How to avoid copy and protect your brand
Table of contents
Intro:
Think about it this way: Protecting your creativeness and intellectual property. It is crucial when you are building your virtual coaching business. You should prioritize doing it from the beginning in order to avoid the cost of your business’ time and money when those resources should be spent elsewhere.
Protecting your brand is now more important than ever. Not only because it is yours but to develop and maintain your brand’s identity forever. When you put your heart and soul to your online business’ image, no one will feel tempted to copy your business’ strategy. It will be unreplicable.
I have been in the online business for a couple of years now where I have learned a few tips I want to share with you today to prevent copy and overall, to protect your brand. I also talked about this topic: copy, criticism, envy and success on my podcast here
1. Build a memorable brand
In 2019 I co-founded my own fitness company.
Then I built a marketing agency where I managed different business accounts on social media.
Finally, I launched my own virtual coaching business where I opened myself to the world.
These experiences as a whole taught me a lot about brand protection.
Specifically, I developed a 3-step method to help protect your content creation and business ideas. For starters, you should aim to define a brand that is memorable, authentic and remarkable. You can do this by finding your specific niche, plus two auxiliary niches. People that are looking forward to building their online business, like yourself and myself, often have multiple passions and interests. Focusing your content on educating plus entertaining your audience should be your top priority. To put it in numbers, I would suggest an ideal ratio of 70% focused on the main niche (in this case, your industry) and then 20-30% of your content on auxiliary niches.
As long as it is consistent and coherent, your content shouldn’t be static. Don’t fear stepping out of your comfort zone but make an effort to maintain your visual identity, meaning your brand’s values, colors, fonts, etc., this is the way to go. No doubt, there are different schools when it comes to social media but if one thing is for sure… the more real, diverse and approachable you get, the more successful your business will likely be.
Additionally, have a voice! This creates authenticity among your own and possible clients. It will bring your brand to live. You can think of it like creating a character for a book. Build your brand’s personality. Have an opinion. Communicate constantly the values that you and your business stands for, that are important to you. It’s even better if you attach all of this to your own niche.
2. Be so connected to your mission that nothing will shake your virtual coaching business
The industry doesn’t need robots. It is very likely there are multiple people offering the “same” services. Make sure yours stands out! And how do you do this? Be so connected to your mission that your brand, by default, will attract and retain its customers and future clients.
Be authentic. Staying true to yourself and portraying that through your brand will make your customers do your marketing for you. This is what incites word-of-mouth, social media shares, and many other marketing outlets. Being authentic also means being transparent with your customers showing your brand’s values. With it comes consistency and your online business model will not and cannot be replicated. It is important to remember that behind a brand and the screens there are people. Don’t forget to show yourself as a persona who has emotions, goals and even struggles as well. Allow yourself to connect with your audience and invite them to start conversations with you.
Now let’s think about you. Yes, you!
You are here for a reason, right? Just like me, there are multiple coaches teaching you how to create an online business model and guiding people to become their best versions of themselves. But guess what… you are here, with me! There is something about my brand’s voice that sparked something on you. This is what has made you come back to my blog, my posts and all the other social media platforms. I am so connected to my mission in life, that I attract the right audience, customers and possible clients. There is no one out there that can transmit my message the way I do it.
Even though I am constantly teaching about neurology, mindfulness and building your own profitable online business just like many people out there; I developed a proven and specific methodology that is not replicated by anyone else. In fact, I just launched the Goal Getter Roadmap where I give you all the tools that worked for me, which are then for you to adapt those to your own brand and business idea.
Actually, I am about to host a live session where I will walk you through the exercise of building your personal mission statement. This goes hand in hand with all the other resources GGR has to offer. Here you will learn the Objective Key Results Methodology, how to build your own logical framework based on your human design and build your business strategy the way google has been doing it since 1999. I show you how to do all this with spiritual tools as well.
Bottom line is: you’ll get a yearly strategic plan for your own online business. You can’t miss this opportunity!
Undoubtedly, your key objective should be to focus on looking forward to being “bigger than yourself”. A tip I can give you is not to fear being too similar to your “competition”, but rather representing your brand with your values at all times. Stay true to yourself and you’ll see no one will be able to replicate what you build.
This reminds me of the program I will be launching in a couple of weeks, the Virtual Coach Academy! Save your spot here. You will learn how to find the heart and core for your own company + how to build your ICP (Ideal Customer Persona). From choosing your keywords, emojis to building your online empire.
3. Diversify your content. Don’t keep all your eggs in the same basket when building your virtual coaching business
Usually, when virtual business owners are creating their content, they stick to only one to two platforms and treat creating content as a hobby. In turn, having different platforms allows you to:
- Express yourself in different ways
Planning out your content is a great way to organize your social media strategy. Your audience likes to consume different content on different platforms. For instance, TikTok differs from Instagram in a great way. There are features on one platform that the other one doesn’t have, and vice-versa. Be strategic and use your social media in the smartest of ways.
- Have an extra source of income and bring more traffic between platforms
Be creative! Think about affiliate links you can share with your clients if you partner with a brand you like. Or maybe include ads on your podcast show. You can also create a membership within your audience to get access and receive a bonus workbook or even become a guest speaker on someone else’s podcast! Lucky for you, I show you how to be strategic about it in my new program the “Virtual Coach Academy”!
- Connect with more and other people from the industry
A great way to increase your exposure! Connecting with people that work in your industry may be very beneficial to you, your online business and your client base. In my experience, getting in touch with fellow coaches and influencers that work in the same or related fields has allowed me to: expand my content strategy, increase my audience and more importantly it has given me the opportunity to offer tools to my clients in industries where I am no expert. In fact, I just recorded a podcast with Danielle Collins (@thefaceyogaexpert). Here, we talked about her journey to wellness, how Face Yoga changed her life and the impact she’s had since taking her business into the digital world.
