Have you ever thought to yourself, “Hey, I don’t need to spend a lot of money on this piece of marketing collateral, because all I’m going to do it give 1,000 of these away. They’re throw away items, don’t waste money or time on these?” I’ll tell you that’s the exact wrong thinking.

Why is this wrong? Because that “throw away” item might be the only thing a prospective customer ever sees of your business. Your goal is the drum up awareness, interest, and (hopefully) more business, yes? Then why cut corners and have your first impression be cheaply made? Is that truly the type of representative of your company and quality control you want them to see of your company?

Our Managing Director, Louis Tanguay, wrote a whole article on this for the California Business Journal. Check it out here: http://www.calbizjournal.com/no-throw-away-marketing-materials/

Designer and brand expert (and Google Analytics addict) Susan Newman started doing interviews about branding and positioning on her Branding You Better website. There’s a new one every few weeks or so, and they are incredibly insightful. Anyone interested in learning how to brand your business for strategic growth should read through a few of her brand interviews, and see how others who have been successful have done it.

You have seen the FedEx logo before many times. You may have even noticed the tiny arrow hidden in there. You have seen the colors. Maybe you like it, maybe you think it’s boring, maybe you think it’s brilliant. I’m in the latter camp. I think, personally, that the FedEx logo is one of the best pieces of branding ever created. It’s my duty to explain why this is so amazing;

We’ve seen it before. Re-Design Fails by large companies which result in such a backlash that they have no choice but to return to the “old” design. Remember The Gap logo? The $800,000 2012 London Olympics logo? The 2009 re-branding fail of AOL? Well, OK, maybe no one remembers the AOL re-branding because…it was AOL in 2009. ESPN.com is the next “winner” in the unfortunately long list of corporate re-designs. Since this launched at midnight on April 1st, we were all hoping it was just one big April Fool’s joke. However, the joke was on whomever approved such a disastrous re-design with horrible usability and insanely blatant advertising money grab.

Recently, Circle Marketing’s founder and managing director, Louis Tanguay, was asked to appear on Lisa Steadman’s WooHoo Radio Show! Lisa’s a ball of energy and excitement, and she’s always full of such useful information about personal and professional branding. Check out her WooHoo Radio show, and also her business website as well.

In their segment together (embedded below), Lisa and Louis discussed the Top 3 Essentials for websites to be most effective, and some ways every company can up-level their brand and kick their business into a higher gear.

Today’s blog is a Guest Blog for Circle Marketing by Susan Newman, CEO, Susan Newman Design, Inc. Susan is also the founder of Broadcast Louder, which is a business learning website which features many webinars and classes by a number of experts in all areas of business. We are honored to have her write this post for our readers…enjoy!

What is Brand Visibility and how can you get it?

Each business has its mission and goals, but in order to achieve these, the target market of who you are trying to reach, need to find you. How can they if you don’t brand and market your business effectively, both online and offline.

We would like to take a look at something many small business owners talk about, and really hone in on something we think is very important. You can create a “Logo” … or … you can create Branding. Ideally, you want the logo to be an extension of the brand. Let’s dive right in…

You should develop a tag line/slogan for your business and/or brand. Your tag line should be more than a catchy saying. It should be a statement and reason WHY your customers should buy from you, trust you, and do business with you either in addition to your competitors, or (hopefully) instead of your competitors. It should be different, somewhat inspirational, and reach out to the emotions your potential customers feel.