Speaker 1: What's up Brand Builders, Stephen Horahan here at Brandmasteracademy.com and in this video, you're going to learn how to create a brand communication strategy with this seven step process. So you can develop a tool of influence that goes way beyond the visuals to help your audience understand why they should choose your brand. Now, the brand communication strategy is the silent assassin for any brand that has taken the time to develop it effectively. Now, there are plenty of branding terms that get plenty of pixel space, such as brand design, visual identity, brand personality, and of course, brand strategy. And there has been considerably less time by considerably fewer branding experts afforded to the seemingly less sexy brand communication strategy. And in this video, you'll see why this strategic branding element can penetrate hearts and minds and shape perceptions. Now, believe it or not, in many corners of the world, there are those that believe that branding is a collection of visual elements designed to create a distinction when compared to other brands. Now, while aesthetics certainly play a role in distinguishing one brand from the next, when it comes to making buying decisions and deciding which brands to adopt, the role of visuals is insignificant when compared to messaging. And as consumers, we quickly move on past how a brand looks to get to what we really want to know about. So what exactly is it that we really want to know? Well, whether it's you, me, John Smith down the road, your customer or anybody else, we're all thinking the same thing. How can this brand, this product, this service make my life better? And why should I care? And this is where a brand's communication strategy steps in. Now, in his wildly popular book, The Brand Gap, and one of my favorites, Mr. Marty Neumeier said, a brand is not what you say it is. It's what they say it is. In other words, although brands spend billions of dollars a year to control their image in the market via multichannel content marketing strategies, ultimately, the consumer decides in their mind what that image means to them. Brands, therefore, don't live on street corners, on digital platforms or on billboards. They live and die in the minds of the audience. Now, brands are described in many different ways, and I often make a point of describing what the term means in as few words as possible. And if I had to pick a single word as a descriptor, I would choose the word perceptions. If a brand lives in the mind of the audience, then it is shaped by the perceptions of that audience in the individual minds. With every new touch point, your target audience builds a better understanding of how relevant, credible or interesting your brand is or is not. The reality is no matter what level of brand awareness a business has, it doesn't actually have control over how the consumer perceives their brand. Now, you might be thinking, really? Really, Stephen, no control? So what's the point in all this branding stuff if we don't actually have control over perceptions? Well, although as brand builders, we can't control our target audience's minds, we can most certainly influence them across multiple touch points with a communication strategy that informs the stories we tell across traditional and digital marketing materials. And how do we do that? Well, the brand communication strategy, of course. Now, neuroscience is a rapidly evolving field that has uncovered much about the human brain that we never knew in the past or at least couldn't scientifically put our finger on. Every year, scientists uncover more and more about the way we behave as humans, the repetitive patterns we follow and why we do what we do. We now understand that a vital part of our decision making process is through our emotional limbic system in our brain. So much so that brain damaged patients left devoid of emotion struggle to make the most elementary decisions. So what does this all mean for marketing communications? Well, quite simply, the way to your audience is not through their head. It's through their heart. So how exactly do you go about developing a brand communication strategy? Well, look, it's not difficult to find an article or a video that will wrap your communication strategy up into a single core message. But the reality is in the modern environment, consumers need seven to eight touch points on average to even take notice of your brand. So your brand communication plan needs to speak to your buyer personas to get their attention. And with that in mind, you need a communication strategy that's a little more comprehensive. So let's have a look at how you develop one. Step one, know your audience's journey. Now, let's assume you've already got a grasp of your audience from a demographic and a psychographic point of view. Though many an article will put these two on a pedestal. The reality is they don't really tell you too much about the ideal customer, who they really are, what they really do, what they really feel and those challenges that they're going through. But by understanding the journey your target audience is on, you can begin to understand what they're going through within their daily lives and reach them on different channels where they get and where they share their information. So we need to ask questions like where are they coming from? Where are they going to? What are they trying to achieve? What obstacles are standing in the way? These questions will get to the crux of who these people are and why the existence of your brand and the solution it offers is so important to them. Step number two, uncover their pain points and emotional investment. Understanding the journey of your customer opens up their real world to allow for your empathy and understanding where they're coming from means something to them, where they're going to mean something to them, what they're trying to achieve, the obstacles that are standing in the way. These all mean something to them. And while many marketers and entrepreneurs go through the motions to get to the selling as quickly as possible, strategic brand builders, on the other hand, that spend that extra time on this section, really reap the rewards later on because they really understand their audience. As Abraham Lincoln once said, give me six hours to chop down a tree and I'll spend the first four sharpening the axe. Uncovering exactly what their journey is and the obstacles that are standing in their way and what those obstacles mean to them and the emotions that they have attached to them gives a brand a really, really sharp axe. Step number three, know your position. Now, before the brand communication strategy comes to life, the brand strategist will have done their due diligence. They'll have applied creative thinking to uncover an opportunity to develop a