Category: a slice of ADVICE

Answers to your juiciest questions on messaging, branding & client attraction — with a crisp, concise & ever-so-subtly contrarian slant.

Finding your brand voice

Posted on by Red Slice

Norma Maxwell, the creative sprite behind Connect Interactive, LLC asked me this great question recently:

How do I determine my brand “voice?”

Voice is so key to your brand communications. Remember the three-legged stool of brand: Visual, verbal and experiential? The “verbal” component – what you write and how you talk is a key component of a strong brand. Is it cheeky or irreverent? Is it formal or conservative?

Here are three guidelines for landing on the right brand voice for your business:

Know your strengths: What do you bring to the market? You may want to sound like Apple, but if you don’t deliver what they do and you’re not hip, innovative and well-designed, it’s fake. Don’t copy someone else – what does your business bring to the table? Play off of that.

Know your customers: Who is your ideal customer? Flesh out that customer profile and understand what makes them tick. What is their sense of humor, what do they need to hear, what will attract them? What cultural references will they understand? Map this to your strengths and give them what they want to hear.

Know yourself: Especially for solopreneurs, write like you talk. I know I do. Bring your authentic personality to the party.

The point at which all three of these things intersect is where you can find your brand voice. Think of it like a Venn Diagram – where do all three meet? Therein lies the magic.

How do you know if you’ve landed on something good? If it’s fairly easy to write your copy and the words just flow – and folks are responding to your voice through comments, tweets or sales, then you know you’re on the right track.

Website audit: Putting myself under the microscope for you

Posted on by Red Slice

Today, I’ve got a special treat for you.

As I always say, getting an expert to give an unvarnished, unbiased view of your brand is always a good thing. You might know in your own pretty little head what you intend to communicate but you may be too close to your business to see that something’s getting lost in translation.

Well, today, I’m drinking my own Kool-Aid. Seth Leonard, web guru extraordinaire, and I recorded this lovely video for your benefit. In it, he audits my own Red Slice website to see what works and what doesn’t and offers you valuable tips you can apply to your own online efforts.

Highlights include:

  • Where to place a newsletter sign up option for maximum response
  • Why every single page needs a call to action or goal for the viewer
  • When to use “we” vs. “me” language (listen up, Solopreneurs)
  • What you don’t know about the order of your navigation bar options that could be impacting your click through rates

And other goodies that are easy to do and can help better engage your audience. So take a peek at this killer video. And PS, I have not made these changes yet so you can see what he’s talking about, but plan to very soon.

What one takeaway will you implement on your website today? Please add a Comment and let me know!

Keep it simple: how to define “brand”

Posted on by Red Slice

This week’s Slice of Advice Q comes from Bonnie Bradshaw, a motivational youth speaker. She writes “When someone asks me what is my Brand I don’t have a clue what to say!”

As I tell her in the video below, don’t get all wrapped around the axle about defining brand. Brand is simply your reputation, it’s what you’re known for. It’s your hook that differentiates you from the thousands selling what you’re selling. Brand can be based on a lot of factors that all sum up to make your company unique, but some of the more common brand attributes are price (uber-expensive or bargain find?), value (helps you sleep better at night, helps you lose weight, helps your computer run better) or personality (quirky, edgy, serious, cool, formal).

Take a peek at what I told Bonnie to think about when it comes to her brand….and also some advice around defining your target market. We touched on this briefly last week as well. You cannot be all things to all people, so really define your target customer with precision. Not everyone can/wants/needs to buy what you’re selling, so be specific as to who you are really going after.

Remember, if you’ve got a burning question, send it in with the subject line “SLICE OF ADVICE.” And include your name and URL so I can promote you.

How do you define your brand in a sentence or two? What adjectives or emotions do you associate with your brand personality? Let us know in the Comments.

Two Tips for Saving Your Marketing Sanity

Posted on by Red Slice

Welcome to the inaugural Slice of Advice column! This is where I take your questions and give you back answers on all things business, marketing, or branding (or, for fun, anything wine, food, or film-related) If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find someone in my network who does. So drop your Q’s to info@red-slice with Slice of Advice in the subject line. And mention your biz and URL so I can promote you if you like….

