Brandmerry Blog Archives
How to Write An About Me Page
Ever wonder how you should write your 'About Me' page?
This includes the 'About Me' section on your website, blog and social media channels.
Today on the blog, I'm sharing a template for how to write your 'About Me' page.
How to Write An About Me Page
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
Today, on The Brandmerry Podcast (yep, this is the full transcript, choose to listen above or continue reading) we're talking about your 'About Me' page. My goal is that you have everything you need to craft an ‘About Me’ page that is going to work FOR your brand, not against it!
One of the key beliefs we have over here at Brandmerry is that your website is important and should work FOR you. It's not enough to just get views. You want your website to actually convert into revenue.
There are a few things that we know about websites.
Number one, we know that the homepage is typically the most visited page, especially if you're utilizing SEO strategies, search engine optimization, which is one of our trainings inside of Brandmerry Academy.
Number two, the second most visited page is your 'About Me' page. That tells us a lot of juicy information about your 'About Me' page, including that people care about the story and the person behind the brand.
If you've ever asked yourself, "Well, I don't think people care. Do people care? Do people care why I created this? Or do people care what has led me to this moment in my life and why I launched my business?"
The answer is, "Absolutely they do.”
It also tells us what we should include on our 'About Me' page.
A lot of other branding and marketing experts will tell you that your 'About Me' page should be 100% about your ideal customer. I do not believe that is true. I have not believed that from the beginning. And I stand by that five years later.
So, today we’re diving into your ‘About Me’ page so you feel confident crafting yours. This is a continuation of episodes and blogs where we’re giving you fundamental pieces for building your brand.
We have talked about your brand’s mission.
We have outlined the difference between branding and marketing and where you should start.
We have talked about your brand values.
We've talked about jumping ship in your marketing and today we're going to talk about your 'About Me' page because it is incredibly important.
YOUR ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE IS ABOUT YOU
Let’s just set the record straight that your 'About Me' page should be about you!
It should be about the person behind the brand or the people behind the brand.
If I'm a consumer and I'm on a website and it says, 'About Me' at the top and I click on that, and then the whole entire page tells me nothing about the person behind the brand, why they started their business, why they choose their products, anything like that, I’m incredibly turned off.
I didn't click through to learn more about myself.
I clicked through to learn more about you.
It's helping me in my decision-making process.
Over on the Brandmerry blog, we have a blog post on the consumer buying process and the different stages customers go through before making a purchase decision.
When someone is at the evaluation stage, where they are looking at the different solutions to their problem, that's when we find that people love to visit the 'About Me' page of a brand because they want to know who the person is, the mission, and the values behind a brand. That information can help them with their decision-making process.
So your 'About Me' page is incredibly important. It is often what I recommend to be the second page that you create on your website, as it's the second most viewed.
YOUR ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE FOR CONSUMERS
You also want to think about writing your ‘About Me’ page for a consumer.
Think about if you're buying a skincare product and you're at a place where you're looking at two or three different brands and you go to an 'About Me' page, what do you want to see?
What do you want to read?
Last year, we were buying a new mattress. I was going between a few different companies. I had narrowed it down and I was looking at the story behind each one and that's how I ended up choosing the bed that we went with because I loved their story and I love their mission and I love the way that they shared that. That pulled me in and it made my decision for me.
The decision was because of their story and I even went with the most expensive option!
3 TIPS FOR WRITING AN 'ABOUT ME' PAGE
TELL A STORY
As we talked about in the brand storytelling episode, don't miss the opportunity to tell a story.
Storytelling is incredibly powerful and incredibly important. It's going to build that connection, that trust with your audience.
I've signed clients because of my 'About Me' page.
I have had people reach out to me and submit an application for 1:1 consulting. We’ll have a conversation via email and I’ll answer questions to support them in their decision. Then I'll get an email from them 24 hours later that says, "All right, I'm ready to go. I just read your 'About Me' page, sign me up."
Your ‘About Me’ page can be one of your most powerful assets. And you're going to get the most out of those pages if you are actually telling a story.
Keep reading for my top tips for writing yours.
INCLUDE PERSONAL PHOTOS
I love brand photography. It's one of my favorite ways to enhance the branding experience and I encourage my clients to have a professional photo shoot for their brand because photos are incredibly powerful and we know this.
Photos are also linked to improving brand affinity which is a deeper level of connection, typically through mission, values, and trust that a consumer has for a brand.
Photos are a great way to build that brand affinity because through photography, you can share different moments and experiences in your life that allow your audience to say, "Oh my gosh, I know them." Instagram's a great example of this in action.
Utilizing photos to showcase whatever story you're telling.
So showcasing these different photos is a great way to build that connection.
For your 'About Me' page I recommend not loading it with a bunch of professional photos, but putting in more lifestyle-type photos. Showcase photos of you at different places, in different outfits with different facial expressions, maybe you with your children, with your dog, on a trip or with a glass of wine.
We follow people and we're like, "Oh, I know them," or "They did this," or "This is so-and-so's favorite wine," or "Did you know, so-and-so's dog?" and we feel like we know them!
Focus on showcasing what you're saying on the page, through your storytelling in the photos; not just typing out your story, but showing your story visually through photography.
HAVE A CALL TO ACTION
When it comes to brand storytelling to move someone through to purchasing a product, we can't just tell stories to tell stories. We have to have a call to action.
On an 'About Me' page, I love to have two CTA’s.
The first CTA is a click-through to your product or your service. If your ideal customer has read all the way to the bottom, they're probably pretty committed. And if they're further along in the buying process, say stage three or four, they're ready to make a purchase decision and having that button there can be incredibly powerful.
In addition to that, and below that, I love to share a lead magnet. The second CTA should be your free gift/ lead magnet to capture their attention.
Again, if someone has read your full ‘About Me’ page they're committed, but maybe they're not at a place where they're ready to invest. So having a way for them to opt in to your email list through a lead magnet can be incredibly powerful for capturing their information and being able to stay in contact with them.
So those are three must-haves for your 'About Me' page.
Your story, having photos that show different moments in time, not just professional photos, and a call to action. Typically, a link to go purchase your product, your service, or your product suite page, and your lead magnet opt-in.
HOW TO WRITE YOUR 'ABOUT ME’ PAGE
Now I'm going to share with you my insider, super complicated, never-before-released method for writing your 'About Me' page!
Brace yourself because it's easy. We overthink things all of the time when it comes to writing our copy, and one of the reasons that I encourage my clients to write their 'About Me' page, in the beginning, is because it's great practice in writing your story and pulling in pieces, like your mission and your values.
STEP ONE: IDENTIFY 3 TRANSITIONS
To begin, think about three transitions that have happened in your life. These can be three moments that are close together in your timeline or they can be spread out over the years. The timing does not matter, but I want you to think about these three transitions as a launching-off point.
Identifying these moments can include:
A moment where something changed in your life.
Something happened to you and you had to change course or direction.
You made a decision and you changed course.
You learned a valuable lesson and you decided to do something different.
Think about these pivots or transitions. No more than three for our purposes here.
Write each of these out!
STEP TWO: PIECE IT TOGETHER
From there I want you to write out each of those different things and then piece them together and you have an 'About Me' page!
There's one last part of the process, but I want to share my three with you first as an example of steps one and two.
