Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a new blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of Black business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.
The support for Black-owned businesses has increased drastically over the past year due to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of the Black Lives Matter protests that took place last summer to combat racial injustices in the nation.
Consumers have been actively seeking to buy from Black-owned businesses to help them stay open and increase the economic advancement of Black Americans.
As a result, the search for Black-owned businesses increased by 7,043% on Yelp, and the search term for “Black owned” on Google reached a value of 100 last summer.
Since then, Black-owned businesses have been proactive in increasing their visibility and accessibility through marketing strategies to optimize their outreach.
I spoke with Dana James Mwangi, the founder of Cheers Creative LLC and a Grow with Google Digital Coach, to learn about effective marketing strategies, tools, and approaches Black business owners can use to promote their businesses.

Marketing Strategies for Black-Owned Businesses
1. Use social media platforms to connect directly with your consumers.
Social media is one of the top tools businesses use to promote their services or products. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook have unique features. Black business owners can use these networks to connect directly to their customers, and to the broader community.
Although some businesses want to have a strong presence everywhere, Mwangi suggests entrepreneurs focus on one platform where they receive the most visibility, instead of trying to be present on all of them at once.  
“You want to use social media to get people to your website,” Mwangi said. “You can also use it to get people to sign up for your email list, or both.”
For instance, check out how Rihanna promotes her Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Savage X Fenty brands on Instagram with catchy captions and visually appealing posts. Her content is not only relatable, but inclusive to people of all backgrounds.

This tactic can help you secure a potential sale and maintain continuous, effective engagement with your audience. It also enables you to expand your brand reach.
2. Create targeted ads for high-converting audiences.
Social media platforms and search engines like Google offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to create ads that show up on their targeted audience’s timelines or feeds. Mwangi says ads are a great way to market yourself to receive a faster return.
One benefit of using ads is it allows you to choose what audience you want to target. Facebook and Instagram, in particular, offer the option to market to people who follow your brand, or you can customize your targeting preferences by choosing specific details, including age, location, and search behavior.
This gives you more control over who sees your ads, so you can ensure you’re only serving your ads to those most likely to purchase your product or service.
3. Generate an email list, and send out unique case studies or behind-the-scenes information.
Email lists have plenty of benefits for businesses — ultimately, email is one of the strongest opportunities for lead generation and nurturing.
Once you’ve begun growing your email list, consider sending emails with exclusive information, such as your business’ story, or what your company stands for and what matters most to your employees.
Mwangi also recommends companies provide case studies, advice for email subscribers, or sneak peeks of products and services ahead of launches.
Alternatively, you might consider highlighting a consumers’ story to demonstrate the impact your business can have on your email subscribers’ if they choose to purchase.
4. Become a thought leader in your space.
Another way businesses can market themselves is by participating in public speaking, podcasts, or blogging engagements. Although this form of marketing has a slower return to influence sales, Mwangi says it leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for people to reach out online.
This strategy also gives potential collaborators or customers the chance to warm up to the company because they’ve already gained some value from the brand.
For example, take a look at how Tiffany Aliche, the founder of “The Budgetnista”, has been able to use speaking engagements to promote her company and teach women how to properly handle their finances.

