Why is Brand Management Important?

Brand management is a crucial aspect of any business, big or small, and involves developing and maintaining a company's brand identity. This includes the company's name, logo, messaging, and overall reputation. 

Why Is Brand Management So Important?

Effective brand management is essential for businesses looking to stand out in a crowded marketplace. It builds trust and loyalty among customers, ultimately leading to increased sales and growth. It is also a way to clearly communicate the unique value proposition and benefits of a company's products or services. This helps differentiate it from competitors and helping it to stand out in a competitive industry. Well-managed brands can establish a solid and positive reputation, which can attract new customers and drive repeat business.

Differentiation

In today's competitive business environment, it's important to differentiate your brand from others in your industry. Brand management helps differentiate your brand from others in your industry. It's crucial to clearly communicate what makes your company unique and why customers should choose you over competitors. Strong brand management allows you to highlight your brand's unique value proposition and the benefits it offers to customers.

Trust and loyalty

Brand management helps to build trust and loyalty among your target audience. Customers are more likely to choose a brand they trust and feel a connection to. By consistently delivering on your brand promise and providing a positive customer experience, you can create that trust and loyalty. This is especially important on social media, where negative customer experiences can spread quickly and damage your reputation.

Reputation 

Your brand's reputation is a crucial part of your overall success, and a strong, positive reputation can attract new customers, while a negative reputation can drive them away. Effective brand management helps you to proactively manage your brand's reputation and address any issues that may arise. This might include responding to customer complaints, addressing negative reviews, or implementing measures to improve the quality of your products or services.

Customer retention

Studies suggest that at most companies, 65% of the revenue comes from repeat business with existing clients, and existing customers purchase 90% more often than typical customers. Loyal customers are more likely to continue doing business with a brand they trust and feel connected to. You can improve customer retention and increase repeat business by consistently delivering on your brand promise and providing a positive customer experience.

Increased value

A robust and well-managed brand can add value to your business, making it more attractive to potential buyers or investors. By investing in effective brand management, you can set your business up for long-term success and position it for growth and expansion.

The Value of Brand Management

In conclusion, brand management is an essential part of any business. It helps to differentiate your company from competitors, build trust and loyalty among customers, manage your reputation, improve customer retention, and increase the value of your business. By investing in effective brand management, you can set your business up for long-term success.

If you're looking for a branding agency in Pittsburgh, Twothirty Media is here to help. Our team of branding experts has the knowledge and experience to help you create a strong, consistent brand identity that resonates with your target audience. We offer a range of branding management services, including logo design, brand strategy development, messaging and positioning, and more.

Twothirty Media understands that every business is unique, which is why we take a personalized approach to branding. We work closely with our clients to understand their goals, values, and target audience and use this information to create a branding strategy that is tailored to their needs.

10 Digital Solutions to Common Problems Faced by Museums

Museums, historical and heritage sites, and other nonprofit or not-for-profit attractions face unique challenges that for-profit attractions often do not. It isn't uncommon for the staff at a nonprofit attraction to have to wear several hats. Sometimes an attraction might have a limited supply of funding, or human resources, or both! How does an organization solve the challenges of engagement - donor retention, getting the word out, making your resources work for you - under budget and on time? At Twothirty Media, we are all too aware of the challenges you face. The answer is this – you must embrace technology. Tools and services that digitize and automate your work are available, but you need to learn about them first. This may mean changing or updating your operations. In this article, we recommend tools and services that help an organization empower its staff.

1.) Digitize Your Collections

Did you know that larger museums typically only display 5% of their collections? It often comes down to space limitations or concerns about preservation; it's just not feasible to have every item 'out' in an exhibit. In the past, museums would photograph and create books of their more popular pieces or constantly cycle collections into public displays. But 'unviewed’ (or ‘unviewable)' items do not generate support or returns from the general public. In many cases, things that are important to preserve but too delicate to show are sitting in a drawer in the archives, quietly taking museum resources. Digitizing your collections allows visitors to see current collections during off hours or if they cannot access the space, and allows them to see items that are not currently on display for space or conservation concerns.

