Are you anxious about your marketing? Do you wake up in a cold sweat wondering if the new lead gen system or marketing platform you just signed up for will bring you actual living, breathing clients…or just become a dead end like all the others?
Failure in marketing is among the top three biggest nightmares for most entrepreneurs. And sadly, it sends many of you right back to a nine-to-five grind. Why? It’s because you’re spraying and praying. You’re sending marketing communications to as many people as possible and hoping it motivates some of them to buy your product. You don’t have any metrics or goals in place.
Your brand can change that for you. Here are five things you must have to turn your spray and pray marketing strategy into a lean, mean marketing machine.
A Different and Compelling Brand Story
There is only one you. And you have a story that explains why you’re in your profession. When you share that story, doors open up that you never thought possible.
Now, your story doesn’t need to be an extreme one. Everyone’s story is entirely different. But you should be able to answer these five questions when it comes to your brand.
- Who do you serve?
- How do you serve them?
- What qualifies you to serve them?
- How does it make their life better?
- What sets you apart?
A Great Brand Hook
A great brand hook is the 75-mile-an-hour brief message that captures attention.
We call this hook a brand identifier. It expresses what you want to be known for in just a few words. Most people might call it a tagline or slogan, but we call it a brand identifier because it identifies what you’re all about.
Be careful that your brand identifier doesn’t fall into one or more of these common pitfalls.
- They’re boring
- They’re too long
- They don’t really make sense
- They’re not compelling.
Think about how you can avoid those things before you choose yours.
A Purposeful and Professional Brand Photo Shoot
Getting photos that are both purposeful and professional is critical because you actually can have one without the other, and you want both.
If you photos that express your fun side, yet they were not done by a professional photographer, you’ll find that something is definitely missing.
Alternately, if they were taken by a profession, but they don’t represent the image you’re trying to portray, they could be very common and nondescript.
When preparing our clients for a photo shoot, we have them meet with our stylist. And before our stylist meets with the clients, he/she is already familiar with their brand identifier, story, and colors.
That way, the stylist knows the kind of image this person is seeking, and things are done in the correct order.
Most people do a photo shoot without plans about how they will use those photos and for what purpose. When that happens, you could have a serious disconnect between how people view you and how you want them to view you.
Brand Consistency
When we talk about consistency, we’re talking about two different types.
First, a consistent look and feel across the board. Do you have different images and different messaging across different marketing platforms? Or is there consistency among all of them?
Second, are you consistently putting your brand out there? If not, no wonder you’re feeling the results of a spray and pray marketing strategy.
It’s the consistency of a consistent message that makes people consistently remember you and what you’re known for.
“SUCCESS is the consistency you practice when you can’t instantly see the benefit of the results.” – Tonya Eberhart & Michael Carr
In other words, don’t give up. Just because you do one thing and it doesn’t immediately put money in your pocket doesn’t mean it’s not working. If your brand is built purposefully, stay the course and results will come.
An Outside, Educated Opinion
“You can’t see the label when you’re inside the jar.” (original source unknown)
For almost 30 years, we’ve been working with people who consistently tell us they could never have branded themselves.
If that’s you, you should know that it’s not your fault. There’s a simple reason for that.
It’s because you are not trained in personal branding. You’re trained in your profession. You don’t do personal branding daily, just like we don’t teach crypto investing seminars or do plumbing.
You may be saying to yourself, “I can do a logo. No problem. I have Canva now. And I can hire a professional photographer to take my photos.”
But what kind of logo are you creating? What kind of photos should you be taking? That’s aside from the fact that a logo and photos are just two of the branding elements you need. When we help you build your brand, we look at 77 criteria that comprise a complete brand.
The Takeaway
Personal branding is much more than just a logo, photo, and tagline. It’s an entire ecosystem that presents you to your prospects and clients in a way that’s authentic, compelling, and purposeful. Take your time with this process. Otherwise, the result is a spray and pray marketing strategy that’s not authentic, not compelling, and has no clear purpose.
And that’s why you’re not getting real results. Think about where your marketing is headed and how your brand makes all the difference. And if you’re thinking about a brand makeover, schedule a free call with us today to help your brand deliver your desired message and image.
Are you a Coach, Consultant, or other Expert with a life-changing message to share? Join us inside our free Facebook Group to learn how to position & present yourself and your offers differently in order to maximize your time and dramatically increase profits.
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BrandFace LLC is a personal branding company for coaches, consultants and other experts who want to STAND OUT from their competition and attract their ideal customers so they can become recognized and sought after authorities in their industry. Tonya Eberhart & Michael Carr are international bestselling authors and the partners behind BrandFace. Their mantra is, “People don’t do business with a logo. They do business with a person.”