What if I told you that you could have the most show-stopping brand visuals and messaging, but it might be stopping the wrong show? 

This isn’t to take the wind out of your small business sails! In fact, it’s to empower you to get specific about your audience. 

Enter: Brand positioning. 

Your business deserves to be seen at the level you want it and in front of an audience ready to value it as such. Establishing a strong brand presence that’s built around positioning your business effectively involves strategic planning, innovative marketing and consistent execution.

Step #1: Identify & Understand Your Target Audience

This may seem like business 101, but it’s crucial to deeply understand your target audience. Knowing who you want to reach and how you want them to see your business will guide all your branding and marketing efforts. 

Conduct Market Research

Start with creating simple Instagram story polls on social media or sending out surveys through Google Forms or Survey Monkey to truly guide your marketing in the right direction. Invite a few past customers or “dream” customers to be part of a focus group to gather data to help understand their demographics, preferences, pain points and buying behavior.

Create Customer Personas

Think deeper than a client avatar! Customer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers that include information about their interests, challenges, desires, dislikes and goals. Creating these personas will help you tailor your marketing messages and strategies to resonate with your ideal audience. 

Analyze Big & Small Competitors

Know the competition so you can determine exactly where you want to fall in the market! Study your competitors to see how they are positioning themselves. Use this data to differentiate your brand and offer unique value to your customers in a new way. 

Step #2: Carve Out & Commit to a Unique Brand Identity

Once you have a clear understanding of how you want to position yourself to reach your target audience, you want to think about how to resonate with them. Your brand identity includes your brand’s visual elements, voice and overall personality. 

Craft a Connecting Brand Story 

“What makes your business unique?” There could be hundreds of other wedding planners, but why would someone work with you? A compelling brand story can create an emotional connection, entertain and/or educate your audience and make your brand stick with them! 

Design a Consistent Visual Identity

You may already have brand visuals like a logo, color palette, typography and brand photography, but does it position you where you need to be in the marketplace? Show up consistently across your marketing from your website to your social media. A cohesive visual identity helps build brand recognition and trust and is the very first taste of your brand that your customer receives.

Define Your Brand Voice

How do you communicate with your audience? Do they see you as an authority to look up to? Do they find your content relatable and a source of comfort? Your voice should reflect your brand’s personality and speak directly to your ideal audience. Whether it’s friendly and conversational or professional and authoritative, maintain a consistent tone in all your communications.

Step #3: Implement Strategic Marketing Around Outreach

With a clear understanding of your audience and a strong brand identity in place, the final step you need is to implement strategic marketing with a focus on outreach efforts! You want to have an outreach plan that’s both for new audience members and potential customers along with existing repeat customers and referral sources! 

Consistent Content

Don’t worry about the quantity of your social media posts, emails, videos or any other content you’re creating. Focus on the quality; content can be a powerful tool! Choose platforms where your target audience is most active and create engaging content that adds value to their lives – not just promotes! Position content to specifically speak to your ideal customers and the value you know they need, want and find valuable. 

Collaborate and Network 

Lean into relationship building with other brands who align with your brand values and have a strong following among your target audience. This could be specific collaborations or networking where there’s something mutual you can do to help one another increase brand awareness. Be intentional about planning launches, events, giveaways and collaborations that position your brand without tainting it as lower quality or above where you want to be.  

Hustle & Heart Challenge

This month, look closely at your brand’s aesthetic and messaging and ask yourself “am I positioning my brand where I want it to be viewed in the marketplace?” Create a list of small changes to begin implementing, and choose one of the steps above to commit to this month.