An effective branding strategy can assist businesses in increasing awareness of their services, differentiating themselves from competitors, and increasing consumer loyalty. If you’re new to branding strategy, knowing the key processes might help you properly focus your efforts. You can have a significant impact on a brand’s performance and competitiveness if you have the necessary skills and expertise.

A branding strategy is a method used by a company to enhance awareness of its brand’s beliefs, purpose, and offers. This helps audience members understand the organization better. Customers frequently support brands that meet their requirements, values, and interests. By implementing an effective branding strategy, businesses may influence consumer behavior and generate brand loyalty.

Branding strategies offer organizations a useful guide for their marketing efforts based on the company’s purpose, vision, mission and values. This can set companies up for both short- and long-term success. A brand strategy is essential to ensuring a company can continue to grow and flourish within the marketplace. Branding strategies typically include:

• A cohesive idea of what the brand represents
• A messaging strategy for raising brand awareness
• A unique value proposition
• Metric tracking systems
• Market analysis data
• A target audience

Here are some steps to follow to develop a branding strategy:

1. Consider your overall business strategy.

A strong, well differentiated brand will make growing your firm much easier. But what type of firm do you want? Are you planning to grow organically? Your overall business strategy is the context for your brand development strategy, so that’s the place to start. If you are clear about where you want to take your firm, your brand will help you get there.

2. Identify your target clients.

Who are your target clients? If you say “everybody” you are making a very big mistake. Our research clearly shows that high growth, high profit firms are focused on having clearly defined target clients. The narrower the focus, the faster the growth. The more diverse the target audience, the more diluted your marketing efforts will be. So how do you know if you have chosen the right target client group? That’s where the next step comes in.

3. Research your target client group.

Firms that do systematic research on their target client group grow faster and are more profitable. Further, those that do research more frequently (at least once per quarter) grow faster still.

Research helps you understand your target client’s perspective and priorities, anticipate their needs and put your message in language that resonates with them. It also tells you how they view your firm’s strengths and your current brand. As such, it dramatically lowers the marketing risk associated with brand development.

4. Develop your brand positioning.

You are now ready to determine your firm’s brand positioning within the professional services marketplace (also called market positioning). How is your firm different from others and why should potential clients within your target audience choose to work with you?

A positioning statement is typically three to five sentences in length and captures the essence of your brand positioning. It must be grounded in reality, as you will have to deliver on what you promise. It must also be a bit aspirational so you have something to strive for.

5. Develop your messaging strategy.

Your next step is a messaging strategy that translates your brand positioning into messages to your various target audiences. Your target audiences typically include potential clients, potential employees, referral sources or other influencers and potential partnering opportunities, to name a few of the usual suspects.

While your core brand positioning must be the same for all audiences, each audience will be interested in different aspects of it. The messages to each audience will emphasize the most relevant points. Each audience will also have specific concerns that must be addressed, and each will need different types of evidence to support your messages. Your messaging strategy should address all of these needs. This is an important step in making your brand relevant to your target audiences.

6. Develop your name, logo and tagline.

For many firms, a name change is not required. But if you are a new firm, are undergoing a merger or are burdened with a name that no longer suits your positioning, a name change may be in order. Even if you don’t change your firm name, a new logo and tagline may make sense to better support your brand positioning.

Read Also: How to Reach Customers Who Don’t Read Your Ads

Remember, your name, logo and tagline are not your brand. They are a part of your brand identity, the ways to communicate or symbolize your brand. You must live it to make it real.

And don’t make the mistake of showing the new logo around internally to get a consensus. The name, logo and tagline are not for you. They are for your marketplace and should be judged on how well they communicate, not how much the partners like them.

7. Develop your content marketing strategy.

We could have called this step “develop your marketing strategy.” But we didn’t. Instead, we call for a content marketing strategy.

Why? Content marketing is particularly well suited to professional services firms in the Internet age. It does all things traditional marketing does but it does them more efficiently. It uses valuable educational content to attract, nurture and qualify prospects.

Remember that your brand strength is driven by both reputation and visibility. Increasing visibility alone, without strengthening your reputation, is rarely successful. That’s why traditional “awareness-building” advertising or sponsorships so often yield disappointing results. On the other hand, content marketing increases both visibility and reputation at the same time. It is also the perfect way to make your brand relevant to your target audiences. Case closed.

8. Develop your website.

Your website is your single most important brand development tool. It is the place where all your audiences turn to learn what you do, how you do it and who your clients are. Prospective clients are not likely to choose your firm solely based on your website. But they may well rule you out if your site sends the wrong message.

Further, your website will be home to your valuable content. That content will become the focus of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts so that your prospects, potential employees, and referral sources will find you and learn about your firm. Online content is central to any modern brand development strategy.

