This past week, small businesses in Boone County spoke with marketing and branding expert Matt Maudlin, CEO of MEMO Marketing Group, as our first session of the Summer Small Business Series. Below are just a few of the key insights Matt shared with us to help guide small businesses as they consider their brand.
- When thinking about your brand, do not interpret it as just a logo, message, or tagline. A brand is a person’s perception of a product, service, or experience as it relates to your organization. When thinking about your brand in this manner, remember that perception is based on emotion and feeling. A customer may not always remember your company’s logo, but they will always remember how you made them feel and their experience with your organization.
- First, you will want to identify the brand strategy and the message you are relaying, creating the foundation of your organization’s perception. Your brand strategy will identify the WHY of your business. By answering the following three questions, you will better understand why you are in business, and it will help define who you are as a business and the message you wish to impart with your stakeholders. Questions to consider as you strategize are:
- What is your company known for being good at?
- What does your company love doing?
- What makes you profitable?
- Once you define your brand and create your brand strategy, you must establish the brand promise that you and your company will deliver each time. This internal definition explains who you are and what you stand for as a business. The brand promise will reflect every single aspect of your business. If you do not deliver on your brand promise to your customers, vendors, and other stakeholders, then you will lose control of the perception of your business.
For more information and to further pursue how to answer the WHY in your branding strategy, set up a time to visit with Matt and his team at MEMO Marketing Group. Special thanks to Matt for his time and effort. MEMO Marketing Group develops and executes strategic marketing programs to help growing companies know how to market their WHY. MEMO Marketing Group will help you identify and communicate the reasons WHY people should do business with you over all their other choices, and help you find the people those reasons matter to most.
The purpose of the Summer Small Business Series is to provide a marketing boot camp for small business professionals and owners as we discuss marketing skills every small business needs to implement. Our next session will be held on July 30 at 10:00 am via Zoom, and we will learn from marketing expert Lindsay Farley, owner of StrategyNest, as we discuss content marketing and how it relates to social media. For more details and to register, visit here.