Branding Archives - Marlin Consulting Solutions

Connect with Your Customers by Sharing What You Love

seowerkz — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 13:40:00 +0000

Customers who feel emotionally connected to a brand are more likely to maintain loyalty to said brand. Building that connection can be difficult for a business, but let’s remember that your business was built by you, a human. In a time where every company is vying for attention, you can use your hobbies and passions to gain the attention of your consumers.

Social media simultaneously provides more opportunities to connect with your customers than ever before while providing a great platform to humanize your brand and build trust with consumers.

The down side: your competitors know this to be true, as well! You need to stand out from the crowd and apart from your competition, while actively communicating to your target audience that you know their pain and you have the solution to their shared problem. How? By sharing what you love.

I don’t mean telling them your favorite flavor of ice cream. I’m talking about sharing your passions, hobbies and interests.

Emotions are a huge part of decision making, as much as we love to deny it. Your customers make emotional decisions every single time they interact with your brand. It doesn’t mean they’re having some kind of epiphany every time they make a purchase, but they buy a product or service based on their connection to your brand. They also feel the anticipation of happiness when they decide to buy.

Hobbies Play a Vital Role

Authenticity – People are incredibly good at spotting fake enthusiasm. You can’t fake happiness when you’re talking about something you love. If you share your passion in a video on social media or write about it in a blog post, your genuine enthusiasm will show. It’s real and being real humanizes your otherwise cold and unfeeling brand.

Trust – Your customers will gain insight into who you are and what drives your brand. This insight will help you connect with your customers, building more brand trust. By nerding out about your hobbies, you’re not selling them anything. You’re simply sharing a little bit about who you are.

Relatability – Almost every single person has a hobby. Even if it’s not the same as yours, people will know the feeling of being completely absorbed in a pastime. We all have that one thing we could talk about for hours and hours. Your customers will be able to relate to you through this.

Conversation starter – In the same vein of relatability, sharing your hobbies is a great conversation starter; a way to encourage your customers to interact on social media. Just like you could talk at length about your own hobby, your customers will be only too happy to share their own passions, taking pride as if they are “in the know”. This allows them the opportunity to feel valued beyond what they contribute to your bottom line.

In closing, if you connect with your customers it plays a HUGE role in strengthening consumer loyalty, generating FREE word-of-mouth advertising, building brand credibility, and helping you stand out from the competition. When consumers feel they have a story to share, they will be only too willing to spread the word about you and your brand to anyone and everyone. It’s a win-win!
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The Best Places to Feature Your Logo

seowerkz — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 13:51:00 +0000

A logo is so much more than a pretty face! It’s got the potential to unite your visual branding to convey a message to your audience. This seemingly innocuous image is actually quite powerful if you use it correctly. Sadly, many brands treat it as an afterthought, quickly forgotten by consumers. Businesses lose the opportunity for their audience to visually connect with the brand. Afterall, beauty is nothing apart from brains!

When your logo is used to its full potential, it can quickly become the first thing your customers recall when they think of your brand. If you’re doing things right, they will relive all the good feelings they associate with your brand when they see that image in their mind’s eye.

Here are some of the best places to feature your logo:

In your website header. For many new customers, their first experience of your brand will be via your website. Having your logo featured in your website header will ensure that they have a clear idea of who you are and the message you want to convey.
In your social media. Branding goes beyond your website. It can be easy to treat your social media pages as a separate entity, yet they are a vital part of your visual branding. Make sure to include your logo on every social media page you have.
On your invoices. Invoices aren’t very exciting to look at. In fact, most of your clients will likely give them a cursory glance. However, the presence of your logo on your business invoices catches the attention of your customers, signifies your professionalism and is a visual representation of your cohesive business elements.
In purchase confirmations. Your customer is going to be in “feel good” mode when they’ve made a purchase from you. In those immediate moments after a purchase when their order confirmation appears on the screen, you’ll want to capture that positive emotion and link it to your brand. This is exactly where you want to be sure your logo is featured.
On your emails. Newsletters, promotional emails and even basic customer service responses all present an opportunity to share and connect with your customers. Consider including your logo in your signature whenever you communicate with them.
In your downloadable content. If you offer downloadable content – a paid product or free ebooklet – make sure to brand it! Having your logo featured on the content will raise the trust factor and create an opportunity to stay in your customers’ minds for longer.

