123 eGuides

1 Minute Advice: Building Credibility for Your Brand

by Barry Silverstein

When I counsel small business owners about their brands, the topic of credibility often comes up. Because a small brand tends to have lower awareness than a big brand, prospective buyers may be  unfamiliar with the brand and even wary of purchasing it. That's why it's so important to build credibility for your brand.

While big brands have almost built-in credibility because of reputation and a large customer base, small brands need to work much harder to gain credibility. The surest path to credibility for a small brand is to focus on external rather than internal sources. The small brand needs to build a portfolio of external endorsements that create a positive perception so the prospective buyer believes in the brand's credentials even if the brand has low awareness.

These are some examples of endorsements a small brand should seek:

• Testimonials, positive reviews and referrals from happy brand users and user groups
•  Positive reviews from relevant media channels
• Testimonials and endorsements from experts in the brand category
• Endorsements from organizations, associations, professional groups, research/educational institutions, or similar bodies that are viewed as impartial and objective. 

Another legitimate way to build brand credibility is to create public awareness for the brand by association. This can be accomplished in a number of ways. For example:

• Engage an outside brand spokesperson who has personal credibility and can speak on behalf of the brand
• The brand owner may already be a thought leader and, if so, the individual's reputation should be leveraged on behalf of the brand. The brand owner can also be transformed into a thought leader by becoming known via public speaking or giving seminars, blogging, writing articles, writing books or ebooks, and doing interviews with the media.
• The brand can sponsor original research in its category or industry segment
• The brand can become an active sponsor/participant in helping its local community or a particular area. When the brand gets involved in community service or with non-profit groups, a "halo effect" results and the brand becomes closely associated with the effort. 

The more you can do to build your brand's credibility via external channels, the more believable your brand will be to the prospective buyer. 

Barry Silverstein is a brand marketing expert. He has written numerous 123 eGuides on branding, product launches, and sales leads, available here. He also teaches an on-demand online course, Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands. Regularly $39, you can take the course until February 28 at the special price of just $19. Simply visit www.bigbrandstrategiesforsmallbrands.com and use the code newyear13 to take advantage of this offer. 

1 Minute Advice: Loving Your Customers

by Barry Silverstein

Small companies looking to gain a competitive advantage for their brands may find that love could do the trick.

"Loving your customers" is a concept that at first glance may seem a bit over the top, but customer service pundits agree that showing customers some love is a legitimate way to engender customer loyalty as well as set a company apart from its competitors. What it really means, of course, is offering customers a level of service that goes above and beyond the ordinary. It's treating customers the way you would like to be treated. It isn't just satisfying customers, it's delighting them.

One of the simplest ways to show the love is to treat a customer like an important friend. In a retail environment, that may mean using the customer's name and personally advising the customer on merchandise. Online, it could mean making the order process easy, providing customized suggestions, and offering customer-only benefits or preferred pricing.

In their book Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About It, Chip Bell and John Patterson offer real insight into why it's important to make customers feel special. They list twenty specific things contemporary customers want, including:

• "Make me smarter"
• "Help me do it myself"
• "Make the response fast"
• "Help me customize the experience"
• "Entertain me"
• "Respect my time"
• "Never take me for granted"

Notice that all of these things are in the voice of the customer. It's a voice you should listen to -- because without showing your customers some love, you have no business. 

Barry Silverstein is a brand marketing expert. He has written numerous 123 eGuides on branding, product launches, and sales leads, available here. He also teaches an on-demand online course, Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands. Regularly $39, you can take the course is available until February 28 at the special price of just $19. Simply visit www.bigbrandstrategiesforsmallbrands.com and use the code newyear13 to take advantage of this offer. 

1 Minute Advice: How to Gain a Leadership Edge with Social Media

by Barry Silverstein

Many small businesses have yet to crack the code on the true value of social media. What does social media really do for a small business in terms of awareness, engagement, and generating leads that turn into sales?

Just as important is the broad impact social media has on the business world and how business leaders cope with it. A thought-provoking article on this topic, "Six Social-Media Skills Every Leader Needs," appears in the Feburary 2013 issue of McKinsey Quarterly. Author/academic Roland Deiser and GE senior manager Sylvain Newton suggest social media has "transformational power" that must be effectively harnessed by every business leader. Based on research they conducted at GE, the authors developed a set of six "skills and organizational capabilities" they say leaders must build to create "media literacy":

1. Producing compelling content
2. Influencing the dissemination of information throughout an organization
3. Managing many communication channels, even if they are overwhelming
4. Becoming "strategic orchestrators" of social media activities
5. Creating an infrastructure that encourages "free exchange" with reasonable controls
6. Experimenting with new technologies to stay ahead of the curve.

 While Deiser and Newton write from the perspective of a very large organization, small business owners might consider applying this strategic thinking about social media to their own situations. As the authors of the article point out, "When organizations and their leaders embrace the call to social-media literacy, they will initiate a positive loop allowingn them to capitalize on the opportunities and disruptions that come with the new connectivity of a networked society. And they will be rewarded with a new type of competitive advantage."

This insightful article provides plenty of food for thought.

Barry Silverstein is a brand marketing expert. He has written numerous 123 eGuides on branding, product launches, and sales leads, available here. He also teaches an on-demand online course, Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands. Regularly $39, the course is available until February 28 at the special price of just $19. Simply visit www.bigbrandstrategiesforsmallbrands.com and use the code newyear13 to take advantage of this offer.