One thing that is becoming more and more common is advertising that is built around a concept of being funny, sophisticated, cool, thoughtful, or some other simple emotional trigger and that’s it. That is where the purpose and drive behind the ad stops as if to say that eliciting a singular emotion does anything as far as driving traffic to a company’s product. That is the main reason so many forms of advertising, and this includes websites, fail miserably from the moment they are conceived.
Is advertising you’re running built to be effective or does it simply get a cheap laugh?
May 15th, 2009Your brand is much like a baby…only it’s not.
March 20th, 2009When it comes to branding one of the things a lot of start-up business owners do is treat it like it’s their “baby.” This isn’t such a terrible thing because you should love it and cherish it and “bring it up” right. However, much like a real infant, most business “parents” just don’t know when to let go. When you’re trying to build a nationally recognized brand you don’t have years to settle on how your brand will “fair” in the world but months.
Your brand must be established early and last a long time. Read the rest of this entry »
How to find the right Advertiser, Designer, Web person.
March 6th, 2009I was writing some posts in a couple of groups I’m a member of at LinkedIn yesterday and I came across a very disturbing post by a very prominent “mentor” personality that stated don’t spend a lot of money on a logo (which was no the disturbing part) just find someone to do something for you on Craigslist or Elance (which is very disturbing.) It’s always upsetting to read comments from someone who positions themselves as a master of all that so blatantly goes against good business practices. This person’s reasoning was that you’re going to change your mind about a logo so why invest any money in it.
That is truly baffling. Your logo, your brand, is the visual element which attracts someone to your product or business. Why you wouldn’t want to make it as attractive and appealing as possible I have no idea. Note I didn’t say anything about spending lots of money but producing a well thought out effective logo and brand. Next to having a quality product or service it is the most important thing associated with your company. Period.
Read the rest of this entry »
Basics in Branding Teleseminar was a success!
March 4th, 2009Did a teleseminar with the Academy for Entrepreneurs last night, if you’re not a member you really should join it’s free and there is a lot of good information there, and it was a very good seminar. There were a lot of interesting questions that came up about very broad topics ranging from Social Networking (hello twitter fans) to whether or not SEO is actually important for every business.
I know they already have the next few months lined up. Next month they have Stephen Key who, if you follow the licensing world, is a huge licensing expert and will undoubtedly have some fantastic insights into the world of licensing. I think it will be a very interesting broadcast simply because I know Jim DeBetta, the founder of the Academy for Entrepreneurs, made his money and reputation in the production side of business. So, you’ll have both sides of the coin covered whatever your product or service.
Anyway, join the Academy (again, it’s free) and go to the audio files section and download the Branding Teleseminar recording and hear what you may have missed out on!
Finding Investors: Money won’t just get thrown at you.
February 27th, 2009I have been receiving a lot of emails lately (for obvious reasons) concerning finding investors. Most of the people that contact me are essentially looking for free money. Someone to invest a few hundred thousand dollars in their business or product without them having to really invest everything. I am not a financial expert, if you are looking for that I highly recommend you join http://www.the academyforentrepreneurs.com – it’s free and you’ll have access to documents writing by financial experts, but I do work with them regularly and trust me the thing they ultimately care the least about is your product or service.
Investors are investing in you and your business NOT your product or service.
Register Domain names and set up your own hosting, your site may depend on it!
February 23rd, 2009One thing I always tell my clients is that they need to pay for both their hosting and their domain names. Too often I see clients relying on service providers or vendors to pay for and maintain their domain names as well as their hosting packages. The reason is very simple. It is YOUR business and YOUR website, why wouldn’t you want to control it?
One of the main reasons I am given for clients not doing this is that they don’t know anything about it. Any reputable web vendor will be more than happy to walk you through buying your domain name from a registrar as well as walk you through setting up your hosting. You can then give your vendor access to the aspects of your packages they need but you are in control. Read the rest of this entry »
Should Search Engine Results Matter to You?
