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! 

Product-Focused Business? A Picture is Worth 1,000 Likes!

The power of social media marketing for promotional products distributors, and any product-based business, should be obvious. Not only does it allow instant access to a vast and diverse network, the ease and quality of image sharing makes it the perfect way to display all of the beautiful products you offer. The persistent question with social media marketing though, is how do you get the most from your efforts? Here are several ways for product-centric businesses, like promotional products distributors, to get the most from their social media marketing.

Focus On The Best Options

With more than a dozen options to choose from, how do you choose which media outlets to focus on? The most popular sites are well known and should be included in any marketing campaign. Spend some time creating an account and getting to know the features of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ before you branch out to others. For promotional products, Instagram, Pinterest and other image-focused sites could also be useful.

Nurture Your Network

One of the strengths of social media marketing is the ability to regularly touch base with your contacts. Commit to two to three posts per week to stay “top-of-mind” and in touch with everyone on your contact list. By posting regularly, you provide opportunities for new contacts to start following your feeds. But be mindful of the balance; you don’t want to overwhelm your community with excessive posting!

Vary Your Posts

If you are posting regularly to your social media sites, you don’t want to bore your audience, right? Keep it fresh by posting on different topics. The goal is to engage your audience, so posting about current events, local issues, or personal anecdotes that appeal to a wide audience is a great way to keep it fresh. Of course, it’s ok to throw in some posts about the products and services you offer but if you keep it diverse, more people will stay interested and connected.

Engage With Your Audience

The best part of social media is the ability to engage with your audience and elicit engagement from them. Along with your commitment to a number of posts per week, you also want to spend time visiting the pages of your contacts to interact there. Not only are you creating better relationships with your contacts, you are becoming visible to their contacts which can lead to a larger audience. Polls, surveys and posting questions on your pages are also great ways to prompt engagement.

Use Images Wisely

Again, the great strength of social media for product-centric businesses is the ease of using high-quality images to show off your products. Explore your editing tools to create appealing, properly sized images you can easily use in social media posts. Once you have the images ready, you can post pictures of products in use, at trade shows or at interesting locations abroad or on vacation. So much of social media is image driven.  Using these features can be very powerful – and it’s definitely more fun than reading a bunch of text!  

With the power of social media, all small businesses have the ability reach a vast network of former and potential customers. If you nurture those relationships and engage with your audience in a way that is substantive, relevant and creative, your community becomes a rich environment that draws customers back to you and gives you credibility with potential customers.

Are you relevant on social media?  If you don’t know the answer, contact SK Consulting today!

It’s Your Brand, It’s Their Choice

It is common when talking about building a business to hear a lot about branding or building your brand. Great, but what does that mean? The first thing you probably think of is creating a great logo. Your logo is a big part of branding, but there is so much more to building your business than just having a cool logo. Branding is about making your business and its products stand out in significant and personal ways.

A great brand considers the following:

Branding is your passion

A major part of branding is being able to answer the question, “why did you create your business?” In other words, what is the story behind your product? By sharing your passion, you are building a brand that is honest and forthcoming. That is a great way to show your audience who you are and why your business deserves their business.

Take the time to think about why you started your business. What motivated you to create your product? Are you solving a problem, or did you create something new that you wanted to share? Once you know the answer, share it.

Branding is about creating emotional connections. By sharing the passion behind your business, you are drawing customers in and creating those connections. Your passion is what will set you apart from bigger companies with bigger brands.

Branding is your purpose

Now that your customers know why you started your business, it is time to answer the question, “what are you trying to accomplish?” A great way to help customers understand your purpose, or end goal, is to come up with a mission statement that states exactly what you are trying to achieve.

Start thinking of your own statement, your anchor statement. Don’t rush this step. It is vital to your business and your ability to connect with your customers. Think hard about what your product or service offers. What qualities do you want people to think of when they hear your business name? This aspect of branding can have the power to deter customers or make them fiercely loyal to your brand. The entire essence of your brand will be summed up in one or two sentences, so make it count.

