Transcripts for our weekly podcasts:
Week 1: Episode 1: An Introduction to SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists).
Hello and welcome to the first podcast for Small Business EASY Branding Tips. Brought to you by SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists), working to help Small Businesses Survive through EASY Sales, where the acronym EASY represents our company’s ability to help small businesses: Establish the profile of their "ideal customer"; Analyze products & services to tailor them for the "ideal customer"; Secure the most effective ways to build and maintain customer relationships; and finally Yield an enhanced brand that increases sales by attracting more customers and repeat business. I’m your host Kindra Cotton, and I am the creator of the EASY Brand Marketing Program, and I thank you for listening to the very first podcast of the series.
I started SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) because I saw a true need for the varied services that became part of the EASY Brand Marketing Program. As I got out and talked to people about what I do, I found that people who worked in places that sought to help small business owners, like Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers got what I was doing, but when I talked to small business owners themselves, I would often receive the “deer in headlights” look or a blank stare that told me that I needed to spend more time actually educating small biz owners on the need for branding (especially in the early stages) and how each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are actually cost effective in the long- and short-term. I also wanted to show how the results of incorporating the program early on actually improves your business because it brings you the increased sales that you need to help you stay in business for a long time to come.
I started SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) because I saw a true need for the varied services that became part of the EASY Brand Marketing Program. As I got out and talked to people about what I do, I found that people who worked in places that sought to help small business owners, like Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers got what I was doing, but when I talked to small business owners themselves, I would often receive the “deer in headlights” look or a blank stare that told me that I needed to spend more time actually educating small biz owners on the need for branding (especially in the early stages) and how each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are actually cost effective in the long- and short-term. I also wanted to show how the results of incorporating the program early on actually improves your business because it brings you the increased sales that you need to help you stay in business for a long time to come.
I decided to create this podcast series, because I wanted a platform to share weekly EASY Brand Marketing Tips, and hopefully help small business owners in the process.
So what is the EASY Brand Marketing Program exactly, well as I said before, it’s a program designed to bring about EASY Sales where E.A.S.Y. represents my company’s ability to help a small business: Establish the profile of their "ideal customer"; Analyze products & services to tailor them for the "ideal customer"; Secure the most effective ways to build and maintain customer relationships; and finally Yield an enhanced brand that increases sales by attracting more customers and repeat business.
What does that mean in real terms? Well it means that the program is designed to help you determine who your best customers are, through both a historical customer analysis and some market research on your current customers. Once you know who your best customers are, and what they like about what you provide, the next step is to take a look at what you provide and look for ways in which you can improve your catalog of products and services so that they better mirror the wants of your “best customer” or as I like to put it “your ideal customer”. With an understanding of who your “ideal customer” is, and what they like, you then move into the step of securing the most effective ways to build and maintain customer relationships, and this for me is “the fun part”, because it’s an analysis of your company’s use of technology and social media in its operations, both internally and externally. What we do in this stage is look at the tools you use to run your business, as well as the tools you use to connect with your customers, and we provide Social Media and Technology consultation to help you achieve the most effective results in your operations, and better connecting to new, existing, and even potential customers. The final stage of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are the activities that you take to Yield the enhanced company brand that solidifies what you stand for and how you meet the needs of your customers, and this, along with the other 3 steps of the program helps you survive long term because it brings you new customers and repeat business from your old ones.
Each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program include a series of activities that need to be performed, but the beauty of the program is that it can be implemented at any juncture in a business’s development and its designed so that each of the steps can be performed individually and you can return later for additional complementary services, thus taking into consideration the cash-strapped budgets of emerging businesses.
The EASY Brand Marketing Program is important because it addresses one of the top reasons that small businesses fail, which is a lack of effective marketing. By following the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program, effective marketing can be achieved.
The great thing about the EASY Brand Marketing Program is that it making use of the information you already have in your business, then it moves forward with a clear strategic plan of how to incorporate your brand into your print and media products, and how you will connect with your customers.
As I mentioned, the EASY Brand Marketing Program was forged out of my own market research in the Middle Tennessee area. I knew that I had a passion for small businesses, but I needed to know the right way to channel that passion. I found there was a real need for marketing, strategic business planning, and e-commerce solutions, then I started thinking about the big brands and how they got started. Coca-Cola wasn’t built in a day. Every major brand got its start by capitalizing on a market that would buy its goods and services, some (think Apple) actually create a market through innovation, but at the core of it all are customer relationships: How well do you know them, and how well do they know you and what you have to offer, and that’s where the true value of the EASY Brand Marketing Program comes in because you learn everything you can about your best customers, then go out and multiply that group by meeting their needs effectively.
I’ll give you a personal example of how EASY Brand Marketing Program has helped me, as I seek to build my own brand, starting as a relatively unknown person with a new concept on how to grow a business. When I first started talking with the entities that actually work to help small businesses (i.e. Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers), they immediately understood what I was trying to do, but feared that the message of what I was trying to do would be lost based on the vast quantity of information that needed to be absorbed to truly understand the program and how it worked. Their fears were realized when I actually went out and talked with small business owners about what I did, and I got those “deer-in-headlines” looks from people that pretty much told me “I have no idea what you’re talking about”.
At first, I didn’t get why people didn’t get it, but then I needed to realize that as business owners (myself included), we’re so focused on doing what we do well, that we often spend so much time working IN our businesses, that we don’t devote the time necessary to work ON our businesses. And by that I mean for instance, if you’re a baker, then baking goods is what you do, and you surely do it well, but you may not do as well with advertising, accounting and the host of other things that need to be done to keep a bakery operating.
