10 Steps to Building a Great Brand

Your brand is one of your most valuable assets. It conveys the highest value you deliver; serves as an emotional shortcut to what your organization stands for; sets you apart from everyone else in your marketplace; and forms the foundation of a smart marketing strategy.

How do you build a great brand? Here are 10 key steps.

1. Audit your marketing and communications to evaluate your current brand identity.

Study all customer communications and marketing materials.

Determine the messages you are delivering about your company and your products and services in every marketing channel.

Pay closest attention to the in-person customer experience—how customers feel when they interact with a member of your staff.

2. Determine how your customers see you – their perceptions of your organization and your brand and what they value most about you.

Talk to customers, prospects, the sales team, and the customer service representatives who work with customers every day.

Try to see your company’s strengths and weaknesses through independent eyes. Be brutally honest.

3. Pinpoint the unique value your organization – and only your organization – delivers to customers.

Determine what you do better than any competitor.

Focus on the benefits you offer and the ways you improve customers’ lives.

4. Identify and capitalize on your natural branding advantages, such as:

An established reputation for excellence;
Superior technology or product capabilities;
A new company direction or the launch of a major new product line that creates an opportunity to reposition your company to customers or prospects;
Endorsements by recognized authorities in your marketplace.

5. Decide what you want your brand to stand for – the attributes you want customers to associate with your brand.

Determine the expectations prospects and customers should have of your brand every time they encounter it.

Clarify the brand’s “persona” or point of view.

6. Create a graphic identity that establishes a distinct logo and look for your organization, differentiates you from every other resource, and visually communicates your brand attributes.

7. Create a short, memorable positioning tagline that succinctly conveys the most important benefit, advantage, or distinction you offer in the marketplace.

8. Develop core marketing messages that capitalize on your strengths and become the copy foundation for all your marketing materials — the “proof points” that support your brand promise.

9. Develop and distribute guidelines for using the brand and graphic identity across all marketing materials and customer communications.

10. Deploy the brand:
Make a splash in the marketplace with your new brand by launching a highly visible marketing campaign in multiple media to showcase your new identity.

Apply your new branding guidelines consistently to marketing communications in all media (advertising, print materials, web marketing, direct mail, e-mail, retail point-of-purchase displays, trade shows, product shipments, etc.).

Remember that the way your customers are treated is the most important element of your branding strategy. Train every member of your staff to understand your brand and deliver on your brand promise with every customer interaction.
ok to get a great day is it was a great notion yeah that's the way to go to see if I do that.

Original article: HOME / BRANDING STRATEGY / 10 STEPS TO BUILDING A GREAT BRAND

How are journalists using social media?

As a PR professional, one thing I’m always interested in is the mind of a journalist. As someone who believes that social media is a valuable business tool, I’m constantly preaching to my fellow PR professionals about how social media can be used to connect with journalists (sorry guys, I’ll get off my soapbox eventually). 

I know some of them are on board, but there are still quite a few that aren’t sold on it yet.

Well, yesterday the topic came up in a Twitter conversation I was having with a freelance journalist: Matt Lindner. Currently, Matt writes sports feature stories for ESPN, so he and I don’t work together professionally but we do enjoy a good sports conversation. 

Yesterday, though, Matt and I were talking about social media and PR. More specifically, how the two tie together. I was very interested to hear his point of view as a journalist. Because I was so interested, we followed up the conversation via email where Matt was able to expand beyond 140 characters. 

So what did I learn (right from the horse’s mouth) about how journalists are using social media?

They’re seeking out relevant story ideas:

“As a feature writer, I’m constantly looking for the stories that are going to get people talking. Part of my job is keeping a finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the world of sports, asking questions the fan would ask if they had the platform that I do,” Matt said. 

Where is he looking for these ideas? 

“The people and organizations that I follow on Twitter are those that I feel are relevant—relevant to me, my readers, and to the conversation that I’m hoping to further in both the world of sports and pop culture.” 

An example from Matt: “I’ve got another pitch to my editors in the works right now that I learned about after an old professional acquaintance that I met last summer and kept in touch with on Facebook posted something on her page.” 

They’re listening to what you’re saying :

Who/and what do they listen to?

“The biggest ‘secret’ to getting my attention is to have an active account,” said Matt. “If you’re talking, engaging, humorous without pandering, I’m going to listen.” 

He also added: “The problem a lot of organizations run into is that they have social media accounts and they want to have a lot of followers, but they don’t want to share. Or if they do share, they only post messages that are blatantly promotional, serving only to further their own interests without acknowledging the needs or wants of their digital fan base as it were.”

They’re doing research: 

Matt told me: “In my previous life as a local television news reporter and in my current one as a national freelance sports writer, social media was an integral and indispensable tool in my toolbox. I cannot tell you how many times one of the influencers I followed tweeted about something cool they were doing, or some random nugget of information which caused me to think more about them. I’d investigate it further and work with my editors to see if there was a story there.”

