Tag Archives: Internet marketing

What To Do If A New Competitor Enters Your Market

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What To Do If A New Competitor Enters Your Market

When a new competitor steps into your market, it can feel like a threat to your established place in the industry. However, with the right approach, especially in your digital marketing and SEO strategies, you can not only maintain your position but potentially even improve it. At Zenergy Works, we specialize in transforming these challenges into opportunities through expert SEO and digital ad management.

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Understand Your New Competitor

The first step is to thoroughly understand who your new competitors are. What products or services do they feature?  What are their strengths? Where do they lag behind? Use digital tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to analyze their SEO strategies, and social media engagement metrics. 

Evaluate Your Current Position

Before you can outmaneuver a competitor, you must assess your own standing. Are you prominent in the marketplace for the products or services that are most popular with your customers? 

Enhance Your Digital Marketing Efforts

Improving your SEO and digital marketing is crucial. Focus on:

Effective digital advertising can place your brand in front of the right audience at the right time.  Whether it’s Google or Microsoft Ads, social media ads, or retargeting campaigns, our strategic ad placements ensure you stay ahead of the competition.  In addition to providing traffic to your website and generating leads, paid advertising can also render valuable insights into popular search terms and messaging.

Engage and Retain Your Customer Base

With a new competitor in the market, retaining your existing customer base is more important than ever. Implement tactics like personalized email marketing, loyalty programs, and active engagement on social media platforms. Show your customers that they are valued and that your brand continually strives to meet their needs.  Don’t restrict your efforts to digital strategies, but also think of the personal touch in the form of a phone call, card or visit to a place of business.

Facing a new competitor in your marketplace is a challenge, especially if you are a local business facing a larger company, but it’s also an opportunity to refine your digital marketing and SEO strategies. The advantage of being a local business is the freedom to be innovative and  agile in marketing strategy and tactics.  Contact us today to see how our expertise in SEO and digital ad management can help your business to maintain your competitive edge.

For a free site scan for your website, please reach out and we will spend some time evaluating your placement in your marketplace.

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Sensory Marketing

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Many advertisers known that a clever visual pun or well-crafted print advertising can have a big effect on potential customers. But what about branching beyond the visual? There are ways to flesh out advertisements to involve all five senses and give people more well-rounded insight into your brand.

Experiment with Sound

There’s a lot of multimedia out there that allows you to play on the auditory sense. Historically, we’ve used radio to reach people with sound. Today, many users are migrating away from traditional AM/FM radio and going online to streaming music applications like Spotify. The past few years have also shown an increase in YouTube users, blending visual and sound in short video form. Can you use these mediums?

This is an ideal time to get creative. Spotify allows the option of creating, sharing, or collaborating on playlists, which is perfect for a music-themed contest. You can apply this to virtually any business or service by having people create themed playlists for holidays, product releases, and more.

Experiment with Sound

Experiment with Touch

Touch can get complicated, but it’s not impossible to play with in your advertising. Instead of relying on tactile sensation, focus on creating engaging campaigns that inspire action in your followers. Community campaigns like flash mobs or eye-catching stunts that raise awareness are two potential ideas. Maybe stretch even further and hold an adopt-a-pet event at your store or office to bring in lots of foot traffic. Plus, fluffy puppies! Keep in mind that anything you do should somehow tie back into your business so it sticks in people’s memories.

Experiment with Touch

Experiment with Smell

Again, you don’t have to work with literal smells, as that might turn off some customers. Instead, think outside the box. One of our clients recently held a Pinterest contest where users posted pictures of all the things their dogs “love to smell.” This sort of marketing could work especially well for a food or fragrance-based business. Smell is closely tied to memory, so think of ways to link the two. Ask people to think of smells that remind them of a certain time in their life, or a special person. That’s a powerful emotional bond!

 Experiment with Smell

Experiment with Taste

If you can create an advertisement that evokes the sensation of taste, that’s incredible. Taste is a sense of comfort and exploration for many people. Help them imagine their grandmother’s home cooking, or have them offer up a relevant recipe. You can always hand out lollipops! Everybody loves lollipops.

Experiment with Taste

At the end of the day, experiments like these are really about thinking beyond the typical. While many websites are leaning more heavily on visuals and high-quality photography, multimedia is still playing a big part in how users are interacting with brands. Exploring other avenues may be just the thing that sets you apart.

