It is an ongoing challenge for many brands, how do you engage customers in your business story? With the emergence of social media and company blogs it is more important than ever to develop a brand personality and to connect on a more personal level with consumers. So how do you go about telling your story in business?

The first step is to ensure that you have a select number of key messages. When someone thinks of your brand what do you want them to think? What are the key things that you would like consumers to know about your business? By identifying these top level messages you can then create a framework with which to create your content plan and tone of voice.

The next step is to recognise what your consumer is looking for, why would they come to you as a brand. There will normally be an emotional trigger of want or need on the part of the consumer. You then need to match up your key messages to this need, to create a connection in the heads of consumers between what you do and what you can do to help them meet this need.

Once you have these key messages and connection points identified, your entire content plan to should be built around them. Every piece of content and communication that you are putting out as a brand should match at least one of your key messages. In doing so you build a brand personality and a strong brand story. One that consumers can easily identify, relate to and ultimately engage with. Consistency is key, it keeps your brand story clear in the minds of consumers and helps you become a trusted, credible and authentic source of information.

Your brand story should incorporate all sides of your business and let consumers see behind the scenes as well as just showing them your shop front. Ultimately, the main goal of business storytelling is to increase brand awareness which will result in more business. And for many companies, this business is done between people. Yes, your online presence is for the brand but by letting consumers see the people behind the brand that make that story a reality you can build meaningful relationships with consumers.

Finally, show your consumers that you know their pain points, that you understand why they need your brand and tell them how you can help to solve their problem. Be helpful, give them the why and the how your brand will relieve the pain point. In doing so you can become the go to business for your target audience. Remember, consumers are looking for ease, they want know quickly whether you are the right brand for them in a sea of possible choices. By helping them connect with you through your brand story you are able to stand out from the competitors from the outset.

If you would like more information on how to build your brand story and establishing the key messages for your business get in touch with us today.

By now we all know how important social media is to marketing a business. Each social platform offers its own advantages to the marketing mix and allows a brand to communicate with its customers and potential customers in a completely different way to the traditional platforms they would once have used. Social media is live and fast paced and requires constant attention from a brand. Gone are the days when one post a week would suffice, social media now requires regular updates of original and engaging content. A company’s social media presence is often the first interaction a person has on their customer journey. So how do you shape your social media sales funnel from first interaction through to final purchase?

It is first important to understand where that customer is coming from and why their journey began. Generally, the trigger will be an emotional one of want or need for a product or service. This leads to the search process beginning, with initial considerations formed from experience, word of mouth recommendations and social media. And that is where your sale funnel begins. Ensuring you can be found on social media is your first step. Regular updates and growing a engaged and active follower base are key.

Then if a potential customer is searching on social media and they find you, what does your social presence tell them? Ensuring your company profiles are complete, your feed is full and active and your contact details are well displayed are all essential.

So, your potential clients first impression on social is good. They look further. What content have you been producing, what reviews have others given you, how well are you demonstrating your knowledge and expertise. The more visitors can feel that you are the go to expert, the more likely you are to create customer engagement and in turn drive traffic to your website. The content you produce has a big job to do in showing potential customers that you are the right product or service provider for them. It needs to build credibility and trust.

All your content across all of your online platforms should show visitors who your are as a brand or company. Choose a tone of voice and a brand story that you use across all instances of your brand, but especially across social media. Your visitors engagement with your social channels will often dictate whether you make it onto the shortlist of considerations. If you are able to engage and entice that visitor, they are then likely to do further research on you, often clicking through to your web site or relevant landing page.

Here it is your website content that needs to do the hard work in influencing a purchase decision. This content will normally be more ever green and product focussed and will allow this potential customer to have a far more in depth view of your company and the specific product or service they are in need of. Your website content should take your visitor on a smooth journey from landing page, through the product description, right through to point of purchase.

As much as it would be wonderful if this was one straight flow from initial trigger to purchasing your product, each stage may be fluid and it is worth bearing in mind that the same flow may be happening on a competitors social media too. It would be impossible to prevent customers looking else where, all you can do is ensure that your content is more engaging and your social media sales funnel is as seamless as possible.

You should also bear in mind that those visitors that go successfully through your funnel right through to purchase then have an opportunity to be influential to someone else’s consideration list at trigger. They may be giving word of mouth feedback or have left a review on social media. The social media sales funnel is part of a never ending circle and one that needs to be navigated carefully and with the customer front of mind.

If you would like more information on social media content or website content get in touch with us now.

Today is blue Monday, apparently the most depressing day of the year. According to a formula the third January of Monday combines a variety of factors which make for a pretty miserable day, these include the weather, debt, monthly salary, time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels, and the feeling of a need to take action. But is Blue Monday really a thing?

While Christmas now seems like a distant memory and payday is still out of touching distance, there are plenty of other things that could make this a great day. Lets face it none of us live in the UK for the great weather, and New Years resolutions are there to be broken. So what really makes today so terrible? Is it a concept provided by the media that we have embraced like so many others?

With #’s galore across social media suggesting everyone and their dog are suffering from Blue Monday, the risk is the trivialisation of depression and mental illness. With such effort going into breaking the stigma around mental illness and those affected by it, we should consider those around us that have Blue Monday and much worse every day of their lives. Instead of using Blue Monday as a reason to feel sorry for ourselves, let’s use it as a day to spread awareness.

According to mentalhealth.org 1 in 6 of us have experienced a mental health issue in the last week. And yet over half of those people would have been embarrassed or scared to speak to anyone about it. For those people around you suffering with anxiety and depression, be they family, friends, co-workers, use today to reach out to them, start a conversation, drop them a message, even a smile to a stranger on the train could make someones day a little less blue. In the process, it might make your day better too.