3 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid as an Online Entrepreneur

3 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid as an Online Entrepreneur

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

In the past four years of running my online business, I’ve worked with thousands of entrepreneurs in marketing their brand and business.

I’ve noticed three core mistakes that online entrepreneurs are making when it comes to marketing their business.

And, full disclosure, I’ve ALSO made these mistakes - you live and you learn right?

Along with everything I create at Brandmerry.com, I want to give you the insights and tools to brand and marketing yourself online. So, let’s start with the top three mistakes.

For additional tips on what I call SMART Marketing and what I believe the 3 pillars of a solid marketing strategy are, be sure to watch the full video below. These tips start at the 19:32 minute mark.

Marketing Mistake #1: Relying on Social Media

The very first marketing mistake is that you are most likely relying only on social media to grow and market your business. As the online mentoring and course industry expands more and more coaches are utilizing social media platforms and unfortunately the message is getting out there that all we need to do is show up on social media to grow a profitable business.

I don’t know about you, but I quickly noticed it’s not quite that easy, right?

While, this strategy might have worked wonders for them and it probably still does cause they have like 100,000 followers or 25,000 followers, for those of you that are just starting out and in the trenches of that first and second year maybe you've realized that you've hit a ceiling and that you can't create more content.

Showing up on social media daily to engage and create content takes a lot of time. When you go about using this strategy only, you’ll start to create less and less content because it starts to get harder to keep it consistent. Then over time you notice you’re going weeks without anything.

I got to a point in my business where I had reached six figures, and although I felt accomplished I also didn’t know how I was going to keep growing. I realized I couldn’t make more than this a year, if I was going to keep getting clients and then still show up on social media every single day. 

The reality is by relying on this strategy I was limiting myself and you’re most likely doing the same. It’s not scalable to rely on social media to grow your community and profits.

The other piece is that you don’t own social media. If you're relying on Instagram to promote your business and Instagram doesn't work, how do you promote your business?

If you're relying on Facebook or even your Facebook group to show up and promote your business and for some reason that's not working in the middle of a launch or a sale, what happens? 

That’s why it’s so important to have these other avenues in place to consistently build your audience. 

**If you’re curious about my favorite strategy which is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) be sure to check out this post here.

You should not be relying on social media to constantly attract new leads and grow your business. Social media is where we go to be social, to build relationships, to nurture the community that's already there.

Marketing Mistake #2: Not Generating Leads

This mistake makes me hurt a little inside, when I see an entrepreneur who has no efficient way to collect leads from prospects on their website, watching a live video or following them on social media.

This is all about list building. The idea is that if someone is taking the time to consume your content, you want to give them a way to join your “inner circle” i.e. your email list.

To kick it off, I highly recommend Convertkit to grow your email list because it has all the tools you need including landing pages, segmenting, forms for your website, tags, funnels and more. You can try it for free with my link here.

The beautiful thing about capturing your ideal customers information is that they are committing to your business. It’s essentially their first investment in you and your brand. Even though you're not getting an exchange of money, somebody is saying, “Okay, I trust you. I like what you're about and want to hear more from you. I want to welcome you into my inbox!” 

I don't know about you, but my inbox is a sacred space. This is a big deal!

So to generate consistent leads to your business you want to have advanced marketing strategies in place like, SEO, podcasting, YouTube, blogging and Pinterest  where you’re putting out a piece of content and every single day people are finding it and saying yes to joining your list.

Now, here is the kicker!

There needs to be an exchange that happens where you give them a free gift in exchange for their email address. This is the very beginning of the lead generation process.

If you’re new to list building, here is the overview below. If you want to learn more about list building, check out this blog here.

So you start with a free gift. If you’re a service-based business this can be a PDF, video training, audio training, a quiz...there are a ton of different options here.

If you sell a product, this might be a coupon code or a discount on their first item, but it could also be something really cool like a quiz. If I were selling a skincare product, I might create a free quiz that tells people their skin type and recommends the best products. In order to get the results and tips, they would have to give their email address.

