What percentage of your inbox comprises irrelevant emails, white papers, webinar invitations & so forth? How much are you being targeted via every social platform where you have a presence with, again, irrelevant information?
Our brains only retain 2.5% of the information we receive. So, the $64m question is – how can organizations penetrate through the noise with both easy-to-absorb & memorable messages that will become part of the 2.5%?
SAY’s top tips will enable you to tunnel through this barrage to engage your target audiences.
1. Get a Personality
Brand personality is key to successful differentiation & critical in a competitive environment. Put simply, it’s a set of human characteristics you attribute to your brand – how would you describe your brand if it was a person? Choose wisely though, as these characteristics will build an emotional connection to your target audiences. And be consistent. If your brand’s personality differs from your website & your social channels, it will be challenging for prospects to learn who you are & what your brand stands for. Once defined, make sure it shines through in all your narrative & overarching marketing campaigns.
2. Have clarity of voice
Confusing messaging is the bane of effective marketing. Whatever the content, your marketing collateral must be as simple & distinct as possible. Don’t prioritise sounding smart & verbose over effective communication. Describe what you do in one sentence in a language that your grandmother can understand. To be effective, create simple, targeted messaging for each of your personas, laced with your organisation’s values.
3. Invest time in active listening
Beyond honing your messaging is effective listening. That’s totally different to hearing. Messaging must permeate from the top down & be bespoke to each persona: from the decision makers & influencers to gatekeepers & stakeholders. Conduct research & interview your team (remember they’re your brand ambassadors) & clients (they’re your greatest advocates (if you’ve treated them well)); make sure you pay attention to what they have to say – again listen, don’t just hear. And act on it – incorporate their insights to create realistic & true brand messages.
4. Build loyalty
Fostering a sense of community between you & your customers champions loyalty. They become enthusiastic about your business & its solutions. You can achieve this by taking your well-crafted message & communicating it with thoughtfulness, care & empathy.
5. Gain return on engagement
While metrics are important to keep track of how you’re doing, only worry about the right ones. Engagement is a far more valuable metric than follower count. Even better is RoE (Return on Engagement).
And finally…
Be honest & true. Ensure your language & brand personality resonates – because your role is to help buyers buy, not for you to sell.
