Squared-away marketing tools

Now that I (almost) can do full-time marketing, I've got a list of a million things that we've put up with that need to be done properly. But I need to start with the basics, which Jay Lipe's post at Smart Marketing can help with:

"The concept of brand marketing is often lost on the small business person. That's because they ignore the most important of all brand concepts - consistency.

Next time you have a minute, spread across a table all of these basic marketing tools for your business:

* Business cards
* Letterhead
* Envelopes
* Thank you notes
* Brochures
* Flyers

Now, take a look at how consistent (or inconsistent) your brand is across these elements. Are the logos the same? Typestyles? Colors? Key messages?"

Trivial? Yes? Worthwhile? Definitely! Just like the soldier who makes sure his uniform is 'squared away', so should my marketing tools be. It's also humbling to see how far I really have to go.

Read: Brand marketing at its very basic