Sure, diamonds are scarce, along with running English rugby (I can say that because I’m English) - but there is no real scarcity in business. If we want to make more stuff, we make it. Scarcity is an idea – it’s manufactured. The only thing that is really scarce is unique talent. To be able to do something no one else can. Or to do it in a way that no one else does it.
Are you adding this raw, unique talent to your business? Or are you just doing what everyone else does in your market? Because if you are, then you only have a few ways of differentiating your business – and none of them are unique.
You can make your website look great – but then so can your competitors. You can hire really good staff – but then so can you competitors.
You can make a glossy brochure talking about how wonderful your business is – but then so can your competitors. And of course you can always drop your price to encourage people to buy. But then everyone can do that if they really want to.
So instead of tricking up your business so it looks smarter – why not go deeper? Why not ask yourself ‘what’s the one thing I do that no one else can do, and how can this make my business genuinely unique?’
It requires a bit of soul-searching, but you’ll be amazed at how powerful it can be.
]]>Brand Relevance as a keyword ranking factor is not discussed in the SEO community too often. Unlike the other factors, it's not easily quantifiable - there's no SI Unit of Brand Relevance.
So what does it mean? And what's the application of it?
For me, Brand Relevance is “The tendency of the chosen keywords to reinforce existing brand messages”. Simply, what do these keywords say about your business, and do they reflect what your brand is about?
Let's Look at a hypothetical web design agency, which we'll call them DevDesign.
DevDesign is a boutique agency, based in Sydney's CBD, who specialise in designing websites for medium-sized businesses. Their ideal clients are wealthy Australian professionals who are happy to pay premium rates for good quality.
After conducting some brief keyword research they choose “Cheap Web Design” as their primary keyword target.
Cheap Web Design sees over 5000 searches per month. While the competition for the phrase is comparatively low for the industry, the Adwords Cost-Per-Click is very high (close to $8). This suggests that the Cheap Web Design searchers are a highly qualified bunch, and a valuable group of prospects to target.
The problem?
Let’s see what happens if one of their genuine prospects decides to shop around for price comparisons...
The CMO does a search for “Cheap Web Design Sydney” and BAM. There they are. Right up at the top of the list:
“DevDesign | Cheap Web Design | Cheap Websites”.
Now they're stuffed.
With a headline like this, it's going to be very hard to convince this potential client that they do, in fact, provide the premium, high-quality web design service that she is seeking.
Don't forget, being consistent across all brand communications is one of The 7 Golden Rules of Marketing.
]]>A couple of things happen when you (or your hired SEO) attempt to conform to this myth.
1) Articles and web pages become needlessly long in order to fit in more 'keywords'
2) The copy becomes repetitive and boring – or even worse; incomprehensible and fillied with grammatical errors
3) You end up saying the same things as your competitors.
By chasing that Page 1 ranking, your message has been smothered by lengthy,
keyword-stuffed sentences. And your unique brand is now no more visible on the results page than it was before you began.
What's the point in being on the first page if you're selling the same message as the other nine people around you? So your point of difference is that you're higher in Google than your competitors? That's great, but it's really not saying anything unique or interesting about your company.
The Truth: Keyword inclusion in website copy is only one of many factors that search-engines use to determine page rankings.
While keywords do play an important role, what you say about your business is arguably more important. As David Ogilvy pointed out, it’s the language you use to speak to your prospects that determines if you’ll make a connection with them:
“If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think.” – David Ogilvy
However, this does not mean repeating their search query to them sixty-four times a minute. A much better approach is to include your keywords (and variations of them) two or three times in your article or blog - then focus on making sure you answer your prospects’ question or solve their problem.
If your SEO advisor complains that this will make his or her job more difficult, they’re right. Tell them to build better links.
Do your research, put your keywords in your page title and URL extensions, but if you have something more interesting to say in the header of an article than “Best Law Firm in Sydney”, then by all means, say it.
SEO is a balancing act. Getting found by your prospects is only half the battle - you still have to convince them that you are what they have been searching for.
