A solid brand strategy is the bedrock of any successful marketing effort. Without a clear understanding of your brand’s identity, values, and target audience, your marketing campaigns will lack focus and fail to resonate. Is your current marketing feeling scattered? It’s time to build a brand strategy.
Key Takeaways
- Use the Brand Archetype Finder in HubSpot’s Brand Toolkit to identify your brand’s dominant archetype by answering 12 questions about your brand’s values and messaging.
- Create 3 distinct customer personas within HubSpot’s Marketing Contacts, detailing their demographics, pain points, and preferred communication channels, and link these to your archetype.
- Leverage HubSpot’s Content Strategy tool to map out pillar content and supporting blog posts that directly address the needs and interests of your identified personas, ensuring consistent brand messaging.
## Step 1: Accessing the HubSpot Brand Toolkit
HubSpot has really stepped up its game in recent years, offering a suite of tools that go beyond just CRM and marketing automation. One of their standout features is the Brand Toolkit, which is integrated directly into the HubSpot platform.
### Finding the Brand Toolkit
To access the Brand Toolkit, navigate to the Marketing dropdown menu in the main navigation. From there, select “Brand & Strategy” then “Brand Toolkit”. This will bring you to the main Brand Toolkit dashboard. It’s a handy central hub for all things related to defining and managing your brand within the HubSpot ecosystem. You might find the process similar to other tech-fueled marketing implementations.
### Exploring the Toolkit’s Features
The Brand Toolkit offers several modules, including:
- Brand Archetype Finder: This tool helps you identify your brand’s dominant archetype based on a series of questions about your brand’s values, personality, and target audience.
- Brand Voice Guide: This section allows you to define your brand’s tone and voice, ensuring consistency across all marketing materials.
- Visual Identity Assets: Here, you can upload and manage your brand’s logo, color palette, and typography.
## Step 2: Identifying Your Brand Archetype
The Brand Archetype Finder is a powerful tool for understanding your brand’s core identity. It’s based on the work of Carl Jung, who identified 12 universal archetypes that resonate with people on a deep, emotional level.
### Using the Brand Archetype Finder
To use the Brand Archetype Finder, click on the “Start Assessment” button within the Brand Archetype Finder module. You’ll be presented with a series of 12 questions designed to uncover your brand’s dominant archetype. These questions cover various aspects of your brand, such as its mission, values, and target audience. For example, you might be asked:
- “What is your brand’s primary goal?”
- “What are the three words that best describe your brand?”
- “What kind of relationship does your brand want to have with its customers?”
Answer each question thoughtfully, selecting the option that best reflects your brand’s true identity.
### Interpreting Your Results
Once you’ve completed the assessment, HubSpot will generate a report detailing your brand’s dominant archetype. This report will provide insights into the archetype’s core values, personality traits, and ideal customer. For instance, if your brand is identified as “The Hero,” the report will highlight its focus on courage, achievement, and making a difference in the world. We found that understanding our archetype helped us refine our messaging and better connect with our target audience.
Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to challenge the results. While the Brand Archetype Finder is a valuable tool, it’s not infallible. If you feel that the suggested archetype doesn’t accurately reflect your brand, consider re-taking the assessment or exploring other archetypes that resonate with you.
## Step 3: Defining Your Target Audience with Personas
Understanding your target audience is essential for effective marketing. HubSpot’s Marketing Contacts feature allows you to create detailed customer personas that represent your ideal customers. This is a key element for connecting with customers effectively.
### Creating Customer Personas
To create a customer persona, navigate to “Contacts” > “Marketing Contacts” in the main navigation. Then, click on the “Create Persona” button. You’ll be prompted to enter information about your ideal customer, including:
- Demographics: Age, gender, location, income, education, occupation
- Psychographics: Values, interests, lifestyle, attitudes
- Pain Points: Challenges, frustrations, needs
- Goals: Aspirations, desires, motivations
- Communication Preferences: Preferred channels, content formats, messaging styles
Be as specific as possible when creating your personas. The more detailed your personas, the better you’ll be able to target your marketing efforts. For example, instead of simply stating that your target audience is “small business owners,” you might create a persona named “Sarah, the Solopreneur,” who is a 35-year-old female running a handmade jewelry business in the Inman Park neighborhood of Atlanta. She’s active on Instagram, struggles with time management, and is looking for ways to automate her marketing efforts.
### Linking Personas to Your Brand Archetype
Once you’ve created your customer personas, it’s important to link them back to your brand archetype. This will help you ensure that your marketing efforts are aligned with your brand’s core identity and resonate with your target audience.
For each persona, consider how your brand archetype can help address their pain points and achieve their goals. For example, if your brand is “The Caregiver” and one of your personas is “John, the Stressed-Out Dad,” you might focus on creating content that provides practical tips for reducing stress and improving family life.
Common Mistake: Creating too many personas. While it’s important to understand your target audience, creating too many personas can dilute your marketing efforts. Focus on creating 3-5 distinct personas that represent the core segments of your target audience. You might find it beneficial to unlock insightful marketing by focusing on data-driven insights.
