How can your company rise above the rest of your industry online?
1) Promote a clear, consistent message, and promise, in your website and in all of your communication platforms (email, broadcast, social media, collateral).
2) Institute a Professional image – design, copy, media
3) Weekly online communication – talk about your industry, your company, your service and your product, regularly.
4) Personalized Customer Communication and Resource Management – database your customer info. Use it to reach out to them, up-selling and staying in touch. 5) Advertise – online, offline, search engine ranking – just build it and they will come doesn't work well anymore.
Existing Companies with Established Brands – a path to improvement For existing businesses who have an established brand, the Internet has created a higher expectation for customers that is good, accurate and includes personalized customer communication & management – especially via online customer data management and social media. This is key to recruiting and, even more so, for retaining your customers. The first steps we take when helping an existing company increase their sales include:
- Keyword/search ranking analysis.
- Online reputation assessment – social media, online reviews, press.
- Review of customer’s business management tools and how they are being utilized, and recommending useful tools.
- Assessing current advertising and marketing dollars and identifying places where the client can get better ROI (return on investment).
We then plan a relevant strategy and provide an ongoing monthly professional effort to carry out that strategy in order to achieve desired goals. New Companies Developing a NEW BRAND should ask:
1. Who do we serve? What are the common traits of those customers/potentials?
2. What does my communication and visual design need to look like and read in order to appeal to those customers/potentials?
3. Who are the competition and how is my product or service different from the competition? What are the advantages of buying from or using us? What do we do better than anyone else. These questions must be asked before copy and your company promise; and, ultimately, a strong branding can be produced. So, take the time and do the research.
When it comes to your Logo: The logo, design and brand promise is the cornerstone of the business’s marketing efforts and it will end up being in all kinds of collateral over time (web, print, signs, email and more). It is much more difficult, and costly, to change the brand and look once they have already been established. It means redoing everything. One of the biggest pitfalls we see are business owners who choose communication and logo/color design that appeals to themselves and not to their target customers/potentials. A business should look at their business through a customer's or prospect's eyes as the brand is defined. Objectivity should be maintained and personal biases avoided. A good branding professional has the tools, education and experience to be able to do the research and know the right elements that will appeal to those potential customers. A professional can also boil down a business message into a single, powerful slogan and promise. So do it carefully with a professional the first time. Give us a call today!
