Dreaming up Magic

I once had a boss who said, "If you're in marketing, you should always be thinking about marketing; even in the shower, you should be thinking about marketing."

I'm not sure if at the age of 22 that I fully understood what he was telling me, although I know I wanted to.

It was my first job working for a fashion brand within a legit marketing department. I had varied positions in the past including wholesale sales, event coordination, managing retail stores and e-commerce websites.  A year prior, I had launched my own company where I connected business owners with creative experts. It was called Marka Concepts and it was when I first knew I had a knack for seeing a need and solving a problem. It was my first taste of entrepreneurship and I knew some day I'd want more. However, I decided to put it aside to focus all of my attention on my new role.

This boss of mine was the CEO of a successful wholesale and retail junior denim brand. He had a fiercly strong personality and I always admired his drive. He had created the company from nothing and while many brands in that highly competitive space fizzle out after a few years, he and his business partners have continued to grow the the company since launching in 2000. While working there, I grew from Website Specialist to Marketing Coordinator and finally to Advertising Manager. It was the true jumping off point in my career and I'll never forget the opportunities and exposure I was provided. 

Fast forward to today, after launching Written & Styled in August of 2016, I can finally say that I am living those words spoken by my past boss. These days, creative marketing ideas and inspiration come in strange forms and seem to appear most often when I take time to breathe and let go.

By setting yourself up for opportunities to be inspired or gain clarity by getting away from the day-to-day grind and connecting with others, you might find the answer you're looking for was always there, you just have to be open to seeing it. It may come to you on a serene beach or maybe even in the shower. 

I hope you take time to recharge in order to let go and dream up some magic for the New Year. 

With love,
Arica

Do You Need Clarity in Your Marketing Message?

Everyone appreciates an objective third-party perspective.

Each time I meet with a coaching client for the first time, my goal is to provide some clarity and help them see things that they may have missed by being too "in it". In most cases, the owners and creatives I meet with know their stuff... they just need a little guidance in the right direction.

Many times, their reason for starting the business in the first place gets blurred or even forgotten. I think it's important to stay connected to that passion even if that means the passion has shifted. It's about awareness about, where you started and where you want to go. 

It's not easy to see the entire map when we're in the middle of the road. 

Here is a fun little clarity exercise to try:

Step #1: Write or record an explanation of your business without looking at any of your marketing assets. Just write/record freely without any references and try your best not to edit yourself.

• What inspired the creation of your business?
• What products/services do you make/provide?
• Who do you sell to?
• What do you love most about the business? What brings you the most joy?

Step #2: Look at your marketing assets (website, brochures, social platforms, business cards, hangtags, etc.) - Ask yourself if they all convey the same information/story as your clarity exercise did. 

When things don't jive, this creates confusion for you and for your customers. 

If you found inconsistencies, fix them so that every aspect of your message is cohesive and authentic to your story. 

This is actually the first thing I do when I provide a consultation with a potential coaching client. I want to see if what they tell me verbally about their business is the same thing that is being conveyed on their website, social platforms, etc.

Providing this kind of third-party perspective is one of the things I love most about coaching/consulting. I get to view the business like a potential customer might and give them truly unbiased feedback. 

Try the clarity exercise and PLEASE share your findings with me either confidentially via email at arica@writtenandstyled.com or be extra brave and post it here in the comments. :)

-Arica

image by Jordan McQueen via unsplash

1:1 Coaching Workshop Week by Week

Running a business while consistently generating new customers and nurturing current ones can feel overwhelming.

As we develop our businesses, there comes a time when asking our family and friends for advice just doesn't cut it. Yet, if we don't have anyone holding us to our goals, it's easy to let ourselves slide. 

So what to do?

With my coaching clients, I've realized that across the board the biggest benefit that I provide is level of accountability. Throughout our sessions we focus on gaining clarity on what is needed to move forward based on their specific goals.

I work with you every step of the way. 

My clients all begin with a 4-week workshop designed to get organized and thoughtful about marketing their business. It's a way to shake all of those ideas, questions and concerns out of your head in order to truly consider them or just let them go.

It's a pretty freeing experience.

Throughout the month, we are focused achieving the following:

• Defined Goals
• A Clear Brand Message, Mission & Target Audience
• Objectives to Meet Goals
• Strategies & Tactics to Support Objectives (specific actions)

 

Here's what it looks like:

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PREPARATION

Prior to our initial session, I conduct a brief audit of your current marketing assets:

• website
• social pages
• email designs, marketing materials, etc.

Next, I provide a Brand Review Questionnaire based on my assessment for you to complete.

 

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WEEK 1

1. Based on the findings from the questionnaire, we'll map out a path from where you are to where you want to be. 
2. I provide a recap of our discussion, action items and access to the recording from our call. 
3. During the week, clients are welcome to contact me via email for feedback related to the action items.

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WEEKS 2 + 3

1. Review progress on action items from the previous week. In some cases, an action item may be a work in progress throughout the month.
2. Review our map from the beginning of the workshop. What I have found is that as we work through items, new ideas or revelations come to light that may end up shifting our path and priorities in small or large ways. 
3. Discuss any new or ongoing action items that should be developed through the upcoming weeks.
4. I provide the recap, new action items and the recording of our call.
5. Again, emails are welcome and newly completed action items should be sent over prior to the next session.