My first transition was when I decided not to go to college right after high school. I was the Salutatorian of my class. I had gotten an incredible scholarship to Loyola University, and I decided that I didn't want to do that. I had a long history with perfectionism and was just at a place in my life where I was not happy and was ready to take bold action and do something that felt good for me. It was the first time in my life that I had made a decision that went against what everyone around me wanted for me. And it was a big deal.
In this first transition, I'm setting the tone. I'm saying, "Oh, this is who I was and then this happened in 2005." The more dates that you can use, the better. Those are incredibly helpful for markers and a great way to keep your audience engaged.
Next, I talk about how I wanted to be in musical theater. To be a star on Broadway, and was going to school for that in 2008 when my brother was diagnosed with cancer. I go on to talk about going through that experience. I don't go into every detail about that event. It's not necessary. It's sacred to me. I don't need to share it with everyone, but that was an important part of my life and did impact the business that I have today. So I share that piece of the puzzle.
Then I talk about after losing my brother, marrying my husband and finally present the third transition which was the birth of my son. This transition is where I focus the majority of my energy because that is what ultimately led to my business.
The birth of my son got me thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, what I wanted to create, how I wanted to be home with him and that ultimately led to the creation of Brandmerry.
You can head here to read my full ‘About Me’ page, in fact, I encourage you to do that!
It's a great case study.
What I want you to focus on is that I've led the reader through three transitions. I've also recognized how my audience can connect with those pieces and highlight those elements throughout.
Some of those elements are:
Perfectionism. So many people in my audience and my ideal customers are recovering perfectionists or perfectionists, or they are starting their business or doing something that's different from what they originally were doing. So by sharing that first transition, there's that connection piece.
Grief and Loss. We've all experienced grief and loss. Maybe it wasn't your sibling, it was someone else or something, but we can all relate to that feeling. And that is something that connects us and many of my clients and my customers who have had these moments that have triggered the mission that they have, or has triggered them to do the work that they do in the world.
Starting My Business. My community is also made up of people who want to start businesses or have businesses. So we all have that moment where we're like, "I'm going to do this dang thing," and that's why I share mine.
Choose your moments very strategically based on the connection for your audience.
And then finally, what you want to do is lead to where it is now.
We always talk about a beginning, middle and end to storytelling. But with an 'About Me' page, it's like a beginning, middle, and here we are now, continuing into the future.
STEP THREE: SET UP THE BUSINESS
Don’t think about an end to your ‘About Me’ page, but rather the next steps!
This is where you want to share your mission statement, talk about the work that you do, and lead to that work-with-me page.
It’s also where I recommend including your Hook, i.e. who you are, who you serve, their struggle and their desires.
If you sell a product, you can talk about when you recognized there was a need for your product. Maybe you went through a period where you talked about where you tested a bunch of stuff and it didn't work and you felt defeated and then you finally got the prototype that worked and you put it out into the world. And here's where you are now.
If you have a t-shirt clothing line that uses organic cotton, why did you decide to do that?
There are so many different things that you can do. Don't limit yourself because of the product and service that you sell. Focus on telling that story about the person or the people behind the brand because that's what the 'About Me' page is ultimately intended for.
Inside of my program, Brandmerry Academy, we take a deeper dive into what we call the heroine's journey, which goes into more detail on crafting your story, showcasing multiple peaks and dips in your story and how to craft it!
However, for years and years, the three transitions were all I taught and used and still to this day it’s the structure I use for my Brandmerry ‘About Me’ page.
LENGTH OF YOUR ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE
Here's the last thing that I'll share with you before you go forth and write your 'About Me' pages.
Don't stress about how long it is when you're writing it.
Just write it.
Either write it in a Google Doc or record it and transcribe it if you find that you filter yourself. Whichever strategy works for you, write it and then clean it up. Don’t filter yourself to start or you’ll miss out on crucial elements of your story!
We limit ourselves in our storytelling abilities by trying to create the finished product when we first write it. And it never works that way.
People don't write their finished book when they first write their book. It goes through tons and tons of rounds of edits. And I'm not saying you're writing a book and we don't need to spend months and months on your 'About Me' page, but just write it, tell the story, focus on the connection then go out and make sure you've touched on these pieces I shared in this post.
CONCLUSION
I hope that you now understand how important your website is and how powerful your ‘About Me’ page truly is. And that your 'About Me' page is meant to tell the story behind the brand, not to say, "Oh, and I'll help you do X, Y, and Z," and that's the only thing on that page. Please don't do that.
Utilize the steps outlined in this blog post today and share your new ‘About Me’ page with me on Instagram @michelleknightco so I can celebrate with you.
If you want to take a deeper dive into building your brand make sure you sign up to watch the Build A Better Brand Method. It's a free on-demand training and you can go to betterbrandmethod.com to get signed up.
Inside of that training, I talk about identifying your story and the importance of your story inside of the branding process, as well as giving you my six-part framework for building a better brand.
- 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.
3 Key Factors for Telling Better Brand Stories in Marketing
Brand storytelling is all the rage because it improves marketing!
And everyday you should be sharing stories as part of your marketing strategy.
Here are 3 factors to improve your overall marketing strategy.
3 Key Factors for Telling Better Brand Stories in Marketing
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
We often think about brand storytelling as our brand story. That's typically what you see written on an ‘About Me’ page, a couple of different places on your website and your social media handles.
But a lot of brands stop here.
They've got that brand story and then they do nothing else, and they're missing out on an incredible marketing strategy by doing so.
Brand storytelling will elevate your marketing.
It will elevate your content creation.
It will elevate your customer experience when you fully embrace it.
Today, on The Brandmerry Podcast, I wanted to not only share how important brand storytelling is but also three key factors that are necessary for telling stories in business.
One of the little secret sauces that I have over here at Brandmerry is the power of storytelling.
It's in everything that I create and teach. I have been featured on multiple podcasts, talking about brand storytelling. I have been featured by HoneyBook, leading an entire workshop on brand storytelling.
My goal is to get you to think of storytelling as a powerful tool not just in your brand foundation, but also in your marketing!
IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING AND BRAND STORYTELLING
What branding focuses on the experience that you are providing your audience.
While the business side of things is very much the marketing, how you're showing up every day, the products, the services, etc...
Branding is focused on a core foundation of who you are, who your ideal customer is, strong messaging, and understanding the emotional component to create an overall experience for your ideal customer.
I've already shared how storytelling plays a role in that, but essentially storytelling allows you to identify who you are, why you're doing the work that you're doing, and the mission statement that we talked about in the first episode.
It helps you identify your brand values, which are a guiding light in the choices that you're going to make.
It helps you get deep into who do I want to work with?
Why do I want to work with them?
Who is my product for, who is my service for?
Who is this whole thing for?
Storytelling can play a major role in the branding process. It is the core foundation of everything that I teach inside of my program, You! Branded.
Inside of You Branded, we are focused on getting clear on your story, your ideal customer’s story, the story that you want to tell through your messaging, the story of your offer, your authentic voice, and ultimately the emotional brand.
Once we have that, you have got so much to get started, to move into that marketing phase, to start showing up, sharing content, and building that know, like, trust factor with your growing audience.
Once you have that, you’re ready to move into the marketing phase. This is why the branding phase is so essential - it builds the foundation and sets the tone for everything you’ll create moving forward to make money in your business.
STORYTELLING AND MARKETING IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS
The marketing piece is how you're showing up, how you're attracting your ideal customers, how you are bringing in those leads and how you are leading them to the purchase.
