AMPLIFY Your Brand and Business

215 | How to Create a Cohesive Brand That Converts New Leads

• Krista Marie • Episode 215

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In today's episode we're talking through how you can create a cohesive brand (that goes far beyond your brand colors and photos) and that creates a cohesive EXPERIENCE for your dream clients (that they can't stop talking about). 

We're diving into:

  • How brand cohesion goes far beyond colors and photos -- it’s about creating a consistent experience your clients can feel every time they interact with your brand
  • How your brand colors should not only feel authentic to you, but also resonate with the clients you most want to attract.
  • How the words you use in real life should align with the words you use in your emails, on your website, and across social media
  • Why content creation becomes easier when you focus on what your dream clients need to hear, instead of asking with “what should I post today?”
  • Why creating hidden website pages for client resources or guides can deliver a more elevated experience than sending long, text-heavy emails

I can't wait for you to tune into this episode! 🎙️ I'd love to hear your biggest takeaways. Send me a DM @heykristamarie to connect!

Loved the episode? Have a topic or guest host request? Send me a text message!


Ways we can work together:

I'D LOVE TO CONNECT WITH YOU!

Speaker 1:

Hi there, it's Krista here. I'm just letting you know this episode. If you're like it sounds a little bit different, it's because we are on the road. Well, I'm not on the road, I'm currently in California, but I do not have my podcast mic with me, and so if you're like this sounds a little bit different, it's because we recorded it on my phone and uploaded it here for you today Because, as you know, I am here to show up for you, no matter what, and I wasn't going to let a missed microphone stop me from sharing with you today. So the audio is still good, it's still clean, but just know if it sounds a little bit different. That is why. But let's go ahead and dive into today's episode. Hello and welcome.

Speaker 1:

To Amplify your Brand and Business, the podcast that helps you create a brand that sells out your offers 24-7, so you don't have to. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how to create a cohesive brand. I would say nine times out of ten, when a client comes into my world, the number one thing they tell me is the reason that they want to work together is because they want to create a cohesive brand. And I think, for the most part, we all think about the same thing. When clients come to me and I ask them like what about? Your brand doesn't feel cohesive, a lot of the times the things that they say to me are like they need updated brand photos, they want their brand photos to feel cohesive, they want their website to feel cohesive, they want their Instagram to feel cohesive. But it's interesting because when you think about like a cohesive brand, it is absolutely about your social platforms, your website, your photos. It absolutely is about having them look and feel the same, like making sure that the colors align, the color schemes are the same, like making sure that when you go back and forth between anywhere where you're featured online, that it feels like it's the same brand. But a lot of the work that I do with clients around brand strategy actually goes even deeper into creating a cohesive brand, because the reality is, a cohesive brand is more than just the look and feel of your brand. Yes, of course, we want your brand to look the same and to look like it's the same brand across all platforms online, your website but your brand being cohesive actually depends on when your clients interact with your brand when your potential clients, your dream clients, your current clients anytime they interact with your brand. We want your brand to feel the same. So it actually goes deeper than just how your website looks or how your social media looks. We're actually diving into how are your emails structured? What do your emails look like? Do you have an email signature?

Speaker 1:

We're diving into things like how do you speak in real life and what are the words, the actual words, that you're using on your website and your Instagram and social media? So not even just the visuals, but the way that you communicate in real life. Is that the same way that you are communicating to your people online? When you're pulling content, are you asking yourself, and kind of starting from a place of what should I say today? Because that often leads to non-cohesive messaging, when every day, you're showing up to social media and being like what do I say today? Sometimes you pull from this, sometimes you talk about this, sometimes you say this, and then sometimes that leads your brand to actually feeling a little all over the place and kind of chaotic. A little all over the place and kind of chaotic. And so when we think about cohesion, yes, it has everything to do with your brand, your colors, like your website, your social media presence, but it actually goes so much deeper into actually creating a cohesive feel, like the experience that clients have when they see your brand. It's not just about how it looks, it's about how it makes them feel, and so I want to dive into some tips today.

