Mario Diaz, Author at Enfuse Creative Design

5 Content Marketing Tips You Have to Try

Posted on November 15, 2019November 26, 2019 by Mario Diaz

A study by Microsoft found that people lose attention after 8 seconds—shorter than a goldfish, who loses attention after 9 seconds. It can be hard to market towards people when you have such a short window of time to grab their attention and keep it. What content marketing tips will captivate your audience and keep them coming back?

There are plenty of content marketing guides out there that can get you started, but they can be pretty dense.

Don’t worry though—we’ve got you covered! Read below to check out our easy-to-read list of 5 of the best content marketing tips!

The Five Best Content Marketing Tips

The way you market your content can make or break your brand. With these 5 tips, you can take your content to the next level!

1. Review Your Analytics

Whether you are posting on YouTube or Facebook, it’s important to review your analytics page. Watching how numbers differ from post to post can give you a good idea of what content performs well on your accounts and what you should refrain from posting in the future.

By analyzing numbers, you’ll also learn which of your platforms is most profitable and viewed. If you’re advertising a product more on Facebook but your Instagram has more followers, you’re doing yourself a disservice!

2. Collaborate with Other Creators

One of the best ways to expand your audience is by collaborating with other creators or brands. Not only will you be showing off the fact that your brand is worth the time of other content creators, but your audience will grow as their followers view the joint content!

3. Be Consistent

One thing that really can throw your marketing off is inconsistency. Maintaining consistency is one of the most valuable content marketing tips. You want to have a similar voice whether it’s on your blog or your Twitter account. If you have a large marketing team, make sure you are clear about the voice you are going for.

Deciding what your main goals and talking points should be early on will make this easier. Returning to the same points every post or two can help you maintain consistency.

Your posting schedule should also be consistent. Don’t post a new YouTube video every Tuesday for 3 months straight only to take a month-long hiatus! Your content viewers will lose interest if you’re not consistent with when and how often you post.

4. Know Your Audience

Many brands post content aimlessly and wonder why they can’t retain an audience. Once you build up a bit of a following, analyze the major demographics. Once you know who your audience is, you can modify your content to suit them more.

This is also useful in determining where you should focus your content posts. Does your audience reside mostly on Instagram or Facebook? If a certain platform or type of content isn’t drawing in new viewers or clients, cut it from your agenda.

5. Optimize Your Content

Learning what keywords will bring up your rank in Google’s algorithm is key to making your content reach as many people as possible. Optimizing your content is one of the smartest things you can do to bring in traffic!

If you’ve already done as much as you feel you can with keywords, focus more on semantic search. What information is your audience searching for? Target your content on those questions or phrases.

Applying Marketing Strategies

By applying these content marketing tips, you can elevate your content to the next level. Even making little tweaks to your content, like changing the tone of voice in a caption or what time of day you post it, can completely change the way that it’s received.

Check out the rest of our blog and website for more information on marketing, graphic design, and SEO!

5 Steps for Creating an Effective LinkedIn Marketing Strategy

Posted on November 1, 2019November 26, 2019 by Mario Diaz

LinkedIn has over 500 million members!

It has fast become the go-to place for those who are seeking to employ talent. If you and your company are not represented on this platform then you are definitely missing out. You need to have a LinkedIn marketing strategy.

However, when you decide to get your profile on LinkedIn you have to be strategic about how you manage your page. You will want to avoid newbie mistakes so that you can get the word out about your company.

Here are some tips you will find helpful in achieving your goals.

1. Build a Page

The first thing you will need to do is to create a company page. When you create a company page add a company logo in the profile picture section, this will help with branding your business. Once you have completed that, go ahead and write a description of your company and include your website address.

Insert keywords into your description, this will help your page to be search engine friendly. Make sure you choose your keywords wisely and intertwine them as naturally as possible into your company description.

There will also be areas where you can fill in your company size, location and the year you were founded. All this information will help people to find your profile on LinkedIn.

2. Create Connections

Have each of your employees create a LinkedIn profile. If they have created a profile already then that is even better because they will most likely have connections.

