Infinite Reach Agency Search Engine Optimization Tips

A Few Basic Search Engine Optimization Tips For Business

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SEO, or search engine optimization, is a “methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine” — including sites such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Why is Search Engine Optimization Important?

Investing in organic SEO is so important – now more than ever. Your business definitely needs to have an SEO strategy in place if you’re interested in succeeding in terms of online marketing. Search engine optimization remains one of the single most important components of any organization’s branding efforts and online presence.

  • Search engines are grabbing more market share. According to Forbes, somewhere between 80-90% of customers now check online reviews prior to making a purchase, and this number is only expected to increase. I know I’m guilty of Yelping before going to any new restaurant!
    • It really won’t be long before virtually everyone is searching for products and services online. It comes down to, do you want viewers to be able to locate your business or not? Without SEO in place, people will have a hard time finding you and will instead find your competitors.
  • Your competitors are doing it. SEO is a never-ending process so you need to always be moving forward and improving your positions so that you don’t lose ground to a competitor who is. Don’t let your competitors out maneuver you by ignoring this valuable tool for your business!

Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

You should be conscious of placing appropriate keywords throughout every aspect of your site: your titles, content, URLs, and image names. Think about your keywords as search terms — how would someone looking for information on this topic search for it?

But beware: Putting ridiculous amounts of keywords on your site will get you labeled as a spammer, and search engine spiders are programmed to ignore sites guilty of “keyword-stuffing.” Be strategic in your keyword use.

Link Back to Yourself

There’s probably no more basic strategy for SEO than the integration of internal links into your site – it’s an easy way to boost traffic to individual pages.

You should make it standard to link back to your site frequently when creating new content. As with all other SEO approaches, be sure your links are appropriate, and be careful not to cross the line into excessive linking — you don’t want your visitors to get annoyed.

Image Descriptions

Adding an “ALT” tag allows you to include a keyword-rich description for every image in your blog/on your site. The visible text around your images is also valuable for SEO: add captions to all of your pictures and be descriptive with the text that’s around close your images.

Social Media Distribution

Another important SEO strategy is to distribute links of the fresh content on your site across your social networking platforms. Whether displayed on your company’s account, or recommended, re-tweeted, and re-distributed by someone else, this strategy exponentially multiplies the number of places where visitors will view your links.

Why Infinite Reach?

At Infinite Reach, we are website optimization experts! Our team has the experience of placing you exactly where you need to be on the web in order to be found.

From retargeting ads and pay per click to strategic citations and link building to optimized mobile sites, we’re there to keep you in front of your target audience so you can deliver the message you’ve crafted perfectly!

78% of website searches are done on a mobile device and that number keeps growing. Nearly every buying decision starts with an online search and what we’ve found to be true is that mobile users are constantly in “buying mode.” Get noticed. Get ranked. Get More Business.

Contact us today!

Infinite Reach Agency, Using a SWOT Analysis for your Marketing Plan

Using a SWOT Analysis for your Marketing Plan

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If you went to business school, you remember the numerous SWOT analyses you had to put together throughout your college education.  At the time, they almost seemed too simplistic, but as you moved into your career and started a business you realized how invaluable this tool really was.

A SWOT analysis is a great way to prep for your yearly or even quarterly marketing plan.  It allows you to identify new opportunities while being aware of any potential threats to not only your marketing plan but your business as a whole.  It allows you to see the full picture before laying out your plan.

Understanding your Internal Analysis

Your internal analysis will include both your company’s strengths and weaknesses.  Your strengths are going to be the internal factors that make your product or service attractive to your target audience.  This is going to be your competitive advantage, those attributes that make you stand out from the competition.  Those key parts of your business that make you better. Understanding your strengths are important because you want to eventually use those to take advantage of opportunities.

