In any relationship it isn’t the grand gestures that makes a bond stronger, it’s the little details woven in between that really matter and hold it all together.

I found a gorgeous pair of earrings on etsy (etsy is a commercial site for homemade and vintage-y stuff as well as arts and crafts supplies, etc.) a couple weeks ago. I have no idea how I ended up there and I didn’t know the seller from Adam but the earrings were pretty and sparkly and I could picture myself wearing them on a date with my husband with the candlelight dancing off of them. So I bought them.

I immediately received a standard, automated response from the system, thanking me for my order, but I also received a personal message from the seller, Laura, who owns the shop I bought my earrings from, Vintage Valise, personally thanking me for my order and telling me she’d ship it out that afternoon.

Then I promptly forgot about the earrings until I received them in the mail. They were wrapped in a lovely little box, tied with a ribbon, and this postcard was tucked inside the envelope they were mailed in:

Talk about a warm fuzzy feeling! I’ve been buying stuff online for a long time and very rarely do items come with a handwritten note, but when they do…wow! You really appreciate someone taking the time to do something like that.

I wouldn’t have remembered the name of the shop where I bought those earrings if I didn’t receive this card with my purchase even though I had received that email earlier in the transaction.

We get emails ALL the time. We never get a handwritten note.

They say that it takes 7-11 “touches” before someone buys from you. I don’t necessarily think that’s always true. When some of the touches are unexpected and delightfully personal, I think it can take less.

I think Laura is going to have a successful shop if she can convert every buyer into a repeat buyer like she did with me. All it took to make me love her was taking the time to write a thank you note that was personalized for me (noting my purchase and even spelling my name right).

The worst thing a small business owner can do is make his or her customers feel invisible. We all love those little details so why don’t we see more of them?

Do you do something personal like this in your interactions? Has it become part of your brand? Please tell me about it!

I don’t normally participate in these things, but this one sounded fun. A lot of my Facebook friends posted words I wouldn’t think would top the list of ways to describe me like, “strong” and “inspiring.” I was expecting more “goofy”s and “nuts”s to be honest. These things were wonderful to hear, but one of my friends who I’ve known for years in real life and in the social networking Internet world, PEI real estate agent Carol O’Hanley, left my favorite reply.

The word she chose to describe me was “genuine.”

I can’t even tell you how much that meant to me, especially since Carol knows me in person and we bump into each other all day long in places like Facebook and Twitter. If she perceives me as being genuine, then I’ve accomplished my goal because the last thing I want is someone thinking I’m completely different in person than I am online.

When I started my copywriting business, I already knew exactly the type of clients I wanted to attract because I know what kind of writing I love to do and what kind of people I love writing for. I made the decision to become a freelance copywriter because writing makes me happier than doing anything else and I didn’t want to waste a single day as a writer working on projects that made me stressed out or cranky.

That’s why I market my personality. The content on my website is me. My branding is me. Facebook updates and Twitter one-liners come from me, I share what I’m feeling and what I’m doing even when they don’t make me sound professional 100% of the time. Because ya know what? I’m not professional 100% of the time. I take breaks throughout the day to play with my children and to bake cookies. I conduct myself professionally with my clients, but not to the point of being stuffy.

I guess I found the key to attracting my ideal clients is to be transparent.

My ideal clients will love that my websites are always decorated for the holidays – it’s my absolute favorite part of the Mann Made brand. The people who appreciate my Halloween pumpkin and spider web are the exact type of people I love working with. If someone thinks it’s foolish, that’s the perfect prequalifier for me.

When someone follows me on Twitter, they’ll know right away if they like me or not. They can get a sense from my 140 character tweets of whether or not they like my writing style. When they read through my website and blog posts or browse my portfolio, they’ll like it or they won’t. And I’m just fine with that either way.

If I were to hide the quirky, fun, creative side of my personality by agonizing over every personal Twitter update I made or holding off on the silly humor in my blog posts, I wouldn’t be being me. And being Jaime has worked out pretty well for me so far. I attract awesome clients. I stand out because my website is colorful, fresh and fun. I end up working with people who want to inject their own personality into their marketing because they realize that’s what attracted them to me.

