Tag: messaging

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How to Get Your Team to Align On and Live Out Your Mission

Posted on by Maria Ross
How to Align Your Team on Mission

Your mission statement is meant to be a brand tool that informs your decisions on a daily basis. 

It describes what you do on a daily basis as an organization in pursuit of your larger vision. 

But as a leader, how do you ensure your team is aligned on mission? And most importantly, how can you ensure they are living it out on a daily basis? 

The first challenge requires communication and education. The second challenge requires empowerment and a strong operational structure. 

First, how to ensure your team is aligned on mission? 

This starts in the recruiting process. Does HR understand what the mission means, truly means, to the business everyday? Are you screening for people who embrace the mission and are passionate about it….or are they just looking for a job?   

Does everyone in the organization even know what it is and apply it to their daily work? 

But further back, how was the mission created? Was it just a great idea in the head of the founder? Sure, it probably starts out that way, but as you scale, you have to bring in other voices and perspectives to contribute to what they believe the mission of the company to be. From where they sit, what is most important? How do they view the work? 

This doesn’t mean you have to poll every person in the company every six months to provide input and (shudder) Frankenstein a mission statement that appeases everyone. It means when you go through a brand messaging exercise, mission and vision should be a part of that, as they are the top of the brand messaging pyramid, and everything else trickles out from there to support them.  

If people don’t at least have a say, they won’t buy in.

An effective mission is not dictated from the top-down without any input or diverse perspectives. It needs to be more than a poster on the wall. It should impact daily work. (Tweet this!)

(I’ve developed a proven brand workshop process so that different voices have a say, but then a final decision can be made with buy-in from everyone. Yes, it works. Really. We’ve successfully wrangled the most errant cats, and even got a team to consensus and excitement after they had tried FOUR times before to craft brand messaging. But I digress….) 

To the second challenge, of ensuring they live it out on a daily basis: This is trickier. But not impossible. 

As with anything, you get what you reward. Have you developed a mission statement that can guide decisions making on a daily basis? And if so, how do you promote or reward those who exemplify living out the mission? 

What’s that? You don’t. Well, there’s your issue right there. 

You get the behavior you reward. If you want your people to truly live the mission, you have to make it show up for them in performance reviews, promotion discussions, and rewards.  

As I share in my book, The Empathy Edge, technology company NextJump bases everything they do on their core values, one of which is humility. They issue an annual Avengers Award to the person voted by their peers to help others the most, by however they define it: “The Avengers Award is focused on the trait of ‘service for others’ and recognizes the Next Jumper who most exemplifies steward-leadership….It is an annual peer-nominated award.” (Read the book to find out what the winners get (it will blow your mind!) 

Next Jump makes the stakes very high to ensure people live out their values. It shows commitment that the company is not messing around when it says it values humility.  

You can do the same for your mission. Attach rewards, accountability, and attention to your mission. Invite employees to articulate how their daily activity supports the mission and to reframe their work toward that higher purpose. Challenge each other to take a step back and think about the mission when making important decisions.  

This is how you energize your employees to adopt a particular mindset and live out the mission. 

PS: Aligning on your mission statement is not merely a nice-to-have. It ensures everyone is in pursuit of the same goal, which makes decisions easier. Learn how REI’s strong alignment around mission led to one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history, the #OptOutside campaign, which results in the stores being closed on Black Friday. Where, you ask?! Check out my newest book, The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success (A Playbook for Brands, Leaders, and Teams)  

Photo by Vlad Hilitanu on Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How Do I Use My Mission Statement in My Brand?

Posted on by Maria Ross
How to use your mission statement

Mission statements are cute, aren’t they? 

Clients get all tangled up in using words they’d never actually say and lofty statements that sound amazing but have nothing to do with their product or service. “Our mission is to empower women to be their best selves.” Um, you sell hosiery. 

Or they make it so generic: “Our mission is to help people.” Help them do what? 

