I’ve been thinking a lot about branding lately. Specifically, how that a brand matches up with its reputation.

Your Brand

Brand image is important as this allows companies to sell its products and oftentimes command a premium for superior service. I must admit, I’m more of a Chevrolet man who enjoys his Cadillac touches. Buick might do, but if I can have the best and do so without paying full price, then why not?

My current branding thoughts most likely has everything to do with where my family chooses to stay when we’re on the road. For several years we were Choice Hotel members (Comfort Suites, Quality Inn and Sleep Inn to name a few), then briefly switched to Wyndham (Days Inn, Microtel, etc.) before deciding we absolutely liked the accommodations available at Marriott properties. I had already been staying at Marriott properties before we made the switch, having been put up in these fine hotels by clients when I’ve flown or have driven into town.

A quick trip up north this past week meant that we would split our journey into two days going up and two days coming back, with stays at Marriott properties in Winchester, Va., each time. On the way up, it was a Fairfield Inn property. On the way back, it was to be a TownePlace, a newly built hotel at that.

The Fairfield Inn is on the “budget” side for Marriott as is TownePlace, but the Fairfield offered several nice touches including breakfast, fresh fruit, coffee throughout the day and an inside pool. The TownePlace offered much of the same although the pool was outside. This latter hotel also had a hard to find entrance — the hotel looks like an apartment complex and there was no entrance door with a defining and welcoming canopy. Still, we found our way in, made payment and went to our room.

TownePlace’s are wonderful for families especially if you want to avoid eating out. Breakfast is served, but each room features a kitchenette equipped with a full size refrigerator, a stove, a microwave, a sink and a dishwasher. Plates, cups and utensils are also available, allowing travelers to make themselves at home. Restaurant food is fine, but these can wreck your diet — make it yourself and eat better and save some money.

Marriott Amenities

Important to everyone wherever we stay is the bathroom as well as the beds. Marriott properties typically have some of the most comfortable mattresses and pillows anywhere — your sleep comfort isn’t an issue. Bathrooms are large with plenty of towels for our family of four.

What was lacking and what soon proved to be a problem was the toilet tissue. The lone roll available was down to about one-third of its original size with no additional rolls in storage. Thinking nothing of it, we soon hit our mattresses and fell asleep.

Tissue Issue

The next morning, realizing that the “issue of tissue” would soon become a problem, I made my way down to the front desk and spoke with the representative, asking for a roll. Her response stunned me — “We’re out of toilet paper and we don’t expect any more in until later in the day.”

That wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear and, being that I have an expressive face, I dropped my jaw in disbelief and was rendered speechless, but just for a moment. Realizing that we were about to hit the road again and in need of r-e-l-i-e-f, I asked for the next best thing, a box of facial tissues, which the rep was able to supply.

Once back in the room I explained the problem to my wife who was just as surprised and disappointed as I was. We managed with what we had, packed our bags, got in our car and headed home.

Hotel Feedback

The next day I received a note from the manager of the TownePlace asking us about our stay.  In reply I offered the following:

I must admit that I was disappointed with my most recent stay. Yesterday morning, when I asked at the front desk for a roll of toilet paper, the rep told me that the hotel was out of paper and that they hoped to get some in later in the day. Honestly, I was stunned by her answer — but, I managed to regain my composure by asking for a box of facial tissue to help us out. When we checked in to our room, the one roll in the bathroom was mostly depleted.

With Martin’s (a supermarket) just across the way from the hotel, surely someone could have picked up a few rolls.

The room was fine although I couldn’t get the bathtub to drain. I shower fairly quickly, but the water was still above my ankles.

I’ve left Choice Hotels and Wyndham because of substandard service, but will continue to use Marriott. Still, I’m surprised by the toilet paper problem and was a bit embarrassed. My wife wasn’t happy either.

Hopefully, this isn’t an ongoing reflection of your new hotel, otherwise this could prove to be a problem later on. BTW, on the way up north (the previous Friday night), we stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Winchester and loved it.

