3 Brand Support Systems You Can’t Do Without – Part 2 of 4

This is part 2 of a 4 part series where I’m sharing the essential systems entrepreneurs must have in place to support a solid brand.

System #1:  Customer engagement

iStock 000007773142Medium 150x150 3 Brand Support Systems You Cant Do Without   Part 2 of 4Brand support system number one is about the way in which you engage your customers. This is the process by which you create a path of attraction to your business. It’s the way that you make it easy for prospects to meet you, to love what you do, to test drive your services. This might look like your current opt-in strategy. Or it may even be the type of events you host that attract people to your business.

Creating an easy path for prospects to engage is critical to building your pool of interested buyers. As a system, this path should be outlined in such a way that you can powerfully reflect your brand with ease.  The goal is to create a connection between you as a solution provider and the potential client, or prospect.

What is evident when you view an entrepreneur’s website is whether or not there is an easy way to determine your next step. Successful entrepreneurs are clear in the single action they would like for a viewer to take when visiting their website the first time. But unfortunately too many business owners fail to streamline the instruction for their prospect. There is no opt-in form. There is nothing “sticky” about the page that keeps a person there, so viewers leave after only visiting a few seconds.

One example of a way to engage customers that capitalizes on the way they first interacted with you is to create a social media landing page. This blog post by visibility guru Nancy Marmalejo tells you how to do this:  http://vivavisibilityblog.com/social-networking-landing-page/.

There are other ways to engage your customer or prospect. One of the most widely used ways is to develop a strong opt in form. A blog post by marketing diva Ali Brown shares great insight into how to make this work for you:  http://www.alibrown.com/blog/?p=722.

The key to customer engagement is to entice prospective buyers within the first few seconds so they can receive your valuable information.

 

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About the Author: Tanya Smith is a creative business strategist specializing in showing coaches, consultants and freelancers how to spend more time making money with simple, yet profitable marketing systems.  Her company Be Promotable provides clients with fresh actionable strategies and virtual resources to promote their small businesses as power players in their market.  Claim your instant access to a free 10 part ecourse, 10 Ways To Grow Your List at: www.bepromotable.com.

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3 Brand Support Systems You Can’t Do Without – Part 1 of 4

dreamstimefree 1333671 300x199 3 Brand Support Systems You Cant Do Without   Part 1 of 4Every solo business owner has a set of processes or systems that either promote their business very well or contribute to the business’ demise. There are really 3 essential systems that any successful business owner needs in place in order to automate the things they repetitively do over and over again, while adequately supporting the brand.  These systems form the structure of success because they are the ways in which you continuously reinvigorate your business for expansion and growth.

What is a system?

For purposes of this article, we’re going to define a system as follows:  a set of integrated, interdependent  processes that can be replicated over and over again to produce similar results.

This article is designed to explain the 3 critical brand support systems for real breakthrough in your business. These essential systems are key to ensuring your success and creating a structure on which your brand can thrive.

It all starts with the BRAND

Before we cover these systems, let’s talk about brand first.  As a solopreneur in the “entrepreneurial renaissance” age – a coin termed by business coach, Marcia Bench, you will have to compete against many people who claim expertise in the same field as you. Regardless of their level of experience or visibility, the sheer numbers require that you carve out a way to stand apart from the crowd. Your brand must be distinctive, powerful and recognizable.

The brand is the foundation of any effective marketing strategy.  It is how people perceive you. The brand is YOU in a single owner business. If your brand is weak, the systems I will describe below will not operate to support your business. An analogy would be like building a new house, installing a beautiful kitchen, hardwood floors, and hiring a dynamic salesman to greet buyers at the door when the house has no walls yet.

The support systems we will talk about in this article will allow you to deliver great service, they will engage your customer base, and they will automate your delivery but only when you have taken the necessary steps to first put in place your brand strategy.

This means getting clear about what you do, the market you serve, and how you provide the service. Brand support is most connected to the latter – the “how”.

We will spend time outlining the 3 systems over the next group of articles in this series.

 

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About the Author: Tanya Smith is a creative business strategist specializing in showing coaches, consultants and freelancers how to spend more time making money with simple, yet profitable marketing systems.  Her company Be Promotable provides clients with fresh actionable strategies and virtual resources to promote their small businesses as power players in their market.  Claim your instant access to a free 10 part ecourse, 10 Ways To Grow Your List at: www.bepromotable.com.

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Goals Are Not the Answer

iStock 000004833674XSmall 150x150 Goals Are Not the AnswerAt the beginning of the year, I know you were probably in the fray of people who were gung-ho about setting up new goals.  You were excited because hey, it’s a new year, a chance to start over, blah blah blah.  Oh, and I was in that group too.

Not that I’m saying there is anything at all wrong with goal-setting.  Setting goals, in fact, is critical to the success of most people.  There is only a very small percentage of people I’ve ever read about who truly “just did it” without any planning, focus, or strategy.

