Do you express feelings and emotion often with your customers? Are you aware of the ways you are losing brand attention? Well, remember this: the more feelings and emotion you express, the more attention to your brand. And the more influence it can create. Not rocket science is it? But without it, you will be losing brand attention.
Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced.
David Freemantle
As long as it’s positive, there is no such thing as too much brand attention. If you play your cards right, you can roll all of that great attention into growth for your company. Here are some of the mistakes businesses make with their branding and the best and most creative steps to get people to notice you and your brand.
The other day one of my readers commented I was the oldest person she knew social media content all the time.
Then she said it was a compliment.
We both laughed.
Then there was an awkward pause.
While her statement clearly wasn’t true, being relatively seasoned in business means I had learned many valuable brand lessons that would have been great to know when my business career started.
That’s how it has always been.
So, in keeping, here are 12 ways for losing attention to your brand and, most importantly, what you should be doing to prevent them:
Losing brand attention … not listening
Wondering what the most important part of being social is? It is listening, hands down in our opinion. And listening means hearing. So if you don’t start with great listening, you will immediately turn off a majority of consumers.
I learned this one quite early in my marketing and management career. Remember your first step in online marketing is not broadcasting messages. To establish great attention to your brand, build engagement with consumers by making listening to the backbone of your conversation.
Related post: What 10 Killer Brands Stand for; It’s Personal
Only focus on traditional branding messages
Have you noticed how much marketing has changed in the last decade? Most people have. So when you use just traditional marketing techniques, customers imagine you are stuck in time. Not a good thing.
One tip we think is most important is storytelling. Think about the stories that you were told as children. They are etched into our subconscious. Use pictures and videos to tell your stories in creative new ways. Ways that will be remembered and talked about.
The rising cost of consumer attention … no consistency
Do you know your target customers and their likes and dislikes? If so, this in your guide to consistent topics.
Always be consistent in the subjects you know your customers are interested in. Select the new variants but stick with the subject categories.
Lack any brand personality
Everyone has a personality or at least 98% of the populace. Your business reflects the personalities of its leaders either by choice or by accident. You know which is best, don’t you?
Every successful brand has a specific tone of voice. One that relates to the brand’s personality. And yes, of course, a brand has a distinctive personality. Decide what personality you want for your brand and let your tone reflect it. Take the initiative.
Complex messages
It is difficult to be heard above all the noise in the marketplace. So if you want to grab attention and hold it, you must avoid complex messages.
Make your marketing stand out with simple messages. The best technique is with great visuals that convey your messages.
Not a people person
A Chinese proverb once said if you don’t like to smile, don’t open a shop. The same goes for being a person who doesn’t like to deal with people. Nothing is more damaging to business.
Being social is all about making friends as well as building and exploring customer relationships. Continually look for new ways to engage customers and remember engagement is a two-way street starting with listening.
Limited learning
Now more than ever, things are changing at blazing speed. Consumers notice businesses that are stuck in time, refusing to learn.
There are only two ways to keep up. They are continuous learning and applying what you learn. Spend time understanding changing trends and patterns. Apply them as often as you can.
No networking effort
Don’t like networking either on or off-line? Not sure why you are in business, are you?
Don’t be fooled by the deceptive simplicity of being social on-line. Building an effective network takes a lot of time, energy, and resources. Schedule time to make it happen and devote the energy required.
Frequently falling behind
Yes, all the changes in the business world are adding to your workload. No doubt about it. You can’t stay the way you are without falling further behind.
Familiarize yourself with new tools and applications, and select the ones that help to reduce your workload and that can help you and your customers in other ways. Consider carefully what platforms are best for your customers. You can’t do them all.
No message relevancy
You are always adding new customers, aren’t you? And current customers are trying new things and ways. Ignore these at the peril of your marketing message relevancies.
Derive timely and valuable insights to customer wants and needs. Talk about useful, helpful topics on these insights. Give your customers good reasons to return.
Too much, too fast
Never bite off more than you can handle. If you do, you will become frustrated and, most often, give up.
Employing social media takes a lot of time and energy. And there are no shortcuts. So start small and grow a little at a time. Be patient, it takes time for good results.
Put emphasis on content quantity
It’s not about the quantity of your marketing content. Put your energy in quality content rich with information that is interesting and helpful. It is not the number of fans you have. Nor is it about the numbers of people you follow. Fans count very, very little … make no mistake.
Forget about the fan numbers and concentrate on the engagement of customers and making friends. Relationships build trust and customer advocacy.
The bottom line
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better at grabbing and holding attention. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
