Resoundcast - the branding podcast from Resound, a creative agency

Did you know your content ideas can give you monopoly power in your market? That’s because when you really know your audience, your content tells them what they’re thinking and then answers it directly, helping them to know how to think about a topic.

And when they think about your topic in exactly the way you do, you win.

But before you can connect, you have to listen.

Today, I want to talk about how authentic branding, paired with an understanding of your audience, will activate relationships at the top of the marketing funnel, and all the way down.

Remember, this all doesn’t have to happen today. But if you’re intent on brand and service strategy by including your audience in the conversation, this process is for you. Don’t stress about doing this overnight. Keep it simple and then focus on the next thing.

https://youtu.be/eggheR2Mgls

“Understand who you should be talking to for maximum brand resonance.”

What does this mean? Brand resonance is a fancy way to say your brand makes sense to your audience.

Define your ideal client by creating a persona. This process involves going to different resources and finding out where your potential clients hang out. The key is to place your brand where your ideal clients already are, as they usually won’t come to your brand on their own. 

Give the persona demographic data, problems they’re encountering, key values they hold, and psychographic information about how they think. Demographics can encompass details such as income, job title, type of firm they work for, and the size of the company.

“Tap into internal insights to authentically reach your target market.”

All this means is that you should talk with other people in your firm about your clients. Build an understanding of who they are based on shared internal knowledge.

So it’s not a scientific study or focus group. Oh well. It’s easy to do, and It’s more information than you had before, and now you can test the insights you gain from each other in other ways, such as by talking to clients.

Plus, it builds a client-focused culture and lets everyone know that you’re interested in providing leads for them.

“Explore unconventional marketing channels”

Simply put: Find where your audience hangs out and engage them there.

This is the core question of all media buying. 

Related: how does your competition try to reach them? If everyone’s using the same medium or marketing channel, you just need to think things through. Maybe you go back to sending postcards or invite them to a webinar.

It helps to go back to your brand and product, and just think “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could advertise on a blimp downtown.” You may not pull that off, but that’s the kind of thinking that leads to some pretty cool ideas.

“Use existing client patterns to identify your ideal customer profile.”

In plain English, this is just looking at what’s going on around you. Who do we tend to talk to? Who are our most valuable clients? Extra points if you haven’t even tried with these people. It’s just been effortless.

Why is this good? Because it’s usually easy to serve people when you’re a great fit.

When you find these people, you want to understand them.

“Build relationships through value-driven communications.”

Or: what’s in it for them?

How can we guide them, even if they’re not in front of us? Even if they’ve never talked to one of us or even purchased from us before?

It’s like a friendship. You usually don’t plan a vacation together with another family the first time you meet them. More often, you’re at the golf course together or serving together at church. Then one thing leads to another, and you invite them over for dinner.

In business, it’s the same. They hear your name here and there. They see you on LinkedIn taking a stab at a topic. You seem a little more genuine than the other firms. So they poke around your website. They like what they see. So you give them something as an act of generosity.

You’re not planning the vacation quite yet. Neither are you getting the families together for dinner yet. You’re just giving them something of value…to show that you like to help. Something that symbolizes the kinds of tools that you offer in a fuller relationship.

For example:

“Personalize your marketing materials to reflect your unique brand identity.”

In other words, make your marketing material your own…so that it oozes your values and personality. Do it so that nobody will be able to mistake it for your competition’s materials. And then go for the audience that appreciates it.

How do you do it? Simple, just learn a branding process, schedule it out, get all of your senior leaders into a room for a day, and get them on the same page about values, personality traits, and brand story. Then the work begins.

Or you could:

The point is that you end up with a clear, well-organized brand guide that will orient everything you create toward your brand.

And a brand anthem that will orient how you talk about yourself and the core problem you solve for clients.

“Stay agile and responsive to changes in client needs and industry trends.”

Mike Tyson said that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Well, marketing plans are no different. The best approach is to plan, measure, and then readjust.

You measure in a few ways:

Plans are useless. But planning is essential. Get your strategy figured out and then be ready to be wrong. This is how the best strategists do it.

How do you know you’re wrong? You measure. Early and often.

Sun Tzu said that if you know yourself and know your client, you’ll win. Or something like that.

At the top, marketing is simple. You know yourself, you know what you do, and why it matters to someone else. All other branding experiences you create get their inspiration from that.

This is a process, so don’t get impatient. But don’t take it too casually either. Like anything, if you don’t start, you’ll never take the next step. Make a commitment, carve out the necessary time, and find a way to make it work. Your firm, your clients, and your career will thank you.

Accounting firms are all the same, right? Nerdy, dad-joke-telling professionals who drive sensible cars and wear beige suits to work every day. Unless they’re feeling saucy, in which case they throw caution to the wind and go with the branded polo.

Of course, these accounting stereotypes come straight from the ’90s and, more recently, Parks and Rec.

But the industry isn’t exactly doing its job in busting that myth.

Most accounting firms:

Of course, we know these stereotypes don’t reflect the people working in the industry. And we’d like to help.

https://youtu.be/GRal1TSGuGU

Here at Resound, we thought it would be interesting to see exactly how differentiated—or how homogenous—the industry actually is. So we grabbed 40 data points across 1,485 accounting firms, crunched a little data, and named it the “Remarkabrand Index for Accounting Firms.”

The index reflected our desire to give firms a measurable standard against which to judge their branding efforts. Basically, “Are we different, or are we undistinguishable from our competition?”

Why? Because differentiation is a real challenge. Accounting firms struggle to distinguish themselves in a competitive market. And until now, there was no quantitative, benchmarking tool to objectively measure brand differentiation. 

…until now.

Tons and tons and tons of manual, sometimes painful, data entry (we’re working on automation for this now).

But other than that, it was easy. We looked at 40 data points, including SEO scores, naming conventions, word-choice differentiation (e.g. in tagline), and color and logo style ratings, to name just a few.

The index revealed insights into effective differentiation strategies used by top firms.

Here’s an overview of the data collection:

We used a standard measuring tool called Domain Authority from Moz, which acts as a good summary indicator of SEO strength. For additional context, we looked at inbound links as well.

Toward the end of data collection, we started asking what company size and revenue had to do with the index score. Surely, bigger firms by revenue and employee count would do better, right?

We’re glad we asked, because the results were a bit surprising, with many of the top-performing firms having fewer than 200 people.

Some of the data wasn’t so straightforward from an evaluation standpoint. After all, there’s no math formula we know of to evaluate the quality of a logo or even the decade that inspired it.

So we brought in the professionals.

And lest you think designers are kookie, impractical, blocky-framed-non-prescription-glasses-wearing artsy types with no grounding in reality, we’ll have you know…our designers are pros.

And it’s a good thing they are because we have deadlines.

We asked them to evaluate based on design and branding principles. They tagged the logos and websites, collected colors, and, yes, even estimated the decade of the logo based on style.

In addition to how firms differentiate, we wanted to know: is it time for a rebrand? Has there been deferred maintenance on the brand? Who needs a new brand makeover?

To get to the bottom of this, we ask a few questions:

Design Era Classification: 

Was the logo designed in the 2000s by a guy who’s been unemployed ever since he designed the Windows 95 logo? 

