Can you build your brand and engagement? YES. Use these 11 tips to get started now.
Having a recognizable brand helps clients in two big ways.
Understand what you do. It is a waste of time (and money) when you attract prospects who have no need or desire for what you do or sell.
Understand who you serve. Your business serves a particular audience. If you sell gardening tools, you want to attract people with an interest in growing things, not car mechanics.
You can put your content to work for you when you integrate branding into every bit of content you create.
Think of Apple and Coca-Cola. You know who they serve, their visuals, and what they sell. Apple does not create content around make-up tutorials. Coke does not market to sell books.
Be like Apple and Coke and aim for a consistent look and messaging. Use these 11 tips to help build your branded content.
Tip #1: Use consistent brand visuals.
Visuals register with the brain first, so a consumer should first see a consistent brand look.
Brand EVERYTHING the same way.
Think of Coca-Cola or Apple. They look very different—Coke’s red, swoopy logo versus Apple’s Zen bluish-silver website. Both are successful. Both send a consistent visual message throughout their content. You would never confuse one for the other.
Take a lesson from the big dogs: there should be no confusion about who created the content. Your business name, logo, tagline, and colors should register quickly with the user.
Pro tip: Make sure that your logo and name are clickable, and check it on a mobile site to ensure that it does not scale down to unreadable.
Tip #2: Go big in two or three channels.
Choose your brand channels based on where most customers are already hanging out. There are many demographic studies about age, sex, ethnicity, income, and even intent around brand channels.
What is a brand channel? Examples include Facebook, your blog, LinkedIn, Instagram, guest posting on industry blogs, Pinterest, and YouTube.
And don't forget traditional brand channels such as TV, radio, and print. If your audience is in a small(er) geographic area, these channels might make sense for audience reach.
Once you have a track record (and the staff), add more channels.
Tip #3 Half of all internet traffic is now mobile – make sure your content is mobile-friendly
Mobile is growing. Make sure that whatever content you create tests across all devices.
Try Google’s free Mobile-Friendly test site (see Resources) to ensure that your content and brand visuals are easily viewable.
You only have a couple of seconds before a visitor decides to stay and view or bounce away from your content. You got them to your content.
Don’t chase them off because they have to pinch and scroll.
Pro tip: Use buttons for clickable links in your mobile content.
It can be frustrating to tap-tap-tap on a text link that won’t connect with your fingertip.
Tip #4 Be the (wo)man with the plan
Create an editorial calendar that keeps your message going. Plan around national and industry events and holidays.
Having a brand editorial calendar also allows you to stay on message and on brand.
A plan does two things:
Bulk create content: You know you’ll need 36 Pinterest pin graphics (it’s in your plan). It’s usually easier (and cheaper) to have a graphic artist do all of them at once rather than parceling them out one at a time.
It's also easier to keep the branding elements - colors, logo, messaging - consistent.
Create an integrated, cohesive storyline that evolves over time. Let’s say you’re a tax accounting firm. You might want to devote the first quarter to tax prep, the second quarter to client questions, the third to pending changes, and the fourth to end-of-year prep.
By having a plan in place, you can not only know the content that needs to be posted (and where it is going) but can also be on the lookout for opportunities to further your reach.
Tip #3 Half of all internet traffic is now mobile – make sure your content is mobile-friendly
Mobile is growing. Make sure that whatever content you create tests across all devices.
Try Google’s free Mobile-Friendly test site (see Resources) to ensure that your content and brand visuals are easily viewable.
You only have a couple of seconds before a visitor decides to stay and view or bounce away from your content. You got them to your content.
Don’t chase them off because they have to pinch and scroll.
Pro tip: Use buttons for clickable links in your mobile content.
It can be frustrating to tap-tap-tap on a text link that won’t connect with your fingertip.
Tip #4 Be the (wo)man with the plan
Create an editorial calendar that keeps your message going. Plan around national and industry events and holidays.
Having a brand editorial calendar also allows you to stay on message and on brand.
A plan does two things:
Bulk create content: You know you’ll need 36 Pinterest pin graphics (it’s in your plan). It’s usually easier (and cheaper) to have a graphic artist do all of them at once rather than parceling them out one at a time.
