Freelancer Tips

Fiverrcast Episode 12: Tips for New Sellers

By
Fiverr Team
|
November 12, 2015

Transcript

Redd: Hello and welcome to Fiverrcast, the official Fiverr podcast for sellers by sellers. My name is Redd AKA Reddhorrocks.Adam: And I’m Twistedweb123 also known as Adam. Today we’re joined by Sarah. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself today Sarah?Sarah: Hello. I’m Shiftypop on Fiverr and I write instrumentals, jingles for businesses, introductions for podcasts and YouTube channels and I also write personal songs. I do it with a toytastic twist.Redd: Well, welcome Sarah. We’re really glad to have you here. So today we’re going to talk about branding. We want to talk about what it is to create a brand and what branding means.Adam: So Sarah has come very prepared. She has been on www.businessdictionary.com to find out the definition of branding. So why don’t you let us know about that Sarah?Sarah: The definition is the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s mind mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.Adam: So that can sound quite daunting to a brand new user looking to brand themselves. So what exactly does that mean? Today we’re going to look at breaking that down in relation to Fiverr and seeing how you can brand your profiles to make sure that you’re leaving a lasting memory in your buyers or even visitors to your profile.Redd: So I think one of the things about branding in this respect is you kind of need to get started right away and initially immediately when you start thinking about even creating a username and starting to sell on Fiverr, I feel like you should instantly think about, OK, my username to a certain degree has to be representative of my brand.So for me, I’m a voiceover artist. So I am my entire brand. Basically it’s me and it’s my voice. So I decided to just do my name as my username. What about you Adam? Where did “Twistedweb123” come from?Adam: Well, originally it was an abbreviation of my company name and it’s actually quite a funny story. When I went to sign up onto Fiverr, the company name was too long and an abbreviation of the full name looked really bad. So it was originally “Twistedweb” and I thought that didn’t really sound very recognizable enough. It wasn’t really that catchy. So I just randomly added the “123” on the end and it just kind of stuck with me and it’s actually quite a good reference because I feel it kind of rolls off the tongue. So that was kind of like a little win that wasn’t really expected to be honest.Redd: And what about you Sarah? Where did “Shiftypop” come from?Sarah: When I was 15, I started writing, singing and performing music under the name “Shifty Sarah” because back in the days of MSN, I had the username “Shifty-eyed Sarah” with the shifty-eyed emoticons I had all nicely decorated.My friends started calling me “Shifty” outside of the internet and then my nickname stuck. So I went on to university to study creative sound and music and I created a girl band for my third year project, which was called Toy Pop, and we went into uni one day and we had to perform in front of the class every single week to receive criticism and people give ideas for things and someone mentioned how the Spice Girls have their own names.So we decided maybe we should all have our own name with “pop” on the end. So we had Fruity Pop, Cheesy Pop, Fizzy Pop and I was Shifty Pop and then I went on to create a Fiverr account and I just stuck by that name.Adam: I think that’s a great representation of taking kind of your personal life and all turn that into a brand for your business. So you’re not exactly inventing it from scratch. You’re using something you already know and bringing that on to the platform.Redd: Moving on beyond your username, I think the next thing that you got to look at is things like your profile image. That’s the next representation of you because it’s on all of the messages. It’s on your orders. It’s on your Gigs. It’s everywhere. So Adam, what do you think about the best way to select a profile image?Adam: For me, there are two ways to go with a profile image. If your brand is your self, like yourself Redd, I think your profile image has to be a photo of you. I think that’s absolutely key. However, if your brand is more of your self, pitching yourself as a business, then I would maybe go down the route of a logo or something else that represents your branding that way.I think a lot of mistakes users will make is when they’re looking to set up their profile or find an image, they may kind of Google search to look for random images related to what they do or maybe just random business people or just something similar in that way. But the issue we’ve got with that is none of those images are really unique and it’s very important that you try to push your brand by your image. So if you are your brand, you push you. If your business is your brand, you push your business.Redd: Right. I definitely agree and I think it’s important to make sure that you’re presenting a professional image. So I would say like yeah, you may have like a super cool selfie that you really, really enjoy of yourself on a boat with your friend but it might be a better idea to go a more business-oriented way with your profile picture.Adam: I think Fiverr allows you – it’s kind of a little bit different to maybe some other marketplaces where it allows you to bring on the professional side but you can also kind of have fun with it a little bit as well. So whilst I agree that I wouldn’t necessarily have that photo from