I had to step outside of the situation and look at what I needed to do to better connect with my intended audience. And this podcast and its associated blog, are the result.
I realized that there’s a need for people to understand the many different components of the EASY Brand Marketing Program, and that the messages needed to be presented in a way that makes sense and lets people adapt to this change in the best way that they need to.
So, I work on getting my message out there and hoping that people can detect the passion for what I’m doing, and will eventually see the brand that I am trying to build. I want to be sure that people understand, recognize, and appreciate the interconnectivity of the relationship of your customers, your brand, and everything in between. Essentially my goal is to show people how truly EASY the EASY Brand Marketing Program is. I’m still building my own brand, but when it becomes a household name, I guarantee you it will be because I used the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program to the fullest!
Ok, I realize that at this point, this podcast probably just seems like a long commercial, and I suppose in some ways it is, but there’s a larger point here that’s bigger than my company. Small businesses are hurting and I don’t know of anyone who couldn’t benefit from having EASY Sales!
Alright, I’m done. :) I’m hoping you hear the passion in my voice and can see what drives me to want to help small businesses. I’m also hoping you’ll tune in for future weekly podcasts that I promise will have more Small Business Branding Tips. In fact, next week’s topic is actually about “The Basics of Branding and why anyone can do it well” (regardless of their marketing budget), so you’ll definitely want to check out next week’s episode.
Thanks for listening and I invite you to visit our website sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com), reach out to use via email at “podcasts @ sss4success.com”, or finding us on Twitter (@sss4success).
If, by chance, you would like to learn more about how EASY Sales can help your bottom line, then give us a call at 615-336-4325.
Thanks again for listening and have a great day!
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Week 2: Episode 2:
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Week 2: Episode 2:
Basics of Branding and Why Anyone Can Do It
Hello and welcome to the second podcast for Small Business EASY Branding Tips. Brought to you by SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists), working to help Small Businesses Survive through EASY Sales, where the acronym EASY represents our company’s ability to help small businesses: Establish the profile of their "ideal customer"; Analyze products & services to tailor them for the "ideal customer"; Secure the most effective ways to build and maintain customer relationships; and finally Yield an enhanced brand that increases sales by attracting more customers and repeat business. I’m your host Kindra Cotton, and I am the creator of the EASY Brand Marketing Program, and I thank you for listening to this podcast series.
I started SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) because I saw a true need for the varied services that became part of the EASY Brand Marketing Program. As I got out and talked to people about what I do, I found that people who worked in places that sought to help small business owners, like Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers got what I was doing, but when I talked to small business owners themselves, I would often receive the “deer in headlights” look or a blank stare that told me that I needed to spend more time actually educating small biz owners on the need for branding (especially in the early stages) and how each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are actually cost effective in the long- and short-term. I also wanted to show how the results of incorporating the program early on actually improves your business because it brings you the increased sales that you need to help you stay in business for a long time to come.
I decided to create this podcast series, because I wanted a platform to share weekly EASY Brand Marketing Tips, and hopefully help small business owners in the process.
This week’s topic is titled “The Basics of Branding and Why Anyone Can Do It”.
Now, I’m certain that there are very high-powered and high-priced brand marketing strategists and specialists all around who’ll argue against that title, and its basic assumption, but that’s not what I’m here for. I’m not a brand marketing strategist with 20 years experience at one of the largest ad firms in the nation, or anything that would make other people’s heads start spinning with impressive titles and a litany of brand names they’ve worked for whose names we all know and love.
What I am is a person who is passionate about small businesses, and the steps that they need to take to stay in business so that one day they’ll be able to hire the big fancy expensive brand strategists when they’re ready to go to the next level. I like to focus on the smaller, logical, and economical things that small business owners can do, based off of a few relatively simple steps that can insure long-term survival!
I like taking a more “common sense approach” to some of the things falling by the wayside within small businesses, unfortunately making them not all that “common” any more. As an entrepreneur, I see a need in the market, and I’m seeking to fill it.
So what I’d like to do within this episode is detail the 4 Step Common Sense Branding Strategy that I think most small business owners should be aware of when seeking to create, build, and enhance their company’s brand.
I started SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) because I saw a true need for the varied services that became part of the EASY Brand Marketing Program. As I got out and talked to people about what I do, I found that people who worked in places that sought to help small business owners, like Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers got what I was doing, but when I talked to small business owners themselves, I would often receive the “deer in headlights” look or a blank stare that told me that I needed to spend more time actually educating small biz owners on the need for branding (especially in the early stages) and how each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are actually cost effective in the long- and short-term. I also wanted to show how the results of incorporating the program early on actually improves your business because it brings you the increased sales that you need to help you stay in business for a long time to come.
I decided to create this podcast series, because I wanted a platform to share weekly EASY Brand Marketing Tips, and hopefully help small business owners in the process.
This week’s topic is titled “The Basics of Branding and Why Anyone Can Do It”.
Now, I’m certain that there are very high-powered and high-priced brand marketing strategists and specialists all around who’ll argue against that title, and its basic assumption, but that’s not what I’m here for. I’m not a brand marketing strategist with 20 years experience at one of the largest ad firms in the nation, or anything that would make other people’s heads start spinning with impressive titles and a litany of brand names they’ve worked for whose names we all know and love.
