Brandmerry Blog Archives
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The Importance of Brand Alignment as an Entrepreneur [case study]
Today's episode on the Brandmerry Podcast is a vulnerable one.
As a Brand Strategist, I've spent the last six years growing my business online. As a result, I've shared many parts of my story and my life with my community. Not to mention brand storytelling and personal branding are kind of my thing, so it's only natural to show up and share parts of my life, intertwined with my business. It's something I've gotten really good at.
Storytelling is such an art. The art of sharing real-life experiences and authenticity in a feel-good way. In other words, keeping certain things sacred and close to you, while also sharing your personality and truth with the world.
It's not always easy, and this Summer, I navigated a very sacred time. A time, that for the first time in my business, required me to step back fully. To not share openly online and just reflect.
What this period of life showed me was that the brand I've built is sustainable.
That as life happens, as it always will, I've built a brand that allows me to step back and show up for the people and things that are most important in my life.
This is the type of sustainable business I want for you.
Today, as I find myself on the other side of this experience, I'm turning on my microphone, sitting down with my smoothie, and sharing the details.
In Episode 50, of The Brandmerry Podcast, which feels monumental in its own right, you'll discover why branding is so essential to living an aligned life as an entrepreneur, plus where I've been and what I've been up to.
Tune in now to hear:
Why I'm so incredibly thankful I took the time to build my solid brand foundation six years ago and how it has continued to pay off as I aim to build an aligned, authentic and sustainable business.
What I wish more entrepreneurs, just getting started, knew about hitting their goals, balancing their time and energy, and what having a successful business truly means.
How I make tough decisions in my business, often times pivoting from the original plan, in a simple and aligned way.
Tune in now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.
I love hearing from you, so if this episode spoke to you in any way, please send me a DM on Instagram.
P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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.
Branding Tips from a Business Coach for Female Entrepreneurs
Tired of not quite feeling confident in your business brand? Looking for ways to build your brand in an authentic way? You're in luck because I put together a list of valuable resources to help you improve your branding process. Check out the resources at brandmerry.com!
When I started my business in 2016, I had no idea that the thing I struggled most with would become my superpower.
That's right! I really sucked at branding in the beginning.
Not only was I super unclear about what was required for a solid brand foundation, but I also lacked an understanding of my story and found myself lost in what other people were doing and creating.
I think we can agree, that blending in is kind of the opposite of a strong brand.
Fast forward months after starting to build my website and I discovered the beauty of brand storytelling, emotional branding, and human connection. Needless to say, this understanding made all the technical elements of branding so much easier.
Now, I'm regularly featured as an expert in branding and brand storytelling and today, I'm sharing some of my recent branding resources with you. You can also check out an entire guide I have on my website here if videos aren't your thing.
Now onto the good stuff. Here are 5 resources on my favorite topic ever...branding!👇
PERSONAL BRANDING: 6 TIPS FROM A BUSINESS COACH
Watch Time: 14 mins
Personal branding strategies can feel overwhelming when you're trying to do it yourself so in today's episode I'm sharing 6 tips to improve your personal brand as a business owner. It's time to brand yourself and use this proven strategy to increase your income and impact.
EMOTIONAL BRANDING
Watch Time: 5 mins
In this video, we’re talking about what you need to know when it comes to emotional branding including the power of emotional branding, what you need for it to work, how to find your emotions, and how to go even deeper in your branding
5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR BRAND MESSAGING
Watch Time: 13 mins
Your brand messaging is one of the most important parts of the branding process. Why? Because your messaging impacts everything that happens with your marketing. Brand messaging is kind of my love language. And the reason for that is because it combines both of my passions and both of my areas of expertise, branding, and marketing.
HOW TO PERFORM MARKET RESEARCH FOR YOUR BRAND
Watch Time: 20 mins
Market research is essential when building the brand foundation for your new business. In fact, everything you'll create from advertising to content and programs will rely on what you learn in the market research stage.
HOW TO TELL YOUR BRAND STORY THROUGH YOUR BRAND IDENTITY
Watch Time: 19 mins
Did you know it's possible to share parts of your brand story through your brand identity?! Find out how in today’s video.
You can watch all of these videos in my new Branding for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners playlist here.
Don't forget to drop me a comment on your favorite video so I know you watched it!
P.S. Have you gotten your hands on the Content Planning Blueprint, yet?
