Building Brand Trust Online: The Rules of Engagement

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Gayle Haley

Any successful brand marketing portfolio now includes social media.  Although it has been a growing trend for years, many brands are still trying to get their hands around how to best impact their bottom lines via the social sphere.  As brands try to navigate this space that is still new and ever growing, many are overlooking one very important element – the concept of trust.

Basic human nature prevents our relationships from ever going past a certain level if there is no trust.  It’s a protective mechanism that is housed and deeply rooted in all of us.  The same goes for brands seeking to build relationships with consumers online: without trust, the relationship will only get so far.

In order to develop trust online, brands must first build a social media dialogue that will grow and evolve into a trusting, fruitful relationship.  Unlike traditional marketing, social media gives brands a chance to interact directly and immediately with consumers.  This direct access is a powerful tool and one that must be monitored in order to ensure it is always being used in a manner that builds on trust and moves your relationship with consumers forward.

As social media audiences have grown substantially over recent years and demographic reach continues to expand, brands can no longer ignore the opportunity for communicating their brand value and building brand trust by engaging with customers online.  But how can brands take advantage of social media without compromising the relationship and trust they have developed with their consumers?

Here are five ways brands can build trust with current and future customers online through social media:

  1. Transparency:  In today’s world, transparency is an inherent reality.  Consumers will be talking about your brand online, so you need to embrace this and get involved in guiding the conversation instead of just letting it happen without you.  Mistakes happen, so own up to them online. Consumers will respond much more positively to a brand that takes ownership publicly and explains the situation.  The same goes for growth and new products.  Let your customers know what’s coming and thank them for their input in guiding your decision.  Being truly transparent creates a natural sense of trust.
  2. Always Be Available:  Consumers need to know you’re online and that they can always reach you.  The ability to connect anytime is a great catalyst toward building trust. This online channel is also a great opportunity to provide additional service in front of a larger audience.  But what if the customer voices a complaint?  Have no fear!  These opportunities can often turn into great testimonials when customers are handled with care and honesty, and quite often these customers will become some of your strongest brand advocates.
  3. Project Accountability:  Brands who openly engage in social media and encourage their customers to interact with them project a certain level of accountability.  In using social media aggressively, brands can essentially hold themselves accountable to their consumer base by providing better products, services and customer appreciation.  And what’s even better is that it will all be done on a global stage, providing additional marketing leverage.
  4. Engage With Enthusiasm:  An easy way to gain trust and strengthen your relationship with your customers is to simply entertain them.  Don’t always focus your online message on your company – show a lighter side and talk about what’s going on around you, introduce your staff or share thoughts on a hot topic.  Provide value to your customers in a fun and creative way through daily content, videos, contests and infographics.  This is an excellent way to keep your customers engaged, and typically, if they find it entertaining, they will also share it with others, increasing your overall marketing reach.
  5. Always Practice Social Responsibility:  Letting your customers know that you care about others more than yourself or your bottom line is an exceptional way to foster trust.  Socially responsible brands traditionally gain more momentum and support because their customers know they aren’t just about profits but also are interested in giving back to the community.  Social media is the perfect platform upon which to promote your brand’s social involvement.

When marketing your brand online, remember to embrace the customer, stay true to who you are and engage openly.  These basic rules will provide the foundation upon which to build a long-lasting relationship of trust with your customers.

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The Importance of Brand Social Awareness

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Gayle Haley

There is no question that in today’s business environment, you must have an online presence.  What many brands fail to successfully execute on, however, is the engagement aspect of the online social realm.  Many brands operate under the guise of “if you build it, they will come.”  Others feel that as long as we monitor what they say, we protect our reputation and are successful social media.

There is more to social awareness than simply monitoring social conversation and your brand’s reputation.  The key to a successful online social marketing presence is joining in on the conversation, but not changing it.  You must fully understand what the conversation is in order for your brand to become fully engage with consumers online.

Being fully aware of your brand’s social presence also provides greater insight into your true relationship with your consumers and can serve as an invaluable resource for product enhancement.  This awareness also gives you the guidance on search engine marketing tools for success, such as keywords that can be used in paid search or hot topics for online content.

To create a two-way line of communication with your customers online, you must first understand what the conversation is about.  Obtaining an understanding involves taking a measured look at the ongoing social conversation and determining what the online market, or community, is saying about your products, company and competitors.  Yes even what they are saying about your competitors is important as it provides details around why they see you as different or better, as well as in what areas they think the competition is more successful.

The information you can garner from being truly connected to the conversations being had online about your brand will enable you to better position your brand.  It will also allow you to join in the social conversation and begin engaging with the online market for your brand.  And while you cannot change the conversation, you can absolutely help steer it in a more positive direction.
The monitoring practice is something that is done not just within the walls of your brand’s Facebook and Twitter pages, but also throughout the expansive realm of the internet.  You want to find your “social mentions” in articles, forums, boards, other Facebook pages and the like.  Knowing this allows you to determine your overall reach (i.e. how far does your message really get) and can guide future online marketing efforts by strengthening keywords, tags and target demographics.

