I think most of us can agree that a brand is an extremely valuable intangible asset that requires disciplined nurturing to attract new business and keep current customers feeling welcomed. Brand equity can increase and decrease as consumers collectively feel a certain way about the brand at any given time. Attempting to leverage your brand’s value into business categories outside your core strength invariably affects delivery of your core products and services. Brand extension can be very tempting but the foundation of brand value is authenticity. Authenticity is proven only by consistently matching customer experiences with brand promises.

Keep it simple. Use your positioning statement!

Many business owners and marketing directors struggle with how to create content for their inbound marketing efforts. They wonder what to say and how to say it in an article, sponsorship, ad or promotion. Before crafting any company message, the brand strategy should be consulted for direction. The brand’s positioning statement is the idea platform from which you can develop brand-congruent messages that reinforce your strategic identity in the market – being known for the reasons you should be known.

When considering what your message should be for any external communication, ask: What does our brand command? Your positioning statement will infuse the spirit of your brand identity into the ideas you wish to convey.

Does your business have a positioning statement? Forget mission statement! Your positioning statement sums up how and why your organization delivers value, and you should remind consumers of that value every chance you get. Keep in mind that B2B clients are consumers. Business consumers are just as emotionally driven and socially engaged as anyone else so branding and positioning are crucial for industrial, manufacturing and technology driven businesses.

How to Write Your Positioning Statement

Doug Stayman writing in eCornell Blog offers guidelines for writing a strong positioning statement.

“What makes a good positioning statement? Here are six keys to keep in mind:

1. It is simple, memorable, and tailored to the target market.
2. It provides an unmistakable and easily understood picture of your brand that differentiates it from your competitors.
3. It is credible, and your brand can deliver on its promise.
4. Your brand can be the sole occupier of this particular position in the market. You can “own” it.
5. It helps you evaluate whether or not marketing decisions are consistent with and supportive of your brand.
6. It leaves room for growth.”

Here’s the formula for writing your positioning statement, courtesy of Brandeo.

“There are four elements or components of a positioning statement:

Target Audience – the attitudinal and demographic description of the core prospect to whom the brand is intended to appeal; the group of customers that most closely represents the brand’s most fervent users.

Frame of Reference – the category in which the brand competes; the context that gives the brand relevance to the customer.

Benefit/Point of Difference – the most compelling and motivating benefit that the brand can own in the hearts and minds of its target audience relative to the competition.

Reason to Believe – the most convincing proof that the brand delivers what it promises.

Criteria for Evaluating a Positioning Statement

• Is it memorable, motivating and focused to the core prospect?
• Does it provide a clear, distinctive and meaningful picture of the brand that differentiates it from the competition?
• Can the brand own it?
• Is it credible and believable?
• Does it enable growth?
• Does it serve as a filter for brand decision making?

Template for a Positioning Statement:

For (target audience), (brand name) is the (frame of reference) that delivers (benefit/point of difference) because only (brand name) is/can (reason to believe).”

Here’s an example from Amazon.com:

“For World Wide Web users who enjoy books, Amazon.com is a retail bookseller that provides instant access to over 1.1 million books, because unlike traditional book retailers, Amazon.com provides a combination of extraordinary convenience, low prices, and comprehensive selection.”

Here’s ours:

“For Business Leaders and Strategic Marketing Directors, Chuck Sink Link is the marketing communications firm that creates ideal messages for your target audience, because we reveal the authentic value of your brand and communicate it with relevance and clarity.”

The strongest brands today are those with owners who listen to their customers and target audiences. Their brand identities are determined by aligning consumer desires and emotions with core company mission and values. The brand is shaped largely by how the market gains value from its use, congruent with what the brand’s organization stands for.

For a brand to be successful, it must convey a very specific value that’s measured in quantifiable benefits and emotional satisfaction. While these intangibles may be hard to measure at first, the buying behavior of your new customers will be easy to gauge.

