How brand clarity will help you grow your business
The word that you can not get around when you have your own business: brand clarity.
With just a quick Google or Pinterest search you can find anything from free brand clarity workbooks to 90-minute brand clarity calls for $600. But what is brand clarity, why is it so hard to get it and how will it help you grow your business?
So in this blog, we're diving into:
What brand clarity is
Why it is so hard to get brand clarity
The 4 steps of brand clarity
What is brand clarity?
To really understand what brand clarity is I want to start with the opposite: overwhelm. This can come from a number of things, right?
Maybe you do know what you need to do, but you constantly get stuck on how to execute your plans. So you're not really getting anywhere and feeling frustrated from not seeing results.
Or you don't know what steps to take next. You have been in business a while and you know where you want to go next, but there's just so much to do, and you don't know in what order you should do them.
Did anyone say Shiny Object Syndrome? You feel that there are just so many options out there that you jump on everything that seems interesting. So you have an almost finished ebook, have written some modules for a course and are working on a membership.
To kick overwhelm to the curb you need to create a solid direction for your business. So that your ever-growing to-do list, which feels like you're trying to dig yourself out of a hole that just keeps getting bigger, is replaced by a clear focus. And this focus and direction come from being having brand clarity.
So instead of that your time, energy, resources and budget is spread over so many directions that it's no wonder you're not seeing the results that you are looking for, your brand clarity will give you your business true north so that you will always have something to fall back on and guide your decisions. From how to spend your time and energy to your budget.
Why is it so hard to get brand clarity?
So if brand clarity is key to grow your business because you will know how to spend your time and energy to your budget why is it so hard to get this clarity?
There are a couple of reasons why I believe this is so hard:
brand clarity is not just 1 thing, it's a puzzle with a lot of individual pieces that all need to fit together
brand clarity is not a 1x thing, you need to keep evaluating and updating
as a business owner, you are in your own way
So let's dive a bit further into these reasons.
Brand Clarity is a puzzle
Just like you start with looking for the corner pieces to get you started with the outer lines of your puzzle, you need these same corner pieces, your brand foundation, for your business. Separately these pieces don’t have a large impact but once you start combining the pieces one by one to create that foundation, those boundaries before you can start with piecing together the rest of the puzzle - your brand strategy.
And as you will see from the illustration below, you do really need all the pieces of the puzzle to create the complete picture. When you miss one element, this can easily impact several other elements. And when it comes to your business, missing this one element can be the differences between getting clients or not having clients at all or between having ‘bad’ clients and ‘the right’ clients.
And you might know you need all of this but still struggle to see the connection between all the elements. So a bit further down I will break down the 4 steps of brand clarity.
Brand Clarity is not a 1x thing
When you start our business you are told to build the foundation, but after that initial stage hardly anyone talks about it anymore; the base or those corner pieces are there right? Well, not really. Like with everything in life, your business also changes over time:
You get a better understanding of what works and what doesn't, what your audience responds to and what not, which services work best
You understand better what success looks like for you. Maybe you started off working 5 days a week but now want to scale that down to 4
You learn which clients are the right match for how you work best (and which ones aren't)
You need to make a shift in your business because the market is changing
There are many more examples I can give here, but what it comes down to is that with each of these changes you are changing one (or more) of your corner pieces. However, what I see often is that the change is made but that it is not considered how this will affect all the other pieces of the puzzle.
So instead of making brand clarity a one-time thing, you need to make sure that everything in your business from visual branding, to marketing messages, website goals, positioning, services and client journey are all aligned to keep a consistent brand.
Brand Clarity is difficult because you are in your own way
This can probably be an article on its own but what it comes down to is that as a business owner, you can not look at your own work objectively. You have blind spots, limiting beliefs, fear of making the wrong decision, you might struggle with confidence in your own abilities and as a result, you're in your own way.
Just thinking about your business and what is not working over and over again is NOT going to give you clarity. I have seen it many times with clients and I am guilty of it myself as well because I feel I should be able to figure it out on my own thinking 'it's my business so I know best'. And yes, you are the only one who knows what's best for you, but you are also the one person that will sabotage yourself and do anything to protect yourself from what you fear most. This can be humiliation, rejection, regret, failure or something else.
