The Importance of Branding in 2022 and Beyond

Nov 12

Written By brandmerry

**This content has been updated to reflect 2022 trends in branding and marketing.

If you’re a business owner, my hope is you’re always forward-thinking.

Thinking about how you want to grow your online community.

How you want to increase your sales.

How you want to launch and sell a new product or offer.

Increasing your brand exposure through media and features.

Get clarity on your next income level and how to get there.

And this type of forward-thinking feels so powerful as we approach the end of a year, quarter, or month in business.

My hope is that these are the types of things that you're constantly thinking about as a way to improve and scale your business.

And each of those things I shared above, plus many more, depend on how solid your brand is.

Didn’t think I was going to say that did you? Or maybe you did?

But, the truth is so many entrepreneurs don’t see that their success is deeply dependent on how solid and defined their brand is. This blog will help you do just that!

If you prefer to consume the content via video, you can scroll down to watch the video below.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING

Having a solid brand impacts the success of your marketing.

It allows you to craft messaging that pulls in your audience.

Having a solid brand allows you to know what to use for SEO to rank on Google.

Having a solid brand tells you the type of copy and imagery to use on Facebook ads and Pinterest ads so that they convert into lower ad costs and higher conversions.

Having a solid brand tells you what type of product or service you're going to put out into the world that's in alignment with what you want to provide and what your audience needs.

Having a solid brand is important, and it is the foundation of the things that you can achieve in your business.

Without a solid brand, your marketing will suffer.

But how do you know if your brand is truly solid?

SIGNS YOUR BRANDING ISN’T COMPLETE

Use the indicators below to help you determine if your current brand has some gaps. Make it a priority to fill those gaps so you can move forward with confidence in marketing your brand and business.

👉 YOU’RE STRUGGLING TO MAKE SALES

Now, maybe it's your first sale, maybe you made a sale three months ago, but you're having trouble signing another client, or making another sale into your paid offers.

The thing to keep in mind is that selling doesn't happen at the moment that someone's like, "I want to buy your product." It's happening long before.

It's happening the first time they come across your social media channel, your freebie, your Facebook ad, your website. That's when it's starting and that is branding.

That first feeling they get when they see your brand, the messaging that they're picking up on, that this is exactly what they need in their lives at this moment, how you're following up, your email campaign, the live streams you're doing, the podcasts, that's branding. And that's selling.

The selling process has to start long before you actually send an email that says, "By the way, guys, selling this thing." Because if it doesn't, you're going to notice that you don't sell any of the things. Because nobody really knows what you're about, people might not trust you. If you don't email them ever or have clear, consistent content, they might not even know who the hell you are.

These are important pieces of branding.

So if you're struggling to make a sale, or let's just even say consistent sales, even consistent money, it's possible that you have a branding problem.

👉 YOUR MESSAGE IS ALL OVER THE PLACE

I often get messages from potential clients and community members saying, "Michelle, I'm looking for support. I want to work one-on-one with somebody. My biggest hurdle is that I feel like my message is all over the place."

If you feel like your message is all over the place, I can tell you with 100% certainty that that is a branding problem.

How you show up, how you share what you do in a way that clearly communicates to your audience that it's for them and how it will benefit them is part of your brand. So if you feel like your message is all over the place, it could be two different things.

One, it could be your social channels, and your website, and your emails all look very different. They all sound very different. There's not a clear linear message.

It could also be that anytime you're talking about your product or an offer, maybe you're in the middle of a launch, all your messaging is different. There's no clear, "This is the program. This is who it's for. And this is how it will benefit you," or, "This is the product. This is who it's for. This is how it will benefit you."

That is a sign that your message is all over the place.

And maybe you've already felt it, you aren't successful with your selling, because people aren't really sure what it is that you're doing and how it's going to support them. And that's huge.

👉 YOUR WEBSITE ISN’T CONVERTING

Your website is the experience that you get to control, and there's no algorithm.

If your website isn't converting, it is a branding problem.

Because if people don't understand who you are and what you can help them with, they will peace out and they will do it very quickly.

I very rarely talk about aesthetics as it relates to branding, but the reality is that with your website, those photos, those colors, those aesthetics, those fonts, that one-liner at the top, that can make or break someone staying on your website or bouncing right off.

Eight seconds, 10 seconds, 12 seconds. That's the timeframe of people saying, "Is this for me? Is this not for me? Okay. Bye."

The photos and those pieces of your branding pull them in really, really quickly, and then it's all about your language and your messaging to keep them captivated and to convert them. So if you have a website, if you're getting traffic, and it's not converting, we have a branding problem.

These are three examples of a possible hole in your branding, but there are so many signs your branding might not be solid.

Learn How You! branded Can Help

THE IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING IN 2022 AND BEYOND

There is a surge in demand for online businesses because of the shifts that happened in 2020. Not only did so many businesses need to move online in order to continue to make money, but consumers began to move their buying process entirely online. We’ve seen this shift continue to sustain for an entire year, with online shopping becoming one of the leading ways to buy goods and services.

And because of this demand for online businesses, there is also a surge in new businesses. We are currently in the middle of The Great Resignation, where we are seeing a large number of employees leaving the traditional workforce and starting online businesses.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise.

However, it brings up the reality that more and more people are starting online businesses which means the market is becoming more crowded, so how do you stand out?

YOUR BRAND.

It is more important than it has ever been, because of the demand, and because of more people wanting to meet the demand, for you to focus on your personal brand than it has ever been.

I'm going to say that one more time.

It is more important now than it has ever been for you to have a solid brand.

