You're a brand strategy professional. What online tools can help you stay ahead of the curve?

Data is only good if it comes from good sources. I love a mix of qualitative and quantitative. So first decide your goals and what you're trying to measure. Then decide what questions will bring those answers. I love a mix of analysing social media engagement and growth, google analytics with specific surveys. Typeform has a user-friendly layout that I love.

For auditing your brand, consider tools like Mention, which monitors brand mentions across online platforms, and Sprout Social, helpful for tracking engagement and generating audience insights. SEMrush, Ahrefs, and SimilarWeb are great for competitor analysis. Additionally, tools like Hotjar, Crazy Egg, and Mixpanel offer web analytics, providing insights into user behavior on your website. The choice really depends on your brand goals and desired status. Experiment with different tools to find the perfect fit for your brand audit and management strategy!

I see brands struggling with complex marketing plans on a daily basis and investing thousands without actually knowing where they stand. A brand audit is key to know which is our start point. For instance, a brand health study is crucial for assessing consumer perceptions, loyalty, and overall brand strength. At Appinio, we leverage online surveys, targeting specific demographics, and utilizing Appinio's user-friendly platform for efficient data collection and analysis. This enables a quick and cost-effective evaluation of your brand's health. TIP: If you'd like to see a template of a Brand Health study, just message me, I'm happy to share it! ;)

While digital tools are great, depending on the brand and product I think it's important to also be in the field. See how the consumer interacts with the brand/product, read comments, frequent specialized forums and communities where the consumer could be sharing feedback.

Listing down some free tools that I use in my brand strategies: 1. Google search trends: To figure out how the market for your brand is growing 2. Google search console: To measure brand awareness and engagement 3. Google forms: To run surveys and get feedback about your brand directly from customers 4. Social media channel metrics: To understand brand content engagement, audience insights, etc 5. Google Analytics via Looker Studio: To analyse your website traffic, demographics, buyer journeys on your website etc Add Semrush/Ahrefs and Mentionlytics to this list (paid versions) and you should have a full and good understanding of your brand to a great extent.

Online tools are overrated. Just talk to your customers. In person or on the phone. There’s more to learn from people through real conversations. Do the same with every audience your brand interacts with. Quality THEN quantity.

I’ve yet to find a tool that works better than this recipe: 1. Read a lot 2. Over-build a discussion guide. Know it intimately 3. Talk to employees, customers, channel partners. Let that talk wander (see #2). 4. Digest subconsciously over days, then again consciously and all at once 5. Opps, challenges, unique POVs, design ideas, raw copy, etc. float to surface; catch in Google Doc 6. String together into a story clients identify with

All of these tools might seem helpful, but they’re pretty generic and unlikely to give you the quality of work a trained pro can deliver—you might even have to spend more money and time in the long run fixing / updating the basic results you get from genAI or an automated platform. Instead, talk to a brand designer, a brand writer/namer/verbal identity person, or other specialized folks who’ve spent years honing their skills. These are the people who can *actually* develop foundations that’ll truly set your brand apart.

Your brand strategy isn't your plan, the plan is what you'll need to activate the strategy and you'll need both! Strategy is the long term vision. It comes with risks and uncertainties that may need you to adapt your strategy as you move forward. The strategy comes before the plan and it shapes the execution phases and requirements of the plan. So before you start writing or visualising your plan, go back to the beginning, and project out to the end and then work on your brand strategy.

Crafting an effective brand strategy requires a structured approach. After understanding your brand's current state, Canva proves invaluable for visually expressing your brand's identity through stunning graphics and logos. BrandGenius streamlines the generation of catchy brand names and messages, allowing for effective evaluation through its feedback and rating system. The Brand Archetype Quiz aligns your brand with universal personality types, aiding in resonating with your audience on a deeper level. Together, these online tools offer efficiency and precision, ensuring your brand strategy communicates value and purpose seamlessly to your target audience.

