Be the expert. Rule your category.
Your business, whether you’re a lone freelancer, or leading a firm has a brand. Brand equity is earned by adhering to a simple platform of good brand behavior. Every time you honor and live this list, you score points toward your brand equity.

Brand equity builders
1. Be the expert. Rule your category.
2. Maintain top-of-mind awareness.
3. Connect emotionally.
4. Communicate in clear and consistent voice on all touch points.
5. Uphold stellar integrity in brand promotion and performance, and
in your relationships with brand buyers.

Let’s focus on the first one: Be the expert. Rule your category.

When your market is looking for “the one” who can do the best job, is the most knowledgable and dominates the category, do they think of you?

If they do, good for you. Your brand equity is high! If they don’t and they think of your competitors, here are some ways you can improve your brand expert stature.

Leverage your key person expertise.
Identify the authorities or experts in your organization, or your own area of deep knowledge. After preparing the most meaningful messages of expertise, take that to market. Have them author articles, make presentations at events where your target audience is, and highlight their knowledge in your collateral materials, both off and on line.

Be a leader, not a follower.
Demonstrate to your market that you keep your eyes and ears on the future, that your brand invests in research and development, and that your goal is to be one step ahead of the rest.

Be the greatest brand to work with.
Become a magnet for the brightest talent out there. Without those folks, maintaining brand dominance will become difficult. Allocate resources to showcase your brand and stay connected with industry groups and future employees.

Branding is about making the buying decision easy and reducing the risk. When you are “the bomb” in your category, the rest will follow.

Brand on!