Branding yourself can be a scary proposition, what if everyone hates you and throws tomatoes? BUT, to make an impact in today’s world, you have to have a unique selling proposition!

So lately I have been setting up a small business marketing coaching program and so I have been thinking about MY branding, not how I present Marketing Artfully, but ME and what I bring to the the table.

Now, you need to know from the outset that I HATE the term Unique Selling Proposition or USP because it is trite, overused and intimidating. That having been said, it is the correct term so we will use it here.

So How Do You Start?

First off, who are you. What do your friends think of you? I have a piece of paper on the wall that I got years ago with a list of traits that people who knew me said I was like. This keeps me going when I am blue, but was a good start for my USP! The words are; honest, a wealth of knowledge, focused, independent, always willing to help, clever and funny (my favorite) and passionate about what she does.

So, TODAY, email your friends, favorite clients and loved ones and ask them to pick three words to describe you. If you are brave, do this on the Facebook. See how other perceive you and pick the ones that match YOUR insides. I picked, clever and funny, focused and passionate about what she does.

Chew on those for a week or so and see how you can fit them into how you position your services or your business focus.

Figure Out Who Is Going To Buy From You

Next I tried to figure out my target audience. While I like all small business owners, I LOVE people who are as crazy and goal driven as I am. SOOOOO, I am going to write a sales page that talks about all the nutso parts of me that people like that will appreciate. Things like my HOLY COW, Coaching Program which is a balls to the wall, 4 week death march to get things done. Is this one for everyone, SO NO, but it will mean that I am going to be working people who are focused and goal driven which is congruent with me and my business.

OKAY, I can hear you now, if you are targeting those types of people, what about everyone else on the planet. aren’t you going to miss out on sales? YEP! I am and YAY!!!

Why would I be happy to miss out on sales? Because I have worked with detail oriented, check off every box, have to know the why of it all people before and we are not a good fit. They get frustrated that I don’t tell them every little tiny step or go in a line from Point A to Point B and I get frustrated that they take a week to do something that I could have done in an hour. Does that make them bad people, ABSOLUTELY NOT, it makes them GREAT people who are not going to be a good fit for working with me!

Final Thoughts About Your USP

Okay, hopefully knowing the back story of my Unique Selling Proposition helps you a little bit. Here are the steps to take in order with details (for all you detail peeps!)

1. Find out from your friends who you are to them
2. Write those down and pick three that feel good to you
3. Pick a target market of people you would like to work with>/li>
4. Write your copy and offers in words and feelings that will attract those types of people

I know it SOUNDS easy, but doing anything with YOU is always funny because we tend to not like looking at ourselves so closely. The glory of this is though, once you have this handled, you can move on, living a life of prosperity and honor (okay that is a little much, but you can know that your message is the same as your being and do good with it!)

Related posts:

1. Small Business Marketing – Telling The What But Selling The How
2. Being Authentic Is The New Black – Small Business Branding
3. Small Business Marketing Say EXACTLY What You Are Selling

I have a great admiration for small business owners! The entrepreneurial inspiration hits and they are ready to go out in the world and start selling (either products or services).

I am currently doing work for a fabulous mortgage banker, Brian P. Forrester (who is honest and hardworking and doing great right now, despite the downturn his entire market has taken), some STUPENDOUS realtors, a great friend and business partner Tammy Leventis at Mail Marketing and some other start up small businesses.

All are making it happen in a market that is not easy and getting harder by the day. BUT they have decided that a downturn in the market is a great time to increase their market share through branding and exposing themselves to the market with a focused message!

What are some things you can do to make an impact? Here are my top ten! I know – you have heard of these before. There is no magic here, just common sense.

