I was recently on the phone with my sister, who is an HR director. She is working on an amazing new venture with women in her city to help aspiring female entrepreneurs navigate up-leveling their businesses, similar to Shark Tank.
“You know,” she said, “this is such a great opportunity for them to get their businesses out there. They will really up their brand awareness.” “Yes,” I replied. “That’s the first step.” “First step?” she asked, “There are others?” She had no idea that marketing and promotion went beyond getting your brand seen in public. Yes, there is a process to this thing we call marketing and promotion. Some call it a customer journey. Others a marketing funnel. But what it really boils down to is a series of events that you plan out in advance to introduce yourself to your prospective future customers so that eventually you will have achieved the magical trifecta, where they will,
You won’t have a solid lasting relationship without all three. When my husband and I were in the getting-to-know you stage of our relationship, even though we had gone to the same high school and were in the same tiny class of 200, I remember Facebook-message chatting with him and asking if he was an ax murderer? Because obviously he was going to be 100% honest with me, I knew him from high school. And I liked him. A lot. I had always thought he was the most handsome guy at our school. (And I still believe that to this day.) But I didn’t yet trust him. That bridge had to be built over time. What are the steps needed to build that bridge? There are three on my list that your audience needs to take to know, like and trust you, which should inspire them to continue along the journey through steps four and five, cementing you as the go-to brand for your niche. Let's look at the steps. 1. Know you exist. The first step is the one my sister already knew about. The one she assumed was the only piece you needed to be successful as a business. You can achieve this through multiple avenues, namely
As a collection, we call these “top of funnel,” if you think about this in terms of a marketing funnel, or the start of the customer journey. 2. Get on your email list. In the marketing world, the email list is the holy grail. Why is that? Because you don’t own your social media channels. If Mark Zuckerberg got tired of having to show up in court and get asked embarrassing questions like where he stayed the night before and decided to throw in the towel on his whole empire, there go all your Facebook fans and Instagram followers. Poof! But if you had convinced them to visit your website or some similar webpage where you asked them to opt in to join your email list before the platforms disappeared, you could still contact them and continue on with your relationship, without batting an eye. 3. Follow you on social. Your website is pretty static, you most likely only update it with new blog posts or offers. While I just waxed on about how finicky relationships can be with social platforms, I’m now going to do an about-face and encourage you to be on social. Social is where you get to be social, and what do you love about social? It’s fun! It’s enjoyable! It’s like hanging out with your favorite people, getting invited to all the parties you want to be invited to, and getting a level playing field to interact and talk with anyone alive today who you have always wanted to rub shoulders with! And discover new people/places/brands/excitement! Social media is a like an all-you-can-drink rockin’, energy-infused sports tonic, doling out dopamine hits with every notification app Ping! Because of its addictive nature, it’s where most peeps hang out. And talk. And share. And talk some more. And share some more. Through all this finding and talking and sharing we are attracting people to us and pushing others away. For those we are attracting to us, we’re building solid relationships. You come to expect certain things from certain people and brands, and return to interacting with them based on the valuable content they are sharing. This way someone new comes to know who you are, like you, and trust you. 4. Purchase from you. WHEW! You have achieved the know, like, and trust factor, and it’s time to take this relationship to the next level. Beyond giving you their attention, you now want them to show how committed they are to you through their wallets. (Because she who has the biggest ring wins, right? Or the biggest box of chocolates? Or the most gorgeous deeply-sweet smelling bouquet of exotic flowers?) Yes! Big signs of affection are great, but even just a small purchase flags an audience member as someone who is dedicated to you. The ring that came from the 25-cent gumball machine is just as sweet a sign of appreciation. Generally, you want to offer someone a low-risk offer under $10 to see if you are meant for each other. Writing a book and giving it away for free-plus-shipping is one of the better marketing tactics. Books are a great way to introduce your world to your future fans, and you can market your business throughout the book. Build a case as to why your new fan absolutely needs what you offer in her life! Once you’ve gotten someone to raise their hand and say, “yes, I’m interested in what you’ve got” by purchasing a small something-or-other from you, you then want to have a plan in place to lead them up what is called the value ladder. On the value ladder, you have entry-level products that range from free to exclusive. At the bottom you might have a free podcast, free class, or free consultation, and then after that the low-cost book or white paper. Then you might have a mini-course or day-long event. After which you offer a full-blown course or industry event. At the top of the ladder, you might offer exclusive one-on-one coaching or maybe a Mustang with all the bells and whistles. (I always wanted a green Mustang. Every time we got that big envelope from Publisher’s Clearing House I always gently tore out the green Mustang sticker and pasted it in the box as the prize I was going to win.) You might think that the buyers journey/marketing funnel ends here. But that is not the case! The final step is when you get a fan to fall so much in love with your brand that they become your unofficial spokespeople. 5. Tell their friends and family about you. Yes, this is the final step. Every time someone gushes about you on social or in email, make sure to get screenshots to share as future testimonials. I am way more likely to eat at your food truck if my best friend posts on social that she just had the most amazing taco of her life at the park near the duck pond. This is how your brand will spread, remember that word of mouth thing I mentioned in Step 1? You’ve made it this far, so hop on over to my Facebook page and tell me one new thing you learned about this whole promotional journey that you had never thought about before. What are your next steps for implementing in your business?
