Names need to deliver on your brand and business strategy, so you can go beyond gut feel and evaluate a good name from a bad one.

Lots of agencies focus on the creative ideation part of a naming exercise, but don’t pressure-test their ideas with market or legal research before presenting to the client team or leadership. Cue a lot of heartache when the names you love are not available for use in your market or trademark class.

When we develop a name together, you’ll consider strategically sound, creatively inspired options rooted in research and rationales. And we’ll always have a little fun along the way too 😉

Naming is a hallmark of my practice, and you can read more about my approach to it here.

Brand strategy is a key tool to scale your business, align activities across organizational silos, and empower decision-making and trust.

Every team is going to need different assets that help them clarify who we are, what we have to offer, and how we talk about that in market.

That can take the shape of many things — sometimes your brand needs a positioning statement, a brand story, a value proposition, or a campaign slogan or tagline. A lot of that has to do with the time horizon you’re trying to drive results within, and the challenges you’re trying resolve within your current marketing.

I staunchly believe that less is more (see: Principles). In fact, I’m likely to advise you to edit, repurpose and reinvigorate the assets you might already have in your “brand house” to deepen the utility and understanding of the ideas you’re already working with.

My goal is to help you think beyond any specific marketing tactic to understand the reputation and profile you want to own in the market, and what strategic articulations will capture the imaginations of your audiences, both inside your organization and out.

It’s not just about saying what you want to say, but in saying it in a way that resonates with your target audiences.

Messaging strategy outlines what are the most important components of your brand’s story, integrates proof points to demonstrate how that story is authentic to your company, and reflects the benefit to the unique audiences who interact with your brand, both inside and out.

I say both inside and out because many brands focus exclusively on external expressions – things like advertising campaigns, or copywriting on your website. Things for potential clients and customers, which, fair enough. They’re a critical audience for your growth pipeline.

Yet taking the time to reflect your employees’ needs with your messaging strategy is a critical step to build your team’s understanding of what a brand means and how they uniquely contribute to it. Talking to internal audiences rallies energy in service of your company’s success.

Messaging strategy might also include key messages (pre-approved copy you can plug + play into marketing materials) and banks of headlines to inspire further brand expression. Again, depends on your team’s needs and frankly, how risk averse your industry or leadership teams are (I’m looking at you, compliance! 😉)

If messaging strategy is what we say, voice is how we say it. Voice captures the unique way of writing that helps people feel like they get to know your brand’s personality.

You might explore questions like, “how liberal are we with punctuation?”, or “what do we mean when we say we are ‘friendly’?” or even “do we use emojis in our copy?” 😜

I have some feelings about tone of voice, because I believe most B2B organizations need baseline best-practice copywriting training first before they can level up into using tone of voice as a way to create distinction in market. Additionally, tone of voice may be more relevant for B2C audiences than B2B audiences.

If you think i’m flat out wrong and/or also have feelings about voice, you should book a chat with me! Let’s talk it through!

My goal is to give you and your team the tools you need to go forth and get inventive with your brand. And that means giving you the tools to take the rubber to the road + use the verbal brand you’ve developed.

I create customized verbal guidelines, templates and training workshops geared to your team’s needs to help everyone who speaks your brand’s language deliver on-brand expressions. I hate rules and scripts, so think of this as offering wells of inspiration to help you get the first draft done sooner.

I have worked with leaders, writers, designers, sales teams and client experience managers to help everyone understand the unique contribution they can make to the brand’s success. I do my best to speak your language so you can speak brand.

Of course, you can’t launch and sustain a brand without supporting materials. Make sure your ambitions shine through at every touchpoint.

I develop lasting verbal + copywritten assets that give you the tools to tell your story — whether that is on your website, in investor presentations, in sales brochures and other marketing materials.

Please note: while I can point you in the direction of ideas to explore in your thought leadership, social media, email marketing and content creation, these are not my areas of expertise and I do not offer them as services.