Tag: brand

3 Surefire Ways to Attract Ideal Clients and Customers

Posted on by Maria Ross

Is this true of you as an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, marketer, or business owner?

 “We do amazing work and offer tremendous value.. I just wish more people better understood what we can do for them and how much we have to offer. It’s so hard to get people to pay attention, and I hate sales!”

Yep. Been there. We all have.

The solution is not to spend more money on marketing. It’s not to buy more ads or discount more deeply.

The answer is to critically look at your brand story and message and ask yourself, “Is my brand, story, and message infused with empathy?” (TWEET THIS!)

People respond when we feel we are seen, heard, and valued. Think about the last purchase you made where you really felt good about yourself. You felt like the sales email was written just for you! You felt like you had finally found your people. You felt like this purchase really said something about you and the way you want to work and live.

That’s what empathy in your brand can do! To connect with the right clients and customers (and I mean, right-fit, not inquiries, clicks, and follows from loads of people who will never buy from you or those who won’t get the value they need), we need to infuse more empathy into our brand.

What does that mean? Here are 3 tips for making your brand more empathetic and attracting the attracting the right clients and customers:

  1. See things from the client or customer point of view: Empathy requires you stash your ego for a while, and clearly see what your clients get from what you do. It’s not about talking only about what you offer, sell, or provide – but how does the client benefit? What do they actually get, achieve, or feel? This also means tactically go through your own sales process, audit customer support, have someone read through your website and test links. Make sure the experience is delightful, not disappointing!
  1. Speak your client’s or customer’s language: I can talk until I’m blue in the face about “brand strategy” but when clients don’t know what that means, I have to adjust my narrative. Yes, brand and marketing are two different things, but sometimes, I have to speak their language to help them understand the value.. It’s the difference between saying what you think they need to hear, and actually being the voice in their heads so they say, “I need that now!”
  1. Start with love: OK, this might be a bit hippy dippy for some, but hear me out. When you start from a place of genuine concern, service, and care, the money will follow. This is true whether you are a solopreneur or a marketer at a large organization. One past corporate client really despised his target customers, describing them in derogatory (and untrue) stereotypes,  and it was clear he didn’t understand their needs at all. That shows up in your messaging – and your reputation. You can be strong and firm and still be compassionate. Be of service, care about their success, show compassion if they are dealing with bad stuff in their lives – and adapt your policies and communications to be more human.

3 Ways to Be a Role Model and Influencer

Posted on by Maria Ross
Mother and Child looking at a book

Quick. Name an influencer or role model you adore. Someone you follow on social media, or listen to their podcast, or read every book they’ve ever written.

You may think you are so far from becoming that influential. And you’d be dead wrong.

My dear friend, coach Jamie Greenwood has said in the past that we get to be culture makers and culture changers. And my book The Empathy Edge was all about being a role model for success within your own sphere of influence.

You impact many more people than you realize. Your family, friends, colleagues. Those you interact with at the coffee shop or grocery store. Those you volunteer with. Those you run into on the street.

You don’t have to be some famous influencer to impact change. Here are 3 ways you can be a good role model:

  1. Motivate with love: You can ditch the old “command and control” methods and show how positive motivation far outweighs punitive action. How do you parent, lead a meeting, manage others? Examine which gets you better long-term results, engagement, and loyalty.
  2. Treat yourself with compassion: When you model that you are gentle with yourself, you show others that they can be gentle with themselves as well.  This does not mean you lower standards. It means you minimize negative self-talk and give people permission to take risks, make mistakes, and get things wrong so that they can learn and  improve for next time.
  3. Prioritize fluidly: Do you set the right boundaries and model to others that this is a path to success? Being able to prioritize differently as life comes at it is what we should strive for – not perfect balance that does not exist. Sometimes you work late when there’s a deadline. Other times, you don’t schedule meetings at 3 pm because you have to pick up your kids. When you perform and achieve while being clear on priorities, you show others what’s possible.

You have the power to define success differently. To manage your work differently, to behave differently, to love yourself differently. 