I created this blueprint to help you become an organized, productive, high-converting content machine that gets their brand seen and paid consistently.
As I was creating the CONTENT PLANNING BLUEPRINT, I knew I wanted to give you a tried and tested approach to planning 90 days of content for your business so you can create data-driven content topics, and show up consistently.
Without a clear system in place for finding content ideas, organizing your content ideas, optimizing your workflow, and creating a weekly rinse and repeat system for time management, your dreams of consistent and converting content just won't happen.
I've seen it time and time again.
The key is harnessing the power of a weekly content workflow, the art of repurposing, and utilizing SEO research so you can master your content creation strategy. At the center of a successful marketing strategy lies your content.
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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 Tell Better Brand Stories
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
Storytelling, as a business owner, is one of the most powerful tools we have.
It allows us to connect with our audience on a deeper level.
It makes our content more memorable - by 22x to be specific.
Not to mention, it has lasting affects on our audience's brain more effortlessly leading them to not only making a purchase, but sticking around as a brand fan.
And this is all really important when it comes to enhancing the branding experience. However, HOW you should incorporate storytelling into your branding still comes as an obstacle to many business owners.
Lucky for you, I'm not one of those 😉
I've made brand storytelling my specialty and on episode 27 of The Brandmerry Podcast, I'm sharing, "How to Tell Better Brand Stories!"
Tune in now to hear:
The importance of storytelling and branding as a business owner!
How to effectively write your brand story and identify your brand emotions as a way to connect initially with your audience.
My top ways to enhance your messaging and marketing with brand storytelling.
Tune in now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.
P.S. As a brand storytelling expert, I've created an incredible resource for you! My "Tell Better Stories" workshop is available instantly to help you identify and tell your brand story, tell better stories on social media to connect with your audience, incorporate storytelling into your emails (think launching and funnels) and my top storytelling tips for marketing. Grab your workshop replay at brandmerry.com/stories.
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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.
5 Ways to Improve Your Brand Messaging from a Branding Coach
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
Brand messaging is how you share who you are and what you do with your ideal customer through your marketing efforts so that you can consistently attract your ideal customers and lead them through the buying journey.
Brand messaging is kind of my love language. And the reason for that is because it combines both of my passions and both of my areas of expertise, branding and marketing.
Today, I want to share with you five ways to improve your brand messaging.
WHAT IS BRAND MESSAGING
I want you to think of your brand messaging as the way that you communicate with your ideal customer.
You're going to find your messaging plays a role in everything that you do from your copy to the content that you put on your website, to the content that you share on social media, to your advertising, to what you say on a stage.
Your messaging is the base of all of your marketing efforts.
However, messaging is typically done at the branding level, so it’s important that when you’re identifying your niche and ideal customer, that you’re also doing work on your brand messaging.
I'm going to move forward and assume that you have a solid brand, meaning that you've watched, I don't know, this video right here on personal branding and understand the key pieces to create a brand. Only then will your messaging actually make sense.
I often find that entrepreneurs, when they come to me, have a really hard time going through their messaging because they haven't done some of the preliminary work.
The preliminary work for brand messaging is essentially who you are, what your brand stands for, what your brand provides, i.e., the problem that it solves and how it solves that problem, and the specific language that your ideal customer is using to describe those pieces.
All of those elements play a role in your brand messaging.
The importance of your brand messaging is that you can effortlessly communicate to your ideal customer. So, as I mentioned, it plays a role in brand awareness, brand attraction, and brand connection, which are three pillars of marketing.
Let's begin by talking about one of the first brand messages that I recommend you have in order to make your marketing seamless. This is your hook.
BRAND MESSAGING TIP 1:
YOUR HOOK STATEMENT
This is essentially what we used to refer to as the elevator pitch that we now call your hook, and it serves in the exact same way.
The elevator pitch was designed so that if you were in an elevator with someone for 10 seconds, you could describe what it is you do and how you support your ideal customer. The idea wasn't that you could give all the information away, but that you could intrigue them to want to learn more.
You sub elevator for a website, and you still have the same amount of time. You've got 10 seconds or less to hook your ideal customer and say, "I have got exactly what you need.”
That is why the hook is so important.
We also find the hook plays a role in your social media bio and in introducing yourself on podcasts or onstage. Your hook can be expanded upon in various forms to introduce who you are, who you serve, the problem you solve, and how you ultimately support your client.
There are five pieces to a hook that works like a charm.
