Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Refreshing Your Brand in 2020 with Naly Rice

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Refreshing Your Brand in 2020 with Naly Rice · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
• 0:08
  Ending small business failure.
• 0:11
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
• 0:17
  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 0:21
  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
• 0:25
  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
• 0:29
  Melinda Emerson.
• 0:31
  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  These small biz lady, and welcome to small biz chat.
• 0:37
  You know, we have an amazing show for you guys.
• 0:40
  Small biz chat is a peer to peer interview show that give small business owners a way to get
• 0:45
  advice that they need but might not know.
• 0:48
  And maybe not today might not be able to afford, but the mission of small business chat
• 0:53
  is to end small business failure.
• 0:55
  So listen.
• 0:56
  On small business chat, our goal is to give our small business audience an opportunity here
• 1:01
  Sage advice from multiple angles to take your business and your life to the next level.
• 1:06
  And with that, I'm just really excited to introduce you all to miss Nally Rice.
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  Nally is the founder and CEO of the LN Creative Group.
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  They are a technology marketing as a service company with clients in the Technology
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  Healthcare Nonprofit And Government Sector.
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  Natalie, I am so excited to have you here with me tonight, and we're gonna be talking about
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  refreshing your small business brand in 2020.
• 1:35
  So, Natalie, welcome to Small Bishop Live.
• 1:38
  Hi, Melinda.
• 1:39
  Thanks for having me on.
• 1:40
  Oh, I'm so happy to be here with you.
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  I met you, I guess, a year or 2 ago when we shared the stage at a big event for scores.
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  So I'm so excited to be able to bring you back on here and and have my audience learn about
• 1:54
  how awesome you are.
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  So now we're talking about refreshing a brand.
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  And I know that a full on rebrand takes a lot of time and effort and resource is in a small
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  business.
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  Why not have the budget frankly or the bandwidth for that kind of undertaking?
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  Now you say that it's possible for for, like, a smaller scale brand update, maybe refreshing
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  your images, you know, like, across your digital platforms and stuff like that.
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  So let let's jump into it.
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  You know, why do you think it's so important for a small business to really pay attention to
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  their brand.
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  You know, shouldn't they really be paying attention to sales?
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  Like, like, what why is your brand so important to a small business?
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  That's a great question, Melinda.
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  And, you know, the thing that small businesses have to go understand is that the branding can
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  help make them look bigger as they're going out and competing with these big companies.
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  So if they don't have the budget to redo their entire brand, what they can do is change their
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  color palette, color grade their photos.
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  They can change the messaging a little bit, but there are small ways that they can take a
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  little footsteps instead of doing the whole rebrand, because that can take a long time, and
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  it is very costly.
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  Well, when is the right time to refresh your brand?
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  Is it like New Year, new brand?
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  Like, you know, what what is when is it the right time to sort of start looking at things
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  and tweaking?
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  That's a great question.
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  And there are no hard and fast rules anymore for doing that.
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  It used to be that if you had your brand over a number of years, then you would refresh.
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  But now there are some brands that go on like legacy brands and heritage brands.
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  But anytime I would say that your sales start to get affected, that you start to notice a
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  smaller number of inbound leads if you start to notice people not coming to your website as
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  much, those are times when you wanna sit back and say, do I need to redo my brand, or is my
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  message on point.
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  That's an incredibly good insight.
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  So you're saying, like, you know, your sales are not what they used to be.
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  Protect perhaps it's time to to refresh and
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  and reinvent a little bit.
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  And that's exactly.
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  Okay.
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  Alright.
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  So what are some of the minor ways that people might be able to refresh their brand without,
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  like, you know, changing their whole logo or something like that?
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  What are some of the things that they could do?
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  Yeah.
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  They can definitely change their color scheme.
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  They can change their photos.
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  In fact, photos and changing the visuals is something that
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  is can really completely
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  change a brand, going out and and finding higher quality stock photos is something that
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  is readily available and free online now.
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  It can really make a big difference in how you communicate your message without saying it,
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  basically.
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  Mhmm.
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  Well, what about, like, if you do wanna change your logo, what is a realistic time frame for
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  that, like, what should you be expecting if you decide?
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  Okay.
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  You know what?
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  The logo is the problem?
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  Like, what what kind of time frame and what kind of budget?
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  Like, do they need to be kind of prepared for?
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  Yeah.
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  The budget can range.
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  I mean, there are so many marketing companies now and creative agencies that create logos,
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  but typically you should look at redoing a logo timeline being a month or 2.
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  I've seen some that have gone on as long 2 or 3 months.
