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Long-Term Partnerships: The Next Wave of Influencer Marketing

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By  Barrett Wissman

Influencer marketing is paying off for brands. In fact, a Tomoson study found that for every dollar a brand spent on influencer marketing, it made $6.50. That’s no small chunk of change in an era when up to 24 percent of a company’s budget is allotted to marketing.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that influencer marketing is predicted to swell to a $10 billion industry within the next five years. With significant ROI and relevant, cost-effective marketing tactics, influencer marketing represents an appealing way to reach the masses. This dynamic environment is what makes every day at Two Pillar Management, our firm that helps match companies with influencers, an exciting and engaging one.

The problem is that it isn’t always so easy to reach the masses. A study by TapInfluence and Altimeter revealed that more than two-thirds of marketers struggle to find the right influencers. Influencers come equipped with their own interest areas, tone, and audience — selling points that can quickly become drawbacks if they don’t line up with the company’s own branding.

That’s why smart brands that have found their ideal influencers are trying to seal the deal indefinitely.

I recently attended a company meeting of VPX Sports, a manufacturer and distributor of sports drinks and supplements. Jack Owoc, the company’s CEO, gave an in-depth presentation on the company’ social media efforts. The company employs more than a hundred influencers that it calls “Elites” on long-term contracts to promote its Bang brand of sports drinks. In doing so, it has created the comraderie of a team-like working environment amongst its influencers. Meg Liz Owoc, the companys CMO, noted that these longer term influencer-based programs have given the Bang brand its social media edge and growing market share over its more entrenched competitors Red Bull and Monster Energy.

What’s in It for Brands?

The most obvious benefit long-term partnerships offer brands is trust. As influencers devote more blog posts or more Instagram real estate to a specific company, their faith in the brand becomes more visible — and their followers are likely to develop a stronger affinity for it as well. That ongoing support appears much more genuine.

Likewise, transitioning an influencer into a brand ambassador can bring with it exclusivity and the opportunity to explore new angles. An influencer who’s producing multiple posts in conjunction with a company isn’t locked into covering just one aspect of the brand — she can use different posts to highlight different elements or ways to use the product or service. That means she has the potential to reach different people grappling with problems the brand can solve.

Sazan Hendrix, who is a respected beauty, lifestyle and fashion influencer, is focusing more and more on longer term brand ambassadorships vs. shorter term one-off posts for random brands. Most recently, she has entered into longer term agreements with Maybelline, Olay and CVS. Sazan commented that “it is far easier to create organic and honest integrations with brands over time as opposed to an individual post here and there for random companies”.

Sazan HendrixSazan Hendrix

Long-term partnerships also provide both brands and influencers with the option to do testing they couldn’t do otherwise. With both brand elements remaining the same across multiple posts, companies and influencers can do A/B testing on different approaches, formats, images, and messaging. By isolating the piece that’s changed, they can test and tweak in a live environment and make immediate shifts.

Digiday noted that the trend toward long-term partnerships even includes more in-person appearances on brands’ behalf, as well as morality clauses to prevent damage to the brand hitching its wagon to the influencer. They’ve also afforded brands the ability to capitalize on the move to video more easily: “We’ve seen cost per view being the most important pricing model as video formats have overtaken static content,” explained John Kalis, vice president of U.S. business development at indaHash.

What’s in It for Influencers?

Influencers who seek to build careers on their influence get a big boost from long-term partnerships with brands: It’s guaranteed work with a brand that fits their message and audience. That affords them the flexibility to turn down one-off requests that feel like a stretch or would be viewed as off-brand by their followers.

Because these brands are familiar with influencers’ work, they’re given more creative freedom. This plays well with A/B testing, but it also lets influencers stretch their wings to try new filters, fresh phrasing, or distinctive approaches. Many influencers originally won attention through their unique style, and diluting that to meet the expectations of brands that don’t understand what they bring to the table can be demoralizing. Long-term partnerships counteract that by allowing influencers to maximize the trust they’ve earned.

More recently, brands are using marketing strategies such as influencer capsule collections and co-branded products with influencers to build longer term associations with influencers with mass appeal. Recently, influencer Jay Alvarrez designed a travel and luggage bag line for the Norwegian company Douchebags. The company is giving Alvarrez the flexibility to shoot his own iconic content and to promote the line in his own style over an entire season. Company CMO Vetle Brevik commented that the company was very pleasantly surprised when sales far exceeded expectations for the campaign launch. Brevik attributes this success to the natural passion Alvarrez exudes for the brand: something that is certainly linked to the brand being a collaborative effort between the influencer and the company.

It would be dangerous for brands to overlook the importance of influencer-follower connections. Influencers know their followers well and interact with them regularly. If they also happen to love a specific product or service, they’ll go to bat for the brand behind it, and they’ll find ways to communicate their appreciation to their followers. The longer an influencer engages with a brand, the more synonymous his or her name becomes with the company — and it’s a good thing when fans see brands and influencers in alignment.

As the FTC reminds influencers to clearly disclose their relationships with brands, long-term partnerships remove some of the anxiety and hassle that accompany these disclosures. More transparency can make influencers like they’re removing a barrier and allowing followers to see the real relationships they have with beloved brands, not just the parts they want them to see. It explains why an influencer like Joy Cho from Oh Joy! has put in years of work with Target to design bandages, benefiting both.

These long-term partnerships may make influencer marketing feel less risky to both influencers and brands while, ironically, allowing them to take more risks in their marketing. Brands that have found relevant influencers are locking them down, and companies that don’t want to fall behind will feel pressure to find their own long-term matches.

By  Barrett Wissman

Barrett Wissman is an avid entrepreneur, philanthropist and concert pianist, the Chairman of IMG Artists, the global leader in the performing and cultural arts entertainment business and a principal in Two Pillar Management, which manages digital personalities, celebrities a…MORE

Sourced from Forbes

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8 Ways to Justify Your Social Media Marketing Program

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Demonstrating value and ROI from social media marketing campaigns has been challenging since marketers first began using the platform to target prospects and customers. But should ROI even be a major social media justifier? Some say social media marketing success means looking beyond ROI, while others adhere to the age-old advice that says your company’s business objectives prove social media worth. “Social media actually goes beyond ROI,” said Hariraj Rathod, social media analyst at Numbertank. “It helps in achieving good branding effect on audience and also helps to showcase products and services by segmenting and targeting the correct audience. Social media marketing also helps a brand understand how well their products are being consumed or liked by certain demographics.”

Is social media even worth it for your organization? If it is, where should your focus be as a marketer? To answer these questions, we caught up with digital marketing pros who offered a number of social media marketing tips that can help you make the most of your social programs.

Understand Younger Generations and Their Growing Mistrust

Deciding which metrics matter isn’t the lone challenge for marketers using social media. Some say it’s deciding whether to invest energy and resources into it in the first place. After all, marketers face a growing mistrust of social media platforms in light of data breach scandals like Facebook-Cambridge-Analytica and shrinking social media audiences.

