Brand Planner WORKBOOK
WHAT THIS WORKBOOK IS: Over the years, I ve noticed that when it s time to establish your brand, a lot of people reach for the visual stuff - a logo, website design, maybe some really great business cards. As a brand designer, I can tell you from lots of first-hand experience that this is the wrong way to do it. Design should be the last step in the branding process. Strategy should be the first. Your visual brand should be an intentional use of design to tell a compelling brand story. You have to outline that story - with all of its characters and settings and plot twists - first. That s why I created the Brand Planner Workbook. It s a guide to help you strategize your brand and outline your brand story. It will give you space (and guidance) to clarify what you want to get out of your business, where you re taking it, who you want it to serve, how you want it to operate, and the ways you ll make it a true original. HOW TO USE THIS WORKBOOK: The workbook is designed to be easeful, but not necessarily easy. These prompts will challenge you to think big about your goals and get clear about your direction. It can be hard to make focused decisions about our businesses, so we hold on to something vague that gives us room to change our minds and accommodate every opportunity. But a vague brand will make your business sluggish like a really bad Wi-Fi connection. This workbook is your vague-buster. I recommend printing it out and scheduling a block of time on your calendar to complete it. Depending on where you are in your business, you may complete the workbook in one stretch. But if you don t get through it in one afternoon, you re not doing it wrong. Give yourself the time you need to creatively explore these questions and then focus in on the best answers for you.
Section 1 Goals How is your business going to help you build the life you want? Do you want to aggressively grow and scale? Or do you want to work fewer hours and create a flexible career that allows you to spend more time with family? Deciding what you want out of your business and your life as a business owner isn t just a fun brainstorming activity. It s an essential step in building a brand that you actually feel like investing yourself in - even on the days when things are challenging. Clarifying these goals is the first step in your brand strategy because it will affect the type of audience you want to reach, the way you ll package and price your stuff, and how you ll grow your brand. Q 1 - WHAT S YOUR INCOME GOAL? Think about the amount of money you want to be able to pay yourself (not the total revenue of your business, but the portion you get to keep after taxes and business expenses). Keep going, you re just getting warmed up!
Q 2 - HOW MANY HOURS PER WEEK DO YOU WANT (OR ARE YOU ABLE) TO WORK? Q 3 - WHAT TYPE OF WORK IS INSPIRING TO YOU? Do you love doing work that allows you to interact with people face-to-face? Do you get in the flow in front of the computer with your favorite music playing? Do you prefer one-onone client work or group settings or create-it-then-sell-it scenarios like online programs or books or products? Looking great! Next page
Q 4 - WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO IN LIFE THAT YOU RE CURRENTLY NOT? Do you want set aside time for travel or never have to work weekends? Do you want to be able to work unconventional hours that allow you to juggle other things, like taking care of young kids or starting another project? Do you want to pay off all your debt and start funding a retirment savings account? Q 5 - IMAGINE A MONDAY A YEAR OR TWO DOWN THE ROAD......after putting in hard work to build your business and get it running the way you want it to. Things are running smoothly now and your business is operating in a way that allows you to shape your life in all the important ways you want to. What does your day look like? Be specific and imaginative and even idealistic. Imagining your ideal day will reveal some specific and personal goals that you may not automatically prioritize. Write out your ideal day (or week, if you want) here, or create a bullet list of specific things that will happen during your ideal day/week. Onward!
Section 2 Offer This section is about getting clear on what you offer your audience - and I m not talking about the specific products or services you re selling. Before you can effectively package and promote a service or product, you have to uncover the motivating benefits behind them (and your brand as a whole). Features are concrete details about what you sell, like the number of coaching sessions, the material of the clothing, or the curriculum of a workshop. Benefits, however, are connected to your audience s desires, like reaching a goal, feeling more confident, or learning a new skill that will allow them to make more money in their business. (Hint: you can turn any feature into a benefit by asking So what?. E.g Feature: you ll receive 6 weekly coaching sessions > So What? > You ll have consistent guidance and feedback that will help you reach your goal faster (benefit). Q 1 - IN ONE SENTENCE, WRITE DOWN WHAT IT IS THAT YOU SELL. Q 2 - WHAT ARE THE TOP LEVEL BENE- FITS OF WHAT YOU OFFER? These are the benefits that thread their way through your entire brand, including the different products/services you offer, the content you create, your marketing, etc. Next question, please!
Q 3 - WHAT ARE YOUR OFFER-SPECIFIC BENEFITS? If you sell more than one thing, list each service/product you sell and include the benefits that are specific to that offer. Things are coming together!
Section 3 Audience There s no way around it - you HAVE to get specific about the type of audience you want to connect with and serve through your business. This matters because when your brand is aimed at a specific type of person, you can create messaging and marketing and offers that are catered directly toward that person. If you try to leave your options open by catering your brand to everyone or a very general audience, you ll have to water down everything you create so that it s applicable to a lot of different people with different goals, circumstances, problems, and desires. And the problem with diluted branding meant to appeal to a broad set of people is...it s boring. It s not unique or memorable. And no one person can look at it and say this is perfect for me. People love specifics. They stick in our mind, they activate our imagination, and they re relatable. You ll have a hard time creating anything specific in your business if you re trying to appeal to a very general audience. Q 1 - IF YOU VE WORKED WITH CUSTOM- ERS IN THE PAST, LIST YOUR FAVORITE/ MOST SUCCESSFUL ONES HERE. Then explore what made each person an ideal match. Study your answers and highlight any common threads among your ideal clients. These commonalities are a great place to start when defining your ideal customer. Perfect! Next question
Q 2 - WHAT DESIRES, CHALLENGES, AND FRUSTRATIONS DO YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER FACE THAT YOU CAN OFFER A SOLUTION TO? Q 3 - WHAT DO YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS VALUE? Great progress!
