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10 Tips for Using Hashtags on LinkedIn

March 19, 2024/in Articles /by Nicole Wagner

Using hashtags on X, Instagram, and Facebook helps users reach an audience beyond their group of followers or friends. Hashtags mark content with keywords that are relevant to the message of the post. When users search those keywords, your content becomes visible to people who may not have known about your business previously. Hashtags are often viewed as a casual practice, yet they hold value on professional social platforms like LinkedIn. To make the most out of hashtags on LinkedIn, keep the following 10 tips in mind:

Tips To Use Hashtags on LinkedIn

1. Remember the hashtag rules

Hashtags can either be placed after your copy or embedded within it. However, you need to make sure that it’s relevant to your content. Additionally, do not hashtag every word in your post — doing so will just make it look like spam. LinkedIn allows you to include letters, numbers, and emojis in hashtags. The use of spaces and symbols within your tag will break the link. This means that you should avoid commas, hyphens, exclamation points, and apostrophes. You can use punctuation before and after you hashtag. Last, but not least, limit your hashtags to five at the very most. A string of hashtags in a single post can cause your post to be marked as spam by the LinkedIn algorithm.

2. Follow hashtags on LinkedIn

You can follow hashtags on LinkedIn. Adding hashtags to the Your Communities box allows you to monitor conversations and posts across LinkedIn that use the hashtags you’re following. This can be an effective way to monitor conversations about your brand, about your competitors, about your industry, and more. It can also help you identify influencers and leads. Additionally, following hashtags can help you discover ideas for new content.

3. Research hashtags to use

Pay attention to the content and posts published by other companies within your industry — or even those that you compete with directly. You can get a lot of ideas for hashtags to use from their content. You should also follow industry influencers on LinkedIn. If anyone knows how to use hashtags on LinkedIn correctly and effectively, it’s the influencers using LinkedIn.

4. Create a company hashtag

Create a hashtag that coincides with your company or marketing campaign in order to strengthen your brand identity. For example, WeWork asks both clients and prospects to use #wework on social media to share their personal stories. This creates a memorable experience for social media users and spreads the brand’s message through UGC.

5. Use the suggest hashtags feature

When you’re going through the process of posting something, LinkedIn has a feature that will automatically suggest a hashtag that’s relevant to your content. Check the hashtag they recommend and use it if you think it’s relevant.

6. Use hashtags in your comments

Besides using hashtags for the content that you post on your LinkedIn page, use hashtags in any comments you post on other published content or posts. This ensures that your comments will show up in that specific hashtag’s feed.

7. Use both niche and popular hashtags

Popular hashtags are hashtags that use broad keywords that will help expose your content to a potentially large audience. However, you can target a more specific audience with less hashtag competition by using hashtags that are associated with niches. There’s no reason to forego one type for the other — they can both have a positive impact on your marketing efforts.

8. Use location-based hashtags

A large number of users on LinkedIn aren’t from the U.S. If you’re trying to attract potential leads within a certain area or you are posting about a certain area, you may want to use a geo-specific hashtag. For example, if you’re partnering with a local restaurant in Detroit, you might want to add a hashtag on your announcement such as #Detroitrestaurants

9. Use event hashtags

Most events, such as industry events and conferences, have their own hashtags. Use these hashtags to let everyone know of your attendance or involvement with the event.

10. Reuse effective hashtags from successful posts

Use your analytics tools to identify the most successful posts. This can refer to posts that had a significant amount of clicks-through, comments, or shares. Take note of the hashtags that you used on these posts and be sure to use them again when it’s relevant to do so (you don’t want to use hashtags that aren’t relevant as this will just annoy users).

Hashtags on LinkedIn attract more leads to your business by making your posts easier to find and giving clients and prospects an interactive way to engage with you on social media. If your LinkedIn traffic is slow or if you simply want to communicate with more people, think of ways to start incorporating hashtags into your posts. Perhaps your next great marketing campaign will begin with a hashtag.

