by Britney Gardner
Today we’re talking about a code. A brandscaping code. It’s a code that filters potential clients into a few piles for you:
- The best clients for you: the kind of clients that get you. The ones that would willingly follow your anywhere, your tribe. The kind of clients that take your suggestions to heart and give you the most embarrassingly awesome shout-outs.
- The okay clients, the ones that kind of get what you do, but often doubt. Maybe there are trust issues, maybe they’re just not ready to really take in what you have to offer. Maybe they seemed like good clients at the beginning, but months into it you wonder how much you’re really helping them.
- And then there’s the third type, the ones with a pile of red flags. You normally avoid them, but you know… that one time you were low on cash flow and decided to take them on against your better judgment.
Sometimes I get glazed gazes when I mention the code, and sometimes a fire lights in my eyes. That’s the code in action! If you really get what I’m talking about, you’re my #1 client. And if you sort of get the idea but need further proof, read on – you’re my #2 client. If you’ve already checked out, I give you permission to bail on the rest of this post. You’re just not in love with me, and that’s okay.
Your very own brandscaping code will filter out that #3 client, the one always stumbling over “getting” you. Instead of spending time chasing inquiries that don’t really want in your tribe to begin with, what if you could spend your time on the clients that are awesome? And awesome for YOU?
The Dawn of the Brandscaping Code
I’m a huge fan of The Middle Finger Project – it’s a dream website for someone like me. Ash Ambirge has her stuff together. I took a class she put on a while back and while I don’t recall the exact quote, she’s the first one I heard define branding as a code. It was a copywriting class, so she was talking about setting up your words as a code. After ruminating on that for a while, I started wondering:
What if everything you do could be a code? What if your whole brand was a code?
– Britney Gardner
That’s where the Brandscaping Code was born. So I made up a word that means branding your business landscape. For most of my clients, their inner person and business work walk side by side. Small business owners are so often selling themselves.
Brandscaping
verb branding your business landscape to match your inner game.
And now it’s time, my friends. Everything you do from here on out is part of your brandscaping code. Your photos, your words, your memes, your colors, your logo. It’s all a part of your code.
Next time you’re replacing your banner photo on your homepage or updating your LinkedIn profile headshot, think to yourself, “Is this the kind of photo that will attract my best client?” When you’re brainstorming your next guest blog post, add this question into your process, “Will this article help or spark a desire in my best client?”
Once you have “best” defined in your business, never again will you wonder.
Oh, and have you defined your best client yet? Need a little more help walking yourself through the brandscaping process? I’m enrolling Brandscaping: Really You, Really in Business right now. Just for you, the business owner ready to take it to the next level.
Britney Garner is a designer turned photographer turned marketing strategist–with a focus on organic content strategy.
She’s one of the few marketers marrying creative and analytical skills. She pairs the visual creativity of the past with training under the top copywriters of the country and weaves in the mastermind/architect skills her personality naturally brings to the table.
