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Small Business Branding Advertising and Marketing an Oxymoron? Unless you're a ubiquitous consumer products company, the value of branding is far, far less than the value of direct response. What good is impressing someone with your brand if he or she never comes into contact with your business again? Why would they come into contact with your business again if you haven’t gotten a direct response? Branding is essential for Coca Cola and Microsoft and all the other consumer giants because they don't need direct response. Their offering is available every time you drive down the street, so burning their logos into your eyeballs will actually make you more likely to buy. But if you have to search out the business, having a logo floating in your consciousness won't be enough to motivate you. Even if branding alone could drive business, how long will it be before that logo or slogan or jingle has left your memory forever? A few hours? A day? One of the basic requirements for branding is repetition. Numerous repetitions. Like seeing the little Microsoft flag every single day, in the lower left corner of your screen, on your computer's case, in magazine advertisements and on television commercials. One visit to your website or one glimpse of your advertisement won't accomplish this—and remember, unless you have Microsoft’s budget, one exposure is all you’ll likely get if you don't get a direct response. In reality, even numerous exposures to your brand might not be enough. There's only so much room for logos in people's minds, and you've got an awful lot of deep-pocketed competition for that space. In contrast, if someone requested a whitepaper from you, or called in for more information, you would have their attention for much longer, even if you never followed up--which you could do, since you had their contact information. The Two Cases when Branding Makes Small Business Marketing Sense 1. When branding enhances direct response rather than detracting from it. Good branding enhances trust in your business. A good tagline, graphic design, and logo can also make it instantly clear what your business does, allowing users to go directly to your message without having to decide if you’re worth listening to. Simply put: if you’re a watchmaker, put a watch in your logo, and the word “watch” in your name and your tagline or slogan. When you’re selling services picking a logo can be trickier, but it can be done. UpMarket Content’s logo is a scroll and pen. Just make sure your logo communicates what you do, rather than something foolish like a black rocket for an advertising agency. Yet while branding usually enhances direct response, you should not hesitate to sacrifice branding if it hurts your response. If you find that a different tagline or font does significantly better in getting responses, run with them. 2. When you actually do have the opportunity to impress your brand on the same person dozens of times over the course of an average month. For branding to work, you don’t just have to maximize total exposures, but exposures to unique individuals. Let’s be absolutely clear: in terms of branding, exposing 1,000,000 people to your brand once each is infinitely less valuable than exposing 1,000 people to your brand 1,000 times each. You have to maximize exposures to the same individuals. Aim for a hundred exposures per individual if you want to really enter people’s consciousnesses. Of course, it may take far fewer than a thousand individual exposures. If someone is sitting in front of your branding advertisement for more than a few minutes, they may in fact be exposed to it dozens of times, each time their line of sight crosses it. But this kind of long-term exposure is likely going to cost you more. How can you ensure that your brand advertising will maximize your brand exposure per unique individual? Place your brand advertising where users will come back often to see it. For instance, a banner on a website that has a strong following of returning users, or an advertisement on the local diner's placemat. Even when branding does make sense, direct response will often also make sense, so you should combine the two if possible. For instance, at the bottom of a banner advertisement with your logo and tagline looming large, put a button labeled “get more information.” Or, underneath your businesses sign, put a telephone number with an offer to get more information. Because if they never visit or call, who cares if they have your logo burnt onto their retinas?
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Advice Home Business Technology Online Advertising Motivational Internet Marketing SEO Help Online Games Science Articles Happiness More Articles:1. How To Perfect Your Marketing Message! By Daniel A. Levis When it comes to your marketing message, the little things count. Trouble is, you’ll never come to respect how much, until you make a commitment to science.Let me ask you something. Do you practice Kaizen?Kai what?Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning gradual and orderly, continuous improvement. Sound like you?Or do you just wake up one morning & decide that you need to re do your site?Do you keep a diary?Not the Anne Frank kind, a chronological re… 2. Let Your Survey Write Your Business Plan By Catherine Franz Most entrepreneurs first write their business plan and then develop their services or products. This causes them to generate and fulfill a marketing plan that requires them to swim upstream using the backstroke. To save the stress, consider placing the business plan on hold until first completing a few customer surveys. Okay, some of you are saying, "Catherine, how can you do a survey before you know who your market is?" Yes, this is one ch… 3. Image is Key to Your Marketing Success By Debbie Dahmen In virtually any business first impressions are lasting impressions. Most people have heard this statement for years, and yet some people completely ignore the first impression they are conveying to potential customers or clients.Regardless of the industry you are in image is a part of your marketing. Take the real estate industry. An often-overlooked part of marketing is the image an agent projects. This includes marketing collateral, clothing… 4. Marketing On The Cheap: Become a Joiner By Floyd Snyder Recently I wrote an article on the benefits of joining your local Chamber of Commerce as a way of getting exposure for your business. See "Marketing on the Cheap: Join The What?" at this source or at http://sbmag.org. The Chamber of Commerce is or should be the number one organization in your area promoting business. Your involvement will help them indirectly help your business while giving you direct exposure to a large and viable market.Now l… |