Six Pieces of Advice Essential to Strengthening Your Brand

 The following is an excerpt from an interview I recently did for >Mad Mortgage World’s owner, Daniel Martin.

Daniel is building a phenomenal site that exists to be an online aggregator of mortgage industry best practices and marketing ideas

• Provide great content consistently – To me, this might be the single most important way to separate yourself. If Seth Godin was a jackass, I would still read Seth Godin’s riffs on marketing because they’re awesome. They make me think, I learn from their application, and as a result I grow as a marketer. Always aim to provide the best possible value to the consumer.

•  Be authentic and honest – Loan officers, marketers, umpires… It shouldn’t matter. You should always, out of respect for yourself and your clientele be authentic and honest. Providing the great value is how you get a brand in the first place, but not obeying this commandment is the quickest way to lose it. If you make a mistake, own up right away and try to rectify the situation as quickly and as smoothly as possible.

• Value relationships – This is something that took me a while to get when I first started. Traditional advertising is dead. You can shout through a megaphone all day long about how great your product is, but I couldn’t care less until someone else starts telling me it’s great; you let me give it a trial test, etc. So don’t yell at people and shove your idea down their throat. Listen and learn what your consumer needs and then try to provide them with a solution. Value the relationship first and foremost. If you can’t give them the best solution send them to someone who can. Chances are they’ll come back to you when they need something else.

• Be more prepared – Know your industry inside and out, at least a specific niche. Be the best at what you do, or at least capable of seeming like the best. Before doing a consulting session I ask the client a few questions that give me some indication as to where they are and where they want to go or what they want to accomplish. I seek out their personal brand and learn everything I can about what they embody. This enables me to provide insight into how I can specifically help them and not just give them generic re-hashed advice.

• It’s reciprocal – Make it a conversation, a discussion, a sounding board. Bounce ideas off of people. You aren’t going to ruin credibility by asking your clients questions, you’re going to gain their respect. If you take a reciprocal approach you can utilize feedback to logically map out the best strategic insights for your clientele based on your knowledge and their insight.

• Be passionate – It speaks for itself, and it’s contagious. Aside from that, if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing then you probably should not be doing it in the first place.