00:00:41When I sit down with businesses to work on their digital marketing strategy, one of the things that often comes up is branding branding is often one of the most misunderstood topics among small local businesses. When you ask someone what is branding. A lot of times you get the answers that on the surface appear to be branding but they really aren't. So here are a few things that branding isn't one. Brandon isn't your logo or a description of your logo and yet, when you ask a lot of small business owners, they begin to describe things like the color scheme with their logo, looks like maybe what their website looks like. All of these things, the fonts that they use the pictures that they have, these things are not branding. These are aspects of your brand but they are not on their own branding, neither is the opt-in, but you have on your web.

00:02:06But it's not what Brandon is.

00:02:13Tell me about the Apple brand chances are, you wouldn't say, well, the use a lot of white on their website. It's silver and black and white and they have an apple with a bite taken out of it.

00:03:10Right, that's fair. If you talk to someone like me who has loved Apple since forever. We talked about things like they're clever, marketing ads, how they make all of their products accessible to average everyday folk and how they've had the same marketing over and over again about thinking differently and it goes all the way back to some of the earliest ads which were, you know, takes on Pink, Floyd in the wall and like, you know, trying to make the Computing industry accessible. You might go through all of your descriptions of apple and not even get to the fact that there are tech company because they have done so much with their branding to help you feel differently about who they are and what they do that you're not even getting to the fact that there are tech company that literally sells all of the same gadgets and tools that Dell IBM in the leg also cell

00:04:23Some of the broader context and in some ways, it's okay to think about these larger companies and what a brand is and what branding is for them, because it'll help you explain your branding.

00:04:48Think about Apple, they're trying to make.

00:04:58That's where I think differently came from, because before that, it was largely thought to be a large corporate thing. Not everybody had computers in their homes. It wasn't really marketed to or thought about regular folk and they just kind of carried that thread with them regardless of what products they make, or sell or use.

00:05:26So how do you make people feel? That's the core question to consider about your brand. And if you're a brand new business in the first three years, which is really The Sweet Spot of the people that I help even if you've been in business for ten years, this is an important exercise to reflect on. How do you make people? Feel your customers or potential, customers vendors, power partners and Affiliates? It matters, all of this matters is that just the glossy pictures of you? It's how you make people feel.

00:06:55Your branding is about not just those fancy pictures that you paid for, it's about the interactions that they have behind the fancy pictures behind the pronouncements that we all make on social media. It's about that delivery of services and discussion of goals and their aspirations as well as your own same thing with your vendors. You can say one thing on your website, but then if you're not treating people, well that you are working with word gets out that really important part of your branding and the same is true with power partners and potential affiliate. If it's one thing to have everything outward facing, but if you're really difficult to work with, that's a hard thing to overcome for your brand and people are not going to respond well to that. So it's about having that kind of alignment.

00:08:06Who you help, not just the niche, who you help, what they need. What are their biggest concerns? And how you feel that need? So, for example, women conquer business Jan, McFarland Consulting, help women-owned businesses and I help them fill the gaps. So many of us have business coaches, that tell us. We need all of the things and they don't tell us how we Implement all of the things. So then we go out on Facebook and we asked her buddies about things like website platform and social media and accounting software because there's a vacuum of information. And we're communal people women like to find out information from a Buddies. The problem with that is then we are not necessarily positioned for growth. So what I do is I have been listening to all of the concerns of women in mice.

00:09:15And I feel the needs of women-owned small businesses and help them get the services and the tools. They need to run their business and be effective from a digital marketing perspective rather than crowdsourcing for information on Facebook.

00:10:28Survivor. And a lot of my brand is about talking about things very holistically and in a communal way and a lot of the soft skills that we already have as women that aren't always talked about a strikes. So I talk it by deliver services in a way that isn't super tacky and that is hopefully accessible to women does this order. So, they understand all of the different things that they need.

00:11:07How services are delivered and how you're feeling and need for your clients?

00:11:46What's going on? Talk to customers all the time. About what keeps them awake at night. What are what are their goals? And then how you're feeling them? This isn't a one-and-done. Like, I got my logo. I helped certain people and I got this branding is an evolving process and it's important to really uncover how well, you know, your customers. What are their Hobbies? What are their habits? What are their concerns? And are you reflecting it back to them? Can they see themselves in you?

00:12:47But usually you have to have more to it than that that you're reflecting something back. Yes, you can be reflecting the luxury of standing in front of yard or fancy car. But in order to Market effectively and show more of your brand.

00:13:13And there's so many different ways of doing the other. So many ways to tell stories and to connect with people in different ways through images or video, or testimonials and stories. So the people can say, oh, yeah. I know I totally see myself in this brand and I wanted to interact with it. I want to engage with it because I know what they do and they get me. I see myself here and they get me. And that is a key part of branding to be effective on your website and social media, your email marketing campaigns, all of these ways including in person. Like if you're going out and networking, it all needs to be consistent and it all needs to be aligned and all of that work that you do is branding. That's why you can't just say that branding is your logo or your color scheme, you know or website. It's so much more.

00:14:32So it's really about what is your gold standard and then can you repeat it?

00:14:51That's just writing down some simple processes as a guide.

00:15:33They don't happen by just stumbling upon it and remembering how it happens. Every time it happens by laying out, processes for what happens when somebody calls, what happens when somebody emails, what happens when somebody interacts with your website when somebody downloads an opt-in, it means that you are developing a gold standard for every person who comes into your Realm.

00:16:47being able to repeat that and deliver those Services again and again and again are such huge keys to your brand a

00:17:10And when you get it nailed and you figure out what you're doing and you keep revisiting it and doing it and massaging it and getting better and better. That's how you grow. That's how you scale. That's how you get more value in your small business. And that is a huge key to your digital marketing success for your business.