Why Defining Your Organization’s Strategy is Key to Brand and Marketing Development

“Can you or someone you recommend help us design and build our website?” is a question I often get asked. My response is usually to ask a question: “Does your organization (whether for-profit or nonprofit) have a defined strategic direction (Vision, Mission, Values, Purpose) and brand guidelines? If so, that’s great and I’d be happy to put you in touch with someone.”

However, if the answer is no, my advice is that before you spend a lot of time and money on building a new website or creating other marketing collateral, you need to start by stepping back and answering who is your organization, what are its desired outcomes, and where do you want to be in the mid- to long-term?

By all means, if you’re a startup and must have a website now, purchase the necessary domain names and create an inexpensive holding site with the basics – about, how to contact, services, etc.

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“Does your organization (whether for-profit or nonprofit) have a defined strategic direction (Vision, Mission, Values, Purpose) and brand guidelines?”

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This may sound obvious. However, it is not unusual for a business or nonprofit organization not to have a strategic direction outlined nor a defined look and feel for their brand. I hasten to add that addressing either of these does not have to be complicated. You simply need a clear view of the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your organization that will serve as the foundation for internal and external communication, branding, taglines, website development, social media outreach, partner relationships, and more.

Basically, there are four parts:

1. Positioning – defining your organization’s purpose (the who, the what, the how and the why)*. The first step is to do a positioning statement. It forms the basis for your messaging. Does it differentiate? Does it resonate? Is it believable? What unique value do you provide? The objective is to communicate a differentiated, relevant, and lasting value proposition to gain a competitive advantage.A great example of positioning is Southwest Airlines – Rather than defining themselves as being in the airline business, they position themselves as being in the customer service business, they just “happen to fly airplanes” to provide that service. This positioning is consistent and permeates throughout the organization. They understand that if you want happy customers, you have to start by having happy employees so they ensure their staff is well trained and understands the positioning.
2. Messaging – once you have the positioning statement, you can move on to develop targeted content to communicate your messages to specific audiences and take into account the way you’ll be communicating – website, presentations, social media and so forth. The key is a consistent purpose statement that I call base messaging, which can be adapted to your audiences, rather than reinventing the wheel each time = a great time saver. Also to ask, does our messaging reach the relevant audiences in an appropriate way? Often, when developing a marketing campaign or simply explaining to people about the organization – in a meeting, on the website, on social media sites and in other materials – an organization will explain what they do and how it works. However, very often they don’t say why they are doing it, which is usually crucial to engagement.
3. Branding – as you all know, the overall identity for your organization depicts who or what it is and why it exists. It’s how your organization is recognized by current stakeholders and it is the first impression for others who don’t know it. Managing brand consistency across all outlets and channels is essential if you want to stand out and accelerate your organization’s growth. Brand inconsistency is a common brand management mistake, which gives off mixed messages and often causes confusion for potential stakeholders.
4. The final piece of Strategic Identity is Communication itself – Communication in its broadest sense is critical to the successful execution of any strategic approach. Communication runs or should run through everything, bringing all the pieces together. Through an intentional communication strategy, getting engagement throughout any process from key stakeholders, whether staff, customers, vendors, partners, media, or influencers is critical to achieve buy-in. The challenge is when everyone assumes that communication is a given – it’s so obvious, it will take care of itself. The result is that it often doesn’t happen, or at least not in the impactful way that it could. It is essential that communication is considered as part of the overall strategic conversation.

Once you have your overall purpose, brand look and feel defined, then the next questions to ask before building your website are: What is the purpose of the website? What are the desired outcomes from the website? Who are you intending to reach? Have you identified your target audiences for this and other marketing materials? Are you selling something? If so what kind of product or service is it? What resources will the website need such as merchant accounts or PayPal or the like links? Where is your target market – online anywhere, in your geographic region, nationally, internationally or??? Is the website simply informational or will it be used to engage potential stakeholders in your mission?

Conclusion:

So, back to the original question: “Can you help us build a new website?” The answer is “It depends”. First you have to decide what it is you are trying to accomplish? What is critical for the long-term success of your organization? Do you have a clear strategic direction and consistent positioning, messaging, and branding, which will form the basis for all your communication, whether internal or external? Simply building a website that does not reflect your organization’s purpose, who you are as an organization, and what differentiates you from others, can ultimately produce little or none of the results you had hoped for.