WITHOUT A STRATEGY, YOU CAN END UP IN TROUBLE
If you've ever tweaked your logo or changed the colors of your website and still feel that something's not right, you're not alone. Your business is struggling, you're unsure of what to do and overwhelmed, your audience isn't engaging with you anymore except the occasional weekend picture where someone might comment "period" and to top it off, you have way too many ideas to choose just one.
Here's the thing, tweaking your brand design (again) won't fix the problem. At this point you're just avoiding doing the hard work. But Don't worry, you're not alone! Before I started offering brand strategy services I was lost too! Fun fact, I redid my own branding and webiste 26 times (privately of course) before i had enough and decided to sit down and ask for help. Yes, i said it help i had to ask my fellow designers for help and set my ego aside, so If you’re feeling confused and stuck trying to grow your business, it’s not because the colors of your brand aren’t just right. You probably don’t have a clear enough brand strategy as a foundation for marketing and growing your business.
If you fit the following criteria, this episode is for you:
Your brand feels scattered and confusing
You don't know what to do with all of your thoughts
You aren't seeing your brand grow like you want
You need real strategies to help you transition from where you are to where you want to be
You need a road map to help you get there
So let's dive in
I see so many business owners struggling to market and grow their brands. While they seem to be doing everything right, they don't seem to be moving the needle towards growth. And when I took a closer look at why so many were struggling, I saw a common thread – they weren’t focusing on the right thing. Instead of thinking about the purpose of their brand and what they're actually trying to achieve, most business owners start with pretty designs because it’s more fun to focus on the pretty stuff. (ugh I'm so guilty of this) But here’s some tough love: You can’t market anything well until you know what it is you’re trying to market and who you're marketing to.
It doesn’t do any good to invest time and/or money into a brand or website design unless you have taken the time to fully develop a clear brand strategy. Otherwise, your brand and website won’t work as well and you’ll end up having to go back and tweak it again and again.
That’s why I recommend starting with the brand strategy first.
By approaching your marketing with a strategic foundation, you are more likely to get the results you need and in turn, grow your business. Any marketing tactic will work well if it is executed with the right strategy behind it. You can’t just copy and paste the surface-level side of a marketing techniques and expect it to work. You need to have the right depth behind it so it makes sense and you are reaching the right person with it.
By defining this foundational strategy for your business, you will be able to better understand and communicate your message to the right person. You’ll have a guide for the rest of your business growth, marketing, and decisions that will keep you on track instead of wandering inconsistently once you learn this process. You’ll be able to repeat this over and over in your business for even more clarity as you grow. (and it can be applied to each of your offerings as well as when you shift, pivot, or evolve in your business).
More importantly, THE INDUSTRY IS TEACHING YOU THE WRONG WAY
I don’t blame you for focusing on the look of your brand first. I think the industry is leading you in the wrong direction. Instead of putting more emphasis on the strategy and building out your brand from there, the industry tends to put more emphasis on the design of your brand leaving you to hope and pray your marketing efforts will work and your pretty logo will get you by.
But when you take this approach, you end up with an inconsistent brand and confusing messaging. You’ll change your fonts and colors with the latest trends, and your messaging will be all over the place because you don’t have a grounded strategy to pull it all together. That’s why I believe we should approach it the other way around – by establishing your strategy first so can guide the rest of your brand and marketing and be much more effective.
Finally, WHAT IS A BRAND STRATEGY?
So I’ve probably convinced you that a strategy-first approach to building your brand is the way to go, but what exactly is a brand strategy and where do you start?
Well, a complete brand strategy is made up of eight components, and you need them all to work together if you want it to flow with the rest of your brand.
Here are the 8 components:
Market research: Instead of just guessing what people want, you base your decisions on actual research.
Target market: To identify who you serve and what problem they're facing.
Brand purpose + promise: Sum up your brand purpose in a clear and concise brand statement with maximum impact by defining the results or transformation you provide.
Brand offerings: How do you deliver those results?
Client journey: Map out the path you want your clients to take to success.
Brand positioning : This is defining why you do what you do differently than someone who does the same thing you do. The type and positioning of your brand and how it speaks to your clients.
Brand voice and personality: Understand your brand's voice and personality so you can talk to the right people.
Brand message: Use storytelling and messaging to make your brand memorable.
HOW TO JUMP START YOUR STRATEGY
The process of nailing down all of those things can seem overwhelming, but when you're done, you'll have so much more confidence and clarity.
There will be no doubt about who you're serving, what results you're providing, and how you're communicating with them. You'll know what to say every time you send an email, schedule a social media post, or talk to someone about your brand.
Start your strategy by answering these 3 questions
(which are the core of the overall brand strategy):
Who does your business serve? Knowing exactly who you’re speaking to will help you understand what you need to communicate about your brand to convert them to paying clients.
What results or transformations do you provide? What is the core result or transformation that you are trying to provide people with?
Do you offer products or services people can buy to get those results?
Even if it feels like too much to tackle or a struggle to get it out of your head, the key is to start with this. Before you try to build your email list, make another lead magnet, spend money on paid ads, hire a copywriter or designer, or create a new website, figure out your brand strategy. You owe it to yourself and your business to spend time working through this first and the rest will fall into place more naturally.
It's a lot easier to build your brand if you start at the bottom. It's possible to build a brand without a clear strategy, but it will be haphazard, feel scattered, and be hard to maintain - even if you're getting a lot of sales and income. With a brand strategy in place, you'll be able to grow a brand that's wildly successful and widely known without doubting yourself all along. You'll get your own blueprint for building your brand based on a foundation you'll love.
NEXT STEPS
Now that you know what a brand strategy is, it's time to put it into action. If you ever need help, I'm just one click away!