The digitization process requires two things: a way to document the item (photography, scanning, etc.) and a way to display them to visitors. There are many options for integrating a digital exhibit into your website, but we always suggest that clients choose an option they will be comfortable maintaining themselves.  

Historical sites and non-museum attractions can benefit from digitization as well! The public now has easier access to augmented reality than ever, using their smartphone cameras and a WiFi connection to view notations on real-world items over a digital overlay. At home, you can provide your users with 3D tours of select attractions and facilities, giving users a taste of what you offer virtually, or offering a way for users to explore experiences that are currently closed for maintenance or the season.

2.) Automate Membership Renewals

Convenience for your members and your processing team – automating the membership renewal process lets you cut down on emailed and mailed reminders and renewal solicitations to a minimum. This helps to preserve member communications about news they are interested in, like new exhibits and events.

But your automation can continue beyond renewals. You can send automated reminders to registered attendees about events, automate review requests, make tour reminders with schedules, donation requests, and more. In the hands of a trained marketer, automation tools can feel like superpowers! If you or your staff spend a lot of time responding to similar questions over the phone or email, manually managing a database, sending outreach messages, or offering live chat support, then  automation tools could help you save considerable time.

We can almost always recommend an automation tool that will integrate into your current processes. The trick is finding the right ones! We talk more about how automation can help your business or organization on our Business Solutions page.

3.) Integrate Ticketing into Your Web Presence

Every nonprofit attraction has unique ticketing needs. Changing exhibits, seasonal events, classes, reenactments, or presentations have their requirements, such as age, group size, and tour duration. Many attractions want to offer memberships and coupons, and indoor venues have to worry about syncing ticket capacity between online and at-the-door sales.

Digitizing your ticketing process eases your life by allowing flexibility for visitors and workers. You can control things like scheduling tour times, limiting event headcounts, and making your visitors' ticketing process as painless as possible. It also allows you to automate receipts, reminders, and payment processing.

The problem is that – well, every nonprofit attraction has unique ticketing needs. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Just like with automation, you may need to consult with an expert who has a better understanding of the lay of the land before charting your own ticketing solution. If you want help setting up a new ticketing solution or think you could use some automation to alleviate your daily routine, reach out and talk to us about it.

4.) Make Donations Easier

While visitors are the lifeblood of nonprofit attractions, they often overlap with your donors. Some sites allow visitors to 'pay' for their visit with donations. Many museums can run because of a network of donors that want to support the preservation or cultural aspects of the organization. Making the donation process as smooth as possible is common sense; after all, happy users make purchases. So having the whole process – from first communication to charitable bequests - be painlessly digital allows for that donor relationship to be tracked, maintained, and built upon with minimal effort.

The benefit of this goes beyond increasing the availability of your donation forms. Electronic forms can be made to collect information about your user's habits on your website to improve their experience the next time or enroll them into your email marketing campaigns, ensuring your donors return as visitors!   

5.) Automate Your Emails

    That brings us back to automation! The king of all digital communications, email marketing is a very influential tool for interacting with engaged visitors and donors. Email automation is perfect for the following:

    1. Segmenting your email list to help personalize a person's experience
    2. Quantifying the level of engagement a person has with your organization
    3. Marketing directly to people who have already self-qualified themselves as leads
    4. Developing buy-in interest for specific events
    5. Spreading the word about opportunities or news with email advertising

    6.) Expand Events and Fundraising to Online Experiences

    If we have learned anything from the post-2020 world, it is that there may be a growing community of supporters who may never want to attend a physical event. This is a chunk of potential visitors and donors you would normally engage with, but you may be missing out on. Having an online event allows for more personal experiences for patrons like interactive courses, presentations, summer camps, etc. Here is a fantastic article by the American Alliance of Museums that outlines a way to take your events online: How Museums Can Generate Revenue Through Digital Content and Virtual Experiences

    7.) Make Your WiFi Access Work For You

      If you have a venue that gets a lot of foot traffic, your visitors will likely use their phones in your building. Increasingly, interactive exhibits include everything from QR codes to augmented reality to provide guests with an interactive experience. If your attraction needs to upgrade to an interactive experience, or just suffers from cellular signal dead zones, you may already offer free WiFi to your guests.

