3 Branding Tips

Branding! Branding is my jam and I am actually obsessed with it. 

When you think about branding, consider it just like the game telephone. You want what you evoke with your branding to be carried 500 people deep without losing clarity! Basically your brand should be so clear and strong that all 500 people would talk about your brand in the same similar way. That is the goal! You want to develop a clear brand that is sticky, emotionally connects with customers, and is memorable. 

How are you feeling about your own branding? I’m so excited to share 3 tips with you today that I hope will help you to continue to optimize and refine your branding! 

1. Nail your name

Ok, I hear you… “I have a name already!” True, I’m sure you do! BUT I have seen waayyyy too many brands, influencers, and even celebrities change their names once they were already knee deep into the process of their businesses. The goal is to get it right in the beginning or change it as quickly as possible (if you need to!). That’s why I want to cover this and help you determine if the name you have is the right name!

You want your name to be sticky. Literally you want it to stick in your ideal customers minds! Remember, in a game of telephone you want it to go 500 people deep. Here are a few questions to think about when you are deciding on your brand’s name…

1. Does it make sense for your business? 
2. If you ever decide to pivot, does it make that easy?
3. Is it easy to spell, say, and visualize? 
4. Can it be trademarked? 
5. Make sure also to check your domain availability and Instagram availability.

Your name is SO important! Think about how often you use your own personal name in your life! It represents you. It is how people know you. It is said over, and over, and over. And it’s the same way in your business. So make sure to nail your name and make it sticky!

2. Develop a cohesive ~vibe~ 

This is the fun part of branding! Are you earthy? Eclectic? Calm? Fun? Whatever you are, make sure your all parts of your branding reflect that. 

For example, when it comes to your visuals… if you define your brand as earthy and calm, you don’t want any neon colors on your website or social media. As you develop your visual vibe, a great way to narrow in on it is to create Pinterest boards! Pin everything and anything and see what flows together. This is going to make content creation SO much easier when you’ve decided on your visual vibe. Also, make sure your logo and fonts match your vibe too! 

Your vibe also includes your voice! How you will speak to your ideal customers on your socials, blog, website, etc. is a huge vibe! Let’s keep going with our example of an earthy and calm vibe… Your words, both written and spoken, have a vibe and an energy level! Choose language and words that evoke your vibe.

Developing your vibe can be so much fun! I can’t wait for yours to come together for you, it’s seriously the best feeling!

3. Get clear on your positioning 

I cannot stress the importance of this enough!! Seriously, this is where I see most brands get tripped up. When you are unclear about what you’re doing in the market, why you’re doing it in your specific market, and how you’re setting yourself apart, your branding is going to be difficult to understand and honestly confusing. This is when your branding is misunderstood in that game of telephone!! 

You need to get incredibly clear on…

1. The problem that you are solving. 
2. How you are solving this problem. 
3. What happens once it gets solved. 

Without determining your positioning, the fun colors, fonts, logos, your name, and more will be more difficult to determine and honestly way less effective! Your positioning is such a key player in branding! Everything else falls into place around it. 

And that’s it! Those are my 3 branding tips for today. Brand building is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. There is SO much more that comes into play as you develop your brand but I wanted to give a few things to start chewing on as you get going!

Love, 

Suzy