4 Great Branding Tips From a Female Business Coach

4 Great Branding Tips From a Female Business Coach

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

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Branding is hard, there I said it! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s get into it!

1. Tapping into Your Story

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

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

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

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

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

Additional resources:

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

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

2. Emotional Branding

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

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

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

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

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

Additional resources: 

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

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

3. Clear Communication and Messaging

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Additional Resource:

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

4. Create a Sensory Brand Experience

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

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

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

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

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

Actionable Step: 

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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How to Use Social Media for Personal Branding

How to Use Social Media for Personal Branding

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Personal branding is more important today than ever, thanks to social media.

The reality is if you’re not focused on creating your personal brand, others will do it for you. And for those of you selling a service or product, that means it’s your reputation and therefore you're livelihood.

I love this quote from marketing guru Seth Godin, that I believe explains branding perfectly.

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer's decision to choose one product or service over another.”

So how do we do it?
How do we use social media for personal branding?

That’s exactly what today’s post is about.

Before we dive into the content I want to make sure you’ve done the work. If you haven’t set the foundation for your brand nothing I share below will matter. The reality is you need to understand your brand as a whole before you can add the vehicle that is social media.

If you’re just at the beginning or need a brand refresher, be sure to check out my free masterclass on The Build a Better Brand Method. Sign up here.

Ok, assuming if you’re still reading you’re ready to master social media for brand awareness than these five steps are for you.

1. Personal Branding Tip #1:
Share Your Story on Social Media

There is no better way to tell people the memories and stories of your brand than through social media. How lucky are we today that we have this free tool at our fingertips to attract our dream clients?

Yet, so many brands are missing this crucial step...storytelling. The reality is when you incorporate storytelling into your content on social media you’re posts are 22x more memorable to your audience.

Since, we now have the attention spans of goldfish, this is an important piece! You want your audience to remember you and nothing does this better than story.

Actionable Step: Include micro stories into your social media content. These can be as few as 1-2 sentences that you interweave into your content that tell a story. Paint a picture for your audience and invite them in by using the power of story.

2. Personal Branding Tip #2:
Position Yourself as an Expert

The first step is to nail down your niche. If you don’t know what you do or what you specialize in, no one else will as well #truth.

I know it stings, but I see so many entrepreneurs showing up on social media, looking to create brand awareness when they lack awareness about their own niche. Take the time to nail down your niche so you can carve out your own little place in the market.

Actionable Step: Share your expertise within your content for social media. Create videos and posts that share very specific tips and tools for your audience to get them closer to their desire.

For instance, I can share tips on storytelling on social media for my audience. This not only positions me as an expert, it gives my audience valuable information and carves out a very specific niche I desire to create, “brand storytelling.”

3. Personal Branding Tip #3:
Invite Others into Your Mission

A very powerful part of the branding process is identifying your mission. 

I worked for almost ten years in various nonprofits and have such a love for the work they do in the world, but one of my favorite parts is actually “why” they were created.

Every nonprofit needs a mission and they use that to tie everything together. It’s such a  powerful and beautiful piece that they use to build community.

More brands and businesses need to focus on this piece. You can use your brand mission to connect your community, bring people in for a bigger purpose and create an audience of people who are invested in your long-term vision.

Actionable Step: Create a mission statement for your brand. For example, my mission is:

“To empower more women to uncover and own their story and share their authentic voice with the world through their brand and business.”

4. Personal Branding Tip #4:
Connect Deeper with Your Audience

Brand emotions are powerful. If you have no idea how impactful they can be, be sure to check out this post here.

The idea behind brand emotions is that you connect on a deeper level with your audience, pulling them in and making them feel something when they think of your brand. 

This is important because people buy based on emotion! If your brand is lacking emotion, my guess it’s lacking a community and sales.

Using social media, you can play to these emotions by including them in your content, your images, your stories and more. 

Actionable Step: Read this blog and then identify 5 emotions you want your brand to portray for your audience.

5. Personal Branding Tip #5:
Create Better Connection through Content

Social media only works if your content is relevant and irresistible to your audience. In order to do this I follow the 2 L’s: Look and Listen.

Seriously, people tell you exactly what they want you to create content around, if you’re willing to pay attention. Carve out time on social media to look at other brands and influencers in your space and see what people are asking of them. Then create content around that to grow your own tribe.

In addition, if you have your own community, make it a point to regularly ask them what they would like you to create. Trust me...they will tell you.

Brands that listen to their audience and create content that speaks specifically to their audience create a better connection and trust.

Actionable Step: Schedule 15 minutes every week to brainstorm topic ideas from what you’re seeing online and/or create a poll of questionnaire (I love Insta Stories for this) to survey your audience.

Social media can be one of the greatest assets to build your personal brand if you’re willing to focus on community and fans over follower count.

If you’re ready to take further steps to create your revenue-generating personal brand, be sure to sign up for my free masterclass on The Build a Better Brand Method.

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

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

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

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

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MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

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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.

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Creating Content for Social Media (My Top Tips)

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So you’re constantly searching “How to Create Content for Social Media?” I get it, writing consistent content for your brand can be overwhelming, but oh so necessary. 

