1. 9 Steps to Market Your New Brand
Ken Herron | kenherron@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/kenherron
1. Pick your brand name
a. Keep it simple, the shorter the better
b. Can your non-English-speaking grandmother pronounce it and spell it?
c. What comes up when you Google it?
d. Is the domain available on [at least] .com, .org, and .net?
e. Resources: http://bit.ly/YNZiE, http://bit.ly/10FJlf, http://knowem.com, http://godaddy.com
2. Decide upon your brandʼs messaging – its unique differentiators (i.e., what makes
it better, cheaper, and/or different from your competitors)
a. Create your brandʼs message architecture (i.e., features/attributes, benefits of these to your target
customers, and the emotions associated with having/not having these benefits)
b. Write your brandʼs tagline
c. Write your brandʼs elevator statement
d. Resources: http://copyblogger.com
3. Commission your brandʼs logo and supporting graphical elements
a. Resources: http://99designs.com/
4. Set up Google and Twitter alerts
a. for your brand (“Brand”)
b. for your brandʼs web site (“Brand.com”)
c. for your name (“Joe Founder”)
d. for the names of your closest competitors (“Competitor1”, “Competitor2”, etc.) and their principals
(“Joe Competitor1, Joe Competitor2, etc.)
e. Resources: http://google.com/alerts, http://search.twitter.com/
5. Post a “coming soon” teaser on a squeeze page to begin collecting your target
customersʼ e-mail addresses
a. Resources: http://aweber.com
6. Pick your content management and web analytics software
a. Resources: http://bit.ly/L98vn [great whitepaper, requires free registration],
http://google.com/analytics/
7. Begin pitching your brand to both traditional and new media
a. Resources: http://helpareporter.com/
8. Begin answering online questions with a branded signature line
a. Resources: http://linkedin.com, http://answers.yahoo.com
9. Create, and frequently update, branded profiles on social media websites
a. Resources: http://facebook.com, http://twitter.com, http://youtube.com, http://flickr.com,
http://squidoo.com, http://stumbleupon.com, http://myereputation.com