Every company is going to have some weaknesses and it’s better to outline them and understand what they are than ignore them.  What are your company’s limitations?  What areas do your competitors do better than you in?  Your weaknesses are internal factors that hold your company back from being competitive in certain areas.  Once you understand what these weaknesses are, you have the opportunity to improve in those areas and maybe even turn them into strengths.  Knowing what is holding your company back can also help identify the opportunities your company is missing out on.

Your External Analysis – Opportunities & Threats

The opportunities and threats portion of the analysis are those external factors that you have no control over.  The opportunities are those factors that could open the door for new possibilities for your company.  Knowing what these are can help you focus your marketing strategy, your resources and strengths around achieving a goal you’ve created from them.

Did a new company recently enter your market with a similar product?  Do recent changes in technology threaten to make your product or service obsolete?  These are examples of threats your company may face.  Just like weaknesses, it’s important to understand what they are so that you have time to plan how your company is going to deal with them.  They have the potential to become opportunities if you know what they are and what factors make them a threat.

Turning your SWOT Analysis into a Marketing Plan

Now that you’ve completed your SWOT Analysis you have the base of your Marketing Plan complete.   You can use your SWOT Analysis to create an outline of each of the opportunities you want to pursue.  Once you have your opportunities outlined you can build out your strategy and the tactics you are going to use to achieve those goals.  Understanding your strengths and weaknesses can also guide which strategies and tactics your company should use.  For example, maybe social media marketing has proven to be something your company is great at leveraging.  This is going to be a tactic you want to work into your marketing strategy.  If one of the threats you found was a similar company entering the market, you need to make sure your marketing plan drives home your competitive advantage and clearly lets your target audience why you are still the best option for them.

Your SWOT Analysis is only the first step in completing your Marketing Plan.  You also need to understand who your product or service is targeting and how you can reach them.  Check out our June post on “How to Define your Target Audience” for some more information on that next step in your Marketing Plan.

A Good Attitude

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Having a good attitude in the workplace is essential to success in the business world, and in marketing in particular. People enjoy and want to connect more with someone who is open and friendly, that allows them to feel at ease.

What is a good attitude?

A person who is cheerful and makes the best of all situations, bad or good, is an example of a good attitude and someone you want to have around. Their positive outlook is contagious and lifts up everyone around them.

This type of attitude is ready to work, willing to do their best, has understanding and sees the best in others. When the day is full of problems or a lot of tedious work, a person with a good attitude helps to relieve the stress and take off the pressure of a heavy workload.

A good attitude can build team morale and encourage the rest of the team to try harder as well. In brainstorming for new ideas, a positive attitude goes a long way in inspiring others to bring forth their thoughts and encourage them to be willing to share, even if their ideas are way outside of the box. A positive person is creative and willing to put in the effort that leads to success.

Attitude Over Skills

According to Forbes.com,  attitude is much more important than a person’s skill set. In fact, in a study of 20,000 new hires, 89% of the time, they were let go for reasons based on attitude as opposed to lack of skill in their position.

This statistic shows why an employer place such a high priority on the potential hire’s attitude. Sometimes, people get hired even when they don’t have the required skills because they display such an enthusiastic attitude about learning a new skill; a great encouragement to the business owner.

attitude

Personal Benefits

There are also personal benefits to having a good attitude. People who are positive and willing to put in effort are seen as confident and capable. They are motivated and see the positive in situations that others would deem as impossible or a failure in progress. To read more about self-confidence, check out our blog, Want to Sound More Confident at Work?

On the website, Successconciousness.com, “A positive attitude helps you cope more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worries and negative thinking.” This type of attitude can increase your well-being and see opportunities more readily and clearly.

Be Positive

It is never too late to have a good attitude! The benefits of learning to think this way will help you not only in the workplace, but in your everyday life as well. It can help you to make new friends, take chances on a new venture or even just pass the time a little easier when the day is moving slowly.

Start today just by being grateful. This can quickly put you in a better mind set as you think of all of the good in your life. Or, go out of your way to be kind or encouraging to someone else. Being uplifting can put a smile on both of your faces!

