Many years into running this copywriting business of mine, and I’m still clearing up one particular misconception.
Brand strategy ≠ brand messaging≠ visual branding.
(see also: Messaging ≠ Copywriting)
These are related disciplines, but they are not the same thing.
Mixing them up and hiring for or DIYing in the wrong order is costing business owners time, money, and sanity.
That’s exactly why I decided to get my bud, Jamie Cox, on the line.
Jamie’s a brand and marketing strategist who works with service-based business owners to make their brands less boring. She believes in building brands that attract the right folks (your customers) and repel the wrong ones (your haters). Her work spans 12+ years and multiple industries—from tourism and D2C fashion to B2B SaaS and organizational consulting.
And here’s what she told me that I think you need to hear:
“I wish folks understood that brand strategy isn’t a luxury that only huge companies get to take advantage of. Brand strategy can be really powerful for companies of all sizes, from solopreneurs to enterprise-level companies. It helps them make more aligned decisions in all areas of their business (not just marketing).”
In our conversation, Jamie breaks down:
📆 The biggest mistake brands make when translating strategy into actual copy.
👩🔬 Her research process for helping clients zig where competitors zag.
🔪 Kiss, Marry, Kill: The Marketing Edition
🛑 The one thing B2B service providers need to stop doing immediately.
💰 The source that’s generating the most leads in her business today.
Let’s get into it…
✏️Le Interview
You often talk about getting off the “marketing hamster wheel.” How does taking a second look at your brand foundations help you with your marketing strategy?
Jamie: There are so many shoulds in marketing. Post on LinkedIn. Start a newsletter. Try this new platform. And while the advice may be well-intentioned, it often leads to busywork that doesn’t actually move the needle, especially if it’s not aligned with your brand or your audience.
When you revisit your brand foundations—who you are, who you want to connect with, and what you offer—you start to see which marketing efforts are worth your time. Maybe that’s referral marketing. Maybe it is a newsletter. But the point is, it’s intentional.
I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all marketing playbooks, especially for solopreneurs and small businesses. Your strategy should reflect your resources, energy, and strengths, and where your audience actually is. That overlap is small, but powerful. And that’s where your most effective marketing lives.
We both work with words and psychology. What’s a psychological insight about human behavior that fundamentally shapes how you approach brand strategy?
Jamie: I like to talk to people as people—shocking, I know! A lot of the brand work I do centers around one core idea: we want to show our audience we see them, we hear them, and we’re here to help. That emotional connection is what builds trust.
All of that starts with understanding. I do a lot of sleuthing—reading industry-specific studies, diving into Reddit threads to find out what real people are saying, conducting interviews, and building surveys. From there, I create audience personas rooted in real behavior. I look at what they want (what they’re Googling), what they need (the underlying problem your offer solves), their pain points (beyond just your category), and any misunderstandings they might have about your industry or offer.
I was once chatting with a prospective client, and they said, “I was on your website and it was like you were in my head!” And that’s what I’m going for (in the least creepy way)!
What’s the biggest mistake you see brands making when they try to translate their brand strategy into actual copy and messaging?
Jamie: Can I say AI? Ha! I’ve seen so many folks take a great brand foundation, dump the entire thing into a chatbot, then say, “Write my homepage copy.” YIKES. That approach strips out all the personality and nuance. And sure, you can ask it to be more [insert personality trait here], but it will always feel a little off.
The problem isn’t just the tone (and endless metaphors I see it produce!). It’s that people assume the output is “right” because it sounds polished. But “polished” isn’t always what we’re going for. I work with a lot of solopreneurs whose websites sound buttoned-up and generic—then I get on a call with them and they’re swearing, laughing loudly, deeply thoughtful, and wildly articulate. None of that shows up in their copy. I get whiplash just thinking about it!
The AI approach may be fast and easy, but in the long run, it erodes trust. I always recommend working with a real human who can interpret your strategy and make intentional choices. They may even poke holes in the strategy—and honestly? I love that! That additional perspective is really where the work comes to life!
I know you love getting stuck into the research so you can help brands figure out how to zig where their competitors zag—what’s the coolest revelation or insight that influenced how a client (re)launched/approached their brand?
Jamie: Gosh! There are so many! A lot of my clients start by thinking about competitors all wrong. They’re asking, “How can I be completely different?” when a better question is, “What gaps am I already filling?” Once we shift that mindset, they often realize there’s space to collaborate with competitors (but I’ll save that rant for another day).
I recently worked with a client who kept describing their business as a “community.” But when we dug into all the “communities” in their space, we realized, “Oh heck no, we’re not building that!” The structure, the offers, the promises those communities made—they were playing a different game than my client. We were on a completely different court.
We had to step back and think about how we describe the business. Even though it felt like a community to us, using that word would have lumped them in with a bunch of brands they didn’t want to be associated with. Changing the language (we chose “support network”) shifted everything from positioning to how they framed outcomes.
That said, there is a caveat! You don’t want to go so far off script that it becomes confusing, like when someone is the “Chief Dragon Tamer” of their company. What does that even mean?! You still have to consider what folks are looking for, too (and that goes back to audience personas). So yes, we still use the word “community” in some messaging, but it’s not the headline.
Looking at brand strategy across industries, what’s something that works in one industry that people need to stop trying to make work in another?
Jamie: I talk to a lot of B2B service providers who think they need more visibility. More eyeballs on their content, more followers, more traffic. They’ll often say some version of, “I want it to be simple, like Nike’s ‘Just Do It!’”
My guy! Nike spends billions building brand awareness. You need four clients!
So the conversation shifts from there. We stop thinking about taglines and slogans and start talking about trust. Trust is the engine of the B2B world. You don’t build that through huge campaigns, but through consistency and relationships. And ideally, you’re building those relationships long before you need business and long before a client needs you.
Visibility and mass appeal might work for billion-dollar brands. But what works for B2B service providers is connection and credibility.
Kiss, Marry, Kill: Networking, Email Marketing, Social Media
Jamie:
Kiss: Email Marketing
Marry: Networking
Kill: Social Media
In terms of business development/lead-gen, what’s working for you right now—how are people finding you?
Jamie: My biggest source of business continues to be referrals from past clients and other service providers. My best referrals come from service providers who “get it” and whose work complements my own—like web designers, fractional marketers, or hey—copywriters! My clients also send great leads, but those typically take longer to convert because the lead may not be thinking about strategy as a solution to their problem yet (or they may not even think they have a problem).
What’s the most common reason clients seek you out and what’s contributing to that problem? (Systemically, societally, philosophically, whateverically, etc.)
Jamie: There are all sorts of dynamics folks are bringing to our first conversations. I often hear “I know I should…” or “Someone told me to try…” They’re juggling a lot of advice (both solicited and not) and are exhausted.
There’s societal pressure to do more, show up everywhere, scale fast, and follow the latest trend. And most folks are left wondering, “Why isn’t this working?”
What they’re really looking for is clarity and an approach that accounts for the complexity and nuance of their business. That’s where brand strategy comes in. I help them define the foundation that they can build everything else on. It’s not just marketing, but sales, processes, customer service—everything.
When the brand does the heavy lifting, the other stuff sticks (or, to keep the foundation analogy going, the additions don’t just blow off at the first sign of a storm)! There’s less chasing shiny objects, putting out fires, and living in reaction mode. There’s more focus on moving forward.
If you want to dive deeper into Jamie’s brain (and honestly, who wouldn’t after reading this?), subscribe to her newsletter, Brand Burnout, where she talks about branding and how it relates to her business. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn or learn more about her work at jamiercox.com.