This is the area of brand storytelling that so many people neglect, but it's so important.
Incorporating storytelling into your content and into your marketing gives you the power to increase the likelihood that your audience will actually remember it.
Your audience is 22 times more likely to remember something that you share on social media, in a blog, in an email, on a video, because you've incorporated storytelling.
Storytelling is a universal language and it does amazing things to our brains as humans and ultimately consumers.
It fires off dopamine which makes us feel good. Neural coupling is happening, which basically states that it's not about the story, it's about the art of telling a story that triggers different things in your customer's brain that attracts them to the message because they can connect it to their own story and something that's happened to them - even if it’s not identical.
That's why storytelling is incredibly powerful for bringing in your ideal customer and captivating them.
By incorporating stories into your everyday pieces of content and your marketing, you're actually giving yourself an incredible advantage on social media, on blogs, in email marketing, and when you're selling on a sales page.
HOW STORYTELLING INCREASES SALES
In 2009, Rob Walker and Joshua Glen held an experiment that has become known in marketing as The Significant Object project and it’s a great example of how storytelling plays a role in our marketing and ultimately the purchase conversions of our services and products.
Yep, you heard that right - storytelling can increase sales!
In 2009, Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn asked 100 creative writers to invent stories about $129 worth of items. They bought $129 worth of items, they hired creative writers to make up stories about each item.
They listed these products on eBay.
The result was a net profit of $3.6 million. It was a 2700% increase in the final markup!
One of the examples that's sold was a paperweight. As you know, we can get these for like a dollar. They specifically bought theirs for $1.47 and it sold for $197. It was a simple paperweight with a story that sold!
This experiment proves that we, as human beings, are drawn to and connect with stories and that we make purchase decisions based on stories and emotional connection.
It is incredibly important for you as a marketer to incorporate storytelling into your entire process!
3 KEY FACTORS FOR BRAND STORYTELLING
We’re focused on brand storytelling today, and I’m not going to sugar coat it - it’s a lot!
Inside of my free training, Build a Better Brand Method, I break down some of the key pieces of brand storytelling and you can watch it for free here.
Inside of my program, Brandmerry Academy, which is my membership community that teaches you how to market off of social media, we talk about storytelling and the different ways that you can create content around storytelling.
There is also this guide if you want to explore further.
So, please know these three factors will get you started, but there is more work to dive into and you’re in the right place at Brandmerry.
WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE AND WHAT IS THE VALUE
I'm laughing a little bit on the inside here because if you've worked with me or listened to any of my live videos, you know how much I stress the importance of doing ideal customer work. It's non-negotiable over here.
Do you have a content creation problem? It's because you don't know who your ideal customer is.
Don't know what kind of copy to write? It's because you don't know who your ideal customer is.
Don't know what kind of stories to tell? It's because you don't know who your ideal customer is.
Ideal customer research is important, and I'm not talking about just getting on the phone with people and chatting with them all day, every day. There are a lot of strategic ways to do ideal customer research through free tools online, like Answer the Public, to posting a survey, to asking questions in your Insta Stories.
Ideal customer work is something that we teach inside of module two of my course, You! Branded, and it's so important for moving forward in branding and marketing your business.
It’s imperative when it comes to brand storytelling because as business owners, we're not just telling stories to tell stories. We're not just talking about a fun thing we did today. Because that's not going to get people to invest in what we're selling.
We ultimately are using stories to build connections and make sales. So when you're thinking about the types of stories to share, you want to be super clear on the audience that you're telling those stories to.
If you were writing a speech for a TED talk, you would need to know who's in the room.
If you were being asked to speak on stage at a conference for photographers, you wouldn't go in to speak at a conference for people who sell a product. That’s a different audience and you would choose your stories accordingly.
You need to understand who your audience is at their core, so you can choose the stories that are ultimately going to connect with them because that's what running a successful business is about.
In addition to that, one of the best practices that I love to teach my clients is identifying the value before you even craft the post, or the email, or the story on a video. So not only are you sharing the story, you've run it through your checker of how it'll connect to your ideal customer and the specific value that it's providing them.
Remember, value doesn't necessarily mean five tips on this, although that's helpful. It can also be humorous, entertaining, inspirational, motivational, or educational.
Remember…
…what is the story?
…how does it connect to your ideal customer?
...what value do you provide?
And then you will know that you've got a story that is going to help move your business forward.
THE 4 C’S OF STORYTELLING
The second thing that you want to keep in mind, one of the key factors in storytelling, is the four Cs. They are character, conflict, conclusion and CTA.
Let's break these down.
CHARACTER
There has to be a central focus for the story that you're telling.
If you're telling a story about something that happened to you, you might be the character.
If you're telling a story about a client testimonial, they might be the character.
If you're telling a story where you want the reader to picture themselves in the story, then it is your reader.
Your character could also be your product or service you’re selling.
The goal is to have a focus on who the story is ultimately about.
CONFLICT
The second thing you want in your story is conflict.
You can call it conflict, obstacle, or decision, and it’s anything that causes some tension in the story. This is important because we, as people, as human beings, need a resolution from conflict, so having this in your story makes it interesting!
Then we offer the conclusion or resolution after introducing the conflict.
CONCLUSION
Having both the conflict and conclusion is a great way to not only hook your audience but keep them engaged.
I was watching WandaVision, not that long ago, and every week I was like, “Oh my gosh. Man, now I have to wait 'til next week!” And I was genuinely frustrated about it, but I also made a note in the back of my mind that I cannot miss next week's episode.
This is what happens in our brain when we are introduced to some sort of conflict and need a resolution. It's called open looping.
As humans, we need resolve. So that's where the conclusion or resolve comes into play.
If you can present the character, you can showcase some sort of tension or conflict, a decision, or a question that was presented and then resolve that and share the conclusion, you're doing that full arc in your ideal customer's mind. That's where the dopamine gets released!
CALL TO ACTION
As business owners, we are not only focused on connection, but we also want to make profits.
So having some sort of call-to-action is important with your stories. That CTA doesn't have to be, “click here” or “visit my bio.”
It could be, “drop me an emoji”, “what did you think about this”, “answer yes or no”, “share this.”
Those are all CTAs. You don't want to miss that piece.
Character, conflict, conclusion, are key in all stories, everywhere. Movie scripts, sitcoms, books that we read. The CTA is that business element that we don't want to forget about.
So again, include character, conflict, conclusion, and CTA in all of your stories.
PAINT A PICTURE
I often have clients who are worried about a story being too long, and as a result, they cut out crucial pieces of the story and ultimately impact the effectiveness of your storytelling.
Now, I’m not saying that you want to write something incredibly lengthy that your audience will never read, but be aware of the language you’re using to enhance the story.
Some of the things that I encourage my clients to do when it comes to painting a picture, is to be descriptive and share emotionally charged language.
If you know things about your ideal customer, about their pain, about their pleasure, things that they would say, incorporating those into your story is powerful. Being descriptive and showcasing the individual pieces.
One of the small parts of my founder’s story is a great example of this.
“I remember sitting on the couch in a postpartum fog, breastfeeding my one-month-old son. I looked up, turned to my husband and said, “I don’t want to go back to work.” He looked up, took a deep breath and said, “Ok.” That was the start of Brandmerry.”
You can see inside of this story how I’ve painted a picture for my audience. If I would have taken out the descriptive elements it would have just been, “I was sitting on the couch and I looked at my husband and I said, I want to leave my job. And he said, okay, let's do it.”