5 pieces of a killer hook
Number one, is who you are. This is where you can also share your name, title or your specific niche or industry.
The second thing you want to share is your ideal customer.
This is typically a very quick demographic or self-identifying quality so that your audience can say, "Yes, that is me. No, that is not me." Again, the idea is to hook your audience to want to learn more, and, honestly, repel people who aren't the right fit for your brand.
The next thing that you want to do is connect with your ideal customer where they are and talk to them about their problem.
So, what is the very specific problem your ideal customer is facing as it relates to your business?
Not every problem they've got, just that very specific one.
What does that feel like to them?
What does that look like for them?
Number four is how you come in and support them with your unique selling proposition, or what we like to call it over here at Brandmerry, your super power.
And number five is how you ultimately get them closer to their desired outcome.
All five of these elements make up your hook. And while it's a great template to follow, to go, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, through the five, you don't have to do that.
Just make sure that you touch on all five. This is going to allow you to share with your audience exactly what it is you do, how you support them, and be intriguing enough that they want to learn more.
For reference, here is my hook statement: I’m MIchelle Knight, Brand Strategist and Founder of Brandmerry.com. I teach female entrepreneurs who struggle to create a reveue-generating business how to brand themselves online and market their message through the power of storytelling so they can create more income and impact in the world.
BRAND MESSAGING TIP 2:
CORE BRAND MESSAGES FOR YOUR BRAND
The second type of messaging that I always recommend my clients create at the branding level are called core brand messages.
Now, these are very special to Brandmerry. It's something I've been teaching for years, the idea is to think about your core brand messages as the umbrella for your messaging moving forward. This really focuses on the brand as a whole, rather than a specific product or service.
Of course, there might be some crossover, especially if you're in the coaching or the consulting industry and you offer one-on-one services.
But what I want you to get used to is getting really clear on exactly who you are and how you support your clients and why what you're offering is important to them.
So, the core brand messages serve as a way for you to gain clarity around your brand specifically, and then start showing up consistently talking about the same thing. Consistency is the most important part of messaging in general.
Although you might not just copy and paste a core brand message on social media, this exercise is a practice for you to get really good at explaining what it is you do and how it benefits your audience. Those are two key pieces to messaging overall.
If your audience doesn't understand how what you do actually supports them, how it's going to get them closer to their goal, how it's providing them value and ultimately benefiting them, then it's not going to hit the mark.
You're going to fall flat every single time.
So, when it comes to core brand messages, we recommend that you create 10 to 15 core brand messages that are going to clearly share what your brand as a whole does, your framework, your expertise, your strengths, and how that's going to benefit your ideal customer.
This comes after ideal client work and is going to allow you to really communicate with your clients on those core emotional pieces that are going to get them fascinated and captivated with what you are providing.
Writing Your Core Brand Messages
When it comes to your core brand messages, there are three steps to the process.
Number one is to share what you ultimately provide.
Number two is why it's important to your ideal customer.
And number three is why it's really important to your ideal customer, why they need it today.
So, an example of this might be one of my core brand messages that says, "I teach my clients the power of storytelling so that they can create a captivating, personal brand and attract their ideal customers and stand out in a saturated online market."
I've touched on the pain points, I've touched on the desire, and I've added urgency to it by saying, "You're going to stand out when you go through this process.”
BRAND MESSAGING TIP 3:
CORE BRAND MESSAGES FOR YOUR PRODUCTS
The third way to improve your brand messaging is to create specific CBMs, core brand messages, for your individual products and services.
Now, this is going to come as your brand expands, as you're offering more specific products and services, maybe free trainings, little ebooks, all the different things that you can create. You want to get more granular with those core brand messages for the individual product.
So, while I shared with you that the power of storytelling is something that applies to my brand as a whole. If I was promoting a program that I have called Roadmap to Freedom, where we specifically talk about core brand messages in one of the modules, I could go a little bit further and explain how storytelling plays a role in core brand messages and how that has benefited my audience.
You'll see these messages really come into play when you're creating something that has different parts, that has modules, different weeks if you're doing a group program.
If you want to create a really strong message for the product in and of itself, this is where you can step in, use the same framework that you did for the core brand messages to apply that to the product.
Both of these are just great exercises in not just saying, "This is what you get," but, "This is what you get and why it's important to your ideal customer."
