Three tips to help you stay on track with your brand

My goal here is to give you insights about branding, resources, and other tips and tricks to help you on your way with your brand, business, and being an entrepreneur.

My goal here is to give you insights about branding, resources, and other tips and tricks to help you on your way with your brand, business, and being an entrepreneur. As such, here are 3 basic tips to help you stay on track with your brand.

1. Use a cornerstone document for your entire brand.

2. Build an internal workflow that translates to a client journey.

3. Create your brand for your audience, not for yourself.

This article will be all about the first one (to keep them shorter) so make sure to stick around for the other tips!

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Use a cornerstone document for your entire brand.

Let's get started right away with what is a cornerstone document and the purpose of using one for your brand. Firstly, I've already written a detailed article about The power behind cornerstone documents. That one goes into a lot more details, information, and even some examples, so make sure to read that if you want more info. For now, though, here are the basics.

The original definition of a cornerstone is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.

Construction, right? And it kind of makes sense, it’s used as a guideline to build something bigger and better.

A cornerstone document is similar in the sense that is used to build your entire brand or individual aspects of your brand (like your content).

For example, cornerstone documents can be used to help you repurpose content and make content creation easier. This is when you write big, break it down into smaller parts to use on different platforms, then break it down even smaller to turn into graphics, and so on and so forth.

In this example, the first big write is your cornerstone document.

And, as I mentioned, it's not limited only to your content. Hint, hint… your brand guidelines are a cornerstone document too.

The thing is, using the concept of cornerstone documents is very useful in…

◇ keeping you organized and for you to keep track of everything,

◇ making sure you are consistent in your message and style, and

◇ creating any type of content based on your document is much easier and faster.

Sounds too good to be true? Probably. So, let's be honest and blunt. It is too good to be true. I mean, yes… a proper cornerstone document can definitely help you with all of these things and more. However, creating one is… painful, to say the least.

The best way to get this is to create your document first and then build everything else around it. And make sure it includes everything. This, however… can be very hard for anybody to do, especially for perfectionists. Because we are always learning and growing and the information in this document can change as you grow. So, the point here is to create a fluid document that changes as you grow and evolve.

Feeling overwhelmed? Don't worry, I'm going to share a secret with you…

Grabbing all your content and putting it into one document probably won't help you much. Creating a folder on your computer where you drop all your visual assets may make it easier to find them in the future. Filling up your to-do list and calendar with tasks for your business will only slow you down.

What matters is knowing what your assets are! And knowing what they are, means creating a brand strategy that encompasses every single aspect of your brand and business. Here's the best way for you to test how much work will be included in your brand's growth…

Ask yourself, if you were to hire someone on your team TODAY, how much work will it be for you? And this is a legit question, even if you don't plan on expanding your team. The truth is, you know how much easier it is to get someone else to help you with your business. Whether it's your social media, your finances, your website updates, your graphic design... whatever it is… delegating is one of the ways you grow.

And you know this, since others delegate their own business work to you, right?

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Build an internal workflow that translates to a client journey.

Well, tip two is one that a lot of people get confused by at first when I mention it. After all, what do workflows and client journeys have to do with one another, let alone with your brand? If you want to know the exact details and get a more in-depth view of this one, take a look at my article on The power of detailed workflows and Workflows, client journeys, and your brand.

Otherwise, here is a very quick overview:

What do workflows and client journeys have to do with one another, let alone with your brand?

• The quick answer… everything.

• The long answer… everything your clients care about.

Okay, okay, let's break it down a bit more.

An internal workflow is how you create and use any function of your business. For example…

1. Look through social media at competitors' profiles.

2. Record their top content down in your notebook.

3. Put in a future date when you'd like to put up your version.

4. Write your own version and create the graphics for it.

5. Schedule it or put it down on your calendar when to post.

6. Go back to social media and respond to interactions about it.

Okay… maybe yours isn't exactly like that, but you get the idea.

A workflow can be for how you create new content for social media, how to create a new freebie or lead magnet for your clients, how you onboard your clients or maybe hires, how, how, how… Basically, anything that you do that is repeated has a workflow. And that repetition can be daily (write your to-do list), weekly (schedule your social media), monthly (onboard X amount of clients), quarterly (create a new freebie), or annual (file your taxes).

And these are only examples. But basically, if it repeats… having a workflow makes it much easier for you.

On the other hand, a client journey is very similar to a workflow except it's not on your end. In the example before with creating content for social media, here is an example of the equivalent client journey…

1. Go on social media and look at new posts.

2. Access your latest post and interact with it.

3. Scroll away or close the app.

4. Go on social media again.

Shorter and much easier, yes… but in order for your clients to find your content, it should be on there. In order for them to interact with it, it should be worthy of interaction. And in both the case of your workflows and your client journeys, they are dependent on your brand. I'm going to keep going with the same example of social media for multiple reasons, though the main one is to keep things consistent.

One of the parts of your brand strategy that you want to focus on is called your brand’s essence. This includes your brand’s personality, voice and tone, and language style. When you create content, you want to make sure that your personality shows through in how you write it, your voice and tone can related to what your audience is expecting, and your language is consistent with your previous posts.

And let's go back to the workflows for a moment, because having the right tools for your workflows, makes an impact on both your brand and your audience. Let's say you use a scheduling tool for social media. This allows you to batch your content creation, make sure everything goes live when you want it to, and gives you some free time. The opposite could be stopping mid-project to go on social media to post, being so absorbed in what you're doing that you forget to post, or grabbing your phone during vacation time to make sure you've posted when the algorithm says so.

Both of these translate to your audience…

◇ They will see that you're either posting regularly or not (and I am not saying one is better than the other!),

◇ they will see how fast you respond to their interactions,

◇ they will see the words you use on a regular basis…

◇ they will get to know you and your brand.