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Red is a very powerful color. Just looking at it raises your blood pressure and whets the appetite. Red is physical, it is the color of life itself. Red blood, red lips, full red tulips and roses. Apples beckoning you to eat them, bright red berries enticing you with promised sweetness. Red screams come closer and consume me. It is associated with masculinity, and exudes strength and power. (Let's just be clear here – women have just as much strength and power, this color just happens to communicate the strength and power of the male variety.) Super heroes done red capes, and countries often choose it for their flags. Red is one of the colors that jumps out at you and makes you think it is closer than it really is. Which makes it an excellent choice for stop signs and red lights. It also makes it an excellent choice if you have a brand that you want to be noticed. The most prominent brand of all time uses red as its main brand color: In fact, before Coca Cola, Santa Claus wore white. Which makes sense, it's the color of snow and winter. But then in came Coke and published the iconic image of Santa in Coca-Cola red robes downing a bottle of the sugary liquid. And ever since, at least in the U.S., Santa has donned only red ensembles. Side note - it is in thanks to Finnish artist Haddon Sundblom (1899-1976), commissioned by the US Coca Cola company, who painted the first Santa in red drinking coke in the 1930s. In languages that only have two words for colors, those are black and white. But in languages that have three words for color, those are black, white, and red. If you want to build your brand around one of the following, red would be a good choice to use as your main brand color,
For example, here are some brands who want to make us hungry for food; And some who want to make us hungry for adventure and excitement; Once you have decided that red should be in your palette, next you will need to choose the shade of red. Here is where our secret weapon of applied color psychology comes in. If this is the first time you have heard of color psychology, go ahead and jump over to my explanation here. You can also download the Brand Personality Traits by season handout to see if you can get a better idea of which of the four groups your brand should be based in, based on the traits you want your brand to be known for. Here are guidelines for which shade of red to choose, depending on which group your brand is based in-- Group 1: Spring reds will be light and cheerful. They will have more yellow in them vs. blue. Think scarlet. Group 2: Summer reds have touches of gray, and no yellow. Mauve and maroon fall into this category. Group 3: Autumn reds are vibrant and rich. They have more yellow in them. Think of the old masters paintings with that rich, vermillion red, or of leaves in the fall that have transformed from green to red before alighting to the ground. Group 4: Winter reds are crystal clear and powerful. They are primary red, crimson and ruby, imagine deep red berries in winter against the white of new fallen snow. What to watch out for when choosing a redIf you have chosen the right shade of red to match the color harmony of your brand palette, it will communicate the energy, passion, and excitement you mean to communicate. However, if your brand color palette contains more than one color, or multiple shades of the same color, please take caution to choose all of these hues from the same harmonious color group. If you mix in a disharmonious color, the negative aspects that the red will communicate include:
The best example of the misuse of red was when it was mixed with pure black in the Nazi swastika logo. The only colors that should be paired alongside black in branding are those in Group 4: Winter. If your brand is based in a different group and you would like a dark black-like color to use in your copy or on your website, opt for a darker shade of gray from that group. Using applied color psychology to confidently chose your brand's color paletteChoosing colors for your brand palette doesn't have to be as hard as rocket science, and in fact can be much more quickly chosen with confidence when using the science of applied color psychology. The steps to choosing brand colors that attract and communicate are as follows,
I'm hoping that you are now a bit more acquainted with the color red and what it means, especially related to branding and communication. I challenge you to start noticing the brands that use red. What do they sell? How would you describe their brand personalities? What are they trying to convey with the use of red? Which of them is conveying a personality similar to your brand? Do they pull you in more quickly than other brands? Do you feel your pulse increasing? Good luck with your color choices! Witty, fitting, memorable names for brands don't generally fall out of the sky right when you need them. Coming up with a name for your brand takes time, insight, patience, and alertness. This comprehensive guide covers the three phases of naming your brand:
