This month’s guest blog features Ashlee Sang Consulting, whom we recently brought into one of our projects to help our client reinvent their brand messaging. Ashlee’s approach not only allowed our client to rediscover their mission to align with a new target demographic that they will be selling to, but also take a deeper dive into the core values that truly set them apart from similar businesses in the area.

Enjoy!

Values-Aligned Marketing

By: Ashlee Sang

In Seth Godin’s This Is Marketing, he writes, “The people you are seeking to serve are trying to figure out who you are. If you’re going to show up in their world, make it easy for them to know who you are and where you stand.”

Your brand values do just that. They allow you to stand for what you believe in, stand out in all the best ways, and connect with the exact people you’re wanting to reach through your business.

So that makes your core values an essential part of any successful marketing strategy—especially one that’s impact-minded and human-centric.

Establishing and Defining Your Brand Values

Before you can put your brand values to work for you and your business, you need to get clear on exactly what they are and what they mean to you specifically.

Phase 1: Establish

Most of us are multi-passionate and care about a lot of causes. But really take the time to consider and prioritize what’s MOST important to your brand and how each value would potentially play out in your business.

Ask yourself questions like:

Are there any causes that I support without a second thought? What do they have in common?
What gets me fired up when I see some sort of injustice or when something feels out of whack? [Sometimes getting clear on what you don’t want sheds light on what you do want.]
What do I look for in partners or brands I support?
What have my customers said are important to them?
How do I want people to feel when they think of my brand or interact with my team?

Aim for 3-5 core values. That’s enough to provide a firm foundation, but not too many to become distracting. The goal is to get super clear on a set of values that feels perfectly aligned so that you can start living them out in every single one of your decisions.

Phase 2: Define

It’s important to note: no values are inherently good or bad. It’s all about how you define them that matters.

For example, holding a core value of transparency might mean sharing monthly income reports and tales of hiring disasters, but you’d NEVER talk about personal health issues. Whereas transparency to someone else might mean listing prices on your website and sharing snippets of your family life, but you’d never talk about your own business mindset blocks.

Or take the example of valuing expertise vs collaboration. If you’re building a personal brand as an expert coach and thought leader, you might produce a solo podcast, host IG lives or workshops, and run closely moderated Facebook Group. But if you’re building a community of moms, you might collaborate with other businesses to provide holistic support, crowdsource group advice, and share inspiration from wherever is useful.

None of these cases is better or worse—it’s all about what matches your vision as the founder and the needs of your ideal audience.

Aligning and Applying Your Brand Values

You started a business because you know you can have an impact in your customers’ lives—and maybe even on your entire industry. Brand values are the “how” to make other people see the vision that’s so clear in your head and heart.

Phase 3: Align

Values are a way for you to direct yourself as a founder and lead from a place of clarity. If you have a team, your values allow you to get collective buy-in and have a base to steer people from. Living out your brand values also facilitates deep connection with the exact people you're aiming to serve or partners you dream of working with.

When you show up in alignment with your values, you attract people who share and appreciate those principles and repel those who don’t. It makes marketing easier *and* more effective. Wins all around.

Phase 4: Apply

When it comes to your marketing (and your operations!), your values should shine through every step of the way.

Yes, you should explicitly state your brand values on your website. But beyond that, your values should be felt, understood, and incorporated into every decision you make.

Consider how your visual branding and social media graphics reflect your values. What about your email signature—your sign-off, a disclaimer or quote, an affiliation like 1% for the Planet, or any other customizations you can include? As you create promo videos and newsletters, how does the overall tone and vibe set the scene for the values you believe in? In your website copy and in your bio, are your values obvious if someone overlooks the standalone “Our Values” blurb?

You can do a full audit of all your existing marketing collateral using a values lens. Or if that’s too overwhelming, look to the future and plan your content around daily, weekly, or monthly themes related to your values. You’ll be amazed at how many ideas stem from these core principles you care so much about.

Growth Rooted In Values

Once you establish, define, align, and apply your brand values, you’re not “stuck” with them. Yes, they’re a guiding force for now, but they may evolve as your brand and audience do.

Listen to feedback from your team and ideal customers along the way. Keep an eye on ways you can expand to solve new problems or the same problem for a different group of people.

Your values are HOW you show up, and they need to constantly stay in alignment with your vision (WHAT), mission (WHY), and audience (WHO). The magic happens when you live out your values across every aspect of your brand.

When you filter your decisions through your brand values, it’s so much easier to show up with consistency, confidence, and clarity. Because you’re not starting from square one each time. You’re not making your best guess. You’re not getting distracted by what could or “should” be.

So the best way to grow a business that feels and does good? Stand up for your brand values. That’s how you’ll stand out.

If you’re ready to move forward in your business with intention and direction based on your core values, download the “Live Out Your Brand Values” Self-Reflection Workbook. It’s your guide to establish, uniquely define, and apply your brand values so that you can stand up for the things that matter most to you and your customers, and stand out in all the best ways. Or if you want outside perspective and empathetic accountability through this process, we can work together one-on-one.

About the Author

Ashlee Sang consults conscious and caring business owners so they can grow their impact and their revenue. Through Ashlee Sang Consulting, she equips entrepreneurs to take confident, meaningful action in alignment with their values. She believes that business can feel and do good when it's rooted in values and propelled by purpose.

Before doing brand messaging strategy and marketing consulting, she worked with a variety of nonprofit organizations, including a human rights education NGO in Senegal and a local branch of Habitat for Humanity. The common thread has been sharing messages that matter.

Based in Central Illinois, Ashlee has a background in anthropology and a penchant for travel. She’s a fan of one-liners, happy surprises, and taking walks in the sunshine. Learn more at ashleesang.com.