Running a marketing agency focused on small business means that each day brings a mix of excitement, fulfillment, and sometimes, head-slapping infuriation. Lots of small businesses can’t or don’t have a dedicated marketing professional, and that’s totally understandable. However, doing things that actively destroy or deteriorate your brand is not.
Here are 12 things you need to avoid:
You think I’m making this one up? Nada. I regularly run into businesses that have never committed to a logo. Last year, I had a client who has been in business for 40 years, and their biggest problem is that they had no market recognition! For 40 years they squandered the opportunity to build an identity because they never wanted to pay for a logo.
Having your logo change every so many years is just as bad as having no logo. Yes, it’s ok to have a “refreshing” of your logo if it’s just so “80’s” you can’t stand it, but frequent change means that you never earn a recognizable status.
You should have a company font, a standard layout for important documents and publications, and all of your employees should be held to these standards. This will avoid one of your “artistic” employees from becoming Comic Sans-crazy.
Having a company directive that outlines your company’s personality is an absolute must. Your employees need to grasp that personality, and speak with your voice whenever they interact with customers, both internal and external.
Once you figure out #4, you must implement a training program so that ALL employees understand who your company is and what your standards are. This can’t be directed solely at your actual customer service reps; my world view states that every one of your employees is “in sales;” no one is allowed a pass from this training.
We see this again and again, and not only from small businesses. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, PR disasters can occur. Just because you’ve never had one doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared. Who will respond to your PR disaster? What will the approach be? Will an outside agency be called in to help?
Not having your contact information as a standard signature with your logo is a mistake. Having every phone number and address you’ve ever owned as your signature is worse. Use a small, stylish logo and your PERTINENT information in your signature so that people can quickly connect with you; don’t make it a chore to find what they’re looking for.
Unless you own a Hair Club for Men or some other business that requires a discreet location, your signage needs to attract all eyes to it. Once attracted, those eyes should not see worn and tired signage that sends the message “We’re not doing so well,” or, “We just don’t care anymore.” People want to do business with successful people — it’s sort of contagious.
It is not difficult to convince a small business that a website is absolutely necessary, but your commitment to having a presence online has to go much further than that. Your website needs to be a living, breathing, and UPDATED part of your branding voice. Make it part of your regular branding reviews to ensure that your website is given the once over for stale or missing information.
Every single small business owner still in business is too busy. Social media is a time suck if you don’t have a clear plan, so, you MUST have a plan. If you are not the voice of your company on social media, I can guarantee you someone else will be. Just because you don’t “like” Facebook doesn’t mean you can avoid it.
When was the last time you reached out to ask how your current customers see your brand? If the answer is never or a really long time ago, you are letting a gold mine of information go to waste. Use online surveys, or heck, even pick up the phone and ASK your customers what you’re doing wrong or right.
If you have taken the trouble to develop a consistent plan for both the long and short term, it is unlikely that you will have missed numbers 1 through 11. The devil IS in the details and without a plan for your brand, many of them will drop by the wayside.
Of course this list could be much longer. Each week brings a new guffaw made by even the biggest brand, but if you tackle each of these starting with #12 you will go a long way to protecting your brand. What is the biggest “brand damning” move you’ve witnessed?
Featured image courtesy of kevin dooley licensed via Creative Commons.
http://www.ArielMarketingGroup.com/blog
Amy McCloskey Tobin is the founding Principal of Ariel Marketing Group, LLC. Her mission in life is to create smart, individualized marketing strategies for Small Business. With deep connections in the online marketing arena, Amy is a knowledgeable New Media professional in tune with the medium’s ever-changing nature. She creates Strategy, assists with Policy, and PR Crisis resolution.
We continue to work on aspects of this every day, Amy. We are developing a social media voice, we have a redesigned website, and we are working out marketing strategy for not only our product...but also our services. I honestly believe we are early-adopters in some aspects of this list from a software services company perspective.
We actually went through about 3 logos when we were truly finding our identity about 11 years ago! Was happy to get that squared away!
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Excellent post... I find that the rest of the company only cares to the same degree that the owner or CEO does, which is often, oddly, not at all. Especially when it comes to branding.
I guess as a writer, I see #4 as being really important. It feels weird when a large company speaks in a different voice across accounts. Some one pointed out a recent mistake on the part of Pabst Canada. They tweeted something sexist and a Pabst account from the US called them out on it. Could have just been a mistake on the person not the company, but still shows that the two might be playing by different guidelines.
I love mailchimp's document about voice. They understand the need for consistency, and it really makes using the service more pleasurable.
