A brand strategy goes waaaaaay beyond just what colours and fonts you use. It goes deep into the fabric of your business and is what helps to make it unforgettable. It hones in on the essence of why you exist, and for who, so you know hand-on-heart what you should be offering and HOW.
Often when starting a business we get so caught up in developing the visual identity of our brand, that we completely overlook the more important strategy that sits underneath. While this strategy might live in our minds and be relatively clear up there, getting it down on paper and articulating it can take things to the next level. It enables you to clearly and consistently communicate that internal knowledge to the audiences who matter, ultimately helping you create a business people fall in love with.
Unsure where you sit on the brand strategy front? This blog dives into some of the biggest tell-tale signs your business needs a brand strategy.
FIRST OFF, WHAT IS A BRAND STRATEGY?
A brand strategy is a bible-like document for your business. Using language that resonates with your audience, and a tone that's distinctly yours, it lays out all of your core business messaging. Defining who you are and what you do, it acts as a tangible resource that you can turn to for almost every business and marketing decision you need to make.
A brand strategy explores your audience - beyond their basic demographics. Unpacking what lights them up, shits them to death, and all of the problems they face (that you know how to solve) it gives you a super clear understanding of who you’re talking to, and how to talk to them in a way that makes them stop and listen.
It explores your customer journey, and all of the ways you make your business stand out. From the type of content you create, to the way you package your products and guide your audience through the sales process, a brand strategy looks at how your business develops connections at every stage of the sales process.
Lastly, it describes the overall character of your brand. Defining the values, the voice and the vibe, it helps you create a persona that people can resonate with and emotionally connect to.
In most brand strategies you’ll find segments that include the following details:
Purpose
Mission
Vision
Values
Client Persona
Client Problems & Solutions
Buyer Journey
Competitor Analysis
Brand Archetype
Personality
Voice
One-Liner
Bio
USP’s (Unique Sales Propositions)
So, how do you know if you need one? Let’s dive into the signs…
1. DESCRIBING YOUR BUSINESS IS HARD
If you struggle to articulate who you are and what you do in a consistent and compelling way, this is a big sign you need a brand strategy. A brand strategy provides succinct and enticing copy that literally covers these things. Better yet, it does so using your brand voice and language. With a strategy, you can take the content and messaging that's inside and use it across all of your communication touchpoints.
2. YOU DON’T KNOW WHO YOU’RE TALKING TO
Half of the time when you’re struggling to write captions for social media, it’s because you might be unclear on who you’re talking to and how to talk to them. When we’re really clear on our target audience, writing content is so much easier. Through a brand strategy, we create a client avatar and define all aspects of their personality. From their loves and hates, to their problems, we learn what fires their emotions or fuels their decision making. Through these triggers, we can identify how to talk to our audience in a way that grabs their attention.
Turning the abstract notion of an “audience” into a somewhat “tangible” person means we can imagine ourselves having a conversation with them. We can imagine what we would say, and how, and this can then translate into copy.
3. YOUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY IS FRAGMENTED
Gaining your audience’s attention is only one tiny portion of the marketing process. Often, it’s what follows after that really seals the deal and determines whether or not your clients will come back for more.
If you can’t clearly describe your customer journey, if your sales process is a bit all over the show, or if you feel as though your processes are just a bit “meh” - you’re likely in need of a brand strategy.
At every stage of the customer journey, you should have a way of making it clear to your audience that they’ve made the best bloody decision to buy from you. A brand strategy will help you figure out unique ways of doing this.
4. YOU CHOP AND CHANGE YOUR LANGUAGE AND YOUR STYLE A LOT
Often when we keep changing the way we describe our services, or we jump between different language styles, it’s because we’re still trying to find the voice that fits. Either what we’ve said before hasn’t felt “right” so we say it again in a different way, or we aren’t actually clear on what matters so we speak in whatever way we want because there’s no deeper reason not to.
A brand strategy defines your brand voice and core brand messaging. Through this you’re able to know why your words matter, and how they can be used to build trust and connection with your audience.
5. YOU’RE FOREVER SWITCHING UP YOUR OFFERS
If you’re always changing your service offerings or testing out new products, often this is again another sign you need a brand strategy. Continuously offering something new or different usually means you don’t really know what your audience wants. Instead you end up throwing ideas at the wall one after the other to see what sticks.
Through a brand strategy we break down the problems your audience face, and the solutions you offer to help solve them. These solutions are then translated into products and services. If you haven’t taken the time to determine the problems, how are you meant to know the solutions?
NEED A BRAND STRATEGY FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
Are these tell-tale signs all you right now? Let’s create a kick-ass brand strategy for your business that gets you building all the right connections in all the right ways, with ease.
Book a call below to get started!
With good vibes,