What I am is a person who is passionate about small businesses, and the steps that they need to take to stay in business so that one day they’ll be able to hire the big fancy expensive brand strategists when they’re ready to go to the next level. I like to focus on the smaller, logical, and economical things that small business owners can do, based off of a few relatively simple steps that can insure long-term survival!
I like taking a more “common sense approach” to some of the things falling by the wayside within small businesses, unfortunately making them not all that “common” any more. As an entrepreneur, I see a need in the market, and I’m seeking to fill it.
So what I’d like to do within this episode is detail the 4 Step Common Sense Branding Strategy that I think most small business owners should be aware of when seeking to create, build, and enhance their company’s brand.
Step 1: Determining & Defining Your Brand: Step 1 is about determining what your brand is about, and what you’ll stand for. What’s important to you, and what’s the message or imagery you want your brand to convey. Essentially asking the questions of “Who you are, and why you’re unique?”. For example, let’s take my brand: SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists), if you visit my website at sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com), you’ll see that everything is pretty much straight forward. Not a lot of “bells and whistles”, but the information is there, for those who want it. True, as time progresses, the site itself will definitely evolve in its look and visual appeal, but what won’t change is the appeal to “basicness”, as I like to put it. I’m working to build a brand known for making things “EASY” and less complex, and even though there are complex processes on the side of the EASY Brand Marketing Specialists that do the work of the EASY Brand Marketing Program, for the end-user, or our clients, it’s EASY!
Step 2: Researching Your Market and Positioning Your Brand to Capitalize on a Sector of it: In this step, you would develop your brand’s identity around how well you meet a specific need in the market. The most difficult thing in this step is the research, and not just believing that you have a great product or service that will “take the market by storm”, but actually knowing that there is an unmet need within a market that can effectively be met with your product or service offerings. For instance, let’s take SSS for Success again, when I started this company, I did both primary and secondary market research. Primary research is where I actually went out and surveyed small business owners and analyzed the information myself, and created new research in the process. And secondary research is where I got all of my other larger or macro market information. That’s when I went to the Census Bureau, Small Business Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, local governments and libraries to find out everything I could about small businesses in general, and then on a micro-level, what were the state of small businesses in the area that I wanted to operate within in Middle Tennessee.
Step 3: Launching Your Brand: Step 3 is closely related to the “S” step of the EASY Brand Marketing Program of “Securing the most effective ways to build and maintain customer relationships”. When you launch your brand, it will be after you’ve designed and developed your brand identity, and created logos, websites, business cards, brochures, and tons of other products and paraphernalia that include your company’s insignia. Within this step, how you connect with customers and how well they can get and stay connected with you, are key to not just getting your brand out there and noticed, but also for insuring that you’re hitting your target market and effectively meeting the needs you set out to when you started your brand.
Leading us to – Step 4: Managing, Monitoring & Tweaking Your Brand (Note: That’s “tweaking” your brand, meaning make minor revisions, not tweeting your brand, which is more so a function that occurs under Step 3): Managing your brand includes monitoring customer feedback and being responsive to it, and staying alert to changes within your market as well as the larger industry in which you do business. As you do this, you’ll find that it’s inevitable that you “tweak” or revise your brand, because change, in most scenarios, is unavoidable. The important thing here is to update your brand, but do so in a way that doesn’t move you away from your core vision and values that started the brand, because doing so could mean you could lose your current loyal customers, and not be able to establish new ones because of the complete shift in focus. One of the best examples that I can think of when I think of a well-managed and often-tweaked brand is AT&T. I remember when AT&T just did long distance, and now they’re a company that has positioned themselves to be one of the leaders in the home-based telecommunications field. Within a few generations, maybe not even 2, the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) or “landline” as we all know it today, will mostly be a thing of the past. And that’s not to say people won’t have “home phones”, but they won’t have them in the traditional sense, of paying a company like AT&T for the ability to make calls over a phone line plugged into a telephone jack. I haven’t had a “landline phone” in over 7 years, and I suspect that I’ll never have one again.
AT&T certainly saw this “writing on the wall”, and I would assume that in order to stay relevant (and keep a hold on their market share), they branched out into mobile phones and data plans, securing the exclusive rights to service one of the most popular phones (the iPhone) in the country. Very smart move, and very effective branding strategy. Yes, they had a multimillion campaign behind their move, but the essence of what they did in “tweaking” their brand is still the same.
So that’s all I have. Those 4 Steps are a part of the “Common Sense Branding Strategy” I came up with, and we all know that none of the concepts are “new”, but how they’re applied and when is key. I think these are 4 Steps that ANYONE could take to build their brand, and while it does involve a lot of work, it should be work that’s complimentary to what you’re trying to do within your business, so its hard work that’s well worth it.
Knowing the struggles and challenges that small business owners face, not just in being the experts that they are in their respective fields, but also having to be an “expert” in the administrative tasks in running a business, I created the EASY Brand Marketing Program to help small business owners address some of those “Common Sense Branding Steps”. I believe in the EASY Brand Marketing Program, not just because I created, but because I know that it fills a need within the market of small businesses, and I feel that I’m the one with the brand that can help fill that need!
Just about everyone has something of value that they can share with you, if you’re willing to listen. So, I thank you for listening to me, and I hope you’re finding some value in my words.
