Brush Off Your Brand: 12 Steps for the New Decade- Third Step: Share Your Passion

Many of us do what we love and love what we do. This should come across in all your branding—your messages, your electronic presence, your advertising, your face-to-face encounters and video. Find a way to promote your passion.

Ask yourself what are your messages to your clients. Think about places you place your messages. Here are some to consider:

• Advertising
• Electronic presence
• Business Cards
• Brochures and fliers
• E-mails
• Letters

In all these communications, you are presenting yourself without being there and so the passion is more challenging to convey. However, the well-crafted sentence or phrase can be extremely effective. Spend time on your written communication and if you need help with writing, take a course or invite a marketing company to work with you.

Your electronic presence is significantly important today with the rise of social media and dependence on e-mail. Are you paying attention to your passion when you compose for this media? Review the following:

• Website
• Inside919- profile and comments
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LikedIn
• MySpace
• Blog

Be sure your advertising is in the right publications and that what you are projecting is aligned to your brand.

Face-to-face is often the most effective way to present your brand. Are you doing what needs to be done to promote yourself successfully? Do you speak with pride about your services and products? Do you give that special touch when in conversations? Do you have a basic theme you want to get across? A few things to consider are:

• What you wear
• How you carry yourself
• Your voice
• Your 10-second and 30-second description of your business
• What you do for your clients

Finally, video is a special instance since this has the advantage of being a little like face-to-face. Using video you can craft that message and prepare for yourself, how you are dressed, the background, how you carry yourself, how your personality is portrayed and much more so that the brand can be honed to exactly what you want.

However you communicate with clients, customers, vendors, alliance partners and others, be conscious of your brand and expose your passion. This strategy can go a long way toward winning others as clients and customers.

Brush off your Brand: 12 Steps for the New Decade Second Step- Clear the Decks

After completing step 1, "Reviewing the Past," it is time to move forward.

2. Clear the Decks

Look outside. The trees have dropped their leaves to make room for new growth. Birds have migrated for the winter and will return to build new nests.

With the new year and decade approaching, you need to be ready. The first step, even before planning, is to clean out what you no longer need. I have been going through all the shelves in my office and dumped a lot of stuff that no longer serves me.  I will continue to do so into the new year so new business can come my way. This used to seem silly to me; why should cleaning out the old be necessary?  I found out that when the clutter of the old surrounded me, my mind was not as prepared to see and take advantage of what was coming.

Is your office cleared for action?  I still need to find a place for business cards that cover one corner of my desk.  Here are a few other tasks that you can accomplish quickly:

• Have new notepads ready for 2010 and finish up those used this year.

• Organize your computer application CDs and other computer-based supplies
• Check to see that all my pens work and my pencils have erasers
• Organize any papers laying around from current and finished projects 
• Make sure you have a supply of business cards and other branded items to do business
• Clear our and archive files for completed projects on your computer
• Delete unnecessary email
• Check connections to and from your computer
• Store what you don’t need

With a clean and cleared space in your office, you can be ready for new business and as you work on brushing off your brand, you will be better prepared to go through the steps in an uncluttered environment.

Brush off Your Brand: 12 Steps for the New Decade: First Step

Step 1.
Review the Past

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
-- George Santayana"

When you look back at the last year, you evaluate many aspects of your life and your business but one overlooked and critically important component is brand. Your brand in a word is your “promise.” How well have you kept your promise and what can you do to polish your promise for next year?

People ask me what I mean by the brand being the promise. Your brand is your promise made to your customers and clients. Maybe you offer to increase their revenues, improve their health or improve their processes. Whatever the case, as you can see, the brand is not your service or your product, it is what they expect as a result of that product or service.

People don’t want a cell phone, they want the ability to communicate and find enjoyment wherever they are. Some want to text, others to talk and others to surf the web or play games. So the first thing to look at in reevaluating your brand is what do your customers want.

However to answer this question, as you know, you must know who your clients are. Seems like a no-brainer, but wait. Has your client base shifted over the last year? Are you serving more women than men? Is your business aging with your customers or still targeting the same age as you did a few years ago? How else have your customers changed? To answer this you might want to list your 2009 customers and compare them with years past. Not considering these changes may mislead you as you spend money to make your brand known.

Once answered you can return to looking at your customers’ wants and needs. Ask yourself, do my customers need my services/products or do they want them? You might think, especially in the current economy, that people only buy what they need. Even when times are tough, people still buy what they want. Although people are more cautious with spending, they still spend on wants. Hollywood box-office receipts set a new record this year.