4 Tips on How to Leave Lasting Impressions on Customers

March 15, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Debbie Szwast

If you want to leave lasting impressions on your customers, you have to do more than sell them a service. Making their experience with your brand comfortable and enjoyable keeps them coming back over and over again. Giving customers individual attention and making them feel like you truly care about their needs will help them remember your business the next time they need your services. When it comes to leaving positive lasting impressions, the job does not end once they’re loyal to your business. You have to continue giving them positive experiences every time you’re in contact. Keep the following four tips in mind when interacting with your customers.

4 Tips to Leave Lasting Impressions on Customers

1. Don’t be afraid to get personal

While it’s important to focus on getting business done with customers, you should also take some time to personalize your conversations with them. Instead of jumping straight into the task at hand, first try to find out more about them as an individual. Ask them about their day and see if you can find a personal connection with them. Creating this bond with a customer will help them feel comfortable coming to you with their business needs, rather than going to a competitor.

Making personal connections with customers also shows them that your company is genuinely interested in them. Showing them your authenticity and desire to connect with them helps establish a strong level of trust. Remember, this relationship is a two way street. Let the customer get to know you and your business while you get to know them.

Simple Ways that Small Businesses Can Use Data to Build Better Customer Relationships.

2. Stay in touch

You want your customer to keep your business in mind long after your last interaction with them. This means regularly following up with them. Some ways you can keep up to date with them include weekly newsletters, customer appreciation emails and social media updates.

Making yourself available on social media is especially important. It reassures customers that they can easily reach you if they have any questions or concerns. Interacting with customers on social media is another way to convince them that your business values its customers.

The Power of Social Media Influencers: Why it works

3. Adapt to different styles of communication

Not every customer communicates in the same way. Some may be very straightforward and to the point, leaving little time for personal conversation or anything off topic. Other customers may prefer more casual conversation and want to chat on a personal level before addressing the business at hand. No matter how your customer prefers to communicate, you must be willing to adapt to accommodate them. If you talk to every customer in the same manner, they may struggle to connect with you and it might not leave the impression you’re aiming for.

4. Show customers you respect them

They say the customer is always right, but in some cases that simply is not true. When helping a customer, letting them know when they’re wrong in a respectful way shows you truly care about helping them get the best results. If you guide them to the solution, they’ll remember how helpful you were the next time they need your services. It’s crucial to be honest and direct with customers so they can trust your brand.

If it’s a matter of differing opinions, there may be no right or wrong answer. In this case, it’s important to respect the customer’s opinion, even if you disagree with it. Customers may not remember the exact topic you disagreed on, but they will remember if you treated them with kindness and respect. In the future, they may choose your brand because they know they can trust you to be authentic.

Whether you are resolving misunderstandings or respecting differing opinions, remember to focus on creating a respectful experience that reinforces your commitment to your customer’s satisfaction. Doing so will enhance customer loyalty. It will also establish your reputation for being trustworthy and considerate.

If you want to leave positive lasting impressions on customers, it’s essential to keep these 4 tips in mind. Personalizing your interactions and going above and beyond for each customer will help them remember you whenever they need your products or services. If you make your customer feel comfortable and respected, you can be sure you left them with the best possible impression of your brand.

Types Of Advertisement Opportunities For Popular Streaming Services

March 12, 2024/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, Directors /by Nicole Wagner

For years, the only way to reach audiences was through traditional types of advertisement such as print, TV, and radio. While these types of advertisement methods are still available, new methods of reaching your audience have opened up online; for example, streaming platforms. If you haven’t looked into advertising on a streaming services/platform, then you should.

Advertising on Streaming Services/Platforms

Streaming services/platforms, such as Netflix or Spotify, are like the online versions of radio and TV. The only difference being everything is available on demand. Essentially, the programming is more customizable. This allows users to create a more personal experience in regards to what they listen to and what they watch.

Traditional TV and radio is limited to the number of people watching or listening to any given program.Streaming platforms have more data available when it comes to the individual user and their watching or listening behaviors. This means that advertisers will be able to leverage their buyer persona information to more effectively reach their target audience with different types of advertisement methods using streaming services/platforms.