GM Response

A few hours later I received a direct reply from the hotel’s general manager who apologized and offered an explanation. A delivery truck with said supplies did not show up as expected the night before. The rep was the only person on duty that morning, but the GM wasn’t aware of or informed of the problem until she arrived at the hotel later that morning.

For my inconvenience I received an additional 5,000 Marriott points, credited to my account immediately. I appreciated the gesture and can imagine that the GM has already taken steps to get her staff to notify her of problems before they escalate.

That’s something I’m all to familiar with, having once worked as a store manager for Wendy’s, the restaurant chain. Whenever a problem arose while I was at work and was something my other managers couldn’t resolve on their own, I was contacted and immediately brought in a box of lettuce, a ream of cups or other item that was in short supply. This was in the day before cell phones too — I had to keep on top of things even when I was at home. No wonder I lasted just three years in the industry….

Customer Satisfaction

So, back to branding: you are only as good as your most recent customer feedback and a small, but significant problem can leave a bad taste in your mouth. The Marriott “tissue issue” was a surprise to me, but it hardly compares to problems I’ve had with uncomfortable beds, awful breakfasts and dirty rooms experienced elsewhere.

Still, it is often the little things that can ding your brand, leaving a bad taste in the mouth of your customers who might flee to the competition.

Photo: SXU

Every single website is created in order to get a visitor to do something. This might be asking them to buy something in your ecommerce store. It might be getting them to fill in an online contact form so you can gather some information or involve persuading them to ring a number, process their payment through payment gateways or it might just be getting them to watch a video or read some information.

Whatever your websites goal, you will at some point (unless you have a one page website) want them to press a button. Unlike hyperlinks, which are generally there for your visitor to get further information or explore another webpage, a button is more of an encouragement to action. You will have seen them in various places on a website asking you to “Click here” or maybe telling you to “Press this button to get your quote” or something similar. Buttons are your big moment to seal the deal — you need to make it as irresistible as possible so that your visitors want nothing more than to press that crucial button.

Here is how to make one that is irresistible:

Design

First thing you need to do is make sure your button looks the part. People like to feel that when they press a button, even though it’s just pixels on a page, that they are physically pressing a button. You must have felt that strange satisfaction you get when you see it move in. You can achieve this by choosing a button with a nice gradient or 3D lighting effect on it that makes it look like a real button. You also need to choose a colour that really catches the eye. The best colours for this are any that really contrast with your background or what it is next to. Just make sure it sticks out like a very sore thumb.

Message

Next thing you need to do is add a ‘call to action’. This is basically a short sharp message that encourages your visitor to click thebutton. There are tons of books on how to write these effectively, but in a nutshell you need to say ‘click here now’ in order to ‘get this great benefit’.

Placement

Finally you need to put it in the right place on the page. There is no point in sticking it away from where your visitors are going to be reading. If they can’t see your payment button, then you certainly aren’t going to be performing any online credit card processing. You also don’t want to have it lost in the middle of a load of other text so that their eye is not drawn to it. To help your user, place it in a nice clearing on the page, immediately after your sales message. You may also want to put one further up the page if your page is a bit long and requires the user to scroll. Essentially, just make it effortless for the user to find and impossible for them to miss.

Author Information

Kevin Gallagher has been an expert copywriter for many years and has  written content for numerous blogs including the popular payment service provider blog by Lancore, a large payment gateway provider.

Closing that sales pitch is never easy. It today’s economic climate everyone is desperate to cling on to their money so getting them to part with it can be tricky to say the least. In the world of sales you’re not just convincing one person to give you money you’ve usually got an entire board room of people that need to give the go ahead.

Price Standpoint

One of the most important areas for you and the people you’re selling to is going to be the price. Many people will go with the cheapest price just because it’s the cheapest without giving any regard for quality or any other factors. Thanks to the Internet everyone is very price aware, they know where they can go for a cheaper quote or a more basic service. If you’re selling a product or service you need to be proud of what you’re selling and the price you’re selling them at.

If you try and hide your price or you’re not happy to be open about what you’re charging, they’ll think you have something to hide. If you’re keeping your prices quiet throughout your presentation, whoever you’re selling to will be constantly wondering what you’re charging rather than concentrating on your presentation. Be open and honest about your prices from the beginning and emphasize the value they’re getting for this money.

