Success is not easy to obtain—but what exactly does it take to get started on the right path? We’ll take a look at the major pains brands and business with limited resources will have to endure, as well as some solutions from successful entrepreneurs.

Idleness is not an option in today’s ultra competitive environment. Speed to market and cadence of growth keep the number-one brands on top. The Google vs. Yahoo competition is a perfect example for us to examine.

Running a business is not like winning the lottery. Let’s talk about a realistic timeline for success and a real-world example of our third truth of brand development.

Compare the original homepages of Yahoo and Google Beta. How have these brands applied the truths of brand development?

What’s the most profitable marketing tactic? Is word-of-mouth and brand reputation achievable without a multimillion dollar marketing budget? Yes. Discover the fourth truth of happiness, recap module one, and prepare for the upcoming theory and application modules.

In this module, we’ll go over brand alignment. You’ll learn how to tell if a brand is aligned—and why it matters. We’ll also explore surveys and how they can help you put what you learn into action.

Learn what brand alignment is and how to tell whether or not your brand is in alignment. After going over brand-alignment basics, we’ll take a look at one brand that’s in alignment and one that’s not.

This lecture includes supplementary material to help deepen your understanding of the two brands described in the previous session.

Now that we’ve learned what brand alignment is, it’s time to learn why it’s so important. We’ll go over the biggest benefit that brand alignment provides. We’ll also talk about the three categories brands typically fall into and how they’re affected by brand alignment.

This supplemental readying, the Brand Alignment Matrix, will help you further investigate how well your own brand is in alignment.

There are six important brand alignment factors to consider. In this session, we’ll talk about these six factors and why it’s important to consider each of them when piecing together your brand identity and brand alignment.

There are lots of questions you can ask in a survey: let’s go over what you should focus on in your surveys and how your discoveries can help you gain insights into your brand.

The ideal survey length depends on your audience. In this lesson, we’ll talk about some of the different survey groups you might have and how long the survey should be for each one.

Getting people to take your survey can be a challenge—a challenge that’s often forgotten. Depending on the survey recipient, different motivations will be required to get a response. We’ll go over some of these motivations in this lesson.

This survey template includes tried-and-true questions and copy we’ve used to great success in the past. You’ll also get a breakdown of common segments used when administering surveys.

In this video, we go over the survey template from lecture 17. You’ll learn the ins and outs of the template components and how to implement them in your own surveys.

There’s more to running a survey than just creating a list of questions. In this video, you’ll learn my recommended method for delivering surveys, including survey technology, sending reminders, and how long to leave your survey open.

This walkthrough provides step-by-step instructions for setting up your first survey in Survey Monkey. We’ll go through the process of creating a sample survey together, and you’ll learn everything you need to know to create your own.

After your survey is completed, you’ll have to export your responses to analyze the data. This video walks you through the export process so you can start analyzing your results.

In this lesson, we’ll go over analyzing survey results. You’ll learn my preferred method for analyzing survey results and get equipped to do so on your own.

This tutorial contains instructions for effectively using the Discovery Document. We’ll go through the document and provide tips that will help you get the most out of it.

We’ll go through a sample competitive analysis based on the methodology I’ve developed over the last decade. You’ll get insights drawn from years of experience and step-by-step instructions for doing your own competitive analysis.

This lesson covers a quick disclaimer and bit of encouragement about using the competitive-analysis document.

Now you know the basics of brand alignment and how you can find out where your brand is and is not in alignment. Next up, we’ll use these findings to create a brand strategy.

To start exploring brand strategy, we’ll look at a few familiar global examples that will help us answer questions like: Why is strategy the most important part of the branding process? How do you interpret the results from your brand alignment test? How do you craft a multifaceted brand strategy?

Everyone benefits from a well defined brand strategy. Your employees, vendors, suppliers, and (most importantly) your customers will all have greater confidence in your product when your brand is defined and equitable. Make an impact in every part of your business with your brand strategy.

To fully understand a great brand strategy, we’ll need to look at each piece individually. Isolating and focusing on the six areas of brand strategy targets will ensure alignment among your whole team. In this lecture, we’ll define the characteristics and value of your strategy in all six areas.

There are four brand alignment categories that can be used to evaluate all brands. These categories will help you keep track of where your brand is in decline and where your brand is accelerating—and knowing this will help you keep your brand at the forefront.

