3 things that will help you stand out in a saturated industry

 This might be an unpopular opinion but often when there are complaints about a market being too “saturated” or “crowded” … I actually think it’s because business owners are frustrated that they are not getting in front of the clients that they want to work with … and it is slightly easier to blame an industry than to do the hard work itself.

Sorry if I ruffled a few feathers there but hear me out! I think the majority of small business industries is technically overflowing with “competitors”, unless you are doing something waaaay niche and never been thought of before.  From photography to calligraphy, authors to artists … creativity is a gift that just keeps on giving. And one of the main reasons we think our industry is saturated is because that’s where we spend most of our time in! With that said, we are currently at an all-time high for small businesses being created every day and truth be told – the algorithms are unfortunately never really “on our side” so it’s up to us to come out with a creative solution and stand out.

So today, I want to share my three secrets for showing up and standing out in your industry!

Shift your mindset

Someone once told me that “competition only exists if we are doing the same thing as everyone else”.

My jaw dropped.

How honest was that? We are all individual and unique creators bringing different gifts and skills to this world. There is no two of us that are the exact same even though we might be doing a similar role. At the end of the day, we might be given the same tools, but how we choose to use them differs from one another.

Think of it this way… when you walk down the streets of downtown, you probably see a dozen or so restaurants all on the same block, and a few dozens more surrounding them. If Romeo decided not to chase after his dreams of opening his Italian restaurant because Alberto across the street started a few years ahead of him… we wouldn’t be blessed with the local culinary scene that’s in our cities.

You are NOT competing with anyone else in your industry – in fact, they are your friends, your peers, and the only people that understand what you are going through. The only competition you have is with yourself. At the end of the day, we are all our own individuals with unique lived experiences and personalities. That’s why it’s so important to embrace every single part of who you are and define what makes you authentically stand out in your industry.

Remember… it’s never fun being a second rated version of someone else. Be YOU and the magic will follow. Shift your mindset, step away from the comparison game, and stay true to who you are. 

Invest in branding

Once you are able to shift our mindset to realizing the endless amount of potential that you have, the next step is to invest in branding.

Branding WILL help you stand out in a so-called “saturated market” because it highlights the uniqueness that you bring to the industry and the impact that you want to make. Many business owners assume branding is just a logo, a cohesive color palette, and some fonts paired together. But branding is so, so, so much more than that. While the visuals are important – the subconscious behind branding is absolutely significant and plays a vital role in your business.

Expanding on our example from before – while Romeo and Alberto both own and run their own Italian restaurants, what they offer is completely different from flavour to operations. Alberto’s recipes are homemade, authentic, and bringing the flavours of his grandmother’s kitchen to his customers… while Romeo is actually serving a high-end fusion menu that blends in flavours from Italy, France, and Canada. They are two completely different styles, flavours, and audience … meaning the marketing and branding for both restaurants are as different night and day! 

Working with a brand strategist can help you uncover the magic behind your brand through voice, positioning, personality, value proposition, and more. A brand strategist is trained to research, problem-solve, and analyze the current market and design a brand that makes you stand out. They also have an objective view of your industry and competitors that you could have never seen before because they aren’t “in your head” every single day.

If you want to get a head start, ask yourself these questions:

What do you want to be known for?

How do you want your clients to feel when they interact with your brand?

What is the #1 thing that you do that your audience needs that your competition doesn’t provide to them?

Deliver A Memorable Client Experience 

With a clear direction, a positive mindset, and a strategic brand in place – it’s time for you to bring it all to life through delivering a memorable client experience.

Remember that saying by Maya Angelou? People won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.

Having a solid client experience from beginning to end IS delivering value in itself. At the end of the day, we are all humans and on the same time. We want to feel heard, seen, and valued. Your clients are the same way! By making sure they are taken care of at each stage of the project, you are making them feel important and that every dollar spent is being valued.

Sending out a proposal, contract, with a few emails in between is NOT a client experience. Unfortunately, there are business owners who do not see the value in providing a memorable experience simply because they want to save a few bucks. But going that extra mile to send your client a welcome packet or a Starbucks gift card during a meeting can make all the difference. How ever you decide to go above and beyond supporting your client’s business will speak to your character as a business owner and will allow you to stand out like the shiny gold star that you are in your industry.

To me, a saturated market is sometimes just an excuse our imposter syndrome makes for us and it’s time we squash that one down. While there might be a lot of business owners doing the same job as you are, it doesn’t mean they are performing or delivering value the way that you can. If there is “saturation” in your industry, that must mean the service (or product) that you are offering has been validated and that there is A LOT of demand for it. Use that as an advantage! The business industry will keep growing and evolving everyday… and it’s up to us to show up authentically and put in the hard work. Don’t worry about what Karen or Nancy are doing next door, tend to your own garden and it will flourish like no other.

How to find your brand’s essence

 Life is complicated. Good design shouldn’t be. Especially when your brand is driven by purpose, sustainability, and a hunger to change the world. 

Weaving those elements, and your brand essence, into a visual identity is what sparks connection and elicits opportunity — and it’s essential as the trees are to the forest.

So, what does your branding need to communicate? And how do you find your brand essence? Let’s find that out together! 

Brand Story

Storytelling inspires and creates emotional connections with your audience.

Storytelling is a powerful tool for your brand’s communication. If you want to build meaningful relationships and create an elevated brand your people care about, you need a purposeful, authentic story to tell. 

Here’s the structure for good storytelling:

01 

PROBLEM:

Describe the difficulty, situation or problem that you set out to solve.

02

SOLUTION:

Describe how you solved it with your ideas and passion

03

SUCCESS:

Describe how your solution is making people’s lives better

Brand Purpose

To create a brand identity that is rooted in strategy, designed with purpose, and resonates with your ideal client, we must get into the WHY of your brand first. 

Your brand purpose makes you irresistible to your target audience. It’s the foundation and the very reason your brand exists.

It goes beyond profit.

If used strategically, your why can be the driving force behind your brand’s success

Vision

Your brand vision states what your brand does for your audience. Think of it as the picture of where you want your brand to be in the future.

Your vision should be measurable, attainable, inspiring, unique, cultural, and straightforward. 

The brands that are most capable of inspiring us and earning our trust are the ones that make us feel like we’re more than just another customer. They make us feel like we’re part of something even bigger.

Mission

Think of your brand’s mission as the route to follow to achieve your brand’s vision.

Your brand’s mission is what your business strives to do for your audience. 

Think about what products and services you offer and the impact they have.

Values & Ethics 

What does your brand stand for? 

Values are at the core of your business. They influence how consumers perceive your brand and help them align with their own values.

Your ethics help define your purpose, personality, and visual style. 

From the colours you use, your logo, your voice and customer service, everything should be meaningfully defined around your brand values. 

Promise

Your promise is how you commit to every client. It’s the way that makes your brand unique, and it’s what your target audience expects from your business.

Your promise helps you position yourself in the market, as it sets customers expectations on the brand’s quality and feel.

Personality 

Brand personality is a set of characteristics that your brand can purposely use to evoke the right emotional response and increase trust.

Brand personality is what humanises your brand and makes it resonate with your target audience.

Because we connect and purchase from brands we like and relate to, it’s important to define your brand personality to be engaging.

Audience

By knowing more about who you’re serving, communicating and connecting with your target audience becomes easy as a breeze.

Who is your audience and where do they look for when they find your brand? What are they searching for?

Customer Persona

Creating a customer persona allows you to understand your audience better and recognise key traits and patterns and how your brand can help.

01 

RESEARCH:

Research the problems your ideal clients are facing. What do they look for? Where do they seek help?

02 

DEFINE:

Define your customer persona. Think about age, interests, profession, routines, goals, aspirations, etc.

03 

 DETERMINE:

Map out their decision-making process and where and how your brand can help them. 

04

MAP OUT:

Map out their decision-making process and where and how your brand can help them. 

Colours

How your target feels about your brand is more potent than what they think about your brand. This means that your brand colours should be selected by their meaning, a preference is not enough. 

Brand colours are a reflection of your brand identity and evoke a strong and immediate emotional response.

Typography

Like colours, your brand’s fonts can make or break your visual identity. After all, it’s not just what you say: It’s how you say it.

Selecting the right typography can help amplify your brand’s message and give your logo and overall brand identity a unique feel. 

Market Research: How to Perform Better Research for Your Brand

 I’m going to make a pretty big claim right now and say that ideal customer work can make or break the success of your business. And there are a lot of different reasons for that. I’m going to cover those in today’s blog and I’m also going to share with you how to conduct better market research. 

We no longer needed to get on the phone with individual people every 90 days. We don’t always have the time and the capacity for that. Now I’m not saying that that’s not a good strategy, but there are other more effective ways to do ideal customer research that is actually going to help you in the long run with your marketing. 

There are two things that we need to do 

                                  Build a personal brand around you and your story 

                                  How to market very effectively, to have incoming leads for brand awareness 

and ultimately converting them to paying clients. More income, more impact. That is our goal. 

And both of those categories rely on ideal customer research. 

I know you’ve heard about the ideal customer avatar. You might even be at a place where you’re like I’m so sick of this work. I get it. And I hope that at the end of this blog, you’re feeling revamped, re-energized, and you have a new strategy to get the feedback and the information that you need to totally elevate your branding and your marketing. 