I invite you to visit our website sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com), reach out to us via email at “podcasts @ sss4success.com”, or finding us on Twitter (@sss4success). If you found us on iTunes, then you may also want to visit our blog at easybrandmarketing.blogspot.com.
And if, by chance, you would like to learn more about how EASY Sales can help your bottom line, then give us a call at 615-336-4325.
Thanks again for listening and have a great day!
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I started SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) because I saw a true need for the varied services that became part of the EASY Brand Marketing Program. As I got out and talked to people about what I do, I found that people who worked in places that sought to help small business owners, like Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers got what I was doing, but when I talked to small business owners themselves, I would often receive the “deer in headlights” look or a blank stare that told me that I needed to spend more time actually educating small biz owners on the need for branding (especially in the early stages) and how each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are actually cost effective in the long- and short-term. I also wanted to show how the results of incorporating the program early on actually improves your business because it brings you the increased sales that you need to help you stay in business for a long time to come.
I decided to create this podcast series, because I wanted a platform to share weekly EASY Brand Marketing Tips, and hopefully help small business owners in the process.
This week’s topic is: “The First Steps in Building Your Brand”.
It’s important to lay the right foundation and know what you stand for with your company, what need you fill, and how you’ll go about fulfilling that need in a solution-oriented way that keeps your customers happy. In completing Step 2: Researching Your Market and Positioning Your Brand to Capitalize on a Sector of it, market research is key because it helps you specifically define your target market, and it gives you a good idea of your standing in the market against your competitors.
Armed with this information, you can define your brand’s imagery in a way that solidifies your message with your end consumers. For instance, when I started, I knew I wanted to help small businesses, but I didn’t know how I’d do that. My primary research showed me where the need was, but then there was a secondary issue of conveying my message to the right people, and that’s when I realized that I needed to do a better job of reaching my target demographic (which is narrowly defined as someone who’s been in business 2-5 years who wants help and is willing to accept it). Doing this has been great because its shown me that the learning process is a two-way street, in that my potential customer learn what I do and can do for them, and I learn how I can best be of service and can tweak my brand’s image along the way (as necessary).
Here’s a way that you can implement these first steps of branding in your company: Start by doing some informal market research among your current and former customers. For those that you can easily reach out to, find out what it is they liked about your products and services, and what suggestions they may have for improving them. Then, take the information that you’ve learned, and compare that to your company’s stated mission, goals, and vision. Do they line up? If so, then you’re definitely on the right track. If not, then it’s probably time for some re-tooling.
Of course, when you’re ready for a bit more information than you can get from your informal feedback query, I’d suggest trying The MiniMarketing Survey, located at MiniMarketingSurvey.com, it was designed to be the bridge between informal word-of-mouth feedback and larger, more expensive market research studies. It’s a great way for you to get a good grasp on what your customers are saying, and what direction you may need to focus on if you decide to conduct a full-scale primary market research project. I’d highly recommend The MiniMarketing Survey, not just because I created it, but because it’s an awesome product, and it meets a need unlike any other product on the market.
So that’s all I have this week. I hope you found this week’s tip helpful.
By the way, if you’re a Small Business Owner that’s been in business for a while, please find the survey link on our blog and do us a favor and fill out that brief survey and tell us a bit more about your entrepreneurial experiences. We’d really appreciate your input.
Finally, if by chance, you would like to learn more about how EASY Sales can help your bottom line, then give us a call at 615-336-4325.
Thanks again for listening and have a great day!
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I decided to create this podcast series, because I wanted a platform to share weekly EASY Brand Marketing Tips, and hopefully help small business owners in the process.
This week’s topic is: “Blogs & Blogging: How to build traffic through information”.
In a previous episode, I talked about “The Basics of Branding and Why Anyone Can Do It”. In that episode, I detailed the 4-Step Common Sense Branding Strategy that I think most small business owners should be aware of when seeking to create, build, and enhance their company’s brand. Those steps were: 1st: Determining & Defining Your Brand. Step 2: Researching Your Market and Positioning Your Brand to Capitalize on a Sector of it. Step 3: Launching Your Brand. Step 4: Managing, Monitoring & Tweaking Your Brand (Note: That’s “tweaking” your brand, meaning make minor revisions, not tweeting your brand, which is more so a function that occurs under Step 3). In this episode, we’ll talk about how to use blogs to build traffic by providing relevant information to your audience on a timely schedule. We’ll also talk about how blogging can be used as you launch, manage, and monitor your brand, so we’ll specifically be talking about Steps 3 and 4.
Blogging can be the way that you build your reputation as an authority on your topic, and by delivering timely content, you can insure that you stay relevant with your core audience. If you choose to blog, you can choose the frequency, and generally speaking, once a week is a good rule of thumb, however if you have a more “wired” or popular topic, you may need to offer more blog posts on a shorter schedule to keep your audience’s attention.
Because so many people have blogs these days, many now think it’s intuitive, and everyone knows how to do it, but I still think that a tutorial can be useful to some, so I offer this one, with the slant on how it can be used to build and enhance your brand.
The first thing you should do is: Choose a Blog Service. WordPress is a free service, and they appear to be the clear market leader, but I’ve found that when you want to use WordPress for professional purposes, the “free” turns too costly as you add on fee-based features and functionality. Also, if you use WordPress in its free version, you aren’t allowed to have advertising on your blog, and if you’re looking at blogging with the intention of using certain revenue generating ideas, this can become an initial roadblock (unless of course you’re willing to shell out the extra cash).