And the reality is 78% of consumers believe that companies focused on custom content are more trustworthy than companies who simply churn out generic content.

That’s why creating content isn’t just about showing up consistently and just posting whatever, but rather being super strategic with what you’re posting and where.

I learned this one the hard way. I began my business by just posting anything online as a way to get visible, but the reality hit me really hard when I realized the content I was creating wasn’t actually resulting in growth of my community or sales.

I’ve learned a lot in three years of running my online business and growing my community to over 10,000 women and the four tips I’m sharing with you today are super specific and not tips I’ve previously seen online, so keep reading if you’re ready to freaking stand out on social media.

Content Creation Secrets: What I Wish I Knew in the Beginning

1. It's Really About Quality vs. Quantity

Just like me, I bet you started your business and just focused on quantity. You researched how many times a day or week you should post in order to increase engagement, but turns out this isn’t really the answer. You can post 5 times a day, but if your content isn’t of high-value then it’s not going to matter.

The other reality is that it takes less time, overall, to create quality pieces of content. If you take time to produce quality content, you’ll get more engagement and therefore you’ll create a core piece that can be reused over and over again.

In order to create better quality content, it’s important to have a plan. When you give yourself time to map out your content you’ll be more likely to actually create a high-quality piece over just “posting to post”.

2. Content Creation Comes From Knowing Your Audience 

If you’re struggling to come up with content it’s most likely because you don’t know who you are speaking to. Trust me, I’ve tested it, if you know WHO you’re talking to then you’ll always know what needs to be said. Truly understanding your audience and where they are needing support on their journey is crucial.

This is why I dedicate a big chunk of energy to teaching my clients to truly identify their ideal client and all the nitty gritty details that will support them in creating content that their audience finds engaging. 

One of my top tips is to ask yourself, “What does my audience need in this moment?” and then allow yourself to brainstorm ideas based on what you’re seeing online, what your audience is asking and simple Google search.

3. Identify Your Brand Containers

One of my favorite tools when it comes to content creation and making sure I’m keeping my audience engaged is the use of Brand Containers. Brand Containers are essentially 5-7 themes for your brand that all your content can live under. This allows you to better organize your content, as well as recycle the types of content you are creating. This is a key in keeping your audience engaged.

If you want to learn more about my Brand Containers strategy and receive my content planner, be sure to grab yours here.

4. Using Core Brand Messages to Create Consistent Content

One of my favorite strategies I teach my clients is called Core Brand Messages. The Core Brand Messages framework allows you to create messages for your brand as a whole (streamlined messaging), share your expertise and position the benefit more clearly to your audience.

In addition, by having these unified messages you can consistently come up with content ideas (social media posts) that position you as the expert.

Let’s say one of my Core Brand Messages is, “I support women in uncovering their story to create an authentic brand that allows them to stand out online.”

I could then list out 20-30 topics under this general message. This allows me to create branded content in my zone of genius, plus showcase my expertise and how I support my clients.

80% of consumers say “authenticity of content” is the most influential factor in becoming a follower of a brand. If I’ve learned anything from creating content online it’s that authenticity is key. You not only want to create content that gets in engagement, but is authentic to you and your brand message. 

Core Brand Messages are one of the methods I teach inside my Build a Better Brand Method. Watch the free masterclass to learn the step by step of building a better brand that stands out on social media, how to create quality content for your audience and build a thriving community. Sign up at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass.

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

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

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

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

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How to create great content

PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!

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I know how it feels to spend tons of effort and energy to come up with content for social media, write the post, choose a picture and then hear freaking crickets.

Content is such an integral part of the branding process, it's ultimately how you share your brand and message with the world.

As a result we want your content to not just be good, but GREAT!

Easier said than done, isn't it?! Yes, just like you've I've struggled with creating high-value content for my audience.

What I've found is that in the beginning we're all just creating content to create content. We know we need to post in order for people to find us online and to build brand awareness, but there's no strategy behind it. And this posting to post mentality isn't helping move your brand forward.

Now, I’m not sharing this to get you all nervous and terrified that your content isn’t good enough, what I want to do is challenge the way you create content for your brand.

So, again right now you’re probably just creating content because that’s what you’ve been told to do online. However, your content is not working with engagement, community building or differentiating you from others in your niche.

And the reason it’s not working is that it’s all over the dang place. Your content doesn’t have a clear model in place to work in your favor. Right now it’s just content when what we want is an evergreen brand awareness machine. We want all your content to showcase your brand in the best light. 

Your content should do two things:

1. showcase you and your brand

2. be highly relatable or valuable to your audience.

It’s time to start thinking of content as one of the most for brand expansion.

What you need to make this happen is a strategy! Building a brand isn't just about creating some visuals, taking some photos and posting. It's about strategic content and messaging.

3 Steps to Take:

1. Start With Brand Messages

Start with clear brand messaging (CBM taught to my students)  as a whole, not just an offer or product or something you decided to create today. It’s all about your big-picture brand and not just about the product or service. What does your brand stand for? What do you offer your community/ clients? Why is that important? How does it benefit them?

