Keeping records of your Business expenses is very important tactics needed to know about all expenditure made by the business.  Having a good business record of all expenses of your daily activities gives the business owner guide on how to budget and strategize on how to improve on the running of the business.

The good thing about keeping records of daily business expenses is it helps you manage available resources, capital and time. Although record keeping is stressful and technically there are some very essential benefits attached to it .
Business owners who have good records of their business expenses have an effective business operations and high maximization of resources to yield profits.

Some of the benefits associated with keeping records of business expenses are:

You Become Financially Aware and Improve Money Management:

Business failure at times are as a result of not having a record or track of expenses incurred by the business. So it’s difficult to actually detect a loss when no critical records have been observed. A business with a record of it’s daily expenses are aware of all the capitals realized, spent, lost. The financial status of the business is only noticeable when its record or tracking are very efficient. Tracking also improves the management of cash inflow, outflow and improve the business status.

You’re Better Prepared for the Tax Season and May Get Money Back

A business which has been following up it’s daily expenses can never be worried of Tax season, cause it has all receipts for expenses included . So it becomes easy to handle the tax when the time comes.

The expenses should be categorized:

1. Office expenditure
2. Cell phone cost
3. Maintenance expenses
4. Rent expenses
5. Home expenses
6. Travel expenditure

This records when presented to a tax man, notifies them of the actual profit realized by the business and you get played for it.

You Keep Your Employees Happy

Employees are excited when the records are favorable as they are now aware about the business growth, and it helps them have encouragement to work more proficiently and produce more profits for the business. Your team of workers will keep all records of travel and other expenses.

Determine Business Profitability

Without making a guess you can easily determine the profits realized without having to visit your record cause all expenses have been mastered from daily recordings.

Recordings enable the business to know how profitable they have become along the long run. With clear evidences of your business expenses recorded, the business attracts more investors and investment opportunity for the business. Records when presented to investors gives them an encouragement to deal with the business.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, you improve your money management by having a good record keeping or tracking and have a knowledge of the business activities from your records.

Guess this was useful , drop comment and suggestions in the comment sections .

A LinkedIn business page is a page that gives information about your business, new updates, products and services rendered, operations of your business its team to the public. It helps in creating branding awareness to viable costumers.

Creating a business LinkedIn page is an effective way to utilize the LinkedIn. It gives room and time to meet people and turn them into reliable costumers.

Some identified steps to increasing your LinkedIn business page are discussed below:

Make use of sponsored posts:

Relevant post should be posted on your LinkedIn business page or the running of Ads to create more awareness to the general public.

Motivate your team to engage with your page:

Its is very viral that you share your LinkedIn business page with your team so they can share to within their own network. So motivate them to do so, as it helps your business get spread to potential consumers and business partners. The more your LinkedIn business is shared the more chances of it growth.

Post valuable content:

Content with good and relevant information should be posted on your page . Posting valuable content makes your costumers have good thoughts of your brand. And will associate with your business.
Some valuable content can be:

1. Good video content.
2. Some previous questions and answer sections.
3. Sharing blogs from you page.

An enticing “About us” should be used

While revealing things about your business to the audience you should apply some enticing information that enables the public have good image about your business. Your “About us” tells the public about the activities of the business its operations and all necessary information you are willing to share.

Be part of LinkedIn group.

Make use of other LinkedIn groups will enable you connect with other people with the same idea and interest.

Respond

It will be nice and thoughtful if you take time to respond to comments and suggestions from the audience . So you get to know what needs to be improved or what should be removed.

Conclusion:

LinkedIn business page is of great help as its gives or create an awareness to the general public about your business and also help you connect with people with similar interest.
Would love to know if this was helpful.

Instagram is a social media platform with a very high level of influence . Its gives one the privilege to connect with people from different part of the world. Its has enormous interesting feature which includes entertainment, news, and many more.

Well it’s also can be used to promote business brands using a business page. This articles gives guide on how to create an Instagram business page. The procedures are:

Download The Instagram App

Before creating an account, you should download it from Google Playstore for Android phones, App Store for IPhones and Windows for Laptops. After downloading you can proceed to creating an account.

