How's Your Marketing IQ? (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s is Smart Monday and that means we share knowledge about branding and marketing to enhance your IQ.  Today we are having a quiz, five questions related to topics I’ve profiled in previous Once a Day Marketing blogs.  Hopefully the answers are top of mind, if not you can always look back at past blogs.

Get out your paper and pencil:

Question #1 - What is a brand?  I’ve frequently discussed what a brand is at Once a Day Marketing.

Question #2 - What is branding?  There are past blogs on that topic as well.

Question #3 - What are the 7Ps of Marketing?  I talk about this all the time.

Question #4 - What is the difference between branding and marketing?  Professionals struggle with this.

Question #5 - Why is a positioning statement so important to your organization?

Did you get all those?  I hope so.

We want you to have a good experience using the Once a Day Marketing blogs so we’ve created a recurring theme base for each week:

Smart Monday - Share knowledge to enhance your branding and marketing IQ

Strategic Tuesday - Focus on strategies to penetrate the market / gain market share

Action Wednesday - Roll up our sleeves and plan implementation of tactics

Recon Thursdays - Evaluate your own business, your market and your competition

Digital Friday - In-depth look at inbound marketing, social media and how to use these powerful tools to get your message out to the marketplace.

To further facilitate using Once a Day Marketing blogs, they are categorized by the 7Ps of marketing.  And so as soon as you answer the question above about the 7Ps, you’ll be able to use those categories to search through our blogs.  Whether you use the themes or one of the 7Ps, you can quickly find the blog related to your desired topic.

That concludes Smart Monday.  Join us 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.

YouTube: A Great Way to be Seen (Digital Friday/Physical Evidence)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Digital Friday and today I am going to talk about YouTube and why I am such a big fan of this amazing tool.

I’ve already discussed how important it is to be using video to market your business.  Remember, people love watching videos and there were one trillion views on YouTube last year.  That is a lot of people tuning in.

YouTube is great tool and there is no cost associated with using it.  You create a video and upload it.  It’s stored free of charge and, with the whole world tuning in to view videos; hopefully potential customers will find yours.  Once you have video stored on YouTube, you are able to send a link to customers and share your content with them directly.

Another compelling reason to have video content online is that search engines will return that content in search results.  When your business is found, through Google perhaps, your videos will be displayed.  If you have a series of videos such as Once a Day Marketing they will be displayed as well allowing people to view your message.

Using YouTube is easy.  First establish an account under your company name, brand name or something else that represents you well.  Then you will be able to create a YouTube channel where you can post all of the videos that you are going to produce and upload.  Videos may be designated as public or private.  Public will be shared with the world.  Private content may be a message you only want to share with your customers.

YouTube also has robust analytics.  They report who is viewing, how often and how long along with where viewers are located.  Metrics around sharing, commenting and likes are generated as well.  And best of all, this is being provided to you by YouTube at no cost.

It’s never been easier to share video than it is today leveraging the YouTube channel.  Give how essential it is to include video as a component of your branding, marketing and sales strategy, I strongly recommend you establish a YouTube account and begin using it today.

That concludes 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.

Understanding Your Customer Mix (Recon Thursday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Recon Thursday and today we are going to discuss the importance of understanding your customer mix.

Businesses often don’t have a good understanding of their customer mix.  They may know who their customers are, but may not know which customers are generating the greatest sales or the most profits, which customers are the easiest to approach or the customers that cost more than it should to bring in as new business.  This knowledge is foundational to identifying the easiest path to growth through customers.

Now let’s take a look at those factors.  The best way to dive into the subject is for me to share data from my consulting practice, The Idea Group.  We have three different types of customers; businesses, municipalities and non-profit organizations.  I know the mix between them and, over the 10 year history of my consulting business, the specific businesses, non-profits and municipalities I have been working with.

This information has enabled me to establish the lead time to develop new clients in each of the customer categories, evaluate the cost / benefit associated with each type of client, time required to service each type of customer as well as the fees generated from various types of engagements.  Given that knowledge of the customer mix, I am continuously developing new strategies to bring in a specific type of client.

Are you doing the same for your business?  Once you understand you customer mix you will be able to develop new strategies, marketing plans and sales tactics to bring on the types of customers you want.  As you move forward, continue to monitor the customer mix to ensure you are always on top of your planning.

That concludes Recon Thursday.  Be sure to 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

Staying Alive: Ensuring Brand Longevity (Action Wednesday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Action Wednesday and we are going to discuss brand longevity, or, keeping your brand alive.

If you are starting up your business like Once a Day Marketing, you efforts are around gaining awareness for your brand rather than being concerned with longevity.  However, if you have been in business for two or three years you should be planning how to sustain your brand over a longer period of time.

One challenge to overcome is complacency.  To avoid your brand fading from customers’ memories, it is important to actively support your brand on an ongoing basis through a variety of efforts.

Perhaps no one is better at brand longevity than a classic rock and roll band.  I’m going to talk about four that I think have done an amazing job over the last 50 years of maintaining their brands.

Let’s start with the Rolling Stones.  They created their band in 1962, which was fifty years ago.  They are still touring and recently posted a thank you to their fans on Facebook upon reaching the 10 million followers milestone on their Facebook site.  You may have seen Keith Richards in Pirates of the Caribbean.  The band members remain in the public eye making sure their brand is staying alive.

