14: Your brand is pretty, but not selling? Crafting a verbal brand that actually SELLS

There are so many businesses out there and we're all trying to compete for sales. Why would you want to create that friction within someone who might potentially buy from you? That friction might be your verbal branding, the visual branding led them there but your verbal branding is the part that makes your business irresistible and enticing to everyone who lands on it. Your visual brand is what's getting people to turn their heads and notice your business and your verbal brand is what's getting them to stay and buy something.

So today, I want to talk about my bread and butter of My Write Hand Woman and one of my favorite topics: crafting your verbal brand. In this episode we are going to break down your mission statement, company one-liner, [00:02:00] problem, articulation, solution, articulation, differentiators, ideal client avatar, product suite articulation, brand values, headline bank, Instagram bio, founding story, founder bio, brand voice, and brand voice application. ( I added all this in for SEO) I know it sounds like a lot, but in this episode, we're going to break it down and dig into each one in this bite-size episode! 

For more on brand strategy check out Episode 4: HERE

Check out the: Crafting Your Verbal Brand Workbook

Chapters:
2:33 Your Founder Mission Statement  

4:07 Company One Liners for Founders

5:23 Problem Articulation for Founders

6:56 Solution Articulation for Founders

8:12 Differentiators for Founders

9:34 Ideal Client Avatar for Your Business 

12:29 Product Suite Articulation for Your Business 

15:07 Headline Bank for your Business

15:43 What's Your Founding Story? 

17:00 Instagram bio for Founders

18:07 What's in Your Founder Bio? 

19:10 Finding Your Brand Voice for your Business 

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Transcript

Lucy Bedewi:  [00:00:00] Your brand voice probably won't be the make or break of if your business grows or if your business scales, but It's going to create a weird friction or pause within your people if your voice doesn't match what you're selling and your voice isn't consistent in all of your marketing materials.

Lucy Bedewi: And the thing is, there's so many businesses out there, we're all trying to compete for sales that why would you want to create that friction within someone who might potentially buy from you? Hi there, you're listening to The Bold Founder. I'm Lucy and I'm here to inspire you to go bigger in your messaging, marketing mindset and moves while finding a joyful middle ground between intense hustle and easy flow. I'm so excited for today's episode. I have to stop myself from screaming into the mic because that would be horrible, but I just want to squeal because we are doing written branding and I am busting at the seams to give you an incredibly actionable episode where we're literally going to define your verbal brand in this call.

Lucy Bedewi: I'm going to tell you all the aspects of a [00:01:00] verbal brand and I'm also going to tell you how I would write it. Right? Each one so that your business will be irresistible and enticing to everyone who lands on it. We are basically taking your visual brand and we are expanding it and stretching it and creating an entirely new dimension to go with it.

Lucy Bedewi: So without further ado, let's get into the episode. I am sitting here in my seat with a fluffy blanket on because I am in denial that winter is coming literally buzzing because we're talking about verbal strategy or written branding. They're both all in the same kind of family. I don't get too hung up on the labels but what we're talking about is the counterpart To your visual brand.

Lucy Bedewi: So whereas your visual brand is your fonts, your logos, your colors, your verbal brand or written brand is how your business speaks at a foundational level. So the things that go into your written brand are your mission statement, company one liner, [00:02:00] problem, articulation, solution, articulation.

Lucy Bedewi: Differentiators, ideal client avatar, product suite articulation, brand values, headline bank, Instagram bio, founding story, founder bio, brand voice, and brand voice application. I know it sounds like a lot, but what we're going to do in this episode is we're going to dig into each one. And I'm not going to show you how to figure out your businesses because my guess is, you know, we're going to talk about how you can brand it in a way that makes it sound irresistible and enticing and that everyone who reads or listens or however they digest your written or verbal brand, They know that you are the company for them.

