3 Ways to Boost Your Confidence During a Sales Call

Photo: ColorJoy Stock

When I first started my coaching business, the thing I dreaded the most was hopping on Zoom for an intro call with a potential client. The term “sales call” made me nervous and at times it even felt like the walls were caving in when I thought of making an offer.

Ever felt that way? If so, you’re not alone.

Pitching your services in real-time with a person staring right at you can feel daunting, and in the beginning, it was definitely a challenge for me. I would do all these breathing exercises and meditations right before but still felt uneasy and ungrounded going into them.

Now? I've grown to enjoy sales calls, or what I like to call sales conversations because they're such a great way to build trust with a potential client. 

They also usually convert between 35-50%, which is much higher than email offers, which convert at 1%, or webinar offers which convert between 3-5%. 

So if you’re anxious when you do these calls, or even dread doing them in the first place, that’s ok! And it’s also important to embody the truth that they’re a chance for you to serve someone, get to know them in a deeper way, and potentially work with them long-term. 

Many of my clients, most of whom are also in the coaching, healing, and consulting industry, tend to struggle with this if they’re just getting started. But once they integrate a few key (and very simple) things, they’re off to the races. 

Here’s a list of the most important tips and tricks that help boost confidence (and sales) on intro calls. 

#1. Focus on the potential client getting clarity and confidence around their goals. 

One of the first questions I ask on these calls is, “If you could wave a realistic magic wand, what would you achieve in the next six months to a year?” This helps the person on the call get in a space of possibility and clarity about what they really want. What a gift!

With the focus on them and their needs, you can really tune into their desires and establish a solid rapport with them. And the more presence you bring to the clarity process, the more people will trust you and feel that you care about them.

People buy from people they trust so a side-effect of this is that it increases the likelihood of them investing in you and your services. Win-win!

#2. Keep asking open-ended questions. 

The #1 thing I advocate for when it comes to having profitable and feel-good sessions is to not coach during the session. If this is difficult for you, remind yourself of this intention: be of service and bring them to a place of clarity.

By asking great questions, you can reveal what they most need and want, but it’s not usually helpful to try and solve all their problems in one go. Once you get to the offer portion, the same applies. Tell them the basics of your service, let them lead with questions, and if they’re not sure about something, ask an open-ended question.

For example, if they say they don’t feel ready to invest, you can ask something like, “What would make this a yes for you?” or “Tell me more about that.” This often works better than attempting to convince or persuade someone into buying something, since people tend to naturally get defensive.

If you have great questions at every stage of the sales process, your prospect will be more receptive to hearing more about your offer, asking deeper questions about it, and potentially sign-on. 

#3. Help them make a decision that feels good to them.  

If your goal is to ensure your prospect is happy with their decision, they're more likely to sign on with you on the call or in the future. If they end up signing on at the end, yay! Signing on with you should feel like a celebration for both parties involved.

And if they don’t, make sure they “walk away” from the call feeling good. You never know when they might reach out to hire you! So release any attachment to that outcome and stay open to what may be because ultimately, it’s all of the highest good. 

In short, the best rule of thumb to follow for these types of calls is to follow what feels good. This will guide you towards the most intuitive and effective sales process and subsequently lead to more sales. Your gut never lies! So here’s to bringing more ease and flow to this.

“If your goal is to ensure your prospect is happy with their decision, they're more likely to sign on with you on the call or in the future.”

—Kimberly Lucht, Business Coach

About the author: Kimberly Lucht is a business coach who helps women make their first six figures doing what they love. She’s been featured in Money, Business Insider, Well + Good, Greatist, Create & Cultivate, and more.

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

MORE ON THE BLOG

How to Land Your Dream Business Collaboration (and Double Your Revenue)

Photo: ColorJoy Stock

The word collaboration is being thrown around like gifts in Oprah’s Christmas special. From brand-to-influencer collaborations to employee collaboration and collaborative playlists, there are so many contexts in which collaboration is used. However, when it comes to growing a community and a business, collaboration marketing is the strategy you need to know about.

If you’ve ever spotted the likes of Uber x Spotify, Allbirds x Shake Shack, or Rimowa x Supreme, you’ll know how brand collaborations have the power to spark interest and, in some cases, cause a social media frenzy. So, how do you find your own dream collaborator? 

Much like networking, collaboration marketing can be likened to dating in more ways than one. You could say that a dream brand collaboration is like a “friends with benefits” for your business, and you’d be right. Collaborating with a complementary brand has benefits, for example, you can use them to:

• Double your organic reach

• Build buzz and engagement

• Attract media attention

• Boost a new or existing revenue stream

• Grow your community across social media, event audiences, and email lists

• Grow your network

In fact, Collabosaurus ran a research study that found collaborations to be up to 25x less expensive than digital advertising. Want to get on the collaboration marketing bandwagon? Here’s what you need to know.

1. Know your value.

Collaboration marketing is all about win/win value exchange, and you likely have a lot more to offer in a collaboration than you think. You don’t have to have an immense social media following, significant cash flow, or the ability to just give away “free things” in order to collaborate. Collaboration is about leveraging what your business already has to benefit another business and vice versa.

Perhaps you have a cool office or event space, content creation skills, excess product, an engaged social media community, or an email list—collaboration is possible for all brands, big or small, it’s about getting creative with value. Start conversations with what you can offer in a collaboration, then ensure that you’re communicating your marketing objectives.

2. Find the right partner and tie your collaboration to a marketing objective.

How do you find your dream collaborator? Start with complementary industry spaces. Look for companies that share values, objectives and have a similar brand aesthetic and target market to your business (so that any cross-promotion is super valuable).

Platforms like Collabosaurus are incredible for finding amazing brand collaborators for all sorts of campaigns in social media, products, or events. They also have a nifty idea and strategy generator that generates creative collaboration ideas for your business.

When it comes to finding a creative idea and executing your collaboration, don’t forget that it’s a marketing activity. Just like any marketing strategy, make sure you have a goal in mind, an objective that you can track against (such as growing your email list, getting content created, or increasing event shares on Instagram).

3. Leverage, leverage, leverage!

You could have secured the coolest collaboration in the world, but if no one knows about it, what’s the point? It’s crucial to have a promotional plan in place, for both yourself and your collaborator, that reflects a mutually beneficial sharing of marketing responsibilities. Identify all of the promotional channels and opportunities available to both yourself and your collaborator. Then, set a schedule so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to who is promoting what and when.

Want to keep things #legit? Consider signing a joint marketing agreement, or MOU document to keep things in writing, and using platforms like Bit.ly or Sked Social to track the impact of your collaboration against your original marketing goal.

4. Use collaborations in your broader marketing strategy.

Don’t be afraid to incorporate collaborations into your strategy frequently. Mix up your collaborators, as well as the types of collaborations (social media, product, event, etc.) you explore to keep your exposure opportunities fresh, and engaging. 

The benefits of brand-to-brand collaborations are endless, and if you’re interested in giving it a try for your own business, check out Collabosaurus, a match-making platform for brands to collaborate for win-win marketing collaborations that help businesses grow. It’s free to start, takes less than five minutes, and from over 6000+ collaborators to choose from, including Porsche, ASOS, Olay, and RedBull, your dream brand could be waiting for you.

“You don’t have to have an immense social media following, significant cash flow, or the ability to just give away ‘free things’ in order to collaborate.”

—Jess Ruhfus, Founder of Collabosaurus

About the Author: Jess Ruhfus is the founder of Collabosaurus, a marketing platform that match-makes brands for clever collaborations and partnerships. With a background in fashion publicity and marketing education, Ruhfus was frustrated sourcing cool brand partnerships in events, products, and social media. So, she launched Collabosaurus in 2015, which has now attracted over 6000+ brands including Porsche, ASOS, Olay, Topshop and one of the largest global retailers in the U.S. Jess has also spoken for Apple, Vogue, and The College of Event Management, splitting her time between Sydney, New York, and Los Angeles as Collabosaurus continues to grow. 

This story was originally published on August 5, 2019, and has since been updated.

MORE ON THE BLOG

5 Lessons Learned in 5 Years of Managing Instagram for Brands

Photo: Smith House Photo

Nostalgic for the days when Instagram was simply a place where you posted unfiltered party photos with friends? You’re not alone in missing the era of pre-curated feeds.

But that oversimplification doesn’t give credit to how much Instagram has grown up with us to support storytelling for business in a way that seemed unfathomable a decade ago. Today, the platform holds proven power to humanize brands, create lasting connections and drive sales.

With five years of experience running Instagram accounts for global travel brands in tandem with coaching entrepreneurs to show up authentically on the app, I’m breaking down five lessons learned to help you demystify Instagram for business.

Lesson #1: Bucket Your Content

If you’ve ever felt confusion around what to post, chances are, you haven’t outlined your content buckets just yet. These six to eight categories are pillars that drive engagement and impact within your niche. Aim to make these buckets as specific as possible to create visual consistency as your audience grows; for example, a hotel bathtub versus a general hotel room shot.

When creative blocks inevitably creep up during the content planning phase, buckets help to clarify your mission and purpose on the platform, bringing you back to basics. Be sure that as a business owner, you are one of your pillars. Your story is the fabric of your company’s DNA and oftentimes, the reason that followers will be compelled to buy from you in the first place which is why it’s critical that you keep yourself woven into the storyline.

Lesson #2: Personal Stories Outperform Product Posts

With you—and your team—build out as at least one dedicated pillar of your content strategy, your community will be granted the kind of behind-the-scenes access that brand evangelists crave. Telling personal stories around your mission, day-to-day operations, and the unique magic that you bring to your business consistently outperforms posts that hard-sell a product. Ultimately, your goal is to let the story do the soft selling for you.

Depending on the nature of your business, weaving client stories into this category also presents an opportunity to deepen the narrative. If you’re a service-based organization, consider tapping into testimonials around the impact that your company was able to create for a client. If you offer a product, consider including some kind of call-to-action on your packaging asking customers to post and tag when they receive their order. Prompting the capture of this user-generated content deepens brand awareness and in turn, provides you with unique imagery to repost while showcasing gratitude for your community.

Lesson #3: It All Goes Down in the DMs

While we are often preoccupied with vanity metrics (likes and comments), it bears mentioning that the engagement that goes down indirect message is equally vital. That’s right, DMs aren’t just a place where an old Bumble match can be found sliding in to remind you they’re alive; it’s also where business relationships are built and sales ultimately convert. As a business or creator account, you should be actively checking not only your primary and general inboxes but also your requests where messages from users who you don’t follow will be filtered.