Shama Hyder, CEO of Zen Media, a marketing and new media consultancy, noted in a Forbes article last month that Millennials and Gen Z are annoyed with brands taking up space in their social media feeds, and a third of them have deleted their Facebook account.

Know Social Media’s Place in Your Digital Ecosystem

Using social media is a thing of the past, according to Hyder. Companies should shift from a mindset of “using social media, to a mindset of adapting and thriving in an ecosystem where a highly connected, social, empowered consumer is now the norm, and traditional econometrics and data are no longer adequate to measure and track the success of content and campaigns,” Hyder wrote.

ROI is not the be-all and end-all for measuring success, she added. It’s more effective that metrics match the “complexity, ambiguity and dynamism” of a customer’s journey, she said. Integrate social data and metrics with other KPIs from web analytics, CRM, etc. and view social media platforms beyond just a “marketing channel, and leverage it instead as one prong of a larger strategy and source of customer insight.”

Support Engagement and Education, Not ROI

Belinda Alban agrees. Alban, the founder of Your Virtual Assistant Service, said the focus of social media should not be on ROI but on growing your following to increase brand awareness, engaging with your customers to create raving fans and educating your potential customers about the benefits of your product. “The bigger your platforms are the more opportunities you have to do this,” Alban said.

Social media may or may not lead to an increase in sales, but it will give you the opportunity to build relationships with your audience and deliver “amazing” customer service. “On the back of the relationships and trust and confidence your brand has built with social media you should see an increase in the reputation of your brand,” Alban said. “And it is your reputation that can make or break a company.”

Know Thyself, Know Thy Company

As long as your brand matches its social media playbook to its company objectives, you’re on the right track, according to Maria Burpee, a B2B marketing consultant for MB Consulting. “The ROI — and the metrics — comes from the board and company objectives,” Burpee said. Do you want to be the most well known or favorite brand or build a community or movement? Social media, even if it doesn’t lead to sales, is key. Are you looking to generate leads? Social media listening is key. Are you trying to create high loyalty and referrals? Cultivating social media “love” and responsiveness is important. Do you want to have the best customer service and hang your hat on that as a differentiator? Social media can be part of the mix. Social media metrics wouldn’t be found in a high-level executive dashboard, Burpee added, but rather the metrics are important to support a broader KPI dashboard.

Consider Using Unique URLs

One way to capture and track ROI on social media is using unique URLs. “Any time we post content that includes a link, we use a unique URL so we can track where the traffic is coming from and not for social media in general, but each channel specifically,” said Tiffany McEachern, social media specialist for PSCU, which provides solutions for credit unions. “Each social channel has a unique URL so you can see where your clicks are coming from and spend your time and efforts on those social media platforms,” McEachern said. “Even if social media isn’t giving your company a strong ROI, it builds brand awareness and in today’s day and age, companies are expected to be on social media.”

Assign Specific KPIs, A/B Tests

James Bray is a social media marketer who works for the Equal Opportunity Community Initiative (EOCI), a nonprofit that relies on donations received from fundraising activities. Bray said his Board takes spending decisions more seriously than most, whether the costs are incurred by outright paid advertising or through the staff’s efforts to create and manage social media content. “The return on our social media marketing investment is therefore calculated in terms of engagement: profile views, click-throughs to the website, email subscriptions and volunteer recruitment,” Bray said. “These measures are a great deal more important than, for example, simply counting the number of Instagram followers, because they reflect the degree to which someone is interested in partnering with us.”

To ensure the nonprofit receives a return on its social media investments, Bray said the team needs to be clear about its objectives and how much time it can afford to devote to each. It then attaches KPIs to those goals to ensure they are met. “The EOCI’s communications team is constantly A/B testing its social media strategies, using a combination of each platform’s own insights along with Google Analytics to determine what sources constitute the best outreach and result in the most beneficial conversions,” Bray said. “Based on these results, the EOCI Board feels that our social media engagement strategy has a positive effect on our ability to connect with our target audience and reach our objectives.”

Listen on Social, Execute in Customer Service Channels

Clair Jones, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Witty Kitty Digital Marketing, said monitoring how your audience is talking about your brand through social listening is vital. You can use the data to inform your customer service programs. “You can learn so much about how to improve customer service and experience, tap into audiences you didn’t know you had, and hone your branding and messaging,” she said.

Balance Between Organic and Paid Social Efforts Matters

If your organization is going to invest in social, consider the aforementioned tips and also strike a balance between paid and organic social media marketing. “Advocate for smart social that communicates the organization’s mission and engages the audience,” said Maria Mora, content director at Big Sea Design. “And layer a strategic paid social plan over that for a stronger return and more targeted presence on social platforms.”

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

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The Battle for the Home

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By Ben Thompson

If the first stage of competition in consumer technology was the race to be the computer users went to (won by Microsoft and the PC), and the second was to be the computer users carried with them (won by Apple in terms of profits, and Google in terms of marketshare), the outlines of the current battle came sharply into focus over the last month: what company will win the race to be the computer within which users live?

The Announcements

The first announcement came from Amazon three weeks ago: a new high-end Echo Plus, Echo Dots, several Echo devices for use with 3rd party stereos and speakers (or other Echoes), and an updated Echo Show (i.e. an Echo with a screen). All standard fare, and then things got wacky: the company also announced a microwave, a wall clock, smart plugs, a device for the car, and a TV Tuner/DVR, all with Alexa built-in.

Next up was Facebook: earlier this week the company launched the Portal, a video chat device that can track faces, has Alexa integration, and a smattering of 3rd-party apps likes Spotify. The device was reportedly delayed last spring as the company grappled with the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and was instead launched in the midst of a data exposure scandal.

Third was Google: yesterday the company announced the Google Home Hub — a Google Home with a screen attached, a la the Echo Show — as well as the Pixel 3 phone and the Pixel Slate tablet, along with far deeper integration between Nest home automation products and the Google Home ecosystem.

And, of course, there is Apple, which launched the HomePod earlier this year, and added a few new capabilities with a software update last month.

Each of these companies brings different strengths, weaknesses, go-to-market strategies, and business models to the fight for the home; a question that is just as important of who will win, though, is to what degree it matters.

Strengths

Each of these companies’ strengths in the home is closely connected to their success elsewhere.

Amazon: Amazon deserves to go first, in large part because they were first: while Google acquired Nest in 2014, Nest itself was predicated on the smartphone being the center of the connected home. Amazon, though, thanks to its phone failure, had the freedom to imagine what a connected home might look like as its own independent entity, leading the company to launch the Echo speaker and Alexa assistant in late 2014.

I was immediately optimistic, in part because the Echo was everything the failed Fire phone was not: its success depended not on the integration of hardware and software, the refinement of which a service company like Amazon is fundamentally unsuited for, but rather the integration of hardware and service. It also helped that Amazon had a business model that made sense: on one hand, the investments in Alexa would pay off with services for AWS, and on the other, Amazon’s goal of taking a slice of all economic activity was by definition centered around capturing an ever-increasing share of purchases made for and consumed in the home, and Alexa could make that easier.

