Want to Connect With Your Prospects? Get Emotional!

 We’ve all seen THOSE ads.  The ones that bring a tear to your eye, tug at your heart strings and make you want to take action.  Think the SPCA commercial with Sarah McLachlan crooning in the background.  Very impactful, very emotional.  Great marketing tactic.

What organizations like the SPCA are utilizing is emotional marketing – taking an extra step to connect with your target market’s emotions in order to persuade them to choose your brand or to raise awareness. This marketing strategy uses generalized emotions that can trigger people to create a connection that achieves a more promising brand loyalty than any other marketing means.

Millions of brands and organizations use emotional marketing to win their potential and target market’s hearts by siding with their brand.  This marketing tactic can and should be a part of your promotional plan for a variety of reasons.  But, before incorporating the emotional message, let’s take a look at what emotional marketing is and how it can help your business better connect with your target audience.

What Is Emotional Marketing?

Emotional marketing is a marketing strategy where brands use human emotions as a connection to persuade customers into choosing their brand. It shows that they are empathetic, relatable and in tune to the current tone and emotions of the world.  The emotional messages reveal happiness, sadness or anger - as these are general views that could be shared by millions of people on a relevant topic. (Nobody likes to see starving, abused and neglected animals outside in cages, right?)

Many companies respond to current affairs or relevant trends that are globally popular to choose a side with customers.  COVID and the ensuing pandemic is a prime example of how many companies changed their messaging – taking a stand for or against masking and vaxxing. While the “We’re all in this together” mantra was way overused, the impact of the switch to emotional marketing kept those companies relevant.

Using emotional marketing as a bridge between a brand and customers forms a deeper connection than any other form of marketing. The brand loyalty lasts longer and the response to purchasing or investing in the brand is higher than other marketing tactics. 

Is Emotional Marketing Right for Your Business?

Emotional marketing, if executed the right way, can produce fascinating and profitable results for companies. This is why many of the biggest global brands, such as Coca Cola or Apple, use emotional marketing on a regular basis.

If your business follows the same model or shares the same customer base, chances are emotional marketing may work for you as well.

• Triggering Memory and Nostalgia

The emotion of memory or nostalgia can recreate the happiest of moments. As a person’s memory subconsciously plays an important part in their daily life, many brands run advertisement campaigns that use aspects to trigger memory or nostalgia.

This is done for brands that have a rather older customer base where triggering happy memories in them can make people feel comfortable with the brand and may influence them to buy more of it.

Think McDonald’s and the McRib.  The ‘limited time’ offer(s) brings a hype and a trigger to where and when the consumer bought their first McRib.

• Impulse Buying and Helping the Customer Decide

The most influential way of marketing except for advertisements is emotional packaging.

Most brands have an active competitor they fight against. Like Pepsi for Cola, Burger King for McDonald’s, and Adidas for Nike.

If you offer a retail product, a good way to convince customers to choose your brand from the shelf rather than the competitor’s sitting beside it is by adding emotions in the packaging itself.

When the price and quality are the same, a customer decides solely on the visual impression a brand expresses. Use emotional colors or nostalgic designs that could appeal to the customers better and make them listen to their hearts.

• Moving People and Inspiring a Call to Action

If the brand chooses to side with a popular opinion on a global affair and convinces people, even if they’re not specifically their target market, to side with their cause using an emotional ad campaign or packaging, the brand can enjoy additional marketing done by the customers themselves through social media shares, comments, and promotions.

Once you understand what drives your customers, reference the above to create a broad marketing strategy based on making emotional connections. This strategy should include every link in the chain, from product launches and sales to marketing and service. Storytelling can be an indispensable tool here. Stories can be compelling and easy to share. They can help trigger the emotions you may need to get your desired outcome.

As Dale Carnegie said, “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion."

Emotional connections in the marketing field are not a secret strategy anymore — but they can be a real advantage. To be successful, find out how your customers feel and what they need and be able to identify what motivates them. This customer-oriented attitude and strategy can help you inspire customers' devotion.

If you are struggling to connect with your target audience,
SKConsulting can help create the story and message that best fits your brand.

Change, Don’t Stop, Your Marketing During a Pandemic

We all feel it.  The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has negatively impacted business across the country and around the world. Companies of all sizes are being forced to make tough decisions on how to keep their business afloat.

Some think the first step is to cut out marketing departments, but consumers are too invested digitally to stop ALL marketing. You can cut your marketing budget or outsource marketing if you really want to save money, but do not stop interacting with your customers. Now is the time you want your customers to see you - and see you in a gentle and caring way. Focus on your message and what you want your customers to think about you - this is your BRAND.

Use the COVID19 Downtime to Focus on Your Company's Brand

Whether using Google, Facebook or another online platform, you can reach out to current and potential customers with customized branding methods. What is your business doing to help the community? How do you want your customers to think of you during this crisis? What are you doing to make life easier for your customers? What solutions are you providing?

By replacing your branding and messaging from sales-driven to those of general concern and care, you can impact the thoughts consumers have about your company. An effective branding campaign draws attention, stirs curiosity, and although not immediately, when customers are ready, they later convert.

Prevent Losses with Smart Marketing

During this time of widespread quarantine recommendations, it’s important to keep your budget trim and reduce any unnecessary overhead expenses. The goal is to get your business through the event and prevent any long-term damage to your brand or your customer base.  That means making strategic marketing decisions. While you may be desperate to save money anywhere you can, it’s important to maintain a coronavirus digital marketing plan to stay relevant.

Review current ad campaigns and suspend any that no longer make sense, or make adjustments to your advertising strategy. One business might increase targeted ad spending on social media platforms to highlight a new delivery service or video chat option. Maybe your business was able to go virtual or online.  You have to market the shift or nobody will know about it. Now is a good time to get back to basics with your SEO digital marketing. 

