How to Monetize Your Brand

I'm often asked why I'm involved with many various endeavors from working as a full-time marketer to being a musician, author, artist and designer.

In part, it's because I have multiple interests, and I don't know if I could truly be me without them all. If you find yourself in this boat as well, I recommend reading the Renaissance Soul (Amazon affiliate).

Beyond that, you may notice a common thread in all those pursuits -- the need to embrace the creative process to take an idea and realize it into some sort of tangible form or experience for others. I enjoy the creative process and the way my end result affects and/or helps others.

The third reason is, because I know I have these multiple interests and I have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, I like the idea that I can derive income from these various endeavors. It's kind of like diversification in one's financial portfolio. I don't have all my financial and professional eggs in one basket. That works for me, but it may not work for others.

Usually when I'm asked why I'm involved in several pursuits the real question that's being driven at, through continued conversation, is: "how are you monetizing your various pursuits when I'm struggling to monetize one of mine?"

The truth is that not all of my pursuits are highly monetized. Some are more than others, while some have more seasonal ebbs and flows due to their nature. As a musician for example, I have some seasons of the year that tend to be busier than others with musical performances. So while I'm monetizing my music abilities there are times where it makes very little, and that's part of why I personally like to have diversified pursuits that help fill monetization gaps when other pursuits are at a lull.

Sometimes I think that if I just pursued one endeavor I could build it to be consistently monetized well, and that works for some, but with my varied interests I would get bored, so I need to have other pursuits that help re-energize my motivation to keep going. I end up ping-ponging back and forth between my various pursuits with better energy for each as I engage in them.

The bottom line is that you need to discover what will work for you, and be patient with your ability to generate results.

There is a lot of hype in stories found on the internet about seemingly overnight successes of bloggers who make a full-time living from their writing, or coaching professionals who conduct seminars that yield a six figure income. The truth is, none of them simply happened upon success overnight.

What you don't typically read about is the many iterations of their product, service or process that it took before it all began to click and make money for them. Often they've been at it for months and even years diligently working hard to incrementally monetize their brand and business.

You simply need to start somewhere. It doesn't matter where you start but simply take action. Put your product or service out into the world and see how it lands with those you're targeting. Get feedback about what resonates with people toward the idea of, solving their need or desire, what amount of value in fulfilling that need/desire are they willing to pay for and how much are they willing to pay for it.

Once you've aligned those things, put that iteration of your product/service out into the world, make a few small sales and continue to evolve what you do to grow and scale what is working (and learn from what is not working).

If you keep at it, over time you will see improvement, you will learn what works and you will increase your monetization.

However, nothing happens if you don't take action and start somewhere. You also can't reach your monetization goals without help, mainly in terms of getting feedback and tracking each little victory and failure you experience.

Here's your monetization assignment:

Do what you can to take action toward putting your product of service out into the world. Think about who has the need, a specific challenge or desire for what you offer. Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. to find 10 people/businesses who you think might be a good fit for your offering. Connect with them and share with them that you're trying to get your product/service off the ground. Ask them if they were in the market to purchase such a product or service what would be attractive to them to actually move forward and make such a purchase.

Take that feedback and refine the way you communicate the value of your product or service and find 5 or 10 other people who fit your ideal customer profile and whom you have a rapport with and ask if they would be interested in purchasing your offering or if they know others who they thought could benefit from what you offer. Make additional connections with 1 or 2 others who were referred to you and ask them if they would purchase.

Keep getting feedback along the way and keep refining your approach. In the next 60 days try to make 1 sale.

Once you get to 1 successful sale. Ask your customer what factors caused them to purchase. Take note, keep those factors in mind and keep pursuing others. Try to make sale number 2 in the next 45 days. Keep refining, keep iterating.

There is no silver bullet, but by making continuous connections and constantly improving what you're doing you're making others aware of your offering and you're narrowing your focus on what works and doesn't.  This will help you get to the right people who have a need for your offering and to do so in a timely fashion where you're not wasting too much time and effort on the wrong people (those who are not a fit for your offering).

It's at that point that you will more rapidly see the kind of monetization you're after.

Take action today to start somewhere.

Posted by: Nick Venturella


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