That led to an early lead in the development of the Alexa ecosystem, both in terms of “Skills” and also in devices that incorporated Alexa. As I noted in 2016, this made Alexa Amazon’s operating system for the home, and today Alexa has over 30,000 skills and is built into 20,000 devices.

That, though, makes Amazon’s recent announcements that much more interesting: Amazon isn’t simply content with being the voice assistant for 3rd-party devices, it also is making those devices directly. This, by extension, perhaps points to Amazon’s biggest strength: because Amazon.com is so dominant, the company can have its cake and eat it too. That is, just as Amazon.com is both a marketplace and a channel for Amazon to sell its own products, Alexa is both a necessary component of 3rd-party devices and also a driver of Amazon’s own devices; the company faces no strategy taxes in its drive to win.

Google: Google was very late to respond to Alexa; the original Google Home wasn’t announced until May 2016, and didn’t ship until November 2016, a full two years after the Echo. The company was, as I noted above — and as you would expect for a market leader — locked into the smartphone paradigm; an app plus Nest was its answer, until Alexa made it clear this was wrong.

Google, though, has started to catch up, and the reason is obvious: if a home device is about the integration of hardware and services, it follows that the company that is best at services — consumer services, anyways — would be very well-placed to succeed. The company still trails Alexa by a lot in actions/skills (around 2,000) and 3rd-party devices (over 5,000), but Google’s core functionality is plenty strong enough to sell devices on its own. There are still more Echoes being sold, but Google Home is catching up.

To that end, one of the more interesting takeaways from yesterday’s Google event was the extent to which Google is leaning on its own services to sell its devices: not only did the company tout the helpfulness of Google Assistant, it also prominently featured YouTube, particularly in the context of the Google Home Hub. This is particularly noteworthy because Google handicapped the YouTube functionality of the Echo Show, clearly with this product in mind. Google is also including six months of YouTube Premium with a Google Home Hub; indeed, every Google product included some sort of YouTube subscription product.

Apple: The HomePod is exactly what you would expect from Apple: the best hardware at the highest price. The sound is excellent and, naturally, even better if you buy two. The HomePod is also — again, as you would expect from Apple — locked into the Apple ecosystem; this is from one perspective a weakness, but this is the Strength section, and the reality is that people are more committed to their iPhones — and thus Apple’s ecosystem — than they are to home speakers, meaning that for many customers this limitation is a strength.

Along those lines, Apple is clearly the most attractive option from a privacy perspective: the company doesn’t sell ads, has made privacy a public priority, and is thus the only choice for those nervous about having an Internet-connected microphone in their house.

Facebook: Perhaps the most compelling case for Portal is historical. In the introduction I framed the battle for the home as following the battle for the desk and the battle for the pocket. There were, though, intervening battles that were enabled by those fights for physical spaces. Specifically, the PC created the conditions for the Internet, which in turn made smartphones that could access the Internet so compelling. Smartphones, then, created the conditions for social networking (including messaging) to infiltrate all aspects of life.

Might it be the case, then, that just as the Internet was the key to unlocking the potential of mobile, so might social networking be the key to unlocking the potential of the home? That appears to be Facebook’s bet: sure, the device has some neat hardware features, particularly the ability to follow you around the room or zoom out during a call, but neat hardware features can and will be copied. If Portal is to be a successful venture for Facebook, it will be because the tie-in to Facebook’s social network makes this device compelling.

Weaknesses

As is so often the case, each companies’ weakness is the inverse of their strength:

Amazon: Amazon simply isn’t that good at making consumer products. In my experience its devices are worse than the competition both aesthetically and in terms of hardware capabilities like sound quality. In addition, Amazon’s brute force skills approach — it is on the user to speak correctly, not on the service to figure it out — lends itself to more skills initially but a potentially more frustrating user experience.

Amazon also has less of a view into an individual user’s life; sure, it knows what kind of toothpaste you prefer, but it doesn’t know when your first meeting is, or what appointments you have. That is the province of Google in particular, and also Apple. What is more valuable: being able to buy things by voice, or being told that you best be leaving for that early meeting STAT?

Google: As a product Google’s offering is remarkably strong (there are other weaknesses, which I will get into below). The company is the best at the core functionality of a home device, and it knows enough about you to genuinely add usefulness. Its products are also more attractive and better-performing than Amazon’s (in my estimation).

Google does face questions about privacy: the company collects data obsessively — right up to the creepy line, as former CEO Eric Schmidt has said — and that could be a hindrance to the company’s ability to penetrate the home. That said, Google has so far escaped Facebook-level scrutiny, and wisely excluded a camera from the Google Home Hub. Google knows its advantage is in providing information; it has sufficient other avenues to collect it, without putting a camera in your bedroom.

Apple: Apple, even more than Google, seemed blinded by its smartphone success. This isn’t a surprise: the ultimate point of Android was to be a conduit to Google’s services; it follows, then, that if home devices are about services, that Google would be more attuned to the opportunity (and the threat). Apple, on the other hand, is and always will be a product company; the company offers services to help sell its hardware, not the other way around, and it follows that the company would be heavily incentivized to insist that the iPhone and Apple Watch, which both offered attractive hardware margins and were differentiated by the integration of hardware and software, were better home devices.

That, furthermore, explains Apple’s biggest weakness: the relative performance of Siri as compared to Alexa or Google Assistant. The problem isn’t a matter of trivia, but rather speed and reliability. Siri is consistently slower and more likely to make mistakes in transcription than either Alexa or Google Assistant (and, for the record, more likely to fail trivia questions as well). As always, Apple is the most potent example of how strengths equal weaknesses: just as it was inevitable that a services company like Amazon would be poor at product, a truly extraordinary product company like Apple will face fundamental challenges in services.

Facebook: If the strengths of Facebook Portal were largely theoretical, the weaknesses are extremely real: it is, frankly, mind-boggling that the company would launch Portal given the current public mood around the company. And, to be clear, that mood is largely deserved; I wrote last week about the company as a Data Factory, and one of the telling examples was how Facebook lets advertisers use numbers provided for two-factor authentication for targeting. This strongly suggests that, from Facebook’s perspective, data is data: everything is an input, and while the company may promise that Portal is private, one wonders why anyone would believe them.

That notes, I actually suspect Portal data is private; this seems like more of an attempt to enhance the value of the Facebook graph, and thus the app’s stickiness, than to collect more data. The problem, though, is that Facebook is not in the position to expect nuance, and that this product was launched anyways supports the argument that the company’s executives are indeed out of touch.

Go-to-Market

The various go-to-market possibilities for these four companies could very well have been folded into strengths-and-weaknesses, but it’s worth highlighting on its own, given how important an effective go-to-market strategy is in consumer products.

Amazon: This is arguably Amazon’s biggest strength: not only does the company have direct access to the top e-commerce site in the world and one of the largest retailers period — and, because it is them, can skip a retailer mark-up — it also gets access to prime real estate:

 

 

There is not only no question in a consumer’s mind about where to buy an Echo, it is also nearly impossible that they not know about it. Moreover, Amazon has a second trick up its sleeve: it doesn’t stock any of its competitors products, making acquiring them that much more of a hassle.

