Brandmerry Blog Archives
How to Plan 6 Months at a Time in Your Business: A Step-by-Step Guide
Planning in your business is essential if you want to avoid overwhelm and know you’re always moving forward toward your goals. Now, many business owners plan month to month or at the most, 90 days, but I’m going to encourage you and give you the step-by-step to plan 6 months at a time. Read the blog for all the details.
Have you started thinking about the next 6 months in your business? What if I told you that you could plan 6 months as a small business owner and entrepreneur and feel confident in your business plans as we head into your next phase? Half of your business success comes down to having a plan, and this 5-step process can help. Learn how to make your 6-month calendar for content, launches, and main focuses in your business. Learn more at brandmerry.com! #businessplans #6monthplans #endoftheyearplan
In March 2021, I released a Reel over on Instagram that showed a quick look at how I prepare for every quarter in my business.
The video showed my giant calendar wall in my office where I have exactly six months visible to me at all times. I showcased the process of me planning with my Post-it notes, and the response was, "Michelle, we need a video about this. Michelle, we need to know how you're doing this, all of the details."
So here we are.
We’re jumping in with a six-month, step-by-step, behind-the-scenes look at planning.
Now, before we get into those step-by-step pieces, I want to take a few minutes to talk about why I think planning is important and also talk about one of the key things that I do before planning for six months.
WHY PLANNING IS IMPORTANT
Some of you might be here because like me you love planning!
Some of you might be teetering a little bit. You might have been gung-ho about planning. You might try to do it a lot and then find that you fall off the wagon, but you get back on again, and you keep doing it, and you keep trying new strategies over and over again.
And then there are a few of you that are here because you're super intrigued, but you also have a lot of resistance when it comes to planning because it can feel very restrictive.
So I want to take an opportunity to share with you the mindset shift that completely changed the way I view planning in my business.
I've always been a big fan of planning. Even since I was a little girl, I used to plan out, on note cards (thanks, Mom), my goals for the year.
Then I'd tuck them away, and I'd never look at them again. I think we can all agree that's not how you plan effectively 😂.
Over the years planning took on two different emotions for me, I’d either have these big ambitions to plan, but then I’d feel as if I was setting crazy unrealistic expectations for myself and freeze.
Or the idea of planning would feel restrictive; as if I couldn't do anything else, and so I never really followed through with the plan.
It wasn't until I became an entrepreneur and started my business in 2016 that I realized that I was constantly sitting in overwhelm without a plan.
I would question:
👉 How am I going to make money?
👉 What am I going to share today?
👉 What am I going to email?
👉 How am I going to get new clients?
👉 What am I focusing on?
And every day, I would repeat that kind of overwhelmed feeling, because I didn't have a plan.
This season of life made me realize that by having a big-picture plan in place, I was able to be more creative in my business. By having this roadmap in place I moved out of overwhelm, and I had more opportunities to create and be in my zone of genius, and that has served me as a business owner in so many ways.
So if you're coming into this like me where you might have had a little bit of resistance about the idea of planning and having it all mapped out, I hope that this blog changes your view on what planning is.
So if you're worried about being restricted when it comes to planning for six months, I want to encourage you to look at it a different way, and look at it as a roadmap guiding you, allowing you to be in your zone of genius and have more time and space for more creativity.
PLAN YOUR FOCUS FOR THE YEAR
On my office wall, there are six calendars, one for every month. Now every single day doesn’t need to have something on it, remember this is big picture planning, but the purpose is to map out where you’re going.
So the first thing you need to determine before you start mapping out your steps, is what is the main focus for the year.
Now, many of you watching this video are most likely small business owners and entrepreneurs and might find that your yearly goal is a specific dollar amount, but this works for anything and I often follow the same structure when I determine how many trips I want to take in a year.
When I'm heading into the year, I like to figure out:
What is my purpose?
What is my focus going to be for the year?
How much revenue do I want to bring into the company for the year?
How is that broken up into each quarter?
How is that broken up into the individual offers that I have, or that I'm planning on putting out?
So I never go into six months completely blind. I definitely know, "Hey, by December 31st, 2021, this is what I want to achieve," and this allows me to reverse engineer, and it makes the planning process easier.
So although I'm not going into all the details of planning for 12 months at a time in this post. I want you to know that thinking of the big picture is important, and you want to have at least a number, or something measurable, tied to your yearly goal so you can move forward with mapping out six months, quarterly (every three months) and monthly actions in your business.
5 STEPS TO PLAN 6 MONTHS
Don’t move on until you’ve got your big picture goal established.
Ready?
Ok, let’s dive into it!
PLANNING TIP #1: START WITH THE BIG PICTURE
Number one is kind of a piggyback on what we just talked about, and that's thinking big picture. When you're planning for six months, which can feel like a lot of work, you're thinking about focus.
You're thinking about the bigger picture of…
What am I trying to achieve for these six months?
What are going to be my big three things that I want to hit?
That is going to allow you to figure out all the nitty-gritty details needed to get there.
Sometimes people think when we're talking about content, specifically, that we're planning content for six months. I'm not saying, "Tell me the title of every blog post that you're going to create for the next six months."
That's not necessary, at this stage. That comes later, in step five.
But you do want to understand what the focus will be over the next six months.
So think again:
What is the yearly goal?
Okay, how does that play a role in the next six months?
How does that play a role in the next 90 days?
Because in case you didn't realize, you have to go through the 90 days to get to the six months, and the six months to get to the year.
So reverse engineering from the big picture goal for the year to the focus every six months and 90 days will give you the stepping stones to get to your end result.
PLANNING TIP #2: CREATE YOUR WORKFLOW
Step two is to create your workflow.
Now, in a recent episode of Monday’s with Michelle, I talked about the process of creating a workflow. As entrepreneurs, workflows are so important. If you want to achieve your goals, you need to have the systems in place that are going to support you in achieving your goals.
One of the things that I did a couple of years ago, that changed my business completely, was this idea of creating a very clear content workflow.
So every week, I know how many blog posts I'm creating, how many videos I'm creating as part of Mondays with Michelle, how many podcast episodes I'm putting out there, what emails are coming from that content, where I'm showing up on social media or other platforms. And I have a clear workflow every week that resets.
So we go through our week, tick the boxes, and it resets the next week. The topic will change weekly, but what we're doing behind the scenes to get the content out there does not change.
Having a workflow is going to help you plan out six months with ease.
This calendar that I'm looking at, says every Monday there's a Mondays with Michelle video.
Every Thursday, there's a blog post.
Every Wednesday, there's a YouTube video.
Every other Friday, there's a podcast episode.
That's what I'm able to visually see on this big-picture calendar that I've got up, and that helps guide my efforts. So make sure you have a workflow in place, and if you don't have one, there's an entire video and blog teaching you how to create your own.
PLANNING TIP #3: DETERMINE IMPORTANT DATES
Step three, when planning out for six months, is to determine any big launches, promotions, dates, and vacations. Any big these-are-set-in-stone dates that aren't super flexible.
You want to put those on your calendar because that is going to impact a lot of your content that you're creating. It's going to help you look ahead and say, "Oh, I'm opening the doors to the Academy."
Which I am, at the end of May. Just a heads-up 😉
I know that that's happening and it’s already on my calendar. This helps me determine what content to share leading up to that. I know The Academy is focused on marketing your business, so my content will be marketing-focused.
This clear focus will help build know, like, and trust with my audience so that you're most likely to join me inside of the Academy.
It's also going to allow me to put my promotion dates on there. If you're doing a challenge or a masterclass, what day you're going to open the cart and what day you're going to close the cart. If you're going to run ads, when are you going to run ads?
So putting your actual promotion dates on your calendar will allow you to reverse engineer and add in the smaller details needed for a successful promotion.
So step three is to determine those big launches, promotions, or any specific dates that you have.
Think of EVERYTHING!
Maybe you're launching a podcast. What date is that?
Maybe you're thinking of launching or putting a new product out there. What date is that?
Maybe you're putting out a freebie. What date is that?
Putting these markers on your calendar will help you get ahead of the game and help you embrace more of a forward-thinking mentality so you never “feel behind.”
One of the biggest things that I see entrepreneurs doing is that they aren't planning this far in advance.
They'll do maybe 30 days, and then the end of the 30 days comes, and they're like, "Oh, I have no idea what I'm doing next month." And then they're like, "Oh, I want to start a freebie, and I want to put it out next week." And then they're scrambling and doing mediocre work to get it out there.
Give yourself space.
By me looking at September, I can kind of, in the back of my mind, start thinking about all the things that I am doing and start formulating ideas around that. So when it comes time to create that stuff, it's not just coming out of thin air.
PLANNING TIP #4: PUT UP A 6 MONTH CALENDAR
Now, and only now do we physically put the calendar together.
I like seeing my calendar all of the time in my office, it’s incredibly helpful for me and has been for my clients as well.
Sometimes people feel overwhelmed because things change, but again when we’re planning for 6 months we’re not focused on the tiny, tiny details we reserve for our Google Calendars, we’re focused on “What’s Happening!”
Once you’ve determined your physical calendar, then you want to take those dates that you've determined from step three and use Post-Its to pencil in.
I like Post-its because you can move things around, as things change, which they will and not have to start over.