You can boost your site’s organic reach by updating webpage titles, H1 descriptive headers, and meta tags. Refreshing your page content with new information and updated backlinks will help keep your brand at the top of search engine results when your customers naturally come searching for your products or services. Building your organic search traffic can have huge benefits to your business. While your competitors may be drawing back, it’s a great opportunity to go after their market share. 

Spend some time researching your competition. It’s not just good advice for businesses during a coronavirus outbreak - it’s good advice year-round. Find out what your competitors are lacking, and what they’re offering that customers are searching for. If you can identify their market audience, you can take advantage of that information and use it for competitive ad retargeting.

Pivot to New Markets and Services

Some businesses will thrive during a pandemic. Food delivery apps, meal kit companies, and e-commerce sites (and toilet paper companies) will have the most to offer during a pandemic. After all, today’s instant gratification consumption culture means people are accustomed to getting what they want…fast. In normal circumstances, everything from groceries to personal care items, medications, and meals can be at your front door in under an hour. Companies that are able to capitalize on the high demand for online shopping and deliver convenient service will see exponential growth, especially during a viral outbreak when people are stuck inside. 

If you are experiencing the economic impacts of COVID-19 on your business, it could be a great time to pivot. Stay in touch with your clients and let them know about any changes or precautions you’re taking. Remind them that any temporary setbacks will end and business will eventually resume as usual. If you’re able to jump into rapid delivery or online shopping options, use this as an opportunity to capitalize on the increased need for e-commerce and porch-side service. Let your audience know you’re being proactive and working hard to provide the products and services they rely on, all while protecting the health of employees and customers alike. 

Spend some time brainstorming how your company can create new content for new platforms you haven’t reached yet. Informative or entertaining video clips, articles or blogs, and photos for social media stories can all help boost your organic reach and even monetize your digital marketing efforts. By creating engaging content, you’ll stay fresh in the minds of an audience actively seeking out new media. 

Obviously, people are spending more time at home, which means fewer customers walking a brick-and-mortar store. Leverage e-commerce technology to meet the demand for digital sales, and get strategic with your advertising budget to minimize the economic impacts on your business. Utilize SEO techniques that keep your brand in customer feeds and build organic reach with fresh content. Your clients will be looking for shopping and entertainment outlets online, so think creatively about providing new media like blogs or videos, and offer new services whenever possible to meet the needs of those stuck in quarantine. The businesses that cut back on digital marketing during this time will suffer the most from the coronavirus outbreak, and maybe even go under.

We understand that we are in unprecedented, scary times.  But now is not the time to give up.  Now is not the time to stop marketing.  Now is the time to get creative, to assess your brand and stay in the forefront of consumers’ minds.  Break through newsfeeds inundated with Coronavirus updates with messaging your customers want to hear.

We’re here for you during this pandemic.  Together we can weather the storm.

How’s Your Branding and Marketing Working For You?

We’re more than a month into 2020, which is a good time to take a look at your marketing and branding efforts. Is it still relevant or does it need revising? Are you spending what you should or are you spending too much/too little?  Is your messaging clear and consistent?  Are you utilizing the right marketing channels to effectively reach your target audiences?

You could spend thousands of your marketing dollars on advertising placements, media outreach, and marketing efforts, but if you’re not delivering effective messages in effective ways, that money, time, and energy is all for nothing. Is your branding and messaging resonating, effective, and helping your organization meet key objectives? Is it reaching your primary audiences? Does your brand convey your company’s mission?

So many questions!  But, to ensure your company stays innovative and agile as it grows and thrives, take time to review messaging and consider revising or rebranding based on what you discover.

Check for consistency: Are your language and visuals consistent across multiple platforms of message delivery? All of your messaging should sound like one, consistent voice that speaks to the same key points. If language is inconsistent or unclear, your messages can be confusing to your audiences, thus far less likely to be understood and retained.

Take an internal audit: How do your employees view your messaging? Is there employee buy-in? Do they feel comfortable and able to communicate your company’s story, mission, and messages with clarity? What are they hearing from customers, partners and other key audiences? Do they think it’s clear and concise or are they hearing otherwise? This is a great opportunity to involve your team, collect feedback, see if anything pertinent has changed, and make revisions where necessary.

Survey target customers: Go right to the source! Create a brief survey to ask customers how your messaging appeals to them. This is a great opportunity for an additional touchpoint with your customers. Ask open-ended questions to gauge what customers’ takeaways are and invite suggestions.

Analyze social media metrics and feedback: Which campaigns or messages have generated the most engagement? A look through social media analytics can help identify a direct correlation between types of news or posts that initiate a higher volume of responses. Determine what language, topics, and other information is resonating well and what needs to be changed or eliminated based on the popularity of particular types of posts. Pay attention to what types of images impact engagement, as well.

Review web analytics: It is a good idea to have some type of website analytics set up (e.g., Google Analytics) to track and monitor web traffic, bounce rates, visitors, etc. This information is valuable to understanding how certain pages affect certain behaviors. You can also look at the overall picture – what promotions are you doing to drive people to the most viewed pages, etc.

Conduct a competitive analysis: No need for an extensive 25-page report, but it is important to review the competitive landscape and assess where your company stands in the marketplace. Do you know who your top competitors are? What language and visuals are they using? Are they getting significant attention or media coverage? Do you clearly convey what sets your company apart from the competition?

Your company’s branding and messaging should stand out from competitors, resonate with key audiences, inspire new business, and create repeat customer transactions. Your brand should you’re your target audiences feel something.  It should tell a compelling story that inspires them to take action. Perform a truthful assessment and revise and implement accordingly.  After all, if you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got.  

If your branding and messaging aren’t producing results now is the time to make a change!

Your Personal Brand Determines Your Success

Personal branding is more than just a 30-second elevator pitch used to introduce yourself. While it is important to quickly and concisely explain who you are and what you can bring to the table, personal branding goes much deeper than that; it is a vital key to small businesses and entrepreneur success.