The post What does the brand command? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Money is often the last thing that comes up in business dealings because many people are afraid of broaching the subject. Why? Because before price is discussed, eyes are wide open to opportunities. People are eager to talk about the mutual benefits of working together, or they can envision how a new product will perform for them. Potential customers usually have a price range in mind, even if they have no idea what it will actually cost. When the eventual price revelation is above the perceived range, tension or mutual disappointment enter the room.

Both seller and buyer fear the eventual price revelation because it can sometimes shatter expectations and render a hoped-for deal just a pipe dream. There are plenty of exceptions to this scenario, but anything of very high value comes with a high price. As long as others in the market pay the cost and show benefits from the investment, the product or service settles at the highest price point the market will bear. That is the only way that profits are sustainable in a competitive marketplace.

My point isn’t economics 101 but rather a solution the the price “objection.” This is really worth a further look!

I was struck by a recent post by Lee Salz. It had one of those must-read headlines. “Never encounter the price objection again, guaranteed!” If you or your company sell anything (all of you), you need to find out what he’s really getting at, don’t you?

After I read Lee’s piece, a number of successful business dealings ran through my head and I realized he was on to something, something big when it comes to sales.

Examine your own buying behavior. When you want something that can help your business, you naturally have concerns about shelling out the money. Could it be invested somewhere else? Will the value of this product or service actually work for you? Your concerns are completely legitimate. Very often you’ll “bite the bullet” and you’ll pay, maybe with reluctance at first. Eventually you’re glad you made the purchase decision as you reap benefits.

As a seller, you know there’s high value in your product and it’s worth the price. You can prove it by testimony and real data. Your confidence brims about dealing with price objections (concerns to the customer). Then, if you’re not careful, hubris overshadows your attitude and you attempt to counter the price objection. It becomes either a tense negotiation or worse, a conflict. Nobody wants to go there.

What if you approached price concerns with the same positive energy and enthusiasm that you and your potential customer had before price was broached? When price is the issue, try rolling up your sleeves and becoming a customer’s teammate instead of opponent. Make their concerns your concerns. In most businesses, there are delivery options; customized product configurations and service levels to provide for the customer’s needs and still make you money. Several of my good clients were won over by this approach and have given me referrals. I don’t know where my business would be without them.

Now please, let me offer you this concept concerning your purchased marketing services. Chuck Sink Link offers unique and customized service packages that deliver very high value at price levels that might surprise you – opposite of “sticker shock.” Maybe we leave money on the table, but that’s okay. My sales and marketing experience spans decades. My personal and company brand enjoy fine reputations and my clients are successful.

Some of you may be asking, what do you get from Chuck Sink Link? Working with a senior brand strategy consultant and master copywriter, your business will have new life breathed into its internal and external communications. Your marketing executions and public relations will be designed and written to resonate with your your exact target audience. For a fraction of the cost of an internal marketing director or fully staffed marketing agency, you will increase your brand equity and better support your selling efforts. You will enjoy having a partner who shares your business concerns and helps you achieve your growth goals. Let’s have a conversation.

The post Price: Are you giving what you’re paid for? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Business development is a hybrid profession that has evolved over the last couple of decades. The very term “business development” seems to me a response to a marketplace that became weary of so many salespeople parading through front doors, entering back doors and prying open every chink in the walls of companies with money to spend. “People love to buy but hate to be sold.” So measures have been put in place to make it hard for salespeople to simply call business people and sell their stuff.

Marketing and sales have become more interdependent and the trend is that these two functions are becoming intertwined. Sales is still where most of the glory is when it comes to impressing the boss. Sales rules business and always will because businesses live on cash flow and new business is lifeblood to organizations. But sales work has changed to business development (think relationships) and effective business development must utilize marketing principles and tactics to open doors to new business opportunities. Again, “people hate to be sold but they love to buy.” A salesperson must get his message out to prospects who are truly in the market to buy.

Every salesperson’s computer can now be a broadcasting and receiving station, i.e., a media outlet. And guess what? Airtime is free. Paying for a boost with advertising is always an option but one can reach thousands in a target audience by spending only time, learning and using the free tools: Social Media, email and networking. Many thriving businesses have been launched with no marketing budget. 

