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

I’ll never forget how surprised I was to receive the little booklet from Google.

You see, I’ve always thought of Google as the quintessential electronic business.  Who would have thought that they’d print up little spiral bound booklets and mail them to small business owners like me?  But they did.  Here is the booklet I got in the mail one day:

The booklet is called “Tweak Your Way to Profitability.”   The subtitle is “Tips for Boosting Your Income with AdSense.”

It contains tips for running Google AdSense units on your website to earn extra income.

Several things intrigued me about this marketing piece – so much so, that over 4 years later I still have it.  

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When you’re creating your marketing materials, do you struggle to find the right balance between eye-popping promises and reality?  Sure, you can get people to pay attention with claims like:

• Lose 20 lbs in 2 weeks – no dieting.
• Double your income in half the time.

However, there are a couple of problems with making outrageous claims.  You may get people’s attention, but they won’t necessarily believe you.  People will be looking for the fine print of your offer.   They know if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!

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Google inspired me.

Yes, Google inspired me to create a marketing collateral piece for my business, from its little AdSense booklet that I received in the mail several years back.  (See the booklet and read more about it here.)

Today I’d like to share my own booklet – the booklet that Google inspired.  When I saw Google’s booklet, a light bulb went on over my brain.  “A ha!  I can create something like that to drive people back to my website,” I thought.

You see, I run a Web-based publishing business – akin to an informal online magazine.  I have struggled to come up with meaningful printed collateral to hand out at in-person events and speaking engagements that will get people to go online and visit my website.

In my case, going to my website is the single biggest call to action.  My goal is to get people to go to my website, whereupon they read information, subscribe and participate in the community.  So I created my own booklet, which looked like this:

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Think of a megabrand—Coca-Cola, Apple or McDonald’s. Their logos and brand colors immediately jump to mind, right? Unfortunately, omnipresence isn’t achieved overnight. So let’s forget about logos and design for a moment. Not that those aren’t key elements when building a brand, but as a small business with limited resources, you’ll have to tap into other ways to make people remember your brand and your product.

One of the most effective—and cost-effective—brand identity tools is storytelling. A good story doesn’t just create a connection between you and your customers, it’s also something they’re likely to share with others.

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Your product is one among millions.
With so many products, why should a customer choose yours?
Positioning answers this question.

A product’s “position” is the place it occupies in the customer’s mind.
All products have a position—
even if it’s the position of “unfamiliar” or “irrelevant to me” or “not very good”.
Successful products are both relevant and highly ranked.
They stand out. They have a unique position.
The purpose of “positioning” is to create and articulate what makes your product unique.

A key step in positioning is writing a positioning statement.
Let’s start with a template based on the classic positioning structure
used by Procter and Gamble:

Or if you want to be really succinct, use this one by Marty Neumeier:

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