Why does your branding need to be strategic before it is tactile? What makes the difference in marketing? How does creating a genuine brand strategy skyrocket the success of your branding efforts?
In this podcast episode, Sam Carvalho speaks about how to focus on strategic versus tactical marketing with Orsolya Herbein.
Listen here: https://www.practiceofthepractice.com/orsolya-herbein-on-how-to-focus-on-strategic-vs-tactical-marketing-mp-103/
To the average business owner, marketing is tactical … but the secret to making marketing work [is to be] very strategic. You have to have a plan and a strategy behind the brand that you push out with these tactics. (Orsolya Herbein)
SEO, social media postings, blogs, and email courses are all great marketing tools, but they are the front end of marketing.
They are not effective if you do not have a clear “why” behind why you are using them.
Your branding needs to be strategic before it can be tactile.
How do we become relevant to an audience before we go and market? (Orsolya Herbein)
As a small business, avoid spending loads of money and time to explain an idea.
Being a little bit literal is … essential, especially if your product is a little bit more complicated because the audience does not have the time, or will not give you the time [if you are new] to figure it out. (Orsolya Herbein)
For a great business identity to grow in a new, small business, go for something more literal to connect with the audience. You can explore creativity once you have an audience who is listening.
What can a customer immediately understand about you and your business as soon as they walk in your door or land on your website?
1 – Quality
2 – Consistency
3 – Clarity
Remember that branding is so much more than your logo because it represents your business identity. Branding is something that represents you in the audience’s mind.
If you learn this one thing, that branding is a perception, then you will start understanding why it is so essential for marketing. (Orsolya Herbein)
When you put marketing material in front of someone you are asking them to interact with your brand, and then they formulate thoughts and feelings about what they see.
So, build your brand for the audience that you would want to engage.
If you want to build a group practice now that you will eventually exit, you want to build a business brand.
It’s very important to build a brand that takes [your] values [that are] built into the brand … and [that] it invites in a team that can deliver [on those values] for you. (Orsolya Herbein)
Create a system around your values and then hire a team that can execute those values on your behalf of the group practice’s clients.
Consider where you are going, because successful brand building is about blending the appearance and approach to the clients of your business with your desires and goals.
How can you blend where you want to go and who you want to serve in a strategic plan?
Sam Carvalho is a graphic designer living in Cape Town, South Africa, with over five years of experience in both design and marketing, with a special interest and experience in the start-up environment.
She has been working with Practice of the Practice since 2016 and has helped over 70 therapist entrepreneurs take their practices to the next level by enhancing their visual branding. She loves working with a variety of clients on design-intensive tasks and is always up for a challenge!
Follow Sam on Instagram to see some of her work. To work with Sam, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding.
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