Depending on the size of your audience, replying to every single DM may seem unscalable. But like all aspects of social media marketing, this component of your workflow should be batched for optimal productivity; set aside a portion of your day solely dedicated to replying to messages. Over time, if you find that you’re receiving a high volume of DMs that warrant similar answers, cut down on your response time by creating Quick Replies with a space to customize each response.

Lesson #4: Adopt Usage of New Features Early

As marketers, we would be lying if we didn’t admit that there’s a collective sigh of exasperation each time Instagram launches a new feature. The gut reaction is often, “Really? something else to add to our plates?” But, what if we instead reframed each additional feature as an opportunity to serve our audience in a new way? Being an early adopter of these enhancements to the app not only challenges us to creatively tell our story in new ways but can also pay off when the algorithm pushes forth accounts actively testing out new features. 

We’ve seen this in a measurable way with creators like @ofleatherandlace, @bsquared.social, and @rebellenutrition who’ve amassed substantial followings in recent months predominately their savvy usage of Reels. While video may not feel like an area of genius for you (did someone say perfectionist?) simply showing up and sitting in discomfort has the potential upside of gaining higher reach and being discovered by new users if you’re featured on the Explore page.

Lesson #5: Be Human and Stand for Something

It’d be simple to say that the fifth and final tip is to “be consistent.” But at this point, that should be more than obvious, so let’s instead take it to the next level and address the expectations for brands to take a stance on social issues. While it may have been possible to fly under the radar on potentially divisive subjects in pre-pandemic times, 2020 taught us that the internal conversations transpiring offline about a brand’s values need to translate to their content online. But, be sure posts aren’t performative–back your stance with action.

Whether you opt to donate a portion of your proceeds to a specific nonprofit or simply create a space for conversations around topics like equity and inclusion, your Instagram offers a unique place to speak to your values as an organization. With so many choices in the consumer marketplace, customers understand that how they spend their money matters. Make your brand the kind of place they feel good about spending their hard-earned money. And above all, ensure that your intentions align with your actions.

“Telling personal stories around your mission, day-to-day operations, and the unique magic that you bring to your business consistently outperforms posts that hard-sell a product.”

—Kayla Douglas, Marketing and Social Media Manager at SmartFlyer

About the Author: A knack for storytelling and community building blossomed into Kayla Douglas’ work in marketing within the travel sector, a space perfectly aligned with her skillset and passions. In her role at New York-based luxury travel agency SmartFlyer as marketing and social media manager, Kayla is steadfast in her mission to empower the team’s ever-growing community of advisors to approach social media marketing with creativity, authenticity, and consistency. These days, Kayla calls the West Village neighborhood of New York City home, though her most beloved place to be found is nestled into the window seat of a flight, off for a new adventure. For inspiration from fellow creatives, you can subscribe to her weekly newsletter that drops every Sunday featuring interviews with powerhouse women.

About SmartFlyer: SmartFlyer is a full-service luxury travel agency built for curious travelers. Their global team specializes in creating exceptional experiences around the world through curated recommendations and continuous boots-on-the-ground research activated by decades of trusted relationships. SmartFlyer travel advisors understand that the finer details make a world of a difference when it comes to your travel arrangements, so they make it seamless to book the experiences you can’t miss–all vetted by a community of trusted experts whose tried and true recommendations span from Manhattan to Melbourne, and everywhere in between. Their consultative approach to travel planning ensures that your travel advisor gets to know you and your preferences before providing recommendations, in turn creating an itinerary built just for you whether it’s a honeymoon, multi-generational family trip, bucket list safari, or quick romantic escape. Just like no two clients are identical, no two trips are the same.

Headshot Credit: Leila Brewster Photography

MORE ON THE BLOG

You Need to Stop What You're Doing and Make a Marketing Plan Right Now

Photo: ColorJoy Stock

Very few small business owners want to sit down and write out a marketing plan. Even fewer want to regularly review what’s being implemented, how it’s performing, and what needs to be revised. 

I had a realization recently, after coming across an alarming statistic saying that half of small businesses operate without a marketing plan. My realization? Marketing plans are like annual pelvic exams. No one wants to do them, but we know we must so we call, make the appointment, and go in and get it over with. 

Unlike an annual pelvic exam, however, marketing plans can make us money. Marketing plans aren’t just nice to have, they’re imperative to planning where we’re going and how we’re going to get there. Baseball great Yogi Berra once famously said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” The same goes for marketing. 

Here are seven reasons you need to stop whatever it is you’re doing right now and draft your plan:

1. Direction: It forces you to think about where you want your business to go, in addition to what’s working and what’s not. 

2. Purpose: It sets measurable goals.

3. Motivation: A marketing plan creates motivation, and even better, once the plan is in place, it allows you to delegate and have more time to work on the things you are good at and love. 

4. Time: You’ll spend less time reacting to things if you are working proactively.

5. Value: You’ll provide more value to your clients because you’ll be laser-focused on their needs, challenges, and motivations. 

6. Organization: Your marketing plan will organize your time and prioritize what you are doing. If everything is equally weighted as a priority, nothing is a priority.

7. Revenue: You’ll earn more money. Do I need to say more?! You’ll maximize all marketing dollars you spend because it’ll be well thought out and you’ll put metrics in place to measure if it’s working.

How to Get Started With a Marketing Plan Outline

I've helped hundreds of small business owners over the years simplify their marketing to have more time and energy to do the things they love. (I've been in business development for 15 years and have owned a strategic marketing agency specializing in small business for the last five). 

In my business, we’ve identified four pillars of writing and effectively implementing a successful marketing plan. These pillars are intent, insight, infrastructure, and action. Answer the questions below to get in the right mindset for planning your business. Then go download our free content calendar template, which will help you organize the specific tactics on which to move forward  (including blog posts, social media, and email marketing). 

1. Intent: What do I want to accomplish? (Don’t get lazy here. “Get more business” doesn’t count. It’s not specific enough). Identify your SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Timely) for the next 30, 60, 90, and 180 days. 

2. Insight: What do I know about my customer? What data do I have about them? Who they are, what they do for work, where they hang out online, what questions do they have, what answers do they need? How long does it take for my customer to make buying decisions?

3. Infrastructure: What do I have already that can be used for marketing? Content (blogs, brochures, flyers, business posts, etc.)? An email list? Social media channels and an audience?

4. Action: Given what you've developed as a goal, what data you know about your customer base, and what you currently have, what can you accomplish? Does your goal fit with your overall goal and messaging as a brand? Does your infrastructure allow you to be successful?

Do you currently know enough about your customers to effectively motivate them? What additional assets need to be created? What is the flow of the user experience? What should your audience see first and where should they be pointed next? What information should be offered at each stage?

• Brief: Write down what everyone on the team should know about your business, including branding tone, mission, purpose, etc. 

• Brainstorm: Use what you have and build off of it! For example, we have over 1K subscribers - let’s email them weekly and include offers. We have 5K followers on social media - let’s create a piece of content where they can opt into our mailing list. We have a handful of great blog articles - let’s put them together into a guide and offer it to build our email list.

• Schedule: Look back at your SMART goals and your brainstorm list and make 30-day and 90-day plans.

• Delegate: Gather your team on a call, review your plan and creative brief, and delegate tasks to get started! (You may only have one other person; that’s OK! If you don’t have anyone yet, consider hiring a virtual assistant)

• Review: You will be continuously gathering more data and coming up with more and more ideas. The important part is not to STOP anything and pivot. Stick with your 30-day plan and check things off your list. Review and analyze what’s working, and what’s not, when jumping into the next 30 days.

After you take the time to go through these steps, I guarantee that you’ll feel your creative juices come back. You can move forward with confidence because the basics (the foundational pieces) are being taken care of.

It’s important to understand that there will be cycles to your marketing plan. You’ll start small; you’ll add things over time, based on what’s working and what’s not. You'll pass more things off your plate as they’re up and running. This will leave you the time and energy to actually focus on the part of your business that you love.

Also? The silver lining is that when you have thought things through and made the plan, each thing builds upon another thing. This means that your marketing dollars will be maximized because all the things are working together rather than the scattershot approach created when you throw 5 different things out. Better yet, you can diversify your efforts, similar to those 5 different “things,” but they will all lead back to the same specified goal. 

“If everything is equally weighted as a priority, nothing is a priority.”

—Shanna Goodman, Founder of AMP’D

About the author: Shanna Goodman is the founder of AMP’D, helping people build businesses that give them life. She is a brand strategist with 15 years in business development and five of those years as a brand strategy agency owner specializing in small business. She is a regular contributor for Business Insider, Forbes, Fit Small Business, and Working Mother.

About AMP’D: AMP’D arms small businesses with actionable insights to succeed and grow, helping create life-giving, sustainable businesses in the process. With comprehensive programs and resources, we help clients uncover, discover, plan, and implement ways to generate new revenue and a sustainable business. Download our free content calendar template or learn more at ampdnow.com.

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

This story was originally published on January 7, 2021, and has since been updated.

MORE ON THE BLOG

4 Things to Do Before Asking Someone to Collaborate

Photo: Color Joy Stock

Everywhere you look, it seems like brands are partnering up to run a giveaway, go live on Instagram, or launch a co-branded product collaboration. It makes sense then, that more and more people would be curious about whether or not their business should join the collaboration party, too. 

The short answer is YES, you should definitely collaborate. When we come together to share our resources, ideas, and communities with one another, we are so much more powerful than when we do things on our own. 

The long answer is, although collaboration can be an incredible strategy to achieve your business goals (especially during the current climate of social distancing), you can totally miss the mark if you don’t lay the groundwork properly first. Before you take a dip in the collaboration pool, there are a few steps to take so you don’t accidentally do a belly flop:

1. Know your company inside and out

2. Identify your “Asks & Gives”

3. Look for the overlap

4. Get a warm introduction

Here’s how to do it right.

1. KNOW YOUR COMPANY INSIDE AND OUT

This includes knowing your mission (why you do what you do), vibe (how you communicate what you do), audience (who you do it for), offering (what you do), and execution (how you do what you do). Having that information top of mind will make you sound like the ultimate polished business owner, plus it’ll help you identify great potential partners down the line. 

It’s also important to have a super-tight elevator pitch that explains who you are, what you do, for whom you do it, and how you do it. For example, mine is, “I’m a collaboration consultant who teaches individuals, entrepreneurs, and organizations to solve problems and achieve their goals by thinking collaboratively and harnessing the power of their network.”

