Launch Your Brand for Less Than $500!

I'd love to talk about how to help launch your brand.

This is not impossible if you're a bit of a DIY fan, have the time to invest, and are willing and able to learn what you may not already know. Another concession that you will need to make is shopping local. That was hard for me, but I was driven by economics and the need to conduct the experiment so that I could share it with you in this, my first TS2 Consulting blog post.

Before we get into the logistics, please note the significance of launching your brand vs. your business. Launching your business may involve lawyers and accountants and is likely far more costly than this very basic launch of your brand.

The following is what you'll need to get started:

1. Business name, mission, and vision

2. Logo design and tagline

3. Elevator pitch

4. Content for a marketing brochure

5. A computer and internet access

6. A grasp of web design and composition or the willingness to learn

7. Social media (in my mind, literally a necessary evil)

8. A credit card

9. Time and patience

10. The gift of gab

11. A notebook to list all the usernames and passwords you'll accumulate through the process

I'm going to assume that you know what your business will be and have a name for it. The next step is putting a mission and vision on paper. This will help with other elements of this launch and for your future marketing efforts.

To help you along.....

Business Mission: is the purpose of your company, what you do, and who you serve and answers the question, why does your company exist?

Business Vision: is your long term hope for your company. What does success look like in the years to come.

• My mission for TS2 is to help new, small and mid-sized businesses owners in Maine promote and present their companies in the best possible light. it clearly inspired my tagline: Illuminate Your Brand.

• My vision is to build a portfolio of clients' success stories and case studies that could help other new businesses to achieve the same positive results.

With your mission and vision spelled out, you should be able to come up with a tagline or subheading for your business.

The next thing you want to do is establish a domain name, and find a simple website app. Even though I have been using WordPress for more than a decade, on the recommendation of my digital-native first-born, I used WIX.com for my content management system (CMS) and couldn't be happier.

It was one stop shopping for the domain, the hosting, and the Google business suite with a couple of email addresses. I took advantage of discounted pricing and purchased everything for 3 years, but when I get to the accounting later, I'll calculate the cost for one year - which is what the $500 represents.

Facebook is Only Half the Answer

If you're thinking of using only Facebook to launch your business, I highly recommend against it and here's why:

If a prospective customer doesn't have a Facebook account, all they can do is view your FB Business page. They can't even send you a message.

It's easy to assume that EVERYONE uses Facebook but the fact is that approximately 68% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 80 years old have FB accounts, that means that 32% don't use it. Further, only 50% of the population between 65 and 80 have FB accounts. That's a lot of market share to give up.

Full disclosure, I'm married to someone who does not and has never had a Facebook account and he refuses to do business with anyone who uses FB in lieu of a traditional website.

Can FB be a great inexpensive extension of a basic website? Absolutely!

Once you have your domain and email addresses you can order business cards. If you're a bit creative, you can certainly design your own, but most vendors will design them for you, but there may be a charge for that service. I designed my own and used GotPrint.com.

It's really difficult to order these tasks because many happen simultaneously. I found that creating a brochure that lists my services, introduces me, and highlights my skill-set was critical to have when it was time to peck my way around WIX to design and populate the website.

We're all wired differently, so I recommend whatever you're comfortable with, but I do strongly recommend composing in some document outside of WIX (or whatever CMS you choose), first it's easier to edit and second, it provides a back-up in case of some catastrophe -- you know the crash and burn that makes all your hard work go away...... And, not that it hasn't happened to me, but I like to be prepared.

Your elevator pitch goes hand-in-hand with your gift of gab. You need to practice it until it rolls off your tongue like your phone number. And then find a way to share it with every single person you talk to.

Free and earned media help any marketing budget go much further. Think about a press release for print and radio that introduces your business in a way that's newsworthy and not self-promoting. Announce your business on your social channels.

I have also registered for a free Mailchimp account that will suffice for the time being but it has limitations on how many contacts you can have and how often you send a email. Once I grow out of the limitations, I'll move to a paid plan.

Let's Look at my Brand Launch Spend

1. WIX.com CMS License $144*

2. TS2consulting.me domain name $15.95*

3. @ts2consulting.me email boxes and Google Business Suite, $36**

4. 500 business cards cost $40

5. The most basic Ellsworth Chamber membership was $136/yr

*this is a discounted price based on a 3-year commitment

**this is 50% off the regular price

Grand total: $371.95

And then there's the Rule of Seven

Generally speaking it takes 7 touches before you can convert a prospect to a customer. And THAT'S for an established business. So one can assume that as a new business you'll need to be even more assertive. More on getting your brand out there coming soon.