to

YOUR BRAND

by LIZ GOODGOLDby LIZ GOODGOLDGet more ‘LIZDOM’ at RedfireBranding.com

or contact her TODAY at 858.550.7000

& BUSINESS

99 Sure Fire Ways to Boost Your Brand and Business

About the Author:

Liz Goodgold: Branding Guru

Speaker and author Liz Goodgold is a fiery redhead with over 20 years of experience in marketing and branding. She is the author of RED FIRE BRANDING: Create a Hot Personal Brand and Have Customers for Life and DUH! Marketing: 99 Monstrous Missteps You Can Use to Learn, Laugh, and Grow Your Business.

Liz has worked for such major clients as the World Trade Centers, Sharp HealthCare, Quaker Oats, Times Mirror, and Arco Oil as well as with small business owners and start‐ups. Her specialized, one‐on‐one branding and coaching programs spark new ideas that deliver sure‐fire results.

An often quoted expert, Liz has appeared in over 500 media outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. With her unique blend of energy, humor, and real‐ world examples, she is a highly‐prized and greatly sought after speaker.

Would this booklet be a help to your clients? If so, please contact Liz about having it printed with your logo and bulk quantity purchases.

Contact Liz Goodgold: 858‐550‐7000 Liz@RedFirebranding.com www.RedFirebranding.com San Diego, CA 92130

Copyright © 2011 by Liz Goodgold

Other Products and Services Offered by Liz Goodgold

Books:

1. Red Fire Branding: How to Create a Hot Personal Brand to Have Customers for Life!

2. Duh! Marketing: 99 Monstrous Missteps You Can Use to Learn, Laugh, and Grow Your Business!

Audio CDs: 1. Red Fire Branding: How to Create a Hot Personal Brand so That Clients Choose

You 2. Web Marketing: 3. Red Fire Publicity: How to Get the Word Out and The Revenue In! 4. DUH Marketing: Why Your Customers Buy and How to Get Them to Buy MORE!

Speeches and Workshops:

1. Red Fire Branding: How to Create a Hot Personal Brand to Have Customers for Life!

2. Red Fire Employee Branding: How to Boost Your Brand At Work to Reap the Rewards and Recognition You Deserve!

3. How Women Can Create a Hot Personal Brand so That Customers and Clients Choose “YOU”!

4. Red Fire Networking: The 6 Secrets to Building Relationships That Increase Sales

5. Red Fire Publicity: How to Create a Hot Image that Builds Your Brand and Your Business

6. Branding For Speakers: 7 Strategies Guaranteed to Boost Your Bookings, Business, and Bottom‐line

All keynotes and workshops are customized for each client

Coaching and Consulting:

• Naming and brand strategy – project fee based; please contact Liz

• Branding Club Coaching Memberships Available; please contact Liz

Tips on Overall Branding

1. Aim to become the expert of one niche. It is easier to become the master of one area than to be a generalist of an entire industry.

2. Create a new brand if you find that your product offerings have expanded. In this manner, each brand retains its core positioning.

3. Remember that in testing your brand name, you are not simply looking for brand awareness, but purchase intent. Just because people know your name, doesn’t mean they want to do business with you.

4. Remain loyal and consistent to your brand personality. Constantly check that all of your actions and marketing messages project the same image.

5. Make sure you are clear in your target audience. If you aim for two distinctly, different marketing objectives, you’ll hit neither.

6. Choose your words carefully, especially in email communication. If an issue is fraught with complexity, feel free to schedule a phone appointment instead.

7. Never use stock photography as it can also be used by hundreds of others ‐ completely depriving you of a unique image.

8. If in doubt, test! Testing doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive: feel free to ask customers, prospects, and past clients what they think before proceeding.

9. Check, double check and check out before printing anything! Pick up your phone and dial the phone number as it appears on the paper; does it work? Email the address and ensure it doesn’t bounce back. Prevention now is key.

10.Back up your brand’s claims with research, facts, and statistics that support it. If your jacket really lasts an average of five years, tout it! But, have the research at the ready.

11.Know your competitors. It’s important to know what others within your frame of reference are selling and promising.

Tips on Personal Branding

12.Find your authentic brand; it should be a clear and honest reflection of you and your values, not what others think you should be. Staying true to your brand will make it easier for you to succeed.

13.Make sure you practice what you teach. If you are the expert on stress management, for example, remain calm and cool demonstrating your expertise.

14.Employ your brand and its personality consistently. Don’t prematurely change taglines, colors, or image just because you are tired of it. Research shows that “wear out” factor is typically 5x longer than you think it is.

15.Form a Council of Advisors to suggest, recommend, and review your branding plans. Having an outside point of view always results in better thought‐out and executed plans.

