6 ways to use social listening to improve your brand
When brands are evaluating their digital teams, the value of social listening and social media managers can be hard to quantify. The ROI – or return on investment – of social media can feel somewhat nebulous when compared to A/B testing or ad spends, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. Social media is a powerful way to engage customers and build your brand experience in much the same way that public relations initiatives complement your traditional marketing efforts. On the other end of the social spectrum, social listening complements your data analytics work. Social listening provides a wealth of data and information about your customers and your competition. If you’ve never used social listening to gain insight about your brand, you may be unsure where to start. The following six categories are easy places to find actionable insights. 1. SOCIAL LISTENING HELPS YOU DISCOVER PROSPECTS: Before you’ve even received your first follower or decided on your social media handle, you can use social listening to discover prospective customers. Scour Twitter hashtags, Facebook searches, and trending Instagram posts that are aligned to your brand (or other brands like yours from sources such as trade journals, competitors, or aligned products) to discover users and influencers who may be interested in your brand. Follow them, share their content, and engage with them to encourage adoption with your brand, shares and referrals, and even sales. As these prospective customers begin following your social media accounts and opting in to your emails and blog content, you’ll find new opportunities to engage with and convert them from leads to customers. The beauty is that social listening is a self-renewing cycle as new hashtags and trends emerge, so you will never run out of prospects to draw from. 2. INSPIRE COMPETITIVE SWITCHING WITH SOCIAL LISTENING: If you’ve ever seen an AT&T or Sprint advertisement, you’re probably familiar with the idea of competitive switching. The telecommunications industry is famous for generating new customers by preying on the competition’s unhappy users. Any brand with a direct competitive set, or operating in a saturated market, can benefit from using social listening to discover potential converts within their competitive customer base. Listen in to learn where your competition is failing, then do it better, and tell the world. Certain airline brands take it one step farther by using social listening to discover unhappy customers and then reaching out to them directly with promotions and special offers that make those customers’ threats to “never fly their competition’s airline again” possible. As an added benefit, this allows brands in hyper-competitive markets to compete without resorting to downstream price wars that hurt the industry at large. By leveraging service as a reason to switch, your brand can provide deep value and skip the constant promotions. 3. LEVERAGE SOCIAL INFLUENCERS AND TASTEMAKERS: You know the phrase: “the squeaky wheel gets the oil.” And social media is full of squeakers. Many times this isn’t a bad thing. Discover vocal social media power users via social listening and then interact with them to promote your brand and encourage their endorsement. To attract influencers with a lot of clout, consider a “surprise and delight” campaign that captures customers’ attention with a promotion, product sample, or special experience. A great example of this type of outreach is Mastercard’s “Priceless” Twitter campaign, in which the brand used social listening to mine for high-influencers, and then sent them complimentary concert tickets, massages, and restaurant certificates as part of a “Priceless Mastercard experience.” These vocal recipients were loud and proud in sharing Mastercard’s generosity and service. Even if those recipients weren’t actual customers, the appearance was that Mastercard valued and cared deeply for their customer base. Really, the brand endorsements were as priceless as the experiences they gave. 4. KEEP CUSTOMERS HAPPY BY ADDRESSING AND RESOLVING ISSUES: On the flip side, your social listening may uncover unhappy customers who are frustrated with your service experience or products. In these instances, consider social listening as the gift of raw, unfiltered, totally honest feedback. Often times, customers who flock to social media are simply looking for a place to feel heard when the customer service process breaks down. This can serve as a great coaching tool for the individuals who normally address service issues, while giving a voice to your customers that they so desperately need. Address customer concerns as you uncover them, even if it’s just to acknowledge their experience and offer your sympathy. Your company may consider a more robust escalation path for serious issues or completely overhaul your service process as a result. 