Spring cleaning tips for tech branding
Many are accustomed to thinking of "spring cleaning" as a set of chores to tidy up a home or office. However, tech companies seeking to merge, acquire or be acquired in 2015 might want to conduct a spring cleaning of their brand presentation. Here are three tips to refine your presence at the start of spring:
Streamline your calling cards. If your business is on the cusp of pitching a merger or acquisition, it needs to put its best foot forward. This means that reviewing a mission statement, updating a company PowerPoint, spiffing up business cards and upgrading your website may be in order. Lead team members should brainstorm to see where your company's strengths and weaknesses lie in terms of marketing to prospective buyers. This process is particularly helpful on social media:
"Refresh all your social media profiles this time of year by making sure you have added a current photo, website URL, company name and position," explains Karen Leland of Entrepreneur. "Include new projects, publications or other relevant achievements. In addition, if you have a branded visual look for your website, carry it through to your Twitter and Facebook backgrounds."
Your brand should be distinctive and memorable, so look for the areas of marketing that don't deliver. It's impossible to solve those problems without identifying them first.
Hone your voice. It takes many companies a long time to refine their voice on social media and promotional materials. Consider compiling a brief that describes in a nutshell how you'd like to come across to the public. Whether it's breezy and casual or formal and authoritative, skim your existing materials for examples of "on-message" posts and outliers. In the early days of your website, blog posts might sound amateurish or strike the wrong tone. When spring cleaning, keep what works and purge what doesn't.
Joellyn Sargent of Maximize Social Business explains that companies with a longstanding web presence might have some embarrassing or irrelevant material on the books.
"Instead of hanging on to last season's fashions, consider tossing materials that are no longer relevant or don't fit your brand," she explains. "Prime candidates include ancient YouTube videos for products you no longer sell, SlideShare presentations for old campaigns, or other social media dust bunnies that need to be shown the door."
Improve search engine optimization (SEO). One of the problems companies face is failing to rise to the top of web searches. Make sure that the keywords your business trades on are emphasized on every post you make, and be sure to include contact information and a call to action. The more you reinforce those basics, the better SEO your company will generate.
It's important to think of corporate branding as a living, evolving thing. As a result, curating your presence online requires regular review and self-evaluation. This spring, abandon the practices that aren't working and pilot new efforts to position your brand online. Whether it's updating your blog more frequently or narrowing the focus of posts to your website, your company should enjoy stronger search engine recognition. The more effectively businesses do this, the more attractive they will be to M&A prospects.
With the guidance of an experienced M&A advisor, your company can best position itself for a merger or acquisition. Contact us today to learn more about our services that can help your business develop the most effective merger or acquisition strategy.