If you’ve been hanging out in this part of the internet lately you may have heard me talking about creating an experience for your clients. Today we’re going to delve a little deep and talk about what it is and why you need one. So let’s get to it!
What is a brand experience?
A “brand experience” is exactly what it sounds like. It’s creating an impeccably curated “experience” for clients (both prospective and current) who interact with your brand. It starts with “wowing” them at your first encounter, regularly serving them up some kickass content (that they actually want and need!), and continues even after they invest. When you turn this process into an experience for your clients they will truly feel like you “get” them which builds a relationship and fosters that elusive “know, like, and trust” factor that we’re all striving to create. Bottom line: they’ll be more likely to invest in your services because they trust that you’re able to solve their problem.
There are three aspects to your brand experience:
Your “brand presence” refers to how you come across in the online space. This includes the visual and “user-friendliness” (for lack of a better word) aspects of your website and social media profiles.
Having a consistent visual presence is one of the key ways you can attract your ideal client.
From there you need to have a sound strategy to move them from that online platform to a space that is not governed by mysterious and ever-changing algorithms. Someplace like your email list, website, membership site or other platform where you actually “own” the followers you’ve created. If you don’t do this, you’ll be wishing, hoping, and PAYing instead of PRAYing that those posts you’ve spent hours creating get in front of your ideal client. When you actually control the content going out, you have a better chance of it being seen. So stop spending your time trying to get a “k” next to the number of instagram followers you have, and start nurturing those relationships in other ways.
When online entrepreneurs typically talk about “branding” their minds go straight to logos and pretty mood boards. And while they’re right, visual branding is a part of someone’s brand, a brand actually incorporates a lot of other pieces of your business including your messaging (a.k.a. how you speak to your audience). In fact, your messaging is arguably as important–if not more important–than how your brand looks visually.
When we create a brand experience, we are making sure that your tagline is just as attention catching as your logo.
I know, I know, you’re probably saying, “But Mollie if a brand isn’t pretty/visually appealing/flashy I’m not going to resonate with it enough to pay attention!” And while you’re half right, this is neither the time nor place for a “chicken and egg” debate, so let’s put a pin in that for a moment. Think about it this way, which one of these scenarios are you more likely to click AWAY from:
Option a.) You land on a gorgeous website. This thing is stunning, it’s totally your style visually and you can’t wait to find out more about the business behind the brand. But, as you explore you can’t quite figure out what they do. You’re not sure if they can solve your problem, and you don’t know what working with them would even entail.
Option b.) You land on a website that visually could be described as “ok.” It’s fiiinneeeee. Simple, clean, and visually it’s not offensive. You’re easily scanning the headings on the site (BECAUSE NO ONE EVER READS A WEBSITE THE FIRST TIME THEY LAND ON IT! <– yea that needed to be capitalized) and this business has a one-liner that immediately catches your attention and keeps you reading. With each new paragraph it’s like this business is speaking directly to you! You know you have to work with them because they’ve laid out the process for working with them so beautifully and spoken directly to how they can solve your problem.
Option A is clearly the option you’re going to be clicking AWAY from. See what I mean about the importance of messaging?
Are you down with S&P? Psh, yea, you know me! As evidenced by my Naughty By Nature shoutout, I’m all about the back end structures of your business that help it run more efficiently. As I like to joke, “It’s time we tightened up your back end–and I don’t mean the one between your knees and shoulders!” The goal is to help you bring more ease, flow, and JOY back into your business by setting up the proper foundational elements.
Creating workflows for all of the different processes and systems involved in your biz is the first step to gaining more time to work IN your business instead of ON it.
And if you have any plans to outsource in the future you’re going to want to spend time creating and refining these parts of your business NOW. If you don’t, you’ll be doing it later–like when you’re so busy with clients that you are outsourcing to free up more time to work with your clients. Sounds a little counterintuitive, amirite? 🤔
So in closing…
Creating a brand experience is equivalent to building a solid foundation for your business. If you have that framework in place your growth (and income!) won’t be stifled by your point of overwhelm because you have all of the structures in place to support the success you’re after.
You’ll have the online presence and strategy to attract your dream clients, the messaging and copy to convince them to take the next step to working with you, and the systems and processes to serve them at the highest level.
Are you starting to see why I’m so passionate about creating a brand experience? Now that you’re picking up what I’m putting down, I just have one question left for you: why provide your clients with a service when you can give them an experience?
PS–If this sounds like exactly what you’re struggling with then let’s chat! Head over to my contact form and apply for a 30-minute branding strategy session where we can discuss what tweaks you can make to up-level your brand experience and how I can help!
