Is NOT slogan or a tagline, but rather an internal mantra.

 

Is at the heart of an effective strategy to differentiate your business from your competition.

According to Verne Harnish, your devotion to delivering on the promise must be maniacal. You must choose the right brand promise—the one your customers respond to, the one you can track and execute day after day.

 

Must be relevant to and resonate with your target market.

In its Brand Promise Breakdown, University of Michigan-Flint suggests that you consider how your brand promise sounds to your target market(s). To craft it's brand promise, UM-Flint asked target audiences which potential positive brand messages they most preferred—those they viewed as most important, believable, and differentiating.

 

Must  be evaluated against these three criteria: unique, compelling, believable.

Brad VanAuken (The Blake Project) says the “winning” promise must deliver at a high level against all three criteria or it won't work. He suggests you have your target audience rate each potential “promise” on each of these three criteria.

 

Must be delivered to clients consistently, every time by every employee in every action taken and in every marketing channel.

If your business—including all employees—can't deliver on the brand promise, it will severely stunt brand success. When you promise to empower your employees [to deliver on your brand promise], you have to actually do it, says the Young Entrepreneur Council.

 

Impacts your credibility and trajectory of your brand's perceived value. If it's not in harmony with the brand proof, the speed of social media communication can erode credibility.

As Thomson Dawson (Branding Strategy Insider) puts it:  If you don't deliver what you promise to people, in time, you won't matter to them.  He suggests that you consider if your marketing messaging and imagery could be breeding mistrust and degrading your brand's value.  Check out the examples of images from fast food advertisements versus the actual products that he attributes the blog Alphaila. Broken brand promises? You bet.

 

Is manifested in the delivery of the overall brand experience.

According to Hinge Marketing, expectations are communicated by the brand itself. The brand promise is the expected tangible benefit that creates desire for a product or service. It allows a business to set up customer expectations and generate excitement.

Only when you prove you are different and trustworthy will people talk about you, show their loyalty, and recommend you to their friends. That's a true measure of success for your brand promise.

Are you maniacal about substantiating and delivering on your brand promise? What other factors are vital to your brand promise?

Branding today is focused on two extremes At Ā¯the one that provides only execution and very little insight (think logo and stationery); or the one that produces too much abstract thought that is either impossible to implement or takes too much time (think endless surveys, focus groups and dusty reports full of lost opportunities).

The real opportunity for success is distinct from the two. It lies in the ability to rapidly assess and move lightning fast. At Better with Jam, speed and momentum energize us and are strengthened by our ability to make critical decisions, identify high-value opportunities and make it all happen while others are paralyzed by indecision. You have to go for it if you want to succeed, which is why our mantra is, STAND UP AND BE NOTICED"

How do we get started? Bring us in for a half-day brand session with your top guys get you energized by the possibilities locked in your brand and motivated to increase its power. Come on! Let's go for gold!

Quick Wins on Facebook

Post tons of photos -- they get the most likes and shares.

Photos also get a lot of comments, but text updates get slightly more.

Posts that are either very short, or very long have a higher percentage of likes.

Long posts also tend to have more shares -- the sweet spot is between 400 and 500 characters.

Content posted later in the day get more likes and shares 

Quick Wins on Twitter

Write tweets between 120 and 130 characters for the most click-throughs.

Place links 25% of the way through your tweet for the best click-through rate.

Write tweets with more action verbs, and fewer nouns to get more clicks.

Tweet on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the best click-through rate, and later in the day instead of the morning.

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Inbound Marketing and Customer Relationship Management Strategy has been incredibly successful for this client

Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide, making a speech to celebrate Mackies of Lancaster's 10th Anniversary.