Be Visible. Stay Visible - The Business Success Mantra

A good marketing strategy for SMEs.

In 2007, Sachin and Binny Bansal started Flipkart with an investment of just four lakh Indian Rupees. Today, Flipkart has grown into a $100 million+-revenue online retail giant. It does sound like a fairytale alright, but there’s a lot more effort to it than meets the eye. Flipkart has worked on delivery, then innovation and then visibility with a passion. Today, Flipkart has earned the trust of millions as it has lived up to its promise on delivery. Innovating and selling electronics online in the face of an audience that did not trust electronic buying online and sticking to it shows Flipkart’s guts. And one of the top 10 rated websites with an incredible SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy and execution has pushed it to the top list of being the most visible eretail giants in India’s e commerce story.

Had the Bansals just pushed the delivery bit without building visibility, they would have remained what they were on Day 1 = invisible and unknown.

The Bansals and many successful businessmen like them had three things – that are critical to any business: vision, visibility and guts. In the scheme of things, one follows the other.

We all know what Vision is. Let’s now talk about visibility, the hitherto lesser-known factor and its importance in the success of a brand.

What is Visibility of a Brand?

Visibility is the ability of a product and service to be noticed, seen consistently (by its Target Audience) and later to be recognized.

Visibility does not just happen. It has to be planned and worked on. Simply because in the business of brands, visibility plays a key role.

If you are not visible, you may as well be dead. No two ways about it.

We all know that in this universe there are billions of brands in the same space, vying for a share of the consumer’s mind. Take any product or service – cars, refrigerators, books, TVs, food, beauty services, lawyer service, you name it and some millions of competitors appear. Try Googling the name of any product or service and you will see what we mean. Imagine the stakes if you, a lone brand has to stand out among these billions!

Being visible is hard work. Staying top of mind is Herculean.

But if you don’t do it, someone else will and you will be eating humble pie sooner than you blink your eyes.

Just having a great product or service is not enough.

In many softer cultures of the world, there is an accepted behavioral norm that says if you quietly go about doing good work, it will fetch results. We have no objection to the good work but the ‘quietly’ part definitely worries us. No one will notice you if you do great things, quietly. You must talk. The opposite of Walk the Talk is every bit true in the world of brands. Talk the Walk.

Talk the Walk and how

There are many ways of being visible and fortunately not all of them will burn a hole in your pocket.

1. Use Social Media to its fullest: You all probably are present on Social Media – Linked IN, Facebook YouTube and Twitter at the very least – use it fully and post on these platforms regularly about the good work you have done. Keep adding to your network once you log on. If you do this even once a week, you will expand your network and let them know what you are doing. The good word always spreads and with great returns too. If you are Social Media shy or think it is no good, let me assure you that you are sadly mistaken and are losing out on the huge benefits it offers for visibility.

1. Use status messages to speak about your brand: Example, put a short testimonial or an award that you won, on your What’s App status or your email status. This way you get seen without actively promoting.

1. Always be open to speak in public: Many of you are part of Clubs like the Lions Club, Rotary Club, Sports Club and even industry circles like the Doctors’ Club or others – Always make it point to use every opportunity to update the members about your activity.

1. Leverage your database: Make it a point to send newsletters or emailers at least once a quarter to your database to update them about the happenings in your company and industry. It pays off. People always skim through the pages even if they don’t read it in detail.

1. Take time to build a good website and add a blog link to it: Blogs are a great way to update your website content. You don’t have to be a top writer to write blogs – in fact, blogs written from the heart with a personal touch work better, especially when you share your unique experiences with the audience.

1. Make a point to display your brand wherever you can, on T-shirts for example: Office wear, coasters, office walls are a good and affordable way of displaying your brand. Use them. On T-shirts and office sacks, play up your brand – the entire team will wear it and the world will see it.

1. Invest in being visible: Assign an annual budget to your brand visibility, however modest. It will inculcate a discipline in you and your team and contribute to your brand’s visibility.

1. The right tone matters: Just being visible is not the way forward. Being visible in the right way and showcasing a consistent image is important. Be particular that everywhere your brand shows it shows up in a consistent way. For example, if your brand needs to be seen as professional and formal, you cannot have your team showing up for a customer meeting in chappals or floaters or tees, no matter what the time or the day. Some companies end up being present everywhere, sponsor anything and everything – they are visible and noticed but probably for all the wrong reasons – best avoided.

