Branding: How to Market Your Business

By Cheryl Salazar, The Partner Marketing Group

I recently sat in on a few webcasts to find out what I could learn from touted industry experts about cloud technologies and how to brand and get them to market. I attended both of them for a total of 20 minutes. TOTAL! Why? The individuals conducting the webcasts consistently spoke only about themselves and how grand they were – all in the first person. Ok, perhaps spend a minute or two to introduce yourself – not ten minutes – and that was when I turned them off. (Who knows how long the presenter went on about himself?) I felt as though I was listening to an infomercial in both cases. Unless you are a luminary such as Richard Branson or Nelson Mandela, talking about yourself and your achievements will not hold your audience captive.

While it is important to tell prospective customers about your company’s success, you have a wonderful opportunity on your hands when you have them in a webcast. These people have taken time out of their day. They are seeking out opportunities to listen and learn – don’t waste their time! You should be delivering on what the title of your webcast is – tell them how you can help them solve their business problems or showcase successful customers they can relate to – that is how you will establish your credibility in the marketplace.

Save your self-aggrandizement for social media forums that support it or on your About Us page on the website. Do not use it in a business context when you are trying provide prospects with information. By all means, close your webcast by providing your audience with some key highlights of your company – the years you’ve been in business, your track record, and your value to them. Prospective customers will be more inclined to listen to the pitch once you’ve given them useful information. Remember the old saying “they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”!