Here’s the thing, friend—making good money as a creative has a lot less to do with your product and a lot more to do with your brand experience. To book clients who are willing to pay for luxury services, you need to make sure they know about the epic brand experience they’ll get with you.
What is your brand experience?
Your brand experience is the amalgamation of every single client touchpoint a consumer will have while they interact with your brand—before, during, and after their service.
And by “interact”, I don’t only mean “face-to-face”. Most likely, a brand experience begins with an initial “touchpoint” that piques a potential client’s interest, such as a perfectly branded business card or curated Instagram feed.
Then, that touchpoint directs them to the next one—your website—where they’re able to learn more about you, which inspires them to contact you. And from there, you email back-and-forth and schedule a client consultation.
Each one of these experiences is a touchpoint in your overall brand experience. And a successful brand experience—one that not only books your ideal client but gets them to send more ideal clients your way—needs to be consistent and flawless.
The elements of a winning brand experience
Can you see how branding is so much more than “just a logo?”
Instead, these are what I consider the fundamental building blocks of your brand:
- Brand visuals
- Brand environment
- Client experience
- You
So, let’s talk about each one of these building blocks.
Brand visuals
As a graphic designer and visual branding specialist, this is my area of expertise. A successful brand experience includes a comprehensive system of visual elements that consistently communicate and reinforce the brand. Examples of visual touchpoints include:
- Logo
- Website
- Business card
- Brand stationery
- Marketing collateral
- Brand photography
Brand environment
Some creatives have studios or storefronts, which can be decorated and styled to be a great visual representation of your brand.
But not everyone can afford (or even wants) a studio or storefront, and that’s okay. Regardless of whether or not you own your space, consider the following questions to make sure your environment aligns with your brand:
- Where are you meeting with clients/customers?
- Where are you providing services/selling products?
- Are these spaces representative of your brand?
Client experience
Not to be confused with your overall brand experience, I use the term “client experience” to refer to your actual interactions with the client. Here are some things to think about:
- How are you answering the phone/emails?
- What is the tone of your brand (on your website, blog posts, social media)?
- What services are you providing?
- What products are you offering?
- How do you make them (the client) feel?
- Are these answers in line with your brand?
You
As a solopreneur and artist, you are your brand. Your face, your style, and your attitude all become a part of your client’s brand experience. So embrace who you are and share it proudly with your audience—just make sure you’re consistent across all touchpoints.
How weird would it be to land on a bright and cheerful website, only to meet with the creative behind it and find out that they’re grumpy in person? That’s an extreme example, but you want to make sure that YOU (and they way you present yourself) are consistent with your brand.
How to bring it all together
This may seem a bit overwhelming right now, like there are so many moving parts to think about when building a successful brand.
And yeah, that is true.
But once you really and truly understand the foundation of your brand, fostering a consistent and flawless brand experience starts to become second nature. You’ll no longer be making decisions based on what you “should be doing”—everything you do for your brand, you’ll do for a reason.
You won’t build a website “just like so-and-so, because she’s so successful”—instead, you’ll understand that it’s not about the website or the logo or the photographs or any single touchpoint on its own. It’s about the overall brand experience—and that’s something you just can’t copy.
Your cohesive brand experience will be absolutely authentic to you. And that’s why clients will fall in love with you AND your brand.
