Brandmerry Blog Archives
Crafting Your Brand Messages with 3 Must Have Tips
Crafting Your Brand Messages with 3 Must Have Tips
Today I'm talking to you all about messaging. You guys, messaging is my freaking gluten-free bread and vegan butter. Here's the thing. Messaging is key. It is so freaking important, and I don't want us to get confused between content and messaging, because I truly believe that content is the live video that you put out there and the social media posts that you do. The training that you make. The freebie that you create. Your messaging is the core. Your messaging is really what it is you do and why your audience should care. I say this a ton, but if you can read a piece of content and you can't identify why your audience should give a shit about that piece of content, then your messaging isn't strong enough.
#1: Why Should Your Audience Care
I have written emails and asked myself that question at the end, and it was like you're just talking about nothing here Michelle, delete it. It's so freaking true. That's the number one thing. Let's dive right in. Number one is ask yourself why should my audience care about what I'm saying? If you can't answer that, it's time to dig a little bit deeper. Messaging is key, because messaging really paints a picture of what it possible for your audience. I love using messaging as a core of my business, so I actually work with all of my clients to create 10 to 15 core brand messages that say what they do, why their audience should care, and how it benefits their audience. Building basically their programs, their content, everything from these 15 core brand messages.
#2: Go Further
Number one again is asking your audience, asking yourself why should my audience care? Number two, is going further. Oftentimes we'll write a bullet or we'll write, "Hey, if you join this freebie, you'll learn X, Y and Z." We'll say something like, "You'll learn how to really tap into your story." I don't know about you, but I just heard crickets between all of my audience, because unless you really know me and have been following me for six months, you're probably like, "Great Michelle, I'll let you tap into this story, but I don't know what that actually means for me."
I always tell my audience, go a step further. When you think you're done, keep going further. If I thought I was done with tapping into your story, I would be so freaking wrong, but if I went a step further, I would say, "Hey, tap into your story so that you can create that standout brand and really position yourself as an expert online." That's something my audience knows to be true. That is something that my audience can say, "I need that." Because that's the key to messaging. We want our audience to basically raise their hand and say, "Give it to me, please."
Talking about connection, we're talking about the connection and the trust that you built that has your audience saying, "I need that. I want that." If you're no longer feeling so pushy with your offers, because people can read exactly what is in your offer and say, "Oh my gosh, give me that now please." Again, you want to really take it a step further. When you think that your messaging is clear, ask yourself why should my audience care, and frame it in a way that your audience actually understands. I'm going to give you a really good example because I just love examples. I don't know about you. Oftentimes I'll ask my clients, "What does your audience want?" They all want more money. Great, but what do they really want? They want more money so that they can go out and buy things.
#3: Be Specific
What would they buy? What would they buy with that money? They want to travel, they want to take that dream vacation, they want to save for their home, they want to have money so they can leave their nine to five, they want to be able to send their kids to a good school, they want to pay off their debt. Now we're talking. Now when you create messaging, rather than say so that you can make a bunch of money, we'll say, so that you can pay off your debt, finally feeling free from the burden of debt. So that you can take that trip that you've been planning in the back of your mind for five years. So that you can leave your nine to five and spend time with your kids. Suddenly your audience gets it, and it clicks like this, and it's amazing. That's what the messaging should do.
A few things. I want you to ask yourself, "Why should my audience care?" I want you to always go a step further. I want you to be specific with the results that your audience is looking for, and I want you to be really clear. I want you to be clear with what you do and again, why and how it benefits your audience and I promise you that you will see as opt-in rates go up, you will see conversions go through the roof, you will see your ad costs move down. It's really amazing what happens when you spell it out for your audience and have your audience saying, "I need that. Give it to me, please."
It makes marketing so freaking easy. Take the time, do the messaging work, get really crystal clear on that, constantly asking yourself, "What more could I offer here? How specific could I be? Why should my audience give a shit?"
IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO WITH SOME BONUS TIPS WORKED IN YOU CAN DO SO BELOW!
Head over to Youtube and be sure to like and comment on the video while you are over on Youtube to help more people see this information ↠ https://youtu.be/dKFAQe4awjs
And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!
Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>
How to Write a Magnetic Brand Bio for Your Online Business
When you have an online business it is super important that people actually understand what it is you do and how YOU, yes you, do it better than anyone else.
Your brand bio is such an important piece of the branding puzzle because it builds trust instantly; if people can understand what it is you do from the very beginning they are more likely to keep following you and check out more of your offers.
And lucky for you I have a super simple formula that you can follow to craft a truly magnetic bio that not only introduces what you do to your audience but has them seeing how it will benefit them.
This is the key difference between a bio that converts and one that, well, doesn’t. If your audience is missing how what you do affects them, then they won’t see why they should take action.
Begin with a Little Intro
Then go into Your Hook
Finish up with Your Accomplishments
Let's dive into the step-by-step:
#1 Little Intro
You are more than just a business owner and honestly, it’s the little details that make you more relatable, which builds trust faster. This is a great way to begin with that human aspect and share some fun details about you.
Example: “Michelle is a mother, wife, world traveler, and storyteller.”
#2 Your Hook
This is super simple, honestly you answer three questions and you are golden.
Question One: Who are you and your title?
Please don’t spend too much time on this, because what will matter most to your audience is what you do. So pick it and move on!
Question Two: Who do you serve?
Think about the person you want to attract to your brand and business and plug that in here.
Question Three: What is your audience struggling with and what do they desire?
These two pieces are golden for your messaging and marketing in your business, and your brand bio is absolutely no exception. When you can connect with your audience exactly where they are and let them know you understand what they really want.
Now fill in the blanks. Watch the video below for a detailed explanation of crafting your hook!
I am ___________________(insert name & title) and I work with ____________________ (insert ideal client) who is struggling with ____________________________ (insert your audience’s struggle) by _____________________ (your superpower) so they can _____________________________ (insert desires).
#3 Your Accomplishments
It’s time to toot your own horn lady and share some of the amazing things you’ve done. No matter where you are at in your business I know you have accomplishments you are proud of. These can be your education, what you’ve done for others, the success of your business, and more.
When I started my business I hadn’t made any money, but that didn’t stop me from sharing what I had done.
Phase 1: I started a new online business with a brand-new baby
Phase 2: I left my 9 to 5 in just 9 months of starting my business, while raising a new baby
Phase 3: In just one year of launching my coaching business I created a 6-figure business
The video below goes into even more detail about identifying your accomplishments with some amazing questions from my community. Keep in mind it was created in 2019. To dive deeper into more recent content, you can watch my YouTube channel here.
Now that you have this truly magnetic brand bio I want you to share it with the world. Some of my favorite places to share my brand bio are:
At the beginning of all my live streams
On the homepage of my website
At the bottom of all my blog articles
Shared for podcasts and interviews I’m featured on
On my social media channels (hello consistency)
CONCLUSION
Your Brand Bio is one of the most important pieces of content you’ll create. If you can’t articulate who you are, what you do and who you serve how are people supposed to know?!
However, if you read this blog and started to think about all the pieces you still need to fine tune, it might be time for a little brand reboot.
Watch my upcoming FREE masterclass on The Build a Better Brand Method, where I’ll share everything you need in order to create a brand that stands out on social media, attracts your ideal customer and leads to a revenue-generating business.
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Meet Michelle
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
Personal Branded Website: 3 Must-Have Pieces to Grow Your Audience
Personal Branded Website: 3 Must-Have Pieces to Grow Your Audience
Today I'm gonna talk to you about your home base, also known as your website. One thing that I wanna get out of the way in the very beginning is that, you do not need website to start selling. You do not need a website right off the bat. Too many entrepreneurs spend hours and days and weeks and months (if you're like me) building this beautiful website, doing this beautiful launch, and then you're just expecting people to come. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work out that way.
However, when the time does come of you to create your website, when you're feeling really grounded in your story and your messaging and your ideal client, I wanted to give you three things that are definitely needed on your home base.
1. Your Story
This is not going to come as a shock. I literally want your story on every single page of your website. So, on my website, you can find out more about my story on my homepage. I have a whole entire page dedicated to my story. On every single product or course page, you know a little bit about me. It's also integrated into my blog, as well as all the different moving parts of my website. There's a reason for that. It's because as online entrepreneurs, we want to build trust. We want to make friends with our ideal client. There's no faster way to do that, than sharing your story, sharing your truth, so that people feel like they already know you and get you and understand you right away.