So once you have your calendar up and Post-its ready you want to do the following:
Add you’re important dates. Think launches, sales, promotions, vacations, etc…
Add your weekly workflow to the calendar. Think blogs, podcasts, videos, live streams, etc… If you write a blog every Wednesday you need a Post-it for every Wednesday.
What this is going to allow you to do is support you in the last step, which is adding the details for the next 90 days.
PLANNING TIP #5: ADD DETAILS FOR THE NEXT 90 DAYS
Now, I am not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you that I know what I'm talking about in September. I don't know what I'm talking about in July, but I know that I will be showing up, and that is super clear.
But what I do know is what's happening in the next 90 days in my business down to the detail.
This blog that you're reading right now, if you are reading it on May 6th, when it's released, was recorded for a Monday’s with Michelle on April 6th. It's an entire month ahead, and that's because I have a clear workflow.
So one of the things that you want to do in step five is add those individual details OFF of the calendar. I prefer a task management platform or Google Calendar for the details because your calendar can get super messy and you’re not able to list out all the tiny micro details on your physical calendar.
We use ClickUp, as a task management tool, and put those tasks and the workflow inside of there.
This allows your 6-month physical calendar to showcase the big picture and focus and your task management software to map out the smaller details needed to achieve that focus.
Or, if you’re visual like me a little something like this:
BIG PICTURE YEAR GOAL
👇
6 MONTH FOCUS
With important dates, general workflow, and promotions
👇
90-DAY FOCUS
Specifics on what you’ll be sharing in your content, topics, etc...
HOW PLANNING LEADS TO CONSISTENCY
While I do have a team to support my business efforts today, I've been doing this since I was sailing the ship by myself. Having a clear idea of how I was showing up every week for my audience allowed me to continuously grow my audience and make sales.
As an online brand wanting to build a revenue-generating business you don’t want to disappear or ghost your growing audience, this is why creating consistent content is important.
Consistently creating content and putting your brand out into the world will allow you to continuously attract new people who have never seen you before, lead them through the process, and ultimately to the sale.
And rather than constantly feeling overwhelmed with, "What should I talk about?" How would it feel if you just took an hour, every quarter, to plan all that out?
I promise you, you get faster at it, and it gets easier.
RECAP
So let's quickly go through the five-step process again, and then I'm going to let you go on your way and start planning the next six months in business. I like to do this every quarter, adding on the next three months, but you can start this now, whenever you're reading this blog. It does not matter, but getting yourself in the habit will do tremendous things for your productivity and creativity.
Number 1: Think big picture. Remember, we're not talking nitty-gritty details for the next six months. We're looking at our goals for the year, and we're saying, "What is my focus going to be the next 90 days, the next six months? And how is that going to get me to my end goal?"
Number 2: Make sure you have a workflow in place. If you don't know what that is, or you need a step-by-step, go ahead and watch this video and grab this free gift. That is going to help you with this process.
Number 3: Determine any big dates, any big launches, and promotions. if you're going to launch a new freebie if you're launching a podcast if you're going on vacation. Whatever it is, it goes on your calendar, so you can work around it and reverse engineer any necessary promo.
Number 4: Put the six-month calendar up. Make it visible. Don't hide your plans. And if you can put it on a wall in your office or have a binder or something like that, go ahead and do that. But get that six-month calendar up. Put the major dates on there that we talked about in step three, and then put your workflow, blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, all the different things up there, with Post-its or dry erase or something.
Number 5:Add the individual details for the next 90 days. We add these details into ClickUp but you can use any task management software. Again, the calendar that I'm looking at behind me has very specific dates. How I'm showing up, launches, promos. But all my emails aren't up there. All of that stuff is in my task management platform, ClickUp. This is my big picture. This keeps me focused. This is my roadmap.
CONCLUSION
So I hope that this blog supported you in starting to think about the power of planning and how it can ultimately help you feel more aligned, make better decisions as a CEO, and be more creative.
Let's remove the overwhelm with a plan! And this roadmap is going to make a difference.
Be sure that you save this post, so you can come back to it and you can repeat this process time after time.
If you want to take a look at this layout, I've also linked the reel that I shared with you, if you want to physically see what this calendar looks like.
And make sure you check out the workflow video to walk you through creating your repeatable workflow. And for additional support, go to brandmerry.com/repurpose to grab a complete repurposing guide that talks about creating your workflow.
Watch the full video here!
P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com
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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 Ultimate Personal Branding Guide for Coaches, Consultants and Entrepreneurs
The Ultimate Personal Branding Guide for Coaches, Consultants and Entrepreneurs
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
Everything you need to know about personal branding as an entrepreneur.
Let's dive into why personal branding is essential 👇
THE IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING
Having a solid brand impacts the success of your marketing.
It allows you to craft messaging that pulls in your audience.
Having a solid brand allows you to know what to use for SEO to rank.
Having a solid brand tells you the type of copy and imagery to use on Facebook ads and Pinterest ads, so that they convert into sales.
Having a solid brand tells you what type of product or service you're going to put out into the world that's in alignment with what you want to provide and what your audience needs.
Having a solid brand is important, and it is the foundation of the things that you can achieve in your business.
Without a solid brand, your marketing will suffer.
SIGNS YOUR BRANDING ISN’T COMPLETE
Alright, now that we are all on the same page about the importance of branding as an entrepreneur, let’s dive into some of the signs that your brand might need some additional work. It’s important to pay attention to these signs and make adjustments so you can move forward with confidence in marketing your brand and business.
👉 SIGN #1: You’re Struggling to Make a Sale
Now, maybe it's your first sale or maybe you made a sale three months ago, but regardless of timing you're having trouble signing another client, or making another sale in your course.
The thing to keep in mind is that selling doesn't happen at the moment that someone's like, "I want to buy your product," it's happening long before.
It's happening the first time they come across your social media channel, your freebie, your Facebook ad, your website.
That's when the relationship and sale are starting and that is all reliant on branding.
That first feeling they get when they see your brand, the messaging that they're picking up on, that this is exactly what they need in their lives at this moment, how you're following up, your email campaign, the live streams you're doing, the podcasts; all of that is directly tied to branding.
The selling process has to start long before you actually send an email that says, "By the way, guys, selling this thing." Because if it doesn't, you're going to notice that you don't sell any of the “thing”. Because without that strong connection, nobody really knows what you're about, and there will most likely still be a lack of trust. If you don't email them ever or have clear, consistent content, they might not even know who the hell you are.
These are important pieces of branding.
So if you're struggling to make a sale, or let's just even say consistent sales, even consistent money, it's possible that you have a branding problem.
👉 SIGN #2: Your Messaging is All Over The Place
At least once a week, someone will message me and say, "Michelle, I'm looking for support. I want to work one-on-one with somebody. My biggest hurdle is that I feel like my messaging is all over the place."
If you feel like your messaging is all over the place, I can tell you with 100% certainty that that is a branding problem.
How you show up, how you share what you do in a way that clearly communicates to your audience that it's for them and how it will benefit them is part of your brand. So if you feel like your messaging is all over the place, it could be because of two different things.
One, it could be your social channels, and your website, and your emails all look very different. They all sound very different. There's not a clear linear message.
It could also be that anytime you're talking about your product or an offer, maybe you're in the middle of a launch, all your messaging is different. There's no clear, "This is the program. This is who it's for. And this is how it will benefit you," or, "This is the product. This is who it's for. This is how it will benefit you."
That is a sign that your messaging is all over the place.
And maybe you've already felt it, you aren't successful with your selling, because people aren't really sure what it is that you're doing and how it's going to support them. And that's huge.
👉 SIGN #3: Your Website Isn’t Converting
Your website is the experience that you get to control, and there's no algorithm fighting against you which is so nice.
But, once again if your website isn't converting viewers into subscribers or clients, it is a branding problem.
Because if people don't understand who you are and what you can help them with, they will peace out and they will do it very quickly.
I very rarely talk about the aesthetics as it relates to branding, but the reality is that with your website, those photos, those colors, those aesthetics, those fonts, that one-liner at the top, can make or break someone staying on your website or bouncing right off.
5 seconds is about all you have before someone says, "Is this for me? Is this not for me? Okay. Bye."
The photos and those pieces of your branding pull them in really, really quickly, and then it's all about your language and your messaging to keep them captivated and to convert them. So if you have a website, if you're getting traffic, and it's not converting, we have a branding problem.
These are three examples of possible holes in your branding, and the most popular one’s I see and hear from my clients and community.
How to Find Your Personal Brand 👇
What is a Personal Brand?
Your personal brand is the experience you create for your audience. It’s made up of your experiences, stories, skills, and personality.
Building your personal brand is important online, because whether you like it or not your personal brand is being written for you. The way social media works today is if you’re not in the driver's seat controlling your brand, you risk the wrong message getting out.
If you have a business, then personal branding allows you to create a deeper connection with your audience that builds trust and goes deeper than just the product or service you provide.
So how do you find your personal brand?
I’ve got 4 simple steps and important questions to ask yourself in the process.
1. Create a Personal Brand Identity Starting With You
If you want to create a personal brand identity it’s time to get, well, personal. The idea of a personal brand is that you and your story will be at the center of your brand.
