What is a brand?

Well let’s start with what it’s not. It’s not your logo. It’s not your advertising. It’s not your PR. It’s not just about great design.

So what is it? It’s the story your business tells. It’s the promise it makes. It’s all the associations and beliefs around your product or service. And it’s something that lives in the hearts and minds of your customers.

That’s the scary thing about branding. To a degree, it’s not up to you. It doesn’t really belong to you. Everyone makes up their minds about your brand based on their own experiences and those of other people. It’s not just about what you tell them.

Why do I need a brand?

People pay more for brands. They pay above the odds for a brand they believe in – even if a similar product is available at a cheaper price. They see value in a favourite brand and they want to buy into it. They feel it reflects who they are or who they want to be.

This emotional resonance encourages them to buy more from a brand and to stay loyal to it. It often turns them into brand advocates who recommend the brand to other people.

A brand is a powerful thing.

What makes a great brand?

Brands that prosper, even when the going gets tough, are the ones that really engage their customers. They embrace the two-way dialogue of branding. They understand how their customers behave and they work with these behaviour patterns. They create positive relationships with their audience and they continually reinforce and nurture these connections.

How do I define my brand?

Branding is a process. It involves a detailed understanding of what you have to offer and who you have to influence. It looks carefully at your competition and finds ways to differentiate your brand even in a crowded marketplace.

By profiling your product or service, you identify exactly what you stand for. When you know your strengths and unique characteristics, you can develop your brand’s position in ways that give full expression to your brand personality and values.

Branding means profiling your audience with precision. You want to know who they are, how they are and where they are. You want to know what moves them, pleases them and pains them. And you want to know all about the other brands vying for their attention.

With this knowledge, you can develop your brand strategy, messages and design in ways that really connect with the people you want to influence.

What’s your take on branding? Please chip in with a comment here.

in real life

In a more likely scenario, you’re spending heavily on pay per click campaigns. Most of your advertising budget is now consumed by them. On the upside, you’ve got instant visibility and traffic. On the downside, it’s costing you a fortune and you’re no nearer your organic search goals.

So what next? There’s a downturn going on. Now is not the time to spend on projects that won’t deliver for ages is it? Actually, it is.

use what you have

If you already have a solid PPC campaign track record, you have a huge advantage when it comes to venturing into search engine optimisation. You’re already armed with copious PPC data which provides the foundation for your SEO strategy. You know which keywords convert the best and which ones leverage the highest volume of sales or responses.

conversion is what counts

Optimising your web content also allows you to focus on the important stuff. Increasing conversions is what matters. This is time and money really well spent. It’s much easier to up your conversion rate by 1% or 2% than it is to double your web traffic.

two birds, one stone

So clearing your conversion pathways is a brilliantly effective optimisation task. Do everything to make it easy for people to interact with you. Remove the glitches and trip-ups. Make it effortless for visitors to shop with you, to find answers to their questions and to get in touch with you. The finishing line and the search rewards are just around the corner.

Some of our most celebrated writers are on the list which is perhaps not a huge surprise. After all, quite a few copywriters harbour dreams of trading commercial writing for creative writing. But some of the names took me completely by surprise…

Here’s the full list:

Sherwood Anderson, author

Augusten Burroughs, author

Helen Gurley Brown, former publisher and editor (Cosmopolitan)

Peter Carey, author

Bryce Courtenay, author

Don DeLillo, author

Kenny Everett, comedian and radio DJ

F. Scott Fitzgerald, author

Terry Gilliam, director and animator

Alec Guinness, actor

Dashiell Hammett, author

Hugh Hefner, publisher (Playboy)

Joseph Heller, author

Russell Hoban, author

John Hughes, director, writer

Tim Kazurinsky, comedian

Elmore Leonard, author

Rick Moranis, actor

Ogden Nash, poet

Bob Newhart, comedian and actor

Alan Parker, director

Steven Pressfield, author

Franc Roddam, director

Indra Sinha, author

Salman Rushdie, author

Dorothy L. Sayers, author

Chrissie Swan, TV and radio presenter

Fay Weldon, author

Thom Jones, author

John Safran, documentarian and broadcaster

Agda Bavi Pain, Slovak Author

Any names you would add? One name I noticed is missing is the brilliant Phyllis Diller who was a genius in the art of word economy in her rapid-fire stand-up routines. She paid the bills in her early days by writing radio ads.

