How establishing a brand personality can help your business

If you give your micro-business a personality, your customers will better connect with your brand. It’s a sure-fire way to increase trust, decrease buyer resistance and create a scalable business.

Have you wondered what your brand sounds like? If you were to pick up the phone and call your business and actually speak with the brand you have built would it be helpful and lovely? Or would it be sarcastic? Would it crack a joke, or would it be straight to the point? Once you have identified the personality of your business, everything becomes easier.

Does your business have a personality?

As soloists we can feel like we have to re-invent the wheel everyday. If you have to create a new email campaign, write an ad, or talk to a new client, a blank page can be daunting. Without a brand personality, you will have to start from scratch each time you create something new, and your brand may seem inconsistent and disjointed to your clients and stakeholders.

However, if you gave your micro-business a personality, then it’s a case of  ‘what would my business say/do’. A great example of this is any copy you have to write. Where I once would have slaved over the perfect words, now I rely on my brand completely. I have created a personality for my micro-business that is funny, casual and a little bit rude. Then when I’m writing my Facebook updates, I don’t need to think of what to write, it’s a matter of “What would the pig say?”. This simple question has saved me hours of struggling over copy and strengthened my business in the process.

This personality can be used to help you make big decisions. If you’re thinking about whether you should buy a stand at a trade fair, what would your brand do? If your brand was a person, would it go to a trade fair? If you have an irreverent brand, the answer may be no.

Benefits of having a business personality

When hiring staff, would your brand get along with this person or business personality? Seriously. Would they enjoy each other’s company? This will save you having to make the decision yourself, instead you get to outsource it to your brand.

This tactic has also allowed me to separate myself from my business. I am able to send emails from ‘Prize Pig’ rather than from me; it’s an identifiable name now, which means I can start to pull back a little. This is the recipe for you to be able to scale and grow. My emails now have a cheeky tone and the Pig says things I certainly wouldn’t! Just the other day, the Pig called some of my contacts bitches, (it rhymes with pitches), but I got away with it because I signed off with Oink, Prize Pig.  It wasn’t me!

Just like creating a profile of an ideal customer, you should be clear on the things your brand likes and doesn’t like. My Pig drinks champagne, she’s cheeky and can be very lazy.

The laziness of my brand (as distinct from me – I am not lazy!) allows me to manage our clients better. Where I used to spend hours on the phone helping our members and chatting away, the reality is I can’t do that all day. Luckily the Pig overrides me and has created an easy FAQ for reference for every enquiry.  It sounds a little crazy, but wasn’t it Steve Jobs that said this is for the crazy ones! Well, cheers to the crazy ones, and the personalities you’re creating.

Now, what does YOUR brand sound like?