More Than Employees: Brand EvangelistsBy William Arruda, ReachYour advertising. Your packaging. Your corporate business cards. Even yourproduct itself. They all reflect your brand, and your brand is yourcompany's single most valuable asset. An asset that must be protected v andprojected v in every transaction with every customer or prospect.Brand is a component of everything your company does. And although it isnurtured and managed by your marketing department, your brand is representedby your entire organization. From the receptionist at the front desk to thecustomer service rep staffing the phones. That's why a strong brand requiresthat everyone in your organization has a complete understanding of, andability to express, your brand positioning and attributes.It's not a question of policing the brand. It's about creating a culturethat lives and breathes the brand for the benefit of your entireorganization. When your employees are aligned behind your brand identity,you maximize the strength of your brand.Developing and implementing an internal brand communications plan willensure that your brand is supported and nurtured throughout the company, andbeyond. An effective brand communications program consists of six steps:Step 1: AwarenessaBrand Front and Center!Sure, your marketing department has a thorough understanding of the brand(at least, they'd better!) but others in the organization, further removedfrom the behind-the-scenes marketing strategizing, need -- at the very least-- a general awareness of the corporate brand and what it stands for.The good news is that your organization is probably already prepared tostart building this awareness. You can use existing communications vehiclesand tools like new-hire orientations, all-company meetings, corporatee-mails, training videos, corporate newsletters, the company intranet,newsgroups and other internal communications vehicles to generate greateremployee awareness. Just make sure those vehicles reflect the brandaccurately! If your intranet or newsletter style and format do not reflectyour brand, including an article about on-brand communications will onlysend mixed messages to your staff. Ask yourself: Are our internalcommunications on-brand?When your employees are in constant contact with on-brand communications,they become aware of, and begin to absorb, the true essence of your brandand how it is communicated. Here, true success requires a collaborativeeffort among the Marketing, Human Resources and Operations teams within yourorganization. In addition to communicating the brand, establishing acorporate-level brand objective at the highest levels of the company willgenerate awareness among all employees. This can be an objective like "Raisethe brand awareness this year by 5% among a certain target group."Step 2: EducationaShow Them the Way!Once everyone in your organization is aware of the brand, they need tounderstand the values and visual components that comprise the brand, how itis communicated, and what constitutes on-brand and off-brand qualities. Makesure your employees can stay on-brand at all times by developing printed orweb-based tools like a corporate identity standards manual, brand usageguidelines, and creative brand communications tools. Then move beyond!Schedule special Brand Day activities. Organize brand presentations.Communicate the current status of, and statistics behind, the brand. Inshort, do everything possible to deepen employees' understanding of theBrand.Step 3: Buy-InaMake the ConnectionDo your employees understand their roles in nurturing the brand?Establishing a brand-related goal in each employee's personal goals andobjectives for the year will make sure they think about their roles inbuilding the corporate brand. Ensure that managers understand how to developbrand objectives for their staff. It is essential that all managers have acomplete understanding of the brand, and that they express the brandclearly, consistently, and constantly. Involve employees from around thecompany to participate in Brand Day. Solicit their feedback on the brand.Have a brand event or periodic brand contests that recognize and rewardinnovative ways to spread the good word. In short, never miss an opportunityto connect your people to your brand.Step 4: ActionsaTeach Them to Fish!By participating in brand contests and other ways to express the corporatebrand, your employees take more and more responsibility for the brand --they become invested in the brand. They're proactive in nurturing the brand.They support the brand in all their day-to-day activities. They remainon-brand in everything they do v without even thinking of it consciously.This is where the true spirit of brand evangelism becomes evident. Youremployees begin to find creative ways to promote the brand.One example of a company that has successfully fostered the highest level ofinternal brand building v bonding over the brand, if you will v is Yahoo!Many Yahoo! employees are fanatical about their company and their brand. Ifyou see a car wrapped in a Yahoo! advertisement, you can be fairly certainit's not a paid advertisement v it's a Yahoo! employee proudly showinghis/her true colors!Step 5: ResultsaShow Them the Money!When they see the results of their actions, your employees will furtherrally to the cause. Communicate with them about the state of the brand.Share brand research results, showing how each organization within thecompany is doing with overall brand objectives. Spread the word aboutrecognition and awards from outside organizations. And make sure thatemployees understand very clearly that their bonuses and other variablecompensation (like stock and stock options) are directly tied to brandvaluation.Strong Brand = More Money. That's an equation everybody can understand!Step 6: RecognitionaAnd the Winners Area!One of the best ways to reinforce positive brand actions is to reward them.Establish Brand Steward awards. Give special recognition to employees wholive the brand. Reward innovative ways to communicate the brand. And neverforget that the benefits of a strong brand include being able to charge apremium and survive downturns in the economy. So share the additionalprofits with employees v they'll understand that corporate success isclosely related to their efforts in supporting the brand.Keep going back to step one to continue to refine and improve internal brandcommunications, to involve new employees, and to refresh and inspirelong-standing team members. Remember, powerful brands require clear,consistent, and constant communications. They also require vigilant securityof internal communications materials, to make sure they accurately reflectthe key differentiating attributes, and the latest and greatest advances,behind your brand. Once you've successfully turned your employees into brandevangelists, you are ready to develop a Brand Communications Program foryour entire brand community: your partners, your strategic alliances, yoursupply chain, your stockholders v and even your loyal customers!William Arruda is the founder and director of Reach, theworld's first brand management company for organizations and individuals.http://www.reachcc.com or mailto:williamarruda@..._________________________________________________________________Join the world


What's Working, What's Not?