Sign Up Or Create Account

Open the app and sign up following all instructions and giving the right details required from you.

Turn To A Business Acount

When logged on the app go to settings icon > click to turn to a business account > sign up your business profile (choose business category, link your Instagram page to a Facebook page) > review your business’s contact information (email, phone number and address) > tap done.

Conclusion:

Generating an Instagram business page is vital for promoting your business brands , with this few steps its easy to generate one.

Guess you find this article helpful, if you need assistance with your social media platforms you can contact us following the link. Thanks

Social media have been of great importance and influence in this current era. With its effect in our lives we can now reach out to several millions of people through it. The introduction of Ads to social media as enabled business in several ways to reach some great height. Social media Ads are of high necessity to small or growing businesses cause it makes producers have some great benefits.

Reasons on why its important to adopt a social media Ads

 

1. Educate consumers:

Many at times consumers are ignorant of the kind of goods available for their consumption and use, which is as a result of lack of information. Social media Ads makes educating and passing of information to consumers simple and easy as most consumers are frequently on social media platforms.

Evidently the social media has taken over the world and its people, getting to teach and guide people can be easily done on social media. Potential consumers are educated about the usage and application also the benefits of the products.

2. It creates awareness to the general public:

With the influence of the media, people get to know about the existence of certain products through Ads while online . Its easier to generate awareness to potential customer through Ads from the social media. There are over millions of customers online who come across Ads.

3. Its less expensive:

Advertising on social media is not as expensive when compared to other means of advertising and also have great hedge over them as it have several millions of potential customer who are online to see them.
Ads is easy and very affordable.

4. Makes more sales:

Ads enable products get very high sales. Ads gives every potential consumer an enticing image of the product with just a glance and is convenient.

5. Drives Business growth:

Ads enables the growth of very business as it exposes the business brand to its several millions of potential consumers. Every small business engaged in social media Ads are likely to reach great height within the shortest period of time.

Conclusion:

The impact of social media Ads cannot be argued, the media is gradually taken over the world and its necessary for business organizations to adopt it as a means of creating awareness of their products to the general public.
Its even cheaper, easier and convenient using social media Ads to promote small business.

WhatsApp has been a great social media platform that gives people the opportunity to message, text ,video call, voice call people who are in your contact list or have yours. WhatsApp makes it easier to reach out to loves ones, business partners, friends,spouse.

With the arising needs for friends on Facebook to reach out to you , its now possible to link your Business WhatsApp to your Facebook page.

Some guides on how to link your WhatsApp to your Facebook page are short listed below;

With an already existing Facebook page

Go to www.facebook.com, login, and navigate to your Facebook page.

Go to settings

Navigate to settings, look at the left sidebar, below you’ll see a ‘WhatsApp’ tab, click on it.

Connect your WhatsApp account

Input your country postal code, Enter your WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business number, then check your WhatsApp messages for a confirmation code. Input code and click ‘Confirm’.

Conclusion:

Linking up your WhatsApp and Facebook page makes its easier connect friends and also ads from WhatsApp on your Facebook page. Also in getting a large audience from Facebook to your WhatsApp.

Guess you find this helpful and meaningful. Leave questions on comment sections if you there is anything you do not understand.

Twitter a very popular social media with mass room for meeting up people of great personality also assist in growing ones business, advertising, marketing and passing informations, also used as a means of campaigning. Here in this articles some tips on how to create a Twitter business account will be discussed.

Create a Twitter account

Search www.twitter.com and sign up following all instructions with the right details required from you.

Share your business profile details

Attach your profile image, header, website link, and biography. Upload an enticing and concise biography stating the advantages and benefits of your services

Also, the recommended image size for your profile pic is 400×400 pixels while the prescribed size for a Twitter header image is 1500×500 pixels.

Pin a tweet

Leave a relevant Tweet at the top of your timeline (TL). People get to see the tweet pinned
To pin a tweet, tap on the ‘more’ option of the Tweet you want to appear on top of your timeline and select ‘pin to your profile page’.

