How to Set Up A Podcast.

If you've noticed here at The Brand Corral, I've started putting podcasts of Branding Tips up once a week. The tips are short and sweet and hopefully useful. I put them together myself and you should too. It adds to the rich content any good blog should have. I use a simple little sound editor to record and assemble the files.

The set-up of my podcasts are a common intro and exit. The middle part I change for each podcast. So if you follow my format the first thing you want to do, is find a person with a good voice to do your intro and exit. This is the donut of the production. Then choose some distinctive music to set the tone. When you listen to my music, it is my intention to create a sound icon. I want this bit of music to be identified with The Branding Experts. It will play under the voice over and then fade out before the beginning of the tip and pick up and out at the end. Last, you just record the center part for each new podcast. This is the part that changes each time. The donut portion stays the same for consistency.

Last Saturday morning I completed 28 new podcasts, and every one is under 30 seconds each. I save them out as MP3 files and upload the lot to DivShare. In DivShare, I can change the color of the player and using an embed code, place the podcast into my blog article and that's it. Every Wednesday a new one will appear.

I hope you return to get this week's tip.

Brand Icon Podcast

In this podcast, we explain the value of a brand icon.

Mentor - Coach or Trusted Friend?

Wikipedia defines mentors as: "a trusted friend, counselor or teacher, usually a more experienced person. Some professions have "mentoring programs" in which newcomers are paired with more experienced people, who advise them and serve as examples as they advance. Schools sometimes offer mentoring programs to new students, or students having difficulties."

Having blogged for about four years now, I've built up quite a community of small to medium size businesses. Several people regularly read my opinions and comment back to me. You come to regard them as your online group of friends. In their comments you get a sense of who they are. My stats tell me where many are from, (at least generally).Certain ones remain anonymous but even that after a while becomes their name to me.

Others go that one step further and hire me to mentor them when they see the need. After more than 25 years working with businesses, you build quite a useful bundle of experience to share. This type of collaboration is a particular joy to me. Every bit of it comes from blogging and the trust that it builds. These relationships also inspire me. It has been suggested more than once that I should write a book on branding - something I would have scoffed at four years ago. Now, I think I have something to offer, so I am trying to organize my thoughts and proceed with that suggestion.

Where ever you are with your personal and/or corporate brand, I hope you feel comfortable at some point to allow me into your sphere. Sometimes having a mentor/coach in your hip pocket provides the leadership you desire.

5 Tell-Tale Signs That You're A Bookshelf Brand.

"A Bookshelf Brand" - it sounds like it might be a compliment doesn't it? We might think that our bookshelf is where we keep our important stories and reference resources. I can see how one could think that way, but I'm referring to brands that are inactive for any reason. You might be a bookshelf brand if:

1: You have no idea what your brand values are, let alone understand whether management's values compliment them or not.

2: You've actually gone through a branding process and the report is gathering dust on that bookshelf. You're a planner not a doer.

3: You're not actively marketing yourself whether that is online or off line. You allow your competition to define who you are.

4: You're not controlling your brand image. No consistency in your image is costly and confusing.

5: You have no compelling story to tell. Your brand stands for nothing and just follows the lead of the competition. Lost in a sea of sameness.

The answer - Take those books off the shelf and get your brand happening. Tell a compelling story that will resonate with customers and get them to consider you beyond price. Stop thinking about branding and start doing something about it.

How Would Ed Do It?

If you are no stranger to my blog (here) or my website, you will know that I offer an awful lot of free advice. I have covered every aspect of branding and shared the wisdom of others whose opinions I respect in over 232 articles I've written for this blog alone. I've written another 200 articles or more over at Small Business Branding. I guest write for a few others as well from time to time.

All of this opinion comes from over 27 years experience dealing with small to medium size businesses, in every stage of their growth. I bring a lot to the table. Developing brand images and collateral materials, establishing competitive positioning strategies, implementing online marketing by building resource web sites, email harvesters and consulting and mentoring are the big picture of what I do. I get business from referrals and through my online marketing efforts.

One of MY differentiators is that I practice what I preach. When is the last time you saw an ad for an ad agency other than a charity event? They preach quality and yet when you visit their websites, they reek of amateurism. Nothing is consistent about their brand. I don't believe they've ever taken a mirror to themselves. I was at a "recognized" brand strategy leader last night in Linkedin. I clicked back to his web presence and couldn't get over the sad brand image he was presenting. On one hand he's telling (us the readers) how we should take the high road with our brand and in the other hand he falls short with his own.

May be I'm wrong, you tell me. You've read those long sales letters that look as though they were designed by a desktop publisher. Once you've scrolled about 2 feet to the money shot, are you left with a trusting feeling or do you feel like you are being "sold" something. Good design goes a long way to building trust. Again, you tell me? I'm more than a little bias.

As much as I ache to tell you the name of the brand expert referenced above I don't see any value in it. I wish him every success. I choose to conduct my brand from a different perspective. I'd rather draw out what I think are shortcomings and direct my audience to a better direction. Professionalism consistent across all channels is the perfect strategy (I think). Consistency is trusted.

Sound Advice

We are all familiar with visual brand images, but have you ever considered audio brands as part of your image? Every brand has a visual image including their logo and color palette. These elements are often developed with a special consideration given to establishing an icon. Icons are a form of sensory trigger that immediately reminds the customer of a brand the moment they are exposed to it.

Color icons are UPS's brown, ING Direct's orange and Mac's golden arches. Audio branding is a sound. Hearing it immediately makes you think of the brand exactly the same way a visual brand works. Great audio brands include Harley's motorcycle sound, Intel's notes, and the Hockey Night in Canada theme.

You don't have to be a multi-national to take advantage of sound. Putting a few catchy guitar licks at the front end of any presentations you do and marry that with your web presence and you can start to familiarize your audience with a sound icon. With the advent of mobile marketing, a sound icon would be a very powerful introduction. Myself, I'm putting mine to use in a series of podcasts.

Join the growing list of savvy marketing and include the senses as triggers to successful marketing.

Join Your Customers Online

Because most businesses customers are online today, marketers are switching more and more of their promotional dollars to email and web marketing. In a recent survey from Unica, 45% of marketers answered positive that they would be switching more of their dollars to online, while an additional 39% said it was somewhat important to
accomplish this.

Online channels are very attractive to experienced marketers because they are more easily tracked and the cost is minimal compared to traditional channels. Now is the time to start getting serious with building your opt-in email lists and reaching customers online.