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Cruising Now, But Who’s Driving?

Over the last few miles, your brand has really picked up speed. You’re turning heads, and a crowd of new customers has flagged down your business for a lift. They want your products or services and are eager to invite others along the way. Yeah, it’s turning into one hell of a ride, but to where?

It’s easy to let the thrill of high-performance, accelerated growth drive you. Still, someone needs to take the wheel and steer – at least if you want to avoid hitting a wall. If your only destination point is, “Until the gas runs out,” the best that can happen is you drift to an idle stop. It’s a scenario that can be a death kiss to a business on the move.

In the world of brand management, someone’s always watching the road ahead while keeping an eye on the rear-view mirror.

They oversee everything from market navigation, speed, mileage, and direction. There’s always a Point A and Point B to each leg of the journey. There’s clear vision, and the brand never runs out of fuel.

If you don’t have someone doing this in your business right now, buckle up. You’re in a moving vehicle without a driver.

Develop A Brand Story that Attracts

If you have a brand, it has a story. When crafted properly, this narrative can attract people far and wide for many, many years. The secret to others wanting to step closer and listen to your story relies on its ability to entertain, offer some type of valuable information, or resonate with them on a personal level.

To do this, brand copywriting must follow some basic rules of thumb – all of which require creating outside of yourself. The best ones:

• Continuously observe, and speak to, their audience’s state of mind – their wants, needs, emotions, triggers.
• Adapt their tone based on the audience’s personality and mood.
• Identify the brand’s plot, main characters (including customers), settings, twists, themes, and morals.
• Throw away useless words and anecdotes that sound clever, but don’t provide any real value to the larger message.
• Know how to take complex topics and present them in a way the audience can understand.
• Don’t fall in love with their work. They realize some people will always critique style and delivery.

99 percent of failed messaging comes down to content that appeals more to the creator than the target audience. It’s produced by and for them. We call it ego writing!

It’s much more effective for brands to develop a narrative that welcomes customers into the journey and inspires them to keep turning the proverbial page. After all, if you want people to invest their time and money into your story, it’s best to pen a Choose Your Own Adventure than a single-focus autobiography.

Willpower Gets You to New Places. Not the Map.

At some point in life, we’ve all had big plans. Big plans to learn a new skill. Big plans to get into better shape. Big plans to try something we’ve never attempted before. In some form or fashion, we’ve all had big plans to advance ourselves on this journey.

Many of us spent quite a bit of time and thought towards this end. We dug deep into our psyche, exploring the “why?” and “what ifs?” of such change. We wrestled with the idea of commitment. We weighed the benefits of potential outcome against the comforts of our current position.

In the end, we formulated a plan – a map – based on all of this data. We outlined a starting point, milestones and desired destination. Now all that stood in the way of us progressing was physical execution.

It’s at this defining moment, so many big plans devolve into colossal energy wastes. In some cases, we succumbed to analysis paralysis. “What foot should I lead with to get the biggest push off?” Other times we become overwhelmed by the breadth of scope, too exhausted to carry out under the weight of our own self-imposed hype. It’s a Screw It point that keeps our feet planted exactly where we stood from the outset.

The real secret behind big plan success isn’t so much adhering to the map, but rather tapping into willpower… staying driven and committed. After all, there are many different ways to reach a destination. Pathways will washout and detours will arise. However, no one ever went anywhere without movement – and that must be frequent and unwavering if you’re looking to go new places.

There are two parts to every marketing push. The vehicle and the content.

The vehicle is systematic. It’s a marketing machine to deliver the content to your audience. Your website, social media channels, digital billboards, ad platforms… They’re all positioning tools, designed to move your brand to many places at once.

The second part, the content, is your appeal to the people. It’s the welcoming creative used to secure your audience’s attention and buy-in. A relevant message, captivating narrative, eye-catching visual… They’re all your business’ charisma, designed to tell your story in the most compelling terms.

Vehicles undergo constant improvement, forever being overhauled with faster engines, precision routing and more advanced automation. They change as quickly as technology allows.

Content also is in a constant state of growth, at least if your brand is evolving (and it always should be). It’s the only way to articulate your progress and invite others to experience it firsthand.

Results of both vehicle and content rely on one another. A great vehicle with weak content is worthless, and vice versa. Many businesses overlook this equation, investing the lion’s share of time and money in one over the other.

