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Market a Brand Consumers Will Come Home to

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work smarter advice - words in vintage letterpress wood type bloIn today’s world of B2C marketing, it is imperative that businesses do their utmost to get their brands properly marketed.

That said some companies are literally dropping the ball when it comes to telling consumers why the brands they have offer the public are light years better than the competition.

So, what are you doing to go out of your way to market your brand properly?

Whether it is more along the lines of traditional marketing methods, perhaps leaning more for mobile and social media marketing, there are myriad of ways to get your brand heard and recognized.

At the end of the day, the goal should always be to market a brand consumers will come home to.

Get Your Message Out There

In order to have your brand stand out from the competition, make sure you are doing the following:

  1. Properly planning – Your first and foremost objective is to make sure you are properly planning any and all marketing initiatives. For example, if your company’s main offerings are home renovations and other home improvements, be sure your marketing efforts are geared towards the right demographics. While some senior citizens later in years do in fact make notable renovations and/or additions to their homes, many of them are content with what they have at home or are renting properties (senior center apartments or condos etc.). As a result, they’re not going to be your primary source of business. On the flip side, people who are either moving into an older home that needs work or consumers looking to upgrade the homes they have had for a number of years now, these would be some of the individuals/couples you want to target. Having done your research will help you in more effectively targeting the right audience;
  2. Imagery is key – Even though information etc. is certainly important in the area of home renovations and additions, the impact quality imagery has can’t be overlooked. Whether you are Utah web developers or another such brand, showing consumers images that can’t be beat will help you in landing more business. This is where both your website and a quality social media presence are so important. Be sure your website is chock-full of imagery, imagery that shows how quickly a residence can go from looking rather ordinary to looking quite extra-ordinary. That imagery should also be shared on social media sites, especially ones like Instagram and Facebook, both of which are great for telling a story through pictures;
  3. Providing unparalleled customer service – Where are you when it comes to providing customer service? This is one of the critical elements of being a successful brand, so don’t take it lightly. For example, consumers may come to you in-person or via the web to ask questions about home improvements. Don’t use the opportunity to try and push a sale down their throats, but instead use it to not only educate them on the best ways to go about home improvements/renovations/additions etc. but also to show that their interests are your interests too. By being there to answer their questions and give them the information they were hopefully looking for, you potentially gain their trust. Once that is gained, the door can quickly swing open to be a potential business-customer relationship for many years to come.

While sound marketing is not rocket science, it does take some effort and ingenuity, both of which should always be two staples of your business approach.

In the event your brand marketing techniques have been coming up a little short as of late, there is still plenty of time to change course, giving you the opportunity to make headway with consumers.

Some brands naturally sell themselves; others need a little extra push.

If your brand is one of those that needs a little extra kick in the pants to secure more business, don’t be afraid to step outside the box with your marketing initiatives.

Whatever you can do to secure more business, make sure you are doing it.

When consumers know your brand is the one that offers them the most, they are certainly more apt to come home to you.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

Four steps to your best day ever

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“Make 2015 your best year ever!”

All of the confetti has landed on the ground. January is in the rear view mirror, and if you aren’t paying attention, the first week of February is almost done.

confetti on the ground

Did you have big planning sessions the week before New Years? Did you set up your new calendar, your new systems, new routines?

Many of us do that, and by the first week of February, some of it has begun to crumble already.

But let’s not sit around being depressed. Let’s switch our thinking up a bit.

What if we applied the “best year ever” thought process to a single day?

What if we decided to wake up tomorrow and focus on making it a success?

Here are some typical planning steps for an “annual planning” session:

  1. Set aside time to dream and visualize.
  2. Decide what you intend to do and why you intend to do it.
  3. Break the goal down into manageable steps with a timeframe.
  4. Take action immediately.

That looks a lot like a perfect day, doesn’t it? Let’s re-frame:

  1. Use your first 30 minutes to visualize the day and let creative juices flow, without external interruption.
  2. Decide what you intend to accomplish that day, and think about why you intend to do it.
  3. Choose which steps you want to advance on that day, and schedule them in.
  4. Take action immediately.

It’s still necessary to do the annual and quarterly planning. However, those longer-term plans are much more likely to happen if you get in the habit of a daily refocus.

Don’t forget to include all aspects of your day in the plan.

When you set your intentions for the day, you should incorporate your afternoon run, your manicure, your visit with a sick friend alongside the business luncheon, the copywriting, and the pitch meeting.

