Brand recognition and awareness are an essential part of building credibility with customers. They also are vital elements that increase sales. That is why demand generation and corporate branding are two peas in a pod; one cannot do without the other when it comes to the growth and success of the business.

Some might think of marketing companies like Muze Creative as unnecessary, but this could not be further from the truth. Below are three essential reasons stakeholders and company founders should invest in brand marketing.

1: Brand Marketing Builds Credibility

People are inclined to buy products or services from companies that they know and trust. Take the examples of reputable businesses such as Amazon, Starbucks, and Apple, or even B2B companies such as GE and Intel. That is how brand credibility becomes a vital component in today’s competitive market; it will give your business that competitive edge.

It is necessary for marketing heads in a business that is in its growth and expansion phase or is a start-up to positions the company’s brand as a market leader. Moreover, they should leverage the founders’ profiles to create a positive perception for the brand.

CEOs are the face of the company; as such, they play an essential role in building the business’ image and credibility. They are viewed as the “thought” leaders who guide the employees. The staff, on the other hand, are the guardian of the company brand. They are accountable for maintaining the business’ reputation within the industry as they interact with clients and customers.

Never forget that a brand’s credibility and reputation are very fragile elements. The gender bias issues that pegged United Airlines after yanking a passenger from the seat to Uber’s sexual harassment case and the recent dead puppy incident are all perfect examples of issues that dent a company’s image and brand reputation and credibility.

Recovering from the damage that such scandals cause is expensive. However, with market credibility, you can rise above the dark clouds, if there is transparency, a show of empathy to the affected customers, and a fast and lasting solution to the problem.

2: Brand Marketing Attracts Investors

All company leaders, including the founders, should continuously invest in finding financiers that advocate for and support growth and exit strategies. Every prudent investor will view the business holistically before pouring in any money. They will not only evaluate the company’s reputation, but also assess the founders’ and CEOs’ credibility, the business’ financial performance, and its products or services before they make their investment decisions.

Investors will look at a company and what it has to offer. For most seasoned investors, a brand had to be bigger than being a representation of a product/service. Companies should exude a depth that transcends the focus on a specific solution for the masses.

Most companies are quick to distance themselves from their past mistakes. Startups and growth-phase businesses will have high praises for their products/services and not for the issues or challenges they are trying to solve. A company build on its products or services and not a problem it seeks to answer will not manage to handle a pivot that well. Most, if not all, startups will pivot at some point.

That is another reason for startups to invest in creating a corporate brand; something that customers and prospects can believe in and trust. It calls for establishing a robust support system for the business with trustworthy leadership.

View the company’s brand as a home. The more you invest in its maintenance and doing some renovations when and where needed, the more you preserve or even increase its value. Equally, the more you invest in corporate branding, the higher the company’s equity.

3: Brand Marketing Engages Customers

With today’s commerce having to embrace the digital age for its to thrive, more and more B2B buying decisions must be based on this fact. Many of the B2B buyers are empowered and informed consumers. How businesses interact with customer and vendors alike has changed. And CIOs are no longer the elite influencers of buying decisions.

Forrester, a business analyst firm did a survey that shows 90% of companies start their procurements with doing research. 74% of these businesses will conduct their research online, whether making an offline or online purchase.

According to the survey, most B2B customers will base their decision on their research findings. Many of them engage with the suppliers directly once they are more than halfway through the customer journey. Such a stage is too late for any business to influence decision making. Interestingly, digital engagement will take place right from the get-go.

Being able to read the customers’ “digital body language” make it easier for companies to serve them better. In doing so, businesses can come up with and deliver personalised, relevant solutions. It significantly bolsters customer relations, experiences, and enables the sales team to have more influence over their decisions making.

It all points to the need for marketers to design strategies that not only engage but also educate their target consumers as opposed to being a “sales tactic”. The marketing or promotional content should, therefore, be exciting and optimised for digital searches.

The national concern about children that are spending a lot more time indoors than they should have heightened to such extremes that it now has a name: Nature Deficit Disorder.

While naming this as a type of disorder may be rhetorical, it is very obvious that children spend a lot more time indoors when compared to outside. This particular shift is mainly caused by technology. The typical American child is estimated to spend around 4 to 7 minutes daily playing outdoors, and more than 7 hours daily in front of screens.

The increasing fears of parents about dangers and diseases linked to playing outdoors, despite evidence that proves otherwise, is another large factor.

