Multi-channel marketing, sometimes called integrated marketing, continues to set foot as the top industry strategy to maximize engagement with your key target demographic. Brands use this popular method to interact with their audience using a combination of marketing channels.

The various mediums to reach customers can include email, telemarketing, newspapers, television, social media, digital marketing, and native online advertising. So, how do marketers pick the right channel?

1) Identify your audience: Does your audience read the newspaper, or are they more suited to click a display ad on websites they already visit? Know your audience to determine the right platform.

2) Don’t get carried away: Two to three channels are usually enough to test the waters in a new marketing campaign. Stick to known strategies to generate the best results.

3) Consistency matters: Regardless of the strategies you choose, it’s imperative to treat them as a single plan. Make sure your message and voice are the same throughout your campaigns.

4) Measure everything: Some marketers will test a single channel against a multi-channel approach to measure results. This is called A/B testing and it allows revisions to either plan, improving overall quality.

Are you ready to create a multi-channel marketing campaign? Stick with these four tips, and you’ll be prepared to tackle any project. If it seems more than you want to handle or if you don’t have time to do the research, call Branding Iron Management. We can help.

How your business acts during times of uncertainty can shape your customers’, current and potential, perception of your brand and business. Marketing is an essential way to not only keep your customers loyal to your brand, but also support them during a time of crisis. 

Keep your customers informed

Maintaining open communication about the status of your business keeps your customers in the loop and lets them know how they can continue to support your business. 

Example: Proactively communicating changes in service such as drive thru, pick up, or delivery options.

Show how your company is helping

When your brand is helping the community, show your customers how they can help as well. This is a good alternative when it is not appropriate to display your own offerings. 

Example: Using social media to show how your employees are staying connected to each other by supporting the local community and recovery efforts.

Strategically reposition your brand

Make sure that your brand avoids looking tone deaf in light of the current crisis.

Example:  Listen to what your customers are reporting online and develop a response that shares what your business can realistically do, while also addressing their needs.

Prepare now for your future customers

Crises like COVID-19 don’t last forever. Use this opportunity to lay out the groundwork for how your company will function in the future.

Example: If your business is slowing right now, use the down time to develop new marketing strategies for attracting new and returning customers. 

Marketing your business during the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can be challenging. Regardless, it’s important to come up with solutions that allow you to generate sales and revenue.

How can you effectively market to consumers who may have limited access to regularly frequented businesses? How do you market to businesses when everyone is working from home? Companies have started to adapt and overcome these obstacles. Here are four ways you can get started:

1. Remain Customer-focused

A customer-focused marketing strategy is a winning marketing strategy. Your marketing efforts should be less focused on what makes your company great and more focused on how your company is helping your customers. What about your product or service can directly benefit them at this very moment? Instead of focusing on the features of your products, focus on the benefits to them.

2. Stay Front and Center

Continue to stay in front of consumers, because when they’re ready to buy, you want it to be from you. Ride out the waves. Focus on the future possibilities and partnerships. There are still consumers and businesses who need your services. Don’t make them find you. Lead them to you. As more continue to open back up for business, they will need you. You don’t have to spend a giant ad budget to remind your customer you are the expert in your field. There are affordable options.

3. Give and Tell

Storytelling is a compelling way to connect with your audience and gain exposure. Tell relevant, authentic stories about how your company is contributing to ease the pain of the pandemic. Do something that stands out. Is your company supporting those who need it most right now? Tell the world and remain humble in your messaging.

4. Be Authentic

When is the last time you reviewed value propositions? What about your customer experience? This crisis has reminded us how important a brand’s authenticity is. Use good taste in your message and approach, and people will be more receptive to hearing what you have to say. You need to speak less about yourself and more about your customers.

Creating a customer experience that builds trust, loyalty, and confidence in your brand is crucial. While this isn’t new, we’re forced to rethink our current strategies. These tips can help make your marketing strategy during this pandemic a time of growing rather than a time of shrinking. It won’t be easy, but it can and will be done if you stay positive, stay calm and be tenacious in your efforts.