Yes, some my favorite mission statements could fall into one of these categories. I adore JetBlue’s “Inspiring Humanity” but you may wonder, what the heck does that have to do with air travel? 

A good mission statement is one that: 

  • Inspires 
  • Delights 
  • Informs what you do every day, at a high level, in support of your larger vision 
  • Has legs and room to grow 
  • Can be used to make decisions on a daily basis. 

Let’s break this out. 

The first two are pretty self-explanatory. If the statement is not going to send a little tingle up your spine, it’s not going to inspire employees or customers, which is what it is designed to do. A mission should encapsulate your brand strategy and support your reason for being. 

But what about the other factors? 

Your vision is your desired future state. What is the change you seek to make in the world with your work? If your vision was achieved, your organization might not be necessary anymore. So what is that large lofty world you imagine? 

As I’ve said before, not every solopreneur needs a vision statement. But you DO need a mission statement. 

Your mission communicates what you do every day in pursuit of your vision. But it needs to leave room for your whole suite of current and future products or services, not just one specific scenario. 

(Read more about the difference between your Mission and Vision statement.) 

Therefore, you must be able to use your mission statement, to some extent, when making daily decisions about product, direction, content, and priorities. “Does this decision help us achieve our mission?” If yes, do it. If not, rethink it. (Tweet This!)

We came up with some great mission statement options for clients this year (which I can’t reveal because rebranding is still pending!) What I loved is that all of my clients understood how to use this mission as a decision-making tool, not just as a cool poster on the wall. 

That is how you use your Mission in your brand. You use it to communicate a higher purpose, a focus, and even the tone of your brand voice in how you write it. Your employees should know it from memory, not because they’ve been forced to, but because it’s used to guide the customer experience every day. They should be asking themselves in all decision-making meetings if what they propose is in pursuit of this mission or not. 

This maintains a consistent experience across all touchpoints so that customers understand exactly what you do, what value you offer, and what you stand for.  

And that, after all, is at the heart of what “brand” really is. 

PS: Aligning on your mission statement is not merely a nice-to-have. It ensures everyone is in pursuit of the same goal, which makes decisions easier. Learn how REI’s strong alignment around mission led to one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history, the #OptOutside campaign, which results in the stores being closed on Black Friday. Where, you ask?! Check out my newest book, The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success (A Playbook for Brands, Leaders, and Teams)  

Photo by Anna Samoylova on Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How a Chocolate Éclair Makes You A Better Marketer

Posted on by Maria Ross

Ever thought about why you dive into a chocolate éclair (or mint chocolate chip ice cream, or a bag of jelly beans…name your guilty pleasure!) 

I mean, it offers so much, right? Maybe you’re hungry. Maybe you had a bad day. Maybe you’re celebrating a big client win. Maybe you’re having coffee with a friend and want to share a bit of decadence together. Maybe you just think it looks gorgeous (an adjective I love to apply to food). 

Hunger. Comfort. Reward. Friendship. Beauty. 

There are many different reasons that could have driven you to that purchase decision. And it may be a different from my reason for buying one in line right behind you. 

Your reasons for indulging in this culinary creation are your buying drivers.  

The chocolate éclair’s benefits need to speak to those buying drivers…or you won’t care. 

What does this have to do with marketing and messaging your offerings? EVERYTHING. Because if you are trying to sell me a chocolate éclair as comfort food for my bad day when I want to celebrate a big win, I’m gonna pass. That message just won’t speak to me. 

Determine the benefits your ideal customer craves and speak to those when you talk about your work.  (TWEET THIS!)

There are lots you can choose from, to be sure. This is why understanding your ideal client at an intimate level can help you narrow it down to what is most relevant and important for them. 

Don’t talk about cost savings if I only care about top-notch quality. Don’t talk just about weight loss if I care more about fitness and health. Don’t talk about how complicated your process is as a way to prove it’s amazing if all I care about is ease and simplicity. Don’t talk just about how hopeless and sad is your cause if I’m looking to donate money that will offer hope and impact.  

