Jen A. Miller Consulting

Author: Mindy Stiles

Why a Brand Style Guide is a MUST Have

Step 8: How to Build & Use Your Brand Style Guide

I launched!!! *Happy Dance* Hi guys, what’s up! As you can probably tell, I’m super excited this week? Why? Because this is our final week in our series building a brand from scratch with Fiverr and it definitely has to the most exciting week of all.! That’s right the new brand shop is officially live! Come one, come all and get your work from home shoes! If you’ve been following along, you know that I’ve partnered with Fiverr to show you how they can help solopreneurs and small teams get more done faster by outsourcing work to their freelancers. This week we are diving right into talking about our brand style guide.

Where it ALL Began

My brand began with an idea to launch a new a line of apparel and accessories for the freelance lifestyle. And it started with one product – my work from home shoe.

With the help of Fiverr I was able to turn all of that into a full fledged brand complete with a brand identity, website, social media strategy, and so much more.

I couldn’t be more excited to see it all come to life, and so fast!

When we last got together, I’d mentioned that everything was nearly ready to go live. The missing element was making sure I had the systems support in place to make sure everything went smoothly when I hit the green light. So this past week I was focused on exactly that.

The first thing I wanted to do, was make sure I had all of the important parts of this new brand I’ve built gathered into one place. I love to use a tool called a brand book to do this. It’s where I document my brand mission, equity, design theme, and tone of voice. The reason that I like to put it into a book is because it makes it super shareable.

Growing Your Team

As you seek to grow your team, your brand book will help new members rally around your vision. When they first join, it will be the book that gets them onboarded. And, as they grow with your company it will be the thing that helps them make decisions in the best interest of the brand.

For designers you hire, your brand book will serve to inspire their creativity. It will also give them clear boundaries in which to play, ensuring your brand always shows up consistently. No matter who you work with, they will all be playing by the same rules.

And for partners you work with, your brand book will serve as a source of inspiration. They will be able to see what you’re aspiring to build and be able to offer the right kinds of ideas to help you get there. It will also help make sure they don’t suggest ideas that would be clearly off brand.

Now that I’ve launched my site I’m going to be looking to Fiverr to help me do all of these things. In fact already, I’ve hired a virtual assistant and a customer service rep who can help me field questions and troubleshoot during these first few weeks. I’m also going to bring on a Fiverr social media manager to make sure I’m able to keep up with regular posting and community building. And those are just a few examples.

Your Own Brand Style Guide

Need some help developing your own brand style guide? Click below to purchase my easy to use template with ALL of the information you need to help support the growth of your brand! This ebook is JAM packed with lots of wonderful tips and tricks.

Services Used + Cost

I Will Provide Exceptional Customer Service

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $180 (My choice)
– Premium, $315

I Will Be Your Virtual Assistant

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $15 (My choice)
– Premium, $40

I Will Effectively Manage Your Email Marketing Campaign For 1 Month

– Basic, $125
– Medium, $245 (My choice)
– Premium, $315

I Will Boost Your Sales Of Shopify Website

– Basic, $10
– Medium, $95 (My choice)
– Premium, $150

Total: $535

Final Total: $3,625

I’m still a team of one, and plan to keep bootstrapping for a while. So I’ll be continuing to outsource projects to my extended Fiverr team to help me scale up my business.

It was amazing to have all of you on this journey with me and as a special thank you I want to offer all of you an exclusive discount to shop the brand. Enter this promo code at checkout for 20% off your purchase! FIVERR20.

Make sure to follow the brand @livefreelyco to stay up to date with how things are going!

We did it!!

PS: Want to learn more creating brand book complete with a template? This post is for you.

If you missed week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6, or week 7 of this series, check them out.

December 26, 2017
Brand Partnerships & Press – The Secret to Fast Success

Step 7: Brand Partnerships & Press

Hey guys, it’s Jen here! Right now, we’re in week 7 our my 8 week brand building extravaganza with Fiverr! Each week we’ve been taking you all along with me as I build a new brand of my own, and we’re almost ready to go live!! Since being a business of one or even a small team can be kind of tough, I’ve been working with Fiverr virtual assistants to get some extra help. So throughout these videos I’ll not only be talking to you about what I’m doing but also what services I’ve hired. Alright so we’re in the 7th week of this series and we’re deep into our brand building blueprint. This week we are diving into brand partnerships!

