A business email is a formal correspondence between company officials, sent via the Internet. It has taken the place of traditional business letters that are often hand delivered or sent via special mail because most of the time, matters discussed are of immediate concern. With the email or online fax, message is transmitted in a matter seconds, thus issues and concerns are immediately resolved. Just like a business letter, the style and tone of an email largely depends on the relationship between the officials concerned. One of the advantages of email is the convenience of sending as many messages as…

Use traditional 3.5″ X 2″ business cards to promote new services, products, specials or whatever is new at your business. They would still have your contact information. Use them to drive business to your website or location. Treat them as promo cards with a personal circulation. A clever new way to celebrate your brand. When you go to a networking event in your community, you can take the opportunity to NOT hand out your traditional card but instead, hand out your “what’s new card.” One great result is that it initiates conversation on your “news.” It’s a simple idea, but…

Or can we? In helping companies to position themselves, half of the challenge is inspiring them and the other half is encouraging them to embrace what may seem at first to be impossible. Much of what I do is listen to how your company works. What is it that your customers love about you? What would they miss if you were to disappear over night? I have to get into how you think. If you are an owner – the visionary of the company, your dynamic plays a large role in your brand. Your decisions have affected for a large…

I came across an interesting article today that smacks the face of good branding. It speaks to authenticity. Colby Sambrotto, the founder of ‘for sale by owner’ recently sold his home through a real estate owner. He even paid full commission. What does that say about his authenticity? The negative press will certainly hurt the DIY market. Read the story here. Are you and your brand on the same page? Do you manufacture parts for GM but drive a Chrysler? You can’t have it both ways. We are all guided by our perceptions. I’ve met people who sold sales training…

Your brand image is the face of your brand. It is the first thing your target audience sees when first introduced to you. What do you suppose goes through their mind when they see your brand image? Are the colors and imagery resonating by correctly representing your brand values and personality? How about consistency, are you showing one message? At the first introduction everything is riding on your brand image. If a business’s image is amateur, then they are doing immediate damage to sales goals. Their efforts to save money and get an image on the cheap, only shows their…

An interesting brand strategy to me has always been putting the owner’s persona front and center. Make them the face and voice of the brand. Everything we read today speaks to the relationships we build with customers. Make ’em smile when they see you coming. Volunteering for local charities. Networking. A good number of small business professionals I come into contact with invest a lot of face-time in their markets. These efforts make their names synonymous with their brands. In the greater world, think of Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. As you read each name, no one had…

Where does one start to build a brand? Do you just let nature dictate, or should you plant your own seeds and nurture it along? My answer has to be the latter. As I see brand as essentially your reputation, I often tell start-ups to determine what they’d like their brand to stand for and then to work to that end. I think that that’s a little easier than to trip along unengaged with who you are and what you stand for. I also think that you should differentiate your brand from the get-go. If you use differentiation as a…

Is your brand continually evolving? Are you always watching for tools and education to put more opportunity in your cross-hairs? Just last year I fine-tuned my website. I really thought the look and functionality was exactly what my brand reflected. In the year or more since that re-do I recognized that to update or improve the sight I really should have not completed it in html (which I did myself). I am now in a major re-do porting the site to a Wordpress platform. This is beyond me so I had to engage the services of a professional in this…

If you’re anything like myself – you do a great deal of local networking. At least two or three days a week, you might run into me at some event or another. Some are professional groups where my target customers lurk and others are general professional organizations local and national. In a few of these organizations I play a managerial role, (one I’m the president). As you may well understand this takes a great deal of commitment and effort. I absolutely believe that these groups help get my brand in front of the right people who desire what I’m offering.…

Your brand is anchored in what differentiates you. Without that differentiator, you have to fall back on image or (god forbid) price. A good number of small businesses think to raise the bar they have to changes their logo, update their image and refresh that website. I’ve sat through enough meetings with graphic designers who still push this antiquated notion. My background is in graphic design so I have a healthy respect for the industry. But, I don’t rest the success of communication and sales initiatives squarely at the feet of design. Design from my perspective is the compliment to…