The Faster Better Cheaper Way (Recon Thursday/Product)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and today is Recon Thursday.  I know you’ve all heard the expression: faster better cheaper.  That is what we are going to talk about today.

Just think how much more your customers and potential customers will appreciate your product and brand if you deliver faster, better cheaper.

Faster means getting product to the customer more quickly.  If they want your product and they can get it into their hands immediately that’s going to be a good experience.

Better.  Think about Procter & Gamble.  They’ve always said things like “new” and “improved”.  What can you do to make your product new, improved or somehow better in the minds of your customers?

Cheaper.  There are two elements to that, the price is lower or customers get more value for the same dollar.  Faster, better cheaper will allow you to enhance your brand and drive more dollars.

Look around your company for faster, better, cheaper opportunities.  You might use profit as a selection criteria as to which one you will pursue.  That will lead to an enhanced bottom line.  You may also consider the easiest or the quickest way to implement a faster, better, cheaper strategy.  Once you have accomplished the first strategy, look at another and over time you will be improving all three elements of your product.

That concludes Recon Thursday stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Speaking Out: Time to Go Public (Action Wednesday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Action Wednesday and we are going to discuss the importance of becoming a public speaker.

One of the best ways I’ve found to enhance my own personal brand is seeking public speaking engagements.  There are many organizations in need of professionals to speak to their audiences on a variety of topics.

What I like about this activity is that it brands you as an expert.  You will be in front of a large gathering speaking about a subject you are very knowledgeable of.  That enhances your brand.  Afterwards, you are able to make connections with people from the group.  Those connections may lead to business opportunities.

Ensure your public speaking engagement successful by selecting an organization that is a good fit between your content and the audience.  If you are a fitness guru it may not make sense for you to present to a group of triathletes who already know how to stay fit.

Develop entertaining and informative content.  You don’t want to be boring.  You want to make sure that everybody leaves the presentation excited about what they’ve heard and feeling good about the content.

Lastly, work the room so to speak, and identify opportunities to go out and present.

There is no real downside to public speaking engagements unless your presentation skills are not strong, however, with time and practice you will become a very good public speaker.   At a minimum, you will brand yourself, and that alone is a good thing.  You may also develop business following your presentation.  I am a big believer in public speaking.

That concludes Action Wednesday.  Stop by tomorrow for Recon Thursday. To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Managing Marketing Milestones (Strategic Tuesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Strategic Tuesday and we are going to discuss identifying your next marketing milestone.

I am referring to the short term milestones to accomplish that will put your company in a better position.  The question is, what milestones should you pursue?

From a strategic point of view, there are many goals to accomplished related to your marketing and branding.  Focus on identifying the marketing milestone most important to complete next.  It may be creating a marketing plan, improving your product, developing a new pricing strategy or, perhaps increasing attention around customer service.

List all the possible marketing milestones then, choose the one that is most important right now.  Pull a team together and complete it.  Then go back to the list, chose the next marketing milestone and finish that one.  Over time, you will find from milestone to milestone you are advancing your marketing and your company as well.

That concludes Strategic Tuesday, please stop by tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

You Can Brand Anything (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Smart Monday where we increase your branding and marketing IQ.  Today we’re going to discuss the fact that you can brand anything, and that means you can brand your business and products.

I’ve talked about branding on numerous occasions here at Once a Day Marketing. It’s imperative to develop a brand which creates an image that is #1 in the mind of your customer related to the benefits your product offers.

It’s important to have a brand that is perceived correctly so your customers seek it automatically when they are looking for that benefit.  If you don’t have a strong brand, you are competing on price and that isn’t a good place to be because the only thing that you can typically do with price is lower it.

Let’s look at a few products that have been branded successfully.  First consider Starbucks.  They have taken coffee, added an experience and delivered the message that Starbucks is the place to go when you want to have a great time sipping a cup of coffee.

Next we have Google.  There are numerous search engines available, but where do we go?  We go to Google because we understand what Google provides and it’s always top of mind.

Now let’s take a look at some items that may be a bit more challenging to brand.  Sugar for instance, it is a refined, granulated sweetener.  Is one really different from another?   C&H Sugar branded their sugar as “pure cane sugar from Hawaii.”  So what did we do?  We bought that sugar.

Charmin is a similar situation.  Although it is toilet paper, they were able to create a brand, Mr. Whipple and squeezably soft.  Virtually anything can be branded, that’s your goal when you are working with your company and products.

Brand your company or product so it is properly reflected in the minds of your customers.  There is no better investment you can make than to develop the ideal brand for your company and products.