Know your audience. Speak to their buying drivers. If you don’t know what they are, ask them. Amplify the benefits they care about the most, not the ones you think they need to know. 

Make sure the benefits you offer match up to the buying drivers of your target customer. Otherwise, you need to tout different benefits or find a new audience who cares about the ones you want to promote. 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How Brand Benefits Define your Position

Posted on by Maria Ross
Do your benefits attract the right customer?

Choosing the right lead benefits for your brand messaging dictates which customers you will attract. And a pair of hospital system giants in the San Francisco Bay Area exactly prove this point.

Why this is even more amazing: healthcare advertising is the WORST. Most of it talks about the exact same things and offers no real differentiated position for customers. In my advertising days, we used to joke that, with any hospital billboard or TV spot, you could just swap out a logo and it would be the exact same one as any other hospital in the country.

Here in SF, UCSF and Dignity Health are two separate hospital systems.

UCSF has gone big with promoting their commitment to advanced technologies and treatments. To their doctors’ experience and the medical breakthroughs that they are a part of every day. 

Their tagline: Redefining possible.Their ads and billboards, as this campaign video suggests, focus on technology and offer hope based on what science can do for medicine’s toughest challenges. They have created a brand that showcases them as leaders in medical advancement. If you want cutting-edge treatments for complex problems, go here.

This is one of my favorite ads, for UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Dignity Health differentiates itself based on the human experience. Their ads focus on how extraordinary acts of kindness create miracles every day. They have created a brand that if you want to be treated as a human, and not just a medical test subject, go here. Their tagline: Hello Humankindness.

You MUST watch some of these ads (get ready for all the feels!):

How far would you go for someone?
Kids playing hockey
We can face anything together
Is there a hero is all of us?

Both work as complements in the market, because they both claim a different space.

Obviously sick people care about getting well. But some people care more about the science and technology aspects. Others care more about their experience being treated as human beings.

Clearly, patients want both. But these different brand strategies each claim a separate space based on the main motivator (or buying driver, if you can call it that in healthcare) of their target audience. 

If your primary concern is getting cutting-edge treatment to achieve the impossible, and you care maybe a little bit less about how nice your doctor is (not that UCSF’s doctors are not nice, but if that is not your primary motivation), UCSF will appeal more. I think of data-driven thinkers, those comfortable with risk, those early adopters who want the latest science and technology.

If your primary concern is the patient experience, and you value that above all else to help you get well, Dignity Health will appeal more. This could be someone who had a traumatic experience at another hospital, or someone who knows they really need their hand held. Doesn’t mean Dignity Health’s quality of medical care is not also excellent, it just means they are more attractive to someone who cares more about kindness, respect and well….dignity.

Neither position is wrong or right. But each brand position is super clear on who they are talking to.  And that is why they both work.

Honda and Porsche both sell cars but they sell to very different drivers with very different motivations and needs.

Your brand must claim its space in a crowded market as well. And you do that through the brand benefits you choose to lead with. (TWEET THIS!)

Who is your brand talking to? What benefits do you lead with? Are you taking a position that people can clearly understand or can any company just slap their logo on your website and no one would be the wiser.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

3 Ways to Give Your Marketing More Charisma

Posted on by Maria Ross
Ready to jazz up your marketing?!

You know that killer accessory you have? The one you feel in love at first sight with at a random boutique years ago? You wear it with everything to give your outfit a pop. It makes a statement.

People take notice.

The great thing is, you can add this piece to simple sweater and jeans and like magic, you’ve added some pizazz to your look.

Your marketing and messaging needs to be the statement piece for your business.

Yes, you can describe exactly what you do and give people the price list before sending them off to the Contact button……zzzzzzzzzz….I’m already bored.

Or you can spice things up and add some charisma!

Charisma means “compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.”

You want your work to attract the right people.

You want your work to charm them and inspire devotion so they become loyal customers and raving fans.

