The Underdog Millionaire Blog » branding

Put Your Irons in the Fire- It’s Branding Time!

Joshua Black — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:41:55 +0000

Today’s Underdog Millionaire Tip Sheet is all about branding.

Nope, I’m not talking about getting your company name out there. For the most part, your customers don’t really care about the name of your company.

Nope, I’m not talking about creating “BUZZZZZZZZ” for your product…

What I AM talking about is personal branding and the branding of your business, for what it will do for the customer.

…a little confusing, but stick with me here.

People buy from people.

-not buildings

-not logos

-not huge corporate conglomerates

-not web sites… even though it may feel like it.

People buy from people.

So, the best way to lock out your competition from stealing your customers (and they will if they can) is to develop a personal brand for you and your business.

This works no matter what kind of business you’re in, and it REALLY works wonders if your product is somewhat of a commodity.

It all starts with your unique selling proposition (USP).

This is your personal branding statement, the biggest promise that you can make for the customer. This what will keep people coming back for more.

By developing a personal brand around your USP, you combine a voice that can only come from you, with a HUGE promise that only your business can fulfill.

Once you’ve married those two things together, your customers only have one option when they have a specific problem and want it solved by the best in the world- YOU!

-You don’t have to be something you aren’t.

-You don’t have to be obnoxious or rude.

Just allow your personality to show through in your emails, sales letters, and the way you speak to your customers.

Start your personal brand on top of the foundation of your USP, which is the keystone for the entire marketing program of your small business. Without the guidance of a down-right-and-proper USP, your marketing will come across as all over the place.

If you want to know a little more about developing a custom, successful USP for your small business, capable of boosting your personal brand to new heights, check out my course here:

www.ultimateUSPcreator.com

In your service,

Joshua Black

http://www.UltimateUSPCreator.com

Create Your Email Voice and Dump Freeloaders- Part 3 of 7

Joshua Black — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:50:17 +0000

This is the third installment of my valuable email marketing guide. As you may already know, the content that you create adds to your body of work, which, in-turn adds to the trusting relationship which you develop with your perfect customers over time.

In case you missed the first two parts here they are:

Part One: http://www.underdogmillionaire.com/blog/email-marketing-part-one-of-seven

Part Two: http://www.underdogmillionaire.com/blog/how-to-kill-it-with-email-marketing-part-2-of-7

Today’s issue is about finding that perfect audience for your email newsletter and how you’ll establish your “voice.”

This will be your customer base for the long haul. These are people that enjoy what you’ve got to say and can’t wait to hear what you’re gonna come up with next.

To get this perfect audience, you’re going to develop your email “voice.” Your voice is your personal brand. Everyone is a little different, just like a fingerprint and if you let your freak flag fly, you’ll end up with a flock of customers that believe in what you’re doing and want to purchase what you’re selling.

You don’t have to be over the top.

Just use your regular, everyday language. Slang works great in email too, as long as it’s not too obscure.

I tend to tell things like they are, my humor isn’t always politically correct, and I have a deep passion for the well-being of my customers.

Your voice will be unique to what YOU believe in.

You can share things that happen to you during the day. You can share war stories about what’s going on in your business, which will help your customers see you as a real person (“oh crap we had a huge flood in our warehouse, so our loss is your gain…”)

Just make sure your voice and writing style are fairly consistent, which will come with time, after you get into the rhythm of creating content.

In the end you want people to know, like, and trust you, which will eventually lead to a sale.

The non-perfect audience are the FREELOADERS.

As I talk about in previous issues, you never want to compete on price. Although a great way to entice people into joining your list is through the use of free giveaways (which I use wholeheartedly), you want to develop an environment of BUYING customers.

You can use your voice and your message to weed out the people that have no intention of using your advice or EVER buying your product.

These are also the people that waste all of your time and slam you as much as they can when they get a chance to air their opinion.

You want to get rid of the FREELOADERS as fast as possible.