Section 4 Mission Your brand mission - or brand purpose - is the fuel that keeps your business moving forward long-term. It s the Big Picture. This is about defining the type of company you want to build and the impact you want to make through your work. Q 1 - WHAT S THE BIG IDEA? What type of business do you really want to build? What would you be doing if nothing were standing in your way? Getting inspired?
Q 2 - WHAT MARK WILL YOU LEAVE BE- HIND? Imagine 10 or 20 years down the road - what legacy will you leave behind? How will your business, your products, or your services impact your customers, your community, your industry? Q 3 - WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE KNOWN FOR? If a customer had to point out just one thing they loved most about your business, what would you want to come to their mind? Looking good - next.
Section 5 Originality It s time to find your unique spot in the marketplace. To identify what sets you apart in your industry. Sometimes it s our process that makes us different, maybe you have a signature approach to offering your service or creating your product. Sometimes it s the product or service itself that is unique. Maybe you ve had a unique set of experiences that qualify you in an original way to do what you do. Or maybe it s a combination of things. Finding and highlighting your originality is essential - but it s not a test that you pass or fail. Every business owner has something original about what they do or how they do it. As you explore what your key differentiators are, refer back to sections 2 and 3 (offer and audience) and make connections between what makes your business original and how that originality benefits your ideal customer. Q 1 - WHERE IS YOUR POSITION IN THE MARKET? Imagine a prospective customer shopping around for your service - what other brands would they be looking at alongside yours? What makes you different or better than these other options? What do you (or can you) bring to the table that these companies might leave out? Making progress!
Q 2 - HOW DO YOU ESTABLISH CREDIBILI- TY? Why are you good at what you do? What experiences have brought you here? What are your qualifications? Whether you have a traditional degree or unconventional career-building experience, what adds credibility to your brand? Q 3 - IF YOU COULD MOLD HOW PEOPLE SEE YOUR BUSINESS, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? Do your customers currently see your business the way you want them to? Do people come to you with the right expectations? Do prospects understand and value your expertise? Is there anything people seem to just not get? Last section up next!
Section 6 Packaging Now it s time to take your goals, offer, audience, mission, and originality and package it up in a way that allows your business to make money. You likely already have a service or product that you re selling, but this is your chance to evaluate its effectiveness, tweak it if necessary, and plan new or improved offers that you could launch in the future. You can package the some offer in many different ways. For example, my brand design services could be packaged as one-on-one branding services, consulting services, a group program, an evergreen online course, or a book. Q 1 - DOES YOUR CURRENT BUSINESS MODEL LINE UP WITH YOUR LONG-TERM BUSINESS GOALS? For example, if you re current business model relies completely on full-time one-on-one client work and your long-term business goal is to take more time off for travel or family time, your business model may need to shift to incorporate a more scalable offer. Explore the ways your current business model will help or hinder the achievement of your long-term business goals. Looking great - last page!
Q 2 - LIST OUT YOUR CURRENT SERVICE(S) AND/OR PRODUCT(S)... For each one, list how this product/service helps your client solve their desire/problem/ frustration that you identified in section 3. If it isn t doing a good job of creating a solution, how can you tweak it to work better? If it is doing a good job of creating a solution, how can you highlight that more clearly in your marketing and sales materials? Q 3 - WHAT SERVICE, PRODUCT, OR PRO- GRAM COULD YOU BEGIN OFFERING...... that would help you meet both your ideal client s goals (their desire/problem/frustration) and your long-term business goals (income and/or lifestyle)? Congrats - let s wrap up!
This is a big deal! If you ve worked your way through the Brand Planner, congrats! Answering the questions in this workbook and holding yourself accountable for clarifying the strategy behind your brand is no small feat, and it has set you up for some huge progress in your business. The strategy you outlined here will help you implement your brand in a lot of ways: from building a website that captures more leads and sells more of your stuff, to designing a brand identity that looks professional and builds trust, to creating content and marketing that grows your audience. But you don t have to figure out how to use your answers in this workbook to do all that yourself. Stay tuned - we ll be sending guidance straight to your inbox over the next few weeks to help you make the most of your brand strategy (and start seeing growth in your business). READY TO TAKE ACTION RIGHT AWAY? If you (and your business) are ready for a professionally developed brand that will help you reach your goals asap, we d love to invite you to explore our small business branding packages at Jobson Studios. Your first step is an easy one: schedule a friendly, pressure-free consultation call with owner & creative Director Sonja Jobson (that s me over there!) Click the button below to book it now. Looking forward to speaking with you! SCHEDULE YOUR FREE BRAND CONSULTATION