What Is Product Branding? Plus Three Awesome Examples

What Is Product Branding? Plus Three Awesome Examples

Pick up any product in a store and you’ll be staring directly at product branding. Branding can funnel down into many steps from parent company branding, subsidiary branding and all the way down to the specific products in a line of products or services. Think American Express’s Black Card, the McFlurry, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Products can have unique personalities that can sometimes eclipse their parent brand.

What is Product Branding?

Product branding uses a unique set of marketing elements to help a product or line of products stand out from the competition. Companies use product branding to define the way a specific product’s image is presented to its target consumers.

Specific branding policies promote the idea behind the product through logos, images, designs, colors, and many other marketing resources to place the product in the customer’s mind. Product brands extend beyond corporate environments. Nonprofits and government institutions also use specific branding for services they provide.

Branding Basics

The market has millions of products. The name, symbol, sign, product, service, logo, or person who makes you distinguish a product from other products, is a brand. It helps consumers to identify the product and the company behind it. A product that has a name, which can be recalled and is relatable, is a brand. A brand can’t be seen or touched; it can only be felt. The brand can take years to gain the trust of customers.

A brand is a combination of three things. Promise, wants, and emotions. It’s a promise made by the company to its customers that what they’ll get after they buy the company’s products. It fulfills all the wants of the customers. It’s an emotion that the customers are attached to. The brand creates an expectation in consumers which the promises made by the company under the brand will be fulfilled by those products they use.

How is Product Branding Different from Company Branding?

Products are goods, services, or the combination of the two, that are available from a company for sale to the end consumer. They can be in physical or non-physical form.

The product has its own life span. After the expiration of that period, the product becomes obsolete. Then, a product needs to be reinvented or rebranded in order to remain relevant. Products are relaunched with some new features and branding attracting the attention of today’s customers.

Product branding focuses on a single product or line of product outside of the parent company’s brand. Depending on marketing strategy, product branding has many options. It can piggy-back off of the brand recognition of its parent company or offer a fresh way to rebrand without committing to a full company brand overhaul. It also allows a product to stand out from other lines a company may offer.

Differences Between Corporate Branding and Product Branding

Overall Messaging vs. Narrow Messaging

Corporate branding needs an overall message, while product branding calls for a narrow message. The difference is that the overall message stands for a company-wide idea that highlights what a corporation stands for.  Narrow messaging for product branding is like looking at a specialized item or group of items. With corporate branding, elements such as values, beliefs, ideas, goals, and behavior become the focus. In regard to product branding, the product itself, it’s features and benefits are the focus.

Cross-Sector Branding

The well-positioned corporate brands normally market themselves to a variety of areas. Those “corporate brands” have a range of products targeted to particular niches. This approach allows for growth across different sectors.

Duration of Approach

You can observe the branding differences in the duration of a branding approach. Corporate branding remains stable over time. We see that with logos that haven’t changed in decades. This gives consumers a point of familiarity. On the other hand, product branding is easier to update.  Designed to be more agile, it can flip as the market changes or the product develops.

Target Audience

The target of corporate branding is customers and shareholders. In contrast, product branding primarily targets end consumers. Promoting a company brand involves different techniques. Thus, product and corporate branding require separate strategies.

Corporate Branding and its Product Influence Role

Corporate branding is a necessary feature for creating and maintaining belief within your company. The story your company promotes to staff is important for them to support and live the brand and its values. Employees invested in the brand at every level should be ambassadors of your brand. They’ll consistently communicate your brand values and voice.

Although consumers and products are where the final sales exist, corporate branding is becoming even more important. Consumers choose to align themselves with brands that reflect their own beliefs. In order to be successful today, you need to have a meaningful and trustworthy corporate brand. Products and their individual brands live within the umbrella of your corporate brand. Just imagine what public reception a health food line would receive if a cigarette manufacturing brand attempted to introduce it. No amount of product branding could allow this line to escape its corporate brand impression. That said, many corporations distance themselves completely from their product brands. For instance, did you know Nestle owns Hot Pockets or PepsiCo owns Quaker Oats?

The Advantages of Product Branding

Preference

Small businesses that create strong brands build preference for their products. When consumers have choices in a store, they’ll favor a brand they’ve bought before and trust. This is an advantage if you generate products that consumers purchase frequently, like food or household products. A strong brand is paramount to customer loyalty.

As consumers have focused on small-batch, artisanal products, larger companies have begun to purchase and introduce their own line of “small business brands” that have a halo of craft experiences and socially-driven values. Some brands today are specifically designed to look small and artisanal even when they are actually owned by major corporations.

Identification

Branding your product can improve the return of revenue on your marketing budget. Communicating the same messages and using brand elements such as logo, packaging, and graphics consistently helps reinforce the brand’s qualities. Building a brand that customers can easily remember and recognize can reduce your marketing costs long term.

Extension

A powerful brand can help you launch new products or enter new markets. Providing new products, brand elements, and qualities that consumers recognize and trust reduces the risk of failure. The original product can launch off-shoot products in a different category. Because your audience associates the new product with the existing brand qualities, it’s easier to convert a sale.

Growth

Branding can assist in an increase in revenue and grow your customer base. By promoting your brand consistently, you can herd prospects and clients through different levels of brand familiarity. Brand recognition happens when consumers can recall a brand’s qualities. Brand preference happens when customers choose your brand over others because of their satisfaction. You’ve achieved brand insistence when consumers seek out your product and won’t accept a substitute.

Barrier

A solid brand can protect market share and create walls for competitors. Competitors who enter your sector have to make an investment in brand development and marketing to match their strengths. Branding can also maintain price point levels. When consumers insist on your brand, they’ll be willing to pay for the product instead of lower-priced offerings.

