Author: Pascha Apter

Drive Company Growth with Strong Brand Values

A brand is much more than a name, logo and a handful of colors.

It’s your promise to your customers. It’s the core of why your business exists—and your brand values are what brings your company to life.

At Giant Voices, we help our clients create strong brands built on a solid internal foundation, because a brand truly begins from within.

Brand Values are Central to Company Culture

Whether you are founding a new company or ushering in the next iteration, defining brand values can help you shape your company’s future. They can—and should—inform your growth strategies, your internal company culture and the team you employ.

For Giant Voices and our clients, brand values are far more than lofty ideals shared once and then filed away. In our office, our values are LITERALLY painted on the wall. We live and breathe them every day. Our values guide our work, our attitude and our overall atmosphere of creativity and excellence.

Hire, Inspire and Fire Based on Brand Values

We often help our clients redefine their brand values when they are in the midst of change.

Whether that’s welcoming new leadership, integrating a merger or acquisition, entering new markets, or adding new products or services, having a clear set of brand values clarifies the path forward and helps guide important staffing decisions.

Sharing your values internally gives employees a chance to evaluate themselves and their work against the company brand. We’ve found this activity re-energizes great employees allowing others to self-select out when it’s no longer a good fit.

Our Values Define Our Company

Giant Voices is an ambition-based strategic marketing firm. While many marketing firms choose to specialize in a specific industry or service offering, that never made sense for the leaders of Giant Voices.

We view marketing as a full-service experience. There is never just one solution for closing a revenue or communications gap. Instead, there are many solutions and tactics that factor into a comprehensive strategy.

We’re a team of business experts who love learning about new industries, applying marketing fundamentals and figuring out all the unique complexities. There isn’t an industry we haven’t figured out how to conquer yet—and we didn’t want to limit our potential.

Plus, we have more fun this way!

We did, however, decide to specialize in the type of people we dedicate our careers to serving. It didn’t take us long to realize there is a key group of people that is aligned with our strategy. The ambitious.

Giant Clients are ambitious, business-focused teams with GIANT goals. They’re looking to expand into new markets across the globe. They want to introduce their company to altogether new demographics. They need to launch compelling new products and services.

Most of all, they’re willing to invest in a smart, strategic team to help them achieve their goals.

When clients work with Giant Voices, they get more than strategy. They get Ambition, Creativity, Excellence, Passion and Hustle. Those are our brand values.

We live them internally each day and we bring them into every aspect of our work. They drive client engagements and help us build long-lasting, successful relationships. Our brand values guide everything we do. Yours should, too.

  • Ambition – we’re driven to achieve for ourselves, our company and our clients.
  • Creativity – we’re resourceful problem solvers who find unique solutions to challenges.
  • Excellence – we’re proud of our work because we know it represents our firm.
  • Passion – we have a true love for the marketing industry and a genuine desire to help clients achieve their ambition.
  • Hustle – we show up with energy and enthusiasm, work hard every single day and go above and beyond for our clients.

That’s us in a nutshell. Who are you? Reach out today to start a conversation about how we can help you craft a powerful brand and corresponding values.

Our team of branding strategists is experienced in teasing out the attributes that make your company truly unique and transforming them into brand values that share your story.

The Secret to a Digital Strategy That Drives Revenue

Hint: a great digital strategy starts with your website!

Your website is an essential part of your business because it is a digital extension of your sales team. It welcomes new and returning visitors and introduces them to your offers, products and services.

Even if you’re not directly selling a product online, your website drives sales by giving visitors the information they need before they pick up the phone or send an email.

The Secret to a Digital Strategy That Drives Revenue | Giant Voices

A visitor’s first experience with your company is often a website visit. Your website needs to capture their attention, make a good impression and portray your company’s values clearly and accurately.

As more Millennials and Gen Z-ers move into decision making positions, it is smart to give them a chance to research and connect with your brand before they contact you. Forbes reports 62% of millennials say that if a brand engages with them digitally, they are more likely to become a loyal customer.

So, how do you create a digital strategy that will attract and convert leads?

Start by going GIANT.

Transforming Your Website for a Strong Digital Strategy

Websites communicate so much about a business. When we work with Giant Clients on their digital strategy, the first thing we consider is their website.

Is your website mobile responsive and easy to navigate?

Are you using an up-to-date website platform?

Does your website communicate your brand values?

If the answer to any of the above questions is no, there are three smart ways to address design and functionality to improve user experience on your website.

1. Site Migration

If you haven’t updated your website in a while, chances are it’s set up on an older platform. We can migrate your website—as-is—to a modern, mobile-responsive platform. This will improve the visual appeal of your website while making it easier to use on phones and tablets.

