The conduits through which you promote your brand look and personality have changed and newer ideas on how to market it have popped up as a result.

I find the biggest challenge is keeping clients on track with their brand in every aspect– educating them that it works but it’s not always an immediate cause and effect. Some people are just very literal.

For example, some send out direct mail and expect to sell something from it pronto. I paid x amount of dollars and should get xx amount back. I went to a chamber event and it’s worthless because no one hired me right then. That kind of thinking will limit your growth.

It’s not always like that and building a brand takes time–something impatient Americans don’t always understand. If you are in a relationship marketing service field, you simply want to elevate your brand to top-of-mind awareness.

That way when you follow up after they’ve been exposed through many media channels, you will have created familiarity and people become more comfortable with you. They’ve “heard” of you so to speak. So if they hear of you (your brand) through sponsorship, social media, direct mail, enewsletters and networking they have an idea about you and are educated in what you have to offer. So it’s the synergy of all your efforts at branding that creates a brand success story.

This is a very creative way to get your bank card and your PIN. I would suggest reading this pdf to find out how criminals can get your card, PIN and your money!

Prevent ATM Thefts .pdf

These widgets can offer your clients or customers directions directly on your website, show a small event calendar or even add a desktop chat.

I wouldn’t start throwing them on your site for ‘cool’ purposes only, though. You should choose those that are marketing smart and not gratuitous toys. Unless, of course, your target audience is totally captivated by gratuitous toys.  I’ve used the mp3 player for radio commercials and the google maps widget. The mp3 player works for almost everyone and no one has to download a plugin that works with their operating system.

The widget I HATE the most would be the spider, though. Put that on your web page and I promise to never visit your site. I confess that I am downright horrible at google pacman but at least it’s free.

I added the currency converter so you can take it for a test drive. It took 5 seconds to install.

If you don’t know what you have, click ‘Help’ at the top of the page, left hand side. Scroll down to ‘About Internet Explorer’. That should tell you the version you have. Better yet, try firefox or chrome. These update more easily. But windows users do need to have IE so they can download microsoft programs that refuse to be downloaded by anything else. But keep in mind that IE is the #1 targeted browser for malicious downloads because it’s widely used.

To download the latest, which of today is IE8, just google Internet Explorer 8 download and follow the directions. You have to activate it. If you migrate to firefox, updates are much easier to install as it does so automatically saving you a lot of hassle.

No longer did people feel they weren’t being heard. And as a result those who had previously felt their vote did not count, stood up to be counted. He has a brand personality that says he’s there for the citizens of the U.S. and so it comes as no surprise that he fills out NCAA brackets and shows up on our Late Night TV shows. We expect that now of him because he has established this as part of his brand personality. He’s carved a unique market share that will be hard to shake no matter how many on the other side of the aisle want him out.

No other political candidate has leveraged the mass media and the internet, including the social media,  better than the O’bama campaign. Not being very political, I surprised myself by being riveted to the campaign simply because it was so beautifully choreagraphed and so viral.

Bill Clinton seemed to start things off by playing the sax on the David Letterman Show. That opened the door. And the Bush campaign basically sold the Iraq war the same way you’d sell a 12-pack of Sprite. That whole approach was a marketing plan complete with a tag line, ‘weapons of mass destruction’ repeated at the right intervals like you would in a radio commercial. Bush never deviated from the tag line, repeating certain phrases word for word and sticking to the marketing plan. So there were small precedents and Obama took it to the next level. Branding works. Marketing works. Consistency works. The proof is in the president who sits in office now.

Painting:

Instead of:  We’re focused on customer service
Say: If you are unhappy with the paint job, we’ll paint until you are.

Insurance:

Instead of: We offer insurance from 15 carriers.
Say: We will find the best coverage you can get for your money.

Hearing Aids:

Instead of: We do hearing tests.
Say: We evaluate your hearing and offer a solution that works for your lifestyle and your hearing problem.

IT Services:

Instead of: Welcome to my website
Say: Get your network working right.  Don’t suffer from lost dollars due to downtime

Do you see what I’m getting at. Everyone says “we offer great customer service”. But what does that mean in your business? Does it mean efficiency, an improved look, better production or what?

If you’re a prosthodontist your goal is to offer patients a killer smile. If you’re a knee surgeon, you need to tell people you’re going to fix it to improve their quality of life or that you are going to get them back on the field performing better and in less time. Whatever your differentiating factor, it needs to be incorporated into every sentence you utter or write about your business. But it needs to be phrased in terms of what it will do for those you are trying to reach. Consumers don’t care how great you are unless you translate that into something they will benefit from.