What Is Branding?

The definition of brand has evolved over time. Today, when most businesses talk about their brand, they are referring to the thoughts, ideas and feelings people associate with it and the image they are trying to convey to their target audience. Brand marketing is a way companies promote their products and services in order to attain the desired perception, distancing themselves from the competition and creating a bond with their customers.

What Is Personal Branding?

Just as a business’ brand is a representation of the company’s image as others see it, personal branding is the way others see you. It is what sets you apart from the world – what makes you uniquely you.

Why Personal Branding Is Important

As small business owners and entrepreneurs, your personal brand can be the strongest marketing tool you have. It can get your foot in the door with potential clients and help you establish a reputable standing in your industry.

1. Your business is tied to your name.

When it comes to new businesses, your name can be more valuable than the business itself. Who would you rather do business with: the company whose owner is constantly missing deadlines or the owner who goes above and beyond to deliver what is promised and then some? By having a strong, positive personal brand, you set your business up for success.

2. It answers why someone wants to work with you.

Being transparent with your views and opinions helps potential clients easily decide if they can envision working with you. If clients establish that their values are aligned with what your name represents, they will feel confident in their decision to work with your company. Your brand is also a way to show what you know and what you are passionate about.

3. It sets you apart from competitors.

By taking the time to define your personal brand, you’ll stand out from competitors. Even if you offer similar products or services, your personal branding can highlight what makes you different (or better) than anyone else. Ask yourself what makes you unique and build on that.

How To Build Your Brand

Everyone has a name. While your name is how your brand is identified, building the reputation to go with it requires time and hard work.

1. Define who you are.

What are the top three things you want people to know about you?  What are the top three things you want people to know about your business?  Take a look at where the two meet and start building your brand there.  Essentially, what do you believe in, stand for and excel in?  By being true to who you are and owning your strengths and weaknesses you build trust.

2. Speak up and share your knowledge.

Once you know who you are, the next step is sharing what you know. Don’t be afraid to speak up and offer your experiences and insights to your audience. By being open to answering questions, you will start to build yourself and your brand as an authority figure people will look to for answers.

Do not be closed off to people who have different opinions and views than your own. Remaining open to feedback can help you increase your knowledge of the topics being discussed.

3. Get your words out there.

Another way to share your knowledge and build your authority is by writing articles and participating in interviews. As you build your coverage and are quoted in more articles, your brand’s credibility will also increase. Blogs are a great tool to share your knowledge with the world in written form. What makes them even better is that writing with keywords in mind has the added benefit of making it easier for potential clients to find you through SEO.

4. Get connected online.

As you build your personal brand, make sure your message is consistent across all platforms. By keeping your message and information uniform it will be easier for people to find and follow you. When was the last time you searched for your name online? Do you remember what came up in the results? You need to be aware of how you look online so you can make sure what you want people to see is what is out there. It is a continual process of monitoring and improving.

5. Never stop learning

The world is constantly and swiftly changing and evolving. Stay on top of the latest trends and new technologies for your industry to increase your personal brand authority. If you are not striving to move forward, you’re sinking in place.

6. Share the conversation.

Follow the 80/20 rule.

While you want everyone to know who you are and what you are about, it shouldn’t always be about you. In social settings, do you only talk about yourself? If you do, people probably don’t stick around!

The same principle should be applied to your personal branding efforts.

• 80 percent of your content should engage with your followers through material that is not related to yourself or your business. Ask questions, show interest in others and be genuine in your contact.
• 20 percent should be self-promotional, informing individuals about your brand and any promotions or updates you may have.

By sharing the conversation with others, you open up the floor to engaging and interesting topics, meeting new people and creating a positive environment for people to follow.

If you are struggling to develop a personal brand that is clear, concise and consistent, contact the experts at SK Consulting.  From concept to creation to implementation – we’re there with you every step of the way!

Understanding Your Brand Message and Local Marketing Strategy

Branding goes way beyond a tagline and a logo.

The most important component is cultivating a strong brand message that resonates with your target audience. If you hop right into marketing tactics, you’re missing more than half of the equation. Start with research, hone your message, develop a plan and then implement strategies.  This process will set you up for success.

Conduct Local Market Research

When creating a marketing strategy, the first step is always to get an understanding of what it is that your target market actually wants. If you don’t, you may miss the mark completely and your marketing efforts will fall on deaf ears.

For local marketing, you also have to consider the location of your audience. So, answer the following questions:

• How large of a geographical area do you serve?
• If you have a brick-and-mortar office, how far are people willing to physically travel to get your services?
• How large is your local market?
• How many competitors do you have? What are their unique selling points?

Answering these questions will lay the foundation for your market research. Starting too broad will be a waste of your time, and you will spend energy focusing on people and competitors that aren’t relevant to your business.

Creating a Profile of Your Ideal Client

Understanding your audience is the best way to create a branding strategy that resonates with them.

To do this, create an “Ideal Client” profile to figure out who they are, what they want, what they need, and where they are searching for services like yours.

• What are their top three pain points?
• What solutions have they tried already?
• What did they like about those solutions? What did they dislike?
• How old are they?
• What is their income level?
• What values are they looking for in the business they work with?
• What online platforms do they spend the most time on?
• Where do they go to find brands like yours? (i.e., Google, social media, referrals)

This information will help you determine:

• What unique selling point (USP) should be used to make your brand stand out.
• What services you should offer that your audience will be most interested in.
• What tone to use in your marketing and website content.
• What platforms you should market on.

Once you have your market research, it’s time to master your brand messaging and engage on the right platforms in order to get in front of your audience.

Master Your Brand Message

Your market research should tell you what it is that your audience values and needs most.

Knowing this, you can position your brand to appeal directly to them saying, “Hey. We get you. This is why you should work with us.”

