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What are some of the factors that one should consider for their brand strategy?
I'm setting up a brand strategy for my cupcake business. What are some of those factors I should take into consideration?
Jef Lippiatt, Owner at Startup Chucktown
I definitely agree with Hamish, but I want to push it even more. When you think of your business as a person, is it friendly or a rebel? Does it show up early, on time or make an entrance? Does it celebrate its own creativity or confrom to norms? These things Swill tell you a lot about your audience and how to interact with them.
Please see my simple examples below:
Normal: Chocolate cupcake with Chocolate frosting
vs
Snobby: Swiss Chocolate cupake with Dark Chocolate Ganache
--
Ordinary: Chocolate filled Vanilla cupcake
vs.
Playful: Vanilla chocolate bomb cupcake
Play to your audience. Have personality that blends with your audience. Use that personality to set yourself apart from the competition.
Hamish Anderson, Founder and Director at Mesh Consulting
I agree with Lauren and would add one more point - Give your brand an identity. To succeed your brand must be seen as a sentient being. It must evolve, remain true to itself and engage with people. To this end, you need to know who the brand is - or create its identity. Consider what it stands for (point 1 above), what makes it unique (point 2) and what the tone of voice is. This tone then influences everything you do, keeping the brand consistent and authentic - and ultimately this is what people will relate to. Happy to discuss this further if you want clarification.
Otherwise, good luck.
Is Facebook group advertising a thing?
Does someone know if it's possible to do advertising with a Facebook group like with Facebook pages? Curious to know.
Paula O'Sullivan, Owner at Possum Digital
No, it's not. I do know people who use the strategy of creating a friendly URL that is used in the ad, that then redirects to the Facebook group.
Lisa Ormenyessy, Business Coach and Marketing Specialist at Straight Talk Group
Hi Ben
Short answer -no.
Directly from Facebook Help:
It's currently not possible to advertise for a Group using Facebook ads. You can create other types of ads though for a Page. Facebook Blueprint is a great introduction to creating ads: https://www.facebook.com/blueprint/?ref=u2u
You can learn how to create an ad here: https://www.facebook.com/help/633662000000451/?ref=u2u
You can learn about the different placements you can choose from for your ads here: https://www.facebook.com/help/407108559393196/?ref=u2u
You can also get very specific with your targeting options: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/433385333434831/?ref=u2u
How much it costs to advertise depends entirely on the amount of money you'd like to spend. You can learn about the cost of advertising here: https://www.facebook.com/help/214319341922580/?ref=u2u
Additionally, here are some resources to help you get started:
https://www.facebook.com/about/ads/?ref=u2u
https://www.facebook.com/advertising/?ref=u2u
https://www.facebook.com/business/products/ads/?ref=u2u
https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide/?ref=u2u
https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/?ref=u2u
You might also want to check out these 10 Answers to FAQS, voted most useful by the community! → http://on.fb.me/1VaVR6b
What are your favourite business podcasts?
Podcasts are now getting more and more popular. What are your favourite business podcasts?
Paula O'Sullivan, Owner at Possum Digital
Lewis Howes, School of Greatness, is just amazing!
Rebecca Carroll-Bell, Owner at RCB Mediation Services
Hi Andrea,
Personally, I enjoy sotry telling style podcasts and conversations rather than a more monologuw style of podcast. I left lectures behind when I graduated from uni!
Some of my favourite buseinss-related podcasts are:
Confessions of a Misfit Entrepreneur
Business Addicts
Side Hustle School
Adventures in Branding
I also enjoy a few gneeral knowledge podcasts:
The Indicator
Planet Money
Can you increase your traffic with minimal investments?
As a marketer, I'm always curious/looking for ways to grow online traffic with $0 investment. Can you give any tips?
Paula O'Sullivan, Owner at Possum Digital
Organic social media can also help. If you blog, take the link and promote it on channels like Twitter and LinkedIn. This would be in addition to SEO.
Yo could also look at being a guest blogger, and drive traffic to your site that way
Tom Donohoe, Owner at Tom Donohoe Consulting
Hi Aishah,
I'd recommend that you invest your time into search engine optimisation.
Step #1 - Identify the topic or topics you want to be "know" for being an expert on.
Step #2 - Create a resource that covers 6-8 subtopics under your main topic. Make it well over 2,000 words and super in-depth.
Step #3 - write comprehensive guides on all your subtopics and link back to your main topic resource and visa-versa.
For example, if you want to focus on SEO you would create something like this:
Topic: SEO
Sub-topics: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, local SEO, SEO strategy.
