When you’re composing your digital marketing attack plan, don’t forget one of the most important (if not the most important) aspect: consistency! Both in building your brand and in marketing it to customers, consistency is key.

Familiarity

When your best friend answers your phone call, you don’t say, “Hi, it’s Steve. Can I speak to Bob?” because you recognize his voice instantly. You know each other, and there is familiarity. You have a relationship that lets you jump right into the meat of the conversation. When Bob picks up the phone, you say something like, “Hey, what are you doing?” or “Hi man, do you want to catch the 8 o’clock movie?” In the same way, digital marketing consistency builds familiarity, and a relationship, with your target consumers.

When your Facebook posts, emails, and blog posts all have the same personality, voice, and aesthetic, you build brand recognition with your audience. When it comes to ROI, brand recognition is golden. As you become more familiar to your target consumer, you become the name they recognize and trust and, before you know it, that target consumer is a loyal customer.

Consistency = Connection

Consistency, both in the type of content and marketing you do as well as frequency, forges a connection with consumers. One of the goals of honing the voice and personality of your brand is to bring about an emotional connection with customers.

“Emotional Connection” might bring to mind Super Bowl commercials that make us tear up and reach for a tissue, but all sorts of emotional connections are effective. Does your content include sarcasm, snark, or dad jokes? That works! Humor is a great way to bond with consumers and build connection. Need more examples?

• You can earn trust by turning out high-quality, educational content that shows you’re the expert in your field. Consumers trusting you enough to turn to you for information… that’s an emotional connection!
• Promise to beat any competitor’s price and following through on it. When your target customer is looking for a deal and you’re who comes to mind, you’ve made an emotional connection with him.
• Delivering superior service, treating customers like family, offering a stellar return policy, giving free shipping… all these and more are ways to connect with consumers. If you haven’t already, find the elements about your company that you want customers to know.  Showcase things about your business that will spark an emotional connection, and consistently include them in all types of your digital marketing.

Once your voice is the same across the board, meaning your style is consistent between blog posts, emails, and social media, don’t forget the second part of the connection equation: frequency! You can’t show up on Facebook once a month with a killer post. You need to be there frequently, at least once a week, staying in your customers’ feeds, gently slipping your marketing in front of their eyes so you keep reinforcing that connection.

Basically, it all boils down to this: keep a clear view of the message you want to deliver to consumers and the style that fits your business. Use that same style across all digital marketing, and consistently produce content, and interact with those who take the time to comment on your social media posts.

We completely understand that sometimes this may be easier said than done. You might be thinking something like, “I just want to build swimming pools! I’m not really great at social media posts and writing emails.” That’s where The Get Smart Group comes in and does it for you! From Facebook and Instagram posts to articles and marketing emails, we work hard to convey your unique brand and your voice in every post. To get started, request a FREE 30-minute marketing consultation.

When you think of branding your business, you may think of only the visual aspect of it: the logo, tagline, website design, etc. In actuality, branding your business goes way beyond mere imaging. It’s everything about your company, product, and service that makes an impression on consumers. Yes, your logo and website are an important part of that but so is customer service, your mission statement, and your “voice” or personality.

Your brand influences people’s reaction to your product or service, even their gut reaction to it. Think about the brands you love to use. How do you feel when you see their logo, or a special deal they’re offering? Now, think about a brand you had a terrible experience with … how do you feel when you see their marketing messages? Yikes! Powerful stuff.

Good branding is critical. Not only does good branding make an impression on customers and earn their business, it builds loyalty. How does a consumer decide which company to do business with? They choose the one they’re familiar with; the name they trust. That’s what your branding does. Even if they’ve never done business with you before and haven’t received a direct referral, your brand shows consumers who you are, that you’re trustworthy, and it inspires them to choose you.

Good branding makes an impression.

Arguably the most important part of making a lasting first impression on consumers is your logo. A great logo is not only eye-catching but memorable. Whether done through design or wording, it informs consumers what type of business you are. In honor of the playoffs, let’s look at two NBA logos for a good and not-so-good example.

First, the good example. The Toronto Raptors logo is clear and well designed. Gone are the days of the cartoon dinosaur dribbling a basketball on a purple background.

The team’s newest logo is much more bloodthirsty. Raptor claw marks are a nod to the team’s name and mascot, while the basketball tells you straightforwardly what kind of organization it represents. It gives the impression of a fierce brand, perfect if you’re a sports team hoping to dominate all the other NBA teams. Even non-NBA fans will identify this logo as belonging to a basketball team.

Now we have the Portland Trail Blazers with a less successful logo. What is this? Are the black lines supposed to be trails? The white section could vaguely resembles a ‘P’ so maybe it’s intended as a monogram for Portland?

The truth is, we don’t know, and if you’re not already an NBA fan, you probably have no idea that this is a logo for a well-known sports team. A non-fan who spots this on merchandise as they’re walking through a store will have no idea what type of business it represents.

Instead of this logo sparking brand recognition from the first moment it’s seen, the Blazers brand must already be known to the consumer. For an NBA team who really only markets to its fans, that’s probably okay. For basically every other type of business under the sun, that’s a  problem.

Your Brand Tells Consumers What to Expect from You

Depending on what area of the country you live in, you may be familiar with a sandwich shop called Jimmy John’s. Every commercial, jingle, or ad you’ve ever seen or heard from Jimmy John’s promises that they are “freaky fast.” If you walk up to the counter to order, they’ve usually got your sandwich made before you’re done paying. They don’t put it in a bag or give you a napkin – because they ain’t got time for that – but that’s okay, because you’re probably there because you like and appreciate their “freaky fast” brand promise. Going for delivery? If you order Jimmy John’s and a coworker orders from a pizza place, everyone knows who’s going to be digging into their lunch first.