5. USE SOCIAL LISTENING TO CONDUCT MARKET RESEARCH: Social listening is also a great way to discover general sentiments regarding your brand, a certain product, or the customer service experience. Sure, you can pay for market research, but social listening provides similar data and insights into trends, reach, and forecast for a lot less money. That said, it isn’t the only data tool you should be using. Social listening provides exceptional qualitative insight into your actual customers, rather than the general and quantitatively more powerful insights found in big data market research. For scrappy startups and on the fly research projects, social listening is the perfect answer to your data needs. 6. SOCIAL LISTENING IS ALL ABOUT THE DATA: Because at the end of the day, it’s all about the data. Social media lets you talk to and interact with your customers, while social listening let’s you, well … listen. And listening is the single best way to get data about your customers, make informed decisions based on facts rather than opinions, and help you – once and for all – answer the age old question of how much social media is worth. The stronger your social base, the more data points your listening will uncover. It’s a proprietary pool of information that helps you keep your finger on the pulse of your customers’ needs, track your brand engagement, reach and brand sentiment over time, as
Integrate transmedia storytelling into your brand story
Transmedia storytelling is a powerful tool that integrates marketing and entertainment across channels to deepen fans’ connections with the narrative. More simply put, transmedia storytelling helps bring entertainment to life. It uses a popular story – usually, a movie, television show, novel, or trend – and expands it from its channel of origin (e.g., television) into the mainstream world. For example, The Limited clothing brand released a line of Olivia Pope-inspired clothes based on the ABC hit drama Scandal’s main character. Blogs discussed what Kerry Washington’s character wore each week, “Gladiator” wannabes could dress like Miss Pope herself, and enthusiastic viewers could be part of the show in some small way … all while expanding the brand’s influence and revenue. The idea of transmedia storytelling isn’t new. Large franchises from the likes of Harry Potter to the NFL have harnessed the power of integrating media platforms with games, apps, websites, merchandise, and spinoffs that bring the magic of their brand into the real world. But one recent breakthrough has left them all in the dust. And your brand can’t afford to miss out. TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING AND AUGMENTED REALITY: In 2010, we hit a critical turning point in transmedia storytelling. DreamWorks Entertainment debuted the family-friendly fantasy How to Train Your Dragon around the same time that augmented reality (AR) was gaining some steam as a new technology platform. Augmented reality represents the marriage of technology with the real world. Think: Google Glass. At that time, DreamWorks released an augmented reality app in which fans could interact with dragons by using the camera on the phones. Sound familiar? It should if you’ve been following the Pokemon Go craze. In many ways, the How To Train Your Dragon app paved the way for augmented reality as a viable transmedia storytelling channel. While early AR adopters may have gone crazy for Google Glass and geo-based advertisements, the general population simply wasn’t ready for widespread applications of augmented reality. Just six years after DreamWorks’ first attempt to use AR as a transmedia storytelling vehicle, the public is finally ready. Nintendo’s stock has soared an unprecedented 90% thanks to the newest combo of transmedia storytelling and augmented reality. Enter, Pokemon Go. Pokemon started as an anime series and evolved – as transmedia storytelling does – into a card game, clothing lines, toys, and more. Pokemon Go takes it one step further by encouraging fans to search for Pokemon in the real world using the camera on their phones. See, we told you that DreamWorks app sounded familiar. The results for both the Pokemon brand and for local businesses alike are mind blowing (for more information about how local businesses can take advantage of the Pokemon Go craze, check out our Marketer’s Quick and Dirty Guide to Pokemon Go here). Your brand could be next. YOUR BRAND MEETS TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING: Whether your brand is telling a story or complementing a story, you have the opportunity to become part of a transmedia storytelling narrative; and with the rapidly increasing adoption of AR, this process has never been easier. To determine how to use transmedia storytelling to your advantage, ask yourself these simple questions: Is your brand part of a larger story or trend? If so, it’s time to start forging partnerships and taking note of where your customers are naturally discussing your story. If not, ask yourself: what types of stories does your brand align with? Tangible goods and hospitality brands may have an easier time answering this question, but even service-based brands are packed with potential. Our team of Orlando marketing agency experts is on call to help you brainstorm and build out an action plan. No matter where your brand falls, augmented reality can help you bridge a gap between your brand and the story you want to help tell. Learn how to best tell your story here.
