Just a few more words about how to improve or strengthen your branding and bearing in mind that the whole point of this is to reinforce the reliability of your brand in the mind of the end-user.

In the previous post I touched on the fact that you don't really need a list of thousands, you just need Seth Goddin's "1,000 Fans". You need to "sweat the small stuff" as I have heard it said, you need to be detail conscious. Finally, you need to be consistent, in everything! In every part of your marketing approach, all of the time!

This time around I'm going to talk (write?) about the need for you to be different, take no notice of the bloke next door (you can see what I was going to say), you need to do what all the others aren't doing, go where they are not going. You need to make your brand totally unique, look at Gary Vaynerchuk, it's difficult to get more unique than him.

I crossed a line out earlier because you do need to take note of the bloke next door or your mate on FB who's killing it. Not to copy him, never do that, but to make note of HOW he does what he does. First tip of the day, remember that your aim is to be different, accurately and consistently and meaningfully different! In that difference can lie your solution, your purpose; that difference can make all the difference!

Your story, your brand's story; they are both critical to you making your brand memorable and trustworthy. The biggest brands display their stories proudly because those stories reflect their core values and necessarily the core values of their owners', in other words, your core values need to be on display.

And here's today's second tip, they need to be right up there in full view. I don't mean the old, clich�d, 'Mission Statement', I mean what you believe, what you are trying to achieve, what you are trying to do! Somehow you need to wear that statement, staple it to your chest, have it tatoo'd on your backside, how you do it is up to you but get it done! Without it you will find the trust of your clients a very fragile thing, something so evanescent that with the first cold breeze it will be gone, and your clientelle with it!

I have made the point before in a much earlier post that successful people, successful brands, don't sell! If you do the job properly and engage with the readers of your posts, they will come to you and ask you to let them buy!

Once again we have to go back to the top brands and here's the third tip of the day, they don't attempt to sell, they are far too involved solving the problems of their consumers and helping them to find solutions of their own to do the 'over-brylcreemed salesmen' act. These brands add together perspicuity, value and a sense of community which all meld into the final product, a sense of affinity which is the connector to the consumer, the end-user, the client. The relationships formed in this manner tend to outlast the myriad difficulties and pot-holes that arise (or sink!) because they are based on mutual trust, each to the other.

For goodness' sake, when will we learn? I'll bet that each us has, somewhere hidden away, a six-inch wide tie (silk of course!), a pair of flared jeans or a tie-died t-shirt. Each of those were 'de rigeur' at one time! And for my final tip, not any more! Burn them!