An Entrepreneur.com slideshow discusses the 13 skills that will help improve branding efforts. This is a subject area we are particularly focused on, so we wanted to take a look. The list was compiled by members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). The 13 skills they recommend are:
- Improv
- Basic Principles of Psychology
- Public Speaking
- Charisma
- Content Creation
- SEO
- Copywriting
- Basic Coding
- Researching Other Brands
- Organization
- Graphic Design
- Candid Photography
- Web UX/UI
Without attempting to rate or rank any of the responses, we thought we’d pick out a few that struck us as particularly interesting, based on our own experience with branding and marketing efforts. With one important caveat: in our opinion these skills are primarily related to the marketing communication (or promotional) elements of branding and not necessarily the other critical aspects of creating a strong brand: product, price and place (or access).
That said, let’s take a look at some of these traits:
Researching other brands is a great strategy. Even if you don’t try to imitate any of the techniques and tools employed by these brands, it’s a great way to see what others are attempting and how they operate day to day. They don’t even need to be brands in your field. Successful brands in any industry can provide useful insights.
Absolutely. This is a crucial element of branding, particularly when it comes to social media branding. With so many social media platforms available and the need to constantly stay up to date, it’s so important to make sure you are organized. Tools like Hootsuite can provide a great deal of help in managing the web of activities around online communication that must be aligned and balanced to gain maximum results.
Graphic Design and Candid Photography
We grouped these two together because they both focus on the visual aspects of marketing. Many small businesses may have one dedicated marketing or branding employee or may be doing all of the work themselves. And individuals often have a strength in either written content or visual content, but perhaps not both. The interesting aspect of the way these skills were presented is that they were presented as skills that can be learned with practice. In other words, it isn’t necessary to hire an outside professional as a graphic designer or pay for the right to use images. Keep in mind, though, that even if you can build these skills doesn’t mean you should. Chances are your time could be better spent focused on other high priority elements of your business that require your personal attention.
Branding efforts are crucial to businesses, so we are always interested in seeing perspectives on what factors contribute to a solid branding strategy.
The skills suggested by Entrepreneur are worth a read. How would you rate your aptitude with these 13 skills? Which might you need a bit of help with? When you’re ready to let go of some of the marketing communication-related elements of building your brand, we can help.
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About Us
Strategic Communications, LLC, works with B2B clients to help them achieve their goals through effective content marketing and management with both internal and external audiences. We are adept at evaluating and analyzing communication efforts and working with clients to plan, create and publish high-quality, unique content, through both on- and offline media to achieve desired results. Our background in business journalism, marketing, PR/media relations and online communications makes us well-positioned to serve the needs of 21st-century marketers.
We serve clients who are looking for help creating content for a wide array of channels—from social media posts to full-length manuscripts, and everything in between. We focus primarily on service-related B2B topics and work with a number of independent consultants interested in building their thought leadership through online channels. For ongoing content management, our first step is to fully understand your goals, objectives and competitive landscape.
Then we’ll conduct a thorough analysis and assessment of your digital presence, compared to competitors, and recommend a communication strategy to achieve your goals. But, we also regularly take on individual projects – white papers, blog posts, contributed articles, etc. If you’re interested in learning more, let us know!
(Strategic Communications is certified as a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise through the Wisconsin Department of Administration.)
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Tags: brand audit, brand building, Brand Management, branding, building your brand, marketing communications, place, price, product, promotion, the marketing mix