You can increase your level of engagement by using your logo both on and offline if you think strategically. The goal is to raise brand awareness and increase lead generation. Remember: your logo is often the first insight a consumer will gain into your brand. It should be featured on every piece of information, material, digital media and element of your business! Don’t use it sparingly! Go all out and be liberal!

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Your Knowledge Builds Your Brand

seowerkz — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 19:16:00 +0000

As a business owner, you fuel the success of your employees, customers and ultimately your business simply by sharing your knowledge of your products and services. Afterall, knowledge is power and, when communicated effectively, your insight can bring about sales opportunities as you flex your impressive brand muscles. In addition, some of the best sales leaders understand that sharing knowledge has a greater impact on consumers than annoying sales pitches. Knowledge sharing benefits include:

Inspired product innovation & development within your company.
Engaged employees who feel they are a crucial component of your big picture.
Employee collaboration & better workload distribution.
Less wasted time as employees are able to strategize much faster.
Greater speed & accuracy in meeting the needs of consumers.
Clearer, more accurate business-to-customer communication.
Decreases mistakes allowing staff to clearly identify potential problems before they arise.
A faster means by which to obtain pertinent knowledge pertaining to the current market & the efficacy of your marketing campaigns.
Enriched company culture as all opinions are heard. This opens up a broader platform for development & creativity within your company.
Recorded failures & successes leading to a more tailored company trajectory.
Refined practices & procedures.
The production of company experts: your shared knowledge boosts your workforce standards, allowing your staff to become experts in your business.

As a business owner, you can’t afford not to share knowledge. When you have an effective knowledge-sharing structure in place, the right people – your staff and customers – get the right info at the right time. Furthermore, it is up to you as the captain of the ship to ensure everyone knows where to find pertinent information and how to share it.

One of the most important keys to effective knowledge sharing is to utilize multiple platforms.

YouTube Videos

If you type in “clogged sink” on Google, the search engine will likely produce multiple YouTube results full of plumbers who will have simple solutions for your problem. While none of the plumbers are selling you anything, they are visually establishing their place as experts while leaving you with their contact info in the event you’d like to enlist their services.

The benefit of knowledge sharing via YouTube is that it allows you to be more creative with more memorable information, has a greater potential to captivate your audience and it doesn’t have to be lengthy. In fact, the shorter, the better! You are getting your knowledge and brand information out to the general public.

Explainer Videos

Explainer videos are a great way to share knowledge in a brief, informative and entertaining manner. Simple cartoon what-we-do and how-we-do it videos are known to work better than text because they require little effort on the part of your audience in order to obtain information quickly and they are easily shareable. Consult your marketing professional regarding explainer videos.

Podcast

Podcasts are an especially effective means of education, self help and shared interests and are quickly becoming all the rage across all demographics. Consider starting your own podcast featuring weekly tips or benefits of your products and services. You could even enlist the help of some of your frequent customers and feature them on your podcast on a frequent basis. Consumers will appreciate hearing from fellow consumers as to how your company has played a role in solving a problem and adding value to their lives

Books

Book recommendations are a great way to communicate your expertise to both staff and consumership. Knowing that you are well read builds consumer confidence in a world where research is becoming increasingly important to customers. Learn about various ebooks, current books in print and even audio book options you could recommend to clients which serve to highlight your knowledge and expertise. You could even offer a free book to first-time customers as a thank-you gift for their business. Consumers love freebies!

Digital Product

Digital products are crucial to knowledge sharing, identifying current consumer problems and presenting them with an instant solution. Digital products are also very easy and quick to create in ratio to the impact they can achieve as they deliver value quickly, offering consumers an immediate return on their investment. Digital products benefit your brand by:

Delivering passive income.
Decreasing work time as a digital product can be created once and sold repeatedly for an indefinite time frame.
Serving a broader number of consumers at a faster rate.
Allowing you to work from anywhere, affording you flexibility and a stronger balance between your work and personal life.
Allowing you to start selling products/services immediately.
Lowering overhead such as: office space rent, utilities, warehouse fees, employee salaries/benefits, possible insurance fees, etc.
Knocking out the middle man & maintaining direct lines of communication with your customers.
Unlimited stock & total elimination of stock/restocking fees!

