Spark Compass - Navigating Marketing: Recent Episodes
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“Stick to the basics and do it very well.”
Did you miss this month’s episode? Or maybe you’re just looking for a short memory refresher? Either way, welcome to the Spark Compass Blog! A place where we summarize the key takeaways from every episode and share some memorable behind the scenes moments.
This month’s episode featured Colton Jung, a Digital Lead Generator working for Launch Lab, who helped us explore all things search engine optimization and search engine marketing!
SEO & SEM – What are they and why do they matter?In a nutshell, SEO (aka search engine optimization) is the act of setting up a website in such a way that Google understands how its content connects with customer search queries. Lots of things play into how Google analyzes the information on your website such as content headers, meta descriptions, and relevant keywords. So understanding how SEO works is critical to the improvement and ranking of your website.
SEM, otherwise known as search engine marketing, is a supporting piece in the process of optimization. When you pay for SEM advertisements, you’re also paying to take up space in Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and other avenues. This can be a great way of ensuring your website gets displayed in front of your target audience.
Colton mentions that a rule of thumb is establishing good SEO before moving into paid SEM. Since an optimized website is the baseline (and potential first point of contact for a consumer) you want to make sure that it can be found organically and has all the content that a consumer might be looking for before you start promoting your site.
First steps when using SEO?Colton suggested two things everyone should know about when first starting out with SEO.
The first is to understand how title tags and meta descriptions work. These are the actual content displayed within a Google search. Since it’s often the first thing people see when a website is displayed, that makes them very important. Title tags let Google and the user know what that website link is all about. The meta description would be the supporting sub-text, a short description outlining what someone can expect to see if they click on your website link. We’ve linked some helpful articles if you want to learn more about title tags and meta descriptions.
The second step is image optimization. In short, this is the process of shrinking the file size of images on your website. This doesn’t affect the look or quality of the image, but it will improve the overall speed of your website. If your website has a slow loading speed, potential customers will return to their Google search results to try again elsewhere.
First steps when using SEM?Once you’re confident that your website will answer any questions potential customers might have about your business, it’s time to consider SEM. When creating paid ads, it’s important that they represent your brand, your competitive landscape, and honestly describe the product/service you’d be promoting.
There’s different layers to SEM but at the core of it, you should always represent your business in a way that is authentic to the brand.
Does SEO give immediate results?No! It’s a common misconception that SEO provides immediate results. SEO is an investment. It’s a long-term strategy that comes to fruition over time and requires habitual input from your end. Colton suggests following the pattern of implementation, analysis, and adjusting.
- Implementation - Launch your website optimizations
- Analysis - Are these changes having the desired effect? Why or why not?
- Adjusting - Tweaking areas that need improvement
SEO isn’t a short-term strategy. It’s a business investment that requires constant monitoring and optimization to keep afloat in the highly competitive search engine environment.
Common SEO/SEM mistakesPart of the learning process is making mistakes. So here’s a list of the top three most common mistakes business owners make when investing in SEO and SEM:
Automatically Generated SEO
- When you use a website like Shopify or Wix, placefiller SEO is generated automatically. While this can be a great starting point, the placefiller isn’t always optimized for your business and won’t have the same result as writing it yourself. Remember that a key part of SEO is authenticity and accurate representation of your brand, and who can create customized content better than the person who knows the business best?
Insufficient or Inaccurate Content
- If you don’t write detailed title tags and meta descriptions, then you run the risk of encountering this common mistake. If your website doesn’t have enough content, Google won’t be able to link it with search queries. If the information you do have is inaccurate or misleading, then you risk not being ranked at all for future searches.
Image Optimization
- As we mentioned in earlier sections, not optimizing your images can drastically slow the loading speed of your website and send visitors back to the Google page.
SEO checklist for first-time usersThroughout our conversation, Colton provided a checklist with four main elements that first-time SEO users should complete before moving on to SEM. The first task is keyword research, which we’ll discuss more in the next section. Since keywords play a massive role in SEO, it deserves an entire section all to itself.
Task number two is to organize your on-page SEO. A simplified explanation of on-page SEO is laying out your website in a way that Google can readily understand. Search engines use formatting to categorize on-page information, so the use of headers and prioritizing information is a must.
Technical SEO is the next item on the checklist. This includes optimizing image sizes, optimizing overall site performance, and more. To learn more about Technical SEO, consider reading this informative guide written by HubSpot. A large part of Technical SEO is also auditing the performance of your website to see where you’re lacking or succeeding in SEO. The guide linked to the previous sentence also talks about auditing your website for Technical SEO.
Keyword research for SEOIf you aren’t sure where to start with researching keywords, there are free tools available to help. Colton suggests starting with Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner, both of which can be used without cost. To use these tools, all you need to do is input a keyword or phrase, and they will auto-generate long-tail keywords. You can use these suggestions to find new and unique ways of implementing keywords that authentically represent your business.
A general rule of thumb for keywords is to use them at least once in the copy of your website content. Keywords should relate to what people are searching for and connect honestly back to your website. The finer art of using keywords is finding ways to use them naturally instead of forcing them into your content. Keywords should be relevant but it’s equally important to find opportunities that don’t compete against massive companies who are already dominating certain keywords.
Keywords play a huge role in search query results, so sprinkling them into title tags and meta descriptions is a great way to link them back to your website content. Just make sure that if you’re promising certain information in your meta descriptions, that information should also be available on your website.
After you’ve implemented your keywords, monitor their performance. Audit their results and keep an eye out for opportunities in adding additional, more effective keywords to the mix.
Summarizing SEO into three points or lessWhen asked to summarize SEO into three key points or less, here’s what Colton had to say:
- Build an organic connection between your website and google search queries
- SEO isn’t a short-term strategy, it needs to be implemented, analyzed, and adjusted
- Don’t get into the weeds, stay focused on title tags, meta descriptions, and keywords
Final words of adviceAs for final words of advice, Colton had two additional points to add for anyone approaching SEO for the very first time. Building blogs is a great way of answering customer questions while also satisfying SEO criteria. Blog posts lead to customers organically finding their business instead of using paid ads to force it to their attention.
The second bit of advice is to spend as much time as you can learning, auditing your competitors, and remembering that SEO is a long game that requires ongoing assessment, input, and modifications.
We’re Spark!Thanks for tuning into yet another episode of Spark Compass!
Are you curious about what search engine optimization can do for your business?
Sign up to start a project customized to the needs of your business today!
“Digital advertising is a toolkit with all these exciting possibilities.”
Did you miss this month’s episode? Or maybe you’re just looking for a short memory refresher? Either way, welcome to the Spark Compass Blog! A place where we summarize the key takeaways from every episode and share some memorable behind the scenes moments.
This month’s episode featured Laura Kittner, a professor in Digital Marketing Communications and Advertising Marketing Communications programs here at St. Lawrence College. She also runs her own agency and is very passionate about her field of work. In this month’s episode, Laura helped us explore all things digital advertising.
What is digital advertising?Initial impressions of digital advertising is that it’s a wild, crazy, and harried world. Despite that (or maybe because of it) digital advertising is also incredibly exciting and rewarding to participate in.
When asked to describe digital advertising, Laura called it a “pay to play” experience. In short, digital advertising typically involves paying to have your message put in front of a particular audience. What sets digital advertising apart from traditional marketing is that it occurs entirely on screen. Websites, social media, email, podcasting, and more all fall into the category of digital advertising.