last Saturday night as my profile image, I think you can still present yourself and there’s a kind of room or space to be a little bit more laidback and a little bit kind of more informal while still kind of maintaining that kind of small line.So I think your Gig does it really well Sarah because on your profile, we can see there’s an image of you but it’s not necessarily a professional headshot. It’s just a nicely-taken kind of selfie of yourself.Redd: Yeah, and I think the good thing too is you don’t necessarily have to have like – when I think about – I’m thinking about the difference between like a nice picture where you’re smiling and presenting yourself versus like a mug shot or a real estate headshot or something like that. It’s good for you especially Sarah because your personality really comes through in your picture.I think that’s where – that’s a good thing to think about is when you’re looking at your profile picture, does your branding come through in that – is it either a representation of what you’re trying to sell in some way, either yourself or a product and is it still approachable and personable? So it is hard to do but I think it’s completely doable.Adam: Yeah, I think that leads on to the other aspect in the guise of branding as well where you may think to yourself, well, let’s say for example I am a faceless kind of business in that respect. I am not presenting myself. I am presenting my products. So let’s say for example you offer video production and rather than demonstrate yourself as the brand, you want – let’s say your name is something like “Easyvideos”. You want easy videos to be the brand.So in that respect and you have to look at the best way to kind of brand yourself there and I think a key to doing that is maybe looking into the element of bringing in maybe some watermarks or some logo design to make sure that you are presenting your way in the same kind of respect to when you have kind of like a selfie of yourself. You’re presenting your way in the best way possible. So Sarah, I know at the moment with Shifty Pop, I believe that you’re currently using a kind of logo for branding?Sarah: Yes, I do have a logo. I bought it on Fiverr from someone called “Ei8htz”.Adam: That’s E-I-8-H-T-Z.Sarah: Yeah, and they were very good. It was a very good price and they gave me feedback changes and stuff, but that was the first logo that they gave me and I thought that’s absolutely great because it’s bright, it’s colorful and it is “Shiftypop”.Adam: So how long into being on Fiverr – was it before you decided to get yourself a logo for your profile?Sarah: I think I had been on Fiverr for about a year and a half.Adam: And have you noticed an increase in sales or any kind of sales change since you’ve started using the logo with inside your profile?Sarah: I think that it made a lot of changes having the logo on the profile when we had the featured Gig section at the top of the profile. So then it’s bigger and it’s easier to see because images on the Gigs are usually hidden behind a video. So it’s not the first thing someone looks at.Adam: So when you receive a lot of kind of messages to your inbox, do you find yourself receiving a lot of kind of, “Hi there,” or “Hey,” or do you find yourself receiving a lot of kind of, “Hey, Shiftypop,” or “Hello Shiftypop”?Sarah: I get a lot of, “Hey, Shiftypop,” as if they know me already.Adam: See I think that’s a great testament to how well kind of branding yourself with your logo or taking that name can have a positive effect on your business especially just from the communication via inboxes alone. As you say, they’re already contacting you as if they already know you and that rapport has already kind of been set up by them seeing a fun, friendly, inviting logo and then a fun, friendly, inviting photo of yourself. It kind of breaks down the barriers to make getting in touch with you seamless and easy.Sarah: I agree with you there and I also think that the write-up alongside your picture makes a lot of difference as well because they can see what you’re like.Redd: Yeah, I think it’s important especially when you’re communicating with people that you’re working with. It’s important to either use your – to use your own name either as a sign-off. If you’re messaging a user and they’ve told you their name, it’s like, “Oh, hi Michael. I’m happy to do that for you. Thanks,” and then you sign your name at the end or you could sign your name and then you could put your username under it. So it’s about creating a link between you personally, your business and what the buyer sees.Adam: Yeah, I think it’s surprising actually because some people may say putting your name at the end of any sort of message is a given but it’s quite surprising how many people either don’t seem to do it or maybe forget to do it. But you’re absolutely right. It’s very important to create that kind of connection between the business and the person but also to create the kind of divide in the slight way as well. So they realize that you aren’t just an individual. You are representing yourself as a business.So from that, you can kind of get the implied kind of subconscious boost or the accreditation to the fact that you are running a business on Fiverr. Otherwise, you may – people may kind of come across you and think, “Is this just the next door neighbor?” so to speak whereas if you’re the next door neighbor but you’re presenting yourself as the business or as the brand, you instantly receive more accreditation for that.Redd: So what do you guys think about – like when it comes