We get to be culture makers and culture changers. There is immense power in being a positive role model within your own sphere of influence. However big or small. However many Instagram followers you have! (TWEET THIS!)

More like this:

Use Your Platform for Good

How to Redefine Success with Empathy

How to Break the Rules of Success

Photo by Adam Winger on Unsplash

How to Craft a Brand Story that Stands Out

Posted on by Maria Ross
How to Craft a Brand Story that Stands Out

Do you have a brand story that stands out and attracts the right clients? A brand story that just nails it for your business?

Here’s the test. When you talk about what you do, do people immediately go, “I need THAT!”?

If not, I’d love for you to enjoy this free masterclass video to discover the elements of a compelling brand story – and see what your own story might be missing.

I have met so many amazing entrepreneurs over the years with big dreams and great ideas. They have so much value to deliver with their coaching, consulting, services or products.

But they just can’t seem to attract more clients. It’s heartbreaking to me. Especially since it’s not a quality problem. It’s more often a storytelling problem.

Sometimes a story doesn’t nail it because

The message is too product focused and doesn’t connect emotionally. People can’t understand how what you do maps to their own goals and aspirations. They can’t “see themselves” in what you offer.

Or, the message isn’t clear

When we’re too close to all the information, when we know all the ins and outs, we tend to throw too much at people – and we leave them overwhelmed and confused.  They’ll seek out a competitor they more clearly understand.

Or, “My business has evolved”

Things change. Did the last year not teach us anything? What was true about what you do may not be true today. You may have shifted offerings or products or markets. And your old story will of course not be attracting that new audience.

Nailing your breakthrough brand story is the cornerstone to more demand for your business. (Tweet This!)

Want to learn some A-ha’s about how to have a brand story breakthrough and engage the right people? 

I created a fun little 12 minute masterclass just for you. It’s free. Get ready to take some notes!.

Spoiler alert: The key to a great story that engages and inspires people to action is empathy. 

Empathy is the understanding of another’s experience or situation. So the key to attracting customers is empathy at the heart of your brand story 

  1. When you show empathy for a customer’s situation
    • They believe in you
    • They feel like you understand them
    • They subscribe to your list
    • They become a part of your community
    • They HIRE you! They BUY from you. YOU don’t chase them, they chase you

THAT is the magic of empathy. And that’s what makes a brand story a BRAND story.

Check out my free video Masterclass right now

After you view it, you can also learn about my newest course, Brand Story Breakthrough to see if it’s right for you. But no matter what, you’ll get a lot out of the free masterclass!

And did you know? Red Slice has been recognized as one of the best branding companies in California on DesignRush.

How to Write a Good Sales Page

Posted on by Maria Ross
How to Write a Good Sales Page

Writing sales copy is hard. If you’re trying to write sales copy.

I prefer to think of my sales page as a story. A story customers want to dig into, one that fulfills them. One they are moved by. (TWEET THIS!)

Thats means, you have to think of your sales page as more than just “the facts.” It’s best to think about what your sales page story needs to accomplish.

Here are 4 questions your sales page copy needs to answer to be successful and give your customers what they really want:

  1. What do they BELIEVE? What do they need to believe? Empathetic marketing requires you to understand your ideal customers. What do they currently believe about the situation which you product or service helps? Do they struggle with manual processes? Do they find instructions complicated? Do they lack confidence in themselves? What is their core belief? And then….what do you need them to believe? They should believe that there is a better way, a streamlined solution, a healthier option, a more reliable partner. 

Ensure your sales page evokes not just what they currently believe but gives them an A Ha! about how your work changed or shatters that belief.

  1. How do they want to FEEL? With that change in belief comes a change in emotion. Will they feel more confident, profitable, organized, capable, joyful, driven, accomplished by what you have to offer? 

Ensure your sales page copy reflects a future vision for how they will feel about choosing your offerings. Whether we admit it or not, as humans we often buy based on emotion and then use logic to justify our decisions.

  1. What do they need to KNOW? Now it’s time for “just the facts, ma’am!” What is the program? How much does it cost? What will I get? Who else has it helped? What benefits will I enjoy? How does this all work?

