When building a brand, there are three approaches you can take:

• Branding a Business
• Branding a Person
• Branding a Thing

Are You Branding a Business, Person, or Thing?

So do you really need a mission statement in your business? Yes!

Your mission statement isn’t just part of a business plan, in reality, your mission statement, like your
core values, is a critical part in defining a successful brand and building a solid foundation for business growth and marketing.

It must convey your core values, your beliefs, and what you stand for, and it needs to communicate why your business exists and what you hope to achieve.

If your mission statement has meaning to you, it can be a powerful tool in guiding your company’s forward movement and your decisions. The key is infusing your mission statement into the everyday operations of your business and every aspect of your brand.

The problem is that most mission statements tend to be all statement (boring) and no mission (motivating).

Learn About Writing a Meaningful Mission Statement

Your brand is what the consumers can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. It includes the visual, written, spoken, and tactile aspects of your brand.

Visual Brand

Your visual brand encompasses all aspects of your brand that are represented visually. From your logo, business card, and brochures, to your invoices and envelopes, to your Facebook photo, avatar, and Twitter background, to your website, email newsletter, and blog, and even the clothes you wear, every time your brand is seen it is sending a message.

Learn The Difference Between Your Brand and Your Branding

Last week I shared some insights on sales and marketing upsells from the Happiest Place on Earth — Disneyland! This week, I want to share some more with you. This time about the Disney Way and the Disney Brand.

The photo to the right (Doesn’t that look incredible!) is a photo of our dessert platter at the Princess lunch!

Some people ask me why we love going to Disneyland so much… It’s because we know, like, and trust in the Disney brand and the Disney way of doing business.

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I have to share a secret with you.

For the past six months, Brian and I have been working like crazy on our business. We’ve been evaluating our services and programs, pouring over our analytics data, and getting crystal clear about exactly what we want to do, what we love to do, who we want to work with, how we want to help people, and where we want to go.

We’ve also been evaluating why you should care, how we can help you, what the benefits are to you, and what you need to accelerate your online success… And all of the behind the scenes work is just about done!

I am so excited to unveil everything we have been working on and share it with you. Every time I think about it, my stomach starts to do flip flops!

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A study I recently read stated that an average person only gives a website 10 seconds before deciding if a site is worth their time, which means you have less than ten seconds to:

1. Attract the viewer
2. Declare your message
3. Get them to take action

With so much noise on the web today, and the natural ADD nature of most web surfers, your worst enemy is the browser back button. After someone lands on your website from a search engine, status update, marketing promotion, Tweet, or email link, you have a very short window of opportunity to keep them on your site, so let’s cover each step.

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Every successful business has a strong, memorable brand supporting their message because smart business owners and entrepreneurs understand that their brand is this foundation that all of their marketing, products, services, and programs are built on. And without a strong foundation, over time, the empire you’re building will either start to crack and fall apart or you’ll reach a point where you can’t build any higher without fixing your foundation!

To answer the questions, “What is a brand?” and “Why is branding important?” I must share the true goal of a brand:

The primary goal of your brand is to get your prospects, clients, and customers to see you as THE ONLY SOLUTION.

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In a market that is completely over-saturated with in-your-face marketing messages, the branding and positioning of your business can mean the difference between being remembered and being forgotten.

Branding is about so much more than a professional logo design. Both personal and business branding also encompasses all of the interactions and experiences your audience has with your business.

In reality, your true brand isn’t what you say it is. Your brand is what your customers, peers, and prospects say about your business.

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This is the first post in a series of posts about how to build your small business brand using social media. You can read the second post Small Business Social Media Branding Tips.

Social media is an increasingly popular way for individuals and businesses to build brand equity and brand strength. With more and more businesses turning to social media to marketing their products, services, and programs, it is imperitive that you dedicate the time to not only present your brand consistently across all media platforms, but that you actively protect your brand.

The first thing you need to do is secure your social media brand by registering your name and business name, where appropriate, on all of the different social media sites you will be using.

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Your small business brand is made up of three branding elements:

1. The written brand
2. The spoken brand
3. The visual brand

As you can see a brand is so much more than a single logo design. The visual portion of the brand is the most well known and is made up of the brand logo design and support marketing materials such as business cards, letterhead, brochures, email newsletters, websites, blogs, and more!

The key to and starting point for all of your marketing materials design is the brand logo. A small business brand logo is made up of three different parts:

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