16.Enlist a “Simon Cowell” personality into your Council of Advisors ensuring that you sometimes hear the brutal truth. Being forewarned about a misstep is much better than having to fix it after the fact.

17.Use color as an amazing branding tool. Use the main color and its secondary color consistently throughout your site, business card, newsletters, mailings, or even your wardrobe.

18.Identify what you are and what you are not. Knowing you don’t do weddings, PowerPoint or a “fluff and buff” massage is just as important as understanding what things you actually do in refining your message.

19.Pick a celebrity brand to emulate. Following in the footsteps of a Suze Orman, Walter Mossberg or Jack Canfield can provide valuable steps to success.

20.Give ‘Em Something to Talk About. Create buzz about you by providing a contrarian view, breaking out of the norm, or bringing an interesting new process to your industry.

21.Just do it! You can’t wait until your brand is perfect before launching. Go ahead and release that website, business card, or audio file knowing that you will forever be tweaking your brand.

22. Create a 7‐second hook that causes a head‐whip effect. Your introduction should be so compelling and intriguing that your listener can’t wait to hear more.

Tips on Naming

22.Always “Google” your name before embarking on a branding exploration. You need to know if you can “own” the Internet results or if other people share your name ‐ making it difficult to find you.

23.Consider creating a nickname or descriptive name if your name is ubiquitous. Titles such as the Shopping Market Guru, the Restaurant Doctor, or the Tradeshow Coach work exceptionally well in separating you from competitors.

24.Determine if your first name is unique enough to simply go by one name. This successful formula has worked for Cher, Bono, Beyoncé, and Madonna.

25.Before committing to a name, explore negative interpretations, sexual overtones, possible foreign‐language faux pas, and political connotations. Often, hiring a translation firm to double check these issues is a smart investment.

26.There is a high correlation between domain name availability and trademark availability. As a result, you should clearly search the web for all references to your proposed name as well as screen it for free at www.uspto.gov ‐ The US Department of Patents and Trademarks. Of course, always have your attorney review it prior to launching a new name.

27.Check that your proposed name works well as a domain address too. Often, when words are squeezed together, they create unintended words (ex: Campbell’s Go Red site looked liked “gored.”)

28.Create brand names that are easy to say and easy to spell, especially if they are geared towards the consumer market. People don’t want to feel foolish pronouncing a word incorrectly so they’ll often choose not to request your brand by name if it is too difficult. (ex: Clos du Bois American‐made wine)

29.Avoid the temptation to hold a naming contest. It usually results in an unusable name, but forces your hand into awarding the prize anyway. Instead, devote significant time, resources, and expertise to a project of this caliber.

30.Always use the full name of your product since you want it to be on every customer’s list. Shortening the name to alphabet soup (ex: IBM or SAP), can have negative repercussions and meanings.

31.Ensure your name is big enough to relate to your current offerings, but will also work when you expand your products or services. You don’t want to invest in a name change so soon after launching or repeating a misstep such as the one made by Boston Chicken, having to rebrand to Boston Market.

32.Evaluate carefully if your brand name can survive a major catastrophe. Sometimes, it is better to change the brand versus trying to repair it.

Tips on Visual Branding

33.Take one aspect of your physical image and turn it into a distinctive, “signature look.” Review examples as wide ranging as Harry Potter’s glasses, Larry King’s suspenders, or Ana Wintour’s (editor in chief of Vogue) short bob.

34.Ask yourself if an accessory might be a better fit for you such as wearing a red bow tie (a la former Senator Paul Simon) or a pin of pots and pans signifying your cooking occupation.

35.Invent a color palette to serve as a great reminder of you. Think about how successful it worked for Johnny Cash – The Man in Black.

36.Focus on the cost per wearing instead of the total ticket price on important purchases such as a classic, navy blue suit or perfect dress shirt. You should strive to always look perfectly put‐ together.

37. Explore whether hats might be a better option for you. Cowboy hats, Fedoras, berets, and sombreros have created iconic looks for Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, and even Juan Valdez.

38.Use the One‐Notch Rule. Always dress one notch above your clients, peers, and competitors. If your client will be “casual,” you should show up in “business casual.” If the dress standard at work is “business casual,” you should wear “business appropriate.” Remember, you are “The Expert.”

39.Dress your brand as if a mascot. If you are a chef or involved in food, an apron always works. Similarly, dripping in diamonds demonstrates you must be involved in the jewelry business.

40.Play up your natural gifts and exploit them. If you’ve got legs like Tina Turner or a body like Jennifer Lopez, find a way to consistently show it off.

41.Experiment with a uniform for you or your entire team. It can raise your profile, separate you from competitors, and add a professional look.

