Business Lessons From the Trenches: Find Out How to Build Your Own Standout Brand

By Jana Rooheart

As a safety specialist for an IT company that specializes in mobile app development, I know firsthand the hard work it takes to grow a small business. The goal of our business was to create a product and brand that could recoup its initial costs within a year. Here are things we learned along the way that I hope can also help you build and grow a standout business brand:

We wanted to make something useful for American families, especially children. That’s how we came up with the idea of mobile child monitoring. Our initial idea was to create a product that would allow parents to monitor kids with a PC. This would help them protect their kids from online dangers like cyberbullying, online fraud, contacts with online predators etc.

We conducted thorough research: we reviewed feedback from social media, assessed what competitors were doing, and more. We also spent time with potential clients, learning about their priorities, their hobbies, their approach to consuming, etc.

As a result of the research, we found out that PC monitoring wouldn’t be as effective as smartphone monitoring. The lesson learned? It is important to offer the most convenient way to solve a customer’s problem, rather than trying to create and sell something that you think is great. In our case, mobile monitoring end up being a more effective tool, even though our primary idea was a fundamentally different project.

Remember, people do not buy drills but the ability to make holes in the wall.

It is no secret that one of the first steps of your marketing research is to define your target audience. You must know your target audience by sight. The biggest mistake is to say that your product can be useful to everyone.

A minimum set is to define the gender, age, earnings, and at least one psychological concern of a customer. A It can be anything: whether your customer enjoys, favored innovations, or if he/she is a control freak. Doing this can and will take a lot of your time, but it is an essential step of the marketing process. Later on, it will save you a lot of money as you won’t need to change your marketing strategy.

Defining your target audience is key. It makes product development more logical and customer targeting accurate. At the same time, it helps your retention percentage to stay high and your conversion percentage rate will be even higher.

If you still need to “boil the ocean,” divide your target audience into segments and craft your ecosystem for them. However, keep in mind that it is not enough to design banners with pears in order to land customers on a page with general information about fruits.

Your target audience lives 24/7 and it is literally everywhere. They ride the subway in New York, visit local stores in Massachusetts, and spend vacations in Hawaii. Your task is to find the appropriate people in the appropriate place and at the appropriate time at the lowest costs through effective advertising.

The crucial tip here is to choose a target audience that can be addressed easily. Choosing a target audience that is too hard or too expensive to reach can be your biggest mistake.

By the way, in the digital era we have access to more than 120 marketing channels. It’s only wise to use them. Choose the ones that work best for your target audience. Don’t limit your marketing strategy to just one or two channels–use a marketing mix of channels to have your target audience think that your brand is everywhere.

In fact, you can be presented in a meager share of the advertising space. Your goal is to surround your target audience, to be presented in 100 percent of their informational space without having to spend your valuable budget money on non-targeted people.

When you address your ads to your target audience, make sure to include every possible detail. Don’t just promote your product and the benefits of the product; instead, think of the benefits your customer can derive from the product–not vice versa. Remember the difference between the drill and the hole. First, you should think of the people to whom you are offering the product. This way you can understand what they need and adjust your marketing message appropriately.

Be sure to provide a one-page description of your target audience to each member of your team, so that everyone is on the same page. For example, if your designer is creating new ads for a new feature, he/she should not be drawing a picture of a happy family if the ad campaign is aimed at single mothers. A copywriter at the same time shouldn’t add any questionable phrases for single mothers like, “Now you and your husband will have more time for each other!”

Only a great team can perform the miracle of putting into action the plan that was set at the beginning. At my company, we set engagement as our highest priority when choosing employees. If we had to choose between a famous professional whose major concern was money and a proactive but less experienced specialist, we would prefer the second one. And in our opinion, we have been making the right choices so far.

First, we operate on a very tight budget. If a team of five professionals costs about $450,000 a year, our bigger team of young and engaged employees costs half as much. Next, it gives us the opportunity to enlarge our team gradually.

Engaged employees are willing to do all that is necessary for the successful operation of the company. In our case, our employees were able to combine several different jobs, which helped us to avoid being overstaffed before earning our first profit. For example, our expert in PPC advertising was also responsible for incoming requests from clients. We did not have to hire a tech support manager, which didn’t have any customers yet. At the same time, we managed not to disregard our first clients’ requests.

Remember, people ultimately are the key element of a successful business–your target audience and the people you work with. They define the competitive strength of your business and its ability to survive and grow.

Post by: Jana Rooheart

Jana Rooheart is a professional blogger and online safety specialist. She consults with small business owners regarding safety issues and works for Pumpic Company. In the near future she wants to open her own business.

Company: Pumpic
Website: www.pumpic.com
Connect with me on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn , and Google+.

The post Business Lessons From the Trenches: Find Out How to Build Your Own Standout Brand appeared first on AllBusiness.com