No matter how cool your logo is or how clean and professional your website may be, no brand element will ever be as interesting as you!

 

We’re not just saying that to toot your horn, either. Telling your story has a powerful effect on your audience, and when you marry your personal narrative with your brand’s—that’s when the magic happens! 

As humans, our brains are naturally hard-wired to pay attention to a good story, so it should come as no surprise that storytelling drives conversions and ROI. If you’ve been holding back from bringing your authentic self to the table, or you aren’t sure how your story fits within your brand, today’s blog will show you why you’re the most valuable asset to your business. 

Your passions, interests, or journey to building your brand may not seem vital to your success now. But once you learn how to hone your backstory to cultivate your brand, you’ll understand just why it’s essential to share it with the world.

Putting yourself in your brand’s big picture is key to purposeful and human-centered branding.

The story of your brand starts with you, and if you hope to reach your audience in a meaningful way, being willing to show up with something to say or tell goes a long way. Here’s are five tips to help you yield the powerful tool that is storytelling wisely and use your unique backstory to build a strong, well-connected brand:

Tell Your Why

It’s always worth it to highlight the heart of your business whenever you can, so connect your audience to your brand story by sharing your purpose. Answer

Focus on your spark

It’s hard not to enjoy it when someone talks about what they love, so invite your clients or customers in by sharing what lights you up—especially if it relates to your business!

Use your backstory everywhere

You can use your backstory in more places than just your About page. Draw prospective customers in by incorporating it into your social media captions, emails, blogs, and other relevant platforms in your content marketing strategy.

Share the good and the bad

Every compelling story has a moment of triumph, so share yours by including the obstacles you’ve had to overcome to be where you are today. 

By talking about your struggles, you can humanize your brand and connect to your audience more deeply.

Relate your story to your audience

The best way to use your own backstory to your advantage is to relate your narrative to your target market. Ask yourself: Where does my audience come into the picture? How can my story resonate with them?

Your story is worth being heard—so tell it!

What’s your story? And are you willing to share it? 

Storytelling could be the missing link in your brand strategy, so dig a little deeper and invite your audience in! For more tips and advice about creating a brand that’s authentically you, discover more at bigstarproductions.com/blog. 

Let’s connect and create something beautiful together. Start by saying hi.

Running Low on Creative Juice? 7 Ways for Business Owners to Find Inspiration

 

If you’re a business owner who believes creativity is left up to the graphic designers, copywriters, and marketers of the world of entrepreneurship, you really ought to give yourself more credit.

 

Running your own business and building a brand that you’re proud of calls for more than just traditional business skills like accounting or sales. Instead, it calls for a specific type of creativity that all business owners possess, whether they believe it or not. (Read that back again if you need to!)

There is so much more to creativity than picking up a paintbrush or creating the world’s greatest song. As an entrepreneur, you exercise your creative muscles every time you think of new ways to inspire your target market or solve their problems with your unique solutions. So own up to all the creative juices flowing through you!

If your inspiration tank is running low right now, here are ideas for simple ways you can find your spark again:

Unplug Outdoors

Being outside is like receiving a hug from Mother Earth herself. 

If you didn’t know, being outdoors offers a natural creativity boost. So take a walk, hike, or simply sit still in nature, and look forward to good ideas to come!

Check out your competition

What better place to get inspiration from than people just like you? Phone a mentor or see what other people in your industry are up to by searching online. You might spark an idea (or several!) just by checking out a fellow entrepreneur’s website.

Write down ideas when they come to you

Don’t let your precious ideas go accidentally! If you have a thought that seems small, the simple act of writing it down can help other ideas flow to you, so keep a notebook or your phone handy at all times.

Change your environment

Is your routine getting you down? Shake things up by working from a cafe, taking a trip, or even making changes to your home office because sometimes a little change of scenery is all you need to light up again!

Learn something new

Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is bound to open up your creative floodgates! So try putting on a different thinking cap, and see if that gives you a fresh perspective on your biz. 

Find joy in your favorite things

When you feel good, you can do good, so make time for the things you love! Tapping into the hobbies that already put you in an inspired state is the perfect way to get reenergized. 

Do absolutely nothing

Being over-productive could be the thing that’s dampening your inspiration right now. If your mind has felt like it’s running 100 mph recently, a little peace and quiet could serve you well to make room in your mind for fresh ideas. 

Let’s connect and create something beautiful together. Start by saying hi.

DIY Website Design Tips From The Glam Shack

 

Creating a website can be daunting, but with these beginner tips you can make it look professional and polished in no time!

 

Especially in the beginning stages of building your business, more than likely, you’re the CEO, marketing director, accountant, and any other role your business needs. So if the title website developer has made its way to that list, too, then you’ve come to the right place.

It’s completely fine not to have it in your budget to hire a creative web designer, but it can be frustrating when you feel like your skills aren’t enough to create a polished business website. But that just isn’t true. All you need is some direction and expert tips, and then before you know it, you’ll know exactly what it takes to make a stunning website on a budget. 

