:00 GMT

Q. What are the main ways you can choose an ethical SEO company versus a shoddy and questionable SEO supplier?
A. The first thing that gives away questionable SEO practices is a company who is promising to guarantee results and get you onto the first few search results of Google or Bing almost immediately. SEO isn’t a quick fix; it’s a long term strategy that takes time, planning and continual efforts to be an effective program that drives traffic to your website – and most importantly the right traffic.

We also highly recommend for SEO buyers to make sure that none of the SEO firm’s clients were penalised by search engines. Another important thing to know is whether they use an automated software of human power in their link building strategy as well as ‘does this SEO company outsource SEO or do it in-house?’.

Another thing to look out for is being locked into long term contracts – while it’s true that SEO should be seen as a long term strategy, you shouldn’t be locked into contracts.

Q. How do you determine what keywords you recommend for my website?
A. Keywords should be determined by an overall analysis of your company business which helps us to understand what keywords will deliver targeted visitors who ultimately have the highest potential to be converted into leads and customers for your business.

Another important aspect we take into consideration is that your targeted keywords must bring you a substantial volume of traffic; otherwise it is wasting of your time and budget. Our keyword recommendation is also the result of analysis of the competition existing across your targeted keywords to ensure that your SEO goals are achievable in the foreseeing future.

Q. How many keywords should my SEO program be targeting?
A. The problem with questionable SEO suppliers is they don’t necessarily target the right keywords for your business and will guarantee top place search position for only one or two keywords at the most. When we start your SEO program, we recommend a list of keywords most relevant for business – the right keywords that will deliver not just visitors but actual customers.

The most important thing to remember is that your targeted keywords must be largely supported by your website content. In other words, putting more and more keywords in your SEO program makes no sense if you do not have a sufficient content to cover those keywords. So be aware of SEO companies suggesting to target more than 100 keywords. As general recommendation, you may count the number of the webpages on your website, then multiply it by two and you will get the approximate number of keywords your website should target.

If your business has a small range of products or services, then the keyword list we target may be a handful only but they will be selective to the right keywords. When SEO objectives for the particular keywords are reached then we start adding more keywords to your SEO program to drive more relevant traffic and high quality leads.

For larger company’s offering a large range we would expand the targeted keyword list to make sure the top products and services are driving website visitors.

While our SEO program specifically targets these keywords, our programs always deliver a wider range of organic keywords simply by the content marketing and link building activities we deliver.

Q. How long will it take until I see SEO results?
A. SEO is a slow and steady drip, with realistic results taking 3-6 months depending on how competitive your keywords are. The whole Google search engine results and search algorithms trust history, longevity and authority – none of which can be built overnight. Any SEO program that built too quickly – mostly by buying links or excessive directory listings overnight – will look un-natural to Google and not be effective as part of your SEO strategy – this could indeed lead to being penalised by Google. Google won’t necessarily remove your site from the internet, but they can apply such heavy penalties that it may as well almost be gone from the search results.

Q. How do I know if my SEO strategy is working?
A. When we set up an SEO program, we agree with our clients on keywords, deliverables and measurable KPI’s. You should expect this from an ethical SEO supplier as well as regular transparent reports – most likely monthly that report on activities, results and how they are meeting the milestones agreed.

One of the most interesting things about the internet is that everything is measurable. There is a measurable metric for most everything about your online activities and your SEO company should be able to transparently report on the most relevant for your business. For example – how many sales or leads are coming from my SEO efforts, what products are people most visiting on my website and how many of these are converting to customers, what is the average value of each online sale, what keyword is delivering the most visits – and the list goes on. If you want to know a specific metric, just ask and your SEO Company should be able to report on it.

When looking to engage an SEO company try and get some knowledge about SEO to make it easier for your negotiations or so you can challenge a method proposed by an SEO company. Check out our recent blog articles on The Components of a Good SEO Strategy or The Absolute Basics of SEO

At Icon Visual Marketing, we offer professional SEO consultants who possess hands-on-experience and are more than happy to give SEO services that tailor fit the clients and customers. And being a full service marketing agency – be assured that your SEO is not outsourced, we have an inhouse team who understand your overall marketing strategy and use SEO as a tool to achieve your overall marketing goals.

What if something negative is posted about me online?

Sun, 19 Jan 2014 19:32:00 GMT

Consumers have a range of options to voice their opinion of businesses and companies. Once just in the realm of restaurant reviews and feedback on bad services, all companies are now open to public comments.

49% of consumers state that they are more likely to visit a business after reading a positive online review, and 69% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

But what about when there is an online post or reviews that is negative?
If you receive a negative online post or review, you have to make a decision, not as to IF you should respond, but as to HOW you should respond.

Firstly, you should respond immediately and directly ensuring your response is empathetic and direct and not weighing into an argument. Remember, just as their review will be found be potential new customers, so will your response so turn this negative review into a positive.

How do I respond to a negative comment or review?

The key to remember is that a negative online comment or review can be turned into a positive – its how you handle it that matters.

Differentiate yourself from the competition during tenders

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 09:32:00 GMT

An effective USP is not merely a tagline - it is an idea that stands alone and defines your business - allowing you to stand head and shoulders above any competition.

The key to a successful business tender is the clear identification of the value you bring to your clients. Your unique selling proposition is a clear statement of positioning that is at the heart of your business and should focus on the benefits your customers receive from doing business with you.

To maximise your chances of being considered in a tender you have to 'stand out and own the table' with a visually appealing document that complements and reinforces the value story. This gets you noticed and fast tracked to the short list.

The more you can distinguish yourself from your competition and leverage your unique skills, the more your ideal clients will want to work with you and the higher fees and prices you can command.

The key to determining your USP is to understand the total value you provide to your customers This value includes the actual product you sell, the benefits they bring to your customers and a very clear understanding of the overall characteristics of your brand.

Often companies do not understand what the value of their brand is. We identify by what we sell, not what our customers buy. Creating your USP from the position of your customers is the first step to building your brand and to clearly communicating in a tender your competitive advantage.

Email Marketing in the Mobile world - 10 Tips for Responsive Design Email Newsletters

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 00:01:00 GMT

Over half of all email is now opened on a mobile device and most people read work and personal emails together, getting all emails all at once via a their mobile.

More mobile devices are registered every day than there are weddings, babies born, and deaths COMBINED each day globally… x2!

How does the shift towards mobile change your marketing strategies?

According to Google’s Our Mobile Planet, email is the number-one smartphone activity—over 75% of smartphone users access their email via their phone.

Marketers are already experimenting with responsive designs for email marketing, optimising design for the small screens of mobile devices. Expect a big shift in email marketing, where optimisation for mobile phones will be prioritised over the PC.

A recent survey by eNewsletter software Mail Chimp surveyed participants on their email behaviour. 72% of the people read their emails in bed. Most people use their phones as an alarm clock, so the common morning action is to turn off the alarm and hit the email icon. Often readers haven’t even turned on the lights yet and are in bed reading your emails.

77% of participants reported that they check their email “everywhere” or “obsessively.” These readers have notifications set to alert them when an email arrives. They tend to check their mobile device immediately upon feeling that buzz or hearing the alert tone.

Email Marketing Design

About 40 percent of emails now get opened on mobile devices. The "one size fits all" approach to email design is no longer good enough.

One shot to get your eNewsletter read

Top 10 Tips for Responsive Design eNewsletters

Responsive emails can highlight essential information in the mobile version of a message and hide elements that mobile readers don't need in order to understand your message or act on it.

Email Marketing Content

In today's society of instant gratification, people have short attention spans. They want the news in 140-character snippets, it’s easy for viewers to lose interest with an email newsletter that doesn’t get straight to the point or entice the viewers to click through to a landing page with an interesting subject line and introduction content.

The quickest way to turn people off your email newsletter is to be shameless self promoters – using your email newsletter only to talk about the great things you’ve done this month.

As a rule, make just one in six articles about you – but not just as a promotion, make sure it still adds value to your reader. For example, you may have launched free overnight shipping or a new local office – this is of great benefit to your customers – tell them. It was Josie’s birthday in accounts – really does your customer care?

If you’re not sure where to start with creating engaging content, below is a simple format that can be followed for any company, regardless of the business you are in

For more ideas and tips on creating interesting content, view our Content Marketing Articles

Website Redesign and SEO - Don’t risk disappearing

Sat, 21 Dec 2013 08:17:00 GMT

It’s a good idea to refresh and update your website on a regular basis, and to give it a total overhaul every few years. But before you start totally anew and scratch everything on your existing site, ask yourself one question – Does your business rely on organic search results to deliver customers to your website? Website redesigns can make an outdated site look good, make the customer browsing experience more positive, but it can also make a highly ranking website virtually invisible in organic search. Your site might look awful, be clunky to navigate and in your opinion outdated, but it may be doing really well with SEO. It would be a real shame if your redesign impacts this negatively. The single most important factor is understanding how a website refresh / redesign – or moving to a new CMS platform– will affect your organic rankings.When starting your website redesign project right and not to negatively impact on your organic rankings, make sure you are involving all the right technical people. It will take a collaborative effort between online SEO experts, web designers, developers, copywriters and you to get it right. A website redesign or refresh is a highly involved process that takes many steps that must work in the right order to ensure the right positive outcome.An SEO website audit is a great place to start your website redesign project. An audit will review you current rankings, include an inbound link analysis, review URLs, the navigation structure, identify duplicated content.The Icon Online Marketing Team combines Web Development specialists, SEO and Social Media experts, Strategic Marketing professionals, Content planners with a Creative Design team, all working hand-in-hand to create interactive and engaging and interactive websites that are functional and easy to navigate. Contact us today for a free no obligation SEO Website Audit.

The power of online reviews - New ACCC Guidelines Available

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 08:33:00 GMT

Online reviews are now the second most trusted form of marketing, only behind word-of-mouth recommendations from family and friends.

From December 5, 2013, 6:18 pm Neil Doorley Today Tonight

Businesses and individuals have never been more vulnerable to negative or fake comments thanks to online review sites.

Studies reveal that as many as one in three online reviews could be fake .

Tom Godfrey from consumer group Choice says big review websites are largely doing nothing to monitor fake reviews in Australia.

"This is the great unknown, and until there is a crackdown, we're going to see more and more fake reviews on the market," Mr Godfrey said.

The consumer watchdog warns that offenders face fines of up to $220,000 and that amount can increase to more than a million dollars for companies.

Why use Digital Marketing for my business?

Sun, 01 Dec 2013 20:31:00 GMT

Digital Marketing is complex promotional strategy which aims to generate products and services leads, sales, build brand awareness and get customers insights. Digital Marketing should be used as a part of an overall business development and marketing management strategy which uses online to achieve business goals and sales targets.Below are 10 reasons why you should use Digital Marketing for your business. Highly targeted marketing to your audience Potential to reach mass amounts of people in less time Cost effective marketing Welcomes interaction from your audience Real time results delivery Campaigns can be easily adjusted/scaled up or down More visibility for brands Immediate and long term results Easy to measure the success of the campaign No long lead times nor long-term media commitments

Social media is about engagement – not numbers

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 07:24:00 GMT

An MIT Sloan Management survey of global business executives shows that 86 per cent of managers think “social business” strategies and tactics will be vital in the next few years. Social media has become an important business communication tool – a way to communicate and engage with your loyal customers and with to grow your customer base.

Icon Visual is a full service marketing agency who uses Social media as part of an overall business strategy with measurable goals and objectives. Icon spends a lot of time up front in planning your social media strategy to ensure that there is a strategy to it – not just social media for the sake it.

Your medical website - giving the right information in a world of internet medical mis-information

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 20:27:00 GMT

The Internet has an abundance of medical information and various discussion forums. The technology that allows reputable scientists and doctors to publish reliable medical information to the world at very low cost also allows other unqualified sources to produce and disseminate misinformation, pseudoscience, and quackery.

If you type “pins and needles” into Google, what kind of results can you expect to find? According to a recent study from Bupa Health , the search engine could diagnose you with anything from a completely reversible vitamin B12 deficiency, to sciatica, or worse, multiple sclerosis.

Entering “stomach cramps” into Google returns indigestion, appendicitis, or something as serious as heart disease or angina. Even a condition as benign as a rash comes up with dermatitis, psoriasis, eczema, or much more serious diseases such as meningitis.

Some other facts regarding people searching the web are:

Dr Christine Bennett, Chief Medical Officer of Bupa Australia, said of the Australian study into online health research results highlights the importance of people accessing online information from high-quality, credible resources.

“While the internet undoubtedly provides people with greater access to resources, it’s essential that they access high-quality websites and content to empower them to make informed decisions about their health,” she said.

There is always going to be the questions as to whether medical service providers should have a website. If you do have a website, you need to ensure your patients, potential patients and referrers have access to the right information about your specialty or service and that your website can be found online, meets AMA standards and is informative and educational.

Other interesting facts about Medical Websites
In 2013 mobile phones are the most common device used to access the internet. In Australia, 60% of all mobile users have smartphones and are increasingly accessing content on their smartphones.

Facts tell us that “Mobile search” isn’t a “trend”. More and more people are going to be searching your website via mobile.

A mobile medical website design is a different version of your site built with easier navigation so that users can better browse your site on the smaller screen of a smart phone or tablet. Although it looks different than the website’s “computer” version, it contains all the same pages and contents. The key to a medical website that gives users the best navigation experience on a mobile device is responsive design.

Responsive Design means that regardless of the device that people are using to view your medical website, they are getting the best browser experience.

So why have a website developed in Responsive Design ?

Icon Visual marketing strategic medical marketing plans and programs designed to build medical businesses.

Make your most visited webpage more appealing to customers

Fri, 22 Nov 2013 19:25:00 GMT

The About Us page is one of the most popular destinations on any website. People click onto it all the time.
So what does your About Us page say about you and why are visitors to your website so keen to know about you?

It's simple. They want to know if you're the sort of company they want to do business with. Do you share common visions and goals, what is most important to your company and what information do you want customers to know about you. Can you help them solve a problem?

Your About Us page should sell the uniqueness of your company, present positive aspects of what you deliver to your clients. About Us is NOT a history of your company.

Think of it this way. Your About Us page is your cover letter. Just like when applying for a job, your Cover Letter highlights the best things about you and the reasons why someone should employ you.

A Company History page is like your resume. An ordered document giving key dates and milestones
Your about Us page is the one area of your business website where you really have a chance to tell your story—who you are, what your small business is all about, and what makes you unique from your competitors.

So, take a minute to review your About Us page and update it to sell the best things about your
company.

Some best practice tips for your About Us Page

Getting your website strategy right to drive online leads

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 19:14:00 GMT

Our recent article about how to drive target customers to your website lent itself to ask the question, but what if your website isn’t well designed or customer friendly to convert these visitors into actual leads.Dedicating resources that drive traffic to your website – Online Advertising, SEO and Social Media – are worth very little if you are not willing to devote time to your website itself.Why is the tool that is responsible for converting that very same traffic into customers often neglected? It mainly comes down to a lack of understanding regarding how a website contributes to an overall marketing strategy.Your business website used to be an extension of your marketing, nothing more than an online corporate brochure. In today’s world, it’s everything – the centre of your marketing. Part of your online strategy should be to create a website update program that sees you adding new sections or content regularly that is of value to your customers. It should be a useful tool for them to find the information they want to be an effective marketing tool for you.Rather than prioritising marketing channels that drive traffic, businesses need to first focus on their website first, and build the rest of their marketing strategy around it.We call this setting up the right foundations to grow your business.

Using LinkedIn Endorsements to build your profile

Wed, 13 Nov 2013 20:40:00 GMT

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network online today with an astounding 135 million users and a targeted audience of business professionals. Endorsements create opportunities to forge stronger bonds with your connections, and add credibility to their profiles. Getting an endorsement from a trusted contact enhances your profile as well.Endorsements are quick and painless to complete, and add credibility to your profile. Give endorsements, and you will most likely receive them in return. As your skills gain prominence, others begin to look into who you are and investigate your skills, as well. This ultimately leads to a growth in awareness and the overall generation of interest in your brand. The more endorsements you have, the more likely others are going to check you out for themselves, generating word of mouth marketing.

Why you need to optimise your website for all online devices

Fri, 08 Nov 2013 18:37:00 GMT

Every month technology shops are welcoming new tablet devices, smartphones and more traditional PCs and notebooks, which means the range of screen sizes is changing more than we can keep up with
Most interestingly, no one device or screen size that owns more than 20% of the market share when it comes to how people are accessing the internet.

That means that a site should be built so that viewers get the optimal experience whether they are on a desktop, mobile phone, or tablet.

Responsive design allows you to reach users in whatever way they're accessing your site, with the highest priority given to content.

Why simply having a website isn’t enough?

Thu, 07 Nov 2013 18:19:00 GMT

The fact that you have spent time building your website simply isn’t enough to guarantee that potential customers will come to your website. You need to invest both time and money to drive people to your website. Your site is not doing you any good if no one is seeing it.

