By: Tina Walczak & Cam Schreiner
Today we are going to discuss how to brand your business. We were inspired this week by Conar’s story. Conar (@conarfair) moved to Kelowna about a year ago from Vancouver and is a great nature photographer and videographer. He is currently trying to find more work and leads within the Kelowna Market, but has not honed in on his brand.
In order to hone Conor’s brand, we ask ourselves, what value does he bring to those looking for these services?
Successful Branding Adds Value
This is a great branding exercise: people buy products, services, and brands because of one thing – They add value to their lives. And how do you find out if a person obtains value from you? You simply ask them.
Everything we produce for you is based on what you are asking for. Since most of you want more leads, Cam and I are going to give you a couple of strategies on how to learn what people are looking for, and how this can help you sell your brand.
How to Brand your Business: Brand Strategy
Let’s start off simple.
ASK. Make several posts on your channels simply asking your audience what they are struggling with in terms of their business. For example, if you run a video business, you would ask your audience, struggling with video content? Or do you use video to promote your business?
Instagram has this amazing tool where you can create polls and see when people respond. Say you get 13 people who say yes, and 50 people who say no… Now you have a warm lead. You can message both people, starting off with the yes people and say something like, “that’s awesome you are focused on video to help promote your business! What do you guys currently do?“
They might respond, “We currently run video ads.” Or they might say, “we have run a few video campaigns, but nothing too crazy.” You can then respond with, “awesome, did you have success, and do you plan to do more in the future?” Are you getting what I’m putting down?
Successful Brands: Brand Strategy
Look at success stories in the space you are trying to break into. If you are a Photographer or Videographer, like Conar, look to the people you want to connect with and find out what is attracting their eyeballs. For him, he takes a lot of nature and outdoor photography. So what is a success story in that field and how can he emulate that, but with his own spin? Everyone could be given the same tools and subject, but taking a completely different approach based on their own experiences and the way they see the world is what will set you apart.
There is a book I love which is called Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, and what he states is that if you pick 5 people you admire and emulate the thought behind what they do (not what they’ve done.. But the THOUGHT behind it!) you become a unique version of their success. By approaching it this way, you aren’t closely copying one style too closely. Plus, through the process of this, you make a unique style of your own! This is one step closer to forming your brand.
Brand Strategy: Connecting with Your Audience
Hiilite has been recognized as a Top 25 Enterprise Logo Design & Branding Agency on DesignRush. A driver of our success has been creating personal connections in the branding process. People remember how you make them feel. Go out, meet people, have them over for dinner or out for coffee! Later on, they may reach out to you. This isn’t just building your identity, it’s building your brand awareness and building on the feeling you give when people think of you and of your personal brand.
Ok, I hope you guys now realize that branding your business is more than just how you look. How you look is just a small part of it, and if you are curious and want to learn more about branding reach out to us, we would love to have a conversation with you.
