What is holding your business back from true growth? Is it a lack of understanding of marketing and how to look at your business from a clients perspective? The tendency is to completely outsource your branding to an agency but by not participating in the strategic process, you may struggle with making good choices for your brand as your business progresses.

However, through a collaborative process and an understanding of how to make better branding and marketing decisions, you’ll not only know what to do, you’ll know why - which will lead to better outcomes.

Business growth comes from addressing your blind spots

Unlike a promotional campaign, which comes to an end, a brand process is an evolving one. With the traditional process of an agency they just hand off the brand to you, leaving you to wonder...what do you do with it now? Even the most robust of brands will fail or, at the least struggle to grow if you don’t know how to utilise your brand as a tool. But this blind spot is seldom addressed by agencies because it’s their blind spot as well.

Focus on the fundamentals of your business and your campaigns will flourish

The biggest advantage a business can have is owning a powerful and authentic brand message. To really know your brands' messaging and to then be able to communicate it effectively to your customer, you'll need to invest time and energy into understanding your own business.

Values will form the foundation of your brand and must align with your customers’ values as well, so it's more than just understanding your businesses' ‘why’ but also aligning it to your customers ‘why’. By skipping the ‘why’ your marketing campaigns, website, or social posts will struggle to make an impact past the superficial surface and into building a relationship with your potential customers. 

Designing to achieve brand activation

The process of design should be one of working alongside you - not a ‘tah-dah’ but more of an ‘aaaaah’. This comes from being guided, not coerced into decisions. Understanding your design objectives, allows you to efficiently and confidently make marketing decisions for your business. Stop requesting parts, like, just a logo or a website but instead consider your brand a dynamic ecosystem and focus on designing client-first, to effectively activate your brand.

Think brand empowerment as an asset, not just campaigns

Upskilling enables you and your team to feel confident in marketing your business. Understand that a brand is a dynamic ecosystem and your people are also a part of your brand. A brand isn't just a fancy campaign or something to be designed, then shelved. By investing in people and through learning and understanding you create a growth mindset, empowerment is apparent - your customers will feel it and become loyal to your brand too.

Remember, you’re the expert in your business

Yes, you! No matter what the agency tells you to do, you are the expert in what you do. If it doesn't feel right, then don’t do it! Or at the very least get them to explain their thinking. Likewise, if you’re asking them to do something that doesn’t make sense to the strategy, expect them to question it. It's important to keep the dialogue open. A strategic brand partner should help you ask better questions, and be committed to helping you increase your understanding, empowering you to make better decisions for your brand, to grow your business.