Hey there!
We all have to agree that the business world continues to evolve year after year, and the internet today is no less than an ocean – an ocean of content & advertisement. A person like you & me is bombarded with an uncountable number of ads in a day that it’s even hard to remember that last ad that we saw.
It’s a competitive world out there and to stand out, brands really need to push their limits and reconfigure the way the brands talk to their audience.
Gone are the days when a brand would use a social media strategy like the one that is mentioned below. Earlier, every brand was using the same approach, which made them all look the same to a common man.
Every social media strategy constituted of 5 common pillars:
- Product – It was all about the features and benefits of a particular product.
- Brand – It was all about brand communication, CSR, news, and updates that were about the brand.
- Engagement – Who doesn’t want to earn a freebie by just posting a selfie or writing something good! Engagement meant contests and where there were contests, there were contest mongers too.
- Topical or Contextual – This pillar had every festival or a day that you could think out. India won a match? Let’s do a topical post. Beyonce delivered a baby? Let’s do a congratulatory post.
- Interactive – They call it interactive, we call it leveraging the platform well. Polls, Live, Story, and new formats all come under the interactive pillar.
And a similar story goes for influencer, media, and branded content. If you observe closely, all the marketing that is being done today is done to attract a potential customer. But in the cut-throat competitive world of the internet, you need to be different to be able to rise above your competition.
Do you know the sole purpose of marketing? Since its inception, marketing was always a problem-solver. The sole purpose of marketing was to help a consumer to find a solution to their problem. The secondary purpose was to make sure that the consumer is satisfied with the product or service that you offered.
Let me give it another jargon, CLIENT DELIGHT!
I feed a brand is called a separate entity for a reason. These brands exist to provide solutions and help customers as humans. We know about the Corona Virus outbreak – it’s one of those topics that we can’t stop talking about in our day-to-day life, but did you see any brand asking about your well-being or even about your insecurities on social media?
A simple tweet from a retail brand saying,
“Hey fam, as you are aware of the coronavirus outbreak, we are sharing a list of precautions that you should follow. Stay safe, stay protected. If you are in these cities, please avoid visiting our stores. Order it online!”can bring a revolution.It would show the humane side of the brand.
Today, some of the brands use this conversation tone to engage with other brands online but not with their customers. Imagine the day when your favorite brand starts talking to you like another human.
Wouldn’t it be impactful?
The year 2020 is going to be all about conversations. How wonderful & exciting it would be when a brand simply asks its consumers to share a joke about Monday blues because the brand is dealing with it.
Let me tell you all this is not easy! Humanizing a brand is not a child’s play. It takes a lot of experience & an in-depth understanding of the target audience along with a clear-cut brand objective to be able to connect with the TG as a human instead of a brand.
I believe there should be just two main pillars of your marketing strategy – Information and Conversation. A perfect balance of these two is a BANG ON digital marketing strategy for your brand.
Don’t like this approach, or do you have a better one? comment below. I’m open to hearing you out.