Once a Day Marketing: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

How Insurance Companies Battle for Customers (Recon Thursday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Recon Thursday when I often share my thoughts on the real world of branding.

Insurance is big business and so is the advertising used by these firms to battle for mindshare and market share.

I took a moment to look at Progressive, Allstate and Geico. What comes to mind when you think of the advertising for each brand? Do you see Flo? How about Mayhem? Maybe the green Gecko? Of the three, which campaign do you think captures the most viewers on YouTube?

The clear winner is Mayhem followed by the Gecko and then Flo. In the case of Mayhem it's interesting to me that over 1.9 million people took the time to watch a 30-second commercial online, a clear example that social media is working for Allstate.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: The Brand War of Insurance Companies

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers. Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com. You may also contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Crafting Your Brand Positioning Statement Part II (Action Wednesday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Action Wednesday and we are concluding our two-part series on brand positioning.

Yesterday I defined a positioning statement and how it is the foundation to develop your branding strategy and tactics.

Today I provide a template for you to use to craft your own brand positioning statement. I also share the positioning statement for Once a Day Marketing™. The main thing to remember is that your statement is for internal purposes and will evolve over time as you continue to redefine such things as new target customers and the functional and emotional benefits of your brand.

For Action Wednesday craft your company’s positioning statement. Take your time, you might find this more challenging than you think.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Brand Positioning Part 2

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers. Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com. You may also contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™. All rights reserved

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Crafting Your Brand Positioning Statement Part I (Strategic Tuesday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Strategic Tuesday and I am starting a two-part series on brand positioning.

A positioning statement identifies your target customers and provides the compelling image of how you want customers in the marketplace to perceive your brand. I've talked about the importance of being number one in the minds of your target customers; that is the goal of your positioning statement.

A positioning statement is essential because it is the foundation for virtually everything else you do with respect to your marketing and branding. It drives your strategy and tactics. Having a great positioning statement will lead to better results in the future.

Today I define the elements of the positioning statement. Tomorrow I will look at crafting your actual statement.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Brand Positioning Part 1

Monday, February 25, 2013

Your People Make Your Brand (Smart Monday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Smart Monday and I am highlighting another important component of the 7Ps of Marketing, the people who represent your brand.

As your brand ambassadors, every person in your organization is a reflection of your brand. It's critical that your team members understand this important point. Hiring the best people is key. Continuous customer service training will also create a company culture where employees understand how to represent the brand in a positive manner.

Relationship marketing is another way to build a brand through your employees. Referred to as people 2 people marketing or P2P, the personal interactions by you and your team members with individual customers, vendors and partners create meaningful conversations and lasting impressions that elevate the strength and stature of your brand.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: People Make Your Brand

Friday, February 22, 2013

Exploring Social Media Marketing - Twitter (Digital Friday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and I am starting a series exploring social meeting. Part I is focused on how Twitter can be a great tool for creating awareness in the marketplace.

Twitter is a powerful real time information sharing tool allowing users to send messages or “tweets” of 140 characters. A message can be anything as long as it doesn’t exceed 140 characters.

Twitter can be utilized to follow businesses or individuals who provide interesting content that you would like to receive “tweets” about. Conversely, people (customers/potential customers) will follow your business because they are engaged in your content.

It is important to consider Twitter in some capacity as a marketing tool. Design cleaver ways to engage new customers and to share information about your company. You can start by looking me up on Twitter at @OnceaDayMkting, follow me and I will in turn follow you.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Exploring Social Media - Twitter

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Performing Your SWOT Analysis (Recon Thursday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Recon Thursday where I have you review your brand, industry and competition.

In my opinion, one of the best tools to accomplish this is through a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. There is a large body of information available regarding how to perform your SWOT analysis.

This exercise important because of the findings you may uncover. When you know your strengths, you can utilize them to strategically capture market share. Likewise, knowing your weaknesses enables you to shore them up before your competition tries to take advantage of them.

Identifying opportunities allows you to prioritize each one and allocate appropriate resource to benefit your brand and company. Lastly, understanding threats will allow you to develop contingency plans in the event a threat actually materializes.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Understanding SWOT Analysis

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Become A Marketing Expert (Action Wednesday/Position)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. It’s Action Wednesday and today I want you to make expanding your marketing knowledge a priority.

Like so many things, the concept of marketing is simple but it takes a lifetime to perfect. The more you learn about marketing the better strategy and tactics you will deploy to enhance the awareness of your brand, outmaneuver your competition and sell more product.

You're already following the Once a Day Marketing™ blog; that is one great way to enhance your marketing knowledge base. There are many other ways as well including fantastic books, seminars, webinars, podcasts, apps, LinkedIn Groups, videos, tradeshows and associations. The list is endless.

You may also seek out a marketing mentor or retain a marketing consultant. If you desire to be a branding and marketing expert, the information is available, become a student of marketing and absorb as much information as possible.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more about: Ways to Expand Your Marketing Knowledge

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Commit to Marketing Every Day (Strategic Tuesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Strategic Tuesday where I help you focus on your marketing strategy.

