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Brand Yourself: Part 2

Capture Audience Attention with a Strong Headline

In this series I guide you through the process of developing a compelling brand for your business. Even if you currently have a brand, use this and the coming emails to review and strengthen it. You'll benefit from thoughtfully answering the questions and working through the exercises I provide. Work with a business associate or with your networking group. You have my permission to forward these emails to others.

Why a Brand? A strong brand:

• Inspires your market
• Sets you apart from the competition
• Guides your market’s perception of your business
• Keeps your name and your value "top of mind"
• Ultimately gives your market a reason to use your business

Ask yourself:

1. Do I have a brand Vision that everyone understands and has bought into?
2. How might I improve my brand Vision, so it is a stronger inspiration and guide?

Cultivate a brand identity that will become the guiding star of your entire business:

It will ensure that all your marketing efforts pull in the same direction.

• You'll waste less time
• Make fewer marketing mistakes
• You’ll stand out in an increasing cluttered world.

The Basic Branding Formula:

1. Build your expertise.
2. Get people to recognize it.

In coming issues we'll cover 10 actions for creating a compelling brand.

Today we begin with the first action (which will span this and next week's marketing tip):

1) Talk about your expertise, with everyone you meet.

An attention-grabbing headline or elevator speech creates opportunities for you to talk about your expertise. It gives you the perfect, confident response when you meet a new person at a social gathering or networking event and they ask, "What exactly do you do?"

What makes for a great elevator speech?

A) Be brief: 7-11 words.

• Format: I help (target market and pain/need) to (result target market receives).

B) Raise curiosity: The one purpose of a strong elevator speech is to cause the listener to ask, "How do you do that?"

Example of my own elevator speech:

• "I help overworked business owners find clients in their sleep." That statement causes my listeners to raise their eyebrows and ask me to prove myself. Great opportunity to show my expertise to a willing listener.

Note what's missing from my elevator speech. I don't say my business name, location, that I'm a marketing professional...the listener doesn't care yet. That would put them to sleep. It would also be a closed statement--my own little mini-lecture that calls for no response. I'd rather have them expecting me to prove myself. My open statement invites challenge, discussion, expectation--opens a two-way dialogue.

By the way, a great elevator headline makes a fantastic statement to put on your business card, brochure, Web site home page, in ads and in sales letters. You can then add text that unpacks the meaning of the headline--and you have great ad copy that creates a dialogue with your audience!

A good elevator headline is worth its weight in gold. It can unify your marketing theme across all media: One focused message to your market!

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