Tag: Growth

To help you choose the right branding partner, we reviewed 39 of the best branding agencies. We then narrowed that list to the top 11 by analyzing their areas of expertise, adaptability, post-project support, communication styles, creativity, and portfolio.

Our comprehensive methodology, extensive research, and vigorous elimination process ensures that every agency we recommend is a rock-solid partner for your next branding project.

As long as you choose a company on our list, you’ll be in good hands.

The Best Branding Agencies of 2023: Our Top Picks

Companies that made the cut: Anagrama, Cohere, DesignStudio, FutureBrand, Interbrand, Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR), Landor & Fitch, Pentagram, Prophet,  Siegel+Gale, Wolff Olins

All of them can help you transform, reinvent, or discover your brand. However, a few companies rose to the top of our list: 

Below, you’ll find a review of all 11 agencies, who should use each, an explanation of our methodology, and frequently asked questions. 

Branding Agencies vs. Other Service Providers

Branding agencies focus on developing and maintaining a cohesive brand identity for your company. They specialize in crafting a consistent message, tone, and visual style that represents and speaks for your business. Key services offered by branding agencies include:

• Brand strategy development
• Visual identity design (logo, color palette, typography, etc.)
• Brand messaging and positioning
• Brand guidelines and style guides

However, branding agencies aren’t the only service providers that offer creative marketing and visual solutions for businesses. Another type of creative agency might be better for you, depending on what you need.  

If a new website is in order or you want to refresh an existing site, a web design agency or web development agency is likely the best choice for you.

Social media agencies are best if you need help managing your social presence, engaging with…

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My parents like to tell a story from my childhood. When I was a toddler they would put me in the backseat of the car in a child’s car seat when they would take me somewhere like to the store or to a friend’s house. When we would drive down the highway, I would see golden arches through the car window and yell, “Donald’s!”

Now, I was only two or three years old at the time. I wasn’t old enough to read. I could barely see high enough to see through the car window. But when I saw those arches it meant something to me.

My parents would sometimes take me to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal. I would associate the burger and fries with the golden arches.

That is branding.

A brand is anything—a symbol, design, name, sound, reputation, emotion, employees, tone, and much more—that separates one thing from another. In the case of McDonald’s, the golden arches became part of the brand. Those arches separate their product from all other fast food restaurants and they’re a recognizable symbol even with kids.

Level Up Your Personal Branding With Your Own Website or Blog

Branding on a business-level is common, but today branding is becoming just as important on a personal level. After all, you might work for a business that works with other businesses, but it’s people working with people and that’s what makes business relationships valuable.

Why should you build your personal brand?

Building a recognizable personal brand opens professional opportunities.

Creating a vision for your future and implementing that vision can lead to:

• A better job
• Better contacts and clients for your company
• Industry recognition
• And more

If you’re looking for…

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Human-to-human connections are the heart and soul of business. At the end of the day, you’re dealing with people — your company is solving problems, alleviating pain points, and providing delightful customer experiences. Revenue is something that happens as a byproduct of a sound business model and a positive customer experience.

Storytelling is a powerful technique for building relationships. It’s an age-old concept that brings people together and keeps them engaged. It doesn’t matter where in the world you’re based or how much funding your startup has.

Good stories give big voices to small ventures. That’s why it’s mission-critical that companies take the time up front to fully develop their approaches to storytelling.

Storytelling and marketing go hand-in-hand. Just think about it. Whether you’re producing infographics, writing copy for a Facebook ad, or writing a free online guide (like this one), you need to capture your audience’s attention.

On a daily basis, consumers (yourself included) face advertising overload. Marketers are constantly competing for their prospects’ and customers’ attention. More likely than not, your brand will be buried under spammy advertising messages.

How can you make your brand stand out? Storytelling.

This guide is an all-inclusive guide that explains why your brand should prioritize storytelling and how your organization should get started. This is not fluffy stuff, either. Storytelling is a powerful and actionable marketing technique. Convinced? Let’s get to it.

What is Brand Storytelling?

Brand storytelling is:

• The reason why your company came to be
• What motivates your team to wake up and come to work everyday
• How your product came to be
• What types of customers find value in working with your brand and why
• A transparent view into the people behind the company
• A relationship-building tool
• More subtle than you realize
• A concept that underscores your entire…

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Marketing your business is expensive. Coming up with customer acquisition strategies that won’t break the bank can be a challenge.

Acquiring a new customer can cost you six or seven times more money than retaining your current customers.

But you can get new customers without having to spend much money.

