• Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Authors
  • Contact
  • Polls
  • Small Biz Interviews
 

Creating a Website, Easy Creating a Brand, Not So Much

October 8th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments »

You have a product/service, a cool domain name (though not as cool as KiKscore), a website, some way to charge people and electricity. But do you have a business? Well, you probably do, but is it successful? I guess it depends upon your definition of success. Some philosophers believe that success can be found in the mere attempt of an activity, regardless of the outcome. But those philosophers are probably the ones that didn’t finish high school and have no money, so why listen to them.

I may have digressed. Ok, the point is just having a site doesn’t mean you have a customer base. How do you get one? Easy. Just buy my new 13 step program (available only on LaserDisk) “Getting a Customer Base the Dojo Master Mike Way”. Or, instead you could start building up your brand in the marketplace (though I think the LaserDisk purchase is a smarter way to go).

The biggest obstacle that small/new businesses face is that they are competing against established/well known competitors. You have to create a known brand if your company is going to have staying power. And there are a lot of different thoughts on brand. The one I like the best is that a brand denotes a certain type of customer experience. Any Starbucks that you go to you can expect the same type of drinks, pastries and horrible folk music. No matter what you think of Starbucks, you know that there brand relates to a certain type of experience. That’s what every small business hopes to aspire – creating a customer expectation with their business (as long as it is a positive experience).

To create your brand and your positive customer expectation, the focus has to be on consistency. Wild differences in your service level will discourage repeat business or referrals. Also be open to customer feedback…making changes to your service/product that incorporates those suggestions.

What about getting the word out about your business? Most small/new businesses don’t have a large advertising budget. But as everyone knows, there are many ways to create attention these days. I think the best way to create buzz is through a hunger strike or some type of large-scale arson attack. But others prefer optimizing their website, sponsored links on search engines, referral links from other websites, and gaining attention on social media sites. To each their own, I guess. Whatever you do, make sure to keep in mind your brand and what you want the excepted experience to be.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogplay
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • MSN Reporter
  • MySpace
  • RSS
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

  • Share/Bookmark
 

Leave a Reply