I firmly believe that a business becomes a brand, and has the potential to become one, when it manages to hone a unique identity. And, being a copywriter and brand strategist, it is perhaps unsurprising that I believe that your words – your copy, your messaging, your content – is a cornerstone of this identity.

Your brand is more than your logo. 

So how can you craft your own brand identity and start building a true brand, not just a business, using your words?

You need to be able to explain your business, show people why they should work with you, express to people how you can help them. 

You need to be able to craft an identity that goes much further and much deeper than just your logo and your colours – it needs to represent you as a person, a business and as a brand. It needs to encapsulate your mission, your why, your ethos, your personality, your purpose. 

How do you do this? You just need to focus some attention on your words and your messaging – you need to identity and hone your brand identity and then you need to present it in a cohesive way across everything you say and do in your business, across every social media platform you use, across all pages of your website.

OK granted that sounds like a lot of work.

But that’s what I’m here for, right? To break it down into easy steps.

The first step is identifying and honing your brand identity. Now, this comes from going deep into your why, your how and your what. Why you’re doing what you’re doing, how you’re going to do this, and what it is you’re offering that’s going to enable you to do this.

Step two: you need to (as always) be thinking about who you’re doing this for – because remember: they are the main character in the story. This is your ideal client and you need to understand who they are, what they want + need, what problems they have, what fears they have, what hopes they have, and how you can help them achieve their desire and avoid their failure. 

Step three is that you need to think about your own personality and how you want your brand to come across. Never be afraid to be yourself because your vibe attracts your tribe and your people will find you! So think about who YOU are as a person, what kind of personality you have and how you come across, and then think about how this will be reflected in your brand personality and identity.

Once you have those first few things covered, which really make the meat of your brand identity, you then need to start thinking about and putting into action another very important part: the cohesive presentation of your brand identity.

What do I mean by this? I mean that you need to be presenting one clear identity across all of your platforms, all of your outputs, all of your marketing. If you want to really ‘brand’ yourself and build something that is more than a business, you need to have a really clear idea and honed down brand identity so that you can then present this over and over and over again and, over time, really begin to be known for your unique and specific brand identity, presence and voice.

For more on this, listen to the Copy Coach Podcast Episode 5.