marketing

What is branding? It’s not ink and cardboard

January 30, 2017 By Tim

A lot of people think branding is logos and business cards. But those are just channels and products that reflect your branding.

The oft-repeated quote when people talk about personal branding for small businesses comes, ironically, from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

To put it another way: when people call you to mind, what impressions come along with that?

I often talk about foreground and background messages. Foreground messages are what you tell people explicitly, like an introduction/pitch at a networking event or points you make in a blog post. Background messages are impressions people pick up about you, often with little or no conscious awareness they’re doing it – for instance from the colour scheme and layout of your website, or your writing’s tone of voice.

So branding is the process of getting clearer about what messages you want to attach to yourself in people’s minds, then using tools and channels to implement that. [Read more…] about What is branding? It’s not ink and cardboard

Why is it so hard to say what you do?

October 28, 2016 By Tim

The introduction or ‘elevator pitch’. Those one or two sentences you prepare for opening networking conversations or adding to your website or materials. On the face of it such a simple thing, but the cause of massive frustration and soul-searching.

I’m on a course at the moment about selling (in an authentic non-pushy way). So many of the people there are really wrestling with their intro. Including me!

I think it’s harder for ‘heart-centred’ businesses, and those where you’re not delivering a well-known function, like plumber or accountant: you’re delivering you, and your individual jigsaw of passion, experience and skill. [Read more…] about Why is it so hard to say what you do?

You can’t find the perfect title for a mystery project

June 13, 2016 By Tim

Every so often I see a post: “Can you guys help me choose the best blog name/post title/domain name/book title/book cover?”

Because I’m a helpful sort of person, and my skills often enable me to unlock this sort of thing, I sometimes try to engage with these.

And often I end up frustrated because the person prevents me from giving the help they’re asking for.

For instance, they give a list of four titles and ask people to pick the one they like best. But the titles sound like they’re referring to four different pieces of work. So I ask, can you tell us a bit about what your project is so we know what we’re aiming for?

Most often, that doesn’t get answered. [Read more…] about You can’t find the perfect title for a mystery project

A struggler’s guide to getting visible

May 12, 2016 By Tim

If you build it, they will come. Well, maybe.

I’m increasingly sensitive to ‘experts’ giving the impression that if you show up – through a website, social media, ebook, networking event or whatever – an audience will appear as if by magic and bear you along on the wings of success.

It could happen. But for most of us, the alchemy isn’t that simple. And that can leave us wondering what we’ve done wrong.

Most of us need a way to close the gap and create a powerful enough spark to jump across it. We need to create interest and connection in a world full of competition for those things. We need to create fans who like our work so much they promote it on our behalf.

I’ve been trying to get more visible and build an audience for quite a while now, and I clearly don’t know how to do it. More accurately and less self-beaty-up: there are some bits I’m good at and some big holes that I didn’t see until I got up close.

But do you know that saying, “Do as I say, not as I do”? There are things I’ve picked up along the way that would have been useful to my earlier self. So I’ve collected them here in the hope that they’ll help you. [Read more…] about A struggler’s guide to getting visible

You’ve found your purpose – now how do you show it to people?

April 12, 2016 By Tim

I’ve come across loads of people who are helping others find their purpose, their story, their passion, the work they were meant to do or born to do, and so on.

There’s clearly a great hunger for it.

Old stories are breaking down. The world is not the way they told us when we were kids. The tracks we let ourselves be convinced to travel in have become too small. Communication networks tell us of wider perspectives and new adventures. Social straitjackets have loosened.

More and more people feel that calling to reconnect with the fire inside and bring it out to make a difference.

What happens then? You’ve been on a journey and got help along the way and found a bright new framework for your next chapter. You come out the end with a plonk ready to bring your gifts to the world.

How do you do that? [Read more…] about You’ve found your purpose – now how do you show it to people?

The real reason spelling and grammar matter – video blog

July 17, 2015 By Tim

To a wordnerd like me, spelling and grammar mistakes jump out and make my brain itch to fix them. And I want to do the best job I can with language.

Most people aren’t wired up like that. If you’re not, is there a real practical reason why you should worry about that stuff?

Yes there is, if you have an audience – clients, supporters, followers, peers – and you care how they see you.

(This is part of my video skills learning journey. So I apologise for the tics, like saying “you know” every twenty seconds! It was done in one take, so not bad for a learner. Onward and upward!)