The priceless value of a brand is well understood by most enterprise and big business leaders. Gap, Bud Light, Jaguar, Cracker Barrel… The list goes on for companies whose leadership made either misguided or pride-filled decisions about brand strategies and paid the price. Extend your brand’s message to new and diversified audiences and risk alienating your best customers… lose revenue fast! “Try to please everyone and you will please no one.”

Revenues and stock values can and often do plunge with bad branding decisions. Conversely, revenues and profits soar when brands are positioned squarely in the heart of their target audience’s lifestyle and values, and their products deliver as promised. Why is this concept lost on so many small businesses owners?

Small Business Branding Admonition

In my 25+ years of professional marketing work, rarely have I brought up the importance of brand strategy to a small business owner without blank stares and an immediate desire to change the subject. If I go high level, some clients try steering the discussion down to something like SEO, or social media, or “how do we get more qualified leads now?” When I get that kind of question, perhaps the best answer is another question such as, “What’s wrong with your company’s image and awareness that you have so few prospects interested in doing business with you now?”

First Things First

Our most successful clients have been open to branding discussions and will sometimes (to my surprise) bring it up themselves. They never waver from communicating their core strengths and values, and they stick to them! These successful clients invest in things like professional photography, video, graphic design, and advertising to sustain and continually build awareness. It is with these clients that SEO, social media, and lead generation campaigns deliver the best results for “more qualified leads now.”

“Ready, FIRE, aim” is a common small business approach that sometimes works in spite of ourselves as we work like crazy to earn our livings. But that approach will never work to build a successful, growing business in the long run. Instead, use the proven “ready, aim, FIRE” approach for your marketing, starting with your brand identity and market positioning. From there, let your authentic brand strategy guide all of your marketing and sales tactics. You’ll stay true to your customers who will respond in kind.

The post Brand Integrity Builds Brand Value appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Who are the “better customers?”

They are the ones who fit well and last long.

Better customers are clients who searched for what they need, found your brand, and found it attractive. They enjoy a good relationship and much prefer to do business with you over your competitors.

Pushing

This is why marketing driven leads are often superior to sales-driven prospects. When a sales prospect is chased after, they can sometimes buy from pressure, not a genuine desire to do business at that particular time. And while they may receive a good product and a fair price, they are never really happy, and rarely if ever express gratitude or appreciation. Does this make sense, or sound familiar?

Attracting

But when a prospective client has a strong awareness of your brand name and likes what they see and hear about it, they’ll search you out. And if your brand delivers as expected, those customers know they’ve made the right choice and tend to stick around.

Again, better customers just fit better. Everyone’s always looking for “the right fit” and when we find it, we want to keep it.

This concept is important! You could say the key to profitable, steady, long-term growth is to attract better customers, not just any customers. So, how is it done?

Branding Authentically and Staying on Brand

Does your company stand out for any particular reason? Our firm is known for high-quality content creation, writing, and depth of marketing experience. One of our clients is known for the highest quality used auto parts, another for custom lakefront homes, and another for trusted financial planning. What about yours?

Make sure your branding goes well beyond logo and color choices and into emotional connection with your target audience. Be consistent in your branding design and value-based messages across all media and in person at events.

The Glue that Binds

Most importantly, deliver as your brand messaging promises the market. Offer a consistent experience and happy customers will spread the word. As we all know, word-of-mouth referrals tend to stick. And so do customers who search the market and identify the right company for their preferences.

Now we know why good branding and consistent marketing attract better customers.

The post Attract Better Customers appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Holding off on launching a great ad campaign is like keeping your beautiful, prized sports car locked in your garage to avoid people seeing and admiring it. That makes absolutely no sense!

This is what too many small business owners do to their would-be customers when it comes to branding and advertising. They keep them in the dark by doing the next easy or “urgent” thing on their plate instead of investing in marketing and following through in the right media channels.

How do I know this? Personal experience owning a business. Plus, seeing firsthand what makes campaigns either fizzle or be successful.

Why do so many small business owners get cold feet when it comes to executing a great advertising or branding campaign that will help them grow? Simple, they don’t have confidence that it will work or return a profit. They’re afraid to fail, and some are even afraid to succeed!