Examples of Successful Product Branding

Cheetos vs. Ruffles

Most of us can visualize the branding of Cheetos and Ruffles. Cheetos focuses on orange, the same color as their snacks, Chester Cheeto, and your fingers once you’ve had a few. Ruffles, on the other hand, has a white branding palette that by no coincidence matches most popular chip dips. Ruffles, after all, is designed for dipping. While Cheetos goes a little wild with their cartoon mascot and outrageous seasonal flavor options, Ruffles stays classic, the stalwart of snacking. Neither brand looks anything like their parent company, Frito Lay’s branding. Imagine how confusing it would be if Frito Lay had tried to make their branding and that of both products the same. We might find ourselves accidentally dipping our Cheeto into a bowl of French Onion dip.

Gillette: One Company, Many Razors

Gillette is a brand with legs (smooth, shaved legs, no doubt). They’ve been around for over 120 years. You would think there would be only one type of razor blade to make to shave hair off of skin. But you would be missing a major marketing opportunity if you thought that way. Today Gillette has a variety of different razors, all with their own unique marketing. Take the Fusion5 which has its own logo, branding, and ad campaigns. There’s also the newly launched Planet KIND, a full line of more sustainably-sourced shaving and skincare products, which features a cool seafoam green branding, a nod to the “greening of the Gillette blue brand. This line has a whole other look from Fusion or the other razors the company offers, and you’d hardly know it was from Gillette and not an eco-friendly start-up.

Coca-Cola: Share A Coke

Coca-Cola is no stranger to creating effective marketing campaigns, but one stands out amongst others. Their “Share A Coke” campaign continues to serve as a unique, effective example of brand marketing. By replacing their signature logo with the names of their customers, the soft drink brand has been able to provide a personal touch that few other brands have ever been able to achieve. By leveraging various partnerships and clever ads, Coke continues to evoke emotional responses that resonate with its kind-hearted and supportive brand massaging.

Creating an effective brand marketing strategy enables your company to develop campaigns that go beyond showcasing product features to allow you to display your brand values or brand intangibles. When executed correctly, these campaigns elicit an emotional response from your customers that build loyalty and result in repeat business.

What Does Effective SEO Blog Content Look Like in 2023

What Does Effective SEO Blog Content Look Like in 2023?

If you’re starting a new blog on your business’s website, you might be wondering what you should be doing to generate the most traffic in the new year. There’s plenty of ways to make the most of your content efforts and here we look at the best practices to employ for your content strategy.

Content is Strategically Planned Out

This is probably the most critical step to take and it occurs before you ever put even one word down on the page. Choosing popular topics may seem like the best way to go, but it’s a sure-fire way to never make it to even the fifth page of Google search results. It’s important to create a content plan that is a mix of popular, often searched for topics that you can give a new approach to and low-competition keywords that can allow you to establish a following.

Articles are Well-Organized

Using H2, H3, and H4 tags as well as bullet points and lists can be beneficial to your SEO. They also make your content much easier to read whether that’s on a desktop computer or mobile device. Your content should be written in a way that is skimmable for how we consume content in 2023. This is why it’s helpful to have a system for creating content that creates a brand consistency. Readers enjoy predictability in your content. Formulating this at the beginning of your content planning provides a structure that can unify your content as a whole. 

Blogs are Multimedia

Adding in a variety of types of media can bring your blog to life. Whether it is GIFs or embedded video content from YouTube or Vimeo, there’s plenty of options that don’t even require you to create additional content. However, if you want to expand your content creation, recording interviews and podcasts can provide you with instant video that can then be transcribed into a blog and added at the end of the page. This type of content repurposing is one of our specialties at CAT creative. We try to find the best ways to work smarter rather than harder and squeeze the most out of every bit of content. 

Content Utilizes All of the Most Common SEO Practices

Yoast is still our preferred way of double-checking that we are hitting all of the SEO marks necessary to fully optimize content. As a quick review, you should be:

  • Placing your keyphrase at the beginning of your title
  • Placing your keyphrase at the beginning of your first sentence
  • Using keywords in your headers
  • Using keywords organically throughout your content
  • Placing in at least three internal links
  • Placing in at least three external links
  • Adding in two images 
  • Ensuring your content passes readability checks
  • Placing alt image tags into your images
  • Making sure your meta description is optimized

That’s our quick and dirty list of some of the main actions you’ll want to be taking within each post. Of course there’s more. But these are some of the most often used and the ones we’d urge you to always do in your content. 

Content It’s Specific

People ask some pretty random questions on Google. And there’s usually someone out there who has already thought of the question and answered it. We’ve all had that moment when we type a question into Google expecting no one to have ever asked this question before. And low and behold, plenty of people have written whole articles on this obscure subject. Dig into the details, get down to the minutia. Getting more specific is the way to go in 2023. 

Content is Consistent

We can’t emphasize this enough. Google loves consistency. It’s important to keep your blog active. Try to avoid allowing it to ever go dormant for more than one or two months max. This is because an active blog looks well cared for and nurtured. Continuously adding new content also provides a way for your brand to stay relevant. It gives you a chance to address new trends and topics as they emerge. 

Although it’s important to create a core content structure and content calendar that plans out your blog articles for the year, it’s also beneficial to stay flexible. If there is a timely, trending topic that relates to your brand, it’s extremely important to be able to capitalize on this interest while people are searching for it. Here at CAT creative, we create plans that provide both long-term core content as well as timely, trending topics so that your brand always is relevant.

