🚀 Boost Your Business With A DIY Brand Strategy Audit

Hey there,

What if I told you there’s a correlation between your business’ success and its brand?

Branding helps your business get recognized instantly, makes customers think about you more often, motivates your employees, and makes you more $$$.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll demystify the brand strategy audit and teach you a simple framework to DIY your brand strategy so you too can reap the rewards.

In 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

• to demystify the brand strategy audit

• how to do the work: 6 steps to unlocking the full potential of your business

• the latest trends, insights, and news affecting business owners

DEMYSTIFYING THE BRAND STRATEGY AUDIT

Your brand is the image, personality, and voice behind your business that give it the “like, know, and trust” factor. It’s no secret that people are more likely to purchase something from you if they have a positive connection with you. Branding is how you forge that connection.

Brand Strategy Audits are a comprehensive check-in on the state of your brand.

Going through this process is highly useful and will help you find what’s working for you, where your growth opportunities are, and where you’re positioned compared to your competition.

Taking a step back from the day to day to get a pulse on your brand will also inform better business decisions because it will ensure that your brand and your business are working together not against each other.

I get it, the word audit incites a subconscious fear that you’re doing something wrong or that you’re going to make extra work that will take up your valuable time.

Rest assured, this is not the case with a DIY Brand Strategy Audit. When you dive in, you’re in complete control of how often, how in-depth, and how much time you’ll spend on an audit. You can replace audit with check-in or review if that rings more true for you.

What truly matters is that you’ve decided to take action and follow through.

STEP 1: UNLOCKING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF YOUR BUSINESS - BRAND IDENTITY🪞

Brand identity includes tangible assets you’ve created and how you consistently and memorably show up for your customers across various touch points.

Action Item: Make a list of distinct brand assets you’ve created for your business. (Logos, Color Palettes, Slogans, Images, Messaging Tone, Packaging, Templates, Websites, Brochures, Bio/About Us etc.)

• Ask Yourself:

  • Have you created brand guidelines for yourself and others to follow?

  • Do these assets convey the message you want them to? Are these assets still in line with your brand values?

  • Are you sharing/posting/talking about your business in online + offline spaces your customers inhabit consistently?

  • Is what you’re sharing solving a problem or fulfilling a need for your customers? Does that solution come across clearly in your posts/conversations?
    

  • Examples of brands with strong identities:

What Netflix, Coca Cola, and Magnolia have in common:

• distinctive + authentic brand assets

• deep knowledge of their audience’s wants + needs

• consistent messaging across all online and offline places they show up

STEP 2: CRAFTING YOUR BRAND STRATEGY TO BENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS♟️

Brand strategy is an informed opinion about how to be successful that factors in your goals, mission, values, what you offer your customers, and how you measure success.

• Ask Yourself:

• How are you defining the success of your brand? (cash flow, new customers, etc.)

• How are you measuring success? (analytics, new customer sign-ups, etc.)

• What’s your brand edge? (The unique to you factor)

• When was the last time you re-evaluated if your brand strategy was working for your business?
  

• Examples of brands with strong brand strategies:

TikTok: Known for fun and virality. They help creators and brands connect with customers through user-created content and profit off viral content

Yeti: Solutions oriented strategy that solves outdoors enthusiasts problem of unreliable gear. Shares their strategy through a powerful founder’s story and creating high quality premium outdoor gear

Starbucks: Two-fold brand strategy centered on customer satisfaction + quality. By consistently delivering a distinct Starbucks experience (handwritten names on cups), they elevate the perceived value of their brand and sell more coffee

STEP 3: BUILDING & MAINTAINING A GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE 🙂

Building a unique customer experience is half the battle. Maintaining that experience consistently so customers and stakeholders expect it from you is the other half.

Think of customer experience as the way current and future customers engage with your brand and business at every stage of their customer journey (how they go from hearing about you to buying from you)

• Ask Yourself:

• Have you created a customer journey map that takes all the touch points between your customers and your business into consideration? (In-Store, Customer Support, Emails, Ads)

• What have you done to solve expected and unexpected problems for your customer in a way that makes them feel supported by your business?

• What systems have you built to gather, review, and implement customer feedback to improve overall experience?

• Does your customer service strategy align with your brand strategy and business goals?
  

