Knowing your Brand Seasons

Most business owners are familiar with the product lifecycle, but did you know that your brand also has a cycle of its own?  For new business owners, understanding the ebb and flow of your brand as it matures, can be wildly enlightenting.  The elements of each of the brand seasons might not be as pronounced or as routinely structured as those within our annual calendar, (especially here in Nova Scotia ?), however, each has unique characteristics and an important place along your branding journey.

The four seasons I will outline today include:

• Launch Season
• Formation Season
• Growth Season
• Mastery Season

Launch Season

This is the springtime of brand seasons. Everything is new and fresh. The true magic of the launch season is the smell of hope in the air. You’ve worked for months putting together your business plan and corporate identity, in the launch season, you’re setting all of these elements free. Launch season is both scary and exhilarating all at once

Formation Season

After launch, your brand will move into the formational season. Here, you’ll take a moment to reflect on the roots you put down in the launch season and watch them grow into the pillars of your brand. This is the summer of your brand seasons. It isn’t exactly carefree, but you’ve gained some awareness and carved out a space for your brand to cultivate.

Growth Season

The fall of your brand seasons! New starts, changes and big moves. You’ve spent some time in your launch and formation seasons, now it is time to grow! Most businesses require growth periods to be sustainable. By now, you know what is working and what isn’t, you likely know how to reach your customers and what they are looking for. Use the knowledge from the previous seasons to expand or refine your offerings.

Mastery Season

In the final season, you’ve paved the path, laid down the foundation and nurtured the design, structure and offerings. In the winter of your brand seasons, you are establishing yourself as authority in your field. Focus on offering the best product or service you possibly can. This is also a great season to give back, offer value added products or services to your audience. As an expert in your field, be sure to wield your expertise (blogs, interviews, podcasts, etc.) as much as possible, you’ve earned it!

All that said, every business is different. You may spend a different amount of time in each season, you may skip one entirely and come back to it in a different order or not at all. Depending on your path and offerings, your business may also run through each of the seasons several times throughout your brand journey.

Have questions about your branding or wondering where you fit? Get in touch, I love to chat branding!

What is Corporate Identity?

A company’s corporate identity is the driving force behind how they interact and present to their target audiences. Successful organizations have carefully curated how they show up for their audiences, ensuring that their corporate identity is in line with their corporate culture. This post will answer the following:

1. What does corporate identity include?
2. How do you build a strong corporate identity?
3. What are the benefits of a strong corporate identity?

How do you build a strong corporate identity?

2. Take a look at your current corporate identity:

Take an honest look and determine whether the way you are being perceived by your audiences (externally and internally) really lines up with the strategy you outlined in step 1. Remember, image and identity are not always the same. Your image is how the public perceives you, your identity is how you wish to be perceived. If the two do not match up, you may have to make some changes to your corporate structure and then go back into step 1 to adjust as needed.

3. Create your corporate personas:

Understanding how your customers want to interact with your company should be one of the key factors in creating your corporate identity. The way to ensure this is to get really clear on who your audience is. Creating brand personas will give you a firm outlook on who you are trying to reach and how to effectively reach them.

4. Do a competitive analysis:

Pay attention to what your competitors are doing in terms of how they are showing up. Analyze their language, positioning and branding. Look for opportunities to stand out.

5. Bridge the gap:

Lastly, take all of the research from the first four steps and find the opportunities for growth. Look for gaps between your image and your identity. Your corporate image is how you are perceived, your identity is how you show up. Are there spaces in the marketplace you can fill? Filling those gaps may mean you’ll need to further refine your branding and messaging.

What are the Benefits of a Strong Corporate Identity?

Have questions about determining your corporate identity or growth opportunities? Let’s chat, I love to chat branding!

Welcome to the Brand Fan Girling series!

Stacy Chestnutt, Race Director for the Sole Sisters race series, has completed 60 marathons, 5 ultra-marathons and 8 Ironman competitions.  

She is a machine.

Stacy has always been a runner, but she didn’t always want to be a Race Director.  In fact, her debut in race direction was simply meant to be a fundraising vehicle for her passion project. Girls Gone Gazelle is an organization that focuses on building self-confidence for girls through exercise and community during a very crucial point in their development.

How it started

That first Sole Sisters race, the one that was intended to be a one-time initiative to raise much needed funds, took on a life of its own. It had a perfectly positioned focus, catchy name and inclusive approach. The event was not only a massively success, it was the birth of a community of women working toward a common goal; building confidence through communal movement and physical activity.