It’s an accessible and iterative platform that allows you to experiment, pivot, and mold your approach however you’d please. Everyone has an opportunity to participate in digital advertising and see varying forms of success, regardless of budget or experience. Most digital advertising platforms have removed the learning curve by adding intuitive step-by-step guides for its users. By identifying your goals or objectives, these platforms can auto-generate and suggest what your next steps should be.
Digital advertising can be intimidating for people running a small business or who aren’t technologically savvy. Hiring someone in the industry can help make the experience seamless but it isn’t necessary. Fortunately, digital advertising campaigns can always be modified and changed, so you’re never locked into a single decision or approach.
First steps when starting a digital advertising campaignThis is a common theme we’ve been seeing among our guest speakers but once again, a key aspect of starting a digital advertising campaign is knowing about your customers. If you missed it, one of our earliest episodes covers meeting your ideal customer. You can access that episode by clicking here. If you’re in a rush, here’s a summary of the things you should know about your customers to create a successful digital advertising campaign.
- Who are your customers?
- Where are they spending their time online?
- What social media platforms are they using?
- What are they doing while using these platforms?
Understanding your customers, their habits, and their behaviours will also allow you to target which platforms you should be using. One of the worst things you can do is to stretch your efforts across all social media platforms using the same generic content. This isn’t an efficient strategy and it’s also a waste of precious resources, including your time.
So, get to know your audience and you can take things from there.
Types of digital advertisingThere are dozens of different ways a business can use digital advertising. The ones mentioned during our podcast episode include:
Email Marketing
- This method has a low barrier to entry, lets you cultivate your audience, and build brand loyalty with existing customers over time.
Retargeting Ads
- Laura used Patagonia as an example to explain how this type of digital advertising works. Let's say you were on the Patagonia website to look at a fleece jacket. You might have even added it to your cart but never finished making a purchase. Patagonia could launch a retargeting campaign by using digital cookies to have ads for that particular jacket pop up every time you visit a new site or platform. Retargeting ads allow you to subtly nudge your customers into taking a specific action, which is most often making a sale on a product or service.
Video Advertising
- Video is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of advertising available. They can be run on virtually any device, across nearly every platform, and tend to outperform advertisements that are strictly image or text-based.
Search Engine Marketing
- This type relies on search engine queries. Organic search results are free and based on your SEO ranking to display your business in front of a searching customer. There’s also sponsored results which are displayed at the very top of search results. These are paid ads but are reliably shown above organic search results each time.
Choosing the right platform for digital advertisingWhen asking Laura to describe how businesses can choose the right platforms, her immediate response was to be selfish. Consider yourself first to set a base-level understanding of how you can better position your business. For this step, consider things like:
- Your product or service
- How do they help?
- Why do they matter to your customer?
It’s a noisy, crowded, and competitive landscape so you need to be clear about what you’re offering and how it will benefit your customer. This circles back to the importance of knowing your customers, and knowing them well. Again, things to consider include:
- Knowing who your customers are
- Knowing where they spend their time online
- Knowing what they do while online
- What do they value?
- What motivates them?
Fortunately, most platforms are predictive and can generate expected results for your digital advertising campaign but the more information you have about your customers, the more accurate those predictions should be.
A/B TestingThis was a quick topic that came up in conversation with Laura, but we think it’s important to anyone’s understanding of digital advertising and will be covering it in a bit more detail.
A/B Testing is the process of creating an advertisement based on interpretations of what your customers want to see. Then you make small tweaks to the original advertisement to make a second, nearly identical version. Common tweaks for the second ad include:
- Colour
- Imagery
- Wording
- Call to action
Then you run them both and see which performs the best. If they both perform the same, consider taking the best parts of both to create an entirely new ad! If one clearly outperforms the other, then keep the best one running and shut down the other. The possibilities are endless and the results usually speak for themselves.
How to implement digital advertising into marketingThis is broken down into a few key components. They are largely revolved around knowing why your business does what it does, and also knowing who your customers are:
- As a business, what are your goals and objectives?
- What do you want to accomplish with your digital advertising?
- Who are your customers and what do they expect from you?
Digital advertising can be a viable part of any marketing strategy. Depending on how you answered the above questions, digital advertising could play a big or small role in that strategy. Consider what makes the most sense for your business and whether a digital advertising approach will allow you to engage with your audience.
At the end of the day, everything a business does is focused on its consumers. Digital advertising is no different, it just has a clearer focus on the behaviour, activities, and interactions of your customers than other aspects of your business.
Echo ChambersThis was another quick but interesting topic that came up in conversation. Echo Chambers occur when platforms analyze your online behaviour and start showing content that’s similar to what you’ve previously interacted with. They’ll also start showing you paid content based on these analyzed behaviours to increase the odds of you interacting with an ad.
Echo Chambers are aptly named for their tendency to echo back whatever you interact with on social platforms. This creates a content feedback loop intentionally designed to make you stay and use their platform for longer periods of time.
To summarize digital advertising into three points or lessAccessibility
- Digital advertising has a low barrier to entry and can also be low cost to operate.
Noisy
- Anyone can use digital advertising, so it can be a crowded and competitive landscape that makes landing in front of your ideal customer challenging.
Exciting
- It’s a creative, forgiving, and viable tool to advertise your brand in a more humanized fashion.
Final words of wisdom on digital advertisingAs we wrapped up our conversation, Laura left us with three final words of advice for anyone who wants to start implementing digital advertising into their marketing strategy.
- Just start and don’t overthink it
- Start small and expand from there
- Remember why you believed in your product/service in the first place
We’re Spark!Thanks for tuning into yet another episode of Spark Compass!
Are you curious about what digital advertising can do for your business?
Sign up to start a project customized to the needs of your business today!
Did you miss this month’s episode? Or maybe you’re just looking for a short memory refresher? Either way, welcome to the Spark Compass Blog! A place where we summarize the key takeaways from every episode and share some memorable behind the scenes moments.
This month’s episode featured Catherine Colasimone, the Director of Digital Marketing at The Small Social Company, who helped us explore the importance of quality visuals on social media. The Small Social Company works with businesses of all sizes to keep their marketing and media communications in tip top shape. Through her time working with local businesses, Catherine developed an eye for best practices and common challenges when creating social media visuals.
Why do good social media visuals matter?Effective visuals play the leading role when it comes to using social media platforms. It’s a crucial step in establishing your brand, one that quickly allows your audience to consume information about your business. That being said, it’s equally important to understand when and how this information should be shared with your audiences.
In a post-pandemic society, affiliating a face with your business is an easy step towards humanizing your brand. For individuals who can’t visit you directly, or especially if your brand is focused solely on e-commerce, then building that connection early can be critical for your business. Social media provides a convenient platform for highlighting the face behind the brand and connecting with your audience, which is just one of the reasons why good visuals matter.
How do you get started with social media visuals?Photography setups and preferences vary from person to person. For the absolute beginner, Catherine recommends starting with three simple items, one of which is already found in most of our pockets:
- Cellphone
- Tripod
- Ringlight
Mobile tripods and an array of ringlights can be found online at affordable prices. You don’t need to start with break-the-bank levels of expensive gear since the key to this stage is simply getting started. Tripods keep your phone steady and the frame consistent while taking photos or videos. A good ringlight provides even lighting to help product shots look their best with minimal edits. An alternative to buying ringlights is using natural light sources, such as spaces near windows, to take well lit photos.
