I received an unsolicited inquiry last week from an MSP (Managed IT Service Provider) looking for estimated pricing for certain strategic and content marketing activities. Among them was a brand persona assessment.
Before we tackle the obvious question here of “What’s a Brand Persona Assessment,” let’s address the bigger picture perspective: how does a business operating without formal marketing suddenly jump in with two feet and know where to start?
Marketing requires a plan, much like your business. The plan requires a strategy with goals to support and be measured against. Before we develop and propose a marketing plan, we always ask our client to explain the goals and metrics of their business for the upcoming year.
- How many new customers do you need this year?
- What % of revenue growth do you hope to achieve?
- What if any new products or services do you plan to introduce?
- Which if any new industries or geographies to you plan to penetrate?
- And finally, the big question: what is marketing not doing for you now that you hope to accomplish working with our marketing team going forward?
Marketing should not be engaged like a Burger King drive through menu where you pull up to the speaker and order four blog posts and a white paper with cheese. Instead with careful planning, you can build a measurable and attainable marketing program that just may include those aforementioned posts or may originate with a Brand Persona Assessment.
So, if you’re still reading and still wondering “What’s a Brand Persona Assessment?” know this is a kind of image and messaging audit where we look at your mission, vision and purpose, your culture, value proposition and emotional benefits, and then seek to determine whether what you’re representing to your audience in your marketing and messaging is aligned with your intent, personality and ability to deliver. For a little more on Brand Personas, check out this “brand personality test” published by one of my favorite small business marketing resources, the folks at Duct Tape Marketing.
This post is courtesy of MMC Principal Jennifer Koon