 

 

 

Infinite Reach Facebook page likes blog post

How to Increase your Facebook Page Likes

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Now that you have created your Facebook Business page, you may be wondering how to build a following and get Facebook page likes. Well, unfortunately there is no one, simple trick to gain followers. It takes time and commitment. You have to be dedicated to providing your fans with quality content and a reason to engage with your brand. These tips will help you get started growing your following.

Fill Out Your Page Completely

When you create your business page make sure you complete all the sections. People want to know who you are and what you are all about. On your ‘About’ page, make sure you include a complete description of your business, along with your website, address, and your hours of operation. The more information you give your audience, the more chances you have of connecting with fans.

Another aspect of your page that you should pay special attention to is your profile picture and cover photo. These images are often the first thing people see when they come to your page, so you want to make sure that they look professional, and are in keeping with your brand.

Promote Your Page Outside of Facebook

Once you have created your page, you will want to let your current clients, customers, and friends know about it. There are many ways to promote your page outside of Facebook. The first thing you should do is include a link to your page to your email signature. This is usually very easy to do, a quick google search on “how to add a Facebook link” to your email platform will provide you with plenty of information on how to install the link.

The second thing you can do to promote your page outside the platform, is to include a Facebook link on your website. There are several ways you can do this. You can add it to the header and footer of your pages, or place it in the top corner of the page, depending on your current layout. You can also include a link to your Facebook page in your blog posts. The easier you make it for people to get to and like your page, the more likely you are to grow your following.

When it comes to growing your fan base, the key is to promote, promote, promote! The more you promote your Facebook page, the more people will see it. You can promote your business page on your other social platforms. You can add links to your Facebook page in you twitter posts, and in your Google+ updates. Including a link to your Facebook page in your LinkedIn profile can be invaluable in reaching like minded people to connect with on your Facebook page. After all, you are already connected on LinkedIn, so you must have some things in common already. It is easier to convert those who are already interested, or those who feel they have a connection to you and your brand.

There are many ways to gain followers on Facebook. When you are trying to gain an initial following, the more your fans know about you, the better. The more connected they feel to you, the more connected they will feel to your brand. Now get out there, promote your new Facebook Business page and grow your following!

infinite-reach-sustainable-business-practices-green-keyboard

The Benefits of Sustainable Business Practices

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Has your business gone green? It seems these days, certain aspects of doing business are almost a necessity. Treating your employees well ensures they’ll do their best work, and treating your clients well ensures they’ll remain loyal and let you turn a profit. But what about how you treat the very land you do business on? Sure, you may already have a recycling bin next to your garbage, but truly sustainable business practices can have benefits that you may not know about. Here’s what going green can do for you:

Save Money

You’ve probably heard this one before: sustainable practices, while sometimes costly up front, can actually save you a considerable amount in the long run. Things like going paperless may not be feasible immediately, but sometimes even switching to recycled nfinite-reach-sustainable-business-practices-paperpaper or printing everything two-sided can be a step in the right direction. No matter what, all these practices cut done on your company’s footprint as well as paper costs.

There are also other ways going green can save you some green, such as the incentives offered by state and federal governments for sustainable practices. This article from business.com includes more information about these tax breaks, and other ways that working sustainably can cut down on your costs.

Broaden Your Appeal

We’ve written before about defining your target audience, but sustainable practices might actually help you expand your potential client list. Multiple surveys have shown that consumers are more likely to choose companies with green reputations and willing to pay a little bit more for environmentally responsible goods and services. That means your target audience will diversify and you can connect with customers who also have the best interests of the planet at heart.

Round Out your Brand

Adopting sustainable business practices can also give a boost to your web presence, content, and marketing strategies. Some companies have a whole section of their website dedicated to highlighting their sustainable initiatives, and this is a great way to stand out infinite-reach-sustainable-business-practices-buildingfrom competitors. From a marketing standpoint, it’s another way to tout your company’s achievements and another line that will sweeten your sales pitch. If your brand identity includes sustainability, you should harness that to let your clients and potential clients know. It can be an important part of your company culture and personality.