No matter what product or service you’re selling, you have to remember that you’re actually selling feelings. This video walks you through real-life examples of how this has impacted brands and why understanding it is so vital for success.

Just because a brand looks good doesn’t mean it will be successful. This tutorial walks you through a brand-alignment test that identifies underlying branding issues and determines whether or not your brand is truly in alignment.

Now that we’ve gone over the brand-alignment test, we’ll investigate how to use the results to inform your brand strategy. The test results will ultimately provide you with clear steps for how to move forward with your brand.

This resource expands on the comparison between Toms and Bobs with a look at similarities in the two brand’s homepages.

In this lesson, we’ll look at how a sample company in the medical field could use the brand-priority chart to find key branding opportunities based on customer priorities.

Let’s continue digging deeper into the brand priority chart, including how to set it up for best success and how it can inform rebrands and other related efforts.

Goals must be obtainable within a specific time period. In this lesson we look at the benefits of setting and achieving short-term goals that build momentum and confidence.

This document is filled with examples of poor goals and the adjustments that can be made to them to turn them into great goals. It will help you learn what makes a goal effective and what to look for when crafting your own.

In this lecture, we talk about the importance of getting buy-in from leadership and other organizational members on your new brand strategy goal. Ensuring that your organization is filled with goal ambassadors is essential for external success.

If you can get your employees working toward the same goal, your product quality will increase. This video includes ideas for getting your employees on the same page and creating forward momentum for your brand goal.

Get pointers for creating a brand strategy for a new product or service—learn when to go the route of the sub-brand, what to consider when naming your product or service, how to handle brand assets, and more.

In this lecture, you’ll learn how to build a strategy that requires new visuals, a new name, or an update to other brand assets. We’ll look into some of the common difficulties brands face when rebranding and equip you to navigate them.

Marketing strategies connect your products and services to customers who need them. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to communicate value so that those who don’t know you can find you and become loyal customers.

There are lots of ways you can build a brand for customer satisfaction, but one is more powerful than any other. We’ll explore what it is and dig into examples of it in action.

Now that you’ve determined what you need for your rebrand, we’ll discuss how to build your new brand identity. We’ll touch on how to design a new mark or logo, why it’s important to have a strong visual identity, and the emotional indicators that come with your branding decisions. Plus, we’ve provided resources and templates for you to use as you create your brand’s style.

Regardless of what you need for your rebrand, it’s always a good idea to refresh your mark and logo to show that you care, you’re innovating, and you’re growing. We’ll cover which elements you’ll need to redesign and include in your brand style guide, too.

This three-page PDF includes examples of major companies’ brand refreshes over time. You’ll see how despite the new designs, many characteristics have carried through while evolving to match the company’s current culture.

What’s the difference between a logo and a brand? Learn why you need both and what each one is for, as well as what you’ll need to get started with a logo redesign.

See how your logo compares against others with this two-page PDF resource. Using the example of a sponsorship T-shirt, place your logo in the provided area as a test to see how it stands out.

We’ll cover the rules of thumb when building a logo based on print and digital guidelines and customer preferences, as well as the negative effects that come with a bad redesign.

Looking at Tropicana as a case study, these images give you sidebyside comparisons of Tropicana’s failed redesign, including their original branding that they immediately returned to.

Whether you’re designing a new logo on your own or working with a designer, we’ll talk about which programs to use for the best logo files that will work for any situation you’ll need. Before designing a new logo, we’ll also cover how to create a creative brief to guide your process.

In this lecture, we’ll dive into the basics of color theory and how color affects your brand. You’ll learn how to choose color combinations that evoke the emotions you want, and we’ll guide you through the process of choosing color types that provide a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints.

The fonts used in your brand mark speak to the emotional connotations you want your brand to convey. We’ll go over font basics you should know and discuss how to choose fonts for your brand guide. You’ll also find an additional cheat sheet in your resource downloads to complement this lecture.

Your brand snapshot is the best way to maintain consistency across touchpoints. This lesson will teach you which dos and don’ts you’ll want to include in your guide so your brand mark is always consistent and cohesive with all the elements you’d like to include.

This section will go through the brand-guide template we’ve provided in your resources. We’ll walk through the step-by-step format you can tailor to your brand so you have a guide for anyone using your brand to reference that you can continually update as your business evolves.

You can use your newly developed brand guide as a way to explain your decisions to employees and gain their buy-in. We’ll discuss how to use your guide as a place to show the brand’s history while crafting a story behind your new brand.

