Part Two: Building a Brand Strategy
Welcome to part two of our four part series – Ultimate Guide to Creating a Professional Brand.
If you are just popping in and haven’t checked out Part 1 yet, you can take a look here! In it, we covered the importance of building a strong foundation for your brand!
A brand strategy is a plan for how you will create your brand, and having this in place will make the next steps so much easier!
With your business niche, starting off small and narrow will help keep you ahead of the game in your industry.
We all know how overwhelming this process can be, so take it easy on yourself, and allow time for both you and your business to adjust.
Doing so, will not only allow you to become an expert in your niche, but also make sure that you have a clear focus!
1. Business Niche
When you are tackling your business niche, it is important to identify your industry (what you’re doing, creating, and selling) and your expertise.
That’s why – in the beginning especially – it’s so important to start off tight and narrow.
I find, taking a look at other businesses About pages gives a really great insight into how to develop a niche. You can take a peek at ours here, and notice how we very clearly state our audience and what we provide? That’s our Business Niche!
A clean and concise niche will not only communicate with your audience more clearly, but it will also give you the opportunity to master it and become an expert in what you are offering.
2. Your Audience
Identifying your audience is an often overlooked step, but it’s just as important as any of the others.
You need to have a clear understanding of who you are targeting.
What age demographic?
Are they exclusively new entrepreneurs?
Do you only want to work with small businesses?
Are people mainly interacting with your brand on your website, in person, in print, or in a physical or digital marketplace?
If people are mainly visiting you on your own site, a softer, muted color palette and logo might work. If you mainly connect with people in a marketplace, you might need something a little bolder to capture interest.
You also need to consider the type of feelings you want to invoke in people. Do you want to get them fired up, excited, or motivated? Or perhaps create a feeling of calm and peacefulness?
Of course, it’s impossible to know all of these answers and stats when you are first starting out or have a firm control over them.
But it’s important to really narrow the field.
If you try and catch everyone in your net, you’re just going to overwhelm yourself trying to cater to all of their needs.
Putting in the time to research your target audience is really going to help you out.
3. The Community
Once you know your target audience, it’s time to engage with them!
Engaging with your audience through social media or a newsletter helps build a sense of trust and build a relationship.
This genuine approach is super beneficial to the overall success of your business.
Take time to respond to comments on your blog or social media. Don’t ignore people who are willing to engage with you!
Join other likeminded groups, and comment on others’ posts. Make online friends with people who have similar interests and values.
Luckily, there are tons of fantastic women who are experts on this topic. Carla Biesinger created an amazing course called The Scale Up Club, teaching entrepreneurs how to grow their Instagram account but she also gives you the tools to break out of your fears.
As an introvert, I know this can be hard, but it’s really important to build these types of relationships.
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10. Your Competitors
This is pretty straightforward.
Do your research and determine the competitors in your field, then identify what makes you different. Hone in on this!
Learning from your competitors is also a great way to stay relevant, but don’t get overly distracted or concerned with what others are doing.
Remember to stay true to your brand and your voice.
At the end of the day, there is only one you. This is what is going to set your business apart.
At this point, you should be getting a better understanding of how to build up a strong base for your business. Which is amazing!
In part three, we are going to discuss the fun parts ( well for me at least!) with a dive deep into your brand design!
See you there!
