Brand Yourself

You know the old office joke about the overachiever who probably has the company logo branded on their rear.  That may be a little drastic, but it does pay to link in to the efforts of your company or organization that has spent thousands of dollars and several years creating a recognizable name. 

Since the formation of the very first board, people associated with ISA have worked very hard to make the name International Society of Appraisers meaningful.  Years of refining our educational offerings have given our society recognition as one of the world leaders in preparing appraisers.  Many of our members have gained national recognition as knowledgeable specialists in their fields.  Through the years, we have done a good job of making our members proud to be associated with this organization. 

Recently, our board and staff at Sentergroup have made efforts to make sure the public knows what we have to offer.  The new website was our first fresh face to the public.  Two professionally designed ads using the same branding as our web site were presented at conference this year; One to reach out to users of our services and one to appeal to potential members of ISA.  Through your suggestions, refinements have been made to the ads so they will best represent our members.  These ads are available for download from the ISA website.  The old brochure, that so many of us used as handouts several years ago, is also being revamped with our branding and will be made available on the website upon its completion. 

So now you’re probably thinking how nice all that is, but wondering what that does for your small business.  “Tremendous lots”, as one of my middle school friends would say.  If you’re like me you stress about spending more than $150 on a local ad.  Spending $500 on an ad that reaches every attorney in my state just about did me in.  It’s a wonder I ever made it through those early days of trying to market myself in my small town (Thank heavens for that brochure I mentioned earlier.)  Our branding is used throughout our public face on a national level.  That reaches a lot of people, but imagine if everyone of us joined in.  I’m not saying you can’t have your own company identity, especially since ISA’s strength is found in our individuals, but if everyone used the logo on all their pieces that go out to the public just think how powerful that would be.  That logo means that the appraiser using it is ethical and well trained (if you aren't, shame on you) and will do the best job they can for their client.  It means that appraiser is linked to a large group of professionals with a wide base of knowledge so they can get advice when they need it.  It means that I may be a small fish in a small pond but I can call in the big guys if I need to. 

I encourage you to do your best work, put your best face forward and show off your brand. 

By: Libby Holloway, ISA CAPP