Have all your employees follow your company page and add their position in your company to their profile. Once they have done this their profile will automatically be featured on your company page.

This gives your company more of a chance to be seen by many others based on the connections of your employees.

3. Share Great Content

Perhaps the biggest tip for using LinkedIn successfully is to share actionable content on a regular basis. Once you start writing content that will help people to do their job more effectively then you have a greater chance of showing off your expertise and building brand authority.

When you share good content on a regular basis LinkedIn rewards you for this by placing your content higher in their search results. You can even incorporate YouTube videos on your page. LinkedIn allows them to be played without the user having to go to YouTube.

You should try to post content at least once per day. It doesn’t always have to be your content. Share other interesting things that you find as well.

A Final Look at Creating a LinkedIn Marketing Strategy

Creating an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy requires that you get as many connections as you can. This may seem like hard work but it becomes easier when you leverage what you already have.

Get those who work for your company to connect with you, so that their connections can work for you. Make sure you have a meaningful description that is keyword rich so that you can be found in the search results.

Ensure that you satisfy the need for information by posting relevant content on a consistent basis. if you would like help with marketing your business please visit the marketing section of our website.

The Graphic Design Trends and Styles You Should Be Using Right Now

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Mario Diaz

Did you know that 94% of consumers will leave a website with poor graphic design? That is a staggering percentage of potential customers to lose for any business, but even harsher for small to medium-sized ones.

How can you keep these customers engaged with your content and online properties? The answer is modern, clean, and trendy graphic design.

When growing a business you need to stay on top of the latest graphic design ideas. Here are the graphic design styles and trends you should be using right now.

1. Asymmetrical Layouts

An asymmetrical layout trend in graphic design is making a breakthrough in 2019. These layouts break free from any traditional design grid and flow to their own beat.

Asymmetrical by definition is “having parts which fail to correspond to one another in shape, size, or arrangement; lacking symmetry.” These designs help to portray or evoke a movement or feeling in design that symmetrical layouts don’t exude.

You can still achieve balance in an asymmetrical design, and you should. It takes a careful layout and a creative eye to create compelling asymmetrical graphic design styles.

2. 3D Graphic Design Trends

If you think 3D is just for the movie theater then you need to think again. 3D is one of the hottest graphic design trends today. Consider toying with 3D designs and typography to achieve different moods.

A 3D design will help your product, brand, or ad pop out at your customer. Catching a customer’s eye can be difficult when scrolling through social media, flipping through direct mail or driving past storefronts.

The right graphic design professional can design 3D layouts and creative assets to accentuate your business in all the right ways. No 3D glasses required!

3. Warm Color Palettes

Warm color palettes are welcoming, modern, and sleek. A warm color palette can work with almost any business, product, or campaign.

Vintage hues elicit certain feelings of wistfulness and warmth. These color tones are often seen as timeless and professional. If these traits fit your brand, consider testing out a warm palette in your new graphic designs.

4. Minimalism Paired with Bold Color Choices

If warm hues aren’t your vibe, consider going the opposite direction with bold accent colors. Some businesses and products desire a pop of color to bring their brand to life. Try pairing a bold color with a minimalist design to tap into one of 2019’s graphic design trends.

Pairing a clean visual with a bright color can help you go a long way without the clutter. Less can be more when it comes to design, especially if the chosen colors speak for themselves.

Don’t be afraid to test out bold colors in your designs. Changing colors keep designs fresh and flexible.

Ready to Up Your Graphic Design Styles?

Is graphic design your passion? Probably not, but that’s okay! Enfuse is here with professionals to help. If you’re ready to revamp your business’s graphic design styles we are here to help. Contact us today.

5 SEO Trends to Close out 2019 With

Posted on October 1, 2019October 15, 2019 by Mario Diaz

When you get into the swing of a good SEO campaign, keep your eyes open for things you could improve on.

Using SEO for growth is important, and continuing to grow requires that you keep up with user trends and preferences. We’re going to discuss some areas that you should focus on in 2019.

Things change over time, and what worked last year might not work as we roll into 2020. So, keep an open mind and take in a few of the following ideas.

