“A brand is the most valuable piece of real estate in the world; a corner of someone’s mind.” – John Hegarty
Here’s a human truth at the centre of every effective digital marketing strategy – a brand is a person to the customer. The brand experience is considered to be “rude” or “unprofessional” when the customer is ignored, whether it’s on a chatbot or at the cash counter at the store. The brand is “sincere” when the brand tone is consistent wherever you interact with them. This is why brand persona has always been the foundation of every great brand marketing strategy, digital or otherwise.
A customer’s attention is fragmented across platforms and brand communications. Your goal should be to craft a brand experience across touchpoints that make the customer feel like they understand your brand as a person better. Here’s a checklist that can ensure your brand remains in line with its ethos and persona everywhere, all at once.
Brand Identity
The first, most obvious requirement is defining a brand identity through a “brand bible”. It might seem obvious to most people in marketing and business today, but it’s still something a lot of brands get wrong. A “brand bible” is a book that defines the brand’s mission, vision & values. It establishes guidelines on design, tonality and logo, among other aspects of a brand. These are decided upon after mapping customer journey and locking on a strategic market positioning.
Audience Study:
It’s 2024, and there’s data for everything in the digital marketing landscape. Your job is to gather data on your target audience’s preferences, behaviours (across online platforms and real-world avenues) and pain points. This should also encompass all the different stages of the brand journey a customer could go through, from brand awareness, consideration and conversion, to repurchase and post-purchase stages as well. This will help inform you on how to engage your audience effectively at any given point in their brand journey.
One Digital Marketing Strategy for All Platforms:
Choose where you’ll be present across various digital platforms that are relevant to your audience, including social media, websites, mobile apps, email, and messaging apps. Creating integrated marketing campaigns that span multiple digital channels can help integrate communication and engagement across these channels to drive the campaign messaging and engagement effectively. Enable cross-platform engagement by incorporating features like social media sharing, website widgets, and interactive content that seamlessly transition users between different platforms.
Localization & Personalization of the Brand Experience:
Based on your brand identity and audience study, your next step to develop a cohesive digital messaging strategy becomes a breeze. Tailor your communication to suit each platform while maintaining a consistent brand narrative (like, emojis on Instagram, formal language on LinkedIn, that sort of thing.) Leverage user data and digital tools to deliver personalized messages and offerings to individual users based on their shopping preferences and behaviours. This could include personalized recommendations, targeted advertising, and customized content.
Adaptability:
The times keep changing, and brands, like people, change with the times to stay relevant. Ensure your brand has the flexibility to incorporate new technologies into the brand experience. Continuously gather feedback from your audience through surveys, social listening, and analytics. Use this data to iterate and optimize your brand strategy across all digital touchpoints. Repeat.
If you do these steps right, you’ll start to see the magic take shape. Customers will start talking about the brand like it’s a personality. The consistency in character delivers increased customer loyalty and more positive moments of truth. Most importantly, these 100,000 work hours to produce the perfect marketing strategy delivers the most priceless asset for any brand – trust, and real estate in a person’s mind.