When it comes to your brand, assume nobody knows what the f*ck you’re talking about.
Brand builders assume everyone understands their brand. Why wouldn’t they, it’s sooooo important right?
In reality, most people don’t give a hoot.
There are far more interesting and entertaining things to consume online than your little attempt to make an “impact.”
They don’t know what you do or how you do it.
They don’t know who you serve or why.
Who cares!
Okay, got that out of the way.
Now, obviously, some people care, otherwise you wouldn’t have a brand.
But you likely need more people to care more about your message in order to survive.
Am I right?
We interrupt this newsletter to bring you an important message: The information below assumes that you already have clarity around who you serve, your product/service, and your philosophies. If those are too far off, none of this will work (check the branding checklist). Thank you. Let’s get back to the program.
Let’s break down something you can do over the next few months to dramatically expand your brand.
Now, our goal is to communicate our message to our people and move them through attention, interest, desire, action (aida).
The 2 things you’re likely doing wrong are:
- Not putting your message out there
- Putting the wrong message out there
We get in our own way and change up our message or strategy before even giving it a chance.
Think of your brand as a box.
Inside that box, your people can start to understand your brand, your message, and build trust. They can move through AIDA.
You need to know where the edges of your brand box are so you don’t wander beyond them.
Try this…
Write out the top 10 pain points that your people experience. The top 10 problems your business solves.
Here are mine:
- Wandering brand (noisy, confusing, fragmented, unorganized)
- No brand consistency, traction or momentum
- Discombobulated digital real estate
- No brand strategy / lack of direction (winging it / blending in)
- Over-engineering their design — confusing their audience
- Wasting time & money rebranding their business — over and over
- Struggle speaking about their business clearly
- Their look doesn’t match their words or convey the right image
- Struggle to attract new customers
- Brand imposter syndrome (lack of belief/vision, perfectionism, procrastination, overwhelm, underselling)
Next, write out the 10 most important brand philosophies, ideas, and frameworks, that solve your customers problems. These make up the building blocks of your brand.
These are the things you talk about in your newsletter, on your podcast, and on social media. This is what you want them to understand and hire you for.
Here are mine:
- The Brand Ecosystem
- Design is hard, overdesign is easy
- The ROI of design
- We process visuals faster than text
- You have a business, not a brand
- You have a branding problem, not a marketing problem
- The wandering brand
- Why do they choose you, over them?
- The Brand Health Assessment
- BrandBox (Story, strategy, design)
These are the things that I came up with that support me on my mission to help brands get clear and organized (stop wandering).
Theoretically, I could create content around these 10 topics forever. I could write a book about this. I could start a podcast and ONLY talk about these things over and over again.
I can use different angles to explain each one to different people and different parts of the brain.
Such as:
- Visuals
- Stories
- Case studies
- Testimonials
- (+) If you solve the problem
- (-) Not solving the problem
- Humor
- Analogies
- Stats / studies
- Expert Opinions / interviews
Having this “box” frees me up and clarifies my brand to the world. It makes content creation easier. It makes growing and scaling easier. It makes life easier.
So write out those two lists, 20 total bullets, and then work from that. Stay in the box for a few months and see if you can find a cadence that works for you.
If you feel like a broken record, good.
If you start getting more engagement from your audience, you’re on the right track, don’t slow down.
You got this.
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Updates and stuff
- Latest Podcast Ep — Gotta Have a Reason (Without a reason, you’ll give up before you get started. But coming up with the right reason isn’t always cut and dry. Let’s explore).
- The Box – I finally got around to updating The Box Brand / website and it’s one of my new favs. Check out the website: theboxcommunity.com