Blog Content is Voluminous

A few years ago we might have been talking about whether to write one or two articles per month. But those are rookie numbers these days. Today, the more content you can produce the better. In fact, many businesses are abandoning much of their SEM and Google Ads budgets to allocate more resources to producing more content on a regular basis. We’ve seen businesses aim for a target of 100 core articles to start. And these are supplemented with a minimum of between five to ten new articles each month. 

Ready to get started making your blog flourish in 2023? We’re here to help! Reach out and we can do all the heavy lifting. That includes research, writing and optimizing. So you can stay focused on your business while leveraging the power of content marketing!

Understanding Brand Personality: Definition, Tips, and Examples

Understanding Brand Personality: Definition, Tips, And Examples

If your brand was a person, who would they be?

What kind of clothes would they wear? What would their voice sound like? Would they be an introvert or an extrovert?

These questions may sound silly, but when it comes to creating a strong personality for a brand, they couldn’t be more relevant.  

What is brand personality?

In the simplest sense of the word, a brand’s personality is the sum of the human characteristics that are attributed to a brand. These traits can be almost anything you can think of – if you could apply it to a person, chances are it can be applied to a brand too. A brand can be creative, brave, quirky, snarky – the sky is really the limit!

Of course, the fact that there’s just so many different directions you could possibly go in with personality does make the task feel a little overwhelming. “Character traits” is a pretty broad category to pick from. For this reason, many marketing experts have developed outlines to sort and organize all the different characteristics a brand may employ.

Five Dimensions of Brand Personality

One of the most popular of these is the five dimensions of brand personality. Proposed by Stanford professor of marketing and social psychologist Jennifer Aaker, this outline states that there are five different categories of personality that a brand can fall into – sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. These five dimensions create a full spectrum that all brands fall on. Most brands choosing to emphasize just one or two of these dimensions to define the sum of all the traits they have. 

Brand personality isn’t just a list of adjectives that describe your brand, though. At the heart of it, it’s really all about connection. 

Humans crave connection – that’s just part of being human. We want to feel seen, understood; usually these feelings are reserved for other humans, though, not concepts (like businesses). However, when a brand displays personality traits that give them life, we’re inclined to see them – and form bonds with them – just as we would our fellow humans.

In that way, consumers really just want to be able to feel that a brand gets them, that they’re not just a provider but a friend as well. Because emotion is what drives decision making, that human emotional connection is what creates loyal customers for life.

Brand personalities you may recognize 

One of the best exercises for building a strong, unique personality for your brand is to simply observe others. 

Think about some popular brands, or some brands you might even feel personally connected to. Now, consider all the different human characteristics they may have – both good or bad! Or, on the flip side, just jot down some character traits you can think of off the top of your head, and then think about any brands that come to mind for each one. What brands are daring and trendy? What comes to mind when you think about a brand being sentimental or wholesome? Something as simple as exploring a thesaurus can be helpful, even. You never know what word might strike inspiration or lead you to a lightbulb moment.

Another great exercise is to use the five aforementioned dimensions of brand personality. Thinking about this framework in the context of existing brands can help you learn to recognize what traits fall into which categories and in turn be able to build a more consistent personality. To get you started, here’s some examples for each.

Some Brand Trait Examples

Sincerity

  • Trait examples: Friendliness, earnestness, honesty, cheerfulness
  • Brand examples: Hallmark, Coca-Cola, Disney, Allstate

Excitement

  • Trait examples: Uniqueness, independence, wit, edge
  • Brand examples: Monster, Nike, Tesla, Vice

Competence 

  • Trait examples: Confidence, reliability, intelligence, technicality
  • Brand examples: Google, Microsoft, Chase, Rolex

Sophistication

  • Trait examples: Glamour, charm, exclusivity, upper-class
  • Brand examples: Apple, Gucci, BMW, American Express

Ruggedness

  • Trait examples: Masculinity, rebellion, toughness, strength
  • Brand examples: Axe, Jeep, Levi’s, Jack Daniels

Crafting your brand personality

After you’ve established a basic idea of who your brand is, you need to figure out how you’re going to communicate this to your audience. A good rule to remember for brand personality is to show, not tell. You want your brand to be able to easily demonstrate that it’s an entity of its own, not just a puppet trying to sell a product. These are some popular methods of embracing and demonstrating brand personality:

  • Advertisements
  • Design choices
  • Events
  • Social media
  • Even the product or service itself!

However you choose to go about showing the world who your brand is, the two important main qualities you want your brand to maintain are consistency and authenticity. All of your brand’s actions and values should line up with each other. A consistent personality helps consumers trust and become familiar with the brand. That trust leads to customer loyalty. 

Why brand personality is important

Establishing a solid and well-rounded personality for your brand is so crucial because it ties directly into every other part of it. It influences the decisions you make regarding it and is a huge defining point of its identity and image as a whole. The personality is what ultimately determines how the consumer feels about the brand. If they feel that they can relate or see themselves in the brand, they’re more likely to form that emotional connection that’s so important. That connection is what fosters more meaningful interactions between brand and consumer, brand loyalty, and even an increase in brand equity.

Ultimately, it all comes down to offering your audience more than just the product you’re selling. Not only does this establish a healthy relationship between the company and the customer, but it’s great for brand awareness too. Having that unique, one-of-a-kind personality that makes your brand feel like an old friend can be what sets you apart from your competitors in the market. Solid brand personality doesn’t just benefit the customer, either; the more you flesh out your brand, the better you get to know it yourself. When you have a clear, absolute idea of what you’re trying to portray, business and marketing decisions come with ease. Establishing brand personality can take a little trial and error to begin with, but once you start to find the pieces that fit together, you’ll notice that your brand really can almost come to life.

