Month: October 2018

Your burgeoning SEO campaign is finally seeing the results you’ve been hoping for and you’re noticing a surge in traffic, increased engagement, and superior SERPs. Now, your goal is to maintain your forward progress and continue raising the bar for your brand.

Our creatives and web developers have teamed up to provide you with a best-in-class website, our content strategists are publishing SEO content that your target audience finds compelling, and our digital marketing director is providing you with real-time updates every step of the way.

What’s next?

Once you launch an SEO campaign, there’s really no telling when it will end. SEO is fluid and continuous. If you spent the better part of the last few years building your case for Google’s search algorithm, you don’t want to have your headway undone by apathy or an inability to continuously produce spellbinding content.

Meeting your SEO objectives is just the beginning. You already have resources invested in an ongoing content campaign; why not invest in repurposing your content to boost your brand’s strengths in other areas? Existing content can be utilized in creative ways to produce captivating visuals for your site and interactive resources for your target audience while simultaneously filling out your social media and email marketing campaigns with more substance.

As the title states: written content is worth more than its word count. Our agency understands how valuable every piece of content is to your SEO campaign. Our content strategists spend extra time researching the best resources and tailoring their writing to your target audience’s preferences and needs. When you produce top-tier content, you can adapt it to other mediums to spread your brand’s message. If you want to get the most out of your content, you should consider doubling down on your commitment to SEO by expanding your campaign to include content repurposing.

Give Your Old Content a New Purpose

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” – John F. Kennedy

When you read the quotation above, was your first thought: “This is outdated. Who cares what John F. Kennedy said in 1961?” Of course not! Sure, the quote might be over a half-century old, but President Kennedy’s content is still relevant.

How was JFK able to future-proof his content for more than 50 years post-mortem? As a president, the things he said were substantive and important, not to mention well-researched and backed by the academic community. At Leverage Digital, every piece of SEO content we produce is subjected to the same rigorous standards. We never publish without verifying our sources and we don’t make assumptions.

If you want your brand to succeed in the future, you will need content that can outlast your competitors and remain relevant for years to come. However, this is only possible if your ongoing content campaign is producing high-quality content from the beginning.

Are you dedicated to establishing your brand as a thought leader in your respective industry? Our content strategists work with our creatives to enhance your brand’s SEO strategy with SEO content that drives creativity across an array of platforms and applications.

Promoting Written Content with Curated Visuals on Social Media

The goal of your SEO campaign was to improve your brand’s SERP visibility thereby increasing traffic to your site, but your auxiliary marketing campaigns, like social media, will influence your site’s traffic, too. Promoting your SEO content through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest can help drive engagement with your target audience. This can help increase traffic to your website as users follow backlinks to interact with your content.

There’s only one caveat — these platforms largely rely on visuals to attract your target audience. How can you promote your written content without relying on boring stock images that fail to charm users? The trick is to create visuals that tie back to your article in an interesting way. In other words, promote the information from your SEO content that is the most valuable to your target audience.

We’ll use one of our own articles, “How To Create A Content Marketing Strategy From Your Existing SEO Content” to briefly illustrate how written SEO content can be repurposed into visual content to promote itself.

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You can utilize interesting quotations from your SEO content to create a compelling visual that connects directly to the information from your content. Alternatively, you can propose a question or call to action that links to your article or generates buzz about your topic.

Boost Your Presence in Other Campaigns

You can utilize visual content inspired by your written SEO content as a promotional vehicle for your content, but that’s only useful when you’re publishing new content. What about your older SEO content?

Have you ever noticed that the most successful social media accounts post compelling content regularly? You’re probably wondering how they manage to upload high-quality content so frequently. Here’s the secret: plan ahead and plan smart.

At the most basic level, recalling old content using hashtag campaigns like “Throwback Thursday” (#tbt) or “Flashback Friday” (#fbf) gives you a legitimate reason to reuse old content. Similarly, by focusing on certain themes during a designated time period (e.g., Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Easter) you can funnel existing SEO content into your ongoing content campaign to fill it out and provide more value for your existing and prospective customers.

Ideally, you will outfit your existing SEO content with new promotional materials to prime it for social media, an email marketing campaign, or a featured position on your website’s homepage or blog.

For example, you can beef up a weekly or monthly newsletter with existing, relevant SEO content. Similarly, if your brand has a tendency to go dark on social media because you lack content, consider utilizing existing SEO content to give your target audience a reason to return to your website.

