Digital environments such as websites, social media, email, blogs and YouTube make marketing messages available 24/7. Therefore, being sure that your brand awareness and messaging are consistent across all channels is critical.
Be sure to make your marketing messages accountable to your brand. This way you will be less likely to make the kind of mistakes that could damage your brand’s reputation, such as an offensive tweet or a snarky customer service response. It’s harder to spin marketing when every Internet user has the ability to instantly research your comments and claims. They can then very publicly take you to task for not being forthcoming. This makes transparency key.
The well-known salesman and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “People don’t buy things for logical reasons, they buy for emotional reasons.” Since your brand is all about generating an emotional response in your customers, you need to make people fall in love with your brand. Consistency and accountability are the underpinnings of that effort.
Here are a few ways to get people to fall in love with your brand:
- Provide amazing customer service. Friendly and helpful customer service can make people buy from you again and again, while bad service can cause them to stop buying forever. Many consumers say they would pay more for a product if they could get better customer service. McKinsey & Company estimates that 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.
- Look your best. Your visual image is your business face to the world. Make a good first impression and your business will attain instant credibility. Your logo, website, social profiles, and marketing materials all need to look professional and convey your brand’s emotional connection to your consumers. Many buying decisions are influenced by visual factors, including colors, photos, and ease of navigation across an ordering page or through a website.
- Create brilliant and authentic content. Interesting and value-added content is a primary reason why people follow brands on social media. Content that aligns with customer needs will help generate positive feelings about your brand. People can sense when you’re being authentic and when you’re not.
- Listen to your customers. You need to listen to your customers to know what they want and need. You also need to encourage them to tell you how you’re doing. If they have criticisms, respond quickly and repair the relationship. Make good on your promises. People don’t expect you to be perfect, but they do expect you to correct mistakes in a way that says you value their loyalty. Dissatisfied customers whose complaints are taken care of are more likely to remain loyal, and may even become advocates.
