Branding Strategy

Your brand’s strategy is an important part of your business strategy as a whole. Branding strategy will help you define your brand’s voice, personality, values, and goals. Your strategy will lead you to your visual style, niche, and your audience.

Values

One of the first steps in developing your brand strategy is determining your brand values. What does your brand believe in and what does it stand for? Your values can include things such as collaboration, equality, education, accessibility, or reliability, just to name a few examples. This is the foundation of your brand strategy and reflects how your business should be run as a whole.

Mission

What is the objective of your business? Who do you serve and why? Your mission statement should explain the purpose of your brand and how you better the lives of your customers. Your mission statement is the driving force of your business.

Goals

What are your short term and long term goals for your brand? Where do you see your business in a week, six months, five years? Set goals with a timeline to stick to and brainstorm how you can take action to reach these goals. Look into the SMART method: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals are closer to your reach when you have a game plan.

Positioning

Think about your competition. Who are they and who do they serve? What is their brand personality? How do they price their products and services? How do customers percieve those brands? You can differentiate yourself from these brands with your pricing, quality, customer service, and more to fill the gap you see in the marketplace.

Personality

Potential customers may choose one business over another if they believe that the personality and values of a brand align more with their own, so it’s important to have a clearly defined brand personality. If your business was a person, who would they be? How would they speak, dress, and act? Are they serious and sincere, or lighthearted and fun?

Customer Experience

The customer experience should be considered at each step. Create a road map from discovery of your brand to post-purchase. How do potential customers find you? Is it easy to gather information about your business? Will someone be helping customers make choices or will they rely on their own research? What is the purchasing process like? How do you treat customers throughout the experience, and how do you follow up with them afterwards?

Culture

What is it like to be an employee for your company? What kind of environment are you creating? Company culture can not only have an affect on your employees and the quality of their lives and work, but it can also impact how customers view your brand as a whole.

Value Proposition

The value proposition of your business explains the benefits of your products or services to your customers. What do you provide to your customers and how is it different from the competition? Consider the pain points of your customer and how you can solve problems they may be facing with your competition.

Visual Design

Your brand’s visuals are the first impression you give your clients and potential customers and should reflect your professionalism, personality, and positioning. Learn more about brand identity design by clicking here.

Marketing

Define what you hope to achieve with marketing your business, and brainstorm ways to reach your target audience. Are you exclusively marketing on social media, or do you plan to advertise in traditional media as well? What information is the most important for potential customers to know and what message are you trying to get across? You can set up a marketing budget and calendar for paid ads. Consider organic content and viral marketing to build your audience and your authority in the industry.

Scale & Growth

Consider how your business can grow in the future. Will you be expanding your services or product offerings? Will you open additional locations or franchise? What technologies can you introduce? Can some tasks be automated? Will you be increasing your marketing budget? If you know where your business could potentially go from the beginning, you’ll get a head start in scaling your brand.