Do you think you need a marketing audit? We’ve said it before, and we will say it a million times over – consistency in marketing equals recognition. You have to be consistent in your branding across all channels and materials. You also have to be relevant to your audience in the current marketing climate.
There is a simple solution to ensure your marketing materials are current, accurate, and consistently following your branding guidelines – an audit of your marketing materials.
What is a marketing audit?
A marketing audit is designed to make sure your materials are aligned with your goals via a review (or creation of!) your brand’s marketing plan. It is a fabulous way to keep you on pace in the marketing marathon.
It has been a hot minute. Maybe you’ve never done an audit of your marketing materials or perhaps it has been a long while since your last one. If it has been a year since your last audit, it’s time to rock one!
Demand shifts. Products and/or services routinely go in and out of style. Your offerings need to be effective based on current supply and demand fluctuations.
Products or services have changed. If you’ve added or removed products and/or services, your marketing materials need to reflect those changes.
Competitive changes. This is one area you absolutely want to make sure you’re keeping up with the Joneses. You don’t want stale messages to hold your brand back while your competitors offer fresh and inspiring marketing.
Contact information updates. If your address, phone, website or e-mail has changed, your marketing materials need to as well. If you’ve added – or need to add – a social media presence then your marketing needs to reflect that, too.
The market is constantly evolving and changing. Don’t let the materials designed to boost your brand get behind the times. A marketing materials audit gives your brand the boost it needs to keep rocking. Give us a call – we’re always ready help your brand reset and refresh.
Picture this. You have the perfect idea for an event, and you feel that it represents your brand’s vision to a T. Yet, there are so many steps to get from A to Z that you start feeling overwhelmed and as the date of the event looms nearer, you realize how many things you wish you had planned for. If you have ever felt this kind of stress before or are currently experiencing it, this is the blog for you.
When it comes to event marketing, there are multiple moving pieces. At times there are so many pieces that it may seem like there are too many starting points. To help set a starting point for you, let’s focus on the big picture and then hone into the minute details that will lead your brand’s vision to the picture-perfect moment.
The First Focus: Scheduling
Imagine event marketing to be like a photographer setting up the most picturesque scene. To capture the moment perfectly, at times working backwards is best. In this case, thinking about what you want the vision to look like as a whole then mapping out how to get to that end goal. Although this may seem unorthodox, this process will lead you to a track record of success while also allowing you to tweak the planning breakdown to fit your needs.
At Front Porch Marketing, we start with writing everything down, especially anything that is time-sensitive i.e. inviting VIPs, scheduling speakers, printing deadlines, and booking sponsors. This timeline allows you to envision a clear reality and identify immediate “strikethroughs” or ideas that should be nixed.
Next, identify your audience, define your message, and determine the experience you want to provide. Having a clear vision is important, because all of the smaller event details and decisions will flow from it.
The Second Focus: Seamlessness
Once you have the deadlines and your audience in mind, choose a venue, food, music, entertainment, format, and feel that aligns best with your vision. Stay true to the experience you want to provide, and these decisions will flow easily.
When it comes to your deadlines, also keep geography in mind. Although it may seem natural to book an event near your location, for your professional partners, sponsors, or guests this location may be new terrain. As such, ensure the professional partners and sponsors you choose to assist you are on board with your vision. Your caterer, photographer, videographer, etc. should also be well versed in what your plans and expectations are for the event.
The Final Focus: Structure
Now that your event is on the horizon, it is time to hammer out the final details. Here are some of my final tips on how to create that picture-perfect moment for your future events.
Create an overall schedule for the day and share with all of your professional partners and staff.
Double-check with your staff on their roles and make sure that all loose ends are tied.
Examples of closing loose ties:
Posting check-in times to all communication platforms.
Pre-inspecting uniforms.
Finalizing catering details with the company of your choosing and making sure no cross-contamination occurred.
Securing all entrances and marking them accordingly.
Making sure that the exits are not blocked by staff or their respected station.
Posting last minute schedule changes to all social media platforms.
Notify staff and members who should be called in case of an emergency or in the event that something needs to be addressed.
Do an event run through the night before to make sure that all equipment is running smoothly. Also do another run through at least two hours prior to the event.
Check that social media has been posted and is shareable throughout the event. (A quick way for guests to get plugged in is to post QR codes throughout the location or on deliverables.)
Center the company’s brand at the forefront of the event from color schemes to logos to swag.
