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In News

11 Ways to Elevate Your Brand Beyond Just Likes and Followers

January 15, 2024 No Comments

Nowadays, everyone wants to “build their brand” and grow their social media following. But authentic personal branding goes far beyond vanity metrics on Instagram or X (Twitter). At its core, your brand is simply your reputation — what you’re known for based on the value you consistently provide over time.

While social platforms are tools for amplifying your message, your brand exists with or without them, like before social media. Your message will differ in strategy if you have a mass-market brand compared to a niche market brand. So, don’t equate the size of your following with the strength of your brand.

You should focus on the 11 things I’ve highlighted instead.

1. Focus on providing real value

Gaining likes or followers shouldn’t be the goal. You want to attract engaged “true fans” who eagerly consume whatever you share because it enriches their lives somehow. That comes from consistently publishing original non-AI content they can’t find elsewhere.

Social media rewards quick, superficial content. But bite-sized posts alone won’t build authority. You also need in-depth educational content like blogs, videos, and courses. Demonstrating deep expertise earns trust and loyalty.

2. Be multi-dimensional

The most powerful personal brands showcase diverse talents, not just one narrow identity for social media. Consider what makes you uniquely you. What are your varied interests and abilities beyond any one label? Find creative ways to showcase those multi-faceted aspects through diverse content forms.

For example, Chef Joshua Weissman is known for his fun cooking videos. But he also posts candid vlogs, music parodies, and lifestyle content to show more of his personality. Sharing broader perspectives beyond a single niche makes you more relatable.

3. Focus on giving, not just taking

On social platforms, it’s easy to get caught up in a mindset of maximizing what you can get – followers, shares, and sales. But the most influential people focus on how they can give value to others first. When your audience feels you’re invested in their interests, they’ll invest in you.

Rather than trying to hook followers with self-promotional content, offer something useful for them. Teach a new skill, share hard-won lessons, and recommend helpful tools. Aim for content that improves people’s lives, not just grows your metrics.

4. Let your work speak for itself

There’s an art to self-promotion on social media – you want to get discovered. But nothing turns people off faster than constantly bragging about yourself. Show, don’t just tell. Let the quality of your evidence-based work demonstrate your talents so people spread the word for you.

5. Establish yourself offline too

While you can build a brand through digital content alone these days, having offline elements bolsters credibility. Speaking at events, getting media coverage, publishing books/courses, and other real-world achievements help take you to the next level. Look for opportunities beyond social media.

6. Stay authentic

In the quest for likes and follows, presenting an exaggerated or idealized version of yourself and life is tempting. But trying to mould your image into someone else’s idea of a “personal brand” just rings hollow. The most magnetic people share their real, unfiltered selves. Don’t become a caricature.

7. Take a long-term view and listen first, market later

Growing an engaged audience organically takes time. Social media rewards rapid output and trends. But consistency over the years is more important than any one viral post. Your audience will stick with you when they relate to you as a real person, not just a content machine. Play the long game.

Here are more ways to build a powerful personal brand beyond just social media metrics:

Relentless self-promotion fails to make real connections. Instead, listen to your audience’s needs first before deciding where you can provide value. Pay attention to comments and questions to identify pain points you can address. Let them guide your content.

8. Collaborate with those outside your niche

Partnering with complementary creators, even in other fields, helps expand your reach. Introduce your audience to someone new and vice versa. But choose collaborations strategically with those whose work has substantial value, not just because they have a big following.

9. Represent yourself professionally

How you present yourself in business contexts also contributes to your brand. Pursue speaking engagements, write guest articles for prominent publications and participate professionally on social media. Becoming an industry thought leader establishes credibility beyond just popularity.

10. Invest in original content and don’t neglect non-social channels

Great photography, graphics, and other production values elevate your content and brand. However, learning new skills or hiring help requires investment. Consider the return in terms of increased audience engagement and marketplace authority.

While social platforms are great for awareness, channels like email newsletters better cultivate lasting relationships. Someone may casually scroll past your post, but subscribers who opt into your newsletter are highly engaged fans. Don’t over-rely on social channel algorithms. Social media companies are deliberately changing the algorithms to keep you chasing your tail.

11. Live your brand values

To attract your ideal audience, identify your core values and express them consistently through your content and conduct. Standing for something gives your work a deeper meaning. People will support brands whose beliefs align with their own. Authenticity draws the right crowd.

Owning your niche often means filling gaps others miss. Provide resources you wished you had. Interview people you’re curious about. Share details no one else covers. Becoming known for addressing unmet needs makes you indispensable. The most powerful personal brands are built on passion. Let your enthusiasm for your niche fuel consistent, high-quality, original content. That passion is contagious.

Conclusion

Don’t just focus on vanity metrics and social media image. Build a multi-dimensional personal brand by providing value in diverse ways over time. Your long-term aim is cultivating true fans who are enriched by your work, not just chasing engagement. Be intentional and keep on giving real value, and the right audience will keep finding you.

By Jon Michail

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor. Jon Michail is the CEO and founder of Image Group International, an Australia-based corporate and personal-brand image advisory and coaching organization that conducts transformational seminars, workshops and one-on-one coaching in over four continents.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Seven Steps to Get Your Business and Personal Brand AI-Ready?