The Brand Factory will soon be launching a new website optimisation service. If you need someone to plan and execute your SEO efforts, we’ll be there to help you.
Tech: CU3MBUM3ZBVC
]]>And how do you tell the difference?
It's actually pretty easy. When you talk to someone about something you love doing, you get butterflies in your stomach. It's an unmistakable feeling – it's the same feeling you got when you were a child and you knew your birthday was coming up. Or when you were a teenager and had a crush on one of your classmates.
Unfortunately we don't get this feeling too often in business, because we get stuck doing work we feel we have to, rather than work we really want to. But when we do get to work on a project that we love, we get that funny feeling in the pit of our stomachs. And it's an important feeling. It's 'gut feel,' and it's generated in the oldest part of our brain: The limbic brain. This area controls gut feeling, emotions and decision-making. Learn to trust this and you'll perform quicker and smarter decisions, than the carefully thought-through logical decisions made in the newer part of the brain – the neocortex.
Why is this important to your business? Because there's another physiological change that happens when you talk about what you love doing. Your eyes sparkle. The person you're talking to sees this and immediately knows you're telling the truth. It's pretty hard to fake (unless you use eye drops), and it's infectious. The person you're talking to immediately wants to know more. You're no longer selling - you're explaining. And most people are much, much better at explaining than they are at sellng.
But it all starts with you. You need to be clear on what you do, and what your business does that makes a difference to your clients. And this has much more to do with why you do what you do, than what you do. So think about it. Get clear on why you and your business make a difference to your clients. Not what you do (every business does that), but why you do it.
They'll spot the sparkle and want to find out why you're so excited about your business. At that point the sale is pretty much already made.
]]>Have you ever noticed that when you ask people what they do they reply using stiff business language?
This is because most people think it sounds more professional to use terms like 'expert', 'experienced', and well – 'professional'.
This week, I decided to to a bit of research.
I went to the yellow pages and selected the first 50 businesses in New South Wales listed under 'Accountants & Auditors' who had web sites. I surfed to the About page on each site and subsequently picked out all the adjectives and implied adjectives (eg. Having expertise = to be expert) in the copy. Where no About page was available I used the Home page, as this is also a popular place for descriptive copy.
The results were telling. The top 5 most commonly used words were:
It seems the majority of NSW accountants feel the need to underline the fact that they are professional and experienced. But my question is, if you don't explicitly say you're an experienced professional, do we assume otherwise? I certainly hope not, as only 6% of the sample firms stated that they were 'confidential', and only 8% are 'qualified'. I don't mean to argue that it is bad to use phrases from this list, just that you don't have to. Your market research may tell you that these are the qualities your prospects look for in a business, but after a certain point it just becomes background chatter.
What if - instead of telling your audience what they're expecting to hear, you tell them something they're not expecting? Find out what words everybody else is using, then use your own. Small business marketing is all about differentiating yourself from your competitors.
If you cut out the fluff and speak honestly you might just find that more people want to talk to you.
]]>'So Justin,' he would say, in his mid-Atlantic accent, 'what's the market share by volume in East Anglia of Brand X this month?'
Market share was everything. Not share by value, but volume market share. An increase in volume share meant an increase in boxes shipped. If we managed to push the dial up by 0.3% in any given month, that was big news. But this obsession with market share meant an obsession with the competition. What were they up to? How could we out-do them? What were they thinking? And of course the most effective mechanism for 'out-doing' them was price. This would invariably trigger a price war, and short-term gains in share would soon be eroded when the main competitor dropped their price. Sure, we invested in consumer research to test new ideas, but we seemed to spend more time looking at the competitors' product than our own.
It's natural to want to compare ourselves against the competition - because it gives us a benchmark for measuring how successful we are. But there's a more successful approach: Ignore the competition, and focus on what we offer instead. What can we do to change the game? How can we improve on what we do and how we do it? And by focussing on our offer, we are by default, focussing on the customer and her needs. How can we make the customer say 'wow?' And by answering that question, we get away from price. Because price is always the lowest common denominator. The more we rely on it, the more we stare at our competitors, and the less we can wow our customers. But by focussing on our idea and how to make it better, the more we focus on how we could make things better for the customer.