Streamline brand management using versatile tools like Brandfolder for centralized asset storage, Frontify for style guide creation, and Percolate for workflow automation. Brandwatch monitors online mentions, while Qualtrics gathers customer insights. Salesforce provides customer relationship management, ensuring consistent brand interactions. Embrace Meltwater for media monitoring and Buffer for social media scheduling. These tools enhance brand coherence, streamline communication, and foster proactive brand maintenance, ensuring a robust and consistent brand image across channels.

Ao abordar as ferramentas de gest?o de marca, é crucial escolher aquelas que oferecem uma abordagem abrangente e inteligente para monitorar e impulsionar o desempenho da marca. Existem ferramentas excelentes disponíveis no mercado, cada uma desempenhando um papel crucial na gest?o estratégica de uma marca. A escolha ideal dependerá dos objetivos, do or?amento e das características exclusivas de cada marca. As que eu considero na minha estratégia s?o BrandWatch, Hootsuite, SEMRush, Google Analytics, Comscore, Widen Collective e Survey Monkey.

I suggest some popular brand management tools: Brandwatch, Brandfolder, Widen Collective, Frontify, and Bynder. These platforms offer features like brand asset management, collaboration tools, and analytics to help businesses effectively manage and enhance their brand presence. Keep in mind that the popularity of tools can vary based on specific business needs and industry requirements.

Developing a brand strategy playbook (such as a word/PDF document) allows you to capture your messaging, positioning, visual assets all into one document that can be shared across your organization. At my company we created a brand strategy process and brand strategy playbook with multiple sections, and have helped over 100 organizations of all sizes to engage the framework and create their own playbook. It's become a tool for hiring, onboarding, directing marketing and sales. It ensures that everyone is on the same page with access to the same information to keep the brand and team aligned. It can easily be updated as needed over time.

In the dynamic landscape of digital marketing, leveraging online brand management tools is essential for maintaining a cohesive brand strategy. Tools like Frontify are invaluable for ensuring brand consistency by centralizing visual and verbal guidelines. CoSchedule's ability to streamline content planning aligns perfectly with the need to maintain a consistent brand narrative across various channels. HubSpot's comprehensive CRM capabilities are critical for nurturing customer relationships, which is the cornerstone of any brand growth strategy. As a seasoned brand strategist, I've seen firsthand how these tools can significantly enhance a brand's ability to engage with its audience and drive startup growth.

Tools won't necessarily help you "get ahead of the curve" (whatever that means) in brand strategy. A tool is useless if the data is inaccurate, or if you don't know how to read the data. Focus on those two things when seeking tools.

As sophisticated as many brand tools are, there are no absolute rules for building and managing a brand enterprise. Much like writing and movie making, it's often the brands that break the rules of the best practices of branding that break new ground and teach others what's possible. Therefore, my team and I use tools and frameworks as a way to spark ideas and conversations, not as a vending machine of predictable results.

Whether steering the ship for a big corporation with hefty marketing budgets or navigating the startup terrain, these tools cater to various needs. Brandwatch and Google Analytics provide robust insights for larger enterprises, while startups can benefit from their scalability. Feedly and Trello offer cost-effective solutions for staying informed and organized, making them ideal for companies of any size. Regardless of the budget, SurveyMonkey remains a versatile tool for understanding audience sentiments, ensuring strategic decisions align with market needs.

Frameworks, frameworks, frameworks! There are loads of brand strategy frameworks designed by academic people and also people working in this market. Brand equity; brand purpose; funnel; brand persona; campaign idea; brand key; channel planning; message mapping… Go for it and use them all!

Don't get lost in the tools. The only thing that gets (and keeps) you ahead of the curve is providing great value to your customers in a way that deeply resonates with them. It's great to strategise, to plan, to map and to measure - but at the end of the day, if you're not in touch with what your customers truly need and want, you're just a spreadsheet warrior. A great brand experience is something that makes an individual feel seen, and those insights are more easily gained on a qualitative than on a quantitative level.