One of the smartest shifts a brand strategist can make is to transition the brand-marketing program from a 1-way communication to a 2-way conversation. Pressed for time and short on budget? The easiest and most dangerous mentality to fall into is one of “Hurry-up and get it done!” As if just doing something was accomplishment enough. What could be further from the truth in brand strategy?

When we engage our creative resources, we seem to automatically move to a default mindset that is based on “getting the message out the door.” This is where a website and related marketing communications all move together that is designed to support the sales activities of the company.

The problem is this is extremely inadequate unless the goal of the brand strategy is solely to accomplish no more than paint a brand image.

Let’s say you’re at the start of your brand strategy development, and also let’s say you are up against a tight deadline. Do these factors change what will positively resonate with your existing and prospective customers? Obviously your intended audience does not care about your time constraints or deadlines. They just want clear concise information to help them make an objective decision about your brand. So why not give it to them without complicating the process?

We’re often so nervous when we start that we just want to speed through the process and get to the finish line where we can feel relieved that it’s all over. It might have been cheap and quick to produce, but what happens if it isn’t working? The result of this self-imposed rat race is a hurriedly produced branding campaign that does not satisfy the customer’s needs and therefore isn’t successful. Why? The brand marketing that your customers and prospective customers experience should get them to participate in many ways and if they can’t they shut down. It’s no wonder that they don’t feel willing to participate in the process, because you did not do anything to establish that you would like them to be involved.

So try slowing down the information push and open up new ways for them to comment on, interact with, and even criticize some of your products or services.

Try this out using a simple exercise. Create four simple visual cues (image, illustration, photograph, edited video) that sum up the key needs you know your customers are trying to solve, and ask them a question for each. From this simple set of visual cues create an easy-to-understand brand story that leads the conversation but allows customers to express themselves throughout the branding. Perhaps there could be a comment box, customer review area where actual uses are posted, a forum where customers can pose questions to other users, and the list can go on and on.

Using simple visual cues on your website, in your interactive tablet presentations, and in your sales presentations seems so simple, yet its impact is very compelling and persuasive. With just one click you will be able to open up a meaningful conversation, substantiate that you are interested in your customers’ feedback and ideas, and be able to customize your brand marketing to adapt to your customers’ evolving needs.

All in all, that’s one large impact that a visual cue and a question can produce.

The very first step to ‘smart brand strategy’ is to make your brand program work harder so your customers and prospective customers don’t have to.

The litmus test is what you choose to emphasize at the beginning of your brand messaging.

Most brand marketing programs include a value positioning statement such as “Here’s who we are” or “Here’s why we’re important” or “Here’s what you can learn from us.” Although those thoughts generally describe your brand and the overall ideas of it, they make it harder for your customers and prospective customers alike to understand the main idea of your brand.

The reason? The descriptions are so general and so generic that they cause an immediate “WHY” question that forces them to figure out what you are really trying to say. With so many options for information on the Internet today this is not the question you want them to ask.

Instead, leverage your audience’s short-term imagination and creativity by asking questions such as, “What results do you need?” or “What can we do to help you with your future?” or “Have you thought about using this to change your experience?”

This makes their decision-making much easier and much more interesting.  With one or two questions you can perk someone’s interest to read another 100 to 300 words if they think they are going to get what they are interested in.

The principle of ‘smart brand strategy’ is to be simple and to the point. No guessing. No runarounds. No confusing references. Just straight on point messaging that asks questions of your audience and provides equally straightforward answers.

Here’s an exercise you can use to give this simple method a try. Open a brand marketing document you have previously composed and look at all of the information that is provided, and ask yourself, “What is my point?” Summarize it in a single sentence and write a new title that captures just that one point.

When you are done, find the few key points that actually support this one main thought and delete the rest. Your customers will thank you, your prospects will thank you, for being concise and to the point.

If your brand strategy is clear, your brand marketing is clear, then your audience will be clear. And this clarity will bring an immediate connection and relevance between your brand and your audience that will allow them to focus on what they searched for, and what you want to communicate.

Wouldn’t you call that smart brand strategy?

It’s true that one of the easiest things to do in brand strategy is to add a promise, and then to keep on adding more and more and more…

It’s also true that one of the hardest things to do in brand strategy is to subtract a promise, and then to keep subtracting more and more and more…

Why is it so easy for us to add, yet so difficult to subtract?

There are many factors that contribute to the situation, but the most important ones include the following:

• We have a lot to say, and we need to keep the ideas coming so we can be sure to get our “brand story” across.
• We need to demonstrate our credibility by showing both our application and technological prowess in many markets and circumstances.
•  If we change one of our promises, or cease making one, we confuse or worse confound our customers, and this is never a good strategy.

Whatever the reasons, the result is a brand strategy that is so bloated with promises, your audience can’t see the forest through the (brand messaging) trees.

What to do if you are in this spot after so many iterations of brand messaging?  And you know who you are!  Consider employing a new brand strategy: “one brand, one thought.”

This is usually not an easy practice for many, particularly for those that have allowed their brand messaging to include everything and the kitchen sink. But it is the only way your brand will ever have a fighting chance to be heard, seen and felt.

A quick exercise is to write a short description of your brand. This should include, “Why does my brand exist?” and “What value does my brand bring like no other?” In other words, what is so unique about your brand that no other brand can claim?  Edit this down to one sentence, and then add one to three supporting points that prove this main point leaving no question in anyone’s estimation.

The result should be a singular brand statement, and much more focused.

It’s absolutely true that the less you say, the more your audience will focus on what you truly have to say.

When you apply “one brand, one thought” to your brand strategy and messaging you will be on the way to creating a new kind of clarity of thought and impact that your audience will truly appreciate.