Speaker 1:

If you're wanting to do a little audit, like if you're sitting here wondering and you're like I think I have a cohesive brand, I'm not really sure Like maybe you know you need to get some updated brand photos, but you're like, hmm, maybe I do need to think about my messaging, maybe I do need to think about the words I'm using, like I want to dive into a quick audit today around some things that you can look at to see, kind of like, how cohesive is my brand and are there some things that I can maybe tighten up or improve. And if we haven't met yet, I'm Krista Marie. I'm a brand strategist and a brand photographer for women business owners and over the last five plus years, I've coached hundreds of women inside this podcast, inside coaching programs and communities, and in each episode, I'm here to help you create a brand that does the heavy lifting for you, a brand that feels so cohesive that when people experience. It feels premium, it feels high value because it was intentionally created. So let's go ahead and dive in. So I know we already talked about this already, but your brand cohesion is so much more than just your color scheme and your brand photos.

Speaker 1:

I will say it is very important to have a defined color, brand color scheme, and I will say, for so many years in my business, when you asked me what my brand colors were, they changed all of the time because I really just couldn't. I just couldn't decide, I couldn't put, I couldn't figure out like which ones actually felt on brand for me. I didn't really have a true understanding of what my brand identity was, and so choosing brand colors actually felt really hard. I felt like I was often just choosing colors that I liked. I also think I was putting a lot of pressure on my brand colors in the sense that, like, if I chose the wrong ones, I was worried that that would mean that I wouldn't make money. What I've learned over 15 years of developing a brand, after helping women develop brands, is that there is no right or wrong when it comes to your brand colors, and so if you've been putting off like actually creating a brand color palette because you've been worried that you're going to do it wrong or you're going to choose colors that like aren't going to work for your brand and your business.

Speaker 1:

I want you to give yourself some grace and take some of the pressure off. Of course there's some strategy around choosing your brand colors. I have some blog posts on my website that you can review around, like choosing your brand colors. I also have some podcast episodes where we talk about that. But the quick kind of summary of choosing your brand colors, if I had to give you a couple of tips if you're finding yourself struggling, is I want you to think about number one what colors actually do feel on brand and true for you.

Speaker 1:

I noticed my current brand colors. If you look at them, they're this really kind of deep, like aal color, teal, aqua color, a yellow and like a pretty like pink color, and I've had those three brain colors very consistently for the last I don't even know three plus years and I don't see myself changing them. And the thing is is that when I look around the way that I like decorate my office, when I look around at the things I buy, the things that I'm drawn to, I see those colors time and time again. I would say the pink. I don't buy or purchase very many things in pink. I would say the yellow and the teal feel very, very on brand for me, both like things that I buy and outfits that I am drawn to. The pink feels like a little bonus, fun color. I just really like the color pink. Even though I don't find myself wearing it very often, I love the color pink and so I want you to think about what colors feel really true for you.

Speaker 1:

It is okay to base some of your brand colors on what you wear, the things you're drawn to and attracted to, but we want to make sure the caveat here, or the little and to attach to, that is, we want to make sure that it also feels true for your dream clients. So if I were a photographer who, like, had very muted colors, if the photos I delivered to people or the experience that I gave them was like very muted colors, very soft colors, like very like, calming, like, if the presence that I wanted to give to them was really really kind of like I don't want to say lower energy, but like it would be a very different experience I probably wouldn't have chosen such bold brand colors, because having the bold brand colors would create a different feeling than if I had a very, very muted watercolor pink or like a very, very muted. I like I might take the same colors but just like drop the transparency a bunch. Like I might make them a lot more muted than they are if my brand was positioned in a different way. But when you look at my photos, when you look at how I work with people, my energy like it is a little bit bolder. It is a little bit more like true to life.

Speaker 1:

Especially for the photos, I want people to see the pop of color. I want them to listen to the podcast for the photos, I want people to see the pop of color. I want them to listen to the podcast and feel energized. I want them to listen to the podcast and feel inspired. Like my brand is not a muted vibe, and so it wouldn't make sense for me to have really muted colors. And so I do want you to think about what are the colors that feel really true for you? But then also, what are the colors that are going to translate into the work that you do and into how that's perceived by your dream clients and not every niche has to be the same.

Speaker 1:

For example, I have a therapist client who I've worked with in the past and I will say a lot of my therapy clients tend to have earth tones. They can kind of go. There's a lot of different earth tones. It's not like it's all the same colors, but they tend to be in the earth tone vibe. I have a therapist that I've worked with in the past who goes like gemstone for her colors. So it actually is like a really bright, purplish, purplish pink. It's like more of like the bright, like quartz and crystal colors that you think of with like beautiful gemstones. Those are her brand colors and that works for her because that works for the energy that she provides. That works for the colors that she's drawn to Like. It works for her brand.

