Recently I was listening to someone who talked about brands … at least he started talking about brands and branding, and a lot of things made sense. For instance, your brand isn’t about you: it’s not a good idea to be the blond accountant or the southern statistician.
But next thing I knew we were knee-deep in URLs. Um … what just happened here?
Your brand isn’t the same as your URL. You can have a URL that’s smooth and keyword rich as heavy cream … but that’s not your brand.
In fact, your brand goes way beyond your logo or even your company name.
For instance, let’s take the name of the leading cola company. It usually comes in bright red cans. I don’t have to risk any copyright violations to say the name because I bet you know it already.
But what comes to mind when you hear it? I think of hot summer days, special occasions like Christmas, tingling taste that quenches your thirst like nothing else and long drives across country … and I don’t even like cola drinks any more.
When researchers study these big brands, they go even deeper. They look at brand personality. They have to invent a personality: after all, when you think about it, cola drinks are just a bunch of liquid chemicals. .
Now back to you and your online service business. Frankly, your brand might be as memorable as your own birthday, but you’ll be known and remembered by your own name. You’ll brand on your own personality and style. Ideally you’ll be remembered as the go-to person for something or other.
Many people think of branding as a sort of beach towel: something to cover what’s there while you’re walking around and maybe get noticed if you’ve got an especially bright one. But sooner or later you have to drop that beach towel and get into the water, which means you gotta have the right stuff, like fitness, muscles and the ability to stay afloat.
So check out my free workbook on branding with stories.
And for an in-depth step by step guide to brand your business with stories, read my Amazon book Build Your Brand One Story At A Time
And now I will plunge into the deep end and say something even more bodacious and outrageous and controversial. I will say that being memorable won’t get you more business if you’re an online service. It’s about building the relationship and sending a compelling message through your copy. It’s about being credible.
Disclaimer: Anything about beaches and swimming should be considered as metaphorical only. I avoid beaches and bodies of water and flunked swimming lessons many times over.
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