Your Reputation Is Everything, But Why?

All anyone ever truly holds as their own is their name and reputation. A name determines your self-worth by representing who you are. Once a rotten connotation is associated to your person, all may be lost if recovery isn’t accomplished right away. Never let someone wrongfully slander or dismantle your reputation, always be on the alert for potential attacks.

People will always judge what they can see to make an opinion. It doesn’t matter if you are the sweetest person in the world … what people don’t know they don’t care about. Think about it this way … we make someone out to be a certain way just by what he or she wears. If we see someone in all black they must be depressed and if we see someone in all pink they must be an airhead. How did we get this way? By making assumptions that a person is a certain way based on an appearance that ultimately associates a type of person to that individual.

So what can you do to prevent destruction before riding into war?

·       Ignore bad comments on social media outlets. It is better to delete a negative comment and block someone rather than comment back. Trolls develop and people will never back down from a comment battle.

·       Not sure what to do? Do nothing at all. Making a move you are not 100% sure about could hurt you more than it would help.

·       Do what you say you are going to do. If you know you cannot follow through, revert back to elementary school rules and don’t make promises you can’t keep.

·       Take the extra step and go beyond what is expected of you.

·       Be likeable. Watch your body language when around others as you may not be aware of how you come off. Don’t cross your arms. Dress the part. Smile!

·       Be involved with your community and what is going on around you. This will not only be easy networking but reflect back upon you with clear and brilliant lighting!

Unfortunately, we live in a society where the opinion of others matters. If you happen to attach yourself to a bad personality, use it to your advantage like Oscar Wilde did with his reputation making him seem arrogant and isolated. He became unapproachable and feared even. You are the master of your fate, so decide where you want your future to be.

Getting What You Want In Business

Have you ever wondered how people get to those higher-up positions in a company? They seem so confident and sure of themselves but all they did was use a few strategy techniques to get what they want in life. These few simple tricks that go unnoticed can help in life, your relationships, and especially your career. In my experience, attitude and how you handle or approach a situation is everything! There are only a few things to keep in mind.

Be kind. Burning bridges never gets you anywhere. And once it’s burned, good luck putting it back together.

Be different. Don’t be afraid to go about a situation in an unorthodox manner. Why? Without stepping outside appropriate behavior pertaining to language and politeness, find a way to differentiate yourself. There are over seven billion people in the world today. Imagine that you are competing with every single person … why should someone choose you? Figure out why you are special, and don’t think you aren’t! If you lack in one area you excel in another. We can’t be great at everything, but figure out what your highlights are.

Speak your mind but don’t overstep your boundaries. This goes a long way in the business realm. Let’s take a typical marketing scenario for instance. Your boss and you are creating a marketing strategy targeting young architect students right out of school. Your boss thinks you should socially post to LinkedIn as it is a professional network. However, you believe that the best social network for this target market is Facebook and Twitter, as those are the networks your audience spends most of his or her time on. What do you do? Simply voice your opinion, explain why, and if your boss does not see the light after your justification there is nothing you can do but bite your tongue. Who knows, your boss might change his or her mind later on. Either way, your insightful voice won’t go unnoticed.

Ask permission, subtly, if you ask at all. Let your hunger for power guide you and not overrule and destroy you. If you show your boss why something works better than what he or she is suggesting, rather than simply stating what needs to be done, it will illustrate your point more clearly. Better to show the zebra where the watering hole is rather than tell him which way to go.

Show some control. The second you let your emotions run wild you have lost. The less you care the more someone else will. This isn’t to say not to care, but you don’t have to wear your heart on your sleeve for all to see. Play the game. A predator waits for the right time to pounce instead of rushing into a losing battle.

Everything you do in life should be approached from a standoff point. This will allow time to think how to handle a situation before acting out drastically, resulting in detriment. Like everything else, these simply tactics take practice, but anyone can accomplish what they want if handled properly. Make a plan, ponder the execution, and then when ready, go for the gold! We believe in you! 

Creating A Well-Rounded, Web-Centric Marketing Approach

The internet has changed the marketing priorities of major brands. They have backed away from broadcast advertising options like print, TV, and radio that receive no engagement as well as traditional media advertising options like e-mail blasts and banner ads. While these options still have their place, high engagement mediums of reaching potential customers is the method of choice. Blogs, communities, and social media have revolutionized the marketing field. There is a quick overview of how to develop a web-centric marketing approach. 

Creating a Brand Strategy

Creating your brand strategy is always the first order of business. Branding strategy is what allows you to target your business’ primary audience. Branding themes, logos and graphical components permeate all visual/textual components of this plan. This process is a collaborative effort between you and your agency. For more detailing information on branding strategy see our former blog post. 