Two Marketing Fear Factors

• If you’re afraid of failure, you probably don’t really believe in your own value proposition.
• If you’re afraid of success, you probably don’t trust yourself or your team to follow through on delivery to new customers.

If either is the case, you may need to address some operational or capacity issues. But of course, this isn’t you!

The Secret to Campaign Success

While no marketer can claim, “spend X and your ROI will be Y,” there are keys to consistently building and increasing results from your marketing campaigns. It’s a matter of open and constant communication.

If enough time goes by between communications, a Client and their Agency team can both get distracted, lose momentum, and execution suffers. This happens all the time.

The golden key to success is regularly attended meetings with a committed team. All you really need are a campaign, a calendar, and commitments.

Alternatively, software can help solve this common client-agency issue. In fact, marketing automation technologies are beginning to replace the traditional agency model for certain industries such as local home services.

Choose Partners and Tools

Whichever way you prefer to work, whether with human experts or keystrokes, have at it! Your brand and promotional messages are worthless if they stay parked on a static website or languish in a box of brochures.

Take action. Get the word out. Promote your value. Get some help. What are you waiting for?

The post Great Marketing Campaigns Get Out! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

“How many pet hotels have you worked with, hmm…?”

The category experience question comes up often in discussions about hiring business services professionals. Whether it be an architect, law firm, CPA or marketing agency, potential clients naturally want to know what you’ve done for others in their industry.

Tempted by Templates

Gaining experience serving one niche of clientele is a proven strategy for many service providers and this can allow them to scale services easier, especially when they can reach a large market base. In essence, these providers learn to apply common industry-wide applications of their specific services and repeat them for other clients in the same industry. Some may see this as a cookie-cutter approach.

The Secret of Brand Buckets

When a “niche specialty” approach is applied in marketing, clients are usually assigned one of about 6 or 7 repeatable branding categories. For example, if the agency niche specialty is banks, the client’s brand promise will always focus on one or more of these general themes:

• You’re a customer, not a number…
• Local decision making…
• Invested in the community…
• Supporting all your life’s stages…
• A financial partner you can trust…
• Big enough to serve, small enough to care…
• Banking your way, 24/7…

By interviewing bank representatives and customers, the niche agency can quicky figure out which brand bucket that bank belongs in, and a new campaign iteration emerges. Think about it. You’ve probably heard all that stuff in various campaigns from different banks all your life.

Rising from the Pack

Consider the marketing “generalist.” He or she has a track record of doing business in their own specialized field – marketing communications. They have delivered results to diversified clientele in multiple industries by learning about each one and applying a fresh creative approach to it.  This experience provides a wider vision lens on the whole market. We offer broad market knowledge to clients which the niche-focused companies do not.

Goals are seen from different angles and more creative ideas for achieving them can emerge. Coming from a broader business knowledge base, we can often create more distinguishable and attractive selling propositions. We add value with additional networking channels as well.

Would you rather follow a common marketing formula that may be shared with your competitors or your own customized, targeted marketing plan? While the former can show results, what are you really trying to achieve? What exactly do you want to be known for in your industry?

Custom or Commodity?

You already know what works for selling your products and services or you wouldn’t still be in business. By all means, keep following and repeating the sales and marketing formulas that work for you and your worthy competitors.

Now take your marketing a step further to outpace the average company in your field. This requires expanding your market reach with better messaging.

You can breathe new life into your business with a breakout marketing campaign and a commitment to following through.

The post Niche Specialist or Broad Market Leader? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

If you were once a salesperson and then become a business owner, the tables suddenly turn, and then you discover the real reasons people buy. You also find out what it’s like to get bombarded by those in your previous profession and why your past sales calls often went unanswered.

I’ve been in the same selling situation as the buying situation I’m in now. Having experience on both sides of the table offers me much deeper sales and marketing insights.

It’s a go!

Most recently I needed to procure services for a couple of client projects and had several pros in my network to call on. All have networked with me and marketed to me in similar ways, and I had no strong loyalties one way or the other. I made my selections and so far, so good.

Why did I choose whom I chose? What most influenced my decisions? In each case it was the strongest and most relevant brand impression left with me. The deciding factors were the suppliers’ focus on their relevant specialties along with my perceptions of their quality, personality and integrity.