Speaker 1:

So I want you to give yourself permission. It doesn't need to look like everybody else's, but it does need to feel really true for you and true for the service that you provide for your clients. So that's one thing I really want you to focus on. If you've struggled with your brand colors, I want you to think about that. I also want you to incorporate those into your brand photos. I'm not going to get in too into the weeds of how to do that. I actually have a blog post specifically around how to incorporate your brand colors into your brand photos and so if you have a brand shoot coming up and you're wondering how to do that, head over to the blog heykristinmariecom forward slash blog. If you search for brand colors in the search bar, you'll find it. You can also go to the brand photography tab of the blog and you'll find it there. But I have a blog post all around how to incorporate your brand colors into your brand photos because of course, that is going to make a more cohesive feeling brand if your photos and your brand colors actually align. But I really want you to think about.

Speaker 1:

What I want to really dive into this episode is this experience. We want to create an experience for your dream clients that feels cohesive. So I'm going to lump some of these few things together. Of course, we've already talked about having your brand colors having that feel and alignment, having good brand photos. We want to make sure that you have your social media profile photos. When someone goes to your LinkedIn or your Instagram or your TikTok, your profile photo is either the same photo or it gives the same feeling as your website and your entire online presence. We don't want completely drastically different profile photos all over social media. We want to make sure that you have a really clean email signature. So when someone communicates with you via email, if your email feels branded like. These are all what I consider surface level branding strategy tip branding strategy tips, but the things I really want to dive a little bit deeper in today. There's three things that I want to help you audit if you are looking for a more cohesive brand. The first thing is the words that you say in real life should match the words that you write in your emails, in your social media posts and in your Instagram stories. This is a big one and I know that I'm guilty of this.

Speaker 1:

When I was first starting my business, I had this idea in my head that if I wanted to be taken seriously, if I wanted people to pay higher prices, if I wanted to look like a professional, I had to sound like a professional, like I had this thought that my emails had to be very like structured in order to be professional. So if you had emailed me, probably 10 years ago, inquiring about like a brand session or working together, you probably would have gotten response. It was like hello, and then like first name, like thank you so much for thinking of me or thank you so much for reaching out, like it felt when I read it now I'm like this feels like either a robot or like you were inquiring about, like scheduling a dentist appointment, like I feel like the emails that I wrote were so not in alignment with who I was as a person. Like I will say I think there was a part of me, confidence wise, that maybe I did speak like that in real life at the time, because I also thought that I just had to be this person in order to look professional and have a professional business. And so maybe we all go through that in the beginning of this idea of like I need to sound professional in my emails and in the way that I speak to people, but I need you to know that's actually not helping you look more professional. It's actually just helping you niche down into a certain type of client which maybe isn't even the client you want to be attracting in the first place.

Speaker 1:

If you have a really fun, energized, like down to earth brand, do not feel like you have to sound like a robot or like this, like ultra professional person, in order to be taken seriously. Because I can tell you, the brands that you connect with the most, the brands that we invest money into, are the ones that we feel the biggest connection to. So, for example, if someone followed me online and they see how casually I write, like the things that I say, if they saw all of that and then if they reached out via email and if the email response they got back sounded like a super, ultra professional, like robot, they would be really confused because, number one, they would think this is an automated email. This was not sent from her, which is not the feeling that we want people to get, or they would just like think like this is weird. This is not the feeling that we want people to get, or they would just like think like this is weird. This is not the person I thought I was reaching out to. This is not like something is off and it triggers something in them of hesitation, of wanting or not wanting to move forward, and this is actually something that I want you to think about, this, because this can actually affect your inquiry response rates a lot more than you might be giving it credit for.

Speaker 1:

Of course, the first email that you send is so important around the content you're delivering, what you're actually saying, the support and the guidance and the things that you're giving to them in email. Your content, of course, matters, it's very important, but it also matters how you're saying it, because sometimes there's this subconscious thing that happens with our clients where, if they think they're reaching out to this person who they believe has this persona, this energy, this vibe, this feeling, and if the email they're getting back does not match that, even though they won't be able to like consciously put a name to it or like put their finger on it, the way your email is written to them could be the thing that's keeping them from getting back to you, or that's actually making you get ghosted, or like there could be something that's off in the actual language you're using. So I want you to think about how you present yourself in real life. Is that how you're communicating in the words that you say in your emails and your social media? When you're writing your social media posts, does it sound like chat JPD wrote it? Did chat JBT write it Like? Are you adding your personality back in? Like it is so important that the way that people experience and interact with you, that it all feels cohesive. Because if one part of these feels non-cohesive, if it feels like when they love your Instagram stories because it's so you and so real and so normal, and then they look at your Instagram posts and they're all written by ChatGBT and it doesn't sound like you, it's going to cause a pause. It's going to cause a hesitation for them actually reaching out, because something feels incongruent, like you don't feel like the same person everywhere, and so I really, really want you to think about that.

