How should you go about making strategic decisions in your business? Defining your brand values plays a vital role in determining the best actions to take for your business. Your business will suffer long-term when it lacks brand identity and principles guiding your decision-making. 

Brand values aren’t exclusively related to the visual side of your branding but rather to how you operate your business, connect to clients, and earn income. Consistently exhibiting these standards signals what it’s like working with you to potential clients. Weak or undefined brand values undermine the effectiveness of your business and strategic direction. To combat and prevent this issue, I wanted to provide my process for choosing and defining brand values that truly align with your business. 

Why Are Brand Values Important?

Brand values convey what your business believes in and your actions for upholding these principles. For example, your business values can encompass anything from honesty and transparency to reliability and authenticity. Whatever you find valuable, these foundational beliefs shape your brand identity, reflect what’s most important to you, and be implemented throughout your business strategy. 

In addition to acting as a strategic guide, business values attract customers who hold similar values. Communicating your brand values to prospective clients makes your business a viable solution for solving problems. People want to align themselves with similar others, and one of the best ways to attract those clients is by proudly displaying your brand values. 

Brand values play a role in business scalability. You cannot compromise on your brand values as you make strategic decisions to expand and grow. Doing so ignores the foundation of your business and threatens your credibility. If you change your brand values, you change an essential part of your business. While this isn’t always a negative thing, these changes should make sense with the long-term direction of your business. 

How to Choose Brand Values

You cannot make sound strategic decisions concerning the long-term effectiveness of your business without clearly defined brand values. Here’s the process I start with all my clients to discover and describe their business values. 

First, make a list of the traits you have as a business owner, what your ideal customer has, and the kind of experience you want your customer to have while working with you. See where there is overlap in where you and your customer can agree. Reflect on the work you’re already doing and how it impacts your brand values. Group similar values under one term and definition. 

Following this analysis, discover the gaps between what you value and what your ideal customer values. Filling these spots with relevant terms helps you avoid making decisions that compromise your values. Contemplate the negative experiences you’ve had with other businesses and clients. What interactions or situations do you want to avoid? How can your values help you with that?  

Look to other brands you love for brand value inspiration. How do they define and apply these values? Finding examples can help you convey their meaning in the context of your business. 

Once you’ve finalized a list of business values, list them on your website and implement their definitions throughout your website pages and the content you create. Make these brand values accessible to website visitors by displaying them on your about page. 

The business values you select will guide the rest of your operations and strategic decision-making. Consistently upholding and acting in alignment with your brand values is a sign of credibility, and straying from them has long-term negative impacts on your business.

Examples of Brand Values

Your brand characteristics should be memorable, specific, and meaningful. As an example, I wanted to provide my brand values and what they mean for my business. 

• Connection: I want to truly understand my clients, their problems, and the services they need to resolve them. Learning about their story and purpose builds our relationship beyond that of business. 
• Community: Using the information about my client’s purpose and drive behind their business, I strive to strengthen the community of powerful female entrepreneurs.
• Strategic and Purposeful Design: My design philosophy takes a strategy-first approach toward solving your problems and taking your business to the next level. 
• Impactful Results: I want our time together to benefit your business long-term with actionable and measurable results.
• Empowerment: Using my goals of strategic design and impactful results, I want to deliver the results and resources you need to leave you feeling empowered in your business. It’s important to me that my services help you feel like you’re capable of achieving anything. 

These brand values might mean something different to everyone, and that’s okay! The most important part of business values is defining them in a way that applies to your business. 

Defining what’s meaningful to you and your services is essential for drawing in the right customers and being fulfilled in your work. To have a truly transformative business, your strategic action needs to align with your beliefs.

Having an outside perspective give their input on the brand values that fit your business and mission is invaluable. Let me help! I’m a brand visibility strategist that supports business owners with branding, website design, and SEO. Fill out this form to get started! 

About Âme Creatives

I’m a Showit Design Partner and SEO expert who specializes in crafting websites and branding for you: the successful female entrepreneur who is crushing business goals…but doesn’t have the branding or website to match. I’m an expert at being able to create a beautiful brand that fully represents YOU. Ready to work together? Send me a message!