brittni schroeder
BLOG
Brittni Schroeder Coaching
CREATING AN
AUTHENTIC BRAND STORY
FOR YOUR BUSINESS
We all know how powerful branding is. We spend lots of time and money creating logos, color schemes, tag lines, graphics and more. We strive to have everything we put out to be cohesive and reflective of our brand. But branding goes way beyond graphics and color schemes. The biggest representation of your brand is YOU. You are your brand! Creating an authentic brand story for your business is so essential.
If you are a photographer, an educator, a blogger, a streamer, or any small business trying to make it online, you need a strong brand. Branding is no longer reserved for big names like Apple or Coca-Cola. A personal branding strategy can be the most influential tool for success in your self-marketing toolkit. You need to sell your product or services, but more importantly you need to sell YOURSELF. Once you establish who you are online and create a community, you will see the results in the growth of your business and in your income.
You need a personal branding strategy. Personal branding is much more than just having a great logo or website. These are important, but is more like a collateral to your overall brand.
WHAT IS A PERSONAL BRANDING?
Essentially, personal branding is branding yourself — or building a brand around yourself. An important part of personal branding is developing and maintaining a reputation and an impression of you as a crucial part of your business.
This is critical, because of what we already know about reputation in general: it’s essentially impacted by what other people say about you behind your back. Think of it this way: what would you want your customers to say about you when you’re not in the room?
Why do you need a personal brand?
For three simple reasons: you lead more, you win more, and you earn more. Your customers have to “know, like, and trust” you before they buy from you. And a strong personal brand builds credibility, authority, and trust, so you’re more likely to attract more business.
Having a strong personal brand also helps you connect with your customers. This plays heavily into the “know and like” factor. When you share your story with your customers, those who can relate to it will feel immediate connection to you and, as a result, to your business. And having a polished brand will of course help you feel confident and makes it easier to show up to your customers.
And finally, having a well-thought-out personal brand will make you memorable and marketable in a sense that in the branding process you’ll create different kind of brand assets — some visual and some copy. All this is something you need for marketing. So in the process, you’re making your business and yourself easier to sell and market.
How do you start building a personal brand?
1. Tell your story
For one, we focus on telling your story: your expertise and your experience, your values, and what makes you different and stand out. If you’re a service provider, this is what you’ve likely already been doing. This is nothing new to you.
But if you sell products, this might be a bit more foreign to you. You may have gotten used to talking mostly about your products instead of yourself. But everyone has a story to tell, and especially if the products you sell are designed or made by you, you are likely going to have a very interesting story.
In any case, I highly recommend you build a personal brand, because people best relate to other people. And building your authority and telling your story, as it relates to the story of your products, is a very powerful way to connect with your customers.
2. Professional Photography
A part of the process is also building the visual brand. There are many visual assets that goes into this part, for example your logo and colors, and so on.
But, hands down, the most powerful visual branding element you can have are photos of yourself. You can’t build a personal brand without fully “showing up.” Your customer needs to know who’s talking to them, they need to know the face of the brand.
Photography is a very powerful tool for telling your story. In addition to using photos of yourself, you can also occasionally include photos of your significant other or your kids or dogs and so on — anything that helps you tell your story as it relates to your brand.
3. Share your wisdom
Your personal brand is also about building authority, so that your potential customers can begin to see you as an expert. When they trust you’re an expert in whatever it is that you’re selling, they’re more likely to listen to you and buy from you.
One of the best ways to build authority is to share your knowledge on the topic of your expertise. This might happen through a blog, a podcast, or a YouTube video show. Again, for a service provider this may come more naturally, because they’re often more used to discussing themselves and their expertise.
But for those who sell products — handmade or otherwise — creating content around these products might feel more challenging. But it doesn’t have to be!
Essentially, you just need to figure out what your customers have to understand and believe in order to realize they need your product. Let me give you a concrete example of this.
4. Curate your image
Through your personal brand, you have the opportunity and duty to curate your image. Only share things that are relevant to your brand and your business.
There’s definitely the risk of oversharing. And for different brands it looks different. It all depends who your ideal customer is and what they would consider oversharing.
If you’re unsure, ask yourself: why would anyone care? If you can answer that, and you know why your ideal customer would care about your hemorrhoids, then by all means: share away. That might just be the connection your customer needed.
5 – Know your Superpowers
Get clear on your personal strengths, talents, values and core area of expertise. What are your strengths? What is something unique about you? Figure out how to connect best with your target audience. Consider what does your audience want and need. What can you give them that brings value? Talk to your audience like they are your friends, speak their language. Recognize and acknowledge your superpowers and advantage that will give you an edge in your industry. Ask yourself the following questions:
What experiences are unique to you?
What skills do you have that benefit others?
What talent comes naturally to you?
What knowledge have you acquired through books, mentors, courses, etc?
What traits are unique to you?
What connections do you have that others might not?
What’s an interest or quirk about you that people might find interesting?
Look a little deeper to identify your super powers. Don’t just go with the obvious ones like I am organized or I am good at what I do. Identify the things that make you, you. If you have a hard time figuring out what your superpowers are ask your friends and family. Ask them what it is about you that they love this most. This is a great way to identify your superpowers and also a self- confidence builder.
Your personal branding is about having self-awareness of your strengths and talents, and letting others know about your knowledge and experience. Clearly establish why you are better than your competition. Recognize why are you different and unique and why your audience needs you to help them.
