On June 15, 2023 in the beautiful Louiza event space in Northeast Portland, we hosted a panel conversation featuring:
The panelists shared their insights about storytelling, finding your unique brand voice, content creation, and defining your visual brand identity. Here are some highlights from that conversation.
Q: How do you know where to start with marketing?
Start with your target audience. By knowing and understanding where they are hanging out online, what kind of information or content they would find valuable, and where your messaging would be most relevant, you can guide your marketing and branding to be on point. Remember, if your marketing is designed to speak to everyone, it runs the risk of not feeling relevant to anyone.
Choose what to say about your product or service. You should also remember, the words that you use in your marketing are not about you, they should be about that ideal customer or client. What would resonate with them? Because you are not the one who is buying your product or service, as much as we like to think we have commonalities with our customers.
Try choosing three words or emotions that resonate with your brand and see where those take you. What visuals, colors, and fonts match those qualities? What feelings do they evoke?
Start with visual elements. We know the type of emotions or feelings we want to evoke in our audience and think of the visuals that would match with those qualities.
Wherever you choose to start with your marketing, the panel agreed, start with what is easy, something you can be consistent with, and that you won’t get into a cycle of starting and stopping.
Q: How do you start to develop your brand voice?
Be authentic. Our panelists shared how important it is to have authenticity and be yourself when it comes to your brand voice. You don’t necessarily have to cater to everyone and having a unique perspective on your product or service is key. Showing vulnerability was also a theme that arose in conversations.
Be aligned. You may want to poll your audience and see what is most important to them, so you can speak in a way that is values-aligned and drives conversions. Using your customer’s or client’s language to build your copy is a gamechanger and will make them feel like you’re in tune with their needs.
Be positive. And finally, any time you can share social proof like positive reviews, videos of happy clients, and more positive feedback for your brand.
Q: What tips do you have for showing up consistently with your marketing?
By and large, you just need to make the time to create content. Our panelists shared that they prioritize content creation and sometimes make it it in batches, rather than trying to get on social media every day.
Create timely content, information that is current and time bound. For example, you have an event upcoming or a launch that has a definitive starting and ending point.
Create evergreen content or information that is relevant to your audience regardless of the season or timing where it is shared. For example, do you have a resource like a checklist that you can share with your ideal client that can help them achieve one of their goals?
Batching content can help you access your creativity when you feel like you have the right energy and time for it, and then make it available long after it was originally created.
Q: When do you do things yourself versus bringing on a partner?
While it can seem easier to go it alone and that you can’t afford help or support, it can be very isolating and difficult to get momentum with your marketing. Engaging with a partner, like a coach or even a service provider in the area you are struggling with in your marketing, can free you up for other important tasks in your business. You also get the peace of mind of working with an expert who has the systems and processes in place to help you maximize your marketing efforts.
If you are struggling with where to start with marketing for your business, reach out to us at Xcelerate about our programs. You can be paired with a coach to help you through your marketing strategy, content creation, and showing up consistently online. Learn more about our programs.
Thank you, Toledo Images, for photographing this event. View our event photo album.
.svg)
.svg)