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If you feel like your current marketing efforts are somewhat scattered, you're probably not imagining things - chances are, you're absolutely right.
If you're trying a million things but aren't seeing anywhere near the results that you're after, it's likely that you're just not giving enough attention to your larger brand strategy. The truth is, you don't have to take a "kitchen sink" approach to marketing at all — you just have to acknowledge that your brand strategy is so much more than just a logo and a catchy tagline.
Any effective brand strategy will not only define what your business is all about for your target audience, but it will do so in a way that also helps highlight where you should be investing your marketing efforts to guarantee the highest return.
What is a Brand Strategy?
One of the most critical things to understand about your brand is that it both encompasses and gives a voice to all the things that communicate
- Who you are.
- Why that matters.
- What makes you different from everyone else?
Absolutely everything — from the language choices you're making to the visuals you use — goes into creating this larger customer experience.
According to one recent study, approximately 81% of consumers say that they need to trust a brand before they're willing to buy from it. In other words, developing your brand strategy is all about telling your brand's story in a way that is both compelling and that establishes you as an authority at the exact same time.
Tips to Develop Your Brand Strategy: Your Overview
1. Take an Audit of What You Are Doing Now
In an effort to better develop your brand strategy, one of the most crucial steps to take involves conducting an audit of exactly what you're doing now. Undoubtedly, some of your current efforts will be working — but that isn't going to be true of everything you're trying. Therefore, conducting an audit will let you know what you should be doubling down on and, more importantly, which of your efforts you need to pivot from as soon as possible.
2. Focus on Your Target Audience
Likewise, you need to spend time thinking about your target audience. If marketing is all about getting the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time, it stands to reason that you need to know as much as possible about who those people actually are. Creating buyer personas and making an effort to understand what your audience likes, dislikes, needs and wants is a big part of how you do it.
3. Define Your Business’s Growth Goals
At the same time, you need to consider your business's long-term growth goals. Marketing needs to be purpose-driven — everything you do should be in the name of accomplishing something specific. You can't get to that point if you don't know what your growth goals actually are.
4. Think About What Makes Your Business Different
You'll also want to spend time thinking about what makes your business different from all others in your industry. There are a lot of organizations that do what you do — but nobody does it quite like how you do it. That thing that makes you unique, that special quality, needs to become a centerpiece of your marketing efforts moving forward.
Beyond that, you should do creative research for visual branding to help your business stand out in a crowd. Even without reading so much as a single word, people should be able to differentiate you from every other company like yours. Likewise, focus on creating a great customer experience — one that people won't be able to find anywhere else. If you're able to do that, you'll build more than just a higher number of customers. You'll amass a loyal army of brand advocates who are ready to sing your praises far and wide.
In the end, when you keep in mind how important your brand's larger strategy is, you'll better understand what to prioritize in terms of "getting it all right." The aforementioned tips are a great way to get started — but they're also just one small part of a much larger story.
Our team of creative experts would be honored for the opportunity to not only help you develop a brand strategy, but to come up with a larger plan of action to take your business to the next level. If you're interested in finding out more information, or if you just want to get your free consultation on the books, please don't delay... Contact us today!
