The Importance of Branding in an Inbound Marketing Strategy

The work “branding” used to make me cringe, but I think it’s come a long way from the typical Nike swoosh and “Just do it.” slogan that it used to consist of. Now, branding is all about telling a story. Sure, you still want to come up with creative visual branding that will set your product or service, marketing, and website apart from the competition. But you also want to build your brand’s story and let everyone know why the competition sucks and your story is the best, like a battle of the brands.

Why Not What

Marketing used to be all about what you do, but with brand storytelling it’s now more about why you do it. People can figure out what you do pretty easily but your audience can’t connect with that. However your audience can connect to the story of why you do it. If you put that story at the forefront, as long as it’s unique, it’s sure to win your audience’s attention.

Who Not How Many

Marketing also used to be about how to get your brand to reach as many people as possible, not it’s transitioned into only reaching the right people. The people that matter. This includes but is not limited to: employees, customers, communities, investors, distributors, etc. Each conversation with each individual person in these groups should be rooted in an authentic voice that relates to your brand but also include a unique and meaningful message for that person. It might sound hard to manage, especially in this fast-paced, social media filled world but if you know what you stand for, you’ll know how to speak to your segmented audiences.

What’s Included in Your Story?

So now that we established what it’s not, let’s talk about what it is. It should encompass some main characteristics:

• Positioning- what’s your business path and why?


• Complementing- breaking down your positioning into what made your path and how you’ll get there


• Terms- sort of a brand vocabulary, consistent ways in which you explain your business


• Messaging- this is everything put together that address each of the above points, it’s like a brand mixing bowl

Takeaway

Once you put this all together, you’ll be on your way to creating your unique brand story. It doesn’t have to be an in depth thing that you preach to anyone who will listen. Your brand story simply has to be your distinctive voice with messages that are relevant to every person you speak to.

The Importance of Branding in an Inbound Marketing Strategy