How do you break into the market when you are just starting? The great fanfare in the opening of your shop or restaurant will only reach the people who happen to pass by your location that day. For your business to thrive, you have to attract the attention of as many people as you could.
Good fiduciary advice includes investing in your branding as much as your effort in product development. Because it doesn’t matter that you have a good product if no one knows about it.
It is just like when you build a relationship. At the start, you don’t know the characteristics of the other person. You rely on what you see and what you hear about them. If the initial stories you hear, coupled with the image you see, interest you, that’s when you make the effort to get to know the other person better.
While many advertising campaigns are indiscriminate, it would be more efficient if you know your target market segment. They would be the most likely to need or want your product. It’s more profitable to invest in research that would identify this target segment for you than to spend on sweeping ad campaigns that are too generic and would most likely not catch anyone’s attention.
Once you have identified your market, you can then proceed with your strategy. Storytelling has becomemore important in marketing. But with all brands going this way, how could you stand out?
What is your story?
Everyone has a story to tell, but not all have interesting stories. Choose a story that connects you to your target buyers. If you are selling a non-essential product, you might want to target those who are prone to emotional spending. For example, if you are an ice cream company, relate to the emotions of people who buy ice cream when they’re sad. Or maybe those who buy ice cream when they’re celebrating a milestone in their lives.
Don’t give your buyers the story of how you started. Put that on your website but not as your ad campaign. Unless your story starts with a queen or some very famous individual experimenting with desserts, your history is not what would immediately interest your buyers.
Think of images that would represent your story.
With society more attracted to visual stimulation, tell your story through images. Make sure your images are not prone to double meanings. Or if they are, put them into a context to guide the interpretation of the viewers. For example, you choose the image of a clown to sell your party needs business. But the clown happens to have a different meaning in popular culture thanks to the hit movie It. Your image should show children enjoying the tricks of the clown because as a stand-alone figure, it could evoke different emotions.
Choose colors based on the mood you want to achieve. Make sure also it would hit with your target segment of society. If you’re trying to appeal to the rebellious side of teenagers, it would be awkward to use pastels. But the rules are not strict. If your message happens to be going against the norm that is requiring teenagers to act somber, then your color palette could be light and fresh.
Engage your audience
Telling your story is not enough with people seeing your ad. To get a lasting impression, you want them to interact with you. What can they do now that they’ve seen your brand? How can you hook them further? People want to be able to act on something they like. In writing, it is what they would refer to as the ‘call to action.’ Your brand campaign should have this. It’s telling your audience, hey, now that you think we’re interesting, why don’t you get to know more about us?
Campaigns that are still introducing a brand usually have promos and special programs. Promos in prices could pull in buyers who may already have preferred brands. You could design programs, however, that would make buyers feel that you respect their opinions. For example, some send out free samples if opinion leaders would comment on their product. You could also target those who just want to be the first to try anything, so they would gladly give a review or a recommendation for free.
Before going all out in your campaign, always test your materials so that you could still modify your strategy if needed. The mistake of small businesses that don’t have communications advisers is that they simply copy what other brands are doing because they perceive them to be successful. Again, unless you are selling an imitation of an already established brand, you have a different message to say, a different story to tell.