Aliche has spoken at 300 events across the country and over 1,000 globally, including EssenceFest and multiple hospitals and colleges.
5. Have an effective, well-designed website.
Once you’ve used the strategies listed above to drive traffic to your website, you want that traffic to feel delighted by what they find. It’s critical, then, that you pay as much attention to the design of your website and its usability as you would to a physical storefront.
A few Black-owned businesses that have aesthetically pleasing websites are Teflar, Pyer Moss, and Bevel.
All three websites incorporate attention-grabbing visuals and videos that immediately catches visitors’ attention once they visit the site. Business owners should not be afraid to stand out when it comes to securing a sale on their webpage.
If you already have a website but don’t feel it’s doing the job, take a look at The Ultimate Guide to Building a Website Redesign Strategy.
6. Use Google My Business and Google Analytics.
Google My Business is a helpful tool for business owners to create custom content to advertise to their target audience. Owners can also use the service in collaboration with Google Analytics to track data and see where people are accessing content.
For instance, Mwangi says that Google Analytics has helped her learn that people come to her website based on the content she posts on her Instagram Stories.
Not only is it showing her that people love her storytelling from this specific feature, but she’s also able to share certain links and information. Google Analytics is a beneficial service to collect data and figure out what’s the best platform for your brand to use.
Black-Owned Business Tips to Keep in Mind
Mwangi emphasizes that the marketing strategies listed above are all valuable pieces of the pie. Still, there are also specific approaches business owners must keep consistent across-the-board to promote company growth.
Let’s dive into those, now. 
7. Be authentic.
Authenticity is an integral approach to ensuring a company’s success. Mwangi says a benefit in garnering customers is a company informing its audience on where it stands.
An example of a Black-owned business that consistently leverages this approach is Black-owned, plant-based feminine care product line, The Honey Pot Company. The Honey Pot Company has always been transparent about where they stand and who they make their products for, which has helped them maintain loyal customers over time.
Black women, in particular, stood in solidarity with the company’s owner, Bea Dixon, when she received bad reviews from predominantly white buyers after Target featured her in a Black History Month commercial.
While people were trying to sabotage her brand, Black women not only took the initiative to combat the company’s rating with positive reviews, but they also spread the word on social media. Although the events that occurred were unfortunate, the publicity ended up working in the company’s favor because people became more aware of the company’s purpose and knew what Dixon stood for.

“Her brand values saved the day for her because her customers knew what she stood for,” Mwangi said. As a result, they supported her and bought out the shelves.
8. Define your target audience.
When entrepreneurs first launch their business, they have the goal to serve everyone, but Mwangi states that “if you’re trying to talk to everyone, then you are talking to no one.”
It’s okay for a business to choose a specific community it wants to advertise to and be unapologetic about it. The benefit of being an entrepreneur is that it guarantees a person the freedom to choose who they want to serve.
“You get the liberty to be as specific as you want and be niched as you want,” Mwangi expressed. “There is still a lane for you to make incredible amounts of profit.”

9. Speak your customers’ language.
The language of your business is also crucial, especially now. With all of the events currently taking place, Mwangi proposes that business owners need to be aware of what’s going on within the community and market accordingly.
Despite current events, business owners should keep in mind that their language should cater to their customers’ identity.
For example, the Black-owned cosmetics line, The Lip Bar, uses its platform to dispel mainstream standards of beauty.
Mwangi highlights how the brand is unapologetic about its purpose, and it takes pride in catering to customers who like to be bold with their makeup and define their beauty standards.
10. Start by marketing one (or a few) products.
Additionally, marketing one product rather than multiple products at once has proven to be effective. Mwangi recommends that customers sell one product in different ways or colors to avoid spreading marketing dollars and gain fast momentum.
Mwangi also used the founder of The Lip Bar, Melissa Butler, as an example of this approach. Butler first sold lipstick in different shades, then expanded her product line to lip liners, foundations, tinted moisturizers, eyeshadows, and more.
Another Black-owned business that used this approach is mesh body exfoliator product, Luv Scrub, founded by entrepreneur Caroline Owusu-Ansah. Owusu-Ansah sells cloths in a variety of colors.

