In this hilarious skit from Bob Newhart he gives his advice straight up. I sometimes feel like doing the same when I talk to small businesses and they bring up the topic of taglines. In the scheme of marketing a small business I would put taglines development pretty low on the list.

Having the “right” tagline will not affect the success or failure of a small business. In fact, putting emphasis on a tagline often contributes to a big waste of time and resources, both of which are valuable commodities for a small business.

Here are three things to remember as you consider a tagline for your small business:

1. Being cute or fun is not the goal.  A key function of a tagline for big businesses is trying to make an emotional connection between a large faceless organization and a consumer. As a small business, you have a lot going for you – your business has a real face behind it and probably a story that will engage consumers.
2. There is no such thing as a memorable tagline. Big businesses spend millions of dollars drilling their tagline into the consumer’s head. So the fact that you remember a tagline has little to do with its memorability, but a whole lot more to do with the psychology of repetition.
3. It is about what you do. Think about a tagline as explaining what you do in as few words as possible. Yea, it can be that simple!

As you can see, big businesses need taglines because the brand lacks humanness, and they have the financial means to drill them into our heads through mind-numbing repetition.

Without the right reasoning, rebranding is not the best marketing investment

I see really poorly executed logos all the time. At times I loathe using a client’s poorly designed logo, but as a marketer I recognize that offending my design sensibilities is not a good enough reason to rebrand.

A story of rebranding
When I had our first meeting to discuss the Transforming Center brand, they communicated that they were open to changing everything, including their logo. They were surprised when I recommended that we don’t pursue a new logo. What designer would pass up an opportunity to design a new logo?

Two things to consider before rebranding
A good rebranding is built on a foundation of strategic thought.  Consider these two facts:

1. Rebranding sends a powerful message to your audience — “something is fundamentally different about us.” If there isn’t anything different, you will be losing brand equity (defined as repeated exposure resulting in recognition and trust) and confuse people because they will subconsciously be thinking that something is changing.
2. Rebranding is very costly to execute because it touches every aspect of a business (from invoices to signage and about a billion little things in between). It seems obvious, but often people underestimate the amount of change required to rebrand.

When is a bad time to rebrand?

If you have no new message, if your mission is unchanged, your strategy is the same, and there is no organizational change (new leadership), then rebranding is an extremely costly way to tell your audience that nothing has changed!

So are you stuck with that bad logo?
Many things can be done to improve a poorly executed logo. The Transforming Center’s identity had some problems, though I would not put it in the “horrible” category. It did not reproduce well in small sizes, and the image was so abstract (sea grass) that it looked more like a flower. Spire2 recommended the logo be updated to fix these problems and ensure that the logo will handle the future growth of the brand (including brand extensions).

The goals of the update:

• Make sure the logo reproduced well at small sizes.
• Improve recognition of imagery.
• Bring more movement to the logo.

It is an exciting time. How people communicate and connect, not to mention any ever-changing landscape of communication tools, forces a marketer to constantly challenge assumptions about communication.

To stay current I listen to podcasts, read books (yep, started reading on an iPad this year), and monitor blogs and feeds. My clients depend on me to weed through the ocean of marketing options to decipher how best to use print and electronic communication to reach prospects, donors, and customers.

I share insights, ideas, and inspiration here and through my quarterly email Inspire. If you have never received Spire2’s Inspire, it’s because I only send it to those who give me permission (I practice what I preach about permission marketing).

To start 2011, I am entering all Inspire subscribers into a drawing for a $100 gift card to Amazon. My way to encourage you to grow and learn. That will almost buy you a Kindle or make a dent in your book wish list. The way to win is to add yourself to sign up to receive Inspire.

My big advice for 2011 is the same as 2010 — Build your house list. Mass marketing is dying quicker than you think. If you aren’t actively building and communicating with your own house list, you are effectively shrinking your market.

Happy New Year!

I just finished another article about an entrepreneur who has built a flourishing business on Twitter. This individual started tweeting before her website was even working, and she has been been amazingly successful. She gushes about how great social media has been.