“It’s important to have a super-tight elevator pitch that explains who you are, what you do, for whom you do it, and how you do it.”

Having a clear and concise elevator pitch not only makes it easier for you to explain what you do, it makes it easier for other people to explain what you do when you’re not around (and THAT is how you get great referrals.)

It’s totally fine if you continue to tweak it regularly, in fact, it’s encouraged. My elevator pitch has changed nearly a million times over the last few years, so don’t get too hung up on making it something that will last forever. The most important thing is to make sure it remains true to what your business is today, not six months ago.

2. IDENTIFY YOUR ASKS & GIVES

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they begin collaborating is not taking time to figure out what they need to get from a partner in order for the collaboration to feel like a success. If you haven’t identified your “asks” (what you'd like to get from a collaboration), you’re much more likely to take whatever the other party offers you, which may or may not be valuable to you or support your goals. The last thing you want to do is not express your needs, and ultimately feel taken advantage of. 

“The last thing you want to do is not express your needs, and ultimately feel taken advantage of.”

Another big mistake is when people aren’t clear about what all they have to offer a partner before entering into a collaboration. Thinking through your “gives” (what you can give in a collaboration) helps you identify all the ways in which you can create an even value exchange between you and your potential partner. 

There are four main “asks” and “gives:”

1. Promotion for your/their offering to the other’s community

2. Content for your/their channels

3. Hookups for your/their community

4. Barters for your/their business

The key to creating a collaboration that won’t make either side feel taken advantage of (a big fear I hear from people who are hesitant to collaborate) is to always aim for an even value exchange. What feels beneficial to one person might not matter at all to another, so it’s important to have an honest conversation at the beginning of the relationship to find out what each side values. That way you can ensure that each partner is getting what they need in order for the collaboration to feel like a success. 

3. LOOK FOR THE OVERLAP

Much like romantic relationships, not every brand is going to be the right collaborative partner for you. One of the best ways to know whether a potential partner is the right fit is to make sure you share a similar mission (why you do what you do), vibe (how you communicate what you do), and audience (who you do it for). When those three things are aligned, it’s much more likely that a collaboration will be well-received by both of your communities. 

“Much like romantic relationships, not every brand is going to be the right collaborative partner for you”

You can also have an overlapping offering (what you do) or execution (how you do what you do), but not both. If you offer the same thing in the same way, you're basically the same company, and that doesn't make for a good partnership. Looking for the overlap also means finding common ground from the get-go. What is it that your brands (or you and the other person) have in common? When you start from that place, you’re both likely to feel seen and respected from the beginning, which ultimately leads to a better working relationship.  

4. GET A WARM INTRODUCTION

It’s always best to start collaborating with individuals and brands you already know personally rather than reaching out to total strangers. I like to encourage my clients to build up their collaboration muscle with some "test and learns" with people they trust while the stakes are low. Once you feel confident about your ability to be a great partner and run a successful collaboration, then you can expand past your immediate circles to the brands you don't yet know. 

Once you’re ready to take the leap beyond your first-degree network and begin reaching out to some brands that you don’t know (yet), the next move is to get a warm introduction to them from a mutual connection whenever possible. If you can avoid reaching out cold (meaning they’ve never heard of you and have no connection to you), you’ll increase the likelihood that they’ll respond. 

“If you can avoid reaching out cold, you’ll increase the likelihood that they’ll respond.”

Consider how different it feels when a stranger emails you directly vs when a friend connects you to someone via email. Our guard naturally goes up when we see a stranger’s email in our inbox, but the same isn’t true for when someone comes to you through a friend you trust. 

The easiest way to figure out who might be able to connect you to someone at the brand you want to reach is by using LinkedIn. When you search for the person at the brand who you ultimately want to connect with, you’ll be able to see what connections you have in common. If you can find someone that you know well enough to ask for an intro, reach out (preferably via email instead of LinkedIn Mail) using this template.  

“Collaborating with the right partner can be an exciting, rewarding experience for everyone involved, especially when you go about it intentionally and strategically.”

Just a little housekeeping note: once someone introduces you via email, do them a favor and in the next email response, thank them and move them to BCC. I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve been trapped in long past my warm introduction! Also, remember to reach back out to let them know if anything came of their introduction. As someone who connects people all the time, it’s always nice to know if it worked out.

Collaborating with the right partner can be an exciting, rewarding experience for everyone involved, especially when you go about it intentionally and strategically. Always aim for an even value exchange, and remember that it’s in the overlap where communication, connection, and collaboration can happen. Start there, and the rest will follow.

About the Author: Baily Hancock is a collaboration consultant, speaker, and the host of the “Stop, Collaborate & Listen” podcast who’s on a mission to save humanity with collaboration. Join the Collaboration Coalition Facebook Group to find potential partners and receive Baily’s collaboration templates, tools, and tips.

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

This story was originally published on May 26, 2020, and has since been updated.

MORE ON THE BLOG

5 Career-Focused TikTokers Who Are Making Us Lolz

Welcome to 5 for 5, where we spotlight 5 women in 5 minutes or less.

Tik Tok, love it or hate, it is here to stay. The platform has seen explosive growth from consumers and creators alike, creating new celebrities and a new distraction for all of us with endless scrolling. In true Create & Cultivate fashion, we love a self-deprecating work meme as much as anyone else and these ladies are doing Oscar-worthy work.

1. Corporate Natalie

Natalie, who actually has a corporate job, nails the hilarity and awkwardness of the Zoom-era with her quippy TikToks. And did we mention she is part of the Create & Cultivate family? Yep! She spoke on our micro-influencer panel at Content Camp. FOMO? All good, check out our membership here.

2. The Shift Creative

Entrepreneur and creative Alexis Andra runs her fabrication and creative studio The Shift Creative with her team in Los Angeles. She brings the real talk to TikTok with her hilarious BTS of her day to day and life as a busy business lady. Bonus? she was on our C&C 100 list year and you can learn about her business here.

3. Nikki Mansch

Nikki, like many of us, is working hard to give her dog the life they deserve… and she is cracking us up along the way. Her relatable memes are giving us life as she pokes fun at emails, co-workers, and more.

Embed Block

Add an embed URL or code. Learn more

4. Kameron Monet

Content creator and lawyer, Kameron Monet, is serving up nothing but piping hot confidence! Her feed is chock full of all the money and “me” motivation you need to get you through the week! We subscribe.

5. Loe Whaley

With over 160k tiktok followers and 6.6 million likes, Loe Whaley, is carving her own path on TikTok. The Canadian content creator is giving us all the “we are going back to office” feels. AHHHHHH!

MORE ON THE BLOG

From Brand Story to Brand Guidelines: All of Your Branding Needs, Covered

When you’re launching a business today, there’s one crucial element you can’t afford to leave out: your brand’s identity. In fact, businesses who focus on building a strong identity around their brand have a higher credibility, integrity, and loyalty among customers. 

Branding is essential to successfully market your business, but at first attempt, shaping a brand identity can be an overwhelming task. Traditional branding agencies can be expensive, especially for a modest start up budget. 

Thankfully, ZeBrand is removing the traditional barriers to branding and putting the reins in your hands to take the first step. The platform’s AI-powered algorithm learns your preferences and goals, providing a more agile and streamlined approach that allows anyone to brand their way—regardless of skills, budget, or expertise. With ZeBrand, emerging businesses can find their brand voice for a fraction of the time and cost than when hiring a branding agency.

From building your brand story to crafting brand guidelines, and everything in between - ZeBrand offers accessible tools that eliminate the barriers that stand in the way of making the brand of your dreams a reality.

So what elements constitute a strong brand identity? The checklist below contains the essentials to get you started. 

Mission Statement – A strong brand identity is anchored in an enduring mission statement. A brand mission statement  determines your brand’s purpose, and explains WHY you exist. It’s the essence of your business’s goals and the underlying philosophy. This is the foundation of building a brand that truly represents your organization.

Vision Statement – Simply put, vision statements are an extension of your company mission statement, which describes what you want to do and achieve in the long run. Whether that’s five, ten, or even fifteen years ahead, your vision statement sets a definitive direction of what your company will look like in the future.

Core Values – Like a person, a company has a set of guiding principles that help you connect with your target audience and build trust. These are the values that you uphold and emulate through your brand and business. They are the heart and the soul behind your ‘WHY’ and help govern decisions – small and large – across every facet of the business. 

Positioning Statement – In order to help your customer realize your brand’s value, you must identify and amplify what is uniquely distinct about your brand and offering. This is often referred to a positioning statement, which tells your customer, either explicitly or implicitly, what they can expect from your product or service.

Brand Story – Summarize your brand personality, what your mission statement is, and the vision of your brand. Define where you are and where you want to go. By reading this, users will feel inspired and have a deep understanding of the essence of your brand and what makes your business unique.

ZeBrand just launched their brand story module which takes users on a journey to craft their brand story and narrative, including background, mission, vision, core values, and solutions or offerings.

Brand Guidelines – As your business grows and you start to interact with more stakeholders, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page as you when it comes to communicating your brand identity. Brand guidelines instruct others on how your brand should be presented to the world. In addition to your brand story and some or all of the terms above, brand guidelines also include visual components such as your brand’s logo, color palette, typography, photography and specific use cases for other styles of content.

Start with this free 5-minute questionnaire to discover how ZeBrand can help turn your vision into a reality.

MORE ON THE BLOG

3 Proven Strategies for Generating Hot, Inbound Leads Without Spending a Dime

Photo: Create & Cultivate

“I'm struggling with attracting hot leads because I can't figure out how to get myself in front of the right people and resonate with them.”

“When we’ve been able to get in front of the right people, it’s great—and we see a huge influx of new members. But I’m struggling to find them, attract them to our platform, and retain them” 

“I’m not hitting my income goals because I can’t get in front of the right audience.”

Generating quality customer leads is one of the most persistent concerns for entrepreneurs. One of the things I hear most often from our potential clients and community is that they struggle to get in front of, and convert, the number of clients or customers they want to (and need to) in order to meet their goals. 

Plus, constantly promoting your business can feel exhausting for you and redundant for your community. But, the fact of the matter is, you’re running a business, and a consistent flow of leads and reliable client or customer-acquisition method is necessary for the sustainability and success of your business. 

Here are three ways to generate leads for your business without burning yourself (and your community) out.