If you wish you had clients with more of a sense of humor why not focus on attracting those types? If you only want to work with people who are serious and focused, work on attracting them.

Afterall, if you’re not being authentic, do you really think you’re doing anyone any favors?

Thursday evening I was cleaning the oven and wasn’t feeling energetic besides, so we decided to order. Because that coupon was on the fridge we thought pizza would be a good option.

When the last slice was gone and my husband was cleaning up, he mentioned that J.R.’s was investing in their marketing. Their pizza normally comes in a plain white pizza box, but this one was stamped with their company name and phone number.

Our little province is packed with pizza places. There must be at least an entire page devoted to pizza in the Yellow Pages. In our tiny community alone, there are at least four places I can name off the top of my head where we can order pretty good pizza.

Because I tend to think in blog posts, I started wondering why the smaller pizzerias don’t seem to even try to compete with the larger chains.

In PEI, is word of mouth enough?

Probably.

Every weekend we get expensive glossy coupons and brochures from the bigger pizza chains but they always go in the recycling bin whereas that plain no-frills coupon from J.R.’s got stuck to our fridge and we used it within the same week we got it.

I wonder if a small “mom-and-pop” pizza place in rural PEI has to invest a significant amount of money into its branding and marketing efforts, or if providing a quality product consistently and doing a monthly mass mailing of a coupon is enough. J.R.’s has no fancy jingle (I don’t even know if they advertise on the radio), their logo looks like a piece of clipart pizza and they don’t use any unique marketing gimmicks. But when we think about ordering pizza, they always come to the front of our minds.

As an entrepreneur myself, I believe that to be the ultimate goal of any small business. You want to be the first person someone thinks of when they need [insert your product or service here].

The simplicity of J.R.’s marketing tells me that what’s really important isn’t the expensive brochures or the smashing corporate logo. Building solid relationships by leaving customers with a good feeling every time they choose to buy from you, and staying in front of them once in awhile with a flyer (email, blog post, newsletter, etc.) might just be enough to keep them coming back. And everybody knows it’s easier to get business from someone who’s bought from you before than it is to find new customers.

The more I think about it, the more I think J.R.’s is right on the money.

The last time you ordered out for pizza what made you choose the pizza joint you went with? Will you go back? Why?

Twenty years ago (yes, it has been two decades) the New Kids on the Block appeared on the scene, weakening young girls knees everywhere. They were five young guys who have been credited with starting off the boy band craze in the 90s. (They seem to disagree, saying there were lots of boy bands around before them and perhaps they were the first “white” boy band. ) Whatever they were, they were a phenomenon. I was absolutely nuts over them. I spent every dollar I had on their tapes, ‘Teen Beat’ magazines with posters of them, earrings, t-shirts, even socks and sunglasses. I had a club and we had t-shirts and binders…spending lunch hours swooning over our favorite ‘Kid’. It’s really a good thing that twelve year old girls can’t get tattooed, cause you can bet I’d have the NKOTB logo somewhere on my person.

I don’t recall what happened to NKOTB, but they have reunited and are going on a reunion tour this summer. How exciting! And how brilliant. Their concerts are selling out, and why wouldn’t they be? They already have a huge fan base, made up of 25-35 year old women who have been loyal to them for 20 years. We have more money now to sink into their music and concert tickets and we still love them…even if our husbands think we’re dorks.

My point here is that perhaps the name “New Kids on the Block” wasn’t brilliant. It seems odd to choose a name that will not make sense after a couple of top ten hits. How ‘new’ can you be when you’ve been on the charts for a few years? And now with the guys ranging in age from 35-40 something, they sure aren’t kids anymore. I wonder if they’re sorry they chose that name. It doesn’t seem to be hurting them much, but it seems kind of silly to see a bunch of 40 year old men called the New Kids.

Anyway, think about your name before you brand yourself

Last week, or this week (we tape them to watch later sometimes so I don’t remember) I overheard someone on the show ask whether this was a talent contest or a popularity contest. Hmmmm.

It brings me back to student council elections in high school. Did the best person always win? No. Well – if they were the most popular person they did.

How does this relate to business?