Connect with others

You can then add up people you are familiar to and also people with the same business ideas and interest. It makes communication better while you connect with people

Conclusion

Twitter gives every business person the opportunity to come in contact with people who have same business interest . Its helps one grow his business faster .

Drop comment if this article was useful.

When asked what SEO is, some people tend to define it, as the ability to write creatively, in order for a website to rank high in search. While this may be true, it is not all it is, to SEO.  

As an SEO strategist, one has to optimize his website in the following ways; on-page, off-page, and technical optimization. However, today, we would look solely at on-page SEO, and it’s optimization. It’ll be a lovely discussion, so let us dive right in!

What Is On Page SEO?

On-page optimization, is the practice of optimizing a page or group of pages on a website, to improve the site’s SEO.  

Before we continue, for the sake of newbies; what is the meaning of the term, “on-page”? On-page, otherwise called on-site in SEO, has to do with everything you see on the pages of a site, ranging from title tags to meta descriptions, down to the content on the site. We will discuss these, as we go further.  

Now that that’s known, let’s get into some important factors one needs to optimized on his site.

Factors to be Optimized On Site:

•  Content
  

•  Title tags
  

•  Description tags
  

• URL
  

•  Heading tags
  

Content

You may be asking, what is the content on my site, or any site?  Content, is the information you dish out to your audience; be it written, visual or audio.  

So, now that you know what content is, how can you optimize your content, for your site to rank high in search?

• Do a research on the topic you want to write on (for written content, of course.)
  

• Perform a Keyword Research for that content.
  

• Use target keyword in the first 100-150 words of your article.
  

• Wrap blog post’s title in H1 tag. It helps Google understand the structure of a page.
  

• Wrap subheadings in H2 tags, as it helps to structure the article.
  

• Be frequent with your keywords. However, avoid keyword stuffing.
  

• Make content relevant to the theme of the site.
  

• Make sure content is well organized, and easy to understand.
  

• Create unique and original content. Don’t go copying anyone, avoid duplicate content at all costs.
  

• Add value to your content. You could do so, by adding a relevant personal perspective.
  

• Add resources like images, videos, screenshots, to make content more helpful.
  

• At all times, edit and proof read you article, before publishing.
  

• Make sure you understand your audience, because a great content is that which is written for the audience.
  

• Make sure to pay attention to the reading level of your audience, and match it with your content, for easy comprehension.
  

• Ensure to link out to other relevant pages on site, and other relevant pages of different sites, if they can be more helpful to users.
  

PS: Make sure to create content, where your audience is. Why is this so? I’ll answer that, with an example. Imagine you were a priest of some sort. You go to a different religious gathering, and begin teaching. I’m very sure that everyone in that gathering will wonder why a priest from a different religion would come to teach them something different, and may not even give attention to you. Now, that’s how it is, when you create content for the wrong audience. Content, no matter how valuable, will never be helpful to the wrong person. In essence, go where your audience is, build them, and give them what they need.

To optimize content effectively, make sure to put in mind;

• User experience: Be sure you do not create content, for search engines alone, as that might affect your users’ experience negatively. Negative user experience will mean low quality content, and you do not want that.
  

• Bounce rate: Imagine a scenario where you are searching for the best hotels in town on Google, and you come to this site that comes up on search, and you don’t find what you need on that site, and you quickly exit the site, to look for what you need, somewhere else. Now, what you just did, is what many users will do to your site, if your content does not answer their needs. Nobody would want to waste time on futility. And the more people leave your site as quickly as they came, because your content does not answer their questions, the lower quality your content has. So, be sure to create useful and helpful content. 
  

• Search intent. For users to stay on your site for a long time, and even bookmark your site, you must know exactly what your users are searching for. To do this, ask yourself these questions; 
  

1. What do my users want to hear, read, or see?  
2. Is this article, or content helpful to them?  
3. Will they like to come back here to re-digest what they have seen?  
4. Will they like to share this content?  
5. Is the content easy to understand? 
6. Are there errors in my article?  

