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Making Marketing Happen Blog

Tips, Tools and Techniques for Making Marketing Happen

Posts Tagged ‘Small Business’

Promote Your Company Vision – Part I

A company vision sets a business apart from all others. What is a company vision? It is a business’ forward-thinking declaration of its aspirations for the future. It is the image it has of its goals before plans are laid out for how to achieve them. Company visions often are a declaration of a business’ desire to innovate and change its market for the better.

The vision is also a foundational component of a company’s brand. The most compelling ones inspire employees and endure as a business grows. Yet, many businesses don’t actively communicate their visions. Companies that don’t promote their visions are missing a marketing opportunity.

Why do it? A business that actively promotes its vision is positioning itself as a thought leader and innovator in its market. Touting its vision is also a great way for a business to differentiate itself from it competition.

If a company doesn’t have one, it should write a vision statement. Once that is done, it is time to share it with the world. The following are suggestions of ways that a company can market its corporate vision.

Unbury It

Many businesses have their company vision statements listed on their websites. But the statements are usually buried somewhere deep in the site’s “About” or “Company” sections. Liberate your vision statement! Highlight it in appropriately-placed callout boxes. Or go for the gusto and place the vision on the home page so that every visitor can easily grasp the business’ reason for being.

Does your company produce an annual report? Incorporate the vision into the CEO’s letter to shareholders. Have executives discuss it at the annual shareholder meeting. If your company publishes a newsletter, include mention of the vision in it. As progress is made, write articles and updates about it.

Incorporate It into Your Tagline

A tagline is a means of communicating a brand-based message. It should be changed over time as a business evolves. Taglines are another way to promote a company’s vision. This strategy is especially appropriate if a company’s marketing objective is to establish itself as the thought leader in its category.

Some examples of past and present vision-inspired taglines are: “Think Different” (Apple), “Imagination at Work” (General Electric), “The World’s Networking Company” (AT&T), “The Power of Dreams,” (Honda) “The Next Stage” (Wells Fargo) and “The Power of Human Energy” (Chevron). Can you think of others?

The next post will provide additional ways for companies to promote their unique visions.


Email Marketing Touchpoints

Sometimes you read an article that includes so many excellent points that it must be shared. If you are interested in email marketing best practices, I have come across just such an article.

It recognizes that many companies don’t take advantage of the most obvious email marketing touchpoints, such as sending automated welcome messages to new subscribers. In fact, according to Listrak, only 1% of retailers on the Internet Retailer 500 actually employ such emails!

Whether it’s sending personalized messages, first-time buyer offers, relevant product offers based on past buying behavior, or post-purchase thank you messages, these are email best practices that companies should implement  because they deliver proven results.

Read A Soup to Nuts List of Email Marketing Touchpoints and let me know your take on it.


Google Like You Live in Another Country

When you check your web analytics reports, do you notice that your website been visited by people from Europe, Asia or another part of the world? Ever wonder how they found your site? Or, perhaps your company sells products outside the US and international SEO and SEM are important elements of your online marketing campaigns?

If you’ve ever wanted to see how your website or ads appear in Google search results viewed by people in other countries, your days of wanting are over. Now you can sit at your computer and easily Google like you live somewhere else.

GoogleGlobal is a free extension for Firefox that has been created by RedFly Marketing Ltd. It enables users to easily see what Google search results look like in other countries, cities and zip codes. It also shows the user how organic and paid search results look from a specific IP address, from any US zip code and in different languages. I’ve been testing GoogleGlobal and think it is a fabulous tool.

After downloading the add-on, the GoogleGlobal icon will be installed in your Firefox or Chrome toolbar. Click on it and the list of default countries appear on the drop down. Or, search for something on Google. When you see you search results page, simply right click anywhere on the search results page, select “Search Google Global” and pick what geographic location you would like to see the results from. Voila!

GoogleGlobal comes pre-set with Google searches for Australia, Canada, UK, Ireland and the US. If you want to add new country or zip code-based searches, just click on “Show Options” and follow the simple steps.

GoogleGlobal only works with Firefox and Chrome browsers. So, if you don’t use either of those browsers, you may need to travel to the destination in question to view the Google results. Or, save the frequent flier miles and just download one of those two browsers!


