Branding a *Flashy* Business

A business partner of mine reached out recently and expressed interest in formalizing the services he had been offering in hopes of building credibility and establishing his side hustle as a true brand.

The problem: This individual wanted clear guidance on how to build a brand but did not know where to start. He had been providing video editing services for online businesses and creators for quite some time and was able to build his portfolio up thanks to quality service that led to word-of-mouth recommendations.

This is a common growth scheme for many entrepreneurs, regardless of their industry. It is rather simple. You share your business with friends, family, and those in your close circle. A few of them are interested in your services, and ultimately recommend you to those in their circle. This cycle repeats until you have established a moderate client base.

But then you hit a plateau.

My client was well known amongst the extended network of his friends and family and had grown to do decent numbers in terms of revenue and contract size. But after a while, he felt the need to expand into new markets and let the world know who he was and what he offered. This is where the importance of branding comes into play.

The solution: This client was well-versed in social media and organic marketing. He felt that he simply needed guidance on the principles of branding to help him take his business to the next level. The following services are what we agreed would work best for him.

Brand Kit: A brand kit is a compilation of resources that house relevant information to your company's identity. This includes your logos, font, colors, graphics, and templates. Think of a brand kit as a marketing toolbox. You refer back to this whenever you are creating marketing content.

Integrated Marketing Plan: Integrated marketing is a concept that entails creating a specific message around your company and ensuring that the same message is conveyed in all of your content across all of your channels. In layman's terms, integrated marketing helps you broadcast the most important aspects of your business to potential customers in a consistent manner.

Marketing Campaign Ideation: I helped this client create a marketing campaign that aims to promote his business to key audiences based on social proof, testimonials, and examples of previous work. My client wanted to focus on video editing services for athletes. I was able to create a campaign that promoted his services as essential to athletes who want more exposure in hopes of getting attention from collegiate athletic programs.

These three services work together in the following way. The brand kit allows my client to create consistent and appealing collateral. The brand kit is used when making content for his new marketing campaign. The integrated marketing plan helps my client maximize his reach and impact by teaching him the best practices for running his new campaign.

This way he has a clear picture of the type of content to create, how to create it, what channels to distribute it across, and how to reach his target audience - all in one place.

My client was able to shift his business from a personal brand with limited exposure to a professional brand that is easily recognizable and scalable.

If you are interested in learning more about branding and marketing that will grow your business, message me below.