Suffering from a Boring Brand? Here's Help

I've been overhauling my brand strategy, message and look lately, doing my best to ensure my brand truly reflects my purpose and my offerings while being wildly attractive to my perfect customers.

To ensure I'm on the right path with my brand, I've even invested in branding and marketing coaching and programs with other experts in my field.

Yes, sometimes these other coaches don't fully relate to me because by most traditional marketing standards, I'm WAY "out there." As Abraham-Hicks says, "There's never a crowd on the cutting edge."

But the advice of these experts has helped me to clarify what makes me different while teaching me some techniques that even an 'out there' new paradigm Magical Marketer like myself can benefit from.

As usual, I have already translated this knowledge into tips and strategies that conscious, sensitive, spiritual coaches, practitioners, creatives, mystics, and tree hugging entrepreneurs like you can use.

So if you are experiencing even a bit of brand shame, confusion over what to say to attract customers, or you just want a bit of inspiration to help you get your heart-felt message to the world, I'd love to invite you to my new, updated, cutting edge webinar, "Branding Basics for Conscious Entrepreneurs." It's a no-cost 90 minute webinar I'm gifting to you so that you can stop worrying about what to say and start sharing your beauty and magic with the world in a way that attracts your perfect customers.

I know you and I are on the same path, because "like attracts like," and I haven't been hiding what I'm all about. When I help you get your message to the world, I'm actually forwarding my life path in the process.

This is how I help you to transform your life and the world while you're at it.

TITLE: Branding Basics for Conscious Entrepreneurs
DATE: Friday, August 19th, 2011
TIME: 1:00 pm PT / 4 pm ET
DURATION: 90 Minutes
REGISTRATION:
http://www.graphicgirlz.com/brandingbasics.html


This webinar is for you if you are seeking:

• A Brand Message that Reflects Your Life Purpose
• Inspiration to Develop Compelling, Attractive Keywords, Taglines and Posts
• Instruction on How to Write Marketing Copy and Blogs that Truly Represents You and Attract the Exact Right People to You
• Clear Direction on How to Unify Your Offerings Under One Umbrella
• Get your branding questions answered LIVE during the Q&A portion of the webinar!

Don't waste time suffering over a boring brand!

I look forward to sharing this new paradigm for marketing that comes from the heart, promotes your life mission, and attracts your most perfect customers. See you on the 19th!

How to Know When It’s Time to Re-Brand

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.

4 Steps to Creating a Wildly Attractive Free Offer

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

--
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````
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
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````

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.

Your Ultimate Niche (Not in the Traditional Sense Of Course!)

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.

My Ultimate Niche are out-of-the-box entrepreneurs,
thought leaders and visionaries who have a big message to share about uplifting people
and transforming the world. What's 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/

Silly Rabbit, Twitter Isn't Just For Kids [Twitter Update]

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

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.

Thing is, my Twitter following has ballooned to over 22,000 (up by 10,000 over the last 6 months) and I want to spread the word. Maybe a part of me realizes that as Twitter gains popularity and as my Twitter following endlessly expands, more and more people will begin to understand the incredible and unique power of twitter and they can come check out my Twitter posts and learn some simple steps.

Imagine for a moment that you have the power to send a link out to 20,000 people. Imagine if only 1% of those people click your link... that's still 200 people! Now can you can begin to grok the power of Twitter? Maybe you just don't know how to work it.  I have boiled it down to the bare essentials that I use right here:

1) Make a list of your favorite, most resonant words... words you'd like to be found by and find others by. These will be your keywords.