]]>If so, it's time to put a hole in that life boat and move to the deck of the80 foot Sunseeker instead.
That's where the smart clients are – who know what they're looking for. Who are clear on why you are the business that can help them. Who are clear on what you will do for them.
So how to make the switch? The first thing to do is stop focussing your brand marketing communications solely on 'what you do' and switch to 'why you do it.' That way you'll be able to connect with like-minded people who understand where you're coming from and can relate to what your business stands for. It's a meeting of the minds – a matching of values. Of course you still need to talk about what you do and how you do it – you just need to lead with the 'why.'
Check out Simon Sinek's TED talk for more on this.
He points to the fact that people are much more motivated by 'why you do what you do' than just simply 'what you do.'
So how do you find out the 'why' behind your own business? The bad news is that it's often hidden in your subconscious, so it's hard to find yourself. The start point is often a conversation with your best customers. But instead of asking 'what do you think I do,' try asking 'why did you choose to work with me?' Then ask 'how did you feel before you decided to work with me, and how did you feel afterwards?'
Get to the heart of 'why' and then talk about it. You'll attract far fewer life raft seekers and far more Sunseeker.
]]>Unfortunately this doesn't always work – especially when there are competitors around. That's because by simply offering the market what it wants, we end up offering the same things as our competitors. And from the customers' perspective, it ends up looking like a sea of 'sameness.' They simply can't tell the difference between one company and another.
Do a Google search on Lawyers in Sydney and the same words pop up nearly everytime (go ahead, give it a go). Words like 'experienced,' 'tailored,' 'understanding' and 'high level' appear on virtually everyone's website. Boredom sets in for the customer.
Everyone is rushing to say the same thing. Everyone is 'zigging.'
So how about trying a different strategy? How about 'zagging' instead?
Oops. Someone hit the panic button. What, you mean break ranks and claim something different? Bit risky isn't it? Well no actually. As long as your 'zag' is founded on the truth about what really makes you and your business tick, and addresses a fundamental customer need – then it's actually a lot safer.
Why don't more businesses 'zag?' The answer is complex – but it has a lot to do with the perceived safety of herd mentality, and the popular belief that it's simply too hard to innovate or offer something new – because if it was that easy, some one would have already thought of it.
So instead of 'zagging,' businesses spend money on a new logo and a flashy website. They think that slapping some paint on the problem will fix it. But this solution is only skin-deep. The basic offer – the so-called 'USP' (short for 'Unique Selling Proposition') or 'point of difference' remains the same. It might fool someone at first glance, but it lacks substance. People will quickly see that nothing's really changed.
OK – so we've decided to give the 'zag' theory a go. Where do we start?
How can we go about creating a point of difference for our business?
Well the good news is that you already have one. That's because if you run a small to mid-sized business, you are your brand. As the owner or senior manager of an SME brand, your own personality and values are reflected by that brand. People see you as representing your brand. And as we all have a unique set of skills, and a different view of the world from everyone else – it means our brands automatically have the potential to be unique.
As the owner or senior manager of a business, how do you tap into this innate uniqueness?
The first step to take is to ask yourself why you created or joined your business. What was the driving force? What did you really want to achieve, or change about the market you operate in?
The trouble with this line of questioning is that we're often not exactly honest with ourselves. We tend to guild the lily a little. We put on 'rose tinted' glasses, and we come up with answers that will sound good. But this doesn't work. People can spot a fake a mile off.
How does this line of questioning help us? Because this is the first step to creating a story about your business and what you do that's founded on the truth. The truth about what drives you as a person, and what difference you want to make in your market, in your world. The truth about what you love doing – what inspires you. Once you do this, you and your business are aligned. You feel unstoppable – because you are doing what you are supposed to do – not what someone else thinks you should. Isn't that why you left the corporate world in the first place? To do work you really enjoy? To make a difference?
Armed with this new approach, you can take the mask off and be yourself in your business. You can use language that comes naturally, rather than to reach for the clichéd business terms everyone else is using.