Selling Value

One of the most common objections a sales person is likely to hear is that the price is too high. In this instance you need to make sure you’re asking the right questions. You need to find out exactly why they think it’s too expensive. Maybe they spoke to someone last week who could offer what you’re offering but for a cheaper price. In this case you need to look at what exactly they’ve already been offered, maybe your product or service has something the other person couldn’t offer and this would justify the slightly higher price.

For example if you sell fixed assets software explain it comes with a built in report function — can the cheaper quote offer that too? If they had no interest in your products or service they wouldn’t have sat through your presentation. If they are just after the cheapest price for the sake of being cheap they are not going to be easy customers to work with. By asking the right questions you will still be able to get the sale but you won’t have to sacrifice all your profit margins.

Right Questions

If they are going to insist on a discount you again need to start asking the right questions. We’ve already talked about being proud of your prices so by offering that discount you’re chipping away at that pride. Find out if they genuinely believe your product or service isn’t worth what you’re asking then you can find out what they would expect to be included for the price.

If you are going to offer a discount don’t make it an incentive otherwise you’re giving them more power. If they are willing to offer something in return like signing a longer contract this might be worth a discount.

Author Information

Kim Jensen works for Real Asset Management, a company who specializes in tracking software.

As hundreds of coworkers and unemployed workers compete for your job, many of them have more qualifications than you and show willingness to work for less money, so staying competitive in the workplace is more important to you now than ever before.

Here are 7 ways to distinguish yourself from the crowd in a recession:

1. Keep your resume updated: Do not make the assumption that you will have a job tomorrow. Dust off that resume or start making a new one now. Make sure it includes all your latest accomplishments and offers reasons that demonstrate why you are a valuable asset who can boost an employer’s bottom line.

2. Have a good attitude: A recession can mean that people from all walks of life have trouble maintaining their lifestyle, causing a doom and gloom environment at the office. Distinguish yourself by remaining upbeat. Bring a ray of sunshine with you everywhere you go and you will get the attention of supervisors, managers, and executives as a person they need to help the company through difficult times.

3. Get beyond the paper and market yourself: Insiders have already picked over jobs advertised in newspapers and on online job boards, so relying on those sources leave you at a disadvantage. Competitive job markets mean that you must find ways to get to the people with real hiring authority. Market yourself as a product essential to success. Employers need people like you who can make a direct impact on their bottom line. Bypass traditional job ads and contact decision makers directly. Online sources such as ZapData can provide names and mailing addresses you can use as you market yourself.

4. Use social networking to connect with opportunities: Take the time to build your social network on Facebook and Twitter. By making connections now, you will have access to more referrals when you need them. This type of strategy can take time to implement, so get started on it now.

5. Make yourself stand out: While at work, you need to get out of the shadows and into the limelight. Let your company see you as a problem solver, a self-motivated creativity engine willing to take the lead on new projects. Don’t make it all about yourself either: praise others, ask questions, and let it be known that you are a team player who is vital to the success of your company.

6. Improve your productivity: Working long hours may contribute to the perception of your value, but you probably will stand out to your employer by producing more in less time. Efficient workers produce the most and will likely survive layoffs more than those who stay content with the status quo. Look for ways to do your job better and faster and you will remain while others are gone.

7. Develop your skills: Difficult economic times represent good opportunities to go back to school. You can learn new, recession-proof skills or you can develop your existing skills that increase your value to a new or existing employer.

By following these 7 ways to distinguish yourself from the crowd in a recession can make the difference between prosperity and the unemployment line. Get started making your own opportunities now so you can excel during troubling times.

Author Information

James Adams is a full time analyst and writer at a leading UK based ink cartridges specialist where he spends his time writing reviews of new hardware like the HP 350XL.

Photo Credit: Harrison Keely

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hot topic these days. It seems every time you turn around someone is talking about SEO and how it is essential for any company that wants to make a go of it in today’s business world. But what exactly is SEO? And does your business really need it?

