Multi-Platform Branding is Essential to Your Business Success

Creating, and maintaining, a brand across platforms can be a challenge, particularly if the idea of cross-channel marketing and multiple platforms leave you scratching your head. In fact, what do those terms even mean, and where do you start?

Branding is about so much more than a logo or recognizable imagery these days; it’s about engaging customers at every turn, establishing relationships, and encouraging loyalty. In short, branding is everything. The way you approach cross-channel marketing, and interact with each platform available defines your brand and determines the successes and failures of your business.

Branding is more than advertising; it’s used to express your company’s voice and relay its message, and to create an identity by which you’ll forever be associated. A strong brand will carry your company well above its nearest competitors, reach out to customers, and attract their loyalty. More than that, branding is essential for personal identity. In understanding, creating, and maintaining your brand you ensure that all employees, no matter their job description, comprehend where the company has come from, what its main goals are, and where it’s hell-bent on going.

The evolution of branding

While branding once revolved around a company’s image, color schemes, and logos, print and television advertising, these days there are multiple platforms on which customers can be engaged.

Cross-channel marketing, or multi-platform branding, encompasses a variety of mediums. Rather than relying upon a single method of marketing, such as print media, multi-platform branding can be adapted to embrace all kinds of platforms, including targeted pop-up adverts, social media pages, viral videos, mobile apps, and websites and e-commerce. It is essential that you realize your brand identity is just that; the ‘face’ that customers will recognize instantly, and engage with.

Rather than waiting for customers to come to you, or stumbling across your marketing material by accident, multi-platform branding allows your company to step out of its comfort zone and engage with potential customers like never before; Social media and SEO (search engine optimization) are vital when it comes to cross-channel marketing; these days it’s all about being seen.

Ensuring branding success

Understand your customers: Before you begin the task of creating a brand it is essential to get to know your customers, their spending habits, and how they’ll access your marketing material. How do they use and interact with technology? Where are they most likely to come across your brand? The age and web habits of your clients will say so much about where your brand needs to go.

Define and create: First thing’s first; while understanding the platforms you’ll be accessing is essential, it’s also important that you stay true to your brand. Don’t plan a campaign around the media, but allow it to work for you. Have an idea of what you’d like your brand to stand for, and achieve, and create something that defines your business’s story; who are you, what do you stand for, and where are you going? Your brand should be fluent, and recognizable across any platform.

Voice and communication: The tone of voice your brand uses is vital; it must be unique and specific, able to stand the test of time and the domination of the crowd. Be sure to communicate your brand clearly and honestly, making sure that it is reflective of the products and services on offer. A brand isn’t a smokescreen to trick customers in, but a means of introducing the service you deliver.

Consistency: Perhaps most important when it comes to branding is consistency; try to avoid repetition, but ensure the image that you’re delivering is the same across all platforms. It must be recognizable, regardless of how customers are choosing to engage with you. Remain focused on your brand and its message, use tools and resources wisely, and don’t waste a second of exposure. Finally, use your brand to inspire customers to feel a certain way about your business; ensure they know who you are, and what you’re able to offer.

When it comes to branding across multiple platforms there are three ‘C’s that you must remember, without which many marketing attempts prove futile. They are courage, commitment, and communication. It takes great courage to think outside of the box and to push your business further than ever before, commitment to ensure that your brand remains consistent and accessible, and communication to convey that message in the first place.

It’s also important to remember that these platforms will continue to evolve. Already we have seen so many changes to the ways in which companies market themselves and engage with customers. As a business you must be prepared to accept your growing brand as an ongoing concern, and to develop it as the times change. How you move with those times will depend entirely upon you, but be sure to listen to your customers, as they’ll be your biggest fans, or critics.

Branding. Marketing. Selling. Oh My!

Sales. Marketing. Branding. If these words all sound the same to you, you’re not alone. A lack of familiarity with the particulars of each, combined with the fact that, frankly, they are all closely related, means many companies, small businesses and individuals view the terms as interchangeable.

What’s wrong with that? Well for starters, if you don’t know where one ends, and the next one starts, you’ll struggle to determine what is (and can) driving your results, and what is just costing you money and resources without improving your bottom line.

First comes the branding.  If you don’t know who you are or what you’re selling, others won’t either. In order to be an effective salesperson or savvy marketer, you must understand the value of personal branding and how to make it a part of your work.

Things to keep in mind about branding:

» Regardless of what you sell, everything is easier when you have a great personal brand.

