Branding refers to the ideas and impressions that arise in a customers mind when that person hears your name or sees your logo. The main advantages of branding are that it creates profitability, loyalty and awareness.
There are two types personal and corporate - although this course will cover aspects that are applicable to both. Personal is growing faster, because of the internet.
Basically it gives anyone the chance to create a brand using their skills, personality, expertise, etc. to solve peoples problems or provide something they enjoy. In a way, everyone is a brand and youre going to learn how to take advantage of that.
The simplest way to build a brand is by delivering benefits to your customers. The idea is always to offer plenty of cheap or free value first and then go for the sale.
The more information you give them, the more you become a go-to resource, the more they trust you and the more they will crave your paid, premium offerings.
In essence, you create a promise of quality that people begin to believe in. The more you live up to that reputation, the stronger your brand becomes.
A well developed and well established brand is an invaluable asset. Some of the best brands in the world have their name valued at billions of dollars just the name.
In fact, in 2007, Sears issued $1.8 billion in bonds based on the value of three of their brand names Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard. The only thing backing the bonds was the names nothing else.
Your name and reputation are in some way more valuable than your inventory, because you can rarely rebuild a tarnished brand. That is the reason brand managers are especially concerned about guarding a brands image and even keeping an eye on the reputation of the brand, both on and offline.
As they say, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation but only a second to destroy it.
One of the reasons brand names can be valued so highly is that brands dont need large marketing budgets to sell their products. Branding makes the sales process easier. You dont have to ask customers for their business.
People are pulled to the name they know and trust that theyre going to get a quality product. Thats why Starbucks and Google barely have to advertise.
A well known and well trusted brand can also charge a premium price for the same product a competitor offers. The difference is only in the name of the brand and the promise it brings with it.
Because of that, a trusted brand tends to see higher profits than a lesser-known brand. The name creates profitability. Great brands create loyal customers too.
One can launch a number of product lines and even extend these lines under the same brand name, and existing customers will be inclined to use these new products.
Combined, higher prices and customer loyalty means higher revenue growth and a lower cost of sales, as you take advantage of economies of scale. This just means that as you buy larger amounts of something, your cost per unit drops.
Higher profits will also make it easier to attract high quality employees since youll have the resources to obtain their services.
Moreover, as your brand becomes more visible, youll begin to be seen as an authority in your field and a perfect resource for the media to quote or use as an example, which is essentially free advertising for you and your business. As you can see, there are a lot of benefits to branding.
In the following videos, Im going to show you how to figure out a name, USP and logo, leverage the all-to-absent human side of branding, how to use branding to get on the radar of reporters and influential people within your industry, and how to use testimonials, press releases, teaching and public speaking engagements to create authority.
Strategy #1 & Other Great Reasons to Brand Your Business
Now that youve put it altogether, you need to think of a title or a name for whatever youre going to be offering and also a little on unique selling proposition (USP). This is gonna be one of the most important things you do.
Most people only read the headlines when theyre deciding what articles to read or advertisements to click on. So if your name or title isnt catchy, youre probably going to lose a customer.
However there are a few things you can do:
You could use alliteration (using the same letter twice or more Coca-Cola, BBBY, Weight Watchers), rhymes StubHub, or even in your tagline (Rob Popeils Set it and Forget It!) and numbers (such as The 7 Habits of Highly, top 10 reasons)
Come up with at least 200 ideas. The one thats right should make you excited. You should know it when you see it. It should be something you have to ask someone for a pen to write down on the back of a napkin. Theres no guarantee that the name will be perfect but at least you can weed out some really bad stuff.
Microsoft went through thousands of choices over several months, came up with BING and the day it comes out, someone turns it into an acronym for But Its Not Google. So try to think of all the possibilities.
Its like naming your kids. You dont want to give them a name that is gonna get them beat up at school. And you dont want your product to get beat up in the marketplace.
If in your Google Trends search, you found that a non-English speaking country is particularly interested in your product, but you plan to sell there, make sure the name of your brand translates well. Microsoft Vista had problems in Latvia because of this.
Check with the USPTO to see if there is a trademark on the name. Also check with your states dept of corporations to see if the name is taken. To actually go through with a trademark would require a lawyer, 6-18 months of waiting time and a $275 fee, not including the lawyer.
Ask yourself a few questions: Is it easy to spread? Is it something unique? Does it make people curious? And make it a point to test out different names.
Check out Brand Bucket for good name ideas and make sure to get a .com as a domain name.