July 5, 2023 No Comments

Sourced from The Network Journal

Online competition for attention and engagement has never been more intense and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is exponentially increasing this tension, experts note. They advise leaders to get their personal and business brands AI-ready in order to stand out from the crowd and compete.

One such expert is Karen Tiber Leland, founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding and marketing strategy firm specializing in personal, business and CEO branding.

“Any CEO or entrepreneur who is not preparing their personal and business brands for the coming AI tidal wave is in a dangerous place,” Leland says.

Because AI language models (such as the hyper-popular ChatGPT) rely on large datasets of text from the Internet to learn and generate responses, she explains, “You have to teach Google who you are and what your company is about — across the net…If you don’t have online discoverability, credibility and relatability, you can’t compete.”

Not having enough quality content that Google can find creates AI generated generic responses about a brand based on the limited information available, she notes.

In a recent test, Leland asked AI about CEO clients who had very little online presence. “The response was, ‘I don’t have enough information to provide an accurate response,’ or, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know much about this person,’” she says. “Not being on the radar becomes a huge opportunity cost.”

Below are seven essential steps Leland recommends taking to prepare personal and business brands for AI and explains why.

Stop avoiding AI and embrace education and experimentation. The more you avoid AI, the further behind you will get. One way to stop avoiding AI and prepare your brand is to educate yourself with the abundant online resources and experiment to see how it could work for your personal and business brands.

Accept the need to create a parallel CEO brand. Although 82 percent of all Americans (88 percent of older millennials) agree that companies are more influential if their CEO and executives have a personal brand, many C-suite leaders still believe they don’t need to create one, Leland says. “What they fail to understand is that they already have one. It is just a matter of if they want their brands to be by default or design.”

Consistently create an abundance of online, high-quality content. AI models can better understand and generate contextually relevant and accurate responses as they become more advanced. If your content is visible on Google and considered an authoritative source, it is more likely to be referenced by AI models when generating answers to relevant queries. Content can be articles, blog posts, podcasts, media interviews, social media posts, videos, etc.

Take a fresh look at your target audience. Knowing whom you are trying to reach and their concerns is critical in being AI-ready. AI itself can be a good source of gaining data and insights about what your target audience is now wanting and needing. This allows you to create brand messaging and content that resonates with them.

Monitor your online reputation monthly. Keeping track of when you are mentioned online, by whom and what is said is necessary in today’s wired world. A whole host of AI online reputation management tools can help you stay on top of your personal and business brands and allow you to address any issues sooner rather than later.

Flip the focus of your social media. A robust social media presence is undoubtedly essential in building a brand. Leland says the problem is that 80 percent of most companies’ posts focus on the company, with only 20 percent being educational or entertaining. The key is to start having 80 percent of your posts written around keywords, industry topics, trends, customer interests and thought leadership.

Teach Google who you are and what you stand for. If you want to be an authority, you must author something, says Leland. Leland suggests writing at least one long-form (600-1000 words) social media or blog post a month is the minimum you should go for. In addition, measuring social media solely through the lens of “engagement” is a mistake. Part of the purpose of today’s social media posting is to make yourself discoverable to Google and to teach it who you are and what you stand for.

The bottom line is, ignoring the trend of AI and chatbots in business and personal branding is a significant mistake, Leland warns. Even if you are not preparing your personal and business brands for AI, your competitors are.

Karen Tiber Leland is the author of “The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand.”

Feature Image Credit: Sanket Mishra

Sourced from The Network Journal

In News

Humans are irrational – here’s why your business should be too

October 24, 2022 No Comments

By Collette Eccleston

Rational thinking might be overrated – especially during a recession, argues Collette Eccleston, senior vice-president of Material.

For many businesses, it can be difficult to resist that gut instinct to “batten down the hatches” at the first sign of trouble. But playing it safe isn’t what makes a brand recession-proof. The truth is that times of uncertainty can offer one of the best opportunities for your brand to make new connections with customers – that is, if you’re willing to think outside of the box.

If you’re a car rental company in bankruptcy, would buying 100,000 Teslas make any sense? Anyone would find it to be completely irrational and totally reckless. Yet Hertz made this decision as part of its bigger vision, which in turn led to a remarkable turnaround for the company in just over a year.

Like something straight out of a science fiction movie, Hertz now owns the largest fleet of autonomous vehicles. Thanks to a $4.2bn investment, Hertz has managed to propel itself ahead of the pack in a race to transform the car rental industry.

Hertz’s recent move shows that decisions that may seem irrational on the surface can often pay off. So, why do the rest of us judge irrationality as a flaw in human behavior? Irrationality in our professional lives is often exactly what’s needed to unlock the next million-dollar idea.

To be irrational is to be human

Running your business on rationality alone assumes that the people you serve are also rational. Humans make tens of thousands of decisions each day – most of which are not driven by logic at all. It’s our gut instinct that gives us the ability to quickly assess how we feel about the many choices that cross our paths.

That’s not to say rational considerations such as affordability don’t matter. For example, if someone needs a pair of shoes, they might select the $24.99 pair over the $25.99 one. It’s only a dollar less, but they could rationalize cost savings as the motivator. What about choosing a pair of shoes priced at $100 more? Emotion becomes the motivating factor in making that purchase. This is where behavioral science and psychology shed some light.

