How can you capture your ideal clients’ attention? With a powerful Signature Brand!
Today’s the big day – the launch of your new business.
Your website is live; your business cards are printed; all of your social media profiles have been set up; and you’ve even attended a few networking events over the last few weeks to tell people about your exciting launch.
Feeling proud of what you have accomplished, you push a few buttons to send out your tweet to direct people to your sales page, you sit back and wait for the telephone to ring and your inbox to be flooded with emails from prospects wanting to hire you.
But, the opposite happens.
Weeks (or even months) have gone by yet despite all of the social media marketing and networking you’re doing, while there’s interest from the people you’re connecting with – people are just not handing you their credit card details to invest.
Or, they baulk at your prices and are never to be heard from again.
So what’s gone wrong?
You did everything the “Start Your Own Business” manuals told you to do.
Unfortunately this is one of the things I see time and again – service-based business with amazing services and products, struggling to convert prospects into customers.
Here are some of the common reasons why:
Recognise any?
- They haven’t distinguished their services from their competitors and are not showing compelling reasons why a prospect should hire them.
- Their message is not connecting with the emotions of their ideal clients.
- They aren’t positioning themselves as an authority in their field.
- They’re attracting the wrong sort of client who expects them to work for free or provide way too much time/resources than what they have paid for.
- They struggle to create a powerful introduction/tag line and fail to seize the interest and opportunity to speak further (both in person and online) to their target market.
- They’ve introduced themselves however people are still struggling to understand the value they offer because their introduction is too broad, has too many concepts, or includes language that is wishy-washy or filled with jargon. They are confusing their prospects and confused people say ‘no’.
In essence, they haven’t taken the time to identify and build their Signature Brand, which should provide a strong message that speaks to all of these areas.
What about you?
Do you have a Signature Brand that speaks directly to the needs of your niche/target market? A Signature Brand that continues to position you as a specialist in your field, and also incorporates that special element that prospects select ‘you’ rather than your competitors?
Hopefully you’ve answered ‘yes’ and are attracting a steady flow of ideal clients to your door.
However, if you’re not yet at that stage, but would like to be, here are 5 steps you need to take to develop your client-capturing and income-generating Signature Brand:
Step 1 to a powerful Signature Brand:
Define your Brand Attributes; your characteristics, unique qualities; your quirkiness.
Step 2 to a powerful Signature Brand:
Make a list of your Brand Strengths; your gifts and talents. The things you are naturally good at.
Step 3 to a powerful Signature Brand:
Define your Brand Promise; the experience people can expect when working with you. It’s what you guarantee them, time and again when working with you.
Step 4 to a powerful Signature Brand:
[This is my favourite step in the process where you breathe life and soul into your brand]. It’s your Brand Essence; and your Brand Story.
I use the Branding with Archetypes system to define a person’s Brand Essence.
I am the Explorer (Primary Archetype) / Ruler (Influencing Archetype) and continue to weave elements of my brand in all my messages.
Throughout my writing; in the banner at the top of my website; in the way I craft the titles to my packages and programs; and in the way I show up in my events.
I speak more about how and why I do this in my Brand Story.
Step 5 to a powerful Signature Brand:
Put these elements together, tweak and refine until the message and each of the elements you create are authentic and ‘fit’ with who you are.
That’s your Signature Brand.
And remember, make sure you incorporate elements of your Signature Brand throughout all of your marketing and communications so that you speak directly to your target market, and continue to confirm why they should hire you.
What do you think – was this helpful? Do you think it’s important to have a Signature Brand, or not?
Feel free to leave your thoughts. It’s always great to hear from you.
Till next time – stay inspired!!
Thank you for sharing Annemarie! Excellent ‘5 Step Process to powerful Signature Brand’! …Hughie
My pleasure Hughie – great to hear you found the steps helpful!
Very interesting article; we need to have ONE voice in every area where we show up, whether on social media or on our blog. Be aware that we don’t confuse people with who we are and what we are bringing to the table. Thanks!
My pleasure Olga. Having one voice across all your communication channels is very important. That consistency is what will attract and keep your prospects attention so that you can continue to nurture that prospect into a client.
So true! love all of these tips, especially the brand “promise” cool way of looking at it!
Thanks McKenna – glad you liked the reference to the Brand Promise. So very important.
Being a newbie to online business I really appreciate the way you have so clearly explained the importance of branding and ways to accomplish this. Thank you so very much!
You’re very welcome Denny. Glad you found the steps helpful!
Thanks Annemarie, this post resonates a lot with me. Over the past year I have been fine tuning my message and voice to be in alignment, so it’s great to know that I’m on track. I’ll be looking forward to your next nugget. Cheers!
Excellent – glad to hear your voice and message is aligned. Very important and often something business owners don’t think about. Great to hear you are doing this!
What a great post Annemarie, very thought provoking. Internal reflection is always hard to do, so I am glad you are here to remind us to reflect on our message and that you show us how to do it.
Sherry
Thanks Sherry – yes, internal reflection can be difficult. And, we don’t always recognize our gifts and strengths. A great reminder for us all.
Wow – great great information – I will use this information to strengthen my brand, my name, and my business.
Thanks so much!!
Thanks Wendy – glad you found this helpful and will continue to use these strategies to strengthen you brand, name and business. Very important if you want to continue building you credibility as an expert – which of course you are!
Hi Annemarie,
This is a message that startup entrepreneurs and small business owners cannot hear too many times! Just because you set up a website and tell a few people about it does not mean that your Inbox and voicemail are going to be flooded with orders! Although it is possible to break the startup and brand-building process into steps, as you have done here, it’s daunting for those new to the game to head down that path alone. The numerous variables and the feeling of “what do I do next” can be overwhelming. Working with a coach such as yourself and/or following a proven system can help the startup entrepreneur build confidence and the knowledge necessary to grow a successful business.
Thanks for an excellent article and great ideas, as always.
Paul
Thanks Paul, absolutely. This can be something that confuses many entrepreneurs, as well as discovering and defining your niche – another vital step a business owner needs to take. It’s amazing how rapidly a business is able to position themselves as an authority in their field once they have built a solid Signature Brand and Brand Message which is portrayed throughout all their communications, so that they become irresistible to their niche! The magic formula!
Great insight!
You shared awesome tools to get your brand on track.
Thanks,
AJ
Thanks AJ, glad you enjoyed the article.
I love the those all 5 steps above great to provided and tweak so much over times will not be a benefit to it and just letting people know you are promoting products.
Thanks for stopping by Ferb WL; glad you enjoyed the article.
Fantastic post! It is very important to stop and make sure you are on the right track but what a fantastic problem to have; loving your industry so much that you find yourself taking on too much. I mean, even that can be dangerous but there are worse problems to have. Keep us the great work.
C
Thanks Colby, glad you enjoyed the article. Loving what you do is an awesome place to be in!
The article was easy to understand and clear. I have no problems reading it over and over.
Glad you found it easy to understand Jenny. Having a Signature Brand is so important and a positive step in the right direction to getting paid what you’re worth!