Effective Marketing Tips to Elevate Your Brand in 2018
This is a guest blog post written by Haltech Regional Innovation Centre in partnership with Yellow Robot.
2018 is a fast-paced online world where attention spans are shortening, patience is non-existent, and people want answers NOW. Knowing your audience and having content and systems in place to serve this immediate need are essential. Video is king and has been ramping up for several years now. It is no longer an option but a necessity, to compete and get noticed. From social media, organic reach and engagement to SEO, adding video to your content strategy will give you a welcomed boost. Using all of these tactics and creating personalized experiences for your prospects can give you a much-needed competitive advantage in todays flurry of options. Check out the 5 effective marketing tips below for ideas on how to give your brand a boost in 2018.
Video – Branded Content
Over 65% of the population are visual learners!!! What does this mean for you? The chances are, most of your target audience are visual learners. Create content with a visual first approach and add in details for the analytical people to consume if they require it. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual.
The total number of people who use YouTube – 1.3 Billion!
We have seen a major trend over the years from text based content to image heavy content and now video is king. If you don’t have a content strategy that includes video in 2018 you have missed the boat or weren’t even on it to begin with. 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI. Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. Videos typically have a 55% increase in message/brand recall 3 days later, compared to text-based content.
The 4 most common video types are:
- Explainer
- How-To
- Product Demo
- Testimonial
Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are detailed, semi-fictional profiles of your ideal customers. You can have many different personas and it is quite common to have 4 or more for any business. These use a bit of standard demographic information but go far deeper into interests and behaviours. These personas can come from analyzing your current customers or you can start from scratch. As time goes on you can revisit these personas and refine and update them to make them more accurate. To learn more about effective marketing we recommend to read this new blog post about the Importance of Keywords for Digital Marketing.
Once you have personas created, it makes it easier to target interest and behaviour-based ads, create relevant content, personalize content, segment your customer list and send relevant offers. Putting some time and effort into these personas will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run when you are creating your content strategy and offers. There are a few tools and checklists out there that can help walk you through the process of creating these personas. Check out Personapp. This is a free tool to help walk your through the process and get a visual picture of your audience.
Dynamic, Personalized Content/CTA’s
74% of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content they see has nothing to do with their interests.
Calls-to-action (CTAs) personalized to individual visitors have a 42% higher view-to-submission rate than generic CTAs that appear the same for every visitor. You can personalize content based on list segmentation, referral source, location, weather, time of day, returning visitors etc. There are many variables you can use to serve dynamic content to your visitors. A simple example of this personalization is on the Yellow Robot Marketing site. There is a CTA’s above the fold that serves a different message depending on the referral source. Try doing a Google search for Yellow Robot Marketing and click through to the home page. Now do the same from Bing. You will see the dynamic content change depending on where you entered the site from. These dynamic pieces of content add personalization to an online world that bombards searchers with the same old content and marketing techniques day after day. Dynamic, personalized content gives you a way to pull away from the pack and create a personalized experience for your brand online.
Micro Instant Searches
With a majority of consumers searching for information on there mobile devices it is more important than ever to instant answers readily available. Consumers want answers NOW! Having solutions and content in place, to satisfy these micro searchers, is essential to converting these searchers into loyal customers. It is important to create a solid content strategy focused around the questions searchers are looking for. There are several tools available, with high price tags, to help you complete this research but using Google is free and will give you a great starting point. Go to Google and type in a search term/keyword/product that you want to search for. Instead of hitting enter just wait and review the list of related searches that Google will present you with. These searches are popular related searches to what you have typed in the search box. Once you hit enter you can also scroll down to the bottom of the search results and review the list of related searches. Use these terms to help form your content strategy.
Brand Identity Refresh
You’ve been working tirelessly to build your product, service, app etc. and you’ve left your branding in the hands of a friend who has Photoshop, your nephew, the kid around the block or you bought one online for $5. You have a logo that served its purpose and got you up and running. Now that you have sales and revenue coming in the door, it’s probably time to revisit your brand and see if it is properly telling your story and sending the right message about your product or service.
To learn more tips from Yellow Robot Marketing, join us at TechPlace for a special Marketing Masters Meetup (M3) presented by Haltech at On March 7th, 2018. Attendees will hear from Chris Lallouet of Yellow Robot on how to prepare a perfect slide deck using effective messaging and consistent brand identity. Free event for Haltech Clients and Corporate members. For more information, or to register, click here.