With social media came the defragmentation of markets. Brands suddenly had a bigger audience, but it also meant that smaller, more agile brands had a fighting chance to grab a share of the market. As online platforms encouraged user interaction, it initiated a shift in the power balance towards consumers who actively seek the opinion and recommendation of others.
You can’t simply put all your eggs in one ad campaign basket and hope for the best. If you want to achieve any of the goals below, you need to get your marketing communications right:
1.Get your target audience to become curious about your brand. Awareness is the first step of the consumer journey with any brand, and whether it’s a viral campaign or a more direct guerrilla approach, first impressions matter to keep them interested.
2. Get your target audience to like your brand. Liking on social media is part of it, but what we really mean is to find an enduring message for your brand that connects with your target customers beyond flashy campaigns.
3. Create a consistently pleasant customer experience. The consistency of a brand’s tone and the message is not just limited to the creatives and your content marketing but also to how your sales and customer experience teams interact with your customers and audience. If you want to generate brand loyalty, a pleasant customer experience is a must.
4. Make your brand memorable – for the right reasons. The right message can make or break a brand’s reputation, especially on social media. Many brands have been burned at the stake for communication missteps and it is far wiser to spend on getting it right the first time than to repair the damage.
5. Shorten your sales cycle. Customer acquisition can be time-consuming, and especially so if your message is not clear. If you know what makes your target audience tick and use it to create a clear marketing communications flow to direct your sales funnel to conversion, the process will be a lot easier to replicate moving forward.