Developing Brand Identity & Why You Need a Brand

If you’re confused about your brand and what a brand actually is, and if you even need one for your business, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Building a brand can feel like this really abstract and weird concept that really has no form. But if you’re an online coach or a health coach, then you absolutely need a brand. In my new video, I’m going to teach you how to start developing your brand in three easy steps.

If you’re thinking to yourself “a brand is my colors or my fonts” I’ve got a newsflash for you, that’s actually not a brand!

What is a brand?

A brand is not your favorite colors, fonts or a logo. Those are parts of your brand and they represent your brand, but they are not actually your brand. Your brand is the unique combination of skills, experience, and personality that you bring to the table in your business. So you want to start with the brand identity and then choose fonts, colors, and logo that reflect the brand identity.

What is a brand identity?

You may have not considered this before, but your brand is you. It is YOU! If you are going to have a strong and concise brand, guess what? You actually have to know who you are. And as odd as it might sound, a lot of people have no idea who they are. This is a really cool thing about developing a brand for your company, because you actually learn so much about yourself that maybe you didn’t actually know before.

Develop your brand identity: core values

You can think of your core values as your non-negotiables things that you would never sacrifice. A good practice is to go through this list by Scott Jeffery and choose your top 10 important things to you. Once you have 10, narrow it down to the most important five and really take a look at these because what you want is your audience to get a really clear idea as to what your values are.

Core values are really important, not only for brand representation, but they will influence how you make decisions in your business.

Develop your brand identity: knowing your voice

You don’t want to show up online as a textbook. The reason people follow you is because of your unique voice that you bring to the table. So you have to show up as you actually speak.

If you are confused about your voice, ask your friends and family to describe you in five words. This will help you determine who you are and how you should be showing up online. It’s so much easier to be you than to show up and pretend to be someone that you’re not.

Develop your brand identity: mood of your brand

This is the feelings you want your audience to feel when they come into contact with your brand. It’s really important to determine what your three to four moods are. Your logo, your fonts, your colors should represent those moods. So if you have a very soft brand, you’re probably not going to go for red and black and bright green, or really strong, powerful kind of in your face colors. You’re likely going to go for softer colors or more of a pastel color palette.