Building Your Brand

Online marketing begins with YOU. Who are you, and what makes you unique in the world of Southwest Florida commerce? Online marketing begins by both defining and building your brand. Before you can begin to participate in online marketing activities, such as social media management, blogging, and pay per click advertising, you have to understand who you are as a business inside and out.

Defining Who You Are

When you begin to pursue online marketing, you need to have language -- short, pithy phrases -- to describe yourself in a compelling way. After compiling these definitions and planning out the beginnings of a marketing campaign, you'll be able to start building your brand online. Here are some tips for starting to create these definitions and marketing phrases.

• Describe three ways your business differs from other businesses in your sector or industry. Why is yours different? How do you convince prospective clients to use your business over another's? Do you offer competitive pricing? Personalized service? Are your methods unique and innovative? Do you provide differentiated products?
• Write down your "elevator speech." Who are you in 40 seconds or less? Boil down your business to a few sentences. Have your employees help in this endeavor.
• Define your mission. What are you trying to do? Where are you going? What is your overall goal as a business owner? Once you have defined your mission, have each one of your employees memorize that mission and be able to repeat and explain it.
• Formulate several phrases that define who you are -- they can be a few words, partial sentences, etc. Begin to use these as you sell and write content.