Three brand designs for health no matter what industry you’re in
Building a healthy brand starts with bringing together a clear vision and product that fits your customers’ lifestyles. Today, customers are more interested than ever in how products contribute to their overall health and wellness, or the improvement of the world around them, which is why building a robust brand starts with designs for health inside the office and out. Everyone from fast food chains (now offering healthy menu options) to consumer goods (like TOMS® One for One model) is embracing the idea that consumers prefer to engage with brands that are improving the collective community in a meaningful way. No matter what industry you’re in or what products and services you offer, you have the opportunity to leverage campaign designs for health that showcase how your company is making a difference in your customers’ lives. To highlight how your products contribute to a healthier lifestyle or community effort, we have compiled a list of three brand design guidelines to get you started. 1. Check in with your brand promise: One of the easiest ways to promote goodwill is to ensure your brand promise clearly expresses what customers will get – or be able to give – by choosing your products. For example, organic grocery store Trader Joe’s has outpaced mega competitors such as Whole Foods and Fresh Market thanks to its private label’s earnest brand promise: “Trader Joe’s private label products promise great quality fare for exceptional, everyday prices. We taste everything before we put our name on it and offer only what we feel is extraordinary.” Customers feel confident purchasing Trader Joe’s products because they receive great quality, healthy products for a price that fits their lifestyle. Check in with your own brand promise and ask yourself if it expresses a clear value proposition to your customers that will make them feel good investing – or even indulging – in your brand. 2. Visual housekeeping and designs for health: If you already know your brand delivers exceptional service or quality, make sure your visual elements reflect that same level of confidence. In this instance, we literally mean ensuring your team designs for health. Choose colors, fonts, UX layouts, and images that capture the essence of what’s best about your brand. For example, when most people think about the insurance industry, they may not immediately think of healthy lifestyle or community involvement, but corporate giant Nationwide Insurance nails the important brand balancing act between commerce and community. In addition to ad campaigns that highlight how their services give customers peace of mind and financial security, the corporation routinely showcases their work funding the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and their commitment to corporate responsibility. Each of their brand campaigns – whether it’s via media, digital, email, or print – use visual designs that highlight, link, and reaffirm these efforts. Their emphasis on simple, clean creative elements and straightforward messaging creates consistent alignment with their brand promise and visual assets. These visual reminders help your customers understand that their purchases are contributing to something beyond themselves and deepens their brand loyalty. 3. Create four campaign designs for health: Put these principles into action by committing to four campaign designs for health this year because there is nothing more important when building or refining a brand than consistency. Every marketing initiative your team invests in won’t necessarily promote a sense of health or wellbeing, but one health- or community-focused effort each quarter creates a consistent reminder that will forge a link between your brand and your customers’ lifestyles. When these campaigns are reinforced by your typical, day-to-day visual and marketing elements, this link becomes stronger and more substantial. Over time, customers will begin associating your brand style guidelines with your products and the positive impact they have on their communities and lives. Great examples of this continuous affirmation are Coca-Cola’s holiday campaigns. Each year, Coke spends time around the holidays highlighting their product’s ability to build communities, bring people together, and spread joy. These feel-good, community campaigns echo the ads and efforts they run year round, with extra emphasis on how Coke makes the world healthier and happier. Even when those ads aren’t running, customers feel the positive effects of this positive brand association. There are many ways for your brand to promote designs for health, forge links between your community and your products, or emphasize how your products stand out from the competition. Let us help you brainstorm ways to highlight these links as you plan for the second half of the year and kick off the new year with customers that are engaged, healthy, happy, and committed to your brand.
