When most people think about a brand marketing strategy, they think about identity. “Who are we as an organization? What should our logo look like? What colors and fonts should we use?”

Those are all important things to nail down so that your brand is consistent when distributing public (and internal) communications. However, those things in and of themselves are not going to help your business grow or get more customers. A more practical brand marketing strategy is to think about how to connect with your target audience and build a relationship with them.

Most marketing and sales companies constantly mention funnels and customer journeys. Heck, I own a company that talks about those things all the time. These are key components to growing your business. But the problem with only focusing on a customer’s “buyer” journey is that they have to be in the process of buying. And depending on where you look, only between 3 to 20 percent of a market is currently in an active buying process. What about those other 80 to 97 percent of people who will eventually become a great customer opportunity?

You don’t want to just ignore them until it’s too late. Then they’ll be shopping around and comparing you to your competitors. What if you could separate yourself before they started looking around? What if your target audience already knew who you were and that they want to buy from you before they enter that buyer journey?

That would put you on the fast track in that sales funnel and make your customer acquisition seamless. That’s what a practical brand marketing strategy can do for you.

Build those relationships before your customers need you and before a trigger event takes place. Then when that problem occurs, instead of going out on a lengthy buyer journey, they already know you as the go-to for what they need. Not only are you growing your business more efficiently, but you’re actually preemptively creating a better experience for your customers. Now they don’t need to waste as much time shopping around or trying to figure out what they need or where to get it.

So what does a practical brand marketing strategy look like?

In a typical marketing strategy, you would start with what kind of problems you solve for your target audience, and build around that as they are discovering their options and making their purchasing decisions.

With a brand marketing strategy, you’re working prior to that happening. So you need to know your customer’s daily routine, what they’re up to, what they want to be up to, where they are, what they’re talking about. This is before they have problems you solve. So you need to get out there and connect with them based on who they are and their lifestyle. Here are some brand marketing examples:

See how you can connect with your target audience on levels unrelated to your specific product? When you create your messaging and content to resonate with your target audience so that you get their attention and get them to engage with you, you will begin building a relationship with your audience that will make “selling” seamless when the time comes.

Use this type of content (by publishing blog posts on your website) to rank on Google and to get shared on social media within your target audience’s communities, and you will win the brand marketing game.

Have you ever heard the saying, “Dig your well before you’re thirsty?” This strategy is how you will get found by the people that you want finding you. This is how you will build a relationship with your customers before you need it.

Get Started With Your Strategy Now

Take out a piece of paper or open a new document. Set up the table from above with a column for who your target audience is, what their life is like, and content ideas. Now fill in those boxes and you’ll have a nice list of ideas that would get their attention and add some value to their life.