When we give love, we get love!! …. A sound marketing strategy to deepen your connections and relationships, across everyone that interacts with your brand: staff, customers, suppliers, board members, investors, communities, etc.
Given the vast number of brands vouching for attention, connection and dollars – it’s never been more important to lead in this way. There’s a catch though… the love you give needs to be honest and real. It needs to come from an authentic place. People are smart, they will sniff out ‘token gesture’ and it will have a detrimental impact on your brand.
So where do we start? Before we think about how we show love, we need to take a look inside and understand who we really are. It’s the combination of what we do, how we do, why we do it, where we do it and who does it – the reason why someone chooses to invest in your brand, work for your brand, innovate with your brand, support your brand or buy your brand!
Your Brand truth.
Who are you?
Glow
The knowing is the most important. We all have the knowing, it’s the reason why we do what we do. Sometimes we don’t know, we know. Sometimes we become distracted and have lost the connection to our knowing. Other times we cannot find the words or a means to simplify the message / story.
When we have reconnected / realigned with our knowing, it’s important to then embed this into everything we do. This is the building of brand. We are forever building our brand – as we evolve, as the world evolves, as life evolves. We are also forever sharing our brand – with people that will one day see our brand as an important part of who they are.
so we better get started!
Firstly know that there is a difference between brand and branding. Brand is the who we are and the meaning we bring to people’s lives, Branding is the words, symbols, images, sounds, movements that represent the brand. They remind us of what the brand stands for.
Brand is a long game. It never ends. You are continually building and evolving. It’s not a one person job. It involves everyone who connects with your brand. This is the fundamental reason why getting clear on who you are is so important. Otherwise you will be pulled in all different areas, creating inconsistency and confusion and missing the opportunity to convey your true value.
The beautiful thing about building a brand is that the more connected people become, the more they feel a sense of ownership of the brand. It becomes a part of, not just their lives, but who they are.
Like the legendary Johnny Farnham, Celeste is The Voice. Not entirely sure how to label her as she straddles a number of fences around bloody big paddocks. Sales, marketing, print, online, e-commerce, thought leadership and campaigns.
It’s rare to see someone light up in equal amounts on delivering strategy and execution, and I think this is why Celeste has the X factor.
When I started working with Celeste, I had no idea of what the difference between brand and branding was. I thought I might be getting a shiny new logo but what I got was so much more. From our initial consultation and exploration, through to the production of my brand manifesto, she has taken me on a journey of discovery of myself, my clients and the impact I want to make in the world.
Celeste is an inspirational business and thought partner. She is fully invested in me and my success, and cares deeply about my work, my brand and my message. And it’s fun. Our conversations and planning days are punctuated with lots of laughs, whilst getting the work done.
I would recommend Celeste and Run Partners without reservation. Her commitment, experience and creative talent is the difference that is making a difference to my business and enabling me to level up.
Frankly, I just love working with her.
The perfect business to down-load on. They then slice, dissect, rebuild, and present back – a processed approach that includes both business and creative thinking with clarity.
Nothing is ever too much. I find them highly attentive.
Brand Next Level! – Our latest post
Don't throw the baby out!
After looking at the table above please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! I.e. Don’t discard your marketing strategy & plans… but start asking questions.
The most important question to ask is:
Is our marketing investment & efforts delivering a return?
Followed by:
How do we know? I.e. What data are we referencing? (Why this data and how does it link back to our business objectives).
Followed by:
How can we improve on this? Within the existing channels and/or start testing new channels.
Followed by:
What do we actually want to achieve? I.e. What are our marketing goals? (You may start with goals, but in my experience once you start measuring marketing performance you are then better placed to shape your expectations).
Marketing is a science. When you start measuring marketing you create the space to add, change and test multiple variables so you are constantly optimising your results AND your focus and time.
Marketing wastage (where the marketing budget does not contribute to the intended business outcomes) is where the real opportunity lies for most businesses. Not measuring your marketing performance is one of the biggest contributors to marketing wastage.
Sadly marketing wastage is particularly high in digital advertising. Recent reports (Next & Co) estimate that in the second quarter of 2024, around 44% of digital advertising budgets (across Australian companies) were wasted.
Celeste
#thejoyofmarketing
P.s. The ROI calculation (in the table above) is an aggregate across various campaigns, businesses and industries. The data has been sourced from: Hubspot & Influencer marketing (important to note) and it does not take into consideration long term ROI.
