Tips to Craft Brand Strategy Roadmaps That Increase Client Results

Can you relate to working on a brand you’re so proud of, only to see your assets being stretched, manipulated, and dare I say it, butchered, when your clients execute it?

I know it can be one of the most frustrating things ever.

Often times, this can be avoided by creating an in-depth visual guidelines so your clients know exactly how to use their branding assets.

But the main reason why they don’t even care about staying true to their branding is probably they don’t even realize what it is that the brand really stands for.

This is one of the many reasons why it’s so important to take your clients through a brand strategy process and helping them understand every decision that is made for the brand – including your design.

All of which you capture via a brand strategy roadmap.

The brand strategy roadmap is a customized plan of action that outlines how your client’s brand should behave to better connect with their audience. Whether their goals are increasing sales, pivoting their business, adding a new product line, improving company culture, all of those stem from creating a better relationship between the brand and its consumers, which is what the brand strategy roadmap captures. 

So how do you ensure that your roadmaps actually propel your clients forward and don’t end up just being another addition to their digital collection of never-been-used PDFs?

Here are some of my best tips to craft a viable brand strategy roadmap for your clients: 

Tip # 1: Make it a collaborative effort

Have you ever felt intimidated to offer brand strategy because you feel as if you have to know everything about your client’s industry? Well, I have good news for you: you don’t have to know it all. Crafting a brand strategy is and should be a collaborative effort between you and the client to come up with a sustainable plan for the brand. This means that the more your client is involved, the more powerful your strategy becomes.

Usually, you’ll be able to do this through a strategy session where you hop on a call with a client to discuss their objectives and brainstorm on possible directions. Remember, the more they have a hand in building the brand, the more they’ll feel attached to it, and the more likely they’ll stay true to the essence of the brand as they move further along in business. 

Tip # 2: Ensure that it’s actionable and sustainable 

Brand strategy is not just a transfer of information. It’s not a list of the mission, values, messaging, and positioning etc. For your clients to see actual business results from the strategy, it’s important that you provide concrete action steps and creative solutions that they can implement. Maybe it can be a unique digital execution? Maybe there’s a different angle that they can communicate their product or service? Maybe there’s a way to improve the customer experience that has never been done before?

This means not only building out the actual strategy, but also guiding them on when, where, and how to apply it to meet specific goals.

Tip # 3: Write it within the context that it will be used for

This is a simple fix that I think is really important but is often overlook. Most of the time, I see designers crafting the document in their voice (the designer). But, if you think about the way your strategy document will be used, your client will be using it as a guide for their team, partners, and collaborators for them to understand the brand. And so it would make more sense to write it in their voice, right?

For example, instead of writing it as “your brand is _____”; shift the voice to “our brand is _____”. That way, you’re empowering your client to use your strategy as a real tool for success that they can own and be proud of. 

There is absolutely no right or wrong way to build out a roadmap. Each business is unique, and so there is hardly ever two roadmaps that follow the same structure. So you can let out a sigh of relief there knowing that you can’t actually go wrong with your roadmaps. But try to see if there’s anything you can take away from these tips to further elevate your brand strategy roadmap.

If you’ve never crafted a roadmap before, I created this free brand strategy template that you can use for your own clients to get you started.