      But does the cost of the WiFi routers and service have to be shouldered by you without any returns? Many organizations have chosen to provide WiFi access to users while also accepting the user's email or phone numbers and asking them to opt-into discount offers or event alerts via text or email. These offers should be very up-front about frequency and content and never betray the customers' trust. By having the user opt-in while they are signing into WiFi or in an email immediately after their trip, you enjoy the benefit of catching them while the enjoyment of their experience is fresh; it is more likely that they will agree that they want to come again.

      Having a list of users who have opted-in to hearing from you is great, but you need to think about more than capturing that list. Do you have software in place to make sure you are following your users’ antispam regulations? You will need to provide meaningful content on a fairly regular basis, so it’s a good idea to have an email marketing plan in place before you begin.

      8.) Reach Potential Patrons Socially

      People are social by nature - they want to share something to enjoy and take part in with their community. This is why colleagues love to share photos of their trips or new experiences. As a nonprofit attraction, you can successfully use social platforms and tools to engage with your potential audience!

      1. Reviews: Much like someone will review a good restaurant; reviews are a great way to show your message and quality. You can harness the power of good reviews by soliciting your happy customers to share their thoughts on Google, Facebook, or your website, but once again, the savviest marketers use automation.
      2. Social Profiles: Having a profile on every social media platform is helpful for SEO backlinks and google ranking, but it's also a free way to engage your audience and get the news out to potential visitors.
      3. Claim Your Listing: Claiming and controlling any online listing for your organization is essential to keeping misinformation at bay. Claiming your Google Business Listing gives you access to a treasure trove of tools to promote, advertise, and curate the image of your museum, but that's just the start.

      Being proactive about your listings and reviews is the best way to make a good first impression on a digital audience. Like physical therapy, listings and reviews management is preventative medicine for your organization. Believe me, this is work you do not want to do have to do in a rush. Especially without the right tools! You may not even know how many listings and review sites your organization is on, let alone how to get on them. We help organizations take control of their online presence and then help them develop a plan to tend to it early and often. If this sounds like something you might need, reach out today and ask for a listings consultation.

      9.) Bring Your Giftshop Online

      In the past, a visit to a museum was only complete with a trip through the gift shop. Choosing a souvenir after a visit to an art, history, or cultural museum is one of childhood's joys. So why is an online gift shop so important to museums today? Simply put, it's an additional way to engage your visitors, support your exhibitors, and save time! In many cases, it is possible to store and ship items from a third-party location instead of housing everything in the space of the museum store.

      Many website platforms come with some e-commerce capabilities. If you are acquainted with WordPress, you may already be familiar with the very popular and effective WooCommerce plugin. However, some museums have decided to host their stores on a separate server altogether, such as Shopify.

      In 2021 we helped our friends at the Fallingwater Museum Store optimize their Shopify store, aligning it with the Fallingwater brand and enabling staff to emphasize the season's featured products easily. The Fallingwater Museum Store chose Shopify – the Shopify platform is fast and secure and can be updated independently from Fallingwater's WordPress installation. This "split basket" approach simplified the optimization process because we never had to get on the WordPress site at all. Managing store inventory is simple and isolated from other online content processes. This might not be the right solution for everyone, but it was suitable for Fallingwater. If you need help finding what suits you, feel free to reach out!

      10.) Leverage Your Organizations Status for Help With Google Ads

      Ads can be an important outreach tool for any business, and nonprofit attractions are no exception to the rule. But with a the tight budget, how do you effectively get the word out to potential visitors through paid advertising? Google recognizes these needs and has provided a tool to help organizations like yours get up to $10,000 per month of free search ads each month via Google Ad Grants. These grants are available for entities considered nonprofit, or not-for-profit, as many museums are. Applying is pretty simple, but getting the most out of your Google Ads experience can take time and effort. There are many restrictions on what you can and cannot advertise. An agency with experience in the Google Ads Grant process is beneficial to guide you through the process and make the most of your ad budget.