The beauty of online awareness is it provides insight into how your brand is performing “right now” and gives you the power needed to react at any given moment.    And knowing how to react is the new name of the online game for brands.  From new products, to responding to complaints, to engaging with consumers in order to foster stronger brand loyalty, everything starts with an awareness of the social conversation about your brand.

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The New Face of Brand Inspiration

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Gayle Haley

For decades, brands have targeted consumers through slick marketing pieces that showcased the concept of how their products can get you closer to your aspiration of wealth, power or the elite life.    However, there is a dramatic shift taking shape in today’s advertising realm as brands are now focusing on how their products can inspire instead of playing off consumer’s aspirations.

This new focus is surely a natural response based on the economic unease of the past few years.  To many Americans, those “aspiration filled” campaigns became symbols of what many had lost and started to feel increasingly tenuous.  Out of the past few years of economic malaise and political instability has emerged a new normal, and thus, a new era of marketing motivation based on the platform of “inspiration” has dawned.

Brands that have their finger on the pulse of consumers have already begun to evolve their message to be more in line with consumer sentiment.  No longer do they support the notion of guiding your aspirations, but rather, they are focused more inspiring consumers to what they themselves can achieve.  Brands such as Chrysler with their campaign of “Imported from Detroit” or Levi’s and their “Go Forth” campaign are now calling on Americans to make the world better for themselves, by themselves.  They no longer tout themselves as the solution to the end goal, but rather to motivation to build something better.

Even Google has adapted their strategy to a model of inspiration with their award winning “It Gets Better” campaign.  If you look deeply into their new Chrome promotion, it’s all based on the concept of “the web is what you make of it”, which puts less on the brand and more on the consumer to make the difference.  With beautiful supporting pieces like their “Dear Sophie” commercial, Google is now celebrating the power of the individual; calling on them to touch the lives around them of those they know and even of those they don’t.

At the core of what makes these new campaigns so successful is their ability to touch consumers as people and not simply playing on their aspirations as demographic marketing targets.  This new face of brand development is about inspiring people to unite and make things right; remember what’s great about America and to fight to bring us back to the great power we once were.  It’s truly more of a call to take action.

When brands get to the heart of what matters in the lives of their consumers, they will discover their new position of inspiring.  Connecting with consumers on this more personal level will not only help to empower and inspire, but will also unite and strengthen the relationship a brand has with their consumers.

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5 Tips for Successful Brand Advertising

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Gayle Haley

In today’s world, consumers are hit with ads of all shapes and sizes from virtually every aspect of life.  Whether on a train, in a car, watching television, reading a magazine or listening to the radio, advertisers are continually vying to capture the attention of consumers.

Be it advertising online or in print, successful advertising is all about capturing the attention of the consumer and making an emotional connection with them.  The best way to immediately grab their attention, evoke an emotion and convey your message is through great brand advertising design.

Today we’re going to explore a few tips that are sure to elevate your message and allow you to more successfully capture the attention of your target audience.

Set Your Message Stand Apart

Consumers are hit with messages throughout the day, so make sure yours stands apart from the others!  Use images and colors that surprise and step away from the ordinary. Darker colors are more likely to blend in with most other ads and neon colors are typically not taken as seriously, so consider standing out with brighter, mainstream colors like orange or greens.

Keep It Simple

As with anything else in life the simplest approach is most likely your best bet.  You don’t want to over-power your ad with extensive messaging or multiple graphics.  Develop a clear message with one focal picture to help capture their attention and your logo for branding…..and that’s it!

You really only have seconds to grab the consumer’s attention and get something in your message to register with them long enough to stop, so don’t over complicate the opportunity with the noise of excessive images or text.  Use sharp photos and easy to read type-face and font colors.

Make Them Curious

The old stand-by of “click here” is a dead give-away to any consumer that you want something from them.  Leave the wondering and a little curious about your offer by incorporating a teaser into your ad requiring the consumer to visit your site or a specially created landing page to find out more.

Avoid the typical “click here for more” and try something more along the lines of “have you seen the great new rates Joe Smith is offering?”  A more inviting call-to-action is sure to receive a much stronger click through rate than the old “click here” stand by.

Remember, a great ad commands an answer and demands that you respond!  Create an ad that is more along the lines of an unanswered question that must be resolved verses a demand to “do as I say and click here.”

Keep It Real

One thing consumers don’t respond well to is insincerity, so keep your message real.  Don’t over-hype your message or try and position yourself as the newest pitch-man on the block.  Let the consumer get a sense for who you really are and just state your message simply and sincerely.