Courses

While creating a course can be quite an investment of your time, there are many successful companies who offer various courses to their customers, further compelling consumer loyalty and purchases. Home Depot, for example, has experienced billions of dollars in increased revenue nationwide upon commencement of their in-store “DIY” classes, creating additional profit far beyond what they were experiencing in product sales. Whether online or in-person, consumer courses are a great way to monetize your expertise while further working to build a lifelong relationship with them.

Knowledge is only powerful when it is shared and goes a long way in making employees and consumers feel that their voices are heard, they are individually valued, stirs creative juices, addresses problems quickly and is an effective way of producing a greater stream of income for your business. Don’t clam up! Share your pearls of wisdom and reap the benefits!

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Advantages of Establishing a Help Desk for Your Business

seowerkz — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 12:59:00 +0000

Customer satisfaction is the primary goal for all companies as contented customers build businesses, increase revenue and set you apart from your competitors. Your brand is strengthened when your customers are satisfied, remaining loyal to you above your competition. Unfortunately, deadlines, communication, important messages, and crucial business matters commonly fall by the wayside when companies operate without help desk software. The truth is that customers want twenty-four/seven support, proactive solutions, and timely quality service addressing their complaints and concerns at superhuman, lightning speed. Six benefits of incorporating help desk software into your business include:

Single, one-stop solutions for customer complaints, assistance requests, queries, and support from one place
Status tracking and monitoring of complaints, service requests, solutions, and resolutions
Improved customer satisfaction and quality service
Increased speed in problem resolution and efficacy
Brand reputation is strengthened
Improved understanding of what customers want and improved quality in delivering support, products, and services

Imagine streamlining much of your most time-consuming, mundane daily tasks by cutting out the process of combing through old emails in order to trace issues or complaints. Help desk software enables you and your staff to quickly track questions, issues, and tasks, resulting in greater adaptability and responsiveness to your customers. In addition, a help desk creates a way for your customers to solve problems on their own without waiting on the phone for hours or jumping through complicated hoops in order to get the service they require.

Help desk software enables you to prioritize and keep track of the most urgent tasks and customer concerns. For example, you can set up a system that allows you to handle consumer issues on a first-come, first-served basis or an urgency “grading system” which bumps more concerning issues to the top of the queue of issues to be addressed. In addition, more pressing issues that require your direct attention can be more efficiently optimized, ensuring no consumer feels as though their concerns have gone unaddressed or that they have been neglected for an unreasonable period of time. When customer concerns are addressed promptly and efficiently, you as a business owner can make consumers feel valued, strengthening your brand’s integrity while creating greater revenue opportunities as you increase consumer trust in your business.

Help desk software allows business owners to create a better understanding of consumer audiences. Help desks allow companies to collect and track customer data regarding commonly asked questions and concerns about products and services. As a result, you can fine-tune your products and services by utilizing this valuable information to improve upon what your company offers, creating further products, services, better solutions-oriented business practices, and strengthening customer service. Even the most loyal consumer will leave you if they feel they have not been heard. Implementation of help desk software can act as an insurance plan against consumer neglect and customer service delays, ensuring nothing and no one slips through the cracks.

Whether establishing a small business or running a Fortune 500 enterprise, help desks are used by companies across the world regardless of scale. Impressive automation prevents business owners from missing important deadlines by bumping more urgent matters to the top of the list so that nothing gets missed. In addition, help desks ensure your customers are dealing with one response, not multiple and confusing phone calls from various members of your organization, completely defeating the purpose of building efficiency within your company.

As a business owner, you have a responsibility to your employees and customers to provide the best in customer service and quick solutions to everyday concerns. Help desk software enables you to offer that support more easily while increasing efficiency within your company. Strengthen your collaborative team efforts by providing better responses resulting in greater customer loyalty. In addition, you can analyze and improve your efforts in order to fine-tune your customer service in a way that further elevates your brand’s image and consumer loyalty.