The four fundamental human needs – belonging, appeal, security and exploration – are a helpful lens for interpreting the motivation behind certain behaviors. When seen through this perspective, splurging $100+ on a pair of shoes starts to make sense; it just follows a different set of motivations. For example, this pair of shoes might unlock a consumer’s need to be a part of a community (belonging) or improve their confidence (appeal). Perhaps they find security in paying a little more for a brand they trust (security). Maybe they’re drawn to an innovative design that promises to boost performance (exploration). This is where an otherwise thrifty customer might be tempted to replace a functional need with a pair of high-end kicks.

Humans simply are not rational beings, so it makes little sense to appeal to consumers through rational means alone. It takes tapping into unconscious and emotional needs – irrational needs – to change behavior and benefit brands. By embracing irrational thinking, we expand what is possible in the process of designing products, services and experiences for our customers and employees.

Irrationality belongs in business – especially during a recession

Some of today’s most successful brands were built on once irrational concepts. And in fact, we’ve seen how times of uncertainty can provide the best opportunity to take that calculated leap. Airbnb is one such success story.

During the Great Recession of 2008, the brand got its start by tactically driving consumers to do something we’ve all grown up being told not to – enter a stranger’s home. Since then, Airbnb has not only been successful in effectively changing the industry and our cities, but also consumer minds and habits.

Behavioral science and psychology help brands, such as Airbnb and Hertz, decode ‘irrational’ consumer behaviors and provide context for the human experience: why we say one thing and do another is irrational, but when applied to business, it expands innovative thinking.

Here’s a formula for escaping this rut and bringing structure to the process:

See the world devoid of constants. Get into the required headspace for irrational thinking. Set aside all assumptions about ‘absolute truths’ and give yourself room to play in a world without limits
Create an irrational vision statement. Create a vision to be your North Star. Identify your role and purpose and what you want to achieve in this ideal and limitless world. If a decision doesn’t move you in the desired direction, then don’t do it
Stay the course with one-degree decisions. This is how you complete the equation, taking the small steps that will get you closer to making your irrational vision a reality

Returning to the example of Airbnb, we could imagine a world where it’s possible for people to truly feel at home everywhere. Through this perspective, we can see how Airbnb’s vision of belonging was born. It’s simple, compelling and deliciously irrational (you can’t really belong everywhere, can you?). But it comes to life through a series of one-degree decisions: services and features executed through design and technology that deliver on one of the most fundamental of human needs – community.

Reaping the benefits of irrationality will require more than an exercise in creative thinking. Brands need to commit to embracing irrationality before they have proof of what can be achieved. When brands move past the status quo and champion deep human understanding, they’ll find themselves among the most influential companies of tomorrow.

By Collette Eccleston

Collette Eccleston, senior vice-president, behavioural science, and Ben Gaddis, executive vice-president, digital products and experience at Material.

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Pinterest urges people to silence negative feelings with ‘Don’t Don’t Yourself’ campaign

October 14, 2022 No Comments

By Taruka Srivastava

Pinterest’s latest campaign is urging people to believe in themselves by advising them to ‘Don’t Don’t Yourself’

The campaign aims to highlight how people can be their own worst enemies, as we have the power to silence negative feelings of fear and self-censorship.

Five spots – ‘Fear of Failure,’ ‘Judgment,’ ‘Doomscrolling,’ ‘Procrastination’ and ‘Inner Critic’ – have been launched. Every spot features protagonists alongside their negative twin, who is always criticizing, being negative and condescending – but the ads show how Pinterest helps all protagonists to overcome those fears by just doing things and believing in themselves. The single-take cinematic films are shot by acclaimed director Kim Gehrig.

In the ‘Inner Critic’ spot, the negative twin of the protagonist is trying to demotivate the protagonist by telling her how her art during childhood wasn’t up to the mark and her junior ballet performance wasn’t “on point,” and then mocks her personal style. The protagonist, however, shuts the twin back in the cupboard and confidently says she can pull off what she is wearing.

The campaign will run in the US, UK and Germany across TV, cinema, video on demand (VOD), out-of-home (OOH), digital out-of-home (DOOH), social and media partnerships. Developed in partnership with award-winning UK creative studio Uncommon, the campaign introduces Pinterest as the inspiring ‘anti-don’t.’ The complementary media strategy was developed in partnership with global media agency Mediahub.

Andréa Mallard, Pinterest chief marketing officer, said: “Our latest campaign highlights how Pinterest is a different side of the internet, where you can focus more on doing and less on viewing, where you can find what you love and forget about likes and where you can plan your life and try something new, free of judgment.”

Credits

Project Name: Don’t Don’t Yourself

Creative Studio: Uncommon

Client: Pinterest

Production company: Somesuch

Director: Kim Gehrig

Producer: Lucy Gossage

Executive producer: Chris Watling

DOP: Kasper Tuxen

Production designer: KK Barrett

Costume designer: April Napier

Casting: Jody Sonnenberg

Service company: The Lift

Editor: Fouad Gaber @ Trim

Post production: Time Based Arts

Colorist: Simone Grattarola

VFX: Stephen Grasso

Post producer: Sian Jenkins

Soundtrack composer: Soundtree Music

Composer: Benjamin Jones

Audio post-production: Soundtree Music

Media agency: MediaHub

By Taruka Srivastava |

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Is email marketing dead?