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WEEK 4

1. As in weeks 2 and 3, we will review previous action items and determine aspects that will be considered an ongoing effort. 
2. Review our map and decide if any new alterations are necessary.
3. Discuss any next steps and options for continued coaching.

In most cases, my clients are feeling energized and in a good place with a new productive weekly routine. They may decide to transition to ongoing maintenance with a bi-weekly or monthly session. This allows for the same key component for continued progress in the form of accountability and a line of support on a  less frequent basis. 

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Who might benefit from marketing coaching?

• You have a desire to push yourself forward, but get sidetracked with a ton to do.
• At the moment, outsourcing marketing efforts isn't an option. You need to learn the skills.
• You are open to honest feedback and welcome a third-party objective view.
• You've tried researching, purchased e-courses or continued your education only to still feel unsure about how to apply what you've learned to your business.

If you connect with any of these statements, I invite you to schedule a complimentary discovery session via the link below. Let's find out what you need to move forward.

Cheers to progress!

-Arica

Getting Started Part 3: Find Your Tribe

Be everything to someone instead of something to everyone.

image lovingly shared from @taramilktea

The idea of putting ourselves and our products out into the world where there is so much competition can be truly scary and sometimes even makes us second guess the very choice to go into business. 

I'm here to tell you, you're not alone. Most people have those nagging thoughts about not being good enough or that no one will buy what they're selling. In fact, you can also look at competition as a positive: it means there is an audience for it. 

The thing is, you are good enough.

You have more wisdom than you realize. I mean look, you may not be the only one selling exquisitely crafted handmade pottery or planning beach weddings, but that doesn't mean you won't be incredibly successful. You just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other, start with the right audience (you're tribe) and be everything to those special people rather than being something to everyone.

This goes back to the first part of this blog series about understanding your value and what makes your product/service unique. In the end, we have to lean on ourselves and what makes us and our expertise special and unique. 

So how do we find and connect with our tribe? 

First, we have to flip it and focus on our ideal customer. We have to understand what is important to them. What problems do they need solved that we can help with. A great way to really visualize your ideal customer is to create a customer persona. Depending on your business, you may have 1-3 personas or as many as 10-15. I would suggest starting with your top 1-3 to get started. 

Questions to consider as you develop your personas are:

• Personal Details (household, job title/industry, aspirations)
• Demographics (age, education, income, location, gender)
• Personality (social engagement, communication preferences, hobbies)
• Goals (what drives them)
• Challenges (biggest pain points)
• Fears (what keeps them up at night)
• Solutions (how does your product or service make their life better)
• I also like to pop in a photo of what the potential person might look like. 

To make it a little easier on you, I've created another freebie download in the form of a Customer Persona Template to keep everything organized in one place. You can get access to it here.

Now, when it comes time to actually fill in the customer personas, there are a few ways to go about it:

1. Interview customers (if you have them). Consider providing an incentive for their participation.
2. Send a survey to subscribers (if you have them). Consider providing an incentive here as well.
3. Analysis of customer purchasing behavior (if you have sales). Look for trends to see what interested past customers to make a purchase.
4. Another really fascinating way to get some great information about your potential audience is with Facebook Audience Insights. You will need to set up a Facebook Business Manager Account via business.facebook.com. Just follow the prompts to set up or you can get more help with this link from Facebook. 

Next we put on our thinking cap and hypothesize about other brands that may be of interest to our tribe. The only caveat here is that you will need to think about brands that have a large Facebook following for there to be enough data. Let's go back to the fictitious brand of children's clothing made with organic cotton that I provided when we worked on defining goals in the second part of this blog series. I would probably be correct to assume that the mother who is purchasing clothing made with organic cotton may very well be interested in purchasing other products for her children made with organic or without potentially harmful ingredients. One business that I would consider a contender would be The Honest Company. They make a wide variety of products for baby, personal care, cleaning, and vitamins made without potentially heath-compromising chemicals or compounds.

To get to Audience Insights in the Facebook Business Manager, just click on the stacked icon, hover over "All Tools" and click "Audience Insights". Here is a screenshot of how to get to Audience Insights. 

I typed in "The Honest Company" into "Interests" within Audience Insights to see if they have enough fans for this experiment - they do. See the other screenshot below for where to go.

That's pretty much it. Now you can tour around and view a bunch of really great information about the audience that likes The Honest Company's Facebook page or any other Fan page that you are able to pull up with enough of a following. Cool stuff, right? 

Now that you have your pep talk from me, all the pertinent questions to consider when crafting your customer personas and some really awesome ways to fill in the information, what's next?

Loves, it's time to start crafting content that will connect with your tribe.

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Thank you so much for reading! I looking forward to continuing to help you tell the story of your brand, products/services through thoughtful, valuable and informative content. 

I hope you found value in this three-part blog post series about getting clarity with your brand. Please get on the list for my weekly email to be the first to know about new free resources, ideas and inspiration to keep you moving forward. 

With love,

Arica

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