Your website should be more than your brochure on the internet. It should be a tool for your business. If your website isn’t working for you, it simply isn’t working.

Online advertising creates a unique opportunity to focus on your ideal target audience for your product or service. Pa y per click (PPC) advertising is the most effective and quickest online strategy to drive traffic and potential leads to your website.

Icon Visual Marketing uses every PPC advertising network in Australia to drive traffic to your website. This includes Google Adwords, Google Display Network, Facebook Advertising, LinkedIn Advertising and Bing Ads.

Search Engine Optimisation

SEO is a long term marketing strategy and should be worked on constantly as part of an ongoing online marketing program. Our SEO strategies focus leads or sales you receive from our SEO efforts, not just how highly you rank. Because when it comes down to it, it’s not about how high you rank but about how much profit you earn from those rankings.
Social Media Marketing

Social Media should be incorporated into your online marketing strategy to drive customer engagement and build your online credibility and reputation with customers and potential new customers.

How to Use Twitter to grow your Marketing

Sun, 03 Nov 2013 08:27:00 GMT

There are more than 2.9 million Twitter accounts in Australia. A 2013 Sensis social media report found that about 15% of Australian internet users used Twitter, compared with 95% who use Facebook - however Twitter usage is growing and Twitter use by business is increasing fast.

At the moment business users are largely based in the hospitality, entertainment, retail and technology sectors – but industrial based businesses and those who focus on the B2B markets can also effectively use Twitter to develop relationships and grow their brand online.

However, there are some rules that companies need to go by to ensure their Twitter account isn’t a one way communication, with no followers and no interest in the news you are putting out.

US Social Media Soweto company, Hubspot have recently published a handy Twitter for Business guide that gives some great points for how to use Twitter as part of your marketing regardless of the size of your business or the industry you are in.

Icon receives honoured Google Partner status

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 05:02:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing is pleased to announce they have achieved official Google Partner status in search advertising and display advertising under the new Google Partner program set to launch next month in Australia.

As a full service, integrated Sydney marketing and sales agency, Icon Visual Marketing provides the tools to help you reach your next customer.

Using customer case studies to build credibility and attract new sales

Mon, 21 Oct 2013 20:45:00 GMT

Case studies can be a powerful marketing tool when trying to attract new sales leads to the business, demonstrating your business capabilities and skills to potential new customers often looking for similar services.

A recent report highlighted the importance of building credibility through the use of case studies, with 48% of B2B companies say customer case studies play a role in their decision-making process.

Done properly, case studies can be a powerful part of your sales and marketing programs

Content marketing and why it’s important to grow your brand engagement and web presence

Sun, 13 Oct 2013 08:15:00 GMT

Social media marketing : Content strategy comes before your social media strategy.

A recent Forbes article on Content marketing predicted that content marketing will be the most critical piece of an inbound marketing strategy in 2014.

“While consumers continue to tune out traditional, intrusive marketing communications, they increasingly crave the type of genuine, customer-focused information that content marketing delivers.”

SEO is one of the most critical factors for all business and a great way to increase your organic rankings is to have a website that has regularly updated content that is appealing to your target audience. The continual stream of new content is great for your SEO program

A recent article published on Enterpreneur.com shared six key principles that should be core to your content marketing strategy:

Top 10 Benefits of using Marketing Agency

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 22:40:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing is a Sydney Marketing Agency focused on delivering strategic marketing plans and campaigns for clients from small to medium businesses to larger companies with a range of marketing programs. By engaging Icon Visual Marketing as your outsourced marketing team, you get access to our highly experienced and knowledgeable team.

Who am I and who am I selling to? Positioning and Target Markets

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 02:28:00 GMT

“The core of successful marketing is being really clear of who you are talking to and where your product sits within your category. “
I heard this from an advertising guru who was talking about launching new products into supermarket shelves- fair enough. It’s a pretty fundamental statement.
What it means to us is that you need to know your position and who your target market is.

Positioning

Who is your target market?

An organisation cannot satisfy the needs and wants of all consumers. To do so may result in a massive drain in company resources. Understanding and segmenting your target market is simply the process of dividing a particular market into sections, which display similar characteristics or behaviour.

The key benefit of identifying your target market and segmenting them is to maximise the value presented to each market. In segmenting a business into groups, the overall company values of the brand should filter throughout.

Benefits of segmenting your market

Experience has shown that many companies undersell their product/service because of a lack of clarity of position and value. This has a direct impact upon the brand value and ultimately price. By understanding who is your target markets and the different segments within your marketing, your business will ultimately benefit. Benefits of clear market segmentation include:

Brands – their relevance to the medical industry

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 22:12:00 GMT

What is a brand and is having one relevant to all sectors of the medical industry? If I am an individual doctor or the provider of a service, do I need a brand? Brands are just as important to the different areas of the medical industry as they are to any business. Whether you are a sole practitioner, a small group practice, a growing group service provider or a multi-national.

Your Brand = Your Promise to Deliver to Customers

If you are an individual providing a service – you are the brand, just the same as any entity business forms a brand as a group. What is the ultimate value of your brand? What creates loyalty to one brand over another very similar offering? Thinking that the brand is just a logo, signage, stationery or a set of procedures is a mistake. The real value of your brand is the intangibles made up of experiences that your customer can’t see or touch, but like oxygen – they are real. Brands need to spend time, money and energy to develop these intangibles and ensure they are communicated to the customer. The end benefit to your business is that it adds value to your business to sell. A brand demands a higher price and customers will pay more for a branded product.

How do I know if I have a strong brand?

Your brand sets customer expectations

A brand creates a feeling of trust and an emotional attachment to you or your business. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions that include emotional reasons as well as logical, economic or intellectual reasons.

A few ways to encourage brand loyalty

These might not all be applicable to your business, but there will be some things you can use.

Successful online advertising on a small budget

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:20:00 GMT

Online advertising is one of the most cost effective and measurable ways you can reach your target audience with a strong call to action offer or a branding campaign. But when we say its cost effective, what does that mean in terms of actual costs to your business?

To get started with an effective and targeted online advertising campaign that delivers sales leads to your business, we would recommend a marketing budget of $2 - $5k.*

But what do you get for your money?

For that, you will get an website landing page to support your online advertising campaign and to entice the user to make contact with your business. With a single focus on converting visitors into leads, landing pages are all about positive ROI. Landing pages must be well designed, visually appealing, and easy to use if paid website traffic is going to be converted into something valuable - a sales lead.

The next important step in building your online advertising campaign is to set up your Google AdWords PPC campaign . To do this, we work with you to develop a strong call to action offer that is intended to drive enquiries. Setting up a Google PPC campaign can be a tricky business - ensuring that keywords and your ads are designed to drive the most amount of clicks and sales leads for your business - Icon's AdWords certified professionals set up your campaign for maximum effectiveness.

Now that your campaign is set up to drive targeted clicks to your landing page, Icon's team continue to optimise, update and manage the campaign to ensure consistent results for your budget. You'll receive regular updates, recommendations and reports to ensure your campaign stays on track and is delivering the qualified sales leads to grow your business.

* $2k - $5k spend recommended over three month campaign and includes landing page, Google AdWords set up and Management and Google Media Spend.

Icon delivers more for clients via online advertising campaigns

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 02:17:00 GMT

Icon's Digital Team has continued to deliver even more for clients in August through their digital advertising efforts delivering a 47% increase in campaigns effectiveness (average click through rate across all the accounts) in comparison with July. Coupled with also delivering an average 17% decrease in the cost of conversions from campaigns, Icon is confident in the online strategies and optimisation being constantly improved upon for clients.

While Click Through Rates are important and one of the key deliverables we measure campaign effectiveness and success on, it should never be viewed in isolation. Of course, getting visitors to your site is important, but you also need them to be the right visitors who is interested in your product or service

Social media should not replace Marketing Strategy

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 19:57:00 GMT

Icon Visual Marketing talks about Social media should not replace Marketing Strategy, learn more here.

What works best? Digital marketing versus traditional marketing?

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 21:54:00 GMT

Digital marketing has opened up a whole new vehicle for marketers to target their customers or potential customers – the myriad of online options are almost endless. However does this mean we should be forsaking all other forms of marketing for the highly cost effective, and highly measurable digital marketing?
While it seems like an easy option to throw the whole budget over to the digital marketing team, there is still a place in marketing for more traditional forms of marketing than now integrate with the digital world .

The most effective marketing strategies and programs are those that incorporate both traditional and digital elements into an integrated program to drive conversion.

In his article Making digital and traditional marketing work together , Matthew Kates points out that the whole argument digital marketing vs traditional marketing is the wrong discussion to be having.

“There shouldn’t be a debate between ‘traditional marketing’ and ‘digital marketing’ -- this is a false choice. Instead, the conversation needs to shift to focus on how the two channels work together, as well as how marketers can leverage the best both channels have to offer.”

The strategic plans we should be making for our businesses should about how we can integrate both digital and traditional marketing channels to achieve the best results. For many traditional marketing activities, digital marketing and social media can add a layer of customer engagement and interaction that simply wasn’t available before unless you were physically standing in front of a customer.

Magazine advertising to build brand awareness! Effective tool or expensive waste?

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 08:22:00 GMT

Magazines provide a targeted environment for building brand awareness . Research shows that the average awareness for television and for print is about the same. However, when you consider that exposures in magazines cost considerably less than TV, magazines can work much most cost-effectively than TV in delivering advertising awareness.

In Australia, while magazine titles have reduced over the last five to ten years, at one time Australia held the record the most number of magazine titles available on the market, you can still walk into any newsagent and find a magazine on virtually every subject – covering every niche target audience you may be wanting to target.

Magazine advertising effectively drives consumer attitudes and intended behaviour more effectively and efficiently in combination with online advertising. Combining magazines and online advertising have an enormous impact on consumer attitudes and intended behaviour by:

The point is, no one form of media is all powerful. Magazines, like all media can be an effective tool to market and inform but it is important to integrate your marketing platforms and strategies to ensure that they are delivering your overall marketing objectives and goals.

Online Behavioural Display Advertising driving leads and conversions

Thu, 22 Aug 2013 10:30:00 GMT

Online display advertising creates a unique opportunity to focus on yourideal target audience for your product or service. Using demographic, geographic, interest, or intent data as well as behavioural targeting, you can build the audiences and tailor messages to the key target market. Focus and tailoring on the target audience maximises relevancy and can improve both recall and engagement.Display advertising retargeting is one of the best branding tools available to capture those who have shown interest but not done the desired action. For most websites, only 2% of web traffic converts on the first visit. Retargeting is a tool designed to help companies reach the 98% of users who don’t convert right away. Retarget the right users with the right message and increase conversions.Behavioural based search retargeting allows you to serve display ads to people based on their search behaviour, and targeting parameters are unlimited. Because search retargeting is based on intent data, it also can reach a highly relevant audience.“Retargeted ads led to a 1046% increase in branded search, a clear sign of heightened brand awareness and recall.”

Make sure your marketing (and business) survives any economic downturn

Mon, 19 Aug 2013 05:48:00 GMT

Take to Social Media
Making customers a priority and communicating with them be key to ensuring they are still your customers when the economy picks back up. Social media is a more effective tool you can use to communicate and engage with your customers. The knowledge and advise you have about your industry and your business is most likely of great interest to your customers, so share with them freely and interact on social media.

Justify your spending – Prove that your results are delivering
This is essential during a downturn because businesses are looking for places to cut costs. Your marketing reporting needs to show the value of your marketing – not just the cost. Demonstrate actual revenue that has been generated for the business through each specific marketing activity.
You must be able to justify your marketing budgets and resources by delivering sales and tracking revenues, therefore moving away from less measurable, traditional forms of marketing towards online and digital marketing.

Don’t cut your marketing team – reallocate where possible
An economic downturn, headlines screaming about a slowing economy is enough for any marketing professional to start sweating…marketing people are almost resigned to the fact that they will be first hit with the CFO starts cost cutting.

Companies need to build morale and motivation by clearly communicating with staff what is happening within the business – give them the option to be involved in finding creative solutions to marketing and growing business during hard time.

Changes in staffing arrangements may also need to be considered during tough economic times. Look for flexible working arrangements as an alternative to letting staff go.

You may also consider training your employees to undertake more duties or change their main duties to where the business will benefit most. Instead of focusing on branding and traditional above the line marketing, perhaps your marketing team can be put on the phone to talk to existing customers to try and increase the value of each customer.

In an economic downturn, marketing budgets are generally the first to get cut. Recessions are an opportunity to shift focus to more cost effective strategies, demonstrating ROI across every marketing activity, helping to minimise marketing wastage while maximising effectiveness and overall business profits.

Building landing pages that drive online conversions

Fri, 16 Aug 2013 23:16:00 GMT

If you are spending money driving people to your website through display or Google search advertising, unless you are driving them to landing pages that offer a range of contact options and actions directly related to the ad offer, then odds are you are really missing leads that you are paying for.

Too many companies send their email , social media , and search traffic to their homepages. This is the equivalent of throwing leads and your advertising budget away. You could capture these leads at a much higher rate simply by sending them to targeted landing pages. Landing pages provide a very easy way to generate leads.

Landing page testing is imperative to ensure your ad and subsequent landing page is delivering for your advertising budget. Test different headlines, position of the offer, different offers, images etc over the period of your campaign. Optimising the amount of information you are asking for in your lead capture form can also make a dramatic difference in the reducing the number of people who start filling out your form but don’t hit the submit button.

According to a Google study, 61 percent of users said if they did not find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site, they would quickly move on to another site. That is especially important considering that 67 percent said that when they visit a mobile-friendly site, they are more likely to buy a site’s product or service.

Icon recommends a mobile friendly landing page that strongly reflects the offer made in the display advertisement with strong call to action to increase enquiry rate.

Not all web hosting is the same

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 21:32:00 GMT

Web Hosting can be a confusing and complicated thing, but what exactly is it, and do I need web hosting if I have bought a domain name?

Firstly, let’s briefly explain what is web hosting and domain names. Domain names are like your address on the internet – for example our Domain Name is www.iconvisual.com.au. But having a domain name doesn’t mean you website is on the Internet. It’s just that you’ve staked your spot on the web. Web hosting is how your website domain name is live on the internet, it’s like your home, where you store your belongs. So domain names are the location of your website, and the web hosting is the actual storage of your website.

Shared Hosting is the most common, and the cheapest option. Websites hosted in a shared environment share all the resources on that server that means you could be on a server shared by possibly hundreds of websites. While shared web hosting is cheap, as little $11 per month, the downside is that troubles with one of the shared sites on the host could lead to problems – ie downtime - for all the sites hosted on that server .

Dedicated Hosting is as the name implies a single, dedicated server, a physical system which you have full control over. This server can host a single website or multiple websites, it may also be segmented into a number of virtual servers and these virtual servers may be on sold.

At Icon we have our own dedicated server which is located in Sydney Australia – this means website load time isn’t slowed down like websites which are hosted overseas (to reduce costs). Having a fast website response time is crucial so that your web visitors don’t click straight off your slow website.

It also means we have full control over the websites which are hosted on our server, and have optimised the server to host the websites which we develop.

Protecting your brand with trademarking

Tue, 13 Aug 2013 10:33:00 GMT

Having a registered trade mark can be your most valuable marketing tool. It gives you the exclusive right in Australia to establish a brand identity and legally stop imitators. Unlike a business name, a registered trade mark can provide legal protection for your brand and enable you to stop others from trading with it.Once registered, the trade mark is protected in all Australian states and territories for an initial period of 10 years. For international protection, you need to register your trade mark in each country you want protection in.Be aware that registration of a business name, company name or domain name does not in itself give you any exclusive rights to its use—only a trade mark can give you that kind of protection. Ensure you have exclusive use of your name now and in the future throughout Australia by registering your business name as a trade mark.If you are unsure of what or how to register, ask Icon Visual today.

Not all CMS are created equal for SEO

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 04:25:00 GMT

10 Tips for the right CMS

Being known above their competition is always top of mind for marketing executives, getting more leads is top of mind for sales executives, and all of the above is of the upmost importance to business owners and company directors. The one tool that can meet all these business objectives is a high ly effective and targeted SEO program, ensuring your website is being found more often, for more relevant keywords by more potential customers more often than your competition.

It may surprise you to know that when it comes to SEO , not all Content Management Systems (CMS) are created equally

Below are a top 10 to be aware of when looking for a CMS that will deliver your SEO results to drive leads and ultimately deliver sales .

How mobile friendly is the CMS? Mobile search isn’t a “trend” it’s a fact that more and more people are going to be searching your site via mobile – so ask your provide how the CMS performs for mobile.

How often is the CMS platform updated ? Some CMS platforms were developed prior to the major changes made by Google that have made a huge impact on SEO.

Open Source vs Proprietary CMS – Open Source CMS platforms means that millions around the world are working with it and therefore more innovation of the platform is coming more often within the active developer community. The issue with Proprietary CMS is that they are often not being updated often and therefore not taking advantage of new innovations or technologies.