2. Updated Design

Migrating a site to a new platform, such as WordPress, may inspire you to update the look and feel of your website. Small updates to your navigation and content can go a long way to improving usability. Revisions to design may also be needed to ensure a seamless user experience.

3. Site Redesign

A complete site redesign will transform your web presence with a fresh design, streamlined navigation and optimized content that attracts and converts leads.

Don’t overlook mobile responsiveness when improving your website. More people are using mobile devices to access the Internet and HubSpot reports that one-third of people primarily access the Internet with a smartphone.

Keep in mind that Google plans to roll out a mobile-first index that will prioritize mobile-friendly sites in search results, so making sure your website is designed with mobile in mind is a smart way to get ahead of the game.

Your website is the foundation of your digital strategy and marketing efforts. It has the potential to directly improve sales performance—but there’s more to consider when it comes to increasing quality traffic and leads.

Schedule a FREE Discovery Meeting

The Giant Voices digital team is ready to take your digital strategy the next level. Our experience in website design and development, content creation, SEO solutions, digital advertising and social media helps us transform websites into sales and marketing tools that drive revenue.

Contact us to schedule a free 30-minute discovery meeting so we can learn more about each other and determine if we’re a good fit.

Are You Implementing Chatbot Technology?

One question: where is your audience? 

Social media platforms and the prominence of mobile devices have led to a shift in where audiences spend their time. As a result, brands have had to find new ways to reach their target audience.

Seemingly, content was the best way to engage with consumers and build trust in the brand by providing valuable, relevant information on a regular basis. Social platforms are now saturated with so much content that brands are finding it difficult to stand out from their competition.

Following up with prospective customers was made easier with the explosion of mobile devices and widespread access to the internet.

Email provided a way for marketers to reach consumers in a more personal space and entice them with offers as well as create a more personal style of marketing. An email addressed to the consumer with a message just for them… what’s not to love?

However, for brands using email correspondence, it has become much more difficult to stand out from the crowd.

Today, so many brands are using email that inboxes have become saturated, resulting in a lack of interest from consumers, low open rates and even lower click-through-rates. Email has become less personal as the same email is being sent to hundreds or thousands of consumers at the same time and does not reflect the individual receiving it.

The Answer? 

Does digital marketing have the answer to combat declining impact of email as well as personalization and trust issues within digital platforms? Possibly.

Chatbot technology has lifted off in the past couple years, allowing brands and businesses to create relevant, personalized messages delivered to the consumer, instantly.

So, what are chatbots and how can they improve your marketing process?

What are Chatbots?

Bots are computer programs which automate certain tasks, in the case of a chatbot, the task is to communicate effectively with human consumers. 

Chatbots use machine learning and defined rules set out by the programmer. These rules define how the bot will react to questions and interaction with the consumers.

Consumers can interact with the bot through a chat interface such as Facebook’s Messenger app or through a third-party bot service, such as Botsify, which will enable chatbot technology to be utilized on a website.

Chatbot technology allows businesses to connect with consumers on an individual level, making interactions more personal and allowing consumers to feel closer to the brands they love.

Chatbot Marketing Benefits

In this digital age, consumers are searching for meaningful, personal information which can be delivered to them at the right time and through the correct channel.

Chatbots provide consumers with a direct line of communication to brands with minimal friction. Offering consumers a helping hand and valuable advice as well as current offers and coupons they might be interested in through a chatbot allows the consumer to feel that there is always someone looking out for them.

There are numerous benefits to employing chatbots as part of your marketing strategy.

Customer Service 

By using chatbots you take away the stress of dealing with customer service inquiries, improve response times as the chatbot is available 24/7 to interact with consumers and increase customer satisfaction with the brand.

Consumer Analysis

Collect valuable data on the consumers through the language they use when interacting with a chatbot. Keywords and demographic information are valuable pieces of data that can be used to optimize future sales and marketing strategies.

Personalization

Depending on the responses programmed into the chatbot, interactions can be personal and friendly. This increases trust with the consumer. Personalized conversations with consumers in real-time are much more effective than email blasts with general messages.

Lead Nurturing

With the information chatbots can collect about a customer, marketers can create customized messaging that guides the consumer along their buyer journey. This ensures the consumer is moving in the right direction, driving higher conversion rates and more qualified leads.

Data Driven

Chatbots provide businesses with the ability to talk to individual customers in real-time, engaging in automated two-way conversations, at scale. Through these conversations, businesses can monitor and measure interactions with customers and optimize experiences.

Constant Contact

Human customer service representatives can only communicate with one consumer at a time, whereas chatbots can converse simultaneously with thousands of people. No matter the time of day or the number of people contacting your business at any given time, chatbot technology ensures each consumer is taken care of immediately.  

