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Robert Trontz | An Integrated Marketer + Designer Robert Trontz | An Integrated Marketer + Designer
  • Services
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  • Industries
    • Column 1
      • CPGs
      • Food
      • Supplements
      • Skincare
    • Column 2
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  • Case Studies
    • Column 1
      • Packaging Case Study
      • Branding Case Study
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Google Uses Ranking Algorithms To Combat MisInformation

Google Uses Ranking Algorithms To Combat MisInformation

Feb 26, 2019
Illustrated computer, tablet and smartphone with two sets of words. One side is trust. The other is misinformation.

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Google Uses Ranking Algorithms to Combat Misinformation

I think it’s safe to say that 2018 was a turbulent year with reports of fake news, false claims and misinformation running rampant across the county.

Misinformation, a global issue, became such an immense problem and brought light to so many new challenges, Dictionary.com named misinformation the word of the year.

With the internet being the main conduit for spreading information, including misinformation, Google has taken some major steps to help combat this ever growing situation.

How Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Fits into the Post Truth Era

Most people have a basic understanding of search engine optimization (SEO). While SEO is quite complex, in the simplest terms it is defined as the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine. This list, called a search engine ranking page is widely known as a SERP.

Since Google holds 92.86% of the market share and processes over 3.5 billion searches a day, or 1.2 trillion searches per year, it’s no wonder why they are tackling misinformation head-on.

How do they plan to do this? One way is with their page ranking algorithm.

[easy-tweet tweet=”How #SearchEngineOptimization (#SEO) Fits into the #PostTruthEra” hashtags=”misinformation, PostTruthEra, truth, trust, google, contentmarketing, googlealgorithms, optimization” url=”https://trontz.com/QWEHK” template=”light”]

Google is Clearly Fighting the War on Fake News, Spammy Content and Click Bait

Digital marketers and content creators have been trying to wrap their heads around and keep up with Google algorithms for decades. As complicated as the technology behind Google’s algorithms may be, Google’s corporate mission is simple. They promise to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Ever since its beginnings, Google has focused on developing proprietary algorithms that focus on the user. The algorithms are crafted to deliver useful and relevant information to users while empowering website owners to publish information and to be discovered online.

To do this, Google contracts over 10,000 search quality raters worldwide to evaluate websites based on the information and the experience they had while visiting the website. The feedback from evaluators is used to help drive decisions on how the algorithms can be improved.

To help further their mission, for the first time in 2015 Google released its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (SQEG) to the public. The SQEG helps humans evaluators understand how to rate the quality of the websites they are reviewing.

In July of 2018, Google updated its SQRG, and once again released it to the public. Website developers and content creators will find golden nuggets of actionable insights to help raise SERP rankings on every page of this document.

One thing to notice in this last update is the emphasis on quality content and the importance placed on the reputation of the people who are creating it.

Greater Emphasis on E-A-T for Y-M-Y-L Pages for SEO

To summarize the 164-page document, Google is placing a greater emphasis on the Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust (E-A-T ) on the people who are creating web content, especially for Your Money or Your Life pages (Y-M-Y-L).

Screenshot of Excerpt from Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

Google urges evaluators to use their judgment when ranking Y-M-Y-L pages and suggests that these pages are held to the highest standards possible.

Keep in mind, a Google evaluator will never affect an individual website’s page rank. However, their evaluations will be used to improve algorithms to help keep low-quality Y-M-Y-L pages that could potentially negatively impact users’ happiness, health, financial stability, or safety from appearing at the top of a SERP.

How Does E.A.T. Effect Web Content Writers

Google’s search quality guide tells evaluators to not only find out who is responsible for the website but to also find out who is responsible for creating the content.

Evaluators are asked to dive deep into their online research to evaluate the reputation of the website or creator of the main content.

Screenshot of Excerpt from Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

They are asked to take into account ‘bad actors’ who may have read the guidelines and maliciously created false information, reviews and testimonials to mislead users and trick algorithms into giving their web pages higher rankings.

Screenshot of Excerpt from Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

This leads us back to E-A-T, the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of a website and its creator. The guidelines urge evaluators to keep in mind who is writing the content.

Screenshot of Excerpt from Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

Almost immediately following the update of the 2018 guidelines, Google released one of its most extensive updates in years dubbed the ‘Medic’ algorithm update. This update targeted the E-A-T on Y-M-Y-L pages that offered medical advice. It was one of the largest changes to the Google algorithm in decades. Websites that provided medical, diet and nutrition advice without the presence of a contributor with the proper expertise took a huge hit in SERP rankings.

Establishing Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness

In order to be ranked as a high-quality page and/or website, the creators have to demonstrate that they have enough expertise to be authoritative and trustworthy on their topic. This doesn’t mean that everyone that writes web content or blogs has to have a string of letters after their names. Experts are everywhere. There are fashion experts, DIY experts and even gossip experts.

The standard for expertise depends on the topic of the page. Google and most folks do recognize that there are some people with life experience and everyday expertise that can create useful content.

Screenshot of Excerpt from Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

Web users do need to trust the information they find online. They need to believe the information they find is reputable, credible and non-manipulative. Unfortunately, there have been some ‘bad actors’ creating content with the purpose of misleading people.

Google Launches a Mammoth Undertaking to Help Combat Disinformation

Expertise, authoritativeness and trust. These ‘buzz’ words have been tossed around the last few years by so many people they might have begun to lose their effectiveness.

Remember our word of the year, misinformation? Dictionary.com defines misinformation verse disinformation.

Misinformation is false or inaccurate information.

Disinformation is “deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda.”

So, the difference between misinformation and disinformation comes down to intent.

When people share information they believe to be true, they are engaging in spreading misinformation.

When people craft and disseminate information for the intent to mislead others, they are spreading disinformation.

Google recently released a white paper explaining its stance on disinformation, and their plans to fight it as we move deeper into a ‘post-truth’ era.

[easy-tweet tweet=”#Google uses ranking algorithms to combat #disinformation. ” hashtags=”misinformation, PostTruthEra, truth, trust, google, contentmarketing, googlealgorithms, optimization” url=”https://trontz.com/QWEHK” template=”light”]

The motivations that propel one to create and circulate disinformation can be both financial, to turn a profit and political, to motivate others to foster specific viewpoints and exert influence over a population.

Once disinformation is created, good-hearted individuals may help spread the word and further, without realizing the goals of the content originators may not be above board.

Google states they have taken on the responsibility to help curb the efforts of those who aim to propagate false information on their platforms.

Screenshot of Excerpt from Google White Paper on Disinformation

This will not an easy task with complexities crossing into social, legal and civil lanes.

Screenshot of Excerpt from Google White Paper on Disinformation

3 Strategies Google is Using to Tackle Disinformation

Their approach to tackling disinformation will be based around a framework of three strategies:

1. Make Quality Count:
My favorite! Make quality count. This means creating and delivering quality information and trustworthy commercial messages.

2. Counteract Malicious Actors:
Algorithms will never be able to make determinations on if a piece of content is true or false, and if the content was created with malice intent. There are, however, clear signals that can detect if a page or website was created with the intention to manipulate or deceive users.

In addition, many content creators have tried to deceive ranking systems to get more visibility, by pushing out loads of disinformation otherwise, know as SPAM.

SPAM content, click bate or whatever you want to call it is created for the sole purpose of tricking the SERP, with little regard for the user.

Google has been working on what seems to be a never-ending battle to reduce ‘spammy’ behaviors at scale.

3. Give Users More Context
My second favorite! Give users more access to correct and contextual content. Make it easy for users to find appropriate information with different perspectives so they can form their own opinions.

Make it easier for users to fact-check information, by including references, and use transparency in advertising so users understand why they’re presented with a specific ad and how to change their preferences so as to alter the personalization of the ads they are shown, or to opt out of personalized ads altogether.

A Simple Way You Can Help Combat a Serious Issue

Creators of disinformation will never stop trying to find new ways to deceive users. It’s the age-old conflict of good versus evil. While we can’t stop it, we can fight it.

True SEO isn’t only about algorithms. It’s about using a holistic approach to showcasing integrity and good business practices. It does take time to establish these online credentials. Efforts today may not produce results tomorrow, but they will over time.

Creating web content with the following in mind will not only help improve your business, but it will also help users find the trustworthy information they are searching for.

5 Takeaways to Help Improve Your Own SEO

As you work on your own web presence, be sure to:

1. Showcase your E-A-T. Include an About page filled with accolades, previous experience, and detailed success stories to demonstrate why you and/or your company is an expert and what was the path you took to get there.

2. Read your customer reviews and social media comments. Find out what, if any, issues they may be experiencing. Address those issues. Immediately. Bad reviews can kill a business.

Keep in mind that there are tons of fake reviews, spam reviews and even false reviews being made by competitors. If you find yourself in this situation, you can flag the review with Google. If the review violates their policies they will remove it.

3. Evaluate your products and services. Taking this last one a bit further, use your customer insights to improve your products or services. If something is amiss, change it. You will be rewarded with repeat customers (traffic), positive reviews and social chatter- all of which will help with your page rankings.

4. Write more content. We just established that quality content is one of the top three ranking factors in SEO. Develop a keyword rich content strategy with your users or customers in mind. Write to your audience. They are coming to you for help answering a question, to find information or looking to understand a topic and may not always understand industry jargon.

