Branding
Whether you’re starting a small business selling products, or offering out your own services, you’ll need to think about your brand. This includes the visual side of things: the logo, look of your website, brand colour palette (is your website in simple black and white, pastel colours, or brightly coloured?) but also the ethos. What do you want people to associate you and your work with? Are you an eco-warrior practising in sustainable design? If so, this needs to come across in every aspect of your offerings – the copy you use, the design details, your social media accounts. Or perhaps you want to create a gentle, approachable, personal brand that includes lots of behind-the-scenes shots, talking about things that matter to you – such as family or politics? Think about how you want to be viewed and make sure this runs through every element of your business.
Look at other brands that you admire. What is it that you like about their approach? Perhaps they are trustworthy, or respond quickly to feedback and complaints. Maybe their copy is funny and this adds a lighthearted edge to their brand and services. In everything I do, I aim to be punctual, efficient, reliable and good value for money. I like to be approachable in my manner, so this is reflected in the copy I use on social media and across my websites. Other freelance mums are offering high-end bespoke services or luxury products, so, similarly, this will need to come across as soon as you discover them – online, and in person. If you are your brand, it goes as far as the way you dress when you’re networking. What impression do you want to give?
Carrie Anne Roberts, founder of Mère Soeur clothing and accessories brand, started one of the first ‘mama merch’ businesses; selling t-shirts, totes and badges for mothers. She’s built a loyal following on Instagram and runs a tight ship, all while being a single mum to her three-year-old son, River. Carrie shares her branding tips:
i. REALLY think about what your brand means to you and what you want it to mean to other people. Keeping your goals and your message in mind will help you stay on track when doubt creeps in or you’re making difficult decisions.
ii. Not everyone is going to like what you do and that can be a terrifying thought when you’ve put so much work and effort into building a solid brand. Putting your work out into the world can be scary but don’t cave under the pressure or dilute your message or product in order to try to please everyone. Keep your vision and stay focused.
iii. Enjoy it! Brand building can be number/research heavy but it’s also meant to be fun. Don’t stress about having everything in place and completely perfect from the moment you start. Allow yourself time to learn and finesse your style as you go along and grow with your brand.
Anna Jones agrees with this organic approach, building her one-woman brand in the same way from her initial vision:
‘I had a strong idea of how my food should look – the food pics, and the style of cookbook. Especially when writing about vegetarian food, as there was less of it around at the time. And I didn’t want my stuff to be all “hemp trousers and brightly-coloured cafes”. I wanted something calm, clean and well considered. So that’s what I went for. But I’ve never had a brand person advise me, it’s been really organic. I have a group of friends and people I’ve worked with, including my sister, whose creative opinion I trust. They’re engaged in culture, art and design. So I come up with the ideas I think are right for me, that suit me, then I send that out to a limited group of people and get their opinions. That’s how the visual side has grown.’
Spreading the word
You’ve decided what work you’ll be focusing on, bought the domain, built a website, set up the social media channels. Now what? You need to launch: both online and in the ‘real world’. After all, no one will know what services you have to offer unless you tell them. If you’re a perfectionist (I’m not), you might never feel you’re ready to show the world your wares. But remember, you’re at the beginning of this journey. You will be tweaking and improving all the time. So bite the bullet, set a launch date and stick to it. Here’s how to launch as a freelancer …
i. Tell your friends
Hopefully, your friends will be engaged enough with you and your life to know that this has been bubbling up for some time. But don’t be afraid to slip it into new conversations. It can feel awkward for some people, particularly introverts – of which I’m one, I’m more comfortable asking the questions than giving the answers – but you need to learn to talk about yourself. It doesn’t need to be braggy, just saying: I’m so excited, my website’s just gone live! is likely to lead to a conversation about it all. And you’ll then be in your pal’s mind the next time someone asks her for a recommendation in your field.
ii. And your acquaintances
Facebook is a great way to put out feelers. I often have friends announcing their re-branded website, or newly launched business on Facebook. It will usually be followed with: please have a look and let me know what you think, and a request for any copy errors to be brought to their attention. Putting it out on social media like this means no one’s being put on the spot. If someone is interested in your area of work, or in you, they will have a look and give feedback. People tend to like being asked for help – and giving it. It takes so little effort on their part but could be very beneficial to you.
iii. Build excitement on social media
You’ve set up your social media handles but how do you use your channels to announce that you’ve launched? Before going live, upload a series of posts. Not too many, because people probably won’t go back through and read them all, but enough to create a profile that doesn’t look empty and boring. And then do a countdown on all of your channels. This can be a visual countdown – on Instagram and Facebook, with photos of the numbers, counting down from ten days to launch – each day, adding a caption about your business or services, or just about you. Or a written countdown on Twitter.
As an example, let’s take Emma Grant. She recently set up a brand called Binibamba, selling sheepskin rugs and buggy-liners.
On Instagram, she uploaded loads of images, ahead of the launch, so that when you visited her profile, it looked like an established brand. There were photos of the beautiful, luxurious sheepskin rugs, cute babies trialling the buggy-liners, all snuggled up, and behind the scenes shots. Emma introduced herself, and the details of her products (e.g. that they are handmade in England, and hand-cut from 100 per cent merino sheepskin. Also, that each order comes with a free 100 per cent cotton dustbag). And then she started a ‘launching soon’ countdown, getting people excited.
Using Twitter, you can put out a tweet a day, in the lead-up, building the momentum by counting down:
Only five days to go until my website is live … if you sign up to my mailing list now, you’ll be entered into a competition to win a sheepskin buggy-liner with which I’m launching my new brand.
Tomorrow the website will be up and my shop will be open. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s on the lookout for the softest, most beautiful, baby-friendly sheepskin buggy-liners …
It’s about getting people to engage with your brand before you launch. Introducing yourself and your business or services before they are available so that
