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THIS WEEK
Is Your Business Beige?
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
Beige. When you think of beige, you think safe, traditional ... and ever so boring. Now think about your business – is it beige? Is it the same as everyone else's? Does it stand out? Does it "pop"?
In a down market, now is not the time to be beige. The businesses who succeed when the market starts to swing upwards again, are the ones who put in to place the foundations for success for the future while the market is down.
Now is the best time to take a good look at all of your small business marketing material to check if it reflects who you are now, who you want to be and if it truly differentiates your business from other businesses out there. If your business is more beige than neon, then it's time to do a marketing tune-up.
So, how do you do a marketing tune up? We will be digging into this topic in more depth over the coming month, but here is a simple place to start.
 First – gather all of the print collateral you use or have used in the past 6 months. That means get a copy of your business cards, with compliments slips, stationary, envelopes, brochures, flyers and signs in your office.
Next – take photos of the front of your office/ building, as well as photos of what a customer sees when they look through your door and what they see when they go to pay at your cash register (if you are a store). Take photos of your pull-up banners, uniforms, outdoor signs and trade display materials.
Next – get copies of any answering machine messages, messages on hold and record a few phone calls to hear how people answer the phone for your business.
Finally – take screen shots of every part of your web presence – your website, your Twitter page, your blog, your Facebook page and any other places you are on the web.
By now you will have a massive pile of photos and paper. The next thing to do is to stick them on cardboard – you are not trying to be artistic here, you just want to get all of these bits up in one place so you can clearly see everything at a glance.
I usually have one set of cardboard for my on-line presence, one set for physical presence (office and displays) and one set of cardboard for print presence.
Once you have finished with the scissors and glue, pin the pieces of cardboard up next to each other and take a good long look. Play back the recordings one after each other and see what you can hear.
Get a few of your team together and talk through each question to hear what each person has to say.
What are you looking for?
- Consistency of branding. Are you consistent in your on-line, off-line, physical brand? Can you clearly identify that each piece relates back to the same company? Do you use consistent colours and font? Many small businesses look like a patchwork quilt – go for consistency to take your brand to the next level.
- Clarity of branding. How clear is your brand? Can people clearly see who you are at a glance? Does your logo stand out or is it the same as a million others? Can people identify who you are just from the words and language that you use?
- Message reinforcement. This is where you dig a bit deeper. If you look at all of the bits and pieces, do they reinforce the key theme about who you are and why people should buy from you?
- Are you unique? Does all of your material show why you are unique in 140 characters or less (yes, Twitter is a great way to force you to rethink your elevator pitch). If I took away the company name, is your tag line different enough to make people realise what your company does and to whom you serve, or is your tagline beige like "your success is our success" or "we try harder".
- Do you encourage action? Does each marketing piece have a call to action so clear that it is louder than an AC/DC concert?
- Do you make the most of every bit of real estate? Do your business cards sell? Do your brochures not only sell your business but also sell you as an employer (if this is an issue for you)? Does your online presence have up-sells for each sale just like a regular cash register? Do your answer machine messages direct people to your website?
- Look with different eyes. Imagine you are a new customer looking at this business for the first time – what do you see? Now imagine you are a potential investor, then a potential joint venture partner. What do each of these people see when they look at your business?
- How does it make you feel? When you look at these images and listen to the recordings, how do they make you feel? How do you imagine a customer may describe the feeling your business generates in them when they see these images or listen to your recordings?
Why do you start your marketing tune up this way? This activity taps into all of the major communication styles of people – visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic. It allows those who need time to think things through before speaking the opportunity to reflect and it allows those who need to refine their thinking through speaking their chance as well.
And if you are really serious about doing a tune-up, you will do the same thing with your major competitors, with one piece of cardboard for your competitors so you can see at a glance image they are presenting to the world. You don't want to copy from your competitors – you want to learn from their strengths, enhance your positives, and identify what makes you different.
Once you answer these questions, you will be better placed to work out what your business needs to do to refresh your marketing and build the foundations for your future success.
| HR Tip of the Week - Staff Tune-Up |
Every now and again it pays to do a staff tune-up. What I mean by this is it pays to look at each of your staff members through the eyes of a customer. Over time standards of dress may slip, speed of answering phones may drop off, willingness to go that extra step may be missing and remembering to upsell products may be lacking.
Periodically mystery shop your team; walk through and see who may need a quiet word about corporate dress standards or internet time; walk through the car park and check out the standard of presentation of your corporate vehicles and ask each team member how they feel about working with your company.
If there is a large gap in what you expect and what you see, you need to look at the organisational culture, managers skills and hiring policy, as well as addressing individual issues as they arise.
You also need to regularly tune up your managers. Managers often forget the little things like saying thank you to team members and saying good morning or good evening to the team when they arrive or leave. You may also find their personal adherence to corporate policies slips a bit. Remember, team members watch what a manager does and not what they say to do. Managers need to be the first place you check on your staff tune ups.
Is creativity only reserved for people who are born with that trait or is creativity something that everyone possesses? In this blog post I review a range of psychological studies that look at creativity - and uncover a whole raft of tips and strategies to boost your personal creativity.
Do your numbers lie?
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's Small Business Tips blog included a post about "The Twitter of Football" .
Legal stuff: This newsletter is intended only a general guideline for Australian businesses. You should seek specific advice for your situation rather than relying only on this newsletter
Earnings disclaimer. Some of the content may include advertorial information, which means I may receive financial compensation for the products I recommend. But - unless I know and trust the product, I will not recommend it.
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