hearten and hone
When I first started out, my biggest struggle was “where can I find clients who value strategy?” I mean, I know how valuable it is, I know the difference it can contribute to one’s business, and I wholeheartedly believe that every business can benefit from it one way or another. But whenever I hop on sales calls and receive responses like:
“That sounds wonderful, but how much would it cost for just brand identity alone?”
“It’s exactly what I need, but I’ve already done work on my ideal client avatar.”
“It’s just not within in my budget, I just need to find colors and fonts that match my current logo.”
I can’t help but wonder –
“Am I the only one who thinks brand strategy is valuable?”
It seems like it’s the last thing people want.
Do you feel the same way? It can be tough, because as it is, brand strategy is a fairly new concept. Compared to marketing and design, people haven’t really delved into strategy until recent years. But that doesn’t mean that people don’t need it.
That’s why it’s on us to educate people on what brand strategy is and the results one can derive from it. Here are a couple of ways to talk about the value of brand strategy so you can attract clients who see its value:
1. Position yourself as a brand strategist.
For you to call in more people who value brand strategy, the very first thing you have to do is to position yourself as a brand strategist. Just as how you won’t ask your dressmaker to style your hair for an event, clients won’t come to you for brand strategy if they didn’t know you were one in the first place. Start by explicitly stating that you’re a brand strategist from your Instagram bio, to your email footnote, to your website. This simple yet effective tweak will shift your inquiries from “I’m looking for a graphic designer” to “I’m looking for someone to help me build my brand”.
2. Diversify your marketing message to go beyond the benefits of design.
Suggesting what fonts or colors to use don’t necessarily display your creative thinking. If you want to attract clients who value strategy, you have to demonstrate your strategic approach in relation to helping clients achieve business results. This could look like multiple ways:
- Sharing your comments and opinion on real-life case studies or rebranding efforts
- Creating content around a specific problem your client is going through, and painting a picture of how brand strategy can be the solution that will help them overcome that problem
- Displaying your expertise on how brand strategy fits into their bigger business vision, not just focusing on the visual aspect of building a brand
The more you initiate conversations around the role of brand strategy in achieving business goals, the more you’ll attract clients who need that kind of help, instead of ones who are just looking for a designer.
3. Communicate ‘brand strategy’ in simple language.
Try to get a feel of where your audience is at in terms of how they interpret “brand strategy”. If it’s something new that you’re offering, your audience may not be aware of it just yet – so breaking it down to more tangible pieces like messaging, clarity, and brand story can make it more digestible for them. Most of the time, what’s obvious to us may not be obvious to potential clients. So it’s important to connect the dots for them on how brand strategy can benefit their businesses.
4. Talk about how it relates to your client’s goals for their business.
A lot of times we may talk about brand strategy as this “checklist” of the brand’s mission, vision, values, message, competitive analysis, positioning etc. But if you put yourself in the shoes of your clients, they may be led to think “okay, but what does that do for me?”.
That’s the question you’d want to answer. Share how having a brand strategy can actually bring them results in their business. Is it being able to attract higher-budget clients? Maybe mapping out a clear plan of action for their next launch? Illustrating how brand strategy can be the thing that gets them to a certain business goal, will incline them to get curious about it and potentially hire you to help them achieve that.
5. Present case studies of past work and how it has transformed their business.
Lastly, there is no better way to communicate the value of brand strategy than through the stories of people who have actually seen results from it. If you have any past work that you’ve done, share your thought process behind taking your client from point A to point B. You can do this through a blog post, or maybe invite them to hop on an IG live to talk about their experience in investing in brand strategy.
All that said, having a pool of ideal clients coming to you asking for brand strategy doesn’t happen overnight. It will take time to truly educate your audience, help them understand the value of brand strategy, and eventually move them into paying clients. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen fast.
Either way, the most important thing is to stay committed to being firm about your value as a brand strategist. Because the more you show up as one, the more people will recognize you for it as well.