BRAND MESSAGING TIP 4:
CREATE CONSISTENT CONTENT
When it comes to marketing, one of the things that you want to focus on is creating consistent content. This is the way that you show up and reach your ideal customer at different stages of the client-buying journey. I talk about that entire process and why marketing matters in this video right here.
In the video, I explain that there are different stages of the consumer buying process, and every single stage is important. Not everyone's going to find your brand ready to whip out their credit card and buy; so we want to create content that's going to nurture our audience, that's going to educate them, inspire them, motivate them, and, yes, entertain them as well.
When you're thinking about the different types of messages to create, one of the rules of thumb that I love to kind of put into play for my clients is to always run it through the brand filter.
If you see that a piece of content is being created online, and you'd love to add your two cents to it, or your audience is asking you a lot of questions about X, Y, and Z, or you use one of my favorite tools, Keywords Everywhere, to see what people are searching for, before you create it, you want to run it through your brand filter.
BRAND FILTER: Is it actually going to apply to your brand and to your ideal customer?
A great way to do that is to go back to your core brand messages, to see if it actually applies to your brand as a whole.
You don't want to create content just to create content. So, when you're creating content, think about content that specifically amplifies your core brand messages.
One of the exercises I love to teach is taking your core brand message, just one to start, and coming up with five to 10 different topics underneath that umbrella.
For instance, my core brand message is around storytelling and the power of storytelling as it applies to branding, I could talk about the importance of storytelling.
I could share a blog on five ways to tell better stories.
I could share a template for telling stories on social media.
I could share the number one reason you should tell stories and the number one mistake.
Actually, I've shared all those pieces of content before, and they always circle back to my brand. So, they're always in connection to what I provide and consistent, which is incredibly important when it comes to messaging.
We know that a consistent message can actually increase revenue by 33%.
BRAND MESSAGING TIP 5:
FOCUS ON THE BENEFIT
My last tip for you today is to always focus on the benefit. I've been saying that over and over and over again, but no message is complete if your audience can't actually see what's in it for them.
Remember, as consumers, we're constantly asking ourselves, "But how can this help me? What's in it for me? What's the benefit for me?"
So, do yourself a favor, no matter what type of messaging you're creating; whether it's your hook, your core brand messages, a tagline for your program, you're talking about a specific module, you're offering a free training and you've got three bullets on what they're going to learn, or you're just creating a post for social media, that you always think about the benefit for your audience, and you clearly communicate that.
At the end of the day, you're a business or you have aspirations to become a business, and you want people to buy your products or services. So, we have to always keep our audience front and center when we're thinking about our messaging.
CONCLUSION
I hope that this was really helpful in breaking down the different ways that messaging can apply to your business, for understanding the difference between branding and marketing, and how messaging fits into both of them.
And, of course, my number one way to always make sure your messaging resonates, and that is with the benefit.
If you want to explore fine-tuning your brand, specifically your brand messaging, and learn how to show up consistently and effectively with your marketing efforts then I invite you to learn more about my live program Roadmap to Freedom.
Doors open once a year in October and this high-touch program is perfect for entrepreneurs ready to create consistent income months.
Learn more at brandmerry.com/freedom.
P.S. Have you tuned in to The Brandmerry podcast? I release new episodes every Thursday on topics around branding and marketing! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at brandmerry.com/podcast
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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 Find Your Brand Voice [Personal Branding]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d62d400442629982c4892b/1630367562421-VRF3EX8OBUMHOSJIL048/How+to+Find+Your+Brand+Voice+%5BPersonal+Branding%5D.jpg)
How to Find Your Brand Voice [Personal Branding]
As a personal branding consultant, I support my clients every day in finding their brand voice and sharing it through their marketing to build revenue-generating businesses. I'm sharing my top tips so you can move forward in finding your brand voice and showing up as your most authentic self.
How to Find Your Brand Voice [Personal Branding]
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
If you've never tried hard kombucha before, I highly recommend it. If you're a kombucha fan and you also like to consume a beverage from time to time with alcoholic content, the shizz is amazing.
No, this is not what this post is about, obviously, but hear me out.
Today, I want to share with you my top tips for finding your voice through personal branding.
But, why is this so important? Let’s dive in.
My favorite company for hard kombucha is called June Shine. This small San Diego-based business has built a product that has expanded over the last year to nationwide delivery. Their success has been so fun to watch.
