It’s all about branding. What does your brand say? Is your content marketing in line with your brand?.
These are just some of the questions that we have to grapple with when it comes to standing out in a very noisy world.
So many people are trying to communicate their message, which only adds to the many options that people now have. There has never been a time like this where people have so many choices as to what and whom to do business with.
Those that are able to cut through the noise and gain attention are the ones who have found a unique way to communicate their message.
Apple has used a partially eaten out Apple to stand out from the crowd. Nike has used the swoosh symbol. Gatorade has used the lightening strike. Amazon has used somewhat of an emoticon. All these business giants have created a brand with which they use to communicate who they are to the masses with such ease.
I’m sure it has taken them many tries to get to this point. Very rare do you find a business that gets it right at the beginning. It normally takes several iterations to find that right fit.
As you’ve possibly guessed, it is not an overnight process. Branding takes a lot of work, time and tweaking. The sad part is that all your hard work could evaporate overnight when something goes wrong the brand.
You are a brand and your business has a brand. You need to do all that’s within your power to make it universal.
When I think of branding these words come to mind.
- reputation
- character
- personality
- behavior
- etc.
To get your branding universal requires consistent, valuable and relatable content marketing. This can be combined with paid advertising to create a faster viral effect.
Content marketing as used within this context has to do with:
- your social media posts
- sharing of other people’s posts
- images that you share
- videos you share
- blogs you write
- articles you curate
- etc.
When you are able to do the above, you are involved in marketing techniques and branding.
With that in mind, how can you be more intentional to make sure you promote the best “content marketing and branding” of yourself to the general public?
Remember, decisions are being made about you by others. Why not give them what you want them to make correct assumptions about. That is the purpose of this episode.
Here are the 5 Content Marketing Techniques that will help you accomplish your goal:
1. Know your audience / avatar / ideal person / buyer persona
This is one of the most important techniques that you need to master. It is vitally important for you to know who you want to make sure understand, know, like and trust your brand.
It’s impossible to have everyone like your brand. If you go back to the examples I gave above, not everyone like Apple or Nike brand. However, they are not interested in convincing those people to do so. They know who they are after. They have identified who their buyers are. They focus on them. So will you.
2. Genuinely care for them.
Once you have figured out who it is you are focusing your message, product and/or services to, they need to know that you care for them.
It was Theodore Roosevelt who said, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”
People aren’t stupid. They’ll know when you and I are simply after getting from them than giving to them. It might not be something tangible they get. It might be something as simple as how you or your product or service makes them feel. They’ll know you’re thinking about them when you are in production mode.
3. Create Attention Grabbing Headlines
This technique is quite challenging. It takes lots of work and feedback. I’m not sure anyone fully masters this but some come really close.
When I study copywriters, they seem to all agree that this technique of creating attention-grabbing headlines or titles, is the most important.
Why?.
Most people are in speed mode. Patience is in short supply. They are rapidly skimming and it’s that headline that grabs their attention, they pay attention to.
You have to work on this.
I have made this an area that I’m constantly working on and I can say, I’ve gotten better at it. Maybe that is why you are reading this post.
4. Have Quick Turnaround Responses
As mentioned earlier, most people are in rapid-fire mode. They have come to expect a microwave kind of response to their request.
Have you called a support personnel about an issue you’ve had and do you remember what happened when you had to wait or go through a series of prompts? If your reaction was anything like mine, it was punctuated with a lot of sighing and possibly rants.
So it is with your buyer persona. He or she expects a quick turnaround time once they’ve entrusted you with their information. Don’t disappoint them. Remember, they are coming to conclusions about you and your brand, each time they interact with you.
5. Use The Audience of Others
As I mentioned earlier, you might have to solicit the help of others whether through advertisement, joint ventures or affiliations.
When you do this, you are leveraging the platform and systems that others have put in place.
As an example, if you were to do Facebook ads, you would be leveraging the power of Facebook to reach an even wider audience than you possibly could do by yourself.
You could also partner with someone to do promotions and share the profit with them. It’s wise to do this seeing that they will promote you and your product or service to their audience. It’s a win/win situation.
These are just some of the ways you can boost your brand using intentional Content Marketing Techniques. This is surely not an exhaustive list, but I believe it covers what you’ll need to get started.
If you want to hear how I personalized and fleshed out these 5 Techniques, you could listen by clicking HERE.