Lucy Bedewi: I always like to say where your visual brand shapes perception, your verbal brand shapes participation. Your visual brand is what's getting people to turn their head and notice your business. Your verbal brand is what's getting them to stay and buy something. [00:03:00] So if you can't tell already, I'm, So excited to dig into this.

Lucy Bedewi: This is my bread and butter as a verbal strategist and copywriter. And I feel like at the end of this podcast, if you have notes or if you have your notes app out, you're going to have so many amazing swirly thoughts and downloads come through that you're going to have an entirely new business. That's just going to have this different dimension because a lot of people.

Lucy Bedewi: Businesses don't focus on their verbal brand. They stop at their visual brand and they think, okay, that's good enough. But then we move into something called the pretty but boring zone and I know you do not want to stay there. So let's hop right in for each of these aspects of a verbal brand. We're going to talk about them and I'm going to very kind of in this nuggety snappy way show you how you can write them in a way that is more captivating than how they are usually portrayed or written. So the first one is your mission statement Your mission statement is that big, [00:04:00] sweeping, why you exist mini manifesto. I'm sure you've seen a lot of mission statements that read something like this. We are company X that believes in this and does this through this proprietary process.

Lucy Bedewi: And that technically answers the questions of what do you do? Who do you exist for? Why do you exist? How do you drive value? But Oh my gosh, it's so boring and generic. I would love for you to focus on your mission statement, answering questions like, how are you different from anyone else in the market?

Lucy Bedewi: Why are you awesome? Why should I put down anything that I'm looking at and just go all in on your company? And the last one is why do you exist? I said this in the beginning, but this is such a fundamental question because starting a business is not easy. You existed because you saw a huge problem and you knew you could do something better, so you did it.

Lucy Bedewi: And now is the time to get [00:05:00] so unapologetic about it and say it in the most basic human simple English of, hey, this is why you should pay attention to me. And then it's usually just two to three sentences. Start saying stuff into voice memos if you need to get the ball rolling, but your mission statement is that kind of chance to say, we are important and this is why.

Lucy Bedewi: And you say it in a way that is so crystal clear that everything kind of stems from this mission statement. The second thing is your company one liner. A lot of people get the one liner confused with a tagline. But the big difference between a one liner and a tagline is if I look at your tagline, I might have no idea what you do.

Lucy Bedewi: Like, tricks are for kids. Cool. No idea. But if I look at your one liner, I know exactly what you do. So if I, uh, looked at the one liner of Airbnb. It's, you know, stay with locals, not in hotels. That might not be it verbatim, but the idea is, Oh, I know exactly what they do and look at how few [00:06:00] words they used to communicate that.

Lucy Bedewi: So your business one liner is kind of that crispy sentence that you're pulling out of your mission statement and you want it to have that same um, That same vibe as your mission statement, but it's just super compressed when people can only have one line to see what you do. And it's so good for that homepage copy, a headline, an ad.

Lucy Bedewi: It's so good for anytime you have to say your business in the tiniest amounts of words possible. The next one is your problem articulation. I challenge you to ask, what's not being addressed in the market? What is your ideal client struggling with? How can you make people feel seen? Those are the questions we're asking when we think about writing your problem out.

Lucy Bedewi: Your problem articulation is about one paragraph of the exact problem your ideal client's facing. I always like to say the exact problem your ideal client is facing because it's so tempting to just talk about a problem in the [00:07:00] market.

Lucy Bedewi: I'm going to kind of switch industries over here. Let's go over to the gym industry. So let's go do like a Planet Fitness. If Planet Fitness wanted to talk about. their problem articulation, they might say something like, gyms are too expensive. which is true. Gyms are expensive, but I would argue that by saying that problem articulation, they are really selling themselves short because it's not that Jim's are just expensive.

Lucy Bedewi: It's why would you pay 200 a month when you and me both know you're probably going to go once a week? You know, add some of that sass in there. Get even more specific in the problem. Get, say something like, and then when you do go, it's all these people. with their Lululemon leggings on and you're thinking to yourself, Oh my gosh, I don't want to like eat my vegan bowl next to someone doing crow pose handstand and really speak to that ideal client issue that is deeper, that's more [00:08:00] emotional, that fear, that overwhelm when they enter a gym.

