You have a course, and you’re ready to launch.
But here’s the sticking point: few courses are 100% original. So if you want your course to be heads above the rest, you first need to figure out a strong branding strategy that attracts your ideal customer.
You thought you’d done all the hard work creating the course, right?
Don’t worry. These three simple tips take the stress out of branding and help you create an authentic and unique online presence.
Know Your Purpose
Why did you choose to create this particular course? Knowing your reason why helps you figure out your purpose. Check out this Simon Sinek TED Talk about purpose—it’s a great starting point.
There are hundreds of courses out there. So, to stand out, you need to figure out your unique selling point (commonly called your USP) and value proposition (VP), two essential aspects of branding.
Writing down the answers to these questions can help you find your purpose and USP. And you can create your VP from there.
- – What do I do?
- – What courses do I offer?
- – How do I do it? What makes my course different from others out there?
- – Why do I do it? What was my reasoning behind creating my course?
Know Your Brand Promise
Big brands are instantly recognizable by their brand values, so figure out what you’d like your brand values to be. One way to do this is to imagine what others say about your brand when you’re not in the room.
Some examples of brand values are honesty, warmth, integrity, loyalty, dependability, and creativity.
Make a list of all the values you’d like your brand to stand for and choose the top five. From your top five, create a brand promise. For example, this is Patricia Washington’s from Redefining Wealth’s brand promise:
“My brand promise is that every time people come in contact with me, there’ll be a certain level of vulnerability and authenticity no matter what. I want people to feel like I’m the girl next door.”
Know Your Target Audience
Your course will likely be in a specific niche. So to market it successfully, you need to know your ideal customer. Consider things such as:
- – Who are you here to serve? For example, if it’s a yoga course, are you working with new yoga students or the more experienced? What age are you targeting?
- – What does your ideal audience want to gain from taking your course? How do they want to feel? Focus on pain points so you can really tap into the emotions behind the problem they want to solve.
Your Business Is Always Evolving—So Should Your Branding
After establishing the answers to these questions, it’s time to launch your course. However, branding is never static. As your brand grows, it may change slightly. And as long as it’s always recognizable as your brand, it’s ok to evolve.
