Imagine that your brand is a bank account.

You contribute to your account when you do things that reinforce your distinctiveness and value to your customer. This may be consistently posting interesting content through social media. It could maintaining a blog that attracts readers that care about your industry. Delivering exceptional customer service counts too. Every positive thing you do to add value to your brand increases you brand account.

What’s great about a brand account is that it also accumulates compounding interest over time. The more you put in, the more currency you can accumulate over time. And as any financial expert will tell you, compounding interest is a secret to building wealth. The only difference is that you can’t just put a ton into your account upfront and expect it will keep growing. You need to consistently contribute to your account or you’ll get penalized.

So what’s the point of building up your brand currency? What can you do with it?

When done right, brand currency can be exchanged for real currency.

When you’re a brand that people trust, when people are committed to your brand because they know what you stand for and care about what you’re doing, when you introduce a new product, when you offer a package deal, they’ll want to support you by buying from you.

On the other hand, if your brand account is low, why should people buy from you? You haven’t earned their loyalty yet. You haven’t provided enough value that would compel them to support you. You haven’t put in enough to give them any reason why you matter.

Build up your brand currency and reap the dividends.