5 Best Branding Practices For Women Business Owners

5 Best Branding Practices For Women Business Owners

by | Apr 18, 2022 | Marketing, News

I’ve been helping other women business owners and female entrepreneurs develop their branding practices for years. When you’ve been around the block that many times, you learn a thing or two. But the most important thing I’ve learned is this: there is no one-size-fits-all branding strategy.

Some branding “experts” who will tell you, “If you follow my plan from start to finish, you’re guaranteed success! Just buy my e-book to get started.” They may start with the best of intentions, but in my opinion, they’re guiding their clients on the wrong path.

Your branding should be as unique and individual as you are. That’s why, instead of granting you a magical one-size-fits all Cinderella shoe that I allege will bring you instant fame and fortune, I am giving you a basic recipe that will form the solid foundation of your customized branding strategy.

The following 5 best branding practices are basic strategies that I find useful for every client I work with. I will always create a branding strategy with these 5 elements in mind, even as I mix and match them with other practices which I believe will serve each individual client best.

1. Research Your Audience

Researching you audience should always be your first step when developing your business’s branding strategy. Most branding is, believe it or not, audience research. You need to find out who your customers are and what their wants and needs are. What are their pain points and problems? What drives them and motivates them?

When you have the answers to these questions, then you can decide how you want to “talk” to your customers. In other words, you can determine what voice to use in your brand messaging.

2. Determine Your Brand Voice

Your brand voice is not just the tone, verbiage, and visual design that you use to communicate your customers. It’s also the strength and conviction of your message. Think of your brand voice not just as sound, but as a message reverberating across multiple types of digital and print media. When customers read an advertisement or a blog post you wrote, or watch one of your TikToks, or scroll through your website, they should never forget what your brand is about. If they never forget, that means you have a great brand voice.

3. Create A Plan Of Communication With Your Customers

Create a plan of ongoing communication with your customers. This plan may include sending them weekly emails, calling them periodically to check how they’re enjoying your service or product, and texting them about upcoming deals and events.

It’s worth noting the difference between communicating with new customers and communicating with your loyal customers. You have a huge opportunity to forge a deeper connection through your communication with your loyal customers. Don’t be afraid to treat your repeat customers extra generously, offering them more discounts and speaking to them in a more open, conversational tone.

4. Be Consistent

Once you’ve developed your brand voice and customer communication plan, be consistent. Don’t leave your customers to doubt whether you really mean what you say, or if you will go back on your word. If you do, your customers may not trust you. Instead, they may take their business to one of your competitors.

5. Be Flexible

I know I just told you to be consistent. But you must also be flexible.

These aren’t contradictory terms. When it comes to your core values and brand messaging, you should absolutely be consistent. But as the times and trends change, sometimes it’s advantageous to adapt certain elements of your branding to keep up.

The following image is an example of how Pepsi-Cola, which retains a consistent and specific brand voice, has also been flexible over the years. Every few years, they alter their logo to match the most popular and current advertising aesthetic.

Pepsi Logo History

Source: Pepsi.com

Are these 5 steps a recipe for instant success? Not on their own. But much like flour, butter, sugar, baking soda, and salt make up the foundation of a delicious cake, these best branding practices will start you on the path to building a better business.

5 Unique Challenges Female Entrepreneurs Face

5 Unique Challenges Female Entrepreneurs Face

by | Apr 4, 2022 | Entrepreneurship, News

When Susan reaches out to me for the first time and requests a consultation, I’m ecstatic to work with a female entrepreneur whom I can help break out onto the business scene.

But when I talk to her, instead of finding her full of confidence, I find she’s hesitant and full of doubt. None of these negative feelings are about me; that’s why she’s here. She believes I can help her business thrive. But she’s also hoping, perhaps, that I can help her. That I can validate her dreams, clear away the doubts she has about herself, and encourage her to push on toward the success that she’s denied herself so far.

This is the path of a female entrepreneur in 2022. Everyone faces hardships and struggles, but women have always had to struggle harder. Not just to succeed, but for the right to succeed.

If you’re a woman starting your own business, or you know one who is, you may see yourself in these 5 unique challenges female entrepreneurs face.

1. We Defy Societal Expectations

It never ceases to astound me that there exists a stereotype that women are supposed to take a backseat to men in the business world prevails. Even if no one expects us to stay home and keep house all day long anymore, they still don’t expect us to start businesses, lead a team of employees, and build our own wealth. These are the provinces of men. By becoming entrepreneurs, we are defying societal expectations.

2. No One Takes Us Seriously

When a man oversees a business, everyone accords him the respect that is due to someone in his lofty position. But put a woman in the exact same position, and no one wants to take her seriously. Even hugely successful women running enormous, million-dollar companies feel overlooked and undervalued, according to a recent study.

Regardless of how wealthy women are or which part of the professional hierarchy we occupy, we still have to fight for our voices to be heard and respected.

3. We Feel Guilty Owning Our Accomplishments

For women, guilt has no bounds. We even feel guilty for owning our own accomplishments, the things we’ve worked hard to make successful.

Why is that?

Part of it may be pressure from those societal stereotypes we talked about earlier in this article. Part of it may also be that women are typically taught not to be loud and proud of ourselves, to not brag or boast about the awesome things we’ve done.

Finally, we may be holding ourselves back for fear of making someone else close to us, such as a father or husband, feel less needed or less adequate if we are more successful in business than they are.

Guilt is a difficult hurdle to jump, but if we don’t jump, we’ll never reach our full potential.

4. We Have To Juggle Family And Work Life

Despite working as much as men, women are still expected to balance work life with family life and domestic chores.

A report from by Oxfam and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research from 2019 showed that women in the U.S. perform 2 more hours of housework than men every day. Even in 2022, we’re still expected to take the brunt of the burden of managing a household. This makes it even harder for us to pursue our professional dreams.

5. We Have To Cope With The Constant Fear Of Failure

With the odds seemingly stacked against us, women must cope with the constant fear of failure. If I fail, how many people will say to me, “I told you so”? Will my husband tell me that I should have stuck to being a housewife? Will my male peers laugh at me with derision behind my back?

It’s not easy to block out the doubts and negative voices in your head. Having gone through it myself – and still going through it today – I know how these challenges shatter your confidence and upset your dreams.

That’s why I started my coaching business. Because the only way to keep the negative voices and lift all female entrepreneurs up is to help women succeed where no one else will.

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