Brandmerry Blog Archives

brandmerry 8/2/18 brandmerry 8/2/18

How To Use Masculine and Feminine Energy in Your Branding

How to use masculine and feminine energy in your business and branding

When I started this entrepreneur journey I didn't even know what masculine and feminine energy was, and maybe you're in that same boat. So today I'm sharing how you can use it not only in your business but your brand as well.

What is masculine and feminine energy?

Masculine energy is rooted in action taking, goal setting. They're big doers, competitive, direct and problem solvers. A lot of entrepreneurs lead with their masculine energy.

Feminine energy is rooted in intuition, community, feelings, collaboration and creativity. What is really important when understanding masculine and feminine energy is you need both of these things to create a strong business. So you have to first identify where you are, what you lead with and what you need more of.

I lead with my masculine side in both business and life. There became a point in my business where I recognized that, so I found a mentor that would help me tap into my feminine side. And it's really changed my business completely.

Which do you feel like you lead more with?

How Masculine and Feminine Energy Plays a Role in Running Your Own Business

We lead with one over the other, but the other one is still there. So what we need to do is bring the other one out more.

If you're more masculine, how can you add more flow and creativity to your business. Something that I started to do to bring out my feminine energy was dancing and yoga to bring out that flow. Also, mindset work brings out that feminine energy as well. Allow your feelings to come through and surrender or detach yourself from the how. Also, vulnerability and playfulness are so, so important in feminine energy which is something that played a role in my personal life once I had my son.

If you are more feminine, then you need to be really clear on your goals, time block, scheduling so you can balance that creativity with action taking. Where can you add in more structure and strategy?

How it plays a role in your branding and content creation to attract your audience

I don't see people talk about this too much, but it comes up all the time. And if you can think about your audience, what they need and what pulls them in, it's really really powerful in branding. The person on the other end has these energies too, they are human, they have layers as well. So if you ever feel like your brand it attracting two different people, it's actually the two different energies which is good.

If you can see which energy your audience leads with, tap into that and add in the energy they desire in your branding, you'll attract those people. Talk to people not only where they're at, but where they want to be. Create that experience and content that speaks to all pieces of your ideal client.

Head over to my Facebook Page and be sure to like and comment on the video while you are over there to help more people see this information ↠ https://www.facebook.com/brandmerrycoaching/videos/1772342736135388/

And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!

Branding and Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry

brandmerry 7/5/18 brandmerry 7/5/18

How to Use IGTV to Increase Brand Awareness

3 simple steps to a client converting about me page for your online business

How to Use IGTV to Increase Brand Awareness

IGTV is a new addition to Instagram. It's another way to show up on that platform, get super visible and increase brand awareness and it's all about video. Not only are we going to talk about how you can use IGTV to increase brand awareness, but also how you can use it if live video really scare you.

What is IGTV and How to Start Using It

Essentially it is a longer, pre-recorded video platform on Instagram where you can share content and do more of a Youtube style video. This gives us a beautiful opportunity to get clear on our messaging. Smaller brands only have the ability to share 10 minutes of content per video, which will help us be really clear and concise in our messaging and the content we are sharing.

The other thing I love is the cross promotion within the platform which we will talk about a little later in the post as well, but Instagram is giving you the ability to link straight to your IGTV videos in stories. You can share as an in-feed post, etc.

The next thing I want to talk about is hashtags. Hashtags are searchibility on Instagram and now we can use these in our IGTV videos. There's so much flexibility in one platform which I'm absolutely loving. If you know your audience is on Instagram, you can now focus on this one platform to start building massive brand awareness.

Afraid of Video? IGTV is your answer

We know how important video is - it's where we, and every platform are going because it really takes your brand to a new level. It's all about taking your business and brand to the next level because when you do video, your ideal client will start to feel like they know you. So video is so, so important for increasing brand awareness and building a successful business.

