Small resolutions to impact your brand

Issue 8 | Advocate Creative

The new year brings resolutions big and small—why are small resolutions important for your brand?

Our team always begins the new year with a look back at the year before. Put simply, we ask: What should we keep doing? What should we stop doing? What should we start doing in the new year? At the heart of these conversations are our clients. We consider how their needs have changed and how we can better serve them.

The answers to these questions are often small resolutions. For example, our resolution last year was publishing these articles, which gives us the opportunity to share insights with our clients. Of course, starting small doesn’t mean your efforts will have a small impact. And a resolution may start small and grow into something much bigger, like a website redesign or a rebrand.

But more often than not, brands don’t need a complete overhaul—they simply need an alignment check. This can be achieved by making small updates to keep your audience aligned with your brand’s defining attributes. According to Marty Neumeier, author of?The Brand Gap,?alignment is the basis of a “living brand.”

Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing (but be sure to consider your audiences and opt for the resolution that best serves them).

Three small resolutions to try this year

1. Remind donors of their impact.

Follow up on your end-of-year campaign with a midyear touch point. Tell your donors how their gift made a difference. Highlight the progress made and bring them along on the journey so they feel more involved in the process.

2. Update select web pages.

Small changes made to a single web page can have a drastic impact on user experience. Evaluate your website to see where there is room for improvement. Are users still inspired by the visuals? Does the content compel them to learn more? Are there intuitive action steps??

3. Extend a campaign.

Too often, campaigns are cut short because of internal fatigue, but remember: in branding, consistency is a good thing. And your audiences’ interaction with your campaign is far less than your interaction, so while you may be thinking, “not this again,” they may be thinking, “hey, I remember this.” Happy New Year and cheers to small resolutions!

Keep changing the world.

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