Branding Matters!

This is why I always harp on branding. The most powerful brand elements reside in your head and mine! And when we take them to heart, we develop brand loyalty and know whom to call again and again for those needed services or products.

Brands have the power to open relationships! Your brand is only as strong as its recall impression. What does your brand stand for and why does it matter?

Need help with that? Call us and we’ll figure out the messaging that will make your potential customers realize it’s you they should call first.

The post Leave a Recall Impression appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Every business evolves. Your company probably provides customers more now than it did at startup. You probably do things better than before. This evolution will continue if you are to succeed in a competitive world. Naturally, your sales and marketing messages must change over time to faithfully and accurately convey the value offered to your customers.

Does your brand need a refresh?

Oftentimes as businesses grow and evolve, a brand “refresh” is what’s needed. For example, when product and service features are added or improved, they need to be promoted with the appropriate degree of novelty and excitement. Perhaps the company moves to a bigger location closer to its customer base or hires a new CEO who wants to rejuvenate the company’s public image. These can be good reasons to consider adjustments in the visual identity and key word use. Maybe this includes using new colors and switching out marketing images with fresh, professional photography and video.

Rebranding is a big deal!

An appropriately sized investment is required to rebrand well. It calls for a modernized vision, new or revised logo, a fresh approach to the market and new marketing campaigns. If you’ve been thinking about rebranding your company, think about everything your brand touches, especially your current customers. How will both loyal and casual customers perceive the change message your rebranding effort will be sending them?

You can’t afford to rebrand according to market miscues or without a strong rationale. Any change in identity or image can raise questions. Your new brand communication efforts must convey growth and improvement. Expressing gratitude should be part of your message. This isn’t about boasting.

A company’s major expansion into new markets or brand new product applications can be situations in which you’ll benefit from a rebranding effort. Here you need to take a strategic look at your current brand identity from a 360-degree perspective: Company name and positioning, product names and product branding, divisions and subsidiaries… Who needs to understand your new rebranding messages? Employees, current customers, sales prospects, suppliers & service vendors, the public… How will you unveil your new branding to each audience or constituency?

Brand Architecture

Brand architecture defines how a company wants its organization, products and services to be perceived and understood. It’s particularly important for enterprise and large companies that serve different target markets with various products and services. It helps them to compete more successfully. Designing your brand architecture is a highly strategic exercise but remember, it is wise to strive for simplicity, so it’s easily understood!

Most corporate brand hierarchies are no more complex than this:

Parent Company > Operational Divisions > Product/Service Categories > Product/Service Options

Integrating new branding into each subset may or may not include:

• Naming – an entire volume could be written on this!
• Positioning – clear and concise value differentiation
• Unique Value Proposition – an elevator pitch
• Slogan/tagline – the brand’s essence in very few words
• Logo – powerful, iconic, visual brand representation
• Photography – intentional and professional with defined style and tone
• Spokesperson – founder, owner, employee, customer, celebrity…?
• Culture – what it means to work here (should be company-wide)

Most small businesses have a simple brand hierarchy that consists of one company and their products/services. Each of the branding components listed above can focus on a singular identity and value proposition so the brand architecture process is more straightforward than for large, multifaceted organizations.

How different is your company today from 5 or 10 years ago?

If you serve the same customers the same products with the same people and do well in your niche, don’t rebrand but consider the areas where your brand might need some refreshment or perhaps reinvigorated advertising and enhanced images.

If you are providing different products and serving larger clients with expanded value services, or if your target audience demographics are significantly different now than in the past, you might need to undergo a rebranding effort to remain competitive and in congruence with the needs of your market.

Another good reason to rebrand is to help fulfill a major company goal such as expanding business nationally or globally and into completely new markets. But remember this. It’s vitally important to honor your current customers and brand loyalists as you include them in your rebranding strategy. These are the people who make your brand successful and the brand equity you enjoy now must be nurtured.

Better Branding Helps Everyone!

Branding and rebranding is, in reality, a service to the marketplace because done properly, it helps prospects and customers make better choices, saving them time and money. So give your market a clear, honest and distinguishable idea of who your organization is, why it exists and the kinds 0f folks it serves.

