INTRO (Male Voice Recording): Welcome to YourMarketingPodcast. This is Series One – How to Start a Successful eCommerce Business in Less than 30 Days. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to quickly launch an eCommerce store and start seeing those sales roll in! And here’s your host…Ishani DePillo. 

Ishani: Hi, everyone, Ishani DePillo here. Welcome to another episode of Your Marketing Podcast. I’m so excited to cover today’s topic with you. It’s all about branding, and how to determine your target audience.

So last episode was packed full of helpful tips on business fundamentals. We covered getting your entity set up, keeping your personal finances separate from your business finances and funding for your eCommerce store. If you haven’t had the chance to listen to that episode yet, I recommend that you do because we go over a lot of recommendations that are essential to creating a new business.

Okay, so You have your product. You know it’s going to be in demand and you know that it’s going to be profitable. Now, we need to build your brand by talking about your story.

You might be asking, “What? Why does it matter who I am? I have a product. It’s going to sell on its own. Why do I have to tell my story?” 

But is it going to sell on it’s own? Is the product truly enough nowadays to compete with SO MANY online businesses?

Well, let’s take a look back…to 2006.

A man travels around Argentina, noticing the hardships faced by kids who can’t afford a pair of shoes. He then starts a company that donates a pair of shoes to a child in need, for every pair of shoe sold. Now over 50 million pairs of shoes have been donated and in 2014, the company was valued at $625 million. What’s the name of this company?

If you guessed, TOM’s shoes, you are correct!

What a great brand story – it pulls at your heart strings and makes you feel positively towards the brand. But a brand story doesn’t need to be altruistic. It could be many things.

Let’s take another walk down memory lane.

It’s 2009, San Francisco, California. An app launches to “evolve the way the world moves” and “make cities more accessible.”

Can you guess this giant who’s worth over 14 billion? Uber, yes, uber.

Their story was all about going against the status quo and redefining the ride-sharing experience. And it worked!

But not all brands are going to disrupt the market. And that’s ok! You should still highlight your brand story.

Skip to 3:19Let’s go over some great ways to build a memorable story for your brand:

Highlight a problem, a problem that’s relatable, that almost everyone experiences. Remember in episode 1 when we talked about developing a product that solves a problem? If you used that method to come up with your product, then you can use the problem as part of your brand story. In fact, that’s exactly what we did for Roam Often. Three tangled necklaces. That’s all it took for Roam Often to be born. After untangling necklace after necklace—in Napa, in Greece, and in Spain— my co-founder Alisha, was fed up. She wanted a functional, beautiful way to transport her style without the hassle. And being a fellow jewelry aficionado myself, I agreed. And so Roam Often was born. We used a problem to draft up a compelling brand story that most women can relate to.

Embrace your uniqueness, what makes you stand out from the rest. Are you an underdog in your market? Did you face hardship? Have you experienced something unbelievable that made you stronger, professionally or personally? If so, then talk about it! All of that makes you, you, and your brand, your brand. People want authenticity, and realness. You need to find a way to feel connected to your customers and they need to connect with you and your brand.

Can your brand be more than a brand? Can it be a lifestyle? By creating a “lifestyle” centered around your brand, you are essentially creating a fanbase who follow the same ideals and live and breathe your brand. A good example here is what R