By doing this you can establish yourself as an authority on the topic, which in turn can help your service pages rank higher on Google.
I hope this helps.
Jef Lippiatt, Owner at Startup Chucktown
I'd suggest checking out Email Octopus, https://emailoctopus.com/
I don't personally use them, but their pricing and product are impressive. There are of course many other alternatives, but when using MailChimp as a direct comparison, I think this has a lot going for it.
Paula O'Sullivan, Owner at Possum Digital
Campaign Monitor is my email marketing platform - costs me about $12 per month, no coding in required and the templates look lovely on desktop and mobile. You can also build sequences and do a bunch of other things. It's a great choice for SMEs.
Live marketing and industry events - are they still relevant in today's digitised world?
I am interested to hear what people think about the relevance of face-to-face meetings, events, networking, seminars and expos in today's digitised world. Why run a seminar (with venue hire etc) when you can run a webinar? Why host a meet-up or master class when you can use online networking and group-call think tanks? Thoughts...
Paula O'Sullivan, Owner at Possum Digital
It really depends on what your objective is.
I recently returned from Social Media Marketing Worl in San Diego, and I'm so glad I went. Lots of in person connections were made. I got to hang out with Social Media Marketers from around the globe and there is something to be said for motivation and enthusiasm being contagious.
Efose Ikhalo, Freelance writer for hire at efoseikhalo.com
The truth is that what small businesses can do with virtual reality is limited only by their imagination.
Though a small business might want to get started with a low-cost option like Google cardboard viewer to get things running.
Does anyone else have any marketing rules they have to constantly remind themselves of?
Or anything that was a real epiphany for you?
Dmytro Moroz, Digital Marketing Strategist at Kanbanize
My biggest and hardest to follow rule it start small, validate ideas and experiment. All of these come from the Agile Marketing philosophy. Feeling creative and working on a huge project is something marketers really love, but it's not a sensible thing to do. I've talked more about this in an article on Agile Marketing
Jef Lippiatt, Owner at Startup Chucktown
I have two pretty important ones:
- Customers Are Everything - without customers you are really just a hobby not a business. Listen to customer feedback and adapt your product, service and company if necessary.
- Be Different And Authentic - consumers are overloaded with "me too" companies that don't really offer anything different. You cannot and should not try to be everything to everyone. Take a specific stand and stay true to that vision in your products, services, marketing voice and customer interaction.
What can I do with a $100 marketing budget?
Hi Savvysme,
It's my first question. Please be gentle. Hypothetically, marketing with a $100 budget. What would you do?
Lisa Ormenyessy, Business Coach and Marketing Specialist at Straight Talk Group
Some great answers here! I specifically like Steve's approach.
$100 gets you a lot of coffee meetings. My twist on the same idea is to get onto linked in, find your target audience, connect and meet them in Real Life. Business is about relationships so if you only get 5 good leads from your 50 coffee meetings you are on your way.
Peter Doyle, Managing Director at ChangeXChange Consulting
Hi Tim
All the advice given has merit, but if you need a website you can achieve it on your budget. If you use Word Press their is no charge and you can develop the site yourself - there are lots of instructional videos on YouTube. Even if you have never done it before you can have a decent website (it would cost around $2000 from a web designer) up and running in a day or so.
You can get a domain name for very little and hosting comes really cheap. I have a code for Host Gator which will give you 25% normal hosting packages (if you are interested use pjdsavv813) when you take one of the hosting packages, they are all available on monthly plans so you dont have to commit for long term contracts. This will allow you to have as many domain names as you want for the same hosting cost.
If anyone else wishes to use the code - please feel free.
Once you have this set up you can add pages and even offers, these can be promoted via your free channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like...
Its a good idea to link these accounts where possible and appropriate to do so. This means you only have to write it once but it appears in several sites.
Peter
Emily Gorsky, Copywriting & Content Marketing at The Write Impact
I think the type of people who shouldn't start a business are those who need stability and predictability, and who aren't comfortable wearing many hats. There's nothing wrong with being someone who isn't business-oriented, it doesn't mean they aren't hardworking. However, individuals who are highly specialised in one certain area might find it challenging to adapt to the uncertain terrain of entrepreneurship. That being said, anyone can try to start a business by learning the skills needed and being able to delegate tasks. It's not really off-limits for anyone, but your success really depends if you're the type of person who thrives when working for yourself.
Maini Homer, Owner at Infinity NLP Coaching
Absolutely - If you aren't prepared to do what it takes to make it a success.. If you don't have the confidence that you can really make it... There are lots of people and lots of reasons.