Additional Sales Channel

Chatbots allow businesses the ability to sell products directly from the interface. With the growth of eCommerce, consumers prefer to shop online rather than go to a store. Chatbots can serve product suggestions to consumers within the interface as well as providing the ability to check out and purchase products directly from the chatbot conversation.

Factoring chatbots into your sales and marketing processes can lead to better customer service, higher engagement rates and more sales. With more businesses using chatbots and seeing the benefits, there has been a drive towards automation of more marketing processes.

Marketing Automation & Chatbots

Marketing automation allows businesses to streamline, automate and measure marketing tasks and workflows so they can increase efficiency and grow revenue faster.

The main goal of marketing automation is to target the right customer with the right content. In order to achieve this goal, you must analyze customer data.

Name, contact information, and transactional data are critical as they allow you to build a strategy that targets customers with the right message. Through conversations with chatbots, it is relatively easy to obtain all the information you need to be successful in targeting customers.

Marketing automation also leads to enhanced efficiency. Businesses can use the consumer data to send personalized, relevant messages and offers at the most appropriate times through the ideal channels. Chatbots are a vital step in marketing automation.

Gathering consumer data, responding to questions, concerns and requests as well as suggesting products that may be ideal for the consumer are all areas which improve the customer experience.

All in all, chatbot technology can be vital to improving and maintaining a quality customer experience. Ultimately it will benefit your business by driving more qualified leads through your sales funnel.

For more information on how you can improve your marketing strategy, contact Giant Voices. We have experience in digital advertising, SEO solutions, social media and more. A few of our digital offers include:

  • Website Development
  • Website Migration
  • Website Audit
  • SEO Report
  • Digital Advertising, and more 

Contact us to learn more.

How to Attract Clients with a Mobile-Optimized Website

In today’s business landscape, your website is an essential part of your digital strategy and your sales toolkit. When was the last time you updated your website? If it’s been a while since you’ve assessed your website, you may be missing out on opportunities to attract and convert your ideal customers.

Very few modern consumers walk into a business and expect a salesperson to convince them to purchase a product. They already know what they need. Retailing Today reported that 81% of shoppers conduct online research before making big purchases.

They’re checking Amazon, Google, Bing, Yahoo and more before setting foot in a store or calling a retailer. And with more and more people accessing the Internet from phones or tablets, it is critical for your website to be fast and mobile-friendly.

Websites built on older platforms or with outdated code can be instant turnoffs to today’s customers. What do you do when a page loads slowly or looks dated?

Chances are you navigate away and find another site that provides solutions to your needs quickly and efficiently. And don’t overlook the importance of a mobile optimized website.

In their simple guide to digital strategy, HubSpot explains that our mobile devices have become our:

  • Communications hub
  • Diary
  • Entertainment portal
  • Primary source of media consumption
  • Wallet
  • And gateway to real-time information

Developing a digital strategy that incorporates mobile functionality on your website will have a large impact on your customer experience. Mobile optimized websites also rank higher in search results, so making sure your site is mobile-friendly is imperative.

If you’re wondering how your current site performs on mobile devices, check out this mobile responsiveness testing tool. You’ll be able to see how your site looks in variety of sizes to better understand your customers’ experiences when they visit your site.

So, what can you do to improve mobile functionality on your website?

We suggest taking the first step and migrating your website to a modern, mobile responsive platform. Migration increases your search engine ranking and makes it easier to use on phones and tablets.

A GIANT Approach to Mobile Optimized Websites

We often work with Giant Clients to migrate websites to a modern, mobile responsive platform. We can migrate your site, as-is, to a modern, mobile responsive platform. That means the look and feel of your website will be maintained, but it will display beautifully on mobile.

Website migration projects begin with an assessment of the website’s purpose. What is the primary thing you want visitors to do when they reach your site? How can offering a mobile optimized website make it simple for them to complete that action? Oftentimes, our clients want website visitors to:

  • Download valuable content
  • Contact the company
  • Browse and purchase products

Once we understand the website’s purpose within the business, we develop a strategy to help our clients achieve their goals through a successful migration.

If your website’s navigation, content or design need immediate updating in order to migrate, we can help there, too. Oftentimes, simply migrating addresses our clients’ immediate concerns, and additional tweaks and updates come later.

Migration Complete! What’s Next?

After your website has been migrated successfully and your mobile experience has been dramatically improved, you may want to consider more ways to improve your website’s performance.

Site design, navigation, load times, content, search engine optimization (SEO) and more all work together to craft a smooth and enjoyable mobile experience for your customers.

Simple, Clean Design

A simple, clean design will appeal to target audiences. Consumers have grown used to having information available at their fingertips, and a modern design can lead to increased traffic and performance.

Website migration doesn’t alter the look and feel of a site, but once a site is migrated, our clients often find that changes to the site’s architecture will improve functionality on both desktop and mobile platforms.