So why is ideal customer work so important?

Well, at the end of the day, you have a business. You’re selling to someone and you better know who the heck they are or they’re not going to buy from you. As I’ve mentioned, ideal customer work plays a role in both branding and marketing. 

So from a branding side, we want to focus on ideal customer work to really understand who your customer is at their core. Understanding what their big problems are, their struggles, their goals, their aspirations is incredible information.

You can even use ideal customer work to find out what social media platforms they’re hanging out on, where they get most of their information and other people that they look to for advice in your industry.

The branding work and ideal customer work can help you set a very strong foundation for your brand and your business moving forward.

Once you know who your ideal customer is, it’s much easier to craft your offer to serve them at the highest level.

You can craft better messaging, which has got to play a role in your website copy and your marketing. You’re also able to better understand emotional branding, which I talk about in this video right here, where I share a little bit more on how we make our audience feel and the connection that we create. 

In addition to that, one of the things that play a huge role in branding is the art of storytelling. And in order to tell great stories as a business owner, you’ve got to know who you’re telling those stories to. It’s not enough to just share stories to share stories. We want to share stories that are going to motivate our audience to take action, aka buy our product or our service.

So from a branding perspective, ideal customer research is so important because it’s going to set the foundation for everything that you’re going to create in your business. 

From a marketing perspective, it’s all about content. 

When you’re thinking of content, you want to make sure that you’re thinking of content that not only attracts new people to your community but also moves them through the client buying journey. 

I talk about that entire journey, that entire process in this video right here. 

It’s really important that you understand that your content is there to not only let people know who you are, build that brand awareness, pull them in and attract them, but ultimately connect with them, leading to the sale. 

It’s so important to understand who you’re talking to and ultimately who your business is for.

KEY ELEMENTS TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER

I want to share with you some updated strategies for doing your ideal customer work. But before I do that, let’s talk about some of the key elements that you need to understand about your ideal customer. 

TIP #1: IDENTIFY DEMOGRAPHICS

I recommend that you start broad and then narrow it down a bit as you go. 

So this stage is all about the demographic. These are the things that you know about the person that you ultimately want to work with or who your product and service are ultimately for. Depending on where you’re at in your business, you might have more information about this individual or you might have nothing. 

At this stage you want to think about the individual people who AREN’T the right fit for your brand, ultimately starting to narrow it down.

One of the ways to do this is to focus on things like demographics. 

What do we know about this person? 

Is this person just graduating from college? 

Is this person a working mother? 

Who is this person?

And I’m not recommending that you have to focus on men or women or mothers or not mothers, but those are some of the things to start considering.

What do you know about the individual that you want to work with? The offer that you’re ultimately creating, who is it really designed for? 

This information is going to help you narrow it down from everyone, which is not an ideal customer, to getting a little bit more specific. 

TIP #2: ANSWER THE TOP QUESTIONS

Then the next thing you want to do is answer a few top questions. 

What is the problem they are facing now?

Every single business has to solve a problem. This is actually part of the niching down process.

If you don’t solve a problem, you’re going to have a really hard time selling anything. And just so we’re clear every product, every service can solve a problem. It’s your job to figure out what that problem is and narrow it down really specific to your ideal customer.

So let’s say that my target market is new moms and I sell a program that teaches you how to tidy up your house. The problem is that new moms don’t have a lot of time in their schedules. They’re tired of a messy house. It’s overwhelming. It’s weighing on their shoulders, not speaking from experience at all. And they want to understand better strategies to keep it maintained if you will. Keep their sanity. 

So the problem is that they want to be able to tidy up their home in a limited amount of time. And they don’t understand exactly how to do that. 

Every single thing comes down to a problem. 

What is the problem that your ideal customer is facing?

What are their struggles with that problem?

How are they feeling about that problem? Where are they now? 

This is incredibly helpful with marketing because it allows you to connect with your ideal customer and allows them to feel seen, heard and understood. 

Where do they want to be?

So they’ve got these current struggles, they’ve got these pain points, they have this problem. What do they ultimately want? 

If they resolve this problem, what does life look like for them? Do they suddenly get to make their eggs in 10 seconds and stop cursing every morning at their pan that keeps sticking? 

You want to understand what the core problem is, where they are now, and what those pain points and struggles are. 

How would they describe that to you and where do they ultimately want to be?

What are the specific obstacles in their way?

Why haven’t they solved the problem yet? Why haven’t they done it on their own or with another product or service? What are some of the things that they’re specifically looking for that they haven’t found? 

Another thing that you can start to explore is the objections. 

I find that these are incredibly helpful for service-based entrepreneurs. If someone hasn’t solved their problem just yet, they probably have some obstacles standing in their way. 

What are some mindset pieces that they have? Maybe they think they don’t have enough time to do the work. Maybe they think that they don’t have the energy or the capacity to take on something else. 

What are those objections? These are incredibly helpful when it comes to selling your product or your service. If you can understand these obstacles and the objections your ideal customer is going through, then you can use that in your marketing.

So these are just some questions that you can start to organize the research that I’m about to give you my favorite tools for, into these little categories. 

This is going to help you with your branding and your marketing overall. 

MARKET RESEARCH STRATEGIES

So let’s now talk about some of my favorite ways to do market research. 

Number one is a free tool that not enough people know about that is incredibly powerful. When you think about your own life and your own customer journey with different products and services, where do you turn when you need something? Google. 

We all go to Google. It is a database of information.

And the free tool that we love to use is called Answer The Public. 

Answer the Public

What Answer The Public does is it takes the information from Google and it categorizes it into questions and into sub-categories. So you can go on to Answer The Public and type in an ideal customer that you know you want to work with. 

You can type in a core problem. 

You can type in your industry. 

So you can start as broad as you want. And then it will divide it up into a bunch of different webs. 

Let’s say I type in brand photography. I am a photographer and I want to sell brand photography and I want to better understand my ideal customer and what they’re looking for when it comes to brand photography. 

I can type in brand photography and then it’s going to show me all of the top questions and searches related to brand photography.

With each of those, you can actually click and it’ll open up another tab and show you the Google searches. It’ll show you the most popular blog posts, the most popular websites. And you can start to do a little bit of research. You can get as granular with it as you want, but what this is really offering you is information on what your audience is asking. 

This can go back to what they are struggling with? 

How are they phrasing their problem?

What outcomes do they ultimately want? 

Answer The Public is an incredible, helpful tool and it’s free with a few searches every single month. So you can definitely use it to your advantage.

YouTube

YouTube is a search engine platform meaning that people are turning to the platform to look for solutions to their problems. 

You can use YouTube’s basic function by typing in brand photography. We’ll just run with this topic, brand photography, and see what YouTube is suggesting auto-populates.

This can be incredibly helpful for finding some of the top searches within your industry. 

Further than that, you can start to explore some of the top videos and look at the comments section, see what people are asking and if it’s a really popular video and you’re seeing that it has tons and tons of views, that’s probably a top struggle that your ideal customer is dealing with. 

So not only looking at the topic for the video that has a bunch of views and saying, “Wow, okay, this must be something that my ideal customer is struggling with if everyone’s watching this,” but also exploring the comment section. 

This can be incredibly valuable for grabbing specific language that your audience is using.

Pinterest

To piggyback off of YouTube, another search engine platform that we like coming in at number three is Pinterest. 

Oh, I just love Pinterest so much. As a marketer, it’s a freaking goldmine. 

Pinterest uses a very, very similar feature because it’s a search engine where it will auto-populate with the most popular searches. 

So if you’re going in for brand photography, you type brand photography in the search bar, Pinterest will help you out and tell you the top searches for brand photography. 

It’ll just kind of fill in those keywords. Again, another incredibly helpful way for you to start to get content ideas and information from your audience.

Amazon

The next one uses another popular platform that we’re all familiar with and that is Amazon. 

Look, no matter how you feel about Amazon, it is where people are buying their books. So one of the things that I started doing really early on in my business was starting to explore book reviews. 

Finding books that were related to my industry. Now I totally understand this might not work for everyone. With all of these, take the ones that will best serve you and your industry and run with them. You don’t have to use all of them, but this is a really helpful one especially if your industry typically has very specific topics and books related to what you do. 

So let’s say I am focused on marketing. I can go to Amazon, type in marketing, and choose the book option from the dropdown.

This is going to show me all the top marketing books. I’m going to look for the ones that have the most reviews because that’s where the information lies. 

I can then go to that book, I can read a little bit about it. 

What was the general idea of the book, scroll down and start reading the reviews. Now the positive reviews are nice, but what you really want to focus on are the negative reviews. 

What did people say? 

Did they say it was too simple? 

Did they say that it didn’t answer this question? 

Did they not like it because of X, Y and Z? 

This is going to give you more information about what your audience is looking for and a possible gap that you can fill in your content creation.

Community Forums

The next one is all about community forums. Now I’ll be honest with you, I don’t use this one very often, but I’ve had a lot of clients who find success and use them for themselves. 

The community forums, Reddit is a great example of this, where you can go type in a specific topic, whether it’s a specific problem that you’ve identified for your ideal customer, your industry as a whole, or something that you specifically do. 

Personal branding would be a great example for my business. Type that in and see what people are talking about. See what types of questions individuals are asking. This is a really helpful tool for getting very specific language for your ideal customer. 

