Branding is the process where a business makes itself known to the public and differentiates itself from competitors. Branding typically includes a phrase, design or idea that makes it easily identifiable to the public.
Branding is one of the primary building blocks of your marketing strategy, so it will always come first.
That means clearly identifying your company’s personality. In other words, defining your brand. This means carefully choosing your illustrations, logo, typography and business colors to embody your brand’s values. For example, if you’re a bold brand, you’d likely choose a bright color palette and a punchy copy voice. If you’re a timeless, traditional brand, you’d probably go with more muted colors and a sophisticated font for your website and email template. These design choices are the foundation for your marketing strategy.
Here are three questions every business should answer when putting together their brand marketing strategy:
- Who is your target audience?
- What is your brand’s primary goal?
- How does your brand define success?
Brand marketing in five simple steps
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Understand your brand purpose
Understanding why your brand exists is core to your brand marketing strategy. This first step is where you’ll start defining how your brand will look and feel. This means choosing your brand color palette, typography and imagery.
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Research your target market
Understand who your customers are by creating customer personas. A customer persona is a comprehensive picture of your perfect purchaser. It will help you create an emotional connection with your audience.
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Define and sell your story
You can sell your brand’s story by creating the right message. The story you craft and sell will connect your brand with your target audience, encourage loyalty and help with brand recall. Take time to really develop an engaging story that has all the same elements as your favorite novel or movie: characters, a conflict, a resolution.
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Get to know your competitors
Just like getting to know your own audience, it’s equally important to get to know your competitors. Research them, determine how you’re different from them, then focus on this difference in your marketing messaging.
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Create brand guidelines
Once you understand your brand and audience, think about how to connect them in your marketing. Creative brand guidelines are where you’ll cover your logo, colors, fonts, tone of voice and more. It will help any designers and marketers you work with tell your brand’s story and deliver your message in the best possible way, as well as ensure brand consistency.