They bank on the latest vehicle innovation to get them in front of millions more. It’s expected to move them to measurable outcomes, because that’s what it was built to do. But when their brand reaches the masses, it’s dead on arrival because the content lacks purpose. In other cases, businesses get lost in the possibilities of creative, neglecting the importance of good placement.

Simply put, you need to adjust your marketing machine if your brand finds itself:

A. Painstakingly perfecting content that usually never sees the light of day
B. Forever searching for a new vehicle, because nothing seems to stick

Influencer marketing is a hybrid of two positioning strategies. The first being celebrity endorsements. The second being social media. The influencer – who generally isn’t a celebrity but has a large following on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc. – promotes a company’s product or services.

So Why Does This Work?

The influencer provides the brand with instant, 24/7 access to an already captive audience… their loyal fans. It’s an unspoken rule that influencers only promote the brands they believe in. This goes a long way in compelling their followers to buy in. Some reports show as high as 49% of Twitter users rely on influencer recommendations when making a buying decision.

There are two different ways that a brand can curate a relationship with a digital marketing influencer. The first is to formally contact them and send “free” products in exchange for a quick plug on their social media feeds. Keep in mind, there’s no certainty this approach will work in your brand’s favor. If a product is blindly sent as part of a PR push, the influencer could opt to focus on the negatives. Since they’ve worked hard to earn the trust of their audience, most aren’t scared to call out flaws in their effort to present authentic information.

The second, and more sure-fire, way to build a relationship is for the brand to actually employ the influencer. The brand pays them for so many endorsements. In these cases, terms can be more defined because the influencer is under contract.

In either case, it’s important to seek an influencer that aligns with your brand’s personality and offerings. You wouldn’t want someone with an older following advertising products designed for younger consumers. To that same point, you would not want someone with questionable character representing your brand.

Influencer Marketing: Is It Worth It?

If you decide to engage with an influencer, the great ones will be able to tell you:

1. Number of followers
2. Their conversion rate (how many purchases associated with their posts)
3. Post frequency
4. Other products they represent

Influencer marketing is hardly a fleeting trend. In fact, some celebrities have cashed in big time, using it as a side stream of revenue. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, Kim Kardashian makes roughly $270,000 per post. While that might not be the route for your brand, remembering these few simple points can help you in getting the most out of your influencer experience.

According to the New York times, we’re exposed to roughly 5,000 ads per day. With Facebook being a key player among the platforms pushing those promotions, it can be hard for a brand to rise above with an offer that’s appealing, different and click-worthy. So, we’ve cooked up six ways to create effective Facebook ads that won’t get lost in the noise.

Identify the Need

What’s the point of advertising a product if the consumer doesn’t know the need it fulfills? Educate your audience on “Why” it makes sense for them to take action. You can encourage them along with exclusive deals or timely sales to create a sense of urgency. However, make sure your Facebook ads clearly spells out the problem, then offers the solution.

Less is More

Your copy should be precise and easy to understand. Too many words not only will confuse, but also will defy Facebook’s advertising policies. In other words, the posting could be denied. A strong visual and simple, but compelling, call to action works best when trying to get attention as people scroll.

Target Audience

Why advertise a popular teen clothing item to a middle-aged man? Taking a broad stroke approach with your audience segmentation could lead to just that. Don’t simply boost without considering basic demographics and habits. Use Facebook’s Insights to first understand your audience’s location, gender, language. Then through Facebook’s targeting features, pick behaviors and interests that resonate with the folks you want to reach.

Timing

Facebook allows you to track usage times of your audience and coordinate your ad post to run during peak hours when you’re most likely to get in front of them. If you’re a brick and mortar business and your call to action requires them to stop by or pick up the phone, make sure your ad only runs when your doors are open. Post during peak hours so you’re sure to get in their feed when they’re looking.

Aesthetic

The appearance of your Facebook ads should be cohesive, pairing the right look with the right message at the right time.

Test Formats on Your Facebook Ads

Try testing various formats to see how your audience responds. For example, certain products or services might present better in a short ten second video, while others get the point across in a still graphic. In certain cases where the focus is selling multiple products, interactive ads that allow you to swipe left let the audience navigate quickly and on their terms to view the full spectrum of offerings.

Whatever the pitch, the same underlying ad rules apply. Make it target specific, cut down on clutter, position it at the right time, and test responses.