What Is Your Branding Story?

Well Vera, I am trying to initiate an html eMailmmarketing program. I refer to it as eMail harvesting. Blogging as you are aware is huge in my marketing mix. I also network and do public speaking. I’m currently finishing up on my 51st issue of my FREE monthly eNewsletter. I’m “that close ” to releasing two new eBooks on my musings from blogging over the last two years. I have a hard copy brochure with case history inserts that I use to acquaint myself to warm leads.

I’ve recently ordered some pain point postcards to distribute. Then of course there are the online banners ads and Google adsense. Referrals play a large role in new business.

I also partner with complimentary firms to flush out opportunities. I am currently working with a few speakers in Detroit, to develop a start-up business program.

My mantra is to never stop my promotional wheels from spinning. I have a do-it-yourself digital product that I am re-structuring into a web-based product.

As I have mentioned, blogging is huge with me and I’ve gotten plenty of press opportunities from it. Most recently a great feature in the July/August issue of America’s Best Magazine on branding small business.

I keep my website up to date (I’ve recently added podcasts of Free Branding Tips). Content is very important to keep visitors staying longer. I spend a great deal of time promoting myself. I get a sense of pride in my efforts. The biggest mistake small business people can make is to not dedicate a good amount of time to self-promotion. I find the biggest investment is effort not money.

I’m interested in following this thread as I’m always looking for new ideas as well.

Ed

This one’s for ED, WOW! I can’t get over how much you pack in there man! You are one disiplined man. I’m totally impressed and enjoy reading your posts, very informative and sometimes quite amusing, since you do all these things, how about a post on time management,I’m sure you must be good at it.

I don’t know what I could tell you about time management Karlla.

I keep a list of promotional items that I want to accomplish on my Mac, and check them off as I accomplish them. Nothing bothers me more than not accomplishing tasks I set for myself. I am very disciplined that way. Coming up (before I went on my own) I was trained at an ad agency and daily newspaper. At both places, high production was the key. The more productive you were the more money the company made. Since I also freelanced at the time, I was keenly aware of this essential business fact.

Today they call it multi-tasking; to me it is just moving from project to project. Let’s say I have a list of seven ideas – I would have each of those seven at some stage of completion. As time permits, I would finish and check them off my list. Many are connected, so flow was generally natural.

It goes back to an earlier post I wrote on planners and doers. I am a doer. Planning is nice, but I want to get it in motion. If you want to benefit from results, you’ve got to get in the game. I spend about 2 hours a night blogging, spreading my comments around the blogosphere and working on MY projects. For instance, I got my two new eBooks into play today. My deadline was tomorrow according to my promotional material. And if you’re anything like me, I hate terms like “Under Construction” and Coming Soon “. They both mean “I haven’t got my act together.”

I guess this was the post you requested Karlla.

Thanks for sharing Ed! I too have had alot on the go with a membership style site and an expo that is almost ready to go live. I must drive you nuts with the Coming Soon on the Services page. That’s ok, that is coming soon.

Sorry about that Vera. I typically put a date on mine, ie: Coming this month!
That way I give myself some realistic time-frame to get it together. Failing this would make my brand unreliable.

It’s a personal thing with me. That’s how I accomplish my goals – with personal deadlines.

Hi Vera,
Our brand One Sherpa seems to be building itself quite nicely now that economic circumstances are changing and people are realizing that ‘going alone is a lonely way to go’.
Having a brand that has physical aspects to it (i.e. the mountain theme for us) gives us the opportunity to use a lot of great pictures with our promotional material as well as our blog.
My belief is that we’re living in a very visual world which is why video, pictures etc are getting into almost everything.
Before I write a blog post I’m always thinking about how I can say that in pictures as well as words because pictures can often capture people emotionally more easily. Like the great picture of a pie which Vera put in this post!
We’ve also had the good fortune to have a few major events happen while building the brand (i.e. The death of Sir Edmund Hilary who was the first to climb Mt Everest with the worlds most famous sherpa Tenzing Norgay) and during that time the whole world media was inadvertently helping build our brand awareness.
Over time I want our brand to be known in the blogging world as a ‘words and pictures’ experience because we have so many great pictures we can get on climbing mountains etcetc . Managing a small or medium business is like climbing a series of mountains and having that in our brand helps us relate to the business owner and manager during what can be a very emotional experience for them when things just don’t seem to work out!

@Karlla – Ed sure does have alot going, and I too like his posts that give us some sarcasm too.

@Ed – Yep great example of what I should also be doing. You’re right, you need to come up with a date and stick to it or the brand is not reliable… thanks, will get on this one.

@Andee – Thanks for sharing, you’re right in the state the economy is in right now it’s a lonely path to go it alone. For me, I do my best also not to focus on the negative and continue to move forward in business. I also like your points on the pictures, I love the mountains they represent so much to many. Strength, empowerment, direction, building, adventure, focus, success! That’s what I think of just off the top of my head. Yes, I like pie but not so good at making it.

Thanks for the info on task management. I think that is one of my main problems is organizing the things I need to do and then setting daily goals to get them done.

I also worked at an ad agency for 10 years and at times, the organization of the place really drove me crazy, now that I am on my own I see that I too have the same (almost exactly) kinds of problems with organization and communication that I used to get upset at the AEs and PMs for.

This is a great question. One thing I’ve done is to pay more attention to honing and narrowing my market — and adapting to my continually moving target, an audience that redefines itself constantly. This at once takes flexibility and patience. But, by always narrowing and rethinking the niche I serve, I ensure that my message is that much more focused — and that much more likely to yield profits.