How to Maintain Brand Identity When Your Business is Scattered Across the Internet

The explosion of social networking sites has made it easy for business owners to place their company in the thick of things.  Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter allow business owners to reach out to their clients in a more casual and relatable way.  While these mediums may allow for more personal communication, keep in mind that consumers face an onslaught from marketers and if your messages aren’t reinforcing your brand identity, you’re likely to be quickly forgotten.

There are quick and easy ways to create continuity for your business online, even if it spans across a variety of platforms.

• Rely on your logo. Your logo is the face of your business, so make sure it’s out there for people to recognize.  While it may seem like a fun idea to mix things up an use different images for different profiles, it will simply create confusion.  Make it easy for your customers to recognize you.

• Take advantage of the customization features.  Many of the platforms like MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo and Twitter offer you the ability to personalize your page – and this is another great way to reinforce your brand standards.  So while your customer may have found your business page on YouTube, they still can feel at “home” on a page that reinforces the themes, colors and images that represent your business.  Here are a couple of examples of pulling elements together for different platforms:
  • Historic Home Designer, Lynn Taylor: Taylor Made Plans.com, Myspace.com/TaylorMadePlans, YouTube.com/TaylorMadePlans
  • Capitol Recording Artist, Emily West:  Myspace.com/EmilyWest, Emily West on YouTube
  • Local Baking Company, East Side Cookies: EastSideCookies.com, ESC on Twitter

• Personalize your message.  The great thing about the social networks is that you have a very specific audience.  If you’re using an industry-specific networking site, customize your message to that market.  If your audience is in specific area, use Twitter or Facebook to target your message to those customers.
  • East Side Cookies uses their Twitter page and ESC on Facebook page to let customers in Nashville know where they’ve made the latest delivery so they can easily find the freshest cookies in town.

These are just a few starter tips.  Also sure to check out the help sections of the site that you’re using to see what other features they’ve created for businesses to have a more dynamic presence, and if you’d like more assistance, always feel free to contact us at Brady Mills Graphics.

Small Business Marketing in a Recession

View Brady’s online presentation about how to make the most of your marketing budget in the current recession. This video presentation includes tips for generating more quality leads utilizing online social websites. Watch the video here…

How Do You Get Shoppers to Open Their Wallets in Today’s Economy?

Consumers are spending less.  That’s hardly a novel headline in this economy, but just because spending is down, it doesn’t mean wallets are completely sealed shut.

Bazaarvoice commissioned a survey of 800 U.S. consumers to learn about what factors have the greatest impact on shoppers during the decision-making process.  Not surprisingly, 61% of respondents acknowledged that online resources can sway them as they’re making purchases.  Factors like “user ratings and reviews (77%), and recommendations based on other consumers’ purchasing or browsing behavior (66% and 65%, respectively)” played heavily into their final decisions.  This data reflects that word-of-mouth is alive and well online – even among people who may not even be on the same continent.

What does all of this mean for your site?

Make sure you’re allowing online shoppers to get involved!  Make it easy for them to leave reviews and ratings.  Incorporate systems that intuitively know when to suggest products or link to purchase histories of other shoppers.  Brett Hurt, founder of Bazaarvoice, explains it simply, “companies have a tremendous opportunity to provide online shoppers with authentic, user-generated content that is proven to build confidence, increase satisfaction, and drive sales.”

It’s an easy step that can have a far-reaching impact.  Work with your web designers to find ways to incorporate more user-friendly features and you may just find that you’re creating a loyal (and growing) consumer base.

If You’re Not Online, Small Businesses Are Missing Out on Local Customers

MarketingCharts.com posted a great article about a survey done by Webvisible and Nielsen regarding how consumers look for local businesses online.  The survey uncovered some insightful information about how small business owners are missing out on customers who may be just around the corner – but can’t find the business because they’re not online.

With 82% of respondents citing search engines as one of their main resources of information, the unfortunate news is that  “39% report frequently not being able to locate a particular known business.”  That means these people who may be searching for your business are stumbling on information about other businesses – likely your competitors.

There are simple ways to make a business more prominent online.  Take advantage of the free search services like Yahoo! Local or Google Local Business Center to post free local business listings.  Also check out how your business is listed with YellowPages.com or SuperPages.com.  Yelp.com has some great resources for business owners to manage their reputations on Yelp and with CitySearch.com, business owners can create profiles that help bolster their presence on the site.

These are just a few free resources that every business owner should take note of.  If you’ve got questions about other ways to bolster your online presence, check out our online marketing services at Brady Mills Graphics and give us a call or drop us a line!

Cost Effective Marketing Can Minimize Economic Distress

The concern of a recession is beginning to become a reality as businesses look to cut spending, decrease overhead and bunker down during the possible economic turbulence. Despite the old adage that it is best to spend your way out of a recession, many business owners are preparing to freeze their marketing budgets.

The good news is that cutting marketing budget doesn’t have to negatively affect the your bottom line. By diverting deflated budgets to more cost-effective mediums, companies can boost their marketing power while reducing advertising expense. There are low-cost solutions to fit a variety of marketing budgets, including email marketing, search engine optimization, PR, professional web presence, pay-per-click and mobile marketing, not to mention the value of ensuring good relationships with existing customers.

For most companies that weren’t open during the last recession, the impact of a struggling economy may be more difficult to handle. This is why it’s important for a company to have its marketing forces armed and ready, so if the recession hits they can immediately take charge and begin generating new sales. Preparedness is key to competitive advantage.”

The Direct Marketing Association estimates that email marketing ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent this year. When compared with traditional direct mail marketing, email marketing allows a company to reduce the production costs and focus more of their advertising budget directly on the consumer. Starting a direct mail campaign will incur significant costs and the response ratio is usually much lower than with online campaigns.

Moving your marketing budget online offers great advantages. With online marketing, a company can view detailed statistics about their campaign including how many people have opened their email, geographic distribution, click-thru-rates, ad effectiveness and conversions. Traditional marketing including television and print doesn’t offer this advantage. Close observation of these metrics help ensure the company receives premium ROI.

Developing a strong online marketing program allows companies direct interaction with potential customers and powerful marketing at a fraction of traditional advertising costs. Interactive marketing as an extension of a company’s current advertising efforts has proven invaluable in both strong and difficult economic times. Interactive marketing should be considered when business owners find economic impact is impeding their marketing budget.