Canadian Small Business Women

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5 Elements of a Successful Brand

5

Do you know what it takes to build and maintain a successful brand? It is about more than just getting eyeballs on your website.

A strong branding strategy encompasses five key elements:

1. Logo, Colour, Slogan

These elements represent the image you want to portray to your prospective client base. They are the unique elements that allow you to stand out from the crowd and ensure that when people think of a certain product or service, they think of you. When fleshing out the brand’s logo, the coloring and your tagline or slogan, you will want to incorporate core values, the industry and the purpose of your brand.

2. Core Messaging

The core message should seek to answer two main questions:

  • Who are you
  • Who are you here to serve?

With answers to those questions in mind, you should construct your mission statement as if you are speaking directly to your intended client base. Endeavor to connect with them in a way that says, “I know what you’re going through, and I will help you by providing X.” Your core messaging should be evident in every communication you have with your clients, staff and investors.

3. Reputation

Your brand’s reputation represents public opinion. Factors like community involvement, employee satisfaction, investor relationships, corporate culture and client interactions all contribute to your reputation. Having a good reputation ensures loyalty from your clients and builds the public’s confidence in your product/service. Cultivating a reputation as a “trustworthy” brand will drive growth and increase profits.

Social media, content marketing, traditional public relations and search engine optimization are all tools that can be utilized to build your brand’s reputation.

4. Brand Promise

Your clients, employees and the public should be able to rely on your brand to deliver on a key value or set of values. It might be customer care that goes above and beyond, high-quality services and goods, or the best bargain in town. Regardless of what the actually promise is, a celebrated brand shows a consistent, unwavering commitment to their brand promise. No matter what, people should be able to rely on your brand to uphold that promise.

5. Client/Prospective Client Listening

How do your clients and prospective clients feel about your products or services? Are they satisfied? Impressed? Are there any problems or issues they have encountered that you should know about? The answers to these questions are what client listening is all about.

Gather feedback from the people who enlist your services. Make sure they feel heard and that their concerns are being considered and addressed. Don’t ignore negative feedback, and don’t take positive feedback for granted. Touch base with your clients frequently to gauge how well your brand is meeting their needs and to address any issues they might have. Use this information to improve and grow.

The five elements of branding aren’t isolated components to be checked off individually. They represent a multi-level approach to building a sustainable and successful brand.

Unsure of how to incorporate these elements into your business model? Feel free to contact us and we can help you out!


Marly Broudie is the Founder of SocialEyes Communications – a digital marketing and business development firm based in Toronto, Ontario.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/socialeyescommunications

Twitter – https://twitter.com/socialeyescomm

LI – https://www.linkedin.com/company/socialeyes-communications/

Insta – https://www.instagram.com/socialeyescommunications/

Optimizing Your Business in 2019

Developing an effective online marketing strategy is essential for business growth – we know that. If you are not marketing your services online, your competitors are. Think of the web and social profiles as an opportunity to provide a first impression for your clients and prospects. Strong branding can attract new clients, while weak or non-existent branding can leave you trailing behind your competitors, and may even lead to a loss of existing clients.

Avoid the pitfalls of lackluster branding by following my top tips!

How Will You Grow Your Business in 2019?

Before you jump headfirst into building your brand, consider your overall business plan. How are you planning on building your business? What does your growth strategy look like? What is your budget for branding and marketing expenses? What are the key tenants of your business?

Your business plan is going to determine what you have to work with in terms of funds and resources. As your business grows, you will have more resources to dedicate to your online strategy.

Define Your Target Demographic

Branding is a very important part of how you connect with your target demographic. As mentioned earlier, this is your first impression. In order to make a successful first impression on your target demographic, you need to know this group inside and out.

To start off, figure out who will benefit most from your services. Consider qualities like income bracket, career, age, where your target demographic lives, and so on.

Using Your Value Proposition

Part of your branding will be dedicated to showing your target demographic how your services are a better fit for them over the services offered by your competitors. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean you will be calling out other brands directly. What this really means is stressing how your firm is unique and different from everyone else.

Basically, your branding needs to say, “Our business can give you this amazing thing that no one else can!”

To learn more about determining your value proposition check out this blog post.

Build a Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy will be the vehicle for your brand. Marketing enables you to tell your target demographic about the services you offer and your firm’s mission statement. Your marketing materials should be a clear representation of your brand.

The text, fonts, logos and all of the graphics should look and feel like they are part of your firm. In fact, any consumer looking at any of your marketing materials should be able to connect your brand’s style and aesthetic to your firm.

Establish a Web Presence

Got a website? Good. That’s a great start. It is also a good idea for your company to have profiles on all social media platforms, including any platforms that your target demographic is likely to use. For instance, let’s say you own a photography service: this type of business would benefit the most from an Instagram and a Flicker account.

Maintaining an active social media presence is good for growth and visibility, but it also makes it easier for people to connect with you directly. This direct connection allows you to build a strong reputation. To maintain that connection, share on-brand posts regularly and respond to comments to encourage engagement.

Collecting Data and Making Adjustments

Successful branding hinges on expansive market research. Collect as much data as you can on your target demographic in order to tailor your marketing strategy to their taste. Once you have a branding strategy developed, it will be beneficial to continue collecting data around your clients’ responses to various parts of your brand and marketing materials.

