9 reasons why you need a clear brand to take your creative business to the next level

Are you ready to take your brand to the next level? If you are, you might be thinking, “I need to design a new website” or “I’ve gotta post more on TikTok.” But what if I told you that the #1 thing you need to turn things up a notch BEFORE you do any of those other things, is a clear brand?

Let’s talk about the 9 reasons why you need a clear brand to take your business to the next level.

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1. Direction

The key reason why it's important to have a clear brand to take you and your business to the next level is so that YOU are clear on your brand. You can't make the right decisions, take the right opportunities, choose the right things to focus on, or decide how exactly you're gonna take your brand to the next level if you don't know why you are doing them or where you are going.

In Company of One by Paul Jarvis, he says that "your purpose is the lens through which you filter all of your business decisions, from the tiny to the monumental. We are talking about who you work with, what you offer, where you focus your time and energy, and even how you define your audience. Your purpose will serve as a litmus test for all of your business decisions, enabling you to make smart, prompt and more confident choices in all areas of your work."

That's exactly what I'm talking about. When you have a clear brand, you know what you're trying to say, what you're trying to achieve, what your goals are, where you are going, who you're trying to talk to, and how you wanna stand out.

2. Positioning

If you are at a point in your business where you are wanting to pivot, or maybe you wanna like elevate things or you wanna niche down a little bit, you need to know what that looks like and how you're gonna become known for that.

For me, for example, when I changed from doing brand identity design to doing brand strategy and coaching, I had to know things like:

• What does it mean for me to be a brand strategist and a coach?
• What does it look like?
• Who do I wanna work with?
• What do I wanna say about what I do?
• How do I wanna stand out from other brand strategists?
• How do I want to make sure that it's clear that this is what I do now?

When you have a clear brand and you know like what those messages are and what you wanna be known for, it's really easy for people to follow you on your journey and come with you to this new area of your business.

3. Expansion

If you want to add a new income stream or arm to your business, you need a clear brand that explains how your new offer ties in, shares the story of this next stage, and makes it clear who it’s for.

Say for example, you are creating your own artwork, but now you also wanna teach other people how to make their own artwork. You need to have a clear brand that explains and communicates to your audience things like:

• How does this new offer tie into what you already do?
• What is the story of this next stage?
• Who is it for?

Then it's clear when someone say lands on your website that you can help them in these two different ways. The people who still want the things you've already been doing know they can still get that, but the people who also wanna be involved in this new part of your business, know where they can find and engage with that too.

4. Attraction

If you want to attract a bigger, better type of client, you need to speak their language. That means knowing them super well so that you can clearly state that your work is for them. When you’ve got a clear brand, they can self-identify and click buy!

You need to have to have a clear brand that says, "Hey, if this is you, then this work that I create is for you." This is really gonna help you with attracting the right kind of people to your business.

5. Experience

If you want to elevate the experience for your customers, you need to know who they are, what they need, how you want them to feel, what they should expect. All of these things are what's gonna enable you to make a really kickass, elevated brand experience that really like wows your customers and leaves them wanting so, so much more. When you’ve got a clear brand, your audience know what to expect and are surprised and delighted by how on-brand and amazing it is when they interact.

6. Referrals

We all know that word of mouth and referrals is so huge for creatives. It's how we get more customers, how we get more clients, and how we get opportunities. If people know what you do, they love what you do, and they can easily communicate that and share that with their friend, then boom, easy to get a referral, right?

So if you want people to share your business with others, you need to have a really clear message, a clear descriptor, and a clear point of difference that they can share with other people.

When you have that, it's really easy for people to recommend you. They can say, "oh, you should check out this person. This is what they do and it's awesome because of this. You are gonna love it because of this." If they don't know that and they're like, "Oh, I think this person kind of does this. I'm not really sure. It's kind of cool, like check it out if you want." That's way less convincing!

You having a clear brand that they can grasp and get ahold of and share with their friends and their family or their colleagues is exactly what makes that so much easier.

7. Sales

If you want people to buy your work, they need to know why they should.

• What makes it worth buying?
• What's the value proposition?
• What's unique about it?
• What does it do for them?
• Why would they buy it?

When you have a clear brand, your audience knows exactly what's on offer, exactly what's different about it, exactly what's special and exactly why they need it in their lives.

Again, if you are vague or confused about it, or it's not clear what it does or what it is, then they're not gonna be on board. But if you are like, "this is my new product, this is what makes it sick, this is what makes it different from everyone else's, and this is why you need it in your life right now," then that's way more clear and compelling.

If you wanna take it to the next level in terms of sales, you need to get really clear on the value proposition of your work and of your entire business.

8. Opportunities

If you're looking to step into new opportunities, like collaborations with brands or with other people, speaking engagements, writing or creating a book, or having your own exhibition, you need to have a stand out brand and a clear message that you are known for.

When you have that, it's really easy for people to say, “oh, this person would be perfect for this.” Or if they're thinking about a certain topic or type of work, you immediately come to mind thanks to your really strong, clear brand that they recognize and remember.

That's why having a clear brand is really important if you are wanting to get more of those opportunities.

9. Rebranding

If you are wanting to upgrade the visuals of your brand, which can definitely take your brand to the next level, you need to know:

• What do I want it to achieve?
• How does it need to come across?
• Who does it need to reach?

Knowing this and using it as your rebrand means that the visuals that you're making aren’t just pretty, but are effective.

With this, you know what you need those visuals to look like, and then have a clear visual brand that makes it really obvious to your audience that your brand is next level and it’s for them.

Those were nine different reasons why you need to have a clear brand in order to take your creative business to the next level. If nine isn't enough reasons for you, then I don't know what is! Hopefully they will give you some insight and encouragement (and maybe a nice, gentle, kind kick up the butt if that's what you need) to take a look at your brand and take a look at your brand strategy before you start doing anything else that you think might take your brand to the next level. Having a clear brand is going to help you with everything else going forward.

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