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Without solid branding, you're just another business.
Hey Reader,
We're into the second part of this series! Today's focus is all things BRANDING, so really figuring out the strategy behind WTF you're doing. Then next week, we'll get into the visuals & design (I can't wait, I've got some cool shit to share with you on this one!).
Before we get into the BTS of some of my branding process, along with some more tangible tips for you, I think its important to start with why the hell Branding even MATTERS.
Why branding is so damn important — 4 Things
👉 Without your story, without solid values, you’re just another business.
You’re not giving people a reason to hire you, or buy from you. And this is why it’s so fucking important to know all of that so you can attract your dream clients and customers. This isn’t about perfectionism, it’s about a commitment to something bigger… Commitment to creating a business that you’re proud of, and to getting your work into the hands of the people who can benefit from it most.
👉 When branding is done right, you buy into the culture, not necessarily the product or service itself.
One way to look at branding is playing the long game. When you’re clear on who you are and what you stand for, those pillars of your brand can easily be worked into every facet of your business — including your offers, your website, and especially your marketing. Over time, people start to associate you with the shit you preach about, and this is where the power of branding kicks in.
👉 Branding is now more important than ever, and you have to get crystal clear on what makes YOU different to everyone else doing the same shit as you, and hone in on that.
Some questions to help you get clear on what makes you different…
- What are some of the clichés in your industry that you can’t stand when it comes to Branding and Design?
- What are some general assumptions about (or within) your industry that piss you off?
- From the question above, is there anything you feel really passionate about, and want to expand on?
👉 Stand for something.
It’s no longer enough to just make a product or a service and sell it. Anyone can do that. These days we want to invest in people we resonate with… So, what do you value? What do you believe in? What do you stand for? Give people a reason to choose you over the other people offering the same shit. When you go all in on your own vibe & values, you give people all of the information they need to decide whether YOU are their vibe, or if they resonate with someone else better.
It’s got nothing to do with competition, because it’s genuinely a GOOD THING to have multiple brands in one space, for the variation, and because they’ll all naturally attract THEIR ‘people’… You get me?
So now that we've established a bit of a foundation of why this shit matters so much, here's a BTS into some of my process
I thought I’d share a couple screenshots from my huge & messy branding doc that I created (in Notion, obvs), this is literally where I threw every random thought & hesitation I had, along with the planning and mapping it all out.
This doc is MESSY, but thats kinda how it should be I reckon. You gotta make a huge mess and get all of your thoughts and ideas out before you can even begin to organise it all.
👉 1. Making this move back to a personal brand I def had a few hesitations, so here's where I wrote out all of those thoughts...
👉 2. Writing a list of people doing 'similar' things, what you like about them, and what you don't love so much. I think this is really helpful, and I want to be clear this should not be done from a place of comparison or competition. It's incredibly helpful to understand WHY you like the way other people do things, and also what you don't love — because it gives you clarity on where you can take your own brand. It's more about 'how would I do this differently?' than anything else.
👉 3. Bringing together the messaging. Once I got clear on all of the details of the branding its time to bring that together into words you'll actually use to explain WTF you do. My tagline (Build a brand worth noticing) was actually one that a copywriter wrote for me when I started Good as Gold, but since my real core message truly hasn't changed in 12+ years of my business, there's actually a lot of copy from the past that I can & am using!
Things to consider on your re-branding/pivot journey
💬 Survey your audience. Talk to people, and find out where they’re at (but don’t forget your own intuition).
I think running an aligned, intentional business requires an equal amount of really trusting your own gut and bringing to life the things you wish existed, while also taking notice of what people are asking for and what they need help with. I only surveyed my audience just recently, which I probably should have done sooner in the process tbh.
The most important thing here is to go into your survey with a goal. For me, it was to just gain more insight into who my people are, where they’re at, and where they’re going. The responses I got were awesome and super insightful just to get a read on where people are at and how I could potentially help them.
Here's some of the questions I used in my survey if you want to steal them.
- If you run a business, or are self employed, what do you do?
- What are some of your business goals or dreams for the future?
- What are your biggest challenges & things you worry about in your business?
- Who are some of your favourite people to follow online? Why do you like them? (Get a feel for who else they're into, go check out their stuff)
- In your opinion how do I differ to other brands in the same space? (This is a really good one if you've been in biz a little while and you want to find out how your audience sees your brand, NOT just how you intend it to come across, because they can be different things)
- Anything else you wanna tell me or think I should know?
😎 Make a table or write out people who are doing similar things to you, and then ask these questions for each. Where do they fit into the market? What do you LIKE about them & their work? What don’t you like? Remember, this isn’t really to be ultra critical about their work, its more so just going to help YOU dive into where your place in the market could land, because those things you don’t like will point you towards things you can choose to do on your own terms in a really cool, unique way.
💻 Once you’ve got the vision a bit more mapped out, what current offers need to go? What doesn’t fit in that vision anymore? I spoke about this briefly in another email, but I decided to take my Canva templates out of the Shop for now for various reasons, the main one being that they didn't fit 100% with the vision I have. Making changes in your business requires making changes in your business, even if they're scary and it means retiring old products. Stay aligned with the vision that's pulling you forward.
😆 What ideas for future offerings do you have, based on the new vision and new messaging? This is something I haven’t done as consciously as I'd like over the years, I do feel like all of my offerings have been aligned but it’s something I want to be a lot more aware of moving forward. I also DEFO want to build out some more educational offerings on design & Squarespace too (both of which I’ve done before & have retired those offerings just because it felt like they needed to be refreshed).
Phew! That's all for today! This one was a biggie. Tbh I cut it back a little because it could have been even bigger, haha. Branding is such an important topic, but these are some of the basics.
Did you find anything helpful or interesting in this one? Hit reply and lemme know, I'm always down to hear from you!
Next week, I'mma get into some DESIGNY shit! I'm pulling together the email now and it's got a lot of various inspoboards & visuals for ya. It's gonna be good.
Sian Richardson | Build a brand worth noticing.
We’re a rowdy tribe of friends dedicated to building the futures we want to see. You should come hang with us. Weekly-ish emails on all things Squarespace, design, creativity, and doing shit on your own terms. You in?