To ME, branding is having one cohesive, consistent look and message across all marketing efforts. And of course, the look and message of these efforts should represent your company’s purpose. A brand starts with the logo which really sets the tone for all materials. The colors, fonts, and graphic elements all should contribute to that message/purpose or at the very least not fight with it! Then the other materials (business cards, website, stationery, brochures, advertisements…) should carry the same colors/fonts/graphic elements through all of them, and of course the content of all these materials should be consistent and again represent the purpose of the company. An example of branding would really be an entire suite of materials… not just one thing. Think of Ford vs Lexus. “Ford Tough” = dirty, powerful trucks climbing through mountains and off-roading with tough dudes driving them to construction sites or ranches. Lexus = luxury, sophistication. Sleek, sexy cars for sleek, sexy professionals. Their targets are totally different and their brands are consistent and speak to those targets. From the logos to the materials to the commercials… their brands have consistent looks and messages that represent their ‘tough’ and ‘sophisticated’ purposes.

So why is branding important? The simple answer is for consistency. If all of marketing efforts deliver different messages with different looks… it’s confusing to the public. Imagine if Coca-Cola decided to change their colors to green instead of red… or if McDonald’s ditched their golden arches for new blocky-font ‘M’… it would mess up the whole universe! Well not really, but people would complain about it. Not that it really affects their daily lives… it’s the inconsistency that creates confusion and therefore unhappy customers.

So… does your company have a brand? If so, does it represent your purpose? ‘I don’t know’ probably equals ‘no’! Seek branding help immediately!

Now for the technical stuff… we setup j.b. lane on yahoo merchant solutions and customized the shopping cart and checkout process to have the same look as her wonderful, whimsical new website! Check it out and remember this site for baby shower gifts and other unique gift ideas for women. All handmade in the USA!

• Meta tags – particularly the keywords and description. You can see if you website has these important meta tags by right-clicking on the background of your website and selecting ‘view source’. Do a search for ‘keywords’ and ‘description’ – they will be near the top of the code. Many websites do not have these, and while they are not THE biggest factor in search engine optimization, they can definitely help and should not be ignored.
• Title tags – these are a very important factor and should be optimized for each specific page. The title can also be found in the code, but always appears in the very top of the browser as well. Title tags should include your main keywords. For example, if your company name is KDesign (like mine), putting KDesign alone in the title tag is a bad move. Instead I put keywords like ‘custom website designer’ in there. That way, people searching for ‘custom website designer’ will find my site as opposed to just limiting my results to people looking specifically for ‘KDesign’ which would obviously be far fewer people.
• Heading tags – these are part of the content of your website but are given more ‘credit’ with search engines as they are considered ‘headings’ instead of just plain text. Headings have a hierarchy (h1, h2, h3… tags) in which the most ‘credit’ is given to the h1 tags. Again – your main keywords should be utilized within h1 tags. Again – you can see if your website has these by viewing the source and searching for ‘h1′.
• Content – this, of course, is the text on the website and is easy to find and review. Again, your keywords should be utilized throughout the content, while still flowing nicely and easy to read.
• Fresh content – another huge factor in search engine optimization is fresh content. If you do everything else on this list and then let your website sit stagnant for 5 years… the search engines won’t care about you anymore. Content should be refreshed as often as possible. Weekly, monthly, or at least quarterly to keep the search engine spiders crawling your site. The more fresh content and the more often, the better. If you want an easy way to do this… consider a blog!
• Domain name – this is debatable, but I’m a believer! The domain attached to your hosting account should contain a main keyword. Using my company as the example again… I have ‘webdesignnebraska.com’ – and I am #1 in google for that search term. I also have ‘kdesignweb.com’ which I put on all my marketing materials, but really – it just forwards to the ‘real’ domain name, which contains my keywords. I have seen great success with this theory, however, the bad news is that if you rearrange those words at all (like Nebraska web design) then it’s not #1 – but it is still 5th. Just choose your domain wisely! Enlist the help of a professional who can assist with researching great keywords if you can.
• Analytics – you absolutely HAVE to enable some sort of analytics on your website so you (or your web designer) are able to track and analyze the results of any keyword changes you have made. Google analytics is free and easy to install. A must have.
• Don’t overdo it – if you know for a fact your main keyword is ‘custom website designer’ and you put it in your meta tag keywords and description, title tag, h1 tag, and content… then you’re off to a good start. BUT… if you overdo it or abuse it (like putting it in every single sentence on every single page) the search engines will eventually punish you for it. In other words – they know you’re trying to cheat. (Not to mention the users attempting to read this content will think you’re a weirdo.)