That’s the free gift, something of value in exchange for their email address. Then you show up for them regularly in their inbox, providing value and time to time asking for the sale.

3 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR FREEBIE (FREE OFFER)

1. Your freebie needs to be something your audience knows they need. If they are not aware of it, then it’s going to be really hard to market.

2. It needs to provide value to your audience. If after they consume the content, they walk away with something to implement, having learned something new or being inspired it’s valuable.

3. Your free gift needs to be a clear pillar of your brand. For instance, a skincare quiz sounds super cool, but I wouldn’t do that as a free gift because it doesn’t directly connect to my brand message or paid services. 
   

Marketing Mistake #3: You’re Blaming the Algorithm

I call this the blame game. 

My marketing isn't working because of the algorithm…
My marketing isn’t working because my industry is saturated…
My marketing isn’t working because my ideal client isn’t on [insert platform]...

That is not why your marketing isn’t working, but it's really easy to fall into this rut. It's really easy to fall into this thinking and then stay there.

I can teach you all the strategies in the world, but if you're stuck in a mindset that no one cares or no one sees it or it doesn't matter, then you won't get results.

And that's the truth. 

I’ve had those moments in my own business, especially in the beginning. If I was promoting a challenge and there were 5 people who signed up, and in my mind it was nobody cared.

EXCEPT 5 people! 
5 people who signed up, who had never heard of me before, who had never bought from me before, who were giving me an opportunity to show up for them.
That’s 5 potential clients.
It’s all in your mindset.

Such a big part of showing up is creating content! If you don't think people will find it, if you don't think people will find value in it, then what are the odds that you’re going to consistently show up?

Your mindset will take over and you’ll feel there is no point...no one sees it
...the algorithm is out to get me.

No, the algorithm is out to challenge you...accept that challenge and become better.

If your marketing isn’t working change your mindset, accept responsibility and find solutions.

We cannot play small games when it comes to building our online brand and our business and this belief will keep you playing small. In order to be successful, we need to think big picture and big picture responsibility, taking responsibility for things, not working and finding solutions. 

CONCLUSION

The first part to improving your marketing is understanding the mistakes you’re making and my guess is you’re now super aware of three. 

From here, you can create a course of action to fix them so you can continue to grow your online business. If you want to learn more about SMART Marketing and the three pillars of a successful marketing strategy watch the video people (these tips start at the 19:32 mark).

If you’re ready to take action to improve your marketing, grow your audience and grow your profits, then I encourage you to check out Brandmerry Academy and join the waitlist for when the doors open again.

Learn more at brandmerryacademy.com

P.S. If you want to learn more about my repurposing strategy, check out my 3 tips here.

P.P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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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.

Improve Your SEO in 3 Steps

When I started implementing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it was by accident. I didn't really know what I was doing, and I was kind of DIYing it every step of the way.

You know the feeling of just piecing together information as you find it? It definitely took longer than I wanted it too, but I slowly started to see results.

I remember being in New York City in 2018 and my cousin messaged me and said, “You know, you're on page one of Google, right?” and I knew at that moment it was working.

It was crazy that with some work on the backend, I was ranking on page one of my industry.

Whatever I was doing, remember at the time it was totally plug in play strategies, was paying off. I knew I needed to fine-tune my strategy to start seeing an increase in leads and sales.

Why is SEO important for online business owners?

I don't know if any of you were like me where you spent all of this love and time and energy creating your website just to find out that people wouldn't actually stumble upon it. 

In my case, five people were finding my website every single month. Can you relate?

This is why SEO is so important for every type of business. We have these awesome websites, but no one is landing on them. And with 3.5 billion Google searches a day, it seems silly that so many entrepreneurs are missing out on free traffic, quality leads and sales. 

In my own story, when I began to get more strategic with my SEO (some of the strategies I’m sharing with you below) we started to see not only an increase in traffic every month, but also an increase in conversions to my higher-level programs.

New clients that were investing between $5,000 - $10,000 were coming from Google. This was happening because women were specifically looking for a branding coach or business coach (i.e. ready to invest) and finding my website on page one (often in spot one) and booking a call...some booking directly on the website!

