I have really been learning some great stuff at Jason Broadwater's blog about online branding. He specializes in helping small businesses create strong web marketing brands, and he says you can't build a powerful website unless you have a brand. If you want to have a great online brand, he says you need to:
- Say one thing loud and clear. Trying to be all things to all people, with the hope that you'll attract more clients is a huge mistake. The more things you try to be, the less you are. The more services you try to offer, the more competition you have to deal with. The more you focus in and limit what services you offer, the stronger your brand will be. Nike=sports stuff. Microsoft=software. Xerox=copies. Volvo=super safe cars. That's what branding is all about. When potential clients look at your website, they need to get one simple message about what you can do for them.
- In my case, I've focused in on serving the needs of writers. I offer research, online marketing, writing and editing, scheduling media engagements, and a number of auxilliary services that are related to working with writers. Jason says that in a case like mine, I should build my brand around the service I offer that will bring in the most traffic. I can still do all that other stuff, but I don't need to bombard potential clients who visit my website with a laundry list of every little thing I can do. If I were to promote all my services on my website, I would be diluting my brand and lessening my impact. Think about Starbucks. They sell coffee, tea, pastries, music, coffee accessories, and a whole bunch of other stuff, but they've branded themselves simply as "Starbucks Coffee".
- The more you laser beam in on what services you provide and who you provide them for, the more you'll tap into the motivation of a certain target market. What do your prospects want? Understand the needs of your potential clients, then build your brand around that and change your business to become that image over the next 2 years. You create the image of what you want your company to look like to customers, then you build your company to align with that image.
- Use your brand to engage and reach people. If your brand matches your potential client's motivation, needs and desires, then they will be willing to engage and take action after seeing your website. They may not be ready to buy your product yet, but you should give them another opportunity to engage with you. Have a blog or a newsletter that they can sign up for or an autoresponder that they can sign up to receive.
- When you "say one thing loud and clear", you'll have a much easier time getting traffic to your website. You'll be able to focus on one keyword or phrase (visit WordTracker to pick the best keywords) and use it throughout your website. Having such a streamlined website with a narrow topic will help tell Google and all the other search engines what your website is about. The clearer Google is about the topic of your website, the higher it will rank your website when folks type your keywords into the search box. Your page rank elevates and more traffic comes to your website.
I love Jason's suggestions. Since I've started my business, I've change my website multiple times to reflect changes that I've made in my biz, and I'm about to change it again. I keep on tweaking and adjusting who my target clients are, what specialized services I want to provide for them, and how I want to appear to potential clients. A small business is a living, breathing, ever-changing thing. I love exploring this type of marketing!
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