1. Perfect Your Brand Messaging (Really Perfect It)

Ultimately, generating inbound leads starts with rock-solid brand messaging that is unique enough to capture your customer’s eye, but not too creative that it gets confusing and forms a barrier to purchase. Start by getting clear on your ideal client profile, your company values, and unique value propositions. Then, craft a transformation statement or brand bio. This is a one-sentence statement that describes what you do and who you do it for. You’ll use this statement on the home page of your website and in your social media bios. 

Example: Curate Well Co. helps impact-driven entrepreneurs intentionally scale while maintaining the integrity of their work and leadership, and without losing connection to their community.

Next, write your elevator pitch. This statement answers the question, “So what do you do?” and highlights the problems you solve and the unique ways you solve them. 

Example: Impact-driven entrepreneurs want to transform the lives of thousands of women but they lack intentional systems to scale. At Curate Well Co., we help you amplify your impact while maintaining the integrity of your work and without losing connection to your community. We take a data-based approach (because spreadsheets are sexy!) Best of all? We provide a top-shelf experience that you don’t have to put makeup on for. 

Finally, create a mission statement. This is your big picture “why.” Why did you start your brand or business? Why are you so passionate about it? If you really want to stand out, know how your ideal client self-identifies and speak to their personality, values, and soft skills — not just their goals and challenges — and get clear on the role your brand plays for them in their journey. 

Example: When I first entered the entrepreneur space, I noticed there were a lot of people doing high-level strategy and vision work, and there were other people doing purely execution. But there wasn’t anyone teaching women how to exist (and see success) in the space between manifesting and making shit happen. So I created Curate Well Co. to help impact-driven entrepreneurs put processes behind their purpose (by connecting their big vision to the data-driven details) so they could implement thoughtful strategies, instead of copy-paste solutions, to scale their businesses intentionally. The best part? We believe you don't have to change who you are to be successful — everyone has a gift that uniquely and exceptionally solves a problem.

Make sure that your messaging is consistent across your whole online (and offline!) presence, and test it to ensure it resonates with the right people. Testing your messaging will lead to higher conversion rates because you can verify that your ideal client feels a connection to you and your brand, feels confident you can support them, and feels like your product or service is a no-brainer purchase for them!

2. Prioritize Community Activation and Relationship Building

Building relationships is never a waste of time, even if they don’t seem to pay off immediately. Not only is relationship-building essential with your potential customers and clients, but being active in your community and generating a network will also help you become omnipresent in your space, and garner referrals for your business. 

By building relationships and ensuring every person feels seen, heard, and known, you’ll create champions of your brand. While there are plenty of ways to market your product or service, very few are as effective as a glowing review from someone who has experienced it first hand, can speak to specifics about their experience, and is excited about sending someone your way.

A few of our favorite ways to activate a community are to: 

Bring humanness to your online connections.

Slide into someone’s DMs and ask them to a Zoom coffee date, send voice memos, and ask personal questions to really get to know someone! Aim to get to know someone, rather than convert them.

Co-host an event, workshop, or giveaway. 

Partner with like-minded peers to cross-pollinate communities and support each other’s endeavors. 

Ask for introductions.

Need to hire someone? Looking for an expert in X? Ask your current connections to make an intro for you! This is one of the best (and easiest) ways to organically grow your community.  

When it comes to engaging your community, it’s really about removing anonymity. We pull from leadership practices to infuse connection in our business model. A few of our favorite ways are: 

Speak to each person.

Welcome people by name onto your webinar, share individual customer or client stories, hold space for people to ask unique-to-their-situation questions. 

Send personal invites.

Hosting a masterclass? Opening enrollment for a new program? Pre-selling a limited run product? Make your best customers and most engaged clients feel like VIPs by sending personalized invitations—they’ll feel special, and it supports true relationship-building. 

Make connections. 

Introduce two people in your network to each other, send referrals to businesses you believe in, share a guide of resources you love. 

Once you have effectively enrolled people in your community, be sure to reward their stewardship! We love to send holiday cards at the end of the year, birthday cards, and support our clients’ businesses by leaving reviews, promoting their offerings, and offering them our platform (such as our Instagram Stories or blog) to share their voice on. 

One of our favorite ways to encourage community participation and reward our brand champions is through a referral program. Since we focus so heavily on our client experience, a lot of our business comes from referrals. By formalizing our referral program, we not only build long-term relationships with current and past clients, but we can also maintain a consistent client acquisition funnel. 

Plus, our leads that come from referrals are generally more bought in, faster to make a buying decision, and excited to talk about their experience with us.

3. Create a Holistic Brand Experience

Last, but not least, focus on the details to create a holistic brand experience that embodies your values, which reinforces your brand messaging and community activation efforts. 

When generating leads for your business, steer clear of hard sells, pushy conversations, and anything else that feels “salesy”—after all, we’ve all had that awful sales experience that left us traumatized. Instead, try the following strategies: 

Ask permission.

Whether it’s telling someone about your program, or getting on a call, offer people a choice.  

Have clear tone guidelines. 

Ensure your communication is straightforward yet empowering so your community knows they can count on you for tangible info that genuinely supports their goals. Answer strategic questions thoroughly, with consideration for each individual’s nuances. 

Ask for feedback and involve your community in your evolution.

Listen to your ideal clients and community and make changes that account for their experience and feedback. This will allow you to continue to hone your brand experience to embody your values, and also meet your clients and community exactly where they’re at with what they want and need. 

From investing in high-quality photo and video assets, sending carefully curated client gift boxes, sharing discount codes to your favorite brands with your community, to asking for objective feedback from your clients and community (and actually implementing it), ensure that everyone who interacts with your brand has an experience you feel proud of. 

Just because you say your business is something, doesn’t mean it is. You have to show up, create processes, and grow in a way that really brings those qualities alive. Doing this will result in authentic word of mouth, leading to inbound leads that already have awareness and affinity for your unique value add.

By merging your selling strategy with your brand experience and incorporating community-based selling tactics into your processes and systems, your ideal client will already know who you are, what you stand for, and why they want to work with you before it’s actually time to close the sale—making the process of generating hot, inbound leads more natural and efficient.

Everything you do on a daily basis—your content creation, your client touch-points, your problem-solving—will do the heavy lifting for you, so you can do what you do best. And, in the meantime, you’ll build relationships that will have incomparable ROI for years to come.

“Just because you say your business is something, doesn’t mean it is. You have to show up, create processes, and grow in a way that really brings those qualities alive.”

—Pia Beck, CEO, Curate Well Co.

About the Author: Pia Beck is a life and business coach known for turning pain points into action items. As the CEO of Curate Well Co., coined “the queen of implementation,” her expertise is in connecting the big picture vision with the nitty-gritty details in order to create an instinctual strategy, systems, and steps. She helps her clients and community organize, implement, and execute. 

At Curate Well Co., she combines purpose and process to help emerging and established entrepreneurs start and scale savvy, streamlined, sensational businesses, make an impact, and launch a life they love and leave a legacy. At Curate Well Co., we believe in a curated life on purpose through sharing your unique gifts. Curate Well Co. has been featured in Thrive Global, Darling, Buzzfeed, Medium, and more, and has collaborated with brands like Bumble, Havenly, Lululemon, and The Riveter.

MORE ON THE BLOG

Projector is the Collaborative Graphic Design Tool We’ve Been Searching For

The power of visuals in modern communication is undeniable. In the world of social media, 63% of content is made up of images, and according to Quicksprout, content with quality visuals receive 94% more views and engagement than those without. Strong visuals play an important role in all facets of business, helping you connect with an audience faster, and with more emotion, than words alone.

If you own or operate a business, you’re in the business of visual communication. From Instagram and TikTok to pitch decks, presentations and print materials, visual language filters into all channels and mediums of your business. The right designs can help bring your brand to life–and thankfully, tools like Projector make it easy for teams to create professional-looking visual content, regardless of whether you have a design background or not.

With a robust selection of templates, tools and features, Projector is the collaborative graphic design tool we’ve been searching for. It’s an entirely browser-based platform that helps teams work efficiently and in real-time. (Think: Google Docs for graphic design). From launching a social channel from scratch, to crafting a deck for your next campaign, in Projector, it's fast (and fun!) for anyone to create multimedia stories for any channel or medium. Keep reading to learn more about Projector, our favorite new design tool, and discover all the ways it can help you build and scale your business.

What is Projector? 

Projector is an entirely-browser based, collaborative tool for designing visual content. It’s powerful enough to support advanced multimedia layout and editing, but accessible and approachable for someone who’s never used professional design software before.

Who is it for?

Anyone who creates content for work. In Projector, people from all different kinds of skill sets–– writers, brand strategists, community managers, executives, marketers, creatives and designers –– can work together in one space that feels approachable and powerful for each of them.

What can you make with it?

Presentations, social posts and stories, email banners, zines, zoom backgrounds, digital flyers, pdfs, videos, and GIFs to name a few... Start from scratch, or get inspiration from a curated library of modern templates that can easily be customized in any way you want. Whether you’re running an Instagram channel for a brand, trying to launch a creative-side hustle, crafting a proposal deck or looking to spruce up your own portfolio and feed, Projector gives you one space to create everything.

How does it work?

Browse a curated library of professionally-designed templates (i.e. Instagram templates for highlighting your product or community, presentations for planning your editorial calendar, etc)

Stylize text and add movement with special media effects. Fill letters with videos, images, or GIFs, and add gradients, shadows, or outlines to create your own unique text styles.

Discover imagery, icons and more with the best content integrations via Unsplash, Shutterstock, Giphy, and Noun Project (for free!)

Share your story with a link to comment, collaborate, and present in real-time.

Why should you try it?

If you're looking for a more efficient and collaborative way to create visual content, Projector can help. They're making it easier for more people to connect with their audience through modern, multimedia design — and we all know good design is good business, after all.

Sign up here for free to give Projector a try.

5 Branding Lessons from an Influencer with Over 1.35 Million YouTube Subscribers

Photo: Karen Rosalie Courtesy of Aileen Xu

Here’s one thing that has remained consistent since I started Lavendaire in 2014: My hair color is constantly changing. My subscribers always notice when I go from pink to blonde to lavender to blue, and everything in between. 

At this point, my changing hair color is part of the Lavendaire brand. I encourage my audience to experiment with their looks as a form of creativity and self-expression, which are core values for Lavendaire as a personal-growth brand. 

Framing my hair changes as an example of how to embody Lavendaire values is just one way I’ve been intentional with my brand.

If you’re looking to start or refresh your own brand, here are five other lessons for you.

