You are still the most important part of your brand because you are the essence that keeps it alive. One, two, three, four. So you're building a brand online. You've got wild AF dreams. You know you've got the potential to grow your biz into something pretty dang incredible, and you want to do it all the right way.
Hey, I'm Alex, your brand bestie, and this is Brandology, the podcast that feels like a coffee chat with a biz friend who's giving you all the tips and advice on growing your brand, because that's what it is. We're talking strategy, design, content, messaging, and more. So if you're ready for no BS brand advice from someone who's done it all before, this is the pod for you. Let's get into it. Hello, hello, and welcome back to Brandology.
So excited to have you here for another episode where we are going to do what we always do and work on building the best possible brand that we can. That is always the goal here with every episode. I want you to be able to take something away, apply it to your brand, grow it into that dream that you want it to be because it is completely possible for you.
And I just want to give you a little pat on the back for taking this time to learn more, educate yourself around branding, and build that brand because not everyone makes that time. So you do that and I'm very proud of you. I know I say this every couple of episodes, but honestly, you are like the one %, I reckon, of people who are putting that time aside to really focus on building the best business and brand that they can. So well done, you. Go, you.
So what we're going to be chatting about today in this episode is your audience. Now, your audience is the lifeblood of your business because without them, you have no one to sell to. Without them, no one is buying your stuff. Without your audience, you're not making any money. The business is not making any money. The business is going to struggle to grow, and it's more of a hobby, to be totally honest. We need an audience.
And this, I know sometimes I sound like I'm contradicting myself a bit because I do say, and even in the last episode I recorded, I was talking about this, where you need to be at the centre of your brand's universe. That's what I fully believe, and that's what I teach. Instead of putting your audience at the centre of your brand's universe, which is how a lot of people go about building their brand to begin with, building it completely around their audience. What's my audience going to like?
What do they want to see? I'm going to do it for them. I always say, well, I don't always say, I used to believe putting your audience at the centre was the way to do it. But over the last one to two years, I have fully pivoted into putting yourself at the centre of your brain universe, building out around that, and then making sure that that aligns with your dream client as well. But you start with you. But basically, I know that I say that a lot, and it is true. That is what I believe.
But there is so much incredible value in really understanding your people, really understanding your audience, and being able to put yourself in their shoes and put yourself in the same experience that they're having. And I know this can be so hard. And this is something that I honestly struggle with myself from time to time. I'm not always on top of this. And I know from the conversations I've had with other business owners, they really struggle with this as well.
It's like when you're inside the jar, this is something that my old coach used to say to me. When you're inside the jar, you can't read the label on the outside of the jar. So it's like when you're too close to it, you almost can't see it sometimes.
And what I'm trying to say there is we can really struggle to understand what our audience is going through to understand their experiences and to understand where their heads at because we have essentially surpassed where they are in that particular thing. So because you are the expert in what you do, your audience is not the expert in what you do. That's why they're coming to you. That's why they are wanting to follow you, wanting to consume your content.
They're not coming to you because they already know everything about branding, because they already know everything about gut health, because they already know everything about photography, whatever it is. They're coming to you because you're the expert and they want to learn from you and they want to absorb your knowledge.
But it can be really, really hard for us to know what they need from us what they need to hear, what they need for us to talk about, what they need to see, how we need to say things, because like I said, we've surpassed where they are in that particular thing.
And what I often see happen with this is one of two things when it comes to people's content is they either make their content way too entry-level and dumb the content down so far because they feel like, Okay, I need to start the absolute bare bones, bare basics with my audience because they know nothing and I need to educate them from the ground up. That's the first thing that I see.
The second thing that I see is the total opposite, which is where you're using too much jargon, you're exploring topics that are really complicated and there's no context around what you're talking about. You already expect your audience to have some good base level of knowledge. I'm not saying that either of these things are wrong necessarily, because it really depends on your audience. It really depends who you're trying to attract.
So are you trying to attract people who are really at the start of their journey, like real beginners, and need that from the ground up support in which case the first option can work well? Or are you trying to attract clients who do know about this topic? And maybe they've dabbled in it themselves, but now they're looking for more of an experts approach, in which case the second option could potentially work. But again, it really depends on your target audience.
But just generally speaking, I see people really just going one way or the other. And I see this happening a lot with designers as well because I coach brand designers. And a lot of the time when I'm doing a social media audit or chatting with one of my mentees about what's going on in their business. Content comes up a lot and the question of, how do I know what my audience needs me to say to them? How do I know what they need to hear from me?
Because we often don't realise how much we know or the knowledge that we really do have because we've had that knowledge floating around in our brain for so long and we use it every day, so it feels second nature to us. A lot of the time we might think, well, I'm not going to post about that because that's just too basic or too obvious when in actual fact, it might be exactly what your audience needs to hear.