In addition to that, and one of the platforms that I’m a little bit more familiar with and comfortable with is Facebook groups. 

Now, I am not suggesting that you go into every Facebook group and you just start asking random questions. Exhausting, outdated. We don’t need to do that anymore.

Facebook has a search function, so you don’t have to do all of the outward postings and choosing a cute pic for attention. We just get to go into the Facebook group that we know is full of our ideal customers, go to the search bar, and start typing in very specific keywords related to the things that you offer, your industry, your problems and see what questions come up. 

Whether that’s a single post or actually in the comments. I have found gold mines in Facebook groups before.

In fact, and I’m going to be sharing with you, how I map out 90 days worth of content, that video is actually coming out next week. One of my favorite places to find content ideas are Facebook groups. 

Survey Your Audience

The last one I’m going to share with you is really helpful if you already have an audience. Now, you don’t have to have a huge audience. You don’t have to have thousands of email subscribers or fans on Instagram or whatever you use to classify an audience for your business. Although I recommend that that’s your email list. You can have 10, 15, 100 people. It doesn’t matter. 

This tool is really helpful for getting really specific information from people who’ve already said yes to your brand. And those are surveys.

Every 90 days-ish, I will put together a survey for my audience and ask very specific questions like:

What are you struggling with right now? 

What is the number one problem that you’re facing? 

What are you looking to do within the next 90 days? 

What would you love from me? 

If I could create one piece of content that would help you, what would that piece of content be? 

And that’s incredibly helpful for getting specific feedback from your audience, making open-ended questions so you can get very specific language and then using that to create your content moving forward. 

Conclusion

So no matter which one of these options you choose, I hope that you see that there is so much information waiting for you on the internet. 

The biggest thing I want you to remember is that we’re focused on getting specific language from our ideal customer. 

It’s not enough to assume what our audience is saying. We really want to use the words that they are using to describe their current struggles, to describe their problem, to describe where they ultimately want to be. 

That is going to help you with your marketing. 

It’s going to help you with your messaging. 

It’s going to help you with your consistent income as a business owner. 

The Power of Brand Storytelling: How Emotional Marketing Connects You To Your Customers

 By telling a compelling brand story and using emotional marketing to connect with customers, you can create a memorable brand experience that differentiates your brand from its competitors.

In this article, you’ll explore the importance of brand storytelling and emotional marketing, and how combining these strategies can help you connect with customers on a deeper level to build a strong brand. Let’s dive in!

Understanding Brand Storytelling

To understand the power of brand storytelling, it’s important to define what it means. Brand storytelling is the use of narratives to convey a brand’s values, beliefs, and purpose to its customers.

The most impactful brand stories are those that can evoke empathy, engage an audience, and encourage them to take actions that are mutually beneficial for both the customer and the brand.

Through brand storytelling, businesses can create an emotional connection with their target audience, helping their customers relate to the brand and its mission.

Successful brand storytelling often involves using a central character or protagonist to represent the brand’s values or mission. This can be a real person or a fictional character, but the key is to make the character relatable to your target audience.

For example, Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign features well-known athletes as the central characters, representing the brand’s values of athleticism and determination.

But as a small business owner, chances are you’re going to be leaning into your brand’s origin story or your founder’s story (which in my opinion is much more powerful anyway).

How To Create A Compelling Origin Story:

Start with Your Why – Your origin story should begin with the reason why you started your business in the first place. What problem were you trying to solve? What inspired you to take the leap and start your own business? This is the foundation of your origin story, so make sure it’s clear and compelling.

Highlight Your Journey – Once you’ve established your why, it’s time to tell the story of how you got to where you are today. What challenges did you face along the way? What successes did you achieve? Your journey is what makes your origin story unique, so be sure to highlight the moments that shaped your business.

Emphasize Your Values – Your origin story should also showcase the values that drive your business. What principles do you stand for? What do you believe in? Your values help establish your brand’s identity and differentiate you from your competitors.

Keep It Authentic – As with all brand storytelling, authenticity is key when it comes to your origin story. Don’t try to create a story that isn’t true to who you are or what your business stands for. Your audience can sense when you’re being disingenuous, so be true to yourself and your values.

Emotional Marketing and Brand Connection

Speaking of emotional connections, did you know that emotion is what’s truly driving all purchasing decisions (and decision-making in general)? Harvard professor, Gerald Zaltman states that 95% of our purchase decision-making takes place in the subconscious mind.

There’s additional research indicating that in most cases, 20% of the decision to make a purchase is logical and 80% is emotional. So while it’s tempting to talk about facts and features, we have to remember that our customers are not just rational decision-makers, but rather emotional beings who are influenced by their feelings and experiences.

One example of successful emotional marketing is Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, which personalized the brand by printing customers’ names on Coke bottles and encouraging them to share a Coke with a friend or family member. This campaign leveraged the emotions of friendship, sharing, and nostalgia to create a memorable brand experience that resonated with customers.

Another example is the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign, which challenged traditional beauty standards and celebrated diversity showing women of all colors, shapes, and sizes. This emotional marketing campaign not only differentiated the brand from competitors but also created a strong emotional connection with customers who identified with the message of inclusivity and self-acceptance.

Below you’ll find a few “emotional motivators” that drive consumer behavior along with how your brand can leverage these motivators:

Combining Storytelling and Emotional Marketing for Success

Brand storytelling and emotional marketing are two powerful tools that, when combined, can create a potent force for brand success. As we’ve learned, emotional marketing helps to evoke a particular emotional response from customers, while brand storytelling provides the context and meaning for that emotion. Together, they create a cohesive brand narrative that resonates with customers and makes a brand more relatable and memorable.

By using emotional marketing to enhance their brand’s story, brands can build a deeper emotional connection with customers, differentiate themselves from competitors, increase brand loyalty and customer retention, and ultimately increase revenue.

To effectively implement brand storytelling and emotional marketing, it’s essential to define your brand’s story and messaging before launching emotional marketing campaigns, use emotional marketing to enhance your brand’s story, not overshadow it, be authentic and genuine in your emotional marketing messaging, ensure consistency across all touchpoints and customer interactions, and continuously monitor and adjust your emotional marketing messaging to align with customer feedback and evolving brand values.

How To Incorporate Brand Storytelling and Emotional Marketing Into Your Small Business

Define your brand’s story and message: Start by defining your brand’s story, values, and mission. Develop a clear message that resonates with your audience and showcases the unique qualities that set your brand apart.

Identify your target audience: Identify your ideal customer and understand their needs, wants, and pain points. Use this information to create a message that speaks directly to their emotions and desires.

Use storytelling to connect with your audience: Incorporate storytelling into your marketing strategy by sharing personal stories, anecdotes, and experiences that align with your brand’s message. This can help create an emotional connection with your audience.

Use visual storytelling: Use images, videos, and other visual elements to create an immersive and engaging experience for your audience. This can help bring your brand’s story to life and make it more relatable.

Use social media to amplify your message: Social media is a powerful tool for sharing your brand’s story and connecting with your audience. Use social media platforms to share your brand’s message, engage with your audience, and build a community around your brand.

And remember, as with any effective marketing strategy – emotional marketing and brand storytelling require a deep understanding of your audience and a commitment to authenticity.

By following these steps and focusing on creating a genuine emotional connection with your audience, you can build a strong brand that resonates with your customers and drives long-term success.

5 METAPHORS TO HELP YOU VISUALISE YOUR BRAND

 If you’re in the process of DIY’ing your brand, or rebranding your existing business, chances are… you already have an idea of how you’d like your brand to look.

Often, people don’t have any idea of the visual direction for their brand. So in this post, I wanna share 5 favorite metaphors that I love to use to help my clients visualize their brand .

In fact, these 5 questions are incredibly helpful to me as well, because it helps me gain clarity to perceive brand. So this is to ensure that we’re on the same page before diving into the design process.

BEFORE THE VISUALISATION – YOU MUST KNOW YOUR PURPOSE

Before we jump into it, it’s important to note that I ask these questions at the very end of my 3-step Signature Brand Development Process. Before this visualization exercise, you need to be crystal clear on:

You Brand Purpose, Vision and Values

Your Ideal Client

Your Competition

Your Offering (and how it stands out from your competitors)

Your Brand Personality

Only then can you start thinking about the visual direction for your brand. Remember, that although visuals play a big role in your branding, they don’t benefit you if they disconnect with your brand purpose and who your ideal client is. So make sure to spend some time to really nail down these bullet points before answering the next questions. 

5 FUN METAPHORS TO BUILD DIRECTION FOR YOUR BRAND

Before you start answering these questions, remember that there is no right or wrong answer.

Most people know what they want their brand to look like, but they don’t know how to express it or visualize it in their heads. That’s why I challenge my clients to create these metaphors, so they can step outside of the design world with its color palettes, fonts and logos, and bring them back to what they feel most comfortable with: their everyday life. So, don’t overthink the answer to these. Try to listen to your gut and your heart because the answer lies within you.

1. IF YOUR BRAND WERE A MOOD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Is your brand funky and happy? Does your brand make you feel like a kid’s laughter on a carousel? Or maybe you’re more sophisticated and discreet?