Due to the nature of streaming, advertisers often receive more exposure as well. For example, instead of running an ad on a show that airs once a week, you can run an ad on a show that can be streamed at any time. Since many consumers binge-watch their shows, you can gain massive amounts of exposure, staying at the top of mind by advertising throughout an entire season or series of a show. You’ll also be able to target more niche shows, podcasts or musicians that you know your specific target audience is more likely to be engaged with.

Learn More:3 Ways To Use Targeted Marketing To Reach Qualified Prospects

Popular Streaming Platforms/Services to Consider

The following are some of the different types of advertisement options available on some of the more popular streaming channels:

YouTube TV

YouTube TV is YouTube’s attempt to develop their own content streaming platform/service. It provides viewers with 50 live TV channels for a monthly fee. They’ve also made some innovations in regards to their different types of advertising options. For example, you can now target your ads to viewers that watch most of their TV online (also known as cord-cutters). You’ll also be able to use their DoubleClick Bid Manager. DoubleClick Bid Manager specifically targets viewers who are watching YouTube TV on their TV screens. This allows you to tailor different types of advertisements based on the environment in which they will be shown.

Hulu

Hulu is a video streaming platform with over 17 million subscribers. It is unique as it offers multiple ways to target your audience, and has numerous customization options. For example, their Targeted Blitz ability allows you to target by demographics, geographic area, genre, content length, and more. Splash allows you to intercept almost every unique viewer on a single day. Additionally, you can align your brand with episodes of specific shows. Hulu will even help hand-pick shows based on thematic relevance to your brand.

Spotify

Spotify is the most popular audio streaming subscription service on the planet. It has over 650 million users. Besides running targeted audio-only ads, there are plenty of other advertising opportunities available on the platform. These include podcast partnerships, sponsored playlists, and more.

Pandora

Pandora‘s streaming platform is based on being able to create personalized radio stations. Roughly 78 million people listen to Pandora every month. Pandora allows users to customize their listening experience, giving them access to extremely valuable data. This data can then become leverage to target your audience. Pandora also only serves one ad at a time, which means your ad won’t get buried under a sea of running advertisements.

Google Play Music

Google Play Music is another popular music streaming platform that boasts access to more than 30 million songs. Their advertising platform provides access to both Lightbox ads and TrueView video ads; both of which are mobile-optimized and easy to set up. You will be able to use keywords, remarketing, and affinity audiences in order to target your audience at the right time. Google Music Play allows the use of Google AdWords to set up marketing campaigns.

DirecTV Now

DirecTV is a streaming service that provides users access to more than 25,000 on demand shows and movies. They currently have slightly over 20 million subscribers. DirectTV allows you to run your ads on the most popular shows and on demographically targeted networks. You can also lock into marquee programmings (such as season premieres and finales), and reach your audience across multiple devices. You can even run ads that viewers can interact with directly on their screens.

These streaming services/platforms have enormous audiences and can provide you with a great chance to boost your brand awareness. Additionally, they offer a variety of different types of advertisement options to help fit your brand’s specific needs.

Mastering the Art of Integrated Digital and Social Media Marketing

March 7, 2024/in Articles, Digital, Digital Media, Search & Social /by Nicole Wagner

Mastering the art of digital and social media marketing is no longer an option. It’s a must. Digital and social media marketing form the backbone of successful brand strategies, offering unparalleled opportunities for engagement, reach, and conversion. Let’s delve into how digital and social advertising work hand-in-hand. We will also explore the myriad ways they complement each other to amplify your brand’s online presence.

Combining Tactics

Digital and social media marketing are two sides of the same coin, each enhancing the effectiveness of the other. Here’s how they create a synergistic effect:

Content Amplification: The content you create as part of your digital marketing initiatives possesses significant potential. This potential can be magnified exponentially through social media platforms. By sharing content on various social networks, you can extend its reach far beyond your immediate followers. This allows you to tap into new audiences and spark conversations, which enhances engagement with your brand. It also drives traffic back to your original content, increasing its overall impact and visibility.
Data-Driven Insights: The rich reservoir of user data available through social media platforms is a goldmine for marketers seeking to refine their digital marketing strategies. By analyzing patterns in engagement, preferences, and user behavior, you can gain invaluable insights. These insights will inform the creation of more targeted and effective content. This data-driven approach allows for the optimization of ad placements, therefore ensuring that your marketing efforts resonate with the right audience at the right time. This maximizes ROI.
Brand Consistency: Achieving a harmonious brand voice and message across all your online platforms is crucial for building a strong and recognizable brand identity. Consistency in your messaging and visuals across digital and social media channels reinforces your brand’s core values and promises. It also fosters a sense of reliability and trust among your audience. This uniformity ensures that regardless of how or where a customer interacts with your brand, they receive a coherent and memorable experience. This experience will strengthen their connection to your brand.

To harness the full potential of digital and social media marketing, consider the following inbound and outbound marketing strategies:

Targeted Advertising: The advanced targeting capabilities of social media platforms allow for the delivery of highly personalized advertisements directly to specific audience segments. By leveraging detailed user data, marketers can craft tailored messages that resonate deeply with their target audience. Detailed user data includes demographics, interests, and online behaviors. This precision ensures that your advertising budget is utilized more efficiently, reaching those most likely to engage with your brand. Consider hiring specific social media influencers that can reach your desired target market.
Engagement and Interaction: Social media stands out for its unique ability to foster immediate and direct interaction between brands and their audiences. This interactive environment is perfect for engaging with followers in real-time, soliciting their feedback, answering questions, and even addressing concerns. By actively participating in these conversations, brands can build a loyal community and enhance customer satisfaction. They can also humanize their brand, making it more relatable and trustworthy to their audience.
Content Diversity: The dynamic nature of social media platforms makes them an ideal testing ground for a wide array of content types. From engaging videos and informative live streams to interactive polls and captivating stories, the diversity of content formats available allows brands to keep their digital marketing strategies fresh and engaging. This variety helps attract a wider audience. It also helps maintain the interest of the audience over time, therefore leading to increased engagement rates and a stronger online presence.

Best Practices for Integrated Campaigns

For a seamless integration of digital and social media marketing, follow these best practices:

Unified Goals: It’s crucial that your digital marketing and social media strategies share common objectives. These objectives can be enhancing brand visibility, attracting more visitors to your website, or increasing sales figures. This alignment ensures that all your marketing efforts are pulling in the same direction, maximizing the impact of your campaigns.
Cross-Platform Analytics: Leveraging analytics tools to monitor your brand’s performance across various digital and social platforms is essential. This approach provides a holistic view of your marketing activities, helping you understand what’s working and what needs adjustment, thereby optimizing your strategies for better results.
Responsive Engagement: Promptness and authenticity in your interactions on social media can significantly boost your brand’s image. Being responsive shows that you value your audience’s input. Additionally, it fosters a positive brand perception, encouraging your followers to become vocal advocates for your brand.

Crafting a Cohesive Narrative

Your brand’s narrative should flow effortlessly across digital and social media platforms. It should tell a consistent story that resonates with your audience. Here’s how to achieve this:

Consistent Messaging: Maintaining a uniform message across all your marketing channels is vital. It’s important to tweak the tone and style to suit each platform’s unique environment though. This ensures your brand’s core message is conveyed clearly, regardless of where your audience encounters it, therefore enhancing message retention and brand loyalty.
Visual Branding: Employing a consistent set of visual elements such as logos, color schemes, and imagery across your digital and social media outputs is key to building a strong brand identity. This visual consistency makes your brand easily recognizable, fostering a sense of familiarity and trust among your audience. The obvious platform that can help you achieve these goals is Instagram.
Integrated Campaigns: Designing campaigns that effectively bridge digital and social media channels can leverage the inherent strengths of each platform, thereby ensuring a cohesive and impactful marketing effort. This integrated approach ensures that your campaign’s message is amplified. The amplified message will reach a broader audience and drive towards your unified marketing objectives.

Embracing the Future of Marketing

As we look toward the future of marketing in 2024, the integration of digital and social media marketing will only become more vital. Staying ahead of the curve requires a commitment to ongoing learning, adaptability, and a willingness to experiment with new technologies and platforms. By embracing the synergies between digital marketing and social media advertising, you can craft compelling, cohesive campaigns that captivate your audience. These campaigns will also drive meaningful results.