Since then, the Sole Sisters brand has developed into a household name in Halifax and surrounding maritime towns.  Each year, the series of race events consistently draws more than 3000 women from across the country and beyond.

This brand is a natural evolution from its Gazelle-based roots. Both programs aim to create an inclusive environment that promotes the importance of a healthy lifestyle and the mental health benefits of physical activity and community for girls and women.

The Event

The main event is untimed, eliminating the pressure and intimidation that can sometimes deter less experienced runners or walkers.  When you add in chocolate stops, fire fighters, hugs and the best damn swag in the industry, it is the perfect recipe for an event that has evolved into a strong and powerful brand.

For Stacy, however, the business aspect is not where she is most focused.  “There are better businesses, but they’re not about the people.  Sole Sisters is about the people.” She says as we have coffee in a crowded café.  Her passion is palpable, you can feel it in the air as she sits across the table regaling stories from the past seven years of race events.

As the race grew in popularity, so did Stacy’s dedication to the experience she was providing. She pays meticulous detail to race attributes to ensure the event is accessible to all women, regardless of physical fitness level or lifestyle.  To bring women together in the months leading up to the event, she began organizing socials across Nova Scotia.  Creating an experience that women couldn’t wait to be a part of, joining in droves, as teams, as families.

At the heart of it all, however, is the one-of-a-kind Sole Sisters race kit.  Each year, the kits feature a signature purple tutu, (of which a new design debuts each year), the most blinged-up metals in the country (maybe the world?) and running shirts and gear that actually fit AND you’ll want to wear again.  Vendor partners are researched extensively to ensure that they fit the race series brand and mandate; improving the lives of women and girls.

 

The Brand

This brand story is woven with tales of success and personal growth. One that sticks out in Stacy’s mind, and still brings her to tears when retelling, is the tale of two sisters that she coached as Gazelles who had graduated to become Sole Sisters Ambassadors. She remembers a day when they were attending one of the social events leading up to the event. The two were brimming with excitement as they had finally convinced their mother to join them.  Their mother, whom had previously felt that attending a race event was out of her realm of ability, was inspired by seeing others participating and seeing this and the excitement and confidence that her daughters had gained gave her the courage to participate herself.  These type of full circle experiences happen every year at the Sole Sisters events and it is powerful.

 

 

  The event continues to grow, year over year.  This growth is largely attributed to word of mouth exposure, a true indicator of the level of establishment and strength the brand holds. Additionally, successful social campaigns like #betheinspiration, #runHER and #TutuPower have shown success by disarming the common fears associated with participating in a race of this nature and making it an experience that is available for every woman.

As the success of the Sole Sisters brand grows, so does the amount of time and effort to continuously offer an empowering and rewarding experience for its participants.  Stacy doesn’t mind though.  While we wrap up our chat, she casually throws out “If there is something that you can love, it’s ok to work all the time.  You have to have authentic passion to be successful.”

Girl, is she right.

 

 

 

Find your Ideal Marketing Mix – Part II

Last month, I touched on several of the traditional marketing heavy hitters including insight on how to best implement each in an impactful marketing mix (if you missed that riveting post, not to worry, you can find it here).

For the second part and conclusion of this series, we will delve into several modern and emerging marketing mediums. In many cases, the development of these types of initiatives has provided small businesses with the opportunity to engage in marketing campaigns that were previously unattainable due to budget or target audience segmentation limitations.

For many, however, navigating these newer platforms is an intimidating and overwhelming undertaking.  This month’s post will offer a little insight in an effort to help ease the transition.

LET’S GET DIGITAL, DIGITAL.

Digital advertising is extremely popular due to its versatility and micro-focused targeting.   Typically categorized as static or dynamic, a digital ad is considered to be static if it includes a single image, without animation or video properties.  Most Leaderboard banners, (typically found at the top of a web page) or Big Box banners (typically found along the right-hand side of a web page) are static ads.  However, they may also include dynamic content.  Dynamic ads will typically include a series of images in sequence, animation or produced video.  Dynamic content may also pop up on a web page as a viewer interruption or be shown before popular videos as what is known as pre-roll positioning.