Today’s Q is from “anonymous” and she writes:

“With all the marketing options out there for my business, how do I choose the right ones, with my limited time and budget, and still get bang for my buck?”

This is all about planning and taking the budget you have and making it work. Don’t care if you’re a solopreneur or a billion dollar corporation, you have this issue. I used to work for a marketing VP at a global software firm who would say, “I want no whining about budgets being small. Resources are always scarce, budgets are always tight. Make it work.”

In the video below, I give you two juicy tips to make sense of the chaos and focus on a few activities done right rather than a million one-hit wonders.

What is your method for deciding how to tackle your marketing plans? Where do you see the best results?  Let me know in the Comments and get some link love back to your site!

Reboot and Reframe: Branding lesson for life #7: Find the Humor

Posted on by Red Slice

Enjoying the sunEven when things are serious, it helps to find the humor. It helps us cope, deflates a tense situation, and helps you think more clearly and problem solve than if you were angry, frustrated or sad. Laugher helps you get out of the “red zone” and into a more calm, productive state of mind.

As business owners, things will go wrong.  You may piss off a client or you might not make your sales figures in a given month.  But to diffuse the situation (and save your sanity) you absolutely need to find the humor in the situation.

In the darkest times when I was recovering from brain injury, my friends and family, true to form, found some lighter moments to help them cope.  Some might call it gallows humor, but I’m thankful they banded together and found some light in the dark.

While things may seen earth-shattering in your business, everything can be dealt with in one way or another.  The trick is not to let it break you, but to find your way to put it into perspective. It’s amazing what laughing at something that seems insurmountable can do for the psyche.

View the juicy video for Lesson #7  here.

When have you used humor to deflate a tense situation or overcome a setback?

BACKSTORY TO THE SEVEN LESSONS: What do recovering from a  brain aneurysm and branding have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. Recently, I got the wonderful opportunity to share my dramatic story at a Women Business Owners luncheon and I promised I’d post the lessons here for everyone. This is a seven-post series. You can get your own copy of Rebooting My Brain, my humorous and heartwarming memoir, right here.

Lesson #1: Focus (and backstory to the series)

Lesson #2: Be Authentic

Lesson #3: Count on Your Tribe

Lesson #4: Practice Patience

Lesson #5: Learn to Say No

Lesson #6: Face the Fear

Reboot and Reframe: Branding lesson for life #6: FACE THE FEAR

Posted on by Red Slice

jump_fearBuilding a business is scary. And building a breakthrough brand is even scarier. An in other breaking news, spinach is green and red lights mean you should stop.

Everybody wishes they were Apple. They wish they could just be so hip and cool that no matter what new products they roll out, people will line up for miles just to own one. They wish their own brands would have that “hipness halo effect.” But I’ve noticed in my years of marketing and branding, that there is one common trait across many of these companies:

They don’t want to take the risks and they don’t want to do the work.

They think they can just revamp their website and update their colors and all of the sudden people will think they are “cool.” They forget the fundamentals of brand – and that they need to revamp their company, culture, innovation inside and out. And that takes balls, to be frank. You have to be willing to lead, to say “black” when all of your competitors are saying “white",” to take the road less traveled or try not to use the same old industry jargon in al of your marketing campaigns. To differentiate and stand out, you have to DIFFERENTIATE AND STAND OUT.

And that scares the bejeezus out of most risk-averse CEO’s and the people who work for them.

As I state in today’s video, sometimes you have to face the fear if you want to advance. I was scared of so much during my brain injury recovery, but I just kept at it. I “faked it until I made it.” I could choose to crawl up into a ball and hide from life – but I chose to take a deep breath and plunge myself back into my life again over and over until one day, it felt comfortable again.

It’s the same with brand.  Innovative leaders don’t get there by doing what everyone else is doing. They do it by taking chances, by standing out. They face the fear.  I’m not advocating doing this willy-nilly, but if you have a well thought out brand strategy, you can make smarter choices – and smarter risks. And part of that brand strategy should include doing things differently from the inside out.