While I love the taste of the product, what has made me a loyal fan is their brand. Because of their clear brand, the company voice and their knowledge of their ideal customer, their marketing are exceptional. I see myself as their ideal customer in everything they do.
It’s one of the reasons I bought and their voice continues in their customer service as well, from their emails to their text messages you clearly understand their brand and the ultimate vibe they want to portray.
Everything you do in your business and your success ultimately comes down to your brand.
All the growth that we see, the loyalty, the brand affinity, as I've shared multiple times on my podcast, it all comes down to the work that you do on a branding level.
I hope by now that you have watched my free training called Build a Better Brand Method. If you have, you are familiar with that method.
I shared that method with you on the podcast. If you want to go back and listen to episode 10, the Better Brand Method, you'll learn my six-part framework for building a better brand.
One of those pillars is your brand voice.
Today I want to dive into why this is so important, how you find it, and some of the key things that I teach my clients that support them in finding their authentic voice.
BRAND VOICE GUIDELINES
Now, I will say that finding your voice and refining your voice is a process. It's kind of like what we talked about a few episodes ago around visibility and showing up with confidence.
It is through the act of getting visible that you increase your confidence.
It is through the act of showing up and sharing your voice that you refine your voice.
You will learn what feels good and what doesn't feel good as you show up and get visible.
But where do you start?
How do you know what your voice even is?
How do you create a voice from the beginning that feels very much like you and who you are and how you want to show up and isn't heavily influenced by others in your industry or mentors?
This is something that I had to catch myself with when I first started my business.
When we talk about authenticity and especially your authentic voice, this is where the relatability piece shines.
Your voice is ultimately how you're showing up. This is how you're positioning your content. This is how you talk about your offer. It's the little quirks and little things that you do on your videos, on your podcast.
One of the things that I do and I don't know if you've noticed, maybe it drives you nuts I don't know, is I don't edit my podcast.
My husband will add some intro, outro music, fancy it up a bit, but I'm not cutting out things that I say or if I misspeak or anything like that.
That was a choice that I made early on because I want to show up as my true self, without filters, without edits, without all of those different things.
That's one of the elements of my authenticity. That's important to me. Yours might look a little bit different. You might be a very polished person.
Maybe you come from a very professional background and that is in fact who you are, not a front, not a mask, not a facade. That's who you are.
When you put your work out in the world, of course, it makes sense to have a nice edited and polished piece.
That's not who I am.
And I hope this story reminds you that just because I show up this way, doesn't mean you have to show up that way. It doesn't mean you should show up that way.
You should be showing up in the way that is most authentic to you.
If we're creating a personal brand in which we're offering products or services based on something that has happened in our life, based on our story, or based on our experience, we are the center of the brand so the voice is our own.
Even as I expand into more of a company here at Brandmerry, I'm coming from a full personal brand where my voice and my story are the center.
As I'm moving into this transition of building a company with additional levels of support and team members, specifically inside of my program Brandmerry Academy, it's about taking those elements of the brand voice, me, and what that impacts in terms of values, mission, messaging, etc...the pillars that have already been created for Brandmerry, and then how I move them over and we communicate them as a company and as a brand as a whole.
It still had to start with me!
When you're just starting, it's you.
Don't try and fancy it up.
Don't try to make it all complicated.
It is you, it is your voice.
So let’s talk about how your voice specifically fits into personal branding.
TWO QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR BRAND VOICE
There are two questions I want you to think about when we first dive into this. I'm also going to share with you a few key points I want you to identify that are going to help you in actually creating your brand voice.
IDENTIFY YOUR FEARS AROUND SHOWING UP
The first thing that I want you to do is to identify the fears that you have around showing up as your most authentic self.
A couple of things might come up for you when I say that.
One, “Who is my most authentic self, Michelle? I have no damn idea.”
This is why I'm a big fan of the story work that I teach in all of my programs because through the story work, I am giving you prompts and encouragement to uncover elements of your story that have impacted who you are and how you show up today and the work that you're doing.
It's through diving in and doing those pieces that you're able to start to determine who you are authentically.
When I first started my business, I created an entire brand that was not me. It didn't look like me, it didn't sound like me. It wasn't me. And that's because I didn't know at the time what story work was.
Story work and how I teach it is a framework that I created through my discovery.
So when I was making that transition to figure out how to rebrand my business, because I identified that what I had created wasn’t me, I dove into the story work.