At this point, we’ve identified our core customers, created a brand designed to delight them, and content you know they’re going to love. The next step is to find and attract those people to our brand through brand partnerships.

There are three main ways we’re going to do this: partnerships, press, and paid ads.

Brand Partnerships and Gaining Attention

Let’s take it from the top. Brand partnerships are anytime you join forces with another brand to support and promote one another and they’re the not so secret trick of the trade for building a buzz worthy brand. In fact, they’re one of the most powerful ways to increase your brand awareness. Consider this, when it’s just you promoting your brand you’re only able to reach your community- that is your social media followers, email subscribers, and customers. When you partner with another brand, voila, you instantly double your reach – even more so if the brand is bigger than you.

Buddying up with another brand can also positively impact how people perceive your brand. That brand has already done the work to build trust with their community. Those positive feel good vibes rub off on you by association.

In some instances, brand partnerships can even lead to your brand gaining attention from bloggers, influencers, and journalist. An unexpected brand partnership, one with a bigger brand, or the creation of something new and interesting can all create opportune conditions to capture media attention. If you’d like more ideas on how to partner with other brands, check out the free download.

How to Use Press for Your Brand

Which is the perfect segue into the second tool we’re going to use to grow our brand awareness – press. The trick to nailing pr is having good stories to share. As we just mentioned, partnerships can make a good story but so can things like the launch of your brand.

Now, even though I get how PR works, I don’t consider myself a PR pro. I’m not writing press releases daily or constantly interacting with reports. It’s for that reason that I again turned to Fiverr. I wanted support writing a press release that would capture journalist attention and I wanted to make sure it found its way into their hands. On Fiverr you can find PR professionals who know how to write attention grabbing stories and have access to the databases get it in front of the right people

Advertising Your Brand

The last tool I want to talk about is paid advertising. As you probably know it’s really hard to get a lot of views to your content purely organically these days. So putting a little money behind your efforts will help me get your new brand in front of more people faster. Again, it depends on who your customers are but you may find it worthwhile to invest in things like Facebook and Instagram advertising. The great thing about these platforms is that you can get really specific about who you want to see your ads. And the more targeted, the higher likelihood of turning these newsfeed scrollers into customers.

The other place you might find it worthwhile to try out paid ads is on Google. Things like paid search terms and Google product ads can help your brand turn up in relevant customer searchers. The more often you show up, the more people are able to discover your brand.

When it comes to brand building, I love to dig into the content, brand partnerships, and even press to some extent. But when it comes to paid advertising, it’s not where I like to spend a lot of my time. I would much rather seek the help of experts in these areas. So, in order to get this work done for my new brand, I chose to consult with a Fiverr Facebook strategist. He helped me setup my Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns. I also consulted with a Google ads specialist who helped me identify keywords and set up my campaigns. Honestly, having their help was a huge relief! And, it freed me up to think about my next step – launch!

At this point, on the branding side, I basically have everything ready to go for launch. But there is still a lot to be done to make sure that I can support and scale the brand when I go live. So before I open my shop doors to the public I want to make sure I have the right support to give my customers the best possible experience.

Services Used + Cost

I Will Write Press Release With Press Release Distribution

– Basic, $20
– Medium, $45
– Premium, $60 (My choice)

I Will Do SEO Keyword Research And Competitor Analysis

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $10 (My choice)
– Premium, $15

I Will Setup, Optimize And Manage Your Google Adwords PPC Campaigns

– Basic, $50
– Medium, $80
– Premium, $180 (My choice)

I Will Be Your Facebook Advertising Specialist

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $50 (My choice)
– Premium, $85

I Will SEO Shopify Store To Increase The Sales in 24 Hours

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $35 (My choice)
– Premium, $60

I Will Drive Unlimited Website Traffic, Targeted, Geo Located

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $95 (My choice)
– Premium, $235

Total: $430

Total for Week 1 – Week 7: $3,090

You guys we’re so close! Here’s an awesome freebie for you so you can land your own HUGE brand partnership. There’s only one more video to go so don’t forget to subscribe so you can see the brand launch!

Cheers!

