One of the prime motivating factors in the purchase decision making process is “trust”. A consumer will at some point for however long or short of a time, ask the question, “Can I trust this company/person/product?”

In today’s ever-changing world of marketing, electronic media, email, and advertising innovations and intrusions, companies, and businesses are marketing to an ever increasingly suspicious consumer, who is conflicted between their desire not to be “sold” to and their desire to consume. They are looking for ways to establish believability, credibility, and trust.

According to a paper by the Peppers and Rogers Group (2004), 36% of major U.S. corporations view privacy as an important part of the company’s brand image.

It is my belief based on consumer thinking that one way to develop a competitive edge in the marketing world is to place greater emphasis on tying privacy policy to brand. This strategy places a direct link between trust and purchase while developing the beginnings of long-term relationship.

I suggest highlighting your privacy policy in all your marketing in a way that makes privacy, trust, and your brand synonymous. Let the consumer know that here is a business that will respect your privacy. Let them know that your communication with them will be relevant to their consumer needs. And you can let them know that information they share with your business will be used to better meet their needs and will not, knowingly be used against them, sold, or given to third parties.

It might even be smart to develop a short marketing campaign that focuses on your commitment to your customer’s privacy, instead of simply stating that you have a privacy policy or stating your policy in unreadable font at the bottom of your literature.

About 50 % of consumers today have little more knowledge than brand or product recognition and have little desire to acquire extra information about a brand or product, so it behooves the marketing community to link recognition of their brand to trust, safety, and advocacy. Instead of selling to consumers, target your marketing to help them believe that you are making them safer and more secure by purchasing your brand and then back it up!

copyright 2004

Darrin Coe holds a masters degree in professional psychology specializing in consumer thinking. He publishes The Darrin Coe Ezine. You can subscribe at http://www.consumer-thinking.com/dcezine.html.

Visit Consumer Thinking.com at http://www.consumer-thinking.com.

Last issue, I talked about increasing your Brand Love– meaning to increase the affection that prospects and customers feel toward your business.

Why?

Because increasing "affection" will build relationships. Those relationships, if made strong enough by increased Brand Love, build a bridge for prospects to become customers. To some, that bridge might be made of rope, swaying in the breeze, complete with wooden planks. To others, it will be a mighty stone structure. It all depends on how well you connect with each prospect.

It also means putting more cement on the bond with the customers you already have. Locking customers in, tighter and tighter with every brand experience is a critical aspect to profitability and growth. The reason here is twofold: It costs less to maintain current customers than to gain new ones, and the best advertising is word of mouth. Sounds like a cliché (’cause they are), but… it’s true, folks.

So, the big question is: How to do it and do it better than your competition.

Previously, I mentioned getting honest and forthright feedback from customers. Having one-on-one conversations can help. You will also get valued honesty from questionnaire cards that have a few quick answers AND some space to write in other thoughts. Actually, that could be the most important aspect of the card. Getting this kind of feedback can provide huge rewards.

First, this type of “silent” feedback lets the writer give a more honest opinion, rather than talking face-to-face. They don’t have to sign their name. Also, the feedback given can open up trains of thought that may not have occurred to you before. You may get insight into improving your core business. The insight may turn into a realization that leads to big discovery, such as a different product, service, or an entire market.

Another way to increase Brand Love is the proper training of your employees. Nothing is more of downer (except perhaps bad merchandise) to a customer than an incompetent employee. Service should be a big part of your marketing plan, and that means involving time and expense to train your employees properly. We’ve all heard our economy is becoming more service-based, but we’ve all suffered from bad service- more often than not. Being on hold five minutes or more. Being ignored when you walk in the door. Given incorrect information, being overcharged, or having something delivered late. All bad news for customers.

