Small Business Branding 101 – Lesson 1

After struggling a great deal with direction for where we want to go and what we want to accomplish with this blog, I think where I really want to dig in is two areas: conversations and branding. Logic suggests that it would be best to start with branding, since it’s hard to have a conversation about your business if you don’t really know what business you’re in – right?

So, today we will kick off with branding for small business and we are going to start from the beginning, because if your small business has been around for a while, it probably needs a brand refresh for the digital age. There are enormous advantages out there to small businesses that re-align their brand to who they really are and how customers/clients can expect to be treated, and those advantages shine their brightest when it comes to marketing your brand through social media.

Before we can market, we need to know what product/service we are selling. So, where do we start?

What Business are You in?

What do you do? What benefit do your customers receive from your company?

I read an article recently that quoted Theodore Levitt (Marketing Myopia) which discussed that in the 20th century, railroads lost out to air travel because they thought they were in the railroad business when instead they were actually in the transportation business of moving people and goods from point A to point B.  Frankly, you see this all time. You can see it happening right now in the movie industry, which is myopically focusing on the idea that they are in the DVD distribution industry when they are actually in the entertainment industry. When your company focuses on the wrong parts of what you do, customers notice because attention to the real business slacks.

Knowing what business you are in is the #1 element to branding. What do you really do for your customers?

• Get their car running again? 
• Prepare meals for them? 
• Provide them with tools?

What you ultimately do is solve a problem for them. Your customer needs lunch; your food service business provides it for them. A guy needs a new tire and you solve his transportation problem and get him back on the road. When you realize what business you are really in, it opens up all kinds of opportunities for solving your customers’ problems.

What problem does your business solve?

What benefits does your business provide to the customer?

One of our clients in the beauty industry recently realized that he isn’t in the Beauty Industry, he’s in the business of making people feel better about themselves. When you change up your direction like that, now you’ve got something to market. Market the benefit to the customer – because that’s really what the customer is interested in.

The benefit you provide is the business you are in.

Using Social Media to Engage your Customers

A lot of small businesses are entering the world of social media to help build their businesses and increase revenue as our economy begins a slow recovery. This is a very exciting time to be joining the online conversation as this is one area where a small business has just as much advantage as a larger one. Our mission here at Tenth Muse Creative is to help small businesses navigate the waters and enter this wonderfully level playing field.

First, let’s be clear: social media is not a one-way conversation where your business attempts to sell via posting links to your website. What your customers (both existing and potential) want is a dialog with your company. What customers want to know is how can you help them solve their problems? You need to start this process by listening to what their problems are! It is long-standing wisdom in business that people don’t buy products or services, they buy solutions to problems. You need to know the problems so you can solve them for your customers. 

So, over the next few blog posts we are going to take a closer look at conversations and how to engage with social media. 

Our formula for engaging customers:

1. Find the right channel. Where is the right place to have a conversation with your customers?
2.  Listen. People will tell you almost anything you want to know, if you would only listen.
3. Look for places to contribute. Can you answer a question? Solve a problem (without selling!)? Take the opportunity to build your reputation as the Answer Person.     
4. Don’t sell. Nothing is a bigger turn off for most people than being sold to. What you want to be is a problem solver, not another advertiser yelling “click me, click me!”

We will cover each of these steps in the formula over the next couple of days; today we want to focus mostly on what it means to engage. When you engage you are having a back and forth dialog, something we used to call relationship building. Find common cause with your customers, find their problems, help them find solutions; celebrate their victories for they are yours as well.

When you engage with your customers in a conversation, you become part of their community and build goodwill. Being a part of the community is what good citizens and businesses do; it engenders not only respect but loyalty as well. 

Engage in Conversations With Your Customers

What business doesn’t want the benefits of respect and loyalty from their customers?  We know yours does!