Mind the Gap Logo – Part I

Have you heard? Last week Gap Inc. quietly debuted a new logo for its leading store brand. But these days, with the internet bully pulpit available to all, changes as significant as that one don’t stay quiet for long. Gap customers took a look and the resulting outcry echoed across Facebook, Twitter and beyond.

The posts on Gap’s Facebook page make it clear that people did not like the “updated” interpretation of the Gap logo. A classic, international icon had been desecrated and the public let management know it.

What happened next? Close to end of business today, the Gap did an about face and announced that it is keeping its 20+ year old iconic brand, as is. The customer spoke loudly and the company listened. Bravo to the Gap for being responsive to its customers. Some people accused Gap of engineering a publicity stunt. We’re assuming that what transpired was a gaffe and not ploy. So, what could have been done to avoid this episode, which is all too reminiscent of the New Coke debacle?

This post is not about whether the new, but soon-to-be-history, logo was brilliantly designed, or whether it was something that any of us could create in PowerPoint using Helvetica font in less than five minutes. Instead, it’s about the realities of brand management today and how Gap’s team could have made the logo project a positive experience for the company and its customers.

This episode confirms that brands matter to people. Brands are intangibles that live in customers’ minds. Consumers are very passionate about brands whose promises they believe in and they can feel a sense of ownership for those brands.

Gap’s actions show that their team hadn’t fully realized that brand management today is about consumer engagement and participation. The days of one way communication are over for established brands. By changing the Gap logo and then unveiling it to the public, Gap’s one way communication path ran straight into a brick wall. Then the internet amplified the negative response into a loud roar. The brand was tarnished and the company was scrambling.

Gap should have incorporated its customer network into the company’s internal logo discussion. It missed an opportunity to gain more evangelists by publicly soliciting customer input about the Gap’s updated logo concepts early on.

At last count, the Gap has 722,402 people liking it on Facebook and 35,618 following it on Twitter. The company should have used social media platforms to dialogue with its customers openly about its logo plans, and gained their feedback long before it was launched. Had they done so, Gap management would have had a better gauge of the public’s response and could have redirected, or aborted, the logo update process.

Brands are defined by how well a company responds to moments of truth. Gap just lived one of those moments. Consumers and their cash will determine how well Gap’s management handled this marketing mess.


Five Steps to Take Before Refreshing a Website

Many small businesses have so much to do to keep their operations humming that before they know it a few years have gone by and their websites are out-of-date.

Whether the website’s content is stale, its navigation is clunky or its look and functionality are from before the social media era, the site is likely not helping the brand’s appeal and may even be tainting the company’s all-so-important first impression.

It’s true that refreshing a website can seem like a daunting undertaking. But don’t fall victim to website paralysis. Rest assured that a few straightforward preliminary steps can put the project on the right path.

Before beginning the search for a web agency, designer or developer, businesses should implement these five steps:

1. Print out every page from the existing website.

2. Read each page carefully. Highlight the text that is still current. Strike out the messaging that is no longer relevant. Identify the blocks of content that are missing.

Takeaway: This step provides an initial feel for the amount of new content and number of new pages that will be needed, as well as what should be eliminated.

3. Review the site’s web analytics reports. What pages are visitors viewing? How much time are they spending on each one? What critical content should they be reading that they are not? Is the site producing the desired conversion actions?

Takeaway: Determining what areas of the current site are appealing to visitors will help decide what sections to keep and expand upon and what sections to revise or retire.

4. Determine the business’ objectives for the website. Is it awareness? Lead generation? Closing sales? Or, is it some other type of conversion?

Takeaway: The refreshed site should be designed to meet the organization’s goals. Decide what those goals are before the project gets underway.

5. Select up to three audiences that the refreshed site will be targeting. Build a profile of those target segments, including age, gender, income levels, likes and dislikes and why they buy the product or service.

Takeaway: Design and develop the website with the target visitors in mind.  Craft messages that speak to their needs and interests and they are likely to want to learn more.

Once the five preliminary steps are completed, the organization will have assessed its current site and started scoping the new site. This information will be very helpful to use during the web developer vetting process. Now it’s time to contact those agencies.