In both cases, digital ads are designed to drive conversion by directing viewers back to a dedicated landing page. The major benefit to digital advertising is the ability to micro-target an audience.  Digital advertising campaigns are unique in their ability to target based on specific user behaviour and patterns.  They also inspire direct conversion with an easy gateway (link) to a specific landing page or offer.  They are 100% measurable, providing precise consumer demographic information such as age, gender, location, interests, income and more.  Digital advertising statistics allow companies to build a detailed and highly accurate buyer persona, meaning that their campaigns have the opportunity to grow in effectiveness as they progress.  And with the ability to make changes to message or imagery in real time, most digital campaigns result in above average conversion and/or brand awareness.

Keeping in mind that viewers have grown accustomed to digital advertising as a regular part of their internet experience, companies that are creative with their imagery and intuitive in their message will typically see better results.  It is important to ensure that the user’s landing position is as promoted, the message is succinct and there is a clear call to action.  Failure to institute these characteristics will decrease the chance of conversion dramatically.

SOCIAL BUTTERFLIES 

Certainly, having amazing and impactful content encourages engagement and increases reach, however, organic content-generated conversion often takes time to materialize and can be difficult to pinpoint.  As a result, many companies opt to supplement their content plan with a social media advertising campaign.

According to Big Commerce, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat are the six social networks that generate consistent Return on Investment (ROI). Determining which network will work best depends on a number of factors.  Advertisers will want to consider how their targeted customers are using social networks, which groups they are part of, which networks their customers are deemed to be most available on, and finally, where target customers are most likely to engage with ads. Each which will require a certain amount of research to determine.

The beauty of social media is its ability to specifically target an audience and easily scale campaigns. These platforms collect an enormous amount of information about their users, which can be used to create targeted and impactful ad experiences, which, if implemented correctly, are guaranteed to generate conversions.

Social media advertising is a broad topic, one that could easily support its own blog post, however, for the purpose of this article, I will offer a brief overview of the most popular networks with a few useful links for anyone looking for more information on any of these platforms.

• • Facebook
    Facebook is described by BigCommerce as THE universal social media network.  Facebook’s ad platform is most effective for lead generation, email collection and ecommerce conversions via landing pages or specific offers.  You can find useful links on building, budgeting and targeting your Facebook campaign here.

• • Instagram
    Recently acquired by Facebook, Instagram is quickly becoming a contender in the social advertising stratosphere and is considered to have one of the highest audience engagement rates.  It appeals to sellers with visually appealing products or services, given its heavy focus on imagery and typically appeals to a younger demographic. You can find useful links on building, budgeting and targeting your Instagram campaign here.

• • Twitter
    With a following that is almost 50% more likely to shop online than non-twitter users, it is often used to boost ecommerce platforms and direct conversions.  Many companies use Website Cards which feature call to action buttons, imagery and direct links to encourage traffic to their site.  Website Cards associated with tweets significantly increase the likelihood of engagement. You can find useful links on building, budgeting and targeting your Twitter campaign here.

• • Pinterest
    Pinterest is one of the most powerful social media tools for ecommerce sales.  Highly visual and skewed toward women, it boasts high engagement, opportunities for custom product promotion and holds a captive and actively seeking audience. You can find useful links on building, budgeting and targeting your Pinterest campaign here.

• • LinkedIn
    LinkedIn’s focus is geared largely toward B2B marketing.  Its audience is considered to have higher than average disposable income and tends to produce the most productive B2B leads.  As a result, its ad platform includes sponsored content, sponsored InMail and targeted text ads. You can find useful links on building, budgeting and targeting your LinkedIn campaign here.
  • Snapchat
    Considered one of the newest platforms, Snapchat is the most used network by young adults, which is often its most redeeming feature for potential advertisers looking to reach the millennial market.  There are a number of ways to advertise including static or video infeed ads, sponsored lenses, Snapchat Discover and Sponsored Geofilters. While Snapchat offers interesting and innovative ways to reach your audience, it is considered to be one of the more expensive platforms. You can find useful links on building, budgeting and targeting your Snapchat campaign here.

CHECK YOUR INBOX

Mass emailing gained popularity in the 1990s.  In fact, it hit with such an impact it initiated the development of the Data Protection Act.  Instituted in 1998, The DPA was created to marshal the massive amounts of spam emails being sent without user approval by requiring an opt-out option in every mass email sent.  Further legislation was later put in place to help curb the massive spam and virus epidemic associated with email marketing, the most recent example of this being Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation( CASL).

While these legislations do make email database collection a more difficult and tedious undertaking, email marketing remains to be a very effective advertising means, mainly as it remains the most used application, beating out social media and search engine platforms across the board.