## Step 4: Mapping Out Your Content Strategy
With your brand archetype and customer personas defined, you can now start mapping out your content strategy. HubSpot’s Content Strategy tool helps you organize your content around specific topics and keywords, ensuring that your content is relevant and valuable to your target audience.
### Using the Content Strategy Tool
To access the Content Strategy tool, navigate to “Marketing” > “Planning & Strategy” > “Content Strategy” in the main navigation. Here’s what you’ll do:
- Click on the “Create Topic Cluster” button.
- Enter a broad topic that is relevant to your brand and target audience. This will be your “pillar topic.” For example, if your brand sells marketing automation software, your pillar topic might be “Inbound Marketing.”
- Identify 5-10 subtopics that are related to your pillar topic. These will be your “cluster topics.” For example, subtopics for “Inbound Marketing” might include “Content Marketing,” “SEO,” “Social Media Marketing,” and “Email Marketing.”
- For each cluster topic, create a list of relevant keywords that your target audience is likely to search for. Use HubSpot’s Keyword Research tool (available within the Content Strategy tool) to identify high-volume, low-competition keywords.
- Create content that addresses each cluster topic and incorporates the relevant keywords. This content can take various forms, such as blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and ebooks.
- Link all of your content back to your pillar page. This will help to establish your pillar page as a central hub of information on your chosen topic.
### Aligning Content with Your Personas
When creating content, always keep your customer personas in mind. What are their pain points? What questions do they have? What kind of content do they prefer?
For example, if one of your personas is “Sarah, the Solopreneur,” you might create a blog post titled “5 Time-Saving Marketing Automation Tips for Busy Solopreneurs.” This blog post would directly address Sarah’s pain point (time management) and provide her with actionable tips that she can implement right away. Remember, the goal is to deliver smarter marketing through data-driven insights.
Expected Outcome: A well-defined content strategy that is aligned with your brand archetype and target audience, resulting in increased website traffic, lead generation, and customer engagement.
## Step 5: Monitoring and Refining Your Strategy
A brand strategy isn’t a “set it and forget it” exercise. It’s an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and refinement. Use HubSpot’s analytics tools to track the performance of your content and identify areas for improvement.
### Analyzing Your Results
Regularly review your website traffic, lead generation, and customer engagement metrics. Which content is performing well? Which content is underperforming? Are you attracting the right kind of leads?
Use this data to identify trends and patterns. For example, you might discover that your blog posts on “Social Media Marketing” are generating a lot of traffic, but your ebooks on “Email Marketing” are not. This might indicate that you need to invest more time and resources into creating higher-quality ebooks or promoting them more effectively.
### Adapting to Change
The marketing is constantly evolving, so it’s important to be flexible and adaptable. Be prepared to adjust your brand strategy as needed to stay ahead of the curve. For example, if a new social media platform emerges that is popular with your target audience, you might need to shift some of your marketing budget to that platform.
I had a client last year who stubbornly stuck to their outdated brand strategy, even though their website traffic and lead generation were declining. They refused to adapt to the changing marketing, and as a result, their business suffered. Don’t make the same mistake. You may also want to consider MarTech and adapting to stay relevant.
A recent IAB report [IAB](https://iab.com/insights/2024-state-of-data/) shows that data privacy regulations are significantly impacting ad targeting strategies. This is something to factor into your brand’s messaging and overall approach.
Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to experiment. Try new things and see what works. The worst thing that can happen is that you learn something new.
Developing a comprehensive brand strategy is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. By leveraging the HubSpot Brand Toolkit and consistently monitoring your results, you can build a strong, recognizable brand that resonates with your target audience. This consistent approach will ensure that your marketing efforts are focused and effective, driving long-term success for your business.
What if my brand doesn’t fit neatly into one of the 12 archetypes?
Many brands are a blend of multiple archetypes. Focus on the dominant one, but also consider how secondary archetypes influence your brand’s personality and messaging. You can manually adjust the archetype within the toolkit if needed.
How often should I revisit my brand strategy?
At least once a year, or more frequently if there are significant changes in your industry, target audience, or business goals. A quarterly review of key metrics is also recommended.
Can I use the Brand Toolkit if I don’t have a paid HubSpot subscription?
Some features of the Brand Toolkit may be limited or unavailable in the free version of HubSpot. Check HubSpot’s pricing page for details on which features are included in each plan.
What if my team disagrees on our brand archetype?
Facilitate a discussion to understand the different perspectives. Use data and customer feedback to support your arguments. Ultimately, the decision should be based on what best resonates with your target audience and aligns with your business goals.
How do I ensure my brand strategy is consistently implemented across all departments?
Create a detailed brand guide that outlines your brand archetype, values, voice, and visual identity. Share this guide with all employees and provide training on how to implement it in their respective roles.
By following these steps and using HubSpot’s Brand Toolkit, you can create a brand strategy that will guide your marketing efforts and help you achieve your business goals. Don’t just build a brand; build a strategy for success.
