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Have you ever wondered what it takes to make your brand truly stand out? What makes a potential client instantly connect and want to work with you? The answer – an “elevated” brand.

An elevated brand experience is one that is professional and considered, making you the standout professional in your field. (Note: A “professional” brand doesn’t have to mean a corporate one void of all personality, it can still be fun and playful while maintaining a level of professionalism.) An elevated brand is readable, beautiful, cohesive and super relevant to your dream client.

Because having an elevated brand will help you to:

1. Set the stage for your offering

2. Create anticipation, expectation and buzz

3. Nurture your client along the journey

4. Exude professionalism and trust

I want to share with you the five key elements you need to implement in order to create an elevated brand experience for YOUR business – especially if you’re a DIYer of your graphics. Not only will this help you stand out in your field, but it will also help you get booked out. Keep reading to learn more about creating an elevated brand experience that will help you and your business thrive.

1. Know Your Business Inside Out

The first step in elevating your brand experience is knowing your business inside out. So many people rush into business without thinking about their foundations or what they’re based on. Or, they do the planning initially, but then when their business has grown, they haven’t gone back to that reassess it’s foundations. This results in your brand being a little bit all over the place!

Instead, make sure that you know your business inside out.

Think through things like:

1. What is my business about?

2. What are my exact products and services?

3. What is my price point?

4. Who do I want to serve?

Thinking through these things in a logical way (even though they seem obvious!) will help you to make sure that you can then convey your brand clearly to your audience – which makes the second step easier!

2. Research Your Audience and Your Values

Once you know your business, the next step is to research your audience and your values. Knowing who you serve and what they like, what they need, and their pain points is crucial in creating a brand that resonates with them.

Find some people who fit into your “dream client” category and talk to them (perhaps past clients or someone you’d love to work with one day). Ask them questions around what they like: what images, colours and fonts they are drawn to. Even create a Pinterest board with some ideas and ask for their opinion. If you ask more than one person for their opinion (recommended) don’t be surprised when you get multiple different responses and preferences. That’s part of the beauty of this journey! Keep an eye out for patterns in what people like. But remember. This isn’t the only thing you’ll base your brand off!

Also think about your business values and price point. What do you want people to feel when they work with you? If you want them to feel relaxed use soft blues or greens, if you want them to feel revved up use bright orange, if you want it to feel nurturing use warm earthy colours.

You also get to base your brand on YOU. It’s also important to remember that you are a part of your business, and your personal preferences play a role. Particularly if you have a service-based business or a one-man show then your personality needs to shine through your graphics. So, make sure that your branding reflects your values and interests.

3. Create a Consistent Style and Visual Guidelines

The third step involves pulling those things together and creating a consistent style and visual guidelines. A style guide is a one or two-page document (can be longer) that outlines what your business looks like. It includes listing the 3-6 colours you’ll use ALL the time, the 2-3 only fonts that’ll appear in your graphics, as well as brand elements (like illustrations and patterns), or even photo style.

These “rules” are designed for you to follow every time you create a graphic for your biz. It will result in consistent branding that is recognisably, professional, and something you KNOW you have researched and will speak to your dream client.

4. Craft Content That Resonates With Your Audience

The fourth step is to create or to be proactive on how you can craft content that resonates with your audience and that connects with them. Pick content that’s going to meet your audience where they’re at and nurture them to then want to purchase your product or service. Make sure that your content is always relevant to your business and is relevant to your audience.

The other side to this step is ensuring your graphics are designed in a way that helps your audience to notice, read and interact your graphics. Graphic design doesn’t ONLY exist to be “pretty”, it exists to community. So be sure to prioritise readable text (good font choice, easy sizing and a good contract from the background), aesthetically pleasing designs and a considered hierarchy of your text that takes your audience on a beautiful journey through your message.

If you loved this episode as much as I loved sharing it with you…there is more where that came from!

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