The above is just a snapshot of the tremendous opportunities you have, to be talking about your brand. If you look around with open eyes, you will a flood of opportunities – both free and paid.

Strict No-Nos of Visibility

1. Don’t over expose. Don’t be all over the place. At every show, every newspaper, magazine, every social media platform, every whatever. Overexposure is bad for the brand’s health. Practice restraint.
2. Don’t be where everyone is just because it works for them. Check whether that place/platform works for your brand. Sometime being in a place where competition is not, works better for your brand visibility.
3. Don’t overspend. Just spending huge amounts of money does not guarantee visibility.Spending optimally for the right kind of visibility should be your objective.
4. Don’t be overly visible if you cannot deliver: Splashing on big ads in the newspapers and magazines, without having a distribution network ready is a recipe for a backlash from your consumers. Stay away from this. Invest in visibility only when you have a strong back end and front end that delivers on your brand promise.

Visibility is like a chain reaction. Keep working on it.

Just spread the good word about your brand, one person at a time. Get feedback from your customer when he visits, ask for referrals, do everything to spark a good chain reaction. There’s nothing like Word of Mouth for visibility. There’s nothing like consistent Word of Mouth for visibility.

Image courtesy: gobeyondseo.com

Digital Marketing Success made simple for SMEs

Enter a hotel lobby, a conference room, an office reception, an airport or even an airplane; chances are you will catch all souls there talking, browsing or playing with their Smartphones or tablets or reading on their Kindle Fires. Phones, tabs and laptops have changed the face of the game of business. Technology rules our lives today-both professional and personal. Digital is big for the biggies as well as the SMEs; like it or not, in business of any kind, digital connections make all the difference.

So where do you begin with your digital endeavor? Your website.

A website is one of the most important elements of a digital branding plan for your company and is usually the starting point. A website is the first thing your buyer will check to assess you, to see what you have to offer, your capabilities, your expertise, your people and your history. If you are absent on the WWW (the World Wide Web) you are missing out on the opportunities that would have come knocking from the country and the world. For your business wishes to come true, you don’t need a genie, you need a well-thought out website that catches your buyer’s interest, keeps him engaged for some time with relevant, mature content and answers your buyer’s unsaid questions. If you are successful in making the buyer call you/reach out to you, you have hit the nail on its head. But a website is just the beginning; you have a long way to go on the digital journey.

The typical digital elements in an SME branding plan

Digital rules the roost in almost every branding plan today, whether B2C or B2B. And no, if you are thinking digital means Facebook, Facebook and more Facebook, nothing could be further from the truth. The digital medium comprises of far more elements than a Facebook. Social Media (Facebook, Linked In, Twitter) is just a part of the digital ecosystem for a brand today. 

Digital typically comprises Social Media, Content Creation and Management, Blogging, Community Building, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Email Marketing. However, the digital world is ever evolving and you are sure to find more elements. For the time being, suffice it to understand these few a little more.

 Social Media: These are social networks (some professional networks, others, social) on the web/Internet typically, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Slideshare, etc.  

     Content Creation and Management: Content in the digital world, is King, Queen and heir. The more you create content (text, audio content, video content, webinars – seminars on the web, freebies), integrate it and manage it well, the more you will rule the World Wide Web for your industry.

·     Blogging: A blog is a web log – a log of ideas, expert information, important information, expressions and thoughts on the web. You can launch a blog of your company/brand for free. A blog being what it is, it helps you create a reputation of an expert in your field over a period of time, provided you regularly write blog posts (articles), at least once a week. Focus, continuity, relevance and sustained efforts will ensure your blog gets you attention from prospects.

·        Community Building: Communities on the WWW are common interest groups. If you know the group which has the characteristics of your target market, you can build this group and create a community. You can create a new group or community yourself. The communities could be for a cause (Save Pune Traffic Movement), an interest (Marketing Masala), a shared-interest community (IT Engineers Group, Retail Community, Ad Women Community, Working Moms  and so on and so forth). By targeting your target market (community), you ensure your marketing efforts reach the right audience.

