The Plain Truth About Branding for Newsletter Publishers and Web Designers

Branding, or brand marketing as some now call it, is one of the buzzwords of public relations and marketing.

I searched several dictionaries in vain for a precise definition of this high profile concept as it is applied in the business world. The closest I got was the one that explained the verb "to brand" as "to impress firmly."

On the other hand, perhaps I wasn't so unlucky after all. Not the whole story, maybe, but this is, after all, the very essence of what branding in business is.

When you brand something - be it a company, an individual, a product, a service, a concept or a process - you impress strongly on people's minds whatever is special and distinctive about it. You make some kind of lasting impact that leaves them in no doubt that your special something stands apart from everything else in the same category.

It sounds simple enough. The problem is that even some marketing professionals, if they know this at all, have not yet internalized it. They think of brands in terms of trademarks. They apparently believe that branding is just a matter of well designed logos and striking, unforgettable visual images.

Not that they're necessarily so far off the mark. We all know that the right visual symbols do help to create an impression of distinctiveness. The Coca-Cola people have exploited this principle to absolute perfection. Smash one of their familiar bottles, and you can still recognize that the fragments were once part of a Coca-Cola bottle.

Nor does it have to be confined to the sense of sight.

Occasionally, you just have to hear a few strains of some melody to immediately associate it with a certain company or product. And then there's the famous Singapore Airlines smell. A few years ago, the flight attendant of that airline began distributing, before and after takeoff, hot towels that gave off a very distinctive aroma. Once experienced, it's not easily forgotten.

The truth is, though, that characteristic symbols and images, whether visual, aural or olfactory, important though they are, simply not enough. Even mighty Coca-Cola could not have captured the lion's share of the soft drink market with the design of its bottles alone.

And if you're just a small guy, well, it's a different ball game altogether.

The easiest way to understand this concept is to think of it like this: if you run a website, what would happen if you removed your logo and your company name?

Would I still be able to recognize your brand? Or, let's say you're the owner of a brick-and-mortar outfit.

One day you move to a new location but you haven't had a chance to put up your signs yet. Were I to stumble into your store by chance, would I be able to tell it apart from those of your competitors?

Now, what if you publish and email newsletter, and you remove your masthead, your name and your subscribe instructions?

I pose this question because I often read different newsletters published by different members of the same profession or trade.

It's clear that all these people are keenly aware of the pivotal role their newsletters should be playing in marketing their talents, enhancing client relationships, or in furthering other personal or business objectives.

I'm saddened, however, whenever I see so little to distinguish one from the other - and I'm not only referring to visual appearance and actual content, which are important enough.

On the one hand, these publishers are trying very hard to market themselves as experts or purveyors of services in fields in which they have quite a lot of competition on the Internet.

But on the other, they're doing very little to show me what makes them stand out from the pack, or even why they're different from any of their competitors.

Even their publications are undistinguished, very run-of-the-mill; why should things be different when I use their professional services?

Practical tips

Here are just a few short tips to help you brand yourself and your newsletter.

• Study your competitors! Read and research as many other lists as you can and in particular those on the same topic or published by other businesses or practitioners in your field. Look for gaps - see what YOU can offer that they can't, or just don't!
  
  
• Your personality is unique (which means there's nobody else in the world quite like you!) Don't be afraid to use that truism to your advantage. The best newsletters on the Net revolve around their publishers' personalities.
  
  
• See how you can "personalize" the physical appearance of your newsletter, so that your readers will recognize it as soon as they open it even before they read the words - from the layout, masthead design, and other visual clues. This, to be sure, will be easier with HTML newsletters, but even with plain text there are many possibilities.

Branding yourself may be hard work, but once you achieve your goal, you'll have a valuable intangible asset that no-one can easily steal or plagiarize. Good luck!

Azriel Winnett is creator of Hodu.com - Your Communication Skills Portal. This popular website helps you improve your communication and relationship skills in your business or professional life, in the family unit and on the social scene. New articles added almost daily.

More Ezine Publishing Articles

Become an E-Book Author ... Make Money From Your Knowledge!
"E-Book" is short for Electronic Book---an organized set of content delivered in an electronic format. There are many different types of e-books including packaged executables, PDF, and formats for the handheld computer.

Increase Your Website Popularity with 500 Words
Are you looking to increase your relevancy in the search engines? You probably have heard that increasing the links to your site has an impact on your listing. But did you know you can do it without waiting, or asking other sites to link to you themselves?If you can write a 500-1000 word article about your business, you can increase your links in 24 hours.

Search Engines Can Be The Online Writers Best Friend
It's an exciting time for online writers, with a wide array of options. With desire and well-directed effort, a good writer can end up with a variety of work.

7 Benefits Of Using Newsletter Templates
1. Time saver.

Why I Started My Ezine
Why I started this E- ZineSit back, and travel with me.I discovered my need to write and gather inspiring stories about baseball as I drove on route 80 in Northern New Jersey in February 2004.

Top 10 Tips to Give Your Newsletter Impact!
There are thousands of email newsletters or "ezines" produced every week, and most of them have great material and are written by passionate people who want to share valuable information. Unfortunately, very few of them have many subscribers.

Covering All The Bases: How to Make Sure Your Newsletter Gets Opened and Read
It?s not enough to prepare and distribute a monthly newsletter, one that offers information of genuine value to your market. You also have to make sure your newsletter gets opened and read! Covering letters provide reasons for recipients to open, download and read your newsletter each month.

Convert Your Newsletters into Immediate Cash
One-Page Newsletters can do more than help you keep in constant touch with clients and prospects and educate them to desire your products and services. Each issue can also generate immediate sales!Simply combine the educational content of your newsletter with a monthly promotion described in the covering e-mail or on the page of your website where readers can download each issue.

3 Money-Making Reasons for Displaying Your Newsletters on Your Website
Seeing is believing. Unless your website visitors can experience your newsletter and appreciate its value, they?re unlikely to join your opt-in, email list.

10 Benefits Of Submitting Articles To Ezines
1. You'll brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to ezines.