Today, the marketing landscape has undergone a significant change, with digital channels overtaking traditional marketing methods. The rise of technology, including the internet, websites, and social networks, has revolutionized how businesses engage with their audiences. These digital platforms thrive on their social nature, offering unparalleled opportunities for interaction and engagement.
In the space of digital marketing, one key distinction from traditional channels is the influence of third-party sources such as blogs, likes, shares, and comments on target audiences. Organizations must strategically craft their social media content to align with their brand identity and resonate with their target audience across different platforms.
Marketers today face two primary challenges:
- Coordinating brand voice across various channels while considering the unique characteristics of each platform. Resource constraints often force marketers to choose between spreading their message thinly across all channels or focusing deeply on a select few. However, a more effective approach involves measuring the response from each channel to identify the most impactful ones and allocate resources accordingly.
- Maintaining consistency of brand voice within and across channels. A strong brand requires a cohesive message, yet achieving this consistency, especially on social media, can be challenging. Marketers must ensure that their brand’s personality remains consistent across posts, images, videos, and comments on different platforms.
This week, prioritize an audit of your website to ensure internal harmony in design, branding, content, and voice. Use your website as a model for maintaining a coordinated brand voice across all channels, both online and offline.
Insight: While digital marketing presents its challenges, it also offers numerous opportunities for brands to thrive. Take stock of these opportunities and strive for greater consistency in your brand messaging across all channels.
inating the brand voice amongst each of these channels. A resource-strapped marketer has the unenviable choice of ham-handedly spamming the same message to every channel, paying no regard to the nuances of the channel. Or they can customize the interaction for each channel, but only for a few. This is a choice of mile wide but an inch deep, or mile deep but an inch wide.
One solution to this problem – a lazy one – is to throw more resources at the problem. A better solution is to recognize that the response from each of these channels can be measured. Which ones generate more traffic, leads, and sales? And which ones suffer from indifference? With each announcement, initiative, or campaign, it is possible to finesse the more effective channels from the ineffective ones, and then allocate more (or less) resources appropriately.
2) The importance of consistency of brand voice amongst (and within) each of these channels. A strong brand requires a congruent message, yet it is surprisingly easy to forget this, particularly with social media. Look at your profiles, and ask the following questions:
- If people just looked at your posts, what would they say your brand represents? (Is this what you were intending?)
- If people just looked at the pictures and videos you posted on your page, what would they say your brand represents? (Is this what you were intending?)
- If people just read the comments that others posted on your page, what would they say your brand represents? (Is this what you were intending?)
- If people compared your brand’s voice on different social media channels, is the personality the same?
- Or, on the personal side: if people read your LinkedIn profile summary, and then look at your endorsements, do they say the same thing about your capabilities?
This week, focus on your website: is there a deep level of internal harmony on the site? Look for any outliers in graphic design, branding, content, and editorial voice: what can moved and be more aligned? Once you’ve updated the website, use it as a model for a coordinated brand voice on every other channel, both online and off.
Insight: Though digital and its profusion of channels has created many challenges – it has also created just as many opportunities. What opportunities are available to you? How can your brand be more consistent?