So, before we get into strategy, ideal client work or messaging (which we will cover by the way) we need to take a look at your own authenticity and personality.
What makes you who you are? This includes the way you speak and write, the things you like to surround yourself with, what you value most and yes your favorite color. All of this is going to play a big role in building your personal brand.
When you can begin the process by looking inward rather than outward, you’ll better understand how to present yourself in the online space and that is SO important.
With how fast social media is changing and how many entrepreneurs are in your niche, it’s so important that your brand, the core of your business, is not only defined but is also different.
Now, before you freak out and say to me, “But, Michelle I’m no different, nothing exciting happened to me!”
I’d say, “Give me 60 minutes…” just kidding, but seriously, it often takes me just one coaching session to pull out the parts of you that are authentic, different and will set you apart from others in your industry.
And where I start with all of my clients is their story. Every single person has a story and that right there is what’s going to set you apart and build trust with your audience.
You can learn more about Brand Story in this post and take my Brand Story Quiz here.
2. Identify Your Personal Brand Audience and Future Clients
Alright, now that we’ve identified, or started to identify the core of your brand, there’s another crucial part.
I think we can agree that communication is a two-way street and that’s exactly what you’re setting out to do online when posting on social media, creating your website and writing emails. You can create that stuff all dang day, but if no one is receiving your message it kind of means nothing.
This is why identifying your audience is so important and should be done at the beginning of your business.
Identifying your audience consists of three parts:
Daydreaming about who you want to work with
Justifying your “dreams” with market research
Creating a client profile
The key step here, and what so many entrepreneurs skip, is the element of Market Research. Please promise me right now that you won’t skip this step.
Using free tools on social media, via Google, Facebook Groups and personal conversations you can begin to identify the key components of your audience and use that in your branding and marketing down the line.
3. Map Out Your Brand Offer and Framework
Let’s get one thing clear...I DO NOT MEAN YOUR PRODUCT.
So many people think that their product is part of their brand, but it’s not that’s all your business boo and without a brand, well you won’t have a successful business.
If you start with your product or service you’re going to miss the mark. You’ll have the logistics in place, but no clear pathway or transformation that you’re providing your client.
It’s important, during the branding process to take time to clearly state the transformation you provide and the overall framework for your product and services.
And, no, I don’t care if you sell soap or an online course, what are you providing your client beyond the individual product.
4. Create an Emotional Brand Experience for Your Audience
Want to stand out online?
Do you want your brand to do more than just get some followers and look pretty?
Then, you need emotional branding my friend. Emotional Branding is my specialty and something you don’t often find online but can be the difference between a brand that makes money and one that doesn’t.
The idea of Emotional Branding is that your audience will feel a deeper connection to your brand, above someone else's and therefore know, like and trust you...which as you guessed it, leads to business.
If you want to learn more about Emotional Branding specifically, you can check out this post.
Before you decide on your fonts, finalize your colors, create a logo or get your brand photos taken you want to identify the emotional core of your brand.
From here choose the aesthetics of your brand will be a breeze.
Brand Affinity 👇
WHAT IS BRAND AFFINITY?
Brand Affinity is when a consumer believes a particular brand shares the same values as them.
It’s deeper than a knowledge of the brand, brand awareness, and begins to build the connection between consumer and brand on a more personal and emotional level.
This connection is what allows you, as the brand, to not only stand out online but keep your audience coming back time and time again.
Remember purchase decisions come down to trust.
“If someone likes you they’ll listen to you, if they trust you they’ll do business with you!” - Zig Ziglar
Building this trust is necessary when building an online brand in 2020 and beyond because consumers are looking for brands that they can trust.
As more generations become part of movements and make changes in their personal lives they’re looking for brands that share those values and go even further to provide support for those values as well.
When you build brand affinity with your audience you increase the likelihood that they will purchase your service or product, you create a consumer base that sticks around for the long haul (hello community) and your audience is more likely to refer others to your brand.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a sweet deal.
5 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR BRAND AFFINITY
I know you’re wondering, “Michelle, aside from storytelling how can I increase Brand Affinity with my community?”
Well, I’m so glad you asked!
I know storytelling can feel complex, I’ve included some resources below to support you with this, but I want you to be able to start TODAY. So, below you’ll find five simple ways to improve your Brand Affinity almost immediately.
1 | SHARE YOUR BRAND VALUES
Seems simple enough right? Well, not enough brands are identifying the values of their brand and therefore aren’t sharing them. How do you expect someone to experience Brand Affinity, shared values, if you yourself don’t know your brand values.
So, if you haven’t already identified yours now is the time to start.
I suggest thinking of the values you personally hold and how those connect to your brand.
What values do you want to share between you and your consumer, it will be a lot easier to build a business you love if you attract the right people.
For instance, some of my brand values are:
+ Authenticity
+ Transparency
+ Care and Attention to Detail
+ Reduce the overwhelm
+ The desire for our living a Freedom lifestyle
I showcase these through my marketing, every email, photo, etc is focused on attracting people who share the same values.
TAKE ACTION: Identify your core values and then share them.
The simplest thing to do is post them on your website, this can be done on your About Me page, but as we talked about earlier you’ll also want to showcase these through storytelling.
2| SHARE THE MISSION BEHIND YOUR BRAND
I started my career in non-profit work so forgive me as a gush over the power of a Brand Mission. As business owners we forget this, not enough business owners are taking the time to identify the mission or purpose behind their brand and this is a mistake.
63% of consumers state they want to buy from purpose-driven businesses.
And although money is amazing, I love it myself, it’s not the purpose. Your purpose and mission need to be deeper than that.
For instance, the mission behind my brand is…
“To empower women to uncover and own their story and share it with the world through their personal brand.”
This mission not only drives every decision in my business, but is also one of the main connectors for my audience.
TAKE ACTION: Identify your mission.
What is the purpose behind your business?
What legacy do you want to leave begin with your work?
Then share it! I love encouraging my clients to share their mission statement on their Home Page, but you can also include it on your About Me page.
3 | SHOW BRAND AFFINITY THROUGH PHOTOS
This is my favorite thing to do as a personal brand and it’s so important. We often don’t think about the effect of Instagram on building trust or the use of seeing multiple photos on a website as a way to build Brand Affinity, but it’s actually a very powerful practice.
Here’s why it’s so powerful. When you showcase multiple photos of yourself, different outfits, different locations, different expressions your audience feels as if they are seeing at different moments in time. It’s as if you’ve met and know each other for longer than you actually have.
Photography overall is one of my favorite investments as a brand. It’s not about spending a bunch of money or posing for all your photos, but it is about elevating your brand by showing different sides of your personality and if you’re not a photographer then hiring one can be one of the best investments in your business.
TAKE ACTION: Hire a photographer if you can and make sure you clearly articulate your brand values, ideal customer and the emotional connection you want to portray. More on prepping for a Brand Photoshoot here
But, even if you can’t invest in a photographer right now, you can use a tripod or a friend to take photos of you. Make sure you’re sharing different moments in time to achieve the Brand Affinity. Then share your photos on your website and of course on social media.
Take a look at my Instagram to get a feel for this!
4 | BUILD A COMMUNITY
There are a lot of different ways to build community outside of a private Facebook Group, even though everyone is telling you that you need one. The truth is you can build community on social media and through your email lists just as effectively.
When we think of community we think of a central location for everyone to hang out, but what you’re wanting to do is just declare your brand as the community.
For example, inside of my first email when you sign up for my email list I welcome new subscribers to the Brandmerry Community.
I’m always referring to the Brandmerry Community on my live streams, blogs and on social media. There isn’t a specific jacket we all wear, but we know. The women inside the community know I’m speaking to them and about them and that builds connection.
You could even go as far as declaring a name for your community.
This sense of unity makes someone feel as if they are part of something bigger. It’s not just about buying your product and peacing out it’s about belonging, which we as humans want.
TAKE ACTION: How can you use the tools at your fingertips to build a community? Will you give your audience a name? Determine some of the fun ways you can create a community that allows your audience to be part of something.
5 | EXCELLENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
It’s no secret that as consumers we want to be cared for. We don’t want to work extra hard to get the products and services we desire and once we make the decision, i.e. commitment, we want it to be easy.
This is where your customer service comes to the next level.
We often think the customer service is the sale, and while that is important, what comes next is what builds further Brand Affinity.
For instance, when someone purchases one of my services or courses they receive instant confirmation that their purchase has been received. Then, they receive an email with all the information they need, including login, how to access the materials, the next steps and where to start.
I take the guesswork out of getting started and right away my audience feels taken care of and trust is increased.
TAKE ACTION: How can you improve your customer service? If you have any holes in your process, post-sale, fill those now!
Emotional Branding 👇
What is Emotional Branding?
Emotional Branding is the art of communicating with your audience on a deeper, more personal level. It amplifies this idea of building relationships, which is what marketing truly is.
The end goal when marketing your business (which is just the art of amplifying your brand and attracting the right people) is relationship building.
And how do you know what types of content to create to build those relationships, if you don’t fully understand your audience?
This is why an integral piece of emotional branding and relationship marketing is knowing your audience.
By understanding your audience you can make decisions that connect deeply with their struggles, challenges and obstacles they’re facing and the goals and desires they are working towards and use that in your marketing.