When it comes to graphics, platforms like Canva make it easy to take and modify templates. That being said, it can also be difficult to stay consistent when there’s so many attractive options available for use. To stay faithful to your branding, Catherine recommends keeping these three things in mind when designing your graphics:
- Start with brand colours and fonts
- Keep your style consistent and authentic
- Create something that resonates with your brand
Starting with brand colours and fonts means you can quickly tell if a template will work for your business. If it doesn’t work then don’t try to force it. It’s okay to not use every template out there. In fact, curating a collection of similar-looking templates is a great way to keep your graphics consistent. Have you branded yourself as a handmade artisanal business? Then using templates focused heavily on technological themes probably isn’t right for you. No matter how cool a template might look, be sure to stay authentic to your business.
What are the no-no’s of social media visuals?There’s no one-size fits all approach to posting on social media. Each platform is distinct from the next in caption length, graphic ratios, audiences, and more. Creating a visual in a single size and expecting it to look great across all platforms isn’t a recipe for success. When creating your visuals, be sure to review the size requirements of each platform and plan accordingly.
You should also consider auditing your audiences on each platform to understand what they’re interested in and why they follow your account. Depending on the answer, your visuals might need to change. So don’t be afraid to ask your audience what they’d like to see from you!
Any final words of wisdom?As we wrapped up our filming session, Catherine offered three tidbits of advice for business owners focused on creating visuals for their social media accounts.
- Start with your end goal and work backwards from there
- Stay true to your brand by producing authentic content
- Be honest about how frequently you can post online
Keeping all of these things in mind will create a more enjoyable experience that stays true to the nature of your business.
We’re Spark!Have questions about social media visuals?
Or maybe you’re curious about photography and videography?
We’d love to have a chat with you so don’t be afraid to reach out and ask!
“Know as much as you can about your customers and don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions. Your customers will tell you what they want but you need to ask and listen.” - Jennifer Baker
Did you miss this month’s episode? Or maybe you’re just looking for a short memory refresher? Either way, welcome to the Spark Compass Blog! A place where we summarize the key takeaways from every episode and share some memorable behind the scenes moments.
This month’s episode featured Jennifer Baker, a part-time professor at St. Lawrence College who also runs her own business surrounding social media strategies and content creation. Jennifer helped us navigate the tricky subject of content creation, it’s importance in marketing, and it’s impact on small businesses.
So, what is content creation?In a nutshell, content creation is a process centered around helping customers through their buyer journey. Unlike traditional marketing, content creation focuses on the fine balance between education, entertainment, and a hard sell. Content creation belongs to digital marketing, which is heavily reliant on social media platforms to host and deliver their messaging.
Most businesses utilize something known as a content mix to diversify their posts and consistently engage their audience. The industry standard ratio for this mix is creating content that provides value to the audience (80%) or that helps sell your product (20%).
There are four main types of content that can be used in a content mix and they are:
- Videos
- Photos
- Blogs
- User-generated content
When struggling to create meaningful content, Jennifer suggested a three step process to help guide the creative process. These steps are:
- Problem: What are the pain points of your audience?
- Solution: How does your product solve that pain point?
- Content: Combine those two answers to create meaningful content!
In the end, how you develop your content mix depends on the analytics and preferences of your audience. If something performs well or fails to perform at all, feel free to adjust and modify your content mix until you find the ratio that works best for your business.
How do trends impact content creation?The answer to this question is that it depends. It depends on whether the trend can provide value to your business and your audience. It depends on whether you have time to participate in every single trend that pops across your social media feeds. Successfully recreating a trend may boost that specific post while it’s still popular. Ultimately, choosing to follow trends is completely up to you.
Developing a process that works best for your businessWhen it comes to planning out your social media content, there are a four helpful tips to keep in mind. Number one is to start simple. Try not to overwhelm yourself by being everywhere at once. Choose the platforms you feel most comfortable with and where you know your audience frequents.
Number two, understand what message you want to convey. Marketers often use content pillars to guide this decision and to keep their content focused on the topics that matter. Sendible has a great article surrounding content pillars for anyone who wants to learn more about them.
Number three is to know that done is better than perfect. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the details but failing to post gives your competitors an advantage and your audience a reason to turn their attention elsewhere.
Finally, tip number four is to be honest. Being vulnerable with strangers is a scary idea but your audience will appreciate the honesty if you provide it. Fell ill and couldn’t package your products for delivery? Let your audience know instead of leaving them to wonder why their order hasn’t shipped yet. That’s just one example of honesty but it happens more often than you might think.
My content isn’t working, what should I do now?The most common reason why content fails is because it doesn’t engage the audience. Wondering why nobody is commenting or liking your posts? Start asking your audience simple, easily answered questions to catch their attention. Putting your customer first can focus these questions and help to build a relationship with your audience.
Another reason why your content is failing could be your choice of language. It’s easy to use industry-specific jargon and even easier to forget that not everyone knows what they mean. Start your content with plain and simple language. Once you’ve established your audience enough to know their preferences, then you can begin to evolve the language you use for your content.
Is there a rule about reusing content?Yes! The unspoken rule of thumb is to repurpose your content by presenting it in a new and interesting way. Reused content should differ from the original in both style and delivery. Do not copy and paste your content. Never ever. Especially when managing different platforms, be mindful to modify reused content to fit the demands of each particular platform.
Media platforms can be compared to different countries with each one more unique than the last. It’s important to understand these differences so you can readily adapt your content and increase your odds of success. Speaking the language of each platform will help algorithms to better understand your content and align it with an interested audience.
To summarize in three points or lessContent creation is all about the customer. Keeping them at the center of your marketing efforts is a key aspect of creating content that your audience will enjoy. If a piece of content won’t educate, entertain, or inspire your audience then it should be deleted. Think quality over quantity.
WE ARE SPARK!Are you curious about how you can meet your best customers? We’re here to help!
Our Ignite Strategy Sessions are a great way for us to analyze your business and offer customized audience personas for all of your marketing needs.
Sounds interesting? Then consider reaching out to start a conversation!
“You can’t be all things to all people.” - Jackie St. Pierre
Did you miss this month’s episode? Or maybe you’re just looking for a short memory refresher? Either way, welcome to the Spark Compass Blog! A place where we summarize the key takeaways from every episode and share some memorable behind the scenes moments.
This month’s episode featured Jackie St. Pierre, a professor at St. Lawrence College with over 20 years of experience in post-secondary education. With previous experience in economic development, fundraising, and business development, she helped us navigate the tricky topic of finding the best fitting social media channels for your business.
Should you be everywhere at once?The short answer is absolutely not! The first thing you need to do is understand where your audience can be found. Are they joining communities on Facebook? Or sharing quick thoughts on Twitter? Maybe they’re curating a colourful feed on Instagram? Figuring out which platforms your audience are using and why are the best first steps you can take when deciding where to establish your brand.
Don’t be afraid to ask your audience where you can find them, either. Strike up casual conversations with your clients or consider sending out a poll to gather their responses.
What’s segmentation got to do with it?If you aren’t familiar with segmentation, consider listening to or reading all about Episode 2: Meeting Your Best Customers with Bill Crowe, where we talk about the best way to segment your audience.
If you’re in a rush, segmentation is the process of grouping your audience together based on similarities in demographic or psychographic information. Ethnicity, religion, age, opinions and attitudes are just some examples of how you can group your audiences into targeted segments.
