Perpetuate Your Brand Through Content

One of the easiest and cost-effective ways to market your business online is through the publication and distribution of content. We’re talking blog posts, articles, reports, email content…and even audio recordings and video. Help people solve their problems, entertain them and you can win a loyal audience. Couple that with strong calls to action in your content and you can quickly grow your website visitors, subscriber list and sales. Thousands of businesses use content marketing every single day…but most attempt to do so using so-so, generic content that does little to build true relationships and perpetuate their brand.

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Perpetuate Your Brand Through Content

10 Things I Hate About Branding

ONE: Frankly it takes a lot of work to stay on top of my brand. If only I could just push a button like the Staples “Easy Button” ( which I have on my desk). I hate that I can’t!

TWO: I hate having to remind businesses that their brand is more than their logo. I have every design shop and ad specialty shop to blame for the mis-information I guess. (I could be painting with big a brush too)

THREE: I hate companies who don’t realize that branding is a top down initiative. Without the captain on board, who’s piloting the brand?

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10 Things I Hate About Branding

How To Police Your Brand!

Your brand is probably your company’s most valuable asset. It is what provides you the opportunity to make money based on strong relationships. Your brand makes advocates out of customers which means that they in effect become salespeople for you. Being an advocate for a brand, makes it a pleasure to recommend that company to your network of contacts. Paying close attention to the environment in which your brand exists will reward you at times when you find your brand in a bad place or subject to sloppy practices

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How To Police Your Brand!

How To Develop A Mini eMail Trade Show!

No matter where you look on the web, the key to making any money online is wrapped up in the list. Without one, you’ve got a major hurdle to clear. The following concept, may be your answer to fast-tracking exposure! At some point in time, you have probably visited a trade show within your industry. You saw legions of companies within your industry, selling goods from booths and visitors looking to buy or develop leads for themselves. Using this model, why not create your own mini trade show with friends or colleagues who compliment each other’s businesses? By combining the lists from say five to ten companies, who share the same target audience, put together a promotion to present a series of services to this body of contacts and feed off of each other. Here is how you could approach it:

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How To Develop A Mini eMail Trade Show!

The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 2

This one will be short and sweet… Most of my clients know that I’m not a big ‘fan’ of advertising – NOT because it doesn’t work – but because of the fact that I feel there are far BETTER ways to invest your marketing dollars. And here’s a quick piece of advice – for EVERY dollar you spend, please please please have a way to track your ROI (return on investment). If you spend $5000 on a magazine ad….how much business did it bring you? If you’re a small business owner, and you can’t answer this question, you’re wasting your money. Here’s an example from one of my clients… A fitness club was spending $1000/month on newspaper advertising. When I asked about the ROI on these ads, they had no idea. So I asked them to let me spend the following month’s $1000 budget on something different. The Result? $14,000 in new membership sales. (When was the last time you invested $1000 and got $14,000 in return, within 30 days?) Want to know what I did? Contact me!! : )

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The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 2

What’s Twitter and why should I care?

Twitter is a cross between a social networking platform and a micro blogging platform. You create a simple profile, you start following people, some follow you and you have 140 characters to say something about what you’re doing, thinking or planning.  People who talk about interesting, meaningful stuff and include links to blogs and articles have a positive affect on their brand. There has been lots of press coverage on Twitter including a Wall Street Journal article titled: “ Twitter Goes Mainstream .” In December 2008 HubSpot published the Q4 report on the State of the Twittersphere . Some interesting stats from this report: Twitter is dominated by new users – 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008. 5,000 to 10,000 new accounts are opened every day!

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Twitter in Business: It’s for Real!

Feel The Love!

You’ve heard the old adage, “if it weren’t for customers, running a business would be a lot of fun”. While this line brings a smirk to our face, it really is the wrong attitude to take if you want your customers to bring you more business. Businesses who truly have a dislike for their customers, no doubt also have a large turn over of customers. If you are in the professional industry like myself, you have to take an active interest in your customer’s businesses.

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Feel The Love!

The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 1

So let’s start with some definitions. For me, ‘marketing’ is all of the things you do to get a cheque in your hand or to get the cash register to ring. ‘Advertising’ is when you pay for media, whether its a newspaper, TV commercial, or direct mail flyer. I often hear from business owners about their experiences with different forms of advertising media. For example, I’ll hear something like “I tried newspaper advertising, and it didn’t work for me.” Here’s the problem… Its NOT that the specific type of medium doesn’t ‘work’….there are a few variables in play. FIRST – who is the target audience? If your demographic is teenagers, and you advertise in a publication targeting seniors, you have a problem (I know, this example seems obvious, but you can’t imagine how many people get this wrong) SECOND – Is the timing right? Are people expecting to see your message? THIRD – This is what I consider the most important….WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE? It costs you the same amount to advertise in that newspaper…whether you get zero sales or 100. So the important factor is to have the right MESSAGE in the right MEDIUM. I’ll explain how to craft a great message in a future post, but if you have a specific ad you’re working on and need my help please contact me at marsicomarketing@gmail.com

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The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 1

The “Word-of-Mouth” Paradox

Here’s a fun conversation I have with small business owners. It usually goes something like this… ME – “..so how much of your new business comes from referrals and word of mouth?” SMALL BUSINESS OWNER – “We get around 70-80% of our clients from referrals” (note – any good company gets a tonne of referrals…it can range anywhere from 50-100% depending on the industry) ME – “How much of your marketing budget do you allocate for word of mouth and referrals?” SBO – “Huh? What? What do you mean? I guess, nothing…they just happen.” ME – “Amazing. So, 80% of your business comes from referrals, and you spend all of your money chasing the other 20%?” SBO – “Doh.” The moral of this story? Maybe its time to invest some of your hard earned marketing dollars into a form of marketing THAT ACTUALLY WORKS FOR YOU. (Sorry…I’m a little passionate about this). : )

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The “Word-of-Mouth” Paradox

DNA – The Evolution of The Unique Selling Proposition

In the 1940’s, advertising legend Rosser Reeves developed the term ‘USP’ or ‘Unique Selling Proposition’. Many sucessful businesses develop a USP as the basis of their marketing campaigns. Well, I say USP’s aren’t good enough anymore…with so many companies, products, brands, and a bombardment of media, being ‘unique’ isn’t unique enough. A classic example of a USP was the Domino’s 3o minute guarantee. Fantastic. But how many other pizza joints offer a time guarantee now? Is it truly unique? Saying that you’re the fastest or cheapest or biggest might work, but what truly makes you different – not only from your direct competitors, but from EVERY company? I developed the term DNA, or ‘Distinct Natural Advantage(TM)’ to describe this process of becoming truly unique. We all know what ‘DNA’ means in terms of science and heredity. Its what makes each of us ‘one of a kind’. I propose that, in business, to succeed in the long term, you need to be ‘one of a kind’ as well. I’ve created a process to help a business develop their DNA using what I call the Seven P’s… (1) Purpose (2) People (3) Pain (4) Promise (5) Proof (6) Positioning and (7) Packaging. In future articles I will go into more depth for each topic. Stay tuned!

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DNA – The Evolution of The Unique Selling Proposition