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A USP is like the promise youre making to customers and its really what differentiates you from your competitors. It needs to be believable but also catchy and original tell them something they havent heard before. Give them a timeframe. Theres a guy with a site called Fluent in 3 Months. He teaches people how to speak another language in three months. Thats his USP.
Stand out, but remember who your audience is. Are they conservative, liberal, young, old? Look at the other products in your niche, especially on the first page of Google for your keywords. How could you improve on their names? What could you offer that would top their offer or product?
Remember also to search your strongest keywords and see what ads come up in Google. This is your competition. Look at their USPs and see if they draw you in. What would make YOU click?
Try to play with a word or make a combination of words or use a common phrase within the category that still makes it obvious what youre selling. Carlton Sheets called his information product No Down Payment common phrase and a USP at the same time.
Remember to make it easy to remember. The most important thing though is to include the benefits. How is it going to improve your customers lives?
For example, a company that sells a strength training program. Ten pounds of muscle in two months or well buy you a gym membership. Its a win-win.
Do something that stands out, though. Think about how many times you hear 100% money back guarantee. Its so overused that its lost its effect. It doesnt really convince anyone anymore. If you really want a boost in sales from a product, you need to do something no one else is doing.
That could be a 110% money back guarantee. I actually know someone who did this and he saw sales go up in the high double digits and returns actually dropped.
The fact is, most people are honest. Theyre not gonna buy a product just to make 10% on their money. It takes time to get a refund and then you throw in the fact that a lot of companies make you jump through hoops to get a refund and its just not worth it.
Zappos, for example, offers a 365 day return policy. And theyre making a lot of money without a lot of returns. Go above and beyond what everyone else is offering and itll pay off.
Theres a good list of really successful USPs in the resources, just in case you need some inspiration.
Now you have your material and a good checklist for titles, names and USPs. Your products ready to go. Now you just have to decide how much to sell it for. Were gonna figure that out next.
This section is more of a supplement to our course on logo design. These are things to think about if you dont have the time to do it yourself or just dont think you have the necessary creativity and youre considering asking a professional.
Although logos might not seem all that complicated, you dont want to lose customers by using one that looks like it was created by a friend who just installed the trail version of PhotoShop. Hey, Brian, you use PhotoShop? Uhh, I dabble. Dabbles not gonna be good enough, B.
Whoever you decide to use, be sure to check out some of their previous work before you give them the job. See if their style resonates with what youre trying to sell. If it does, ask them to come up with 20-30 different designs.
Give them an idea of how you want your brand to be projected. Is it modern or traditional? Is it casual or professional? Is it ethnic or universal? These things will help them narrow down their creative streak and give you what youre looking for.
If there are things you absolutely do not want colors, fonts, whatever, let them know. For example, if you do not like the color orange or you dont think itll be good for your brand, then tell them that. You dont want to waste your time and money on something you dont like at all.
A few things to keep in mind with regard to color. According to Nobel laureate Daniel Kahnemann, the worlds foremost expert on behavioral psychology, your message is more likely to be believed if it is printed in bold, bright blue or red. (Thinking, Fast & Slow)
On the other hand, you want to choose a color thats representative of the kind of personality youd like your company to have. Is it sophisticated, humble, exciting, unique, etc.?
Who is your product being marketed to? If its women, perhaps choose a color with white added to it (soft colors). For men, add black.
If your biggest competitor uses one color, consider using the opposite. This is why Pepsi uses blue as opposed to the red of Coca-Cola. Check out the color rainbow in the screenshot for some ideas.
Once he or she has given you the design options, look for these things: Is it memorable? Is it pleasing to the eye? Put it on your website. Does it look good up in the corner?
Because the logo is what will be imprinted in the minds of your consumers and can sometimes even substitute for the brand name when they are hit with a ton of marketing and promotion. You might even consider making your name and logo one and the same, like Amazon and Google.
According to Eric Ries in The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, the logo or the brand name should be horizontal and preferably 2.25 units wide by 1 unit high. Thatll make it easy to read, especially when people are skimming.
Another thing you want to consider or let your hired help know is the type of font or fonts youre leaning towards.
In a 2009 study by researcher Dawn Shaikh at Wichita States Universitys Software Usability Research Lab on the personality factors of 40 different fonts 10 fonts each from 4 different categories serif (fonts with feet), sans serif (fonts without feet), display type, which are the fonts most typically used for headlines (basically fonts that are almost always set larger than normal type face) and handwritten / script.
379 people were given a sample of nonsense text and a set of bipolar adjectives on a scale with varying points of intensity. Each used a 7-point scale which allowed participants to judge both direction and intensity of their responses:
The study revealed that certain texts do in fact convey corporate personality characteristics. Thus, its important to keep your brands typeface or font consistent with the image or personality you want to convey.