A few things to consider when crafting an email marketing campaign include:

• • Get permission!
    Not only is this good business etiquette, it is also the law (see above CASL link).  Gaining consented email lists can be achieved in a number of ways.  The most common approach is to offer a free download or other incentive with an email signup or via a newsletter subscription form.
  • Use a third-party software.
    Using an email program allows advertisers to easily include an opt-out link as legally required, automatically remove users that choose to opt out and ensures that promotional emails come from a professional looking address without jeopardizing the integrity of your email list.
  • Deliver value.
    Once a company has gained permission, it is important to follow through with consistent and relevant content, at the frequency expectations they have set.  This can be accomplished by crafting a thought-out annual campaign before sending any content to an email list.
  • Track and adapt. 
    Most email marketing programs will offer statistics including the percentage of people opening emails, clicking on links or forwarding to someone else.  Actively tracking these metrics provides the ability to increase the effectiveness of email campaigns.

You can find useful links on building, budgeting and targeting your email marketing campaign here.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Influencer marketing is taking social media by storm.  Influencer marketing places the focus on influential people rather than the target market as a whole.  Companies identify the individuals who have influence over potential customers, and then orients their marketing activities around these influencers.This endorsement-driven content relies on adequately selecting brand advocates to reach the target market by using the advertiser’s product or service and sharing their experience with their followers, which are typically pre-deemed to be the correct target market by the advertising company.  For potential clients who may distrust large companies, the personalized endorsement from someone they trust, or respect can have a lot more impact than traditional routes.A few things to keep in mind when considering brand advocate partnerships include:

• • Social Media Reach.
    Bigger is not always better.  Certainly, reach is important, however, having lots of followers or fans doesn’t always equate increased engagement, particularly given the algorithms in place by most social media networks to drive paid ad sales. Advertisers should consider past engagement, keeping in mind the aim of their campaign and finding the balance between reach and engagement necessary to meet their needs.

• • Audience Segment.
    Advertisers should research potential partnerships to ensure the influencer’s audience matches their target demographic. Substantial reach has little impact if the product or message doesn’t resonate with the audience.

• Approach.
  Influencers that take a natural approach, that is, show value rather than actively sell something, typically have more a more engaged and loyal following.  Successful influencers know that there is a balance necessary between sales posts and lifestyle posts.

To track ROI for these types of campaigns, advertisers may consider offering a specific offer for each influencer so that they can easily track the effectiveness of each campaign.  You can find more information on these points and more here.

While this isn’t a comprehensive list of modern marketing mediums,  I have touched on some of the most popular for this article, that said, if you have questions about anything not mentioned here, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Thanks for reading,  please feel free to share this content if you feel it could be beneficial to a business owner you know!  ~ Alix

FINDING YOUR IDEAL MARKETING MIX – PART I

The marketing media landscape can be a daunting and overwhelming terrain to navigate.  With so many options to promote your brand or message, it can be difficult to understand which may work best for your product or service.

• How do you ensure that you are reaching the right audience?
  
• Can you measure the return on investment (ROI)?
• What is the most effective budget, frequency, message and call to action?

Without a full understanding of what is available and how it works, many businesses end up wasting precious marketing dollars on campaigns that yield little to no ROI.  Once a marketing plan is deemed ineffective, business owners will often shy away from marketing initiatives  altogether, missing out on many opportunities for growth.

In an attempt to circumvent this behaviour, this month’s blog post is dedicated to breaking down traditional marketing mediums.  I have included a brief introduction of conventional mediums used today, the types of business and industry they are best suited for, how they can have the most impact and, when appropriate, suggested methods for measurement.

Print is alive…sort of.

Many say print is dead, and while it certainly isn’t effective for all businesses, it still has impact for many industries.  Depending on whom you are trying to reach, print can be a very effective method, however, it remains highly expensive.  Industries that continue to see benefit in newspaper advertising include auto dealerships, real estate brokerages, theatre companies, event organizers and recruiters. High end fashion and beauty retailers still see large returns on glossy magazine spreads and professional services firms can typically see a decent return by advertising in industry specific trade publications.

Generally speaking, print readership tends to be dominated by established, middle-to-high income households.  In order to have impact, you’ll need a decent sized ad space and you should consider hiring a professional designer to properly convey your message through catchy and demographic appropriate imagery. Depending on the campaign, you may also have to consider several insertions to see maximum results.  Other then front page/cover, ideal placement lies within pages 3 or 5, and as likely assumed, colour ads typically have more impact than black and white.

