Peek-A-Boo, I See You! Most of the time when someone says the word Brand or Branding we most often jump to the thought of our logo, graphics, or design for our business. And we would be partially correct. However, it's more than just the pretty. the labels, the monograms of our business.
Brand Visibility is achieved through pictures, post, images, graphics, logos, and designs, that you visually see, that evokes the emotions, heart, soul, promise, and DNA of your business. As a Solopreneur, If your Brand Message had to take on a visual appearance, how would it manifest itself in a physical format to the world to make it aware you exists.
When I was a very young child my mother would play Peek-A-Boo with me. She would hide her face with her hands and then she would pop-up from behind her hands and shout Peek-A-Boo. Then I would fall out into big giggles and loud swelling laughter. She would do this over and over again and I loved it. Everytime, no matter how many times, I would have the same reaction. Brand Visibility is the adult version of Peek-A-Boo! Whenever you pop-up and show your face, the face of your business, your target audience should be evoked with loud swelling emotions that bring about a connection. Just like the powerful connection between a mother and a child. So now let's explore how to bring that level of emotion in your brand visually.
Brand Awareness For Solopreneurs
Before we discuss Brand Awareness - Brand Visibility for Solopreneurs, it's important that we have established the other Building Blocks of a Personal Brand. If you want to learn more about The Building Blocks of a Personal Brand here's a great start:
- The Building Block of Authenticity
- The Building Block of Specialization
- The Building Block of Distinctiveness
- The Building Block of Advocacy
As a Solopreneur, we are the face of our business. And because we are the face of our business we want to be very strategic about how we present that face to the world. We want to make sure that when people see us they know exactly what it is that we do and how we can help them solve their problem.
There are a few key ways to ensure Brand Awareness as a Solopreneur:
- Personal Brand Portfolio
- Clear Headshots and Relevant Imagery
- Social Media Presence
- Speaking Up & Being The Voice
Personal Brand Portfolio
Your Personal Brand Portfolio is essentially your resume but for your business. It's a way to showcase your skills, experience, and what you have to offer in one neat and tidy package.
How Do You Create a Personal Brand Portfolio and what should it include:
- An up-to-date resume or your backstory
- Samples of your work or plan of how you intend to help
- Testimonials and reviews
- A list of your skills, experience, and expertise
- A headshot or personable imagines of you and your lifestyle
Clear Headshots & Relevant Imagery
I am not a big advocate to spending a ton of money here. But as the face of your business, it's important that you have good-quality clear headshots and relevant imagery to represent you and your brand. Make your headshots recent, well lit, and show you in a variety of settings and outfits. You should also have a selection of action shots that showcase you in your element - whether that's speaking on stage, working with clients, in your home, with your family and friends. The most important part to remember here is that your imagery be relevant and authentic.
Social Media Presence
As a Solopreneur, you should have an active and consistent social media presence. Use social media to tell your story, share your content, engage with your audience, and build relationships. Your social media channels are an extension of your personal brand. So make sure that the content you are sharing is in alignment with your brand message. Please keep in mind to show up on the RIGHT social media platform, not ALL the social media platforms. LESS IS MORE. If you are not sure which platform is best to connect with your audience, "How To Choose The Right Social Media Platform For Your Business" could assist you.
Speaking Up & Being The Voice
One of the best ways to ensure Brand Awareness as a Solopreneur is by speaking up and being the voice of your business. This could be through blogging, vlogging, podcasting, speaking engagements, or even just engaging in conversations on social media. Share your story, share your message, and share what you have to offer with the world.
Now let's get into a little Elements of Brand Awareness
3 Key Elements of Brand Awareness for Solopreneurs
There are a 3 key elements to keep in mind when it comes to Brand Awareness for Solopreneurs. Here they are:
- Clarity
- Consistency
- Visibility
Clarity
When it comes to Brand Awareness, clarity is key. You want to make sure that you are clear on who you are, what you do, and how you can help your audience. This means having a clear and concise message that is easy for people to understand.
Consistency
Another important element of Brand Awareness is consistency. This means showing up consistently with your message and your brand. This could be through social media, blogging, vlogging, speaking engagements, or any other platform you are using to share your message with the world. The important part is to be consistent with your message and your branding.
Visibility
The last element of Brand Awareness is Visibility. This is all about making sure that people can see you and your brand. There are a few key ways to do this:
- Have a strong social media presence
- Be active on relevant forums and platforms
- Having an Out of The Bubble Strategy - being visible in search engines
- Share your story and your message with the world
These 3 Key Elements of Brand Awareness will help you to ensure that you are seen, heard, and remembered by your audience.
I would like to circle back to Peek-A-Boo and it's strategy to your Brand Visibility.