It's also easier to keep the branding elements - colors, logo, messaging - consistent.
Create an integrated, cohesive storyline that evolves over time. Let’s say you’re a tax accounting firm. You might want to devote the first quarter to tax prep, the second quarter to client questions, the third to pending changes, and the fourth to end-of-year prep.
By having a plan in place, you can not only know the content that needs to be posted (and where it is going) but can also be on the lookout for opportunities to further your reach.
Tip #5: Ask your audience what they want to know
Read social media and chat sites to see what questions your customers are asking, then create content around them.
What better way to build brand loyalty and authority than to be the business that answers those questions?
Since you are already active in these channels (see Tip #2), spend your time reading what your clients are talking about on these sites.
What posts get the greatest response? Are people confused, opinionated, or passionate? That is a sign that you should create content around this.
Pro tip: Pose your own questions in the chats. Here are a couple of examples.
“If you were buying (your product), what is the one thing it must have?”
“What is the one thing that would keep you from buying (your product)?”
You will get many nonsense answers, but you will also glean some insight into your customers' thinking.
Tip #6: Promote your content
If you completed Tip #5 and created tailored content, now it’s time to return to these places and tell your clients that you have solutions to their problems.
Discuss your topic and post a response with a link to your content.
Pro tip: Add visuals. Graphics or videos increase engagement.
Use a simple site such as Canva to create fast graphics to make your content stand out.
Pro tip: Participate in the conversation.
When someone posts an answer, respond. Comment, ask a follow-up question, and post a resource.
Be engaged.
This does two things: keeps the conversation at the top of the flow (recent active posts generally stay near the top of most social media feeds) and increases your social engagement, which Google rewards.
Tip #7: Content does not have to be original – but it has to be good and relevant
Curated content (content you have found and passed along) can be as powerful as original content – with a couple of rules.
First - only use curated content that is really good and advances your brand.
The curated content should add to your conversation with your customers.
If you find a great recipe, only post it if you are selling food or have a cooking-related business. Save (most of) the personal stuff for your blog or personal Facebook page.
Second – add your commentary or review to the content you are curating. Take a few minutes to pull out the relevant facts for your readers.
Tell them why it’s important. Highlight key parts for the skimmers in your audience.
Pro tip: Find relevant content by setting up Google Alerts.
You will get custom content delivered to you that you can easily choose to share.
Tip #8: Make sure your digital footprints all lead home
Any time you create content, your readers should have an immediate way to click back to your site.
Guest posting?
Add a bio section with an invitation to learn more about whatever you just posted – preferably a link to another specific, related piece of content.
Pro tip: Create a custom bio for your social media – and refresh it at least twice a year (quarterly is better)
Tip #9: Better yet, create a gotta-have-it-now reason to click over to your site in the form of a lead magnet.
Lead magnets don’t have to be long or difficult to create. The best lead magnets solve a specific problem that your business solves for them.
The upside? People who click on the lead magnet are self-selecting as your target market. Win-win.
Try different lead magnets for different audiences. Test your results.
You can Repackage your most popular content.
You could take three blog posts and make a short eBook.
You can take the action steps in one of your pieces of content and make a cheat sheet. Add visuals and your branding.
Take a piece of content and turn it into video or audio content.
Eureka! You have a (nearly) ready-made lead magnet.
Tip #10: Create a landing page – or six.
If your social posts or guest content includes a link to your website, don't drop them onto your home page. Your visitors may not figure out what you want them to do next.
Yeah…how is that working out for you and your brand?
Now imagine you can custom-tailor your visitors' experience. They arrive at a page that contains exactly what you promised they would find.
That's easy to do when you use landing pages.
While you won’t create a landing page for every piece of brand content, you probably have themes or client audiences that are distinct enough to build a landing page around their visit.
(BTW...Convertri is the landing page software that I use and recommend)
Tip #11: Take names (and email addresses)
You’re in business to make money, right?
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have many potential customers who have already expressed interest in your business? Of course.
You can do this when you step into the wonderful world of email marketing.
Email isn’t scary. On my Resource page you can learn more about how to get started with email.
Tip #9 suggests creating a landing page. Add an opt-in box and gather email addresses. And watch your customer lead list grow.