Your brand message should include:

• Brand Values: What do you stand for?
• Your Unique Selling Point: What makes you better than your competitors?
• Tone: Is your audience looking for professionalism? Humor? Directness?
• Benefits: What benefits do your services provide?
• Calls-to-Action: What actions do you want people to take when they see your brand?

The Brand Messaging Formula

Many brands think that branding comes down to brand colors, a logo, and a catchy tagline. Unfortunately, they focus too much on what they want and not enough on what their audience is looking for.

If you are going to create a brand message or tagline, it should put your audience front and center.  For example:

 “We help [ audience ] in [area] [ achieve benefit ] through [ services ] that [features].”

This can be replicated for any brand and can even be applied to individual service pages throughout your website.

Build Strategic Partnerships

Local marketing can be especially difficult if your audience isn’t highly engaged online. How do you tap into that market?

By building strategic partnerships with local businesses.

If you are a boutique pet store, you could build partnerships with local animal shelters.  Provide discounts to those who adopt a rescue animal.  If you are a building material manufacturer, build partnerships with local contractors who could be incentivized to use your materials and send business your way. In return, offer discounts on building materials and refer customers to them for their projects.

Focus on Mutual Benefit

These kinds of relationships can work in person and online. The goal is to build relationships that are mutually beneficial and funnel leads for each other.

You can build these partnerships through outreach and content marketing, LinkedIn and email marketing. Just be sure to communicate the value that’s provided to each partner and that values align.

Share Targeted Content on Social Media

If your market research determines that your audience is active on social media, it’s time to create content that grabs their attention. Many brands worry too much about “hacking” the algorithm and sharing content across all social media platforms. You don’t have to do that.

You simply want to share content that makes your audience say, “Wow – that sounds like me!” and entices them to read more.

You want to focus on content that’s:

• Informative.
• Accurate.
• Relevant.
• Timely.
• Well-Written.
• Engaging.

Don’t focus on:

• Sharing your latest blog post without a caption.
• Stock images of people with a call-out to “Contact us for help today!”
• An update about what’s happened in your office this week.
• A trending video of a cat (even if it is hilarious).

Social media marketing is more about sharing value than it is about consistency or mastering the algorithm. Share what your audience wants to see to keep them coming back for more.

Attend Networking Events

Even online it can be easy to stay in our own little “bubble”. People value human connection, making networking and in-person marketing highly effective.

Not only will attending local networking events help you build strategic partnerships, but you may also brush shoulders with some big players in your industry. With an introduction and shared interests, they may turn into a potential client or partner.

Ad Campaigns

Whether it’s digital or traditional media, the only guaranteed coverage of your business, product, sale, etc. is to spend money.  Though the trend is moving more to Google and Facebook ads, your market research should tell you where to grab your target audience. That being said, if you don’t understand how to utilize different advertising platforms, enlist the help of experts to maximize your dollars and your reach.

What Does This All Mean?

Before focusing on marketing techniques, you need to gain a solid understanding of what the local market wants and where they are searching for the services that they want.

Without market research and a strong brand message, local brands will waste time and money focusing on the wrong demographic.

Need help with your brand messaging and target marketing?  Contact SK Consulting.  From concept. To creation. To Implementation.  We’re there for you every step of the way!

Everything and Everyone Has a Brand!

Brands are part of our everyday lives.  They are everywhere.

Many people immediately think of products and services when we think of brands. But places, religions, people and even ideas can and should be branded. What’s the value?  See for yourself.

Link the Thinking and Feeling

Think of products and services like Apple, Nike, Google, etc. – love them or hate them, you know exactly what you will get from them. Brands that move from a noun to a verb and are part of the everyday language, have pretty much reached the holy grail of branding. Skype your family. Photoshop that picture, and just Google it!

How does a brand become a great brand? And how does a great brand stand the test of time?

Great brands connect, resonate and then spread like wild fire. Great brands connect our thinking and our feeling. When you connect thinking and feeling, you get someone’s attention and you keep their interest with the promise of something great. You offer something valuable beyond just your product or service. You don’t just differentiate, you make a difference. And by making a difference, you evoke emotions.

When a customer feels like they belong to something, they implicitly trust it.

Building Trust

Trust is not something that just happens. It takes consistency and time to build. You trust your bank with your money.  You continue to invest there because they have a) branded themselves in a way that resonates with you and b) proven their worth and validated your trust in them. 

Trust gives everyone reassurance.

If you think about it, trust starts within us. Our senses have been developed over time to inform us of goodness, beauty, excitement, risk, danger, etc. We trust our senses unconditionally because consistently, they’ve been our beacons in life and we continuously learn from them. From influences in our environments, past experiences, and from stories from other people we trust.

Trust in people has been built over time with regard to the expertise and competence they bring. We blindly trust them (think about doctors) with our lives due to the inherit trust that lies in their capability. We trust them because what they are promising we can depend on and rely on. They create value to us.

Trust = Reliability + Desirability x Experiences

Our world has changed drastically and continues to change at a rapid pace. The people (your customers) are now making the decisions. They are empowered and demanding. Whatever they experience in their personal life becomes the standard and they expect it in ALL aspects of their lives.

ADDING VALUE

To tap into this empowered and knowledgeable market, TRUST remains the foundation. The essence of trust is when people find value from you or the services you provide. As a business, you need to deliver value beyond your product or service. All of us make our decisions based on the maximum value being received.

The value received can be objective (ie. better sound, faster connectivity, quicker payment, lower price, etc).  But, it can also be subjective (ie. ethical standards of the company, the social issues that the company support and I also personally value, embracing diversity, etc).

Value is a key factor in brand development and is derived from all the interactions people have with your company and product/service. At every touch point. That is even before they sign up or purchase your product, and definitely after. The value you create needs to be a way of life.

When you truly offer value, you have an outside-in approach as a business. You build relevant and valued experiences to your customers’ needs.