February 10th, 2009If you take ten minutes to scan the Internet trying to learn about websites you would think that you have to make your site as Search Engine friendly as possible. You would think that if your website doesn’t show up on the first page of Google your website is a complete and utter failure. If you are in an industry that provides a service this kind of thinking can in fact hurt your business. Seems like an odd statement right? I mean how can more exposure possibly hurt your business? Let me explain.
The Academy for Entrepreneurs Launches
February 9th, 2009Jim DeBetta approached Five Minute Productions to produce a membership based site which will allow small businesses to access information created by industry professionals. Membership on this site is free for all users and is set-up to be funded through click-through advertising rates. The unique aspect to this site is that it was desired to track what users were doing and downloading from the site. The reason being the content will be driven by user downloads. For example if a large portion of members of the site download files relating to Patenting there would be a focus on increasing the number of Patent oriented articles to maximize the user experience.
Check out the site and become a member, it’s hard to argue with a free resource, at http://www.theacademyforentrepreneurs.com.
Building Collateral for Investors #5 – The Sales Kit
February 9th, 2009This multi-part series is designed to give small businesses and start-ups an insight into how to build collateral and brand to target investors expanding on this overview article. Most people looking for investing and funding believe that with their good idea, or even great idea, that people will be lining up to get on board. That is almost never the case. Investors are in the business of making money by loaning money. They put a lot of thought into who they invest in as well as how often they do it. One thing that you must always think about is there is very little more important than you in selling to investors. The top investors in the business care less about the product compared to the person behind the product. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row, are presentable, prepared for questions, and confident (not cocky) in your business or product. For a good set of articles about the business end of capturing investing check out Robert Ochtel’s blog.
That being said, assuming all people meet that requirement, you need to produce collateral that will separate you from the pack. Presenting well thought out, informative, and attractive collateral will not only present your information in an eye pleasing package but will also show investors you are committed to your product’s success and not just looking for hand-outs. On to this installment of Building Collateral for Investor.
The Ultimate Sales Tool, the Sales Kit
So you have taken the time to build the perfect business card, letterhead, and envelope and are still looking for that perfect piece to push you over the edge. The most impressive piece of collateral you can develop for investors is without a doubt a sales kit. The sales kit is an often misunderstood and poorly constructed collateral piece. The purpose of a sales kit is never to be a mass market collateral piece. You don’t want to give everyone to have access to a sales kit. You want it to be for very specific people who either have massive influence or potential for you and your company. If you make your kit properly then you should be able to swap out pieces with one another to target different audience members. Let me break down some of the material you should include in your sales kit. Read the rest of this entry »
Building Collateral for Investors #4 – General Print Collateral
February 4th, 2009This multi-part series is designed to give small businesses and start-ups an insight into how to build collateral and brand to target investors expanding on this overview article. Most people looking for investing and funding believe that with their good idea, or even great idea, that people will be lining up to get on board. That is almost never the case. Investors are in the business of making money by loaning money. They put a lot of thought into who they invest in as well as how often they do it. One thing that you must always think about is there is very little more important than you in selling to investors. The top investors in the business care less about the product compared to the person behind the product. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row, are presentable, prepared for questions, and confident (not cocky) in your business or product. For a good set of articles about the business end of capturing investing check out Robert Ochtel’s blog.
That being said, assuming all people meet that requirement, you need to produce collateral that will separate you from the pack. Presenting well thought out, informative, and attractive collateral will not only present your information in an eye pleasing package but will also show investors you are committed to your product’s success and not just looking for hand-outs. On to this installment of Building Collateral for Investor.
Your Basic Collateral Needs
Once you have built a fantastic website, developed a beautiful and memorable logo, and fine tuned your Corporate Identity material to perfection you still need collateral. However, unlike everything I’ve talked about thus far, you don’t need all of these items. Some are certainly situational and should only be created when you are going to be in that situation while others are not essential but can certainly help. Here are some of the pieces you may find a need to create and why you should create them. Read the rest of this entry »