5. Don’t forget the tech. While we all like to read and write engaging, entertaining and succulent copy, we can’t forget the basics of SEO. Long content (1000+ words or more) will rank better because it leaves enough room to clearly cover a topic. Pages must have good UI/UX design. It should be free from spelling and grammatical issues. It should include links to reputable references and original sources. Keywords should be carefully and strategically chosen, and of course, everything should work well on mobile.

As we move into 2019, we can keep in mind that our eyes should be open for misinformation. We can also offer some help to combat disinformation by creating a little more credible content to help drown out the noise.

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Why Marketing Natural Products is So Complicated: Part 3 – The Claims Conundrum

Why Marketing Natural Products is So Complicated: Part 3 – The Claims Conundrum

Feb 19, 2019
turmeric powder, root and capsules

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Why Marketing Natural Products is so Complicated

Part 3: The Claims Conundrum

In the previous articles (part 1 and part 2), we talked about general concerns surrounding the issues which make marketing natural products so difficult. Today we’ll talk a closer look at why we need to watch what we say.

Thanks to the rise of the natural products industry, power foods are gaining influence with shoppers who are turning health goals into lifestyle changes. Choices in the grocery aisle are now made on the overall health benefits of the product, not just on taste and price alone. This has created a rise in the number of products that are infused with traditional and medicinal herbs and spices.

The Therapeutic Benefits of Turmeric

For the past few years, turmeric (curcuma longa) has been the golden child of the spice world with its bright, beautiful hue and earthy aroma. Its also been considered the top performing ingredient in the supplement industry with sales topping the $50 million mark in 2017, a 12.2% increase from 2016.

In the mainstream channel, turmeric jumped to the fifth top-selling ingredient of herbal supplements, with sales of $32.45 million in 2017 and a 46.7% increase compared to 2016.

Graph - Turmeric Sales 2016-2017

The golden beauty, typically used as a key coloring and flavoring ingredient in Asian cooking, has also been used as a major part of Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine. Curcumin (diferuloylmethane), a phytochemical found within the root is considered to be the healing compound in turmeric.

Curcumin, not turmeric as a whole, has been at the center of research and clinical studies dating back a half a century to test its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties along with its potential healing power. These clinical trials have addressed the safety and efficacy of this nutraceutical against life-threatening diseases in humans, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.

This has led to the spices popularity in products formulated to target inflammation as well as joint and cardiovascular health. Because of this turmeric seems to be making its way into everything from turmeric chicken bone broths to traditional turmeric teas and even a turmeric-infused chai, chocolate blended treat.

Many product formulators and marketers, all with good intentions, wonder; if an ingredient has been used medicinally for centuries, why are we restricted from talking about its natural benefits today?

[easy-tweet tweet=”If an ingredient has been used medicinally for centuries, why can’t we market the natural benefits today?” hashtags=”naturalproducts, cbd, supplements, selfregulate, bebetter, transparency, trust, compliance, riskvsreward” url=”https://trontz.com/HUQTZ” template=”light”]

Many marketers refer to scientific studies to help determine what can be said about a particular ingredient. In turmerics case, an article published on the US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health (NIH) sites several clinical trials and the amazing benefits for curcumin. It should be noted that in many of these studies, the curcumin was combined with other agents, such as quercetin. The article also lists completed clinical trials with over 60 individual studies, all with different dosages taken for varying durations of time.

Here’s where it starts to get complicated. While one particular combination of curcumin and another compound, taken in a particular dosage, for a set period of time resulted in a positive effect on one group of people, it’s not guaranteed, or even plausible, that your product will give the same or similar result.

Not all Tumeric is Created Equal

There is also a question about potency? If curcumin is the key compound needed for a health benefit, how do we know if the potency of the curcumin is consistent with all forms of turmeric? ConsumerLab.com does a great job in answering that question in the article Tumeric Spice vs. Tumeric Supplement. To summarize, turmeric the spice is the dried, grounded root, sold as a powder. When a ½ to 1 full teaspoon (2.5 to 5 grams) is consumed it is said to have ‘certain digestive and cognitive benefits’.

It goes on to say that most clinical studies, like the ones listed above, don’t use a turmeric powder but rather a turmeric extract. The difference between the powder and the extract is the amount of curcumin found in each one.

Only 3% of the weight of turmeric powder contains curcumin while the turmeric extracts often contain concentrations of curcumin as high as 95%.

This means food or beverages containing turmeric powder will contain far less curcumin, and along with it the medicinal benefits, than a supplement which contains a turmeric extract with a high-dose of curcumin.

Turmeric Spice vs Turmeric Extract

Consumerlabs.com takes this even further by saying that there are many supplements on the market that contains a ratio or blend of turmeric powder and extract. This can confuse a consumer as they may not be aware of how much curcumin they are receiving unless they check the dietary supplement labels active ingredient list.

Circling Back to Adulterated Ingredients

Remember in part 2 we talked about the seven brands of turmeric which were recalled for containing excessive amounts of lead. With the idea that most brands want to sell clean, healthy products, I’m sure it’s safe to say that most products producers don’t want to add an unhealthy dose of lead to the menu.

This is why it’s so important that product producers have individual ingredients tested. Third-party tests will help you determine if your product is what the supplier says it is, as well as what the potency levels are.

infograophic - issues with importer, manufacture and suppliers

What Does All of this Mean for Marketers?

Understanding the potency of a particular product is important when talking about claims. A turmeric flavored broth made with the dried spice will want to make sure there is an adequate amount of curcumin per serving if they plan to sell their product with a nutraceutical benefit.

A turmeric extract supplement with a defined amount of curcumin per serving may wish to state a non-disease related benefit. This is as long as the potency, dosage and duration of use are backed by a number of clinical or scientific studies.

This is where the confusion and frustration begin for people trying to sell natural products. Yes, there are compounds found in nature that can make a positive impact on people’s lives. I am an avid supplement user and have found that certain supplements make a big difference in how I feel on a daily basis. As supplement advocates and users, we can talk about them, write about them and teach others about them. Once we decide to sell them we are taking on a greater responsibility and liability.

Healthy people eat, drink and take supplements to stay healthy. Then there are the people who are using supplements and botanicals to support mainstream medicine or are trying to ‘self medicate’. If they are sick, they will have weaker immune systems and may be on medications which could cause serious interactions with natural compounds. Healthy people may be strong enough not to feel the effects of a wrong dose, forgotten warning or drug interaction. Others may end up seriously hurt, or worse.

Illustration showcasing drug and herb interactions

There is a lot of confusion and misinformation out there. For many of us, it’s a true challenge to sort through all the BS and determine the right way to market CPGs.

How we act today will define the regulations that are placed upon us tomorrow. Hopefully, additional regulations in areas that are already heavily regulated won’t be the case. [CBDs are an entirely different story.]
[easy-tweet tweet=”It’s time to self-regulate. If we don’t do it on our own, someone else is going to do it for us.” hashtags=”naturalproducts, cbd, supplements, selfregulate, bebetter, transparency, trust, compliance, riskvsreward” url=”https://trontz.com/HUQTZ” template=”light”]

If you take anything away from this article, take away the fact that our industry is being watched for the purpose of protecting consumers from ‘bad actors’. Moving forward, things are going to have to change in some way shape or form. It’s time to self-regulate because if we don’t do it on our own, someone else is going to do it for us.

Disclaimer: This post is designed to provide general information on pertinent topics, and the statements are made for educational advice. If you have specific legal or compliance questions as it pertains to your products and the law, we recommend that you should seek the advice of your legal counsel, compliance expert or industry trade association for further guidance and support.

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Why Marketing Natural Products is So Complicated: Part 2 – Natural Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Safe

Why Marketing Natural Products is So Complicated: Part 2 – Natural Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Safe

Feb 12, 2019
drop of an extract on a blurred background

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Why Marketing Natural Products is so Complicated

Part 2: Natural Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Safe

In the previous article (part 1), we talked about general concerns regarding the issues that make marketing natural products so difficult. As promised, today we‘ll take a closer look at how the big four impacts the end consumer.

As a reminder, the big four are the widespread issues caused by the ‘bad actors’ who decide to cash in at the consumers’ expense.

These are the companies who ‘knowingly’ sell products with incorrect allergen statements, high toxicity levels, adulterated ingredients and misleading disease-focused marketing claims. The challenge is, many of these companies wholesale or private label their products to unsuspecting brands.

What we end up with are a slew of products on the market with safety issues, labeling issues and outrageous marketing claims.

[easy-tweet tweet=”Thanks to some ‘bad actors’, natural doesn’t necessarily mean safe. ” hashtags=”naturalproducts, cbd, supplements, selfregulate, bebetter, transparency, trust, foodsafety, compliance, riskvsreward, disclosure” url=”https://trontz.com/EAOUM” template=”light”]

For the most part, unless a company grows its own supply, a CPG company wholesales an ingredient or private-labels an entire formula from a third-party supplier.

Large suppliers tend to have 100’s of sales reps and/or affiliates whose livelihood depends on getting the product on people’s minds. They are armed with an arsenal of sales materials including product spec sheets, certificates of analysis, quality assurance, product benefits and sometimes a multitude of misleading marketing claims to help close a sale.

