Ways to Build Your Brand

After 10 years as president of independent planning outfit Stellar Meetings and Events, Bonni Scepkowski has decided to go in a new direction. "We've focused on corporate meetings for a long time, and we're good at it and we enjoy it. But the element of education and helping other businesses grow is very appealing to us," says the North Brunswick, N.J., business owner. "We are interested in working with in-house meeting planners to help them to take advantage of the years we've been doing this."

In order to make this shift, Scepkowski realizes a rebrand is in order. She plans to spend some downtime this month collecting information from clients to see what they feel she and her colleagues have to offer and writing new copy for her website (stellarmeetings.com). "I'll also come up with a new list of what we can do, either in full or à la carte, for the in-house planner." If all goes well, Scepkowski plans to launch the new concept in January.

Whether starting from scratch or reworking the concept, creating a brand — that core definition of who you are and what you offer — is tricky business and requires careful thought and implementation before you can sell your services effectively. What follows is some valuable advice from branding experts.

Define it Working on your brand starts with taking the time to crystallize the message you want all of your materials to relay.

"You have to codify the thoughts that have been in your head as to why you want to be in this business," says Christopher Litster, vice president of event marketing for Constant Contact, a Waltham, Mass.-based company that helps small businesses stay connected with their clients. "If you're rebranding, it's even more important to sit down, take those rambling thoughts and write them all down." Not doing so, he adds, raises the risk of failure, because you'll end up copying other people, rather than getting at the truth of what your business should be about.

Defining that all-important niche makes the business of running your company more enjoyable (because you've chosen the elements of planning that you love and are good at), which, by extension, makes it easier for you to brand your enterprise.

Liz King, owner and social media events specialist for her eponymous New York City-area planning business, had a vague notion of the meetings she would handle when she hung out her shingle in 2010. After a while, she assessed events she had planned, asking herself what she liked and didn't like about each one, and refining her professional mission.

"It makes it easier to find your target market if you think critically about your skills and interests and compare them to the types of events you enjoy planning," says King, who now arranges only in-person events with a social media element. "I always had a big interest in social media and started to wonder if I could combine that interest with meetings. So that's how I found my niche, by combining what I'm good at with what I'm interested in."

Ad Power

Soon after losing a beloved dog, Debbie Baker, owner of TLC Meetings and Events in the St. Louis area, was stopped at a traffic light one day, looking at a video billboard on the side of the road that displayed an ad for a pet cemetery. "It came to me in that flash that if I found something I needed when I was just sitting on a street corner, it might work for my business," she says. An ad for TLC now rotates on that same billboard with three other ads, for 15 seconds at a time. "It's been pretty successful, and it's not that expensive," she notes. "That corner has tons of traffic, and I've gotten some business from it."

 

Picture it "The part I am struggling with now is that I need a logo," says Debbie Baker, owner and planner with TLC Meetings and Events. She started her company about 18 months ago when the people who owned the firm she worked for in Las Vegas retired; Baker was able to take her best clients with her as she moved to the St. Louis area and built her new business. She's just not sure how to come up with the right look for her brand. "This is a very small, close-knit community," she notes, "and I'm trying to jump into the special events industry here."

Of course, it helps to have a design background if you want to create a logo or branded stationary and business materials for yourself, as did Karen Brown, who started Conferences by Design in eastern Maryland in 2001. But if you haven't dabbled in graphic arts, "I would strongly recommend hiring a professional to design your logo," Brown says.

To get a good idea of possible logo options, see Symbol (Laurence King Publishing), a compilation of more than 1,300 iconic images, by Angus Hyland and Steven Bateman. If you decide you need a professional to get your brand going, two how-tos to peruse are "How to Hire a Marketing Consultant or Contractor," from Campbell, Calif.-based 280 Group (bit.ly/p2BmLp), and advice from MarketingZone.com (bit.ly/pJPwvE). To consider: Be sure your prospects understand what meeting professionals actually do, get samples of similar projects they've done and always check letters of reference carefully.

Once you settle on your logo, Brown advises, use it everywhere, in your e-mails and on staff clothing and bags, and make sure it links to your website in all electronic communications. "Your signature line is the modern equivalent of your letterhead now," she says.

Put up pages When Baker started her business, she applied to get an IATA number (used by travel agents and others who sell travel), for which she needed a website. Luckily, she was using Intuit's Quickbooks, which hosts sites for small businesses starting at $5 a month. "The person who builds registration sites for my meetings helped me get that up," says Baker, who had used the technology contractor in her previous Las Vegas job.

Without overcrowding your site, make sure it answers every question a visitor might have, offering solid contact information, pictures and descriptions of events you've planned, perhaps along with testimony from happy clients. 

Chat about it Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are great ways to spread your brand around. Thoughtful posts, comments and links all contribute to the perception that you know the industry and are a trusted resource.

"Don't be shy about putting yourself out there online," says Litster of Constant Contact. "Be OK with talking about me, me, me. Post things on your wall that you've been involved with or that you would like to be involved with; note how you might do things differently, and reference key influencers."

Social media has been key to turning Liz King's business into a profitable enterprise. "My blog [lizkingevents.com/blog] has been important for sharing my knowledge," she says. "I've never paid for an ad anywhere or done direct mailings."

For Karen Brown, Twitter has done the job — just ask her 6,000 followers. "I was a really early adopter; I even got the name @karenbrown," she says. "I built my Twitter following by being there and being present and checking every single day and commenting and getting involved. Conferences by Design is my face."

A lot of her social media focus, however, has segued over to Facebook, as Twitter relationships have become more solid. "I've met people in the meetings industry and hired them through Facebook, although I can't say I've gotten a job through Facebook," says Brown, who recognizes that the personality she puts forth online also personifies her company. "I can't tell you how many vendors I've found through Facebook. With social media, I try to encourage relationships more than anything else."

Christopher P. Noyes, CMP, knows he needs extra help to get his brand working for him online. "My expertise is logistics and security," says the former U.S. Navy seaman who now runs Noyes Associates. "I'll leave the marketing ideas to someone else." A graphic-artist friend helped him design a logo, and now he's working with a marketing firm to come up with a social media plan. "They used to do meetings and events, and they now do PR and marketing, so they understand what I do," he adds. The plan still is in the development stages; he's shooting for rolling it out in the first of the year.

Trying to keep track of all the business, personal accounts and topics can be overwhelming, however. Constant Contact has a free tool called NutshellMail that tracks your social media activity and delivers a summary to your inbox on your schedule. It gathers updates from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, MySpace, YouTube, Foursquare and Citysearch. For other free marketing tools, podcasts and more from Constant Contact, go to mcmag.com/webexclusives.

Let it out Not everybody is comfortable tweeting and posting. "I'm not that big on social networking," says Stellar Meetings' Scepkowski. "People have immersed themselves in it, and I see its value, but I'm more of a face-to-face person."

Part of Scepkowski's focus for the next year of rebranding is to become an attendee herself at industry events. "We've been complacent in getting out and networking; we feel a little out of touch with our community," she says.

Litster emphasizes that all small-business owners need to combine online activity with face-to-face efforts to keep the brand fresh in people's minds. "You can brand yourself to kingdom come, but if you don't get good contacts that lead to good relationships, it's all for nought," he says.

Litster even suggests creating a local event — say, a wine-tasting — to promote your own business. "It's easier for a prospect to think they might do business with you when they see a nicely managed event that you've put on."