Lucy Bedewi: Because just by saying, like, gyms are expensive is missing all of those problems that the ideal client is feeling on this more cellular level, and if you can figure out the problem that they're really feeling, that's when you're gonna create messaging that speaks to them. Then the next aspect of your verbal brand is the solution articulation.

Lucy Bedewi: So very similar to the problem articulation, we want to make sure that we are staying in that spicy, sassy brand voice that's going to feel specific to your ideal client. When I say spicy and sassy, I don't mean you necessarily have to be funny or emotional or snarky. You definitely want to be where your company is in your brand voice.

Lucy Bedewi: But the idea is we're not just writing these things out in a to say, Oh, look, I did a verbal brand. We're writing these things out in a way that your ideal client would be able to look and touch and say, yes, they, Get me. So for your solution articulation, [00:09:00] it's all about how you drive value and you don't have to feel like it needs to be this airy fairy transformation.

Lucy Bedewi: It can be very grounded. if you had a toothpaste company, you could say, you know, healthier ingredients, healthier smile. you don't have to save the world with your product or service, but you have to be so unapologetic in your brand voice, writing in a paragraph or bullet points.

Lucy Bedewi: This is how we are fixing things, and even better if you can provide some context on how you're fixing things in a way that no one else has been able to fix things before. The next one is your differentiators. Oftentimes people see differentiators as an aspect of a business. I personally see your differentiators as your business.

Lucy Bedewi: I say this when I'm feeling in my tough love mood and today is definitely one of those days. If you don't have differentiation, you don't have a business. Because you are going to completely blend in in an industry if you don't have anything that makes you different from your competition. [00:10:00] And you don't have to feel like you have to reinvent the wheel just to have differentiators.

Lucy Bedewi: If you are the face of your brand or you're a service based business, by virtue of you being you, you have a leg up on other businesses because that naturally differentiate you. So, but if you Have a product. I'm sure there is something you are doing that no one else is doing. It might just be a matter of how you communicate it.

Lucy Bedewi: If there is something that you think is a little different than other players in the market, that is the stuff to play up. Because it's not always about what your differentiation is. It's how you talk about it. How you provide context or the so what. How you say, Hey. We deliver websites in one week because your time is valuable and every time you don't have a website that's working for you is a day you're working too hard.

Lucy Bedewi: That's where the power comes and that's what you're creating in your verbal brand is that context, that so what, that how are we going to define our differentiators? The next one is your ideal client avatar. [00:11:00] Oh man. When I say define your ideal client. People want to run away from me. They want to say things like, I don't want to niche down.

Lucy Bedewi: I don't want to lose people or maybe they will give me their ideal client, but it'll be, I help women who are go getters. And that is way too surface level for our verbal brand. First, speaking to the person who is scared to identify an ideal client because they don't want to lose people. I encourage you to think about it like a bell curve.

Lucy Bedewi: You are drawing a bell curve, and at the tip of your bell curve is that person that if they landed on your website, if they came to your talk at a networking event, they would be like, Oh my gosh, no sales call needed. This is my person. But on a bell curve, the cool thing is you still have both sides of the bell and those people are going to be equally as in love with you and they're going to want to buy from you.

Lucy Bedewi: Even the people on the wings, you might even get some people from there too. So never look at niching down like you're losing people [00:12:00] because if you don't niche, you're going to be losing the people you actually want. But if you do niche, then the people that will fall away are the people you don't need.

Lucy Bedewi: Definitely don't want and you will attract the people that you want and you will definitely attract the people that you really want so I encourage you to go deep with this ideal client. Talk about them in a way where they will self identify. It's really hard to self identify as a go getter. If someone asked me, are you a go getter?

