Effective marketing tools look at whether your marketing communication:
If you are the owner or founder of an SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) or are the person responsible for sales or business development in any size organization then your reputation – your personal branding is paramount in your personal success and the success of your organization.
‘Brands are like people’ is an analogy often used to describe the companies they represent. Virgin is the brand built by Richard Branson and the two are hard to separate. Consumers buy into the personality of the founder and what it represents and promises.
In many cases however ‘brands are people’ – every celebrity is a brand, from Oprah to Dr.Phil, to rock stars and actors to sports people like Beckham.
Business brands take on or communicate the values of their founders. This is especially true for start-ups and new businesses, professional services firms where the names of the founding partners make up the brand names. Although this is not the best way to brand your services business this is still the dominant reality for many.
So the brands are designed and communicated by people. People, especially in services industry is who we all buy from! So it makes sense that ‘these people’ have an optimal representation of who they are and what makes them special in the place where it matters most, the place where positive perceptions are formed – online!
Your online identity and representation is made of your online assets:
The most important of these in the SME (B2B & Professional Services) is LinkedIn, and we’ll cover this next.
All websites can be classified into 4 types:
1. A site that sells product(s) or service(s) by the quality of design and copywriting, which is in turn
2. A lead generation site that attracts potential new clients
3. A customer support or self service site that reduces costs by completing routine tasks, replacing or reducing human interaction
4. A content site that educates or informs visitors about your organization or service
Most websites are a mixture of the above, yet content strategy is the key! They all need to do 2 things to be successful:
Website marketing is an ongoing process, similar to designing and building a house. It is then important to maintain and build the value of your marketing properties and prevent this value being depreciated through neglect of infrastructure or promotional activity by competitors.
To get the best return on the marketing investment, time needs to be dedicated to answer the questions that assist in building a solid foundation for the marketing of your business online.
By starting at the bottom and working up, the process will be shorter, less painful and more profitable.
The web allows ‘small business Davids’ to compete with corporate Goliaths.
Your website is the most flexible and accountable content marketing weapon today. Usually the first thing that your prospects see and experience about your business, it is your most public face to the world, a showroom open every hour of every day.
While marketing tactics deal with needing Original Ideas & More Creative Execution, more importantly, you need to SHARE!
Start thinking and sharing.
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