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.