Ensure your sales page copy clearly lays out exactly what someone gets with your offering and what they can expect.

  1. What do they need to DO? They’re on board! You won them over. Now, what’s next? What’s the clear call to action? Enter their information? Swipe their credit card? Book a discovery call? Attend a webinar?

Ensure your sales page copy precisely informs then of what you need them to do next to engage or purchase. Try not to give them a million things: Limit it to one clear next step they can take. You’d be surprised how often this step is missed and then people can’t buy, donate, volunteer because they don’t know what they are supposed to do next!

By making your sales page more of a story or a conversation, and covering these four bases, you’ll be able to have the impact you want to have, make sales, and activate change! 

By making your sales page more of a story or a conversation, and covering these four bases, you’ll be able to have the impact you want to have, make sales, and activate change! 

HT to Alexandra Franzen who was the first to teach me about the Feel-Know-Do formula, that I’ve built upon!

Photo Credit: Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com

How to (and How NOT to) Market to I.T. Professionals

Posted on by Maria Ross

Ah, the poor IT professional. Be it developer, database analyst, director of enterprise architecture, or heck, even the CIO, they are recipients of the driest, most boring marketing and messaging I’ve ever seen.

Coming from tech, I actually started my brand consultancy due to a frustration with tech companies not talking to their prospects like they were human beings. We throw jargon at them, robotic phrases that no one ever says in real life. We “stick to the facts” because everyone knows “Tech buyers are skeptics! They don’t want any BS, and will see right through it!”

True. But who the heck determined that writing like a human being, with conversational language and even the occasional sense of humor, made others skeptical?

I hear this time and again with many of my tech brand strategy clients. They are sometimes so scared to say anything human or unique, constantly shouting the rallying cry of “They are skeptical!”

Skeptics don’t hate a conversational human tone or a bit of light humor. They hate lies. So tell them the truth – claims you can back up. Marketing should never be about lies but should always elevate the truth of your story (that’s a different rant). But do it a human way.

Guess what? IT buyers are human beings. Yes, flesh and blood. They love their families. They enjoy a good Will Farrell movie, they may even in equal doses cry at a wedding (gasp!), or get out on the dance floor for the Chicken Dance. They binge on Netflix, bake sourdough bread, and play Legos with their kids on the floor.

We have to stop assuming that IT buyers leave their emotions and personalities behind when they get to the office.  (TWEET THIS!)

Humans buy for both logical and emotional reasons, and often use logic to justify the emotion.

So here’s what I do: I conduct qualitative customer interviews, MacGyver style, so that it’s not just me simply telling the client to be more human in their brand marketing. The customers actually tell us what they want to hear!

Some things I’ve heard from these skeptical, serious, no BS IT buyers:

“Everything marketed to us is so dry! I like the occasional funny memes. They stand out!”

“We want our tech partner to understand we have serious business problems to solve, but they could also lighten up and talk more conversationally on their website.”

“I would love for them to lighten up in their marketing – I would respond to that. Their people are so personable and fun  – why does their marketing sound like it was written by robots?!”

“The product is so innovative, I wish the marketing emails could be, too!”

Please, save these poor IT buyers from a life of jargon-filled websites, a litany of feature-function vomit, and such a serious, formal tone. They are humans. They want to be inspired, provoked, sparked, and moved like the rest of us.

  • Lead with empathy and get to know your customers as human beings
  • Inject some personality into your copy. Get creative and yes, perhaps whimsical, with your marketing campaigns (if that suits your brand)
  • Ditch the jargon when you can (of course speak the industry language, but be discerning)
  • Write like human beings talk – on your website, in your emails, in your white papers. Ask and echo back.
  • Stop writing customer-facing marketing like you are presenting to an analyst. Pleasing Gartner is fine – but they don’t buy your product. Remember who does.

Remember, B2B buyers are humans, too. 

Want some help revamping and refreshing your brand story to be more empathetic, connective and human? Let’s see how we can work together to make that happen.

Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/@usmanyousaf

Does Your Story Connect With Your Customers?

Posted on by Maria Ross
Does Your Story Connect With Your Customers

While we inherently know this, we need to better understand our customers if we want to inspire and persuade them.

This requires us to speak their language.

Too often, my clients come to me to revamp their brand story and messaging and my initial diagnosis is usually the same: They are talking in a way that doesn’t resonate or connect with their customers.

The messaging is full of jargon. They use terms only analysts like, but that a real customer never expresses. It’s complicated. It’s robotic. It’s not something anyone can emotionally connect to. Because of fear, they use the words everyone else in their industry is using and they wonder why no one stands out.

SEO is important – but it’s not everything.

To speak your customers’ language, you must take the time to LISTEN TO THEM with empathy.

Ask them about the challenges they face, how your solution solves their problems, what they love most about working with your company or product. Develop empathy for your customers, instead of viewing them like “they don’t know any better” (Yes, I have seen this disdain for customers from marketing leadership before!)

And then – this is the hard part: Don’t ignore it.

I conduct qualitative customer interviews for my corporate clients. And some clients love getting all this rich insight – only to ignore peppering their story with the very words their customers use. They say “The analysts don’t like that term” or “It sounds too folksy.” 

You will never connect with a customer, prospect, audience, or human if you don’t speak a language they can understand. If you don’t tell a story they can relate to./strong> (TWEET THIS!)

It’s time to set aside ego. It’s time to take a chance. It’s time to listen to your customers and tweak your story. 

Are you ready to revamp your story for more connection, engagement, and loyalty? Let’s talk about my brand strategy packages and how we can help your brand shine!

Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/@benwhitephotography

3 Ways to Use Empathetic Insights to Repair a Bad Customer Experience

Posted on by Maria Ross
Photo of man on laptop

Have you ever gotten an email from customer service or an answer from a sales rep that left you feeling hopelessly misunderstood?

This seems to happen to me more as I get older, and while I completely admit that the common denominator is me, nine times out of ten, it is a result of a brand representative not truly listening to me or “getting” the real issue.

When an eCommerce site screwed up the card on an order I had sent a client, they simply threw a gift card at me, without truly understanding the impact to my business reputation. As a result, their attempt to make amends was seen as performative and like I was a nuisance.

But…when a cable company representative told me how she completely understood my surprise at an increase in my bill and admitted, “I would feel the exact same way if that had happened to me!” in an unscripted and authentic manner, that changed the tenor of our phone call to one of constructive problem solving.

A world of painful and unnecessarily contentious communication awaits you if you don’t intimately understand your customers. If you don’t appreciate what they are thinking and most importantly, feeling. If you can’t see miles down the road to anticipate what would most delight them or make their lives/work easier.

Without empathetic customer insights,  you can never offer a standout experience that gets customers talking and keeps them for life. (Tweet This!)

Here are three customer communication pitfalls that can be avoided with more effective – and empathetic – customer insights:

  1. Make it right! When a customer has a bad experience, it’s not about blame in that moment. It’s about taking responsibility and working to solve the problem. If indeed your company’s products or services are responsible, you may not be able to undo the damage you caused by blowing their big client presentation, not delivering that dream outfit for their big date in time, or putting them on the wrong technology platform. But you can acknowledge the issues, sit side by side with them in empathy, and attempt to make it right, make amends, or improve for next time – whatever is most suitable.. The hard part: The action you take needs to be tailored to the situation they have faced. You can’t go back in time, but what can you provide for them going forward? Top tip: Free gift cards or future discounts can work sometimes, but not all the time!
  2. Don’t confuse responsibility with accountability and humanity: You may legally not want to “admit” anything was your fault- and perhaps it wasn’t. But you can take on accountability for them as your customers. As someone who’s success you care about. As a human being. You can say you’re sorry for them experiencing this, you can empathize with how much it sucks. You can problem solve together on a path forward. But the minute you find yourself wanting to utter, “You didn’t fill out______” as an excuse, check yourself because that is not what’s required at that pivotal moment. When you understand your customer’s world, you can better find connection with what they are feeling and take effective action.
  3. Address the emotion behind the scenes: It doesn’t matter if you sell clothing or consulting or software.  Customers buy because of both logic and emotion. They want to belong, they want the choices they make to say something about them. Yes, even if the sale is B2B! So when communicating with customers, remember the emotions that may be guiding their decisions. This is why ideal client personas are so important. If you know your audience tends to be risk averse, you need to instill confidence, gain trust, and showcase how your offering helps them gradually make change. If you know your customers are edgy and love taking risks, talk to them about how they can transform their organization/life or which other disruptive leaders have blazed a trail with you and found success.