If you have positive answers to the questions, beautiful. But if not, then you have work to do.  

Some advantages of quality content:

Quality content has the quality of increasing the click through rate of your site. Great content can lead to linking from other sites, to your site, and this is very helpful in Content marketing, and the entire authority of a site.  

When you have adequate knowledge of the information you give out to users, it brings for trust, from those users. To gain trust, you must be good at what you give (write, in this case.)  

Great content can also open doors for off-site publishing opportunities! When you interact with your audience, and give them value in your content, people who are not even in your audience may also be impacted, and by that, more opportunities are open for you.  

Pro tip: create a backlog of ideas for the kind of content you want to produce. Check out BuzzSumo for content ideas.

It cannot be overemphasized; content is king. But great content, valuable content, helpful and resourceful content, is more than gold.   

Title tags

Now, let us look at title tags. Title, as you should know, is the title, or for the sake of a different word, the main topic of a piece of content. Title tags are the html tags (<title>, <title/>) that wrap the title of your post, or blog. The title tag describes the title, or name, that you give to a page on your site.  

You can find the title of page’s post, at the top of the browser. Title tags are an important on-site SEO factor, and as such must be properly optimized.  

Some ways to optimize title tags; 

• Make sure your title tag accurately describes it’s page.
  

• Include keywords that users are likely to search for, in title tags.
  

• It’ll be wise to place keyword, or descriptive information at the front of the title tag (descriptive information here, is information that describes the page.) However, you can use individual keywords, rather than descriptive phrases.
  

• Make sure your title tag is not more than 60 characters long. This is why you must use at least two important keywords in the title tag.
  

• Separate multiple keywords, with hyphens.
  

• It is advised to use alphanumeric characters, rather than special characters.
  

Do not forget, the title tag should also be pleasing, and able to draw users to your site. 

Description tags

We will mostly be looking at meta descriptions, here. The meta description of a page solely describes the page. When you perform a search, some sites come up, and you notice that on some sites there are descriptions you see on the search results, that you do not see, after you must have been on the page. In essence, meta descriptions only show up in search results. 

You can find the meta description of a page, under the URL of the page (and that of course, is before you click on the page.)  

It is very important, however, not compulsory, to optimize the meta description of a page. Google may choose meta descriptions, over a webmaster’s meta descriptions, if they think that it is not well optimized. I’m not sure you want that.  

Some ways to optimize the meta description of a page are these;

• Your meta description should contain information about your site, that entices users.
  

• Even if keywords on meta descriptions are not a guarantee of ranking high, a well crafted meta description, may increase the click through rate of the page. So in essence, include keywords in the meta descriptions, but not too much.
  

• Include calls to action in meta descriptions. These people love to be told to do something! Take advantage of that.
  

• Note that a good meta description can serve as a copy on a site.
  

• Make sure that like the title tags and content, your meta descriptions are catchy.
  

 

URLs

What is a URL? Uniform Resource Locator. Isn’t that a lot, now 😄. It is the address of a webpage. It describes a page to both users, and search engines. Where can one find the URL of a page? You can find the URL of a page, under the title tag of that page. You want to make sure your URL is well optimized for your site’s SEO. And for that, here are some ways; 

• URLs should contain contain keywords, be relevant, and brief. 
  

• Place important keywords close to the beginning of every URL. 
  

• Leave out parameters (the long letters and numbers at the end of a URL), as they make it excessively long. 
  

• Make URLs easy to remember.
  

• Make sure they are related to the brand, or total theme of a site. 
  

• URLs should follow the website’s structure.
  

Note: When looking at a URL, you can see some forward slashes containing some information. Those slashes are subfolders, which you can also call subdirectories, that help categorize documents on a site. Now, when search engines display search results, the middle subfolders are cut out, to make the URLs shorter, and easier for users to read. And this is why you should make URLs brief, and try to incorporate keywords in them. 

That will be all, for URLs.  

 

Heading tags

Finally, we are here.  

