Tag: rules

5 Rules for Your Sub-Brand Keyword Strategy

If you’ve tried Coca-Cola, you’ve probably had a Diet Coke.

If you use Google as your preferred search engine, chances are you have a Gmail account.

What’s the link between the two? Both are high-profile companies with high-profile sub-brands.

Think of a sub-brand as a room in a house and the house as your brand. Successful sub-branding means targeting the right audience with the right product.

If sub-brands are part of your company’s brand architecture, a well-defined sub-brand SEO strategy helps keep the lines clear.

Brands like Coca-Cola and Google do this well, making it clear how their sub-brands are related to but different from the parent brand. From an SEO perspective, this makes for an ideal keyword strategy.

I want to help you do the same with your brand architecture.

These five rules will help keep your sub-brand SEO keyword strategy true to your brand image while allowing your sub-brands to uniquely stand out.

Why Do Businesses Create Sub-Brands?

To sub-brand or not to sub-brand?

That is the question.

As you build your business’ brand, it’s tempting—and often strategic—to widen your footprint over time.

Companies across all industries have portfolios with multiple brands. Sometimes they develop these brands themselves. Sometimes they acquire them.

There are a lot of good reasons to create a sub-brand. Here are a few:

To Target Specific Audiences

In some cases, a business might want to distinguish between its flagship brand and sub-brands that target more specific audiences.

Take the car brand Toyota and its luxury sub-brand Lexus, for example. The brands operate independently under the Toyota umbrella, but they market to different target audiences. Having separate brands allows them to connect with each on a deeper level.

To Tap Into New Markets

Sub-brands are an opportunity to reach new audiences. Appealing to a new niche allows the parent brand to:

  1. Build a stronger bond with their current customer base
  2. Attract new customers
  3. Expand into a new, profitable revenue stream

Another approach might be for product expansion. Companies can use sub-brands to test a product on the market under a different brand name.

Who can say where they might end up?

To Uniquely Market Different Products

Whatever the motivations, sub-brands should stay true to the parent brand’s mission as they develop.

Each product has its own personality, feel, and set of features even though they are all separate items under the same umbrella company. This also means each sub-brand needs a separate budget for marketing and promotion.

So, of course, your sub-brand SEO keyword strategy needs to be sharp to support it.

Influencing search engines will take time, but it pays off when the conversions your strategy drives show up in audience and revenue.

#1: Think About the Audiences for Your Main and Sub-Brands

Look at the demand of your audience and prospective audience. How are you going to meet their needs with a sub-brand?

To answer this question, you must determine their search intent. Use keyword research to formulate this strategy.

Your content needs to provide them with the information they need. From your branding to your content, you want to spark a unique relationship with your target audience.

As I’ve said in the past, brand-loyal people want to find a brand to be loyal to.

The company’s business goals should serve as the cornerstone of the choice to expand. How you go about your sub-brand SEO strategies is unique to your desired outcome.

For example, I bet you didn’t know Converse was a sub-brand of Nike.

Well, if you’re on Converse’s marketing team, using “running shoe” as the sub-brand’s SEO keyword would be “off brand.” A more fitting keyword for the strategy would be “high top sneakers.”

So, while Converse is a sub-brand of Nike, their keyword strategy sets them apart from the parent company to see self-sustaining conversions.

You’ll notice when the right combination of keywords serves the company and sub-brand’s goals.

How will you know you hit that sweet spot?

Your audience will tell you.

Insights from your content performance metrics and ROI will reveal a wealth of resources. Then, you can sustain those wins by following that same strategy, adjusting as needed.

#2: Keep an Eye on Your Competition

You’ll need to keep an eye out for the competition as you expand. A strong sense of your audience and competitors will help differentiate your sub-brand.

Say you want to step into a market and challenge the industry norms.

Think of some of your favorite parent companies. Now, think of some of their spin-off ideas that have been successful.

Who did you think of?

I thought of Apple.

Apple's parent brand and some of its sub-brand companies.

For instance, Apple offers a variety of tech products. These products bear the Apple logo and support the parent company.

Apple is not a product in and of itself, but each sub-brand leverages Apple’s brand value and appeals to various market niches.

When Apple first started, they wanted to be perceived as the alternative to the mainstream. Sub-brands help carry out this plan. Think about how users proudly declare their loyalty to Apple products: “No PCs for me; I am a Mac guy.” “I don’t have an MP3 player; I have an iPod.” “It’s not a Blackberry; it’s an iPhone.”

Sub-brands allow Apple to stand out from the competition in completely different markets. Google’s algorithm favors domain diversity, meaning that you’re not likely to see a ton of pages from the same domain in a given SERP. This means that when talking sub-brands, you want to use as many domains as possible.