·        Search Engine Marketing (SEM): This is based on keywords or search words that go into creating small ads. You pay for these ads and the space and search engines like Google, Bing or others, catch the keywords and ‘show’ your ads to your target audience. This way your company and your products get seen by the right people and enhance your marketing efforts.

·       Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Again, a search tool, this is something you get done for your website. SEO specialists or web development agencies and consultants can help you optimize your website and web presence to ensure effective marketing.

·     Email Marketing: Post the death of the snail mail – the old way of posting letters, email marketing is the quickest and a cost effective way of reaching your target market. However, this tool is prone to inefficiencies, as it resorts to bulk marketing and hence may lead to wastage of efforts and resources. With a proper email marketing strategy however, far better results can be achieved. There are specialist agencies which do this kind of work, but the best way is to go through your digital consultant/agency’s advice and see how important this is in the scheme of your digital plan.

Digital is not free. It involves costs.  

Contrary to what most of us tend to think, digital is not free in the true sense. Oh yes, you don’t have to pay a dime to open a Facebook account or a business page, or even a Twitter, LinkedIn,  Slideshare or You Tube account; but to market your services and products effectively, you have to budget it separately. All these platforms have a paid ad option, where you need to pay for the ad space and the ad creation. If you get the platform right and the content right, there’s no stopping buyers from reaching out to you. Consider ‘digital’ as an investment and not an expense, and you will start enjoying the results.

Are you ready to take the digital plunge?

Digital is an alien world for many of us, fret not. The word ‘digital’ tends to push your marketing team out of its comfort zone; so resistance is inevitable; but nothing which cannot be overcome with a bit of planning, learning and persistence. To date, marketing collaterals meant printed brochures, leaflets, catalogues, press ads, magazine ads; at the most, it meant product films and corporate films and even exhibition stall designs. From there when you are suddenly thrown into a virtual world with PowerPoints, Social Media, Content Marketing towering over you, jitters are normal. But getting a handle on those is also imperative – easily achieved when you talk to the right agencies/digital agencies/consultants and get the right marketing team on board. 

Advertising for SMEs – A useful tool.

The world is no more round, it is turning flat; in simple words, competition that was restricted to your own country or may be a few neighbors, has exploded to include the world. India has suddenly been thrown into the limelight and become the world’s outsourcing poster boy. Everyone wants to work with India in one way or the other. Future super power or something else, India is on the upward curve. All the more reason why you should be looking at advertising seriously.

But what is the need for advertising? 

Advertising is a necessity because of competition, because the market is limited but the players are many; because advertising brings in more prospects, advertising helps to build your brand, create the right impressions and attitudes towards your product in the mind of the consumer.

However, the success of advertising depends a lot on planning in advance – not just what you should be talking about in ads, but also when to talk, where to talk and whom to talk to – which means, the message, the time and the media should be planned well in advance. Why? There is a simple reason: to ensure you get more value from your ad spend!  Having an advertising plan (Ad Plan) in place is a good way to begin.

Simple questions to ask yourself when you work on an Ad Plan.

• Why do I want to advertise?
• What is the annual budget I have for this activity? 
• Who is my target audience for the advertising?
• What do I want to achieve through this advertising?
• What media best suits my purpose? 
• What is the competition doing in terms of advertising? 
• Is it successful? If yes how? 
• Is it a failure? Then why and how?

Have an annual budget 
Having an annual budget earmarked for advertising is worth the initial effort.  But what your budget should be depends entirely on what you want achieve. It might be a good idea to begin with a fixed percentage of your total annual revenue as your ad budget.
Typically, companies earmark anything between 2% to 10% of their revenues as their advertising budget. The bigger ones go for the bigger spends and the smaller ones prefer something that suits their pocket size. There is nothing hard and fast about it though and you could begin with something even less than 2%. The key is to begin and stay put. Advertising is about being consistent without expecting overnight magic in sales figures.

Study competition that is more successful than you
Imitation is the best form of flattery, as goes the saying. First know your closest competition and then study them in detail. Then study how they advertise and see the results of the campaign. It may do you a lot of good to initially follow and work on some tips from the competition’s ad strategy and see if they will work well for you. As you get comfortable with the whole process of advertising, you can develop your own, solid Ad Plan.