Embrace Thought Leadership with Leverage Digital

At Leverage Digital, we know that your brand’s success depends on your SEO strategy and ability to optimize your digital imprint, but we also understand the value of intangibles like consistency, design, and most importantly, thought leadership.

Being a thought leader helps raise your brand to the next level. Once you have achieved success in this area, your brand will be providing the blueprint for your rivals which means every move you make will inspire others and direct users to your brand.

However, the only way to become a thought leader in your respective industry is to become the authority on all matters pertaining to your brand. In other words, you have to remain vigilant of industry-related news and continuously produce content that pushes the envelope.

Whether you focus on publishing new content, repurposing old content, or combining both strategies to pump up your overall output, to be considered a thought leader, you need the capacity to develop and publish enough content to outperform your competition. For most brands, this idealistic goal is impossible without partnering with a reputable digital marketing agency like Leverage Digital.

A successful SEO strategy is built around a handful of established principles — ongoing content, thoroughly researched keywords, etc. — but there’s always room for creativity and innovation in the world of digital marketing. One-and-done publishing ensures that your SEO content is giving you the organic growth you desire, but on a B2C level, you want to be certain that your target audience is engaged. Our award-winning digital marketing agency combines comprehensive statistics tracking and thoughtful, creative design to provide measurable results that look as good as they perform.

Ready to partner with an award-winning agency that delivers results? Let’s get started.

Your favorite color says a lot about you. Colors are an effective tool for translating your thoughts, feelings, ideas, and interests into a visual format. Our relationship with color stretches back to the dawn of time (long before branding), when we started to develop stronger biological tools to recognize colors visually. This ability enhanced our ability to spot things like brightly colored foods and blood, which greatly increased our ancestors’ chances of survival.

And the rest is history. The ability to recognize colors helped our ancestors grow and prosper for millions of years. Eventually, our frontal cortex developed advanced cognitive functions and Neanderthals were replaced by the comparably more advanced Homo sapiens. Fast forward to the 15th century and artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo began to utilize colors to push the boundaries of art. Thus, an important component of our survival became irreversibly ingrained in our culture.

Although this summary is oversimplified, it does highlight our close kinship with color. Human beings don’t just process color, they communicate with it and experience it. As a result, the colors you chose to represent your brand are vital to spreading your message the way you intended. Iconic American brands like McDonald’s, Walmart, and Publix deftly utilize color to express their values, represent their services, and attract clients. What do your company’s colors say about your brand?

Red

The color red is dynamic, attention-grabbing, and exciting. As one of the three primary colors, people tend to have a strong connection with the color red. Scientifically, the color red enhances our appetite, which is why successful fast food chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, and Arby’s have stuck with red for the better part of the modern era.

The color red will help your brand get noticed because people’s relationship with this color is deeply rooted in society. For example, our daily interactions with stop lights strengthens our perception of the color red because we perceive red as meaning “stop.” This can be useful for retailers who want passersby to “stop” and take a look at their products or services. In fact, red has been scientifically proven to stimulate blood pressure and raise the heart rate to evoke feelings of passion, excitement, and even love.

Blue

When your brand wants to demonstrate intelligence, trustworthiness, and liberalism, there’s no better color than blue. Although once thought to be a color representing masculinity, the color blue has grown increasingly inclusive over the years. Brands in the technology and social networking sectors, like Facebook, Intel, Twitter, Skype, and Hewlett Packard, are especially keen on blue.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the color blue? Your answer is likely one of two things: the sky or water. So it makes sense when you consider the fact that blue is a color that boosts our feelings of tranquility and reliability. The color blue also communicates safety and security. If you want to enhance your target audience’s trust in your brand, try incorporating more blue into your branding.

Green

You know what it means to “go green,” and many of these sentiments translate into how green is perceived in advertising. The color green has strong ties to the environment, peace, and health, but it is also irrevocably tied to money. Considering this alarming distinction, brands must carefully plan their application of this powerful color. Ironically, figuring out the balance between these contrary perceptions helps illustrate another feeling that green simulates — harmony, stability, and equilibrium.

Grocery stores like Whole Foods and Publix use green to enhance our perception of how fresh their meats and produce are. On the other hand, banks like Regions, TD Bank, and Citizens Bank utilize green to represent their skill and efficiency when handling money. When we work with businesses to revitalize their brand or perform an all-out rebranding, we are cognizant of how a color like green, which can be utilized in a number of ways, can affect the way your brand’s message is conveyed to your target audience.

