Insights to Help You Grow—Strategically and Sustainably
Brand, Messaging, and Marketing Strategy for Founder-Led Businesses
This is your go-to stream for clear, strategic thinking on how to grow your brand with intention. Whether you’re refining your positioning, clarifying your message, or figuring out why your marketing isn’t landing, you’ll find practical insights here to help you stand out and scale up.
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What Your Pricing Says About Your Brand (and Why It Matters)
Pricing communicates more than cost—it signals value, shapes perception, and positions your brand in the marketplace. Whether it’s Evian vs. store-brand water or a consultant who’s “not cheap but worth it,” pricing influences how others talk about you. A strategic approach to pricing can elevate your brand, attract the right clients, and reinforce your reputation.
The Power of Referral Marketing: How to Turn Happy Customers into Loyal Advocates
Referral marketing is a powerful strategy for small businesses, using personal recommendations to build trust, attract new customers, and foster loyalty—all while keeping costs low. It reflects the quality of your business and the trust it inspires, turning happy customers into enthusiastic advocates
Beyond Scares: Building a Trustworthy Brand
The fear factor in marketing takes center stage. But is using scare tactics really the best strategy for building a brand? While fear can grab attention in the short term, it often leads to distrust and alienation among consumers. Brands that prioritize genuine connections and positive messaging are more likely to foster loyalty and long-lasting relationships.
Marketing is a Science, Branding is an Art
Marketing and branding have important roles in attracting customers and encouraging their loyalty. While marketing uses data to understand customer desires and drive actions, branding leverages creativity to forge deeper emotional connections. A strong brand also provides the foundation for effective marketing strategies and tactics.
The Power of Persuasion: How Marketing Influences the ‘Buy’ Decision
Influencing the “buy” decision is both an art and a science. It requires a deep understanding of your audience, a clear articulation of your value proposition, and a strategic mix of marketing tactics that resonate with your target market.
Use “Start, Stop, Continue” To Boost Your Brand Next Year
The “Start, Stop, Continue” method is not just an exercise in reflection; it’s a strategic tool for transformation. By methodically evaluating your past year’s efforts and planning for the future, your business is well-positioned to enter the new year with a revitalized, more effective branding and marketing strategy.
Is your brand Holding you back?
Take this 15-minute brand clarity assessment and discover what’s holding your business back—so you can fix it fast.
Talking the Talk: The Marketing Lexicon
Like any specialty, marketing has a language of its own. Recognizing some important terms and dropping them into conversations when talking to your marketing consultant would help us solve your business challenges.
Your Website Is For Your Prospects
Your website is a reflection of your business, the value you offer your prospects, and what it’s going to be like working with you.
How I Killed (and Fixed) My Email Campaigns
It took just ten minutes to update my DNS settings, and almost two weeks to fix the problem I created. This article is a cautionary tale of letting better get in the way of good enough.
Don’t Stop Marketing
Rather than stopping all of your marketing, consider instead changing your strategy. Instead of selling, inform. Instead of daily email blasts, send emails weekly (or monthly). Instead of doing the same thing you’ve always done, pivot to something different. Here are some specific ideas for this difficult time.
How To Name Your Brand
Effective brand naming isn’t emotional or political—it’s strategic. It should align with your positioning, resonate with your audience, and be memorable enough to stand on its own. More than a trivial detail, a name plays a critical role in shaping perception, signaling value, and reinforcing your brand’s promise. A weak or confusing name can dilute impact and force your brand to work harder to stay top of mind. Ultimately, naming is both a creative and disciplined process that deserves as much attention as any other aspect of branding.
The Difference Between Marketing Strategy and Tactics
Your website isn’t converting. The social media advertising doesn’t bring in as many leads as you hoped. The direct mail campaign was a waste of paper. Your emails don’t get opened. And none of it is bringing in any new business. Sounds familiar right?
40+ Types of Marketing for Your Business
Like many non-marketers, you might think that marketing is "one" thing: getting the word...
How Writing Helps Me Talk About What I Do
I attend a fair amount of networking events every month. As an entrepreneur providing...
Goalsetting With A Vivid Vision Document
Most business owners have an idea of what they want their company to look like. However, their employees can’t necessarily see that same vision for what the future can be. If you are struggling with writing a clear mission statement and vision statement, then you should try to write a Vivid Vision first.
6 Ways To Spot Cheap Logo Design
There’s only one thing worse than a cheap logo, and that’s a cheap looking logo. Even if your average consumer can’t communicate why your logo makes them feel embarrassed, disgusted, or confused, they’re still going to have that reaction anyway.
A Fresh Start: Rebrand Your Business or Refresh Your Website?
No business can afford to rest on its laurels. While your company may be keeping up with economic and market changes, is your brand keeping up? Does your website communicate to your target audience how you’re keeping up?
You may be trying to decide if you should rebrand your business, or just update your website. Here are 10 factors to consider helping you make your decision.
Getting Mission, Vision and Values Right
The Vision, Mission, and Values statements guide the behaviors of people in an organization. The Vision statement describes where the organization wants to be in the future; the Mission statement describes what the organization needs to do now to achieve the Vision.
Choosing The Right Logo For Your Business
A logo is a powerful visual representation of your company. It forms an impression that...
Transforming Your Brand Culture
In the first part of this two-part series, I talked about brand cultures that focus on...
3 Keys to Building An Admired Brand
The more your brand enables entices, and enriches customers, evoking their positive...
What Being An Admired Brand Does For Your Business
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a name, term, symbol, and/or...
A Guide To Responsive Logos
To provide a comprehensive user experience across multiple mediums, a true responsive design isn’t limited to context or shrinking content on a page. Subtle design considerations, such as the icons and logos should also be flexible enough to follow similar contextual responsive principles.
Identifying Your Brand Culture
Brand culture is the culture that a company cultivates in order to powerfully, consistently and competitively deliver its brand to market. It’s how people work together to bring the brand alive for customers. But brand cultures are more than an expression of the brand itself; they are, by necessity, an expression of the people who work for that brand and the decisions and ways of working and behaving that they agree to work within.