Part 2 : Appearing "Larger than Life" and Increasing Visibility

Can you give us some marketing tools that even the smallest company can use to successfully compete against the "big dogs"?
The best advice I can give to a small company trying to compete against larger, established companies is to use your marketing to make yourself appear "larger than life." And I don't mean buying Super Bowl ads -- I mean spending a little extra on your business cards -- using thick glossy paper for your brochure and having a professional designer create your marketing materials.

For me, marketing is all about making the customer feel comfortable about buying your product -- it's a lubricant for the sales process. High-quality graphic design, good strong writing and consistent campaigns will always make you look bigger than you are.

When you're hired to do a corporate makeover - what are some of the most important questions you ask the client in order to design the "makeover" they want?
First, I try to find out why they want to re-do their corporate identity. I may have my own ideas, but I want to hear their reasons. Second, I try to get them to show me companies whose corporate identities they admire, and those that they can't stand. Of course, I need to have a basic understanding of the company and their products, as well as the types of people they consider to be their core audience. Once I have that, I can start to work on the makeover.

Do you think that a bad product can be sold if it has a great website associated with it?
A great web site might sell a bad product for a short time. Any well-developed marketing tool, whether it's a web site or a radio campaign, can increase sales volume over the short term, but unless your product can back up the marketing claims, sales will drop. I've always said that the best marketing tool is a great product.

Also, it's important to define what we mean by a great web site. There are a lot of web sites that attract tons of visitors, but if those visitors don't buy anything it's not really doing the job. The ultimate purpose of an e-commerce site is to sell products, not to "attract eyeballs" or be "sticky".

What do you think is the most vital tool a company can use on its website in order to increase visibility?
I think the best thing a company can do on its web site is to provide interesting, useful, fresh information -- information that will be attractive to their core audience. If you are selling surfboards, for example, you might present up-to-the-minute surf conditions for the hot surfing spots around the world, or run a weekly "surfing tips" column.

It's also important to exploit the interactivity of the medium. This is why things like mortgage calculators and searchable yellow pages are so popular on the Web -- they use the best strengths of the medium to attract visitors.

Continued...