      I hope this helps get you started down the road with a few ideas of how you can solve a few of your nonprofit attractions' problems. As you can see, you can do much on your own. However, your time is limited, and if you work at a nonprofit, always at a premium. You may need some help setting up a marketing plan that lets you take hold of each of these problems in a more manageable way. If so, or if you have questions about anything in this guide, feel free to schedule a 15-minute consultation with us!

      We're looking forward to helping you solve your marketing problems!

      What is the Role of Multimedia in Marketing?

      By definition, multimedia is "a technique ... in which several media are employed." In other words, multimedia is the use of various forms of media (e.g., text, images, audio, video) in tandem to communicate a message.

      In today's digital age, multimedia has become an essential part of marketing. With the proliferation of digital devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, laptops), consumers are inundated with multimedia content daily. As a result, businesses must find ways to stand out from the noise and connect with their target audiences through multimedia.

      Why Use Multimedia in Marketing?

      Multimedia plays a crucial role in marketing by helping businesses connect with their target audiences and distinguish themselves from the competition. Through various multimedia formats, companies can tell their stories, promote their products and services, show how to use their products, and much more.

      Marketing Multimedia vs. Multimedia Marketing

      What is the difference between marketing multimedia and multimedia marketing? It's all in the name! Multimedia marketing is a marketing technique in which you develop marketing materials using several media sources. Marketing multimedia is just the materials that you create for your marketing campaign.

      Components of Marketing Multimedia

      We experience the digital world through our eyes and ears, so the most common components of marketing multimedia are the ones you can use to see and hear it:

      Types of Marketing Multimedia

      What are the types of marketing multimedia? The components we listed above can be developed into different formats, not just limited to: radio and streaming audio ads, print and digital display advertisements, websites, blog posts, e-newsletters, and videos of all kinds, from explainers to commercials.

      When used effectively, multimedia marketing tools like these can be a powerful method of driving awareness, engagement, and conversions. Consider working with a multimedia marketing company to take your marketing to the next level.

      What is a Multimedia Marketing Company?

      A multimedia marketing company is an agency that specializes in creating and executing multimedia marketing campaigns. From strategy to production to distribution, a multimedia marketing company can help businesses achieve their marketing goals.

      Why Do You Need a Multimedia Marketing Company?

      There are many benefits of working with a multimedia marketing company, including the following:

      Access to skilled professionals. Multimedia marketing companies have a team of skilled professionals such as photographers, videographers, editors, and more. This team can help businesses create high-quality multimedia content that achieves their desired results.

      Equipment. Many businesses don't have the equipment necessary to produce multimedia content. Multimedia marketing companies have the latest equipment and can help enterprises to create professional-grade content.

      Time-saving. Creating multimedia content can be time-consuming. Working with a multimedia marketing company can save business owners time and allow them to focus on other aspects of their business, either by taking work off your hands or training you on the tools that you will need to execute your marketing plan yourself.

      Cost-effective. Multimedia marketing companies have economies of scale and can often produce multimedia content at a lower cost than businesses could on their own.

      Why Choose Twothirty Media?

      Twothirty Media is a full-service multimedia marketing company specializing in creating engaging multimedia content for businesses, among other marketing services. We have a team of creative professionals, content creators, and the latest tools to produce high-quality content that achieves your desired results.

      If you're looking to take your marketing to the next level, contact Twothirty Media, Pittsburgh's leading multimedia marketing agency.

      10 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Google Local Search

      For many local businesses, local search optimization is the most effective way to drive more traffic to your website, more leads through calls, and ultimately more conversions and sales. You have most likely used local search yourself, even if you didn’t realize it. Have you ever seen a list of businesses in Google search associated with a map or star-rating? That’s local search! Potential customers are constantly searching for services in your local area - so how can you take advantage of this and optimize your website for local search?

