Branding for Coaches: Using Authenticity to Connect with Your Audience
As a coach or in fact anyone with a service based ONLINE business, nailing your branding is one of the most important things you can do.
And here’s why…
However moving and inspiring your copy / message / words are, your ideal clients won’t read them if they don’t connect with you visually.
Sad but true.
Your branding needs to attract them straight away and pull them in. They have to like how your brand makes them feel and resonate with it on some level.
And then they’ll read your words.
OK, so authenticity is a bit of a buzzword right now but there's a good reason for that.
When looking at branding for coaches, your clients are usually in a place of growth, on a precipice of that next level in their lives or business and that can often make them feel vulnerable.
Your branding needs to make them feel like you’re the person that will ‘get them’.
They have to connect with you on an emotional level.
If they were to meet you in person they’d know straight away if they liked you, if you were the one to help them, simply by having a conversation with you and seeing if that chemistry was there - kind of like going on a date.
Imagine if the room where that chemistry conversation took place was filled with other coaches, doing similar work to yourself and your client was only able to talk to a couple of coaches.
They’d make a beeline for the one they liked the look of. Something about the way that person made them feel, they liked their outfit or their smile. That person's outfit was similar to one they had in their own wardrobe. We’ve all heard about the Know, Like, Trust factor right. It starts with little things we identify with.
I want to help you make sure that you get who you are across online with your Personal Branding so that your dream client will land on your website and think - that’s the coach for me!
What is Personal Branding?
In a nutshell…
Personal Branding is taking who you are, your values, expertise and personality and becoming known for those things.
Now let me elaborate on that a little further.
Most people know what branding is. To quote Wikipedia...
“A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.
Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and store value as brand equity for the object identified, to the benefit of the brand's customers, its owners and shareholders.”
Personal Branding is taking this - yes you guessed it - to a more personal level. I see it as taking the essence of who you are and making a brand from that.
Examples of Personal Brands
Me
Humorous, warm, cheeky, friendly, fun, neutral colours (that’s my wardrobe vibe at the moment), passionate about lifting other female entrepreneurs, personal branding expert, intuitive, supportive, collaborative, wingwoman.
As I sit writing this article, I’m sitting with my biz bestie and I wanted to do the same exercise with her in the hopes that it would help you to further understand and help you build your own personal brand further.
Sarah Henson (biz bestie)
Strategic, kind, knowledgeable, expert, copy writing dynamo, into sustainability, not like everyone else - likes to do things differently, quirky, tomboy, simple and clean design style and colours.
Sara Blakely - founder of Spanx
Passionate, bright, funny, adventurous, kind, warm, friendly, bold, can do attitude, passionate about seeing other female entrepreneurs succeed, inventor, intelligent, savvy, marketing genius, down to earth, real.
Your own personal brand summary
Now I want you to create a personal branding profile for yourself.
Go on, give it a go.
How would your friends describe you?
What’s your personality like, are you fiery, quiet, loud, funny, analytical.
What passions do you have?
What colours do you love to wear in your wardrobe or can be found around your home?
All of the above things feed into your personal brand.
The next step is knowing how to put all of that across into your marketing, website and social media - because you don’t need to worry about how you carry that across in person because you’re already doing that.
How to Create Personal Branding for your Business
Ah now this is the exciting part. How do we take the personal brand summary you’ve created for yourself and make it into a tangible brand that is instantly recognizable as you when someone is finding you online?
Let’s use myself as an example, particularly as you’ve landed on my website and you can check out my site in more detail and my social media too.
Humorous, warm, cheeky, friendly, fun, neutral colours (that’s my wardrobe vibe at the moment), passionate about lifting other female entrepreneurs, personal branding expert, intuitive, supportive, collaborative, wingwoman.
I’m going to pick it apart now.
My Actual Personality - Humorous, cheeky, friendly and fun
To show these aspects of my personality in my branding I make sure that my copy sounds like me. I like my writing to feel as if I’m chatting with a friend, I may include a silly dad joke or a bad pun (my lame humour).
I also do this in my photoshoots by having a cheeky expression on my face and not taking my posing too seriously. I want to look relaxed, friendly and approachable.
Colours
Before I did my business's whole new rebrand I had a bit of an identity crisis when it came to my wardrobe and style.