These days, professional services websites come in two varieties. The first is a branding site. Such a site tells your story and conveys who you are, who you serve, and what you do. In short, it conveys your brand message. The other variety does the above and also generates and nurtures potential new clients. We call these High Performance Websites.

9. Build your marketing toolkit. 

The next step in the process is to build out the remainder of your marketing toolkit. This might include one-page “sales sheets” that describe core service offerings or key markets served. In addition, there may be a brief “pitch deck” that overviews the firm or key offerings and an e-brochure about the firm. These are rarely printed pieces anymore.

Increasingly this marketing toolkit also includes videos. Popular video topics include firm overviews, case studies or “meet the partner” videos. Key service offerings are also very useful. If prepared appropriately, these tools serve not only a business development function but also are important for brand development.

10. Implement, track, and adjust.

This final step in the brand development process may be one of the most important. Obviously, a winning brand development strategy doesn’t do much good if it is never implemented.  You might be surprised at how often that happens. A solid strategy is developed and started with all the good intentions the firm can muster. Then reality intervenes. People get busy with client work and brand development tasks get put off… then forgotten.

That’s why tracking is so important. We strongly recommend tracking both the implementation of the plan as well as results. Did the strategy get implemented as planned? What happened with the objective measures, such as search traffic and web visitors? How many new leads, employee applications and partnering opportunities were generated? Only by tracking the entire process can you make sure you are drawing the right conclusions and making the right adjustments.

How do You Develop a Brand Strategy For a Business?

A brand strategy is necessary for a successful firm, but it is not easily measurable. It is characterized more by the emotions associated with a brand’s beliefs and personality as communicated through products and marketing.

An effective brand strategy can help build a brand identity so strong that it becomes an extension of its core consumers’ requirements, styles, and beliefs. Strong branding can pave the way for long-term success for entrepreneurs and large and small enterprises alike.

Brand strategy is the roadmap for everything about your brand, from look to behaviors to marketing strategy. Even if your only interest for the moment is creating a brand logo and name, you should craft your complete brand strategy first.

Here’s why: A strong brand has a complete personality or identity that includes a distinct style, core values, trademark visuals, products, and voice, all of which are crafted to underscore the brand’s desired perception. Your logo and brand name need to be created with consideration for your desired brand identity.

Get these right, you’re on your way to creating a long-term recognizable brand.

1. Define Your Internal Brand

Everything starts here. This is your brand as you see it: its purpose, vision, value proposition, mission (objectives), strategy, and definition of long-term success. Define this clearly and you can use it as a moral compass for everything that follows.

2. Identify Your Target Market

Unless you’re selling sugar, you can’t please everyone. Don’t try. Identify your target market or your core consumer (aka buyer persona) and set your sights on pleasing the hell out of them.

3. Craft Your Market Position

There are simple questions you can answer that will lead you to your market position. For example:

• What makes you different from your competitors?
• What does your target market need and want?
• How can you problem solve for them and make the lives of your target audience easier or better?
• How can your efforts corner some market share?

These are the questions you should ask yourself to define your market position.

4. Create Your Brand Personality

The phrase, “Know your audience” has never been more meaningful. If you want to reach your target market, you have to appeal to them through your products, designs, and personality. Craft your brand personality to be compatible with your target market.

Better yet, make them best friends. If your brand was a person, what would he, she, or they be like to win the heart of your buyer persona? Whoever that is, that’s your brand personality. Make sure your written and visual voice keeps in step. Want a great example? Think of Barbie. Pink, frilly script. Vibrant colors. On-trend fashions. Penthouse homes and convertible cars. You always know what you’re going to get with her: all things feminine, fun, and fabulous.

5. Understand Your Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is how your brand fits into the world and the perceptions of your target market.

Coca-Cola, BMW, Apple, Tiffany & Co., and Patagonia all have great brand positioning. These brand names bring to mind more than a soda, car, computer, necklace, or puffy vest. Each has its own distinct way of separating itself from its competitors and conjuring an identifiable lifestyle, be it with a hearty dash of joyful Americana, sporty-chic travel, designer tech, expensive elegance, or eco-friendly ruggedness.

As you consider your brand positioning, take into account what your core consumers want, what your brand is able to successfully deliver, and how your brand positioning differs from that of your competitors. Then craft a brand positioning statement by using a few keywords that define the heart of your brand (e.g., “sugar-free, delicious, and gorgeous” or “luxurious, understated, and modern”).

Now when you craft creative messaging for your branding initiatives (products, visual identity design, package design, communications, customer service) make sure it’s in line with your brand positioning. The better you get at this, the higher your consumers’ perception of brand equity and credibility will be, not to mention consumer loyalty.

6. Create Your Brand Name

While you may already have a brand name in play, it’s a good time to reflect on the above and make sure it is the right fit for your internal brand and brand personality. Whether it’s literal (The Home Depot) or creative (GOOP), make sure it’s on point.