Lesson #1: Choose your brand name wisely.

It would have been easy to name my brand after myself, but “Aileen Xu” is not easy for people to spell or pronounce. I wanted it to be easy for people to recognize and—more importantly—to share my brand name.

“Lavendaire” was unique, easier to spell and pronounce, and it also reflected the aesthetic of the brand itself: dreamy, fresh, and clean.

Bonus tip: Think about Google-ability. If you Googled your brand name, would you get a bunch of results unrelated to your brand? Since I made up the word, if you Googled “Lavendaire”, you’d only find Lavendaire-related results.

Lesson #2: Be strategic about your niche.

Here’s a lesser-known fact: I used to be involved in the Asian American YouTube community, mostly through music videos. It was a fun experience but not related to what I wanted my brand to be about. 

So, I made the decision to distance myself from that niche and create content in my own niche of personal growth. I wanted to be “Aileen of Lavendaire,” not “Aileen from that music video.” If I hadn’t made that decision, it would have been harder to position myself and my brand as separate from the entertainment niche.

Lesson #3: Make what’s missing, and make it your own.

Self-help content already existed online, but it didn’t feel like it existed for me. The people creating the content were generally older white men that I couldn’t relate to as a young Asian woman. 

So, I made the content I wanted to see, but I also put my own spin on it. I wanted to bridge the gap between practical self-help and woo-woo topics like manifestation. Other people who couldn’t relate to existing self-help content could turn to Lavendaire instead and get that extra value from the woo-woo topics.

Ask yourself: What gap does your brand fill and how can it stand out even further?

Photo: Courtesy of Aileen Xu

Lesson #4: Have a long-term vision.

Here’s mine: In ten years, I want Lavendaire to be a household name. It sounds a little vague, but having that vision allows me to ask, “Okay, so what would it take to get there? Marketing, PR, maybe projects with a wider reach.” And so, we planned projects with that in mind.

Your vision doesn’t have to be super specific, but you have to have some sort of idea of where you want your brand to be a year or five years from now. That way, you can work backward and plan projects that will get you closer to that vision. 

Otherwise, you might just keep churning out work without direction, using your time and energy just to keep your brand relevant.

Lesson #5: Curate your brand with one person in mind.

I create content for Lavendaire with one person in mind: a girl in her early twenties who’s looking for her path in life. She loves inspiring books, yoga, astrology, and journaling. Her fashion is feminine and relaxed. Ultimately, she’s the ideal client for Lavendaire.

She’s who I had in mind when I created the 2021 Artist of Life Workbook. I know this girl wants to plan her year with intention, and it would be a bonus to do all of her planning in a pretty notebook that she’d be proud to keep by her side at all times. 

By keeping this ideal client in mind, Lavendaire’s branding and messaging stay consistent across the board. Obviously, not everyone who follows Lavendaire fits perfectly into that mold, but enough of the brand resonates that people are drawn in. 

If you know who your brand is for, you’ll reach and attract people who resonate with it. You’ll also naturally repel people who don’t resonate with it, which is perfectly okay and even beneficial to your brand! Don’t think you’re shutting anyone out or losing potential audiences. 

As Lavendaire subscribers know: It’s more valuable to use your energy on people who effortlessly vibe with you than to use it trying to convince people who don’t.

About the author: Aileen Xu is a content creator and entrepreneur in personal growth and lifestyle design, inspiring people around the world to embrace their true potential and create their dream life. Her YouTube channel, Lavendaire, has over one million subscribers and her podcast, “The Lavendaire Lifestyle,” has over five million downloads. Aileen is the creator of the Artist of Life Workbook, a detailed guide to creating your most inspiring and successful year, and the Daily Planner by Lavendaire, a tool for designing a productive, effective and meaningful day.

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

MORE ON THE BLOG

How to Get Better Results From Your Marketing Efforts (Without Spending a Ton of Money)

Photo: Anthony Shkraba from Pexels

As an online business owner, one of the most important parts of your marketing strategy is your messaging. What you say to your ideal clients and customers (and how you say it) is just as key to your overall success as where you say it, which makes sense when you think about the fact that how we connect and communicate with other humans is through storytelling. 

Unfortunately, the “messaging” part of marketing is often overlooked, in part because it requires time and effort. It’s easy to set up an account on the social media platform of your choice or throw some money at paid-for ads, but it’s harder to actually dig into and strategize what you’ll spend your time saying to your audience once they’re sitting in the room. 

This is one of the most common mistakes online business owners and entrepreneurs make when it comes to their marketing: they spend A LOT of effort (and time and money) bringing in new leads to their business but they forget to take a minute to think about how they will convert those leads into actual clients or customers.

Which is where your messaging comes in. 

So, what do you need to be hitting on in your messaging to see more results, more revenue, and more impact from your marketing efforts? 

Here are three key things to lockdown so you see better results from your messaging.

1. Cultivate a strong brand identity.

In order to stand out from the crowd with your messaging (and let’s be honest: in the online business world, it’s BUSY), you need to first cultivate a strong brand identity. This means digging into and defining your core messaging aspects like your why, your mission, your values, and your beliefs. It also means shaping your story and putting into words what makes you different from all the other [insert what you do here] out there. 

These are the things that make you and your brand truly unique. By clarifying them, you’ll ensure that your brand identity and personality are completely aligned with who you are (which means your messaging will draw in your dream ideal clients who are actively searching for someone like you).

2. Optimize your offerings.

Your offer is more than just the thing you’re selling. It’s how you change your client or customer’s life. But in order to convert the browsers into buyers, you need to make sure that the messaging and copy around your offer is telling them everything they need to hear to be ready to buy.

This means diving into things like understanding where your ideal clients are right now so you can make sure that your offer is exactly what they want and need, seeing what others in your niche are offering so you can position your offer as different (and better), and then clarifying the core aspects of your offer from a messaging perspective. If you can understand exactly who it is for and what big transformation it will bring them, you’ll be able to create the kind of messaging and copy you need to see great conversion rates and results from your funnels.

3. Create a scale-worthy strategy.

In order to achieve anything in life or business, you first need to have a plan. When it comes to your messaging and marketing, I call this creating a scale-worthy strategy. This is where getting clarity on things like how to share your vision with your team, what kind of content you need to be sharing to prime your audience, and what your big goal map for your business actually looks like comes into play. 

When you have a strategy like this, it means sustainably scaling your business will be so much easier, and it means you can finally stop spinning your wheels thinking you need to be doing all the things and being everywhere in order to achieve your goals. A simplified strategy that is focused on building your authority, creating real connections with your audience, and crafting impactful messaging is way more effective than throwing spaghetti at the wall or copying what your competitors are doing (top tip: do not do this. You want to stand out in your industry so that means zigging when everyone else in your niche is zagging).

So there you have it, three things you can start working on today that will allow you to create the kind of messaging strategy that will bring better results from your marketing and get you closer to your business goals.

“In order to achieve anything in life or business, you first need to have a plan.”

—Ciara Gigleux, CEO of The Copy Atelier

About the author: Ciara Gigleux is CEO and chief copywriter at The Copy Atelier, a boutique copywriting agency for online business owners and CEOs that specializes in pairing conversion copywriting with a high-impact strategy for maximum results. She’s also the host of The Copy Coach podcast. She is (slightly) obsessed with all things messaging, marketing, and copywriting, and the main mission of her business and podcast is to help entrepreneurs use their copy and messaging to cut through the noise, stand out online and maximize their results, revenue and impact. Find her on Instagram and Clubhouse @ciaragigleux.

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

MORE ON THE BLOG

5 Social Media Trends to Watch in 2021

Photo: Color Joy Stock

For years the social media industry has been constantly evolving, but when you throw a global pandemic and stay-at-home orders in the mix, well… buckle up! Social platforms really hit the gas in 2020 on coming out with new updates that would accommodate and entertain the sudden spike in online traffic and high demands of consumers.

As Tyra Banks once said, “You want to be on top?” Then you HAVE to prove yourself as a powerful force in the digital space by keeping up with the latest industry trends and features. Your foresight on exactly where the field is heading and implementation of that insight in the present will position you as an expert in the industry, boosting your credibility and the value you provide to your audience. With that being said, read on for five social media trends to watch out for in 2021!

Video Content

If you’ve ever doubted the value of video content on social media, wait until you hear this: our agency saw a 91.7% growth rate in our Instagram following during 2020’s Q4 alone as a result of using Instagram Reels. If you aren’t aware, consider Reels as Instagram’s version of TikTok. You essentially share short videos paired with existing audio. Thanks to their appearance on Instagram’s Explore page (and for some, an exclusive Reels feed), this new feature is a great way to organically expand your reach to thousands of new accounts.

Plus, let’s talk about the Instagram algorithm for a second. We have to understand that Instagram is a business and wants users to stay in the app for as long as possible. Because of this, your goal as a creator is to post content that users will spend an extended amount of time-consuming. When you do this, the algorithm will “reward” you by showing your content to more users because it has been deemed as valuable. 

The easiest (and sneakiest) way to accomplish this? Video! While a static photo may capture your audience’s attention for a few seconds to a minute, video can keep them engaged and entertained for minutes on end. Because of this, be sure to use video to your advantage in 2021, whether it be through Reels, IGTV, IG Live, or regular videos shared to your feed.

Nostalgic Content

This second trend proves that you and I aren’t the only ones longing for the good ole days, and we’re not just talking pre-COVID.... we’re also talking ‘90s and beyond! Now more than ever, audiences, especially those that include millennials, are loving nostalgic content because of the comfort and familiarity it carries. 

In 2021, expect to see brands putting a fun, retro spin on their graphics, imagery, and storytelling. After all, you want the positive emotions connected to this content to be tied to your brand, right? Then put your creative caps on and start embracing the old as new! Whether it be a Britney Spears GIF, a graphic depicting a ‘90s computer aesthetic, or bringing back some of your brand’s past campaigns, your audience is going to love mixing in the old with the new!

Gradient Imagery

One specific ‘90s trend that has been revitalized is gradient imagery. Gradients are essentially color transitions that depict one color blending into another. This design trend is often used to enhance various graphics by adding dimension and texture to an otherwise flat image. Here are a few ideas on how you can incorporate them into your next graphic:

• Use it as your background image. You can find an example here!

• Make it a color filter to put over an image.

• Use it to accentuate headings or specific details like this post!

• Make it the focal point of your graphic. (Psst… the Instagram app logo is the perfect example!)