So skip the generic phrases, quit focusing solely on yourself and interpret what it is you offer in terms the target audience can appreciate. So think about what customer service MEANS in your business in terms of what you offer that is important to your target market. Then you can write a sentence that means customer service without even saying “customer service”. Define it for them. Don’t make your target do all the work.

So along comes this iVouch site that takes an entirely different approach. Fairness. How about that? It’s more than a lame directory with the capability of adding stars for a review. You can actually use it as a business tool. That is if you happen to be as customer focused as you claim to be. It has accountability and people appreciate that.

Integrate business-friendly iVouch in your marketing mix to serve up customer testimonials and reviews.

The beauty of this site is multi faceted but I like that people can land on a third party site or find testimonials on my site as well. When customer reviews and testimonials are on a third party site in the customer’s own typed words, such as the case with a review site called iVouch.com, it is marketing gold. It creates priceless buzz for your business. How? Because endorsement is hands-down the best advertising there is. Period.

Your target market can sell you as a worthy business.

Testimonials and reviews posted on a third party site are the most effective form of advertising for bringing people closer to the point of sale because they have credibility. And accountability.

Your customers usually put into words exactly what your potential customers want to know. They know the target market because they are the target market. And there is value in the fact that someone took the time to say it.

How does iVouch work?

iVouch package prices

• iVouch WEB-  $24.95 per month
• iVouch LOCAL business- $14.95 per month
• iVouch REALTY- $24.95 per month
• iVouch LITE- Free version
• Prepay an entire year and get 2 months free andthen get 10% off. (use promo code winwin)

Get 10% off any package when you type WINWIN when registering at iVouch.com.

There is so much more to it than you see at first glance. iVouch was built from the ground up to be a savvy, low cost marketing tool for businesses who care about customer satisfaction. There is a free account called iVouch LITE to give it a test run. But I’m going to refer to what’s available with iVouch WEB, the paid version, because of the intuitive marketing tools.

Here’s the much-simplified overview. You send e-invitations or have them automatically sent to your customers. When customers or clients get the invite, they leave a review on iVouch.com without having to register. Once you have a few, even 3 or 4, you can get a snippet of code called a ‘widget’ that allows you to ‘feed’ the reviews of your choice to also be displayed on your own site if you wish.

As a marketing professional, I love the fact that testimonials reinforce and amplify a positive brand image.

iVouch is a unique business model. They provide consumers with what they want to know but focus on providing credible businesses with the ability and tools to promote the testimonials to reinforce a positive brand image.

By putting yourself out there for public review on a regular basis, you are actively demonstrating a commitment to being customer focused. This is far more effective in marketing your business and reinforcing a positive brand image than merely stating it in some lame tagline.

What if I get a bad review?

I asked the owner this question. Yes, I talked to him on the phone. And he’s clearly thought this through to be very fair and transparent. For one thing, you can choose the customers you want to invite to write reviews. But what if you still get a bad one?

Well, iVouch doesn’t simply remove it. That would undermine the credibility of iVouch. So there is a formal process owners can follow called a ‘challenge’, which requires follow through on the part of the reviewer. Once challenged, the review goes invisible until the reviewer validates the authenticity with his or her real identity. Only after a protocol is followed can the review be reinstated.

And what if it is? You’re not ruined. For one thing, an occasional less-than-impressive review keeps it real. You should take it as an opportunity to demonstrate your professionalism by leaving a thoughtful response.

Bargain-basement cheap for a penthouse service—particularly compared with ppc.

Even a bare bones monthly ppc budget runs at least $300 per month. Comparatively, iVouch costs $14.95-$24.95 per month (or less with the coupon) and creates leverage and web equity for your business that is truly unsurpassed.

In other words, you get more ROI in the long run. A lot more if you compare a yearly cost of at least $3,600 for ppc, and $69-$180 per year with iVouch.com. You do the math.

For added value, iVouch actively markets your reviews so when someone ‘googles’ you, they not only see your site in the organic results but see your iVouch reviews as well. No ppc ad on the planet could pack that kind of marketing power.

Make it part of your marketing mix.

As a marketing professional, I’m saying committed business owners should make this part of a marketing plan and budget to work in synergy with whatever else you’re doing.

And to make a low cost marketing option even more low cost, I snagged a coupon that knocks off an additional 10% off the first year price whether you pay for a year or by the month. Because I love a deal, particularly one that works as well as this does for a price this attractive. Hey, I had the guy on the phone. It couldn’t hurt to ask.

Click here for iVouch.com and type ‘WINWIN’ as the promo code