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How to Respond to Customer Reviews

seowerkz — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 06:24:36 +0000

Reviews are crucial to the success of your business as 93% of customers base their purchasing decisions on consumer reviews. If your overall review rating falls below 3.3 stars, consumers won’t engage with your business.

Your responses to your company’s reviews play an equally important role in consumer engagement, influencing purchasing decisions. When you fail to respond, you send a message that you do not care about your customers. Businesses who encourage consumer feedback have higher rates of engagement with their customers, however asking for reviews might feel awkward or even a tad needy. The truth is that consumers are looking for social validation regarding your products or services and you need to be able to show them why you stand apart from the competition.

Reviews are an excellent marketing strategy as they display your accountability to your customers. The way you respond to and resolve negative reviews can have a positive influence on potential new consumers. Your responses show that you are serious about remaining accountable to those who purchase from you and that you take their feedback seriously.

Reviews (social validation) inform consumers regarding reliable, reasonable facts at a glance.
The greater the amount of positive reviews, the greater the chance that prospective customers will be influenced to purchase from you.
Reviews can result in high search engine ranking. For example, Google ranks business with more retweeted Twitter tweets higher than those with less.
Reviews generally result in contact sharing which means increased traffic to your business website.

Customers who have enjoyed a positive experience with your business will generally be eager to leave a great review. Your response to reviews plays an important role in leveraging your online reputation in order to grow your business.

Responding to a review can feel intimidating. You want to express genuine gratitude, yet you don’t want to gush. The process is easier than you think and you don’t need to be an award-winning author in order to communicate gracious, genuine gratitude in a brief response. For example, Andy purchased a product from your new camera store, resulting in a positive review:

“I’m delighted with my new product! A wonderful clerk named James was only too happy to assist me in your store. He took the time to listen and went through a variety of options well suited to my needs. I’m really glad I listened to his expertise! I couldn’t be happier with my new camera and I got some excellent shots of Venice!”

This review makes you proud of your business, products and your new employee of the month, James. You are ever so grateful for Andy’s purchase and his raving review of your business is priceless. You want to respond with gratitude and the temptation to drone on and on about how happy you are for this new customer is real. Here is the rule of thumb for responding to a review: be brief. It doesn’t mean you should come across as cold or short. Here is what you do:

Use Andy’s name.
Be grateful and show it.
Respond to specific details in the review.
Andy gave you value with the review, respond in kind.
Be grateful again.
Say goodbye.

Ideally, your response should look like this: “Hi, Andy! Thanks so much for your kind words and thoughtful review. I remember your visit to our store on _______. I’m delighted that you are happy with your new camera! I know you were hoping for some great shots of the famous canals! We look forward to seeing you again soon!” All reviews and their responses should read as a conversation between business and consumer. Unfortunately, your business will accrue negative reviews here and there. It is inevitable, as not every customer will have a stellar experience with your business. While negative reviews can feel crippling to the success of your business, failure to respond to them can only lead to paralysis. Even negative reviews can be leveraged as marketing and branding opportunities.

Thank the customer for leaving the review.
Acknowledge the issue and apologize sincerely.
Empathize with the customer.
Take the conversation offline. If you have access to the customer’s email address or phone number, continue the conversation via those methods. Phone calls are a serious notch above emails.
Offer a reasonable solution or remedy that is agreeable to the customer.

Remember, it isn’t so much the review that can make or break you as it is your company’s response to the review. You are not replying to a single review, but to an entire audience of readers which include potential customers. Seize the opportunity to right the wrong because your response shows audience readers that you don’t neglect customers and you take their concerns seriously, ensuring the problem won’t happen again. The best response to a negative review will occur quickly and strategically. When consumer concerns are immediately met by a genuinely concerned response, negative reviews can often be converted back into positive reviews. In addition, never include your business name or relevant search keywords in your response as this empowers a review to show up in search results.

Here are a few tips for requesting customer reviews:

Ask questions.