I once called a local outlet of a national home center chain, and I was on hold for 30 minutes! I stayed on as long as I could, just to see actually how many minutes it took for someone to answer. It was so long, I could hum their jingle in my sleep! And they never answered. Now, I go strictly to their competition. Alarmingly, it’s to the point where mediocre service is so noticeably different, it gets applauded. Keeping your employees trained and caring starts at the top. So if this hasn’t been a priority for you, make it one, and you’ll see your referrals go up.

This leads into my next point - becoming the Preferred Employer. In the marketing triangle, there are three elements: Business, Customers, and Employees. With the Business at the apex of the triangle, it cannot exist without the other two. You’re not just marketing to customers. You are marketing to your employees too, because they are investing their time to work for you.

When you create an excellent work atmosphere and employees find working for you rewarding, you get great performance from them AND you attract top talent. Those are two things that are priceless and almost insure success. Conversely, when you don’t care about your employees, their training, or make work an unpleasant experience, count on poor to mediocre help without much care or effort. I cannot think of a faster way to drive good help and customers away.

Being the Preferred Employer doesn’t mean doesn’t mean there are no rules in place or you pay obscenely high wages for comparable work. It simply means your employees are respected, taught to do their job well, given proper feedback when needed, and are made to feel valued.

Take a good objective look around your business. Get honest feedback from your customers AND your employees. Great businesses become that way because they are constantly searching for ways to become better. Those two groups should be your most important and most depended-on allies in that never- ending search. ~

Republishing part of or entire article, in all forms, is welcomed, as long as author bio info is printed and proper authorship credit is given. As a courtesy, please send author a complimentary copy.

John is a freelance commercial writer based in Omaha, Nebraska. He publishes a free monthly e-zine focusing on branding, advertising, and marketing from his web site http://www.brandedbetter.com. Speaking with both agency and in- house experience, he knows the most valuable asset of a business is its brand.

So… how have you been building your brand lately?

Now, I’m writing this in my best Barry White voice… "How’s your Brand Lo-o-o-o-o-ve, baby?"

It may sound obvious, but increase Brand Love by branding better.

Branding your business better will help you increase awareness, attractiveness, and affection of your prospects (so they become customers), current customers (some people call them clients), and employees (yup, they need to be sold on you, too).

“Huh? I’ve heard of brand awareness, and brand attractiveness I understand, but affection? Brand Love? Is this guy smoking banana peels?”

OK, I admit, that term may be hard to take– at first. But, haven’t you expressed to someone that you love something? “I love that soda.” “I love their pizza.” “I love that store.”

See? You’ve been enamored with a brand before. And there’s a very good chance you still are. So are other people.

Why would you say you “love” soda, pizza, or a store? Because an important nerve of yours has been hit. Some might call it “the Sweet Spot.” And it may not be all that obvious what that Sweet Spot is.

A soda tastes best to you over all others by iteself. Or it may go better with certain types of food you enjoy. Perhaps your favorite pizza place makes the best tasting pizza. Maybe you enjoy the surroundings and atmosphere as much as the food.

When you think about your favorite shop, maybe you think they always have just what you really want. Maybe you get treated like royalty. Or you feel good you can afford what they have, or because you can get a lot without spending much.

Thankfully, somebody has probably said, “I love that…” about your business. If they haven’t, you probably haven’t been open very long– or will be open for much longer. Think of the last referral that came in. They probably did so because someone had high praise for you.

Now… the trick is to find out what was so praiseworthy, and effectively comunicate it to similar prospects.

How to do it? Just ask for feedback.

Talk to your clients/customers about their experiences. Usually, they will have good things to say. Or at least they may buffet some less-than-glowing reviews with some good stuff. Speaking of “less than glowing,” when asking for feedback, be prepared for “warts and all.”

In fact, ask for it.

When it’s really bad, you’ll hear it right away. But when there are minor slip-ups, or things your business may NOT be doing, those can easily fall through the cracks. Always stress you want candid, HONEST answers. If you’re not willing to search out the “bad stuff,” it will only get worse, and small problems can grow exponentially.