7 Tips for Creating Effective Blog Content for Health and Wellness Brands

7 Tips for Creating Effective Blog Content for Health and Wellness Brands

Are you a consumer health or wellness brand looking to gain more traffic through content marketing and SEO blogging? Blog articles are the perfect way for healthcare and wellness brands to inform consumers while establishing your brand’s authority. Like with any strong content marketing strategy, you’ll want to pull off several objectives with every blog you create. Those goals should include:

  • The strategic use of well-researched keywords for search engine optimization.
  • Developing trust within your target consumer-base.
  • Nurturing a brand voice and brand aesthetic through the use of words, images and other media.
  • Establishing your brand as a trusted source of information. 
  • Optimizing content to meet the current, most accurate recommendations to appeal to Google and other search engines content criteria.

Yes, that’s a lot of boxes to check within a 750-word article. However, there’s a simple process for pulling it all off at once. Here’s seven of our favorite ways to hit all of these goals in every one of your blog posts:

7 Ways to Optimize Your Health and Wellness Blog Content

Do your keyword research. 

Before writing any SEO blog content, it’s important to do your keyword research to find the most popular keywords and phrases, as well as the low competition keywords, which can be easier to rank for. 

Ask the questions your audience wants to know.

There are two ways you can boost your content by asking the exact questions your audience is searching for answers to. One way is to structure your content based on a series of questions about a specific topic. The other is to include a simple Frequently Asked Questions section at the end of your article.

Be Choosy with Your External Linking

Sometimes brands are wary about including external links in their content. “Why should I send people away from our site?” is the rationale. But external linking is an essential part of any solid SEO blog content. However, it’s important to be selective with the sites you cite in your content. For health and wellness brands, trustworthiness is paramount. That’s why you want to be sure to only include links to the most respected and well-researched sites. We like to use links to clinical studies and government websites such as the CDC, FDA and NHS. 

Consider Writing a Long-Form Guide on Your Key Topics

How many words should an SEO blog article be? That’s a VERY common question. Across industries, we always suggest no less than 750 words for every blog you write. A 500 word blog here and there is not terrible either (it’s definitely preferred over not blogging). However, if you are really looking to gain traffic and authority, don’t shy away from long-form blog content. We consider long-form content as any blog content over 2,000 words. Now you may say, “People don’t want to read that much.” Yes, attention spans are shorter than ever, but remember you’re writing for two audiences at the same time: readers and Google. And Google loves long-form content. It makes sense why. Fewer sites are going to put the time and energy into greeting such comprehensive content. And that signals your window of opportunity in this super-competitive and crowded industry. 

Become an Authority on a Specific Subject

Search engines favor sites that dig into topics and provide a wealth of information on one subject matter. This strategy can improve your authority status. For example, let’s say your site sells an anti-itch cream, so you write a blog on eczema. You can give this article a SEO boost by writing other articles on eczema that take a deep dive into different aspects of the condition. This creates a content pillar. Here’s an example of how that can look:

Main Article – Pillar Content

Living with Eczema Guide 

Sub-topics

Foods that Can Improve Eczema

Common Households Items to Avoid if You Have Eczema

Do these Home Remedies Help Eczema

Eczema and Makeup: Everything You Need to Know

Eczema: What Does it Look Like? 

Once all of these articles are completed, then you will go back in and edit each article to include internal links to all of the other articles you’ve written on the subject. The goal is to then make certain every article links to every other article in this subject matter.  

Be Careful with Your Product Promotion

It’s easy to want to highlight all of the benefits of a product that you sell, but be careful. Audiences can quickly get turned off by content that reads more like an advertorial or landing page than good, solid research and information. If your product relates directly to the topic your writing about, it can be helpful to readers to explain (in non-salesy jargon) why this product addresses the topic at hand. However, refrain from including more than two product plugs in each article. You can however use this as an opportunity to add internal links to products and add a product suggestion section to the end of your piece. 

Watch Your Language When Making Claims or Promises

Developing trust and maintaining it is an integral part of any health or wellness brand’s content strategy. Make certain that you always use the most transparent and accurate language. Don’t make claims that can’t be proven. Don’t use hyperbolic phrasing or exaggerate claims. Words like “may help” “can support” are much more acceptable that direct claims or promises. Unless you have specific studies and concrete medical evidence to prove a claim, keep your promises vague and realistic. This is important for nurturing your credibility with your audience and can help you stand out while other brands pander to audiences with exaggerated promises that can erode a brand’s trustworthiness over time. 

We hope these tips are helpful to your health or wellness brand as you create content that will generate more traffic to your site. If you’d like a dedicated team to handle all parts of your content marketing, from keywords research to writing to uploading and optimizing, CAT creative is here to help! We can create any quantity of health articles for your brand every month. 

Everything You Need to Know About Brand Attributes

Everything You Need to Know About Brand Attributes

When you think of the phrase brand attributes, what comes to mind? You probably start thinking about the various solid elements that make up your brand as a whole. The name, logo, slogan, even a jingle or specific song – all of these are definitely considered attributes. But there’s more to consider than just your brand’s tangible elements. Brand attributes are part of a larger concept, and they encompass pretty much every part of your brand.

What are Brand Attributes?

Put simply, your brand’s attributes are its essence. The attributes are the parts that make up the whole; this means that while “attributes” can describe characteristics like your brand’s name and logo, it also includes abstract, not-tangible concepts. If you’re trying to figure out what some of the main attributes of your brand are, consider the who, what, why, and how aspects:

  • Who is your brand? Who is your target audience? 
  • What is your brand offering? 
  • Why was your brand created? Why is it, and its mission, important and/or needed?
  • How is your brand accomplishing its goals? How will it continue to provide for its patrons?

