Avoid failure for your ambitious small business with a brand strategy
A brand is a memory.
It’s also a belief in something.
It’s all the emotions that you feel when you interact with a brand you love.
It can help you defy odds, disrupt categories and win the hearts and minds of consumers.
Without a brand, you can’t stand out, consumers have nothing to believe in.
Think back to day 1.
The day you decided to start your business or brand.
The passion you felt for how your brand would benefit people, and how you wanted everyone to know about it.
You thought about the loyal customers you would have, and you even thought about how you could create a loyal community of people who you would serve.
In turn, they would support your brand and be there to help you build up your business.
The challenge now is that it’s difficult to feel that same passion and enthusiasm every day when you’re so busy running your business.
Instead of potential customers knocking on your emails, you’re hearing crickets.
This is why you need a brand strategy.
The only way you will build loyalty and community is by knowing your brand and what it stands for so this connects you and creates engagement.
It becomes the interactions and sum of everything you do and say to your target people.
Every decision you make, and everything you say goes back to your brand and aligns with it.
Otherwise, there’s no point.
Your brand becomes a commodity with no intrinsic value
There are 2 things a brand strategy will do that you need to grow:
Clarifies why you exist and where in the market.
(It humanises your brand so you define your unique perspective and position in the world)
It facilitates every decision you make in your business.
A brand strategy defines your brand personality, its values and human traits.
Your brand then becomes a tangible entity that has value.
That value is what gives it longevity – and cash in the bank if you sell!
It also gives you the do’s and don’ts.
What language to use, tone of voice, words to use to communicate, where and how to show up for your target audience.
If you don’t know any of this, how do you know what messaging and type of content to create?
How do you know what your brand says yes and no to when opportunities come up?
How do you map out your growth plans if you don’t know who the brand is?
If consumers don’t see personality and values in your brand that means they also won’t know what you stand for and whether they can trust you.
Think about the brands that you love and connect with.
They will all have done something, or shown up for you in a way that made you feel proud to purchase them.
It’s because they have clear brand personalities.
You can do this for your brand too.
A brand strategy can also be known as a brand bible or brand playbook
Here’s what’s in a brand strategy and what it can do:
It guides you on how you should show up.
How you look, what your colours are, as well as your tone of voice and personality.
It clarifies your values, and what you stand for.
It makes it clear what your value is, how you are solving your customers’ problems, and what transformation you are bringing to their lives.
2. Your brand story and visual identity are clearly outlined.
This means you can be consistent and focus on getting your content created and consistent across every single touchpoint.
It helps you create consistency so that no matter how you are communicating your brand personality sounds the same in emails, on your website, on across your socials.
This is useful if you intend to build out a team.
3. When you put your brand on paper, and confirm its personality, values and essence you give yourself the confidence to articulate your brand and its messaging.
It becomes easier for everyone working with you and your brand.
There is power in knowing that you can execute a clear brand strategy that has a clear vision and tone of voice.
4. Once you know your brand’s personality, values and tone of voice you can set to work creating content that resonates with your target audience.
It becomes so much easier to create messaging and content you know will connect and resonate, and get results quickly.
It takes time and effort but it’s the foundation for your brand and your content strategy.
You will get totally clear on your product-market fit.
You will get totally clear on the transformation you offer to your target audience.
You will totally clear on the content that will resonate with your target audience.
The bonus?
A great brand strategy attracts the right people to you, creating community
If you nurture that community through your content (especially by adding email) you will create a consistent place to broadcast your message to them.
Email becomes a safe space they agree to hear from you which is not impacted by social platform algorithms or trends.
The community in turn will inform your content, and help create storytelling for you.
Once they start to believe in you because you are sharing authentic original content that is true to your brand, you will find that you have gained their trust and sales will come with less effort.
Thanks for reading.
Claire.
Are you a founder or small business owner curious about doing better marketing?
Here’s how I can help.
Hi I’m Claire,
If you're a founder or business owner with big dreams of success and growth—and a big, scary to-do list standing in your way every time you sit down to *do* your marketing—nice to meet you, I'm your new solution.
I'll help you find your target audience, and your brand's voice, perfectly position you, and craft messaging for your content strategy that will resonate with your ideal audience.
And I'll do it all while keeping your goals to ensure that your brand aligns with what you want to achieve.
I’ve been in marketing for over 20 years and I’m busting through the bull**** and industry nonsense to give you straight-talking and proven strategic marketing that will grow your business.