Trump & the Power of the Tagline

Amidst the blow-by-blow coverage of Donald Trump, and by association, the other candidates (including Democrats), there has been surprisingly little said about the 2016 candidates’ taglines and their impact, or lack thereof, thus far. This post should not be construed as an endorsement or opinion of any candidate, just their brand strategies as represented through their use of campaign taglines.

To understand the power of a tagline, look no further than Barack Obama’s success in 2008 with his two taglines: “Hope” and “Change We Can Believe In.”

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How a Concise Brand Strategy Will Save Your Website Project

You are in charge of Marketing. Your competitor just launched a new site. And it’s good. They have case studies, testimonials, video and interactive diagrams. What’s even more disconcerting is that they are telling a compelling story with a point of view. Their copy is solid, design is modern; They got their branding right. 

Your CEO is not happy, wants to see something done about it and wants results fast… but within a budget. How do you get it done?

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How Working on Your Website Improves Your Brand & Business

The other day, I saw a website for an agency that uses the tagline, “We Work on Your Business, Not Just Your Website.” I related to the line’s strategic positioning and have to admit to being disappointed that I hadn’t come up with it myself.

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Top Five To-Dos for Creating a B2B Inbound Marketing Campaign

Inbound marketing is sometimes passed over in favor of traditional marketing because it seems too complex or too time consuming. But in most cases it’s more cost-effective, measurable, and successful… when done correctly.

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Why EXPERIENCE MATTERS””

Why_Experience_MattersI write regularly about how branding impacts your website, your marketing and your business. Last week, in celebration of RainCastle’s twentieth anniversary, we launched our new website, in which we introduced our new brand theme, “EXPERIENCE MATTERS,” here’s why.

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An Effective Web Design Strategy Starts with Your Brand

We’ve talked about Market Strategy, Brand Strategy and Content Strategy, so why do we need a Web Design Strategy? Because, of all of these strategies, only your Website Design Strategy is externally facing. Let’s put Website Desgn Strategy into context to clarify how these strategies work in tandem.

Strategy_ffunnel2Using a funnel metaphor, your Market Strategy is your highest level strategic decision, in which you define the markets for your products and/or services and determine whether your market approach is industry specific, solutions or applications-focused or some combination.

Once this is determined, your Brand Strategy encompasses the way you describe what you do, for what audiences with a compettive value statement, which sets you apart from your competition. You socialize this brand internally, and externally at every customer and employee touchpoint.

The power of a relevant Content Strategy — based on sound Market and Brand Strategies — is to create a program to disseminate and exchange your valuable content across all media and over time, which leads us to your Website Design Strategy.

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Why Messaging is so Important for Successful B2B Marketing

Branding is Lead Generation’s best-kept secret. And what is “Messaging” if not the public face of your brand?

When clients and prospects approach us about a lead generation campaign or website, they’re seeking a way to cut through the clutter of similar sounding competitors or the perception of market monotony. Sometimes, they have a target number of leads in mind, or some idea of a marketing campaign to achieve goals, and usually a tight time frame for achieving results.

In these situations, the success or failure of marketing campaigns and websites often comes down to one thing — Messaging —finding the right concept and meaning that will authentically express the value of their brand and engage with customers to make a lead convert.

Here are some compelling reasons for you to focus on your brand messaging before launching a marketing campaign or website:

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Has Your Website Entered the 4th Dimension?

For much of the life of the commercial web, websites were one dimensional, essentially online brochures that over time became large and often unruly repositories of tactical content. But, in just a few short years after the recession, websites have catapulted to the 4th dimension.

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5 Reasons Why You Need a Website Content Editor

I’ve seen many clients, who with the best of intentions fall into the same rut year after year. There are certain universal truths about successful websites; one of them is that on website projects that include a quality content editor as part of the dedicated team, the process is smoother, stays on schedule and client satisfaction is high.

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Creating Websites People Love

We create websites people love. Of course I can’t say that officially — although it’s true — as HubSpot has already created a great campaign around “love.”

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