8 Terms About Branding & What They Really Mean

If you are out there, trying to grow your business, and have no background in graphic design, advertising, or marketing, you might get a little confused with all the words thrown around. Heck, even if you have a background in graphic design, advertising, or marketing you still might get confused. It seems like everyone’s talking about your brand, identity, logo, collateral, content, and so on... but what do all the words even mean?! I’ll tell you, my friend… 

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BRAND

This is the most confusing one, so we are starting here. The easiest way I’ve figured out how to explain a brand to someone is: your brand is how people see you (or your company). For example, you might aim to create a business that promotes “a fit, healthy approach to life.” That would be what you hoped your brand was – but if people see you as “an unhealthy, extremist way of living that results in destructive habits” the people win, and you won’t be successful, because your brand isn’t what you intended.

There are countless elements that go into your brand and cause people to think and feel certain ways about you. By saying “brand” you encompass all of those things. I say that I work as a brand designer, because I want to help my clients think of, design, create, plan, strategize all of these different elements. 

If this is all confusing and overwhelming, just take this one thing away: your brand is NOT your logo. 

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BRANDING

Branding is the action of developing, creating, or designing elements and strategies, in an effort to affect your brand (affect how people perceive you) in a positive way (or in whatever way you want).

Again - your company has a brand – people have a general opinion and feeling about it. But the act of you trying to manipulate and influence that opinion is your branding.

So your branding can include a lot of other confusing words – like your strategy, your content, your approach to social media, your visuals (like a logo), etc. Think of the biggest companies you know – how did you form your opinion of them? Was it just one time you saw one thing about them? No. It was an overall branding experience.

An example I think of is McDonalds and their desperate attempts to act like they’re a healthy choice, as opposed to the fast food chain with greasy fries we all know it as. They didn’t just say “Hey! Folks! We offer salads now, so we are like… kind of healthy. You can totally eat here. It’s definitely real meat, promise!” We all know and have been raised thinking the brand of McDonalds as not even remotely healthy. It's so ingrained into our minds, so hard to change, that they are pumping all their energy and money into their branding, trying to change the public opinion. They have fit, healthy, happy looking people in their ads, they offer fruit and salads in their restaurants, they revamped their physical buildings to feel more light and airy, the signage is always about the newest salad, or a kid's menu with apple slices… these are all elements of their new branding. Whether or not their branding is actually successful is another story – because I, for one, can’t shake the idea that it’s mystery meat and a bad decision.

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VOICE

How you sound to others – in person, in emails, in blog posts, in tweets, on periscope, etc. You want this to be cohesive with the rest of your branding (yes, this is also a PART of your branding).  I, for example, try to always come across very nice and approachable, but I also try to make you laugh (or at least smile!) with a little bit of sarcasm or self-deprecating humor. This is because in real life, I’m generally a nice person, who tries to make people laugh. It was an easy voice to develop, because I’ve had 20-something years of practice.

For you personal brands, it might be just as easy to identify your voice – but make sure you are using a voice that will attract the right kind of people for your business. I know that with my clients, we end up being friends by the end of working together. That's what I strive for. So, I set the tone from day 1 that I am normal, nice, and friendly – but that I’ll also be transparently real and tell you funny stories. I want to make it clear that, if we were in the same city, I’d totes go out for cocktails with you. This helps my business overall. There are enough designers out there that I need to stand out as someone you (potential client that I specifically trying to appeal to) like, think is awesome, want to work with.

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IDENTITY

This is sometimes referred to as brand identity or visual identity. THIS is where the visuals are. This is your logo, your colors, your typography choices, etc. This is what people can actually see (not just feel, or think). Your identity is a part of your branding, but JUST a part. 

This is where a lot of people get stuck – because they think they just need an identity (worse yet, they just need a logo…) For me, a really weird gray area is explaining to clients that I am not going to just create a logo. There are so many different types of designers, and I’m not saying one is better than the other, just that they are all so different. It must be confusing to clients. Like do they want a graphic designer? A brand designer? An identity designer? I always start my conversations with potential clients by clearing up any confusion between what they actually want to accomplish and what I offer. If someone is insistent that they only need a logo, and seem closed off to the idea of developing branding for their business, I will turn away the client.

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COLLATERAL

Collateral pieces are additional, tangible, things you use in your business. Things like business cards, letterheads, thank you cards, price sheets, welcome pamphlets, etc. These are created from the parameters you’ve set while creating your identity, so they visually are cohesive. They are a part of your branding, too, but again, JUST a part.