The $65 Billion Question: How To Win With Millennials
Would your company like a piece of the $65 billion market that is millennial shoppers? We thought so. Whether you’re offering a luxury product, consumer packaged goods and staples, or a service, millennials are one of the most sought after demographics since the baby boomers made their fortunes. These emerging shoppers represent some of the most diverse and flexible consumers our market has ever seen (with a disposable income to boot), making them highly desirable for marketers. Everyone is asking how to engage this audience, leveraging new technology to capture their attention, and forging new marketing frontiers to try to attract and keep these young trend setters. We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we do have a few answers to some common questions about how to win with Millennials. Here’s how. Q: Are millennials penny wise, and dollar foolish? A: In a nutshell: yes. With millions of dollars in student loan debt, skyrocketing rent and homeowner prices, and inflated costs of living in many cities, most Millennials try to cut costs wherever they can without sacrificing their Instagram-worthy exteriors. About 60% of millennials claim they are as comfortable buying non-name brand items as they are splurging for brands they love. One layer deeper, we learn that millennials are most likely to buy off brand items on everyday goods such as paper towels or butter, but are more inclined to align themselves with big brands on visible investments such as their cars or clothing. In other words, millennials are inclined to save their pennies when they can, but invest in items that will either bring them status, align with lifestyle values they champion on an individual level, or that they believe will serve them for years to come. Knowing where your brand falls on millennials’ perceived value spectrum will help inform your product pricing and placement strategy. If you know your brand can’t deliver a feel-good high like Tom’s (a brand that donates a pair of shoes to children in need every time someone purchase one), consider how to compete in a price sensitive market rather than trying to sell value where it doesn’t exist. On the other hand … it may be time to consider what the next two-for-one charity craze might be. Q: Are brick and mortar stores becoming obsolete? A: Not remotely. It’s true. 92% of millennials say they will purchase something online or on a mobile device this year. Online shopping is quick, convenient, and sometimes cheaper than shopping local or visiting the mall. But that doesn’t change that many stores still draw in as much revenue online as they do offline. For millennials, online shopping versus retail shopping isn’t an “either / or” … it’s an “and.” Shopping is a social activity for millennials, so if you do plan to invest in marketing efforts at your retail locations, consider that your target audience is probably shopping with other people. Leverage the social aspect of brick and mortar stores by introducing “share your discount” offers for groups shopping together, social media discounts for check-in’s, or on-site shopping events (a little champagne never hurt anyone). Similarly, because online shopping is usually done from the privacy of your millennials’ homes, consider how personalized emails and individualized discounts can drive sales online. Q: Are millennials really as narcissistic as we’ve heard? A: That depends who you ask. Millennials are more inclined than any other generation to give their time and money. They love brands that are environmentally conscious and have a positive impact on the global community. They also happen to be the most demanding when it comes to “wanting it all.” They want to work remotely, they don’t want to join the work force right away, and they tend to delay a lot of the adult responsibilities older generations value. Does that make them more narcissistic than other generations? It’s hard to say. But they are image conscious. And one thing is certain: they are redefining the rules of marketing and brand engagement. They are fiercely loyal, so if they do align to a brand, it’s because it speaks to them on a personal level. And once they do, they will share it and wear it loud and proud. When trying to win with millennials, consider that fact. Our Orlando marketing agency prides itself on innovative marketing solutions that target a diverse group of audiences, including millennials. Learn more about how our clients are taking advantage of this unique generation here and be the next to get in on the action.
Tis the season… Or is it? How does seasonality impact your brand
Depending on the type of industry you’re in, market seasonality can feel like a blessing or a curse. For hotel owners and hospitality leaders, seasonal winter slumps can force hotels to deeply discount their room rates and lead customers to expect lower prices year round. On the flip side, many consumer packaged goods and retail giants rely on the annual influx of sales around Black Friday and look forward to the revenue they’ll drive during holiday discounts. The reality is: market seasonality exists in almost every industry as people tend to shop and engage with service provides based on their own life cycles. Children’s school calendars, vacation schedules, and holidays all dictate how business flows across almost every industry. To help you unlock the potential of market seasonality, we’ve unpacked a few basics to get you started. What is market seasonality? If you aren’t familiar with market seasonality, you may simply be so accustomed to seeing it in action that you don’t even realize it’s there. When you review your bottom line revenue or other KPIs, chances are that you consider both month-over-month and year-over-year metrics. The reason being is that certain months are expected to perform better than others. That monthly – or seasonal – variation is, you guessed it, market seasonality. If you were a ski resort, you would naturally expect to see a dip in bookings moving from February into March and April. However, if you saw a dramatic decline when comparing this February to last February, that may be cause for concern. Understanding market seasonality starts with understanding your target audience and when they are most likely to need (or want) your products. Market seasonality is simply a reflection of when your customers are most willing to buy your product or engage with your services based on external factors that have nothing to do with your brand, such as travel or weather. Can market seasonality be a good thing? Of course market seasonality can be a good thing! In fact, it can be a great thing when you partner with a savvy local marketing agency or leverage a few creative promotions during your on and off seasons. While it would be great if sales were consistent year round, they never will be. You can’t change the game, but you can play to win. Consider where you see natural peaks and valleys in sales and revenue and consider what you could do to use these dips to your advantage. For example, many clothing companies offer discounts on winter clothing at the start of spring, around the same time they introduce their warm weather lines. Talk about a win-win situation. These brands get a boost in purchases thanks to their promos, without compromising sales from their new product releases. In these instances, market seasonality can actually drive more sales than a company might have expected otherwise. Similarly, service providers also use slower summer months or harsh winter “hibernation periods” to host new customer events and participate in speaking engagements to build their brand and increase exposure. Planning for market seasonality: The trick is to plan for market seasonality in advance. If you wait until a slump hits to kickstart a promotion and make up lost revenue, your brand may not be able to close the gap as effectively as you’d like. Instead, consider your natural sales cycle and front load a few opportunities into your marketing calendar throughout the year. For example, if you’re a subscription-based educational software company, your most important revenue generating months are at the beginning of the fiscal year (so your accounts have a chance to mature and generate revenue throughout the entire year). Knowing this, you’d want to load a few promotions into Q1 and Q2 to set yourself up for success moving through the middle of the year and into the slower summer months when potential customers may be traveling and less inclined to buy. Sounds simple, right? There’s where we come in. Our team is here to help you map out your calendar and take advantage of market seasonality like a pro.