“This marketing strategy is also an offering strategy or a product strategy,” Mwangi said. “You don’t have to give people all of these choices when you say that you can fix a problem. You can have one great product that fixes the problem and when you have that, what that means is now your marketing is super concentrated on that product.”
11. Maintain engagement with your community.
An essential factor for staying in business is maintaining customers and keeping them coming back for your product or service. One way to keep people buzzing about a company’s brand is by promoting various offers such as giveaways, contests, hosting Q&As, and doing customer features. Business owners can conduct these offers via social media and newsletters or their website to garner participation.
“Not only are you getting people engaged, but you’re also getting ideas on how to refine [your product or service],” Mwangi said. “They’re literally telling you what they want, how to refine your current products, and what they want out of the next product from you. If you look at it, the people will tell you what they want. You don’t have to make stabs in the dark.”
“Interacting with your customers is good because it’s showing people that you care,” she added. “It also helps you to get information on what your customer is thinking. Now you know even more about what they talk like, what they sound like, and you can make your website talk directly to them because you’ve been talking to them all this time. And listening and asking them questions.”
Overall, when it comes down to marketing, customer service is also needed to cater to customers fully.
Mwangi notes that customer relationship management software helps with this effort.
“Marketing is how you deliver that story, and customer relationship management software helps you back up who you say you are with excellent customer service,” she said.
The above marketing advice, branding, and customer service helps business owners develop successful business strategies and keep up with the demands of the business to attract customers.  

While it can be difficult to define the traits of a good employee, it’s easy to describe the perks.
A good employee, for instance, gets raises, promotions, and praise from managers. She is often a role model for her peers, gets selected for unique projects, and makes the whole work thing look easy.
But what does it mean to be a good employee? And what skills can you work on developing to ensure you’re considered a good — or even great — employee at your own company?
Here, I spoke with HubSpot employees and managers to determine the soft skills required to be a good employee in any role, to ensure you’re earning some of those perks we discussed earlier. Let’s dive in.

1. A growth mindset and willingness to learn.
One of the biggest strengths of any good employee is an eagerness to learn and a growth mindset.
A growth mindset, a term first coined by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, means you believe you can develop and refine skills and become better at something over time. A fixed mindset, on the other hand, means you feel that your intelligence and skills are inherent and unchangeable.
In the workplace, a marketer with a growth mindset might decide to take a few analytics courses to develop skills related to data, even if her background is more creative in nature. Alternatively, a marketer with a fixed mindset would avoid those courses, claiming “I was never good at math. It’s just not something I can do.”
A growth mindset can influence an employee’s motivation, work ethic, and how well she responds to constructive feedback. As Dweck writes, “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”
Ultimately, a good employee is someone who is eager to try new things, adopt new skills, and grow.
As HubSpot’s Marketing Manager of the Website Blog, Anna Fitzgerald, says, “A good employee is someone who can notice opportunities where it would make sense for your manager to delegate a task or project to you. It’s a win, win. You take something off your manager’s plate, and the new responsibility helps you grow and develop new skills.”  
2. A positive and solutions-focused attitude.
Employees enjoy working around people who are positive and solutions-focused when challenges arise.
It can be stressful to work around someone who focuses on the negative, or demotivates the rest of the team. For instance, at a previous company I used to work with someone who didn’t feel fulfilled in his role. As a result, he often expressed his criticisms for the company to the rest of our team — which wasn’t a great motivator for anyone.
A positive attitude can inspire your peers to work harder, and lift your team’s spirits when you’re confronted with a frustrating obstacle. Plus, happiness is correlated with greater success. In fact, one study found happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees, and happy salespeople produce 37% more sales than their unhappy counterparts.
A positive mindset also helps you shift more quickly into a solutions-focused attitude. For instance, negativity might cause you to feel frustrated when a roadblock presents itself. You might resort to self-blame, criticism, or simply a lack of motivation to alter your strategy.
A positive attitude, however, can help you remain confident, calm, and level-headed when a challenge arises. Positivity can help you reframe the problem in your mind, so you’re able to say, “This challenge is actually an opportunity for us to rethink our strategy and create a better solution as a result.”
Of course, everyone is allowed to have bad days, but the sign of a good employee is someone who doesn’t let that bad mood get in the way of problem-solving or building strong team morale.
3. Empathy and emotional intelligence.
HubSpot’s Marketing Manager Kristen Baker told me she feels that empathy is a critical trait for becoming a good employee.
She says, “A good employee demonstrates empathy when engaging with both colleagues and customers. Additionally, a good employee shows she cares about the impact her work has on those around her.”