Well, SEO is a marketing strategy that is intended to give you a stronger, larger web presence. And with consumers turning to the internet more and more for their product and service needs, SEO is, indeed, a key part of finding new customers and increasing the visibility and profitability of your business.

Site Optimization

Optimizing your web presence can only be a positive thing. After all, how can people know how amazing your company is if they can’t find you? When looking for a product or service people are more apt to turn to the Internet, particularly the search engines than the yellow pages. If you have a poor ranking and a minimal web presence, then potential customers won’t be able to find you online. And that can mean lost sales.

You may think that only large business need and can afford to utilize SEO as part of their marketing strategy, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, a smaller business can sometimes benefit even more than larger companies who may already have a solid web presence.

SEO Strategy

While both large and small companies can benefit from SEO, there is a difference in how it is applied to each. Other things besides business size that need to be taken into consideration when developing an SEO strategy is whether or not your company is local or global and if you deal with products or services.

It goes without saying that a larger company will have more money available for marketing and therefore more money that can be allocated for SEO. On the flip side, larger companies will need a larger SEO strategy in order for it to work.

Larger companies will most likely also already have an established web presence with a high traffic website. Their SEO strategy therefore should be geared towards tweaking the existing website and making it more efficient in drawing traffic by implementing more and better keywords in product and service descriptions, emphasizing competitive pricing and delivery service.

Small Businesses

Smaller businesses may have newer or smaller websites and not as high a volume of traffic as larger companies. While keyword placement can help to direct traffic to the site, a much better option is to use link building in order to increase the website’s ranking and direct traffic.

Increasing your online visibility will help increase your sales and put your business on the map, even if you are a local company without global aspirations. Local people turn to the Internet for their information also. The proper linking and keyword use will put you on top of the game.

Link Building

If your company’s website is new, link building is essential regardless of the size of your company. You want to make sure that you are listed when people search for your product or service on a search engine. And, in order to be recognized and indexed you need to use link building.

The right link building will also ensure that your website is high up in the search results. The higher you are ranked, the more people will be able to find you. Think about it: when you search for something online, how often to you click past the first page of results? Not very often.

Your Strategy

SEO doesn’t just benefit the big chain companies. Smaller companies can also get use out of SEO. The key is to make sure that the SEO strategy is personalized and geared towards your business whether you are selling a product or providing a service.

Author Information

Kara Taylor is an experienced blogger and a specialist in SEO, social media and website content. She uses her knowledge to give expert advice on a variety of topics on a Q&A site. When she is not blogging, she loves to learn new recipes and cook for her family.

Photo Credit: Sachin Ghodke

I recently had an idea about using popular YouTube videos to help inform your domain name choices, and thought I would share it here.

Many people set up blogs not to sell anything in particular, but instead to build powerful sites over time that they can sell advertising on, sell guest posts from or dare I say it…sell links from. When setting up these sorts of sites, not a lot of attention is given to domain names. Most people go for something that sounds “cool” or is otherwise a generic phase such as “everythingandalways.com”. However if you thought carefully about domain choice, you could kick off your site’s traffic and link building efforts with much greater ease.

Popular YouTube

The first thing to do is search on YouTube for very popular (or better yet famous) videos. You can do this by sorting all the videos by “most viewed” and setting the time scale to “all time”. Here are some examples: evolution of dance, tootin bathtub baby cousins, the gummy bear song.

Next, you should check out the competition for the terms in the SERPS and also the suggested search volumes in Google Adwords Tool (yes we all know it’s flawed but it’s a good indicator). You’ll notice that the official site for Judson Laipply appears top of the SERPS (under the video results) when you search for “Evolution of Dance”. It’s also worth noting that this site is a PR5 site and has backlinks from Wikipedia, PCWorld and Wired.com.

Popular Terms

With this in mind it might not be worth going after the “evolution of dance” term, but it does show just how popular a site like this can become. If you hunt around the terms related to the other videos above however, you’ll notice there is very little competition in the SERPS, and certainly no optimised URLs. Just doing a quick check, I can see that domains such as tootinbathtubbabies.com and gummy-bear-song.com are available to buy (at time of writing).