Basic html starts with understanding heading tags. H1, H2, and down to H6. H1 is used for titles of posts, and H2, for subheadings. H3, though not so much in use, are also for subheadings. It is good to note, that H1 is the “primary heading”, and the most important when it comes to SEO.  

The importance of heading tags, is that they help to stylistically break up the content on a page, and if you ask me, are really important for SEO, because of how they segment information, for easy understanding.  

Some ways to optimize the heading tags on your page are; 

• To incorporate keywords in heading tags. However, if not possible, it’s better to leave it out. 
  

• Stick to one H1 per page, and use H2 as subsequent headings tags when needed.
  

• Do not make unnecessary heading tags in one page.
  

• Add H3 tags to subheadings near the bottom of the page.
  

With that, I’ll end the heading tags section, friends.  

This is not an exhaustive list, but I hope that it will in one way or another, help your SEO carrier. Are there any questions you’d like to ask? Or contributions you’d like to make? Feel free, I will be here to indulge you! 

So, you’re a business person now. Good! As an entrepreneur, are there some times you feel like all you do to catch up with the latest business trends, are futile? You wonder what it is that you are not doing right; I mean, you have tried everything you think is best, but something is just not clicking. It is sometimes like that with almost every business like yours.  

Testing on different solutions to catch up with industry trends sounds nice, but doing that blindly, sounds pretty dumb. And that brings us to our discussion today; Competitive Analysis.  

In this article, we will touch on the definition of Competitive Analysis, Competitive Intelligence, the benefits of performing competitive analysis, and competitive intelligence, the difference between competitive analysis, and competitive intelligence, how to perform competitive analysis.  

Let us go for the ride!  

What Is Competitive Analysis?

Competitive analysis or research, is simply identifying your competitors in your industry, examining their strengths and weaknesses as it relates business, and comparing results with your own business, to get an idea of what is going on around you, and how to leverage your findings.   

Competitive research is a very important part of a business, that no one mindful of his business growth should overlook. It is very wise to keep an eye on the competition around you.   

It is true that when you do not regularly compare your marketing strategies with that of your competitors, you may lose out on great opportunities, current trends, and to them. You may even have competitors that you have no knowledge about, and they may outrun you in the race of business. And that is why competitive analysis is a crucial part of any marketing plan.  

Performing competitive analysis gives you an edge over your competitors, and helps you understand your position in the market. When you understand your position, you can then device means to improve your marketing, and increase your progress in the business. There are many advantages of competitive research, and you would not want to miss out on them.  

What Is Competitive Intelligence?

Competitive intelligence is the action of understanding and gathering of knowledge or intelligence about a business (or product), its competitors, customers, and environment, for effective and strategic decision making, as it relates the progress of that business.  

It also involves learning about the environment outside of the business, to get more knowledge of the competitiveness around the business, as it focuses on the external environment of the business. For this, one has to learn so much in little time, for quicker actions.  

Although some people think it is an illegal action, competitive intelligence (or CI) is legal, depending on the approach with which you make your actions.  

There are processes involved in collation of information, conversion of information to intelligence, and usage of intelligence for decision making.  

CI aims at identifying risks and opportunities in a market, early before they become obvious.  

Competitive intelligence is more than just  analyzing competitors of a business; it analyzes the entire environment and stakeholders, that is, customers, competitors, distributors, technologies, and economic data. It is also a tool for decision making. 

Benefits Of Performing Competitive Analysis

As I said earlier, there are advantages that come with keeping an eye on the competition around your market. I do not even think there is a downside to competitive analysis, because all you’re doing, is getting more information to aid your marketing strategies.  

Let us take a look at some of the advantages here.  

• You are able to understand and predict trends in the market.
  

• You get to understand why your competitors are progressing, and makes for improvement in your strategy. 
  

• You also see where your competitors are faulting, and you are able to take advantage of their weaknesses. 
  

• Competitive analysis helps you plan the future of your business. If you can predict a trend, then you can make strategic plans for the advent of that trend.  
  