News is wall to wall. 24/7. The demand for content that catches attention amongt so much activity is more urgent than ever. No wonder the humble newsletter has stepped forward as one of the most powerful marketing opportunities for brand builders.

Online or offline, the newsletter is an astonishingly valuable marketing tool. Unlike many other promotional formats, it speaks for itself as well as supporting your brand’s core mission. It brings the weight of editorial-style credibility.

Subscribers are pure gold

Opt-in lists double this power. Subscribers are pure gold for marketers. They tell you in positive terms they want to join your inner circle and find out more about your brand. They want to know about you regularly. Reward them with valuable content and they’ll give you strong, profitable connections over the long term.

Be anything but dull

Given the benefits, why on earth are so many newsletters dull, long-winded and self-promoting? Get your content right and you’ll stand head and shoulders above this kind of lazy mediocrity. Give your readers what they want and deserve: fresh, relevant content that informs, excites and interests.

DO make your newsletter:

• newsy
• exciting
• informative
• helpful
• funny
• involving
• full of real people, stories and opinions

DON’T make your newsletter:

• selly
• dull
• corporate
• long-winded
• self-congratulatory

Keep it fresh

Genuinely interesting content does much more than promote short-term sales. It builds loyalty, creates brand advocates, builds a feeling of inclusion and encourages feedback. As your brand expresses its personality, so your readers deepen their emotional connection with it. They warm to the sense of participation that comes from being part of an exclusive group.

Online newletters: digital benefits

• drive traffic to landing pages and web pages
• are economical to create and distribute
• bring feedback
• provide useful analytics

Online, the benefits of plentiful new content are vast. E newsletters give linking opportunities that drive traffic to landing pages and web pages. They also boost your brand’s SEO efforts by supplying the generous new content search engines love.

Observing online content rules is vital to ensure the best results. Keep e-news copy concise. It’s tiring to read a lot of words on-screen so keep it quick and scannable. Encourage opens with irresistible email headers and tempt readers to linger with content that’s fresh, lively and easy to digest.

Offline newsletters: the power of print

• are easy to read (people like paper!)
• look and feel great
• give more space for content
• have ‘hang around’ value with longer life
• are read by other people as well as subscribers

Give your newsletter the time and attention it deserves and so will your readers.

Design doesn’t precede copy. Copy doesn’t precede design. Content comes first. When visitors find your website, they don’t see design or text. They see your site as a whole. Then they wonder if it’s worth spending time with you.

tell your visitors where to go

In a nice way of course. This is where hierarchy of content is key. So often, websites give visitors no clue about where to start looking or reading. In the rush to ‘get everything in’, websites give equal weight to everything and emphasis to nothing. There’s only one thing a visitor sees clearly: your confused thinking.

the back button is your enemy

Think carefully about what matters to your visitor most right now. How are you going to show them – in seconds –  they’ve come to exactly the right place? What do you need them to know in this tiny window of opportunity to tempt them to stay. What messages do you need them to pick up and in what order?

step away from the keyboard

By organising your messages ahead of writing or designing a thing, you nail your objectives clearly. You know exactly what route your information needs to take. The user journey web people talk about is mapped out neatly in front of you.

let the conversation flow

Now you’re ready to put words and images to your story and bring your plan to life with all the bells and whistles you want. With a logical and intuitive structure to follow, you have creative freedom to lift your web journey off the page and reward your visitors with time well-spent.