These domains represent brilliant opportunities as there will not only be a great deal of search surrounding the terms, but very little competition standing in your way. With a little onsite optimisation and some targeted link building you should be able to move to the top of the SERPS without too much trouble and may even be considered a brand after a while due to a specific domain name, specific link building using domain name terms, and high search volume surrounding “your brand term”.

Careful Choice

I wouldn’t use this technique to determine the name for my new clothing retail site, but for a general blog I would much prefer to have a domain name that already had half a million searchers per month relating to it, than something like everythingandalways.com, which I would suggest gets none.

Author Information

Duncan is an SEO and marketing professional promoting a villas in France enterprise. He’s always looking for new ways to get the most out of the SERPS.

Summer 2010 will probably go down as one where I’ve begun to put much more flexibility into what I do. Not that as I as freelancer am not flexible, but like so many of us independent workers, we’re used to a fairly predictable schedule and/or way of working. Wake up in the morning, log on, respond to emails and start writing.

Likely, you work from home most of the time. Why hit the road when you don’t have to?

On the Road

But this summer I chose to do things differently. As the school year came to an end, I purchased a new laptop (Mac) and decided to take my work on the road. That decision wasn’t hard to make because our small home seems to be shrinking in size as our children grow. Plus, two active tweenies need to be able to “let loose” from time to time without worrying that they’re disturbing Daddy.

So, I’ve been packing up for part or most of the day and taking my computer to the library, coffee shop, cafe or other location where the seats are comfortable and the connection strong. One or both have been hard to achieve at various times, but I’ve managed to make it work.

I’ve also taken said laptop with me on successive trips in July–one personal, the other for business reasons–and found hooking up much easier in 2010 than 2009 and earlier years. It seems that a lot of businesses are getting with it and making Internet accessibility much easier. And free too.

Back to School

When the kids return to school in three weeks I’ll be heading out less often, but I expect I’ll still work away from home some. I’ve tossed around the idea of renting an office, but I don’t want to be locked into one location nor am I willing to shell out the bucks if I don’t have to.  If the economy was more stable I might consider making the commitment, but not now.

I’ve also taken a pair of road trips this year though I was shut out in 2009. Last year it was all about businesses conserving precious resources, but this year I noticed companies are carefully weighing their options and willing to do business if they believe that they can get some ROI in exchange. Yes, when my expenses are paid for I’ll hit the road from time to time.

Until then….

Photo Credit: Nino Barbieri

It certainly doesn’t take long before something hot on the Internet spreads like wildfire then the newbies joining the web only get to see the smoke. Take blogging for example, it has become so sophisticated that a newcomer interested in blogging is almost overwhelmed with all the information and where to start.

It is true that one can find anything on the Internet, and how to start blogging advice is no different. Another problem that arises though is that the interested party is often so enthusiastic about all there is to learn, that many times they are reading advice and information that dates back several years and they don’t even realize it.

Then when they go to apply what they have learned, it makes no sense and doesn’t work. This creates the makings for a real dilemma. What ends up happening is the would be blogger gives up and looks for something else to become confused about.

So what is the moral of the story here? Start at the beginning and say hello to blogging. Here are just a few basics to get the ball rolling. Once a newbie gets past this stage then they can consider themselves a blogger and leave some smoke behind for the next novice that comes along.

Step One:
Read some current articles and information that has a date on it about what blogging is about in general. Get a feel for it, then you will immediately start to generate your own blogging ideas about what you want to blog about.

Step Two:
Now you need to find some place to put your blog, so you need a blogging provider. Again do your homework. There are lots of them around and some are easier than others to use. Once thing you want is ease of use. This means they will have templates that you can use which is basically just filling in the blanks. Once you become a pro at blogging then you can progress onto the more elaborate concepts.

Step Three:
The easiest way to learn about blogging is from the pros. Once you have determined what it is you want to blog about then visit blogging sites that are in this niche. See how these established sites do it. If you have never posted to a blog before then now is the time to get your feet wet. You have a virtual voice so use it.