My personal preference is to use Blogger because it’s offered through Google and is easily integrated with my other Google account features. Blogger is free, just as WordPress is, but I find that they aren’t quite looking to “nickel-and-dime” you for each additional service as WordPress does. Plus, Blogger lets you use advertising and has AdSense integrated with its platform. And finally, though I have nothing to base this belief off of, I just think that sooner or later Google is going to release some “game changing” blog tool that will forever change the landscape of blogging as we know it, and I just want to be on the early adopter team. LOL.
As far as the platforms, both are extremely easy-to-use and simple to learn, and the interface just gets easier and easier as time progresses. One of the biggest differences I would say to expect between the two is that WordPress is the market leader, and as such you’ll always have more resources available for it, and most new things created in the realm of blogging will be tailored to that platform over Blogger. I’m entrepreneurial in everything I do, so I’m willing to give Blogger a try, but I have worked with WordPress as well, and can say both are great programs to use, so I would suggest you use your best judgment in moving forward.
Also, know there are several other companies out there that offer blogging tools besides WordPress and Blogger, they just happened to be “two big ones”. You can do a search for “blogs” or “free blogs” and find a host of other services out there, if you want to further explore your options.
The next step would be to: Customize Your Blog. Customization can include everything from selecting a blog template which lets you choose the right color palette that’s aligned with your brand, and choosing the right domain name for the blog to be hosted from. For professional purposes, I would suggest that you host your domain from an address like: blog.yourbusinessname.com or give it its own domain like: www.yourbusinessblog.com.
For instance, my company’s website is located at: sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com), but this Small Business Branding Tips Blog is located at: easybrandmarketing.com as a part of my overall branding strategy. I would recommend having a domain name other than a yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.wordpress.com because real domain names just look better and more professional. As a note, one of the reasons I chose Blogger or WordPress was because Blogger let me host a domain I already owned for free, whereas WordPress would have charged a yearly fee. Those savings meant a lot to me as a struggling start-up.
The next step would be Incorporating Good Content into your blog and setting a blogging schedule and sticking to it. One of the things I do with my blogs is to create an outline of the topics I want to cover and detail them over a several week period. For instance, when I started this blog and podcast series I did so with roughly 14 topics lined up, and as time has passed, the list has continually grown.
Another thing to keep in mind: Be sure to allow comments on your blog so that your audience can connect with you, and over time you may also want to incorporate a survey to find out more about your blog readers and get their feedback privately.
As a note: Within the next few weeks, I’m going to have a podcast episode devoted entirely to questions and answers from you, my listening audience, so please submit your Small Business Branding Questions for that upcoming episode. You can visit our website sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com) and go to the Contact Us page to submit your question, or reach out to us via email at “podcasts @ sss4success.com”, or finding us on Twitter (@sss4success), or leaving a comment on our blog at easybrandmarketing.com.
By the way, if you’re a Small Business Owner that’s been in business for a while,please find the survey link on our blog and do us a favor and fill out that brief survey and tell us a bit more about your entrepreneurial experiences. We’d really appreciate your input.
Finally, if by chance, you would like to learn more about how EASY Sales can help your bottom line, then give us a call at 615-336-4325.
Thanks again for listening and have a great day!
Step 2: Researching Your Market and Positioning Your Brand to Capitalize on a Sector of it: In this step, you would develop your brand’s identity around how well you meet a specific need in the market. The most difficult thing in this step is the research, and not just believing that you have a great product or service that will “take the market by storm”, but actually knowing that there is an unmet need within a market that can effectively be met with your product or service offerings. For instance, let’s take SSS for Success again, when I started this company, I did both primary and secondary market research. Primary research is where I actually went out and surveyed small business owners and analyzed the information myself, and created new research in the process. And secondary research is where I got all of my other larger or macro market information. That’s when I went to the Census Bureau, Small Business Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, local governments and libraries to find out everything I could about small businesses in general, and then on a micro-level, what were the state of small businesses in the area that I wanted to operate within in Middle Tennessee.
Step 3: Launching Your Brand: Step 3 is closely related to the “S” step of the EASY Brand Marketing Program of “Securing the most effective ways to build and maintain customer relationships”. When you launch your brand, it will be after you’ve designed and developed your brand identity, and created logos, websites, business cards, brochures, and tons of other products and paraphernalia that include your company’s insignia. Within this step, how you connect with customers and how well they can get and stay connected with you, are key to not just getting your brand out there and noticed, but also for insuring that you’re hitting your target market and effectively meeting the needs you set out to when you started your brand.
Leading us to – Step 4: Managing, Monitoring & Tweaking Your Brand (Note: That’s “tweaking” your brand, meaning make minor revisions, not tweeting your brand, which is more so a function that occurs under Step 3): Managing your brand includes monitoring customer feedback and being responsive to it, and staying alert to changes within your market as well as the larger industry in which you do business. As you do this, you’ll find that it’s inevitable that you “tweak” or revise your brand, because change, in most scenarios, is unavoidable. The important thing here is to update your brand, but do so in a way that doesn’t move you away from your core vision and values that started the brand, because doing so could mean you could lose your current loyal customers, and not be able to establish new ones because of the complete shift in focus. One of the best examples that I can think of when I think of a well-managed and often-tweaked brand is AT&T. I remember when AT&T just did long distance, and now they’re a company that has positioned themselves to be one of the leaders in the home-based telecommunications field. Within a few generations, maybe not even 2, the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) or “landline” as we all know it today, will mostly be a thing of the past. And that’s not to say people won’t have “home phones”, but they won’t have them in the traditional sense, of paying a company like AT&T for the ability to make calls over a phone line plugged into a telephone jack. I haven’t had a “landline phone” in over 7 years, and I suspect that I’ll never have one again.