Branding Iron can help you build a strategy to grow when everyone else is contracting. Call us today.

Write this down: People aren’t going to wait for the answer. They’ll simply leave your page and go look for what they want somewhere else.

Today’s marketing world is all about providing customers with what they want, right when they want it. It’s no longer enough that you’ve selected a niche or a product that’s popular. Or that you’ve done your keyword research, picked feature images that convert, or built a high-quality links. To get real leads that convert, you have to offer exactly what your target audience is looking for. That’s why before you get into actually creating content — whether it’s a pay per click, blog, email, or social media post — it’s important that you know and understand the user intent of your chosen topic.

Let’s talk about what user intent is, how you can research it, and where you can find help that’s already winning to give you some serious inspiration.

What is user intent?

The term may sound self-explanatory and simple. Since it’s an important strategy that can make or break your performance online and is often missed by marketers, it’s worth learning more about it.

User intent tells you what people are looking for or want to find when they type a query into a search engine. It considers the keywords used in those queries and goes deeper to understand the context or intention behind the words.

There are three different types of user intent:

• Informational – Users want to learn something and are looking for resources that cover their query.
• Navigational – People are searching for specific websites that can and will satisfy their search.
• Transactional – Users want to make a purchase and are looking for specific products and services or sites that offer these.

Why does user intent matter?

When we create content, we tend to create what we want other people to learn about. However, this isn’t about us. Not at all. It’s about them.

User intent helps you create content that clearly answers what your audience is looking for so you can meet their specific needs – whether it’s through blogging or even on social media (more on this in a moment). It enables you to achieve higher SEO rankings and conversion rates and maximizes your click-through rates.

Similarly, user intent determines if your page visitors read your content or they go elsewhere to find better answers for their queries.

Essentially, the goal here is to provide users exactly what they’re looking for immediately. Otherwise, they’ll leave your page right away and find solutions somewhere else. That’s why understanding and implementing user intent is important for marketers and content creators.

For example, let’s say that you want to write about at-home high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercises. You then craft an in-depth blog post that’s well-researched and highly optimized with the outline:

• What is HIIT? Where and when did it start?
• Benefits of HIIT exercises
• Testimonials and proven results of HIIT
• Home HIIT exercises

After you publish this, you soon realize that your post is not getting good results. Maybe you’re not even in the search rankings. Most likely it’s because you’re not immediately satisfying the needs of people who search for “at-home HIIT exercises.”

Yes, you’ve provided relevant information and value, but no one is going to read through an entire post just to find the answers they need. “Well, if the information is good enough, they’ll keep reading,” you’re saying. Wrong. It’s not about how good the information is. It’s about how easy you make it for the reader to get the answers that they came for.

This means, to satisfy user intent, you must give them what they’re looking for – right away. Playing hard to get might work in dating, but that’s not the case here.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t write about the other details. Of course, you can. And maybe you should. But do so only after you’ve fulfilled the user intent and highlighted the answers they’re searching for.

Wait — Isn’t user intent only important for blogs?

Great question! The answer is a resounding no.

Yes, knowing the user intent for a search query is incredibly helpful when crafting a blog post, because this is going to help you rank. But blogs aren’t the only content you create.

You can take this information and insight you gather and apply it so that you’re also satisfying your audience via social media and email marketing. For example, if people are coming to your Facebook page or subscribing to your email list to learn about new HIIT workouts, then this is exactly what they want! Give it to them.

Therefore, user intent is your BFF through any and all content creation — blogging, social media, email marketing, and beyond.

How can we determine user intent?

Fortunately, discovering and satisfying user intent is not as complicated as it sounds. Here are simple tips you can implement today.

First, determine specific search metrics like the volume of a keyword, CPC (cost per click), competition, related keyword suggestions, seasonal trends, and even content ideas. All of these things will give you a better understanding of what your competitors are doing and what the consumers are searching for on Google. If you need help, Branding Iron research teams are experts in helping define these metrics.