October 13, 2022 No Comments

As the media landscape evolves, so do our preferences for communication. Rose Skews at Favoured delves into the changing world of online comms, audience segmentation and what it takes to engage the younger generation.

With the rise of short-form video content on platforms including TikTok and Instagram, three-minute videos are affecting our attention span. As online communications move toward Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and social media direct messaging, the phasing out of email as a communication platform begs the question: are consumers still engaging with email marketing?

The short answer is yes. The long answer? Also yes, so long as you’re doing it well and know who you’re doing it for. More than half of generation Z and over a third of millennials still enjoy getting brand emails. With that in mind, let’s look at how you can create engaging emails that even gen Z will want to read.

Don’t be boring

Dull, plain text emails that waffle on won’t engage your impatient audience. So, what can you do?

Use short emails: try testing short-form emails. Get to the point of your email quickly and efficiently
Hook them in: create hooks for your subject lines and the headers that highlight the crux of the email. This will help with your open and click-through rate
Get personal: adding in a recipient’s name can be a little technical at first but it’s totally worth it. If you’re able to personalize things such as names, this makes your emails more trustworthy and engaging
Include a strong call to action (CTA): ‘Read more’ and ‘Discover now’ just won’t cut it. Add a little spice to CTAs, like ‘You won’t want to miss this’

Your copy and message need to be clear, concise and interesting. Try bringing your tone to a more personable level to better engage with your audience.

Flows and broadcasts

Email marketing can be a great tool if you can plan and set it up well. At Favoured, we typically split email marketing into two: flows and broadcasts.

Flows are automations where you can segment your audience, create cohorts and triggers, and (after an initial set-up) run them continuously. Broadcasts are monthly newsletters that give you an opportunity to update your audience on anything new.

You can create manual, ad hoc campaigns for an extra burst of comms (around a sale, for instance).

Flows

With email marketing and segmentation, you can capture audiences’ personas. Your main cohorts will be active users, inactive users and new users. Email flows for active users might be:

Repeat purchase: thank the customer for their continued support. This flow normally has a refer-a-friend scheme in later emails

‘Superusers’: especially for app companies – when a customer has triggered an event within the app a certain number of times and you want to maintain their engagement

Inactive users will have email flows such as:

Abandoned cart: with an average conversion rate of 80%, this is one of the most important flows you can set up
Re-engage: this flow should focus on offering small discounts as a temptation to get customers back on track. If you have an app, try explaining a new feature as an incentive to click

New users will have email flows such as:

Onboarding: this is your opportunity to show the customer who you are and what you can offer them
‘Web catch all’: if anyone submits a form on your website you can catch them here – a great place to convert them to onboard and/or purchase

Now that we have the flows sorted, let’s look at how you can bring engagement with monthly newsletters.

Broadcasts

The trick is to break your newsletter into sizeable chunks. Try highlights, news and testimonials. You could even connect with national marketing days to make sure you’re hitting key dates relevant to your brand.

News and updates sections give you the opportunity to chat with customers about what you’ve been up to. Adding a testimonial or two brings credibility to your brand and/or product, while adding an extra level of desire.

Who’s doing it well?

Some companies have been smashing email marketing. One is Estrid. It had a hard task ahead of it as its main target audience is gen Z and millennials – the prime suspects for a lack of attention span. It has smashed it: its emails are engaging; it has bought movement into its design with the use of gifs; and its tone is personable and fun.

Maybe you were on the fence about email marketing. We’re hoping that now you see the value it could add to your marketing strategy. Email marketing can capture and engage your audience in a different way than social media. If you ever need any advice, the expert team at Favoured is always available to help.

Feature Image Credit: Volodymyr Hryshchenko via Unsplash

By Rose Skews

Sourced from The Drum

In News

You Are The Brand: Why Leaders Need To Consider Their Personal Impact

September 13, 2022 No Comments

By Scott Miller

If you are the founder, owner or CEO of the business you run, you need to think of yourself as the brand. Your marketing thought process needs to include you—not just what you communicate through your business, but all avenues of your personal communication as well.

When you think of Mark Zuckerberg, you probably think of Facebook. Everything Mark does will be a reflection on his company. Elon Musk has been in the headlines with his on-and-off-again saga of purchasing Twitter. With each move in the press, you can watch the value of Tesla fluctuate.

But it’s not just the founders. Just read the headlines of how the CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, handled a law that was proposed and later passed in Florida. At first he didn’t weigh in, then wrote a memo explaining why he didn’t speak up, followed by an apology. After a public exchange with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida voted to repeal the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which could have some implications for Disney, the largest land owner in the district. This would mean that Disney would have to seek approval from the local government for any park expansion, including budget approval.

What does this have to do with branding? Everything. Consumers today care about what company founders and CEOs think, and though your thoughts might be personal, they will affect your business. With this in mind, here are some tips I’d like to share on representing yourself as the brand:

Don’t weigh in on political or hot topic issues.