That’s pretty boring.
What I did instead was set up the scene, where I'm talking about being in a postpartum fog, I'm sitting on the couch and breastfeeding my son. You can imagine what that looks like. You might even be seeing yourself in that situation.
I talk about lifting my head, turning to my husband. I share what I said. I talk about him taking a deep breath in, letting it out, turning to me, and saying what he said.
That did not make my story incredibly long, but it enhanced the story 150% and it made it better.
Don't miss out on the opportunity to paint a picture, be descriptive, and use that strong, emotionally charged language when you're sharing your stories online. Especially on social media, because you want your stories to captivate your audience and not just sound like everyone else.
CONCLUSION
Let’s recap the three key factors for storytelling in your marketing.
Number one: Know your audience and the value the story provides.
Number two: Include the four C’s of character, conflict, conclusion, and CTA.
Number three: Paint a picture.
As I've mentioned, you can be showing up and sharing stories all of the time in your marketing.
In fact, I challenge you to incorporate a single story in every piece of content that you create moving forward.
One of the great ways to start is by going back and listening to some of the previous episodes on this podcast for ideas.
In episode one, I talked about creating a mission for your business. Write your mission, and then share various stories about your mission. Why you believe in your mission, when you wrote your mission. If you have a story about why you have a mission, share the story about that.
In episode three, we talked about brand values. Identify your brand values, and then pick out different stories that you can tell from your life that showcase those brand values.
Those are ways that you can get started right now.
You can share your founder’s story or your “About Me” story, which we're going to dive into in a future episode. That's another story that you can break down and share on social media.
So you've got what you need to get started in sharing stories online.
Don't forget to catch the free On-Demand training, the Build a Better Brand Method. You can go to betterbrandmethod.com to learn more about my signature six-part method. You're going to learn more about elevating your messaging. I've got a trick in there on doing your ideal customer research that you're not going to want to miss where I’m talking about telling your brand story.
You can also check out youbrandedcourse.com to learn more about my paid branding course. This is truly where you get the step-by-step system for building a strong brand foundation rooted in story, understanding your ideal customer and mastering your messaging.
- 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.
What Are Brand Values and Why Are They Important in Personal Branding
Clear brand values are essential as an online brand in 2021 and beyond.
Head over to the blog to learn more about what brand values are important and how to find yours.
What Are Brand Values and Why Are They Important in Personal Branding
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
Last week, I shared a podcast episode and blog on what I believe is one of the most important parts of creating your brand and business - the mission statement.
You can listen to that episode of The Brandmerry Podcast here.
In continuation of that episode, it’s important to also share more about Brand Values. You'll find that mission and values go hand in hand and are some of the things that I think a lot of solopreneurs, myself included in the beginning, miss out on and don't take the time to establish.
But, like your mission statement, they can help you in your decision-making process in the brands that you work with and the clients that you take. So they're important to establish early on.
THE ROLE OF YOUR MISSION STATEMENT AND VALUES
As I’ve mentioned before, your mission statement is used as a compass in your business.
You’ll use it as a guide for making important decisions like hiring a team, accepting clients, taking on brand collaborations, and more. Just like the mission statement your values are beneficial for you to come back to and make sure you’re making decisions in alignment with your vision and values.
They can also serve as a kind of sounding board in the choices that you're ultimately going to make for your brand and your business moving forward.
But, your brand values also impact the buying decision process from a customer standpoint.
We know that 77% of consumers make purchase decisions based on shared brand values.
So, if a company has a set of brand values that aren't in alignment with that individual, they might move on to another company.
And that's totally fine - remember we want our brand to both to attract our dream clients and repel the wrong ones.
And while your brand values might turn off some people (i.e. not your ideal customer), what typically happens is your ideal customer is magnetized by your stance, opinion and a shared value.
It’s about not only sharing your brand values but more importantly living up to them.
You can absolutely post your brand values on your website for all to see, but if you're not living up to those statements, they mean nothing.
It’s in the art of honoring these values and creating a brand in alignment with them that makes the biggest difference.
HOW TO USE YOUR BRAND VALUES
As I've mentioned before, you absolutely can add your brand values to your website, but that’s not the real reason we take the time to establish them.
There are three main reasons to establish your brand values:
Use them as a guiding light for all elements of your business (including who you work with)
Make better decisions in alignment with your values and ultimate visions for your company
Provides content for your business
As a Personal Branding Consultant and Marketing Strategist, I love to empower my clients to share stories online. One of my favorite types of stories to teach are those that showcase the brand’s values.
For example, let’s say one of your values is authenticity, as it is one of mine, you can share a story about why authenticity matters to you.
You can showcase a time in your life where you had to make a decision with the transparent authentic approach, as opposed to the, "Oh, I've got my shit together approach."
You can share stories. You can share content. You can show up and paint a picture of how you’re honoring your values without just saying, "These are my five brand values."
While listing them out is where it starts, it really comes down to how you use them when building your brand.
WRITING YOUR BRAND VALUES
When it comes to listing out your brand values, my suggestion is to keep them very simple.
You don't need 15 of these bad boys because you're not going to remember them. And as you expand and grow your team, they're not going to remember them either.
You also don't want to make them overly complicated.
I've seen amazing companies share their brand values as single words, two to three-word statements. I've also watched brands do full sentences. Just a full sentence of this is what we believe.
Your brand values are the core principles behind the work that you do, what your company believes in and honors and commits to as a collective, so it’s important that they can easily be remembered and communicated.
This simple communication is what will support your ability to build brand affinity.
Brand affinity is so much deeper than brand awareness, brand attraction and brand connection.
Brand affinity is when you see clients come back over and over and over again. When you see clients who no longer can benefit from your services because they've kind of tapped out of what you provide, but continue to refer people to you and are affiliates for your brand.
They shout your brand and your mission and the things that you're doing from the rooftop.
Brand Affinity comes from a connection of shared values and a shared commitment. It’s incredibly powerful and something I believe every brand should be aspiring to have and a great place to start is with your brand values.
BRAND VALUES EXAMPLE
I know it can be tempting to try and locate a Brand Value Cheat Sheet, I’m sure it exists on the internet, but I encourage you to tap into your story, do the mission work that we talked about in this blog post, and think about the commitment that you're making to your clients, to yourself and to your mission.
Let those be the guiding light for your values.
Because there's no one size fits all approach for this. When we try to find a one size fits all approach, then we sound like everybody else, and that is not a great branding strategy. It's actually the worst branding strategy. And I do not recommend it.
This is something that you can’t copy and paste or you’re missing the entire point of creating brand values.
In the next section of this post, I’m going to share my six brand values as a source of inspiration for you. I’ll also be sharing why I hold those values within my company. Remember, you can structure your values as single words or sentences - I’ve shown you both options below.
Let’s get into it.
BRANDMERRY BRAND VALUES
Transparency and Authenticity
At Brandmerry, we believe that transparency and authenticity are the keys to true impact and connection. One of our goals at Brandmerry is to support our clients and in building true communities.
And my mission statement is to have women specifically build impact, build movements, and build communities.
So, one of the things that we believe is that the way to do that and the way to have a real impact is to be authentic, to be yourself, to not put on some weird front on social media that's going to blow up in your face one day. To have your clients and customers saying, "You are just like I imagined you were. You are just like you are on your Insta stories."
