For most businesses, their most valuable asset isn’t their inventory, their capital, or even their talent: it’s their brand.
Indeed, for better and sometimes for worse, brands precede businesses and set expectations that customers will evaluate objectively, subjectively, intellectually, emotionally, consciously and unconsciously.
Of course, most customers don’t care about any of this! They don’t require a marketing degree to form an opinion on a brand, and ultimately make a decision based on that view. They “like what they like”, and if they’re obliged to justify or defend this position, it’ll be to their boss, partner, spouse and so on – not to businesses that want to sell them something.
However, while businesses cannot control what their customers do and don’t do (heck, not even Apple and Google can do that!), they can certainly shift the odds in their favor: and that’s where brand development enters the picture, and why we at Leap Clixx integrate it into our customers’ inbound marketing programs and campaigns. Here’s a high-level overview of how we do this:
-
We invest quality time to understand who our customers are.
Long before we start producing content, redesigning websites, launching PPC campaigns, and “taking care of business” on the inbound marketing front, we invest quality time to find out who are customers are – and not just what they do. This process can take several days, and it often takes weeks (the fact that it’s creative, fun and exciting is certainly welcome!).
Essentially, we can’t and won’t do any brand development with a customer until we clearly grasp what drives them, what their defining values are, and how these manifest and are expressed. This process lays the foundation for a successful brand development strategy.
-
Who are your buyer personas?
Once we lay the brand development foundation, our next step with each customer is to define their buyer personas, which are fictionalized profiles of ideal target audiences.
For example, a company that provides office relocation solutions may want to reach facility managers, business owners, office administrators, and furniture dealers. These buyer personas may (and typically do) have some things in common, but there are important distinctions as well, such as pain points, level of authority, aspirations/goals, key motivators, and so on.
These various buyer personas – and there can be as few or many, and they can change over time – are part of the overall discovery process, and essential for crafting relevant inbound marketing campaigns and content.
-
Where is the brand headed tomorrow?
Brands are dynamic, rather than static. And even cursory glance at business history bears this out. We all know of brands that ruled the world one year, and then fell out of favor or just plain vaporized (MySpace anyone? How about an HD-DVD?).
A big part of how we integrate brand development with inbound marketing, is through building a long-term game plan with our customers that drives their brand forward months and years into the future. After all, it’s not called brand development strategy for nothing. Strategy is always about the future!
Learn More
If your business is looking to strengthen and optimize your brand – and generate more customers, sales, profits and ROI – then contact the Leap Clixx team today. We’ll provide you with further insight into our unique brand development and inbound marketing approach. Your consultation with us is free.
Also download our free eBook "A Guide to Inbound Marketing Best Practices" to learn more about inbound marketing.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