The homepage of Shazam, a sub-brand under the Apple the brand.

While the previous examples leveraged Apple’s brand equity, the company has also had success with sub-brands that stand alone.

A multi-domain SEO strategy, not to be confused with subdomain, helps them market Shazam as a sub-brand under the Apple brand. While branded as an individual product, Shazam is set up as a separate domain that drives traffic back to Apple’s domain. It feeds in users through Apple Music.

While it’s not a go-to SEO technique like keyword optimization, a multiple-domain SEO strategy is an out-of-the-box play that doubles your chance to rank for multiple domains.

With sub-brand SEO, you can implement a multiple-domain strategy without devaluing the brand by strengthening its approach to their audience and against competitors.

#3: Avoid Keyword Cannibalization at All Costs

Before you make your way down sub-brand SEO street, don’t take a wrong turn with your content due to keyword cannibalization.

If more than one of your pages pop up for the same search query, you’re competing against yourself. Because they target the same keywords, your pages eat into each other’s performance (hint: why we call it cannibalization).

Be mindful of keyword cannibalization when developing a sub brand SEO strategy.

Keyword cannibalization problems don’t come with a “one-size-fits-all” solution. There are unique approaches to address different cannibalization issues.

Those approaches include:

  • Merging Page Topics: Try to merge pages with similar topics that are getting in the way of how the page is competing among others.
  • Page Re-optimization: Taking another stab at the topic by re-optimizing pages helps set clear intentions for the page.
  • Redirect lesser-performing content: Once you determine which of the cannibalizing pages is the strongest, remove other pages and broken links you no longer need. From here, you can perform regular content audits. You’ll want to make your topics come first and have your keywords work for them.

Fix cannibalization issues and you’ll pull in your audience, further establishing brand authority in your industry.

#4 Be Realistic About Keyword Difficulty

Estimating keyword difficulty reveals how hard it will be to rank first on Google. As you brainstorm the “keyword bank” you want to use for your sub-brand, remember it needs to be realistic and profitable.

The difficulty of a keyword is determined by variables like domain authority, page authority, and content quality. So, use these points to guide you toward the ones that fit your sub-brand best.

Say your sub-brand is a dog treat expansion from your main dog food line:

Use the SEO tool Ubersuggest to find strategic keywords for sub brands.

An SEO tool like Ubersuggest tells you which keywords are most difficult to rank for. An easy keyword difficulty score lands between 0 and 29. From the list above, you can see they all rank over 30, meaning the competition is tough. This report also gives you a sense of the keywords your competition is targeting.

Another helpful highlight is user search intent. Before stepping into a particular market, this helps see how your potential audience might benefit from using your sub-brand as their solution.

Sub-brand SEO optimization is like a marathon and may not reach its full potential overnight.

However, targeting a term with a high keyword difficulty like “dog treats” is still worthwhile. If the ROI is good enough and the potential conversion rate is acceptable, go for it!

Even if a keyword has a low difficulty rating, is it really worth targeting if the ROI shows that there is little chance of making money from it and that it is not frequently searched for?

#5: Think About Brand Architecture at All Times

You are placing your company in danger if you don’t keep a sub-brand in step with its parent company. You’re not taking full advantage of the parent brand’s equity if you implement a sub-brand’s strategy in isolation.

This could potentially hurt the parent brand’s credibility. We saw this when Old Navy overtook the Gap as a sub-brand by strategizing in isolation.

A crucial component of the brand architecture “home” is the strategy it takes to build out a room (a sub-brand). Remember the house example I explained to you earlier? With a sub-brand, you have to think about the layout and how it fits within the parent company, or “home.”

Examine the brand strategy of your parent company while keeping in mind the prospect of future sub-brands. How can you expand to offer more solutions to your audience? What new markets do you want to conquer?

FAQs

What is a sub-brand?

A sub-brand is formed when a brand extends to one or more new individual product categories. Based on the outcomes of this expansion, sub-brands can be an effective marketing tool.

A sub-brand uses a unique name to develop its own brand, though that name sometimes complements or plays off the name of the parent brand. A sub-brand also has its own client expectations and personalities distinct from the parent company.

What does a sub-brand mean?

A sub-brand is created when a primary brand expands. Take Diet Coke for instance. It has a unique color code, yet it incorporates the iconic Coca-Cola logo with the recognizable bottle shape.

Sub-brands are frequently developed as a way to connect with untapped markets. Sub-brands can then establish themselves in the new market on behalf of the parent company.

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Conclusion

The idea of sub-branding is not new.

Through sub-branding and brand extensions, iconic companies have discovered how to increase brand recognition and “go global” over the years.

