“Success- Easy to attain but difficult to maintain.”
January is a month when everyone is in a dynamic mood to welcome the new year. However, this month also comes with the emotional and financial hangover from December’s holiday spirit. For most businesses, January means a break from branding and other promotional activities. However, for brand consistency of your business, marketing year-round is crucial.
With the advent of business software and high-speed internet, creating a successful website has become much simpler. Establishing a brand name in the digital platform isn’t rocket science anymore. Also, the availability of endless mediums, content and social media channels are influencing business dynamics and annual marketing plans, which are experiencing rapid modifications.
Today’s digitization has created a strong impact on every business, irrespective of its type and size. According to different studies, present-day customers spend most of their time on digital media. They research thoroughly the products before making a purchasing decision. Thus, we can state that marketing campaigns on social media platforms have a major influence on the brand establishment. A well-designed campaign can be attractive but doesn’t serve the purpose without consistency.
So, why is consistency important in marketing?
Before understanding the importance of brand consistency, we must learn the purpose of branding. Branding is a marketing practice that aims toward building awareness and developing trust amongst the customers. Brand consistency plays a crucial role to attain the same. The more consistent your approach is in promoting your brand, the more you stay on top of your target audience’s mind.
You must be accustomed to your own brand guidelines, refer to each of them while designing your yearly marketing plan. With all the offline and online marketing opportunities, try to make a long-lasting impression on your customer’s mind. Consistency is the key to success in any sort of marketing campaign. On nailing down the consistency, you will:
- Start establishing your brand as an authority within your niche
- Become a thought leader in the industry
- Boost and strengthen your brand image
- Make your brand easily recognizable
- Reach your target audience across different platforms
- Boost your website traffic as Google and other search engines prefer consistency in terms of quality and publishing
- Make your website traffic trust your content and become a loyal customer
- Get more organic and relevant traffic
- Give visitors a reason to visit your company’s website again
- Gather information on the website visitors for leads
Consistency in marketing approach brings you more business. Remember, here uniformity refers to the commitment of resource, time and strategic efforts towards your marketing campaign. The more consistent your marketing efforts are, the better your branding process will be.
Now, let’s figure out the strategies to maintain brand consistency as your organization continues to develop and grow. Maintaining consistency assures you to be familiar with your target audiences without becoming stale and obsolete.
Study About Your Brand
To grow your business and achieve success, it is important to know what your target audiences interpret about your brand! Thus, to stay on top of their mind, analyze your company’s brand value. Go through your brand assets like its social media accounts, websites and other communication materials to identify if they go with your company’s guidelines and values. This will also let you know where your brand stands and describe what it means for your customers. A proper study offers insight about how easily your customers recognize your brand name from your promotional content.
“Why would my target customer come to me?” Brand analysis allows an organization to look inward and improve its annual marketing plan time-to-time. Remember, success of a product or service depends upon consumer’s self-actualization vision. Brand or marketing analysis helps businesses to identify their loopholes and allows them to improve strategies accordingly. Smart marketers also use these insights to frame their USPs or Unique Selling Propositions while positioning their product or service.
Customers are the biggest asset for any business and brand analysis aids you to put your customers first. Brand analysis consists of both market and competitor analysis which allows you to design your product or service according to the consumer’s need.
Know Your Target Audience
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Consistency in marketing pays you well when you are targeting it towards the right audience. Before planning an effective marketing strategy and making your brand consistent, learn more about your target audience. Study their demographics and position your product accordingly. Your yearly marketing plan should focus their needs and build your brand personality appropriately. Researching on consumers allows you to learn about their values and needs that in long run help you build a successful brand image.
Knowing the customers and nurturing them with relevant content or information about your brand helps you create a strong bond with them. This bond offers more potential clients and business in the long run. Now, when you know what your target audience wants, facilitate them with their generic interests. This is a good way to prioritize them and make them feel special. Such activities can bring your audience closer to you and build a long-term relationship.
Establish Your Marketing Guidelines
Now, when you have studied the position of your brand and know your target audience well, it’s time to establish your marketing guidelines before your audience. Once you are clear about the image you want to represent, implement the right tactics to remain consistent. Every business, irrespective of its size should portray its purpose, values, USP, brand mission, logo and icons, fonts, colors etc. Ensure each and everyone related to your business is aware of the guidelines you have implemented. To keep the entire business on the same page share guideline leaflets even with the employees and shareholders of the organization. This can help you in every aspect of your business strategy – from sales to customer relations and marketing activities.