Any issue or misinformation then gets passed down the line of reps and/or affiliates, through the B2C company who purchased their product, and ends up in direct contact with the end-consumer.

When both B2B and B2C companies scale quickly to meet demand, it can be common for certificates of analysis and quality assurance documents to be outdated, expired or downright wrong. For too long there was no way to track back to confirm if the exact ingredient sold was, in fact, the same lot or version of the ingredient that was advertised.

infographic - issues with misinformation and possibly adulterated ingredients getting passed from suppliers to wholesales to company affiliates.

These issues have ignited growth in supply chain management software solutions and have started some techy conversations regarding blockchain and its potential benefits in supply chain transparency and traceability.

In our experience, many CPG companies tend to take suppliers on their word about the safety of a product, or accuracy and legality of information provided by a supplier. When companies do this they are taking on a huge liability.

It’s best, and required, to double check the product with third-party lab testing and compliance experts. Skipping this step is where many of these issues begin.

Big Issues Caused by ‘Bad Actors’

Long gone are the days when you can you slap a label on a product and expect it to fly off the shelf.

Consumers are demanding transparency and for good reason. They aren’t only trying to protect themselves from the bad actors; they are trying to protect themselves from the many mishaps and mistakes that can happen when good companies rush to meet demand, exceed sales goals and scale quickly.

Some of these mistakes can be deadly.

One of the Big Four Issues - Allergens

ALLERGEN CONTAMINATION

Approximately 15 million people in the United States have food allergies. While most food allergies cause relatively mild and minor symptoms, some food allergies can cause a severe and sometimes life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis.

The FDA estimates that in a year:

• 30,000 people will require a trip to the emergency room,

• 2,000 people will need hospitalization, and

• 150 people will die because of a major reaction to a food allergen.

The most common cause of food-induced anaphylaxis in the US is due to peanut allergies. Peanuts are one of the eight major food allergens, which means any product containing peanuts must include an allergen statement on the label.

Most brands have no trouble complying with this. However, sometimes issues with allergens can come from cross-contamination or a cross-contact situation.

infographic to showcase number of people hospitalized each year from allergen reactions

Cross-contamination or cross-contact situations can happen in several ways. Many manufacturers use shared equipment with nuts. There may be a presence of peanut dust from a previous run on a machine that wasn’t properly cleaned or segregate. Small-batched products made in commissary kitchens may come into ‘contact’ with another product’s residue where allergens where present.

Cross-contaminations may also occur on the supplier’s side and passed unknowingly into other brands’ products. This recently happened to RXBAR.

Most of us all know and love RXBAR. Their unique no B.S. packaging, along with a $600 million dollar deal with Kellogg, made the RXBAR the ‘it’ bar of 2017. Yet, even the big brands who try to do everything right can come across a major mishap.

On January 15, 2019, RXBAR had a voluntarily recall, because of an undeclared peanut. They state “the issue stems from a specific ingredient supplied by a third party, and the supplier has been changed since this issue arose”. Over 20 different flavor variations were affected by this one contaminated ingredient from a single supplier.

One of the Big Four Issues -Toxicity

TOXICITY LEVELS

Poison control centers help people manage poisonings which can be solved over the phone, saving a trip to the emergency room. Specially trained nurses, pharmacists, and doctors are on-call to help with accidental contact or overdoses from various natural and man-made substances.

In 2017, the Journal of Medical Toxicology released a study reporting on a spike in calls to US poison centers because of dietary supplement overdoses.

• 274,998 dietary supplement cases were reported in a 12-year period, between 2000-2012. That’s over 22,000 cases a year.

• 70% of all calls were for children younger than 6 years old, with unintentional exposures.

Miscellaneous dietary supplements accounted for 43.9% of all exposures, followed by botanicals (31.9%), hormonal products (15.1%), and other supplements (5.1%). Ma huang products (ephedra), yohimbe, and energy products were the categories associated with the greatest toxicity.

Graph to show dietary supplement overdose

Many of you may remember the FDA’s federal ban on products containing ephedra in late 2003.

This was the first time the agency banned an herbal supplement. Ephedra was used in as an appetite suppressant to help promote weight loss and as a supplement to help increase energy and alertness.

The FDA based the decision to ban the herb on extensive research involving over 16,000 reports of adverse health effects from products containing ephedra, including 155 deaths.

Herbal products can be as powerful as drugs, yet don’t require a prescription. They can also cause serious medical complications if not taken properly.

Dietary supplements do not need pre-approval by the FDA before it is released into commerce. Unless of course the product is intended for therapeutic purposes. Overall, it’s the responsibility of product producers and the marketers to not only ensure the product is safe but to also ensure it’s used correctly.

Brands selling products that contain highly purified compounds should require extra, self-regulated scrutiny to ensure its overall safety. In this next case, a well-known and what many would consider harmless vitamin caused adverse reactions in poor little pups because of high levels of Vitamin D found in pet food.

On Jan 16, 2019, the FDA alerted pet owners and veterinary professionals about recalls of several dry dog foods after receiving complaints that dogs eating the food experienced vitamin D toxicity.

Excess vitamin D in the diet can cause vomiting, loss of appetite, increased thirst, increased urination, excessive drooling and weight loss. Vitamin D at toxic levels can cause kidney failure and death.

The mandatory recall effected eight brands and 14 different products. Because of the number of brands impacted by this recall, it can be assumed that the issue started early in the supply chain.

One of the Big Four Issues - Adulteration

ADULTERATED INGREDIENTS

Aside from toxicity levels, adulteration has also been a big concern among consumer protection agencies, industry trade associations and medical professionals.

Adulteration is caused when an ingredient (partial or in its entirety) is replaced by a different ingredient without the consumer’s knowledge. In food, expensive natural products such as vanilla extract, maple syrups and honey are replaced by the cheaper, and less-desirable ingredient like high-fructose corn syrup.

Both honey and maple syrup, along with olive oil, fish, organic foods, milk, grains, coffee and tea, spices, wine and certain fruit juice made Forbes Top 10 list of Fraudulent Foods.

For supplement companies, the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994 states a product may be found to be adulterated if there is inadequate information to provide reasonable assurance that such an ingredient does not present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.

The main motivation behind adulterated products is for economic reasons. For example, most spices are sold by weight. This creates a potential situation for bad actors to ‘cut’ batches of pure plant powders with cheaper, and potentially toxic agents.

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In recent years, the spice turmeric has seen a rise in its popularity, and with that came a surge in suppliers adulterating the powder. To match turmerics signature golden hue, some bad actors’ used lead, which has a similar bright yellow color.

In 2016, seven brands of turmeric were recalled for containing excessive amounts of lead. All seven brands had sourced their ingredients from a single supplier.

Lead is particularly dangerous for pregnant women, infants and children. In 2016, this was not considered new news, but a continuation of a bigger problem. Between 2010 and 2014, six cases of children were hospitalized from exposure to high levels of lead found in culinary spices, like turmeric.

Turmeric-based dietary supplements with an alarmingly high level of lead were also recalled. All seven sellers of the recalled turmeric in 2016 were all listed in a class action lawsuit.

Adulteration can also happen because of technical motivation. Sometimes if the amount or dosage, of a natural product, is too big to fit in a capsule or to take orally to achieve the desired, labeled strength and result of the supplement, a company will use a drug to replace it.

This happens so often the FDA created a database for tainted dietary supplements. Today, there are 923 products listed with a disclaimer that the list only includes a small fraction of the potentially hazardous products with hidden ingredients marketed to consumers. The lion’s share of these products are for muscle building, weight loss and sexual enhancement. Many, if not all, of these products, are considered to be misbranded by the FDA.

Hemp-derived CBD products are not included in this databases, however, that doesn’t mean this space isn’t susceptible to shady shenanigans of bad actors trying to make a quick buck. Consumer Reports just did a study on ‘Dangerous Chemicals found in CBD Products’, which included everything from synthetic chemicals linked to emergency room visits and an over-the-counter cough syrup most likely used to mimic the effects of CBD.

One of the Big Four Issues - Disease Claims

DISEASE MARKETING CLAIMS

Misleading marketing claims, or as the FDA refers to it, misbranded or mislabeled products, can trip up any company. Many companies that receive warning letters for misbranded products did not understand that they were doing anything thing wrong. They believed they were wholeheartedly marketing the product’s true benefits.

In 2018 the FDA issued 409 warning letters, spread across eight industries including food, drug, supplement, cosmetic, tobacco and animal. Over 50% of the letters included a misbranding issue.

Misbranding occurs if a manufacturer places a label on their product that is misleading or confusing, or if the label does not correspond to the proper product. Regulations in this area are plentiful, with each industry listed above having its own set of rules to follow.

From a marketing standpoint, one of the biggest reasons a product is considered misbranded is when it is sold to be used in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease. We will break this down further in part 3 of this series.

Sometimes the FDA is not the one calling attention to these issues. Many companies find they have compliance issues when an expert reviews their packaging and marketing materials before admittance to be sold at a retail location or exhibited at a trade show. These misbranding issues can halt the growth of a company.

In most cases the misbranded claims can be found all over a company’s website, social media accounts, printed materials and packaging. The costs to rectify those claims across so many mediums is hefty. If a product needs to be changed under a strict deadline, rush charges on re-designs, reprints and refills and possibly reformulations could diminish the product’s margins.