And that trend has just continued and continued to where every single day I'm getting messages from people who say, I found you on Google. 

The reason for that is because I didn't try to go viral for my blog. I put my focus and emphasis on ranking for my industry.

Oftentimes we think about SEO as it pertains to blogging, but we forget that we can also optimize our site for our industry to bring in quality leads ready to invest.  

We want to optimize our blog posts, our title, our bullets, our headers, our images, all of those things play a role.

3 Phases to Improve Your SEO Ranking

Phase 1: Site-Wide SEO Optimization

This is the back-end SEO for your website. It includes not only your site title and description, but also making sure you’ve optimized the main pages of your website as well.

Every website platform has these SEO capabilities, and a simple Google search will help you locate yours. I know Wordpress gets a great reputation when it comes to SEO, but I personally love Squarespace. Squarespace is what we host my website on and love it; implementing the SEO on the back-end is super simple.

On your page titles you want to use the keywords within your industry and what people are searching for. SEO is not about being cute, it’s about being strategic. 

Many businesses use their name or their business name as their site title and that’s just not enough. Unless, people are searching for you specifically that’s not bringing in new leads. You want to add those keywords, like your title there as well.

For instance, my Site Title is ‘Personal Branding Consultant | Branding Coach | Michelle Knight’

After your site-wide SEO is implemented you want to optimize the main pages of your website. The first page you want to focus on is your home page.

>> Inside Brandmerry Academy, not only do we teach you the step-by-step for implementing proper SEO, we also show you how to increase conversions on your homepage with captivating copy, lead magnets and more. Learn more here >>

For each of your pages (Home Page, About Me Page, Work With Me Page and Blog) we want to also optimize the title and description. 

You can spend one weekend optimizing your site and then not have to worry about it again for 6 months to a year. That’s one of the reasons I love starting here with Phase 1. 

Phase 2: Blogging and Quality Content

Blogging and the content on your website is what tells Google that what you claim about yourself in your site description is actually true.

If I’m claiming I’m a Branding Coach and there's nothing on my website about branding or teaching people how to brand themselves, Google's going to be like, “Okay, that's cute, but you know, we don’t really trust you!” 

Creating consistent content, via blogging, will allow your content to rank as well as help you communicate to Google you are legit. It’s important to carry over the SEO optimization to every blog you create. This includes your blog title, description, headers, content and alt text.

So many people struggle with consistency, and they avoid blogging because Social Media seems easier. The truth is when you’re strategic with your content you can spend the same amount of time writing a blog and repurposing it. Learn more about repurposing here.

And your content will last longer.

Phase 3: Backlinks and Brand Exposure
Backlinks are links back to your website! These are another way to show your credibility to Google. The more backlinks, the higher your Domain Authority. 

Now, some people will trade backlinks and that is a NO!
People will also charge for backlinks and that is a NO!

What I encourage you to do and my favorite strategy is to build these backlinks through brand exposure.

This includes being a guest on a podcast, writing a guest post, guest blogging, speaking at conferences, etc...When these platforms feature you they will link back to your website.

So, you’re getting an awesome backlink, and you’re also getting brand exposure in front of a new audience for free. I’m all about that strategic life!

3 Ways to Improve Your SEO This Week

1. Research your main keywords
You need to understand what you want to rank for before you start optimizing your site. 

Conduct research on the product or service you provide so you understand the industry as a whole and what people are searching for. I like to use tools like Keywords Everywhere and Ubersuggest to do a thorough keyword search.

You can also do some industry research through Google. Look for other brands in your industry and see what keywords they are using in their site title and site description. Pair that, with Ubersuggest to see how people are actually doing and you’ll have a great keyword bank to get started.

2. Optimize the Backend of Your Website for SEO
This is what we talked about in Phase One, but now it’s time to do it! After you have your keywords chosen you want to go into the backend of your website and update your Site Title and Site Description.

This should take you no more than 30 minutes and will make a big impact.