Sounds too good to be true? I can verify her success. I have watched her business explode on Twitter. What surprises me about the article is that the author reinforces the idea that social marketing is the answer to all marketing problems.  There is no explanation of her success, and one is left to think that showing up on Twitter will lead to the same results.

The reality for many has been different

For every article about social media success, I have met a half dozen people who moan about their lack of success using Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel. So who is right, and who is wrong? Why are some so successful while others get no response? The good news is that I figured out the secret.

The secret to social media success

It really is as easy as the successful folks claim. If you are charming, witty, and get energized by connecting with others, you are almost set. If you can write in a way that allows all that positive energy to shine through, you now have the winning formula. The secret ingredient in social media is in being social. The flourishing entrepreneur showcased in the article has an online presence that is adorable, and her creative writing makes you smile. Her business (selling cupcakes) is all about fun and happiness – a perfect fit. She doesn’t have a clue about what has made her social media presence successful – she herself is precisely the reason she is successful. She is extremely social and is just doing what is natural for her.

So where does that leave the rest of us?

Not everyone has a bubbly personality. I can tell you that if I write something that sounds witty it is because I have spent time thinking and editing. Even though I tweet, I don’t market my business through Twitter. I don’t have the energy or the wit to make it work. Yet all is not lost if you feel the same. You just have to approach social media a bit more thoughtfully and remember that social media has value even if you don’t actively participate.

Three things to keep in mind in developing social media strategy

When consulting with clients I recommend three things: Be realistic, experiment, and allow your personality to shine through.

1. Be realistic: Don’t attempt to do more than you can. It is simply unrealistic and will be your quickest road to failure and discouragement. You’ll end up doing more harm by advertising your Twitter handle when you tweeted three times and you’ve said nothing of value. Remember, social media means being social.
2. Experiment: Experimenting with what you are doing is critical. There is no one right way. If you don’t try different things and approaches, you will never know what works. Also, don’t neglect what is working because you “think” you should be in the hot social media platforms. Email marketing is social media and has far greater value as it is a private channel (no one can see your email database or connect with them).
3. Lastly, write with personality. Make a conscious effort to sound conversational. When I counsel people on email marketing, I tell them to write as if they are sending an email to a friend. Make sure you write in a way that allows your personality to come through. If it doesn’t sound natural, keep editing it until it does.

So if I’ve helped you figure out the social media puzzle, be sure to share it with others when you and your business are featured in a business article. I am tired of reading the same story over and over again.

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What do you think? What has worked for you on social media?

I was asked to do a presentation on social media last week and was thanked by attendees for not making them hyperventilate. The hype about social media seems never ending. I thought I would share a few of my thoughts:

1. Take social media slowly. Jump in, but spend time watching what others are doing and observe how they are using social networks. This will help you develop a plan. What will work best for your lifestyle? What networks do you like? Which networks are used by your target audience? Social networks are here to stay, but no need to panic. My advice: No need to build a Facebook fan page.  How many fan pages have you visited more than once?
2. Don’t neglect things that work. A downside of social networks is that they are open, and you don’t own them. If you sell pizza and offer great deals through Twitter and build a great following, the pizza joint down the street can easily friend every one of your followers and offer them a better deal. Building and maintaining your own house list should still be your priority. It remains to be seen which social networks will last, but if you are cultivating your email list you need not worry.
3. “Social media is not an event but a process.” It is not something to tackle and cross off your list and never touch again. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other networks are places to have conversations and create dialogues. If all you are doing is “screaming” and not conversing, then you are missing the boat. If you are heavily promoting your Twitter handle but your three tweets were written a couple of months ago and the most meaningful tweet was about finding an old tuna sandwich in the back of the fridge, you are not building your brand.  Don’t promote it until you have figured out what you are trying to accomplish and have some traction.
4. Social media can be useful without it being a marketing tool. Twitter and LinkedIn are great places to do research, network, learn and do competitive intelligence. Twitter is an awesome tool for seeing what is going on and dialoguing with people you would not be able to reach any other way. I have yet to use it to market my business and have no plans to promote my Twitter handle (but I won’t make it hard for you to find me @jefferyjames.)

