Listen "Write a Book Using Your Content Strategy, Part I"
Episode Synopsis
As we all know, there’s more than one way to get your firm’s brand out into the world. Traditional content strategy with a website, ad campaigns, articles, social media, and a skillfully edited brand video is increasingly common—and not necessarily ineffective. If it’s done well and authentically, not by a long shot.
Trust me, you don’t have to go super-outlandish with free air guitars or pregnancy test coupons in magazines to get your brand seen.
As I wrote about last month, short videos are probably the most potent, shareable way to capture your brand anthem and communicate it with a wider audience. Video taps two of the five senses, taps memory and emotion, and speaks the common parlance of phones, tablets, and computer screens that take up people’s time.
But even if you’re dropping money on filming or professional editing, there’s one final strategy you should not overlook.
Writing (and, of course, publishing) your brand anthem in a book.
A brand book, or perhaps a book containing your collected thoughts on a relevant business or marketing topic, gets people excited—especially in professional services.
Think of a brand book as a printed, sophisticated piece of thought leadership: a respectable piece of developed, long-form content that contains your brand anthem and even raises it to a higher level of conversation.
But writing a book raises pointed questions, with the first one being:
How do I get there?
How do I get my brand anthem into an actual book someone can hold in their hands?
Do I have to write?
What about editing and publishing—aren’t those lengthy journeys in and of themselves?
Great questions.
But before I dive in, let me recap what any brand or topical book should be doubling down on: brand anthem.
If you want to do something right, there’s no getting enough of the basics.
https://youtu.be/7eJqjJevgEc
Brand Anthem
If your brand anthem is the starting point—your north star for a killer video, slick visuals and marketing, or even a product rollout—you should know exactly what it is and why it resonates with people.
Lest we forget, a good brand anthem builds on elements of a good story (one about your clients, and how you help them) and waves them into a clear, vibrant banner. I walked through the elements of a brand anthem in detail, but they’re worth repeating—there’s the hero (your client), the problem they’re facing, the guide (that’s YOU), and then the solution. As you can probably imagine, the story goes like this: the hero had a problem, and with the help of a trusting, knowledgeable guide, the hero solved that problem.
That story, of course, contains your brand’s unique traits and values. If it’s uniquely you—and don’t forget, whether you’re an accounting firm or a law firm or an engineering firm, you’re still the guide—then your brand anthem should set you apart from the stories that other brands are telling… in a pretty big way.
How do you uniquely help the hero?
Which kind of hero (or better yet, which problem) are you focused on solving?
How do you uniquely solve it?
With what philosophy or fresh vision of a better world? How is your solution different from other brands?
If your brand story sounds a little too familiar… then it might be time to tease it out a little more. Getting your brand anthem clear, and polished, and getting your message about who you are on point means carving out your position in the marketplace.
What’s your approach to the hero’s problem?
What’s your unique solution? Your answer for a segment of the market that’s not being fully served?
Potent brand anthems are usually the focused ones… and if we’re talking about writing a book on it, the more potent, the better.
Starting the Book Process
Say you’ve got all that—a brand anthem with a tight, well-messaged story, and maybe even a tagline to go with it. Say you’re developing that brand anthem with your website.
Trust me, you don’t have to go super-outlandish with free air guitars or pregnancy test coupons in magazines to get your brand seen.
As I wrote about last month, short videos are probably the most potent, shareable way to capture your brand anthem and communicate it with a wider audience. Video taps two of the five senses, taps memory and emotion, and speaks the common parlance of phones, tablets, and computer screens that take up people’s time.
But even if you’re dropping money on filming or professional editing, there’s one final strategy you should not overlook.
Writing (and, of course, publishing) your brand anthem in a book.
A brand book, or perhaps a book containing your collected thoughts on a relevant business or marketing topic, gets people excited—especially in professional services.
Think of a brand book as a printed, sophisticated piece of thought leadership: a respectable piece of developed, long-form content that contains your brand anthem and even raises it to a higher level of conversation.
But writing a book raises pointed questions, with the first one being:
How do I get there?
How do I get my brand anthem into an actual book someone can hold in their hands?
Do I have to write?
What about editing and publishing—aren’t those lengthy journeys in and of themselves?
Great questions.
But before I dive in, let me recap what any brand or topical book should be doubling down on: brand anthem.
If you want to do something right, there’s no getting enough of the basics.
https://youtu.be/7eJqjJevgEc
Brand Anthem
If your brand anthem is the starting point—your north star for a killer video, slick visuals and marketing, or even a product rollout—you should know exactly what it is and why it resonates with people.
Lest we forget, a good brand anthem builds on elements of a good story (one about your clients, and how you help them) and waves them into a clear, vibrant banner. I walked through the elements of a brand anthem in detail, but they’re worth repeating—there’s the hero (your client), the problem they’re facing, the guide (that’s YOU), and then the solution. As you can probably imagine, the story goes like this: the hero had a problem, and with the help of a trusting, knowledgeable guide, the hero solved that problem.
That story, of course, contains your brand’s unique traits and values. If it’s uniquely you—and don’t forget, whether you’re an accounting firm or a law firm or an engineering firm, you’re still the guide—then your brand anthem should set you apart from the stories that other brands are telling… in a pretty big way.
How do you uniquely help the hero?
Which kind of hero (or better yet, which problem) are you focused on solving?
How do you uniquely solve it?
With what philosophy or fresh vision of a better world? How is your solution different from other brands?
If your brand story sounds a little too familiar… then it might be time to tease it out a little more. Getting your brand anthem clear, and polished, and getting your message about who you are on point means carving out your position in the marketplace.
What’s your approach to the hero’s problem?
What’s your unique solution? Your answer for a segment of the market that’s not being fully served?
Potent brand anthems are usually the focused ones… and if we’re talking about writing a book on it, the more potent, the better.
Starting the Book Process
Say you’ve got all that—a brand anthem with a tight, well-messaged story, and maybe even a tagline to go with it. Say you’re developing that brand anthem with your website.
More episodes of the podcast Resoundcast - the branding podcast from Resound, a creative agency
Capture Your Brand Anthem with Video
15/03/2023
Build Your Brand Anthem from Story
15/02/2023