marketing

Unlock the Potential of Summer: Effective Marketing Tips for the Summer Season

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Summer brings not only sunshine and vacations but also unique opportunities for businesses to connect with their target audience in a vibrant and refreshing way. While many companies and firms take a break from too much marketing activity, this is actually a great time to increase your marketing and business development efforts. In this article, we’ll explore key steps to create a successful summer marketing strategy that will help your company shine. 

Here are a few strategies below:

  1. Understand Your Target Audience: To create an effective summer marketing strategy, it’s crucial to have a deep understanding of your target audience. It’s not just about knowing their title or the type of company but it is also considering their pain points during the summer months. What are their summer aspirations, pain points, and purchasing patterns?
  2. Embrace the Summer Vibe: Summer is always a great time for some company swag.  With so much fun, relaxation, and adventure, it’s a perfect time to connect with current clients or put your brand in front of new clients with some fun gifts at golf outings or other events your company may sponsor during the summer.
  3. Leverage Seasonal Events and Holidays: Summer is packed with special events and holidays, such as Independence Day, summer solstice, music festivals, and sporting events. Align your marketing strategy with these occasions to maximize your reach and engagement. Leverage social media, email marketing, and influencer partnerships to amplify your message and connect with the audience who are already in a festive mood.
  4. Collaborate with Referrals and Partners: Partnering with referrals or other companies with similar audiences can amplify your summer marketing efforts. Identify those referrals and raving fans of our business whose audience aligns with your target market and collaborate on networking events or content.
  5. Monitor, Measure and Collect Feedback: Regularly monitor the performance of your summer marketing campaigns and track key metrics to evaluate their effectiveness. Utilize analytics tools to assess website traffic, social media engagement, conversions, and client feedback. Adjust your strategy as needed based on the insights gained from the data to optimize your results and prepare for a great final quarter of the year.

A well-crafted summer marketing strategy can help your business leave a lasting impression on your target audience. By understanding your customers, embracing the summer vibe, and collaborating with referrals and raving fans, you can create a strategy that drives brand awareness, increases sales, and fosters customer loyalty.

Personal Brand vs. Business Brand: Which Comes First?

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As a business owner, it can be challenging to determine an approach when working on a brand strategy. I am often asked which should be addressed first: the company brand or the personal brand. Or worse… people will only want to address the business brand and allow the personal brand to blow in the wind.

Let’s first address the differences and similarities of a personal brand and a business brand. They definitely have some similarities, but they are also quite different. Here are some key differences between the two:

  1. Focus: A personal brand is built around an individual’s personality, skills, and expertise, whereas a business brand is focused on the products, services, and values of a company.
  2. Ownership: A personal brand is owned by the individual, while a business brand is owned by the company.
  3. Longevity: A personal brand can last a lifetime, whereas a business brand can evolve or change over time as the company’s products, services, or values change.
  4. Scope: A personal brand is typically narrower in scope, focusing on a specific niche or area of expertise, while a business brand can be broader, encompassing a range of products or services.
  5. Audience: A personal brand is often targeted at individuals, while a business brand is aimed at a broader audience that includes customers, investors, and other stakeholders.
  6. Marketing: A personal brand is often marketed through social media, personal websites, and other personal channels, while a business brand is marketed through advertising, public relations, and other traditional marketing channels.
  7. Branding Elements: Personal branding typically uses the name of the individual as a central branding element, while business branding incorporates logos, taglines, and other visual and verbal elements.

A personal brand is built around an individual’s personality, skills, and expertise, while a business brand is focused on the products, services, and values of a company. Both types of brands can be valuable and powerful, but they serve different purposes and require different strategies for building and maintaining them.

Both should have specific strategies, however for most industries and companies, it is critical that a personal brand should be developed and focused on first. People tend to follow and emotionally invest in the stories of personal brands. This does not mean we don’t also tell the brand stories of a company.

However, if your company works closely with individuals and there is an element of trust and credibility, a personal brand should be addressed first.

Please contact me if you have any questions about personal branding. I would love to help you connect the dots!