Was it designed only this year by a design school student who’s so progressive that she lives in the future where styles from 20 years ago are cool again? 

To find this out—or at least assign a decade—designers went all antiques-roadshow and used style indicators to put the logos on a timeline.

The industry loves blue. If it could, it would marry blue. It has eyes for no other.

Except green. If it was going to have a mistress, it would be green.

The point is that the industry lacks variation in color.

Firms love to use their founders’ names. It’s a near obsession.

Over 90% of the firms used the founders’ names or an acronym based on the founders’ names in their branding. This suggests a huge lack of imagination. It also suggests a great opportunity to differentiate.

Taglines were a lot of fun too. In fact, once we found the most popular words and themes in taglines, Sam Pagel created a script that amalgamated the perfect cliched tagline: 

“Beyond numbers, we deliver clear solutions for business success, helping clients secure a trusted financial future since 1982 with personal service and value that goes beyond tax accounting.”

Because which one of us doesn’t wake up at night all “I want to secure a trusted financial future, especially if it’s beyond numbers?”

Rebrand: The industry is competitive, but the branding is not. Maybe the biggest opportunity is for brands who decide it’s time to re-evaluate. Because if you’re ready to do it, you have at least 6 months—at least—before the rest of the industry realizes what’s going on and decides to own its space.

Need proof? Get your copy of the index and see the actual numbers. You’ll have all the data you need in just our first annual report to justify your rebrand. Now it’s up to you to sell it.

Cross-platform video: We didn’t see firms using a lot of video, which gives you a way to stand out with knowledge, education, and thought leadership. LinkedIn, YouTube, and other platforms present an opportunity to address people personally, whether that’s new business or recruiting.

We’re like the guy at the party who’s ready to show off some sick dance moves. All we need is an excuse.

Cue the disco and the mirror ball, because we’re about to get down.

This first year created a monster. And for better or for worse, the positive response from the industry got us all worked up. 

It’s almost like the industry needs this kind of data. 

So we’ve been working on a list of ideas we think will make it a richer, more useful report in future years. 

We may not get to everything in the next edition, but we’ll try:

We know all accounting firms aren’t the same. But in order to fix a problem, sometimes you need to make sure those in charge of marketing see the opportunity.

You see, when an entire industry fails to differentiate, the ones who decide to move—to initiate the conversation in the firm—to get started. They’re the ones who can give their firm an advantage.

All firms aren’t the same. But differentiation can be a real challenge. Especially if you don’t know what an advantage it gives you.

This is our attempt to show the accounting firm the state of affairs and let them know it’s possible to distinguish themselves in a competitive market.

Every brand gets its power from connecting with people and delivering on its promises. And that starts with internal branding.

We’ll explore why internal branding should be your first focus, the pitfalls of neglecting it, and how to implement it successfully within your team.

By aligning your internal stakeholders first, you set the stage for a more cohesive and powerful brand presence in the market.

https://youtu.be/hlG0ojbxGo0

Nobody advocates for your brand like employees. Their words and actions tell everyone what your brand stands for. If they know your brand—and you hire well, based on your brand—your employees will see the connection.

And that consistent brand experience—through the words and actions of your employees—connects with customers more than your claims ever will.

Create clear guidance and your employees will give you a cohesive internal brand that enhances customer service, employee satisfaction, and overall business performance.

Here’s what happens when external branding fails to connect with your employees.

Neglecting internal branding can have real financial consequences, from lost sales to increased employee turnover.

Branding starts at the top but doesn’t stay there.

We’ve all seen companies that embrace amazing-sounding values but don’t live up to them.

You might be at the counter at the car rental desk, and you can’t get the agent to live up to their own values. The values are literally on the wall behind the person helping you.

They’re just not lived out.

So how do you build out those brand values properly and honestly?

Internal branding uses different tools than external. But they all do the same thing in the end: instill an understanding of the brand to humans who can either be encouraged and excited about values or eventually forget.

Here are some ways you can keep everyone engaged internally.

Employees get engaged when they see the commitment from the firm’s leadership. The most obvious way to do this is through a brand launch event. However you do it, make sure you launch in a very visible way that involves everyone in the firm.

Here are a few ideas for how to launch your brand.

If you have a remote team, a virtual event may be your best bet. Use a mix of pre-recorded videos and live sessions to unveil the new brand. Include interactive elements like polls, Q&A sessions, and virtual breakout rooms for team discussions.

Maybe you can get everyone together. This is the best option. Whether it’s at your firm’s headquarters or a rented venue, set up different booths or stations where employees can engage with various aspects of the brand—like a “Brand History” station, a “Meet the Designers” booth, or a “Brand Quiz” area.

Combine elements of both virtual and in-person events. Stream the in-person event activities online for remote employees and include them through interactive digital platforms. This ensures that everyone, regardless of location, can participate in the brand launch.

Tailored Communication Understand that brand engagement isn’t one-size-fits-all. Customize your approach based on the experience level of the team member.

Everyone wants to rebrand. That’s the fun part. But keeping momentum is the big payoff for the business.

Want to build your value and the value of the firm? Then you’ll want to maintain the brand.

Here are some ways to do that.

Not everyone will understand, and not everyone’s a perfect fit for the brand. Here are some ways to bring people on board. The most resistant can sometimes turn into the brand’s strongest ally. So don’t give up too easily.

In today’s landscape where name-brands dominate, your strong brand gives you more value than ever, providing guidance for how to make policy, how to communicate, and how your brand works, from the inside out. 

Inspired by a conversation with David and Sam, we discussed why your team should be the first focus in your branding efforts. We also explored the risks of overlooking internal branding and offered strategies for successful implementation. 

Remember, by aligning your internal team first, you pave the way for a unified and impactful brand presence in the market.

Tech innovations, like AI, come along every few years. The real question is, how will you leverage it—understanding the advantages and disadvantages of AI—to elevate your performance?

AI improves automation and efficiency. It can analyze data, generate content, and even interact with customers. And it’s tough for humans to match the speed and cost.

But ultimately, AI only replaces you for routine and repetitive marketing tasks. Maybe it’s time we talk about all its shortcomings, and what you can do to rise above yet another “disruptive” technology innovation.

I talked with Anait Zubia, former marketing manager at Quora, about how she sees AI, and these insights came from that discussion.

Let’s cover a few things AI’s not very good at and a third piece of advice for how to put it to work, pushing your career forward.

https://youtu.be/N6teW246RdA

For all of the benefits of AI, it doesn’t know how to create objectives, strategies, or even executions for your brand without your help.

AI isn’t a project manager. You decide where AI fits in the process and what you expect it to do. Like any tool in your stack, keep it simple and build from there.

AI isn’t a brand manager. It may understand your color scheme, but it doesn’t know how to connect with people. Your brand needs to do that. It can do a lot of work, but it needs accountability. This is where you put your brand manager hat on.

AI isn’t a leader. Leaders make moral decisions. Sure, we think of leadership as everything from strategists to theorists who help us understand practical ways to get from here to there. But at their base, we expect leaders to be moral actors. It’s a prerequisite (except, apparently, in politics). The bottom line is that marketing leaders are still needed to make sure that what we do—and how we communicate—is moral, not just expedient.

