Developing your brand identity

Added on October 16th, 2010

There are many parts that make up your brand identity. Below I’ve posed some questions to get you to think about ways you can describe your brand to help you develop that identity. The more distinctive it is, the more likely you will be to stand out in a crowded market place.

Tone of voice

Tone of voice is really important when developing your brand. This sets the tone for how all of your communications should sound and how your staff should speak as well. There are some fun exercises you can do to help you define your tone of voice. For example, think about a celebrity or character from a film that would talk in the same way you want your business to. Are you Alan Sugar or Ann Widdecombe? Are you John Suchet or Jordan?

You can also think about other brands that talk in a certain way and how they might be similar to yours. They don’t have to be in the same industry but there may be something about the way they communicate with their customers that resonates with you. Are you Apple or John Lewis? Are you Top Shop or Phones4U?

By doing this, it will help you think about the language you use with your customers, staff and suppliers.

Your visual brand

Other things to consider when developing your brand are the colours that fit with you – do muted shades appeal or are you more drawn towards funky fluorescents?

Then consider the font you will use to represent your brand. Would a more traditional font suit your business or are you looking for something modern and contemporary?

Shapes are also important – for example if you use boxes to highlight things on your website or in your brochures – do you think everything should have a sharp, neat edge to it or would you prefer more soft, rounded shapes?

Finally, is your brand masculine or feminine? Again this will heavily influence the way your brand is portrayed to your audience.

I hope you have fun developing your brand. If you would like more detailed advice please contact me on 07930 357579.

Tags: branding, Marketing
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Everything starts with your brand

Added on October 5th, 2010

If you are starting a new business or rebranding an existing one, this article gives you some hints and tips on where to begin.

A strong brand will help you stand out in the market and will set up apart from everyone else. It will also give your customers a message about the type of business you are and whether they fit with you or not.

I’ve worked with a lot of financial services companies who are all selling very similar products so their brand is a key way of differentiating themselves. All of the high street banks offer a bank account, savings, mortgages and insurance products. But while you probably haven’t been a customer with all of them, you will probably have an opinion about which one is better or worse and which one you would or wouldn’t buy from. That will be influenced by the brand.

Brand Strategy

So where do you start when it comes to defining your company’s brand? I’ve provided an example below which is for Relish marketing but the principles apply to any business.

The Brand Strategy underpins everything you do – the way you go about your business, how you behave and how you express yourselves through your communications. Brand Strategy consists of the following:

Brand Essence

This is your vision for the business and is the heart and soul of your brand. It’s what you are working towards and is the one constant across all of your activities. If you imagine this might be the strapline that sits under your logo that explains what you do for your customers.

Generating business for entrepreneurs.

Brand Values

These articulate your true beliefs and how you facilitate those beliefs through your day-to-day activities.

Providing bespoke solutions – we get to know your business so that we can tailor recommendations to your specific needs

Creative thinking – we add value by providing creative solutions that surprise and delight

Great service – we provide outstanding service to ensure a customer is for life

Personality

This is a set of words that sum up how you behave but demonstrate your intended personality based upon your aspirations.

Passionate, positive, enthusiastic, driven, fun, enterprising, forward thinking.

Once you have this in place, you can then move forward with developing the visual identity for your brand. This would include a logo, colours, font, tone of voice and strapline. Look out for our next blog post which will go into this in more detail.

Tags: branding, Marketing
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A great little marketing trick.

Added on September 20th, 2010

I was talking with Beverley at Beautiful Bras the other day and she told me a great little marketing trick that’s worked for her. With every bra she sends out to a new customer, she includes a high quality fridge magnet in the package. This has her logo, strapline, website and phone number on it.

From a marketing perspective, the magnet works in so many ways.

People are more likely to keep it rather than throw it away which they would do with a leaflet.
It stays on their fridge or notice board and acts a reminder to the customer.
It gives her brand a high quality feel.
The customer feels like they have received a little bonus gift for free.
Their friends might see it and so it helps raise awareness.

Simply brilliant!

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Great ideas but don’t know where to start?

Added on September 14th, 2010

I met up with a client on Saturday who had some fantastic marketing ideas for her company. So what was holding her back from making her business a great success? It all came down to the fact she didn’t know where to start because she had so much to do – it was all a bit overwhelming.

In addition, some of these ideas involved teaming up with other companies who could put her in touch with potential customers. But after some initial discussions with them things had fizzled out, so she was feeling de-motivated.