Brand the sponsored content and products by making sure that they are explicitly seen.
Label Wi-Fi passwords and make them visible.
Double-check that all mandated COVID protocols are being followed. Have disposable masks and sanitation stations readily available to increase accessibility and comfort.
Promise a good time (and deliver)!
In Conclusion
We love planning, executing, and marketing events for our clients! Most recently, it has been our privilege to partner with Faith Family Academy to create a socially distanced graduation ceremony that is expandable for future success. We look forward to executing more events in the future and are proud of the recent 2021 graduates.
2021 Faith Family Academy Graduation
I hope that these tips are helpful and got your creative juices flowing! If you need help planning an event come see us on the Porch!
Seamless, sharp, and sophisticated. That is the vision that Front Porch Marketing has for you and your brand as we share why you should style your Instagram highlights.
With the right color scheme, design, and icons, you can drive more views and engagement with your Instagram bio at little to no cost.
If you are looking for a push to execute this vision and wow your audience the next time, they see your page, this is the blog for you!
The Vision
When you open up your company’s Instagram page, what is the first thing you see? Most likely, your eyes go to the colorful posts or maybe a bold profile picture with a strong branding icon, but acting as an overlooked middleman is a row of highlight icons. Currently, there may be as little as 0 or as many as 100 on your page – the sky is the limit.
Truly, the only limit that is regarded is that only up to 100 pictures can be posted within a story highlight, but highlights – much like a reel – should be seamless, sharp, and sophisticated and not fragmented, sloppy, and cluttered. Most importantly, they should be an extension of your brand’s story.
The Highlight
Many take a lot of time and effort to create the perfect “story” to post on Instagram. Whether it includes colorful gifs, a unique poll, engaging videos, or a giveaway you are extending a vision to viewers about your brand and its values. What is disheartening about all that time and effort is that it dwindles in significance alongside the 24-hour frame that stories are set on. Plus it requires the utmost strategic thinking.
Now, with story highlight reels you are able to make the stories on your Instagram stay permanently on your profile for viewers to enjoy at any given moment. By adding this extra step to your Instagram branding strategy, you are able to strategically use a prime location on your bio and create an immediate place of engagement with users.
Step 1: Be Seamless
What is great about engagement is that you can cast the vision for what viewers see and find different ways to resonate with them. For example, aesthetics are incredibly favored amongst millennials and are a growing target market for many companies. Thus, considering aesthetics on all social media platforms allows you to connect with this audience and others like it.
To create a seamless experience for users, use highlights to promote content that can showcase your products or services, express your brand, drive traffic and market your business. If your profile has bold colors, seamlessly transition the same color palette to your story highlights while also extending a nod to your brand as a whole. If your posts have a color scheme, extend it to your highlight to establish immediate brand recognition or go with a splash of color to draw in your audience with a double look. No matter what you choose, think about your brand as a whole and embody that within your highlight story covers – the first picture that viewers see on a highlight reel.
Step 2: Be Sharp
When it comes to your story highlight covers, always use high-definition content and think “succinct” when it comes to titles. There is a 10–11 character count rule of thumb when it comes to highlight covers. The more characters you use, the higher the chance that your highlight title will end up with an ellipsis instead of the word you were trying to promote. Whether you use CTA words like “events,” “promotions,” “sales,” or “giveaways,” be consistent and above all, do not be misleading in any way.
Step 3: Be Sophisticated
Last but not least, when it comes to Instagram story highlights create a look of sophistication. By using sites like Canva, Unsplash, and/or Pinterest, there are 100’s of highlight cover designs that are pre-made and ready to go at a moments notice for you and your company. No matter if you choose icons, HD pictures, graphic designs or a color palette, always keep your brand at the forefront.
In Conclusion
First, to bring your Instagram to the next level, revamp the look of your Instagram’s aesthetics with a seamless, sharp, and sophisticated look. Second, when it comes to highlight covers think about what story you want your viewers to plug into. Third, see your platform through the viewers eyes to see which highlights you want them to engage with first. In summary, bring the middleman to the forefront.
Spring cleaning comes in many forms but have you extended it to your social media? Although this sounds like an odd notion, tidying up your social media ensures that your online platforms are building up daily engagement and generating leads.
When you don’t pay attention to your social pages, your platforms become dated – something that should always be a priority to avoid.
