I did a little research on the keywords used by large companies and found that keywords were really secondary to having a great brand identity.

Coke.com uses a total of 3 key words, Saddleback Church uses just 2. Can you guess what they are?

Building a great business and letting people know about it through traditional methods can drive business to your site and is far more cost effective than pay per click. Pay per click is like having a store on Main Street and being charged for everyone who looks in the window of your shop. Would you let a city do that?
What if the newspapers charged you for everyone who read your ad in the paper whether they purchased from you or not?

Focus on developing your business reputation and customer service, tell everyone you meet to check out your website, then give them services on the site that are useful, entertaining, interesting and are updated frequently.

Why do you have a website? Internet customers are great but they are tremendously fickle. Not only that most are just surfers. What if you owned a business in a mall and the mall charged you for everyone who entered your store would you bid against a similar store in the mall to be charged a higher price for every person who walked by your window?

Just as Las Vegas Casinos are the winners and gamblers are the losers. Search engines are the winners pay per click clients are the losers.

The popularity of Saddleback Church is the result of marketing technique that is totally and completly dependant on building relationships from small groups. The church has 2,600 links on Google, 17,100 on Yahoo (Alta Vista) but these links were not purchased or created on link sites. They come from real people who have heard about the church and are interested in the product. Coke has 10,200 links on Google and 18,000 on MSN do you think they purchased those links. Look for Coke under the key word soda or carbonated drinks they aren’t even in the top 50.

These are companies that have worked to create their business first and the website followed.

Go to www.sitereportcard.com and check out the keywords used by Coke and Saddleback Church. I don’t think you will be surprised. They have built a name in their respective communities and can be found on the internet by that name. No 499 keywords, no pay per click, no cons or traps…. just good business branding and great reputations.

Developing a brand involves more than just picking a catchy name and placing an ad in the newspaper–a brand is more than a unique string of letters denoting a particular product; a successful brand is a mnemonic trigger that makes a consumer feel a certain way when the brand is thought of. For those who drink cola-flavored soft drinks, which is more appealing on a hot day: a cold cola soda, or an ice-cold Coke? Coca-Cola has spent 100 years developing their particular brand of cola-flavored soda as a refreshing beverage and a seminal representation of a market segment. Coca-Cola has used a combination of direct marketing, give-away techniques, and multi-product cross-branding to achieve maximum brand recognition and visibility in not only its immediately competitive market, but in markets as diverse as Coca-Cola branded race cars and housewares.

Brand loyalty is an integral part of building a brand, as consumers usually have a choice of products in the same market segment, and so a successful company will come up with a way to keep consumers re-buying their product or coming back to their location rather than going to a competitor. These brand loyalty-building efforts may come in the form of coupons, incentives such as many grocery chains’ technique of “grocery discount cards” or “loss leaders,” meant to draw consumers into the store, where they will hopefully buy products along with the discounted fare at a higher profit ratio. In exchange for these discounts and grocery cards, many companies collect information about buying habits and average spending amounts, the better to tailor advertisements and better-focus future promotional efforts. Once a consumer is hooked, brand loyalty tends to result in higher sales volume, as well as loyal customers being less sensitive to price changes of their favorite brands (within reason, of course), as well as less sensitive to competitors’ incentives. Studies have shown that it takes 5 times as much money to gain a customer as it does to retain one. That’s 5 times as much money as could have been spent on other things.

A brand is who your company is, and what it is selling–it is as important as naming a baby, and should require the same amount of effort to develop it, but if done well, can mature into a successful and profitable adult.

Many people forget to add this to important
mailings and even their business cards.

Today, most people prefer to email messages than
make phone calls, so it is very important to have
your email address on all letters, invoices and
business cards.

Make sure your URL (web address) is on everything
that you send out. Keep “branding” your business.
Keep that URL out where it can be seen.

It’s not enough to have your phone number and fax
number on your business cards or letterheads. Add
your email address and URL if you have one.

It’s important also to have a signature on all
emails that go out. There
is a cool free “signature writing”
service at: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com/freeads.htm
check it out.

Don’t be left behind. Promote and brand your business
every chance you get. It’s the professional thing to do.

Some say it takes up to nine times for people to see your
name before they will do business with you. If that is
true, then it’s very important to have your name and
email address out there.

Try to encourage email exchanges. The more emails you have
going back and forth, the more credibility you will build
in your potential clien’t head.

Offer something free. Make people email you for information.
This way you are opening the door to email correspondence
without spamming. Your goal should be to have the person
email you first asking for information or just a simple
question. Once the ball starts rolling, your various email
exchanges can easily turn into sales.

It’s important to have a pop account or an account that
reflects your company or website.

Using generic @aol.com or @hotmail.com really puts a damper
on your look and makes you appear unprofessional. Plus,
when you email
a person with your own private “branded”
email address, you are actually
advertising your company
just by the mere action of sending a message.

Joe@bikeseller.com sounds better than joe@aol.com
Or Mary@thegiftstore.com is much better than mary@hotmail.com.
Isn’t it?

A brand is essentially a way of communicating a promise or an exchange between you and your customers. It is a way of you communicating to your customer who you are and what you promise to deliver to them.