Next is U2, they are an incredible band.  One of the methods they use to get their message out is embracing social media.  U2 fans can follow the band, access news and obtain concert and new music information.  Another facet of U2 that raises awareness their brand is involvement in worldwide social causes.  That is something Bono is especially good at, an unofficial world ambassador so to speak.

Then we have Bruce Springsteen, perhaps my all time favorite musician.  The Boss is amazing, he has a new album out, he is touring and was the keynote speaker at one of the largest music festival in the country, the South by Southwest (SxSW).  So again, maintaining a public presence and keeping his brand name in the music news.

Last but not least, I am fortunate to be friends with Ben Smith, the drummer for the rock band Heart.  I love Heart.  Ann and Nancy Wilson continue to give their fans what they want: Ann belting her songs and Nancy mastering her guitar.  They also work hard at creating new music and touring consistently.  One of the things they do to keep their brand alive is touring with other great rock and roll band like Journey, Cheap Trick and Def Leppard.  All of the techniques employed by these bands are sustaining their brand longevity.

The key to maintaining brand longevity is devoting resources to a sustained branding campaign.  Your action item for today is to evaluate your ongoing branding strategy, campaigns and results.  Hopefully you are not living on your laurels and are focused on how to constantly brand yourself and keep a presence in the market place and in the minds of your customers.

You may refine your position as needed, however, the main point is that you are staying the course and moving forward to ensure your brand will be remembered and have the image you want in the minds of your customers.

Thank you joining us for Action Wednesday.  Be sure to tune in 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.

Building Customer Loyalty Programs (Strategic Tuesday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing thank you again for following my blog, that means you are looking at marketing every day so you should pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Today is Strategic Tuesday and we’re going to look at the question of whether or not you are rewarding your loyal customers.

This is a very tough time to be in business.  Prior to the explosion of digital format and social media your company likely competed in a small/local market.  With the advent of the ever-growing digital environment, you may now be competing in a global market place.

In this very competitive landscape I know you are working very hard to land the customers that are using your business.  The strategic question is whether or not you are doing a good job of rewarding loyal customers who continuously seek out your product.

There are many ways to thank your repeat customers for their business.  You can have a formal system or an informal system.  In a formal system you keep track of all the exchanges with your customers.  An informal system is a less complicated.  An example of an informal reward process may be a stamp card from a local restaurant.  After the customer presents it to be stamped for a specified number of meals, they are rewarded with a free meal.

There are all sorts of premiums offered such as free flights, hotel rooms and meals or, some offer discounts.  The main task is to keep track of the activities between you and your customers and reward them accordingly.

A well thought out customer loyalty program will ensure your customers feel appreciated.  The reward you offer should be something the customer will value such as the examples cited above.  In exchange they will be loyal and have a greater appreciation for your brand.

A reward program does maintain the loyalty of your customers.  The strategic question today is what sort of customer loyalty program will you devise?

That concludes Strategic Tuesday.  Join us 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.

A Brand is More Than a Product (Smart Monday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Before we begin today I want to remind you that we have a LinkedIn Group for Once a Day Marketing.  If you are a small business or entrepreneur looking for branding and marketing support I recommend you join the group.  If you are a branding and marketing expert I would like to invite you to join the group as well and share your knowledge with small companies.

Today we are going to talk about the misconception of what comprises a brand.

I frequently lecture on the subject of branding and have found that many people don’t have a clear understanding of what a brand is.  Many think the brand is a product.  They think about the qualities or attributes of the product and its uses and conclude that is the brand.  On the other side of the continuum others think a brand is a symbol like a logo or a slogan.

For those that think the brand is the product, well, they are correct.  Those who think a brand is a logo or a slogan are also correct.  However, a brand is much more than that.  It’s also the personality of the company, the emotion it invokes and the implied benefits of the product as well as the brand-customer relationship.  In reality, a brand is simply everything related to a company and its products.

As you are developing your brand keep these aspects in mind to ensure you are considering all of the factors that will truly become your brand.

That concludes Smart Monday.  Join us 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.

Using Twitter Hashtags (Digital Friday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Digital Friday and I hope you’ve had a great week marketing every day.  Today’s blog is going to address Twitter’s hashtags.

What are Twitter hashtags?  The pound sign (#) is the symbol for a hashtag.  It is used to search words, letters, phrases or even other symbols related to a specific topic.  The hashtag groups tweets by a common theme so people can search for particular interests.  For example, you may search #NBA for tweets related to the playoffs or #MIB3 for items talking about the latest Will Smith Men in Black movie.  Whatever you interests, you can probably find a hashtag that is centered around it.

When you are logged into Twitter, at the top of the page you will see the # with the word Discover (#discover).  When you click on that you are able to type in the # and any key word search related to a Twitter topic you are interested in.  Hashtag searches will return tweets for the last week.  If you are looking for a recent posting you should be able to find it.

You can also use a hashtag in your own tweets.  I often use #branding and #marketing so that people who are seeking out marketing or branding information may find my tweets within the last weeks’ worth of tweets.

Be creative, us hashtag to promote sales or other events that are going on within your own business.  Log on to Twitter and look at other hashtags to get more involved in the community of Twitter.  You will discover what’s going on in social media within Twitter and use hashtags to allow people to discover you as well.

That concludes 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.