Author: JP

  • Businesses Need Reputation Management

    Businesses Need Reputation Management

    How Reputation Management Works

    Ever had to save face? Saving face means you avoid that thing we all hate, public embarrassment. Your business has a face too, and it’s likely tied to what people think of you. How much is that worth? It costs nothing to ruin it.

    Have you ever gotten upset with a company and written a bad review on their Facebook, yelp, google, or profile?

    But you run a good company and no one will ever have any complaints.

    We live in a world where everyone complains and it doesn’t take much to set them off. Competition will also write bad reviews to take away your business. Anyone can write anything and post it anywhere.

    To protect your businesses reputation you need to monitor it. You need to know when someone is saying something negative as early as possible. The longer the comment sits, the more people see it, and take it at face value. Doing regular google searches on your company, belonging to groups in your business area, and checking review sites, are all great ways to monitor your business name.

    You also need to decide on a response, and it won’t be the first one you think of. People naturally get angry when someone publicly calls them out. The angry response, even if justified, is not the right one. There are legal considerations, because whatever you put in writing becomes part of the public record and can be used in court. Think about how you would explain what you wrote in a court of law.

    If the review is fraudulent, you can appeal to get the review removed. If it is a customer service issue, you can resolve it with the possibility of getting your customer to edit the review.

    Approach the problem with an open mind. Your customer has their own perspective, whether you agree with it or not. Try to find some common ground. Resolving a problem rather than fighting will have a better outcome.

    If you ever need help managing your reputation, we are here to help.

  • Get Positive Digital Marketing Data

    Get Positive Digital Marketing Data

    Using Digital Marketing Data to grow your business

    Facebook Results

    The results you see are from a advertising campaign we did to grow our Facebook subscribers. The ad campaign worked well. It took about four hours of labor, an advertising budget of thirty dollars, and some experience to know how to make it work. There are no quick and easy ways, despite what some companies may tell you. It’s more of a process with various steps and pitfalls.

    Facebook growth is helpful to your business, because it provides an increasing channel for your business to collect sales leads and a channel for communication directly to your potential customers. It is one of many social media sites that offer low cost ways of building sales leads; and If you are looking to increase your sales, increasing sales leads are a great place to start.

    To get results like this;

    1. Create a business social media page that describes your services and links to your other social media and web sites.
    2. Post your content marketing across all your marketing channels with relevant keywords to your business. Boost this content to gain further reach.
    3. Run relevant video and graphic campaigns that catch your potential customer’s interest
    4. Create and run advertising campaigns
    5. Collect Sales Leads
    6. Profit

    Brayson Management can help you achieve these results and more. It starts with our free assessment that helps us determine where our services will have the most benefit. Our proposal will explain everything you are getting and what it will cost in plain language. From there you can accept the offer, and Brayson will start working for you to get results.

    We start with some basic questions about your business. You provide something that people benefit from. Good marketing means putting out a message of that benefit to the people that can use it the most. With the information we collect, we create social media, websites, and advertising campaigns that work together to give you quality sales leads that understand your business’ message. Your sales team will have everything they need to turn a lead into a customer.

    When you look at Facebook’s Insights results it helps to know what the results mean. This shows growth that came from our content marketing and Facebook advertising on a rolling 28 day basis. Reach refers to the number of people that have seen our posts and advertising during that period. Post engagements are the number of people that have reacted, shared, and commented on our advertising and posts. Page likes are the the total number of subscribers during that time.

    This growth didn’t come from some magical marketing trick. The secret is work, time, and money. If you don’t have the time or the experience, you can limit this list to only money by hiring someone like Brayson Management to create and run your content marketing and advertising campaigns. You can see this growth ebb and flow between marketing campaigns and content posts in the Insights results. This shows that your work and investment works to get your message out.

    We have found that this growth is so low cost that the leads it produces makes it a very profitable investment. The growth that you are seeing in the graphic came from a $30 Facebook advertising budget. If your business is not investing in digital marketing, you are missing out. Even if you have more business than you have time for, digital marketing is an investment that ensures that this growth continues. Investing when you have the money is just good business and having good marketing ensures you continue to beat out your competitors.

  • How Sales Automation can Help your Business

    How Sales Automation can Help your Business

    Get More Done With Sales Automation

    Are you using automation effectively for your business?

    One of the clients that we encounter frequently is one that is in the position where they are so busy that they couldn’t possibly take on anymore work. The response is that they don’t need any marketing, because what would they do with the extra business?

    You might think that we can’t help this person, and you would not be alone. The person we are talking to thinks the same thing. They are so busy and have been doing things a certain way for such a long time that they miss opportunities to automate certain tasks they do every day. You may have more time than you sometimes realize.