2) Just create a Twitter account already: The first step is to get an account set up. Use your keywords in your name or just use your full name if it's available. Go to http://www.twitter.com and do it now. While you're there, you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/magicalmarketer

3) Get Tweet Adder [you can use my affiliate link HERE] This program will help you build a following by keyword, unfollow folks who aren't following you, and tweet day and night, all automatically (once you set it up) For more deets on Tweet Adder see my article on Tweet Adder at http://magicalmarketing.blogspot.com/search/label/tweet%20adder

4) Create a .txt file of 100+ quotes or tweets under 120 characters. Use your keywords, quotes by folks you resonate with, and your own tips and links to your offerings. Make sure you market your links about 20% of the time and no more. The rest of the time be uplifting and inspiring.  Fill your Tweets section on Tweet Adder with your quotes (these can be uploaded automatically and saved and downloaded at your discretion.)
5) Tweet 24 times per day or more to build your following fast. Keep adding to your Tweet List till you have about 1000 or more tweets.  Make sure you keep your tweets in your queue so they rotate. Nobody will notice and even if they did, when your tweets are really good, people won't mind seeing them more than once.

6) Automatically follow between 200 and 300 people per day.  Use your keywords to follow folks of like mind and heart.  Set your unfollow to unfollow any who aren't following you after 3 days. The combination of tweeting often and following lots of people will grow your following faster.


7) Report back to me here. Please leave your comments below to share your progress!

Go forth and attract!

The Umbrella Brand: How to Cohesively Brand Your Different Offerings

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

"Umbrella Brand" is an industry term for an overarching brand used across multiple related products. Giant companies like Heintz, Levi Strauss, and Sony use Umbrella Branding to promote a whole range of products cohesively. For instance, Heintz recently launched a $8.3 million campaign to brand their slogan, "It has to be Heintz" which automatically promotes a whole line of products.

Many industry experts say that Umbrella Branding only works when the company has a line of very similar products. However, I have been successfully using the concept of Umbrella Branding when helping my customers create one brand for a variety of seemingly disparate offerings.

Many of my clients have developed a range of techniques, products, and resources to solve the variety of challenges their customers face. They are often confused about the best ways to market these offerings cohesively, and find themselves explaining their modalities to a confused audience.  Umbrella Branding helps them deliver a cohesive and potent message.

Branded Banner by Julia Stege for http://www.raisemyvibes.com/

The key to my method of Umbrella Branding is
tapping deeply in to your core life purpose.  When you clarify "What makes you tick," and develop that into a mission statement,  you are on the way to creating an Umbrella Brand that will work for your chosen focus,
even when it changes, for years to come.

I created my own Umbrella Brand about 12 years ago called Life is Magic. I have a website at that URL http://www.lifeismagic.com/.  It's sorely outdated I'm afraid, however I use it as my main email address (julia @lifeismagic.com).  When I created the URL, I considered my passion for magic and how I have loved everything magical ever since early childhood. I thought about all my offerings, from graphic design to websites, to Law of Attraction consulting, branding, marketing consulting, social networking, and the wildcrafted herbs and juices I love to promote, and how they are all an expression of my love for magic. I even thought about the historical fantasy novel I'm writing which includes much from the shamanic realms. My umbrella brand will even work for that! .So Life is Magic is a perfect Umbrella Brand for me.

To start creating your Umbrella Brand, answer this question:

"What Makes Me and My Perfect Customers Tick?"

(It's the second question from the BEE-ing Attraction PlanTM which you can find at http://www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com)  

• Drop deep within your heart to discover what is most important to you and start writing down the words that describe it. 
• Think about how you expressed that when you were a child, a teen, a young adult, and now. 
• see if you can discover the unifying principles from all areas of your life. When you discover this, you will be well on your way to creating your own unique Umbrella Brand.

Learn More about Branding from the Heart at http://www.brandingfromtheheart.com/

Don't Do What I Did and Why It Took Me So Long to Figure This Out

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

@magicalmarketer

Sometimes the most obvious things are just not so obvious to me. I know I'm not alone in this. Looking back, it seems that my brain was on hold for the last several years while this obvious thing was escaping me. Now that I'm clear on my direction, the lack of clarity I had decided was OK for me and my business feels unbearable and unfathomable.

