1. Determine your target market and audience and identify their needs.
The first element of defining your brand strategy is to be clear on who you aim to talk to - what’s your target market, and who are you trying to reach with your brand? Your target market will likely be people with common characteristics or pain points. You could start by looking more closely at your current customers and understanding if there are some common themes. If this isn't an option (perhaps you haven’t launched your brand yet), you could consider these questions to help you identify your ideal target market and customer.
o Who is your ideal customer
o Why should they trust you
o What are their demographics (age, location, job etc..)
o Why do they need your product/service
2. Research your competition (and be sure to be different)
Once you have your brand mission clear, it's essential to understand your competitors and identify what makes your brand different. Understanding what your competitors do well and how they position themselves will help you identify what your USP should be in the market and where you can win.
3. Define your brand mission.
Your brand mission is usually a statement that communicates what your brand is all about, it tells your employees, clients, prospects and suppliers your brand’s purpose and how you serve your audience. Then ensure your marketing represents your brand mission and how your brand will help your target market by creating your brand proposition.
4. Create your brand proposition.
Your brand or value proposition is how your company demonstrates the benefit of using your brand or product to customers. Having a brand proposition helps you to improve customer engagement by showing your audience why your brand will benefit them. Creating a brand proposition involves identifying your ideal customer’s main problem and matching the benefits of your product or solution and the value these benefits offer. Then it's a case of matching your benefits to the customer's problem.
5. Establish your brand identity and create a content strategy.
Your brand identity is how your brand is represented to your target audience, it's your brand logo, tagline, look and feel. It can be comprised of everything from your logo to your typography, your packaging, website and social media graphics. For your brand culture to be consistent, you should establish brand guidelines. Once you have established your brand identity, you need it to reach your target audience, and that’s where content strategy steps in.
Content marketing consists of 4 key steps:
- Strategy
- Content creation
- Distribution
- Conversion.
You know who your target audience is from step 1 of this process; content marketing is now how you will reach them, for instance, via blogs, websites, advertising, or social media. Once you have created and implemented your brand strategy, you can sit back and relax! Actually, no, you can’t. You will need to test and measure how your brand is performing regularly. Consider how you will measure your brand effectiveness. By consistently reviewing your brand’s performance in the market and against your competition, you will ensure you are creating a brand that is effective, engaging and, most of all, memorable.
Marketing with Bloom can help you define your brand strategy and image, get in touch today and let us help you create your perfect brand.
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