What do dairy cows, alphabet soup and Ghost Busters have to do with marketing your business? You have to read to find out.

Do you get asked for professional advice? Recently, I've been pressed to share my thoughts with younger women, and it got me thinking about my own career path. Here's the advice I would give myself if I could go back in time.

Everyone likes to hear good things about the choices they are about to make. They comb the internet searching for validation that they are making the right choice.  In fact, these days, with sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor, if you don’t have someone saying good things about you, you have people wondering what is wrong with you. ​

Note to readers. I wrote this several years ago - and it has nothing to do with marketing. I came across it when cleaning out some computer folders and caught my eye with it being Valentine's Day and all. I re-read it trying to come up with some angle I could find to relate it to marketing, but anything would have been a stretch and would have taken away from the piece - so I'm posting it as written. It made me smile and think (there's that SMINK again). Hopefully you will too.

From our perch on the sand, we saw them splashing in the waves. Not a sight you see every day, a bride in her wedding dress with groom in tow frolicking as the tide rolled in. No care for her dress as the salt and sand took its toll. Only hopes, dreams and promises for a lifetime ahead.

I saw a caption the other day.  “Sometimes life throws you a curve ball…” next to the image of twins?  Yup.  That was me 18 years ago. Boys, no less. For this girly girl, the thought was terrifying. Now, on top of planning for one child, I had two of everything to consider…cribs…high chairs…double strollers. ​

​I teach basic website classes and I always get blank stares when we get to the SEO (search engine optimization) place where we have to add meta titles and meta descriptions.  I usually ask for a show of hands, and if I'm lucky, one person will have a vague notion of what I am talking about. ​​The reality is, you do know what I'm talking about, you just don't know the lingo.  And meta titles and descriptions are details that are increasingly important as our potential clients are spending more and more time searching online. I found this one when I was searching for one of my employee benefits clients:

​Looks familiar right?  It's what pops up in your search - above and below the link.  Did you ever wonder where that text comes from?  Light bulb!  It's your meta title and description - what Google and Bing and all those search engines return when you type in key words.  When you are developing your website, if you don't take the time to type them in, the search engine will generally pull whatever it thinks you might want (tip: don't trust them).  But, the peril comes if you don't pay attention because you could end up with something like this (and this is an actual honest-to-god search I ran):

​Hmm...Someone at the county just might want to fix that.  So, you see, meta titles and descriptions are important. Take a few minutes and think about how you want to be presented when your name/site/company pops up in a web search.  It's quick and easy, especially now that you know what it is...and hopefully it's not blah, blah, blah.

​Competition over collaboration.  If you live in the Seattle area, you probably know someone who works, or has worked, at Amazon. And, you’ve probably heard stories of the hyper-competitive nature of their workplace. So, around here, although the spectacle of the New York Times’ article from a while back created a big buzz elsewhere, its contents to locals may not have been such a surprise.

No offense to Amazon. By all accounts, they are supremely successful – and, I am an avid Prime user. But countless other studies and profitable companies have shown that collaboration can have equally effective results – and feed the human social compact at the same time. Average people, working together, helping one another, to foster new ideas, inventions and promote growth can ultimately make our lives better.

Margaret Heffernan, in a recent TED Talk, points to a Purdue University professor who was studying productivity.  He formed two groups of hens – one of collectively average layers, the other a set of “superchickens” who had a track record of higher egg-producing productivity. The finding?  The average group thrived while the super group disintegrated, literally pecking each other to death. Ms. Heffernan went on to cite other case studies of human collaboration that point to the value of a culture of helpfulness.  “Helpfulness means I don't have to know everything, I just have to work among people who are good at getting and giving help.”

One industry that appears to be embracing this collectiveism, according to a recent article, “Don’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em,” by Entrepreneur, is craft breweries.  These master craftsmen are finding that the best way to compete for shelf space with behemoths like Anheuser Busch is to work together.  Personal case study: John Robertson, a founder of the Bellevue Brewing Company, is a friend of mine and an advocate for craft brewers everywhere.  Their local establishment not only features their own brand of suds, they pour competitors’ brews as well, as a way of promoting the industry as a whole. And, it’s working.  While overall beer sales were flat in 2014, craft beers grew 22%.  Collaboration is generating success.
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Just think if all of us average people, with our own collective experiences, promoted a culture of helpfulness.  Sharing what we know.  Making life better.  Margaret Heffernan appears to agree, “…we won't solve our problems if we expect it to be solved by a few supermen or superwomen. Now we need everybody, because it is only when we accept that everybody has value that we will liberate the energy and imagination and momentum we need to create the best beyond measure.”

Oh, to walk into a room and hear a resounding "Norm!" And, have that be your name too.

If your company is just starting out, you’re probably quickly learning that there is far more to being successful than hanging your shingle and telling your friends, family and neighbors, “hey, I started my business!”

While word of mouth will definitely be a critical factor in your success, the basic math says that the more people know about you, the more you stay in front of those people, the more sales you will make.  So, here’s your goal.

Marketing Goal:  Be instantly remembered at a time when someone I’ve reached is ready to buy my product or service, or knows someone who is and feels comfortable recommending my company.

As a new new business owner, that’s a lofty goal, but one that will get easier with time.  The key, starting out, is to create visibility and establish credibility. You do that by building a following, and staying in front of them (but not in an annoying way) to remind them you are there. 

Anyone with enough money can blanket the internet, media outlets or postal service with advertising that gets you noticed.  But, since you are just starting out, it’s not a stretch to think you have gone into business to make money, and hope to conserve as much as you can in the beginning stages.  

Here are a 5 inexpensive things you can do to start building your brand:

1. Define your audience/ideal clients.  Are you selling to consumers? What demographic? Is location an issue? Or, are you selling to other businesses? Do you project your service/product will have a long or short term sales cycle? Targeting an audience will help you define your message.
2. Craft a distinct story.  Using your target audience as a guide, develop your "why us" story. While your business itself may be new, ostensibly you have experience in this field that led you to create your business. Share that experience. Tell potential customers what drove you to start your business and why you believe your product/service is better than the ones that have been out there for a while. Once you have crafted this message:  Learn it. Own it. Live it.  It becomes your brand.
3. Build a brand that is unique to you and your message.  Create a catchy (but not kitschy) tag line.  Extra bonus points if the #hashtag is original too.
4. Be consistent.  Weave your message, domain, tag line and hashtags into all your messaging and marketing.  Repetition leads to recognition and remembering.  
5. Fully complete all your social media profiles with your messaging.  Use the same logo. Same cover photo.  It may get old to you, but it's the familiarity that will pay off in the long run.

Building a brand takes time, but investing early will prove itself in success down the road.  Then, before you know it, a business person (this would be you...) walks into a bar (or a store, or school...) and everybody knows your name.