AI is not a replacement. It’s a support. It’s a tool, not a worker. But if you think about it the right way, it can free you up for other things. For example, the time you’re saving from writing a blog outline could be spent reading about leadership, or even walking around the office, exercising leadership by encouraging, problem-solving and helping others make good decisions and get work done.

Leaders bring a sense of order and brand to the work. AI is just a tool that can help you execute. Leaders should view AI as a tool to enhance, not replace, human capabilities, allowing them to tackle more significant challenges in an AI-augmented world.

For brands, we’re bringing a point of view to the areas we speak to. Your ability to evaluate and respond to new trends based on your brand makes your content interesting and gives it depth. But if you rely on AI to speak into your topics before you get a chance to analyze them, you may lose your edge, creating content that’s predictable and not valuable to your audience.

Students of the creative process know there’s a thing called “top-down” thinking, which refers to your ability to form an opinion and dig into a topic before you start receiving information about it from outside sources.

This gives your content originality.

By forming an opinion based on your values first, you’re creating thought leadership in a way that makes sense, unpolluted by the complicated and often-convoluted thoughts of others…or the oft-misapprehended outputs of AI.

This is especially true with political topics.

AI is likely to take an inoffensive approach, which sometimes puts politeness over truth. So if your brand takes a truth-first approach—as part of its values—to making sense of topics, you’ll find AI lacking.

The goal is not “diversity” or “homogeneity.” Rather, it’s helping people make sense of the world, and business, from your brand’s point of view. So as we’re taking our mom’s advice and “considering the source,” we also need to determine what points of view are valid and which aren’t.

It sounds exclusive. It sounds closed-minded. It’s called “standing for something.”

AI may default to answering questions it thinks are mainstream (I’ve even had it give me values judgments I didn’t ask for when asking a technical question), but it also is trained on less-popular viewpoints as well. This gives you the opportunity to ask about the topic as if you’re arguing with someone from a different point of view. This creates some very original content—pulling you deeper into the topic—that your audience is likely to find interesting and useful.

In the end, AI has no idea what’s right and wrong, and so it’s ridiculous to expect it to be objective. The point of view has to come from you and your brand. Don’t let it censor your thinking. Use a top-down approach and record your thoughts so you can push interesting, fresh ideas from your brand that will create legitimate thought leadership for your industry.

We just talked about the ways you’ll be needed—and two aspects of leadership you should focus on—in the age of AI. Now, let’s look at how it comes together.

Anati mentioned the movie “Hidden Figures” as an example of individuals who harnessed technology for empowerment.

In the movie, these mathematicians were about to be replaced by a computer. Instead of protesting their replacement by technology, one leader, Katherine Johnson, learned how to use the new technology and made the case that NASA would need people to run the machines who knew how to do the math. She even trained her coworkers. She was then promoted to management and, in an era of racial segregation, was even put in charge of white workers.

In Hidden Figures, Johnson looked ahead to see where there would be more opportunity, aligned herself with the future (instead of fighting it), and took action that aligned her with opportunities.

We saw Johnson demonstrate what the military calls “Sempre Gumbi:” always flexible. She thought about the implications of the technology and harnessed it. There will always be new technologies and even occasional disruptions. But those who learn how to ride those waves will always be in demand.

Make yourself irreplaceable by learning to harness the disruptions, understanding their implications and how they’ll affect your work, and you’ll never be bored.

While many people fear for their jobs in this time of AI disruption, this is an opportunity to focus more on meaning, leadership, and how AI fits into your workflow.

If you learn to do that, you’ll never fear new technology. In fact, you could be the one driving the train.

In marketing, authenticity builds lasting connections. This means creating content that matters to your audience. But what happens when we introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) into this equation? Can we really maintain authenticity while leveraging AI for content creation?

To understand the topic better, Sam and I interviewed Anati Zubia a seasoned marketing professional with stints in tech startups and, most recently, Quora.

What are the rules for using AI to bolster your marketing efforts? Here’s what came out of that conversation.

https://youtu.be/lX7edQm6Qxw

Technologies and fads change, but meaningful content will always build relationships. Don’t lose sight of this, because it’s your job. Anati stressed the importance of crafting content that truly resonates with your audience and addresses their core problems.

Know your audience’s pain points. Content starts with understanding the customer’s problems. If you know their problems—and how they speak about them—you can cut through the clutter.

AI doesn’t understand these things. It doesn’t grasp the complexity of human problems and changing preferences. The dynamic nature of customer needs and market trends adds a layer of intricacy that AI is still evolving to navigate accurately.

This affects the ability to write strategy (understanding problems) and to write copy (to connect with people).

AI can certainly aid in content creation, but authentic human insights into customer pain points and desires remain at the core of content that resonates. As businesses integrate AI into their content creation strategies, the alignment between AI assistance and human understanding becomes the key to producing content that genuinely matters.

So how do you align those things? Keep reading.

AI tools like ChatGPT aren’t innately original, but they boost your creative process by leaving you lots of energy to put toward other things, like editing and asking questions. 

You can use AI-generated content as a springboard for your marketing materials. By merging AI-generated ideas with your human insights, you can craft standout content while retaining authenticity.

Why can’t AI create new ideas and connections? Because at the center of creativity is the ability to connect with people by connecting ideas that aren’t explicitly related to ideas.

And how do you train AI to see the funny side of something if the idea of “funny” is different in every situation?

The human brain possesses a unique skill in linking seemingly unrelated concepts. Effective content sometimes pairs ideas that initially appear unrelated, resulting in a perspective that conveys a sense of discovery.

Only the human mind can do that. And AI can free up more of your time for things like that if it can act as your secretary, doing the simpler tasks for you.

Where AI is strong: Using tools like ChatGPT can serve as a compass to gauge language trends and content styles. These outputs give us insights into current usage and style. In a way, it shows us what everyone else is doing.

We mentioned using AI to do the more menial tasks of marketing and content creation. Creating an FAQ is a great use and one that Anati recommends.

Since AI-powered tools can aggregate and organize industry info, it’s great at generating, organizing, and refining FAQ content to provide web content. 

Here’s how AI can help with building FAQs:

Be careful though. Don’t lean on AI like a crutch. Remember, FAQs grow with your input. Is your sales team getting the same questions over and over again? Update the FAQ. And with the mistakes AI has made with data, don’t publish without reading and verifying the answers yourself.

If AI doesn’t know what you’re really asking, it can’t answer your questions in a helpful way. This means asking well-worded questions.

Anati points out the difference between a search and an AI prompt.

Other ways Anati uses ChatGPT:

AI can analyze your conversations to find customer preferences, pain points, and interests that you might not see. These insights could point to a deeper understanding of the customer’s pain points and the kinds of messages that resonate with them and get them to see you as a great solution.

Things Anati does:

But you still need to know what you’re doing. Not only does AI lack creativity, it’s sometimes wrong or irrelevant. Remember that no company is really the same, and best practices need to be adapted. So you still have work to do.

The good news: AI isn’t replacing you anytime soon.

AI can build customer personas and even fictional characters. These personas guide content creation and help you tailor your messaging.

Anati mentioned her favorite method of persona development—the Character Diamond. A four-quadrant system often used by storytellers, the character diamond helps establish a character’s relatable identity by identifying strengths, weaknesses, core values, and potential challenges in their personality. Using this, you can create a brand voice guide.