AT&T certainly saw this “writing on the wall”, and I would assume that in order to stay relevant (and keep a hold on their market share), they branched out into mobile phones and data plans, securing the exclusive rights to service one of the most popular phones (the iPhone) in the country. Very smart move, and very effective branding strategy. Yes, they had a multimillion campaign behind their move, but the essence of what they did in “tweaking” their brand is still the same.
So that’s all I have. Those 4 Steps are a part of the “Common Sense Branding Strategy” I came up with, and we all know that none of the concepts are “new”, but how they’re applied and when is key. I think these are 4 Steps that ANYONE could take to build their brand, and while it does involve a lot of work, it should be work that’s complimentary to what you’re trying to do within your business, so its hard work that’s well worth it.
Knowing the struggles and challenges that small business owners face, not just in being the experts that they are in their respective fields, but also having to be an “expert” in the administrative tasks in running a business, I created the EASY Brand Marketing Program to help small business owners address some of those “Common Sense Branding Steps”. I believe in the EASY Brand Marketing Program, not just because I created, but because I know that it fills a need within the market of small businesses, and I feel that I’m the one with the brand that can help fill that need!
Just about everyone has something of value that they can share with you, if you’re willing to listen. So, I thank you for listening to me, and I hope you’re finding some value in my words.
I invite you to visit our website sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com), reach out to us via email at “podcasts @ sss4success.com”, or finding us on Twitter (@sss4success). If you found us on iTunes, then you may also want to visit our blog at easybrandmarketing.blogspot.com.
And if, by chance, you would like to learn more about how EASY Sales can help your bottom line, then give us a call at 615-336-4325.
Thanks again for listening and have a great day!
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Week 3: Episode 3:
The First Steps of Building Your Brand
Hello and welcome to the podcast for Small Business EASY Branding Tips. Brought to you by SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists), working to help Small Businesses Survive through EASY Sales, where the acronym EASY represents our company’s ability to help small businesses: Establish the profile of their "ideal customer"; Analyze products & services to tailor them for the "ideal customer"; Secure the most effective ways to build and maintain customer relationships; and finally Yield an enhanced brand that increases sales by attracting more customers and repeat business. I’m your host Kindra Cotton, and I am the creator of the EASY Brand Marketing Program, and I thank you for listening to this podcast series.
I started SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) because I saw a true need for the varied services that became part of the EASY Brand Marketing Program. As I got out and talked to people about what I do, I found that people who worked in places that sought to help small business owners, like Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers got what I was doing, but when I talked to small business owners themselves, I would often receive the “deer in headlights” look or a blank stare that told me that I needed to spend more time actually educating small biz owners on the need for branding (especially in the early stages) and how each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are actually cost effective in the long- and short-term. I also wanted to show how the results of incorporating the program early on actually improves your business because it brings you the increased sales that you need to help you stay in business for a long time to come.
I decided to create this podcast series, because I wanted a platform to share weekly EASY Brand Marketing Tips, and hopefully help small business owners in the process.
This week’s topic is: “The First Steps in Building Your Brand”.
In a previous episode, I talked about “The Basics of Branding and Why Anyone Can Do It”. In that episode, I detailed the 4 Step Common Sense Branding Strategy that I think most small business owners should be aware of when seeking to create, build, and enhance their company’s brand. Those steps were: 1st: Determining & Defining Your Brand. Step 2: Researching Your Market and Positioning Your Brand to Capitalize on a Sector of it. Step 3: Launching Your Brand. Step 4: Managing, Monitoring & Tweaking Your Brand (Note: That’s “tweaking” your brand, meaning make minor revisions, not tweeting your brand, which is more so a function that occurs under Step 3). In this episode, we’ll talk about the building blocks of your brand, so we’ll specifically be talking about Steps 2 and 3.
It’s important to lay the right foundation and know what you stand for with your company, what need you fill, and how you’ll go about fulfilling that need in a solution-oriented way that keeps your customers happy. In completing Step 2: Researching Your Market and Positioning Your Brand to Capitalize on a Sector of it, market research is key because it helps you specifically define your target market, and it gives you a good idea of your standing in the market against your competitors.
Armed with this information, you can define your brand’s imagery in a way that solidifies your message with your end consumers. For instance, when I started, I knew I wanted to help small businesses, but I didn’t know how I’d do that. My primary research showed me where the need was, but then there was a secondary issue of conveying my message to the right people, and that’s when I realized that I needed to do a better job of reaching my target demographic (which is narrowly defined as someone who’s been in business 2-5 years who wants help and is willing to accept it). Doing this has been great because its shown me that the learning process is a two-way street, in that my potential customer learn what I do and can do for them, and I learn how I can best be of service and can tweak my brand’s image along the way (as necessary).
Here’s a way that you can implement these first steps of branding in your company: Start by doing some informal market research among your current and former customers. For those that you can easily reach out to, find out what it is they liked about your products and services, and what suggestions they may have for improving them. Then, take the information that you’ve learned, and compare that to your company’s stated mission, goals, and vision. Do they line up? If so, then you’re definitely on the right track. If not, then it’s probably time for some re-tooling.