The interplay between digital and social media marketing is not merely a strategic advantage but a necessity in today’s digital landscape. By understanding and leveraging this integration, you can elevate your brand’s online presence. You can also engage more deeply with your audience, and achieve your marketing objectives with greater efficiency and impact. The journey towards digital marketing mastery is ongoing. At its heart lies the powerful duo of digital and social media marketing. The two work in concert to propel your brand to new heights.

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Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions

What Are Marketing Qualified Leads And Why Do They Matter?

March 6, 2024/in Articles, Digital, Directors, Email Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Lead Nuturing, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

How are you handling your marketing qualified leads (MQLs)? Once you have a lead at the top of the sales funnel, you can’t just stop marketing and hope that initial lead turns into a sales-qualified lead (SQL). You need to keep your eye on that in-between stage where your MQLs are. You should nurture and engage with them while they are in this stage.

What is a Marketing Qualified Lead?

A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a type of lead in which the potential customer will engage with your brand which you have provided to them through your marketing efforts.

Don’t Forget the Lead in the Middle

Prospects, also known as contacts and leads, are the consumers at the top of your sales funnel. They have an initial interest in your product or service and might provide an email address or first name, in exchange for a report or other premium offer. However, they are only at the browsing stage and are definitely not ready to make a purchase yet.

At the bottom of your sales funnel are your sales qualified leads, also known as SQLs. These leads are ready to make a purchase. This stage is when your sales people need to be in contact with them, ready to provide additional information and incentives to finalize the sale.

There is plenty of room between the prospect and the SQL. This stage of transition between browsing and making a purchase is where the marketing qualified lead (MQL) sits.

An MQL has moved beyond the browsing stage and is seriously evaluating whether your product or service meets certain criteria. The are looking for detailed information, like customer testimonials and product specifications, to aid them in making the best decision. MQLs are looking at your competition as well, assessing how you measure up. They are getting third-party opinions and reading product reviews to choose the option that best suits their needs. This is when your marketing needs to shift. Nurture your MQLs by following up with them regularly. Tailor content like whitepapers and case studies to them. This tailored content should show your MQLs how and why your product or service is best for them. MQLs need detailed information about your products and services. They also need to know how you differ from the competition. Having a strong brand identity can help set you apart. This information will help the MQL move towards the decision-making point.

Read More: How to nurture leads with email marketing

How Can You Tell if a Lead is Marketing Qualified?

To tell when a lead is moving from the prospect stage towards the MQL stage, you need to gather pertinent data from the lead and monitor his/her activity on your website. Then, compare this information to past sales opportunities to determine what direction the prospect is moving towards. Ideally, they are moving towards becoming an SQL.

Demographic data from the lead, such as location, industry, and business size, makes a difference. Also, how much money do they want to spend? Is your product or service within their budget needs? If it is, the lead is more likely to become an MQL.
What types of actions are they taking on your website? Frequent visits combined with downloading whitepapers, requesting demos, or other interactions with content is a good sign that the lead will become an MQL.
How similar are they to your past sales opportunities that have already transitioned from leads into MQLs? Similarities can help you predict the likelihood of the lead becoming an MQL. If your typical customers are established companies with a large budget, a start-up with a limited budget may not be a good fit. However, that doesn’t mean the start-up won’t make a purchase, it just means that it is less likely to happen.

The exact definition of what an MQL means to your company is something only you can define. But, no matter how you define MQLs, you cannot forget them in your marketing process. Forgetting them means less SQLs, which means less final sales. And that defeats the purpose of marketing in the first place. The next step is learning how to engage marketing qualified leads until they move to being an SQL.

The Top 10 Strategies for Mastering Inbound Marketing

March 1, 2024/in Articles, Inbound Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

The inbound marketing methodology stands as a cornerstone for businesses aiming to attract, engage, and delight customers online. The benefits of inbound marketing can be a game changer for your business. By focusing on creating valuable content and tailored experiences, you can draw potential customers to your brand organically. Here are ten efficient ways to leverage inbound marketing for your business’s advantage.

