Every successful entrepreneur and business has a BRAND, The one thing you must have if you want to be successful is Branding that is consistent with you and your business.Branding separates you from your competition and gives you credibility. It’s what makes people want to tell other people about you, and makes them want to invest and buy from you again and again. Without branding businesses cannot survive.Your Visibility is more important than your ability. It is important to be visible. To increase your visibility Branding is important to the recognition of your business. People need to know who you are, remember you, prefer to buy from you and refer other people to you. See the following and you should aim for Brand Insistence and Brand Advocacy.a. Brand Awareness – they know your nameb. Brand preference – prefer to use you when possiblec. Brand insistence – will only buy your product or serviced. Brand advocacy – they tell other people about youDevelop a strong Logo and a Slogan for your business using something that is memorable so people will remember the name.It’s important to control your Brand. A lack of brand control is like having no-one at the steering wheel when driving, you need to control it.1) Your Brand is whatever people’s first impression is of you.2) It should be consistent3) It should be congruent – everything in your business should be in line with your Brand4) It creates loyal clients5) It should make the clients feel they are getting value6) It should invoke an emotional experience7) It should be something people can relate toPoints your want you need to consider when Brandinga. Profitability – will it help you become profitableb. Marketability – is it something you can Marketc. Credibility – is it Credibled. Visability – how will you make it visiblee. Invisability – you need to ensure you stand out and you are not invisiblef. Instability – does it invoke stabilityFor long term Brand Equity consider the following:1. The money required to Brand yourself2. How to Brand yourself3. What to Brand4. Is it consistent and congruent with you and your business5. When you look in the mirror is it something you can relate toConsiderations:
Personal Branding (remember it is a representation of yourself)
Brand Association (Brand your business so it is congruent with your personal Branding)
Brand Innovation (is it different and innovative)
Brand Credibility (is it credible so it is perceived as positive by your prospects)
Branding is difficult to do
Each time a client buys or invests in you, you have correctly Branded yourself
Branding is a Creative Art
Branding requires presentation, persuasive selling and negotiation
When a person is Branded they create their own mark
Analyzing your prospective clients motivation to buy is key to building your Brand
Branding by message control – Be sure that you control the message you are putting out.
Reasons people will buy from you.1. They have a problem you can solve for them2. They have a problem or need but are not sure if it can be solved(Brand to convince them that you are the authority – not just an expert)3. The person has zero need for your product or service but you convince them they need it4. People will buy from you to alleviate dissatisfaction with another product or service5. You promote your product or service to whatever they currently have – this is Brand positioning6. You overcome their fear of change and persuade them to step outside of their comfort zone – having a Brand gives them peace of mind7. You Brand yourself as a natural extension to their lives. A compliment rather than a disruptive change.Basic Rules:1. The customer is always right2. When in doubt refer back to number 1There is a difference between needs and wantsThere are 5 basic fears preventing people from taking action. A Branded individual, product or service can overcome these.a. Fearb. Procrastination or lack of focusc. Lack of Educationd. Time Managemente. AccountabilitySuccessful businesses talk about what they “can” do for the client, the average business talks about what “it is” they can do for the client. Brand to the WIFM formula and take care of the SO WHAT.People will buy the brand rather than the product. Your reputation is linked directly to your Brand.i.e Labeled Handbags, Clothing, Shoes, Coffee shops, Restaurants and more.People do business with you not because you have the best product but because they like and trust you. This is something you cannot buy.People don’t buy car insurance they buy security. Branding gives people a sense of security.It’s important to understand the primary and secondary influences.a. Primary – reasons they buy without thinkingb. Secondary – these are excuses and reasons people rationalize why they shouldn’t buyAll buying decisions are emotional, rarely logical. People will invest logically but buy emotionally. Your Branding needs to set up the framework to match this.You need to understand the left versus the right brain decision making. Left brains think rationally, numbers etc. the right brain person thinks artistically and creatively (45% left brained, 45% right brained and 10% both) Build your Brand so it appeals to both left and right brained people – it will be your key to success.Find the emotional red button that would make people buy your product or service and build your Brand around it. The best way to do this is to create surveys so you are asking your prospective customer directly.6 Ways to Brand yourself.1. Achievement2. Association3. Authoring a book4. Reciprocation5. 3rd Party recognition6. Charitable donationAlways under promise and over deliverLaunch then link all elements of your business and any other businesses you have to that Brand. There should be congruency throughout your business so everything relates to everything else.In other words your signage, websites, stationery, business cards and everything in your business should reflect your logo and slogan and have the same colors and text so they are uniform and people will remember you. It is best NOT to use your name.Appearance is also a key element, you should dress according to the type of business you are in, and the type of image you wish to portray. Remember your appearance reflects your business, so dress accordingly in congruence with your business.Using Hotmail, Gmail and other similar generic email addresses does not give status to your business, Use email addresses that reflect your business, preferably the same email address as your website. Before using your first name in email addresses consider that first names in email addresses tend to indicate a small company. If you are looking to appear as a big company use something more corporate.It isn’t easy to do but if you master it your business will become recognized and successful.For more information on growing a successful business check below