You could have the best singer in the world preforming on American Idol. But if they choose the wrong songs for them, if you’re a fan of the show, you know they always get voted off.

If there was a competition for you, in your business, and you are offering the wrong types of services – services you don’t excel at – would you be crowned the winner? Probably not.

If I tried to build my business on offering desktop publishing, I wouldn’t have made it past year one. I enjoy it, but I’m not great at it. I don’t offer it unless it’s through one of my skilled associate VAs.

When you’re in business you must have a clearly defined target market, and you must offer only services to that group that you do exceptionally well. Anything less just won’t stand up.

Again, if the best singer in the world was on the American Idol stage, but every week they came out there looking unkempt and sloppy and acting obnoxious, they would not last. People wouldn’t vote for a person they find annoying.

This brings us to branding. A business needs a professional polished image to  make it. It’s that simple. You could be the best wallpaper hanger in the country, but if you have a website with lots of annoying pop ups and graphics, inconsistent branding, poor grammar and bad navigation, visitors will move on. Today’s consumers don’t have time for that kind of thing. Not with all the choices they have.

Consider this. There’s a new competition for your industry. You make it through the first round of eliminations, and then the second. You find yourself in a group of the twelve best (your profession here)’s in the country. You are given 90 seconds each week to demonstrate to your nation why you should be crowned the winner.

What do you do to make yourself shine?

Those are the things you should be doing everyday for your clients.

If you’re currently doing things that you wouldn’t showcase for that audience, maybe you should consider whether you should be doing them at all….

This wasn’t the first time I’ve had this type of project, but this time the caliber of cards was really interesting to me. I think it’s because the longer I’ve been in business, the more it puzzles me why people even bother to print off some of the cards I come across.
I saw several cards with those perforated edges that were printed at home, on a very lightweight stock that I wouldn’t even call cardstock. I would estimate more than half did not use the back side of the card, which is just crazy to me. Why not use half of the real estate of your business card to include a marketing message, service list or something. Anything. Wait, I take that back. One of these cards really made me lose focus – to the point that I had to pause my timer.

The card was a plain white perforated one and had no mention of a business name. Just a woman’s name, phone number, email address and website address. On the back of the card (which I was checking for additional notes to enter in the spreadsheet) was written “the red head”. In all small letters, and it was actually part of the card, it wasn’t a note my client had made.

Now…it’s really hard not to make a judgment when you see something like that. I’m sure your first thought was probably the same as mine was. I knew there was more to it, though, knowing my happily married client. The site belonged to a business brokerage (I had to check out the site of someone that would print that on the back of their business cards) which kind of shocked me.

I believe the description on the back of the card was meant to be cheeky, and that woman wanted people to remember her as ‘the red head’ they met with. Red heads are rare, right? Lucy, Sally Jessie, Nicole Kidman. I can only name a handful of famous red heads. Putting “the brunette” on the back of my cards wouldn’t mean much, right? Chances are, at a networking event, people might only meet with one red head among all the brunettes and towheads. So I understand the intention, I just don’t think it worked in this case. Maybe if the card was a bit more professional, or if there was at least a business name or description.

Anyway, what do you think about this? Do any of my readers use a tool like this to make people remember you in your networking efforts?

You know what? That red head may be a genius. I will probably never forget her name, website address or what she does. Hmmm. Something to ponder.

I would love to hear your comments.

A business doesn’t really need to be branded. You don’t necessarily need a logo, a corporate font, corporate colors, etc. to start your business. But when you put your whole heart into starting up a new enterprise why not do it right? Brand recognition is very important. I found an interesting article about the history of branding which you can read here.

Think a logo will cost you a fortune? Think you’ll have to refinance your home to get a professional website designed? Think again. In this day and age you can get a brand for a bargain – without sacrificing quality.

I am not one to brag, I’m quite a modest person actually-but my brand is really great. My logo (my virtual alter ego donned in a Santa hat for the holidays), business cards, website, and blog cost me much less than $1000 and that includes the money I spent to have my web copy proofread. That’s small potatoes for a big brand (big to me at least!).

