Turquoise.
That was the color I choose for my first go round at branding my tech VA business.
You know why? It’s my favorite color.
That’s it. There was absolutely no strategy behind it other than I liked it!
(Side note: do you know that turquoise is the most used color today for VA businesses? #truestory)
And you know what happened? A whole bunch of nothing.
After I had basically no new clients in 3 months, I knew I had to do something differently. So I started learning everything I could about digital marketing, branding, and copywriting.
It was then that I learned I had made the biggest branding mistake out there…
THE BIGGEST BRANDING MISTAKE NEW ENTREPRENEURS MAKE
What had I done wrong? I had branded my business to appeal to me!
Why is that a big mistake? Because I wasn’t looking to hire myself; I wanted to get hired by other people!
The truth is you’re trying to attract a certain person to your business, and your branding is part of what helps with that.
Unless your ideal client is you, then your ideal client isn’t going to be attracted to the same things that you are attracted to.
They’re going to have different likes and dislikes, motivating factors, pain points, and so on. And because of that, they’re going to be attracted to AND repelled by different things than you!
WHO YOUR BRANDING SHOULD FOCUS ON
Your ideal client has to be at the heart of your brand strategy. Everything from your brand color palette to your messaging to your customer experience has to revolve around WHO you want to work with.
That means that you’re going to have to really dig in and get to know WHO you want to work with.
I know, I know, everyone under the sun talks about getting to know your ideal client.
But the truth is that to have a digital marketing strategy that converts (i.e. having a strategic plan to grow your business and make you more money) is based on a deep understanding of your ideal client.
WHY YOU NEED AN IDEAL CLIENT AVATAR
Meera Kothand says “You can’t be for everybody…Because once you are…you’re for nobody.”
Not everybody is attracted to the same kind of marketing, and not everybody needs the same kind of services.
If you want to work with middle age solopreneurs who have podcasts, then you shouldn’t use pink as one of your brand colors! It will repel them!
But how do you know what brand colors you should use? Or what stock photos you should use? One of the easiest ways is to create an ideal client avatar.
Creating an ideal client avatar (ICA) lets you put a name and a face to the person you’re marketing to.
It keeps you from feeling like you are writing posts and emails to the great abyss, and helps them to feel like you are talking to just one person (because you are!)
HOW TO CREATE YOUR IDEAL CLIENT AVATAR
Amy Porterfield says, “Your ICA represents your ONE single PERFECT customer. This ONE single person is the potential customer who wants and needs YOUR content, YOUR product, or YOUR services. This is also a person that you LOVE to work with. Win-win!”
Basically a ideal client avatar is a fictional representation of your ideal client. It helps you go from saying, “I want to work with small business owners” to “I work with people like Stacy, a mom upscaling her coaching business who needs an amazing brand and website to get there.”
Give your ideal client a backstory. Get to know her motivating factors and pain points (hint: do market research with similar types of people if you aren’t sure).
And keep working on it until you feel like you know your ICA inside and out!
See how much easier to would be creating branding for your ICA than it would be for your original “ideal client”? Plus, your branding and marketing will feel so much more targeted to the people you’re really trying to attract!
CONCLUSION
Picking a niche and creating an ideal client avatar are two crucial pieces of starting an online business. But they’re also two of the hardest things you’ll do in the beginning stages of your business.
The reason is because so much rides on these things! Your branding, your services, and every aspect of your marketing will be based on your understanding of these two things.
Talk about a lot of pressure!
But this isn’t something you need to do alone! If you want some help creating your ideal client avatar or learning how to translate that into branding and messaging that attracts, schedule a free “Ask Me Anything” call with me.
During this no pressure 30 minute chat, I’ll help walk you through the process of creating your ICA and give you tips on choosing visual branding that would appeal to them.
4 thoughts on “The Biggest Branding Mistake (and how to avoid it)”
This is great advice! I’m in the midst of a re-branding right now and recently realized just this – I was appealing to myself and hadn’t taken my client into account. Oops! Thanks for confirming that I’m doing the right thing by re-evaluating where I am right now!
I’m so glad that it was helpful, Lauren! Good luck with your rebrand!
I seriously wish I would have come across this article sooner!! It’s SO helpful! What you lay out makes so much sense and it easy to follow. Thank you for sharing it!!
I’m so glad you found it helpful!