Baker adds, “Empathy can help you put yourself in your customers’ shoes, which can increase motivation and purpose. When I understand our customers’ challenges better, I see how much my own role can help serve those needs, and that motivates me to work harder.”

Additionally, emotional intelligence is a vital skill for employees and leaders to hone. The ability to regulate your own emotions — as well as the emotions of others’ — has proven invaluable in the workplace.
To increase your emotional intelligence, try taking an EI quiz to determine how emotionally intelligent you are, and then identify areas for improvement. (HubSpot even offers one!)
To practice empathy in the workplace, consider asking colleagues how they’re doing, and practice active listening skills to develop rapport over time. For instance, if a coworker mentions he’s celebrating his birthday this weekend, remember to follow-up and ask how it went.
Additionally, take the time to understand how your products or services meet your customers’ needs. Put yourself in their shoes. Listen to customer interviews or read survey responses to better understand your customers’ challenges, which will naturally enable you to feel more empathy towards your customers.
4. Accountability.
Being accountable simply means taking responsibility for your actions, and this is an incredibly important skill in the workplace.
People mess up every day — it’s how you handle your mistakes that matters. Go directly to your boss, outline the issue at-hand, and explain how you might’ve created or contributed to the problem.

Showing you’re not afraid to admit when you’re wrong is a sign of a good (and honest) employee. It doesn’t help anyone when you try to hide problems or point fingers.

Additionally, it’s impressive if you take the time to self-reflect and consider how you might change your approach so you meet your goals next time.
For instance, if you’re responsible for getting 12 posts published per month and you only manage to get 10 completed, you’ll want to figure out what prevented you from meeting goal.
Then, when you approach your manager, you can say something like, “I had a difficult time with the last two pieces because I didn’t accurately account for how long each piece would take, particularly the pieces that require external quotes. Now that I’ve reflected, I’ve recognized that I’ll need to write three pieces per week, and give myself an extra couple days to conduct outreach and collect quotes before I begin writing my quote pieces.”
5. Critical, big-picture thinking.
A good employee takes the time to pause in his day-to-day and assess bigger-picture goals, always ensuring his work aligns with the company’s goals and has a positive impact on the company’s bottom-line.
Even if you’ve just started at a new company, it’s never too early to ask questions and take an interest in the larger organization. Strategic, big-picture thinking is a sign of a good employee, and your boss will take notice if you take the time to think critically about the problems or tasks at-hand and how they fit into your company’s overarching strategy.
6. Ambition.
Charlene Strain, a HubSpot Associate Marketing Manager for Global Co-Marketing Acquisition & Partnerships, considers ambition to be a vital trait for any good employee.
Ambition can look differently for everyone, but in this case, we’re talking about ambition as it relates to scalability.
As Strain notes, “To be a good (and even great) employee, you have to look for scalability in every aspect of your role. Find ways to make a process smoother, or implement processes where there isn’t one.”

Strain adds, “If you move up or out to a different role, think about if someone else could fulfill your day-to-day duties easily and grow the role and program. If not, think about ways to lessen this friction.”