That concludes our Smart Monday.  Be sure and stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Responding to Social Media Inquiries (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 talk about how to avoid a social media pitfall.

There is an emerging customer experience concern arising throughout all forms of social media.  Businesses are developing social media inbound marketing campaigns, creating content and pushing it out.  As a result, inquiries come in via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn from people who are interested in that content.  The problem is many businesses are not responding to these inquiries.

Consider the implications.  Your goal is to create awareness and generate excitement about your product.  Then you let customers or potential customers down by not responding to their inquiries.  It’s critical to create a system so you can respond to your customers.

First, create a process to collect all the inquiries and ensure you capture everything that comes in.  Two, respond, make sure you reply to everyone who has taken the time to contact you.  I don’t recommend auto-reply.  I believe each response should be personalized and you or someone else in your company directly engages that customer.

Next, follow-up promptly.  Responses should be immediate if possible, for the best customer experience.  Example:  If someone is shopping, has a question about your product in that store and sends an inquiry, responding instantly would create a great impression in the mind of that customer.

Lastly, leverage this type of interaction to build relationships because it is going to lead to increased opportunities for sales in the future.

Personally taking the time to respond to inquiries as quickly as possible is an opportunity for you to really distinguish your brand in the minds of your customers.  Remember, it’s equally important to respond to comments that are negative as well.

If you are conducting an inbound marketing campaign, ensure responding to the inbound inquires 100% of the time is a priority.  You may not always be able to achieve that, but that should be your goal.

Thanks for tuning in to Digital Friday.  Join us next week for Smart Monday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Inspiring Branding: The Bobble Bottle (Recon Thursday/Physical Evidence)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Recon Thursday and I want to share a branding success story that I hope will inspire and encourage you to keep your efforts going every day.

The Bobble Bottle Company is just two years old.  They sell a re-useable, very stylized water bottle with a patented filter that allows you to put tap water into it and still drink purified water.

This company saw the problem of disposable single-serve plastic bottles accumulating in landfills all over the world and looked for a solution to reduce that waste.  That is exactly what they were able to achieve.

Bobble Bottle created water bottles with built-in filters so they can be re-used hundreds of times.  This provides the purified water consumes buy bottled water for and also reduces the impact on the environment.

Rather than designing the technology themselves, they partnered with a company who already patented the filtering technology.  Demonstrating understanding of one of the 7Ps – Physical Evidence, they designed a unique bottle.

With an affordable price and a thirsty market all over the world, in 2 years they have gone from an idea to $40 million in sales all over the world.

I hope you find inspiration in the Bobble Bottle branding story.  It demonstrates that branding does work.  Regardless of what your goals are, stick with your marketing and branding efforts every day and you will achieve success.

That concludes Recon Thursday stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Let's Do Lunch: Networking Follow Through (Action Wednesday/People)

Hello there, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Action Wednesday.  I had a great networking lunch yesterday and that’s what prompted me to share today’s advice about networking follow through.

Here at Once A Day Marketing I’ve talked a lot about networking and how important it is to build your contacts.  What I’ m recommending today is that you pick up the phone or send out an email and invite a contact to have lunch or perhaps a cup of coffee with you.  This way you are meeting face-to-face, you’re enhancing and building the relationship, and you’re having a real conversation.  This is what people do to build trust and camaraderie.   What will happen over time is that you’ll get opportunities for more business and you will strenghten your network.

Grabbing a cup of coffee or having that lunch is a great way to cultivate the relationship with your contact.  Over the last few weeks I’ve had some really good lunches and coffees with some new contacts from Twitter and LinkedIn.  Here are some of the results of our conversations. 

Once individual I met with suggested I might be able to help market and brand his non-profit organization, which he is a board member of.  I met with another contact who from the high-tech world and he’s working with a national fitness publisher who’s trying to get his story out via the internet and his social media marketing.  He suggested I meet this man.

I had coffee with a woman contact who’s returned to Santa Fe from back east and now we’re talking about collaborating on a social media project.  Then through LinkedIn I reconnected with a client from 10 years ago who’s in Chicago.  We had a great conversation on the phone and look forward to more chats in the future.

You don’t always have to have the meeting face-to-face but typically a lot more ideas are generated across the real table.  Regardless of the approach, it’s very beneficial to your business and personal brand to continue engaging these contacts and nurturing the relationships.

If you find yourself in Santa Fe, let’s do lunch.  Please join me tomorrow for Recon Thursday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.