The Imperfect Brand is the only business podcast that asks real business leaders to share their experiences of running real businesses, so we can all benefit from their hard-won knowledge.
“You only lose when you stop. Either you fail, which is ok, or you throw in the towel.”
It’s rare for us to share our mistakes, especially when we lead a business. But every good mistake has a valuable lesson buried inside it, and learning is really just failing in the right direction.
So we decided to launch The Imperfect Brand and ask people like you to share the lessons they’ve learned.
Every episode, your host Benjamin Catley-Richardson invites an experienced brain from the world of business to talk about their own imperfect moment – we hope their example can keep you from throwing in the towel.
Customers and clients don’t just fall out of trees, desperate to give you their money.
Every person you work with, sell to or serve has been through a series of steps, which eventually led them to a choice that you were the one they wanted.
This is their customer journey.
Someone who has never heard of you needs a very different message to someone who trusts you. Someone who knows you well will have a very different relationship to your organisation compared with someone who only likes you.
Once you understand each step you can understand how to craft the relevant message.
This is probably the simplest of all our Brand Clear tools, but that should only help in giving a clear picture of what this journey looks like.
Embed the value of your brand into everything you do and you’ll be easier to spot, easier to remember and easier to choose.
That’s easy to say, but how does it work in practice?
Our anchor tool gives you a clear guide to use when approaching any form of marketing or messaging, enabling you to stay locked in to your brand identity.
We know funnels are nothing new. But it’s always worth revisiting a tried-and-tested method to be sure you’re putting it to good use.
Our funnel gives you a clear reference point for your content marketing. Why are you writing blog posts? Why would a guide be a useful addition to your resources? What’s the objective of your monthly emails?
2020 has been an object lesson in not taking what we have for granted, on so many levels. One that applies to business too.
I’m not talking about big business (although they have their challenges), I’m talking the small and medium businesses (SMEs) – the backbone of our economy – who have done some pretty inspiring and brave things to survive and thrive this year.
Getting your organisation (and everyone within it) aligned for the coming months and years ahead can take some doing. Here are a few useful pointers that can act as a guiding light when evaluating your brand trajectory for 2020 and beyond.
We’re entering the fourth industrial revolution and it’s driven by technology. When we think of technology, we often think of devices, data and information. We’ve become focused on gathering intelligence, and we rely on it to map out our competitive advantage. But even this is now becoming outdated. Analytics are becoming less important as we enter the ‘Connection Economy’.
How has your marketing been lately? Are you smashing targets or smashing your head against the wall in frustration? Although there’s no exact science to marketing, when things aren’t going well, it might be time to take control in a different way.
