What is brand strategy and what is marketing strategy?  How do they differ and how might they coexist?  It’s a great question to ask, so let’s dive in!

Check out this infographic I posted on Instagram showing you brand strategy vs marketing strategy at a quick glance.

BRAND STRATEGY 

Brand strategy is foundational to your business, describing what it is, who it serves, and the value it brings.  It’s the why behind your business that taps into a bigger purpose and it’s the vision that sets the direction you’re heading.

Your brand strategy guides you in defining and designing the experience you deliver, the values you stand by, your brand story, mission, positioning in the marketplace, the design and style of how your brand is presented in an identifiable way, and an understanding of your ideal clients’ internal motivations and current mindset. 

Brand strategy gives you clear messaging to win your ideal clients’ hearts and business with taglines that resonate, well-defined client psychographics and brand voice and personality guidelines that help you communicate in a relatable way consistently.

Think of brand strategy as your roadmap guiding you forward with clarity and confidence, informing all that you do within your business, including:

• The offers you create

• Your marketing campaigns

• What you include on your website and in promotional copy

• How you show up and operate in the world

• Informing business decisions that are aligned

Once you’ve done the work to develop your brand strategy, it won’t change drastically, except for refinements as you and your audience continue to evolve over time.  

A full rebrand would only be necessary if you have a huge pivot in your target audience and/or what you offer.  Otherwise, yearly check-ins to refresh your message and ensure your vision is still accurate works well.  Plus, taking time to refresh the look and design of your brand lets your audience know you’re keeping up to date with them and the times.

Wondering what all goes into building a brand strategy?  Read “18 Essential Branding Elements and What They Mean” and you’ll get the full picture.

MARKETING STRATEGY

Let’s shift to talking about your marketing strategy - while your brand strategy is your long term direction, your marketing strategy is a more short term action plan with tactics that you deploy on a daily basis.

Marketing is how you communicate to your audience what you have to offer in a way where you’re creating excitement for the benefits, results, solutions or lifestyle improvements they’ll receive by buying or experiencing what you create.

Your marketing strategy is targeted at one specific offer and bringing that to life for the ideal clients that it’s perfect for.  It’s your campaign deployed over a certain time period leading to a launch or release or availability.  And your marketing plans will communicate the reasons why one particular offer you have  is what they need to buy right now because it offers the exact solution they’re seeking.

Your website is marketing.  Your email newsletters are marketing.  Your content creation for social media is your marketing.  These are the tactics that help you communicate with frequency so your audience knows what you offer and how to buy. 

Your brand strategy will communicate your unique positioning in the marketplace and why your audience should choose you, while your marketing strategy will be talking about your specific mastermind, or course launch, or physical / digital product you have for sale, when it's for sale, and why it’s perfect for them.

Brand and marketing strategy really do go hand in hand,.  Your brand strategy informs how you communicate, who you’re talking to, and the aligned offers that are perfect for your ideal clients.  Your marketing promotes those offers to convert potential customers into paying customers. 

YOUR NEXT STEPS

Need additional help distinguishing between the two for your business?  Or did you start with marketing tactics and are now backpedaling to do the foundational work of developing your brand strategy?  That’s where I come in.

The Brandpolish Academy is my online course that provides a step-by-step solution for developing your brand strategy foundation to clarify your message and position your brand.  

Doors will be opening again soon, so get on the BPA Waitlist here (waitlisters get early access and additional bonuses!).