Tips on Boosting Your Visibility and Credibility

42.Write articles in your area of expertise. They can be used on free sites, your own sites, or even turned into downloadable “white papers.”

43.Review books, even competitive ones that focus on your niche. Since Amazon and B&N probably have more web visitors than your own site, it is a great way to build your brand and reputation.

44.Post YouTube video providing valuable information. A 2‐minute snippet of a talk, 5 tips, or a short “how to” video aligns with today’s social media norms.

45.Become an expert interviewed by reporters. Although it used to be difficult to connect with reporters, today it is easy thanks to sites such as http://helpareporter.com/

46.Answer questions posed on LinkedIn. The rule of thumb is that you should participate actively at least 3‐5 times before posting any promotion information.

47.Host a small‐scale seminar charging a nominal fee. Free seminars don’t work because if attendees pay nothing, they believe it is worth nothing.

48.Offer a guarantee of some sort. A money‐back guarantee if your recommendations don’t yield expected results or if your seminar falls flat can boost your reputation more than it could possibly hurt it.

49.Find someone to interview you. A content‐rich audio file available as a download or used as a “gift” is a great way to boost your brand and bring in business.

50.Guest lecture at the local college or university. It works exponentially well by a) giving you practice public speaking, b) boosting your credibility, and c) establishing a strong bond with students who will find your appearance indelible.

51.Write a book. It’s easier than you think! Try transcribing a current talk, attending a writer’s weekend workshop, writing one chapter per week, or hiring a ghostwriter.

52.Host a teleseminar. These offerings are logistically easy to pull off thanks to a multitude of low cost software such as freeconferencecall.com and http://instantteleseminar.com/. And since most everyone recognizes the low cost of producing one, it is perfectly fine to offer these type of calls occasionally for free, thereby boosting your number of listeners.

Tips on Copywriting

53.Numbering your bullet points vs. simply listing them promotes recall. Clearly, this point was adopted by David Letterman ‐ hence his Top Ten List vs. A Bunch of Observations.

54.Build your copy as if a sandwich: bologna always goes in the middle! Your most important point should be bullets #1, #2 and #5. The less important #3 and #4 are sandwiched.

55.Designate an official “mom reviewer” for all of your marketing messages before they are published. Using someone like your mom who probably doesn’t work in your industry ensures that the copy makes sense to everybody.

56. Write for a specific audience. Picture your target reading your copy: it is male? Female? A business owner? Executive? Mom? If so, use words and adjectives that are clearly appropriate and relevant to this group.

57.Keep your eye on the goal of the copy. Is it to get them to call you? Purchase a product? Download a white paper? Be clear and specific in your call to action.

58.If you find it difficult to write and frightening to begin writing your first paragraph, attack your writing project first by not writing complete sentences. Instead, simply dump your ideas in bullet form without regard to grammar or order. You can then prioritize and turn the bullets into complete paragraphs.

59.Break up your copy with tons of headers and sub headers. If in doubt about adding an additional header, do it! In this world of shrinking attention spans, headlines make your copy quicker to read.

60.Create your headers as complete benefits statements. Instead of writing “why should you hire us?” try “We Deliver Creativity, Insight, Results‐ and Fun too!”

61.Test the strength of your headers! If someone just reads the sub headers, would they understand the gist of all of the copy?

62.Try mnemonic devices in your headlines such as alliterations and rhymes to add interest. 7 Secrets to Selling More in Less Time” and “Why They Buy” are good examples.

63.Use “magic” words in your headlines such as free, simple, easy, fast, or low‐cost. No One wants to embrace a long, slow, hard way to lose 5 lbs over the next 6 weeks.

64.Vary your copy by using different punctuation. Commas, semi colons, hyphens, em dashes, quotes, and question marks give the reader’s eye a much needed break.

Tips on Business Cards

65.Ensure your card is a great reflection of you. If you are an organic, vegan type of gal, use soy‐based ink and uncoated paper or recycled paper.

66.Try different sizes, shapes, or media to promote your brand. A rubber business card works as a strong reminder of your tire business.

67.Print in a minimum of 12‐point type. As we age and strain our eyes on computers and mobile devices, our eyes are getting weaker. Make it easy to see your key information.

68.Use both sides of your business card – always! It doesn’t cost very much, but gives you the opportunity to add an additional message.

69.Create a card with tactile appeal. The sense of touch is highly under‐rated, yet can convey so many key messages. A firm, strong card, for example, implies stability.

70.Test if your business card is “scannable.” Given the proliferation of card scanners and phone scanners, it’s critical that your information is clear enough to register in the correct fields.

71.Use the back of your card as a promotional device. “Good for a free glass of wine” works well for a restaurant or wine bar. What could you do?