By focusing on these five points in your social media, you can make sure to revamp your social presence, renew your look, and refocus your brand strategy.
The Logo
When it comes to spring cleaning, start out with the basics. Your logo! Are your colors dated? Should you go brighter? Bolder? Is your logo still considered modern? These are all questions you should ask yourself to make sure that your company is putting their best foot forward and aligning with today’s day and age.
The Header
The header is one of the first things that your viewers will see when they come to Facebook and LinkedIn! When you look at it, ask yourself if the picture is…
High quality?
Modern or dated?
Reflecting the season your company is in?
Updated with the awards and certificates your company has gotten throughout the year?
Used across all platforms?
Once these questions are answered, your social media strategy is that much closer to being polished.
The Bio
The bio for your company may be short and sweet or long and informative but is it as updated as possible? Are there new hashtags you want to include that are easily found? Are there any typos you may have missed the first time you wrote it?
No matter how fantastic your bio may be, the smallest writing error can cast doubt about your capabilities to be detail-oriented. This is a mistake you never want to have reflected in your platforms.
The Feed
When it comes to your feed you want to make sure that it is an extension of your latest brand strategy. If your brand is bold then extend that message through bold colors, sharp photos, and succinct captions. If your brand is playful then extend your brand through bright colors, whimsical photos, and emojis.
Now that you know what you want your feed to look like, look at it from a grander scale.
Do the last posts reflect a past brand strategy? Do you want that to be the first thing that viewers note? Or do you have a new brand strategy that you want to promote and want that to be the focal point?
Whatever the case, you will want the most current brand strategy to be noticeable at first glance. Take the time to see your company from the eyes of your viewers.
The Website
When your customers look for your website, are they able to find it easily? If not, you may need to revamp and renew the list of keywords that is used for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on each page.
By using the most up-to-date keywords, you’re able to make sure that your site is found in an easy manner. Decreasing the level of friction for customers to be able to locate your website and find the information they are looking for is important because it can be the difference of gaining or losing a lead.
You’ll also want to make sure that all the tweaks that you make on your social media platforms are extended to your site. If you made the colors brighter on your logo, extend that color palette to your site. If you modernized your feed, make sure that your photos and messaging on your site reflect that change. For every action there will always be a reaction.
The Conclusion
No matter how big or small your spring cleaning is, always keep your brand at the forefront. Taking the time to be detail-oriented, using these focal points, and putting your brand first is sure to create a springtime glow for you and your company.
There comes a time in every company’s life when their logo might need a little freshening up. Maybe it looks dated. Or it no longer reflects your company. Maybe your logo looked great on your original product, but it no longer works for what you manufacture now.
Take a page from logo makeovers past and ask yourself, “What does your logo communicate now?”
Your Logo No Longer Works with Your Products
Imagine pairing Apple’s first iteration of their iconic apple-shaped logo, the rainbow-striped apple, with the first-generation iMac. The iMac debuted in 1998 and was a colorful departure from the standard boxy, beige and gray computers of the time. If Apple stuck with their rainbow-striped logo, the result would have been a product that looked more like a child’s toy than a high-tech computer.
Does your logo “play well” with your existing products? If not, it might be time to thank it for its service and toss out the elements of your logo that no longer work for you.
Your Logo Looks Dated – Burger King Edition
All design reflects its time and if your logo reflects the last century, then perhaps it’s time to give your logo a second look.
Let’s take a look at the recent Burger King rebrand. Their logo was designed in 1999 and it looks like it. Their old logo reminds me of ‘90s sports team logos – modern, lots of dynamic movement and some sharp edges. You know, everything you want in your food. 🤷♀️
Their new logo is simpler, puts the burger front and center and it looks friendlier. Plus, it looks great on a small screen. Brands must think about where their logo is going to live and if that logo doesn’t look good blown up on a billboard or shrunk down to the size of an app icon, then it might be time for a change.
Your Logo Looks Dated and it No Longer Works with Your Products – Instagram Edition
Remember when app icons used to be skeuomorphic? That is, they were designed to look like the thing they represent. i.e. The recycling bin icon on your desktop that looks like an actual recycling bin. Software designers used skeuomorphism as a shorthand way to get people acclimated to using computers and other digital devices. Picture what the old iPhone icons and interface used to look like – if you wanted to look at your contacts, you tapped on the icon that looked like an address book. When you opened your notes, the screen looked like a yellow notepad.
