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Give
Your Business a Message Tune-Up |
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As
your company grows, your core brand and marketing messages must
grow with it. To expand into new markets and take on new competitors,
it's essential to keep your message on target. Yesterday's marketing
campaigns and materials helped you get here, but they now may
need some fine-tuning.
Here's some tips to help keep your message fresh:
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- Survey Your Customers
If you haven't conducted a survey
of your customers in a while, maybe now is the time. Find
out what your company's strengths and weaknesses are straight
from your customers. What do they believe sets you apart;
what do they like most and least about working with you;
and what qualities do they look for in providers like you.
You may be surprised what you will learn. Use the feedback
as a starting point to tweaking your core brand messages.
- Assess Your Prospects Needs
If you've got your sights set on expansion
into new markets or growing in markets where you may just
have a “toe in the water,” then you need to find
out what's important to the people you are targeting. You
can do this through primary research, like a focus group
or survey, and by researching market trends through hard
copy and online media. If you can, get a hold of your competitors'
brochures and find out what they are emphasizing.
- Develop a New "Elevator" Statement
Using the feedback from your customer
survey and prospect research, begin to create your enhanced
brand message and value proposition. Your company description
and message should be simple and understandable, and most
importantly, should have meaning to the people you are selling
to. A good drill is to describe your company as you would
to someone who was riding in an elevator with you. You need
to be concise, simple and understandable, and benefit-oriented.
- Tweak the "Face" of Your Brand
Now that you have honed your message,
it's time to enhance the components it appears in. Your
message won't get through unless it's consistently executed
in your “face” to the marketplace — your
logo and tagline, your website, and your collateral. There's
no need to tackle all this at once. We suggest that you
start with the fundamentals of your logo and tagline to
see if any improvements can be made. Next, move on to your
collateral so your sales force has the right tools for selling.
Your website is a larger project that is best done if spread
out over a reasonable and adequate time period.
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