Let’s face it, marketing can be hard! In each marketing blog post, we hope you’ll find the information you need for your business marketing success.
Branding Your Business in 5 Steps
Thinking about branding your business? Are you worried it will be too hard and too difficult? There’s no reason it needs to be either difficult or hard. What are you waiting for? You can create a world-class brand in just 5 easy steps. 1. Create your branding vision The first thing to do is to decide what…
The 5 Most Shared Adverts Of 2013
The viral video is one of the most powerful tools in marketing today. But getting a marketing video to go viral is exceptionally difficult. The video has to have quirky content, mass appeal and must strike a chord with millions of people. If you can come up with a clever ad that ticks all the…
The Digital Brand As A Persona
When it comes to branding, there are a variety of ways for a company to approach their internal process. For some companies, it means identifying terms and ideas that they want associated with their organization, and crafting their marketing around those concepts. For others, it involves using imagery as the nexus of their efforts. However,…
What Not to Do With Your Google+ Profile
People have been flocking to Google+, which is quickly becoming a favorite social media platform. Google+ is an incredible way of meeting new people, connecting with prospective customers, and building more ties with your consumers. Many businesses don’t quite get it yet being a huge site with regular updates and all, but Google+ is a…
150th Finding Brand Post and a Big Announcement!
Can you believe it? This is the 150th post of the Finding Brand blog! What a ride it’s been. When I started the Finding Brand Blog, it was with the intention of demystifying marketing and branding. I think this blog has been successful in that endeavor. And throughout the years, you’ve shared with me what…
How to Carry Your Brand Over to Your Communication Tools
People often think that they’re great communicators, when in truth, they’re not as skilled as they assume. Failing to listen, ignoring nonverbal signs and speaking unclearly can all create communication barriers. In writing, a couple of important communication elements are removed, which can make it even more difficult to actually say what you mean to…
Why Branding Matters for Businesses of All Sizes
I was on the phone the other day with someone who told me in no uncertain terms that “branding, for most businesses, was a waste of time and money.” This person’s position was that branding was OK for companies like Xerox or Nike, but far too expensive and far too time-consuming for average businesses, who…
Tips for Using Evernote in Marketing
You know how it goes, you find a great article online that has a great fact or tidbit in it. Later that week (or month) you are talking about just that article with a colleague and you want to send them the article…but here’s the rub. You have to find that article again. With so…
A Declaration of Passion
I have talked a lot throughout this blog about the power of a manifesto, why they are important, and how to draft them. However, I was talking with a client this week and I described it, for the first time, as a “Declaration of Passion.” Moreover, in that moment, the somewhat nebulous concept became clear and…
Top 15 Finding Brand Blog Posts in 2012
I have a confession to make, somehow I blinked and January was G-O-N-E! Has that ever happened to you? I had intended to do another recap of the most popular blog posts on the Finding Brand Blog in early January. But, it appears that ship has sailed. So, a month late, here’s the annual recap…
Annual Strategic Marketing Plan Template
Ever look around madly for the ideal Annual Strategic Marketing Plan Template? I know I have — more times than I care to admit. Some are too involved for most companies (literally, there are 625 page books written on the topic). Others worry more about tactics than strategies. Some forget the most important part —…
4 Critical Components to Successful Brand Management
Brand Management can cause all but the most serious marketing professionals to blanch. Mostly because the phrase “Brand Management” sounds like an obscure, highly technical body of knowledge. To make matters worse, the normal online resources for learning about a concept do a poor job explaining what it is. But the reality is that successful…
Google Plus And Small Business Owners
Google Plus And SEO: Lately we have been getting more inquiries from our clients regarding Google Plus and whether or not they should take the time to open an account. A lot of the inquiries are due to the ‘search’ benefits that come with Google Plus. While I have been a wait and see person…
Your Brand is About Emotion
I know I’ve talked about it in the past, but it bears repeating, your brand is entirely about evoking an emotional response…we buy from brands we like. In fact, if your brand invokes anything less than passion, you’re missing the mark and that means you’re missing opportunity. While I work with, and talk about, this…
The Secret to a Great Brand is Just One Thing
Know what the secret to a great brand is? One thing – just one thing. Focusing on one thing when branding for nonprofits is admittedly the hardest part of creating an amazing brand. The trick, as Jack Palance in “City Slickers” reveal, is figuring out what your “One Thing” is. It’s going to take discipline…
Writing the Brand Manifesto and Brand Tagline for the Brand Book
Now that you’ve had the opportunity spend some time getting acquainted with your Brand for your Brand Book, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and write (or include) your Brand Manifesto and Tagline. (If you’ve been following Finding Brand for awhile now, you might recall me addressing manifestos before in The Secret Sauce.) The…
What’s Your Brand Story?
From start to finish, a well-executed brand is really just about telling a good story. Well-written stories are fairly predictable in their format, they have a beginning, middle, and end. The pieces of the story that are being told are consistent with, and advance, the storyline. They don’t pursue irrelevant tangents, and each paragraph and chapter…
Branding Consistently
The hardest part about branding is keeping tight control on your branding consistency — always using the same logo, sticking with your tag line, maintaining your presence in the media, sticking with YOUR plan. The reason that branding consistently is hard is that it’s so much easier, and often faster, to get things done and…
Branding With Actions – Not Words
I’m pleased to be the guest blogger this week over on the Marketing by Deepak blog. Click on over here to learn about why Branding With Actions – Not Words is critical to your business success. Too often, when we consider branding, we focus entirely on the name of the business, the smartness of the tag line,…