Lucy Bedewi: I might say no. And anyone who's listening to this podcast is probably thinking, um, you're definitely a go getter. But that's not an adjective I typically use to describe myself, so it would be hard for me to self identify from the lens of buying a product. I would say cut all of those fluffy adjectives and random demographics.

Lucy Bedewi: Let's talk about the exact day that your ideal client is having. So instead of saying, I help women who are go getters, I would say, I am for the woman who has coffee in one hand, she is petting her daughter's bruise that her daughter just [00:13:00] got on her elbow with the other hand, and she's somehow trying to drive by using one knee. I would really get into it and paint what that looks like as a go getter. And say, after all of this, after the hecticness of, carpool mornings, she still finds a way to go and run her design business. And, this example, I'm probably a coach for web designers who are also moms or also have other things outside of work.

Lucy Bedewi: So the idea is I'm creating that sensory experience that if my ideal client read that paragraph, he or she or they would be like, get out of my brain, get out of my head. So this is such a valuable exercise if done right. And if done right, it's If you are able to write it out in a way where you want your ideal client to break into your diary and see this entry because you know that they are going to call you the next day and say, let's work together.

Lucy Bedewi: The next thing is your product suite articulation. So for your product suite articulation, what we do is we write out every single product that you have or every single [00:14:00] service that you offer. And then from there, we look at who it's for. How can we write a little blurb about it in a way where who it's for is going to immediately self identify and purchase it.

Lucy Bedewi: So. I like to look at the synergies of an offer suite or the synergies of all of the different levels of a SaaS product because I want to see how these work together and then use that to define communication. But if you're a little bit newer or you only have one offer, a really great place to start is how can you explain each offer in your offer suite to me in two to three sentences with those sensory details, with that activation piece and make me say, Oh, yeah, I want that.

Lucy Bedewi: That's like for me. so give it a go. I think often when we do this kind of foundational copy for our offers or products, it allows us to speak about them more confidently because we are kind of differentiating our own offers from each other in our head. And then in our copy, it's really easy to talk about each offer as if it's an [00:15:00] individual entity.

Lucy Bedewi: The next thing we do in a written brand is brand values. And as soon as I say brand values, I know probably what's coming to your head is honesty, transparency, and then all of those listed in one list in aerial font on the about page. I'm not calling anyone out, I promise. But with the brand values, we need to ditch that corporate lingo.

Lucy Bedewi: Your brand values are so powerful because they are intangible, but they can definitely be felt. So take this time to create values that actually matter. And more importantly, connect those values to your brand voice. So if your brand voice is casual and you want one of your brand values to be honesty, even though I would encourage you to think outside the honesty transparency zone, you could say something like, I think I said this for a client recently.

Lucy Bedewi: One of their brand values was radical candor or, you know, say it like it is mentality. Have fun with these values and [00:16:00] connect them to how your business naturally speaks. It doesn't have to be stuffy or follow this list of brand values that you printed off of Google. You can really make them specific and make them your own.

Lucy Bedewi: But the whole idea is you want to create Something to stand for because when people land on your brand and they see those values and they see them exemplified in all of your communication and they match their values for what they're looking for, boom, they're on board. You, you just acquired a new customer or a new client.

Lucy Bedewi: The next thing we provide in a written brand or a verbal brand is a headline bank. A headline bank is a list of one liners that you can pull from whenever you need a statement on a website or a hook on an ad. So literally what I would like for you to do is go through all of the things you've written, your problem articulation, your differentiators, your solution articulation, and see if you had any just zesty one liners and pull them out.

Lucy Bedewi: And then make a list because this is your personal hook bank. So you can call upon this anytime you need a statement. [00:17:00] Snappy statement that represents your business or brand or pulls someone in through content. Founding story. I know I can't pick favorites, but the founding story is up there.

Lucy Bedewi: As a business owner, as a company, storytelling is so powerful. If you can write your founding story well, and by well I mean it starts with a hook, you have rising actions, you have some sort of climax, and then you kind of bring them back to the present day of why you exist and create this power or this activation within your ideal customer.

