| |
| |
|
Branding Information |
|
|
|
Into The Limelight
To stand out in a cluttered world, become a recognized expert There are millions of small businesses vying for our attention. Yet, because the marketplace is more discriminating and skeptical, it's hard to get noticed. To enjoy the greatest return on your marketing efforts, you need to rise above the crowd. You need an edge over the competition. In short, you need to become slightly famous by establishing an expert reputation. Not so long ago, expertise was equated with the number of years you were in business or the college diploma that hung on your wall. That has changed as people have come to be more interested in results. If you can deliver, people will be interested in you no matter how brief your business experience or how bare your walls are of diplomas. Experts are sought after. They get more business with less effort and command higher fees. Journalists come to them for information. They are asked to speak at conferences. They out-position their competitors and break out of the anonymity trap because they know more and are recognized as knowing more. Becoming an expert can help you achieve "top of the mind" awareness among members of your target market. By packaging your knowledge into articles, speeches, and workshops your name can immediately come to mind or be the first one mentioned when members of your target market turn to others to find what they need. Publish Publishing articles, columns and books are powerful techniques to establish your expertise. Publishing pre-sells others of your abilities and exposes you to thousands of prospects. And reprints of published articles make excellent, low cost sales literature, easily replacing expensive brochures, mailers, and newsletters. Kimberly Stansell says publishing created tremendous name recognition for Research Done Write, her Los Angeles-based consulting and training firm. Her syndicated column "Bootstrapper's Success Secrets" appears in dozens of entrepreneurial publications, association newsletters and business web sites. "The name recognition my column has given me is tremendous," says Stansell. "I get invitations to participate in events and other business opportunities. And I can automatically charge higher fees because people assume I'm expensive." There are endless opportunities to publish your expertise. Thousands of business, trade and Internet publications covering every imaginable industry and audience are fairly easy to break into, even for beginners. If you have a good idea, tailored to a specific readership, there are thousands of publications hungry for articles from business professionals. Find A Podium When Robert Middleton moved his marketing consulting practice a few years ago, he had to find ways to generate new clients. He immediately contacted local chambers of commerce, business groups, and organizations likely to be interested in his three-hour marketing workshop. Within months, Middleton not only had plenty of clients but also made a name for himself in Silicon Valley as a marketing expert for professional firms. On any day, there are thousands of speaking opportunities available to small business owners who take the time to seek them out. To find an available podium to promote your business, contact clubs and groups in your community that conduct speeches and workshops. If you have a good topic that is relevant to their membership, most will be happy to hear from you. Middleton sends each group an introductory package. It includes a cover letter naming other groups that have sponsored his presentations, a biography, a short description of his suggested talk, and comments from those who have attended his seminars. Middleton now conducts three to five such presentations a month, tailored to individual audiences. Virtualize Your Expertise Have you noticed that many high paid, respected professionals publish information materials? You can establish expertise, generate additional income and develop a compelling brand identity by developing books, booklets, e-books, audiocassettes, special reports and other information products based on what you already know. CJ Hayden began life as a professional coach ten years ago in San Francisco. After years of delivering her "Get Clients Now" program to local audiences, she franchised her ideas and took them to a national marketplace. "I trademarked the name, taped a workshop, and wrote a 50 page workbook. I created an "out of the box" package so others could produce my program on their own." The success of her "brand extension" strategy even helped her land a book deal to publish Get Clients Now! A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals and Consultants The best strategy is to create synergy between your products, services and reputation. Send information products to prospects. Use them for "back of the room" sales at speeches and workshops. Boost your profile by promoting products in articles, press releases, and at networking events and trade shows. Also, list your products in the catalogues and directories of trade associations, book clubs and business groups. Keep It Going Investors know that the best returns go to those who are patient. Not every article, speech or workshop or information product will make your phone ring off the hook. But, if you are consistent, you will develop an expert reputation that will help you land new clients and customers while making your business a recognized and reputable name in your marketplace. About The Author Steven Van Yoder is author of Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort. Visit http://www.getslightlyfamous.com to read the book and learn about 'slightly' famous teleclasses, workshops, and marketing materials to help small businesses and solo professionals attract more business.
