What is Brand Identity?
June 15th, 2009
What is brand exactly? Rob Frankel, a branding expert and author in Los Angeles, says, “Branding is about getting your prospects to perceive you as the only solution to their problem. Once you’re perceived as ‘the only,’ there’s no place else to shop. Which means your customers gladly pay a premium for your brand.”
The reason a strong brand identity is so important is because your brand speaks who you are. It communicates what makes your company unique. Branding is about getting potential customers to buy from you–even if you are offering the same thing they could buy elsewhere–because they can’t get the same buying experience elsewhere.
What do you stand for? What drives you? What makes you different from your competitors? What is your company’s personality? What is the customer’s experience when they work with you?
As you ask yourself these questions, you may find that there are things you want to change about the way your company does things–this is part of the process. The branding process can also be an exciting growth process.
Steve Manning, managing director at Igor, a branding and naming firm based in San Francisco, sums up the value of brand: “A brand creates an image in the mind of the consumer. It says something is different at your firm, something worth more than business as usual. If your firm is a commodity, your customers will choose you solely on the basis of price or getting something for free. If you’ve got a brand, you’re selling a lifestyle and you can sell anything you want.”
Grabbing the Attention of the Search Engines
June 10th, 2009
Within the past 24 hours, 124,207 new domain names were registered. That’s a lot of new neighbors. With the number of websites on the Internet skyrocketing, it’s easy to feel like your website is getting lost in the shuffle.
Quality search engine optimization always focuses on two angles. The most important is designing your site to be attractive and helpful to the people you want as customers. Your site has to make people want to explore, dig-in, move beyond your homepage, and then come back for more.
The second angle involves making sure that your website has the technical components that search engines are looking for. Search engines have likes and dislikes, things that attract them and things that turn them off. A good search engine optimization strategy maximizes your website’s positive points while attempting to minimize or eliminate the negatives. A happy search engine equals better rankings for your website. When you make the search engines smile, they make you smile.
Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Be Boring
June 6th, 2009
Seth Godin doesn’t mince words in his blog post today, “You’re Boring”:
You’re boring. Sorry, someone had to say it.
The only path left is to lean out of the edge and become interesting, noteworthy and yes, remarkable.
Your products are predictable. Your insights are recycled. You don’t bring surprise with you when you enter a room.
That’s why people are ignoring you.
Which used to be fine, because you could just buy attention for your brand or your company or your sales efforts. But that half-price sale on attention is now over.
It’s a good shake-up, and good advice. It’s not enough anymore to do things according to the status-quo, like you’ve always done them. It’s not enough to be like everybody else. People want something fresh, real, and different. They want to do business with companies that delight them. Will you be one of them?
Are You Burning Out?
May 27th, 2009
An article by Scott Boms today on AListApart.com caught my attention. He writes about his experience with burnout and offers some right-on advice for those who are heading toward burnout.
Many of us are experiencing stress with work, particularly as fear about the economy continues to dominate people’s thinking. In his article, Boms lists the following phases, identified by American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger:
- A compulsion to prove oneself
- Working harder
- Neglecting one’s own needs
- Displacement of conflict (the person does not realize the root cause of the distress)
- Revision of values (friends, family, hobbies, etc., are dismissed)
- Denial of emerging problems (cynicism, aggression, and frustration become apparent)
- Withdrawal from social contexts, potential for alcohol or drug abuse
- Behavioral changes become more visible to others
- Inner emptiness
- Depression
If these sound familar, check out Boms’s article and the excellent advice he offers for recognizing, understanding, and overcoming burnout.
How to Get the Most from Your Website
May 14th, 2009
Your website has been carefully crafted and it’s now live on the web, ready to attract your future clients or customers to what you have to offer them. How will these people find your new site? We’ve compiled a few ideas to get you started.
1. Use your website in your sales presentations. Your website can serve as an excellent sales tool. As you’re talking with potential clients or customers, refer to specific content on your website. Are you telling the story of your company’s passion and reason for existence? Mention the About Us page on your site, and tell them they can read the whole story online. Are you talking about your products or services? Tell them about the Products or Services page on your site and mention that they can go to your site afterward to see more details. If you are sitting down one-on-one with your clients, bring a laptop and actually pull up your site, walking the clients through different pages as you go through the material. If you’re meeting at a place where you access to a display screen, that’s even better.
2. Mention your website at networking events. If you attend networking events through organizations like your Chamber of Commerce, industry associations, referral groups, or social clubs, you can mention your website as you talk with people. Tell them they can find promotions online, sign up for your monthly email newsletter, or watch a video about how your company helps people–whatever makes sense for you.
3. Refer to your website in your print materials. Do you use brochures or flyers? Do you have a presentation folder you give to potential clients? Do you do direct mail pieces or advertise in publications? Be sure to include the url address of your website in your offline marketing materials. Encourage people to check out your website for more information on whatever you are promoting in each marketing piece. It goes without saying to include the url on your business cards as well.
4. Use search engine optimization. More and more people are using the Internet to find information about companies, to make purchases, or to find a company to provide a particular service they’re looking for. When people enter a search term into Google or Yahoo, does your website listing appear in the first few pages? Statistically, most people don’t search past the third page of listings. If you anticipate that people will be searching for services or products like your company provides, you may want to use search engine optimization, which raises the ranking of your site’s listing. Often, websites are able to rise to the first page through the use of search engine optimization services.
5. Set up a pay-per-click campaign. On both Google and Yahoo you can have your site listed in the Sponsored Links that appear at the top and side of the search results. You can set up your campaign to have your ad appear only when people enter certain search terms into the search field. How often your ad appears depends on the amount of money you have set as your account’s budget.
Generational Differences - How well do you know your target market?
April 28th, 2009
Which generation is most active in blogging? Are teens or adults more active in social media? What age group is most likely to make purchases online? The answers may surprise you.
A research study done in January of 2009 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals some interesting statistics that may affect how you focus on reaching your target market.
Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the “Net Generation,” internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).
Check out the details of the study at the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s website.
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car crash lawyers
March 8th, 2009
I saw a billboard recently advertising a legal firm specializing in personal injury. Its tagline was “The Car Crash Lawyers.” Read the rest of this entry »
branding from the inside out
January 15th, 2009
I ran across an interesting quote today: “You can’t reinvent yourself if you don’t know who you are.”
winning with marketing
December 29th, 2008
I’ve been reading a lot of Seth Godin lately. He’s got some great stuff to say. Outside-the-box thinking that has powerful applications for today’s companies. From Ideavirus:
being an albatross company
December 7th, 2008
Yesterday on his blog, marketing guru Seth Godin wrote a few thoughts on the third anniversary of Squidoo. He had some great observations about not only Squidoo but about start-ups in general.