Ever found yourself scrolling through your competitor’s Instagram feed eyeing the amazing work they are doing? Looking at and longing for the kind of dream projects they are landing left and right? That’s totally okay! It happens to everyone but….
Imagine YOURSELF being the one doing the amazing, high-end work, others will drool over! Imagine building a profitable business that sets the foundation for your future dream life!⁠ Let me tell you this - it is absolutely 100% possible. What you need is a solid brand strategy. Before you start feeling intimidated by the industry jargon, allow me to simplify it for you.

What is brand strategy to begin with and why do you need it?

In the simplest of terms, brand strategy is a big picture of your business. When this big picture is put together correctly, carefully considering all the business elements - it lays the foundation for a timeless, profitable brand. Isn’t that the end goal? This is the core of the work that we do at our brand + website design studio, branding for interior designers and creative service professionals like coaches, consultants, etc equipping their businesses to truly stand out.

It is not as overwhelming as it sounds, believe me! Not when there is a tried and tested process in place. We focus on a few different elements of your business to create a solid brand strategy but the 4 basic must-haves for a more profitable creative business are what I am diving into in this post.

Let’s do this!

YOUR BUSINESS BACKGROUND

You’re so passionate about your business and you want to get to every one of those million ideas that are buzzing inside your head. But to actually ensure that you will be productive in your approach, you need to take a step back and strategize. The most meaningful brand strategy stems from the roots of your business. Always begin with your why followed by freewriting about what your business does and what matters most to you as the passionate CEO of your business. Doing this activity really helps to bring out everything that is going on inside your head out into the open. In my process of branding for creatives, I call this step - business visioning!

It is so crucial because this is where you start to get really clear about your business goals making the brand strategy goal-focused and meaningful.

YOUR CORE VALUES

Every business is built on some values. These are the cornerstone of a business so that you can keep your business in check by reflecting upon these values. Because they play such a vital part in your brand strategy, putting these together may not happen right off the bat. This activity may need you to think deeply and iterate. With that said, let me guide you on how you can put together your core values on your own!

Start by listing down all the phrases, adjectives, and feelings words that feel like you want them to be a part of your brand and business. You can even make use of Power Thesaurus (it’s my favorite tool to use for my clients!). Feel free to write as many as you can think of. Once you have your words and phrases, start to categorize them based on similarity. Ideally, go for 3 main categories. This is your chance to eliminate any word that feels off. After this step, give a name to each of these 3 categories based on an ultimate feeling that all the words in that category represent. These 3 will become your final core values. Good job!

Inside my signature branding services, I help my clients identify these core values because they are essential in guiding the overall tone of the brand and helps the brand show up more authentically to attract the ideal audience.

ALL ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE

These are your people! They will be the ones investing in your services AND bringing you referrals! Focusing your entire business on THEM and tailoring everything you do for them is exactly what you need to attract them. This is the reason why I spend a good chunk of time with my clients hashing out everything about their target audience helping them gain expertise. Based on this information, I conduct in-depth research and even interview ideal client profiles to identify what their problems are and how my client’s business can solve those problems. Remember - your business is not about you, it’s about your people. And when you have gained so much knowledge about your people and their industry, it reflects in your approach. This expertise will allow to you charge a high ticket for your services and your target audience will not mind it (because - expert support!). Imagine if you can 2X your prices? And YES you can!

So to have a more profitable business, knowing who your audience is and understanding their problems inside-out is an absolute must!

YOUR COMPETITION

Figuring out businesses in your industry that qualify as your competitors is essential. I recommend narrowing down at least 3 top competitors especially focusing on your local ones will be helpful in determining your own profitable brand strategy. The way I use this information when branding for creatives is by doing a complete analysis of the market and then strategizing on how I can differentiate my client from their competitors making them stand out. This research also reveals the gaps in the market that your business can swoop in to fill! That’s the perfect way to determine a unique positioning for your business allowing you to charge more leading to increased profitability.

And if you’re ever wondering how you can set your business apart to start attracting and converting high-paying clients, you will love this free guide + workbook I have created for you sharing my easy 2 step method!

There you go, friend. Although there are other elements as well that shape a brand’s strategy, these 4 elements are foundational. Allow these elements to work together in harmony and set your business up for profitability which can be 2X your current profits! If you found this post useful, just pin the above image to revisit it later.