Small Business Marketing Blog(412) 228-0504

 

How to Increase Brand Awareness for Small Businesses

Prospective customers can’t buy from you when they don’t even know you exist. Increasing brand awareness expands your reach, makes marketing campaigns more effective, and helps you grow your small business.

What’s the best way to increase brand awareness for a small business? Here are 10 smart strategies and tactics.

  1. Intuitive brand and clear message. From your logo, to your content, prospective customers need to be able to quickly understand what you do and associate your brand with your products and services. If people are confused and/or don’t understand what you do, look for ways to refine the way you’re packaging your business such as adding the right tagline that complements your logo and name.
  2. Consistent promotion. People won’t know your small business exists unless you put yourself out there. Find ways to consistently get your brand and your business in front of prospective customers so you are top of mind when they’re ready to make a purchasing decision. Even when things get super busy, you can’t go dark for weeks or months on end. Every little bit counts.
  3. Earned and paid media. With the continued popularity of social media and decline of traditional news outlets, small business owners often overlook earned and paid media—two avenues that can be highly effective at increasing brand awareness. Don’t just limit you’re your scope to newspapers—pitch your small business to relevant blogs, industry publications, and influencers that will help you reach your target audience.
  4. Programs and events. For many small businesses, there’s still no substitute for those face-to-face interactions that happen when you throw an event. You get to interact with current and prospective customers in ways that just aren’t possible from your website or on social media. Programs and events also give you a chance to scale your promotional efforts more than trying to reach customers one at a time. Speaking of current and prospective customers, don’t get so focused on reaching new customers that you forget to invite the people who have already bought from you in the past. Current customers need love too.
  5. Strategic partnerships. Identify small businesses that offer complementary products or services and look for ways to combine your audiences to grow your reach. Ideas are almost limitless. You can partner with local restaurants, breweries, wineries, or other businesses. For example, if you sell home audio products you could partner with a landscaping supplier and host an event about outdoor theaters.
  6. Community involvement. One of the things that differentiates small businesses from big box retailers and national franchises are their connections to the community. Get involved with your local Chamber of Commerce, participate on panels, give presentations, or volunteer. Not only are you giving back, but you’re also building brand awareness.
  7. Word of mouth/Referral programs. Empower happy customers to shout about your small business from the rooftops and even consider rewarding them for their efforts. At the very least, encourage customers to tell their friends and thank them when they do. If you want to go one step further, create a formal referral program.
  8. Blogging. Create interesting, relevant, and shareable content that you think people are likely to share with others. Blog content can not only help generate more traffic to your website, but it also gives you something to share via social media—which also can drive people back to your website. Focus more on quality than quantity. If your content doesn’t add value or get people excited enough to share with others, you’re wasting your time.
  9. Social media. Why isn’t social media higher on the list? True it promises the most potential when it comes to reaching your targeted audience. However it can also be a black hole—sucking all of your time and resources away without any obvious way to measure your effectiveness. The key is to not only focus on growing your audience, but also looking for ways to convert those followers into active supporters/buyers.
  10. Email marketing. Growing your email list is only the beginning. Increasing brand awareness requires activating those subscribers to 1) actually open your email 2) click on your links and 3) forward/share with others. Think strategically about what content is going to add the most value for your readers and make them more likely to share and then test different content to see what drives new traffic back to your website. Looking for more ideas, here are some helpful tips on how to grow your email list at events.

Brand awareness doesn’t happen by accident. To get your business noticed, you need to consistently get in front of your target audience. Whether it’s through events, social media, email marketing, or a mix of the tips above, you’ve got to make it immediately clear what your business does and why people should think of you when they need your product or service. Prospective customers have an infinite number of choices—increasing brand awareness will help keep you top of mind when they’re ready to buy.



The Secret to Great Brand Storytelling

brand storytelling

"I walked through a hardware store last night and I came across 50 brands I didn't know existed. They may be great products, but they're not great brands."

-Scott Bedbury, former marketing executive for Starbucks & Nike

Great brand storytelling helps define great brands. It pulls people in and keeps them engaged. It captures the heart and soul of your business. It’s reflected in your products and your packaging. And it’s one of the things that will help you stand out from those 49 other brands on the shelf.  

What’s the secret to great brand storytelling?

It all starts with understanding why your company exists in the first place. I know that might sound simple, but understanding and being able to effectively communicate it are two entirely different things.

Apple’s brand story was built around being rebels in the garage—something that helped immediately differentiate the company and the brand from the likes of IBM and all of the other “big corporate” tech companies for decades to come.  That story helped define who they were and what they were all about.

