Episode 1: Core foundations to stand out in a saturated market

Hello, and welcome to the very first Inspired Brew episode. I am extremely excited because this has been years in the making, I am always creating tutorials. I’m always doing some kind of q and a educational pieces here and there in social media, and they turn very long. So my idea is to really condense this and make them some value packed episodes for you to really just get the brain of a brand designer, web designer, brand strategist, and all of those titles that you wanna throw at me and make them actionable so that you can have the strongest brand ever.

But I’m also going to always be cheering with a cup of tea for you. So cheers from my London Fog to you. And let’s get started because I want this episode, even if it’s the first to just dive in with value. I don’t want to stall you with my whole story. I might share that in a further episode or really just, with little bits and pieces here and there, but a hot topic that has been going on on my social media right now.

And when I say my social media, it’s gonna be Instagram, okay? Mostly it’s going to be Instagram. There’s going to be the occasional Pinterest search that I see in, the analytics. So I can kind of gauge where people are, stuck at that moment. But really when I mention social media, I’m saying Instagram.

So if you’re on Instagram, let’s connect. That’s where you’ll find me. I absolutely adore that platform. So the topic, this hot topic has been all about standing out with your brand. I did a little bit of an educational training in there. It was just, you know, like 10 stories in a row with a couple of questions in there that popped up into my dms.

So I opened up a questions, little widget thing from Instagram stories, and it just kept coming up: “How do I even stand out on a crowded market? How do I keep establishing myself? I am not new to this rodeo.” And it kind of always went back into, but how do I do this? So it really reminded me that people forget the root and the foundation that gets them that profitable business because sometimes we are very ingrained into the day to day.

We are paying attention to our clients, to their projects, and then we fall into the marketing rhythm. But sometimes all of that just really makes us wonder, “am I even doing this right? How can I ensure that where I am putting all of my efforts is going to really be profitable?” And I am want to believe that we always want to have some kind of return on investment on anything that we put our time or our money into.

So basically these are gonna be the top three things, the key foundational pieces for that particular topic. So how do you stand out in a crowded market? How do you make your brand the strongest foundation in your business to really make it a profitable one? So the first one that I will say is create a brain identity and stick with it for real, because creating a brain identity, it’s not just let me pick a pretty logo and some colors and put them all together and I’ll keep them cohesive.

So my website’s gonna look the same and my social media’s gonna have the same. But are they really working towards your goals? Are they just pretty or are they effective? Are they going to help you connect with that ideal client avatar that you’re creating with that ideal market that you’re trying to step into in this crowded arena? Right? So that is the first step.

You need to be very intentional with that brand, but you need to stick with it. I do not, and I can’t stress this enough, I don’t like to push the don’t be trendy, but it is a real thing. We tend to have some kind of shiny object syndrome when we see so and so in our competition. Like in our market, our direct competition in this case, have a different look, have something new, have something fresh, and then because we think it’s working for them, it’s so easy to just go and, “Oh, let me just change this a little bit and I’ll implement it into my own brand.”

But then you’re doing a disservice to your own business because now you are imitating someone else, which by the way, you don’t even know if it’s actually working for them. You just see in your trend and you assume that it’s working for them, but it might not. So create your brand identity and stick with it.

Make it unique to your business. Make it really aligned to your ideal client. Which takes me to step two because step two for this whole foundational piece is to really nail that ideal client. And this is something that will change. Please don’t think that you’re gonna create one avatar and this is going to be the forever client that you’re gonna serve.

It is not. This is just so that you can focus and by having focus, you are going to have more effective marketing. You’re gonna have a more effective message. So you focus, or as I like to just go down to that rabbit hole, it’s nicheing down. You are going to pick a niche. And you do not need to pick a niche based on profession.

Like, “Oh, I’m gonna serve all wedding industry people.” No, you can me down by the problem that you are solving for them. For example, myself as a brand and web designer, I build strong brands and beautiful Showit websites that are money making websites for a lot of different industries. My clients range from psychotherapists to photographers.

So it is a pretty varied bunch. But the problem that I solve is the same for every single one of them. They want to have a strong brand. They have reached a ceiling, they want to go past that. They are experts in their field, but they’re not looking apart and their websites are not making them money. So I solve the same problem for different professions, and that’s how I niche down.

Now, that’s a topic for another day, but I can get pretty passionate about nicheing in this case. But that ideal client that you are gonna be picking out and, and really focusing your whole messaging around them is going to help you stand out no matter what is going to help you give that very strong foundation.

And you won’t have to double guess, “is this the right message? Is this the right promotion?” Because you know your people and you know the problem that you are solving for them, you’re going to allow them to self-identify if this is really for them. Now, if you are kind of doubtful how to do that, just look at those that are coming back.

Look at your clients currently that have been amazing and the have seen the most results with you. That is like a key point that is going to allow you to really have a strong avatar for your ideal client. And that is going to keep bringing those back. It’s like a little magnet that is just going to attract them all the time.

And then finally, is having a signature offer. I know that this is kind of, oh, but I, I solve many problems, so I can’t just have one offer. You may solve many problems, but you can put that into a framework that becomes your signature offer because now a signature offer is really going to pop open that door of “I am the expert and I can get you that result. And I have the way to do that” with this signature offer, with your signature framework.

It is not something that you should take lightly. It is not easy to just say, “Oh, I’ll do this and that’s my signature offer.” I really suggest that you break it down into the steps that you take with each and every single one of your clients because the more detailed and the more that you analyze, how are you doing this one signature offer, the better the framework and the more repeatable the results.

So while every single one of your clients might not get the same result because results are not guaranteed, you will be able to start seeing those results repeated over and over and over because your clients are going through that same system and you are the expert on that particular arena. So you know that put in red and then putting some blue, it’s gonna get you purple.

It is just the way that will happen because they’re coming in with a problem. You have that framework to solve their problem. The result is that the problem will be resolved, right? It is just like a one plus one thing, but some people like to overcomplicate it and they have many offerings and they just don’t know how to promote one, promote the other and tie that all together to their brand promise and their messaging.

So the easiest way is to have that brand identity foundation have those ideal clients that are already targeted and identified. And with your signature offer, really what you’re doing is telling them, “I have a solution for the problem that you’re looking to solve right now.” The one thing that is keeping you stuck, and this applies for service based, product based, it doesn’t really matter.

It is just a very bird side view of what you need to get a really strong brand and stand out in your market. So these strong brand foundations really apply to every single one of us from small businesses to agencies, to corporations. It just scales and it looks a little bit different depending on your profession and where you are in your journey.

But basically these are your three keys to everything. And once you have this foundation laid out and really feeling confident in it, then you can’t harness its power and start seeing that return on investment on the time that you spent on marketing, on your website, on anything that you’re really putting out there as a business, promotion or outreach because it’s going to be grounded in these three things and it’s just gonna keep bringing you that return on investment because you are being consistent with the message.

You are going to be consistent with how the brand is communicating with your clients. So there you have it super short and sweet. I like to make sure that it is super actionable. So hopefully all of these three key points are sparking some ideas so that you can get the shortest brand ever and that you bring the most results home with your business.

I am so excited to keep doing these little episodes and I will see you on the next one.