Here’s some sample data using researching “home HIIT.” This shows that the average monthly search volume is 1,300 and it recently saw a huge spike. (This aligns with when the pandemic arrived and quarantine was starting.)

When you scroll further down in the data, you see keyword (read: topic) ideas. This tells you what people online care about when it comes to this topic.

See how this can guide you when you’re creating content for the internet?

Note that this is barely scratching the surface!

Another strategy you can implement is to head on to Google and see what autocompletes your keywords. This will help you find what related searches people are conducting so you can narrow down your general topic into what meets user intent.

Remember, what you see here is not random and it’s not a coincidence. Google is telling you what people are searching for that has to do with “home HIIT.”

Then, you can really narrow down what your audience wants to learn about online.

Great, but what does this all mean?

Let’s keep rolling with our example of at-home HIIT exercises. Take a look at the keyword ideas in one of the previous screenshots. Notice a pattern?

The ideas mostly revolve around exercises and workouts. In other words, this is what people want. They don’t want to know about the history of HIIT or its benefits. They don’t want testimonials or reviews. They want workouts that they can follow, period.

In the sample blog we referenced, this was the last point we covered, which is why a blog that centers on that keyword but uses the outline we provided would likely fail.

Again, this isn’t to say that the other information isn’t quality or insightful. But it’s not what people want to read about when they search that query.

Satisfying user intent is your primary goal. Do that first and foremost, and then if you want to include additional information later on in the piece of content, do so.

Write this down: People aren’t going to wait for the answer. They’ll simply leave your page and go look for what they want somewhere else.

Look at what is already succeeding

This is one of the last points that we want to leave you with, and it’s another game-changer.

Pay very close attention to what ranks on the first page of the search results. Google wants to provide the best user experience and makes sure people find what they’re looking for immediately, so they prioritize content and sites that accomplish that.

So, it helps to study what these top-ranking pages are doing for the search query that you want to rank for – how they answer the query, what information they include, how they format their posts, and so on.

If you want to compete with them, then you need to satisfy user intent at least as well as they do.

However, keep in mind that these should only serve as inspiration. Never (ever!) copy what high-ranking pages are doing. Rather, strive to outrank them by creating even better content. This isn’t about stopping at their level. It’s about surpassing them. That’s how you’ll outrank them.

The point is this: You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to answering user intent. Google already flat-out tells you what people like: It’s the content ranking on page one of the search results. Follow their lead and then go the extra mile with your own content.

The key takeaway

People do online searches to find answers to their problems. With user intent, you can understand what they need and provide solutions to what they’re looking for immediately.

Similarly, we’re not telling you to disregard your SEO best practices of optimizing your blog, adding graphics and social media embeds, or using keywords effectively. These things still matter, and you should still incorporate SEO best practices.

However, Google is getting savvier by the day. What used to be enough to rank well isn’t enough anymore. You can perfectly optimize a piece of content in the traditional sense. If it doesn’t satisfy user intent, then it’s 100% a moot point. Google’s #1 priority is “customer service” — meaning user experience. They want people using the search engine to find what they need as quickly as possible.

Make the user happy and you make Google happy. Subsequently, you’ll be rewarded with better rankings and greater traffic.

Keep following traditional SEO best practices . And in addition, you should take it a step further by offering satisfaction through user intent.

Too much to tackle on your own. Call Branding Iron and we’ll do the heavy lifting for you. It’s that simple. We can help you grow your business while you work on doing what you do best!

The time that Americans have spent streaming has gone through the roof since the start of COVID-19, according to new research conducted by OnePoll on behalf of AVoD service Tubi.

A study of 2,000 Americans with access to a streaming service found the average person is now streaming eight hours of content per day, and binge-watched three shows in the past week.

Time in front of the TV has become a parenting technique for many with children as 65 percent of parents polled admitted they’ve been allowing kids to watch more movies and TV shows.

The survey found the average person has access to four streaming services with 38 percent logging into five or more. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed have turned to free streaming services to watch movies and TV shows to complement their existing subscription services or help cut costs.

Since the start of Coronavirus in the United States, three in four admit to using streaming services more.