In my opinion, the best way to improve search results is to have long term goals, stick to ‘best practices’ (avoid black hat techniques that will work quickly, but eventually get your website punished) , use a variety of keywords that are appropriate for your company and industry (not unlike diversifying in investments), and do the appropriate research/analysis at least once a quarter to determine what keywords are working, what aren’t, and what other trends you can find and take advantage of. If you are paying a web designer for a search engine optimization campaign, then they should be doing research and utilizing tools or software to optimize the keywords, descriptions, title tags, heading tags and content. Such campaigns should be ongoing – quarterly is a good time line as it typically takes a couple months to be able to see the results of the previous changes on the search engine results.

Clients often ask about ‘pay per click’ campaigns (like Google AdWords) which is a totally different ball game. This is not a service I provide and is a completely different strategy and process. I would always recommend giving an organic campaign a shot (for 6 months to a year) before paying the big bucks for a pay per click campaign. Unless immediacy is a factor – pay per click results can be much quicker.

• Don’t even start if you’re not going to commit. Just like in ‘real life’, you wouldn’t disappear from your social circle for months at a time and then reappear expecting everyone to be waiting on your doorstop. If you post once a quarter on facebook and call it a ‘campaign’ and expect results… you’re wasting everyone’s time. Social media marketing is a commitment. But a fun one! Schedule it into your weekly business plans – just like billing and paying taxes – and you will see results and learn a lot about your customers along the way.
• Not every social media site makes sense for every business. Facebook is a huge platform to reach lots of people… but isn’t appropriate for all businesses. For example, business-to-business models might not be appropriate as facebook users generally have a ‘personal’ mindset when on facebook as opposed to having their business hats on. A current client of mine sells garage doors – mostly to commercial clients as opposed to residential. In this case, facebook might not be an appropriate marketing tool, however, developing a youtube channel with how-to videos on garage doors would be an excellent social media strategy. And of course, integrate them with the website.
• Don’t pay someone else for a free and personal service. I’ve never understood this. Take a celebrity like Justin Bieber who was ‘made’ by social media – and pretend his followers found out he pays a marketing company to tweet for him. This would completely destroy him! Nothing defeats the purpose of social media more than paying a firm to do it for you. It takes away the number one appeal – the personal touch. Marketing firms certainly do have a place in social media – like creating twitter backgrounds, fbml landing pages on facebook, or customizing the look of blogs… but never should you pay a firm to actually ‘do’ your part of it! If you don’t have the time or dedication to do it – don’t even start.
• Participate! What’s another way to say this… be social! If all you do is tweet about how awesome your product is, you’ll lose followers quickly. Ask questions related to your industry (hello free survey!), respond to others’ questions, provide educational links for interests in your industry, be conversational and helpful… don’t forget the ‘social’ part of social media!
• Track your campaign. Make sure to utilize google analytics or another stats program when engaging in social media campaigns. Are people coming to your website from your social media pages? Are they signing up for your newsletters directly from your fbml page on facebook? Are they clicking your blog posts from your tweets? If you don’t know… you should!
• Think long term. Don’t expect to make 5 tweets one day and gain 1,000 followers. If you don’t abuse social media and provide useful, interesting information, you will eventually gain an engaged audience.
• Overall… it can’t hurt! At the end of the day, these social media tools are free, and if utilized appropriately, can do nothing but help to promote your business. What have you got to lose?! Another ‘side effect’ of a well-run social media campaign is a boost in search engine rankings. A huge factor in search engine rankings is links from well-ranked websites. Obviously, facebook, twitter, youtube and blog sites are hugely popular domains and when they link to your website, your rankings will improve. Might not be a lot, but again… it certainly can’t hurt!

I enjoy the pros and face the cons of each side and constantly struggle to find a balance that doesn’t send me over the edge. What I would really like to find is a group of other stay-at-home-while-working mommas that I could hang out with every once in a while. With our laptops and kiddos. Hit me up if you’re out there!

But wouldn’t it just make more sense for Berkshire Hathaway to have a professional website? For the sake of my sanity as a web designer? Clearly Mr. Buffett is not a huge fan of the web world, and I remember my boss telling me that they had just started having email addresses in 2002… but I would think his good friend, Mr. Gates, could talk some sense into him and get an online presence that would better represent his stellar organization. It doesn’t need to be fancy or flashy… can still be simple without looking lame!  I would sure love to give it a shot! Give me a call anytime, Mr. Buffett: 402-610-1222.