Transcripts
1. Introduction: I am a professional
marketer and even I find it difficult and sometimes
cringy to market myself. How do you sell what
you're offering without coming across as
cheesy and insincere? How do you connect with
a potential customer in a way that builds
trust and credibility, and inspires them
to take action? I've created this class for anyone who's struggling
with their marketing, and wondering how the
big successful brands build loyal and
engaged communities. My name is Tamara Jensen, and I'm a brand strategist, entrepreneur, and educator. I work with creatives, fellow business owners, and marketing teams to help them build strong and resilient
brands from the ground up. In this class, we'll start by observing some big
successful businesses, household brand names,
and see how they reflect their values in the
content that they share. We'll build off that
knowledge by having you create your own
set of brand values, that not only set you apart but resonate
with your audience. These shared values are
what will attract, engage, and cement the relationship with your most desirable
and valued supporters. From this set of values, we'll build a framework of actual content that you can start sharing with
your audiences. Building your brand and setting it miles apart from
the competition. The projects for this
class will be one, developing a set of
values for your brand, and two, building a library of content that you can put straight to work with
marketing your brand. All you need to get started is a brand name household object, and the class
workbook available to download in the class
resource section. Today more than ever, brand resiliency is crucial to being competitive,
sustainable, and successful. I firmly believe that by investing in your brand
from the ground up, it will be ready for anything
the world throws at it. Let's get into it with an
overview of the class project. Join me in the next video.
2. Class Overview: If you completed my last class, you should have a
solid understanding of your brand's core essence. That unique and differentiating
source of power that sets your brand apart and informs all of your other
marketing decisions. As we learned in that
class, your brand values, will build on that
core brand essence and each layer of your brand. After that, we'll
continue to build, making your brand strong, competitive and ultimately
as impactful as possible. If you haven't worked out your core brand essence
yet, no problem. Feel free to head over to my previous class and then
join us here when you're done. If you want to get
straight to work today and figure out your brand
values, that's great too. You might even find that
the work you're doing today will help you figure
out your core brand essence. We're building our
brands together until we feel confident and excited
about their potential. Go at your own pace. Let your thoughts and
ideas surface intuitively. In this class, we'll work
through some exercises that are designed to tease
out the most important, authentic, and unique values that are reflected
in your brand. At every touch point,
we'll talk about how your brand
values differ from your internal corporate
values and why that matters when you're trying to connect with your customers, build a strong community and set your brand apart
in the marketplace. Once we've developed
our brand values, what do we do with them? Well, we share them
and not just on a wall and a reception
area or on our website. We integrate these values into all of the
stories we tell about our brand on social media
and advertising campaigns, and at every touch point, what we put out in
the world should be a consistent reflection
of what we value. That's how we build trust and
support from our audiences. In this class, we'll build an infinitely
scalable library of content that we can
share about our brands, all based on our brand values that we've identified
and validated. In my last class, don't feel the need to rush through
these exercises. You'll likely revisit your
workbook over a couple of sessions as more nuanced
ideas come to mind. Ultimately, we want this to be an authentic reflection
of your brand so that each layer we build after this makes your brand even
stronger and more powerful. You are in full control
of this process. Ultimately, we want this to be an authentic
reflection of your brand, so that each step after this process makes your
brand even stronger. You can post your work at any point in the class
project gallery, or ask questions in the
discussion if you want help from your fellow
students or from me. I'll upload my workbook in
the resource section so you can see how I approach
the exercises for my brand. For this class,
all you'll need is the class workbook available for download in the
resource section, and a brand name household item. I recommend setting yourself up somewhere that's
comfortable with no distractions so
you can work through these brainstorming
and writing exercises in a way that's
comfortable for you. Let's get started with a
quick review of the layers of a resilient brand and where our brand values fit
in the bigger picture. Join me in the next video.