I’d lost a lot of weight so none of my clothes fit me and I was excited about buying a whole new staple wardrobe but I had no idea what that looked like.
I wanted to step into the woman I’d always wanted to dress like.
Gone were the girly 50s style flowery dresses of old and in came a much more neutral, chic yet casual look. It was so exciting and it came at the perfect time of my rebrand as I matched my website's colours to my new wardrobe.
Style
Also at the time of doing my rebrand I’d just moved house and had bought lots of fab lifestyle pieces for my home which had a huge impact on the look and feel of my website.
You’ll often find that what you surround yourself with at home should reflect into your branding. But don’t worry if you don’t have the interior of your dreams just yet.
Create a Pinterest board and go off of that for branding inspiration - what your ideal home would look like.
Are there any shapes that you’re drawn to? I have used hand drawn stars in my branding as I would always doodle stars (and flowers) all over my notepads when I’m on calls or meetings - it’s massively involuntary haha. My friend loves hexagonal shapes, so they’re lightly drawn into banners on her website.
Passions
As you know my passion is about lifting other female entrepreneurs.
By creating spiritually aligned brands and websites for my clients, I allow them to stand out, attract their dream clients and do the work they’re meant to do which causes a ripple effect. It feels very much like paying it forward for as many women as I can.
I also talk about the incredible women I work with on my social media. I talk about how I left my decade long 9-5 job in fashion to pursue this business full-time in the hopes of inspiring others to take the leap of faith and do the thing that lights them up.
You - branding for coaches
Now take your personal branding summary and see how you could put that into the above sections.
If you mentioned the words kind and calm for instance, I would think you should use a calming colour palette ie. not fiery red or a bold blue haha, make your colours softer.
If you see yourself as fiery and bold, make sure your clothes are popping in your photoshoot or that your backgrounds are bold and colourful that will stand out from the crowd.
Perhaps you have lots of items in your home that are hexagonal as you’re drawn to that shape, why not have that in your branding as soft lines running in the background of some of your banners or your social media ‘quote’ squares.
Maybe you’re a very simple, no fuss kinda person. Great! Don’t have lots and lots going on on your website, keep it clean and to the point. Sometimes less is more! Obvs my pages have lots going on, I’m a chatty Cathy ;-p
Appearance as a trademark
Your hair or tattoos could be something that is your brand.
For instance, Anna Wintour the famed editor of American Vogue is famous for her chic short bob. Dawn O’Porter too, who is possibly one of my fave people to follow on Instagram.
Female law firm founder, Alice Stephenson has beautiful tattoos which are clearly visible - this in the past would have been (and probably still is) not very common in lawyers, she’s made a point that her brand and businesses is all about breaking down barriers.
I hope this helps you put some of the things you might find intangible to create as imagery / copy more tangible.
Why is Personal Branding for Coaches Important?
I’ve been working in the coaching world for over 5+ years now, as of writing this post and I know it’s noisy out there. There are a lottaaa coaches (as is the case with most industries), coaching on a wide variety of topics; money blocks, business, clarity, purpose, spiritual, life etc.
But how do you stand out?
Because make no mistake, you definitely DO need to stand out.
But what does it actually mean to “stand out”?
***haha how many times do I want to say the phrase, stand out??? But you get the picture, yeah?1?
Be yourself
What I mean is that you need to be 100% you and that is how you differentiate yourself from others. You’ll have such a strong urge when starting out or indeed rebranding to look at others in your field that have successful businesses that you may want to try and replicate their branding in your own. DO NOT DO THIS.
I have fallen victim to this.
You ever heard the saying ‘the cobblers children have no shoes’ - well that was me.
I was a website designer who didn’t like her own website.
You see I’d looked at others and my website was an amalgamation of me, who I thought I ‘had’ to be and influences from others in my field.
AND IT DID NOT WORK.
By doing what I’ve told you to do in the ‘personal branding summary’ section above, you’ll have a stronger identity to what your personal brand is.
You see, people buy from people.
There may be a million people who offer the same service as you do, but nobody will do it like you do or ARE YOU.
You will always buy a product that is similar in results from the person you resonate with the most.
The way people resonate with you is by being able to see who you are. When you’re in the online world, your clients first port of call is your brand / your website / your social media.