The first thing you need is your name and tagline. It’s helpful if you have a target market at this point as well so you know who your brand should appeal to. From there your logo is the next logical step. Some free advice…before you jump in and get your logo designed make sure you can use your business name. Check to see if the url you want is available and make sure you can get your name registered. If not, you’re out some money and you’ll just be plain disappointed.

Do you live in an area where graphic design costs more than you can afford to spend on your branding? Are you starting your business on a budget? Look for a virtual assistant that specializes in graphic design. Here at Mann Made Time, with our preferred partner, Signature Worx, we offer lots of economical creative design packages including (drum roll please…) Mann Made Time with The Worx which includes your logo, stationery, brochure, business cards and website!

If you already have a logo and website, a virtual assistant can still help with other graphic design projects. Desktop publishing is something many VAs specialize in and most enjoy doing. You can get yourself a very professional looking flyer, brochure, postcard or almost anything you can think of, for a fraction of what you think it would cost!

Do you know how she found me? Why she called me out of all the other virtual assistants in the world? My website. She said it was nice to look at, well organized, and she was able to find information easily. Above and beyond that, she was so confident in my skills without ever having spoken with me before that she sent me money (in good faith) so I could start working for her right away. There wasn’t even really a consultation process. She’d decided already that I was the right VA for her. I’m absolutely thrilled because my site has just been redesigned, and I’m so glad that I made that investment.

I have another client, a Realtor, and he’s gotten business because his website stands out as well. Like it or not, people make very quick judgments when they’re surfing the ‘net. If you don’t capture their attention within a few seconds, they’re closing that window and moving on.

You might think your skills and credentials will speak for themselves. A potential client will choose to work with you for your reputation or some other reason. So I ask you this. Have you been told by a client that they wanted to work with you because of your website? If not, maybe you should take a good hard look at your site and consider making some improvements. Whether it’s your content, the navigation or the overall design.

In this day and age, almost everyone is searching for goods and services online. If you have a great website, you’re that much further ahead of your competition. Be unique. Be innovative. Be cool. Be fun. Be noticed.

If you want a complete site overhaul or a brand new site, Mann Made Time offers web design through our preferred partner, Signature Worx. Check out our packages. It will be worth the investment.

Your business card is a very important (and underrated) marketing piece, and I agree with the author of this particular ‘for Dummies’ book. Although it might set you back a couple hundred dollars, it is money well spent when you consider that it is often the first impression a prospect has of your brand.

What does it say to a prospect when they turn over your card and see advertising for the company that printed your business cards for free? What about the ones that were printed at home and still have the perforated edges? Go look at your collection of business cards – which ones stand out to you. Which ones made you say, “Wow, that’s a great card!”. The ones with raised ink? Vertical layout rather than traditional horizontal? Double sided? Some stand out and others are…well…dull and boring.

A good business card is memorable. It is an important piece of your branding and more thought should go into it’s design than often does.

If you are on a budget, as most of us are, this is one thing you should not scrimp on. You can get a business card designed very inexpensively by a virtual assistant – Mann Made Time offers this service, as do many other VA companies. Printing doesn’t have to cost a fortune either. There are a lot of companies online that are very inexpensive, and if you prefer to go with a local company it might cost a little more, but it is a legitimate business expense and the service is often better.

Bottom line is this. You want your card to be better than your competitors’. Take a look at your business card. How does it stand up?

When I got up this morning, brewed my coffee, and reached for one of my plain Jane coffee mugs, I couldn’t help but think how much fun it would be to bring a mug with my company logo on it to a coffee shop frequented by business people.

Have you heard of CafePress? You could get customized corporate t-shirts, mouse pads, note cards, wall clocks, baby bibs, and so on and so forth. There’s no minimum, so I don’t have to order 200 Mann Made Mugs (tee hee) just one for the CEO….(yes, that would be me). I have ordered things from there more than once, and I’ve always been happy with the product and with the shipping time.

This could be a great time to order some things for Christmas, even as corporate gifts. Maybe you could get one of your clients’ logos put on a canvas tote bag or wall clock for her, how cool would that be?:

Think outside the box. I could go to Beanz and use their own mugs or get a take out cup. OR I could bring my own while doing something good for the environment AND showing off my logo. Win-win.

Great idea, but no time…you say? Hire a VA to do it for you. Done!