If you're at that place where you're I just don't know, then I would encourage you to check out some free resources on brandmerry.com on the blog, around storytelling, as well as my YouTube channel.
But the next level, that is what I teach inside of You! Branded. That is what I focus on inside of my intensives. Depending on where you're at in your business, your level of investment, and your eagerness to figure this shit out, those are some options for you.
If you don't know who you are, you’ve got to figure that out first.
So, let's just assume, for our purposes today, that we've all done story work and now it's about how you want to show up and squash the fears that come up around being judged, looking unprofessional, not being polished, etc…
I still had those fears when I was starting, because I was looking at what everyone else was doing and thought that if they wear blazers, take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower, they have these perfect backdrops behind their live stream, no kid running around, etc that I had to do those things too.
I had to face those fears and say, "Are you afraid that those things mean that you aren't going to be successful?"
Of course, they don't.
And we know that one of the best things that you can do is stand in your authenticity to stand out online. If I were to adapt or mold to what all those people were doing, I would look and sound like everybody else.
Now, I know you aren’t here because you want to look and sound like everyone else. There's no way. You wouldn't be here. And we know that that's a bad marketing move overall.
The first thing you want to do is identify the fears that you have around showing up as your most authentic self and then start to work through those fears and rationalize those fears.
Is this ultimately true?
What is this telling me about myself?
How can I use this as a damn momentum driver to show up and share my voice?
Use Emotion In Your Brand
The second thing you want to do is attach a little bit of emotion to it. Now I know I always say keep the emotion out of marketing. Make your marketing decisions based on data but listen, branding is all about emotion.
The whole concept of branding is emotional. So what better way to feel connected to yourself and how you are going to show up than thinking about how you showing up as your most authentic self would make you feel?
How would you feel creating content as your most authentic self?
How would you feel sharing your website when you knew that it was a true reflection of who you are?
How would you feel going on video and not worrying about all the little things that you have made up in your head that have to be a certain way or sound a certain way?
I can tell you from experience, it feels damn good. Even though the video was the main platform that I decided to focus on with visibility, this is something I talked about in episode 12, I still had a ton of fears around it.
I was worried that everything had to be perfect.
It had to be silent in my house.
I couldn't be interrupted.
And while I don't recommend that kids are running all around when you have a live stream, this is the reality of it all. It was the first live stream I did with my son because it was either show up with him or not at all, that I realized that there was so much power in me showing up as my true self.
- QUICK STORYTIME -
In 2016, I was hosting one of my very first challenges and for me it was huge. I think I had 50 people signed up. It was a big deal.
I had already left my 9:00 to 5:00 and I was hosting this challenge during the middle of the day, rather than the evening as I had done before.
Back then it was just my son and me at home during the day and I thought I had positioned it right around nap time.
Well, it doesn't always work out that way. And my son would not fall asleep before the video.
After pacing back and forth and seriously questioning what I was going to do and freaking out a little bit, I ended up putting him in our baby carrier on my back and I just started the live stream.
I remember it was the first time I'd stood up on a live stream, typically I’d be sitting in a chair. And I remember saying to my audience, "Hey, listen. Here's what it is. I'm a working mom. I'm building my own business. My son wouldn't lay down. He's on my back. If you see hands, feet, a head or hear crying, that's what's up."
I just laid it outright in the beginning and I delivered the entire live stream.
He ended up falling asleep because I was swaying back and forth. And I kid you not, it was the first time that I had received such a tremendous response from a live stream where I got comment after comment after comment.
"Thank you for doing this.”
“Thank you for showing up.”
“Thank you for giving us permission."
I was selling a program on the back end of this challenge, it was a branding program, my first ever. I had multiple people tell me that they ended up joining because of that live stream.
Could you imagine if I hadn't shown up because I was worried about the fears of what people would think of me?
When you make an intentional choice to face those fears, to put them in perspective, and honestly, to lead with the emotion of how amazing it would feel to do this thing as your most authentic self, you can potentially change the entire course of your business.
So before you dive into the tips and tricks, you need to consider these first two questions.
7 KEY ELEMENTS TO IDENTIFY YOUR BRAND VOICE
Now let's talk about some of the key elements that I have found that help my clients in identifying their voice.
We're feeling confident and yeah, we're going to do the damn thing.
Now, how do we do it?
Know Your Audience
Number one, and as with all things in branding, you have to know your audience. This is huge. And I don't think people realize what role this plays in your authenticity.