Know your customer. As a human with complex motivations and emotions. And serve them by speaking to their logic and emotions when things go wrong and you need to make them right. Empathy will truly make your business stand out from the crowd.

Tune in to The Empathy Edge podcast to learn from other great leaders and marketers on how empathy helps them create better customer experiences.

Photo Credit: Avi Richards via Unsplash

Go Beyond the Focus Group for Better Customer Insights

Posted on by Maria Ross
Go Beyond the Focus Groups For Better Customer Insights

Focus groups make me cringe.

These false environments place target customers in a room where they are asked a series of questions about what they think of products, services, or ad campaigns. 

We pay them to be there, get them in a room where they feel under pressure to offer an opinion or make one up, and to consider products or services in an artificial context that doesn’t at all mimic how they truly make decisions. We’ve all heard the stories of focus groupthink, where people collectively feed off of each other even, or they don’t tell the truth about how they feel because they know they are being judged, or the loudest person in the room steers the conversation in one direction.

It’s not that focus groups in and of themselves are horrible. In the past, I oversaw focus groups with HR Managers and did get useful nuggets form focus groups where we asked them about their everyday jobs, challenges, and wins, rather than about a specific product, feature or ad campaign. The intent was to understand their industry, not test a product or message idea. So it worked well.

Data is great and can validate assumptions or strategies. But you have to understand how the data is collected and where it can be biased – and what stories you may be missing behind the data. You also have to know when it’s time to stop collecting data and start gathering insights.

Yes, data and insights are two different things.

If you want to know how your customers think or what challenges they face, you don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on fake environments that won’t give you real answers. 

Go beyond data collection.  Have real, messy, organic  conversation so you can get to know your customers as people. (TWEET THIS!)

One on one. In a non-biased environment. In a way that fosters active listening. 

Try:

  • A casual phone interview
  • A fun networking dinner 
  • Meeting up with customers in their own environment, in the place where they use your products or make buying decisions.

Qualitative interviews can be time-consuming, But honestly, they yield better insights. Yes, you might not have a pretty chart full of data points that cannot be disputed. You won’t be able to impress the board with reams of graphs and pie charts.

But you can uncover motives, aspirations, goals, challenges. You can discover the right words to use, the emotions behind their decisions.  You may stumble on an unexpected motivating angle or use case that you never even thought to ask about in a multiple choice survey.

I am able to get priceless insights from my clients’ customers with just a casual 30 minute phone call and some guiding questions.

Take the time to get to know your customers as people. This is the best way to appeal to both their intellect and emotion when building solutions that resonate with them. 

More great insights on going beyond the data, on The Empathy Edge podcast:

Humanize Your Data to Reveal Emotions

Why Data is Empathy

Photo credit: Priscilla Du Preez

5 Tips To End Social Media Overwhelm For Your Business

Posted on by Maria Ross
tips to end social media overwhelm (Blog)

It’s a Tuesday afternoon. I have to leave, like, NOW to pick up my toddler from preschool. My old black lab has just laid his face in my lap and given me the “Shouldn’t we be walking right now?” eyes.

But I’m stalling because for the last hour, I’ve been staring at Twitter, trying to come up with clever tweets. I pull up Facebook and immediately feel less-than. I click over to LinkedIn and then close it again.

Sound familiar?

Social media overwhelm is an absolute epidemic with my clients. And I used to struggle with it, too!