Understanding your brand’s identity is key. By defining brand personalities, archetypes become effective in content creation. For example, matching one of the twelve archetypes to a client’s personality traits provides keywords and real-world examples that inspire content generation.

For example, Jeff Goldblum’s “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” focuses on curiosity and learning, rather than the individual. It’s more about how he thinks than who he is. This approach exudes warmth and authenticity, reflecting a genuine excitement for knowledge without ego.

Integrating AI-generated content and character-building processes can help brands develop resonant personas and stories that connect.

In the final analysis, AI is good for some things and not for others. But it can be a part of your content creation process if you keep it in its place.

By using AI to generate content, answer FAQs, and develop personas, you can save time and get more done. And when you oversee this content creation, by adding your experience, you can craft marketing campaigns that feel genuine and build meaningful connections with your customers. 

AI is a powerful tool, but your unique insights and creativity remain the cornerstone of creating authentic marketing content that truly matters.

And it’s not gonna replace you anytime soon.

Mergers and acquisitions can ruin a B2B brand. Even the best-intentioned M&A can take a toll on a brand when rushed decisions lead to a lack of coordination in the culture and a timid approach to the market. I had a conversation with Jaimi Koechel who’s a veteran of both a firm rebrand and a B2B brand merger about how to execute a merger well, from a branding perspective.

https://youtu.be/YjBNFIHU0BU

Firms take different views on M&As. Some see it as just an opportunity to expand, adding a book of business and making the firm’s strengths available to a wider audience and geographical area. But while the firm’s management may be thinking about expansion, and making higher-level decisions about naming, the accounting firm marketer’s job is to think about how the brand gets lived out over the course of the merger.

Anyone who’s been through a merger knows that, although the technical aspects of a merger take only months and end when the announcement is made, everyone gets new office signage, new email signature lines, and t-shirts with the new logo, the effects of the B2B brand merger last until everyone understands the new brand.

It can take months and years to get everyone to embrace the new brand, especially when two companies form a merged brand, and two cultures come together.

As a marketer, your job is twofold:

We can’t control how quickly people grasp the culture at the individual level, but we can think ahead and make the path clear.

The Remarkabrand podcast was joined again by award-winning accounting marketer and former client Jaimi Koechel to help us understand what’s coming down the pike when two firms form a single, merged brand.

https://youtu.be/YjBNFIHU0BU

I asked Jaimi about some of the challenges accounting marketers face during a merger. How do you maintain the strength of a brand when a merger presents every opportunity to dilute the brand? How do you help everyone make sense of the rebrand and keep them focused on what’s important?

Brand managers face a unique challenge when their firm merges with another firm since planning isn’t always straightforward. How do you make a merged brand that makes sense?

Let’s continue on and talk about things you can do to solidify the brand during a merger or acquisition.

Nobody’s more likely to see potential brand disagreements than you are. As the caretaker of a brand you may have had a hand in developing, you’re likely more aware of the conflicts you see coming. And if you can express your concerns well—and think of ways everyone involved can work together to solve them—you could turn a problem into a big win for everyone—especially you and the firm.

After all, it’s not the order-takers who help the leadership make sense of things. Rather, it’s those people who can solve problems, make decisions and get people working together.

If you can make sense of these questions by defining the goal and then fostering the process, a stronger merged brand will result.

Once the day the merger officially arrives, you’ll want a plan to let people know you’re “from around here.” You don’t want people thinking a big, outside accounting firm, with no connection to the community is descending on your town from above, seeing it as its next conquest. Whatever the new name is, let the town know you’re there and you’re invested.

Consider:

Get support from marketers who’ve been there—join AAM (the Association of Accounting Marketers). Although less directly related to branding, this step supports your career and your role in the firm, as it puts you in direct relationship with other marketers who’ve been through M&As and can help you see around corners.

Membership in the Association of Accounting Marketers gives you everything you’d expect from an association. But according to Jaimi, and from my experience, you develop a camaraderie that transcends professional relationships. AAM members are more than people you see once a year at the annual conference; they become friends who you consult with in the day-to-day.

Maintaining a strong brand during a B2B brand merger takes vision, clarity, and skill. But if you can think ahead, form your thoughts, and communicate clearly, you’re steps ahead of many problems that could cause you to compromise your brand during a merger. And AAM membership—and the relationships that come from that—only help you as you think through your actions, develop your leadership and orchestrate a successful merger.

There’s plenty more where it came from—both in my book, ‘You Are Remarkable’ and on Remarkabrand, the podcast I host with Sam Pagel. 

The Resound team specializes in helping professional firms unlock their authentic identity and express it with a winsome, engaging brand identity. 

If rebranding, or simply making the case for branding to your firm’s leadership calls for backup, we’re always eager to consult. Whether that’s leading your team through a workshop or working closely to help set you up for a successful branding journey, we thrive on helping organizations like yours tell their story. 

Check out our resources, or give us a shout. 

And don’t forget that you are remarkable.

Accounting firm rebrands hardly ever happen in perfect conditions. But it’s those challenges that grow us into leaders who can push through and win. For example, in my Remarkabrand podcast conversation with former client Jaimi Koechel—an award-winning marketing director with deep experience in accounting firms—we covered accounting firm branding, rebranding during transitions, and what a successful, inside-out brand build looks like. 

Jaimi’s approach to demonstrating the value of branding to her firm’s partners reminded me of a few things.

https://youtu.be/nfJdZkyioY4

As I am wont to do, I’ll bring in my first point with an illustration from a TV show—the historical drama series “Chernobyl” that came out a few years ago. After the Chornobyl nuclear reactor melts down, the secretive Soviet government meets in Moscow to discuss what happened. 

One scene in particular puts us right in the shoes of Valery Legasov, a nuclear physicist who figures out that the reactor’s core exploded. But at the table with Premier Gorbachev and his top advisors, Legasov realizes that his country’s leaders have no idea what happened. They don’t understand that millions might die from lethal radiation if they don’t act fast. This gives him no choice but to speak up—and risk his life and career in the process. Fortunately, Gorbachev hears him out, and after telling the horrifying truth no one wants to hear, Legasov finds himself advising the entire containment effort.  

It’s a far stretch from nuclear meltdowns, but the problem of preoccupied decision-makers not understanding something’s critical importance is one we can all relate to.  

Someone, perhaps even you, might need to demonstrate that value before the branding effort can begin. As Jaimi, a longtime accounting firm branding advocate put it on my podcast, “They won’t know they need you at the table until you show them that they need you.” 

Instead of assuming a killer logo will just do the trick, firms that want to build relationships with their clients need to put the work in on the branding front, to the point of owning their authentic brand identity. 

Neglecting, misunderstanding or undervaluing brand identity makes for thorny problems: diluting brand and reputation or confusing the audience, to name a few. 

Outside of building out a true, authentic, consistent brand identity, how will everyone else know how remarkable they are? 

With these takeaways and Jaimi’s story as a starting point, here are my quick thoughts on what every firm should know about accounting firm branding, branding advocacy, and how brand identity helps firms build remarkable, lifelong relationships. 

Let’s dive in. 