View the juicy video for Lesson #6  here.

Which risks have you taken that have paid off in your business? Which risks are you less willing to take and why?

BACKSTORY TO THE SEVEN LESSONS: What do recovering from a  brain aneurysm and branding have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. Recently, I got the wonderful opportunity to share my dramatic story at a Women Business Owners luncheon and I promised I’d post the lessons here for everyone. This is a seven-post series.

Lesson #1: Focus (and backstory to the series)

Lesson #2: Be Authentic

Lesson #3: Count on Your Tribe

Lesson #4: Practice Patience

Lesson #5: Learn to Say No

Reboot and Reframe: Branding lesson for life #5: LEARN WHEN TO SAY NO

Posted on by Red Slice

say_NODo you constantly say “yes” to all the wrong things, leaving you absolutely no time or energy when the right opportunities come along?

If you’re an entrepreneur and you can’t relate to this, I’d love to meet you.

We all worry about saying “no” to business, partnerships and even advertising opportunities. What if this is my one chance to attract a boatload of customers? What if this is the only client I get this quarter? That old adage, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is definitely a truism…..sometimes.

If you constantly accept clients who don’t fit your ideal profile or the type of work you want to be doing, how can you free yourself up to attract a better, more profitable client for the long run? Understanding your brand in clear detail will help you determine if someone is a good fit. It will help you say no to marketing opportunities that seem seductive at first (“Wow! This event attracts 5000 women!”) but in reality, turn out to be a waste of time and money (“Oh, those 5000 women will never be the ones who will buy from me!”)

As I learned to adapt to my new reality post-brain injury, I couldn’t say yes to as much as I would have in the past. I had to be selective in which clients I accepted and how I spent my time. This meant turning down some work that, while intriguing and interesting, was not going to be a good fit for me. And you can do this in an elegant and tactful way. You can explain that you don’t have bandwidth right now with your current client load, or you can recommend another resource that might be a better fit for their needs.  With partners, you can gently say the opportunity looks fabulous but you think you might be going after different target markets. With an advertising opportunity – well, this is business after all, and you can simply say, “We don’t see this as a valuable way to spend out money, but thank you for thinking of us.”

Remember, your clients and partners say something about your brand. They are your advertising.

By focusing on what you want, what you’re good at and what you can realistically deliver, people will appreciate your honesty more than they’ll appreciate you not having the time or mental energy to properly serve their needs.

View the juicy video for Lesson #5  here.

How do you determine which work to take on and which to pass up? Any tips or fun stories about times you have turned down opportunities?

BACKSTORY TO THE SEVEN LESSONS: What do recovering from a  brain aneurysm and branding have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. Recently, I got the wonderful opportunity to share my dramatic story at a Women Business Owners luncheon and I promised I’d post the lessons here for everyone. This is a seven-post series.

Lesson #1: Focus (and backstory to the series)

Lesson #2: Be Authentic

Lesson #3: Count on Your Tribe

Lesson #4: Practice Patience

Reboot and Reframe: Branding lesson for life #4: PRACTICE PATIENCE

Posted on by Red Slice

dog_patienceIn our instant gratification world of 140 character tweets, instant geo-location couponing, and lightning fast Internet speeds, we often forget that human nature is what it is. It takes time to build a strong reputation, for people to get to know you, trust you and believe your claims.

Simply rolling out a pretty new logo or website will not mean you’ll meet your sales numbers the very next week.

You’d be surprised how many CEO’s  – especially in the tech start-up world – don’t understand this. They think that all they need to do is invest in more salespeople or run a cool email campaign and leads will come flooding in the very next day.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. To gain the trust needed for someone to invite you into their email inbox, or attend your event or schedule that demo, you have to lay the groundwork – and beat that drum clearly and consistently over time.