I might be considered calculating, but for me, every single thing I put out has an ulterior motive for my business (with the exception of some random tweets, like about my cat, Priscilla. That’s just because I’m a cat lady). I say this to mention that even your collateral pieces, something as simple as a thank you card, should work somehow in your strategy to help you achieve your overall business goals.

So, it might just be a nice gesture to send a thank you card to a client. But really, it’s a nice way to remind them you are alive a month or so after a project is done. Y’know, in case they need additional work. If it’s a nicely designed thank you card, they might snap a pic for Instagram, or set it on their counter, and then someone else might see it and say, “Wow, this is beautiful. What is it for?” and then my old client might say “My amazing designer,” and then their friend might say, “Oh, I needed something designed for my business…” and voila. Catching my drift here? I thought so.

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STRATEGY

That last point is a nice lead in to strategy. Strategy is a really general sounding term, and in all honesty, it’s a huge umbrella term. There are a lot of strategies at play in running a business and creating good branding. This is also a part of your branding – JUST a part. Strategy is the plan, or method, to get you from point A to point B in your business. Super vague, I know.

You can’t develop a strong strategy until you develop some concrete goals. Once you know what the end game is, create a path to get there. Is your end game to launch a successful course? Cool. What steps do you need to take across your entire branding spectrum to get you there? What steps do you take to find potential buyers, what steps do you take to promote the course, what steps do you take to get other people to promote the course, what steps do you take to create the content? Map it all out. It sounds overwhelming – but going at it blind is way more overwhelming.

Areas where you should be strategic: blog posts, guest blog posts, opt-ins, the layout of your website, where you promote your opt-ins, what Facebook groups you join, who you do joint-ventures with, what you retweet… just to name a few. If you’re thinking right now, wait, wait, the internet isn’t my ‘deal’ I’m a brick-and-mortar business, so strategy isn’t a thing right? Wrong. What expos are you a part of, what other businesses promote you or have your business cards on display, what newspapers do you run print ads in, what local celebs/influencers/socialites talk about you…? All of this matters, if you want to be successful.

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CONTENT MARKETING

Content Marketing is creating valuable and strategic content that will attract your audience, and potentially lead to sales, customers, clients, subscribers, etc. This blog would be considered content marketing, because I am hopefully showcasing to readers that I am a valuable resource, prompting them to sign up for my email list or invest in my services or products.

This sounds like a super new idea, but it’s actually been around for a long time in traditional advertising. The most popular, and probably noted as one of the oldest, examples of content marketing is John Deere (yeah, the tractor). He put out a magazine about farming related things and how to be a successful farmer, back in the 1890's(!) that is still in publication today. Kind of like the original blog, right? 

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CAMPAIGN

A campaign is specifically promoting one thing within your business. You might have an overall branding strategy in play, to accomplish your overall BIG business goals. But a campaign would be a separate (though, cohesive) plan for a specific thing.

For example, I have overall goals for The Crown Fox and branding and strategy in place to accomplish those. But when I launch a course next year, I will create a separate campaign to promote that. You probably hear people call this “launch” or “launching” something – a book, a course, whatever. What they are really saying is that they are running a really intense campaign to promote the heck out of a new product or service. For Internet businesses a campaign might include doing webinars or periscopes leading up to a launch, or having friends or affiliates talk about your product on social media. It’s different from your overall branding, because it’s happening for a select time to push a select thing. 

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Hopefully this cleared up some confusion! What other terms have you going “huh”? I’d love to help you figure it out. If you're interested, I made a quick workbook that has a glossary, and some questions to help you with your brand. You can check it out by signing up below!

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Choosing Your Opt-In & Relating It To Your Goals

First and foremost, let’s talk about what an opt-in is. An opt-in is what you offer, for free, in exchange for an email address. I haven’t mastered the Internet (yet) or anything, but I do know that email addresses and your list is… well it’s everything. It’s how you ‘do’ the Internet if you want to be an entrepreneur. It’s your people. Your tribe. Your crew.  You want an opt-in if you plan on monetizing. Heck, you want multiple opt-ins.

For example; in the past on The Crown Fox, I have had a resource vault opt-in, a free email course opt-in, as well as a newsletter opt-in. An opt-in seems like something you just throw on your sidebar, but in actuality, it needs to be specific and niched. It needs to work for you, for your brand, and for your goals.

What does that mean? Well, let’s step back and look at your BIG goal and then we can work backwards to your opt in. For me, my BIG goal is to offer courses on topics like cohesive branding and design tutorials. When it comes time to sell said courses, who am I going to reach out to first? All those email addresses I’ve been collecting.