First, I’ll pass a little more of Jaimi’s advice to anyone who might be in this position. If you have a seat at your firm’s leadership table, or if you’re simply making the case for some kind of branding effort to your firm’s team members, you probably need some wind in your sails. 

Hopefully, this will lend you some. 

As you think about how to show your firm’s partners the value of brand building, don’t forget…

Even with Jaimi’s marketing background, adjusting her rebrand proposal to suit her firm’s needs took time and persistence. Eventually, as she won trust and got to know the firm’s specific needs, her firm’s partners saw the value in what she was proposing. After partners warmed up to the idea of a complete rebrand, Jaimi led the way.  

Even if you majored in graphic design and have the perfect new logo ready to go…remember that accounting firm branding isn’t about your ideas per se. To get people on board, you’ll have to make the case that this branding effort is what they need to reach their audience in an authentic way and move closer to the firm’s business goals. Like it or not, branding isn’t a blank check for spending money on new (i.e. “your”) ideas. 

Authentic brands that build lasting relationships do drive long-term success—and here’s my article on that very topic. Communicate that in a way that demonstrates branding’s present and future value, and makes a good case for someone getting behind it. 

Along with seeing your passion and drive for brand building, your firm should know that you have your fingers on the pulse of what’s going on. 

Where is the accounting industry going? Where should it be going? 

Little known fact: Jaimi’s former accounting firm Henry and Horne (it merged with Baker Tilly in 2002) began blogging in 2008. At the time, Jaimi showed her firm the forward motion of brand-centered blogging with one fact—only sixty-four accounting firms in the whole country had a blog. 

Whether you’re on a pickleball team or your firm’s leadership table, there’s only one way to build your credibility—start small, and when the time comes, show people the wins. Show the impact one branding-based approach can have on marketing content or social media (to give a few examples), and when the time comes, make the case for duplicating those efforts.  

Time and time again, Jaimi’s partners told her “no.” 

But instead of giving up, Jaimi learned that “no” was not a negative thing—in fact, it usually meant an opportunity to regroup, understand the firm’s needs and situation better, and eventually come back to advocating for an internal brand build. 

If you’re told “no” don’t lose heart. 

While you’re hanging in there, here are a few more brand-building tidbits that accounting firms should consider. 

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating.

Accounting firms should care about brand identity because brand identity is ultimately about building an authentic relationship with a target audience. In the digital age, very few potential clients make their first impression over a handshake or even a phone call. It’s more likely to be through a digital touchpoint: email, social media, a website, or a monthly article like this one. 

Creating and maintaining a consistent brand identity puts the truth of who you are front and center across all of those digital touchpoints. 

By showing everyone how you’re remarkable, your brand identity also sets you apart from the competition. As they get to know your firm’s look, personality, service, and unique values, a brand identity goes a long way in acclimating a potential client to who they’re dealing with—and that process should start from the first interaction. 

If you’re an accounting firm, then there’s a decent chance your name and logo reflect the partners who started it. 

That’s great actually; it doesn’t mean you’re behind the times. On the other hand (and this bears repeating), accounting firms should know that a spanking new, non-accounting firm-sounding name or logo is not a brand in and of itself.

Rather, a brand embodies a firm’s whole identity, right down to the foundation. Authentic accounting firm branding is an effort to get at the heart of that foundation—its purpose, location, history, story, values, and unique personality. An honest brand-building effort digs into all those foundational areas and brings them to a clear, winsome, compelling expression (I actually prefer the term “brand anthem”) that engages people.

What does it engage them with? 

The truth of your organization, the fact that who you are and what you offer is truly remarkable.  

As with most things, there are no shortcuts, and accounting firms should not assume that everyone can grasp what they offer or what they’re really about from the name, logo, or services alone. Consistency, of course, will always win. 

A brand identity that builds relationships, captures that firm’s story and anthem with confidence, and ties a firm’s team together usually starts with a holistic effort on the inside.

That effort could look like an inside-out brand build involving input from the entire team, or it could look more like a transitional, internal rebrand that positions a firm toward its new corner of the marketplace. 

Either way, an authentic brand identity comes from the heart. And given enough time, the audience you’re trying to build relationships with can usually tell if that’s the case.  

Firms that merge with other companies or branch off to form new ones often position themselves through a rebrand. 

On this last topic, let me bounce back to my conversation with Jaimi one more time—after all, she led an accounting firm with over a hundred team members through a successful, inside-out rebrand. 

What should accounting firms (or any professional service firm) be thinking about as they consider a rebrand? 

What priorities should they pursue and how should they go about it? 

From Jaimi’s advice and my own experience helping B2B companies in their branding efforts, one huge advantage of a rebrand is that it presents an opportunity—the chance to get your firm’s whole team on the same branding page.

Down to the foundation.  

Once everyone understands what a firm’s brand is, what story it’s telling, and how values, history, and core purpose are navigating, or perhaps even shifting slightly, in a very visual change, then the whole process gets a little more straightforward.  

However a firm does that, (group sessions set aside from regular hours, an extended brand building workshop – conference, input from surveys, or equipping each team member with my step-by-step branding book ‘You Are Remarkable’ like Jaimi did…) everyone should be involved. 

Getting everyone involved is the first and key step to another huge goal of your rebrand, getting everything about your new brand identity consistent. From your graphics, logo, and social media, down to a client’s experiences when they walk in your lobby, consistency means that everyone your firm meets will be treated a certain way. 

Each and every impression should work in tandem to communicate your brand’s truthful, authentic identity to your corner of the world. 

If you’re an accounting firm, you’ll find this helpful. 

We recently released the 2023 Remarkabrand Index for Accounting Firms, a comprehensive guide to the names, logos, colors, taglines, awards, and digital presence of 1,500 U.S. Accounting Firms. 

With over forty data points, the Index is both a guide and a brand-building driver. Reinforce your branding decisions and stand out in a sea of sameness. 

It’s a free download – our gift to you and your remarkable organization.  

Finally, rebranding strategies are increasingly changing on the digital landscape. 

Advances in AI and automation, in particular, are opening up chances for accounting firms to look at their brand identity via digital footprint and express that brand consistently while positioning themselves in the marketplace. 

But more on that later. 

There’s plenty more where it came from—both in my book, “You Are Remarkable” and on Remarkabrand, the podcast I host with Sam Pagel.

The Resound team specializes in helping professional firms unlock their authentic identity and express it with a winsome, engaging brand identity. 

If rebranding, or simply making the case for branding to your firm’s leadership calls for backup, we’re always eager to consult. Whether that’s leading your team through a workshop or working closely to help set you up for a successful accounting firm branding journey, we thrive on helping organizations like yours tell their story. 

Check out our resources, or give us a shout. 

And don’t forget that you are remarkable.  

If you know so much about it, why don’t you write a book? 

Imagine being able to say: “Yeah, I did that… and here it is.” 

Mic drop. 

Here, in part II of taking your brand anthem to a thoughtful, well-developed book that demonstrates your expertise, I’m making the argument that every firm (including yours) should chase that feeling. Building on last month, when I made the case for writing a book with co-authors with the partners of your firm, and over a calendar year of recorded conversations, I’ve got more thoughts on the writing process itself. 

