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 - Part II

Continuing from my earlier blog post, here you go:

Your basic digital toolbox

• ·        A couple of latest, well-equipped computers/laptops with the latest software
• ·        Key team members equipped with Smartphones for smoother mobile access to                digital networks
• ·        A good, solid broadband internet connection: This facilitates faster data uploading,            downloading  of  heavy files – content, videos, audio
• ·        A good brand plan in place – The digital plan is a subset of your brand plan and has          to cater to the brand’s larger goals
• ·        A sustainable strategy and wherewithal to continue the digital plan over the long                  term
• ·        The right team mix with knowledge about your business and knowledge about the              digital ecosystem

The dos of a successful digital strategy 

• ·     Align it to the big picture: Align it to your brand /company strategy and goals
• ·     Budget: Earmark a budget for digital from your marketing or advertising budget. Set clear milestones and       monitor progress weekly/fortnightly/monthly
• ·    Plan the digital activity step by step: Else, you might get overwhelmed and not be able to do justice to          anything
• ·    Don’t be present on all digital media: Be there where your target audience congregates. For example,  Facebook may not be the place for you if you are into auto components. Research and find the digital  platform – social media sites and websites where most of your target market/buyers go. Don’t be on  Facebook just because everybody else is there. That could mean a waste of valuable budget
• ·  Sustainability is key: Digital is no jadoo-ki-chaddi (magic wand); it is a long term investment. If you expect overnight results, you are likely to be crushed. Digital is more about building your brand/name over a period of time. It is about diligent, sustainable efforts worked upon every day so you are visible to your target market and stay top of the mind. Giving up is not an option.  

• ·    Have an internal digital team: Even if it means two or three people; have an internal team for this job. Sustained effort is a must; moreover, your internal team can do this job better than entirely outsourcing it to an outside agency. You can do that initially, and then train your team to take over, with a consultant overlooking the progress weekly.
• ·    Offline presence and delivery: Promises made online have to be ‘kept’ offline. In simple words, what you promise, you have got to deliver, else you are likely to lose face and therefore business and reputation. Your online reputation must always have an offline plan to live up to your word.

The good and the bad about digital

The good

• Your markets and marketing are at your fingertips and can be reached through even a mobile
• You can achieve far more marketing effort in a lesser amount of money as compared to printing           costs or traditional media expenditure
• Digital marketing can be implemented sitting right at your desk. All you need is a well-equipped,    reliable computer
• You can find your buyers from all over the world and reach out to them in a jiffy
• You can incorporate to-the-minute updates about your products and services and stocks, so your  buyers always know the latest information about you
• You can also effect online orders and make the buying and payment process simple for your buyers, thus saving valuable time

The bad

• Starting digital activity with a big bang and giving it up in a short time is a sure case of loss of face – it   may amount to lack of seriousness on your part and present a wrong image to your buyers
•  Being everywhere on the digital platform without a clue of what will work for you or where your buyers are
• Allowing your digital activity to devour your entire marketing budget without assessing if it is the right strategy
• Not having your digital strategy aligned to your brand strategy/company strategy

They did it. You can do it too.

B2B, they say is not cut out for digital. That’s a myth. Many big and small enterprises have proven this wrong. We will look at how two companies did it the digital way and successfully at that. 

Dell’s Digital Savvy 

Dell is known for its digital experimentation. Dell even won an award for its focused campaign on LinkedIn. This campaign included creating a close network of IT professionals that it wanted to target for its core products. This activity by Dell focused on using custom groups on LinkedIn.

Dell has a huge number of popular B2B Twitter feeds it operates. Some deal with company news and announcements, while others are dedicated to answering customer service queries. Dell Cares PRO provides 24×7 global support and Dell for Business answers questions from small and medium size businesses. Different feeds also communicate with one another to ensure that customer queries are dealt with through the proper channels. To make sure it stays on top of things, Dell’s social media command centre collects customer conversations around the web that enables the company to effectively identify problems, address complaints, collect feedback and respond to it.

OfficeYes.com

OfficeYes.com, India’s #1 e-commerce firm for B2B Office Supplies, recently introduced a new range of School Stationary Products and launched it via a campaign on Twitter.

The challenge was to establish the category, generate a buzz around it and subsequently drive sales for the new range of products amongst the right TG. They knew that their right TG i.e. School Students may not be majorly active on Twitter and therefore wanted to focus on driving traction from their parents, elder siblings etc who are a more evolved set of users on Twitter.

To do this, they launched the campaign with the insight that people love to reminisce and talk about their School Memories. People were invited to tweet their favorite School Memory using the hashtag #SchoolMemory. Their winner was declared each day and rewarded with a set of Back-To-School Goodies.

The conversation was kept subtle about School Memories and purposely stayed away from blatant selling while reminding our followers that Office Yes has introduced a new range of Products that might interest them. As a result, they saw a 154.2% rise in mentions and 113.5% increase in retweets without any media budget being spent. Office Yes was successful in reaching out to over 1.6 lakh Twitter users in 20 days and saw a 50% hike in the number of followers as well. The brand maintained an engagement score of 99% through the course of the campaign and hence despite being a B2B setup, Officeyes successfully established School Stationary as a part of its product portfolio.

You may feel they can do it easily. But believe me, taking the first, step, even a small one, is the way to success. When are you going to take that step in your digital journey? 

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!