How do you make sure that your days are moving you toward a successful year?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: AndrewButl3r via Compfight cc

If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’ll Never Get There

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By Jennifer Dunn

Where is your business headed in 40 years? Yes, that question probably sounds ridiculous to you right now. You’re busy trying to survive another year, month, week or day, or even attempting to get your business off the ground in the first place. At what point are you supposed to think about 40 years in the future?

Honestly, you should be thinking about the future, because it will be here at some point. While you may not have to specifically worry about 40 years ahead, you should be considering where you want your business to be. If not, it could lead to some pretty bad situations for you that could lead to the demise of your business.

If you don’t have a plan for your company, it’s like it’s a plane without a destination – you can fly high for a while, but at some point you have to come down. If you don’t know where that is, you could be in for a rough landing.

Goals and Vision

Everyone has a vision for their business as well as a reason for getting into business in the first place. This reason could be absolutely anything – you wanted to spend more time with your family, or had a great idea for a product, or wanted to escape the rat race. It could even be to prove to yourself you could do it.

There is no wrong or right answer here. Your reasons are your own. The point is you have to honor those reasons and your vision for your company. If you don’t, you could end up with a monster you can’t control.

For example, let’s say you wanted to never compromise your product line as you believe it can change the world. It’s a lofty goal, but a great one nonetheless. Now let’s say you have an opportunity to sell your company to a bigger company. At some point you may realize the big conglomerate wants to change your product. Now you have a big problem – do you choose the money or the reason you went into business in the first place?

Find Your Destination

While this initially may not seem like such a big deal, eventually moving away from your original goals could lead to a point where you abandon your business. If you struck out on your own to spend more time with your family but you let your company get so big that you no longer have no time for them, you’ve defeated the entire purpose of starting your company.

This is why it’s important to look toward a destination for your company. If you have a place in mind for your company to land, you can make better decisions that will keep you happy and invested in your business. Even if something unexpected pops up you’ll be able to handle it with ease as you know where you want to end up.

Keep in mind this destination and your goals may change. You may start out wanting to make a ton of money and get rich but switch it later on to just being comfortable and being happy working on your own. Again, there’s no wrong or right answer – just make sure it’s what you want for your business and yourself!

Where are you heading?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.

The Connection of Strategy to Tactics

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By James Ellis

In a previous post, I suggested that strategy was the achievement of our intended purpose in a given context. Strategies can’t be plans or just “smarter thinking” because that relies too much on a specific context. Context changes every second, so a plan that relies on it is doomed.

However, achieving an intention is a vague and perhaps even dubious sentence. It’s all well and good to say you’ll achieve an intention when you don’t have to say how. That’s where tactics come in.

The word “intention” is probably the most important because it allows you to align all your tactics to help you achieve that goal. Or, more interestingly, all your reports to determine the right tactics on their own.

We live in a world where you might have access to a digital specialist, a media specialist (a digital media specialist, maybe), a social specialist, a content specialist, an even specialist and a PR specialist. This world exists because each one of those ideas is a full-time gig requiring a lot of specialized knowledge. No one person can do it all. Not even you. So you need to lean on these experts to help you achieve your intention.

But you can’t just tell these specialists what to do. Remember, they know their jobs better than you know their jobs (that’s why you pay them). So you have to help them understand your intention (strategy) so they can build out tactics.

This feels scary. You are entrusting others to achieve execute strategy. But that’s the only way to achieve your success in the face of such a specialized world with so many interconnected moving pieces.

Why do this instead of just getting them all in a room so you can make a plan? When, aside from the sheer cost of that meeting, that plan will be almost impossible to implement. Remember, your own staff will constitute your context. Implementing a media plan will change the context and affect the plan. Even if you can lay all those moving pieces out, what are the odds that they all execute perfectly? What happens when your live event gets pre-empted or changed because of forces outside of your control? That might render your own plans worthless or even counter-productive.

Managing the strategy still gives you a higher-level view of the situation. You can see that things are shifting and relay information to the rest of the team.

You can’t rely on planning for every contingency because you will never anticipate them all. Instead, focus on your intent, relaying it to your staff, and let them make decisions. They are your experts. A plan locks players in place, without giving them the flexibility to deflect losses or take advantage of unforeseen opportunities. For example, when your social expert sees an opportunity to newsjack a story and build more buzz, You can’t have built a plan around that. And you’ll have to react quickly to take advantage of the opportunity, so bringing the full team together to change the plan around will be the same as throwing money away.

This is why building your team is crucial. Your job isn’t to do their job. Your job is to help them achieve your goal.