In fact, I just got one today. The person was so worked up when she unsubscribed from my list, which just takes a single, simple click, that she decided to craft this little ditty on the way out:

I am tired of the sales pitch you put out that you are not suppose to be doing. You give out nothing free. Face it. That is why you have lost a subscriber. My time is to valuable to waste it away reading your material. It all ends with you trying to get money from me. You are a joke. You really know nothing about businesses or people.

This person was on my list for a grand total of two months and I bet you can guess how many purchases she’s made from me- yep, ZERO… but she did take the time to tell me how “kind” I was to do what I do every week, for years, for FREE.

I guess 5 books and 10 years worth of advice boiled down to about 20-30 newsletters was “nothing free.”

These are the people that you want to weed out using your voice and making sure that you always have something to offer in every email.

As this “non-customer” should have noticed (since I clearly know “nothing” about business) is that in order for a business to exist, you have to actually sell something to a customer, otherwise, why are you going through all of this trouble to help them with the advice that you’re giving away for free. I guess I really stooped to a new low here by asking people to check out my work.

Use your voice to help the people whom you can help and discourage those that don’t jive with what you’re all about.

…and to YOU, I say thank you for reading and continuing to be a part of the Underdog Millionaire team.

If you want to learn how you can tweak YOUR voice into a way that may help persuade people to buy more of what your selling, using the power of print, my sales letter course in copywriting should be just the ticket.

Click here to find out more… but only if you’re interested.

http://www.sales-letter-system.com

In YOUR service…not her’s,

Joshua Black

www.sales-letter-system.com

______________________________________

The Emotional Side of a Powerful Brand

Joshua Black — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:05:36 +0000

I was just listening to the radio this morning and there was a great story on about all of the emotional baggage that we attach to a powerful brand.

Branding is something that can pull you out of a crappy economy, something that can also make families hand your product or service to everyone else they know.

You’re NOT just selling a thing.

You’re selling a moment in time, a total experience for the customer that does not operate in a vacuum.

When a kid has the greatest time on earth with his grandfather at the McDonald’s Play-land, all of those warm feelings come back each time that person stands in line to buy the next cheeseburger… for the rest of his life!

If you wolfed down half a box of Frosted Flakes while watching Saturday morning cartoons each week, relaxing in your Spiderman pajamas, then how super-awesome do you think those Frosted Flakes are going to make you feel as you sit down to tackle your day in law school, or what you might pass on to your kids.

On the radio show, the host mentioned that his cup of Starbucks was his security blanket when he lived in New York City. He actually felt really uneasy if he did not have that warm cup with him on his morning commute.

It’s just a plastic playground that sells mediocre food at best.

It’s just a sugary breakfast food.

It’s just a plain-old cup of coffee.

…or is it?

You see, that’s where you need to start thinking like an Underdog Millionaire. This is where you need to allow your customers an emotional experience of your product, as well.

No matter what you sell, if you can establish the actual brand of your product, your customer will load up that brand like a wood-panel station wagon, with all kinds of emotions and experiences.

We like hot dogs because they remind us of summer.

We like a shampoo because of that great trip to the mountains.

That’s the big secret!

Your product is NEVER just a shampoo or a hot dog and if you can show place the customer inside that pile of new experiences (and these must be positive experiences) then you can reel them in as a customer for life.

What happens if you don’t brand your product?

You become a commodity. Your customer only buys on price and you never establish that THING that makes people want to stay customers for life.

People rarely buy on price alone. If they are only looking at your product as a burden or a chore, then you won’t be able to keep them around for long. There will always be someone that’s cheaper. There will always be someone that can do it faster.

There is only ONE place that grandpa took you to play.

There is only ONE kind of cereal that you ate with cartoons.

If you can bring that emotional side into the branding equation, then you are going to be MILES ahead of the other business owners that are out there just floundering around trying to out-speed and out-cheap each other.

If you want to become even more of a branding and pricing genius, then you may want to check out my product pricing strategy.

In your service,

Joshua Black

www.product-pricing-strategy.com

Branding Done Right: or, How Gap Totally Screwed Up

Joshua Black — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:19:44 +0000

This week, Gap Inc. unveiled a new monstrosity for a logo that looks like some VP’s kid brother got out his crayons and pencils and went to town for about 3 minutes on the back of a napkin and prompty put it on the refrigerator for his mom to see.

