Infinite Ideas - Publicize your business

Welcome

About Publicize your business

Can you really learn enough by reading one short book to help you effectively publicize your business and yourself? The answer is a resounding Yes. This book provides you with a blueprint which will point you in all the right directions, and gives you lots of tips and advice that will help you get the maximum exposure and thereby improve your business performance.

This book is written for people with neither the time nor the patience to trawl through acres of jargon and management-speak. Publicize your business has been written in the belief that you can learn all you really need to know quickly and without hassle. The aim is to distil the essential, practical advice you can use straight away.

How to use this book

The message here is Its OK to skim. Feel free to flick through to find the help you need most. This book is a collection of hands-on tips which will help you to spot any shortcomings you might have and show you how to turn them into strengths.

Divided into five chapters, Publicize your business deals with all the key issues that face every company looking to make a name for itself and reach all the potential customers in its market. Find out how to get your products and services noticed by a wider audience. It neednt be expensive.

As you read through the book, you will come across lots of tips and practical advice on how to make a big impact when promoting your image. If youre really pushed for time, you could start by just going straight to any of the features, which will ask you either to think about a problem or to do something about it and then give you some ideas.

Good luck!

1. You, your market, your image

Coming up in this chapter

• Define your unique qualities
• Know your market and customers
• Avoid wastage in marketing
• A little research goes a long way
• Understand the visual image
• Get the most from a graphic designer
• Develop the right visual style
• Decide whats special about you

Decide whats special about you

You?

Are you ever at your wits end in trying to attract customers who youre sure should be doing business with you, rather than your rivals?

You can be absolutely certain of one thing: you are different. Even if you make the same product or offer the same service as your competitors, there will be something unique to you that will appeal to your customers. This is what you must define at the outset and then concentrate on that difference in your publicity.

Way back when, Avis, the vehicle hire firm, made a virtue of being second to its biggest competitor by trumpeting we try harder. British Airways decided from its research that it was the worlds favourite airline. These strong and memorable messages differentiated the two firms from all their competitors and got customers to listen and buy. Virgin has decided that what sets its diverse range of companies apart, wherever they compete, is the personality of its founder, Richard Branson.

Tips

Be prepared to think laterally about your own special image.

My problem was getting anybody to be interested in what I was offering. All my rivals seemed to be competing on price alone. I thought it was a commodity market until I got talking to people and realised that it was trust that made me different from the rest.

- Floyd Hamilton, digital aerial installer

A baker thought it would be a hilarious idea to exploit the pun Knead the Dough, without realising the joke was on him. It appeared to be a begging message and certainly said nothing about the product to encourage customers.

Act!

Get together with your colleagues, family, friends or some customers, and brainstorm unique features about your company that set you apart from the rest.

Here are some examples to which you should add the results of your brainstorm. Using a pen and paper rate each factor on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Be realistic and honest, and dont list too many that will only complicate your sales message.

Any others?

A publicity message encapsulates what it is about a company that makes it special.

Act!

Summarise in a statement of no more than five or six words (fewer if your difference is simple) what you think is unique about your company. Remember, this is actually a sales message that must mean something to your customers, not just to you. Use it at every opportunity in all your publicity material.

Do some market research. Organise a meeting locally for up to six or seven people where they can interrogate your key word summary. Structure the meeting to examine the benefits of what you are offering. The results will give you a reliable guide to future promotion.

Tips

Dont waste time trying to reach people who will never or rarely buy your product.

Examine the examples of customer definitions listed, then rate them as high, medium, low or zero priority.

Where are they?

• International
• National
• Local
• Regional or state-wide
• Urban
• Suburban
• Rural

Who are they?

• Age

• Gender
• Social status/class

Businesses

• Size

  Large (500+ staff)

  Medium (over 50)

  Small (up to 50)

• Buyers: professional/part-time
• Trade/distributors
• Consultants
• Financial executives
• Directors/VPs
• Secretaries/PAs
• Technicians
• Administrators

Create your visual image

You?

Do you ever think that your business website, stationery, brochures, leaflets, email signatures etc. look very ordinary? Are you really satisfied that they reflect what you think about your business?

Whatever you produce will say something about your company to your customers. Just as talking to someone in a particular tone of voice will generate a specific response, so the visual tone of printed materials and signs will also evoke an impression about your organization.

Consult an expert a graphic designer before you start spending money on an image that may not work for you. Ask colleagues, friends or local business groups for recommendations.

The most important element in company print is your logo, which is the style of typeface in which your firms name always appears. You may also wish to commission a symbol or trade mark. But make sure you convey the right image to your customers. A sports shop should not give the impression of a funeral director and vice versa!

Tips

Your logo is your advertisement. Always use it and never change the design on different elements of print. Your look, or corporate identity, must be consistent everywhere.