We’re going to walk you through five basic website design tips that you can apply to your website today to make it professional all on your own! Read on, and let’s dive in:

Develop a simple color palette

If bright colors are your thing, we aren’t telling you not to use them, but do proceed with caution. Your website’s color palette will translate your brand’s personality to your visitors, so don’t overwhelm them with too many colors. 

Use color psychology to help you pick colors that encompass your brand, and then choose one primary color, an accent color, and then a couple of neutral colors for backgrounds and body text.

Display contact forms

There’s something about easy-to-fill contact forms that just exude convenience and professionalism, so put them to work on your website! This way, users can quickly get in touch with you, and the experience will feel like a breeze.

Get creative with your call-to-actions

One thing DIY website builders overlook is making their call-to-action statements their own. Though it may seem small, customized call-to-actions can tell a user a lot about your brand, so use them to your advantage and have fun with them, too!

Find a niche stock photo suite

Your About page is where your major conversions and sales can stem from if using high-quality, personable images on your website is a quick way to take your website from just okay to amazing. You may already be using stock images from sites like Unsplash, but check out all the stock photo websites out there that are curated to specific aesthetics, like Styled Stock Society.

There’s more out there where that comes from, so do some research and find branded images that speak to your brand’s identity.

Make use of negative space for a cleaner aesthetic

Your visitors are coming to your website to find an answer to their question, so make all the information they need easier to find by leaving plenty of blank areas on your pages. Using open spaces is the key to making your site look less cluttered and more organized. 

Final Words

Smile, now you can approach your website design process with more confidence and get started attracting the visitors of your dreams. For more web design and SEO tips, check out our blog here!

Let’s connect and create something beautiful together. Start by saying hi.

Creating your brand strategy can be an exciting time to dive deep into the “why” behind your business and stretch some creative muscles. However, let’s be honest—it can just as quickly leave you completely at a loss. 

But don’t freak out if you have no idea what your brand is right now!

 

Tiny details like how many logo variations you have or the color of the font on your website do matter, but in the grand scheme of things, minor details like that shouldn’t be your priority just yet. Instead, you need to focus on the essentials of brand strategy that’ll make your marketing efforts more effective.

Need help defining your vision for your brand? Download our Brand Strategy e-book and take the guesswork out of branding!

What is a Brand Strategy?

Before you can build a strong brand identity, you need to understand the purpose of a brand strategy. Think of your brand strategy as your blueprint of your business that encompasses your long-term goals and defines the “how, what, where, when, and who” behind your brand and its messaging.

Your brand strategy helps you uniquely position your company and deliver that “special something” to your audience that they can’t quite put their finger on. Success branding makes sure your customers know what you and only you bring to the table, and it makes them willing to pay top dollar for it, too!

The 5 Key Components Behind Every Strong Brand Strategy

The “why”

Every brand has a purpose and promises made to the consumer, but your “why” is the decisive factor that drives your unique brand positioning. Without a vision or “why” that helps your company stand out, your brand could become unrecognizable when compared to competitors.

The target audience

Your brand messaging shouldn’t be floating out into the void. A strong brand understands its target audience, how they feel, what they care about, and what problems they face. Understanding your market helps you position your brand to be exactly what they need. 

Competitive awareness

Studying your competition is crucial to any winning strategy. You need to look for gaps in the marketplace that only your unique brand can fill and understand not just your strengths and weaknesses, but your competitors, too! 

A brand personality

Your audience doesn’t resonate with talking heads. So you have to humanize your brand by creating a brand personality that brings out the character and powers relationship-building with your audience.

Consistency

At the end of the day, consistency makes a strong brand stand out. Your brand messaging should be cohesive to drive consumer loyalty, so ensuring that all brand elements work together is what makes a brand recognizable.

Every business and every entrepreneur needs good branding.

Brand strategy frameworks will vary from company to company, but the elements above are your must-haves. For more questions about branding, or if you need professional help with brand stylization, reach out to our team below! 

Let’s connect and create something beautiful together. Start by saying hi.

Offer Value

Make It Fun

Be Personal

Let’s connect and create something beautiful together.
Start by saying hi.

Building brands and making them beautiful is my business, from creating websites, marketing materials, or HTML newsletters…. I love helping businesses succeed and collaborating on building bigger visions to accelerate success.

It then hit me.  Selling jeans wasn’t what I was really doing at all,  it was merely an outlet to release a closet full of purchases that were holding me back.  What I realized is, it helped me create a foundation to channel my energy more positively and productively all the while creating a stronger foundation to share my skillset and passion with others.

Feel free to check out Poshmark for some fun name-brand jeans and chinos. My addiction to denim has been tamed and am now a believer that 10 pairs of jeans are actually more than enough.

If you’re into shredding small details that punctuate flawlessly with a cool, uncluttered approach to your business, pull on your fav brand of blues, and schedule a quick hello and let’s talk about how we can make your business bloom.

Let’s connect and create something beautiful together.
Start by saying hi.