A good employee considers how she can make her role more efficient for the company at-large. She also considers how she might create new processes to make her whole team’s outputs easier.
For instance, I’ve seen colleagues clean up outdated filing systems and create new, streamlined Google Drive folders for easy access to critical information. I’ve also seen colleagues re-shape how they tackle their own daily tasks for more efficiency, which has then been used at-scale to rework how HubSpot writers create content.
When you’re in a new role, take the time to consider inefficiencies or small details that could lead to problems as you scale. Those issues could become growth opportunities.
7. Good communication skills.
Finally, a good employee is clear and direct with colleagues. She practices good communication skills — including active listening, setting clear expectations, asking questions, and showing interest in what the other person is saying.
We’ve all worked with colleagues who don’t seem to listen when we speak, or don’t follow-up on something they said they’d do. It’s frustrating, and can reduce trust. A good employee practices strong communication skills every day — both in-person, and online.
A good employee is also able to articulate when she can, and can’t, take on additional projects. This is part of setting clear expectations.
As Jen Stefancik, HubSpot’s Team Manager of Channel Promotions, tells me, “You can say ‘no’ and still be helpful. For example, you shouldn’t take on work you cannot or should not prioritize, but you can still put in the extra effort to suggest other avenues, resources, or advice to the person asking for help.”
It’s important to note — becoming a good employee takes time, and there will be setbacks.
As Clint Fontanella, Manager on HubSpot’s Blog team, puts it, “Most people want to get ahead fast. They want to make more money, get a better job or promotion, and they start to measure themselves on that, rather than day-to-day performance. You’re going to have bad days. There are people who are going to get promotions before you do. Your friend might land a new job and make more money.”
“All you can do is focus on you and be as consistent as possible — both in your work and in your attitude — and good things will happen.”

Creating connections with potential customers is essential when it comes to driving interest and boosting sales. Making these connections can sometimes be difficult, though, as it’s one thing to want to create them and another to figure out how to establish them.
However, one of the great ways to establish these connections is through copywriting, where you use words to speak to consumer emotions and try to entice them to take action after reading your words.
While it may seem simple to write something that you think will resonate with your audience, there are essential principles to follow to ensure that you can effectively convince them. In this post, learn what SEO copywriting is and discover best practices for the process that will help you draw in customers, convert leads, and drive more sales.

SEO copywriting differs from other SEO content writing you may be familiar with, like blogging, as the end goal is to convert leads rather than generate organic traffic. In addition, SEO copywriting is shorter; where a blog post may have almost a thousand words, copywriting content may have less than half of that.
However, the two can go hand in hand. You might create a blog post that includes a CTA created with SEO copywriting principles in mind, and the words entice users to click on what you’re offering to learn more, like downloading a free ebook or another related source.
Here are some examples of content types that may be created with SEO copywriting principles in mind:

Final checkout screens
Product descriptions
On-site navigation instructions
Advertising content
Website copy
Brand messaging
CTA buttons
Landing pages

