Your brand impacts your whole business. It is everything because your brand isn’t just about how your business looks. It’s about everything that comes behind that. Why you have your business, how you run your business, who you run your business for – all these different bits and pieces that make up your Brand Strategy are really important because they set the tone for what’s to come.
Your Brand Strategy needs to be one of the first things that you’re thinking about, because that alone is going to be the document that you refer to over and over again to make sure that your business is running the way you want it to be. To make sure that your brand is the way you want it to be.
To make sure that everything that you do, everything that you put out, everything that you create for your business is in line with your strategy. A Brand Strategy is about making a plan to get you to where you want to be. Essentially, it’s about stating your goal and working out the strategies and tactics that will help you reach it. Deciding:
- Who you want to work with.
- What you want to stand for.
- What you want to be all about.
- What your values are.
- What difference you’re going to make.
This is the clarity that you’ll be able to share when you’re going forward in your own business and putting everything out there.
It’s going to help you stay on track because when you’re running a business, you know you have your goals and you know where you’re going and you know you can go off track really easily. Whereas if you have your Brand Strategy, you’ve always got that to refer and help you determine how it’s going to be.
Your Brand Strategy sets expectations for your audience.
Your Brand Strategy sets expectations for yourself on what you are aiming for. It’s about saying, “This is where I’m going. This is what I need to do to get there. And this is the route. I know having done the research and giving this some serious thought, that is going to get me to where I’m going to be”.
Your Brand Strategy enables you to raise your prices and stand out in your business – to differentiate yourself from other people doing similar things to what you are doing because you can work out where the gaps are. You can work out where your key difference is by putting in the time and working those things out.
That’s a really important part of your Brand Strategy which will help you make more success happen in your business because you know what sets you apart. That’s also going to give you the recognition that you need in order for people to come and buy from you. They have to know who you are. They have to trust you. They have to like you.
My last blog was about consistency. That’s a huge part of your brand that impacts your whole business because when you’re consistent, people recognise you, resonate with you and remember you, and you get results. Consistency comes from the work of your Brand Strategy and the work of your Brand Visuals
Strategy + Visuals = Consistency
Those two things together help you get to where you want to be. Help you figure to out the answers to those difficult questions where you think, “Oh, should I do this in my business?… that will work because that aligns with my brand strategy… No, that’s a really bad idea because that will take me off course …That will not work with my brand strategy… that does not align with my values.”
Your values and brand personality are important because those are the pieces that other people resonate with and are what you are all about, what you stand for. Your values are the most important thing that other people can hinge on to, and you use those in everything you do in your business to create meaning.
This helps you build a relationship with your customers so they’re not just wanting to buy from you maybe once – but also have brand loyalty because they feel that your business relates to them, that your brand is something they want to stand for too. It’s about creating a community around you that stands for the same thing and gives you focus.
Without focus you’re just going to be meandering along, doing a little bit of this and that – and never really being a strong brand.
You still have a brand – but a strong brand can invite people in, create connection and help set the expectations for where you want to go in your business. You do have a brand, whether you want to have a brand or not – you have a brand. If you put in the work on that brand, then it’s going to be a better brand than if you just walk along hoping for the best.
Doing the work on your Brand Strategy, working on your visuals to make sure they’re consistent and you can create something that is attracting your ideal client doesn’t just happen. It’s something that you need to spend some time on to create a fantastic resource that is going to enable you to move forward with intention, with purpose, with know-how, with understanding that it’s the right way to go for you.
When you start employing people to work with you it helps if you have your brand set so they not only know that they want to work with you in your business because they understand what you’re about – even if they haven’t read your strategy, they’ll get a vibe that they feel like they relate to – but also, you know that you’re going to be finding people who you want to work with you because the people who feel attracted to your business want to apply and you’re going to be able to talk to them in the interview and find out what kind of values they hold, what kind of things they care about, and if they’re going to be a good fit in your business. Your Brand Strategy is going to help you to direct that conversation and make that work for you.
Creating your brand visuals is going to impact everything in your business because you have so many different things that you have to put out there. We’re all on social media, we all send emails, we all have websites, we all have business cards, and then depending on what your business is, you’ll have other things too. If you have a consistent, strong brand image that’s going to impact your business – people will see it and know it’s you . They might want to send you things in the colours of your brand. They might say, “Oh, I’ve seen this notebook and it’s in your brand colour so I bought it for you” or because they’re part of your tribe and they’ve got to know you you may be able to sell them a T-shirt with your logo on. There’s so many different things that you can do when you are thinking about your brand rather than only thinking about your business.
The two are tied together. Your brand will make your business work better. It’ll impact your decisions. It will help you think of things that are useful for your ideal client – thinking about your ideal client is an important part of your Brand Strategy – you’re going to be able to put them in the centre of your brand and think about how you can support them best.
Your actions will be all about them, not just about what you feel like doing that day. It’s about being clear on what it is that you stand for which will impact every decision you make, every interaction that you have, every piece of content you create.
It’ll impact what you do when you are at places that you go. Maybe you’ve gone to a market or a trade show or networking event, or you’re standing in the shops with a kiosk. Your brand impacts every single one of those because it’s about thinking about all those different touch points that you have within your business and in each of those touch points, making sure that they align with your Brand Strategy to make that touch point stronger.
Once this work is completed you’ll realise different ways you can integrate what really matters into each of these moments so that your brand is strengthened. Putting in that work on your strategy and on your visuals is worth it because people are going to see you, they can recognise you and it’s going to make your life so much easier.
If you want to work on your brand, then I’d love to support you with that. You can do that in the Brand Success Club or on my Confident Consistency course. You can get in touch and we can work on it together. It’s such a useful thing to do. I recommend that you spend some time getting really clear on what your brand is all about because it’s going to pay off.
Amy Purdie, The Brand Explorer takes you on an Adventure to discover what your brand is all about, helping you with your brand strategy, brand visuals and content ideas. You can join Amy’s Brand Success Club or join her in your very own Private Brand Adventure.
Amy has been enjoying designing logos, brand identities, illustration, print work and websites – since 2007 fuelled mainly by tea and chocolate.