Or somebody realizes how you’re underserving the market and takes advantage before you do.

So, ask your clients questions casually. Or even print up 100 or so quick response cards with three to five questions. With only a couple of well-worded questions and space for their own additional thoughts, you may not only get good feedback, you might gain insight about your market, operation, or clientele that takes business to the next level.

Watch for more from me on this topic.

John is a freelance commercial writer based in Omaha, Nebraska. He publishes a free monthly e-zine focusing on branding, advertising, and marketing from his website http://www.brandedbetter.com. Speaking with both agency and in-house experience, he knows the most valuable asset of a business is its brand.

You’d have to labor to shield yourself from the power of Branding; it’s hard to avoid it in today’s business and social climate. Even in the backwoods of very, very small-town America, you couldn’t emancipate yourself from the in-your- face concepts of Branding messages from all over the world. Even in conversations that don’t discuss it (and those are becoming few and far between), Branding is present. On television, in the supermarket, at the movie theater, in your car, Branding is constantly with you. If you’re in business-any business-you are involved in Branding in some way. If you are a sole proprietor, you may, yourself, be a brand.

It is no longer enough to simply be the best-or even the best-selling-product on the market. It has become necessary to establish a brand identity, which can lead to additional products, deeper market share, and expanded consumer loyalty.

As Cable Neuhaus, editor in chief of Folio magazine, says: "Branding is so paramount. A car to many, many people is an extension of themselves. It’s an extension of the way they see themselves. Relatively few people go down to the dealership that’s closest to their home and say, ‘What can I get for $22,500?’ That’s not the way people buy cars for the most part, and that’s the reason the car companies spend billions of dollars worldwide, in all likelihood, on the Branding enterprise. GM just fired the guy who’s in charge of Branding because they feel he wasn’t very successful there. They have a succession of car lines and you can move up the lines: Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, Cadillac. There isn’t all that much difference between a Buick and a Pontiac; they’re usually built on the same frame. The difference is how they market themselves to the audience. Pontiac is ‘We build excitement.’ Buick is ‘American luxury.’" In the world of public relations, where I work to brand some of today’s hottest stars, it’s virtually impossible to avoid talking about Branding.

Working in Hollywood for 20 years, I’ve never heard the kind of buzz around a concept that I’ve experienced with Branding. Everyone is looking for the key to the concept; everyone is saying the word, although most have misconceptions about its meaning.

The problem is, only the select few people know what Branding really is. And even fewer understand the essential role public relations plays in the Branding process. As Duane E. Knapp, president of BrandStrategy, Inc. and author of The Branding Mindset, says: "Most people do not have a clue what brand means. The common misconception is that brand is hype. They have this concept that one of the ways to be a successful brand is that you’ve got to hype the brand, you’ve got to have a lot of activity, a lot of communications, a lot of advertising, which is the antithesis of the true concept of brand. I think [PR] is the most important role. The company should decide what their promise is. If you don’t have a brand promise, you have nothing, and it’s not the advertising tagline. It’s what the employees and the company promise to consumers. It’s not a promise unless it’s written, unless every single employee in the company can tell you what they have to do to deliver that promise. They might not be able to recite the exact two or three sentences, but for example, at L.L. Bean, they know that there is no such thing as an unhappy customer."

"I think (public relations) is a massively important, and even more massively under-leveraged, role in the Branding process. I don’t think people fully understand the value of setting up an interview with a major magazine or somebody else endorsing your brand. 3M talks about how you perceive your brand in three different ways: one, ‘customer satisfaction,’ two, ‘would you buy the brand again,’ and three, ‘would you recommend it to a friend.’ I look at PR as an analog to ‘would you recommend it as a friend.’ "

-Scott M. Davis, managing partner of PROPHET’s Chicago office and co-author of Brand Asset Management

It’s impossible to look at Branding without the public relations perspective, and my business happens to be public relations. In doing business with high- profile celebrities from Barbara Streisand to Fleetwood Mac, Demi Moore to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Charlton Heston to Michael J. Fox, and corporate clients like Pizza Hut, I deal with concepts like advertising, marketing, market research, and sponsorship. Public relations is part of all those disciplines. And since public relations is, we’ll discover, an integral part of the Branding process, I have a unique perspective on the business of Branding. I work with people who create and perpetuate some of the most successful brand names and brand identities. I’ve worked with the highest-level actors, actresses, entertainers, directors, and Hollywood insiders, all of whom strive to become brands and some of whom have done exactly that with unparalleled success.