      1: Create a Google Business Profile

      If your business has a physical location, setting up a Google Business Profile is an effective way to get noticed in search results. A listing will help users quickly find information about your business, including your address, contact details, and website. Your business will also appear in Google Maps results, opening the door for more web users to find you.

      If you do not have a physical location for your business, or you if don’t want your business address to be public, Google will let you set an account up as a “service area business.” This gives you a few limitations you wouldn’t have otherwise, but nothing substantial.

      2: Get Better Google Reviews

      Keeping a steady stream of reviews can improve your local SEO by bringing visibility to your listing and improving your click-through rate. Make sure you respond to all reviews - even the negative ones - as this will show potential customers and Google that you are dedicated to improving your customer experience.

      If you are lucky, you may find it hard to keep on top of all your reviews! More likely, you will need creative methods to convince your best customers to review you. This is a process that you can do on your own, but it takes commitment. Some of our clients use our software to make requesting and responding to online reviews simpler, others need us to run the software for them as part of a broader marketing strategy.

      3: Make Use of Question & Answer

      Searchers will have the opportunity to ask questions about your services on a Google Business Profile. It’s vital that you make the most of this; Google Q&A uses this to provide information to your customers and answer any questions they may have. You can even ask and answer your own questions to cover frequently asked questions that you may receive.

      4: Make Google Business Profile Posts

      Google Business Posts can be a great way to connect with your customers and show off any updates or promotions you may be running. These posts are temporary and will stay on your profile for a week, so you must keep posting to engage with your customers.

      Google Profile Posts are a great way to share photos, videos, incentivization, changes to your hours, or any other details about how your business is operating.

      5: Establish Yourself on Other Local Directories

      Google sees the web a bit like you might imagine a spiderweb. If you want Google users to find you, you need Google to see your part of that web, meaning you need to be connected to, and from.

      You can improve your local SEO by posting your company on trusted local directories, such as Yelp, Bing, and many more. Google needs to be sure that your business is authentic, so having verified details on many of these sites can improve Google’s trust in your company. Some directories even provide you with a backlink, which can be used to increase your domain authority.

      6: Keep Contact Details Consistent Across the Internet

      It’s essential to keep your contact information consistent across your website, your Google Business Profile, and all local directories, as inconsistencies can lead Google to reduce your local ranking and search rankings overall.

      Most likely, you will want more than a few references from local directories. Also, you want to make sure that when something changes like an address, phone number or even your business name, it gets updated everywhere. And you want to protect your listing against updates from malicious actors. Just like with online reviews, some of our clients use our DIY business solutions tools to manage directory backlinks. If you are interested, get in touch and we may be able to help you out too.

      7: Create Targeted Location Pages

      When you create a targeted page for a particular location, you can drive organic traffic to your site from those searching for your services in their local area. If you have a physical location, you promote this individually, whereas if you’re just targeting a location your business serves, you can drive more traffic from that area. By taking advantage of local keywords, including location names in your title tags, H1 headings, and meta descriptions, you can compete within a local area. It’s essential to avoid duplicate content when creating these pages, as you see a negative effect on your rankings - so ensure all content is unique for each page.

      8: Build Backlinks from Authoritative Websites

      Building authentic backlinks from trusted sources is a great way to improve your overall SEO. This can help you build up your domain authority, so your business appears more trustworthy to Google. Avoid black-hat SEO techniques, where your domain name is uploaded to a site with a huge list of URLs, as this can bring down your domain authority.

      Getting those backlinks can be a challenge though. Just like with Google Reviews and directory listings, it’s hard to know where to start, how to outreach, or if your efforts are improving your keyword rankings without tools to craft and measure your success. We offer DIY SEO and managed SEO packages for businesses of all sizes, and all our plans come with the tools you need to do backlink outreach, technical optimization, generate content ideas, see what your competitors are doing and report on your results. 

      9. Create Local-Based Content

      By creating content that focuses on your local community, you can attract users from this community to your site. Local, industry-specific content can help you promote your services and keep users coming back for more. 