If you already have a computer, Internet connection, cell phone and car (and who doesn’t these days?) Then you have the infrastructure to effectively grow a business. The only thing else you need is time and willingness to work hard (Oh darn, we had to go there!). It’s really wonderful to implement an effective marketing campaign which makes business development efforts much easier (think warm inbound leads), all with no need to spend media dollars. Those dollars can be invested instead toward product and service improvements which will make your customers the best sales force you could want.

Do you or people you know want to learn how to build a brand, market a company and increase sales using totally free tools and methods? Come to the hands-on single day course: Social Media & Free Online Marketing at Manchester Community College on March 20th! Register with CRN # 20774 and Course # NCTD055.

If you have questions about how to register, simply reply to this email or call me at 603-345-7223

The post Free Marketing Tools – Big ROI appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Sometimes this blog brings some hands-on marketing technique information to readers such as better SEO practices, how to use Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. But it focuses mostly on building skills that help business owners, marketing directors and salespeople do their jobs better. Let’s look at just a few key skills that will help you in your business, whatever category you’re in; professional services, manufacturing, construction, business services, retail, legal, real estate… you name it.

3 skills every business person needs to succeed:

1.  Networking & Building Relationships:  If you can’t listen well and carry on a mutually pleasing conversation with someone you may as well go back to your cubicle and fight carpal tunnel syndrome. That may be fine if you program or crunch numbers better than anyone else but chances are you’ll always work for someone else or need someone else to help you grow your business. There is no substitute for people doing business face to face. Clients and customers gravitate to people they enjoy being around and prefer to do business with people they like.

2.  Consistency:  Stay focused on what you do best. The jack of all trades is master of none and today’s customers want the best that’s out there. If you try to be all things to all people, you will be known for nothing. None of us can be best-in-class in more than one or two specialties. Resist the temptation to position your brand as an expert generalist. There’s really no such thing and customers know it. Business owners often fear they will miss out on opportunities unless they cast the broadest net. It may work in politics but not business. When you carefully develop your business strategy and clearly communicate your brand positioning by being known well for one thing, customers from all over the place will be attracted to that message because they want that one thing from the best in the business.

3.  Customize experiences:  Do your homework! “When you walk in empty headed, you’ll walk out empty handed.” There’s another brilliant quip from Jeffrey Gitomer. It means preparing for every unique customer interaction. If you have an appointment with a prospect or new customer, go in knowing about them and what makes them tick. How can your product or service experienced be customized to fit them like a comfortable glove? This takes research. It takes extra time and work on your part. Do the extra work and you’ll stand up head and shoulders above your competition. Your genuine confident smile will set your clients at ease and let them know they made the right choice when they called you.

We subtitled this “3 skills…” but here’s your bonus: Believe and have faith in the power that is greater than you – from whence all success is derived. Whatever your understanding of this power, know this. It exists and it isn’t you. I choose to call Him God. All of your skills and talents are given life to serve others and you are the instrument through which they are carried out in service. The most precious habit you can nurture is prayer and meditation to start your day – every day.

The post Soft Skills that Deliver Hard Assets appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

There is web design and there is graphic design. These are two completely different disciplines. Avoid melding the two.

There several different definitions of the word, design. Let’s consider a few of them:

Design:

1. to prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), especially to plan the form and structure of,
2. to plan and fashion artistically or skillfully,
3. to intend for a definite purpose,
4. to form or conceive in the mind; contrive; plan.

If you’re thinking about or are in the process of getting a new website designed, you need to focus on definitions 3 and 4!

Many small business owners (and sometimes enterprise-class business executives) end up with websites they accept and later come to hate after seeing well designed websites in their industry. What often happens is the person in charge of designing a new website knows a “web designer” or graphic designer who does websites. It might be a friend or family member, or a referral from a friend. They place their trust and confidence in the person to do a good job because they make the mistake of thinking: “We just need a decent web presence and our other marketing or word of mouth will take care of business.

