Brand Makeovers: Amanda Melissa, Brand and Marketing Mentor, On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and Re-Energize Your Brand and Image
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Identify your brand story — what are your core brand stories that you can repeat so your clients understand who you are and how you are different.
As part of our series about “Brand Makeovers” I had the pleasure to interview Amanda Melissa.
Amanda Melissa is an ex-corporate employee turned Brand and Marketing Mentor who helps women experts grow an influential and thoughtful personal brand online. She is fun and ambitious when it comes to mapping out the content and email strategy for her clients to get noticed by the right people. She helps women personal brands who are ready to be authentic online, earn more money, and become influential. To learn more, visit her website, www.amandamelissa.com
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I always knew that I wanted to be in marketing and branding. I remember seeing my high school counselor and telling her that I wanted to study marketing, and she was shocked because most kids say they want to be a doctor or be a police officer. But I just knew that I wanted to help people earn more business, impact, and money.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing or branding mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t believe in mistakes, only lessons. But the funniest lesson when I first started was thinking that all the business was going to come rushing toward me. And I think that’s what a lot of business owners think as well. As if just opening an Instagram or LinkedIn account is going to bring in all the sales. But I had to go out there and make business. Fun fact actually, I signed my first client through LinkedIn and it was because I positioned my profile in a way that spoke to their needs. When I connected with them I had no idea they were looking to hire a copywriter at the time, but it just goes to show that brand awareness is key.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Is there a takeaway or lesson that others can learn from that?
My tipping point was to get over my fear of failure and rejection. I knew there was something holding me back from starting my business and I just couldn’t put my finger on it. But one day I saw a shaman and not only did she go over my whole family, but she mentioned that I had these fears. I never could put my name on what was holding me back, but it made so much sense. The biggest takeaway was to not let fear of failure or rejection stop me, because either way time will pass and if you never try that new business idea you will never know. So what’s worst failing or never knowing the outcome?! That was how I shifted my mindset and got to where I am today and I’m so excited otherwise I wouldn’t have a business that lets me stay at home with my daughter.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I recently started offering private Voxer support for one week. I realized that a lot of my clients or prospects might have 3 or 5 questions about their content or email strategy. This private Voxer support is meant to help them get support, accountability, or feedback.
I love being able to give my clients feedback over text or voice message, because a lot of my clients are working moms and sometimes they don’t have a full hour to set up a call uninterrupted. With Voxer support, they are able to ask questions on their own time and it gives me flexibility in my business to answer their questions from anywhere, since I travel and have my baby so she can be enthusiastic.
What advice would you give to other marketers to thrive and avoid burnout?
Always raise your prices. I know it is intimidating but my best advice is to raise your price with every new client that way you don’t face burnout with low pay. Also set boundaries with your clients. Tell them the times you work and don’t work. It’s so key to to avoid burnout.
Ok, let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
I love this question! Product marketing is so much easier because you can literally film a banana and the different recipes you can use with it, and then people will want to go out and buy a banana.
But brand marketing is when you create a community that is loyal to you. So if you have an email list who is always opening up every email you send because they love the content, that is brand marketing. You are creating the right brand messages to earn awareness and gain community that will buy from you.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
Yes! In my program, I help provide brand clarity to my clients by strategizing their message, target audience, and content strategy.
And building a brand is so important because if you invest in a podcast, social media content, and email list, it’s very hard to stay on brand with all the things unless you have brand clarity.
Investing into your brand clarity affects your lead generation strategy, content strategy, hiring/outsourcing, sales, and marketing.
A past client came to me after spending almost $30K in 3 years on Facebook ads and they realized that it didn’t result in any sales.
And that’s why it’s so important to invest in your brand foundations that way it saves you a ton of money and time.
Not too mention it will be able to help you communicate to your marketing team your vision and then they will all speak the same language whether it’s ads or a podcast.
Let’s now talk about rebranding. What are a few reasons why a company would consider rebranding?
Either one you might have a bunch of different products like a service, podcast, newsletter, or digital product, or two you aren’t in love with your business anymore.
Rebranding will help you see your vision and reset your brand values and mission.
Rebranding is essential if you have several different client avatars and you are feeling drained from doing it all instead of having a big picture to help navigate your launches and sales.
Are there downsides of rebranding? Are there companies that you would advise against doing a “Brand Makeover”? Why?
Rebranding will definitely result in a learning curve for teams, but it’s like everything in life, things change and it’s just a normal.
I would advise against a rebrand if you are comparing your company to someone else’s who seems to have better customers or more money.
The best reasons you should rebrand are if you want to increase sales, stand out from the competition, grow a community, and improve customer loyalty.
Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Can you share 5 strategies that a company can do to upgrade and re-energize their brand and image”? Please tell us a story or an example for each.
The 5 strategies to upgrade and re-energize your brand and image actually are simple.
- Identify Your Target Audience — Do you have 1, 2, or 3 different types of audiences? Where do they shop? What books or movies do they watch? How do they talk? What do they care about? What are their goals and fears? These are just a few questions to ask. I would highly encourage you to create different client avatars so you make sure you marketing and ads are clearly targeting them.
- Clarify the Emotions you Want Your Audience to Feel — How do you want your clients to feel when they work with you? Are these emotions clearly showcased on social media either in the brand aesthetics or tone of voice?
- Determine your message — Do a SWOT analysis of your competitors. Then determine your values and personality. This will help you create your unique message.
- Identify your brand story — what are your core brand stories that you can repeat so your clients understand who you are and how you are different.
- Get a content strategy — content is the basis for your marketing. This could be used for blogs, social media, or emails. You have to start with your brand first and then you can create a compelling message to share with you audience on social media.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job doing a “Brand Makeover”. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
Britney Spears! She’s also a fellow Sagittarius and she is my favorite pop star singer ever. Since her conservatorship ended last year she has completely rebranded. She shares on Instagram her real feelings online, she’s having so much fun in life, and she just got married. I think the best thing you can learn from Britney is to be vulnerable because that’s how you build a true and authentic audience. I mean she has the biggest fans in the world that even showed up for her when she had to go to court last year. I would argue that many celebrities have boring social media presence, because they are showing the audience the flashy side of things, but fans want to know the behind the scene and honest side of things. Audiences crave authentic and vulnerable content and that’s how you build brand loyalty online.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I want to inspire other Latina’s to build their dream life by being themself. I think too often in the Latinx community we want to please our family and friends, and we forget to focus on our own dreams instead of fulfilling everyone else’s. Let go of perfectionism and go after the thing you want to do!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite mantra is keep it simple. I think too many times as entrepreneurs we try to overcomplicate things. I’m all about seeing the big picture and making it simple. If we make things simple it’s a lot easier to take action and implement.
How can our readers follow you online?
I’m sharing my motherhood journey and brand tips at — www.instagram.com/amandamelissa.co , and TikTok www.tiktok.com/@amandamelissa.c . And of course, if you’re curious about how to work with me, you can also check out my website: www.amandamelissa.com and grab my free content strategy to attract the right clients to get started.
Thank you so much for these excellent insights! We wish you continued success in your work.
Brand Makeovers: Amanda Melissa, Brand and Marketing Mentor, On The 5 Things You Should Do To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