Here are some answers from my past clients (I looooooove the first answer. We got the mood right straight away!):

You know the movie Hitch? When Will Smith is teaching Albert how to dance and slaps him around a little? That’s the mood for our brand!

Freedom – when you sit on the beach, breathing in the ocean and really letting go for the first time in a while of all your worries. Really connecting with your inner self.

I don’t know how to describe the “mood” but it’s the kinda mood when Miranda Priestly walks into the office – admiration, sophistication with a touch of fear (in a good way though)

Write down what moods come to mind and try to make it come alive as much as possible!

2. IF YOUR BRAND WERE A COLOUR, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Let’s forget about color theory for a moment .

But here, I want you to let go of what you think your brand color should look like or what it should make you feel, and focus on the first color that comes to mind when you think about your brand.

Here’s what my clients have said in the past:

Earthy, warm tones (can’t come up with one single colour) – my brand feels like home, there’s a sense of belonging, of warmth when I think about it. I want our beauty products to make you feel the same way.

Gold. I think it’s the best color to portray our expertise and also the level of clients we work with.

Warm greys and pastels. But with a touch of black. As in… “calm and sophisticated, with a touch of boldness and strength”.

Once you think of the first color that comes to mind, also try to explain why you associate this color with your brand too.

3. IF YOUR BRAND WERE A SONG, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Oooh, this is my absolute favorite question! I believe the answer to this question gives the most powerful visualization of your brand. And I love reading the answer to this question from my clients because that’s the moment when I can clearly see what the final result for their brand will look like!

But I think it’s also one of the hardest questions, so take some time to think about it.

Here’s what my clients made me listen to:

“From Now On” – The Greatest Showman, or “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson

“Hôtel Costes Best Of (Official Full Mix)” – eclectic mix of wonderful songs

“Girl on Fire” – Alicia Keys, but with the incredible emotion and power from Angelica Hale’s performance (AGT)

What jam would be playing when you were talking about your brand?

4. IF YOUR BRAND WERE AN ANIMAL, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

If I had to answer this question myself , I would’ve said a black panther. It’s powerful, strong, but most importantly they are natural protectors and leaders. And that’s what I want to stand for: we will always protect our clients and do our best to lead them to success.

Now, what did my past clients say?

A wolf pack leader, or even better… Mufasa.

A horse – the most graceful animal with lots of character

A Siamese cat – affectionate, friendly, loyal and bold. Also very exquisite in its appearance and movements. 

Which animal do you feel suits your brand the most and why?

And finally…

5. IF YOU COULD DRESS UP YOUR BRAND, IT WOULD WEAR…?

Let’s imagine now that your brand is a person and play dress up! What kind of clothes would it wear? What brands would these clothes be?

Here’s my clients’ fashion thoughts on this:

Beige, knee-length sophisticated dress, with a short blazer/jacket and black heels. 

I don’t have a particular item in mind, but I know it would be tailored clothes. Made specifically to fit THEM , not “off the rack”. 

Light fabrics, organic cotton or linen, beige, grey and white. Only shop at sustainable brand shops. My brand would probably have a small capsule wardrobe and only shop occasionally but for quality, sustainable items.

Once you have answered this, think about whether this style would appeal to your Ideal Client. If not, then how can you improve on this and make it more aligned with your ICA?

___

And there we have it, friend! 5 questions to ask yourself to help you visualize your brand and bring it to life!

If you’ve answered all of these, you should already have way more clarity for your visual brand direction than before. But if you need some extra help here, try to come up with more metaphors like these to help you out!

For example:

If your brand were a book, what would it be?

If your brand were a movie, what would it be?

If your brand were a dish, what would it be?

If your brand were a city, what would it be?

If your brand were a flower, what would it be?

Etc…

Which question helped you visualize your brand the most?

3 things that will help you stand out in a saturated industry

 Are you tired of hearing crickets when you put out an offer… or maybe you came to the realization one too many times that the client you just signed is actually kind of a nightmare and doesn’t really value your time, energy, or expertise? Or do you sometimes feel like you are blending into the background amongst the sea of competitors in your industry? Wondering if it’s way too saturated and that if you have even a chance of succeeding?

If you are nodding your head at all of the above, I just want to say, I see you and hang in there.

This might be an unpopular opinion but often when there are complaints about a market being too “saturated” or “crowded” … I actually think it’s because business owners are frustrated that they are not getting in front of the clients that they want to work with … and it is slightly easier to blame an industry than to do the hard work itself.

Sorry if I ruffled a few feathers there but hear me out! I think the majority of small business industries is technically overflowing with “competitors”, unless you are doing something waaaay niche and never been thought of before.  From photography to calligraphy, authors to artists … creativity is a gift that just keeps on giving. And one of the main reasons we think our industry is saturated is because that’s where we spend most of our time in! With that said, we are currently at an all-time high for small businesses being created every day and truth be told – the algorithms are unfortunately never really “on our side” so it’s up to us to come out with a creative solution and stand out.

So today, I want to share my three secrets for showing up and standing out in your industry!

Shift your mindset

Someone once told me that “competition only exists if we are doing the same thing as everyone else”.

My jaw dropped.

How honest was that? We are all individual and unique creators bringing different gifts and skills to this world. There is no two of us that are the exact same even though we might be doing a similar role. At the end of the day, we might be given the same tools, but how we choose to use them differs from one another.

Think of it this way… when you walk down the streets of downtown, you probably see a dozen or so restaurants all on the same block, and a few dozens more surrounding them. If Romeo decided not to chase after his dreams of opening his Italian restaurant because Alberto across the street started a few years ahead of him… we wouldn’t be blessed with the local culinary scene that’s in our cities.

You are NOT competing with anyone else in your industry – in fact, they are your friends, your peers, and the only people that understand what you are going through. The only competition you have is with yourself. At the end of the day, we are all our own individuals with unique lived experiences and personalities. That’s why it’s so important to embrace every single part of who you are and define what makes you authentically stand out in your industry.

Remember… it’s never fun being a second rated version of someone else. Be YOU and the magic will follow. Shift your mindset, step away from the comparison game, and stay true to who you are. 

Invest in branding

Once you are able to shift our mindset to realizing the endless amount of potential that you have, the next step is to invest in branding.

Branding WILL help you stand out in a so-called “saturated market” because it highlights the uniqueness that you bring to the industry and the impact that you want to make. Many business owners assume branding is just a logo, a cohesive color palette, and some fonts paired together. But branding is so, so, so much more than that. While the visuals are important – the subconscious behind branding is absolutely significant and plays a vital role in your business.

Expanding on our example from before – while Romeo and Alberto both own and run their own Italian restaurants, what they offer is completely different from flavor to operations. Alberto’s recipes are homemade, authentic, and bringing the flavors of his grandmother’s kitchen to his customers… while Romeo is actually serving a high-end fusion menu that blends in flavors from Italy, France, and Canada. They are two completely different styles, flavors, and audience … meaning the marketing and branding for both restaurants are as different night and day! 

Working with a brand strategist can help you uncover the magic behind your brand through voice, positioning, personality, value proposition, and more. A brand strategist is trained to research, problem-solve, and analyze the current market and design a brand that makes you stand out. They also have an objective view of your industry and competitors that you could have never seen before because they aren’t “in your head” every single day.

If you want to get a head start, ask yourself these questions:

• What do you want to be known for?
• How do you want your clients to feel when they interact with your brand?
• What is the #1 thing that you do that your audience needs that your competition doesn’t provide to them?

Deliver A Memorable Client Experience 

With a clear direction, a positive mindset, and a strategic brand in place – it’s time for you to bring it all to life through delivering a memorable client experience.

Remember that saying by Maya Angelou? People won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.

Having a solid client experience from beginning to end IS delivering value in itself. At the end of the day, we are all humans and on the same time. We want to feel heard, seen, and valued. Your clients are the same way! By making sure they are taken care of at each stage of the project, you are making them feel important and that every dollar spent is being valued.

Sending out a proposal, contract, with a few emails in between is NOT a client experience. Unfortunately, there are business owners who do not see the value in providing a memorable experience simply because they want to save a few bucks. But going that extra mile to send your client a welcome packet or a Starbucks gift card during a meeting can make all the difference. How ever you decide to go above and beyond supporting your client’s business will speak to your character as a business owner and will allow you to stand out like the shiny gold star that you are in your industry.

To me, a saturated market is sometimes just an excuse our imposter syndrome makes for us and it’s time we squash that one down. While there might be a lot of business owners doing the same job as you are, it doesn’t mean they are performing or delivering value the way that you can. If there is “saturation” in your industry, that must mean the service (or product) that you are offering has been validated and that there is A LOT of demand for it. Use that as an advantage! The business industry will keep growing and evolving everyday… and it’s up to us to show up authentically and put in the hard work. Don’t worry about what Karen or Nancy are doing next door, tend to your own garden and it will flourish like no other.

Market Research: How to Perform Better Research for Your Brand

 Ideal customer work can make or break the success of your business. And there are a lot of different reasons for that. I’m going to cover those in today’s blog and I’m also going to share with you how to conduct better market research. 

We no longer needed to get on the phone with individual people every 90 days. We don’t always have the time and the capacity for that. Now I’m not saying that that’s not a good strategy, but there are other more effective ways to do ideal customer research that is actually going to help you in the long run with your marketing. 