Now, if Jimmy John’s branding promised to deliver food super fast, but they were routinely slower than they promised, that stigma becomes part of their brand, because a brand is not just the branding you try to portray, but it’s the overall impression a consumer has of your business.

Your Brand Helps You Connect on an Emotional Level

When you show consumers that you “get them” or have the same values as them, you connect on an emotional level. How can branding help you do this? There are many ways and here are a few:

• Highlight that you’re a family-owned, local business.
• Be active in your community.
• Give military discounts.
• Know your target audience and market it to it. For example, if your clientele is mostly women over age 50, use images and wording appropriate to them.

Make sure your brand’s personality meshes with your audience. For example, if your target demographic is 40-something dads, ads with hipsters probably won’t do it for you. Through what goggles do your target audiences view your marketing content?

Your Brand Creates Loyalty and Generates Referrals

If you look deeper, past the logo, packaging, and website design (although these can impact customer loyalty), here’s where the intangible aspects come into play. Your brand builds loyalty when you follow through on your branding promises. Customer service, expert knowledge, and high-performing employees are all parts of your brand that build loyalty.

For example, if your branding is all about quality, make sure your products stand the test of time, and be there for your customers if problems arise. Similarly, If you promote great prices, then focus on providing your customers products at price points they can’t get anywhere else.

That’s why Customer Relationship Management is essential. Building your relationship with your customer brings them back to you when they’re ready to purchase. As a great example, we offer custom CRM programs for our clients. We customize email campaigns so you can stay in touch with your current customers to fulfill more needs as well as generate sales with your leads.

Your Brand Sets the Culture with Your Employees

You can motivate and give your employees something to believe in with your branding. A strongly branded company gives your employees a team to be part of and a goal to work toward, something to take pride in.

All aspects of branding can seem overwhelming especially to a new business but if you focus on how you want customers to view your brand, the branding steps to take become easier to see.

Need help with your branding? Let The Get Smart Group help! From CRM email campaigns to social media posts, we can help you grow your brand!

Outbound advertising used to be the only way to fly. Marketers sprayed their messages far and wide — capturing few leads for their many efforts. Outbound ads continue to have a place in the advertising universe, though it’s been greatly assisted by more modern means for tracking where those messages should go and honing the messages for better results.

But digital advancements have paved the way for a different kind of marketing. Instead of going out to reach your audiences, you can now bring those audiences to you. It’s less intrusive, and if done right, more effective, because you’re focused on people who’ve expressed an interest in your business and/or your products or services.

For most businesses, a healthy mix of inbound and outbound promotions hit the spot. Outbound marketing is the megaphone you use to attract initial attention, and inbound marketing is the magnet you use to reel them in.

Where does inbound and outbound promotions fit into your business model?

Outbound Marketing: The Megaphone

Outbound marketing is what you probably think of when you think of “marketing.” Advertising, direct mail, cold sales calls – things that get your business message out to the largest number of people as possible. Like a megaphone, outbound marketing is the act of spreading your message to as many people as possible.

And there’s a lot of value in that. That’s the reason why so many big brands use outbound advertising to raise awareness about and pique interest in their products – it works. If you use it yourself, and track your efforts appropriately, you’ll quickly see which outbound marketing efforts work best for your business. Plus, today we have more ways of targeting outbound messages than ever before, by segmented social media advertising audiences, geo-targeted digital ads, mailing lists sorted by income and age, and so much more. It isn’t the “spray and hope” of ages old.

We live in an incredibly ad-savvy world. People know where ads are going to be and diligently avoid them. They record shows on DVRs so they can fast-forward through the commercials, or opt for Netflix and ignore your ads entirely. The only way for outbound marketing to be effective is to target only those who are inclined to want your message, using tools like SEO and keywords, well-written and informative blog posts, and a fresh, inviting approach to social media channels.

Inbound Marketing: The Magnet

Once you’ve attracted your audience using smart outbound techniques, you switch to smart inbound tactics. Done right, it doesn’t really feel like marketing at all. Instead of yelling it out through a megaphone to everybody, you’re attracting those most interested in your message to you. It’s the magnet of the marketing world.

Inbound tactics convert the leads drawn in through outbound efforts and nurture them into qualified leads, closed sales, and eventually, delighted customers! This is done through various methods, including lead forms, Calls to Action (CTAs), landing pages, etc. You close the deal using targeted emails, direct calls, smart social media interactions, and other nurturing tactics.

Excellent inbound tools include sleek brochures, an attractive and easily-navigated website, an informative and interesting blog, e-books, whitepapers, valuable email newsletters, and similar methods.

Draws like e-books for free download, email newsletters, and other free (but valuable!) content build your inbound “magnet.”

Compared to outbound, inbound costs significantly less, because instead of paying to reach a gazillion people with no interest in buying or money to buy, you’re reaching out to people with an expressed interest in what you have to offer. Inbound marketing is an essential part of your advertising mix today.

Whether you choose to leverage the magnet, the megaphone, or both, it’s important to have the right partner. Someone who can help you find the mix that makes the most sense for your market and your business.

The Get Smart Group is a talented team with the knowledge and experience poised to help take your business exactly where you want it to go. Let’s get your marketing strategy planning started today with a free consultation.