Business Branding for Solopreneurs: How to Increase the Reach of your Brand and Grow your Business
This is part 5 of my series on business branding for solopreneurs. You can find the other posts here: (Read Part 1. Read Part 2. Part 3. Read Part 4.) Let’s look in this final installment at how to increase the reach of your brand.
Launching a new brand can be a lot of fun. Everything is new and exciting and you are going from 0 to 60 in a matter of a few short months, sometimes weeks. Your graphs all show lines shooting upwards dramatically. It’s exciting and everything you do can help build brand awareness.
Once you’ve started to develop the awareness level, however, your next task will be to boost brand reach. Building your brand is all about consistently putting out the same message, repeatedly.
The more ways you can put out the message about your brand, the better. There are so many free ways to spread the word about your brand and present your target audience with messaging that it’s tough to know what to do first:
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- Blogging
- Videos
- PowerPoint presentations
- Podcasting
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- Guest blog posts
- Press releases
- Discussion boards
- Forums
- Interviews
- Email marketing
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The truth is you need to do a little every day. There is a lot to do and you’re all on your own at this point, so do what gives you the best results by tracking and testing.
For example, LinkedIn is a great way to expand your brand reach if you are interested in connecting with a professional audience and/or other businesses.
Pinterest is the best place to connect with women between 30 and 45-they make up about 85% of the audience at that site.
YouTube skews towards a male audience, but using the right keywords in your titles and descriptions of your videos can turn your channel into a magnet for women interested in high-quality content that makes their lives easier.
Every piece of content you create, for whichever of the above purposes, should further your brand. If you’re a business coach, your website should be about the various aspects of succeeding in business, not golf or pets or barbecues.
Use your knowledge of your niche to go where your prospective customers are, rather than wait for them to come to you. Use your niche research to plan products and services and write your sales letters.
Don’t sabotage your own brand
Sooner or later, you are going to have to hire someone to help you, such as a virtual assistant, graphic designer, or website developer. When you hire people, it’s essential for them to be on the same page as you in terms of what the brand represents.
A brand resides in the collective minds of your target market. What most of your market thinks about your company is your brand. If most people think you’re credible, you have a credible brand. If most people think your products are affordable, then affordability is part of your brand.
However, if you suddenly start to take a different tactic and don’t bring your customers along with you, you can sabotage the brand you’ve worked so hard to build.
If you suddenly start worrying about only profits,your customer service and quality will decline and, as a result, the word is going to get around. If some marketing ‘guru’ decides that launching an all-new version of your product is a good idea, remind them of the fiasco with Coke and then having to bring back the original formula as “Coke Classic.” They broadened their product offerings in the long run, but the mistake cost them more than they can ever estimate.
Be your best brand ambassador
Building your brand takes time, but it really is in your hands. (Learn more about brand ambassadors in this article on Entrepreneur.com)
Start with a story
You know how terrible it is when you’re running late and your car won’t start? I sell a solar-powered instant battery booster so you don’t need to worry about finding someone to jumpstart your car.
The above is an example of an effective marketing story. If the person is a driver, that story will resonate with them and make them eager to learn more. If not a driver, the person might know someone who is, and possibly even think it would make the perfect gift, if it were affordable.
Write and Develop Your Elevator Speech
Write and develop an ‘elevator speech’ that tells people what you or your brand does in 30 seconds or less. Practice your elevator speech it until it becomes like second nature to you. Join your local Chamber of Commerce. They are always looking for people who can teach them about important business topics. Attend conferences and trade shows. If you offer a presentation, it will give you exposure and back-of-the-room sales after you speak.
If you are branding yourself as a person, rather than your business, consider offering a course at your local community college. Polish your public speaking skills and sign up for a speaker’s bureau. Write a book and publish it on Kindle and you will soon be viewed as an expert, not a newcomer.
GOAL: Build your brand to the point where you can walk into a room full of people in your same niche or industry and they will know who you are and what your company does.
Branding is an ongoing process, but it is one of the fastest ways to gain recognition and market share provided you define your brand and your goals from the start.
Branding isn’t just for big business. A well-developed brand creates instant recognition with the target audience so that they know exactly what to expect. Take some time to decide what you wish your brand to represent in the eyes of your niche buyers and see what a difference it can make to your market share, sales and profits.
This is the end of my blog series, Branding for Solopreneurs.
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Fortunately, branding isn’t just for the big boys anymore. Small business owners can brand their business effectively as well once they know how. If you want to learn more about branding your business, then you’re in the right place!
Sign up for this free guide (you can download it instantly) and discover:
- What exactly is branding and why it’s so important
- Branding challenges for solopreneurs to keep in mind
- Difference between branding yourself personally or branding the business
- How to build your brand and make it stand out from the crowd
- Successfully presenting your brand in all your marketing materials
- Increasing the reach of your brand to grow your business
If you don’t have a branding strategy then your business is suffering…so get started now!
Claim Your Free Access to “A Solopreneur’s Guide to Business Branding Special Report with Checklist”
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