3. Background & Customer Experience: As you might recall
from my last class, I like to think of a
strong resilient brand as having layers. As we work our way outward from the inner layers of our brand to the outer external
customer-facing touch points and experiences, we want to make sure that each layer builds
on the previous, making our brands as strong
and resilient as possible. In this lesson, we'll get
familiar with those layers of a resilient brand
and then we'll apply that framework to a
household object. This exercise is designed
so that we can consider the customer's
perspective before we jump in and do the work
with our own brands. Before we jump in, let's do a quick recap of the layers of a resilient brand. When people think of a brand, they tend to think of the
visible experiential elements, what we call touch-points. This can include logos,
colors, fonts, packaging, your physical shop,
your messaging, and your customer service
replies and much more. I'm a very visual person, so I like to think of these external touch points as the outer layers of the tree, like the branches, the
leaves, the ripe fruit. We want to make sure our tree is strong and resilient
from the inside out. This way, the
public facing parts of our brand will
be more likely to thrive during fair weather and stand up to the elements
during the tough times. Customer feedback,
critical reviews, economic and consumer trends, all kinds of factors
can affect your brand. In the inner layers, we have things like our brand's core essence,
our brand values, mission and vision, rules
around language and tone, all of these important factors that make our brand's unique. Having our inner layers in place gets everyone
on the same page, makes it easier to work with agencies,
partners, creatives, manufacturers, and easier to communicate your brand's
value to your customers. Making the inner layers of your brand strong does not mean the rest of your brand will
be rigid. Quite the opposite. It will be nimble, flexible, adaptive just like
a healthy tree. I like to think things need
to be strong and healthy on the inside to feel and
look good on the outside. As we worked through
my Skillshare classes we're building out the layers of our brands to make them strong, resilient
and competitive. Before we jump into
our own brands, let's look at how
these layers apply to the household brands we
interact with every day. We're going to work
backwards using an everyday household
objects and try to fill in those layers using our perspective
as a customer. As we'll learn, the customer is central to determining
our brand values. And we want to align
ourselves with those shared values in order
to make a strong connection. So go ahead and
grab your workbook and your household object, mine is the skincare product. Working inward, starting
with the outer layers, I can describe the
touch points of this brand coming from my
experience as a customer. So I know with this brand
they use TikTok a lot, that's how I was influenced. They use a lot of
celebrity endorsements. So when I think of their
media and advertising, that's what comes to mind. In terms of their
product and packaging, I would describe it
as very aesthetic, simple, clean, and fresh
looking. I'll write that. Jumping over to the website
and digital presence. This product is sold exclusively at a major
cosmetics retailer. That's where I bought it. I would describe my
experience there. They offer things
like reward points and discounts and free shipping, so that's all part of
my customer experience. Looking at the shop design. As far as I know, this product
is only available online, at least in North America. So I can describe a bit more of what that shopping
experience was like for me. It was a very simple, probably too simple, very enticing to add more
products to my order. So I would write that down
as my customer experience. In terms of customer service, I didn't have any problems
with this product at all. But I can speak to the
fact that it was really highly reviewed by people
who had purchased it before. If we work inward to the
next layer where we're looking at their visual
identity in their messaging. We can see just from
the product itself that it's clean, simple, fresh. Their messaging or tagline is joy and results
in every bottle. So I'll make those notes here. Looking at the tone and the voice and the
persona of this brand, I can assume just for
my other interactions, that it's authentic, personable, friendly,
and approachable. There's nothing that's stuffy or too scientific
about this brand. As we start filling out the inner-most layers
of this brand, we have to start making
some educated guesses. We don't work for the company, but we can speak to what we
experienced as a customer. When it comes to things
like mission and values, we have to go on what
we've experienced. Judging by some of the messaging and the fact that the word truth is written right on the bottle. I'm going to assume that this company wants
to be an honest, open and transparent
skincare company. Based on the price I paid and the retailer that
they partner with, I'm going to also assume
that they want to be accessible and
value conscious. As we get to the all-important
layer of brand values, we're still making assumptions, but we're using what we've
learned as a customer. When it comes to my
household product today, based on their packaging,
their messaging, some of the product descriptions that I read before I purchased. I know that they value things like sustainability and being cruelty free and using science at the core
of their brand. So I'm going to write those
down as potential values. The core brand essence
of this company, I'm going to have to
take a guess here, but based on all of
these other layers working towards that inner core, I feel like they all
reflect a core essence of just joy, and proven results. That's what I'm going
with. Of course, I don't work for this company. I don't know the ins and outs
of the marketing choices that they make with their of
experts. Does that matter? No. What matters is what I, as the customer
have experienced. It's what drove me to
learn about the product in the first place and what
drove me to make a purchase. It's also what will drive me
to either recommend or not recommend this product to other people and whether
all make the purchase? Again, the more connected I feel to the entire
brand experience, the more likely I'll become a loyal customer and brand
advocate. Now it's your turn. Choose a household object and start filling in the
layers of the brand, working outwards from
those touch points and those customer experiences in towards the brand values
and core essence. Ask yourself questions like, what was it that compelled
me to buy this item? How did I feel when
I left the shop with it or when it showed
up at my doorstep. Was there something meaningful that drove you to
make a purchase? Really think about your
experience as a customer. The more detailed you can get about that whole experience, the clearer those inner
layers will become.