Branding is your connection to your customers

The most important part of building your brand is connecting with your customers. In order to build a strong brand, you need to create strong relationships with your target market. This means giving them exactly what they expect from your business. Don’t promise great quality or great customer service if you do not have it. If you say you have great customer service, you better have great customer service.

Make the effort to get to know your target market. The more you learn about them, the more you can cater your business to them and their needs. The better your relationship with your customers the more likely they are to endorse you, which will only help build your brand credibility. 

Branding is your logo

While it is true that branding is about more than your logo, it is still very important to have a good one. You can build your brand all you want, but if it is not recognizable at a glance, you still have some work to do. Top-quality brands are instantly known by their logo alone. Just looking at Nike’s swoosh evokes feelings of determination and athleticism.

Designing an impressive, thought-provoking logo is very important to branding and shouldn’t be skimped on. When beginning your design, keep in mind that your logo will go on every piece of paper, every account, and every card that represents your business. Spend a little extra money to hire a designer to create the perfect logo that embodies your business and what you stand for. Well-thought-out logos create emotion that resonates with your target market and draws it to your business.

Branding is your company culture

A good brand should go beyond just dealing with customers. Your passion and purpose should all be a part of your company culture. You want an environment that personifies your products and mission. If someone walks into your office, he or she should immediately see your brand everywhere. He or she should feel it when interacting with one of your employees.

When growing your business, hire those who will represent your brand in the best way. Every employee should know your brand values and your mission statement. You and your employees are your brand’s biggest advocate, so take it seriously.

Conclusion

Your brand can be the most important tool when it comes to helping your business grow. Don’t be discouraged if your brand doesn’t take off at first. Building a brand takes time and effort. It could be months before you see the results of your labor. The important thing is to continually develop your brand. If you do this, the results will come and your business will grow.

If you need help building, re-framing or growing your brand, contact the experts at SK Consulting.  

There IS a Difference Between Branding and Marketing

When we tell small business owners that we are branding and marketing specialists, we get one or more of the following reactions:

• ·         There’s a difference?
• ·         So, what does that mean?
• ·         You do promotional products too?
• ·         That just means you design logos and websites, right?

No. We do not do promotional products (but we can recommend a fantastic promotional product business).  Yes.  We do logos and websites.  But, we won’t do the latter if a brand is not in place.

We help individuals and businesses discover their brand.  They’re ‘why’.  Their solution to consumers’ problems.  THEN we help them promote their ‘why’ – why they do what they do and why consumers should choose them.  You shouldn’t have a marketing plan in place if you don’t know your brand.  After all, if you don’t know your brand, nobody else will.

What’s the difference between branding and marketing?

1. Marketing is your message. Your brand is who you are.

Authentic brands don’t emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. They emanate from everything the company does.

When done right, your brand is your reason for being. It is the unique, authentic, singular value you offer to your customers. It permeates the culture of your company, and it is communicated to your customers every time they see, feel, touch, or experience your brand—not just when they experience a marketing message.

2. Branding comes first, marketing second.

If you have a logo, a package design, or a slogan, you may think you have a brand. What you actually have are a set of marketing materials and messages.

Whether they forget or purposely neglect it, many blow off step one of the branding process.

What’s step one? You must determine and define your brand value in the marketplace. Only then should you move on to developing a brand strategy—followed, last of all, by crafting a marketing campaign.

3. You own your marketing; your consumers own your brand.

Compared to branding, marketing is easier to control and to comprehend. You write the headlines, you choose the art, you post the Tweets. You measure conversions or awareness, and determine whether your marketing is a success or a failure.

When your customers take action and buy into your marketing efforts, there’s a reason.  That’s branding.  Many things influence your brand, you cannot manufacture brand value yourself.

Essentially, if you are authentic.  If your services provide a value.  If you have a clear understanding of the need you fill.  If you believe in your product or services and have a passion for it, potential customers will see that your brand is here to stay.

