How do you promote your brand? When you own a business, it is a must to establish an integrated and remarkable method on how you would want people to remember your product or service. Why is it a must? In this article we outline Things You Must Know About Brand Strategy.
You’re not the only one in the industry. Surely, you already know that there’s hectic competition going on—that you have strong competitors. Thus, you need a brand to show what sets you apart from others. Also, it would be a crucial element in your overall marketing strategy.
What is a brand strategy, anyway?
As defined in an article from Marketing MO about Brand Strategy, “Your brand strategy defines what you stand for, a promise you make, and the personality you convey. And while it includes your logo, color palette, and slogan, those are only creative elements that convey your brand.”
Before you begin building a brand strategy for your business, you must know first what the whole thing is all about. This should include:
- The appropriate and professional ways of developing a strong strategy
- Identifying your specific goals
- The techniques to come up with an effective strategy
- The tools and resources you would need
- Understanding the importance of brand strategy for the success of your business
I understand that it can be quite overwhelming to know everything. Why don’t you start with these basic things you must know about brand strategy?
The major elements in developing a brand strategy
Elements are like cooking ingredients. Without them, a recipe will not result in a dish that tastes good. It’s the same when you’re cooking your brand strategy; you need specific elements to come up with the best one for your business. What are these elements?
- Specific target market: The audience you want to market your product or service to.
- Unique brand message: The promise you want to convey to your audience.
- Brand tone: Do you want to sound formal or casual? It’s all up to you and the line of business you are operating in.
- Brand positioning: The perception you want your audience to have towards your brand.
Your purpose is important
Go back to why you’re doing the business—why are you selling this product or why are you providing this particular service? What’s your mission?
Identifying the main purpose of your business will give you lots of advantages. As you do so, your target audience can also determine the specific benefits they can gain from using a product or service. This is what they want, because they’ll feel that their unclear search in the beginning is satisfied. They get the answers they’ve been looking for.
For your business itself, it would be easy to set up goals when you’re developing a marketing and brand strategy. It would be easy to identify your target market, create the right content, and choose the flow and design of your website.
You should build an emotional connection with your audience
A strong intimacy with your audience should be one of your brand strategy goals.
Your brand should make your audience feel valued. Build an emotional connection just with your tagline and promise message.
One of the most effective methods to get your customers’ attention is to appeal to their emotions. The next thing is to know their struggles and problems. Let them know that they can do something to solve it, then you can present how your product or service can help them.
Another meaning of emotional connection is how you make your audience feel. Do they feel valued under your customer service both personally and online? Therefore, accommodate your customers well the moment they call you.
You need a logo and a tagline
A logo and tagline are simplified ways to present your business. Thus, you should go into details when creating them. You have to make sure that your business first comes to mind every time they see it. It should also be remarkable and will not be easily forgotten.
The main key is to make it simple yet innovative, just like what famous brands have. Apple simply has an apple logo with a twist because of the bite. For the tagline, you surely know what brand “Open happiness” represents—Coca-Cola.
How do you create an excellent logo for your business?
You can you choose between a text and a symbol logo. There are still more ways, so don’t limit your options. Just one tip—keep it simple.
How do you create a catchy tagline for your business?
Narrow down what you do or how customers can benefit from using your business into three to five words. Another tip is to begin with an action word. Contact The Logo Creative as they specialise in logo and brand identity design.
You need strategic content development
You can’t fully implement your brand strategy without content. This refers to both content in the form of words and visuals.
Your content should be direct to avoid confusing your audience. It should fully and accurately deliver the message you want to tell them. Also, as you continue creating content to promote your brand, make sure to observe consistency when it comes to your tone and brand positioning.
Know your competitors
Competition has always been part of the business industry. Of course, you know this! You already know that there’s no time to slack off if you want to stay on top of your game.
You must know your business competitors in order to know how to get ahead of them. Doing this task is made even easier nowadays because of the Internet, of which an online presence is already a must for a business.
You only need to find their website or social media profiles to find out:
- Their methods of marketing their products or services;
- Their selling prices;
- Their ways of using technology to leverage their game;
- The tools and resources they use for their digital marketing strategy.
There are still a lot of ways to know your competitors. You just need to go out there and find it yourself with the help of some experts.
You really need a website
You need a good website to display your brand attractively.
A lot of people are now using the Internet to find a product or a service because it’s hassle-free and saves time. They don’t need to go around anymore to find a particular or service. They can just look online for the places that offer it. Then, there’s the review, which they can use to measure the credibility of businesses.
Since we are now living in a fast-paced digital world, it’s hard to survive without an online presence, especially for small businesses. You need a website. Why? It’s now one helpful tool to reach to a wider audience online. This means you can easily promote your business to a wider and centralized target market. Also, a website can open lots of channels for you to convert online users into potential customers.
Don’t have a website, yet? Or, is your existing website old and unappealing? Make sure to create it with a professional website builder.
After going through the seven things you must know about brand strategy, I’m sure you may still be asking, “What is the difference between brand strategy and marketing strategy?” One thing is for sure, though. These two should be present in a business and should work together.
To put it simply, a brand strategy is the overall feel of your business. It should be a guide for your customers about what to expect about your product or service. Therefore, it should be an appropriate summary of what your business is all about from the perspective of customers.
On the other hand, a marketing strategy is your way of promoting your brand and convincing people to buy your product or service. It’s a method of engaging people and getting them to know more about your brand. What’s the use of having an excellent brand strategy when only a few people know about it? Makes sense, right?
What does it mean to have a strong brand strategy?
You can use these advantages as a motivation to create an efficient brand strategy:
- Customer loyalty: The more you retain customers, the better your reputation is. Seeing the same people buying from you or using your service will give your prospective customers confidence about using your business.
- Makes you different: You should stand out among your competitors so people can easily see you. A strong brand strategy can help you set your business apart from others by highlighting the unique benefits and approach you can offer.
- Improved business reputation: Of course, when you present your business well with effective branding, you can easily establish good credibility in the market.
What’s your brand? Are you ready to bring it to better heights? Plan your brand strategy with both your business’ future success and customer satisfaction in mind. We hope this article about Things You Must Know About Brand Strategy have been useful, and be sure to leave any comments below.
Author Bio
I am Louise Savoie Digital Marketer at Proweaver, a web development company specializing in Custom Web Design which helps sole proprietors and small companies increase their sales and grow their business. I am responsible in Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing.
