39. Five visibility insights for your evolving brand
Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | iHeart Radio
SUMMARY
What does brand visibility mean, and how can it be improved? In this episode, India returns with case files of Flaunt Your Fire clients. Using these real-life stories, she explores five examples of visibility insights that any business can use:
Working with people who see you
Trusting that there are myriad ways to grow your business
Leveraging the platform/s you already own
Powering your brand through explicit values
Showing up
Improving your company’s visibility doesn’t have to be difficult with India’s holistic approach and thoughtful strategies to support your efforts.
QUOTED
INDIA JACKSON
“All visibility investments are not made equal.”
“Sometimes it's better to take a look at those [offerings] and ask yourself, how can we make those better instead of creating something new? And you'd be surprised many times making them better is, actually, taking some things off of them not piling more things on.”
“We all have more work to do in the changes that we want to see in the world. But the key thing is to share that because sharing that, you open up the conversation for more people to be attracted to your brand.”
Although a critical ingredient to brand success, visibility is often difficult for business owners to define beyond I know it when I see it.
Whether you sell a tangible item or provide a service, these five real-life observations from Flaunt Your Fire case files, coupled with India’s holistic approach to improvement, will inspire you to take a fresh look at your brand’s visibility and how you want to show up in the world.
#1: Working With People Who See You Changes Everything
Right out of the gate, this principle hits at the heart of the reason you do business. Courses to help amplify your brand or boost your skill set are not created equal. Nor does cost determine quality, as one client found out.
She felt a lot of judgement coming up while engaged with a course she’d purchased. The learning structure seemed to indicate that deviation from their specific way of doing, of leading, of showing up, was a failure on her part.
By contrast, we held space for this client, allowing her room to explore whatever ideas came up while working with our team. She discovered that she didn't want to be in her current role. We supported her desire to parlay followers and influence she’d gained into a business model that provided the alignment she craved. But first, she had to reprogram her mindset, let go of preconceived ideas about quantity over quality.
Losing some followers is frightening, but quantity over quality is built on a shaky equation that trades authentic connection for bots and pods. In the end, both are false substitutes for actual followers.
To flaunt her fire, our client learned to trust her instincts, review opportunities with discernment, and say hell yes to those that felt most aligned. Most importantly, she found herself with a brand new, successful business that felt like home.
#2: There Are Myriad Ways To Grow Your Business
And they exist even if the biggest names in the industry aren’t talking about them. The constant push to create new and better programs or services is shiny object syndrome run wild. It caused one of our clients to downplay the brilliant, fan-favorite offerings she already had in place in search of newer, trendier options.
The FYF team reflected back to her the best attributes of her business, reviving her confidence and opening her up to new possibilities. The client’s strengths included her brand values, her prior career experience, and, you guessed it, offerings she’d already created.
We simply helped her figure out how to repackage them. With our help, this client actually found herself delivering less while charging more. Talk about flow and ease!
Providing less at the onset can make sense as it leaves people wanting more. Our bite-sized restructuring plan for the brand left the client and her customers mutually more fulfilled at the end of their engagement.
#3: Leverage The Platform/s You Already Own
COVID forced an apparel client of ours to reassess their customer outreach activities. Without a brick-and-mortar space, the client relied on festivals and in-person events for a good portion of their sales. The pandemic forced them to admit that their narrowly-focused strategy didn’t provide optimum exposure or a safety net.
Additionally, this client (as is the case with many apparel brands) relied heavily on Instagram to attract consumers directly. Well, 2020 was a challenge on many levels, including IG. The platform made significant algorithm changes to its “shoppable” feature, resulting in poor visibility (100 comments per post down to three? C’mon, IG). All the better to funnel brands into paying for IG ads.
Sneaky as Instagram’s money grab was, it allowed our client to diversify where and how they showed up. They revamped their email newsletter to support a more consistent presence and provided more value to their followers. By tempting their base away from social media, our client was able to control their engagement on the platforms they had more control over. For you, that might be your newsletter, your podcast, your website, or all of the above.
#4: Explicit Values Can Power Your Brand
We have a lovely client who’s all about changing the world through their apparel company. Cool, right? Well...we know about their notable endeavors in sustainability. But the client was maddeningly shy about sharing those efforts with their customers. Why? They felt like they weren’t “there” yet, that they hadn’t done all they could to reach the pinnacle of sustainability.
The truth is, there’s always more work to do. Share what you’ve accomplished thus far anyway! Open the conversation up so more people are attracted to your brand’s efforts. They can’t support you if you keep your values hidden.
A bonus to that feel-good transparency: you’ll inspire others to make personal or professional changes of their own. Our client used their ethos to drive conversations toward sustainability across all their platforms. The exposure boosted their brand’s identity and its sales.
#5: Show Up - And Keep Showing Up
Clients often misinterpret this last insight as having to say something new all the time. DEI coach Erica Courdae wholly embodies the true spirit of our fifth tip. With Pause On The Play, Erica has consistently shown up in her element, for her community. She throws her full support and expertise behind a message of imperfect allyship.
Years ago, this inspirational woman assumed that only traditional influencers could reach lofty social media goals. Not true. Erica has created space for her content to flow organically. Her reach has grown in response. And, much like her brand values, Erica focuses on action, showing up, even when her actions aren’t perfect.
If you’re familiar with Pause On The Play, you’ve witnessed that imperfect action in multiple ways. In working with us, Erica has redirected her focus back to her strengths in order to create top-level aligned content, and then delegate to her team to repurpose that content in all of the places she shows up. This frees her to spend more time in her zone of genius, that space where her effort doesn’t run counter to her purpose. Erica’s consistency has translated into an increase in followers--from under 600 to over 3,000 in less than 30 days. That’s not magic; that’s the beauty of showing up.
Final Thoughts
Alright, that’s a lot to consider so here’s a final thought on our five insights. Visibility is more than surface details. How do you feel about the people you follow? The platforms you use? How you or your brand show up in the world?
If your answers don’t align with your truth, your relationships will suffer, and your message will get lost. That’s a big takeaway.
Each one of our five clients took a chance. They got vulnerable with us; they allowed us to get to know their brand, their values, and their why. Visibility strategy doesn’t need to be complicated; but it does need to be aligned.
Your Action For This Episode
Get support with YOUR brand visibility. Book a discovery call with The Flaunt Your Fire team.