Continuing in the pattern of marketing and travel metaphors, let’s look at the itinerary for your marketing efforts: your brand.

Is your brand getting you to where you want to go? If its not, maybe its time for a brand audit.

“Businesses don’t own their own brand, they are custodians of it.” – Small Business Marketing Expert Dee Blick.

A brand audit looks at:

• Current brand identity – This includes your logo, tagline, key messages, style guidebook, features/benefits, and color palette.
• Digital/social presence – Is your website easy to navigate? If your company has an ecommerce component, is it easy to purchase items from your site? Is your site optimized for SEO and is it mobile responsive?
• Electronic marketing – This includes your company blog, email marketing, and e-newsletters. (Email marketing gets a bad reputation these days but remains one of the most effective ways to reach your customer and increase your business.)

And the list goes on. Everything is a touchpoint: your collateral, your website, the way the receptionist answers the phone.

Ask yourself, “Does this resonate with our current customer? Does it resonate with new customers we want to pursue? Are these efforts in alignment with one another?”

A few years ago, Front Porch did a brand audit for The Remac Group, the parent company of four shoe and women’s apparel brands: J. Renee, Kay Unger, Phoebe and L’Amour Des Pieds. We looked at all four labels from top-to-bottom, looking for cohesion, consistency and alignment with business goals.

Want to know the results? Give us a call and we love to share more.

Even if you know you need to overhaul your brand, it would still benefit your company to conduct an audit. After all, if you don’t know where you’ve been, how do you know where you’re going?

The power of social media platforms has skyrocketed.  Social media is now an essential part of building a professional career, a way to stay on top of the latest trends, and connect with companies.

Here are three popular social media platforms that can build your career.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is considered to be the top online source for accessing job recruiters and managing a professional social media reputation. Most professionals use the network to keep in touch with their current network.

But, you can also use LinkedIn to connect with who you want to know. Look up what LinkedIn groups they are part of and request to join those groups. Raise your visibility by contributing to group discussions.

Twitter

Twitter is the online capital of instant and direct communication. It’s a great platform to promote your professional brand expertise.

Follow industry influencers on Twitter.  Observe the topics and trends they are talking about. This can serve as a jumping off point for online and, potentially, in-person connection.

Instagram

Instagram is one of the best platforms to show off your digital savvy. With visually pleasing content, you can display who you are personally and professionally.

Spend time looking through a company’s Instagram account. Note how they are engaging with audiences on the platform. This can create unique ideas for how you can find opportunities and openings.

Keep in mind that building your career through social media is an art, not a science. Pick and choose platforms that your audience connects with best.

How brand ambassadors are re-defining influencer marketing.

In today’s market, college students hold a considerable (and growing) amount of purchasing power. How does a brand target these highly-coveted consumers? Create brand ambassadors.

What is a Brand Ambassador?

Brand ambassadors are a component of influencer marketing.  Typically, they are employed to promote a company’s products and brand personality in their communities. Whether this is in-person or through social media, these ambassadors are generating valuable word-of-mouth impressions. Per research published on Invesp, word-of-mouth impressions create 500 percent more sales than paid media impressions. Nearly 90 percent of consumers report that they are more likely to give their hard-earned cash to a brand recommended by a friend.

Ambassadors are becoming increasingly prevalent, especially on social media platforms, such as Instagram.  Typically, an ambassador will post a photo featuring a product sent to them by a company. Ambassadors often explain the product and brand in the photo’s caption. They also include a special discount code for their followers to apply to online purchases.

Photo by Jens Johnsson on Unsplash

Brands on Campus: Why They Work

Influencer marketing is also common on college campuses.  I have seen ambassadors for companies such as Red Bull, Kind Bar and Bumble at UT Austin. They understand the immense purchasing power of students, especially due to mobile purchasing, and want to reach them in as many ways as possible. Brand reps often give away swag, free products, and sponsor campus events.

Millennials are interested in building their online presence through social media.  They are willing to feature exciting products for companies with little in return. Though ambassadors are not paid, there are many perks to their ‘job’. These include free products, access to brand-sponsored events and networking opportunities throughout the industry.

The True Value of Ambassadors

Brand ambassadors have proven valuable to the companies they represent as well. They increase a company’s social presence by constant content generation. They also provide consumer feedback, personally and from their peers. Companies value this insight from their most-coveted target market.