The costs could be so high a company may lose the opportunity to appear on the shelf or take part in the event. Getting things right the first time is a big deal, especially for new companies.

retail and trade show compliance checks

With misbranded products, everyone is held accountable.

This includes the retail stores that sell the products to the design agency that created the product’s packaging.

While some may feel a warning letter is about as bad as a slap on the wrist, the FDA has the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help watch consumers backs. Companies can and have been prosecuted if they participate in interstate commerce involving mislabeled or misbranded consumer products.

In 2018 alone, the FTC had 38 successful cases with almost $4M being recouped and refunded to consumers defrauded by five separate dietary supplement companies for fraudulent claims.

In 2017, one dietary supplement company alone was fined $8M.

While there are companies that can take an $8 million dollar hit, most won’t be able to handle the fines. Many have to declare bankruptcy and close their doors. If doors don’t close, jobs are almost always lost.

The Cost of Getting it Wrong

All of the issues discussed today are considered to be misbranded products by the FDA. Issues with a health and safety risk would result in a product recall. This could be devastating for a small company. It’s estimated that 52% of food recalls can cost a company over $10 million in sales losses and direct costs, according to a study by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA).

• 29% of the companies surveyed faced a financial impact between $10-$29 million.

• 9% of the companies surveyed faced a financial impact of between $30 – $49 million.

• 14% of the companies surveyed faced a financial impact of over $50 million.

graph to show sales losses and direct costs companies face from food recalls

The backlash a brand will face from a recall also has a powerful impact on the company’s continued success. A survey by Harris Interactive found health or safety-related food recall can have enormous implications for a company’s reputation.

• 16% of consumers surveyed said if a brand they usually purchase is involved with a recall they would never purchase from the recalled brand again;

• An additional 17% would avoid any brands made by the recalled product’s manufacturer.

• 60% of Baby Boomers and Seniors are more likely than Millennials (49%) to only temporarily switch brands,

• While Millennials are more likely than any other generation to say they would never purchase the recalled brand again (24% Millennials, 15% Gen Xers, 12% Baby Boomers, 9% Seniors).

Infographic - Who Would Never Purchase From Recalled Brand Again

Companies who ‘knowingly’ sell misbranded products are the worst of the worst. They not only cause great harm to their customers, they also end up making things difficult for those who are trying to get it right.

These are the folks that gave the government a reason to take a closer look at the industry as a whole.

This doesn’t end here…

We’ve talked about general concerns in part 1 and took a closer look at the top four concerns in part 2 of this three-part series: “The Claims Conundrum. Why Marketing Natural Products is so Complicated.” While we’ve covered quite a bit, there is still a lot more to talk about. If you want to learn more about these issues, don’t miss the next article where we’ll take a deeper look at one product to see why we have to watch what we say.

Stay tuned for PART 3.

Disclaimer: This post is designed to provide general information on pertinent topics, and the statements are made for educational advice. If you have specific legal or compliance questions as it pertains to your products and the law, we recommend that you should seek the advice of your legal counsel, compliance expert or industry trade association for further guidance and support.

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Why Marketing Natural Products is So Complicated: Part 1 of 3

Why Marketing Natural Products is So Complicated: Part 1 of 3

Jan 31, 2019
business woman stress out

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Why Marketing Natural Products is so Complicated

Part 1 of a 3 Part Series

Over the last few decades, some companies ignored the basic principles of marketing and overall consumer protection by releasing products into commerce that were deceptive, dangerous or even deadly. I’ve lost count of the number of warning letters and product recalls in the last year alone.

As a consumer, when I spend money on a product, I don’t want to worry about my health; or accidentally buying something based on a misrepresentation or an outright lie.

As a marketer, I can attest that it not only difficult and time-consuming to follow the rules but can be mind-boggling to figure out what the rules even are. While it can be exhausting and overwhelming, I understand why many of these rules exist.

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Some companies sell or say anything with little regard for the physical or psychological harm they may cause someone.

They are the ‘bad actors’ who cash in at the consumers’ expense by selling products with safety issues, labeling issues and outrageous marketing claims.

They may be a small group in a growing industry filled with beloved brands who are trying to make a real difference in people’s lives. However, the negative publicity and false claims from these bad actors have diminished the credibility and reputation of a solid industry filled with reputable companies working hard to do things the right way.

It’s unfortunate, but thanks to those ‘bad actors’ we all may be facing the biggest shift in the industry since the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DESHA) was introduced in 1994. This could make marketing natural products much harder than it already is.

 

Americans are Using Natural Products to Combat the Healthcare Crisis

Let’s look back to see how we ended up here in the first place.

I think we can all agree that America is in a health care crisis and has been for quite some time.

With 12.2 percent of all adults now lacking health insurance, that leaves almost 40 million Americans with no access to basic healthcare.

This doesn’t include the number of people with high-deductible health insurance plans who delay or deny themselves much needed preventive services, or even treatment because they can’t afford the out-of-pocket expenses.

For folks who have healthcare, it’s estimated a family of four would have spent $28,000 last year in out-of-pocket costs.

This, along with an aging population and a heightened interest in preventative health care has contributed to the rise of the natural products industry.

infographic to showcase number of people without basic healthcare

With many Americans left on their own to find alternative methods to get or stay healthy, they have turned to dietary supplements, functional foods and CBD products.

Companies have taken notice and cashed in on the trend by developing products that provide healthier and more cost-effective options than what was ever available via traditional methods in previous decades.

Because of this, the natural products industry is stronger than ever, having passed the $200 billion mark in 2017. Of which over half (52%) is in the dietary supplement and functional food space.

Graph $200 Billion Natural Products Industry

With this comes also comes an increasing number of small natural products, functional food, dietary supplement and CBD startups looking to cash in on the trend.

 

What Does ‘Natural’ Stand For, Anyway?

Do you know what the term ‘natural’ means?

Nothing.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the term ‘natural’ literally stands for nothing.

This creates one of the main marketing hurdles in the industry.

With no solid rule surrounding the term ‘natural’, there is nothing that can stop a brand from slapping a leafy looking design and the word ‘natural’ on their label, as long as they can claim it’s not ‘misleading’.

With an influx of cleverly designed labels and a ‘natural’ marketing claim, we can easily confuse brands committed to creating pure products without preservatives, pesticides, harsh chemicals or carcinogens with other not-so-natural products.

The FDA has requested comments on the use of the term “natural” on food labeling in 2016, yet nothing has moved forward since then.

This creates a need for marketers to develop strong differentiation strategies focusing on product benefits. With many natural foods and supplement products containing ingredients with documented medicinal uses dating back to ancient times, it’s only ‘natural’ for marketers to want to develop campaigns based on those benefits.

This is where the rules are long and plenty, with the gist of it stating we can’t say whatever we want to say. And, if we make a claim, we better make sure we have the appropriate, i.e. credible, scientific evidence to back it up.

This is the area which many CPG marketers are wondering, how do you sell a product if you can’t say anything about it?

 

It’s Not [Just] a Political Issue. It’s a Public Safety Issue.

The natural products industry exists to provide alternatives to over-processed, mass-produced and unhealthy options previously provided by Big Food and Big Pharma.

Part of the growth of the industry stems not only from consumers who want products that are healthier but also from consumers who want brands to be more transparent.

Today, consumers want to know more than what’s in your product. They want to know where the ingredients and materials were sourced, how the product was made, who made it, and what the standards surrounding the production process were.

Remember those ‘bad actors’ we talked about earlier? The brands’ responsible for selling products with safety issues. These are the companies who ‘knowingly’ release products into commerce with incorrect allergen statements, high toxicity levels, adulterated ingredients, and disease-focused marketing claims. We like to call these issues – the big four. These four issues happen more often than you would think. They cause the most harm to a consumer, and to a brand’s reputation if uncovered.

The challenge is, many of these ‘bad actors’ wholesale or private label products to unsuspecting and seemingly good brands who don’t realize that they may be contributing to the problem.

Transparency is not just a new buzz word in the supply chain industry. It’s the best way to help stomp out these issues.

 

The Big Four Issues - Allergens, Toxicity Levels, Adulteration and Disease Claims

 

Pushing politics aside, regulatory agencies are consumer protection agencies. They exist to make sure regular everyday people have access to safe products in which the benefits are explained in a non-misleading manner.

Regulations are created by these agencies when a public safety issue needs to be addressed. The rules are created so people don’t get hurt.

Sometimes these regulations are easy to understand. Other times, not so much.

Regardless, if we don’t try to follow the rules, we’re going to end up with more oversight and possibly more regulations.

 

Expect More Enforcement for Dietary Supplements, Functional Foods and CBDs

At the close of last year, the FDA commissioner, Scott Gottieb M.D., announced the formation of a dietary supplement working group to discuss increased oversight to the industry to combat falsely labeled products, adulterated products and disease claims.

Natural Products Insider quotes Gottieb stating the reasons behind the formation of the committee is because of “concerns that the industry has gotten bigger and riskier. The FDA plans on advancing new policies to improve oversight in the space.”

