Of Home Building and Marketing Brand building and home building are more similar than you might think. More than just assembling the right tools and materials, you need to have a blueprint before you get started—one that reflects what you want your finished home to look like. Similarly, you’re going to need a marketing blueprint if you want to build the right brand on a sturdy foundation. But what does a marketing blueprint look like? And how can your business cre- ate one and follow it to success? Like a builder’s blueprint, a marketing plan needs to include all of the vital infor- mation that’s used in building a bigger concept. In marketing, that means exam- ining your audience, understanding your marketing channels, creating a brand concept, defining your value propositions, creating collateral and executing in tandem with a plan. If you take the time to sketch up a marketing blueprint, establishing a strong, identifiable brand that’s unique and appealing will be simpler. Your brand is your dream home: make sure it’s built right. © Copyright 2018 AlphaGraphics, Inc. v.1.0 X.X.XXXX Understand Your Audience Homes come in all shapes and sizes—from single-story ranches to multi-story colonials. A style that’s appealing to one person might not be to someone else, however. The same is true for branding. If you think about your brand as a house, you’ll quickly come to realize that attracting everyone is impossible. The first step in building a marketing blueprint is determining your audience: the people you want to directly appeal to. This is essential because it will define your brand: its messaging, appeals, concepts, marketing mediums and more. Put together a profile of your key demographics before you start creating any marketing plans. Are you appealing to Cindy, a mother of 2 with limited income who values coupons, or Doug, a CEO with lots of disposable income and a love of his community? Knowing who’s interested in your brand will go a long way towards making sure you shape it correctly. Not everyone is going to fit nicely into your box of key demographics, and that’s okay! The goal isn’t to paint a picture of every customer, it’s to paint a picture of the ideal customer. Targeting the perfect customer casts a net that’s wide enough to appeal to people with similarities to your intended audience. Cindy might not always have 2 kids and Doug might not be a CEO—their underlying traits are what matter, such as an emphasis on family or access to discretionary income. Trying to build a brand without understanding the audience is like building a home without determining what style you like at the outset. © Copyright 2018 AlphaGraphics, Inc. v.1.0 X.X.XXXX Define Your Value Propisition What’s unique about your home? There’s always something that makes a house special, and often, it’s this unique aspect that drives a sale. Your brand might not have a bay window or a finished basement, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its own value proposition. In fact, it likely has more than just one or two! Val·ue Prop·o·si·tion n. 1. an innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers. Your brand’s blueprint needs to be focused around its value propositions. Do you have a lower price than competitors? A superior product? Are you an eco-friend- ly business? Do you employ veterans? Donate to local community organizations? Whatever it may be, your value proposition(s) need to set you apart in a unique and identifiable way. Without them your brand is just another one on the block. Once you figure out what makes you special, see how that value proposition jives with your target audience. If Cindy has limited income and you offer the lowest price possible, it’s an appeal that’s going to click! Similarly, if you support local organizations, Doug might feel good about paying a little more for a prod- uct he can afford. When you know your audience and can pair the right value proposition, your brand suddenly becomes irresistibly appealing. © Copyright 2018 AlphaGraphics, Inc. v.1.0 X.X.XXXX Determine the Purpose of Your Marketing You can’t start building a home until you secure a site. The right piece of prop- erty can be the perfect backdrop for you to build your home on. In the world of marketing, the perfect backdrop for your value proposition is the right intent. Simply put: what’s the purpose behind your marketing push? Too many brands rush into marketing because they feel like they need to, with- out actually considering why they’re marketing. This can result in opposition from your intended audience, since there’s no real core call to action or clear value proposition. Before you start compiling strategies for your blueprint, make sure you truly understand the purpose behind your marketing. Some valid reasons include: 1. To Drive Sales 2. Customer Engagement 3. Attracting New Customers 4. Product/Service Awareness 5. Increase Store Foot Traffic Marketing campaigns can have multiple purposes, but need at least one clear motive to be successful. Without motive you have no way of benchmarking suc- cess and will lack a meaningful call to action. For example, if the goal of your Facebook campaign is for people to check in at your business’ storefront, you can measure active check-ins against foot traffic during a specified time. If there’s a reward for check-ins, you can also tally claims of that reward. Even beyond the immediate, this will allow you to track larger metrics, like average customer spend during this type of marketing campaign. It’s a smart way to measure success in your individual campaigns. You wouldn’t build your dream home on just any plot of land, so don’t make the mistake of marketing without a clear purpose in mind. In both cases, lack of planning will result in bigger failures. © Copyright 2018 AlphaGraphics, Inc. v.1.0 X.X.XXXX Check Out Marketing Channels Would you pick any Regular Joe to build your home? Or, would you trust a team of contractors with proven experience? Probably the latter. It should be no sur- prise that this is a question any marketing and branding expert will also have to ask themselves. Instead of choosing contractors, however, it’s about figuring out the right marketing mediums. Once you know your audience, you need to reach them. If you’re building a brand targeted towards Cindy, you might find that email outreach, Facebook ads and direct mail are all effective ways in appealing to her. Likewise, if Doug is your valued customer, you might be better off investing in quality promotional materi- als, LinkedIn ads and booklets. Areas to consider allocating your time and resources include: Direct Mail Banners & Signage Email Marketing DIgital/PPC Ads Social Media Ads Local Periodicals Television & Radio Factoring marketing channels into your brand blueprint allows you to see where you’re going to be concentrating your efforts, marketing budget and messaging, and allows you to determine things like ad spend, competitors in the space and how your value proposition will be portrayed. You wouldn’t waste precious time and budget on hiring a sub-par flooring con- tractor for your new home, so why would you throw money away on a marketing medium that’s ineffective or unsuited to your audience? © Copyright 2018 AlphaGraphics, Inc. v.1.0 X.X.XXXX Sketch a Concept Before building your home, it’s always a good idea to have an architect sketch up a rendering. Your brand may be an imagined concept, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be put down on paper. Taking the time to map out your brand’s identity is the physical start of the blueprinting process and something every business should familiarize itself with. A brand marketing concept isn’t necessarily a picture—it’s more of a timeline or a flow chart. How do you connect your product or service with your customer? The process is never as simple as drawing a line between the two, so it’s up to you to map out the steps in the interim. Say, for example, you know you want to run a 10% off sale in June. Using every- thing you’ve built so far, it’s time to put it down on paper. It’ll look a little something like a builder’s to-do list: • Determine terms, conditions and restrictions for the sale. • Create value proposition messaging for the sale. • Determine target audience for the sale. • Determine proper marketing medium for reaching target audience. • Determine timeline for marketing message dissemination. • Determine redemption and data collection processes for campaign This simple list determines the concept for a single campaign within your greater marketing scheme. As you create a concept sketch for each marketing campaign throughout the year, a grander picture of your business’ marketing efforts be- comes clearer. When you put everything on a timeline, it’s akin to rendering a visual of what your final product will look like. It’s the beginnings of a blueprint! © Copyright 2018 AlphaGraphics, Inc. v.1.0 X.X.XXXX Assemble the Right Marketing Collateral With the core concept drawn up and the details nailed down, you should be beginning to get an idea of your brand’s overall marketing plan and the concepts driving it.