Speaker 1:

The second thing is, when you create content, are you pulling from content ideas that are actually really relevant to your dream clients? And what I mean by this is so often I actually have a whole podcast episode about this and it's kind of this like idea of what. Most of my clients come to me and they're like what should I post today? Like when they sit down to write Instagram content, they ask themselves this question what should I post today? What can I say today that'll make people buy? What can I say today that will help show people that I am the person for them? And when we're creating content from this mindset, when we're just so focused on. What do I say today to get people by? What do I say today to get this offer to sell? What do I say today in order to like, be visible to my dream clients?

Speaker 1:

We're not thinking about our brand in a cohesive way, because it's kind of from this place of I don't want to call it desperation but there is this undertone of like, okay, I need to post something today in order for someone to take this action. It's almost this like transactional feeling that we're posting from, as opposed to when I work with my clients for brand strategy. We really go deep into what are your dream clients feeling? What are they experiencing? What are the words that they are using, like, what are the day-to-day situations that are coming up for them that they no longer want to feel or experience? And then so, when you sit down to create content, my clients are not asking themselves what do I need to say today in order to get this offer to sell. They're looking at this data, this content, all of these, this rich data that they've created from their dream client, from their dream client's exact words and exact situations, and instead of saying, what do I need to post today to get this offer to buy or to get this offer to sell. Instead, they're asking themselves how can I speak to this person today? What is something they're currently experiencing that I can speak to or help them work through, or help them see a different way? Like your content no longer becomes this chaotic, thrown together. What can I say today in order to get this one specific thing to sell? And instead, it's this subtle but super transformational shift of how do I speak to my dream clients so clearly today that they feel so seen and so heard that they can't help but like go to my profile, learn more, reach out to me.

Speaker 1:

Like our goal isn't necessarily to make more sales. Our goal, when we're creating content, is to make our dream people feel so seen and so heard and so understood that they can't help but be like how does she know me so well? How is she in my head? Oh, my gosh, this is exactly what I'm feeling. You don't even have to sell to them, you don't even need is exactly what I'm feeling. You don't even have to sell to them, you don't even need to have a call to action, you don't even need to have a sales like click this thing or I have this offer.

Speaker 1:

When you speak to your dream client so clearly in a way that they feel seen, they can't help but click over to your profile or go to your LinkedIn or profile or learn more about what you do. You don't even need to have a sales call to action. And so, if you want your brand to feel more cohesive, one way to do it is to start really diving into who is my dream client. What is she experiencing? What is she feeling? What is she deeply desiring? What are the individual moments or circumstances or things that she's experiencing on a day-to-day basis that she no longer wants to experience anymore? How can I speak to her in a way that shows her I see you, I get you, I understand you. There is a better way. Like you can do something differently, like really angling to how can I serve you today, how can I give you more value-based content and really helping them feel seen? And that's going to be the thing where, all of a sudden, when you look at your Instagram profile or your content that you're sharing, it all feels cohesive because you're speaking to the same person. You're speaking to the things that they're feeling and experiencing, as opposed to how can I sell this offer today? How can I talk about these deliverables? How can I talk about this specific part of this offer in a way that makes people want to buy? Like, do you see how that can feel more thrown together and chaotic and less cohesive than if you were just speaking to your dream content or your dream client in all of your content? So that's the second thing.

Speaker 1:

The third thing is I want you to think about your emails, and we talked about this a little bit. But are you, when you're communicating with dream clients, are you just sending them emails with a bunch of text in it? And I don't. I'm not saying that sending emails with just text is bad and that you should fill your emails with a bunch of photos and content. That's actually not what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

There are ways that you can email your people. Like any client resource management tool that you use, whether it's Dubsado or HoneyBook or 17 Hats, like there are ways to make your emails look pretty. I will tell you, even as a photographer, someone who cares a lot about visuals, my emails are not like the prettiest. They are branded and they do have my brand colors, but it's pretty minimal, I will say but I do that on purpose, because I don't want to clutter my emails with so many photos and so many images that it gets sent to spam Like that's. Actually the last thing that I want is to have my emails flagged as potential spam because they're crammed with so much fluff and stuff that doesn't actually matter.