And one more note on relationship marketing.
As consumers, we are bombarded with messages every day and we know as consumers that we're going to resonate with the ones that make us feel something, that stir something inside of us, that motivate us and make us feel a sense of belonging. This is the art of great branding.
Understanding how you want your audience to feel impacts the aesthetics of your brand; your logo, your font, your colors, your copy, the language that you're using in your copy, in your content, the stories that you're choosing, the messaging that you're using when you're on a live video, your website and even your products and services.
Emotional branding impacts every single aspect of your business.
The Benefits of Emotional Branding
A study from Harvard found that 90% of purchase decisions are made subconsciously.
This proves that the reason we buy is based not on the logistics we know about a product, but rather the interactions we’ve had that lead us to that brand and product/service. It comes down to the know, like and trust factor of a brand and how we feel the brand will solve our problem.
And as I mentioned above, when it comes to selling we always focus our energy on the sales conversation or the moment someone says, "I would like to buy your product," but that's not actually the buying process. The buying process is happening long before they decide to purchase or they put their credit card down, it's happening in those interactions with your brand.
So if the reason we invest in someone or something comes down to how that person, that product, that business, that brand ultimately makes us feel, wouldn’t you want to make sure you’re connecting on this level with your potential client?
I bet you do!
And it doesn’t stop there with the purchase. In fact, an area that many small business owners neglect is thinking about how they are continuing the art of emotional branding throughout the customer journey.
Yes, we need to start having real conversations about the customer journey and customer lifetime value.
When we start our businesses, it’s all about making money and with good reason. However, this mindset can keep us playing small as we continue to grow our business. Once we get those initial clients in the door what happens? How do we keep them engaged?
This is where emotional branding comes in because emotional branding has been proven to increase customer lifetime value and retention. When you build a deep connection with your audience from the start and continue to deliver on your mission, values and promise, you’re creating a fan for life.
And this is how you build a sustainable business!
Choose Your Brand Colors 👇
1. Brand Color Tip #1: Look at Your Daily Inspiration
The idea of personal branding is that you are the center of your brand and use your own personality traits, authentic voice and stories to create a brand that resonates with your ideal audience. If you don’t already know my stance on personal branding, be sure to check out this article here.
So with that in mind, why don’t we start with the things you already love?
When starting to create the aesthetics of your brand it can be really easy to get lost in what other people are doing, other professionals and other brands. The result is a loss of personal brand identity and blending in with others in your industry.
Rather than first looking outside yourself for inspiration, I recommend taking a look at two areas in your life: your closet and your home.
We buy things that inspire us and often that is associated with the psychology of color (more on that later), so why not use this personal color inspiration as a tool to choose your branding colors?
Start by looking at your closet and making a list of the top five colors you see most prominent.
Then repeat the process, by walking around your home.
Do you see an overlap in the specific colors, tone of color or color palette you tend to gravitate towards? This is where you should start when thinking of your branding colors.
2. Brand Color Tip #2: Identify Your Brand Emotions (Emotional Branding)
Just like with all things branding, after you’ve connected with the purpose and story behind your brand (aka you), it’s time to think of your audience.
We never want to create a brand that only takes our taste or style into consideration and we never want to create a brand solely for others that doesn’t connect deeply to ourselves.
So, after you’ve identified the colors you enjoy most, it’s important to think of how you want your audience to feel.
This is referred to as Emotional Branding and is something I teach my clients in my signature programs. You can learn more about Emotional Branding above!
When thinking of your brand colors, you need to know your ideal client very well, the reason for this is if you don’t understand their pain and pleasure points you won’t be able to use the power of psychology to choose your colors.
For instance, if I know my ideal client is feeling overwhelmed, is highly stressed and struggles with time management, I won’t choose a color that tends to elicit a feeling of anger.
On the flip side, if I know my client is driving to feel pleasure in her home and her health and loves the eco-lifestyle, then I would choose a color like green, which gives a feeling or serenity and organic.
In order to choose the right colors based on psychology, you need to know your audience and use that information to decide how you want your audience to feel when coming in contact with your brand.
So, before moving on to step three, it’s important to identify 5-7 brand emotions to relay to your audience.
If you need support with understanding market research and why it’s important, be sure to catch my free masterclass on The Build a Better Brand Method. Sign up here.
3. Brand Color Tips #3: Choosing Your Brand Colors Based on Psychology
Ok, no the REALLY fun part and the part I seriously geek out on. This is why emotional branding is so important because everything that relates to the aesthetics of your brand: colors, fonts, logo design, website layout, brand photos, etc… can be built on the fundamentals of psychology.
I recommend choosing three brand colors as your main colors and explore complimentary colors to play around with on social media.
Must Haves for Brand Messaging 👇
WHAT IS BRAND MESSAGING
Brand messaging is how you communicate the purpose of your brand, the problem that it solves, what you do, the work that you do, and the products that you have in a magnetic way.
It's not only about attracting the right people, it's also leading them, and converting them to the offer. It's about bundling it all up in a clear, specific and concise way.
People are always telling me, "I want a better way to communicate what it is I do to my audience so that they want to do it."
And I'm like, "That is brand messaging." It's all about communication.
The mistake people make with their brand messaging is just focusing on what they do. They craft messages that say, "This is what I do. This is what I create. This is how many modules there are," and they don't focus on why those things are important.
Their focus is, “Well, this is how I'll help you, and this is what I'll do with x, y and z”, and not focused on why their audience cares about those things in the first place.
What your audience really wants to know is how what you say you're going to do will benefit them. Because when we're going into buying something, yes, we might be looking for specific things, but we want to know it's going to solve our problem and it's going to help us get to the end result that we want.
I know that might seem like a lot to include, you might be thinking, "How do I communicate all of that?" but it truly is quite simple.
WHERE TO USE BRAND MESSAGING
Brand messaging can be and should be designed for your brand as a whole. This is something that I teach inside of my programs and referred to as Core Brand Messages.
It's this idea that your brand as a whole solves a very specific problem for your ideal customer, and you need to understand why solving that problem is important to your ideal customer.
But then, you can also create different variations of that or even more specific messages for a particular offer, for a landing page, for a webinar, for a sales page, in an email, etc...
For instance, I have core brand messages for Brandmerry as a whole. But then, my program, Brandmerry Academy, which focuses specifically on marketing and teaching people how to market their business, has very specific messages on marketing. I don't talk about the basics of starting a business because we're focused on marketing.
I reserve those types of messages for my program Roadmap to Freedom.
Strong messaging is used everywhere and anywhere you want to sell something, and following this brand messaging framework will make your life way easier.
BRAND MESSAGING FRAMEWORK
Excellent messaging always comes back to knowing your audience. So, even though I’m going to share with you a framework for your messages, I want you to remember the language you’ll use will come from what you know about your ideal customer.
We can't craft messages that convert, sales pages that sell, email campaigns that email, we can't do any of that if we don't know how to communicate to our audience.
I think copywriting is such an art. And so many people are like, "Well, I'll just hire a copywriter. I'll just get to a place when I hire a copywriter." But you're never going to get there if you don't know how to do it now yourself.
There are people who are incredibly skilled at writing copy, and they freaking own that. They're just masters at it. But, everyone at the bare minimum needs to just understand how to communicate to their audience. And that's really what messaging is. And as you can see, so much of your messaging working is reliant on understanding who you're talking to and then letting them tell you what they want and the language that they use and plugging that into your copy.
The framework, once you have the market research, is actually quite simple.
The brand messaging framework includes what you do, the problem you solve and why it’s important.
PART ONE: WHAT YOU PROVIDE
You need to note that it’s not just one thing, otherwise you’d have one brand message. What you do needs to be broken down into pieces. Think about your framework, modules you offer, modalities, techniques or just the flow you lead your client through.
PART TWO: WHAT PROBLEM DOES IT SOLVE
Taking it back to the ideal client work, understanding the struggles/ pains of your ideal customer is huge. When you know what they want to avoid or what they are working towards you can use that to share how what you do will help them achieve that.
This is the second stage of messaging to say, “This is what I do so you can…”
PART THREE: ADDING THE REAL BENEFIT AND URGENCY
This is all about why your audience should care and why it’s important. This is the sweet spot of brand messaging and the difference between someone working with you and someone not working with you, someone buying your course and not buying your course, someone buying your product and not buying your product.
If they aren’t clear on how investing in this will serve them, they won’t do it!
4 Branding Tips 👇
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 lifelong 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.
And don’t forget to sign up to watch my on-demand Build a Better Brand Method training! We dive deeper into my signature 6-part framework.
👉 Sign up for the training at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass.
P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com
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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.
Top Marketing Tools for Solopreneurs
When you’re a one-person show you want to make sure you’ve got the best tools working with you to scale your business and expand your reach. That’s why choosing the right marketing tools is so important and in today’s post, I’m sharing my personal favorites.
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
Today, I want to share with you some of the top tools that we use over here at Brandmerry to improve our marketing. These are tools we're using every single day, as well as ones that we intertwined into our weekly workflow.
If you don't already know, I am a big, big fan of productivity.
I'm a big fan of simplifying and streamlining the process of marketing, and these tools that I'm sharing with you today are lifesavers.
