Archive for the ‘Business Growth and Change’ Category

The Right Time to Rebrand?

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

You started a business a few years ago, maybe just testing the waters. When just starting ‘marketing budget’ is not in your vocabulary, but know you need basic tools like a website and business cards. So, you get them done inexpensively. Okay, that was sugar-coated: as cheap as possible and written yourself.
Butterflies in Cocoon
That’s the best way to go when starting, not just for financial reasons, but also because many new entrepreneurs aren’t set on what their brand should be, what they stand for, who their ideal clients are. How could they be – they haven’t really done anything yet. I know, I’ve been there.

I’ve Been There Too.

Flash forward a few years: after time in a cocoon your business has matured, your competitive advantage is becoming apparent, you know who your favourite clients are – the ones you want more of. At this point in my own business I began to feel embarrassed by the tools I had. While I had no real plan when I started Faith Seekings Design, I never imagined how much I’d grow. A name based on my own made me sound small by then. Plus, my name is just weird.
In order for me to grow a business that didn’t depend on me, I needed to rebrand. With the help of two great guys and some close friends we went through three sessions that eventually landed us a new name – Rapport – and tagline based on what makes us special. And my new website was written by a pro.

The Most Common Form of Rebrand: the Evolution

Think of it like a caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly. I rebranded again 1.5 years later – though this time only an evolution of the look and language to something more sophisticated, as our client-base was shifting from micro-businesses to mid-sized.

Even seemingly long-lasting, never changing brands like Coca Cola evolve at least slightly over the years to stay modern looking. It’s more than just look – messaging as well. Does your brand resonate with your ideal client?

Two Great Milestones to Rebrand By

First, once you’ve been in business long enough and have some experience under your belt you can seriously tackle your competitive advantage. Chances are what you’ve been saying so far is what everyone else says. By now there are real experiences, processes and great case studies to draw a true differentiator from. How you do what you say makes you different often becomes what makes you different. We use the Essential Message method to uncover this and the result is often something the client does so naturally and easily they don’t even realize they’re doing it or how important it is. If you figure this out, it should become the basis of all your messaging and marketing tools.

Another great time to rebrand is when you focus or refocus on your ideal client. If, for example, you start out serving small businesses but change your focus to larger, your approach would have to change. With small businesses it’s all about the relationship, trust and budget, where bigger businesses are more about the bottom line and want to feel secure that you can handle their project. Your look and messaging should go from fun and approachable or cheap and cheerful to established and sophisticated. Again, does your brand resonate with your ideal client?

Do I have to redo everything?

In short, yes.

Everything you or your team uses to represent the company to the outside world – not just your clients but colleagues and suppliers – should represent at the very least where you are now and ideally, where you intend to be in the near future. They should all be consistent in look and message, but also quality. This includes everything from the way the company is introduced, explaining what you do and what makes you different to the website to the printed materials, to the Twitter page and message style.

You can, of course, plan it out over a period of time. But, think of it as an ‘all-inclusive marketing approach’ to make it all work better together.

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Moving Means Change

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Moving = Change
Now is a good time for review

There are several issues to address when you’re moving into a new office space. For example, you’ll need to consider having your stationery updated, perhaps a new sign made for the hallway or building, or beside the elevator, etc. The fact that you are moving, however, suggests something has changed for the company. Now is an excellent time to review how you’re marketing yourself.

What’s changed for you this year?

Ask yourself the following. If you’ve been in business for a couple years, have your grown, added new services or dimension, aiming to conquer bigger mountains?  Does your logo still make you proud? Does your website still inspire you and do what you need it to? Does your messaging still articulate your brilliance and why you’re the best in your field?

Name 2-3 factors that have changed for you or in your business environment from a year ago. Perhaps your clients have different needs? Are you conducting business in another region or country? Have you added new skills to your organization?

Where do you want to be in a year?

Now think about the current position of your company. Pat yourself on the back for everything you have accomplished. Next, think where you want it to be in a year. What is the biggest thing you want to accomplish over the next year? Your goal might be based on revenues, landing some investment dollars or gaining specific clients.

What are your marketing tools?

Make a list of the items, or platforms that you use to represent yourself or your business. Your list might include: business cards, web site, blog, articles, speaking, events, networking, Twitter, brochures, trade shows, crm, newsletter, webinars, etc.