Stephanie Wargin is the Social Media Strategist at Zenergy Works, a web design and SEO company located in Santa Rosa, California. Her friends like to brush her hair into her eyes whenever she talks about Facebook.

Building a Creative Online Campaign

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When you’re braving the choppy waters of internet marketing, it can be easy to get lost. Sometimes it feels like you’re just throwing spaghetti at a wall just to see what sticks. There must be a better way to build a compelling campaign!

There is.

First, let’s go over the basics: marketing is about experimentation and a willingness to try and try again. Even the most successful companies in the world deal with their fair share of dud marketing campaigns… and these are businesses with entire dedicated marketing departments at their disposal. The occasional failure is part of the game.

The other part of the game is having the wherewithal to recognize why something didn’t work. Or better yet, why it did. You can’t just give up because your first, second, or even third attempt to navigate the waters turned up mediocre results.

Creative Campaign

Creativity is key.

Photo Credit: AlicePopkorn via Compfight cc

Here’s some advice to help in creating a compelling, creative campaign.

  • Do your research. Do you know what your current or potential audience wants? Are you sure? Seek out what your competitors are doing online. What’s working for them? What’s not? What do you have that can fill a niche they can’t? Use it.
  • Make it personal without losing your core messaging. What’s going to make people care about your marketing efforts? Maybe you can be a hub for local events, or post pictures of the sort of goofy fun you have in your shop every day. If your audience is parents, share content that will resonate with them, like parental humor or photos of your kids. Just don’t forget that you’re also trying to get them to DO something.
  • Invest in high-quality imaging. Social sites and many websites are moving toward highly visual designs that often rely on high-quality images. Visual storytelling has proven to be something the public reacts to very strongly. Stunning photography or carefully crafted designs convey a level of professionalism and, done correctly, are highly sharable. Can you create creative visual messaging?
  • Learn the art of story. Do you know how to tell a story in 100 words? It’s an important skill to learn. You’ll often hear that “Content is King,” and it’s the truth. People respond to interesting, entertaining, or valuable content. Blend mediums. How can you combine sound and text? Video and audio? Images and story? It doesn’t hurt to brush up on your grammar, too. Polished text is professional text.
  • Be willing to change direction. You may find that something you did on a lark ended up with ten times the reaction of your usual efforts. Don’t wave it off as a fluke. If something you do finds a foothold, be willing to lean further in that direction, even if it means abandoning other “safer” efforts.
  • If you don’t have the bandwidth to do it internally, hire a professional. As in, a professional internet marketer with experience and a portfolio. Many people claim expertise in the digital realm, and if you’re not very familiar, in can be difficult to determine who really knows their stuff. So insist on seeing success stories.
  • The product or service must deliver. Okay, you’ve done your job well and set up a plan that will draw people to you (hopefully) in droves. Now you have to deliver what they were promised.

Above all, find what makes you stand out and don’t be afraid to experiment. Do something completely different! Write a mini-play. Film a video. Think of the advertising that really sticks with you, then put your own spin on it. This isn’t easy, but if you strike the right balance, it can be explosive!

Stephanie Wargin is the Social Media Strategist at Zenergy Works, a web design and SEO company located in Santa Rosa, California. Her friends like to brush her hair into her eyes whenever she talks about Facebook.

Flexibility in the Digital Space

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With the constantly changing landscape of technology and online marketing, it’s vital to remain flexible. Many people attempt to apply old techniques to a new market or operate based on information that’s already several years old. While the latter are at least attempting to keep up with the lightning-fast pace of today’s world, ultimately both fall victim to the same problem – they’re not being flexible enough.

Learn Flexibility

Learn to get a little wavey

Flexibility isn’t just about being able to change direction. It’s about being able to change direction quickly. Realistically, many businesses have processes in place for implementing new plans. This often means changes are wrapped up in months’ worth of red tape, if they happen at all.

There’s nothing wrong with having a structure in place before taking the business in a completely different direction. In fact, it’s often necessary to ensure things aren’t being turned on their head every few months, which can be even more harmful that not evolving with the times. In an ideal world, there’s room for both.

