Helping out wherever and however we can

15 Jun Helping out wherever and however we can

These unprecedented times have had a significant impact on businesses across the world, both big and small. Companies planning on scaling up have struggled with a lack of funding and growth resulting in plans being either cancelled or postponed. Many business plans have gone out of the window with the focus rightly on protecting employees. But despite these unusual times, there is still room for opportunity. With more people than ever now staying connected online, reviewing your company’s digital profile is a worthwhile exercise – for both short and long term success.

Putting your brand first

For B2C brands looking to maintain and even grow customer relationships, ensuring your brand presence is consistent online means you can strike the right tone in your messaging and ensure your loyal brand advocates have the latest information – whether that be blogs, videos, stock announcements, offers or engaging social content.

But what about brands who were just about to launch when the pandemic struck? Is it still worthwhile spending this downtime reviewing your brand messaging online? Absolutely – especially if the aim is to proceed with launching at a later stage. As the old saying goes, you only get once chance to make a first impression, so make it the best it can be.

We faced this exact situation with one of our newest clients – a specialist drinks brand. With launch plans pushed back, we used our expertise to review, analyse and develop new strategies for all of their customer touch points. As a small business with limited marketing resources, they were struggling to disseminate their core brand messages online. They had a website and had set up various social channels but nothing had evolved and there was no consistency.

Best practice tips

To support those of you in a similar position we thought we’d share our best practice tips for creating an effective online presence:

Website:

• Showcase brand values

Your company website is the perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate your brand image and values. There should be consistent messaging throughout the page which represents what your brand stands for and how it is unique from competitors.

• Google is your friend (SEO)

SEO analytics will show you the key words and style of language used by your target audience. Once you implement these into your copy, you will drive organic traction to your company website.

• Think about the customer journey (back end structure)

The customer journey is incredibly important as it is the path traveled by your target audience from the initial contact they make to purchasing. Understanding what leads your customer into generating sales will ultimately expand your business.

Social media:

• Profile your audience

It is essential for your company to have a clear understanding on who the target audience is. One effective way of doing this is by pulling analytics from social media platforms such as Facebook. By analysing who is engaging with your posts, you will be able to clearly shape your audience demographic.

• Content, content, content

Content should be carefully thought through before posting – you should ask yourself who you are trying to target and does this appeal to them. For B2C companies, it is important to ensure that the design or theme is consistent as social platforms such as Instagram are primarily visual.

• Choose your platforms wisely

A lot of companies make the mistake of being on every social media platform for the sake of it. Rather than do this and risk not being consistently active on each one, you should look at where you gage the most interaction and engagement. This will be dependent on your target audience as each platform appeals to a different demographic.

Sarah Karmazyn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-karmazyn-a3217b189/