4. Customer Experience pt 2: On the next page
in your workbook, rank each layer of
your household brand according to how
impelling it was to you. I'm going to start at the top
with the outermost layer. The brand's tangible and
visual touch points, the packaging, the advertising,
shop experience, etc. Next we have the brand's
visual identity, the logos, the colors, the fonts, the
overall aesthetic. I particularly really enjoy
this. I'll give it a four. Now, we're moving in and we're at the brand's messaging
and story telling, things like taglines, product descriptions,
marketing copy. I would say that it was
definitely effective on me and I enjoyed it and
it resonated with me. Again, I'll give it a four. The next layer is the brand's
persona and tone and voice. If this brand was a person, would you be compelled by them? Sure. I'd say that's
probably about a four. Now we're getting closer to the inner layers of the brand, the brand's mission and vision. Another way of
thinking of this is, does this brand's larger
purpose speak to you? I would say, yeah, this is
probably about a four for me. Now we're talking about
the brand's values. With my product, it was things like sustainability,
being cruelty free. Those are all really
important to me as well. I'm actually going to
give those a five. Then lastly, the
brand's core essence, the driving force
behind this brand. Is this brand compelling at
a fundamental level to you? I would say overall, this is probably
about a four for me. Once you're done ranking the layers of your
household brand, ask yourself, are you likely to purchase
this brand again? Was there something really
compelling about it for you? Most importantly,
was it something in the inner layers that
really resonated with you? If so, are you likely
to purchase this again, or is it replaceable to you? Write your answer at the
bottom of the sheet? For me, I'm probably likely
to purchase this again, but I might be compelled
by something that's more locally owned or a
better price point. Chances are, if you identify
with the brand's values, you're a loyal customer
and brand advocate. If you don't resonate with them, chances are this brand
is replaceable for you. You might choose another
brand the next time you shop based on price point, convenience, packaging, recommendations from a friend or any other of a
myriad of factors. Remember when you're
doing this exercise to think of your real
experience as a customer. The saying, the devil is
in the details is very accurate when it comes to building a strong
and resilient brand. It can be one little thing that makes a difference between being a loyal customer or never purchasing from
that brand again, if you're having
trouble filling out the layers of your
household brand, try choosing one that you're
particularly fond of, or even one that you were
really disappointed by. These more pronounced
feelings might help you build out the
layers more accurately. If you'd like to see how
someone views your brand, get them to do
this exercise with a product or service
that you offer. You might ask
someone who is very loyal to your brand
and then someone who has never purchased
from you before and see if there's a difference
in their responses. Our goal as builders of our
own companies is to align our brand values authentically with those of our
ideal customers. These are the people
who will buy more, come back to us again, and enthusiastically refer us to their friends and colleagues. As we'll see, the
messaging that we use to share these brand
values is crucial. The more of this messaging reflects what's
central to our brand, the more powerful this
marketing content will be. As architects of our brand, it is essential that we center our customers in the
development process. We don't want to
build a brand that's dictated by customer
preferences. Instead, we want to form a connection that's based
on the shared brand values. Now that we've looked
at the structure from the perspective
of a customer, we'll head to the next video
and look at the difference between brand values and
corporate values. See you there.