So launch a charm offensive! If you want to attract customers and generate revenue, your marketing needs some charisma. (TWEET THIS!)

But with all my talk of making sure you have a clear, consistent message, how do you do that?

Here are 3 tips for how to add more charisma to your marketing:

  1. Be human. I’ve said this one many times before. You have a unique way of talking and your marketing messaging needs to connect with people on a human level. Write like you talk. Ditch the jargon. Explain things in a way that intrigues them, lures them in or speaks exactly their language.  You can still tell someone you are a “financial planner” but talk about creating a happy, healthy, wealthy life on all fronts, not just financial. Or that smart financial planning now means realizing your dreams later. This is much more interesting than, “We’ll help you decide the best places to invest.” You can still tell a prospect that your software will help them manage their recruiting and talent management with integrated data and access to API’s, but you can also talk about helping companies and talented workers make a lasting love connection or that your software takes the hassle out of keeping track of all your candidates so you don’t even have to think about and no one falls through the cracks.

Being human in your marketing does not make you look unprofessional. In fact, let’s put that to bed right now. Professional does not have to equate to boring, stiff, jargon, robotic. It means competence, confidence and accountability. You can be all those things and still speak like a human.

  • Find rich, luscious, delicious words: You get my point. Expand your vocabulary and stop using every adjective you’ve ever heard your competitors use before.  Consult thesaurus.com and find better words for what you’re trying to say. It’s like adding exotic spices to your spice rack! Instead of “flexible” how about “We roll with the punches.” Instead of “effective” how about “compelling, potent or powerful”? Instead of “help” how about, “advise, nourish, encourage”? Choose words that rev up the senses: words people can see, hear, taste. Use these words in your brand marketing to create mental imagery for people that excites them.

If you feel like jazzy writing is not your strong suit, that’s okay, Hire a gifted copywriter to help you add more charisma at precisely the right points in the process. For as much writing as I do, I’ve even done this for my own marketing (because sometimes you just can’t see it for yourself) and it’s made a WORLD of difference.

  • Leverage the power of video: What better way to connect your business to millions across the globe than through the power of video? More than words on a page, video helps you make a human connection (there’s that humanity again!) and enables people to see the real you or people behind your corporate logo. You Tube is the second largest search engine. Let people typing in how to do something find YOU there explaining it to them! Jazz up your static website with a welcome video or customers raving about you in video testimonials. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Your iPhone is one of the best cameras on the market. Just start. I’ve been trying to do more of this myself over on my YouTube channel (subscribe now if you’re not already!)

The key takeaway is that like anything else in life, you have to be interesting if you want to capture attention. And “charisma” is subjective. What might seem charismatic to software developers might not be to ad agency creative directors. Know your audience and you will find the best ways to lure them with your charms!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

The Myth of Authenticity

Posted on by Maria Ross

The Myth of Authenticity

Be authentic. Have an authentic brand. I want to be seen as authentic.

Everyone’s all about “authenticity” these days. Which really hasn’t changed all that much since I first blogged about this in 2011. And yet, marketers and entrepreneurs are still fretting out about it.

It’s time to bust this myth of authentic branding, once and for all.

Authentic is not something you can BE. It is a way of being that is unique to whatever you already are, what you deliver or how you serve people.

Trying to be “authentic” is like trying to “be original.” An original what? Authentic to what? How does this show up in the world?

When experts advise you to be authentic, all they are really saying is to be who you are.  Play to your true strengths. Don’t try to slap on “coat of brand paint,” as I like to say. This is the very reason why your brand must be lived from the inside out.

Some confuse authenticity with transparency, or homemade, or natural. If that is who your brand and business really are, then, yes. You are being authentic if you convey that vibe. But if you are truly a loud, obnoxious and rabble-rouser, your brand can convey those traits and “authentically” be that, too.

All authentic really means is that you walk your talk and deliver what you promise.(TWEET THIS!)

