Stop Asking What Looks Good: The Brand Strategy Questions That Actually Grow a Business

One of the most expensive questions you can ask while building your brand is:

Do I like this?

Not because you shouldn't like your own brand. Please do.

But liking something and making a strategically useful decision are two completely different things.

This is one of the biggest differences I've noticed between businesses that constantly reinvent themselves and businesses that build brands capable of growing with them.

One is making isolated creative decisions.

The other has criteria.

Strategy gives creativity somewhere to stand.

When I'm working on a brand, I don't start by asking which shade of burgundy the founder likes best.

I want to know where the business is going.

Who are we trying to become known by?

What does that person currently believe?

What is she comparing us to?

Why would she choose this business instead?

What does the founder want to sell more of?

What needs to become easier?

What is already working that we absolutely should not destroy in the name of a rebrand?

Only then do I care about burgundy.

Because design becomes dramatically easier when it has a job.

The biggest brands don't know everyone. They know someone.

One of the strangest pieces of business advice is the idea that defining your ideal client somehow makes your market smaller.

The opposite is often true.

When you're trying to communicate with everyone, your messaging becomes so broad that nobody recognizes herself inside it.

Compare:

“I help women grow successful businesses.”

with:

“I build brands for women whose businesses have grown faster than the identities representing them.”

One could describe approximately half of Instagram.

The other makes a specific woman stop.

Specificity creates recognition.

And recognition is the beginning of relevance.

Your client is giving you the strategy constantly.

This is the part people make much harder than it needs to be.

Your strategy isn't hiding in a $97 workbook.

It's probably sitting inside your inbox.

Look at the last ten inquiries you've received. What were people asking for?

Read your client testimonials. Which words repeat?

Go through sales call notes. What happened immediately before someone decided they needed you?

Read the objections from people who didn't buy.

Look at the offer everyone asks about.

Look at the one nobody understands.

Your audience is constantly giving you language about what they want, fear, value and misunderstand.

Your job is to notice the pattern.

This is one of the reasons I am almost obsessive about understanding the woman on the other side of a brand.

I want to know her well enough that when she arrives, she doesn't feel marketed to.

She feels recognized.

Your next-level client may need a different signal.

This gets especially important when your business starts growing.

A lot of founders reach a strange stage where their referrals are strong, their work is good and their revenue proves that something is working—but their public-facing brand still communicates an earlier version of the company.

And then they wonder why they're attracting clients who want the old price.

Your positioning hasn't caught up.

Your website hasn't caught up.

Your visuals haven't caught up.

Your offers may not have caught up.

The business evolved.

The signal didn't.

That's when working harder at marketing usually isn't the smartest first move.

You need to fix what the marketing is pointing toward.

Before you redesign anything, answer these five questions.

Where are we actually going?

Not where were you when you made this website. Where does the business need to be twelve to twenty-four months from now?

Who needs to choose us for that to happen?

Not “women entrepreneurs.” I want the actual woman.

What does she need to understand immediately?

Your website shouldn't require detective work.

Why are we the obvious choice for her?

Not because you care deeply or offer personalized service. Your competitors care too.

What needs to become recognizable about us?

This is where strategy begins turning into identity.

If you can't confidently answer those five questions, you don't have a design problem yet.

You have a clarity problem.

And clarity is fixable.

Wiser means fewer random decisions.

That's what I want for founders.

I don't want you changing your Instagram bio every Thursday because someone posted a new formula.

I don't want you rebuilding your homepage because you saw a cool website on Pinterest.

I don't want you dropping an offer that was working because someone told you recurring revenue is the only respectable business model now.

I want you to know what you're building well enough to evaluate advice against it.

That is what strategy gives you.

Not more ideas.

Better filters.

At Wild Powerful, this is why strategy comes before design.

My Brand Fix is a 90-minute strategy intensive where we look at your actual brand and website through the eyes of the woman you're trying to attract and identify exactly what needs to change, in order.

You leave with a prioritized plan, the recording and seven days of follow-up access.

It's $497.

If you already know your brand needs something but cannot figure out whether that something is messaging, positioning, design, your website or all of the above, don't redesign the entire thing at 11:47 p.m.

Let's figure out the actual problem first.

That's the wiser move.