Google: I highlighted this as a major Google weakness when it launched its #MadeByGoogle line two years ago, but to the company’s credit, it has worked hard to build out its channel. Today Google products are available on most non-Amazon e-commerce sites and in retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. The company has also invested in advertising to build awareness; there is still a long ways to go, to be sure, and go-to-market remains a Google weakness, but the company has impressed me with its work in this area.

Apple: This is a huge area of strength of Apple as well. The company obviously has a very strong channel, both online and through its retail stores. Both reflect Apple’s biggest strength, which is its brand: there is no company that has more loyal customers, and those customers are tremendously biased to buy an Apple product over a competitors; they are also more likely to be receptive to Apple’s privacy message, perhaps because they care, or perhaps because that is the message that plays to Apple’s strengths.

Facebook: It appears the company learned nothing from the Facebook First flop. The Facebook First, if you don’t recall, was Facebook’s ill-fated phone; it was manufactured by HTC and was discontinued within weeks of launch. There simply was no evidence that customers wanted to pay for a product that was predicated on Facebook integration, and there was certainly no effective go-to-market strategy.

It is hard to see how the Portal will be different: again, the defining feature is that the camera follows you around, a feature that is cool in theory but bizarrely out-of-touch with Facebook’s current perception in the market. Is the company really going to spend the millions necessary to market this thing? And if so, where is it going to be available to purchase? I can see why this product was designed; I see little understanding of how it might be sold.

Business Models

This too ties into strengths-and-weaknesses, but like the go-to-market strategies, is worth calling out in its own right:

Amazon: I explained the company’s business model above: Amazon wants to own the home, because it sells a huge number of items that are used in the home. This is why the company is willing to press its advantage as both a platform and retailer when it comes to Alexa devices: winning has a very direct connection to the company’s ultimate upside.

Google: The business model is a bit fuzzier here: Google makes money through ads sold in an auction where the winner is chosen by the user. That is a model that doesn’t work for voice in particular; affiliate fees are less profitable given that they foreclose the possibility of an advertiser forming a direct relationship with the end user. That noted, the introduction of a visual interface does also offer the possibility of ads.

More noteworthy is the incorporation of YouTube: YouTube has seen the addition of more and more subscription services, including YouTube Premium, YouTube TV, and YouTube Music. All of these work in conjunction with Google’s designs on to the home.

The most compelling business case for Google, though, is the same as it ever was: maintaining a dominant presence in all aspects of a user’s life, not just on the go (in the case of Android) but also in the home provides the data for more effective advertising in the places where it makes sense. No, Google may not sell that many voice ads, but voice interaction will affect what ads are shown in Search, and that is worth an awful lot.

Apple: Apple’s business model is the most straightforward: HomePod is clearly sold at a profit, part of Apple’s strategy of increasing its monetization of its current userbase. This is also a limitation: as noted above, the HomePod is significantly more expensive than any of its competitors.

Facebook: The social network company has the weakest business model story of all: there are no add-on services to sell, and the company has promised not to use the Portal for advertising, for now anyways. The best argument is similar to Google: more data and more engagement means more opportunities to show better-targeted ads on the company’s other products.

Winners and Losers

There are compelling cases to be made for at least three of the four companies:

Amazon: Amazon’s head start is meaningful, and its widespread integration with other products mean it is likely that more people have a device with Alexa integration than not. The company is also highly motivated to win and has the business model to justify it.

Google: I find Google’s case the most compelling. Product is not the only thing that matters, but it is awfully important, and Google is the best placed to deliver the best product. Its services are superior, its knowledge of users the most comprehensive, and its overall product chops have improved considerably. Yes, its go-to-market is worse than Amazon’s and it has a late start, it is still early.

Apple: The loyalty of Apple’s userbase cannot be overstated, particularly when you remember that the company’s userbase are the most affluent customers of all. This makes it difficult to ever count Apple out, even if their product is late and tied to the worst services.

Facebook: It is hard to envision how Portal won’t be a loser: the company has no natural userbase, has a terrible reputation for privacy, and has no obvious business model or go-to-market strategy.

Does It Matter?

There is one final question that overshadows all-of-this: while the home may be the current battleground in consumer technology, is it actually a distinct product area — a new epoch if you will? When it came to mobile, it didn’t matter who had won in PCs; Microsoft ended up being an also-ran.

The fortunes of Apple, in particular, depend on whether or not this is the case. If it is a truly new paradigm, then it is hard to see Apple succeeding. It has a very nice speaker, but everything else about its product is worse. On the other hand, the HomePod’s close connection to the iPhone and Apple’s overall ecosystem may be its saving grace: perhaps the smartphone is still what matters.

More broadly, it may be the case that we are entering an era where there are new battles, the scale of which are closer to skirmishes than all-out wars a la smartphones. What made the smartphone more important than the PC was the fact they were with you all the time. Sure, we spend a lot of time at home, but we also spend time outside (AR?), entertaining ourselves (TV and VR), or on the go (self-driving cars); the one constant is the smartphone, and we may never see anything the scale of the smartphone wars again.

By Ben Thompson

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How to Use Video to Attract New Customers

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The popularity of learning online is skyrocketing. In fact, the World Economic Forum reported that the global market for online education would reach $255 billion last year alone. Online learning even led to the creation of a new industry comprised of companies, like Skillshare and Udemy, offering courses to help professionals learn new skills at their own pace, whenever and wherever they please.

This widespread adoption of learning online has also created an opportunity for small businesses to connect with their customers in an authentic way. By utilizing video to package up your expertise, product tips, best practices and more into an online miniseries, you can offer a valuable resource to your current customers and attract new ones.

One example is Patch, a plant and garden delivery business. As an added benefit to its current customers and to get discovered by new ones, the team at Patch developed a free online course on plant care tips. By signing up for the course, Patch’s customers receive daily emails on a new lesson in the form of a helpful video. Each video is less than two minutes in length and housed on the company’s website. Many small businesses, like Patch, are experts in their industries, products or services.  And they’re using this expertise to help grow their customer base and bolster their brand reputation.

As a small business owner juggling a variety of responsibilities, the idea of creating sleek videos may feel out of reach. In reality, modern video creation tools are turnkey with a low cost of entry. These solutions, like Camtasia, allow even the most novice of users to easily create engaging and eye-catching videos with things you already have, including webinar recordings, video clips, images, and PowerPoint presentations.

Creating professional quality videos is easier and more affordable than ever. Here are five ways you can use video to help boost your sales and enhance your marketing activities.

  • Get in front of the right audience.

    By registering for your online mini-course or video series, your customers are opting into receiving more content from you. This allows you to continue targeting them with relevant marketing materials, offers, and more as they move through the sales funnel.

  • Learn more about your customers.

