What Makes Up a Brand Strategy?
When we design strategic brands for our clients, the brand strategy serves as the core of everything we do. The brand strategy is the first brand exercise we complete as it should directly influence the visual branding. A brand strategy sounds great, but what exactly is it?
Our brand strategy is broken into three main sections:
01. Brand Messaging:
Brand messaging is your way to strategically convey what your brand stands for, what you do and how you do it, and how to work with you.
Brand Goals: Before fleshing out the full brand strategy, we get grounded in what we are trying to achieve with our branding. Typically it is to connect with your target audience, attract high-paying clients, create a cohesive brand experience, or widen your audience reach.
Mission + Vision: Your mission and vision should serve as the gateway to your brand. It should clearly and directly state who you are, what you do, and what impact you are aiming to create.
Pitch Statement: Your pitch statement is essentially laying out the problem you are solving for your audience, how you solve it, and what they should expect to get from your product or service. It’s typically in a three-paragraph format and lives on the home page of your website.
Tagline: You may not always utilize your tagline, but it’s helpful to have a 3-10 word statement that stays exactly what you do in a catchy way. This gives your audience something to remember you. It also makes it easy for you to quickly say what you do to future clients and strategic partners.
Process: One of the best ways to increase the conversion on your website is by adding a 3-step process to your homepage. It will quickly tell future clients how to work with you in 3 bite-sized steps. You want this to be a combination of logicists (fill out this form, schedule your call, etc.) and positive outcomes (you will get X, you will be X, etc.). It tangibly gives your future clients the keys to working with you.
Tone: Tone plays an important role when writing content for your website or social media. It should start by asking yourself the balance you are trying to strike. Some examples can include: Transformative and Authentic, Inviting and Approachable, Professional and Educational, Engaging and Fun.
02. Brand Values
More than ever, consumers want to invest in individuals and companies who stand for something. Brand values should be a core component of your brand strategy. Customers want to feel like they are making an impact with their money. Brand values are another way to make a deeper connection with your customers.
Brand Words: These tend to be a list of 10-12 adjectives that describe the essence of the brand. These tend to come out organically during the brand strategy session we host to kick off the project.
Brand Values: You should ideally have 3-5 values that you stand for as an organization. They typically will start with “we believe…”. It’s a great tool to use on the website to connect with your audience in a deeper way and a great way to guide the decisions of your organization as you grow.
03. Target Audience
Defining your target audience is the most important part of the brand strategy. You have to clearly define who your product or service is for - and get inside their head. When we design the visual branding (brand colors, logos, typography, etc.), we lean on the target audience more than any other section. It is essential that you are designing a brand that connects with your exact audience.
Niche Statement: Your niche statement should be a combination of your mission and your target audience. In a short sentence, describe what you do and who you do it for. This is a great tool to use for your social media bios, so future clients know exactly who you serve.
Target Audience Personas: This is where you get in the heads of 3-4 members of your target audience. You want to get a clear idea of who they are and why they are interested in working with you. To make this as effective as possible, chose members of your target audience that are on the two extremes. So if your target audience is women ages 25-45, make sure to include someone at the younger and older end of your target audience.
You want to include things like their name, age, where they live, what they do, how much they make, the problem they are looking to solve, the social media platforms they prefer, the service offerings they are interested in, the brands they buy, and how they heard about you. Every time you create anything for your brand, you want to make sure you run it through each member of your target audience persona.
Ready to level-up your brand strategy in order to convert sales? We’re here to do it for you. Click the button below to fill out our inquiry form and schedule your free discovery call to see how we can help!
