How to dodge actions that may kill your brand
When the journalist asked to leave a message, the employee gave a heavily audible sigh and said, “Uh, can you just call back later?”
First impressions have always been important in business. But the power of viral media means that one bad experience could be shared with hundreds or even thousands of your potential customers – in seconds.
Do you have protocols in place for answering the phone for reporters as well as customers? Do your first responders know how to handle complaints? Do they realize that they represent your business even when they’re off living their lives and talking about it on Facebook?
As a business owner, you can’t control every aspect of human behavior. But you can consider the decisions – or lack of decisions – that can kill your brand and business opportunities. Here are just a few of the biggest threats to keeping your brand alive and how you can avoid them.
The billboard website
Most companies have a website today because it’s an expectation of their customers. And most understand that it should be easy to find, up-to-date and professional.
Ignoring the content of your site, however, is one of the biggest ways to kill your brand. Old photos, technical jargon and generic messaging don’t stick with a customer. Stories of how you helped a customer, testimonials from customers and tools that allow the customer to interact with your brand are the new expectation.
Whether they offer a video, a quiz, an article or a method for customers to quickly share concerns, websites are a warm prospect tool as opposed to a cold calling card. For this reason, they need regular updating and attention.
In a recent study of service firms from Hinge Research Institute, high growth firms were significantly more likely to post new content to their website on a weekly basis and to have redesigned their website in the last 12 months. Of those high-growth firms, they reported generating 40 to 59 percent of their leads online.
Shiny objects
Once you’ve hooked a potential customer, your job isn’t done. Customers have a short attention span, and unless you get on their radar with a rock-solid referral or grand and timely incentive, the customer is at risk to walk. Call it the Pinterest syndrome, but there’s always some new, shiny object to explore.
In B2C or B2B marketing, then, you kill your brand if you don’t understand the fickle nature of customers and their expectations for a wow factor. You have to woo a customer as though he or she is the only one you need.
That doesn’t happen through generic, multiple e-blasts or bland advertising. It happens through careful analysis of pains and “likes,” and regular “gifts” in the form of targeted information, invitations to exclusive events (in person or online) and opportunities for them to be part of your world.
One of the best ways to engage customers? Ask them. Ask them to share why they love your business. Ask them to design a logo or discuss features or services they wished you offered. Ask them to attend a strategic planning session. Even the busiest customers will be flattered to give their input in some way.
Average talent
If everyone inside your business isn’t on the wow train, you will miss opportunities to promote your brand like that business owner who missed the journalist’s call.
If you have people showing up, putting in their time and collecting their paychecks, then you have a brand problem. As national marketing expert and author Seth Godin recently noted in a well publicized piece on employee performance, the “recession is a forever recession,” and average workers are going straight to the bottom of the workforce. Do you want to head straight down with them?
It’s up to you, the business owner, to instill a sense of ownership and purpose in your culture. How you develop talent to communicate your brand inside and outside the organization plays a huge role in how your business is perceived. This includes identifying why your product or service is the best, why it makes a difference and why your employees should feel proud to promote it. It also includes strategic marketing and business development tools that help new employees board the wow train, including how they network, how they use media and how they communicate with customers.
Don’t resist ideas from employees or advisers who are willing to challenge your plans and assumptions. The quick pace of business and pricing pressures alone require an open dialogue between business owner, employees, customers and advisers to make sure your brand is matching customer expectations. Business owners who exert too much control over decision-making are apt to miss their true perceived value in the marketplace as well as important transitions for the next growth phase – no matter how long they’ve been in business.
The biggest killer of your brand? Ignoring its importance. Business relationships are built on a promise delivered exceptionally well to customers. If that promise isn’t consistent across the organization and you don’t know what customers really value about you, you might as well let voicemail handle all your calls. You won’t get many after a while.
Wendy Nemitz,
Ingenuity Marketing Group:
651.690.3358
wendy@ingenuitymarketing.com
www.ingenuitymarketing.com