As with all types of SEO, it’s important to understand best practices.
SEO Copywriting Tips and Best Practices
Strong copywriting is a combination of a variety of factors, which we’ll discuss below.
Know your audience.
The first step to successful copywriting is knowing your audience. Without this information, it will be impossible to compel them with your writing as you don’t know who they are or how to appeal to them.
Finding your audience for SEO copywriting follows the same processes you would when creating a targeted marketing campaign, or any type of content you would create for your business: buyer persona research.
Buyer personas are fictional representations of what your ideal customer looks like based on market research and your existing business data and customer profiles. HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool can help with this, as it will guide you through a step-by-step process of outlining who they are, discovering their main pain points, and the solutions they look for based on their needs.
Conduct keyword research.
Keyword research is a critical component of any SEO strategy.
As a refresher, keyword research is the process of uncovering the words your target audience uses when searching for products and services similar to what you offer, and using the keywords in your content to attract those same users to your site.
For copywriting, this research is essential because it helps you uncover user intent behind the keywords your audience searches for so you can write copy that resonates with their needs.
Write for your audience.
The goal of copywriting is to entice your audience to take action. So, as mentioned above, it’s important to always write with your audience in mind. Your buyers are looking for solutions, so you’re writing to tell them why you’re a solution.
For example, say you offer an all-in-one marketing tool. Your persona and keyword research lets you know that your target audience often queries “easy-to-use marketing tools.” You’d want to incorporate that search term into your copy to speak directly to user intent in the hopes that they’ll follow through with the desired action (purchasing your product) because you’ve convinced them that you’re the best fit solution to their needs.
Use intent-relevant action words.
Just as it’s essential to write for your audience’s intent, it’s also important to use intent-relevant action words. You want your copy to let them know why what you have to offer is the best solution, and then lead them to the action you want them to take.
This simply means that you want your copy to draw your audience to make a final decision, maybe by saying something like “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Here,” at the end of your product descriptions.  
Be concise and straightforward.
The harder your copy is to read, the less likely it is that you’ll achieve your ultimate goal of converting users. If they have to put in a significant amount of effort to understand what you have to offer, you’ll likely lose them along the way.
This means avoiding jargon and wordiness and only including what is most relevant to what you’re creating copy for. This can be a difficult skill to develop, so it can be helpful to consider what you would and wouldn’t like to see when browsing for solutions to your pain points and model your strategy off of that.
If I were to take this tip to mind and listen to my own advice while writing this section, I would simply say this: leave no room for confusion or misunderstandings; be straightforward.
Continuous testing.
Something that you may have thought would perform well may not be as aligned with audience intent as you thought, and continuous testing allows you to iterate on what you create to ensure that you satisfy consumer needs.
Testing also  ensures that you’re maximizing your effectiveness. Your copy should help your audience seamlessly come to the solutions you’re providing without putting in extra effort because your copy already explains it all.
An example of continuous testing can be creating multiple versions of CTA’s, each with different copy, that you place on different website pages to see which drives better results.
All-in-all, SEO copywriting comes together like this: the SEO aspect are the keywords you know align with your audience user intent and already have high traffic, and the copywriting element is writing for the user intent behind the keywords that have traffic.
When you utilize this strategy, you’re directly showing your audience how you’ll solve their pain points and entice them to become a customer.

Whoever said “All publicity is good publicity” lied.
The only truth in it is that bad publicity can bring attention to your brand and expand your reach.
However, first impressions (and every impression) after that can last.

So, if your brand is associated with negative traits and concepts, it can be difficult to change that perception.
Learn what makes up a brand association and how to build a positive one.

Several factors influence brand association, including:

Brand identity and messaging
Brand assets, such as logo and colors
Customer experience
Product and service quality
Word of mouth
Reputation
Advertisements
Social media presence

You’ll notice that most of these factors are controlled by the brand itself, which is good news. This means that brands play a key role in how consumers perceive them.
It also signifies that if the association with your brand isn’t particularly positive, you have the potential to change it.
Brand Association Examples
Here are a few common brand association examples.
Charmin – Bears, soft, toilet paper
Google – Search, answers, information
Wikipedia – Information, biography
Anima Iris – Luxury, black excellence
Canva – Graphic design, easy, templates
Rhum Barbancourt – Quality, Haïti, classic
As you can see, most of the associations are a mix of services or products the company may provide along with certain traits and concepts. The hope is that the associations made with your brand are both accurate and positive.
If you find that it’s not, you may need to conduct some consumer research and work to create stronger messaging around your brand.
Brand Association Map
A brand association map is a visual representation of the attributes and concepts associated with your brand. You can also use it to identify threats and opportunities, as well as how you fare against competitors.