1. Have a website or blog that allows you to communicate with other people – this is the most affordable and user friendly way to make an impact right now. People ARE looking for your services and products online, can they find you?
2. Make sure your business card is distinct and DOES NOT have a hundred ways to contact you – one number, one email, address and fax – anything else confuses the user and they do not know which means to use to get a hold of you!!!
3. Have a brochure – This should list a little about you and then have your services. It provides a way for people to learn about what you offer without you having to tell them.
4. Contact your clients (part 1 CALL THEM) - These are people you work with or have in the past. They should like and respect you. They should refer you to their friends. If they do not like you, take them out of your database and free your soul for people to work with who DO like you. Now call them. They like you, remember, and will NOT be offended if you pick up the phone to communicate with them. Have something interesting to say, say it, tell them you like them too, ask for a referral or two, hang up. See how easy that was!
5. Contact your clients (part 2 MAIL THEM) – Anyone who knows me knows this is MUCH easier for me than calling (I don’t talk to people on the phone normally). Mailing stuff to people works. You can send them a postcard with your services or testimonials or information. You can send them newsletters or great articles you have found that are relevant to your industry. You can even send them recipe cards (I CANNOT believe I just said that!!!…:) BUT whatever you do, send them something on a regular basis.
6. Contact your clients (part 3 EMAIL THEM) – All of us get emails every day. We take the time to read those that are personal and from friends and contacts who we KNOW are going to be interesting and relevant. This is the opposite of the mailing someone, sending just anything will not do. You risk being added to the spam list or removed from their approved email list EVERY time you send something. DO NOT send recipe emails if you are a pest control company, do not send funny emails if you are a mortician, DO send emails that are timely and will ADD to your readers knowledge or life. DO NOT spam people.
7. Send personal notes – When you get a personal note it makes you feel nice. You know someone has taken the time to think of you, put pen to paper and then added a stamp. They have walked to the mail box or drop off point. Make sure your personal notecards are professional. They can brand your company or have inspirational quotes or just be pretty. They DO NOT have to be long, just a sentance or two to let someone know you have thought of them. DO NOT send personal notes from a mass mail company, it is disingenuous.
8. Network - Go to events with your co-workers, go to Charity functions, go to sporting events, amusement parks, open houses. Go to service clubs and formal networking events. When someone asks you if you want to do something, say yes. Ask someone you do not normally spend time with to lunch and learn more about them. Make time to talk to your friends. In today’s world we hear constantly about time management, but we rarely here about making time for people. Listen to them, most are really interesting.
9. Do what you say you are going to – The best indication that you are going to succeed is doing what you say you will. DO NOT promise a turn around time of 1 day if something takes 3 days. Under promise and over deliver. Do more than you said you would. Surprise someone with something they did not expect. Ask what your customer wants and give them that.
10. DRUMROLL PLEASE – Get a Niche (or two) – Figure out what you do well and do that more. Give the general public a way to catagorize you in their mind so that they can refer people to you. Give great customer service, market their home to 20 different places, capitalize on your Irish-ness, specialize in Investors, work a farm, always start your appointments on time, be a stable influence in unstable times, focus on golfers, bowlers, non-profits or car dealers.

Thanks for listening.

Related posts:

1. Seth Says…Gobble Up Market Share
2. Realtor Marketing – Market Like A Maniac Class Available December 22
3. How To Market Your Small Business

Today Seth Godin posted a PDF about the record industry and how they HAVE to change their model. It got me thinking about what they are trying to sell (records that we can’t copy and the fact that we should maintain their industry just as it is). Seth said what they SHOULD be trying to sell is the cool stuff that we actually like and will pay for – information about our favorite artists, backstage passes, concert tickets and other things that have NOTHING to do with paying $20 for a CD.

So what ARE you trying to sell? It really does make a difference because then you can give everything else away for FREE!

Why am I giving away all this information about how to do things for your niche? How to set up a blog, how to market your services or products and how to brand yourself. I am VERY clear about what I am selling so I can give everything else away for free. I like to figure out what other people are selling and tell them fun ways to do it. I like to talk to Realtors and find out what makes them special and then help them find ways to express that special-ness. I like to sit with people I like and talk about how to position their paintball business to get more corporate clients. I am selling IDEAS so anything that requires implementing those ideas I can give away for free!

