This is the second post in my series about ‘How to build a brand on a shoestring.’ It follows my own experiences as I rebrand my business of 4 years starting from scratch. Here’s the first one: starting with the logo.
So far I’ve had the logo designed. My designer also provided me with the colours, and the font that goes along with that logo, so I have a great base to begin my visuals with. Next on my list is the branding text.
Branding text is critical to get right. I’m going to write this branding text once, and then I’ll be able to roll this out when I’m setting up social media channels, creating ads, creating the website, designing print material, developing relationships, and sending out PR. Here’s the process:
- Write a short one-liner: you want to encapsulate who you are and what you offer as succinctly as possibly
- Write a short paragraph: one paragraph that expands a little on the one-liner about who you are and what you offer
- Write a few paragraphs: flesh out what you’ve done already by writing more than one paragraph to explain who you are and what you do. Don’t blab on for the sake of it, though. Only write what you need to say.
- Nail a few feature points: it’s great to have a few ‘sum-up’ feature points (like bullet points) to have when you’re setting up your social media profiles
Put these in a google doc, or a special place where you can refer to this constantly. Call this document “[Your Business] Branding”. You will be adding and referring to this document a lot as we go along. I put all my most important information in a text edit file because the only documents I save in text edit have really important information in them. If I’m working with a customer then I’ll always use a google doc so we can both access it at the same time and know it’s the most up to date document.
It’s not just the content that you’re setting at this point. You’re also going to be formulating the tone. Believe me, if you’re not sure what your business is, and what you’re selling to whom, it starts to become pretty obvious when you sit down to write these.
It takes a surprisingly long time because it needs special care. This is the process I use.
First, I’ll write it down in a really informal and messy way – just chucking ideas down on paper. Then I go back to it and try to ‘jazz it up’ and get rid of all the superfluous words.
For example, this is the chuck down:
“Be My Marketer is a business that provides marketing solutions for small businesses and start ups. We try to come up with the most economical ways of designing and delivering marketing processes and outcomes to people who haven’t got a lot of money to spend on their marketing. We’re beneficial for people who have no marketing experience, for marketers who lack confidence or time as marketing coordinators or marketing managers, or small business owners who know what they want but don’t have the time to do it.”
This is a hot mess, but I’ve got down all the things that I want to say.
Next I’m going to try to condense this in to a one-liner, and this is what I came up with:
“Be My Marketer support you with marketing services where you most need it. We specialise in social media marketing for small and medium sized businesses.”
By the time your ideal customer has read your one-liner they should have a very clear idea of who you are and what you offer. Did I succeed?
Next, I’m going to turn this into a succinct paragraph.
“Be My Marketer is your marketing support team. We specialise in social media marketing for small and medium sized businesses. Our customers tell us it’s the way we roll with the punches that makes working with us so easy for them. We fit in where you need us most. So whether you need a full marketing manager or a partner to look things over for a review, get in touch and we’ll see help you boost your marketing results.”
You’ll also have to create bullet points effectively, because this is really handy for social media descriptions in Twitter and Instagram…like this:
“Be My Marketer
Your Marketing Support Team for SMEs
Social Media Specialists
Practical, no-fuss marketing tips here: http://www.bemymarketer.com.au/blog“
You need to adjust this for the right platform but you get the idea.
I’m going to revisit these again later to improve on them, but for now I must get on with the rest of the tasks I have in my limited time. I’m sure you’re the same, so don’t stress over these too much. Just do your best for now and come back to them when you have another chance to make sure you’re really saying what you need to say in the best way possible. This is the online communities’ first impression of you after all. If your branding text grabs people you’ll develop more followers. End of story.