There are so many different ways to do it. I always recommend having a solid page dedicated to your story, and I don't hold back with my story. I love going into beautiful, beautiful detail and taking my clients on a journey, which I think is very very important. But sharing it on other pages can be very small. You don't have to go into great, great detail, but it's really important to always have something about you, who you are, your truth on the different pages of your website.
2. Consistency
So, we're building on this whole trust factor, right? We want our audience to trust us from the get go, that is what allows them to invest. Not only in themselves, but also in our businesses. Consistency is really important, because nothing breaks trust than inconsistency. In the online entrepreneur world, if you're a service-based entrepreneur, you probably know about lead magnets, which we're gonna be talking about in just a second.
One of the key things we talk about is, if you're running a Facebook ad, and you're sending people to a landing page, you want the ad and the landing page to be consistent. You don't wanna break that trust. Well the same goes with your website. If someone lands on your homepage, and then they go to a work with me page, it needs to be consistent. And then they head over to the blog, continuing that consistency. So, you're taking your ideal client on a seamless journey around your website. Leaning more and more about who you are, what you have to offer, all of the fun little resources and things that you put together for your audience.
A couple key ways to do that are through choosing your fonts, being consistent with your colors, being consistent with your photos, and being consistent with your emotions, which I talked to you about in the last video. If you haven't watched that yet, go ahead and watch it right here. You will understand a lot more about emotion after watching that video. But that is going to help you choose these pieces that allow your brand to be consistent. The other piece that people sometimes miss out on, is their messaging and their copy. So, making sure that your language and your voice is very consistent on the different pages all through your website. And a little bonus tip, do yourself a favor and just carry over that consistency onto social media as well.
3. Call to Action
Some sort of engagement. We often miss out on this on our websites. With the way social media is working today, if you were utilizing Pinterest, you're getting traffic onto your website, people are finding you via Google, maybe they're finding you through your Facebook group, a Podcast that you recently did, right? People are finding us all different ways online, that we really wanna give them the opportunity to continue learning from us, to continue building that trust and that connection with each other.
I always recommend on every page, yes, I said every page, there is some sort of call to action on your website. I'll give you a couple of examples that I absolutely love. On my homepage, brandmerry.com, I have two of my top free resources, and a way that people can connect with me in Authentic Brand Builders. So, they can join my email list, and join my private community. On my story page at the very bottom, we have a call to action for a freebie. One of my top freebies, and to work with me.
Obviously, on a work with me page, the call to action is work with me. And on my blog, on every single page, I even have some sort of free offer. So, I am giving my audience tons and tons of value and giving them the opportunity to continue building this relationship off of the website. You wanna have a way to capture your audience, keep and build their trust, and then carry on that relationship so it can lead to future sales. It's really really important. It could be something as simple as a workbook or a PDF. Here's a video I recorded on finding the right free offer for you.
But what I highly recommended you do, is give away a gift. Give something of value, something that is totally on brand for you, but don't just ask for an email address. I really believe gone are the days of saying, "Sign up for our newsletter." People want an email with value, right? If they're gonna give away their email address, which we all know is like writing someone a check, right? Our emails are very important to us, we want to give them something in return. Do yourself a really quick favor, put together a PDF or video or something that's really on brand, plaster it on your website, giving them the opportunity to continue to learn from you, and build that relationship and connection.
IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO WITH SOME BONUS TIPS WORKED IN YOU CAN DO SO BELOW!
Head over to Youtube and be sure to like and comment on the video while you are over on Youtube to help more people see this information ↠ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZtt2PM4GbI&feature=youtu.be
And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!
Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>
How to Attract Your Dream Clients Through Emotional Branding
Learn how to attract your dream clients through emotional branding. Emotions are the reason we buy and are the difference between a scroll past your brand and a life-time client. Something as simple as the emotion of your brand can change everything. Learn why it’s so important AND how to choose your brand emotions here!
Today I'm going to teach you the single thing that has to be present in your branding in order to attract those amazing dream clients and to make money in your business.