1. Content Creation and Blogging

Creating informative and engaging content is at the heart of the inbound marketing methodology. Blogs, articles, and white papers that address your audience’s challenges and questions attract traffic. Additionally, they establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.

Starting a blog is a strategic move that allows you to disseminate industry insights, current trends, and effective solutions. This platform serves as a beacon, drawing in those seeking knowledge and expertise in your field, thereby enhancing your brand’s visibility and authority.
Implementing SEO strategies is fundamental in ensuring your content reaches its intended audience through search engines. By carefully selecting keywords, optimizing meta tags, and crafting quality content, you can significantly improve your online visibility, making it easier for potential customers to discover your offerings.

2. SEO Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for enhancing your online visibility and must be included in your long term strategy. By optimizing your website and content for search engines, you can increase your chances of appearing in top search results, therefore making it easier for potential customers to find you.

Conducting thorough keyword research is a pivotal step in understanding the search behavior of your target audience. By identifying the terms and phrases they frequently use, you can tailor your content to align with their inquiries as well as their interests, thereby increasing your content’s relevance and visibility in search results.
Optimizing your website’s meta tags, headings, and content with relevant keywords is crucial for search engine visibility. This practice ensures that your site’s elements are aligned with what your audience is searching for, enhancing your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages and attracting more qualified traffic.

Social media platforms are powerful tools for implementing the inbound marketing methodology. They allow you to engage directly with your audience and share valuable content, in addition to building a community around your brand.

Actively sharing your blog posts and insightful content on your social media profiles can significantly enhance your online presence. This approach not only boosts engagement but also directs a wider audience to your website, enriching their understanding of your brand and offerings.
Promptly engaging with your followers by responding to their comments and messages on social media reinforces your brand’s commitment to customer engagement. This timely interaction fosters a welcoming community atmosphere, encouraging ongoing dialogue and strengthening customer relationships.
Consider partnering with prominent social media influencers that can exponentially increase your brand’s reach. These influencers, with their vast amount of engaged followers, can effectively convey your message, therefore driving awareness and potentially increasing your customer base through their trusted endorsements.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing remains a highly effective tool for nurturing leads and keeping your audience engaged. By sending personalized and relevant content directly to your subscribers’ inboxes, you can build stronger relationships and encourage repeat business.

Develop a segmented email list to send more targeted and relevant content.
Use automation tools to send timely follow-ups or educational series to nurture your leads.

5. Lead Magnets and Landing Pages

Lead magnets, such as ebooks, webinars, and free trials, offer value to your audience in exchange for their contact information. Therefore, landing pages dedicated to these offers can significantly increase your conversion rates.

Create compelling lead magnets that address your target audience’s pain points.
Design landing pages that clearly communicate the value of your offer and include a straightforward call-to-action (CTA).

6. Customer Testimonials and Reviews

Leveraging customer testimonials and reviews is a powerful way to build trust in addition to credibility. Positive feedback from satisfied customers can persuade potential buyers to choose your brand.

Feature customer testimonials prominently on your website and in your marketing materials.
Encourage happy customers to leave reviews on relevant platforms.

7. Video Marketing

Video content is highly engaging and can convey your message in a dynamic way. Whether it’s explainer videos, customer testimonials, or behind-the-scenes glimpses, video can enhance your inbound marketing efforts.

Create instructional or educational videos related to your products or services.
Share your videos on your website, social media channels, and YouTube to reach a wider audience.

8. Influencer Collaborations

Partnering with influencers who align with your brand can help you reach a larger, more engaged audience. Influencers can introduce your products or services to their followers in an authentic and trustworthy manner.

Identify influencers who share your target audience and brand values.
Collaborate on content creation, product reviews, or sponsored posts to tap into their audience.

9. Interactive Content

Interactive content, such as quizzes, surveys, and polls, can increase engagement and provide valuable insights into your audience’s preferences and behaviors.

Use interactive content to gather data about your audience’s interests as well as their challenges.
Tailor your marketing strategies based on the insights gained from interactive content.