5. Corporate vs. Brand Values: Customers are increasingly
making decisions on what to buy and which brands to buy from based on what they value. It's more important
than ever that we get a handle on what it is
that our brand stands for. Understanding and
articulating our brand values will literally pay dividends. We're probably all familiar with the concept of
corporate mission, vision, and value statements. There are typically
developed during the business planning phase and revisited during strategic
planning sessions. We typically see corporate
values listed on the wall of a reception area or a boardroom and maybe listed on
a company website. These corporate values are developed from the inside out, they are dictated by internal stakeholders
like founders and CEOs, sometimes in collaboration
with the board of directors or a highly paid
strategic planning consultant. The question is, do these internally developed
corporate values resonate with the
brand's customers? Do words on a company's website or a boardroom wall
mean anything? What happens when
they don't align with your experience
of the brand? In this class, we're
focusing on brand values, the set of values
that are shared with your audiences and dictated by the consensus
of your customers. Unlike internal
corporate values, brand values describe
the actual experience of interacting with your company throughout the center
of cementing trust, credibility and community
to illustrate how this can go wrong and how it could affect the bottom
line of accompany. Think about an experience
you had where you were disappointed or
let down by a brand. I recently ordered
something from an international clothing
brand that prides itself on being
digital first and having a seamless shopping
and shipping experience. From all of the messaging
and advertising on all the platforms where I
encountered this brand, I went into my
shopping experience assuming there
would be no issues. There were issues;
Shipping delays, misleading emails, apology discount codes
that didn't work. This disconnect between what
the brand said they value and what I actually experienced
as a customer was stark. Was I happy with the product? Yes. Was the quality great? Yes. Was the price okay? Sure. Has my trust in
this brand been depleted? Yes. Will I purchased
from them again? Probably not. This
brand may themselves replaceable to me because
of this stark disconnect. When enough customers have a similar experience
that I have, this brand could find themselves spending
immense resources trying to realign
their brand values with the actual
customer experience. Can you think of an experience you've had with a
brand where you've been let down based on the
expectations that you had. Is there something that they
could have done to realign their brand values with
your actual experience, have you switched
to another brand that's a better fit
with your values? What about a brand that
you're extremely loyal to? Does your experience
as a customer align with what
they seem to value? I'm a regular customer at a local wellness boutique
in my community. Everything they stand
for resonates with me. Cruelty free, low waste they support women owned businesses
as their suppliers. Everything about being
their customer just feels good and if
there is a mistake, I know that it'll be addressed immediately
and generously. In fact, they make a product very similar to the
household brand that I mentioned earlier
because they're loyal and their values more
closely resonate with me. I'm much more likely to continue supporting
the local company. When you're thinking about a
brand that you're loyal to, ask yourself if they practice, what they preach, and how they deal with inevitable
difficulties. Chances are you're willing to continue supporting them because of the entirety of your
experience as their customer. Remember when thinking about the difference between
corporate values and brand values that
accompany can say anything it wants
about what it values, but what matters at
the end of the day is the actual customer experience when brand and
audience values align, that's when the magic happens. Articulating your
brand values is the important first
step in figuring out where that powerful
intersection lies. Now that we have an
understanding of why your brand values are so important and impactful let's get to work, unearthing them. Join me in the next video.
6. Developing Your Brand Values: We've established
that our brand values are super important
and powerful. But how do we begin to
understand and articulate them? I'm going to
demonstrate the process using my own
consulting business. I'll be using the class
workbook where you'll find all of the questions
and some prompts. Feel free to follow
along and take notes on how I arrive
at my answers. These questions ask about
the values at your company, the culture and the environment, how you and your team
behave when you're confronted with obstacles
in different situations, and most importantly, how customers perceive your company. If you're a solopreneur
or just starting out, you can still answer
these questions. I'm in that boat myself, so follow along as we work through these
questions together. My business is a marketing
consulting company. I do a lot of education, collaboration with workshops, events, and one-on-one training. In my last class, I arrived at the conclusion that the core essence of my
brand is assurance. In short, I don't
believe in gate-keeping. I thrive on delivering a great brand strategy
for my clients, but even more than that, empowering them with
the actual skills they need to make their brand
as powerful as possible. As I embark on more intentionally
marketing my business, I want to get a really good
grasp on my brand values, so that I can be more confident
that everything I put out is a great reflection of
what my brand stands for. As we'll see later in the class, having my brand values
in place will give me a solid framework for developing the rest of
my marketing content. If you defined your core brand
essence in my last class, keep that in mind
as you work through these brand values questions. Remember, each layer in our
brand builds on the last. Let's get started. The
first question is, what defines the culture
at your company? Here we want to use adjectives
to describe the feelings, vibes, and general experience of working at your company. If you're a solopreneur
or an artist, or like myself you don't work in a formal office environment with a team, that's completely fine. Ask yourself, how would you describe what it's