I realize this is not a popular opinion in today’s environment. As I mentioned, customers want to know what you think. But what is the real benefit to adding your thoughts on a hot topic issue? Nothing. The 24/7 news cycle moves on quickly to the next story, but if you insert yourself into that cycle, you might find that it lasts longer and could damage your company’s brand.

There are some issues you might feel compelled to speak up about, and if you feel enough conviction about it, you should have that freedom. Just know you run the risk of alienating 50% of your customer base.

Your personal social media is an extension of your company’s brand.

You may have all your personal social media accounts marked as private, but nothing is private online. All it takes is one follower or friend to take a screenshot and share it on the public interwebs to cause damage.

You cannot think of your personal social media as something separate from your public accounts or your company’s accounts. Employees might get away with messages like, “my opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employers,” or “retweets do not equal an endorsement.” But you are the leader of the company. You set the tone.

As a side note, employees have gotten fired for personal social media posts, so even if you are not the owner or CEO of the company, you might want to think long and hard before you tweet out a controversial statement.

This doesn’t mean you can never post personal content online. In fact, your customers like to know you have a personal side. Some of the biggest engagements I read on LinkedIn are from personal stories, when leaders share a photo of their family with a caption that reads something like, “this is why I work hard.”

Embrace your role and be the face of your company.

Don’t be afraid to be out front promoting your company. People do business with people; show them you are an expert in your field.

This all gets down to content marketing. Hire a good public relations company to get you on TV and radio shows, podcasts, and interviews in trade publications. The interviews can be shared online, giving you third-party validation. You are not bragging about your accomplishments or your company; you are simply answering questions. Create content of value on your social media pages. This includes videos, blogs and resharing other leaders’ content that fits your brand.

Pay attention to the details. Take the time to update your social media profiles to make sure they reflect who you are today and the branding of your company. When was the last time you updated your Twitter profile or the information on your LinkedIn work history? All that information is searchable and helpful for your branding.

Often as leaders, we want to separate our personal life from our work life. And there are ways you can unplug with family and friends. Just know that place is not online. Everything you post online will be held against your company in the court of public opinion.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Scott Miller

CEO of Centerpost Media and host of “Create. Build. Manage.” Centerpost is a content marketing agency that owns BizTV and BizTalkRadio. Read Scott Miller’s full executive profile here

Sourced from Forbes

In News

The Most Consistent Aspect of a Brand Is Consistency

September 9, 2022 No Comments

By Kaushik Saha

When was the last time you trusted someone or something whole-heartedly? And, if you did, that particular person or thing most likely might be the one who is the closest to you, one very special. ‘Trust’ is the sole reason why people want to relate to you and, in order for people to trust you, they need to feel like they know you very well. In order for them to feel like they know you really well, they must first notice you, then recognize you, and thereafter keep remembering you. For people to notice, recognize, and remember you, you must always show up in a way that makes them believe it obviously is you and no one else. Making people take notice is a process. It might take them seeing you in their field of vision at least fifteen to twenty times before they actually take notice of you and register. Therefore, you will need a way to get in front of these people a second, third, or twentieth time so that you can kind of be worthy enough to prove to them that you are credible, trustworthy, and surely the best choice among all the others they might consider.

As humans, we are inherently programmed with something called the ‘context-dependent memory’ syndrome, which means that we tend to forget something very easily as soon as it gets out of context. Therefore, to remain in context, it becomes extremely crucial to showcase ourselves in a consistent manner that can aid in gaining the trust of our deserving patrons. Also according to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious, showing that purchasing is more of an emotional decision than a practical one. Because we as humans are usually driven by feelings. Have we ever wondered why we end up buying the same soap or visiting the same café? It is a consistent brand experience delivered every time that makes us feel comfortable with every interaction. We know what to expect and are kind of very sure of the outcome. Brand consistency does foster goodwill, helps build strong equity, and acts as the adhesive that assists viewers put you back in contextual memory.

Have you ever wondered how much you relate to a Dove or a McDonald’s commercial, every time it ends up playing on your television set or you share a glance at one of their adverts while you are traveling somewhere or driving your car or maybe simply updating yourself with the daily news, either in print or on your tech gadget? And most of these times you ended up relating to them before you even took note of their logo mark. I do not intend to promote a particular brand out here but it’s worth a mention as how such brands have been delivering a consistent brand message for years. In today’s digital era, content is truly becoming more and more dominant. I really don’t need to tell you how much of it is there for you to consume. As you read this very moment, thousands of fresh new content are being published to the web in different forms, ready for you to relate to and consume. And, the more this happens, the more it also gets difficult for you as a brand to stand out. To cut through this large chunk of noise being generated, the brand will need to differentiate itself from the competition. But while differentiation is key, it might only aid in grabbing a sizeable market share which must remain intact for the brand to prevail continuously. The brand will need something much more. Something that will stick on to the viewer’s mind, something that will build their trust and win their loyalty, not just for once but possibly for a lifetime.