Look at all of your existing marketing tools and evaluate them against:
1) The things that have changed for you, and
2) What you want to accomplish over the next 12 months.

Next think about how these items look as well as your messaging, matching them up against your target audience. Do your existing tools still reflect and support you in what you want to accomplish this year and in light of recent changes?

If you have added new skills to your company, have you listed these? If so, then the next step will be as simple as updating your website’s services page.

If you’ve changed your client focus from large enterprises to SMEs, you will want to make sure that your content is still appropriate. For example, large businesses are all about the bottom line and efficiencies, whereas SMEs are a little more about relationships and trust. Ask yourself if your current approach still resonates with this new target.

Your clients may be holding back due to the economy. This is a good time to change your messaging to be more sympathetic or collaborative, maybe demonstrate your value to them more.

Think for a moment about these things and write down some things you may have spotted. These maybe items that that might need changing to meet your vision for the year and take into account changes that have occurred.

Once you look at your marketing tools in this light, some of you may say ‘okay, it’s clear to me that I need to make some changes.’ Others may feel extra confident in what they have already included any necessary changes. The most important thing is that you feel supported, inspired, heard seen and  excited by your tools.

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Getting Your Marketing Done

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Throughout my years in business I have noticed some clients have more difficulty than others in getting their marketing done. What seems like a small bit of feedback takes months. One in particular teases me and himself for my having to nag him regularly for feedback or direction. I asked him just today what holds him up most and he said it’s partially lack of time (the most common reason) but also that some things push him out of his comfort zone. The best thing you can do in both of these common cases is schedule it in and ask for help. Here are some tips on how to do that.

Take Charge of Time.

Looking at even small marketing tasks can seem quite daunting when you’re busy. But, if you plan it out, even a little, it’ll make your life easier – and remember, you don’t have to do it all in one week.

It’s a common catch 22: when you’re really busy, you don’t have time to market so you don’t fill the funnel. When existing work comes to an end, you’re then scrambling for more, often performing emergency/reactive manoeuvres that aren’t so well thought out. Marketing is something that needs to be done constantly, regardless of business activity so scheduling over time is very useful.

Once you’ve decided on major goals, break them into smaller tasks and spread them out over the year, assigning them to specific people. Make them actions you/they can realistically commit to, knowing you have lots of other stuff to do as well. For regular things (like newsletters) create a process or check list for it so you aren’t reinventing the wheel each time. Schedule it in like any other work or meeting.

Ask For Help.

Once you get beyond a certain size, you can’t do it alone due to the time commitment and expertise needed. For example, many Rapport clients start out intending to write their own newsletters – to save money or they think it should come from them. They then find they have no time or it’s too difficult to pull an article out of thin air when not a professional writer. So, after several months there’s no newsletter, no repeat touch-point getting to their audience = missed opportunities. I shared with clients that I too was finding it hard to get Rapport’s newsletter done, so I assigned our writer Beth to do it. She still needs information from me or the rest of the team but acquires it in small, painless chunks then presents me with a complete newsletter ready to put in our template. Plus, with a little research, it’s easy for Beth to pull articles out of thin air because that’s what she does. Now Beth does newsletters for many of our clients too.

Free Marketing Help

Another tip is to get someone internal to help. They could create/manage your marketing calendar, complete small tasks for you and make sure things get done. It doesn’t have to be all you.

When you’re the big kahuna and responsible for a lot of things like the work, sales, client management, etc, it’s easy to push marketing efforts aside. When it’s part of someone’s job, what they’re paid for (internal or external) they are waaaaay less likely to push it aside.

Use Your Experts, Your Way.

I find the way and level at which clients want to interact with us varies from extremes. One may say ‘I completely trust you, I have no time for this stuff, just do it’ while others may want to be really involved in every minute detail, talk everything through, etc. Both are fine.

People who’ve never hired someone in this field may have no idea how to proceed. Or, they’ve had very different experiences. A simple example: client is all stressed out and says ‘I have no idea what we should blank blank blank’ in the very first meeting. I tell them they don’t have to figure that out, it’s my job – that’s what they pay me the big bucks for. ‘Oh’, they say looking relieved.