But let's say you are coming from corporate America. I've worked with so many clients who come from a very heavy corporate background, high-level corporations, where they have been their whole life, who leave the 9:00 to 5:00 grind for starting their own business. And some of them end up working with corporate individuals, that's amazing, but a lot of them don't.
When they come in and start writing copy and thinking about showing up, they get really obsessed with this whole corporate train of thought. “But this is who I've worked with. This is what my boss would say.”
When I ask them who their audience is. They'll tell me and then I ask them:
What does your audience do every day?
What's your audience wearing?
Why is your audience interested in the topic that you're sharing?
Do you think your audience actually cares about what you told me previously?
Typically the answer is No!
If you know your audience, it can take a lot of the pressure off how you SHOULD be showing up.
It's not that we're molding ourselves to fit our audience's expectations. But if you're coming in with these high expectations of how you should be performing, sometimes it can put it into perspective for you.
When you realize…
Wait, actually my audience cares about transparency.
Wait, actually my audience cares more about connection.
Wait, my audience is a bunch of moms who are also juggling X, Y, and Z so me showing up will be a great way to show both of those.
That's one thing that I have found has been tremendously helpful for my clients, especially my clients who are coming from more professional backgrounds.
Why Do You Like Your Favorite Brands
The second tool that I love to teach is one that we have to tread a little light around.
Now, I'm going to share this with you but I'm not recommending that you go hunt down all your favorite brands and stalk their websites and their copy and so forth. There's no room for that. That is the opposite of authentic.
What I want you to focus on are the brands that you gravitate towards. The brands that you feel connected to and why.
You don't even have to look at these brands. You just have to think about that brand and your interactions with them. Think about the content that you've consumed from them and write down why you feel good when you see their stuff.
How does it make you feel?
And why do you think it makes you feel that way?
Then on the flip side of that, I want you to think about brands that you don't like seeing and don't like interacting with.
When you hear that name and you think to yourself, "Ugh," why is that?
This is going to tell you how you want to show up in the world.
We're typically drawn to things that feel most authentic to us so if you can identify some of these pieces that draw you into other brands, you can replicate those feelings but in your authentic way with your brand.
Use Everyday Language
The next tip that I have is one of the most simple, yet most difficult strategies in the book but it is going to help you so much with not just your copywriting in general, but also your storytelling.
And that is to use everyday language.
Start to identify some of the things that you love to talk about or some of the quirks that you have. One of the exercises that I have in You! Branded is to list out some of the most popular words that you typically say a lot and then carry that over into your messaging or ask some of your friends and family, people who know you on a very intimate level to name three quirks that they find that you always bring to a conversation.
We can kind of survey people closest to us to pinpoint things that we don't see in ourselves because the everyday language, ultimately speaking in your true voice is really what this is about.
So why not identify that before you ever start creating content or showing up?
Be Conversational
This is also a great way to improve your copy and your storytelling.
When you are thinking about creating content, showing up on a video, or creating a podcast like this, imagine you’re having a conversation with your audience.
When I recorded this podcast I pretended I was speaking to you as if we were sitting on the couch, drinking kombucha together, talking about your voice and personal branding.
Be conversational. This is what people resonate with.
One of the greatest tools that I learned was to pretend I was writing emails to a friend. This completely changed how I wrote emails to my audience when I was starting.
This is why tip number one, identifying your ideal customer, getting to know who they are, is incredibly important. It will allow you to give them a persona and use that when writing your copy.
If you're writing an Instagram post and you were writing a letter to them, how would you write it?
It would be descriptive.
It would be conversational.
It'd be funny.
You'd have emotion in it.
It wouldn't be like, "Hey, I have this free thing and I want you to get your hands on it. It will be great. Here's what you'll get."
You sound like a damn robot.
But if you're conversational and you're like, "Hey, are you struggling with this right now and it's driving you up a damn wall and you can't stop thinking about it? How would it freaking feel if you didn't have to worry about that anymore and instead you could focus on X, Y, and Z? I want to share this with you because I'm so excited about it. And it's my blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
Big difference.
One feels like a friend, one feels like a robot.
You tell me which one you gravitate towards?
Put Keywords To Your Voice
I love getting clear and specific and having a framework for things. One of the things I love after you've gotten to this point is to put some keywords to your voice.