What happened was simply that all the while I have been talking about authentic marketing, I had resisted standing fully behind what I REALLY loved about my business and instead responded to what I speculated would be more successful. I prioritized my activities and my passion often came second. You could catch me talking about it now and again, what my true love is, what my real forte is, what my favorite conversation in the world is. To hear me talk about it you'd wonder at my willingness to do anything else, anything that was not centered solely on the passion of my life.

Can you guess what I'm talking about? Those of you who have taken my classes before can likely guess. I'm talking about Branding from the HeartTM : How to share yourself authentically in a way that promotes everything that you're up to. I have created a process around the funny little question from the BEE-ing Attraction PlanTM, "What makes me and my perfect customers tick?" and combined it with what I call Magical Keywords to help anyone brand anything completely authentically. My not-so-secret desire is to discover the beauty and magic in women entrepreneurs and progressive thought leaders and help them get the message out in a way that uplifts inspires millions of people to transform the world. On a practical level, I help people promote themselves consistently by sharing what's most important to them in a way that attracts their perfect customers.

And though I call myself an "intutive branding artist," and I have talked about Branding from the HeartTM and held classes on it and offered small consulting packages, I have emphasized teaching social networking because people knew they needed that, and they didn't understand branding (or so I thought). I have taught Social Networking classes for 4 years now, and though I have focused several classes on Branding from the HeartTM , I have never gotten around to creating a well-documented system, a home study course or a signature program for my this unique process.

And the reason it took me so long to
figure out that this that I was using my mind, and sometimes (especially in my case) the mind is a scary place to be.

You see, my poor brain is full of so many ideas of how to market, what to market, social networking, websites, blogs, and webinars, and on and on, I got confused about what I need to teach, and so I switched it up quite frequently and offered a huge array of services. I did well and increased my income in a down economy, but I was afraid that the thing I love the most, the thing I am a natural at and which I truly feel can transform the world, would not sell. I was listening to inner gremlins telling me, 'not now' 'people won't get it' and 'you're not ready.' This left me constantly responding to the needs of others without really working out what I wanted to focus on, my unique gift for the world.

So now that I've seen the light (and listened to my own inner guidance) I am creating a new signature Branding from the HeartTM System this year, and kicking it off with an Authentic Branding Summit starting in a few months. I feel as if all my energy jets are on full tilt and I'm blasting forward in the way I'm meant to be. And I'd like to invite you to help me get started with this.

I need your input to make
this system really great.

On Thursday, March 31st at 11 am PT I am sponsoring a no-cost webinar called, "Julia Answers All Your Branding Questions" where I'll be doing just that.  I want to hear from you the biggest questions you have about branding, about getting the message out, about your visual and verbal identity, about how to share what you do with incredibly clarity of purpose. I want to know where you struggle the most, what keeps eluding you, and what would make the biggest difference in helping you share your message with the world.

So here's the deal: I'll answer all your branding questions in exchange for some information from you. The registration form for the webinar includes several required question fields that I need you to answer to the best of your ability. I know it will take a bit of extra time on your part, and to express my appreciation for your heart-felt answers, I'm offering you free all-access pass to my Branding from the Heart Tele-Summit this summer including unlimited download of all 13 session recordings that I will be charging $197 for during the promotional launch in May.

I'll also be compiling answers to your questions for my presentation on the March 31st, and I'll be selecting a couple of folks from our audience to coach live during the webinar. So let me know what you're struggling with and I'll do what I can to help you move through that into the kind of clarity I am experiencing now.

HERE'S WHERE TO REGISTER FOR THE NO-COST WEBINAR 'JULIA ANSWERS ALL YOUR BRANDING QUESTIONS' ON THURS. MARCH 31ST 2011 AT 11 AM

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/680729106

Let me help you skip the years of avoiding the obvious that I have suffered, and let's together create your authentic heart-felt brand.

Go forth and attract!

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.