Make a difference

People and consumers have different needs and will find value in different solutions. People want to belong and connect to other people and organizations that share their values. If you try to be everything to everyone, you will end up being nothing to no one. Be unique and don’t just be different – make a difference.

Connect to Belong
The power of connecting between an organization and consumers results in a two-way understanding and long-term relationship. When you truly connect, you connect on an emotional level because of your shared values and belonging.

You connect on an emotional level by once again applying a human-centered, outside-in approach. One way to do this is through storytelling. We all love a story. When your brand is a story, it will help you stand out from the cluttered world we live in, it will help you to be differentiated, and it will help you to be remembered.

Your brand will be defined by what people, your customers AND your employees think and feel about you. Unlock and cultivate the value you offer and keep building on the trust you earned.

This is how you become memorable in a noisy and ever-changing world.  If you need help building a great brand that stands the test of time, contact the experts at SK Consulting.  From concept to creation to implementation, we’re there with you every step of the way!

What is Your Message? Why Do We Care?

How do you describe your business to the world? What words sum up your brand identity and what you have to offer? Are you clearly explaining your business value?

It takes a little time and thought to get your marketing message right, which is why so many small businesses fall back on their “About Us” page or product descriptions to describe what they do and for whom. But, that just speaks to the business itself and not the people you are trying to connect with - your customers.

Getting your marketing, positioning, and brand statements right is an essential step to building your overall business identity.  You need to understand your message – your marketing platform – before you start to actually MARKET your business!

1. Understand Your Target Market and Niche

If you want to connect, you have to know with whom you’re connecting. You need to determine your niche. Ask yourself what you are selling and to whom. Are the benefits of dealing with your business clear and are they aligned with the needs of your target customers? Answering these questions will help you focus your messaging and play to your strengths in that niche. 

2. Research Pain Points, Challenges, Needs and Desires

Every business, product, or service responds to a customer’s pain point: a need, a problem, a desire, or a challenge. How you address these “pain points” is critical to your messaging. For some businesses, like a plumber, for example, these needs seem obvious. Restaurants or retail shops may not be addressing a pain point, but they can design their message to speak to the benefits of shopping or eating at their establishment (fine dining on dime budget, Hollywood style at resale prices).

3. Tell People About your Product - Concisely

Products are a key part of what you do, but they are not everything. Your product or service should only be a small part of your overall message.  Yes, it’s what you bring to your target audience, but you are offering more – customer service, agility, convenience, reliability, experience, etc. So consider all these issues in light of what they mean to your customer. What’s the “so what” factor? What benefit is it to them?

4. Add Proof Points

A proof point backs up what you have to say about your business. Think of it as a “don’t just take our word for it” statement. Proof points include customer quotes, success stories that you write, case studies, and references. They’re important because they show how your business has solved the problems of others. A few words or paragraphs can convey the customer’s challenge, the solution you delivered, and the results they gained.

5. Figure out how you are Different

What makes you unique in your niche and to your target market? You’ve outlined your product and you know your customer, but how are you different from the competition? At SK Consulting, we are not an agency.  Our customers are not clients.  We work WITH them.  We teach as we develop and implement a plan, a project, a message.  Our difference? We want businesses to have control of their own marketing.  We don’t want them to rely on us.  We want them to want us!

6. Decide on a Messaging Platform

What you are aiming for is flexibility. You want to be able to slice and dice your messaging to suit your audience, your collateral, a promotion, or a sales pitch.

A common approach is to create 25-, 50-, and 100-word versions of your message (:15 sec, :30 sec, :60 sec elevator pitches). The shorter version can be used in advertising copy or sound bites in broadcast or online materials. The longer versions give you more flexibility to add specific services, benefits, and value statements, backed up by proof points, about why customers should do business with you.

7. Use Your Messaging Consistently

Once you have your message developed, make sure everyone is singing from the same song sheet, from your sales people to your front desk and across your social media platforms, website and marketing pieces. The more your customers hear it, the more likely it will be to resonate and stick.

If you need help developing your message or are unsure how to market it, contact SK Consulting.  From Concept to Creation to Implementation, we’re there with you every step of the way!

Branding: Planting an Idea, Growing a Business

Your small business doesn’t need to be a world-famous household name in order to have a strong brand.  But it does need to be nurtured so that it grows properly, in the direction and to the size expected.

There’s more to your brand than just your logo and a snappy slogan. It is the entire sum of what your company does, what you excel at and the experience your customers have with you. It determines whether customers join your loyalty club and refer you to friends — or don’t bother with you again.

If you don’t know what you do or why you do it, nobody else will.  Below are some guidelines to ensure that your brand is planted the right way and flourishes every day!

Know Specifically Why You’re in Business

In today’s competitive marketplace, you don’t want to be a “jack of all trades, master of none.” While it may be tempting to offer clients a wide menu of products and services, it’s important to keep your brand focused.

Specializing in one thing allows your small business to stand out in the market. Being an expert in what you do, and doing it better than anyone else, helps the marketplace see you as the #1 source. Your customers have specific needs, wants, values and characteristics. Ensure your brand lets them know you understand them, and can provide what they desire.

Clearly Define Your Brand Promise

Your brand promise is powerful. It’s the statement you make to your customers and target audience that lets them know what to expect every time they interact with you and your employees, products and services. It is based in reality, and it’s something you can prove. Your brand promise is why they can’t do without you and would never go anywhere else.

Need help? Complete this sentence: “My customers buy from us because we’re the only one that…” The more specific the answer, the clearer your brand promise will be.

Target Whom You Want to Serve

Your small business can’t do everything; likewise, it probably can’t serve everyone.

Your customers may skew toward certain demographic or socioeconomic groups. They may share a particular problem, interest or need. Your brand needs to connect with these people. They’re your target audience, the consumers you specifically aim to serve.