Because if you want to stand out in your industry, if you want to make sure that when people are looking for your product or your service, that they find you, and then they buy from you, not just shop around, but actually convert, your brand needs to be solid.

MY 6-PART FRAMEWORK FOR BRANDING

NUMBER 1: DEFINE YOUR NICHE

Your niche will impact every direction you’ll take in your business.

Your niche will impact the language and the messaging.

And this first level, allows you to clearly say to someone, "Hey, this is who I am, and this is what I do."

But, a lot of entrepreneurs can't do that, and they can't do it with confidence because they feel all over the place.

Bonus Tip: Your niche has to be specific. I know you don't want it to be, I know you want to have 25 niches. I know because I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of women. You're not alone when you have this feeling.

But if you are starting out, and you are wanting to grow, and you are going to want to consistently grow, you need to be specific.

Starting small and getting specific allows you to grow faster.

NUMBER 2: KNOW THY IDEAL CUSTOMER

Who do you want to attract?

Who do you want to work with?

Because it can't be everyone. I know you want it to be everyone. I know you want to be able to help everyone. Me too. I want to help a lot of people.

But by going too wide, just like with your niche, you aren't able to get specific with your messaging. Your ideal customer needs to be clear, and there's no way around skipping market research.

I don't care what anyone tells you. You can't skip market research. I've worked with plenty of people who have, and then they come to me, and they're like, "This isn't working."

And I know why it's not working. You can't skip market research.

Bonus Tip: Now, market research doesn't mean that you have to go post in a Facebook group or put a survey out there.

There are a lot of different ways to do market research that doesn't involve that, that just involve reading forums, and Amazon book reviews, and all kinds of stuff like that. But you need to know your ideal customer. And the reason for that is because you can think in your head what people want to hear, and you can make generalizations, but until you get their very specific language on what they're struggling with and what they want, your messaging won't convert.

You can write all the copy, you can write all the messaging in the world, but if you don't really, really know your ideal customer, and what they're going through, and what's standing in their way, and what they want, your messaging won't work.

I teach this in great detail inside of my course You! Branded. This is your final chance to purchase this personal branding course before January 2, 2022.

NUMBER 3 & 4: YOUR MESSAGE AND VOICE

Your message is how you communicate who you are and what you do to your audience in a way that has them saying, "I need that. Oh, I get how this is going to help me. Oh, that's crystal clear. Yes, please. Sign me up."

Your message is so, so important.

Again if sales pages are not converting, email is not converting, webinars, live videos, challenges, that's all messaging. And so, one of the things that I teach in my framework are these core brand messages, really identifying the different things that you provide and how they benefit your audience.

In conjunction with your messaging comes your voice. How will you present yourself to the world?

You need to think about who you are and the qualities that make you, you.

Then it’s about amplifying those online. How can you showcase that in your videos? How can you showcase that in your photography? How can you showcase that in your style and language?

Number three is where you pull together the first two building blocks. Your messaging and your voice are really bringing together your niche, who you are, what you provide, who you want to serve, and communicating that with the world.

NUMBER 5: YOUR OFFER

Number four is your offer. I believe that your offer is part of the branding process. So many people are like, "Let me brand myself, and then I'll figure out my offer."

But I believe in figuring out your offer while you’re here. You already know your niche if you're in my process. You already know what you want to be known for in your industry. You already know who you want to serve. You already know how it's going to benefit them.

Let's just put it together in an offer. Why would we wait?

So knowing your offer and knowing it BEFORE going in really heavy in your marketing is important. Because knowing your offer right out of the gate will help you reverse engineer your content, so you can hit the ground running and say, "Oh, this is my offer. This is what I'm selling. These are the pieces of content that I'm going to share over the next 90 days to sell that offer.

This is the freebie that I'm going to create to bring people in, to buy my offer. This is how I'm going to show up so that people buy my offer."

The cool part is if you’re following my process, your offer isn’t hard. At this point, you’re just deciding on the logistics of how to serve your ideal customer. The problem, struggle, and desire are already clear to you and you can craft an offer that supports your ideal customer at the highest level.

NUMBER 6: EMOTIONAL BRANDING

And then the final piece, number five, is my signature baby, and its emotional branding.

Emotional branding is how you connect deeply with your ideal customer. Because again, and especially heading into 2021 and beyond, if we not only want to stand out but also form a deep trusting bond with our audience, you need emotional branding.

People make decisions based on how they feel.

They make purchase decisions based on how they feel.

So inside of the emotional branding phase, you want to define HOW you want people to feel when they come in contact with your brand.

And once you identify that, that is when you can put the finishing touches on your colors, your fonts, and your visuals and overall aesthetics of your brand.

CONCLUSION

As you went through those, did you notice an area where you need to take some time to build a more solid brand?

Is something missing from your existing brand that’s affecting the overall success and growth of your business?

I’m really challenging you to start looking at your business with a mirror. Hold a mirror to your business and discover what’s working and what's not and make changes.

Self-evaluate your business. It's one of the best exercises you can do as a business owner.

If you haven't already now is the BEST time to join my signature branding program, You! Branded. This is your final chance to join to program before January 2, 2022. After that time it will no longer be available for purchase.

Get You! Branded Now

If you’re interested in customized support for your brand, I encourage you to explore my Brand Intensives. This VIP experience gives you the tools you need to build a solid brand and strategize the best way to increase brand exposure, awareness, and overall sales.

I have limited spots available monthly and you can learn more at brandmerry.com/intensive.

Branding and Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry

P.S. Don’t forget to check out You! Branded before your chance to join disappears. This course will give you a step-by-step guide to building your signature brand and solid business foundation in the first 21 days of the New Year!

Learn more at youbrandedcourse.com