PS: Want to learn more about promoting your band through brand partnerships? This post is for you.

If you missed week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, or week 6 of this series, check them out.

December 19, 2017
Attracting an Audience with Branded Content

Step 6: Attracting an Audience with Branded Content

I’m Jen Hacker and welcome back to Toast Meets Jam where you can learn all about how to build your brand! You’ll find practical tips as well as advice from female founders who have built successful brands of their own. And very cool for you, you’re catching me in the middle of a special series. This week I’m diving into brand content. I’ve partnered with Fiverr on to show you guys how to build a brand from scratch in just 8 weeks. Bananas.

Or in this case slippers.

That’s right, I’m taking these beautiful fluffies and building up a brand around them. Last week we talked about how we bring our brand to life online and the importance of creating a consistent experience for our customers. If you missed that episode you can click here to go check it out.

Once we have our website and social media channels set up, it’s time to start to think about how we use these to attract and audience and connect with our customers.

Why is original branded content SO important??

Now if you’ve spent even a little bit of time studying marketing, branding, or even blogging, then you’ve likely hear a lot of talk about the need to create original content. And there’s good reason why.

According to some studies, ⅔ of millennials feel that online content drives their loyalty to a brand and the more frequent your interactions the more loyalty you gain.“

Creating original brand content helps your brand extend beyond your products. It gives you a way to show your customers that you’re not all about business. That you actually care about them and you’re not just in it for the sale.

Bearing that in mind, before you get started creating your brand content your first step should be spending time to understand what your customers are interested in. Good news! You should have this in hand from Episode 1 where we did our market research and created our personas.

From there it’s about picking the right channels and messages for each. The three main channels you’ll want to consider are your brand’s blog, social media, and email. Depending on who your target customer is, it might make more sense for you to connect with them on Twitter over Instagram or vice versa. Likewise, a blog may be your best choice or Youtube might be the preferred destination. The purpose of starting our brand building process with defining our who is so that we are better able to make smart informed decisions about your perfect mix.

When you’ve decided where you want to connect with your customers the next step is to map out what you want to say and when you want to say it. We call this an editorial calendar. It’s exactly what is sounds like, a calendar that list what content you are going to post each day and on which of your channels.

It’s okay to ask for help.

This is an amazing project to turn to Fiverr for help with. They have content experts who can help you create your master plan. Here’s a look at the editorial calendar I had created for my new brand. You can see how there are different tabs for each channel and how they’ve really clearly laid out what type of content I should be creating.

Having this tool allows us to move onto the next step which is actually creating that brand content. Now I know that this part feel pretty daunting to a lot of people. Most of us don’t consider ourselves designers, copywriters, or photographers by trade. And the task of writing blogs and coming up with awesome images for our social media posts can feel out of our scope of expertise.

This actually presents another great use case for where Fiverr experts can really lend a hand. Getting creative help in fact is the number one reason I go back to them over and over again. On their marketplace you find skilled copy writers, graphic designers, and social media experts.

Say it again for those in the back!

You’ve heard me preach it before but I’ll say it again. Great branding comes down to consistency. When you start to post to a channel, whether that’s your blog or Instagram, you need to consistently show up. Remember also how we talked about getting to know your customers as well as your BFF. Well, how would your friends feel if you just stopped showing up. Probably not so great, right? Well the same is true for your customers. If you want to build a strong relationship with them, you’ve got to stay present in their lives.

If you’re a team of one, or a few, with a lot on your plate this is where the work can start to feel overwhelming. Don’t be afraid to look for help. If you’ve gone through the steps to establish your brand equity and define your brand identity then whomever is working with you will have clear guidelines on the look and tone of your brand. When you visit my new brand’s website and social media you’ll see content that has been created by my extended Fiverr team. And, you’ll notice how it all feels, (what’s our key word, again?) consistent!

Services Used + Cost

I Will Create An 8 Week Social Media Marketing Schedule

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $100 (My choice)
– Premium, $300

I Will Give You 30 Social Media And Blog Post Ideas

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $10
– Premium, $30 (My choice)

I Will Be Your Professional Social Media Manager

– Basic, $75
– Medium, $100 (My choice)
– Premium, $150

I Will Write Razor Sharp, Witty Content For Your Website

– Basic, $175 (My choice)
– Medium, $350
– Premium, $500

Total: $405

Total for Week 1 – Week 6: $2,660

Ok, so you’ve got your homework for the week. Start to get your the plan for your brand content in order.

