Is Your Content Actually On-Brand? Try a Brand Audit
A brand audit is checking in on the effectiveness of your brand elements—are you aligned with who you want to be? Over time, if we’re not checking in with our materials regularly, we can start to drift from our core story, mission, and voice. Or, on the other hand, we could be living in fully to our voice and values, but our efforts aren’t effective.
Either way, a review of who you say you are, who you actually are, and how to make adjustments will help make your brand effective and authentic. Let’s get started.
Review
Mission, vision, values.
This is your foundation, your blueprint. Remind yourself of your ultimate plan and purpose here as a business owner.
Brand voice
What are the characteristics of your brand? What have you written down as key tonal indicators for how your brand sounds to others? What’s the stance you take towards them?
Emotional takeaway
How do you want clients to feel when they interact with you, and more importantly, what’s the emotional feeling they should have at the end of your transformation process?
Core Promises
What are your transformative promises? What are you helping people towards?
Compare
Now take all that ideal information of who you claim to be and compare it to your assets over the last few months. Are your voice, promises, emotions, vision properly reflected?
Website
Marketing
Visual branding (logo, colors, fonts)
Program structure
Copy
Refresh
Let’s put it all together. If you’re perfectly aligned, awesome! Super proud of you.
If you’re not, let’s look at some growth opportunities.
What if my marketing is off-base?
Start thinking about your voice, your position to your audience. What were some really successful marketing moments? Why do you think that is? Do you think that maybe your voice needs to be adjusted in some way?
Work on helping your audience. Fall back in love with them. Pray for them, a lot. Spend time with them off of the internet.
This is the question: What do they need?
The answer, from a marketing perspective, is: What I have to offer.
So tell them what you have to offer. Tell them about how you know what they’re going through and what they’re feeling and how you can help them.
What if my website isn’t converting?
Where are you out of alignment from that first section? Is your copy speaking to the right people in the right voice? Are you being clear with your audience about how you can help them?
Your website is about meeting your audience on a journey they’re already on. It’s the intersection of their pain and your solution—so confirm that your copy isn’t leaning too heavily on one of those things.
Go back and look at your marketing. If your marketing is getting people over to your website in the first place, check in on that first.
What if my visual branding is outdated?
We could all do with a brand update every few years or so! It’s good for you to grow and evolve and need something that better represents you and your brand. Making a Pinterest board that focuses on the emotional aesthetic of your business is a great place to start. Not just stuff that you like, but images that capture the personality and position of your brand. Look for common shapes, colors, and tones.
A re-brand can be an overwhelming process to complete on your own. As brand strategists and designers for Kingdom-focused brands, we’re ready to help you take your new vision, values, and brand personality and give you strategy and visual branding you can count on.