Of course, when you’re ready for a bit more information than you can get from your informal feedback query, I’d suggest trying The MiniMarketing Survey, located at MiniMarketingSurvey.com, it was designed to be the bridge between informal word-of-mouth feedback and larger, more expensive market research studies. It’s a great way for you to get a good grasp on what your customers are saying, and what direction you may need to focus on if you decide to conduct a full-scale primary market research project. I’d highly recommend The MiniMarketing Survey, not just because I created it, but because it’s an awesome product, and it meets a need unlike any other product on the market.
So that’s all I have this week. I hope you found this week’s tip helpful.
Within the next few weeks, I’m going to have a podcast episode devoted entirely to questions and answers from you, my listening audience, so please submit your Small Business Branding Questions for that upcoming episode. You can visit our website sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com) and go to the Contact Us page to submit your question, or reach out to us via email at “podcasts @ sss4success.com”, or finding us on Twitter (@sss4success), or leaving a comment on our blog at easybrandmarketing.com.
By the way, if you’re a Small Business Owner that’s been in business for a while, please find the survey link on our blog and do us a favor and fill out that brief survey and tell us a bit more about your entrepreneurial experiences. We’d really appreciate your input.
Finally, if by chance, you would like to learn more about how EASY Sales can help your bottom line, then give us a call at 615-336-4325.
Thanks again for listening and have a great day!
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Week 4: Episode 4: Blogs & Blogging:
How to build traffic through information
How to build traffic through information
Hello and welcome to the podcast for Small Business EASY Branding Tips. Brought to you by SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists), working to help Small Businesses Survive through EASY Sales, where the acronym EASY represents our company’s ability to help small businesses: Establish the profile of their "ideal customer"; Analyze products & services to tailor them for the "ideal customer"; Secure the most effective ways to build and maintain customer relationships; and finally Yield an enhanced brand that increases sales by attracting more customers and repeat business. I’m your host Kindra Cotton, and I am the creator of the EASY Brand Marketing Program, and I thank you for listening to this podcast series.
I started SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) because I saw a true need for the varied services that became part of the EASY Brand Marketing Program. As I got out and talked to people about what I do, I found that people who worked in places that sought to help small business owners, like Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers got what I was doing, but when I talked to small business owners themselves, I would often receive the “deer in headlights” look or a blank stare that told me that I needed to spend more time actually educating small biz owners on the need for branding (especially in the early stages) and how each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are actually cost effective in the long- and short-term. I also wanted to show how the results of incorporating the program early on actually improves your business because it brings you the increased sales that you need to help you stay in business for a long time to come.
I started SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) because I saw a true need for the varied services that became part of the EASY Brand Marketing Program. As I got out and talked to people about what I do, I found that people who worked in places that sought to help small business owners, like Small Business Development Centers and Business Incubation Centers got what I was doing, but when I talked to small business owners themselves, I would often receive the “deer in headlights” look or a blank stare that told me that I needed to spend more time actually educating small biz owners on the need for branding (especially in the early stages) and how each of the steps of the EASY Brand Marketing Program are actually cost effective in the long- and short-term. I also wanted to show how the results of incorporating the program early on actually improves your business because it brings you the increased sales that you need to help you stay in business for a long time to come.
I decided to create this podcast series, because I wanted a platform to share weekly EASY Brand Marketing Tips, and hopefully help small business owners in the process.
This week’s topic is: “Blogs & Blogging: How to build traffic through information”.
In a previous episode, I talked about “The Basics of Branding and Why Anyone Can Do It”. In that episode, I detailed the 4-Step Common Sense Branding Strategy that I think most small business owners should be aware of when seeking to create, build, and enhance their company’s brand. Those steps were: 1st: Determining & Defining Your Brand. Step 2: Researching Your Market and Positioning Your Brand to Capitalize on a Sector of it. Step 3: Launching Your Brand. Step 4: Managing, Monitoring & Tweaking Your Brand (Note: That’s “tweaking” your brand, meaning make minor revisions, not tweeting your brand, which is more so a function that occurs under Step 3). In this episode, we’ll talk about how to use blogs to build traffic by providing relevant information to your audience on a timely schedule. We’ll also talk about how blogging can be used as you launch, manage, and monitor your brand, so we’ll specifically be talking about Steps 3 and 4.
Blogging can be the way that you build your reputation as an authority on your topic, and by delivering timely content, you can insure that you stay relevant with your core audience. If you choose to blog, you can choose the frequency, and generally speaking, once a week is a good rule of thumb, however if you have a more “wired” or popular topic, you may need to offer more blog posts on a shorter schedule to keep your audience’s attention.
Because so many people have blogs these days, many now think it’s intuitive, and everyone knows how to do it, but I still think that a tutorial can be useful to some, so I offer this one, with the slant on how it can be used to build and enhance your brand.
The first thing you should do is: Choose a Blog Service. WordPress is a free service, and they appear to be the clear market leader, but I’ve found that when you want to use WordPress for professional purposes, the “free” turns too costly as you add on fee-based features and functionality. Also, if you use WordPress in its free version, you aren’t allowed to have advertising on your blog, and if you’re looking at blogging with the intention of using certain revenue generating ideas, this can become an initial roadblock (unless of course you’re willing to shell out the extra cash).
