Anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about marketing. It’s critical, especially for authors. I’ve learned this the hard way, after several books I was proud of, which I had either written or co-written, did not see the success they deserved.
Now more than ever, we writers have to take responsibility for marketing our books. But in an age of limited traditional publishing and burgeoning self-publishing, that’s not enough. You have to market yourself. And that starts with branding yourself so that everything from your business cards and letterhead to your website is consistent, eye-catching and truly reflective of you.
That kind of branding can cost a ton. But it doesn’t have to thanks to Brand Genie, a new, fun online process put out by an online start-up company called Presto Box.
Yahoo News says:
Melding a patent-pending technology with top-tier design, PrestoBox offers a disruptive and highly scalable solution that helps small businesses quickly and affordably build a personalized branding toolkit.
Creating a personalized brand to take months of time and cost tens of thousands of dollars. With PrestoBox’s “Brand Genie” it takes less than ten minutes and is totally free. The Brand Genie is a fun and easy online discovery process that has real science behind it. By answering a simple set of questions, the Brand Genie magically determines your brand platform including recommended colors, fonts and images. Soon you will be able to purchase automatically generated logos, business cards, website templates and much more – all based on the brand that’s right for your business.
When branding yourself, all you do is head to http://www.prestobox.com/brand-genie where you’ll be asked to answer some simple but scientifically-based questions, and to select your favorites among a series of photos. The process seems like child’s play, but as the Presto Box website says, “There’s a method to our magic.”
Once you’ve completed the ten-minute process, the Brand Genie will recommend a first, second, and third brand option. No more wondering about which colors you want to use on your website or your business card or what kind of style or graphics you need.
Did I mention this is free?
I walked one of my clients who needed web copy through the easy Brand Genie sequence just to see for myself how well it worked. She had a blast. She loved having to choose the words that described her business along with her favorite photos. And she was amazed with the branding results the Brand Genie generated. “The colors and feel are absolutely right on,” she exclaimed.
The Brand Genie is just the start. Presto Box will soon launch its logo and business card builders. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, why not give the Brand Genie a try. I’d love to know how it works for you.
Thanks for the blog post. We appreciate it! We’ve received really good responses from our small business testing so far. Our focus groups over the summer responded that the Brand Genie is 100% “easy and fun” and 78% said “brand outcome reflects my company”.