And that’s just a jumping off point. There’s near endless characteristics you can label as attributes of your brand. It all just comes down to finding the right ones that fit.

Examples of Brand Attributes

While you may understand that the attributes are the core values that make up a brand, what are they really? Here’s some big ones that every business owner should be taking into account:

  • Personality. Humanization through personality is essential to connecting and communicating with your customer base. A set personality not only shapes the public’s perception of your brand, but also establishes an emotional connection. When the customer feels that they can relate to the traits the brand has, they’re more inclined to associate themselves with it. 
  • Positioning & Placement. To properly position a brand is to create a space in the market that’s uniquely your brand’s. It’s similar to finding your niche, but also involves controlling where the brand occupies the customers mind as well. Distinguishing your brand with positioning techniques can be the difference between standing out as the go-to brand for your product and just being another competitor in an over-saturated market.
  • Uniqueness. In a vein similar to positioning, you want your brand to be unique. By standing out, you’re actively setting yourself apart from competitors. It’s part of human nature to crave new, exciting ideas, concepts, and experiences; By being unique, you’re appealing to this part of the customer.
  • Consistency. Being consistent is all about not straying from the brand’s established core values. When the customer sees that you stick by your word and what you stand for, they’re more likely to trust the brand and return to it.
  • Relevancy. At its core, any brand’s mission can be boiled down to providing the customer with what they want or need. Consider the concept of supply and demand – if there’s high demand for a product or service, it’s in a brand’s best interest to supply it! Meeting the customer’s needs is ultimately what keeps a brand relevant and fresh in consumers minds.
  • Credibility. It’s no secret that many consumers can find it hard to trust a brand as having their best interests in mind. That’s why it’s important to establish credibility for your company. You may even want to consider it to be one of the trademarks of your brand – being someone the customer can count on, time and time again. By proving to your customers that you can reliably deliver the product or service you offer at the level of quality they expect, you become credible.

Why are Brand Attributes Important?

Your brand’s attributes are what makes up it’s identity. Without a solid identity, there isn’t really a brand to begin with. By establishing your attributes, you’re not only making the brand recognizable to the consumer but also making it easier for yourself to make brand decisions. Take advertising for example. When creating an effective advertisement, there’s a lot you need to consider. What voice does your brand have? What’s its style? How are its values and beliefs communicated to the consumer? The answers to all these questions lie right in brand identity, and more importantly, the attributes that make it up. 

It doesn’t just end at advertising, either. Pretty much every facet of a brand is planned with it’s chosen attributes in mind. Marketing techniques, sales activities, and brand artwork are all concrete parts of the brand that are decided using the attributes. 

As a real world example, take Apple for instance. Its advertisements and marketing campaigns portray a brand that’s future-forward and always pushing the limits of what technology can be. Likewise, they use a color palette consisting of mostly muted colors- cool, sleek greys and neutral tones, with just a pop of color when necessary. This effectively gives off the impression that they’re mature, serious (but not too much so), and knowledgeable. That’s a very simple description of Apple’s identity as a brand, and it’s all made up of those core attributes.

Brand Attributes and Authenticity 

When establishing a set of attributes, it’s important to make sure they align with your brand’s core values. A brand offering kid’s art supplies, for example, isn’t going to want to come off as super-scientific and serious; attributes like playfulness and creativity are more fitting. Likewise, if a brand decides sustainability should be one of their main attributes, the company should be doing everything it can to uphold that promise. Many “sustainable” brands honor this by giving their customers the facts with no fluff. They let the consumer see all the same data the people on the inside would, and are open and transparent about their sustainability practices. This is a particularly strong example of brand authenticity within attributes, because that’s what it’s really all about – being honest with the consumer and as a result, establishing trust.

The CAT creative 2022 Content Calendar Guide to Holidays and Observances

The CAT creative 2022 Content Calendar Guide to Holidays and Observances

For 2022 there are plenty of holiday and observances you can use for content inspiration. From social media posts to videos, blog articles to interview subjects, use these seasonal topics as a jumping off point to fuel great content. The timeliness of these topics makes them extra SEO-friendly.

January

Content Ideas for January 2022

New Year’s Resolutions: It’s a classic for the new year, but resolutions can translate well across a variety of industries, from fitness to home decor, health to business. 

Goal setting: We can all get behind some inspo and motivation so deep dive into ways your readers can live, work and play better in the new year, optimism abounds, make the most of it. 

Recap of 2021: There are so many ways to recap the year, from a personal company retrospect to a look back at the trends and highlights of the year in your industry.

Predictions for 2022 and Beyond: Have fun with these, no one is going to check back with you if you were wrong, besides could anyone have predicted in 2021 that we’d still be talking COVID non-stop in ‘22? 

Holidays and Observance Inspo for January 2022

January 4: National Trivia Day #NationalTriviaDay

January 10: Clean Off Your Desk Day #CleanOffYourDeskDay

January 15: National Hat Day #NationalHatDay

January 17: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Third Monday of January) #MLKDay

January 20: Cheese Lovers Day #CheeseLoversDay

January 24: National Compliment Day #NationalComplimentDay

January 28: Data Privacy Day #PrivacyAware

February

Content Ideas for February 2022

Baby, It’s Cold Outside: From foods to fashion, we’re nestling in for a month of low-temps and staying home, so advice on all things warm and cozy are appreciated. 

Gearing Up For Spring: Now is the time homeowners are planning out their landscaping and outdoor improvements. Vacations are being planned so we’re starting to think about losing that winter weight and we’re in general looking for advice and inspo to get us through to spring. 

Black History Month: This is a great time to give a shout out to African American historical figures in your industry, but also keep an eye to the future and spotlight African American leaders in your industry, employees and their stories or give a shout out to black-owned businesses that your audience will want to connect with.