Be Honest and Authentic About Who You Are

Your brand has to talk the talk and walk the walk. Otherwise, you’ll present yourself inconsistently and confuse the marketplace. If you’ve clearly defined your audience and what sets you apart, authenticity should come easily. When it comes to your brand, be consistent and genuine. That will make it easier to build trust with your customers, connect with them and do repeat business.

Differentiate Yourself from the Competition

Knowing what you do best and being able to convey that to your target audience means knowing what you’re up against.

With that in mind, you must be aware of your strengths and your weaknesses. Learn how to accentuate the former and how to address the latter — or, even turn those weaknesses into positives. And don’t forget to add a bit of your personality or your desired culture into your brand.

Keep Your Messaging and Visual Identity Professional and Consistent

From business cards and logo to email newsletters and brick-and-mortar signage, all of your printed communications and sales materials should look, feel and sound like they come from the same source. Put your company slogan or tagline on everything — it’s your brand promise boiled down to a catchy, memorable phrase.

Ideally, your brand’s visual appearance and messaging:

• Reflect your brand’s personality and voice.
• Set you apart from the competition.
• Appeal to your target audience.
• Command attention.

Create a Dialogue with Your Customers

Sure, you talk to customers when they come in, call or email. That’s a conversation. But conversations end. Dialogues are ongoing.

How can you be interacting with customers even when they’re not doing business with you?

• Post video demos of your products or services to your Web site, Facebook page or YouTube.
• Put a poll on Facebook. It doesn’t need to be related to your business (e.g., ask them what movie they’re going to see this weekend).
• Solicit product reviews on your Web site and on Web sites where your products are sold.
• Respond proactively and professionally to any reviews you receive, especially the negative ones.
• Hold customer appreciation events; people love to know they matter.
• Share useful information; don’t just send advertisements.
• Share testimonials of satisfied customers.
• Use customer satisfaction surveys.

Give Customers a Great Experience at Every Point of Contact

In our digital age, it’s both easier and harder than ever to reach your customers. They’re only a click away. They may never meet you face to face. Make customer service a core value at all levels of your business. Become known as a brand that delivers a terrific experience. Your customers will reward you.

Think of everything you do in terms of customer service, even if you’re not directly dealing with customers. 

Consider the impressions they get when they:

• See your ad, mailing, Facebook page, newsletter or Web site for the first time.
• Walk into your place of business.
• Call you.
• Place an order over the phone or Web.
• Send you an email inquiry.
• Sign up for your mailing list.
• Return to make another purchase.

While it may seem like extra work, these extra touches do matter. More than 50 percent of consumers recommend a company to others because of great customer service.

These tips may seem to take a lot of effort. If you need help developing and promoting your brand, contact SK Consulting.  From Concept to Creation to Implementation, we’re there with you every step of the way! 

Creating and Sharing Your STORY is Essential to Marketing

When you’re explaining or promoting your business, you’re telling a story. It’s up to you whether it’s a thriller, a horror or a feel-good, curl-up-on-the-couch-and-take-it-all-in story.

Everything you do to market your business is another paragraph, page, or chapter in the story people hear from you. And the story people hear is the one they act (or don’t act) on, and repeat (or don’t repeat) to others.

Purposeful marketing stories are a sure sign of a great content marketer.

How can you make sure your story is great and worth sharing? Here’s how.

1. Know your audience

The battle is won or lost right here. The better you know the audience, the better able you will be to connect, engage and convert them – giving you a leg up on your competition. 

What do you need to know? You need to know who your audience admires, and what they aspire to, despise, fear, and cherish.

Instead of sitting around dreaming up content you guess people might react favorably to, you tell an educated story based on one or more individuals who represent the whole.

Understanding your audience at such an intimate level makes creating buyer personas important. It also helps you be a part of the market you’re speaking to, which results in a more authentic story.

Research doesn’t sound sexy, but it’s the foundation of any smart marketing plan. The more time you spend understanding the people you’re talking to, the better story you’ll tell them.

2. Select your frame

When you understand the worldview your prospects share — the things they believe — you can frame your story in a way that resonates so strongly with them that you enjoy an “unfair” advantage over your competition.

You can cater to audience beliefs and worldviews without resorting to name-calling. For example, the simple word “green” can provoke visceral reactions at the far sides of the environmental worldview spectrum, while also prompting less-intense emotions in the vast middle.

Framing your story against a polar opposite, by definition, will make some love you and others ignore or even despise you. That’s not only okay, it’s necessary.

You’ll likely never convert those at the other end of the spectrum, but your core base will share your content and help you penetrate the vast group in the middle — and that’s where growth comes from.

3. Choose your premise

The premise is the way you choose to tell the story so that you get the conclusion you desire. It’s the delivery of the framed message with dramatic tension and one or more relatable heroes so that your goals are achieved.

• It’s the hook, the angle, the purple cow.
• It’s the difference between a good story and an ignored story.
• It’s the clear path between attention and action.

It’s important to understand the difference between the beliefs or worldview of your audience (the frame) and the expression of that belief or worldview back to them.

Think about your favorite novel or film … the same information could have been transmitted another way, but just not as well. In fact, stories have been retold over and over throughout the ages — some are just better told than others.

The premise is essentially the difference between success and failure (or good and great) when it comes to copywriting and storytelling.

Content marketing as storytelling

“Marketing succeeds when enough people with similar worldviews come together in a way that allows marketers to reach them cost-effectively.” – Seth Godin

That’s exactly what content marketing allows you to do. In fact, it’s the most cost-effective (and just plain ol’ effective) online marketing method ever devised when done properly.

Even better, people aren’t just coming together. They’re coming together around you.

What’s YOUR story?  Whatever it is, remember to make it remarkable! If you need help finding, developing and sharing your story, contact SK Consulting today!  