3. Optimize Your Homepage for SEO
You’ll repeat the same thing you did in Step 2, and update your Page Title and Page Description for your home page. Also, do a double check of the headers on your page, making sure they are efficient and include your keywords.

BONUS: Go through your images on the home page and add in Alt Text. Make sure the file name for the image includes your keywords and the caption includes a thorough description as well.

Start with these 3 steps and start improving your SEO immediately.

When I started ranking on page one, I was only focused on these 3 steps and then I started integrating more and more blogging, content and backlinks.

If you’re looking for more support with your SEO strategy, we’re guiding you through the entire process inside The Brandmerry Academy. 

Brandmerry Academy is a year-long membership community that gives you monthly marketing mini-courses, group coaching and advanced strategies to increase your leads and profits without spending all your time or relying on social media.

Learn more about Brandmerry Academy at brandmerryacademy.com

P.S. If you want to learn more about my repurposing strategy, check out my 3 tips here.

P.S.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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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.

The Truth About Growing Your Email List (getting subscribers through your freebie)

The Truth About Growing Your Email List (getting subscribers through your freebie)

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

The truth is we're really obsessed with hitting a certain milestone when it comes to our subscriber count, follower count or email list. 

Like, “When I have a hundred subscribers, I will write.”

“When I have 10k followers on Instagram, I'll have the swipe up feature and suddenly my business will explode.”

Well, you guys, that's not really how it works and in fact what's happening is so many entrepreneurs are just working on getting to this *magical* number, this email list size, this follower count, that they're putting all their energy and their attention on doing that, and therefore neglecting all the people who have already said, yes! 

When you’re doing this, then you're not consistently emailing your community and showing up for them.

Your belief that everything will be better when you have that “number”, is actually keeping you stuck.

So we have to switch our mindset and say, I'm showing up for the people that are already here and I don't care if it's just your cousin and your mom right now.

Showing up and being of service for those people is where I want your energy and your attention to go.

Now, if you’ve been spending all your time on just getting to a specific number, you might be like, “Michelle, how am I supposed to spend all this time showing up for my community and being there for my community? I'm trying to grow my community like it's great if I can show up for two people. But if I'm putting all my energy and attention there, then how do I grow my list?” 

The reason you’re concerned about that is because you’re going about growing your list using social media (and social media is not a marketing strategy).

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FREE OFFER (OPT-IN)

I see this a lot online. You spend time creating a free offer that is going to be of value to your ideal client. Then you start marketing it, most likely on social media, from the start and you notice that nothing's really happening. 

So you say, “Oh, this freebie does not work. I need to create a new freebie.” 

And you create a new freebie and you go through the same process and you show up on social media and you're posting as many times as you can post without spamming your audience and you're using all the hashtags on Insta Stories. 

And still nothing is happening and you repeat the cycle.

It's not the freebie, it's how you're marketing the freebie.

You most likely lack an understanding of how to create the content to actually sell the freebie and what platforms are going to serve you at the highest level.

So here is the thing with Facebook and Instagram - you should not be relying on these social media platforms to grow your business.

The goal is to grow your community using evergreen strategies so you can show up on social media and be “social” with your audience.

ADVANCED MARKETING STRATEGIES TO GROW YOUR SUBSCRIBERS

Advanced marketing strategies include:

• Blogging

• Pinterest

• Youtube

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• PodcastingGuest Expert Feature (guest blog, guest on podcast, guest interview, interview feature)

• Facebook and Pinterest Ads (investment)

The content on these platforms not only lasts longer than social media, but allows your content to consistently be seen and drive traffic to your website, freebie and ultimately paid offer.

The Lifespan of Online Content

Blogging has a lifespan of 2+ years.
Pinterest has a lifespan of 6+ months.
Instagram ONLY has a lifespan of 21 hours.
Facebook ONLY has a lifespan of 5 hours.

It would take you about the same amount of time to write a blog for your website, as it will to post on Facebook and your content will last longer.

Having these advanced systems of marketing in place allow you to consistently create a stream of leads to your business. 