» If you have a widely recognized and highly respected personal brand, your voicemails and emails are more likely to be returned.

» All sales professionals should seek to become celebrities in their own spheres of interest.

» Excellence is not enough. In a competitive marketplace, talent and hard work are simply expected.

» You are not just a human being. You are an entity, a business of one, a business unto yourself.

» You are in a lifelong series of “campaigns” trying to be “elected” to whatever matters to you. Think like a politician (I said THINK, not ACT).

» Live actively and focus externally. In order to become a celebrity in your sphere of interest, you need to be seemingly “everywhere.”

» Develop an area of self-marketing expertise, something related to what you do but is fascinating to people who do not do what you do. This is what you talk about when you network.

» Don’t network just for the sake of networking. Focus on results.

» Put on a show. Don’t be someone you are not, but play up your strengths and put forth your best image possible.

» While you are portraying yourself in a positive light, keep it real. Your prospects can sense authenticity as well as a lack of it.

» Never go back on any promise made to any prospective client during a networking or potential business encounter.

If you are unclear of your personal or company brand, we can help!  Don’t start your marketing or selling strategy until you understand your brand! www.stonekingconsulting.com.  

To Brand or ReBrand, That is the Question...

Companies are always looking for ways to increase sales and enhance market awareness. Sometimes this involves rebranding, which can make sense – companies that are willing to adapt tend to remain relevant within the market. But sometimes, rebranding can fail to meet expectations or may even do damage.

BP: Controversy Over the Logo

Many companies do not wish to rebrand but do so to combat modern day issues or crisis they face. The rise of issues such as green energy, expansion into other markets and recycling has had an effect on numerous brands. In 2000, in light of numerous PR disasters and a rise in the awareness of green energy, BP rebranded their logo of more than 70 years to the “Helios” logo.  The logo, representing the Greek word for the sun, was to symbolize and represent the company’s green growth strategy. 

However, there is nothing clean or green about drilling oil, and it appeared that BP was trying to provide connotations of something they weren’t. Shortly after the rebrand, the company caused global outrage with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – the largest marine oil spill in the history of the industry. Green Peace challenged BPs logo and insisted that they change it to one that did not imply renewable or clean energy. They were unsuccessful in their campaign with the environmentally friendly logo.

Some Branding Tips: What is Needed to Successfully Rebrand

When rebranding, it is important to know what you are and what your company does and represents. Like the BP example, there is no point in trying to paint a picture of something that you aren’t. Changing brand personality can be rash and confusing, and although it can grab headlines, it can prove to be detrimental. If you must change something, know why you are doing it and justify it to your audience. Finally, change is not appreciated by a lot of people, but if you believe your company must rebrand and the rebranding is appropriate for you, have the courage and commitment to see it through.

Knowing when and if to Rebrand

Whether you are developing a brand or a rebrand, the process is very similar.  In order to be successful, all stakeholders need to be on board.  It’s important to remember that consumers drive market.  Their input is, most times, more important than the business owners’ desires.

                                           

1. Be Ready for the Change.

Change is very important to the future success of your business. As markets and attitudes change (very quickly), your customers’ needs and expectations also change. So it's vital to keep your communications relevant and appealing.

2. Understand your Brand.

Re-branding your business involves understanding your current strengths and weaknesses and identifying what and why you think things need to change. What are the problems and opportunities of your current brand? 

3. Know What your Brand Communicates.

How is your brand experienced by potential consumers through your current communications and how do you feel these should be developed or improved? It can be useful to ask customers and other stake holders their views and opinions. 

4. Know your Customers.

Who are your customers and what do they need? Do you want to attract new consumers, as well as retain existing ones? In what ways do you think your brand needs to adapt to address these goals? Understanding exactly who your consumers are and what they want is key in determining what you need to communicate to them.

5. Brand Distinction.

With ever-increasing competition and a proliferation of communication technologies, it's difficult to stand out from competitors. Does your brand have unique characteristics that sets it apart?

6. Know your Competitors.

It's important to understand how your competitors behave and present themselves, so that you can deliberately create the differences that will set you apart and give a competitive edge.

The decision to rebrand your company can have a profound effect on your existing customer base. Newer startups that make their pivot early on likely don't have much of a "legacy" to hold on to, but for an established company with a strong following, changing a key element of your brand may come as a shock to your core audience.

Therefore, it's critical to consider the way your past and current customers will react to such a shift when changing something as big as your product offerings, logo or name. Failure to do so could lead to a drop in your brand's recognition, reputation and trust among the people who know and love your company.

