Branding: Stand Out
Branding: Do You Stand Out From the Crowd?
by: Susan Dunn
Branding means finding a way to stand out from the crowd. Are you branded?
Bill, one of my clients, is trying to build a coaching practice. When I ask him what he wants to do, what kind of coaching, he says he wants to help people reach their goals and get more in touch with themselves.
Mary is also starting a coaching practice. She says she wants to help clients find out who they are, and make great strides in their careers.
All good coaches help their clients touch the source, as I call it, discover their strengths and set and reach new goals. All chiropractors offer spinal adjustments. All businesses that sell widgets, sell widgets.
Why would someone choose Bill or Mary then, instead of one of the tens of thousands of coaches out there?
“90% of coaches feel they are highly differentiated from other coaches, says William Arruda, The Branding Coach, who’s had 20 years experience in international branding. “Yet,” he adds, “only 10% feel strongly that their differentiation is visible to their ideal clients.” William helps individuals and businesses define their unique promise of value and build strong, memorable brands.
Now let me tell you about Bill and Mary as I see them. Bill worked with autistic children for 15 years. He’s empathic, gentle, versed in psychology, and has led many men’s growth groups. We’re working on defining his ideal client.
Mary comes from a corporate background, an HR professional with an MBA. She’s focused, forceful, and thinks ‘career’ first. She knows her ideal client – women in middle management.
Each coach has a very different background, personality style and preferred ideal client. How to get this across is what branding is about. It means finding the way to stand out among your peers in a way that helps your ideal clients find you. Are you branded?
About the Author
Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, GLOBAL EQ. Emotional intelligence coaching to enhance all areas of your life - career, relationships, midlife transition, resilience, self-esteem, parenting. EQ Alive! - excellent, accelerated, affordable EQ coach certification. Susan is the author of numerous ebooks, is widely published on the Internet, and a regular speaker for cruise lines. For marketing services go here.
Successful Blogging
10 Ways You Can Use Blogs RIGHT NOW
by: Andy Wibbels
Now that you have got a basic understanding of the ins and outs of blogs, and some options available, you’re probably wondering: How does this help my business? How does it help me to stand out?
1. Team Communication. Companies use blogs internally to communicate project status to stakeholders and managers. It beats clogging everybody’s email with mass broadcasts. It allows these missives to be archived, indexed and easily searched.
2. Enrich Your Clients. You can easily link to articles and resources relevant to your readers and their needs. You can more easily attract experts to provide value-added content to your audience.
3. Get to Know Your Customer. Nobody buys from someone they don’t know. Blogging allows you to demonstrate your expertise and point-of-view quickly and easily. In addition, blogs allow the customers to receive your updates in the format they choose.
4. Collaborate. You can create your own marketing buzz to drive attention and buyers to your products and services. Some companies use internal blogs to report on projects or to track work groups distributed around the world.
5. Research and Development. Weblogs are the perfect forum to test out new ideas and receive instant feedback. You can allow others to see how you develop your products and services, and at the same time, they can tell you how best to serve them.
6. Go Global. Blogs, like other online media, allow you to take your business and ideas to a global market. Translation services are getting better every day, allowing more people to read online content in different languages. I’ve helped bloggers from New York to New Zealand, from Indiana to India.
7. Hidden Entrance to the Press. Journalists are busier than ever and blogs provide a virtual directory of pundits on any topic. You and your company can be the content expert they’re looking for. Furthermore, if your company is talked about in the blogosphere it could end up using that exposure as a back door to the press.
8. Get Published. Publishers are turning to blogs to find new writing talent. Blogs can give a publisher a taste of your writing style as well as a sample of your depth of knowledge. Content specific blogs show a a commitment to a certain topic or subject matter.
9. Write your book. Let your readers help you write your latest book or article. Post chapters or ideas, then let readers help you in researching, testing and suggesting ideas. Or, use a blog after your book is published to update the material or to answer questions from readers.
10. Success Stories. Invite clients to blog about their successes with your products and services - it’s like a living testimonial that never ends. As clients share their experiences, your prospects can see first-hand how you can help them, too.
Copyright © 2005 Andy Wibbels
About Andy: Andy Wibbels is a blogging evangelist and creator of the Easy Bake Weblogs seminar that has helped hundreds of small businesses all over the world leverage blogs and RSS news feeds to increase profits and save time. You can download his free special report on business and blogs at http://easybakeweblogs.com/.
Effective Proofreading
10 Tips for Effective Proofreading
by: Jean Hanson
Proofreading may not be terribly fun, but it’s one of the most important parts of writing.
Have you ever read a web page or a document that had typos, grammatical errors, and punctuation mistakes? This reflects badly on you and your business, and you could easily lose a customer over a simple spelling mistake!
Here are some tips for quick and effective proofreading:
1. Wait several hours before proofreading. Otherwise you might be thinking about what you just wrote, rather than watching for typos and punctuation errors.
2. Eliminate distractions. This is very detailed work so you need to be focused.
3. Print out a copy of your work, rather than reading it on a computer screen. To make it even easier, print a double-spaced draft copy.
4. Read the document aloud. This helps to highlight punctuation errors and missing words.
5. Use a piece of colored paper as a guide. This will help to keep your eyes on the line you’re working on. If you don’t have any colored paper, use a ruler.
6. Read backwards for spelling mistakes. Yes, that’s right! You’ll find spelling errors much easier if you’re going from right to left. Otherwise you might unconsciously start reading, and not “proof” reading.
7. Use a different colored pen such as green or red to make your correction marks. These colors are much easier to see than black or blue.
8. Carefully check numbers and totals. Refigure all calculations and look for misplaced commas and decimal points.
9. If you have a lengthy document to proofread, rest your eyes every 10 to 15 minutes.
10. When you’re absolutely sure there are no mistakes, have a partner check your work. Sometimes all it takes is a second pair of eyes.
About the author:
Jean Hanson is the author of the eBook, Virtualize Your Business. For tips on learning how to virtualize your business and a FREE REPORT, go to http://www.virtualizeyourbiz.com.