Take this opportunity to let them learn a little about you and who you are.  Be creative in your message, but just make sure that the words and tone of your message reflect who you are in general.

A  Great Ad Just Works

Creating an amazing, award winning ad campaign is art, true; however, creating a great ad that sells is strictly the execution of a well created and proven formula of creating an ad around clear, uncluttered, sincere messaging that evokes an emotion and connects with a consumer.  Deliver your message in a way that stands-apart and emits sincerity and you have the recipe for an ad that sells.

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How to Successfully Launch a New Product or Innovation

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Gayle Haley

Your company has developed a new product, innovation or line and you’re ready to launch.  The trick to launching a new product or innovation in today’s market centers around the success of your online launch efforts.

We’ve outlined the eight key elements of a product launch plan to increase your odds of a successful new product or innovation launch:

  1. Discover your “what’s in it for me?” position.  To gain the attention of any potential customer, you must first provide them with the answer to their main question, which is “what’s in it for me?”  Regardless of the product or new innovation, if it doesn’t connect with the end user and offer a benefit to their needs, your product or innovation will be destined to fail.
  2. Grow your user base.  Obviously, the most critical element to growth is to create and grow your customer user base.  Regardless of their size, every new customer counts, plays a pivotal role and is important to your overall success.  Quite often smaller customers become larger, longstanding consumers as your brand relationship develops and grows over the years.  Newer customers tend to be more vocal, providing more brand word-of-mouth advertising; whereas longstanding customers aren’t often as publicly vocal, they share brand support when asked by their inner circle, which typically provides stronger, qualified referral leads.
  3.  Create a successful online social strategy.  A successful online strategy provides continued relevance to the consumer.  The easiest way to gain a new follower or obtain a “like” from a user is to provide a promotion or discounted offer; however, your real goal is have that consumer interact with you in an ongoing, two-way conversation online.  To do this, you’ll want to create content that not only draws a user in but also maintains their interest and incents them to interact with you on a regular basis.  Surveys and open-ended questions are a great way to get consumers involved.  Sharing curated content on relevant and timely issues and topics that relate to your brand is another great way to not only get consumers involved but to also provoke them to share content from your Facebook or Twitter page.  The activity of sharing content could extend your overall reach and introduce you to new potential customers.
  4. Develop the mindset of speed.  Gaining new customers and growing quickly requires online mass reach in today’s global marketplace.  The fastest way to jump-start any marketing effort is to create a buzz.  Buzzworthy content (content thought to be worthy of being talked about or shared online) such as infographics, dynamic photo galleries or YouTube videos, will spread virally and rapidly, giving you access to a wider consumer base.  Buzzworthy content is also more prone to receiving feedback, which opens the door to natural two-way conversations and additional sales opportunities.
  5. Add a splash of traditional flare.  Although the goal is to get consumers to interact with your brand online in order to impact sales, one of the easiest ways to get new, qualified leads to your online doorstep and jump-start the growth of your new product or innovation is to reach them via television or radio.  Adding television or radio to your marketing mix can drive new customers to search for you online or ask others about you.
  6. Establish your marketing plan of attack.  To ensure optimal success, define your marketing product launch plan and control your message and frequency.  Create a content calendar which outlines the topics you want to cover at a high level and specifies the activities for each day.  You’ll want to connect with your users on a consistent basis, without spamming or overloading them.  Too much information too fast could be perceived as information overload and cause a potential customer to be turned off or a current customer to stop following you.
  7. Measure your performance and map consumer engagement.  Not only should you keep close tabs on the performance of your product launch marketing performance, but you should also follow your consumer behavior.  What article, blog or social piece drove the new consumer to your doorstep?  What topic or conversation starter caused a current client to interact with you or make an additional purchase from you?  Knowing these statistics, as well as your overall sales numbers, will help guide and define your ongoing product marketing efforts.
  8. Continue to add fuel to your fire.  Many marketers and business owners make the mistake of thinking their launch is the end of the event, when in fact it is simply the launching point for a never-ending process.  Doing a big push and then pulling back, assuming your launch is over, will no doubt have huge negative impact on your sales performance.  Prepare yourself for the mindset that your launch is simply the beginning and that your support and continued marketing efforts will be an ongoing effort.

While each of these elements on their own can have a positive impact on your new product or innovation launch, their value comes from combining them together.  Using all eight of these elements together can help you create a powerful launch strategy and provide you with a roadmap for product launch success.

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Haley Brand Intelligence Offers Thanksgiving Wishes

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Gayle Haley

This Thursday marks the official kick-off of the holiday season.  As we’re sure will be the case with many of you as well, Haley Brand Intelligence will be closed Thursday and Friday in order to allow our staff time to celebrate and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with their friends and families.

Best wishes to you and your families for a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday celebration!