You can then go about building a unique brand story for your business.
Why a story? Because this is personal – it is your story – woven into your business. And because we all love stories – we've grown up with them. They engage us – entertain us.
So next time you are considering a 'brand make over,' don't just slap some lipstick on. Go the whole hog and 'zag' your business.
]]>Persuasion is a subtle art. Let's say I'm a salesman trying to sell you something.
I provide you with a piece of information. Using that information you'll form an opinion or idea. Which information I provide however, is up to me. The idea I want you to form at the end of the communication is "I will buy that product".
What Leo is attempting to do in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster is not far off. Using futuristic technology, which I assume Google are currently developing, he must break into the dreams of his target and plant an idea in the back of his mind. The challenge is to do it in such a way that, when he wakes up, he believes the idea is his own.
This is because an idea is far more powerful if the person thinking it believes they came up with it themselves. This is as true in the movie as it is in real-life marketing.
So how do you implant an idea in someone's head, without them knowing that you are doing it?
You get their friends to do it for you.
How do you do that?
Social media.
]]>In the meantime we get busy conforming. Without knowing what our 'point of difference' is, we look for ways of fitting in, conforming and generally refusing to stand out in any way, shape or form that might draw attention to ourselves. We are products of our society – short poppies in a field of identical poppies. Keep your head down, work hard, and 'she'll be right.'
And the same goes for our businesses. Why? Because small business is merely an extension of the owner or manager of that business. We may not like it – we spend money trying to distance ourselves from our business – putting a barrier between us and the work that we do. We try to create something we think people will prefer than ourselves. But the reality is that in small business, owner = business.
And small business marketing tends to mimic that of other small businesses – in attempt to 'fish where the fish are.' So we end up looking like every other Tom, Dick and Nokia. We use the same terms as they do – like professional, passionate and committed. We try desperately to be what we're not, because we assume people will buy that other thing – the thing everyone else is offering.
Conclusion? To truly create a unique business proposition in the SME space requires us to look at ourselves first. We need to identify what drives us to do the business we do. We need to look at how we do things that differentiates us from our competitors. We need to look at why we are in the business beyond merely making money. There has to be a bigger reason – whether it's to give back to society (altruistic), to prove to someone we can achieve our goals (whether to ourselves, to family or to friends).
Once we work out what drives us, we can get clear on what we offer. Then it's a question of identifying exactly who needs this and who will buy what we offer.
Traditional marketing thinking would have us believe that we need to start by working out what the market wants, then make it. This works some of the time, and often for a short time. This approach can turn into fads. In fact a famous Australian fad died quite recently in fact http://www.smartcompany.com.au/entrepreneur-watch/20101102-krispy-creamed.html)
New marketing thinking requires us to work out what drives us before creating our offer, then ensuring the right audience hears about it.
So go ahead – be you – you might just find things work a little easier that way.
]]>They talk in generic terms about being 'professional,' 'passionate,' 'specialist' 'innovative,' 'driven,' and 'value for money'- like these were new terms.
The trouble is they're not - they are the basic requirements for any business before they can be taken seriously by a prospect. They give you a ticket into the banquet, but not a seat at the table. And to add insult to injury, they're already being used by their competitors.
Why? Because without it, you don't have a voice - an anchor point for prospective customers to think about you, talk about you and to compare you.
Everything should hang off this. Your name, your logo, your web design, even the way you answer the phone. It's the single most important factor that makes the difference between success and failure. You can have an ordinary name supported by an extraordinary positioning and still succeed. But it simply doesn't work the other way round.
The trouble is that it's much more fun to play around with a name or a logo or a web design, than it is to sit down and really nut out what you do that's really different, really important - the thing you do that adds real value to your clients' business.
Ask yourself 3 questions to kick things off:
1. What's the one thing you'd change about your market - the one thing that most other companies do, which you refuse to do, or the one thing you do (or are prepared to do), that no one else will?
2. How would this add real value to your clients?
- What problem does it solve? What opportunity does it create that wasn't there before?
