Archives for February 2016
Elements of a Relatable Brand Image
Youâre utilizing all of the social media platforms useful to your brand — great! But whatâs the best way to gain traction with your followers? Creating a relatable brand image is key. Consumers connect with brands in many of the ways they do a real person — making it prudent for your company to humanize your brand. In a lot of ways, building a relatable brand is like dating. It requires effort, listening, and putting a clear version of your personality on the table.
1. Getting to know you. A consumer canât relate to a brand they canât identify. If your brand were a personality, how would
At the head of Viral Solutions are Thomas von Ahn and Christine Kelly, two small business marketing experts with decades of experience in the trenches. Tom and Christine help to give their clients a fresh new outlook on how they can run their business, thanks to the insight they gained in the trenches of the business world themselves. They arenât your standard tech geeks; rather than forcing technology to be a solution to every problem, they apply their outstanding knowledge and sales processes to the technology thatâs available to them. This makes for much more effective, streamlined marketing campaigns.Today, Viral Solutionsâ mission is to provide its clients with the assistance needed to experience bursts of growth in their operations, and a big part of that is through the use of technology. When business owners feel overwhelmed, burnt out or unmotivated, Viral Solutions steps in to give them the tools they need to achieve new levels of success.
you describe it? Quirky and fun? Innovative and sharp? Professional and luxurious? Understanding your brandâs inherent character is the first step in creating an identity your consumer can connect with.
2. How do I look? As with dating, appearances matter in relatable brand images! If your brand is without a cohesive appearance, it may confuse your customer. Your brand should be easily identified based on the style you create. What color is your brand? Is there a uniformity to the way your brand physically looks and the way it acts? All these traits should align. A consumer that immediately recognizes your brand is one that is more likely to connect and engage.
3. Tell me about yourself. What does your brand sound like? Are you educational and informative? Are you sarcastic? Pun-ny? How you speak to your consumers, especially through social media platforms, has a great influence on their perception of your brand. Establish an apparent voice that is clearly yours, and your customer will have a greater chance of identifying with you.
4. Common ground. Pay attention to your customer. What are their interests? What are they talking about? Find an entry point to the consumerâs interests outside of your brand, too, and use that to leverage your connection. Itâs hard to engage if you canât find an identifiable link between yourself and a brand, so learn about your consumerâs likes and dislikes to build upon what you already have in common.
Contact us today at Viral Solutions for more branding tips!
Copyright 2016 Viral Solutions LLC
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
Influencer Marketing | 3 resources for your influencer marketing process
Influencer marketing isn't a new tactic. It's a standard tactic for marketers and analytics. It is evolved as a tactic used in social media to drive word of mouth. Influencer marketing can greatly improve audience engagement, generate content and promote offerings. Influencer marketing can range from employee engagement to blogger outreach. However, those tools may not be the most effective.
In this article, we are going to discuss, three methods to managing and resourcing your influencer marketing process. Let's go beyond the influencer and discuss the tactics.
Before we dig into the how, let's make sure we define influencer marketing. Influencer marketing emerged from a
Christine Kelly is the CEO & Queen Bee at Viral Solutions LLC. Prior to joining Thomas at Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Christine has a keen knowledge of numerous competitive automated marketing systems, not from obtaining certifications from the vendor â but from practical application in her own business and her families operation of 5 Hallmark stores in BC. She feels this gives our firm an edge and a huge advantage for YOU! After years of coaching top producing salespeople and sales teams, her perspective on the sales process, and prospect and client management is a powerful addition for your team. She uses her intensity, focus and resourcefulness, as well as her high level administrative skills to help you create a plan to execute your vision.
variety of tactics, which focused on key influential individuals rather than a defined target market as a whole. It identifies those individuals that have influence over potential customers and uses tactics that focuses activities centered around such influencers. They could be third-party supply chain or value added influencers. Such as high profile speakers, members of the media or those with a strong public audience. Keep in mind that people are influenced by people with an opinion and a strong following. Such influencers master interaction within their community.
Now, let's discuss the technique. How you plan to manage your influencer marketing process will determine your methodology. There are programs, vendors and other tools that can help you find certain influencers and reach out to them. However, influencer marketing can be a manual labor intensive and high resource utilization undertaking. It has to be personalized in order to be effective. How you utilize resources will impact how it scales. Searching Google is probably not the best way.
- Building Deep Relationships with the Manual Method
Here you will use your internal team. The person you select must be in tune with your core offer and the avatar that loves you. Their role will not only be to find the influencer but also take on the challenge of vetting the influencer. This method is for the organization with a limited budget, small list or startup. Manual programs can be quite flexible and highly effective at personal engagement. You will be able to personally address people versus mass mailing generic material. You will build deep relationships that an automated process cannot build. The important tasks here are vetting the influencers determining the match between their opinion and yours, making sure they are a fit for your brand, and formatting your approach with personalized contact – yes the phone call works great here. If you have the talent and skill-set, you will build a small list of highly passionate influencers that fit your brand. No automation tool can do that. No agency can do that. Here is where you can build a close-knit community of brand advocates through social engagement, sharing and link building – just to name a few – albeit a small list in an unsustainable fashion.