It’s my task as the account manager to determine their preferred interaction style as well as to educate them on what we intend to actually do for them so we both know what to expect from each other. However, it’s also okay to change tacks midstream. The client I mentioned earlier usually likes to get very involved and have deep discussions, but today he said ‘you know what, this is out of my comfort zone, you figure it out and make a recommendation’ – which is what I would do for most clients. Speak up and ask for more help if needed.

Also, let them do their thing. Back to the newsletter example; Beth writes articles (and more) for a living – it’s easy for her. We have clients who ask us to create websites with content management systems, then ask us to make all changes for them anyway because it’s just easier, they don’t have the time. Let your experts do what they do best while you do what you do best and most easily.

When you are paying experts to do work for you, use them to their full potential. You should also feel comfortable saying how you want to work, talking things through with them, questioning ideas and solutions, asking for more or less help, or for things to be done differently.

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Finding Clarity

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

At Rapport we do a brand positioning session where we ask clients a number of questions about what they actually do, their ideal clients, how they find them, their goals, what makes them different. We go through lists of words that describe them and settle on some top choices. From this we go away and work on a bunch of tag lines , present several options and collaborate. Then, work on the positioning statement.

The Purpose of a Positioning Statement

The positioning statement is meant for internal use. It’s the place where we at Rapport, the client and all key players agree on how the company is going to be talked about; the angles to take, the tone. It often reflects goals to strive for, if not already there. It’s the bedrock of everything going forward – the website, all design and marketing tools.

I find it really interesting when we do this exercise with clients and it actually leads to them rethinking their business and what they’re trying to do. It’s a snag for us in the project process when these revelations actually stop things in their tracks, but it’s definitely the right thing to do.

Uncovering What You Really Do

We had a client who’s in the business of buying and selling. When we started this session he was focussed on the buying aspect, so much that the URL he bought which he wanted us to brand had “buying” in it. Not just that, it was all based around people finding him with Google. Once we went through the session we discovered two things that stopped the process. First, although buyers are more likely to be looking for him through the internet, the real money-maker is selling and that’s the part of his business he really wants to grow. Second, he doesn’t meet his clients through Google. He’s in a business that is  personal, based on face-time and trust.

We changed the plan and decided to base the branding and tag line  on him as the key face of the  business. Meanwhile, he’s digesting the revelation and rethinking what he really wants to do. We’ll be working on how to market him soon. In the meantime he needs business cards.

Clarity in Larger Organizations = Unity

It’s also a great process for partners, new or not. Sometimes they aren’t aware at all until they start talking that they haven’t been on the same page for years. “I tell people we do this.” “I thought our ideal client was manufacturing, not service industry.”  or “W e’re not warm and compliant, we’re no non sense and straight-forward.” At the very least, it can be harder to agree on the basics I listed above. At most, the partners need to go away and reassess their relationship, come to agreement  on major issues.

Wow. We don’t mean to throw a monkey wrench into  anyone’s plans, but these kinds of issues are best resolved before getting too far, wasting money on branding or marketing that doesn’t work. We’re just glad we could help.

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Do I Still Need a Traditional Website?

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

I have a colleague who I have coffee with when he’s in Toronto. Recently he told me how although he had been skeptical about blog ROI, once he started one the traffic to his company website went from a few a week to hundreds a day. Wow – what a great result! Then he said ‘we don’t need a real website anymore and took it down.’ This was my introduction to this new phenomena: completely replacing all forms of traditional marketing tools with social media. I think it’s a mistake.

Skittles Tried It

Skittles is one big social media smorgasbord with their main navigation linking away but keeping the navigation present – kind of cool. ‘Products’ links to wikipedia, ‘Chatter’ to Twitter, ‘Friends’ to Facebook, Media to Flickr and YouTube. There’s none  of the usual corporate/product information. It was a bold move and is being discussed.

But, most of us know what Skittles are. What if you landed on a site like this and had no idea what they do or who they are? B2B companies are in a much different boat than popular candy.

The Risks of Going All Social Media All the Time

Since my intro to this notion I’ve encountered several websites that are essentially big blogs or portals to social media sites and I experienced confusion. There was one person who was promoting himself as one thing and when I checked out his website I had no idea what he actually did. It was disorienting and I never actually found any ’services’ or description of what he did. It was just reams of random information. I eventually clued in via his tagline what he did, sort of, which was different from what he promoted himself as. Other sites have had regular navigation, but the home page content was still very confusing because it was all blog posts. Another I looked at today was so blog-like in grass roots design that I thought it was broken and I was looking at the default site chart. It was his navigation. I also had to scroll past a lot of text to even find any sort of navigation.

