00:25.69
retailjosh
Welcome to today's episode I'm excited because I'm wrapping up this three part series that I've been doing about the 3 core ingredients to success and if you followed me for any amount of time you probably would think that's traffic conversion and retention and those are true. Um, those really are some like the essential pieces every problem you have is going to fall into one of those 3 buckets but those still are more tactical in nature. Ah, that's those are the things that you do what's behind that what drives our tactics. Ah, because if you really want to grow. We don't just want to refine what we do. We want to refine the strategy that we go about it and so in week one. It talked about you as the entrepreneur and that part of leveling up is becoming the person that is capable of the growth that we're after. Have these goals and these these things that we're wanting to accomplish and if we don't become the person if we don't elevate the way that we think if we don't elevate the way that we lead and the way that we delegate in all of these pieces we are going to stunt our own growth. So how do we How do we prevent that and and so that's what I do I dove into was how do we go about elevating ourself kind of introducing what where personal development all of that fits in and I really do believe that that is where all of this has to start and then I went to our customer the way that we really understand.
01:57.51
retailjosh
Not just who they are from a demographics standpoint. Although that's definitely important. We want to understand some of their deeper desires their deeper purpose because when we do that it makes our social our email our site our in-store experience all of these things so much easier to plan when we understand who they are how they talk. And what their goals are what they're scared of ah and that leads us to today where all of this ties together into your brand your brand. Essentially why I started with the customer is it's all about the relationship. That your brand and your customer have think of it like a friendship where or the two like that's what creates buy-in from customers is when they feel a connection with your brand and so there are a few things that I want to dive into today of what are the components that make up a successful. Retail brand because it's not just logos and fonts and those types of things I think that's where a lot of us go when we think brand and so when people talk about the importance of brand they think oh I need a new logo. Well the logo is just a small part. It's literally like. If you bought a house that needed to be completely flipped and you're like we need to paint it like well no like yes maybe you might need to paint the house but there's a lot of other things that we need to look at first. So what are the components of a brand. Well it does start.
03:30.99
retailjosh
With Visuals This is the aesthetic of the brand This is ah obviously your logo your fonts your colors making sure that there is a cohesiveness to those and there is how that plays itself out on social on your site in your store and making sure that visually. There is a cohesive brand Now in all honesty I think that this is the smallest part of a brand experience. It's an important piece and it's one that definitely is helpful to nail down. But I think these other ones are far more important. So after we have our visuals nailed Down. We have our brand voice. This is the way that our our brand communicates with your customer now you can. We can start to see why is understanding how our customer talks so important because when we start to build out our voice. We can think like okay if my brand was. Sending a text with to my perfect customer. How would they talk about it if they were super excited about a collection that's dropping How would they describe what they're so excited about when we understand how our customer talks we can start to build out a brand voice that leads to a deeper connection. Then we get to values. The values are the deeper. Why behind what your brand does your brand does not just sell clothing your brand does not just sell things within a hobby. It's something deeper than that we want to make people feel Beautiful. We want to? ah.
05:05.88
retailjosh
We want people to feel a connection that comes with the hobby industry. We want we want people's home to feel like a home. We want them to walk in and feel restful. Ah these deeper things are ultimately what people buy they don't necessarily buy the product. They buy the feeling that comes with it. And this comes from the deeper purpose that our brand that our brand exists for and then we get to the last one this is gonna be a short episode today. We get to the last one and this is the brand experience. So this is last. But it's actually the most important because your experience is really comprised of 2 things 1 it's the solutions. This is the things that your brand solves for your customer. They have a problem and your brand helps solve this and on the flip side of that we have your superpower. This is what you do? best. So first the solution side this is where understanding our customer comes in because we need to really understand who they are and how they shop like what problems do they have that we can start to help address and this then plays itself out in our merchandising. And our navigation and our curated collections on our site when we can understand the way that they think about it when we understand that someone may shop for a dress based purely on length. Okay, well let's add filters to our collection page where people can filter based on the length of the dress. But maybe they're shopping by the fact that it's bump. Friendly.
