This one marketing strategy will improve your brand's bottom line

“I need more customers, so I need to really ramp up my marketing efforts.”

“I’m not hitting my coaching enrollment numbers, so maybe I should post on social media more often.”

“I’m running Google Ads but not seeing a lot of results from it.”

Whenever we’re not seeing enough growth in our small businesses, the first thing we try is throwing more marketing at it. Quick, run more ads! Stop slacking about and start posting on social media every day!

The truth is: marketing is a fantastic investment to make into your business. The old adage of “in order to make money, you have to spend money” really is true. How will your customers and clients know you’re the right business for them if they don’t even know you exist?

However, I often see small business owners thinking that marketing is a fix-it-all, which, if done incorrectly, can end up costing their small business thousands of wasted dollars. They burn themselves out posting to every social media platform on the daily; they spend money on digital ads; but they haven’t addressed the one thing that will make it all work.

So here’s the one marketing strategy that will improve your brand’s bottom line.

Change your marketing strategy into a brand strategy

Your brand strategy is the foundation of your brand. It’s the guiding North Star for everything you do, because it defines what you do, who you do it for, and why it matters to them.

It’s crucial to have a clear identity for your brand that is targeted, specific, and relatable to your ideal customers because from there, your brand messaging, brand marketing, and other efforts will flow.

If you don’t have a brand strategy in place first, your marketing efforts can dent instead of grow your bottom line.

Before you drop a dime on marketing, make sure you can clearly articulate who you’re trying to target, specifically what products or services you have to offer them, and why they should click on your ad, engage with your post, or visit your website.

Imagine spending $5000 running an ad campaign targeted at women. Not specific women: just all women. Now imagine spending that same $5000 on your target audience of single moms who are working tirelessly to secure a positive future for their children.

Which campaign do you imagine will yield a better return on your investment?

Sure, you might be able to reach more people in the first instance. But if you can speak directly to your target audience, letting them know what you do for them and how your products or services can resolve a problem or inspire a dream for them, it’s much more likely that those specific clients or customers will be attracted to your message and discover that you’re the right brand for them.

Marketing may be the message, but branding is the meaning of that message.

Change your marketing strategy to an overall brand strategy (with a marketing strategy as a part of your overall brand strategy), and watch your marketing dollars skyrocket your bottom line.

Brand strategy as marketing strategy avoids burnout

Following the point above, your brand strategy dictates the strategy your brand marketing should also take.

With so many effective and truly worthwhile marketing channels at our fingertips, it’s easy to want to take advantage of them all, isn’t it?

For example, should you post on Tik Tok or Instagram Reels? YouTube or Pinterest? Why not all of them? How often should you post, and what do you say?

Without a brand strategy to anchor your brand marketing, it will be all too easy to get lost in the winds of trends.

Just because something is an option doesn’t mean it’s the right option for your brand marketing! It all boils down to your audience: where do they show up online? How will they be most likely to find you? How would they like to interact with your brand? What platforms are they on? What platforms are they definitely not on?

There’s certainly something to be said for trying new things, but any marketer will ask who you’re trying to market to so they can craft a marketing strategy that’s right for you.

By thinking first about brand strategy, you’ll be empowered to craft a marketing strategy that will yield results without burnout.

Further, your brand strategy will dictate the messaging you use. Your brand messaging is crafted based on your brand positioning—the unique role your particular small business will play in the market—and based on what role you play in your customers’ lives. Your brand strategy will provide you key brand message points, brand story or narratives, that are intentionally designed to make meaningful connections with your dream customers or clients. 

So instead of spending your time, energy, and money throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick, market with your brand strategy in mind—invest in reaching the right people with the right message in the right places.

So should you invest in brand strategy, or marketing strategy?

I’m a huge fan of marketing. The investments we’ve made into expanding Author’s reach have always paid off, allowing us to help more entrepreneurs and small business owners grow brands that go beyond their wildest dreams.

But the times we have invested in marketing without being clear on what we had to offer, who we offered it to, and sought to provide value to those individuals haven’t been that successful for us. It was only by staking our brand positioning, refining our message and our niche that we’ve seen results from our brand marketing (which incentivizes us to invest more into it).

If you haven’t made your first $100,000 in business, budgets will be tight and you may be deciding which is most important: brand strategy or brand marketing.

While you can definitely pursue investing in both, you will find your marketing efforts will improve your bottom line more quickly and easily if you have a brand strategy in place first that dictates who you market to, what you say to them, and where to say it.

This brand strategy will then serve as a guiding light for all future marketing you do, meaning that you then can invest more into marketing, trying out new platforms, running more ads, and do so wisely and effectively.

A good brand strategy plus a great marketing strategy is like peanut butter and jelly: the perfect combination. You can’t have a PB&J sandwich without one or the other! Both are critical elements for your brand’s success, with brand strategy informing brand marketing, and brand marketing putting the brand strategy to use.

So before you wrack your brains trying to figure out how often to post on Tik Tok, how much to spend on Google Ads, whether to start blogging again: change your marketing strategy into an overall brand strategy. Get clear on what you do, who you do it for, and why it matters to them; and then bring this right message to the right people on the right platforms.

Happy branding, and happy marketing!