Unfortunately, the rapidly shifting arena of the online marketplace doesn’t wait for you to play catch-up. That’s why it’s important to implement a plan for keeping up early. It’s also essential to work with someone who keeps their fingers on the pulse of the internet, whether that person is an internal hire or a consulting professional. Do you know how to set these gears in motion?

First and foremost, you have to believe in the power of internet marketing. We don’t mean that in a “clap your hands if you believe in fairies” kind of way, but in a “you should trust that this outlet will have real value for your business” kind of way. If you’re skeptical or think the internet is a waste of time, then you won’t really invest in getting your marketing off the ground, which will result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Anyone can quote you all of the relevant statistics, but it’s up to you to find the place where you feel comfortable and willing to get behind the effort.

Once you’ve found your “happy place” with online marketing, you can move on to implementation. If you’re in an industry where things are very slow moving, this may take some considerable reorganization. Don’t leave everything up to one person – assemble a team that can work together to get all of the moving parts in place. If you don’t have the staff for a maneuver like this, consider an internet marketing agency. We may know of one you can call on. Just saying.

Work with someone who is keeping up with all the latest news. This should be an internet professional, not someone who’s playing catch-up on blogs that may be years out of date. Your internet marketer should really know their stuff. Do your research before hiring and speak with current clients if possible.

Now the pieces of your puzzle are in place. From here, your business should be able to move nimbly in the marketplace. It’s important to work openly with your internet marketing specialist and put your faith in them to do the best thing for your business. Checks and balances for big decisions are expected, but remember to remain flexible and not tie things up so tightly that direction changes are impossible.

The digi-scape moves quickly. In order to keep up, you need to work with someone who knows the information highway and can make hairpin turns when needed. It’ll do wonders for your business!

Stephanie Wargin is the Social Media Strategist at Zenergy Works, a web design and SEO company located in Santa Rosa, California. Her friends like to brush her hair into her eyes whenever she talks about Facebook.

Old School Technique in a New School World

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In the digital age, many people are condemning old school ways of thinking in favor of new school lines of thought. Insist on paper and radio advertising instead of internet marketing? Refuse to touch social media with a ten foot pole? Not paying attention to your online sentiment? Old school thinking! Kill it with fire!

For the most part, people have a point. The internet has become a huge source of commerce and information exchange, and ignoring it will be detrimental to your business. More and more consumers are going online to research and check reviews before making important purchasing decisions, or even choosing a restaurant to try.

Still, there are some elements of “old school business” that are worth keeping around. Providing high-quality service with a smile, for instance. How do you bring these tried-and-true good business tactics to the modern world? You keep the focus on the customer.

Old School Business

Be neighborly. When they talk about the golden old days, everyone waxes poetic about how you could leave your doors unlocked because you knew all your neighbors, and one of those neighbors was the local butcher who always had the best steaks. Bring that sense of community back to your business dealings by creating a friendly, genuine online persona who answers questions and remembers names.

Be authentic. No one likes a phony (especially teenagers named Holden). In the digital landscape, it is very easy to fact-check and gauge someone’s authenticity. If you’re putting a fake smile on your Facebook page but all of your Yelp reviews say that store experiences involved a rude manager, that’s going to harm you. The easiest way to avoid this? Don’t fake it.

The customer is always right. We all know that this bit of advice is taken with a healthy dose of salt, but the idea behind it isn’t wrong. It’s less about the customer being literally correct and more about the way you respond. Don’t blow up online. Say it again with us: don’t blow up online. If you keep a cool head, remain responsive, and make it clear you’re listening and taking comments to heart, you’ll come out ahead. You can’t please everyone, but you can avoid ending up on Mashable as the next big brand meltdown.

Your service should reflect your marketing. If your marketing is selling a product or service that just doesn’t match up, consumers are going to grow wise quickly. Never promise what you can’t deliver. At the end of the day, successful business is all about the product or service, so make sure yours is fantastic.

As you can see, not all of the “old school” rules have to be abandoned. In fact, some are reflective of the kind of business practices that have always appealed to customers. All you have to do is adapt them for the modern world and you’re good to go!

Stephanie Wargin is the Social Media Strategist at Zenergy Works, a web design and SEO company located in Santa Rosa, California. Her friends like to brush her hair into her eyes whenever she talks about Facebook.

