MaryEllen Tribby: Cigars or Hot Dogs, Same Thing – NOT! (Part II)

Photo courtesy of workingmomsonly.com

Last week, I told you about business owners not knowing how to narrow their business. The first place to start is with your brand.

Yes, I am talking about the “B” word!

I still stand by the motto that direct response marketing is the only skill that pays you for life. You need to embrace, know, and implement direct response marketing if you want a real company or if you want to be the superstar marketer in someone’s company. So in no way am I recommending that you sacrifice direct response marketing in favor of branding.

But branding DOES have its place in business. In fact, it can help to clarify your business identity both to you and to your market. Create a brand now, and it will help you keep a uniform and consistent message in all of your business communications.

What Is a Brand and Why Do You Need One?

A brand is simply a clear, powerful public image. When you develop the right brand you will have a public persona that stands for something recognizable and compelling. Your brand will stand out in the minds of everyone you come in contact with. Including your customers and potential customers.

Your brand should be unswervingly linked with your name. Think about it: you hear Steve Jobs, you think Apple; you hear Mark Zuckerberg, you think Facebook; you hear Tony Hsieh, you think Zappos (even now after he sold the company).

If you are thinking, “Well, I am not an Apple or a Zappos…” Well, neither am I. However, when you hear the name MaryEllen Tribby you immediately think Working Moms Only.

The reason my name is synonymous with Working Moms Only is because of the brand that we have built. Our brand screams advocacy for the working mom. It says, “This is the community where passion, success, and empowerment meet.” This is “where all the best resources are provided for a healthier, wealthier, more balanced/blended lifestyle for the working mom.”

Here’s the kicker: the days of spending $250,000 with a mammoth advertising agency to develop that brand are thankfully dead as the dinosaurs.

If you are ready to create your brand, you must first do the following four things:

1. Create a mental picture in the minds of your prospects. This picture should represent your personality, your values, your mission, and the qualities that make you unique among your competitors. People want to work with people they know, like, and trust. People don’t want to work with an untrustworthy, faceless, nameless marketing or services company.
2. Make a promise. It lets your community know what they can expect from you. It implies a covenant between you – the service/product provider – and your prospects. You want your prospects and customers thinking that every single time they receive something from you, it will be worthy of their time and trust.
3. Exceed all expectations. Making the promise is the easy part. Keeping and exceeding the promise is what your customers will remember about you. Always think, “Trust is a must.”
4. Become the foremost authority in your niche. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. When you become an authority that specializes, you can influence your customers and prospects and they will respond. You will be able to attract more clients more easily, increase your prices, and create a steady flow of new prospects via word of mouth.

Branding is about taking control of how others perceive you even BEFORE they come in direct contact with you. Your customers and prospects all have a certain perception of you. Wouldn’t you prefer that YOU dictate their perceptions?

But you must keep in mind that your brand needs to be authentic. And when you remain true to yourself, your brand develops organically (good or bad).

So what can you do right now to create your brand?

• Stop doing anything that appears cheesy, slimy, or unprofessional. You know that web page that looks like your six-year-old built it? Take it down. Or the brochures that look cheap? Stop passing them out and burn the rest. You are going to pay the same amount of money for a crappy web page as you are for a great web page. The difference is in demanding excellence and finding the right person to build it for you.
• Incorporate your name into your business. As I said earlier, people want to do business with other people. If your name is not associated with your business you are making it harder to brand yourself. Look at my website. It clearly says “MaryEllen Tribby presents WorkingMomsOnly.com.”
• Develop a tag line. As you can see from the above, I have a tagline: “Where Passion, Empowerment and Success Meet”. This helps your prospects understand your mission from the start.

There you go. Three ways you can boost your brand immediately – and without paying an extra cent.