What's Working, What's Not?What needs a boost in your business? Do you want to sell morebooks or products? Need more new clients? Needmore ezine subscribers? More Web visitors?Perhaps you need to change your focus. If your promotionapproaches are time consuming, aimed at too many groups, andnot bringing in great sales, you may be spread too thin.A client I'll call Joan came to me with her promotion challenge.After spending a lot of time writing and marketing her book, shestarted to lose coaching clients. Some left because their workwas completed, yet replacements didn't come.We set up a strategy session. Her goal? To replenish herlowered income with 5 new coaching clients. Here is an exampleof intention and attention.The strategies?One. Traditional Marketing Strategy:Joan was missing social interaction outside the office. Whileshe put out a great ezine, where were the smilesand social life? For balance, she planned to attend a fewnetworking events each month. While they take time, they arenecessary to balance her life.A seminar and teleclass leader in the past, Joan also decided tooffer in-house seminars again.Joan's success?I advised her to use her ezine to get the word out about herupcoming local seminars and teleclasses. Within two weeks aftersending out her ezine (online marketing), she received severalsign-ups for her upcoming seminar (traditional). Whilenetworking, she coached someone on the spot, and got anew client!Traditional marketing combined with online are a great marriage.Two. online Marketing StrategyWhile Joan put out a quality ezine each month, she needed tomake it more commercial--to include a blurb or testimonial abouther new book, and to announce her seminars and teleclasses. Ifyou don't let people know what you can do for them, how willthey buy?Other marketing advice?1. Create a coaching sales letter to send by email as wellas put up on a Web site. Put in writing the benefits of yourservice. Include features such as what a session looks like. Howwill you change your client or customer's life? Bring them moremoney, time, clarity, more intimacy? Ask yourself what is themajor problem you solve for them? Your answer is the benefit.Inform people of the details, so they can decide to buy. In thedark, they will slip away.2. Create an online promotion exchange letter to send to all thepeople you meet online who may be willing to network withyou. Offer your link write up, short book blurbs, tips, ezineads, and articles. If an ad, offer a 3-4 month exchange for betterresults. Keep a special list to mail to every few months.3. Write many more articles to circulate online. Thousands, evenhundreds of thousands of your targeted market will see themeach day you submit. They will notice your free ezine or otherfree offer in your signature box. Your ezine subscriptions willincrease 7-20 a day, depending on your topic.Take one topic from your longer book and retool it into a shortarticle. You have endless material in your files, so you don't haveto reinvent the wheel.With intention to increase her coaching clients, Joan added herattention. She took action to meet more people as well as tocontinue writing new articles to circulate online. It's a good ideato pay attention to what's working and what's not.=============Judy Cullins: author, publisher, book coacheBook: _Ten Non-techie Ways to Market Your Book Online_http://www.bookcoaching.com/products.shtmlSend an email to mailto:Subscribe@...The Book Coach Says... includes 2 free eReportsmailto:Judy@...[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


How to hire a marketing coach - or not
When I started my business, I decided to time and money bypaying for marketing support. Here's what I wish someonehad told me before I reached for my credit card.1. Hire a coach who knows your product and your market.Coaching, animal behavior, organizing, marketing andweight loss services are not marketed the same way.Don't accept a canned list of tips, tricks and techniques.What you need is an understanding of your customers and howthey buy.2. Ignore the coach's "here's what I did" stories unlessyou, too, are a marketing coach.A marketing coach uses different strategies from otherkinds of coaches, let alone other businesses.And some marketing coaches don't understand their ownsuccess. One coach admitted she had never seen her ownweb site statistics. She had no idea whether clients camefrom the ads she recommended or from search engines.3. "If it ain't broke, don't fix."Without a basis of comparison, you can't evaluate your needfor help.You may feel discouraged by your numbers, but youmay actually be doing better than others who have been inbusiness a comparable length of time.4. Just because a lot of people are doing something doesn'tmean it's working.One coach recommended a tactic that "a lot of people inyour field are doing.""True," I said, "but can you find me one person who hasearned real money that way?" He was silent.5. Calculate expected results in dollars."Double your ebook sales" sounds good -- but what ifyou've just sold one for $20? Sell two and the coachkept his promise!You'll need a hundred years to recover the coach's fees.6. Your coach should read and analyze your materials beforeeach meeting -- not during the call.You need thoughtful insight, not impromptu, top-of-mindideas.7. Insist on a results-based guarantee.An idea may sound terrific till you implement it.Don't thank the coach or offer testimonials till you getresults. You may want your money -- and yourtestimonial -- back after three months.8. Get an idea of what process the coach suggests.There's no magic in marketing. Generally you need tonetwork, give talks, identify benefits, andmake calls. If you already know what you need, but can'tor won't do it, why pay a coach?9. Anyone can get great testimonials from clients. If youcan't get a referral from someone you know, pay for a singlesession.Try out a few ideas. Allow enough time to see results.Then, and only then, schedule follow-up sessions.10. You can lose more than the fees you paid.One marketing consultant said, "I charge $100 toevaluate your website and I guarantee my work. There is norisk!"Wrong. If you follow bad advice you can lose clients andbusiness for months and you may never recover.And there's the rub. You hire a consultant because youfeel clueless -- but blindly following advice can do seriousharm. The most successful business owners I know haven'tpaid a dime for marketing help. They follow their intuition,which is not for sale. They may hire someone to implementtheir ideas, such as a web designer, but they know theirmarket well and won't let anyone else create strategy.---------------------------------------------Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and careercoach who helps mid-career professionals make a fastmove to career freedom. Visit herwebsite http://www.movinglady.com. Free ezine:http://www.movinglady.com/subscribe.html .--