Brand Strategy: What It Is and How It Defines Your Marketing Plan

Do you want to learn more about brand strategy and how it can affect your marketing plan? If so, you’re in the right place.

Your brand strategy shapes how other people see and interact with your business. It’s a powerful way to reach your goals while building trust and recognition with your audience.

Why is this important? Well, for one thing, a well-designed brand strategy can improve revenue by 10%-20%, a welcome jump for any business of any size.

In this article, we are going to dive in and go over everything you need to know about brand strategies and how they define your overall marketing plan. Regardless of whether you’re just starting out or are an established business, you’ll find actionable tips and techniques you can use to take your business to the next level.

Let’s begin!

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What is a Brand Strategy?

A brand strategy is a long-term plan designed to help businesses grow by reaching goals and connecting with customers. It includes the things people can see, like logos, products, and your site. But it also includes things people can’t directly see, like your mission, values, and voice. 

All of these different elements work together and help make you unique. If you’re in a crowded industry — and let’s face it, most of us are — your overall brand strategy is going to be the thing that draws people to your site and turns them into loyal customers. 

It’s essentially a guide that you, your managers, and your team will follow to make sure every customer has a pleasant, memorable experience that they’ll associate with your brand. 

A prime example of an effective brand strategy is Chipotle. By emphasizing the use of fresh, organic ingredients, Chipotle has built a brand image centered on high-quality food, its physical product, and trust, which is something people feel. This commitment to quality resonates with health-conscious consumers and helps Chipotle set itself apart from other restaurants.

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The Benefits of Developing a Brand Strategy

Now that you know what a brand strategy is, let’s talk about how your small business can benefit from it. Once you understand the benefits, it’s easy to see why every business, regardless of their industry, should sit down and develop an actionable strategy as soon as possible. 

Here are a couple of the more noteworthy benefits that come with a strong brand strategy: 

• Highlight your unique value proposition – It’s hard to grow your business if people don’t understand what value your product or service will bring to their lives. A good brand strategy will help you demonstrate to first-time visitors and existing customers alike that your brand is worth their time and money. 
• Build trust and brand loyalty – We all know people who swear by Apple devices; perhaps you’re that person. Similarly, there are folks who won’t even consider a phone unless it’s running Android. This is because these companies have done such a good job with their brand strategy that their customers refuse to try anything else. You can emulate this success if you’re willing to create a brand strategy that’s rooted in trust and transparency. 

• Stand above the competition – It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; I bet you have a list of competitors that is a mile high. Well, with the right brand strategy, you can hone in on your target audience and rise above your competitors. The key is to learn what makes them stand out and come up with something that’s both unique and valuable to potential customers. 
• Streamline your marketing plan – If your team has a brand strategy playbook that covers things like the values, voice, and business goals, it’s much easier to create a cohesive marketing plan that lines up across email, social media, and your website. People will see and notice this, which means they’re more likely to remember you in the future. 

Think about it this way; when people understand the value you bring to the table, trust you, and see you as the best brand in your industry, they’re more likely to become—and stay—customers. 

You’ll notice despite all of the changes in marketing over the last ten to twenty years, there are some brands that effortlessly stand the test of time, like Coca-Cola. They actually just started a campaign designed to build brand loyalty that also aligns with their overall strategy.

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Key Points Every Brand Strategy Needs to Succeed

The next thing I want to talk about is the key elements all brand strategies need to succeed. Regardless of your industry, time in business, or audience size, there are all things that will help you build and maintain a better brand. 

1. Clear brand purpose and values – Your values and brand purpose are what attract people to your business. It’s important to make your stance known on issues that matter to you and your partners, for example. IKEA has eco-friendly articles on its site and green products for sale because this is an important issue for the company. Since it’s important for many of their customers, this is a great touchpoint to build rapport. 
2. Understanding the target audience: It’s hard to grow your business if you’re not sure who you want to reach. Understanding your target audience through research, feedback forms, and on-site analytics will help you understand the people engaging with your brand, which means more opportunities to create personalized experiences. You’ll definitely want to look into this part of your strategy because 70% of customers expect personalized experiences. 
3. Unique value proposition: Beyond your mission statement and values, you need a good product to grow your business, right? This is where your unique value proposition comes in. Think carefully about what makes your brand unique and how you can get this across to customers. 
4. Consistent brand voice and messaging: Of course, people are more likely to resonate with your marketing if you have a consistent brand voice and tone. I suggest creating a style guide so everyone on your team can understand how they should communicate when they are speaking as the brand on social media, landing pages, or emails. This seemingly simple step is perhaps one of the most important aspects of a brand strategy. Inconsistent messages will confuse and frustrate people, causing them to leave without engaging with your brand. 
5. Visual identity: As the name implies, the visual identity section of your brand strategy includes all of the things people can see, such as logo, color scheme, and typography. This is particularly important if you want to connect with existing customers on social media since they’re more likely to remember the visual aspect of your brand. It’s also worth mentioning that if strangers see your distinct visual identity enough, they will feel compelled to see who you are and what you do. 
6. Brand experience: Finally, you’ll want to decide on the different ways to create a positive brand experience for your customers. Will you have people available to help on social media? Can you add a resource center to your site to make sure customers can get the help they need? Ultimately, the experience you offer to your audience will play a pretty important role in how they perceive your brand. 