like to work with you? I'll jot down some answers about my culture and my company. I would describe the
culture at my company as being very collaborative
and creative, very open to ideas,
very empathetic, I would say, and then also like very nimble, strategic, and very optimized. The next question asks, which values do you
or your team members bring to your work that
are consistently upheld, whether or not they're rewarded? For this, I like to ask myself, what do I still stand by if I've done a job that
I'm really proud of, that maybe the client
didn't see the value in it? I would say some of the
values that I stand by include creativity again, I'd say ingenuity, attention
to detail, and empathy. I would also say
that empowerment is still a value that
I hold strong to, regardless of the outcome. The next question is, what do you and your team
members stand for in your work? What do you and
your team members think the company stands for? Another way to approach this
question is to ask yourself, what sets your company apart
from your competitors? What makes you and your team proudest in the work
that you're doing? In my case, I would say I'm most proud of the quality of my work, the nuance and the detail
that I put into my work, and that I'm building
skills, so again, probably empowerment is
a good word for that. Then creativity. The
fourth question is, what do your customers and audience believe
about your company? What do they say you stand for? A way to answer
this is to think of maybe you've gotten
really great reviews. What are some themes that
come out in those reviews? I co-own a local restaurant and the food and
drinks are great, but the reviews
consistently mention the personalized experience and the professional hospitality, so I know that those things
are what my customers value. When it comes to my
consulting business, I would say that my clients
really value my transparency. If I don't know
something, I will ask. If something might
be a day late, I let them know, very open. I would also say that
they believe I stand for creative approaches and
really building their skills. They also know that I
have a high level of detail and then I'm very relatable as an
entrepreneur myself. The fifth question is, which values do you or your team consistently adhere to in
the face of obstacles? We've been going through
a global pandemic, how have you dealt with that? Have you had supply
chain issues? Have you had staff shortages? In the day to day, do you have the odd negative customer review or a troll on your
social media channels? What values guide you through dealing with
those obstacles? I would say when I
encounter an obstacle, I'm still very empathetic and I always use an
opportunity to educate. Again, sharing my knowledge, being transparent, and hopefully building
some knowledge and skills in other people. We've worked through the first
half of these questions. Feel free to take a
break and come back in the next video where we'll
finish this questionnaire.
7. Developing Your Brand Values pt 2: Welcome back. We're
going to keep going with our brand
values questionnaire. The next question is, what are your company's
greatest strengths? Think of your best,
most loyal customer. What would they say is the
best thing about your company? What do you brag about when
you talk about your brand? I would say one of my
company's greatest strengths is again, that I'm
very transparent, I don't believe in
gatekeeping and I think my clients
really value that. I also think that the energy
I put into really building my clients' skills sets me
apart and is a strength. Again, I would say
that's empowerment. I also have a lot of empathy and patience working with my clients and I think that's
really appreciated. The next question is, what values are absolutely essential to work
at your company? One way to approach
this is to think of what if someone
didn't fit in? What's the contrasting
value that makes someone really gel and really work
well in your company? I would say at my company, respect would be a big one,
honesty, transparency. We're getting these
themes at this point, you should start to see
some recurring themes in your brand values,
which is a good thing. The next question is, what are the most
important behaviors from every employee
at your company? Again, if you're on your own, what are the standards
that you hold yourself to when you're interacting
with your customers? In my case, I would say
respect is absolutely one of those,
transparency again. I think putting it
in a full effort and finding that
detail and nuance. The next question is, what are the primary
behaviors that you would want to encourage in
all of your employees? A way to approach
this is to think of what's common in
your star employees? What are those behaviors, those things they
actually do day-to-day, either working with your
team or with customers? If you were to clone them, what is it about
them that you would absolutely make sure was
in your next employee? I would save in my
case, definitely, honesty is a behavior I would encourage and
transparency again, just open honest communication, not gatekeeping, and just always being open
to learning more. The final question in this questionnaire
is what values are essential to supporting your
company's unique culture? You might notice that
this is very similar to the first question and
that's done on purpose. We've worked through
a bunch of questions. We're finding some
repeating themes and now is an opportunity to find some
nuance in those themes. Really think through, what
are those core values that make your company special,
unique, and powerful? I would say for my company
that some of those values are honesty, patience. Again, really, the empowerment
piece is important. Creativity and finding
creative solutions. Now, it's your turn to go through and answer
these questions. While you're working through it, try to think of real scenarios that have happened
in your business. Think about real customers, clients, and team members. How have you dealt
with difficulties and celebrated successes? The more accurate and detailed
you can get with this, the better because
ultimately it will be easier to live up to those
values in the real experience. Now that we've worked
with this brainstorm, we can pluck out some of those recurring values and formulate how they
apply to our brand. Pat yourself on the back,
in the next lesson, we're going to go through
and distill and validate our brand values so that we can build a framework for
our marketing content.