When I return to school in the fall, I expect to see many brand ambassadors on campus. Some of my favorite past examples include when Kind Bar gave students free breakfast bars during finals week. Express ambassadors, or students part of ‘Express U’, set up tables on campus to showcase the clothing company’s newest products.

I can’t wait to see how brands show up on campus this school year!

In April, we discussed using the start, stop, continue approach to cultivating the growth you want from your 2018 marketing plan. Good marketing begins with branding.

“Branding gives you an exceptionally effective way to broadcast who you are to your target market quickly and efficiently.”– Rick Haskins, MultiChannel News.

Therefore, start by determining who you are and who you aspire to be as a company. What is your vision? “A brand’s strength is built upon its determination to promote its own distinctive values and mission,” Jean-Noel Kapferer wrote in (Re)Inventing the Brand (2001).

Who you are should be based in part by what target customers want. What / who do your customers or clients need you to be? Therein lies the power of the branding exercise. With the right guidance and strategic partnerships, in working through the branding exercise you can determine what your brand should be, what makes the brand relevant to your target, and how to best describe its personality.

Branding Exercise Defines Key Brand Pillars

Great brands have three key attributes:

Conviction
Belief by everyone within your company that the brand is important and that the brand stands for a specific and important promise to the consumer.

Consistency
Imprint the brand into the essence of the organization so it comes alive for everyone it touches. Brand consistency equals earnings consistency.

Connection
Your brand must connect (through conviction and consistency) with target consumers to be effective. After all, as Zig Ziglar said, “If people like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”

Whether your company is established or new to the market, large or small, retail, direct buy, online or MLM, one of the most important things you can do to achieve growth is to create a strong brand. It is a critical component of any business.

Take the time to define your brand architecture. The exercise is valuable. We’d love to help define your company’s foundation.

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Many high schools host a college fair, providing students with direct access to a variety of local, out-of-state and international learning institutions. When I was assessing colleges, I took the college fair opportunity visit with any school that interested me. By the end of the fair, I signed up to receive information from ten different universities. From that point forward, they bombarded my email and mailbox with recruitment material. But of the ten, only one college marketed to me with all the right components that make me not just apply, but also accept.

The Approach

Texas Christian University – it’s not too big, it’s not too small, it’s just right. Coming from a private school with 120 graduating seniors, I was accustomed to a small-sized learning environment. I was used to this dynamic, but I still was not sure if going to a small college was the right choice for me. At the college fair, I spoke about this with the TCU representative.

When I started receiving mail from TCU, my informational packet contained a handwritten note from the TCU representative I met. The note talked about how a smaller population meant a more personal connection with other students, professors, and alumni. This personal gesture showed me that TCU remembered me and cared about my concern.

The Visit

I took a campus tour of TCU, since none of the other schools I was interested in took the time to send me a personalized message. On the tour, our guide escorted my group around campus highlighting the beautiful Horn Frog environment. After the tour, I took a private tour of the freshman dorm rooms. I appreciated that they offered this. It helped me view their living quarters as my potential new home.

It also did not hurt that all the dorms were newly renovated, had close parking for residents, and laundry service available. That’s when I knew that smaller schools could offer more than I expected.TCU made the college experience luxurious.

The Decision

After my visit, I applied to TCU. The university emailed me a few days after I completed the application, conveying their excitement about my decision to apply. Again, TCU won me over by making each interaction personal. No other school had truly made me feel like I would be more than just another student. TCU consistently worked to build a customized experience for me.

When I received the huge envelope saying, “Congratulations Mariah”, I had no doubt that TCU was the school for me.

Now more than ever, the process of choosing a college is rooted in digital marketing. As a prospective student, I was blasted with recruitment emails, targeted Instagram posts, and even Pandora radio ads. The sheer amount of content was overwhelming.  I was nowhere near a final decision on which school would be right for me.

A Critical Flaw

“The school will just feel right.”  I heard this phrase over and over again throughout my college search. Frankly, I thought only parents believed this outdated saying. Digital marketing made my decision process more dynamic than theirs – right?