I'm talking about emotion.
WHY IS EMOTIONAL BRANDING SO IMPORTANT?
People buy based on emotion. In fact, a Harvard study reported that, “Emotion is what really drives the purchasing behaviors, and also, decision making in general.”
Emotion is the #1 decision-maker when it comes to making a purchase decision, so if you’re solely focused on the logistics of your offer and aren’t going a level deeper to connect with your audience you’ll miss out every single time.
If your social media posts are falling flat, look at emotion.
If your offers aren’t selling, look at emotion.
If your sales calls aren’t ending in a sale, look at emotion.
It plays a role in everything you create so the first thing you need to do is identify which emotions you want to portray through your brand.
Because by having a strong emotional component to your marketing and selling efforts (i.e. your brand overall) you’ll be able to attract the right people and repel the wrong ones - leading to better conversions and brand loyalty overall.
So how do you attract your dream client through emotional branding?
With these steps of course!
LEAD WITH EMOTION
In a recent Youtube video (which you can watch below), I shared how to sell in your business without being salesy and how an important key to sales was based on trust and connections with your community. One of the top ways to do that is to always lead with emotion.
Think about the last time you cried, you were happy, you were sad. We are drawn to emotions. So we want to play on this and pull people to our brand by making them feel something.
Now maybe you're like, "Okay, how's my brand suppose to make people feel something?" I get that question a lot. But it's really easy. And what's really fun is that most of the time it comes from the aesthetics.
Your aesthetics are like the sprinkles on top of a solid foundation (aka the branding cake)! This is what instantly pulls your audience to you, stops them mid-scroll and hooks them in a sea of information.
You have 15 seconds to do just this and that’s why emotional branding is so important.
**If you want some help setting a strong brand foundation, you need to watch my free on-demand training where I’ll teach you my signature Build a Better Brand Method! I’m sharing the exact steps needed to build a strong foundation for your revenue-generating business.
IDENTIFY THE EMOTIONS
I love to pull emotion through the aesthetics.. It's probably my number one place; through the type of font that you choose, through your colors, through the type of messaging that you have on your website, through the type of videos that you create.
There are all kinds of different ways that you can really get this emotion across in your branding. But before you can get there, you have to first identify what those emotions are.
Start with your story. You always have to look inward when you're creating your brand.
After you've really looked inward at your story, start to think about your audience.
How do you want to connect your story to your audience?
What do you want to make your audience feel when they see or hear your brand?
This is really important. How do you want to make them feel?
ACTION STEP: Choose at least five words that can be used as your brand emotions. These brand emotions can help you again create your entire brand, all of the aesthetics, the colors, even the fonts.
When you start focusing on what your audience fells, everything inside your business changes!
WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT
Every day we're scrolling and scrolling and scrolling online. The average time someone spends on a website is 15 seconds. So imagine, if you don't grab their attention within 15 seconds, they're gone.
Potential clients, money, right? Gone in what could be 15 seconds. Probably even faster, if we're scrolling through our phones, so you really want to capture them by making them feel something. Great photos capture them, but copy is what converts!
So I love to carry those emotional feelings over into my copy. When I write a piece of copy, I want my audience to say, "Oh, man. That made me really think."
Or, "Oh, that really inspires me."
Or, "I want that too."
Start identifying how you want your audience to feel. Not necessarily just the action you want them to take, although important, but getting down to the root of how you want them to feel.
Something we're all really good at is saying, "Hey, buy this program. This is doing this. Sign up here. Join me here." But what we miss out on is why your audience should care, why your audience should join you. How will that make them feel? Why your audience should tap to learn more? What will they learn? How will that better them? How will that make them feel?
Start really thinking of your people as people and start carrying that over into your branding. I promise you when you start incorporating the emotional aspect to your branding you are going to start seeing consistent clients coming in.
You become irresistible to your audience. I like to say bold and captivating.
A bold, captivating and money-making brand sounds really good to me.
And it all starts with the emotional side of your business.
NEXT STEPS
Another layer of Emotional Branding is the use of story in every single piece of your business. From your brand mission to brand aesthetics to the content you create and the programs you offer, story is the key.