Putting the Personal Back into Personal Branding

There’s no denying the importance of personal branding. After all, branding is largely responsible for the message your name (and face) transmits to the world. Because of this, it’s vital that your brand is built on authenticity and engagement, rather than half-heartedness and complacency.

For many up-and-coming entrepreneurs, consciously making an effort to build a personal brand takes a backseat to other items on their never-ending to-do lists. In their minds, personal branding will take care of itself.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth.  You need to know that everything you do, both intentionally and not, contributes to the way others are perceiving your personal brand.

Whether through social media, influencer marketing or some sort of media outreach strategy, personal branding is an active endeavor. Still need some convincing? Below you’ll find four hard-hitting reasons to give your personal brand some time and attention.

1. Sales is a human-to-human endeavor.

There’s no greater tool in a salesperson’s arsenal than trust, especially if your business makes its money on the internet. How does an entrepreneur go about building that trust? Personal branding.

It’s imperative to understand that sales is a human-to-human affair. Though there are tools out there that help automate important sales processes, you must present your most genuine self to connect with people on an emotional level.

Whether you're connecting eye-to-eye, voice-to-voice or merely message-to-message, peel back the curtain ever so slightly. It might not provide an immediate marketing return, but it will get other people to help you build your brand.

2. You are the media.

Thanks to blogs, podcasts and social networks, you don’t have the option to sit idly by and wait for others to mention your brand in the media. Yes, PR still matters, but many companies today are media companies first and money-making entities second.

Branding certainly works on a macro level, but it works on a micro level, too. Your personal brand matters. To strengthen it, recognize that you -- not just that team of interns you recently hired -- must provide value as an active media member to make people remember your name.

3. There’s too much noise to be conservative.

Thanks to the internet's sheer volume of content, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. That's why you have to make a good first impression, whether trying to get an Instagram user to stop scrolling past your content or convince a search algorithm that you’re a uniquely valuable resource. 

With social media, people and businesses are constantly talking over one another.  Your potential customers have to resonate with something you post and want to learn more.  If you don’t have the right messaging, the right tactic and the right timing, your attempt to ‘jump into’ the conversation will fall on deaf ears.

4. You're always branding yourself.

In today’s day and age, you no longer have a choice about personal branding.  The world is far too connected for you not to be transmitting some kind of personal message with your actions.

If you decide not to actively participate, people will take notice, and their professional opinions of you aren’t likely to be favorable. Without control of your personal brand, your image stands on shaky ground.

Invest in your brand. That way, you not only invest in yourself, but also in the people you lead and the organization you represent.  Don’t expect business to just come to you or that people will stumble upon your website and decide to do business with you.

You are the best PR, marketing and sales person for your business.  While the digital age definitely consumes us, there is something to be said about the old-school, hand-shake, meet and greet.  Get to know your potential customers.  Let them get to know you.  If you are authentic and true to the brand that you want to promote, you will leave them wanting more.

If you or your business need help developing your personal and professional brand, contact SK Consulting today!

What is Your Branding Story? Part 2

Tell Your Story

Buyers love to connect with brands they trust via social media and video. They love to hear stories about not only your company but the other buyers who are using your products and services successfully. They’ll share the stories with their friends and family, thus helping expand your brand through story telling.

To tell a good story you’ll need to delve deeply into your why. Why does your business exist? Why are you passionate about your product or service? If you’re not sure how to develop your story, you can use social media to distribute surveys to the customers you have that already exist if you’re collecting (and you should be) their information. In addition you can brainstorm with employees and contractors, ask them why they’re here. Ask them why they come to work each day. Also, never overlook searching the web for what people are saying about your business.

Fill out your profiles on the “About Us” area of your websites, blogs and social media. If you guest post for others ensure that your author’s bio is succinct in telling your story. Create videos or ask your clients to create videos that tell your story. Even your contractors and employers can help tell your story via their LinkedIn.com profiles, or social media profiles that mention your company and what they do for your company.

Place photos of your products or important components of customer testimonials that showcase all the positives of your services on your website and social media sites in a prominent location. People want to know what is behind the products and services in a way that shows them that you care, and that you are dedicated to solving their problems. That’s right, all successful products and services solve a problem. If you’re not sure what problem you solve, it’s time to research and figure it out.

Your blog is a terrific place to start talking about your why for being. Create posts, and ask for guests posts from service providers, contractors, employees, customers and clients that show in their words how important your why is to the world. Be open and transparent in your discussion of why you exist. If you’ve done your home work, your story will resonate with your clients and potential clients and make them proud to do business with you.

Spreading the Word on Social Media

Social media offers a tremendous opportunity to brand your business. In the old days we only had TV, Radio, Newspapers, Billboards and the cocktail party. Today, the world is truly open for businesses who see the value in using technology to expand their reach.

The best way to enjoy the advantages of what social media can offer is to realize exactly what you can do with social media. Yes, still go to local events, and live events, but never underestimate the importance of being part of the online conversation about your industry.

You can use social media to:

• Study your market

• Network

• Share important information

• Announce new products and services

• Tell people about sales

• Expand your brand

Some ways to do the above are:

Facebook — Use Facebook to build a community and participate daily. Answer questions professionally, and interact with others in your community. It’s important to give your customers a reason to talk about you. Ask them to create a videos or showcase them on a live video describing how they used your product or service and what kind of success they enjoyed due to it.

Twitter — Share new content with followers, comment on their shares, and participate in the conversation your followers are having. Share coupons, sales, brand news, answer questions, share how-to’s and interviews that you’ve done. Consumers love getting coupons and freebies, so ensure that you offer them.

Google and YouTube — While other social networks remain at the top, Google+ remains a place to engage in collections and communities, share your posts, and gather the latest news from influencers in your industry. Images and video work well here — especially with YouTube’s integration where you can grow your brand audience through pre-recorded video or live video.