If you’re looking at commissioning a web designer to build you a website, one of the first things that you will need to know, is the monetary cost. This article will explain to you why there is such a huge variance between web designers and their quotes and will give you some advice as to how much you can expect to pay to contract a competent web designer in the UK.First of all you have to have a rough idea of what it is that you want from your website. You have to have thought of what you want to achieve with the website. What are its objectives? You will then need to have thought of a basic structure for your website. There are many website examples out there for you to have a look at; the important thing is to have an idea about what structure you want for the site – meaning a rough outline of the numbers of pages and the content (text and images) that will make up each page.Once you have your project objectives in mind and a rough idea of your websites structure you are in a position to start contacting suppliers. There are multitudes of web design companies everywhere and in our particular area of the UK – Doncaster there are lots of web design companies to choose from. The key thing to remember is that everyone wants your business. The web design marketplace is completely saturated so you as the buyer have the upper hand!As in all other industries there are people who provide excellent service, there are people who provide an average service and there are also cowboys (people who sell web design services without the necessary knowledge and experience to do so).What you have to think to yourself is this: If a person promises me the earth for £1 does that mean to say that they can deliver it? The best advice I can give is to be realistic. There are lots of really good city based web design companies throughout the UK that provide excellent services. They are always there to take your calls and you even get your own personal account manager to handle your requests and hold your hand through the entire web design process. The services of such companies are wonderful but this obviously comes at a price. City based offices, account managers and admin staff are large overheads and the prices charged by large city based web design companies reflect this. If you have a modestly sized website, which needs to be under content management system control, don’t be surprised if the web design quote runs into tens of thousands of pounds from a major city based web design company. If you are looking for a top quality 100% inclusive, comprehensive service and your company can afford this kind of bill then I would suggest using a big city company every time.Then there are the smaller companies that are made up of just a few individuals. These types of companies have much lower overheads and frequently have very knowledgeable and capable staff. The service level can be much lower than that of major city based web design companies but you can get some excellent work done by such companies at a fraction of cost of the large city based companies.A much overlooked group of web designers that can produce some excellent web designs are the wide community of freelance web designers. Freelance web designers are private, self employed individuals who work from small offices (they frequently work from home). Freelancers have very low (mostly non existent) overheads. As such they can provide quality web design work for much lower costs than larger web design companies. If you are looking for good quality web design for less money then it definitely work looking at using a quality freelance web designer.The people that you really need to avoid are the web design cowboys. As stated above cowboys are people who sell web design services without the necessary knowledge and experience to do so. If you are unfortunate enough to have contracted someone like this in the past you will be aware of the low quality work that they produce and the lack of significant results that they achieve. Cowboys invariable promise you the earth for a £1. Use your common sense and if someone is quoting you £100 for something that 5 other companies are charging around £4000 for, you know that something is not quite right. Remember the old adage – buy cheap, buy twice!Conclusion:You will find a great deal of variance between web design quotes depending on what level of web designer you choose to contract and what level of service you require. Always make sure to get as many quotes and talk to as many people as you can so a) see what’s available on the market and b) get an unbiased idea of the likely costs involved. There are lots of good web designers out there but there are also a lot of lesser skilled web designers and even some of the proverbial cowboys. Make sure to use good common sense and get a feel for the web designer’s skills and experience when you meet them. No matter how charming a person is, experience is very hard to fake. Ask to see examples of their work and where they have done similar work to your proposed project. Remember – you have the upper hand!