    Employees are not a reliable source to tell you that parts of their job could be automated or made more efficient. Their job security relies on the hours they spend doing something, and showing you that they are doing something.

    As a small business ourselves, we know the power of automation. We can help your business utilize the same automation tools that we use that save time, reduce mistakes, and save labor costs. Free up time for yourself and your employees to do the important tasks, and automate everything else.

    We offer custom websites with the ability to automate many common tasks that businesses spend time on. A tasks that takes five minutes a day is one that eats up 25 minutes of your week or an hour and 25 minutes of your month. How many five minute tasks do you have? How much time would you save if your didn’t have to do it?

    Our websites are configurable to your business process.

    • Calendar plugins so your clients can schedule meetings without having to call
    • CRM systems that allow you to track clients, send quotes, and send invoices
    • Automated emails to keep customers informed of the next step
    • Payment systems that allow clients to pay on your site
    • Booking systems that allow customers to schedule and pay for appointments on your site so you don’t have too
    • Design plugins that allow customers to design their own products
    • Contact forms that are designed to provide the information that you need

    Marketing is an investment into your business’s future. Small investments in digital marketing can have a big impact over time and helps secure your customer base. The time to do this is not when your business is slow, but when you have the money to spend on these investments. While we are creating and executing a marketing plan, we can add automation to your sales process, saving you time, and increasing your income.

    We offer a Free assessment that looks at your current business needs and shows where changes could be made to improve both your digital marketing and your sales automation. We present this to you and provide documentation for you to refer to later. It’s useful for your business whether you decide to go with us or not.

  • Reasonably Priced Digital Marketing Company

    Reasonably Priced Digital Marketing Company

    Pick the Right Digital Marketing Company

    The digital marketing world is confusing, expensive, and time consuming. It’s filled with costly solutions from companies that make a lot of promises in exchange for a lot of money. Our mission is to make the same services available to small businesses that the big ones get by making these services affordable and easy to understand.

    There are several things you need to look for in a company that sells digital marketing services. There are key things to look for like;

    • Effectiveness: Are they just providing the service you asked for or do they create a custom solution for your unique business.
    • Transparency: Does the company provide clear written results and guidance. Do they offer realistic goals.
    • Cost: How much of your investment is going to the marketing company and how much is going to your advertising budget. Do they offer advice you can do yourself to increase your success?
    • Scale: Can they grow cost and services as your business grows. Are they willing to start small and grow?

    Brayson Management is unique among marketing companies in how it does business. Our target audience are companies that most marketing agencies actively disqualify for being too small. Small businesses can’t make the minimum investments they require and can’t pay the high rates for their services.

    If you are a small business with under ten employees, you most likely do not have the deposit they need to even get started. So how do you cut through the noise, when your competitors have thousands to put into marketing? You contact us. Brayson Management has no minimum investment, our prices are low, and you control your advertising budget.

    Most digital marketing companies have nice offices downtown that come with things like gleaming tile floors, local art, rent, utilities, office supplies, and cleaning crews. Brayson Management doesn’t have a fancy office. We don’t need one to provide quality service; unless you like paying more to sip bad coffee from a belching Keurig. The same questions can be asked over a Zoom call, and no one has to spend money on gas.

    You want results more than the chance to sit in our office waiting room, and that is what we focus on. You get the same results that your competitors are likely paying ten times the amount for, so you can reinvest in your business and grow.

    See how we can help you today.

  • The Search Engine Shows Rude Results; Why?

    The Search Engine Shows Rude Results; Why?

    How Search Engine Results Work

    Why does my search engine keep showing me plus sizes when searching for clothes It’s rude?

    I have been using Google’s new experimental topic picker to get topics to write about. Most of the results have been silly but this one made me giggle.

    Digital advertising and search results are run by algorithms, which are a series of instructions carried out by a computer. The algorithm decides what to show you, and it has decided that you are a plus sized human. I can’t tell you why completely. Algorithms like these tend to be kept secret to some degree. Maybe you searched for diets and cheese cake recipes earlier?

    On Instagram I found a post about being introverted funny and gave it a heart. Instagram spent months afterwards recommending either ADHD or Autism pages to me because of it. I don’t think the algorithm should be diagnosing me.

    While this is all fun, it does give a hint as to how it all works. If you are a small business looking to grow through digital advertising, having an idea of what the algorithm is looking for will help you get noticed by people likely to want your products and services.

    Search engines like Google will explain their process so that you can create websites that are easily searched and ranked. Advertising platforms show how keyword combinations and money work together to reach a certain audience number.

    These are all necessary windows into how their algorithms work so that users are able to create content that works with it.

