While Internet-based marketing tactics might be way cooler than some boring old print ad, that coolness factor doesn’t relieve you from doing basic branding work. All touchpoints are prime opportunities to increase your brand love with your target audiences.
- Understand how the person on the other side of the conversation is using that digital technology. At what level is she open to engaging with you at this touchpoint? If she’s busy checking her email during the course of the business day before she rushes into three back-to-back meetings, does she really want you breathing down her neck with some obnoxious offer? Would useful information, something you know she wants, be more appropriate? Maybe. Maybe not. Seek to understand. And then use your understanding to craft the message and more effectively use the media.
- Always behave in a way that is consistent with your brand’s promise and personality. Brand management isn’t just about making sure your logo shows up in the right place and using the right colors all the time. Those things can help. More importantly, every touchpoint is an opportunity to demonstrate your brand and establish or reinforce trust. Is that obnoxious offer discussed above actually consistent with your brand? If obnoxious and disruptive is part of your brand (good luck with that), then offer away. But, if your audience knows you as something different, rework your communication. Whatever you do, know who you are and what you stand for and then deliver on that brand to build trust.
- Understand how the audience is interacting with the media and messages you deliver. The work is certainly not done just because you pushed go. Use the data, the dialog, or any other feedback you get to understand your audience’s behavior and then adjust your strategies, plans and execution.
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Great post, Nila! So many folks forget that the audience is key to any branding strategy. Thanks so much for posting this!