Put your name on it

I love toast with butter and honey. I love it for breakfast and as a late night snack. As a result, I go through a lot of honey. Today at lunch (yes, I sometimes also have toast with butter and honey for lunch), I looked at the jar and realised that it was almost empty. The environmentalist in me sprang to action first, wondering if the small business owner who sold me the honey would be able to reuse the mason jar. And then my inner marketer got going: “Who sold me this honey? Why isn’t there a label on the jar? Where is their company name? Their logo? Their contact info? Bueller?”

Honey problems aside (because you know I have another bottle stashed away in a closet upstairs), your mom/dad/guardian had it right when you were a kid. Remember how they wrote your name on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g? Maybe they even printed off those little labels and plastered your name on the inside of your shirts and pants. But the point is that everyone knew that your things belonged to you.

The same applies in business. Make sure that your company name, logo and contact info are on every item that gets exchanged between you and clients (potential and existing). This includes all invoices, envelopes, and hard copy deliverables.

And it especially applies to all of the online content that you are creating and sharing on your website, blog and social media networks, such as whitepapers, online videos, photos and quotes. When it comes to social media, it’s all about sharing. So if people are going to spread around the content that you spent your precious time creating, it better have your name written all over it! Have a fun quote that you want to share? Use a free online photo tool such as PicMonkey to add your company’s logo and website address. Sharing a free whitepaper on your website? Put your company’s contact info on all of the pages and include a call-to-action at the end.

And selling honey at the local craft market? Slap a label on those yummy jars and tell me where I can get some more!