    By analyzing the top performing videos, you’ll gain powerful insights into what resonates with your customers and what they may want to see more of in the future. For example, if a video received significantly more views, comments or shares, consider creating additional pieces of content, such as social posts, blogs, or paid ads, with the same theme.

  • Increase repeat visits to your website.

    Housing your videos on a specific landing page or centralized location gives registrants a reason to continue returning to your website. Use a website traffic tool, like Google Analytics, to track where they go and spot trends.

  • Reuse and recycle.

    Consider the videos you create for your online course as evergreen content. Use them elsewhere in your sales materials or marketing campaigns. Videos are also favored on newsfeeds and therefore can be helpful in breaking through the clutter on social media as well.

  • Give them a reason to come back.

    Most importantly, you’re offering a valuable resource to benefit your customers. By helping them learn more about your product, sharing your expertise, or providing best practices, you’re giving them a reason to return.

Sleek and engaging videos are no longer reserved for large enterprises with equally large budgets. Thanks to modern solutions, businesses of all sizes can easily create engaging video content. If you’re looking to grow your customer base and increase purchases, consider creating an online video series.

Want more information about how visuals are changing the way we learn and work? Check out our recent study.

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Sourced from Smallbiz Technology

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Facebook’s 2-Factor Authentication With A Phone Number Isn’t Only For Security, It’s Used For Ads

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A new paper published by Princeton University researchers has put forth some very disturbing ideas, detailed Gizmodo. One of the main theories is that Facebook tricked their users into thinking that two-factor authorization with a number was for security purposes only.

The paper, titled “Investigating sources of PII used in Facebook’s targeted advertising,” aimed at discovering why the ads on the platform are so accurately targeted. It turns out that Facebook compiled what people are calling a “shadow profile” for each person, which includes personal information that is gathered through some less-than-straightforward ways.

One of the ways is described as follows.

“[Researchers] found that when a user gives Facebook a phone number for two-factor authentication or in order to receive alerts about new log-ins to a user’s account, that phone number became targetable by an advertiser within a couple of weeks.”

Also, Facebook gathered information for shadow profiles whenever someone uploaded their contact information with the platform. People sometimes do this in order to find more friends on Facebook.

Even the researchers were surprised to find out that Facebook ads used information “that was not directly provided by the user, or even revealed to the user.” And most of all, the report indicates that users were convinced to share private information about their contacts without fully understanding the implications.

Facebook responded to the study’s findings, not disputing it but releasing this statement instead.

“We outline the information we receive and use for ads in our data policy, and give people control over their ads experience including custom audiences, via their ad preferences. For more information about how to manage your preferences and the type of data we use to show people ads see this post.”

 

The reason why your personal information, like your phone number, is so very valuable to advertisers is because it lets them conduct high-level targeted advertising. That means that they’re able to get their ad in front of the people who are most likely to buy their product, thus boosting their sales.

At the same time, Facebook benefits by providing this level of advertising, which can prove more successful than other channels. But if Facebook is utilizing information from people’s shadow profiles, and the information was obtained in sneaky ways, it puts the platform on blast.

Facebook’s vice president of ads Rob Goldman even said the following.

“I think that many users don’t fully understand how ad targeting works today: that advertisers can literally specify exactly which users should see their ads by uploading the users’ email addresses, phone numbers, names+dates of birth, etc.”

If you’re bothered by this, you can check out your “ad preferences” page. There’s a list of “advertisers you’ve interacted with,” which will show you who has your contact information.

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Sourced from INQUISITR

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5 Tips to Build a LinkedIn Profile That’ll Get You Noticed

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Sourced from Success

Building and maintaining a standout LinkedIn profile isn’t optional. It’s not even highly recommended. It’s mandatory—if you want to stand out. Because 95 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to actively search for and contact potential employees.

“If you don’t have a presence on LinkedIn, you stand a strong chance of being overlooked,” says Rick Sass, a career coach and LinkedIn expert at Lee Hecht Harrison in Bellevue, Washington.

Whether you just graduated or are on the hunt for a new job, you can make your life as an applicant a whole lot easier by customizing your LinkedIn profile. Use these five strategies and employers will be more likely to find and hire you:

1. Write an eye-catching, descriptive headline.

LinkedIn automatically defaults the headline beneath your name to your current job title. Set yourself apart with a more creative description.

“Define yourself using nouns that describe what it is you do and what it is you want to do,” Sass says.

Try not to default to your job title even if you’ve landed a fabulous first job. “Marketing analyst” might be the name of your position, but “Quick-thinking marketing pro with an eye for catchy, viral content” will tell a recruiter that he or she should learn more about you.

2. Choose a professional, approachable headshot and background image.

“The first thing people are going to look at is the visual,” Sass says. Your background image is an opportunity to share your interests. Choose a landscape photo of your favorite place to ski or hike if you’re outdoorsy, or a baseball diamond if you like sports. Avoid potential copyright issues by taking the photo yourself or choosing from Flickr’s Creative Commons database—ideally only a photo with a “commercial use allowed” license, to be cautious.

Your profile photo is even more important. Recruiters are 70 percent more likely to scroll down and read through your professional experience if you have a headshot on LinkedIn, Sass says. It should feature your head and shoulders against a white background. Make sure to smile; recruiters subliminally think to themselves, “‘I want happy, smiley, approachable people on my team,’” Sass says.

3. Use keywords in your “Summary” section.

The summary is what makes LinkedIn better than a résumé. It’s a place where you can turn your unique educational and professional experience into a compelling narrative for employers.

“Unlike your résumé, your summary needs to basically tell me a little bit about your personality,” Sass says.

Tell recruiters what you love to do, what you do now and where you want to go next. If you’re looking for a graphic design job, say, “I am a collaborative, outside-the-box thinker who loves using design to make digital products come alive for users.” Format your summary into a few short paragraphs to make it more readable, Sass says.

Most importantly, add a section at the bottom of your summary called “Specialties,” he recommends. Employers search for potential job candidates on LinkedIn using keywords specific to the industry they’re recruiting for. Find keywords your employers might search for in job descriptions, on recruiters’ own profiles and on the profiles of candidates similar to you. If you work in marketing, for instance, the bottom of your summary could read: “Specialties: digital marketing, social media marketing and data analysis.”

4. Demonstrate transferable skills.

Your “Experience” section is the one closest to a traditional résumé. It’s where you’ll list all the jobs (both full- and part-time) and volunteer experiences you’ve had until now. After your summary and headline, Sass says, the titles in your experience section are the most important factors in LinkedIn’s results when employers search for candidates.

You can go into more detail about each job you’ve had than on your résumé, and it’s OK to use “I” and to maintain a slightly more conversational tone. Don’t be afraid to include jobs outside your field, Sass says. Speak confidently about the skills you developed in those positions and how they’ll apply to the job you want.

5. Show measurable accomplishments.

It’s great to tell employers what you’re good at, but specific, numerical accomplishments often say more than words can. Demonstrate to employers how your work had an impact. Maybe you exceeded a sales goal or you increased the number of social media followers.