The surveys also revealed it takes the average person 21 minutes to decide what they’re going to watch, but even after all that time, 56 percent frequently re-watch a show instead of starting something new.

All that re-watching can lead to people feeling out of the loop since three in five have felt pressure to watch the latest show taking the zeitgeist by storm. A third even admitted to lying about seeing a show.

However, once people press ‘Play’ on a new show, a binge frequently takes over. One in two have completed their shortest binge in 48 hours or less.

Viewers will get crafty in order to try new streaming services. Half of the respondents confessed to starting a free trial of a platform and then cancelling it once they finished the show they wanted to see.

“The findings of the survey illuminate just how much people are turning to streaming as a way to stay entertained and cope with social isolation,” notes Tubi. “Americans are bingeing more content than ever before, seeking free streaming options alongside subscription services, and turning to password sharing as a way to find more content.”

Forty-two percent have shared or received a streaming service password from another person since the spread of COVID-19 in the US.

Two in five confessed to still using their ex’s passwords to streaming services even before coronavirus.

Men were most likely to log into a former partner’s account to watch their favourite movies and TV shows with 47 percent, while only 41 percent of women have done the same.

The average person employs this tactic three times a year, which is not surprising since 55 percent named price as a reason to cancel a streaming service.

“As more people are staying home to practice social distancing, streaming and entertainment has never been more important. Whether you’re looking for new TV shows and movies to round out your streaming library, or you want to save a bit of money, checking out free, ad-supported streaming services is a great option,”.

With all the increase in streaming services is it any wonder there are opportunities to increase your business exposure without increasing your budget. Call Branding Iron today to learn how your local business can take advantage of streaming video and music for your advertising.

Still spending money on ads in the yellow pages? Really?  It’s not 1982 any more.

It’s time, Y2K didn’t end the world and you need to let go of the phone book ads. Every year, I still have a select few that ask the question: should I re-up with the Yellow Pages (or Superpages, or Yellow Book, etc.)?

We can say with certainty that it’s not a wise investment to purchase display ads in phone directories.

This is especially true when online usage continues to expand, including in huge leaps among the demographic most likely to use phone directories: older Americans. With increased usage by the phone book’s core audience (43% of senior citizens and increasing daily, according to Pew Internet Research), online searches will become more important, and, conversely, yellow pages will be used less and less.

Most importantly, determining your return on investment, or ROI, for your yellow pages ads can be difficult, whereas it is easy to calculate your exact costs and earnings from online marketing. Forbes discusses the reasons why it suggests that only select local businesses should expect good ROI from yellow pages, and why it’s likely that your business would benefit more from investing in online marketing and pay-per-click advertising.

So, here are the top three reasons why you should invest in inbound marketing, not the yellow pages:

1. Yellow pages ads and more expensive

Indeed, we are regularly pitched by the various yellow page providers to advertise. Our businesses find their customers are almost solely sourced through Google search, word-of-mouth, or both, and we hear similar facts from other businesses. So, if your potential customers are online, and you are online, why not take the shortest path from A to B? True, most providers will bundle “clicks” with their ads, but you still must decide if the investment is really worth it.

The general measurement for marketing is cost per thousand. This means how much it cost you to reach 1000 people. Some digital tools start at $5 cost per thousand. They may print thousands of phone books but how many of them actually get used. That’s all that really matters. Our advice this year is to divert that investment to online marketing. Potentially, invest that money in a new website that is SEO-friendly, mobile responsive (so it works on mobile devices & tablets) and up-to-date with respect to design, and invest time in your Google My Business listings. These are the “new phone books” and if you’re not there, you don’t exist to online shoppers.

2. Never pay to be listed in a phone book or online directory

Nearly every directory offers a free listing. In our experience, the only clicks worth paying for online are through search engines like Google or Bing. It would be difficult to even justify the effort to get you manually listed in all the relevant directories, when pay-per-click is typically inexpensive and completely trackable.