It’s not an “end state” to aspire to, it’s a way of being what you already are and showing that to your audience. Period.

What I believe entrepreneurs and marketers often mean when they say they desire an “authentic” brand is that they want to be seen as down-to-earth, conversational, approachable, open or direct. If so, then use those attributes. Don’t say authentic. It should be a given that your brand walks its talk.

You can be an elite, exclusive, downright snobby brand and, if that’s truly what your organization delivers and what you convey in all of your messaging and design, then it is an authentic brand as well.

And please don’t take things too far! Being authentic is also not the same as having no filter. It’s not an excuse to forget about your audience’s needs and what would be valuable for them. Personally, I don’t find an Instagram feed full of what a thought leader ate for breakfast “authentic.” To me, that’s just egotistical. If, however, showing me the “behind the scenes” glimpses offers value, then great. Share the story, lesson, or failure so I can learn something. Heck, make me laugh or inspire me. That’s adding value, too. Be real…as long as it’s genuine to who you are AND in service to the promise you made your audience.

Authenticity is not a state to be achieved that means one thing. Authentic is a qualifier: Your brand is authentically….what?

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Trick or Treat?

Posted on by Maria Ross

Trick or Treat?

Marketing does not have a very good reputation. 

People often perceive marketers as liars or con artists, saying anything and everything to get you to buy their stuff. 

When I see others in my chosen profession deceiving the public, my blood pressure goes up. I want to throttle soda companies that try to pretend their products are “healthy” somehow (this includes so-called “water drinks” that are loaded with sugar). When I get a piece of direct mail that looks like an official legal document, all I can think of that naïve person who might actually think they’ve done something wrong. 

Makes me want to smack somebody. Hard. 

I once got a direct mailer that essentially made it sound like my credit cards would all be shut down unless I responded to their offer. Sickening. 

And don’t get me started on telemarketing companies that prey on the elderly. My dad is 89 years old and we’ve luckily intercepted calls for him where they made him think his computer was hacked, tried to con him into another timeshare condo or assured him they had a “can’t miss” investment opportunity.  

My profession and other honest marketers like myself take a hit every time some jerky jerk decides to engage in false advertising or find the semantic loopholes. (“What did we do wrong? We said it only has 100 calories! We don’t have to mention how much sodium, chemicals or sugar is in it, too. Legally, we can say it’s a ‘healthier alternative!’”) 

Marketing is not about lying to people. It’s about elevating the truth of your story so the right people who need what you’ve got can find. Share on X

It’s about communicating real value. If you are targeting the right people who have a very real need, then it will not be a hard sell, as long as you’re clear and compelling. 

You can choose to play the game in one of two ways. And you must decide now what kind of marketer (and human) you will be: 

  1. Trick people with lies and hyperbole.Trick, scare, or scam them into action and then deal with the aftermath of regret and anger.  
  2. Treat people with the truth. Delight them by making it compelling, valuable and authentic and, if it’s a good fit, they won’t be able to resist. Savor the loyalty and connection. 

Wall Street and our current consumer-driven culture may disagree with me, but I’ll give you one guess as to which approach is more sustainable, scalable and better for humanity. 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How to Create a Simple Marketing Plan That Brings You Joy

Posted on by Maria Ross

Do you want a simple marketing plan that actually works? If you're looking for easy marketing tips that won't overwhelm you, click through for marketing advice from an expert!

Are you narrowing your eyes at the title of this blog post, thinking “There’s no such thing as a simple marketing plan, Maria”?

If every marketing plan you’ve ever tried has made you feel overwhelmed, allow me to explain simple marketing via a story about milk and pasta.

Picture this:  Your husband opens the refrigerator and removes a carton of milk. He asks, “How long has this been in here?” and you shrug.

He opens the carton, takes a big whiff, and recoils in disgust. You think he might actually start crying.

“Ugh! I think this milk has gone off! Here, smell it.”