Next week we’ll be talking about how we start to grow awareness of our brand through press, partnerships, and paid media. I’ll see you then and in the meantime, if you like this video be sure to give it a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date on our last steps!

Cheers!

PS: Want to learn more about why what your posting to your social media, blog, and email list is so important? This post is for you.

If you missed week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, or week 5 of this series, check them out.

December 12, 2017
Building Your Brand Website (it doesn’t have to be hard!)

Step 5: Brand Website

Hello hello! You guys it’s another very exciting week here at Toast Meets Jam. Can you believe we are over halfway done with our build a brand series?? And today I get to do another big reveal, but this time about my brand website and social media!

To catch those of you up to speed who are just tuning in, I’ve partnered with Fiverr to show you how to build a brand from the bottom up in just 8 weeks!

This is honestly a project that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Whether you’re starting from scratch or going through a re-brand I know it can feel really overwhelming to try and figure out what your supposed to do and in what order. And it can be really frustrating when you do put in the work but it doesn’t seem to actually work! Or the worst – when you hire someone to help you with your branding and you feel like what you want just isn’t coming through and you’re wasting your time and money.

Trust me, I know the woes. I know all the woes.

So that’s why we’re going step by step through the whole process, so you can see how it’s done! Not only that, but I’ve also been giving you some free tools along the way too, like templates and guides to make it all even easier. Its week 5, so we’re already over halfway to your brand-building blueprint!

Now the product I’ve chosen to build my brand around are these lovely slippers. *close up of slippers*. But these are just any slippers. Nope, these little fluffies are my work from home shoes. And, they are the first product in what I’ll be building out into a whole line of apparel and accessories designed for the freelance lifestyle. I call them work from home shoes.

Last week I finally revealed the name and logo for my new brand as well as my overall design theme. This week I want to talk about how we’re going to be bringing that all to life.

Building Your Brand Website

Let’s start by talking about your brand website. Your website is like your brand’s home online. It gives you a place to invite people in and an address for people to find you. And remember, you want it to be as easy as possible to find you. Your web address, or URL, should be the name of your brand, or as close to it as you can possibly get.

When building your brand website, it’s critical that you take the design theme and language you’ve created and use them on every page. You also want to pull in the other elements we’ve built out like your origin story and brand mission. This is your online home. It needs to feel like you live there.

Since web design is not my forte I knew that this would be another great project for my extended Fiverr team.

I decided to build my storefront on the Shopify platform. I love how easy they make it to get a website up and looking good. And for first time sellers, they make everything feel really manageable. I started with one of their free themes and then hired help from Fiverr to customize it. Remember that mood board we created? This is another great use case. Anytime you’re hiring design help you want to make sure they fully understand your brand. Being able to pass along something that showcases your colors, fonts, and visual style makes the whole process just work so much smoother! It ensures everyone is on the same page and will help save you time and money. So you can see here as we go through the site it really does reflect my brand.

It’s important to always think about the customer experience. They are most likely going to discover my brand through a Google search or on social media – and if they hear about it through press or a friend, they are definitely going to head to one of those places to find out more. Because of that, not only did I want to make sure my website was ready to go, I always wanted to make sure I had all of my social media handles claimed. To the best of your ability you want your handle to be the same from one platform to the next and also to match your website URL. You also want to take time to set up each profile. Add your logo, your bio, and use your brand design & language where possible. This is another chance at a first impression so you want it to look good. I was actually able to get help from Fiverr setting up all my profiles which was a huge time saver for me.

Becoming Brilliantly Branded

One of the things I preach over and over again when it comes to nailing your branding is that consistency is key. I created a handy checklist for you guys that lists all of the places you want to make sure to have brilliantly branded. I know we’ve just talked about a few things but this free download will give you a more comprehensive list. You can click the image below to get the checklist!

