Dear Ms. Marketing: I need some new marketing ideas. Can you help?

The ideas don’t necessarily need to be new to have a good impact.  With all the holidays coming up there are lots of things you can do to set your lab apart from the competition. First of all, let’s look at Halloween. This can be a great marketing tool. How many Halloween cards do you get from your customers or supplies?  How many do you send out? Try sending Halloween cards. If you don’t have time to get some printed go out and buy some special ones for new and old customers. Another good get-your-name-out-there idea is make up Halloween bags for your local customers and send employees out dressed up. Everyone likes candy and a good laugh. Make sure you have your business cards in your bags so you get all the credit.

Thanksgiving is another good time to send cards. If you think about it we all send out some kind of Christmas/holiday cards but if you want to be different, send out Thanksgiving cards you are sure to get noticed.

When the holidays start coming around remember some of the things you like best and give those to your customers. If you like the home made cookies, pies or cakes remember your accounts may like them better than store brought ideas. This will also give you some time to visit without selling.

Branding is also a good marketing tool.  If you don’t have a brand and or a logo you may want to think about developing one. Many small companies neglect the area of branding. Branding includes things like image, logo and message. The best thing you can do is not over complicate things. A brand is basically a logo. It tells about the company. It is the image you want people to experience when they think about your company. 


A few common objections that small company have when thinking about branding is that it is too expensive to have a logo and it is only for large companies or corporations. If you break down these two common objections into small parts maybe you can come up with a brand.

You can think about want you want in your design and write it down. Remember you want to design a logo or brand that will say who you are and that you are truly unique. A good place to find some talent to help design your logo is your local high school art department or if you have a college they may also be able to help.
Also, there are Web sites that can help and they will take bids on your project. 

Only big corporations use branding. This is not true. Branding is not only for large companies but individuals are now packaging themselves as a personal corporation with press kits, online portfolios and blogs all of this will help to keep lines of communications open between them and their customers.

Creating emotions and customer expectations around a company’s product or service is the goal of most brands. Any branding is only as successful as the strategies and people who carry out those strategies. So think carefully and wisely. Remember cute may not be the way you want to be remembered.

When you do start to design or redesigning remember if you look at something from a different vantage point, it can be as refreshing as a crisp fall day.

So get out there and just do it.