• Competitive research is also a good *SEO* strategy. 
  

PS: The benefits of performing competitive intelligence are similar to that of competitive research. Note that the processes involved in competitive intelligence are deeper, and the results might be weightier than that of competitive research.

Here’s How To Perform Competitive Research

Competitive analysis is quite simple, a task.  All you have to do, is follow a good approach to it, and use the right tools.  

• Firstly, search for your product or service on the web. The first five websites that come up, are your competitors. 
  

• Analyze your competitors’ websites. Look at the type of content they are giving out. Are the pages on the sites optimized? How are they marketing their products? Overall, just take notes of their strengths and weaknesses, and see how you can improve your marketing plans, or outperform them. 
  

• You can also track their use of keywords. Which keywords do they rank highly for? You can also check Google trends, to know which keyword would rank highly, in the future. 
  

• This may seem like spying, but you can sign up on their newsletters, to see how they interact with customers. 
  

• Keep an eye on their social presence. How well do they interact with their customers on different social platforms? Use the information to your advantage. 
  

• Gather enough information, and track your findings by taking records. This can help you measure how much work you need to do. 
  

This is not an exhaustive list, and may be different from how you approach competitive analysis, so if you have other ways you can go about it, that will be beautiful.  

Some Tools For Competitive Research

Now, we know what competitive research is, advantages of performing competitive research, and some ways we can perform competitive research. I will be listing some tools one can use to perform competitive research below;

• SEMrush
  

• MozBar
  

• BuzzSumo
  

• Ahrefs 
  

• SimilarWeb
  

• Alexa
  

• SpyFu
  

• Serpstat
  

These tools do not only aid your competitive research, but help you generally with your site’s SEO. They may have subscriptions too.  

I would not want to go into much detail about them, but they are great for performing competitive analysis, and if you also want them for SEO, that’s an addition for you.  

Are there other tools you know? I’d be glad to know!  

How Is Competitive Analysis Different From Competitive Intelligence?

It is simple! This should not waste our time at all.  

Yes, from their definitions, they seem so similar, that you would have convinced yourself that there are no differences. While they may be similar, competitive analysis is different from competitive intelligence. How’s that?  

• While competitive analysis focuses on catching up with industry trends within a particular market, competitive intelligence has its focus on the external environment, outside of a market, to get knowledge from a different standpoint. Competitive intelligence studies the competitors within the market space, and outside of the market.  
• Unlike competitive intelligence that has to do with rigorous collation and analysis of data, competitive analysis is just as simple as searching the web, and arranging findings on spreadsheets (that is, if of course you want to.) 
• Competitive research is sometimes mistaken for competitive intelligence, but competitive research is just a part of competitive intelligence. The latter covers a whole, which consists other analyses, and intelligence. 
  

There, those are some differences. Are there other differences you noticed? I’d love to know. Do you think they are not different at all? I’d love to know too!  

I’m glad you got here. I’m glad I got here, too. It’s been a long read, huh? This is where we draw the curtains. 

Till we meet, to read again.

It is wise that you have ample knowledge of who a brand ambassador is, what the jobs of a brand ambassador are, and what to expect from your brand’s audience, before agreeing to being a brand ambassador for that brand that you love.  

In this article, we will talk about some things you should know before saying yes to an ambassadorial deal.  

Shall we dive in? I picture you say, “yes, we shall”.  

Who Is A Brand Ambassador?

A brand ambassador is one who represents a brand; one who embodies the brand or identify of an organization in positive light, in order to draw more customers to that brand or organization.  

The brand ambassador could be a celebrity, or just an everyday person who is able to bring the brand to the eyes of the public, with their influence (and of course, without much difficulties.)  

Most companies engage social media influencers and celebrities, who have large audiences, so that their products or services are easily brought to a newer audience. A few organizations however, represent their own brands by themselves. 

A brand ambassador is someone who knows the values and ethics of an organization, and who stands as a positive spokesman for what the brand represents and offers to the public. He is a mediator between a company and its customers. He is the go-to, whenever customers or even potential customers have questions surrounding the brand.  