You can then use the data that you collect to measure the effectiveness of your branding. It is always a good idea to make adjustments based on this data. The branding of your firm should be constantly evolving and shifting based on your market research. Changing with your target demographic will help you retain their loyalty and interest.

Here’s to a great 2019!

Marly Broudie is the Founder of SocialEyes Communications – a digital marketing and business development firm based in Toronto, Ontario.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/socialeyescommunications

Twitter – https://twitter.com/socialeyescomm

LI – https://www.linkedin.com/company/socialeyes-communications/

Insta – https://www.instagram.com/socialeyescommunications/

Your 2018 Year-End Review Guide

As 2018 draws to a close, now is the time to review and reflect on the past year. A year-end review is vital to ensuring your success in 2019. Why? One of the fundamental steps in building a strong brand and business is to collect data on how each of your business goals and objectives are performing.

December, being the last month of the year, is an ideal time to review what worked, what didn’t work, and how you can improve in the coming year.

Last Year’s Highs and Lows

Identify the high points and the low points of the year. Consider your costs, the time expense involved and whether the final outcome was worth it. You may find that there are high points that were too costly for your business in the long run, or you may discover low points that could have been successful with slight adjustments.

Review these periods carefully to gain a full understanding of how your customer or client-base responds to different marketing strategies. Were you able to achieve your objectives? Were there added benefits or problems that you did not foresee in the planning stages but are obvious now with some time to reflect on them?

Resolutions and Next Year’s Goals

Using the insights you have gained from reflecting on the successes and failures of this year, create new strategies for 2019. What you learned in 2018 will help you determine your business objectives for next year. You may decide to work on achieving goals that were not met in the past year, or you may instead choose to draw up entirely new milestones you would like to reach that are more reflective of your current situation.

Even if you decide to scale back certain parts of your business and reallocate your energy into other parts of your business, do not think of this as a failure. In fact, it is just smart business. As the world changes around you, make adaptation one of your top priorities.

New Year, New Strategies

The holiday season gives you a little bit of time to stop and catch your breath. Over the year you have probably come across new tools and strategies that you suspect may help improve your business. Take this time to explore new software, the latest developments in your industry, and fresh ways to connect with your target audience and grow customer loyalty.

 

Marly Broudie is the Founder of SocialEyes Communications – a digital marketing and business development firm based in Toronto, Ontario.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/socialeyescommunications

Twitter – https://twitter.com/socialeyescomm

LI – https://www.linkedin.com/company/socialeyes-communications/

Insta – https://www.instagram.com/socialeyescommunications/

2 BABIES AND A BUSINESS

 

How do women entrepreneurs make it? How do they succeed? And more importantly, how do they have children, build a family and at the same time, build a business?

It comes down to four major components:

  1. Serious time management
  2. Passion
  3. A vision
  4. Support

Before launching SocialEyes Communications, Marly Broudie (Founder) was originally 9-5 downtown Toronto commuter. A role at a leading litigation firm required a 6am wake-up, a 25-minute drive to the subway station, a 45-minute subway ride, a 1 hour lunch break (on most days) and a hell-of-a trek home that stretched well beyond Toronto rush hour. The corporate setting taught Marly A LOT about organization, detail, planning, research, development and most of all, that a corporate setting was not her calling. She had always had known deep down that she was the type that needed to beat to her own drum. The vision of a hustle (you know, the kind that gets you up in the morning and keeps you awake at night?)…that was what drove her.

The Inception of the Business

There she was, one month following her wedding, an intense family situation that afforded her some alone time, and a 12am lightbulb switch. Marketing, communications and the online digital movement was an industry that not only intrigued her, but invigorated her. It was also a specialized area that she spent much time practicing, … and beyond that, knew that every person and every business required it (biased, but true).

And just like that, SocialEyes Communications was born.

 

The First Year of Business

  • Hustle Hustle Hustle
  • Proposal pitching
  • Branding and marketing
  • Networking
  • Strategy implementation
  • Campaign launches
  • Building a team of qualified experts

…Boom –  Pregnancy. Marly was about to embark on life as a new first-time mom, while growing and operating a business. How is it possible?

 

Motherhood in All Its Glory

January 2017, Marly welcomed her first child into the world. The time was not easy – work and hormones were both at an all-time high. She was fortunate enough that time management was a major strength and so, nap times were dedicated to client phone calls; grandmothers babysat and client meetings took place; new clients were brought onboard and new team members too. By the end of the 3rd month of motherhood, SocialEyes was now a bursting operation serving 20+ clients and receiving excellent feedback.

Fast forward – 4 months into motherhood and boom – PREGNANCY!…AGAIN!

How are we meant to do this mom thing, and also grow a successful business?

 

6 Tips to Achieve Success:

  1. Time Management – there IS enough time in the day!
  2. A method to the madness
  3. Time blocking
  4. Vision as an incentive
  5. Passion for what you are doing
  6. Support – both personally and professionally

Motherhood and mom-preneurs have a few things in common – patience, fortitude, tenacity and perseverance.

 

 

 

 

Marly Broudie is the Founder of SocialEyes Communications – a digital marketing and business development firm based in Toronto, Ontario.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/socialeyescommunications

Twitter – https://twitter.com/socialeyescomm

LI – https://www.linkedin.com/company/socialeyes-communications/

Insta – https://www.instagram.com/socialeyescommunications/

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