Clarity on this will allow you to create a unified, cohesive message for your brand that will show up in the content you create.

2. Create Brand Containers

Create content containers (brand containers) for ways to connect with your audience using story, experiences, client behavior and more. Organize your content to keep it fun and interesting. 

Your audience isn’t going to stick around if everything you’re talking about is pitchy or salesy, these are real people. There is a time to do all of the selling, but we want to build trust by sharing different parts of our brand (which is so much more than just your product or service). Your brand should already have values and core pillars, these can become your brand content containers.

3. Organize your content based on your brand and business goals.

It's ongoing you're always wanting to attract new people while keeping existing people engaged, so you need to think of the big picture. Stop throwing content out onto the Internet with no clear plan it isn't helping move your business forward. I recommend always mapping out content for at least 30 days so you can understand how each piece of content connects to or leads to the next.

Content can be one of the best tools to build your brand awareness and ultimately community. It’s about really taking the time to strategically understand content creation, and even deeper than that you need to understand your brand. If you don’t know the core of your brand, the values and essence of what you’re creating and how you want to attract then you’re going to have a hard time connecting the pieces.

My biggest tip for engagement online is paying attention to your brand. Making sure you’ve taken the steps to create a strong core for your brand so that things like social media content, emails, sales pages, etc work the way you want them too. I’m sharing my 3-step method in my free masterclass and you can join us now. 

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

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

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

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

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How to increase your engagement on social media

How to increase your engagement on social media

September 11, 2019

PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO.
SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH A QUICK VIDEO!

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I know how it feels to spend tons of effort and energy to come up with content for social media, write the post, choose a picture and then hear freaking crickets.

I’ve been there too and it’s not a great feeling.

Let’s just remove the stigma around this and make it clear, everyone experiences this! Even established entrepreneurs will have this happen from time to time, but over the years I’ve come to find some core pieces that improve not only my overall engagement, but also conversions.

After all, it’s not just about likes, it’s about sales if you’re running a brand and business, so before we dive into the three tips, let’s talk about engagement. 

Please know that we don’t care about vanity metrics here. Engagement isn’t just about likes and hearts, those are great, but it’s more about comments, direct messages and my personal favorite link clicks. 

All of which you can monitor and I encourage you to pay attention to. So even though your post might not have as many likes as Suzie, please don’t get discouraged, what we care about is true fans and conversions (plus, you can buy likes online so it’s a shady metric).

Tip #1 - Your Brand Messaging

Often times when we start posting content online we’re just “posting to post” and it’s totally not your fault. You’ve been taught that you need to post daily, sometimes multiple times a day, in order to stand out. As a result, we’re just whipping up content without a clear strategy in place - that’s where brand messaging comes in.

You want to create strong Brand Messaging for your brand and business as a whole, BEFORE you start creating content. This is going to allow you to create high-value content for your audience that connects to your brand as a whole. 

For instance, if you take time to create a list of all the things your brand provides your ideal client and how it benefits them (this is huge) then you’ll be able to create content containers and individual content that relates back to that.

For instance, if I know one of my brand messages (a consistent message across all my products and services) is around storytelling and how to use storytelling to standout on social media and create a profitable brand, then I can create storytelling as a container for my brand and create a bunch of ideas under that one thing.

This does so much more than just allows me to create content, it makes sure that everything I create connects to the overall purpose of my brand. Everything goes back to what I do, why I do it and how it benefits my audience.

Having a clear messaging strategy is key when it comes to increasing engagement and views online because it allows you to become known for very specific things, you’ll build a community around it and again it plays on the benefit, so you know that what you’re creating will benefit your audience and as a result they will be more likely to engage.

Tip #2 - Bring Your Story to Life

A fundamental piece of connecting with your audience, which will increase engagement is sharing parts of your story in a relatable way. 

Some of my most engaging content has been when I talk about how I live full time in a trailer, how I work with my son, things we’re doing behind the scenes as a family that travels full-time and that’s because your audience doesn’t just want to be bombarded with sales, pitches and tips and tricks. Sometimes they just want to be inspired or feel like they aren’t alone.

When you start sharing parts of your story it’s important to keep a few things in mind. 

1. Always ask yourself, “Is this valuable to my audience? Why?”

2. Pay attention to your metrics. See what people are responding too and create more content around that.

Tip #3 - Ask for Engagement

Seems so easy doesn’t it? But we often miss this step. If you want people to engage we must give them the opportunity to do so. I know you’re on social all the time, but your audience might not be and they might not instantly think to comment or click or DM. You can simply say things like, “Give me a heart if you agree” “Drop an emoji if you needed this today” “What would you do in this situation?” “What additional tips do you have?” 

Something so simple can make a big difference in inviting your audience to engage with your content.

My biggest tip for engagement online is paying attention to your brand. Making sure you’ve taken the steps to create a strong core for your brand so that things like social media content, emails, sales pages, etc work the way you want them too. I’m sharing my 3-step method in my free masterclass and you can join us now. 

Sign up for The Build a Better Brand Method at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass

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

P.S Don’t forget to join me for my free masterclass at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass

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

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