4 steps to creating brand guidelines every startup should follow
Crafting your brand identity guidelines can seem daunting, especially as a startup. Once you have your name and logo created, it’s important (and even fun) to build a brand guide for your team. Brand identity guidelines can help create a cohesive energy among your employees and guide your creative energy. The trick is not to get bogged down in the details as you’re still building your brand, while providing enough guidance for your team to work and make branding decisions independently. Refreshing or expanding brand identity guidelines as a large, established organization is different than starting with a clean slate. As a startup, you have the opportunity to get it right the first time, break the rules, and let your vision shine. Click here for examples of how our Orlando marketing agency has helped other companies build out their brand, or follow these four unbeatable steps to start creating your brand identity. 1. Start small when building your first brand identity guidelines: When people think about brand guidelines, they often think of a large, polished document worthy of your urban-chic apartment’s coffee table. But that doesn’t always need to be the case. Start with your logo, color variations, font choices, and basic placement instructions. For a seasoned designer, mapping out these details should be no sweat. Kick things off by hosting a brainstorming session with your key stakeholders, decision makers, and design team. Bring examples of what you like, make a “dream board,” or do a little free form drawing as you discuss. Your designer should be able to create the basics based on this discussion. From there, you can begin adding elements and refining. As long as these four elements are in place, you can add more details as you go. And we fully support a coffee table book as the 2.0 version of your own brand identity guidelines, by the way. 2. Tie in imagery and symbols that resonate with your products or services: Don’t be afraid to layer images and symbols that resonate with your brand into your brand identity guidelines. Even if they aren’t part of your logo or copyrighted photos, having inspirational imagery that captures your brand’s tone and vibe can help frame the “why” behind certain design elements, so other employees see their value. Images are also a powerful way to translate ideas without relying on huge blocks of copy. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Including images in your brand identity guidelines can be a visual reminder of your products, forge positive brand associations between your organization and a place or an object, or clarify the look and feel of everything from your office to your packaging and website. 3. Make your brand identity guidelines user-friendly for non-designers too: When your designer or Orlando marketing agency creates your brand identity guidelines, they will include a variety of design specs so other designers and developers can use your brand guide when creating advertisements or tweaking the website. In addition to these valuable details – which often include specific color codes, font styles or typography, photo cropping and filtering instructions, etc. – having non-design-related elements can be an illuminating addition to your guidelines. Sharing your brand identity guidelines with non-designers is a good way to align the team, so consider including a few stylized quotes, your mission statement, or other images and verbiage that translates your core design elements for the average employee. You should never add “extras” in lieu of your design specs, but your style guide should also make as much sense to designers as it does to your accounting team. 4. Include any “do” AND “don’t” recommendations: What designers and employees do with your brand elements is often as important as what they don’t do. Don’t shy away from including a “don’t” here and there in your brand identity guidelines. For example, if your logo features a square form, you may not want your employees to superimpose other images on top of or into the square. Your colors may be interchangeable sometimes, but sometimes they may not. Get clear on what you can and can’t do to avoid unnecessary editing. Naturally, you never know what you don’t know. Some of your guidelines will evolve based on trial and error, but if you already know there are a few deal breakers, get them out of the way up front. The important thing is to start creating. Get something down on a page and let the rest flow naturally. Crafting identity guidelines are a key part of the brand evolution, so let the experience grow with you and your organization rather than waiting until your brand has taken on a life of its own. Our team specializes in brand creation and refinement, so we’re here to help if you get stuck or need a little inspiration. Remember – this is the fun part!