And while the exurbs and suburbs continue to grow, nature has become even more parcelled off, and children appear to be less inclined or even willing to spend their time in fenced-in gardens, let alone even contemplate taking a walk in a nearby park or the woods, or jumping over a wall to visit a neighbour, or even visiting places like Wildwood Adventures. Rather, the indoor activities appear to be safer, easier (no sunscreen needed), and in some cases a lot more sociable, especially for children that already have their own social media accounts or participate in multiplayer video games.

Reasons to Go Outdoors

Many studies recently have shown the benefits and even the necessities of spending more time outside, for both adults and children. While it may not be clear exactly how the mood improvements and cognitive functioning occurs, there are still some things we already know about when it comes to explaining why nature happens to be great for the minds of children.

1. It Develops Confidence

The way in which children play when they are outdoors is far less structured when compared to many of the indoor play types. There are limitless ways in which to interact with environments outdoors, from a lake to a hiking trail, to a park, or a backyard and allowing your kids to make a decision on how they want to interact with their surroundings means you are giving them the responsibility to control their own actions.

2. It Promotes Imagination and Creativity

This play style that is usually unstructured also paves the way for children to interact in a meaningful way when it comes to their surroundings. They are able to think more clearly and freely, think up ideas for their own preferred activities, and to approach their surroundings in more inventive ways.

3. Spending Time Outdoors Teaches Responsibility

Living things will perish when they are not cared for in the correct way or mistreated. Entrusting kids to care for parts that are living in their surrounding environments offers the child a way to learn what will happen if they pull a plant out by the roots or they forget to water their flowers.

4. It Provides Stimulation That is Different

Nature may appear to be a lot less stimulating when compared to many video games of today, but the truth of the matter is that nature activates a lot more senses. Children are able to touch, feel, smell, and hear outdoor environments. Louv warns that as the younger generation spends less of their time in surroundings that are natural, their senses are narrowing. This lowers the richness and joys of many human experiences.

5. It Gets Kids Active

Many of the ways in which we interact with nature will involve far more exercise and activity than sitting indoors. It is not necessary to enrol your child into a soccer team, or a bike club, even a walk outdoors gets the blood pumping. Exercise is not only good for health but it helps with concentration and staying more focused, which is extremely advantageous for children with ADHD.

6. It Gets Children to Think

Louv states that nature is linked to a “sense of wonder” that is unique for children, that none of the other environments are able to provide. The typical phenomena which go on naturally in woods, parks, and even in our gardens, encourages children to start asking questions about our earth along with the amazing life that this world supports.

7. It Lowers Fatigue and Stress

The Attention Restoration Theory states that the environments that are urban require something known as directed attention, which will force us to disregard distractions which in turn exhausts the brain. When out in nature we naturally practice what is known as soft fascination which is an effortless form of attention which promotes feelings of joy and pleasure, and not stress and fatigue.

Despite the fact that screen time seems like a more popular and easier choice, it is essential to set aside enough time for playing outdoors.

Do you want to increase the overall sales in your business? Thinking about implementing a digital marketing strategy to do so? If that is the case, then according to Stopgap, digital marketing is truly the way to go since its general impact on sales and conversions is tremendous. With that said, we will now look at some specific benefits of digital marketing for businesses.

1. Improves Engagement

Digital marketing actually improves engagement with your business and as a result, more people will learn about your products and services. As a result, your overall target audience will increase in numbers, which means that a higher percentage will convert into paying customers.

2. You Get a Higher Conversion Rate

Since you will have a larger audience as mentioned above, a higher number of people will turn into customers, increasing your conversion rate. E-commerce success is greatly affected by conversion rate and this is one metric that needs to improve for more business.

3. Interaction with Mobile Users

With digital marketing, you will be able to directly reach out to mobile users. As a result, you will be able to target a whole new segment of the market and significantly increase your business’s interaction with this group.

4. Become More Competitive

If you use digital marketing properly, you can position your business so that it is seen as a very reputable company with extremely high quality products and services. As a result, this will make your business more unique and positively affect your sales, leading to a competitive advantage. So, it is best to determine your business’s unique selling points and then use digital marketing to display them.

5. Cost-Effective

One of the best things about digital marketing strategies is that they can be extremely cost-effective. As a result, you can effectively grow your business while actually reducing your overall costs. Even with a lower marketing budget, you can still get excellent business results and increase your sales and revenue.

6. Be Able to Reach a Wider Audience

In this day and age, more people are turning online in order to look for specific types of companies, products and services. As a result, once you do digital marketing, you will be able to reach this new target audience.

7. Increase Awareness of Your Brand

Through digital marketing, more people will learn about your business and this will directly improve brand awareness. This is actually quite fast through digital marketing and the more your brand is known, the more customers you will receive.

