Get your identity right

Your identity is the face you show the world, your customers, your prospects, your suppliers, your friends.

It is usually in print or online, in the form of logos, business cards, letterheads, website, and other materials.

Despite the growth in email use, a professionally created identity, which can be transferred to all of your communications is crucial to making a good first impression.

But what does yours say about you?

Are you business cards design in WORD, do you print them out on thin paper and cut them out with the garden shears?

Or did you get a mate to do the designs for you and you whipped them off to Bargain Printers.com who only print in one colour and onto empty crisp packets.

Next time you meet someone, stop and take a good look at their business card, what does it say to you. Feel it. How does that make you feel? Look at the rest of their communications, does it all match, does it convey one message.

Now how do you feel about doing business with them?

Until recently I was busy beavering away working for my clients and not really paying much attention to mine, typical, no time...........

When I met through my networking an identity designer, who was very forthright and he declared that my business card made me look like an accountant.

Not that I have anything against accountants, but I am a marketer and a very creative one at that.

So after I dried my tears, I listened to what he had to say.

If you want to find out more about him vist www.jamesgood.co.uk

My next blogs will tell you the tale.

A marketing joke

Sometimes its very hard to describe all of the things that a marketer does, so perhaps this explanation will clear it up?

1. You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and say, "I'm fantastic in bed."
- That's Direct Marketing.

2. You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says, "She's fantastic in bed."
- That's Advertising.

3. You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get his telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed."
- That's Telemarketing.

4. You're at a party and see a handsome guy. You get up and straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him a drink. You say, "May I," and reach up to straighten his tie brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."
- That's Public Relations.

5. You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says, "I hear you're fantastic in bed."
- That's Brand Recognition.

6. You're at a party and see a handsome guy. You talk him into going home with your friend.
- That's selling

7. You're on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome men in all these houses you're passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated toward the center and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm fantastic in bed!"
- That's Spam.

The marketing partnership

I am often confronted by prospects who say that they simply do not have the time to do any marketing, or that they have tried xyz and it failed so whats the point.

I am reminded of this quote:-

Marketing is not an event, but a process . . . It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely." Jay Conrad Levinson

For me it goes even further. To make your marketing work you need to take responsibility for it and work with your marketing person in partnership, this is after all your business, not mine.

I want you to succeed, to sell more, engage with more customers, make more money, better profits, but without your committment and your partnership, it will not happen.

Things to waste your time with but great fun

Just go to http://blogthings.com and play.

Your Brain's Pattern

Your mind is a firestorm - full of intensity and drama. Your thoughts may seem scattered to you most of the time... But they often seem strong and passionate to those around you. You are a natural influencer. The thoughts you share are very powerful and persuading.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

You Should Drive a Ford Shelby Mustang Cobra

You have an extreme need for speed, even when you're not in a hurry. And while your flying by, you don't want to look like every other car on the road!

What 2007 Car Should You Drive?

And theres more......

Left or right brained?

Are You Left-Brained or Right-Brained?

From Testcafe.com - take the test

Although one side of the brain is generally dominant over the other, we should strive to utilize both halves. A balanced brain makes a balanced person - combining sequential thinking with a holistic approach, or linear thinking with intuition, enables us to fully comprehend issues and solve problems. Left-brainers can dramatically improve their problem solving abilities by learning to "follow their gut," while right-brainers can improve the execution of their creative efforts.

Realizing your dominant half is the first step in becoming balance-brained.

Before doing the test I thought I was balanced and the results show that I am fairly well balanced.

Your percentage score for the right brain is 32%.
Your percentage score for the left brain is 27%.

What is your score and is it in line with what you thought? And if one side dominates would you take steps to develop the other side? And what might those steps be?

In marketing the marketing audit would tend to be undertaken via the left brain, we are analysing your business and the marketing plan would tend to be more right brained in which we would deploy our creativity to find a creative solution about how to sell more products or services to our customers.

Using technology in marketing is vital. Technology tends to be used by left brained people. Marketing people have tended to be right brained.

What sort of person then makes the best marketer for you? One who can use technology? One who is creative? One who is both? Should IT and marketing learn to love each other?

The price of bacon

Do you think about pricing when you are out shopping?

Are you aware of the tactics used?

No, that doesn't suprise me.

Yesterday I went to my local convenience store for breakfast stuffs, I was in a hurry. Imagine how delighted I was to discover that I could buy 2 separate packages for £3. I picked them up and charge off.

Then I stopped. Went back and checked out the other bacon.

And guess what....

There were double packs for £2.49. Same product, same amount but 51p cheaper.