There are two things that we have to do and that is helping ourselves to build a personal brand  and learning how to market very effectively, to have incoming leads for brand awareness, and ultimately converting them to paying clients. More income, more impact. That is our goal. 

And both of those categories rely on ideal customer research. 

I know you’ve heard about the ideal customer avatar. You might even be at a place where you’re like I’m so sick of this work. I get it. And I hope that at the end of this blog, you’re feeling revamped, re-energized, and you have a new strategy to get the feedback and the information that you need to totally elevate your branding and your marketing. 

So why is ideal customer work so important?

Well, at the end of the day, you have a business. You’re selling to someone and you better know who the heck they are or they’re not going to buy from you. As I’ve mentioned, ideal customer work plays a role in both branding and marketing. 

So from a branding side, we want to focus on ideal customer work to really understand who your customer is at their core. Understanding what their big problems are, their struggles, their goals, their aspirations is incredible information.

You can even use ideal customer work to find out what social media platforms they’re hanging out on, where they get most of their information and other people that they look to for advice in your industry.

The branding work and ideal customer work can help you set a very strong foundation for your brand and your business moving forward.

Once you know who your ideal customer is, it’s much easier to craft your offer to serve them at the highest level.

You can craft better messaging, which has got to play a role in your website copy and your marketing. You’re also able to better understand emotional branding, which I talk about in this video right here, where I share a little bit more on how we make our audience feel and the connection that we create. 

In addition to that, one of the things that play a huge role in branding is the art of storytelling. And in order to tell great stories as a business owner, you’ve got to know who you’re telling those stories to. It’s not enough to just share stories to share stories. We want to share stories that are going to motivate our audience to take action, aka buy our product or our service.

So from a branding perspective, ideal customer research is so important because it’s going to set the foundation for everything that you’re going to create in your business. 

From a marketing perspective, it’s all about content. 

When you’re thinking of content, you want to make sure that you’re thinking of content that not only attracts new people to your community but also moves them through the client buying journey. 

It’s really important that you understand that your content is there to not only let people know who you are, build that brand awareness, pull them in and attract them, but ultimately connect with them, leading to the sale. 

It’s so important to understand who you’re talking to and ultimately who your business is for.

KEY ELEMENTS TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER

I want to share with you some updated strategies for doing your ideal customer work. But before I do that, let’s talk about some of the key elements that you need to understand about your ideal customer. 

TIP #1: IDENTIFY DEMOGRAPHICS

I recommend that you start broad and then narrow it down a bit as you go. 

So this stage is all about the demographic. These are the things that you know about the person that you ultimately want to work with or who your product and service are ultimately for. Depending on where you’re at in your business, you might have more information about this individual or you might have nothing. 

At this stage you want to think about the individual people who AREN’T the right fit for your brand, ultimately starting to narrow it down.

One of the ways to do this is to focus on things like demographics. 

What do we know about this person? 

Is this person just graduating from college? 

Is this person a working mother? 

Who is this person?

And I’m not recommending that you have to focus on men or women or mothers or not mothers, but those are some of the things to start considering.

What do you know about the individual that you want to work with? The offer that you’re ultimately creating, who is it really designed for? 

This information is going to help you narrow it down from everyone, which is not an ideal customer, to getting a little bit more specific. 

TIP #2: ANSWER THE TOP QUESTIONS

Then the next thing you want to do is answer a few top questions. 

What is the problem they are facing now?

Every single business has to solve a problem. This is actually part of the niching down process.

If you don’t solve a problem, you’re going to have a really hard time selling anything. And just so we’re clear every product, every service can solve a problem. It’s your job to figure out what that problem is and narrow it down really specific to your ideal customer.

So let’s say that my target market is new moms and I sell a program that teaches you how to tidy up your house. The problem is that new moms don’t have a lot of time in their schedules. They’re tired of a messy house. It’s overwhelming. It’s weighing on their shoulders, not speaking from experience at all. And they want to understand better strategies to keep it maintained if you will. Keep their sanity. 

So the problem is that they want to be able to tidy up their home in a limited amount of time. And they don’t understand exactly how to do that. 

Every single thing comes down to a problem. 

What is the problem that your ideal customer is facing?

What are their struggles with that problem?

How are they feeling about that problem? Where are they now? 

This is incredibly helpful with marketing because it allows you to connect with your ideal customer and allows them to feel seen, heard and understood. 

Where do they want to be?

So they’ve got these current struggles, they’ve got these pain points, they have this problem. What do they ultimately want? 

If they resolve this problem, what does life look like for them? Do they suddenly get to make their eggs in 10 seconds and stop cursing every morning at their pan that keeps sticking? 

You want to understand what the core problem is, where they are now, and what those pain points and struggles are. 

How would they describe that to you and where do they ultimately want to be?

What are the specific obstacles in their way?

Why haven’t they solved the problem yet? Why haven’t they done it on their own or with another product or service? What are some of the things that they’re specifically looking for that they haven’t found? 

Another thing that you can start to explore is the objections. 

I find that these are incredibly helpful for service-based entrepreneurs. If someone hasn’t solved their problem just yet, they probably have some obstacles standing in their way. 

What are some mindset pieces that they have? Maybe they think they don’t have enough time to do the work. Maybe they think that they don’t have the energy or the capacity to take on something else. 

What are those objections? These are incredibly helpful when it comes to selling your product or your service. If you can understand these obstacles and the objections your ideal customer is going through, then you can use that in your marketing.

So these are just some questions that you can start to organize the research that I’m about to give you my favorite tools for, into these little categories. 

This is going to help you with your branding and your marketing overall. 

MARKET RESEARCH STRATEGIES

So let’s now talk about some of my favorite ways to do market research. 

Number one is a free tool that not enough people know about that is incredibly powerful. When you think about your own life and your own customer journey with different products and services, where do you turn when you need something? Google. 

We all go to Google. It is a database of information.

And the free tool that we love to use is called Answer The Public. 

Answer the Public

What Answer The Public does is it takes the information from Google and it categorizes it into questions and into sub-categories. So you can go on to Answer The Public and type in an ideal customer that you know you want to work with. 

You can type in a core problem. 

You can type in your industry. 

So you can start as broad as you want. And then it will divide it up into a bunch of different webs. 

Let’s say I type in brand photography. I am a photographer and I want to sell brand photography and I want to better understand my ideal customer and what they’re looking for when it comes to brand photography. 

I can type in brand photography and then it’s going to show me all of the top questions and searches related to brand photography.

With each of those, you can actually click and it’ll open up another tab and show you the Google searches. It’ll show you the most popular blog posts, the most popular websites. And you can start to do a little bit of research. You can get as granular with it as you want, but what this is really offering you is information on what your audience is asking. 

This can go back to what they are struggling with? 

How are they phrasing their problem?

What outcomes do they ultimately want? 

Answer The Public is an incredible, helpful tool and it’s free with a few searches every single month. So you can definitely use it to your advantage.

YouTube

YouTube is a search engine platform meaning that people are turning to the platform to look for solutions to their problems. 

You can use YouTube’s basic function by typing in brand photography. We’ll just run with this topic, brand photography, and see what YouTube is suggesting auto-populates.

This can be incredibly helpful for finding some of the top searches within your industry. 

Further than that, you can start to explore some of the top videos and look at the comments section, see what people are asking and if it’s a really popular video and you’re seeing that it has tons and tons of views, that’s probably a top struggle that your ideal customer is dealing with. 

So not only looking at the topic for the video that has a bunch of views and saying, “Wow, okay, this must be something that my ideal customer is struggling with if everyone’s watching this,” but also exploring the comment section. 

This can be incredibly valuable for grabbing specific language that your audience is using.

Pinterest

To piggyback off of YouTube, another search engine platform that we like coming in at number three is Pinterest. 

Oh, I just love Pinterest so much. As a marketer, it’s a freaking goldmine. 

Pinterest uses a very, very similar feature because it’s a search engine where it will auto-populate with the most popular searches. 

So if you’re going in for brand photography, you type brand photography in the search bar, Pinterest will help you out and tell you the top searches for brand photography. 

It’ll just kind of fill in those keywords. Again, another incredibly helpful way for you to start to get content ideas and information from your audience.

Amazon

The next one uses another popular platform that we’re all familiar with and that is Amazon. 

Look, no matter how you feel about Amazon, it is where people are buying their books. So one of the things that I started doing really early on in my business was starting to explore book reviews. 

Finding books that were related to my industry. Now I totally understand this might not work for everyone. With all of these, take the ones that will best serve you and your industry and run with them. You don’t have to use all of them, but this is a really helpful one especially if your industry typically has very specific topics and books related to what you do. 

So let’s say I am focused on marketing. I can go to Amazon, type in marketing, and choose the book option from the dropdown.

This is going to show me all the top marketing books. I’m going to look for the ones that have the most reviews because that’s where the information lies. 

I can then go to that book, I can read a little bit about it. 

What was the general idea of the book, scroll down and start reading the reviews. Now the positive reviews are nice, but what you really want to focus on are the negative reviews. 

What did people say? 

Did they say it was too simple? 

Did they say that it didn’t answer this question? 

Did they not like it because of X, Y and Z? 

This is going to give you more information about what your audience is looking for and a possible gap that you can fill in your content creation.

