I create new brands as often as I change my hair colour (which is quite a lot), and I’ve learned a few things along the way about launching a new brand.
Hi, I’m Peti Morgan and I’m a serial re-brander!
I think I’m actually addicted to rebranding because you get to put a different hat on with every new brand that you create.
These are things you can’t skip over because it can mean the difference between a successful brand, or one that isn’t – and I’ve had both so I know!
So today we’re gonna talk about three things that you must do when you start a new biz or brand, or when you’re relaunching or refreshing your brand especially when you are a busy online biz builder.
If you pay some attention to these activities you’ll be ahead of so many others out there trying to stand out and elevate their businesses online – so it’s worth a listen.
I’ve found that there are a few key things that you really really must do when you create a new brand, or are thinking about launching a new biz.
Get to know your people
Number 1 on my list is getting to know your ideal customer.
When launching a new brand, you need to know intimately, who your ideal customer is.
You’ve heard of those persona identification exercises that you can do. Maybe you’ve even done them a few times already – like you give them a name and you say or what colour eyes and hair that they have, where they hang out online, who they follow and what magazines they read, etc…
Your ideal customer is the person who is likely to get the most value from what you have to offer.
Personally, I find some of these exercises to be more than a little bit tedious, and some are really quite useless! BUT there is a really good principle at play, and if you understand it, you can find your own ways to learn about your ideal customer. Ways that suit you, and your personality, your type of business and your ideal customers.
Why it’s important to know your customer when you are starting or re-launching a brand or business?
But why is it important in the first place, when launching a new brand, to understand who your ideal customer is?
Well simply, you need to have some level of understanding about who you’re talking to because if you don’t, you’ll end up talking to everyone and anyone and not really highly appealing to anyone.
Your message will be diluted and unspecific.
But if you’re really clear about who your perfect client or customer is, if you understand how they work, how they operate, how they talk, and what they struggle with, then the words that you use in your messaging will be aimed at them and they will hear you talking to them.
When your message is clear it will also send other people who are NOT your ideal customer and likely won’t get as much value from what you have to offer – in the other direction, and that’s totally fine.
HOW do you begin to understand your ideal customer?
Well sure, you can do those sometimes tedious persona generation exercises. But at the very least – once you’re clear on WHO you are serving, find out where they hang out.
- Are they on Instagram or Facebook, or TikTok, or LinkedIn?
- Are they reading or watching or listening to content?
- Where can you reach them, and interact with them?
Once you’ve found your people you can start to have meaningful conversations with them.
You can start to understand what type of questions they have, the struggles they have, and importantly, what they might need from you.
I’ve had some really great market research conversations with my ideal customer over Zoom and over the phone recently. Once you speak to enough people you start to notice patterns, and you can validate or invalidate any assumptions you might have had about them.
So get clear on who is likely to get the most value from what you offer, find out where they are and start talking to them.
Related: Know, like, trust – but is it actually safe to buy from you?
Choose one platform
Number 2 – now this one is completely different from number 1, but it’s a really important step if you want to maximise the time you are spending building your business.
Choose one platform and go deep.
What I mean is choose ONE:
- social media platform to master;
- email auto-responder;
- website builder;
- course platform.
Whatever platform choices you are presented with, choose ONE and master it.
Unless you are a technical VA and you actually WANT to have deep knowledge about all of the tech platforms and options available, it truly is a waste of valuable biz-building time jumping from one platform to another. I use and recommend Kajabi.
Let’s talk first about social media platforms.
Yes, you can post one piece of content to all of them, but if you’re not in there responding to comments, engaging with your audience and being a valuable contributor, you’re just dumping content and leaving.
Ew….
I’m going to tell you something very important – you can’t possibly master more than one social media platform at a time because they are all so different and they all operate in different ways!
If you really want to do well on a platform then you need to understand that platform well (or have a kick-ass VA or content marketer that understands it), so that you can use it to it’s full potential.
Related: How to make more likeable, shareable content.
So you DON’T need to be on every platform.
Choose one and do it well.
Sure, cross post to the others but make ONE social media platform your main platform.
Engage with people in the comments, comment and like and share other people’s posts, be part of their community. This is ultimately what ALL social media platforms have in common – they want you to participate in their community.
So which one should you choose?
Choose the place your people hang out and interact and engage with you. Find your people and hang with them.
The principle is the same for choosing an email autoresponder, a website builder, and a course platform.
Most of them offer very similar features and functionality. However, all of them offer the basic functionality that you need – to deliver a lead magnet; send an email newsletter; publish a sales page & and an online course.
Choose one and commit to learning it as best you can. Likewise, don’t be tempted by the pretty marketing of others (or the affiliates’ marketing haha).
The marketing is DESIGNED to get you all FOMO, so please ignore it!
Look, I know, I’ve used all of them!
Right now, my marketing tech stack looks like this:
- I use Instagram for mixing with my peeps;
- WordPress + Thrive Themes for my website
- Kajabi for my course platform, sales pages and email autoresponder.
Does Convertkit have better deliverability rates than Kajabi?
Maybe? But I don’t care – all I need is a tool that can deliver a lead magnet. Additionally, it needs to send emails to people who are interested in what I have to offer.
Both tools do that equally well, but Kajabi is easier, so I use that!
Is Kajabi a better choice than Teachable?
Again, it doesn’t really matter! Particularly, because all I need is to be able to deliver online course content to my students.
Both tools can do it, but Kajabi is prettier.
I’m a shallow marketer, I know haha.
So when faced with a decision about which technical solution to choose – choose ONE and go deep.
Don’t divert your attention to other tools because of great marketing and FOMO.
Upgrade your mindset
Number 3 – Finally, when you are starting or re-launching a brand or business. Most important, is that you must work on your mindset.
Your mindset is the ‘make or break’ of whether you are going to be successful with your brand or not.
You’ve heard the saying – whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.
What you believe to be true, contributes to how you show up in the world.
It comes across in your energy, it comes across in your vibe.
People can smell it a mile away – they’re like sharks sensing a drop of blood in the water.
If you feel nervous or anxious about your brand, or unconfident, it really does come across in the way that you show up online.
So you really need to work on your mindset. In particular, be strong in the belief that you have about your business.
You must believe that you are going to be successful. Your success is inevitable. When you believe in the product or the service that you provide to people is valuable, the rest just follows.
Work on your mindset.
Because when you:
- believe in yourself and what you have to offer and
- you’re talking to the people who will find it most valuable and
- you are NOT spending valuable biz building time learning new platforms every week, but instead, out there spreading your message and your impact then success will come to you.
You’ll magnetise your ideal customer, and you’ll get paid.