From big brands to small, from corporate brands to personal branding - it's the brand that's the key. Although the name of your business and your logo on your business card and letterhead are part of branding, it is much more than that. Branding is about lots of little things adding up to a tipping point where amazing things can happen. To help get you started, here are 5 critical things you need to do to brand your small business:
1) Have a Professionally Designed Website and Logo
When it comes to marketing and brand recall, a unique logo and well designed website work best. Search the net and find sites that are either your direct competitors, or are in your industry. Take note of what you like and don't like. When you find a site that really knocks your socks off, that's the designer you want to build your site. Oftentimes there will be a link to the designer somewhere on the home page. If not, a query to the site owner will get you the contact info.
2) Your Domain Name Should Be your Website Name
Naming a site after its domain name is important, for the simple reason that when people think of your website, they'll think of it by name. That's what they'll first try in their browser. It is also the easiest thing for them to remember, and whatever that is easily remembered, will be more likely to be tried out than an obscure domain name.
3) Optimize your Website Using Search Engine Optimization
The easiest way to increase your organic search results are making sure your site has plenty of keywords. Use a keyword as part of your domain name, or if that isn't possible, at least put them as part of the title of your site. Keywords that are a part of your heading tags (h1, h2 etc) receive a higher ranking than the keywords that are just a part of your text.
Incoming links from authoritative sites also boost your page rankings. You can get these by asking for a reciprocal link, or writing a comment on a blog or forum and including a link back to your site. Make sure your comment adds to the discussion and isn't just a half-hearted attempt to get a free link.
4) Make Sure your Advertising Represents You in a Professional Way
As a small business owner, you don't have a marketing department that generates new ideas to help grow your business. As a way around this, find a good promotional consultant who is willing to become part of your marketing team. A good promotional consultant should take the time and energy to research and cull through the thousands of promotional products available and suggest the very specific ones that best represent you, your business, and your goals. Your promotional consultant's job is to make you and your brand stand out and look good to your clients.
5) Maximize your Logo, Minimize your Ego
Pepsi and Nike already have the brand recognition where they can spend their marketing dollars on "ego advertising". As a small business owner, there's no room for ego. Your marketing efforts should be used to tell prospective clients who you are, what you have to offer, and where to find you. One of the best ways to do this is hand out promotional products that look good, have a high-perceived value and are useful to your client. A good promotional product consultant will help you choose the promotional items, within your budget, that will best represent your brand.
While there are many things involved with branding your small business, these simple steps should get you started, are not too expensive to implement and will greatly impact your business.
Darrell and Vivienne Houghton to speak to the Denver Voice Acting Meetup Group
In this special Meetup event organized by group member Vivienne Houghton and her husband, Darrell, you will learn some cost-effective and clever ways to keep your name "top-of-mind" with your past, current and potential voiceover clients. They will show you some examples of traditional promotional premium items such as customized calendars, clocks, pens and other business-oriented gifts that can be printed with your name and contact information. They will also tell you about their own experiences using free and low-cost publicity resources such as YouTube, on-line news release distributors, business websites and social networks.
Vivienne and Darrell are owners of Mango Bay Promotions, a promotional premium company they started from their home nine years ago. They recently started a second home business, Aloha Forwarding, a unique shipping service for residents of Alaska and Hawaii. Vivienne has previous professional experience in the advertising industry and Darrell also has a professional background in website design.
Parking is limited at the library, so plan a little extra time to find a space. You may park on the street in designated areas as well.
When
Saturday, June 6th, 2009 at 10:30am
Where
Schlessman Family Library Lowry
100 Poplar Street Corner of Quebec and 1st
Denver CO 80220
720-865-0000
Upstairs conference room
Download our presentation here.
There's no need to spend thousands on marketing. Maximize your marketing dollars by using these inexpensive yet useful promotional products.
Denver (PRWEB) July 23, 2008 -- Vivienne Houghton, owner of Mango Bay Promotions (http://mangobaypromotions.com), a promotional consulting firm based in Denver, Colorado, is passionate about promotional products. "Any business that isn't using promotional products," says Houghton, who has owned Mango Bay Promotions for over 7 years, "is missing out on the best kept secret in value advertising."
Houghton continues, "Promotional products are the only advertising medium that engages all five senses. Customers can see, hear, touch, taste and even smell them. Best of all, they're useful and very affordable." She stresses that it's key to give clients items that will be used and kept for a long time.
According to Houghton, promotional products will:
According to recent studies, 76.1% of respondents could recall the advertiser's name on a promotional product they had received in the past 12 months. In addition, 75.4% of respondents said they keep their promotional product because it was useful.
The following is a list of Houghton's top 10 favorite promotional products, with her comments.
10. Glow-in-the-dark nightlights and magnets: "Seeing your company information illuminated at night is fun, dramatic and different."
9. Wall clocks. "People refer to a clock several times a day. Excellent daily exposure to your brand."
8. Clipboards. "Huge imprint areas on a very useful office item."
7. Travel Mugs. "Coffee and tea drinkers are on the go and they appreciate their favorite brews kept hot in a quality spill- and leak-proof travel mug."
6. Sports Bottles. "Why buy bottled water? Save the environment and your pocket book. Refill a cool BPA-free plastic sports bottle. Or better yet, use a stainless steel one."
5. Notebooks. "Even in this digital age, people still like to write with pen and paper. Notebooks are kept for a very long time."
4. Reusable tote bags. "Help your clients save money while they save the environment. Many supermarkets take 5 cents off your grocery bill for every reusable bag you use."
3. Letter opener/staple remover. "You don't realize how useful these are until you can't find one right when you need to open up a huge stack of mail."
2. Prodir pens & mechanical pencils. "We love giving out Prodir pens with our Mango Bay logo. I've had clients call me up asking for another pen because a co-worker stole theirs. A promotional item reflects your business, so you don't want to give out a cheap pen that either breaks the first time a client uses it or leaks ink all over their new shirt. That's NOT the lasting image you want imprinted in your client's mind as your pen gets hurled into the trash. As Prodir so aptly puts it, 'Because a promotional product is always part and parcel of the message itself - and quality and creativity are the least we can contribute to the credibility of that message.'"
1. Calendars. "People refer to their calendars several times a day, everyday. What better way to keep your name in front of clients all year long for only a couple of bucks. Every year, clients call us to make sure that they're going to be receiving their Mango Bay calendar."
For a free marketing consultation, call Vivienne Houghton of Mango Bay Promotions at 877-98-MANGO (62646), or email her at mango@mangobaypromotions.com
