Building A Brand Online

Small businesses don't generally have the budget or time to compete with the big brand names, like Coca-Cola or IBM. That shouldn't mean the exclusion of "must do" basics to build brand awareness for your small business, via the internet. A brand is defined as a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's goods or services as distinctive from the competition.

What's Your Message?

Brand building for a small business isn't just about the products or services you offer, such as logo, taglines, catchphrases, graphics, shapes, colors, sounds, scents, tastes, or movements. For branding purposes these things are important, to be sure. However, branding is not just about the product but about the perception of the purchaser.

Do People Like You?

For the small business owner branding can be as simple as being "you". Do people like and remember you? Do they speak highly of your business and the way you do business with them? If they do, odds are - they will purchase from you rather than your competition. They will also tell their friends and thereby increase your positive brand image in the marketplace, as well as increase sales.

Join The Discussion

With the increasing use of social networking websites, like Facebook and Twitter, it is a must to participate in the discussion to build brand awareness. By keeping customers informed, offering incentives, and providing one-on-one direct contact with them, a continued following will develop.

Find Your Niche

To start, you may want to consider building your brand using a smaller niche market approach. For instance, if you are a small business offering cleaning services you might want to establish a niche market by specializing in blind cleaning services. Start small and then build brand loyalty and offer your full range of services or products.

Keep In Contact

Make sure you build an email list of your existing and new customers. You also want to make sure your website offers a email sign-up function for a mailing list or newsletter. If you create a mailing list you then have a direct marketing window to notify people who are interested in your products. You can also notify them of new products on your website or specials. Send emails regularly, at least once a month. For brand loyalty to continue to grow you should keep in constant contact with your customers.

Our Conclusion

The small business owner is running short on time, running their business. Here are some simple tips to start branding your company that don't take a great deal of time. After all, you have to reach out to new, potential customers seeking your products or services. Why not continually reach out to your existing customers too?

Spoofing, Phishing and Identity Theft

A warning was recently issued by the FBI and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on how criminals on the internet are using new tricks called phishing and “spoofing” to steal our identities. The warning indicated that bogus e-mails can be sent to you from seemingly real companies that try to trick you into giving out personal information – this practice is called “phishing”. This tactic is one of the most troubling scams on the internet.

The FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) has seen a steady increase in complaints that involve some form of unsolicited e-mail directing consumers to a phony "Customer Service" type of website. Assistant Director Monroe said that, “the scam is contributing to a rise in identity theft, credit card fraud, and other Internet frauds.

We wanted to take a moment to educate you on the various terminologies and point out types of threats that you may receive, so you will be better equipped to recognize and prevent these unwanted scams.

Spoofing & Phishing

“Spoofing” or "phishing," frauds attempt to make internet users believe that they are receiving e-mail from a specific, trusted source, or that they are securely connected to a trusted web site, when that is not the case. Spoofing is generally used as a means to convince you to provide personal or financial information that enables the scam artists to commit credit card, bank fraud, or other forms of identity theft.

Email Spoofing

In "e-mail spoofing" the e-mail appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Spam distributors and criminals often use spoofing in an attempt to get email receivers to open and possibly respond to their inquiries.

IP Spoofing

"IP Spoofing" is a technique used to gain unauthorized access to computers, whereby the intruder sends a message to a computer with an IP address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted source.

Link Alteration 

"Link alteration" involves altering the return address in a web page sent to a consumer to make it go to the hacker's site rather than the legitimate site. This is accomplished by adding the hacker's address before the actual address in any e-mail, or page that has a request going back to the original site. If an individual unsuspectingly receives a spoofed e-mail requesting them to "click here to update" their account information, and then are redirected to a site that looks exactly like their Internet Service Provider, or a commercial site like EBay or PayPal, there is an increasing chance that you will follow through in submitting your personal information. Don’t do it.

Tips To Follow

Maybe you already know how to protect yourself, but it bears repeating as we all forget, get busy, or we are in a hurry and don't check things before “clicking”. Here are some tips from the FBI on how to protect yourself from internet fraud and identity theft:

1) If you want to update your information online, always open a new browser window and type in the website address of the legitimate company. Never click to their website from a link within an email.

2) If a website address is unfamiliar, it's probably not safe. Only visit addresses that you have been to before, type them into a fresh browser window, or start at your normal homepage.

3) Most companies require you to log in to a secure site. Look for the lock at the bottom of your browser and make sure “https” is in front of the website address.

4) Check the domain name or website address of the website. Most legitimate sites will have a relatively short internet address that usually is the business name followed by “.com”, “.net”, or “.org”. Spoof sites are more likely to have a very long string of characters in the domain name, with the legitimate business name somewhere in there, or maybe not at all.

5) If you have any doubts or are not sure about an email or website, contact the company directly. Write down the questionable website's address and ask them if the web site address is theirs and that the email request they sent to you is legitimate.

We hope these tips help keep you and your personal information secure on the internet. If you are an existing Site Smart customer and you receive emails that are in question, you are welcome to contact us. We are happy to help scrutinize any “fishy” emails you may receive.