There's so much nuance there, and that's why it can be really hard, and I totally get it. That's why I still struggle with this sometimes as well, really hard knowing what your audience needs at any particular time. So it can be really, really helpful to, firstly, do a self-audit. I'm all about self-audits. I know I say to order yourself so much on this podcast, it's probably really annoying.
But there is so much power in being able to look at what you're producing, look at what you're creating, both in a per post way.
So zooming in, looking at individual posts, individual pieces of content, but then also zooming out and looking at everything as a whole and being able to go, okay, I see how all of these individual content pieces are fitting together or, okay, I see how it's actually very disjointed, how I'm jumping around to all these different topics or I'm jumping from beginner level post to then expert-level post, and it's giving my audience whiplash.
It's really helpful to look at things individually, but then as a whole as well. And the other thing that's honestly just really, really helpful, and it is a little bit of a learned thing. It can require a bit of practise, is being able to really wipe your brain clean, forget everything, pretend you've forgotten everything, jump into your audience's shoes and then experience your brand for the first time or try to experience your brand for the first time through their eyes.
So again, this is really, really helpful once you your target audience and you know what their issues are right now. So then you can easily put yourself into that headspace and go, okay, they are really frustrated at the moment. They're struggling with X, Y, Z. They've tried so many different things. They are at this point in their life, whatever it is that makes up that before state for your dream client, really being able to put ourselves into that headspace and that mindset.
We've got to use a little bit of imagination here to do that. But this is one of the best things that you can do. So having to think about where they've come from, what they've experienced, what they're going through, what their struggles are, all in a relation to the thing that you solve, of course. If you do brand design and you're talking about the fact that they have problems in their marriage or saying that is completely off topic and that's not what we're focusing on.
That's not the problem that you're solving with the service that you provide. So Just thinking about, okay, the struggles that my audience is going through in relation to brand design, one of them might be they are struggling to stand out in their niche. They keep getting passed over even though they're really good at what they do, but they're not getting bookings, not getting clients, and it's incredibly frustrating for them.
That might be one of the problems they're experiencing that you can help solve. We need to know this in order to help ourselves get into that mindset and imagine what they're thinking and experiencing right now. Then we want to also be able to identify what they want their brand, their health, their parenting, whatever it is that you help them with. We want to know what they want that to look like in the end, what their dream state is with that.
And then we want to move through the process, the journey, the experience with that fresh set of eyes. And what we're going to do is move through the process as we would if the client was moving through the process. So thinking about, okay, if I'm the client, what am I doing? I'm looking at, I'm probably searching, just using the example of a brand designer again. I'm searching for a brand designer on Instagram because that's probably going to be the first place my particular dream client looks.
And I'm looking at some competitors and I'm getting really overwhelmed with the amount of packages and options and prices and everything that I'm seeing. I land on my page and I see the first thing is my bio is super clear. My bio has key information in there about who I help and the transformation I create. I have a clear highlight for my service offerings and pricing, and I have a really clean service suite. I've got a highlight about the experience of working together, the process.
Everything's really clearly labelled, clearly organised, clearly categorised. And then basically just moving through the process that way. Looking at your Instagram account, if that's the first thing the audience looks at, and identifying, okay, what's the first thing they're going to see? What's the first thing they're going to experience? What's the second thing they're going to see and experience?
And moving through the process like that so you can start trying to find gaps in that experience. So maybe there's actually no easy way for them to find your service list. And they actually have to click into your website and then they have to find that page on your website, and then they have to download a PDF services guide, just for example. In which case you might go, okay, that's probably not going to be suitable because it's going to be really important for them to see my services.
Again, this is all just me making stuff up on the spot because I don't know your target audience, but this will all depend on your target audience and what they want out of your brand, how they want to experience your brand and how they want to experience your service. Because that is really important to know as well is what they want out of it, how they want it to go, and then being able to create that experience.
Really what we're doing here is we're trying to see how our audience is feeling right now when they're looking at our page, when they're looking at our Instagram, when they're looking at our website.
We want to be able to identify this is how they're feeling, but that's not actually how they should be feeling, because This is the coolest thing about branding is that we are in total control of how our audience is feeling about our brand, what they're thinking about our brand, what they're associating with our brand. We are in complete control of that simply by what we are displaying.
So the visuals, the messaging, the content, all of that stuff is what dictates how our audience feels about our brand and therefore how they feel about this situation in general, and if they want to work with us, if they want to book with us. So being able to look at this process really objectively so you can see, okay, my audience is probably getting confused here, or my audience is probably not feeling a connexion with me.
They're probably not able to get to know me as the founder, and that's probably an issue. So that's something that I need to change. So two really important things that we can be looking at are same with the before and after, in terms of the problem that you solve. What are they struggling with at the moment? Then what do they want their dream state to look like? What we can look at that from the perspective as well of our content and our brand.