    But

    How does the algorithm know who are decision makers, what their interests are, and what actions are they likely to take? This is the part of the algorithm that’s hidden from view, accessed through keywords or pull down menus, but the magic is still there.

    Re-targeting is another way advertisements are chosen. Re-targeting is a method of converting website traffic to sales leads. It takes multiple website visits to get your customer to commit to anything. A way of ensuring that the same customer sees your content multiple times a day is by re-targeting or showing that same content again when they go somewhere else. This is done by setting up a web beacon on your site that connects to the re-targeting company. If you access a site that sells plus size clothing, it will show you the same plus sized clothing over and over again.

    If this is something that your business might be interested in, let us know and we will help you get it started.

  • Does each website have an algorithm?

    Does each website have an algorithm?

    What is a Computer Algorithm?

    People talk about algorithms like they are a mystical code embedded in the internet. Algorithms are just sets of instructions for a computer to follow and are used by search engines to determine what results to show when a user searches for keywords. Search Engines use algorithms to rank data from websites in order to display the most helpful information.

    Google uses algorithms to rank websites on it’s search engine results. You would think they use magic the way some marketing companies present their services. Google actually has good documentation describing what they want and they provide free tools to test your website.

    It’s less magic and more boring reading and site testing. The magic comes later when your site starts ranking and people are able to find your services. The non-magic part comes first and involves things like;

    • Creating a Google search console account
    • Creating a XML site list
    • Research keywords and include them effectively in your content
    • Submit the XML site list to the search console
    • ‘Run the PageSpeed Insights and fix any issues
    • Use Social media and content marketing together to increase back-link traffic.
    • Use Meta data to introduce your page.
    • Use Snippets to display various categories

    You want to make it as easy as possible for Google’s algorithm to index your content and display it correctly. Not doing any of this, usually means a site that sits several pages back from the coveted first page results. All of this work is what marketing companies call Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and it’s important when you want your company to appear at the top of the search results when users type in keywords related to your service or product.

    Websites provide the code that informs the algorithm what content type is being displayed, provide relevant keywords, and proves the validity of the content by having various independent sources link to it. With constant updates and site traffic, the website will grow in the Google ranking system and enter first page results.

    Content Marketing is a great way to increase traffic, updates, and back links to your website, which also contributes to website ranking. It also provides a source of keywords through relevant articles.

    If you combine all of this with a robust advertising campaign, you will have a website that shows up when your customers are looking for your products or service.

    All this is enough information to get you started. Brayson Managment provides all these services and can help you come up with a good marketing strategy. Our free Digital Marketing Effectiveness Assessment shows where your business needs help and provides tips you can use to increase the effectiveness of your business digital presence.

  • What kind of advertising generates awareness?

    What kind of advertising generates awareness?

    Brand Awareness Messaging

    Brand Awareness is a term that describes the number of people that have heard of your business and remember something about it.

    It’s often the first goal of a marketing campaign when starting out with a new client. The idea is to communicate a short simple message that will tell your potential customer about your product or service. This message is often not enough to get a customer to start the sales process, but is enough to let them know that you exist and that you can provide something they want.

    Digital Marketing uses several methods to increase brand awareness. Social media, search engine, and website marketing are all of methods of generating brand awareness. There are a variety of platforms with unique technologies and methods. Most involve creative use of video, graphics, and writing to show a quick message to a potential customer.

    The goal of brand awareness is to create brand interest, so potential customers will move on to the research stage, which is where social media and websites become the focus.

    Brand Awareness can be measured in a number of ways. Reach are the number of people that have seen your message. Impressions are the number of time your message was viewed, and Frequency are the number of times your message was seen for the first time by someone. Conversions refer to the number of times your message was able to influence customer behavior in some way, such as subscribing to your page or filling out a contact form.

    These numbers are used to show how well your brand is represented over various digital marketing channels. Typically these are the first indicators of a brand’s health, because they focus on how widely your message is being received.

    Brand Awareness is often increased through advertising, subscriptions, digital marketing, and re-targeting. These are low cost ways for using digital marketing to increase brand awareness and can be very effective. Brayson Management can help your business develop a winning digital marketing strategy.

    Digital marketing strategies must be built around your business, so a one size fits all approach is not enough. It starts with research into who your customers are and what they want. We then create advertising that shows this message in a clear concise manner across a number of channels. These campaigns build awareness over time with a small investment and some effort and are an important part of an overall marketing stratagedy.

  • Will Digital Marketing make my business money?

    Will Digital Marketing make my business money?

    How Digital Marketing Makes Money

    If you are like most business owners, you have a limited advertising budget. How you spend this money is important, and it needs to work for you.

    The digital marketing business is full of quick ideas for making quick cash. The landscape is littered with articles claiming the top ten best ways to sell your business on the internet. They sound like scams, and some of them are outdated techniques of scamming a major search engine.