This patience lesson is just as true for our lives. When we get knocked down and we have to start over, as happened to me with my brain injury, you have to accept where you are and make progress each day in the right direction. It’s not about going from 0 to 60 overnight. But as with a brand, you can measure incremental steps along the way to ensure you are on the right path and making forward progress.

In this lesson, I talk about how it’s easy to talk about patience when speaking to branding clients but it’s hard to accept being patient in your own life when you just want to go, go go. Being patient is not the same thing as being stagnant and people often get the two confused. Being patient means understanding there is a journey ahead of you and that by taking the right steps, you can get closer and closer to your goals over time.

View the juicy video for Lesson #4 here.

What small steps do you measure in your business to ensure your marketing and message is attracting the right people?

BACKSTORY TO THE SEVEN LESSONS: What do recovering from a  brain aneurysm and branding have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. Recently, I got the wonderful opportunity to share my dramatic story at a Women Business Owners luncheon and I promised I’d post the lessons here for everyone. This is a seven-post series.

Lesson #1: Focus (and backstory to the series)

Lesson #2: Be Authentic

Lesson #3: Count on Your Tribe

Reboot and Reframe: Branding lesson for life #3: COUNT ON YOUR TRIBE

Posted on by Red Slice

Just like a personal reputation, a brand relies on how its perceived by others in order to determine success or failure. That loyalty will boost a brand exponentially, increase word of mouth and save the company’s butt in times of crisis. When you build up enough strong brand equity with your loyal fan base, they are more willing to forgive when you make mistakes. Look how Jet Blue recovered when they had some massive delay issues due to winter storms a few years ago: they had built up so much goodwill that their “brand bank account” could take the hit.

If you are consistent and authentic with your brand, you can rely on others to evangelize for you and stand by you when the chips are down.

As an entrepreneur, you also need to rely on others to build a strong business. I don’t care if you are a solopreneur: you can’t do it alone. You need legal advice, marketing expertise, accounting skills. It doesn’t make sense to try to master it all when you cannot. We all have skills gaps and it’s the smart entrepreneur who knows when to seek out the right help to go further than he/she could alone.

In this lesson, I talk about how my “tribe” was an essential part of my recovery from a freak brain aneurysm. Even an independent gal like me had to learn to ask for help, accept support and rely on others if I was ever going to get back on my feet again. It’s true in business – and it’s true in life: no one is an island.

Watch the juicy video for Lesson #3 here.

Where do you seek outside expertise and objectivity in your business? Can you let go enough to really allow it to take off?

BACKSTORY TO THE SEVEN LESSONS: What do recovering from a  brain aneurysm and branding have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. Recently, I got the wonderful opportunity to share my dramatic story at a Women Business Owners luncheon and I promised I’d post the lessons here for everyone. This is a seven-post series.

Lesson #1: Focus (and backstory to the series)

Lesson #2: Be Authentic

Reboot and reframe: Branding lesson for life #2: Be Authentic

Posted on by Red Slice

Accepting who you are and what you can deliver is an essential part of building a strong brand. If you can’t walk your talk and deliver on your brand promise, then customers will see right through you and it will catch up to you eventually. Sure, you can create short-term spikes of interest, convince someone, somewhere that your company is something else – but brand loyalty is built brick by brick through consistently delivering what you promise, through everything you do, say and show.

Lesson #2 from my recent Women Business Owners chat is about embracing that authenticity. A brand should play to your strengths, but you need to get real about what your company can and will do (and what it can’t and won’t do). It’s all well and good to want to be hip, cool and cutting-edge, but if you can’t deliver that, then don’t try to dress things up. There are so many markets and needs out there – find what works for you and for your audience and deliver that with everything you’ve got.

Check out the juicy video for Lesson #2 here.

What is your authentic strength or mission that guides your brand and marketing efforts?

BACKSTORY TO THE SEVEN LESSONS: What do recovering from a  brain aneurysm and branding have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. Recently, I got the wonderful opportunity to share my dramatic story at a Women Business Owners luncheon and I promised I’d post the lessons here for everyone. This will be a seven-post series. Click here to learn more and view Lesson #1: FOCUS.