Four scores, kept once a month on one sheet, tell you whether your brand is getting stronger. Each is a question you answer from one to five in a few minutes. Twelve months of them show which way you are going and which one to work on next.
Here are the four questions, how to score them honestly, and what to do with the lowest.
Why four scores beat a screen of numbers
The numbers that are easiest to get, followers, likes and views, say the least about whether your brand is getting stronger. They jump with a giveaway and dip in a quiet week. What matters is slower and simpler: whether people understand you, recognise you and find what they came for.
A coffee roaster watches followers climb after a giveaway while the orders stay where they were. Four honest scores a month tell him more than the follower count ever did.
The four questions
Score each from one to five: one means not at all, five means every time.
Do my posts answer what customers ask? Look at last month's messages and comments, and count how many of the questions got a post. Sorting what customers write to you shows you what the questions are.
Would people recognise my post without my name on it? Cover the name on your last few posts and ask whether the look alone says it is you. A look people remember is one you keep for years.
Does my Instagram match my website? Same products, same prices, same look, same way of speaking. A stranger's thirty seconds on both is the quickest check.
Am I selling what people search for? Hold what you post and stock against the questions people type into Google before they buy what you sell.
A candle label scores its first question a two: five people asked about burn time last month, and no post answered it.
Score from what you can see
Score the month on evidence, not on how it felt. Next to each score, write one line that proves it: the questions nobody answered, the post a customer recognised without the name. Same day each month, same four questions, same sheet.
A florist gives herself a four on "Instagram matches the website" and writes down why, then finds last year's Christmas prices still on the website. It becomes a three, and she fixes the prices that afternoon.
One simple picture, kept every month, tells you more than five screens checked once.
Work on the lowest
Twelve columns across, four rows down. After three months you see the direction; after twelve you see the year. Each month, pick the lowest score and do one thing about it. The article linked to each question shows how.
The coffee roaster keeps twelve months of scores on one sheet. "Selling what people search for" sits at two all spring, so he spends the summer on it, and it reaches four by autumn while the other three hold.
What CP3® does here
Brand Scan scores four measures monthly: relevance, distinctiveness, consistency and market alignment. It is a second picture to keep next to your own. The sheet, the evidence behind each score and the choice of what to work on next stay with you.