My personal preference is to use Blogger because it’s offered through Google and is easily integrated with my other Google account features. Blogger is free, just as WordPress is, but I find that they aren’t quite looking to “nickel-and-dime” you for each additional service as WordPress does. Plus, Blogger lets you use advertising and has AdSense integrated with its platform. And finally, though I have nothing to base this belief off of, I just think that sooner or later Google is going to release some “game changing” blog tool that will forever change the landscape of blogging as we know it, and I just want to be on the early adopter team. LOL.
As far as the platforms, both are extremely easy-to-use and simple to learn, and the interface just gets easier and easier as time progresses. One of the biggest differences I would say to expect between the two is that WordPress is the market leader, and as such you’ll always have more resources available for it, and most new things created in the realm of blogging will be tailored to that platform over Blogger. I’m entrepreneurial in everything I do, so I’m willing to give Blogger a try, but I have worked with WordPress as well, and can say both are great programs to use, so I would suggest you use your best judgment in moving forward.
Also, know there are several other companies out there that offer blogging tools besides WordPress and Blogger, they just happened to be “two big ones”. You can do a search for “blogs” or “free blogs” and find a host of other services out there, if you want to further explore your options.
The next step would be to: Customize Your Blog. Customization can include everything from selecting a blog template which lets you choose the right color palette that’s aligned with your brand, and choosing the right domain name for the blog to be hosted from. For professional purposes, I would suggest that you host your domain from an address like: blog.yourbusinessname.com or give it its own domain like: www.yourbusinessblog.com.
For instance, my company’s website is located at: sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com), but this Small Business Branding Tips Blog is located at: easybrandmarketing.com as a part of my overall branding strategy. I would recommend having a domain name other than a yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.wordpress.com because real domain names just look better and more professional. As a note, one of the reasons I chose Blogger or WordPress was because Blogger let me host a domain I already owned for free, whereas WordPress would have charged a yearly fee. Those savings meant a lot to me as a struggling start-up.
The next step would be Incorporating Good Content into your blog and setting a blogging schedule and sticking to it. One of the things I do with my blogs is to create an outline of the topics I want to cover and detail them over a several week period. For instance, when I started this blog and podcast series I did so with roughly 14 topics lined up, and as time has passed, the list has continually grown.
Another key thing to keep in mind as you’re creating content is if you later decide to produce a newsletter or podcast series, your blog can become an excellent way to “get the word out” about your new addition and give weekly updates. Finally, blogging good content is an excellent way to establish yourself as an authority on information on your topic of expertise, because blogging content tends to rank better in search engines than static information on websites that don’t change as frequently.
Another thing to keep in mind: Be sure to allow comments on your blog so that your audience can connect with you, and over time you may also want to incorporate a survey to find out more about your blog readers and get their feedback privately.
Speaking of which, I’d like to announce that we’ve recently set up a “Small Business Branding Tips Blog Survey” link that’s on the easybrandmarketing.com site, and I’d like to encourage you to submit your feedback to it, if you haven’t already done so.
The final suggestion I would have for a way to use blogging to build traffic is in cross-linking and promoting other bloggers who have similar or complimentary topics. Be sure to read and get a “feel” for the blog before linking to it, as having it on your blog essentially acts as an “endorsement” of sorts, so you want to make sure you know what you’re getting into.
Also, though everything I’ve talked about in this podcast is something that you could certainly do on your own, please know that we here at SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) are always here to help, either by providing services as a Social Media Branding Specialist producing blog content on your behalf, or via our Social Media & Technology Training Packages to help you get a better grasp on blog tools and how to use them for yourself.
And that’s all I have this week. I hope you found this week’s tip helpful. Be sure to join us again next week, where I’ll be talking about “EASY Newsletters & How you can use newsletters and email marketing to build traffic and enhance your brand”.
The final suggestion I would have for a way to use blogging to build traffic is in cross-linking and promoting other bloggers who have similar or complimentary topics. Be sure to read and get a “feel” for the blog before linking to it, as having it on your blog essentially acts as an “endorsement” of sorts, so you want to make sure you know what you’re getting into.
Also, though everything I’ve talked about in this podcast is something that you could certainly do on your own, please know that we here at SSS for Success (EASY Brand Marketing Specialists) are always here to help, either by providing services as a Social Media Branding Specialist producing blog content on your behalf, or via our Social Media & Technology Training Packages to help you get a better grasp on blog tools and how to use them for yourself.
And that’s all I have this week. I hope you found this week’s tip helpful. Be sure to join us again next week, where I’ll be talking about “EASY Newsletters & How you can use newsletters and email marketing to build traffic and enhance your brand”.
As a note: Within the next few weeks, I’m going to have a podcast episode devoted entirely to questions and answers from you, my listening audience, so please submit your Small Business Branding Questions for that upcoming episode. You can visit our website sss4success.com (that’s S-S-S, the number 4, S-U-C-C-E-S-S.com) and go to the Contact Us page to submit your question, or reach out to us via email at “podcasts @ sss4success.com”, or finding us on Twitter (@sss4success), or leaving a comment on our blog at easybrandmarketing.com.
By the way, if you’re a Small Business Owner that’s been in business for a while,please find the survey link on our blog and do us a favor and fill out that brief survey and tell us a bit more about your entrepreneurial experiences. We’d really appreciate your input.
Finally, if by chance, you would like to learn more about how EASY Sales can help your bottom line, then give us a call at 615-336-4325.
Thanks again for listening and have a great day!