Ive included the charts for each tested font in the resources so you can see which matches up with your desired corporate personality the best.
However, maybe your customers see you differently than you see yourself. The only way to know whether a logo is working is to test it. Use some of the other ideas your hired help gave you and see which gets you better conversions. Always be testing.
Once you have a solid name for your brand youll want to identify your target market. So click on the next video and lets see how.
Strategies #6-9: A Visual Branding Checklist
How to Become the Go-To Resource for Anything and Everything in Your Niche
The Easiest Way to Bring People to Your Site
I have to thank Tommy Walker of ConversionXL for this idea. Once youve narrowed it down to, say, 25, create a spreadsheet that tells you the number of members, threads, posts, which you can find at the bottom of most forums, admins & influential members, commonly discussed topics and the most popular topics.
Read through several forum topics, comments, posts, etc and give each each site a score from 1-10 on the members knowledge and a score from 1-10 on the amount and quality of the interaction among members 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest.
After youve done that, you can sort the spreadsheet by Knowledge score. The sites with the highest ranking are where you could go to learn new things and get ideas. You could then take that knowledge to the groups with knowledge scores of 6 or less and start answering questions and writing comments.
Most times, people who are active on forums with extremely smart members are not going to be active on sites where people dont seem to know what theyre talking about.
But you can become a sort of guru for them and bring them to your site by linking your screen name, which most sites will let you do when you sign up to post comments.
You might also want to post on sites with slightly higher knowledge scores but low interactivity.
Just be sure to answer the questions thoroughly. Most of these low knowledge or low interactivity sites have a lot of quick comments that are either wrong or dont really answer the persons question well.
So if you have knowledge in some area and you take the time to share it with an in-depth, easy-to-understand answer, the readers, your potential customers, are going to be interested in whom you are and what you do, and theyll often check out your site to find out.
It will reflect well on your brand.
You can even look around for the most common unanswered questions, write a post or create a how-to video with the answer and then direct people to it. Creating content, whether its a tutorial, online course, video, article, whatever, is easily the most effective way to build an audience.
Two things to keep in mind as youre creating content, though. Write for your readers and not for someone who already has knowledge about the topic, meaning avoid industry terms and acronyms that the average person wont understand.
And avoid leaving tons of links to your site all over forums and other bloggers comment sections without any material behind it. Youll get banned for spamming and itll hurt your brand value.
Once youve built up a little following, start reaching out to these people by e-mail and ask them some questions. Get to know them and start figuring out what your main demographic has in common.
Where do they live? How did they become interested in your niche? How old are they? What kinds of things about your industry do they wish were explained better? What type of content or products would they like you to create?
The answers to these questions are going to help you narrow your focus to things that really matter to your customers. Because maybe you find out that your audience to be rather affluent and maybe price isnt as much of a factor for them.
Maybe there are more female customers than you thought and you need to change your marketing messages up a bit.
The easiest way to start the conversation is by having an automated e-mail go out to everyone who signs up for your mailing list.
Aweber is a great service for this. Theyve been around for a while and Ive heard nothing but great things. The e-mail can be short, simple and friendly. I want to thank Stuart over at Gleam for this template. He says this e-mail gets about a 50% response rate.
Hey!
This is Matt, one of the partners at IMXL University. If theres anything I can do to help you get started Id be more than happy J Any feedback would be awesome, too. Even if you dont have any questions, hit reply and let me know more about what you do!
You can even get a better idea of your potential customers by using a service called Qualaroo, which displays a survey question in the corner of the screen or wherever you want it to show to your sites visitors like you see in the screenshot.
You could ask something as simple as what theyre looking for and tweak your homepage to tailor it to their answers.
The idea of speaking to your audience, checking out social media conversations, forums and message boards might seem like common sense advice, but too many brands and businesses send out boilerplate or sales e-mails without a personalized touch or they throw up a website, post some things on their social media pages and dont really make an effort to find their customers and get in the middle of the conversation.
People on forums are asking questions. They want to be helped. Its literally like someone walking into your store and saying, I was wondering if you could tell me where to find the blank, do you have any in stock?
Help enough people online and theyll return the favor by buying your products and sharing your brand with others. Its not going to happen overnight, but the more you become a resource to your target market, the more goodwill youll create.
Bottom line, finding and engaging with your target market online is a necessary and extremely effective branding tool.
Strategies #10-19: Getting in Front of Your Audience
Next, the tool to begin engagement is promotion. You should always be doing something to promote your brand and grab attention.
