The DesignGood Branding Guide for Coaches, Therapists + Consultants
If there's a silver lining to all of the upheaval we've experienced the last couple of years it's that more and more of us are going deep. We've gotten clearer about what really matters and what we do and don't want in our lives. We're making changes that help us pursue meaning, passion and authentic happiness.
As this shift happens in our society, people are seeking out guides to help them do this transformative work. These guides may be coaches, therapists, teachers, healers, spiritual guides or health and wellness professionals. If your calling is in any of these fields (or related ones), you have tremendous opportunities right now.
So how do you open yourself up to those opportunities? Through working with dozens of coaches, guides and other personal transformation experts on their brands, DesignGood has identified the most important steps that will help you call in your dream clients and do the work you are meant to be doing sooner.
Feeling overwhelmed and confused at the idea of even thinking about personal branding? Let us reassure you. The branding process we'll be teaching you today (which is the same one we use with our clients) resonates deeply with coaches, therapists and other guides and teachers. It will feel like a natural extension of who you are and how you work.
WHAT DOES BRANDING REALLY DO?
To start with, let's establish what your personal brand is as a coach or other personal transformation expert. You brand is everything someone thinks and feels about your business. To be effective, your brand has to be an energetic match for the clients you want to attract. If you've read books like "The Secret" and "The Source," this should all sound very familiar. At the core, we are talking about energetically aligning yourself with the people and projects you so deeply desire.
Infusing your brand with the right energy means that you have to get clear on some key aspects of your business before you launch (or revamp) branding materials like your website, outreach and sales tools, and social channels. As the foundation for building your brand, take some time to thoughtfully answer these questions:
WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE — AND WHAT DO THEY NEED?
This is an important question for any business to answer as they build their brand. But it's especially vital for coaches and other transformation experts. The work your clients do with you is deeply personal. The results they're seeking from your work together means a lot to them. So they want to make sure they're working with someone who really gets them, likes them and understands their needs. We see far too many websites where coaches and others aren't clear about the clients they want to work with. They might think that by leaving things vague they're staying open to more clients. But they're actually hurting their business. If you don't speak directly to the needs of your audience, how will they know that they're in the right place?
WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS?
Your prospective clients need to feel certain that you can deliver the results they seek. One way to instill confidence in them is by explaining how working with you will give them what they want or get them where they want to go. They need to see that you have a well-thought-out process. When you can clearly and concisely explain what working with you is like, your clients will stop feeling like they're stepping into the unknown and will instead feel that there's a well-defined path to the results they want. Your process also helps distinguish you from others in your field with similar offerings.
For coaches, process is such an important selling point that DesignGood always creates a digital outreach tool for our coaching clients that describes their packages and pricing. This PDF adds professionalism to their sales process and raises the perceived value of their work (which allows them to charge what they are worth). Not to mention the fact that it saves them a lot of time and energy!
WHAT OUTCOMES DO YOU CREATE?
If you think of your clients' work with you as a journey, what does the destination look like? And how can you describe that destination so irresistibly that your audience feels drawn to it? Help them vividly visualize the results you can create for them. For example, don’t just say you can help them feel more satisfied in their career. Guide them to imagining a future where they get up each day excited about work. In telling clients about your outcomes, the more proof (like testimonials) you can provide, the better.
WHO ARE YOU?
The way you describe your audience, you process and your outcomes should feel authentically you. That's also true for the visual look of your brand. Your key qualities should shine through in all of the words and visuals of your brand. When a potential client leaves your website, they need to feel like they have met you, and the experience needs to leave a lasting impression.
BRANDING EXAMPLES FOR COACHES + OTHER TRANSFORMATION EXPERTS
The best way to understand what magnetic branding can look like for coaches and other transformation experts is to check out DesignGood's work for our amazing clients in this space. Here are a few examples:
- Lisa Pepper-Satkin Executive Therapeutic Coach and Consultant.
- Modern Renegades. Dating coach.
- Anna Scott Coaching. Three Principles coach.
- Iconic Leadership Coaching Transformational coaching for the design minded.
- Katie Dillingham Relational Therapist
- Susan Ireland Coaching and Consulting for Leadership, Life and Transformation.
- Soul Alchemy Energy. Personal development, energy transformation and creative coaching.
- Bernadette Chavez Piñon, Licensed Professional Counselor.
- Sage + Form. Systems-based wellbeing coach.
- Engaged Pursuit. Career coaching.
- Firebird Summit. Coaching for radical reinvention.
- Holly Krivo Coaching. Coach focusing on intention and purpose.
- A Good First Date. Dating coaches.
- Seasons Leadership Program. Coaching for professional women.
- The Turk Group. Learning and development consultancy for companies.
- Alyssa Marie, Medium.
As you browse our clients' branding materials, pay attention to a couple of key things:
- Design. You'll notice that while all of these brands are beautiful and memorable, each has their own look and feel that reflect the unique personality of each client. Every one of the brands we create for our clients looks and sounds like them. Even our clients in similar fields get one-of-a-kind brands. Distinctive design work doesn't just happen. We create visual brands that capture our clients' essence because we take the time to go deep. We get to know their businesses by working through questions like the ones you answered earlier in this article together.
- Language. Just as our clients' brands look different, they also sound different. From the same discovery work we use to establish a client's design aesthetic, we also create foundational brand language that lays the groundwork for all messaging by that business. Foundational brand language includes:
- Brand clarifier. A concise statement that tells your audience exactly what you do and lets them know they are in the right place.
- Brand statement. This statement connects with your audience on an emotional level and sparks interest.
- Brand positioning. A paragraph that adds clarity about what you do, whom you do it for, why you're so effective and the outcomes your audience can expect from your work together.
- Core brand vocabulary. The individual words that sum up the essence of who you are and the tone of your brand.
- Brand personality. A summary of your brand’s personality and tone and how you relate to your audience."
YOUR BRAND HELPS YOU HELP OTHERS
Your gifts as a coach, guide, healer, therapist or teacher are keenly needed in our world right now. And we hope that the branding strategies we've shared today will enable you to reach more of the people you are called to help.
If you are looking for a partner to help you build your brand as a coach or transformation expert, we speak your language at DesignGood. We love clients like you who are open, emotionally evolved and eager to serve a need you've seen. Ready to learn more? Let's chat. Just fill out our get started form to schedule a call with me.
Photo courtesy of Katie Dillingham, by Riley Blanks Reed
Much love and gratitude,