I have a bunch of photographers in my family. They take pictures ALL the time and they have captured HUNDREDS of great images (the header features pictures by my husband John Jacobsen and my MIL Linda Jacobsen – thanks guys!). They post their pictures online and lots of people we know “borrow” them for their blogs or websites. I am sure that people we don’t know borrow them also. I sent one of my clients to John’s blog the other day and she fell in love with his style. She wants a print. THAT is where John can SELL something. The images on the internet are not large enough to print well. He should let EVERYONE use his images for free with a link to his blog so that they can buy prints of the ones that they like.  He is not going to do that right now because photography is a hobby and that feels like work to him BUT HE COULD! If I were a photographer this would seem like a much better way to make money than to schlep around taking pictures of weddings or dogs or families. It would let you take pictures of whatever you like and market them to people who like them too!

Because I am in the real estate business I read a lot of real estate blogs. Currently there is a huge controversy going on in the blog world and on TV about DOM (days on market). Consumers want to know how many days a property has been on the market – not just how long the current listing has been in the MLS. I think they should have that access. The National Association of Realtors is trying to hang on to the way it WAS instead of focusing on how to make the industry better. In the past Realtors provided access to information that everyone didn’t have – that is not true anymore. What Realtors provide now is the knoledge and experience that consumers do not have, THAT is what NAR should be selling NOT trying to hang on to an outdated business model that puts limits on the information that the public has access to.

If you are reading this post because you are thinking of starting your own business or trying to learn how to market your currrent company, focus on what you are trying to SELL. It will make firguring out what to DO so much easier!

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So how come niche marketing is such a passion? I love helping other people discover what is special about them or their business and then thinking of ways for them to market that specialness! Also, marketing in general is a passion of mine. I spend my free time reading blogs about marketing, listening to books about marketing and critiquing EVERY ad I see (my husband does NOT think that is a feature!)

Basically it is my hobby. Since I have been working on it for a bit I thought I would let you know what I have done to date and what the results have been!

1. Listened to Internet Business Mastery (a GREAT podcast on iTunes that helps entrepreneurs with establishing an online business)
2. Got the idea
3. Did something (This is where most people get hung up! If you have a great idea start working on it. Get a logo, set up a blog, start making notes to yourself in your blackberry whenever you think about it.)
4. Brainstormed with a friend for a couple of months about how to get started, what we were going to do (his niche is Teaching Landlording Skills) and how were were going to do it.
5. Listened to a great speaker who told me that I should have multiple streams of income (something I had heard NUMEROUS times before but that I had to hear at that moment to get this thing going!)
6. Set up the blog. It has taken me about 6 hours to get it going, not counting writing posts. Considering I have about 80 hours into my real estate website, that is truly a miracle!
7. Sent out a link to the blog out to my marketing friends, they are all interested in marketing or technology in some way. The nice thing was I got positive feedback! If they had said “that’s nice” I would have gone back and re-worked my concept.
8. Submitted my blog to google. It can take a while for the google spiders to visit so you can do this early in the game. I messed up though since I did not have any title tags or descriptions for the site yet so there is a link but no info about what the site is about – don’t do that!
9. Scheduled two teaching seminars. Because I already teach at these offices I could have some leeway about what my topic would be. I limited the class to 10 people so that we could really focus on them and discovering what their niche should be. I also let them know that by coming to the class they agreed to allow me to use their situations in my upcoming eBook.
10. I sent out emails inviting the agents to sign up for my class. Here is the invitation. It is a month away and I only have 3 spots left at the Palm Harbor office!
11. I sent out a press release for my new site. I use www.free-press-release.com. You can send it out for free or spend $1 for a more special one. It costs $5 to promote it. I made sure to make the headline and description interesting to humans so that someone might want to read it. If you look at most press releases they are all about the company NOT the reader! In the past press releases were sent to busy editors and they determined if the release was “news” that they should assign to a reporter to write the interesting part. Now you send out press releases to generate interest WITHOUT a reporter to do the in-between part, make sure that your title and description are compelling enough to get a human to read it. Here is the press release.
12. I sent out an email to my marketing friends asking them to click on my free press release link. Humans like to read what other humans like to read. I know that is VERY deep! Basically what I mean is that when you see a press release on a huge page of press releases and it has 4,000 clicks you ASSUME that it is interesting. If you see that it has 2 clicks you are less likely to read it. (It has to be said that my marketing friends are very patient and wonderful people!)
13. Miscellaneous results – I got an email from a Team Leader in Illinois who asked if he could use and refer to my site as he sets up a new office in order to teach his agents about niche marketing. ABSOLUTELY!
14. Miscellaneous results – Kris Berg (one of my favorite bloggers) commented on my site. As she has provided me with hours of interesting blogging, I am SO happy to be able to return the favor!
15. Used SEO Studio to submit my website to various and assorted search engines. There is a free version that allows you do submissions and track how well your site ranks in the search engines. I have no results to date and the only thing that registers at all is www.marketingartfully.com. (Day 7)
16. Total visitors to date 41 (Day 7)
17. Here are the keywords I am currently using (niche, marketing, niche marketing, branding, realtors, realtor, real esate, positioning, real estate marketing, marketing for realtors, small business marketing, marketing for small businesses, small business addvertising, advertising, business, small, selling, tips, tricks). I only have 18 at this point but will work with some keyword suggestion tools to get that number up! I used Google’s Keyword Tool to come up with some more keywords (niche marketing blog, niche marketing products, examples of niche marketing, choosing a niche market, niche market advertising, niche marketing websites, free niche marketing). The way I chose these was by looking at the advertiser competition (left column) and avoiding ones that were popular and then looking at the average search volume (right column) to see what people were actually looking for. The nice thing about these new terms is it lets me know what would be good blog subjects!
18. I just signed up for Mixx a social bookmarking site that lets me see things that are interesting to me and one of those things was a GREAT tool to check how your site is doing called Site Yogi. It shows who is linked to you, where you stand to google and SO much more. It is my very favorite thing today!!!!