Humanization of Brands and Influencers

After an unprecedented year like 2020, brands have had to embrace authenticity and vulnerability on social media in order to avoid coming across as tone-deaf. What we believe a majority of brands and influencers have realized through this, however, is that the best way to ultimately grow and convert an audience is by fostering a relationship with them. 

Consider the know, like, trust factor. First, an audience has to know about you. Once they know about you, they can come to like you. Once they like you, they can grow to trust you. Once they trust you, they’re sold! Consumers purchase from brands they trust.

In 2021, we can expect brands, both personal and corporate alike, to connect with their audience by sharing their faces, mission, values, and behind-the-scenes on social media. Don’t expect it to stop there! We can also see brands placing an emphasis on engaging with their audience via comments and DM. Through this trend, brands can speak to the hearts of consumers by allowing them to fully know and trust the faces behind the brand.

Inclusivity and Social Consciousness

We saved the best trend for last and may have fibbed a bit because our fifth one is hardly a trend at all. It is not something that will come and go like the seasons—it is a movement that is here to stay. 

In 2021, we believe both business and personal brands will continue to advocate for and promote inclusion and social consciousness on social media. 2020 ignited an eye-opening fire for many, and 2021 is the opportunity to continue making that change. In addition, we can expect to see an overall increase in real conversations and standing up for various beliefs and causes across social platforms. 

I hope this blog post was insightful for you in understanding what social media trends you can expect for the year ahead! Position yourself as a leader in the digital space and give these a try for yourself. 

“After an unprecedented year like 2020, brands have had to embrace authenticity and vulnerability on social media in order to avoid coming across as tone-deaf.”

—Becca Booker, Founder of Homemade Social

About the Author: Northern-California made, Becca Booker received a double-major in marketing and journalism from Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, and now lives under the sun in Phoenix, Arizona. Shortly after graduating, Becca created her business, Homemade Social, and quickly became a respected entrepreneur in the valley. Dubbed the “modern social media queen” by AZ Foothills, Becca is revolutionizing the social media game and inspiring brands to use innovative tactics to grow their social media.

As an advocate for healthy relationships with social media, she recognizes society’s obsession with vanity metrics and believes it is important to utilize her platform as an opportunity to provide others with the resources they need to take a better approach towards social media with their business. Becca is also a loving dog mom of Jojo the Cattle Collie mix (why yes, her dog has an Instagram), and can be found with a Venti Iced Soy Matcha Latte in hand at almost all times.

About Homemade Social: Homemade Social is a boutique social media marketing agency based in Scottsdale, Arizona that specializes in social, digital, and influential campaigns for lifestyle brands. The company's mission is to advocate for a healthy relationship with social media while providing small to medium-sized brands with exceptional social media management, advertising, and email marketing services to help them grow their businesses and digital presence.

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

MORE ON THE BLOG

New Year, New Website: Tips to Give Your Business a Fresh Look & Feel

First impressions count – but did you really know how much? It takes only 1/10th of a second to form a first impression about a person. Websites are no different. According to the findings of three separate studies, it takes about 50 milliseconds (ms) (that's 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they'll stay or leave. 

Your website is your brand’s first impression – so make it count. When you have a clear and effective website, you are setting your business (and yourself) up for success. With the dawn of the new year, now is the perfect time to refresh your website, and set the foundation to scale your business. 

To help get us started, branding expert, Joanne Tapodi, shared some tips to give your website a fresh look and feel during her ‘New Year, New Website’ Talk presented by Squarespace at the recent Future You digital festival. A Squarespace website designer, Authorized Trainer and Circle member with over 15 years of experience in graphic design, Joanne has designed over 70 Squarespace websites and developed over 100 brand identities for small business owners. She’s also trained countless people on managing their own websites.

Combining her branding skills and Squarespace knowledge, Joanne creates Squarespace websites that are brand-specific and meaningful. Read on for her tips to get your website looking on-point for 2021, and also for some insight into key trends in website design for the year ahead.

---

Tips for an Effective Website

When your ideal customer visits your website, we want to lead them on a journey through your site. Imagine your website as your house, and each page on your website represents a different room; you want to welcome guests in and then take them through the different rooms of the house to show them what you're all about. This is called the user journey. Here are some tips to help you design an effective user journey throughout your website.

Tip #1 – Keep your homepage simple

Your homepage should share a bit about your business and/or a bit about what you do and who you are. It provides the most important information upfront that you want the user to know, so that they can then take this information through to the other pages on your website.

Tip #2 – Use call to actions (CTA’s) to lead the user where you want them to go

Don't give away too much information on your homepage. You want to keep the user engaged throughout each page of the journey. Have at least one CTA on every page of your website to keep that journey going.

Tip #3 – Never miss an opportunity to let the user complete a purchase, book an appointment, or contact you.

Use a few CTA’s on your homepage that lead towards your largest areas of interest; this could be your services, online shop, about page, etc. Include multiple opportunities for the user to engage with your largest area of interest not just on the homepage – but on each page of your website.

Tip #4 – The journey will ultimately end at the page where you would like the user to take action; this could be a contact page to book, submit an enquiry, or purchase page.

It’s important to have a lot of connection points on your website so that people feel like they're going through the website and learning more about you more about your business. As they move through your website, the brand journey becomes quite clear to them, and they can really connect with who you are and what you’re about. Talking about connection will lead me into my next tip:

Tip #5 – Connecting with your audience in your own unique and authentic way will be what sets you apart from your competitors.

In today’s digital age, connection is more important than ever. You have a very minimal amount of time to connect with your audience and you have to establish that connection as quickly as possible. So, how do we make sure you are achieving the touchpoints to connection on your website?

• Establish brand consistency across all areas – tone of voice, image content and brand colors

• Nurture your connection with your audience whilst building your audience by…

  • Sharing informative content through different channels

  • Blogging

  • Setting up a mailing list and sending e-newsletters. Squarespace has email campaigns built straight in to the program, which is one of my favorite features

  • Connecting your social media accounts to your website. Squarespace also allows for easy social integration

---

Web Trend Forecast

Trend #1 – ’Editorial’ Web Design

Website viewership on desktop vs mobile is still roughly equal, meaning you need to cater your website for both types of viewers. 

In terms of design for desktop, web page layouts are moving more towards an ‘editorial’ look and feel to engage visitors. This means lots of ‘white’ space between elements and positioning your content blocks in different ways to create unique layouts. Big text is great for headlines, which we see a lot of in editorial design, when we really want to draw people's attention with typographic and font use.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and create lots of space on the web page, whilst also being mindful of how the design will translate from desktop to mobile.

Trend #2 – Bold Colors

I see brands becoming more adventurous by using bold colors. For the last few years, minimal Scandi style with lots of white and monotone hues have been on trend, as well as pastel pinks and earthy tones. I predict we will see a lot of websites using darker backgrounds. Don’t be afraid to use color in expressive ways that suit your brand personality.

Trend #3 – Online Offerings

The shift towards businesses boosting their offering online (in light of the global pandemic) will see an even larger focus on online shopping and online course / workshop content creation in 2021, particularly for businesses that are service based and are used to communicating with customers face-to-face. How can we use our websites to sell?

• Setting up an online shop

• Allowing appointment bookings online

• Creating gated online content for members

Yes, You Can Actually Make Money on Instagram—Here’s How I Did It

Photo: Color Joy Stock

How do people actually make money on Instagram? 

It’s a question you’ve probably asked yourself as you scroll through your feed. The bad news is that there is no one way, the good news is that there are so many options and you don’t have to be a model or celebrity to make it work. You may think that making money on Instagram is reserved for the rich and famous, the Kardashians of the world, or those fashion bloggers who get millions in commission each year, but there is space for you too!

I wanted to have a side hustle beyond real estate, I wanted to bring in extra income and feel more in control of my finances. I built a large Instagram following by that time teaching women about personal finance and real estate. People asked me all the time how I monetized my Instagram, so I launched a product to teach people just that.

There are many factors to consider when you want to make money via Instagram. However, there are a few things you can focus on to get yourself in the right place to start creating revenue from your account and allow your audience and engagement to grow. Here’s how I did it—and how you can too.

1. Remember, First Impressions Are Everything

You may think that your images and content are what get people’s attention (which has some truth to it), but the true first impression is your bio and profile picture. When you are putting your bio together, make it concise and have a clear call-to-action pointing to your website. When anyone visits your page it should be crystal clear who you are and what you do. Make sure your link goes directly to your sales page so it’s beyond easy for your audience to make the decision to buy what you offer. Additionally, after your bio description is squared away, make sure you have a professional photo or a high-quality logo as your profile picture.

2. Bring Value

Your content is everything! If you aren’t giving thought to what you post about or share on your stories, you aren’t doing your audience or yourself any favors. But what is valuable is content that not only provides information to your niche but also is entertaining, educational, or brand-oriented. Find what resonates with your audience and showcase your expertise in order to brand yourself as an expert. If you need help coming up with content, study the popular pages of your niche. Take note of what goes viral and upcoming trends and use it for inspiration, but make sure it’s true to you. The last thing you want is for your content to be a carbon copy of someone else’s.

3. Focus on Client Conversion

Your audience is just an audience at the end of the day. While the number of followers you have is important, your biggest priority should be turning your followers into paying clients or customers. But how? It’s about the choices you make when it comes to your content. This content should provide details of what you're selling, social proof, and testimonials in order to build trust with your audience. When your following sees real people having real results from something you offer, that creates trust. Your following needs to know the details of your product or service and you need the reviews to back up your claims. It’s all about credibility and trust when it comes to Instagram. 

4. Be Careful When It Comes to Partnerships

Not all brand partnerships are a good fit. You may get caught up with the dollar signs, but a partnership that isn’t aligned with your brand can impact your reputation and can cause followers to lose trust in you. You can never make everyone happy, but if you do decide to take on brand partnerships, particularly paid ones #ad, make sure you carefully consider the pros and cons of that specific company and the timing. 

Any person or company that tells you that you can pay your way to a lucrative Instagram presence is scamming you. I made $100k in 90 days on Instagram with only one product. That’s not typical, but it also wasn’t handed to me. I found a hole, I created a solution, and people came running. That’s what it takes to monetize your Instagram, instead of thinking of it as the answer to your problems consider it as a tool to let people know how capable you are and why they need your service or product.

I’m not special, I didn’t do anything miraculous. I just showed up and shared my story and my expertise and people started following along. If you are passionate about learning more about personal finance and taking control of your financial story, I’d love for you to follow along. 