Only rebels in the garage would have had the guts to sign off on this now iconic commercial…

But being able to articulate the motivation and story behind your business is only a small part of the equation.

Great brands use storytelling to encompass so much more.

Your customers have a story

No, not just your typical case study where you talk on behalf of your customers about how great your products and services are and how they’ve helped them achieve their goals and objectives—I’m talking about giving your customers a chance to tell their own stories.

One of the best at this is intercom.io. I’m a huge fan of their blog overall but really like how they pull their customers in to share their own stories in their own words.

After a quick introduction from intercom, Kevin Rocci from Magoosh dives into how they’ve been able to use intercom’s Message Goals and A/B testing to successfully get more students to engage with their learning materials.  Powerful stuff.  Check it out.

Here’s another great example of a customer story from Fitbit.

Your products have a story

As a consumer and a marketer, I have to say this is one area where a lot of businesses really miss the mark. They talk about products without any personality or passion. They list features and specifications instead of linking their business story and their brand voice to their descriptions.

Just take a look at this example from ESP Guitars. Right out of the gate, you know guitars are their passion. That immediately helps to set the tone and elicit an emotional response.

brand storytelling for products, ecommerce product description example

You also they’ve got decades of experience and pride themselves on building some of the finest instruments on the planet—not just in their city, state, or country—the entire planet. That’s big. So much bigger than “We make guitars.”

You can find that same attention to detail around product descriptions for luxury sports cars like this one from Lamborghini.

Your employees have a story

If you can find a better way to tell your employee stories than this example from 4moms, I’d seriously like to see it.

They created a digital yearbook with photos and blurbs for every one of their employees. Are you kidding me? They also had some fun with it (see the photo spread for their legal team) which reflects their brand vibe and their corporate culture.

I also really like this employee spotlight from the folks at Schell Games.

What’s the secret to great brand storytelling?

It all starts with understanding the story of your business—why you exist and what makes you excited to spring out of bed in the morning—and permeates its way through all of your marketing messaging and consumer touch points.

It’s what creates an emotional connection with your audience and helps your business stand out from those 49 other brands on the shelf.

Who are your favorite brand storytellers?

Share your thoughts in the comments below including what you think makes them stand out.

 

[Image: Death to the Stock Photo]



Communicating Value To Your Customers

craftsmanship, communicating value to customers, luxury products

Why is your product or service worth X amount of dollars? How would that answer differ if you asked current or prospective customers?

There are an infinite number of choices out there. No matter how narrow your niche or specialized your offerings are, there’s a pretty good chance you are competing for the attention spans of your target audience along with countless other competitors. All the time. 

Why should customers buy from you?

It all comes down to value and your ability to articulate that value to consumers. I’m not talking about deep discounts or everyday low pricing—in fact far from it. There’s a reason why people are willing to spend $100,000+ on an S-Class Mercedes when they can choose between hundreds of other less expensive cars or pay a premium to buy their groceries at Whole Foods.  

Brand Value Transcends Price

Whether you spent 2 minutes, 2 hours, or 2 years bringing an idea to life, you can’t automatically assume that customers are going to appreciate the true value of what you have to offer. That’s one of the things the world's most valuable brands—brands like Apple, Disney, and Amazon really have figured out—they are able to align the things their customers value the most with the value of their offerings.

I’m talking about capturing the essence of what makes their products and service truly unique and communicating that essence consistently with their messaging, positioning, and their brands.

Brand Value Transcends Products

Don’t get me wrong, you have to have a great product.  If not, it’s going to be very hard to convince customers to give up their hard earned cash to buy whatever it is you’re selling. And even if they do, there is a pretty good chance they’re going to be very price conscious since they won’t have ways to differentiate your products or services from other like businesses.

But beyond the product, it’s really about the customer experience—packaging, product design, features, and the ability to address their need better than all of the other options they might be considering.

Articulating Value to Your Customers

  1. Be objective. You’ve got to have a thorough understanding of how your products or services are different from those of your competitors. Is it your design? Your attention to detail? Quality standards? Customer service?
  2. Get specific. Trying to communicate value by saying you offer a “quality” product probably won’t be enough. In most cases, that’s assumed. You have to take it further. Dig until you find those 2-3 core things that make your offerings unique.
  3. Once you understand your value proposition, think about how you can educate current and prospective customers with your messaging. What would you like them to know? What is going to be most important to them? Why should they get really excited about your latest product offering? How will it help them fulfill and make something better in their lives?

The higher the price for your products and services, the greater the need for alignment between the values of your customers and the value you’re bringing to the table.

