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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. Seecrets On Website Promotion: Marketing Plan For Joe Nogood Gift Store Joe Nogood owns a small but thriving gift store. He is middle-aged and he dabbles in the stock market and has survived some major crashes in his time. He is an expert on gifts, having learned the skills over the years. There is only one word to describe him, ordinary.Joe has been studying the internet for months, surveying the battlefield, as he calls it. One day, he declared to Stan, his longtime buddy. 'The dotcom bubble has bottomed out, I see… 2. Are You Playing Checkers or Chess? By Kelly O'Brien When you think about how to attract more clients for your professional services, are you playing checkers or chess?You're playing checkers when you...* Attend a networking event and expect it to generate business* Invest thousands of dollars in direct mail and expect prospects to eagerly call about your services* Treat your vendors poorly by not paying them on time or not communicating with them in a timely manner* Misunderstand the differences… 3. How to Keep Your AdSense Account From Being Nuked by Google There have been whole AdSense accounts bringing in $5000 per month banned for life from Google because of fraudulent clicks. If Google catches you clicking on your own AdSense ads, they can shut you down.You won't get canned just for a single click, but if you're like me and tweak your site a lot it's only a matter of time before you click on one of those things by accident.The way I keep this from happening is I temporarily block the domain name… 4. Ten Ways to Market Your Business by Doing What You Love To Do By Alvah Parker Most business owners get so involved in the work of the business that there never seems to be enough time to do the necessary marketing. Even when business is good the owner must continue marketing because if he/she stops, the business eventually will stop too. Marketing your business simply means to nurture good relationships with your customers and potential customers so that they will buy from you again or they will refer you to others. Th… |