Posts Tagged ‘branding’

Garner Local Media Attention for Your Business: Part Two

This is Part II on how you can get local media attention for the things you likely already do on a daily basis for your business. Getting positive media attention is easier than you may think.

By understanding the basics of creating a press release, knowing your local reporters and being aware of all activities taking place at your agency, you can create positive media attention for your business.

How many sports teams has your agency sponsored in the past year? Have you conducted any pancake breakfasts to support a community cause? Did you make any charitable donations? Did your employees take paid time off of work to volunteer in the community? Did any employees run a marathon or celebrate milestone anniversaries? Did any employees retire? Did you hire anyone?

Here’s how to turn these everyday occurrences into news that your community reporters will want to know and report.

What does my Facebook page say about my business?

Your business is a success. Congratulations! And why wouldn’t it be a success?

You’ve worked hard, faced and overcome many challenges, added some blood, sweat and tears, and worked many nights and weekends to ensure success.

You have professionally-designed ads throughout the community that promote your business. But, what does your personal Facebook page say about your business?

If you have crazy spring break pictures, online gaming stats, political messages and/or colorful language and extreme opinions posted on your public Facebook page, it’s likely to damage that business reputation you’ve worked so hard to achieve.

Here are some best practices for your personal Facebook page:

Utilize the privacy settings. If you haven’t done so lately, take a tour of Facebook’s privacy settings. You can choose who can view your page, as well as your posts, comments and images.

Would you want current or prospective customers to see each post, comment and picture on your page? If not, make the appropriate changes. Use the privacy settings wisely.

Know what your kids are doing on your page. Do you allow your kids to play games through your Facebook page?

Or, perhaps you are playing all those farming, candy-gathering and other trendy games on Facebook. If so, update your settings so that Facebook doesn’t notify and invite all of your friends to play, too.

And, sorry folks, your Facebook friends don’t care that you plowed a new field in FarmVille.

Chain letters are still frowned upon. Don’t. Just don’t. On behalf of all your Facebook friends and future Facebook friends, please don’t send out requests for people to “share this post to 10 other friends to avoid extreme misfortune.”

Think how your clients would feel receiving all those messages from you.

Be mindful of the opinions you share. It’s true. You don’t have to share your political beliefs, Vegas trip pictures and current mood on your Facebook page.

You can also disagree with someone else’s post without actually commenting on that post. Again, keep in mind the message these posts are sending to your wide range of clients, and use the privacy settings sensibly.

One additional note: Keep in mind your employees likely have personal Facebook pages that may pose a danger to your business reputation. You should ask them to read this article.

Don’t let your personal Facebook page scar your business reputation.

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What Makes Your Title Company Unique: Why You Should Care About Differentiation

When you speak or write about your title company do you bring up what is different and better and trigger immediate interest? Do you elaborate on what is new, unusual and of great value to your customers? Or do you speak and write about what is ordinary and common and trigger immediate indifference to your value? There are fundamental principles of economics at work here. The simplified explanation is that people assess value at the margins or edges of common offers. It’s called the Principle of Marginal Utility and Marginal Value. For example, when you see an ad for a new smartphone does the ad inform you that you can store telephone numbers and text and email people from it? Or does it focus on things that make the smartphone an extraordinary camera, with face ID, and with uncommon face recognition that allows you to mirror your expressions in 12 Animojis so you can reveal your inner panda, pig or robot? Whenever we as human beings are introduced to something NEW we are hardwired to make an assessment of its value. That’s what you want to do with your sales conversations and the content on your website and social media – provide compelling explanations about the extraordinary value of what you offer that your competitors do not offer. So are you speaking and writing about your differentiatiors and separating yourself from your competition or are you speaking and writing about what is common and ordinary and triggering people into an assessment that your company is ordinary and should be “priced” (low) to differentiate itself? When you are common you are priced. Margins are low. So you have to focus on VOLUME. When you are different and your customers value that difference, margins are higher. You can focus on VALUE instead of volume and think of ways to increase your customers’ willingness to pay a premium by inventing new ways to enhance the customer’s experience. ]]>

Taking a Customer-Centric Approach to Running Your Business

How do you make it your sole focus to anticipate and take care of their needs? How do you create a base of loyal fans who refer you to everyone they know? Of course, you do need to display your customer-centric core values prominently on your walls and make those values part of your daily vernacular at work. You also need to immerse those values into your company culture every day. Make those values come to life in the eyes of all employees. One way to bring the values to life is by tying them to employee performance within your company. Options for marrying performance to a customer-centric value system include:
    • Creating a customer survey process and inviting customers to review employees based on a number of metrics (all tied to your customer-centric core values);
    • Create a “living the values” award and ask employees to vote for their peers;
    • Develop a “secret shopper” system to periodically test employee responses to typical customer requests;
    • Build the customer-centric core values into each employee’s annual review rating guide.
Another key means to bring those customer-centric values to life is to lead by example, such as:
      • Make the values at least a small portion of every single internal meeting in your company;
      • Follow the customer-centric approach you’ve created—for your external customers and internal customers (aka employees);
      • Make yourself available and approachable any time an employee has a question related to the core values;
      • Create a “daily devotional” core value email to hit employee inboxes at the start of each work day;
      • Communicate best-practice examples when you see other employees “living the values” during their daily jobs;
      • Offer constructive feedback when you see opportunities for employees to improve on their customer-centric approach.
Additionally, research shows time and time again that employees stay in jobs where they feel connected, valued and engaged in meaningful work. Breathing life into customer-centric values, along with the tips offered above, offer employees that chance to feel like they belong. Research also shows that happy employees provide the very best customer service. So, remember that your customer-centric core values statements are just that—words—until you bring them to life with action.

To Deepen Your Business Narrative, Examine These 5 Areas

What’s your story? And how do you deepen your story to make it more effective, strategic and competitive? Here are five essential things to look for to deepen your story and make it more compelling:

Your Big Why

Why does your title company exist? Why do you go to work every morning? Of course, we know you need to make a living, but going deeper than that, what drives you and your company? What is the purpose behind you and the company you lead? Look for a BIG why (not a small why), something like you believe that home is the most important place on earth or that you believe in homeownership as part of the American Dream. What you’re trying to do here is demonstrate your sincerity and passion for what you do – and motivate your employees and customers around a unifying cause.

Your Title Company’s Achievements

These have to be highly-valued to be effective. Giving to charity, being in business for 10 years, serving the community, and producing happy customers are not highly valued achievements. What have you done that is great? Unusual? Look for that.

Your Title Company’s Principles

What matters to you most? What values guide your company’s behaviors? Pick three and have some wonderful “specific” stories about how your team was influenced by your principles and acted in ways that really helped your clients get ahead.

Your Value Story

Why is your title agency more important, useful and worthwhile to use? What do you offer that other title companies do not? Remember that people assess value on the edges or margins of common offers. More convenient office locations? 24/7/365 closings anywhere, anytime? Best follow-up? Higher tech? CE classes for REALTORS? E-closings?

Your Reason to Act Now

What bad things could happen to the people who do not use your services? What risks are they taking? What compelling reasons can you give without speaking badly about a specific competitor? Learn to bring these forth. The competitive reality is that a title company needs to be in continual Story Deepening bringing forth the importance of their products and services, speaking their competitive advantages and superior value to customers and prospects. If you don’t, who will? Your company has an unlimited supply of stories to share. By incorporating a steady narrative based upon your company’s purpose and guiding principles, you can take advantage of strategic storytelling to gain a competitive edge.

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