I know from talking to a lot of you that live video can be scary. You want to be using it, but it scares you and this is where IGTV comes in. IGTV kind of takes away the scariness of live video, but has the same feel of live video. This gives you the opportunity to practice, record yourself and still ask for engagement. It's an introduction to video that is really going to be so powerful for those of you who are just starting out in video. Not only are you increasing your brand awareness, but you're getting yourself comfortable with the camera. You also have the ability to share this on various platform, and what I love about IGTV, you can grab the URL and send people from your email to your IGTV. You can even cross-promote on other platforms as well like Facebook.

If live video scares you:

Get comfortable with camera
Play with asking for engagement
Sharing on various platforms

How to use it in your biz for brand awareness

1. Focus on building one community - Instagram

The idea of being on all of these platforms can be super scary, so I always recommend to start with one and focus on it, get really good, and then add another. What I love about Instagram is it gives you so many touch points, so I think it's a great platform to start with.

2. More personal and less polished than other video

IGTV gives you the opportunity to be more personal and less polished than Youtube or even live video. It's about showing up as who you are with an already established platform.

3. Now have 3 points of contact on IG (posts, stories and IGTV)

This gives you the ability to show up for your audience in different ways on just one platform. It's so important for you at this stage in online entrepreneurship to have these multiple touch points.

4. Sharing options (cross promotion - within stories, via email, accessible in feed)

I can now use the swipe up feature to my new IGTV episodes. I really think easy access is so important and Instagram allows you to make your videos super accessible. You can also pull the URL from your video and share it in an email or on Facebook. Extend the life of your content!

5. CONSISTENCY!

Be consistent with your postings. What time, what day and what type of content? Think of a TV show. This helps build trust and accountability within your community.

You can watch the whole video for a more in-depth version of this and several bonus tips below!

And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!

Branding and Business Coach | Branding Coach | Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry

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 >>

brandmerry 6/28/18 brandmerry 6/28/18

3 Things You Are Probably Doing Wrong With Your Brand and How to Fix Them

I'm really excited about today's content because I freaking love branding. Whether you are in a place where you already created your brand or a place where you haven't even started yet - this is for you. And all of the things I'm talking about today I've done, and that's why I'm sharing them with you. I thought "if I'm having a hard time doing this, and I understand branding, I'm sure others are struggling as well."

1. You Don't Believe It

You don't believe that your brand, your business, what you have to offer, is actually worth it. This is a big deal. If you're going to go through all the effort of building a brand and doing all the things, you have to believe in what you have to offer, and I mean really believe. If you don't see that what you have to offer is worth it, your "ideal" client isn't going to see it either.

The first thing I want you to do is look at your brand or the brand you want to create and ask yourself "do I really believe it?" I like to say that branding is the heart of your business and the logo and aesthetic is just the cherry on top. This is why I focus a lot on niche work because it is through your niche work where you really discover what you have to offer and why what you have to offer is the best. It's about really loving everything your doing with your brand and being excited to share it.

2. Believing if you build it they will come

Just because you build something does not mean people will begin pouring in. Just because you build a website does not mean you'll start getting clients. How do they even know about it? This is where visibility comes in. This is also why the website and the aesthetic stuff isn't the most important thing that you do or the first thing you should do. I like to say a website is the home base of your brand. If you don't know what you do and who you serve and your niche and all of those pieces then a website doesn't matter at all because you are going to have to redo it all once you have all that figured out. You need to be focused on visibility first and having all of those key pieces in place.

I would even suggest that one of the first aesthetic pieces of your brand be branded photos. When I got a photoshoot, everything changed. The posts were now getting comments and likes and people saying "I love what you're doing!"

3. You're boring

You're not making people feel anything. It's like having a conversation with someone who is watching TV. There's no depth or feeling with your brand. Your brand should make people feel something. It's not enough to just look pretty or sound pretty. You want people to read your copy, look at your site, look at a photo and think "I get this. I need this." You need to have an emotional component with your brand and this starts with your story. What do you want your audience to feel and think and do?