Beyond Client Services: How to Be Friends With Your clients
It’s no secret that people prefer to work with businesses and individuals they like. At our Orlando marketing agency, we treat each and every one of our clients like members of our family because we aren’t an exception to this rule. Fostering a work-friendly friendship with your prospects can round out your client services experience and make your projects more meaningful for both you and your clients. A connection may start with something as simple as sharing the same alma mater or bonding over a networking dinner, and can radically transform your customer relationships. Here’s how. How friendship supports client services: Building a friendship with your clients can transform your day-to-day client services and allow you to work more closely with your business partners. Friendship builds trust: Friendship often leads to trust and allows you to be more open and direct with good-natured feedback, which in turn, encourages rallying together to overcome obstacles. When your client knows you care about them beyond their retainer fee, they can trust that you have their best interests at heart when you make recommendations or suggest a strategy pivot. This trust helps streamline your client services protocol so decisions can be made more quickly and work can be done more efficiently. Personal vs. transactional work: Being friends with your clients can also help you tackle your work and their problems in more creative and innovative ways. When a client shifts from contract to comrade, your work ceases being transactional and becomes personal. Suddenly, you’ll find yourself leaning into those follow up phone calls, creating a higher-touch client services experience, and caring deeply about the outcome of your clients’ projects. It’s not work when you love what you’re doing and the people you’re doing it with, so don’t be afraid to invest your personal emotions into your clients. Keeps clients (and referrals) coming in: When you and your clients are happy, chances are you’re succeeding together. As friends, you’ll get to know each other better and may find yourselves hatching new ideas, brainstorming new projects, and connecting each other to potential business partners, resources, and future clients together. Your clients will soon become your biggest allies, referral source, and cheerleaders — and you’ll be there’s. Defining business-friendly friendship and flawless client services: The key to building a mutually beneficial business friendship is to do it for the right reasons and in the right ways. This starts by layering some of the fundamental values of friendship into your client services practice. Don’t be right, be helpful: Bridge the gap between client and friendship by demonstrating that your first concern is helping your clients succeed. We know – and they know – you’re an expert in your field (it’s why they hired you), but don’t trade off being right when situations get sticky when you should be bringing solutions to the table. The first tenant of any good client services relationship is to be helpful. From there, friendship can naturally bloom. Communication and transparency are key: Even if you don’t have anything to share with your clients, or you’re still waiting on a project status update, feel free to pick up the phone and give your clients a call. Ask them how they’re doing. Find out how their other projects are developing. Offer to take them to lunch. And yes, we’re going to say it: overshare. We’re not talking about divulging the nitty gritty details of how your weekend went or who you’re dating, but rather, to go over above and beyond the required communication cadence. This sets the tone of your client services and allows your relationship to live outside of the immediate tasks at hand. You’ll find yourself wanting to grab a casual coffee together in no time. Celebrate shared wins: We can’t stress enough how important celebrating shared success is. Taking time to pop some bubbly or to send a client flowers after a major coup shows you care and increases your own investment in your client relationships. There’s also no better way to bring people together than in celebration. Bond over those shared feel-good moments by pulling your respective teams together and vowing not to talk about work for the night beyond the celebratory toast you and your client plan to give. Don’t use friendship as a crutch: Last, but not least, don’t use friendship as a crutch. Once you establish a personal relationship with your client, don’t abuse it by shirking deadlines or taking shortcuts. Your friendship should be an excuse to do your absolute best work rather than the bare minimum. And trust us, your client (no matter how good a friend they are) will see and feel the difference. Give us a call or read more about the relationships we’ve built with clients like you.