Strive continually to keep your brand and marketing messages fresh and up-to-date. When your products and services start looking a lot different than they did in years past, it’s probably a good time to rebrand!

The post Should You Rebrand? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

When you see an inbound call from a familiar company or brand name, you’re more inclined to answer the call. If you’re a business owner, you know this is true, and so do your salespeople.

Sales is a brutally competitive, uphill battle in this day and age. Why discourage your team by pushing them up a steep hill? Help level the playing field by investing in your brand and executing a targeted marketing plan.

Creating strategic brand awareness is the best investment you will ever make in your business. Name one initiative that brings in customers and revenues better than being well-known for what you do best… You can’t.

Better Mousetrap?

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” This is only true when people believe you have a better mousetrap, and they have to find out about it first!

The more you authentically communicate your value proposition in the marketplace, the better your “mousetrap” is perceived by potential customers. Once you have established a high-quality perception in your market, prospects’ doors open much easier. Your outbound emails and phone calls have not only a fighting chance but a likelihood of being answered or returned.

Sales Pay Dirt

If your brand carries sway, your prospective customer is either curious, willing or eager to answer their phone when you or your team come calling. This is sales pay dirt. It’s the magic merger that takes companies to the next level and improves lifestyles.

Grow Your Business in 90 Days

Once you make the decision to invest in your brand to boost sales, you just need to remain committed and stay the course! Within about 90 days of implementing a new branding campaign, you should start seeing profitable results. Sequencing looks like this…

1. Create or refresh your brand with the focus on unique value – include both visual and verbal elements. 30 days
2. Produce branded marketing communications right away – Don’t worry about perfection at this point! You can easily start with a landing page, an email blast, a press release, a postcard or just a flyer. 45 days
3. Develop a media and direct marketing strategy – use your proven, go-to channels and carefully consider adding new, targeted media. Apply tracking code to your digital communications and utilize your platforms’ analytics to monitor engagement. 60 days
4. Launch and implement a marketing/advertising campaign according to an appropriate frequency schedule – stick to a consistent brand theme and keep reinforcing your core value proposition in creative ways. 75 days
5. Make copious targeted sales calls to prospects in your database – prioritize people you identify engaging with your campaign. Email platforms and social media tracking tools make this easy. There are even certain marketing automation programs with tracking code that can identify individuals who visit your landing pages. And remember, this is sales. Be persistent! 90 days

This simple 5-part strategy should be implemented in a continually repeated manner except for step 1.

Your sales team should always be prospecting and making calls with or without a rigorous marketing campaign. We get that. However, those who sell for Leading Brands enjoy more answered phones and open doors while the unknown, me-too reps deal with voicemail greetings and declined meeting requests.

Become a leading brand in your market and simply sell more!

The post The Magic Merger of Marketing & Sales appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

You have the choice to trust your God-given light and remain true to it or let cultural and societal winds blow your business practices around in their chaotic and whimsical directions.

Jeffrey Immelt or Elon Musk?

Think about the completely different leadership styles of Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO who stepped down from the floundering behemoth General Electric, and Elon Musk, the ever-optimistic dreamer who never runs out of blue-sky opportunities. Mr. Immelt ran GE according to conventional power models, i.e., cozy up to establishment power. While he has his share of shortcomings, Mr. Musk has his vision and sticks to it no matter what and hasn’t looked back. His firms are literally skyrocketing regardless of his many critics and conventional wisdom!

What does your brand stand for? Is your brand strategy foundational and integral or is it temporary and easily manipulated? Will your brand promise and core message be firm and familiar or soft and unrecognizable after the next wave of political, cultural and economic disruption?

Run your own business!

I’m seeing recently thriving businesses die unnecessarily of fear and dependency. I’ve witnessed great local brands let politically charged narratives kill them because the owners focused their attention on daily media reports instead of their customers. I’ve seen other businesses in the same industry and market thriving and growing at the same time as they say, “we’re not going anywhere. Watch this!”

Is your brand on solid ground? Do you need to pour some concrete and drive in some pilings so it has a foundation you can stand on no matter what comes along next?

What do you stand for anyway?

