idg best practice_guide

Best Practice Guides How To From THe CrowdStand Out

Best Practice Guides

How To

From THe Crowd

Stand Out

Stand Out


IntrOductIOn

Welcome to our best practice guide where we unearth the myths, secrets and areas for you to action to build a successful brand.

Our best practice guides are a series of publications aimed at helping you attract and engage prospects and customers. We’ll cover areas from brand to social media, but in a way for you to digest and hopefully put into practice.

This guide looks at how to stand out from the crowd. We’ll explore what a brand means, how it’s critical to your success, why you need to engage with your audiences and some key tactics to be seen and heard.

In a world of ‘me too’ businesses, lets strive to be the authority in our sectors.

The ID Group team

This guide looks at how to stand out from the crowd. We’ll explore what a brand means, how it ’s critical to your success and why you need to

engage with your audiences.


WHY dO WE nEEd

tO Brand?

Section 1


The process of creating a brand is a mix of creativity, energy and standing behind everything that you believe.

Brands are more than just logos or strap-lines, it allows people to recognise and familiarise themselves with your company. A brand is so much bigger than just a logo. It is how you are seen and how you present yourself to the world from a phone conversation to an email, to the website. Create a brand that is not only memorable but also successful.

Approach branding as the reputation of your organisation and make sure your company messages are reflected effectively.

Without a brand, companies become lost amongst the crowd. Make sure to stand out from your competition and possess a USP setting you apart from other organisations in the same market. The more attention you are able to draw to your company through branding, the more your business will grow in a positive light.

A brand is much bigger than a logo. It is how you are seen and

how you present yourself to the world.

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WHat IS a Brand all aBOut??


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Businesses tend to mention branding with marketing and advertising in the same breath, which is just not the case.

A brand is an overall image of a product/service that consumers are able to connect with, make an emotional attachment to and interpret. They are able to identify with a name, logo, strap-line and style.

Branding is different from other communication methods because marketing focuses on a message and keeping consumers connected, whereas the brand itself is the image and perception which must stand alone in order to be effective, credible and to stand out against competition.

Branding can only be effective and successful if it is executed correctly and consistently.

Think about your logo and what it represents (as it highlights everything you stand for). Be clear of what values your company and brand identifies within its messages. Above all else, create a personal connection through your brand for customers to engage with.

dO YOu Brand Or MarkEt??


kEY arEaS tHat arE crItIcal

tO YOur SuccESS

Section 2


One thing we all aspire to is to create a business where people will be banging on the door to work with you.

The simple answer is… position yourself.

It is that simple, if you engage with people and spread emotion, it becomes easier to build a business. For instance, if your messages are constantly dictating a sales pitch on Twitter, people tend to switch off. Spread content that has a human feel to it, or is intended to help others, a purely commercial message is less spread.

If you position yourself as the logical choice, then people will listen. Do this in three ways:

Provide an education that helps your prospect become interested

Deliver useful information to put you in the mind of your prospect as more of an expert than your competition

Plan and think strategically to sell your product/service that isn’t selling and far stronger than a flat out ‘this is what we do.’

If you position yourself well, you create a strong rapport, and when you educate others you build advocacy.

Being positioned as the ‘respected’ choice within your industry is powerful. We can overcomplicate things to the nth degree, but no matter the state of the economic environment, emotion always sells.

POSItIOnIng YOurSElf IS tHE kEY tO SuccESS


There are more ways than ever before to broadcast your marketing messages and present your brands, but so many companies look to build their castles purely on hope alone.

Take for instance, your Twitter feed. Amongst the stream of conscious messages that form part of our daily lives, we are also bombarded with dictated messages to interrupt and gain our focus and attention.

This is similar to the old way of marketing where you would spread your message in as many ways as possible, from outdoor advertising to press ads to radio exposure, in the blind hope that people would react and notice it. Simply building awareness, is not the aim, the key is to build conversation, credibility and trust.

By being focused on a target market, with a specific message to that industry, you don’t simply want them to be aware of you, you want them to be responsive to you. They want to feel that they are being spoken to, directly to them, not at them.

Here’s an analogy that brings this principal to when we were all younger. Remember the 2p slot machines (we still have plenty of them in Bournemouth) and when you put the coin at the top, it could only go two ways. It can hit another coin and trigger a host of others to result in a noise of a return that would always put a smile on your face, or it can sit on it’s own and get lost amongst the crowd of other coins and no smile on your face, just a relentless pursuit of more return for the money spent.

Most marketing efforts are like this, where a message is put out there in the hope that there is an expected reaction to hit as many people as you can. Every single message you create has to be targeted to your audience. When you try to hit everyone, the impact is small, but if you’re focused and target the right audience, you create value and a guaranteed return on your investment, a bit like those afternoons in the arcade.

nEvEr BuIld YOur Brand On HOPE


Does a bulk of ‘likes’ on Facebook or a large number of followers on Twitter result as an effective marketing strategy? Shouldn’t we focus direction where we are not in the business of marketing, but engaging with an audience?

Do more than just telling everyone ‘how good it is’ and having links to a specific page on your website, it is detrimental to a brand and people will switch off immediately. The focus should be on developing a two-way dialogue between brands and the customers they serve. Build partnerships, not just leads.

When brands put priority on engagement, this moves from one-way traffic of ‘followers’ as passive receivers of messages to one where there is interaction, participation with the aim to build a dialogue and customers to become advocates ie. share their experiences.

