Your Greatest Marketing Assets
There are a lot of things you can do to market your products or services. Some people go the traditional route and post flyers at markets, while others invest in fancy TV commercials. Regardless of how you decide to advertise, it’s important that you think about the four marketing assets that will be available at all times: your logo, your slogan, your website and social media accounts. Your logo is most important because it’s the first thing people see when they interact with you as well as what they see on their shopping bag if they purchase something from one of your stores.
A logo is an integral part of a company's brand identity. An effective logo can make a company's products more appealing and help it to stand out from the rest of the competition. A great logo can be created by an agency, in-house creative teams, or even a new start-up company with a logo designed by one of its employees. Whatever you decide to do, keep in mind that it can take up to six months for this one item to make an impact with your audience.
The slogan is the second most important marketing asset. With most slogans, people associate the product with words like freshness, nutrition, quality and safety. Other slogans may be more aspirational like “the best things in life are free” and “better than you expect.” Because slogans have a close relationship to your logo, it’s important to consider the logo design when creating the slogan. Having a slogan that embodies what you stand for and clearly conveys your message might not look as great in print or on TV, but it’s still important. The slogan is what allows you to connect with your audience emotionally, so think about it carefully before implementing it.
Your website is the next biggest marketing asset you need. A good website will allow you to connect with people in ways that other mediums like television won't allow. It will allow you to explain your company story, compare products and services and provide information in a simple way that's easy for the consumer to understand. It will also help you to measure your marketing efforts, build consumer trust and provide an outlet for customer service. This one will take time to build but it’s well worth the investment.
Your social media accounts are the last (and sometimes biggest) marketing asset you have. With social media, it's not about products you'll find in the store, but rather the experience you'll have when shopping there. Your social media platforms should tell a story about your company culture that attracts and excites people who want to enjoy a new kind of shopping experience with your brand. You can still connect with customers through your website, but social media allows you to embrace the electronic age and reach out to many more people with one message. Some social media platforms are older than others, but all of them have pros and cons and it's important that you understand which ones work best for you. Because social media allows your company to be seen by more people in a shorter span of time, it’s worth investing the time and effort required to create a great social media presence.
While there is no single marketing asset that’s going to make or break your company, understanding and using each of these four assets will increase the likelihood that your marketing efforts will be successful.
While there are a lot of things you can do to market your products or services, every company has four marketing assets they can use to their advantage. Knowing how important these assets are and how they can help your business will allow you to make better decisions when it comes time to spend money on marketing tools.
The key is finding the balance between being creative and taking the appropriate amount of time to ensure that the assets you use in your marketing efforts are what you need them to be. By choosing the right designer for each project, you should be able to successfully implement strategies that will keep people coming back for more.
by: Ryan T. Melton
If you're looking to up your marketing game, but with a tight budget, then you may want to consider AOW's marketing toolkit. AOW holds free workshops on a variety of marketing topics to help you boost your company's image and increase sales. The workshops are open to the public and are not limited in size. To have access to these amazing resources, sign up for our newsletter here! >> MORE MARKETING RESOURCES <<
At 7PM today we're showing 'The Social Escape', the new doc "a whole lot of social media...Awkward". It's available on demand now via Amazon Streaming & iTunes . Check out the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUxCcGi6hjg
The Story Behind Stupid Shipping Charges
If you are a small business owner and you are selling physical products on your ecommerce site, Amazon Marketplace or any place for that matter, then you will have to charge your customer for shipping. There is a lot of confusion around how much to charge for each shipping method that you offer on your site and it goes back to the shipping carrier’s connector rates. Let me walk you through my thought process when I determine which shipping rates to offer at AceWiseAds.com (I do not sell items with free shipping).
If I know the price of the item in my seller’s store, then I can add price to the item and it will show up on the shipping rates section of my product pages. By adding an item's price in an efficient manner, it reduces time for my team to add items and removes any confusion about what an appropriate shipping fee is on an individual item.
What should I charge for shipping?
The main factor that determines what your customers pay for their shipping charges is how much they are willing to pay per piece. The lower you set the price, the more you will sell because of a large pool of buyers willing to buy at that price. The higher you set the price, the less you will sell because of a small pool of buyers willing to pay that price.
I personally like to have a very narrow range for my shipping prices; I want to be able to set a specific shipping fee and know that I will not sell anything for less than that price. The reason for this is because I will only have one price associated with the item (on the product page) and it's better if you are charging your customers $15 or $20 per order since they are going to see two different prices on their order confirmation page.
Sometimes I’ll find a really great deal on an item and I will see that I can charge a much lower price than what other sellers are charging for the product. In this scenario, it does not make sense to charge a high shipping price because you are competing for a similar customer that ends up purchasing your product instead of another seller's product.
Takeaways
Be aware that what people pay now is different from what they will likely pay in the future. Sometimes people decide they will pay more at the end of their purchase cycle if they have paid less when the transaction starts. Be aware of the discount fees that Amazon charges for their Marketplace sellers (check out our post about Discount Fees here).
Conclusion
In conclusion, you should not charge a low shipping rate on your product page if you are competing against other sellers that are charging a higher shipping price. In the same way, you should not charge a high shipping rate on your product page if you are competing against other sellers that are charging a lower shipping price. Your customers will be confused about what the correct shipping rate is for your products and the result is that people will compare their prices when looking for items online.