These are things that my clients have said to me, my customers have said to me over the years.
We honor this by showing up authentically, being transparent about things that are happening in business, as well as teaching my clients how to do the same thing.
Hard Work
At Brandmerry, we believe in hard work. We believe that it is necessary. And while we do believe in balance, we also believe in getting shit done in order to move forward towards our goals.
That is one that I've honestly gone back and forth with for a few years. It's not one that I originally had because there's a hustle mentality that I think is dangerous online.
But I have separated hustle and hard work and have owned that working hard for something that you want and you believe in is okay.
And I want to work with entrepreneurs who work hard.
I want to work with entrepreneurs who are in it, who aren't afraid to get scrappy, who aren't afraid to DM some people who have checked in with them and then ghosted and follow up with them and be like, "Where are you at? What's going on? I want to check in with you."
I want to work with people at Brandmerry, not only my clients but also my team members who will put in the time and energy to reach our goals.
So, in the seasons of life that require hard work, hard work is important.
Commitment
At Brandmerry, we know that commitment builds habits and achieves goals. It is not just a commitment to your mission. It's a commitment to yourself and we're here for it.
So we are fully committed to the work that we do and committed to the mission statement behind the brand. As I bring on employees, I want them to be committed as well.
That's why I show up the way that I show up because I want people to know what they're getting themselves into when working with my business. But I also know that my commitment is important and I want to work with other entrepreneurs and small business owners who are also committed.
You’ll notice I also say, it’s a commitment to yourself because one of the things that I believe in and I stand for is a commitment to putting yourself first and honoring the things that you want. If that means setting boundaries that you need to set with your loved ones in order to honor that commitment, then we do it.
Responsibility
At Brandmerry, we believe in taking responsibility not only for your goals and your actions but also being brave to apologize and own your shit.
Responsibility is important to me. It is just something that I have always carried. It's something my husband and I have in our vows to one another. And responsibility as a business owner, I think is just so important because there are going to be times when you mess up and you need to be brave enough to accept responsibility for that.
You also need to take responsibility for the actions that you're taking. Like, "This is the goal. We're committing to the goal. Now, be responsible and get work done." You'll see how a lot of these fit hand in hand. Hard work, commitment, responsibility, they're all one strong core value that I've broken up.
So, taking responsibility not only for your goals and the things that you want, the actions that you're taking but also a responsibility if you mess up!
I want to work with entrepreneurs that are responsible and I want people on my team that exhibit the same characteristics. And I will honor this as well. It's a driving force for me.
Freedom
If you've been following me for a long time, you know that I actually used to call myself a freedom coach before I understood SEO and any of those important characteristics with marketing.
Freedom has always been kind of an underlying theme of my brand. “Create a life of freedom,” was the very first tagline that I created. And even today, I talk about time, financial, and location freedom as the trifecta that I wanted to achieve and that I have now achieved in my business.
Freedom is what it's about. At Brandmerry, we believe in taking breaks, enjoying vacations and not living on social media. It's not just a marketing practice, it's our everyday mentality.
So you can see how this kind of manifests itself in my business, from the decisions that I make to not live on social media, to taking months off of creating content sometimes to taking month-long, three-months-long breaks with my family to go on vacation.
I have no problem telling my clients, "Hey, I’m going on vacation!" It's a value. It's something that's expected of me. I literally have never had a client go, "What do you mean you're going on vacation?" Because I have this value and I showcase that in everything that I do.
But it's also a guiding principle inside of all of my programs, where I talk about how to market off of social media inside of Brandmerry Academy and the power of repurposing and bulk creating content so that you're not living online all the time.
I believe that we should have a business that complements our life, not the other way around.
And then, as a member of our team, something that I'm looking forward to growing into as we expand is that my employees, employees of Brandmerry, will have days off every week. We'll be able to take week-long vacations every quarter and be able to take a whole day off if they have a doctor’s appointment or something personal.
This idea of freedom in all aspects as a CEO, content creator, educator, boss, woman, etc...is a major value.
Inclusive Community
At Brandmerry, we build, attract, and run communities where voices will be heard. We don't shy away from having hard conversations and we don't tolerate attacks on basic human rights.
So, for me, this is important because I, as someone who has a mission to encourage entrepreneurs to own their stories and share their stories, having these communities and having this brave space to share those stories without judgment and without fear are incredibly important.
In alignment with that, I also take a stand on human rights. I spoke out about the Black Lives Matter campaign and I've continued to do work in my everyday life when things happen politically or socially. If there is something that I feel strongly about, I will talk about it.
I know a lot of people used to say that you shouldn't combine business and politics, and there are still people who believe that businesses should not take stands on political issues. I’m sorry, but that argument is false.
Businesses absolutely should, if they are in alignment with their values.
But, do not do it for show - people can see right through that crap. If this is a value that you have though, if this is important to you, speak up about it and don't be afraid to do that.
That is something that I have honored over the last year by saying, "Yeah, this might piss some people off, but you know what? This is important."
I have a platform and I have a voice, and I'm able to do that.
We're seeing more and more companies rise up to this. I think it's very cool. It just goes back to what we talked about at the beginning around brand affinity. This stuff is important. Choosing your values will help you make decisions that will also help you show up online. And as an added amazing bonus, make more income and impact, which is what we love over here at Brandmerry and the Brandmerry Podcast.
CONCLUSION
So what I encourage you to do is, think of around 5-7 brand values.
You don't want too many where you can't remember your brand values.
You want to first start with your story. So identifying who you are, what's ultimately led you to where you are, and identifying your mission statement. Listen to Episode 1 if you want to dive into that a little bit further.
Then, identify some of these key values. You don't have to list out every single thing that you believe in. These are core values, right? These are core principles - you only need a few.
Once you have those, determine how you ultimately want to get them out into the world. Again, you can absolutely post them on your website. You can create a document. You can have them in your contract. You can do a video about your core values. You can do it in whatever way it feels good for you.
But one of the things that I recommend is starting to use these core values as a way to show up, share content and stories online.
That's a great way to showcase your values in a super organic and natural way that allows your audience to say, "Oh, okay. Yes, this is my person. Oh, okay. Yes, this is what I'm looking for." And it's supported my business and my clients over the years.
If you're ready to take it further to build that brand foundation, don't forget to watch the Build a Better Brand Method.
It's a completely free on-demand class, where I walk you through my six-part branding framework. You'll learn more about the power of storytelling in business with a fun case study all about how my business exploded because of storytelling. I also teach you how to do better ideal client research and how to elevate your messaging. It's completely free and on-demand and you can sign up to watch it here.
And at the training, you'll have an opportunity to learn more about You! Branded, which is my signature course teaching you how to create a strong personal brand. Inside of You! Branded the very first module is all about storytelling. So you know that it's important and it is key in building a strong brand and business.
- 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.
What is the difference between marketing and branding?
You should know that you need both branding and marketing to grow your business, but which comes first and do you always need to be focusing on both? Let's dive into all your branding and marketing questions on the blog!
What is the difference between marketing and branding?
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
In today’s episode, I took a deep dive into the difference between branding and marketing.
I specifically wanted to share the difference between the two, but also outline what happens at each of those stages.
I find that entrepreneurs sometimes get a little confused as to how long the branding process should take. When they should start marketing. How long to dedicate to marketing their brand and what marketing even entails.
Which one should we build first is a huge question that my clients have when they come to me. And I'm answering all of those questions, and more, in today's episode.
