Starting a business is a BIG deal. And making sure you create a strong brand foundation is a whole other layer of planning.
Sometimes it's helpful to see what another brand's process is so today we're sharing our process of how Animella was created.
1- Foundational Clarity
Clare and I worked to make sure what we were doing and who we were serving was deeply rooted. We wanted to make sure what we were offering was clear so we used our own brand method and got clear on these things:
our ideal clients (we created a detailed narrative)
our mission on how we would service them and what we were solving for them
our brand values
our brand voice
2-Planned Our Services
We wanted to create packages that were clear, directly served our clients pain points and could be tailored to our client's needs. We created a framework that outlined all of our service offerings with details of what's included. That way we could combine them easily for individual client proposals.
3- Priced Our Services
This is one of the hardest steps! We had many discussions, did a lot of market research and used a very detailed pricing spreadsheet I had used when I worked with one of my business coaches. We then priced all our packages and a la carte items.
4- Visual Suite
Before Clare got to work on designing all of our branding, we decided on our business name and talked about elements that were important to us to include in our logo and brandmarks. We started with a Pinterest board where we dumped images that inspired us, then from there Clare formulated our color palette. And she can tell you her whole process another time, but she crafted all our (incredible) logo and brand elements.
5- Photoshoot
Since we knew our aesthetic, we planned a brand photoshoot. We hired another photographer, booked a location and I payed out a detailed photo itinerary. We planned multiple, on-brand outfits. And another fun thing we did was style our shoot with meaningful (but, on brand) items. We had tons of sentimental things like a picture of our parents, our grandparents old straw hats, my Nana's favorite cookies and other things that we could include in out photos that told small stories of us. We also hired a videographer to create a 2 minute video to showcase our experience.
6- Web Design and Copy
After we had all of the above decided and had new images ready to go, Clare got to work on our website. We both worked on our copy and messaging. We coined taglines, put together a killer 'about us' page and everything else you see. We wanted our copy to be an intimate experience of what it's like to work with Clare and I so we took this step really seriously. HOURS were spent nit-picking wording, but it was totally worth it.
7-Marketing Plan & Content Strategy
While Clare was working on the website, we started working on our marketing plan and content strategy. We talked about content ideas to market ourselves on social media, created a Pinterest strategy, developed our email list opt-in strategy and divided up our workload so we were clear on who was doing what and when. Additionally, we laid out our months with a content cycle (blog post about this coming soon!)
8- Hired a Lawyer & Set Up our Corporation
This part doesn't seem nearly as fun as the prior steps, I know. But, we knew we needed a rock-solid contract so we hired a contract lawyer to tailor a contract perfect for our services. He also advised us on how to set up our LLC.
9- Systems Set Up
We set up all the imperative back end systems like email systems, accounting, document and file storage, scheduling software, client management systems (all these words get me so excited. I love systems!)
10- Launch!
Our website and social media went live! Marketing plan deployed!
11-Started a Youtube channel and Podcast
We had so much content and we basically sit around talking branding all the time so we decided to focus those conversations and record them. We launched our channels a month after our agency launch.
12-Outsourcing
We worked hard to create a strong foundation that functioned well with clear systems. And as we launched and started booking clients, we began looking at what some things were that we didn't need to do entirely on our own, but could instead seek support with so we could focus on our craft. We have started small with things like social media support and accounting, but have plans in the next few months to bring more support on our team.
13- Building Agency Services
We have other services that we want to offer our clients to support their brand development so we have been looking for contractors to bring into our agency to add more support in marketing, advertising, social media planning, advanced SEO optimization and more!
There you have it- the emergence of Animella!
Every brand is built on a slightly varied course, but we hope this helps to see the scope and details of building a brand!
Comments