While this statement alone may scare people, it is comforting to know many of the leading natural products trade associations such as the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA), the Natural Products Association (NPA) and the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) stand on the line between the industry and regulators.

These associations are there to ensure the FDA is tough on the bad actors, yet thoughtful about the responsible companies as layers of new regulations and quality control pressures could create problems for smaller brands.

The reality is, no one knows for sure what will happen over the next year or two.

The question is – where will that leave natural product marketers?

 

Selling Supplements Requires Self Regulation

Consumers have a need, and a right, to trust the integrity of the ingredients, the manufacturing process and the marketing claims for the products they consume.

For companies operating in this space, it’s essentially up to us to monitor our own self-adherence to legal, ethical and safety standards. Supplements and functional foods, unlike drugs, don’t require pre-approval to enter the market. It’s only after someone gets hurt that the FDA can have the product recalled.

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Over the last few years, many brands have been following self-regulatory initiatives to improve the overall landscape and reputation of the industry.

Many larger brands who can afford to make costly changes have already contributed to the transparency movement and made big changes in their supply chain and marketing initiatives.

It’s now up to the rest of the natural product and dietary supplement product producers and marketers to educate themselves on what we can do to contribute. We all can be better at what we do. With looming changes on the horizon, now would be a good time to try.

 

This doesn’t end here….

We’ve talked about general concerns in Part 1 of this three-part series: “Why Marketing Natural Products is so Complicated.” While we’ve covered quite a bit, there is still a lot more to talk about. Don’t miss next weeks article, “Natural Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Safe.”

Stay tuned for PART 2.

Disclaimer: This post is designed to provide general information on pertinent topics, and the statements are made for educational advice. If you have specific legal or compliance questions as it pertains to your products and the law, we recommend that you should seek the advice of your legal counsel, compliance expert or industry trade association for further guidance and support.

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World Market Apologizes for Inappropriate Email

World Market Apologizes for Inappropriate Email

Aug 26, 2016

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World Market Apologizes for Inappropriate Email.
Was it Inappropriate or Just a Simple Mistake?

Yesterday World Market sent out a seemingly innocent email to promote the sale of Torani Syrups from Italy.

The email’s subject line, “Summer like an Italian with 2 for $12 Torani. Salute!”

World Market Email

Hours later an apology was sent out. The subject line “Our hearts are with those affected by the earthquake in Italy.”

For those of you that may have missed it, Italy suffered from a 5.5 earthquake on Wednesday which took the lives of over 250 souls and injured more than 360. Aftershocks were recorded at 6.2 magnitude. Nothing short of disastrous for the Italians.

World Market’s apology was truly heartfelt and genuine. They even opted to donate the proceeds of the sale to aid those affected by the earthquake.

Wolrd Market Apology

Just like everyone else, our hearts go out to the Italians. My roots reach back to Italy. But what brings me to write about this is not about the tragedy. It’s more about the email.

Based on everything I know, I must assume that the email that started all of this was most likely written weeks (maybe months) before the tragedy took place.

I can almost guarantee that the person who wrote the (at the time) seemingly innocent subject line that was legitimately trying to sell an Italian syrup and had absolutely had no idea a tragedy would occur. There’s even a chance that the email was written by a service provider and not even an employee of World Market as according to Campaign Monitor, 56% of companies currently use an email marketing provider.

Basically, the email was probably written, scheduled and forgotten about. Because, as marketers, that’s what we do. We look for for every opportunity to find ways to optimize our time and streamline our efforts. We write, design, promote and move on. Going back to track results and start the cycle again.

So, when a simple email subject line is viewed as inappropriate because of mistiming, it makes me wonder. Why is it so hard to find the time to step back for a minute and really look at what’s going on around us?

Perhaps if the World Market email marketing team slowed down and took the time to reflect on the current happenings in the world they would have been able to adjust the email before it went out. They could still have had the proceeds from the promotion donated to the earthquake victims. They could have been proactive rather than reactive. Perhaps, in a perfect world when time is on all of our sides.

I don’t view World Market as an insensitive brand because of an inappropriate email subject line. The incident didn’t change my view on the retailer. I understand that the people behind the brand are still human. It’s a mishap I could have easily made myself. But, it is nice to see that they stepped up to make things right.

Maybe the biggest lesson learned is we all need to take a minute to look up from our work. It’s easy to get lost in the day. It’s even easier for important events to be lost in the crowded media and social media landscape. Making a real effort to stay connected to what matters will make a difference when it really counts.

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Our hearts go out to the victims and family of those affected by this terrible tragedy in Italy.

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Brands that Behave Badly Could Bring More Regulations to Good Companies

Brands that Behave Badly Could Bring More Regulations to Good Companies

Jun 10, 2016
Trontz Blogs FDA Looking to Regulate Natural Cover

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Brands that Behave Badly Could Bring More Regulations to Good Companies

It’s been almost 15 years since the National Organic Program (NOP) started restricting the use of the term ‘organic’ on packaging and labeling.

It’s been even longer since the term ‘healthy’ was defined and regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Now the FDA is looking at the term ‘natural’. Here’s why.

Requests for the FDA to Regulate Use of the Term ‘Natural’ on Food Packaging

In Consumers Reports “Peeling Back the ‘Natural’ Food Label” expose the public was asked, “Do you ever buy one brand of cereal, chips, or juice over another because you see ‘natural’ on the label and assume it’s better?” Most people answered yes.

In fact, in a recent Consumer Reports survey of 1,005 adults, more than half of consumers usually seek out products with a ‘natural’ food label, often in the false belief that they’re produced without genetically modified organisms, hormones, pesticides, or artificial ingredients. Nearly two-thirds of those people believe the natural food label means more than it does. Nearly half incorrectly believe that natural claims on labels have been independently verified. 62% of shoppers said they usually buy foods labeled ‘natural.’ And 87% of those surveyed would pay more for a ‘natural’ product if it met their expectations.

The numbers just don’t lie. People care about what they eat. Which is why companies looking to keep their market share during the natural food movement have been slapping the natural claim on any package they like. You will find a number of brands sporting the ‘natural’ label on products that contain everything from artificial preservatives, industrial chemicals such as sodium benzoate and ‘natural’ foods covered in cellulose powder (wood-pulp) to keep small pieces from sticking together. Up until recently, they were getting away with it.

So what exactly does ‘natural’ mean? The Merriam-Webster dictionary elegantly and simply defines natural as “existing in nature and not made or caused by people: coming from nature.”

As far as packaging goes. The word ‘natural’ is meaningless.

Consumer Reports petitioned the FDA in 2014 to define and regulate the term ‘natural’ so shoppers aren’t misled. Last month, prompted by a petition created by Consumer Reports, the FDA started the process to define the term ‘natural’.

The FDA asked for information and public comment on questions such as:

• Whether it is appropriate to define the term ‘natural’,
• If so, how the agency should define ‘natural’, and
• How the agency should determine appropriate use of the term on food labels.

Comments closed May 10th. They received a total of 7,690 comments. Here’s an example one:

“I believe that it is not only appropriate to define the term ‘natural’ but also very important. The agency should define natural as no additives, food colorings, pesticides, thermal technologies, and pasteurization. The agency should determine the appropriate use of the term “natural” on food labels by producing a product that is completely natural and free of additives, food colorings, pesticides, thermal technologies, and pasteurization.”

What Will a FDA Regulation for the Term ‘Natural’ Mean for Natural Food Companies

Consumer Reports is petitioning that the term ‘natural’ be as regulated as the term ‘organic’. Especially since they virtually mean the same thing. In their Stop Confusing Consumers and Ban the Natural Label campaign they collected 33,036 signatures to have the term ‘natural’ banned from food labels that contain any GMO’s, pesticides, hormones or artificial ingredients.

What does this mean for legitimate companies selling ‘natural’ products? It means another layer of regulation in an already heavily regulated industry. According to Time, some corporate giants have already started to abandon the term ‘natural’ from its packaging, labeling, and marketing materials. Even without an official regulation in place. They state that insiders suspect it’s due to the legal actions or the fear of disputes about misleading labels.

If the FDA bans the term ‘natural’, and companies have to go through the ‘organic’ certification process, here’s what you can expect:

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Organic Certification Process and Estimated Costs

The USDA organic products have strict production and labeling requirements. The process will take some time and cost money. But, it’s really not as bad as you may think. And, it’s well worth the efforts. Especially if you would like to use the term ‘organic’ on your principal display panel, or use the USDA organic seal anywhere on the package*.

The basics of what you will need for certification are:
1. Organic products must meet the following requirements: – Produced without excluded methods (e.g., genetic engineering), ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge.
2. Produced per the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.
3. Overseen by a USDA National Organic Program authorized certifying agent, following all USDA organic regulations.

Labeling Organic Products
Here’s a short breakdown of the three different options for labeling organic products. Check out the USDA’s Labeling Organic Products fact sheet for a full list of requirements.

100% Organic
• ALL ingredients must be certified organic.
• Any processing aids must be organic.
• Product labels must state the name of the certifying agent on the information panel.
• May use the seal and/or 100% organic claim.

Organic
• All agricultural ingredients must be certified organic (except where specified on the National List).
• May contain up to a combined total of 5% of non-organic content (excluding salt and water).
• Product labels must state the name of the certifying agent on the information panel.
• May use the seal and/or organic claim.