Speaker 1:

And so I want you to actually look at your emails. Number one are they so plain? They're not even branded. It's just like a Gmail email with like text and nothing else. There's no signature, there's no, nothing that feels on brand. Or have you gone the opposite direction of? It's filled with so many branded things that maybe, potentially, that's a reason why clients are ghosting you. That's why you're not getting responses, because it's actually like filled with too many things and going to spam and people aren't seeing it. But, more importantly than that, more importantly than the visuals, when you're responding to clients, when you're sending them emails whether it's an inquiry response email, whether it's a client experience email like they're already working with you and going through the process and the steps of working together are you just sending them an email with a bunch of text, or do you have created website pages that you have intentionally designed in order to support them through their journey.

Speaker 1:

So there's actually a podcast episode I talk about I can't remember the number and the name but I talk about, like, the importance of having a hidden website page. So, for example, when anyone inquires with me, they do get an automatic lead response email that does have text in it. It is a normal text email but the call to action link. The thing I want them to do is not just click to schedule a call. It doesn't just bring them to a calendar link. I have them click a link that brings them to a hidden website page that is intentionally branded the way that I want it to be branded because it's attached to my website. It gives them all of the information they need to know of working with me.

Speaker 1:

But let's be honest if you get a text email with like a whole bunch of text and paragraphs, you are going to be way less likely to read all of the text in the email because your brain is just going to shut down. All it sees is multiple paragraphs of text. You're not going to feel inclined to look through it. But if someone sent you to a link that has different blocks of different colors and different text formats and like different ways of laying out the things. Some things might have bullet points in it, some things might be a small list, some things might be a paragraph. Your brain, all of a sudden, is like, oh, I can digest this information because it's looking at it in pieces. It's looking at each part of the page as something that it can read and skim through. And so just even the way that you're sending the communication to your clients right, if you're just sending big blocks of text via email, versus if you're sending them to a page that you have intentionally created that is easier to digest they're actually going to be more inclined to continue taking action, to continue reading the content, to actually do the things that you want them to do.

Speaker 1:

And so, if you want your brand to feel cohesive, I want you to think about what is the way in which I'm delivering information to my clients. Is it all just texting and email, or have I actually spent the time to make it more easily digestible, to make it more on brand, to make it feel more premium as opposed to text in an email? And, of course, you don't have to do the hidden page route. You could create PDFs in Canva. You could create attachments. Again, my caveat there is if you're attaching too many PDFs into an email, you're going to have a higher likelihood of that going to spam.

Speaker 1:

The reason I don't like to attach PDFs is twofold. It's number one, I don't want my emails to go to spam. But number two I also want the information that I send to clients to always be up to date and accurate, and so if you send one client today a PDF with current information, but then a year from now, you've updated that PDF and that old PDF is no longer up to date, if that person revisits that information, if they go back to it like it's not up to date, right, the things that they have maybe aren't on brand anymore, and so, just for cohesion, for the ability of my brand to always look premium and look high end, I want it always to match, and so I love having hidden website pages, because to see will always be accurate and up to date, which is why I will always opt for sending someone to a hidden website page as opposed to sending them a PDF attached document. So those are the three things If you're looking to audit your brand today. Of course look at your brand colors. Of course look at your brand photos. But I really want you to dig a little bit deeper into what is the actual feeling that my dream clients are having every time they interact with my brand, because the thing is a cohesive brand.

Speaker 1:

The way to get a cohesive brand is to create an intentional brand, is to create a brand where every aspect of the emails you send, the words that you say, the content that you create, the social media posts that you put out, feels so intentionally created for that dream client, as opposed to just throwing things together in order to check things off your list. Right? We're not looking to just create any sort of generic brand color palette that you find online. We're not looking to recreate someone else's brand photos. We're not looking to just copy and paste chat, gpt content and put it on social media and say, yay, good job.

Speaker 1:

I shared a social media post today, like, yes, that is a way to check things off your list, but that's not how you build a cohesive brand. And so, really, it comes down to the intentionality behind what you're creating, how you're creating it and how you're sharing it. So, as always, thank you so much for being here. I'm so honored to be a part of your journey, if this is your first time listening in. Please send me a DM on Instagram. I love connecting with you all outside of the podcast and actually in real life. You can send me a DM at heychristamarie. I'm so grateful to be a part of your journey and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.