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  And that's because there's a lot more technical stuff involved in the logo.
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  There's more custom drawings and sketching that have to be turned into digital files.
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  But typically, you can look at 1
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  or 2 months.
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  Okay.
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  And what kind of range should we be prepared for?
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  Oh, goodness.
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  It it can definitely range.
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  I would say the average for a logo could be anywhere from a 1000 to 5000.
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  And I've I've seen some logos that are really, really, really expensive, you know, some
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  websites that are really expensive.
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  It just depends on you and the company that you go to.
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  Definitely shop around, you know, be smart about it.
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  Mhmm.
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  But what about those companies, you know, like 99 designs?
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  Like, or fiber or something like that.
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  I mean, is that if you have nothing and you and you're, like, just getting started and and
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  trying to get a little something going, like, Is that is that a no no or like can we do that?
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  No, you can, but I would say be very cautious just because One, you wanna make sure that
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  you're getting your logo made from a reputable person so that you own all the rights to that.
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  You know?
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  You don't wanna get stuck in a situation where you paid $5 for something.
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  And then a couple months down the line, you realize, oh, that person took it off off
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  online, and now I'm in trouble.
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  So Yeah.
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  You definitely wanna be careful about that.
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  But I'd say if you're in a really, like, in a really tight fine, there are websites, like,
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  Upwork where you can actually go and find freelancers, and they can do a number of things
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  and for a number of budgets, actually.
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  It's 2020.
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  So the gig economy is an entrepreneurship.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  43% of our economy now is gig workers.
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  So, yeah, folk are looking for work and folk aren't willing to wheel and deal.
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  So, yeah, definitely.
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  So so let's talk about if you wanna keep your brand aligned, specifically your social stuff.
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  Like, what I see a lot of people do, like, their website will look like, and, like, their
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  Twitter background or their LinkedIn background will be like, totally different stuff.
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  So so what should you do to just, like, make sure that you're consistent, you know, kinda
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  everywhere?
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  Yeah.
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  And that's where the branding comes in because when you brand yourself, you should create a
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  brand guide.
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  And that brand guide has the fonts you wanna use, the colors, the placement, and whatnot.
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  And if you're really smart, good tip.
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  Go ahead and create all the templates.
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  So that whenever it comes time to posting on social media, you can just pull from one of
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  those templates, recycle it and change the photo.
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  That way it stays consistent all the time.
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  Now I've seen some folks on Instagram, and there's some people whose Instagrams look like
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  amazing.
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  And there's people like me, who Instagrams look random because
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  I have, like, beautiful things that my social media team posts, and then I post a picture of
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  my son, you know, or or me at a restaurant that I really like or something like that.
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  So are there some tools out there that can help your brands stay consistent on some of the
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  social platforms?
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  Yeah.
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  One of my favorite is Canva.
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  Canva.
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  And it's affordable, but they already come pre made with a lot of templates.
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  It's really easy for you to add your own fonts and logos in there.
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  So that's really nice.
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  There's also pick monkey if you're on a budget.
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  And if you're a small to medium sized company with a little bit more bandwidth, than using
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  something like an Adobe Creative Cloud would be really nice because you get a lot more tools
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  and
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  a lot more features.
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  Okay.
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  Good.
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  Those are great, great tools.
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  And you've already said, like, you know, you need to be having a brand guideline.
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  Like, you don't wanna be, you know, trying to figure out what your fonts are and stuff like
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  that.
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  So that's what you were saying about, you know, just using some random, you know, or a person
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  or whatever.
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  You gotta make sure you get your vector art.
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  You gotta make sure you know what your font, what font they use, and the exact colors that
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  they use, right, so that so that it can be activated over and over it.
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  You know, one of the things that I've heard a lot of people talk about are in terms of
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  branding or rebranding these days are sort of like video, visuals, voice marketing.
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  Those are, like, the 3 V's that are out here that I keep hearing people talk about.
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  So can you tell me, like, those buzz words?
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  What are they, you know, what are you thinking in terms of, like, using those elements to
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  rebrand yourself as well?
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely.
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  Visuals and voice are really the top, in my opinion, for 2020 and beyond.
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  It used to be all about blogging.
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  It used to be all about getting a lot of content out there, even small content.
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  Now it's all about visuals.
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  And part of that is making sure that your branding is is not just on social media, but
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  also blending into your videos.
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  And using the right theme songs, using the right colors, and making sure that everything
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  just matches and and is cohesive.
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  That's really the trick to to branding and building that entire seamless experiences.
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  I go to the website and it's the same.
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  Go to social media and it's the same.