Purple

Throughout history, the rarity of the purple hue has made it a hallmark of royalty, and the wisdom and respect that is associated with kings and queen. Today, purple is as common as any other color, but it still leaves a strong impression on the viewer, whether intended to glamorize a brand or promote creative thinking. Purple is frequently utilized in the branding of beauty and anti-aging products, too.

We often find that brands that choose the color purple plan to utilize creative advertising strategies that incorporate youthfulness and humor into their branding. Yahoo, T-Mobile, and Taco Bell are three examples of companies that utilize purple (T-Mobile uses an aggressive shade of fuschia) in their branding and have executed advertising campaigns that focused primarily on grabbing their target audience’s attention with quirkiness.

Orange

Orange is a welcoming, friendly color that promotes a cheerful disposition and inspires confidence, but it is also synonymous with caution. This color can be utilized to draw in apprehensive shoppers and indicate sales and clearances. Like the color green, orange has been utilized to help represent brands across an array of industries.

Harley Davidson and Nickelodeon both prescribe to the color orange, but they accomplish vastly different goals by doing so. Nickelodeon wants to appeal to children, so orange, often considered one of the friendliest colors, is a perfect selection. Conversely, Harley Davidson wants to inspire confidence and ensure their target audience that there is no better product on the market.

Yellow

The color yellow shares a close kinship with the color orange. Similar to orange, yellow is associated with warmth, optimism, and conversely, caution. Yellow also has the unfortunate distinction of being the color that is most likely to trigger crying in babies, so if you plan on investing in a Gymboree franchise, stay clear of this color (and go with orange).

However, optimism seems to be the central thread linking brands that utilize the color yellow. Consider these brands that all opted for yellow when choosing their color palette from the unlimited spectrum of colors: Subway, Best Buy, Nikon, Sprint, and National Geographic. What do these brands have in common? Very little. Nevertheless, they are all brands that provide important services that help you unlock your creativity or become the best version of yourself.

Gray

Gray is a calming color that is often used to symbolize feelings of functionalism, old age, and solidarity. You will know if your brand benefits from this color almost immediately. Currently, there are very few brands using gray as the primary color in their branding, and the brands that are using it, like Apple, Nissan, Lexus, and Swarovski, are really opting for a silver tone which can be perceived very differently from gray.

Be careful when you use gray. Too much gray tends to make people feel apathetic and depressed. Our innate association of the color gray with fog means your brand can easily get lost in a haze of gray if you don’t consult a talented digital marketing agency like Leverage Digital.

Black and White

While the color black is incorporated into nearly every brand in some form or another (balancing light and dark is an integral component of nearly every design plan), we rarely characterize a brand as using black to represent their goals and initiatives. Black is commonly associated with authority, power, and stability. It’s a no-nonsense color that can effectively communicate your ardent dedication to your work and depthless wisdom, just don’t use too much of it. Applying too much black to your brand’s color palette can transform your brand from “Gap” to “Hot Topic” in a matter of seconds.

On the contrary, if you want your brand to feel sterile, pure, and safe, you should consider using white. Sure, the color white can be bland and boring, but it can also be classy, tasteful, and neutral. Sometimes, utilizing extra white space can help you say more by giving the viewer space to populate your brand with their own ideas. Furthermore, the color white can be an effective color in your rebranding efforts, as we perceive the color white as being unaltered and true.

Avoid Favoritism When Selecting Colors

Your favorite color means a lot to you, but your experience with a color is unique to your own perceptions and feelings. Choosing colors based solely on favoritism can lead to a poorly executed creative design that confuses your target audience. To illustrate this, imagine if the CEO of Fifth Third Bank decided to use their “favorite” colors — gold, purple, and black— when developing their brand. Here’s the result:

Would you trust this bank with keeping your money secure? If Fifth Third Bank was an ironically named night club, you might be interested in seeing what’s beyond their purple and gold doors. Unfortunately, color favoritism can lead to ineffective branding, an unclear message, and a lack of customers. Fifth Third Bank’s normal color palette, which utilizes blue, green, and white, is a significant upgrade from this ill-conceived concept:

In this rendition, each color has a purpose. The use of blue inspires confidence in the customer, who will perceive this brand as a seasoned institution for banking, and the green convinces the customer that the bank will handle their money wisely. Here are a few more examples of how pairing your brand with the wrong color palette can instantly throw off your target audience:

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Conclusion

Your company’s colors help tell the story of your brand. When people are first introduced to your branding, they will immediately form a mental connection between your company’s name and color palette. This connection can last a lifetime. Are you making a first impression that instantly converts curiosity into a customer? At Leverage Digital, our creatives are dedicated to strengthening your brand’s identity and increasing your visibility amongst the competition. Whether you’re a new business just entering the fray, or an established business looking for a rebrand, we’re here to help you meet all of your branding objectives.