3. Be found for what you, not who you are

When someone knows who they want to do business with, they look for that company’s name. More importantly when they don’t know, they search for the service they need. It’s more important that your business is found when the potential client DOESN’T already know with whom they want to do business. You have an opportunity to take market share from your competitor. Today, that means they search on their smartphones for the service or ask a friend on social media.

What about SEO? Don’t phone directories boost search engine traffic? Certainly listings in online directories can increase clicks, but they can also hurt the performance of your own website, ranking directories for critical results above your own site. In other words, your listings in online phone directories can hurt your overall search engine performance. You probably receive numerous emails and phone calls from “online marketers” saying you need to build backlinks to increase traffic — and that was true for years, but not really relevant in the new Google milieu.

You want your site to be the authority on your industry, product, or service in your geographic area, and earning that position is no longer a product of the number of times your site is listed on other websites. Rather, solid online marketing techniques mixed with authoritative, expert content updated regularly is what will boost your rankings and increase your traffic.

In short, your “SEO” company or your web agency should help you make your site as effective from a marketing standpoints as possible, and should also help create an inbound marketing strategy that relies on best practices for solid ROI, not to prop up a business model that is struggling to survive in the 21st century.

You may be thinking, what if I don’t understand digital marketing, where do I start?

The first thing you need to do is accept that all forms of traditional marketing that made you successful in the past are not obsolete. If you do not want to take my word for it, that’s understandable. Do your research and you will see the statistics.

Digital marketing has so many more options and it leaves most people overwhelmed. Here are your options:

• Contact digital marketing companies to give presentations on their services – (You learn a lot)
• Research options yourself (Time consuming)
• Hire a marketing team to do the heavy lifting for you

Branding Iron can save you time in research and finding the most efficient means for helping your clients find your business. We can do a full analysis of your online presence and give free advice and options for services with no commitment. Call us today.

Traditional broadcast advertising might be seen as old fashioned, especially with the rise of the Internet and other types of digital media. Please know this is NOT the case. Commercial broadcast (TV & Radio) reaches millions every week. On average, more than 17 hours of the week are spent engaged with broadcast delivery with the majority of it at home and in the car. Below lists out a few benefits for advertising using traditional broadcast tools:

Selective targeting

Most TV & Radio stations already target specific demographics and market segments. Therefore, by choosing which station to broadcast with, you can lock into your potential customers and increase the frequency of delivering your message. Selective placement allows marketers to target their demographic with remarkable accuracy.

Increased frequency

Advertising works with frequency and reaching your audience repeatedly. Broadcast is the perfect medium for this, being able to expose your ad to the audience repeatedly to build awareness. Also, due to the loyalty of people listening to the same station, you are able to impact the same people more often. Studies have shown that creating brand recognition in this fashion increases conversion on leads by as much as 23%!

More memorable

Compared to written advertisements, sight and sound are more effectively stored in memory. In addition, there is the ability to instill emotion that also allows listeners to use their imagination to create their own image of the product/service. Have you ever heard a song that takes you back to a place in time? Broadcast sticks in your memory like an earworm.

Cost effective

While there are up front costs for producing some commercials, there are very efficient ways to deliver the message. If your target is reaching the largest number of people possible with one commercial or using many commercials to accomplish a high frequency, finding the right tool for the job is paramount. Experts in the field can help you accomplish your goals of reaching the most people for the least amount of money. Stretching your dollar to make it most effective. Sure, digital media can be cheap, but sometimes you get what you pay for if you are not careful.

Time efficiency

Lead times with other media like print or billboard ads can be very long, especially with planning. In contrast, producing a broadcast spot can occur between two to three weeks and in some cases, days. Another advantage of this is the ability to adapt and react quickly to changing market conditions.

Measurable results

It is possible to track broadcast results. We have the tools necessary. You can track results quickly and accurately where it may take months for measurable results or print media which can be even more difficult to track. Results for broadcast ads can be analyzed on a daily basis, and if the message is not working in a week or two, a new spot can replace it efficiently as mentioned above.

With the widespread access people have to broadcast, even indirectly through shopping centers and supermarkets, broadcast continues to have a big presence in the advertising industry. Small businesses should continue to consider it as a top medium to advertise their product/services as the advantages over other resources remain strong.