Additional website design elements to consider include:

  • Strategically placed images and/or graphics
  • A revised website color palate that complements your brand
  • Smart, user friendly navigation that helps visitors move through a website

Your website’s purpose is to guide visitors toward an end-goal with strategic calls to action—this will generate strong, qualified leads.

Clear, Concise Content

The way people read and consume content is changing in tandem with our increased use of mobile devices. Long, wordy paragraphs aren’t easy to digest on small screens. That’s why it’s important to revisit web content that wasn’t written with mobile in mind.

It’s important to review your content regularly to ensure it accurately portrays your brand and values. Addressing readability and flow will improve user experience for both desktop and mobile. Your content is your digital voice—make sure it speaks for you.

Improved Functionality

In a thorough article about mobile optimization, Moz explains that because of hardware and connectivity issues, page speed is even more important for mobile users than desktop users. 

We’re used to instant access to information and the frustration that comes with waiting. We’ve all closed out of a site that loads too slowly—make sure this isn’t the case for your site.

If you’ve noticed that your pages seem to drag, you may want to consider your current mix of images, video, browser caching, etc. Our interactive Giants know what to look for, and can optimize elements that impact page load times.

Strong SEO

Lastly, we focus on improving SEO. If a site isn’t ranking well in search results, it could mean that current SEO efforts aren’t doing the trick anymore. Developing strategic keywords and using those words throughout your website is an important part of a website migration strategy.

The Giant digital team can develop keywords, page titles, meta descriptions and image alt text that work together and drive more visits to a site.

Website Migration Services from Giant Voices

The Giant Voices digital team has the talent and experience you need to improve your digital strategy with a mobile optimized website. We’ve successfully migrated many of our clients’ website to modern, mobile friendly platforms with excellent results.

Browse some of our recent website work:

Schedule a FREE Discovery Meeting today (valued at $500). 

Time Management Tips For Entrepreneurs Who Do It All

As an entrepreneur in a fast-paced business world, this will sound familiar: you spend all your time and energy on your business, but you feel like you’re putting out fires rather than looking at strategy.

Time management means addressing day-to-day issues as they arise. You wrote a business plan years ago, and you’re not quite where you hoped you’d be… because running your business got in the way.

That’s modern business life!

At least, it is for many business owners. Through Giant Academy, I’ve coached professionals from just about every business sector and I’ve honed in on time management tips that separate the highly productive from the rest of the pack.

It all begins with prioritizing your personal well-being.

Transform Your Productivity with These Time Management Tips

Tip #1: Go to Sleep

It’s no secret that most American adults do not get enough sleep. Did you know that you should be sleeping seven to nine hours every night? When was the last time that happened?

Chances are you can’t even remember what it was like to be fully rested. Gallup reports that over 40% of American adults get less than the recommended amount of sleep each night. And the results can be dramatic: high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and cognitive impairment.

You’re not at your best when you’re not well rested. Don’t let your body and your business suffer. Make time for sleep.

Tip #2: Hit the Gym

As we get busier and busier, we look for things we can cut out of our schedules to make more time. Unfortunately, exercise is often the first thing to go.

This is really a shame because exercise ignites a wealth of ideas and creativity. Some of my best ideas have come to me out on the trails, or even when I’m churning away miles on the treadmill.

Those endorphins have such a great impact on our brains, our bodies and our productivity. And it’s more than just that.

The Mayo Clinic credits regular exercise for better weight control, mood improvement, better sleep and more. Even just 20 minutes of exercise each day will leave you feeling more alert and energized, ready to tackle tough problems and make smart decisions.

Tip #3: Eat Real Food

More protein, less sugar, fewer carbs. That’s not news, but sometimes it’s hard to follow through on this simple advice. Many of us work in offices where donuts and all sorts of baked goodies appear regularly.

You’re not going to offend your colleagues if you take a smaller slice of pie. Just remember that the sugar rush and ultimate crash is going to kill your productivity a few hours later.

Is it worth it? Most often it isn’t. And if you’re the one who provides the tasty treats, try some of these easy, healthy and office-friendly snacks instead.

Tip #4: Make Time to Play

This is one of the best secrets. Business owners who make time to play reap the benefits many times over. Scheduling business meetings over a bike ride or a round of golf kill two birds with one stone. A productivity home run.

Not only are you outside doing something you enjoy, you’re making important connections and decisions while you’re at it. But it’s not all about business.

NPR reported that play improves our social well-being. When you take the time to play with your kids and grandkids or enjoy something fun with your spouse or friends you’ll feel your stress melt away. When you’re less stressed, your productivity increases. It’s that simple.

These time management tips are just the tip of the productivity iceberg. Adopting them into your lifestyle will set you on a trajectory for success, but there is so much more to learn.