A Brand By Any Other Name

Google the word “brand”, and you’ll get 6,020,000,000 results in .66 seconds. A recent Entrepreneur article states: “Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer”. We’ve said before that brand includes the personality of the organization—the voice/tone, language, key messages, and how the organization meets the needs of key audiences. Brand is the essence of what the organization does, its competencies, and its values.

Building a Brand
Crafting a brand is an art…and a science. What we’ve seen works best for our clients is a partnership that begins with a strategy session. And with this brainstorming process, we find it valuable to hit on what best describes the essence of the organization…and what absolutely does not. Sara Smith, a great business coach with whom we’ve worked, can be credited with the phrase “No, not that”. Sometimes, it’s just as important to know what you are…and what you’re not. This certainly applies when setting up a brand and leading to “Aha! This is it!” moment.

Often, the logo is synonymous with brand. However, there are other components of the organization’s make-up that should be considered prior to creating a logo. Is there sense of environmental awareness that the organization wants to get across in the marketplace? This might direct the logo development. Is there a certain audience that the group needs to target? Going after a high-end, luxury market is very different from communicating with a wider audience. These pieces should be considered when building a brand.

Beyond the logo comes the brand attributes, which should be a part of every external communication channel. From digital channels, like social media and website, to traditional marketing collateral, the voice and style of the brand should be consistently communicated. Once this is determined, it’s essential that all ongoing content strategy and tactics tie back to the brand.

Our Brand
When we set out to craft our business’s brand, we went through this exercise for ourselves. What type of niche did we want to work within and how will we communicate with these clients? With our value proposition, knowledge, and skillset, what exactly would we offer to the world? What attributes describe us?

You might notice our lingo is energetic and friendly. Our main color is an attention-getting bright pink; our logo is a sleek bubble. Why? Because our brand attributes include an energetic—bubbly!—approach to bringing solutions to the organizations we support. These brand attributes are not a happy accident; they’re part of a well-thought-out process to share who we are and the value we bring to our clients. And we’re happy to bring this knowledge to your business to help your brand, whether you’re starting a business or refreshing your brand. Click here to chat us up!

7 Tips to Keep Your Brand Consistent on Social Media

I often get asked, “What is branding exactly?” The definition of brand according to the American Marketing Association is “a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers”. In today’s social media world, it encompasses so much more. It includes not only the name, design, and symbol but colors, fonts, tone of voice, and overall feel of each profile.

Trying to keep your brand clear on social media can be a daunting task but one that is well worth it. Just let these statistics sink in for a moment:

• The average revenue increase attributed to always presenting the brand consistently is 23%. Source: Lucidpress
• Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%. Source: University of Loyola
• Brands that are consistently presented are 3 to 4 times are more likely to experience brand visibility. Source: Lucidpress

Now that you get how important a consistent brand is, what do you do about it? While hiring a professional to help guide you is one way; if that isn’t an option, here are some things you can do now to keep your brand consistent online:

1. Use the same social media handles (or as close as you can) across all platforms so you are easy to find.
2. Use the same profile picture and cover photos so you are recognizable from one social media platform to another.
3. Make sure your “About” section and bio descriptions are relatively the same across all platforms. Don’t say X on one and Y on another; this confuses potential customers.
4. Use the same logo and colors throughout all social media profiles. This includes using similar filters on photos, so they have the same feel to them.
5. Pick 2-3 fonts to use in graphics and stick to them. You may need to create different graphics for each platform but keep the fonts and color palettes the same.
6. Keep your voice and feel consistent. For example, if you are a cutting-edge brand, make sure all copy, pictures, and videos have a modern look and feel on all platforms. Creating templates for each platform for each type of post can make this easier. Keeping topics similar everywhere can also help. A consistent look and voice gives you wider recognition.
7. This does not mean post the same exact thing across all platforms. Each platform works differently, and you need to adapt the media to the platform. Posts can have the same look and voice with some tweaks for each platform. Sometimes you need to experiment to see what works best where.

Keeping your branding consistent will bring you better recognition in the social media world. This will build the trust and loyalty customers—and potential clients—feel for your company.

Want to follow me for more social media tips? You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, or via my website.

Marketing: An Elevator Pitch

"What do you do?” It’s a question that is casually asked in Ubers, at cocktail parties, and in elevators around the globe. There’s even a term for it—“the elevator pitch”: a succinct reiteration of the solutions or a sales pitch. When I tell people that I own my own marketing firm and work with organizations to help them meet their communication goals, there is typically a blank stare. Then realization hits, eyes light up, and the response: “You do PR!”

Back to the drawing board to perfect my own one-liner about my business, I’ve done a lot of pondering about exactly what I offer my clients. Henceforth, I came up with the golden trifecta of marketing communications, planning and content development, and strategic storytelling. This has really clarified my offer to small- to medium-sized businesses and the non-profit organizations I support.

But then, the dreaded “You do graphic design?” or “Does that mean social media?” pops up again and again. So, to set the record straight, what is marketing? The better question to me is, “What does marketing include?”

Brand
A good strategic marketing communications plan includes sections on brand. “Oh, a brand is my logo, right?” A company’s brand certainly includes a logo, but in addition to visual cues of design and colors, it’s the essence of what the organization does, its competencies, and its values. Brand includes the personality of the group—what is the voice/tone, language, key messages, and how the organization meets the needs of key audiences.

Strategy
Once the foundation of brand is set, then an overall marketing strategy can be determined. This includes deciding on the best tactics—like leveraging advertising campaigns and public relations—to market the brand. While a paid social media push is a fantastic idea for product company with incredible imagery, it may not be the best option for a professional services organization. This is where strategy comes into play. And crafting the right story—via this strategic storytelling I keep mentioning—is crucial.

Tactics
We think content strategy should be at the center of any strategic marketing plan, feeding channels such as website, public relations, social media, blog posts, etc. The goal is to showcase our clients’ expertise in their fields, and strategic storytelling and sharing client’s unique value proposition is at the cornerstone of our communication efforts.

Public relations: absolutely essential—with the correct messaging. Graphic design, snazzy infographics, and catching imagery…yasss! Carefully planned events and orchestrated launches can be excellent parts of a larger marketing strategy. Newsletters…even handwritten thank you notes can be a more traditional tactical arm used well with other components.

I think you get the point—all of the above are encompassed in the bigger grouping of “marketing”. And we do a lot of it…it’s in our DNA and part of our everyday work. Cue the elevator music…and please contact us if we can help you on any of your strategic marketing and communications objectives.