The next one is all about community forums. Now I’ll be honest with you, I don’t use this one very often, but I’ve had a lot of clients who find success and use them for themselves. 

The community forums, Reddit is a great example of this, where you can go type in a specific topic, whether it’s a specific problem that you’ve identified for your ideal customer, your industry as a whole, or something that you specifically do. 

Personal branding would be a great example for my business. Type that in and see what people are talking about. See what types of questions individuals are asking. This is a really helpful tool for getting very specific language for your ideal customer. 

In addition to that, and one of the platforms that I’m a little bit more familiar with and comfortable with is Facebook groups. 

Now, I am not suggesting that you go into every Facebook group and you just start asking random questions. Exhausting, outdated. We don’t need to do that anymore.

Facebook has a search function, so you don’t have to do all of the outward postings and choosing a cute pic for attention. We just get to go into the Facebook group that we know is full of our ideal customers, go to the search bar, and start typing in very specific keywords related to the things that you offer, your industry, your problems and see what questions come up. 

Whether that’s a single post or actually in the comments. I have found gold mines in Facebook groups before.

In fact, and I’m going to be sharing with you, how I map out 90 days worth of content, that video is actually coming out next week. One of my favorite places to find content ideas are Facebook groups. 

Survey Your Audience

The last one I’m going to share with you is really helpful if you already have an audience. Now, you don’t have to have a huge audience. You don’t have to have thousands of email subscribers or fans on Instagram or whatever you use to classify an audience for your business. Although I recommend that that’s your email list. You can have 10, 15, 100 people. It doesn’t matter. 

This tool is really helpful for getting really specific information from people who’ve already said yes to your brand. And those are surveys.

Every 90 days-ish, I will put together a survey for my audience and ask very specific questions like:

What are you struggling with right now? 

What is the number one problem that you’re facing? 

What are you looking to do within the next 90 days? 

What would you love from me? 

If I could create one piece of content that would help you, what would that piece of content be? 

And that’s incredibly helpful for getting specific feedback from your audience, making open-ended questions so you can get very specific language and then using that to create your content moving forward. 

Conclusion

So no matter which one of these options you choose, I hope that you see that there is so much information waiting for you on the internet. 

The biggest thing I want you to remember is that we’re focused on getting specific language from our ideal customer. 

It’s not enough to assume what our audience is saying. We really want to use the words that they are using to describe their current struggles, to describe their problem, to describe where they ultimately want to be. 

That is going to help you with your marketing. 

It’s going to help you with your messaging. 

It’s going to help you with your consistent income as a business owner. 

The 6 Stories Your Brand Needs to be Telling

 Have you heard recently that you need to tell stories in your branding? I bet you have 😉 It’s bordering on being the next “shiny marketing tactic” that everyone needs. Telling stories in your branding may be essential, but it can also be really difficult. Not everyone has the gift of natural storytelling! You’re great with BIG ideas and solving problems, but that doesn’t always translate to entertaining stories rich with details and imagery. Oh, and then there’s the fact that there are thousands of stories you COULD tell, but which ones do your clients actually care about? As our society evolves and consumers care more and more about the products they buy, telling the *right* stories is essential to connecting on an emotional level with your ideal clients.

Humans naturally love stories. We bond over mutual experiences and enjoy sharing those experiences with each other. We love telling stories, reading stories, and hearing stories. Why would Hollywood movies be a multi-billion dollar business if this wasn’t true? We love hearing how good trumps evil. Or watching how a hero overcomes impossible obstacles. We yearn to hear about people falling in love. We relate to strangers sharing how they’ve grown and learned from their mistakes.

We are WIRED to respond to stories. I read an article recently by Paul J. Zak titled “Why Your Brain Loves A Good Story.” It was *so* interesting… #nerdalert! He wrote about studies his team has completed using a neurochemical called oxytocin.

“…oxytocin is a key “it’s safe to approach others” signal in the brain. Oxytocin is produced when we are trusted or shown a kindness, and it motivates cooperation with others. It does this by enhancing the sense of empathy, our ability to experience others’ emotions.”

Mr. Zak’s team experimented with narratives shot on video. They had participants watch narratives to see if oxytocin levels would rise as they do when participants have face to face conversations. Spoiler alert! They found that character-driven stories raise oxytocin production in the brain. Just like they do when you’re talking with someone in person!

What does this mean for your branding? A great way to connect on a psychological level with your audience is through telling stories about your brand! Boom! Science!

Elements of a Great Story

I recently watched a TED talk given by Andrew Stanton titled “The Clues to a Great Story.” Of all the research I’ve done on storytelling, this short presentation is my favorite. It’s worth watching. But if you don’t have time, here are 2 of my favorite highlights you can directly apply to the stories you tell in your branding.

“Make a Promise”: One element Andrew calls out is that a great story always makes a promise to the audience that the story is leading to something.  Call it foreshadowing. Call it a spoiler. But what’s key is that while there’s a point to your story, your audience needs to work for it.  They may understand from the beginning what you’re getting at, or what lesson you want them to learn, but they can’t predict the entire story from the get go. This keeps their interest.

“Use What You Know”: Draw inspiration from what you know, what you believe, and who you are. As obvious as this sounds… many people forget to follow this advice. You want to paint the perfect picture, or write the perfect piece of copy for your business so you get stuck in a never-ending brainstorm cycle. But, if you just pull from your strongest values and build a story from something that truly resonates deep down, you’re writing gold. You’re writing about something foundational for your brand that you’re passionate about, which is all your audience really wants from you.

Why Your Audience Loves Stories

Before we get into specific stories you should be telling in your branding, take a minute to truly understand all the reasons your audience *wants* to hear your stories.

Escape from our own lives: We all get stuck in the minutiae of everyday life. What better way than storytelling to give your audience a quick break from reality. Use stories to help them escape from boring tasks, even for a minute, to better understand something about your brand, your process, or your origin.

Meet the person behind the brand: More and more, today’s consumers want to get to know the brains behind the brand. Consumers want to understand that the company isn’t just about profits and the bottom line. We want to know the brand has meaning and has real, ethical people running it.

Common ground and shared struggles: It’s human nature to want to be part of a group. To know we’re not alone in this crazy world, especially when it comes to fears and obstacles. Connect with your audience by letting them know you understand their struggles and how you overcame similar obstacles in your own life.

Find new motivation: Speaking of fears and obstacles…discovering motivation to get PAST that challenge is something we all yearn for. Your ideal audiences would love to find the motivation to ditch the sweets or discover their inner strength to take action on their dreams.

Learn something new: My favorite type of story? One where I learn something and didn’t even realize it. That’s part of the reason I love movies based on true stories 😉 Telling a story around a process or technique you use in your brand is the best way to make something (possibly) mundane interesting for your audience.

Stories You Need In Your Branding

Low-to-High Origin Story

One of the most common stories you see in business is the low-to-high origin story. Just like it sounds… this is the story that explains a business/personal low point and how the brand overcame that challenge. These stories build up the journey of a business and detail the struggles, lessons, and strengths the business discovered along the way. And the best part? The brand gets to take some time talking themselves up. 😉 These stories celebrate the success of the brand and reinforce the simple fact that hard work and dedication can move mountains.

Here’s the Low to High Origin Story broken down into steps:

• Where did you come from?
• What was a low point for your career or life?
• What was the turning point?
• What makes you credible to help now?

Why Story

This story model is probably the second most common in business and it’s exponentially growing in popularity. This goes back to something I wrote earlier in this article: Modern consumers want to know *more* about the brands they purchase from. Kaye wrote about this shift recently in her published article: “Meaning Over Money”. There needs to be a deeper, driving force behind your brand that’s not just… ”I want to make more money. “ For some entrepreneurs, it’s freedom.  For others, it’s improving the ways humans interact with the environment. Other entrepreneurs are motivated by a healthier, happier population. Whatever the reason, the story of *WHY* you built your brand is strong and cannot be ignored.

Here are some ways Why Stories can show up in your branding:

• Why do you do the work that you do?
• Why are you passionate about helping people in this area?
• Why do you work with the people that you do?
• What drives you to get up and work each day?
• Was there ever a time in your life that you needed the work that you do?

Human Element Stories

These stories are a great way to deepen the connection with your target audience. Tell stories that show you are human, even if they are “off topic.” Sprinkle these stories into day-to-day communications with your warm audience to give your relationship some flavor and depth. Again, this all comes down to showing your audience that there are real people behind the brand. These stories also help take some of the pressure away from constantly selling. Not everything you write about needs to be a pitch for your brand. Sometimes it’s nice to just take a step back and share something that makes you unique or weird or adventurous.

Here are some Human Element Story ideas to get you started:

• What hobbies do you have outside of your work?
• What is your family life like?
• What’s your favorite TV show? Book? Podcast?
• What are you unreasonably passionate about?
• What’s something you’re really bad at?
• Where have your travels taken you?

Brand Value Stories

These stories are some of my favorites to read about other brands. But, before you can write them, you need to identify the top values that drive your brand. I recently published a brand analysis on the clothing brand ADAY. They use this type of story throughout their About page. They value sustainability, simplicity, and technology. So, they tell a story about bringing clothing back to the basics and making technical clothing that fits into an active, traveling, working lifestyle. They also weave in stories about the sustainable manufacturing plants they work with and the high quality fabrics they produce. This brand expertly demonstrates how they live their brand values out loud in the clothing they produce.

