Business Insights

If you are a new business owner, one of your first objectives must be to brand yourself. Business coaches and consultants alike will all tell you how important it is to establish your identity. You want to be noticed. You want to be remembered. You want to stand out from the rest. You want your business to grow. Just what will creating a brand accomplish for you and your business? Consider these points:

A brand makes you memorable
Obviously, for clients or customers to come to you, they have to first remember you. By creating a brand that sticks in their minds, you increase the odds that yours will be the name that pops into their head when they’re looking for the types of services you provide. Whether it’s your logo design, add campaign or radio jingle, creating a solid brand will help drive business in your direction.

A brand creates credibility
Whether it’s factual or simply perceived, branding lends credibility to your business. When people see or hear about you over and over in a positive context they naturally believe that you must be good, reliable, trustworthy, etc. After all, they see your logo everywhere. They hear your ads repeated on the radio, or they simply hear your name connected with something they need or want. Therefore, you must be the go to person for that service.

A good brand saves you time
In business, time is money. Establishing a good brand for your company right from the start can save you hours of introduction time that can be better used as selling time. Imagine if every time you met with a potential customer you first had to explain who you are, what you do, and how you do it, before you even begin your sales pitch! Now imagine meeting with that same customer who has already been exposed to your brand and knows that information already! The time you save there is time you can put into giving a good sales presentation and getting the business.

A good brand helps you attract the right kinds of clients
A well thought out and relevant brand will make it easy for clients to connect you with the product or service they are looking for. To use a very simple example, if you were to brand your company as an insurance company for seniors, you won’t likely be the company Mom calls when her teens start to drive, but you will be the one that all those folks over 50 will call to get some reward for their years of good driving.

A brand provides a solid base from which your business can expand
A good business does not remain stagnant but grows and changes over time. Once you’ve established a memorable brand, it’s much easier to incorporate change under that same umbrella than it would be to try to create a whole new business. By expanding within your brand you never lose the valuable customer base that you have spent so much time developing.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.onecoach.com as the original source).

If you own a successful business, there is an excellent chance you had a great mentor somewhere along the way. Mentoring is an integral part of the growth and development of any business.  Business coaches often assign mentors within a group in order to promote good training and learning efforts.  While mentoring is a very current practice among businesses and companies, it is actually a very old and well established way of learning.  Most of us can remember a teacher, relative or friend who inspired us to learn and grow in ways that lasted a lifetime. A good mentor is first and foremost a teacher.  Instilling a desire to learn, and encouraging the ability to take risks involved with learning is a mentors greatest goal. So, how does one become a great mentor?  Here are a few guidelines to consider.

Understand the potential of the person you are mentoring. When you are aware of a person’s natural abilities and talents, you can guide them forward in the true areas of their interest.

Identify the personality traits that will help you better understand what drives a person to learn.

Establish in the beginning that you and the person you may be mentoring are compatible and can make the relationship work. Do you share similar values and beliefs? Are your work ethics basically the same? Do you share a mutual respect for each other?  And, as basic as it may sound, in order for a mentor/student relationship to work, you must like each other.

A good mentor is able to openly share personal experiences and achievements for the student to learn from both the failures and successes.

As a mentor, it is also your responsibility to help your student believe in his or her own potential and encourage them to develop their own interests and follow their dreams. Many people find it much easier to adapt the goals and directions of others rather than develop their own.

You will be there to instruct and to teach but also to encourage, reward and inspire. You will be the one to help your student up when he falters, and offer encouragement and reinforcement whenever he begins to doubt himself.

A mentor will encourage a student to venture out of their natural comfort zone to try new things and take new risks in order to broaden their horizons and expand their realm of experiences.

Understand that a mentor/student relationship will require quite a large investment of both time and energy in order to be successful.  It can be enormously rewarding and fulfilling for the mentor and an enriching and even life-changing experience for the student.

Your greatest challenge may be in maintaining the right balance of friendliness and familiarity.  It is essential to provide the right amount of support, encouragement and respect while being able to teach, counsel, and recommend ideas for change and improvement without becoming too personal and involved.