Maintaining your parent brand’s vision for the future is easier if you map out how the sub-brand’s growth will affect it, and vice versa.

Your brand is only as strong as your brand architecture. So, be strategic about how you build out your “home”—from parent company to sub-brand(s).

Sub-brand SEO helps you be deliberate with how you build out this idea.

The more in-tune you are with your long-term goals, the easier it is to figure out your initial direction for a new product line.

Keep your intentions clear at all times, making sure that each new entity has a stand-alone personality and functions within the larger framework of your parent company.

Are you considering launching a sub-brand? Do you need to review your brand architecture so your SEO efforts work in your favor? Get in touch with my team and we will help you brainstorm your options.

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The Fundability Meaning Game: What are the Rules and How do You Play?

When it comes to the fundability meaning game, most business owners don’t even know they are playing. Even if they do know, they have no clue what the rules are.  You can’t play if you don’t know the rules. You especially can’t play if you don’t even know you are in the middle of a game. In order to improve your fundability, you have to understand what fundability means.  

5 Rules to Play the Fundability Meaning Game

It can help to first understand what fundability is and how you got in the game to begin with.  In short, fundability is your ability to get funding for your business. Specifically, it is the ability to get loans and credit cards for your business.  

In the fundability meaning game, being fundable means that lenders view your business as a low credit risk with the potential for a good return on investment.  You see, lenders are not just handing out money out of the goodness of their hearts. They are in it to make money. If you want it, you have to play the game. More than that, you have to play to win.  Without further ado, here are five rules to play the fundability meaning game. 

Fundability Meaning Game Rule 1: It Starts Now

The truth is, you are playing the game before you even know it. While not fair, it is simply the way the game works.  Since you are already playing passively before you even know the game exists, you have to start playing actively as soon as you are in the know.  For many of you, that is right now. You are officially in the game.  

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

So how do you start?  You need to ensure your business has a fundable foundation.  Setting up your business to be fundable is vital. Take a look at the elements of a fundable foundation and make any adjustments necessary to ensure you get the best start possible now that you know you are playing. 

Elements of a Fundable Foundation 

You cannot follow rule number one if you don’t know the elements of a fundable foundation. Take a close look at your business and make sure you are all set in this department. 

Separate Contact Information

The first step in setting up a fundable foundation is to make certain your business has its own phone number, fax number, and address.  Some are surprised to find out that doesn’t mean you have to get a separate phone line, or even a separate location. You can still run your business from your home or on your computer. There’s not even a need for a fax machine.  

In fact, you can easily get a business phone number and fax number that works over the internet instead of phone lines.  In fact, the phone number will forward to any phone you want it too.  That means, you can just use your personal cell phone or landline. 

Faxes can be sent to an online fax service, if anyone really does fax you.  It may seem outdated, but it does lend to the legitimacy of your business. 

You can use a virtual office for a business address. How do you get a virtual office?  It’s not what you may think.  There are businesses that offer a physical address for a fee, and sometimes they even offer mail service and live receptionist services.  In addition, some of them offer meeting spaces for times you may need to meet a client or customer in person. 

EINfundable definition Credit Suite2

Next, you have to get an EIN.  This is an identifying number for your business that is similar to your SSN.  Some business owners use their SSN for business transactions. This is what a lot of sole proprietorships and partnerships do.  However, it really doesn’t look professional.  Also, it can cause your personal and business credit to get all mixed up.  When you are looking to increase fundability, you need to apply for and use an EIN. You can get one for free from the IRS.

Incorporate

Incorporating your business as an LLC, S-corp, or corporation is necessary for a fundable foundation.  It helps solidify your business as one that is legitimate and offers separation from the owner for building business credit. It also offers some protection from liability. 

Which option you choose does not matter as much for fundability as it does for your budget and needs for liability protection.  The best thing to do is talk to your attorney or a tax professional.  When you incorporate, your time in business starts over. You’ll also lose any positive payment history you may have accumulated. 

This is why you have to incorporate as soon as possible.  Not only is it necessary for fundability and for building business credit, but so is time in business.  The longer you have been in business the more fundable you appear to be.  That starts on the date of incorporation, regardless of when you actually started doing business. 

Business Bank Account

You have to open a separate, dedicated business bank account.  There are a few reasons for this.  First, it helps you keep track of business finances.  It will also help you keep them separate from personal finances.  This is important for tax purposes. 

In addition, there are several types of funding you can’t get without a business bank account.  Many business credit cards and lenders want to see a minimum average balance in a business bank account.   Also, you can’t get a merchant account without a business account at a bank. As a result, you cannot take credit cards payments without a separate business bank account.  Studies show consumers often spend more when they can pay by credit card.

