Branding is so much more than finding great color schemes and matching them to pretty fonts. If this is brand-new information for you and you feel like changing your palette every couple of days, chances are you’re not completely clear on your brand’s overall mission. To effectively position your brand online and be seen as the industry leader that you are, you have to go deeper. This will help you stand out from the competition while developing a personal brand that looks just like you.
It’s time to move away from surface-level branding and dig deeper into your brand’s overall mission.
If you are still operating from your very first brand strategy (maybe downloaded from a template in Canva) and are not seeing any traction, it’s time to switch things up. Let’s take some serious steps towards your goals. It’s easy to outgrow your business as you grow, and your brand strategy should follow.
Whether you’re a service provider, a coach, a serial entrepreneur or anything in between, the challenge every business owner faces is similar: building a unique brand that attracts clients on auto-pilot. Without a strong brand strategy, you risk creating a repetitive, monotonous and flat-out brand no one will be interested in. You need a system that can clearly state who you are and what you do while encapsulating your message and mission.
How? By effectively positioning your brand online through brand alignment work.
Brand aligning means taking a step back to make sure your brand is optimized for success. This is usually done by polishing up your brand strategy and reviewing what is working vs what isn’t. Remember, this doesn’t necessarily mean you will need to re-brand. Unless you are going in a completely new direction or you are scaling faster than expected, you don’t want to rebrand every few years. Instead, you want to be as clear as possible so that your vision and mission will stay the same throughout the years, as your business grows.
Effectively position your brand online through powerful messaging
Messaging is how people perceive you through words, tone, language, voice and any other type of communication. Having a carefully selected range of words/sentences to use in your business will reinforce your brand and will help your audience decide if you are a great match – don’t overlook it!
This goes much deeper than you think! Your messaging is your inner compass and will guide your audience to you and vice versa. Think of creating that community feeling, or BFF feeling with your audience.
When you are reviewing your brand strategy, take a step back from the actual document itself and consider the wording, tone of voice and impression you have. Move away from your desk and read your brand strategy document from top to bottom in front of the mirror! What kind of emotions is evoking in you? Is it matching with the vibe you set for your brand?
Are you talking to the right people?
This part of the brand strategy is very delicate. Sometimes we feel attached to our audience without realizing they might not be our target audience. Or, more often than not, we tend to call in less-than-ideal clients. This can have many reasons, but the main goal here is to ensure you are attracting and nurturing the right people. Double-check your messaging!
Don’t stop understanding who your ideal client is, but go the extra mile. Break down your client process so that you can create a proper sales funnel for them. This will make a huge difference in your business! It will allow you to streamline your process and narrow it down to the right people, while you stay in your zone of genius.
Don’t be blindsided and check your competitors
The word “competitor” has a bad connotation and sometimes tends to cloud our judgment. In truth, competitors are one of the most important parts of your business because they will oftentimes validate your business idea or give you proof of what is possible when you target the right people with the right messaging. (steps 1 and 2 from above!).
To effectively position your brand online, you have to pay attention to your competitors AND your collaborators. The only difference here is that competitors serve or target a similar niche or industry, while collaborators might focus on a different area while sharing similar audiences with you.
Collaborators, competitors and people in your same industry can help you determine your road map to success, whatever that may look like for you. Think of them as people who walked many paths so that you don’t have to (or so that you can do differently!). Paired with all components of your brand strategy, you can create a complete, timeless brand.
Effectively position your brand online and create a personal brand that will effortlessly attract clients to you, the way you want to.
If you’re ready to make your brand online-ready, hit me up! My team and I are curious and always eager to support purpose-driven businesses like yours. Hop on a free chat to discuss whether we can create some magic together!