And finally, be open to the possibility that a relationship may not be working.  Not every pairing will be a good match, and it is far better to part as friends than to try and force a relationship.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.onecoach.com as the original source).

These days anyone can have a blog, from high-school students to grandmothers who gush about their grandchildren. But if you’re using your blog to connect to others in your field, to contribute useful knowledge, share your expertise, and ultimately promote your business and services, you have to do things that high-school students and grandmothers don’t take the time to do. These things could boost your blog’s traffic and give your business more exposure than you ever thought possible.

1. Get a Personal Domain Name
Your business will definitely seem more professional and serious if your blog’s URL doesn’t end with blogspot.com or wordpress.com. It is extremely affordable (only $8 a year!) to get your own domain name. It makes even more sense for a business if you compare this expense to traditional marketing costs.

2. Always Include Related Posts
Consider that with one visit, someone may actually end up seeing 2, 3, or 4 more articles. And might even end up finding an article they enjoyed more than the one that brought them to the blog in the first place. You can show related posts in two ways: a) reference previous articles with links included directly within the body of the text, or b) use a plugin to automatically generate them.

3. Hint at Upcoming Content
Post great, valuable contributions, then promise Part 2. Develop a series of in-depth related articles for one really great topic. Or simply give them a taste, a teaser of which fascinating aspect of the industry you’ll cover next. Make the reader feel that if they don’t subscribe, they’ll be missing out on something.

4. Exchange Guest Posts
Contact a blogger from within your industry and offer to contribute valuable insights, with of course, the offer to reciprocate. Think about it. You can have a guest blogger (a writer/author/specialist with a serious, professional rep is always the best, or at least someone with some experience in the industry) and make an appearance in another’s blog to not only share your interesting contributions, but also direct readers back to your own blog.

5. Interact with Your Readers
Read and reply to comments. Try to get to know your audience. After a while you may see the same names keep popping up, so acknowledge them, thank them for their remarks, and tell them you appreciate them. More importantly, answer their questions. You may even dedicate a few posts to frequently asked questions/doubts. Soon you’ll develop a loyal following.

6. Comment on Your Readers’ Blogs
This will give your blog more credit and a more serious standing in the community, as people get the idea that you’re not the superstar of the blogging universe, and you take the time to read and find out what others are saying about the topics you cover.

7. Start a Web 2.0 Marketing Campaign for Your Blog
The main goal of any marketing campaign is to spread the word, create a buzz and get people talking about your blog. There are social networking sites where you can promote your blog. Among the most popular today are Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, just to name a few.

8. Offer a Print Version of Your Posts
Although most people read content directly from their computer screen, it’s always a great idea to give users the option to print your articles. Those that appreciate this will surely keep returning to your blog.

9. Encourage Readers to Subscribe Via E-mail
Naturally, you can have people subscribe to your RSS Feed, but e-mail subscriptions are all the more effective. Your loyal readers will be able to receive word about your latest post, the moment it’s posted, directly sent to their inbox. It’s a great way to remind them about your blog and keep them coming back for more.

10. Do not Restrict Access
Do not, in any way, shape, or form, set obstacles for your readers, like requiring them to log on before leaving comments. This will only discourage them, and they´ll never come back to your blog.

The importance of having a loyal following cannot be overstated. Loyal readers will not only come back for more of what they like, but will also spread the word about what you’re doing and what valuable contributions, guidance, insights, you offer to the community. Can you think of a better way to promote your services?

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This is the third in a series of posts excerpted from a conference call between OneCoach CEO John Assaraf and Jill Lublin, CEO of Promising Promotion and author of “Guerrilla Publicity” and “Networking Magic.” See the first post in this series here.

What exactly is guerrilla publicity?

According to Lublin, who wrote the book on it, guerrilla publicity is a collection of simple, easy-to-follow techniques that help you create the credibility and visibility your business needs. Most cost next to nothing, and don’t require an advanced degree in marketing or PR to implement.

To practice guerrilla publicity, start with the basics.

First, understand that you don’t do publicity for sales. You do publicity for the ongoing visibility and credibility, and those are the only two reasons you do it.