Have a company as your gold standard 
Among competition, identify one company/brand as your benchmark, your gold standard. This is the company you want to be/or reach. Also plan for the right time to reach your goal and the how you plan to reach it.

Set realistic goals
There cannot be anything as important as the ‘Setting of Goals’ in your Ad Plan. A goal has to be specific, measurable, achievable, reviewable and bound by time. Only if you set goals, can you compare if you have reached those or you haven’t. After a certain period, a review is essential. Analyze and see if you are on the right track to your goals; if not, do a course correction.

One trap that one tends to fall in, when one says ‘goals’ is the ‘sales growth’. That is the ultimate aim, no doubt, in fact, the ultimate goal really is ‘increasing profits’ and not just ‘sales’; but there are many others on the goal list. Example – increasing brand awareness, increasing brand visibility, improving recall, inducing trial, giving out information (example when a company merges with another and a new entity is formed, or when a company changes its name, or when a company has an IPO coming up and so on). In any of these cases, the goal has to be specific, for example, “We want to increase brand awareness by 10% all over India”. The more specific the goal, the more accurately you can measure the ROI on your ad spend and ensure better results eventually.

What advertising cannot do
Advertising is there to promote your product/brand/company/event. Advertising cannot, however, improve your product – it cannot improve your product features or its functioning or its after-sales support. It cannot stop the product from mal- functioning. For example, if you buy a washing machine after reading an ad, and the washing machine goes kaput in 6 months, you are most certainly not going to blame advertising for its failure to deliver! Or, when advertising gets people to a car showroom, but the sales guys there are not trained well, that again is not advertising’s fault. For great advertising to work, you ought to have a great product that delivers to its promise, consistently, year after year!

Usually many companies expect too much out of advertising without knowing what they are doing it for! That’s the trap one must avoid.

Action is critical 
Once your goals are set and the ad plan is formulated, action is advisable. If things work, that’s what we wanted. If they don’t, roll up your sleeves and get back to the goal resetting. A simple way of getting into action is breaking your annual ad plan into small, easy-to-digest tasks. This is done by making a month-wise event calendar for the year. By events, we don’t always mean events, they are actually the tasks or activities under advertising that you need to do in that particular month. An annual advertising plan can overwhelm a beginner; by working out an event calendar, life becomes simpler and you can breathe easy.

Where should you go with your advertising? And how to avoid media mania 
Media mania is about people wanting to go all over the media –in newspapers, TV, radio, hoardings, social media – everywhere. But one needs to control this sudden media lust and go only where you will find your audience. The trick is to identify your Target Audience very clearly and then find out what places he visits, what he reads, what channels he watches on TV and which radio channel he listens to. Then go where you find your customer. This way you plan your ad budget well, save on unnecessary spends and get the most out of your advertising rupee. For example – an automotive parts supplier should ensure he is ‘seen’ by his customers – so he should target the auto belts of the region. He should see what the decision makers do, read and watch. And should go there with his advertising.

Reviews are important – monthly, quarterly and annual 
Reviewing an Ad Plan is extremely important. It can be done on a monthly, quarterly, 6-monthly or an annual basis. Review the Ad Plan with your team members and the ad agency if you have engaged one.
If budget permits, you may even want to explore the idea of hiring your own advertising or marketing communications consultant.

Internal advertising should not be ignored 
Along with an external advertising plan, it is also important to focus on internal communication to motivate your employees as they are your best brand champions. Internal communication could be in the form of an HR training manual, posters, contests, internal celebration of important events, etc.

Grow your network
Networking is now more than just a buzzword. It has the potential to keep your cash register buzzing. Growing your network, both real and virtual, can make that big difference to your business. It can help you generate good word-of-mouth at a much lesser cost. This takes us to digital advertising or digital communication, which has assumed a key role in promotions. More on the subject later.

Keep advertising. Keep growing.

The best time to begin advertising is anytime now. Start small so you can grow big. Increase your spends gradually. You don’t have to have a budget of crores at the outset. Start small, grow steadily, advertise big.
But before you do all of this, start working on your advertising plan.

Happy Advertising!