I want you to go look at your brand and ask yourself "what do I want people to feel? What do I want people to associate me with?" Make people feel something.

Want to flip the switch and create a captivating and money making brand? Join me in You! Branded.

You can watch the whole video for a more in-depth version of this and several bonus tips below!

And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!

brandmerry 4/5/18 brandmerry 4/5/18

How to Discover Your Niche {video inside}

How to Discover Your Niche

Today I'm really excited to share with you my top tips for coming up with a business idea and how to niche down in a way that allows you to attract your dream clients and standout online. Before I dive into my tips, I want to share with you about an upcoming master class that I have. It's on five simple steps to create an authentic brand that allows you to grow your community with ease and leads to more clients. For more information on the upcoming time, checkout this link: brandmerry.com/authenticbrand

1. Look at your story

Tip number one, which is my favorite thing to freaking talk about and it's about really looking back at your story. Really looking back at your life and seeing, "Hey, are there any signs about what I could continue to do, what I could build a business around?" This was really powerful for me in my business, because my background and education was in communication, it was in advertising and public relations. When I looked at the pieces that I really enjoyed among all those things that I had done, the branding element really stood out to me. Then it was the piece of my story after identifying what had really happened in my life on a personal level that it became clear that I wanted to really empower women to show up as their authentic selves. To not be stifled, to create a life and a business that resulted freedom.

So, for you what is it? What can you look back at your story, look back at some major transitions of your life and say, "Whoa, I really feel passionate about that. I really feel like I could create that into a business." Often times, everything we need is already inside of us. It just takes a couple minutes to look inward and say, "Oh, yes, that is important. Oh yes, I love that," and then put the energy towards actually making that happen.

2. Come up with a list

All right, number two, I want you to come up with a list of ideas that you have based on your story. So come up with a list of ideas of things that you could teach or you could guide other individuals on to create a business around. Then from that list I want to see if anything pops out for you. Are you getting really clear on who you actually want to attract to your business? 'Cause this is such an important part of niching down that often doesn't come until later in people's minds, but I want you to focus on it in the beginning.

What pieces of your story, what parts of the list are telling you, "Hey I want to work with women. I want to work with women who want to leave their nine to five. I want to work with the new moms." Right? Can you start to get an idea of the person that you want to attract to your new brand and your business. So that's step two. Listing out all of the possible things that you feel passionate about that you can share, that you can build a business around and are any of those pointing to a type of woman or man that you want to attract to your business.

3. Making the connection

Step number three, I call Making the Connection, but you might also consider it Narrowing the List Down. So what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at your list and maybe for a couple of those connectors, like a couple of those points you're like, "Whoa, I want to talk to the same type of person for each of these," and that's what we're going to look at. We're going to look at how can these be connected. Are there maybe five things that really point you to creating a business around branding? Are there three points that tell you really want to help individuals with mindset? Are there some parts of your story that keep popping up around marketing strategies? Looking for the consistency in that list and the things that keep popping up that pull your attention to that one topic.

This is how we start to niche down, because as humans we can do so much and many of you watching right now as entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs probably have so many talents and it's really hard to bundle them all up into one specific thing. But by focusing on it this way and kind of niching yourself down into more of a generalized theme allows you to focus on those different pieces. If marketing is popping up a lot, then you know that your niche is most likely marketing. If branding is popping up a lot, it tells you, "Hey, we need to focus a little bit on branding." And then, you also have the steps that you need to say, "Oh, I want to focus on branding and I want to help this particular person with the branding process." And that right there, the what you do and the who you want to attract is the most important of niching down.

BONUS TIP!