LinkedIn — This is a more serious business networking social network in which you can join professional groups, share your latest blog posts, and network with influencers in your niche. With the simple publishing features it is a great place to attract more visitors to your website for free.

Instagram and Pinterest — Create compelling image or video that showcase the inner workings of your brand including your products and services, and customer testimonials. This type of visual social media will expand your brand in many ways and could even go viral. Pinterest is especially important to retail businesses as well as bloggers who would like to grow their readership.

On any of the popular social media avenues today it’s possible to search keywords that describe your audience, product or service including competitors to keep up with what is happening in your industry. It doesn’t matter if you have an online business or offline business. Using social media to further your brand is an essential component of any branding effort today.

Before you get started take a look at your mission statement, and remind yourself of who your target audience is. Keep the same visual brand throughout all your social media networks. In fact, your online visual brand, the logos, the graphics, colors, tag lines — they should remain the same across all marketing channels.

Before joining the conversation, create full and compelling social media profiles using your other marketing collateral as a start. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You’ve already developed a brand offline, and that brand should stay the same. The idea is to expand your brand, not replace it. While your brand is more than just your photo, there is no point in confusing your audience. You want current customers who find you on social media to share you with others and they will if they recognize you immediately.

All businesses need to use social media to promote their business today. But, many business owners don’t realize that their actions on social media comprise an extension of their brand. To expand your brand it’s important to use social media in a strategic way that aligns with your core business values. How you promote your business with social media depends on what kind of business you have.

If you’re a speaker, author, life coach or your business is completely about you, you will handle your branding through social media differently than if your business is about a product or service. If you have products and services it’s important that you develop a brand for those in addition to your personal brand by creating accounts for each business component. Your @JaneSmith Twitter account should be used differently from your @ProductorServices business account.

On your personal social media accounts it’s important to be yourself and be transparent. Admitting mistakes, showing your personality, engaging with others, sharing information is important in branding yourself. On your business account you should also be a real person, share, engage your audience, and try to be compelling and interesting. However you slice it, social media is an excellent way to increase your brand.

Using social media can increase brand awareness quickly. Whether you like it or not, people will be talking about your business via social media. If you’re not invested in social media the conversation goes on without you. Not only do you want to be part of that conversation, you also want to be in control of the conversation.

In order to be in control of the conversation regardless of which social media you use, start the conversation. Create excellent content on your websites. Write excellent guest posts for other people’s websites. Share compelling information that other people have shared. Comment in a meaningful way on content that you enjoy, or even content that you disagree with. Always be respectful, but showing each audience your expertise will increase your authority, even if it’s controversial.

Never, ever delete critical information that you find, whether it’s a comment on your blog, or a complaint you discovered on Facebook. Instead, publicly deal with the comment in a professional way. Of course, delete offensive comments riddled with swear words, but don’t delete genuine critical comments or complaints. How you deal with these issues will speak volumes to your target audience who sees them.

Use social media to promote the things that your company does and is involved in. Every blog post you make, every new product you create, every new service you offer should be worthy of the same promotion as the next.

Remember, branding is more than a logo or pretty picture. It’s really about the perception your target audience has about your business’ culture. It’s a compilation of your name, logos, tagline, mission statement and the messaging that leaves your office. Without knowing your story and conveying a compelling story to the marketplace, many people will miss out on enjoying your products and services.

If you need help developing or telling your story, contact SK Consulting today!

What’s Your Branding Story? (Part 1)

Developing Your Branding Story

When we think about the important aspects of building our brand, most people focus on Name, Logo, Identity, Colors, Marketing and Strategy. While those along with your product and services are important components to your business success it’s amazing how important the story is too. People want to buy from those that they know, like and trust, and your story is how they first feel something.

A lot of businesses under estimate how important their “about us” page is, or how important the story of their why is.

To develop your story answer the questions, “How did you get started, why do you do what you do and where are you going?”

Many people think about branding in terms of logos, pictures and other graphics that are on our letterhead, business cards and websites. But today, it’s so much more than a picture. Branding is about an attitude. It’s feeling that is conveyed by the story you tell consumers about your business, eliciting enough feelings of trust from the buyer that they happily open their wallet and spend money on your product or service.

To properly brand your business you need to answer the following questions:

• How did you get started?

• Why did you get started?

• Who is your target audience?

• What is your product or service?

• What makes your offerings unique?

• Where do you see your business going?

Sure, you do need to choose your logo, general colors of your marketing collateral, website graphics and so forth. But, it’s more important to answer the above questions ensuring that you accurately represent your answers with the themes you choose.  Any marketing that you do should further the ideas that the answers provided. By being consistent through all your marketing efforts you will expand your brand.

What’s Your Mission?

Once you answer the questions, you can then use your answers to assist you in creating a mission statement and an appropriate tag line. Your mission statement and tag line can help you define yourself even further in terms of expressing to your future customers or clients who you are, what you stand for, and what you do. Not only will the answers, and the resulting mission statement and tag line help your clients understand you, they will help you stick to your goals.

Knowing your mission, your reason for being, will help spread awareness about your brand to your target audience. A mission statement provides focus for every area of your business from A to Z. You have to remember that branding is a process that evolves and develops over time and consistency and persistence is an imperative component to that process. Knowing your why enough to create an effective mission statement will take your business to the next level.

Branding is about getting clear concerning your business so that you and your entire staff can be laser focused on every aspect of your company from ensuring you are marketing to your ideal client, creating products and services for your ideal client, and expressing what your business stands for to clients, contractors and employees. The mission statement is an expression of your brand, written in a clear and concise way that helps not only your customers understand your business focus but you and your business partners too.

You should be living your mission statement every single day, which will in effect promote your brand. Live your mission on social media. Live your mission on your website. Live your mission in all your marketing collateral, products and services. Yes, part of that is knowing which graphics to include that expresses your brand, but as you see branding is so much more than a picture.

The next part in Your Branding Story is TELLING it.