Website user experience – UX – is a science for which major universities offer PhD degrees. It is a field of study that is helping to shape not only the way people use websites, but how business is accomplished.

I don’t know about you, but my business and many others run on the internet. When you and I have a good experience, whether its on a website, in the form of an email or a social share engagement, we’re delighted and we remember it. If, for example, you need an online management tool or client portal to integrate with your business, you crave simplicity and ease of use. You want to go there and intuitively find what you need and just start working efficiently. Who has time for frustrating trial and error; long learning curves?

You want your website to deliver your brand experience, make clear your message and call the visitors to do business with you, right? Your website has a purpose and it must be true to its purpose. This requires strategic planning. It often requires guidance from a senior marketing professional to get it right.

There are lots of artistic “designers” who can make the website look nice and that should be a given, whoever designs your site. The differentiating factor of great web designs is knowing exactly who the target visitors (audiences) are and planning for their user experiences. It requires knowledge of such factors as user cogitation, navigation paths, interactive features, backend programming and, yes, branding.

As an executive or manager, you must bring your specific business expertise to the design table. After that you should expect the work to flow smoothly and efficiently according to your strategic direction, having had the best consultation right up front. Incidentally, I love helping to build great websites!

The post There’s a better way to design your website. appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

My opinion is we should avoid tossing around such powerful words as loyalty when we’re designing promotional programs. “Customer loyalty” in the context of incentive based purchases is a misnomer. Loyalty is faithful adherence to something in good times and bad; at full retail or deep discount. Loyalty is akin to honor, faith, respect and even love. You cannot offer discounts in exchange for certain behavior and call that loyalty. So, marketers, in this supposed age of transparency, can we be real about this?

The airline industry came up with an accurate and well received phrase: “frequent flyer” miles or discounts. That’s real. Consumers are delighted to redeem their frequent flyer miles and these programs certainly drive repeat business to the airlines that offer them. The trick is to make the repeat purchase incentives realistic and within reach. People flock to an offer when it’s actually a good deal and they see the value clearly.

There is such a thing as real customer loyalty. You’ll never find a loyal Harley Davidson owner looking at Suzuki motorcycles or even the Harley-styled look-alike rice burners. Getting a tattoo of a manufacturing company’s logo requires some genuine brand loyalty. Few brands have that kind of cultural and emotional connection with their target consumers.

Think of a brand to which you’re loyal. From what does your affinity in the brand stem? It’s based on something you genuinely feel about the company. Various impressions and interactions made you feel good about patronizing this unique business.

In recent years, Ford Motor Company has earned my loyalty with both quality and corporate governance policies. This is after I swore that only Japanese cars would suit me. I am certain I’ll buy another Ford as my next new vehicle. Apple has many loyalists and they win that loyalty by making the lives of their customers easier and more entertaining. What other brands can you think of that earn real loyalty from customers?

Word choice is important when describing our promotions and offers to the market. I have come to ignore any promotion with the word loyalty in it because I know that it’s only an attempt to make me spend more money, not save it. Everybody else knows that too. If I do respond to a “customer loyalty” offer, it’s because I need the product anyway and the promo catches me at the right time. This is probably true of most consumers. We go for the most bang for our buck every time. Sometimes that bang comes from the feeling we get buying from a company or person we feel good about.

The post Loyalty means never having to say “on sale!” appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

I’m involved in a LinkedIn group discussion about where to draw the lines between marketing functions like advertising, branding, promotion, etc. A marketer named Jon Sherrington from Toronto offered this wonderful metaphor:

“Within the body that we call Marketing: strategy is the brain, advertising is the voice, media is the lungs, sales is the heart and branding is the soul. You don’t dissect the body to make it more functional. You can analyze and philosophize to the nth degree but it doesn’t change the nature of what it is.” (I detect a little St. Paul in there.)