7 Ways to Establish Brand Authority 

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Establishing brand authority involves building trust and credibility with your target audience, demonstrating your expertise and leadership in your industry, and positioning your brand as the go-to source for information and solutions related to your niche. Here are some steps to help you establish brand authority:

  1. Define your target audience: Identify who your ideal customers are and what they need. This will help you tailor your messaging and content to their specific needs and interests.
  2. Build a strong brand identity: Develop a strong brand identity that communicates your values, mission, and unique selling proposition. This will help differentiate your brand from competitors and establish a consistent message across all channels.
  3. Create valuable content: Produce high-quality content that provides value to your audience. This can include blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, videos, webinars, and social media posts.
  4. Demonstrate expertise: Share your knowledge and expertise through thought leadership content, speaking engagements, and industry events. This will help position your brand as an authority in your niche.
  5. Leverage social proof: Use customer testimonials, case studies, and awards to showcase your brand’s success and credibility.
  6. Engage with your audience: Engage with your audience through social media, email marketing, and other channels. This will help build relationships and establish trust with your target audience.
  7. Monitor your reputation: Monitor your brand’s online reputation and respond to feedback and criticism in a timely and professional manner. This will help build trust and credibility with your audience.

By following these steps, you can establish your brand as a trusted authority in your industry, which can lead to increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, and revenue growth.

Knowing Your Core Values as a Brand

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Life and business have been super busy “post-pandemic.”  

So many of us have transformed and changed during the pandemic; either really digging deep in our businesses or deciding to go in a different direction. Regardless, I hope wherever life is taking you, you are cherishing it.

Over the past few months, I have discovered the set of core values for my business. Wow!  It has been so enlightening and brought so much clarity to how I operate my business and define my goals.  I’ve included my core values below. 

Click on this video to watch me discuss how my Core Values have helped me in my business. 

If you need help creating your Core Values for your business or team, please contact me for a session.

It’s Not Over Yet: Making an Impact in 2020

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Photo by RF._.studio on Pexels.com

We are close to the end of 2020. The last quarter of the year is right around the corner. This is the moment. This is the time when we decide if we are still going to declare 2020 to be a good year.

Yes, I know we have been hit hard, some of us harder than others. But have there been any silver linings? Any lessons learned?

When it comes to your business and your personal brand, what can you do to still make this a good year, a productive year? Below are a few tips. Let me know which you will try and let’s make it happen.

1. Launch. I love launches. I love new stuff and fresh ideas. Do you have an idea, even if its a small one? Make the idea a podcast, a newsletter, a product or a course. Launch it and get it moving. Don’t wait for the moment of perfection. As one of my favorite marketing gurus proclaims: “Ready is a LIE!” Just do it.

2. Create One More Thing. Create a blog, an article or a speech. Creating content and our creative minds is a great reminder of why we do what we do. If you create products, try something new. Teach us, show us and remind us what makes you and your business incredible.

3. Invest in Yourself. I cannot stress the power of investing in yourself. It is a good reminder to yourself (and others) that you believe in yourself and what you bring to the table. A reminder that there is more to the story and growth of your brand and company. I helps us to position ourselves better and gives us a little more confidence. How can you invest in yourself before the end of the year? A conference, a webinar, a course or coaching? How will you invest in yourself before the end of the year?

4. Ramp Up Your Social Media Set a goal for your social media engagement before the end of 2020. Where do you want to be? How would you like to improve? More content? More engagement? More followers? Even if business is not the best, we don’t need to be silent on social media. If we are struggling with your personal brand, we don’t need to shy away from engaging with others.

5. Collaborate Before the end of 2020, think about another business, entrepreneur or organization you can collaborate with that may open up your audience and opportunities.

It’s not over yet.

If you need assistance with planning for the end of the year, contact me about next steps and how you can make an impact in 2020.

P.S. In case you missed it, check out my latest article on Forbes.com on the power of client service. Click here to read it.

The Keys to Building Your Tribe

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Do you have a tribe?

Yes, a tribe.

Tribe /trīb/ – noun – a group of people, or a community with similar values or interests

If you have a business, nonprofit or in the building phase of launching one of these, it is important to build your own online tribe. Having your own tribe in person is important too!  We all need those friends and cheerleaders to encourage us and challenge us along the way.
But building a tribe online allows for significant reach and a way to scale your business. 

Below are some quick tips on how to build your tribe:

Build Trust: Similar to an in-person relationship, your goal should be to build trust with your audience. Trust is achieved by consistency and authenticity. How consistent are you with sharing content? Real content… not just selfies.  And how authentic is your presence on social media? Review your online presence and ask yourself “Am I building trust?  Am I building a two-way relationship?”

