A Branding Broadside

In a letter recently I mentioned a secret technique that only the top direct marketers use to draw traffic to their websites.

I challenged recipients to read the whole letter, then see if they could guess the technique we use:

"We rely heavily on one secret traffic-building method only a very few people use – mainly top direct marketers. Read through the rest of this letter and see if you can guess what it is - then post the answer to my blog The third correct answer will win half a day of consulting time, to work on one issue, FREE. That’s a $500 value!"
But you don't need to have read the letter to get in on the fun.
In the comments, take your best guess: what's the secret traffic-building technique that top direct marketers use - but as far as I know, almost nobody else does?
Third correct answer gets a half-day of consulting time, same as if you'd gotten the letter.

What will be the single biggest factor driving your profitability in 2011?

In some industries it will be the availability of raw materials or labor. In others,the political situation in certain parts of the world.

But for the rest of us, the primary driver of financial performance will not be anything connected to our costs or our ability to deliver whatever it is we sell.

It will be our ability to sell, period. And to command whatever pricing we've set as fair value in the marketplace.

That means finding an audience of prospects who don't just need what we have to offer - but who want it.

Now. 

And they don't really care what they pay for it. As long as:

• They get it in time; 
• Their experience of the product or service matches their expectations;
• And they get a good dose of the amazing benefits they thought would materialize as a result of being involved with the product or the organization. (Or they understand what they need to do differently to get those benefits.)

Those people exist in every industry, including yours. 

How many of them would it take to transform your business next year?

One's kind of a quick hit. Except that it took 30 years to come up with.

The other, we'll be discussing more over the next several posts.

The quick thought.

We market to make sales. We brand to maintain margins.

The longer thought.

If you took marketing courses in school - and I never did - you learned about the four Ps that supposedly fall under its umbrella:

• Product.
• Price.
• Promotion.
• Place (meaning distribution).

Only, I think a lot of contemporary businesses would take issue with that set. The definition hardly leaves room for engineering and operations. Not to mention finance.

But I would suggest that the part of product development that has to do with packaging and bundling specific items and services is not only a function of marketing but also has a big effect on a company's brand.

Which lands it right in the purview of the branding consultant.

More and more, rearranging the product lineup and packaging it is a big part of what this branding firm does to help our clients establish premium positioning in their markets.

As we've all seen in the international marketplace, sometimes those product bundles wind up creating not just new positioning but reinventing entirely new product categories.

Take a look at Apple in that regard, for instance.

But even stopping short of the full-on category reinvention, pulling together more valuable product and service bundles can help any business make real money. It can:

• Capture new sources of revenue.
• Bring in that new revenue at higher margins.
• Widen margins with new, high-value offerings in current markets.
• Maintain margins on current revenue sources - even when the competition is trying to start a price war.

Of course, delivering on the promises implied in those high-value bundles is critical - just like delivering on the promises the existing brand already makes.

More on that in a few days . . .

Guy Kawasaki says the biggest mistake startups make is not budgeting for marketing, because entrepreneurs tend to think the product will sell itself.

I see lots of folks not paying attention to branding, for the same reason: If the product is good enough, they think, it ought to open doors all by itself.

Here are three counterexamples from my own experience:

My client Artesys is rolling out nationally this coming week as a featured investment choice in retirement plans from OneAmerica Insurance. (Check out their new site from Atomicdust.) Could that have happened if the product was still called "Global Strategic Asset Allocation?"

Kimberly Schneider, The Manifestation Maven, knew it was time to get a real brand in 2009. She was starting a major expansion into television, radio and public speaking - and had just booked her coaching schedule solid. She knew in advance - unlike most entrepreneurs - a hodgepodge of homemade package designs wouldn't cut it when she was presenting to major media representatives.

TransFigure Total Health could have chosen to be just another mom and daughter selling a diet. But they're building a company that's changing people's lives, 40 days at a time.

In each case, they needed to do more than pass the four-second test. That's that test that asks if you're a legitimate businessperson:

• How smart are you?
• Do you have any money?
• Can I trust you?
• Do I like you?

They needed to create a real look and even a language all their own, a way their prospects and customers can identify them and, down the road, each other. They knew they needed to create a culture that would grow a following, that would build their businesses and grow their incomes.

Most of my clients know their new brands will bring them new levels of success and growth. They knew their new brands would ultimately make them more money.

As we got started, they were each excited about the process and the future. 

But once they had a real brand working for their businesses, I think they were genuinely surprised at how much more successful they felt.

They had a new level of confidence.

They weren't just business owners anymore. They were company presidents and CEOs. And the world started to treat them that way, too.