Archive for the ‘branding’ Category

How to get people talking about your business…

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

 

 

Visibility creates credibility !

Visibility creates credibility !

When there’s budget cuts, marketing and PR can seem like a frivolous option compared to rent and rates, but really if you’re not marketing your business and continually re-inforcing your message you run the risk of lessening your brand.

 

Note that I’m not talking here exclusively about advertising, rather a mix of advertising and other PR activities that don’t need to cost the earth. 

 

Building a strong brand isn’t an activity reserved for the big brands in this world any longer, small businesses can really see a return on investment for a bit of brand building.

 

How can you market your business effectively?  There are two questions you need to ask yourself…

1. Who’s my target customer (don’t say everyone) break this down into different stratas or types if you can, it will make this process easier for you.

2. Identify your message – or your USP ?  What’s different about your store ?

 

There’s lots of ways to market your business, local press, local radio, direct mail to your customer database, through your website, local events, online marketing, sponsorship and any other profile lifting activity you can think of… including the new social media that’s so much in the news at the moment.

 

PR which is a fancy name for giving information to journalists who might be interested enough to print your story is pretty much free if you do it yourself.  Ok, so you may not get into Vogue, but with a few well thought out press releases you should be able to get into your local magazines and newspaper.

 

PR really consists of building a strong relationship with local journalists so that when you have a story to tell you can get some good local coverage, you can build a relationship by being reliable, interesting and timely with your news.

 

Free editorial coverage is your goal here, and the old maxim visibility creates credibility should make this an activity worth considering… 

 

If you’re not sure where to start, download our free e-book – a crash course in PR from the e-book section & the sample press release template from the downloads section to help you on your way. 

 

PR has a reputation as one of those “black art” ideas, rather like web design, search engine optimisation or garages for women drivers, but once you know how it works it can be a real advantage in getting some great press coverage for your business

 

Remember : Visibility creates credibility !

 

 

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So what does a brand ambassador need to be successful ?

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Find your voice...

Find your voice...

When we think of brand ambassadors we tend to think of rich, successful celebrities getting paid to endorse big name brands. But that’s such a narrow definition – What if you’re a cool skate store, then how about talking to the local skaters, finding the best local one and helping him or her out – ie before they become too big to be interested in you ?

Or how about approaching a local band, and offering to kit them out, or supply their jewellery, in return for them talking about it, blogging about it, you can see where I’m going with this…..

If your business is babies clothes, then how about finding a new mum who’s well connected, loves giving coffee mornings and offering her a few products to “road test” for you – this works for both of you as each of you get some positioning with this model of working, it’s a win win, or as close to it as we can get !

So what qualities does a brand ambassador need to be able to talk about your company and to share their belief and influence others?

The number one ingredient in this cake is passion !

Pure and simple, they need to love your brand, what you aspire to, what you’re trying to create – in short to buy into your vision for the future.

You could be feeling a bit frazzled at the idea of trying to build a circle of brand ambassadors for your business…. But its really not as difficult as you may think

Consider that you’ve already got the basics down, you have the store, product or service, the vision, the USP, and you know where you want to go…

So the next step is sharing this with those around you – you may think that they arlready know all this about you, but I bet you’ll be surprised to find that most don’t. Either you’ve been backward about coming forward, or they haven’t been listening because they either didn’t buy into it, or couldn’t see what’s in it for them ?

So, make sure your employees, friends & family are motivated to help you spread the word, tell them your story, your hopes, your plans and how you’re going to do it….

Remember” the world makes way for the man who knows where he’s going !”

Talk to customers who are thrilled with your service or product, ask for a testimonial, add it to your website and marketing materials and make sure that you spread success stories !

Celebrity brand building through ambassadorship works to build brand loyalty as the celebrity involved has some kudos, or a level of respect and trust that entices consumers to follow his or her choice.

But our world is changing so fast today, that celebrity brand building can include online social media, it could include influential bloggers or Twitterers with large followings, and there’s no reason on earth that you can’t be a successful brand ambassador for your own business.

In fact, its essential !

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Brand ambassadors and representing your brand !

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Who are your brand ambassadors...?

Who are your brand ambassadors...?

A brand is essentially your business’s product or service combined with your unique positioning, basically how you do what you do. All brands stand for something in the consumers eyes, and what your brand stands for is vitally important for the success of your business.

Many of the top brands have brand ambassadors who promote them (for a fee of course) so Beyonce, our star above represents Samsung and Armani among others, while Keira Knightley is the brand ambassador for Chanel, and Jessica Biel for Revlon, to name a few, just to get you in the mood for the blog…

Just to clarify what we’re talking about exactly here – “A brand ambassador is a a well-connected person or a celebrity who is used to promote and advertise a product or service”

Whilst this is clearly true, I’ve been thinking lately that there’d be value in thinking of ourselves as brand ambassadors for our ownbusinesses. The following definition is more inclusive “ a brand ambassador is a representative of an organisation that best portrays the product, service qnd passion of the organisation “

Maybe we don’t all have Beyonce on speed dial, but if you consider the definition of a brand ambassador above, then the scope of your brands ambassadors becomes much larger and spreads and morphs into a variety of audiences, many with the potential to influence others.

Clearly all employees are ambassadors for your shop, if they are saying good things about you and your shop to their network of friends and family, this can bring new customers through the door.

Your customers can be ambassadors for your business if they like what you do and what you stand for. Seth Godin called this the era of conversation marketing, so if your customers like what you do, you’ve pretty much lit the blue touch paper, so you’d do well to stand well back and let them get on with the business of promoting you themselves.

Certain people are just more socially aware, better connected and better at connecting with other people, these are called “influencers” and if you have a customer who’s an influencer who loves your business, you can expect sales to increase because of this connection, in some ways its more like patronage, an old fashioned term, but well used in this context.

Consider that you’re the best ambassador for your brand, as Pierce Brosnan isn’t currently available, we all have to work with what we’ve got !

The key motivation of a brand ambassador is passion (notwithstanding the motivating factor of money of course ) – and as its your business if anyone is passionate about it, then you’re the best person to showcase this trait successfully.

Take a second to work out, or maybe remember, what you’re most passionate about in your business if you’ve never considered this angle before…

Is it the sense of community you love?
Living your dream ?
Empowering others ?
Selling beautiful aspirational things?
Selling everyday useful things?
Providing a service?
Being in the middle of things?
Sourcing amazing products for your shop?
Or something entirely different ?

What’s your passion?

How can you tell everyone about it ?

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