We can look at how are they feeling right now with our brand? As it is right now with the stuff we have on our Instagram and stuff we have on our website, all the things we currently have up for our brand If we go through this process, what are they feeling right now? Let's be brutally honest. Are they feeling confused? Are they feeling frustrated? Are they feeling a bit lost? Are they feeling overwhelmed? How is our brand really making them feel?
But then we also want to look at knowing our audience. Hopefully you know your audience. If you don't, I have a master class that can help you. It's called Audience Attraction. I'll link it down in the show notes. You can grab that if you need a bit of a hand. If you know your audience, we want to know how they actually want to be feeling about this because they're purchasing from you or they're investing to work with you for a reason. They're not just doing it for fun.
There's a problem they're trying to solve, and that's why they are ready to put hard-earned money down and solve that problem. So they want to feel a certain way about you, about your business, in order for them to do that and about your service or product. Depending on whatever it is that you sell. So are they feeling overwhelmed right now, but they want to be feeling really clear about what the next steps are and what it looks like to work with you and how you'll get results?
Do they just want that to feel very natural and clear to them? Okay, great. Now we can see there's a gap. We can see there's a gap. They're feeling overwhelmed, so we've got too much information on our page. It's hard for them to find what they need. We've got too many words. Let's simplify down, whatever it is. But we need to look at what they're feeling right now in regards to our brand and how they want to be feeling in regards to our brand.
Because in a perfect world for pretty much every consumer, they don't really want to have to search around for the perfect thing. They want the perfect thing to be the first thing that they look at. So ideally, if you, as the nutritionist, as the brand designer, as whatever you are, if you are the first one that they happen to look at and you are perfect, I mean, amazing.
That is an ideal scenario because we don't want to have to spend more time than we have to looking at a bunch of competitors trying to figure out who's the best option. We want the best option to just leap off the page and go, It's me. I'm the best option. Clearly. In order for us to be that for them, we need to be what they need us to be, if that makes sense.
If they need us to be really clear and really concise about our and what it looks like to work together, then we need to make sure that we're creating that experience for them. If they need us to be informative and knowledgeable and show our expertise and help guide them through the process with our posts and everything like that, then we need to be that for them.
But I just want to loop this back to what I said at the start, where you are still the most important part of your brand because you are the essence that keeps it alive. You the soul behind it. So whilst I'm saying all of this, I just want you to keep that in mind as well.
So if you see when you're doing your self-analysis that my audience needs someone who is really bubbly and really down to earth and really chatty, and I'm not that person, I don't want you to pretend to be that person to get these clients because that is a recipe for disaster and burnout. So I just want you to keep this in mind.
If you start to realise that your audience is needing something that you simply cannot offer, or if you did offer it, it'll be going against who you are, let's change your audience. Let's change your audience and start attracting people who wants someone more introverted, wants someone who listens more than they speak, wants someone who is more on the quiet side, whatever it is. We can shift our messaging and brand and everything to reflect that and magnetise that person.
So whilst it is really important to be able to identify with brutal honesty how your audience is feeling right now when they experience your brand, it's also really important to know how they want to be experiencing your brand and whether that's in alignment with you and then adjusting if necessary.
So that is what I'm going to leave you with today, thinking about what your audience is feeling right now, but how they want to feel and how we can deliver that experience for them in a way that aligns both of us, because that is what is going to get you over the line. If you can deliver that experience that they are wanting, then you are ticking a very big box when it comes to their purchasing decision. And like always, there is no one thing that's the be all and end all.
It will make people buy. It's a combination of things along the way. But there are some that hold more weight than others. And particularly for higher tickets investments, people want to feel a particular way about the brand and about the experience. But look, this even goes for product-based businesses, honestly. And I've experienced this myself. If I go to a website, I'm looking to buy a particular thing, and there's a few websites It's a sell a similar thing.
But I go to one and it just does not make me feel safe. I don't trust the website. It doesn't look like there's much care that's been put into it. It's been haphazardly put together. I look at their Instagram and they I haven't posted in over a year. All things like this that make me think, is this a scam? Am I going to receive my item? I don't know.
I'm going to go buy it from somewhere else, even if it's more expensive somewhere else, just because I want to make sure that I'm buying from a place that I trust. So it can play into product-based businesses too. So the expectation versus the reality, the expectation of how your audience wants to feel and how they want to experience your brand versus what's actually happening right now. And let's make some changes if they're not meeting because they need to be the same thing.
Their expectation and the reality must be the same in order to build that trust for your audience. And this is a big part of having them feel seen, heard, and understood by your brand, is if you can reflect that experience that they want to have. So I hope that was helpful. I hope you have a great week and I'll catch you back here for the next episode. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Brandology. I am so happy to have you here. I hope you got something out of this episode.
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Thank you so much for listening. And I'll be back in your ears next week.