Roles Of A Brand Ambassador

The roles of a brand ambassador may seem too much for someone who does not have much audience. But it is quite easy when the situation is the opposite, and when you love that brand. Let us now look at them; 

• A brand ambassador represents a brand;
  

• Promotes the brand,
  

• Maintains good communication with customers of the brand,
  

• Is the key salesperson for a product or service from the brand
  

• Assists in creating content for the brand
  

• Provides feedback on new products or services for the brand, as it relates to the customers
  

• Participates in promotional events, as it relates to the brand
  

• Generates sales and leads for the brand 
  

• Answers queries from customers of the brand
  

• Acts and models for the brand
  

The above, are some roles of a brand ambassador.  

Some Characteristics Of A Brand Ambassador

To be able to influence people to come to like a brand that you are representing, it is imperative that you have some skills, to sharpen your endeavours.  

• Good communication skills 
  

• Good leadership skills 
  

• Excellent marketing skills 
  

• Ability to persuade people 
  

• Trustworthiness 
  

And some others that you can name. Being a brand ambassador requires one to communicate with different kinds of people, and the above skills are of great importance to brand representatives.  

Next, will take a look at what to expect from your brand’s audience.  

The Audience And The Brand

We all know that there are different types of personalities across the world; some we have come to meet, some we will never see. But as a brand ambassador, it is your duty to be able to communicate with a majority of them, if not all types of people. And this is what brings us to this subheading

What To Expect From Your Audience, As A Brand Ambassador?

• Before you are able to win someone over, it is not strange that such person does not like your brand. Such person may be ignorant of what your brand stands for, so it is your duty to understand their ignorance and win them over.
  

• Expect ridiculous queries from customers. This is where your professionalism comes to play. Do not go into a war of words with customers.
  

• Expect slanders. Yes, some customers who may be hard to please may have unpleasant things to say about your brand, even if you serve them adequately. Professionalism again, should not elude you. 
  

• Expect impatience from customers. Some customers are hasty, and would waste no time leaving your tent if you do not respond to their needs as soon as they relate them to you. You need communication skills, here. This also tells you to attend to customer’s queries faster.  

There are so many things to expect from your audience, as humans are quite unpredictable. But great skills towards unfavourable responses, could make for more promotion.  

Being a brand ambassador can be a great task for some people. It can also be nothing much for others. But it is only for an organization to be promoted. Here’s how you can be a brand ambassador. 

How To Become A Brand Ambassador?

• Get the right skills.
  

• Showcase your skills.
  

• Sign an ambassadorial deal.
  

• Implement those skills for the brand you’re working with. 
  

Viola, you are a brand ambassador.  

Not quite long the read, but I hope it was worth it. Have any questions? I’d be more than willing to indulge you.  

Till we meet, to read again.  

What Is Brand Architecture?

Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organization. That is, the build up of different brands under a sole brand, in an organizational structure. It is the way the different brands within an organization are related to, and differentiated from one another. It is also how the sub-brands (brands under the sole brand) support each other, and reinforce the goals of the parent brand to whom they belong. In simpler terms, brand architecture is just how a bigger brand fathers other smaller brands that relate to it. For instance, how Procter and Gamble is the bigger brand, and how Pampers is under it. Now, these sub-brands have a relationship, which is to reinforce or emphasize on the goals of the master brand.

The brand architecture of an organization at any time, is to a large extent, a legacy of previous management decisions, as well as the competitions present in the industry.

Some Models

Now that we have an understanding of what brand architecture is, let us look at the different brand architecture models in our present day.

• Corporate or Umbrella Brands: In this model, it is the master brand that is known to the consumers and stakeholders(employees, shareholders, partners, etc.) These brands may also be used where product descriptions are needed, or in sub-brands. For example; Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

• Endorsed Brands:These brands have a parent brand (which may be a corporate brand, or umbrella brand,) that endorses a sub-brand. This endorsement adds credibility to the endorsed sub-brand in the eyes of consumers.