Jackie suggests also using geographics to segment your audience. If you have a store with no e-commerce channels or delivery options, then you wouldn’t want to target consumers in a whole other country. If, however, you know that tourists who visit your shop come from certain cities then you would include them in your geographic segmentation strategy.
That’s how segmentation plays into things! Once again, it ultimately circles back to understanding your audience and where they are coming from.
How do you maintain authentic representation?It’s easy to think of branding and strategy as separate entities. Successfully incorporating both can introduce unity and cohesion across your media channels. You don’t need to include the entirety of a strategy into your branding, but it is important to include key elements that are foundational to your business.
It’s also important to remember that not everything you do on social media needs to pitch a sale. Include the consumer journey into your posts and messaging. Connection and recognition can go a long way in building brand awareness and loyalty. Consider whether the content you create will hold any meaning for your consumers and if it doesn’t, tweak what you have until it does!
Is there a strategy to establishing your media presence?Build your brand into something that your audience will want to talk about. Create a presence that provides value and engages with its followers. Remember that branding and social media aren’t all about you, it’ll always be the customer who determines success or failure in your efforts. Using segmentation, demographics, and psychographics to create a persona document (essentially a fictional character based off real data) can help you better understand your audience and what interests them.
The best strategy for any brand is the willingness to change ideas and plans. The current social media landscape is never consistent for long and is prone to sudden changes. Making sure your brand can pivot to keep up with these changes can mean the difference between staying current or out of date.
Is there a difference between targeting B2B and B2C?Yes, there is definitely a difference when targeting B2B versus B2C! Social media is a great place to develop your brand and audience but the end goals are liable to change depending on who you target. B2B targeting usually drives traffic to a website to conduct business or prompt a conversation, while B2C can now conduct sales on the social media platforms themselves.
In terms of marketing on social media, you can still tell stories but they’ll differ slightly. For B2B, sharing success stories and numbers can be a great way of catching people's attention. Then for B2C, creating stories based around the journey of your consumers can be an effective means of gaining their attention and trust.
To summarize in three points or less!* Start with a plan * Develop a marketing plan * Integrate across all media platforms
WE ARE SPARK!Are you curious about how good branding can benefit your business? We’re here to help!
Our Ignite Strategy Sessions are a great way for us to analyze your business and offer customized branding recommendations for all of your marketing needs.
Sound interesting? Then consider reaching out to start a conversation!
“A website is a tool.” - Katie Ross
Did you miss this month’s episode? Or maybe you’re just looking for a short memory refresher? Either way, welcome to the Spark Compass Blog! A place where we summarize the key takeaways from every episode and share some memorable behind the scenes moments.
This month’s episode featured Katie Ross, the Director of Business Development currently working for Mellow Brew Marketing, who helped us explore all things website.
Impact of Websites on Marketing You might be wondering what the connection is between a website and your marketing plan. The simple answer is that they often work hand in hand with one another. A website acts as the foundation for how your business is positioned and also serves as an information hub for potential consumers.
Creating an efficient website can positively impact your marketing in the areas of:
- Brand awareness
- Clear messaging
- Strong first impressions
And much, much more!
Benefits of Having a WebsiteNo matter what stage your business is in, it’s almost guaranteed that you can benefit from having a website. If you feel like your marketing has been inconsistent or you aren’t sure where to go with your branding, websites can be a great way of refocusing your attention.
Often serving as a first point of contact with potential clients, websites can help define who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Having this information clearly listed on your website can be helpful for clients and for your own marketing purposes.
While on set, Katie mentioned how we “do business with people we like”. Websites can be a hub for authenticity, consistency, and quality that potential customers look for in a business, boosting you along their qualifying process.
What Style of Website Do You Need?This is a question only you can answer but a good place to start is by understanding what you need your website to do for your business. When considering the style of website you’ll need, ask yourself some functional questions:
- Does your website need to accept payments?
- Will you be scheduling through your website?
- Do you plan on selling products on your website?
By asking yourself what your website needs to do and how it will support your business, finding your ideal website style becomes much easier!
Checklists and ModificationsWhen something isn’t going according to plan, it’s easy to make uninformed changes. The same can be said for an underperforming website. That’s why it’s important to set a strong foundation for your website before publishing it. A quick checklist you can use to guide you during the creation process is:
- Why are you doing what you’re doing?
- How are you doing it?
- Why are you doing it?
If these foundational questions are being answered somewhere on your website, then you’re off to a good start. But let’s say things aren’t going the way you’d hoped and some changes are needed. Everything starts with strategy so it’s important to audit your website before making any modifications. Review elements such as:
- Missing keywords
- Unnecessary text
- Complicated navigation
- Lacking answers to potential search queries
Once you’ve established any areas of change, give yourself time to review any modifications before publishing them. Katie advises stepping away for 60 days to give yourself time to live with the changes before making them permanent.
And remember that when it comes to website content, less is more.
Are There Standardized Web Pages?Yes and no! There’s no set standard to the world of website creation but there are certain pages that most customers have come to expect. These pages often contain valuable information about your business so they’re good to have on your website. These pages are:
- Home page
- About Us page
- Contact Us
Some nice to have but not always necessary pages include:
- Blank QR page
- Business Process page
- Product/Services page
Again, it’s important to consider what your business does and what you need your website to do for you when deciding which pages to include.
To Summarize* Know your audience * Know the purpose of your website * Research website tools to create seamless interactions
We are Spark!Are you curious about how a website can benefit your business? We’re here to help!
Our Ignite Strategy Sessions are a great way for us to analyze your business and offer customized recommendations for all of your website needs.
Sound interesting? Consider reaching out to start a conversation!
On the 5th episode of Spark Compass, we present Storytelling, with Cory Firth. Storytelling is one of the most primitive forms of communication and it’s certainly a way you can make your business stand out and connect with your audience on a deeper level. Cory Firth, a psychedelic storyteller, explains the power of the narrative when creating stories about your brand.
This week's episode features Rob Howard, a Brand Rehabilitation Therapist, who helped us learn what it takes to create a lasting impression with your brand. Join us to learn the key elements needed to create a successful brand for your business!
On our 3rd episode of Spark Compass, Veronica Dogbegah, a User Experience Design Specialist, explains in a casual conversation what UX is. According to Veronica, User Experience is the future! Understanding your customers’ needs, values, and abilities is the key for success. Join us to find out how the user experience will help your company grow even more!
Who is your best customer? Should you have a best customer? In Spark Compass’s second episode, Bill Crowe explains the importance of knowing whom you’re selling to. Join us and meet your ideal customer!
Written by Madyson Kiepprien-Fraser
THE STORYHülpr focuses on the needs of older adults to maintain their dignity and independence. They fill the gap in patient transportation services to provide cost-efficient alternatives to taxis and emergency transportation services. Dedicated to customer-focused details, Hülpr hires individuals with healthcare backgrounds to ensure the safety and comfort of their clients throughout every step of their transportation journey.
Wanting to diversify their services, Hülpr is now seeking to develop a proactive tool with built in prompts and cumulative reward systems. Wishing to fully understand the benefits of this tool for their customers, Hülpr now aims to explore Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to gauge user satisfaction and compliance while warding off adverse events.
Hülpr originally approached Spark for help in user experience. The Spark team started by surveying the older adult population to understand their pain points, motivations, and needs.