Page Titles & Header Tags – the proper use of page titles and header tags are of vital importance for good SEO practice and for this reason you would think all CMS allow you to control and update these to ensure they are the right keywords and phrases for your business. However in reality not all CMS allow you access to control these elements. Look for a CMS where you have complete access.

Choose your own host – Hosting is the monthly cost you pay to keep your website on the internet. Choosing an open CMS means you can choose your host – as it should be. But beware the companies who lock you in to their hosting and don’t allow you o move your website. Remember, its your website, demand complete control and ensure that if you want to move away from a company, you can take your website with you.

Are sitemaps automatically updated when I add new pages or content? Ask the question of your CMS provider. Google loves XML sitemaps, it eats them up and next thing you know your site in indexed and in the listings. Make sure you can build HMTL sitemaps too, these are vital for your site users and the search engines.

Intelligent organisation of your content – Category structure is an important factor in SEO, your CMS should allow you to easily categorise your pages and content so it’s a natural structure. This is great for SEO and for people looking for information on your site.

Should CMS limit the pages I can add to my site? This is a problem we see with many proprietry Content Management Systems, the company selling them to you want to charge for any additional pages. When in truth, an open source CMS system allows to unlimited pages on your website. After all, you need a CMS that will grow with your business.

Integration with Social Media – We know about the rise of Social SEO, how your social media marketing can affect your overall SEO. So look for a CMS system that easily integrates Social media content sharing.

Should be able to fully access my site? YES – don’t believe companies who lock you out of adding pages, editing text, adding images. You should have access to all this. The only area of some caution that we advise is that customised coded areas should really only be updated by developers as the potential for things going wrong it too huge.
So, look for a system that you can easily use, allows you full control and is beneficial for your company's SEO program

Using email and offline activities to drive Social media followers and fans

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 22:43:00 GMT

Take a multi-channel approach to growing your opt-in list via mass media advertising, point of sale, QR codes, etc. Consider whether you need to offer incentives for opt-ins, and if so, how you can earn audience loyalty beyond that initial lure. Offer subscribers exclusive access and relevant content based on the expectations you establish during the opt-in process.

If you have a strong email database you use for regular email communications, consider specific emails asking them to join you on Facebook or Twitter. Chances are if they are interested in what you have to say during regular email communications they will be more likely to follow your social media pages.

Why do I need to have a mobile friendly, responsive design website?

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 02:45:00 GMT

Responsive Design is a way to ensure regardless of the device that people are using to view your website, they are getting the best browser experience. However responsive design is more than just optimising your website for mobile devices, it's also about understanding the way in which mobile devices - particularly smart phones – have changed the way people behave online and this means we need to change our activities to ensure we are capturing mobile customers.
Mobile search isn’t a “trend” it’s a fact that more and more people are going to be searching your site via mobile. Not convinced that your B2B target market is mobile users. One easy way to know is through a quick Google Analytics report.

Its simple. Login to your Google Analytics Account. From the left menu under standard reports, choose => Audience => Mobile => Overview. Change the date range to you give you a three to six month snapshot and odds are you will see a rise in mobile use of your website over this period.

Now that you’ve most likely seen the rise in mobile searches of your website, take out your Smartphone and browse through your site yourself. Easy to navigate, buttons easy to click, phone number click to call? Probably not.

The smartphone is becoming the first point of research for a majority of internet users. More and more customers are beginning their “buying” process on their mobile phones.

What are we searching on Smartphones

Below are some interesting statistics why you should be considering a mobile friendly website for your business.

The rise of smartphones and their impact on online shopping

The rise of smart phones has had a significant impact on how people now shop online. Whether this is through using multiple devices before making a purchase or using the smart phone on its own, mobile commerce is a growing world, and businesses need to capable of catering to this change.

Why Responsive design is the best option for a mobile friendly website

Statistics listed come courtesy of Google's Australian "Our Mobile Planet" survey, which they ran in 2012. They surveyed a total of 1,000 Australian adults from the ages of 18 - 64 years of age. The gender split was 52% male and 48% female .

Welcome to the new Icon website – Responsive design to respond to a mobile world

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 02:12:00 GMT

Interesting mobile web statistics

So what are the top three lessons from all this?

Shopping behaviour on smart phones

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 02:43:00 GMT

So how should this change how we market?
We need to place more emphasis on using our online properties to market to potential customers regardless of what stage buyer behaviour they are at. Websites need to not always have a hard sell, assume that a number of people are coming to your website as part of their initial research, or as part of their evaluation and product comparison. Make sure you have suitable information relevant to them at this stage of their information gathering – not just prices and shipping times for those wanting to purchase.
Uptake of Smart Phones and online consumer buyer behaviour.

Whether this is through using multiple devices before making a purchase or using the smart phone on its own, mobile commerce is a growing world, and businesses need to capable of catering to this change.
Researching products is a very common practice for smart phone users, and they'll perform this research in a number of settings, including:

Statistics courtesy of 2012 Google's Australian "Our Mobile Planet" survey.

If your competitor is doing it, does that mean you should be too?

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 00:08:00 GMT

There are arguments to both sides of the coin. It really depends on whether what your competitor is doing it smart! Here are a few ideas to think about for when you are thinking about doing what your competitor does.

‘Never compete with someone who has nothing to lose’ – Baltasar Gracian Don’t compete with someone who has nothing to lose, start your own race – set your own goals and your own rules.
Learn from mistakes You don’t want to follow your competitor’s mistakes, but you can learn from them! One of the key things you should be doing to get ahead of your competitors, is to understand who, what, why and how you are marketing. Understand this and you will succeed where your competitor hasn’t.

Local search on Mobiles in Australia

Sat, 13 Jul 2013 02:27:00 GMT

Local search is huge among smart phone users in Australia, and often leads to some positive action being taken after the initial search.

86% of smart phone users have performed a local search; of those that have, 88% have gone to take action on the search (e.g. contact the business)

48% of us who own smart phones search local information at least once a week; 18% do this daily
Taking action after a local search has led to some very positive results, with smart phone users doing the following:

Collecting customer emails – building your database should be a priority

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 00:17:00 GMT

Make the collection of emails part of the norm in your business routine. Building your database now is important, because even if you do not utilise it immediately, with the progress of digital on our way of conducting business, chances are it will be an important asset later down the track.

Using the web to track consumer buyer behaviour

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 09:21:00 GMT

As the web becomes increasing the first place to engage people, your website design, navigation and interaction needs to ensure that it offers people a range of options to communicate with you, too often we assume that every visitor to our website is ready to purchase. But this is where we need to go back to traditional – but still fundamental – consumer buyer behaviour and ensure the website offers a range engagement options.For those who may just be doing product research – offer downloads, guides, free information and advice to help them in their research.Maybe others are interested in your brand, but not quite in the market for your product – offer a free monthly newsletter so you can keep in touch.The idea is to still capture the details of these potential future customers so at the time when they are ready to purchase, your brand and your product is top of mind.For those who are hot to trot ready to purchase, ensure you have easy contact forms, buy now, make enquiries button on all the product pages so you are capturing the customers when they are inspired to make a purchase.Social Marketing Integration is a key element to the success of the early engagement of clients in the sales process. We'll follow up on how to use social media as part of your lead nurturing process in another blog

Lead nurturing vs Lead Generation

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 22:14:00 GMT

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is building relationships with potential clients even if they are not currently looking to buy a product or service. They may have signed up online to receive your newsletter or follow you on social media , but they aren’t necessarily ready to make a purchase. In the traditional consumer buyer behaviour they are perhaps still at evaluation or awareness – so a hard sales call at this stage won’t work. You need to nurture these leads, help them in their quest for information with email newsletters full of tips and advice, use social media to be an advisor and expert in your specific field.

Lead nurturing raises your company profile and overall product/ service awareness profile in the potential client’s eyes, thus making it more likely that the client will go with the your product or service when it is time to buy.

Lead nurturing starts once a company has a potential client’s contact information and can personalise communication with him or her.

Lead nurturing is a traditional marketing practice , but it has taken on new meaning now that companies can create communities around their products using social media.

The absolute basics of SEO

Tue, 25 Jun 2013 04:30:00 GMT

Yep, you know that SEO is important for your business, being found online is paramount to growing your sales, but you Google yourself endlessly, your key products and services and you are nowhere to be found. What are some basic steps you can take to help grow your SEO. Research the terms that are actually used by customers, not just your own industry words. Use free tools such as Google keyword tool to enter in your website and to see what keywords and relevant and use that as a base to build the keyword list that you want to be found for. Use 1-2 relevant keywords in your heading and in your opening paragraph Write unique content Refresh your content regularly to encourage search engines spiders to visit your website more frequently Make sure all the links work on your website Name your webpages with relevant keywords Include a heading on all webpages Include a relevant title and description for each webpage Start using Google Analytics to track where visitors are coming from, how long they stay on your website and what keywords they use to find your website. Need help with a more comprehensive SEO strategy. Contact the Icon Digital marketing team today.

How to effectively use online banner advertising?

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 23:47:00 GMT

Digital online Banner advertising can be a powerful marketing tool to build you brand and show your ad to online users who have specifically shown previous interest in your industry or product.

Banner ads on the internet are everywhere, every news site, your Gmail account, you tube – you really can’t avoid them. But as marketers, its interesting to know just who is clicking on them and perhaps the reasons why people are choosing to skip over them.

A recent infographic by Prestige marketing show that yes, people do click on the ads, and the people most likely to click on the ads are 55 years and older.

However, we find the list of reasons people aren’t clicking on the ads more interesting, and know that when we build you online banner advertising to support your wider branding or call to action campaign, we will be taking all into account.

Components of a good SEO Strategy

Sun, 23 Jun 2013 03:56:00 GMT

A good SEO strategy is made up of a range of components, both on your own website and external linking factors all of which done properly can build the overall organic rankings of your website for keywords relevant to your business and your industry.

The below pyramid (thanks to SEO Moz 2010) is a great example of the factors that we target to build a good SEO strategy and highlights the importance having a long-term SEO which focuses on implement basic SEO best practices and produce high-quality content that is highly relevant to your business.

Not sure blogging is for you? Think again

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:44:00 GMT

SEO is one of the most critical factors for all business regardless of the actual business they are in. And a great way to increase your organic rankings is have a website that has regularly updated content that is appealing to your target audience.A blog is a great way to publish new content to your website on relevant topics your customers or potential customer may be interested in. And the continual stream of new content is great for your SEO program.However one of the factors that hold many businesses back is, “I don’t have enough to talk about for a regular blog.” A great place to start for blog topics is what are the commonly asked questions you get. Perhaps you have an FAQ that you refer to regularly – each question can really be its own blog topic that will help your customers understand more about your business and your product.Blogs don’t have to be pages and pages of technical information. They can be short, punchy, to the point and give interesting information to customers. Here are some examples of blog topics you could cover. Use the frequently asked questions to develop a range of blog articles New product news Technical process update Expanding the business New uses for your existing products How customers are using your products – case studies Advise on how to better use your products Behind the scenes on how your processes / products are made And the list goes on.Icon recommends building a monthly content calendar so you are never left short of something to say. Planning your content like this helps you know what is coming up, what information you need in advance and what approvals you need to get.Still not sure where to start? Contact the Icon Content Development team for a free first consultation.

Database marketing still at times the best answer in industrial marketing

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:19:00 GMT

While many companies are spending up 70%, 80% on chasing new customers and building upon their customer acquisition, many companies ignore their existing customers, the database they have built over years of good business practice.The Reason – above the line marketing – new customer marketing – is sometimes the sexy side of marketing. Magazine advertising, billboards, television etc. However, below the line marketing – growing the orders from existing customer – can be, well, less sexy. Mining and segmenting databases, writing compelling call to action direct mail pieces and working with existing customers sometimes one by one to grow the size of their orders.However, if you want to immediately grow your business and your bottom line, look to your database. These customers have already worked with you, appreciate your customer service and your products. So doesn’t it stand to reason that to grow each of these customers by just 10% would be more effective in growing the bottom line quickly rather than the sometimes long sales process with new customers. Both strategies should work together, not ignoring one for the sake of other. Ensure that your strategic marketing planning includes strategies for both new client acquisition and growing your existing customer size.

Using Facebook to drive your sales funnel

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 05:53:00 GMT

While having a lot of Facebook fans makes you look great, it doesn’t have real impact your business growth or sales targets. You need to use your Facebook content and interactions to entice you’re audience to go past your Facebook page and spend time on your website. After all, your website is where the real action happens and where you can turn Facebook likes in to real leads within the sales funnel.

This opens up the opportunity of turning that prospect into a lead simply by providing an offer and also offers a powerful means of building your own database outside of relying on Facebook.

What makes engaging content
Post a variety of offers, from limited time promotions to ebooks and demos, to ensure you’re engaging people at all stages of the buying process. Just make sure the offer you provide is aligned with your business goals and brand identity.

Use your posts, promotions and offers to draw Facbeook visitors back to your website to engage with you and most importantly give you their details so you can continue to market to them outside of Facebook.

Building a brand through Facebook

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 06:14:00 GMT

Build a brand. Facebook offers an excellent outlet to build a brand that consumers can connect with beyond the often static nature of traditional marketing. On Facebook, customers can participate in brand activities and interact with your brand on a personal level. Increase loyalty. By “Liking” a Facebook brand page, consumers are essentially opting in to receive your brand messaging. This is a powerful opportunity to connect with them and turn them into brand ambassadors and lifetime customers.Communicate. Facebook marketing is not just pushing out brand messages. It has become common for customers to use a brand page to bring up inquiries or offer feedback. Handled correctly, this can be a fantastic way to communicate with customers and offer them exceptional customer service.A lot of large brands have an active social media presence, however there is an over-reliance on simple counting of Facebook Fans as a key performance metric. Given that a brand has acquired a certain number of Fans, its goal should be to deliver maximum reach, achieve brand resonance, and hopefully influence consumers to purchase or engage with the brand.

Traditional marketing is dead. Long live integration

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 04:30:00 GMT

Traditional marketing — including advertising, public relations, branding and corporate communications — is dead. Really??? Death is so, well…final.

A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow but there must be a plan.

The integration of activities through a well-balanced plan means you can achieve the main goals of any business.

And often the most important of all is employee satisfaction. A good plan helps all team members to have a sense that they belong to something bigger than themselves therefore creating opportunities.

Let the plan lead you not the activities. Hence all forms both traditional, less sexy and new funky activities are driven by the above. That is great integration.

Integration between email marketing and social media

Fri, 31 May 2013 05:27:00 GMT

One of the most important things that you can do to drive repeat sales is to create an database of email subscribers so you can easily communicate with you customers on a frequent and consistent basis, sharing industry news, giving advice and tips and offering genuine value add for customers to be on your email newsletter list.

Every customer that sign’s up to a your email database should be told about your social media presence. After all, these customers have already expressed interest in receiving updates you’re your company,, so they are more like to o be informed of that businesses’ social media presence. In this case, these customers have already expressed interest in receiving updates from a company, and getting them to “Like” one’s Facebook page or “Follow” one’s Twitter profile can only lead to better communication and a stronger customer relationship.

How can traditional industrial marketing companies benefit from more online activities?

Sat, 25 May 2013 04:10:00 GMT

Traditionally, Industrial companies saw themselves as very limited in who they would market to. Above the line tactics – such as mass media advertising – weren’t effective for industrial markets, and in most respects, with the exception of Intel, still aren’t. Below the line activities – such as direct tactics, advertising in trade journals – were proven more effective.

A 2012 report from Global Spec titled Trends in Industrial marketing 2012, over 300 management level staff in industrial companies were surveyed on their views to online marketing.

According to the survey, more than half (57 percent) of industrial companies are engaged in social media marketing efforts. Thirty-seven percent are spending more on social media this year than they did in 2011, with LinkedIn (73 percent), Facebook (55 percent), and Twitter (40 percent) leading the way. However, a large number of those surveyed were unhappy with their understanding of the objectives of social media – and how they are delivering on sales objectives.

Before engaging in social media for a highly industrial business , industrial marketers need to establish a clear set of objectives before engaging in social media—i.e., fostering brand awareness, demonstrating thought leadership, generating engagement opportunities—industrial marketers can then measure their social media efforts against those objectives. Facebook, for example, offers users a robust set of statistics that can help calculate reach and interactively with fans; on Twitter, users can measure their followers, mentions, and re-tweets.

We’ve said before 2013 is the year of measurement and metrics. With a huge suite of advanced analytics tools at our fingertips, Industrial marketers can provide the type of measurement and reporting needed to measure ROI of online marketing and social media in delivering in actual dollar terms for the business.

Facebook Strategy - Beyond the Like

Sat, 18 May 2013 05:25:00 GMT

A lot of large brands have an active social media presence, however there continues to be an over-reliance on simple counting of Facebook Fans as a key performance metric. In any Facebook marketing program, there should be two strategies in play – a Fan Acquisition Program to grow the opportunities to interact with fans and a Fan Engagement Program to promote a community beyond the simple like.facebook marketing beyond the like

Increase loyalty. By “Liking” a Facebook brand page, consumers are essentially opting in to receive your brand messaging. This is a powerful opportunity to connect with them and turn them into brand ambassadors and lifetime customers.