Provide multiple options across various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, telephone prompts, your company website, surveys, etc.
Don’t be afraid to ask customers directly to write a review.
Make the process easy. Eliminate unnecessary steps. For example, consider incorporating a direct link on your website. Don’t make the customer search for the right button on which to click. Make it an obvious, one-step process.
Incentivize reviewers with a gift card, contest or giveaway, but be careful not to bribe customers for positive reviews.
Stress the importance of reviews to your employees.
Don’t be afraid to follow up. If done considerately and thoughtfully you can increase the chance of a review without bothing your customer.

Responding to all of your customer reviews is a strategic method of maintaining current consumers while influencing prospective customers to buy from you. Neglecting to do so can result in low consumer retention and loss of potential future profits. Make review responses a daily practice and take charge of your online reputation!

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Telling A Story Through Branding

seowerkz — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 23:25:58 +0000

Brand storytelling is a powerful marketing tool encapsulating everything consumers experience regarding your business. It is a means by which to form connections with customers in a way digital interactions cannot. Social media and commercial advertisements lack human connection, however, a solid brand story lends a personal element to an otherwise cold, impersonal experience.

Masterful brand storytelling employs narratives that communicate a company’s values and convictions in a meaningful way that directly impacts consumer behavior. In fact, 55% of consumers choose to buy from companies simply because they fell in love with the brand story. Forty-four percent of those consumers will share the story and 15% will rush to purchase the product immediately.

Solid brand storytelling empathizes with the consumer at the core of its marketing message. Empathy makes the story stick and fuels the business-to-consumer relationship as customers feel understood, primed to take action by purchasing your product or service. Vulnerability and authenticity are the pillars of human connection and solid brand storytelling presents an honest journey full of conflict, victories, and surprises experienced by real humans. When businesses are transparent and truthful about their journey, trust is born and customers become converts.

While solid branding goes well beyond a clever logo, the logo is where the story begins. It is the introduction of your target audience to your brand’s story and is powerful in influencing a consumer’s opinion of your brand as it communicates what your brand is all about. A great logo is recognizable independent of the company’s name and can trigger assumptions of importance, leisure, affluence and more. For example, IBM incorporated bold, futuristic designs reflective of the company’s technological expertise.

Color pallet is a crucial component of brand storytelling as colors have the ability to stimulate hormones and evoke emotions.

Color sets the tone for your story as red is known to solicit feelings of warmth while commanding attention. Blue communicates responsibility and ambition while evoking feelings of confidence, intelligence and authenticity. Color psychology is a key component of brand storytelling and is equally important as a business’s scalability.

Great copy reflects the rest of your branding elements while engaging your target audience, enhancing the tone of your brand’s story in a way which color cannot.

Copy is authentic written material designed to draw the positive attention of consumers who are far more interested in understanding how you can help them solve a problem rather than technical specs. The reasons they should buy from you should be highlighted along with the mission of your company in a way that allows consumers to envision how your story fits into theirs. Consumers want to be naturally drawn in and not “sold to.”

The use of generic stock photos in brand storytelling is a big mistake. Stock photos cannot effectively represent a truly authentic brand and are often misleading regarding a company’s mission, products and services. Effective, authentic visual imagery enables users to connect and engage with your brand across all channels of marketing, creating interest while strengthening your brand story.

Brand storytelling imagery needs to be enticing and memorable while painting a picture for consumers. Whether incorporating vibrant videos, authentic photography or a combination of text and graphics, your imagery needs to reflect your brand’s values while lining up with your story. If you are an accountant, don’t use a stock photo of a goldfish in a bowl to communicate your story. It doesn’t align with your company’s mission or product and simply does not match your brand.

SUMMARY:

Effective brand storytelling simplifies sales and marketing as it attracts leads and builds a loyal consumer base saving you valuable time and resources. Consumers are tired of endless ads, commercials, and emails. They are more attracted to compelling content delivered in the form of a memorable story that communicates that your product enhances their daily lives. A great story can express your brand promise and value in a way that consumers want to absorb because they appreciate feeling in charge. Your brand storytelling enables you to sell to consumers without making them feel they have been “sold to.”

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