Consumers want to know the people behind the goods and services, and showing your love for the planet is a great way to instill your business with a sense of compassion and human empathy. In other words, the more someone learns about what you’ve done, the more they’ve learned about you, and the more they’ll want to work with you.

So Where to Start?

Becoming a more sustainable business can seem like a daunting task, but never fear. There a lot of ways to reduce your environmental footprint, and many of them come down to simple changes executed over time. For example, as mentioned before, going paperless is a process that doesn’t need to happen overnight. Searching for more sustainable facilities can take time, but will be worth it in the end; even changing to LED bulbs only happens one light at a time!

For many businesses, a one-size-fits-all approach simply isn’t going to cut it. Instead, different sized companies working in different industries at different levels of the supply chain must find unique solutions to these challenges. A good place to start is the guides we’ve found here from the Network for Business Sustainability. After hitting home again why sustainable business practices are good for your company, NBS outlines three different strategies for Small-to-Medium sized businesses in different sectors: Manufacturing, Service, and Retail. These guides break down the many challenges, opportunities, and resources available for any business, and can be a great asset if we’ve convinced you that going green really can help.

Infinite Reach Agency, Kristi Church Panel Speaker, Million Dollar Series Event

Kristi Church Panel Speaker – PRESS RELEASE – October 7, 2016

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Kristi Church, CEO of Top Phoenix Digital Agency Infinite Reach attends the Million Dollar Business Series as a Panel Speaker.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHOENIX, October 7, 2016: Yesterday morning, local women business owners were invited to gather at the Burton Barr Central Library for a complimentary Million Dollar Business Series event.  The event focused on information and strategies for women business owners, and featured a panel discussion with experts like Kristi Church, Co-founder and CEO of Infinite Reach Agency. Church touched on topics such as harnessing social media for businesses.

The event was hosted by Susan Brooks, Owner and Founder of Business Solutions for Women Business Owners, whom Church has called “a dear friend and colleague.” Church’s fellow panelists are Rachel Dahl, Owner & Creative Director of Dahl Design Studio and Ilana Lowery, Editor in Chief of Phoenix Business Journal. The main goal of the event was to exchange ideas between the panelists and the audience, and the sharing of information to increase both visibility and sales for women business owners.

Infinite Reach Agency, Kristi Church Panel Speaker, Susan Brook's Million Dollar Series Event     Infinite Reach Agency, Kristi Church Panel Speaker, Susan Brook's Million Dollar Series Event

Church, who also recently opened the body-healthy Mogollon Moose Bakery in Payson, Arizona, drew on a long career in internet marketing to share her first-hand knowledge and take a “deep dive” into the benefits of social media for “increas[ing] your visibility with both clients and potential customers.” Infinite Reach Agency, which she is the sole owner and proprietor of, has recently seen tremendous growth: from 6 clients in 2014 to 23 clients and counting last year. Her staff of 11 is predominantly women, and she will draw on her leadership and mentoring experience to inform the panel discussion.

In addition to Infinite Reach Agency and Mogollon Moose, Church regularly lends her expertise to the Phoenix Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) as Marketing Director, the non-profit Women’s Enterprise Foundation (WEF) as Marketing Chair, and the community organization Partners for Paiute (PfP) as Treasurer & Marketing Director.

About Infinite Reach Agency: Infinite Reach is a full service marketing and visual communications agency located in central Phoenix. Their clients receive everything from SEO-driven web content to website design and corporate photography. The staff of Infinite Reach has over 125 years of combined professional experience.

http://infinitereachagency.com/

Media Contact:

Kristi Church
Phoenix, AZ, 85016
Telephone: (602) 535-2188
Email: kristi@infinitereachagency.com
Website: http://infinitereachagency.com/

Are You an Entrepreneur?

