What is Logo? Do you the its Value..!

As part of your branding effort you might consider an appropriate logo design. This should cost you from a few dollars to thousands depending on some factors. What are the factors that affect the price of the logo? There are quite a few factors that play a role. Normally business persons will have a hard time understanding what to pay and what they paid for after the logo is designed. Some people may think thousands of dollars paid means thelogo is the best, others may think this is too expense. Let us examine the price to feature relationship of a designedlogo.

Price is not a good criterion:

Some people feel they should pay high prices others feel they should go cheap when selecting a logo design. A logo is of great importance to the businesses. It is an important facet of the branding process of your business. The logo will be placed on all your stationary, website, promotional material, etc. The marketing persons will use it in communication it will be seen by potential clients; hence you want to make a good impression. If you spend too little you might not get a good logo. Hence, it is wise to ask for the best. Consider the cost as per number of months it will be in service. Say 10 years or 120 months find out the cost per month. This is a better way of judging the cost to benefit ratio. It will come to a few dollars a month. By using this strategy you will not get bogged by the cost. The cost does not become a big factor in logo selection.

Price related to service:

For whatever price you are pay you might want to judge the level of service you are getting. It depends on the package selected by you. Generally the provider will give you more service for a higher price, but you should always get a quote before you go ahead with the logo design. The number of designers working on your logo, number of revisions, concepts provided initially should be crystal clear for the price you pay. Certain designers give a money back guarantee. All of these considerations will affect the price of the service given when making a logo of your choice.

Design quality:

This is an important part of the designing process. It will determine what yourlogo is worth. If you pay a high price then you should get a logo of immaculate quality. To determine if you are using the right service provider who is giving you quality ask for the designers portfolio of clients and designs, testimonials from happy customers and their experience in the field. Keeping these factors in mind you will be able to judge what quality you are getting for the money you are spending.

Location of designer:

This is important as a local vendor understands the local geography in your region better; they will be able to serve you better as they understand the needs and local market. Also if you use a distant vendor outside the country and something goes wrong it will be difficult to prosecute the vendor (example a trademark infringement).

Conclusion:

These are some factors you might want to consider when designing a logo of your choice in a desired price range. Considerable time must be spent to look for a vendor who will design a logo to your specifications and needs.

Offline Marketing Ideas

There are several unusual offline marketing ideas that one can think about. Today there is much hype about the use of viral online marketing campaigns which are effective, but is it the only way? However, offline marketing should be done in tandem with the online version as a great number of people do not have access to the net. About 76% of the Earth’s population does not have internet. This leaves a huge audience untouched with the offline type of marketing medium. Offline marketing should be explored no matter what, on large or small budgets. Some thoughts of offline marketing in the locality are described in this article.

Use locality: One can advertise on boards, give pamphlets or put up signs in the local area after doing a bit of research to find local hot spots. You might want to advertise at coffee shops, pool halls, libraries, post offices etc.

Use local hawkers: You might want to pay the local hawker (vendor who serves tea, coffee or the newspaper and magazines) to distribute your brochure or pamphlet to hi/her customers. At tea time or in the morning or at lunch most people have time to read the advertisement you have given. It will get better results than at other times when the people are busy at work.

Give free items: You can give free items in areas of your town and spread your goodwill and pamphlets along with them. This would create interest in your product and may result in customer conversion.

Stamps and stickers: You can stamp and paste stickers in local books in the library. The reader will see your ad and may contact you if they are interested in the products you have to sell.

Unusual methods: You might want to think out of the box and place ads in bathrooms or even drop cards and pamphlets in bus and restaurant seats.

Conclusion: With your concerted effort offline marketing you should be able to generate business in your domain. However, one must note it will take time and patience and you must try different marketing-mix strategies to succeed.

Using some analytic data to better SEO

There is a lot of analytic data generated. It is wise to use this data and interpret it in a way that helps you SEO. This article gives you an insight into how you can use analytic data to help you improve the SEOperformance of your sites.

Referring sites of value:

It is a wise idea to check the analyticsdata of your sites. The data you get shall allow you to take advantage of any opportunities. A good parameter to check is the referring sites compared to the past 2 days. It gives an output of all referring sites in the order of their visitation by referral in the past 2 days. Once you do this look at the percentage change. If it is 100% it means that a link was posted in the past 2 days by a referring site. This is valuable information you can use this article to your advantage by featuring it, as the article has generated interest. It might generate more traffic for you. If the percentage is a negative this could mean that the referral has gone down in traffic or the link posted no longer reaches the correct page. In this case you will have to do some damage control to bring back the traffic.

Optimization of international sites:

SEO knowledge of sites which are in regional languages is also vital if you are working on sites that are visited by persons who speak multiple languages. Here it would be important to get the data of who stayed on the site for longer (which type of audience) then the ones who just click and remained for a flash. To do this you set up your data point as language visitors by bounce rate. Keep your data set large to be more accurate. Choose languages which are of high visitation and presence. Then to SEO you might want to write content in this language you will get more visits at your site if you capitalize on this important analytic information. If there is low volume of visits then you should write less in that language.

Traffic results segregation:

A common question of all SEO professionals is to know which segment is giving you quality traffic (Search, Direct and referrals). You can look at the visitor depth in advanced segments (Search, Direct and Referral Traffic). This should show the percentage of visits in each of these three segments by number of pageviews. It will help you determine which is a valuable segment that has generated traffic. One can use this data to determine linking and for furtherSEO efforts.

These are few analytic skills that you can use to SEO your sites hopefully if you use them your site/s will rise in the SERPs.

How to make a brand name persuasive

Most people are of the opinion that abrand is a tool of communication of what they are or what they do. They think of using catchy logo names for their brand, business or service. The name may or may not convey the mission or identity of their businesses.

A good brand expresses the identity of itself. A great brand does more it is a tool by which an identity is communicated to the audience, like conveying a promise. For example TATA, we feel the group as a communicating quality and service.

It is important to be clear and simple as possible. This is not a nature trait of entrepreneurs. An example is Ritz Carlton: it is clear and simple it does not have the words luxury, hospitality and hotel in it. Yet it communicates the idea clearly.

The not be cluttered with brand promise and references of how you are different. You are and what you do is the core of your brand promise. Most good company’s rely on brand quality or value rather than brand recognition.

Avoid common words that are used by other companies such as: strategy, core values, mission, vision, operational excellence, efficiency, value-added, character, integrity, positioning, sustainability, corporate citizen, cause.

Use the references of your constituents: customer, partner, investor, or employee. They have a lot of common sense and good knowledge which they can share.

After you have done this you can easily connect the dots and have a very persuasive brand name.