3 Tips for Creating a Bullet-proof Digital Brand Strategy
Some of the most creative advertising companies are considered to be the “most creative” because they take an approach to branding in which they take a client’s problem, examine it carefully, turning it around to find every wrinkle, and then create a strategy that addresses each of the problem points using the specific service they have to offer. This is truly the power of branding on display.
The Best Branding Defined
Branding is so much more than just the creation of a logo, or the tweaking of a website. It is the holistic mind-set of addressing the inadequacies of a current company message, and then watching the entire company, entity, or non-profit, grow as a result of strategic implementations and/or changes.
Northgate takes a lot of pride in offering more than a few selective branding services that you can get at any marketing agency. Our branding inspiration and culture emerges from our creative team who are positioned across the globe. This multi-faceted team, approaches the marketing world in a very different way.
In addition to being able to create and translate content into 9 languages, we are constantly adding designers that can better diversify the services that Northgate offers to our clients worldwide. From marketing logos and branding, to website development, maintenance and re-hosting, our multi-cultural team has done it all. The experience of our team and the experience that Northgate delivers is one that has the global perspective at the heart of every project that we take on, and so often, the fact that Northgate can go the distance with its clients, makes all the difference.
The Three Tips for Creating a Bullet-proof Digital Brand Strategy
Of course, none of this transformation, although it sometimes looks like magic, really is. Good branding strategy happens by intention, using a process we’ve refined and proven at Northgate.
Involve the experts early
For the past 2 years at Northgate, I have seen more than 50% of our branding clients come through our door with an old logo developed by an artist who designed it for a few hundred dollars. The limitless branding message that can be communicated through cohesive and intentional branding goes the greatest distance in creating a long term acceptance and positive memory associated to your brand. This can’t really be understated.
An expert brings a wider view that goes way beyond a single vehicle. An expert looks not only at immediate need, but at how your eventual success will allow your brand to be expanded into areas you may not have considered. You see a logo, but we see blogs, emails, videos, and ecommerce. We see your business as it might eventually look and equip you to walk seamlessly into that future because you are already prepared.
Don’t Settle for “Almost”
So often, clients take what they can get without really examining the true potential of the service, business, or product they are trying to market online. We like to spend time with our clients and unlock the full potential of their brand and explore who they are. You aren’t just trying to make money. You’re trying to offer the marketplace something unique. We want to thoroughly understand its distinctions and yours. We don’t just want to find out what it does. We want to know who you are.
This is where some marketers, quite frankly, fall short because we don’t use everything we learn up front in the early stages of a campaign. Some of it, we may never use, and this process takes time. We all know how valuable time is, but in investing this time up front, we learn what makes you tick. We don’t just want to help you sell your product or service. We want to articulate your dream.
Get to know yourself
Going to hire a branding professional? Spend time getting familiar with yourself and know what you’re bound to like and not like from a design and color standpoint. Of course, helping you to do that is part of what we do, too. We don’t just want to know your favorite color. We want to understand the tones and styles that make you comfortable and make you feel at home in so that we can help you project that mood to your brand.
In brand development, this is the fun part. Do you imagine yourself on a tropical island? Are you a rock singer? A superhero? An activist? We have had clients do all of these, and those imaginings became part of the face they present to the world. Our aim is not just to tell you what we think you ought to do to market yourself. Our aim is to discover and reveal the real you.
Branding Strategy: the Goal
Branding is a package of services, all fitting together into a cohesive whole, that takes you from where you are to where you want to be. Its parts – logo, website, photography, video, blog, and all the other pieces that you’re familiar with – can be developed separately in scattershot fashion, but done that way, they will not accomplish what you want from them. You want your brand to take you somewhere and, like all the different systems that make up your car, they need to work together or they don’t work at all. That’s where the strategy comes in.
That’s the power of branding. Your showcase to the world.
Author, Dan Johnston