I know the advertising executives and marketing professionals who create brands, and I know the editors, producers, studio executives, and television moguls who present them to the public. In fact, you’ll read about their experiences and hear their opinions throughout this book. They’ll help me to explain why some things work and others don’t. It’s not alchemy; it’s not voodoo. There may be magic involved, but magic is usually the product of intense drudgery, endless practice sessions, and just a touch of inspiration. Branding isn’t the wave of a magic wand; it is a discipline that can be taught and learned. It can be practiced and examined, discussed and analyzed. The better it is understood, the more successfully it will be utilized.

There will also be a total Branding experience: the creation of a fictional brand of ice cream that we’ll see grow from an idea into a full, mature brand through the best use of public relations practices. The concept of the product, the name, the presentation, and the advertising and marketing will all be influenced and shaped by the uses of public relations. The brand win emerge through its promise to the public, and through the way that promise is communicated and reinforced. That is pure public relations.

The journey we’re about to take will be a fascinating one. We’ll examine brands that are practically sacred in many households, and discover how they got that way. We’ll look at the most inspired choices and biggest Branding mistakes ever made. And through it all, we’ll keep an eye on what you can do to use public relations techniques to help create that once-in-a-lifetime brand.

Michael Levine is the founder of the prominent public relations firm Levine Communications Office, based in Los Angeles. He is the author of Guerrilla PR, 7 Life Lessons from Noah’s Ark: How to Survive a Flood in Your Own Life.

GuerrillaPR.net is a resource for people that want to get famous in the media, without going broke. http://GuerrillaPR.net

Move over pop star "Posh Spice" Adams and English soccer hero David Beckham, the personal branding power of newly engaged Australian celebrity sports couple Lleyton Hewitt and Rebecca Cartwright could be worth up to $100 million dollars.

In terms of public relations and effective public relations, their media performance this week in both print and television proves they have the potential to become a truly global brand and rival Posh and Becks on the world stage.

Hewitt, who has undergone a lot of media training has earnings from sponsorship and tennis valued at $13.7 million per year according to the BRW Rich List.

Their personal brand is definitely stronger as a couple because they are opposites that attract, and this is always very seductive for consumers in terms of marketing strategy.

Hewitt’s values of the gritty, anti-establishment, anti-authority fighter appeal to the Australian larrikin in us all, while Cartwright’s youthful, wholesome girl-next-door image provides a balance to this, a component essential to any brand building.

Brands help keep products or services fresh in the minds of consumers – and good marketers and influencers are able to identify what is at the core of a brand.

The outstanding attribute of the Hewitt/Cartwright personal brand is that their values are very authentic and resonate across a wide range demographics, a very clever marketing strategy.

Both are not afraid to show their emotions and this is what cynical consumers want in a noisy, crowded and often over-hyped marketplace, plus their clever use of effective public relations.

Mr Murrell calls this concept Integrity Marketing, where the values of an organisation are aligned with those of its staff and customers.

The fact that both these Australians are so comfortable with who they are in front of the public, whether that’s on a tennis court, in front of a TV camera or doing a photo shoot, means they will appeal to all people, from grandmothers to young kids, and that’s their real marketing appeal as a brand. More information (http://www.8mmedia.com/)

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com.