If you or your business needs help branding or rebranding, contact us! 

If You Don’t Know Your Brand, Others Won’t Know Your Brand

The importance of branding is well known, yet it is also quite easy to get it wrong. For branding to be effective one must first understand what it is and to what end it is directed. Branding refers to the unique image an individual (yes, each of us has a personal brand) or company wishes to attribute to itself in a manner that the company and the brand become synonymous with each other. Good branding ensures longevity, customer loyalty and a unique identity in the market. In many ways branding is a delicate balancing act wherein the company or individual has to position themselves in a manner that is most consistent and easily identifiable to their target audience. Several factors

determine how it is done.

Visual branding is very important and can work wonders for a brand. Look at McDonald’s, Google and Apple. Their logos are very identifiable.  And people mostly associate their visual brand with a good or happy experience. Good and fulfilling user experience and customer to company interaction is also vital for good branding.

In order for a customer to fully identify with a brand, several factors play a role. Innovation and being the first in the game plays a definitive part. Every company dreams of a situation where the brand becomes the name for the product itself for the general population. That is branding at its most absolute. Think Xerox, which became synonymous with the photocopy industry to the extent that many people in office setting refer to the Xerox machine when making copies (even if they use a different brand).  

One key enabler of good branding is the emotional connect between a business/individual and its customers – current or potential. Today Apple is a lesson in wholesome branding for several other players. Apple’s branding strategy is rooted in emotions and the experience it brings to its customers at a lifestyle level. When Apple entered the market it marketed itself as a company that was challenging the existing thought and mindset. It’s branding was based on the company being a challenger that would bring new and innovative products to, essentially, the world. That emotional experience has remained embedded in our minds - across generations.

Apple’s successful branding strategy also brings us to the debate of brand evolution. A brand must be able to display both consistency and evolution.  While this may seem like two contradictory ideas, they actually are not when it comes to brand placement, especially in the tech sector that sees progress and evolution all the time. While Apple was first marketed as a ‘device company’, it has successfully moved beyond that branding to include digital content services (with iTunes, app stores etc) as well. However, its key brand philosophy that is simplicity, innovation and hassle free design for the everyday man remains consistent at its core.

While there are several examples of successful brands what are the essentials that must be kept in mind when developing one?

Brand equals experience

No matter how well a company markets itself visually or otherwise, at the end of the day a brand equals the experience it gives the customer. If the experience is inadequate, the brand is inadequate as well.

Product design is also branding

How you design your product will become synonymous with the brand. If product design is unique, the brand will remain imprinted in the user’s mind for a long time. When it comes to designing a product there should be a definitive end that leaves more than a superficial impression. Think about Apple’s designs - that is one of their principal branding strategies. Apple promises users hassle-free products that stand out for their minimalist designs. Unique product design is branding in itself.

Standing out is important

That is the entire point of branding. If you are standing in, you are invisible and therefore, not taken into account in the larger picture. Branding differentiates the brand in the competitive market and good branding gives an edge over others in the race.

Unique but rooted to its customer base

While the branding must be unique, it must also not lose sight of who their target customer base is. Several companies get carried away by the idea of a good concept and lose sight of customer expectations. Be it a motion advertisement or a newsletter, the brand must be easily identifiable to the customer.

Consistent, yet evolving 

In order to ensure customer loyalty and longevity, a brand must evolve with times to accommodate the shifts in consumer patterns. However, this need not happen at the expense of its core branding strategy. It is in fact, the consistency of a brand to deliver exactly what it is expected to do that ensures the most loyal and consistent customer base.

If you are a job seeker or looking to start your own business, remember, you have a personal brand too!  What is it you want people to know about you?  Can you deliver on your promise?  What sets you apart from others in the market?

If you need help with your personal or business brand, contact us!  www.stonekingconsulting.com  

A Comprehensive Marketing Plan Helps Secure Small Business Loans

Having a plan for marketing your small business to the community will help you build your business and show lenders that you have a plan for growth. 

One of the biggest mistakes we see when helping small businesses with their marketing and outreach plan is that they didn’t incorporate marketing into their small business loan proposal to lenders.

Yes, part of making your small business successful is getting the word out to your target audience. Choosing marketing tactics that will reach your prospective customers through a variety of different avenues will ensure that they hear your message enough times to both remember you and want to buy from you.