This has the same putrid stink of New Coke and a whole bunch of other brand changes where something wasn’t broken and the business decided to fix it anyway.

It goes along with the same advertising issues that I wrote about earlier this week.

…BUT this is great news for Underdog Millionaires, because we can learn from these multi-million dollar mistakes.

When you are branding a small business, the most valuable thing that you can do is brand yourself. People buy from other people and they keep coming back because they love to do business with that person, not the company on the other end.

The brand image serves as a reminder of that great relationship, but it’s not the first line of defense.

When you can show your customers that YOU are someone they want to do business with, then and only then will they start to equate your fancy logo with the services they enjoy, but not before.

So, don’t get too hung up on the look of your business logo in the beginning. As you’re growing there is plenty of time to change the look of your brand and your customers won’t really care what it looks like, because they’re buying from you.

…but there is a time to STOP tinkering with your image, and that time is when you have achieved a successful level of repeat business.

Gap knows better and someone really important needs to get fired over this little stunt.

A new logo will NEVER boost sales on its own. A business should only create a new logo when their old logo was from a time when the company went bankrupt or was part of an Enron-like stunt and you want to rebuild from scratch.

Companies like Mountain Dew and even your local car wash just don’t seem to get it. People are creatures of habit. They like to participate in things in their lives that remond them of comfort and joy.

Whether it’s the swirly script of Coca-Cola or the serif font of the (old) Gap logo, when a customer sees those images, there’s a lifetime of good memory baggage that goes along with it.

When a jackass at a company decides to take credit for something they don’t deserve and re-designs a logo that was not broken, all of the those old memories get removed in the customer’s mind.

It’s like a big slap in the face right when you were thinking about puppies and kittens and rainbows.

I’m assuming, after the online berating of the customers from all over the place that Gap will go back to the logo that we all know, but wow, what a dumb mistake.

I will even use myself as an example. I’ve got my little superpig guy on everything and he’s branded into all of my books etc. I’ve had thoughts about changing him cuz I thought he was a little childish, but as soon as I started to get customer comments about why he wasn’t on the front of my e-book covers, I knew that he was a brand identity that’s here to stay.

…whether I like it or not.

Business has very little with what the owner likes. It’s all about what the CUSTOMERS like, and this little piggy is saying “wee wee wee” all the way to the bank.

So, when you’re messing around with your image, do it early while no one cares and your customers have yet to establish that memory relationship in their minds. Once you start to create those sales relationships, leave your brand alone unless you’re trying to establish a completely new company.

What do you think?

Am I crazy, or did Gap totally screw up? I’d really like to hear your opinion.

In your service,

Joshua Black

Click the image to get the FREE Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

http://www.attract-customers.com

http://www.product-pricing-strategy.com

http://www.how-to-business-network.com

http://www.ranking-higher-seo.com

http://www.UnderdogMillionaire.com/blog

http://www.sales-letter-system.com

http://www.closing-the-sale.com

http://www.information-product-report.com

http://www.UltimateUSPcreator.com

http://www.underdog-success-formula.com

_________________________________________

Sales Tips from Bob Vance-Vance Refrigeration

Joshua Black — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:37:03 +0000

I am a huge fan of the US version of the show The Office. My fiancee and I watch re-runs of it almost every night before bed.

One of the best things about that show, is that it’s a complete bastardization of real-life office events, but there are some really good tidbits for small business owners to learn from.

Today’s tip sheet is all about one of the minor characters on the show. His name is Bob Vance. He owns a refrigeration company and shares part of the building with the Dunder-Mifflin paper company characters that are the main focus of the Office show.

Anyway, to make a long story short, Bob Vance has a unique way of introducing himself every time he shakes hands with someone. He always says “hello, Bob Vance-Vance Refrigeration.”

There is NEVER a doubt in anyone’s mind what this man does for a living and this is the point that I want to bring home today.

When you are in a social situation, and you are being introduced to new people, you never know who you’re going to meet and what their needs might be.

Let Bob Vance be your guide.