Lucy Bedewi: People will care. Your business, your brand, will feel 3D. It will feel human. It'll encourage people to connect with your brand and they won't just see you as a thing to buy from. They will see you as someone or something to follow, to support, to be in the ecosystem, no matter what you put out. And then it's no longer about conversion.

Lucy Bedewi: It's about pulling more people into your ecosystem. And I know ecosystem can seem like a buzzword, but really I want to expand what's [00:18:00] possible with, making a sale because anyone can make a sale with a good sales page. But to get people to get to that point where it doesn't really matter what your company puts out, they're either buying it or telling their friend about it.

Lucy Bedewi: That comes from the story behind it. So if you can nail your story, you will get so much more attention than if you only focus on those elements that directly sell. Next is your Instagram bio. I include this in a written brand mostly because it's a challenge. When you can describe your business in emojis and a few words and these short activating statements, You're golden.

Lucy Bedewi: You're really good at communicating your business if you can nail that. So I always tell people, use that bold line for SEO. Make sure that second line tells people exactly what you are. This is usually where that one liner comes in. You can repurpose it into your first line of your Instagram bio. Then you have that second line to play with, any other information you feel like people should know right off the bat to build credibility.

Lucy Bedewi: And then have fun with that CTA. So many [00:19:00] people, their CTA is just book now or buy now or learn more. Whatever, but can we make that CTA on brand too? So just play with this. I think the Instagram bio is a fun one to, to combine the visual with the verbal, because you can use those funky emojis. You can see what your visual brand is standing for, whether it's femininity or boldness, and then utilize that through pictures and words.

Lucy Bedewi: the Instagram bio is a great way to, it's almost like a litmus test. Like how good am I doing with my written brand? The next thing you're going to be crafting is your founder bio. You are the best person to run your business. You know that. I know that. But why? Strangers don't know that. Your founder bio is what's telling people about you and why you're the one to watch as your business scales up.

Lucy Bedewi: So I usually write this in third person, it's usually much more professional, it's the most braggy thing I will write. If you've been featured in a publication, if you've hit a revenue goal or some sort of monetary milestone, if you've done something that's Unheard of if [00:20:00] you have a differentiator that if you said it people would be like whoa all of that needs to go in your Founder bio your founder bio.

Lucy Bedewi: I think of all the copy that you write actually has the most convincing energy Because you are basically telling people There's no better person to run this business than me and especially if you are a founder that is trying to get funding This needs to be communicated in a way that is so clear so captivating So there's not even a little morsel of doubt in any investor that this business is in good hands Next is your brand voice.

Lucy Bedewi: So you've been doing a lot of writing on your verbal brand and I'm sure you're noticing some patterns. You're noticing some adjectives come through with how your business naturally speaks. Start to quantify those things. There is a brand voice episode, which I will link, in the show notes, because I know for some people those adjectives are not just going to come out.

Lucy Bedewi: They're going to feel really kind of frazzled and confused. Like I guess I write in a way that's positive, but it's going to be hard to. [00:21:00] quantify what those adjectives are. So if that's you and you have a hard time knowing what your brand voice is, definitely tune into that episode too, because we go so deep into that.

Lucy Bedewi: But this is essentially the cousin. To how your business looks your brand voice is how it sounds So a lot of your verbal brand is we're shaping the sound of it. We're shaping what's going to cause people to take action We're shaping that participation But the actual how it sounds the cadence the words it's using that goes under your brand voice So after you write all of these elements your brand voice is going to kind of Come out in your head and this is your time to define exactly what your voice is.

Lucy Bedewi: And the last aspect of your verbal brand is your brand voice application. When you have your brand voice, now it's time to use it. Nothing feels worse than getting a weird email from a company that had like a fun, spunky website. And the email is per my last email. And you're just, you kind of do a double take and you're like, what?

