Jim Murray

7 years ago · 4 min. reading time · 0 ·

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The Basics Of Branding Your Service Business On beBee (Or Anywhere).

The Basics Of Branding Your Service Business On beBee (Or Anywhere).

In some ways, this is piggybacking on Juan Imaz’ excellent article on personal branding on beBee. I didn’t really see it that way until, after the fact, I read Juan’s excellent article, which really showcases the beBee strategy in a very clear way.

https://www.bebee.com/producer/@juan-imaz/bebee-the-platform-to-create-showcase-and-share-your-personal-brand#c4

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Jim Murray, Strategist, Writer
& beBee Brand Ambassador

I work with small to mid-sized businesses,
designers, art/creative directors & consultants
fo create results driven, strategically focused
communication in all on & offline media

       
       
       
      

 

| am also a communications mentor, lyricist

& prolific op/ed blogger. Your Story Well Told

      

Email: onanc

 

mail com | Skype: jimbobmuré1If you are a service business or solopreneur, and are looking for help making systemic changes in your organizational, sales, marketing and communication planning and processes or if you are a client looking for services on a social media site such as beBee, you will invariably find (invoking the good old 80/20 Rule) many service providers or consultants trying, in a very earnest way, to be as many things to as many people as possible.
The popular thinking is that casting as wide a net as possible will open a service provider up to a larger number of prospects, therefore guaranteeing them more business.

The Wide Net VS The Spear Gun

I would take serious issue with this. Because it is the nature of a wide net to be as non-specific. So to someone with a specific need (which represents a lot of smarter businesses), this can be seen as a limiting factor, not to mention a bit confusing and definitely time consuming for them to wade through.
beBee should be a place where businesses with a specific needs can easily find people to talk to who can provide that specific service, without having to waste a lot of time getting there.
The 20% or so of people who actually make it very easy for clients to discover them and find out exactly what they are all about may end up with fewer relationships but those relationships will be based on providing a specific type of solution and therefore be pretty solid.
This does not only work to the benefit of companies searching for resources. It also helps other service providers expand their networks without fear of redundancy or eyestrain from reading overly generalized profiles. It’s kind of a win win.

How You Pull This Off.

The methodology is simple. The execution, not so much.
Job #1: Defining Yourself
(Note: If you feel uncomfortable or not objective enough to manage this part of the process on your own, find a writer or strategist who can help you. They will be your first team member.)
• Think through and write a proper strategy for your business, the stages of which are as follows:
• Create a mission statement for your business that showcases your specific niche.
• Identify your specific target audiences (direct and or/indirect)
• Create a positioning that will sum up your business in a way that will appeal to prospects in that niche.
• Define a Unique Selling Proposition for your business, which will, over time and with diligence, give you ownership of the niche you have chosen.
• Prioritize the product or service features that you will use to reinforce your selling argument, and further differentiate you from any competitors.
• Decide on and stick to the tone and manner in which you communicate with your target audiences.
Job # 2 Building Your Team
After you have completed the strategic part of your process, you will have a much clearer picture of your business, your niche(s), and the kinds of resources you will need to deliver a first class product without question.
So your second task is to build your team by locating and developing supplier relationships/associations with all the people you need to deliver your services professionally.
These people should be contacted directly, so you can have a full impression of them, the way they think and their character.
Job #3: Pushing Your Brand
Now that you have a strategy that works, your team in place, you know who you are talking to and what to say to them, you need to find them and reach them. This is a 3 step process.
• Identify the best media for you to employ in order to reach your audience effectively.
• Create the the appropriate communications materials to reach your targets and to optimize the use of the media you have chosen.
• Stay within your resource team for this activity, because a) they are the people who have a vested interest in success and b) creating this communication helps them learn more about your business, which makes the work they do more effective.

Whew…That’s A Lot Of Work
Me

Doing what you need to do to move your business forward is always going to be a lot of work.
The choice you always have in front of you is whether you do it the hard way or the easy way. Believe it or not, the method I have described here, is the easy way. The hard way involves way more work on your part, and the added extra of the sore head you get from repeatedly banging it against one wall or another.

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Now to seasoned marketers, I’m sure this all sounds pretty basic.
But to a lot of people out there in the services industry, especially those just getting started, it’s not necessarily something they have thought about in any organized way.
I know this because whenever I offer to send people the communications strategy form I have developed for my own clients, I get literally dozens of requests.
To my way of thinking, the better organized the services industry is, the better it is for everyone. Competition becomes more challenging and fun. Clients become better educated more likely to access the resources your business offers. And the state-of-the-art of everything generally improves.
None of that is anything but positive.

The BeBee Connection

When you couple this methodology with all the brand building features that beBee provides its users, (as outlined in Juan's article), you end up with a recipe for success.
How that actualizes itself is completely up to you, the effort you are willing to put forth and the branding synergies you build into your effort.
It’s hard work. It always has been. There are no magic buttons you can push and no shortcuts. It’s just hard work and dedication to building your brand and your business. Same as it ever was, but with a lot of new and powerful tools to help you.

If this post resonated with you let me know. Feedback is always valuable. So is sharing and releventing. Thx.

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If your business has reached the point where talking to a communication professional would be the preferred option to banging your head against the wall or whatever, lets talk.

Download my free ebook, Small Business Communication For The Real World, here:
 https://onwordsandupwords.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/small-business-communications-for-the-real-world/

All my profile and contact information can be accessed here:
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/this-post-is-my-about-page



All content copyright 2017 Jim Murray



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Comments

Jim Murray

7 years ago #4

#5
Thanks Franci\ud83d\udc1dEugenia Hoffman

Jim Murray

7 years ago #3

#2
Thanks Julio Angel Lopez Lopez

Jim Murray

7 years ago #2

#1
Thanks Melissa Hughes. And Happy New Year
Thank you, Jim Murray very good information

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