If this sounds familiar and you have lots of brilliant ideas about how to market your business but don’t know where to start, here are some top tips on how to get things moving again.

Write down all the ideas on a piece of paper – it doesn’t matter about the order – just get all the ideas out of your head and onto paper.
Rank them in order of priority – identify which do you think would benefit your business most.
Next take the top three ideas and make an action plan by breaking them down into tasks. So identify the steps on how you would go about making each one happen.
Write out the tasks week by week making sure you can achieve them in that time. This will help give you deadlines to work to.
Once you know what you are doing on a weekly basis, make a daily to do list and then get started.

It’s all about breaking things down into manageable bit sized chunks. Also don’t put too much pressure on yourself to deliver everything all at once. Just take the top three ideas or even the best idea and make it happen. You’ll feel better about having completed one task and find in just a few weeks you’ve achieved something positive.

Tags: action plan, Marketing, motivation
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One good turn deserves another….

Added on September 6th, 2010

This week I have offered my help to a competitor brand of “not on the high street.com” and they in return have been extremely generous with an offer of help to promote my photography business. I’m also arranging to speak to another house doctor who needs help with her marketing and has found me through twitter.

I guess the moral of the story is that what goes around comes around. I’m really beginning to believe in Karma!

If you look at your current clients, it’s worthwhile assessing how much effort you invest for how much reward. You will probably find that there are those clients where you put in significant effort but get little back in the way of thanks or remuneration. Likewise there are probably those where you under deliver and yet they are always so grateful and usually pay on time!

The same goes with suppliers. Are there the tried and tested ones that you go back to time and time again? Or do you find that some take advantage of your good nature and their service levels have dropped off from the days when you first started working together.

If you work off the principle of ‘what goes around comes around’, look at the clients and suppliers you’ve been working with for a long time and ask yourself if you are getting back what you put in. If you’re not, maybe it’s time for a change.

Tags: Marketing, Networking
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Briefing an agency to get great creative

Added on August 30th, 2010

When you brief a marketing agency to produce something for you, how do you know what information to give them and what to leave to their creativity.

Designers and copywriters are there to deliver the best possible creative output for whatever you need. They have spent years learning their craft so you need to trust them to give you the right creative for your business.

For example, let’s say you need a new leaflet that you are going to send out to customers. You may have gathered images you want to appear in it and have an outline of what it needs to say. But in order to get the best results back from a marketing agency, you need to simply give them that information and let them come up with some options for you. If you refrain from telling them exactly where everything should go and what it should say, you should be surprised and delighted by the creative recommendations they come back with.

Below are some top tips on what you should include in a brief in order to get the best from your agency:

Background

Tell them a bit about your business, what you want them to produce and why you need it.

Objectives

What do you hope to achieve using this item, e.g.100 extra sales.

Audience

Who is the communication aimed at. For example, women in their 40s who are interested in fashion. Then try to add in a description of what a typical customer might look like. Sarah is 42 with 2 children. She reads Red magazine and likes to watch Gok Wan and 10 years younger on TV. Then explain Sarah’s motivations for purchasing your product and why it would appeal to her.

What’s the main point

What is the one point you want the customer to remember once they have seen your communication. Imagine they have read your leaflet and put it down – in one sentence what would be the message that you want them to remember. This is usually your key benefit.

Substantiation

What else do you want to include in the communication. List these out as points below clearly stating each fact and then the benefit to the customer.

Must include information

List out anything that has to go into the communication such as legal information, phone number, web address and images you want included.

By giving the agency this sort of information you will find they will produce some great work for you and they will usually come back with a couple of options for you to choose from. You should avoid trying to do it all – from the design to the copywriting – otherwise you’ll end up with them getting frustrated as they are restricted by what you’ve suggested and you won’t get the best from their knowledge and expertise.

It’s difficult to relinquish control sometimes but a good agency should deliver great creative for you that will be sure to make the right impression on your customers.

Tags: briefing creative, direct marketing, Marketing
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Step out of your comfort zone to grow your business

Added on August 23rd, 2010

When I started my business I signed up to a teleseminar run by Susan Tomlinson of Real Coaching Solutions. I subscribe to her newsletter and thought I would share her latest article with you as it really resonated with me.

Step Out Of The Comfort Zone To Grow Your Business

If you are truly committed to growing a highly profitable and sustainable business with all the success you dream about, then it is time to step out of your comfort zone and play a bigger game.