LinkedIn also allows you to embed links to samples of your work in your experience section. Include in the position description what part you played in developing each project. Work samples are yet another way to make yourself stand out in the sea of job seekers on LinkedIn.

Take advantage of the space and flexibility LinkedIn provides to show what value you’ll bring to a potential job, Sass says.

“Traditionally you have to do push marketing with hiring managers,” he explains, meaning it’s up to you to get your résumé in front of them. “This is pull marketing. They’re going to find you, and you give them samples of your work and why you’re good at it.

Sourced from Success

This article originally appeared on NerdWallet. Brianna McGurran is a staff writer covering education and life after college for NerdWallet.

 

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Five Strategies Top Marketers Use To Make Their Content Work Harder

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Sourced from B&T Magazine

In this guest post, Collaboro CEO Warwick Boulter (pictured below), asks is your content marketing actually working? And offers his five top tops to ensure it’s doing what it should do…

The challenge for marketing teams continues to be how to get smarter, more targeted content into market faster, and make it work harder.

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We see content being created at exponential rates, but with a recent Brightedge study showing that 71 per cent of marketers believe that less than half the content they put out is being consumed, it’s time for marketers to take a step back and re-consider their tactics.

So we spoke to our clients, studied the industry and unpacked the latest research, to uncover the strategies top marketers are using to make their content work harder, set themselves apart and ensure their messages cut through the noise. 

  1. Posted, but not forgotten

Content marketing isn’t a set and forget process. Quite the opposite; once released into the public domain, a piece of content should be considered a discussion starter, an invitation for two-way interaction and a constantly evolving conversation.

To stay ahead of the curve, top marketers understand the need to effectively respond and adapt quickly, as customers react to their content.

Social media is a key player and an important ROI tool, which, by its nature forces brands to be adaptive and anticipate the needs and wants of their customers. If you spot a conversation or trending topic, you need to be agile to react immediately, by having content at-hand and tweaking campaigns in real time.  

We’re seeing smart markers consider adequate management of their brand assets as a cornerstone of their marketing tech – think Marketing Automation (MAP) to manage outreach and attract interest, Content Management (CMS) to oversee web experiences and conversion, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to support customer interaction and Brand Asset Management (BAM) as the beating heart of the organisation, that links it all together.

  1. SEO and Content marketing living happily ever after

In the bad old days, an SEO expert would cross over only with the content marketer to discuss keywords and communication channels. But the tides have turned, and as the search engine algorithms become more sophisticated, the content writer and the SEO manager can make content can work harder, if they work together. And that’s an approach we’re starting to see smart brands take.

So how do you marry pleasing a computer algorithm (SEO) with producing insightful and relevant content?  The good news is that machine learning has made the algorithms much more sophisticated so they can consider a range of insights to determine whether a website’s content is worthwhile to the reader.

And to make SEO happy, content marketing can think multi-channel; posting a blog on your website, sending as an e-newsletter, repurposing as a Facebook post and animating into a video on Youtube means more links, views, clicks and shares  – and this is Google gold.

  1. Recycle, even on audio channels

Marketers don’t need to reinvent the wheel for each communication channel they utilise, making content work harder means knowing what works on each platform and repurposing and reworking their content to suit the audience. 

Content marketing started as the written word and as the world turned digital imagery, infographics and video quickly rose to favour. But we often forget about the channel that came in between – radio. 

As long as it’s adding value and not simply creating more noise, audible content can become a powerful cornerstone of your strategy and make existing and new content work a whole lot harder. Here’s why. 

Storytelling has been a buzzword across marketing circles for a while now. If you can effectively portray your brand’s story, it’s more likely to resonate and be remembered. But there is another element to storytelling and the clue is in the word  – ‘telling’. 

As an innate part of our psychology, humans like to talk to each other – and that’s why audible content can work harder than through other mediums. 

Copyblogger discusses ways to maximise the value of your audible content, and of course don’t forget to reuse, recycle and repurpose into their areas of the content marketing mix. 

  1. Content v’s ‘Intelligent’ content

For the past few years marketers have been contracting their efforts on delivering content, this we know. It’s also no surprise that technology has aided the production of this content, making sure it’s targeted, relevant and shared.

Intelligent content takes this a step further; ensuring that what marketers deliver is structured, adaptable and scalable. In this way, intelligent content is a component of content marketing.

Let’s delve deeper.

Content is being produced exponentially and needs to be adaptable for the myriad of platforms consumers interact with each day, so the old way of producing content is no longer efficient.

Instead, marketers should be considering an intelligent approach to every piece of content they produce so it can be adapted for other digital experiences and, importantly discoverable to unlock its value.

In order to do this, according to CMSwire, content should be designed to be modular and format-free for omnichannel delivery and richly tagged for retrieval and reusability. There are various elements, but for the purposes of simplicity, we’ll explore one – intelligent content loves metadata tags. A lot.

So planning your metadata strategy is just as important as planning the content itself.

CMI’s chief strategy officer, Robert Rose suggests starting off intelligent content implementation by employing intuitive data asset, or creative content management. This technology that helps build the intelligence behind the intelligence through facial recognition, scene recognition and sophisticated AI, so every piece of content produced, from imagery to video to documents can be located and reused.

So creating and managing content in conjunction with AI is the key to working your content harder and infinitely more intelligent.

Sourced from B&T Magazine

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Simple Ways to Evaluate and Improve SEO strategy

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By Joel House

The search engine optimization is one of the most important things that help to generate leads to the website. By understanding the target market and developing the seo strategy you can improve the website rank in the top of the search engines.

The search engine optimization is one of the most important things that help to generate leads to the website. By understanding the target market and developing the SEO strategy you can improve the website rank in the top of the search engines. With the help of the advanced SEO techniques, you can boost the traffic to the website. In the search engine optimization, evaluation and strategic planning are significant to succeed in today’s competitive world.

Google, Bing, MSN, and other popular search engines are making some changes to their search engine ranking algorithms. It helps to boost the resulting quality of the search engine that they serve to the users.  The website traffic is important to growth for the online business. The website ranking helps to success the online business.

Are you looking for the simple way to measure the SEO strategy? Well, you have landed at the right destination. Here you can get the simple way to evaluate the SEO strategy easily and increase it. The experts track the referrals, ranking, links, and others that help to evaluate their search engine optimization strategy and develop the road maps for great success.

How to evaluate the SEO strategy

In the past five years ago, the stuff the page full of the targeted keyword was a simple way to get the website ranked at the top of search engine result. But today, the online business owners will be penalized by the search engines. The Google has made some changes in 2012 to its search algorithm. If you are looking to evaluate where the online presence of the site stands then it is the right place. Here you can get an effective way to evaluate the search engine optimization strategy.

Evaluate inbound links

First, you should measure that how many inbound links have on the website. If the website has a large number of the inbound links then it will get the high rank in the search result. Today, previous practice remnants can reduce website ranking. The inbound links help to prevent the website ranking down in the search engine, improve the visibility and boost sales and others. You can identify the bad inbound link which points to the site and removes the links from the site.

