Are you on a mission to give benefit with a competitive edge?

What a mouthful!

So let me explain a little further.

The web, and Web 2.0 in particular, has given the power to customers in a way that has never been seen before.

Before the web, brands were simply 'presented' to customers – no interaction, no real method of feedback, and sometimes without a care for what the customers think!

That's all changed – customers are now blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, posting messages in forums, making videos on You Tube, and even making their own websites to talk about brands – both in a positive and negative way.

Customers can shape your brand as much as, and indeed probably more in some cases, than any advertising campaign or marketing drive.

Which is great if your customers are behind your brand, believe in what you offer and wan to put out good messages about you.

However – if you don't handle your brand properly, you've got problems. Those bad statements made about you on the web are there for everyone to see, and for everyone to watch how you handle them. That's the power of the Customer vs the Brand these days.

So how do you get your customers to enthuse about you? Well in the days of the Social Web, it's about more than making money. It's about giving your customers something to believe in, something they can get behind and something that matters to them. And most of all it's about being authentic. As long as we are authentic in the messages we convey, we will have a very strong chance of being provided with Word of Mouth Positivity.

So how to do this?

• Mission
• Benefits
• Competitive Edge

First write a simple and honest Mission Statement that tells your customers what you stand for and want to achieve.

Then sum up the benefits you bring to your customers. Show them how you've improved the lives or fortunes of others, and how it can be done for them.

Then make sure you're competitive. This doesn't mean being the cheapest, it means having a compelling message that makes that customer choose you over someone else. Because they believe in you.

And then make sure that you and your employees push these messages at all times. Live them and breathe them, because if you don't believe in them, how can your customers?

We'll talk more about Sales Messaging in future blogs, but in the meantime, protect your brand and make it your mission to give benefit with a competitive edge – you never know who might be talking about you!