Services Used + Cost

I Will Adobe Photoshop Edit Photo Retouching

– Basic, $5
– Medium, $25
– Premium, $50 (My choice)

I Will Install, Modify, Create Shopify Estore Ecommerce Website

– Basic, $60
– Medium, $80
– Premium, $100 (My choice)

I Will Do Social Media Branding Creation Service

– Basic, $55 (My choice)
– Medium, $80
– Premium, $110

I Will Set Up And Optimize Your Pinterest Profile, Boards, And Pins

– Basic, $15
– Medium, $45
– Premium, $75 (My choice)

Total: $280

Total for Week 1 – Week 5: $2,255

Ok, now that I have my home bases in place, I want to figure out how to connect with my customers through my branded content like a blog, email, and social media posting. That’s what I’ll be tackling over the next week.

There’s a lot more work to get done so I’m going to get back to it!

Cheers!

PS: Want to learn more about why your branding is super important and how to apply it to your website and social media? This post is for you.

If you missed week 1, week 2, week 3, or week 4 of this series, check them out.

December 5, 2017
How to bring your Brand Personality to life through design

Step 4: How to bring your Brand Personality to life through design

Hi guys! It’s Jen here where we’re breaking down everything you need to know to build your brand. And, we are smack dab in the middle of our series with Fiverr where I am showing you how to build a brand from the bottom up in just a few short weeks. I am super super excited to share my updates with you today. If you recall, last week we went through the exercise of filling out our brand equity charts. This is the tool that really lets us get to know our brands like they’re real people – what do they do, how do they make people feel, and what kind of personality do they have? There are so many ways this equity chart can be used but one of the biggest ways is to guide the development of your brand identity. And what do I mean by that? I simply mean the way your brand looks and talks. Otherwise said, it’s how we bring your brand personality to life through design

Let’s unpack a little further by starting with the way our brand looks.

First Impressions

Research reveals that we make a subconscious judgement about something within 90 seconds of seeing it. That means we need to make an awesome first impression every time someone encounters our brand. And an awesome first impression begins with how our brand looks or our brand design. It’s the outward expression of our equity that brings to life our brand personality.

The first step in developing your brand identity is to create a mood board which is a simple visual aid for bringing to life the look and feel of your brand. An easy way to build one is with Pinterest. Just create a new board and then begin to pin pictures that you feel reflect your brand personality.

The mood board sets the visual tone and is the source of inspiration for the core elements of your brand design like your colors and fonts.

It’s also an awesome tool when you’re working with creatives. It can really help them understand the look and feel you’re going for.

Which is exactly what I did this past week. Here’s my mood board:

While I had figured out what I wanted my brand to look like, I still didn’t have a name or logo. I turned to Fiverr for help with both of these things. So are you ready to see them, already??

Ok – tada!

So the name is Live Freely. And this was really inspired by this idea of the customer being freelancers and creatives and really anyone outside of the normal 9 – 5. It resonates both with who they are but also what the brand has to offer them.

And with the logo, I really wanted to reflect that spirit of being free. Which is why we chose this script font.

Besides influencing your logo, you can also use reference your mood board to identify your brand colors and fonts as well as and when you’re selecting images for everything from your website to an Instagram post.

Of course, visuals are only way one to communicate with your customers. The other is through your brand voice. Seems pretty straight forward but for a lot of people finding the perfect tone of voice is actually one of the most challenging parts of the brand building process.

So here’s my easy hack. Imagine how you’d talk to your customers if you met them at a party. Then, read out loud as if you actually are talking to them while you’re writing. I find that doing this really helps your words to come out more naturally. Another trick I like to use is to come up with a handful of signatures words and sayings which can really give your brand personality.

At this stage we’re really starting to see our brand come to life. Next week we’re going to talk about how we use this brand identity when we develop our website and social media.

Services Used + Cost

I Will Give Your Product, Invention, Business or Book A Name

– Basic, $35
– Medium, $65 (My choice)
– Premium, $115

I Will Create Your Logo and Brand Design

– Basic, $400
– Medium, $700
– Premium, $1,100 (My choice)

I Will Design A Product Package, Product Label or Product Box

– Basic, $50
– Medium, $50 (My choice)
– Premium, $50

Total: $1,215

Total for weeks 1-4: $1,975

PS: Want more tips on how to bring your brand personality to life and examples of how other brands have designed their brand identity? This post is for you.

If you missed week 1, week 2, or week 3 of this series, check them out.

Cheers!

Jen

November 28, 2017