Marketing has come a long way from the ancient days of the original Campbell’s Soup ad or spicy meatballs. However, one thing remains relevant and more important than ever – selling ideas, emotions, and a brand before selling any actual product. Connections are made through emotions: How does your brand, product, etc. make someone feel? Hopefully like spending more money with you!
To guide you on your brand building journey, these five quick tips will help you create the emotion behind the ad and how to keep customers coming back for more:
- Authentic Image – Successful brands are making the leap towards authentic feelings rather than just pushing out content. If you make an emotional impact on your audience, you have a 50% greater chance of your message actually sticking. Consumers want to feel like there’s a living breathing person behind those keystrokes, not an emotionless computer. Authenticity builds positive emotion and once those good feelings are flowing, user engagement will skyrocket.
- User Experience – User experience is arguably the most important part of a marketer’s job. We see companies interacting with customers on social media more than ever before. Businesses consistently respond to the good, bad and ugly, all while gaining major brownie points for being a company who cares. For example, check out Taco Bell on Twitter–yes, Taco Bell is killing it on Twitter. Their customers/fans/groupies are hilarious and T. Bell is re-tweeting right along with them. The fast-food chain is clever and witty, but most importantly it has created a strong brand image throughout. Having more followers than the state of Rhode Island shows that they must be doing something right.
- Quality Over Quantity – Every online user wants to read good quality posts. When do they want them? Now! Bad hashtags and mediocre pics aren’t getting you anywhere—it’s time to really step it up. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What would make you follow a particular brand? What would make you engage? Shy away from the overly promotional stuff and create quality posts with super relevant content.
- Campaigns Are Not Created Equal – We can no longer just push out the same ad to everyone. Clearly, an ad campaign intended for a 35-year-old man is different for that of a 17-year-old girl. Here’s the good news: today, virtually all forms of social media offer targeted demographic ad campaigns. You can target separate audiences in different ads that will appeal to both groups. That’s a big-time score for you!
- Clarity – We can’t ask our customers to remember everything about our brand. We have to be calculated and specific about the message we are sending. Complicated hashtags and confusing ads only turn them off. Be direct. Steve jobs hit it home by saying, “It’s a complicated and noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.” You have to ask yourself “What do you want them to know, and how do I make it clear?”
Step out from behind that computer screen and remember our consumers are real people who want real people and a real message. Connect with people’s emotions and marketing takes care of itself. Be authentic with your customers and keep it simple. If you accomplish both those feats, you’re well on your way to success.