    The truth behind digital marketing is that it is a combination of work and money. There is no magic technique, and there are no quick ways around the work.

    As a small business, you may find that you don’t have time for the work. This is why you hire a digital marketing company like Brayson Management. We stay up to date on all the latest news from all the major search engines and social media, so we can use the latest techniques and technology to help your business. We do the work, not trends; and what we do will work for you.

    With Brayson, your marketing budget is under your control. You set the investment, so you are able to scale your investment over time.

    The core benefit from digital marketing are the sales leads that grow over time. Your sales team can use these leads to increase sales. This is where you get your return on your money. Instead of paying a sales team to cold call perspective clients, hoping for word of mouth, and putting a sign on the side of the road; you could be running digital advertising that puts your message in front of perspective clients. You only pay for the ones that click, so you only pay for the ones that are interested. In many cases, the campaign goal is to get them to subscribe. Your sales team can contact these subscribers and try to turn them into customers.

    The question then becomes “How many of these potential customers that are already interested in my business can I convince to become actual customers?” This is where your investment makes money. You don’t waste time, and you make the connections that lead to increased sales.

    It does not cost a lot to get started, and we can help you build a successful solution.

  • Message Source Endorsement: Popular People

    Message Source Endorsement: Popular People

    Message Source Endorsement is Popular People Advertising

    Message Source Endorsement is a fancy word for talking a famous person into getting some kind of access to their audience. Influencers, youtubers, and celebrities all have large audiences that follow them for content. Often their audiences have certain interests in common, which makes them easier to match with products and services. This naturally attracts advertisers interested in getting a message out to potential customers.

    There is a risk that one must consider when looking at the potential rewards for endorsements. Things like this can happen.

    LeBron James, spokesman for Samsung, gives teammates Apple Watches before NBA Finals

    BlackBerry Creative Director Alicia Keys tweets from iPhone, pins blame on hackers.

    Pepsi drops Ludacris after O’Reilly-sparked protest

    It’s unclear whether LeBron James should be allowed to get his teammates the gift they want rather than base it on his position. It’s also possible that no one in 2013 was using a blackberry, since EVERYONE HAD iPhones. Why was Pepsi surprised at a rappers lyrics? Why did they drop him after he signed a contract that required that they pay him anyway?

    Endorsements from celebrities are expensive and out of reach for most small businesses. There is a free source of endorsements that has an even greater pull than Lebron James.

    Your customers are a great source of endorsements. They have had a great experience with you, and it would probably not take much to get them to say that. The fact they are not being paid large amounts of money adds to their credibility.

    True more people know LeBron James than your Uncle Phil, but you have a lot of customers and that is a lot of reach between them. Also, no one is watching Uncle Phil, and it is unlikely that he will get any negative press, or buy you an Iwatch.

    Brayson Management can help you manage and foster customer connections through digital marketing to bring your business more sales leads.

    We do this by creating and managing your social media and web presence. Our reputation management service alerts you of any negative reviews to give you time to respond, before it damages your brand image. We can also help you get positive reviews from your customers to boost brand awareness and build trust around your brand.

    Ultimately, what all of this does is increase your income through repeat business and word of mouth growth. It is an investment in your future.

  • Why is Content Marketing Undervalued ?

    Why is Content Marketing Undervalued ?

    Because Content Marketing is Hard.

    Writing in conversational American English is not easy to outsource at the moment; and AI computers, at the moment, are easy to spot and make generic boring content.

    Finding content creators to make interesting content is generally expensive, and the benefits from content marketing takes time. An audience may have to grow to a considerable size, before it will start to attract actual sales leads.

    Marketing Agencies know this, yet most of them run a content marketing campaign, even if they don’t offer it to their clients. This is because content marketing works and gains value over time. Relevant content works for your company long after you have paid for it with increased traffic and followers. It does this by continually attracting traffic, either through search engine results or through social media posts. Most content can be cross posted across many platforms, allowing for one investment to used across multiple channels.

    Once enough content has been created, a certain amount of old content can be re-posted or recombined to create new content. This content doesn’t take the time the original took to produce and comes at a reduced cost with better results than the original.

    There are many people that do not do well with this delayed gratification. It makes sense. Marketing costs your business money, and you want to see results.

    Results from content marketing take time, but there are still numbers that indicate improvement rather quickly.

    Most platforms show these numbers, and effective marketing can increase these numbers tremendously in a small amount of time. As your social media accounts and web traffic grow, the amount of investment needed to keep this growth should become less as interesting content will grow on its own over time.

    As these numbers grow, so will sales conversions, which is the number you really care about. Sales can be put into marketing budgets, which grow into more sales.