The funny thing about strategy is that it only works if you implement. This is certainly true when it comes to branding and marketing. I call action plans that aren't followed "shelfware."

One key factor to ensure a successful strategic campaign is to market every day. I know you're busy running day to day operations and putting out fires, and often marketing is put on the backburner. My recommendation for Strategic Tuesday is to commit to develop a schedule for daily marketing.

You have your marketing plan and the 7Ps of Marketing as your guide. Set priorities and chip away at the plan each day. The more time and resources you deploy the more results you will achieve.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Market Every Day

Monday, February 18, 2013

Refining Your Product Distribution (Smart Monday/Place)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Smart Monday and I am diving into another of the 7Ps of Marketing, this time Place also known as distribution.

You strive to produce a great product. Following the recommendations in our blogs, you also deploy a lot of resources to brand and market your product. Are you working just as hard to establish the distribution channels and outlets to enable your customers to easily locate and purchase your product?

Place is a key element of the 7Ps of Marketing and often overlooked. It's imperative that you make it as easy as possible for your customers to acquire your offering whether through a traditional retail outlet or instantly downloaded via a smart phone.

Review your current distribution channels and seek out new ones that make sense for your product and the type of customers you target.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Place Defined

Friday, February 15, 2013

Manage Complaints Well to Strengthen Brand Loyalty (Digital Friday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and we are going to discuss online shopping and how correctly managing a customer complaint can build brand loyalty.

According to eMarketer, Global e-commerce in 2012 was one trillion dollars. That's a lot of people shopping online. For the customer the experience is still a little bit like Forrest Gump and that box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get. So, how do you generate customer confidence when they buy a product online?

Let's take a look at an experience a friend of mine had this past week when she purchased four DVDs from Barnes & Noble. When the package arrived the contents had been crushed; as a result she was concerned about how Barnes & Noble would handle the return.

Barnes & Noble responded quickly to provide a pre-paid shipping label to return the damaged merchandise and then quickly sent back the replacement product so she would have the DVDs to enjoy.

The lesson learned from this customer service experience is to consider how you can handle complaints in a favorable manner to enhance the brand in the minds of our customers. Similar to the experience with Barnes & Noble, if you do it right you will have a customer who is more confident and loyal when buying your product in the future.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Marketing Best Practices (Recon Thursday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Recon Thursday and we are going to take a look at marketing best practices.

Marketing Best Practices are, very simply, those things that companies are doing from a marketing perspective that really work.

To identify these best practices, consider companies that you think do a great job marketing; perhaps Coca-Cola, Apple Computer or Ford. Create a list of those companies and then research their marketing, include channels, message and how they position themselves in the marketplace. Then, develop strategies that you would like to try for your own business.

There are no hard and fast rules for determining a best practice in marketing. Implement a marketing plan effectively given the resources you have; money, time and talent. Continuously review the plan and revise the strategies that aren’t producing results.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Marketing Best Practices

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Consistent Marketing Message Internally & Externally (Action Wednesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. It’s Action Wednesday and today we are discussing the importance of a consistent marketing message both inside your company and outside.

Every day we talk about branding and marketing. It’s critical for you to develop a branding and marketing campaign. Once the message has been created, are you ensuring everyone inside your organization is on the same page?

Remember, everybody in your company is a brand ambassador. It’s essential for them to be aligned with respect to the message you are sharing with the public. When customers comes in, phone or email, your team should be sharing the same compelling, consistent message that you are.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing video to learn more about: Sharing the Marketing Message with Your Team

Once a Day Marketing positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers. Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com. You may also contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Can you Succinctly Describe Your Brand? (Stragetic Tuesday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Strategic Tuesday and I wanted you to think strategically about the words you use to describe your brand.

Are you able to describe your brand in seven words or less? It's important to quickly tell people what your brand is all about. Sometimes you may only have a second or two to accomplish this task. It's challenging but you can do it.

I challenged myself for Once a Day Marketing™. My succinct description is: Enhancing brands through inspired marketing. That phrase captures the essence of Once a Day Marketing™ with two words to spare.

Now you take the challenge and let me know what your brand stands for. I should note that these seven words are not set in stone. As your brand evolves so will your description. A year ago I was using a different phrase to describe my brand.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Describe Your Brand in 7 Words

Monday, February 11, 2013

Endless Ways to Promote Your Brand (Smart Monday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Smart Monday and we are sharing another installment of the 7Ps of Marketing, this time Promotion.

From a branding and marketing perspective these are exciting times to promote your product or service. There are countless ways to blend traditional advertising with emerging channels such as social media to share your messaging and entice customers to seek out your brand.

With all these promotional possibilities it's important to remember that advertising is not about creating mass awareness but crafting relevant messages that will resonate with your target markets. This is a far less expensive proposition but requires a lot more strategic planning to identify the best channels to focus your marketing resources on.