We want them to get as good of a real life in person meeting from your online presence as possible.
So be vulnerable when writing your social media captions, let your potential clients know that you struggle at times too. It makes you more human and relatable. Just because you’re trying to sell them something doesn't mean that you have to be perfect all the time.
Choose branding colours that YOU love. Not what you think your clients will like or what so and so has. Your dream clients will pick you because you’re you, not trying to lure them in with colours you think they’d like. That’s fake/not real and people can sense that.
Don’t make your copy super funny and loud if that’s not really you, but you think people like more bubbly personalities.
The more they know you and your brand, the more comfortable they’ll be investing in your services (because as a coach, when someone invests in your business, they are really investing in you).
How to Use Vulnerability to Increase Visibility in Your Coaching Business
People the whole world over connect with people who show vulnerability.
Fact.
Long gone are the archaic views that to be vulnerable is to show weakness. They see their own struggles reflected back at them and it forms a connection with that person, so much stronger than when you pretend that everything is ok 24/7. Ya know, the insta highlight reel culture.
As Bréne Brown says, “vulnerability sounds like the truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness’.
Vulnerability isn’t just about you showing up and sharing personal stories via your social media it’s also about how you use it in things like having a photoshoot for you business when perhaps you’re not at the weight you want to be at or showing your face on your social media rather than hiding behind the camera and just posting inspirational quotes.
1. Have a Personal Branding Photoshoot
When you have a business where you are offering your services and are essentially the face of the business and the person the client is working with, then you really should have a personal branding photoshoot, even if it’s just to have a couple of photographs of yourself on your about page and social media - so that your client knows who they’re buying from.
This can be an extremely vulnerable thing to do. I get it. I’ve worked with tens upon tens of women who have had that same fear of getting in front of the camera, not many people love doing it. If that’s the case, make sure you hire a photographer who you feel comfortable with and you believe will capture the essence of who you are.
**hint hint, I do personal branding photoshoots so why not get in touch if you need some shots taking.
2. Make Your Website Personal Rather than Transactional
This is a biggie.
You may feel like your website should be a bit faceless. For instance if you’re a coach that is working with people in the corporate world then you think that they’re looking for a website and brand that is simply transactional with no personality ie. yours.
This isn’t true.
Often the person hiring you, ya know, is a person. Perhaps they’re a HR manager looking for coaching for numerous teams in the company or someone who is looking for coaching themselves outside of the workplace. Those people will want something that’s not super super corporate, perhaps there’s a nod to it and of course it should look professional but you want to add your personality so they feel safe and seen by you.
That you will get them.
That you’ll be able to help them.
That they can trust you.
To do this, make sure your branding is personable to you.
3. Show Up and Show Your Face on Socials
Oh hell yeah! Can I get an Amen?!?!?!
Oh gosh I can’t tell you the amount of in person workshops I’ve given where this question has come up..
But I’m not really the face of my business, I want it to be about the service. That’s more important.
I actually had a client say this to me very recently. She’s a sound therapist and wanted the focus to be on her business and the power of it - not about her.
And I get it, but there are many sound therapists / coaches out there that offer services of a similar nature but you’re the one they’re buying from. They want to feel like they have a connection with you.
Honestly it can sometimes be as simple as, oooo look, we have the same taste in clothes, or we have the same cat (obvs get your pets involved as well on your grid!)
Going back to my lovely sound therapist client. I actually didn’t even know her name as whenever her face showed up on the grid she didn’t introduce herself or have her name in the bio.
You really should be talking with your audience about who you are and introducing yourself.
Please, please, please make sure that your face is on your socials at least once a month wherever you’re showing up. People need to see your face more and connect what you do with who you are as a person and you’ll have plenty of clients in no time!
Learn More About Branding for Coaches with a Free Workshop
I feel so passionate about helping you create a brand that you truly love, that I’ve delved a little deeper into this whole subject and created a masterclass especially for you.
It’s honestly the best workshop I’ve ever done and it’s a lot of fun.
What I’m able to do is show you in a more visual and practical way how to make your brand authentically you.
You can watch the Masterclass here.
If you’ve taken anything from this post I hope it was this;
Be less them. Be more you.