How to really market your company | Pat Perry

As organizations, we spend a lot of time and money to promote, brand and market our respective businesses.

Aside from all the vehicles used to channel branding and marketing messaging, customers, guests, and vendors get a true picture of companies through the following:

• How bills are paid — There are some organizations who still feel that it is good business to stretch out payments. Sure, it may help cash flow, but it can hurt a company’s reputation as being known as a poor or slow payer for money owed for services rendered.

Pay vendors on time when they accomplish the work promised. Companies do not deserve to keep their vendors’ hard-earned money.

• How your people answer the phone or greet guests — Seems like there is nothing that lasts longer than a first impression. Ensure that your employees are well versed in how to provide a great customer and guest experience every time.

• Physical appearance inside and out — Whenever I visit a company I get to their location early and drive around their building and check out landscaping, cleanliness, parking lot, etc. When I enter and sign in, I typically ask the receptionist (when there is one) if I can use the restroom. My restroom “visit” is to check out cleanliness and sanitary conditions. I take the same approach when I am given a tour of their facility. The kitchen always tells a story of the culture as does office and cubicle set up, paint colors, lighting, and artwork.

The visuals on the outside and inside of the building provide me an initial impression relative to organizational pride and often correlates well with the level of employee engagement. This may not be a terribly scientific approach, but in most cases, it proves out to be accurate.

• Website and social media — How visitors perceive your organization through your social media posts and website can have a dramatic impact on your reputation, sales, and talent attraction. These “electronic billboards” are often the front door to your organization.

A well-designed website that successfully tells your company’s story can be incredibly effective to enhance your organization’s image. Thoughtful and content-rich social media posts increase the probability that your organization’s following will include prospective customers and job candidates.

• Recruitment advertising — The classic print ad may be extinct. Corporate recruiters are recognizing that creativity in ads, whether they be online or print, are necessary to catch the attention of individuals actively seeking a new position or passive candidates. With the pool of top talent seemingly shrinking, the competition for these candidates has heated up and resulted in recruitment campaigns that are fun, interesting, eye-catching, and innovative.

• Do great work — Your company’s reputation for consistently providing high-quality services and products delivered on time and at the right price will often be your best marketing and promotional campaign.

• How your company handles mistakes — Nobody’s perfect and mistakes do occur despite the best efforts of your team. How issues are resolved with customers provide good insight into a company’s integrity and their commitment to backing their products and services.

• Your employees — Every person you employ is a salesperson for your company. They are your representatives and ambassadors at and outside of work. When you attract and retain high-caliber, top performing employees your company significantly increases the odds of ensuring that your workforce is making positive impressions with customers, guests, and prospective employees.

What is communicated via your origination’s promotions, branding and marketing should be aligned with reality. A marketing campaign should creatively present the true picture of your company, including culture, employees, products, and services. When they do, they can be incredibly powerful and support the success of your business. Remember though, that real marketing occurs when actions speak louder than your words.

Pat Perry is ERC’s chairman and author of “Re-Shape Re-Define Re-Imagine.”