to branding, there’s a lot of people who they sell a lot of different things cross-category. So it’s not like there’s necessarily someone who does just voiceovers or just videos or just logos or just web design. Some of them have their fingers in lots of different pies. What do you guys think is the best way to keep a brand consistent across multiple categories?Adam: For me, if I’m trying to keep a brand consistent and I may have lots of different categories, I think one of the best ways to do it is via things like your Gig images and your Gig videos, et cetera. But the way to do it I believe is maybe if you’ve got a logo or maybe if you aren’t quite there yet is to kind of decide or stick to a design pattern.So if you like the color blue and your main Gig uses the blue color, look to use that same color scheme on your voiceover Gig and then maybe on your video editing Gig and then maybe like I said on your graphic design Gig. As long as you’re presenting yourself in a similar sort of style or way, all of those Gigs are going to be kind of kept together and I will often notice when bigger companies kind of have a logo, they have branding guidelines and those branding guidelines always usually stay along the lines of this is the font we use. These are the colors that we use and these are how we use our logo.So as long as you’re being consistent in the way that you’re using whatever fonts you choose or whatever colors you choose or how you display your logo or maybe even just your text, I think you can basically be consistent across everything that you’re offering. So Sarah, I know that you do something similar with the moment with “Shiftypop” where all of your Gigs at the moment follow a very kind of similar design style.Sarah: Yes, they do. I’ve been using a Fiverr seller called arise92 and they do my Gigs. They know exactly what I like, what style I’m after. So all I need to do is make a Gig order with them and they’re quite quick about it. They’re very good. Everything just fits but he uses a variety of colors so that they’re similar but they’re not too similar.Adam: And the overall style kind of – you can kind of tell it’s you when you see it.Sarah: Yes. I have been trying to add a mix of videos with myself in them as well.Adam: I think the great thing as well about having the images in the same sort of style is if you’re in different categories like Redd said, the chances are some of them may not actually be your profile. But let’s say the scenario, a user comes on to the website, looks for a voiceover and then finds Redd. They see her beautifully-branded Gig and they hire her for a voiceover.They then come back on to the platform say a week later and they’re looking for someone to do video editing. Now let’s say Redd did video editing and they go into the search and they search for video editing and they see an image that they kind of half-recognize the brand of. They realize, “Oh, actually, that seller does video editing as well,” and then from that, they’re going to kind of recognize you and even though you’re split across different categories, they will probably click through and look to use you first as a seller because they’ve used you in the past. But they may not realize previously that you actually offered that service.So with your different categories, obviously Sarah at the moment, where you are quite split across what you do, I mean you have the jingles. You have the voiceovers. You have the instrumentals and although they’re all kind of along the same kind of musical vein in terms of the categories on Fiverr, they’re actually across completely different categories, aren’t they?Sarah: They are. They are across completely different categories. We got gifts, business jingles, voiceover.Adam: So you can imagine that anyone who maybe hires you for a gift and really loves your work, they may come back on to the platform in a more kind of business sense and think, “Right, now I need an instrumental for my business.” They’re looking through kind of the instrumentals as opposed to gifts and they see your branding. They see your Gig and think, “Oh, that seller does this as well. Fantastic!” and they’ve already built up that rapport with you where you probably actually received the benefit through your branding because they will choose you.Redd: Yeah, I think that’s definitely a good way to make it consistent and there are other ways you can do that too even if you don’t have – if you might not have a logo or you might not have a certain font or something that you use. Even if you’re just using your picture, like for me, I have a static picture of myself as my Gig images.So what happened was I had my headshots professionally done and I had several ones to choose from, but it’s very clearly like they’re all set up a little bit the same. So I mean provided you’re recognizable as one particular person, I think it’s also fine to do it that way where you have something like pictures of you. Just try and keep it with the theme or even if you wanted to be super smart about it. When you get pictures done, if you are going to have different pictures, try and keep one thing the same.So maybe you’re always wearing the same shirt or maybe you – something like that. Just one little thing that hooks you in as being the same image each time in a way, like a common denominator.Adam: Yeah, it’s important to stress through, when you’ve gone along that route, that the images still need to differentiate slightly because Fiverr requires that each Gig has a different image.Redd: Exactly, yeah. You have to be