3. How do you, or would you deliver on this?
- What system do you have to make this work? How is it different from the way your competitors work?
This is probably the most important web marketing strategy, because it allows you to be found when someone searches for you. This is a multi faceted approach that can take months to complete, but which pays dividends, because it’s virtually free.
To start, you need to optimise your website with keyword phrases – which are the words people type in to a search engine (such as Google, Yahoo or Bing) to find a product or service. These companies all try to ensure that keyword searches prove useful and relevant for the person searching, so one of the keys to improving your SEO is to ensure the copy on your home page is relevant to what you do. This may stifle creativity a little, but there’s a balance between getting noticed - by saying something different, and being found - by using words and phrases relevant to your industry. To start the process, consider all the phrases you would type in to a search engine, to find the product or services you provide. Have a look at your competitor websites and see what phrases they are using as titles for their pages. Once you’ve established which keyword phrases are most relevant to your business, go back to your own website and make sure these words are incorporated in the copy on your website – especially your home page. Then ensure that these keywords appear on the tile of your pages. For instance, many companies have ‘Home’ as the title of their home page. By changing this title to include the keywords that are most relevant to your business will help companies like Google to rank you higher for relevance.
Other SEO techniques include writing blogs and articles on your website containing those keyword phrases. This helps to demonstrate your experience in your chosen field to potential customers, but it also improves your SEO ranking with the search engines. You then need to create backlinks to your website by using article directories such as Ezine, BlogSpot, WordPress and other free sites. You will link your websites URL to specific keywords and keyword phrases that others can click on to reach your site.
Another tip that you can take from a good marketing consultant is to continually update your website. Even if you aren't coming out with new products or new services, by adding new pages, (you can even rewrite old information), you are keeping your pages fresh and relevant, which will attract search engine response.
Don’t forget about your current customers and contacts. Send them regular updates, offer a coupon if they subscribe to your blog, and so on. The old phrase, "out of site, out of mind" is very true in web marketing terms, so regular contact will ensure your customers don’t forget about you.
There are also ways to market your website that cost money. You can use affiliates to sell your products, which means advertising with them - however, you will have to pay them a commission for this service. In addition, you can use banner ads, pay per click campaigns and more, all of which a marketing consultant can organise and manage for you if you don’t have the time.
One very important thing to consider, however, is your return on investment. Your time has value and if you are spending more time on your marketing than you are on your business, then your customers may well suffer. Consider starting with an SEO campaign and then adding other methods as your campaign starts seeing results. As your business grows, consider hiring a marketing consultant to provide expert advice and to develop more complex campaigns for you, which in turn, will deliver further growth for your business.
]]>One of the key ingredients of a strong marketing strategy is to create a unique point of difference for your business.
But while most companies claim to be different, much of the time these claims aren’t actually unique. Promising the ‘best people,’ ‘the best systems,’ or being the ‘most passionate’ in the market is simply not enough.
The problem is that these terms have become over-used. Words like ‘proactive,’ ‘quality’ and ‘personalised’ are so clichéd they’re virtually invisible.
So without having to engage a marketing consultant, what should an SME owner do to stand out in the market?
The answer is to look at how you differ from your competitors, and specifically how this benefits your customer.
For example, a small Sydney accounting firm (let’s call them The Matrix) decides that instead of claiming to be the best tax, financial planning and superannuation provider in Australia, they will develop a new system to identify where a client exists in the financial planning ‘lifecycle’.
They then tailor solutions proven to work for each client’s ‘lifestage’. By creating this unique system, the firm has established a clear point of difference from its closest competitors. It can now focus on demonstrating how this unique system benefits its customers. No more bland statements about having the ‘best people.’ The Matrix now stands apart.
Once you’ve created your unique point of difference, it’s important to bring it to life by creating an engaging story around it. The fact is that people love stories. They resonate with childhood. Stories invite us to create meaningful connections with the people we want to communicate with.
But how do you build an engaging brand story as part of your marketing strategy?