Internal Communication is Effective
We are all well accustomed with the effectiveness of brand promotion. However, we mostly tend to ignore the role of internal communication in promoting a brand successfully. To be consistent enough you must first promote your brand before your internal public. Remember, for consistency in marketing it is essential to let the employees understand the company’s values and missions. The management of each organization thus should be highly proactive. They should communicate the company’s marketing strategies to the staff and encourage them to participate in the process.
Whenever there is any change in your company policy, make sure your team is aware of it. Though promotion seems to be a marketing affair, it should liaise to the whole organization. The management should communicate with:
- Sales Team: They are the face of your company and communicate directly with the customers. Inform them about the values and guidelines of the organization to ensure a smooth and effective marketing process.
- Production Department: They design the final product of your company and hence must be aware of each of your policies. This helps them to come up with the right product and packaging that meets customers’ needs.
- Third-Party Consultants: Don’t forget to communicate the guidelines to the consultants and freelancers working on behalf of you. Letting them know about your brand’s value ensures results that replicate the unique tone of your brand.
- Partners and Shareholders: Sharing your guidelines and core values with your partners is crucial. If someone is putting money on your business, they have all the right to be aware of the core values of your organization. A guideline that talks about your brand is a valuable resource for your organization and people associated with it.
Use Logo and Design of Your Brand
The logo and name of your company reveal the identity of your brand. Imprint them on your website, business card and your products to communicate with your potential customers. Your logo tells your target audience who you are and its design talks about the type of product or service you are offering to them. Make sure to print your company’s logo correctly in each and every promotional material you are publishing.
Provide your employees with an Identity card that comes with your company’s logo. Being a part of the company, they represent and advocate your brand. A logo that adorns the product’s package or website will draw the interest of your target audience. Also, ensure to use them on your brand’s social media pages as it reaches more traffic than any other medium.
Many marketers prefer to redesign their company’s logo to reflect the changes in their business strategy. Smart marketers consider it a wrong marketing step. When the customers are accustomed to your brand’s logo, a sudden change in its design might disappoint them and make them feel betrayed. Remember, a logo plays a very important role in constructing brand loyalty. To foster brand loyalty, always promote a familiar and recognizable logo.
Merge Offline Marketing with Online
If you are promoting your brand at a trade show, let your audience know about it. Publish the event on your website and social media channels to reach your audience more effectively. Promote your efforts personally towards your target audience through blog posts. Let your customers know about the event in details. Remember to add logo and brand name in each of your online posts. For an example, if you are coming up with a New Year Offer for your potential customers, try to run an online campaign from December itself. It will not only bring more traffic to your social media channels and website but will also improve your overall sales.
Keep the Tone Consistent
While communicating with your target audience be specific about the personality and tone of the brand. The tone of your brand should be uniform on both online and offline mediums. If your blog posts are fun and friendly, try to keep the flavor on all other social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. While communicating them on messenger, don’t change the tone of your conversation.
Create a Plan for the Future
Once you have established your product or service successfully, focusing only on its brand consistency, don’t forget to frame the marketing plan for the future. Schedule an annual marketing plan to keep your company risk-free. Frame the plan keeping your core brand identity in mind. Schedule a time to update the brand strategy. You may change the strategies in between according to your marketing sales report. Thus, marketers prefer to schedule bi-annual audit report for the betterment of the brand image.
Catch the Right Influencers
Influencer marketing is very effective in today’s digital world. This plays a major role in customers purchase making a decision. However, be smart enough to select the right influencer for your brand. The person who is speaking about your brand should have a great appeal to your target audience and represent the brand relevantly. Don’t choose an influencer abruptly. The personality of your influencer should always complement the brand he is representing.
A potential business strategy and consistency in marketing help your company stand out from the competition. It is also a very effective technique to build trust and loyalty amongst the target audience. It connects relevant traffic with your business. Create a brand guideline that ensures growth of your company throughout the year (even in January). This technique will help you build a beneficial relationship with your potential customers.
