You know that old saying in marketing. ” If you’re speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to no one”, so you want to niche down.

When I think about branding a new business there’s a lot of questions like where do I start, where do I begin. 

Target audience

And the first thing that comes to mind is, “target audience”. How do you know who that is, how do you define it?

And I know it’s such a tough question right, I’ve talked to a lot of entrepreneurs and people just starting out. And I asked them, who’s your audience, who do you want to serve? The answer I normally get is, ” I want to have everyone as my customer “. 

Everyone? And that’s such a bad idea, because not only is it super expensive to try to acquire everyone, you just become a generalist, you’re not really known for anything. 

I would start by figuring out who you’d like to serve. Who is your most preferred customer or your favorite person to serve in your business and create a story around that? 

So if you are my target audience, I would say, Emma, she lives in California, she loves to surf and skate, she loves coffee, but she likes to spend a lot of her time on social media and try to build a story around that.

So when I create my messaging and my content, I create it for you, the customer, your story, and what you want to solve, which makes clients feel valued,

And that doesn’t mean that you can’t help out Jessica or Sally or Billy when they come in and want your services, you can still serve them, but your messaging has to be about Emma.

Find your target audience

I hope this is making sense so far.

Finding your target audience is a great goal to have, but it’s more than that when it comes to branding your business. Ok, so what do you do next with goals in general, what other goals should I be keeping in mind at this stage of my business.

Well, you want to define what’s important to you, your goal, you should have something that you’re trying to achieve, otherwise, you don’t really know what success is. 

Focus on Small Wins

Focus on small wins, so first off, getting a website, and then get your first customer and then you get your first 10 customers etc, then grow and grow. And that creates a “snowball effect” because a lot of business owners get scared of all the things they have to do. Instead, start small, figure out what that first small win is that you can achieve, and then grow from there.

Be Unique, standout!

Another key aspect to consider when building your brand is to be unique. If you can imagine a line, and on the left side of the line, we have crazy, in the middle, mainstream, and on the right is prolific or unique. We want to be on the “right” side of the imaginary line. 

You want to differentiate yourself from the rest because everyone in the mainstream is just a commodity and that’s why we build a brand, that’s why we try to be unique and set ourselves apart, and be someone that people want to follow.

Social media

And social media is phenomenal at growing your brand and expanding your reach. As a small business owner, you want to be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, also don’t forget Yelp and Google listings.

These are the most important for local business. And coming back to my earlier point about being unique, you already are, but you need a voice that across your platforms, you’re speaking to that ideal customer to come into your business.

One key point to make is that you have to make sure, that it’s not about you. It’s your company yes, it’s your brand, but your brand is there to serve your audience. And if you position them as the hero, you’ll win.

So, let your customers sell you, let your customers get your next customer. Word of mouth is fantastic on social media and I’d recommend investing a decent amount of time and resource on those social channels. 

Alrighty then, so that’s a wrap. Thanks for sticking it out to the end.

I hope you found this article insightful and that it will serve as a great starting point on your brand building adventure.