For small business owners, building a strong brand identity presents itself as a unique challenge. In the business coaching niche specifically, there’s tons of competition competing for the same or similar audience. Everyone's an expert.
How can you set yourself apart from the pack? Really, it boils down your digital footprint and brand voice. Last week, we talked about how to get more clients for your coaching business. Let's discuss how you can attract paying clients in the first place.
1. Defining Your Brand
We know how important it is to communicate to our ideal clients. Our brand should be shaped around them. Everything - from our voice, language, and visuals, we should constantly be appealing to our target audience.
2. What Does Your Brand Stand For?
If we don’t have a clear “why” we’re going into business, we’re doomed to fail. When building your brand identity, you should ask yourself:
What does my brand stand for?
What do I value in and as a brand?
What Am I offering that sets me apart from my competitors?
By taking the time to really ask ourselves these questions, this will help you position your brand from the rest.
3. Develop Your Brand Personality
Your brand personality should align with your target demographic. What attracts your ideal customers? What are they looking for when wanting to invest in your specific coaching? Your messaging should be clear and consistent.
4. Design a Strong Visual Brand
This is where a lot of entrepreneurs let loose and allow the creative process to take over! When developing a strong visual brand, know everything from:
The font you’ll use.
Your color scheme.
Logo (if you should use one).
Images.
Whatever social media platforms you use, these four components should be easily identifiable across all of them. They should also be consistent with your website, if you have one. For some reason, small business owners tend to overlook this.
5. Establish Brand Guidelines
Create a set of brand guidelines that dictate how your brand should be represented across all platforms. This will help with consistency. Also, it’s important to have a game plan if you were to ever face a PR problem.
Of course, we hope to avoid this at all costs, but it’s good preparation to know the steps we should take in case we were to face one.
6. Create a Brand Story
Dive even deeper into your “why.” Your brand story could be the missing puzzle piece of why your not getting a lot of inquiries or engagement on your posts. Develop a narrative that tells the story of your brand and communicate its values to your target audience. This can include:
Your brand’s history.
Your mission.
Your vision for the future.
7. Engage With Your Audience
When you post to social media, take the time to like and respond to comments. As a small business, you have the advantage of being both more personable and approachable. Let your followers know that they are leaving comments on a real person's business page. Not some big corporation. This will help build loyalty around your brand and increase awareness.
By consistently communicating your brand message, you can build a strong brand identity that resonates with your target audience and helps you stand out from the crowded marketplace.
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