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How Your Brand Strategy Defines Your Marketing Plan

Your brand strategy is the base of your marketing plan. Here’s how it can define and improve marketing campaigns, engagement, and customer trust over time.

Align Your Goals

Since one of the main points of your brand strategy is to define your business’s long-term goals, it makes sense that this would be first on the list. A well-crafted strategy ensures all marketing campaigns, whether for brand awareness, lead generation, or sales, are all based on the same set of goals.

This will make it easier to create new campaigns and evolve existing ones since you know what you ultimately hope to achieve. 

Deliver Consistent Messaging

If you want your marketing plan to resonate with your audience, it needs to be consistent, both with your other marketing material and your brand values. This consistency helps with brand recognition and builds trust with your audience. Regardless of where people find you, whether it’s social media, email newsletters, or ads, they should be able to recognize your brand in just a few seconds by looking at your logo and other parts of your messaging, like tone and voice. 

Making consistent messaging a part of your marketing will help you quickly put together new campaigns because you already have pre-made logos, color schemes, and a brand voice to use in whatever it is you decide to create next. 

Connect with Your Target Audience

Since you need to research your audience when developing your brand strategy, it makes sense that this can have a direct impact on marketing. Your ideal customers are the folks who will get the most value from your products or services, so the more you know about them, the better. 

You can use the information gathered when developing your initial strategy to tailor your marketing plan to the specific needs and wants of your ideal customer. Doing demographic and psychographic research ensures your marketing messages land and drive engagement.

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Brand Positioning

Your brand strategy is useful for defining what makes you unique, which can help you stand out from the competition. If you have a clearly established brand position, you’ll find it’s easier to communicate your value proposition across all marketing channels, including email and social media.

Ultimately, you’ll want to do your best to tell people why they should choose your product without being too hard on your competitors. I suggest focusing on what you do right instead of what others do wrong. This positive approach to brand positioning will make people feel more positive when they see your brand, which means they’re more likely to take action. 

Diverse Marketing Channels and Tactics

The channels and tactics you use for your marketing should align with your brand strategy. For example, if you serve a younger demographic, then focusing on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok can be more effective. 

On the other hand, if your audience is 50+, you’re going to want to avoid TikTok in favor of Facebook and X (Twitter). Since you’ll establish this information once you develop your brand identity, you’ll be in a position where you can reach your audience where they’re the most active.

Engaging, On-Brand Content

Your content should reflect your brand’s values, voice, and visual identity. A solid brand strategy means all content, from blog posts to videos, aligns with your brand mission and engages your audience.

With this in mind, the best way to make sure your content is aligned with your audience is to do extensive research so you can understand their goals, needs, and pain points. All of this information will shape virtually every aspect of your marketing. Think of it this way; it’s much easier to get someone to read an article on your site if you know what they like and why it matters to them.

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Measurement and Adjustments Over Time

Finally, you’ll want to keep an eye on your audience and engagement data to make sure people are receptive to your content, products, and values. If you’re not measuring all this stuff, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on opportunities to win your audience over. 

I suggest using analytics tools on your site and social media to make data-driven decisions about how and when you optimize your content. Regular adjustments to your marketing plan are totally normal since your audience’s goals and needs will change over time. 

Conclusion

There you have it!

As you can tell by now, a good brand strategy helps your business stand out and connect with customers. It shows people why your products or services are special, builds trust, and encourages brand loyalty — which is all important if you want your business to thrive. 

I believe brand and marketing strategies go hand-in-hand. Your brand strategy will define your marketing, and then what you learn from marketing will help you evolve your brand. This cycle is how small businesses are able to scale up and eventually become well-known and respected companies.

Photo by Adobe Stock

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