Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Unlike nearly all other forms of marketing, direct marketing allows you the unique opportunity to test the success of not just the complete marketing effort, but discrete pieces of the marketing program individually. This is called split testing.

A split test is a head-to-head test between two different versions (or variables) of a specific element of a direct marketing program. For example, when split testing a direct mail piece, you would send out two versions of the same sales letter.

Both letters are almost identical, except that one includes a bold headline that asks the customer to order. Both include different website URLs to visit to place an order. Each of the website order pages look and act exactly the same. The purpose is to record which sales letter the customer responded to. This type of split test would allow you to discover which of the two sales letters was most effective, the one with the headline or the one without.

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Large corporate businesses have one advantage over small businesses: they have more people and resources. Because they’re such vast collections of individuals, and it can be difficult for consumers to understand an organization that large,  branding has been developed to control how consumers feel about a company and its products and services.

A brand is a collections of symbols and mental associations connected with a company or product. When defining a company’s brand, marketers seek to develop and align the consumers’ expectations, creating the impression that a product has certain qualities that make it unique or special.

In a small business, your brand doesn’t have to be a collection of symbols because you, the small business entrepreneur, are the brand. What you do and say reflects on all aspects of your business. You humanize your business in a way that corporate brand marketers could only dream about.

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What does every business have in common? A brand. It might not be the same for everyone, but it is a strategy they all have to employ at some point. Essentially, it will represent every positive, or potentially negative, thought a customer will have about your company.

Of course no business would want their brand to give people a negative impression. But, what do they want it to say? That’s a question that you need to ask yourself. The actual answer will depend on you.

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No matter what you want to call it — direct mail, junk mail, circulars, ads, or spam — they all share the same purpose: to motivate you to buy from them. While a lot of what is out there may actually be junk, a savvy direct marketer inspires the recipient to read their ad.

Unlike your brand, which will tell the customer what to think, your marketing strategy must tell them what to do. Before you can effectively do that, you need to know how.

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Upon introduction, it only takes a split second before your customer has created their own impression of your business and what you do. Before you allow that decision to be made, you have to decide what you want that first impression to be.

How you market yourself, as well as the presentation of your materials, will tell the customer everything they need to know about you. However, you must first present that information in a way that will allow them to feel positive about you and what you do.

Dress To Impress

While you can’t impress everyone, you can ‘dress’ your materials to offer the message you want the customer to receive. You wouldn’t walk into an important meeting wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt, would you? Neither should your marketing materials!

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