The combination of these tools and weekly workflows save us so much time, when I say my existing workflow not only saved my sanity in business but also resulted in more revenue I’m not exaggerating.
In 2019, I got serious about my systems and the data and results were clear. Now, as part of my membership Brandmerry Academy, I teach entrepreneurs daily how to master their content and marketing workflow as well.
So let’s briefly talk about that process before delivering the tools.
DESIGNING YOUR MARKETING WORKFLOW
So essentially, over here at Brandmerry, we have a weekly marketing workflow. We've been fine-tuning this strategy for about two and a half years now.
What this means is that every week I'm creating content and every week I'm creating the same amount of content. Unless we're going through a launch or promotion, the content always stays the same.
For us that means a video is getting released, a blog post is going on the blog, social media content is going out there, and every other week we've got podcasts going out to my audience as well. So we always have this very, very clear idea of the things that we're repeating week after week.
This gives us a roadmap, complete with checklists, that make sure my team and I are going through the motions in executing these workflows.
Every week, I and the team know exactly what we need to do in order to get that content out there, and we're repeating this process week after week after week.
I’ll be breaking this entire process down in an upcoming episode, but I wanted to just share this concept with you if you have not initiated a marketing workflow for your business yet.
I’ll be referencing this concept throughout the blog, so now you know!
TOP TOOLS FOR MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS
canva
The very first tool that I want to share with you today is Canva. Now, you probably know about Canva, this is not some revelation of this amazing tool, but I find that a lot of people aren't using Canva to its fullest potential.
We use Canva for just about everything over here, even though I and multiple members of my team, including our marketing manager, have a background in graphic design. We know how to use Adobe, InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, but we come back to Canva time and time again because it's so accessible.
It's something that we can work on together in a project, we can access it from anywhere that we need, and that makes it really, really awesome as a digital nomad who is working from anywhere that I can get internet access.
We primarily use Canva for our graphic design.
We use it for Pinterest images, for our social media content that you see going out, Insta stories that we have pre-designed.
We’re using it for workbooks that we create for our courses and for our freebies. Really anything that has some sort of a graphic design element to it, we are using Canva for the most part.
Now, you might be familiar with the platform, but where I find people aren’t using it to its greatest potential, and what will ultimately help you with your weekly content workflow, and that’s utilizing the templates.
When you're a solopreneur and you're not hiring a graphic designer, or maybe you don't even have a lot of graphic design background, you can use Canva to create templates to repurpose week after week.
They have designs ready for you that you can customize with your brand colors and your brand fonts, but you can also go in and create your own from scratch. We save these so anytime we need to update something, we just go into that template and update it.
Many of my clients who are getting started on Pinterest, because it's such an amazing platform for entrepreneurs, will create six to seven pin templates that they can just go into week after week, change out the colors, change out the title, and switch out the photo.
So it's only taking them 10 to 15 minutes every week to make sure that they have graphics for their blog.
If you have workbooks that you're updating every week or every quarter for a program, creating a template for that, and then just reusing it over and over again can save you a lot of time as well.
So I highly, highly recommend Canva. They have a free version and then they also have a paid version. We use the paid version because we can save the brand colors and the fonts and have a million different folders and all these different things for organization, which is super nice.
ubersuggest
The second tool I want to share with you today is called Ubersuggest. Now, this is one that's a little less known but it's one of our favorites.
If you don't already know, my program Brandmerry Academy teaches entrepreneurs how to market their business without relying on social media. The program puts a really big emphasis on evergreen content through blogging, YouTube, Pinterest, and Google.
All of those platforms rely heavily on keyword research.
Ubersuggest is a great way to do that research, as well as get those secondary keywords that you can use in your blog posts.
With this tool, you can get a good idea of how easy it's going to be to rank for that particular keyword or industry, you can look at competitors who have done something similar for inspiration. It's truly a whole plethora of information that's so important as a content creator.
We use Ubersuggest in a lot of different ways, but one of the things that we love to do is use it as a way to come up with our content strategy for the next 90 days. Every quarter (or slightly before) we type in some important keywords that we know we want to rank for and get some content ideas to put into our content calendar for the next 90 days.
Then we dive a little bit deeper within each one and use the information from Ubersuggest to craft our titles, our headers in the blog posts, what we're going to use on Pinterest and so on.
As with most options, there is a free version with limited searches and then you can also pay for it for a year for unlimited, which is very nice.
Again, as I’m sharing these tools I’m also stressing the importance of being strategic with your content creation. So many entrepreneurs are just creating content because they're like, "Oh, I think this might be nice," but there's data and there's research there on what people are searching for and you want to use that to your benefit.
Ubersuggest is just one of the tools that you could use, but it's one of our favorites over here.
convertkit
When it comes to email marketing, I have been a fan of Convertkit for a very long time and I still love them so much. I've been using Convertkit since I made the switch from MailChimp back in 2017.
When you are running a business, you need an email marketing platform because you need a way to gather your leads and put them into an email funnel.
You need a way to tag them and segment them.
You want a way to track what they're doing, what they're clicking on.
You want a way to send those weekly broadcasts, whether that's sending your blog post or a video, or just a nice little newsletter.
You want a way to email your community when you are launching and actively selling…
...and Convertkit is one of the best.
They have awesome deliverability which results in a higher than average open rate and click-through rate. One of the reasons is because they've stripped away a lot of the fluffy things that come with email marketing.
So, yeah the emails are pretty basic, although you can add some coding and photos, the less that you have the more it's going to improve your deliverability.
Convertkit is also super intuitive when creating sequences, funnels, and automations. Everything is able to be customized and you can send subscribers, based on interest to different funnels and track behavior for future promotions.
I say it a lot, but every entrepreneur needs an email list and needs an email platform, and Convertkit is one of, if not, the best.
social media scheduling
Speaking of Convertkit and scheduling emails, let's talk about scheduling some social media content. I want to share two tools with you here for Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest (remember when I said I loved it?)
LATER
Later is what we use to schedule Instagram and Facebook content. Now, you can schedule natively through Creative Studio on Facebook and we do use that to schedule weekly IGTV videos, as well as upcoming Facebook Lives, but for weekly posts Later is what we prefer.
The reason we love Later as a team is because of their note feature. Oh my gosh, it's like our favorite thing.
You can go into your monthly calendar and you can add notes to your calendar to preplan your content. So we can map out the entire month and say, "All right, this month, this is what we need on each of these days. This is the topic. This is the photo that we're looking for."
It’s really great because then I know what photos I need to plug in there, the team knows what other graphics we need, and we know what copy we need to add in there as well. Then we can add the tasks to ClickUp, which we use to manage tasks as a team.
In addition to the note feature, which we love for planning in advance, just being able to keep all of our photos in a nice organized folder to then schedule wherever it fits is amazing. I can add photos from my phone or desktop so we always have a reserve of photos for social media.
The ability to pre-schedule social media content via Later allows me to spend my time doing other things and not logging in, etc to Instagram and Facebook multiple times a day.
TAILWIND
Now, Tailwind is the scheduler we use for Pinterest. They truly are the best of the best when it comes to Pinterest scheduling and as marketers, they give you so many different features that are essential to marketing on Pinterest including awesome analytics, Tailwind communities, and Smart Loops.
I'm not going to do a whole post on Pinterest because it truly is a beast, and there is a very, very strategic way to take on Pinterest.
In fact, it's one of the things that I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy, so join the waitlist if you’re interested in learning more, but know that Pinterest isn't just about pinning your most recent blog posts one time and then crossing your fingers and hoping that someone finds it.
There's a clear strategy, and that requires consistent pinning and creating new, fresh content.
Because of this approach to fresh content you want a way to organize all of that and to pre-schedule it so that you're not going onto Pinterest every day for 10 minutes to put fresh content out there. We don't want to live on these platforms to grow our business otherwise we’ll never be able to serve paying clients, so utilizing these tools will help you get in front of your audience, while also protecting your time and energy.
Tailwind allows you to schedule your pins for an entire month and you can do fresh pins with your new blog posts that are coming out or whatever works for you in your business.
veed.io
All right, I've got another one for you, and this tool is called VEED.IO.
VEED is an amazing platform to repurpose your video content.
This blog is a great example.
You might have seen this video on Facebook as part of Mondays with Michelle, if you didn’t you can check out what I mean below.
Remember that workflow I was talking about in the beginning? Well, most of our content starts as a video. So we have this video, we upload it, we schedule it as a premiere on Facebook.
We also take this video and we release it on YouTube.
We also take this video and we release it as an IGTV. And for IGTV specifically, we want to adjust the formatting. With VEED you can adjust it so that it's a full vertical or I personally like to have the captions at the bottom and the title at the top, and we're able to do all of that in VEED.
VEED is a really awesome platform because you can upload the video from your computer, or you can pull directly via a link on YouTube. Then you can edit the video, you can crop it if you want to, you can cut out a section if it's not relevant to that specific platform, you can format the size, you can add the title, a transcript, all kinds of cool stuff.
Again, this is the whole idea of marketing and using a workflow, repurposing your content so you're not creating one video and putting it out in one place and hoping that people find it. You're putting it out everywhere that it can be discovered so you can get in front of your ideal customer.