Share your material and promote your business on social media, through contests, forums, blog posts, photos, events, jokes, quotes, tips or personal interactions. Mix it up.
Create a schedule for the next six months with a new promotion every two or three weeks with a good mix of paid and unpaid advertisements. Ironically, the unpaid marketing will likely create the most value for your brand, because its more trustworthy.
Contests and sweepstakes are particularly effective. Everyone likes free stuff and winning.
Figure out what you want to do with your contest increase the number of likes, shares, comments, testimonials, product sales, whatever youre going for.
A company called BeardBrand held a contest for people to send in pictures of their beards. Huge boost to the company. I had never heard of them before that contest.
Maybe you have a business that sells hats. Offer your customers 50 free hats for a photo of the most original hat creation.
You can even tie the contest to a holiday. The other day I was on the site 8tracks, which is a site to upload playlists of music and I noticed that all of the playlists that were catered to certain holidays had the highest number of likes and favorites.
People are always looking for new and exciting things to do and buy around the holidays. Use them to your advantage.
You might have heard of the Webby Awards. They give awards to the best commercials and videos from around the web. They have a category for best promotions.
You can also do a search for other categories and it will show you the winners and nominees for the last nine years. These are the best promotions from around the web.
Look through those, watch the videos and copy their ideas or use them as an inspiration for a contest or promotion you could use for your brand.
As an example that produced great results, Quicken offered $1billion to anybody with a perfect NCAA basketball bracket. Ultimately, they would have only been on the hook for
several million since they had the contest insured, but even if youre a small business or brand, do or offer something no one has done before and the attention you get will pay for your promotion several times over.
On a side note, while youre always looking to make noise, you dont want to overwhelm yourself or your customers with blog posts, contests or e-mails every day.
Im pretty sure Ive unsubscribed from every website Ive ever given my e-mail to that sent me something every day. The e-mails kept adding up and finally I just selected all of them, clicked delete and said, That feels better.
Just be visible. The point is to stay in front of your users and not get drowned by other posts but also not to become an annoyance. The moment youre gone, the chances of other brands taking your spot, increases. And thats just a waste of all your previous efforts
In these campaigns, be sure to always communicate your message clearly. If people dont understand what you do, theyre not going to bother trying to figure it out. Your messages should be easy-to-understand and down-to-earth.
Be consistent, too. In two ways. First, by letting your customers know when they should expect something. Maybe you do a webinar every Wednesday or you offer a discount on the first Monday of every month or you put up a blog post every five days.
And second, by never going back on your word. Choose the words in your marketing messages carefully and make sure you can follow through. Consumers can be pretty unforgiving when they have so many other alternatives to fall back on.
The focus of your messages should be on helping your customers. Give them knowledge about the nature of their need and how your product fulfills it. Tell them the science behind it and attach some emotional value to the product or solution.
Avoid going for a sale immediately after building that emotional bond, though. It will make you seem fake and push people away. It can sometimes result in a short term gain but thats not what you want.
Your message should be easy to share. Have all the available options you can for people to share your content. Download the Flare button for Wordpress. Make your share buttons as large as you can.
When someone shares your content, it automatically becomes more authentic. Its not advertising in the traditional sense anymore. Its a friend telling a friend about something they liked.
Thats why having a strong community on social media is extremely important.
It is important to find out which social media platforms your target market uses the most. You might be surprised to find that maybe your niche uses Quora more than Facebook!
Track where your visits are coming from with Google Analytics and then focus on those sites that give you the most traffic. Dont waste your time on Twitter if only a handful of people are coming from there.
Pay attention also to the times of day when they visit your site and concentrate your time reaching out to them during the hours when your customers seem to be most active.
When you reach out to your customers, always have a strong calls-to-action. You should never end a blog or social media post or an e-mail without a CTA. Put them on your website, on your app, on your facebook page, wherever.
People want to know what to do next. They want to be engaged. Give them a reason to do what you want them to do. Dont just hope.
Make that CTA obvious and easy to understand. Do you want them to read another post? Make your links stand out within your other posts. Do you want them to buy something? Give them a teaser and leave them with a link to purchase the rest the good stuff.
Speaking of buying stuff, your prices are important for your brand image. Often those just starting out think theyll beat the competition with low prices. There will always be other larger businesses that can under-price your stuff and drive you out of business.
Higher prices equals higher perceived value. Price your products higher than average and earn it with outstanding customer service. Click the next video to see how.
