A strong brand has the power to incite faith in a product or service, inspiring a lead to click “add to cart,” “book an appointment,” or “request more information.”
And this isn’t a hypothesis; it’s a fact. According to stats, 55% of a company’s first impressions are visual, and an astounding 81% of consumers can call a business’ color scheme to mind before its name. So having a consistent, visually appealing brand image is a veritable recipe for success.
If you’re already familiar with a brand’s impact, you’ve likely created a successful one. And you’d be an excellent candidate to help a new business owner do the same. Here’s how to become a branding coach and set your future clients up for success. But before we dive into the how-to details, let’s review the basics of branding coaches and their roles and responsibilities.
What is a branding coach?
A branding coach helps companies and entrepreneurs navigate the process of creating an impactful and memorable brand. These mentors understand how to read an audience, generate visuals and voice, and represent a company’s values. Branding coaches also equip businesses with the skills to create or shift brand elements in the future and keep a company image consistent over time.
Unlike consultants, branding coaches don’t themselves tap into the company's spirit and create an image that embodies it. Instead, they advise and help clients build brand identity. These coaches act as guides, mentors, and sources of invaluable knowledge, thanks to their experience creating company images in the past.
What exactly does a brand coach do?
As mentioned, a branding coach helps professionals define their company’s image — without doing the work themselves. One could argue it’s more difficult to pull an excellent logo design from someone else than for the coach to create it themselves. But the work of a coach is explicitly to tap into others’ power. Here’s how coaches face their work:
- Storytelling: Before telling potential customers what it depicts, a brand must understand its own message. Branding coaches help extract and tighten up this story so companies clearly know what to express in their image.
- Creating a strategy: Branding coaches help teams develop a plan for disseminating their image in marketing and sales initiatives.
- Market research: Coaches help companies understand the competition and analyze branding approaches from the industry. This way, teams know where their image fits and how it stands out.
- Voice coaching: When considering branding, we often focus on the visual aspects. But brands also have a voice and use it everywhere — from social media posts and email blasts to blog articles and client communication. A brand coach provides feedback on a company’s voice and helps team members brainstorm changes.
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Why is brand coaching necessary?
Brand coaching is beneficial, if not essential, to growing businesses because creating a consistent, representative image is more challenging than it sounds — especially for someone new to the business.
Coaching sparks meaningful conversations among decision-makers about how the company’s voice should sound and what company colors, fonts, and images should make clients feel. For example, at the most fundamental level, a coach may suggest a new food chain to use a red color font or background to attract people’s attention, with a friendly, approachable, and interactive voice. These are considerations that even those who know their business best, like founders and entrepreneurs, may have never defined.
And since company image is essential to acquiring clients and building trust with them, branding elements are no minor consideration. A coach can help put the impact of branding into perspective for teams and executives with other priorities in starting or running a business.
How to become a branding expert and coach in 4 easy steps
There’s no one route to becoming a mentor, meaning that no two journeys toward a career in coaching are the same. A branding coach, like any other in the field, must be passionate about helping others and have extensive experience in their niche. This expertise often hails from years of work in a related field and studies. Here’s a potential route for an aspiring branding coach:
- Acquire experience in brand building: Many branding coaches enter the field after setting up an entire company and leading it successfully for years. But if you don’t possess years of experience, consider earning a college-level degree in marketing, sales, advertising, or a specific branding aspect, such as graphic design, to receive knowledge about the subject. Then, use your skills in a professional setting or offer freelance brand creation services to build up your portfolio.
- Acquire mentorship experience: Understanding how to mentor others is just as important as knowing how to create a brand. If you’re fortunate enough to have had leadership experiences in a professional setting, you may be ready to take on your first coaching clients. Otherwise, find a way to mentor others, like volunteering for a non-profit organization. Regardless of mentorship experience, anyone considering this role should get a general coaching certification to understand client management.
- Create your coaching model: Define the services you’ll offer. Are you interested in supporting start-ups, large organizations, or entrepreneurs, or do you want to become a personal brand coach? Will you help companies incubate their brand before letting them soar or continue to coach them through the implementation process? Establish answers to these questions to determine a menu of services and packages with competitive pricing. Research your geographic area to get an idea of your peers and their service plans.
- Launch your business: Once you determine your services and charges, define your target audience and how you’ll market to them. You’re a branding coach, so this work should be rewarding (if not fun). Then, run financial projections, factoring in start-up and overhead costs. These numbers help you plan income and serve as a reference for creditors if you seek a loan. After business planning, register your company according to state regulations, launch your first marketing initiatives (social media is an excellent place to start), and take your first clients. You may wish to extend a discount to these first clients as you perfect your approach. Then, promote word-of-mouth marketing by asking those clients for a testimonial after working with you.
Launch a successful brand coaching business with Practice
As your brand coaching business grows, so will your administrative work. At Practice, we understand scheduling, data management, and invoicing are time-consuming and shift your focus away from what you’re passionate about –– coaching. That’s why we’ve created a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to help you take care of your business.
With our Client Management Software, you can securely save client information, send messages and documents, and receive payments. You can even pencil in an upcoming brand brainstorming session with a client using the app’s internal scheduling tool. Try it today.
