What's Your Business Signature?

Good, bad or indifferent, when you hear the words, Rolls Royce, Jeep, and Hummer, you immediately see an image in your mind associated with the respective name.  That image represents the product.  Our minds then, almost instantaneously, process an associated significance of the image.  In the marketing world, it is called the brand.  That associated significance or “brand,” believe it or not, was not actually developed by your brain alone…as smart and complex as it may be.  It was developed by a strategic communications plan that told your brain how to associate the product.

Before your utter one word on behalf of your business, you need a strategic communications plan to guide your messages.  As a business owner you will communicate a multitude of images and words including product specs that may be conveyed on your About Us webpage, in detail in a full color print collateral, through digital ads, and even through tweets and posts.  A strategic communications plan helps package and define all those details into a concise message – the signature of the product or service, so to speak – and converts all the images and text into the associated significance of it all, the brand.

 

A strategic communications plan helps define and wrap all of the various marketing details into the brand, and, in essence guides the consumer on how to view the product or service just at the sound of the brand name.  Everything that you communicate on behalf of your business including on all of your business social media accounts needs to be consistently aligned with your strategic communications plan.  In other words, when you communicate on behalf of your business, the message should never be random.  In business, a tweet is not just a tweet.  Everything you communicate should be strategically planned to advance your business goals.

As a business owner, it is your job to manage your professional communication.  And, it can be a full-time job.  Every message including even what you post on Facebook should be a strategic communication, and nothing that you communicate on behalf of your business should be on a whim.  Everything you communicate on a professional level should be published only after it has been vetted against your strategic communications plan which guides you and helps you keep a sharp eye on your business goals.  Only then will you be able to take all to the complex and intricate specs, text, benefits, content, and images and make them translate into a concise and unique signature that speak volumes for your business and becomes your brand. 

Concierge PA:  We build Signature Brands!

 

www.conciergepa.com

Offer and Acceptance

Marketing as a concept, from its inception through today, can be broken down to two key terms, offer and acceptance.  That's exactly what marketing is.  And, in itself, it is not much more complicated than that.  Marketing, whether it is conducted in Dallas or Atlanta, is a fundamental business practice which is based on the two actions of an offer being made and an acceptance by the buyer or purchaser.  Those terms are also key components of contractual law, but in terms of non-contracted commerce, understanding the processes surrounding the actions makes for a much more clear perspective.

When you market a product or service, you offer that product or service and hope that a consumer will accept and purchase your offering.  Sounds pretty simple as a concept.  But as it often is, the devil is in the details.  Next, what you offer determines whether a consumer will purchase it.  To make things more complicated, the consumer has to know what you are offering to be able to even accept the offer.  Let's continue.  Now, to reach the consumer for him or her to even know about your offer, you have to know the habits of the consumer.  And, to try and understand the habits of the consumer to even reach him or her to make your offer, you have to know things like his or her age, possibly his or her race, and maybe even how much money he or she makes.  And, at this point, we have only scratched the surface.

Once you feel as though you know the type of consumer to whom you wish to present the offer, you then have to decide whether you will present the offer to him or her by advertising on The Today Show, or maybe you could better reach him or her by purchasing Google Adwords.  What if he or she listens religiously to a morning radio show?  Perhaps you could present him or her our offer via that radio broadcast.  What if he or she is constantly on Twitter or Instagram?  Perhaps you could present your offer through one or both of those marketing channels.  Or, maybe you should present the offer on his or her favorite social media outlet, Facebook.  What is truly basic in concept now seems extremely complex in the details.  And, we have not even taken into account the marketing budget.

Marketing and strategic communication are basic and pure conceptually.  At the core of those basics is the presentation of an offer and the acceptance of that offer.  They are as basic and fundamental as the love a parent has for his or her child, and as complicated as expressing and conveying that love during the child's trying teenage years.  To be successful in marketing as well as parenting, you must whole-heartedly embrace the basic and core premises, and subsequently navigate through all of the complexities surrounding them.  The art of understanding, revisiting, and embracing the basics keeps you grounded and focused clearly on your marketing objectives.  And, each complex detail needs to tie back to the basics.  In terms of marketing, no one said running your business would be easy.  But, at the end of the day, if you embrace the basics, all of the complexities will come into focus.  And, navigating through all of the challenges will be well worth it, because after all, your business is your baby.

Concierge PA: We make offers acceptable!

 

www.conciergepa.com

Define and Conquer

In terms of strategic communications, the marketplace is extremely noisy and crowded.  Not only are there a multitude of outlets, there are endless marketing channels and platforms.  And, this presents a significant challenge when it comes to attempting to engage your target audience.  But, what we see as more of a critical issue is that many small organizations still have not even defined who their target audience is.  In the marketing game of 2013, you snooze...you lose.  Its time to define and conquer!
As it is 2013, I hope that it comes as no surprise to you that there are consumers out there that encounter 90% of all strategic and marketing communication that reaches them solely via their smart phones.  That means that a marketer will never reach them with network television commercials or newpaper print ads.  This demographic group tends to be young.  Another important fact regarding this group, is that they are abandoning Facebook in droves.  Believe it or not, but Facebook is too constricting and formal in format for them.  They prefer Instagram and Twitter as well as a few other emerging options.

And, again in 2013, there are some consumers that receive the majority of their strategic and marketing communication via ads run on our broadcast networks.  And, this demographic group still reads print magazines and newspapers.  You may have guessed that this audience tends to be older, and its members don't have Facebook pages or Twitter accounts.   They are a distinct audience.

Despite the myriad of marketing channels, platforms and outlets, one thing we hope you take from this post is that target audiences can still be readily segmented through demographics.  And, an added benefit is that these audiences' media habits can be qualified.  Rather than being confused or overwhelmed by the complex highway of marketing avenues, if you refine your offering and define your target audience, you may have the roadmap to actually engage them and grow your sales.  It's all up to you to define.

Concierge PA: We'll help you define success.

 

www.conciergepa.com 

Buck the Trends and Get Back to The Basics!

 

As a business owner, a physician practice manager, a realtor, or an executive director of a nonprofit who keeps abreast of strategic communications and marketing trends, you cannot help but feeling bombarded by the newest trends in social media, SEO and content marketing, to name a few.  And, it seems as though every other week there is a new marketing development.  We live in a confusing, ever-changing, and sometimes even contradictory marketing ecosystem.  One minute you are told one strategy is the way to go.  The next minute that great, new marketing trend is being shot down as outdated.  If the past can teach us anything about strategic communications and marketing, 2013 is the year you need to stop being concerned about trends and get back to the basics.

The reality is marketing is marketing.  Marketing is price, product, promotion, and distribution (place).  It's concept has not changed since its inception.  And, more importantly, its goal has never changed.  In a nutshell, marketing is the sum of processes designed to increase revenue.  Plain and simple.  It does not matter if it is newspaper print advertising, backlinks, a Facebook page, or even a tweet; if the activity does not increase your bottom line, it is pointless.  And, if you have spent countless hours and money on efforts that have not increased your revenue, that is time and money wasted.  That is your reality.  And, your reality - not the latest social media trends - is all that counts.

Make 2013 the year to buck trends.  Get back to your reality and the basics of marketing.  If an employee wearing a sandwich board promoting your business brings in more revenue that an infographic on a social media platform, get him or her suited up, and get that cash register ringing.  Trendy is cute, and all things new may be exciting; but revenue is reality and cash is still king.

Concierge PA:

 We embrace the basics.

www.conciergepa.com