So while you might know you need to niche down, the fear of making the wrong decision might stop you from taking that step. Or while you know you should stop relying on referrals to build consistent income, you might fear throwing away what you have already built so you're not making the change.
And while courses and memberships can be great if you're just starting out there comes a point where these become too generalised. They are not geared specifically to your business and you don't get eyes on your business for personalised advice. That's why you need to talk about your struggles with someone who is objective, can hold up a mirror, can see which pieces of the puzzle are missing or not connecting and knows how to change this.
The 4 steps of Brand Clarity
So what do you need to do to have brand clarity?
Brand clarity: Step 1
First, you need to look for those corner pieces that will be the driving force behind your business: Your purpose or why - and no, this is not to make money. This is about why are you starting this particular business.
Your vision and mission. Your vision is how you would like things to be in the future. You can see this as your big dream for your business. What success will look like for you? What do you aspire your business to be? So your vision is not about how you are going to do it, but about what you want your business to become. So where your vision is related to the future, your mission statement is about what you currently do by combining what you do and who you do it for.
Define your values and beliefs as this will drive your businesses behaviour. And as a result, this will impact your client journey and client satisfaction. And who does not love great testimonials that will help persuade your next clients?
Use the 3 blogs below to work on these first steps
The Brand Foundation Series - Why having a vision and mission is so important
The Brand Foundation Series - How to bring out your Why
The Brand Foundation Series - How to write the core values of your business
Brand clarity: Step 2
Next, you need to build those outside edges of your puzzle: How you can make your business stand out. Here you are going to combine your foundational elements, to help you stand out in the market.
Start with market research on your target audience and find out what they are struggling with. You will need this to create your messaging and to determine the topics you will talk about in your blogs posts, newsletters, videos and social media posts.
Then perform research on your competitors. Competitor research can be used to see who is already solving your ideal client's problems. But instead of looking at it from your point of view, you're trying to look at it from the audience point of view. What can you take away from what these designers are currently doing? And learn where the gaps in the market are when it comes to brand positioning. You could, for example, see that a type of service is missing, or a niche that is not served. Or all your competitors are using the same type of messaging, and you need to pick a different angle to stick out. But you can also notice you really need to step up your client experience as your competitors are getting a lot of good feedback about this in their testimonials.
Use the 3 blogs below to work on your brand positioning
The Brand Foundation Series - How can you make your business stand out
The Brand Foundation Series - How to do research on your competitors
The Brand Foundation Series - How to perform Market research
Brand clarity: Step 3
Now you have those outside edges of your puzzle you can start working towards the middle with this third step: your ideal client
Firstly you have to decide who you want to work with and who you don’t want to work with. And I don’t mean which niche you want to work with but which kind of people you want to work with. Because do you really want to work with every copywriter? Or every copywriter that works with coaches? Probably not. You might work best with people who are organised like you, or who respect your expertise because you don’t want to be an order-taker.
Then create your ideal client profile. In this profile, you are combining who you want to work with and what their demographics and psychographics are. As well as their goals and what is holding them back. Because, as mentioned above, you will need this to create your messaging and content.
Be sure to only start with the client profile after you have done the research. This step is key. If you don’t see a lot of engagement on social media posts, blog posts or newsletters your messaging is probably off. And there is a large chance this is caused by not knowing what your ideal audience is really struggling with.
Use the 2 blogs below to work on your defining your ideal client
The Brand Foundation Series - How to determine your ideal client
The Brand Foundation Series - How to create your ideal client profile
Brand clarity: Step 4
Now you know all of this, it’s time to combine everything that you have worked on and get your message out by creating your brand messaging. So be sure to keep going back to your answers and double-check if the way you are speaking is in line with what you want to achieve.
This step is so important. You can know everything about your client, but if you can not convince them of all the value that you have to offer, you will still struggle with converting these ideal clients.
Use the blog below to work on your brand messaging
The Brand Foundation Series - How to craft your Brand message
So there you have it, I really hope I was able to give you some more insights into how to create brand clarity, how everything is connected to each other and that if one piece of the puzzle is missing this can affect everything that you do and that if you take brand clarity serious and not make it a 1x thing, it can help you grow your business.
If you thought this post you might also like:
LOOKING FOR ANYTHING?
Popular items in the shop
FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM
FAVOURITE RESOURCES