Image Source
With a brand association map, you can quickly identify the words tied with your brands and which are the closest, based on proximity to the inner circle.
For instance, the above picture features Nike at the center. It shows that the two biggest associations with the brand are: “Adidas,” a competitor, and “shoes.”
You then have the term “comfortable” which is more closely associated with Nike than the word “long-lasting.”
This can be a great start to identifying where your brand currently stands in consumers’ eyes, and start making changes in your branding and marketing strategy.
If Nike wants consumers to view it as a long-lasting brand rather than one that creates comfortable clothing and shoes, it can take this information to create messaging surrounding this concept along with targeted campaigns.
If it’s unclear what consumers associate with your brand, run a survey.
First, you’ll need a pool of respondents who are familiar with your brand. This can include consumers at every stage of the buyer’s journey from a lead to a customer.
Then, ask your respondents to provide the terms they associate with your brand. You can gather these answers through open-ended questions as well as list questions. You can then ask your respondents to rank the terms by closeness to your brand.
Alternatively, if you already have a list of positive, neutral, and negative attributes relating to your brand, you can use them to craft your survey questions and include your competitors.
Once you gather, clean, and analyze your data, you can produce a brand association map to visually represent your associations.
1. Have a robust branding strategy.
Your branding strategy is a key pillar in building a positive brand association.
For starters, you want to have a strong brand identity. This means knowing your mission, values, personality, unique brand positioning, and voice. If there isn’t much clarity on these, you may leave consumers to make their own guesses, which may not be accurate or favorable.
Your brand identity will then impact your brand assets, namely your logo and brand colors, which tell a story about your brand.
Then, you have your messaging, which highlights the value you offer, communicates the benefits of your brand, and should differentiate you from your competitors.
In addition, you have your brand voice, which is how you communicate with your audience and the impression you leave. This is one of the more concrete factors impacting your brand association.
If your brand voice is friendly, warm, and young, this will translate to the concepts, feelings, and traits your audience ties to your company.
2. Review all customer touchpoints.
Think about how you interact with your target audience.
Online, this includes social media, your website, email, chat, and even on business review sites.
How you nurture your community can play a big role in how they view you. The same goes for how you address unsatisfied customers who voice their concerns on social media, or those who ask questions.
Offline, this looks like phone conversations, in-person meetings, and in-store interactions.
To ensure your brand is putting its best foot forward, make sure you have proper training surrounding customer interactions.
The better your customer service and relationship management, the better reputation you will leave – this then translates to positive brand associations.
3. Consider your partnerships.
The brands and influencers you partner with are also reflections of your brand.
Nowadays, consumers expect brands to be more vocal about social and political issues. This also means being vocal when staff or external partners exhibit behaviors deemed socially unacceptable.
It’s why we often see brands sever ties with celebrities and known figures with whom they had ongoing marketing campaigns.
As such, be selective about who you collaborate with.
4. Identify threats to your brand.
After strengthening your brand strategy, there’s still more work to be done.
You have to be proactive about identifying and neutralizing threats to your brand. This can happen on both small- and large-scale.
On a small scale, this can look like responding to a negative review on Yelp. On a big scale, this can be responding to reports of discrimination within your business.
Social monitoring and listening will be instrumental in keeping your eye on the ball and making sure that you have a plan in place when a threat to your brand shows up.
5. Have a crisis management plan.
You’ve identified a threat to your brand. Now what?
If it’s a big threat, you’ll likely need to refer to your crisis management plan.
When a crisis happens, every minute counts. You want to control the narrative to ensure that your brand isn’t gravely damaged and doesn’t face long-term backlash.
With this in mind, devise a plan early on with actionable steps to address the issues, resolve them quickly, and repair relationships.
Building a positive brand association is a never-ending process as your company grows and evolves. The great news is, the biggest factor influencing your brand association is you.

Most people receive a lot of emails every day. Sifting through what’s relevant and what’s not is a big job that, for obvious reasons, has been dialed back into a rote process: Do I know this sender? Did I ask for this? No? Click delete and move on. This method works great for culling our…
The post Permission-Based Selling: What Is It and Why Does It Work? appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Every business owner’s goal is to get the website ranked high in the SERPs, and they can generate massive ROI through search engine optimization. Creating data-driven and unique content around specific keywords can make your site more attractive to search engines and visible to potential customers. Network Events: Although search engine marketing is a great strategy in this day and age, not all marketing is online. The best results sometimes come from moving away from your computer screen and meeting people face to face. Contest Marketing: It is a type of marketing that benefits significantly from online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Everyone likes to compete, so you should be able to drive traffic to your website and thus increase your conversion rate.
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