“Made With” Organic
• At least 70% of the product must be certified organic ingredients (excluding salt and water).
• Any remaining agricultural ingredients must be produced without excluding methods (see basics #1).
• Non-agricultural products must be specifically allowed on the National List.
• Product labels must state the name of the certifying agent on the information panel.
• May state “made with organic (list specific ingredients)”. May not use the seal or represent finished product as “made with organic ingredients”.

If your product contains certified organic ingredients but the product itself isn’t certified, you are only able to identify certified organic ingredients in your ingredients panel.

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Costs for Organic Certification
Organic certification costs can vary depending on the size of your production operation and on the accredited agency you choose to use. Sarah Costin, Co-owner of A Bee Organic, an accredited Organic Certification Agency was gracious enough to give us a rough idea of what you can expect if you choose to go through the process. Here’s what we learned:

In general, organic certification costs will include an application fee, site inspection fee, and an annual certification fee based on gross sales of the certified organic product.

• Initial Application Fee: Dependent on the certifier. Average cost can be $275. A Bee Organic charges $200.
• Site Inspection Fee: Depends on the size of the facility/handler, usually less than $500 for a small site.
• Annual Certification Fee: Certification fees are based on a percentage of gross income from the organic products. A Bee Organic charges approximately 0.001%, depending on sales and category. A single ingredient product with less than $10,000 in annual sales could cost approximately $550. Have $100,000 in sales? Then your cost is roughly $850.00. Fees do vary. When looking for a certified be sure to shop around and ask about hidden fees.

The USDA offers a “Cost Sharing Program” on a state by state basis that can save your business up to 75% of the costs associated with the organic certification process, not to exceed $750 per year. The requests for application for this fiscal year is now available. All applications must be received by 5:00 p.m. ET on July 5, 2016.

If you are not ready to obtain an organic certification, no need to worry just yet. While the process to ban the term ‘natural’ has started, it will take some time for it to come to fruition. To keep things in perspective, it took the FDA 6 years to define the terms for Gluten Free labeling.

However, when considering whether to certify or not, take into account the public’s perspective on organic foods. The organics industry reached its record high for sales in 2015 with a total of $43.3 billion, states the Organic Trade Association’s in their recent press release. They also state that the industry has had double-digit growth for the fourth year in a row, with a $3.9 billion increase over 2014.

Because of brands that choose to behave badly, people are starting to lose trust in food labels. Certifications will add a level of accountability to the brands touting ‘natural’ foods, making it easier for legitimate ‘natural’ food companies to promote their “better” products. It’s just a matter of those legitimate companies finding the time and cash to go through the process.

How do you feel about the FDA regulating the term ‘natural’? Let us know in the comments.

*Some operations are exempt from certification, including organic farmers who sell $5,000 or less.

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The Dirty Dozen Digital Etiquette Mistakes People Make

The Dirty Dozen Digital Etiquette Mistakes People Make

Jun 3, 2016
Digital Etiquette Blog Post

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The Dirty Dozen Digital Etiquette Mistakes People Make

National Business Etiquette Week is just about over (June 1-7). Which means there’s no better time than to talk about the dirty dozen digital etiquette mistakes people make.

Most of us are masters of our own universe when we present and engage in person. However, things can change dramatically when we are online. What makes things worse is a mishap in person can be easily recovered from. Or hopefully, quickly forgotten. An online mistake can show up in searches and haunt you for years.

Business owners must be exceptional communicators, in any space. We know that. Knowing the pitfalls of online mishaps and help you avoid any embarrassing faux pas, sticky situations or worse, legal issues.

These 12 don’ts can make a big difference in how your audience views and interacts with you and your brand.

1. Think Before You Post, Publish or Send

It’s number one on Hootsuite’s list of 9 Essential Social Media Etiquette Rules for Business so we figured it should be number one here as well. We just added email into the mix.

You know the words from the song “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter …”You had a bad day. The camera don’t lie. You had a bad day…..” Guess what. The screen doesn’t lie either.

Everyone at one time has had a bad day, week or even year. Sometimes it’s hard to not let those bad feelings seep out into your messages, emails and posts.

I’ve even had a few “did I really just write that moments” myself. D’oh!

Instant messaging, texting, emails and postings are all “in-the-moment” communications. The last thing you want to do is quickly tap out a message, hit send or publish and end up with your own d’oh moment!

Regardless if you are having a bad day or not. Think about all the potentials outcomes from what you are saying before you hit the post, publish or send button. A little thought in the beginning can save you a whole lot of time in the end.

2. Not Listening

What does your audience want to hear? What do they want to know more about? If you don’t know the answers you these questions, that means you are not listening. Remember, social media is a two way conversation.

When putting up posts, avoid being too promotional and only talking about your brand. Think about including information on topics of interest.

According to HubSpot, 45% of people said that they would unfollow a brand on social media because of too much self-promotion.

That could be half your audience!

To put this into perspective, think about the last time you purchased goods from a store. Think about your in-person shopping experience. While you were meandering around pursuing the items on the shelves a sales person probably came by and asked it they could help. If you answered no, they most likely politely said I’m here if you have any questions and wandered away.

What if that salesperson kept coming back? “Can I show you this?” “Do you see that?” “Did I tell you about this feature? “If you don’t act now you may lose it?” “But wait..there’s more..!”

Aside from the instant urge to run and get a restraining order, you probably have no interest in ever shopping at that store again. Same goes for the online experience.

Always think about what your audience wants to hear and how often they want to hear it. Measuring your activity and adjusting based on the results is the optimal way to know what your audience is thinking. Make sure what you are posting adds value. Which brings us to number three.

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3. Frequency

When is enough, enough?

The amount of communications we send to our communities is a big deal.

Think about it. We read a blog post or find some interesting content on a website so we sign up for the email list. Then, bam! You get hit day after day with promotional emails. What do you do? If you’re anything like me, you disconnected.

I know my time is important. I’m sure yours is too. We just don’t have the extra time to weed through the endless emails to find the content we truly want and need to read. The same goes for your audience.

Campaign Monitor sited in their post “The surprising data about how often to send promotional emails.” that 43.9% of subscribers would like businesses to email them less often.

Emailing frequency is a big deal. Be careful you don’t accidentally annoy or offend your audience by publishing content to often. If you do, you run the risk of losing all the people you worked so hard to gain.
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4. Deleting Comments

We’ve all been there. You post something on your personal or business page and you see a comment that you really wish someone didn’t make. Whatever you do, don’t delete it. Deal with it instead.

While it is much easier to hit delete then to deal with it, the damage from deleting comments can linger on for years. People will notice if you delete their comments. Delete enough of them and people will start talking somewhere else, where you have no monitoring abilities.

Regardless if you are on a personal or professional page, the person you are connected to has chosen to take part in your journey. When you delete comments you are basically sending the message that you don’t care about them and are in essence, slamming the door in their face. Which hurts.

Taking the time to either address the comment online or offline shows character. Turning a bad situation around online shows you are for real. Not everyone is going to like everything everyone says. However, allowing people to express those opinions shows how much you actually care about your community.

If you feel you absolutely have to delete a comment, have the common courtesy to address the person offline. This gives you an opportunity to discuss the situation to help prevent it from happening again. Dealing with the situation can help you save face, while keeping a relationship in tact.

5. Ignoring Comments

Deleting is one thing. Flat out ignoring is something entirely different. The definition of a conversation is an informal exchange of ideas. If there is not an exchange, well then it’s not really a conversation. Is it?

Ignoring a comment is in essence starting a conversation, then walking out of the room before listening to what anyone else has to say.

Social Media is about inviting people to join your conversation. Out of the millions of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn conversations that are happening each day, someone chose to join the conversation you started. That’s a big deal. Make sure you give them the common curiosity of responding when they have something to say back.

6. Compliance

Regardless of your industry, someone will be regulating you. Whether if it’s the FTC, FDA, USDA of any other acronym, someone is watching. Don’t say something you can’t prove.

It’s easy to get lost in the rigorous regulatory rules. Especially in certain industries. One of of the many challenges that social media mavins face is to stay conversational while saying compliant.

If you are selling products or services in a heavily regulated industry then you will want to make sure that your whole team is on board with what not to say. This includes employees, contractors and affiliates. A simple slip can end up with hefty fines or litigation issues.

iMedia Connection covers social media compliance challenges with an in depth look at how businesses can guarantee their social media is regulation compliant. It’s worth the time to put a social media policy in place for team members, outside contractors and even affiliates to follow to maintain organizational compliance.

7. Abusing Hashtags

There’s a reason why hashtag abuse earned the number three spot on HubSpot’s Why People Unfollow Your Brand on Social Media post. Because dozen’s of hashtags end up being a distraction instead of an asset.

Don’t get me wrong. Hashtags are integral for immediately expanding the reach of your tweet or post beyond those who follow you. By adding a simple pound sign before a keyword allows your tweet or post to reach anyone interested in that hashtag phrase or keyword. Sometimes people just add too many.

Learning how to strategically use them will help promote your message, not clutter it. Buffer’s blog, “How to Use Hashtags: How Many, Best Ones, and Where to Use Them” helps sort it out.