But, a comprehensive marketing plan can also help your business from a lending perspective. Loan officers want to see that you have a plan for growing your business – this lets them know that you have a plan for making money, which in turn indicates that you’ll be able to pay back what you borrow. Showing how you plan on promoting your company to the community through a basic marketing plan is a thoughtful way to supplement the business plan you submit with your small business loan application. And if you’re new to the marketing world, here are five tactics that every small business should include in their marketing plan.  If you don’t want to enter the marketing world, be sure to hire someone who is an expert – and include that cost into your proposal.

1. Get a website. Let’s face it: the world we live in today is highly digital. Companies who don’t have an online presence – even smaller, local companies – are considered dated and out of touch. Building a website for your business an essential step towards having a strong brand within your community. Your website doesn’t have to be anything fancy – it just needs to be something basic with a modern visual appeal that clearly communicates what your company does, who you serve and how to get in touch with you.

2. Canvas the neighborhood. There’s something to be said for getting out and actually meeting the people who live and work around your business. Coming to them shows that you offer a high level of customer service, something that’s becoming much harder to find these days. A great way to share what your company does and how you serve the local community is to invite those closest to your business geographically to come in and check out your space.

3. Become a PR magnet.  To continue growing your business, ongoing visibility is key. One way you can continue to keep yourself front and center is to become a PR magnet – by connecting and interacting with local resources and media outlets online and in person.

Get on social media and start “following” or “liking” the television, radio and publication personalities in your area. Tweet at them, like their status updates – engage with them to get noticed. Once they know who you are and what you do, they’re much more likely to use you as a news source where it applies to your expertise. Want to take this a step further? Pitch a story idea (make sure it has a good ‘hook’) every once in a while to the media sources you’ve connected with – you never know when they might feature you on the five o’clock news!

4. Be a visible member of the community. This is such an important aspect of owning a small business – no matter what industry you’re in. Staying visible within the community, especially in charitable ways, will always reflect positively on your business. It also keeps your company front-of-mind with your local clientele and prospective customers because they’re seeing your brand in their everyday lives.

Sponsor a little league team, have a little booth at the local farmer’s market or offer to drive a truck branded with your company’s name in the high school homecoming parade. No matter how you do it, just make sure your local community sees you engaging and doing things to benefit them – it will reflect back on your bottom line tenfold over time.

5. Engage your clientele online. Getting back to that whole idea of online marketing, being engaged with the online community is a great way to help build your business. Do this by replying to people who reach out on social media, asking happy customers to leave a positive review about your business on Yelp! or Angie’s List and monitoring the use of your company’s name across the internet through tools like Google Alerts and Hootsuite. This will allow you to promote positive feedback while responding quickly to anything negative that’s added about your company online, helping to preserve your reputation and show that you truly care about what customers have to say about your business.

Building Positive Visibility Can Make a Difference

Having a plan to promote your small business to the community gives you actionable steps to start attracting new customers, build your business’ reputation and grow your bottom line. Lenders look favorably upon highly organized businesses who have a plan for growth, so creating a marketing plan can help show how you’re a step ahead of your competition and a great loan candidate.

If you need help building your marketing and/or outreach plan, contact us!  We would love to help put your business on the map and compete against the businesses with ‘deep pockets’.

Blogging for Business: No More Excuses!

Do you own or run a small business?  Do you blog?  If not, it’s more than likely because you don’t have the time or you don’t see the value. Using that logic, think of all of the efforts you put into promoting or marketing your business then look at the return on your investment (time AND money).  

Blogging on a frequent basis is a relatively easy, inexpensive way to enhance your inbound marketing efforts, drive traffic to your site, and attract more prospective customers.

Don’t like to write?  Don’t know what to write?  Get help! If you’re not blogging, you’re opening the door for your competitors to come in and grab your potential customers.

According to Hubspot, 57% of companies who have a blog reported that they actually acquire business from their blog.  Still don’t have the time or resources?  Find it!

The Case for Small Business Blogs

Here are some of the most important benefits of having a blog for your business:

1. Boost Search Engine Optimization: Search engines love fresh content. What better way to provide frequent content than with blog posts? By blogging consistently, you give Google and other search engines new content to index and you create opportunities to plug in those all-important keywords to increase your visibility on search engine results pages.
   
   
2. Develop Relationships with Potential and Existing Customers: Blogging allows you to connect with your site visitors. This can be accomplished by asking your visitors questions at the end of your posts to get the conversation going or by simply allowing comments and feedback. By reviewing and responding to readers’ comments, you can create a rapport with your audience, build trust, and gain valuable insight into what your customers are looking for.
   