differentiation strategy or value proposition and ultimately a position in the market for their brand, as in why the audience should choose them over their competitors. Now, this position will distinguish the brand in the competitive landscape. It will give them that competitive edge and outline why that brand is different. Before a single message is crafted, this position must be clearly defined. Step number four, gain clarity in your value. Now, the key differentiator and the positioning strategy mark the spot where the comprehensive brand image will stand. So from here, the brand strategist works to clarify exactly what the value of that position is to the audience. In other words, what does this position mean and why should the audience care? And ultimately, how will it make their lives better? And that clarity in both position and value are the key ingredients to an effective communication strategy. And no message should be crafted without us. Step number five, develop your core message. Now, with the position and the clear value of that position to the audience already outlined, it's time to develop the core message. Now, the core message is widely considered to be the cornerstone of the communication strategy, but I disagree. The reality is it simply distills the key messages that a brand should communicate so that the brand representatives are clear on what the underlying message should be. Now, that said, the distilled core message is still an important tool, and it plants a flag in the ground, outlining the summary of the overall message. The core message, however, is not a tool that can be used time and again by the brand manager. So that's the role of the next step. Step number six, clarify your key messages. Now, the core message places the crosshairs in the general direction of where the messaging should go. But there's a lot more detail required from here. The average brand today has a complex web of touchpoints representing the front lines of the brand. A core message is not going to help you craft messages for so many different touchpoints, which is why your brand communication strategy needs a coordinated effort. The positioning strategy, the value that that difference offers, and the core message all represent a series of key messages that must all work together to shape the perceptions in the mind of the audience. So clarify exactly what your audience should know about your brand that would shape their perceptions to create the desired image for your brand. Step number seven, integrate meaning and emotion. Now, with a comprehensive list of key messages, you can now reverse engineer these messages to uncover the emotions that each one will appeal to. Remember, we make most of our decisions through our emotional brain. So every last one of your branding messages, therefore, must consider the emotion that it's appealing to and use the relevant language and tone to evoke that emotion. It's important to note here that you're not trying to get your audience to fall in love with your brand through a single message. Over time, however, your audience will feel a connection because the message is crafted from empathy and emotion. So now that you have your core message and your messaging framework, we now need to decide what your communication channels are going to be. Now, imagine this years ago, if you wanted to create a small business, never mind to build a brand. Your communication options were limited to TV, which you couldn't afford, radio, which you probably couldn't afford, print media, which you could scarcely afford, or the yellow pages. Yay, we're on the map now. Let's sit by the phone. Business owners and entrepreneurs today are absolutely spoiled for choice, and all that's needed is a consistent series of well-crafted messages designed for the heart. Here are some of the most effective modern digital marketing channels to distribute your brand's communication. First up is social media marketing. Now, it's true that organic reach on some social media platforms is not what it used to be, probably because Zooks is stuffing those feeds with ads. But the reality is your audience still congregates on social platforms and groups within those social platforms. Social media marketing is a powerful part of an effective brand communication strategy because it empowers user-centered networking and online social interactions as well. And with a little bit of searching, you might uncover a highly engaged group and become part of that community. Email marketing. Now, email shot into the spotlight with marketing in the late 90s when email open rates were upwards of 90%. But as usual, however, marketers ruined a good thing and it got a bad rep. Today, however, email marketing is more effective than ever, as the permission allows consumers to choose who gets into their inbox or who doesn't. Email metrics such as open rates, click through rates and updates allow brands to track their performance and adjust the communication strategy as needed. Email automation allows brands to slowly and consistently nurture relationships to draw customers closer with small deliveries of value on a consistent basis. Website communication. Now, your website is often one of the very first touch points that your brand will have with your audience. Whether your traffic is coming from your marketing efforts such as SEO or social media or referral links, your website messaging needs to assure that website visitors that they're in the right place and that your unique selling proposition is something that they're going to value. Most businesses will have messages that bang on about how great they are, including a detailed biography of the founders and their pets. And because you've taken the time to develop your communication strategy, now your website will display critical key messages that speak to emotions and begin shaping perceptions from that very first touch point. A lead magnet here, a call to action there, and all of a sudden your target audience is on an email nurturing sequence and they're on route to the eighth touch point. And that's really where the magic happens. That's really where the nurturing of that relationship happens with your audience. Now, look, branding is a game of shaping perceptions. Brands built strategically consider each and every one of the tools of influence that shape perceptions, and none are more important than the brand communication strategy. So take the extra time to develop this strategy and craft communication that cuts through the noise like a sharp ax. Now, if you want to dive deeper into brand strategy, then this video here will help you out. But if you want to become a master of brand, make sure you hit that like and subscribe to get more videos like this. Until next time, brand like a master, and I'll see you in the next video.