Establishing Company Identity
Establishing your identity is very important when you are fighting for a place in a market or a certain niche. You may know exactly who you are but you need to get your name out there and for people to be aware of your existence also. There are many ways you can establish an identity in a local community or around the world.
Donations
Donations do you a lot of justice when it comes to establishing an identity around the local community and anywhere else. Many companies or non-profits offer plaques with your name on them, engravings in the wall, and other things when you donate money to them. This gives you exposure. When customers see your name as a company that made a donation, not only does it look good for you but it gets the company name out there permanently. This part of the branding process is important because it helps the business build credibility and trust with the customers in the market.
Investments
Investments are very important also. When you invest in a company it is important to be sure they are in the same industry as your product or service. Investing helps build a name for your company, give you more exposure and more. When you invest in a company, one of the agreements you can make when lending your money is that they provide exposure or advertising for you. Investments are very beneficial and help with the branding process.
Give Free Information
So many companies upset customers because they want to charge money for everything. This leaves a customer walking away with a bad taste in their mouth about you and only causes you to look dishonest or greedy. There are things that you can give away for free when it comes to information. There is no way you can teach a customer everything you know in just a few minutes of talking to them or in a few pages that they can read.
Many people practice giving tips and advice through flyers and brochures. You may want to place a few useful tips on the back of your brochure. This will help build credibility and trust with customers that you are not greedy and you are willing to help them achieve certain goals. It will also prove to them that you actually have the knowledge to perform certain tasks within your company.
You don’t have to reveal secrets of the trade but you can give out helpful information that is useful. Giving useful information may include offering tips and advice when you are out on a service call in a home.
If your company offers plumbing services and you are on a call that the customer has frozen pipes under their home then you may recommend they leave the water dripping overnight. This type of advice is useful to the customer and will help them not end up in a situation with a burst pipe. Although, continuous broken pipes may be a profit for you it is only one customer. You may think it will not benefit you to tell them how to avoid problems because then they won’t need you.
However, there are plenty of other reasons they can call you. Plus, you will be the person they will turn to any time they need something repaired. In addition, word of mouth goes a long way with customers and the customer may attract you plenty of business your way.
Adding Value to Your Business
When you are branding it is important to add value with everything you do. Adding value means making yourself valuable to the customers and the community. This may include giving out free information through tips and tricks, statistics, and other useful bits.
You can make the business more valuable by adding a little extra in everything that you do. A voice mail message might include a quick tip on fixing something or a way to prevent a computer virus. The signature on your email should contain more than your name, address, and phone number. You might include a useful sentence underneath that is a quick tip or useful bit of information.
Making yourself useful adds value to your business and to the customers. The customers need to believe that they need you and this is a part of proving to them you are useful and the best person to turn to when they need something. Getting Your Brand Out There So you have designed a logo, a name, a tagline, and anything else. Now you need to practice other methods to get your name all over the place. This can be done with clothing, pens, cups, and other paraphernalia.
Clothing is one of the best things you can get out there on people. If you design t-shirts with your company name and logo on them people will wear them. These should be free items that you give away to people as they visit your booth, table, or even take a survey.
You may offer the t-shirts to people if they give you feedback on their opinions for certain things. They may provide their information or email which also is a contact you just made. Always hold onto this information as you can use it in an email campaign. One thing to consider is that when you ask customers for an email address, always ask them if it is okay to contact them via email. Do not assume that it is okay or you may upset them.
One thing that is okay is sending a flyer, brochure, or coupon in the regular snail mail. Clothing works in many ways. People wear free t-shirts all over the world. They may travel to different destinations like a gym working out, a beach, or a fair. This is exposure for you for every person that sees this person. The more t-shirts you get out there the better for your business. One thing to keep in mind with printed materials as advertising techniques to spread the company name is that you want to create things that are useful for people.
A pen with your company name is more useful than a koozie. Pens will never be thrown away because someone will use them until the ink runs out. They are very cheap to make and easy to distribute. You can give a package of pens to a business that you know spends a lot of time traveling around the world. Before you know it your pens were left in meetings and other places and now you have people checking out your site from other countries. It is as easy as that when you distribute items with your company name on them. You have to get your name out there and create your popularity. You can do this by designing t-shirts and other useful things for the business.
Try to give these things away for free so you can have the best results with your branding. Also, make sure that the items created look nice and represent your brand as you want to be portrayed. Match the scheme. Get One on One with the Customers Getting one on one with the customers is very important. You need to talk to the customers and let them know that you are there for them if they have questions and that you really exist. Companies need representatives of a business so they are existent. It is hard for a business to gain exposure when they don’t have someone to actually talk to.
If your business targets a local community then it is important to get out there and talk to the community. Remember you are looking for the audience who is going to benefit from your product. These are the people you want to talk to.
If you have a business on the web then you will need to get one on one with the customers by providing access to a direct chat option. This gives customers a good feeling but they know that someone really exists. When you offer a direct chat they have the ability to contact a live person rather than talk to a machine. Customers despise machines, automated phone systems, and more. They will try to avoid them and it can give them a bad taste in their mouth about the business.
Try to be as responsive as possible with the customers. Local Business Events Other local business events are extremely important. Not only do you want to target your local or national audience but you also want to attend other business events. You may find a company struggling that may need your assistance.
You might find a company that you can work with together on a project in trade for advertising or even help you build your credibility. Local business events help you network in the big industry that you may be working in. It is important to talk to companies and let them know you are out there. Maybe you will recommend one company while they recommend you. Always talk to other businesses, let them know about who you are and what you are all about, what their benefit is by knowing you, and how you can help each other.
Give them something to remember you by and make an impact. When you attend events and network with other companies and people then you provide another form of advertising. Networking works very well because when someone does come across a situation where they could use your product or service they will remember you.
Creating contacts is a very big part of branding. It also helps instill your company name in the minds of people around the industry.
To Your Success
Tony Markx
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