Using your existing customers to help bring in new business is one of my favorite ways to do this. It may sound complex, but it’s much easier than you might think.

It’s all about getting creative. Coming up with an acquisition strategy that also promotes retention is a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

Don’t underestimate the power of a recommendation. Research shows 83% of consumers say they trust recommendations from family and friends. When your brand gets recommended to someone, they are likely to give it a shot.

But the key here is getting that initial recommendation. How do you do it?

If you’ve never tried to incorporate this strategy into your marketing plan before, don’t worry. I’ll give you some insight into how you can proceed.

Here’s what you need to know.

Start with memorable branding

A memorable brand aesthetic, message, and voice can work wonders in turning customers into passionate advocates who eagerly recommend the brand to their friends and family.

An engaging aesthetic captures attention, while the message conveys your unique value in the market. Your voice, on the other hand, adds a distinct personality to your brand, making it relatable and approachable. When these elements harmonize, they evoke strong emotions in customers, encouraging them to share their positive experiences and feelings with those around them.

As customers develop a sense of pride and belonging with a brand, they become enthusiastic ambassadors who can’t help but spread the word.

Although hiring…

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If you want to jump right into selling your business, Business Exits is a great place to start.

You’ve decided to sell your business—now what?

The process of selling a business can feel overwhelming, especially if you’ve never been through it before. Between the timing of the sale, the logistics, and a whole lot more, there are many factors to consider before you proceed.

First, you need to understand that it’s perfectly okay to sell your business. Many small business owners struggle with this concept, especially if it’s a company they’ve built from scratch.

Whether you’re ready for retirement, feeling overworked, or just ready to move on to the next chapter of your life, selling your business can be extremely rewarding.

If you take the right approach, the profits can fund your next venture or give you the financial freedom you’ve always dreamed about.

As someone who has bought and sold multiple businesses throughout my career, I know what it takes to sell your business the right way. I’ve taken a complicated process and simplified it to just five easy steps.

Top Business Brokers to Sell Your Business

If you want to sell your business, you’ll need a business broker. Here are the best options.

You can read our full reviews of each business broker here.

Step #1: Determine Your Business Valuation

Most entrepreneurs think they have an idea about what their business is worth. But in many cases, the number in their minds is way off from its actual value.

Before you list your sale price too high or too low, bring in a valuation expert.

A third-party valuation will provide you with a realistic estimate of the company’s worth. For a fixed amount (usually a few thousand dollars), a qualified appraiser can determine the business’s…

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In childhood, we exhibit an innate understanding of target audiences by asking one parent for a treat, knowing the other will refuse. We choose the one most likely to say yes because it’s the easiest way to get to the end goal.

Though this example is simple, the process of pinpointing a target audience applies to every type of business, even personal brands.

In this chapter, we show you the entire process of identifying your audience. We’ll discuss both foundational principles and more advanced techniques, ensuring that your effort is directed toward the right people.

Building Relationships: Give A Lot To Get A Lot

We asked Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com the following question:

If you were building an online presence from scratch today, what 3 things would you consider to provide the biggest ROI on your time and money?

“I’d first focus on establishing a crystal-clear empathy with the audience I was planning to serve, so I know what their problem is, how they feel about it and what they currently do to try and solve it. The best way to learn this in my experience is in person, over the phone or a distant third is via monitoring discussions in groups, blog comments, forums and social media.

If I don’t do this step well, I won’t have an audience or make any sales down the line, so it’s the vital first step for ROI.”

Yaro’s other two points were crafting a clear offer and funneling traffic to the offer, continuously working to improve conversions over time.

But before you can do that, you need to understand your audience.

We’re not the first to say this, either. Studies have shown that human connection is essential for well-being and happiness, proving that without people, even vast wealth does not…

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If you want to jump right into selling your ecommerce business, Business Exits is a great place to start.

Selling an ecommerce business isn’t quite the same as selling a traditional brick-and-mortar company. In some ways, it’s much easier to sell an online store. But there are also unique challenges.

People decide to sell their ecommerce shops for various reasons.

Maybe you’ve reached a pivotal moment of growth where you’d need to invest and expand to continue running the shop on your own. Or perhaps you’ve wanted to sell from day one, and plan to start (or flip) more ecommerce websites with the profits from this sale.

Regardless of your reason, the process of selling an ecommerce business can be easy by using the 10 steps we explain in this post. Follow this guide to get the maximum possible value for your online store.

Top Business Brokers to Sell an Ecommerce Business

If you want to sell an ecommerce business, you’ll need a business broker. Here are the best options.

You can read our full reviews of each business broker here.