Fan Engagement Program
Communicate. Facebook marketing is not just pushing out brand messages. It has become common for customers to use a brand page to bring up inquiries or offer feedback. Handled correctly, this can be a fantastic way to communicate with customers and offer them exceptional customer service.

Given that a brand has acquired a certain number of Fans, its goal should be to deliver maximum reach, achieve brand resonance, and hopefully influence consumers to purchase or engage with the brand

Digital Marketing Team for your business

Fri, 10 May 2013 05:24:00 GMT

Digital marketing has evolved and has really become the centre of all marketing programs, both offline and online. You don’t just need a website, you need a digital marketing strategy and approach that integrates all your activities. What you need is a Digital Marketing team behind your business.Digital Marketing

The Icon Online Digital Marketing Team combines Web Development specialists, Social Media experts, Strategic Marketing professionals with a Creative Design team, all working hand-in-hand to create interactive and engaging and interactive websites that are functional and easy to navigate.

Icon develops and implements integrated Digital Marketing strategies for clients, uses all activities to drive potential customers to your online presence, whether it is your company website, social media properties or a mobile site of your regularly updated blog.

Brand Consultation and Development

Wed, 08 May 2013 05:22:00 GMT

Whether you’re a new business starting out or one evolving, your logo, your business and use of a tagline must be spot on in conveying your overall business vision and customer experience - your brand .

Icon can assist you in designing a brand that will not only resonate with your customers but will also increase your sales and brand identity worth as time progresses.brand

Icon brand designers are experts in communicating the essence of your brand in a simple and graphical way that shows your customers what they should experience when buying from your company.

Further development of B2B Personal Sales relationships

Tue, 07 May 2013 05:18:00 GMT

A distinguishing feature of B2B markets is the importance of the personal relationship. Personal relationships and trust develop. It is not unusual for a business-to-business supplier to have customers that have been loyal and committed for many years.

However, in the modern B2B sales funnel, personal relationships need to be built at a range of levels, so there is a spider web of contacts to any customer, protecting the company if the main sales contact moves on and also protecting the overall business relationship if any one personal relationship breaks down

Your Brand = Your Promise to Deliver to Customers

Mon, 06 May 2013 11:50:00 GMT

A brand spends time, money and energy developing these intangible values and communicating these to the customer. The end result is a business that builds assets to sell, brands that demand a higher price and customers who are will to pay more for the branded product.

How do I know if I have a strong brand?
Some brands value their brand loyalty on overall market share, on numbers. But a good way to really measure brand loyalty is returning customers – this is never more so than in industries with long periods between replacements – such as white goods, garden products, the car industry. If a customers can remember you every 4 or 5 years and come back to you for purchase, that is the ultimate brand loyalty.

Your brand sets customer expectations
Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion- not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons.

What's in it for me? The question social media users are asking

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:53:00 GMT

And why business needs to listen!

Whether you are a small business or a large organisation – if you are using or considering a social media strategy , your key question should be “how social media will benefit who I am trying to engage with?”

As a business, you should have some idea about which target markets you are trying to reach and what you expect your social media strategy achieve. Whether you want to educate on your services or increase volume and activity, if your strategy doesn’t provide something useful to your audience, you are unlikely to engage with them and miss out on achieving your objectives.

If your use of social media falls into the trap of always trying to spruik your services, you risk alienating your target audience and potentially wasting your efforts and dollars and ultimately can result in damaging your reputation.

B2B Marketing to feed the sales funnel

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:15:00 GMT

The entire role of B2B marketing , and the marketing department or B2B marketing agency, is to feed the sales funnel. Promote the right messages to the right target market to influence them to make a sale. Thats it!

Having them like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter are just great, but the aim of the game is to make sales, not just be popular.

Many advertising agencies and marketing agencies simply see a small part of the process, or don't see their role as feeding the sales funnel. As a full service marketing agency, Icon builds your marketing strategy with the end goal as the first priority - feed leads to the sales team and ensure the branding and key messages supports the customer experience.

It's important to remember, the best marketing isn't the most creative, or even the most popular, its what drives the most sales. Remember social media, great creative etc are marketing tools, not marketing strategy.

Does Google AdWords level the playing field for Small Business?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:13:00 GMT

Google AdWords can be a powerful advertising tool that can help a small business appear large and offer a range of effective targeting techniques so you can be assured your advertising money is being used to advertise to those more likely to become a customer.

In a recent article , Google Asia-Pacific president Karim Temsamani talked about the power of Google AdWords for SME. “It (Google AdWords) allows any business to compete against large businesses anywhere around the world.”

Google’s AdWords online advertising programs can help businesses regardless of size, but as businesses grow, the programs become increasingly sophisticated this is where many small businesses begin to struggle with managing and monitoring the success of their AdWords campaign. There has been previous criticism that AdWords, which has always been lauded by Google as levelling the playing field for SMEs has failed to provide effective ROI for small business. However, well managed, Google AdWords can provide a strong sales lead generation vehicle for any busisness.Google AdWords Certified Partner

Icon Visual Marketing are experts in Google AdWords advertising programs which deliver leads which are more likely to convert to actual sales. Our Digital Marketing team includes two highly specialists Google AdWords Certified professionals. Google™ AdWords Certified Partner Status is a globally recognised stamp of approval which demonstrates Icon’s knowledge of the latest AdWords tools and best practice techniques in areas relating to account management, content network advertising, optimisation techniques, and Web site analytics – all to ensure that Icon Visual Marketing will effectively manage your AdWords campaign.

The Meaning of Colour in Creative Design

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:48:00 GMT

Choosing the right color scheme for a corporate branding of a web design is extremely important. It will set the mood of your design more than any other component.

When starting any design for a brand or website, Icon will uncover as much as we can about your business and your brand as this will help guide the colour choices that are made. Below is a starting guide for the meaning of colour and may help to give you an understanding as to why designers use specific colours to represent your business.

Choose to make mobile a business norm, not a business novelty.

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 04:43:00 GMT

Mobile search isn’t a “trend” it’s a fact that more and more people are going to be searching your site via mobile. Not convinced that your B2B target market are mobile users. One easy way to know is through a quick Google Analytics report.

Its simple.

Login to your Google Analytics Account

From the left menu under standard reports, choose => Audience => Mobile => Overview

Change the date range to you give you a three to six month snapshot and odds are you will see a rise in mobile use of your website over this period.

In Australia, 60% of all mobile users have smartphones and are increasingly are accessing content on their smartphones.

The smartphone is becoming the first point of research for a majority of internet users. More and more customers are beginning their “buying” process on their mobile phones.

Your website needs to be optimised for mobile – fewer choices, larger fonts and cleaner user interface are the key to giving customers a positive viewing experience of your website via mobile.

So what, exactly, are consumers looking for in a website accessed from a mobile device?

Usability and design features matter. Mobile users indicated they are most looking for (in order of priority):

Icon CMS fully supports responsive design techniques and provides a wide selection of custom responsive design templates.

Responsive design means your website responds to the width of the browser, offering you a single website that looks great on any device!

Moving from the desktop to mobile for web browsing has demanded a fluid, one-time design solution that adapts to the viewers medium. Saving time and money, and overcoming the impossible task of custom designing to the ever increasing resolutions and interfaces we deal with has become paramount in today’s financial climate.

Not sure where to start, contact Icon for a mobile review of your online activities

How important is brand for B2B or Industrial companies anyway?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:41:00 GMT

In previous generations, industrial based and B2B companies didn’t see traditional marketing as a great benefit to them. Sure, trade shows, yellow pages and the company calendar to clients may have been important, but these companies placed more importance on having the most technological advanced solution rather than building upon their marketing.

However in today’s competitive business environment if you have a business, you have to have a brand , and if your brand is selling your company short, you need to do something about it.

Branding will give you a competitive edge, create trust and emotional attachment, makes purchasing decisions easier. A strong brand can command a premium price, and most importantly a strong brand can make the actual product features or benefits of what you are selling insignificant.

The huge growth of digital marketing means that any business can affordably reach even the smallest target and most niche market online, so suddenly your brand matters a great deal more than ever before.

Every business must think in terms of digital branding that reflects who they are as a company. Every aspect of your company communications, your newsletter, your website, social media and all online and offline marketing tactics – must communicate a strong and consistent brand.

Setting your business objectives to drive your marketing strategy

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:38:00 GMT

Have you ever driven through a thick fog? Though your lights are on, it’s difficult to see the person passing you, let alone five feet in front of your hood. This experience is very much like running a business without clearly defined goals. Setting business and marketing objectives gives your company direction and focus.

M = Measurable
If you can’t measure it – you can’t manage it. Choose an objective with measureable progress so you can see the changes occur and how far you have progressed to meeting your objective.

A = Attainable & Achievable
When you identify goals and objectives that are most important to you, you need to ensure you have the means and resources to make them happen. Objectives you set that are too far out of your reach, you probably won’t commit to. For instance, an objective which states "100 percent customer satisfaction" isn't realistically achievable. It's not possible to expect that everyone must be 100 percent satisfied with their service. A goal of "12 percent improvement in customer satisfaction" is better. Set the bar high enough for a satisfying achievement!

R = Realistic
Objectives need to be reasonable and be realistic. Being unrealistic sets you up for a fall and kills your enthusiasm at achieving your goal. Realistic goals are potentially challenging but not so challenging that the chance of success is small. Be realistic while remembering that worthwhile goals and objectives should force you to reach out of your comfort zone in order to attain them.

T = Timely
Set a timeframe for your goals and objectives – not doing this makes it too easy to not complete. The timeframe you set must be measurable, attainable and realistic.

Why Professional Services marketing is unique?

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 04:46:00 GMT

The differences between marketing a product and marketing your professional services are vast, you are effectively selling your knowledge and experience at every turn, building your credibility as an expert and authority in your professional services field.

Once upon a time, to be successful in your business, you just had to be good at it – as the old myth goes, Great work speaks for itself. However this shouldn’t be the core foundation of a successful marketing strategy. While this is of course important, you need a marketing plan to ensure news of your great work and service is communicated constantly to attract new clients and retain existing clients.

To get the word out, you need client-level communication plans for your current clients, and you need to integrate the details of the success you have helped clients achieve into your overall marketing plan.

Going back to building credibility and authority, your corporate website is one of the most important tools you can use to promote your good work, build your authority and demonstrate your passion for the industry you are in. Your website is a critical part of your marketing strategy, with this being the first point of call for potential clients.

Using a blog or updated news component on your website gives you the freedom to comment on industry news, post interesting articles about your industry or share tips and advice. Read more about becoming a true industry resource for your clients.

Whatever professional services industry you are in, clients will continue to engage the services of trustworthy and competent people who can demonstrate, beyond a reasonable doubt, that they can produce the results they promise.

Demonstrate that and you'll have clients lined up to work with you.

Your marketing plan should be a living, working document

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 04:33:00 GMT

Use your marketing plan – a marketing plan isn’t something you write and then shelve – it should be a living, working document that you refer to regularly, update where needed and base your marketing activities around.

Integrated Marketing Plans
An integrated marketing communications plan has all parts of your tactics working together. For example, if your marketing communications plan calls for print advertising, the same theme of your print ads should be reflected on your web site. If your customer gets the same message and visual clues in both places, they are much more likely to comprehend your marketing message. By doing this, you will build your brand with that customer who will remember you when they are ready to buy.

Your integrated marketing plan will include
• Online marketing
• Advertising
• Marketing Collateral
• Website Strategy
• Trade shows and events
• Public Relations

Icon Visual Marketing delivers integrated marketing plans to ensure all elements of your marketing are working together towards the ultimate goal of reaching your next customer.

10 Tips on Social Media Best Practice for Business

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 04:22:00 GMT

When using social media for your business, there are some general Best practice guidelines you should adhere to. Always use URL Shorteners in Blog and Social Media – This is highly measurable and saves valuable posting space. Think Bit.Ly or Google URL Shortener Always link content back to the website – that’s our end goal Think mobile – is the content you have posted relevant for mobile Respond quickly, respond to everyone and give everyone the benefit of the doubt Be brief – Facebook 80 characters and under, Twitter 130 characters and under Be visual – Images are more likely to get shared, retweeted and opened across all social media Share content from the blog – but post a different intro to the blog before linking your social posts back to the website Have a social media policy as to what you post, who posts and any approval processes If you aren’t going to be active, don’t use it Remember that you on social media to value to your followers and to engage with your customers – not to shamelessly promote your business

Responsive Design for every device

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:20:00 GMT

One flexible design - many applications Need a website that looks great on smartphones, tablets, desktops and more? Icon CMS fully supports responsive design techniques and provides a wide selection of custom responsive design templates. Responsive design means your website responds to the width of the browser, offering you a single website that looks great on any device! Moving from the desktop to mobile for web browsing has demanded a fluid, one-time design solution that adapts to the viewers medium. Saving time and money, and overcoming the impossible task of custom designing to the ever increasing resolutions and interfaces we deal with has become paramount in today’s financial climate. Responsive design - How we do it?Step 1 - Style Tiles are an essential piece in any responsive web design project. They create a visual language in an efficient way and allow designers to communicate to clients just what are the core colours and visuals will be used across the website regardless of the device it is being viewed on. Step 2 - Prioritise - A big part of developing a responsive design website is to break down what menu priorities will be most important as the site is scaled down to be viewed on tablet devices and smartphones. Step 3 - Wire frame sketch - Once the priorities have been set, icon sketch how the site will look on different screen sizes, with the style tiles ensuring that clients know how their corporate colours and branding will be carried across all designs. Step 4 - One desktop concept - By spending alot of time in the upfront planning of your responsive website, your stylish desktop concept will flow through your website regardless of what device is used to view it.

What are consumers looking for in a website accessed from a mobile device?

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:18:00 GMT

Site speed- loading time of 5 seconds or less Big, mobile friendly buttons Limited scrolling and pinching Quick access to business contact information "Click to call" access to phone the business Quick links to a company's social media profiles Usability and design features matter. Mobile users indicated they are most looking for (in order of priority): Information in just one or two clicks A search bar that is easy to find and use A site that fits the small screen Clean and efficient design An option to visit the non-mobile site The ability to save information for later Big, finger-friendly buttons on-scrolling forms with a limited number of fields A “click to call” button One-direction scrolling, either horizontal or vertical, but not both

Why use LinkedIn as part of your B2B or Industrial marketing plans?

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:13:00 GMT

Social media has just as much a place in a B2B marketing or Industrial marketing plan and budget as traditional marketing tactics such as direct marketing, journal advertising and tradeshows.

The numbers don’t lie
LinkedIn is one of the most important social networks if you are in the B2B or Industrial market space. According to a recent Thomas Industrial Purchasing Barometer (IPB) study:

Help staff help you
Quite rightly, companies provide a set of guidelines and rules governing the use of corporate social media – however in the case of harnessing the power of your staff’s profiles to build your credibility its really not in your authority to do so. However, you can help to give your staff guidance on how to best set up their LinkedIn profiles and how to optimise them for best performance.

Profiles should be formatted to include the following details:

Important considerations when using LinkedIn

How to tailor your B2B content to each social network?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:09:00 GMT

Businesses are embracing social media to drive engagement and to share industry news and information about their business products and services. But each social media network is different and you should use you content differently across your social media sites. What you're saying on Twitter should be short and to the point. Embrace the power of # and @. Facebook? Pictures tell a thousand words. More space to tell a story – but still keep it short and use links to link content back to your website. Well, -- and same goes for Google+. LinkedIn, however, might benefit from a link to a more in-depth content asset, pulling in a snippet from the content itself. Every social network is a little bit different. Treat the content you post there accordingly so it resonates with that audiences, and is more likely to spread.

Websites today - robust enough for incredible user experience!

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:06:00 GMT

Today's websites have to be robust enough to provide incredible visitor experiences. Flexible, easy to update and manage without the skills of a web developer needed for every change Make the best use of all SEO factors including meta tags, keywords and creating categories for blog posts Contain email marketing capabilities and use these to communicate with existing customers and to make contact with potential customers Simple content creation and distribution Have social media feeds Integrate with third-party apps including CRM, marketing automation and analytics

Integrated Digital Marketing Approach

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:01:00 GMT

An integrated Digital Marketing Approach uses all activities to drive potential customers to your online presence, whether it is your company website, social media properties or a mobile site of your regularly updated blog.

SEO
SEO Services at affordable prices. We offer an excellent return on your investment through our proven strategies

Pay Per Click Online advertising
Increase sales and leads with our expert PPC management services. We constantly deliver results and help our clients to take their PPC accounts to the next level.

Social Media
Reach out and engage with customers online, we buildapps, run competitions and optimise social media pages. We recommend specific social media to suit your customers - maximise your social media potential.

Mobile
Our mobile services include mobile website development and mobile search optimisation. We will ensure that your website appears on a number of mobile platforms, whether it be an iPad to Android.

