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At first glance it might seem like brand strategy and content strategy are two totally separate entities to invest in for your business, but in reality, the two are completely intertwined. My work with clients is always customized for their needs, but more often than not, they opt into a joint brand and content strategy option.
In my opinion, brand strategy and content strategy are two pieces of the same puzzle; it’s hard to market your brand effectively without a content strategy and marketing won’t convert for you if you don’t have your brand strategy in place before getting potential customers to interact with you.
Before examining the similarities between these two elements, it’s important to have a basic understanding of what both brand strategy and content strategy entail.
What is a Brand Strategy?
A brand strategy is the story you’re telling with your brand. Having a brand strategy allows you to create a more meaningful connection with your audience. When you have not only a clear vision of what you bring to the table for your audience, but also know how you want to communicate that to them you’re going to feel much more confident about marketing your business. A brand strategy allows you to be more intentional about what you’re building (and why! and for whom!) while also setting yourself up for success in the wider marketplace by helping you stand out from the crowd.
What is a Content Strategy?
Once you have a brand strategy in place, a content strategy is the roadmap you need to help you share those messages with potential customers (aka effective marketing). The real value, however, doesn’t just lie in expanding your customer base; it also helps you and your marketing team spend less time, resources, money and effort spinning your wheels on the wrong ideas. Being strategic about what types of content you’re creating and where you’re sharing it allows you to work, well, strategically. You can remain focused on achieving your brand’s goals, always know what to prioritize, and always know what to talk about when taking time to create content. Creating content with purpose is the best way to create content.
How Brand Strategy and Content Strategy are Connected
In my work with clients that involves both brand strategy and content strategy I’ve found that the brand work we do first really lays the foundation for what will become their content strategy. Without creating that clarity first, chaos ensues everywhere.
In the Venn Diagram of these two strategies, there are big overlaps, including:
Both provide you with a roadmap for success
As with any type of strategic effort for a business, having a clear vision for what you are trying to achieve will always help you stay focused in your tactical efforts.
With brand strategy, that means having a strong understanding of the foundation of your business. Beyond products and services, brand strategy looks at what you stand for and how customers and potential customers will perceive you.
With content strategy, that means having well-defined goals that you want to achieve using a variety of thoughtful marketing efforts. Creating content without a strategy is a lot like throwing things at the wall to see what sticks–it’s mostly chaos and a big waste of time and resources.
Both help you better understand your audience
So much of the strategy work that I do is dependent on knowing–and understanding–your target audience. I’m a big believer that if you don’t understand the who, everything you do will miss the mark.
My approach to brand strategy is led by not only understanding your audience, but also thinking deeply about how to empathize with them and make them feel seen. A critical component of any content strategy is that same audience deep-dive. After all, you can’t market successfully unless your audience feels connected with what you’re saying (and you can’t create that connection without knowing what they need from you).
Both allow you to stay focused with your efforts
It’s easy to get distracted when you don’t have guardrails in place to keep you focused. A strategy means you always have a framework to keep you on track.
With a brand strategy this can look like brand values to keep you authentic in all of your endeavors, clear value propositions to communicate clearly with your audience, and a strong mission statement as your north star.
A content strategy provides you with a framework in terms of goals you want to achieve (thus preventing you from putting time or resources into efforts that won’t lead to accomplishing one of them), and content pillars. Content pillars make it clear to your audience that you’re a subject matter expert in specific areas, but they also ensure that you or your marketing team won’t ever have to be spinning your wheels to think up new content ideas. The basic premises are already laid out for you, you just have to get creative in finding new ways to present them.
Why Choose When You Can Have Both?
There’s no reason to have only one or the other; since brand strategy and content strategy go hand-in-hand, I offer packages that include working on both. Ultimately, investing in both your brand strategy and content strategy will put your business on the path to success.
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