very careful about making sure that you are still keeping them distinctive.Adam: So talking about the actual Gigs themselves then, coming on to that further, as we briefly mentioned, there’s other things that you can look to brand as well such as the actual Gig videos. So when it comes to Gig videos Redd, is there any specific way that you choose or you look to brand them when you maybe create a video?Redd: Yeah, I always make sure with my videos, that I do a very similar introduction. So my videos are an introduction and then I put samples afterwards. I don’t have exactly the same script for each of them but I’m very clear about making sure that I am introducing myself and what I do and I just kind of keep the same tone of voice in a way across all of them, so people can understand that that’s like what I actually sound like.Adam: I think you’ve highlighted a really key point there though in the fact that you introduce yourself and then your service. I think a lot of people maybe forget that it’s not just about pitching how good your service is. But you need to introduce and brand yourself in that way so users feel kind of connected to order from you.Otherwise for example, you may look at something like the logo design category where there are thousands of sellers and each one of them offers a logo. So if you see let’s say five different sellers that you all like the logos of, what makes you choose who you’re going to order from? The answer there is usually the actual seller themselves and how they’ve branded themselves.So by individually kind of introducing yourself to the buyers first and then pitching what you offer, you’re creating that personal connection and you’re kind of setting that tone for your service where hopefully users are then going to choose or decide to go with you.Now the thing I love about Sarah’s Gigs – because she kind of does this. It’s the fact that in Sarah’s videos, when she’s pushing her service, she also introduces herself in a really awesome way in the fact that – I’m going to highlight your jingle Gig here Sarah. In the fact that in your jingle Gig, you sing a jingle about your business.Sarah: When I created my jingle Gig, I thought people are buying jingles from me for their business. So why not show them what I can do for my business?Adam: Yeah, I think it’s great in the way that you kind of use your service to present yourself. I mean one thing I often see in the platform especially with maybe logo design is where a lot of logo designers will showcase that they can create a logo by recreating the Fiverr logo and the problem with that is, is Fiverr has a fantastic logo. It’s something we all recognize and we all remember.So by taking your service and demonstrating it to recreate Fiverr is difficult. It’s very difficult to come off better than Fiverr whereas if you took your service to demonstrate yourself, made a logo of yourself, you look great. In the same way you make a jingle for yourself, you look great. In the same way you maybe edit some video or anything else along these lines, for example if you had video and your Gig video is well-edited, again you look great from that.Redd: Yeah, I think it’s about definitely being consistent with – I think everyone wants to see what they’re buying and that is so important and that is something that I cannot express enough how great that is.So I definitely agree with you there Adam. So Adam, you have – your branding is pretty consistent. You have a lot of really cool little, niggly, quirky things you do. What do you do after delivery to like cement your brand in a buyer’s mind?Adam: So what I basically do is I try and keep the branding all the way through from – before they order, when they see my profile and they see the username and the profile image, they see the Gig, they see the video, they see the image and then when it comes to the actual order and they receive the order. I’ve got quite a few Gigs that don’t have any kind of live portfolio turned on because it’s not really required.So what I actually do is on those Gigs, I create an image that basically has almost like my delivery message on it. So the image may say, “Congratulations. Your order has been received or your order has been delivered.” Then kind of what to do next and kind of say maybe upsell or order these Gigs or maybe say along the lines of leave feedback or anything else along these lines.But what I basically do is I create the smallest of image and I upload it with every single Gig that I deliver that doesn’t have a live portfolio. So what happens on delivery is that image is taken and it’s showcased inside the order as an actual image. So when the buyer comes on to that order, they come on to the order. They scroll down. They see the delivery and next to that delivery attachment, they see a nice big image branded for my business, branded for my profile, basically telling them the next step or even by just thanking them for that order. So they always kind of leave remembering my brand.Redd: And again, like I think it’s important to note that your brand doesn’t have to be anything beyond your name and who you are. It doesn’t have to be about – for the people who don’t have the opportunity to display images or things like that, it can be as simple as always keeping the sign off of your name consistent.Adam: Yeah, I mean exactly. I mean if you actually look to some real life businesses and how they’ve been branded, a good example to look to is something like a lawyer or a solicitor where they haven’t tried to come up with a really cool kind of