So you’ve just come out of the strategy session with VDG (Phase I of Plan V), and both teams are aligned on the larger picture and goals of your business. Now, we take a step back to view your business from your customers’ perspective. What are your prospects’ first impressions of your business? How do they view you in relation to your competitors? What do we want them to take away from their first interaction, and how can we reinforce that image in their minds? The answer lies in Phase II of Plan V - Positioning.
In the Positioning Phase, we really hone in on your brand’s unique value proposition and tailor your messaging to be authentic to your brand while setting it apart from your competitors. We do this through the StoryBrand framework. We will walk your team through a StoryBrand session step-by-step to help clarify your message so it is easily understood by your target audience.
When outlining your digital marketing strategy, it can be easy to look over Brand Positioning. After all, you’re entrenched in how you help your customers every day, but assuming that your customers understand how you can help them as clearly as you do can be a costly mistake. Without clear messaging, your audience won’t be able to discern why your solution/service is the best option for them. This is where we come in to ensure your website passes the grunt test to quickly and comprehensively answer what your product/service is, how it solves your customers’ problems, and how they can get it as quickly as possible, while tailoring your messaging to reflect its own unique personality.
StoryBrand
What is StoryBrand? StoryBrand is a 7-part framework wherein we characterize your end user, identify their pain points, and guide them through a narrative that ends with their success.
From there, we solidify your BrandScript by positioning your customer as the hero of the story vs. your brand. In doing this, you create a baseline understanding with your customer by showing them that you can empathize with their problems while also having the authority to solve them to empower them to become the hero of their own story. Building long-term consumer trust is essential - especially for B2B businesses with longer sales cycles and a more intensive decision-making process. Your BrandScript is a cheat sheet for crafting your narrative and tailoring your content to build consumer trust in your brand.
From our StoryBrand session, we will deliver a fully fleshed out BrandScript that will serve as the foundation for all of your brand’s messaging. In addition, we will develop an elevator pitch to quickly encapsulate what your business does and how it’s valuable in a few short sentences. A good elevator pitch will have the following four components that quickly and easily identify and differentiate your brand in the marketplace:
- Product name and category
- The problem you are attempting to solve
- Your proposed solution
- The key benefit of your solution
In addition to an elevator pitch that can be used both internally and externally to clearly communicate who you help and what you offer, we will help you to create a concise tagline that you can use across marketing materials to quickly reinforce your brand messaging. Your tagline serves as a catchy, memorable phrase that is a bit stickier in your customers’ minds than an elevator pitch. Taglines can also serve to clearly communicate your company’s personality, which touches on the next aspect of positioning that we hone in on - your brand voice.
Brand voice is the undercurrent of personality that carries through your brand - once you figure out who your customer is and what you want to say to them, you decide how you want to say it. Brand voice comes through in many ways, from the words you use to the colors and images you choose (but more of that in Phase III of Plan V - Create). Voice tends to live on a spectrum (are we more formal vs. humorous, informative vs. persuasive, emotional vs. matter-of-fact etc.) In defining where your brand voice lies on the spectrum, we help you to add personality that resonates with your audience while differentiating your brand from competitors.
As with anything in the marketing space, brand positioning is fluid and will change and adapt as your brand evolves. By establishing a framework through StoryBrand upfront, we ensure your customer never loses themselves in your messaging and sees themselves clearly in the bigger picture of your story. If your brand resonates with your end user, it will build more trust which leads to long-term relationships where your customer is certain you are the right person to help solve their problems. It is easy to overlook honing in your own brand position, but crafting a compelling narrative is critical for reaching your audience and resonating with them. Our team will give you a fresh set of eyes that can help you gain perspective on what sets your brand apart, leading not only to external brand clarity, but also internal clarity and cohesion across your business. Not sure how clear your messaging is? Feel free to tag us in to help tell your story!