I'm hopeful that no matter where you're at in your business, this is going to give you some insight into some of the gaps that you need to fill, or the next steps that you can take to create your revenue-generating business.
I believe that you do need both branding and marketing. However, what I often see happening online is that people are going about the branding and the marketing in a reversed order, or skipping one entirely.
I'll even go as far as to say they’re spending way too much time on one over the other.
BRANDING VS. MARKETING
So what's the difference? How do we decide which is which and where should we focus our energy where we're at right now in our business?
Branding is about the experience that you are creating for your audience. I also love to refer to it as the foundation.
So if you're thinking about your business like a building, you're thinking about constantly building and adding on to it, getting taller, expanding, scaling, and you need a solid foundation from which to do all of that.
So your brand foundation is what gives you that footing to know what to talk about, where to show up, what you’re offering and more.
I see a lot of entrepreneurs who skim the branding piece of the puzzle in one of three ways.
Some people go into it and build that solid foundation, and that's what I teach over here at Brandmerry, specifically in my course You! Branded.
Some people will skim it, who will just tap their toe into the water a little bit as it comes to branding, but not build a solid foundation. So when they start to scale then it starts to crumble and they realize they’ve got some problems here.
It might sound like, “I keep trying to build higher. I keep trying to reach more people. I keep trying to make more money, but my foundation is crumbling.”
Or we have people who spend way too much time on branding and they don't market their business at all. They wonder why they're not making any money because no one knows about their offer.
So branding is essential in the success of a business.
What I want you to think about when it comes to branding is building that foundation in which you can scale your business.
Now, for marketing, we want to think of it as brand awareness and attraction.
This is you putting your message out into the world. Once you have a solid brand and you've done it correctly, you very rarely need to go back to it. The branding will take some revisiting from time to time. It's always great to be asking and getting ideal client’s feedback. It's always great to go back and check on your offers and your messaging to make sure that they're relevant. You will evolve.
So yes, you're going to need to check back in on your brand from time to time, but if you build that solid brand foundation like we teach over here at Brandmerry, you won't need to keep going back and tweaking and making things different all the time.
There are two phases, in my opinion, when it comes to building a business, branding and marketing. And the second phase, marketing, is all about taking your brand and getting that out into the world.
You’ll hear people talk a lot about brand awareness, and brand awareness is marketing.
It is making other people aware of your brand. In my opinion, awareness isn’t part of the branding process, but you're probably picking up that you can't have one without the other.
BUILDING BRAND AWARENESS
So how do you build brand awareness and market if you don't know what the brand is? How do you know what to market if you don't know what you're marketing?
You can’t! This is why branding and marketing fit side by side for all businesses.
It doesn't matter what you sell, you have to have both. But what I see people doing over and over and over again, is that they're missing one.
They spend a lot of time and a lot of energy building their brand, which is essential, and you need it, but then they're wondering, well, why aren't people finding me?
How come I can't sell anything?
Or how come nobody's landing on my website that I spent all this time creating?
Because they're lacking the marketing.
Or I see a lot of entrepreneurs jump into marketing.
They start posting on social media without a clear roadmap or plan. They start creating multiple offers and promoting them willy-nilly without understanding their ideal customer because they've skipped the branding phase.
A NOTE ON SELLING
Some people say there's branding, marketing, and selling.
But, I don’t agree, because in my opinion marketing is selling. If you’re showing up and marketing your business correctly, then you’re also selling.
If you're constantly bringing in quality leads, leading them through your marketing and leading them through the client journey, then you're selling automatically.
So that’s why it’s important to strip it back and focus on two main pieces: Branding and Marketing.
How much easier is it when you think about running a business with two single pieces, that's all you need.
MARKETING YOUR SMALL BUSINESS
Look, I get it, marketing can be complex.
There are a lot of different pieces that change frequently, and it's something that's happening every single day in your business.
But when you're thinking about showing up and the marketing efforts that you're doing currently, how are they going?
Is it a matter of showing up and marketing, but your message is all over the place?
Not being a hundred percent sure what you’re talking about, or promoting?
Having trouble coming up with content ideas? That's a huge red flag.
Then I would encourage you to go back and build your solid brand foundation.
If you feel like you have a solid brand foundation, but nobody's finding you, then it's probably a marketing problem.
Here are some questions to consider to identify where your gaps lie:
Am I showing up consistently in my business?
YES - Great keep going!
NO - It’s your marketing (start there)!
How's that going for me?
Does it feel like my message is all over the place, and I'm not super clear?
Do I struggle to come up with content?
Does my brand feel messy or incomplete?
A lot of entrepreneurs I work with privately will come to me with their Facebook ads and their website, they’re blogging, but nothing's happening. And when we get down to it and we ask those questions, it's super clear that they're missing some major gaps in their brand.
THE MOST POPULAR GAPS IN BRANDING
NUMBER ONE:
Niching down, this is phase one of the branding process that I teach. And this is ultimately the problem you solve.
You've got to figure out what problem you solve and how you're supporting your clients from the start.
If you don't know that from the beginning, then your messaging is going to be confusing to them, and you're going to have a really hard time leading to the sale.
NUMBER TWO:
The second thing that you want to determine is who you're selling to. I think that this might be one of the most important things that you will determine in the branding process because your ideal customer will determine so much of your marketing strategy.
It's going to determine where you're showing up, how you're showing up, what kind of content you're creating, your topics, how long your videos are if you do live video, YouTube, if you're using Pinterest. All of that is going to depend on what you discover at the branding phase.
You need to understand at a very, very deep level who you're targeting, but the ideal customer work is typically where a lot of people are slack-a-lakin.
You need to identify who you are ultimately wanting to attract and sell to. And yes, I said, who, I don't mean 75 different people, who? If you're just starting, please do a favor and focus on one core audience. You can scale as you get bigger, you can have more offers as you get bigger. You'll have more credibility. You'll have more testimonials. You'll have social proof. You'll have those pieces, you'll have a team.
But in the beginning, it's probably just you, maybe a VA if you're lucky, so you want to focus and streamline.
This is one of the things that are important with branding. Some people fear talking about the same thing over and over again, but that is the key to branding. Become known for one specific thing. And then as you are making consistent money and sales in that, add on the different pieces.
NUMBER THREE:
And then the third gap in branding that I typically see is, just messing up the whole thing, is messaging.
I can tell if your messaging is off because of how you're showing up on social media, or your blog content. If there’s a break in consistency, then there’s a break in your messaging.
A key part of branding is repetition. Don't be afraid to talk about the same things in a bunch of different ways, become known for that thing.
DO YOU NEED BOTH BRANDING AND MARKETING?
The answer is YES!
Branding is focused on the experience, the beating heart of your business. So without it, your business is not there.
And then marketing is how you share that with the world. Marketing is how you build brand awareness and where the client attraction happens, which ultimately leads to the sale.
So you have to have both, but one will not work without the other.
Branding is the foundation. You don't have to go back and fix that all the time. You get it, you start marketing it, and then you make tiny adjustments as you market and get feedback.
But a lot of people will sit with branding, and they'll go through it over and over and over and over again, and two years down the line they're like, well, I haven't made any money and it’s because they're not marketing their business.
This is why it’s important to solidify your branding early on. I teach my signature branding process inside the Build a Better Brand Method.
This on-demand training will walk you through my signature 6-part process, plus share insider tips on storytelling, ideal customer and messaging.
