Your brand is the foundation around which your entire business and marketing are based.

Start-ups and smaller businesses often find it difficult to develop a clear brand that helps them stand out and resonate with potential customers.

Why have a brand?

Get your brand strategy nailed down and all else should lead from it. It will define the design and feel of your website, for example, and underpin all your marketing activity.

It defines what your business is about to you and your staff as well as your audience.

It’s not just that customers will easily recognize you online or on the high street. Strong brands create emotional connections.

What does that mean? Your customers stick with you and even influence others to buy your products or hire your services. When they see your logo, they have a sense of anticipation.

Simply put:
Strong brands lead to higher sales and more customers.

Here are some stats if you’re not completely convinced:

• When they’re fixing to...

You’ve written your website pages, created and posted all that content, now you’re ready to sit back and watch the visitors flock to your digital door.

Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as that...

Visitor numbers and engagement are some of the most common concerns for businesses with an online presence.

How do you not only become more popular but increase engagement with your site as well? Here are 5 strategies that you can implement right now:

1. Have a marketing plan

It might seem like a no-brainer but putting in place the right marketing strategy for your business is critical.

According to software firm OutboundEngine, however, half of the businesses don’t have one.

It's surprising how many businesses have a piecemeal approach, dabbling on social media here, trying out some PPC advertising there or writing a few blogs now and again.

If you want more people to visit your site and become customers, you need to:

• Understand your target audience.
• Have...

"Social Media is a waste of time and money - unless you can convince me differently, I will no longer be using it!!"

This was a statement made to me a few months back by an extremely frustrated business owner who was about to give up using social media for marketing his business.

When I viewed his business profiles across LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, I could see why...

- content was heavily sales driven 'buy this', 'discount offer', 'price match', etc...
- too much waffle and not enough substance - no value proposition!
- no real target market identified - trying too hard to appeal to everyone...
- boring images and lack of creativity...

I could go on...

Sadly, this is a common trend across many business social media feeds... dull, uninspiring content being used to aggressively push products and services rather than trying to engage, listen and build relationships.

So, here's my top five tips for creating engaging, interactive and noticeable social media posts. 

#marketing ...