Introduction to Brand Strategy: Part Two
Now that you have a good idea of what brand strategy is from last week's letter, it’s time to audit your existing strategy. Strategy is the presence of intention behind your actions, and the existing marketing of your organization counts as strategy, too (even if the strategy was “we need to do this real quick” ;) ). Once you evaluate where you’re coming from, you’ll have the ability to see where you want to go from here.
Once you’ve reviewed your brand, you can get to work on aligning with how you want to move forward.
Reviewing your brand:
Make a list of every way you market to your clients and customers. This should include every way you communicate with potential leads. A few categories these may fall into are:
Digital content (website, social media, newsletters, blogs)
Printed communications (marketing materials, flyers, business cards)
Direct communications (emails, in-person networking, cold call scripts)
After you have a good idea of where and how you’re showing up in your marketing efforts, you'll start to get an idea of how your audience views you as an organization.
Taking the review a step further:
The questions below are meant to help you review how you're representing your brand across all platforms (website, social media, marketing materials, etc.), in both written and visual branding. They should help you note any inconsistencies and anything you want to change as your business continues to evolve.
PS: I highly recommend journaling about these questions. It’s all a process - don’t be afraid to get messy! And the answers to these questions can absolutely be "I don't know" - no one is grading you except yourself.
PLATFORMS
Where are we showing up?
What does the customer journey look like from each of these platforms?
What platforms are we giving the most attention to (in both time and energy)?
Gut reaction: what feels worthwhile? What doesn’t?
AUDIENCES
Who is the existing audience for each of these platforms (age, location, existing customers vs. potential etc)? Are these audiences we are looking to appeal to?
MISSION & VALUES
Are our mission and values apparent on each of these platforms?
MESSAGING & VOICE
Does our message (the information we are delivering) and voice (how we talk about ourselves as a whole) differ from platform to platform? How and why?
Does our tone (serious vs. funny; informative vs. entertaining) differ from platform to platform? How and why?
Is the messaging we are providing valuable? Is it strategic and cutting through the noise to our core audience for that platform?
What services and information are we pushing on each platform? Does this match with the audience?
“When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen.”
This was originally published in Building Your Biz, an email series providing tangible, simple ways to begin creating a brand foundation that your business can be built on.
This series will cover everything you need to know about creating your own branding, from strategy, to design, to marketing. It's for DIYers and dreamers who are creating their own business and want to be efficient, gain clarity, and do something that matters.