The post Refresh Your Brand Promise Commitment Now appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

“I know I’ll find you somewhere… somewhere you can hear my voice…”

Meet Tim, Dan, Cheryl, Jack, Dianne, Josh, and Cam

The Most Vital Branding Exercise

You might be asking, who are those people and why should I know them? They’re the folks who personify your best clients – those whose working styles and needs align with your company culture and value proposition. These names happen to be the clients who have influenced how we operate, deliver value and communicate in the market. Just as importantly, they know us, prefer our approach and collaborate in their own marketing success.

Can you automatically rattle off the first names of your best customers? If so, there’s where you’ll find your brand differentiation and value proposition.

Client Differentiation Drives Branding Value

We talk about brand differentiation in marketing. What differentiates your offerings positively over your competition? Try some reverse engineering. There’s a reverse kind of differentiation that’s so crucially important to discovering your own and growing your business. It’s client differentiation.

You need to know the common persona of customers you can best serve and who appreciate your business style. They will choose your company for the very reasons that you think they should.

As you differentiate your clients from “the masses,” you’ll better understand whom you are really serving and you should tailor your messages only to them. Resist the temptation to appeal to the broadest possible market for your generic product/service because you’ll only add more noise in the cluttered, me-too world of commercial media. Few will notice. But if you call out to specific people (if not by name, then by interest and passion), they’ll hear the message as it resonates and engages them out of the crowd. They call you, email you or message you, hoping to reach a deal with you.

The Consistency Payoff

Be consistent with messages that focus only on your differentiated and distinguished target audience. You are of most value to your narrowly defined target market and you’ll find them more enjoyable to work with. Your relationships are mutually profitable. Working with them is more gratifying and often fun.

The post Your Best Marketing Strategy Calls Your Own Flock appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Storytelling is a lot more than a marketing buzzword. Stories have mind-attracting power and are like personal guides leading readers and listeners to the prize of knowledge, the satisfaction of curiosity and the fulfillment of desires. Marketers who effectively apply storytelling have real-life success stories of their own to tell.

Every Brand Tells a Story

According to the book, “Building a Story Brand” by Donald Miller, almost every customer success story consists of about 5 common elements:

1. The main character (customer)
2. A problem
3. A hero, leader or guide (the brand)
4. A plan to solve the problem (product/service offer)
5. The call to action that if taken solves the problem and avoids failure (purchase and acquisition)

Let’s take a familiar brand example and narrate its success story.

It’s the year 2005. Lola, a book lover, is one who can spend hours in a bookstore. She has an uncommon reading list that’s difficult to fill and has shopped the same two bookstores in her city for years. When her book choices aren’t in stock, the stores do their best to special order them but some titles have been out of print for years and can be “impossible” to find. Lola becomes frustrated that she’s missing out on the wonderful reading adventures she knows are out there for her somewhere!

Lola has been hearing and seeing ads pop up all over the place about some company called “Amazon.” She’s aware they have something to do with books and CDs and then learns its a website that sells books & music and other stuff online. Out of curiosity, she logs on to a computer at the library and looks up Amazon on the internet. Lola quickly sees the website’s main call to action; you can search for your own titles and authors from around the world!

She types in the title of a cherished volume she’s been unable to find and up come 5 various copies of the book for sale in either new or used condition. Lola has never ordered online but that cherished book is right in front of her on the screen inviting her to buy it. She takes a small leap of faith and pulls out her credit card, trusting that the book will be delivered at a surprisingly fair price as promised. Within 3 days, Lola is curled up on her couch, 8 chapters into her new reading odyssey.

Here’s how this “Story Brand” breaks down.

• Lola the book lover is the main character.
• Her problem is not finding the books she wants.
• A hero-leader in the form of Amazon advertising and its website offer a plan to solve the problem. “Maybe I can find the books I want without the bookstore’s limits.”
• Then Lola answers the call to action – search for and find books on the Amazon website!

Conclusion: Mutual brand and customer success!

Would it be fair to say this specific brand story worked very well?

Every brand tells a story. If you can simplify yours and demonstrate happy endings as Amazon did decades ago, your marketing communications will be easier to implement and much more effective!

What’s your story? Who is the main character? Why and how are you the hero?

If you find writing your brand story to be a challenge, contact us for a no-cost branding and writing consultation. Phone calls are welcomed at (603) 345-7223.

The post The Story Behind Brand Storytelling appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.