The next time that you’re in this type of gathering create a really tiny elevator pitch (Unique Selling Proposition) for your business. These are just 1-3 words that you throw in each time you introduce yourself.

“Joe Blow- Joe’s Plumbing and Heating”

“Sally Smith- Smith PR”

“Frank Jones- Jones’ Bar and Grill”

You will be so surprised at how many new contacts you can come up with this way. If a person shows a hint of interest, you can also hand them your card, or ask for their contact information and then get back to them later.

Don’t take over the social situation and try to close people on your services, just make sure that you have made an excellent impression and then use that meeting as a spring board to get business from them later.

…If Bob Vance can do it, anyone can.

Speaking of Bob, if you would like to learn 101 more techniques for attracting new customers for FREE, then hop on over to the upper left hand corner of the blog and sign up to be on the notification list for Underdog Marketing 101.

If you are on the list, you’re going to get some amazing stuff if you order during the launch. If you aren’t on the list, you’re going to miss out. I was supposed to have the sales letter up over the weekend, but I promise that it will happen this week.

In your service,

Joshua Black-Underdog Millionaire

(sorry, I just had to say it)

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

Donald Trump’s Personal Small Business Tip Whispered to My Friend

Joshua Black — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:06:12 +0000

As the weekend has almost arrived, I thought I would leave you with a really valuable small business tip from none other than the wavy-haired man himself, Donald Trump.

To give you a little back-story on this, a
friend of mine who is a real estate investor
was giving a talk at a very prominent real
estate investing conference.

The showpiece guest speaker on the panel
was none other than Donald Trump.

You can imagine how my friend was sweating
bullets as he was sitting their on the panel
the “the Donald,” hoping that he wouldn’t
give any advice to the audience that would
be incorrect or not profitable.

His speech went well.

After everything was over he got an official
5 precise minutes of Mr. Trumps time and was
allowed to ask him some quick questions.

After trying to think of something profound,
my friend decided to play it safe and just
asked him for one piece of advice about business.

Here’s what the big D said…

He said “tell people just enough dirt so that
they trust you.”

This little statement could save the life of
your next sale. As you know, no one is perfect.
Therefore, business owners that try to show
that they are perfect end up losing the trust
of their customers.

This holds true for any copywriting that you
may do. Show a little skin. Give a little dirt
about your product or service.

“Our widget may not have the best paint job,
but the motor will last you 25 years or solid
service”

“We have not been around for 20 years, in fact
we just started our little business 6 months ago.
Because of that, we are going to work like hungry
animals to make sure you get the results you want.”

…something like that.

Of course you don’t want to go overboard and tell
your customer that you are a complete idiot and
couldn’t problem solve your way out of a paper
bag, or that your product doesn’t work at all.

There is a fine line between a little dirt and
way too much information.

There is so much truth to what Donald Trump said
on that fruitful day that I think it would be
wise to give it a shot in your own business.

Show that you are human and the human on the
other end of the transaction will allow you
to close the sale.

If you want some great advice for creating
your own sales letters, where you can let it
all hang out to your own customers, then
check out the Ultimate Sales Letter System
here:

http://www.sales-letter-system.com

Have a seriously awesome weekend and make
sure that you use enough hairspray to keep
that hairdo of yours in check.

Until Monday,

Joshua Black

*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

http://www.product-pricing-strategy.com
http://www.how-to-business-network.com
http://www.ranking-higher-seo.com
http://www.UnderdogMillionaire.com/blog
http://www.sales-letter-system.com
http://www.closing-the-sale.com
http://www.information-product-report.com
http://www.UltimateUSPcreator.com
http://www.underdog-success-formula.com

_________________________________________

Is it a Bird? A Plane? Nope, Just Another Underdog Millionaire

Joshua Black — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:43:39 +0000

So, as another weekend is upon us soon I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for becoming subscribers to the Underdog Millionaire family.

In case you haven’t subscribed sign up in the box

where it says “free stuff” ———–>

I created the Underdog Millionaire site
in order to help you grow your small business
as painlessly as possible, and help you
get the ability to show your customers that
you are WAAAAAAY better than any other alternative
that they are going to find.