But before I dive in, I’ll go ahead and tell you why. 

https://youtu.be/tNio5GpRXxU

Why take the effort to plan, write, edit, and publish a piece of content that based on your brand anthem, if we’re being honest, probably won’t be a bestseller, or even a moderately successful seller?

Because publishing a book is a powerful long-term strategy to build your firm’s reputation for thought leadership, and at the same time, define its position in a marketplace filled with noise. In another article we’ve published, Chief Operating Officer Chris Stadler puts it this way: 

“If your firm writes a book, it’s a sign that your thoughts and processes are time-tested and organized. Anyone who can talk deeply enough about a topic to write a book demonstrates depth and experience.”

This is especially true in professional services, where brands develop their reputation and define their place in the market through knowledge, competence, word-of-mouth, and in-depth experience with a particular topic. If you’re in accounting, law, or engineering, then your respective knowledge of case law, financial trends, or the geographical layout of the Colorado River basin is your bread and butter. With that in mind, a brand anthem book gathers all that knowledge into an eye-catching, tremendously helpful brand asset. 

Of course, knowing what you do is different from communicating that to everyone else. 

Before you get cracking on a book, your best bet is having your firm’s brand story right. 

This is where your brand anthem comes in. 

Whatever your content strategy looks like—and trust me, articles, brand videos, a podcast, a killer website, and social media accounts filled with clever posts are all a pretty great start—it should be centered on a clear, memorable brand anthem. That is, on a memorable story of how you help guide your clients to the solution they need in your unique, unduplicated way. 

The same goes for a book; it should wave your brand’s banner in an unmistakable way, even as it dives into your point of view, experience, and comprehensive knowledge of a particular topic. Even where it dovetails with your regular ongoing strategy, a book built from a truthful, memorable brand anthem should take things further. More than standalone blog posts, and even more than a viral brand video that’s trending with your target audience, a book fleshes out your brand anthem in a definitive way. 

One that commands your audience’s attention. 

A book takes all the content strategy that you’re already putting out, and condenses it into a sophisticated, reputable piece of brand content. 

All together in one package, with a clean title and an author from your firm on the cover, and listed on Amazon or stacked on a table at an annual convention, a book speaks volumes. It produces a level of reputational trust that I haven’t seen with other pieces of content that firms put out in the marketplace. 

As you can imagine, a book is even more than a summary of your brand anthem, or one source volume of content strategy. Rather, it’s a valuable, sophisticated asset for your firm and your firm’s brand. Not to mention a reputational investment in your firm’s role as a thought leader. 

You’ve probably heard that you should ‘write you know.’ But in the professional service and B2B corner of the world, a better saying would be ‘write what you want to be known for.’ 

That obviously means tapping into you and your firm’s expertise—the refined experience and thought processes you’ve acquired over years, or even decades of day in, day out business and interactions—and aiming it squarely at your target audience. 

It might mean elaborating on simply ‘what you know,’ even though the topic is one that you probably eat, breathe and sleep. Research, reading other books in the market and for the same audience, and of course gleaning as much as you can from co-authors all goes a long way in building out your book.

If nothing else, translating your proven experience into expository or, at times, instructional writing conveys another quality. It suggests that you’re capable of teaching others about your thinking—not just what you think, but how and why you think a certain way.  

If you do it well, writing as a teacher can even push you, your firm, and your co-authors into the realm of being a thought leader on that topic—something that’s much more valuable than simply sticking the book on your website and telling people to buy it.  

If they buy it, that’s a bonus. 

But the real tactical advantage of writing a book comes when your firm can use that book and the expertise it conveys as a reputational, brand-building platform. With a book to your name, you’re more likely to land speaking events, or to make an impression at conventions with people you want to work with.  

Handing someone a book is like handing them a turbo-charged resume. 

It’s proof of your knowledge, your proven experience, and your conceptual thinking, all rolled into one. 

No shame in asking. 

Nearly everyone wants to have written a book… and that writing, editing, and publishing part of the journey looks pretty daunting. 

No doubt, there is a ton of work and planning involved—but as I explained in last month’s article, the writing process itself also pays dividends when it comes to monthly content marketing. 

One strategy I talked about was writing a book by talking to people. That is, get together with the partners of your firm, or any co-authors, and schedule twelve in-depth conversations (one every month) that you’ll record, draw from, and eventually turn into chapters in your book. With that strategy in mind, I’ll be talking more about the writing and editing process, and about how your book should differentiate your firm from others in a unique, remarkable way… obviously. 

Here are a few tips on the writing process. 

Or, and to the extent that writing is nothing but refined thinking, I should probably say the thinking process that will go into your book. A good process, along with a one year, one-topic-a-month strategy, goes a long way in making the whole writing journey a worthwhile investment. 

Writing a book is a huge commitment. For every finished book, there’s a handful of would-be authors who got started but then changed their minds. 

You’re probably not writing a book about something unless it’s something you really believe, and everybody knows that. When people see a finished book, the commitment that went into taking it over the finish line speaks for itself. Even more than case studies, a website, or marketing materials that share your philosophy while laying out what your firm does, a book gives your reputation and your way of thinking a backbone. 

So what goes into this backbone? Chapter by chapter, page by page, and even paragraph by paragraph, how do you stack it all together? Aside from a keyboard, voice to text—or by the time I publish this, some flashy new copywriting bot—is there a silver bullet for translating that thinking into words and sentences? 

Beyond carving up your book into a minimum of twelve chapter topics and then filling out those topics with recorded conversations, there’s no prescription for how you stack and organize your content knowledge. At the end of the day, someone will have to transcribe those conversations, edit the writing, and publish it.

Probably more than once.

But I can say that the backbone of your book should be particular details, focused on your target audience. The common thread through each detail, as well as each chapter, is that they demonstrate your proven experience.

Here’s where you’re in luck.

Your proven experience is made up of details you already know. 

Say you’re telling someone all about your brand anthem book topic: someone like a hard-hitting journalist. While you talk, they’re hitting you with a ton of questions that force you to get more particular, more example-driven, and even more focused. 

“Okay,” they say, thinking about accounting software, jury selection, or start-up strategies, or whatever you’ve just told them. “Tell me more about your take on that.” 

“How is your take different?” they ask. “How is it Special? How is it unlike what I’ve already heard from other firms who know this topic?” 

“What have you thought about or realized that nobody else is saying?” 

“Can you demonstrate?” 

“Can you give me an example? Something from your experience that stands out and illustrates your point?”  

The more you answer these questions, the more you’re responding to an unspoken challenge: prove it, prove it, prove it. By the time you’re done, you’ve probably got a whole chapter’s worth of content, just in answering their questions. Maybe you’ve got several chapters, or even a whole book’s worth. 

This exercise forces you to get particular. Answering questions means fleshing out your proven experience in a way people can understand. If you’ve spoken to someone who’s curious about your work, but not an insider, you know that dry, flavorless exposition will leave them bored or scratching their heads. Instead, give them stories. Memorable examples. Details about the process. Give them jaw-dropping facts, anecdotes and general stats (or estimates) so they have a baseline and proper perspective. 

And when they ask how you approach your process, you’ll answer directly: ‘here’s what this means to me, and maybe even to you.’ 