Are you kidding me? You have very clearly shown that what awaits me is horrific. With that ringing endorsement, no thank you. I’ll pass.

But…

You’re in a restaurant with your bestie and, upon tucking into her gorgeous pasta dish, she rolls her eyes in ecstasy and moans in a very inappropriate way.

“Oh my gosh! You have got to take a bite of this. It’s amazing!”

With that kind of enthusiasm, hell yes. Of course, you take a bite. And enter into blissful euphoria yourself.

Whether people are trying to persuade you to take a whiff, try a bite, or buy that must-have new product, their excitement or disgust is what will–or won’t–sell you.

Now imagine if you asked the store owner if the milk they sell is good. And they said, “It’s okay, I guess.”

Or if the head chef said, “Here’s your meal. It’s no big deal. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t.”

If makers and sellers don’t talk about their own work with passion…or worse, talk about it with disinterest or disgust…are you going to be convinced to buy from them? 

If you hate marketing your “thing” and don’t promote it with passion…or worse, talk about it with disinterest, that’s exactly what you’re doing to your prospective clients, fans or customers.

To find more joy in promoting your work, simplify your marketing plan. Share on X

It’s the overwhelm that’s killing you.  You’re trying to do everything and doing it all…badly. And you think they can fool people by plastering on a sweet smile and phoning it in.

Not only can people tell your heart’s not in it, but you probably aren’t consistent and effective with your marketing efforts. If you hate blogging, will you really commit to doing it on a regular basis? Heck no.

Relax. You don’t have to be everywhere. In fact, you CAN’T be everywhere.

Here’s my simple marketing plan for you

Consider two factors:

  1. What do I enjoy doing? My joy.
  1. Where is my target audience? My tribe.

Seriously. That’s it.  This intersection of your joy and your tribe will give you your marketing plan. And the great news is that if your target audience plays in several places, you have a choice.

You may be crystal clear about #1 but if you’re clueless about #2? Ask them where they like to hang out and how they like to get new information about work like yours!

To simplify your plan and find your joy…and your tribe…please download this handy dandy little free worksheet I made for you (it’s actually a Sneak Peek Playbook from my powerful coaching program, MOMENTUM, so enjoy the free taste!)

It’s yours for free. My gift. Because this issue is killing you and I want you to love marketing your work, not detest it.

Try it. Seriously.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

What is a Brand Strategy?

Posted on by Maria Ross

What is Brand Strategy

Doing this work for, ahem, decades, it’s easy for me to forget that the most basic yet game-changing concepts can often be misunderstood.

I sometimes assume everyone understands what I mean when I talk about “brand strategy.” But with new readers and fans, it’s worth revisiting this important topic and clarifying terminology so your business can soar.

A lesson for all of you: Don’t assume the information you take for granted is something “everyone already knows.” This is still one the most popular question I get:

What is a brand strategy?

And its related cousins…

Where do I even start creating a brand strategy? What are the right questions to ask when building my brand strategy?

Just to ensure we’re all on the same page, let’s first revisit what we mean by BRAND.

Your brand is your core, your essence. It’s the soul and reputation of your company, project or even non-profit and informs everything from who you target to how you price to what your website needs to look like and include….so many other business decisions, big and small. And not just marketing ones, either.

If you think of your brand as your business’ reputation, you can see how this informs they way you look, talk and act as a company or a personal brand.

You convey your brand in three crucial ways: visually, verbally and experientially. I call them this concept the Three-Legged Stool of Branding.  And like a stool, if you are missing a leg, the whole thing falls down. The “legs” ensure you have a firm foundation to make all your efforts more effective.

A brand strategy is a statement of direction that answers key questions around why you exist, what you stand for, who you target, what value you provide, your pricing and packaging strategy and your business’ unique personality or vibe that you will present to the world.

