To set the record straight, this is not a personal ad.

A few weeks ago I happened upon a book review for Just My Type, a book that makes the complexities of typography simple for us amateurs to grasp. Needless to say, it’s on my list of books to tackle, but it got me thinking about it.

Working at a B2B advertising agency and hanging around creative types, you’re bound to get into philosophical discussions about typography. We all have fonts that we admire and abhor. However, there is a method to the madness, especially when it comes to selecting a font to further convey your business’ brand.

There is a brilliant article in Communication Arts (aka CA) on “How to Explain Why Typography Matters”, by Thomas Phinney. One of my favorite takes from the article is when Phinney likens typography to fashion. It’s all about trends, styles and getting that “look” you’re going for.

Here is the breakdown for font fashionistas:

• Paris runways = display typography (creating a memorable style)
• Everyday clothing = body text (communicating more subtly)

Fashion Font by Yvette Lang. Image courtesy of a212

See, fonts can be incredibly fashionable. Oh and you’ll be jazzed to know that Phinney’s article discusses the fact that more sophisticated research techniques are beginning to show how good typography affects a reader’s mood and even performance on other tasks.

Did the typography used for this blog make you smile? What’s your favorite font?

In business, the term branding one of the most misused and misunderstood marketing buzzwords. In recent years, the seemingly straight-forward but actually ambiguous phrase Return on Investment or “ROI” has made a run at eclipsing branding as the “concept de jour”– often discussed, but a lack of analytics or visibility to the right metrics creates a failure to follow-through (that is a topic for another post).

The fact is there are few strong B2B brands out in the marketplace today. During the “roaring 00s” (at least pre-recession) many businesses found success riding the economic tidal wave, but left their brand and brand strategy out treading water.

Now, companies are realizing while they achieved paramount success in the past decade, many B2B markets were left commoditized, and without a clear leader in many industries and product categories.

The result is a glut of organizations who are again prioritizing their brand, but without an understanding of where to get started. Many of the B2B organizations I encounter possess the foundational elements and raw materials on which a brand can be built. The challenge is getting them to start thinking and acting outside of themselves in order to articulate their brand in a way that has value and resonates with customers and prospects.

When preparing recently for the 2011 Marketing Technology Summit, I had an interesting discussion with Greg Head, CMO at InfusionSoft. He mentioned that the philosophy he has tried to instill within the leadership of organizations he has worked with is very succinctly summarized as “focus to grow.”

To me, this simple phrase says it all. It works when applied to the products a company sells, the services a company offers, the markets in which a company operates and the target audiences a company interacts with.

Of greater interest to me was the power the statement has when applied to creating and fostering a strong brand. The simple outcome that companies need to strive for is to create a focused brand position that:

• Is operationally coherent;
• Provides distinction from competitors;
• Aligns with the current and future needs of their industry; and,
• Allows room for the organization to evolve over time.

Many times companies feel that if they choose one thing to represent the essence of their company, they’ll be limiting themselves. The reality is that if you own one thing well in the minds of the customer, you’ll earn their trust to be able to offer them other products and services they value, as long as it relates back to that core brand promise.

The right brand position for any organization will not only allow you to own one thing well, but will also be flexible enough to act as an entry point to any number of conversations with customers.

The first step is to set a process by which you can identify, narrow and articulate the focus of your brand. That becomes the start, but the future becomes a branding journey that requires constant attention and through any ebbs and flows within the economy, acts as a life preserver to provide distinction and direction for your company, so that it is never left treading water.

Has your brand been neglected? Is it time to refresh your brand to align it with today’s market conditions?

With more than 41 million Facebook fans and over 537 million Google results, it is no secret I am not the only one mildly obsessed with Lady Gaga. And while admit that I enjoy her as an entertainer, I am equally as fascinated with how she has developed her brand in a few short years.

In less than 4 years, Lady Gaga has grown her net worth to $110 Million. She is responsible for shaking up an industry that has been struggling to adapt to technological advances since 2005 when digital downloads gained mainstream acceptance and labels struggled to combat piracy. Her strategy started with taking advantage of the power of social media to connect with her target audience through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and has grown to include partnerships with MAC Cosmetics, Polaroid and Google Chrome.

Gaga's "Born This Way" album cover. 2011 Interscope Records.

Businesses can learn a lot about social media from the Queen of Pop. Lady Gaga uses emotion, engagement and interactivity to connect with her audience (little monsters) and in exchange builds trust. Her little monsters trust her, her brands and her partnerships – all contributing to her net worth.

Here are 3 quick practices that can help your company be more successful when using social media to engage with prospects and customers.

1. Cultivate your Audience by making sure your content is relevant.
2. Embrace Technology and use it to communicate and interact with your audience.
3. Keep it Simple and provide a clear path for your audience.

Social media has been key to the success of Lady Gaga and can help grow your business too! How is your business using social media to interact with clients and prospects? If you need help executing a social media plan, contact @canyoncomm – we’d love to help!

You might be wondering how I am going to begin to tie the B2B sales cycle and brand loyalty together. Well, the story starts with a very poor customer service experience I had the other day with a third party merchant and how it affected my brand loyalty overall with the discount company that I purchased the deal from–and the third party of course.

But bigger picture, I want to talk about how each step of the purchase process – from marketing to attention to conversion to delivery is as important as the last, and how missing one step can ruin the entire experience!

Every single step in the B2B sales cycle is crucial to the overall success of the product/service offered and brand loyalty. Let’s dive into the pieces that make up the B2B sales cycle to determine their relevance in a conversion and how one phase affects the other… a domino effect if you will.

The B2B sales cycle is made up of the following steps:

1.  Marketing

Many companies largest budget category is marketing, therefore a B2B – or a B2B2C –  company will want to invest the proper amount on marketing and make sure that their budget is very well spent. Getting the right message in in front of your prospects is key to raising…

2.  Attention

Be sure that your marketing effectively communicates the value and benefit of your product/service to capture your prospects’ attention in a productive manner. Failing to capture the target markets’ attention, means marketing dollars wasted. But if you hit the sweet spot, where your marketing attracts attention that prompts engagement, you can nurture and grow that attention into…

3.  Conversion

Once you are able to get the attention of the target market, you then need to focus on converting that lead to a business transaction. Without the proper lead nurturing/marketing automation and follow-up, closing a deal becomes almost impossible. Keep in mind that marketing and sales are equally important in the sales cycle and there needs to be alignment between who the marketing department targets and the quality of the leads that the sales department targets. When the process works well, your conversion then leads to…

4.  Delivery

The job doesn’t stop at the conversion phase of the cycle. The delivery phase is the last and most important piece that ties it all together. Whether it be a product or service, the delivery of it must be efficient, consistent, easily accessible and of high quality, but most importantly, exactly what you promised. If your Unique Value Proposition doesn’t line up to what you’ve promised, you quickly lose customers trust, respect, brand loyalty, and ultimately, their future business!

And that’s what happened to me – I traveled the sales cycle smoothly through the first three steps, but when it came time for delivery, everything fell apart and it left a bad taste in my mouth. All of those marketing dollars and lead capture efforts wasted, because I’ll never go back.

Let’s face it, in this economy brand loyalty isn’t an option, it is a necessity. Therefore, make sure your B2B sales cycle is solid! Do you need help building your ladder to B2B sales cycle success? Give us a call at Canyon today!

image credit: Spoken Communications