Today, I recognize a critical flaw in the reliance on social media and online content in one’s college decision process. Social media does an exceptional job of showing us the good: what people want us to see. However, it is impossible to get a holistic view, or “feel” of anything solely through the screen of a device.

Austin City Limits

I attended an event at the University of Texas at Austin called “Best of Texas” during my senior year of high school.  Essentially, this was a massive marketing stunt – a weekend intended to persuade prospective students to accept their admission offers to UT. The Moody College of Communication held a luncheon in one of their buildings on campus. Here, the dean explained that we were eating in what was once the Austin City Limits Live studio, and that the school continues to work closely with the studio today. Sitting there opened my eyes to the opportunities that living in the city of Austin would provide. Here, I could envision a successful future for myself as a Texas Longhorn.

All One Could Truly Ask For

It is because of this experience that I stress the continued importance of traditional, in-person marketing in the college decision process. Visit a school that interests you. If you are still unsure, visit again – I did! Touring the campus and asking enrolled students about their experience first-hand allowed me to weigh pros and cons of the decision myself, not just with the help of an Instagram post.  I am beyond satisfied with my decision. My school pushes me to be the best version of myself, and that is all one could truly ask for.

We see it all the time. Businesses who bring us in and ask us to give them a marketing quick fix – a slight website facelift, some basic social media training, a piece of collateral – and think that it’s enough. And friends, I’m here to tell you, it’s not enough.

Although we are happy to collaborate with well-positioned partners on specific marketing initiatives, a marketing quick fix in lieu of a full marketing investment is ill advised. Spending time and dollars on a marketing band-aid is often a waste, when you haven’t done the work to flush out your brand or your audience.

There is no marketing quick fix. Good marketing is thoughtful, mindful, and multi-layered.

Good Marketing Begins With Branding

Everything begins and ends with the brand. Taking the time to identify your brand’s specific positioning and personality is essential. Your business must live and breathe your brand – without it you are dead in the water.

Know How You Fit in Your Market

Identifying your market and where you fit within the landscape is key. Knowing your competitors and their strengths enables you to differentiate yourself in your space.

Get to Know Your Audience

Understanding what motivates your audience is at the heart of any successful marketing program. Identifying your audience allows you to determine how and where to reach them.

Fine Tune Your Messaging

You’ve done all your homework, now you must use that knowledge to develop messaging that befits your brand, positions you well in your market, and resonates with your audience. Put that message front and center.

Track Your Results

A good marketing program should be monitored along the way to ensure you are getting the results you anticipated. If not, make mid-stream adjustments.

There are no quick fixes, friends. Marketing is important, and it’s a process. Do the work, and you will reap the rewards! If you’re not sure where to start, we can help!

On the Porch, we are often asked about the differences between Mission statements and Vision statements. Having clearly defined Mission and Vision statements as part of your strategic plan can help your company perform better than your competitors in the short and long term as the two serve very different, yet important purposes.

Mission Statements vs. Vision Statements

Mission statements define the present purpose of a company by addressing the following three things about your company:

• WHAT your company does
• WHO your company benefits
• HOW your company does it (differentiate yourself from your competitors)

Vision statements define the future purpose for the company by addressing the following two things about the vision for your company’s future:

• WHY your company exists – Identify your purpose.
• WHAT your company wants to achieve over time – Identify your goals.

Successful Mission Statement: The Short Term

One word can be used to describe successful Mission statements – short.

• They should be short and to the point, using only a sentence or two. Clear, succinct mission statements make it easy for employees to understand and articulate your company’s Mission, allowing them to know how they contribute to accomplishing it.
• They should be short term, addressing a shorter timeframe (one to four years). This allows for refining your Mission statement as needed due to economic or product changes.

Perfect Vision Statements: Focus on the Future

Carefully crafted, successful Vision statements are forward looking, and should:

• Be inspirational and aspirational, succinctly addressing the vision for your company’s future.
• Be farsighted, focusing on a longer timeframe (upwards of five to ten years).
• Serve as a challenge to your employees, helping them visualize how their daily tasks help your company’s quest to meet long term goals. This will help develop buy-in and support throughout the organization, even if/as leadership changes.
• Serve as a litmus test for marketing to keep your company’s communications on message.