SEO for Growth: Trends for 2019

Make sure you’ve established a solid groundwork for your SEO campaign before you think about the more specific things. Some of the ideas in this article will be broad, while some will be more particular.

Take each as you can, considering where you’re currently sitting in terms of SEO development.

1. Understand Media Preference

Your demographic likely has a particular sort of media that they enjoy engaging with. Things are polarizing, and different social sites are establishing groups and their preferences in terms of media.

Audio, text, images, video, memes, listicles. These are all forms of content that rise and fall as time moves, and it’s important that you keep up on how your audience is responding to the variety.

Keep a close eye on your Adwords metrics as you put out different forms of media and see which ones work best.

2. Mobile-First

Google is getting increasingly mobile in its approach to search rankings. Google is in the process of shifting toward a mobile-first indexing process, meaning that your mobile sites are the ones that will compete in the SERPS.

This doesn’t mean you can just neglect your desktop pages, but consider beefing up everything mobile on your site.

3. Go In-Depth with Content

Google’s artificial intelligence is increasingly good at noticing the inherent value of content. If your content is uninformative and over-optimized, you aren’t going to see results.

Start seeing the depth of content as a feature of optimization. Good content will be rewarded, as always.

4. Keep Your Reputation Up

As buzz generates around your brand, good or bad, search engines have begun to sniff out how that should affect your search rankings.

Even if a mention of your site is totally separated from your content, Google can use it and factor it into your search rankings. So, if people are speaking highly about you, or about you at all, that will come into play in the SERPS.

5. Don’t Forget Amazon

If you’re a business that sells goods online, you must be present on Amazon. People are migrating to Amazon to handle their shopping before they browse Google in a lot of cases.

This means that the site has become a sort of search engine for online shopping. Keep that in mind and explore your options for optimizing on Amazon.

Need to Beef Up Your Image?

We hope that you can use some of these tips on SEO for growth. Keep in mind that branding and image are coming into play more regularly in terms of search engine algorithms and results.

If you’re in need of a little brand-polishing, check out the services we offer and see how we can help!

Make a Name for Yourself: 5 Brand Development Tips Worth Trying

Posted on September 15, 2019September 17, 2019 by Mario Diaz

Did you know that it takes 10 seconds for people to form an impression about a brand?

If you only have 10 seconds for people to form an impression about your business, then you need to make it a positive one.

With the help of brand development, you can make sure your brand is recognized.

Read on to learn 5 great tips.

1. Who are Your Clients?

One of the first things you need to do when thinking about developing your brand is identifying who your clients are.

As a brand, you know that your product is not for everybody. If you want your business to grow, it’s important to identify your clients early on.

Brands who narrow down their target audience often see faster growth. This is because they can be more specific about their efforts and resources.

Those who have a broader target demographic use up more marketing efforts.

2. Create a Brand Development Strategy

Once you identify who your target audience is, it is time you develop an overall business strategy.

For example, start thinking is you plan to grow it organically. What type of brand do you want?

Where do you want to start? Once you get a broad sense of where you see your brand, you will have a good starting point.

3. Learn More About Your Target Group

The next step in your brand development plan is learning more about your target audience.

You need to understand what their needs and priorities are. Most brands also need to make sure their audience understands their message.

If your target audience doesn’t understand what you’re trying to sell, then you’re doing something wrong.

4. Decide a Marketing Strategy

As you develop your marketing strategy, you need to think about how to send your message loud and clear.

Having a strong marketing strategy ensures the most exposure and visibility. Remember that visibility and reputation go hand in hand.

This means the goal is to increase your visibility at the same time as your reputation. Brands that don’t focus on both at the same time often see disappointing results.

5. Design a Name, Logo, and Tagline

If your business is not new, you don’t have to change your name. However, it would help to change it when the mission of the brand has changed.

New brands don’t have this issue since they can start everything from scratch.

Whatever the position of the brand is, remember the name, logo, and taglines are a way to communicate information about your brand.

Because you want to communicate with your clients, it’s important to do a few test runs to see which logos your audience identifies with the most.

