An overview of brand strategy…

Top factors to note when developing your brand strategy.

So many clients and students come to me asking for one thing: More sales. But I always have them take a step back in the process in order to really make an impact. Without strong foundations, you just won’t be able to hit those sales goals. So we slow down in order to speed up. Speaking from personal experience and that of my clients, this process works. And that process always needs to start with a promising brand strategy.

If you want to increase revenue, make more sales online, and overall grow your business, you need to start with a clear and strong brand strategy. With this in place, everything else will become a lot easier:

• Marketing content creation will feel easy.
• Writing website copy will happen smoothly.
• Increasing sales will be simple.

So if you find yourself wanting to grow your business as well, start by focusing on your brand strategy first. From there, everything will click into place with so much more clarity than before. Seriously, one of the biggest takeaways that my clients gain from our work together is the confidence via clarity in their brand strategy. Then that confidence trickles into every other aspects of their business, further increasing their revenue.

Keep reading to learn:

• What is a brand strategy and why do you need one?
• What aspects are considered within a brand strategy?
• Where can you implement your new brand strategy?

What is a brand strategy?

Your business’ brand strategy is essentially an intentional map of what makes your brand so special. It outlines a ton of crucial information that will shape your messaging and marketing going forward.

How do you create a brand strategy?

I teach my exact process through various resources and tools in The Biz Bar and organizations hire me to speak on the topic, so I can’t spill all the secrets. However, I can tell you that it starts with interviewing your current or dream customers. A brand is really just the perception that people have of your business. It’s what they think when they hear your name. And you have the power to shape that perception. So in order to start shaping, you need to know what they think of you and your business in the first place.

Beyond customer research, developing an effective brand strategy requires a deep dive into what makes you and your business so you, then separating the character of your brand from yourself as an individual. I insist on this separation because it helps set boundaries between work and life, and the balance between the two is really important. However, it’s not a practice of totally isolating yourself from your business. Instead, I think of it like you’re curating the most relevant pieces of you and focusing on those aspects of your image online. This way you know that your brand will genuinely connect with your audience.

Other aspects of a brand strategy to consider:

• Brand personality
• Brand voice and tone
• Mission, vision, and values
• Value proposition
• Customer avatar
• Core messaging
• Key positioning
• Brand buzzwords
• Topics that are off limits
• Content categories
• Brand vibe
• Emotions conveyed
• Colours, logos, and fonts
• Brand patterns
• Branded imagery

As you can see, there’s so much that goes into developing a robust brand strategy. I work through many of the above with my 1:1 coaching clients and within done-for-you services. After we’re finished laying the groundwork, my clients often bring on visual designers and photographers to help with the last three items on the above list: Brand elements and imagery.

Let’s focus on the words first though, specifically talking about brand voice and brand message strategy. These two pieces are so important to get right before you work on any branded visuals within your business.

Brand voice: What and how?

Brand voice is your collective persona that your business uses to speak to your ideal customer avatar and other stakeholders. Based on the brand personality, and incorporating style and tone specifics, your brand voice should be a voice that feels entirely unique to you.

For some businesses, your brand voice may be really close to your actual voice, if not identical. This is true for my business because I’m a personal brand and genuinely want to connect with my people. Of course, there are some differences so that I can protect my personal boundaries as mentioned above, but it feels very much like me and that’s how I’m able to connect so quickly with my dream clients. Discovery calls often feel like I’m meeting with good friends.

Documenting your brand voice will also force you to decide: Is my brand an “I” or a “we” because you need to know who is actually speaking. Is it you as a personal brand? Or the collective of an agency?

Brand message strategy

Next, you need to consider the brand message strategy: What core messages do you need to deliver to your audience to encourage them to know, like, and trust you? This is often tied to your value proposition and positioning points. It also may be rooted in your brand’s stories.

For example, much of my messaging revolves around standing out from the crowd. Create trends instead of following them. Break rules and do things the way that you want to, not just because you think you should do something a certain way. To convey this message, I not only say it plainly like that, but also tell stories from my personal and professional life to further drive the point home. This is because people connect to and remember stories.

It’s beneficial to document these stories and messages within your brand strategy so that you know all of your marketing efforts are cohesive. If you jump around all over the place, your audience will be confused—and confused people don’t buy.

Brand marketing strategy

Your brand messaging strategy should not be confused with your brand marketing strategy. By brand marketing strategy, I’m referring to a detailed outline of the channels that you’re ideal customer avatar uses, along with individual plans to connect with those dream clients in each area.

Questions to ask yourself when developing a marketing strategy for your business:

• Where do you plan to show up?
• How often? Using what methods?
• What type of content will you share?
• What’s the delivery mode?
• What content do you need to create?
• What’s your content creation schedule?
• Will anyone be helping you?
• How will you judge the ROI?

The above might seem a bit like busywork—why can’t I just post? But like anything, if you want to do it well, you need to act with intention. Having an action plan to follow will ensure that intentional trajectory. So all of the above questions are factors to consider within your marketing strategy, and by having a clear plan in place before sitting down to create content, it will feel a lot easier when it’s time to get creative.

Have a question?

Leave your questions about brand strategy, marketing strategy, and messaging below! I’ll respond personally ASAP.