I really like how Jon compares vital organs to business functions. I had an aha! moment when identifying a brand with a soul. The soul is not of the body. It supersedes the mortal body and lives independently. The brand is not of the signs, slogans, salespeople, advertising, website, events, buildings, trucks, social media presence… It could live on without all that if suddenly those things went away. Could Oldsmobile be resurrected? (Not that it should be unless some wave of consumer nostalgia demanded it.)

I’ve read in a couple of places that the value of the CocaCola brand, stripped of alltangible corporate assets, just the brand – the image and the idea alone of CocaCola is estimated to be worth over $70 billion. That’s essentially pure brand equity. It’s the value of Coke’s brand positioning in our minds.

That’s how powerful great strategic branding is for a business. Coke pours tremendous resources toward continually strengthening its brand though committed advertising campaigns. Not all of their campaigns are winners, nor are all of their business decisions good ones (Remember the New Coke fiasco?). But we can see how Coke’s brand equity can absorb even big mistakes and still maintain huge market value sans any physical assets.

So how is your brand doing? Is the soul of your business in a state of grace?

The post Brand for Eternity appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

I must give credit to my friend and fellow entrepreneur, the founder of The Giant Game Company, for the title of this short article. We were talking the other day about changes going on in his target markets and how he has successfully responded to their shifting needs. “The market made me do it,” he said. I responded by saying I was thinking of an article about that and now I’ve got a title for it.

The post The Market Made Me Do It! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Marketing is every business activity directed toward selling a product/service and successfully delivering it into customers’ hands. Marketing drives sales. There is no business until a sale is made and that’s why every CEO is his or her company’s chief of sales. Sleepless nights are the result of insufficient new business flowing through the pipeline.

One or two salespeople control their smirks knowing they’ve already exceeded goals while the other 80 percent of the team desperately hold poker faces, fighting the fear that furrows the brow, lest their weakness show through. “How many calls are you making per day? What are you doing to qualify your appointments? How many serious leads did you get from that schmooze fest you call a networking event? What’s your average closing ratio? We actually lost money on your last two clients! They aren’t the right fit for us.” Let me the hell out of there!

The accusations, complaints and criticisms of the average boss toward his sales team ought to be leveled right back at him if such an attitude is his. After all, that selling model died about 20 years ago, so shame on our poor old hypothetical boss. But meetings like this are still takingplace out there and it’s too bad when there’s a better way to sell. It’s called positioning and it isn’t new. It’s many decades old, in fact.

What if the boss was instead focused on positioning his company’s brand so customers knew it was the easiest choice to make in the crowded market?

Positioning is essentially how much space your brand occupies in your prospect’s mind relative to your business or product category. The more you win the battle for the mind, the more sales you will make because your prospects will be sold before a single call is made to them.

Effective positioning differentiates your brand with relevance combined with emotion. The perception of quality is higher, therefore the value is greater than other brands.

If customers and potential customers want the Apple i-Product instead of the Microsoft or Android device, they will wait longer, travel farther and pay more for the Apple. It happens every day. If the thrill seeking driver is already drooling over the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, the Chevy Camaro ZL1 won’t even be given a test drive.

Sales nostalgia can never bring back the effectiveness of cold calling, follow up and closing – ever!  So it’s high time every CEO wakes up to the positioning model and starts directing his team to communicate his brand’s authentic value using the myriad digital tools available to everyone – including answering the phone.

The post Positioning: Relax, the sale is yours. appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Your business needs a positioning statement because your target audience wants to know what your brand stands for.

If there is one thought or word you want people to associate your business with in their minds, what is it?

Before you write your Positioning Statement, clearly define your target audience.

For example, our target audience is made up of Professionals, Business Owners and Executive Directors.

So our positioning statement is as follows.

To:  Professionals, Business Owners and Executive Directors:

Chuck Sink Link is the communications firm that creates ideal messages for your target audience because we reveal the value of your brand and communicate it with clarity.

Our singular thought is ideal messages.  That’s what Chuck Sink Link is known for.

What singular thought or word does your brand stand for?  What is your positioning statement?

The post What is your Positioning Statement? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.