Lucy Bedewi: And I was talking to someone on a podcast [00:22:00] about this today, actually. And. Your brand voice probably won't be the make or break of if your business grows or if your business scales, but It's going to create a weird friction or pause within your people if your voice doesn't match what you're selling and your voice isn't consistent in all of your marketing materials.

Lucy Bedewi: And the thing is, there's so many businesses out there, we're all trying to compete for sales that why would you want to create that friction within someone who might potentially buy from you? Like why would you want to deal with that pause? Because that pause might be enough. to lose them. but more importantly, you know, if you don't have to deal with that friction or that pause, or if they're just a hell yes from reading your marketing materials, that's just a much easier sale and you're not spending nearly as much money on ads or on people to do sales calls.

Lucy Bedewi: So it's just a win win for all when you can have consistency in that brand voice. And then the cool thing is when you define your brand voice, when you define what your brand voice means through the application process, anyone who joins your team. Whether they do social media, they do emails, they sell, [00:23:00] they know the brand voice and they can be really mindful about how they communicate when they're working for your company.

Lucy Bedewi: So that was the nugget episode of your verbal brand or your written brand. I hope it kind of got the wheels turning to the point where you're thinking, okay, I'm ready to give my verbal brand some love because I'm going to just say this from my heart. get so sad when I see businesses that have just this incredible product or this service provider or this founder who's brilliant, who has this new, innovative idea.

Lucy Bedewi: And then no one's using it or they stay in this, I like to call it the best kept secret zone because I don't want you to stay there. You already did the hard work of building a business that is going to help so many people. So now is the time to really get serious about how it's coming across, how you're communicating it, how you're kind of pulling your people in.

Lucy Bedewi: So if this episode resonated with you and you are ready to kind of do this [00:24:00] work of going deeper and defining foundational copy that pulls your people in, I'm going to be in the show notes linking, my workbook. And my workbook is called Crafting Your Verbal Brand. And that's it. This workbook is going to take you through all of the different things that we talked about today, and it's going to show you my exact process for crafting a verbal brand.

Lucy Bedewi: I used a fictitious company. I did a weak example for each of these and a strong example for each of these, and then on the paper I took you through my process of how we went from weak to strong, giving you then space to craft your own verbal brand on the workbook. put it onto the document, give it to your teammates, and have this evergreen place for your verbal brand to live.

Lucy Bedewi: So if you want to grab the workbook and actually get into this and craft your verbal brand, it's linked in the show notes and I can't wait for you to dig into it if that's something that feels right for you right now. Thanks so much for listening to this episode on verbal branding. I am so excited I was able to [00:25:00] share this with you.

Lucy Bedewi: Often when we do kind of these more copywriting, brand voice, brand messaging, podcasts, I just feel like I could probably talk for forever. over what the podcast ends up being and I also think I talk three times as fast as my other episodes, but I'm really excited for you to dig in and craft your own verbal brand whether that's listening to this episode again and letting those wheels turn or grabbing that I'm excited for you to deepen whatever this process looks like for you, and I'm rooting for you. I'm here for you. And please, follow the podcast, subscribe to the podcast, whatever the button says. You are also welcome to follow me on @lucy.bedwei or @mywritehandwoman on Instagram. Both of those are in the show notes.

Lucy Bedewi: If you wanna work with my verbal branding studio, because you want us to go through this process for you and craft it for your company, head on over to www.mywritehandwoman.com fill out that contact form and just let me know that you wanna purchase the brief. That is the [00:26:00] offer that is doing exactly what we went through in this podcast episode and.

Lucy Bedewi: if you enjoyed this episode or you're just enjoying the pod, then please consider leaving a review or a rating. It really helps us grow and I want to keep bringing you all of these, hopefully, I try and keep them short, but sometimes I go, I go wild on a tangent, episodes with nuggets of action. So you can truly be the boldest, most audacious founder that I know you are.

Lucy Bedewi: So until next time, have a great rest of your day.