But there are times when skeuomorphic design can go off the rails a little. What happens when users no longer use the things these icons are meant to represent? Exhibit A, the “Save” icon in Word – it looks like a disk that I used to tote around in high school. How are users supposed to know to click on that icon to save their document? Answer: users just learn over time that’s what you need to click on, but I wouldn’t call that very user-friendly or intuitive.
Skeuomorphic design can also look messy and cluttered. Users could see more of their contacts if the interface did not look like a literal address book
There is a reason why app icons became more and more “flat” and minimalist over time – its easier to see them on a mobile device. Which brings me to Instagram.
In 2016, Instagram changed their logo from an icon that looked reminiscent of an old Polaroid camera to what it is today, a minimalist representation of a camera with a colorful gradient background. And the internet, of course, had some thoughts:
“The new Instagram logo looks like a rejected starburst flavor.”
@trecoast
Okay, so the new logo was not universally loved. But, in the end, things turned out alright for Instagram. One, because its Instagram, a photo-taking juggernaut of an app that managed to tap into humanity’s need to take selfies and shill vitamin gummies. And, because their new logo:
Made them stand out from the rest of the apps on your phone.
Have you ever noticed that a lot of app icons are blue? Don’t believe me? Take a look at this:
So. Many. Blue. App Icons.
Gave them a unifying design language they could use across their app, creating a better user-experience.
Instead of making each function of the app a literal representation, i.e. a boomerang icon in the shape of a boomerang, they could now be designed to represent their use. Which is why the boomerang function in Instagram looks like an infinity symbol because it replays a short video over and over again. A good logo gives a company different ways to talk about itself visually.
A bad logo can limit a company’s design choices. For instance, if your company’s logo features a gradient, its going to be difficult to embroider that logo on a shirt. If you can’t reverse your logo i.e. it looks the same in black-on-white as it does in white-on-black, then that really limits your design options.
You might find that you can only put your logo on a light background. Which isn’t the end of the world. But if you want to put your logo on say, a photo of a manufacturing facility in motion, then that photo had better be light and bright or it will get lost in the darkness.
Plays well in all sorts of uses.
For example, if you want people to use your app, it would be best to create a simple logo that can be slapped onto a flier, a business card, a website etc, and still look good. Imagine if Instagram still used their old logo and how that little brown polaroid would look on a business card or the bottom of a flier. Which is easier to for the average person to identify, that camera or the “rejected starburst flavor?”
Most companies do not fail or succeed based on their logo. Quality design is an investment, one that you might not have the resources for right now. But a logo can communicate more to your customers than a thousand commercials ever will.
What does your logo communicate to your current and potential customers? Is that the message you want to send? Or is it time for a refresh?
You are trying to save resources and graphic design seems like something you, a team member or a marketing / communications professional can do.
You’ve worked hard to make your dream a reality. Of course, you want to ensure it is recognizable. The first rule of thumb? Build trust in your brand.
Building that trust requires a connection with your target audience. To achieve it, your creative execution must be constantly consistent. It is crucial to get it right.
Here are four tips:
Know what you need before you begin. Define your brand pillars to create a strong foundation. What is your brand vision, personality, positioning and affiliation?
Next, have a creative professional define brand colors, fonts and creative execution guidelines. Mind the brand.
Don’t settle. There are many programs that allow anyone to try their hand at graphic design. Use caution. Layout, font and colors are just a few of the key elements of graphic design.
Take your time. If you choose to DIY your brand creation, understand it will be a time-consuming process to get it right. Take the time necessary to not only learn what you want, but what you need. Learn the art of design.
Experience pays. In the end, it will save you time and money to hire a professional graphic designer. They have the programs and experience to communicate your brand. They will give you the exact guidelines to follow to easily remain consistent and help distinguish your brand from the competition.
Own it. Once you have chosen your brand architecture and standards, own them. Use them religiously. Don’t use your logo in one color scheme on one social media post, then alter it for another. Instead of a random mixture of colors, know and use complementary colors. Keep all of your design elements consistent – Every. Single. Time.
There is value in creative and graphic design. Be consistent and follow brand guidelines. If you don’t have consistency, you won’t build connection. Without them, you may as well do nothing at all.
In conclusion, have a partner or team with the experience and know-how to help you stay consistent. We’re ready to rock when you are.
