Let me inform you a story about Pete and a pizza. Following a long day of fighting uncooperative pipes and fixtures, Pete P. Lumber, of Pete’s DuperRooter, was looking forward to a good, scorching, decidedly Atkins-disapproved pizza – the things of which dreams are made. The week prior to, Pete was performing a rest room remodel at Bob’s historical Chicago bungalow. The house had only one rest room, so Pete had to total the undertaking as quick as possible. Due to a series of unfortunate occasions, some of which concerned a repeated, forceful software of a instead large hammer, Pete stayed a lot longer than he at first predicted. To bungalow owner Bob’s delight, Pete completed the remodel the exact same day.

Bob made the decision to take Pete out to dinner to display his appreciation. Bob knew that Pete liked pizza, so he took him to the MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium across the road. The restaurant was small, unassuming, and had the charming aura of a hole-in-the-wall. And it had the greatest pizza that Pete has ever tasted. Just the memory of that pizza he shared with Bob made Pete’s abdomen growl. The crust was browned just right. The sauce had the perfect stability of tomato sauce and spices. And the toppings….there were over twenty toppings to selected from.

It is no wonder that this week, Pete was looking forward to having pizza delivered from MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium. By the time Pete got home and was prepared to pick up the telephone, he could almost taste it. But, (these stories by no means seem to finish well, do they?) he recognized that he did not have the pizza place’s telephone number. Pete did not keep in mind the title of the location both – the signal over the doorway had been tiny and hard to study.

Even if Pete had been having to pay attention, he would have had a hard time figuring out what the title was, since most vowels fell off the neon signal someday about the Roosevelt administration (Teddy, in case you were questioning). It gets worse. As he and Bob were leaving, Pete had asked Kate, the hostess, for a take-out menu. She apologized profusely and said that they ran out 4 months ago and nobody bothered to reorder new ones.

The telephone guide turned out to be useless – keep in mind, Pete couldn’t recall the title of the pizza location. Scanning the restaurant pages did not ring a bell both. The only thing Pete could recall was the approximate address (across from Bob’s bungalow). Pete was too tired to go out and generate once more, since he had just returned home. To include insult to damage, the climate individual on Channel 5 news was gleefully pointing to the most recent Doppler radar and cheerfully informing his audience that yet another fifteen inches of snow were going to fall in the next hour.

That sealed it. Pete, who almost by no means surrendered, gave up. He ordered pizza from his usual joint, OKPizzaParlor. Pizza there was absolutely nothing to create home about. Nevertheless, the proprietors always stocked a 4-year supply of take-out menus and company cards. As an additional twist, they gave out 4×6 magnets with “OKPizzaParlor” emblazoned on them with three inch high neon green letters with each and every order. Pete’s fridge was plastered with at minimum twenty of these.

OKPizzaParlor also sent their customers coupons and specialized promotional flyers. OKPizzaParlor even sent their customers a free sixteen inch thin crust pizza coupons for their birthdays. Lastly, all marketing supplies prominently showcased OKPizzaParlor’s contact info.

The MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium, did not get an order that evening, even although Pete vastly favored their pizza, and desperately wanted to order from them. MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium committed one of the cardinal sins of marketing: they did not bother with branding. The proprietors figured that their exceptional item would communicate for itself, and made the decision not to waste their money on pointless marketing. Little did the MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium proprietors realize that skipping branding is like leaving the cheese off the pizza!

Don’t make the exact same mistake. Here are a few ideas you can use to make certain your marketing strategy does not follow in MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium’s footsteps and to remind your customers of your company long following they leave your shop or internet site:

* Create and maintain constant corperate branding. A logo, font and a color scheme are the three essential elements of an online image. As soon as produced, use the exact same color scheme, logo, and font everywhere else – on your brochures, company cards, newsletters, and signatures. Menus, magnets, employee t-shirts, title tags ought to all be constant with your brand name.

* Don’t dilute your brand name. Getting a internet site and company cards with an inconsistent appear and feel will confuse your customers.

* Reinforce the company branding in all communications. Every mode of communication ought to provide info about your company. This includes letters, invoices, e-mail, and so on. At the very minimum, include the company title, internet site address and e-mail address.

* Use a signature with each and every e-mail. How numerous emails do you deliver in a single day? Wesend about 75 on a common company day. This translates into 75 possibilities to remind customers about our brand name each and every single day. Keep the signature short: your company tagline and URL or a hyperlink to your most recent blog entry will do. The stage is to do this regularly, early, and frequently.

Make certain that your company is the initial thing that pops into your customers’ minds when they require goods or solutions you provide. Make your brand name memorable, and take advantage of each and every change to reinforce it. Not each and every consumer is going to be like Pete, who drove out to the MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium the next day, and wrote down their title and telephone number. Incidentally, that day he arrived home with 6 pizzas.

Biana Babinsky is the online company expert who has aided numerous company proprietors entice much more internet site customers, bring in much more online publicity and improve the bottom line. Visit http://avocadoconsulting.com/free_newsletter.html to subscribe to her newsletter complete of marketing ideas and ideas and join her online company coaching system at http://www.MarketingSalad.com