So, which should come first? Begin with the end in mind. Take a look at your company’s present state (Mission) and ask yourself whether you are working towards your future purpose (Vision). If not, consider creating a Vision statement to set a new course for your company and your people.

Spring is a beautiful time of year to sit on the porch and watch flowers bloom and the green grass grow. While April showers bring May flowers (unless you’re in Texas, of course!), as spring turns towards summer, we must evaluate and adjust our strategies to keep our flowers blooming, our grass green and growing. We START watering. We STOP the weeds from spreading. We CONTINUE fertilizing.

This start, stop, continue approach can help you rock your 2018 marketing goals, too. As we near mid-year, there is still time to impact 2018 results. It is a great time to evaluate how your marketing plan is blooming. For your goals to flourish, you may need to STOP less successful strategies. You may need to START new strategies to sprout growth. CONTINUE the strategies that are thriving and helping you grow your “green” (revenue!).

Here are some tips for evaluating your marketing progress and pruning your strategies to meet your goals by the end of the year:

1. Get the lay of the land

Review your 2018 marketing plan. In the hopes of boosting activity (and ultimately revenue), were you going to start a blog or a newsletter, send email campaigns, try paid social media posts, or launch a referral program?

2. Water the roots

Review your internal business development process. How well is your team growing prospective clients to revenue-sprouting clients? How are you distinguishing yourself from the competition?

3. Plant seeds online

Review your website. Is your content up-to-date, optimized for mobile devices and appealing to prospects? This is a good time to add new content based on 2018 experiences to date. Adding success stories or client testimonials can sprout new opportunities and potential relationships.

4. Cultivate relationships

Review vendor agreements. If you are using third party sources to help you with certain aspects of your business (SEO or lead generation, for example) is it proving fruitful? Are the results, activities, reports and general communications meeting your expectations?

5. Grow your green

Review your financials. Are the marketing strategies you are using ultimately sprouting a growth in revenue?

6. Prune when necessary

Review what needs to START, STOP or CONTINUE. Asking the following questions will help you to determine which strategies are working and which strategies need to be pruned:

• What areas for improvement have sprouted and can be addressed proactively throughout the remainder of the year?
• Where have things failed to flourish or failed to deliver the results anticipated?
• What is thriving and performing at or above expectations?

START – Plant new seeds to realize your 2018 marketing goals.
STOP – Pull the weeds and stop unfruitful marketing activities.
CONTINUE – Grow and/or maintain the portions of your marketing plan which are thriving.

Over the past three months, I have been honored to spend a great deal of time with a group of brilliant small business owners. These leaders’ businesses run the gamut from engineering services to inventors, executive recruiters to restaurants, and everything in between. The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program has allowed me to learn about these amazing folks, as well as from them.

During our classes and breaks, my classmates asked me some marketing questions, and I noticed that many of the inquiries were similar. So it seems natural to share these insights in a more public way, in the hopes that they will be helpful to other small business owners and leaders.

What percent of my budget should I allocate to marketing of a new product?

There is no specific formula to calculate this. We typically recommend 5% – 15% plus, depending on the category you are in, competition, customer, client, timing, etc. The world we live in is constantly changing from day to day. The global economy changes. So make sure you have done your due diligency on product, place and price in addition to promotion. It makes a difference.

How much of my time should I spend on marketing?

Dear small business owners, you know your business better than anyone. No one is more passionate or determined to make your business a success than you. There is no cookie-cutter answer to this question. What we do know is that your time is best spent on marketing strategy and not execution. Your time is your inventory. Spend it working on your business not in it. Whether it is an internal or external resource, have someone help you. Your business will thank you.

How quickly should I see results of marketing efforts?

Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. It is a long term commitment. We tell our clients we are not successful unless we are growing your topline sales but we need time to gain real results. You need to continuously put your business or product in the right places to reach your target market over an extended period of time. Make sure you have defined your ROI reasonably and that you are tracking it on a consistent basis.

Can you guarantee me a four to one ratio topline sales return on my marketing investment? 

The answer is no. If an outside marketing partner, other than a media buying firm, is telling you otherwise, look for another partner.

I hope you found these questions and answers helpful. I could wax lyrical on branding and marketing all day long! If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at julie@itsfrontporch.com or connect with me on LinkedIn. Happy marketing y’all!