I created the Underdog Millionaire site so
that you don’t have to feel like you are alone
when you are sitting at home, frustrated at
your kitchen table, wondering if your idea is
ever going to make it.

I created the Underdog Millionaire, because
none of us can build a profitable business
without help from others. The help that each
person requires is different, so I try to
mix it up as much as possible, offering
suggestions from many different angles.

…but it’s not just about me.

It’s really about you and what you want.
It’s also about what you are not getting and
the things that you would like to know about.

I can rant and rave and crack jokes about
pea stands, my dog, or Lady Gaga all day
long, but at the end of the day, if you are
not getting out of this what you signed up
for, then I am not doing my job.

Therefore, I am humbly looking for requests.
What can I help you with in upcoming issues
of the Tip Sheet?

What product could I develop for you that
would help turn your business around?

What business problem are you having that
is totally keeping you up at night, wondering
how if you are going to make it through to
the other side?

What would you like to change about the
Underdog Millionaire if you could?

What do you think I’m doing well and want
to see more of?

The more input that I can get back from you,
my customers, the more I can customize the
site, hone it to perfection, and provide you
with that one, safe haven that you can go
to to learn how to kick a lot of serious bootie
with your powerful small business.

So, let’s hear it!

If you are brave enough, you can share your
message with everyone else and post it at the
bottom of this article, here on the blog.

See you on the other side and thank you in advance
for all of your comments. I can’t wait to see
what you come up with.

Remember, if you have a question that you are
willing to raise, you can bet that there are
probably a thousand other people out there with
the same issue, but weren’t strong enough to ask.

Until tomorrow,

Joshua Black

P.S. Now what would a Underdog Millionaire Tip
Sheet be without a tiny sales pitch? I just wanted
to keep you in the loop about my next, huge book,
Underdog Marketing 101. Here, I’m going to give you
101 different FREE techniques that you can use to
attract new (and old) customers.

It’s just getting the final cherry on top and I
should be coming out with it in just a few weeks.

Those of you that have been EXTRA-loyal customers
(and you know who you are) are going to get the
deal of a lifetime on this product.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

Pea-ing on Your Small Business… Part 2

Joshua Black — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:02:04 +0000

So I was out driving again, and the kid with the pea stand that I talked about a few days ago, was back.

…and guess what?

There he was, sitting alone behind the most
beautiful pea stand you have ever seen.

All shined up. Great rainbow-colored umbrella.
Tons of good-looking inventory. Polite demeanor.
Perfect location with parking on a very well-
traveled street with a slow speed limit.

You couldn’t get much better than that.

Except for one thing.

No one in their right mind is going to interrupt
what they are doing and pull over to buy some
peas.

It just isn’t going to happen no matter how many
parking spaces there are, or how great the stand
looks.

This is a huge dillemma that many entrepreneurs
face… and you may have faced it too at some point.

When you are creating a new product, you need to
make sure their is a HUNGRY audience for it in
advance.

If you have to train your customers that they need
what you are selling, then you are taking the long
road to not-so-fun-ville.

This kid might be a pea expert.

He could probably sit there all day and spin tales
about the world’s biggest pea, or that one time
he was chased by a wild squirrel through the pea
field, but that won’t help him sell those round,
green, little buggers.

I don’t mean to get so preachy today, but it’s
such a critical thing that you have to make sure
that you are aware of, when you are creating
something new.

You are actually doing your customers a disservice
if you are creating the wrong product for them,
because you probably have the right idea inside
you. You just need to flesh it out.

If you already have an established business, be
weary of line extension items that may seem like
a really good idea, but in reality are just a bunch
of baskets of peas sitting on your shelf or in your
repertoire.

Kick over that pea stand in your own business!

Give your customers something they are really
hungry for.

People will pay really good, hard-earned money
to buy stuff they really want, but will hold
off to the last possible second to buy stuff
they need.

We might NEED peas, but we WANT a cheeseburger.
Guess which one gets purchased?

If you are looking for a new business to start,
or you want to learn how to develop your own
product, come on over to the Dark Side and learn
how to develop your own information product.