For instance, one of the things that I teach inside of You! Branded is all about emotional branding and identifying the emotions that you want your audience to feel. You can use similar words when you're trying to describe your voice.
Maybe you use exclamation points a lot when you write and it's playful.
You love to use gifs and emojis to keep it light.
You might say that your brand voice is playful, compassionate, and constantly excited.
With this tip, you’re ultimately giving your brand voice an identity.
If you’ve done the emotional branding work that I teach, there will be crossover and it can help in brand consistency from a brand voice and brand emotion (aesthetic) standpoint.
It will give you a marker for self-assessment as you continue to show up. You can reflect every 30 days and ask yourself, “Oh, does this sound like my voice? Does this hit the three characteristics that I established in the beginning when I was thinking about my brand voice?” But then also as you move into sharing your brand with others, hiring people to come on your team to share your brand, create graphic designs or promotional pieces, you can share these pieces with them as well so they understand how you want to be presented online.
I was just bringing on a new graphic designer, which I'm so excited about over here at Team Brandmerry, and we're trying to figure out what design we like. I’m able to give really thorough feedback and say things like, "Okay, less bright, moodier. Less playful, more grounded."
I’m able to share these keywords because I know my brand voice and it ultimately will help them in the creation process.
Once you’ve identified your keywords then put those on a Post-it and always check in with yourself to make sure that you're following your own criteria. The criteria you've determined.
Identify Your Values and Mission
Identifying your values and your mission plays a really big role in your voice and how you show up online.
If you haven't created your brand values or your brand mission, make sure you go back and listen to some previous episodes that we did on the podcast.
Episode one was all about creating a mission-driven brand and episode three was all about identifying your brand values.
Doing that work can help you tremendously in solidifying your brand voice and really understanding how you want to show up in the world.
The Art of Brand Containers
Now the last thing that I will leave you with as we close up talking about your brand voice is the art of brand containers. One of the ways that I recommend my clients get started in choosing how they're going to show up online, organizing their content, and playing with talking about different things, is brand containers.
As I mentioned in the beginning, the playing and the doing are all part of the solidifying process.
As you show up and you get visible, you will figure out your voice way faster than if you're not actually creating content and putting anything out there.
So with brand containers, I typically recommend having five. You can do anywhere from five to seven. Five to seven containers that you can ultimately create content around.
For instance, my brand containers are branding, marketing, travel, productivity, mompreneur, and systems. These have changed and shifted over the years based on my interest, but they’ve mostly remained the same.
So those are all elements of my voice. Those are all things that I love to talk about and things that I know connect with my audience.
I know my audience is here for branding and marketing and those are the things I “sell” in my business.
I also know that my audience loves productivity and systems and is an extension of the work I do and things I’m super passionate about.
Most of my audience wants to travel and love when I share my experiences with them and some of my audience are moms or maybe planning for it in the future. It's not that your audience has to connect with each piece of it, but try to find the ones that offer your ability to show up as your authentic self and connect with your audience in some way.
Think about answering this question, “Who am I? What are the things I love to talk about? And how can I create that brand experience for my audience by sharing those things?”
Your connection pieces have to be about more than just what you sell. You can't constantly be pitching your services and your products. Your audience is going to get tired, unfollow, and unsubscribe.
Spice it up.
CONCLUSION
As you're thinking about these different pieces I share today, as you think about how you want your audience to feel, your everyday language, the three words to describe your voice, pulling in your values and your mission, don't neglect also thinking about some of the things you genuinely love to talk about and how those can ultimately support your clients.
It's one of my favorite exercises that I teach entrepreneurs who don't have a consistent content strategy as of yet, as a great way to get started in refining their voice and finding what their audience resonates with.
The connection piece is key and everything I shared with you today will allow you to first identify who you are and how you want to show up in the world and then build that connection with your audience.
I wanted to take a minute to remind you to grab that free ebook that I've put together for you, where I am sharing The 15 Lessons to Propel Your Online Business.
It's the ultimate guide of shit I wish someone would have told me. I talk about a lot of the elements that I see holding entrepreneurs back from reaching the income level and the impact that they desire.
And as you can probably imagine, I made the same mistakes.
Whether you're just thinking of starting your business or you're three or four years into it, I recommend that you head to brandmerry.com/lessons to download your free ebook.
Because even if you get one little golden nugget from this ebook, I know it is going to support you in achieving your goals.
Head to brandmerry.com/lessons to download your free ebook today.
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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.