8. Distill & Validate Your Brand Values: In the last exercise, we generated a lot of ideas about what our brand stands for. Now, we're going to really
work through this and find some recurring themes that
define our core brand values. So how do we get from all
of this brainstorming to the most relevant and
impactful content? First, we're going to go through the work that we did in Exercise 2 and circle or highlight
some recurring themes. Then we'll make a list
of those themes and then validate them
against some criteria. As we're going through this, we want to pick out
some themes that are conceptually
different and unique. We don't want anything that's
too overlapping or similar. I'll go through my answers from the last exercise and circle
some recurring themes. I'm seeing a lot
of mentions about things like empowerment
and education, skill-building, so I think that's definitely one of them. Then also a lot about being transparent and honest and open, empathetic, like similar
concept of transparency. Then I think the
other theme that gets mentioned most often is around ingenuity and that attention to detail,
the creative solutions. For today, we'll just
call that ingenuity. I'm just going to
transfer those to my list in Exercise 3. You might have more than three, but try to keep them as
concise as possible. Typically try not to
do more than five. Now I'm going to
go through each of these brand value concepts and check them against
my list of criteria. If they don't check
all of the boxes, that tells me that
it's not quite right. I might want to look for a similar concept or an
adjacent concept or adjective. But keep in mind your
actual lived experience and be honest with
your validation. I'm asking if each of
these values helps guide my staff in making important decisions when they're faced with a
difficult situation. I would say yes
to each of these. Then I'm asking if each of these values is
memorable and can easily become part of the everyday behavior
and attitudes of staff. Another way to test this is if you can't remember your
brand values tomorrow, they're probably
not quite right. Then I'm going to ask if each of these brand values
is reflected in the personal interactions with my customers or among my team
members and collaborators. That's a yes for each of mine. The next criteria is whether
each of these represents a distinct element of my
overall company culture. Like I mentioned before, we don't really want
these to be overlapping, we want them to speak to that distinct part
of your business. Then we're going to ask
whether these concepts of brand values speak to at
least one desired behavior. Yes to empowerment,
yes to transparency, and yes to ingenuity. The next criteria is whether
these are sustainable. In five, 10, 50 years, will the people working at your company still be
able to uphold them? Then I'm going to
ask whether each of these brand values is authentic and congruent with the behavior of the
leadership team? In my case, I'm a
leadership team. I would hope that
I satisfy being empowering, transparent,
and ingenious. Next, I'm asking whether
these values will be upheld in stressful situations. We went through this question in the previous exercise and
it's clear that this apply. Then we're asking whether
the company's team is willing to defend these
values unequivocally. If you encounter someone
who has a problem with your company or an issue with your product or your service, can you stand by these values in those difficult situations? Lastly, we're going
to ask whether these values permeate
the entire organization. Does every person working in your company exemplify
these values? After you've validated each of these brand value concepts, you should feel really
confident in every one of them. Remember, you're in full control of positioning your brand. Take the time you need
to be 100 percent confident in each of the layers
of your resilient brand. Something I like to
do is just let this marinade while I
go on with my day. If things are still
feeling really good the next day, that's
a great sign. If it's not quite right, I can go back and
revisit things and find the nuance until I'm
feeling really confident. Remember when
validating your values that they should just
feel intuitively right. They should come to mind easily. When someone asks you, what do you mean your
brand stands for this? You should be able to elaborate and come up
with some examples. When you're feeling really
good about your brand values, join me in the next class and we'll build a
framework for turning your brand values into marketing
content. See you there.
