7 things to consider when planning a rebrand
 
Learn the secrets behind a successful rebrand with this list of seven tips.

The prospect of a company rebrand can fill some marketers with hope and the opportunity to start afresh, but it can also send others running to the hills with the thought of spiralling budgets and internal disagreements over colours and wording. If you’re tasked with a rebrand, we've put together the main areas you should consider before briefing your design team.

01. Check out your competitors

This is especially important if you are operating within a saturated market, as you want to stand out. Start by collecting together the logos of your competitors; often you find that certain industries follow similar brand styles. Don’t be afraid to break the mould and step away from what is the “done thing” in order to make your organisation stand out and show that you are different. Collecting these competitor logos can help to show the design team exactly what you don’t want and where your brand fits into the overall landscape.

This process will also help you when you are unveiling your new branding internally and securing buy-in from senior teams and board members, especially if you’ve chosen a particularly daring final design!

02. Understand who is creating your design

If it is an internal department, will they be fresh and innovative enough to create what you need? If it is an external brand agency, do they fully understand your brand, key messages and who your target market is? Depending on who is creating your design will affect the way that you brief them so it may be good to have an initial meeting to understand everything they need to know before giving a full brief for the project.

03. Take stock of everything that will be rebranded

Before starting to brief your team, you will need to know how many variations of the logo will be required and where they will be used. From brochures to business cards to email signatures and even on your company vehicles, you may need several variations and sizes to meet your needs. You may also need to consider where else you use your logo online -on your website and social media channels, for example. It will be more time efficient and cost-effective to provide your design team with all the information needed upfront and save to-ing and fro-ing and last minute alterations.

04. Invest in typography

Typography has a proven history of making a brand stand out

The font you use can become as iconic as the brand logo. Think of Coca Cola, Disney and even the simple style of John Lewis and it is easy to see how fonts can be as unique as fingerprints. Typography is an art form in itself but unfortunately is often overlooked in modern design. For something truly unique enlist a typography specialist.

 82 top-quality typography tutorials

05. Avoid using stock images where possible

If you’re preparing marketing collateral and websites, nothing says bland and boring like stock images and photography. If possible enlist the help of a graphic designer to create bespoke designs, so that you have something that is individual and unique to yourselves.

06. Are there things you can keep?

Often marketers read “rebrand” as creating something completely new and different, however it can be more of a brand evolution. If you have a particularly successful and established brand, it can be foolish to get rid of particular aspects of your branding which customers and stakeholders are fond of. This can especially be the case with historic and heritage brands. Building a brand is about building the strongest image of your company and it could be that holding onto an iconic brand image, a particular colour or a slogan is the best way of retaining your brand’s identity at the same time as moving it into the present day.

Is your SEO strategy for 2017 finalized? If not, then you might want to refine it to reflect some of the predicted top SEO trends for 2017.

You should already know the top SEO trends for 2017 from the renowned industry experts. Now we’re going to share a few more predictions to help you continue refining your SEO strategy for 2017.
It’s all about related keywords.

You don’t want to repeat a single keyword phrase throughout a post or page anymore. You want to optimize the post for your main keyword phrase by including it in the title, in the first paragraph, in the last paragraph, and in the header image’s filename, ALT text, and title text.

But from that point on, you want to get some related keywords in mind that you can spice throughout the article. Let’s say you’re writing about google technology. Using Rank Tracker, you can get insights into related keyword phrases and how they stack up against your chosen phrase using insights from a variety of resources beyond Google AdWords Keyword Planner.


Or just use Google AdWords Keyword Planner, on the other hand, and possibly only get estimates based on your AdWords usage.

Even if you do only have ranges, right off the bat, you can see that your keyword phrase, google technology, is getting an average of 1K – 10K monthly searches. But below that is a related, low competition, high search volume keyword phrase. Looking at this might make you re-evaluate your main keyword phrase or look for ways to have multiple main keyword phrases such as In Google News: Best Google Technology Update for Android Yet.

You can also see that there are 328 related keywords that you can download into an Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheet, sort, and have a field day with. Of course, not all will be related, and not all will have a high search volume. That’s why you will just pick and choose maybe the top five related keywords to use throughout your post. Five related keywords that have the next highest search volumes to your main keyword phrase.

The point? Be sure to research your keywords. You may think you have a good one, but a better one may be lurking around the corner.