So much of our social media overwhelm comes from
a) not really understanding where we should put our energy and marketing dollars
b) “spraying and praying” across every social media platform

Of course we’re overwhelmed. We’re spreading ourselves thin, spending hours and dollars on things that don’t work, and getting demoralized by fewer likes and shares.

I get it because I’ve been there. After lots of trial and error, I’ve kicked my social media overwhelm to the curb and I’m going to show you how to do the same!

How to beat social media overwhelm in 5 relatively easy steps

  1. Figure out where your people are
    If your people aren’t on Instagram – what luck! – you don’t need an Instagram account. If your ideal customer spends hours pinning recipes and inspirational quotes, then you can direct your time and energy towards crafting the perfect Pinterest strategy.

    Of course, there are overlaps between platforms. Moms who care about fitness use Pinterest     and Instagram. Creative entrepreneurs use Facebook and Twitter. But if you can narrow down your focus to two social media platforms you’re more likely to reach your people and see results. As my friend Sarah says, “It’s better to be good at two things than bad at seven.”

    Here’s a great, up-to-date report on     which demographics favor which social media platforms.
  2. Figure out where your traffic is coming from
    If you’re reading this, I imagine you already have a few social media profiles. And maybe when you started using Twitter four years ago it was sending you a lot of traffic! Is that still true today?

    Social media changes a lot from year to year. Remember Periscope?! What was working in 2015 might not be working now. I’d hate for you to pour time and energy into a platform that isn’t bringing you traffic or clients.

    Here’s how to figure out where your social media traffic is coming from:
    1. Install Google analytics
    2. After it has gathered data for a few weeks, go in and see which social media platform sends you the most traffic
    3. You find that info under Acquisition > Social > Overview
tips to end social media overwhelm

It is worth noting that social media traffic can be a bit chicken-and-the-egg-y. If you put a lot of effort into Facebook, it’ll probably send you traffic. If you don’t have a Pinterest account, it’s unlikely you’re getting much Pinterest traffic. But if you use two or more social media platforms, it’s good to know which one is most effective so you can direct your efforts accordingly.

3. Figure out what type of social media you actually enjoy using
Let’s say you’ve discovered that your ideal client uses Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest in equal measure.

Now, let’s say you hate using Instagram. You’re constantly disappointed by your photos and you have no idea what’s going on with hashtags.

Meanwhile, you genuinely enjoy using Pinterest and you’re all over Facebook. You understand retargeting ads and clone audiences. You can do that stuff in your sleep!

You don’t need my permission, but here it is: you are absolutely allowed to put your time and effort into social media platforms you actually enjoy using. It’s going to be hard to connect with clients on a platform you hate using.

4. Figure out which types of posts are the most effective
There are different ways to connect with your people on any given platform.

On Facebook, I can

And when I look at the analytics within Facebook, it’s pretty easy to see which of these is the most popular!

Not sure how to mix things up on your social media platform of choice? 

After you’ve experimented a bit, you’ll have a better idea of what works for your platforms and your readers. You can do less of what doesn’t work and more of what does. Overwhelm? What overwhelm?

5. Now that you know what works, schedule updates for the next 2-3 weeks!
So you’ve figured out where your people are, where your traffic comes from, and how you feel about each social media platforms. You know which types of posts perform the best.

Pour yourself a glass of something delicious and after you finish it, do something with that information! Schedule a bunch of social media posts to your platform of choice so you can “set it and forget it.”

I like Buffer for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Tailwind is great for Pinterest and Later or Planoly is good for Instagram.

Social media is not only a great marketing platform – it plays a crucial part in the sales process, especially when it comes to social selling. See the social media platforms throughout the years and how social selling has evolved, in this post by Zopto.

Learn how to grow your social media following in this great article by the good folks at Don’t Panic.

I want to know what’s working for you! Are you overwhelmed by social media? If you’re one of the few business owners who isn’t overwhelmed by social media – share your tips with us over on Instagram or Tweet me!

Why a Brand Project is a Transformation Project

Posted on by Maria Ross
A Brand Project is a Transformation Project

What can management consulting teach you about brand strategy work?  