Ready to write your own Brand Value Stories?

• Identify your top 3-5 brand values
• Explain why one (or all) of these values is important to you
• Tell your audience how you live this value out loud

Client/Customer Stories

Ok, this one mmaayyyy seem obvious. You probably have some case studies or testimonials already written where past clients talk about how *amazing* you and your services are. BUT, don’t underestimate the power of customer stories when you’re explaining your services or the results you get for your clients. Numbers or statistics just aren’t as relatable for your audience. You can talk about how many logos you’ve created as a designer or you can talk about how many clients you work with as a copywriter, but that’s just a number. Those results just don’t feel as concrete or real until you relate it to a specific person’s experience. We see ourselves in other people’s stories, so use that to your brand’s advantage!

Here’s what a Client/Customer Story can look like:

• Describe the client (any details you can provide deepens the connection with ideal clients)
• Explain what was wrong. Why did they want/purchase your product or service?
• How did s/he FEEL before working together
• What did you do for them?
• What was the result?
• How did you improve his/her situation? Or life?
• How did they FEEL after?

Teaching Story

Telling your audience that they need to do something, or teaching them a lesson isn’t *fun* for them. Depending on your audience, it can be a one-way ticket to being ignored. BUT, using stories to get your point across hides the learning and makes the lesson more relatable for your audience. One of Kaye’s personal stories is a perfect example here. One lesson we teach is to be unapologetically your *most* authentic self. So to get this point across, Kaye tells a story about a time in her life where she felt inauthentic. She tells a story about a job she had that she didn’t love and didn’t enjoy where she had to fake a southern accent to fit in. Reading this story, you understand how disappointed she *feels* acting out this personality that’s not really her. It gets the lesson across without her ever actually having to say… ”be authentic.”

Examples of Teaching Stories:

• Lesson learned
• Advice to your audience
• Celebrity that lives what you’re teaching
• A parable or metaphor to illustrate a lesson
• Lessons from history

As you can see, the possibilities are endless on incorporating stories into your branding. And the best news? It doesn’t matter what you sell, how big (or small) your team is, or what industry you’re in.

Stories WILL make your brand stronger and WILL create stronger relationships with your clients.

So, take some time and brainstorm a story that fits into each of the 6 categories above. If you have a big team, have a few key brand leaders write what they think these stories are individually and compare results. What matters is taking action now. Use the fact that your audience loves stories to your advantage. Use it to share details behind your branding that shed light on your strengths, values, and unique quirks. Your audience will love the flavor and the shift from standard website layouts and copy.

Flat Lay Photos: 10 Tips for Acing the Internet

 Creating a flat lay photo is one of the easiest ways to take your Instagram posts from “nice” to “Are you a production designer? This looks like it was in Vogue.” Whether you want to create some sweet Facebook ads for your small business or up your personal branding game, we’ll take you through all the steps to creating the perfect flat lay photo. 

What is flat lay photography?

Flat lay photos are images shot directly from above. Think bird’s eye view, with said view consisting of a beautiful arrangement of objects. Great flat lay photography tells a story through its objects, colors, and organization. It’s become immensely popular over the past few years, showing up frequently on social media. Personal brands use flat lays, company brands use flat lays…

…errrybody uses flat lays. Now let’s walk through some flat lay photography ideas to learn how to use ’em yourself. 

1. Get inspired by flat lay photos

If you’re not sure where to get started, or what direction you wanna take, we suggest browsing Pinterest or Instagram with the #flatlay to get an idea of what looks you like. Or browse our Pinterest pins and other templates for inspo.

2. Assemble your props like a pro

Just like props exist in theatre to amplify the scene, props are used in flat lay photography to amp up the pic. Follow these intuitive tips to assemble your best-laid photo (pun intended).

Appropriate theme

Consider the focus of your flat lay photo. If it’s business-driven, maybe you have a beauty blog and the answer is super straightforward (cosmetics!), or maybe you’re going for something a little less concrete (like trying to capture the feeling of excitement before an impending journey). Whatever it might be, establish a theme and keep it in mind while selecting your props so you end up with a cohesive look.

Prop type

Let’s talk prop type. Props can be neutral or universal objects like plants, books, paperweights, or everyday knickknacks you’d find around the house that photograph well. You don’t want to detract attention from the main subject – only to have complementary objects that will enhance the photo.

If you’re in the health and wellness field, consider stones and crystals, or yoga-focused objects. Décor with motivational quotes is always a good idea, too. Consider what energy or vibe different objects give off as you begin to assemble them. And put yourself in your ideal audience’s shoes – how does this flat lay make you feel to observe it from the opposite perspective?

Prop volume

Don’t be shy – pick a lot of props (more than you would conceivably use) so that you can swap things in and out while you compose your shot. As you begin to shoot, you don’t want to have to go back to your in-home shopping spree. The small adjustments you make can be intuitive and result in the perfect, marketable flat lay photo.

Prop color

As you peruse your home for props, it helps to have a color palette in mind. Different colors prompt different moods and feelings in an audience, so consider color theory as you prep. How does your variety of props make you feel as they lay together? How would you like to feel? Let these decisions inform your focus.

Diverse shapes and sizes

Lastly, go for objects of varying shapes and sizes in order to prompt visual interest. What just looks good together? Trust your gut. Maybe too many bulky objects clash. Maybe alternating objects as big, small, big, small, looks too staged. Create balance in your photo by mixing smaller objects with larger objects in a subtle way and placing objects of similar colors on both sides of the image.

This is a great time to consider diversifying textures as well — whether that pertains to your background or the objects themselves. Soft, rough, hard, smooth. Just like we desire foods to have a balance of salt, sour, bitter, and sweet, the same is true here. Balance is key. As you keep finding inspiration at home and on social, you’ll get clear about what exactly feels right.

Be fluid, be creative, be flexible!

3. Grab an extra pair of hands to assemble the flat lay

Some of our favorite flat lay photos look more “candid” because they include people (or, more accurately, body parts). If you want to create a look that has a sense of movement and action, consider enlisting the help of a friend. It’ll be way easier/less impossible than trying to pose and photograph yourself.

4. Pick a flat lay friendly background

When choosing a background, it’s best to keep things simple. A plain white background works well because it won’t distract from your props, but you can also pick something neutral like a wood floor or table. If you want to use a colored background, you can get crafty by taping some matte wrapping paper on a floor or table. 

Or, if you’ll be doing flat lays consistently, consider investing in some vinyl backdrops to easily create a rustic look. You can also magically erase any background you have after the photo shoot and put in a new one with our automatic background remover tool.

5. Stage your flat lay photo

Now that you have all your props and your background, it’s time to get organized. Set up next to a window and try to shoot in the morning or late afternoon when you’ll get the best light. Try not to use a flash, as this will create shadows.

When setting up your shot, leave a little bit of space between each object. This will help highlight each prop and keep your shot from looking cluttered. 

If you plan on posting your photo to Instagram, a square layout looks really nice. If you’re shooting with your phone, it’s easy to set up a shot by picking the square setting in your camera.

6. Leave space for text and graphics

You might want to leave some space where you can add text or graphics in post-production. If you’re creating an ad, this is where you can add your brand name and logo. Or if you’re going for a more inspirational look, you can stick in a quote.

7. Shoot from above

Climb up on a ladder or step stool and get to shooting. Creating distance between you and the flat lay will help you fit everything into the shot. This is also one of the only ways to ensure that your photo actually looks flat.

Once you’re up there, take a few test shots and don’t be afraid to keep moving props around until it looks just right. When you have your perfect shot, it’s time to edit!

8. Work some basic editing magic

Start your flat lay design quickly with one of our designer-made templates. 

You might have a great photo (we knew you could do it), but a few simple edits to your image’s colors, exposure, and clarity can seriously up the wow factor.

9. Add text and graphics

If you left space in your image for text and graphics, now’s the time to add them in.

10. Post it and bask in the glory of your social media savvy

You probably didn’t spend all this time on your flat lay photo just to let it sit. Time to share with the world! 

Etsy Marketing Tips

Use Etsy SEO For Better Etsy Search Ranking

Etsy SEO is probably one of the most important things you can do to increase the visibility of your shop and products. And therefore, increasing your Etsy sales.

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You probably already know some of the ranking factors of Etsy search engine: How well your title and tags match the shopper’s search, how well the product sells, how well reviewed is your shop, etc.  They are crucial in allowing your listings to show up on the first page of Etsy search results.

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You can check out the complete list of Etsy search ranking factors here.

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One of the most important strategies I use about Etsy SEO is to do comprehensive keyword research. Keyword research is the process of finding out the search terms that your customers are using. And using the right keywords to make your product able to rank in Etsy search. A good way to find them is to use the autocomplete and the category functions within Etsy.

Using those keywords, you can now plug them in the title and tags of your product listing. Remember to 

• Match the exact keyword in title and tag
• Use all 13 tags to maximize the chance of showing up in search
• Aim for longer keywords as they have less competition and easier to rank

There are many more strategies to optimize your Etsy search. 

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Write High Converting Product Description

A good and compelling product description will greatly improve your conversion rate.

