Three Ways to Stay Ahead of Your Brand
Branding is one of the most complex and difficult things an ad agency can do for its clients. This is because branding is a psychological task. It centers on what customers think about your brand as a company and where it fits in with their needs and wants. In order for your business and brand to be successful, it has to form a crystalline, positive image and feeling in your target audience’s mind. Customer return to their favorite brands because they had positive experiences in the past. New customers come to brands and businesses they feel comfortable with and those they believe will help solve their problems.
Because marketing agencies know that branding is a critical part of a business’s success, marketers often spend most of their time with a client trying to develop one that will fit into their target audience and create brand loyalty. Of course, the best way to back up a brand promise and identity is to always provide excellent products and services along with the customer service and help to back it up. But branding is about so much more than good work and customer service. Getting your brand positioned properly to not only be visible to your target customers but also elicit positive responses is an art that is constantly changing. Here are three ways to stay ahead of the competition and keep your brand in a positive light for customers:
- Don’t get cute with content. Content is turning into a new form of currency for marketing agencies because content marketing is (rightly) being seen as a necessary component of any new online marketing strategy. While it’s nearly impossible to keep coming up with groundbreaking content to pump out on your website, you need to pay attention to the content you’re providing to your customers through email lists and blogs. This content has to make a difference for your customers’ lives, at least with respect to the products and services you’re selling.
- Transparency is king. Nowadays, with smaller companies enjoying more substantial, disruptive success (see SnapChat a few years ago), customers expect more transparency and engagement with the brands they use for their everyday needs. Authentic companies with cultures of social responsibility and customer engagement will be rewarded by more target audiences. Your brand should represent your open culture. Engaging with customers will become a necessary way to build your brand.
- Social media is its own reality. Social media is a well-known branding area and opportunity for engagement with customers, but Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms have the potential to connect people through small communities based on interests, economics, demographics, and more. More potential customers are joining these communities and networks, finding like-minded individuals who can be responsive to the same branding and marketing efforts. Social media platforms are becoming as ubiquitous as the Internet itself.
Stay ahead of your brand by staying ahead of its message and shaping its impression on your target audience. You can do this by engaging with your customers with quality content using social media to reach the right audience.
adam-oleary
Adam is a graduate of Colorado State University (bachelor’s degree in marketing), and he has experience on both the client and agency side of the marketing world. These experiences led him to come up with a unique, more efficient business model, which he’s incorporated into Encite Marketing. Adam sets the strategic direction for all Encite projects, developing integrated marketing campaigns that bring results. He takes a consultative approach with clients, educating them about how the process works, and keeping them in the loop about end goals, steps, and tasks.