Make Your Brand Story Resonate With Your Customers

Everyone has a story.  Every company, every product, every community, every industry has a story.  Think about your own story for a moment.  If you were to write your biography, how would it go?  What would it say about you?  Everyone, no matter how young or old, has gone through experiences both good and bad.  These experiences may have been experiences that others have also lived through.  But everyone views these experiences differently.  What might have seemed to be traumatic and life-altering to one person can seem like just a bump in the road of life to someone else.  Now, in writing your personal story, remember that not everyone really cares to hear it.  But some people, the key people in your life, will want to know every juicy detail.

What's your story?

Now relate that to your business.  Your business also has a story to tell.  Whether your business has only been in operation for 3 months or for 25 years it still has a history.  And, just like your personal story, not everyone cares to hear about your business.  Only a few key people really want to know who you are.  Your story is the basis of your brand.  You can’t develop a brand until you know the whole story.  So, think about what you want people to know about you.  Being authentic is the key to developing trust with people.  Be upfront about your shortcomings.  Let people in.  We’ve all made mistakes.  We’ve all done things we wish we could go back and change.  But life moves on and going back to change something that’s already happened isn’t possible.  The bigger your company gets, the more you are under the microscope.  I hate to say it, but there are people out there who want to see you fail.  Most people genuinely want to see you succeed, but some don’t.  But those aren’t the people you need to be concerned with.  When you remain authentic and conduct your business with professionalism and respect, and handle mistakes swiftly and with dignity, you will make a name for yourself that people remember in a positive way.  Those naysayers who want to bring you down won’t be able to. 

Who are the people you most want to attract?  You may very well have more than one target market, but don’t try to be everything to everybody.  Like I said, some people are not people you need to be targeting to.  So, think about how your target market wants to communicate with you.  What do they want and why do they want it.  People want to feel a sense of belonging, a connection, a feeling of being understood.  Last year, Shania Twain published her autobiography.  I went through an experience very similar to one she had gone through and as I was reading her feelings about it, I felt like, “she gets it”, she’s someone I could totally sit down with and talk about this and we could totally relate to each other.  She is one person who automatically comes to mind when I say “personal brand”.  Like Madonna or Cher, Shania only needs one word for people to know who she is and what she’s about.

Company brands are no different from personal brands in that they create an image in the minds of their customers.  That brand is developed through trust, by being true to who they are and marketing to like-minded consumers.  People develop a loyalty to a brand because of the feeling of understanding and connection.

So, whether you are developing a brand for your company or a personal brand for yourself, keep these tips in mind.

·         Stay true to who you are

·         Don’t apologize for who you are

·         Own up to past mistakes but don’t dwell on them.

·         Market your message to the right market

You’ll know when your brand story has resonated with the right market.  Your ideal customers will become repeat customers and become the biggest ambassadors for your brand.  So, what is your story? 

Social Media Communication - How to Make it Work for You

This past weekend was our high school reunion.   As part of the celebrations we had the honour of a performance by two of our alumni, Don and Dave Carroll, also known as Sons of Maxwell.

I’ve known Dave personally since our high school days so I always look forward to getting a chance to talk to him whenever he and Don come home.  This year, I didn’t have a chance to talk to him because he was so busy selling his new book, aptly called “United Breaks Guitars”.  Dave’s musical career got an unexpected boost in 2009 when communication between him and United Airlines prompted him to communicate in a new and different way.  This story has been told thousands of times, but I’ll just do a quick recap.  In 2008, Don and Dave and their band mates were travelling to Nebraska for a performance via United Airlines.  United Airlines subsequently broke Dave’s beloved Taylor guitar but refused to help him in any way.  After months of arguing with them, he did what he know how to do best.  He wrote a song.  In fact he wrote 3 songs.  He produced a video for the first one and put it on Youtube.  Not expecting much to happen with it, he was shocked to see how quickly the video (which incidentally had been produced on an almost non-existent budget) was gaining attention.  With the promise to United Airlines that he would write 3 songs, Dave wrote and produced the final 2 songs and posted them on Youtube within several months of the original video.  Since that time, the videos have had 12,310,382 hits, 1,533,940 hits and 533,663 hits respectively.  For the whole story in Dave’s words, visit his website at http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/music/ubg/story/.

Youtube is the most widely used search engine in the world.  Owned by Google, Youtube generates in excess of 2 billion hits every day!!  So, you can only image how Youtube videos can have an impact on your business.  Of course, a lot of Youtube videos are funny animals or babies doing silly things, kind of like “America’s Funniest Home Videos”.  And you do hear of the occasional “discovery” like Justin Bieber, but that’s very rare.  However, it really is possible to use Youtube along with other social media to create a buzz around your company. 

The key to using social media is remembering that you are still communicating with customers.  Social media is not a one-way street.  Our current generation uses social media and text messaging to communicate.  A generation ago, it was the telephone.  Before that it was written letters and telegrams. I’m sure I’m going to offend some people here by saying this, so I apologize in advance.  But here’s my opinion on people who say they are “social media experts”.  That is like saying you’re a “telephone expert”.   Social media is a form of communication and you need to have proper etiquette in that forum the same way you do on the telephone. 

So, when using social media,

·         Be polite
·         Develop 2-way dialogue with your customers and communicate regularly but not to the point of being a pest.  Nobody wants to get overloaded with stuff online the same way people don’t want to get a hundred phone calls from you in a week. 
·         Use appropriate social media sites.  There are so many sites out there but if your customers aren’t using them, why bother?
·         Allow people to get to know you. Show your personality. Dave’s videos show his personality.  Let your personality come through and you too will build a fan base of your own.

We may not all have the YouTube success that Dave Carroll has had, but that doesn’t mean social media won’t work for your business.  Follow the tips I’ve given you and watch your fanbase grow too.

Public Relations - A Key Component to Your Marketing Wheel

Public relations is an incredibly important part of your marketing communications plan.  It is essentially free advertising, done by journalists and reporters.  It is used to promote products, people, places, ideas, activities, organizations, and even entire countries!

The benefit to public relations is that it is more credible than traditional advertising.  News stories, feature articles, and events seem more real and believable to readers than ads do.

 Some of the public relations tools that you can use are:

·         Press releases
·         Speeches
·         Product publicity
·         Public affairs
·         Lobbying
·         Investor relations
·        Product Development
·         Special Events
·         Public service activities

Here’s where your marketing wheel starts to take place.  Remember that in the first blog of this series, I talked about your website being the centre of the wheel and everything you do needs to lead back to your website.  Your website is a great tool to use for public relations.  People search the internet for information, not necessarily to purchase something.  Using your website as a public relations tool gives your customers the information they are looking for.  If your company has appeared in the news, put a link to that newscast on your website.  Had an article written about you or your company?  Put that in there too.  Maybe your company just won an award.  That needs to be broadcast too.  All of this is giving customers information about your company, which is what they are really looking for.

 Your marketing team needs to have a great working relationship with journalists and reporters that represent your industry and your target market.   You need to know how they prefer to receive stories, whether it be by email or through a press release distribution site.  I have also just called up some of my contacts and asked if they would be willing to do a story on a certain topic.  If they have the time and they find it newsworthy, they’ll do it.

 Now, here are some tips when submitting a press release.  If you would like to submit a press release that will actually be effective

a)      Make sure you have something newsworthy to say
b)      Make sure your press release is professionally written
c)       Make sure it’s truthful and it isn’t an outright advertisement
d)      Make sure you are sending it to the correct place and contact person

So, remember to include public relations activities into your marketing communications plan.  It will help build your reputation without breaking your bank account.