Back to the Mercedes example, customers expect impeccable design, world-class performance, and incredible craftsmanship.

That’s what’s important to them. That’s what they value. And that’s what they’re paying for.

[Image: Flickr user col_adamson]



What Makes A Great Small Business Tagline?

small business tagline slogan

Does it feel like something’s missing when you look at your small business website or your business cards?

Do you find yourself answering questions from prospective customers who are either confused about what it is you do or totally unaware of your offerings?

If you answered yes to either or both questions, your small business could be a prime candidate for a new tagline.

Great small business taglines capture the essence of your business, creating the perfect one-two punch by working in tandem with the name of your small business to define who you are and what you’re all about.

What makes up the DNA of a great small business tagline?

Here are 4 must-have elements that will help you stay top-of-mind with your customers...

1. Articulate your value proposition

When it comes to great taglines that articulate a value proposition, you don’t have to look any further than Dollar Shave Club.

In just four words, they hit the nail squarely on the head by addressing two major pain points for their target audience—time and money. With “Shave Time. Shave Money.” they also used some clever wordplay that ties directly into their core service offering and their brand. Brilliant.

Dollar Shave Club small business tagline

2. Reflect your unique brand

If you don’t want your small business to look like everyone else, your tagline can’t sound like everyone else. Think of your tagline as another way to communicate the unique personality and voice of your small business.

Burgatory played off of their branding and the idea of sinfully delicious burgers and milkshakes with “Helluva Burger + Heavenly Shakes.” Totally unique while also straight and to the point. Helluva good tagline.

Burgatory small business tagline

3. Make it easy to remember

At the end of the day, if your tagline isn’t memorable it isn’t going work. You want it to be something that gets stuck in the heads of current and prospective customers and is immediately recognizable with your small business. Whether it’s funny, serious, or something totally literal, it’s got be easy to remember.

Soul Flower created a tagline "Cool Threads for Kind Heads" that captures the essence of their products (cool threads) and their target audience (kind heads). Although it’s only five words, they were also able to achieve a nice rhythm and flow—ideal for making their more memorable.

Soul flower small business tagline

4. Keep it concise

Now we get to the hard part. Your small business tagline needs to capture the essence of your small business—your offerings, your personality, your voice—and do all of that in seven words or less. Anything longer and things can get incredibly clunky.

TrueFit created a tagline using just two words “Enabling Innovation.” That’s about as concise as concise can get. 

TrueFit small business tagline

A great tagline captures the essence of your small business brand, reflects your unique personality and voice, and reinforces your product and service offerings.

In just five to seven words, the right tagline can help you stay top-of-mind with current and prospective customers.   

What makes a great small business tagline? Which are your favorites?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

By:

[Image: Flickr user SharonaGott]



Peek Inside Honest Tea’s Latest Buzz-Building Brand Campaign

Peek Inside Honest Tea’s Latest Buzz-Building Brand Campaign

Sometimes a campaign can be so simple, it’s absolutely brilliant. And that was definitely the case with Honest Tea.

Using the core of their brand (honesty) as a source of inspiration, they partnered with ad agency SS&K to dream up an ingenious social experiment to find out which city had the most honest people.

The response to their bold marketing move was overwhelming—280 million impressions, 160 press stories, and double-digit sales growth in each market. Even more impressive than the success of their campaign was how they were able to do it. 

Instead of sinking tons of money into traditional advertising, they placed 50 unmanned pop-up kiosks in over 30 cities across the country, with each location stocked full of Honest Tea and Honest Ade.

Each kiosk included signage to let passersby know bottles cost $1 and that payment was on the honor system.

Oh, and they also installed hidden cameras to catch all of the action (and data—we’ll talk more about that later) and posted the videos on Youtube.

In other words, they got creative.

And that creativity is what got them noticed. For small business owners, their campaign is a great example of just what you can accomplish without having to break the bank on advertising.

Sure Honest Tea probably spent a pretty penny given the scale and scope of their promotion, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something similar in your local market.

Honest Tea could have just stopped with the pop-up kiosks but they didn’t. They also decided to compile the information they collected from those hidden cameras to create an “Honesty Index” that ranks cities based on—you guessed it—the honesty of their residents.

Honest Tea 5 Most Honest Cities in America Infographic

They even launched a “National Honesty Index” website. Absolutely brilliant. That got even more people talking about them and helped to propel their campaign onto a national stage.

What about you?

How might you be able to use good old-fashioned grassroots marketing to involve your audience and generate some buzz? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

By:

[Images: Honest Tea]



More Entries »