It takes that brand out into the world and demonstrates why it’s worthwhile. Brand marketing isn’t product marketing; it isn’t about selling particular products or services. It’s about building trust for the brand. A brand marketing strategy is essential for a successful brand marketing campaign.
A successful brand marketing strategy includes:
– Market research with a complete analysis
– An outline of what the brand is about
– An outline of how the brand will be portrayed in all marketing materials (with a style guide for all future branding efforts)
– A well thought-out step-by-step guide for what will be published, where.
Market Research
Thorough research is an important part of any marketing effort. It’s difficult to know what to say if you don’t know who you’re talking to. Research can tell you who your current customers are or, if you’re a new company, it can give you the pick of demographics. Where do you think your company fits? What do those people tend to buy and how often? Are they online shoppers? Are they mostly men? Define your target groups as clearly as you can as early as you can. This will provide a frame for your brand marketing campaign. And then revisit this research after your first brand marketing campaign: how did those demographics respond?
Outline 1: What is your brand about?
Before you start pushing your brand out into the world, think about what you want that brand to stand for. Branding is about more than your logo; it’s about the customer’s whole experience with your company. Outlining what that experience should be will guide your messaging going forward. This is about subject matter but it’s also about tone: is this brand serious or fun, thoughtful or matter-of-fact? Are you appealing to nostalgia for the past or hope for the future (or both)? Perhaps you want to focus on family values, or maybe you’re progressive and edgy. As you define your brand you define your company (and vice versa).
Outline 2: The style guide
Your brand style guide will describe the visual parameters of your brand identity so that any time your brand appears, it will be consistent. The outline should include specific fonts and colors as well as information about how your logo should be displayed (for example, always on a white background with 24px of space on all sides.) If you’re planning on including video or motion graphics in your marketing materials, decide how you feel about animation: it it okay if the logo moves around, or should it always be static?
What will be published and where?
Once you have your logo, style guide, and identity well thought-out, it’s time to decide where you want to promote it. Use your market research to identify popular channels for your target demographics. If you’re thinking about a content marketing campaign or content marketing strategy, brainstorm what sorts of content might work best for promoting your brand image. If you’re just looking to start by stamping your logo on some public-facing materials, do that consistently in a social media campaign across all of your properties. The best way to begin building trust is to have a unified front. Every correspondence, web property, brick-and-mortar store, and product package should have the same look.
Looking for some assistance developing content to serve your brand marketing strategy? Contact Visually. Whether you need a single freelancer or a multi-disciplinary team, we’ll match you with the perfect talent from our hand-curated community.
Visual: What Does Your Brand Stand For?