How to Develop a Brand Development Strategy

Now that you know how brand development can help you make a name for yourself, it’s time you put them to the test.

Start by identifying who your clients are, create a brand development strategy, choose a marketing strategy, and design a logo.

Want to learn how to design a website that reflects the identity of your brand, check out this article.

Establish Your Brand: A Quick Guide to Leveraging Promotional Marketing

Posted on September 1, 2019September 17, 2019 by Mario Diaz

Over 627,000 businesses are started each year, making it increasingly difficult to stand out among the crowd. Which explains why so many businesses are consistently looking towards promotional marketing strategies to help draw in new customers.

Still, you may feel intimidated or unsure of where to begin when it comes to these marketing techniques. You’re not alone. Many businesses face the same struggles, but by following some of the tips listed below you’ll find promoting your business is easier than it seems.

Finding the Right Kind of Promotional Marketing

Before we dive into promotional marketing techniques, it’s important to know that every business is unique and therefore every business will get different results from different strategies.

The key is to look towards your data and analytics to learn which methods are truly helping your business and which are not.

We also suggest taking the time to identify your target market. Learn as much about your target market as you can before starting any marketing efforts, as this will help clarify which platforms and content types may be effective.

Hold a Contest

You’ll find that at the heart of every promotional strategy is a strong incentive. People simply won’t give you their time without something in it for them, which is why contests are a great strategy to implement.

Not only can a contest encourage a consumer to buy, but it can also be used as leverage to help them spread the word. Consider a contest that involves social media engagement as part of the fun, but be sure to stay within platform rules.

Post Sale Surveys

Feedback is your best friend when it comes to promotional strategies. Not only does it give you the opportunity to enhance your brand, but it can also bring some clarity on which marketing avenues are working for you.

Consumers also love knowing that you’re taking every opportunity you can to provide them with better value and customer service.

Email Marketing

While many follow the false belief that email marketing is dead, it actually continues to be one of the leading marketing efforts with the strongest ROI.

By taking a bit of time to learn how to craft an enticing email (or hiring someone that does) you’ll find that your emails build strong consumer relationships and can even encourage better brand loyalty.

Turn to the Professionals

The world of marketing and promoting is constantly evolving, taking a good chunk of your time and energy. Which is why many businesses turn to marketing professionals to do the heavy lifting for them.

Whether it’s crafting an annual marketing plan or enhancing your business’s website design, a marketing agency can help you get the exposure you’re looking for.

The Right Team

Having the right team to back you with promotional marketing can make all the difference, especially when working with those that are experienced in helping businesses expand.

If you’re looking to increase your marketing outreach, contact us today to see how we can be of assistance.

Time for a Change: 4 Signs You Need a Logo Redesign

Posted on August 15, 2019July 25, 2019 by Mario Diaz

It takes just 10 seconds for someone to make up their mind about your brand.

If that’s all you get, you better make those 10 seconds count.

When potential customers see your logo for the first time, you need to make a lasting impression. An outdated logo can leave them thinking you’re outdated, too.

If you’re unsure if it’s time for an updated logo, we have you covered. Here are four signs it’s time for a logo redesign. With a new logo, you can make an impact that lasts with customers for a long time to come.

1. You’ve Grown Out of It

Companies change over time. You might add new products or services to your offerings or step into a new industry.

Your company logo should grow as you do. If your tagline, offerings, or even the company name has changed, it’s probably time for a logo redesign.

2. It Breaks the Brand

According to this research, color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.

After a few years, you might decide to update your entire brand with new colors, fonts, and visuals. If your brand is using new visual elements, your logo deserves an update, too.

Otherwise, your marketing materials will start to clash. Customers might even have a difficult time recognizing your company.

The right combination of creative materials can help your entire corporate identity stand out. People are also more likely to recognize a brand that remains consistent across print and digital materials.

Instead of breaking the brand, a logo change can help your entire brand make an impact.

3. New Audiences Are At Play

If you’ve expanded your business, chances are you’re attracting new customers too. In fact, you might choose to target a new demographic.