So there you have it. Social media advice without the hype. What do you think? Is my advice on the mark, or am I missing something? Let me know.

Many are paralyzed about all the changes in the marketing world, and I understand. It’s hard to keep up. I have some good news, though. I have boiled down these changes into a single question. If your marketing addresses this one question consistently, you will get results. Are you ready?

How do you get more people to like you? Really. From small businesses to large corporations, the question is the same.  Your marketing needs to get more people to like you and your brand. It also needs to feel personal and human. But you say, “Liking me is not relevant; I just want them to support my organization and/or buy from my organization.”

Most prospects have a very defined personal network that is easy to access and connect with.  I don’t know about you, but I am now updating people with whom I had not kept up (my freshman roommate, a colleague from a job 10+ years ago). I am also looking to my network for help in navigating decisions. Why? Because it is easy and I trust them. The reality is, so are your prospects.

Looking for a new dentist? Ask your Facebook friends to provide recommendations. A big dentist ad in the yellow pages isn’t really going to do that much. Looking for a new place to eat? Maybe that place someone tweeted about the other day will pop into your head. Is the restaurant attracting customers by flooding the area with a 10% off coupon? Even if you think these examples don’t apply, think again.

Your marketing needs to be focused on getting prospects and strangers to connect with you and join your network (there are many ways to define network). They will get to know you by reading your LinkedIn recommendations or by finally grasping your service when they read your email newsletter. Drip, drip drip. The more people like you, the more likely your name will come up.

Are you responsible for marketing? Every marketing decision should answer these questions: How will this get more people to like me and my brand, and how can I do it in a personal and authentic way?

As I wrote this, a prospect from 5 years ago sent me an invitation to join his network. Amazing. Do you think he likes me?

I got another one today – It was a hard copy newsletter from a local nonprofit. Eight pages filled with clip art, stretched type, lots of boxes and a whole wagon full of words. Straight from the desktop revolution of the 1980s. “We don’t need a designer; we can do it ourselves. We just bought a shiny new computer for the office.”

It was painful to flip through, but not for the reasons you are expecting me to spill forth. It was painful because the message was wrong for the medium.

Announcements, event reminders, and general updates are better suited for email where one can scan through and click to read more. Am I suggesting that mailing is a waste of time? No, I am suggesting that all communication needs to be periodically examined to determine what resources to use, and where. Electronic communication costs are so low that you can increase frequency (the magic in marketing). Print resources can be combined to deliver more impact and inspiration and, since frequency is accomplished through electronic communication, you can mail to a smaller, more engaged audience.

What if the nonprofit stopped sending four newsletters and used the pooled resources to create one excellent piece that inspired me to get involved? Something that would make the nonprofit’s mission so real that I’d share it with others and tell them to visit their website. Then when my friends visit the website, they would likely sign up for the nonprofit’s email newsletter because a generous donor is making a donation for every email subscriber. The site would even offer to send them a copy of the excellent piece if they would make a small donation to cover the production costs and help the cause.  You’ll notice that your prospecting list just got a whole lot bigger, your new donors list had a huge spike, and the nonprofit got a lot more buzz and attention.

Of course you could just keep sending me the paper newsletter, but I am not going to open it anymore. It is just too painful to see you waste your resources.

If someone offered your business a free billboard on a major highway would you say, “no thanks?”

I have been pondering the changing landscape of marketing a lot in the last few months. The bad news: popularity is a key metric of success. The more popular your business or organization is the more successful it will be (of course this really isn’t new.) The good news: the physical cost of becoming popular is going way down — like FREE. You can thank the Internet.

For years now I have been evangelizing the need for organizations to build a house list and start an e-mail marketing program. I have also been preaching the value of making your electronic marketing more personal. Social networking is putting relationship and list building into warp speed, and the cost doesn’t hurt the marketing budget at all.

