9 minute read
How To See Your Business Bloom In 2021
HOW TO SEE YOUR BUSINESS BLOOM IN 2021 By Sarah Garner
Your brand is so much more than your logo, it’s the essence of who your business is, what it stands for and what your customers love about you.
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If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that standing out from the crowd and showing up for our customers is absolutely crucial. From the way we present our business online to the touchpoints throughout our customer experience, every inch of your brand journey needs to ooze authenticity.
So, how are you setting yourself apart in 2021? It needs to begin with your brand. Today, we’re drawing your attention to 3 key elements of your visual identity that with a little love, attention and a strategically placed colours and font [we couldn’t help ourselves], your brand is set to bloom its way into the new year and beyond.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE [AND LOVE THEM HARD]
Are you communicating directly with your dream clientele or just sending messages out into the universe and hoping for the best? If option B was your answer, then you need to keep reading.
In 2021, we want you to be so clear on your target audience that when your dream customers (they are the ones that leave you feeling incredible) engage with your touchpoints, it feels like a note from a long-lost friend.
When working on your branding goals for the new year, ask yourself the following questions: • What am I helping my client achieve? • What feelings does my current brand evoke at first glance? • What story do my current brand colours and fonts tell? • Why do my existing clients choose my product or service over somebody else’s? • What makes my branding different from the others in my industry?
Knowing exactly which rocks to look under to find that dream audience, understanding what lights them up and also what they love about your brand is incredibly valuable insight. Use these details to start deciphering ways that your brand can attract more of the right people and channel your valuable energy into touchpoints that deliver results. This may see you tweaking your tone of voice, updating your colour and font choice or reviewing your logo.
Whatever changes you make, ensure you update your branding style guidelines too.
REVIEW AND REFRESH YOUR TOUCHPOINTS
This year, we have seen an *explosion* of consumer interest in shopping local and supporting small business, not to mention the bucket loads of online sales. Consumers, more than ever, want to know the story behind the brand and the unique points of difference just as much as the product or service offered. They want to connect with your business as thought they were connecting with a new friend. They want to experience your brand for its unique point of view, difference and all that you make them feel.
Now is the perfect time to review and refresh your branding touchpoints to ensure that at every stage of your customer journey, you’re creating those meaningful connections that your dream audience craves. Tap into your brand values and look for ways that you can be interacting with your customer more, creating conversation, showcasing your brand’s why.
For our hair, beauty and wellness petals, this could be refreshing your in-person experience with client welcome gifts or a glow up of your printed treatment menu. Online, it could be injecting more of your brand’s style into your social media content or boosting your reviews and recommendations to provide social proof that align with your brand values and ooze authenticity.
For many, this isn’t a case of reinventing the wheel, rather adding some extra air into them, helping them move into 2021 at a much smoother pace.
CLARITY, CONSISTENCY AND COMMITMENT TO YOUR BRAND
If defining your audience and touchpoints is leaving you unclear, the start of 2021 is a brilliant time to start making those power moves and set some serious branding goals for your business.
Beginning with clarity, it’s time to get crystal clear on your brand’s values, mission and who your touchpoints are intentionally speaking to. Once you’re clear on what your brand is, you’re able to start crafting ideas and strategies around how to share it with the world. If what you’re visioning doesn’t align with what you’re working with, it’s time to do a branding audit to see what’s working, what’s missing and what’s not quite right. Designed for the blooms who want to know how to fix the leaky holes in a ship, our branding audit is the best place to start for your road map to getting your Brow Brand Game Strong.
Branding in 2021 and beyond is SO much more than a logo and a colour but these elements are still some of the most important features of your visual strategy. If you’re not already working with a style guide, this is a fantastic starting point to help you bring more consistency into your branding.
Know the features that make your brand bloom and stick to them. Now is the time to stop using that colour that doesn’t align with your message, that font that’s hard difficult to read and the tone of voice that is the total opposite to your beautiful energy. We know we sound like we’ve got our bossy pants on but someone’s gotta say it right?!
2021 is the year for every inch of your business to exude your beautiful brand. By kicking off this year with a solid review of what you’ve done, where you’re headed and how to get there, every corner you turn, every touchpoint you create and every customer experience you embrace can see your brand bloom.
Sarah Garner is the Founder and Creative Director of Digital Bloom, an industry-specific branding boutique dedicated to making your growing hair, beauty or wellness business turn heads for all the right reasons.