MORE RESOURCES:
Branding - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Build Brand Identity - Brand Identity Guru Successful Guru marketers have a secret weapon that they use every single time they communicate about their businesses. It's one of those intangibles that are easily misunderstood. Brand Building 201: Finding The Ideal Way The strongest and longest lasting brands branch off of an existing category. Branching takes patience and time. The Top 10 Strategies for the Positioning of Success Many businesses of today are often driven to compete striclty on price, quality, and features of their products and services. Companies who prosper over the long term don't simply offer the best deals, the best quality, or the most impressive bells and whistles. Planning Ahead With Your Designer: Tips For Design Consistency With Your Logo And Brand Elements While we recommend that you contract with the same designer or design team while creating your brand identity materials as possible, we know that this scenario is not always possible.Whenever you work with a designer other than the original who created your logo, stationery and marketing materials, we suggest a few practices that will prove invaluable for ensuring a consistent look and feel across all of your marketing communications. Fast Forwarding Your Business If you think only big corporate names need to think about things like brand names, think again. Your brand says a lot about you and your business, and that's as true for a one person home-based operation as it is for a multinational conglomerate. Im Just Starting, Why Do I Need a Logo Design? Businesses eager to open often give little thought to their identity. With so much to get done, designing an appropriate logo hardly seems like a top priority. Corporate Logo Design - 6 Keys to Success A corporate logo design should be highly instrumental in building your corporate identity and should successfully exude the company's attitude. The viewers must have some idea about the disposition, character, or fundamental values of your company through your logo. Internet Branding Having been in the franchising business all my life and understanding how hard it is to build a brand, I have probably read every other popular book on the subject. Some are good and most are excellent, as each one helps give you ideas on setting the stage for your brand marketing objectives. A Successful Failure A successfully positioned business sometimes doesn't win a new client. And that, my friend, is the point. What is Private Franchising? It is Nothing Someone Made It Up The Federal Trade Commission has an obligation to the general public, their stated consumer education mission and to the over regulated franchising industry and the small business operators running Biz Ops to separate the two business models by way of legal definition. Any failure to completely separate them will trigger additional problems down the road and cause the current on-going process of rule review to continue, without any formalization for decades. Branded Email: Email Branding is the Next Generation of Email All You Need is Branded Email Or Always Branded Email There to Remind MeFor the past 75 years, almost every form of popular communication has transformed from black and white to color. Newspapers, television, and computers are only a few examples. Create a Niche: Stoke Your Market With Affiliate Branding Propose success, demand performance, and brand your market with appeal. In a world of costly business start-ups, expensive design tools, and rugged competition you can still beat the system. Understand Brand Branding has been defined, explained and examined extensively. There are books, articles, publications, seminars, and groups all dedicated to exploring the meaning and use of brand today. Brand Equity Building - Measuring Brand Value Measuring brand equity allows a company to establish a baseline and track changes in its brand equity over time. If a company consistently works to improve the strength of its brands, it must trace progress, or risk "flying blind. Acquire, Then Rebrand Acquiring another corporation usually means that the acquiring company's name will be the name of the newly merged entity. There is one factor that can change that -- one that is stronger than anything else. Brand to Sell Well Branding is an application of appropriate marketing techniques in the right proportion to a product. Brand management is to manage the forces in a market suitably to win favors for the product. Brilliant Branding Builds Business Branding is more than product recognition or a simple logo. It is the overall intellectual and emotional impression people have when they think of your company and its product. Shattering the Branding Myths If you've been online long, you're sure to have seen many "gurus" give their ideas about branding. However, much of what you read simply isn't true. Branding Strategy - Brand Identity Today, in many organizations around the world, branding is treated as a cosmetic exercise only, and regarded merely as a new name, logo, stationary and possibly a new advertising campaign. But, to associate your "brand" with such superficial cosmetics is like saying that people are really only the sum of their name, face and sometimes their clothingBut branding is a thoughtful discipline that strongly belongs to the long-term strategy of an organization; brand strategy is, or should be, business strategy, and vice versa. Counterfeit Branding - Representing True Globalisation! From cigarettes to fashion accessories to food products to medicines, more than 50% of the global market are filled with counterfeited products. Do you realise that the Nike t-shirt that you are probably wearing right now may not even exist in the design portfolio of Nike Inc.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