Holidays and Observance Inspo for February 2022

February 1 – 28: Black History Month

February 1: Chinese New Year #ChineseNewYear

Year of the Tiger

February 2: Groundhog Day #GroundhogDay

February 4: World Cancer Day #WorldCancerDay

February 9: National Pizza Day #NationalPizzaDay

February 13: Super Bowl LV (Varies each year based on the U.S. Football season) #SBLV #SuperBowlSunday #SuperBowl

February 14: Valentine’s Day #ValentinesDay

February 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day #RandomActsOfKindnessDay

February 20: Love Your Pet Day #LoveYourPetDay

February 21: Presidents Day (Third Monday of February) #PresidentsDay

March

Content Ideas for March 2022

Spring Cleaning: Spring is in the air, and we’re getting psyched to clean out and freshen up, from our looks to our homes to our computers. No matter what industry you live in, there’s plenty of fun, informative ways to offer advice and inspiration this time of year. Example: Foods to Spring Clean Your Health, Clean Up Your Finances, How to Spring Clean Your Investment Portfolio

Summer Planning: What info do your customers or clients need to make their summer stand out? Now is the time to get them thinking about warmer months and everything that they want to experience this summer. 

Holidays and Observance Inspo for March 2022

March 1: Mardi Gras #MardiGras

March 2: National Read Across America Day #ReadAcrossAmerica & #DrSeuss

March 3: World Wildlife Day #WorldWildlifeDay

March 4: National Employee Appreciation Day (First Friday of March) #EmployeeAppreciationDay

March 4: National Day of Unplugging (First Friday of March) #NationalDayOfUnplugging

March 6: National Dentist’s Day #DentistsDay

March 6-12 Women in Construction Week

March 7: National Cereal Day #NationalCerealDay

March 8: International Women’s Day #BeBoldForChange

March 11: Popcorn Lover’s Day #PopcornLoversDay

March 11 – World Plumbing Day

March 14: Pi Day

March 13: Daylight Savings #DaylightSavings

March 16: Purim

March 17: St. Patrick’s Day #StPatricksDay

March 18: Holi

March 19: World Sleep Day #WorldSleepDay

March 20: International Day of Happiness #InternationalDayofHappiness

March 20: First Day of Spring #FirstDayofSpring

March 30: Doctor’s Day #NationalDoctorsDay

March 31: Equal Pay Day #EqualPayDay

April

Content Ideas for April 2022

Spring Holidays: April is packed with major holidays across some of the most practiced religions and cultures. Offer recipes, decorating tips, gift advice and more that relates to your industry. 

How to De-Stress: April is National Stress Awareness Month and this is one universal challenge that we all could use some advice on (looking at you, COVID). Take a new perspective on the age-old advice through the lens of your industry. For instance, say you’re a dentist, you can talk about how to make cleaning visits less stressful or new inventions that make teeth cleaning a breeze.  

Holidays and Observance Inspo for April 2022

April 1: April Fools Day #AprilFools

April 2: World Autism Awareness Day #WAAD

April 3: Start of Ramadan

April 11: National Pet Day #NationalPetDay

April 15: National Tax Day #TaxDay

April 15: Passover

April 16: National Stress Awareness Day #StressAwarenessDay

April 16: National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day #PJDay

April 17: Easter Sunday

April 21: National Administrative Professionals Day #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay

April 22: Earth Day #EarthDay2022

April 23: Arbor Day #ArborDay

April 28: National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day #COUNTONME

April 30: National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day #AdoptAShelterPetDay

April 30 – National Rebuilding Day

May

Content Ideas for May 2022

Fun in the sun: It’s summer and everyone is energized to begin making those sun-soaked memories. It’s also a time when consumers are looking to spend on items that fuel their fun, from summertime food to entertainment. Consider product listicles and guides to the best items to keep everyone happy this summer. With the season’s heat comes special health considerations from sun protection to insect repellent. We’ll all be spending more time being active and outdoors, how can you help make this the safest, best experience for your readers?

Holidays and Observance Inspo for May 2022

May 1: May Day #MayDay

May 1: International Workers Day #IntWorkersDay

May 2:  Eid al-Fitr

May 2 -6 Construction Safety Week

May 4: Star Wars Day #StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou

May 4 – National Skilled Trades Day

May 4: World Asthma Day #WorldAsthmaDay

May 5: Cinco de Mayo #CincoDeMayo

May 6: National Nurses Day #NursesDay

May 9: Europe Day #EuropeDay

May 9: Mother’s Day #MothersDay

May 28: Hamburger Day #NationalHamburgerDay

May 30: Memorial Day (Fourth Monday of May) #MemorialDay #MDW

June 

Content Ideas for June 2022

Free Time is Fine: The summer means vacations and down-time which makes it a great time to offer new experiences and ideas to a receptive audience. Introduce new ideas and offer new insight. It’s a time to try out new concepts, dip your toe into the
deep end and see how your audience responds.

It’s All About the Outdoors: Working, playing, cooking, entertaining. In the summer months, we’re doing it
all al fresco. How can your brand make the most of this back-to-nature spirit?
It’s all about the outdoors:

Holidays and Observance Inspo for June 2022

June 4: National Donut Day #NationalDonutDay

June 8: World Oceans Day #WorldOceansDay

June 13: International Children’s Day #ChildrensDay

June 14: World Blood Donor Day #GiveBlood

June 14: National Flag Day #FlagDay

June 19: Juneteenth (Freedom Day) #Juneteenth

June 20: First Day of Summer

June 20: Father’s Day #FathersDay

June 21: National Selfie Day #NationalSelfieDay

June 21: International Yoga Day #InternationalYogaDay

June 22 – National HVAC Tech Day

June 25: Take Your Dog to Work Day #TakeYourDogToWorkDay

July

Content Ideas for July 2022

Time to Mix it Up: Here’s your chance to add some video or photo compilations to your blog content. It’s summer, it’s time to be casual, live in your sandals and track a little sand in the house. So give your readers a little something different. Ready to
accept the challenge? Of course you are!