Why do you need a brand strategy? Unless you want to overwhelm yourself with a ton of wasted effort (and expense), you need this “strategic map”. Like a compass, a brand strategy guides all your marketing, operational and even hiring and partnership decisions. a Brand Strategy helps you say yes to the right things and no to the wrong things so you not only save money and time, but your specific actions are much more targeted and effective. Otherwise, you will run yourself ragged trying to blindly figure out the right move to make next.

Simply put, a Brand Strategy prevents you from performing random acts of marketing and getting distracted by every new shiny object

Stop performing random acts of marketing. Craft your Brand Strategy first. Share on X

Remember: the format of a Brand Strategy is not the most important thing. Yours can be three paragraphs, two pages or even a slide deck or other graphic format. What matters is that it answers high-level questions such as who you are, who you serve and the value you offer and at a detailed level, outlines:

From this, you can create a Core Value Proposition (CVP), a super useful brand tool that wraps up all your answers into a clear statement (this can serve not only as your company descriptor but as your elevator pitch – and can lead to a great tagline, too. )

Here’s an example of a Core Value Proposition from a past client:

Umault is a boutique video marketing agency that helps B2B companies create captivating content, engage the right people, and drive sales. We concept, script, and oversee video campaigns that make the complex simple and sexy, transforming ordinary businesses into extraordinary brands. 

This tells me everything I need to know about the company: what it is, how it is positioned, the target audience, the three core benefits it wants to stress in the market, and the voice of the company.

Once you have these core brand questions answered, you’re in a much better position to create a solid plan of marketing tactics: taglines, advertising, campaigns, sales strategies, social media, content. You’ll even better understand how your website needs to look and what it needs to say to appeal to your target market.

Internally, you can use the Brand Strategy to inform hiring decisions, operational processes, customer service policies, partner program criteria and even fun company culture practices and rituals.

Your Brand Strategy is your internal bible for making smart business decisions, not just marketing decisions. The more clarity you have about your answers, the more your business will attract the right people with the right message at the right time. Otherwise, good luck navigating the marketing maze of options that exists today.

Ready to create your own Brand Strategy? Click here to download my free 10-question Brand Strategy Worksheet to guide you along!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How To Be Seen as an Expert…Or Increase Your Influence If You Already Are One

Posted on by Red Slice

There are two common challenges people claim when trying to build an expert, influential brand. Do either of these sound familiar?

People don’t listen to my ideas or see me an expert even though I know my stuff really well because I lack credentials/the right degree/level of experience.

and…

Everyone says they’re “experts” these days, but I really am one! I’ve earned it. But I can’t break through with all these upstarts and savvy social media players out there claiming to be experts.

It can be hard to rise above the “expert pollution” out there. It seems like any young upstart with an Instagram account, an IPhone and YouTube can come along and claim their “expert status” in an instant, while your years of hard-won experience or valuable content fall on deaf ears.

Conversely, there are many people without fancy degrees, huge followings or gray hair who really know their stuff. They have valuable insights and advice to share but are dismissed because they are not “well known.”

In both cases, it’s just downright frustrating when your authentic expertise and true talents are not recognized by others. That’s why it’s so important to intentionally cultivate an “expert brand” in order to grow your business.

Branding expert and author Dorie Clark states:

“In a world where too many people claim to be experts, it becomes even more important to be one, and ensure the right people know it.” (TWEET THIS!)

She wrote two wonderful topics on this subject that I think you’ll enjoy:

As Dorie says, “When you’re just starting out in a field, or lack blue-chip affiliations, it may be hard to persuade others to listen to your ideas, even if they’re groundbreaking and valuable.” She offers four strategies to help you get people to listen and make an impact.

  • If you’re already an expert but want to expand your influence even further, please check out her article, “3 Rules for Experts Who Want More Influence.” Chris Brogan weighs in to this article on the vital importance of your email list in increasing your ”recognized expert” status!

 

Photo credit: Jason Rosewell, Unsplash

Do you face challenges in not having your expertise recognized by others, or do you have questions on how to cultivate your expertise to grow your business? Would love to hear what you think!