THE SOLUTIONTo help older adults maintain their independence at home, it’s important to understand which barriers they are encountering, and what motivates them to keep consistent schedules and communication with loved ones. Spark conducted user experience surveys to gain firsthand knowledge on these experiences and used this information to create a visual representation of their journey. Also known as a user journey map, this visual made it easy to compare the needs of older adults with the services currently offered by Hülpr and other health service providers.
Through Spark, it became known that the key criteria for user success is to identify the correct motivational technique to engage with older adults. This finding will become an important factor as Hülpr moves into future research phases.
THE FINAL PROJECT
Throughout this project, research assignments were run to understand the needs of senior citizens, their relatives, and home care providers. The final version of the Hülpr Buddy project will help senior citizens live independently by automatically sending reminders about medications and meals, and promote social engagement with those around them. The successful implementation of this in-home technology aims to reduce the stress put on retirement homes and minimize the impact of staffing shortages.
The senior’s experience is impacted by the actions of those around them. Spark created informed journey maps to highlight the interactions between seniors, their relatives, and the home care agencies supporting independent living. By understanding these connections, Hülpr aims to create an application that promotes the independence of seniors, reduces the anxiety of relatives, and eases the strain on retirement homes.
THE TESTIMONIAL“This project is dear to the heart of Hülpr and the community hence it was fun brainstorming and finding innovative ways to provide the best experience even before product development. The Hülpr team was very collaborative.”
- Veronica, UX Designer
ABOUT HULPRHülpr is a business prioritizing customer-focused services to ensure the dignity and security of older adults who are living independently. They serve as a bridge between transportation services and aging-in-place technologies to provide impactful services for those who need them the most.
Written by Madyson Kiepprien-Fraser
THE STORYEstablished in 2012, the Memorial Centre Farmers’ Market is now a producer-run group led by volunteers to bring agricultural, artisanal, and ready-to-eat products directly to local consumers. They pride themselves on providing products produced within 100km of their marketplace to the Kingston community and surrounding areas.
The Memorial Center Farmers’ Market set an efficient approach to supporting local farmers and artisans but by comparison, their approach to branding has never found its stride. They changed logo designs numerous times but were finally ready to invest in one that better represents their marketplace.
For their 10-year anniversary, the Memorial Centre Farmers’ Market wanted to update their branding. Their logo was outdated and none of the vendors held any attachment towards the design, but they did like the beet icon. They asked Spark to create new branding that celebrates their history and appeals to their target audience.
THE SOLUTIONMembers of the Spark team conducted industry and market research to understand design requirements before developing a new logo. Inspiration was taken from Canadian farmer markets in their choice of form language and the sentiment evoked by their chosen imagery. Analytics and postalcode data was used to understand the habits and preferences of the target audience in what imagery they interact with most frequently. Ultimately, Spark illustrated unique graphics to be used in the creation of a new logo design. The final design stands apart from others in the industry and will better catch the attention of the target audience.
THE FINAL PROJECT
On the left is the original Memorial Centre Farmers’ Market logo. The version on the right is the final product made from a compilation of research, creativity, and client feedback. The image of a beet was incorporated into the final logo as a nod to the history of the marketplace and the evolution of their logo design.
THE RESULTSAs a result of Spark creating a new brand identity for the Memorial Centre Farmers’ Market, they have been provided with a memorable logo that celebrates their ten years of business. Since this logo was founded off industry and consumer research, it should be a timeless addition to the markets’ history. The rebranding also provided the opportunity to create branded social media content celebrating and promoting the 10-year anniversary of the marketplace.
THE TESTIMONIAL“I had a great time using my creativity and knowledge of the Memorial Centre Farmers’ Market to establish a new look and feel for the brand. This was my first time creating a professional logo for a real client and not a group assignment, so I gained a lot from the process of client feedback and implementation.”
- Amanda Moraal, Graphic Designer
UX Design UX design stands for User Experience Design. It is what your users see when they visit your website. And it’s everything from where the menu is located to which images you decide to use. You may not think these are important, but your website - your online presence - is the first impression your users will have of you and your business. Therefore, a well designed interface can go a long way.
Why it’s more important now than everUX design. It’s been propelled to the forefront of businesses and marketing due to the covid pandemic. Since we could no longer visit our favourite shops in person, we switched to visiting them online. The pandemic pushed everyone out of their comfort zones, but gave them no directions on what to do next or how to do it.
Many businesses had to adjust their business model and incorporate digital features like e-commerce as well as social media and email marketing over traditional marketing formats. One example of this, in the past, is when Spotify tested a lighter version of their theme over the dark one. But the people spoke and the majority vote favoured the dark theme we are all so familiar with now. UX design is why Apple hasn’t changed the basic shape of their logo since 1977. It’s why Canva updated its Terms and Policies because users didn’t want to have to dig through legal jargon to get to the answer they wanted.
Think of your favourite website even, maybe it’s for a shoe store, or a bookstore, or even your own website. Consider for a moment why it’s your favourite. Is it user friendly? Is it the visual design? Is it because the information you look for is easy to find and understand? No matter your answer, It’s due to the integration or adoption of good UX design principles. UX design and it’s key principles because consumers are what drive good UX design forward.
The Purchase Journey Not convinced? Consider the purchase journey. The average consumer goes through what is called the purchase journey when making a decision to buy a product. It can be shown through the Mckinsey Customer Purchase Journey.
This journey is used to understand how the average consumer makes their buying decisions, and how it is essential to have a well designed interface that makes it easy for people to buy your products or services through your website. And good UX design helps push consumers through this process.
What Now?There are some general best practices when it comes to UX design that all businesses should keep in mind when designing their website.
Start with the following tips:
- Well placed business logo - typically centered or left-aligned at the top of the page
- Easy site navigation, optimized for mobile use - keep your menu clear and concise
- User-friendly colour palettes - don’t overwhelm users with a crowded and busy website, stick with a few colours that complement each other
- Contact information and links to all social media - users need to know where and how to contact you quickly and easily
These tips can be applied by integrating some of the following (and it’ll boost your credibility):
- Customer reviews, ratings and testimonials
- Using colour palettes that are associated with positive emotions
- Features of awards and press articles
- Industry related content such as blogs and opinion articles
- Features of safety for online shopping experience
Switching from an offline business to an online one has its challenges, but it doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. Spark now offers UX design services, so along with our team of marketers, writers, and graphic designers, we can make your website not only function efficiently, but look amazing.
Let us know if these tips worked for you, or leave a comment below if you have any of your own!
Haven’t you heard? Facebook is rebranding itself to Meta. Let’s take a look at how this came about, and what it means going forward.
Facebook Under Scrutiny
In the past few months Facebook has faced a lot of negative publicity and have come under scrutiny for their business ethics. Whether in response to this or not, Facebook has opted to rebrand itself.
This strategic move is reminiscent of Google in 2015. Google rebranded to Alphabet and created a new structure consisting of a new parent company and stock ticker. With Facebook now rebranding, it seems to be a move meant to expand its legacy portfolio, just as Google did.
The Metaverse
The name Meta is linked to the metaverse. In other words, it is the new iteration of the internet that now includes virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), among other things.
As Aaron Goldman, Chief Marketing Officer at Mediaocean, said, “Meta represents the future not only for Facebook but for marketing. Just like with mobile over a decade ago, the metaverse represents the next massive opportunity for brands to engage consumers in new ways.”
And Facebook seems to be leveraging this new opportunity early on by framing their rebrand entirely around the concept of the metaverse.
But what does all this mean for businesses, marketers, and even consumers?