Send in the Summer Reinforcements: The season is in full swing and everyone is searching for ways to add more fun to the summer. From daytime activities to keep kids at home entertained, to stay-cations and Fourth of July fun, your audience is most likely ready for an
infusion of ideas that you can help supply.

Holidays and Observance Inspo for July 2022

July 4: Independence Day (United States)

July 7: World Chocolate Day #WorldChocolateDay

July 11: Cheer Up the Lonely Day #CheerUpTheLonelyDay

July 12: Malala Day #MalalaDay

July 15: Give Something Away Day #GiveSomethingAwayDay

August

Content Ideas for August 2022

It’s Almost Fall Y’all!: We’re over the heat and the sun and are beginning to look forward to the cooler temps and holidays that fall and winter bring. Make the most of this with inspo for fall. Home tips for winterizing or crafty ways to go all out for Halloween, it’s time to start thinking back-to-school and away from the beach.

Think Inside the House: Temps are rising and our vacation energy is dwindling a bit. It’s time to start planning home improvements before the holidays, prepping for the school year ahead and getting in some much needed home-time R&R. Constant travel and activity is making way for good reads, self care, de-cluttering and holiday planning.

Holidays and Observance Inspo for August 2022

August 8: International Cat Day #InternationalCatDay

August 9: National Book Lovers Day #NationalBookLoversDay

August 13: International Lefthanders Day #LefthandersDay

August 15: National Relaxation Day #NationalRelaxationDay

August 26: National Dog Day #NationalDogDay

August 26: National Women’s Equality Day #WomensEqualityDay

September

Content Ideas for September 2022

Who Doesn’t Love Fall?: It’s the time of new beginnings, new school semesters, heading off to college, new fashion trends and stocking away those summer clothes for flannels, plaids and all things warm and cozy. From home to food trends, fall is all about what’s new and
exciting. And that’s just what you’re going to write about.

Enjoying Home Again: After lots of travel and time spent outdoors, we’re nestling back into baking, cooking, home remodel and decorating. It’s a time of grounding and settling in, reassessing and rejuvenating. This can be everything from taking a look at expenses
and budgeting better to making meal prep a new part of a healthy lifestyle. Give your audience plenty of information to adopt new, improved habits based on your area of expertise.

Holidays and Observance Inspo for September 2022

September 4: National Wildlife Day #NationalWildlifeDay

September 5: International Day of Charity #CharityDay

September 6: Labor Day #LaborDay

September 6: Read a Book Day #ReadABookDay

September 8: International Literacy Day #LiteracyDay

September 10: Stand Up To Cancer Day #KissCancerGoodbye

September 11: National Day of Service and Remembrance #911Day

September 12: National Grandparents Day #NationalGrandparentsDay

September 15 – October 15: Hispanic Heritage Month #hispanicheritagemonth

September 16 – National Tradesmen Day

September 19: Talk Like a Pirate Day #TalkLikeAPirateDay

September 21: International Day of Peace #PeaceDay

September 22: First Day of Fall

September 25: Rosh Hashanah (new year)

September 26: National Pancake Day #NationalPancakeDay

September 27: World Tourism Day #WTD2022

September 28: National Good Neighbor Day #GoodNeighborDay

September 29: National Women’s Health and Fitness Day #FitnessDay

October

Content Ideas for October 2022

Um, Hello? Halloween!: Why does everyone seem to love Halloween so much? Maybe it’s because scary movies, candy, cider and pumpkin patches are what this holiday is all about. No pressure to host big dinners or buy lots of gifts. Readers love to read and get advice for Halloween. How can your brand take this tried and true holiday and make it your own?

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like the Holidays!: Get a jump on gift guides and holiday happenings. Why not? You know the retail store shelves are already doing it.

Holidays and Observance Inspo for October 2022

October 1: International Day of Older Persons #UNDOP

October 1: International Coffee Day #InternationalCoffeeDay

October 1: World Vegetarian Day #WorldVegetarianDay

October 3 – World Architecture Day

October 4: National Taco Day #NationalTacoDay

October 4: Yom Kippur

October 5: World Teachers Day #WorldTeachersDay

October 9 – Fire Prevention Day

October 10: World Mental Health Day #WorldMentalHeathDay

October 11: International Day of the Girl #DayOfTheGirl

October 14: National Dessert Day #DessertDay

October 16: World Food Day #FoodDay

October 16: Bosses Day #BossesDay

October 24: Diwali

October 25: Greasy Foods Day #GreasyFoodsDay

October 30: Checklist Day #ChecklistDay

October 31: Halloween #Halloween

November

Content Ideas for November 2022

What Are You Thankful For?: Thanksgiving is awesome because it’s about gratitude and that’s a good thing. So let’s get deep and discuss all the good stuff, think wholesome posts that warm the readers heart. You know you have it in you. When in doubt, look around, count
your blessings and write it all down. There’s a lot you can remind your audience to not take for granted.

November is All About the Foods: Doesn’t it seem everyone wants to swap holiday recipes in the lead up to Thanksgiving. From fall cocktails to hearty casseroles, there’s plenty of ways to approach this topic.

