How to avoid having two separate businesses to market even if you offer two services

How to Avoid Having Two Separate Businesses to Market Even if You Offer Two Services

I get a lot of questions from small business owners who have two major problems they solve or two services they offer in one business. I’m not really sure why this is so prevalent?but I have a feeling that it might have to do with the reluctance that a lot of small business owners feel when it comes to paring down their services or target audiences.

I know I’m extra-guilty of this. I’ve been advised to just offer logo design, marketing material design or website design?not all three. But I can’t bear the thought of limiting myself to just one area. I think the three are so intertwined that they all need to be addressed together. Because they’re so intertwined, it’s easy to talk about them together.

But, what if the two things you do aren’t actually directly related?

If you’re trying to market two seemingly separate products or services, then it might be tempting to separate them and create two companies?one to promote service A and another to promote service B. But, along with two companies comes marketing twice, That means two logos, two business cards (and wondering which one to hand out to get the most out of networking events!), two websites (and maintaining and updating two websites) and two newsletter lists to keep in touch with your clients.

Two newsletter lists means at least two articles per month, two mailing lists, two newsletter template designs and the need to format two newsletters in your email program. Then you need to add the articles to your website. That winds up being a lot of work?and that’s just if you’re putting each newsletter out once a month.

How to avoid this extra work

Instead of separating your two (or three) services into different companies, or even separating your lists within one company, work on finding out what your services have in common. After all, you’re offering both products or services, so they must involve a common skill or interest or solve a common problem, right?

I call this exercise «finding the thread.» Take a piece of paper, write down your different services and then draw lines connecting them. These lines are your thread?the single factor that connects all the things you do for your clients.

Try to keep the thread simple?you don’t want the connection to be too obscure or not to make sense to your clients.

The thread is often something that comes as second nature to you. You think that this thread is so important that you may do it without noticing. So, asking some of your clients to help you connect the dots or asking a friend or spouse may help you identify the thread more easily.

Once you have found the thread…

Use it as the basis of all of your marketing materials. Instead of focusing your home page copy on your services, focus on the problem that your clients are facing that can be mended with the thread you offer. Build your logo around the thread (which is also often what makes you different from your competition. Your competitors probably don’t have this same thread holding their services together). Write the articles in your newsletter with an emphasis on the thread instead of just writing about the services you offer. And, sew everything you do together by always concentrating on this thread.

If you focus on finding and talking about the thread that holds all of your offerings together, then you won’t have to separate them into different businesses. You’ll be able to make everything you do make sense for your clients in one package. And, you won’t have to do all of that extra marketing work.

How to brand your business

How to Brand Your Business? Find Out Today

Perhaps every contractor has a dream that one day they can build their own construction empire. However, to do that, you must first be able to generate sales and grow your business by means of attracting more and more customers. It is important to see every aspect of the business growing before you can even fulfil this dream. Your business doesn’t grow by merely creating a plan. A quick follow through is needed in order to build your business and create a strong brand.

Creating a strong brand for you business is not necessarily a piece of cake. It requires hard work, and possibly even some training in the areas of marketing and brand management. However, you may begin creating a high-value business image through the following steps.

1. You must analyze your business and what you want your company to represent. Take into consideration the list of services you provide to your customers and think of adjectives that would best describe these services. Are you quick to finish the job? What kind of assurance do you give to your customers that you will produce some quality and efficient work? Do you have a 24 hour response time on a client inquiry? Those are just some of the questions you ask yourself that would lead you to create a brand statement, image and soon advertisements and marketing propaganda. These will then help you leverage yourself against your competition and this will set you apart from the rest.

2. Add some color into your brand. Visual representation is part of creating a strong brand. If you want people to remember you and think of you when faced with the words contractor or construction company, you have to be able to add life and vibrancy to your logos, advertisements and other marketing schemes. Add these visual representation to your personnel’s uniform or to your truck and you will see a growth in your sales because people will be flocking in to your store or your office more after this.

3. Think of a logo that is easy to remember and hard to copy. Your logo will be your main branding icon. You need this so that everywhere you go, and wherever your logo is, people will know that this represents your business and the kind of quality service they need in their homes. This is part of your visualization strategy. Most strong and popular brands are known for their logos. The big letter and rounded shaped M is for McDonalds, the sign of a crocodile is for Lacoste – if you will notice these companies have been in the market for years. This is because their logos is part of what differentiates them from the flock. It builds a certain image into the people’s head that when they need the services you provide, it is you that they should go to and not to your competitors.

4. Choose your words carefully when making your marketing collaterals. Your message should be clear, concise and creative. You will need these kinds of messages to create your own branding statement, quotes that you want your customers to remember and slogans for your marketing campaigns. You don’t need a professional doing this. You can certainly do this on your own. No additional training needed. If you have carefully done step 1, then you have all the information you need to get this job done.

5. Be creative in representing yourself. Know how you want to introduce yourself to your customers and strategize. You can email, send some direct mails to your contacts and get referrals from your existing customers. If you have additional budget, advertise. Put yourself out there and generate as much leads as you can.