Our Goal and Brand Strategies for 2017!

For this “Our Goal and Brand Strategies for 2017!” post, we wanted to let you know what we’re doing, in the hopes that it’ll help you with your efforts. Also, marketers hate this title because, unlike yours truly, it’s just not sexy *ahem*. They do, however, love the fact I’ve already typed “Our Goal and Brand Strategies for 2017!” four times. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

Goal: Help 100 Entrepreneurs

That’s right, we have one goal. We preach simplicity, and we keep it simple for ourselves. As such, our goal’s a simple one: sit down, one-on-one, with 100 entrepreneurs to help them figure out the most important part of what they do – their brands. But to be able to do that, we need to make sure they know who we are.

Strategies

SEO and Social Media

The reason we feel comfortable implementing the above strategies is because we’ve built a strong online brand foundation through our SEO and social media efforts. Not only can you find us across all local search directories, but you can also find us all over most major social media platforms. And we even keep them up-to-date! *gasp*

I’m not comfortable talking SEO and social media tactics because we don’t handle most of it. If you’d like to talk to the person who handles our SEO, contact Spencer from Orange Cube Group – spencer@orangecubegroup.com. And if you’d like to talk to the person who handles our social media, contact Stefanie from S. Mitchell Marketing – stefanie@smitchellmarketing.com.

I do feel comfortable telling all of you, for SEO purposes, that you need to constantly update your websites. For a brand that offers a lot of products, like Target, keep adding new products to the site. For a brand that offers services, keep updating your blog. For anyone in-between, do a little of both.

Public Relations

Because we’ve built our online foundation, the next step is to let the world know who we are through some public relations.

We’re still researching the best tactics to make this happen, but we know it involves meeting people in the local news media. Fortunately, the Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti region’s small enough where that shouldn’t be too tough. I’m assuming we’ll be using a few connections here and there. And maybe a fake press pass.

Educate People on Branding

This is going to be the tough one. Many entrepreneurs and business owners still don’t know the difference between branding and marketing, for instance. And while we come up first on the “ann arbor branding” searches, it doesn’t do us much good if people aren’t looking up branding.

So, the best way to educate people on branding is to get in front of them. And our plan is to do that through talks and workshops all over the area. We’ll keep ya posted.

Get Our Logo Seen

A logo isn’t a brand, but with a bright red postcard in area coffee shops and a call-to-action for entrepreneurs to check out our website, it won’t be long before interested parties know what we’re all about. Our plan here is to talk to area coffee shop owners – because that’s where a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners meet – about putting a small stack of cards in their shops, so people are at least seeing the logo. And maybe even thinking, “What the crap is this all about?” We’ll also be putting them up anywhere else we can think of where entrepreneurs dig meeting with people.

Referral Program

We haven’t ironed out all the details on this one yet, but we want to do something extra for our entrepreneurs – the ones who let us help them. We figure they’re already maniacs for Mayniax, so they’re the perfect advocates. Plus, the money they’d get from us for referrals would hopefully go a long way toward getting them the things they need to keep their brands running smoothly!

Branding With The Big Guy

We announced a podcast last year, and have some episodes in the can, but have had so much stuff coming up that it hasn’t received a proper launch. We’ll be doing that this year, so an even larger entrepreneurial audience can hear us, and hopefully implement some ideas we fire off over the podcasting airwaves!

And now, to finish off this first blog post of 2017, here’s a lot of what I typed above, in video format! Because YouTube channel.

Stay gutsy, gang!

The world is broken, and we believe only entrepreneurs can fix it. But they’ll never get that chance if no one cares about their brands. So, with a little bit o’ nuttiness, a little bit o’ research, and a lotta bit o’ guts, it’s our job to make people care.

Wanna set up a happy fun time chat with Ann Arbor’s favorite branding team? Then click here, fill out the form, and we’ll get back to ya!