If you go to my Instagram feed at michelleknightco, you'll see my videos that have been edited in VEED.
rev.com
The next thing that I want to share with you is actually for your transcripts. One of the things that we're doing with my videos is transcribing those videos into blog posts. Again, this is all part of the workflow that I'll share in a later post.
There are a lot of transcript services out there, but we really love Rev.com. They are a little bit more expensive, so it depends on your need, but we really want someone doing it for us because I don't want to spend a bunch of time having to cut out all of my ums and my ahs and we’ve found Rev to be the best.
We upload the video and typically have the transcript back within 24 hours.
We’re then able to edit that transcript and put it on the blog.
There are a lot of alternative options, they even have a cheaper option available if you just want an automated transcript for a video. But that's definitely something that you want to look into when you're creating video content or podcasting and you want to turn that into written content on your blog because it helps your content get discovered by more ideal customers and enhances SEO.
CONCLUSION
That was a lot of tools, but I hope it helps you understand just how possible it is to invest in a few great tools as a solopreneur so you can optimize your time more efficiently.
I know it's really hard to find the right tools for your business, especially when it comes to marketing. There are a million options out there, so hopefully, this takes some of the mystery out of it, gives you an awesome place to start.
If you missed the other two posts from this series you can read about my top tools for Operations and Productivity here.
If you want to get a headstart on your workflow, I have a free repurposing guide for you. You can go to brandmerry.com/repurpose and snag your free repurposing guide.
And in the next few weeks, we're going to be talking more about content creation and creating your own custom workflows, so make sure you’re checking back weekly on Thursdays for new blogs!
Watch the full video below!
P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com
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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.
Brand Storytelling Guide
Everything you need to know about storytelling as an entrepreneur.
Let's dive into why storytelling is essential 👇
WHY STORYTELLING IS SO IMPORTANT AS AN ONLINE BUSINESS AND BRAND
I like to use the Ice Cream Sundae analogy when talking about your brand and storytelling.
Imagine for a second that your brand and story are the ice cream. The ice cream alone is delicious and something you can enjoy just as it is or you can enhance it to make it even better.
Now, let’s imagine the marketing, funnels, ads, social media platforms, etc are chocolate syrup, nuts and whipped cream. Mix those together and have them stand alone; it’s kind of just a mushy, nutty sweetness. Definitely not as good as it is with ice cream.
The point is your brand and story can stand alone and make you money. The marketing strategies can not. You need to have the entire package for those to even work.
You need the whole package.
WHY STORYTELLING WORKS IN ONLINE MARKETING
When you add storytelling to your messaging and content it is 22x more likely to be remembered
Not to mention it helps in the decision-making process. A report from Harvard University found that 90% of purchasing decisions are made subconsciously and based on emotional connection. Emotional connection comes from trust and storytelling.
So you’re also more likely to convert your clients into a sale by using storytelling.
AND not to mention the average time someone spends on a website is 8-15 seconds. Yet, this is where all the information about your business is. So, how do you keep them captivated for longer? Storytelling and strong personal messaging.
That’s because storytelling makes your brand:
Captivating - pulls in your ideal customer
Memorable - at the front of their mind, even as they scroll
Trustworthy - builds an emotional connection to you and your brand
It Starts With Your Brand Identity 👇
What is Brand Identity?
Let's talk specifically about how Brand Identity helps your brand as a whole. So, brand identity is the personality of your brand. It is that experience that you are creating.
It is the combination of values, your mission, how you want people to feel, that emotional side. It's that entire experience and it's one of my favorite things to talk about.
You've actually probably heard me just refer to it as branding because to me that's truly what it is.
We have had such an evolution with what branding is and what's important when it comes to branding. From just thinking it was a logo and your colors to understanding that it really is about the human connection, values, mission, and emotional connection you’re creating.
So, I will refer to just brand identity as branding. I interchange them all the time because that's just the direction that we're heading with branding overall.
So branding is really about that experience, creating that experience and putting a personality to your brand.
When you're creating a personal brand it makes it a lot easier because you're front and center, you're sharing yourself, you're sharing your stories. So, that personality just naturally happens which is why personal branding is so powerful.
So if you want to learn a little bit more about emotional branding and all those different things, after this video make sure you definitely check out my blog. I have tons of content over there on emotional branding and just the foundational pieces of branding. I've got some YouTube videos on it as well.
And if you go to my Facebook I've got an entire folder of videos on that as well.
So when you think of Brand Identity, I want you to think about the personality behind your brand and the experience you’re creating for your audience.
What is YOUR brand story?
The first thing that you've got to do is figure out what your brand story is. So this will look different for different types of businesses. There are different ways and structures to actually create your brand story based on your personal story and based on your individual business.
But really what I want you to focus on now is stripping away the, "How do I write this on my about me page?" And, "What does this look like on my bio, on my homepage?" Strip all that away and just focus solely on the story.
In fact, when you're writing this out I want you to think about actually telling this story to someone.
Some of you might want to even record it and transcribe it. It might feel a little bit more natural to you.
Ultimately, what you want to do is highlight and share the journey that has happened that led you to the creation of your brand.
Your brand is not a product, your brand is not a service specifically, it's the whole thing.
It's that umbrella, it's the work that you're putting out into the world, it's your mission, it's who you ultimately want to impact all rolled into one. And you want to share the evolution of how that came to be.
So I want you to strip away, “How is this structured?” and “How does this flow?” and really just allow yourself to tell the story. That's where all the goodness gets to go in. And then when we format, we can pull out the unnecessary pieces and clean it up a bit.
But I want you to just deeply understand what has led you to this moment and think of really telling that story to your audience.
For example, when I talk about my brand story, one piece of that is this underlying feeling of not living a life based on other people's expectations or going against the status quo.
And I know that that's important to my audience, that's important to you, that's something that you also believe in. I share that through my storytelling and I share that through my brand story to get that message across.
You're probably already picking up on it, but your brand story is where that connection can really start for many of you. Because once we get to formatting it for an about me page, or we get to putting it out there in social media, it might be one of the first things that people see and you have an opportunity to build that connection with them right out of the gate.
Focus on taking your audience on this journey, write out your brand story and become really clear on what you ultimately want to share about your journey and what has led you to the brand that you are creating today.
how to Identify The Brand Emotions
Step two is to elevate the experience by focusing on the emotional connection.
And this is where we really take your story and spin it around to pull in your audience and build that trust.
I call these brand emotions and I encourage you to identify five brand emotions for your brand as a whole.
Don't get too obsessed with the number. It could be three, it could be six, it could be seven. Don't do 25 or something like that. I find five is the sweet spot.
But you really want to ask yourself, "How do I want my audience to feel?"
I mean, the reality is you've got eight seconds to make an impression.
That's not a lot of time to read an entire message on a piece of content. It's not a lot of time to read a bunch of stuff on your homepage.
You've got to make that first initial impression a good one and powerful, and that really comes down to that emotional connection. How do people feel when they land on your website, when they see a piece of your content?
In order to exude that, in order to allow people to feel that, you need to know what you want people to feel.
Take the time to identify those brand emotions.
I want to give you two examples, because I know sometimes you might be thinking, "What do I want people to feel, Michelle?"
I have a client who is in the mindset space, the spiritual mindset space specifically, and she supports women in moving through a very difficult period of their life. She does a lot of shadow work. Her clients are currently in a difficult time but they are moving towards the light. They want to understand how to get there, they want to feel supported through that process, and they want to do it in a way that feels good and not forced.
We know this about her audience and we also know from her brand story she's really good at it. So when we were thinking of her brand emotions we wanted to show the light. We wanted to show what was possible, the desire, and what her audience was wanting to move towards.
Because her audience didn't want to neglect where they were and that was really, really important to communicate, we played with sharing that through messaging, through story, through brand colors, showing both the dark and the light.
That's just one example but again it comes back to how do I want people to feel and ultimately what are they looking for? What are they searching for?
With my brand, I decided very early on, well actually after eight months of having a brand that was not me at all, I redid the whole thing and now it's great. But when I redid it, I got back to this core piece of storytelling and brand emotions and I asked myself, "How do I want people to feel?"
And it kept coming up for me that I wanted people to feel safe and comfortable and that they could be their authentic selves. That there was this connection between the two of us, between my brand and between them and their story. That it almost felt like we were sitting cozied up by a fire on a fall day just having a really deep conversation and chat.
I used that to motivate all of these different pieces that we're going to talk about in just a second.
Again, take the time to understand who you are and the journey that you've gone on to get to where you are, to have the brand, the mission, the values, the core beliefs and the impact that you want to make in your ideal customer's life. As well as understand how you want them to feel from the moment they come in contact with your brand, through all of those different pieces.
Now that brings us to, "Now how do we actually use this Michelle? How do we use this? This all sounds great, I love it, but how do we use it?"
Let's talk about how we use that brand story and those brand emotions to enhance and communicate and have this wonderful experience also known as brand identity.
How Often Should You Share It? 👇
The truth is you should be sharing story in every piece of content you create, but when you’re just starting out you might just have you Brand Story or Founders Story and that’s ok. Here are some suggestions on where to share it!
10 WAYS TO SHARE YOUR BRAND STORY online
Now, you’re ready! You know the power of sharing your story with the world, you’ve identified your story and now it’s time to share it.
