AB: All-Round Nice Guy

Marketing your business is both a dark art, and an inspired work - that is, even with the best of intentions, marketing is a lot of trial and error, and plenty of hit and miss. Sometimes you make gains with bold new initiatives, but other times you’re just one of the many messages that radiates daily from the business world.

To use just *one more* cliché, the important point here is not to put all your eggs into the one basket - spreading around different marketing strategies is just the same theory as in the investment world: spread your risk, and make a secure return overall.

One of the best ways to spread your marketing message is to cover both extremes: highly targeted, under-your-nose type things, as well as far-reaching, low cost-per-view type things.

One of the best highly targeted marketing tools is a direct mailout - a brochure/catalog/catalogue/cattle dog - call it what you will, it’s either read voraciously, or used as a bin liner by millions daily.

And at the other end of the spectrum, one of the best ways to mass market is via the humble web site - build it and they will come… perhaps…?

It’s fitting that web sites without any changing content are back-handedly referred to as ‘brochureware’ in the industry, since both paper-based brochures and virtual brochures have both the ability to communicate strong marketing messages about your business, as well as ability to bore your customers to tears.

Since we’re aiming for ’strong messages’ here, and not for ‘bored to tears’, the following will show you the strengths and weaknesses of both types of brochure, when to use which one, and how to use *both* online and offline marketing to make good investments in your small business marketing.

OK - bear with me here - before I tell you how to have a more successful 2008, I’m going to talk about the *brand* of your business for a few paragraphs - but don’t go all glassy-eyed on me, OK?

In simple terms, the brand of your business is the total message your business communicates to your customers. It’s the sum of your logo, your shop fitout, your customer service, and your business ethos - everything that adds up to ‘the real you’ in business terms.

In pure marketing terms, ‘branding’ and ‘brand management’ are complex concepts that are often vague and immeasurable - so much so that small business owners don’t often invest too much time in ‘their brand’ - well, not knowingly, at least.

The great news is that the smaller a business you are, the more your own personal ethos infiltrates your business, to the point where your business reflects the person *you* are, and vice-versa - in effect, your own values and beliefs shape your business, and hence how your customers perceive your business
- your brand.

In short, for a small business, the big picture of your brand takes care of itself - all you have to do is keep on making small, smart improvements to your business marketing each year.

With that in mind, here’s some top tips for reviewing and re-invigorating your business in 2008.

Getting a difficult message across in a crowded marketplace is always a challenge. Whether your business has a unique product or service, or you need to educate your market even before you can consider offering them your product or service, one of the best tools you can use is a good metaphor.

By using the right language, you can make a complicated message more understandable to more people. Let me show you the benefits of using metaphors to get your message across - oh, and keep a count of how many I use along the way, and leave your answers in the comments…

Whether you sell widgets, or you service widgets, or you sell your time and skills to others who make widgets, sometimes your business is in a crowded market, and there’s not that much that differentiates your business over other business - at least, not in the eyes of your customers. Certainly, customer service, professionalism, price and quality are the cornerstones of any successful business - but let me add in one more to the mix: good design.

Sure, it’s intangible - spending time and effort making your business look better or run a little smarter doesn’t translate directly into selling any more widgets - but to put it into footy terminology, it’s simply another ‘one percenter’. Well, those one percenters win matches - so lets look at few ways for your business to kick some goals…

We live in world of marketing buzz and hype, where we are bombarded daily with hundreds of messages all telling us what is or isn’t good for us. Every day, new ways of ‘cutting through’ the volume of advertisements and marketing hype have to be invented to get some sort of traction in the marketplace - even if only for a short time before the next ‘big thing’ arrives…

The colours you use in your logo help to promote your image in the most subtle of ways - by the power of association. Furthermore, the *number* of colors you use in your logo impacts on the options when reproducing your logo, and the costs thereof - so to make the most of your choices, here’s some practical advice on how to select the best colours for your logo design or redesign.