The Strategy of Brand Visibility for Solopreneurs
It's amazing how this simple childhood game gives a very powerful and effective 4 Step Strategy for Brand Visibility.
STEP 1- THE HIDE
Just like in the game of Peek-A-Boo you hide your face with your hands. This creates a level of suspense between child and parent. You have to hide away and create suspense between you and your audience. This is the only way to get their full attention. Now the hide away is your time to create value based content, informational content, videos, blog post, or social media post for example.
STEP 2- THE POP-UP
The second step is the Pop-Up. This is where you take your hands away from your face and reveal yourself to your audience. You want to make sure your message is clear and concise. You want to be very clear on who you are and what you do. Everytime you reveal your face so to seek, make sure your reveal is special. Your POP-UP should cause a reaction, be exciting for you and for them. Remember, Big Giggles and Loud Swelling Laughter.
STEP 3- THE PEEK-A-BOO
The third step is the Peek-A-Boo. In the game you would shout out and exclaim "Peekaboo!" Like the game, this is where you make some noise and get noticed by your audience. This could be through Graphics, Logos, Webinars, Facebook LIVES, Blog Post, Vlogging, Reels, Stories or any other platform you are using to share your message with the world. The most important part here is to be authentic, focused, intentional, and consistent with your BOO,.... your NOISE.
STEP 4- I SEE YOU
The last step is the I See You. How do you reply to Peek-A-Boo? The canonical response is “I See You!” Here is where your audience can see you and connect? They show you they understand and get what you are about. They respond to your message by following, liking or buying your product or services.
So the big question is whether your visual brand imagery is consistent in color, style, similarity, recognizability. When they see a post or an image without hesitation does your audience know it's yours. As I said earlier, If your Brand Message had to take on a visual appearance, how would it manifest itself in a physical format to the world, to make it aware you exists. Is your audience saying I SEE YOU?
Side Note: Don't forget to Rinse and Repeat. Children want you to play this game over and over and over again and they never get tired. WHY? Because you are giving them what they want. You are giving them VALUE. Now give your Target Audience VALUE and see how much they love playing PEEK-A-BOO with you.
Finally let's talk about Brand Design for Solopreneurs.
Brand Design for Solopreneurs
We touched on it briefly but I felt we needed to take a deeper dive into Branding Design. So let's start with some basic definitions. Branding is the DNA or heart and soul of a business. Branding Design is the brand put in a visual format. There are 10 Characteristics that every brand should explore to reach its fullest potential and deepest audience.
The 10 Brand Characteristics are:
CREATIVE
DIRECTIONAL
TARGETED
COMPETITIVE
POSITIONED
the ability to make something or reinvent something to make it your own
the ability to have focus and maintain a consistent message
the ability to know and understand your audience. "Think Bullseye"
the ability to know and understand your competition
the ability to have a niched voice and be distinctive from the competition
FUNCTIONAL
ALIGNED
EVOKING
ILLUSTRATIVE
EXPECTATIONAL
the ability to make easy or serve a purpose and meet a practical need
the ability to have all the moving parts of your business heading in the same direction
the ability to make an emotional connection with your target audience
the ability to show your audience through visual and not just tell
the ability to meet and exceed the expectation of your target audience
Now that we know the 10 characteristics, how do you design for them? I'm glad you asked. We should think about how to implement these characteristics into some Design Components?
DESIGN COMPONENTS
It is the combining of the Design Components with The 10 Brand Characteristics that makes a very powerful Brand Visibility Image.
For Example: You could mix the Characteristic of Creative and apply it to the Design Component and make crazy unusual Fonts for your Yoga Brand. Neon Fonts is not the normal style for yoga. Unusually people go with more calm and soothing style. But this really works.
This time we can try the Characteristic of Targeted and apply it to the Design Component of Email. A flower shop could send out emails to customers to grab their attention. This is a targeted email that can go out as a reminder message to encourage customers to come back and buy for Mother's Day. It's fun and distinctive to that brand. Think about it, when is the last time your local florist send you a personal email.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Brand Visibility is achieved through pictures, post, images, graphics, logos, designs, you visually see that evokes the emotions, heart, soul, promise, and DNA of your business.
- As a Solopreneur, if your Brand Message has to take on a visual appearance, how would it manifest itself in a physical format to the world, to make it aware you exists.
- There are 10 characteristics that every brand should explore to reach its fullest potential and deepest audience.
- The 10 Brand Characteristics are: Creative, Functional, Directional, Positioned, Aligned, Targeted, Competitive, Expectational, Evoking, Illustrative.
- Design Components: Logos, Taglines, Brand Colors, Typography, Email Broadcast, Website, Business Cards, Social Media Platforms, Packaging Materials, Marketing Materials.
- It is the combining of the Design Components with The 10 Brand Characteristics that makes a very powerful Brand Visibility Image.
#10kMatters