Developing Your Web Presence

Your website is the central hub for all marketing efforts. The first step to optimizing your web presence is to establish, collaboratively, your key performance indicators (KPI). Once you know what you are after, you will want to bring the people in. Drive traffic to your site through internet marketing components: SEO, SEM, and Social Media.  You will need to provide audience-specific tools that help build brand awareness and customer loyalty, and, finally, track/measure all marketing/advertising efforts through site analytics.

You will also want to focus on mobile-friendly content for your audience when they are on the go. Why? Because mobile searches lead to conversions. Take these latest stats: 

• Mobile search will overtake desktop search by the middle of 2014
• Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year according to Google
• Mobile search isn’t just limited to phones. The tablet market will soon overtake laptop sales

HOWEVER, mobile for the sake of mobile isn’t worth the effort. Target high-value site content, and make it mobile-friendly. All mobile efforts should be conversion focused!

Formulate a Search Engine Optimization Plan

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) begins with keyword analysis. Keywords are the search terms that your audience uses to find your web content. This analysis is the basis for not only content development but also branding efforts and marketing efforts. Optimal keywords permeate all content developed throughout this marketing plan. The ultimate goal is to rank on the first page for your most important keywords. Keywords ranked on pages 2-3 are the low-hanging fruit. You will also want to consolidate your web presence. Once two sites are combined, authority and therefor organic rank, will increase. Many keywords on pages 2-3 that can be further optimized to get to page 1.

Public Relations Mixed With Social Media

Public relations has moved from traditional media distribution to online distribution. Social media and blogging can help with PR efforts drastically. You need both online and offline article distribution including white papers and case study development. Additionally, cultivate mailing lists and engage in ongoing email marketing campaigns.

Traditional Advertising

Traditional advertising still has it’s place. However, with the higher prices it is important to get it right the first time. The concepts and creative must support your brand strategy. Stay on topic, and make sure the audience understand your message. Offline this can be done in trade publications and online this can be done with PPC,targeted banner, and re-targeting advertising. Consistent visual components and themes must permeate all materials for consistency of message and corporate image. 

Incentive/Loyalty Programs

Audience-specific incentives and loyalty programs create trust, generate leads, and drive action. This could be a rewards system, a member’s only program, a discount program, or a brand evangelist program. Again, stay consistent with your messaging. 

A combination of all of these components will lead to a well-rounded, successful web-marketing approach. However, this is not a one-time thing. Long term success depends on ongoing implementation, management and tracking of plan components. Continue to re-evaluate plan components, themes and market conditions as you go. And don’t be afraid to make adjustments based on the data you collect. 

A Step-By-Step Guide To Creating a Branding Strategy

Your branding effort is at the heart of your overall marketing approach. It supports your marketing plan and determines how and what materials you need to develop or update. This simple process is the basis for a Th!nk branding effort. Not only will you come away with focused branding tools, but also with data and analysis that will help sustain your current marketing plan.

Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan is your playbook. A means of visualizing the success of your company and its products. While there are many components to a marketing plan, the following key factors are paramount in your branding effort.

• Identify your audience, both internal and external. 
• Identify your marketing mix. 
• Identify your package mix by evaluating existing products and considering removing, repositioning, or recategorizing. 
• Establish the expected life cycle of this plan. 

Your branding strategy is part of your marketing plan. Our approach can be visualized as a pyramid. Each step in the process supporting the previous step by incorporating its goals and findings.

Branding strategy

1. Vision

• Differentiate yourself ourselves from not only the competition, but also in buyer and influencer perception.
• Consistently create and distribute marketing materials that support your Corporate Image Statement throughout the life cycle of our marketing plan.
• Grow by forming new relationships with identified audiences or in new markets.
• Establish market ownership by permeating the lexicon of industry insiders, employees and influencers.

2. Mission

• Increase the product and company recognition. 
• Popularize your product.
• Educate customers, influencers and employees.

3. Objectives

• Establish a brand platform/product offerings.
• Establish a brand architecture/sales model.
• Implement sustainable branding and sub-branding strategies.
• Increase sales, increase market share, increase consumer preference, build brand loyalty, raise relative price.

4. Actions

• Market research: discovery/inventory, internet visibility/presence assessment, SWOT analysis.
• Analyze research: establish findings.
• Concept and development.

5. Core Values

• Your core values are your corporate image
• In many respects, your corporate image is determined by your core values—whether intended or not. This process often reveals core values we didn’t know we had. 

Having a solid approach to branding strategy is key to growth in any company. Follow these steps to find a solid foundation for your marketing plan.