What are 3 low-cost steps a launching lady should take to build an effective and powerful brand?

Maria ROSS, Owner and Chief Marketing Diva – Red Slice, LLC

Maria Ross’s mission with Red Slice, LLC – her branding, marketing and communications consultancy – is to engage, inform and delight audiences to keep them coming back for more. She has over 15 years experience in all aspects of marketing, including branding, advertising, field marketing, lead generation, events, messaging, press and analyst relations and communication planning. Maria is also a published lifestyle writer, wine columnist and actress. Her unique creative talents combined with her business savvy on both the client and agency side enable her to see the whole picture in an innovative way.

QUESTION:
What are 3 low-cost steps a launching lady should take to build an effective and powerful brand?

ANSWER:
The best thing entrepreneurs can do to save money is to sit down and create a clear, strong brand strategy. This entails defining who you are, what you represent, what feelings you want to evoke, what value you provide, how you price things, who your ideal audience is, and how to best reach them. This requires sitting down and answering some key questions. People that don’t do this first and launch into creating a website or investing in marketing programs are just throwing their money away. When you have no destination, every road looks like it will lead you somewhere.

Know thy audience and thy brand and you will know the best communication vehicles and marketing tactics in which to invest – and more importantly, at which phase. Translation: only pay for things that will move you forward.

1) Create a strong brand strategy – this foundation will save you time, money and headaches (and countless billable hours) before engaging with a designer, programmer or writer. You can do this by answering 10 key questions.

2) Define your ideal audience – put as much precision around who they are, where they live, what they do for a living, what they read, if they watch TV, what clubs they belong to, etc. so you can ensure you only invest in marketing programs that really get in front of them, rather than blasting your message to everyone and having no one pay attention.

3) Leverage free stuff first – PR leads like HARO, unpaid speaking engagements or partnerships are great ways to promote without spending a dime.

Think about the phases of the buying cycle: Awareness, Education, Evaluation, Purchase. What information does the potential customer need at each phase? Put yourself in the prospective customer’s shoes and visualize them finding you in various ways. Are they driving in their car when the need for your product arises or do they do extensive web research when buying such a thing? Are they at a trade show and see your product? For each phase of the buying cycle, they have different information needs, so you must plan your marketing activities accordingly.

Make sure you picture that ideal customer in your head and how they will find you before you create everything under the sun and find yourself a year from now making a trip to the recycle bin with all those lovely pamphlets you never needed.

Connect with Maria in the Ladies Who Launch Network.

To read MORE FROM OUR EXPERTS click HERE.


* Learn more about the Ladies Who Launch STRATA program and connect with experts in person.
* Learn more about PR Opportunities and PR Leads from Ladies Who Launch and get exposure for your business in the press and on Ladies Who Launch.
* Reach your Launch Potential by taking advantage of these SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES and online resources from Ladies Who Launch.
===========================================================================