• Branded House: This is a model where a bigger brand has sub-brands that also carry the master brand. An example of this, is FedEx (bigger brand,) with FedEx Freight as a sub-brand. This model is normally used when companies intend to use the bigger brand’s brand equity to help the sub-brand.

Branded house brand architecture illustration: FedEx brand

• House of Brands: In this model, there is no, visible relationship between the bigger brand and the sub-brands. Procter and Gamble is a popular example, where Procter and Gamble is the master brand with hundreds of sub-brands like Oral-B and Pampers.

House of brands brand architecture illustration: Procter and Gamble brand

• Hybrid Brand Architecture: This brand architecture model is a combination of the house of brands and branded house models. The goal of this structure is for the sub-brands to have similarities with the master brand, whilst maintaining their different brand identities.

How To Build A Brand Architecture?

As an organization grows, the cost of marketing multiplies twice its initial cost. It is for this reason that the development of a brand architecture, is crucial to the growth of that organization.

There are things to put into consideration before deciding on which brand architecture to develop. Some of which are;

• The long term goals of the organization

• The probability of excelling with chosen model

• How chosen model will profit the organization

To develop a brand architecture, one must follow the steps below;

1) Research

This is where you make findings on who your consumers are (buyer persona,) what your consumers need, and how you can satisfy them. You are also to find out how they view your brand, their awareness of what you have to offer, and which of your services they are most interested in. This is so that you know what areas to improve on. You are to perform qualitative research, quantitative research, competitive research (to know how your competitors serve your target customers,) brand equity studies, and audits. It is also wise to make research within the brand, to know the strengths and weaknesses of the brand, and how sub-brands interact with each other.

2) Strategize

Now that you know and understand your consumers’ needs and the strengths of your organization, you are to decide what structure would benefit you the most. It is at this point that you decide how the brands and offerings should be presented, and how the organization’s resources are to be used.

3) Implementation

This is the part where you implement all you have found out, and of course, with the strategy you came up with. It is here also, that you assign responsibilities to sub-brands. For this to work out, all divisions have to be in agreement with whatever decisions you make. And this is why it is crucial that you make adequate research, and informed decisions before implementing. It is also important, so that the master brand and all its sub brands are in sync. In essence, you are to create, announce, and implement a blueprint for the organization. The blueprint is to state;

• The role of each subsidiary (sub-brand)

• The market of each sub brand

• The presentation of each brand

• The affiliation with the master brand

• An hierarchy for decision-making within the organization

How To Manage Brand Architecture?

It is one thing to plan and implement a brand architecture, and it is another, to manage that structure. Managing a brand architecture is a continuous process. However, we would look at some ways we can manage brand architecture. Let’s go in.

To manage a brand architecture, one must maintain some factors in the structure. Some of which are;

1) Rules

The rights and limits of each sub-brand must be clearly stated and communicated. This information is to be made known to each employee and third party involved with the brand.

2) Responsibilities

The responsibilities of each subsidiary should be clearly stated. This allows for efficiency, co-operation, and absence of effort duplication. It even makes production faster, if you ask me. Every part of the structure should be able to play their roles independently.

3) Assets

The brand’s assets should be used appropriately and carefully. This is because the assets are what keep the organization going. This involves brand equity, recognition, and loyalty. It is wise also, to centralize the brand assets, as this aids accessibility and transparency.

4) Customers

One thing common with brands, is the quest to satisfy customers, and gain their trust. This is why it is very important for brands to maintain good relationships with customers. Brands are to remain sensitive to customers’ opinion about their services. This is so that they can make improvements that appeal to them. The brand architecture of a brand should be flexible(that is, easily reassessed to meet customer satisfaction.) I mean, without the customer, is there really a brand?

The main reason for creating a brand architecture is to profit the brand, whilst serving satisfaction to the market. In essence, spiraling sales to great heights and putting smiles on faces of customers. Make sure you have that on your list of goals, as you begin planning and developing your brand architecture.

That will be all for now. Did you learn something? Be free to leave your comments, and share this article if you loved it!