For help finding the targeted, memorable, efficient marketing for your company, call Branding Iron Management today.

Let’s imagine that you’re back in school, and it’s time to take a pop quiz! Scary, right? Don’t worry. There are no right or wrong answers here. You’re guaranteed to get an “A” for effort.

Are you ready?

Name a soft drink.

Name a car make.

Name a fast-food chain.

What were your answers? Why do you think these brands just sort of rolled off the tongue? More than likely, it means that these companies have done a great job in creating top of mind awareness. You may be wondering how your brand can achieve that same type of precedence. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of 5 ways to help create top of mind awareness.

 

Look the part

When you named those brands above, there’s a good chance that their logos popped into your head. Looking back now, you may not have noticed this. Humans are often visual learners. Therefore, if a logo is memorable, it may be the first thing we associate with the brand. Ensure that your logo accurately represents your business without being overly complicated.

 

Give your audience what they want – no more, no less

Avoid fluff. Give your target audience only the information they crave. Providing consistent, valuable content will create repeat visitors who eventually become customers. Having a blog provides a great channel for this content. Remember to write about relevant topics that are appealing to your ideal consumers, not just to yourself.

 

Stand out in search results

We see a 17-23% increase in our digital pay per click conversion when we add traditional media like radio and TV to our marketing mix. That’s exclusively due to top of mind awareness. People are more comfortable clicking on an ad online when it’s a brand they’ve already heard of before. When you combine your traditional marketing campaign strategy with your digital creative, you make a lethal one-two combo that your customers find irresistible.

 

Stay social

Social media presence is a contributing factor to your company’s brand exposure. It doesn’t hurt that social media consumption went through the roof during the pandemic. It also sends the message that your company is relevant and up-to-date with current trends. In a study conducted by Nielsen, it was reported that 46% of online users rely on referrals from friends on social media to help them make purchase decisions.

If a potential customer searches for your brand on Facebook and comes up with nothing, it can send a bad message, giving your competition the opportunity to sweep in and steal that potential lead. Finally, because people spend a good portion of their day on social networks, this media provides a relatively low-cost way to meet them where they are.

 

Play nice

Don’t waste your time, resources, and efforts talking bad about the competition. Realize that by doing this, you’re only paying to put their name in the minds of consumers. You’re also casting a negative light upon your own brand in the process.

 

Following these 5 tips will set you on the right path to gaining top of mind awareness. If you would like help growing your top of mind awareness call Branding Iron Management today, opinions are always free and we’ll steer you in the right direction at no cost to you.  

The engine of the economy has slowed and you need to increase sales to keep cash flow moving. We get it. You must turn a profit to stay in business. That’s why some small business owners, hoping to jump-start sales, have slashed prices.

This short-term solution has a long-term downside: eye-popping prices will bring more customers in the door, but those same prices set dangerous expectations. When sale signs come down and the prices go back up, customers hooked by the initial deal disappear.

The discounter’s dilemma

People don’t see discounts as discounts – they see sale prices as the product’s true market value, the amount they should be expected to pay at any time. When prices return to their original level, people shut their wallets until the next sale. That traps entrepreneurs in a cycle of ever-thinning margins until they can no longer afford to remain in business.

I’ve seen businesses get sucked into this whirlpool time and time again. A cleaning-service startup charged north of $85 for a house cleaning, but in a bid for fast growth, it dropped its price to $19. Thousands jumped at the introductory offer, but – surprise – didn’t return for the restored $85 edition.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. If you lower your prices, you signal to customers that your product isn’t worth what it used to be. Don’t fall into price-cutting peril. Follow these steps to keep your margins manageable and customers paying what you’re worth.

 

1. Build trust before you bust

The verdict is in, and has been for some time: trust leads to sales. With 83% of customers recommending trusted brands to others and 82% frequenting brands they trust, entrepreneurs must vigilantly build trust with their current crop of customers.