My bonus tip for you today is that you can really build a business around anything. It's about being really specific and clear what it is that you do, who you want to attract and how you market yourself to them. I have a video that I did earlier this year on messaging, so go ahead and click that, make sure that you watch that video, it's really, really important. That is the next piece after niching down and finding your ideal client. But remember that there are so many people in the world, and you truly can create a business for a particular audience, for your target market and know that whatever crazy idea ... They seem crazy now, I have seen crazier in the online space when it comes to business ideas. So feel good and feel grounded and what idea you have and know that it is possible for you.

I really hope that those tips were super helpful for you. If you want more of a workbook style, I do have a really cool niche workbook that has helped thousands of women. You can download that here: https://brandmerry.lpages.co/blog-discover-your-niche-workbook-opt-in/

It's all about niching down and it'll walk you through this entire process, which is going to be so valuable for you, especially if you are just now thinking of starting a business. In addition, don't forget to join me for the Five Steps To Creating An Authentic Brand masterclass, which you can join here, and that's going to be really powerful for you, because I'm sharing what my journey has really looked like from working nine to five busy mom to creating a six figure business in just a year of having my coaching business, and I'm going to be sharing those steps for you. I'm all about simplicity.

You can watch the whole video for a more in-depth version of this and several bonus tips below!

Head over to my YouTube Channel and be sure to like and comment on the video while you are over there to help more people see this information ↠ https://youtu.be/NzNhn373nvs

And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!

brandmerry 3/8/18 brandmerry 3/8/18

How to Grow Your Brand Audience

How to Grow Your Brand Audience

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

Prefer to watch the training? You can scroll down to get the info in video format as well.

Growing your brand audience should be a top priority for any business owner, entrepreneur and influencer.

The reality is without an audience, you’re going to have a very difficult time making money. If you have no one to sell to, how do you plan to do it?

If you’re struggling with How to Grow Your Brand Audience, I want to share three simple and actionable steps you can implement today to start building your audience.

This is not just about building an audience, or the number of followers, it’s about intentionally creating a community of brand fans and future clients.

If this is a topic that’s at the front of your mind and you’re ready to take action after reading this blog, then I’d love to invite you to my upcoming class to Build a Better Brand Method. You can find the details and choose the time that works best for you at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass.

Okay, let's dive into the 3 Steps to Grow Your Brand Audience.

1. Create a LEAD MAGNET YOUR AUDIENCE NEEDS

All right, so in the online space, it's important that we're constantly giving value to our community as a way to build trust. Everything you do online has to be rooted in building trust with your audience, this is where sales come from.

We also know that growing a list, a community of individuals who are interested in what we have to offer is important if we want to actually make money.

However, what so many entrepreneurs miss is the lead magnet/ free offer/ freebie (all can be used interchangeably as they mean the same thing).

When creating this lead magnet the goal is to create something so irresistible that your audience needs to get their hands on it and are ready to sign up (i.e. give you their name and email) at that moment.

Too many entrepreneurs are focusing on just creating a lead magnet that they don’t create something truly beneficial to their audience and of high value.

For this to work, you need to have an understanding of your audience, something I chat about in my free class.

In addition to this free offer meeting the needs of your target audience, it also needs to be packed with value - I can’t stress this enough. Remember, the idea with this lead magnet is that your audience, who probably doesn't know anything about you (i.e. cold audience), signs up for this lead magnet and gets their hands on it.

We want them to walk away able to take action, able to do something with what you've given them because this is where trust begins. To do this, to deliver value and not overwhelm your audience, it’s important to simplify the process. Be very descriptive with your lead magnet and make it a goal to solve one problem, not 20 problems. The more specific you are the better the results for your audience.

So the emphasis here is not only to create a lead magnet for your audience, which of course will grow your online community but to make sure that lead magnet is on brand, meets the need of your ideal customer and provides high-value.

If you’re looking for additional, blogs on building a free lead magnet you can check out the following…

How to Build a Profitable Email List

The Truth About Getting Subscribers Through Your Email List

4 Tools to Build Your Email List from Scratch

3 Ways to Improve Your Email Funnel When Growing Your List

2. UTILIZE VIDEO (ESPECIALLY LIVE VIDEO)

Oh my gosh, I love live video, I also love YouTube, but live video is hands down my favorite way to spread brand awareness and grow my audience.

