How to Brand Yourself
As a business owner, your brand is everything. Your brand communicates who you are, who you serve, and how you do it uniquely. With more businesses than ever opening and competing in crowded markets, you can’t afford to rush the process of defining your brand. In this blog, you’ll learn more about what it looks like to brand and how to start at the very basic level.
Decide Your Purpose and Premise
Your purpose and premise are the cornerstones of your brand. It will be difficult to commit to any other aspects of your brand until you’re crystal clear about your goals. Your business and offerings are the vehicles through which you accomplish these, so pin down your purpose and premise first.
Here are a few ways to get started thinking about your brand purpose and premise:
· What would a “big win” look like for you? Serving a certain number of people? Achieving world class status in your customer service? Providing a unique service or product in a way that competitors would struggle to ever measure up to?
· Who do you serve? And, more importantly, who don’t you serve? Remember that you cannot please everyone and everyone is not your customer. If you’re struggling to figure out who you do serve, start with the exclusionary list of those you don’t want to serve.
· What is unique about you and your offerings? Even if you don’t have competition now, you will in the future. What are the 1-2 things you want to hold dear to your company and keep front and center? You can strive to be good at many things, but being great at a few will keep you and your team poised to succeed.
If you’re still stuck on your personal brand, start by brainstorming a list of three adjectives that you would use to describe you and your approach. You can see how these examples below all speak to different brands and styles and would therefore attract a different ideal client:
· Spunky, eclectic, and free form (Such as a jewelry artist)
· Professional, serious, and caring (Like a lawyer)
· Focused, considerate, strategic (Like a manager)
What three words describe you and your brand?
Now that you have a basic idea of your purpose and premise, it’s time to think logistics with your personal brand.
Branching Out into a Personal Brand
A personal brand is infused into everything you do. It also refers to the name, colors, fonts, and logos you use across the board. When your brand is consistent both in terms of these important details and in the overall perspective you bring forth, it’s easier for potential customers and clients to connect with you.
One of the best things you can do when it comes to the actual collateral of your brand is to work with an experienced designer. Designers have an eye for colors, fonts, and schemes that can reflect your brand overall.
You will need to give directions to your designer so they understand your likes and dislikes. You’ll avoid a lot of pain and problems in the revision stage if you can document this information for the designer up front.
You can also share brands you like or dislike with them and examples of logos or other styles you’d like them to keep in mind. If you did the exercises above where you mapped out what makes you unique or the words you’d use to describe your brand, share these directly with your designer, too.
When you’re creating a brand, make sure that you feel confident your brand effectively communicates what you’re all about quickly and clearly. Your brand colors, logo, and fonts will follow you for years to come, so pick ones you’re really happy with!