Phase 1: Creating a List of Name ContendersAdjective + Noun Formula One simple exercise to start with when naming your brand is something that I learned in grad school. The nice, big, conference-style room that my Brand Development course met in every week happened to be in use on the day we did this, so our group roamed the halls of the art school until we found an empty closet/break room. We filed in and filled up the couches, then our instructor handed out sheets of paper and has us write columns of nouns and adjectives. Then we cut out our words and in small groups spread the words out on the little coffee tables and the magic began. Names such as "The Red Door," "Salty Cucumber," and "Victory Socks" emerged. Some combinations were pitiful, but you would hit on a duo every so often that when read out loud, set off notes of angels singing "halleluiah." I encourage anyone in the beginning stages of creating their brand to try this strategy. You could take it to the next level by coming up with words that fit your brand's personality, such as "elegant," "cool," and "classic" for a brand anchored in Group 2/summer. I also teach how to put together a brand thesaurus when starting out so you have a list of branded go-to words when writing copy. The thesaurus could be a good place to start to pull words from for the brand naming exercise. Short Names = Memorability Why do we only pick two words when doing this exercise? The most memorable brands have short names. Think about when you introduce yourself. Even if you have a middle name, most of us only ever use our first and last names publicly. It makes remembering the names of new people a whole lot easier. And what is a key pillar of a successful brand? Memorability. Some brands have only one name, (personality brands included), such as Amazon, Yelp, or Madonna. Others are made up names, such as Häagen-Dazs, Waze, and Google. Made up names can be handy for purchasing your website's domain name as there is a good chance no one has claimed it yet. However, they take a lot more creativity to develop as they need to be relatively short and related to what your business is about. Häagen-Dazs was created to sound Danish, as Denmark was known for dairy. Waze, the maps app, sounds like all the "ways" you can get somewhere. And Google was a play on the word “googol,” the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Word Play A fun exercise to come up with this type of name would be to write out a brainstorm of as many words you can think of related to your business and see if changing a letter or two creates a new word that makes sense. Or, if the essence of your brand is strongly tied to a certain culture, is there a word or phrase that you can use and change the spelling or pronunciation to look or sound like it came from that culture's mother tongue? For example, in Maine, the natives end many words with the "ah" sound. If you were going to run with the Salty Cucumber, you could tweak it to Salty Cucumbah and now its meaning has sharply turned in a new direction. Instead of a fine food brand, I'm envisioning a coastal pub. Asses the Names of Your Competitors I am not a fan of calling people working in your same space competitors, because if you position yourself correctly you are in a category of one, but for this scenario, I'm calling them competitors. Who or what are the top brands in your space? Is there a trend in their names? For example, in the online marketing community, the general rule of thumb is to use your first and last name as your brand. In new online businesses, it seems these brands mostly fall into the made-up word category. Go check out brands in your space and see if there is a pattern to follow. Use Acronyms IBM did it. UPS did it. Most associations and nonprofits do it. Using an acronym of a longer descriptive name can be a simple solution to naming your brand, however, this type of brand name requires more education on your part to communicate who you are and what you do. If you are starting a personal brand, steer clear. When You're Completely at a Loss First, sleep on what you have come up with so far. Wait at least a week to see if anything new crosses over from your unconscious mind to your conscious mind, it could be just the nugget you were looking for. If not, head on over to Shopify's list of 10 Business Name Generators to Help You Create Your Brand. If you have put in the work this far, you should be able to come up with some more final contenders here. Phase 2: What to Watch Out For
Phase 3: Trademark & Domain Name CheckCheck the US Trademark Database Once you have come up with something that seems to hit the mark, head on over to the US Trademark database, where you can look up to see if it is already in use. https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/search-trademark-database Click on "Search Trademark Database" and then "Basic Word Mark Search (New User)". I did a test for salty cucumber and at this moment in time it is up for grabs! Domain Name Check After the trademark test, next head on over to Better Who Is, which will allow you to look up the domain name, http://www.betterwhois.com/ This website searches ALL domain registrars to see if what you are searching for is already taken, and who owns it if it is taken, and when their registration expires. Unfortunately, www.saltycucumber.com is reserved at least through December at this time. I see that it has been registered through GoDaddy, so I did a quick search at GoDaddy to see if the company had purchased it so they could re-sell it, or if it had in fact been registered by someone. It had been taken, however, a quick change of the ending, and saltycucumbah.com was available! Hello coastal pub! Did you generate some great brand names? If you generated some fantastic ones that don't necessarily work for you, leave them in the comments to share the wealth! |
Jenny CBrand stylist, colorist, graphic designer, web developer, marketer & mom, dedicated to making the world a more harmonious place Archives
May 2022
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