Strategies #20-26: Promotions that Convert
Focus on customer service like no other part of your business. Nobody wants to be treated badly by the person theyre giving their money to.
Off the top of your head right now, think of a company thats known for great customer service. Did you think of Amazon or Zappos? Theyre the same company now, but can you think of five companies that have outstanding customer service? Probably not. Its a really rare trait.
Blow your customer away with great customer service and theyll not only come back but theyll be telling all their friends about it, too.
I still tell a story about how Amazon refunded my money less than 20 minutes after I sent an e-mail to them saying the item hadnt arrived on time. No questions asked. Be that kind of brand - responsive, engaging, helpful.
And do it wherever you come into contact with customers - at the point of sale, after the sale, on the phone, the internet, any personal touch point. Showing you care about your customers makes you stand out big time.
Its kind of sad but theres really not a lot of competition in the great customer service club. And yet its one of, if not the most powerful way to create loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.
On the flip side, they say you cant please everyone. That holds true for businesses too.
You may be a star performer for 90% of your customers, but there will always be those 5 or 10% who probably came at a bad time of service; did not follow instructions when using your product or service or are simply creating bad PR because they can.
Truth is, you cannot stop these people from posting negative reviews. But there are a few things to keep in mind when handling bad press or unhappy customers:
Never deny that a problem existed. It makes you look arrogant and not receptive to customers feedback, especially on a big social media platform.
Even if the customer is at fault, acknowledge the issue and clarify politely with a full explanation. There are plenty of other places for customers to take their business if you dont make them happy.
Never argue with a bad reviewer. Getting emotional on the internet is the last thing you want to do. You will come off as weak and uncool.
If there are questions, respond to them. If there are complaints, cater to them. If they are reasonable, alleviate them with prompt action and a mothers touch.
If they are just plain negative comments like XYZ Brand sucks and the CEO is a douche, then just ignore them.
Once youve taken care of the bad PR, guide the conversation to more positive aspects of your business to drown out the negatives.
The key to success in the customer care arena is to always, always respond to the positive comments and thank them for their kindness.
Invest your time in retaining those consumers who love and understand you, rather than those who do not.
IF the person causing problems happens to be a client that does it regularly, terminate them. It might seem crazy to turn down business, but the amount of stress one person can create is enough to take your focus away from the clients that really matter.
Tell the problem client nicely that you can no longer do business with them and refer them to a competitor youre looking to overtake in the market.
Make your business personal and human: So many companies hide behind logos and corporate speak. Show your personality. Be yourself. Be funny. Who doesnt like to laugh?
Funny content and companies get shared a lot more than serious stuff. Check out the Dollar Shave Club video to see what Im talking about.
Plus, sharing personal content about you and your business makes your user feel more connected to your brand. Share the brand story, its struggles to get to where it is and the success stories.
Let the consumer feel that you understand their problems; that you are or were just like them, only now you have the solutions. This goes for in-person contact, too.
Do things so your audience can connect with you in the real world. Hold a fun event for customers a barbecue, a few hours of paintball, a night at Dave & Busters.
You can even do something more serious like a seminar or workshop with games so you can meet them in person. It all depends on what your demographic is. Do something the majority will enjoy.
This will not only keep your customers updated about your brand, but will leverage your other marketing efforts by taking your customers guard down. Theyll be more open to your marketing message when they feel like youre a friend.
With regards to potential customers or just people you meet on the street or at events, lets say someone asks you what you do. Most people will say something boring like oh, Im a finance consultant or Im an engineer. Snore. And then theres an awkward pause while the other person tries to think of another question to sound interested.
Instead of saying your job title, introduce yourself in a way that plugs your brand and creates a conversation opener at the same time.
For example, instead of Im a financial consultant, say, I work for a company called InvestWise. We help people reach retirement more comfortably by showing them the most common investing mistakes. Really, what kinds of mistakes? Bam, hit em with the gospel.
Or, instead of Im an engineer, say, I build machines and electronics that can automate anything. Really? Like what? Give em a list. See what I mean, though. Theyre genuinely interested. The conversation is flowing. You have your pitch and it doesnt feel like marketing.
Just remember that people are always evaluating you and your brand based on what they see in person and online.
Strategies #27-31: Connecting with Your Audience
I would also attempt to give a speech at a large university or a well-known organization near you as another piece you can add to your bio. All you need to do is call up the PR person at the school, let them know youre doing a speech on something the students would be interested in. But have someone record the speech.
Once youve spoken at two universities, send out an e-mail to the PR person at every blue chip company near you that you think has some sort of relation to the topic, tell them itll be a free seminar and just like the Toastmasters speech, have some friends come along and record it from different angles.