Blogs and other social media vehicles are wonderfully valuable assets to a marketing toolkit. They are a great way to build content, community, Google ranking and demonstrate your genius by providing useful information. However, I don’t think the above is a good approach for two main reasons. One, I believe all companies still need basic traditional marketing tools like websites and business cards to look legitimate. Two, this approach defies all the basics of usability and conversion.

Looking Legit

I’ve had clients who, for many reasons, have asked ‘do I really need an address on my business card?’ I always encouraged them to include one because there’s something suspicious about companies that don’t have one. Without, it invokes the idea that you’re a fly-by-night or working out of your mom’s basement. Maybe you are, or close to it and are wonderfully successful. However, when wooing new clients, especially any larger than you, an address implies a sense of brick and mortar, of longevity, professionalism, dependability. I feel the same about websites. They need to include basic information about your company, along with your brilliant insights and generous information sharing.

Keep a Level of Professionalism

The blog look is also amateurish in presentation, as it should be – on the blog. Although content is king, websites still need to be ‘designed’ to look professional. It should be consistent with the rest of your branding. Additional benefits of professional design are if it’s easy/attractive to look at, engaging, if visitors identify with the images it makes, the user experience is much more pleasant and they’ll probably stay longer. A professional look with organized type, images and colour versus a wall of black text. Hmmm.

Some of the basics of usability are to make information really easy to find and fast to get to. People have no patience anymore. When they arrive at your website they need to see something engaging and a short blurb with the basics of what you do to let them know they are in the right place and entice them to keep clicking. Traffic analysis repeatedly shows that when visitors arrive at a site with a lot of text and too many navigation links to choose from they are overwhelmed and leave. This is how I feel when I arrive at the type of sites I mentioned above. Especially when it’s all blog entries – it’s like joining in a conversation halfway through and being totally confused when I just wanted to find basic information.

The basics rules still apply: 5–9 main navigation items with short, sweet and concise copy especially on the home page. People also like threes, so three special links directly to the top things visitors are likely to be looking for works very well. This may be a duplicate of a main navigation tab or a specific page they’ll also find in your sub-navigation, but it helps them get there fast and adds visual interest to the site. One of them can be your blog.

Think of your home page like a first date: don’t give too much information or ask for too much commitment up front. Let them get to know you a little first. But, do make it easy to get to that fabulous content.

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How to start incorporating social media.

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

When preparing for our Social Media seminar with Scott Stratten March ‘09 I had to come up with a way to connect the idea with what we do – traditional marketing and design. In the end the answer was easy – social media is another execution of your brand that needs the same consistency and consideration as anything else. I want to help my clients navigate this new tool and find small ways to begin incorporating the ideas into their marketing tools.

Use Social Media As Well, Not Instead

While some social media enthusiasts who are really keen on it suggest businesses don’t need traditional websites or other tools anymore, I totally disagree. I believe a business still needs to have “brick and mortar” so to speak, for credibility and a means to find information. You still meet people in person so need business cards, etc.

However, incorporating social media and/or the driver behind it into your websites and other marketing tools is a great idea! The core of social media is sharing information. Therefore, those who provide help are received better than those who simply promote themselves. Many clients automatically want to put on their websites how long they’ve been in business, why they are so great and list all the services they provide. We are working with Rapport clients to change that focus to what the client gets out of it. Not services from X business, but benefits to their clients. We’re also encouraging them to provide useful tips and information with no strings attached, that help to demonstrate they know what they are talking about.

How Can You Use Social Networking?

For example, recruiting firms used to focus on full-time permanent placement, but as a reflection of the economy, they are looking to promote their contract placement services. A lot of their existing clients don’t even know they do this. Instead of sending an email blast saying ‘Hey, did you know we did contract placement, buy from us’, they could send one along the lines of ‘How to reduce overhead by using contract staff instead of full-timers.’ It could be a short article explaining the benefits, what to look out for, etc. The call to action would be, ‘If you have any questions about using contract staff, please call XXX.’ See what I mean? To go a step further, if you also had this article as a blog post, you could invite people to comment on it, tell their stories of contract placement.

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