Company branding helps to gear up your advertising. When people are familiar with your company name, logo, products and your brand, they try to relate with association. This is helpful when you place a commercial or a print advertisement, as the people would easily connect to the company with this brand name. You can just concentrate on one thing and that is, selling your products.

When people start recognizing your logo, and come to know the great practices your company stands for, then they will rely and associate with the products as well. You have to create a niche for yourself first and then things will be easier for you. It takes a significant amount of effort to market your products and this need to be sustained over a relatively long period of time. This is where you need to consult the agency to assist you.

C1: Clarity
Strong brands are clear about who they are and what they do. They have named and claimed their domain, often in the form of a mission statement that is shared with employees, customers, and the community. For Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates envisioned a computer on every desk in the world.

My mission statement is clear and concise.
1____(no) 5_____ (maybe) 10_____ (yes)

C2: Competence
Strong brands have suitable skills, qualifications, and experience related to their field. They prove their worth by under promising and over-delivering. These are the people and companies you call when you need the job done right the first time. Fed Ex is known for getting your package there “no matter what.”

I have full confidence in my ability and products/or services.
1____(no) 5_____ (maybe) 10_____ (yes)

C3: Communication
Strong brands have a variety of ways to get their message delivered to their intended audience. Nowadays, companies have to use traditional and non-traditional ways of communicating with their customers. With my own coaching business, I give in-person seminars, write books, workbooks, articles, an ezine, advertise in magazines, radio/television stations, maintain two websites, and use other internet services and sites to communicate locally and globally.

My communication system if far-reaching and varied.
1____(no) 5_____ (maybe) 10_____ (yes)

C4: Constancy
Strong brands are highly visible to their target audience. They are constantly there for their customers, prospects, and networking contacts. The Oprah empire is a great example. She is everywhere! From her weekly tv show, to O magazine, numerous media appearances, and volunteer activities— Oprah is constantly in the public eye.
My visibility is high and consistent.
1____(no ) 5_____ (maybe) 10_____ (yes)

In an issue of Fast Company magazine, it said, “We are CEO’s of our own company, Me, Inc. To be in business today, your most important job is to build a market for the brand called You. The good news is that everyone has a change to stand out. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark.” When building and branding your business, you need to keep the four C’s in mind, because no brand can become the best brand without passing the ‘Four C Test.’

Building a strong and reliable branding for your printing materials can help your business or company more than you can imagine it could. Just think that it is not everyday people remembers and stays loyal to something. With the variety of other businesses available and easily accessible, staying loyal to one is getting more difficult to do. It is always best to maintain what you have started and continue it doing so for your customers.

Knowing what branding in your company’s printing materials is one guarantee that you can be sure to result in revenue. But first, think what you need to brand about and how to keep it unique and memorable enough.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com

Small Business Branding Advertising and Marketing an Oxymoron?

Unless you’re a ubiquitous consumer products company, the value of branding is far, far less than the value of direct response. What good is impressing someone with your brand if he or she never comes into contact with your business again? Why would they come into contact with your business again if you haven’t gotten a direct response?

Branding is essential for Coca Cola and Microsoft and all the other consumer giants because they don’t need direct response. Their offering is available every time you drive down the street, so burning their logos into your eyeballs will actually make you more likely to buy. But if you have to search out the business, having a logo floating in your consciousness won’t be enough to motivate you.

Even if branding alone could drive business, how long will it be before that logo or slogan or jingle has left your memory forever? A few hours? A day?

One of the basic requirements for branding is repetition. Numerous repetitions. Like seeing the little Microsoft flag every single day, in the lower left corner of your screen, on your computer’s case, in magazine advertisements and on television commercials.

One visit to your website or one glimpse of your advertisement won’t accomplish this-and remember, unless you have Microsoft’s budget, one exposure is all you’ll likely get if you don’t get a direct response.

In reality, even numerous exposures to your brand might not be enough. There’s only so much room for logos in people’s minds, and you’ve got an awful lot of deep-pocketed competition for that space.

In contrast, if someone requested a whitepaper from you, or called in for more information, you would have their attention for much longer, even if you never followed up–which you could do, since you had their contact information.

The Two Cases when Branding Makes Small Business Marketing Sense

1. When branding enhances direct response rather than detracting from it.

Good branding enhances trust in your business. A good tagline, graphic design, and logo can also make it instantly clear what your business does, allowing users to go directly to your message without having to decide if you’re worth listening to.

Simply put: if you’re a watchmaker, put a watch in your logo, and the word “watch” in your name and your tagline or slogan. When you’re selling services picking a logo can be trickier, but it can be done. UpMarket Content’s logo is a scroll and pen. Just make sure your logo communicates what you do, rather than something foolish like a black rocket for an advertising agency.

Yet while branding usually enhances direct response, you should not hesitate to sacrifice branding if it hurts your response. If you find that a different tagline or font does significantly better in getting responses, run with them.

2. When you actually do have the opportunity to impress your brand on the same person dozens of times over the course of an average month.