Start responding to HARO e-mails that have to do with the general category of your product doesnt even have to be your niche. Even if you end up going a completely different direction, this is still gonna be useful.
Do some quick research online to find an answer to the question. You just want your name in the paper with your business attached to it. Just remember to include a way to get in contact with you at the end of your e-mails to HARO reporters. Its pretty common to forget that part.
Write an article for Business Insider. It can literally be a post with some slides in it. Theyre paying people to write for them literally anybody can do this. Theres a link in the resources so you can see how to do this.
Once youve managed to get in a few articles or written a couple of posts, you have experience teaching at a university and thats what you could say after you spoke at one, or experience speaking at large companies, your own website or blog, youre part of a number of different organizations, you can easily send a press release with a list of your accomplishments to your hometown university, your university, your current town, and any other place where you lived former student does well and get a number of articles written about you, which is gonna drive people to your site.
Theres really not that much that goes in a small town so theyre always looking for a good story.
For example, when I was in college, I sent in a press release talking about the clubs and honors societies Id joined and they put me in the paper the next week. Those were just college clubs. When you get your name in local papers, send those links to mid-size and more well-known papers and ask them to do a story on you.
And finally, post all of these articles and mentions to the press portion of your site.
Strategies #32-39: Trading Up the Chain
The NEW Press Release: 2015 Edition
The days of the old press release are over. Make it sound like an article. However, since most news from any brand is not going to be amazing, you have to tailor it in a way that gets attention.
Thats where the headline comes in. This is the most important part of any press release. Most people are just scanning headlines to decide what to read and reporters see dozens of press releases every day so you have to grab their attention in the half second it takes them to scan that sentence.
And the way to do that is by crafting your headline with some specific features:
Nnumbers and lists (like top 10 reasons or top 10 ways, etc.) Reporters and readers love numbered lists because they get high page views and a reporter can often turn it into a slideshow for even more views.
Questions are also extremely good for getting attention (and the more outlandish the question, the better, even if the answer is no for example, lets say a pharmaceutical company came up with a new cold medicine thats a little more effective than anything else on the market.
To give it a headline like The Best New Cold Medicine on the Market sounds like a typical claim from any drug company. Its like going to NY and seeing a sign that says The best Pizza in the World. It doesnt sound believable and doesnt evoke much interest. But, if you phrase it like, Did Doctors Just Find the Cure for the Common Cold? Its going to get a lot more attention. People are going to want to know if they really did or not.
Provocative statements can also work well with limits and depending on your industry. If youre pitching a product to a conservative crowd, this might not be a great idea but for a younger demographic, this could work well.
The most important aspect of any headline, however, is to appeal to self-interest. No one will click or read unless it creates curiosity or theres something in it for them.
There are a few things you should avoid, too:
Try not to give away the good stuff in the headline. If they already know from the headline exactly what the story is about, then theres no point in clicking on the link.
Eliminate corporate speak and technical words from the headline. Make it easy enough for anyone to understand.
And finally, cut the outlandish claims and words and exclamation points, like Amazing New Product Makes You a Millionaire in One Week! Exclamation points do not sell products. They make your ad look cheap and unbelievable.
Start collecting headlines that make you click. Any story you read, just copy and paste the headline into a Word document and study the structure or wording.
What was it that made you click? We have some great examples in the resources if youre looking for some inspiration.
Always use a picture or video in your release. This will cost a little more but it will pay for itself in attention and sales. A lot of people are like kids when they read the news. This story doesnt have any pictures. You have to stop their crying with visual tissues.
Next, always give the company information, address and email or phone number. Never forget to do this. You need a way for people to find you. Giving a fact sheet of your brand or company will also help generate interest in your brand.
When creating a press release for distribution to news outlets or blogs, its important to focus on only the outlets that have sections on your niche or serve the markets, demographics and interests that your service or product benefits.
A lot of people will send a press release to anybody and everybody. This. Is. A Mistake. hit the right audience so you can create a connection and give it a local touch so it doesnt seem like advertising. Your product will sell much better with a narrower focus.
Yahoo! has a free one. It is an online directory of general and industry specific news outlets which has media formats and subjects categorized by news.
You should also dispatch your PR to key government leaders. While they may be too busy for a meeting with you, you can send them an e-mail or letter telling them how your business can contribute to the local economy. Show them links to the stories that have been written about you to add some credibility.