The benefits of being consistent can provide significant differentials within highly competitive markets, generating authority in respective segments and thereby building loyalty for the brand. Brand consistency can truly help the bottom line of a brand. According to research by customer experience expert Esteban Kolsky, 55% of consumers are willing to pay more for a ‘guaranteed good experience’. As he clearly mentions that ‘guaranteed’ is the most important factor here, noting that customers are no longer satisfied with just being promised a good experience. There has to be something more concrete that can ensure that this good experience is being delivered each time, every time. There has to be a consistent projection and delivery mechanism in place that can validate that the promises made are being translated into trustworthy action points. And this in turn will help consumers build a strong relationship with the brand going forward.

One great example I can possibly recall reading about is the man Sir Richard Branson himself. A brand name in his own right, he has gradually evolved from running a record label to building a dynamic airline brand and many other successful ventures along the way with the most recent being travel to outer space on Virgin Galactic – the world’s first commercial spaceline. He has envisioned and built a multi-billion dollar brand around his core principles and though people always seem to expect the unexpected from him, what is important to note is that he remains consistent in delivering a super cool brand experience that is customer-centric and aesthetically entertaining, no matter the venture he gets involved in. It is like swearing by what to expect from any new venture that might have the brand name ‘Virgin’ associated with it.

When you are focused on brand building, the last thing that you would end up doing is to confuse your target customers and the market at large, because they would be the ones helping you drive the bottom line for your business as well as register a worthy return on investment on your branding exercise. By not following a consistent approach to brand building, you could deprive yourself of multiple chances to drive authentic figures in sales. It is very important to remember that people buy from brands they can strongly connect with and those that seem to be authentic enough to be able to trust. After all, it does become hard to connect with a brand that doesn’t seem consistent enough. Ask yourself, how easily would you be able to trust a person you have met for the first time? Even though he might have seemed to be the perfect candidate to tick off all the questions on your preferential checklist. Yet, you wouldn’t be able to do so, right? It would probably require multiple consistent interactions for you to even think of taking the next step. And that is exactly how human behaviour works, irrespective of scrutiny being for a human or a brand.

Consistency is one of the most crucial steps toward successful brand-building. And it doesn’t end at the product or the messaging only. It needs to be strictly adhered to, across all parameters of the planning and delivery mechanism. From research, development, manufacturing, delivery, human capital, finance as well as stakeholders to the last possible mile in this entire process, there has to be a unified approach and projection at all times. With every interaction at every single touch point, the brand promise needs to be loud and clear, delivering a consistent experience to consumers. It would be really good to conclude with clarity here that even a well-articulated and clearly defined branding exercise that lacks a well-planned and consistent brand projection in place, will absolutely hold no merit at all and will end up failing to deliver desired results.

Feature Image Credit: Francois Olwage

By Kaushik Saha

Sourced from Brandingmag

Kaushik Saha is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Tricycle Brand Solutions, India. A firm believer in ‘Impossible is Nothing’, he intends to deliver strategically defined, impeccable creative and design solutions to help new-age enterprises create visible impact. With Tricycle, he wants to effectively combine relevance with the magic of design, to create powerful brand expressions. He has been recently conferred with the ‘Creative Entrepreneur of the Year’ award by Entrepreneur India.

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Web3 101 for brands: here’s your cheat sheet

July 12, 2022 No Comments

By Lauren Griewski

Web3 could revolutionize the relationship between brands and their customers. Here’s an introduction to what marketers need to know.

When the internet first went live, publishers would create content and users would consume it – a period known as web1. A decade or so later, web2 took over with the emergence of web apps and social networks, which made it easy for everyone to create, share and engage with content.

Fast forward to today, and the novelty of web2 has largely worn off. Some of the most impactful web2 companies – such as Meta (Facebook), Google and Apple – have made a killing by leveraging user-generated content (UGC) to engage consumers and create unique profiles for each of them, only to turn around and ultimately sell that data to third parties for advertising purposes.

The worst part? The vast majority of those users had no idea this was taking place – and none of them gave their permission to allow it to happen.

If advertisers want to rebuild trust with consumers, they need to take an open, transparent approach and ask their audiences for their permission to collect data. And this is exactly what the web3 opportunity – a new era of the internet characterized by decentralization, transparency and autonomy – enables.

What are the core principles of web3?

Ask 10 people to define web3, and you might get 10 different answers. But at a high level, web3 is a new iteration of the internet powered by blockchain technology and token-based economics, and it’s also governed by three central tenets:

Decentralization. In web2, companies own platforms. In web3, platforms are decentralized. No organization has control over any content; users do
Transparency. Thanks to blockchain technology, all users on peer-to-peer networks and decentralized apps (dApps) will share open, unalterable databases that they can verify with their own eyes
Autonomy. Ultimately, users will be able to control their own digital destiny and have the final say in whether their data is collected and how it’s used

According to a recent study, 96% of consumers don’t trust advertisers. This is exactly why brands should be incredibly excited about the web3 moment.

With the right approach, digital advertisers can rebuild the trust they’ve lost during the web2 era – connecting with consumers on a meaningful level and in an open and honest way.

Web3 is here – it’s time to prepare for the tectonic shift

Though we’re still early, the web3 moment has already arrived. Unfortunately, advertisers that wait to adapt to this reality will learn the lesson the hard way.

