Websites People Read

Do You Have a Personal Branding Strategy for the Web?

Ivana Taylor at Strategy Stew is looking for your opinion on whether or not creating a personal brand is important.

She and I attended a visioning workshop not long ago and at one point the discussion of logos came into play and she said something about our personal brand ultimately being more important than a creative logo design. 

I'm in the process of launching a new branch of my business and as I'm working through the planning process I had contemplated the need for a logo and Ivana's words echoed in the recesses of my mind.  If the new portion of my business is based on my expertise than what could be more valuable to market than my name?

Then I read her post today seeking opinions on branding as I formulated my comment I realized that the interconnectivity of the web requires that we take a moment before we leave our trail or forge a new trail on the web as it all comes back to our name:  our personal brand.  It is all linked together.

Last week I heard a story about a professional who left a Tweet sharing a pretty disgusting personal body gesture he'd witnessed another colleague making while in a meeting.

The question was raised:  Was it his attempt to punk his peer or did it really happen?  If it really happened - why repeat it on the web?  And why wasn't he paying attention in the meeting instead of sending a Tweet that made his peer look bad and in turn, made him look less than sensitive and more like a jerk?

Is social media spinning so quickly out of control that people are jumping on board to participate in an effort not to be left behind that they are making poor judgement calls?

When you leave a comment, review a book at Amazon, Tweet or post a photo or video do you first think:  is this in alignment with the image I want to project to my customers or my employer?

Have we taken time to jump off the web roller-coaster long enough to think through a strategy for what we want linked with our name on the web?  Should we?

Photo courtesy of FMI

The Story of an E-Newsletter and How It Increased Brand Awareness

Chris Brown emailed me this morning with a copy of an e-newsletter she received with a note that the content might be blog worthy.  The title of the article was "Think About the Words."

She was right - the article lists six pairs of words used in marketing and sales and talks about which is better and why.  My favorite example is this:

Proposal vs. quote. Are you after a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship? Sounds a lot like marriage. Do we “quote” to the one we love or “propose?

I liked the article and so took time to visit the site Marketing Idea Shop.  I signed up for the newsletter - hey when I see someoone offering interesting content - I want to learn more.   While I was there I decided to visit the article bank.  I found an article on web content and clicked to read more.

I liked what I read and passed the article on to my friend over at Idea Sellers because there were components of the article I thought he'd find interesting.

So what's my message?  E-newsletters, when filled with valuable content written in quick bite-sized pieces can be an amazing way to spread your brand message far afield.

Remember the only person that knew of this company was Chris.  But now I learned about them, forwarded it to Dan and am now telling all of you.  The ripple effect of this e-newsletter was powerful and that's just one subscriber.  Imagine if the newsletter went to 1,000 and just 10 people forwarded the newsletter to a friend or colleague who in turn forwarded it as well.  Think of the opportunities for connecting with people you normally wouldn't.

Do you have an e-newsletter or some regular communication with your prospects?  Does your website include an opt-in section to gather visitor's name and email? 

Do you have a story about how your e-newsletter has helped you reach people?  When you receive an e-newsletter do you read it?

Deborah

Successful Brand Promise Requires Stick-to-it-iveness

Mike over at Own Your Brand has started a discussion about Dominos Pizza and their original brand promise of pizza within 30 minutes.

Another brand promise gone wrong: there was a small chain of optical stores that tried to promise glasses in an hour or your money back. They were trying to compete against Lenscrafters who owned the one hour concept at the time. The promotion (which that was what it turned out to be - not a brand campaign) lasted a very short time. Too much money lost.

 
On the other side of the optical brand equation was Pearle Vision (the company I worked for almost 20 years) and we could never seem to figure out who we wanted to be when we grew up. We started with "nobody cares for your eyes more than Pearle" and sadly new owners changed our brand message - trying The Doctor Is In and glasses in an hour and buy one get one and we never could get back to the fact that we cared. We left a message that was true and valuable and became the company that didn't know exactly who they were to the customer. Sadly, once the greatest optical chain in the world - their brand presence has been muddied in the customer's eyes.  The new owner has changed the brand message to: we want you to see more.  Duh.  I loved our original message - it was far more personal.  Purchasing glasses is a personal experience.  Oh well - nobody asked me.

My brand message, Words People Read, translates into websites, books, marketing materials, whatever you want the intended audience to read:  write it in a way that captures their attention  and inspires them to take action.

Make sure that brand message is clearly communicated on your website and blog.

What company can you think of that left a brand message to pursue something greater only to get lost in the mix of competitors?

Deborah Chaddock Brown

 

So Who Will Be Interested in Web Writing?

Okay.  So I send a link of this new blog to Chris Brown and she asks me a question that has stopped me dead:

"Who is your audience?

Oh man.  I don't know. 

I mean other freelance writers and marketers will benefit from the information I hope to bring to the table. 

But so will small business owners working with their web developer trying to find the right words to reach their target audience.

And as I just said in my last post, understanding your audience is critical to effective communication.

Okay - so if there is anyone out there listening - who do you think it should be?  Other writers or web site owners?

Hmmm.

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Web Writer