In that training I also share with you, my course, You! Branded.
P.S. If you’re interested in a customized approach to branding your business, then my VIP Brand Intensives might be for you. During this 30-day intensive we will solidify your brand and give you the confidence to market your business online. Learn more and apply at brandmerry.com/intensive.
- 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.
Marketing Strategy Example for Solopreneurs
Mapping out your marketing strategy can feel like a lot when you’re a one-person show, but I’ve learned over the years that a weekly workflow, mixed with the power of repurposing can transform the way you show up, build your leads and make sales. Read the blog for all the details.
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
When I first started my business I felt overwhelmed with the idea of constantly creating content, notice I didn’t say consistent here because for a long time I thought consistent meant constant.
This is actually not true, consistency is what works best for YOU!
Once, I realized I could map out how I wanted to show up, where and how often I began to bulk my content creation days. Every Monday, I would have a few hours, kid-free, to write my blogs, social media posts and emails for the week.
This was crucial in making sure I could get my content out into the world, increase brand awareness and attract quality leads.
But, as any business grows so do the creative juices and I began to think of new ways to reach my audience. Many of these included live videos, pre-recorded videos, podcasts, Pinterest strategies and more. That’s when I became mildly obsessed with streamlining my marketing.
Over the past five years, I’ve become a master at not only my own marketing strategies but also supporting entrepreneurs in doing the same for their business. It’s the core principle inside of signature membership Brandmerry Academy!
Today, I’m giving you a look inside of my marketing strategy so you can steal it for yourself.
Let’s get started!
MARKETING STRATEGY TEMPLATE: 4 KEY PIECES
Before we get into the exact strategy you can steal from me, it’s important to take a birds-eye view of marketing as a whole.
There are four very important key pieces to a strong marketing strategy.
MARKETING PIECE #1: STRATEGY
The first piece in a strong marketing strategy is the strategy and systems.
This is getting a strong foundation in place so that you can show up and market your business consistently.
And having the pieces in place that are going to not only bring in new leads but also convert those leads into email subscribers and paying clients.
This stage includes a strong website, core messaging, email marketing platform and onboarding, plus a weekly workflow which we’ll talk about in a bit.
MARKETING PIECE #2: AWARENESS
In the Awareness phase, you're making sure that you're touching on all of those stages of the buying process, and that people are constantly learning about you and your brand.
This is typically where all those cold subscribers are coming in, people who find your blog on Google, see a pin that you created on Pinterest, or a video on YouTube.
They're coming in not knowing you previously, and becoming aware of your brand and how you ultimately support your clients.
MARKETING PIECE #3: ATTRACTION
Attraction is where someone who is now aware of you moves into being attracted to your brand, your mission and your work. This is where the magnetic energy starts to build.
They're ultimately at that phase where they want to learn more.
This is where having a lead generation piece in place is so important because the people who are ready for more can buy or join your email list where they move a little bit further through the customer-buying process.
MARKETING PIECE #4: CONNECTION
And then the final phase is what I like to call Connection.
This is where you are ultimately connecting and building trust through your marketing efforts and leading people to the sale.
Think about it as an upside-down triangle, where you've got cold leads coming in the top through awareness, moving into the second phase, warming up a little bit, into the bottom phase where they feel that connection and they are ready to purchase.
All of that is part of your marketing strategy. Making sure that you have the systems and the solid strategy in place so that all of those pieces work very effortlessly together.
Now, it's time to steal my strategy.
Just like I promised you, I'm going to share with you the seven-piece marketing strategy that I use in my business.
MY 7-STEP MARKETING STRATEGY
MARKETING STEP #1: CREATE YOUR WORKFLOW
One of the core parts of the Systems Phase is creating your workflow. One of the things that get entrepreneurs so freaking hung up is the idea of consistently showing up, but there is a way to fix this, and that is making sure that your system and your workflow are established.
Now, I teach this workflow inside of Brandmerry Academy in great detail, but for a limited time, I also have a freebie for you if you want to just dip your toes in the water a little bit.
You can go to brandmerry.com/repurpose, where I teach you how to master the art of repurposing and create a workflow for your content that you can repeat week after week after week. You’ll get your hands on my Content Creation Repurposing Guide!
This is the same workflow that you have heard me talk about numerous times in my videos and blogs, where I take a video and post it on multiple platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
I transcribe that and turn it into a blog.
I share that blog on Pinterest.
I share that blog in my email.
I share that blog on social media.
My goal is to make sure that I am extending the life of my content.
You want to create this workflow very early on so you understand where and how often you are going to be showing up with your marketing efforts. That is going to allow you to create a workflow that you can just plug the various content topics into and repeat week after week.
So, number one, create your workflow.
Again, something we talk about and cover in great detail inside of the Academy, but you can also get your hands on a small portion of that at brandmerry.com/repurpose if you just want to dip your toe in the water.
MARKETING STEP #2: LEAD MAGNET
Number two is making sure that you have your lead magnet set up.
This is part of that Systems Phase again because as you start to build that brand awareness and attract more people to your brand and your business, you want a way for them to stay in contact with you.
It is not enough to say, "Hey, just follow me here. I hope you actually see my stuff." We want to make sure that we have a way to email our community members. This is where you're able to talk about your products and your offers more effortlessly because these people want to hear from you.
So, the second thing that you want to do when setting up your marketing strategy is to make sure that you have a lead magnet established.
This includes making sure that you have that free gift whether that's a PDF, a video, audio, quiz, or something similar. You’ll want to create your landing page or opt-in page as a way to capture their information.
My favorite platforms for this are Leadpages for opt-in pages and Convertkit as my email platform. I like this combination, but many of my clients will just simply use Convertkit, as they do have the ability for both opt-in pages and general email marketing.
After they’ve opted into your free gift, you’ll need a way to send them the gift via email, and put them into a nurture sequence, where they get to learn more about you, your mission, your brand, and how you are going to support them. You can also offer up your product or your service in that email sequence if you have something readily available.
You don't have to wait for the perfect offer, you can always focus on nurturing them and building deeper trust and go back to add your offer later.
Having your lead magnet established early on is so important because as your marketing picks up, and it can take off very quickly, you want a way to capture those quality leads.
MARKETING STEP #3: WEBSITE
Now, one of the things that I teach over here at Brandmerry, specifically inside of Brandmerry Academy, is the power of a website. I know a lot of people will sit there and tell you that your website isn't important, but here's the thing: your website is a home base for your expertise.
When you use the strategies that we teach at Brandmerry like SEO, where you don't have to show up and post every single day on Instagram, or utilizing search engines like Pinterest, where you can extend the life of your blog post and make sure that you're driving traffic to your blog for two, three, four, five, six years down the line, then your website is important.
Now, if you want to show up every single day on Instagram and post all the time and just try to convert those people into sales, and that feels like a good strategy for you, go for it.
But, I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs who follow that strategy and struggle a bunch, where they're like, "Well, I have all these subscribers but nobody's buying from me." That is why we teach the strategies that we teach for evergreen content over here at Brandmerry because in our minds it’s much more effective.
So, with these evergreen strategies, it's important to have your website established.
I’m not asking you to hire a designer or spend months building the “perfect” website, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. It can be very simple to start, and you can continue to add on to it as you go.
What I recommend to start is a very simple homepage, where you have your lead magnet, where you tell people a little bit about who you are and who you serve, and you can link to your product.