In this module, we’ll talk about the steps you’ll take to roll out your rebrand, including getting others excited both internally and externally and how to create a unified communication strategy for the rollout.

What happens when you roll out a rebrand without building excitement? It won’t get much attention. Creating motivation is key to a successful rebrand: let’s look at the benefits of generating that positive anticipation.

Your employees are the ones whom external audiences will turn to once you roll out your rebrand, so it’s key to start with their training and buy-in. Learn what steps you’ll need to take to equip your employees to field questions and act on your company’s behalf.

Strong leadership is key: before your rollout, have an internal meeting with employees to make sure everyone is on the same page while setting the tone for where you’re going, why you’re going there, and the story of where you’ve come from.

We’ll look at American Airlines as a case study for a rebrand strategy: see how they communicated their changes, focusing on employees and creating a unified message.

In this lecture, we’ll cover creating brand storytellers, or people who can tell the brand’s story in a way that appeals to your customers’ desires.

Once you’ve prepared for your rebrand externally, it’s time to focus on how to roll it out. For your rebrand announcement, choose messaging channels based on where your current customers are and where your future customers will be. We’ll also look at ways to introduce your rebrand to the press and find cost-effective methods to get your message out.

We’ve look at how to build a rebrand campaign, as well as how to communicate your launch messaging to your audience. Now we’ll cover how long your rebrand campaign should last before moving on to more in-depth details of your rebrand strategy.

This final module will take a look at everything we’ve learned up to this point, and we’ll use those takeaways to find ways to help you win more customers and make a greater return on your brand.

Creating a roadmap is the first step in working toward your brand’s goals. We’ll discuss how to break your roadmap into specific, measurable milestones in a format that works best for you and your team, as well as which metrics will help you determine the progress of your success.

The biggest challenge in rolling out your roadmap is getting your employees’ buy-in and excitement. Let’s look at strategies for communicating your progress, celebrating achievements with each completed milestone, and creating anticipation along the way.

Before we can determine the main ingredients for a successful campaign, we have to define what “success” entails. In this lesson, we’ll look at metrics used in closing sales to determine the cost of a new customer.

The first step in attracting customers is defining your campaign’s success. Let’s explore six metrics you’ll need to track for each campaign and how they’ll impact your brand’s longterm success. We’ll also discuss how to lower your customer cost and make your business more profitable.

Using key characteristics while minimizing friction are both important tactics of creating landing pages that drive customer traffic and convert leads. Let’s look at ways to optimize your landing pages in order to direct prospective customers to your desired outcome.

A drip email campaign will help you use a customer’s first contact point to your advantage: we’ll look at the right and wrong ways to set up an email campaign that’s triggered as soon as a new customer submits your contact form.

This demonstration will walk you through setting up an email campaign in Infusionsoft. We’ll discuss how to logistically set up a campaign tailored to your customers and make sure your message reaches the right people.

There are tons of ways to drive traffic to your site, but in this lecture, we’ll focus on the ones with low overhead and high returns, including creating fresh content that ranks in search engines, leveraging partnerships to reach new audiences, using your existing email list to promote new products, and exploring Google AdWords for consistent, targeted messaging.

What is A/B testing, and why is it important? We’ll tackle these two questions and help you find ways to run tests that show you how to uniquely deliver the best results for your business.

Exceeding your customers’ expectations will help you get an exponential return on your investment. It’s not only about creating good experiences, but also how you go above and beyond when handling the inevitable negatives. In this lesson, we’ll take a look at how these two combined will help you earn more referrals and get more value out of your current customers.

The first way to retain and multiply customers is to exceed customer expectations—but how can we do that? We’ll look at a few ways to impress customers and not only cultivate loyalty, but also create advocates who will pass on their “talkable” experiences.

You look out for your family and friends, so you share things with them that you find safe, good, or valuable. This lecture will help you find ways to follow up with customers through a referral strategy that can multiply your customers based on these same principles.

Customers are retained for two main reasons: the requirement of a high level of research or commitment, or expectations that are exceeded when you outdeliver the alternative. We’ll discuss ways to make your customers return because of the latter, and we’ll explore why longterm customers and clients are one of the best indicators of happiness (and provide more referrals).

Congratulations—you’ve completed the course! We’ll recap our three main takeaways from this course that you can start using right away to help your brand really take off.