In the not-too-distant future, users will demand a cut of the revenue generated from the data they create. As an internet-native currency that is incredibly divisible, crypto is the easiest mechanism to deliver incentives that users can immediately put to use.

As the world gravitates toward the web3 standard, user data will increasingly be held on the blockchain or in decentralized storage solutions, which will give users more power over their data than ever before. As a result, they will be able to choose exactly which brands they consent to share data with, what data they wish to share, and for how long.

Advertisers that don’t prepare for this tectonic shift and adapt their methods to offer a real value proposition in exchange for interacting with user data will be left behind.

By offering tokenized rewards – whether that’s fungible crypto coins or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), an on-trend, blockchain-based, one-of-a-kind digital asset – advertisers can tap into the web3 ethos while exciting users about what they have to offer. Plus, they get to take advantage of the magnificent properties that come with blockchain technology, such as:

Immutability, or the permanent, unalterable nature of a blockchain ledger
Validation, or the way in which users can verify transactions are legitimate
Disintermediation, or the absence of intermediaries between advertisers and users
Profound security, made possible by cryptography and decentralization
Ease of transfer, which makes it simple and quick to send and receive tokens

How crypto can help advertisers thrive in web3

One of the easiest ways to reward users when they give their permission to share their personal data or perform specific actions is by issuing crypto rewards. For example, you can give them rewards when they watch videos, view personalized ads and opt to receive content from brands.

By offering an opt-in value exchange – where they’re willing to part with their data or their attention for tokens – advertisers can begin building long-lasting customer relationships and regain trust while ensuring regulatory compliance.

Though cryptocurrency remains in its infancy, adoption continues to increase; today, some 27 million Americans own crypto. With steady growth over the last decade, it’s only a matter of time before crypto usage reaches critical mass. The sooner advertisers embrace the inevitably of crypto, the faster they’ll be in a position to capitalize.

Since the future of digital advertising will be fuelled by permission and digital rewards, brands need to start looking for a purpose-built crypto-rewarded advertising platform that will guide the journey ahead. Strategies that enable aligned incentives – where all participants, including users, advertisers and the platform, benefit from the permissioned sharing of data – will lead to victory in the web3 era.

With the right approach, the lopsided relationship between brands and consumers suddenly evens out, and both parties engaging with each other is more of a partnership than anything else.

Feature Image Credit: Adobe Stock

By Lauren Griewski

Lauren Griewski is chief revenue officer at Permission.io.

Sourced from The Drum

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Forget everything you know about influencer marketing and start from scratch

June 8, 2022 No Comments

By Crystal Duncan

Influencer marketing has evolved and so must your approach. Here’s what you need to do to make this powerful approach work as part of your full-funnel marketing strategy.

Like most nascent marketing channels, influencer marketing began as something of a Wild West. Metrics were thorny, processes were clouded, and many brands got burned working with influencer platforms or individual creators who produced scant measurable results.

The upshot is that, even now that influencer marketing has matured into a more structured discipline, some brands remain skeptical of the entire medium.

We are at the point where brands who have struggled to produce and prove value from working with influencers in the past, must consider starting from scratch. That doesn’t don’t mean scrapping your Influencer program, but effectively taking a beat to re-evaluate your approach and reset it.

Build an influencer marketing strategy from the ground up with the same scrutiny you would apply to any other strategy. That means a rigorous brand analysis and quantitative vetting process should drive discovery of potential influencers. While the process of engaging and partnering with or deploying an influencer should be as automated as possible. And, last, measurement should focus on influencers’ ability to drive sales. Influencers who can move the bottom line are the ones brands should redeploy to optimize over time.

Gone are the days when influencer marketing was purely a brand awareness play. In the right hands, influencer is now a full-funnel, full-service discipline, meaning it covers awareness and bottom-of-funnel activations, discovery upfront, and measurement on the back end. Here are three cores to building an influencer marketing strategy from scratch and turning it into a proven revenue generator.

Understand who you are and what you need to accomplish

Brands need to set clear specifications to select the right creators. Brands should ask themselves: What are your values? Which audiences are you trying to reach? What backgrounds would you like your creators to represent? What messages do you need to send to your audience?

Next comes the quantitative decision-making process that has historically eluded the discipline. What are your key performance indicators? What calls to action will you bake into your influencer campaigns? How will you measure success? Beyond numbers of followers (the conventional metric), what engagement rates do you expect influencers to command, and how do those rates line up with sales goals?

Once brands have figured this out, they can select influencers who meet their criteria. Brands should also implement a repeatable process for creating content briefs to set influencers up for success. These, too, can be optimized over time, allowing advertisers to eliminate ambiguities. Now is when cutting-edge influencer practices come in, transforming the discipline into a full-funnel strategy.

Maximize distribution, measure influencer success and optimize

The fatal flaw in most content marketing strategies is that brands focus all their attention on creating great content, and after they have created it, they simply slap it into a blog or repost it to a couple of social channels. The same failure has historically applied to influencer marketing.

But sophisticated practitioners can turn distribution into a source of value. For example, a video created for Instagram might be amplified by paid social, an OTT campaign, digital out-of-home billboards, or programmatic display.

