Yeah, yeah, yeah I get it. Everyone hears the term brand management and their eyes start to glaze over. Well you might want to stay awake for this lesson kids because it's important to your company's basic survival.
I don't know about your boss, but mine bases success on whether or not we're increasing sales. If you're not increasing sales, you're a redundancy. So what are sales based on? um...customers, hello. The fact of the matter is, customers are emotional creatures. Yes, a large portion of the buying decision is based on price point. However, I would venture to say that the majority of the rest of that decision is based on how they feel about you're brand. Now I'm not going to get all touchy feely and get into the psychology behind consumer buying behavior. But my point is that if you want to maintain or increase sales--you need to pay attention to the image you're conveying to your customers. When you're designing and creating your marketing materials, especially online, you must create a consistent brand image. Be consistent in everything from the colors your using to the style of the content you're writing. Customers should not go to a website and have to question what they're seeing. They should know within the first 5 seconds because by that point in time, they've long decided whether you're company is worth anything to them. Scary to think that you're brand equity is measured in milliseconds.
The other day I found this info-graphic (my favorite thing right now) and I think it's a great visual representation of the do's and don'ts of online branding. It's simple but it gets the point across and it goes further in depth about a few points that I touched on in my last blog. Enjoy!
Like I mentioned in my first blog post, it's a sad but common occurrence when small businesses fail solely due to their lack of awareness of the free (or pretty affordable) marketing tools that are available to them. The following are tips and free/cheap online tools that your small business should be utilizing to enhance customer awareness both online and at actual retail locations.
Social Media Tips
In case you've been locked in your mom's basement for the last three years, you know that social media marketing has exploded. Of course everyone's heard of the basics: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. But there are a variety of online tools that go beyond this scope and can add function and value to your company.
What's paramount when posting to social media, is that you CREATE VALUABLE CONTENT. Here's a profound idea: If you want to generate people's interest and retain that interest, you must engage customers! You can do this through posting interactive content, questions, images, etc. You cannot copy and paste a bunch of words on a page and expect people to stay on your site for longer than it takes them to realize that there's nothing worth staying there for.
When determining which social media tools and advertising venues to use for your company, take a second and make sure you have the time to actively maintain your profile. For example, it's awesome to create a twitter account. However, if you only tweet once or twice a month and never tweet original content, how much is that really enhancing your brand? What it's really doing is showing people that your company doesn't care what customers think and that the information on the site is probably inaccurate anyways so why continue to read it?
Social Media Tools
I will not lie to you and say that social media tools are super easy to use. They're always changing, as is necessary with the fast paced online environment. HOWEVER, social media marketing tools add a completely new dynamic to your marketing strategy. They appeal to the new tech generation. And, if done right, they can set you high above the competition. Below I've listed some links to tools (some of which are still in Beta), that are fairly new and useful that you can use and explore to help your small business grow.
Wibki- It's like web browser meets a favorites page. You basically enter in your favorite websites and categorize them into groups. It's super efficient and eventually you'll be able to share your group of "bookmarked" pages with other people.
Canva- Produce your own graphics based on predeigned layouts that you can customize and then use in your blogs, on facebook, online brochures or anywhere else for that matter!
Suma- Combine all of your analytic platforms in one place so you don't have to visit 1500 different websites to see how effective your social media advertising is (Google Analytics, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
**Sidenote: If you have not yet installed any analytics for your website, blogs, etc. I would recommend doing so ASAP. Google Analytics is a great tool that I use to see how many people are viewing my blogs, when they view them, for how long, etc. It really helps you to see how effective your current online marketing strategy really is.
Social Mention- Aggregates user generated content about your company from all different platforms into one place.
Hootsuite- Manage all of your social media platforms in one place. It allows users to schedule messages and tweets, track brand mentions, analyze social media networks, etc.
Mailchimp- This is a tool that is an e-mail and newsletter marketing service that allows you to design your own emails or use their predesigned templates. What's great is that it gives you click reports on who opened your email, and who clicked on links. In my personal experience, it's been a very affordable and beneficial tool to use.
Six Degrees- Connect with other Twitter users who have similar interests as you and are already connected to your friends. It analyzes your followers and then allows you to direct message them to request an introduction. Expand your network people!
Klout- Find out who or what are key influences to your target audience. Use this information to make them advocates of your brand.