Strategies #40-49: PR Like a Boss
Teaching is going to be huge in terms of building your brand. You not only get practice speaking and organizing your ideas so that you sound more confident with clients, but when you use sites like Udemy and Skillshare, you get your name, picture and material posted in front of thousands, maybe millions of people. And the results show up high in Google searches.
Any recorded presentation youve given provided its at least an hour can be put up as a course on one of these sites, including the links to anything you mention and any other helpful resources or articles.
People will come back to you if you provide valuable information. You become like an aggregator of sorts. They dont have to go to a million websites to get it.
You can even provide discounts on your products or services for all your students. There isnt a better way to promote yourself than this because you are giving your students something in return. Its a win-win situation!
Udemy has a feature of giving announcements to their students. You can use this option to promote a new offering like a book you have written, a new product you have launched or an event you will be speaking at.
The forum will send this announcement in the form of an email to all your students so its like adding a bunch of addresses to your email list.
You can also use Udemy instructors as a gateway to giving away your free material could be an e-book, whitepaper, etc. Look for popular instructors (with 1000s of former students) that teach skills that are complementary to your business.
Take one of their courses and ask them if they wouldnt mind sending an announcement in exchange for a free year of your service.
You can also leverage all your efforts of teaching by asking your students to write a review for you or do a video testimonial in exchange for a discounted course.
If you are a beginner, you might give away a few courses for free and build your following. Once you have a strong reputation, start charging for enrollment. Free courses almost guarantee high enrollment, especially if you get the news out on social media and discount sites like FatWallet and SlickDeals.
And high enrollment often gets your course on the front page. Sometimes Udemy sends out enticement e-mails saying if you upload a course by a specific date, they will feature it on the front page. And the front page is where you wanna be.
Teaching is a great gateway for establishing authority and building a brand.
You can make your course more exciting by creating teasers or trailers for the sequels or other courses youre creating or have created. At this point, youve been building up some press and getting speaking engagements. Now were gonna see how to get some celebrity association.
Strategies #50-53: Online Nostalgia
Another way to promote your brand is to be associated with celebrities or influential people within your space. Being seen or heard with these sorts of people in any way will give you and your brand credibility by association.
It can be as simple as getting a picture taken with them as long as you dont look star struck, getting to know them personally or interviewing them.
Getting to know them can be as simple as promoting their material on your blog and reaching out with a tweet or an e-mail to show them you did so or simply researching and interacting with them.
John Morgan talks about researching influential people in his book, Brand Against the Machine:
When I first dove in, I made a list of 50 people I wanted to be connected with. These were 50 people who were in a position to help my business. I spent several months listening. I paid attention to what they wrote about. Did they have family? What sports team did they like? I made notes of anything and everything about them. After several months of listening first, I then began to engage with them. I spent months chatting with them online about their business and the things that interested them. After eight months of being very focused, I had secured 43 of the 50 as affiliates who would promote my business.
Eight months is a long time but building relationships takes time. You cant just walk up to the hot girl on the street and ask her to marry you. You have to open her, hit her with a DHV, do the push-pull, watch for IOIs, go in for the kill and then you can marry her.
Same thing with forming branding relationships. You open a blogger casually, youre not selling anything, just wanted to say I love your stuff, promote their post, send them some valuable material, back off for a while, dont wanna seem too anxious, hit em with some more useful stuff, look for the indicators of interest. Hey, this is good stuff. I like it. Thanks, man! Then, you hit em with the pitch. This is how my business can benefit you and your readers.
The basic blueprint for attracting influencers is to start a list of influential bloggers and writers you can find with FollowerWonk or blogmetrics.org.
FollowerWonk works alongside Twitter and lets you see the people with the most followers for a given keyword. All jokes aside, once you have a list of about 50 and youve researched them like John recommended start reaching out to them.
First, let them know you exist by commenting on their blogs and responding to questions they ask on Twitter or Facebook. Follow that by sending them a short cold e-mail with a little bit of flattery, proof that youve read their material, a question, maybe some humor and a thank you.
After youve sent a few messages back and forth, ask to link up with them on LinkedIn, which will allow them to check out your background. At this point, they might ask you about something in your profile. Use that as a segueway to mention your business and what you do.
From there, its just about being patient, letting the conversation flow and eventually asking them to promote your business after several months of contact.
Most bloggers love being affiliates for someone with a good product or service. They get a cut of the action and you get a big audience.
Forming relationships will allow you to interview semi-celebrities and influential people in your niche and can go a long way to boosting your brands perception.
When you associate yourself with someone influential, people start to think of you as someone with credibility and credibility or trust leads to the ability to charge higher prices.