   
3. Establish Your Business as an Industry Leader: No matter how small your business is, you can build trust and clout within your industry by providing valuable, expert information in your blog posts. Over time, you become a “go to” resource for helpful, informative content, which can ultimately lead to higher customer conversion rates. This is especially important for small businesses looking to gain credibility to compete with larger companies.
   
   
4. Connect People to Your Brand: Blog posting allows you to show a personal side of your business that potential and current customers may not see through traditional marketing techniques. Blogging gives consumers a sense of the standards, vision, and personality of your company.
   
   
5. Create Opportunities for Sharing: Every time you blog, you create an opportunity for your audience to share your blog with others. Whether they link to your blog post, tweet it, or email it to others, it’s free marketing and it further validates you as a credible business.
   
   

From a practical standpoint, blogging just makes sense. With minimal effort and expense, you can build credibility, boost search engine rankings, increase website traffic, and foster relationships with potential and current customers. This is an opportunity no small business should pass up.

If you have questions regarding the benefits of blogging, or need help getting started, we can help!  What are you doing to promote your brand?  If you’re not blogging, you’re missing out! Contact us if you need help with your blogging and branding plan!  www.stonekingconsulting.com  

Recruiting and Retaining Customers Through Your Brand

A large amount of sales and marketing’s attention is focused on getting the customer. But what about your current customers? Why should they come back?

Customer retention is a branding challenge. What separates your business from the competition? And do your customers care enough to come back again and again?

You don’t have to be brilliant at everything. Pick a focal point. What is your business known for?

Focus On Customer Service

Delivering exceptional customer service is more than a corporate value, it’s a process. Companies that deliver exceptional customer service invest in it. They hire more people, provide them better training and tools, and give them the freedom and room to delight their customers.

It’s not easy to deliver outstanding customer service, and that’s what makes it a powerful differentiator.

Take a look at your customer service process.  Are there things you are doing great?  Are there things in which you can improve?

Focus On Choice

Being able to buy everything you’re looking for in one place is appealing.

Offering breadth of service is a differentiator, provided your customers take advantage of your broad abilities and you excel at each of them. However, offering too many options may dilute your brand. Build your portfolio of products and services around your customer and their needs.

Focus On Your People

Happy employees create happy customers.

In some industries it’s very hard, if not impossible, to differentiate the products or services. And while these industries may not have a lot of external options to differentiate the brand they can still differentiate internally.

Organizations that build dynamic cultures stand out. Customers notice happy, engaged, and productive employees.

Your culture creates an energy that radiates out into your marketplace, and sets your brand apart from everyone else.  Why do people love working at Google? Because they have built an internal program that engages the employees, values the employees…and even lets them bring their children and pets to work.

Focus On The Experience

What’s it like to work with your company? Do you deliver a unique customer experience that sets your business apart?

Do you provide one-on-one service?  Are you accessible?  Do you take the stress out of your customers’ lives by delivering on the promise you have made? Some customers may come to you because they tried something else and had a bad experience.  Don’t make them regret they came to you.  A twice-burned customer is even harder to get back.

An experience goes beyond the products and services. It focuses on how your customers interact with the brand, and how you can aid them.

Focus On Convenience

Can you create a hassle-free experience?

This could be achieved by where you’re located, and getting really close to your customers (or being mobile). It could focus on the buying experience, and streamlining the process. It could focus on the product, and making it easier to use and maintain.

Saving your customers time, energy and money are excellent ways to differentiate your brand.

Pick a Focal Point

A brand can’t be all things to all people, and it’s unlikely you can be excellent at all five focal points. Just pick one.

A brand can stand out by doing one or two things better than everyone else.

But always keep your customer in mind:

1. Do they value the focal point?
2. Does it bring them back again and again?

The goal is to create an experience that your customers recognize, value, and seek out. What do you have to do to give your customers a reason to come back?

When developing your brand and choosing your focal point, ask the questions that all reporters ask:  Who, What, When, Where, How and Why.

WHO are you and WHO is your target audience?

WHAT services do you provide and WHAT sets you apart?

WHEN do you need to achieve your goals?

WHERE have you been and WHERE do you need to be?

HOW are you going to get there?

WHY do you do what you do?

If you need help answering any of these questions, contact SK Consulting.  We can help you develop a strategic brand and plan that will help you acquire customers and get them coming back again and again.  www.stonekingconsulting.com.