What is Content Marketing, and how do you win at doing it? How do you know what steps you need to take? Last month, we talked about doubling down on your brand – envisioning what your brand stands for, evolving your brand to meet your company’s needs today and emerging stronger in 2021.
This month, we’ll give you some pointers on taking your shiny new branding out into the world – with Content Marketing – for the win. What are the places that consumers will see your brand and interact with it? You’ll want to read thru to the end, because we’re going to tell you exactly what steps to take in this month’s extension of our Marketing 101.
Once your company has been thru a branding exercise, you’ll leave with your game plan and you’ll know what to do next. You’ll have your target nailed down, your brand’s personality defined and know exactly what category of business you can excel within. The first step once you’ve done this important branding work is your visual identity.
Ready, Set, Marketing – Your Brand’s New Logo
Commission an easy-to-use logo that works in many places. Your logo will be on your website, your social channels, your advertising and even on print work like business cards and brochures. Your logo should be simple, look good large or small. It should be easily used in black, white, and any brand colors you designate.
We’ve designed half a dozen new logo systems this past year, and while they are all quite unique to the company they’re designed for, they all have one thing in common – flexibility.
Your Brand’s New Website
If your company has a website, is it responsive, meaning does it work first and best on mobile but also on tablet and desktop devices? Modern websites need to be built with functionality for users top-of-mind.
This is called User Experience, or UX. How your customer goes thru their journey on your website should be carefully considered to make their experience as simple and rewarding as possible.
Next, your website should incorporate other important factors like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which helps search engines like Google find your website easily. Google can then present it as a choice when consumers are searching for a business like yours. Using keywords and key phrases can help search engines determine how helpful your site is answering their questions.
Location is also a very highly weighted factor for search engines as well. If you are, for instance, a local restaurant trying to attract customers in the surrounding area, then this type of information should be of utmost importance when designing your new site.
Your Brand’s New Blog – the Starting Line of Your Content Marketing
Once you’ve built your website, keep your site content fresh. One of the most important parts of a new website is the blog. This is the place where the Content Marketing race starts. Regularly updating your blog means Google will keep revisiting your site to catalog the new helpful information you are sharing to “index” it for customers to find in search.
Blog posts are like a regular newspaper column for readers. They can subscribe to receive your news. They can make comments on your article at the end of the article. We write blog posts on topics relevant to our customers’ businesses for their website. This helps them to both build relationships with current customers as well as attract new potential customers.
Help solve people’s problems. Make this key in your blog content. Also, posting on a regular basis is equally important.
Your Brand’s Content Marketing Outreach
Think of your new site as your business’ virtual storefront. It’s your home base. Your social channels – like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn – and other tactics like email marketing, Text Message Marketing are in essence, not just your advertising, but your chance to talk to your customers 1-on-1. An opportunity to develop a relationship with them. Each of these tactics has a specific use for a small business – every channel is not appropriate for every small business.
Winning in Email Marketing
Content marketing’s main ingredient is email. First, email marketing shares insider information with your best customers. After all, they opted in to receive this email newsletter from you. For instance, retail stores could offer special discounts, special not-on-the-website items, and special gifts-with-purchase to their favorite customers – which in the digital world would be their email subscribers.
For a restaurant, email marketing can announce a dining event, or a big menu change. Or a business service could announce open jobs, industry news that would affect their customers or tips and tricks to get the most out of their service.
Winning in Social Media
Social media, as a content marketing winning tactic, promotes blog posts, events, promotions, products or simply build conversation and relationships with different customers.
Our restaurant example, for instance, would want to rely heavily on Facebook, as that is the place to grow a local community – interacting with actual people who rely on their business, garnering reviews from customers, and posting events that their businesses is hosting.
But, an interior designer however, would focus on Instagram, as their clients might be all over the country, and consumers on Instagram are interested in all things beautiful. Hashtags #likethisone at the end of an Instagram post help customers find your business, much like the old card catalog at the library could help you find books on a specific topic.
Use Twitter for getting and sharing news with industry peers to establish your voice of authority. Are you an expert real estate broker? Then, share industry news in your category and give your take on any particular article. Follow reporters who work on your segment of business and interact with them when appropriate to demonstrate your expertise, making you a viable option for quotes in articles in the future.
Further, on LinkedIn, a non-profit foundation could share their quarterly goals, fundraising efforts and events, and results to a business audience of potential donors and board members.