Many service-based companies are seeing benefits by contributing sponsored content in what used to be called advertorials.  This is when you submit your own article content or work with one of the publication’s writers to create content that is displayed as an article.  This will sometimes be considered more authentic in terms of messaging, however, be careful when contributing this type of content, if your sales pitch is only thinly veiled, it can have the opposite effect in terms of establishing credibility.

Look up, way up. 

Out of home (OOH) is any type of large-scale advertising that you would see when, you guessed it, you’re out of your home. This category includes things like billboards, bus boards, back lit bus shelter posters, and the like.  As OOH can be a costly option, you will see many national brands taking advantage of this medium.  However, with the proper budget, it can be highly effective for quick shots of brand awareness or one-line promotional messages. You typically have about 10 seconds of the passerby’s attention for OOH activations, so your message should be succinct with well thought out imagery.  Typically speaking, you’ll need a minimum campaign length of 4 weeks to see impact with OOH campaigns. ROI can be difficult to determine for both print and OOH campaigns, be sure to ask your provider for up to date traffic counts before committing to a location. Lastly, be sure to work with their in-house creative team or a professional designer to make sure you are using maximized font sizes and graphics that will have impact.

Tune in or tune out.

Depending on your message, radio can be a very effective way to reach a large volume of people.  The key is making sure that the people you’re reaching are your target audience.  When meeting with radio stations, make sure to tell them exactly who you are trying to reach and ask them to provide information on where they rank within those demographics.  You’ll want to ask about how many people in your target demographic you can reach with their station.  This is information they should be able to provide, broken down into what is referred to as ‘day-parts’, meaning they can tell you how many people are listening at various times throughout the day.  Depending on the format of the station and your geographic location and population, there will be different listening patterns to consider. For more urban areas, drive times are often considered to be peak listening times.  Booking sponsorships of daily features, such as traffic, weather or news, can be a great way to ensure your message is played during these peak times.  For more rural areas, community features such as farm reports or event bulletins may be a better way to reach your audience. Lastly, consider the format of the station; for best results, make sure the type of music and content they are playing match with your company’s values and message before enlisting in a campaign.

No flyers please.

Before email and internet marketing became mainstream, the best way to geo-target was through direct mail. Direct mail campaigns use a series of postal codes to determine where promotional material will be sent. While this can still be a useful medium, there are certain factors it doesn’t take into consideration, such as occupation, interests or household income (although this can sometimes be inferred in certain postal zones).  Many industries still use this medium faithfully, particularly fast food chains. Your local post office should be able to provide you with the postal codes in your area, you can also check the postal service website which contains a large database that you can query to create your campaign.  This can be a costly method of advertising, aside from the per household fees, you may have hefty printing costs to consider.  Including an exclusive code or offer is a great way to measure your conversion rate.

Go big, or go home.

As relationship building is often the key to business building, attending industry appropriate trade shows can be an extremely beneficial marketing tool.  The key is to research each show before investing as an exhibitor to find out what is included in the exhibitor package.  Having booth space can be great, however, you’ll want specifics on the space, amenities available, competing companies, exhibition layout, sampling opportunities and conference attendance.  The expo is typically only a fraction of the activity for a convention or conference so make sure your package includes entrance to all of the major networking events.

Likely the most important thing to remember when considering attending a trade show is who you will send to represent your company.  Working trade shows is an interaction intensive undertaking.  You will want your best sales people to attend to represent your brand.  Consider a show specific offer or booth activation to draw people in and to help you stand apart.  Lastly, make sure you are including a way to build a follow up contact list from those visiting your booth.  Whether you offer a prize draw with a ballot (including email address and opt-in message) or access to your newsletter, have a way to collect information from those visiting your booth so you can reach out to them after the fact.

Align, align, align.

Corporate sponsorships are one of the more difficult marketing expenditures to measure ROI. Sponsorships largely serve as a mechanism for brand awareness and extension.  Partnering with like-minded events or charities is a great way to build community brand loyalty.  Often, there are numerous opportunities to physically display your branding, address the audience before events, distribute literature or product samples and send members of your team to network dinners or events.  A few things to consider when sizing up a sponsorship opportunity are:  the audience demographics, the event’s message and/or value system and the potential exposure benefits for your company.  If you’re planning an activation at an event or conference, make sure to consider the demographic attending for maximum impact.

TV or not TV, that is the question.