Step Four:
Once you get your blogging site set up then go back and visit the ones you were at in the above step and invite them to visit your blog, provided it is not a private blog site. Do it via comments, contact forms or messaging through twitter or facebook.

Step Five:
Research all the innovative ways to get your blog known. After all, blogging is not much fun if you are only blogging to yourself, its like a one way conversation.

When you look at it this way, blogging is not quite so overwhelming. There is a whole world out there waiting to hear about what you have to say, about anything you want to blog about, so go for it, here is your chance. Welcome to the world of blogging!

Author Information

Lior Levin is an owner of a SEO company working with a nursing wear brand called Milk Nursingwear and also working with a task management start-up.

I’ve used this blog as a place to announce the sale of some of my other websites and blogs down through the years, therefore I won’t be making an exception for Auto Trends, one of my two car blogs.

I launched Auto Trends in April 2008 in part as a way to feed traffic to my flagship car site, The Auto Writer. I expected to keep the site for about a year and then place it on the market. The economy was so bad in 2009 that I never entertained that thought seriously. Until now.

Regularly Updated

Auto Trends is updated by me 2-3 times per week and contains unique content including car reviews, technology, automotive gadgets and, of course, lots of speculation on my part. I like the site a lot, but I’m willing to part with it if someone meets my $8000 floor. I think it could fetch far more than that, but I’ll let it go for that amount. You can track the bid on Flippa, Sitepoint’s website marketing vehicle.

I have built and sold at least ten websites over the past eight years and know how the process works. I’m getting the usual tire kickers but I am not supplying detailed financial information except to people who really want to buy the site. That means if you want those details, you already have an established track record for buying and selling websites.

Right Match

Auto Trends would be an excellent fit for a media company looking to expand their portfolio–is that a hint or what?

In any case, the auction continues through the end of this month or when the website sells. I’m not in a position to “have to sell” Auto Trends, but then if the right offer was made, I’d be more than happy to let it go.

Writing effective content for a business website can make all the difference between a vibrant, successful site and one that languishes unread and at worst, may even damage your business’s reputation.

But, perhaps you are happy with your website’s content. If this is the case, it is still worth taking a step back and looking at your site with fresh eyes. Perhaps it’s time for a change, or perhaps it’s time to move things up another gear.

While effective content is central to a website, the ability to use it to further your own brand is where an online site can really come in to its own. There are a number of ways of doing this:

SEO Content

Maximizing the use of search engine optimization can really make a site, but even more significantly, it can help enhance your brand so that customers identify easier with what you have to offer. Think about your brand and the words that best describe your product or service. Perhaps you have a brand tag line. If so, make sure you incorporate it into the site so search engines can easily locate it when anyone uses it as search criteria.

Emotional Buy-In

A brand is a great way of getting customers to “buy-in” to what you offer. A website can really come into its own here as you can (and should) tailor its content to enhance the brand. So if you were in the business of selling organic, locally sourced food, it would make sense to extend this brand.

You could have a section of the site with links to farmers’ markets or recipes for healthy meals. You could write articles yourself, or even better, use a business blog writing service to create content that compliments your brand. This helps create a self-contained “world,” which should encourage customers to explore what you have to offer.

Inspire Loyalty

Always working with your branding in mind is a great way to increase customer loyalty. Filling your site with articles, blogs and links that help reinforce the message of your brand will create a sense of belonging for your customers.

Remember that many successful sites aren’t just online stores, but foster a sense of community by discussing ideas, issues and news relating to your product. If you sell CDs, then why not include reviews so customers think of your site not just as a place to spend money, but a resource from which they can learn.

Call to Action

Don’t forget the call to action. What do you want the reader to do after they read what you have to say? Do you want them to fill out a form, call you, request more information? Be sure you use proper calls to action that can help your bottom line, while also considering all the other factors we discussed.

Writing onsite content with branding in mind will help create an overall sense of identity and a place where customers will be happy to return time and time again.

About the Author

Steve Lazuka is owner and operator of Interact Media, a website content company based in Ohio that services social media, content development, a business blog writing service and more. He’s also an avid tweeter (@SteveLazuka), and a guest blogs regularly.