Integrate the social media strategy

If the business owner initiated the strategy of content marketing then it is vital to control the social network to improve the reach, increase the brand visibility and build the audience, and others in the market. With the help of the social media marketing strategy to build the brand awareness, inbound links, trust, social signals, website traffic, and others. If anyone not having the social media marketing then it is the perfect time to get the social media marketing.

Measure the content strategy

The content is one of the important things on the website that improve the audience. The good search engine optimization and content is best for the website. In the website, you should post the quality content, new blog, queue, and others.  While looking over the website content then you should ask some question. The content is written with the targeted customers and makes the content readable. You can use the subheading in the content that attracts the customers to visit your site.

Simple ways to increase SEO strategy

The search engine optimization can take more time and effort. There are huge ranges of the metrics the online business owners can track on the monthly, weekly or daily basis to keep the search engine optimization plan to the measure the success. The SEO strategy is one of the organizations’ processes the website content helps improve the rank in the search engine.

Are you looking to increase the search engine optimization strategy? Well, you have landed at the right destination. Here you can get the effective way to improve the strategy of search engine optimization.

Develop the SEO-friendly website

The search engine optimization strategy is made up of the different parts such as content, website. When you are creating the content you should optimize the website traffic from the search engine. You should start by assuring the site has the clear hierarchy. The website page is designed by some clicks from the homepage such as homepage, one click for the service page, product page, two clicks for blog page and others. These pages are optimized with the both the non-branded and branded keywords. You can design the SEO-friendly website for your business that improves the website rank.

Page loading faster

The popular search engine like Google, Bing, and others take the page loading faster into the account in the algorithm of website ranking. Most of the users may leave the website if they wait for the long time to load the website. The website needs to load within the few seconds that increase the audience to the site. There are a lot of the ways to improve the page load faster includes plug-ins, optimize the image size, reduce redirects and others.

Several multimedia

To improve the SEO strategy, you can use the different multimedia such as image, slideshows, audio, video, and others. It helps to improve the user’s experience that allows the business owners to deliver the information in a unique way. The multimedia is acted as the quality content signal to the search engines. The video marketing helps to improve the audience on the site. The site which using the videos can achieve more than four conversion rate than a website which does not use the videos.

Building link

Building a link to the website is important to improve the audience to the site. When other sites links to your site then the website provides the little search engine optimization boost. You can also build the SEO strategy by guest posting, creating the unique site which attracts the links. If you need to make the content useful then you can also link out to another site for the depth information.

It is the simple way to evaluate and increase the SEO strategy. The search engine optimization tactics are focused on driving for the B2B business. It not only improves the traffic but also qualified the leads.

Conclusion

The search engine optimization tactics are focused on driving for the B2B business. It not only improves the traffic but also qualified the leads.

By Joel House

Sourced from DIGITAL DOUGHNUT

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Why Instagram is the New Social Media “Home Base” For Brands

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By Arik Hanson 

For as long as “social media marketing” has been around, Facebook has held the title of most brands’ social media home base.

That is, Facebook is the place where they spend the most time, resources and mone

But, that tide is definitely turning.

First, just look at Instagram’s recent numbers.

  • Instagram just surpassed 1 billion users. The only other platform not named Facebook to do it.
  • 71% of U.S. business now use Instagram
  • Instagram is THE platform for influencers–80% prefer the platform for brand collaborations
  • 59% of 18-29 year-olds use Instagram

Meanwhile, over on Facebook…

  • Facebook saw a 5.6 percent decline in users between 12 and 17 years old.
  • They also saw a 5.8 percent decline in users between 18 and 24 years old. This is the first time Facebook has seen a decrease in users since its inception.
  • Facebook usage dropped–for the first time ever–from 67% to 62% among Americans 12+ years of age.

Obviously, Facebook still has a ton of people using their site and app. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon. But, it is showing chinks in the proverbial armor for the first time. And, at the same time, Insta is gaining traction rapidly.

That’s the story the numbers tell.

But, as we all know, the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

What the numbers DON’T tell us is this:

  • Facebook is an increasingly toxic place for many users. #DeleteFacebook is real. Anecdotally, I’m hearing more and more of it each day. People just don’t want to spend as much time there as they once did, for a variety of reasons.
  • Facebook has taken a beating in the media over the last year. Mostly, for privacy issues. And each time Facebook is mentioned in a negative news story, that’s impacting how people feel about the social network.
  • Facebook has lost it’s “cool” factor. Remember that movie “The Social Network?” The whole reason Zuck got the facebook off the ground was because it had that “it” factor–specifically with young people. It no longer has that. A certain other network does–and it’s starting to show.

So, the numbers aren’t painting a rosy picture.

The anecdotal evidence isn’t much better.

What are marketers and communicators saying?

That Instagram is a more fun and happy place for customers.

That they’re seeing higher engagement rates on Instagram.

That they’re actually driving traffic and selling on Instagram.

Yep, Instagram is slowly, but surely, eating Facebook’s lunch.

And, it is driving toward becoming brands’ number one social media platform.

In fact, for many brands, it already is.

Let’s look at a few:

Adobe

Facebook: 105 engagements per post

Instagram: 10,713 engagements per post

Note: Averages reflect last 10 posts

Maersk Shipping

Facebook: 445 engagement per post

Instagram: 4,866 engagements per post

Note: Averages reflect last 10 posts

Target

Facebook: 707 engagements per post

Instagram: 23,255 engagements per post

Note: Averages reflect last 10 posts

That’s as much as a 300 PERCENT increase in engagements from Instagram to Facebook. And, those brands above are hardly alone. It’s a trend. And it’s hard to ignore.The numbers tell the story.

The anecdotal evidence tells the story.

Marketers are telling the story.

And, results sure as heck tell the story.

Instagram is becoming brands’ social media home base.

By Arik Hanson 

Sourced from Business 2 Community

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Logo Design: Use a DIY Website or Hire a Graphic Designer?

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By Aubreigh Ulicki 

A logo is one of the most important pieces of an organization’s brand. Usually a combination of text and imagery, it makes your brand easily recognizable. For instance, when you’re driving down the road and see golden arches, you know it’s McDonald’s. When you hear “Nike,” you imagine the swoosh. When a luxurious car is parked next to you, the three-pointed silver star helps you recognize it as a Mercedes-Benz.

Logos are everywhere. Oftentimes, they are one of the first thoughts that come to mind when hearing a brand name, which is why it’s so important for your logo to embody who you are as a company. Where do you start when a logo project is on the horizon? First, make sure you’re aware of what the project entails. Ask yourself questions such as:
  1. What is my budget?
  2. What should the logo convey to our buyer persona?
  3. How will the new logo align with the current brand?
  4. Is there a deadline that I need to have this new logo by?
  5. Will there be additional design projects that come after the logo is ready?

With these questions in mind, determine if this is a project you want to take on yourself—or if you’d rather leave it in the hands of a professional. Let’s start with do-it-yourself options.