App Development

Need to carry out a survey? Or maybe you want to engage more with your customers? We can develop an app that will not only do that, but we can also track your survey results or how many people are using your app. We can work with you to come up with a creative solution.

Custom Web Developments
Have an idea for an online product but none of the programs so far will work? Our Custom Web Development team can work with you to design and create a custom web development.

Online video
Video is a great way to educate your customers on your service or products, giving them insight into the character of your business. We work with you on script, video production and editing, giving you an all-round service from beginning to completion.

Blogging
Be the resource for your niche – blogging is a fantastic way to inform customers of your knowledge in a field; also a way of getting them involved with you. We encourage all clients to include a blog feature on their site when being built.

White papers
White papers are not only a great way to impart specific knowledge to customers but it is also a way to gather potential new clients, build your database and build the credibility of your brand.

eNewsletters
A monthly/bimonthly eNewsletter is a way to keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis, it may be a way to promote a new product, share your top blogs or even share a success story about your client. At Icon we develop the content, design the template, send the eNewsletter out and track the results.

We design comprehensive digital strategies and produce intelligent solutions that achieve your organisation’s objectives.

We have assembled a passionate team of marketing professionals, including expert strategists, web developers, designers, copywriters and SEO specialists to offer you a broad range of digital services and help create the ultimate user-experience for your audience.

How not to be boring on social media for business? Top 5 tips

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:00:00 GMT

With so much content available online and companies more and more posting social media, writing blog articles and sharing content, how can you stand out from the crowd and get noticed? Everyone saying the same thing over and over again is boring. So how can you not be boring and give content and information that your customers want to read and share? Below are Icon’s top 5 tips so you aren’t boring on Social Media. Give facts that your customers may not know Be personable – while you may be writing for a business, at the end of the day people do business with people. So let your personality come through in your content. Don’t be afraid to be controversial – if you don’t agree with something or have a different position on an industry issue, speak out, state your case and back it up with facts. Post social media the length people like to read – Social media is not about writing long essays or looking at in-depth issues, it short, snippets at times. Use your website blog to create your long articles, to investigate issues and industry topics, link your social media back to this – but do it in shorter snippets and you will have a week of posts all looking at another aspect of your article. Be a valued source of information – share your industry insight, your knowledge and give it willingly.

Want customers to hate your marketing? Make it all about you

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 03:55:00 GMT

A recent list by industry authority out of the US, Hubspot, listed its top 101 sure fire ways to make people hate your marketing . The eleventh way listed to ensure that people hate your marketing is Make your business blog all about promoting your products/services.

After all - Educational and helpful industry-related content is overrated. Your business blog should be all about how awesome your business' products and services are. Brag about them incessantly, rather than providing any true value you to your readers. NOT

A business blog is a great way to express your ideas, company philosophy and explore some trends and aspects of your industry, its also a great tool to influence potential customers and inform existing customers .

A business blog is ideal for attracting potential customers and gaining returning business from existing customers.

Potential customers – Using your business blog to influence website visits who aren’t yet customers about your company knowledge and expertise within your industry is a great way to use your business blog.

Existing Customers – A great way to use a business blog is provide advice on tips on a range of your products and services as well as providing industry commentary to help your customers stay informed.

Why isn't everyone using PPC advertising?

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 11:51:00 GMT

Pay per Click advertising online is a powerful tool that when used well, can drive leads and sales to your website, however used poorly and you’ll end up with a lot of new website traffic but not much else. And this can be an expensive way just to drive more traffic to your website if you aren’t converting into leads and sales. However in some campaigns driving website traffic can be the goal in itself, like in an awareness or education campaign. A colleague recently asked me when I was explaining the benefits of PPC for one of her clients, “Well why isn’t everyone using PPC then?” As a Google AdWords Certified Individual and Company, we do promote different ways to us Pay per click advertising to meet client and campaign goals and objectives, however we also need to make sure that there are well defined goals and objectives before embarking on any such campaign. Is PPC for everyone?Its like any advertising program, it can work, but only if approached in the right way with end goals in mind. Before developing any PPC campaign, Icon don’t start planning with your keywords or ad creatives, we start with the end in mind – what do you want to achieve and what will make this a successful campaign. From there, our digital team creative compelling landing pages on you website, ensure clear call to actions and build your PPC campaign around it. PC advertising is a complex machine, but when done correctly, it can benefit just about any business model

5 Ways to encourage brand loyalty

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:47:00 GMT

1. Deliver a memorable experience every time - Delivering on your service that is expected is great, but going beyond a customer’s expectation is the first step in building brand loyalty. 2. Reward loyalty – I don’t know about you, but every time I see a service – like Foxtel or Medibank Private – offering gifts or rewards for new members – I get a little miffed, as I have been a customer for years and I don’t get any gifts. Reward loyalty as well as using gifts as a new customer acquisition program. 3. Make their life easier – Offer eNewsletters and Social media posts full of advice and How To’ s that will help solve a problem for your customer. These are powerful tools – but used for endless self-promotion, they will yield little results. 4. Ask customers what they think and act on it – Customers are your best source of feedback about your products and services. Surveying your customers is one thing, but actually implementing their feedback into the business, and let that customer know that you have done so will help foster customer loyalty. 5. Turn the negative to the positive - 49% of consumers state that they are more likely to visit a business after reading a positive online review, and 69% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Customers have a range of options to voice their opinion of businesses and companies. But what about when the reviews are negative? You have to make a decision, not as to IF you should respond, but as to HOW you should respond. Firstly, you should respond immediately and directly ensuring your response is empathetic and direct and not weighing into an argument with the customer. Remember, just as their review will be found by potential new customers, so will your response so turn this negative review into a positive.

Your logo looks good, but what does it say about your business?

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:45:00 GMT

Your logo is the first impression of your business and should be representative of the experience customers should expect from you.

A new logo is an important part of the brand development process - yes it's a process!

Sure, your logo should 'look good' - but what does that really mean?

It's all in the planning

Keep it simple!

You can waste a lot of time debating colours, shapes and fonts but always remember - sometimes less is more. It is important not to put too much pressure on the logo to do ALL the work. The logo is just one element of your branding.

Be objective

Take your personal opinion out of the equation. Think about your business, it's people and your customers. Appealing to them is more important than what your favourite colour is.

Leave it to the pros

Ever typed 'graphic design' or 'logo design' into google? That's how many businesses there who say they can design logos - not to mention your friends little brother...

The growth of logo development over the net mean u can get a logo for a few dollars!

Brand development is not about auto generating a graphic online in an hour, or pitting together a few shapes.

Work with professionals who have the ability to communicate the value of your business by creating a usual identity. Icon Visual Marketing Creative department are passionate about brand development and design to make your business stand out. Contact us today to discuss your brand.

Create opportunities to generate sales growth

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 11:43:00 GMT

A 2012 Fournaise Marketing Group study found that 73% of executives don’t believe that marketing drives demand and revenue. Not great news for marketing executives the worldwide. But in 2013, can we start the change this by producing marketing strategies and campaigns that directly can be attributed to lead generation and sales? After all, isn’t that what marketing should be about at its core. Finding you your next sales lead and your next customer. Marketing activities should not only be measured on traffic and lead generation, but should further optimise processes that directly impact sales growth. 2013 will be the year the marketing needs to be more measurable, accountable and be able to justify the budgets the marketing department commands from the business.

How to write a week of Tweets, every Week

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:39:00 GMT

We hear from clients that they don’t have time for Twitter, and how can we expect them to come up with something clever, witty and interesting to say about their business or their industry every day, or every few hows?

Small ideas are just as interesting as big ones

TWEET DAILY
Small ideas work as well as big ones for tweeting. You might retweet someone, thank a customer or talk about what’s happening in your community. Think about your important upcoming events — product launches, holidays or seasonal events — and see how you can incorporate Twitter into your plans. One big idea can be broken down into several smaller Tweets, focusing on smaller parts of the one big idea.

Below is an example of how any company can schedule interesting tweets on a daily basis.

Launch special Twitter-only promotions to your followers. Tweet an offer code that unlocks a discount on your website at checkout, or tweet a secret word that customers can mention to get a discount when they visit your business. Offer a free download to your followers who retweet your offer, etc.

Tuesday – Behind the Scenes

Tweet behind-the-scenes videos or photos that provide access to information that your followers can’t get any other way

Wednesday – Helpful Tips

Create a regular series of Tweets that are informative or surprising, e.g., chef tweets recipes or kitchen tips, fashion boutique tweets ways to match current trends with vintage items

Thursday – News Day

Highlight positive press stories and news about your company, industry or community that your followers will find interesting. Be sure to mention the @username of the reporter or media outlet when you tweet the story. This provides clear attribution and recognizes the source.

Friday – Focus on your people

Highlight the people who help run your company by tweeting photos showing them at work. Retweet the Tweets that relate to your business.

TIP - Follow people from outside your industry to get ideas about interesting content. Be sure to give writers credit when repeating their content in a Tweet. Follow reporters and news outlets that cover your topics, and retweet their relevant comments and insights. Not only will you provide interesting content to your followers; some of those reporters will follow you back.

Am I writing blogs for search engines, potential customers or existing customers?

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:37:00 GMT

The answer is D, all of the above. A business blog is a great way to express your ideas, company philosophy and explore some trends and aspects of your industry, its also a great tool to influence potential customers, inform existing customers and to grow your organic search engine rankings .

Potential customers – Using your business blog to influence website visits who aren’t yet customers about your company knowledge and expertise within your industry is a great way to use the blog. Coming to a site full with new blogs about different product, advise and tips, industry commentary would influence a potential customer much more than a company who simply has a catalogue of products online.

Existing Customers – A great way to use a blog is provide advice on tips on a range of your products and services as well as providing industry commentary to help your customers stay informed. Publishing blogs to your website and then sending them out in a monthly eNewsletter is a great way to keep top of mind with existing customers and reinforce to them that your company is the best at what you do, offering information that is useful to them.

Search Engine Rankings – a blog is a powerful tool to grow your Organic search ranking. Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines are more likely to revisit and continually categorise your site in organic listings if it is being constantly updated with new information. If you have identified specific key words you want to rank highly for, use these are headings and topics for your next blogs. Or, you can use Google Analytics to see the most popular content that is being viewed on your website and use this an indicator as what people want to read, therefore create more content – blogs, videos, how to’s - on these topics.

TIP – How to identify top Content that visitors are viewing on your website
STEP 1 – Log in to your Google Analytics account
STEP 2 - Go into standard reporting in the top toolbar
STEP 3 – Choose TRAFFIC SOURCES from the left menu
STEP 4 – Open the SOURCES section
STEP 5 – Open the Search section then highlight Organic

This will show you search terms that people are searching to get to your site. These could be a great starting point for keyword topics for your blogging efforts.

Key to producing successful tenders

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:30:00 GMT

The NSW Government alone spends $12.7 billion annually procuring goods and services. Are you a company who can provide to the government but not sure how to develop winning tenders?

The tender process is not just about the numbers, the tender process is about differentiating your business from your competitors.

Tender writing can seem an unenjoyable, difficult and resource-consuming task – but if you break it down into simpler terms – the tender itself tells you exactly what information they want to receive in terms of the requirements and the criteria, the next step is to address all these aspects, be compliant and answer every single requirement regardless of how minute the detail is – if the tenderer has asked for this information, make sure you give it.

The presentation of large and sometimes complicated tender can be a major factor in making it past the first round and being a successful bid. Success in the tendering process comes from understanding the tendering process, careful preparation and differentiating yourself Set yourself apart and ahead of the pack and speak to Icon Visual Marketing specialist business marketers about creating specialised and unique multimedia presentations and documentations that have a proven track record.

To go on to win, your tender must also be competitive and persuasive - it must show, clearly and persuasively, your difference, why you, rather than the competition should get the contract. Your tender must show how your solution will help the client, will service their needs and most importantly put them at the centre of the solution, not your technology or expertise. Use your tender to show how your solution will solve their problem - not just how great your solution is.

How to ride the long sales cycle of Industrial marketing

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:24:00 GMT

The B2B sales cycle is much different to B2C. The sales cycle for B2C in a typical retail environment is short – people come into your store or your website wanting to buy for their own personal use. However, in B2B and industrial businesses, you are still selling to a person – but they are buying on behalf of their company. This typically sees the length of the sales cycle stretch to weeks and sometimes months and even longer. But how do you ensure that when the prospect is finally ready to commit, you are at the top of their purchasing list.

B2B marketing and Industrial marketing is all about building relationships. The person buying for their company has their job at stake every time they make a major purchase, so it’s your job as B2B or industrial sales people to help make them look good to their bosses. Help them do their job better. Building a solid working relationship and rapport is one of the most important aspects of long-term customer relationships. You need to get to know your prospect and invest time in the relationship – don’t just sell them products or services sell them solutions to their problems.

5 Marketing Resolutions for 2013

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 11:22:00 GMT

1. Segment your database – if you’ve been around a while, odds are your business will have a database of customers, contacts, suppliers for your different products and services. Make 2013 the year you segment your database to ensure your communicates are hitting the right customer at the right time. A simple segmentation example is those who have purchase and those who haven’t. For those who have already purchased, if you can track their purchases you can segment them even further into product categories and now start marketing add ons and accessories to them for the product they have already purchased. For those who haven’t purchased, send offers, discounts, incentives to try and convert them to a customer.

2. Embrace social media – Businesses large and small can no longer ignore social media as an effective marketing tool. Before jumping in to social, develop a strategy and a plan which includes objectives and outcomes so you can understand which social media channels will be best and what you will use them for.

3. Develop a marketing plan – a marketing plan is an effective blueprint for the year, plot in key dates, sales peaks and troughs, product launches and work around these to develop your strategies and tactics. Include your segmented target market and achievable goals and outcomes on your plan.

4. Use your marketing plan – a marketing plan isn’t something you write and then shelve – it should be a living, working document that you refer to regularly, update where needed and base your marketing activities around.

5. Make better use of your website – a website shouldn’t be an online corporate profile of your company. It needs to attract potential customers and sell your business. Put as much effort into your website as you would reeling in a large new customer. People judge you by your website without ever contacting you. Use it better, update it regularly and MAKE SURE ITS MOBILE FRIENDLY

Commercial Visual Design into 2013

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:20:00 GMT

Pushing visual and communicative design to the next level in 2013 will require a partnership between designer, marketing team and client more now than ever. Clients are seeing and experiencing just enough in the design world to be dangerous. It is up to the whole marketing team to take our clients design to new, measurable, increasing heights.

Design trends in commercial applications tend to be a result of function rather than pure aesthetics or artistry. Weighty, rich design has now given way to functional, back-end driven design in a way that hasn’t been seen in some time - if ever. Designers are no longer limited by the technology of their tools. This has led to a time of reflection, cleansing and an attitude of “just because we can do this, doesn’t mean we should”.

Where is design heading in the next year?

Responsive Web Design: Moving from the desktop to mobile for web browsing has demanded a fluid, one-time design solution that adapts to the viewers medium. Saving time and money, and overcoming the impossible task of custom designing to the ever increasing resolutions and interfaces we deal with has become paramount in todays financial climate. The challenge with responsive web design from a designer’s perspective is concept design for something that is fluid. There is a real chance for creativity in this field to flourish in the next year.

Social Advertising: The movement of companies, as well as individuals onto a social marketing platform has increased the need for a more personal tailored approach to graphics and advertisements for these applications.

Infographics: Attention spans and time itself are in short supply within our modern society. Interesting, clear and visually appealing infographics are more important than ever to both capture the audience’s attention and allow efficient digestion of information.

Digital Print: Cost concerns, tighter, more topical driven deadlines in competition with the fast moving, “social” world has resulted in the convenience, personalisation, smaller print runs and flexibility of digital print increasing in the recent past. This will only continue in the future, although we may see a backlash in certain sectors, wherein Specialty and experimental premium print treatments offer companies, magazines etc. a chance to stand out from the crowd and offer a sensual experience lacking in the digital purely digital realm.

Hand Drawn Illustration:
A reaction to stock photo oversaturation and the attempt to cut designers out of the process is an increase in hand drawn illustration and advanced custom digital illustration. It gives quality and uniqueness to a design and consequently to it’s parent brand and/or company.

For designers to be able to push design to a more functional and visually pleasing level there must be an element of trust from the client. A departure from clients (often dated), expectations of needlessly elaborate designs with “pop”, “flashiness” and all the things that don’t reflect the core qualities of the brand is needed. Collaboration between, designers, developers, Account Managers and Clients are needed for the designer to be allowed to reach these new heights. Designers, Art Directors and Creative Directors have a challenging and therefore, (potentially), a very satisfying year or two ahead of us.

Yes compete aggressively. But don't damage your brand

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 11:12:00 GMT

Your brand is one of the most valuable assets of your business – it’s what sets you apart from your competitors. And your brand isn’t just a word or a logo, it’s all the aspects of your business that your customers hold valuable and why they keep coming back. Aggressive competition and marketing strategies doesn’t mean you need to tarnish your brand, just be cleverer in how your use them.

