Taking the leap to be your own boss can be overwhelming. From learning the financials, to crafting a solid business plan, to refining your product/service, and to ensuring your branding is on point.
There could be so much that you don’t know where to start. Today, we’ll be tackling one of these items on your plate -- the branding aspect of your business
Whether you are an artist, photographer, content creator, podcaster, graphic designer, etc. -- you are a creative entrepreneur.
And being a creative entrepreneur, you need to create a brand to help you stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Let’s dive into the 5 branding tips for creative entrepreneurs.
The first branding tip for creative entrepreneurs is to create a mission statement.
Mission statements have 3 core components:
For example, Google’s mission statement is to organize the world’s information and make it easily and universally accessible.
We’ll be touching on the 2nd and 3rd component later in this article.
A mission statement is important because it will help narrow you or your company’s focus and define what you stand for.
This is important both for you/your company as well as your users/visitors.
Every action or strategic move your business makes should be aligned with the mission statement.
You should always be thinking, “if we introduce this new product or service, does it align with the mission statement?”
The mission statement will allow your users/visitors or target audience of the company to understand right away what the company stands for.
If your mission statement is simple and covers all these points, then it is easy to digest.
The benefit of this is that your target audience can then easily pass along your mission statement to other users through word of mouth.
If you or your company does not know the mission or goal of your efforts, how do you expect your target audience to know -- it’s as simple as that.
The second tip is to identify your target audience. The biggest problem most creative entrepreneurs run into is that they try to cast too broad of a net with their target audience.
For example, if you are a photographer, you try to photograph all types of portraits, headshots, events, products, weddings, etc.
It’s important to identify your target audience early on because you don’t want to be too niche and then end up hitting a ceiling because there aren’t many people within your ideal target audience.
Now, we aren’t saying to not be diverse in your product/service offering, but it’s important to hone in on what makes you special and unique, then identify a target audience that aligns with what makes you unique.
This leads us into our third point.
The third tip is to identify what makes you unique or special. Identifying your “uniqueness” early on, also known as Unique Value Proposition in marketing terms, ties into the first tip of creating a mission statement.
If you don’t know what makes you special as a creative entrepreneur, then how do you expect others to know?
It is up to you as a creative entrepreneur to identify what will make you unique and stand out from the competition.
Questions to ask yourself include identifying your strengths and weaknesses and what makes your product/service offering different from others in your niche.
The fourth tip is to create business identity tools. These tools include having a business name, logo, slogan, brand colors, font styles, etc.
All these tools will help create a cohesive image of your brand and business.
When creating these tools, ensure that they all match the mood and brand feel that you are trying to convey.
The fifth and final tip branding tip for creative entrepreneurs is to connect with your target audience on a human level.
While the end goal of most businesses is to make money, it’s important that you connect with your audience on a human level.
All the top brands do this exceptionally well. They understand and see us as humans/people rather than just walking wallets.
This is especially true in this digital-age that we are living in where convenience and a seamless experience is now the norm (thanks Amazon).
If you develop your brand and business around human connection, you will stand out from the rest.
You don’t have to be a marketing guru to build a successful brand, you just need to take some time to think about the tips listed above.
You can also seek help from agencies like Creatitive, an Arizona digital marketing agency, they have a team of professionals who can do the work for you.
Take a deep breath, keep learning, keep growing, and most importantly, continue to love what it is that you do -- and you and your brand will see success.
