Are you a TPT seller looking for ways to brand your store (or your business)? This episode is just for you! 

I’m super passionate about how branding is so important for teachers who open a store and sell resources on Teachers pay Teachers. But branding is so much more than a logo and banner and colors. It’s important to draw people in with your brand style - but you also want them to stick around! This is where the messaging magic happens.

I share with you a special pre-recorded training from the Spring Fling 2021 conference all about the steps to having a memorable brand for your TPT store.

In this episode, you will learn: 

• What branding is (and is not)
• 4 reasons why branding is so important in a business
• How to have a serve-first mindset
• Ways to be specific on who you serve
• Strategies to be authentic to your audience
• 
  

Are you ready to stop relying on the visuals to get your TPT store out there, and start incorporating a whole brand identity with a set plan! You can learn more at thesouthernteachdesigns.com/workshop .

Let's connect!

• TPT Store: ⁠The Southern Teach⁠
• Website: ⁠thesouthernteachdesigns.com⁠
• Instagram: ⁠@thesouthernteach⁠⁠.designs⁠
• Facebook: ⁠The Southern Teach Design and Branding
• 
  

Kirsten 0:01

you're listening to the creative teacher podcast a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact inside and outside of the classrooms. I am Kiersten a full time classroom teacher and part time business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small to in each week, as I give you my best advice on classroom teaching, and starting and growing a teacher business. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

How did this all happen? You might be in the same campus Greenbay wondering how did I do this so fast. And part of it goes into what we're talking about today, which is my brand, the southern teach. Imagine if you could have a clear focus on what your audience needs from you. An audience who connects with you and relates with you a business that is memorable and top of mind and visually appealing graphics that will fit with your ideal look. Free branding can set you apart if done in a strategic and distinctive way. Here's where we're going in this session we're going to be talking about what branding is why it's important, and the three steps to a memorable brand. So let's get started.

What is branding? Branding is a name or image that businesses use to distinguish their product or service from other businesses. It's the overall perception of a company, we can think of target, Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks, those are all brands, but our TPT stores because we have a business where we are selling products to other consumers were also considered businesses too, are also considered brands. Branding is not just a logo that we just upload on TPT. And that's my brand. It's also not just selling, selling, selling. And it's not just for the big businesses, small businesses can have a brand as well. What branding really is, is all of these things put together in sometimes these all overlap, and they should overlap there, you won't, you don't want to try to do all of this separately, it's something that will go hand in hand with each other. And it will be a lot easier when you have some kind of cohesiveness to your brand's but thinking about relationships, visuals, vision, logos, colors, mood, all of that is what goes into a brand. And while it might be seeming overwhelming to see all of us, and Oh, I gotta get all of that.

Don't worry, it doesn't have to be so complicated. I have a simple solution for you, so that you can get your brand in place. So stick with me till the end and I will tell you how you can do that. Why is branding important on TPT? The big question why? There's four reasons I have for you. The first reason is that it helps you stand out in a noisy world. A good brand has a purpose, some TPT sellers might be uploading logos and products with no rhyme or reason, or meaning for doing so. And I was in that camp. That's how I was at the beginning, I was just uploading products hoping things would sell. And even if you are offering something smaller buyers will come to you when they notice your style or vibe. So first impressions do make a difference.

Another reason why branding is important is that it establishes trust, it might be hard to do this at first when you're just starting out in the TPT world. But with a clear brand, you can look and sound professional and people will be more likely to buy from you in due to time. It does take some patience, but it definitely does pay off. A third reason why branding is important is that it leads to more fans and referrals. So we love that snowball effect. It'll start off small, and somebody will buy your product or pin a resource to their board on Pinterest. But gradually, things will gain traction, buyers will come back for more products, they'll tell their teacher friends about you and refer more and more to others. And then soon you become well known. So this scenario happens to many TPT sellers out there and it can happen to you as well.

The fourth reason why it's so important is that it saves you time and money in the long run. So when you have a consistent brand strategy in place, it helps so you're not constantly making too many changes. If you're changing too many things around it will not help with building a loyal customer fan base.

All right, let's go into three steps to a memorable TPT brand. Step number one, have a serve first mindset. Let's take a look at some quick multiple choice question. Which would you rather do? Would you rather a seller make money or b Get to know and build relationships with your audience? A will not happen without B. Think about if you're a teacher, if you're in the classroom, and it's the beginning of the school year, the first week of school, really the first few weeks of school, what are you going to do? Are you going to start passing out tests Okay, we got prepped for the state assessment or are you going to build relationships with them, get to know them, do some icebreakers, some fun Back to School activities. Hopefully it's the latter that you're doing and not the first thing. It is important just like in the classroom, that we as businesses, we are getting to know our audience. We're building relationships with them before we start selling products or offers to them.

Relationships over sales is a big thing to think. While you might get some people who will buy if you just constantly posting products and sales on Instagram, every post, it's not building an audience, you want most of your content to be informational connecting, or inspirational, hard sell posts should be limited, you don't want to have that too frequently. So it's all about building relationships before you start to do those posts with the sales or offerings.

