4 Steps To Creating Successful Branding Campaigns
To get to the root of what good branding looks like, we have to understand what branding? Very simply, the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.
Ad people love ads…But the rest of the world avoids them.
Whether that ad is a billboard, a flashing banner that screams “Buy Me!” or a self promotional piece of ad hoc thinly veiled as a press release (cough: not a story), consumers are getting smart, and ignoring or tuning out to much of what they see, hear, and read.
Today, branding is more than just a unique design on a bottle. Regardless of what age group you think your customers fit in: Millennials, Generation X, or Baby Boomers, they all want more than just a pretty bottle, they want a story.
BUYERS are more educated, aware, and eager to learn about what they are buying and making decisions not only before they visit the store, but are even researching your brand while at the store on their mobile devices.
It is more and more important that your business is developing more than just promotional materials and ads, but creating conversations along with content that benefits the consumer.
It is more and more important that your business is developing a conversation vs. spewing out promotional material, ads, or other content that really doesn’t benefit the consumer.
Content is king, but bad content is just ignored.
Four Steps To Creating Successful Branding Campaigns:
Step one: Determine your audience.
Who does your brand help, and why?
Step two: Create detailed profiles about their life.
Be honest with yourself, you product is not for everybody, and not everyone will be a fan from the beginning. It is important to identify your initial adopters, potential brand ambassadors, and loyal customer and develop your brands voice to match their day to day, their likes, dislikes, and what matters to them.
Step three: Start a dialog on the appropriate platforms.
Once you have identified YOUR appropriate audience and understand their likes, identify where they congregate, what they are reading, what websites they frequent and find out if you can guest blog, contribute a story, or at least comment in an educational and appropriate fashion.
Step four: Be useful, helpful, and relevant.
Make sure what you write/share is educational and helpful to those in the audience listening and reading. Approximately 75% of any website are spectators and are just there to read, it’s your job to make sure they like what you are offering them. Don’t just talk about yourself, your business, tweet your specials, and ignore conversations happening about your brand on the web, or worse, customers asking for help.
Remember: Give (first), and ye’ shall receive!