Now the brand awareness component of this might be easy, right?

You're getting online video, you're talking about a really important topic, you're showing up, people are getting to know you, you're building that trust.

But what might not be as clear is, “how do I grow my audience with live video?”

Well, here is the key. You now have that freebie that we talked about in step number one, so every time you go on live video or release a prerecorded video, I want you to share that freebie, and I want you to talk about that freebie like it is the hottest thing that they have to get their hands on.

You can begin every live video sharing this freebie and saying, "Hey, take a hot second, click the link below, grab that freebie, right, and then come back here for those awesome tips!" As a result of this simple action, as well as reminding them at the end of the video, you're going to start growing your community with every single video that you do.

Additional ways to grow your audience using video is to direct people to other resources. This includes growing your private community (i.e. Facebook Group), sending them to a blog, telling them to see a post on Instagram, promoting your offers and more.

There are tons of really cool ways, to use live video to grow your audience, but a lot of entrepreneurs are giving this actionable step. If people are watching this video, taking time out of their schedule, they’re probably interested in the topic. You have to give them a CTA (call to action) if you want them to take action.

If we don't tell our audience these awesome resources that we have, they're never going to know that they exist. So, do yourself and your audience a favor, and show up on that live video, talk about your freebies, talk about your community, talk about all the cool things that you have, give amazing value, build that trust, and watch your brand awareness freaking explode.

If you’re nervous about getting on video, I’ve got a blog and video with 5 Easy Steps to Be More Confident on Video.

I go live every Monday as part of my show Mondays With Michelle and every video has at least a small CTA. You can sign up to receive notifications for these videos at brandmerry.com/live and see it in action.

3. ADD Content Upgrades TO YOUR BLOG

As you can tell, I’m a big fan of blogging for business. It’s one of the coolest ways to deliver value and increase traffic to your website through SEO and Pinterest.

As we mentioned before you can create a signature lead magnet for your brand, but sometimes when we create blogs, that get incredible traffic it’s worth adding in content upgrades.

Content upgrades, along with your lead magnet, are a way to capture your reader’s information so you can add them to your inner circle (aka stay in contact with them). It’s not enough to just have someone land on your website, we want to make sure they learn more about you and you have a way to build the relationship that ultimately leads to the sale.

For example, if someone lands on my blog, “What to Include in Your About Me Section of Your Website,” I could give them my free Personal Brand Roadmap, but I could also offer them a free guide for taking what they just learned in the blog and implementing it.

Which do you think is going to get the highest opt-in rate? The About Me guide!

Content upgrades have been so amazing for my business, I encourage you to start implementing them in your business as well, especially if you’ve created a blog. They're a great way to offer value to your community and also capture their information so you can continue to build that relationship and build trust with them, resulting in more ideal clients.

Simple content upgrades tend to work best so think of PDFs, guides and checklists as a place to start.

CONCLUSION

I get it, growing your audience can be a little daunting.

There's so much information out there, and it can be confusing on where to start.

I trust that these three steps, along with the additional linked content, will give you a great place to start.

Honestly, if I could go back to square one, this is where I would focus my energy and attention - building my audience from day one.

If you’re just starting out, I encourage you to check out my free class, Build a Better Brand Method or at the very least download my free guide, The Personal Brand Roadmap, to receive a clear step by step of what’s needed to get people to actually care about your brand and business.

How to Grow Your Brand Audience Sign up for my upcoming masterclass on 5 Steps to Create an Authentic Brand That Allows You to Grow Your Community With Ease and Leads to Consistent Clients: http://bit.ly/authenticbrand-youtube In today's video I am so pumped to talk to you about how to grow your brand audience with 3 simple strategies so you can build a loyal tribe and community of future clients.

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/qBQDBSEbA8c

And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!