3 Key Steps To Building A Strategic Brand
What does building a strategic brand mean for your business?
Simply put, it’s having a clear definition of what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for. Without this foundation you'll find yourself scattered. You’ll feel like you need to be spreading yourself thin: connecting on all the platforms you can think of, trying to speak to everybody when in reality you're speaking to no one.
So what can you do to build a brand strategically? I’ve kept this super simple and come up with 3 steps to guide you through the process.
1. Gain brand clarity through strategy
You can't build a solid house on sand and the same goes for your brand. To create an effective brand, you need to work on the foundational principles first and know what your brand stands for. You’ve got to know who you serve and why you do it. Having these foundations in place before starting any design work will make it easier to effectively create a brand identity and content marketing plan that resonates with your ideal audience, as you'll be clear on what problems you're trying to solve and how you can solve them.
This strategy will play a pivotal role in you being able to visually communicate your business, as all the design work and future marketing you do will have a solid purpose and strategy behind it. Not only will it help your potential customers know what you’re all about and understand your brand, being strategic will ensure that everything you put out into the world feels intentional.
If you need a helping hand working through building these foundations, my free workbook can help get you to a place of clarity with regards to what you do, why you do it and who you do it for.
2. Build your brand identity
This is the part that people usually dive headfirst into as it's the more visually fun part. But in reality, this is just the tip of the iceberg!
Your identity will include things you may be familiar with like your logo, your typography, colour palette and photography style, but it also includes your tone of voice and how you communicate with people. It's important to make sure your brand strategy is solidified before you jump into the visual identity, as it will give you the starting blocks you need to create a strategic identity - one that is based on how you want to build your brand, who you want to speak directly to and how you want to share your messaging.
You want to avoid creating an identity that's based on current design trends or what your personal favourite colour and fonts are, as they might not resonate with who you want to connect with. Your brand strategy will help you establish what the goals and purpose is for your brand, while your identity will help you to share and execute that.
When you've got a solid strategy in place, you can feel more confident in the design hitting that special combo: communicating the right message and looking good at the same time!
If you don’t feel equipped to create your brand yourself, I’ve shared some tips here about how to work with a brand designer.
3. Bring it all together with your marketing
This is where you'll bring your foundational strategy and brand identity together to create collateral for you to market your business. This would include your website, newsletter imagery, templates for Instagram and Pinterest posts, Facebook and Twitter banners, the lot. All of your marketing will be more effective once you know the ins-and-outs of your business and what you're aiming for, as everything you create will be done to captivate your target audience and connect with them on a deeper level.
Plan out how you’re going to be keeping your clients in the loop with new services or offers, which social platforms you’ll focus on, and put some thought into how they’re going to find you in the first place.
Marketing can be a breeze if you’ve got everything in place! And I hope these 3 simple steps help you figure out your brand. Don’t forget that you can download my FREE Brand Clarity Workbook to support you! And you can always get in touch if you need a designer’s magic touch.
Hopefully, you’ve got the idea now that branding isn’t solely about your colour choice and logo.
Gaining brand clarity means having a clear definition of who you are, what you do, why you do it, and who is it for. Your ideal audience, your brand positioning and messaging will all be clear and concise so you can communicate them well, and you’ll feel intentional with everything you put out into the world. And then you’ll connect with your ideal clients, building reciprocity that’ll lead to sales! That’s ultimately what you’re aiming for as a brand, so if you follow these steps, you’re onto a good thing!