Branding: it’s a term that carries great weight in the world of advertising. Successful branding is best illustrated by the world’s most prominent corporations, but it’s no less important to the small business owner. Your Brand is your identity; it’s every single puzzle piece, fitted into the big picture of your company. From your name and logo to your business philosophy and corporate mission; from your advertising campaign message to your design elements; from your products and services; all that is owned, produced, stated, sold and marketed by your company falls under the broad heading of your Brand.

What exactly is a “brand?” The term probably originated at a time when when ours was a strictly agricultural society. Ranchers take a branding iron to their cattle, as a way to signify they OWN those cows. Likewise, modern corporations choose a logo to brand their name into the mind of the consumer. Every time you label an ad or website with your company logo; every time you take a political stance on behalf of your corporation, you’re putting your brand into effect. And if a brand indicates ownership, then it should be your ultimate mission to dominate, or own, your niche. Brand your company. Own the cow.

How do you determine your style of branding? Analyze your audience. Zero in on the group you’re trying to reach. Are they male, female, or both? What’s the age group and economical level? What are their spending habits, their values? How do they TALK? What are they concerned about? What do they think they NEED? Where will their focus be in six months? And most importantly, how does your marketable product fit into the scheme? If you never really get to know your audience, you can read all the marketing how-to strategies in the world, and it isn’t going to mean diddly-squat for your business. It isn’t going to help you build your brand.

What’s the next step? Always, always, always put yourself in their shoes. Jump right into their heads, if you can. Think of your audience during the business-plan conception process. How do they communicate? What do they find visually appealing? Are you marketing to senior citizens? Use bigger fonts, a nostalgic tone, and a morally forthright attitude. Is it the filthy, stinking rich whom you’re trying to attract? Save the Crazy Eddie shtick, because money is no object here. Every bit of energy used to promote your brand should be focused toward winning over your key customer.

There will be a time when you completely lose sight of who you’re trying to attract. This, in turn, dilutes the power of your brand. You’ll be in the middle of writing an ad, when suddenly your head is racing with potential buyer types. This happened to me once during my writing stint with a digital media company who sold Santa Claus greetings. In my sales letter, which went on for pages and pages, there was no limit to what Santa could do! He could praise tiny tots for using the potty. He could play matchmaker to a couple of young lovers. He could patch up an argument you had with Aunt Freida in Topeka. All of this was great, but it was really convoluting Who We Were as a company, and our Santa was becoming a Jack Frost of all trades. It was no good! So we went back to square one. And through simple words and a more narrow focus on our original audience of children, we finally captured the Magic of Christmas that we had originally intended to be Our Brand.

Reflect your brand in everything you do; from your website design, to your public relations, to how you go about selling your product. Once you’ve done this, the next step is to create Brand Awareness. This is achieved through consistency. You can dream up the most brilliant ad campaign on the planet, but if you’re not consistent about putting it in place, you’ll never establish brand recognizability.

If the tone of your company is “fun, light and noncontroversial”, steer clear of anti-war demonstrations. If Arial is your font of choice, then don’t go switching it up mid-campaign and putting out affiliate program materials using Tahoma. If tongue-in-cheek humor is how you attract attention, don’t line your website borders with super-mushy personal ads. Ask yourself: will this resonate with my key customer? And use your logo and company tagline wherever possible—in your email correspondence, on your website, as your letterhead, on your business cards, in your advertising and on your product packaging. Remind people of who you are. Burn your brand into their minds.

To some extent, branding is following the herd… emulating respected companies that capture what you’d like to be known for. Still, a wise entrepreneur must never forget that today’s success story is tomorrow’s dot-com that went under. "What sold" for someone else may not work for your company. Just because Joe Baloney made millions selling with a bilingual circus clown doesn’t mean that will work for you… or that anyone’s even going to find it remotely interesting in six months. The market changes like the tide, depending on what direction society is going in. Where they were before, which way they’re headed, and wherever it’s likely they’ll end up… socially, economically, ethically, politically, culturally, intellectually, psychologically, philosophically.