In other words, in an authentic, reputable way, you have to prove it. Regardless of chapter topic, chapter order, or paragraph by paragraph flow, proving it is a pretty good plumb line. At every step, you’re showing that your way of thinking is a trustworthy map: a graspable system that helps people understand your profession, your industry, your valuable insights, and how you approach common challenges with a unique solution.

When you stack all this in a book, people can do more than grasp your way of thinking—they can test it out for themselves. They can compare something you said in chapter one to what you say in chapter nine… and see if the numbers add up. In other words, part of your thought leadership’s backbone means being falsifiable. Not stepping out on a limb for no reason, but rather, taking stand after stand that can potentially be proven false. 

It’s a scary thought, but remember that your reader is asking you, your co-authors, and book one thing: prove it. 

Nonfiction writers like to say that every book makes a promise to the reader at the very start. Any book worth its salt, from a how-to book to a sophisticated work of investigative journalism, answers that promise. 

By filling out your book’s content with falsifiable, but thoroughly supported, claims and proven experience, you show the reader your thought system works to the nth degree. You show them that you’ve used it so much (as the case should be if you’re writing about what you know) and so often over the years that it’s trustworthy and convincing. 

Writing your book means more than refining your thinking—and when all is said and done, proving your role as a thought leader in the marketplace. 

Another advantage (and another reason to do it) is that putting your knowledge or your firm’s philosophy into a falsifiable, focused book filled with proven experience means getting all your co-authors on the same page. The monthly, recorded conversations are an excellent way to do just that… and when the writing and editing process comes full circle, having co-authors weigh in, make corrections, and keep an eye on the overall project is a kind of brand refining process in and of itself. 

With the goal of carving out your firm’s position in the marketplace, you want everyone involved on the same page… singing from the same tune from the same hymn book, you might say. 

To that end, your book doesn’t need to read like a textbook.

Believe me, it doesn’t have to be this super academic, footnote-packed product you might find in a college bookstore. 

You can build your backbone and flesh out your claims with facts, details, and proven experience in a substantial way…while being approachable. Many businesses who want to write a book envision something thick and substantial, but the reality is that putting out a massive volume overestimates the number of people who might actually read it. 

Even if your book is brilliant, it faces a harsh reality. 

Most people that you encounter as potential clients will never actually read every word of it. They’ll read the parts that matter to them, or they might not even read it at all. Seeing the book and browsing its contents might be enough to make them go “Wow, you wrote the book on that? I want you as my firm.”

So if you’re thinking of putting out a brand dictionary, something that will take vast amounts of time, resources, and even budget… keep this in mind. 

As I mentioned last month, manage your expectations accordingly. 

Of course your piece of thought leadership needs to be good—I’m not saying a stylish book jacket is an easy swindle for getting people’s business. 

But while you’re writing, podcasting and recording, or editing the book into the best, most substantial and thought-through version of itself, take a deep breath… and remember why you’re doing it. 

Don’t expect a New York Times bestseller… or even to see your book on any physical bookshelf in a store. Rather, remember you’re doing this as a sophisticated way to validate everything you think internally about your firm, your industry, and your brand’s unique place in the market. 

With a book, and for those who read your approachable, systematic outline to your thinking and proven experience, you gain a little bit of monopoly power against your competition.

And that stakes out your firm’s position. 

If you love the idea of a book that can build your remarkable firm’s reputation with your audience, then ask for the help you need to make it happen.

Having written a book on B2B branding with some incredible people, I know the process back to front. I’m glad to help remarkable brands plan, outline, and even get the words right. If the end result is a proven, authentically-reading piece of thought leadership that builds your firm’s reputation, then I’m all in. 

I’d love to help make that happen. 

So if you need help, you can give the Resound team a shout. You can even check out my book ‘You are Remarkable’ on Amazon to see what the finish line looks like. 

If you’re itching to get recording or writing, that’s splendid. 

But don’t forget that you are remarkable.

As we all know, there’s more than one way to get your firm’s brand out into the world. Traditional content strategy with a website, ad campaigns, articles, social media, and a skillfully edited brand video is increasingly common—and not necessarily ineffective. If it’s done well and authentically, not by a long shot. 

Trust me, you don’t have to go super-outlandish with free air guitars or pregnancy test coupons in magazines to get your brand seen. 

As I wrote about last month, short videos are probably the most potent, shareable way to capture your brand anthem and communicate it with a wider audience. Video taps two of the five senses, taps memory and emotion, and speaks the common parlance of phones, tablets, and computer screens that take up people’s time. 

But even if you’re dropping money on filming or professional editing, there’s one final strategy you should not overlook. 

Writing (and, of course, publishing) your brand anthem in a book. 

A brand book, or perhaps a book containing your collected thoughts on a relevant business or marketing topic, gets people excited—especially in professional services. 

Think of a brand book as a printed, sophisticated piece of thought leadership: a respectable piece of developed, long-form content that contains your brand anthem and even raises it to a higher level of conversation. 

But writing a book raises pointed questions, with the first one being: 

How do I get there? 

How do I get my brand anthem into an actual book someone can hold in their hands? 

Do I have to write? 

What about editing and publishing—aren’t those lengthy journeys in and of themselves?

Great questions. 

But before I dive in, let me recap what any brand or topical book should be doubling down on: brand anthem. 

If you want to do something right, there’s no getting enough of the basics. 

https://youtu.be/7eJqjJevgEc

If your brand anthem is the starting point—your north star for a killer video, slick visuals and marketing, or even a product rollout—you should know exactly what it is and why it resonates with people.

 Lest we forget, a good brand anthem builds on elements of a good story (one about your clients, and how you help them) and waves them into a clear, vibrant banner. I walked through the elements of a brand anthem in detail, but they’re worth repeating—there’s the hero (your client), the problem they’re facing, the guide (that’s YOU), and then the solution. As you can probably imagine, the story goes like this: the hero had a problem, and with the help of a trusting, knowledgeable guide, the hero solved that problem. 

That story, of course, contains your brand’s unique traits and values. If it’s uniquely you—and don’t forget, whether you’re an accounting firm or a law firm or an engineering firm, you’re still the guide—then your brand anthem should set you apart from the stories that other brands are telling… in a pretty big way. 

How do you uniquely help the hero?

Which kind of hero (or better yet, which problem) are you focused on solving? 

How do you uniquely solve it? 

With what philosophy or fresh vision of a better world? How is your solution different from other brands? 

If your brand story sounds a little too familiar… then it might be time to tease it out a little more. Getting your brand anthem clear, and polished, and getting your message about who you are on point means carving out your position in the marketplace.

What’s your approach to the hero’s problem? 

What’s your unique solution? Your answer for a segment of the market that’s not being fully served? 

Potent brand anthems are usually the focused ones… and if we’re talking about writing a book on it, the more potent, the better. 

Say you’ve got all that—a brand anthem with a tight, well-messaged story, and maybe even a tagline to go with it. Say you’re developing that brand anthem with your website. Maybe you’ve started to write some blog posts that break it down for everyone. 

Great. 

If you’re there, or getting close to that state, you’re well on your way to building out the thoughtful brand book I mentioned earlier. 

If polishing up your brand anthem is step one of the process, then writing, publishing, and promoting the book is step two. 