We look forward to hearing from you and having the opportunity to help your brand achieve new heights after the holiday.

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Brand Development by Design

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Gayle Haley

What is a brand?  Well, let’s first look at where the word brand comes from.  The word brand is derived from the Old Norse brandr, which means “to burn.”  Therefore, at its core, creating your brand is essentially “burning your company mark” onto your product or service.

So if we’re going to accept the term in its literal origin, then it’s easy to understand the critical importance of the design of your brand and the consistency that must be achieved in your product line and services.

The Goal of Brand Recognition

Without a doubt, the name of the game is brand recognition!  You want consumers to see your brand and immediately feel comfortable with you and your product or services.

There are a couple of key factors that go into developing strong brand recognition:

  • Distinctive design
  • Consistent user experience (with products or services)

Distinctive Design

With many small businesses, not enough attention is given to creating the appropriate company or product name or logo.  As frivolous as this may seem, these elements are core to the success of your brand recognition.

It’s important to create a company or product name that conveys a mental image of what your product or service does.  For example, if your company creates horseshoes, then naming it Harry’s House of Horses probably isn’t going to explain to people what your main focus is.  In this case, something like Harry’s Hooves or Harry’s House of Horseshoes might do a better job of explaining this.

Once you’ve settled on a name, now it’s time to create a logo that can relay the same message as your company or product name.  A key element, of course, will be color.  Keep in mind that colors have a tendency to be associated with feelings, so if you’re Harry’s Hooves you might not want to use tons of red or black, as those colors tend to convey feelings of intensity, love, or trendy urban feelings.

Consistent User Experience

Once your brand is out there, consumers will begin the process of associating your products and services with their user experience.  The experience consumers have when they interact with your company, be it in person, on the phone or online, will begin to shape their perception of your brand.  It’s vitally important that your staff delivers a consistent experience to all consumers.

This consistency also extends to the products and services you offer.  For example, if Harry’s Hooves suddenly starts offering hula-hoop lessons, no one is going to associate that with Harry…even if his logo is sitting smack-dab in the middle of the flyer they received announcing the new service.

Whether it’s a product that they feel they can’t live without or a sales associate who always goes the extra mile for them when they call in, consumers will begin to develop feelings that will instantly appear whenever they see your brand.

From logos to colors, to fonts, to your message tone, if done correctly, your brand will be “burning your mark” on everything it touches.

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The Importance of Brand Awareness

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Gayle Haley

Brand awareness is a measure of how well your brand is known within its target markets and audience.  Your brand is your image – it’s the meaning behind your company’s name, logo, symbols and slogans.

So you can see why having a unique and memorable brand is vital to your business; through your brand you not onlybuild brand awareness, but you create a reputation and long-term position in the marketplace.

Branding: The First Step

The main goal for marketing and advertising is to create brand awareness.  Before you can create a favorable impression or motivate customers to buy, they have to become aware of your brand and its meaning.

Define your company goals and core beliefs and then incorporate that into your brand message.  Your brand message should not just be able to explain what you do, but also why you do what you do.

Once you have a clear definition of your brand, it will be time to get the message out to the masses!  Although print is still important  ensure that your marketing plan includes ample resources for online activities such as online ads, content development and social media involvement.

Being active online is an effective way of making consumers aware that you exist, creating a natural buzz in the market and helps drive traffic to your business.

Top of Mind Brand Awareness

The highest level of brand awareness is top of mind awareness. Top of mind awareness is when your target audience thinks of you first whenever they need to make a purchase within your product category or market.

You can build top of mind awareness through repeated online exposure and consistent delivery of a good product and customer service over time. Top of mind awareness is a huge advantage in the market as it ensures you are top of mind when customers enter a buying situation.

Build Brand Equity

Brand equity is the value your brand has beyond your physical assets, such as buildings and equipment.  In order to develop strong brand equity, you have to develop a high level of brand awareness; so once again, it’s all about staying relevant and top of mind.

The more people are aware of your brand and the stronger your reputation, the greater your profit potential and overall brand value. Word of mouth in the market plays a strong role in helping your brand grow and as is often the case in today’s modern world, it’s all about building relationships with your custom base online.

Over time, as you build these relationships, your consumers naturally become your brand advocates and begin touting you and your brand to others.  It’s this type of priceless brand equity that you strive for and must work to protect.

Measuring Your Brand Awareness

As with all marketing efforts, you will want to monitor your brand awareness in order to make adjustments to your message or target focus.

One of the many advantages to online marketing is that you can better track your consumer behavior – i.e. what was it that brought the consumer to your site and what they did once they were there.  Keeping close tabs on this information ensures your time and efforts for creating brand awareness online are being used most effectively.

As long as you continue to see an increase in user activity, both in purchasing and in social promoting, then you can be sure that you have strong brand awareness with a clear and effective message.

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