“While the number of followers you have is important, your biggest priority should be turning your followers into paying clients or customers.”

—Ariel Adams, Digital Selling Expert

About the Expert: Entrepreneur Ariel Adams is a dynamic 26-year-old social media expert and realtor who uses her online presence to encourage financial literacy. Known as “The Money Realtor,” this Virginia-based businesswoman launched several online courses and e-books that focus on helping budding entrepreneurs monetize their Instagram. It only took her 90 days to generate over $100,000 in sales through social media alone.

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

MORE ON THE BLOG

This Female Entrepreneur Built a $500K Company Helping Women Grow Their Businesses on Instagram

“No one can do it alone. The most important part of entrepreneurship is knowing when to ask for help.”

—Madison Tinder, Marketing and Visibility Coach

As I write this, I’m sitting on the porch of my home, which I bought on my own at 25 years old. If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would be able to buy a home in a new city and not only be financially independent but thriving, I wouldn’t have believed you. 

Back then, I thought my path was clear, a bachelor's degree, a master’s degree, then working in the sports industry in my dream city, Dallas. Things didn’t go as planned. I graduated with my masters and, despite internships, classes, and a 9-5 job throughout my program, when I graduated, I didn’t get my dream job at my dream team. I was crushed.

But I pulled myself together and got a job. It wasn’t “the job” but it paid the bills. I decided to start doing social media management on the side as a way to bring in a little extra income. I never thought it would grow into anything more than a side hustle. I quickly went from one client to eight and realized that maybe I could really do this. 

Fast forward to today, I transitioned from social media management to marketing coaching online for entrepreneurs. For the past two years, I’ve been growing my business and helping women all over the world grow theirs. My business has become so much more than I ever imagined. I could say it was luck or any other cliché thing people attribute to success, but that’s not the truth. 

The truth is a six-figure business doesn’t happen overnight, and there is no formula that you can follow. However, there are a few lessons I’ve learned along the way that I believe helped me reach $500,000 in sales in only one year and launch my first product-based business, Soulful Scrunchies.

Tip #1: Own Your Confidence

No one wants to buy from someone who doesn’t believe in what they are selling. If you don’t believe in your product or service 100%, you should reevaluate. I fell into imposter syndrome when I first started out, it’s normal. But, once I took a step back and looked at the results of my clients, it reminded me that not only are my skills valuable but that I deserve to be in this space. 

For me, a huge step was realizing that I didn’t need to be someone else. When I first started as a marketing coach, I didn’t fit the mold of the other coaches in the space. I was younger, didn’t show up on Instagram with perfect curls and cute blouses, I was much more comfortable in a scrunchie and top knot. Being confident in yourself and your business is an ongoing process but it is one of the most important pieces to success 

Tip #2: Trust Your Gut

You know how doctors say that you know your body best? Well, the same goes for business. You know your business inside and out. You might get to a point where you aren’t involved in every single aspect of your business, but there are always going to be decisions that fall solely on you. It can be easy to wobble back and forth on big decisions, second guess yourself, and let others' opinions influence you. You have to trust your gut. 

A potential client is giving you red flags? Worried that someone on your team isn’t a good fit? You are probably right. Sometimes the best decisions for our businesses are not ones that we stew over, make pros and cons lists for, and are super logical. 

Tip #3: Know Your Audience

The key to growth is focusing on your target audience. You need to speak to your audience in a way that is aligned with where they are at. You need to know everything about your audience, beyond demographics. You are going to have to dig deeper to find their story, their struggles, what they are looking for, and their goals. If you don’t have that information, you might as well be speaking to a wall. 

Tip #4: Serve First

So many people in the online space get caught up in the next sale that they forget your most important asset is a happy client or customer. They are a walking billboard for you. Showing up and giving them your all should be your number one priority always. Not the likes on your Instagram photo or the sales numbers on a launch but the questions people ask and going above and beyond for your people always. 

Tip #5: Invest in Support

No one can do it alone. The most important part of entrepreneurship is knowing when to ask for help. The type of support will vary based on your business, but I suggest taking a look at where you are spending your time and reflect on what is draining you. This may mean deciding to hire help for social media, client management, accounting, design, etc. Or it could mean realizing that you need a mentor to get you to that next level. Having a community will help you prevent burnout, feel less isolated, and have people you can bounce ideas off of. 

There is no one-size-fits-all model for building a six-figure business. If anyone tells you otherwise, run the other way. But, through my time as an entrepreneur I’ve learned how helpful and important the tips above can be. If you are feeling frustrated and like your business is not having the momentum that you hoped for, be patient, take action, and remember that no one’s entrepreneurial journey is the same. 

About the Author: Madison Tinder is not like most 25-year-olds. Instead of stressing about finding “the job” or making rent, she is a homeowner and runs a six-figure business. She is a marketing and visibility coach based in Louisville, Kentucky, and helps her entrepreneur clients grow and market their brands through Instagram. She’s an Instagram story pro and launched her first product-based business this fall, Soulful Scrunchies.

MORE ON THE BLOG

Buzzy Skincare Line Summer Fridays Has Thrived During COVID—This Marketing Pivot Was Key

“We truly just started, and never really looked back.”

—Lauren Gores Ireland, Co-Founder of Summer Fridays

Just because a market is saturated doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to disrupt it. Let’s take the beauty industry for example. It’s a $532 billion market, which might seem too daunting to even attempt breaking into, but here’s the kicker: women are leading the way!

When it comes to gender equality at the highest level, the beauty industry comes out on top. In fact, it officially outranks every other profession in terms of the highest percentage of women seen on the board and in executive positions. 

Unfortunately, that number is still only 29%, so clearly, we still have a long way to go. But the good news is that women aren’t waiting for the doors to open; they’re carving out their own niche and taking a slice of that billion-dollar pie for themselves. 

Lauren Gores Ireland is one of them. The co-founder of the buzzy skincare brand Summer Fridays broke the influencer mold and turned her online community into brand ambassadors. But it’s the brand’s unique marketing initiatives during COVID that has really set them apart from their competitors.

Knowing that people would be stuck at home for summer Fridays this year, Lauren and her co-founder Marianne Hewitt decided to put the summer back into summer Fridays with comfort house calls.

We’re talking a cake collaboration with Sweet Laurel Bakery inspired by their Jet Lag face mask; a Craig’s Vegan Jet Lag-inspired ice cream called Vanilla Cloud, which comes with a mini mask; and a co-branded limited edition collage kit and photo filter with Tezza Barton. So smart!

At our recent Small Business Summit, Dell Technologies brought the co-founder of Summer Fridays and the founder and CEO of Create & Cultivate, Jaclyn Johnson, together for a conversation on how the beloved skincare brand has pivoted its marketing strategy due to COVID, why networking has been key to their wild success, and what the power of social media marketing can really do.

In fact, thanks to DWEN (Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network), Dell is enabling women entrepreneurs across the globe to succeed by helping them navigate business challenges. DWEN has a proven ability to facilitate meaningful connections and bridge access to fellow entrepreneurs and advisors, technology, new markets, and resources needed to scale.

If you missed the conversation at our Small Business Summit, you’re in luck. Below, we’ve compiled all the most memorable quotes from the session. So, get out your notebooks because class is now in session!

On launching the business right away… 

“We had the idea and, quite literally, that afternoon we were already taking steps toward creating a business.”

“We truly just started, and never really looked back.” 

On tapping into your immediate network… 

“Once you have an idea and you start asking people, even within your friends-and-family circle, a lot of times, they know someone who knows someone who can connect you, whether that’s to a lab or a manufacturing facility.” 

On knowing when it’s time to bring on a team… 

“You get to a point where you realize you can’t do everything.” 

“Once you’re with a retailer like Sephora, you can’t operate without a proper team behind you.”

On seeking out mentorship opportunities… 

“I know that we would not be where we are today without the mentors who really helped guide us.”

“Jen Atkin of OUAI was significant for us. She’s the one that introduced us to Sephora. She guided us when we had big questions.”

“Jamie Kern Lima of IT Cosmetics very kindly sat down with us for hours one day and just gave us so much information and advice, which was so incredible.”

On investing in your own business… 

“Before you’re making money, you have to put money into the business.”

On the power of social media marketing… 

“It’s remarkable what you can do in the beginning, without a ton of money, on a channel like Instagram.” 

“Trying to reach out to the networks that you have, doing gifting, sending things out to people, and investing in getting that product out to people is really helpful.” 

“Now that we have grown, whether they’re our close friends or someone that we don’t know, we do pay influencers, and that is now part of our strategy.”

“What Instagram is best for is getting out the message so people can see it and it makes them want it.”

On networking with other brands… 

“Reaching out to other brands that feel native to your brand is a really great way to grow.”

Learn more about Dell's Women's Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) at DWEN.com.

MORE ON THE BLOG

5 Ways to Brand Yourself Before You Get Branded

Photo: Smith House Photography for Create & Cultivate

As an entrepreneur, it's easy to think about branding your business. What are your fonts going to look like? How do you talk about your business? What is your logo going to be? But oftentimes, the last thing on your mind is, how are you branding yourself? Branding yourself is an integral part of telling your story—and it’s crucial to tell your story before someone else tells it for you. It allows you to define what you want to be known for and how you want to shape your story.

I work with fashion brands and entrepreneurs and one of the most common questions I get from business owners is: “How do I brand myself?” Your ability to self-brand will not only help your business launch but also scale. When potential investors and business development partners look to support you, they want to know about YOU and what integrity, passion, and expertise you bring to the table. That is what is valuable. Ideas are cheap—it's what you do with them that matters.

The motto here is “you are what you say you are.” So what are you going to say?

Here are my favorite tips on how to brand yourself before you get branded.

Step 1: Think of your personal Instagram account as a branded platform.

Are you posting pictures of going out all the time? Is it all photos of your family? Think about the message you want to put out there. The nuances of your bio and your visual content will shape the type of person people perceive you to be. If you want the freedom to post whatever, whenever, then consider a private account or being intentional and OK about that perception of you.

Step 2: Share your opinions online.

Are you positioning yourself as a thought leader? Do you want to be considered a resource or expert? Share your opinions by writing guest blog posts, commenting on other blogs, and offering to share your insights with reporters. A great resource is HARO: Help a Reporter Out. Just the other day I saw requests for style experts, financial planners, and entrepreneurs to share thoughts on a particular topic. 

Step 3: Start speaking.