I mention blog posts as part of step one because, for many brands, they’re an incredibly helpful content strategy… and at the same time, a helpful, preemptive, book writing hack. 

But here’s a better one. 

I mean it… but not literally. 

If you walk away thinking you can convince some ghostwriter that they’re really cranking out Mark Cuban or Elon Musk’s next business book (and for a hefty fee when the draft is done), please think again.  

I’m talking about writing your book with other people’s input, and with a content strategy that lends itself toward developing a thoughtful, in-depth book over the course of a year, even while you’re pressing out monthly, brand anthem-grade content. 

It’s no one size fits all… but it is a strategy worth considering. 

Typically, it won’t be just you writing the book; it’s a process that will involve the partners and leadership of your firm. So give yourself plenty of time. 

Start out by carving out twelve months (not five, not three) and making a calendar of topic questions. By topics, I mean every content angle, area, or conclusion you’d like your book to cover.  

A twelve month content strategy calendar is necessary because the next step is involving the key brain power behind your brand… although if that brain power involves thirty or more people, you may not get to all of them.  

Once you’ve got the brain power lined up, ask the tough question—who’s going to spearhead this? Will your book have one, or two, or even three authors? Assuming those potential authors have other full-time responsibilities, families, and a generally busy life (and assuming you’ve got one partner willing to step out with you and take the lead), how are you going to get them to dump out all that knowledge and experience they have?

How about one drip at a time, through conversation? 

Generating enough content over twelve months that can be turned into a book is not easy. But one way you can get your partners to commit to is by planning time for you and them to sit, hit the record button, and talk about the things that need to go into the book. 

That calendar, and those conversations give you plenty of material to work with, both for your book and for the monthly social media, audio, or even visual content that you want to be dripping out.   

And that’s what I mean when I say trick your leadership into writing a book. 

I’ve found that this works for one key reason—those people who are knowledgeable, experienced, and interested in being authors of a book are usually verbal. 

Think about it. 

They’re used to talking to clients all day. They’re used to having to sell and pitch the business with their mouths, with speech, communication, and facial expression. Getting them in front of a microphone is one of the best ways to get the content out of their heads and eventually into a manuscript page, paper or digital. 

I’ve also found that getting those key people involved in planning that outline pays dividends. For one thing, if your co-authors understand the strategy, you’ll get buy-in right from the beginning. 

Who knows?

By tapping your firm’s brain power as co-authors, you might also be tapping them as podcast hosts for twelve podcasts at the exact same time. One podcast episode a month can follow, and fill out a chapter in the book. 

Or not.

Keep in mind that your conversational writing sessions don’t need to be a podcast. If you’ve got a twelve month, one year content strategy set, then you and your co-author don’t need to pull out some fancy, expensive microphone when topic one rolls around. 

If it takes some pressure off, use your iPhone. Or, and with the high probability that you’re both working remotely, hop on Zoom for an hour. Just say ‘we’ll record it and we’ll see what happens.’ As long as you’re able to get their voices recorded, you’ve got content you can start to utilize—and pull from if you need quotes or soundbites for brand marketing.  

With a twelve month content calendar, and a commitment from co-authors to sit down and record twelve conversations, you can’t go wrong. 

Having built that twelve-month calendar, you might be outlining your book and deciding on its structure at the same time. Simply enough, each month’s topic is a different chapter of your book. 

Chances are, you’ll be building off your brand anthem—unless, of course, everyone at your firm just happens to have a Ph.D. in the same, unrelated subject and wants to write about it. But more likely, you’ll be drawing closely from your brand anthem with whatever topic you tackle. 

With that in mind, you can generate an outline from your brand anthem and pencil them in quite easily. If you just did a chapter on your hero, well, next up is your hero’s problem. If you just did a chapter on the guide, then move on to your unique solution and how that unlocks a new level for the hero. Next up? The outcome…

And so on.   

Or mix things up a bit. 

However you slice it, twelve months should give you twelve themes for you and your partners to talk about… and twelve fresh podcasts, (or if you’d rather not publish them as podcasts, interviews…) Or twelve wells of thoughtful, quotable content, perfect for blog articles, email newsletters, social media, or mini-marketing concepts. All for each month of the calendar year. 

How’s that for a book writing hack? 

I want to peek behind the curtain of your future here. 

Assume you’ve sharpened up your brand anthem. 

Imagine that you’ve interviewed twelve knowledgeable people, (or even, three co-authors four times each). 

Take one more leap and imagine you’ve published it. 

Why have you published it?

Believe it or not, and unless you’re extremely lucky or super well-connected in the New York City publishing world, you didn’t necessarily publish the book to sell millions of copies… enough for an advance on the next book and a ranch in Montana.

In fact, you probably didn’t even publish it to sell thousands.   

Bear with me: you published your book to establish your firm, build your credibility, and show people why you’re unique beyond any shadow of a doubt. If you think about it, those co-authors you brought on board are probably among the foremost leaders of the unique way you approach and do business. By mining their experience and expertise, and by writing it up and publishing it in a book, you’ve distilled their unique view, their philosophy, and their way of serving clients into a satisfying, readable product. 

That speaks volumes about your firm, and even reminds people that your firm truly is remarkable. 

I’m not saying that the book isn’t a product in and of itself (of course it is, even if you’ve given away much of the content for free in monthly blog posts or podcasts)… but it’s not the overarching fruit of your intention. 

Of course there are strategies to recoup the cost of writing, editing, publishing, and promoting it… but think of those benefits as incidental to the real value: establishing deep credibility for your brand.

In a way, it really does. 

The effort, time, planning, knowledge, and elbow grease that goes into a published, thought-leading product often speaks for itself. Hand someone a book and you’re a lot more likely to get invited on their podcast, or to give a lecture at a conference coming up…or win the contract with a new, big client.

That’s because a brand book shows people your unique, remarkable process, and what it looks like crossing the finish line. 

Now THAT’s a business card. 

What a way to tell, and show, and, insofar as you get some readers, continue telling them about your unique process, your unique solution to the hero’s problem, and your one-of-a-kind position in the marketplace. 

Going around and saying you have a unique position unfortunately, means nothing. 

But having written and published a book about it usually means you’ve lived it. It means you know that position from every angle, and furthermore than you’ve owned it through experience. 

All this to say, a book isn’t the only way of telling people that you’re remarkable. 

I’ll probably talk more about publishing in another article, but a book lends itself to a number of mediums. As part of the publishing process, there’s plenty of room to branch into an audio version, an e-reader or digital copy people can share or download… or like I mentioned earlier, a sign leading back to those twelve months of blogs or podcasts. 

Adding a book to twelve months of existing content is in many ways, a force multiplier. 

You’ve come to the right place. 

Having planned and written a book on B2B branding with some pretty amazing people, I can tell you all about the ins and outs of gathering audio content, getting it into words, and organizing those words into a publishable, potent, brand anthem product. 

It’s no cakewalk, but I believe it’s worth it.

If you think planning a book would be a worthwhile part of your brand’s content strategy, and if you’d like some help or consultation with that, the Resound team stands ready. Give us a shout.

You can even check out my book ‘You are Remarkable’ on Amazon to get a sense of what I’m all about, and why I love helping brands and companies share their story with the world. 

So dream big. 

And don’t forget that you are remarkable.