      Voice assistants have seen a massive increase in popularity in recent years, and many homes have one. People tend to use more long-tail keywords when using voice search, so it’s important to adapt your SEO strategy to complement this. If your blog posts are more conversational in nature and target keywords that are phrased as questions, you may see an increase in traffic.

      The Importance of Local SEO

      All of these techniques can be implemented to help you see improvements in your website's overall search rankings and will drive more traffic to your site. If you don’t have the time to work on this yourself, Twothirty Media’s Pittsburgh SEO agency can help you improve your local rankings and drive organic traffic to your website.

      What Is The Difference Between Inbound And Outbound Marketing?

      There are a lot of similarities between inbound and outbound marketing, but there are also some key differences. This blog post will look at these differences more closely. We'll also discuss the pros and cons of both. So, if you're curious about the difference between inbound and outboard marketing, read on!

      Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing

      Inbound marketing attracts customers to your products or services through content marketing, search engine optimization, or social media.

      In contrast, outbound marketing is more traditional and relies on advertising, cold-calling, or email blasts to reach potential customers.

      So, Which One Is Better?

      Well, it depends on your business and your goals. Inbound marketing can be a great way to build awareness and generate interest if you're selling a new product or niche.

      However, outbound marketing may be more effective at generating leads if you're selling a more established product or service.

      Ultimately, the best approach will likely be a combination of inbound and outbound marketing.

      Examples Of Inbound Marketing Techniques

      Generally, inbound marketing refers to any marketing strategy that draws customers in rather than going out to them. This can take many different forms, but here are common examples:

      YouTube Videos

      YouTube videos are a great form of inbound marketing because they allow you to share your message with a large audience at a low cost. Additionally, videos are a great way to engage with your customers and build trust.

      SEO

      With SEO, you create blog posts and relevant articles for your target audience. You optimize your website for search engines and include keywords and phrases pertinent to your business. By doing this, you'll attract more traffic to your website and also be able to rank higher on search engine results pages.

      Social Media

      Social media is an especially helpful way to do inbound marketing because it connects to potential customers directly. For example, companies could post updates about their products or services on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. They could also share blog posts or articles about their industry or topics related to their business. Questions from customers can be answered in real-time, and these interactions build trust with their follower base too!

      Examples Of Outbound Marketing Techniques

      Outbound marketing is any type where businesses find their target audience rather than relying on them to find the company. Here are some popular examples:

      Email Marketing

      Email marketing is one of the most popular outbound marketing techniques, although technically email marketing can be inbound and outbound. It involves sending (outbound) commercial messages to a group of people via email, but this group consists of people who opted-in (inbound) to hear your messages. These messages can be in ads, newsletters, or promotional content. It's a great way to reach many people quickly and efficiently, and your leads can self-segment by level of interest.

      Online Advertising

      Online advertising is when businesses pay for ads to appear on websites or in search engine results, and it takes many forms. Some of these ads are in the form of SEM (search engine marketing) or banner ads, video preroll, etc. They usually link to a landing page where potential customers can learn more about the product or service being advertised.

      Direct Mail

      Direct mail is an outbound marketing technique that uses physical mail for marketing a product or service. While it may seem old-school, it isn’t too shabby when it comes to targeting, and remains a great way to saturate an area with a brand or message.

      Inbound Vs. Outbound Marketing: In Closing

      So, what is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing? We hope this article provides some answers for you.

      They're two very different techniques, but both can be successful in the right circumstances.

      The one that will work best for your business depends on various factors, including your products or services, your target audience, and your overall marketing strategy. A curated mix of inbound and outbound can give your company the ROI boost you are looking for.

      If you’re looking for a marketing plan in Pittsburgh, Twothirty Media is here to help - we can craft a marketing strategy that is tailored to your business’s needs. Get in touch with us today!

      What Makes Advertising Effective?

      What Makes Advertising Effective?

      People are inundated with advertisements all day long. They hear ads on the radio, they see ads on TV, in print media, while streaming, and online. Companies need to filter out the noise in a world where advertisements are everywhere to understand what makes advertising effective. After all, companies use advertising to stand out from the crowd. 