2. Automated Relationships
Hopefully your budget has grown so that you can automate some of the more mundane, repetitive and predictable tasks that come with building your sphere of influencers. Automating some of the tasks can free up your team to spend personal time with those that warrant it. Social listening tools and modern analytics can help find influencers that fit your need. Automated response tools can support your the identification and campaign measurement needs. However, most of these tools focus on bloggers and that may not be your best resource. Automation tools can also be costly. Nonetheless, technology can make your manual program more efficient and scalable by broadening your access and doing so with greater speed.
3. Independent Third-Party Agency
When an organization does not have the manpower or skill set to scale an influencer marketing program internally, they look to outsource it. Here is where campaign coordination creates synergy. However, it can be pricey, especially if they bill by the hour. Agencies in this realm however, are professionals at vetting, engagement and have the know how to execute on a high-touch complex campaign. They are methodical, structured and can customize your process as if they do it every day – which they do. Some may have existing influencer connections that fit your brand.
You must determine what you can budget for, what process fits your needs and your comfort level with outsourcing. Set your short and long-term goals and choose the best method to manage all the details and outcomes.
Bonus Tip: Outsourcing to agencies can be very troublesome. Conversely, using your internal talent to perform the process can be equally problematic. Keep in mind, that influencers will also vett you on social media and the top search engines before they respond to your request. Influencers will often do a Google and LinkedIn search on the person doing the outreach. If they donât like what they find, then they wonât engage. Make sure your internal choice is a credible and up for the task. Quality influencers will look at your online persona judge you as a user of their connection. They want a mutually beneficial relationship.
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
Influencer Marketing | 3 resources for your influencer marketing process
Influencer marketing isn't a new tactic. It's a standard tactic for marketers and analytics. It is evolved as a tactic used in social media to drive word of mouth. Influencer marketing can greatly improve audience engagement, generate content and promote offerings. Influencer marketing can range from employee engagement to blogger outreach. However, those tools may not be the most effective.
In this article, we are going to discuss, three methods to managing and resourcing your influencer marketing process. Let's go beyond the influencer and discuss the tactics.
Before we dig into the how, let's make sure we define influencer marketing. Influencer marketing emerged from a
Christine Kelly is the CEO & Queen Bee at Viral Solutions LLC. Prior to joining Thomas at Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Christine has a keen knowledge of numerous competitive automated marketing systems, not from obtaining certifications from the vendor â but from practical application in her own business and her families operation of 5 Hallmark stores in BC. She feels this gives our firm an edge and a huge advantage for YOU! After years of coaching top producing salespeople and sales teams, her perspective on the sales process, and prospect and client management is a powerful addition for your team. She uses her intensity, focus and resourcefulness, as well as her high level administrative skills to help you create a plan to execute your vision.
variety of tactics, which focused on key influential individuals rather than a defined target market as a whole. It identifies those individuals that have influence over potential customers and uses tactics that focuses activities centered around such influencers. They could be third-party supply chain or value added influencers. Such as high profile speakers, members of the media or those with a strong public audience. Keep in mind that people are influenced by people with an opinion and a strong following. Such influencers master interaction within their community.
Now, let's discuss the technique. How you plan to manage your influencer marketing process will determine your methodology. There are programs, vendors and other tools that can help you find certain influencers and reach out to them. However, influencer marketing can be a manual labor intensive and high resource utilization undertaking. It has to be personalized in order to be effective. How you utilize resources will impact how it scales. Searching Google is probably not the best way.
- Building Deep Relationships with the Manual Method
Here you will use your internal team. The person you select must be in tune with your core offer and the avatar that loves you. Their role will not only be to find the influencer but also take on the challenge of vetting the influencer. This method is for the organization with a limited budget, small list or startup. Manual programs can be quite flexible and highly effective at personal engagement. You will be able to personally address people versus mass mailing generic material. You will build deep relationships that an automated process cannot build. The important tasks here are vetting the influencers determining the match between their opinion and yours, making sure they are a fit for your brand, and formatting your approach with personalized contact – yes the phone call works great here. If you have the talent and skill-set, you will build a small list of highly passionate influencers that fit your brand. No automation tool can do that. No agency can do that. Here is where you can build a close-knit community of brand advocates through social engagement, sharing and link building – just to name a few – albeit a small list in an unsustainable fashion.
