Why You Should Get Clear on Branding Before You Invest a Lot in a Website

Bethany Bilbrey
Jul 28, 2017 · 4 min read

Hazel has decided that she needs to invest in a website because that’s what you do for an online life coach business. She’s gotten a web designer recommendation from a friend, and even though she doesn’t love her friend’s website, she thinks the designer must be good if her friend loves her.

At the first meeting, the designer asks her questions about her business and what she likes. Hazel feels herself getting more and more confused the longer they talk. So she just decides to pick something.

She decides to copy another coach that’s doing really well — as a rebel, bad-ass, boss woman. Hazel isn’t much of a rebel herself, but this seems to be popular and works for the other coach.

She knows she wants to transform women, make them happy, and help with divorce issues. She has no idea about colors or images. She’s really hoping that the web designer can fill in those blanks for her.

She doesn’t know what sets her apart from other coaches, so she just chooses what she sees her favorite successful coach do. She hasn’t put much thought into core adjectives and doesn’t know what her brand stands for, related to her gifts, her essence as a coach.

She ends of with a frosty pink and gold website, with “Boss Lady” written on it. The images are bland and don’t say much. The included logo for Hazel Coaching is bland too. She’s invested a ton in this and has a hard time admitting that she’s not very happy with it. It doesn’t feel like her. She doesn’t feel the “click” that helps her know she’s on the right track for attracting her tribe.

Branding First

Now, let’s go back to the beginning and imagine that Hazel decides to figure out her branding first.She digs deep into what she does best and who she is as a coach. She went through a difficult divorce and what got her through was thinking of it as an adventure, and finding more freedom in life after divorce. She realizes that women going through a divorce who have felt suffocated by life are who she loves to work with.

She realizes she’s a coach for women after they have gone through a divorce and helps them to see life as a new adventure. She picks the three core adjectives of adventurous, courageous, and free. She realizes her tribe are women who felt bound up and tied into a marriage and life that wasn’t working and offers them the hope of freedom and adventure in a new life. She uses colors that exemplify this explorer feel such as greens and brown.

Getting clear on her branding helps her focus in on her business even more. She realizes that she loves to travel herself and to relate to women in a small group setting so she starts planning adventure retreatsfor recently divorced women.

When she decides to have a website created, she looks at the portfolio of designers that her friends recommend. One does really pink, feminine, boss lady kinds of sites, which Hazel now realizes is not her at all. Another does very buttoned-up, classic, sites for companies in financial services. Not Hazel either. Then she stumbles on a third web designer who does adventurous, outdoor type websites. Hazel immediately responds to this style for her website and hires the designer.

The designer asks her a series of questions for what she wants for branding. Hazel has done her brand work and can easily answer these questions and more. She gives the designer very specific instructions for what she wants for the look and feel of her website. She’s able to carefully work with the designer and loves the final logo and website as a launching pad for her niche of helping recently divorced women find hope, freedom and adventure in a new life. She has a special page built for her upcoming retreats, because she knows that’s an key piece to her brand.

Hazel is thrilled with her new website because she did her branding work first and figured out exactly what she needed for a website. Her new site is the essence of her and the coaching practice that gives her energy, just thinking about it.

Do you need to do branding first? Check out my free offer — 5 Brand Questions to Answer Before Hiring a Web Designer

Article originally appeared at Wild Practical Life.

Bethany Bilbrey

Written by

I’m a brand consultant for mission-based entrepreneurs. I help them state what they do and their uniqueness clearly & concisely.http://www.wildpracticallife.com

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