How will you know that you’ve branded successfully? When people start listening to you. Not just hearing what you say, but letting you call the shots. You’ll know it when people start imitating you, too. You’ll start seeing knock-offs of your products and your company image. This may flatter you or it may annoy you, but when it happens, it’s your cue to lead the pack in a new direction. That’s how to stay on top of the Branding Game.

The day that you find yourself functioning as a real, live spokesman for a group of individuals, is the day you’ve achieved Brand Recognition. The day that you make the front page news headlines is the day you’ve become a household name. But a word to the wise: once your brand achieves true power, someone will try and take you down. Remind them that you own this cow.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. Use with permission.

Dina Giolitto is a New-Jersey based Copywriting Consultant with nine years’ industry experience. Her current focus is web content and web marketing for a multitude of products and services although the bulk of her experience lies in retail for big-name companies like Toys"R"Us. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for rates and samples.

How is branding different than marketing?

Branding is not so much different from marketing as it is an element of marketing. We think of marketing as a tree; the brand is the roots, holding the tree in place and providing constant energy. The leaves are the tactics, reaching in various directions and changing with the seasons, the trunk is the marketing strategy, connecting the brand and the tactics. In this way, brand is positioned as the basis for any marketing initiative.

Building a Brand

Creating a brand involves a process that demands attention to develop and diligence in carrying out to achieve results. While this may seem difficult, the end result of the branding process is the establishment of a system, and a structure that actually simplifies the marketing process.

Our process serves to match the work a company does best with an audience willing and able to buy, and proceeds to develop a program of visual and verbal messages that reflect the experience the company wants to deliver. Branding is about developing a pull rather than a push, identifying a core value that resonates with your audience and attracts the business that is desired.

Effective brand marketing starts by gathering information. What is known and thought now both inside and outside your walls? Do you know who your competitors are and what their brand is? Why do clients choose-or not choose-your company? What do clients value most about your firm? Both quantitative and qualitative information is needed to get a clear picture of your company’s, and your industry’s, place in the mind of your audience.

Having gathered information, both internal and external feedback is reviewed. It is time to compare the needs that exist in the market with the strengths your firm has or wants to develop. This process identifies the most marketable elements to a given audience, the focus features.

With a clear picture of the features your company can deliver well, and an understanding of who would value these features, key benefits are defined and linked to a feeling, the core value, to create further focus. The purpose of brand is to create a durable connection and build recognition, recollection and referrals.

The visual image, verbal message and experience that will be delivered must be developed to communicate your brand perception. While staff, headlines and images may change from year to year and campaign to campaign; this structure creates a stable base that allows for flexibility without veering off course.

Educate everyone on your brand so that each staff member becomes a "Keeper of the Brand." The biggest problem with maintaining brand is lack of consistency. A new marketing director, eager designer or outside consultant bored with what has been done and wanting to put their own stamp upon the company can quickly derail a brand. While you can’t change your logo every year, regular evaluation of the tools employed to convey your message is vital in keeping both your audience and your staff engaged.

Strong roots are needed to keep a tree healthy, and essential in surviving a storm. When growing your brand, be thorough in discovery, objective in the definition of position and consistent in delivery, and the process of building brand will be time well spent in attracting and maintaining the kind of clients that will grow and sustain your business.

About The Author

Beth Brodovsky is the president and principal of Iris Creative Group, LLC. Brodovsky earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, New York. Before launching her own firm in 1996, she spent eight years as a corporate Art Director and Graphic Designer, providing a sound foundation in management and organizational standards and structure. Iris Creative specializes in providing marketing and strategic communication services to clients in service industries and small businesses. For more information contact Beth at bsb@iriscreative.com or 610-567-2799.

Successful Guru marketers have a secret weapon that they use every single time they communicate about their businesses. It’s one of those intangibles that are easily misunderstood. It’s the ability to generate excitement about what you have to offer. And when your prospects are excited about your services, marketing becomes a whole lot easier. You get more attention, more response, more sales and more referrals.