Below, I’ve included 10 DIFFERENT places to share your Brand Story as a way to build brand awareness and community. I’ve marked the ones that can be repeated ever 30 days with an *.
On the homepage of your blog (include a small excerpt similar to a social post)
On your About Me/ My Story page (want my tips on this? Click here)
The sidebar or footer of your blog
Social Media post (includes Facebook and Instagram) *
IGTV video
Insta Stories *
As a highlight on your Instagram
Introduction in a Facebook Group *
Youtube video (tied in with your favorite tip within your niche)
Live video (Facebook) *
That’s one freaking story, imagine what you could do if you repeated this over and over again for your most important stories - the ones that share your expertise, relate to your audience and build trust.
Pretty cool stuff, right?
So, Should You Repeat Your Story? 👇
WHY REPETITION IS IMPORTANT IN MARKETING
Now, that we’ve covered how to effectively repeat stories in business, let’s dive deep into why this is so important.
Remember, the information I’m sharing here doesn’t just apply to storytelling, it applies to marketing as a whole. Think of repeating not just your stories, but your messages, offers, freebies, etc...and why it’s essential when building an online brand.
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Unfortunately, the number of contact points needed before someone becomes a customer is growing. There is just so much information online and with the algorithm changing frequently, it’s important that we’re consistently showing up for our audience if we ever want to make money online.
While there's no clear number for contact points, the standard is:
BRAND AWARENESS: 3 points of contact before someone will pay attention to your brand
SALES: 7 points of contact before someone will take action or make a purchase decision.
As you can see repetition is necessary when it comes to marketing your business, because the odds of someone seeing your content, thanks to the algorithm, and taking action after one message is very slim.
In addition to the multiple contact points needed, there is also the concept of The Frequency Illusion (or Baader-Meinhof phenomenon). It’s the illusion that we see or hear the same thing everywhere.
The best way to describe this is when you’re thinking about buying a new car and you decide on the one you want and then you see it EVERYWHERE!
This illusion is something we as marketers need to remember and use to our advantage. It’s why you see retargeting ads when you search for something on Google or visit a website.
The reason so many marketers are using this principle in business is that the more we, as consumers, start to see or hear the same message we begin to think of it as important. It heightens our awareness and moves the brand, product or service up the importance meter; essentially you’re adding importance and urgency to your offer.
You can achieve this by consistently showing up with your content so you’re top of mind, sharing your brand story so people actually know who you are and utilizing retargeting tools in advertising.
Repetition is key in not only making sure our audience sees our message and making sure it is of importance to our audience, but also because it builds brand credibility and trust.
The final thing I’ll share with you on repetition in marketing is the power of sharing your core stories and messages across all platforms. When we do this we’re creating brand affinity and brand messaging consistency and consistency builds trust.
If someone lands on your Facebook page and then heads to Instagram and maybe your website, is it the same? Does it feel like the same brand and message? If not, you’re breaking trust.
When we think of utilizing this for your Brand Story, I want you to think about posting the entire thing on your “About Me” page, then sharing a variation of that on your Homepage and Blog sidebar, Facebook, a one-liner on Instagram and so on…
...this repetition and consistency in messaging will build trust with your audience quicker.
3 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR REPETITION IN STORYTELLING
1. SWITCH UP THE EMPHASIS
As I mentioned in the beginning, it’s important that even when sharing the same story, think of your Brand story, that you switch up the way you tell it and the emphasis.
Focus on pulling different parts of the story based on your central theme or goal. If you need a refresher scroll up for my brand storytelling example.
This works wonders because the art of storytelling is about showcasing a moment in time. So when I share my Brand Story, I might focus on the moment when I realized I lost myself in the branding process because of comparisonitis. Then, I might share the story later and focus on the moment when I realized branding wasn’t about the font, colors and logo.
You can also switch it up based on what’s happening in your business or what’s timely in the world. For instance, when COVID first started I saw so many of my friends, family and community members worried about working from home with kids. So, I started sharing more of my stories and experiences of running my business and working from home with my son for four years.
You can modify stories, emphasizing different parts, and sharing them in different ways to build brand trust and affinity.
2. EMBRACE THE ART OF REPURPOSING YOUR CONTENT
Your audience needs to hear things multiple times, this is why I love repurposing to make sure my content every week is reaching my audience!
As we’ve mentioned it requires multiple touchpoints for your audience to take action, but who the heck has time to come up with new content every single day? Not me!
That’s why I shared an entire blog post on The Art of Repurposing, which you can check out here.
I can't tell you how many times I put something on my Instagram Stories, and I'll send an email, and I'll make an Instagram post and then, after all those other posts, I'll post on Facebook and someone will respond with, “Oh, I didn't even know you were offering this!”
The reality is our audience are busy living their lives, so if we’re not repeating our content and repurposing it we’re doing a major disservice to our marketing.
Just like your Brand Story, the concept of repurposing is taking your content and sharing it multiple ways on multiple platforms.
You can check out my blog on Repurposing here.
3. IDENTIFY YOUR CORE BRAND STORIES
Did you catch the plural there? The truth is there are so many types of stories we should be sharing in our business. Aside from your Brand Story or Founders Story, we also have the collection of stories that showcase your brand values, pillars or framework of your offer and your brand mission.
The more you, as a brand, can share these stories the more you’ll attract a community of people who are in alignment with your brand and brand mission and that is important.
Once you have these stories in your Story Bank, you can add additional stories and sprinkle them into your content at any time you’re posting...and yes you need a story every time you post content!
Think of it like this, you create a content calendar of posts you want to make over the next 30 days. These are timely pieces that promote your freebie, your offers, share value. Then you go through each of them and pair it with a story from your Story Bank.
Do you see how easy it is to incorporate storytelling into your business? And it’s so powerful.
What About Imperfect Stories 👇
How to Share Imperfections and ‘The Messy Middle’ in Storytelling
So now that we understand vulnerability and transparency as it applies to storytelling, let’s talk about imperfections or ‘The Messy Middle.’
How do you share stories and when do you share stories that feel raw?
I’ve got a couple of rules here that you will want to steal, so grab that notepad.
RULE #1: IS IT SACRED?
It’s important to make sure the stories you share feel aligned, so you need to ask yourself, “Does it feel good to share this story or a small part of this story?”
As I mentioned in the blog a few weeks ago, storytelling is not about a period in time, but a moment in time. If the period as a whole doesn’t feel good, can you strip it back and share a moment.
Example: When I was sharing about the birth of my son in the beginning I was still in the postpartum experience and it felt raw, but I knew it was an important part of my story as it related to my brand. So I chose the parts that felt good to share, including why I started my business and what it was like to build the business with a baby. As time went on and my brand evolved I would share more and more.
So ask yourself if what you’re wanting to share actually feels good and if it feels better to strip it back, then do that!
RULE #2: DON’T SHARE IT WHILE YOU’RE IN IT
Remember, you’re building a business not just talking to your friends on the internet, so the stories you choose need to be strategic.
As a business owner it’s important that no matter how vulnerable or transparent you are, you still need to be the guide for your ideal customer. If you’re going through something at that moment and are wondering how to share it, it’s going to be hard to be the guide or show the value.
You’ll notice in my business I don’t talk about life as it’s happening, in fact, I rarely post in real-time even while traveling. I wait till I’ve experienced something and then I weave it into my content by telling a story.
An example is in 2019 when we started traveling I had a hard time navigating this new schedule and lifestyle. That was hard and I was in it so I didn’t talk about the hard stuff openly on social media. As time went on and I got my grounding I could talk more about it and share the lessons I learned as a way to provide value to my audience.
So, remember if you’re in it don’t share it. Take the time to go through it and look back on the lessons you learned so it provides value to your audience.
RULE #3: IT MUST PROVIDE VALUE
Arguably the most important part of the storytelling process is your audience. Although the stories might be yours they aren’t for you. When you’re sharing stories as part of your brand and business you want to make sure they are of value to your audience.
When you think of these stories, run them through my 2-part question test…
“What value does this story provide my audience?”
“How does this story build trust with my audience?”
If you can’t answer these questions with clarity, no matter how authentic, transparent or vulnerable they might be then it’s not the right time to share them. Put them away in your story bank and come back to them later.
Ok, Ready For Some Content Examples? 👇
5 EXAMPLES OF BRAND STORYTELLING
So many entrepreneurs never think of sharing their story outside of their Brand/ Founder Story, but that’s only a small piece of the puzzle.
You can’t share your brand story every single day on social media and every offer you create needs a little more attention than just how your business was started.
This is where different types of stories come into play.
1. THE TESTIMONIAL STORY
The stories you share in business don’t have to be your own, they can be stories from your client and community members. This is a great way to share social proof and do more than just post a 2-3 sentence testimonial on your website.
When asking for feedback or testimonials be sure to ask multiple questions about where your audience was, where they are now and what changed for them. Along with your testimonial statement, you’ll be able to use this information to tell stories on social media and in your email marketing that helps your audience make a purchase decision.
Bonus Tip: Videos are a great way to share stories. Have your client create a short video sharing their story and share it during your next launch or promotion.
2. THE TRANSFORMATION STORY
The transformation story can fall into The Testimonial story above, because who doesn’t love a great before and after. If you’re in fitness, health, wellness, products or even service-based you can use the transformation story constantly.