The key to all formats of engagement is communication, so build an effective dialogue:

Giving information. This could be in the form of directing to a blog on a particular topic or providing a report on an area of interest within your industry. The better information that is provided and more relevance it has to a prospect, the better the opportunity to convert to a customer.

Continuity. Everything that is sent to represent your business has to have consistency throughout ie. there is a connection between the webmail that is sent out and the message it relates to. Continuity in your brand and communications is key to building familiarity and credibility.

Grow your community. Sharing knowledge within a community builds loyalty and keeps a conversation constant. To do this, compelling content needs to be created and maintained in order to build collaboration, e.g. commit to a printed newsletter to share with your customers.

Testimonials. Reading someone else recommending your product, rather than yourself is an effective way to turn prospects into customers and customers into advocates.

Online and offline engagement delivers benefits for all. The more engaged a company is with its marketplace, the more the marketplace sees the company as the expert within their field and ‘the place to go to.’ This results in greater customer loyalty, better new customer conversion rates and enhanced revenue. Set realistic goals and stick to them and remember to maintain a flow of communication.

Don?t Market, engage


WHat YOu nEEd tO

cOntInuallY aSk YOurSElf

Section 3


We’re all bombarded from more channels than ever before to grab our attention. So, what makes you different?

The key to standing out is to make people’s lives easier.

It has now become more commonplace to blend in with everyone else, most products or services that are out there just form part of a landscape that is full of ‘me too’s’. Couple that with a world where attention spans are now very short, it becomes a challenge to identify what makes you and your product different.

WHat MakES ME dIffErEnt?

Most products or services that are out there just form part of a landscape that is full of ‘me too’s.

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Here’s an example to show you how important it is to stand out. Friday nights can mean an empty fridge and searching for something to have for dinner. The answer is within the realms of Marks & Spencer’s ‘Dine In For 2, For £10.’ What this is, is effectively ready meals to heat up in the oven (with a bottle of wine), but packaged in a way that it felt a bit of a treat. This is what I mean by avoiding being a ‘me too’ product (a ready meal), by doing something different (packaging up as ‘fine cuisine’).

Coming back to our products and services that strive for attention in our marketplaces, the key is to provide a benefit that solves problems for others and position it in a way that others/prospects take notice, with the knock on effect to know, trust and like us.

What makes you stand out is to provide a service that people care about and instead of blending in with everyone else, go in the opposite direction. If you provide people with a reason to pay attention, they will listen.

To be known as the expert, bring all your communication tools together to spread your message in a variety of ways, namely the use of blogs to get your view across, the social media channels to tease and invite, the relationships with the press to inform (not self congratulate), to loving your immediate customers/community by treating them as the VIPs with a small number of printed regular newsletters.

The success to being a thought leader is to cut a cake in half. The first half is to have a multi channel approach and the second half is when you engage with your audience, it is a two-way communication where added value is key. What this leaves is a cake that people will go for time and time again, no matter how much icing is on the others.

What makes you stand out is to provide a service that people care about. Instead of blending in with everyone else, go in the

opposite direction.

“

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There are a number of channels that can be used to present yourself to different audiences by being consistent and having continuous brand exposure. Here are a few things to help.

Twitter is an effective networking tool to share, comment and be consistent within your industry. The essence of Twitter is to have a voice within your community by posting good tweets, retweets and interactions with other businesses.

Video content is a way of ‘seeing.’ This gives an insight into the heart of a company and shows how they present themselves and interact. This is a really effective way to share via social media and to targeted audiences.

Business cards are one of the most traditional formats to present a company’s identity. However, why not be more innovative? Treat it as more than a card and offer more. For instance, is there an offer you can promote? Are there aspects of the business that you want people to know more about? Are there more ways you present your business on your card, i.e. links for twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, blogs.

A personalised letter is an ideal way for targeting prospects. Move away from the conventional email and take time to write to someone. Use good quality paper, add something to your envelope i.e. a puzzle, present. The idea is to be more engaging than just a written email.

A blog becomes a really effective tool when it is promoted through a number of channels, notably the social media networks and links included on each email signature. Blogs are a great format to voice an opinion, comment and gain recognition within your industry.

Networking is important to build your business community. Making new connections and meeting new people can lead to positive referrals from clients to prospects. It can also allow you to contribute, learn or share ideas with other people in similar/different industries. Networking can also lead to partnerships and joint ventures for companies, so be confident and get your voice heard.

Communication is essential for building and maintaining strong relationships with existing and prospective clients. This will build your business and your company’s credibility.

WebsitePeople don’t like copy heavy websites, it is not interactive and there’s too much to focus on. Concentrate on getting your message/company goals across to audiences, so keep it simple.

Social Media is evolving, so keep people updated with latest news of your company via Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Pinterest. Keep audiences engaged.

Cold CallingIt may not everyone’s cup of tea, but by having a leap of faith cold calling can be effective to your business. Don’t be afraid if a customer does pick up the phone and says ‘no’. Persevere because there are people that need your help.

10 WaYS tO BE SEEn HEard

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Best Practice Guides

Stand OutWe hope our best practice guide provides interesting routes for you to explore in more detail.

If there is anything here that you’d like to have a conversation about, just get in touch. We’d love to find out more about you. We’re here to help deliver a consistent message and position you as the ‘go to’ person.

Email: [email protected]: 01202 557 458Web: www.theidgroup.co.ukBlog: www.theidgroup.co.uk/blogTwitter: @heyidgroupFacebook: /heyidgroup

Lorne Park House, 1 Lorne Park Rd, Bournemouth, BH1 1JJ

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