Everything. 

My very first post-college job was as a change management consultant for a large consulting firm. My job was to equip people and teams at Fortune 1000 companies to adopt big changes, whether that was a new system implementation, workflow, or organizational structure. 

All of these projects had one thing in common: They transformed the company and the jobs of the people in that company. On the human level, they transformed how people thought of their jobs, their skills…and how they saw themselves. 

We dealt with the gamut of human emotion: Anger, fear, worry, excitement. Change brings that out in people. As diverse as humans are, they will all react differently to major change. 

Nothing could have equipped me better for my work as a brand strategist. 

Let’s be clear: A brand strategy and messaging project, whether to create a new brand or revamp an existing one, is a transformation project.   (Tweet this!)

Clients come to me because they know they need a change of some kind. In sales and marketing message. In reputation. In customer base. In market position. And change, of course, excites some people, worries and confuses others, and angers a few more. 

There are many brand strategists who come at this work purely from a marketing angle. “This is about your marketplace reputation and simply how you look and talk.” Yes, partly true. But it’s also about how you ACT as an organization. 

For going on 13 years now, I have brought diverse groups of leaders (at all levels) together in a room to hold an all-day brand strategy workshop. Some are psyched the company is finally “doing something” about their brand and lack of clarity in message. Others just want to pop off about how marketing sucks. Still others don’t quite understand why they are in the room. 

And then…magic. 

I must admit, when I first started this work, I wasn’t sure how my process was going to fly. What if I couldn’t wrangle the voices or disagreement? What if no one completed the pre-work? What if no one spoke up? What if EVERYONE spoke up? What if at the end of the day, we still had no consensus, and everyone left not only dejected but pissed they’d wasted their time? 

Turns out, there was nothing to fear and everything to gain. 

Because I have found in my proven brand strategy process, that when you bring these diverse voices together (after prepping with some crucial pre-work) to hit them directly in the face with their strengths and red flags; when you force them to hear each other and respect the vantage point each one has of the company and its customers; when you allow “non-marketers’ to express what customers ask for and how they think the company solves problems; when you get the founder or CEO to vulnerably riff on the impact and legacy she or he hopes the company will have on the world (in a way many of them hear for the very first time), there is no other word to describe it but magic. 

Why? How? It’s partly a forced exercise in empathy. Partly making people take a chunk of time away from daily firefighting to think ABOUT the business. And partly deft facilitation and dot-connecting. But not just on our part, but on how they step up to do the same.  Often the ground-breaking phrase or big idea comes from a heated moment of debate, shouted out by one of my clients, not me. (Instigating and provoking, when used for good, are two of my superpowers.) 

Together, these people transform perceptions and prejudices of each other. Yes, marketing cares about driving sales. Yes, engineering has an eloquent and inventive way to describe the product (and often, some pretty creative marketing campaign ideas). Yes, HR is actually a strategic business driver because they bring in and nurture the most important aspect that drives our growth: Our talent, our people, our brand ambassadors. 

A brand strategy and story is not just a marketing exercise, but a company-wide transformation exercise. It attracts the right customers with clarity and conviction. It inspires them to want to join in. It inspires us as employees by giving us purpose. And in almost all cases, it ignites serious discussion on how operations, policies, hiring, even product design needs to change, if everyone wants to live up to that articulated new brand story. 

One of the best compliments of my career was from the CEO of a tech company. He said our brand strategy work did not simply result in a new product name, message and look and feel for the company. It forced the leadership to have core strategic conversations. He relayed that the project helped them change the way they talk – internally and externally – and would help them achieve their ambitious corporate vision and goals. That’s transformation and it’s way more than a new logo. 

Brand strategy, true brand strategy and story crafting, is not just about cute taglines, logos, or ads. It’s about transforming the way employees see their work, the company sees its purpose, and customers engage and clamor to be an important part in that story. 

Ready to transform? Take a look at what we can do together and let’s have a conversation about your goals to see if this is the right fit. 

Photo Credit: Artem Maltsev on Unsplash