Here's some ways to have a serve first mindset, connecting social media posts. So having that story that you're sharing something that you're passionate about having free and consistent weekly content, not just on social media, but either picking a long form content, such as podcast, blog, or YouTube channel, those three are really great ways to build your audience with free weekly content, also offering tips and strategies. So whether it's on Instagram or in your Facebook group, you're giving your audience some strategies that could be useful for them, and also tips that might help them out. And then sliding in the DMS, not in the way that you may think, but sending encouraging messages to your followers interacting with them, not just through Instagram Stories, although although that is super important. And it's fun to do, but also sending them encouraging messages and getting to know them, interacting with them in positive ways. And then the last one respond to problems. This can be important on TPT. If a customer has a question or potential customer has a question about one of your resources, respond to them as promptly as possible. I always like to do it within 24 hours. Sometimes I'm obsessive. And I'm like, I've got to answer it. I'm stopping what I'm doing, and I'm answering them. But you don't have to do that. But it is definitely important to respond to all questions that someone may have. And even trying your best to respond to people who do leave a review on your products.

The second step is to be specific on who you serve. When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one by Meredith Hill, I think this is a really great quote to think about. Don't try to be everywhere. Don't try to do all the things when you try to market or upload to create resources for as many teachers as possible and do all the things like you're doing pixel art, math for middle school, and then also writing activities for pre K, your audience is going to be very confused about what you have to offer. And they might find another store that has what they need. So find your niche and stick with it. Be an expert in your own content that is passionate to you as well. Think of what products your current audience ask about or has the highest sales and then make more of those. So find something that is doing really well and something that you're passionate about and focus in on that.

Here's some ways you can be specific on who you serve. So one way is to narrow down your niche. So instead of focusing on all elementary, you can focus on maybe upper elementary math or lower elementary writing and ELA. Position yourself as a thought leader. So get into those social media platforms or start a blog, start a website, and give information to anyone who would hear about what you are good at about what your content is that you want to share. Share tips on social media about your expert topic. So giving informative posts can really help you think about who you want to serve and be specific on who you want to serve. And it can draw in customer they can draw in an audience as well. And then the fourth one is to own it. Be confident in what you are good at what your content is. My niche became kind of evolved into design and branding, because people kept asking me about it. They kept DMing me with questions about how to do certain stuff with TPT, product listings and all of that kind of stuff. So I decided to shift my business towards a design and branding aspect for TPT teacher sellers. All right. The third step into a memorable brand is to be authentic. Be as real and genuine to others as you would want others to be for you. No one likes fake people. When you're authentic. It's easier to share about yourself and what you love to do. If you've ever experienced someone who told you a story and then later, were completely on a different version. It's really hard to trust that First, and after that that trust meter goes down a lot. So that would be the same with a company we would be less likely to buy from them if they seem a little inconsistent with their message. When you're true to yourself, and your struggles, your teaching your beliefs, not only will your audience be able to resonate with you, but they'll also feel a deeper connection with you, and they'll help that'll help you stay top of mind. Don't ever focus on those unsubscribes or unfollowers. If you feel like you're sharing polarizing content, you can still post a picture of a rainbow and smiling, ice cream cones and people will still unfollow you. So don't worry about all of the unsubscribes or unfollows just be authentic and who you are.

Here's some ways to be authentic. So incorporating your brand's stories, different snippets about yourself in your brand and how your brand helps solve a problem can be a really great way to share your authenticity, your voice and your TPT description, your captions. Don't make a cookie cutter don't try to copy and paste a template, just do something that can inspire you. You can always look up ideas to inspire you. But ultimately, you want to put in your own voice so people can distinctly see who you are one of my favorites is get out your best gifts and all the means sometimes sharing relatable GIFs and memes can help bring help that real this that you might be thinking or sharing. A lot of people can relate to those fun memes. And then adding in reels or tick tock don't be afraid to show your face or just even, you know, showing a video of you know, make your get get your sense of humor out, make it something fun and connecting with your audience.

All right, now that we're back, I just wanted to share that I'm super passionate about how branding is so important for teachers who open a store and sell resources on Teachers Pay teacher's I get a lot of compliments on my Instagram feed and my TPT Store Profile feed. But there is so much more to it than my visuals. It's important to draw people in with your brand style, but you also want them to stick around. That's where the messaging magic happens. It is so important to have a strong brand foundation and strategy for your TPT store. I have a workshop called branding your teacher business that will help you go from feeling like just another fish in the T PTC to having clarity on how to bring a strong TPT business brand strategy. This workshop shows you how to stop relying on just the visuals and start incorporating a whole brand identity with a set and solid plan. When you purchase this workshop, you're actually going to be learning and getting some guided steps on how to define your brand identity which includes values, your brand story, your brand personality, and then also your brand visuals. And then at the end of the workshop, you'll be able to put a plan together on how you're going to roll out your new brand or how you're going to roll out your rebranding. So it's a really cool workshop. I love it that it's self paced. And I also have extra bonuses in there for you to get you started with templates and some tutorials. So it's definitely really beneficial. If branding is not really your strong suit, I highly recommend you go ahead and check that out at the Southern teach.com forward slash workshop.

So my creative action tip for you today is if you are ready to build your brand identity for your TPT business, head to the southern teach.com forward slash workshop to get access to the materials and course content today. So if you're just starting out, or you really want to redefine your brand, or revamp your brand, or maybe you just kind of want to see what it's like to get started with the TPT store and how you can build a strong foundation from the get go. Definitely check that out. That's the Southern teach.com forward slash workshop. All right, well, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I'll see you again next week.

Thanks for tuning in to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I cannot wait for you to join me in the next episode for more tips and inspiration. Have an amazing day.