I am suggesting, however, that goals are not the answer – you can have journal full of all the things you want to do, but unless you actually TAKE ACTION nothing will happen.

Take the treadmill for instance. I was very proud of myself this morning for working out.  It’s one of the things I’d said I wanted to do more regularly. When I finished the 20 minutes this morning, it was a great sense of satisfaction.  I felt like the rest of my day would be amazing too. It wasn’t the idea of getting on the treadmill that gave me joy (I actually dreaded waking up at 5 am to do it); but it was the accomplishment of the action toward what I know will be the eventual results.

Now what about when that action doesn’t take place?  I said at the start of the year that I wanted to get offline more and network through more local events.  This will be a major way for me to generate more leads for my business.  At the end of March when I looked at my first quarter of the year, however, guess how many local events I’d attended?  A big zero.  So to remedy this I’ve decided to actively find and map out events I will attend in 2nd quarter. Again, this is a goal. Until I hit the first event I can’t enjoy the sweet smell of a task completed, can I?

For what goals have you set a timeline and not yet taken action?   Remember, the goal itself is not the answer, you need some backup – the push is in the action.  Good luck.

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There’s Got To Be Something Better Than Sticky Notes

graphorange 300x221 Theres Got To Be Something Better Than Sticky Notes

Sticky notes are not the best way to keep track of a prospect you need to call.  There is a better way – thankfully.  It’s called a CRM.

A CRM is a sales and marketing term for “customer relationship management”. It’s a system to keep track of important information about your clients, customers, sales prospects and a way to centralize your business communications and resources.

I love technology. You may already know that from some of the resources I share. But I really didn’t discover the power of a CRM until I started realizing that I had too much paperwork floating around with my client’s notes, names of people I needed to follow up with, and even keeping track of any missing payments to my client accounts.

So here are some benefits of using a CRM:

  • Organizes your business records
  • Creates a safeguard of all your key contacts
  • Automates your appointments
  • Helps you develop a “pipeline”, which is the path you work each client or prospect through to work with you
  • Gives you an easier way to pay attention to your customers
  • Makes it easy for people to pay you

These are just a few of the things that I’ve learned a CRM can do for my business.  And when you’re a solopreneur, it helps to make your workflow as simple as possible.

Need a few ideas on CRMs to try?

I’m developing a video kit to help you use the simple, slick system I use, but for now here are some recommendations you can look into:   www.CapsuleCRM.com, www.HighRiseHQ.com, www.BigContacts.com, www.SalesForce.com.

Try one and let me know what you think in the comments below!

WANT TO RE-POST THIS ARTICLE ON YOUR BLOG OR USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

About the Author: Tanya Smith is a creative business strategist specializing in showing coaches, consultants and freelancers how to spend more time making money with simple, yet profitable marketing systems.  Her company Be Promotable provides clients with fresh actionable strategies and virtual resources to promote their businesses as power players in their market.  Claim your instant access to a free 10 part ecourse, 10 Ways To Grow Your List at: www.bepromotable.com.

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Wake Up Call – Short Term Nice Does Not Equal Long Term Profit

iStock 000007606415XSmall 150x150 Wake Up Call   Short Term Nice Does Not Equal Long Term ProfitI had a dream last night. In the dream I invested in some type of postal supplies shop – you know, like the ones you see on every corner now? This guy from an office next door kept coming in to say he was there to help me.  Seemed like a nice enough man.  At first, he offered to lay a customized floor tile that looked like a stamp for me in front of the counter.  He described how it would have my initials, my favorite colors, and it would really light up the place.  I was convinced and I said, “sure, that would be nice”. Then after he put it in and I realized it wasn’t just one tile, it was half the floor. Cha-ching.

Next, he came in and offered to change the locks on my door. I said, “yes, that’s probably a good idea”. And of course, he upgraded the entire door. Cha-ching…again.  After a series of these offers, I realized I’d drawn up quite a bill. That’s when I finally sat down to look at the total costs of my initial investment, the add-ons, and the history of success the shop had before me.  Guess what? The previous owner sold it because she hadn’t made a profit.

It was a pretty dismal outlook. I had the same dream at least once more the same night. It was like I had to go through it all over again, even knowing what the end would be. Then I woke up.

I realized that this was a pretty accurate picture of some decisions I’ve made before as a business owner. Not researching the so-called investment first, saying yes to everything that looks short-term shiny, looking at the total profit/loss picture only after I’ve spent all the money…

Notice I didn’t say anything about “adding value” or “profit generating” decisions? What investments are you making in yourself and in your business that will add long-term value and generate profit? Got the wake up call yet?

 

WANT TO RE-POST THIS ARTICLE ON YOUR BLOG OR USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

About the Author: Tanya Smith of Be Promotable is a premier personal branding & marketing coach.  Her creative genius has unlocked the potential of many women solopreneurs, helping them to reinvent themselves as power players in their startup business.  Claim your free instant access to a free video download, 5 Secrets to Developing Your Unique Brand Proposition at: www.bepromotable.com.

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