4 Key Points To Branding Your Business

Here are four things you should keep in mind as you build your company’s brand:

1)   Own the “Significant Thing”:  Don't try to be all things to all people. Spend your time focusing on a single clear message.  Mercedes-Benz owns “Engineering" in the car industry because it’s focused on that singular message for decades.

2)  Consistency is key:  consistent presentation will ensure that your customers recognize you. Be consistent in the use of logos, taglines, visual elements, tone, and ad copy.  Coca-Cola it is one of the most recognized brands in the world because they haven’t changed in decades.  Make sure your brochures, website, Direct mail, and all the other advertising have the same feel and message.

3)  Make your message relevant:  know your audience, know what they care about and how to speak to them.  Make sure what you sell is what they need.  Remember the conversation should always be about your audience, not you.

4)  Use a strong offer to motivate:  you want your audience to remember you and you want its members to buy from you.  You need to move them to action.  A strong offer should give them a reason to buy.  Make the offer clear and appropriate for your brand.

Every time a customer comes in contact with your brand, they will have either a positive or a negative experience.  Those experiences will add to their perception of your brand.  Those experiences are recalled later when it’s time to make a purchasing decision.  How do you want your brand to be remembered when the time comes for a prospect to buy? You need to start building that positive perception today and do whatever is necessary to maintain it.

Good luck.

Riche Life Media

How To Convert Traffic With Video Marketing

Using video marketing to drive traffic to your website, and help convert that traffic into opt-ins for your email list or paying customers is becoming more popular all the time. With a video you are able to capture the visitors attention much more quickly than with the written word. Combining a great written title, with a great video allows you the best of both worlds.

Of course, as with all things, there are some important tips you need to keep in mind in order to be able to capitalize on this trend.

1. Your videos should be no more than 3 minutes long ideally, 5 minutes max. It's a sad truth  but a lot of online surfers just don't have a long attention span.

2. Do your keyword research. Find out which keywords are being used by prospective customers when searching for your product or service. Use those keywords in the tags and title of your video. Doing so will allow your video top billing in search engine results for those keywords which means you'll get more people watching and, if you've done it right, more visitors to your website.

3. Whenever you are marketing you have to test. You have to changes things (only one thing at a time so you can pinpoint what caused the change) and see which version produces the best results.

You could experiment with the title of the video. Than you might want to see if a shorter video works better, etc. This will allow you to find just the right combination and create a monster, traffic pulling video.

4. With any kind of marketing, consistency is the name of the game. Don't throw up a few videos and then move on to something else. Put up a string of informative, well made videos on a consistent basis and people will make a point of checking out what you have to say.

One word of caution, don't mistake quantity with quality. It's important to be consistent but if the videos you are putting up don't offer any real value to your subscriber or visitors, they will just 'change the channel'.  Offer them something that can really benefit them.

And don't forget to appeal to their emotions. Remember, people buy with emotion but they justify it with logic. Whatever you are selling, don't rely solely on facts and logic, that's cold and doesn't work. You do need to provide some features of the product but you also want to make it emotional.

So instead of just saying "my dog training video will teach your dog to come when he is called" add something like "so you can take him with you anywhere and spend more time with him without the embarrassment of having him run around out of control"

That provides both the feature, teaching your dog to come when he is called, as well as the emotional benefit of that feature, not being embarrassed by an unruly dog.

Video marketing is an important tool in your marketing efforts. Take the time to tweak your results and you could be sitting on a gold mine.

Riche Life Media

The Top Methods Of Networking In Business

If you’re networking with strangers, you’re wasting your time. A consultant friend of mine recently complained, “I’m doing 2-3 networking events a week – and I’m worn out.” When I asked why she felt networking was important, she replied, “One of my marketing goals is to do at least 1 networking event a week.” (I pointed out that she just admitted to doing 2-3 a week – and perhaps doing 1 a week is smart and doing triple that goal is causing some of the fatigue.) But there’s much more to the great American business myth of networking.

Myth 1: The more you network, the more effective your networking activities become.

Truth 1: It’s much more important to become well-known in 1-2 circles than to spread your networking activities over many different groups. Depth beats breadth every time.

I then asked her how networking was working for her. She said, “I don’t think I have gotten a shred of business out of it in the last six months.” Her rationale for doing networking: “Everybody knows that you build a business by networking!” Does this make any sense? Or worse, does it sound familiar?

See if this networking scenario has happened to you:

You meet someone for 30 seconds. They mumble something about real estate as you are tuning them out. They ask you what you do, and you say you are in insurance. After 10 seconds of staring blankly at each other, you both head to the celery sticks for lack of anything better to do.

Myth 2: The cocktails and miniature wiener circuit is the way to network to success

Truth 2: Networking with strangers to build business is about as effective as going to a bar to get married. In the words of Dr. Phil, “It simply ain’t gonna happen that way.”

Here’s why you’re not going to meet your business soul mate at a networking event:

1)  You aren’t going to do business with someone after meeting them for a few minutes and getting handed a poorly printed card.

2)  Businesses are built on relationships and not “30-second commercials,” no matter how effective and intriguing.

3)  Most of us have major trouble in explaining what we do, much less getting past that explanation and listening for what prospects need.

4)  Networking with strangers is not targeted or specific and in fact is completely random. For some people, networking is exactly as effective as cold calling, which is the least effective marketing tool there is.

So am I saying that networking is a waste of time? Absolutely not. What I’m saying is you need to start networking smarter.

Here are a few thoughts to jog your noggin:

* Network by having coffee or lunch with people one on one. Get to know them and their business. They may become a prospect, alliance partner, or referral source. But aim first and foremost to make them a friend. The rest will follow naturally.

* If you’re going to network with strangers, go with the goal of making 2-3 lunch or coffee dates with people you find interesting.

* Ask every happy customer you have (they’re all happy, right?) for just one referral of someone who would be interested in your type of goods or services, then call and use their name. (“Hi I’m Fred and Ginger said I should call you. Isn’t Ginger great?”) You already have one thing in common – Ginger!

* Create a network “hit list” of the exact kind of businesses you want to network with – maybe you sell software and you want to meet IT managers at medium-size companies. Make the list and put it in your little black book or iPhone. Focus your networking and outreach activities on only those people – or others who can refer you to those people.

* Join non-business groups and spend time doing non-business activities: Civic, social, religious, recreational, musical, athletic... the list is endless. Establish relationships with people in your group. Perhaps you’re a Moose and a realtor. A Moose, as it turns out, wants to by a house from another Moose. If so, you have the Moose Market cornered! Are you into hand-drumming. Guess what? A hand-drummer will want to do business with another hand-drummer. Get it?

* If you do go to a “mixer” go with a targeted goal in mind. For example, your goal might be “to meet three people on my target list and get their card so I can follow up for breakfast, lunch, coffee or badminton.” A traditional “networking event” now becomes simply the first phase of your targeted plan for global domination, and not an end in itself.

Here’s a final thought to shake up your networking mindset: Network with people who already know you, like you, or have done business with you.

Myth 3: Networking is all about getting more people to know what you do.

Truth 3: Networking is all about getting people that already know you to share opportunities where you can be helpful to each other.

Make 2-3 phone calls a day to connect with people from past jobs, former clients, or influential people who have expressed interest in you in the past.

We all have a “fan base” that we grossly under utilize.

Think about tapping into friends, colleagues, mentors, and family to mine the connections you already have at your fingertips.

So get out there and network – but make it worth your investment of time and energy by networking smart. As your mother always said, “Don’t network with strangers.”

Riche Life Media