If you are like most people who have aspirations to extend their influence based on their experience, you’ve likely identified some of your objectives for pursuing that path. If you’ve taken the next step by externalizing your goals and formulating a strategy to help you accomplish them, CONGRATULATIONS!
Having a foundational understanding of your offering as an author or thought leader – like a Greenleaf Brand Strategy means that you’ve taken a critical step toward success. You have clarity on what you are aiming to accomplish (goals), who you should be focused on communicating with (target audience), who else in the world they’re already listening to (peers/competition), and how you can stand out from the crowd while staying true to your vision (your brand positioning).
You’ve come a long way, but you have not yet reached your destination. There are a number of steps you can take in the wake of setting your brand strategy that will help you build a thriving platform as a thought leader.
- If you’re still writing a book, use the positioning as a frame to shape the content. Many of the aspiring thought leaders who we work with at Greenleaf Book Group have written a manuscript already, but if you are still working on creating a book, your brand strategy can be a huge boon to your writing efforts. If you are ever stuck on a specific topic or struggling to crystalize the thoughts in your head, having a target audience to write directly to, or an ultimate promise you’re making to your reader can break through tricky spots and help you power through the doldrums of writing.
- Follow your peers. Consumers have options for solving any given problem they face. If your knowledge is not yet accessible to them, they’re likely finding answers from your peers, so getting to know that landscape intimately will equip you on how to best crash the party when the moment arrives. Competitors’ content can be used as a launching point for your own perspective on any given issue, whether it’s complementary or opposing. Plus, you might just develop an alliance or friendship that can pay off in unforeseen ways.
- Get to know your target audience. Odds are you have a basic familiarity with your target audience already, but if you really want to reach your potential, be ready to amp up your curiosity about them even further. Take every opportunity to discuss pain points and understand their mindset when you meet or see someone in your audience in person. And seek out their digital footprints to sharpen your understanding of what they engage with and respond well to online.
- Audit your network to identify your most valuable allies. With the clarity on objectives and landscape in hand, you now have an effective filter you can use to evaluate your personal and professional network. The exercise of going through your connections with this project in mind will help you identify who’s best positioned to help amplify your voice when the time is right, and celebrate wins along the way to build awareness.
- Secure your digital real estate. If you don’t already have a website or control over a domain name (URL), the time is now! Owning online real estate based on your name is always a good idea, but now you have a clear position and promise you are making to your audience, so you can identify and secure messaging-based domain names and set yourself up to capture valuable web search traffic moving forward.
- Translate positioning to consumer-facing messaging. Some brand strategies will establish a consumer-facing tagline, but most are focused on the behind-the-scenes functional positioning. The difference may be subtle, but it’s critically important to ensure that the language you use on your website and on other social platforms speaks directly to your audience.
- Develop an engagement plan. With the foundation for your brand set, you can start to envision and establish a regular plan to engage with your audience where they are already spending time and seeking solutions to their problems. Prioritizing where you should spend the most time (IRL and online) and understanding the etiquette for each particular space will help you align with expectations and make the most of your investment.
As you go forward there will be countless opportunities to learn and grow based on the conclusions you’ve reached in a brand strategy. This list is simply meant to get you started on your way. If you ever have any questions or want to learn more about how Greenleaf might be able to help, please don’t hesitate to reach out.