Do What Now? Take Action! Bring In Revenue! You'll Get To Strategy & Branding…?
Updated August 2023
You already know that to be successful your business needs a clear purposeful direction. And a strong first impression with your brand and marketing.
Sometimes, however, brands are halfway there (halfway across a chasm?).
Sometimes a logo isn't backed by strategic business direction (your company name, logo, and tagline is only part of your branding focus)..
Sometimes product and service descriptions, offers, and customer service are only part-way on target (not engaging, or not offered the way prospects want to buy).
Sometimes a website doesn't address prospect questions with a clear logical flow (wait, what...?).
The boss knows revenue is needed now: "Don’t worry about that mumbo jumbo, we need to bring in more business now. We'll probably fix that strategy and branding stuff when more sales are made…
"And we don’t really need this branding stuff that badly anyway…we’re in a relationship business. So forget a new logo and tagline and some fancy-pants website, we’ve been doing business without them."
You’re a git-er-done guy or gal. So you spring into ACTION:
• You contact more prospects than a Nigerian prince with a fortune that just needs depositing in your U.S. account (and you get to grab $2MM for using your account, that was easy).
• Your new keywords pulverize the SEO out of every paragraph…and you start sending Google $4,000 every month.
• You post on Instagram more often than a caffeinated influencer pushing the new caramel mocha latte with sparkly sprinkles.
• You hand out flyers with discount codes more efficiently than a one-armed paper hanger.
• You power-up the new business presentation to anyone in the elevator .who mentions your line of business.
You push past your limits like a high-intensity aerobic and anaerobic workout, with all kinds of marketing tactics… social media posts…expos… and trade shows and sponsorships, postboards n the town square… and…and…and…
BUT-BUT…
BUT WAIT
A MINUTE!
Your SEO and Social & Email Marketing and Blogs & promotions bring your prospects back to your website and presentations, right?!
And your website content and design is driven by your branding and your product/service offerings!
And what if these don't quite engage your audience?!
Wait, wha-a-t?
With your fuzzy strategy… fuzzy branding… fuzzy product and service offerings… fuzzy processes… and fuzzy marketing communication… things are looking kinda....fuzzy!
Is your prospects’ first impression of your website and your business:
“Um...so I think I sorta get what you do…”
"I think you do something that might help us, but TLDR..."
Or: “Yes, saw your site, we'll keep your business in mind....”
Whether you're in a small or large company, you might suspect your website, collateral, product/service offerings, and overall marketing are a little weak or disjointed. It's fuzzy!
Do you really want to present your “sorta good enough” site to your best prospects, smart buyers — who are shopping the market and making buying decisions — and wonder why it's getting just a lukewarm reception… and you're not gaining the business?
You’ve just wasted a whole lotta effort and marketing dollars! And you likely have cut off some good prospects — because once they say "Nah..." it's pretty hard to get them to change their minds!
They may have been drawn in by your amazing blog post that your SEO guy optimized… they may have visited your site. But some other business wowed them and got the sale -- not necessarily with a better product or service, but with a thought-through branding and messaging and product or service and offer and customer experience that spoke directly to their interests.
Diddley-dang… your competition just ate your lunch!
This is a very big question: Is your "Branding" just a logo, part of a Things To Do List, to pop onto your website...or is it a central strategic driving force?
If you look at the Strategy/Branding as something on your TTD list -- not as generative and the core of your integrated thinking -- you will screw yourself royally.
Strategy and branding are not stickers you slap on… they're the engine that drives your business. Your business strategy and branding should guide most things you do — from the markets you select…the way you develop, customize and present your products and services... your website content and SEO… and everything else.
>> Good strategy should lead to good branding >>
>> Good branding builds the foundation for strong business (starting with your website, products and services, and marketing materials >>
>> Content and marketing programs build leads and sales.
Thinking through stuff like your your brand, your products and services should not be considered plug-ins that you get to "whenever." They are essential… part of a continuum… like an airport with runways that are long-enough!
In reality, you can't cross a chasm in two leaps!
If you present something muddled … you’re really presenting a different offering to your prospects. It might as well be a different company — a company that has no clear identity and direction. And the prospects you've tried to cultivate will meander off with "Hey I’ve got to make a call…"
Most businesspeople are moving way too quickly to explore this epiphany:
good strategy and branding lead to stronger ways of doing business, new markets, new ways of sales and marketing. You are defining and articulating your offerings in a stronger way, attracting and engaging your prospects and customers, and closing faster..
And you really have to keep up. Because your markets have changed. Your company has evolved. You've got to stay current, and you certainly want to put your best foot forward.
You don’t have to be an Einstein to quote him — “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Yep! And if we don’t approach growth or innovation freshly, we miss capitalizing on our biggest asset — our ability to think!
Set Your Business Direction — Where Are You Going? And Is Your Brand Development Keeping Up With You?
First, get the destination straight. Are we going to the beach,…skiing in Colorado? When you know, you pack your bags. Not the other way around. If you ski in a swimsuit and flip-flops it's gonna be chilly! And you don’t want to bring your ski parka and insulated gloves to Jamaica, mon… do you feel me?
Practically, if you shift the order of what you do — strategy and branding first, as guiding forces — you'll change everything. You'll have your destination, map and compass. So you can produce the business results you want with clarity and alacrity. Guaranteed.
Are you feeling irie?
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Joel Alpert helps cleints gain business results and profitability profitability with level-up tools in strategic thinking, branding, and targeted marketing communications for companies of all sizes, startups … SMB… to the Big Kids. He thinks he can figure out with a client when to "do what now."
Updated August 2023