Story allows you to continuously connect with your audience, making them feel seen, heard and understood - which is so important.
And to top it all off, posts with story are 22x more memorable than ones without.
If you’re ready to take the next steps in building a brand that stands out on social media, creates high-value content for your audience and build a community that leads to a revenue-generating business…
…I’ve got a free class just for you!
Inside this free class you’ll learn The Build a Better Brand Method.
P.S. Have you tuned into The Brandmerry Podcast? Every week, I’m releasing new episodes with my top tips for branding and marketing your business. You can find it now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
If you prefer to watch this content, you can do so below!
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MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
How to Connect Your Brand to Your Audience
HOW TO CONNECT YOUR BRAND TO YOUR AUDIENCE
Something I'm really good at is identifying the brand story in female entrepreneurs, and what I've been hearing a lot from my community is, "Okay, well, once I identify that brand story, how do I then connect my brand to my audience?" So today I wanted to talk to you about two simple steps that need to happen in order to do that. I love simple, so let's break this down, shall we.
#1 FEEL ROOTED IN YOUR STORY
Number one, is you've really gotta feel rooted and grounded in your story, and I love to actually give my brand story kind of a persona, and for a lot of us, it's us. We are our brand. But if for someone reason you don't have a personal brand, then go ahead and give your brand a personality.
I encourage you to identify the purpose, mission and value of your brand. For example, my brand values freedom, authenticity, honesty and transparency. Those are some of the core values of myself and of my brand, and I love to get that through in everything that I do in my business.
Now, the purpose of my brand is to really empower women to share their story through authentic branding, to show up as they are, and share their voice, their message with those that need to hear it most. Then we could say that my mission is really, again, to not only empower women to uncover their story but also own their story so that we can create a ripple effect of women just owning their shit and getting shit done.
So, that's really my brand, and you can see that when you give those pieces, the values, the purpose, the mission; then your brand becomes so much more. That's what I really want you to take away from anything I talk about in regards to branding. Your brand should be so much more than just what we typically think about when we think about branding, right, logo, color, font.
So, number one is to really identify the values, your purpose, the mission, any other key pieces that you want to throw in there as well, so you feel really solid in who your brand is. Not just what, but who your brand is.
#2 Know Your Audience
Now, the second piece of the puzzle, because we're talking about how do we connect our brand to our audience, is knowing your audience. You can't begin to connect with your audience if you don't actually know what your audience values, what your audience is struggling with, what your audience is really looking for and what inspires your audience. These are all really important pieces, and honestly allow you to not only connect your brand, but to come up with amazing content effortlessly, as well.
So, you want to start thinking about your audience at this point and time. Once you feel rooted in your brand and you've looked inward, then it's time to kind of look outward and do the market research. But after you've done that, it's about really identifying what your audience needs in this moment.
So, what are they struggling with?
What pieces of your story will connect with your audience?
And it's not always everything in that moment. When I started my business, I shared very little about the birth of my son. I talked a lot about struggling with my 9:00 to 5:00. I talked about my son being present, but I didn't necessarily go into all the details of the vulnerability and the mindset and all that stuff because it just didn't resonate with my audience at the time. As my audience has grown and my mission has grown, now I openly talk about vulnerability and dealing with perfectionism, and how that resulted in an 80-hour labor. Yes, an 80 hour labor.
So, you can see that this is going to change. It's not saying that you can't share every piece of your story, but it's identifying which pieces to share in that moment, how best to connect with your audience, how best to inspire them to take action, because no matter what it is that you have a business around, whether it's health and wellness, life coaching, business coaching, branding, maybe you're an accountant, maybe you're into marketing, you're a virtual assistant, it doesn't matter. You really want to be able to connect with your audience, and ultimately you want your audience to take action.
Don't be afraid to ask. You will be surprised how much amazing content you can get from your audience, which will only allow you to better connect your brand to what they really need most, and as a result, they will take action.
If you want to watch the entire video WITH SOME BONUS TIPS WORKED IN YOU CAN DO SO BELOW!
Head over to Youtube and be sure to like and comment on the video while you are over on Youtube to help more people see this information ↠ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iFcZX2BqDY&t=3s
And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!
Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>