Steps Toward Developing A Content Strategy

May 15,2015 / By Staff / No Comment

The content strategy for any brand must solidify their position both among competitors and uneducated clients. People need to know what you offer, the benefits of what you offer, and how your benefits are more valuable than your competitor’s offerings.

“It’s not about you. It’s about what you can do for others.” – ProUpdater

Step #1: Create a simple 3 column table and prioritize the offerings and benefits of your top 2 competitors. Now, put your offerings and benefits along side theirs. What you’re looking for is what stands out in relation to your competitors that you can easily offer that is of higher quality than their main benefit. This simple matrix makes it easy to see what you stand for in the marketplace. It’s the beginning of your content strategy.

Step #2: Now that you’re zeroing in on your unique strengths, you want to create a messaging campaign that communicates those strengths to the buyer who has never heard of you before. How will they know what you stand for? How will they know how your offering benefits them? That’s the point of your content strategy. It’s education for potential buyers.

Step #3: Relax. Content strategy is a long-term communication practice. In business, we all want to be as professional as possible, but we should not be overly busy that we cannot consistently update the basic communication needs of our brand.

CONCLUSION

I often see brands posting “feel-good” posts that are social, but ultimately don’t educate or communicate anything about your specific brand. The main reason for this is a lack of planning and a lack of strategy. Don’t simply create content for content’s sake. That will lead to people tuning out and not caring about your brand. Have a clear brand positioning strategy with a communication plan that dovetails with that position. You can do this!

Branding

Effective Marketers Sell to Customers on Both the Product and the Brand

May 15,2015 / By Staff / No Comment

Branding is an elusive quantitative measurement, but in some cases, they’re worth billions of dollars. The key to sell to your customers on both the product and the brand is to make sure both are coordinated aesthetically, logically, and consistently.

Aesthetically: You should never allow anything that your brand produces to not have the same color, font, quality, voice, or style as your brand. If you have a product that doesn’t reinforce your brand image, then your product is out of alignment. This is important, because people need to be able to recognize patterns. If you colors are different between your logo and product, people are going to get confused and may attribute the product to another brand.

Logically: You product should always dovetail with your brand’s promise. What does your brand stand for? What is the basic offering you’re delivering to your buyers? Your product offering should fit underneath that brand’s promise so that people get both what the brand wants to promise and that the product they’re offering comes from that brand. If you can coordinate these two things, people will get the message and your effect can be incredibly persuasive.

Consistently: Some brands like to change up their product line, because it’s fun. Look at Facebook. How many times have they changed their platform? What ends up happening is that people tune out and stop using your product. Find the formula that works, and don’t change it. Lots of business have not changed their formulas for decades and they have reaped the rewards.

CONCLUSION

Iwant you to know that branding and product alignment can happen. Be sensitive to how your brand looks and what it’s promising to zero in on how to market your product. If they seamlessly go together, that is a formula for success. Good luck!