Your Brand’s Content Marketing Win
Start with your brand. Establish a strategy for your content marketing for the win. Implement your tactics. Understand that marketing, and especially digital marketing, is a marathon with no finish line. How you run that marathon matters. Keep at it, perfecting the steps you take a little at a time. But start by taking that first step in content marketing for the win.
Your Brand in 2021: Front Porch Marketing has seen an interesting client trend this past year, especially in the second half. Many entrepreneurial brand companies have decided that 2020 – and indeed 2021 – is a good time to double down their brand. They want to really dig in, define their brand and differentiate themselves from their competition. Even big corporate companies, like Burger King, have rebranded, seeking to better define their mission and vision going forward.
If you step back and take a look at your brand with the fresh eyes of 2021, does it look like the company you envisioned when you started? Likely, your brand has evolved and so have you. Does your current branding reflect where you want to be in 5 years with your company or even where you are now, or is it trapped in the past? Maybe it’s time to graduate your branding.
Your Brand in 2021: Envision, Evolve, Emerge
Are you adequately featuring your new products or services? Are you communicating your most compelling benefit? Does your brand look legit, grown-up, like a serious brand that does serious business? Don’t get the veto vote from a customer or a partner business because your brand is not getting taken seriously. You know you can do the job…make sure your branding speaks that truth this year.
Branding – and the digital marketing that embodies branding – has become more important than ever. Your customers and clients are getting bombarded with texts and emails from business service providers to retailers. Ask yourself “why should they read mine?”
What do you stand for?
Do you know what your company’s biggest benefit to your customer is? Do you know how each of your products or services add value to their lives, make their lives easier or answer their questions? Does the tone of voice you use resonate with your customer, and instill loyalty to your brand?
If you don’t know the answers to some of these questions, 2021 might be the year you think about doubling down on your brand. What DO you stand for? What is your mission? As part of your Marketing for 2021, branding can help you answer all of these questions and more, leaving you with a clear map of where to take your business next and how to get there. Branding gives you the platform and parameters to deliver tangible solutions to your customer. We’ve seen the excitement and commitment of more than half a dozen of our own clients rebranding for the future, in just the past six months.
Don’t just work IN your business, work ON your business.
Branding is not just about looks though, it is also about strategy and tactics. What are you going to say, and where are you going to say it are key. You need to be cohesive and coherent in your messaging, as well as look professional. Small businesses often fall down thinking they can “do it themselves” with marketing but without a marketing background – from logo design to social media to PR. Often, they are holding themselves back because they are too busy working IN their business and to work ON their business.
So double down on your brand this year – strengthen your commitment to your particular strategy or course of action. Become more tenacious and resolute in your bringing your brand vision into 2021 and beyond.
2021 is your chance to start fresh in marketing your business – so here’s your Marketing 101 for 2021
In the sea of marketing possibilities: programs, platforms, practices, what is the best course of action? It can be overwhelming. And with the promising new year of 2021 approaching, how do you decide what to focus or re-focus on? Marketing 101. Back to basics.
We are finding that many of our clients are spending this quarter reflecting and refocusing. They are homing in on what makes their business better, and then doing more of that for their Marketing 101. They are taking this opportunity – when much of the world is operating under an umbrella of The Great Unknown – to really get to know themselves, and know themselves well. And then take the necessary steps to take their company to the next level.
How did we get here? Pandemic. Panic. And from both of these we are seeing a renewed sense of Purpose. How has that manifested itself? We have all gotten more digitally focused, learning new platforms that keep work working when we can’t be together. We have all learned how to be more efficient with our precious time – doing more with less because we have to. We’ve all become experts at continuing to reach our customers with fewer resources. We have all learned how to focus on what’s important in our daily lives. So we propose Marketing 101: focusing on doing fewer important things for your business in 2021 – and doing them better.
Be the brand of your dreams.
Your brand is the foundation of your business and everything else builds up and out from there. So this is where we recommend starting. Right now is the best time to step back and reflect. Do you know what your mission is? Do you know exactly what kind of people find value in your company’s product or service? Is your brand working as hard as it could for you? Your branding should really represent and reflect your business as it stands now – because like it or not mostly everyone’s business has pivoted to an extent in the past three quarters.
We’ve rebranded a good number of our clients in the past 6 months – helping them really understand who they are, what they stand for, who their core audience is, and how they want to do business going forward. With a detailed Brand Elaborative in hand, business owners can easily discern where to focus their efforts and how to effectively market to their audience. It’s a map that leads them in the right direction for marketing in 2021.