Never risk your brand for a marketing campaign.
Before launching any new campaign or marketing strategy, always consider what could go wrong and if in any way this could hurt your company reputation and reduce the “value” of your brand.

Unethical marketing practices will cost significant amounts of money and result in a severely damaged reputation.

Remarketing - How and Why?

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:10:00 GMT

You may have heard of the buzz word - Remarketing - from your agencies or your marketing people over the past 12 months, but perhaps your still not sure about why you would use it and how it works - below is a brief explanation of Remarketing with one of the world's largest online networks, Google.

Remarketing is a ideal way to target customers who have already shown an interest but didn’t complete a goal. You know those forms you have to capture new customers, do you know how many customers start filling in your form but don't complete it. Check your Google Analytics conversion settings to see the actual number - Remarketing with Google is an ideal way to catch the form abandoners.

Remarketing gets results

What is Remarketing?

Your audience before Remarketing

Your audience with Remarketing

Is fear of failure holding your business back?

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 11:09:00 GMT

It's easy to find successful people who have experienced failure and successful people who have failed at many businesses before making one a success. So our thoughts for Friday are to take inspiration from those who have failed and failed again only to come back and be a success.

Most of us will stumble and fall in life. Doors will get slammed in our faces, and we might make some bad decisions. But imagine if Michael Jordan had given up on his dream to play basketball when he was cut from a team. Imagine if Richard Branson had listened to the people who told him he'd never do anything worthwhile without a high school diploma.

Think of the opportunities you'll miss if you let your failures stop you.

Focus on marketing strategy, not platforms

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:06:00 GMT

The internet has changed customer interactions and marketing forever – that’s true. But did the internet and the growth of social networks change the strategy behind marketing – not one bit.

Companies have grown and boomed using this strategy – but let’s face it. It’s not really a strategy, just clever use of one marketing tool. And now it’s time for marketers to bring back the basics to marketing – platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, as powerful as they are, are still just a marketing tool, a platform that can work for some campaigns and not for others.

Marketing programs, online, offline or a combination thereof need to go back a step – why am I doing this? What is the benefit to the business? How will this increase my leads and grow my sales? Without the answer to these fundamental questions, then you shouldn’t even get to the what, how or when.

Next time you are presented with a social media / online media strategy taking advantage of new technologies and platforms, stop to ask – but why?

Do medical Professionals need a Website?

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 11:04:00 GMT

Many medical professionals do not have a website and do not see a need for one. Often their reasoning is that they are providing a needed niche service that is often based on a particular geographic marketplace, so why is a website necessary?

In some cases, websites are not really necessary for medical professionals, however with the internet now increasingly being used by other medical professionals as well as many patients as a source for information, it is worthwhile looking closely at your services and considering whether a website will be able to enhance your service provision.

WHAT ARE THE PROS?
Your business is open 24/7. Unlike your consultancy, treatment or surgical services that are typically open from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday; your website is open 24 hours a day; 365 days a year. This around the clock access makes it convenient for your potential referrers, other health professionals and your patients to find out more about you and the services you provide that can assist them. As you have probably personally experienced, more and more patients are turning to the internet to self-diagnose themselves. Not having a website means you lose the opportunity to reach these people with information that may be important to them in their decision making process.

A website is your online information centre that can be easily updated at any time. It is much cheaper and quicker to update a website than to print material. Website capabilities are almost limitless which allows you to provide visitors with more comprehensive and interactive information. This can also serve the purpose of being able to save you money on printing and distribution as well.

Improved customer service. By providing answers to questions on your website, information requests can be processed automatically and immediately, regardless if someone is in the office or not. Online forms can be used to allow patients to request further information or in some instances, to book an appointment with you.
For a health professional, a well-designed web site is a great way of raising your profile and boosting confidence with patients by helping them find information and assurance. It is also is an ideal medium to show your potential patients that they have a choice. Millions of users are referring to the web and are using websites to make major decisions when they need a specialised service.

Help overcome a person’s concerns and worries by providing access to relevant up-to-date information. When people are concerned or interested in something to do with their health, they don’t like to wait for information. People today are also very busy. A website helps give them what they want by allowing them to access information and also assurance, when they want it. That could be via brochures, presentations, videos, access to seminars and even blogs/articles focusing on your speciality.

ARE THERE ANY NEGATIVES?
Even if it seems that having a website is full of advantages for medical specialists, they need to consider some difficulties that may occur by having it.

A website comes at a price ranging from several of hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on how complicated the site will be. Also, all websites require paying for website hosting and a domain name.
If poorly designed, a website will not work well with patients and search engines. Therefore, it is essential that this is not only a website, but a well-designed website.

Healthcare professionals are always responsible for their websites. If you offer online forums you need to answer questions patients ask online – otherwise, patients may lose trust in the information provided. The website owner also needs to make sure their website content is relevant, true and up to date, so the website seems valid.

Icon Visual Marketing specialises in building interactive medical websites which allows you to reach your clients. Find out more, contact us today

5 Small Business Marketing Essentials

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Icon has put together a list of the Top 5 marketing tools any small business needs to succeed.

Before running headlong into building your business, ensure you have a clear business and marketing strategy behind you. Know who your target audience is, what it is that differentiates you from the competition, and how you can communicate with your audience.

Spending some time upfront building your strategy, gives your activities and programs a backbone to continually check against and work towards. Having a clear marketing strategy in place will save you jumping in to a million different – and at times expensive – advertising or marketing programs that may not work. With each new opportunity that arises, check it against your strategy as a good starting point.

Contact Icon Visual Marketing Today for a Small Business Marketing Essential package

2. A logo – Every business needs a logo to clearly differentiate you in the marketing place. Your logo and ultimately your brand, needs to relate to your business or communicate what you do.

When developing your logo or working with a branding agency, keep in mind that your brand is about so much more than the colour or font of the actual brand image. Ensure that instead of just working with a designer to talk about these elements, brief them on your company, your business vision and goals and target audience. A good designer will take these elements and create a powerful and appealing logo for your brand to market.

3. Build your brand – Notice we are differentiating your logo from your brand. Your brand is the all-encompassing experience your customer has with your business. From the interaction with your sales people, their experience with your product or service and the follow up they receive from your company.

Spend time building up and then communicating both the tangible and intangibles of your business.

Intangible - on top of the tangible product itself are the intangibles that increase the value of your product. The intangibles can include guarantees, service, credit facilities, delivery, installation, training etc. The intangibles can be defined as anything that you cannot touch or see but is valued by your customers.

The understanding of the tangible is at the very heart of good positioning and branding. The greater the value of the intangible the greater the understanding of the positioning and the brand value for your customers.

4. A website – With the power of Google search being universal, claim your business space on the web with a well-designed website; an easy to use and informative website that people can easily find. Look for web designers or developers who utilise an easy to use platform that you have full access to so you can continue to update your own website, keeping it fresh for customers and new visitors.

5. Social media integration – There isn’t a company out there who relies on online search for business, who shouldn’t be using one form of social media or another. Google organic ranking placements include a factor called ‘Social Signal’ – this is built upon your usage, frequency and influence in social media – which impacts helping you be found online. It is also a core factor of customer engagement.

Not sure which social platform is right for you? There is a lot – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, +Google, Pintrest, YouTube and the list goes on . Do some research, see where your customers are in these social sites, monitor how other company’s interact and then get in there.

Digital gaining strength in marketing a brand

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:57:00 GMT

Traditional marketing always said that Television advertising was used for branding and Digital Marketing was only used for direct response campaigns. Is TV advertising is starting to lose it stranglehold on marketers branding dollars as digital advertising is becoming more sophisticated with the integration of social and mobile into the search habits of consumers?

At a recent Google conference day held in Sydney, the talk was all about how digital display advertising – previously the ugly little sister to search advertising – is now all grown up and ready to deliver brand messages for marketers. Search advertising is a mature market, so perhaps our next opportunity needs to come from the digital display network to not only drive traffic and conversions, but for your brand to engage and interact with customers the same way TV advertising does.

At the core of Digital Display advertising is creativity – branding needs to build emotion and create an attachment from the consumer to the brand

“For brand building to succeed in digital, advertisers need great creative that can win over hearts and minds. This path plays with reputation, passions, affinity, affection, sentiments and other emotions. While brand building may not be as measurable as driving clicks and conversions, it has measurable aspects to it. There are business goals behind every brand, goals to ultimately motivate individuals to take action in one or more ways that benefit the brand. These goals are modeled as a customer ourney from awareness to action through the purchase funnel.” Building Brand Engagement with Display Formats, Google Double Click and Dynamic Logic

Getting the most Facebook likes is not a social media strategy

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:55:00 GMT

When writing my last blog - Make sure your social media is value add, we started looking at some ways to use social media, and how a social media strategy can be formulated.

It occurred to me that for some company’s and marketing managers, they judge the success of their social media strategy by the numbers – and let’s face it, Social media can be a numbers game. There are some questionable company’s out there who “sell” you fans so within a week you can have a likes – but these are computer generated email addresses and really doesn’t push customer engagement or help your brand.

The only one way I can think of where buying likes would have any affect is if a competitor quickly looks at your page and is impressed by the numbers. But buying fans and likes – you’ll soon be found out. There will be no engagement, not comments or ongoing dialogue and most likely the social media platform itself won’t be updated regularly as there is no need to post updated to fake fans.

So - who has the most likes, followers, fans etc….When putting together a social media strategy for your business, it needs to be more about the numbers.

Say one of your business goals is to always give customers a positive experience when dealing with your customer service. The objective therefore could be to reduce overall call waiting time when calling your hotline. A social media strategy to help achieve this could be to tell customers while on hold to contact you on Facebook or via Twitter and you will get back to them instead of them waiting on hold. Customer service satisfaction is a great use of social media.

Another business goal could be to grow your business to open another 10 franchisees over the next two months. So, your objective would be to attract new franchisee holders to the business. How can a solid media strategy help? What’s the first thing any potential investor or franchisee holder is going to do? Research you online. So you social media strategy could be to create a thought leadership program in your industry using social media – providing expert industry comment and building up your credibility and reputation within the industry.

Social media is about engagement – not numbers
In its rawest form, social media was developed as a communication tool – as a way for people to share, engage and enjoy – the early social media platforms at least. But social media has grown to become an important business tool – fundamentally, businesses need to conform with the original goal of social media – engagement and interaction.

Use your social media strategy to engage customers, interact with them, share what interests you and information that may be important to them. That’s how you’ll grow you a loyal fan base who are interacting with your brand – not just numbers of the sake of bragging rights.

Making sure your social media is value add

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 10:53:00 GMT

Social media is a strong marketing tool, however just like other marketing campaigns, it needs to be used as part of an overall strategy and not just a tool for endless self-promotion. As part of your social media strategy, define what your goals and objectives are for social media and use this to guide your posts.

Below are some examples of social media goals and how these can guide your posts

Still not sure about what content to post, below is a quick guide you can us

The importance of personal relationships in B2B Marketing

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:45:00 GMT

Traditionally in B2B sales, each salesperson had a small customer base that buys from them regularly. Sales and technical representatives visit the customers often an d were on first name basis with their customers. Traditionally, many B2B suppliers had customers that have been loyal and committed for many years.

While the importance of relationships in B2B marketing hasn’t changed, the nature of the business market has. Salespeople have more than a handful of customers to manage, their time is torn between being in the office to ensure a smooth sales process versus visiting customers and maintaining relationships. Their contacts within each client can also often change.

The challenge for the B2B marketer and sales team is to maintain personal relationships with customers.

The consequence of emphasising relationships for B2B marketing budgets are a relatively high expenditure on people (sales and technical support) and a more modest expenditure on other forms of promotion. Advertising budgets are more modest and overall marketing activities very targeted.

The B2B salesperson is also a different animal to the consumer salesperson, in that the focus is on listening and cultivating a limited number of relationships rather than the more quantity-driven and transactional approach seen in consumer markets. This places emphasis on face-to-face contact and, as already mentioned, this salesperson must have an in-depth technical understanding of whatever he or she is selling.

How are you watching TV?

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:43:00 GMT

( Infographic thanks to original post from Marketing magazine Australia )

While many of us are keen to ride the technology wave, almost a third of Australians who own a smart TV are yet to enjoy the thrill of connecting to the internet.

The convergence of web, content and entertainment has meant that people are watching TV online or browsing the web on their TVs. This has made TV viewership more fragmented than ever, with the number of Aussies watching TV online, whether it’s Catch-up TV, YouTube or even unofficial downloaded content is growing – fast!
For advertisers, it means keep an open mind about new media channels - but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, traditional forms of media still have their place in the marketing mix.

TV and content providers, games console builders and communication device companies will be the biggest winners from this mishmash of TV viewing habits.

The rise of Social SEO

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:39:00 GMT

Social SEO is the combination of social media and search engine optimization. The term itself is an acknowledgment that the two are no longer separate. In a recent Patrick Dempsey post – Google Proves Not Being On Social Media Will Kill Your SEO - I discuss the changes already in progress at Google. In a recent video with Matt Cutts and Othar Hansson of Google mention in a rather off-handed way that Google is working to incorporate social signals into search engine rankings. This isn’t anything new. Google has been personalizing search results for quite some time. Now it’s going to an entirely new level.

In today’s world of social SEO you must be publishing content that is optimized for the search engines AND is shared within social networks such as Twitter and Google+. In Google’s eyes which already measure authority using somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 factors, social shares from others are another indication that you know what you’re talking about. In addition, they are now supporting the rel=“author” and rel=“me” tags which allow you to indicate if a piece of content is authored or about you.

Already in progress, the content you create everywhere is being linked to directly to you. In addition, people’s reactions to that content is also being measured and noted. It has been said that every person is a content producer. Now every person is an authority, or can be.

This is where the death of traditional Internet Marketing comes into play.

From original post by Robert Dempsey, Dempsey Marketing

Social SEO Killed the Internet Marketing Star

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:34:00 GMT

[Originally posted on the Salesforce Down Under Blog ]

Optify last month B2B Lead Generation company Optify released a report that told a remarkably interesting story. The most successful marketeers they surveyed were now investing the most time not in lead nuturing or website management but in Content Generation. And guess what? They’re getting results!

It is a trend identified by marketing blogger Robert Dempsey in this interesting post charting the history of marketing on the internet which comes to the controversial conclusion that Internet Marketing, Paid Search and SEO are all on the out and has been replaced by Social SEO.

This is why the smart marketeers are putting all their efforts into content marketing now. The key to Social SEO is a rich, relevant and regular Social Content Schedule at the centre of a solid Social Strategy.

If you’re looking to re-cast your marketing efforts in a way that deliver better results, take a look at these useful resources that can help you join the new wave of marketing

Listening to what your customers are talking about and managing how you deploy this content into the various Social channels is complex to say the least.

Why should you use social media

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:25:00 GMT

Two years ago, ask B2B if they were using social media, odds are most weren't and didn't see any value to their business or those who were just did it to promote other advertise campaigns or because they'd heard it was the "new thing" in marketing.

However, today's businesses, both B2B and B2C see the value in social media as far greater than being a cheaper option and because it supplemented their other paid advertising efforts.

A new survey out from Chief Marketing, 2012 Social Media trends , shows how companies are now understanding that social media isn't necessarily a prime sales tool, but an engagement tool, to reach customers at multiple touch points and to ensure they are offering a place for customer feedback and for a two-way conversion to occur. Download full report here.

What social channel is right for B2B vs B2C? New survey

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:24:00 GMT

A new survey out by Chief Marketer, 2012 Social Marketing trends survey , showed that the majority of marketers considered social media as an important part of their strategy and more than 92% of all surveyed are currently using it or starting to use it as an overall marketing strategy. Download the full report here

Most of the marketers surveyed are focusing their social marketing efforts on the three largest US social networks: Facebook (89%), Twitter (77%), and LinkedIn (63%).

However, breaking those out into B2C and B2B pureplay responses proves more interesting:

Among the pureplay B2B marketers surveyed who are conducting social marketing, LinkedIn is the channel of choice (85%), outpacing both Facebook (77%) and Twitter (77%).

Among B2C-only marketers who are conducting social marketing, Facebook is most popular at 94%, Twitter hovers at 78%, but LinkedIn drops to 39%.

With new LinkedIn company pages, B2B businesses should be expanding their LinkedIn marketing to make the most of this networking tool for both their corporate profile and SEO efforts.

Putting data into context

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 10:20:00 GMT

Using a range of data products to capture and report on online results, we have at our fingertips data about every facet of our website - how many visits, where do they come from, what language do they speak, what pages are they looking at, are they using a mobile vs PC to access the site?

However, without putting the data into context, these are just numbers. When looking at any data, you need to compare a range of metrics to ensure they make sense. 100 visitors came to my site today, what pages did they view, how long did they stay, what did they do while on my site, and most importantly, did they make and enquiry via the site.

When viewing at data, make sure its to keep in mind with the bigger picture - how can i use this data to make more sales?

