Branding is Not About the Deck—It’s About the Decisions Recently, I ran across a social media post from someone frustrated that brand strategy has become more about production and pitches than purpose. I understand their lament. Brand strategy is supposed to guide decisions and drive action. Too often, however, it’s reduced to “the deck”: a…
How Your Brand Helps Your Business Grow When Change is Happening We’re almost exactly five years from the first few weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, which unraveled so much of the world we knew. Those early days can best be described as chaotic and confusing. Fast forward to today, and we find ourselves in a…
Let ‘Em Cook: Think Like a Chef to Build a Better Brand The slang phrase “Let ’em cook” means to allow someone to do what they do well. It can also be an expression of the desire for someone to have the freedom to do something. I enjoy cooking, and I do most of the…
Why Marketing is Difficult Without Branding I recently engaged with a small business owner regarding some of his challenges with marketing his business. His business was doing well but he wanted to grow even more. This business owner was starting to explore more outbound ways to market his business, but was running into a few…
How Understanding Humans Helps You Understand Your Brand I recently gave a presentation about branding to a cohort of small business founders as part of a business accelerator training course. It became clear to me that one of the best ways to get them to understand how brands are structured was to relate it to…
5 Tips for Boosting Your Credibility Through Branding Your brand is a series of promises. Credibility can be thought of as the confidence customers have that you will fulfill your promises to them. It is something that your customers believe you are and believe you have. Credibility is a matter of perception and reputation, which…
3 Questions Your Brand Must Answer Most people understand that brands are more than just logos. Your brand is also the answer to a series of questions that deals with more than just what your business does or the product it sells. You’ve likely heard of the concept popularized by Simon Sinek of “starting with…
3 Ways to Use Search Intent to Boost Search Engine Optimization Your business offers products and services that you know people need. You’ve narrowed down your target audience, and have even created a presence for yourself online through a website and social media. So why is your traffic still slow? It is most likely because…
4 Ways to Build Your Reputationships In our recent Lunch & Lab on the 4 R’s of Brand Building, we discussed the importance of building what we called Reputationships as a key brand building skill. Reputationship is of course a combination of the words reputation and relationship. Reputationships are professional introductions or acquaintances, usually through…
3 Types of Research That Every Business Should Use for Brand Building In today’s marketplace, every business can and should be doing research to help grow its brand. Research is one of our 4 R’s of Brand Building that any business can do while still focusing on their major revenue-producing activities. Research is broadly defined…