Despite the shift in viewing patterns and viewer control, TV remains a well-used marketing avenue. While you will mostly see national brands taking advantage of the wide net that TV can cast, in smaller cities, there are often opportunities for companies to advertise on local channels at a more affordable rate.  However, even in this case, you will still have to invest in quality commercial production, which can be prohibitive for a lot of smaller businesses.

A more cost-effective way to take advantage of this monster medium is to have your company sponsor closed captioning or another service your local station offers.  Often, all you will need to do is send your logo and you’ll get exposure at the end of your chosen program(s).  This medium is better suited for brand awareness campaigns as it can be very difficult to measure a direct ROI.

Can I interest you in a…

Depending on your product or service, sampling can be a very effective conversion mechanism.  Obviously, it isn’t a method for everyone, however, if you have a low production cost, your ROI for this type of initiative can be substantial.  For tangible products that are best expressed by experiencing, such as health and beauty products, food and drink or fitness products, this is a proven way to drive immediate conversion.

A few things to consider when promoting effective sampling programs are:

• Location and audience; will there be adequate foot traffic? is it the right demographic fit?
• What is your call to action? Is there a way for a potential buyer to convert on-site? If not, what is your take away to promote a conversion once they are able to purchase?
• Who is handing out your samples?  Are they equipped to answer any and every question they may receive about your product?

Companies are often tempted to employ students for this type of initiative, however, if they aren’t properly trained and educated on your products, the entire initiative could be a huge and costly bust.

Stuff we all get.

Some people think SWAG stands for stuff we all get, I’m not sure whether or not that is true, but it’s not wrong.  We all get swag, and most of the time it ends up in the garbage or on a thrift shop rack.  However, there are ways to have effective promotional product campaigns.  What you need to focus on is creating stuff we all want. The key to success is providing a product that people will use and thus adequately represent your brand.  Having your logo on an item that ends up in a junk drawer or hanging next to a ’Where’s the Beef’ t-shirt, isn’t an effective use of your marketing dollars.

So before ordering any product, ask yourself:

• Who am I trying to reach with this item?
• Will it be used where others can see it?
• How long will it last?
• Will others ask about it?

Ask for it?

As with anything, there are price breaks if you order a higher volume of products, however, think realistically about how, where and when you will distribute each item, as having an inventory closet full of items without a distribution plan, will have little impact.
***

That concludes this month’s look at traditional marketing methods. Next month, when we delve into some of the more modern marketing mediums, we’ll look at the difference in targeting, budgeting and application that have opened up over the last ten years within the marketing landscape.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to share this content if you feel it could be beneficial to a business owner you know!  ~ Alix

Building an Authentic Brand Philosophy

Authenticity, while not a new concept, is certainly a recent buzz word in many facets of consumer life.  It is a common and consistent theme in self-care dialogs, parenting discussions and personal growth platforms, to name a few.  The philosophy of being authentic is nothing new, but its importance to consumers is.  With the billions of messages that we consume in the run of a day, having an authentic brand strategy is one way to make sure your message is noticed and engaged with by potential customers or clients.

Today’s consumers want to feel like you’re in it with them, not for them.

Are you offering messaging and content that will resonate with who they are?  Will it speak to their values?  If the answer is yes, you are much more likely to make a connection with that person, and connection means a much more probable conversion.  Brands that succeed at relating to their audience tend to generate content that speaks from the core of their brand to the core of their consumer’s.  If your content is authentic, it will feel natural, and potential customers will recognize and relate to that.

Consumers crave predictable activity from their favourite brands.  Consistent output builds client loyalty.  Once consumers trust what your brand is saying and doing, they will want to engage with you and eventually, to align with you.  Setting a consistent footprint will also allow customers to develop expectations for your product or service deliverables.  The great thing about client expectations is being able to exceed them, this leaves room for creating that wow factor for clients and securing their relationship with your brand, for life.

So if we now understand the importance of authenticity in our brand strategy, the next question is, how do we achieve it?

Step one: Values.

Corporate values are the foundation for optimal brand performance.  Think of it this way, when you are facing a decision about your business and one of the alternatives really doesn’t feel right, that is likely because it goes against one of your core values.  Whether you have consciously gone through the exercise of determining them or not, you have moral guidelines that feel right for you and that make you unique. The same can be said for your brand. Having a set of parameters that you can use as a measuring stick for every business decision, content idea or message communicated will ensure that your message is consistent.  Consistency is the backbone of your authentic brand strategy.  

