“Brand me!” It’s the phrase new businesses say to marketing professionals hoping to build a successful brand. Marketing agencies helped national corporations like Pepsi, Coke, and Kraft establish their brands, so it makes sense for a new business to ask a marketing company for branding. The problem with this perception is that brands aren’t created […]
Branding


4 Fresh Technologies That Will Rescue You From Your Branding Rut
There’s no denying that digital marketing is at its peak — the problem is, many of the platforms we use have plateaued. As we strive to find innovation in branding, it may be time to look past what’s already been established to make something new of our own. As consumers become savvy to how brands […]

Why Your Business Needs Copyrights
Savvy business owners understand the importance of intellectual property (IP) to their business’ success and most can name patents, trademarks, and copyrights as some of the various forms that IP can take. But the distinctions between copyrights, patents, and trademarks is often confusing and misunderstood, even by business people that regularly deal with IP. But not […]

Trademark Protection for Startups
As a startup one of your most important assets is your brand and that brand is usually embodied in your company name and logo. The valuable time that you invested in coming up with just the right creative name and developing the branding and marketing around that company name is impossible to measure. After creating […]

How These Three Entrepreneurs Made a Million Dollars on a $35 Weebly Site
So you want to be a millionaire? Well, turns out it’s not as hard as it used to be. Entrepreneurs with niche products like spherical ice cube molds and edible vegan cookie dough are raking in the other kind of dough with thousands of orders rolling in to an online store they built themselves (one […]

Jive Founder Backs New-School Engagement Platform
Founding Jive Software CEO Dave Hersh defined the enterprise community and collaboration category from 2001 up to the company’s 2011 IPO. Since then, the space has changed dramatically as businesses have realized the importance of building engaging, valuable communities of professionals and supporters. So it may come as a surprise to learn Hersh recently acquired […]

How to File an International Trademark When You’re Ready to Take Your Business Global
Congratulations on eyeing the international market for your business growth. We are living in an age of globalization and more and more companies are recognizing the profitability of taking their products and service offerings globally at a relatively small incremental cost. It is an easy calculus to recognize that international consumers are able to be […]

4 Email Personalization Tactics That Are Sure to Get Clicks
Email is a notoriously fickle channel. Something as simple as tweaking the subject line can be the difference between an 8 percent or an 80 percent open rate. Companies that get it right earn an average of $38 per dollar spent, the most of any marketing channel. But for every success story, there are half […]

In a High-Tech World, Do Businesses Overlook the Value of Heritage?
“Authenticity” has likely been mentioned more than once in any modern company boardroom. And for good reason: A 2017 study from Cohn & Wolfe revealed that 91 percent of consumers reward “authentic” companies for their behavior, purchasing their goods or recommending them to others. But all of the strategizing and positioning that goes on behind […]

The Hidden Growth Area that Successful Companies Are Investing In
What would you guess is the world’s most in-demand field? Healthcare? Data science? Accounting? Believe it or not, it’s customer success. According to LinkedIn data, the ratio of jobs to current workers is 32.5 percent for customer success managers. For perspective, that ratio is 31 percent for data scientists and barely 1 percent for mature […]

In an Experiential-Obsessed Marketplace, Surkus Uses Tech to Stand Out
Experiences have flooded the marketplace. Whether they’re investing in pop-up stores or festivals, brands have recognized the major shift happening. The IPA Bellwether Report found that in the U.K., experiential marketing was the only area to experience significant growth in spend in 2017 besides internet marketing. Similarly, EventTrack found that American consumers gravitated toward the […]

Killer Marketing Plan For Startup Entrepreneurs
Why break the bank for your marketing needs when you can brainstorm your way to a killer marketing plan? The best marketing ideas come simple and cheap but these ideas do not come out of the blue. Your actual business plan will require an out-of-the-box, innovative thought process. You’ll want to get your marketing wheels […]

