Once you’ve created and placed your brand at the heart of your business, it informs customers of your values and what your services promise. It’s right at the centre of your marketing materials and tone of voice. If it’s not, it should be!
Brand confusion is the number one threat to your brand. Whoever is responsible for your businesses marketing, therefore, needs to get their head around your brand before they start thinking of content ideas and marketing initiatives, because the resulting posts need to ring true to your company, its thoughts and values, and how these are expressed.
That isn’t to say that nothing new or creative can be expressed; simply that these expressions must be ones that feel authentic to the brand, rather than some bolt-on flow of posts that awkwardly co-exists with it. Here are five tips to bear in mind when marketing and growing your band.
Focus on your business aims
Create marketing that supports and contributes to your business message. For instance social media offers the perfect platform to execute new ways of conveying your message instead of just repeating the same old information. Put yourself in the mind of your customer. Having seen your message on your website, marketing materials, etc. what kind of things would they like to see and hear to reinforce and validate it? Imagine your message is a pencil sketch. Your aim, through social media, is to add definition, colour, light and shade to the original sketch through your posts – not to keep adding new sketches.
Align to your brand strategy
Your brand strategy has set out the way your particular brand will go about achieving its goals, so ensure your social media content falls in line. If, for example, your brand takes a slowly but surely approach to winning new business, then putting out aggressive sales-driven posts could confuse your customers and ultimately even drive them away.
Think ‘brand’ before you press go
Have the guidelines been followed? Does the post feel like something your company would say? Does any of its content grate against your brand values? If your company was a person would it speak in this way? Does the post strengthen what you stand for or does it confuse your business purpose? And most importantly, will it appeal to your audience?
Remember what a great brand is…
A great brand fulfils a desire or need within its market. This is its purpose. Its purpose and supporting values never change, just as a person’s fundamental personality and characteristics never change. Products and services and the way they are targeted may vary, but the overarching core purpose must never be eroded, or so too will the customers’ faith in the company and ultimately their loyalty towards it.
Think of your business as a person when you make a decision concerning your strategy or tactics. Would this person (your business) and what they stand for, behave in this way? Does this particular move strengthen what your business stands for or does it confuse its purpose? Once you know your brand inside out, you’ll even be able to evaluate considerations such as whether your customer communications reflect your brand appropriately.
Always communicate your brand
This is where you take your brand to the next level and get out there and communicate what your brand is about as much as you can, not just when you absolutely have to. So get fully immersed in social media, blogs and content marketing to ensure your products and services reach the hearts and minds of your audience.
Great customer experiences attract more of the same. Buyers can easily find you, tell their friends, and remain loyal when you are at the forefront of their minds. For further reading have a look at our guide to creating a brand.