Holidays and Observance Inspo for November 2022

November 1: World Vegan Day #WorldVeganDay

November 3: National Sandwich Day #NationalSandwichDay

November 4: National Candy Day #NationalCandyDay

November 6: Daylight Saving Time Ends #DaylightSavings

November 8: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) Day #STEMDay

November 11: Veterans Day #VeteransDay

November 13: World Kindness Day #WKD

November 14: World Diabetes Day #WDD

November 15: America Recycles Day #BeRecycled

November 19: International Men’s Day #InternationalMensDay

November 25: Thanksgiving Day #Thanksgiving

November 26: National Cake Day #NationalCakeDay

November 27: Small Business Saturday (The last Saturday of November) #ShopSmall

December

Content Ideas for December 2022

Winter is In the Air: You know all about those holiday posts you can make, but how about some general winter time advice. From cars getting stuck to shoveling skills, there’s plenty to talk about when readers are getting inundated with holiday tips and tricks.

Look back and recap: Now is the perfect time to give your readers a recap of what your brand has accomplished over the last twelve months. It’s also fun to recap your favorite moments from everything in pop culture or your specific industry niche.

Holidays and Observance Inspo for December 2022

December 3: International Day of Persons with Disabilities #IDPWD

December 4: National Cookie Day #NationalCookieDay

December 18: Chanukah first day

December 21: First Day of Winter #WinterSolstice

December 24: Christmas Eve

December 25: Christmas Day

December 31: New Year’s Eve

Sources:

Hubspot

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-holiday-calendar-2022

 

 

 

Gain More Home Remodel Leads with Blog Content Marketing

Gain More Home Remodel Leads with Blog Content Marketing

You’re a home remodeling contractor who wants to get more leads through digital marketing and blog content marketing. Maybe you have a website and know you need to blog. Maybe you hired a company that wrote you a bunch of generic pieces. But in the end, you never saw any big bump in traffic. And you never got any leads. 

When not done correctly, content marketing can feel like a big waste of time and money. Did you ever hunker down to write your own content? You probably spent hours and still didn’t know if it was worth all the work.

The good news is blog content can be an incredibly effective way to get more homeowner leads for your home remodeling business. But it has to be done correctly for it to have a chance of working. Here’s how to make your home remodeling blog content more effective. If you’re a home remodeling contractor, a kitchen and bath renovation company or anyone in the home improvement industry, this information is for you. 

Avoid Generic Content That Leads Will Never See

Effective content marketing begins with choosing the correct topics to write about. Here at CAT creative we like to create a content plan for a full year. This way everything is laid out and organized. There’s no surprises. No scrabbling to get a piece written and posted last minute. 

It’s easy for beginner bloggers to want to write about the same things everyone else is writing. And don’t get us wrong, competitor analysis is a VERY GOOD THING. But you don’t want to just look at the more generic, safe topics and figure those are the best options. Here’s a few topics that we often see home remodeling businesses want to write about. This is our NO list for boring, no-traffic content:

  • Home Trends for the Year
  • Kitchen Trends
  • Bathroom Trends
  • How to Choose a Home Remodeling Contractor

Instead, it’s better to focus on the topics that set you apart from your competition. There’s probably many unique parts of your business that you can talk about. The more specific you can get, the more interesting your blogs can become. 

Low Competition Keywords

The more common an article topic is, the more articles on the internet you’ll have to compete with. If you write an article about Kitchen Design Trends for 2022, you’re competing against the powerhouses of Martha Stewart, Better Homes and Gardens, Vogue Home, just to name a very, very few. Now think of all the other home remodeling companies, the bloggers and local online magazines with that same article too. You might have the most interesting and creative ideas, but if your blog is on page 55 of Google’s search results, it will rarely, if ever, be seen. Did you know in 2022, 88% of people who search on Google never get beyond the first page? 

That’s where low competition keywords come in as the unsung hero of blog content. They’re the underdog of SEO because they’re quirky, not the types of articles you’d think to write about, but they work. These are super niche, unique topics like “How to clean your wooden spoons” or “What’s the perfect height for a built-in shower shelf?”

This isn’t to say you still can’t have an article about the top trends of the year. These articles are great for showing off your home remodeling brand’s expertise. They are also super useful to share on your social media to get likes and shares.

Localized SEO for Remodeling Contractors Like You

If you’re a home remodeling contractor, you probably don’t want traffic from all over the country. Those readers won’t transform into leads. Instead, you want to attract local homeowners. To do this, it’s important to localize at least a portion of your content to focus on your geographic region. 

You could write articles that focus on your services in your area as well as other topics that your demographic has an interest in. Typically families are looking to add more space, style and functionality to their homes. They also usually have kids and enjoy participating in their community. Therefore articles like “The best spring events in (insert neighborhood near you)” might attract just the types of clients you’re looking for. 

Frequent Blogging Helps Remodeling Contractors

Google likes blogs that are continuously updated. So it’s important to never let your blog go dormant. This can be a challenge, especially during the busy times of construction and remodeling seasons. But it’s best to at least post 2-4 blog a month. This will keep you in Google’s good graces and avoid any punishments to your site. 

We’re Experts in Home Remodeling and Construction Blog Content

Maybe you hate staring at a blank page trying to put a blog together. Maybe your team is too busy bringing in business to get sidetracked on blogging. Or you might have zero interest in learning all of the SEO best practices that go into effective blog content marketing. We help businesses take blogging off of their to-do list FOR GOOD. Leave your blog content to the writers at CAT creative and you’ll only have to think about your blog once a year when we review your year of content. Want less content than a full year? That’s no problem, we offer 3, 6 and 12 month blog content packages. Reach out to us and get your blog content working better for you.

CAT creative

SEO website blog articles, website content, copywriting and ghostwriting services for businesses both large and small.

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