I will update this page as I accomplish more and let you know the results!

Related posts:

1. Niche Marketing and Customer Service Go Hand In Hand
2. Niche Marketing Know Your Audience
3. Niche Marketing – Business Writing, Ink.

Niche marketing and customer service are vital to building your small business marketing brand. Having a niche makes your ALL of your marketing marketing efforts easier.

If something does not fit in with what your marketing focus is, just don’t do it. If your brand is being a high end boutique, do not advertise in the penny shopper. If your focus is being THE source for beads, hold workshops at your store where people who like to bead can gather (and buy).

The easiest example of  this to me is the difference between the customer service provided by Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. In Clearwater, where I buy coffee, we have 2 Dunkin Donuts and numerous Starbucks. I would NEVER go to Dunkin Donuts if I did not have to get coffee for my friend.

Starbucks is nice. They make your coffee EXACTLY the way that you want. They go in the back to get you rice krispy treats if they are out in the front. They even get your coffee if you order it small, medium or large instead of the tall, venti or whatever the other one is. They thank you and give you change and it takes about 2 minutes. I don’t know that I have ever seen an ad for Starbucks. There is not a spokesperson because EVERYONE is a spokesperson.

THEIR BRAND is to provide exceptional customer service within the coffee niche.

On the other hand, Dunkin Donuts is painful. They ask you 3 times what you ordered. They give you the wrong thing. Their lines are horrendous and their product offerings are so varied that people sometimes have to drive around and park so that they have time to make their beverage. Rachel Ray is their spokesman. I see lots of ads with her in them and I LIKE Rachel Ray. Liking her is NOT enough to combat the pain of having to drive up to Dunkin Donuts! Fire her, stop making ads and train your people to produce a donut and a cup of coffee, with a smile, in less than 10 minutes!

THEIR BRAND is to provide a variety of confections, not care about customer service and have coffee as an add on product

As a small business owner, make sure your brand and your customer service represent the true goals of your company. Look at your processes with a fresh eye and see if there are things you can fix. If you would like to find out more about niche marketing we have a number of posts that you might like too!

