Branding Mistakes to avoid like the plague…
Have you ever received an advertisement in the mail from a big corporation?
The kind of corporation that spends 10’s of millions a year on “Branding” and name recognition marketing?
Trying to model those big faceless corporations is usually one of the biggest mistakes when it comes to small business marketing.
Why?
They have massive budgets and work so hard to showcase their brand, but don’t put any work at all into generating sales because it isn’t the biggest priority.
They mainly want to build awareness of their brand and create the impression that they are a big, successful company to shareholders, and higher-up executives.
The problem with doing this as a small business is this method takes a lot of time and money. Something the average small business owner doesn’t have a ton to waste.
It’s really a shame when you think about it.
One of the most common mistakes small businesses make when trying to imitate these big brands, is using prime advertising spaced to plaster their company name, logo and other self-serving information — instead of focusing on the problems/wants of the prospective customer or client.
That’s a massive waste because you have such a limited opportunity to get their attention and entice them into reading the rest of your ad.
That’s not the time to boast about your company, unless the people are already familiar with your brand such as past clients, leads you’ve already spoken with or sent info to etc…
Your ads to cold traffic, or people who have never heard of you, is not the time to talk about your company’s financial strength, how long its been around, how many employees…
That’s kinda like a guy who takes a girl out on their first date, and then proceeds to do nothing but talk about himself. His education… his accomplishments… his career… his ambitions… his interests… and doesn’t bother to find out what the young lady is interested in.
It’s best to start off with where the prospect is.
Join the conversation going on in their mind. What’s the biggest problem they have as it relates to your product?
Start there and you immediately gain there attention.
Start bloviating and pontificating about yourself and your message ends up scrolled past, deleted from the inbox or straight in the trash can without a second thought.
If you want to brand the right way (for a small business), and get sales at the same time… go here for more tips and a free report detailing my process to building customer acquisition machine:
www.businessbuildingtechnician.com
Wayne Brown
Business Growth Strategist/Copywriter/Coach
Tags: advertising, branding
