How Does a Marketing Agency Develop a Brand Strategy?

Your brand strategy is important for maintaining a leg up over the competition and making sure potential customers recognize what you do. There are many levels to figuring out a brand strategy, and that's where a successful marketing agency comes in. During the strategy phase, there may be several meetings, tons of research, an overview of company values, and more that go into what the marketing agency comes up with. Read on to gain more insight into this process.

Discuss Brand Values

Before one logo is created or a marketing campaign goes into full swing, an agency must understand the values that a company possesses. For example, does the company identity revolve around being eco-friendly or having slick technology? Do they focus on looking towards the future or using recyclable materials? Is being pet friendly a major stance the business identifies with?

Conduct Research

Lots of research must be done during this marketing phase. Marketing experts research the target audience and review their competition. At this time, it's important to look at the competitors' branding to ensure trademark infringement doesn't become an issue. Look into the local demographic to see what they look for, what keywords they use for searches, what they're buying and how often, etc. Watching both the local and nationwide demographics, marketers get a chance to observe potential industry opportunities their clients can take advantage of.

There are several ways to conduct such research. User interface testing is ideal when developing a product. Surveys and panels help see what customers think of pre-released products or advertisements. Also, several tools see what keywords people are using, such as Google Trends and SEMRush. Some agencies may also have their proprietary tools to find out the latest keywords and keyword phrases.

Build Loyalty

To build brand loyalty, you must get involved with the community. When you're doing this, loyalty-building online social media is a great tool to use. Use as many social media platforms to promote the brand as possible. Engage with your customers whenever you post something related to the product or any other releases you have in store. Encourage user stories and promote those. For example, you could run a contest in which people answer a survey, and they can get a free product with your branding on it. Encourage customers to post the product or service that they've used on their social media handles with your social media hashtag.

Marketers can also host in-person events that involve giving away shirts, hats, and other memorabilia with the company branding on them. A great way to build positive loyalty with events is by either making a charitable donation or having staff volunteer their time for a noteworthy cause. Doing so will mean the company branding or logo will be presented on the charity's banners in many areas.

Define Goals

As any business develops its brand, it should share its goals with the digital marketing team. For example, are you a new company getting off the ground that wants to build its initial audience? Are you doing a complete rebranding overhaul because you're changing your demographic, product, or your overall message? Has the company been successful so far, but you're doing a new marketing resurgence to grow and expand even further, such as going from a local company to a nationwide or worldwide one? These are all questions you should ask yourself to see what goals you have and how you can reach them.

Create the Visual Aspects

Once all of the back-end work has been done, it's time for the fun part and that's creating the visuals. Now is the time to create a company logo that represents the company's mission, uses company colors, names, and so on. Marketers will do several comps that they will run past the company, which can play around with the typography, logo, tagline, palette, and so on. They must keep in mind that the logo maintains the voice, tone, and energy of the brand.

As marketers create the branding, they must show how it will look beyond a white background. How will the branding look on company letterhead, business cards, outdoor signs, a large banner, video advertisements, and so on? As they finalize the final branding design, marketers will produce various markups of the logo on various items so the company can see how their identity will look.

Identify Customer Needs

So much research and mockups are required because the company must properly align its products and services with customer needs. In other words, if more customers are looking to be eco-friendly, eat healthier, and get more rest, then a marketing agency and company can figure out how their existing or new products can fit those needs. They want to market their branding in such a way that people looking for services can find their way to the company in question.

Branding Story

Most people enjoy a good story, and you know what? You don't have to open a book to find a good one. More advertisers realize that when they use good storytelling, they can pull in more customers. Customers should come up with the basis of their story and relay it to marketers, who will then further relay it in the marketing campaign. Their story can come through in blog posts, social media posts, and video advertisements. In addition to talking about their ideas and mission statement, they should also successfully state how they're different from their competitors.

As reported by Hubspot, 83% of video marketers claimed that they had generated leads with the help of video content. Video content, whether it's in short form or long form, is the reason why YouTube is such a popular social media platform. A company can have its own YouTube page or rely on YouTube advertisements, as a way to get in touch with our audience around the world.

Use Several Platforms

Speaking of YouTube, a branding story should be on several platforms, not just one. There's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and more. At the moment, TikTok is the largest social media platform. A company can use TikTok to gain a lot more customers than before.

Whatever advertisement a company uses, it should always fit the tone, voice, and message the brand is trying to convey. Don't forget about the target audience, as they gravitate to certain platforms over others. For example, if you're trying to do more B2B content, LinkedIn is the ideal platform to use.

As you can see, your local marketing agency puts a great deal of work into branding. Research, testing, visuals, social media branding, and crafting a story are just some things that go into it. So, if you're a new company or a more experienced one that needs a revamp, then get the right local marketing team on your side. That's why you should contact our expert team, as we're ready to cater to your needs and give you the marketing voice you deserve.