on branding

I know branding can be a scary word. You might think branding is only for large companies or people who make a fancy logo. Yes, it’s true large companies spend millions on branding, BUT, this word is also for us little guys trying to stand out in the crowd.

Branding isn’t a scary word, its a very necessary word if you’re trying to sell something with online marketing.

Your branding is YOU. Its how you conduct yourself and your business. Its how you talk, how you post on social media, and how you portray your business in every way.

Your branding is just as personal to you as your WHY – which I talk about in the post Knowing Your Why here. If you haven’t read this post read it first!

When you’re selling something you’re creating a brand whether you’re trying to or not. So if your brand is being created anyway, let’s make sure you’re creating a GOOD BRAND that can HELP you and not hurt you. Let’s make sure you’re brand is exactly what you want it to be by being intentional. That way your brand can WORK for you by helping you Increase Your Sales – which is the ultimate goal right?

There are two important things that make a brand and I’m going to cover each one of them.

They are:

Look & Feel and Personality

Look & Feel

When I ask you to describe these images, how would you describe them to me? Are they different?

They all have plants – so what makes them different?

It’s the Look & Feel of the picture right? The first one is inside, it has a dreamy modern vibe. The forest picture has a lost-in-the-woods vibe, more of an outdoorsy feel. And the last one? It has a beachy vibe, a sunshine and no worries feel.

All of the pictures have the same colors, they all even have plants, but they all have a different look and a different feeling.

When you think of your business, and your WHY – what kind of feeling to you want to give people? This is important for your branding.

The feeling is just as critical as the WHY. Do you want to make people feel confident? Do you want to encourage them? Do you want them to feel anxious so they buy your product out of need? Do you want them to feel inspired to try what you are selling? Do you want them to be excited or pumped up?

When I did my marketing campaign for my Mystery Suspense Novel, I wanted people to feel curious. I wanted them to get a sense of mystery and danger so they would want to read the book and discover the answers to dark secrets. Do these images below give you that feeling?

Once you have your feeling, you can determine your LOOK. What colors correspond with your feeling? Pick THREE.

Three colors to go with your feeling. Here are some examples:

Excited: bright colors like yellow, pink, orange, bright blue

Pumped Up: orange, purple, green

Peaceful: pale shades of white, blue, and green

You get the point. People associate colors to feelings, so pick your feeling and then pick your colors.

This is very personal! Don’t think about what other people might want to see. Think about what YOU like to see. Remember people are buying YOU, they are not buying your WHAT. They want to see you and what YOU like, that’s what makes you unique, and that’s what will help you stand out from the crowd.

To help create your brand its very useful to use images in your marketing on social media. These images will help you communicate your Look & Feel.

I like to use Canva.com to pick images. It’s free and has tons of options!

Let’s do an exercise now to get you started on your brand imaging.

On Canva.com chose Create a Design.
Choose Instagram Post.
Chose Elements from the tool bar on the left, and then search Photos. Search anything that might pertain to your business.
Then pick a FREE photo that you like most and drag it over to your blank image card.
Click Download and call it Branding #1.
Now do this Two more times.

What do your images have in common? Do they have the same colors, or maybe the same vibe?

This will give you a very good indication of what YOU like to see.

Here are my three:

Do these look familiar? Do they look like me? These are my branding photos that I use for my social media. These are my Look & Feel.

Personality

The fun part about branding is you get to use your very own personality to create your very own brand. When you look at your Website, your social media, or anything about your business – your personality should be jumping off the pages.

Think of three things about your personality that you like. Maybe your witty or maybe your really funny. Maybe you’re not funny at all, but instead you’re very businesslike and serious. Maybe you were a cheerleader and you’re very encouraging. Maybe you’re Type A and you like Power Point Presentations (like me!)

Whatever it is, your personality is very important to your brand. This is how you’re going to communicate about your business. This is how people are going to think of you when they hear your name, or when they see you’re posts.

If one of your posts is serious, and the next one is funny, you’re going to confuse people.

A confusing brand is a bad brand.

Pick your personality traits that feel most authentic to you, and stick with those every time.

My three are this:

Encouraging, humble, & excited! (I will use clappy hands, exclamation points, and smiley faces every chance I get!)

A great resource in Branding is Marketing Entrepreneur Jenna Kutcher.

If you haven’t heard of Jenna Kutcher – I want you to follow her on Instagram immediately. Jenna Kutcher is a wedding photographer turned marketing entrepreneur. She knows online marketing and is a great resource to growing your online business. I would recommend her podcast Goal Digger to add to your knowledge arsenal.

I took Jenna’s FREE Instagram Masterclass and it was so helpful. She offer’s great branding techniques and my favorite technique that she offers goes along with this topic of Personality. Jenna says to pick three things that you love and add these to your social media content.

Maybe you have an obsession with squirrels? Maybe your obsession is calendars? Or even hiking?

Whatever they are, pick three things that make you special, and talk about them in your content. If someone says squirrel, they should think of YOU.

My three things are this:

My love of my cats, love of movies, and my family.

When you think of CATS, I hope you think of me. When you think of someone to ask about a movie, I hope you think, “I bet I could ask Tiffani.”

Why is this important? Because I want you to remember me. I want to be at the top of your head, and if you know I like cats, you also know I wrote a book, and you also know I talk about marketing and encouraging women.

Jenna Kutcher is phenomenal at this. Be sure to check out her Free Masterclass but also follow her on social, and listen to her podcast. She also has a ton of FREEBIES on her Website that are worth checking out.

Consistency

Why branding is important – people need to remember you.

By using branding consistently your audience will remember what you do and they will buy from you.

If your audience is walking down the road one day and they decide that today is the day they need to buy some Essential Oils – you want them to think of YOUR NAME.

By ALWAYS having the same Look & Feel, by ALWAYS portraying the same personality, and by ALWAYS showing up the same way in your business, you will train your audience to know what to expect from you.

This is your BRAND.

This is your package.

The ONLY way your brand will be effective is if you’re consistent. The more you flip flop around, the more you will lose your audience.

Consistency is in the details – the same FONT, COLORS, IMAGES, WORDS – everything! Even if you’re posting an InstaStory – be sure to use the same font every time. Use the same colors. Use the same songs.

Be consistent on ALL social media platforms. You want to post the SAME images on Facebook that you do on Instagram and your Website.

The more consistent you can be the more your brand will stand out from other people.

A good indication if you have a brand or not is your Instagram Grid.

Look at the first NINE tiles of your grid and ask yourself this – are they consistent?

Let’s look at Jenna Kutcher’s below. Is her brand jumping off the page?

You can see her brand right?

Let’s take a look at mine:

Can you see the consistency? Can you see my Look & Feel? Can you see my personality?

Now take a look at your Instagram Grid. Where are some areas of improvement? What can you add in right now to create your brand?

I use a very helpful app when planning my Instagram Grid called Plann. This app allows you to add photos to your grid to see how they are going to look once you post them. Check it out!

Branding is not scary friends. Its easy and effective, and I know you can do it!

I can’t wait to talk more about Branding with you! What questions do you have? How can I help you?