What This Means
Dave Kelly, CEO and founder of AnalyticsIQ, notes that “for marketers and advertisers, this [makes it more important to have] rich data [that provides] insight into not only who people are and what they do, but also - and perhaps most importantly - the ‘why’ driving their decisions.”
He goes on to add, “The Meta brand represents a need to leverage predictive and contextual audiences rooted in cognitive psychology that go beyond age and gender and speak to the hearts and minds of individuals in order to invoke a response.”
Facebook has had to pivot many times. As new social media platforms continue to emerge and grow in popularity, Facebook has done everything it can to keep its competitive edge, especially with the rise of TikTok.
Now, with Meta, Facebook is pivoting yet again to broaden the scope of their business and return back to their original why that will hopefully steer their decisions in a better direction.
Going Forward
The world of technology is constantly changing. Facebook may be the first to rebrand, or reposition, but it likely won’t be the last as other businesses continue to compete within the new metaverse.
But what about small businesses? What can they do?
The metaverse is a vast, yet to be defined, concept whose foundation relies on the advancement of technology - and businesses of any size can begin to define it and set its standards.
But you don’t have to do it alone.
Spark is a creative communications agency that offers various marketing services to help you and your business build a solid foundation and take the next step into entrepreneurship. From social media management to web design, to video production and more, the team at Spark will be that extra set of eyes you’ve been looking for.
A dazzling 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. Additionally, 75% of users never scroll past the first result page. With so much importance placed on that first search page, why wouldn't you want to have your site rank high?
Images have a huge value to a website's appeal and aesthetic. Although they are important for user experience, images are also important when improving a site’s on and off page SEO.
- Images give search engines important contextual information when analyzing your content.
- Optimized images speed up page loading, which increases engagement and SERP ranking.
- Quality images can be shared to increase brand awareness and inbound links.
Image optimization is the process of creating and delivering high-quality images in the ideal format, size, and resolution to increase user engagement. It also involves accurately labelling images so search engine crawlers can read them and understand page context.
Benefits of Optimizing Images Increased SERP RankingThe speed of a website might seem small and unimportant but when it comes to the ranking of your site on Google's SERP, site speed is tested and considered for accessibility and user experience. Because of this, websites with optimized media will load pages faster and are therefore assumed to be better experiences and in turn, ranked higher. See if your site is up to par and test the speed for free with Google’s Page Speed Insights.
Alt tags are essential descriptions added to images that allow for search engines to interpret and organize those files. Including Alt tags in images will increase the SEO rating for a site as well as position the site’s image in another possible.
Increased Engagement Focusing on user experience, the speed of your site has a direct correlation to the level of engagement, page views, and viewer bounce rate. Testing the average bounce rate of customers almost 10% of people left after just 2 seconds of waiting for a page to load. In essence, people got bored and tune out waiting for your page to load.
Here are 4 simple steps to optimizing images and improving your site’s SEO.
Step 1: Resize Your ImagesWhat’s The Difference between Image Size and File Size?Image size refers to the dimensions of the file (e.g 640 x 840 pixels) and file size refers to the amount of space needed to store it on the server (e.g 220.5 MB).
How Do I Choose the Right Compression Rate?It is important to consider keeping each page on your site around 1-2 MB in total weight depending on the content. This is to ensure each page loads quickly and does not bounce the viewer. With that in mind compressing images is a finicky task. If you compress an image too much, the file size is small but the image quality is poor. On the other hand, when you use a low compression rate, the image quality is high but the file size is too big.
No Compression - Large File (590 KB)
Medium Compression - Medium File (151 KB)
High Compression - Small File (68 KB)
High Compression
Medium Compression
No Compression
Lossy vs Lossless CompressionCompressing an image, in essence, takes an image’s pixels and reduces or removes redundancies / extra information. In doing this there are two forms of compression called lossy and lossless.
Just like they sound, lossy compression removes and gets rid of that extra or “redundant” information, leaving only the shrunken file in its new form. When lossy compressed files are uncompressed the images no longer have their full information although this can not always be easily seen. Lossless compression reduces image size but stores the information and does not remove it. When lossless compressed files are uncompressed the original information remains intact.
Tools You Can UseFinding the correct compression rate will take trial and error, compressing and testing to see if the image quality is a happy medium of quality and small size. This struggle can be aided with the help of photo editing tools such as Photoshop or many other free use tools as seen below or in this blog post.
Free to use Image Compression/ Optimization Tools
Pixlr (JPEG optimization) Kraken (bulk compression)
JPEG Optimizer Optimizilla (JPEG/ PNG compression)
ImageRecycle (Wordpress/ Shopify Linked)
Step 2: Choose The Right File FormatEnsure you pick the right file format. PNG, JPEG, and GIF are all popular. Each has its benefits and here is a link explaining each strength and weakness. I recommend JPEG for images with lots of colour and PNG for simple images.
PNGPNG stands for “Portable Graphics Format”. As is stated, this form of the file type is best suited for graphics or screenshots. It’s the most commonly used image format that supports lossless compression by default. It’s a great choice for line drawings, text, and iconic graphics at small file sizes. PNGs also have something called the alpha channel. This means that these files with transparency have the ability to blend smoothly with websites and use them on various platforms.
JPEG or JPGJPG is a lossy compressed file format. Basically JPEG takes an image and attempts to make the file size smaller by reducing detail in the image. The image could just be reduced to a pixelated mess but JPEG seeks a compromise: smaller file size, which keeps the image quality as high as possible. Because of this JPEG's have become the standard compressed image format and are typically used solely with images and not graphics.
GIFGIF files use lossless compression and are palette based files that support limited colours. Because of this GIF files store image information as one of its 256 indexed colours. This limitation in colour varieties means that GIF files are not best suited for colourful images and tend to have a grainy style. GIFS are best used for buttons and banners on websites as these graphics usually have simple and undetailed content where GIF thrives.
Step 3: Use ALT TagsThey say a picture is worth a thousand words, but Google and other search engines site scanners are not able to make sense of the pixelated madness we call images. Without alternative text (ALT text/ tags), it’s impossible for search engines to accurately organize and index your image content. Alt-text is written descriptions embedded in files that identify the contents of an image or graphic. A good alt tag provides context and helps visually impaired users as well.
For your image descriptions use full sentences and avoid point form tags as search engines read and interpret the content. This is an ideal time to incorporate Keywords or LSI Keywords that could help draw organic traffic from Google Images or other image searches.
Step 4: Optimize Image Title & File NamesFile Name Choosing the right file name is important for your page SEO and for ranking in image search results. Before uploading any image, name the file with relevant, descriptive keywords to get the most SEO power. This is a great time to use the various identified keywords to create the most ideal and popular file names. File names should make sense to both search engines and humans. For example, the original name for an SEO infographic on image compression was “Image.jpg.” To improve the optimization of this name rename it with a clear and more descriptive title such as “SEO-image-compression.jpg.
Image Title The image titles are less important for SEO but will benefit users when differentiating between various choices. Concise and direct titles are more effective and should include your primary and related keyword(s). Consider adding a brief call to action on appropriate images such as “buy now” or “download today.”