Being seen with those influential people in some way begins to turn you into an influencer yourself, especially if your niche is small. Get enough association and eventually you become the guy people are asking to interview.
Getting an interview with someone influential is easier than you think even if you havent finished building that relationship yet. Just ask someone in your space. People are always looking to promote their brands. Any opportunity they can get to reach a similar audience is a great thing for them.
A few tips for interviewing. Make your interviews friendly and fun. Have a lot of questions prepared but dont interview like a 60 Minutes reporter.
Be Larry King on his new show - light and easy to talk to. Watch episodes of his interviews on the internet and pay attention to Larry instead of the person hes talking to. His questions are short and to the point, not long explanations like senators in a confirmation hearing.
My cousin once asked Larry King what the best advice for a great interview is and Larry said, Listen. Listen. A lot of times your interviewee is going to give you the next question. Dont be so focused on your list. You can get much more valuable material following through with something they already said rather than moving onto the next topic.
Larry also says to make your questions memorable, so that the answers would still be relevant years from now. Look at other interviews theyve done and try to come up with questions that no one has asked before.
What kinds of things would be interesting to learn from them? What things would you want your readers to know?
You might consider using the site contactanycelebrity.com to find people that you wouldnt otherwise have the chance to get to know via social media or e-mail.
Theres a free seven day trial and then its $197 a month after that. Tim Ferriss has a great dialogue for getting in touch with major celebrities in The 4-Hour Workweek. You can find the excerpt in the resources. Be sure to check out his books.
Strategies #54-60: Can I Have Your Autograph?
According to a 2012 Nielsen report, which surveyed more than 28,000 respondents in 56 countries, only 47% of people said they trusted paid ads, a decline of more than 20% over the last three years.
Most people ignore anything that looks like advertising. Theres just too much of it, its a turn-off and its not trustworthy. You might see an ad online out of the corner of your eye or in your general field of vision, but that usually just makes you aware of a brand or product.
What actually gets you to buy it is what we might call social proof testimonials, case studies and reviews from people who have actually used the product.
According to the same Nielsen study, 92% consumers said that they trusted recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising.
Coming in second was online reviews, which 70% of those surveyed indicated they trusted. Thats why youll likely look at the reviews of a book on Amazon before you buy it, even if it was recommended by a friend.
Reviews or testimonials are very powerful in getting people to buy your product.
It does not matter what your line of work, product or service is, testimonials will get you more leverage than possibly any mode of communication other than a news story.
The best thing is theyre cheap, theyre extremely efficient and you can use them forever. They also arent so ubiquitous as to make people ignore them.
My advice would be to try to collect as many as you can. All you have to do is ask your customers for one. Thats it. Pretty easy stuff.
Plus, the keywords within those testimonials or reviews are seen highly by Googles algorithm and will move you up the search results list.
The first thing to remember is that testimonials work best when they come from credible people, especially from industry experts who may have experienced your products OR from real consumers everyday people.
Stay away from mass testimonial writers who will do the job for a fee. They can be easily identified and can backfire on your reputation.
Another thing to remember is that testimonials dont necessarily have to be in the form of a written review from your customers. The idea is simply to get credibility. You can
get it from showing your association with well-known clients that have used your product or from newspapers, magazines and online media sources that you were quoted or featured in.
Put up an As Featured in with a logo of their company on your homepage or on your social media networks and add it to your bio. John Smith has been featured in Forbes, The NY Times, etc. Good companies will seldom work with subpar suppliers and your association with them will show that you are just as good.
The next thing to note is that while written testimonials are great, video testimonials tend to have more impact than text. You can capture peoples expressions and pitch, and really put emotion into words.
And this is easier than ever nowadays because everyone has a smartphone. To get a good set of testimonials to put on your website, offer something free in exchange for the best one.
You can even upload these onto video hosting sites like YouTube and Yahoo! Reviews and testimonials tend to rate high in Google search results when people look for a business by name.
You should also reach out to the people or companies that gave you a testimonial and ask them if you could do a case study featuring their business. This is a win-win for both of you. They get links and press for their site and you get proof that your product works really well.
Once you have testimonials and cast studies, you should put them everywhere. They should feature on your website home page, your sales pitch, your social media accounts, etc.
Make sure you add the human touch by asking the writer for permission to feature their photo. Happy and smiling people indicate happiness and satisfaction, and that has to connect with your product. If they allow it, also include their first and last name, occupation and location.
Use all the information you can to show that the review is coming from an actual consumer and is not a paid gimmick.
Ask for referrals while you're asking for testimonials.
Strategies #61-65: Creating Word of Mouth
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