8. Results That Are Easy to Measure

Thanks to the internet, it is now easy to check the results of your digital marketing campaigns and see how your sales are doing. As a result, you can easily measure results and then adjust your campaigns so that you increase your profitability.

9. Customer Service Is Now Real-Time

With digital marketing, it is now possible to talk directly to customers instantly. This sort of easy and frequent interaction will help to develop a very strong relationship with your customers. As a result, you can easily find out what they need and craft your products and services to suit them. This is extremely powerful and will ensure your clients remain loyal to your business.

10. Greater Interconnection

It is forecast that due to the internet, the world will increasingly become interconnected as time goes by. So, it is absolutely essential that your business adapts or else you won’t be able to compete. Thanks to digital marketing, it is now possible to compete with large corporations and it is truly your key to success.

Closing Thoughts

When it comes to running a business you must always look for new ways to improve your sales. As a result, digital marketing is your best option as it has a huge amount of potential and can enable you to build your business and become a lot more successful over time.

You want to know, after spending loads of money on furniture, that it will be maintained in the very best possible condition. You may have bought it yourself, an antique you purchased for a bargain or something that was handed down to you by preceding family generations. At some point in time, furniture starts looking bad due to gradual wear, and you may have a choice of letting it get degraded, or you can repair it. To give you a better understanding of what you require, we have come up with a summary of 4 main furniture repair types for you.

General Repairs

First of all, there are general furniture repairers. These are the people you need if you have a warped metal, some wood splintering or general wear and tear needing some fix. This includes doing chair or table legs replacement or doing general repairs to damage on the furniture structure. A general furniture repair also encapsulates resurfacing, which provides for sanding old surfaces or stripping, filling holes and gaps with wood fillers and refinishing them with varnish, stain, polish, paint, wax, or lacquer. While the primary skill involved in general furniture repairs are carpentry and woodworking, other elements can be involved as well.

Re-upholstery

Upholstery can be said to fall under general furniture repairs except for the fact that this sort of repair is exclusively limited to padding, structural damage and coverings. Usually, the old pads and covers will be removed then structural repairs done first. Upon the piece being sound, they’ll make a new set of coverings and padding according to your design and specs. Coverings are typically created from leather or fabric, and the upholsterer will have to craft a new pad for the furniture before being covered, which requires a high level of skill and specialisation. A competent upholsterer has an in-depth knowledge of fabric and also a good understanding of woodwork.

Antique Restoration

There are furniture repair companies that specialise specifically in the restoration and repair of antique furniture. This sort of restoration needs a lot of knowledge, skill and experience and not to mention the appropriate equipment for handling delicate pieces. Most restorers do the small repairs on-site, but bigger projects will be done in-house in their very own workshops. An antique restoration covers everything from sofas and chairs to sideboard, dining room tables, bookshelves and so much more.

Buying and Reselling

This sort of business may not be of much use to the end consumer, but it’s a resource for auction houses and antique dealerships. This restorer makes a living by buying old furniture and antiques, repair ad restore them and then sell it later on for a small profit. This business makes sure that top quality antiques are on sale and offers good value to the second-hand market.

Choose a professional like the Abbey Group when it comes to re-upholstering and repairing furniture or restoring antique furniture of all sizes and shapes. Experts will appreciate and understand those unique items we feel we treasure most.

So you’ve completed your HGV training, and you feel you’re more than ready to take the practical test? If that’s the case, it pays to know a couple of things before you take the practical test. For starters, you need to know that the exam takes about one and a half hours. The test is divided into four parts: the tell me-show me questions, the reversing exercise, the controlled stop test and finally the road drive. While your instructor must have told you everything you need to pass, here are some extra tips to guarantee the results you want:

1. Plan Ahead

Don’t wait for the day of the test to get ready. Have a plan and polish your skills by reminding yourself of some of the basics. And don’t forget to visit the HGV Driver Training Centre; you don’t need to know the test route but it will help to know where you’re meant to sign in and to get to know the roads around there. 

2. Make progress

This is crucial, where it’s safe to do so, make progress. You need to demonstrate you understand the speed limit and that you can keep up with other vehicles.

3. Make use of the reversing marker

Using a marker at the rearmost part of the truck will help you get the back of the truck into the box without any trouble. Of course, your instructor should guide you on this.

4. Carry your licence

Make sure you carry your theory test certificate as well as your licence. Leaving these items at home will mean no test for you.

5. Pre-drive

Training for hours will do you more harm than good, but a 40-60 min pre-drive is precisely what you need to be fresh and ready for the test.

6. Mirrors! Mirrors! Mirrors!

Always use the mirrors. Use them before moving off, changing gear, reversing, speeding up and even slowing down.