2. Automated Relationships
Hopefully your budget has grown so that you can automate some of the more mundane, repetitive and predictable tasks that come with building your sphere of influencers. Automating some of the tasks can free up your team to spend personal time with those that warrant it. Social listening tools and modern analytics can help find influencers that fit your need. Automated response tools can support your the identification and campaign measurement needs. However, most of these tools focus on bloggers and that may not be your best resource. Automation tools can also be costly. Nonetheless, technology can make your manual program more efficient and scalable by broadening your access and doing so with greater speed.
3. Independent Third-Party Agency
When an organization does not have the manpower or skill set to scale an influencer marketing program internally, they look to outsource it. Here is where campaign coordination creates synergy. However, it can be pricey, especially if they bill by the hour. Agencies in this realm however, are professionals at vetting, engagement and have the know how to execute on a high-touch complex campaign. They are methodical, structured and can customize your process as if they do it every day – which they do. Some may have existing influencer connections that fit your brand.
You must determine what you can budget for, what process fits your needs and your comfort level with outsourcing. Set your short and long-term goals and choose the best method to manage all the details and outcomes.
Bonus Tip: Outsourcing to agencies can be very troublesome. Conversely, using your internal talent to perform the process can be equally problematic. Keep in mind, that influencers will also vett you on social media and the top search engines before they respond to your request. Influencers will often do a Google and LinkedIn search on the person doing the outreach. If they donât like what they find, then they wonât engage. Make sure your internal choice is a credible and up for the task. Quality influencers will look at your online persona judge you as a user of their connection. They want a mutually beneficial relationship.
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
3 Startup Branding Fails to Avoid
Branding can make or break your start-up. Donât rush through the process to simply check off an item off from your to-do list. Take branding your start-up seriously. Branding requires purposeful preparation, execution, evaluation, and adjustment. The ability to make the time to avoid the following 3 startup branding fails will save you time, money, and heartache.
1. Rush Fever. The decision to start a business may have been years in the making or over a lunch date. Whatever the case, there is the intoxicating excitement that follows the decision of starting a business that is to get everything done as fast as you can to start your launch. Slow your horses. Rome wasnât built in a day, and although online businesses can, doesn't mean they should. Take time to create a time management schedule to investigate the elements of branding a start-up. Schedule an hour a day over two weeks to review the research. Take the research in one day at a time. Digest the research. Think about how the strategies may or may not align to your business vision. Keep a journal of the research, brainstorm strategies that align with the research, and note examples of brands that you admire and why.
2. Templates Make Life Easier Syndrome. Yes. Some templates do make life easier, but a template for your brand is like saying you donât care to be unique or value the time and effort of creating the brand that supports your vision. This is not to say that all templates take away from originality. No, application advancements, drag and drop capabilities, can easily transform a skeleton of a template into a work of art. However, keep in mind that those actions to get to that point require creativity, thought, and direction that aligns with the vision. If you can balance your vision with the tools that are out there, then make your life easier with adding your brand to the template skeleton.
If you struggle with that and want to view templates for logos, images, websites, or content, it may save you time to research those areas and get a better understanding of what each is and how you can build your own or come up with a clear enough vision that you can hire someone build it for you versus window shopping for hours or days trying to find a template that you like, only to purchase one because of being tired of looking and letting your ego speak that you need to rush the process. Templates can be speedy, but they can also miss the boat in regards to establishing your unique brand because it is the design by someone else that had no intention of your business when designing it, but you see in that moment it âfitsâ. If it truly does fit, great. If it doesnât, it will only be a matter of months and youâll be doing this process over again, and hopefully learning from the lesson. Meanwhile, the time, money, and resources spent to just get it up and going are gone, and you are feeling a variety of emotions toward trying to get it right this time.
3. Perfection Stall. There needs to be a fine balance between not rushing for getting it done sake and stalling a launch till it is perfect state. Branding can fail because of a variety of things, and waiting for perfection is one of those fails. It is exhausting starting a business, and even more exhausting for entrepreneurs that do not have the creative bug to design the brand or to explain their vision and be disappointed by the lack of a match. The branding process most certainly takes time and effort, however, stalling a brand due to a personality trait of perfection can also become a branding fail. This doesnât mean to not strive for perfection, but what it does mean is to not let perfection stall you to the point that your launch passes by. The conditions are never perfect, neither are brands. Even the most recognized brands are not perfect. If the branding elements align with the vision and reputation desired, start to make magic happen and adjust along the way.
Branding takes time, practice, and energy. Save yourself the headache of experiencing the Rush Fever that makes you think you must hurry up and get something out there that you miss the point behind building a solid brand. Templates can make life easier, however, it isnât always the case, especially with branding. Lastly, perfection is a mindset, but donât let it derail a brand launch altogether. Know that even the most admired brands are not perfect, but are committed to sustained efforts to support the brand alignment with the company. Branding isn't a one stop shop and youâre done, it is a sustained effort and understanding this from the get-go is essential.
by Katie Doseck, PhD MBA
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2016 by Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD MBA | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, training, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
