Get your house in order. That’s a consistent recommendation we make to our customers and clients—from the new small business, to the established brands with proven products. With all the challenges businesses face today, start with what you can control: your brand, website, and owned content.
Many companies stop at their brand identity: the color palette, font, and logo that all work together to create a consistent experience for your audience. Your Brand Persona, too often overlooked, is in your hands and comes to life on your website and in your owned content. This is where you establish a meaningful relationship with your customer due to the space you occupy on their hearts and minds and based on how well your content personifies your brand.
Brand traction happens when your brand persona ripples through all your touchpoints. According to Hubspot, 86% of consumers prefer an authentic and honest brand personality on social networks. If you are not clear on your brand persona, you can guarantee that your brand will not show up with authenticity. Particularly with the continuously rising buying power of the Millenials, the honest depiction of your brand matters. Nearly 90% of consumers were willing to pay more for something when it comes from a brand they trust in 2021. When brands earn trust, rewards multiply.
We have some tips on how to get your brand persona defined. Once you can define the essence, you can build a playbook to ground your marketing efforts in consistent authenticity.
Consider your brand along a spectrum of the following characteristics:
- Friendly & Fun ⟺ Serious & Professional
- Confident & Sassy ⟺ Upscale & Ritzy
- Hipster & Relevant ⟺ Traditional & Timeless
- Inspirational ⟺ Attainable
- Risky & Innovative ⟺ Comfortable & Secure
- Indulgent & Luxe ⟺ Reasonable & Thrifty
- Creative & Energetic ⟺ Careful & Sophisticated
Based on your response, begin to form your brand’s tone of voice and personality. Without a dialed and believable brand persona, you will fail to grab the attention of the people you want to connect with most. Until you can clearly and succinctly express your brand’s tone of voice and personality, you’re wasting resources posting and planning.
Weave in visual assets, emoji’s, do’s and don’ts and begin to build your brand playbook. Keep in mind that social media is a relationship between your brand and the customer, it mirrors a human-to-human connection. Like any relationship worth keeping you have to commit yourself fully, both to the expression of your brand and to the personal customer experience you are creating for each member of your community. Social media isn’t a silver bullet, and it shouldn’t be used as a platform for mere transactions. Your brand should speak on a one to one level, while also cultivating and encouraging a community of those like minded.
Resources: Oberlo
In your corner,
Katie