      Your Product or Service Must Stand Out From Your Competitors

      Before jumping into an ad campaign, you must be confident that you're starting with a rock-solid product or service - one that is better than the competition, something no one else can offer. Each company, business, or entrepreneur must have a "Unique Selling Proposition," commonly referred to as a USP.

      So What is a USP?

      A USP tells the reader, listener, viewer, or niche audience to buy a product for a specific benefit. The product or service should be something they cannot get from anyone else, which means uniqueness. Finally, the proposition in the advertisement should ‘move the masses’. This means it should motivate previous customers to buy your product while attracting new customers. 

      Here are some USPs that have been effective throughout the years:

      Of course, your USP doesn't have to be a slogan, and your slogan doesn't have to be a USP. Maybe it's a specific product or offering that is unique to you. If you have trouble finding your USP, consider niching down to a particular audience you can specialize in.

      The Audience

      Imagine you are at a party, and your goal is to find someone you can connect to on some level. How would you go about doing this? For starters, you might look for someone with similar interests; maybe a sports jersey grabs your attention. If you don't see any dead giveaways, you'd need to start a conversation and ask about a person to try to make any real connection. Sure, you could talk about the weather or the color of the paint on the walls, but that's not bound to get you far. You need to know a little about someone to connect with them.

      An advertiser is more like a DJ at a party. They can engage and make a connection with everyone at the party at once. But the same risks apply; without understanding their audience before they begin, they run the risk of alienating everyone at once.  

      If you are an advertiser with a unique product, skill set, experience, or service, you need to make sure you reach a unique audience. Even national burger chains market to regional audiences in different ways, when they know what makes advertising effective.  

      How do you know that your ads are reaching your audience? Well, that's a bit more complicated. At some point, you will need to place your ads, and that's where targeting comes in. Facebook and Google have a lot of advanced features for helping target your audience and can get good results from a small spend if you are willing to learn the ropes and keep up with the curveballs they'll inevitably throw your way. Whether you are a small advertiser looking to master Facebook and Google Ads, or you have a large budget and are looking for something more advanced, like programmatic display or over-the-top streaming ads, we can help you out. 

      The Headline

      Now that you have a USP and know your audience let's figure out how to combine the two into a headline. The headline is one of the essential parts of any advertising. Think about your time on social media or while going through a news feed. There are tons of stories and posts that are clamoring for your attention. How do you choose which one to read? The headline, of course!

      The headline should grab their attention, but it also has to deliver. If the headline is clickbait, you will have many potential customers exiting the advertisement in frustration, which could ultimately cost you. 

      The Benefits

      Every potential customer wants you to answer one question: what's in it for them? This should be the core idea you build your advertisements around. What are the features of your product or service, and how do these features benefit the client?

      For instance; if you are a bakery trying to get new clients with a new muffin you just released, it is not enough to say, "come on in and try our new banana pumpkin muffin." You need more. Why do I, the customer, need a banana pumpkin muffin? Does it taste good? Is it healthy? Low on calories? Is it cheap? Is there a discount? This time you need to be more than better than the muffins down the street - you need to justify your existence. 

      Great Graphics / Copy

      The copy must be excellent - whether your ad is in print, video, or voice. The graphics must be clear, crisp, and attractive whether your ad will appear in print, on screens, or video. Photos should both show the product and what the product has to offer. What will eating your new banana pumpkin muffin do for me? – show me a picture. Will I be happy? Refreshed? Has this helped me have a more productive morning?

      The Call to Action

      The Call to Action, or CTA, is one of the most critical parts of the ad. Sure, a muffin is nice. It looks attractive, the baker seems happy, and the shop is well maintained. If you have established why they need this muffin, now you need to show them how to get it right now. Tell the customer what to do:

      What Should You Do Now?

      Now that you know what makes advertising effective and how vital good advertisements are to a business, you should learn more about our advertising agency in Pittsburgh! Visit us to learn more about what we can do for you and your business.