• Examples of brands with excellent customer experiences:

Apple: Apple consistently improves their customer experience through updates to their features, tech, and product offerings which builds and maintains a loyal fan base. Their marketing is simple and uses storytelling to share how customers can use new features

Trader Joes: Engaged and happy TJ employees are known for going the extra mile to make each customer feel heard and supported through new item recommendations, complimenting customer’s choices, and helping them track down whatever they’re looking for

Zappos: Famous for their customer service, Zappos employees don’t work off a pre-written customer service script. They chat and address customer concerns authentically via email or on the phone and currently hold a record for the longest customer service phone call ever - 10 hours!

STEP 4: EVALUATING BRAND & BUSINESS POSITIONING📍

Brand positioning in the words of Philip Kotler is “an act of designing a company’s offerings and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market.” Simply put, it’s your edge. The thing your business is known for.

You fine-tune your brand positioning by taking the current state of your business category and defining your niche in it, identifying who your ideal customers are, and determining what specific advantages you have and adding them into your offerings/strategy/customer experience, etc.

• Ask Yourself:

• What do you want your brand and business to be known for?

• Is the brand positioning you’ve built for yourself different from your competitors?

• In what ways do you plan to implement your brand strategy? (Marketing, Pricing, Sales, etc.)

• Have you worked your brand’s unique edge into your brand positioning?

  You’ll notice brands that come to mind when you’re thinking about a specific niche will stand for something and have weaved that niche into their brand positioning and values.

• Examples of brands with strong positioning:

Nike: Built for those who are working towards achieving something greater than they or anyone else ever has.

Chipotle: Food has the power to change the world. Ties into brand values of real food is better for you and the planet. “It’s worth doing it the right way, even if it’s hard.”

McDonalds: Low-priced quality hamburgers with quick delivery. You know what to expect with price, taste, and quality. You can order and pick-up food in a multitude of ways.

STEP 5: GETTING CREATIVE WITH YOUR MARKETING + ADVERTISING📢

Now that you’ve taken inventory of your brand, done your customer research, and created a vision of what you’re hoping to achieve, it’s time to think about how you market your business and how you tell your brand story to build connections with your customers.

When advertising your business, be sure to put your customer’s wants and needs first. Then factor in your brand identity, positioning, and customer experience regardless of what type of marketing you run.

• Ask Yourself:

• Where does your customer spend their time? (Social platforms, email, local events, etc.)

• What are your marketing goals? (generate awareness, make sales)

• What is the key message you want to share? (We’re having a sale, come visit us)

• How have you marketed your brand and business in the past? What worked? What didn’t work? What will you change this time?

• How can you work in your distinct brand positioning and tell a story through your marketing that feels authentic to customers?
  

• Examples of brands with creative marketing & advertising:

Hooked On Phonics: This ad shows what happens when a child is literally Hooked on Phonics. It’s an incredible campaign that is fresh to the education software category, written well, is relatable, and has a powerful tagline “Your child will learn to read in 30 days - whether you want them to or not.”

Rooted Coffee: This is a collaborative effort with Rooted Coffee and their local library. Together, they created a “Storytime Dreaming” coffee bean blend where money from each bag goes to both support the library and their small business. Due to their success, they’re now opening multiple coffee shops and supporting their community.

STEP 6: TAKING ACTION FROM YOUR AUDIT📝

While marketing your business is the result of combining the other steps of your DIY brand audit, it isn’t the only output.

• Action Item: Take the time to write down patterns and learnings from your DIY audit. Then, write down at least three actions you’ll take based on your learnings and give yourself a deadline to take the first steps by.
  

• Ask Yourself:

• How will you share these findings and business decisions with employees, customers, and stakeholders?

• Is your current branding, pricing, and online + offline presence in alignment and working cohesively or do a few changes need to be made?

• In what ways will you differentiate your brand from your competition and how will you ensure you do this consistently in your marketing?

• When you do your next brand strategy audit, what changes will you make to personalize the process?

TRENDS 📈 , INSIGHTS 🧠 , & NEWS 📰 

• How cloud computing can benefit small businesses

• 38% of small businesses have already tried generative AI

• The interesting predicament of retiring Boomers: 40% own profitable businesses

ABOUT VERSA STRATEGY

Chandler Kirkman is the driving force behind Versa Strategy and is on a mission to empower and educate business owners on how they can elevate their marketing. She’s consulted with over a hundred businesses throughout her career ranging from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses in her community.

By infusing branding, advertising, and marketing efforts with her signature blend of creativity, strategic thinking, and enthusiasm, Chandler cultivates a dynamic and empathetic approach that helps business owners better connect with their customers.

LET’S CHAT! [email protected]

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