Having an additional page that shares your product or your service with a link to purchase, book a call or submit an application.
Followed by additional pages for your ‘About Me’ and your blog.
You can have your website set up in no time, because as we know, it's not about perfection, it's about putting it out there. And you can continue to add to it and build.
This is one of the things that we teach inside of the Academy. There’s an entire brand new course all about creating your website, where I walk you through step by step by step what pages to have and what to include on them.
Remember, think of your website as a home base where you're going to be setting your evergreen traffic so that you don't have to show up on social media every single day, multiple times a day.
MARKETING STEP #4: BLOGGING
Please, start your blog from the get-go. This is going to be powerful for you because it's allowing you to create strong content on your website so people can learn a little bit more about you, a way for you to showcase your expertise and authority and create content that lives on.
You can then utilize SEO so you can show up in Google and other SEO platforms.
And, a little hint, if you have your workflow set up, you're creating long-form blog content, which you can then cherry-pick pieces out of and put on social media, or email your list, or create a small reel about.
So, because you're creating a piece of long-form content right out of the gate, you're actually giving yourself smaller chunks of content that then you can put out on various platforms. Having a blog, in the beginning, is powerful.
Now, if you're not someone who likes to write, don't think of blogging as just writing an entire post every single week. There are a lot of different ways that you can create blog content. One of them is writing the blog, but the second one is how I create my blog posts - starting with a video.
I create a video because I happen to enjoy video content more, transcribe that and turn it into a blog.
Another option is starting with a podcast or audio recording. You can transcribe that and put it onto the blog.
I'm not saying that you can't also start with video or start with podcasting, but because we're going for a simple strategy, bare-bones, you need a blog, and you want to start it right away.
If you're like, "I can do video and blog," then let's do it. That's why the workflow that we designed in the first part is important. You can get yourself into a system and you can use awesome marketing tools to streamline your energy.
One more thing about the blog is that it's important to have that text for repurposing.
Remember, you can use that long-form content to create multiple pieces of content to show up on social media. You could take an entire blog post, pull out individual sentences, and have an entire month's worth of content for Twitter.
There's a lot of really strategic ways to extend the life of your content, so start with the long-form and then can thank me later.
MARKETING STEP #5: PINTEREST
Pinterest is a search engine optimized platform, meaning that people come to the platform to find very specific pieces of information and the platform uses the keywords from your content to categorize the content. This means if someone is looking for travel tips and you have a post on travel tips, you’ll show up as a resource for them.
I talk a lot about SEO because I love it so much. Feel free to dive into last week’s post if you need a deeper dive.
This SEO strategy is why Pinterest is a more powerful platform than some of the social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook because people aren't specifically going there to solve their problem and seek out solutions.
Pinterest users tend to be further along in the buying process, as opposed to Instagram or Facebook. They're ready, they know their problem, they're seeking out solutions and they're ready to purchase. Where on the other platforms, you're just throwing content out there and hoping that it hits the right person.
So, integrating Pinterest is powerful.
Now, I'm not going to do an entire video on Pinterest. It is a whole strategy in and of itself. But if you're serious about marketing and you're ready to use this platform, which I highly recommend, we teach it inside of Brandmerry Academy.
It is an entire monthly marketing mini-course, learning how to use Pinterest effectively in your business. We're talking thousands and thousands of monthly traffic, anywhere from a thousand to what we see over here at Brandmerry upwards of 25,000 website viewers a month. Pinterest is a powerful tool to support you in doing just that.
You've got the blog because you followed Step 4, now, integrate Pinterest so you can create that consistent traffic to your blog.
While I’m not sharing the entire strategy here, there is one little piece of information that I will give you. When you create your blog content, create anywhere between five and six Pinterest pin-sized variations of your title.
Let's say, you tilted your blog “Three Ways to Improve your Content Creation”.
Go to Canva, choose the Pinterest template, make five individual pages, design them all just a little bit different. Change out your brand colors. Put a photo back there. Maybe change the text a little bit. And then, put different variations of your title on those images.
One could be “Three Tips to Improve your Content Creation.”
One could be “Want to Improve your Content Creation? Read my Three Tips here.”
Another one could be “The Number One Tip You Need to Know About Utilizing Tools to Improve your Content Creation.”
You can change them up.
You can change colors, font, photos, etc, but have at least five different variations.
Then schedule those to release over the first week or two when your blog gets out into the public. You can continue to share them on different boards, etc. This is going to allow you to create fresh content on Pinterest, which is important when it comes to utilizing Pinterest.
Again, check out Brandmerry Academy for the complete training.
MARKETING STEP #6: VIDEO
Now, number six is where you get to incorporate video. This is where social media does come into play just a little bit, but we're focused on using video rather than just static content, which will allow you to reach more people because these platforms love video.
Now, you don't necessarily have to do videos on Instagram or Facebook.
You could use YouTube as well, but hey, if you're creating the video, why not put it out there on a bunch of different platforms so you make sure that you get in front of your ideal customer?
Video could look like Mondays with Michelle, which is an entire video that I record that I put on Facebook and Instagram every single week. Video could look like using Instagram stories, because those work incredibly well for moving people through the buying process, building trust, and leading them to the sale. It could also be live videos on a platform of your choosing.
Let's not forget our friends' Instagram Reels or TikTok, these short-form videos that are highly educating and highly entertaining do well, and these platforms love to push these types of videos out.
So, no matter what you're doing in your business, no matter what feels good for you, figure out a way to incorporate video at this stage so that you can start to build that know, like, and trust factor with your audience.
MARKETING STEP #7: KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
And then finally, number seven is to figure out and design your weekly touch base with your growing audience.
Now, if you remember back to number two where we talked about your lead magnet, it's important that if you're growing this email list that you are emailing them, and not just when you want to sell something.
Email them and let them know what's happening regularly.
We tend to, as marketers think that everyone sees our content the first time that we put it out there, but that's just not true. You want to make sure that you're getting in front of your audience and that we're hitting them wherever they are.
Our audience is busy, they’ve got a lot going on and they've got a lot of information coming their way. So if someone has said, "Yes, I want to hear from you," on your email list, do yourself a solid and email them.
This could be focusing on emailing your list every single week when you release your new blog.
It could be making sure that you share your new video every single week via email.
If you've got a podcast episode, sharing that every week.
Remember, you're creating new content every week so you can just email your audience about that. And then, if it feels good to, you can always take it a step further and include additional story or additional resources to email and stay in contact with your audience multiple times a week.
But, the bare minimum is once a week. That's what we believe over here. Highly, highly recommended to keep a strong and healthy email list.
CONCLUSION
Those are the seven pieces of a solid marketing strategy. You want to have these core pieces in place and then every day focus on taking three important actions: Growing your email list, nurturing your existing email list, and working on making a sale.
Watch this video on Youtube where I dive into a deeper strategy about these 3 daily marketing moves.
That is the seven-part marketing strategy that I want you to steal which will allow you to show up daily to attract new customers with ease.
Roll these out phase by phase. You want to have one, two, and three, ready to go for your systems.
Then your blog and start to integrate Pinterest.
Remember, you don't have to do it all at once. Think about it in phases as it will make it much more manageable.
And, again, if you want support with every single part of this process plus more, because there's a lot when it comes to marketing your business, we believe in simplifying it inside of the Academy.
Head to brandmerry.com/academy to get signed up before doors close.
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.