Fair pricing tactics?

Marketing Planning - do you have the time?

Fail to plan and you plan to fail. Be the exception to the rule - plan, assess, and plan some more

Planning is often difficult because there is no immediate feedback and it takes time to prove its value.

On the other hand, lack of planning can be disastrous. The more careful the marketing planning, the more likely problems will be anticipated and the closer you will get to your ultimate goal.

Managing directors / owners of small to medium sized businesses generally have to:
know everything
keep up with everything, and
do nearly everything themselves.

But business people cannot be expected to 'know what they don't know'. Importantly, it's not just the lack of knowledge or experience that can be a limiting factor, but also the available time to be effective in doing what needs to be done. More often than not, the need is for practical hands-on assistance.

A good marketing plan is essential if you want to make the most of new opportunities and keep customers coming back for more.

This is living document – you need to review it regularly to ensure it reflects changes in the market and your business.

The important thing is that you use it, review it, test it, measure it, change it, and make it work for you!

Most people I talk to want a plan simply for the bank and generally want to jump straight into a campaign without considering all of the aspects of their business.

I know it is frustrating to take time out to plan, but it is also a waste of money to run headlong into something that smply will not produce results. If you don't understand, your market position, customer pain points, competition, products benefits, how you arrived at your pricing, how will you ever be able to set your strategy?

Do you care? One day you will. One day you will walk into your business and you will not have a clue how you got there and how to move onto the next stage.

My advice, start the marketing planning process now, review what you do often, measure everything, change what doesn't work.

Happy planning

I hate cornflakes

What’s in a brand?

www.dictionary.com

A trademark or distinctive name identifying a product or a manufacturer.
A product line so identified: a popular brand of soap.
A distinctive category; a particular kind: a brand of comedy that I do not care for.
A mark indicating identity or ownership, burned on the hide of an animal with a hot iron.
A mark burned into the flesh of criminals.
A mark of disgrace or notoriety; a stigma. See Synonyms at stain.
A branding iron.
A piece of burning or charred wood.
A sword: “So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur” (Tennyson).

Marketing is about what every part of what your business does for its customers.

Branding is more emotional and is, in the mind of the customer about everything you deliver, from your logo, colour, words, product, service, quality, (etc) in a nutshell it is your promise, a promise which is built up over time and one which is not about money.

From the moment you get up in the morning to going to bed at night we are bombarded with brands.

Kellogs, Colgate, Imperial Leather, Nike, BMW, HP, Dell, Microsoft, MacDonalds, Coca Cola, Virgin, First Direct, Egg, Body Shop, Disney, Nescafe

Do you remember the cornflakes ad about remembering how good they tasted, well I fell for it and you know what, I remembered that I hated them on first taste.

Why is it important to develop a strong brand?

Simple. You need to get your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.

Your brand needs a personality which evokes good feelings in your customer, which when they think about buying a particular product or service only yours springs to mind.

To begin the development of your brands strategy you must have an understanding of these marketing components:
Target market – who are they, and when you know understand their wants and needs, their views and opinions, including their feelings, habits, motivations, insecurities, prejudices, and desires
Competition, who are they, where are they and what do they do?
Product and service mix
Price, high or low, value for money?
Unique selling proposition – what makes you different

You need to set clear objectives for your brand. What do you want people to think and feel about it?

Once you have done this you can start to develop your strategy.

One of your strategies should be to get some good technology to help you stay on track.

Of course you need a computer, that goes without saying, Outlook to manage your email and diary and Office for letters, proposals, pricing & presentations are just some the essentials.

After that a really good CRM (customer relationship management) solution. Information to my mind is king. And if you keep good clean up to date data, which can be analysed, it will enable you to target your target market more effectively and provide consistent customer service.

An integrated online strategy with a good website, possibly with e-commerce for taking orders which can be integrated into your sales order processing system, newsletters, a blog, a forum, ebooks, banner ads, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), web analytics, Google adwords and online customer service (etc) will add to your marketing arsenal.

If you plan to use email marketing then there are an abundance of tools available which will help you to get the right content out in the right format to the right people at the right time and control your subscriptions.

SMS can be used for voting, prize notifications, updates, special offers, delivery advice, results etc.

A PDA will enable you to stay in touch on the road, have your calendar and contacts to hand, may even let you take orders and help you to find your way with GPS.

And last but not least CD’s and DVD’s.

Technology for technologies sake is not the answer, remember technology should be deployed in a company to enhance marketing activities, if you use it well, it will help you to understand and serve your customer better. Which all adds to the magic of the brand.