So, what should you do about this phenomenon? I just finished listening to Chris Anderson’s book, Free: the Future of a Radical Price. I would recommend it to anyone who is responsible for marketing (hey, it is free, and you can download it from iTunes). It will help you get your mind around how the Internet is changing the game of marketing. Second, if you have been neglecting your e-mail marketing, I would get back on track. What can you do, provide, or offer that would entice people to join your list?

So what should you do about social networks? I would start exploring. Keep this in mind– social networking is not advertising, and it is not a passive activity. You don’t just have a Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook account; you need to use it.  What kind of information would interest your target market? Start sharing it through a social networking site.

In a recent WSJ Small Business Report podcast, a company ran a promotion where they advertised with billboards and Twitter. They used a different promo code to measure the response. The Twitter promo code blew away the billboard and the cost of Twitter… FREE. Careful now, don’t jump to the conclusion that a Twitter account will be the answer to your marketing woes. There is more to the story, but the potential of social networking exists. The Internet is offering you a billboard for free or almost free. How are you using it?

Part of my church’s mission is to serve the community. This past weekend our family helped a sweet but eccentric old widow in the historic district of downtown Naperville. Her small lot was completely enveloped by brush, bushes, and trees. A huge wall of nature prevented anyone from seeing her house, except for a dark tunnel that led to her house.  Her requests were unusual: pulling up wire tomato cages that had been left in so long that huge tree roots had grown around them (but she wouldn’t pitch them); using rope to tie back branches so they did not hang over the sidewalk; cleaning storage containers with dirty rain water that had collected in plastic containers (I gently declined this request); and removing every blade of grass in the parkway without removing a single weed or “squirrel planted” seedling– just the grass.

Our biggest act of service was politely listening as she carried on a long dialogue about the hurtful neighbors, the incompetent city government, and with extra emphasis the foolishness of creating the historic district that her house resided in. Afterwards my wife insightfully commented about the number of times this widow had exclaimed, “You can’t live in the past” while she clearly seemed paralyzed to let time move forward.

Interesting story, but where are we going with this you might ask?

There is a revolution going on right now in marketing communication. How you market your business, organization, or cause is shifting. One doesn’t need to leap into every shiny new marketing object (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, or other social networking) that comes along, but one also can’t bury your marketing head in the sand.  The other day I met a member of a local family-owned Wheaton consumer service business, and we exchanged cards. When I returned to the office, I decided I would follow up with an e-mail greeting and was surprised to discover the card lacking an e-mail address (this person was only a few years younger than I.) When I turned to Google, I found no web presence (not even a bad one.) A consumer service business not on the web is a dying business (although I recently agreed with a prospect about them not needing a website, lest you think I am being too harsh.)

My gentle encouragement: be open to new ways of marketing. If you stay in the past,  you could soon find your business behind a huge overgrown wall and your business invisible – not good.  Need an easy way to explore, subscribe to this blog (it is in the upper right corner) and get my posts in your email box.

You’ve probably seen a sign like this. I chuckle whenever I see them, and I risked my life to get this picture (that’s another story). Tell me, if one could offer $20,000 a month in salary, don’t you think they could afford to have a sign professionally made instead of using a magic marker? Hmmm. Yet they exist and I will tell you why. People call (hopefully you haven’t, but if you do and start earning $20,000 a month, let’s do lunch). They also work because signs get extra attention and they are often budget friendly (we are talking the magic word during a recession.)

Before everyone runs out and buys signs and a chunky marker, you need to understand the other reason why they work. The sign needs to say something that gets attention. Who doesn’t want to believe they are a phone call away from earning $20,000 a month? The message is seductive. In launching the Downtown Wheaton Association website I suggested they don’t advertise they have a new website, but advertise that you could win $100 by joining the Downtown Wheaton Shopper’s club. For Community School of the Arts it was, “visit the site to join the FREE early arts club.” See the difference. If you’ve got a great idea, contact my friends at The Sign Authority. If you want help with a creative strategy to use signs to get attention, let’s talk.

Just curious. Do you know someone who has responded to an ad like this? I would love to hear about it.