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An entrepreneur, according to definition, is a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. It is a French word for ‘one that undertakes’. Does this definition describe you?

Running Your Own Business

In order to run your own business, you must have an entrepreneurial spirit. A person who shies away from risk or does not want to take any initiative on their own will have a very hard time jumping into the arena of the business world.

Many people want to run their own businesses these days. They have ideas, and they want to get them out there and share them with the rest of the world.

Sharing your ideas is essentially sharing a part of yourself and risking being vulnerable with others. Not everyone will need your product or service or even like your ideas. Part of being an entrepreneur is understanding this fact and moving beyond it, knowing that there are customers who do need you and what you have to offer.

The Ups and Downs

One of the nice things about working for yourself is that you get to be your own boss. You are in charge of everything! And, the downside of working for yourself is that, yep, you guessed it- you are in charge of everything!

There are the freedoms of creating the vision, making the important decisions and doing what you want to do. Then there are the days of taking care of all the details that seem tedious and mundane, but after all you are the boss. You get to crunch numbers and create a budget and promote yourself to gain a following.

entrepreneur

Selling Your Ideas

Before you go about trying to sell your idea, whether product or service, you need to determine who it is that you are trying to sell to. This will help you decide how to market yourself and in what way. Without making this decision, you are basically throwing money into the wind and hoping that someone will grab it.

Networking with other people and groups is also very valuable. Doing this can help you to find supporters, advisors and partners to help you in your business venture. You never know who you might meet; someone you sit next to may end up being a main client or referral for business prospects.

Marketing Yourself

Marketing is the driving force behind sharing your ideas. The way you market yourself can determine if you will gain attention for your business or if you will get passed by. It is important that your marketing and branding be consistent with your product and service, so that people know what they are getting from you.

This can also help build rapport with your clients, as they see who you are and come to expect a certain level of quality and professionalism from you. Your marketing will allow your business to become known for the vision and characteristics that you outlined for yourself in the very beginning. For more on marketing and branding, read our blog, What to Include in Your Brand Guideline.

You Can Do It!

It’s wonderful to get your business established and out in the open. It takes an entrepreneur’s determination and motivation, but it also takes a lot of hard work, time and courage. Anyone who undertakes starting their own business knows that there are good and bad sides to venturing out on your own, but it is worth the risk!

Your Quick Guide to the Adobe Creative Suite, Infinite Reach Agency

Your Quick Guide to the Adobe Creative Suite

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As a small business owner you tend to have to become a jack of all trades, especially when you first start out.  That means doing your own billing, accounting, hiring and even marketing.  With marketing comes the need for ads, websites and collateral, all of which require you to dig into the Adobe Creative Suite.  These are the programs that professional graphic designers use and they aren’t always easy to navigate, but once you get past that you need to know which program is going to be right for the job.

This quick guide will give you some basic information on which programs you will need for each of your graphic design needs.

Adobe Photoshop

Out of all of the products in the Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop is probably the most well-known.  This program is raster based, meaning the images are made up of tiny squares called pixels. This makes Photoshop ideal for editing photos.  Our photography team often uses Photoshop in conjunction with another Adobe program called Lightroom.  This program acts more as an “image management program” and allows you to organize photos and place them into categories.  There are some photo editing capabilities within this program, but they are limited compared to Photoshop, that’s why we use the programs together.

Your Quick Guide to the Adobe Creative Suite, Infinite Reach Agency, Raster Vs. Vector Image

Photoshop is also good for creating digital ads, designing mock-ups of projects like websites or even smaller tasks like resizing or cropping an image.  It’s also used for more complex designs like heavy photo editing or image manipulation for an advertisement.

As I mentioned before, Photoshop is a widely known product, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only program you’re going to need to create all of your marketing collateral.

Adobe Illustrator

Your Quick Guide to the Adobe Creative Suite, Infinite Reach Agency, Illustrator

I consulted with one of the graphic designers on our team, and she said this is her go-to application when working on projects because of how easy the program makes changing image sizes and also moving graphics around.