Your Swag is an Extension of Your Brand, So Don’t Neglect It
The true origins of the word swag are unknown. Swag means a few different things, but in the corporate world it typically refers to promotional products. You know, that stuff you get handed when you walk around the expo hall at conferences. All those pens, flash drives, stickers, and cheap sunglasses are used as giveaways […]

How to Differentiate Your Startup in a Red Ocean Industry
We all dream of coming up with the next ingenious idea that redefines an industry, or creates one from scratch. Netflix opened the floodgates to the world of streaming content, and they benefited enormously from being the only players in town (at least, for a few years). Uber capitalized on an existing need–transportation–but provided a […]

Data is the Future of Brand Identity
Brands have always used a host of different tools, from advertising to product design, to clearly define themselves to their audiences. They understand that without communicating their voice, values, mission and approach, many brands would feel largely interchangeable. Sure, Nike makes sneakers and apparel for athletes, with a message that speaks to speed, design, and […]

How to Use Technology to Engage Your Customer’s Senses
Marketing a product or service has never been more complex. Consumers are interacting with brands across more disparate channels than ever before. At the same time, every single market is bloated with products — more than 30,000 new consumer products launch each year, 95% of which are destined to fail. So how can any marketing team hope to […]

AI in Web Development: Reality or Hype
To what extent will artificial integration (AI) change how we do things going into the future, particularly in the field of web development? This debate has been going on for quite some time now, some arguing that AI will soon replace humans on all tech-related jobs. Truth be told, automating the web development process will […]

AI Based Conversational Interfaces Will Become a Substitute for Web Forms
The pace at which the web design industry has evolved and is continuing to evolve is mind-boggling. From static web pages laden with text to dynamic websites with all the bells and whistles attached to them, we have certainly come a long way. Introduction of new technologies leads to new web design trends. Some of […]

15 Years Later, Reddit Could Be the Next Big Thing in Marketing
“Anyone here regret working in marketing?” A Reddit post asking this exact question is just a small piece of a growing pile of evidence: Marketers are finally infiltrating this under-the-brand-radar social media platform. And why wouldn’t they? Thousands of posts like this one spark lively online conversation among Reddit users, Redditors, every day, on a […]

Using Nano-Influencers to Promote Your Brand on Social Media
Today, every average schoolchild knows who influencers are. These are the influential people on Instagram – celebrities who have millions of active followers. The presence of your product in an educational account — means that millions of people will see your item. Many of those people (parents and such) are likely to buy that product […]

Simple Branding Is Key for Complex Tech, Says Renegade’s Drew Neisser
In an age of busy buyers, complexity kills, and simplicity sells. Today’s consumers don’t have the time to figure out what chameleon brands stand for. brad

8 Key Components to Building a Successful Business Online
Building a successful brand and business online requires a clear picture of the brand identity you want to present to the world. You need to know how you will reach your audience and the tools you will use to do it. This includes not just the systems you build the site with but also the […]

Improving Customer Loyalty with 3 Easy Steps
Did you know that it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain a returning one? The importance of customer loyalty is enormous. Focusing on improving your brand image to increasing cross and up-selling opportunities — the loyalty business strategy will increase your profitability and enhance recognition. You will […]

7 Best Reputation Risk Speakers to Help Your Organization Survive and Thrive
Don’t let your reputation get burned. No matter the risks to your organization’s reputation, the speakers on this list can help you handle them.

Can AI Help Brands Effectively Market to the Skeptical Gen Z?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become more than just a tool for powering robots. It’s now used in dozens of industries and consumer applications, including marketing. These days, these AI marketing experiments are aimed at connecting with a notoriously skeptical generation. Generation Z has a buying power that’s growing exponentially. Can AI be what can help […]

7 Types of Video that will Make a Massive Impact on Your Website
You’ve seen the posts telling you that you need more video content, and they’re right. YouTube has over one billion users — almost one-third of the total amount of internet users. Who wouldn’t want to tap into an audience that big? Also, video can help you increase conversions, and it may even improve your chances […]

How to Use Technology to Engage Your Customer’s Senses
Marketing a product or service has never been more complex. Consumers are interacting with brands across more disparate channels than ever before. At the same time, every single market is bloated with products — more than 30,000 new consumer products launch each year, 95% of which are destined to fail. So how can any marketing team hope to […]

How to Turn Your Buyers Into Brand Believers
Ask the tough questions: Does our brand offer value beyond the suggested retail price? If not, how can we improve our relationships with customers?