Unfortunately for many of us, when we have a big dream, vision and goal, what often shows up is resistance to taking that quantum leap forward. This is usually disguised as procrastination and excuses – ‘I will do this later’, ‘When I have the money’, ‘When I feel more secure’, ‘When I have the time’.

In reality, excuses are masking the fear of new and unfamiliar circumstances. They are a natural human reaction that aims to keep you safe and secure.

But by not being bold enough you could find yourself stuck or plateaued out – doing the same work, attracting the same clients, earning the same income – and feeling increasingly discontent.

When this happens you don’t grow and your clients don’t grow either. And the worst case scenario is that you run out of momentum maintaining the status quo. You lose energy, enthusiasm, passion, and possibly business.

Here are 6 tips to help you get used to ’stepping out of your comfort zone’. So when the next really big opportunity shows up you will confidently take action.

1. Practise on a regular basis. Do something daily, weekly, monthly that gives you a sense of excitement and ‘I couldn’t possibly do that’ response. For example, arrange a speaking engagement if you don’t like giving talks, call a potential client if you never make cold calls, increase your rates and let your clients know.

2. Change your routine. We all fall into working habits which serve us to some extent. But if you fail to question whether they still work for you it’s probably because you are comfortable with the way things are. Pick one habit that you could either drop or change that would make a difference. If you consistently work long hours take Fridays off, delegate work that you would normally do to someone else, take time out during the day to relax, meditate or visualise your success

3. Try something new. When you rise to the challenge of doing something new your confidence will grow. You may also get a different perspective on you and your business. If there is an activity that you secretly would like to try then now is the time to book yourself in – sky or deep sea diving, horse riding, tango?

4. Change your beliefs. One day at a time challenge your beliefs and adopt different ones. If you believe that work is a struggle and requires a lot of hard work, adopt the belief that business is effortless, easy and fun. If you believe that you are not good enough, then act as if you are the expert (which you are). You will be amazed how quickly your new beliefs will become your reality when you transform your perceptions.

5. Invest in you and your business. Perhaps it is hiring someone to handle your PR and event management, investing in a new training programme, attending an overseas trade fair. There really are rewards when you take some financial risks and invest in you and your business.

6. Hire a mentor or coach. The great thing about having a coach is that they will offer unconditional support but also will hold you accountable every day for achieving and living your business dreams. There will be no excuses.

As you get used to stepping outside of your comfort zone, you will learn how to handle new and unfamiliar situations. Then you will be well on your way to growing your business with confidence and commitment.

Susan Tomlinson, Business Coach and Mentor, is founder of Real Coaching Solutions a company dedicated to helping coaches, consultants and solo entrepreneurs attract more clients, make more money and build a business they love. To get your f.r.e.e ‘Boost Your Business Success’ report and to receive her ‘Highlights on Business Success’ newsletter visit www.realcoachingsolutions.co.uk

Tags: Coaching
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The lost art of letter writing

Added on August 16th, 2010

A well written letter can increase your response rates and help build your brand. Continuing on from my post on direct mail, I thought it would be worthwhile dedicating a post specifically to the art of letter writing and its role in a mailing as part of your marketing campaign. People do still love to get mail. They also have strong feelings when about receiving something that’s not well written or thought through. Love it or hate it – if you are going to send mailings out to your customers, here are some golden rules:

Always get their name and address right.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. Tell them 3 times within the letter what you wanted to tell them. That way, if they don’t read the first section they will get the message in the next two. Plus if they take the time to read the whole thing, they should have a clear understanding of what you wanted to tell them by the end of it.
Use headings at the start of some of the paragraphs so they can skim read it easily. By pulling out the main points, you are more likely to say something that will catch their eye and make them read on. It also helps break up the letter visually too.
You have around 5 seconds to get someone’s attention so make the key points obvious – consider using a box with the main benefits summarised down the side or at the bottom of the letter.
Focus on the benefit to the customer rather than the product. While you may want to tell them everything the product, your customers need to know why it’s good news for them first and foremost. Then tell them a little about the product, but use the brochure to give them more detail.
If you are running a competition or prize draw, shout about it – put it near the start of the letter and make it stand out. Remember with competitions and prize draws that cash prizes and vouchers will always bring you in the highest responses.
You should highlight any special offers clearly too. Try to avoid discounting your product as it devalues it. Instead offer something that is perceived as added value. For example, rather than offering 20% off something, offer customers 10% extra free. That way there is a perception they are getting more for their money, rather than expecting the price to be cheaper. It’s also a good way to get them to test something new which they may then buy in the future.
Always check your spelling and grammar – it’s useful to get someone else to read it through for you to check the flow and that they can understand it.

