Who Doesn’t Love a One-Liner?
What is the definition of an accountant?
Someone who solves a problem you did not know you had - in a way you don’t understand.
Now back to the real purpose of this note…
Next week I am leading a session on branding and marketing for accounting professionals with the Dext Academy. Post-session if you register the recording will play.
Last week I suggested some homework for it - visualizing your best you and what you want your business to look like.
This week I want you to get your best branding one-liners ready. Even if you aren’t attending the event this is a good exercise to go through.
What are branding one-liners?
Your tag line
Your mantra
Your vision or mission statement
Your social media description
In all fairness, some may be a few lines but conciseness is key in branding. Keep them short and sweet.
I’m going to use mine as examples here to get you started. I’m not saying they are the best out there, but they are out there - I’ve said many times “done is better than perfect”.
Tag line(s)
Create a tagline. It’s a quick way to position your values and purpose.
I have 3 business models, so I have 3 taglines.
My template sales one is “The hardest part of going for a run is putting on your shoes.”
My coaching one is “Change is hard. Not changing will be harder.”
My bookkeeping one is “Calmwaters is going to make your books shine.”
Mantra
You need a “saying” to keep you on track, to emphasize your way of thinking. It is a positive affirmation of who you are and what you do.
My bookkeeping one is “Get on with it. Get organized. Take that first step and the next one will follow”.
My coaching one is ““Stop overthinking, just do one thing.”
My personal one is “Rigorous honesty & daily vigilance”.
Vision or mission statement
This is the summary of the values or aims of your business. It is a way of explaining why you exist, why you do what you do.
Here’s a summary of how to write one from my friends at Owner.co.
My bookkeeping one is “Calmwaters is going to work with businesses to define their vision of success and then get them organized to achieve it. Financial organization is our first client undertaking, but certainly not our last.”
My coaching one is “I want every accounting professional to love running a cloud-based business as much as I do. The key to loving it is effective best practices, consistent communications and efficient processes, systems & workflows.”
Social media description
You need a short description of “your best you” that you will use consistently over your channels
“I am a runner, skier, dog lover who believes in the mightiness of cloud accounting technology.”
#31. There’s no marketing without repetition.*
So get on with your branding one-liners.
Pass them by your industry peers, colleagues and friends for feedback. Make sure they resonate with your reviewers and they believe your one-liners are genuine to “your best you” and “your best business”.
Getting these one-liners done (or started) is crucial to building the chapters of your story.
Your branding and digital footprint are all about your story.
Branding is not about what you do or what you build or what you sell.
It’s about your story.
Your story needs to resonate with who you want to work with. This is why we started with your 5 Star You, 5 Star Client and 5 Star Business last week. You need to know who you want to build relationships with, who you want to call into your universe. And you need to make sure that your story is “all about them” - your story should tell them how you are going to help them or it should be relatable to them.
Only then can you begin to tell a genuine story that will echo in the minds of those that it should.
#1. Marketing is storytelling and the most interesting stories are true.*
On to a few useful one-liners for you to noodle through.
Quotes from those who know a thing or two about branding.
*40 one-sentence tips to help you get more out of your social media activity.
#11. You don’t need a big budget, you need a big story.*
And finally, my own one-liner suggestion for keeping track of and easily sharing your social medial channels, blog posts/website pages and scheduler links.
Create a spreadsheet and/or a bookmark folder with your URLs of them.
Socially Yours, Kellie
PS. If you are wondering (likely you haven’t even noticed…) why my last few blogs and emails have no “call to action” at the end it’s because I’m taking some time off. I am simply enjoying writing, keeping my brain fresh and my brand rolling along, with no agenda to sell anything but templates right now.
But it is key for anyone in the building phase of a business or looking to keep the sales funnel full to use CTAs in their digital communications and on social media. Here is a great article on CTAs.