As you develop your marketing action plan keep in mind reach, frequency and consistency and you will find that promotions will drive desired results.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Promotion Defined

Friday, February 8, 2013

Communicating With Customer via Social Media (Digital Friday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday where we explore our ever-evolving digital frontier.

There is much talk around social media and for good reason: it really works to build a brand, develop relationships and generate business opportunities. That is, it works if the campaign is managed properly.

One essential element is creating and sharing outbound content that will pique the interest of customers or potential customers. Equally important is responding to comments and thoughts shared by these individuals, good or bad.

When you establish a social media channel you give customers the opportunity to speak their minds. This is the power of social media: to actually communicate with customers. And if you listen to what they say you'll learn a lot about your brand and have a direct conduit to ongoing dialogue with your customers. That's how relationships are built and business is developed.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Social Media is a Two-Way Street

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Customer Smiles Build Brand Loyalty (Recon Thursday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Recon Thursday where I often share ideas to inspire your branding efforts.

When was the last time you made your customers smile by doing something unexpected for them? Has it been a while? You can really strengthen customer loyalty through a simple action.

Perhaps you give customers a thank you note or a token of appreciation for their business. Maybe you let them know you made a contribution to a charity on their behalf. What if you rewarded them with a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie for stopping by your business?

The goal is to put smiles on their faces through your action. You know your customers better than anyone; what you do to surprise them is up to you. The gesture doesn't have to be big or expensive as long as you create favorable impressions in their minds. Each unexpected smile builds brand loyalty.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Creating Brand Surprises

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Networking Generates Business Opportunities (Action Wednesday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Action Wednesday and I want you to promise to do one very important thing this year: network.

There are many ways to build your personal brand, in my opinion nothing works as well as networking. Meeting someone face-to-face is essential in relationship building which is the foundation for virtually all your future business opportunities.

I do a lot of branding and strategic work with communities. Last week I attended a networking event featuring chambers of commerce, municipalities and economic development groups from all over the state of New Mexico. In just a few hours I was able to meet many new people, discuss the needs of their communities, and exchange business cards. I now am following up on several potential projects.

For Action Wednesday commit to networking more this year. I know it will provide a great return on the time you invest.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Networking 101

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Creating Your Personal Brand (Strategic Tuesday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Strategic Tuesday and we are going to discuss creating your own personal brand.

Once a Day Marketing™ provides knowledge, strategy, tactics and inspiration to brand your product or service. In today's world it's just as important to brand yourself.

Every bit of advice we share through our daily blog about positioning your brand with your target customers can be applied to your personal brand as well. Companies come and go and so do brands, products and services. One thing that never fades away is your own personal brand.

In fact, your brand continues to evolve over time and it's imperative that you share your brand in the market place. When potential clients, peers, partners, etc., have a clear understanding of what your personal brand is all about, in essence what you are all about, it makes it easier for them to engage you for future personal and business opportunities.

With the advent of social media it's never been easier to shape and promote your own brand. For Strategic Tuesday devise your personal branding plan.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video to learn more: Your Reputation Proceeds You

Monday, February 4, 2013

Building Brand Through Pricing (Smart Monday/Price)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Smart Monday and we are going to dive deeper into the 7Ps of Marketing today visiting price.

Of all the 7Ps of marketing, price is the only one that drives revenue. The other Ps, while positioning you to profit, have a direct cost associated with them.

When you look at price you must consider supply and demand. Are there a lot of people chasing too few goods or a lot of goods seeking too few buyers? You also have to look at how your product is perceived in the market place and its position vs. your competition. Price also depends on how fast you want to move a product or penetrate a market.

Then you have to consider what I call the "reasonable test”. Just how much is your customer willing to spend to own your product or try your service? You might be selling a product at $15 a unit but your customer, based upon your value proposition and benefits they enjoy, might be very willing to pay up to $20.

Price is a key part of building your brand. Watch our Once a Day Marketing video to learn more: Pricing Approach

Friday, February 1, 2013

Blogging is a Powerful Branding Tool (Digital Friday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and I'm going to answer this simple question: Is blogging good for your brand?

The answer, at least for me, is a resounding "yes."

During this past 12 months I have posted approximately 270 Once a Day Marketing™ blogs and most of them were videos. Daily blogging has created a national presence for my brand, launched speaking opportunities, generated lead flow and project opportunities and developed a substantial network of global business peers.

Blogging isn't for everyone. Launching a blog is easy; maintaining a sustainable campaign is not. I have identified the 7Cs of Successful Inbound Marketing^© which include commitment, customers/clients, campaign, content, consistency, capture, and cultivate. If you neglect any one of my 7Cs your social media/inbound marketing campaign will not be successful.

For me, the benefits of blogging far outweigh the related costs and I encourage you to investigate blogging more in the future.

Watch our Once a Day Marketing™ video about blogging: A Blogger on Blogging