7. Gears to go. Brakes to slow

Don’t use the gears to slow, it might cost you the test. A competent driver will always use the brakes to slow down before proceeding to select an appropriate gear.

8. Know the test area

You might not know the route you’ll use during the test. But you’ll have an advantage if you’re familiar with the test area.

9. Stopping

You will be required to stop the vehicle a couple of times when it’s safe to do so. When asked to stop, don’t take forever to do so. Stop as soon as you can but of course, do it safely, engage the handbrake, select neutral and turn off the indicator.

10. Face forward

Make use of the steps and handrails when mounting and dismounting and do so while facing forward.

11. Be energised

Have enough rest the day before the test. So go to bed early.

12. Drive smoothly

Don’t forget that the examiner is also human. They will appreciate a controlled smooth drive like anyone else.

13. Be careful of how you meet oncoming traffic

Be ready to slow down and even stop when meeting oncoming traffic, including large vehicles. It’s easier to have more control of awkward situations when you are moving slowly or are stationary.

14. Perform a vehicle check

It pays to do a vehicle check before taking your test. Please make use of tell me-show me questions when doing the inspection.

15. Seat belt

Always put on your safety belt when driving but take it off when doing the reversing exercise because it only gets in the way.

16. Mirrors, again!

Again, remember to check the mirrors as well as blind spots when moving off from a stationary positions.

17. Dress for the occasion

You don’t need to dress like you’re going to a corporate meeting! But pick your attire carefully. Comfortable work boots and outfit does the trick.

18. Don’t let mistakes throw you off your game

You can commit several minor faults during the practical test and still pass the LGV practical driving test. But that is only possible if you don’t dwell on these mistakes. If you make any mistake, move on and concentrate on your driving because dwelling on mistakes will likely throw you off your game and lead to more errors.

19. Reversing Exercise

If you take a shunt, you can take up to two shunts, make use of that. If you must get out, you can do it once. Use this chance to confirm that you placed the rear of the truck in the right place.

20. Switch off your mobile phone!

Are you itching to bring out the best of your party-planning personality? It is essential to have that friend who understands everything about throwing a killer party as it often comes in handy. While most people like to attend these killer parties, very few have what it takes to plan and host a similar party.

Planning a party or event, you wish to be invited to. Well, here are some tips that may come in handy.

Come Up With Something New

Everyone fancies new ideas occasionally, and it may best apply if you plan for a new idea or concept in your upcoming party. Welcome the concept of having educative games or sessions at a party so that your guests can experience something new and different. If you are returning home after several years abroad, you can plan your welcome-home party that features a travelling theme.

Think of making authentic dishes of the countries you have visited over the years. Take it further and hang several maps to give the guest a clue of the countries you have been to. Guests also love to listen to your travel ordeals, as they taste the foods of these foreign places.

Establish a Theme

While planning a party, introducing new ideas may not be necessary for some people. Nevertheless, basing your party on a certain theme gives your party an edge and guests are pleased to attend as it promises to be “different.” Some overly thematic garments may not be necessary, but themes such as murder mystery and relevant kits are all great ways of getting people together and having fun.

If you are planning a Prohibition Party, ensure that guests understand the dress code. Prepare to give the venue that 1920s look and get lots of liquor and beer for tasting. Getting an authentic and unique band to bring back the 1920s dance floor ambience would be something for the guests to remember.

Inspire the Guests

A little inspiration for the guests goes a long way and makes them more interested in attending your party. While introducing new ideas and choosing a unique theme for your party may be enough to inspire your guests, taking it further may bring the best results.

Think of offering a donation jar to the charity of your liking or inviting your favourite local musician for some good tunes.

Come up With Activities

Ditch the strict itineraries and boring playlists for some fun activities. Plenty of activities give the guests something to try. Come up with different games, set up several dance floors with different styles of music. Don’t forget to set apart comfortable spots for guests to chat. If you’re planning an outdoor party, incorporating some competitive games would also be a great idea.

Invite a Variety of Guests

Finding the right mix of guests for your party is essential. Avoid picking on the closest friends that you are used to hanging out with. Invite co-workers, acquaintances from your fitness club or your favourite waiter at your local restaurant. Ensure the guest (and yourself) mingle for a chance to make new friends. This sure makes the party more interesting. For instance, a band or singer for an epic Shoreditch Friday night is always a great starting point.

Send Out Unique Invitations

By unique, it means that your invitations have to rock. For a themed party, ensure that the invites go along with the theme. Whether you intend to send out the invites online or via regular mail, coming up with creative invites proves to be memorable just as your party promises to be.

Whatever the event you will be planning for this year, avoid the ordinary ideas!