Values is a term that we are seeing really moving in conversation at the moment. Not just with movements and governments, but in friends circles and family conversation. But how do brands add value to their customers, and why do we care?
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For one reason or another, there has been plenty of talk online lately about brand guidelines – what you should include, why they’re important and what they offer your business. I’m not going to rehash that here, it doesn’t add any value to a conversation that is already happening. What I have observed though is the tendancy for brand guidelines to be a beautiful document that sits in a drawer and doesn’t get applied to all parts of your business, the way it should be. And that’s something worth tackling.
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I spoke last week about how important it is to be blogging for your brand, but it’s important to note that no one wants to be putting in all the effort of blogging without sharing it with the intended audience. While content being live on your website is a good thing for increasing your search results or giving you kudos in the eyes of Google, ultimately what we should be trying to do with any blog post is to deliver value for your customers – so we have to get the content to the people! What are you doing to amplify your blog posts? Firstly, you need to consider the lifecycle of your blog post when writing it. Is it a piece of evergreen or cornerstone content – a blog post on a topic that will continue to be relevant for an extended period of time? Or is it really topical and will only be relevant for a little while? If your content is evergreen, share it a little bit now, but anticipate that you will be able to share and promote that content for as much as years afterwards. If your content is only going to be relevant for a short period, share and amplify it quickly and regularly over a shorter space of time to get maximum mileage out of your posts. Then consider your amplification platforms. Where does your blog go once it’s live on your website? Pick and mix from the list, depending on what your marketing strategy looks like right now: Email newsletter | Affiliate or partner websites | Social media | As an article on LinkedIn | as part of a campaign promoting another piece of content | via direct email to customers (usually in an email signature) | As a printed fact sheet | Now consider the piece of content itself – what are the ways that we can get maximum mileage out of this one idea? Some of these I touched on earlier in the article. You can share a blog post with your suppliers or partners in the hope that they will share it with their audience. You can turn a brief (350 words or so for best results) blog post into a longer report or fact sheet. Turn quotes from the blog post into images to go onto your social media. Create an explainer video that…
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I was once told an absolute gem of a fact that has really stuck with me through the years, so forgive me if you’ve heard this one before. You are more likely to complete Navy S.E.A.L training than you are to click on a banner ad. And yet brands continue to invest in and be disappointed by the results achieved through new ways of, and greater quantities of, digital advertising. Whether it’s the post that appears every 10 images in your Instagram feed or the onslaught of promotions you see in your email inbox or around your favourite blog, there are more ways than ever to target people digitally. Digital advertising should never be seen as a cure-all as part of a marketing mix. Simply launching digital ads, whether they are display, social, or programmatic, does not guarantee you business. It’s really as simple as that. I can completely understand in a small business that we believe, in the modern age, that there should be a magic fix, a simple solution to promoting your products to the right people. But its just not true. Those who make the platform (Facebook is a really easy example in this case, but all the platforms are similar in this regard) are trying to get you to spend more and more on digital marketing – and so they promise highly targeted, specific delivery to your ideal audience. The reality is that they can’t guarantee that – and even if the ad is served to the right audience, that doesn’t guarantee that the audience is interested in the product or service you’re trying to sell. In the days of print advertising, a print distribution of 50,000 units did not guarantee you 50,000 purchases. It did not guarantee you 5 purchases. It simply told you how many eyeballs would be on your ad, maybe, if they saw it at all. Im not trying to suggest that this is the right approach either, particularly if your brand has low marketing budgets, but we need to think more broadly about how to target our ideal audience and not simply look for the quick fix. The horribly unsexy truth is that the best way to capture your ideal audience Is to create content that engages them. It’s not as simple as “build it and they will come” but use the technology we have (namely social media,…
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I am very lucky in that I get to work with amazing brands and agencies who create great stuff. Because of that, I often get great opportunities to go along and experience new venues, different events or product launches in some truly stunning locations, just as a little perk of the job.
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When you are first starting out as a graphic designer, everyone is desperate for work. Whether you’re still a student and you need pieces in a portfolio to get that first job, or whether you are wanting to start a freelance business – everyone has done a free gig at one time or another.
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I had a fairly in-depth conversation with a good friend the other day about life and business and everything that is going on, and she made a fairly sweeping statement – “It’s so nice to hear from someone who is doing cool stuff but didn’t just fall into it.” Maybe it’s that others wrap it up in a fairy-floss coating, but I cannot believe that anyone in business for themselves, whether its full time, part time or a side hustle, could have “fallen into it”. It sounds too much like that stupid idiom you see plastered on Pinterest and Instagram “Love what you do and you will never work a day in your life”. It’s just not bloody true.
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There have been a lot of conversations lately around the watercooler about social media engagement. About how brands are getting less and less of it, the platforms are charging you more and more to reach your audience (in the form of advertising) and the penalties that come after advertising. There is a reasonable amount of fear going on, that brands have lost their followers, and they are right to be afraid.
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Engagement is one of the most tossed around terms in marketing. No longer is it just a phrase we use in digital marketing, now we are talking about the engagement at events, the engagement with printed collateral and the engagement of our spouse with the dishes (I have the data – the engagement is none). But what does it actually mean?
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