Battle of The Brands: make a rockstar brand positioning statement
As one of the pillars of the “Four P’s” – positioning, product, placement, and price – your brand positioning statement serves as a fundamental part of your go-to market strategy. Before you decide what new features your product needs, what stores you want to sell in, and how much you want to charge, you need to clearly define your product position. So let’s get started. If your unique value proposition, or UVP, is why your customers should care about you, then your brand positioning statement is the internal equivalents of what you and your team are trying to accomplish. Your brand positioning statement explains the who and why you believe you’re going to be successful so you can tailor each and every one of your marketing efforts accordingly. Before writing your brand positioning statement, ask yourself the following for questions. To help guide you through this exercise, we’ll use Zipcar as an example. 1. Who is your target audience? No matter what industry you’re in, start with a customer-centric mindset. Ask yourself who your target audience is, what their pain points are, and what they care about most. Answering these questions will allow you to drill into your target audience’s psyche and understand where your product fits into the consumer landscape. Knowing who you are trying to help and what you’re trying to solve for them will inform almost every other decision you make about your product’s brand positioning. Example: Zipcar’s audience are urban, tech-savvy commuters. They are usually between the ages of 30 – 50 and fall in the middle- to upper-class socioeconomic brackets. They care about reliable transportation, and may struggle to find reliable public transportation in cities without developed bus or metro systems, or heavy traffic congestion and limited parking. 2. Competitive combat vs. niche interest? To position your product for your audience, you also need to know whether you’ll be trying to break through your competition’s marketing clutter (in which case, you would be focusing on product differentiators and price points) or whether your product is a niche interest (meaning you’d focus on unique product placement and market education efforts). Do some research about what products fall into your direct competitive and indirect competitive set. Take time to learn about their go-to market strategy and where your target audience overlaps or stands out. Example: Zipcar was one of the first arrivals to the car-sharing market, but have since been joined by direct competition such as Car2Go and indirect competition from ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. Knowing that Zipcar was one of the original market leaders gives them a unique value statement when positioning their brand as a thought leader and experienced service provider. 3. What’s your category and market context? If you’re redefining or crafting your brand positioning statement for the first time, consider what your share of the industry wallet is. Is your product category new and growing rapidly, or mature and stable? Are people already familiar with products like yours or will you need to spend time educating the market? Are you trying to redefine yourself within a product segment? Is your market necessary (think: toothpaste, food, and gasoline) or elective (think: luxury items, gadgets, and travel). Example: Positioning your product in a mature market, such as the public transit sector, requires a different mindset than pioneering a new way to commute. Zipcar, and the car-sharing market, is a new category that complements the emerging crowdsourcing craze. The market is growing and Zipcar is a market leader. When positioning their brand, Zipcar will want to focus on maintaining their current customer base while educating new entrants into the crowdsourcing craze about their unique option and value proposition. 4. Why does your product matter? If you’ve answered the last four questions, you’ll probably have a good idea about why your product matters. This fundamental question is your customers’ – and your – reason to believe in your product. It ties together any remaining value statements or “perks” associated with your product and allows you to write a stellar brand positioning statement that will guide your marketing strategy and product development roadmap. Example: The finished product for Zipcar reads as follows: “To urban-dwelling, educated techno-savvy consumers, when you use Zipcar car-sharing service instead of owning a car, you save money while reducing your carbon footprint.” This statement clearly explains who needs the product, provides a snapshot into the market context, and tacks on a reason to believe in the product itself. You may not be able to pack every detail from the four positioning questions into your brand positioning statement, but the essence of your own finished product should explain what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how it will transform the market. For more inspiration on how to elevate your brand positioning, read about our work and how we’ve helped brands like yours build their brand positioning statement.
Down and dirty social media: twitter ads like never before
In a recent post, we discussed how Twitter is changing the world and earning you positive brand association, one social media post at a time. Twitter is most known for it’s organic social media advertising potential, but Twitter ads come in several different formats so there are plenty of ways to take advantage of paid advertising within the Twitterverse as well. Here is a quick fact sheet on the three types of Twitter ads you can invest in. Just remember, it’s not an “either vs. or” decision. A strong Twitter ads strategy boosts exposure to unique tweets and compelling blogs alongside timely social media advertising to drive organic and paid traffic simultaneously. 1. Promoted tweet twitter ads: Promoted tweets work best for promotions and short-term offers. Much like paid digital ads, you can pay per impression or click, giving you flexibility in how you want to expose a certain deal. If you already have a strong brand following, but want to run a short term gap closing effort or increase end of quarter sales, this is a great way to kick off your campaign. Simply highlight your offer in 140 characters or less, add a trackable link to your post, and release it into the wild. 2. Promoted account twitter ads: To build brand awareness, consider promoting your account. Instead of highlighting a specific tweet within your follower base, Twitter will recommend your account to users who may be interested in following your content. This is a great tactic for new or growing companies because Twitter can help you segment and target a certain audience within their follower base. You can choose the type of users that will see your brand, serving a warm introduction to your next crop of potential customers. 3. Promoted trends twitter ads: Promoted trends are the least well-known option of Twitter’s advertising arsenal. A promoted trend allows you to create a unique hashtag and begin a movement. We recommend using promoted trends if your marketing needs to fall somewhere between a short-term promotion and large-scale brand awareness. If you plan to run a sponsored event series like a summer concert tour, have partnered on a product launch, or are trying to create a viral movement, a unique hashtag can give this effort momentum to grow. The trick is making sure the campaign has true viral potential and is simple and catchy enough to get off the ground. If you’d like to experiment with Twitter advertising but aren’t sure how your marketing strategy fits into the Twitterverse, we are here to help. Learn how Twitter will benefit your social media initiatives.