Next, have a good story to tell. You don’t need big name recognition in order to create publicity, but you do need a message that resonates with people. Once you have the message, then you can create a strategy around getting and keeping it in the public eye.

To get started:

• Start local. Become a star in your own backyard first. Then leverage your publicity efforts on a nationwide, basis. Even if you start with the smallest local newspaper, it’s still publicity. Start where you can and go from there.

• Be bold. A friend of Lublin’s had written a book, but despite her best efforts could not land a publisher. The friend staked out a busy street corner and stood there with a big sign that said, “Author seeks publisher.” This bold move landed her a full-time editing position at a major national magazine. Eighteen months later her book was published.

• Experiment. Publicity is a little bit like throwing spaghetti at the wall — you have to throw it and see what sticks. Try different techniques and see what sticks for you.

• Share your secrets.  Don’t be afraid to tell your secrets to the media. When you give away juicy tidbits — the things people want to know but nobody talks about because they’re a secret — people will call you. They’ll have no clue how to do what you do, and they will call you.

• Identify your gift. Identify a problem, or problems, in the world that you have the talent, ability and skills to help people solve. Then focus on doing what you do best and taking that message to the public.

• Use everything you’ve got. Don’t be afraid to use gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, background or other affiliations to get publicity. Whatever you have, there’s a media source for it.

Crafting a compelling message is as simple as 1-2-3: “Here’s the problem, here’s our expertise, here are some things you can do to resolve the problem.” Put your message out there and keep putting it out, and good things will happen.

Guerrilla publicity is like farming. You have to plant some seeds, take care of the soil and then watch it grow. However, don’t expect huge results immediately. Consistency and persistency are the keys to success.

Next up in this series: Networking for publicity.

Members of the OneCoach Business Coaching program have unlimited access to hundreds of interviews like this one — see OneCoach.com to learn more about building your business fast.

Are you looking ahead and setting goals for 2010? Here are a few quick tips that your business can use to flourish in the New Year:

1. Find out who your ideal client is and make sure you’re marketing to them.

For any business to succeed, knowing your ideal target market is an absolute must have. Who are the ideal people to purchase your products and services? Why do they want to come to you instead of your competition? Which group of people would you love to work with? Take some time to interview some of your top clients to create an “ideal client profile” and adjust your marketing so that it will speak to them and their wants and needs.

2. Find the time to work on your business, not in it.

When was the last time you evaluated your business operations? Are you too busy dealing with customers, answering phones, creating invoices and running your company? Acquire the necessary infrastructure so that you won’t have to rely on yourself to do everything. Get help in the areas where you don’t excel so that you can spend more time on the things you’re good at. The goal is to have your business perform well without you so that you can spend time on the things that will make your business move forward and grow. Create a model that will ensure things get done right from top to bottom.

3. Create a long-term plan.

What is it that you want from your business? Where do you want your business to be next month? In a year? In five years? Set step by step goals that are achievable. For example, figure out how many sales you must have in order to meet your revenue goals. That way you know what to aim for. Find out what is working and what isn’t and make sure you’re spending time daily to reach toward your goals. Find the right people to help you get the proper strategies in place and keep you accountable. This will help you avoid mistakes and prevent having to rebound from any major setbacks later.

4. Build strong social media channels.

Every business should have a strong presence in social media. It’s not going away. For example, a few months ago Facebook was close to 300,000,000 users. It’s now accounting for more than 70% of the entire Internet population. What’s more is that social media will significantly increase in 2010. Your clients are out there. Whether you’re a dog trainer or a business consulting, it’s very important to start engaging with your target market online.

5. Seek help.

We know that running your business can be difficult and growing your business is even harder. You’ve put all your time and energy into your business and you’ve sacrificed time for yourself and with your family. That’s why at OneCoach, we help our clients take the right steps, in the right order to grow their businesses. We’re committed to helping you achieve your business goals and to live the life you’ve always wanted. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, we’re here to help. Click here to learn more about our Business Coaching programs that are specifically designed to help your unique business succeed.

Is this the year that you and your business will grow to extraordinary levels? That’s up to you.