Brand strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how a company will present and differentiate itself in the marketplace through various branding elements, tangible or intangible. Brands are built with brand guidelines, and with such guidelines are the likes of Apple and Samsung built upon—the integration of elements across channels, making a holistic brand the same everywhere. “Your brand is what people say when you are not in the room — Steve Jobs.” Remember, it’s about keeping you in their mind.
And for services, how can they best align their digital efforts to align with its overall brand strategy?
What is a Brand Strategy?
Brand strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how a company will present and differentiate itself in the marketplace through various branding elements, tangible or intangible.
Within a Brand Strategy are core elements, which may include digital advertising. A brand’s strategy consists of these elements: vision, core values, target audience, positioning, personality, identity, messaging and customer experience. It is with these elements that every marketing communication and promotion is aligned.
Table of Contents
Digital Advertising and Brand Strategy
Digital Advertising is simply traditional marketing made online. By definition, digital advertising is promoting products or services on digital channels and platforms. Digital Advertising includes social media marketing, search engine marketing, display advertising, affiliate marketing and email marketing. Each channel and platform offers a great deal for customer satisfaction and brand identity for service companies.
Every channel selected to promote a service should be a part of the brand strategy. The social channels available, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others, have different audiences and thus different messaging and visuals. The audience on social media differs from the browsing audience on search. A brand guideline, messaging, and tone will help align how well service companies advertise their brand on digital platforms. But how can service companies best align their online advertising with their brand strategy? Here are ten ways to create an alignment.
1. Purpose and Voice
The brand voice and its purpose at the centre of every message for an ad must collaborate to fit into the brand strategy. Service companies must consider the intangibility of their offering. Thus, there has to be an integrated communication that reminds the target of who you are leaving you in their evoke set. What is the brand’s voice?
What tone does your brand use? All these must be considered when crafting an online advertising copy or creative. Integrated communication across channels and platforms allows for easier brand recall and retention. For instance, a hospital can highlight its commitment to solving customer problems and highlighting the long-term impact of its services in its ad campaigns.
Run purpose-driven campaigns on LinkedIn or Google Ads, showcasing initiatives like customer success stories.
2. Core Values
Reflect the company’s values in digital ad content to resonate with the target audience. A customer-service-focused hotel company can create content about how its customer service team handles its customer complaints and other benefits offered to them. Consider which platforms or channels have a target audience that resonates with this messaging.
They can also design video content that informs the target audience that their concerns were considered in creating another service to their benefit.
3. Target Audience
Every communication must be centred around the target audience, their lifestyles, preferences, physical location or other segmentation. Understand the target audience’s pain points and tailor digital ads to address their needs.
Example: For a B2B service, focus on decision-makers and use targeted LinkedIn campaigns with professional messaging—segment audiences using ad platforms to deliver personalised ads.
4. Positioning
Keeping your brand position at the core is essential when crafting ad copies. For instance, what comes to mind when you think of Jobberman Ghana? For many, it’s a trusted platform that connects job seekers to opportunities, equips them with career skills, and empowers employers to find the right talent.
With this, we craft messages and campaigns that resonate with our target audience. Through success stories, we highlight how job seekers have secured life-changing opportunities and employers have found the perfect candidates through our platform. If there’s ever a hoax about how Jobberman works or its effectiveness, we tackle it head-on with blogs, testimonials, and social media updates that provide clarity and build confidence.
5. Brand Personality
Match ad tone with the service company’s personality. A consulting firm with a professional, knowledgeable persona should create ads with a formal and authoritative tone. Tailor ad content for platforms—use polished, informative ads for LinkedIn and relatable, conversational tones for Instagram Stories.
6. Follow Brand Guidelines
Ensure everyone involved in the ad creation process can access the brand guideline document and understand its importance.
Use brand-approved assets for all ad designs, like high-resolution logos and pre-defined colour codes. Review all ad copies to ensure they reflect the brand’s approved voice. Example: Avoid using overly technical language in the ad if the brand is less professional.
7. Visual Identity
Use consistent branding elements across all ads, such as company colours, logos, and imagery.
Example: A modern tech services company might use sleek visuals and bold fonts to maintain a contemporary image. Create campaign ad templates, ensuring cohesive branding across multiple platforms like Facebook, Google Ads, and display networks.
8. Customer Experience
Design ads to direct customers on how to use your service. If there is any update to your app, create a seamless video or written ad format to guide them through it. Doing this reflects what the brand stands for if it is a customer-centric company. Example: A hotel company can share a video ad of its recent addition to its dining and value-priced food.
9. Apply brand consistency throughout
Brand consistency refers to the consistent and uniform ways your brand is presented across all customer touchpoints. Brand guidelines, message, tone, and voice must remain consistent across all selected platforms and channels.
10. Analytics and Feedback
Use analytics from existing ads to tweak and refine your ad. If conversion and engagement rates are low, tweak the ad to fit the audience and what they prefer, which works. Remarket the ad to fit the right audience.
To maintain integrated communication, a brand must consider its overall messaging to craft well-aligned ads. Moreover, target audiences are the main purpose of an ad and thus should be incorporated into every ad. Using brand personality as the guideline, service companies can create ads that maintain their visual identity and positioning, resulting in consistent brand communication.
Want to reach your target audience and drive results? Our Digital Advertising Service delivers tailored campaigns across email, social media, and more—maximising ROI for your business!