Create and ConquerUsing these 4 steps you are now ready to optimize all your images for SEO. By identifying the required file type, level of compression needed, as well embedding popular keywords into your filename and alt text description every image on your site will help to boost SEO ranking and drive organic traffic to your site
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In the world of recurring revenue and corporate social responsibility, new and innovative ideas are like gold. Ricardo Giuliani, one of Spark’s founders, was lucky enough to strike gold and has recently launched a new business based on these industry trends. Dog Tales is a subscription-based service providing recurring refills of poop bags for pet owners while donating 50% of net profits to local humane societies.
2020 has arrived and with it will come new changes to the world of marketing. Here at Spark we are always looking ahead so we decided to share some of our top 5 trend predictions for 2020.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year again and it’s also a great time to be in marketing. Snow is falling, wallets are opening, and people are shopping. This could be a great time for your business to launch a holiday marketing campaign. Here are 4 tips for making your business’s holiday campaign this season.
A key aspect of running a business is knowing where you want to go and how you’re going to get there, but still setting realistic, measurable goals can be tricky. Here are seven steps you can take to start setting and achieving your realistic business goals.
We’ve all experienced it one way or another - the defeating feeling of not knowing what to do next. If you’re writing a book or trying to produce a beat, there will be a moment or a two when you have to stop and take a breather. Your head feels like you can’t possibly think anymore and you’re officially mentally exhausted; You’ve hit a wall and we’re here to help.
Change is exciting, but it can also be terrifying. Rebranding can be an exciting and terrifying pursuit that can rejuvenate your business and expand your reach. But how do you effectively change without betraying the loyalty of your current customers? How do you rebrand without losing the essence of your business? When contemplating a rebrand, it is important to plan, research and always communicate with your customers.
How valuable are your customers to your business? Do they know how valuable they are? If not, you should make the effort to show them. Your customers determine the success of your business and a loyal customer is an irreplaceable asset. Here are 5 easy ways to show your customers you care.
Your video looks great, and now all that’s left is colour correcting. If you have two monitors, you will notice that even though the colour is accurate on one screen, it doesn’t mean it will be just as accurate when it’s on your friend’s computer, your boss’ tablet - basically, any device that’s not the computer you are currently using.
User-generated content (UGC) is essentially using unpaid content from consumers with their approval. It can be pictures, videos, testimonials, tweets, blog posts, etc. It’s the act of users promoting a brand rather than the brand itself. This can be as simple as Starbucks reposting a photo to their Instagram that a customer took earlier that day.
If you’re noticing that days seem longer, you’re always tired, irritated, not eating properly, and not able to think clearly, it’s possible that you’re under too much stress. Without realizing it, your stress could be starting to build up and cause issues worse than what you’re already experiencing. If left to grow, stress can cause acne, increased anxiety/anxiety attacks, and even depression.
You’re covering an event and doing your job, however, you’re finding it difficult when working around others attending/coordinating the event. That leaves us with the question, how can you efficiently do your job without getting in the way of those around you?
The differences in the world at the time we were being raised is evident when working with others. We have different norms, preferences, and opinions. This is why investing time in researching how other generations work can help you and your business.
Video is currently one of the most trending creative marketing mediums. Videos offer endless possibilities to not only promote your business but connect with your audience as well. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are making it easier to share video content in new and innovative ways. This trending medium is reshaping the marketing landscape and pushing the boundaries of selling online. But with the current over saturation of video content, how can your business stand out from the crowd?
Drop shipping is a great option for people with no e-commerce experience. It’s simple, low-cost and easy. This business model allows retailers to skip the inventory issues by connecting them with suppliers all over the world who ship products directly from their warehouse to your consumer’s doorstep, giving you a percentage of the profit.
How many of us have abandoned a new year’s resolution? Probably the majority. And who should we blame? Ourselves. We set ourselves up for failure by being unrealistic. So let’s make a resolution to turn our unrealistic dreams into attainable business goals in 2019.
Do you want your business to make a good first impression? If so, you should take a look at your website from the user’s perspective. A company’s website is often the first thing a potential customer sees regarding a brand. It is essential that businesses create a visually appealing and user-friendly site that engages their target.
When you talk about typography, most people picture how copy is laid out on a page, how your eye flows through said copy, or just simple hierarchy. It is much more than that, though, as designers have been slowly twisting the rules on how type can be used in art.
There are many people out there - professionals included - who don’t know how to write a proper email. You can turn in the most beautifully written reports or perfectly designed graphics, but can still fall short when it comes to email writing. Don’t fret. We are going to take you through each step of writing an email so that when you’re done reading, you will be a master at them!
Workplace culture. Such a popular term. What exactly is workplace culture, though? Why is it so important? And, how can it be attained, modified, and changed?
Thanks in part to Mr. Zuckerberg and the 87 million people whose data was breached, our minds have been enlightened to the fact that our personal information isn’t protected just because someone tells us it is. We’ve researched some hidden settings that you may not know about that will ensure your information is kept a secret, even if you’re not uploading it to the world wide web.
In order to run a Facebook business page, you need to have a personal one. This means that those who begin following your page can easily find you, and find out everything about you that you have chosen to keep public - even that picture of Michael Weatherly brushing his teeth you shared publicly ten years ago pops to the top of the list (make sure you check your profile share settings, you’d be surprised what might still be public).
On Saturday, August 4, 2018 our team raised over $800 for the Kingston Humane Society (KHS) by hosting a car wash at The Goodway Thrift Store! The proceeds from the fundraiser will help provide health care, food and shelter to keep Kingston’s animals happy and healthy for as long as it takes to find them forever homes.
Your presence on social media is booming and you’re finally getting engagement from your audience on your posts. But with this success and positive vibes online, you’ve noticed that a few of your followers have left some less than flattering engagement on your posts. These could be customers, people who have interacted with you online, someone whom you’ve never seen before or spambots.
If you’ve ever run a business, or even had a yard sale, you’ve probably heard of or utilized the art of marketing.
Marketing is a major topic for businesses as it’s a vital part of any organization’s success. In fact, many consider marketing to be the backbone of a company or the oil that keeps operations running smoothly. Despite that, there’s still an air of confusion surrounding such an important part of business - and the questions keep coming.
“Should I be broadcasting my brand on social media?”
It’s a complicated question, isn’t it? One that every existing, matured, or budding business is asking themselves. In the age of technology, it seems like social media marketing is the “be all and end all” of a campaign, and that things like viral videos and shares are the only drivers to your brand’s level of awareness and success.
A couple weeks ago, Instagram released IGTV, a new online video hub that allows the average Instagram user to upload and share video content that’s up to 10 minutes long (up to an hour if you’re one of their favourite people), which is a much bigger spectrum from the 15-30 seconds we are accustomed to.
Having goals as part of your business strategy is important when it comes to planning expenses, making revenue projections, and keeping sales records, but there are still organizations that don’t set goals for their team.
With the season changing, it’s inevitable that there will be some changes in your business and in your personal lifestyle. You might be wanting to take some time off to vacation, your business may be changing in preparation for the new season or new hires, and even your family might be going through some changes.
We miss those school aged days, where we always knew we would have every evening, weekend, and summer off. As adults, our lives are so busy with work, family, and community involvement, that our summers seem to fly by before we even have a chance to dip our toes in the water.
Do you feel productive when you get to the office every morning? You place your keys and coffee on your desk and sit down, unsure of what exactly you should start on even though you know you have a plethora of tasks waiting for your brain to get into action.
Instagram has been making a lot of changes lately. Some for the better and some have been getting some serious backlash. The social media platform is making it harder and harder to get your posts seen by your audience. When you post to Instagram, your post is only seen by 10% of your followers. If that post does well with that 10%, it will then be shown to the other 90%. Seems a little unfair doesn’t it?
