Internet Marketing Strategy
It’s the end of another year and we’re highlighting the best posts of 2009…(originally posted March 25, 2009)
On Monday, we talked a bit about various branding strategies and why you should consider picking one to help your business and marketing strategies. With each branding strategy comes both advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of.
So many of us are so busy running our businesses that we forget exactly who we are – what our company stands for and what we provide to our customers. This can lead to some huge business problems, such as branding and reputation problems, as well as not understanding where to spend money to reach our actual customers. Taking a few minutes to think about who you are - in terms of what your customer thinks, can really help you target the right audience with the correct message, saving you both time and money in the process.
We’re in the market for a financial advisor. Stop! Before you start spamming us with phone calls or emails – we’re not interested. What we’re looking for is a financial advisor that we’d feel comfortable going out to the bar with – someone who is recommended by someone else we trust. In this case, I don’t care what your resume is, or who your other clients are (unless I know them personally) or what they say, or what references you can provide. The service you’re selling is something that affects me personally and it’ll take several years before I know whether or not you’re full of it.
While I was teaching a Blogging for Business class out at Insights Group in Brighton yesterday, I mentioned that you need to be careful what you say online because it lasts for eternity (or you should consider that it does). People were pretty shocked to know that just because you delete something, it may still be available on the Internet somewhere.
There’s been much to do lately about the effect of personal branding on businesses and the importance of personal branding for small and medium businesses. I think both personal and business branding are important – and they certainly have an effect on each other. How much will depend on the influence and reputation of the brands.
Now, I’m not against personal branding, as I said it may offer some people that ability to create the best job going, but a business is an asset, something that gets more valuable over time and, here’s the biggie, can be sold. It is very difficult to sell a personal brand. Some of biggest personal brands you could name on twitter right now would be worth very little without the person behind the avatar. – John Jantsch – Business Isn’t Personal – Duct Tape Marketing
Businesses certainly can benefit from having a bit of personality. Customers want to have experiences, not just purchase products, and they want to interact with brands and businesses. As Scotty Monty, who works for Ford, said:
It’s a lot more difficult to screw a brand when there’s a real person that you know that’s associated with the brand.
Some of the most popular business brands today have strong personal brands behind them. Apple, for instance, is undeniably tied to the personal brand of Steve Jobs. But a personal brand is not the same as a business brand. While Steve Jobs may work for Apple, there is more to his personal brand than just a CEO. Apple is more than just Steve Jobs (at least, so the investers hope).
In an era when transparency is much easier, it is important to be aware of the effects of personal brands on business brands, and vice versa. What you say and do as a person is linked to your business, even if you’re building separate brands. What a company does while you own it can also be tied to your personal brand. Instead of a black and white division – there are many shades of grey.
(photo by Mister Wilson @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: brand, branding, branding strategy, business, marketing strategy, marketing
Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our weekly newsletter.
On Monday, we talked a bit about various branding strategies and why you should consider picking one to help your business and marketing strategies. With each branding strategy comes both advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of.
Whichever branding strategy you choose, once you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of each, you can take those into account when preparing your marketing strategies.
(photo by Sarah Jane @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: brand, branding, branding strategy, business, marketing strategy, marketing
Yesterday Jason Falls over at Social Media Explorer wrote a post about whether brands were playing favorites on social media. The problem is that many customers have problems, but often it seems that people who are influencers – who have a popular blog or twitter feed – will get responses from companies that normal people can’t seem to get through normal customer support channels. I commented that right now many of the people monitoring social media at companies are higher up and actually have the power to fix problems.
Why is this exactly? Why do people have to complain on Twitter or their blog or to their influencer friends to get their problems solved? Most of us have had an experience with a customer support system where the employee had to follow a script and wasn’t allowed to make any kind of decision. You usually have to try to get up to a manager or another department and even then there’s no guarantee that you’ll get any kind of decision.
What would happen if you allowed your customer support employees to make decisions? You’d have to provide them with some guidelines, obviously, but what if they could actually help your customers? Many years ago I used to work a few hours a week at Bed, Bath & Beyond (ok, mostly for the discount). They allowed their employees to give up to a 5% discount to any customer for any reason (usually having to do with a flaw in the merchandise). Do you know how happy it makes a customer when they come up to you to show you a flaw in a product, ready for a fight, and you just give them a 5% discount without arguing? How many of those customers were repeat customers? I’d imagine quite a few. I’m sure BBB made up the 5% discount with increased sales from happy customers.
All the employees at your company will influence your brand and reputation. If you give them the power to make decisions that help customers, it will only help your company in the long run.
(photo by dan taylor @ FlickrCC)
Technorati tags: brand, brand reputation, brand strategy, business, customer service, customer-centric, customer support, marketing, strategy
As a followup to yesterday’s post on online customer engagement, reader Sarah Woodbridge suggested taking a look at cScape’s report on Customer Engagement. The report is well worth a look (and it’s free!). They’ve been producing a report for 3 years so they have a bit of historical data as well.
Customer engagement is widely seen as a way of deepening and enriching a product or service offering and a method for gaining customer insight. – The cScape Online Customer Engagement Survey Report 2009
Here are some of the key findings:
Technorati Tags: online customer engagement, customer-centric,brand, branding, internet marketing, brand management, brand strategy, internet business strategy
My post about branding on Monday got me thinking more about branding. Many of our clients get very concerned about what they should do for online branding. I don’t think online branding and offline branding should be treated as different types of branding. Here’s why…
You may think you don’t have an online brand.
Even if you don’t have a business website or an online branding strategy, you probably already have an online brand. With publishing online being open to anyone these days, your customers are probably already talking about you online. You might be surprised what you find with a google search or two.
You are no longer sole keeper of your brand.
Because it is so easy for people to communicate and write online, your customers can say whatever they want to whoever they want about your company and products. Especially for expensive business products and services, people are likely to turn to co-workers and associates for opinions during purchasing decisions.
Offline branding impacts online branding (and vice versa).
Whatever you do offline affects your online brand (and vice versa), so managing online and offline should be part of one branding strategy. Keep both in mind while putting together branding and marketing strategies. All offline branding campaigns should include website addresses (preferably unique landing pages for tracking purposes). Use online branding to
Your brand is constantly evolving.
With online and offline branding feed off each other, your brand is now in a continuous evolution. Understanding how your brand is evolving should be part of your tactical, daily plans, so you can be a part of the evolution process.
The speed of change is increasing.
It used to be that you would have days to strategize PR to combat negative branding offline. Now, you need to respond quickly online, even if it just to say that you’re listening to concerns and will address them soon. Lack of response = negative branding.
The best way to approach online and offline branding is in one overall branding and marketing strategy because they are so intertwined. Viewing them together will present opportunities for positive branding influence and keep you out of trouble.
What are your experiences with branding? Please share in the comments below.
Related Posts:
Technorati Tags: branding, online branding, branding strategy, online branding strategy, internet marketing, internet business strategy
Digital Marketing & Strategy
Connect with Sazbean