You’ve had a dream of starting your own business for years, and you’re finally making it happen. You’ve got your idea, business name, and location (if your business needs one). Now you’re ready to begin attracting customers or clients but not sure where to begin. 

If you have opened your own business or someday plan to, you’ll need to brand yourself, but the concept of branding can be so overwhelming it’s hard to know where to start. This week’s post will simplify to two steps to help you get started amplifying your brand and growing your business.

Before we dive into these steps, let’s define branding and why it matters. 

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association, 2022).

When you’re a solopreneur, i.e., hairdresser, photographer, organization specialist, etc., you are an extension of your brand and therefore need to brand yourself. Doing so will help you hone your message to your audience and help keep you from chasing customers that don’t make sense for your business (for example, a hairdresser marketing to a bald man). 

 

Julie Andrews said it best when she sang, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start,” as Maria Von Trapp in Sound of Music (Rogers & Hammerstein).

Grab a pencil and some paper, put on your thinking cap, and begin to brainstorm who exactly you want to buy your product or service. You can do a barebones outline as shown below to get started before expanding and detailing your ideal market.

Step one: Create a Barebones Idea of Your Business and Target Market.

Start by creating a barebones outline of the following prompts:

• Business Concept: (what product or service am I selling?)
• Buyer persona: (who is most likely to be interested in purchasing my product or service) 
• Unique Value Proposition: (what I alone can bring to the table)

Step two: Expand and further define your business, your audience, and your UVP 

This step will help you hone and build upon a foundation that you started in the first step. This step will help you move from generic: “I am a home organizer” to specific: “I am a busy momma who educates other busy mommas on how getting their home neatly organized helps them to spend more time with their babies.” 

As your business grows, you can continuously refine your branding, but the steps listed above can help get you started. 

If you would like more guidance on building your target persona or your personal brand, please email mthornt2@stedwards.edu for a free Zoom session to brainstorm ideas. 

 

References

American Marketing Association. (2022, January 24). Definitions of Marketing. Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.ama.org/the-definition-of-marketing-what-is-marketing/

Hammerstein, O., Rogers, R. (1965). Do-Re-MI [Recorded by Julie Andrews, Nicholas Hammond, Debbie Turner, Duane Chase, Heather Menzies, Angela Cartwright, Kym Karath & Charmian Carr (Sound of Music Cast)]. On The Sound of Music [Vinyl]. RCA Victor.

Photos and videos courtesy of:

https://storyset.com/business”>Business illustrations by Storyset

Freepik.com

Adobe Stock

Relationship marketing. It’s a term you’ve likely heard before, but what exactly does it mean, why is it important, and how can you apply the principles to your marketing strategy?

My name is Mary Anne, your resident Relational Marketing Guru. My career has mixed sales and marketing together, relying on customer relationships to market new products or retain customers in my current position. Over the next few weeks, this blog will cover the concept of relationship marketing, why it is essential, and offer tips on implementing tactics into your marketing plan and with staff across various departments in your organization.

What is Relationship Marketing?
The Association of National Advertisers defines relationship marketing as “Relationship Marketing is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy that emphasizes customer retention, satisfaction, and lifetime customer value. Its purpose is to market to current customers versus new customer acquisition through sales and advertising” (The Association of National Advertisers, n.d.).

Relationship marketing is the practice of seeking to understand the customer’s needs, wants, and desires by getting to know them personally. As someone who works with customers daily, getting to know customers personally lets me know if an additional product or service is right for them. Still, most importantly, it leaves the customer feeling like they are important and listened to.

Four Reasons Relationship Marketing Is Important
#1. Relationship marketing helps you best identify your target market
Focusing on building relationships with your customers can help your organization pinpoint precisely who your target market is. Correctly defining your target market can avoid a lot of wasted resources.

#2. Relationship marketing builds loyalty and trust
Getting to know your customers personally allows for trust to be earned between your organization and the customer. In turn, this loyalty and trust can lead to an increase in sales.

#3 Relationship marketing can improve your CLV
Your organization wants to ensure that great customers stay long-term and continue to subscribe to your service or purchase your products. Longer-term customers equates to a higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). In addition, relationship marketing builds loyalty and trust. When customers trust a company and feel that their needs, wants, and desires are being taken care of, they will stay longer as a customer and refer friends and family to your organization.

#4 Loyal customers refer friends
When done well, relationship marketing can carry over into referral marketing. Taking good care of customers by genuinely getting to know what they need often leads to sharing the experience with their family and friends. According to Neilsen, in 2021, 88% of customers trust word-of-mouth referrals from friends and family (Neilsen, 2021).

Relationship marketing is a strategy that connects the organization with its customers by being authentic and personal. It helps you better understand your target market and brings value to your customers by establishing and supporting a long-term relationship.

To learn more about how you can apply the principles of relationship marketing, please connect with me on LinkedIn.

References
Neilsen. (2021). Nielsen. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://www.nielsen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/11/2021-Nielsen-Trust-In-Advertising-Sell-Sheet.pdf
The Association of National Advertisers. (n.d.). Relationship Marketing. ANA. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/brand-activation-relationship-marketing