DIY Websites

At one time, you had to contact a designer if you needed help with a project. Today, there are hundreds of do-it-yourself design tools available at your fingertips. You can simply type “create a logo” into Google and watch the results populate before your eyes. There are plenty of benefits that come with the DIY option, but there are also some drawbacks:

Benefits

  • More affordable. Creating a logo through a do-it-yourself website will likely be less expensive than hiring a graphic designer for the job. Some websites charge a small fee for plans, customization, or access to premium graphics. Others allow you to utilize their design assets and create a logo for free. You can’t get much cheaper than that.
  • 100% customizable. Whether you’re paying a small fee or utilizing a free DIY website, customization options are limitless compared to hiring a graphic designer, who will likely offer only one or two rounds of revisions. In most cases, the designer will customize it beyond that if you’re still not happy with the design, but you’ll end up paying more than what was quoted up front. When you’re designing the logo yourself, you can revise it as many times as needed. Not sure if that shade of blue pops enough? Try a new one, or five new ones—you can! Besides, color matters.
  • Faster turnaround. If you’re working with a tight deadline, you may not have time to hire a graphic designer for the job. When doing it yourself, you can design at your own pace and in your own time. Many DIY websites offer instantaneous results.

Drawbacks

  • Problem solving. A common theme people tend to forget during a do-it-yourself project is you’re doing it yourself. Sure, there might be a few people you can bounce ideas off of, but in the long run, you’re on your own. If the website you’re using doesn’t offer specific elements you want in your design, you need to find a solution elsewhere. This might mean utilizing different tools and adding elements together to get the end result.
  • Idea generation. Playing off of the drawback we just discussed, it can also be troublesome to come up with different ideas when working solo. You might find yourself coming up with similar logo designs after trying to create multiple variations.
  • Expertise. You’re well aware that you’re not a graphic designer; if you were, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Outsourcing the job means you’re hiring a professional. When hiring a professional, you get both skill and expertise. When you do it yourself, you lack some of that skill and expertise. It’s just a matter of determining how much of it you really need.

If you find that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, start researching DIY websites that might be a good fit for your logo needs. A few of my personal favorites include Canva, Wix’s logo maker, and Tailor Brands.

Canva is a DIY design site that lets you easily create custom graphics simply by dragging and dropping. Start by choosing the “logo” design, an available option under “Marketing Materials.” Browse through a variety of both free and premium designs, and start customizing by adding in text, imagery, backgrounds, or elements such as lines or icons. You can resize the logo based on your company’s needs and download it right to your computer, for free!

The Wix Logo Maker starts by asking you a few questions related to your organization. It then puts together a professional logo based on your answers and style preferences. If you don’t love the design they create, don’t worry! You can customize it from the top down. Once you have the perfect design, SVG vector files allow you to print a high resolution logo in an array of sizes. Wix offers both a free and a premium version.

With a similar process to the Wix Logo Maker, Tailor Brands uses an AI-powered platform to create a custom logo instantaneously. After entering the name and a short description of your company and selecting style preferences, you’re presented with different variances of a logo they create just for you. The catch? You can’t customize your logo until after you’ve purchased it. The good news is, the plans are affordable, and you have usage rights to your logo even after the plan ends.

These are only a few of the many options available when it comes to DIY logo design. Now, let’s walk through the alternative option: hiring a graphic designer. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this route? Where does the process begin?

Hiring a Graphic Designer

If you find that a logo design project is more than you’d like to take on at any given time, consider hiring a graphic designer to get the job done. This option might also be a better fit if additional design projects are forecasted in the foreseeable future. Hiring a professional will ensure design consistency across projects. Many graphic designers are freelancers available for hire. Here are the benefits and drawbacks to taking this route:

Benefits

  • Expertise. By outsourcing your logo design project, you’re putting it in the hands of a professional who is acutely aware of the current trends, as well as the effects of color choice and font styles. Graphic designers have the background, the knowledge, and the skill to know how to design a variety of graphics. Designers usually carry a specialty, and logo design might just be one of them.
  • Variety of options. In many cases, graphic designers give you a variety of options to choose from. This will be stated in your contract, but make sure it’s a question you ask prior to signing on the dotted line. Requesting 10 different samples is a bit unreasonable, but three variations isn’t too much to ask of your designer—your logo is going to be a symbol of your organization, so make sure it’s what you envisioned.
  • High quality results. When outsourcing a logo design project, you can rest assured you’ll get high quality results. No need to worry about blurry images, pixelated graphics, or text that’s too small to read. A professional designer will follow best practices, making sure your logo checks all the boxes before handing over the final artwork.

Drawbacks

  • More expensive. Just like any other service, you pay for design work. Whether you’re quoted a flat fee or billed hourly, you should expect to pay a decent amount for your logo. Rates can vary dramatically depending on the designer’s experience, estimated time to complete the project, rounds of revisions, and beyond. One designer might charge $75 per hour for a logo, while another charges $150 per hour. If you’re looking to outsource the logo project, make sure you have the budget to make it work.
  • Customization options. If you decide to hire a graphic designer for your logo project, make sure you research their portfolio. Take a look at pieces they’ve designed in the past, paying special attention to logo work. By doing so, you’ll be able to match styles and choose a designer that’s a perfect fit for your project. If you choose a designer without doing any research, understand that customization options may be more limited. The professional you hire can likely make the changes you request, but each round of revisions will not only extend your time frame, it will cost more, too. To avoid delays and extraneous rounds of changes, make sure you research first, and give the designer clear direction from the beginning.
  • Convenience. It’s obvious that outsourcing a design project isn’t as convenient as working on the project from your own computer—there is far more communication and coordination involved. If you hire a local designer, you may meet in person to discuss the project. If you find a designer located elsewhere, expect to hop on numerous calls and email chains to answer questions and provide feedback.

If the latter of your two options sounds more appealing, let the research begin! There are many websites that house freelance graphic design information. These websites allow you to search for a designer based on specialty, providing reviews and examples of their work.

You can head over to 99designs to browse designers with experience in a wide assortment of industries. Select “logo & identity” as the category, and a preferred designer level. Just be aware that top-level designers will charge a higher hourly rate. Another great resource to use is Upwork. The best part about this site: they do the heavy lifting for you. Simply post the job you’re looking to get done, and they’ll match you with best-fit designers. You can browse individual profiles, read reviews, and speak with designers before hiring your favorite. Not sold on search functionality finding you the perfect designer? Hire an agency to take on the project. Here at SmartBug, creative and branding is only one of the many services we offer.

Wrapping Up

No matter which option you choose, make sure you have a goal in mind. If you have a large budget and a flexible deadline, hiring a graphic designer might be the way to go. If you’re unsure as to what you’re looking to achieve with a new logo, brainstorming ideas through a DIY website can save you time and money. In the end, your logo is one of the most important pieces of your brand. Make sure it’s clear, make sure it’s recognizable, and most importantly, make sure it reflects your brand.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Aubreigh Ulicki 

Sourced from Business 2 Community

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