by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Our businesses are always evolving, but we don’t always rush to change our brand with every change in our business, because brand consistency is so important.  However, there comes a time for many of us that we realize we have outgrown our brand. That happened to me recently. In fact, this realization is long in the coming.

 

In 2006 my business changed radically. That year I became a certified Strategic Attraction CoachTM and began integrating the Attraction Consulting  into my design business. Through the deep inner work inspired by the Attraction Planning process, I saw more clearly what is most important to me. At that time I started calling myself The Magical Marketer, created the Branding from the Heart system, and began teaching conscious entrepreneurs how to attract their perfect customers with an authentic approach to marketing.

 

Clearly I had moved beyond “Graphic Girlz” into a whole new realm of marketing. However I kept my old brand because I already had a decade of marketing invested into it. Now, only after months of inquiry and frank critique by several coaches and colleagues, I’m clear that it’s time to put Graphic Girlz away and rebrand my business as Magical Marketing, and I’m working on a tagline now, something like, “Branding that Captures Your Essence and Attracts Ideal Clientele.”

 

I’ve designed a new logo that I’m happy with, and I’m well on my way to launching my new website (stay tuned for that coming early Fall) Standing here and looking back, I wonder why it took me so long.

 

An even better question is how can I help others before they’ve been living with an outdated brand for too long?>

 

So I have come up with 3 Sure Signs that Your Brand is Outdated. Check these signs against your brand to see if your brand has been outgrown by your business.

 

1. Your Brand is about a specific offering but you offer way more than that now. For instance, Graphic Girlz is clearly about Graphic Design but I offer Brand Strategy and Attraction Marketing Services. That’s a good sign the Brand needs to expand to cover all the offerings.



2. You have had a philosophic shift that your brand doesn’t reflect. For instance, I created Graphic Girlz as a graphics services partnership in 1995. In 1998 my partner left and I had a deep spiritual shift which led to involvement with Law of Attraction principles.



3. People express confusion about what you actually do.  I recently had someone I’ve been networking with for years say to me, “but you don’t do logos, do you?” When people who know you are confused about your offerings, it’s time to upgrade your brand message.



4. You are embarrassed to show your brand to anyone. Do you apologize when you hand your card out because your brand is not a great representation of your brilliance? This is a sure sign that it’s time to upgrade your branding. An embarrassing brand is not an attractive brand!

 

Are you ready for a brand that is a true reflection of your vision, your purpose, your personality and your attraction plan? Shining your light to the world is your destiny. Let me help your light be a beautiful, authentic and wildly attractive one.

 

Apply for your complimentary Magical Strategy Session at http://www.magicalstrategysession.com/or call Julia at (707) 823-3316 to schedule your appointment.

 

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

I've been studying many Internet marketing gurus over the years,  and bar none they all say that including a lead capture system on your website is vital to successful online marketing.  Unfortunately, most reluctant marketers, ie spritual business owners, healers, and creatives, don't have any kind of lead capture system, and those that do rely on the old fashioned, "join my newsletter list" forms that tend not to work any more.

Imagine a regular flow of folks who just LOVE your stuff and can't wait to hear more from you. The way to attract folks like this is to tap deep within to your purpose and your offerings and develop an irresistible free offer to entice your perfect customers to engage with you. The key here is to make your offer totally authentic to the experience of you so your people will have a good sense of what it's like to interact with you.  Here are my easy step s to do this.

Step 1: Consider Your Purpose and Gifts ~ The first thing you want to do is determine your purpose and create a mission statement for yourself (you can refine it for your website later if you want.) This will be simple and from the heart, your true raison d'être (reason for existence.) For instance, mine is: "Discovering the beauty and magic in people and helping them share that with the world in ways that attract their perfect customers and transform the world." Relate this to your highest gift, your best offering. In my case, branding vision ie helping conscious entrepreneurs develop their authentic brand.  Notice how the thing you do best comes easiest to you and makes your heart sing while helping people in ways that are needed.

Step 2: Determine Your "First Steps"~ When a new person begins to work with you, what are the first steps you want them to take? Are there certain questions you ask them? Assessments you make? Things they must consider before getting started? These first steps can be the basis for your irresistible free offer, which will lead seamlessly into your fee-based offer. When they experience this first step, they gain benefit whether they work with you or not. And if they love the experience, they will naturally want to continue. For instance, I always have my clients create their Attraction Plan first to determine their true heart's desire. When folks do their Attraction Plans they can often begin attracting perfect customers in a couple of days. So this is the most beneficial and worth while first step I can offer folks to get to know me. It begins to solve their problem (needing to attract customers) while introducing them to the multitude of ways I can help them further. Another approach to this works for authors. You can give away the first chapter or so of your book and then have an invitation for them to buy the book if they love those chapters.

Step 3: Create Your Free Offer ~ Now that you have the irresistible idea, it's time to make the actual offer. This can be done in a number of ways. I often offer free webinars and teleclasses and record them as free offers. My Magical Marketing Toolkit is a report with two short videos. I will be changing this soon however to be the complete Class 1 of Branding from the Heart including video and audio replay of my live class and the handouts. While still introducing them to the Attraction Plan, this free offer leads my perfect customers seamlessly into my signature program.