Licenses

For a business to be legitimate, it has to have all of the necessary licenses it needs to run.  If it doesn’t, red flags are going to fly up all over the place.  Do the research you need to do to ensure you have all of the licenses necessary to legitimately run your business at the federal, state, and local levels. 

Website

Today, you do not exist if you do not have a website.  However, having one that is poorly put together can be even worse than not having one at all. 

Your website is the first impression you make on many, and if it appears to be unprofessional it will not bode well for you with consumers or potential lenders. 

Spend the time and money necessary to make your website the best it can be.  Pay for hosting also. Don’t use a free hosting service.  Along these same lines, your business needs a dedicated business email address.  Make sure it has the same URL as your Website.  

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Fundability Meaning Game Rule 2: You Can’t Rely on Business Credit Alone

While business credit is a huge piece of business fundability, you cannot rely on business credit alone to make your business fundable.  Find out more about business credit here.

If business credit isn’t all there is to it, you have to know what else is happening to play effectively.  

Financial Statements

Both your personal and business tax returns need to be in order.  Not only that, but you need to be paying your taxes, both business and personal.  

Business Financials

It is best to have an accounting professional prepare regular financial statements for your business. Having an accountant’s name on financial statements helps your business look more credible and legitimate. If you cannot afford this monthly or quarterly, at least have professional statements prepared annually. Then, they are at the ready whenever you need to apply for a loan. 

Personal Financials

Often tax returns for the previous three years will suffice.  Get a tax professional to prepare them.   This is the bare minimum you will need.  Other information lenders may ask for include check stubs and bank statements, among other things. 

Personal Credit History

Your personal credit score from Experian, Equifax, and Transunion all make a difference.  You have to have your personal credit in order because it will definitely affect the fundability of your business.  If it isn’t great right now, get to work on it.  The number one way to get a strong personal credit score or improve a weak one is to make payments consistently on time. 

Fundability Meaning Game Rule 3: You Have to Apply Strategically

Having a clear application strategy can make all the difference.  Timing is important because, if you begin applying for business loans or credit cards before your fundability is sufficient, you will absolutely not get approval.  However, you have to make sure you apply to the right type of lender and for the right type of product also. 

For example, if you apply to a traditional lender for a business line-of-credit before your fundability will support that, you will run into problems.  However, if you have some aspects of fundability and are working on others, you could qualify for a business line-of-credit from a private lender. Making these choices is all part of the game.  Find more about what options are out there and which ones might work best for you here. 

Fundability Meaning Game Rule 4: You Have to Monitor Your Credit Yourself

No one else is going to do it for you.  You need to know where you stand with both business and personal credit to play the game well. That means checking each regularly to ensure all information is complete and accurate. You can get a free copy of your personal credit reports annually.  For business credit, it isn’t quite so simple. You can monitor directly with D&B, Experian, and Equifax. However, it is quite costly. You can monitor your business credit with D&B and Experian for a fraction of the cost here.

Fundability Meaning Game Rule 5: Your Past Will Haunt You, But You Can Overcome It

You know how I said you are actually playing the fundability meaning game before you even know it?  Here’s how. There are things in your past that can indirectly, or directly, affect your fundability that you may not even realize.  

Other Business Data Agencies 

In addition to the business credit reporting agencies that directly calculate and issue credit reports, there are other business data agencies that affect those reports indirectly.  Two examples of this are LexisNexis and The Small Business Finance Exchange. These agencies gather data from a variety of sources, including public records.  As a result, they could even have access to information relating to automobile accidents, liens, and other things you never dreamed could affect fundability. While you may not be able to access or change the data these agencies have on your business, you can make sure that any new information they receive is positive.  Enough positive information can help counteract any negative information from the past.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Bureaus

There are several other agencies that hold information related to your personal finances that you need to know about.  For example, personal FICO score needs to be as strong as possible. It really can affect business fundability.  In fact, almost all traditional lenders will look at personal credit in addition to business credit. 

Also,  you have ChexSystems.  Simply put, they keep up with bad check activity.  This makes a difference when it comes to your bank score.  If you have too many bad checks, you will not be able to open a bank account.  As a result, you could run into fundability problems. 

For this point, everything comes into play.  Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Do you have a bankruptcy or short sell on your record?  What about liens or UCC filings? Everything can and will play into the fundability of your business. 

Play the Fundability Meaning Game and Finish Well

Truly, the meaning of fundability is like a game with many rules.  The problem is, the rules are not widely published. If you don’t even know everything the term really encompasses, you can’t know how to build it.  Hopefully, these rules to the fundability meaning game can help you understand exactly what the meaning of fundability is. Then, you can make sure your business is as fundable as possible. 

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