It’s about mobile.

Mobile friendly and mobile speed. I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t have responsive web design, but use any common content management (WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, etc.) or ecommerce solution (Shopify, Magento, etc.), then guess what?

There are tons of responsive designs out there for you. You can check with the platform’s main website, search for third party developers, or go to theme marketplaces like Themeforest to find a responsive theme or design for anything, even plain HTML websites.


Of course, it’s not just your design, but your functionality too. Or your website’s speed at least. You can’t just install WordPress, a responsive theme, and 93 plugins (yes, it’s happened) and expect your website to run at its optimal pace.

That’s why it’s good to use tools like WebPageTest. It will tell you if your website is running at its best possible speed. Because let’s face it – what’s good for users is good for Google. And RankBrain could be learning what users like for Google’s algorithms.

What WebPageTest will tell you exactly what slows down your website load times so you can do things like re-analyze the need for specific plugins, optimize an image, fix a bad widget, or another task.


A fast website with a beautiful design that works on every device is going to be a hit with both search engine bots and users alike.

It’s all about Artificial Search Intelligence aimed at human satisfaction.  

Want to get slapped by Google straight out of the gate? Get every link built to your company using generic keyword rich anchor text like auto insurance company and online colleges. It’s 2017 now, and as we mentioned before, there’s this whole new (but not so new anymore) part of Google’s algorithmic ranking system. Artificial intelligence is now a part of the rankings game and guess what? No one has it mastered.

Not even Google. First, their product naming conventions are confusing. Google Analytics or Analytics Solutions? Subfolder or subdomain? How do I choose when searching web analytics?


But while it’s less volume, you know people looking for web analytics software are going to convert if you happen to offer web analytics.  

Which leads us to the most important thing you should focus on in SEO and any other marketing strategy. If you want it to be successful.
It’s about a conversion-focused approach.

While rankings are great, it’s time to stop focusing on them as an all or nothing way to determine if SEO is working. It’s not about being #1 for the keyword phrase with the highest search volume. It’s about being #1 (organically and/or paid) for the keyword phrase with the highest search volume that will get you conversions.

Think qualified traffic for leads. Sales. Not just any old garden variety of traffic, unless your income is based off of cost per impression advertisers buying space on your website.

Why is qualified traffic the best to generate? Because not only are they most likely to convert, but because they convert, they are the best to use for retargeting in Google AdWords, social media ads, and other remarketing campaigns.  

But why is a conversion-focused approach even more important? Because it’s going to up your quality across the board. It’s going to up your content, your meta titles, your descriptions, your images, your videos, your social posts, your interviews, your roundups. Everything you do in the name of marketing will be done with higher quality because your endgame isn’t to just get a link. Your endgame is to get a potential customer into your sales funnel.

You wouldn’t do that with a crappy pitch in person, so you likely wouldn’t do it with crappy content online either! Or shouldn’t, at least.
In conclusion

Keep in mind the basics. Stay in compliance with Google Webmaster Guidelines and keep an eye on your website’s health in search via Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Find the best keyword phrase and related keyword phrases for your top pages, followed by your top posts, and every piece of content you create from here on out and optimize for those keywords.

Don’t assume you’ve succeeded – use Google Analytics Goals to see what Landing Pages ultimately assisted in a website conversion, from a lead generation to a sale. And finally, follow the above strategies for a successful 2017.

Why Create Better Images for Blog Posts?

Images are highly engaging. They communicate ideas and invoke emotions.

They help you get more likes, shares, and traffic from social media. Users visiting your site spend more time and view more posts. Images can even help you get more comments on your posts.

Now the problem is that most bloggers are not graphic designers. They cannot create professional looking graphics for their websites.

Part of this problem can be solved by using public domain or CC0-Licensed images images. However, you may still need to edit those images.

Luckily, there are several online tools that allow you to edit and create beautiful images for different scenarios including blog posts, infographics, presentations, and even Facebook posts.

Let’s take a look at some of the best tools to create better images for your blog posts.

#1.VISAGE


Visage is one of the easiest and most powerful tools to manage visuals for your blog. It allows you to create and design professional looking graphics for your blog posts, Facebook pages, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

It comes with tons of professionally designed templates to start with.

You can also save your brand’s logo and other assets and use them into your visuals. You can save, export, and share your graphics. Visage is great for individuals and teams.