Excitement is often misunderstood because we usually equate excitement purely with displays of high energy and enthusiasm. The stereotypical marketer is PT Barnum and Anthony Robbins rolled into one with enough energy to light a small city. This ideal is not so easy to emulate. Most of us give up on the idea of generating excitement because we don’t think we have the personality for it. We feel it would be artificial and forced.

Does an infectious enthusiasm about what you offer make a difference? Of course it does, but we believe it’s only a small part of the equation. It’s way overrated. Enthusiasm can be shallow. It can me manufactured. It offers no real proof that what you offer delivers true value. Prospects don’t become interested and excited about your services just because you show enthusiasm. They become excited when they understand that your services will make a real difference in their lives and their businesses.

What I find so frequently with Independent Professionals is that they have failed to discover and articulate the *inherent excitement* in the services they are offering. When they discover that excitement and learn how to express it, their marketing goes to a whole new level.

While we were writing this we got a call from a client, a financial planner, who we had helped with the copy on his web site. His previous site failed to generate excitement and he wasn’t getting any new business from it. With the new copy, prospects got excited and started to call him. He now generates most of his new business from this web site.

The good news is that generating excitement is a whole lot easier than it may sound.

Let me paint you a little scenario.

We have two sales consultants, A and B. They both do pretty much the same thing (they even offer the same program). They are equally intelligent and capable of producing valuable results for their clients. However their messages are very different:

Consultant A uses the following marketing message:

We offer sales training for people newly entering your sales team. We use the Fast Start Sales Training System, which is specifically designed for new salespeople. We offer training programs from one day to one week in duration and we cover all the most important sales skills. We are able to customize the training programs for your industry and company. We have experience in 107 industries.

Consultant B uses the following marketing message:

Are your new sales people slow in getting started and meeting their quota? We use the Fast Start Sales Training System that’s guaranteed to help new sales people reach their quota in 60 days or less. Our customized system ensure that your salespeople meet or exceed their quota 82% more frequently than sales people who have not used our system. Proven in 107 industries, including yours, our system increases revenue per salesperson by an average of 63% in the first year.

Do you see the difference?

Consultant A talks about the training services he offers and the process he delivers. It is all about what he does, there is nothing about what the prospect gets. There is no inherent excitement in this message. And no matter how enthusiastically he delivers this message it will fail to generate excitement in the prospect.

Consultant B focuses his message on exactly what his prospects will receive from his sales training programs. Even though he offers the identical program, his message, expressed in the language of solutions and results, is inherently exciting. This consultant doesn’t need to show wild enthusiasm for what he is offering, quiet confidence will do.

If you want your prospects to get excited about what you are offering, the magic key is to start talking about specific solutions and results. It’s as simple at that, but it’s amazing how many people miss this completely. Take a look at your own marketing messages, both verbal and written, and ask if they pass the excitement test. If they don’t, work at making the necessary changes as quickly as possible. You’ll start seeing results almost immediately.

Recap:

You will generate excitement with all your marketing messages and written marketing copy if you use the "What’s In It For Me" copy. Put your information in the following order for best results.

1. Problem - Information on the problems, issues or challenges your prospects are facing.

2. Solution - Information on what things would be like if the problem, issue or challenge were resolved.

3. Offer - What do you have to offer that can address the problem and provide the solution.

4. Benefits - What are all the reasons your offer is the best solution for your clients?

5. Credibility - Who else has experienced your offer and gotten good results? What is your background and success record?

6. Action - What do you need to do next to take advantage of this offer?

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru a leading Corporate Branding and Branding Research firm in Boston, MA.

Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation.

This Article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and this resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.

Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations.

Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Franklin Sports and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.

Do you know how to design and deploy a marketing campaign?

Even if your ad budget is small you should still plan and measure the results of you advertising. This process is the key to your ultimate success.