Step 4: Promote Your Offer ~ You will need to put a lead-capture form on your website and create a sales page to promote it.  See mine at www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com. Then you will want to let folks know about it. Put a little promo in your email signature, so all your emails let folks know, passively, about your offer. Mine is --

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Julia Stege
www.graphicgirlz.com
What you seek is seeking you!
707-823-3316

Get your free Magical Marketing Toolkit and start attracting perfect customers now.
Claim it at www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com

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Also, regularly let your folks know about your free offer through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and YouTube. Let me know if you have any questions about creating and promoting free offers. I would be happy to answer them in future articles. Also, for those who have been capturing leads successfully on your site, let us know what has worked for you and your free offer may be featured in an upcoming post in this blog.

Have you have ever attended a marketing seminar and heard about the importance of discovering your "niche" market? Did you then go about trying to figure out what your niche is and having a hard time about it? Maybe you feel you don't even understand what a niche is?

niche (nch) n.
1.A cranny, hollow, or crevice, as in rock.
2.A very specific form of target marketing.

So a niche is either a tight space in a rock or a specific way to target an audience in marketing. Doesn't that leave you feeling that if you chose your niche you would be stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Many of you who have attended my live webinars know that I am not keen on target marketing in the traditional sense. To me targeting people sounds like you want to shoot them. And in fact many traditional marketers do actually find some innocent people and shoot them all sorts of messages designed to brainwash them away from their intuition. A lot of marketers don't care how they make their audience feel, I've noticed.

Standard niches would be something like a specific age, specific sex, specific locale or specific income bracket. But for folks who have a range of offerings that help a lot of different kind of people, this niche thing is just confusing and maybe even gets you angry. (If you're like me a lot of what traditional marketers say makes you feel helpless and inadequate! That is their intention by the way!)

So for a number of years I've been avoiding this conversation about niche marketing. People would come to my classes saying "Do I have to find my niche in this class?" and I'd say NO because with my style of marketing we ATTRACT rather than TARGET. But now I have discovered the Ultimate Niche and this time you're going to love it.

Ultimate Niche (uhl-tuh-mit nch) n.
1. Your favorite people
2. People who are on the same life path as you are

With my system Branding from the HeartTM, I have been teaching that sharing your purpose authentically will attract exactly the right people to you, people who are on the same path as you are. They are inextricably drawn to you, they love everything you do, and their inner voice is telling them to hire you! Remember "Like Attracts Like" and your most perfect customers are like you in the ways that are most important.


The only way your perfect peeps are going to find you and recognize you is if you share yourself truly authentically in your marketing. Then you will find yourself surrounded by folks who really 'grok' you deeply, and you also 'grok' them. You are in a unique position to help them go further on their path because you've been on that same path and have discovered ways to succeed. This is your tribe, your Ultimate Niche.


If you know you need help with the process of discovering, attracting and serving your Ultimate Niche, check out my new Branding from the Heart Intensive and discount packages for consulting and design at http://www.brandingfromtheheart.com/

Have you have ever attended a marketing seminar and heard about the importance of discovering your “niche” market? Did you then go about trying to figure out what your niche is and having a hard time about it? Maybe you feel you don’t even understand what a niche is?

niche (nch) n.
1.A cranny, hollow, or crevice, as in rock.
2.A very specific form of target marketing.

So a niche is either a tight space in a rock or a specific way to target an audience in marketing. Doesn’t that leave you feeling that if you chose your niche you would be stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Many of you who have attended my live webinars know that I am not keen on target marketing in the traditional sense. To me targeting people sounds like you want to shoot them. And in fact many traditional marketers do actually find some innocent people and shoot them all sorts of messages designed to brainwash them away from their intuition. A lot of marketers don’t care how they make their audience feel, I’ve noticed.

Standard niches would be something like a specific age, specific sex, specific locale or specific income bracket. But for folks who have a range of offerings that help a lot of different kind of people, this niche thing is just confusing and maybe even gets you angry. (If you’re like me a lot of what traditional marketers say makes you feel helpless and inadequate! That is their intention by the way!)

So for a number of years I’ve been avoiding this conversation about niche marketing. People would come to my classes saying “Do I have to find my niche in this class?” and I’d say NO because with my style of marketing we ATTRACT rather than TARGET. But now I have discovered the Ultimate Niche and this time you’re going to love it.

Ultimate Niche (uhl-tuh-mit nch) n.
1. Your favorite people
2. People who are on the same life path as you are

With my system Branding from the HeartTM, I have been teaching that sharing your purpose authentically will attract exactly the right people to you, people who are on the same path as you are. They are inextricably drawn to you, they love everything you do, and their inner voice is telling them to hire you! Remember “Like Attracts Like” and your most perfect customers are like you in the ways that are most important.


The only way your perfect peeps are going to find you and recognize you is if you share yourself truly authentically in your marketing. Then you will find yourself surrounded by folks who really ‘grok’ you deeply, and you also ‘grok’ them. You are in a unique position to help them go further on their path because you’ve been on that same path and have discovered ways to succeed. This is your tribe, your Ultimate Niche.

If you know you need help with the process of discovering, attracting and serving your Ultimate Niche, check out my new Branding from the Heart Intensive and discount packages for consulting and design at http://www.brandingfromtheheart.com/

Hardly anyone I know understands Twitter. I have been teaching (or trying to teach) folks how to use Twitter to attract their perfect customers for over 3 years and I’d guess about 1% of my students are following my advice. Apparently my success at attracting thousands of followers, most of whom are aligned with me in some important way, has not inspired my less computerly-inclined to follow in my footsteps.