06:40.55
retailjosh
Ah, or that it is accommodating to to multiple ranges of size I'm trying to say that in the best nicest way possible. Um, and we want to make sure that our site that our store experience accommodates the different ways that people are shopping with you. But then. The most important one is your superpower. This is think about what do you do better than anyone else for your customer if someone were to talk about your brand. How would they? How would they say like if you're looking for this, you have to go to blank. You have to go to your store. This is the thing that you just do better than anyone else and we want this clearly communicated as soon as someone walks in the store as soon as someone visits your site. We want to see it on social. We want to make sure that we're communicating that we are the place for these specific things. A lot of times. what what I end up seeing is a brand will be. Brilliant with dresses. But when I go to their site. Their hero image is tops. Their navigation is just normal tops bottom stresses and so on and nothing really communicates hey if you're here and you're looking for a dress you've you've just stumbled upon to the best place that you could possibly visit in the entire world. So what would it look like if we communicated that a really good example here is Ruthie Grace or veche collection they are Ruthie Grace is brilliant with tops beeche is brilliant with dresses. You'll notice that in their navigation. They have a clothing tab and if you if you hover over clothing. There's this big dropdown.
08:15.63
retailjosh
That has different types of tops and bottoms and dresses and all those different categories that you would expect. But then guess what's also in the top bar dresses. Even though it is also within clothing they are pulling their superpower out onto their top navigation. This is understanding their customer and then understanding what their brand does for it and making sure that it's communicated everywhere and all of this ties together to the brand feeling This is where all of these pieces really loop in into one. Big thing which is when someone walks into your store. What do they feel now part of ah in-store experience is the fact that you as a person are able to control their feeling by the way you communicate with them. But there's more that goes into it right? like they walk into a store they smell something. Their eye immediately goes in a certain direction I think you'll notice that most people walk in and they tend to go the exact same direction. Why is that what feeling is causing them to go in that direction but on your site this is where all of these things become more important than ever because when we understand our customer. And who they are. We can start to understand. Okay, what would make them land on our website and immediately know they're in the right place What would make them say oh my gosh I didn't think a store existed for people like me and this is literally made for so for me like it's literally like someone just.
09:48.77
retailjosh
Went into my closet and knew everything that I needed and built a store around it like that feeling and and I bet you probably have felt that before with a brand where you've landed somewhere and immediately known you were in the right place when we understand our brand and we understand our customer. That's where these things tie together and honestly this happens in a really simple change. A lot of times this is your hero that big one at the top of the page that where where we can use imagery that your customer connects with we can use copy that assures them. They're in the right place and that's likely not a welcome to my store. Right now that could be all around the fall feels that they're getting or finally getting pumpkin spice latte or beginning to prep for the holidays because it's october and some people start that way early, but the feeling is one of the most important things because your enemy. Is not Amazon it is not Sheen. It is not the boutique or other store down the street. It's that back button that back button is stealing more sales from you than any other competitor ever could and the reason why they're clicking that back button is they land on your site. And they had like there's this thing in the back of our brain that literally is just always saying is this for people like me is this for people like me is this for me is this for me and if they do not quickly come to that conclusion. They're going to hit that back button and and ultimately we just lost the potential to sell to someone who could have been.
11:14.38
retailjosh
Our perfect customer and so that's where those tie together. So well when we understand who they are how they shop their deeper desires and then we start to understand our brand and the relationship that exists between them. We're able to build a site experience a store experience a social media experience. That ultimately, lets them know they're in the right place and you are able to solve their problem better than anyone else. So I hope that these 3 episodes have been helpful for you I really do believe that if you can dive into how you can elevate yourself as an entrepreneur if we can get. Deeper into who our customer is and really hone in on that one perfect customer. Ah, which I know sometimes is scary. It's scary to single in on 1 person because we're scared that we're going to lose all these other people. But it's easier to be be. Everything for 1 person then try to be a little bit for a lot of people and then we can understand our brand and the relationship that they have the experience that we can offer that is better than anyone else. Ah I think that if we can improve in these areas. And really make headway that that is the key to getting more traffic improving our conversion keeping customers coming back because when those are mastered customers will will literally like magnetically be attracted to you and they will come back in droves.
12:46.75
retailjosh
Ah, if we can improve in these areas. So I hope that this is helpful. Um, if it was if you could leave a review for the podcast that would be incredible. Um or shoot me a Dm on Instagram let me know you enjoyed the episode at retail Josh otherwise next week very excited we are having Ashley Alderson from the bouti cub. Ah, it was an incredible interview. We dive into q 4 strategies. What's going on with the economy what you can do to prepare and we talk a lot about the idea of community over competition because I think that we love the idea in theory. But when the rubber hits the road. Ah, when that store opens across the street. It can be a little more difficult. We talk about what are the practical ways to do it and honestly we even dive into some of our story there. So I'm really excited for that episode. Can't wait to share it with you I appreciate you being here I'll see you next week