Sounds awesome, right? Totally! But… what if those subscribers have no interest in branding or design tutorials, and therefore would never even consider buying my course? What if those subscribers initially connected with me over a newsletter where I promised tons of DIY holiday decorations and recipes? They’d be like “Woah, what’s this branding stuff she’s talking about? I thought we were going to make pumpkin pie!” And I’d probably lose subscribers and not have a successful launch.

That would suck. Totally, completely suck. So, I want to avoid that and make sure the audience and subscribers I’m collecting care about the things I care about and care about the things I eventually want to monetize. If you feel like that sounds money hungry and shallow, then think about this: do you want to waste your subscribers’ time and make them go through the hassle of unsubscribing when you don’t deliver what you promised? It’s vital to choose an opt-in that comes full circle with what you actually want to see happen long term for your business. Here are a few tips to figuring that all out:

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WHAT'S YOUR END GOAL?

First and foremost – what do you plan on collecting these email addresses for? 

You have some vague, distant, hopeful dream. Do you want to get amazing clients for a service-based career? Do you want to teach others at huge conferences for your industry? Do you want to build a company that has 10 employees and a brick and mortar establishment? Okay, whatever it is – how do subscribers help you accomplish that?

Do they become your tribe? Do they become your buyers? Do they attend your conferences? Once you know who these people are to you, you can begin to give them content that is appropriate for helping build that relationship. If you want them to be potential attendees for your conference, maybe your opt in is a free video recording of you talking about whatever your niche is, like a sample of what you would be talking about at a conference. If you want them to be potential buyers of your e-course, then maybe your opt-in is a less intensive version of the course.

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WHAT DOES YOUR TARGET LIKE?

So here’s an important tip – don’t send stuff to your target that they don’t like. Let's just say that I am your target client - you know what I don’t like? Really, really long newsletters. Reading exorbitantly long emails gives me a headache. I want big headers and subheaders and you to bold the vital parts, so I can skim easier.

If you really understand your target client, you really understand what appeals and what doesn’t appeal to them. More isn’t always better. Value is better. More doesn’t necessarily mean valuable. So give your target audience what they will value.

If your target client is someone who bakes vegan and gluten-free recipes, then send a fun weekly recipe. Don’t send them an e-course on turning vegan. Don’t send them a video of you talking about the perks of being vegan. They are already vegan – they get it! Just give them awesome stuff to make.

On the other hand, if your target client is someone interested in becoming a vegan, then yeah, give him or her all the material about becoming a vegan – but don’t send him or her recipes with ingredients like kala namak – they aren’t a vegan yet! That sounds like someone’s name, not an ingredient! (Can you tell I am not a vegan – I have no idea if you use kala namak in baking?)

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WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY GOING TO DO?

When I first launched, I immediately threw up a newsletter subscribe option. I had no idea what I would ever write a newsletter about, but I thought it was “what you did.” I don’t have a statistic on this, but I’m going to go with a rough estimate that 99% of bloggers start off with offering a newsletter in exchange for email addresses. It’s easy, your viewer expects it, and it requires no extra effort (in actually offering it, following through on the other hand…). Do you know how many newsletters I’ve sent? Like a half of one. I tried to send one for November and it was kind of crappy. I’m not a newsletter kind of gal; I don’t ‘get it.’ That’s not bashing newsletters at all, a lot of people are awesome at newsletters. I'm just making a point that they aren’t for me.

I say that to then turn around and ask you: what are you actually going to do? I offered an e-course for a lot of reasons – but a big one is that I could do it easily. I had the blog post content to transform into an e-course. I had the outline of a course in my head already. I was excited about it. I don’t offer a newsletter anymore because I am going to put off writing that until the last second, and then it’s going to suck.

So if you are set on offering a resource vault – are you going to keep it updated and relevant? If you are going to offer a weekly recipe – are you going to write it, take a picture of the end product, and send it? If you are going to do monthly tutorials on something about your niche – are you going to take time and plan, record, edit, and send them?

It’s worse to promise something and not follow through, than to not promise anything at all. If you are really lost, confused, unsettled about what to offer then throw a sign-up on your sidebar that says, “Want to stay updated with all things related to ______?” and when you decide on your real opt-in you can send an email to them announcing your opt-in and giving them the opportunity to stick around. Don’t follow my lead of being like “Yeah, a bi-weekly newsletter of AWESOMENESS coming your way!” and then never send one. Or rather, send one bad one. That’s not cool.

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CONCLUSION

In all, yes, you need an opt-in. It’s good for business, no matter what your business is. But, you need to approach opt-ins in a strategic and considered way. Put an emphasis on what you are actually going to do, what your target is going to enjoy, and what will get you closer to your end goals.

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