Sell Your Ecommerce Business for the Best Price in 10 Steps

Selling an online business can be overwhelming. But I’ve simplified this complex process into 10 simple steps you can follow.

This guide takes you through each stage of the selling process, from preparing for the sale through the transition once the sale is complete.

Step #1: Prepare Your Site for Sale

Before we talk about any numbers, take a moment to put yourself in the shoes of a prospective buyer. The very first thing they’re going to do is visit your website.

You need to make sure that the site is appealing to new owners. If it has clutter, navigation issues, and a poor…

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Want to get going right away? Click here to sign up for WebiMax and start managing your online reputation today. 

Your brand is your business. And your online reputation is a huge part of your brand.

Building that reputation starts with a solid foundation that includes a great website, an active presence on social media, and a growing number of positive online reviews.

Then you have to add great content, customer engagement, and a plan for keeping up all this momentum for the long term. It’s a lot of work, but doing it all well will earn you a positive online reputation.

That positive reputation isn’t guaranteed forever, though. Eventually you’ll face negative publicity—every business does at some point. So you’ll also need a plan to manage that, too.

The Three Phases of Managing Your Online Reputation

Managing your online reputation is an ongoing process. This holds true for all businesses, from startups to enterprises.

Here are the three phases of online reputation management:

1. Building your online reputation
2. Maintaining your online reputation
3. Recovering your online reputation

I’ll walk you through each of these phases later in this article. 

The Easy Parts of Online Reputation Management

Startups and new businesses need to start from scratch with their online reputations. Fortunately, this is a straightforward process that begins with your company’s website.

It is nearly impossible to do business today without a website. So if you have already claimed your domain name and have a working website, you’ve quickly ticked one to-do off your reputation list. 

But the quality of your site may need some improvements in the early stages to ensure it loads quickly and functions properly. Your site should also be designed to keep visitors on your pages as long as possible. This…

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ReputationDefender is an industry leader in the online reputation management space. 

This service has been helping businesses and individuals take control of their online presence for more than 15 years.

But with so many different products and services to choose from in the online reputation management space, you might be wondering if ReputationDefender is right for your unique situation.

You can use this guide to learn more about ReputationDefender and how it stacks up against the competition.

How ReputationDefender Compares to Top Online Reputation Management Companies

ReputationDefender didn’t make it onto our top list of online reputation management companies:

In the following review, you’ll learn why our research team didn’t wind up recommending ReputationDefender, even though it’s one of the better-known brands in the space.

It’s also worth mentioning that ReputationDefender used to be part of Reputation.com, which made it on our top list. We think Reputation.com is the best company for keeping track of your competition’s reputation.

However, ReputationDefender was sold to the Stagwell Group in 2018 and later acquired by NortonLifeLock.

Although ReputationDefender has some strong suits, it’s not a strong contender against our top overall recommendation, WebiMax. Despite its hefty marketing budget, ReputationDefender hasn’t been able to shake off accusations of exorbitant pricing and unfulfilled promises.

In short, we wouldn’t be quick to recommend this service against far better options like WebiMax. Still, we will give ReputationDefender a fair shake in this review so you can make up your own mind.

Here’s a rundown of how the company scores based on our criteria for picking the top online reputation management companies.

ReputationDefender Pros and Cons

Pros

• More than 15 years of industry experience
• Dedicated account managers…

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Want to just get started? Click here to sign up for Shopify and transfer your website to Shopify today.

More than 2 million users have chosen to make their store on Shopify, and that number is growing every year.

Are you looking to make the switch? This guide will help you transfer your store to Shopify in four easy steps. I’ll walk you through each of them, so you can move your store to Shopify without any hiccups.

Top Ecommerce Platforms Compared

We rated Shopify as the top ecommerce platform and recommend you migrate your online store there.

• Shopify – Best all-around ecommerce platform
• Wix – Best for stores with fewer than 100 products
• BigCommerce – Best for large inventories
• Squarespace – Best for cornering a niche market
• Bluehost – Best for WordPress users who want to sell online

You can read our full reviews of each ecommerce platform here.

4 Steps to Transfer Your Website to Shopify

In mapping out these steps, I’ve assumed that you have a store that’s generating revenue, and you want to keep that revenue going while you build your new store.

Moving your website to Shopify is easy when you follow these instructions:

1. Build your new Shopify site
2. Get your redirects ready
3. Go live and point your domain to Shopify
4. Shut down your old ecommerce site

Step 1: Build your new Shopify site

First, let’s get your Shopify store built.

During this step, don’t worry about your new Shopify store conflicting with your…

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