Susan Gilbert
May 2, 2016

To Attract a Large Audience, Get Creative!

To compel your community to respond, get creative in the development of your unique brand personality. Use powerful storytelling, eye-catching visual content and interactive conversations.

Your initial goal is in establishing your message and image before developing a solid digital marketing strategy. A successful business is one that creates content with your target market in mind, which can become very powerful in reaching your community.

According to an article on Stratabeat, the new trend for brands is connecting with customers with long-term goals in place. How to do this by knowing what makes your audience tick, and appealing to their emotions in an authentic and trusted way.

In today’s mobile-driven world brands need to stay ahead of the game by understanding the needs of their community and where they are interacting the most. Douglas Holt refers to this on Harvard Business Review as “Crowdculture,” which is powered through social media.

Digital Technologies

As social media and mobile platforms change it’s important to offer something of value that will rally your community around your business. If your customers are not responding either on your website or through social media evaluate whether you have a clear understanding of your target market and whether your content is speaking directly to their needs. Having social listening tools in place will help you become more in tune with what your audience finds compelling and how to uniquely speak to them.

There are a few creative ways to use while building a stronger brand image:

  • Is your website outdated? – Take a look at your current landing page, and brand image, and find out whether your design is responsive to mobile and if the layout is appealing. The goal is to make a great impression right from the beginning. Website loading speed can also be a factor in whether your readers choose to stay or move onto the next business.

Here’s an example of a website that is too busy:

Bad-website-design

  • Focus on your unique brand story – How does your business stand out from the rest in your industry? Tell your message through visual content that speaks to your audience on their level. This could include featuring your own customers, powerful testimonials, the backstory of your business, a social cause and so on. The more human your brand becomes the easier it will be for people to approach you online as this will establish trust and understanding with them. TOMs is a great example of creating a product that serves its community as seen in their new campaign, “One for One:”

TOMs-One-for-One

  • Show them you’re interested – One of the biggest things brands miss today is simply staying in communication with their community online. It’s important to make time each day for customer feedback, questions, brand mentions, social media comments, blog comments, ect. This shows that your company is genuinely interested in building relationships and that you care about how they are being treated. Always remember that negative responses can spread like wildfire, and it’s better to catch these at the right moment instead of repairing the damage later.
  • Create eye-catching and easy to read content – As more than half of readers are using mobile to search and make purchases you will want to capture their attention with great headlines and visual images. Break longer paragraphs into bit-sized sections with numbered lists or bullet points. As people quickly scan through website your goal is to provide what they are looking for right away so that they will want to know more about your business.

Building a strong brand image in the mobile and social media age will help your business capture more leads as you become a trusted and reliable source. Thorough research and understanding of your target market will enable you to develop creative ways to reach your audience in a way that is unique to your brand message.

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Online Marketing with Focus - Let Susan Guide you to Online Success. Especially loves to help Authors, Speakers, Coaches & Entrepreneurs. Susan Gilbert uses her laser focus knowledge to coach and provide online marketing and social sharing programs. Author and publisher of several books including “The Land of I Can,” and “KLOUT SCORE: Social Media Influence,” Susan combines online marketing with strategic thinking. Follow her Digital Marketing Tips at her blog: www.SusanGilbert.com
Filed Under: Tagged With: branding, Branding, business, Community