Tag Archives: Brand

Builders & Contractors: Marketing 101

by george michaels

Builders and Contractors are you doing anything different in these hard times to increase your business? Or are you doing the same ole same ole? There is an old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

Is that you?

What I’m trying to say is the old ways no longer work. In by gone days all a contractor had to do was give the customer good quality and good service and he/she would be set. Then set back and let your customers do your selling for you. They would tell a friend and then that friend would tell a friend. Your phone would be ringing off the hook. I remember as an Architectural designer some days I would have up to four people wanting to schedule appointments for designs. That was the good ole days. But now!

There are problems. Most of us in the construction industry we’re not prepared for what happened. We never marketed ourselves,
never had to. So what do we do. Answer: start by doing the basics. Below are a few simple but powerful must does marketing.

*You must Brand your name. That means you have to become known in your town. Think of insurance company’s. There might be
50 insurance company’s in your area but there is always a few that are known by name. Example: “All Davis, State farm” see what I
mean, make your name synonymous with building.

*Become easier to find. “The phone never rings”,boo hoo hoo. Well why would it? Customers don’t mysteriously know who you are
or what you do. If they are looking for your service they will use the internet to find you. You have to have a Website.

*Easy payments. This day and time credit still is king! You have to have the ability to get customers financed or at the very least take credit cards. It is just the way the world does business.

The above are just a few of the things you have to be doing to survive in the building industry. As you can see they are not hard but you do have to take action.

If you would like more tip’s and help you can follow my news letter the Construction Times

About the Author

George Michaels has spent his entire life in the construction industry. He currently is editor of the the Construction Times a weekly ezine dedicated to the help and support to the Building Contractor

7 Reasons Your Company Should Podcast

by Mike Consol

If you’re still not sure what a podcast is don’t feel bad. You are one of millions of intelligent, informed people who are missing this piece of the New Media puzzle

Having excused you, now permit me to chastise you. All businesspeople should know what a podcast is, especially considering there are tens of thousands of them and their legions of listeners are growing. Podcasting can also be very beneficial to your company or you as a business professional.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, a few basics.

Podcasts are audio files, mostly composed of people talking and often including music and sound effects. They can be downloaded and listened to on a computer, or transferred to your iPod (hence the “pod”-cast name) or other MP3 player. The vast majority of podcasts are free of charge through iTunes, Podcast Alley and other outlets.

To give you some idea, I subscribe to more than a dozen podcasts that range from audio versions of TV shows such as Meet the Press and Face the Nation to Nation Public Radio interview programs Fresh Air and the Diane Rehm Show, to academic and business programming like the Harvard Business IdeaCast, McKinsey Quarterly Podcast and The Economist magazine.

It’s great stuff that will feed your head and keep you atop modern day events.

Podcasts are convenient because they can be listened to while driving, pumping iron at the gym, hiking, zipping to the office on the train, sitting on your sofa or dozing in bed at night (one of my favorite ways to enter the Land of Nod). It is this kind of flexibility that helps make podcasts so popular.

That’s one of the big advantages audio podcasts have over video – they require one rather than two senses, meaning they don’t require your undivided attention. You can listen to audio while participating in any number of activities. It’s probably not a good idea to watch a video while you’re riding a horse or trying to stay balanced on a treadmill.

All one need do is check out some of the organizations that podcast to realize its value and implications. There’s the legendary consulting firm of McKinsey & Co, accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers and academic icon Harvard Business School. These are sophisticated organizations that don’t waste time on useless activities. Why do these organizations podcast?

Here are seven good reasons.

DISPLAY EXPERTISE. When McKinsey & Co. conducted its annual global survey of business spending on Web 2.0 technologies, it not only released a written report, it produced a podcast consisting of an interview with one of the research report’s authors. Another example is a podcast titled Connecting Climate Change and Economic Recovery, featuring an interview with economist Nicholas Stern. People seek out expertise. Demonstrate it and you will win customers and respect.

DISPLAY LEADERSHIP. Harvard Business School does exactly that with its IdeaCast. The Harvard Business IdeaCast has tackled subjects bearing the following headlines:

>> Use right incentives for Gen Y, Gen X >> Winning in a turbulent economy >> Redesigning health care >> When high performers struggle >> Is executive pay broken? >> The 5 leadership essentials >> Being a good boss in a bad economy

EDUCATE. The Britain-based podcast The Naked Scientists uses British humor and interesting topics to teach people about scientific and technological breakthroughs. It’s an effective and entertaining approach. Some recent subjects were:

>> Where do lost socks go? >> The diseased brain >> High altitude adventures >> Why does water expand when it freezes? >> Catching up with cancer research >> Building bodies and mending broken hearts >> Can you run faster on the moon?