Example: My website, every single month, gets thousands of people visiting from Pinterest. I am ranked on page one for multiple keywords in my industry on Google. So I'm getting tons of people from there as well. 

I focus on creating one piece of content a week on my blog, which helps with SEO on Google and the content is optimized for Pinterest. As a result, every single day people are finding my content online and my email list is growing.

They're also following me on social media as a way to stay connected with me. So rather than relying on social media to grow my new audience, I get to show up here and have fun with you guys. I get to show up and do a video and post things about my travels and the things that I love that build a deeper relationship with my audience.

All the while, my community is growing without me having to post on social media.

THE GOAL

First, we want to create a free gift, just one, for your audience. An incentive to join your community. Learn more here.

Next, the goal is to use those Advanced Marketing strategies above to consistently lead new people to your website (or landing page) where they can consume your content and grab your gift.

As your email subscribers grow, your social media platforms grow and you switch your focus to building relationships and nurturing your new audience. This is where sales come from!

When you have those marketing strategies in place, you can focus on doing what you do best - serving your audience and making an impact.

Learn more about implementing these strategies inside Brandmerry Academy!

P.S. Here is a helpful blog on improving your content marketing. Read it here.

P.S.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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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.

3 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing as a Female Entrepreneur

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Content Marketing is King, or Queen in this case and it’s one of the key pieces in spreading your message, creating brand awareness and building a community that actually buys from you…

However, there’s a little something that’s keeping so many female entrepreneurs and online marketers from succeeding online with their current content marketing strategy.

But, before I spill the deets...a little story.

Suzie saw an amazing post in a Facebook Group.

The post promoted a freebie/product so similar to hers.

The post had SO much engagement, I’m talking hundreds of comments and most likely hundreds of opt-ins.

You know one of those good ole’ effective ladder posts.
**If you’re not familiar with a ladder post, it’s essentially a post that encourages people to comment in order to get a special link. Every comment bumps the post up into the Facebook feed, therefore keeping your post relevant for days!

So, what did Suzie do? Suzie studied it.

She looked at the post, the way it was written, the key factors and plugged in her information.

Then Suzie posted HER post into the same group.

Do you know what happened?

Crickets 🦗

Do you know why?

Because the post wasn’t truly Suzie’s it was someone else's.

WHAT WORKS FOR SOMEONE ELSE IN THE ONLINE SPACE WON’T WORK EXACTLY THE SAME FOR YOU!

And I know that’s hard to hear because we want it to be easier.

We want all the answers as to why THEY have it and we don’t.

I know because I’ve been there too.

But, the more you start to mimic/copy/imitate someone else the more YOUR authentic brand and personality blend in.

And the only way to stand out today in your industry is to break through the noise.

Yet, so many entrepreneurs do it and therefore so many entrepreneurs (mentors/coaches specifically) package the idea of Done-For-You Templates.

And I believe there is nothing more detrimental to branding than a template that teaches you what to say to your community and encourages you to copy and paste

Just to be clear, there are a few templates I’m a big fan of:

• Calendars and Planners
• Trackers and Spreadsheets
• Design templates in Canva

And, that’s about it!

When you get into the world of template emails, template social media post and even worse templated photos to share as your own on social media...then we have a problem.

And, this rise of templated content is contributing to what so many entrepreneurs are trying to avoid...sounding like a robot and losing their own authentic voice.

Moving Forward. 

So, what do we do?

We stop.

We stop using templates as a quick fix for our business and develop better ways to tap into our own stories and the stories of our audience to create highly valuable content.

We use our own lives and experiences as an inspiration in our personal brand to deeply connect with our audience.

And we stop downloading free offers that say “Fill-in-the-Blank Social Media Posts to Skyrocket Your Engagement and Get you $10k in a Week!”

If you want to stand out, truly stand out and build a community of fans over followers, then templates and copy/paste are not the answer.

Three things you can do today to come up with more aligned content for your brand.

1. Use a Content Calendar

If you are not currently using a content calendar then you’re flying by the seat of your pants and that is most likely contributing to the need to “search” for answers, rather than trusting your own writing instincts.