They’re building relationships:

This is a huge one for PR pros to keep in mind. I read some great tips about this recently:Fifteen Ways to Use Twitter to Build an Army of Adoring Journalists.

Matt explained to me why relationship-building (rather than just blinding reaching out) via social media is so crucial to the PR-journalist relationship: 

“If I’ve had prior contact with you and you’ve got a story idea that you think I might be interested in, by all means pass it along and I’ll see what I can do. But if I’ve never heard of you, and then I get a tweet like ‘Hey @mattlindner, have you heard about our widgets and gadgets? You should totally write about them’ you will get blocked in a shorter period of time than it took me to type that sentence.”

I’ll leave you with one last comment from Matt to sum up the bottom line of the role social media plays in the PR-journalist relationship:

“Media is constantly changing. And an increasing number of journalists are on Twitter and Facebook, using them to listen to what the public is talking about. I’ve used social media to reach out to sources that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to get ahold of through traditional means.”

So there you have it. If you weren’t sold on it yet, I hope this post helped you realize yet another opportunity that social media provides to us.

Originally submitted by Jackie Lampugnano

This article originally appeared on Social Media Club 

‘Out of Control’ Startups Fail on 8 Key Processes

Even when your startup is a one-man show, you will soon find that you are “out of control,” unless you start organizing and writing down how and when key things need to get done. Like it or not, you are now entering the dreaded realm of “formal business processes.” The right question is “What is the minimum that I need?”

The simple answer is that you need to implement one process at a time, starting with those things that are most critical to your business, until you feel a relief that things are starting to happen naturally and consistently, without the attendant stress and continual recovery mode. If you feel that the process itself is a burden, you have likely gone too far.

Here are eight key business tasks that relate to almost every startup, generally prioritized by criticality. Think about the implications of each to your own business, and the potential impact of getting them done incorrectly, or forgetting to do them entirely:

Manage your financials and physical assets. I’m continually amazed at the number of entrepreneurs who go for months into a new business without really keeping a formal record of money spent or assets acquired. Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need.

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization.

Product development process. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Otherwise you will find yourself a year later being no closer to a product that you were yesterday, with no idea why.

Funding process. Unless you are bootstrapping everything, you need to have a clear plan on what networking and documents are required to get to friends and family, angel investors, and institutional investors. Measure yourself against a researched plan, or your “out of cash” brick wall will be looming before you know it.

Manage human resources. At this stage, you should start recruiting, hiring, paying, and training others to help you run your business. In addition to effectiveness and consistency, you now have a myriad of legal and tax considerations to get right. Don’t try this without a formal process.

Leverage information technology. Find an IT person you can trust, and plan how you will acquire, implement, and utilize computer technology to run your business. How do you access the Internet, what servers do you need, applications required, databases designed, and backups scheduled? It all has to be written down and maintained.

Billing and revenue collection. Whether you provide an online subscription service, or sell products in a store, you need to consistently and economically sell your product and collect revenue to survive. Here you will likely need to train others to help you, so more detail may be required in this process.

Customer service and support. Here is another often overlooked area of process that kills many startups, both in cost and time. Don’t assume that you can fix every problem yourself, or that there won’t be any problems to fix. Even if your business is online, people want a contact, real expertise, and quick response.

If you are a great startup, you won’t just copy the processes of your competitors, even in these basic elements. Innovation is the key, to keep each process small, but make it more effective than competitors and big-company processes.

But having no process does not make you more competitive. In my experience, no process sounds more like a hobby than a business. Hobbies can be a lot of fun, but they usually cost money rather than make money. What is your business objective?

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from Startup Professionals Musings: ‘Out of Control’ Startups Fail on 8 Key Processes

Success in a Box: The Power of Dimensional Direct Mail in B2B Marketing

What if you got a real mailbox – a full-size, metal mailbox – sent to you at your office? Would you open it?You bet you would.

MSP, a direct marketing services company in Pittsburgh, has been sending real mailboxes to its best prospects for nearly 10 years. I still remember my reaction – “Wow!” — when I opened the mailbox I received from MSP in 2004.

Six years later, MSP’s mailbox remains the single best example of effective B2B lead generation dimensional mail I’ve ever received.

Here’s how MSP deploys dimensional mail in its smart marketing strategy, and five lessons for every B2B marketer using direct mail to generate leads.

Direct Marketing as a Lead Generation Tool

As a B2B marketing consultant, I often recommend direct marketing as a lead generation strategy. But when the target audience is C-suite executives, it can be challenging to create direct mail that reaches the executive’s desk.

Many B2B direct marketers use dimensional mail to get executives’ attention. Dimensional direct marketing campaigns commonly include a premium related to a creative theme. Depending on the premium and shipping costs, dimensional mail can be a big investment, so it’s usually mailed to a small list.

