As a brand and marketing strategist, I'm constantly talking about the power of a brand story and -- how your brand can sell for you, Female Entrepreneur.
(Which is well, amazing, because who wants to feel salesey, right!? Not this big-hearted, INFJ, enneagram 1 wing 9, introvert, that's for sure).
But sometimes I know my stuff like the way you know your fave dark chocolate chip cookie with sea salt recipe, and forget to start from the beginning when I teach… what really IS a brand?
And why does it matter?
Here's my quick and quirky overview...
Our brand isn’t something we create exactly — it’s not our logo or our colors...
It’s actually whatever people THINK & FEEL when they experience our company.
Kinda weird, right?
It’s what other people perceive.
That’s our brand. It’s a little less tangible than we’d probably like.
But here's the thing — while we can’t control exactly what people think or feel, we CAN put together the right puzzle pieces to beautifully persuade them to think & feel a certain way about our company.
But since we know our company the best… sometimes we’re accidentally, well, holding back. Or confusing people. Or selling ourselves short through only getting out part of our messaging.
Sharing a mis-matched story really. And what a missed opportunity that is, wouldn’t you agree?
So to communicate beautifully, artfully, and in a way that gets the attention of our exact perfect audience, we need to curate a brand story with intention.
To do this, we can work backward:
💙 What do you WANT to make people think or feel when they experience your company?
💙 What feelings are going to make them buy?
💙 And what wording, visuals, colors, images, customer service acts are going to make them feel that way?
And then after we go through that process, ask ourselves a next-level question: >>>
💙 Are there gaps in this puzzle we’re putting together? Are some of our pieces mis-matched?
We might think we’re sending out one signal, but our audience is seeing holes -- or even feeling like we’re using pieces from more than one puzzle.
So I'm gonna just leave you with that for today…
...our brand is what people feel and experience.
Our BRAND STORY is what we get to cultivate.
And it's our job to think carefully about what puzzle pieces we want to USE to try to make them feel a certain way through the power of that brand story.
Because at the end of the day we're trying to help them BUY -- so we can serve them well, with our product or service!
And building out a brand story isn’t an option… it’s a MUST if you want to easily draw the attention of the people you want to serve online.
Which is why we love helping women like you do just that, through our brand & marketing incubator program The Small Business Bay.