72.Always put your email address on your card. Some business experts are recommending that you put your web site only. Wrong! You need to make it easy to connect with you not make someone go the extra mile to visit your site.

73.Experiment with different shapes of a business card. A round shape or one that looks like a book might be a better branding device than the standard size.

74.Include a simple email address. If the business is only you, don’t use a complicated first name.lastname@company.com. Instead, use Liz@redfirebranding.com

75.Employ the same email address formula for all of your employees. I recommend first name only@yourcompany.com.

76.Redirect all common misspellings of first names so that all email gets to you and your team. Since Sean, for example, can be spelled quite a few ways, it makes sense to have Sean, Shawn, and Shaun all working.

Tips on Marketing and Selling

77.Upsell whenever possible. Employ the McDonald’s school of “do you want fries with that?” with every one of your offers. Offer an additional booklet or service at a discounted rate when one service is purchased.

78.Try bundling to increase the average size of your order. In fact, create and name your packages that include 2‐8 services for a set fee.

79.Use “gift with purchase” during tough times. When it seems as if you can’t get the purse strings to open, don’t be afraid to offer something free with a purchase. Just like for the cosmetic companies, it works wonders.

80.Offer a free trial. Whether it’s a complimentary audit, website evaluation, or marketing assessment, make sure to offer something that allows a prospect to try before they buy.

81.Create a low priced entry‐level way to work with you. Even if your typical engagement is $10,000, offer a $99 no commitment option so that you can start to build the relationship.

82.Introduce a “club” pricing option. This strategy has exploded thanks to massage chains in which members pay a fixed fee every month for the club whether they use it or not.

83.Take credit cards. The statistics are clear: you can close almost 25% more business by taking credit cards than just by taking cash or checks. Invest now in mobile devices that work in real time.

84.Offer “terms” on higher priced services. Breakdown a fee of $600 into 3 payments of $199. It is more manageable for the purchaser and helps level out your cash flow.

85.Create case studies, examples, and testimonials to prove that your products and services work. Gain permission from your clients, of course, but be sure to show hard numbers. They will do the work for you to close a sale.

Tips On Taglines

86.Steer away from taglines that ask a question. They typically prompt all of the wrong answers. Instead, focus on a benefit.

87.Keep it short. With the shift towards short attention spans, shorter works better!

88.Write taglines in the present tense (vs. future tense) so that prospects know your business currently reflects this philosophy.

89.Use rhymes to increase recall. “Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”

90.Try humor if it is appropriate for your brand. “We’re behind you every step of the way” brings a wry smile from the folks at Huggies.

91.Google your tagline to ensure that you will be the only one using it. If necessary, explore trademarking the phrase so that you have solid legal protection behind you, especially if it is unique.

92.Use the tagline to explain your brand. Tyson’s “We’re Chicken” or Coleman’s “The Outdoor Company” work well in this regard.

93.Try a pun as a mnemonic device. Shiner Bock’s “Brewed with attitude “works well as does the Chicago‐based restaurant called Rosebud with “A very rare steakhouse well done.”

94.Experiment with a very interesting and uncommon word that makes the tagline unique. Altoids “curiously strong mint” has sky‐high recall rates.

95.Test it aloud. Saying it out loud will reveal whether the tagline is cumbersome or too long. If so, it will probably be easily forgotten.

96.Create your tagline to last at least 20 years. Taglines shouldn’t change frequently since they are a reflection of the brand’s positioning. Create with longevity in mind.

97.Have fun with your tagline, if it’s appropriate. “If it’s not SuperSoil, it’s just plain old dirt” or Lunchables “we make fun of lunch” allow the brand personality to shine.

98.Be authentic , especially if you are creating the tagline for the brand called “you.” It should feel comfortable and cozy.

99.Give your tagline the acid test: if your brochure, advertising campaign, or sales letter conflict with the tagline, it’s obviously time to rethink your creative message.

10 Surefire Ways to Use THIS Booklet to Boost YOUR Business:

1. Send to clients at the end of the year as a small token of appreciation.

2. Use it as a meaningful follow‐up piece with prospects

3. Mail it to your prospects to convert them into buyers

4. Use it as a value‐ added premium with any purchase

5. Distribute it freely at trade shows

6. Give it as a thank you for completing a questionnaire or survey

7. Include it with your invoices

8. Package it with one of your products as a special bonus

9. Use it as a an incentive for a promotion; ex: Free valuable booklet to the first 100 customers

10.Provide it to complementary service providers who can refer business to you

Don’t forget: this booklet can be customized with your logo on the cover. Contact Liz for information about pricing and bulk quantity purchases.

Contact Liz Goodgold: 858‐550‐7000 Liz@RedFirebranding.com www.RedFirebranding.com San Diego, CA 92130