You must know the difference between branding and marketing, and don’t confuse your tactics. Marketing is storytelling. The most powerful branding happens when you listen, not when you talk. Your consumers will tell you what your brand is—or what they need it to be—because they alone know.

The strongest brands use their understanding of the difference between branding and marketing to build marketing campaigns that work hand in hand with their brand positioning strategy. They listen to their customers, and let their values, hopes, and desires define the brand’s position—then craft marketing campaigns to communicate that value through simple, creative, show-stopping executions.

If you do not see a return on your investment with your marketing efforts, it could be your brand!  Never fear – we’re here to help!  We can help you discover your story, your why and find that core element that sets your brand and your business above the competition.  Contact SK Consulting today! 

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!  

Small businesses have small budgets.  We get it.  But, don’t limit your creativity or your marketing strategies because of it.  

There are a lot of things you can do to promote your business without spending a lot of money. You don’t necessarily need to go big – go small and intimate! 

1. Get personal.

Customers love the opportunity to make something their own. Studies have shown that the majority of consumers said receiving a personalized incentive would improve consideration of the brand.  If there’s a way for you to allow customer customization, give it a try and see how your audience responds. Not sure how to add a personal touch to your business? Anything that gets your customer’s name on your product works -- using frosting to write the order name on your donuts, or offering free monograming on your inventory of purses or apparel.

2. Promote customer engagement.

In today’s social world, whatever you can do to make your small business more shareable is good for marketing. What is something you could implement that your customers would find Insta-worthy? Create an opportunity for photo ops and increase your social reach without spending a cent. Try a selfie campaign, Facebook Live, a contest for the most creative slogan.  Add a prize component to entice people to use your custom hashtag or tag your business in their posts.

3. Say thanks.

How often do you let your customers know that you appreciate them? You’d be surprised the power a simple “thank you” can have on creating customer loyalty. Everyone likes to feel appreciated. While a card can often be effort enough, let’s try to remember that we’re thinking outside the proverbial box and go for something bigger. How about hosting a special event where guests can sample new menu items, or you highlight one of your customer’s businesses?. Try utilizing Meetup.com or another event website that can gain the attention of new customers as well as current ones.

4. Develop a loyalty program.

If you’re losing customers, you need to establish a way to cultivate repeat business. If your target audience is Generation Z – you’re LUCKY!  They are more willing than any other generation to sign up for loyalty cards in exchange for deals or discounts. Your loyalty program can be as basic as a punch card or as elaborate as a membership that rewards customers based on how often they visit or even how much they spend.  

5. Utilize LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a frequently skipped social media networks for small businesses. But why? While not the most exciting platform, it does provide unique opportunities for marketing your business. Without even spending any money, you can connect with people in your community by creating a group, joining existing groups and reaching out to other small business owners and potential customers in your area.  This platform is geared toward the more professional audience.  EVERYONE has a Facebook page.  But, show other business professionals that you and your business mean business by using LinkedIn.

6. Survey your current customers.

If you’re not sure what types of marketing or promotions your customers will respond to best, ask them. A simple survey can provide endless insight into what you’re doing right and wrong, and what you’re not doing that you should be. Include a raffle-like component, where one participant will win a prize (such as a $100 credit to your business) to encourage your audience to take part.  Your customers are your best PR tool.  If they respond that they love this or that, ask them for a testimonial on this or that.

Small business owners fight an uphill battle every day.  There are corporations that offer some of the services you do and have spent the big money promoting it.  The small mom and pop store down the street from a WalMart struggles.  But, don’t brush aside everyone’s inherent need to feel special.  Nobody wants to be an account number, a credit card number, a client number.  Customers will come back (and probably be willing to spend a little more) for authentic, genuine, person-to-person customer service. 

That’s something us true small business owners can hang our hat on.  If you need help finding your strengths and being the David against the Goliath, 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!