How To: Give Your Brand a "Healthcheck"

Your brand is how and why your customers choose you over your competitors - think of it as your company's personality. It's something that's worth defining clearly:

• What do you stand for?
• What are your strongest character traits?
• How does that translate into your presence - from the images you use on your website to the language you use in your emails?

What does your brand really stand for?

• Who is your customer?
First, get your buyer personas lined up, visualized and ranked. Use them to help you answer the following questions.

• What problem do you solve?
From your customer's perspective, what challenge are you solving for them? Visualize your perceived value.

• What are your distinctive benefits?
List three to five benefits your customer gets from choosing your product or service that they won't get somewhere else.

• What's your brand promise?
This is like a pledge. What will you always do for your customers? This is the other key part of your proposition that separates you from the competition.

• How does it fit together?
Use your answers to try and craft a single paragraph that covers them. It's ok if things merge and overlap - the goal is to end up with a unique and specialized message.

• Can you make it shorter?
Now, refine your message. Take your time, review again and again until you've distilled your value proposition to one clear line that captures everything you want to say.