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  I'll go to watch their videos and it's all the same branded.
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  So that's how you really make a consistent brand.
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  Okay.
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  So that so and what about voice marketing?
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  Like, I know, like, you know, everybody's talking to Alexa and Siri and all this kind of
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  stuff.
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  I mean, do you see people, you know, leveraging voice marketing yet, or is that still something
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  that's still kinda nascent?
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  I think that it is still kind of nascent.
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  I think when it comes to voice, I see a lot more clients nowadays asking if, hey, should we
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  do a podcast?
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  Hey, should we do a video series?
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  Even a webinar series.
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  You know?
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  So there are other ways to incorporate it.
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  I've also seen people recording messages basically that they put on their website And
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  whenever you click on it, it says, hey, welcome to my website.
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  So there are a number of ways that you can add voice to your brand.
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  Mhmm.
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  That's a tool you think is useful because I think sometimes there's too much.
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  Like, I know sometimes when I go to people's websites, I wanna look around and look at
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  stuff.
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  I don't wanna hear them talking at me, but I'm a generation editor.
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  Maybe that's, like, just me.
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  Like, you know, should you have autoplay things and things like this on a website, or is it
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  like, Don't do that.
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  I still wouldn't do that.
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  I mean, the reminds me of the nineties when you go on the websites loud dark and the snow is
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  falling down and have rainbows and stuff.
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  Yeah.
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  We don't wanna do those angel fire days are done, but, you can definitely still keep it on
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  there.
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  There are ways you wanna do is you wanna streamline it.
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  And again, you wanna think about the strategy, right?
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  What what do I want people to do?
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  What do I want them to get from coming to my website and then use the voice individuals
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  there effectively to to help drive your message home.
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  Whether it's selling a product, selling a course, your accountant, your health care
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  company, etcetera.
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  Mhmm.
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  Awesome.
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  Well, listen.
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  Thank you so much, Natalie.
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  When we come back, we're gonna talk a little bit more about brand experience.
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  So it's not just about what your brand looks like.
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  It's about how you your customer spiel.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and we will be right back.
• 12:01
  Hi.
• 12:02
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady.
• 12:04
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• 12:07
  America, but wait before you give up, my new book fix your business could give you a whole
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  new lease on life.
• 12:13
  My twelve piece of running a successful business will walk you through step by step how
• 12:18
  to grow your business revenue, how to hire great people, and streamline your processes,
• 12:23
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• 12:25
  Grab a copy today, affix your business, and get your life back.
• 12:33
  Welcome back to Small Bishop.
• 12:35
  I'm talking with Nelly Right?
• 12:36
  She's a digital marketing expert, and we're talking about refreshing your brand in 2020.
• 12:42
  So back to you, Natalie, I wanna ask you about this the concept of brand experience as a small
• 12:49
  business owner, maybe I sell professional service.
• 12:52
  I mean, obviously, if you our retail business people walking in your store, you want them to
• 12:55
  have a brand experience, but as a professional service business or an e commerce business,
• 13:00
  let's say, How can I give my customers a really good brand experience?
• 13:05
  And that's a great question.
• 13:07
  And one of the first things about understanding what brand experience is is understanding that
• 13:12
  it's just a bunch of touch points all into one that make a cohesive experience.
• 13:19
  So whenever people start working on experience, we say work on one thing first, whether that's
• 13:24
  your greeting on your phone or refreshing the website or doing social media.
• 13:30
  But ultimately, what you wanna do is connect all those dots.
• 13:33
  And those dots altogether equal the the brand experience, basically.
• 13:38
  So just think about the way we shop.
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  You know, I'll go to the store.
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  I'll research online first before I go.
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  And then afterwards, I purchase, they'll send me an email, and sometimes I'll get a booklet.
• 13:49
  That's brand experience, just following through and nurturing folks.
• 13:54
  And what happens when you don't get it, that's when you're like, oh, this is this store is
• 13:58
  kind of, okay.
• 14:00
  They they don't really have their stuff together.
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  So We get hit with experiences and digital experiences so much that we don't realize it
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  until we don't get it.
• 14:08
  Right?
• 14:08
  And then all we can notice is with wasn't that great of a product or wasn't that great of a
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  store?
• 14:13
  I get it.
• 14:14
  I get it.
• 14:14
  So let's say I I I refreshed my brand how do I make a news, or how do I really get the word
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  out that I, you know, I've I've got something shiny and new over on, you know, my blog or my
• 14:26
  website.
• 14:26
  Yeah.
• 14:27
  My first tip is go straight to your current clients.