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There are 3 main purposes of product description:

• Entice and capture shopper’s attention
• Show how the product can improve shopper’s life or solve their problem
• Remove barriers of purchase

Many other Etsy sellers forget about these points and start writing the things they want to say, like the color, size, etc. They are good information, but you have to ask yourself, what’s in it for your customer?

Let’s look at this example from Dyson:

It perfectly blends the fan’s features with benefits for the user. The customer knows how this fan can improve their home. There are a lot of other big brands that you can learn how to write compelling descriptions from. Lush, Dyson, Reebok, etc.

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One of the best ways to improve your Etsy search ranking and sales is to boost your conversion rate. And the most effective place to start is your product listings.

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Take Eye-Catching Product Photos

You don’t need an expensive DSLR to take product photos that sell. 

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Natural lights are the easiest to handle. Try not to use direct harsh sunlight, but light that is reflected off other objects, light through a thin curtain, or lighting in early morning / late afternoon.

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Learning photo editing tools are also essential. The photos coming out of your phone (or even your expensive camera) won’t be perfect. Knowing how to edit the photos to be brighter, more contrast-y, or correcting the colors, would mean whether the shopper clicks your product or not.

Develop New Products That Reaches New Customers

Listing fresh new products can have some great benefits for your shop:

• Freshness of the store (which can help Etsy SEO)
• Customers have a reason to come back (which can increase sales and conversion rate)
• Explore a new market niche (which can improve overall sales)

If you have fewer than 30-50 products, one of the best things you can do to improve your shop is to list more products.

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You probably have some bestsellers in your shop that seem to be loved by many customers. Those products that constantly get sales, have good reviews and feedback, and create return customers.

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Look at those products closely and see what makes them standout. Reading the positive reviews of those products may help. You can then create similar products or products with variation on color, materials and so on.

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Another way to create new products is to check how you can fill the gap in your target market niche. Listen to your potential customers online. Find them from negative reviews from Etsy, Amazon, eBay, etc. or on forum. And see whether there is an opportunity that you can create a better product to fit their needs.

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Finally, creating seasonal items is a good way to reach new customers. Make special versions of your popular items for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and so on. Doing that has a good chance of boosting Etsy sales during those periods.

Focus On Products That Doesn’t Convert Well

These products have already achieved one of the hardest parts: traffic. Now it’s time to find out the reasons why they are not selling and improve on them.

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Bad photos, boring product description, missing details, too expensive or cheap, etc. 

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For more details of how to improve your underperforming listings that have traffic, go back to the previous points of better photography and better product description as they are the basis of a high converting product.

Use Etsy Advertising For Fast Growth

Yes, it costs money, but Etsy advertising is one of the most direct ways if you want to increase your Etsy sales fast if you do it right.

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Some simple tactics when using Etsy promotion: 

• Advertise your bestsellers first as shoppers are more likely to click and buy them
• Then promote your mid-range products (those get sales but not as much)
• Check consistently especially in the beginning and turn off the promoted listings that don’t sell (especially high views and no sales)
• Make sure the cost doesn’t outweigh your profit
• Good tool to use when you are running a sale as shoppers are more likely to convert

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Create Branding That Customers Love

When you think about coffee, Starbucks pops into your mind. Sport shoes? Nike and Adidas. You get the idea.

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Branding and brand awareness are one of the most important factors of success for a business. And it’s also one of the most difficult ones to improve because so much is involved in it.

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Many people think branding is just the shop name, logo, or your business card designs, but it’s much more than that. It involves all the “touchpoints” with your customers; Branding is felt by the customer whenever they interact with your shop.

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From logo and banner, to customer service and your product packaging, you should think about how to impress your target customer.

Leverage Email Marketing For Long Term Customers

Email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to build a strong relationship with your customers. So they will return for future purchases. Your shop will be the first to pop into their minds when they need the thing you sell.

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How do you get their email address? From your order.

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But be careful!

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It is against Etsy rules to just add your customers’ emails to your mailing list. So don’t do that!

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Instead, you should ask them for a signup. Give them a signup link for your mailing list and entice them with benefits for signing up.

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Be careful of NOT sending them a discount coupon code too soon. You don’t want them to go “I just paid full price 30 minutes before, and now I have a 10% off coupon that I could’ve used?” Not a good feeling.

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Build up a good relationship with these emails:

• Welcome email
• Something extra for your purchase (e.g. care guide)
• Check whether they like their purchase. Ask them for a review, and not hesitate to find you if there’s any problem
• Coupon code for next purchase to make them feel special and encourage repeat purchases
• Keep them up to date with new products and sales

‍Run A Sale The Right Way

Running a sale is a quick way to get some extra sales. But there are a few things to keep in mind if you don’t want to run into traps.

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One of the biggest mistakes sellers can make is to run sales and give discounts so often that customers expect it. Online customers are smart. They can sense the prices and the pattern, whether subconsciously or not. 

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You essentially make the discounted price your new ‘regular’ price, cutting your profit margin by a chunk.

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So, knowing when to give discounts and when not to is crucial. 

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Another point is that many customers are sick of the overly sale-sy phrases. “Mega sale!”, “only today!”, “limited offer!”. Over-using them or using them when you don’t mean it will jeopardize the trust from your customers.

Create Product Bundle For Increased Order Size

Bundling your bestsellers with some other products can work as a way to increase order size. Make sure the bundle makes sense. The product can be of similar style, often used together (like shaver with shaving cream), etc.

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You should be able to give them a discount for the increased order size.

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Include Small Gift/Freebie To Impress Customers

Reciprocity increases sales and loyal customers.

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Study shows that customers are more likely to come back and make a purchase if they receive a small gift or a nice surprise, especially for handmade items.

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So surprise them with a small gift!

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Even better if it’s a sample of another popular product in your shop. It gives a good reason for your customer to come back and buy that product.

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However, this is not a time that more is better. Sometimes you don’t want to “devalue” what you sell. If you give another full product that sells for the same price to your customer for free. They will question whether the thing they purchase is worth that much in the beginning.

‍Encouraging Repeat Customers With Coupon Codes

As mentioned in the previous email section, coupon codes are a powerful way to entice your customers to return to your shop.

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Other than sending them emails, another easier way to send them a coupon is using Etsy’s own system of a “thank you” coupon. Usually a 10-15% coupon can do the trick. After all, you want to reserve higher discounts (20-30% off) for big sales in the future.

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Adding Scarcity To Your Product (Only 3 Items Left)

One of the strategies I use for my Etsy shop is to create scarcity. Etsy puts “only 3 available and it’s in 8 people’s cart” to create scarcity and urgency for shoppers. It makes them feel if they don’t act soon, they may lose the chance of buying that popular product.

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Offer Free Shipping

Etsy changes the Etsy algorithm to give priority to product listings that offer free shipping over $35 or more.

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Offering free shipping will improve your search ranking and potentially increase sales of your Etsy store. Having a clear shipping policy doesn’t hurt either. 

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Use Social Media Properly

Who isn’t on Facebook or Instagram these days?

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They can skyrocket your Etsy sale if done properly. However, many sellers have the mistake of seeing them as sales tools, and only posting product photos and expecting sales to come in.

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Keep in mind that no one really needs to see you posting your own products every day. In most social media platforms, people are not looking to shop.

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Instead, you should post content that benefits people (and still keep it related to your shop). If you sell home decor, you can post content about how to style the product in your house. If you sell clothing, styling tips can be a good way to go.

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The aim of social media is to display a good brand image and build relationships with your potential customers. Those relationships would be essential when they are ready to purchase as your brand may be the first to pop into their mind.

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Write A Blog To Generate External Traffic

Having your own blog is a long-term strategy to generate relevant traffic that can turn into valuable customers. However, be prepared to spend quite a lot of time, and results may not appear until months or even years later. It’s not a fast way to increase Etsy sales.

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The goal is to have your website show up in search engines like Google, Yahoo, or even social media like Pinterest. And then bring those visitors to your Etsy shop.

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Write blog articles that help your target customers. So when they search for information, you can present yourself as an expert and provide them with the information they are looking for. If done right, you can even capture their email address and send them to your Etsy shop.

Have A Presence On Forums

When I talk about forum, I’m referring to forums external to Etsy like Quora and other similar sites. Don’t waste your time promoting on Etsy forums as it’s mostly sellers there, and no matter how good your product is, they are not interested in buying.

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This is another way to be helpful to your potential customers. No one wants to see you just promoting your products on every forum post. Instead, use your expertise and skills to answer your potential customers’ questions. Show them that you are a trustworthy advisor. Show them you are an expert. 

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If done right, the people reading that would be interested in knowing who you are. Have the information about your shop ready in your profile so visitors can visit your shop.

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Promote With User Generated Content (Review Photos, Influencers, Etc)

UGC means user generated content. They can be the photos that your customers post in the review, short videos that they post on Instagram, or even the product review of influencers.

They are effective and believable because it represents the word-of-mouth referral that customers trust.

‍But how do you get them?

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One of the best ways is by asking your customers. Have a card encouraging them to upload a photo when reviewing the product. Or send them an email reminding them if you have them in your mailing list.

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After getting permission, you can then use the UGC on social media posts, email marketing campaigns, etc.

And you can use that to your advantage.

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Put the quantity of your bestsellers to 3 or lower. It creates a powerful sense of urgency for your potential shopper at 0 cost to you. It will look like this example of a jewelry search result page:

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