As part of an ongoing effort to provide free resources for the electrical industry I want to share with you the systems and philosophies that have been successful for me over the years.

This monthly newsletter series will take you through aspects of managing (business, financial, jobs, labor) giving you insights and techniques to help you build a better business.

The following content is extracted from Mike Holt's Business Management Skills Workbook.

Advertising
Advertising is an investment to achieve a marketing goal. It is a paid communication or promotion with the main objective being to create more sales. Advertising is only one single component of the marketing process, but it’s also the single largest expense of most marketing plans. It’s the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business or services in ways such as these:

• Social Media and Digital Marketing
• Newspaper and magazine ads
  
• Direct mail, flyers and brochures
• Point-of-sale promotional items such as refrigerator magnets on service calls, or rulers and pens when you pick up a set of plans
• Billboards & signs; Depending on the highway, you can reach as many as 100,000 prospective customers per day
• Radio and television commercials
• Emails

Branding
Branding is an essential component to the success of your advertising.

• It announces who you are and what you do.
• It confirms your credibility.
• It connects you with your customer.
• It motivates the customer to use your company and services.

Your brand is your promise to the customer. It differentiates you from your competition and tells the customer what they can expect from your services. It should reflect you and who you would like to be perceived as and is built on each and every interaction that customers have with your company. Not only does a great brand communicate who you are and what you do, but it also builds trust and connection in the process.

To build your brand and the story you tell your customers, you should be able to answer the following questions:

• What is your mission?
• What are you selling and to whom?
• What are the features and benefits of your services?
• Who do you want to sell to, and why?
• What makes you unique?

There are many things you can do to build your brand.

1. Find your visual brand identity, the face of your company, and be consistent in using it. Develop distinctive logos and color schemes for quick recognition. Use them on your business cards, truck painting and jobsite signs. Your trucks, for example, are not simply people and stuff movers, they’re mobile advertisements for your company. Keep them all in similar colors and styles. If you're just getting started, you might want to use decals, and if your business is established, you'll choose a beautiful custom paint or wrap job. Make sure that your vehicles are in good clean condition as this extends the look of your brand.
2. Be unique. What makes a brand effective is the way it stands out. Find your unique approach to how you want to do business and make sure that every employee and every interaction with your customers communicates that message.
3. Establish your company’s voice. Make sure that In everything that you do, your story is being communicated in a consistent way. If you are using a high-tech approach, then make sure that the copy in all your advertising references this high-end approach. You don’t want the advertising or the employees of your company to represent the business with a different voice, this confuses the customers and erodes trust. Or if your voice is the family run mom and pop story, make sure that you don’t come across too formal in your advertising or your sales presentations. Make sure that the family theme and connection theme comes through clearly.
   

If you have been in business for many years, make sure that you are updating and making your brand current. You don’t need a major overhaul—you want your brand to stay recognizable, but you need innovative ways to stay relevant and fresh. There are numerous websites and free resources on the internet that can give you ideas and direction, including the psychology of color, which colors to use and what they mean to different situations and industries.

Just as your appearance, smile, and even your handshake, say a lot about you, so does your advertising and your brand. Sometimes we advertise the wrong message, but we’re still advertising. Creating an image across multiple mediums, such as trucks, uniforms, business stationary, signs and web builds and reinforces your image in the consumers’ mind. Understand your market so that you can evaluate whether mediums such as yellow page ads have relevance for your business.

Invest money in advertising as part of your monthly operating expenses. Don’t spend needlessly, but don’t try to undercut expenses in a way that directly affects your communication with potential customers and those all-important repeat customers. Advertising consumes valuable limited resources as well as money and time, and should be considered carefully, but it's essential not only to increase your business, but also to replace customers you lose for various reasons. A common mistake is to reduce advertising when business is slow. Instead, you may need to increase advertising to build up your volume.

Your brand is your company’s identity in the world, make sure you have thought it through and carried your branding throughout all advertising, promotions and visual elements. At the end of the day, your brand tells the world who you are, and builds loyalty and trust through consistent messaging and the connections you build.

We'd love to hear from you about this series, and the ways you're using it. Send us your comments and feedback by clicking on Post a Comment below. Look out for the next part in this series a month from now, and please share with your colleagues.

This content is extracted from Mike Holt's Business Management Skills book.
To review or catch up on previous newsletters on Management and Business click here.