It’s Okay to Ask for Help with Internet Marketing

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You may be at the point where you need a little (or a lot of) help with internet marketing. Many people don’t like to admit they’ve reached this point because, for whatever reason, anything done on the internet is still regarded as some combination of easy, unnecessary, or unimportant. This could not possibly be further from the truth.

We could list you off all of the various statistics about modern consumer internet use, but it’s likely you’ve heard it all before, so we’ll spare you. Here’s an infographic illustrating internet usage if you’re interested. Suffice to say that you cannot avoid it any longer. You can’t pretend it doesn’t affect your business and you can’t pretend people aren’t really influenced by what they find online.

Internet_Marketing_Help

 

Let’s break down these misconceptions real quick-like.

Myth: Internet Marketing is Easy

There’s a prevalent attitude that help with internet marketing is an unneeded expense because it’s all a bunch of smoke and mirrors, or posting on Twitter, or bolding the words you want search engines to find. Any teenage kid can do it, right? No. Search engines and other methods of locating you online have become exceedingly advanced. There are a million rules to abide by; dozens of approaches and experiments to test. If you’re not working with someone who knows what they’re doing, it could actively harm your web ranking.

Besides… if this were easy, everyone would be an expert and no one would be struggling to be found online. Sadly, this is not the case.

Myth: Internet Marketing Isn’t Necessary

Yes, it is. If you don’t have a website or are difficult to find online, you are quite literally losing business. Depending on your line of work, it can be anywhere from a few customers to lots of potential new clients. A huge percentage of consumers are now going online first to research businesses, read reviews, and perform a local search for nearby services. This is how people are finding new things to try today. If you’re not paying attention to your online properties, your name won’t be coming up in those searches. Or worse… it’ll come up with a dozen bad reviews you didn’t know you had. The things people say about your business online matter.

Whenever you’re ready to ask for help with internet marketing, you have options available. It’s always best to work with a professional agency or an internal hire that has been vetted through references. If you don’t know much about online marketing, it’s easy to be snowed by fancy buzzwords and someone claiming to be an “expert.” Because internet marketing is still a relatively new field, nearly anyone can claim to be a self-taught guru. References  from clients or previous employers are vital.

Zenergy Works happens to be such a full-service agency, and we provide services ranging from web design to local SEO services. We’re good at what we do, but we hardly expect you to just take our word for it. Give us a call, stop by our offices, or check up on our track record.

Stephanie Wargin is the Social Media Strategist at Zenergy Works, a web design and SEO company located in Santa Rosa, California. Her friends like to brush her hair into her eyes whenever she talks about Facebook.

Website Design Santa Rosa

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website design santa rosa companySeeking Website Design Santa Rosa?

Among the elements that will help you stand out best amid your competition is an intuitive, easy-to-use, visually appealing website design. Santa Rosa businesses are incredibly savvy on this front. As a well-populated Sonoma County city with hundreds of local businesses vying for customer attention, S.R. is a difficult mountain to climb (digitally speaking). When you’re competing against the big chains that have a lot of money to throw at their website, you need to find a way to stand up to the challenge and show the best side of your business to the locals who are looking for it.

When you live in a city as rich in history and color as ours, you almost can’t help but let that color bleed into your business. Even so, it’s amazing how many local businesses give very little thought to their website design. Their website is outdated, missing important information, poorly designed, or even nonexistent (horrors!). This just isn’t acceptable in today’s rapidly evolving online marketplace. It’s no longer optional – you need an alluring web design. Santa Rosa consumers demand it.

Small and local businesses may think they can depend on people stumbling onto or talking up their business to other locals, but they can’t. Not when the vast majority of consumers are going online first to check out their options. If you’re not listed among those options, you could be losing serious business to big-shot national chains or other competitors. You need to have an online presence, and that online presence needs to make people want to get their products and services from you! It’s true what they say: first impressions matter. And one of the best ways to make that first impression a good one? Make sure your website design is attractive, informational, and showcases you in a bright, golden light.

You don’t need to outspend your competition – you just need to find the right partner. If you’re looking for an experienced and innovative Santa Rosa web design company to give your business to, you should definitely consider Zenergy Works. We’ve been working with website design and Internet marketing for wonderful local businesses like yours since before the turn of the century (we never get tired of saying that). Our dedicated team of designers has created websites for everything from chain stores to small start-ups. If you’d like to see some examples of our work, you should check out Friedman’s Home Improvement.

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