Begin by making it easy for people to understand you. Explain what you do in plain English. Every day we are exposed to approximately 500 marketing messages online, via television, radio and outdoor ads. The messages that cut through all the noise are the simplest ones. The easiest way to think about this is to apply ‘KISS’ principle (keep it simple stupid). If your marketing message is a simple one, you’re much more likely to be remembered in all that clutter.
Here are some other ways of extending the impact of your brand story:
Tell someone one thing about your business and they will remember it. Tell them 7 things and they will forget everything. Focus on one aspect of your story and ensure the benefit to your customer is clearly highlighted.
But content is not the only consideration.
The visual components must also clearly and concisely represent your brand and weave into the fabric of your story. Your marketing agency wouldn’t marry an elegantly written piece about the world’s finest chocolates with visual components that work for an adventure magazine, so why should you?
Follow these simple marketing guidelines and you’re well on your way to building stronger customer loyalty – which leads means building a bigger business.
]]>Regardless of the type of business you operate, or services you offer, a solid marketing strategy is critical to creating a successful business. Here are the seven golden rules to create a stronger brand and to attract more customers to your business:
With your marketing strategy firmly in place, you’ll be able to create a really successful business. Being real, and consistently presenting your products and services in a simple yet creative and memorable way, will help your business to stand out from your competitors and keep customers knocking at your virtual doors.
]]>It got me thinking: businesses need harps and flaming red hair. In a world of homogenous product and service offerings, we need a metaphorical Florence to help our branding stand out. "Oh come on," I hear the sceptics say "we can't do that, we have a business reputation to protect!" Well, the reality is that unless you make a statement - either about what you stand for, what you'll challenge in your industry, or how you'll do things differently, you might not have a brand or a reputation to protect next year. Go on - buy a harp and a red wig for your business. Make a statement and get noticed!
]]>But they do – and so do businesses. Why? The answer probably lies somewhere in between the science of opposing forces, and sheer will and determination. While I haven’t the inclination to explain the former, the latter is what motivates me as a marketer.
‘Will and determination’ takes effort and requires direction. Our customers come to us with plenty of determination seeking help with the direction – which is where we come in. We have developed the structures customers need to get their planes off the ground:
Runway: The business vision sets the path for the pilot to follow
Safety Briefing: The business values give us all a guide on how we can best work together
In Flight entertainment: The brand story tells our audience what’s so different about our business and why they should buy from us
Engines: The marketing plan tells the engines when to fire up and drive the business forward
So is your business fuelled up and ready to fly?
]]>- Quite possibly. The butterfly effect is a theory based on the notion that small occurrences have an effect on larger events or entities.
The most famous of these is demonstrated in a movie depicting time travel, where the main character travels back in time wearing a digital wristwatch during the American Civil War. Pundits propose that by doing so the character has altered the rate of advancement in technology, and therefore will change the way the World progresses thereafter.
Every experience your customer has with your brand, large or small has a profound effect in the way they will do business with you in the future. For example, one of your resellers selling your product cheaper than your flagship store will create a negative brand experience for your customer.
Every time your brand flaps its wings, what effect does it create for your customers?
]]>If the Bumble Bee could hear the doubters, would she question her own ability to conquer the laws of aerodynamics, and fall out of the sky?
If Gerry Harvey had listened to the Doubting Thomases, would he have created the retail empire that he did, using such a unique go-to-market model? Or would Richard Branson have become the leader of such a visionary brand as Virgin?
Thankfully Tim Pethick, founder of Nudie’, didn’t listen to the naysayers telling him he couldn’t make money in the Australian beverage industry. Nor did he give up when local bottlers refused to do business with him because he didn’t present the traditional business model. Instead he hand-capped the initial demand, until the 10,000 bottles a week became unmanageable. At this point he became of serious interest to the same bottlers who had previously shunned him.
To succeed in business you need positive self-belief to take on board the challenges that are thrown your way, and then channel them as a catalyst for a stronger, more focussed business.
So let’s take every barrier to our success as a challenge that we’ll overcome with gusto, and don our yellow and black stripes, silently dismissing the doubters with a very inward “Buzz off!”
]]>