'Free clicks' are getting more costly

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:29:00 GMT

We recently came across this great phrase from a Report by Wordstream US on The War on Free Clicks that Free Clicks are getting more costly. And while alot of the report focused on Organic clicks vs PPC, this was related to the sheer amount of staffing resources that are required by companies, either in house or at an agency level, to maintain an active SEO program.

The report looked at 2008 with most companies having just 1 SEO specialist - or knowing that SEO was important and outsourcing it, to now having a team of SEO specialists - an SEO Manager, a link builder, corporate blogger and content curator, social media team, web developers etc etc. Wow, thats alot of new head count for companies.

So just how important is SEO to your company and is it worth the investment or extra people or outsourcing to an agency? SEO and Google Search is the most important way for people to find your products or your company. If you can't invest in an in-house SEO team, outsource to an agency who understands where SEO strategy fits in to your overall marketing strategy.

When is best to post on Facebook for fan Engagement?

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:18:00 GMT

A new report out from Social Media Today, Optimum Facebook Posting Times , has surveyed 1,800 of the largest brands on social to gauge when are the most successful times to post to Facebook for the highest level of fan engagement.

The responses founds some interesting results:

For more, read the full report Optimum Facebook Posting Times at Social Media Today

72% of Consumers Want Mobile-Friendly Sites: Google Research

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:15:00 GMT

A new report out from Google has found that 72% of Consumers Want Mobile-Friendly Sites: Google Research

Nearly 3/4 of those surveyed say that they would be more likely to revisit mobile friendly sites opposed to sites not optimised for mobile.

Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly annoy users and that’s bad business. Consumers are doing more on mobile devices, including shopping and product research; when they do, users look for content to meet their on-the-go needs.

So what, exactly, are consumers looking for in a website accessed from a mobile device?

Usability and design features matter. Mobile users indicated they are most looking for (in order of priority):

Consistency is key for successful social media

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 10:13:00 GMT

We are very often asked by our B2B clients and associates if Social media is right for them and how they can use it to better engage with their audience. Before we recommend a social strategy - combining content marketing with social tools including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc - we make sure they understand, if you are going to use social as a marketing tool, use it consistenly.

The old adage of traditional marketing is still core to the new trend of social market, consistency is key. If you are going to move into social media for your company, make sure there is a strategy behind it. Understand what your goals are, what conversions are you looking for from social, and how it fits into your overall marketing plan. And most importantly, if you decide to start using social to engage, then use it regularly and consistenly, posting about products, areas, industry news that would be of genuine interest to your audience.

Social media is not a place to gloriously self promote - its a place to engage, listen, interact and get involved. If your not going to do those things, then don't engage in social media. Having no Facebook page or Twitter feed is better than having a stagnant one.

Content marketing. Is it here to stay?

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 10:05:00 GMT

Interesting debate thanks to Marketing magazine. Is content marketing and branded content a fad or is it here to stay . Overwhelming opinion its here to stay.

Our opinion, if its imporant for your website to be found and act as a resource centre for your customers, then content marketing is part of the marketing strategy toolkit to stay

Traditional media still has a place in the marketing mix, however online is such a strong force that content has to be considered one of the strongest weapons you have in your marketing arsenal.

What's a Good Bounce rate for your website?

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:03:00 GMT

A bounce occurs when a user visits a website and exits the page from which they came without having moved to another page on the same website.

A higher bounce rate means users leave your website without viewing any additional pages. A lower bounce rate means users stay on your website and have moved to a different page within your website.

But what is a good bounce rate? A good bounce rate is a bounce rate that is lower that the period before and one that continues to drop. Your overall site bounce rate is an average of all your pages.

Keeping track of your bounce rate is a quality indicator to determine which pages are working for you. Before you become alarmed, know this: a high bounce rate does not indicate failure! Perhaps some of you pages have a high bounce rate that's effecting the overall site rate.

If you find some pages have a higher bounce rate, start there. You can update the content, offer more call to action or a clear path of where visitors can go to next or perhaps need to remove the page all together.

Does anyone read email newsletters anymore?

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:02:00 GMT

Are email newsletters still a valid form of marketing? Yes and yes.

Email newsletters are an ideal way to communicate with your customers on a frequent and consistent basis, sharing industry news, giving advice and tips and offering genuine value add for customers to be on your email newsletter list.

The quickest way to turn people off your email newsletter is to be shameless self promoters – using your email newsletter only to talk about the great things you’ve done this month.

As a rule, make just one in six articles about you – but not just as a promotion, make sure it still adds value to your reader. For example, you may have launched free overnight shipping or a new local office – this is of great benefit to your customers – tell them. It was Josie’s birthday in accounts – really does your customer care?

Make sure to design your email newsletter so it’s easy to quickly read the article headings, with easy to navigate click throughs to the full articles. And don’t hide the articles on your website in a PDF – this is no good for SEO purposes. Make the articles visible on your website so future customers can also easily find and read them months and years after the original email newsletter was sent out.

Want to receive the Icon Visual Marketing email newsletter each month? Sign up now
Don't forget - use every opportiunity to promote for people to sign up to your newsletter to keep your database growing.

50% of fans prefer company Facebook over your website

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:00:00 GMT

A new survey just come up shows some amazing results of how seriously customers take business Facebook pages. Thanks to Hubspot for this summary of the results

So, you like us. But do you like like us? As in, would you put it up on Facebook?

That's the question Lab42 set out to answer -- they asked 1,000 social media users how they felt about 'Liking' a brand on Facebook. And as it turns out, people take Facebook brand pages pretty seriously. Like, it-matters-more-than-your-website serious. Wowza

SEO isn't a project it's a long term marketing strategy

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:58:00 GMT

SEO isn’t a one-time project. You don’t assign it to someone, give them a deadline and once the project is finished, that’s it.

SEO is a long term marketing strategy and should be worked on constantly as part of an ongoing marketing program that continues to set milestones and deliverables.

The attitude of senior management and the executives are key to ensure that SEO becomes a part of marketing strategy and that resources and time are given to continue to work on your SEO .

The milestones for SEO shouldn’t be ranking highest on this keyword or that phrase; it’s to ensure your long term SEO marketing strategy is delivering viable sales leads to your business.

Poor Keyword Usage and Keyword Abuse Roadblocks

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 09:57:00 GMT

Quick Recap of the Poor Keyword Usage and Keyword Abuse Roadblocks! Stuffing Keywords - Limit yourself to 2 keywords or keyword phrases for every 100 words. Bolded Keywords - Save bolded keywords for headers or when it’s stylistically correct to emphasize. Excessive Keywords Ensure your keywords provide informative value and are relevant to your article topic. Misspelled/Grammatically Incorrect Keywords - Write content naturally and proofread your articles thoroughly. Variations of Keywords - Focus on writing for your readers and avoid adding dashes, commas, or spaces to keyword phrases (unless grammatically correct). Always provide quality, informative content that targets readers, not search engines. Without the proper incorporation (and moderation) of keywords, throwing keywords at articles will damage your credibility and readers will be less inclined to click-through to your blog or website. Maintain your credibility and increase trust with your readers by incorporating keywords moderately in your next set of quality, original articles!

Sponsorship in hard economic times

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:56:00 GMT

When times get hard, the first reaction of many companies is to pull their sponsorship, tuck their advertising dollars away and focus on just above the line advertising, as this was seen as more effective than sponsorship. But, when times are tough, isn't it really a great opportunity to get involved in sponsorship opportunities that you may not have been able to take advantage of previously.

Sponsorship can deliver brand loyalty and emotional connection from your customers to your brand - and during and economic downturn, isn't that what your brand values most?

Be present in the conversation

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:55:00 GMT

The internet has opened up a huge opportunity for people to discuss your business / product, to post reviews - both negative and positive, and to discuss in forums and chats everything they have experienced with your brand. What, you don't the negative reviews out there - then you need to get involved in the conversation.

There are so many more ways you can be involved in conversation before it even gets to be a negative review.

Join online communities, LinkedIn groups, Facebook conversations that are concerned with your industry or product. Contribute to the conversation. But be honest and transparent. Don't just market your brand, offer your expert advise, help solve problems and become a trusted online source.

Customer engagement has never been as important than now with online and social media playing such a large role in peoples buying decisions. Get involved in the conversation - after all, your really just doing what you would do with a customer face-to-face, offering advice and providing solutions.

Up to 80% of business comes from 20% of customers

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 09:54:00 GMT

So what does that mean to your business. It means that you need have a customer service and sales cycle strategy in place to ensure your repeat customers continue to do business with you and feel like they are valued customers.

But what does that look like? In the B2B world , that means making frequent meetings with your customers, more regular, shorter meetings versus quarterly major review meetings will bring in more business. You will be seen as a valued resource to the customer, not just selling a product but a resource who helps come up with solutions. Regular meetings ensures you are in touch with your customers day to day business, understanding their pressure points and business issues, issues your service or product can solve.

Be a credible expert to your customers

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 09:53:00 GMT

With the myriad of information available via the internet for potential customers looking for a solution or a product, the issue arises of what information is credible and authentic. In the absence of any information from your business, potential customers will find review sites, how to etc, forums that wont necessarily provide the right information on your product. The best thing you can do for your business is to become a credible expert online - become an online resource centre for customers.

A true online resource centre isn't just product information, its showing customers new ways to use your product, or how to use it, different benefits and so on. By becoming a true resource centre, you will gain credibility with customers so they know that when they are searching for that solution, the first place to go is to your website.

How-to articles that Customers will love

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:52:00 GMT

Take advantage of your specialised knowledge and problem solving expertise to help demystify a complexity in your market place. Describe in step-by-step details the recommended actions to be taken.

Don't assume your market knows how to use or even how to install your product. Just because its simple for you, doesn't mean it is for them. Write how to articles at different levels. You can have a beginners guide and an advanced guide for example, showing your customers that you want to help them regardless of their experience and knowledge.

Compliment your articles with photos / images to help explain the how to process. Just a simple step by step guide with photos showing each step is highly effective and customers will appreciate it.

Full service marketing....not just advertising

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 09:51:00 GMT

A full service marketing agency doesn’t just handle all aspects of advertising –that’s a full service advertising agency. No. A full service marketing agency devises strategic programs that use a range of activities to effectively market to your customers.

As a full service marketing agency, Icon spends a lot of time upfront in the strategic planning phase to gain a complete understanding of your target market, your unique selling proposition and in developing the key communication messages for your brand. We know that by spending time upfront in the strategic phase ensures that the full service marketing plan we implement is most effective at targeting your next customers.

As a full service marketing agency, Icon doesn’t outsource anything. In house, Icon has capabilities for creative concept design, television commercial and video production, digital marketing and online advertising, advertising planning and booking, graphic design, copywriting and a range of other activities all designed to meet your sales and marketing objectives.

What does your About Us page say about you?

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:28:00 GMT

A look at Google reports for a range of clients shows that regardless of the industry, one of the top 5 pages visited on their website is the About Us page. So what does your About Us page say about you and why are visitors to your website so keen to know about you?

It's simple. They want to know if you're the sort of company they want to do business with. Do you share common visions and goals, what is most important to your company and what information do you want customers to know about you.

So, take a minute to review your About Us page and update it to sell the best things about your company.

Small Business doesn't mean small marketing

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:27:00 GMT

Your a small business, just starting out, building your customer base and trying to develop your brand in a crowded market place. You now need to start marketing yourself to the wider public, getting new customers to understand the value of your product vs your competitors and attracting new audiences.

Just becase you have a small business budget, does not mean you can only do small marketing. Some ideas for free marketing you can do to promote your business

1. Social Media - Social media is free - it just takes time. Before jumping into soclal media, understand how you want to use it to interact with your audience and start interacting. Ensure your business social media strategy is about your customers, not about you and your staff, Every post, make sure there is a benefit to your customer in following you.

2. Press Releases - No one knows your business as well as you. You are an expert in your product/ services. Use this to write press releases to media to communicate your messages and core benefits for customers. Not sure about writing a press release. Icon can help. Call us today.

3. Use your customer Database - One of the greatest values of your business is your customer database. If a customer is on your database, they already have an experience with your business, so use this to gain more business. Communicate to them consistenly and regularly.

Icon understands marketing for small businesses

Don't assume they know

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:26:00 GMT

We all know the old rhyme about assuming - we'll its true in marketing as well. As brands, we should never assume our customers know why they should choose us or that they should know which of our products is best for them.

We've heard from customers who've claimed - we're a big brand, our potential customers should know about us. But no, dont assume. Just because you know each target market for each of your products and brand, your customers don't know this.

So in your overall marketing, make sure you lead your customers to an understanding of what is the best product for them, assume they know nothing and its your job to show them the way.

Top 5 Benefits of a Strong Brand

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:23:00 GMT

1. Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion- not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons.

2. A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the number of units that can be sold at that premium.

3. Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier . In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features.

4. A strong brand can make actual product features virtually insignificant . A solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message about the value of your company. A strong brand helps you sell value and the intangibles that surround your products.

5. A brand will help you articulate your company’s values and explain why you are competing in your market.

Survey your customers

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:21:00 GMT

Want to understand more about your customers and why they choose your product over your competitors. Ask your customers.

Survey a group of customers. You'll be surprised at how candid people will be about your strengths—and your weaknesses. Make sure you ask the most important question in any customer research: Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague? Research (check out www.netpromoter.com) has shown that the willingness to recommend is the most important indicator of brand health. This research can be done quite cheaply online, using free tools like SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) or ESurvey Pro ( https://www.esurveyspro.com/ )

Seven Common Mistakes to Avoid When Rebranding for Success

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:20:00 GMT

1. Hanging onto history
Rebranding well means staying relevant. Assumptions made when the brand was first established may no longer hold true. Take the time to analyse the changes in your target market and your position in the market when exploring the opportunities for brand expansion and repositioning.

2. Thinking the brand is just a logo, stationery or corporate colours
The value of your brand and your customers experience is made up of things you cannot see or touch, but are real. If you are looking to rebrand, ensure you know what the value of your brand is before your start.
A brand spends time, money and energy developing these intangible values and communicating these to the customer. The end result is a business that builds assets to sell, brands that demand a higher price and customers who are will to pay more for the branded product.

3. Design by committee
We all know the old saying about too many cooks in the kitchen. The same holds true for the rebranding process. Too many opinions delay the rebranding process and can at times diffuse the focus needed to achieve success. Keep those with critical approval level to an efficient shortlist, and assemble to smallest, most essential team possible.

4. Navigating without a Plan
Effective rebrands rely on a strong creative brief and plan to keep everyone focused on the project and milestones. The creative brief and overall plan should include market analysis, objectives, target markets, budgets, timeline and any KPIs to measure success.

5. Limiting the scope for your creative team
Good branding agencies and consultants are more than graphic designers. The best ones can help develop new products, expand target markets and help streamline your business operations. Give your creative team a good brief to why the rebrand and what it means to make it successful, but don’t limit their areas on influence.

6. Basing rebranding on an advertising campaign
An ad campaign or a slogan does not equal brand positioning. Brand strategy should lead advertising – not the other way around. Sometimes the most effective rebrands don’t include traditional advertising.

7. Believing you’re too small to rebrand
Every brand needs a refresh to stay relevant as markets evolve. Smaller companies are not immune. Like larger brands, they too have brand positions

If everyone's talking...who's listening?

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 09:19:00 GMT

In today's world of social media and content driving SEO, all these companies / people are creating unique, original content - a blog a day - reshared on Facebook, Google + and sent out via Twitter. So if everyone's talking, just who is listening and who are we trying to influence. At just what point will it reach saturation point?

So to come back to the philosophical point of this post, if everyone's talking, blogging,sharing, who's left to listen?

What would you use a QR code?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 09:16:00 GMT

Ever tried typing a URL into your smartphone only to get it wrong, get frustrated and stop typing?You should include a QR code on your marketing instead so customers don’t have to type in your long URL only to get it wrong and give up! Why wouldn’t you want to use a tool that freely drives people to your website? You can easily build traffic to your site with a QR code and there are now programmes that track the analytics of QR codes, which help pinpoint what is effective and even track conversion rate. The great thing about these QR codes is that they are free to generate and free to use. It’s easy and free to download a QR code scanner app, once done, people can scan the QR code, then browse the site they are taken to. So why would you use a QR code? Drives people to your website Gets people interacting with your brand Use it as a call to action You can measure different campaigns via their QR Code URL’s You can apply a QR to almost anything these days; put it on a Newspaper ad, packaging, posters, the side of a bus. You can also modify your QR code into different colours and forms or even into the shape of your logo. QR codes are an effective and relatively inexpensive way to market, try creating your own QR code now.

Just how important is mobile to your business?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:15:00 GMT

People in Singapore are so in love with their mobile smart phones that one in three would forgo a significant lottery win rather than lose their phone. In the U.S., a recent study found that 55 percent of U.S. adults use their mobile phone to go online. And more research shows that there are 331 million mobile users in the US alone, which is actually more than US total population. This must mean that somewhere, somebody’s dog is ordering a pizza on an iPhone. A more recent survey found that mobile devices are so important to us that peopl ecan’t stop using them even when watching TV.