Buffer’s Main Takeaways:

• Tweets with hashtags receive twice the engagement compared to those without hashtags.
• Tweets with one or two hashtags have a 21% higher engagement than those with three or more hashtags.
• When you use more than two hashtags, your engagement actually drops by an average of 17%.
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8. Auto-Messaging

How often do you respond to a pre drafted message? If I were to guess, probably not often at all. While it’s nice to want to send a heartfelt greeting to everyone who decides to follow you, it may not look as heartfelt as you had hoped. Especially if you are trying to sell them something in that greeting when they just started to get to know you.
Stick to using Direct Messages for what Direct Messages are for. Building connections and getting to know people. Make sure they are relevant and personal.

9. Not Keeping Your Cool

You know the ol’ cliche. If you don’t have something nice to say don’t say anything at all. That goes for digital too.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get involved in a healthy debate, talk about your issues or question things that aren’t clear and transparent.
It just means do it in a respectful way.
This may seem like common sense. But sometimes someone may tick you off online and you just want to fire back. Do yourself a favor and don’t do it.
The bigger your audience gets the more opinions you will be opening your brand up to. It’s inevitable that someone, somewhere probably won’t like something you sell, did or said. It’s just human nature.
Keeping your cool when dealing with disgruntled and what some call “difficult” customers online will go along way to keep your reputation in tact.

10. Copyright Violation

If you are reading this post then you probably already know that content marketing is on the rise.
Which is why you are expanding your digital marketing efforts.
Content Marketing Forum created “The Ultimate List” of content marketing stats. If you haven’t up’d your content creation yet, here are a few quick takeaways that will show you why you should:
• 67% of B2B buyers rely more on content to research and make B2B purchasing decisions than they did a year ago
• 88% of B2B marketers in North America use content marketing
• 76% of marketers are increasing investment in content marketing
• 82% of marketers curate content
• More than half of banking and financial services marketers worry about trademark, copyright and citation issues.
The last two brings us to number 10 on our list. Notice that 82% of marketers are curating content. Which is perfectly fine. I do it myself. We curate content for many reasons. We do it to keep up with demand. (Creating custom content from scratch is extremely time consuming.) And, it allows us to gather multiple opinions from various thought leaders and compile a “best of” to promote to our audiences.
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Take note of number five. More than half of banking and financial services marketers worry about trademark, copyright and citation issues. We really need to be careful that we are always citing our sources and giving credit where credit is due. This includes when you are using quotes, paragraph of content, and overall original ideas.
Images are different. You can’t just grab an image and give a person or company credit. Be sure you are obtaining the correct licenses from a stock photo site such as Shutterstock or iStock. Or, it the image was created by a specific artist, contact them to gain the correct permission and licenses. We can’t express enough the importance of this. A copyright or trademark infringement case be so costly it could put you out of business.

11. Not Targeting the Right Audience

Every digital platform is getting more and more crowded. Standing out in the noise is an art in itself.
We have already established that creating quality content takes time. If you have taken the time to craft the perfect post, then you should make the effort to make sure it ends up in front of the right audience. Not doing so only wastes both time and money.
Take the time to learn about your audiences content consumption habits. Then send out the right content at the perfect time on the correct platform. Not doing so makes your beautifully crafted message look like spam.

12. Disappearing

Disappearing may not be a terrible etiquette mistake. But it is a mistake. Commitment is key to building a community. Your audience wants to hear from you. They wouldn’t have signed up, followed or connected if they didn’t.
It may be time consuming to be consistent with your communications. But, if done well, the ROI on your digital efforts will eventually pay off. Happy posting!

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5 Social Media Best Practices Any Small Business Can Do

5 Social Media Best Practices Any Small Business Can Do

May 27, 2016
5 Social Media Best Practices Any Small Business Can Do Image

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5 Social Media Best Practices Any Small Business Can Do

We often hear about the mishaps, blunders and the big don’ts of social media. With most blunders being made by seemingly smart people. Reason? The social media landscape is an ever-changing array of platforms, rules and regulations. What is correct and necessary today may be completely irrelevant by tomorrow. And, what works next week might not be good enough next month.

Just this week, Social Media Examiner stated in their 2016 Annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report; 40% of marketers believe that social media marketing has become more difficult in the last 12 months. Great! Just what we all wanted to hear.

Following some of the best practices and basic principles listed below will give you a bigger bang for your efforts and create a better experience for your community

The Basics of Best Practices

The basics on social media best practices are sometimes long forgotten or were never learned in the first place. Many small business have limited time, resources and sometimes limited know-how to manage multiple accounts. The catch 22 is many small business also don’t have the budget to hire someone else to do it for them.

If you are juggling social media duties while managing the rest of the business, knowing and implementing a few best practices will help you make the most of your efforts. These efforts do take time to execute, but the payoff will be well worth it in the end.

1. Remember First Impressions Still Matter

First impressions always have and always will be been a vital component in the pathway to success. You know that. They get you the girl/guy, the job, the client and the business. They can also halt any opportunity in the matter of seconds. Especially on social media.

With that being said, do you know what your first social media impression looks like to a potential customer? Take a look at what the montage of social posts and pics can look to a first time visitor to your page. Do you you have a plethora of posts that are self promoting or are you providing valuable information to your community?

Social media shouldn’t be looked at as free advertising. Make sure you aren’t just talking about your selling points. You wouldn’t just talk about yourself in a face to face meeting, would you? If you did the other person would just walk away. Same goes online.

Think about what current or potential customers are searching for. What problems are you trying to solve and how are you solving them. Customers are willing to support companies that care about the same issues as they do. What are the issues you stand for? Including some of these valuable pieces of information with your posts will make a person want to come back for more.

2. Talk To Your Community, Not At Them

Some people believe that the art of communication is dying in the digital age. I think they’re right. Picture talking to someone in person. We automatically and intuitively change directions and approaches during a conversation based on the other person’s actions. We look at their body language and facial expressions. We listen to the tone of their voice. All of which gives us insights on how we can direct the conversation. Basically, if you say the wrong thing, you have an opportunity to quickly recover. Better yet, that slight mishap wasn’t presented to the rest of the world for viewing.

Sherry Turkle, Author of Alone Together: “Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other”, believes online conversations are a completely different story. “We’re talking at each other rather than with each other.” When you talk at your customer you are in essence having a one way conversation.

When posting on social media picture that you are face to face with your customer. What would you say if you were showcasing your product or service in person? You would ask them questions and present to them what they really wanted or needed. Right? Now do the same on social media. Talk to your customers. Ask them questions. Reply to their comments. Proactively engage with your community. This is the best way to improve engagement and grow your audience.

3. A Picture Will Always Be Worth a 1000 Words

If content is king then images are queen. Here are the stats from HubSpot to prove it:

1) Researchers found that colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%. (Source)

2) Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images. (Source)

3) 39% of marketers believe that more of their budget should be allocated to the acquisition or creation of compelling visual assets. (Source)

4) Visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (Source)

5) B2C marketers place more importance on visual content than B2B marketers — and a whopping 40% of B2C marketers say visual content is the most important type of content. (Source)

Pictures are obviously important. But, they are very different depending on if you are uploading them for personal or professional use. Posts with quick images can entertain and enlighten the people in your personal community. Images for business are an entirely different story.

When posting images for a business they should always be clear, consistent and compelling. They should ALWAYS follow best practices for posting images as the design of your images is reflected onto your brand’s identity. Blurry, poorly cropped and mis-sized images don’t just look ugly, they look unprofessional.

Properly sized images will be fully responsive for mobile customers. Smart Insights tells us that mobile use grows 58% year over year, with an 81% increase in shopping. Not paying attention to the mobile safety area can make for a real mess when customers are viewing your pages on phones and tablets.

Every social site will have a place where you can find image sizes and specs. Make sure you are resizing your images for every platform. This may seem time consuming at first, but it is worth it in the end. Overlooking these details can make the difference of capturing or losing a customer or client.

5. Auto Posts Across Multiple Channels

We just talked about how social media platforms are not a one-size-fits all for images. The same goes for content. Busy business people may find it tempting to click on auto-shares when they think of all the time they will save. Yes it will save you some time. However, in the end it can be a dangerous short-cut.

Every social media channel has a unique purpose, each with a different audience. Connecting your accounts doesn’t allow you the opportunity to modify your message or your images. Facebook posts that are auto-shared to twitter are often cut off and missing images. While Facebook posts that are auto-shared on LinkedIn are usually not relevant for business. This will end up making your brand look like you just don’t care about the customer.

It’s ok to share the same content on multiple channels, if that is the type of content consumed on those channels. Just do yourself a favor. Rather than relying on an auto-post, make sure each post is tailored and appropriate for each platform. Doing so will show your community that you care about the conversation, not just about posting a ton of content.

5. Traffic and Reach

Sadly, a ton of great posts just don’t get the traffic they deserve. For the most part, your social media posts are a way for you to promote your website, products or services. What’s the glory in having a carefully crafted post that just doesn’t go anywhere when clicked on. Here are a few reason that can contribute to low or no traffic.

When creating your content, make sure you also thinking about the roadmap you want the customer to follow. Include appropriate and trackable links to your website (using url shorteners) and measure which social media posts are bringing the highest volume of traffic to your website. Then adjust your strategy based on which posts generate the best results.

