Affordable Branding

You could go out and hire yourself an excellent branding agency or pay a branding consultant to help your business develop a brand strategy. But you’re here because you’re looking for affordable branding solutions.

Affordable branding starts with you, because frankly, no one knows your brand better than you.

The key to affordable branding can be likened to taking on a home improvement project. Some people are naturally more gifted than others when it comes to working with their hands and with tools.

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And some projects should only be performed by professionals (or you’ll end up spending more money fixing your mistakes than you would have to pay a pro from the start).

But, if you surround yourself with the right tools, and you follow the right process, and you use best practices, you CAN complete just about any home improvement you put your mind to.

That’s how it is with do-it-yourself branding.

Most small business don’t need to hire a pro. With the right tools and the right process, you can develop a solid and focused brand strategy for your business.

The Affordable Branding Positioning Construct
When tackling your own brand strategy development, your first task is to zoom out. And then, when you can quickly (almost intuitively) and confidently fill in the following blanks, you’ll be well on your way to affordable branding success.

Who: ________________________________________________

What: ________________________________________________

For whom: ________________________________________________

What need: _______________________________________________

Against whom: ____________________________________________

What’s different: ___________________________________________

So: ________________________________________________

Vision: ________________________________________________

Mission: ________________________________________________

Below, I’ve filled in the positioning construct with information about this business—How-to-Branding—as an example of how you can position your own business.

Who: How-to-Branding.com…

What: is the ONLY step-by-step, do-it-yourself affordable branding resource…

For whom: for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and marketing executives…

What need: that want to improve their marketing and communications results through a more clear and focused brand platform.

Against whom: Unlike traditional consultants or agencies who “do it all for you” and deliver a brand that may not convey the results you expected…

What’s different: How-to-Branding.com believes that no one knows your brand better than you. So we offer brand workshops and other tools, plus a website packed with tips, techniques, and ideas to grow your brand—and your business…

So: so your company can arrive at an actionable brand strategy more efficiently and effectively and so you can increase revenues for your business.

Vision: To be the leading provider of branding workshops and DIY tools and techniques to help grow small businesses.

Mission: To assist businesses in the development of an authentic, relevant, and differentiated brand through proven and highly effective workshops, tools, and techniques.

With this vital and strategic foundation, I can now go about building and branding my business to align with the principles set forth in this simple construct.

It serves as a branding roadmap of sorts; one that I will continue to refer to as I add content, develop new tools and offerings, and market and advertise my business.

When you see the How-to-Branding.com Toolbox, it designates that the following content is a tool, exercise, or technique you can use to help develop your affordable brand strategy.

You CAN do it yourself—affordably. Here’s how:

  1. Continue to explore the free resources available on this site. Start with Branding Strategies and work your way through Branding Tactics.
  2. Be sure to check out all the other helpful, free How-to-Branding.com advice available here.
  3. Subscribe to the Affordable Branding eZine. It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time if it gets annoying.
  4. Bookmark the Affordable Branding blog (or subscribe to the RSS feed).
  5. I would highly recommend (of course I would!) my RADICAL Branding Manual. If you've somehow arrived at this site, my guess is that it's exactly what you're looking for.
  6. Consider purchasing the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Brand Strategy Workshop. As a free bonus, you’ll also receive the How-to-Branding DIY Branding Toolkit with all Forms, Exercises, and Process Documents.
  7. I would also recommend grabbing a copy of my eBook, Shadowcasting: Growing Your Business By Growing Your Reputation.
  8. If you get stuck along the way, no worries: Consider either One-on-One (Show Me) or Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) Branding Coaching.

    If you get stuck on the harder, tactical executions (business or product naming, logo design, or tagline development ) we can help.

Good luck with your brand strategy! It’s a critical part of the business-building puzzle.