Why your business can’t live without brand guidelines
When staring down your marketing “to-do” list, creating a brand guide might not immediately rank in your top five. We know you have market research to conduct, websites to optimize, leads to cultivate, and content marketing strategy to perfect. The ROI on traditional marketing tasks is far easier to track than the nebulous benefits of a brand style guide and, let’s face it, you’re busy. But did you know that creating brand guidelines is one of the key ingredients of business success? Whether you’re a startup, a small-medium sized business, or a large corporation, you can’t afford to skip creating a comprehensive brand positioning document. Here’s why. Work less, get recognized more: In a blind branding test in which consumers were asked to name brands based on their company colors alone, branding powerhouses such as Google and McDonald’s were easily identified at a 100% success rate without their logos. Some logos, such as Coca-Cola and Harvard Business School, are so easily recognized on the global scale that artistic rights to the artwork are estimated in the millions. Each. Clear, consistent branding helps customers recognize your brand using visual cues so that certain symbols, colors, or imagery become synonymous with your products. As these visual cues build positive association between your brand and purchase triggers, your marketing department will need to work less (and spend less) to stay at the top of your customers’ minds. After all, seeing that signature Coca-Cola red is enough to inspire sales at most movie theaters. A brand guide or brand guidelines allow your organization to define what these cues will be and ensure they are consistently featured in marketing collateral. A brand guide is a shared language: A comprehensive brand guide also creates a shared language across all marketing channels so your team members can create emails, print ads, event marketing banners, and website content with ease. Having brand guidelines with all the design colors, fonts, tone, and information architecture guideline can reduce editing and churn during the internal production process, and get consistent collateral into market faster so you can – you guessed it – work less and get recognized more. Even the smallest teams will benefit from clear guidelines around when to use certain headlines, how to position text, and where and how a logo may be used. It turns the most tedious elements of design into a straightforward process, so your creative minds can spend less time double checking whether they are using the right shade of blue and more time dreaming up your next ADDY Award-winning campaign. Brand positioning within your corporate culture: Branding is also a translation of your corporate culture. For example, Google executives once admitted they chose the brand’s bold, primary colors because they wanted to build an organization around simplicity. They stripped away any unnecessary visual elements so this simplicity would shine. No frills, just results. Those same colors evoke the playful (sometimes childlike) nature of their corporate headquarters and echo a no frills, results-oriented work culture. The bright red, blue, and yellow of their logo would be as appropriate in a classroom or art studio as they are in the creative, casual work rooms and collaborative spaces inside Google offices. In this way, their branding choices reflect both their business principles and their corporate culture, setting a tone for customers, employees, and investors. Go ahead, ask yourself what your brand guide might say about your culture and what you’re telling your prospective customers or investors every time you release a new ad. Aid onboarding with brand guidelines: Having a clear correlation between brand guidelines and corporate culture not only helps external parties understand your unique value proposition, but allows employees to self-select and assimilate to how your organization works with ease. Brand guidelines allow new team members to get to work faster because they understand the expectations around their work, digest the tone you hope to set both in and outside the office, and live your brand’s mission and vision statement rather than just working on it. Brand guidelines are pivotal for business success because they allow each and every one of your employees to become an expert in your brand positioning. For ideas on how to refine your branding or create your first brand style guide, check out our work for more information on how we’ve helped other companies transform.