Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Niche Expert? Brand Yourself That Way!

Developing name recognition (branding) is almost as important as having a dynamite marketing strategy; regardless of the niche that you have chosen to participate in. Sometimes branding in your niche can be as simple creating a tagline or slogan that when others see it, they will automatically think of you, your company, your products, or your website. Chose your branding wisely as you will want your brand name to become synonymous with your company. A terrific example of this is GoDaddy.com which has done a wonderful job of tagging their company name into all of their branding and marketing efforts.

One should take a close look (for web based activities) at what keywords drive traffic to your website. By focusing on a few of these words, one can work to mold a slogan that people will begin to associate with your business. Do people find your site when searching for "dog training" or "dog grooming?"

As Words

If you do not have access to keyword analytics, conducting a survey with existing customers on what words they would use to describe your business is a great idea. Use these to create your slogan for future branding.

Niche Expert? Brand Yourself That Way!

For instance, if you run a parenting website that covers frugal living; you could brand yourself as the "frugal mom shopper." Once you've come up with a tagline that you like to describe yourself or your business, start sharing it with everyone.

Use this slogan in all of your communications such as headers for letterheads, sign blog posts with it, and use it in your landing page, anywhere that you possibly can. Instead of having an about page, try having a page on your website 'about the frugal mother.' Remember to be consistent with the use of your slogan; this is not a place for the creative process to take over producing multiple variations of your slogan or tagline.

Add your slogan to your email and forum signatures. While you may have heard that no one likes a braggart, in the case of online marketing, it's not only acceptable to brag about yourself, but it's a way to rise to the top of your niche.

Businesses use this marketing technique offline as well as online. Who hasn't heard the phrase "Finger lickin' good" and immediately associated it with Kentucky Fried Chicken? Do you think that this slogan would have been as effective if it was "reasonably good chicken?"

Part of the plan is to get others to promote your brand on their own. Word of mouth is a very powerful resource once branding has been established. Treat every prospect well.

Be sure to mention your slogan on your website and in any effort to offer article marketing including adding the slogan to your short biography. Again, consistency is the rule so make sure that biography information is consistent from article to article. Always remember that you are attempting to develop strong brand recognition so that people will associate the slogan with your business and not someone else's.

Brand yourself by guest authoring to an already established audience. Find a blog that's similar to yours and offer to write a guest post. You can use one of your articles as a forum topic as well. Forums often rank high in Google because like blogs, they are continually updated. If you brand yourself as an expert, people will begin to think of you as one.

Niche Expert? Brand Yourself That Way!

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