Click here for more information:
http://www.information-product-report.com

Watch your shoes!

Until tomorrow,

Joshua Black

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

Don’t Be Like Lady Gaga at a Yankees Game- Do This Instead…

Joshua Black — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:24:00 +0000

Over the weekend, the infamous Lady Gaga decided that she was going to crash yet another baseball game with her crazy antics.

…it went over like a lead balloon, since
the Yankees lost the game.

If Lady Gaga had been a member of the Underdog
Millionaires, she might have known better and
skipped her little escapade.

You see, instead of barging your business into
the customer’s life, you need to ease your way
in, by finding what they want, developing a
relationship and serving it to them shaken,
not stirred.

When you are out there in the trenches, some
times it gets really hard to ease up and not
want to SHOUT your marketing messages in the
faces of anyone that will listen.

…just look at our brothers and sisters in the
interruption advertising business. They get
paid based on how many people they shout at,
rarely on the actual performance of the ad
itself, why? Because they have no way to track
it.

Well, you and I know better, right?

We are going develop a plan for your customers
to go Gaga over your product or service.

It all starts with your USP and the biggest
promise that you are going to make for your
customers. Check this out:
http://www.ultimateUSPcreator.com

Once you have made that promise then you
need to develop a strategy for getting your
message across, and finding the most buying
customers as you can.

The way you do that is with marketing. However,
marketing plans can end up to be pretty pricey
and that is usually the last thing that a
small business owner has to throw around, money.

So, in order to be able to play with the big
kids and compete on a level that you deserve,
even though you might not have the budget to
get you there, I developed something.

It’s called the Underdog Marketing 101 course.

It contains 101 different FREE techniques for
getting more customers to your bank account, with
hundreds of tips in total.

If you can find something in there that will help
your business, then you probably never had much
of a business in the first place.

It’s not available yet, but you will be the
first to know, of course.

This is my largest course to date, and I know
that you will get some real value of this puppy.

Stay tuned. It’s coming soon.
So, what do you think about all of the interruption
advertising that we are faced with?

Are you using it successfully in your business? I’d
like to know.

What kind of methods do you use in your small
business in order to bring in customers successfully?
We’re all family here. Let ‘em out.

Post your ideas BELOW.

Until tomorrow,

Joshua Black

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

The Quiet Art of Networking… No More Shooting Your Customers in The Face

Joshua Black — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:32:59 +0000

Last night a man was robbed and at some point during the altercation the robber was kind enough to shoot the victim in the face.

Instead of doing what most mortals do and
keeling over from this lethal wound, by
some sheer chance of luck (for the first
time in human history as far as I know),
the victim caught the bullet in his teeth.

Superhero-style.

Of course this was a case of bad aim and
weird timing. I don’t believe the victim
was trying to actually catch the bullet.

…but in a case of weird timing and at
the expense of his front tooth, the guy
walked away from the incident unharmed.

Are you doing this to your customers?

Are you using interruption advertising,
or unsolicited phone calls in order to get
business?

Most of this form of advertising can feel
like a shot to the face for some people,
and at the same time, we marketers are
expecting each customer to catch that
bullet in their teeth and instantly want
to make a purchase.

It doesn’t work like that however.

Most interruption marketing doesn’t work
at all and the bullet drops the customer
like a sack of potatoes.

There is a better way.

That way is networking.

When you join a group of like-minded,
but non-competing inividual business
owners together, all meaning to help each
other out, you can get a FLOOD of new
customers banging down your door.

With a network comes the power of referrals
amongst the members.

When someone is referred it is no longer
an interruption. It’s an invitation.

When the person is invited, the tables
become turned and the customer may almost
feel as if they have to prove to you that
they are worthy of you service.

This is a powerful position to be in, and
the rate of closing is MUCH higher than
just walking down the street shooting your
customers in the face randomly with interruption
ads.

Think about it.

If you want to bring the awesome power of
networking into your small business download
my Underdog Networking Formula here:
http://www.how-to-business-network.com

Until tomorrow,

Joshua Black

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

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