As important as marketing and branding are, it’s easy to get caught up in the time-consuming minutia and slow down your larger goals and objectives. You need a streamlined plan for maximizing efficiency (without compromising on quality).
4 Useful Tips for Streamlining Your Efforts
Okay, hold up…full stop! What are we talking about when we use the word streamline? This term has become such a buzzword that it seems to have lost all meaning in most contexts. But we’re using this word very intentionally.
For the purposes of this article, our definition of “streamline” is to remove as much friction from a process as possible in order to promote efficiency and consistency through agreed-upon processes. In other words, it’s making things simpler so that everyone is on the same page at all times. And in when it comes to marketing and branding, there are some specific ways you can do this:
- Get Clear on Your USP
The first key is to get clear on what your unique selling position (USP) is. If you don’t have one, you must invest the time and creative energy into developing one as soon as possible. If you already have one but don’t do much with it, it’s time to clean it up and look for opportunities to leverage it.
A good USP addresses the value that you add in a unique way that sets you apart from the competition and communicates a clear and relatable benefit to the target customer. It should be specific and needs to emphasize emotion over logic.
If you want to get a feel for what your competitors’ USPs are, just visit their websites, and you’ll usually find some version of it outlined in the header on the homepage.
- Develop SOPs for Everything
You’ll most likely be doing most of the marketing and branding on your own in the early stages. But as your business grows, you’ll eventually want/need to hand off many of these tasks to other people. The challenge lies in handing these tasks off without losing consistency or accuracy. You can streamline this process by developing standard operating procedures (SOPs).
SOPs are documented, step-by-step instructions for how to carry out a specific task or process. They provide all of the resources the individual needs and (theoretically) make it possible for anyone with the proper skill set to execute with precision.
By building up a library of SOPs, you essentially create scalable opportunities that allow you to spend less time working in the business and more time working on it.
- Create a Brand Style Guide
It’s important that you develop a brand style guide for your company. This is a single resource or folder that contains all of the necessary information and files for your brand. This may include:
- Editorial guidelines
- Logo files and other important visual elements
- Frequently used templates
- Color hex codes
- Information on the brand’s USP and vision
- Customer personas
- Etc,
The purpose of this brand style guide is to prevent the unnecessary friction and delays that occur when various team members are forced to search email inboxes, project management folders, and various drives or devices to access brand assets. It consolidates everything in one centralized location so that it’s accessible by everyone at the drop of a hat. Do it now and you’ll thank us later!
- Hire the Right Professionals
One of the top ways to streamline your branding is to outsource the work to the right professionals. These are individuals who are (a) skilled, (b) efficient, and (c) understand the importance of following your SOPs and brand style guide.
A good design time, like Superside, can give you a scalable solution with fast turnaround times and incredible consistency. Give them a look and see if there’s potential there. You can also find plenty of other options for everything from content marketing to podcasting.
Adding it All Up
The more you streamline your branding, the less time and energy you have to waste doing small tasks that don’t move the needle. It empowers you to leverage your resources more efficiently to generate value for your business by establishing trust with your audience.
Spend a few hours nailing these principles, and you’ll put your brand in a much healthier place.