solicitor’s name or something – for their law practice.The solicitor is usually just named after that person. But solicitors and lawyers and other kind of industries like this are some of the best branded businesses you will find. So if you’re kind of panicking and thinking, “Well, I can’t think of a name for my business. I can’t think what I’m going to do,” as you say, branding yourself is the first step.So by branding yourself, you can really present yourself to the buyer. As you said, you sign off in the same way. You may even look on the platform. There’s a lot of signature Gigs available where you can have your signature designed. You maybe – might take one of these Gigs and just use it in any kind of imagery and just presenting yourself in that way or providing those kinds of look for what you’re doing is the first step to branding yourself.Redd: Those are all like really, really good points. But how does that pertain to like your live portfolio?Adam: So when it comes to live portfolio, you can often fall into the trap of when you come to the delivery, just upload the files that you have done and just click Send. But live portfolio is a really great tool that you should utilize in the platform and rather than just send the file that you’re necessarily delivering, have a look at maybe mocking up or creating a file specifically for your live portfolio.Now you may think to yourself, “Well, that’s going to take time. I don’t want to add lots of time on to my orders or on to how long it takes.” But if you follow a consistent kind of template of what you’re doing, it will literally be seconds, if not even faster.So one example to look out for this is maybe logo design Gigs. When you see a logo design Gig, most of them will have their live portfolio set up where rather than just show the image file they’ve delivered, they’ve got a specific kind of mock-up of that image, maybe in different colors or maybe some people put it on a letterhead as an example or they just demonstrate it in a way that the logo isn’t just the logo file. It’s mocked up to the user.I think there’s a lot of different ways that you can do this. For example, if you maybe offer video editing Gigs or if you offer video reviews where you review something on video, if you maybe had an introduction video or a logo put across or branded on your deliverable, you can then send two files, one with your logo on it and one, the buyer is actually going to use as the raw file.So from that, you’re branding your live portfolio. Your whole live portfolio is going to look consistent. It’s going to look more professional but your buyer is still going to receive the full file that they obviously paid for.Redd: That’s definitely a really good idea and then you know that when people are seeing your live portfolio when they’re looking through it, they’re consistently reminded of your brand again and again and again. That’s the other big thing about branding. So much of it is about – I don’t want to say overexposure. But to a certain degree, it’s about continuously sort of hammering home who you are.Adam: I think the only other issue that somebody may have is when it comes to deciding how they’re going to brand themselves and let’s say for example they do have a lot of different Gigs in different categories as you say. When they come to defining who they are, they may kind of panic and think, “How do I decide who I am? How can I get a name that decides who I am?” I think that leads on to the kind of like the last element of branding which is coming with the name along with the slogan as well. I think the slogan is a very important part of branding as well.Redd: So how would that work though for someone like me? As a voiceover artist, I don’t really have a need for a slogan. If you were advising me on that, what would you tell me to do?Adam: When you think about having a slogan, you don’t necessarily think about having always something that’s really pitchy. You have some companies or some businesses where they will have a slogan and they will have a – or they will have a company name, sorry, and they will have a really like catchy slogan. Like Nike, just do it. Now that is a catchy slogan for the business. But sometimes a slogan can just be a description of what you do.So it could be “Reddhorrocks, professional voiceover artist”. Now it differentiates between what you’re trying to push. But a slogan can be something that’s really catchy or just something that’s more kind of pushing to the user.Sarah is a fantastic example of this because Sarah is obviously called “Shiftypop” and having a look at Shiftypop on first viewing, unless you delve in a little bit further, you may think to yourself, “Well, what is Shiftypop?” So Sarah, do you actually have a slogan at the moment for your Fiverr business?Sarah: I do have a slogan and that is, “Bringing pop music to life with a toytastic twist.”Adam: So that’s a fantastic slogan. It’s all-encompassing because you do have a lot of different Gigs and a big range available. But rather than maybe over-think or over-complicate your business name, you can cover it in the slogan.Redd: Well, that’s about all we have time for today. Thank you so much to Sarah for joining us. You can find her on Fiverr at “Shiftypop”. Our jingle was created by Ryan, Customdrumloops. We were edited today by Dansha. Don’t forget to send us your community questions at forum.Fiverr.com. Thanks so much for listening and we will see you next week.Transcription by: Transexpert

Fiverr Team
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