There are many exercises out there designed to help facilitate this activity.  You can easily find a free download to help get started.  You may want to consider making a professional development segment out of it by including your team. Having the team participate will ensure that they feel ownership, and this will empower them to live to these values, both in their interactions with your clients, and with each other.

Step two: Authenticity Drivers.

Once your values are in place, it is important to create a series of statements, or drivers, that will serve as your brand service guidelines.  To do this, take each of your values and build a statement, or series of statements, to determine how they can be enforced in practical terms.  For example, if one of your values is found to be Integrity, first agree on what that means to you or your team. If you agree that the definition of Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, then a few possible authenticity drivers might be:

1. We do what we say we will.
2. We are transparent in our decision making
3. We own our mistakes

Having these drivers in place will not only support the authenticity of your organization’s decision making, it will shape your authentic culture.

Step three: Narrative. 

Building a corporate narrative is perhaps the most important, and most neglected, step in the brand authenticity process.  Having your values and guiding principles in place is a start, but determining how they will be interwoven into your organization will be the key to successfully integrating your authentic brand strategy.

Your narrative includes the storyline derived from your values and principles.  It will be used to describe your company, your culture and your offerings.  It will dictate how you use this language and how it will manifest itself in your service standards and internal interactions.  It should be inclusive from your front-end sales language straight through to your website content, social media output and internal memos. Your team must live and embrace this new narrative in order for it to have an impact on your end consumer.

In short, your narrative is your brand story; your organization’s shared passion. It may encompass any combination of: your tagline and positioning statement, creative outputs, marketing campaigns or messaging and communication tactics, however, what it is really communicating is your why.  Your narrative should describe where your company has been, where you are now and where you are going.  You should be taking consumers on the ride with you.  It should encompass what your company values, what drives its authenticity and where it brings value to the end user.

Once these steps are complete, and your authentic brand strategy is in place,  you will find that decision making becomes almost effortless, your customer loyalty will grow and your internal culture will then mirror your external output.  Above all else, you will feel good about the product or service you are delivering and as a result, those around you will as well.

Alix Robinson is a Halifax-based graphic designer, branding specialist and owner of Every Day I’m Branding Virtual Marketing Management.

Are your hashtags #workingforyou?

Believe it or not, the hashtag has been around for more than a decade.

Back in 2007, when twitter was in its infancy, a Google developer named Chris Messina suggested in a tweet that perhaps the easiest way to group things by subject would be to throw a pound sign in front of them.  His suggestion was based on historic use of the pound sign to categorize within the world of programming and other technological avenues, and despite the fact that it did indeed work, it didn’t catch on right away.  Throughout 2007 it was used sparingly within the tech community, aspiring political parties picked it up to encourage voting in 2008, but it wasn’t until Twitter itself began promoting hashtags in 2009 that it’s use became mainstream.

These days, even though hashtags are common place, many business owners don’t really understand how hashtags work or how they can use them to boost their marketing efforts. Choosing hashtags that have impact on your business can be daunting and overwhelming for even the most experienced business owners.  However, there are a few best practices to consider to help optimize your posts for maximum reach.

Choose hashtags that are relevant to your content.  

It isn’t about reaching the most people, it is about reaching the right people.  Make sure your posts include tags that are popular with your target audience. Research what your competitors and industry influencers are using in their posts and whether they are having success with them.  In Instagram, you can easily search for terms or words that are specific to your industry and then select the ‘tags’ tab to see which hashtags are being used frequently within that content stream and remember to also look at the related tags when conducting those searches, as that can be a great resource as well.

Follow the trend.

It is worthwhile to do a little research on hashtags that are trending.  If any of the current trending tags are relevant to your content, consider including them in your posts.  If a hashtag is trending it is more likely to come up in popular searches.  However, this can also be problematic if you don’t have a strong following as your post can be more likely to get lost in the stream of tagged posts.  Various social media algorithms favour posts with a lot of engagement and will bump other posts down from the top, making it easy for trending tag posts to get lost in the shuffle.

Choose quality over quantity.

Although it seems to be a popular practice to include a laundry list of hashtags on each post, research suggests that this should be avoided and is frowned upon by many popular platforms.  Both Facebook and Twitter suggest not using more than 2 hashtags per post and while you can include up to 30 in an instagram post or 10 in a story, the magic number for maximum engagement is thought to be 9 or 10, however that doesn’t mean you need to include that many in every post.  The more relevant your tags are to your content and your targeted audience, the more impactful they will have, regardless of quantity.

