In developing your logo and designing your print materials, think about what lines, shapes, typestyles and colors represent image you want your target market to develop. If you coach people in developing leadership skills necessary to reach executive suite, you probably don’t want to use primary colors in your logo. On other hand, if you help people bring more joy into their lives by discovering their inner child, primary colors may be perfect. If you assist people to organize their lives, you would not want a cluttered business card. You would want a very clean and understated look. If you help people bring out their hidden creativity you could use a fancier, more elaborate typestyle and incorporate flowing lines or curly queues into design.

Step 3: Begin communicating your brand identity to your target market. Everything you say and do -- from way you answer your telephones to specialty advertising or promotional items you give your prospective clients – should reinforce brand image you want to develop. Use your logo and colors on everything. Develop a tag line that conveys your message and use it on all your printed materials from your letterhead to your invoices. Your website should have same general look as your letterhead, business cards, e-mail newsletter, brochure, and direct mail pieces. Continuously look for ways to incorporate your logo, colors and tag line into everything. Be creative. I know business partners who drive bright yellow Volkswagen Beatles to match their corporate colors. Almost daily I find an opportunity I’ve been missing to incorporate my brand image into my materials – and I do this for a living!

Step 4: Maintain your brand identity. Once you have begun to develop your brand identity, resist temptation to make major changes or to even do too much tinkering. About time you start to become bored with your look, your target market is just beginning to recognize and identify with it. Consistency over time is critical. Not only does it build awareness, it also develops credibility. In this respect we need to learn from masters. While Coca Cola® and Betty Crocker® have updated their looks many times over past 100+ years basic elements have remained consistent.

What picture develops in mind of your target market when they see, hear or think about you and your service? Is it fuzzy and out of focus with pieces of puzzle missing? Is it inconsistent and ever changing? Or is it crisp, clear and in living color?

© 2004 STRATEGIES-BY-DESIGN. May be reprinted with credits and contact information.

I know I’ve been repeating myself, but it’s critical that you understand this. It’s relationship that’s key.

Most businesses owners don’t recognize true value of relationship that they have with their customers. When you use this relationship well, it can represent an unbelievable increase in your sales.

Let me explain.

I’ll show you what kind of difference in response you can get with an endorsed mailing vs. a cold mailing.

Let’s say you’re selling a $297 product on how to achieve all your goals and live life of your dreams and you rent a 10,000 name list from a list broker. You then write a powerful sales letter that explains just how valuable your product is and you then send out a letter or e-mail to each of those names.

Your campaign is somewhat of a winner and you pull a 2% response (which is industry average for a mailing to a cold list). 2% times 10,000 equals 200 orders. 200 times $297 adds up to a gross profit of $59,400. Now truth be told, these kinds of profits are alright, but numbers are low. Or rather, lower than they could be.

Why is response so small? Because people who received your sales letter do not know anything about you, your offer, your business, your product, etc. They do not trust what they see... they are afraid of being ripped off. This is why it’s called a cold mailing... response is cold.

You remember 2 reasons why people don’t buy right?

Now how can you increase those numbers?

What if you got owner of that list (who often contacts his subscribers and thus has a relationship with them) to write on top of your sales letter or their newsletter how great your product is and how valuable he/she believes this deal to be, do you think response will be a lot higher? You bet!

So if you take same product, and mailed same sales letter to exact same list, except that you now have list owner endorsing you, your mailing will probably be a lot more successful.

So instead of having a 2% response, you may have a response well over 10%! And what does that mean to your bottom line? Let’s say response was only 5%. 5% of 10,000 names is 500. So 500 people order at $297. So your gross profits explode to $148,500 instead of a measly $59,400! You understand power of using endorsements now, right?

Listen to me. You can market your business hard (and risky) way, or easy, safe and intelligent way by doing Joint Ventures.

You can use this concept immediately, regardless of your business or what industry you are in.

You have permission to reprint this article provided you include following resource box:

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Gabriel Howes is a Joint Venture expert. Visit www.ultimatejv.com now to learn how to quickly set up very profitable JVs.

Go for it.

Copyright © 2005 Gabriel Howes All Rights Reserved