Tara and I had a conversation with a very smart advisor this morning, Elke Heiss, Vice President at Sterling Communications. We asked her to look at our marketing materials and positioning document, compare it to our competitors' positioning and provide feedback to us. I love it when we're able to run an exercise like this, because it gives us an objective perspective on our 'positioning landscape.'

If you don't have a positioning document, build one! In it, you need to clearly define your mission, vision and business statements. Then pick two to three top line messages that you'd like to build your communications around.

It is from the positioning document that all communications flow. For example, your 'elevator pitch' - that simple, 60-second statement that describes what your company does - should be there:

"Marqui helps marketers automate and simplify their marketing activities."

Be sure to circulate the positioning document through your leadership team for approval and buy-in. It's a process that will take time, but will - and I personally have seen this time after time - yield excellent results.

Then send it your sales and customer support folks – send it to the entire company. Anyone in your organization should be able to quickly and easily tell their family, friends and acquaintances what your company does.

The positioning document is a great tool that will help you to infuse your brand in those who've got the most power over upholding or degrading it – your employees.