PROVIDE VALUE. Grammar Girl and her brief 10-minute podcasts have become widely popular in part from publicity she has received in magazines such as Business Week. But she has sustained that audience by giving them valuable information pertaining to the proper use of grammar. She makes it fun and easy to learn proper English skills. And who doesn’t want to sound like they didn’t fall asleep in English class?

BRAND YOUR COMPANY. If you’re British Petroleum and you’re trying to position yourself as a forward-thinking company, wouldn’t producing podcasts about clean and sustainable forms of energy help immensely to burnish your image as a company operating in future tense? Podcast about topics that core to the company’s brand.

BRAND YOURSELF. If you’re the brilliant management consultant or life coach you claim to be, prove it with a weekly or monthly podcast with a snappy title. Consider how much credence would be lent to your reputation by podcasts that offer terrific advice and success stories about your own clients? Demonstrate your ability and your podcasts become testimonials.

CONNECT WITH KEY PLAYERS. Imagine you’re a regional bank that wants to reach out to key players in your market. Rather than your standard sales letter or cold call, what if you invited your target to be featured on the bank’s CEO Spotlight podcast? Now the CEO can share his or her wisdom and is likely to be flattered by the invitation. You get a face-to-face interview out of the deal and the start of a personal relationship that could be parlayed into a client relationship. The caveat, of course, is that no one will be interested in subscribing to your podcast unless you provide interesting and educational content. So don’t make the mistake of using it strictly as a relationship building tool. That will bore or offend people and cost you listeners.

About the Author

Mike Consol is president of MikeConsol.com (http://MikeConsol.com), which provides business writing seminars, PowerPoint presentation skills training, Web 2.0 strategies and media training. Consol spent 17 years with American City Business Journals, the nation’s largest publisher of metropolitan business journals.

Mobile Marketing is an excellent brand promotion technique

Author: Harjeet

The concept of mobile marketing is comparatively new in the advertisement circuit of the world. Advertisers still prefer the traditional advertising methods for publicizing their products and services. An effort is being taken by the advertising agencies to popularize the method of mobile marketing in order to generate more revenues. Marketing through the mobile device seems a very unusual idea. But if one can process the campaign in the right way, results can be outstanding and your business will reach the zenith of success within a few hours.

Several advertising agencies still make their customers happy by applying the traditional advertising methods. It is inefficiency on their part that they are unable to convince the client regarding the benefit of the process. Another reason of less popularity may be the insignificant number of mobile ad campaigns. A client needs a proper analysis of the ad makers. And if you can provide them with logical explanation, they are bound to accept your strategy.

Mobiles are now regarded as an essential commodity. It is no more a luxury item for anyone. There are hardly individuals without a mobile in hand or pocket. So if mobile channels are used as a medium of advertisement, then your customer contacts are enhanced. This is because mobiles are the only way in which you can have direct contact with your customers. But as every coin has two sides, mobile marketing also has merits and demerits.

The demerits of mobile marketing are plenty. Being a comparatively new concept brand managers are still experimenting with its application. Consequently the customers are flooded with promotional messages throughout the day. The customer gets annoyed with the frequency of messages and most of the time deletes the texts without even reading it.

This leads to wastage of advertisement budget and the company fails in creating a one to one contact as well. It becomes difficult for the brand promoters to measure the effectiveness of the campaign as most of the messages go unnoticed. On the other hand a well-planned mobile marketing strategy can help you reap benefits faster and in a much easier way.

A well-devised marketing strategy through mobile channels makes value addition to your brand rather than spamming the customer. If your campaign is innovative, targeted, personalized and measurable, the outcome has to be positive and profit yielding. Certain softwares come handy in product promotion through mobiles and the brand managers need to know a bit about it before convincing the client.

About the Author:

Harjeet is an Indian – born mass-market novelist, who covers the world internet related topics . He writes columns and articles for various websites and internet journals in the domain of mobile marketing and mobile content marketing.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.comMobile Marketing is an excellent brand promotion technique