You see, there are two types of advertising. The first is broadcast marketing. This category includes TV and radio commercials. While broadcast ads can be effective, they are very expensive and almost impossible to measure.

And you can’t manage what you can’t measure.

Which brings us to direct marketing. These ads are sent directly to your prospects. Sales letters, coupons, and order ready websites are some examples of this type of ad. But the truth is, any ad that you can accurately measure the results of falls into the category of direct marketing.

The advantage of direct marketing is that it is more science than art. You can key every ad you use and measure the real world results exactly.

This is huge. Through trial and error you can test the effectiveness of your ads. Over time you can gradually improve the pulling power. Eventually you’ll have a set of ads that work really well.

More sales for less money.

To get there you must key every ad and keep careful records of the results each produce. Run two ads every time you advertise in any given media. Compare the results and go with the winning ad.

Then write another ad and put it up against your winning ad or control. If it beats your control then use it instead. Keep refining and testing.

This is an ongoing process. Markets change and ads loose their effectiveness after a while. To have a top-notch marketing campaign you must be constantly improving your ads.

To Your Prosperity,

David A. Wells, owner of http://www.Mortgage-Millions.com and author of The Millionaire Mortgage Broker’s Marketing Manual, is a mortgage marketing expert who helps mortgage brokers succeed. He can be reached at mortgage@mortgage-millions.com.

"Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir your blood… MAKE BIG PLANS. Aim high in hope and work." So wrote Daniel H. Burnham in the last century. The big plans are important. They capture your vision. The next step is to break them down into "do-able" chunks, chunks that can be done in even one day. That is what gives you a definite sense of accomplishment, isn’t it? The big plans are necessary, the baby steps, imperative!

An associate shared a marketing tip with me the other day. She said, "Go big, or go home". I thought about this quite a bit as it seemed so brash and arrogant. Great slogan, but what about the little guy? Then, it all made sense. Each person has the opportunity to define ‘big’ for herself. If we are to live our dreams and visions about how we want our lives to be, how we want to be remembered, what our contribution to our daily world could be, it IS true. Go big or go home!

Have a vision. Have a master plan for your whole life as you presently see it. What would you like to be doing, experiencing, being or having in your life, sometime in your life? What are the things that are most important, significant and valuable to you? That’s big!

After you have created the "big picture" then you can decide what you would like to create immediately and pay attention to that. Timing is only one difference between short and long term goals. Another important difference is that short term goals lead directly to long term goals which fit perfectly into the master plan. And the good news is….you are in charge! You can change your master plan, and your approach to it, as your interests and priorities shift and grow. You are not locked in. A master plan is a plan for joy and passion, not a plan for duty and obligation.

It is useful to break your goals down into three categories: current, near future and far future. Once you have put your future goals into your subconscious mind, they are begun. It is not only action that is required. Keeping your goals in the forefront of your mind is key. Thoughtfully craft your current goals. Know how you will measure your success and plan for it. Think big! Think limitlessly. Think "out of the box". People are often limited by their minds unwillingness to stretch. Remember what Napoleon Hill said: "…if you can conceive it, and believe it, you can achieve it!"

If you find yourself surrounded by people who are ‘thinking little’ it might be difficult to find support and acceptance for your big plans. You may have to include some new associates who want to play ‘big’, too! You have probably heard that, if you want to run with the big dogs, you have to get off the porch! Jump off that porch and get running!

Reflect on the biggest view of your life–your master plan. Is it big enough for you? Does it cause you to stretch to get your arms around it? If not, think a little bigger and see where it takes you. If it does, be sure you have planned the route that will get you there. Then, follow it. As you embark on each task today, ask yourself, "Am I on the road to my vision by doing this?" If not, make a correction.

Go big or go home! That one little phrase keeps me on my toes.

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru a leading Corporate Branding and Branding Research firm in Boston, MA.

Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation.

This Article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and this resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.

Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations.

Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Franklin Sports and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.