Branding & Digital Marketing Good Branding and Good Marketing

What Makes a Good Brand Brand is the perception someone holds about a product, service organization etc… Know your Audience - Finding the right branding approach requires first understanding the target market. Establish a brand identity – Create an identity within a niche. It can simply be one special thing that separates it from the competition. Consistency - It’s important to adhere to a certain quality standard with a product or service and be consistent across all mediums. Competitiveness – For a brand to make a name for itself, team members should thrive on competition and constantly strive to improve. Exposure - Successful brands have the ability to reach consumers through multiple channels. Leadership - There’s typically an influential leader behind every successful brand Passion - Massively successful people all have a serious passion that keeps propelling them to work hard and continually deliver greatness Forbes - The Top 7 Characteristics Of Successful Brands

3 Ingredients of Making a Good Brand 1. The Right Customer - To build a good brand, you need to focus on the best audience (target customer) for your brand. Determine what your target customer values and focus your brand offering to that customer. This will mean sacrificing things valued by others and not by your target. Good branding requires sacrifice. You will fail if you try and be all things to all people. 2. A Good Brand Promise, Personality and Position - If you don’t lose sight of your target customer when you define your brand, then your chances of defining a good brand promise, personality and position are dramatically improved. A good brand promise combines fulfilling your customer’s need with your team’s passion. A good brand personality is authentic to your organization, attractive to your target customer and consistently delivered. A good position is the clear reason your target customer will fulfill their need with your promise instead of a competitive solution. 3. Great Commitment by Your Team - The branding journey begins with targeting the right customer and developing a good brand strategy, but it does not end there. A good brand delivers a consistent experience from initial brand awareness right through the entire customer experience – sales, delivery, solution experience, billing and any after-care or support. To get all aspects of your operations (as opposed to only your marketing campaigns) on brand, you need to ensure you have a strong commitment from your team. Having an A+ commitment from your team is a vital (but often overlooked) ingredient to good branding.

5 Elements of Great Brands 1.A GREAT BRAND’S VALUE PROPOSITION EXTENDS BEYOND ITS PRODUCTS THE BEST BRANDS CHANGE OUR PERCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD EXAMPLE: RED BULL CHALLENGES PEOPLE’S CONCEPT OF WHAT IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. RED BULL INSPIRES US TO EXPLORE OUR LIMITS, AND ACHIEVE SOMETHING MORE 2.GREAT BRANDS AREN’T JUST DIFFERENTIATED; THEY MAKE A DIFFERENCE BRANDS SHOULD OFFER SOMETHING TO BUY INTO, NOT JUST SOMETHING TO BUY. EXAMPLE: PEOPLE BUY TOMS FOR ITS BRAND PROMISE, NOT JUST THE BRAND’S PRODUCTS 3.GREAT BRANDS DON’T INTERRUPT PEOPLE; THEY INVOLVE THEM MARKETING THAT ACTIVELY INVOLVES THE AUDIENCE IS MORE ENGAGING EXAMPLE: MUCH OF NIKE’S SUCCESS STEMS FROM ITS INCLUSIVE MARKETING APPROACH 4.GREAT BRANDS ENGAGE OUR EMOTIONS ACTIVITIES THAT RESONATE WITH AUDIENCES’ EXPERIENCES DRIVE GREATER ENGAGEMENT. EXAMPLE: P&G’S ‘THANK YOU MOM’ FILMS CREATE A STRONG EMOTIONAL RESPONSE. APPEALING TO EMOTIONS DELIVERS MORE PROFOUND AND ENDURING CONNECTIONS. 5.GREAT BRANDS HELP PEOPLE TO HELP THEMSELVES USE MARKETING TO HELP PEOPLE ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS AS WELL AS BRAND GOALS. EXAMPLE: AMEX’S OPEN FORUM ENGAGES PEOPLE THROUGH ADVICE, NOT ADVERTS DELIVER ACTIVITIES PEOPLE CARE ABOUT, AND THEY’LL CARE ABOUT THE BRAND TOO TOP MARKETERS ASKED WHAT DEFINES GREAT BRANDS

The Good Clear concise message Consistent brand across all channels Consistent message across all channels Clear call to action

Digital Marketing Overview Brand identification and consistency Understanding what your brand stands for. Your digital design and content should be consistent in clearly identifying your brand across all channels, including website, mobile apps, social networks and . Search marketing Create original content that is informational and useful to your potential customers. 89% of consumers use a search engine to find information on products or services before buying. Content optimisation If a website doesn't have valuable, original content, it won't perform well. Ensure that content is optimised for contact, different browsers and mobile devices. Social media outreach Social media helps create a conversation between you and your customers. You want to grow a discussion about your industry, business and products. Sales leads and conversion Marketing should be geared towards capturing customer information - "Invite new visitors to sign up for your newsletter, download a white paper, or Fan you on Facebook." This builds a customer base across many mediums that can be cultivated over the long term. Digital media is constant networking communication, information, listening, and customer service enhanced.

Digital Marketing in 7 Steps 1.BUILD A CONTENT STRATEGY - A content strategy comes with planning and includes an editorial calendar, a social plan, engagement efforts, optimization, measuring conversions and more. You need to figure out who you’re addressing and what you plan to achieve. What are goals and KPIs? How will you measure success: Is it by gaining visibility? Increased downloads? Every marketing effort has to be measured. It is an essential element of any successful digital marketing plan. 2.IMPLEMENT SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION - ensures that your content is not only reader friendly, but also search engine friendly as well. What makes an SEO plan a great SEO plan? A. Keyword research: B. Link building: C. Social networking: Measuring your marketing is an essential element of any successful digital marketing plan.

Digital Marketing in 7 Steps 3.USE INBOUND MARKETING, NOT INTERRUPTION MARKETING Inbound marketing, is more about earning people’s interest rather than buying it. It’s much better to be the first organic result on Google rather than one of the paid results. 4.CREATE SOLID LANDING PAGES Your landing pages need to be user-friendly and straight to the point. If you want to ensure the most signups or downloads, for example, you need to make sure that your landing page drives the right message home. 5.FOCUS ON YOUR WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE What makes a great website? It’s when a visitor intuitively knows where everything can be found. You want to make sure that what they see responds to their needs and interest Measuring your marketing is an essential element of any successful digital marketing plan.

Digital Marketing in 7 Steps 6.DEVELOP A SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN Establish objectives and goals aligned with your broader marketing strategy Create measurable objectives - Focus on the S.M.A.R.T. strategy for goal setting to ensure your objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based. Choose your channels - Not all social-media platforms are the same. You need to choose the right ones for the products or services you’re selling. Develop a strong content plan that will deliver engaging material. Look at the competition. 7.USE ANALYTICS TO FIND OUT WHAT’S WORKING Use analytics to figure out what works and what doesn’t. By constantly measuring the results, you can figure out where your audience is and how to leverage your communication efforts. Measuring your marketing is an essential element of any successful digital marketing plan.

The Bad Don’t do any of the above

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