Visual Marketing 101: Refresh your logo to reflect your brand’s mission.
A logo refresh is honestly a great place to start the new year as a Marketing 101 first step. New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t just be limited to a new diet, exercise routine or haircut. Your business can experience the same shot-in-the-arm – with a new logo – that a new haircut gives you. Armed with a strong visual presence, a lively color palette and versatile modern typefaces your brand now has new tools and a new voice to build community with your customers.
When you update your logo, you’ve created a reason to talk about your business, just as you would personally with a new haircut or new exercise routine. Keep your customers excited about the future. People want to hear good news, and celebrate success – since it seems in short supply recently – and with your new look and confident voice you can connect with them and bring them along to share in the journey.
If your brand was a person, would people want to hang out with them?
With your new branding and logo in hand, extend your voice and visuals to your social media and your website with a powerful Content Marketing plan. Make your customers feel like a community. Make them feel valued and a sense of belonging by helping them, educating them, solving their problems and being there when they need you. Your brand can have a definite personality and power. And your brand can use those powers for good. That’s a brand that people want to hang around with – the one that makes them feel important and smart.
Got limited resources? Marketing 101 says use what you have.
We hear you. One super efficient thing that brands can do is repurpose their existing content across channels. One way we maximize our client’s effectiveness is to take a look at what they have already done well and double down.
A great company brochure can be turned into 20 Facebook social media posts and most likely a blog post or two, with relevant bits of information and helpful graphics. Every company’s website is a treasure trove of social media content that’s already been written, just waiting to be broken into little pieces and shared as social media. Sometimes just having a fresh outside eye look at your company’s assets can help you see that you have more than you thought you did!
Be the best version of yourself for 2021.
Overall, when we’re looking at what to recommend to our small and medium-sized businesses for 2021, we keep coming back to these important things. Remind yourself of who you are and why you do what you do (branding), show your audience you mean it (logo) and bring them into your brand’s community (website, social, content marketing). A brand is a promise, and 2021 can be the year your brand makes a promise to be the best version of themselves.
If you’re like a lot of businesses this year, you threw out your 2020 marketing plan and have been in triage mode for six months. Q4 is the perfect time to re-evaluate your company’s marketing plan to include a good marketing planning outline and process, messaging, strategies and brand.
This year’s best laid marketing plans were most likely laid to waste in the second quarter. It’s now Q4 of a very weird year – speaking from, well, every point of view – and everyone is working under the guise of not knowing what is coming next or when. Some businesses are continuing to just execute 2020 marketing strategies with messaging that is not currently relevant to growing their top line or their bottom line. Stop reacting and get proactive with your brand.
Typically, clients reflect and plan ahead this time of year, and this Q4 should be no exception.
In fact, we recommend doubling down on the planning. This year though, planning may look a lot like pivoting for most businesses. There is very little business-as-usual going on, and your company’s business plan should reflect that fact.
We are working with clients that are facing different year end results – from more than 75% decline in sales, to flat, to having the best year ever. We have clients who’s marketing plan has them pivoting completely and launching new brands, born of the new normal or a long-held dream. But the one thing all of our clients have in common right now is that they are planning in order to be able to continue to pivot if need be. They are ensuring that their future strategies will be on-brand even if the content has to change.
Now is the perfect time to step back from your business plan and take an objective perspective on your company’s state of affairs.
Is your brand’s marketing plan going in the right direction? Do you need a more focused or broader message? Are your communication strategies getting you in front of the right customers on the right social media channel? Is your brand voice in tune with the state of the world? Know who you are, what you stand for and how to communicate that mission to your customers. What is your highest and best use? When you have a plan, this is how you can frame all of your future content – even if it keeps changing.
Plan ahead to pivot.
Planning a marketing infrastructure to put in place now and building on it through Q1 and Q2 of next year can help pivot your brand toward a new goal, refine your mission and elevate your relevancy. Have a plan in place to be able to address the unknown needs of your customers as they arise in 2021. You don’t necessarily need the answers now, but you need to have a plan to be able to answer the questions your customers will have. Your marketing plan for next year should include key messages, strategies, a budget, timeline and content calendar through Q2 of 2021 to carry your company into Q3. Spend your marketing time wisely this quarter to build the brand you’ve always wanted to become next quarter and beyond.