9. Build Your Brand Values Statements: In this lesson,
we'll take each of our brand values and
we'll turn them into guiding statements that express their unique and powerful
role in our brands. These statements will serve
as the building blocks for our infinitely scalable
content libraries, which we'll get to building
in the next video. To get started, we'll begin with our first brand value and build out our brand
value statement. Try to be as specific as
possible so that it's a real expression of how this value plays a
role in your brand. Use the following structure for each brand value statement. At your company name, we value your brand value. Our customers and clients will
always experience, blank. This is where you're
going to describe how that brand value reflects the customer experience when we inevitably encounter
an obstacle, brand value will
guide us by, blank. This is where you can
describe how that brand value provides a north star to
dealing with difficulties. We share brand value with our most loyal customers and
community members who are, and you'll describe
your customers as they relate to
that brand value. So my first brand value that I'm going to start
with is transparency. So at my company, we
value transparency. Our customers and clients
will always experience open, honest communication
and humility. So those are actual experiences
that my customers and clients will have as they
pertain to transparency. When we inevitably
encounter an obstacle, transparency will guide us by ensuring we communicate with clients and stakeholders in a way that is open and honest. We share transparency with our most loyal customers
and community members, who I would say, they desire to work with a marketing partner who doesn't gate keep and
doesn't hold back. So my second brand
value is empowerment. At my company, we
value empowerment. Our customers and clients will always experience
skills development, knowledge sharing,
and leveling up. When we inevitably
encounter an obstacle, empowerment will guide
us by, I would say, making sure that no matter what, our clients leave
feeling like they have new insights and
new knowledge and that they can apply that
to building their brands. We share empowerment with our most loyal customers
and community members who are seeking a partner who is not only going
to deliver a service, but actually empower them to be better business leaders
and community members. My third brand
value is ingenuity, so at my company we
value ingenuity, that means that our
customers and clients will always experience
thoughtful, creative, detailed,
highly tailored services. So when we're inevitably
going to encounter an obstacle ingenuity
will guide us by pushing us to
find the nuance, the specificity in everything that we're delivering
to our clients. So lastly we share
ingenuity with our most loyal customers
and community members who are not looking for a templated approach to their marketing to support
their business goals. Remember to think of
real scenarios when you're building out these
brand value statements. Has your company actually
encountered an obstacle? How did you make a decision? How did you confront that? When you're describing your
most loyal customers and community members as they
relate to each brand value, try to think of your
most loyal customer and if you don't have
customers yet, that's fine. Think in ideal terms. Post your work in the project
gallery or ask questions in the class discussion if you're feeling stuck and
want some feedback. Now we have our brand
value statements that will serve as a foundation for developing our
content library and not just any content, this content will actually
connect with our customers. So join me in the next
lesson and we'll build an infinitely
scalable library of content that taps into and
reflects our brand values.
10. Build Your Values-Based Brand Library: Telling our customers what
we value only go so far. If we really want to connect
and build community, we have to make sure that
everything we put out there is reflecting what
our brand stands for. Building trust and fostering a connected and engaged
community will help grow our brands in an
authentic and sustainable way. Ultimately, this will make our brand more resilient
and competitive. So far we've done a lot
of conceptual work, but now it's time to take all of that and share our
brand with the world. In this lesson, we'll
build a framework for our marketing content that's
based on our brand values. This framework will
allow you to market all of the incredible
things your brand does. But in a way that
allows you to connect with your audience through
your shared values. When we're planning to share
stories about our brands, we want them to meet
a few criteria. We want our brand stories
to be intriguing, authentic, and relatable,
engaging and strategic. Every brand story
doesn't need to satisfy all of those criteria, but it should tap into at least one in order
to be effective, engaging, memorable,
and impactful. Keeping these criteria in mind, let's start building our
values-based content library. In your class workbook, we're going to
start building out our content library matrix. There are a number
of ways that you can categorize the stories you
want to tell about your brand. I've started you off with products and
services that you offer, the lifestyle associated with your brand and the
larger industry. You might also want to speak to the community that surrounds
you and your brand. You can keep these
topics or change them depending on the nature of
your business and industry. In our content library, we're going to start
brainstorming some story ideas. Each cell of your
library should be the intersection of the
category of your brand, your products, the
lifestyle, the industry, and how your brand value
is reflected in that. As you're drafting
a brand story idea, try to give it a story arc. It might be a product
or service that you offer and then how your brand
value is reflected in that. Then ultimately how that
led to a happy customer. With my brand value
of empowerment, I might think of a
service that I offer and how that value helped me deal with the tricky
client, for example. In my story, I'll be transparent about what
happened and show how I was led through
the obstacle by my brand value and how ultimately it led to
a happy customer. Under my brand value
of transparency, as it relates to the
larger marketing industry, I think I'll show some behind-the-scenes
content of what it takes to build
a Skillshare class. That speaks to my brand value while showcasing something
that I'm doing and promoting it and building my expertise and
strengthening my brand. Now it's your turn. Use
the content library in your workbook and brainstorm
some brand stories that represent each of the categories and reflect each of
your brand values. This content library is infinitely scalable
because you can never run out of ways to
tell these stories as long as they reflect
your brand values. You can revisit this
content library when you're planning your
social media for the month, struggling with
website content or any other place where you
want to share your story. When doing this exercise, remember to be intriguing,
engaging, relatable. In short, be real and offer an entertaining or
insightful story that reflects what you do and how it represents
your brand values. Don't forget to share
your content library in the project gallery. If you're stuck for ideas, just reach out and ask for help. Of course, these brand stories
are only impactful when we share them with the real
world, aka the Internet. Join me in the next lesson
where we'll actually create some content that
reflects our brand values.