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  Go to your current clients first, get your employees to share it, write a press release,
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  share it with the journalists that are within your industry.
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  That's a really great way to go about it.
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  Get all your employees to to change over to the new branding change overall, your social media.
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  It it requires a it's a huge effort to to change all that, but it's worth it in the end.
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  And then,
• 14:53
  you know, should I start with just 1 or 2 platforms if I'm changing stuff, or is it,
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  like, change everything?
• 15:00
  Yeah.
• 15:00
  I would start with 1 or 2 first, but eventually you do want to change everything.
• 15:04
  Some companies, what they actually do is they'll prep and they'll prepare the change
• 15:09
  over for everything.
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  Their social media and their website and their videos and whatnot.
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  And then as soon as that press release goes out, they turn on that button and everything
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  just switches over, and that's a very coordinated effort, but it takes a lot of
• 15:22
  planning.
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  Okay.
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  Alright.
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  And then what is the best branding advice?
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  Like, you could really give someone right now.
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  Like, if they're like, Oh my god.
• 15:32
  Like, they just sat here and listen to us, and they are overwhelmed.
• 15:35
  Like, what what is the best branding advice you can get them about getting started?
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  Take one one foot in front
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  of the other.
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  You know, updating your headshot, updating your headshot on all your social platforms and stuff
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  like that, or maybe on
• 15:48
  your website.
• 15:49
  Is that something that you you could start there, like, just getting a new headshot for
• 15:53
  yourself for your business?
• 15:55
  Yeah.
• 15:55
  Sure.
• 15:56
  Get a headshot, but if you're getting a headshot, make sure you're wearing your brand
• 15:59
  colors.
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  That's one way to, you know, really incorporate that brand.
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  I'm I'm very dedicated to the brand.
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  So definitely before you push anything out, before you wear anything, you have to really
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  embody your brand.
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  As a CEO.
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  So it's really important to
• 16:15
  do that.
• 16:16
  I love it.
• 16:16
  I love it.
• 16:18
  I want you to share your favorite podcast.
• 16:22
  What is your favorite podcast that you're listening to right now?
• 16:26
  Right now, I'm listening to best friends.
• 16:29
  It's pretty good.
• 16:29
  It's it's just the the daily nitty gritty funny conversations, and it's very lighthearted.
• 16:36
  Okay.
• 16:37
  Now do you tend to listen to it morning, evening, drive time?
• 16:40
  When do you listen to it?
• 16:42
  I'd mostly listen to it in the evenings.
• 16:44
  Yeah.
• 16:44
  Okay.
• 16:44
  When I get my little funny bone in.
• 16:46
  Alright.
• 16:46
  Well, you know, that's a great way to detox from a crazy day.
• 16:50
  Nally, what is your favorite business at?
• 16:52
  Google Drive.
• 16:53
  I pretty much live in Google Drive.
• 16:55
  Every every single one, Google slides, goo Google, sheets.
• 17:00
  I mean, the entire business runs on Google.
• 17:02
  So actually need to to take a step back away from that a little bit.
• 17:06
  Get a little breathe there.
• 17:09
  Good stuff.
• 17:09
  Good stuff.
• 17:10
  What's your favorite old school marketing tip?
• 17:13
  My favorite old school marketing tip is just to keep it word-of-mouth, to be so good that the
• 17:20
  the person that you're standing right next to will tell their friend and just put your focus
• 17:24
  on that one person.
• 17:25
  Focus on that one conversation only.
• 17:29
  I like it.
• 17:30
  I like it.
• 17:30
  Word-of-mouth referrals.
• 17:31
  Doesn't get any better than that.
• 17:33
  What is your favorite business book?
• 17:35
  It's not really a business book.
• 17:37
  I guess a lot of entrepreneurs would read it, but it's meditations like Marcus Aurelius.
• 17:42
  It's really great.
• 17:43
  It helps to really keep things into perspective.
• 17:45
  And It really has become a daily ritual for me to to read, excerpt from meditations.
• 17:52
  I love that book too.
• 17:53
  Good stuff.
• 17:54
  Well, listen to you guys.
• 17:55
  Thank you so much for being here with me on small biz chat.
• 17:58
  Believe it or not, our time is up.
• 18:01
  Thank you so much again to my guests.
• 18:03
  I appreciate you all so very much.
• 18:05
  And and we do small biz chat because our mission here is to end small business failure.
• 18:10
  And I will leave with you with this.
• 18:12
  You never lose in business.
• 18:14
  Either you win or you learn.
• 18:16
  God bless everybody.
• 18:17
  Good night.
• 18:20
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 18:25
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 18:32
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.