Be Generous: What are you talking about online?  Be intentional with providing good content. Content that your audience will find valuable or inspiring.  If your content is all about you, it will be difficult to build a genuine tribe.  And don’t hold back.  Don’t worry about giving too much away.  Generosity is a great business strategy.

More on Authenticity:  We can never stop talking about authenticity.  It is so important when building your brand and tribe. Authenticity can include showing behind the scenes video or pics of your business, or being honest about the challenge of growing a brand and working a full time job.  Show your challenges, share the struggle, tell your audience what you need.  People don’t always want to see the perfect moments.  Your future tribe also want to see the REAL moments.

Know Your Tribe:  Be sure you know what is important to your audience, your tribe.  As brand owners, we often have so much in your heads that we want to share.  But what is it that your true tribe wants to hear.  Stop sharing what YOU like and share what your audience is truly interested in.

There are so many other ways you can begin building and KEEPING your tribe.  If you are interested in hearing more, click here and let me know.  I will set up a free online class soon sharing more tips.

Do You Want More?

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“You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards… – Steve Jobs

 

Do you have synergy with your business or organization? Or even if you are an employee… do you naturally approach your projects with a perspective of synergy and connecting the dots?

Synergy is when the sum is equal to more than the two parts. Yes, the connection and energy of ideas meeting each other and creating something MORE. Do you want MORE for your business or organization?

When I meet with a new client, I am always looking for synergy or ways to connect theIMG_0169 dots. Below are the four ways I approach connecting the dots when working on a project or with a client.

1.) What do you value? Every company, organization or brand has something that it values. Event if you don’t notice it right away, there is something happening

2.) What are you really selling: Not your service or product. But what are you really providing and giving to your clients? Why do they choose YOU? Know this.. and the world opens up.

3.) Know Your History: Steve Jobs put is wonderfully with the above quote. You have to look back at all your dots, history and connections. With clients, I’m always looking for the foundation, how it started. What was the sentence, the experience, the event that started the ball rolling. Don’t ignore your history.

4.) Maximum effect: In addition to looking at all the above-mentioned, I also review how each action can have maximum effect. Every action or initiative that we do should have multiple purposes and functions. If one of your actions will only affect on thing, its time to either rethink the action or connect the dots. For example, if you speak at a conference, that speech or preparation should be repurposed to do something else for your brand. How can it have maximum effect?

Synergy.

Connecting the Dots.

Marketing Challenges for Entrepreneurs

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As an entrepreneur, we can get pulled in so many different directions. There are challenges that will distract you on this entrepreneurial journey.  In this article, I will highlight just a few marketing challenges for entrepreneurs and new business owners.

  1. Not knowing your audience: So many people start businesses based on their watts marketing challengespassions and strengths.  This is excellent!  However, we often are so focused on starting the business that we forget to pay attention to who we are selling to, including their needs, desires and burdens.  We sometimes stop at just describing the demographics of our target audience.  However, there is more to knowing your audience than their age or demographics.  How do they purchase?  What keeps them up at night?  Where do they consume information? What do they follow and like on social media? It is critically important to know your audience.
  2. The wrong marketing platforms:  Many new businesses have the wrong marketing platforms.  They hear about so many social media platforms or new apps or programs and they want to start all of them.  There is not careful consideration of which platforms work for your business, target audience or which of them “speak” or sync with each other.  It is important to do an audit of your programs and make sure they work for your business and marketing strategy.
  3. Inconsistency & Lack of Clarity:  One of the keys to branding is creating a consistent story and selling that narrative to your audience.  This requires managing a lot of moving pieces and being able to stand back from your company and brand and decide on a consistent message.  This can be challenging. Often, this is the importance of having a marketing or branding consultant, to have an objective eye to look at your messaging and challenge you on your strategy.  Inconsistent messaging can cause distrust and ultimately hurt your brand and selling opportunities.
  4. Not Knowing Your USP:  Knowing your Unique Selling Proposition is key to marketing and branding.  You must know what value you bring to the table.  What is your differentiator?  Why should your clients and customers purchase from you? When businesses are unclear on this, they stumble through their messaging and how to sell and package their products and services for their clients.  Know your value.
  5. Underestimating Content Marketing:  Most small businesses don’t have the time or staff to work on content for their social media, blogs or website.  However, content marketing is key to establishing your brand and identity.  It is what will set you apart as a thought leader in your industry. No matter what you are selling, work on establishing yourself as an expert in your industry.