A logo design can help you attract this new target audience.

Your competition might change, too. If they’re up-to-date with the latest design trends, it can make your logo look behind the times. A logo refresh can tell clients you’re keeping up with the competition.

4. It’s Just Plain Old

If your logo was created in the 80s, a logo redesign can bring you into the 21st century. Otherwise, an old outdated logo tells customers your company hasn’t changed since the Internet was invented.

Design elements develop over time. Your old logo might not work well for a mobile-optimized website or social media platforms. With a logo refresh, you can make sure your logo appears crystal clear on any device.

Remember, this sends a sign to your competitors, too.

A new logo tells everyone you’re stepping forward, whether it’s with a new marketing strategy or fresh offerings.

4 Signs You’re Long Overdue for a Logo Redesign

Take a look at your logo. Then at this list. Now back at your logo.

If you can identify with any of these points, it’s time for a logo redesign… consider making a change. A new logo can help you attract customers with a brand that makes a lasting impact.

Ready to make a change? Let’s get started with your new logo design today!

Hardening WordPress: 5 Tips to Protect Your WP Site

Posted on August 1, 2019July 25, 2019 by Mario Diaz

WordPress is one of the most popular website creation tools out there. Did you know that WordPress runs 34% of the entire internet? Since it’s so popular, hardening WordPress is also important.

Security is the foundation of any website, without it, it could be hacked and taken over. Your information and security could be open to hackers, so it’s important to take measures for protection.

In this article, I will cover 5 tips to protect your site so you don’t have to worry as much!

Read on to discover these 5 tips to secure your site!

1. Hardening WORDPRESS

Did you know a two-step authentication will increase security on your site? That is a great way to make sure you’re the only person who can log in to your site. The way it works is there will be two different components in order to log in; often a code is texted to your phone.

You can download a plugin through WordPress to add this feature!

2. Updating WORDPRESS

According to WordPress.org, updating your WordPress is important because if a security issue is discovered, then the update will protect you from that vulnerability. Keeping older versions will leave your site open to attacks. An attack to your site can result in malicious content being added within your pages, redirects to third party websites, getting locked out of your site and loss of data to name a few. Goes without saying that keeping backups are important!

If you would like help updating and backing up your WordPress, check out our update and backup service. Includes off-site backups!

3. Use SSL to Encrypt Data

Implementing an SSL certificate is a good move to secure your site. An SSL secures data transfer between the server and user browsers. That essentially makes it extremely difficult for a hacker to break in.

You can purchase one from your hosting company or go to a third-party provider if you prefer.

Would you like help with securing your site? Check out our different WordPress security services.

4. Set Strong Passwords for Your Database

Does the thought of thinking up a strong enough password overwhelm you? You’ll want the main database’s password to be strong since it gives access to your entire database. Here’s a great feature that’ll generate a strong password for free!

If you’re creating your password manually remember to use a mix of upper case, numbers, lower case, and special characters. Never make your password something easy to figure out!

5. Protect, Against DDoS Attacks

A DDoS attack is actually pretty common, it’s an attack against your server bandwidth. The attacker uses multiple systems and programs to overload your server.

It doesn’t put your site files in danger but it can crash your site for an extended period of time. There are different solutions out there to combat that.

Next Steps

Hardening WordPress is important so that you can avoid unnecessary hacks into your site. Following these tips will make sure your site is more secure, but of course, there are numerous ways to secure your site.

Check out our blog for more information about topics including site security, marketing, and many more!

9 Exciting Social Media Marketing Trends

Posted on July 15, 2019July 9, 2019 by Mario Diaz

Facebook boasts a record of 2.23 billion monthly active users. And that’s only one of more than five commonly used social media platforms.

Social media platforms are creating novel innovative features. Anyone who wants to remain relevant must align their strategies to every change that comes their way.

This guide will boost your knowledge with the latest social media marketing trends. This knowledge will ensure you gain followers and make sales on your social media platforms.

1. Visuals in Place of Texts

Video content has increased recently with percentages going beyond 200% from previous years.

These new trends in social media need anyone who wants to remain relevant in advertising to shift to using more video content in place of texts.