Do your customers need your service/products? When your offering is a need, you will have competitors. Your task is to be sure they know you are the best source for that product or service. What promise accompanies your offering? Many people today put off purchasing needed items and services until they can no longer go without them. Then they make a last-minute decision. How can you be ready?

When your offering fills a want, you may have fewer competitors. Art, boutique items, s and specialized services like workshops may only be available from one vendor but again how do you promote your brand so that customer knows to come to you. Even if you have no competition, you are still vying for their dollars.

You might need help from an outside set of eyes. Ask a friend to help or bring in a marketing consultant to aid you in this activity

So to brush up your brand, you need to review your customers shifting wants and needs, your offerings and how the two can be presented within your brand to attract new and keep existing customers and clients. Your brand is the basis for accomplishing this challenge.

Next entry is about Clearing the Decks.

Brush off Your Brand: 12 Steps for the New Decade

When you look back at the last year, you evaluate many aspects of your life and your business, but one overlooked and critically important component is brand.  Your brand in a word is your “promise.”  How well have you kept your promise and what can you do to polish your promise for next year?

1. Review the Past

To brush up your brand, you need to review your customers shifting wants and needs, your offerings and how the two can be presented within your brand to attract new and keep existing customers and clients. Your brand is the basis for accomplishing this challenge.

 2. Clear the Decks

Look outside. The trees have dropped their leaves to make room for new growth. Birds have migrated for the winter and will return to build new nests.  With the new year and decade approaching, you need to be ready. The first step, even before planning, is to clean out what you no longer need.

3. Share Your Passion

Many of us do what we love and love what we do. This should come across in all your branding—your messages, your advertising, your face-to-face encounters and in your electronic presence. Find a way to promote this passion.

4. Refine your Message

Following your review of the past, you may need to craft a new message or at least update your previous one. Stay within your brand when you compose the new and don’t be afraid to use some of the old message if it is still relevant. You may not change your logo, name or tagline but be sure your message targets your audience.

5. Re-broadcast Your Message

Get the word out with your new message.  Determine where your clients and customers go and what they watch to assure that they will get the message and find a way to place it there. Is it on the web or in print or in person? Carefully consider these and other options.

6. Review Your Use of Social Media

What social media do you use?  Inside919, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, others?  Be sure your brand is considered each time you type. To improve your reputation as an expert, communicate about subjects that reinforce your brand.

7. Reload Advertising

Where do you need to be seen to be successful?  Based on your reviews in Step 1 and Step 4, seek out sources your audience will see.  What do they read? Where do they go? What do they watch?

8. Cast a Critical Eye on Your Web Presence

Look at your website again. Consider how people find it. Once theydo, is there anything to make them want to stay and then return (is it sticky)? Does it reflect your new message?  Does it talk to your customers?  Is it a site people want to visit?  Do you offer value or is it just another brochure copied  to the web? What resources do you offer?  If the value is not there, no one’s coming back.

9. Consider Video and Audio

With the web as an expanded tool, many are offering both audio and video for their sites. People prefer to listen to you or watch you on a video rather than read a lot of your words. Have you considered video testimonials?

10. Blogging in the Avalanche

With the proliferation of blogging, the net is filled with entries about everything from business and health advice to journals of young and old. So if you want to create and maintain a blog, plan to do so in a way that is consistent with your brand. Blogging about a concert may let your friends know where you were last night but will not promote you in your area of expertise. Have a clear direction for your blog and keep your blog entries on track and people will maintain interest.

11. What Are Your Give-aways?

Whether on-line of in person, people have become accustomed to getting something for free. What will you give away?  Whether it is just your business card, an e-book on your website or a promotional item, be certain it promotes your brand and be sure it has value. Will your audience take it home and discard it now or at the end of next year?  Can it be used? Consider these questions before investing time and money.

12. Re-assess Your Alliances

Everything changes. Businesses are no exception. Some have vanished in the last year; new ones are sprouting up. Others are morphing to offer new services and products. Check your alliances and links on your website to be sure these businesses still exist and are still in alignment with your brand and direction for the new year. Re-affirm your connections with those you have been working with and break relations with those where you don’t have mutual benefit.

Follow these 12 steps and your brand will be shiny and ready for the new decade. Since this is just an overview of the steps, a series of entries will follow with more details. Although these will not be completed by the new year, continued refinement of your brand is a year-round activity; so please watch for successive postings with more in-depth information about completing these steps.

Welcome to the new decade and may you find great prosperity and joy for your life and business.