For branding to work, you don’t just have to maximize total exposures, but exposures to unique individuals. Let’s be absolutely clear: in terms of branding, exposing 1,000,000 people to your brand once each is infinitely less valuable than exposing 1,000 people to your brand 1,000 times each. You have to maximize exposures to the same individuals. Aim for a hundred exposures per individual if you want to really enter people’s consciousnesses.

Of course, it may take far fewer than a thousand individual exposures. If someone is sitting in front of your branding advertisement for more than a few minutes, they may in fact be exposed to it dozens of times, each time their line of sight crosses it. But this kind of long-term exposure is likely going to cost you more.

How can you ensure that your brand advertising will maximize your brand exposure per unique individual? Place your brand advertising where users will come back often to see it. For instance, a banner on a website that has a strong following of returning users, or an advertisement on the local diner’s placemat.

Even when branding does make sense, direct response will often also make sense, so you should combine the two if possible. For instance, at the bottom of a banner advertisement with your logo and tagline looming large, put a button labeled “get more information.” Or, underneath your businesses sign, put a telephone number with an offer to get more information.

Because the idea of branding is all the rage, people are tempted to think that it is a new idea. It is not. It’s roots reach back into history.

The Old West
Let’s go back to the Old West where brands were burned into the hind quarters of cattle. The thing branded was the cow, the product produced by the ranching endeavor. The brand itself was the twisted iron logo on the end of the rod that left its image or mark on the hide of the cow. Cows were roped, tied and branded in order to identify them, should they be stolen. The brand was a mark of identity, as it is in the corporate world.

Some ranchers also used their logo as a welcome sign wrought in iron over the gates of the corral or over the road leading to the rancher’s home. Again, the brand identified the ranch. Some ranchers even got their cowhands belt buckles with the ranch logo to identify them as employees. And over time logoed merchandise began to pop up on boots, hats, shirts, etc.

Identity
The brand is essentially a mark of identity. It identifies the ranch or company, and has come to represent or suggest the values and character of the company, and of its leaders. The brand is associated with the character of the company, as well as its products.

The early history of branding was always personal. Where does the ranch or company get the values and character that are associated with it? From its owners and leaders, and from their business practices.

Branding as we know it today is the art of instilling and communicating the values and character of a company or organization through association with its logo. Psychology calls it symbolic association, and finds it to be foundational to the learning process. Symbolic association has deep roots in human experience and in history.

Fish, Cross & Swastika
We find that branding as a practice began very early in history. The sign of the fish and the cross were symbols used by the early Christians. Over time they became Christian brands.

The Roman Emperor Constantine had a vision of a red cross in the sky before the battle of Saxa Rubra, October 28, 312, near Rome. He put that red cross on his shields and flags, branding the Holy Roman Empire for centuries.

On August 7, 1920, at the Salzburg Congress, a red flag bearing the Swastika became the official emblem of the Nazi Party, as Hitler branded the Third Reich. While our emotional reaction to the Swastika is usually negative, both the fact and the intensity of our response to it points to the power of branding. Most people probably have an emotional reaction to the examples above. That emotional reaction is the aim of branding.

It must be recognized that a branding effort does not always turn out the way the campaign intends. The cross was intended to be a symbol of derision, but became a symbol of grace and mercy. The Swastika was intended to be a symbol of the triumph of the Arian race, but has become a symbol of evil. In both cases branding was achieved, but not in the way intended.

Of course, companies want the emotional association to their brand to be positive-even to generate an urge to splurge, or trust sufficient to sustain a transaction. But regardless of one’s personal reaction to a symbol, the fundamental mechanics of branding involve soliciting an emotional response to a symbol.

There are two fundamental elements in the branding process. The first pertains to the symbol, the second to the association.

The Symbol
The symbol itself must be familiar. The more the symbol or logo is seen, the more familiar it becomes. The most successful branding campaigns will have a lot of sustained media coverage and use a variety of advertising mediums. This does not mean that smaller campaigns cannot be successful, only that their success will be smaller. Familiarity is primarily a function of exposure.

The Association
Secondly, the emotional content of the association also needs to be familiar. Of course it is true that new desires and/or emotional content can be created. But the effort is both time consuming and risky. The result might be other than the desired effect.

The more successful method for creating a symbolic association employs well-established and widely valued characteristics, like love, honor, truth, freedom, etc. Successful branding campaigns establish symbolic associations between their products and/or company and such noble characteristics. What is noble inspires people, and what inspires is remembered and discussed. It creates buzz. And buzz is branding’s engine.

To discuss the art of branding apart from these foundational elements is to miss the forest for the trees. However, branding is more than a mere advertising campaign can accomplish because the symbolic association that needs to be made for the branding to be successful involves the core values and character traits of the company- its leaders and its business practices.

Prior to branding, core values, character issues and company policies need to be determined, developed and deployed within the company. Because the process of branding reveals the values, character and policies of the company, those things need to be right, and be in place before they can be successfully revealed.

Premature Branding
A premature revelation of these things can be disastrous to the intention of the branding campaign. To be branded as hypocritical and shallow is worse than no branding at all. Again, branding occurs when an emotional response-any emotional response- is associated with a company symbol. The art of branding is to solicit the right emotional response.