11. Create Compelling Content that Connects: We've laid a lot of
groundwork today to identify and articulate
our brand values and to build a library
of content that our audiences and customers will relate to and connect with. Now, let's bring out
work to life with a piece of actual content
that we can share today. So I'm going to choose
a piece of content for my content library and decide
on the format of the post. So it could be a
long forum post, it could be a TikTok, it can be an Instagram reel. There's a lot that goes into
choosing your channels, but that's a Skillshare
class for another day. I always say play
to your strengths. If you're comfortable on camera, maybe do a TikTok
or Instagram reel or a self portrait
with your post. If you're better with words, maybe a long-form blog
or a LinkedIn update. If you're more of a
behind the scenes person, you could design a graphic
or just take a photo of a scene or an object
that tells your story. Remember, we want our
content to be intriguing, relatable, engaging,
and strategic. We want it to represent our brand value so that our
audience can relate to it. So for my content today, I'm going to share the story of building
this Skillshare class. So this relates to my brand
value of being transparent. There's a lot of hard
work that goes into this and a lot happening
behind the scenes, and I really want to share that. In terms of platforms, I'll probably do
behind the scenes, TikTok, or Instagram reel, so short format, lots
of quick paste content, and probably some really
fun music to go with it. In my caption, I can be
intriguing and engaging by sharing some trade secrets about the process of building
my Skillshare class. Of course, my call
to action will be to sign up for my
Skillshare class, and hopefully by sharing
this behind the scenes look, people will be
compelled to do so. I can fill out the rest of
the details about this post, including any hashtags
I want to use. Obviously, I'm going to
tag Skillshare in my post, and then I'll pick
some fun music that goes with the overall
feeling of the glass, so now it's your turn to
create a piece of content. There's a lot of great
Skillshare classes out there that will give
you some tips and tricks. But for today, let's keep
a few things in mind. You always want to use high resolution images
and video clips, and don't forget to add captions if you're posting a video. Make your content
accessible by using high contrast graphics
or add captions, image descriptions, video
descriptions, and alt-text. Draft your caption
in a notes app on your phone or in your
content scheduling platform. So it's easier to edit if you're posting on more
than one channel. Don't forget to tag any
accounts that might help boost your engagement and
always add a call to action. But as a soft sell, post your content in the
project gallery for the class. Don't forget to tag me
when you post it for reel. So I can see your
work in the wild. To see how I'm bringing
my brand values to life, take a look at the
sample post I've uploaded to the class
resource section. I can't wait to see how you're sharing your brand
with the world. In the final video, we'll take a sneak peek at the next layers of our resilient brands.
I'll see you there.
12. Closing Thoughts: We're building a resilient
brand layer by layer, positioning our brand so that
they're structurally sound, but nimble and adaptive, able to absorb and deflect
anything that comes at it. We're investing in the
groundwork of our brand so that each choice we make is more confident, effective,
and impactful. In this class, we worked on two very important
layers of our brand, our brand values and values-based
storytelling, or content. Hopefully, you're feeling
really confident in the value system you
built for your brand, and you're ready to scream
your brand story from the rooftop in a way that
connects with your customers. Post your work in the
class project gallery, or if you're struggling, ask
for help in the discussion. We're here to build our
resilient brands together. Where your brand stories show up can depend on a lot of factors, like where your audience
might be most receptive, what your business goals are, and what your strengths are
with producing content. But before we start, we have to figure out how we're going to
share our stories. The devil is in the details, and every choice we make can set our brand miles apart
from the competition. In my next class, we'll bring our brands
to life by developing a unique and powerful
brand persona and voice. We'll create some
rules, guardrails, and use cases for how our
brand shows up in the world. Consistency, credibility, and
trust are essential parts of our resilient
brands and we're baking it in layer by layer. Maybe I should think
of brands like a cake. Thanks so much for
joining me today. I can't wait to see you
in the next class as we continue to build
a resilient brand.
13. BONUS: Book a 1-on-1 Mentorship Session with Me!: Hi, friends, just popping
on here to let you know, you can now book a one
on one mentorship call with me right here
on Skillshare. We can talk through building
your resilient brand, pursuing your biggest personal
and professional goals, and the obstacles that come along with being a
creative entrepreneur. I'm so excited to work
directly with you. You can book a call today
on my Skillshare profile.
Tamara Jensen, Entrepreneur & Brand Strategist