2. Live Streaming

Live streaming will be worth billions of dollars by 2021. To succeed as a marketer, it leaves one with no choice but to use this powerful tool to engage the audience to build loyalty.

3. Social Media Marketing Trends on Improved Engagements

Now more than ever before, it is no longer possible to ‘cheat’ the system by telling people to like or comment without engaging them. Algorithms are now getting smarter to detect meaningful engagements.

4. Engaging Micro-Influences

While operating a small enterprise, it gets expensive to hire celebrities to influence your brand. Micro-influences who command as small as 3,000 followers will be beneficial as their costs are affordable.

5. Transparency Wins

Social media has led to more accountability for businesses, so transparency is of great concern to develop a brand for your company. Transparency trends require companies to give more behind-the-scenes looks of their businesses.

6. Messaging Apps

Current trends in social media show that messaging apps get used more than social media. Marketers must, thus, use messaging apps for better engagement with their consumers.

7. Creating Niches

Competition on social media is greater than ever before, and it can only grow stiffer. A target audience then becomes necessary to establish oneself in a particular niche. You can even limit yourself to one channel rather than casting your net wider to people who are not interested in your product or service.

8. Sales Enablement

Customers learn about products through social media before making a purchase. This phase of a product is called product discovery. It helps create awareness to prospective customers.

Social media trends show that creating awareness is not enough but the motive is to enable sales.

9. Stories

Trends in social media reveal that more and more people are consuming stories on a daily basis. Hence the need to integrate stories on social platforms.

For an advertiser, story ads can prove to be very useful to push a brand. This is in consideration of the increase in people’s desires to consume stories.

Consider These Current Trends

Small and medium businesses that want to prosper must adhere to the current trends. Social media platforms are always coming up with more innovative features day after day. Succeeding as a marketer requires a business to be proactive towards these changes.

To gain more helpful insights on social media marketing trends, please contact our experts and learn how you can survive as a new business despite the competition.

A Guide to Content Optimization

Posted on July 1, 2019July 9, 2019 by Mario Diaz

More than 40% of online businesses capture revenue through organic traffic.

But before you can start capitalizing off organic traffic, you need to optimize your website.

Content optimization not only helps businesses increase traffic but also improves conversion rates. Your margins will thank you.

Want to know how to start optimizing your online content? Keep reading for the top secrets you need to get started.

Keywords

The #1 most important thing your optimized content should include is a high-quality keyword or two. Gone are the days of over-optimizing posts with keywords stuffed everywhere.

Instead, your keyword should appear:

In the title of the page or post
In at least one heading
In the introduction and the conclusion paragraphs
Sprinkled throughout the body paragraphs

Before you start writing, though, make sure you do your keyword research. One thing to keep in mind is that today’s searches are dominated by the mobile voice search. So make sure your keyword research considers this fact.

Internal Links

Internal links should appear in your content and point Google toward the most important pages on your website.

Often, the most important page is your Services or Products page. Or you may consider your Contact page the most important. There are even some sites that link to specific pieces of blog content they are trying to rank for.

Which page is important doesn’t matter. Just make sure you identify yours and link back to it on your site whenever relevant and possible.

Word Count

Google likes content over 300 words. Google really likes content over 600 words. But if you want your site to rank on the first page of Google search results, you will probably be better off writing 2000 words of content or more.

This word count specifically applies to blog articles and longer form content. After all, it can be difficult to write 2000 words of content on your product pages.

One trick for non-blog content is to look at the pages that are already ranked for your keyword. As long as your content has the same or a larger word count, you are all set to outrank them.

Readability

In today’s online world, people aren’t reading your posts– they’re skimming. That’s why you need to make sure your content is skimmable. Use bolded font, bullet points, numbered lists, and paragraph breaks to add more white space.

Your optimized content should also include videos, images, and graphics. Because if you aren’t, your competition definitely is since 88% of marketers claim they use graphics in more than half of their content.

Another reason to use visuals is that online readers tend to trust information learned from videos than words alone. That means educational videos can help build your brand authority.