My Branding Failure

…and your branding gain

It seemed like a good idea. I had a client video shoot in one hour, plus an errand to run before the shoot. I’ll just fire off a quick email to invite my email list to my Branding 101 Webinar. Nothing complicated, just a simple invite in hopes of getting a few more enrollees. Turns out, it was not a good idea.

I use MailChimp to manage my email list, and I use it infrequently. When I logged on to MailChimp, I was informed that there was a “New MailChimp.” and the dashboard had changed. Oh well, no worries, just a simple email with a simple invite. What could get messed up? …only one simple, little, big thing.

Yep, that one little sentence. I forgot to replace it.

“Use this area to offer a short teaser of your email’s content. Text here will show in the preview area of some email clients.”

It was a major branding failure. And boy, did I hear about it.

Within minutes, a friend emailed me to alert me of my mistake. Then I received a reply from someone on my email list:

“Your email is an example of Brand Failure”

…along with a few other choice comments. And she was right. It was total brand failure.

Not everyone was so offended. Embarrassed, I shared my faux pas on my Facebook Page, where I received a little bit of sympathy.

Thanks, Niv!

Excuses and Reasons

The “New MailChimp” was my excuse, but the reason for my brand failure was expediency. I thought I could just “fire it off.” I didn’t think through the copy, I didn’t have someone proofread, I didn’t pay attention.

So, with a bit of a red face, I refunded the enrollment to those who attended the webinar, then decided to offer the webinar for free to anyone who wanted it. Including you. All you have to do is go here to watch it: Free Branding 101 Webinar.

You don’t even have to provide your email address. If you like it, and you can forgive my branding failure, I invite you to these two free webinars:

Marketing 101 For Small Business – Where you will learn: What’s the most important thing you should be doing, what pays off; and how to stand out.

5 Things Most Small Businesses Do To Block Their Success –  Where you will learn how to overcome the five crushing obstacles that keep your business from being being what you envisioned it to be.