Another thing to be wary of is the amount of people that are viewing your posts. Especially on Facebook where brands see little reach without promoting a post. We are deep into the days of having to pay to play. Creating content without backing it with an advertising budget can almost always ends up being a waste of time. If you are spending all that time creating great content, it is worth it to putting a little spend behind it to make sure it’s seen. Set a social media advertising budget to make sure you are making the impact you desire.

There you have it. Five social media best practices that can help you maximize your return on the amount of time you are spending on social media. Remember, social media is getting more difficult. A real commitment of time is absolutely necessary to cut through the clutter and make sure your message is heard.
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Size Does Matter. Especially if You Are Selling to Millennials.

Size Does Matter. Especially if You Are Selling to Millennials.

May 23, 2016
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Size Does Matter. Especially if You are Selling to Millennials.

First off, let’s start off by keeping it clean and jump right into the topic of the day, logo’s. Over the last few years, every time we start a new project we always hear the same thing. “Can you please make my logo bigger?” Technically we can make the logo as big as you want it. The real question is..should we.

We are not talking about designing the logo. That is an entirely different topic. We are assuming that you already have a beautiful, simple logo design that brilliantly creates a perfect perception of your company the instant one views it.

What we are talking about is where you are going to put it. Now believe me, we get it. You LOVE your logo (hopefully). It’s a reflection of everything you have worked so hard to build. And now you get to take this perfect logo and start developing or redefining your branding materials. You want that logo as big as you can get it. You want to proudly showcase what your company is all about to the rest world.

There’s just one little problem. This isn’t about you. It’s about your customer. And that right there is one of the hardest lessons that new business owners have to learn

It’s Not About You. It’s About Them.

So let’s take a minute to talk about what your potential customer is looking for when they start searching for a product or service. They are searching for something that they can trust. If they are going to part with their hard-earned cash in a cash-tight era you better believe what you are selling better make their lives better, solve a problem, save them money or make them happier in some way, shape or form. Because in the end, it has to be about them.

Long gone are the days when companies can coast along and get by on just a name. We pretty much have Millennials to thank for that. Millennials are a values driven generation. It’s all about transparency and authenticity with them. They are a well informed group of people that expect more from the companies they are purchasing from. They are looking for companies that meet their high standards for new and innovative solutions. Oh, and by the way, they don’t like big logos.

Millennials Undeniable Ability to Influence… Everything

On the retail side, Business Insider reported in late last year that Millennials are turning away from logos. In this article you read about logo bearing brands like Coach, Abercrombie & Fitch and Michael Kors taking a major hit. This should get our gears turning about how this trend could segue into other areas of overall marketing.

In a second article out a few weeks ago, Business Insider again talks about how Victoria Secret runs the risk of being another brand that is dethroned by Millennials. When a generation has the power to put brands in a “dangerously vulnerable” place because of their dislikes, every business owner needs to pay attention.

A Current Snapshot of the Millennial Market:

• Millennials are defined as people born between 1980 and 2000
• They are 80 million strong (about a fourth of the entire population)
• The oldest Millennials are 36, the youngest about 16 years old.
• They represent $200 billion in annual buying power.
• Over the next five years the purchasing power of millennials is expected to increase to $1.4 trillion.
• By the year 2030 the Millennials will outnumber baby boomers

So far we only discussed apparel, but we at can definitely see we need to pay close attention to how Millennials react to things. Overall, Millennials are skeptical consumers. According to Fortune Magazine, 84% of millennials will consider a brand’s values before making a purchase. They have a sharp radar for authenticity, and initiatives that feel like a cynical attempt to win them over will backfire.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of what you built and wanting to showcase it to the world by presenting when presenting your brand. But perhaps we all should consider showing less of our logo and using that space to show what value we can bring to our customers instead.

Because at the end of the day, if we can’t show our value we won’t have any customers. And with no customers there is no need for a shiny new logo.

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5 Essentials That Absolutely Need To Be In Your Marketing Budget

5 Essentials That Absolutely Need To Be In Your Marketing Budget

Apr 26, 2016

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5 Essentials That Absolutely Need To Be In Your Marketing Budget

Small businesses are killing it in today’s economy. The SBA states that a small business starts every minute. Yup, every minute. That means that two or three businesses will start before you even finish reading this post. What does that mean for you? It means another competitor that you will have to outthink and outmaneuver just entered the market.

The 2015 CMO Survey, a report which compiles and disseminates the opinions of top marketers, states that 77% of marketers are expecting a more intense rivalry for customers this year. With more and more businesses entering the market space every minute, how much should you spend on marketing to be competitive and grow?

Keep in mind, outthink and outmaneuver doesn’t necessary have to mean outspend. Small businesses aren’t killing it in today’s economy because they are better advertised than their corporate competitors. It’s because they are able to delivering a genuinely great product or valuable service to people who are willing to pay for it. Don’t get me wrong, marketing is not cheap and you will only be doing your company a disservice if you don’t invest in your own company. Small businesses and start-ups tend to have smaller budgets and less resources than than larger, more established competitors. This makes it tough to gain visibility in what is most likely an already crowded space. When funds and resources are limited it is extremely important to be strategic on how much you need to spend and what essentials you should spend it on.

How Much Should You Spend on Marketing?

Many small business, especially new ones, estimate their sales revenues, cost-of-goods, overhead and salaries first. Anything left is used for marketing. Not really the best idea, although when needed we are guilty of using this approach ourselves. A fairly new competitor in a marketspace (a company less than 5 years old) should be much more aggressive in the beginning to gain any market share.

Aside from how long you have been in business, another factor to consider is if you are B2B or B2C. According to CMO, B2B companies selling services should expect to spend 5.9% of their total revenue while B2B companies that sell products comes in a bit higher at 6.2%. B2C companies are looking at a total of 5.3% for services and 10.4% for products. Looking for a bare minimum? McKinsey and Company recommends that a company spends no less than 5% of its gross revenue on marketing. If you are an emerging brand, your initial investment should be closer to 15-20% of gross revenue.

Businesses in their infancy and early stages usually have a hard enough time just keeping the lights on, let alone laying out cash for anything creative. But if you don’t spend the cash on items like branding and marketing then you will be missing out on growing the company by standing out from your competitors. If you want to compete you have play the game. Knowing how much you should spend is the first step.

What Should You Spend it On?

Like I said before, marketing isn’t cheap, but knowing the potential value it can bring will help you determine the best place to invest your dollars. Remember, emerging brands are going to have to spend a greater amount in the beginning in order to develop the brand.

If you haven’t defined who you are or figured out exactly to whom you are selling to, you will end up shooting arrows in the air in the hopes that one or two may stick. This is where branding comes in and why it is so necessary. Taking the time to research and develop targeted strategies in segmented markets in the beginning will ensure that when you do spend dollars on advertising, those dollars will be used to direct the right message to the appropriate audience. When the budget is tight, this is where you can get the most bang for your buck.

Five Essential Costs to Consider

If you plan on making any type of impact you will have to plan for the essentials. If you try to cut corners in the beginning and only opt to partake in a few of the essential practices your overall message will be lost and it will take you much, much longer to grow. Your five essentials are:

1. Branding
2. Website
3. Social Media
4. Content
5. Networking

1. Branding

Defining your brand sets you off on a business self-discovery journey where you will determine who you are, why you are different, what value you can bring to the table and how you will present it. You will dig deep to uncover your true purpose and how you compare to your competitors. Then you can map out a plan to execute a consistent message that showcases your value to a very specific audience.

2. Website

For most business, your revenue will be mainly be derived from online sales or from offline transactions that resulted from online marketing efforts. It will act as your virtual storefront and possibly serve as your virtual base of operations. The better the system, the more efficient your processes become.

3. Social Media

Social media isn’t about selling. It’s about creating a conversation. Your presence should be more about delivering valuable and relevant information and less about selling a product or service. In a “World is Flat” society we have moved into the age where authenticity and value truly matters. When done right, social media is where you can shine, globally. Those who are successful on social media create a connection with their customers, listen to what their needs are, then redefine their products and services to best fit their customer’s needs while still staying true to their core values.

4. Content

Long gone are the days you can create a website and let it just sit there in the hopes it will attract customers. If you have any hopes of dominating the search engines you will need a continuous stream of relevant and useful content. Showing potential customers why you are awesome with blog posts, white papers, case studies and tip sheets will put the right information in front of them while they are conducting their research or trying to fill a need for knowledge. This is the reason why 76% marketers from the CMO survey plan to increase the amount of content they produce in 2016.

5. Networking

People that have the courage and drive to start a business are usually some of the most passionate people you will ever meet. If you are reading this article you are probably one of these people. Sometimes we get lost in glitz and glamor of advertising and forget why we started doing this in the first place. This is where good ol’ fashion networking comes into play. Don’t forget about the traditional methods of strutting your stuff and get out of the office to meet potential customers face to face. Trade shows and events are great places where you can bring marketing your business back the purest form. Just remember the problems you were trying to solve when you started your business and go out there ask “How can I help”.

When determining how to spend your dollars just remember to be deliberate and plan. Be true to your company and your customers and make sure you aren’t falling short of making an impact by not allocating enough funds in the right places. And always remember, with a new business starting every minute you can’t afford to let your marketing guard down.

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