All these issues can be overwhelming, however, every business owner faces marketing challenges.  For assistance with any of these marketing challenges, feel free to contact me. 

 

 

Are You Mentally Tough?

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Happy Spring! I hope that you all have have been enjoying the first glimpses of Spring. Some of you are still experiencing some cold weather. 
During my busy time, my head has been swirling with so many marketing and brandingsmall steps.jpg topics and issues. However, this month, I want to focus more on a leadership issue.  Since starting this business, I am amazed at how much mental tenacity it takes to launch and continue a business or any initiative. Yes, I’ve had other businesses and projects that I’ve started in the past, but I was fortunate to have a partner or groups of people to help me stay encouraged.  Being an entrepreneur is a lonely place.  When you have those moments when you are choosing between sleep and work, paying a bill or investing in a client or your business, quitting the gig or keep trucking along. It is a constant mental game to just stay in the game.  I’m sure I will eventually get to a level where I coast along, but right now, I am relying on the five things below to help me stay focused and mentally strong during these tough days.  If you are in a similar struggle, I hope these points will also help you.
Remember Your Why:  We have heard this many times, but it can’t be stressed enough. When things get complicated, tough and overwhelming, your why should keep you motivated.
Seek Balance: I recently read a quote that is slowly changing my life and giving me life: “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” (Vince Lombardi). When we are exhausted, we give in to our fears and anxiety.  Get proper rest so that you can make good decision and have the mental strength to deal with issues that my come your way.

Expect Failure:  Wait, what?  Yes.  Not every decision will be a great decision.  Not every risk will be a smart one.  The more you fail, the more it shows your willingness to keep trying and taking risks.  Would we like to avoid failure at all costs?  Sure.  But that would mean you are playing it pretty safe.

Celebrate the Successes:  Every single one of them.  It may be small successes for you, but its important to acknowledge your progress, no matter how small or slow it may be.

Let it Go:  I suffer from wanting to control things that are completely out of my control.  As a leader and entrepreneur, you have to let things go.  If not, you will spend precious time, energy and mental strength on things that cannot be changed.  Let it go.

I hope this has helped you!  Please let me know if you have other tips or advice for the mental state needed for entrepreneurs.

Recharge Your Marketing at the End of the Year

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I absolutely love celebrating the new year!  It is a great time to refocus andPlanning2 recharge, both professionally and personally. However, depending on your business or industry, marketing at the end of the year can be challenging. Below are a few suggestions for year-end marketing and how to get a jump on your new year.
Plan, plan, plan –  This is a great time to plan (and dream) for 2016.  Find time to get away by yourself or with your team and brainstorm on what you want to accomplish next year and begin planning it. There are a variety of marketing strategies and items you can be planning, ranging from content to advertising to social media.  For example, if you have a blog or podcast, now is a great time to plan out your content for at least the first half of 2016.
Trends – What are the top trends for 2016 in your industry?  As you are planning, think of how you can maximize that knowledge.  Perhaps as an article that you pitch to the media or as a blog on your website.  Establishing yourself as a thought leader by discussing trends is a great marketing and client development tactic.
Lessons – The end of the year is also a great time to review the year and highlight the lessons learned in various industries.  Not only can you discuss the future and what is to come, it is also a great time to review what happened and the lessons learned.
Recycle content that works – Highlight your top ten posts, blogs, videos or quotes.  Often people are busy and tired at the end of the year, so this is a great way to still promote and market. Take a step back during the last few months of the year and re-evaluate your top-performing pieces of content. Recycling content or repackaging it in a new way can be a great way to get more out of what you’ve already produced. 
Surveys – Do you know what your audience is thinking about?  Were they pleased with your company or organization?  What are THEIR goals for the new year?  What disappointed them in 2015?  Take this time to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE – a critical piece to any marketing or client development plan.
New Year Gifts – If you missed getting cards or client gifts out for Christmas, you can also reach out for the New Year.  This is a great time to reconnect with clients and find out what they are working on for the new year.
Remember… the end of year and the new year are excellent times to refocus and market your brand, your organization or company. If you need assistance with your marketing strategy for 2016, please contact me at [email protected]