Illustrator unlike Photoshop is vector based which means that when you zoom into the image it will stay smooth with no pixilation like a raster image.  That means when you need to create your logo, this is going to be the application you want to use.  Other common graphics will be icons, charts, infographics, and packaging design.

Vector images and Illustrator in general tend to also be more forgiving if you need to go back and make any changes.  It will also provide a high resolution which is going to be ideal especially when you are creating a logo.

Adobe InDesign

Your Quick Guide to the Adobe Creative Suite, Infinite Reach Agency, InDesign

The InDesign application was designed with printed materials in mind and is considered a publishing program.  If you’re trying to create a branded proposal, brochure or booklet, or any project that has multiple pages, you will want to use InDesign.

Unlike the other two programs, InDesign has tools that help with layout rather than graphic creation.  One of these tools is the master page which is good for booklets and document creation.  This allows you to select a master document and apply that template to multiple pages.  The program also allows for multiple master pages, so if only a certain set of pages needs to be the same you can have different master pages to account for that.

In short, InDesign is best for written content and organizing lots of text and also projects like brochures that will eventually go to print.

These are just some of the programs within the Adobe Creative Suite, but they are three of the main programs to get you started on creating marketing collateral for your business.  Another item to remember when creating marketing collateral is brand consistency, check out one of my other blogs to learn more on why that’s so important!

infinite reach instagram social media take over

Instagram Is Taking Over Social Media – Do You Agree?

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If you’re not addicted to checking your Instagram feed at least five times a day, you probably know a few people who are. Instagram is quickly becoming the most popular social media app – not only for its ability to share photos, but because it’s become more of a network. It’s great for new membership growth, for social sharing, for ad sales, for engagement and so much more.

This social media app was launched in 2010. Look how far it has come in just six years:

  • Instagram is growing 5X faster than social media in general.
  • Earlier this year, they announced the user community reached more than 500 million users.
  • More than 300 million people use Instagram every day.
  • 80 million photos and videos are shared daily. (Insane!)
  • According to eMarketer research, 51.8% of social network users will use Instagram by 2017. (Which is not too far off from right now. I can’t believe it’s already September!)

Instagram For Business

“Instagram lets you bring your business to life on mobile. And now, Business Tools give you the ability to stand out, learn more about your followers and reach more customers on Instagram.”

instagram for business

This social networking site is a place to share photos and videos with friends and family, but also where businesses can grow and thrive. If you’re trying to raise awareness of your business, get people to your website or store, or even sell more products, this is the place to go.

Selling

If you’ve been a true Insta fan since day one like myself, you’d know that there are way more ads than there used to be. Through endless scrolling of the app on my phone, I’ve noticed myself stopping a lot more times just to see what exactly the “Sponsored” ad is this time that’s interrupting my scroll. This is because the network opened their ad platform to many Facebook Marketing Partners, such as Hootsuite and Kenshoo.

Through the new providers, marketers and brands, both big and small, are able to buy ads and start reaching out to Instagram users via ad content. Now that there’s a massive audience on this social network alone, there’s money to be made. After Instagram made this announcement, brands quickly discovered its selling power – especially eCommerce companies, more specifically those who target millennials.

“Electronic commerce or Ecommerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet” (Source). Instagram’s engaged audience is ideal for Ecommerce because you can directly market something to them by placing something visually striking in front of a person’s very eyes.

instagram stats

Once you see the “Sponsored” ad, you also see call to action buttons such as “Shop Now,” “Install Now,” “Sign Up,” and “Learn More.” This explains why, according to Yotpo.com, 30% of Instagram users have purchased products discovered on Instagram. Ads seem to be really working!

instagram ad guide

You Can Now Zoom

Instagram has taken a step towards fixing its photo and video size problem by installing a new feature – pinch-to-zoom. This allows people to finally take closer look at the images and videos that their followers post on this social media site. This small addition was something the world has been asking for for months! It truly does keep getting better.