You can download my free Content Calendar if you haven’t already.

This will teach you a technique (not a template) I use with my clients to identify YOUR authentic Brand Containers as a way to come up with a stream of content. Then you can better plan for your content over the next month and pull from your own life experiences and needs of your clients in the process.

In addition, can you tell I’m super passionate about this, you’ll get into the habit or pre-writing your content which allow you to find your own voice.

2. Pull Ideas For Content From Your Followers

Want to know the secret to content that converts? Pay attention to what your audience is asking for. Yes, it gets to be that easy, yet so many entrepreneurs are missing this step.

Maybe it’s because they don’t have an audience yet?

Maybe it’s because their audience, although small, is made up of family and friends?

Maybe they don’t know how to ask?

Whatever the reason may be, I want you to remember you have the internet at your fingertips. Literally, anything you need to know is available to you if you take the time to look (and taking the time to brainstorm and research content ideas is huge)!

Use hashtags, groups, forums, connections, heck a simple Google Search to find what your ideal client is looking for and create content that addresses that need in a way that showcases your personality and brand voice.

3. Play up Emotional Branding in Your Content

Not sure what I mean by emotional branding? Be sure to check out this post here.

At its core, emotional branding is understanding the pains and pleasures of your audience and creating strong copy and content that:

1. Addresses the pain and/or pleasure

2. Uses strong emotionally charged language to connect to that pain and/or pleasure

3. Offers a solution

Even in the beginning when you’re testing your copy and your writing style or brainstorming content ideas, you can start incorporating emotionally charged words and phrases into your copy.

This will allow you to connect on a deeper level with your audience and start building an audience of true fans.

I believe that your true voice deserves to be heard and your brand to be seen.

I know that you have everything you need already inside of you to stand out on social media, you might need a little help in tapping into it, but don’t mask it with a generic template.

The goal is to find a system that allows your most authentic qualities to shine through.

Your language.

Your personality.

Your voice.

Your unique characteristics.

Your style.

When you use a template, that probably about 1,000+ other people are using you lose these pieces. Maybe not at first, but over time.

And as Dr. Seuss once said, and about a hundred other movies including What a Girl Wants 🙌🏻, “Why blend in when you were born to stand out?”

If you’re serious about doing the work and creating a brand that stands out on social media, produces high-value content for your audience and building a thriving community that leads to a revenue-generating business, then be sure to check out the Content Planning Blueprint here.

Tell me in the comments, what is your favorite tip from above?

Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!

P.S. Planning and creating your content doesn't have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way to research, plan, and create your content as an entrepreneur and it's all inside the Content Planning Blueprint!

The Content Planning Blueprint is perfect for online business owners who know the power of content creation but are tired of spending all of their time coming up with ideas, organizing their content, and wondering what will attract their dream clients.

In just a few hours, you'll have 90 days of content planned, a repeatable workflow to save you hours on creating and distributing your content every week, and content topics that will keep performing for your brand for years to come! Get your blueprint now >>

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4 Great Branding Tips From a Female Business Coach

4 Great Branding Tips From a Female Business Coach

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

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Branding is hard, there I said it! 

As a Branding and Business Coach for Female Entrepreneurs, I support women in branding and marketing themselves online and building the business of their dreams.

However, it took me months to find my personal brand after being stuck in a cycle of comparison and lost in connecting to my true story and personality. 

I started my business with a single struggle - how to brand myself and my services online.

I spent eight months trying to create an online brand based on other’s expectations and it resulted in zero clients. 

That was almost 4 years ago and since that time I’ve grown my community to thousands of women, celebrated over $400,000 cash in my business and figured out this whole personal branding thing, so much it’s what I now teach as the foundation of all my programs and as an online business coach.

And, if I’m being honest I think so many online coaches, especially business coaches get the whole branding thing wrong. It isn’t as simple as picking your colors and fonts and sure as heck doesn’t revolve solely around your service, product or offer.

However, it is one of the most important things you can do for your business!

You can learn more about The Build a Better Brand Method here.