Do you feel like your brand is being lost among your competitors? Failing to stand out could be the reason your brand is struggling to move forward and expand. Perhaps it’s time to rework your image. At Leverage Digital, our gifted team of creatives and marketers work hand-in-hand to ensure your brand is firing on all cylinders.

Ready to partner with an award-winning agency that delivers results? Let’s get started.

Have you ever had an idea that was too big to squeeze into a 500-word article? A successful SEO strategy lives and dies by your ability to publish ongoing, meaningful content that provides value to your target audience and incentive to keep clicking again and again; however, when a trending topic is too complex or contains a large volume of relevant information, producing content that effectively simplifies information for the reader can be a serious challenge.

An infographic is a visual representation of text-based content like news stories, datasets, statistics, etc. Infographics are valuable for a variety of reasons, but their trademark feature is their ability to take complicated, sleep-inducing topics and present them as bright, flashy, exciting visuals for readers. Infographics are an ideal complement to your SEO strategy and offer you a chance to boldly spread awareness of your brand more effectively to your target audience as well as untapped markets.

Revitalize Your SEO Strategy

Before we really delve into why infographics can boost the success of your SEO strategy, let’s rewind for a second and refresh ourselves on the three main components of a typical SEO strategy:

• On-Site Optimization: the content, structure, and layout of your site should keep users engaged beyond their first click. Streamlined navigation, internal links, and unique content can keep users on your site longer.
• High Quality Content: your content should be valuable, timely, properly formatted, and published regularly to improve your SERP visibility. We perform comprehensive keyword audits to ensure that content is easily searchable.
• Off-Site Authority: if your brand is only represented on your website, your SEO objectives will flounder. Build off-site authority to generate inbound links from high-authority sources. This goal can be met in a variety of ways, but the key is to limit links that appear spammy or unrelated. Representing your brand on social media is one surefire way to build off-site authority.

If you can accomplish your SEO goals by focusing on these three SEO pillars alone, why should you incorporate infographics into your ongoing content? The answer is quite simple; infographics are infinitely shareable and more engaging for your target audience. Plus, they empower your brand by establishing you as a thought leader in your respective industry.

Infinitely Shareable

The information depicted in an infographic can be time-sensitive, but unlike written content, infographics have a tendency to outlive their information. This is because visual content (which is commonly evergreen) isn’t explicitly tied to a publishing date like written content. Skillfully designed infographics appear timeless, and as a result, they are shared more frequently and for longer periods of time than your traditional shared content. Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than other types of content. That means the value of a single infographic can be worth 40 times the value of a single piece of written content.

Boost Engagement

The reason users prefer to engage with visual content is determined by the hardwiring in our brains — we process visual information 60,000 times faster than text. That means processing an infographic is 60,000 times easier than written content based on the same topic. Visual content produces more shares on social media and equalizes the playing field for people who want information but lack the time or patience to read an entire article. Although it’s imperative to maintain a strong ongoing content campaign utilizing written content to improve your SEO ranking, your customers are more likely to engage with visual content like infographics when browsing social media or visiting your site.

Empower Your Brand

At Leverage Digital, our main objective is to develop your brand’s image and improve your online visibility to help you connect with your target audience, but we’re also interested in helping your brand reach its potential. When you publish high-quality content, you empower your brand and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Branded content, especially infographics, have a tendency to trickle down the business hierarchy to be used as a resource in small businesses and startups. When this happens, you have effectively established your brand as a thought leader which bolsters your authority and the value of your services significantly.

If your brand is benefitting from a successful SEO strategy, it’s time to allocate resources into expanding your brand’s visibility with new forms of content. 45 percent of B2C marketers believe visual content, like infographics, is their most important type of content. Infographics are not only evergreen and infinitely shareable, they are more likely to provide real value to your target audience and help establish your brand as a pioneering force in your industry.

At Leverage Digital, our in-house team of content strategists can help you improve your brand’s online visibility through a comprehensive, ongoing content campaign. We create content that answers your target audience’s biggest questions to foster trust and dependence through well-researched, timely articles and compelling visual content. After all, the success of every SEO strategy depends on quality content and a dedicated team like Leverage Digital.

Ready to partner with an award-winning agency that delivers results? Let’s get started.