Finally, remember that successful marketing depends on getting the right message to the right people at the right time. So tailor your communication as much as you can.

If you want any help on how to improve your existing mailings or have something you are putting together, I would be happy to take a look at it for you. Feel free to contact me on 07930 357579.

Tags: direct mail, direct marketing, Marketing
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Networking works

Added on August 9th, 2010

I’ve been networking like crazy recently and it’s reaping rewards but not in the way I originally anticipated.

Skill swapping

I joined the Athena network and I’m doing a skill swap with another Athena member. I also met a photographer on a course and we’re doing a skill swap.

Learning

I’ve really enjoyed meeting other like minded people and learning about their amazing business ideas. I went on the West Kent Networking website and chatted briefly to a lady who runs local burlesque events – Boo Boo Burlesque. I’ve also met up with a lady who runs a specialist bra fitting service too at Beautiful Bosom. Both have brilliant websites.

Referrals

Two ladies contacted me looking for recommendations for good web designers. One was a copywriter who I may work with in the future and the other runs We Buy Nearby which sells local farm food online. Great for me when I often don’t have time to get to the local farm shop and a nice alternative to the supermarket.

Fame at last

But the most surprising one of all was when Nicky Hambleton-Jones from the TV show 10 years younger decided to follow me on Twitter. Does that mean I’ve made it now? Hee hee

Networking has so far turned up some unexpected pleasant surprises. It’s worth going into with an open mind as it doesn’t always pay instant financial rewards. It can take a long time to build people’s trust and for them to start referring you. But I would highly recommend networking even if it’s just to meet like minded business owners who can share their experience with you and who will understand the challenges you face.

Look out for our next blog: Always follow-up.

Tags: Marketing, Networking
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Direct mail – does it work in this digital age?

Added on August 2nd, 2010

Yes it does! And I love it. Don’t you? Getting a letter, addressed just to me, not knowing what’s on the inside, then opening it up and finding something that sparks my interest – how exciting is that.

Talking to Llewellyn Robins, who is a successful portrait photographer, he mentioned how direct mail had been a key part of his marketing strategy over the years and still is. He has a huge database he’s built up over 10 years and keeps in touch with customers regularly by mail. He also mails couples who’ve just had a baby offering them three portraits in one year as part of his new business program.

So I admit I love direct mail. But realistically what sort of results can you expect to get from a mailing campaign. On average, response rates to customers who have already bought from you can be up around 10%. Then with people you don’t have a relationship with, the response rates can be around 1% or 2%. It’s worth remembering that the other 98% of people who didn’t respond aren’t necessarily never going to be interested in your product, they just might not need it right now. So it’s still good for raising awareness of your business and reminding people you are there. Plus they can keep your brochure for the future.

Next it’s a case of doing the maths. If it costs you, for example, £1 to send out a letter and leaflet in an envelope with a 2nd class stamp on it and you send it to 100 people = £100.

If your mailing gets a 2% response to it, so 2 people reply, then in theory you need them to spend at least £50 each to break even.

However, that’s taking a very short term view as it may be that those people become long term customers and buy from you again and again. So if you don’t cover your expenses first time around, it may be that those customers will cover them with their next purchase, and the next one. And don’t forget the people who kept your brochure but didn’t buy straight away. They might become customers later on.

There are some other factors that influence how many people will respond to your mailing. You need to make sure you send your mailing out to the right audience, at the right time and with the right message. So as with Llewellyn he makes sure he mails people in the first 3 months after their new baby is born with an offer for baby portraits and combined with a great offer price, he gets an excellent response. So if you can get these things right, you’ll definitely see an increase in your response rates.

Even in this digital age, people still love to get a letter, they will often keep a brochure and it will help your brand be more memorable in their mind. Direct mail definitely works and I would recommend building it into your marketing plan.

Look out for our next blog post: Networking works.

Tags: direct mail, direct marketing, Marketing
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Developing your brand identity

Everything starts with your brand

A great little marketing trick.

Great ideas but don’t know where to start?

One good turn deserves another….

Briefing an agency to get great creative

Step out of your comfort zone to grow your business

The lost art of letter writing

Networking works

Direct mail – does it work in this digital age?

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