Dear Rachel, you seem like a very bright girl who is doing okay for herself. I am sorry that part of my plan includes firing you. I will buy 2 of your magazines to make up for it!

Related posts:

1. Small Business Marketing – GREAT Customer Service
2. Great (and not so great) Customer Service
3. How DISC Personality Types Affect Customer Service Models

I hear a lot of rules when it comes to marketing. I break some of them and am still alive and you can be too!

Rule 1 – Never change your look. If you pick a logo and outgrow it you are stuck with it forever. You should NEVER change it. That puts A LOT of pressure on a new business. There are numerous examples of how logos have changed over the years to update them for the times. One of my favorite changers is UPS. They made a number of logo changes and still seem to be able to deliver packages. While they are a big company and the changes were somewhat radical you can still tell that the logo represents the same company. Do not stick with a bad logo if you are unhappy, hire a designer and change it until you are thrilled with the results!

Rule 2 – Changing your name to update it for the times. I know this seems counter to the last rule but bear with me for a moment. When we were working on a project I found out through the grapevine that a long term company had changed its name to Enodis. This took a couple of wonderfully named companies like Berisford and Welbilt and turned them into a word that is hard to spell and doesn’t mean anything in modern times. I kid you not, according to their ENO Annual and Transition Report (foreign private issuer) (20-F) Item 4. Information on the Company for the 2000:

In fiscal 2000, we took steps to consolidate our equipment and service brands under the global Enodis(TM) brand umbrella. Our new name, Enodis, is based on a Latin word that may be translated as “solution provider.” We adopted the new name to reflect our commitment to meet our customers’ needs, through a comprehensive package of products and services, with equipment and technology solutions.

I hate made up words. Enough said except that they paid A LOT of money for that advice.

Rule 3 – You need to be VERY careful and make sure that everything you send out is perfict. I misspelled “perfect” and lived. I have sent out some dinky postcards that had a mistake and you know what happened? People called me to tell me I had a typo. That is right, they called me. They did not think that I am a degenerate and unworthy of love. They did not fire me and tell me that I could no longer represent them in their real estate transactions. Now don’t get me wrong, our brochures are immaculate and without errors or I reorder them. Our business cards have the correct phone numbers on them and our postcards have the correct dates of upcoming events. I am not suggesting a free for all with no spell checking! What I am suggesting is that you can spend so much time making sure something is perfect that it never gets sent. Send out informative pieces to people who are interested in what you have to say and they will cut you some slack, even if you are human and make a mistake!

Related posts:

1. Website and Blog Design – The Wrong Things

I would say that at least 80% of the time when I suggest that someone choose a niche the nichee tells me that they don’t want to limit themselves by specializing. They feel that if they pick one thing that they will be pigeon-holed and not be able to work with anyone else.

Well that is baloney! I have two arguements against that:

1. You can say you are an expert at multiple things! – One realtor in our area has a bus bench that says she is the Safety Harbor and Countryside expert. I am sure that she uses that in her marketing to those areas as well. Surprisingly enough she has another bench in another area of town that says she is the Palm Harbor expert also. There are no bench police who will grab her and say that she can’t be all three. Since I am marketing obsessed I noticed this, but I can guarentee that I am one of the few people who will ever connect bus benches in different parts of town.
2. You can make yourself a expert in something that is broad reaching. My real estate business partner and I are experts in Sales and Marketing which allows us to use that in many different ways depending on the situation. Author Tim Ferriss has branded himself as the time-saving expert, Brian Tracy will help you to stuff done and Tony Robbins will get you pumped up to do your best. None of these limit the number of people they can reach, they just put a framework that you can hang your marketing and branding efforts on.

One last point, just because you label yourself the “show dog expert” doesn’t mean your vet business has to work with ONLY show dogs! It can mean that people think that you must be good if show dog owners use you and they will want to have that level of care for thier own pets. Quit thinking how this won’t work for you or your business and think about how it might help make you even more successful!

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