Yet less than 10% haveof small businesses have a mobile website. Crazy right? It's not just that people are using their mobiles for search, but that Google has a different algorithm when a user searches on a mobile device as opposed to a regular computer. Google will more highly recognise - recommend - a mobile site for a mobile search, hence a higher ranking in mobile search.

When people visit a mobile optimised site they tend to take action immediately. Want more customers who are ready to convert? Yeah we do

Technical articles for your customers

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 09:29:00 GMT

Articles that focus on specialised technology or manufacturing processes can make for compelling reading for your customers. Articles that are popular for industrial markets are ones that explain how technically sophisticated products works, trouble shoot common problems or describe maintenance techniques. Adding these articles to your website is also a great way to grow your database by requesting customer name and email addresses to download your technical paper.

No one knows the products or technology of your company better than you. While it can be daunting to sit down and start writing an article from scratch, start with scoping out some different areas you'd like to address, put down in writing the ideas you have for each of these and you'll soon realise alot of your article will be written. Or, start with the basic and contact Icon Visual Marketing Content Department, we'll help put your ideas into a well written technical paper that will be in demand.

Credible agency's don't hold your work to ransom

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:13:00 GMT

As a marketing and advertising agency, we ensure maximum transparency to our clients and access to any resources we develop on your behalf. Credible marketing and advertising agencies don't hold their clients work to ransom. You commissioned the work - whether it be brand development, advertising creative, website access, online reports and campaigns - you paid for us to do the work and therefore the files, reports, images are yours.When looking for any agency, whether creative, digital, advertising or marketing, you should always own and have access to your own artwork. A common request we get is can you please send me the artwork as I need to reuse it for something else. Of course, its your artwork. Ask the questions of the agency, “if I decide not to continue with you, can I take the files / reports with me?" Some points to keep in mind: If an agency develops a logo for you, ensure you are clear that you are the owner of the logo When building a website, ensure it is built on a flexible platform that is not locked to any one particular agency Ensure you know where your site is hosted – at least the company name Ensure you have access to images you have paid for as part of any projects a company has developed for you Make sure to find an agency who is transparent, honest in their dealings with clients where you have full access to your own resources and can walk with all your work at any time

Why Link Buying Schemes are just that..schemes

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:11:00 GMT

We hear from a lot of our clients that they've been contacted by less than reputable SEO companies who can guarantee first page or number 1 spot for them using "link buying" schemes. Our advice is always the same, if its sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.

Part of what gains your site ranking in Google is an analysis by Google of what sites are linking to yours.
The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. There are some SEO companies out there who engage in link exchange schemes which are based on creating a web of links solely for the purpose of manipulating page rank for websites. In the long-term, these schemes will only have a negative impact on the overall ranking of your site.

Google webmaster give advice on the best way to build your website relevance and therefore increase the overall page ranking.

“The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.”

Not sure who is linking to your site, use a free tool such as SEO SpyGlass to know just who is linking to your website.

Why you need a strong business brand identity?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:56:00 GMT

One of the truths of modern business is that there is almost nothing that your competitors can’t duplicate in a matter of weeks or months.

If you have a great idea, you can be certain that somebody will copy it before long. And not only will they follow your lead, but they may also be able to do a better job or sell the product or service at a lower price.

The question then becomes, "What competitive edge do I have to offer that cannot be copied by anyone else?"

The Answer? Your brand.

Creating a strong business brand identity will build mind share - one of the strongest competitive advantages imaginable. As a result, customers will think of your business first when they think of your product category.

Icon can help you create a strong brand identity by putting our experience marketing minds to work and establishing a competitive positioning that is clearly conveyed by Icon's expert design team.

Download the Icon Visual Marketing Rebranding White Paper for advise on rebranding and on building a strong brand.

Don't think Google Plus is serious, compare it to LinkedIn

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 08:55:00 GMT

Launched in June 2011, Google+ is a new social network that should be on your radar if you want to improve your search rankings in Google.

In just over six months, the platform amassed more than 90 million users, posing a serious challenge to LinkedIn’s 135 million membership base.

Sure, Google+ is Google trying to develop its own Facebook (which has 800 million users worldwide, however if you are interested in ranking higher in Google organic searches and getting more clicks to your site over your competitors, get onto Google Plus now and set up your Google+ business page.

Need help managing your Online media strategy in this evolving world or social media, contact our Digital Marketing Team at Icon Visual Marketing today

That annoying question. But why?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 08:50:00 GMT

"Why?” “Why??” “WHY???” The countless “whyzz” of childhood have tried the patience of adults throughout the ages. But asking “why” is one of the most important strategies children have for connecting. One of the first things young children learn to do is question everything.

In marketing, we should also be asking Why? As its only when we ask and understand the why can we create successful strategies and campaigns

If a client asks us, can we build a website with easy to manage CMS and an intranet our answer is "Of Course, but Why?". Can we put together a TV schedule in remote and rural NSW? "Of course we can, buy Why?" Can we run a print campaign together with a digital strategy? "Yep again, but Why?"

We aren't just trying to annoy our clients, but get to to the real business goals and objectives before jumping into activities and tactics.

After all, great marketing at its heart is the development of a clear position, a clear understanding of Why should people buy from us? The answer to this question is where we start each and every conversation – Why should people buy from you?

What does it mean to be a full service marketing agency?

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:49:00 GMT

We hear alot of advertising agency's and marketing consultancy's say they are "full service." Its a great phrase to toss around when your trying to attract clients or pitch for accounts, but what does being a full service marketing agency really mean. We're not sure what it means to other agencies, but can only explain what it means to us.

For Icon, being a full service marketing agency first and foremost means that we don't outsource - anything.

What this means for our clients is that we have strengths across the full range of marketing services – online marketing and digital strategy, web development and design, marketing strategy and programs and creative services.

We actively ensure that Iconstaff are fully trained across all areas to offer our clients the complete range of marketing services from one in-house team – we do not outsource any of our marketing activities.

For clients with in-house marketing departments, Icons team seamlessly integrates to assist in successful campaigns and programs where required. For clients without the resources of an in-house marketing team, Icon will be your outsourced marketing resource.

What work's best? Mass or direct marketing

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:45:00 GMT

Depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Are you trying to sell a product or service to the mass market? Something that everyone and anyone could use? Then you need to use methods of mass marketing, try a television advert or maybe radio.

Is your business one in which is niche and is quite direct? Are you trying to promote speckled quail eggs? For you, direct marketing would be quite effective; you could put an article in a food magazine and maybe have sample testing in grocery stores. Whatever your product or service maybe, there is a form of adverting to best suit you.

I've got Facebook, Google +, Twitter and a Blog why aren't I being found online?

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 08:39:00 GMT

Great, you’ve set up the tools to communication, now you’ve got to use them.

It can be daunting to have to create and share content for every social media outlet. Icon recommends starting with your own company blog and expanding your other social from there.

Some facts about blogging

You won’t get instant gratification from a newly implemented digital marketing plan . It doesn’t matter how much money you throw at it, the fact remains, a good digital marketing plan needs to be up and running at least six months before you’ll see any benefits. At least. A year is a much more realistic time frame.

Icon can help your build your online content calendar so you always have something relevant to say to the right audience.

Icon Visual Marketing is not an SEO or Digital Marketing Company. It is a marketing company who understands that online and digital are part of your overall marketing strategy. Contact us to talk about your digital strategy and how it can fit in with your marketing goals.

Why blogging is essential for your business?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:37:00 GMT

A search engine optimised blog is in this digital world an essential marketing tool – it’s the number ONE way for your website to be found on Google. Put simple – Google does love a good blog. Its fresh content filled with great links to other sites, blogs, articles and social. And we all know how Google loves new.

But really, what is blog and how can I use it to interact with my customers?
A good place to start with a blog is to think about the questions you often get asked by your customers. Use your blog to address these. Does your business use a unique technology that would be of interest to your customers? Tell them more about it. Better yet, show them with a low cost video tour – your smartphone can do this easily.

Not sure about how Social media fits in with your business? A blog is really a great introduction to social and it gives you the opportunity to start talking about areas of interest to your customers.

Icon Visual Marketing is not an SEO or Digital Marketing Company . It is a marketing company who understands that online and digital are part of your overall marketing strategy. Contact us to talk about your digital strategy and how it can fit in with your marketing goals.

Think nobody clicks on Google Ads? Think again!

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 08:40:00 GMT

Clicks from Google ads outnumber clicks on 'free' organic listings by nearly a 2:1 margin on keywords with a high commercial intent. New report from Wordstream Inc has got some great new data on the power of Pay Per Click Google Advertising .

Keyword searches with high commercial intent – meaning, keywords where a searcher is looking to buy a product or service (for example: “buy stainless steel dishwasher”) – are worth far more to businesses than your basic informational keyword searches (for example: “who is Thomas Edison”)

How do I find what is being said about my business online?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 08:33:00 GMT

You can now monitor all online news, blogs, reviews and comments about your business. Simply set up a Google account and create an alert based on your business or product name.

Is your website mobile friendly?

Mon, 28 May 2012 08:32:00 GMT

By 2013 mobile phones will be the most common device used to access the internet. This is no longer just a future statement where change will come - its happening now.

In Australia, 60% of all mobile users have smartphones and are increasingly are accessing content on their smartphones.

A recent Australian survey* conducted has shown that:

Have you looked at your website on a smartphone. Is it easy to navigate? Do the menu’s work the same as they would on a desktop? Are the finger touchpoints for users easy?

Your website needs to be optimised for mobile – fewer choices, larger fonts and cleaner user interface are the key to giving customers a positive viewing experience of your website via mobile.

Not sure where to start, contact Icon for a mobile review of your online activities

Choosing a Google AdWords Certified Partner

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:25:00 GMT

Navigating the Google AdWords set up and campaign management can be a time consuming and complicated task for business owners who have other areas of the business to place their focus on.

When choosing an outsourced partner to run your Google AdWords campaign , the best place to start is with a Google AdWords Certified Partner. Icon's Google™ AdWords Certified Partner Status demonstrates our in-depth knowledge and skills in Google AdWords advertising for wide range of clients.

Google ranking factor Its all about the quality

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:34:00 GMT

The Google update to its ranking factor – called Google Panda – is one of the most impactful updates Google has launched almost since its inception. Google Panda now adds another factor to how your site is ranked - Quality.

The aim of Google Panda is to clear the web of bad low quality site which essentially duplicate copy in order to gain higher traffic so that good quality and more relevant websites are ranked higher for search queries.

So what does this mean for your website?

By updating your website to ensure quality ranking factors, your site will be found more often by people who are relevant and interested in your products and services.

Just because its distress doesn't mean its a bargin

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:30:00 GMT

It's Friday afternoon. Your local paper calls you with a great distress rate for advertising - its 75% and you've got to decide now. You know nothing about who actually reads the paper, how this aligns with your target market nor if this will give you any leads. But its so cheap - surely you have to right?

NO - it still cost you something and delivered nothing. So it wasn't a bargin - it cost you something.

So before you snap up that next hugely discounted distress page, make sure it aligns with your overall strategy, target market and will deliver you leads.

Building your website is just like building a house

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:29:00 GMT

I recently built my first home and I can see that building a website is just like building a house – well kinda.

Think of it this way, you’re looking at buying a block of land and building a new house on a street that you love. Setting up a website solution for your business is very similar (except for the fact that a website is not a house...I know…).

Location, location, location
So you first select the location or street where people will visit. This will essentially be your address. It’s how people will locate you. Just like a domain name, you will be finding an address for people to find your website.

House and Land Package vs Owner Builder
Do you want to buy off the plan from a project home builder or be creative and adventurous and have your dream home designed by an Architect or Draftsman and Build it yourself!

Most project home builders will offer home and land packages and restrict you to a set design list for the homes and charge a bomb for variations. Similarly, some web companies will have their list of website templates to make it cost effective up front, but make their cream on variations and ‘adding flexibility’. Overall – you will get a website, however you will be limited to what you can change and sometimes even restricted to making even the smallest changes. Imagine, your dream home – but if you want to move that couch, you have to call the builders to do it for you.

Alternatively, how about having someone design your home and organise the building and – wait for it – hand you the keys so you can decorate and design it to your taste. That’s essentially how we approach our website design and developments. We create the website, ensure everything is there for launch –copy, images, gallery’s, keywords, google mapping etc – and the we give you the power – a personalised manual and series of easy to follow steps to how you can update and change your website to suit your business.

Land Rates
It’s just another bill right, and who knows where the money goes. But no matter which council you are part of, you cannot avoid land rates. They are the cost to maintain your position within the suburb.

Website hosting, like council rates, is what you pay to maintain your presence in your location, in this case, the World Wide Web. We like to think that all councils are equal as we can’t just choose to be part of a council on the other side of town. With website hosting, you can! Be careful though, as generally what you pay is what you get.

Icon Visual Marketing is not a web agency; we are a full service marketing agency. We will tailor a solution for you and your budget. This includes custom website designs, development that is flexible with the use of IconCMS and business grade hosting to back it up. Your dream home just became a reality!

SEO Tip - Build your unique content

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:22:00 GMT

Want your website to rank better and be found by more potential customer? Having more content (relevant content, which is different from the content on other sites both in wording and topics) is a real boost for your site's rankings.

Include a blog on your site and keep it up to date – if you don’t have a blog, start updating your news section.

Not sure where to start with a blog or creating unique content for your site, contact Icon Visual Marketing Digital Marketing department.

Its easy to spend money

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:28:00 GMT

Its easy to spend money. Making it is a whole lot harder. In the world of multiple choice and many avenues to market, its to easy to focus on th medium rather than the reason. We see a lot of money wasted because the business owner focused on a hot deal from the advertising source.

Before you committ to spending in advertising, consider investing in a marketing plan to ensure that you have a clear picture in what you want to acheive.

Be the Rock N Roll of Marketing

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:26:00 GMT

Right that’s it – we’re done. We’re great. Lets put on a show.

But no one comes – why not. We’re great – but why didn’t they come.

Rock bands don't start out playing stadiums, they start in small clubs building their audience of fans. Companies and brands need to do the same, start small, identify your audience and build a market just like a rock band does.

Business is not just business

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:24:00 GMT

Business is business, so the old saying goes. The implication is that business is just about money. Do we really believe that? In a world driven by customer service and satisfaction, we all live and die by the customer experience. The customer experience is not just a monetary transaction. The customer experience is based upon the core values of the people that interact.

A company is much more than the products and services it sells. The intangible value that customers buy is linked very deeply to what we would define in a very general term of Service.

Service can be broken down to many things but at the heart of it are the core values that keep any business or organisation turning. The core values of integrity, care, putting people first, exceeding expectation are not new, but delivering them in a difficult economic climate is. The sustainability and integrity of the values of any organisation must be deep rooted, consistent and above circumstances. Is this possible? The answer is yes and the answer lies in the internal value system of the company leader and the team.

A leader who understands the foundations and origins of their value system, will always inspire their team, to be people of character and integrity. An integrity that is above circumstance. Not easy, but is essential if the company or brand is to grow in difficult times.

As a brand is increasingly defined by the experience it gives its customers, the core brand values are directly linked to the customer expectation and satisfaction, which in turn are linked to the people that service you and a leader that inspires his or her people. Do you know the basis and origin of your value system?

How much does click through rate on your AdWords campaign really matter?

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:01:00 GMT

Running an AdWord campaign can be a quick way to generate valuable sales leads and to get a new brand quickly known. But how much does your Click Through Rate (CTR) from your campaign really matter?

Running and Ad Words campaign should be more about getting conversions than click throughs. Sure, getting visitors to your site is important, but you want to them to be the right visitors who are interested in your product or service.

So don’t focus so much about CTR, but instead write your ads for conversions not clicks. If you write an ad that appeals to your target market and they click through to a landing page that is specifically targeted towards their interests, your campaign will deliver more qualified leads- not just clicks

Marketing for Project Homes

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 06:26:00 GMT

In an increasingly competitive market place builders need to ensure that the way to grow their business is not only to be the best quality available. Building a brand for any size builder is about clearly understanding why people should buy your design.

Things to think about include:
• How will your designs impact upon peoples lifestyles
• What confidence will you give people to trust you with the biggest decision of their lives
• Your price is more expensive than the others I have had? Why should I buy for you?

Answering these questions are fundamental in building your unique brand. Ensuring you are different from the rest of the many builders is more important about knowing the confidence you give people.

The new brand development for Beechwood Homes was more about harnessing the extraordinary value that 25 years in the market place brought than to focus on why the original business went into receivership. Keeping the name Beechwood was more important than changing it. Even thought the business had some difficulty, the name still evoked images of quality, value and trust for the many families who trusted Beechwood with their family homes. This confidence is still there that is why we kept the name and built on this heritage.

This brand is now growing and very focus on the providing families with their family homes. Branding is about being very clear of the value and the experience you give your customers. Adversity is not a problem. It is how you handle it
www.beechwoodhomes.com.au