Set the Script: How to Own Your Podcast Ads
The podcast world — and the ads pouring into it — will only grow. Deploying your advertising dollars effectively can make podcasting work for your business.

B2B Customer Experience, 13 Actions Bringing Better Results
Technology is always making headway in the business world, entrepreneurs and many business veterans have been incorporating the innovational ways to transcend their rivals. They say if Content is the king, Customer experience is the queen. Customer experience purely depends on how you make your customers feel during the interactions. The way you sort […]

AI Based Conversational Interfaces Will Become a Substitute for Web Forms
The pace at which the web design industry has evolved and is continuing to evolve is mind-boggling. From static web pages laden with text to dynamic websites with all the bells and whistles attached to them, we have certainly come a long way. Introduction of new technologies leads to new web design trends. Some of […]

What These 7 Brands Can Teach You About UX
How confident are you in your website’s user experience (UX)? If you don’t have measurable results that prove your UX is working, it may be time for a website redesign. Your website should create a seamless, enjoyable, and rewarding experience for your target users. Brands can teach you about UX. Some companies have a firm […]

Using Nano-Influencers to Promote Your Brand on Social Media
Today, every average schoolchild knows who influencers are. These are the influential people on Instagram – celebrities who have millions of active followers. The presence of your product in an educational account — means that millions of people will see your item. Many of those people (parents and such) are likely to buy that product […]

Democratizing Live Entertainment; Show Us What You Can Do
For actors, musicians, and any other kinds of performers, getting booked for paid gigs can seem virtually impossible without the help of a talent agent. Now is the time for democratizing live entertainment. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in — even in the technology field — it can be challenging to get your […]

How Brands Can Increase Their CRO with Amazon Keywords
One of the best ways any business can succeed in the world today is by implementing the right tactics needed to rank higher on search engines. Google receives over 63,000 searches per second every given day and with millions of webpages published each day. Search engines choose the highest ranking webpages to appear on the […]

5 Retail Graphics Must-Dos to Spark an Offline-Retail Resurrection
“Need to shop? Let’s Amazon it.” This statement appears to be the modern day consensus among shoppers across different age categories, and rightly so. There is no denying the marvel that online shopping is today. It’s time-effective, cost-effective, and above all convenient. One must admit that off late, Brick-and-Mortar has lost its’ mojo. However, it […]

The Super Bowl Is Just One Ad — Here’s How to Stay Competitive All Year
Instead of pinning all your competitive hopes on a Super Bowl ad that gets everyone talking — for about 10 minutes — start looking to the future.

How to Differentiate Your Startup in a Red Ocean Industry
We all dream of coming up with the next ingenious idea that redefines an industry, or creates one from scratch. Netflix opened the floodgates to the world of streaming content, and they benefited enormously from being the only players in town (at least, for a few years). Uber capitalized on an existing need–transportation–but provided a […]

15 Years Later, Reddit Could Be the Next Big Thing in Marketing
“Anyone here regret working in marketing?” A Reddit post asking this exact question is just a small piece of a growing pile of evidence: Marketers are finally infiltrating this under-the-brand-radar social media platform. And why wouldn’t they? Thousands of posts like this one spark lively online conversation among Reddit users, Redditors, every day, on a […]

AI in Web Development: Reality or Hype
To what extent will artificial integration (AI) change how we do things going into the future, particularly in the field of web development? This debate has been going on for quite some time now, some arguing that AI will soon replace humans on all tech-related jobs. Truth be told, automating the web development process will […]