Follow performance metrics.

If you upgrade your account in Instagram to a free business profile, you will gain access to insights on the effectiveness of hashtags you have used in your posts.  This can be a huge asset as your content evolves.  This is also why it is important to use unique tags for each post and avoid copying and pasting that laundry list of tags. Instagram users have the ability to request that your account’s content not show up for a certain tag if they don’t like what you are posting, having enough of those requests from users can drastically impact your reach.  Twitonomy will provide Twitter hashtag statistics and sites like RiteTag can give you information on tags that typically perform well.

Let your fans feed your content generator!

By asking fans or followers to use a specific hashtag when they post about your content, you create an easy way to collect content for reposting, but it also enables your fans to advertise for you.  The key is to create a tag that is relevant, easy to remember and unique to your brand.  You can use an incentive to drive the call to action, or simply make sure to repost as many as possible so your fans feel valued and recognized.

Final thoughts:

Hashtags aren’t going away any time soon, your best bet is to do the research and start using them in an effective manner as they can be a huge exposure tool!  A few last tips to take into consideration before you become a tag master:

Make sure your Facebook posts are public if you want them to come up in hashtag searches.

Check hashtags before you use them to make sure they aren’t somehow affiliated with a subject matter that you don’t want to be known for.

#nowgogetem

Alix Robinson is a Halifax-based graphic designer, branding specialist and owner of Every Day I’m Branding Virtual Marketing Management.  

Are you optimized for organic growth?

I get asked all the time by clients and associates, how can I get more people coming in the door without spending a fortune on marketing? How can I build awareness ‘organically’?

Certainly for small businesses, marketing budgets are tight, which makes an organic growth plan much more attractive, however, it is also the hardest to cultivate.

Here are a few steps to take to help your organic growth strategy take off:

Take a Look in the Mirror.

The first step when building towards organic growth is to take a close look at your corporate culture. Do you have corporate values to use as an ethical and professional benchmark? Are you living up to them with every client interaction? If the answer is no to either of these questions, it makes sense to first get very clear on your company’s values and guiding principles to make sure you are consistently providing a product or service worth talking about. Word of mouth can be a very powerful tool for your business, however, by the same token, it can have a devastating effect if something goes wrong.

Get Really Clear on who you are Serving.

Take a look at your existing client base and then take a look at who you are targeting with your current messaging and positioning. If the two are not in alignment, then either your offerings have to change or your marketing approach has to change. When a business experiences organic growth, it is typically within a similar demographic to that they are currently serving. So if you have an existing client base that doesn’t match who you are targeting with your message, it may be time to step back and develop your ideal buyer persona. This type of exercise will help you to develop a better understanding of who your target audience is and then you will have a better chance of effectively reaching it.

Share the Love.

Word of mouth may be the strongest organic growth influencer there is, but alone it doesn’t always drive conversion. An effective way to seal the deal is to initiate a referral program. A great referral program not only rewards the new client, but also rewards the referring client for their loyalty and endorsement. It becomes easy for your clients to bring you up in conversation and when a need arises that your company can solve, it is much more likely that your product or services will be recommended. If a referral program isn’t the right thing for your business, consider loyalty gifts or client recognition programs instead.

Be a Content King.

Social media has changed the face of marketing and exposure. To gain organic growth via social media you have to offer content that is important to your target audience. Important meaning that they have some type of emotional attachment to it. Be authentic, be relatable, offer something new and engage with your audience.  Encourage interaction and be quick to respond and create conversation. Posts should be relevant to your target demographic (revisit your buyer persona if necessary), be in alignment with your corporate values, topical and SEO optimized for driving organic traffic.

Remember that Consistency is Queen.

Once you’ve established your values and buyer persona, stick with them. Every decision should be in alignment with your values and relevant to your persona, if you are considering a message or promotion that doesn’t, start over. Consistency in your branding, your corporate culture, social media, positioning and your offering is important to build loyalty, which in turn builds endorsement and eventually, organic exposure. To ensure a consistent schedule, set up a content calendar, however, rather than ‘set it and forget it’, be careful to measure the success of each post and use those analytics to continuously adjust your content for maximum engagement.

Be Patient.

Organic growth takes TIME. The best things always do. Stay the course, stay consistent in your interactions and offerings and continue to produce authentic content and the rest should slowly – but surely – fall into place.

Alix Robinson is a Halifax-based graphic designer, branding specialist and owner of Every day I’m Branding Virtual Marketing Management.