Create an online presence that's great to look at and too hard to look away from!
Kirsten Back 
A powerful online presence feeds from amazing visuals and content. Read on to find out how to do that!
What is required to create an online presence that’s great to look at but hard to look away from?
This question seems to be very simple and some might say that you need some good visuals and good copy (no matter what they believe comes first…).
But where do great visuals and copy come from? Is your best shot to outsource to professionals?
Before you do any of that and spend a lot of money on a logo that you don’t quite like or website copy that doesn’t sound like you and doesn’t capture the essence of your personality…
Let’s look into understanding what “makes” the essence of your online presence - no matter what platforms you use and what funnels, copy, or content you create.
Where do you even get started?
Copy or design first?
That’s a bit of a hen and egg story – and it’s not even the right story.
The right story is about the work that you do before you start designing or writing. The foundations that you lay that will lead to your visual and messaging identity.
It starts out with in-depth reflection and inquiry and becomes a journey where design and message inspire each other until you arrive at a brand that you love.
To get there...
You need to go through a process that leads you to create a brand that is great to look at and hard to look away from
What exactly do I mean by that?
Your online presence should visually appeal to your ideal clients AND align with their values, beliefs, and purpose.
The goal is that your website, sales pages, or feed should capture attention, fascinate, and leave your audience wanting more.
In this post, I am going to share how I help my clients create an online presence that is great to look at and hard to look away from.
The solution summarised into one word is: CLARITY
When I work with my clients, I use a 4-part framework that I have developed over the years. The clarity that results from the insights that you make in each of the four areas fuel your messaging at every touchpoint that you have with your audience for years to come.
And the great thing is, that it grows and develops with you as you and your clients develop – and as the world around you changes.
Part #1 – YOU
No matter whether you “are” your brand or whether you drive and inspire your brand from behind the scenes – your differentiation and your messaging start with you.
If you look at brands like Disney or Apple, you can see that a brand can carry its personality and message through even though the founder is not leading the business anymore. This shows the significance of understanding what YOU bring into your brand and your messaging.
To get started with getting clarity about what you can infuse into your brand and business that creates a solid foundation, I help my clients discover their innate strengths and talents.
This is an important part because many people are not even aware that they have strengths and talents.
I was one of them and understanding what I am good at and what my special gift is, unlocked something in me and gave me more confidence to claim my spot. And it also gave me one way to differentiate myself because it is very unlikely that there are any other people in this world that have your unique combination of strengths.
Knowing your strengths is only the beginning because you might argue that you’ve had these strengths all your life and despite having them, nothing spectacular has come out of it – yet.
I agree with you – your strengths are just the beginning.
Since you have lived, learned, and developed yourself in this world for many years, you have accumulated knowledge, experience, and expertise.
That’s the next part I work on with my clients. We create an “inventory” that captures all the experience, knowledge, and expertise that you have gained through your qualifications but also what you have “picked up” on the way.
Capturing your experience, knowledge, and expertise is a core exercise that doesn’t only give your confidence a boost but also gives you scores of topics that you can write about.
If you’re only working on these two things, you find so many ideas and phrases that you can use for your messaging – your website, your social media posts etc.
But I’ve left the best for last…
Going deeper and understanding your purpose, values, vision, mission, story, and beliefs is
the stuff that makes you truly special and connects. That is the essence that you infuse into your brand and business.
It takes some effort, time, and reflection to figure this out but it’s well worth it!
Next…
Part #2 – YOUR AVATAR
Having a deep and detailed understanding of your avatar is a game-changer. But you need to go deep and make the effort to understand your audience as well or better than you understand yourself.
You can’t leave any details that you know about your avatar without interpretation. If they drive an Audi, you need to figure out why and what clues that give to understanding their personality.
If they love self-development or cross-fit – then find out why and how that relates to your brand and offer.
Learning everything about your avatar starts with demographics but the power of any avatar lies in its psychographics.
It pays off to understand psychographics, mindset and their life and business intent, what results they want to achieve, their motivation, the stage of their customer journey, what their precise struggle is, what their obstacles are and what they are going to lose if they don’t fix their problems etc.
Through understanding your avatar in very small detail, you also get access to their words and phrases, the way they talk, where they hang out… (Is it Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest?), what information needs they have, how they consume content (podcasts in their car while dropping off the kids or cooking, or reading books and reports or scrolling through social media…).
Knowing that, gives you an indication of what content in which format you need to create to reach your avatar in their sweet spot.
And with that in mind, let’s move on to the next part…
Part #3 – YOUR OFFER
Your offer is what connects you to your clients.
I say that again in other words:
Your offer is the bridge that leads your clients to a better and more abundant life. Your offer is the transformation they have to complete, the core ingredient they need to be able to write a happy ending to their story.
Your offer should be a game-changer for your clients!
When working with my clients, we deconstruct their offers and shine a spotlight on every single part of the offer. We capture all the features, translate them into benefits and long-term outcomes.
We define how your offer makes your clients’ lives better, richer, easier, more joyful, or purposeful…
We define what your offer appears to be (i.e. a coaching programme) and what it really is (a marriage saver, a financial peace of mind creator, a health restorer…).
We define the value that your offer has for your clients and from there look at your prices and how their offer can also enhance your clients’ self-worth (because that is the ultimate next level outcome that is deeply related to your avatar’s WHY).
Lastly, I want to talk about…
Part #4 – YOUR BRAND
Designers will argue that we are processing visual information 60,000 times faster than written information.
But what happens once you have captured attention with images and other visuals?
It is your copy and content that makes your message not only great to look at but hard to look away from.
It is by following up on your visual message with a written (or audio) message that engages your listener’s or reader’s subconscious minds. There has been research that storytelling goes as far as syncing the storyteller’s with the listener’s brain in real-time!
With storytelling, you are able to make your listeners feel the emotions that you felt when experiencing your story.
These facts alone suggest that it pays off to spend more time on your branding. For me, branding starts with “psychological foundations”:
- Brand purpose
- Vision
- Mission
- Values
- Core message
- Brand personality/archetype
- Brand & origin stories
- Brand voice
With these foundations in place, your visual branding flows naturally because you know who you are as a brand, how to position your brand, to whom your brand appeals, and what your audience wants to see, feel, and hear.
The psychological foundations of your brand elevate your brand to an almost human level. And entity that stands for a cause and evokes emotions.
Now, you will see that each of these parts create a lasting transformation to your business – but the true power comes from weaving them all together as a holistic system.
And that is where the lasting clarity comes from. These four parts do not only build on each other, they are moving and growing with you and all the factors that have an impact on your clients and your wider environment.
In the beginning, I said that identifying your strengths and talents is only a starting point.
Clarity is an ongoing journey during which you continuously need to process what’s going on around you and inside of you
There is always work to be done to achieve greater clarity but once you have your foundations, it is easy to inspire and be inspired, to grow and help others grow, to empower and be empowered – and always know what your message is so that you are visible, heard, and loved by those people who need you to build better futures.
There are several other blog posts that relate to this topic on my blog page:
https://www.theworddistiller.com/blog
Here are a few recent ones:
https://www.theworddistiller.com/blog/writing-content-that-your-audience-needs-in-2022
https://www.theworddistiller.com/blog/mindfulness-makes-you-a-better-writer
And lastly – if you need help with walking through these steps and creating clarity for your messaging, then send me a message!
The form is right beneath this post!
Categories: Attention, Brand Messaging, Brand Promise, Online Presence
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