Visit Digital Bloom’s website www.digitalbloom.com.au or contact Sarah at hello@digitalbloom.com.au
SOCIAL MEDIA FACT VS FICTION
By Rachel Medlock
Social media – two words that have the power to bring an ear-to-ear smile to some and a plea for something off the top shelf for others. Luckily, you’ve got a Digital Fairy Godmother on your side for 2021.
If we haven’t met before, hello! I’m Rach, the Head Honcho behind ‘do you even social?’
We’ll get to know each other over the next year as I join the Hair Biz squad as your social and digital expert. Kicking off our time together, we’re going to dive deep into some social media must-knows for your business and uncover the not-so truths about these everevolving platforms.
“My clients aren’t on social media”
Real talk. If your clients haven’t connected with you on social media yet, then you either haven’t let them know or you’re on the wrong platforms. Currently, there are 3.8 BILLION people currently using social media every day and your clients are without a doubt a part of that.
Think about whenever you’re looking for a product or service yourself. Do you often head straight to Google and find businesses that fit the brief? This is exactly what your potential clients are doing too.
If your business isn’t appearing with an updated Google My Business profile and insight into your services through social media, then the chances are they’re going to be booking that appointment with your competitor that does. If you’re not sure what platforms are right for your business, ask your clients what they’re using and how they found you!
“There’s a secret to the best time to post on social media”
Fact, Fact, Fact! The best part? It’s totally not a secret and you can find out in 30 seconds!
If you have a Facebook or Instagram business page, you have access to a glorious feature called insights. This feature gives you up to date information on your audience such as their age, gender, location and when they’re hanging out online the most.
Facebook and Instagram insights give you a solid understanding of the kind of people that are seeing your content and when they’re most likely to see it. When scheduling my social media posts for the month, I always visit my insights first to make sure I’m publishing them at the most optimal times for my audience. There may be more than one peak in your insights, so don’t be afraid to test different days and times to see what they respond to best.
When posting on social media, don’t forget to think about the kind of people your clients actually are. For example, if your clientele is predominantly mums, then I’d steer away from posting during the school drop-off, pick-up or bed and bath time. They’re too busy for social media! Instead, those times before the morning rush or during the evening wind down would suit their scrolling habits better.
“Nobody will know if I purchased followers on Instagram”
Awkward. They totally will. My stress level when I see businesses purchase followers is similar to that time Kim lost her diamond earring in the ocean (if you know, you know).
Not only will purchasing followers deeply impact the accuracy of your insights data but Instagram will absolutely find out (and potentially suspend your account). When you purchase followers, you’re paying for a number on your profile, not any genuine engagement or appointment bookings. It’s time to see your social media presence as so much more than followers and start nurturing the ones already on your page.
Remember, you might only have a couple of hundred followers but that’s still a couple of hundred potential paying customers! Growing your audience should always be a goal but don’t let it come at the cost of ignoring your existing fans.
“The more posts a hashtag has, the better”
Noticing a quality over quantity trend throughout this article? Hashtags are no different. We’re calling fiction on this myth and a pro insight called hashtag density is the reason why. seems counterintuitive to choose hashtags that are less popular, it’s actually a powerful way of getting your content seen by the right people, quicker.
For example, a high-density hashtag such as #balayage sees your post competing with over 26 million other posts whereas a lower density hashtag like #melbournebalayage brings us down to around 10 thousand. Harnessing characteristics such as your salon’s location or point of difference (think #melbournebalayagespecialist) can make it a lot easier for your business to appear during their search.
“It’s just social media – I don’t need a plan!”
If you didn’t need a plan, then I wouldn’t be writing this article! Gone are the days of just winging it on social media. An absolute powerhouse for your business, social media should be a core focus in your overall marketing strategy and work in synergy with all the other ways you’re engaging existing and potential customers.
When you have a solid social media marketing plan, your messages become more consistent, impactful and crystal clear to your dream customer. Your feed starts to appear cleaner; your branding begins to shine and don’t even get me started on the increase in engagement you suddenly discover!
This year, we’re going to dive deep into the different ways you can be working smarter on social media and ensure it’s working hard for your salon.
Let’s make our friendship official online. Connect with do you even social? on Facebook and Instagram and let’s get social!