Here are some examples:
Fitness - Share a before and after photo of a client or yourself
Product (Skincare) - Share a before and after photo of someone using your product
Graphic Designer - Share the before and after of your client’s graphics
The possibilities are endless.
But, I’m going to encourage you to think a level deeper and share your own micro transformations. Think of the things happening daily that your audience can relate too.
Some places to start are moments of “failure,” mindset shifts, overcoming obstacle and stories of success. Seriously, I bet if you sat down with pen and paper right now you could come up with at least 20 posts.
3. THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES STORY
These are great stories to show what you do and your process in business, as well as build trust with your audience.
Human to Human or Relationship-Building Marketing is on the rise. People want to know the brand they are investing in. One of the ways to build this trust and go beyond just a product or service you sell is to invite your audience behind the curtain.
This is one of the reasons I love showing up on Instagram Stories. It’s a simple way to share my day to day, my role as a mother, my love of gardening, our travels and my business.
My audience gets to see multiple sides of my personality, which also builds Brand Affinity, and as a result, the trust is accelerated.
If you sell a product consider sharing the behind the scenes of how you make the product.
If you’re a coach, show your client calls and trainings.
Show how you manage your day-to-day, the things you love and how you take on the other roles in your life.
These stories are powerful and some of the easiest to start with.
4. THE VALUE STORY
Last week on the blog we talked about identifying your core stories early on. These core stories include:
+ Your Founder/ Brand Story
+ Your Mission and how it came to be
+ Your Why or Purpose Story
+ Your Value Story
It is important that as a brand and business owner that you create these micro-stories that show your values in action, affirm your values and share why you have these values.
For example, one of my values is authenticity. That's just not a word that I like to use for marketing, I truly believe it to my core. I share that value in my stories because I want to attract people who share the same value.
This is where Brand Affinity becomes so powerful because brand affinity is that shared mission, those shared values. It goes much deeper than someone saying, “Oh, you're cool. Oh, I like your product or your service. Let me check it out.”
It's much deeper than even trust, it’s a shared value.
Share these values to bring in the people that align with your values, the things that are important to you, and let the others drift away.
5. THE DISRUPT STORY
When it comes to the Disrupt Story, I’m slightly obsessed. I believe this story is an excellent way to share your values and your beliefs and separate you from others in your industry.
You know you have an industry-standard or common thread of beliefs in your industry. You see them in every Facebook group and on websites that all start to look the same.
Think about your own business, your superpower, your teachings and pull out the pieces that go against the grain.
For instance, last year I did an entire email series called Behind The Brand. I called out beliefs inside the industry around branding. Some examples were:
+ How the industry defines success
+ The truth about templates and how they create inauthenticity and a copy and paste culture
+ Transparency and vulnerability as a business owner
I also talk about the power of a brand and why I believe that without a brand you don’t have a business, something that goes against other mentors and coaches who “skip” branding.
These types of stories have allowed me to talk about my business, but also call my audience to speak up. When I share the disrupt stories I always attract new community members, increase my engagement and sign clients.
People want transparency, authenticity and something different. This story does that!
Here’s an example of The Disrupt in action.
Oh, And Don't Make This Mistake 👇
BRAND STORYTELLING SECRET WEAPON
When you are telling stories in business they are for your ideal customer, they are for your audience...they are not for you!
You're not buying your own stuff, so the story is not for you.
The ultimate goal is to attract your ideal customer and dream audience, build trust, build brand recognition, brand affinity and ultimately tell stories that sell.
The beautiful thing is that you can use stories at every single level of the buying process. Whether someone isn't aware of their problem.
They're aware of their problem.
They're aware of a solution to their problem.
They're aware of products but haven’t made a decision, you can incorporate stories to move them along.
So no matter where your ideal customer is in the buying process stories are an excellent marketing strategy.
You might tell a story about your situation…
You might tell a story about your transformation…
You might tell a story about your values…
But if you're not tying that to your audience, it becomes a cool-story-bro situation.
It becomes a “that's nice” situation.
- 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.
The #1 Myth Entrepreneurs, Coaches, Consultants and Small Business Owners Believe Around Brand Storytelling in Business
Entrepreneurs tend to make a lot of mistakes when it comes to brand storytelling and one of those mistakes comes from this very popular myth. Read the blog to find out so you don’t do it too!
The #1 Myth Entrepreneurs, Coaches, Consultants and Small Business Owners Believe Around Brand Storytelling in Business
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
This post contains affiliate links which means if you make a purchase through a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you!
As a personal branding consultant and a marketing strategist, I focus a great deal on not only who you are as an entrepreneur and the brand experience that you're creating, but also how you are attracting quality leads.
One of the methods, and my favorite method by far, that I have become very known for is all around brand storytelling.
Incorporating the art of storytelling in your content, on your sales pages, in your email marketing, in your videos, every single thing that you do, as a way to build that connection and trust.
But when it comes to brand storytelling there is one major myth floating around the internet and it’s hurting a lot of entrepreneurs, content creators, coaches, consultants and more.
It pains me so much when I see it, when it’s truly a simple fix. I watch as business owners write social media posts, write emails, promote their offers and their services and experience low conversions, despite the fact that storytelling is incredibly powerful.
So, let’s set the record straight and dive into the #1 myth around brand storytelling in business.
Brand Storytelling Myth
It is important that you understand that there is a difference between just telling stories and building a business.
At the end of the day, you're asking people to invest their money into a product or a service that you sell.
We're not just telling stories to tell stories.
I often call this the friend zone, right? You don't want to fall into the friend zone where someone's like, "Cool story, bro. That's amazing."
You want to position yourself as the guide or the authority. So understanding that there is a difference plays a role in correcting the myth or belief.
The truth is many people believe that brand storytelling is about them, their brand, but it's not.
It's really about your audience.
I know some of you are like, "But it's my story, Michelle. But this is what I'm telling and this is my journey."
And I'm over here like, "Yes, amazing. I love that for you. I love this story for you. I am excited that you have this story. I am so excited that you want to share it with the world. Please freaking do that."
But every story that you share has got to connect with your audience or you're going to miss the mark.
You're going to have people saying, "Wow, I love your story. That's amazing."
Rather than taking action on your offer.
You’ll have people not following through and clicking through to the product or the service that you're promoting.
And ultimately just being interested in what you have to say rather than seeing the value in investing in your products and your services.
How to Tell Better Brand Stories in Business
The myth that I see happening manifests itself in business owners writing their stories for themselves, but it’s not for you, it’s for your audience and it needs to be about them!
So what do we do?
How do we avoid buying into this myth and making this very, very big mistake?
I've shared in some previous blogs that one of the first things that you need to do in your branding and marketing work is understand your ideal customer.
You've got to know who they are, because how can you know what stories to share with them if you don't actually understand who they are?
Understanding who they are at their core and essentially their story makes you a better marketer.
You want to understand your ideal customer's journey.
Where have they been?
Where are they now and what are they struggling with?
Where do they ultimately want to be and what needs to happen for them to get there?
Then you position your product, your service, and your stories to help them and connect with them along the way.
Brand Storytelling Example
We all know about the importance of the ‘About Me’ page, right? It’s often the first thing entrepreneurs write for their website and spend hours and hours on.
And while, many educators will tell you that you shouldn’t talk about yourself in your ‘About Me’ page, I go against the grain and say, “Yes, you should talk about yourself!” But, as we’ve been mentioning it can’t be all about you.
The reality is that people are clicking on that page because they want to connect with you and they want to get to know you.
So even on this miraculous page which is all about you and your journey, you want to make sure that you're highlighting those pieces that connect with your ideal customer.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES:
You want to highlight the things your ideal customer is looking for in a brand. This is a great opportunity to share your brand values.
Highlight a part of your story that can connect with your ideal customer. Highlight parts of your story that connect with where your ideal customer is now and where they want to be.
You also have an opportunity to invite your audience in. Whether or not your stories mirror each other, you can draw up similarities by simply asking a question. For example, you can say, “Have you ever felt like this?”
And, then a golden opportunity near the end of the page is to turn it around back to them.
You want to say things like, "And this is where I am today and I help blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, to create their amazing brand. How would it feel for you to go from struggling to understand your brand, to feeling confident in your brand and sharing it with the world? How would it feel for you to..."
You're making it about them, not just about you!
WHY BRAND STORYTELLING IS IMPORTANT
Storytelling is important and sharing those very authentic stories about your life are key because they allow you to be a human being to your audience.
They build trust and they build connection, but you'll miss the mark every single time if you just make it about you.
If you just come at it from the angle of let me share this cool thing that happened to me today rather than saying let me share this thing and how it ultimately is valuable to you, you’ll miss the connection.
So aside from understanding your ideal customer and their story, you’ve got to find those connection pieces.
You also want to make sure before every single story that you share, you understand and you identify the value that it provides your ideal customer. If you do that, I promise you will avoid this mishap that so many brands make.
Make a commitment right now when it comes to brand storytelling.
Say, “I am not going to just tell stories to tell stories. I'm going to tell stories to move my business along, to guide people through the branding process, to connect with them, and ultimately lead them to the sale because it's very, very important."
And you’ll be golden.
Watch the full video below!
P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com
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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.