Personality!
A strong, personable brand is something all business owners strive for. A brand that is instantly recognizable; memorable and irresistible for their clients. Other brands, however, even if they manage to be beautiful, don’t have that certain “wow”, agreed?
These brands lack a personal feel; you don’t feel connected and they manage to gain your trust. You can’t relate to their stories and oftentimes, they don’t have a story in the first place to even relate to.
These brands lack personality.
Ingredient = personality.
It’s a secret and most brands are missing it.
If you know me you probably know that people buy from me. They buy my services and they buy items I produce and sell in my shop. Why do they do this?
At some point, I established the secret ingredient. I connected with others and established “personality” amongst my brand which was compelling enough to establish what all businesses need… TRUST. If a client/customer cannot trust a brand, a business cannot succeed.
Inject personality into your brand and achieve trust.
Injecting personality into a brand, established or not, can always be a difficult task, but worry not my friend! It is a task that can be done. For big brands, small brands, all brands that want to be loved. Now think. What do you need to achieve such a task?
Well, a couple of things:
Be Relatable
People want to know your brand’s story is real. They want to see that the people and/or person that they are working with (or buying from) is, what’s the word? R.E.A.L.
What can you do?
- Showplace photos on your Instagram Stories of you and/or your team. Highlight this on your website and be sure to show how your business operates and all the people that are involved in your process.
- Your About Page is PACKED with potential, so USE it. It is literally the best place to hone in on your relatability factor. Talk to your clients in a way that will resonate with them – tell them you are EXACTLY the person to solve their problem.
- When writing copy – anywhere – don’t write in a voice that isn’t you. Write exactly like you sound – make sense? Your brand is your voice and your voice is your brand. Together you will work in unison to create your unique personality that sets your brand apart from every other.
Quirky? Great!
Don’t fake it because frankly, nobody’s perfect and when it appears as if someone is, it isn’t believable anyways! People aren’t going to trust something that appears fake or unbelievable so don’t hide the real you.
This doesn’t mean you have to write a tell-all of and release every skeleton in your closet in order to gain your audience’s trust – you just need to be comfortable with you so they are comfortable trusting you.
Writing to your audience is easy enough to do if you just remember to write as you speak. Laugh at your mistakes, show your own unique personality in your Stories or LIVE videos and don’t be afraid to show that you can be disorganized or work in a way that’s different from others. Anyone that’s ever seen my office knows that my desk is clear from papers and clutter, maybe, once a month. I have books stacked beyond the bookcase and in a reclining chair next to my desk. My closet is overflowing. I’m not proud, but this is me.
Be consistent
If you’re like me and your personality changes with the weather then it may be tough to stay consistent. You feel inspired on the regular! You want to switch things around with your brand because you feel perhaps it could be “better” or you think shifting gears in another direction will broaden your audience.
What do you do? Switch your personality gear to one season because branding should stay consistent!
This is hard to hear, I know. I hate evening typing it out much less having to abide by it but once you sit down and get right with your branding you will feel a huge weight lifted off your shoulders.
Every now and then don’t be afraid to refresh your typography or refine the elements of your logo – just stay consistent with the values and mission of your brand.
Consistency = Trust.
If you are constantly changing your branding people are going to find it difficult to resonate with what you are selling. They won’t be able to build that trust factor they need and are likely to feel as if you are unqualified in your field and unreliable as a result of the unsteadiness of your branding.
Be Sure to Show Yourself
Don’t like taking pictures of yourself? It’s time to overcome that phobia because we are living in the digital age where if you don’t show yourself, you don’t exist. I’m not particularly fond of photos of myself but guess what? They are everywhere. They are on my website, social media, and even in the proposals I send. I want my clients to feel as if I am talking directly to them no matter the distance (because I am!) instead of reading a boring bullet list of items or endless paragraphs with an invoice attached. I find my job fun and interesting and I want it to be fun for my clients as well!
Personality is the ultimate game-changer for any brand.
With anything you do and everybody you meet, there will always be people that will be put off by the quirks in your personality. You can’t be loved by everyone, right? It’s the ones that aren’t who become your brand’s ultimate fans. They wait for your services because they know you are the best at what you do. They buy your products because they trust in your ability to produce a great product that will solve their problem.