How a Smart B2B Marketer Uses Dimensional Mail

MSP provides printing, mailing, and database management services to direct marketing companies. According to Kirstan Tervo, Director of Marketing and New Business Development at MSP (who signed the letter I received in 2004 and is still with the company), MSP launched its mailbox campaign in 2001.

Mailboxes are custom-painted and branded with MSP’s logo and colors. Personalized inserts are stuffed in the box and shipping is via FedEx. Each piece costs about $60.

MSP’s sales reps determine who should get the mailbox – typically senior executives at direct marketing companies the rep has identified as a best prospect. The goal is a prospect meeting. Tervo says that many prospects agree to a meeting and a significant percentage of those become clients.

A 10-Year Winner

Why has this mailing been successful for nearly a decade?

“It’s a high statement piece,” Tervo observes. “When we go in for meetings, the prospect always takes us to where the mailbox has landed in their office. A few have taken them home and repainted them to use as their own mailboxes!”

Tervo says that the campaign’s success doesn’t mean dimensional mail will always work or that a campaign has to cost a lot. “Our mailbox works because it’s different, not because it’s expensive,” she notes.

For a preshow mailing last year, MSP mailed cocktail napkins purchased at Wal-Mart with hand-written notes offering “a drink on us” (bottled water at the MSP booth) to a carefully screened list of show attendees. The inexpensive napkin generated a very high response rate and “a ton of compliments,” Tervo says. “With postage, it cost us $207.”

5 Lessons for B2B Lead Generation Success

What can other B2B marketers learn from MSP’s success? Here are five lessons:

1. Aim for impact. Forget mailing golf balls and coffee cups. Send something the prospect doesn’t expect. Make them say “wow” when they open your package.
2. Pick a creative theme relevant to your company. MSP says it is the company “where great ideas get mailed.” What better way to demonstrate that than to mail a great idea?
3. Keep it simple. Dimensional doesn’t have to be complex to be good. “Sometimes the simplest concepts generate the best response,” Tervo notes.
4. Target, target, target. Dimensional mail should be sent only to a small, hand-picked list of your very best prospects.
5. Involve your sales team. Work closely with sales to select recipients and pinpoint the exact decision-maker to be targeted at every prospect company.

The Best Advice? Put Yourself in the Prospect’s Shoes

Tervo advises direct marketers to view their campaign from the prospect’s point of view. 

“Think about your audience and what they see on a daily basis,” she says. “How many pieces of direct mail are they getting a day? How much email? Why would they want to respond to your mail, your email, your phone call? What makes you different?

“If you took all our competitors’ sales collateral and ours and put them on a table and blacked out our names, could you tell the difference? Probably not,” Tervo acknowledges.”If someone sent me a postcard promising a Kindle or an iPad, I’d pitch it. But if someone sent me something unique, out of the blue – like a mailbox – I’d take the call.”

Great B2B direct mail gets prospects to take the call. And it’s a smart marketing strategy.

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the Blog Smart Marketing Strategy at the Gianfagna marketing website

Exposing Common Myths About Blogging

There is no shortage of content available on the topic of blogging, but many who are interested in the subject still have misconceptions about making money through a blog. This is in part due to the fact that so many people are publishing content about blogging and a lot of those people have different views and opinions. Also, it’s often difficult to determine how much credibility should be given to the source.

In this article I’d like to present 8 myths that are commonly associated with blogging. If you have blogging experience of your own you’ve probably already disproved several of these myths. If you don’t have experience blogging, maybe this information will be helpful to see things in a different light.

Myth #1: It’s Easy to Make Money Blogging

Many people see articles or hear stories of others making money through blogging and they assume that it’s easy to do. They assume that within a matter of a few months they should be able to earn a significant income and then it is just smooth sailing from there. The vast majority of people who have believed this myth and have decided to start their own blog as a result have quickly realized that it is in fact just a myth.

The truth is that making money from a blog involves a lot of work, just like having any other type of job or running another type of business. There are plenty of success stories out there, and some of the bloggers who have managed to do very well with their blogs are able to work fewer hours than they would with another type of job. However, for every person like this there are hundreds who have tried and given up without success.

Myth #2: It’s Impossible to Earn a Living Blogging

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you’ll also hear a lot of people that say it’s impossible to earn a decent living as a blogger. While it’s not easy, it certainly is possible. It’s true that the percentage of bloggers that ever reach their income goals are small in comparison with those that don’t reach their goals, but that doesn’t take into account that most bloggers give up prematurely.

The biggest factor in bloggers who are unsuccessful is a lack of consistent effort or a lack of patience. It takes time to build a blog and many people aren’t willing to put in a consistent effort for several months or even a year without seeing much income as a result of that effort. The likelihood of success goes up drastically if you have realistic expectations and if you are willing to put in a lot of effort with little return in the early days, weeks, and months.