Public speaking is a great way to get your ideas in front of others. You don’t need to have a huge company or have had amazing accomplishments. Think like a TED speaker. All you need is one idea, something you feel passionate about and more importantly an idea you think could help others to start public speaking. Once you start to share your ideas on a larger platform you will begin to solidify “Brand You.”

Step 4: Mind your company.

What types of events do you attend? Where are you spending your time? It’s important to stay relevant both for networking purposes and to get inspired. You are branded by the nature of the content you consume; both externally and internally it changes your discourse. I suggest creating a calendar of events each season and figuring out where you need to be. You might need to shell out some money to be a part of an event, or if you can’t find one that fits you, then create one!

Step 5: Master LinkedIn.

Everyone is on LinkedIn, from Jenna Lyons to Richard Branson. Why? Because it's where you go to find people in your space, read industry-relevant articles, and see who is doing what. Have you curated your LinkedIn page? What does your bio say? Optimize your content by including recent projects, all of your social media channels, have a professional-looking photo, and make it clear what exactly you do and what kind of expert you are. I’ve been on LinkedIn for years but only recently started leveraging the article posting tools. If you are publishing blog posts, you should definitely be syndicating them on LinkedIn. 

You don’t need a special website dedicated to your brand, or even a book published to start to carve out your niche and brand identity.  You do need to determine what you stand for, how you want people to perceive you, and what tone of conversation you want to have. Every time you send an email, it’s branding. Your voicemail message? Yep, branding. You can’t escape it, so embrace it. 

About the Author: Syama Meagher is a retail strategist for brands and retailers. She helps entrepreneurs launch and grow fashion business through e-commerce, wholesale, and brick-and-mortar locations. She has previously worked at Barneys New York, Gucci, AHAlife, and Macy’s. To build your brand and create a profitable business check out www.ScalingRetail.com and email hello@scalingretail.com. 

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

This story was originally published on February 14, 2019, and has since been updated.

MORE FROM THE BLOG 

7 Tips for Working With Influencers, According to a Top Talent Agency

Photo courtesy of Aimee Song

Working with influencers is an essential part of growing your brand. They can help spread awareness, garner press, and introduce you to a whole new audience. Here, our partner Digital Brand Architects (a.ka., DBA), a digital talent agency that reps some of the top talent in the influencer sphere, put together some tips for building great partnerships and successful relationships that will keep everyone happy.

1. Identify goals for your campaign.

Setting goals is one of the easiest ways to ensure your brand’s relationship with any influencer is a smooth one, and most importantly, a productive one. Be it brand awareness, product sales, or heightened engagement, make sure you have a clear outline of what it is you are trying to accomplish before the start of any campaign.

2. Investigate before you take the leap.

Do your homework. Ask for media kits, and consider influencers and content creators who have a track record of helping brands reach their goals.

3. Mind the details.

When you do your initial outreach, have as many details ready to share as possible. This helps avoid surprises and keeps all parties on the same page.

4. Set a timeline.

Timing is everything and that is especially true when working with influencers. Always be sure that your contract outlines set times for content previewing and posting. And don’t forget to be specific about which time zone the deadline lives in.

5. Provide a briefing document.

A brief creates sets the guidelines so creativity can flourish and it’s a very necessary tool when working in the influencer space.

Make sure your brief includes:

• All image requirements (do assets need to be in portrait or landscape?)

• Styling directions

• Copy guidelines (key messaging, hashtags/tags, FTC disclosures)

• Do’s and Don'ts (do they need to avoid competitive products? Does the outfit need to be head-to-toe? Can talent use affiliate links?)

6. Understand your influencer’s creative lens.

When you work with influencers, you do so to capture their unique spin on your product or service, so keep in mind their voice and the types of content they are known to produce. Most importantly be sure to identify the style of post you are envisioning (a collage board, a personal-style post, etc.)

7. Set up a kick-off call.

This should be done before any work is done by the influencer.

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

This story was originally published on March 4, 2019, and has since been updated.

MORE ON THE BLOG

The Power of Personalizing Your Brand in 4 Steps

Photo: Anna Shvets from Pexels

Take some time right now to step back and reflect on all the brands that you love. What is it that makes you love them? Is it the product quality? Customer service? The branding? The company’s mission statement? 

While product quality and customer service are crucial in getting repeat customers, the personality of a brand is what really sets it apart from its competitors in the digital age. A next-level brand has its own personality and is much more than just a company you buy a product or service from. You also want to follow them on social media, subscribe to their newsletter, and engage with them beyond the point of purchase.

By focusing on personalizing your brand, not only will you be able to produce more sales, but you’ll also develop strong brand loyalty that will generate more longterm leads. The four tips below will start you off on the right foot by adding more character to your brand and making your customers and audience feel more connected with your brand.

1. Nail down your brand voice.

Who is your brand? If you had to put a face to your brand, who would that person be? How would they talk? Are they chill and relaxed? Fun and upbeat? Mellow and more serious? 

Nail down the tone, and make sure that this voice stays consistent on all your marketing, both online and offline. The goal is to make your brand more personable rather than a company. This is what adds true character to your brand and can give your brand a leg up on the competition who still is trying to nail down how they should sound like to be more relevant to their audience. 

You know who you are, so make sure you not only know what your brand is but who it is as well.

2. Invest in some humor/cheekiness.

Unless you’re in the business of funeral homes and mortuaries, there is always a way to add humor to your marketing strategy. Not only does it attract more customers, but it also helps build great communication that not only will help your followers and customers be more engaged with you and it can help with having your community refer you to their networks as well. 

We will say this: ditch the knock-knock jokes. Investing in humor is much more effective when it’s smart, witty, and timely. And in today’s digital age, it’s time to push aside the “professional” image that many brands are trying to stick to. As stated in an article by INC., focusing on “establishing a professional image means making it look like what’s expected, which often results in boring and forgettable websites, PowerPoint, and videos.”

The key is to always do the unexpected. Don't be so predictable.

3. Mirror your customers and be relatable.

Just as your voice relates to the voice of your consumers, so should the content that you’re creating for your brand. Mirroring your customers and creating content that they can relate to increases your content’s shareability and strengthens brand loyalty as well. Take some time to really analyze your audience: their likes, dislikes, habits, goals, struggles, etc.. Integrate those into your own brand’s content and show your audience how you come from a place of understanding and relate to them.

However, be very careful to not take away from their experiences without TRULY understanding who they are. It’s easy to sense when your grandparents are trying too hard to be cool, and even easier to sense when a brand is trying too hard to be relatable. (Point and case: please refrain from using bae, YASSS, on fleek, or any Drake lyric that can consequently cause some serious eye rolls and unfollows.)

4. Be transparent. 

If there is one thing that reeks more than grandparents trying to be cool, it’s a phony. And if there’s one thing that you need to invest in the most more than reliability, it’s trustworthiness.

In today’s digital age people can find out EVERYTHING about your brand with one Google search, so be aware of how this can affect your brand positively or negatively. Whatever it is, be real and upfront with your audience. Don’t cut through any business shortcuts, don’t be shady, and watch how you can have a leg up on the competition that chooses to keep things behind closed doors. That simple. 

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

This story was originally published on March 24, 2016, and has since been updated.

MORE ON THE BLOG

The Anatomy of a Killer "About" Page

Photo: Christina Morillo for Pexels

If you think about the pages on your blog or business website like the squares of a Monopoly board, your about page would be Boardwalk. This piece of virtual real estate is so valuable, people come barreling through your front door like it’s a never-ending open house, whether you invited them in or not. They’re intrigued! They’re curious! 

So what have you planted on your about page?

Remember, you’ve got approximately three seconds to seduce your Mr. or Mrs. Right (customer) before they jump ship to the instant gratification of another shiny domain. They’re instinctively going to head to your about page. When they get there, this is what they need to see: clear content, with a hook, that answers questions, and has an element of surprise. 

How are you faring in these five areas? Let’s take a look.

The Hook

There’s a clever little tool in writing you’re going to need to get to know intimately if you don’t already.

It’s called the hook.

It’s your angle. Your “bingo!” Your “aha” moment. Your “slap me down and call me Suzy, this person really gets me” statement. And the writers who produce the most memorable work are masters of the hook.

It’s all about infusing the theme of your message with the emotion that will reach right into the belly of your readers, make them spit out their muesli and pay attention to what you’ve got to say.

It takes in the worldview and assumptions of your reader and challenges them with a new idea.

Hit them right between the eyes with a powerful intro statement or heading to your about page that does exactly that. Surprise them, shock them, and most of all… become a master of intrigue through words.

The Language

Nobody ever made a lasting impression by thinking, “I hope I sound professional.” Be bold in your language choices and work hard to ensure you don’t sound like everyone else.

Go through your copy with a big red pen and underline any words or sentences that feel too generic or cliched. If you think you’ve heard it all before, so will your readers, which means you’re not capturing their attention (refer back to the hook and try again)!

The Photography & Design 

You may be a word nerd through and through, but if your about page doesn’t look pretty (or work well on mobile) it’s going to be pretty easy for potential customers and clients to left swipe you right outta there.

Invest in design. Use subheadings to break up chunks of text. And for the love of WordPress, do not publish your page without a photo that shows the world who you are (eye contact and smile, people!).

You wouldn’t buy anything from a shopkeeper if you walked in and they were wearing a paper bag on their head, so don’t be shy. Show yourself!

The Personal Touch

Don’t be afraid to stamp your personality on the page, but don’t feel you have to tell the world your ENTIRE life story, either.

Think back to your connectors, to your audience, and don’t get too caught up. They want to know your story but they also want to be able to relate.

Give them just enough of what they need to know about you, but ultimately keep the page all about them (uh-huh, that’s right… this page is all about THEM).

If you’re still chomping at the bit to tell more of your story, why not write a blog post called “10 things you never knew about me,” or tell your story in an emotion-fueled post?

The Call to Action

Once you’re satisfied your copy is alluring, interesting, informative, and tells your customers everything they need to know, you’re ready to rock!

Think about what call to action you want to include on the page? What’s your priority?

Is it...

• Directing people to your services page so they can book to work with you?

• Asking them to contact you to make a booking?

• Getting them to sign up to your email updates?

• Sending them onto the blog posts you’re most proud of so they can immerse themselves in your brand?

Don’t overwhelm your customers with multiple links – keep it clean and simple so your about page can perform at its best.

This piece originally appeared on BlogSociety and has been reproduced with permission. 

Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.

This story was originally published on April 16, 2019, and has since been updated.

MORE ON THE BLOG