      How to Write an Elevator Pitch for a Marketing Agency

      Stop me if you've heard this one - a marketing startup launches with a well-defined business plan. Three years later, through a worldwide pandemic that changed how almost every potential client does business, their own business plan and marketing materials still represent the company, its goals, and services perfectly.

      Okay, so since you made it through the first paragraph, I assume you haven't heard of that either. Twothirty Media has seen a lot of turbulence in three years since its founding in 2019. One of our core values focuses on adaptability; undoubtedly, that's helped us through a difficult time for small businesses worldwide. 

      Since businesses in America shut down, Twothirty Media has been busy helping our clients adapt to the changing marketing landscape. In much the same way, we had to change too. What better way to announce the evolution of our suite of services than to talk about our new elevator pitch as our first blog entry?

      Writing an Elevator Pitch for a Marketing Agency

      An elevator pitch, or speech, is a branding tool that never leaves our side. If you aren't familiar with the term, it's a brief, memorized description of exactly what services your company offers, to who, and what makes you stand out. As the name implies, you should be able to rattle it off before someone gets off the elevator, but it's a very appropriate length considering today's abbreviated world. 

      Our agencies elevator pitch goes like this:

      We solve marketing problems for companies, causes, organizations, and attractions by combining full-service marketing, creative, and business solutions. We stand out by offering training and top-tier tools that empower our clients to do more themselves.

      Briefly Define Your Core Mission

      So let's break that down! "We solve marketing problems" is a phrase we find ourselves using to describe what we do. We struggled with a bit of an identity crisis for a time - were we a creative agency? A marketing agency? A hybrid? Over the course corrections of the last three years, it became clear what our clients were asking us to be - a multimedia company that solves marketing problems - a marketing multimedia agency. After all, even as creative professionals, we have to admit that beautiful graphics and multimedia are there to hook you on good marketing, which converts the client. We may be a multimedia company, but marketing is our backbone.  

      Elaborate on Your Audience

      Next, we explicitly speak about our audience. We are approached by companies in many different industries and of all sizes. Still, due to our connections and experience in the nonprofit and attractions and tourism industries, it makes sense that we highlight that niche specifically as well. 

      Briefly Define your Services and Solutions

      Then, we get to "combining full-service marketing, creative, and business solutions." It's hard to fit everything we do under one hat without making a list, and we can't get too long here. As you can see from the new website, we do a lot of brand work, and obviously multimedia. But what I really want is to leave a few seeds that potential clients inquire about. The words 'creative solutions' can cover many topics, but should be enough to perk the ears of anyone who needs anything from print graphics to animations. Then we make sure that we mention our business solutions because, frankly, it's a unique offering among agencies. And of course - marketing.

      Communicate Your Value Differentiator

      If you are writing an elevator pitch for a marketing agency, you need to explain what makes you stand out. We love making you look good, so that's tempting, but any group can say that. Instead, we come out and tell you that we stand out because our training and tools empower our clients. What does that mean? Well, that's the question we want to hear!  

      The answer is that it depends on what our clients need, but our tech stack is very thick and has some very advanced tools. Some want their lives simplified, and we prescribe marketing and sales automation tools. Some clients have staff onsite, but they don't have the resources. We help build a marketing plan and then furnish the resources to execute it. Then we train staff, step back, and let you take things on in-house. Of course, we'll be available for any surprises that may come up. 

      "But How Can You Help Me?"

      Finally, no pitch is complete without specific phrasing appropriate for your audience. If you can memorize your pitch, that's great! From a sales perspective, what is better is if you can adapt it on the fly for your audience. So, if we were speaking with a nonprofit organization, I might name-drop a few of the nonprofits who love to work with us. If it's an attraction - I'd mention a recent campaign or project we recently ran as an example of the kind of success our customers have.

      Your elevator pitch doesn't have to be structured the same way. There are plenty of resources that provide examples of different ways you could write an elevator pitch for a marketing agency. And if you don't own a competing agency - you're in luck! Just use our contact form to get in touch, and we'd be happy to help you develop your brand with a fresh elevator pitch.