Author’s Bio: James Ellis is the Director of Digital Strategy at FLIRT Communications. His latest book, Google Analytics for Small Business is currently in beta. He’s giving away discounted copies if you are willing to help make it even better.

Business Success: Power of Negative Thinking?

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By Deb Bixler

If you are looking for home business success, then you start to realize that there is power in everything. People believe in the power of positive thinking and everyone understands that knowledge is power. But would you believe it if you were told that there is power in negative thinking as well?

To find home business success, you should not dwell on negative thinking for too long. But since it is inevitable that you will come into contact with people who are always looking at the down side of any issue, you should learn how to cultivate the power of negative thinking.

It Forces Alternatives

goals for success

The great thing about people with negative attitudes is that they are always looking for a way for something to fail. Before you roll out an important plan or program that will cost your company a lot of money, give the idea to a negative person. He will start poking holes in the plan and find ways that it will fail. As long as you are taking notes, you will have all of the information you need to find ways to fix the plan or offer alternatives to make the plan stronger.

Negative Thinking VS Positive Thought

Sometimes sharing your thoughts and business success strategies with negative people you will learn how they will be received in the market place.

If you have a marketing plan you are ready to roll out but you are unsure of some of the ideas or theories you have in the plan, then run it by a negative person. If anyone is going to put your theories to the test, it is someone who wants to see them fail.

If your theories and ideas hold up against a negative point of view, then they are very strong.

Success Plan

When you are putting together any kind of business success plan, you always try to consider as many options as possible. Negative people love to turn the presentation of ideas into a game of “I bet you didn’t consider this.” When you spend some time reviewing your plan with a negative person, you will eventually consider all possible options.

It Tests Your Resolve

Nothing tests the resolve of a human being more than the power of negative thinking. Just when you think that you have everything figured out, a negative thinker will find a reason to have you start all over again. If you can stand the kind of scrutiny that comes from a person who is always looking at the world from the negative side, then your resolve is strong enough to succeed.

There is a power to negative thinking that, if harnessed properly, can work to your advantage. You do not want to develop the habit of being someone who is perpetually negative. But if your ideas and plans can withstand the kind of microscopic scrutiny that a negative person will give them, then those plans are ready to become part of your company’s business culture.

Author’s Bio:
Deb Bixler retired from the corporate world using the proven business systems that made her a success working for others by incorporating them into her home business. In only 9 months Deb replaced her full time income with the sales and commissions from her home party plan business. Find her on Twitter at: http://www.Twitter.com/debbixler

Embrace the Chaos

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Rosemary O’Neill

The best (and worst) part of being an entrepreneur or small business owner is the sheer unpredictability of day to day life. Planning anything is tricky when you have no idea what’s going to happen next.

Welcome to life as a glamorous business person!

There’s a scene in the movie Parenthood in which the grandmother reflects on life as either a merry-go-round or a rollercoaster. Later, Steve Martin’s wife (played by Mary Steenburgen) tells him that she “loves the rollercoaster.” He’s worried about everything that happens, and she is excited by the thrill of not knowing what’s around the bend.

If you can’t embrace the chaos, you should not own a business.

So how can you cope with life’s curveballs?

  • Go ahead and make strategic plans for 3-5 years out, but also incorporate flexibility. Revisit your plans routinely and update them to account for changes.
  • Create some very short-term plans as well. Do you know what you want to accomplish this week? This month?
  • Make sure you have activities that you love outside of your business. Don’t sleep with your phone under your pillow. Leave a zone of peace that you can escape to when the rollercoaster takes you upside down.
  • Keep friends close to you who will support you when things get scary. Business is unpredictable, but a strong network of “people who won’t let you fail” offers a refuge of comfort so that you can carry on.
  • Remember that chaos works in both directions—if today’s surprise is a total disaster with your shipping, tomorrow’s surprise could be a big new customer inquiry.
  • Have standards, routines, and training in place to make sure that the little things are under control (or as under control as they CAN be). You shouldn’t have to be reinventing the wheel every day.
  • Find a way to keep it all in perspective. Volunteer for a non-profit, look out at the ocean, stargaze, find a touchstone that will show you your place in the universe on a regular basis. It’s easy to start thinking that if the FedEx doesn’t arrive on time, all is lost. Step back in humility once in a while and realize the true importance of things. Let your dog lick your face, kiss your son or daughter.
  • Don’t surround yourself with people who live in chaos on purpose. You know them, right? They carry a cloud of disaster around with them, and they attract it. Keep those people at arm’s length and maintain your sanity.