Success leaves clues. 

And recently, I’ve been reflecting on what those clues actually ARE. 

Those “things” that differentiate those that reach the stars from those that don’t. 

Is it a single indefinable quality? 

An X factor? 

Something that makes THEM special, and everyone else… just, average? 

In fact, no. 

What I’ve come to discover is that there is ONE variable that often gives a business a huge edge when it comes to being the one that people buy from.

These are the businesses that experience the “knock it out of the park” launch results and conversion rates. 

The ones thriving in tough economic conditions whilst others are just scraping by. 

The ones that get the “easy yeses” when others are being ghosted the moment they mention their prices. 

That “thing”? 

It’s brand power. 

What is Brand Power?

Brand power is the sum of all of the elements that make up the strength of a business or person’s brand and how they are perceived in the eyes of prospects.

It influences someone’s decision to buy heavily… and in some cases, FAR MORE than the actual sales process, funnel or launch event set up to make sales. 

There could be two people or businesses with identical launch events, or evergreen funnels, or sales call processes… and they would experience SIGNIFICANTLY different conversion rates (which is the percentage of leads that purchase) on account of their brand power. 

The good news? 

Is that brand power is something that you BUILD, not some ethereal quality that one either has or doesn’t have. 

Here’s some ways you can increase your brand power.

Investing time and energy into this process is one of the most important things you will do. It doesn’t have “direct ROI”; you can’t measure it in a spreadsheet and it’s still one of the highest ROI activities you will ever undertake.

How to Increase Your Brand Power

1️⃣ Podcasting and Core Content

Perhaps a controversial opinion, but my view is that core content is a complete non-negotiable in 2023 and beyond.

Building authority and trust starts with publishing regular content that shares your perspective on a consistent based (even the word “authority” starts with “author”), and I see a marked difference in those that focus on it and those that do not.

It comes out primarily in conversion rates — a course creator that has consistently released core content (and GOOD core content, at that) will usually experience higher conversion rates that someone that has not, and that is just a fact.

What this means is that these people usually reach their revenue goals because they 1) need FAR fewer leads on account of their stronger conversion rates; and 2) can usually command more premium prices because what they offer isn’t commoditised (people want to work specifically with THEM, not just any [insert niche here].

2️⃣ Top Notch Design

Good design is a “brand power” shortcut, and it can be used for good… or evil.

I discovered early on the power of stand out branding when I invested $10,000 into a brand and web design package far before I could “afford” it.

My business skyrocketed almost immediately, and I strongly feel that the top notch design allowed me to leap frog others in my space and distilled a level of trust in my brand that didn’t exist before it. I immediately x10-ed my investment.

And now?

I feel that I have quite the contrarian view when it comes to WHEN to invest in great branding and design.

Many experts will tell you that it isn’t the most important thing, but one thing I know for sure is that NOTHING will thwart your growth like a DIY brand set up whipped up in Canva.

It depletes your prospects’ perception of your business; often without even them even consciously realising it is happening or why.

I ALWAYS invest heavily in brand and design; and it has been one of the highest ROI investments in my business BOTH in terms of brand power and resulting revenue.

3️⃣ Proximity

One of the most powerful ways to increase brand power is proximity; which means aligning yourself with others that have MORE brand power than you do.

A strong and intentional relationship-building strategy is one of the best ways to achieve this.

Once again, having a podcast is one of the best ways I have found to kickstart this strategy, because you can curate a list of people you WANT to develop a relationship with and then provide THEM value first by featuring them on YOUR podcast.

The other way to achieve greater proximity is with PR.

Collaborate with media outlets and others that can increase your authority, and it will increase your brand power.

When to Increase Your Brand Power

These aren’t strategies that you can try to “hack” together just before a launch.

They require intentional thought and effort on a consistent basis year round.

And the most difficult thing is?

It is an “important”, but not urgent task and often falls off the radar.

So, here’s how to do it.

Set aside three hours a week to work exclusively on brand power. Yes, three (at least).

It’s a recurring task in your ClickUp. A meeting in your calendar.

And you can’t EVER miss it.

At this point, you might be throwing it in the “too hard” basket… but don’t come back and cry to me when your next sales promotion doesn’t perform the way you wanted it to.

Because, after deep reflection and examining a LOT of data, it’s the missing link between those who find BIG success, and those that struggle to gain traction.

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