After brands have transformed what could have been a simple influencer Instagram video into an omnichannel campaign, they can leverage cross-channel data to quantify sales driven collaboration. This is a far cry from the old influencer measurement framework in which advertisers would report on the number of eyeballs a campaign reached or how many comments it spurred.

Once brands understand how much revenue individual influencers are driving, they can optimize campaigns, staffing a bench of key collaborators. Over time, by following this model, they can build an “army” of Influencers who deeply understand the brand and can convert their audience, ultimately making things more efficient and seamless. This process of distribution, measurement, and optimization should ultimately equip brands with a well-oiled machine of creators proven to be worth the investment – and then some.

Raise the bar for influencer marketing

It is understandable that many advertisers are wary of influencer marketing. But forward-thinking brands should not let past failures dictate future strategy for a channel that has evolved.

Influencer marketing should be part of a full-funnel strategy. It builds awareness and trust through powerful, authentic content that resonates with consumers on an emotional level. It also drives sales and lends itself to granular measurement, which allows for optimization so that influencer becomes not only more lucrative but also more efficient over time.

The only thing standing between many brands and a revenue-generating Influencer Marketing strategy is outdated assumptions about the channel. By challenging past wisdom and applying the same structure that governs other performance marketing channels to influencers, brands can unlock fresh revenue-generating opportunities.

By Crystal Duncan

Crystal Duncan is senior vice president, head of partnership marketing, Tinuiti

Sourced from The Drum

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The Value in Niching Down Your Brand

January 4, 2022 No Comments

By Annie Button

There are tens of thousands of businesses currently operating in every industry you can think of and the online market has never been more saturated. But, while this has its benefits, standing out among your competitors has become increasingly challenging. In order to attract more leads and increase conversions, you need to set yourself apart and one of the most effective ways to achieve this is through identifying your niche.

What does ‘niching down’ mean?

Niching down means identifying a smaller segment of your audience to target, so you can deliver a more specific and tailored offering that speaks to them directly, as opposed to a general offer that reaches a larger audience.

Consider a web designer that exclusively works with charity organizations. While they can design websites for any business, trying to get noticed in a vast expanse of different industries and specialisms is incredibly tough. By focusing on a smaller niche, not only can they tailor their services to those organizations more effectively, because they’ll understand the demands of that sector, but charities in need of web design services will know exactly who to contact.

A blanket approach may seem like it will result in more sales, but the reality is that what you’re selling may not appeal to a large percentage of that audience’s needs – you’re not going to stand out among thousands of other people all offering the same thing. Ultimately, in niching down, you’ll stand out more to a specific group of people who are looking precisely for what you’re offering. And, it provides many more benefits besides.

Connect and attract true customers

When approaching the topic of niching down, many business owners worry that by alienating a large group of customers, they’ll lose money. But actually, the opposite is true – instead of just using a blanket approach to a large group of potential customers, when you determine your niche, you increase the number of ideal clients.

These are people who are far more likely to convert, meaning your marketing efforts are stronger. In a podcast interview, brand strategist Pia Silva explains the value in connecting with targeted customers, stating, “It’s so powerful to clarify who you’re for. It turns on the light bulbs in people’s brains, they think of people to send to you that they wouldn’t think of if you’re not specific”. Your business becomes the go-to brand for your specific service or product, enhancing your reputation in your industry and attracting true clients.

Develop a stronger offer

When you narrow down your focus, you have a greater opportunity to understand the strengths and weaknesses in your sector. You’ll be able to gain clarity on the market and your competitors, and build an offer that’s consistent for your customers. Your message will be clearer and you and your customers will have confidence in what you’re offering because you’ll be the specialist in that area.

That’s not to say that every client gets the same solution. But, the framework and the structure of your offering will be the same because your clients will inevitably be in need of similar things. This, in turn, makes it easier to deliver high-quality products or services that are in keeping with what your customers are looking for.

Build trust and loyalty in your brand

When you’re speaking to a smaller audience, it’s much easier to speak their language specifically and talk to customers in a more personalized way. You’ll be communicating with like-minded individuals rather than trying to make yourself heard to everyone. This helps to build trust with your audience, as you’re creating something that’s exclusively for them. The result is that your audience feels understood and, in niching down, you’re showing that not only do you know your audience but you value their needs and requirements enough to tailor your business to them which goes a long way towards building loyalty.

Limit your competition

Two overriding benefits of finding your niche are that you instantly reduce your competition and rebuild your competitive edge in a saturated market. You’ll no longer be fighting against thousands of other businesses for the top spot. The pool of competitors will be much smaller, making it easier to achieve success. In fact, in cornering a niche market, you may even find that other businesses are less likely to take the risk which can be of benefit to you and your company because it leaves those opportunities available for conquering.

In summary

Instead of trying to solve everything for everyone, niching down enables businesses to focus on the services and products that their customers really need and are willing to pay for. It also offers the opportunity to really hone your expertise in a specific area and become a market leader for your niche, which can benefit your business in the long term.

By niching down, you become the go-to specialist which builds positive brand recognition and customer loyalty, as well as increasing conversions and staying one step ahead of competitors.

Feature Image Credit: George Pagan III

By Annie Button

Sourced from Brandingmag