Aside from the 3-part method I teach inside the free training, I wanted to share with you 4 great branding tips from someone who not branded herself online, but also teaches other women how to do the same.

Let’s get into it!

1. Tapping into Your Story

Yes, Storytelling is my signature tool to support female entrepreneurs and for good reason...storytelling is the key to branding.

The first thing you really need to do as a personal brand is to actually identify your story. You need to identify the reason behind your brand. You need to identify the mission behind your brand and tap into the different ways that your story, your personality brings that to life.

One of the things that separate a personal brand from a regular brand is the personality behind it and so you want to be able to input you into everything that you do in the online space and there's no better way to do that and set yourself apart from other people than by tapping into your story.

I highly recommend looking at your business, looking at the brand that you want to create, and then look back at your story.

There are various chapters to see which ones connect to where you are now. This is going to help you get started and actually sharing your story in the online space and start to build that trust, like and know factor with your audience.

Additional resources:

Where and When to Share Your Story. Click to read more.

How to Identify Your Brand Story. Click here to read.

2. Emotional Branding

If there is one secret weapon I learned earlier on in my biz as I was designing my business coaching programs, it's the importance and power of emotional branding.

We all know that feeling when we just click with a brand. We become obsessed with their content, products, IG stories, etc…

That's not because we need their product it's because we feel something when we're connected to them. This is emotional branding, and it's how I feel every time I think of Trader Joe's ♥️

Emotional Branding is so important no matter what you sell. Think of how you want your audience to feel when they see, hear, read or come in contact with your brand (remember it's not just aesthetics). How can you build trust with your audience by making them feel this connection?

P.S. this is also why we buy, because of an emotional connection, so you're doing yourself the service of not only attracting life long fans but also making sales.

Additional resources: 

How to Build an Online Community Through Emotional Branding. Click to read more.

How to Attract Your Dream Clients Through Emotional Branding. Click to read more.

3. Clear Communication and Messaging

My third tip for you is around clear communication and messaging. You literally can not have an effective and revenue-generating brand without this piece.

How you communicate who you are, what you provide and in a way that resonates with your audience can make or break your business.

So I get this question a lot. “How much do I share?” “What parts of my story do I share?” And this is the communication component.

If you have a piece of your story that you think is really amazing, but you cannot connect that to your audience, it's not the right time to share that.

So some of the key things that I love to ask myself, is this valuable to my audience?And what kind of value do they get?

This allows me to make sure everything that I'm creating with my personal brand, every way that I'm communicating it through my marketing, my email and my social media is always going to resonate with my audience. This is the key.

Make sure your messaging is clearly communicating the benefit of working with you, of your service, of your product, with your audience so they can really see themselves in the outcome of your product.

Additional Resource:

How to Create Better Brand Messaging. Click to read more.

4. Create a Sensory Brand Experience

This one might be a combination of all three but it's worth repeating. Great brands are sensory, meaning they play on all the senses we as humans experience.

This is important because in the online space we often can't touch a product before we buy but we can get the same feeling through strong imagery and copy.

Focusing on creating a sensory experience invites your audience in and makes it real, tangible and unforgettable.

This is why I love storytelling so much because it gives you an opportunity to paint a picture for your audience.

The next time you're writing copy or choosing images think of how you can describe something so your reader feels as though they are right there in the room with you - this will not only increase awareness of your brand, but also lead to more sales.

Actionable Step: 

4 Steps to an Authentic and Revenue-Generating Personal Brand. Click to read here.

Conclusion

Personal Branding is important no matter what you sell online, and it needs our love and attention. The beautiful part about a strong brand is that it will attract the right people (ideal clients) and repel the wrong ones. 

Taking the time to think about the experience your audience is having when they come in contact with your brand and business is one of the most powerful things you can do.

When you create a true experience for your audience, through story, sensory, copy and more you’re becoming memorable and that truly is the key to repeat clients.

To learn more about The Build a Better Brand Method, you can watch my free training here.

Tell me in the comments, what is your favorite tip from above?

Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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