If you can approach your blog like a business and see it as an investment of your time that will pay off in the future, you’ll have a good chance of achieving the success that you are pursuing.

Myth #3: Blogging is Passive Income

Blogging is sometimes mentioned as a great way to earn money because it is passive. While there are some passive elements to blogging income it does require consistent work, which by definition is not passive.

There are some ways to earn passive income, such as AdSense or affiliate income, that are commonly used on blogs. However, in most of these cases the site owner is using a blogging platform, such as WordPress, to set up the website, but once it’s up there is little, if any, effort in terms of adding new content. This is more of an internet marketing strategy than it is about blogging. A blogging platform may be used, but being a blogger involves on-going work to produce new content and connect with readers.

The passive elements that are involved with blogging have to do with taking advantage of the work that you have done earlier. For example, you may wind up with a blog that attracts a decent amount of search engine traffic month in and month out. You could sell ads or use AdSense to monetize that content and you would benefit each month for the work that you have done on those posts. You could also benefit in a similar fashion by promoting affiliate products or your own products on your posts.

Once you have an archive of posts that attract traffic you’ll have opportunities for monetization, but it’s not passive in the sense that you can sit back and stop working on your blog. You may be able to make money for a little while that way, but in almost every case it will drop off pretty quickly without consistent effort. If passive income is your goal there are other methods that are more effective.

Myth #4: Blog Readers are Resistant to Monetization

Sometimes you’ll hear or read that blogs aren’t a good way to make money online because blog readers are only interested in free content and are resistant to any monetization attempts. While it’s true that blog readers are there for the content, bloggers who are able to develop the trust of their readers are able to monetize their blogs in appropriate ways. It’s possible to make money and still help your readers at the same time, and in fact this is the most successful and profitable approach.

The key here is that you have to earn the trust of your readers first, and you have to continue to keep their best interests in mind while monetizing your blog. Whether you are promoting affiliate programs, selling your own products, or adding a membership area, your monetization efforts will get the best response from readers if the products or services that you promote are of high quality and are relevant to your readers. If you can solve problems for them, most readers will have no problem at all with reasonable monetization efforts.

Myth #5: You Need Huge Traffic Numbers to Be Successful

One thing that discourages a lot of people from starting a blog or from continuing to work on their existing blog is low traffic numbers. While it’s true that having big traffic numbers will make it easier (in most cases) to earn money through some methods like selling ads or AdSense, there are still a lot of bloggers out there that earn a living from blogs that don’t have server-crushing traffic.

Without huge amounts of traffic you’ll need to diversify income sources and not rely solely on advertising. By focusing on connecting with your readers, earning their trust, and getting to know what challenges they face on a daily basis, you may be able to find the right products/services to promote or produce. Having a highly responsive audience is typically more profitable than just having a lot of traffic and low response.

Myth #6: You Have to Post Every Day to Be Successful

The mainstream blogs that have a team of writers typically post every day or even several times per day, but for a single-author blog this is usually not necessary or practical. Instead of feeling the need to crank out tons of new posts to keep up with the most popular blogs, focus your efforts on producing the highest quality of content possible. There are a lot of bloggers that post once or twice per week and still have a responsive audience that looks forward to that quality content.

While you don’t have to post every day to be successful, it is important that you do post consistently. You don’t need to publish posts at exactly the same time or day each week, but large gaps of time between posts are very damaging to blogs. In my own work I’ve always found it to be helpful to work ahead so there are always at least a few drafts ready to be published.  With this approach you don’t feel as much pressure to write a post at any particular time, which can lead to publishing something that isn’t up to your quality standards just because you feel the need to get something posted.

Myth #7: You Have to Be a Great Writer

Being a successful blogger and being a great writer are two very different things. Most bloggers don’t have a background in writing, and most blog readers aren’t concerned with having a professional level of quality in the writing. If you have knowledge of a particular subject and you have a moderate writing ability, chances are that you can run a successful blog. As you work on the blog and continue to write posts your writing skills will improve.
If you’re already a great writer you will be ahead of the game, but those skills are not a prerequisite. In fact, there are many bloggers who publish post in English without it even being their primary language. If you are especially uncomfortable with your writing skills you can always hire someone on Elance or Odesk to edit your posts, or ask a friend or family member.

Myth #8: Blogging is a Fad That Will Go Away Soon

Things on the internet change very quickly and it’s difficult to predict what will happen more than a few months into the future, but blogs don’t seem to be going away in terms of their effectiveness to communicate with readers and to earn an income. Today’s internet users have an unquenchable thirst for content and they expect frequent updates from their favorite websites. While the industry will always be evolving, blogging seems to be here for a while.

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the  Vandelay Design blog at http://vandelaydesign.com