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In the 20th Century, branding was about presentation.
Now, it's about conversation.
That's according to a recent article in Inc., “The New Rules of Branding Your Business Online.”
The authors advise that the place to start is your "About Us" page, "where the world first clicks to learn about your company and the services you offer."
How can you capitalize on "About Us?"
- Write short, crisp copy that focuses on connecting with visitors.
- Include personal information in employees’ bios, such as hobbies and favorite activities; links to blogs and personal Websites; and e-mail addresses.
- Show visitors you want to hear from them and have nothing to hide.
Q: Why is marketing like dieting and exercise?
A: All three share the same enemy. Boredom.
That fact underlies the one irrefutable law of marketing.
Call it "Bob's Law:"
A marketer will become bored with his own content three years before his prospects even notice it.
Now here's the rub: surrendering to Bob's Law has consequences.
Early abandonment of marketing content (because you're bored with it) has the same effect as early abandonment of a diet or exercise regimen (because you're bored with them). Namely, no effect.
B-to-B marketing guru Ardath Albee takes note of the effect in her recent blog post, "The Power of Monotony in Content Marketing. "Boredom affects all marketers for the worse, Albee says. "We think once we've shared an idea with our target audience that they've latched onto it and understand all it implies."
But this belief is mistaken. "Changing your focus on a whim, because something new and shiny comes along, only creates friction with your leads because they must now choose to make the effort to re-orient themselves with your new idea."
As a marketer, you must resist the overwhelming urge to abandon your content simply because you're bored.
In brief, you need to combat Bob's Law.
There are many reasons, Albee points out, why it's foolish to abandon content early. Consider just three:
- We understand our content much better than prospects do.
- It takes up to 12 exposures for any new idea to stick.
- 95% of executives say their top challenge is resistance to change.
The third reason is actually the most compelling.
As a marketer, you're not recommending benefits to one lonely prospect. You're really suggesting organizational change.
"It's doubtful in a B-to-B complex purchase that only one person needs to be convinced to embrace change," Albee warns.
"Without cementing our ideas with our prospects, affecting change is made even more challenging. Our marketing content needs to focus on making them so conversant with our ideas that their ability to persuade change is elevated."
When all's said and done, persuading prospects to change is the real reason to combat Bob's Law.
Direct Marketing News reports that marketers will spend more on social media in the next 12 months, according to a study by platform provider Alterian.
2011 will be a "turnaround year," when recession-era cutbacks in marketing are reversed, the study shows.
More than half (57%) of marketers expect their overall budgets to grow.
In addition, three quarters (75%) expect to spend more on social media during 2011 than last year.
But these same folks aren't sure how to take advantage of social media.
A full third (33%) of marketers say they have little or no understanding of the brand-related conversations taking place. And only a fourth (27%) say they report those conversations to management.
Study after study proves, without doubt, that "face-to-face" is the most powerful marketing medium.
"Why?" you might ask.
The answer lies deep in our limbic system, says author and speaker Carol Kinsey Gorman, in a recent edition of Communications World Bulletin.
In face-to-face exchanges, besides spoken words, our brains process a cascade of nonverbal cues.
In fact, during face-to-face encounters, we interpret what people say only partly from the words they use.
We get most of the message from vocal tone, pacing, facial expressions and body language.
"Interactional synchronizing" occurs when people move at the same time in the same way, as when two people start to speak at the same time. Synchronizing often occurs when we're getting along with another and feel as though we're "on the same wavelength."
Interactional synchronizing is the result of our subliminal monitoring of, and response to, each other's nonverbal cues.
During face-to-face encounters, tiny structures in our brains called "mirror neurons" actually mimic others' behaviors, sensations and feelings.
Neuroscientists call the phenomenon "limbic synchrony."
The moment we see an emotion expressed on someone's face, or read it in her gestures or posture, we subconsciously place ourselves in the other's shoes.
For this reason, mirror neurons are sometimes referred to as "Dalai Lama neurons," because they provide a biological basis for compassion.
Want to spend 50% less time on marketing?
Fashion a "platform" to support your communications.
In his blog, copywriter Justin Rubner suggests that working with a platform cuts content-development time.
"Without one, your team is executing marketing communications in silos," Rubner writes. As a result, you double the time needed to finish projects, "because you can't agree on how to say what it is you actually do."
Working with a platform eliminates that waste.
Designing your platform, according to Rubner, begins with discovery.
During discovery, you bring all parties together, so they can agree on the things that distinguish your organization.
From discovery emerge:
- A plain-language Positioning Statement
- An evocative About Us
- Brief Boilerplate (aimed at reporters and investors)
- A Competitive Analysis (including competitors’ taglines)
- Creative Concepts (sample taglines and headlines)
- A Style Guide (governing capitalization, spelling, use of acronyms, etc.)
- Website Navigation
- Power Words to drive SEO and
- Core Recommendations (key phrases and tone of voice)
How's your platform?