Fortunately, entrepreneurs have plenty of opportunities to do just that. Becoming a thought leader builds trust and positions the brand as an authority in its space. Top of mind awareness through traditional media helps people recognize and trust your brand over time. Traditional media also increases conversion on new digital media.

 

 

2. Retarget top shoppers

Retargeting allows entrepreneurs to reach into the past and bring former, or existing, customers back to the cash register. Considering that 70 percent of site visitors are more likely to convert after viewing a retargeted ad, the retargeting mantra bears repeating.

Retargeting tags customers that have been to your website or liked your social media and follows them with advertising around the world wide web. It’s a cool new tool available to small businesses, and it’s more affordable than most people imagine.

So, don’t spend days sniffing out new customers while you neglect the easy sales right in your backyard. An interior design company made ad retargeting the centerpiece of its own campaign to reclaim customers, and it worked. The brand doubled monthly revenues in four months and increased client lifetime value by 29%.

 

3. Be loyal to your loyalists

Study after study has found that it’s more cost-efficient for brands to retain customers than to acquire new ones, so give your super fans ample reason to return. Provide perks like free shipping and early access to merchandise for your best customers, and they’ll provide you the revenue to keep growing. Use social media to incentivize loyalists to refer to friends. Make fans feel like MVPs. Without discounting your product, you can invest in your loyal customers and incentivize their return.

 

4. Strike when the market’s down

During an economic slump, like a pandemic, niches in your industry will open up as other companies contract. As your competitors fall and fail for slashing their prices, your brand has plenty of room to grow.

It’s not only retail businesses that can benefit from a sluggish market. Lots of companies saturate social media platforms when times are good. Companies stick with the relationships they know, and pickings are slim. When they raise prices or start to close, that’s your cue to swoop in, snagging clients who are unhappy with their current situation. While everyone likes a bull market, downturns offer unexpected opportunities for growth.

 

So, don’t slash your prices to make a quick buck. Double-down on branding, make existing customers the star of your show and seek expansion opportunities when others tuck tail. Branding Iron Management is here to help you keep your head held high in tough times, so your brand is sure to flourish when bluer skies return.

As many of us continue to be locked inside, we’re getting bombarded with marketing messages. Are you wondering if you’re making a positive brand impression on consumers? New research shows how that impression comes down to the advertising format used, the frequency of messaging, and the offers you are making.

 

Marketing formats

Positive brand impact and increased sales are among the reasons to use the new marketing formats that have become increasingly popular with brands. Yet, we’ve learned that the following marketing formats delivered the best brand impressions:

Recommendations: 46%

Positive online reviews: 41%

TV ads: 24%

Social network ads: 24%

Recommendations always have been and will remain at the top of the list. The data in the above list is based on global input.

 

Use of personal information

In the U.S., 57% of consumers say they are less willing to buy or use a product from a company that has used their personal data. To maintain a positive brand impression, your clients should be upfront about what they are doing with the information. Consumers are waking up to the fact that marketers view them as valuable, and the way brands use personal data definitely impacts public opinion. Over 60% of consumers want to be incentivized for marketer use of their data. There are some data points that consumers will share more readily than others. Information on entertainment history (84%) or hobbies (82%) falls into the shareable category. However, only 41% are into sharing their faces, and just 37% will give up biometrics.

 

Messaging frequency

All advertisers are walking a tightrope right now. They want to stay in touch with consumers during the pandemic, but not overstep with an inappropriate amount of messages. Our research suggests that using the right frequency is also important. Here’s how often consumers want to hear from your clients:

Daily: 10%

Weekly: 45%

Monthly: 31%

Once every three months: 7%

Less often: 7%

 

Positive brand impression

If you are planning to communicate with customers, do so in a way that will be appreciated. Consumers want to get discounts and offers (59%), an announcement of new products or services (31%), and new product reviews (27%). This consumer desire is present regardless of the pandemic status.

To maintain a positive brand impression, you should buy advertising in a range of formats. Beyond that, don’t risk breaking trust with consumers by being reckless with their personal information. To learn more about which consumers react to specific forms of advertising, contact Branding Iron Management.