2.) HEADLINE ARTICLE
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Take Your Local Business Brand to the Net
By Sharon Fling

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Branding. You've heard this term bandied about for years,
but what does it mean exactly? And what does it have to do
with local business?

If you think about what a brand represents, the answer is
obvious: everything. Your brand IS your business, or at
least how it's perceived by your prospects and customers.

Here's my definition: Branding is the process of
establishing, nurturing and sustaining meaningful and
rewarding RELATIONSHIPS with your customers. Notice the key
word in that sentence.

It's more than logos, slogans and marketing materials. It's
not complicated or expensive. And it's something that any
business can do, even the one-person shop. Now, the
Internet has taken brand-building to another level, even
for small local businesses. Here are some examples:

I. RELATIONSHIP IS KING

Ultimately, branding is about relationships. Relationships
enable us to attract new customers, and do more business
with existing customers. And the face-to-face nature of most
local businesses puts them in the perfect position to
create, nurture, and sustain customer relationships.

You've heard the phrase "Content is King"? Well when it
comes to sales, the "Customer Relationship is King".

Before the Internet, the relationship could only be enhanced
in person, by phone or snail mail. Obviously these methods
are labor and time intensive. In other words, costly.

But the Internet has made relationship building a lot easier
and cheaper. A website can serve as a trusty salesman,
available 24/7 to answer questions, accept requests, and
gather feedback.

And email is the jewel in the Internet's crown. Yes, in
spite of the nasty spam problem, email is and will continue
to be the killer app, the one tool that everybody uses.

With email, it's possible to have ongoing, meaningful
dialogue between brands and customers. Heck, even one-way
communication works, especially when it keeps your business
in the customer's subconscious and provides her with
valuable information that she needs. No other medium comes
close to providing this level of interaction.

Yes, the Internet can be a powerful relationship building
tool, the local business owner's best friend. Of course,
most of them don't realize it yet, but hope springs eternal.
Maybe they will, someday.

II. WHAT'S YOUR USP?

What's your USP, or Unique Selling Proposition? Why would
someone choose to do business with you over your
competition? Please don't say price. Only the Wal-Marts of
the world can afford to compete on price. Everybody else
will go broke in the process.

No, there has to be something special about your business
that sets you apart from the pack. That something is your
brand, and it's what causes your customers to prefer doing
business with you instead of your competitors, regardless of
price.

And whatever your USP may be, the Internet is the perfect
way to reinforce it. You can take your local business brand
to the Net by creating a web presence that incorporates your
uniqueness. The website can be your hard-working marketing
rep, available 24/7 to broadcast your USP and remind
customers why you are the only solution to their problems.

Local businesses have a unique opportunity here. You can
build your brand in person, and use the Internet to enhance
it. This is something that most large corporations and
online companies cannot duplicate. Yes, there is an
advantage to being "small". But how many local businesses
are using it?

III. KEEP IN TOUCH

The Internet should be the small business owner's dream.
What else allows you to easily communicate with customers,
get almost instantaneous feedback, and nurture one-to-one
relationships?

Every time you "touch" the customer, it communicates your
brand and hopefully inspires more trust and confidence in
your company. Each interaction is an opportunity to add to
(or detract from) your brand.

Here are some ways the Internet can be incorporated into
your "brand-building" marketing mix:

- Use email to notify customers of special promotions,
invite feedback, respond to inquiries
- Use the telephone (live or voice-mail) to remind
customers they can visit the website for information
or to find web-only specials.
- Encourage "word of mouth" referrals by offering
incentives; for example, a dry cleaner in Florida
offers a $25 gift certificate to the customer whose
referrals lead to 3 new online accounts.
- Include URL and email address on all company literature
and every piece of paper that may come in contact with a
customer: business cards, brochures, letterhead, fax
sheets, postcards, invoices, merchandise bags and
packaging, catalogs, snail mail; whatever the medium,
the same logos, colors, fonts and typeface should be
used.
- Include URL with all traditional advertising print ads,
television, radio, etc.); also include on company cars
and depending on the product, perhaps the merchandise
itself

To summarize, there are many customer-focused reasons for
building an online presence for your local business. One of
the best is to build your brand. The Internet offers small
businesses a cost-effective and convenient way to:

- Deliver targeted communications to prospects and
customers, and engage them in two-way conversations that
would be impossible using traditional marketing tools.

- Emphasize and reinforce your USP.

- Focus on building long-term relationships that are
profitable to both the business and the customer.

Over time, consistent brand-building will allow local
businesses to compete with larger companies in ways they
could never do before. For local business, the Net has truly
leveled the playing field.

Sharon Fling is the author of "How To Promote Your Local
Business On the Internet", and creator of GeoLocal.com, the
web's largest resource for promoting small local business
online. Visit http://www.geolocal.com and subscribe to
GeoLocal's free Tip of the Week.