Millennials splash through that stereotype with a new one of their own, a burst of colourful personalities wanting the most out of life in the shortest amount of time. Unlike our parents, we know what we love and if we don’t get it or see it in the market, we’ll build it ourselves -- and then sell it online to a waiting audience of millions.
Employee orientations, if done properly, can be what makes your new hires come back for day two. If done improperly, you could lose someone who could have been a valuable part of your company’s team. It’s a day that should have a good deal of planning beforehand to make it a great day where new employees will feel welcomed, eased, and ready to start the next chapter of their lives.
With tuition costs at their highest, many students work part-time (or even full-time) while in school to cover living expenses and costs associated with being a student. It can be tough for students to juggle both a job and school work, especially when there is financial stress. There are numerous jobs available at St. Lawrence College through the summer as well as during the school year; at Spark, we believe working on campus is a great option for students for many reasons.
You’re in the recruitment process and you’ve made the wise decision, that to make your business the best it can be, you need the leadership and devotion that comes with hiring millennials. Sometimes it can be a little difficult to find and hire educated, skilled youth.
I am a Google addict. Every time I have a question, I ask Google first. Here at Spark when we can’t remember the lyrics to a Moana song or are in a disagreement on how old Celine Dion really is, we “Google it”. Google knows the answer to everything. Why use our brains to remember things, when our phones remember everything for us?
It sounds like an excuse for laziness or low quality work, but it’s actually some solid advice. If you can, you should always push your work to be the best it can be, but without a deadline, many creatives may feel like their work always needs improvement.
One of typography’s greatest creations is the ampersand. A beautifully crafted logogram that originally came about as a ligature from the Latin term “et”, which means “and”. The idea was to put those two letters together, “e” and “t”, to form this elegantly constructed piece of art.
You’d expect to apply for jobs the old fashioned way, in newspapers and on job boards, but some companies have gotten creative in how they recruit new hires. Being able to be successful at finding a job, when technology is changing, requires more than just your education and how you answer questions in the interview. Some companies try and find the applicants who can go beyond those questions and prove that they have the creativeness and soft skills needed for their business.
Every day when I get home from work, I walk up to my mail box, take the flyers out (I do save the McDonald’s coupons) and immediately toss them into the recycling bin outside my front door. I already know I am not the only one who does this.
What is “influencer marketing?” It is somewhere in between subtle product placement and a product testimonial. AJ Agrawal explained it best in his Forbes article, Why Influencer Marketing Will Explode in 2017.
At Spark, we value each of our members own unique talents, personalities, and abilities. We believe that we are stronger because of our diversity. When it comes to staying motivated in the workplace, we tend to keep each other going, but we also have our own ways of staying on top of tasks and keeping our mind clear of any distractions.
Here’s the thing, though. Team building is essential to all businesses, whether you have 3 or 3000 employees. Not only does it boost company morale, it helps us understand each other’s personalities better, which leads to more effective teamwork. Plus, it can just be plain fun!
Productivity of a business is directly related to the happiness of its employees, in fact studies have shown productivity going up by 12% when employee happiness becomes an important part of the workplace.A lot of workplace happiness comes from team and business culture.
The busy season is upon us. If you’re a small business, it may be a little daunting to think of trying to compete with the big box stores. You’re in luck though. People actually do like shopping locally, especially in Kingston.
Now both a thing of history and memories, it may be difficult to find hard copies of the oldest Eaton and Sears catalogues, but Google is packed full of some charming and sometimes hilarious advertisements that worked back in the early 20th century (and still would work for many of us today).
Inbound marketing is the ability for businesses to bring in business prospects by offering them interesting content before they even become a customer or client. A relationship is built quickly on trust and knowledge. Blog posts and business articles, as well as even social media content, are great ways to effectively give content to your audience, gain their business, without initially having to sell them anything.
You may have been that student in art class who handed in a pink blob that was supposed to be a flower, while your classmate handed in the next Picasso. Were you put off from then on, thinking you didn’t have “creativity” so why should you try?
If your brand lacks a voice and personality, it will be hard for your customers to differentiate you from competitors and connect with you on a personal level. Just like you have your own personality, your brand should too!
You’ve started a business and now have the difficult task of creating a logo and slogan that will go with it perfectly. This can be a time consuming task, but it can be a little easier if you know how to start. We’ve got some ideas to help you.
Okay, you’ve successfully prospected a potential client for your business. You’ve set up a time to meet and have a few days to get ready. What should you be doing to prepare and how should you present yourself? It takes practice to get comfortable with selling yourself or your business, but we’ve compiled a shortlist of tips that will make it a little easier.
The strongest skill developed while attending St. Lawrence College, other than how to manage about a dozen important and equally stressful things at once, is an ability to network effectively and properly. At the School of Business, the importance of networking is an integral part of finding your dream career after graduation.
With a large concentration of small businesses in the Kingston area, there must be something in the water that’s keeping them afloat. Businesses pop up faster than they diminish, and we welcome them with open, curious arms.
A strategic way to start a following and to create loyalty from your customers is to make a presence for yourself in the community. You can gain recognition of your brand just by becoming an active part of the municipality where your business resides.
With the video production industry changing so fast, like the rest of the world, there are some things that I think you should know, that I wish someone had told me.
Producing a video from start to finish is a long process with many steps along the way. There’s plenty of room to make errors, especially when you’re first starting out. Here are some of the many things overlooked and common errors made when producing a video. And yes, we’ve made many of them.
Do you ever feel like your videos might be lacking something? Capturing your footage is honestly only the half of it – and in order for your video to have that “wow factor” that your audience is looking for, post-production is a crucial step in the process.
When it comes to recording videos for your business, it’s possible to build a stronger trust from your clients and a more interested customer base by giving them an insightful look into your business ventures with creative, well-made video content.
When the marketplace is more competitive than ever and getting the attention of your audience takes more than a few carefully crafted videos, images and blog posts, how do you create effective content when it seems like everything has been done before?
With Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods (there are 13 locations in Canada) for almost $14 billion dollars, the future of grocery shopping is bound to bounce onto a new level; a new terrain that no one could imagine technology embracing. No one except Amazon.
Since the Instagram story function came out last year, many brands and businesses have been using it to their advantage. Whether you’re a creative agency or a retail brand, stories can be a great way to build up your online presence and create connections with those who already follow you.
Back in 2015, Facebook changed the format of its News Feed, stating, “as more people and Pages are posting content, competition to appear in News Feeds has increased. All of this means that Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.”
You may be missing out on a larger audience that could be contacting you this very moment. Awareness of the need for online accessibility on websites is increasing, and the Canadian government has made the move to update its accessibility laws to include the online content of large organizations.
Gone are the years that a simple website - everything condensed into one page with funky word art and neon highlighter colours - was enough to keep your business operating. You didn’t even need a website to be successful; the internet was more for individual pleasure than for business.
Before you can start pulling in clients to your website, you first need to have a domain name. This can be one of the most difficult parts of putting your business online. Of course, you need to have it related to your business and something that people will remember.
With a new version of the Safari browser being released this fall, Apple has announced many new features that will be introduced along with it - one of those being intelligent tracking prevention.
If you haven’t been taking strides to make your website more mobile friendly, you’ve probably lost out on a good group of visitors who will choose a competitor who has, especially if you have one of the sites that restricts access for mobile users.