10. Continuous Analysis and Optimization

The inbound marketing methodology thrives on continuous improvement. Regularly analyzing your strategies’ performance and making data-driven optimizations is key to maximizing your inbound marketing efforts.

Use analytics tools to track the performance of your content, campaigns, and website.
Adjust your strategies based on the data to improve your ROI and meet your marketing goals.

Want to know the difference between inbound and outbound marketing? Read here.

Harnessing Inbound Marketing for Growth

Inbound marketing offers a holistic approach to attracting, engaging, and delighting customers in a way that feels personal as well as intuitive. By implementing these ten strategies, you can build a robust inbound marketing framework that not only draws potential customers to your brand but also nurtures them into loyal advocates. Remember, the key to successful inbound marketing is to provide consistent value and to remain adaptable, always fine-tuning your approach based on feedback and performance metrics.

30 Lead Generation Tips & Tricks Download our FREE guide to attract those leads!

Brand Storytelling Examples to Learn From

April 7, 2021/in Articles, Brand Development, Brand Positioning, Content Marketing /by Stevens and Tate

Your brand identity goes beyond your name, logo, and the products or services you provide. A brand identity is all-encompassing: it also includes your goals, your beliefs, and the feelings you elicit from your audience. To create a strong brand identity, you need to create a narrative that’s consistent across all channels. This is where brand storytelling comes in. Brand storytelling involves using storytelling techniques that bring together both facts and emotions to create your brand identity. The following are five brand storytelling examples that you should use as inspiration to help create and drive your own brand story:

1. Apple

Apple is arguably one of the greatest examples of successful marketing in the history of marketing. They were able to capture a small corner of a market dominated by Microsoft and, through the use of incredibly effective brand storytelling, turn themselves into a behemoth. Knowing that they were up against Microsoft, Apple decided that their message would be to go against the grain. They would position themselves as a revolutionary innovator. Their “think different” tagline showcases this, as does all of their other advertising. Their most famous ad is the most obvious example: the 1984 ad in which a woman defiantly smashes the screen with a sledgehammer.

2. Ikea

Ikea has built its brand on the functionality and simplicity of its products, which they showcase using lighthearted humor. Their most famous commercial “Lamp” highlights this. It’s a commercial showing an old lamp being replaced and being thrown away. It’s a sob story until a narrator shows up to exclaim that the viewer is crazy to feel bad about the old lamp since it doesn’t have feelings, and the new one is much better. It gets a great laugh and emphasizes the need to update old products with newer, higher-quality versions.

3. Old Spice

Old Spice used to be a brand associated with older men. The word “old” certainly didn’t help. They altered their brand storytelling to emphasize that the scent of old spice was how men should smell. They used humor and great writing to convey this, but what made the storytelling particularly effective was that they didn’t target men — they targeted women. Old Spice essentially focused on delivering a message to women about how their men should smell, so that they could influence men on Old Spice’s behalf.

How to build your own brand story

4. SoulCycle

What’s interesting about SoulCycle is that it basically consists of a class full of people riding exercise bikes. That’s it. There’s nothing more to it. But their brand storytelling has lifted this simple service into something much greater. They have positioned themselves as a high-end fitness service that’s not just a service, but a lifestyle. This lifestyle includes the use of teachers who are essentially fitness influencers and classes that are almost club-like in their atmosphere. Members feel like they belong to a community, not a gym. Without their incredibly effective brand storytelling, you could argue that they would be a glorified gym with limited equipment.

5. Warby Parker

Warby Parker is a glasses frame manufacturer that has positioned itself as a company that sells fashionable frames at reasonable prices. Their storytelling focuses on how they build their frames and on the customers that buy them. In fact, much of their content is user-generated, which helps emphasize that they are frames built for everyone. Their message gets across because they keep their brand storytelling simple and focused.

These are a few brand storytelling examples to keep in mind when crafting your brand story strategy. Successful brand storytelling will strengthen your company’s identity, thereby making it easier to evoke an emotional response from your audience and to build long-lasting connections with them. By implementing an effective brand storytelling strategy, you’ll be more likely to increase your company’s visibility, impact, and — eventually — profit.