Watch This Episode of MwahTV About Common Branding Mistake. Keeping it all about you.
In this episode of Mwah TV I’m exploring a very common mistake made by small businesses and personal branded small businesses. This is the common branding mistake of keeping it all about you.
Here is what I mean, let’s go!
To take the huge scary leap in betting on yourself and setting up a small business is an enormous adventure. When you get going into this you might feel bombarded with gurus telling you to “go with a personal brand approach”. In the few and far between moments off, you have a secret guilty pleasure of watching lots of types of reality TV.
Running your business is an emotional, mental, and physical rollercoaster. So, to document this journey will of course involve documenting this experience you are feeling every day.
So, it’s no wonder that when branding people like me say to you “It’s never about you”.
You’re left feeling quite confused.
You feel pulled in all directions.
How personal is too personal?
And how the heck can it not be all about you?
It’s all happening because of you! If you can relate to some or all of this – then this is a great episode for you.
By the end of this, you will have a whole new crystal-clear understanding of what this means, and how you can get started on making it all about them and not about you (but kinda still all about you).
Why Is This Common?
The overly simplistic paradigm of “make your brand a personal brand” creates the assumption of making it all about you.
Seeing influencers and reality stars making bah-zillions as a result of documenting the bad and ugly parts of their lives creates the assumption that a personal brand is similar to behaving in this way.
And like in the story I just told you about the crazy journey you are on. The compelling curves and twists of fate you feel on a daily basis. This is the most interesting thing happening so surely by this logic, THAT is what you should be documenting and talking about and using in being a personal brand? Right?
It’s the cumulation of these different layers of logic that creates a lot of confusion about not making it about you. That is common. Stick around if you recognise this.
Side Note...
Let’s clear this bit up now. What does the ‘it all’ bit refer to? Really?
"IT ALL" can often include your copy, your posts, and your preferences in aesthetics like design, and photography. Your website, your calls to action, how you prefer people to buy from you, how you want to deliver a service, how you feel, what you’re learning, and what you are experiencing in your life.
I’m glad we got straight on that.
What happens when you ignore it and keep on Keeping It All About You
When you follow these courses of logic it damages your brand. How people begin perceiving you is that you are at one of these two extremes.
The First
The first. That you are vacuous and have an all-consuming fascination with yourself. Of course, that has an effect on your reputation within your industry. More importantly than that, it can make prospective customers feel like they are obliged to affirm this position of subscribing to your world when deep down this is of course not why they would part with their money to buy your product or service. Unless perhaps you were in the business of running a cult. Please don’t confuse that with the allure of having a cult-like brand.
The Second
The second. That you are hollow or a partial version of a whole person. Showing up a little bit creates a gap and that can lead to false assumptions being made about you by your stakeholders. It can make customers feel as though you are intentionally hiding something or just have the gut reaction that there is a reason to not fully trust you.
When you ignore keeping your branding about them you reduce the effectiveness of your branding. The goal is to make a brand that your ideal customers feel is for them and about them and what they want to achieve.
How to overcome Keeping It All About You
So how do you begin making it all about them and not so much about you?
The big secret to overcoming this is to make a point of getting to know your ideal customers in a deeply personal way. As soon as you understand what drives them to look for what you are selling in the first place, you will be able to adapt to telling your story in a way that will resonate with them.
A really great way of doing this is by conducting an in-depth interview of your key stakeholders as well as a healthy mix of different types of customers. In this interview, you want to get a clear understanding of what drives them, what irks them, and what else is going on for them in their list of business and personal priorities.
1. Know Your Customer DEEPLY
The big secret to overcoming this is to make a point of getting to know your ideal customers in a deeply personal way. As soon as you understand what drives them to look for what you are selling in the first place, you will be able to adapt to telling your story in a way that will resonate with them.
2. Get Interviewing
A really great way of doing this is by conducting an in-depth interview of your key stakeholders as well as a healthy mix of different types of customers. In this interview, you want to get a clear understanding of what drives them, what irks them, and what else is going on for them in their list of business and personal priorities.
3. Data Is BEAUTIFUL
With all that beautiful data you can then get to work on assessing the different touchpoints of your branding.
You can make your copy speak to their needs. Yes, even your About Me page should be written in a way that they feel an affinity with.
Your creative decisions can be informed by your customers' way of seeing the world.
4. Build Feedback Loops
Another important measurement to overcome this common branding mistake is to have a feedback loop or series of feedback loops in all your customer processes. Be proactive about understanding if there is a way your customers would have preferred their buying process to go.
As soon as you spot any trends you can be confident that adapting a process is to improve your customer journey into a frictionless joyful experience.
Fancy A Chat & Cocktail Together?
If you'd like to have a chat with me on this when it comes to your business, then why not book yourself in for a FREE no-obligation Cyber Cocktail?
It's B.Y.O. and I do my very best to agree on 3 clear and manageable actions to take forward on your own or with more of my help.
To find out how it works and pick out your time, click here.
What are the benefits for your business?
Remember before when I made that joke about cults. The bad kind? Well funnily enough, when you make your brand all about them and not about you, you stand more of a chance of creating a cult-like loyalty to your brand experience. The good kind.
An Apple Example
A great example of this is how I feel about Apple. I’m a happy disciple of Apple. Why? Because I feel like Apple gets me.
They have done so much to create a multitude of options, especially for my creative way of seeing things. Their products suit my personal design preference for a piece of technology that is visually pleasing. I feel like they have my back, if or when I need to tap into their provided resource of a genius to help me troubleshoot something going on with my tech life, they are there for me for free.
This makes me confident that even though I have paid more for my tech, I now belong to a wraparound service to help me if anything goes wrong.
I enjoy stepping into their physical stores. I appreciate being greeted with a smiling face. I expect this in any store I walk into anywhere in the world.
Can you see how all these feelings are my feelings? The feelings of the consumer and not my feelings about how they feel about themselves. There is space within this brand for me to imprint my life and personality onto the brand, so it feels like a natural extension of me and my life. This is the biggest benefit to making sure your brand is more about them and less about you.
Longevity
The other benefit to making this adjustment to your branding is longevity. For you, this might involve making your team bigger over time and therefore creating space and opportunities for them to shine without any brand shift feeling too jarring.
This might simply mean that you can feel confident that your brand will stand the test of time, that your followers will not leave you on mass when they finally get sick of it always being about you and instead will be lifelong advocates no matter how your business might adapt and evolve over time.
Timestamps for this Episode of #MwahTV about Keeping It All About You
Are You Avoiding Getting to Know Your Competition?
It is normal to want to avoid this. It's just plain scary, right? In this episode, I go deeper into why understanding and learning to appreciate your competition is hugely beneficial for building your brand strategy.
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