Personally, Insta is my go-to app when I need my social media fix. It’s fun, interactive and let’s you be completely creative. For years it’s been making their users happy, and now, consumer brands happy as well. Take advantage of all this app/site has to offer.

How do you use Instagram? Whether it’s for personal use or for your business, I’d love to read about it in the comments!

 

How to Tell Your Company’s Origin Story, and Why

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People love a good story, and especially a good origin story. It’s a form that has persisted in many cultures for centuries, from the Book of Genesis right up to the latest film to reboot a superhero franchise. The popularity of this form is something you—and your business—can harness in several ways to help both you and your clients.

Why You Should Tell Your Story

Every company has one: a spark, a handshake, a moment when the idea became a reality. Some, like the building of the first Apple computer in Steve Wozniak’s garage, or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg hacking the Harvard network, are well documented, even in feature films. Others—like these 10 outlined by Forbes—might be stranger than you think. The appeal of the origin story has even prompted some companies to fabricate an interesting anecdote as a PR strategy. We don’t recommend this course, obviously, but it just goes to show the power of a well-told narrative.

Your company origin story:

  • Highlights some if your company’s unique traits
  • Lends a personal touch to your webpage and other content
  • Conveys your company values and how they’ve evolved from your history
  • Is a key part of your brand guideline, as we’ve written about in this post
  • Helps you stand out from competitors
  • Entertains as well as informs
  • Provides a break from other, the more sales-focused content, AND
  • Gives the readers, your potential clients, a chance to get to know your business and insert themselves into your story

 

How to Tell Your Story

We’ve established that telling your origin story is vital for your company, but telling it well is just as important. A poorly told story could confuse readers or convey the wrong messages about your business, both things you want to avoid when attracting customers! These tips will give you some guidelines when adding this vital aspect to your brand.

Keep it Simple

As Lewis Carroll wrote, “Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Nobody wants to read a complex tale that involves extraneous details, overlong explanations or lots of jumping around. Only include the aspects relevant to your business. If you run an Italian restaurant based on the cooking your great-grandparents brought to America, some background on them is great, but a whole family tree might be unnecessary. If you founded a tech startup, your early days tinkering in the garage can be interesting, but a full list of your science fair projects is too much.

Make it Stand Out

Something you may not have considered is keeping your origin story in its own special place on your website. This can mean a subsection of your “About” page, or front and center if the page is all-in-one. You’ll notice that at Infinite Reach, we keep our “About Us” separate from our “Services” page, in order to highlight the difference. Readers want to know what you do, but they also want to know who you are. Keeping your origin story distinct from the description of your business ensures this invaluable part of your company identity isn’t lost on potential clients.infinite-reach-company-origin-story-about-us

Cover the Basics

In this article, tech.co outlines a few questions to ask yourself when considering your story and how to tell it. They include: Who are you? Why did you start this business? And, How do you do [what you do] differently than others? These questions form a helpful guide that will ensure readers of your story will get the full picture of your company’s background and unique traits.

Speaking of Pictures, Use Them!

More and more, integrating visual aspects to any marketing strategy is becoming essential, and the origin story is no different. The images are a great way to show the human face of your business, especially its humble beginnings. Share a photo of the ribbon-cutting at your first location, the prototype of your first product, or the employee’s dog that became your unofficial mascot. The personal aspect and values of your company will come across in these images.

Better yet, try video! A short clip of your company’s founders discussing how their passion grew into the current business is a dynamic way to get the story across. In this article, Steve Jurveston (the venture capitalist behind Hotmail and Tesla Motors, among others) says he always films early meetings with company founders when considering investments, knowing the value of someone’s vision as told in their own words.

Keep it Going

Your story is never finished—it’s constantly evolving. Update the page with any progress you’ve made, use recent images to show how you’ve grown from the beginning, and emphasize a look toward the future. Your story is a great way to invite potential clients and customers to join you in the next chapter.