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Branding tips for small business

Branding tips for small business

A company is not just a service or goods provider. For if it were that way, companies would be almost obscure. 

Having a strong brand that connects you with your customers. It makes them remember your name, your company, what you offer, and the quality of what you offer. That’s why whenever we see the iconic white and blue colours of successful brands like Facebook, we think of the company even when the company’s name is not there, for instance, on the banners and headers. 

But is brand and brand image only for multinationals and big companies like that? What about startups? 

One mistake startup owners make is that they think they will create or develop their brand image later on as their company progresses. Doing so is a big mistake. You see, as soon as you start your business, you want your customers to remember you. Just offering good products and services is not enough if they don’t have anything to remember you.

What is a brand? 

To put it simply, a brand can be a logo, a punchline, colors, and fonts, or a combination of them all. It can also be an idea, a promise, or something else.

What is a brand identity? 

Companies have to build up their brand identity over time, with which customers remember them or know them. 

What is a brand image?

It is similar to brand identity. It can be positive or negative, and it is your reputation. 

By now, you may be thinking about how you can do branding for your small business. Is it possible? 

Yes, it is, and we are going to show you how in this article. Here are Branding tips for small businesses.

Five inexpensive branding strategies for small businesses

Building your brand

Your brand image is everything. Firstly, it tells the public who you are, what the company is all about, and what its goals and values are. Secondly, based on this information, people may or may not mentally associate with you. Due to this, it is crucial to create a strong brand identity. But how do you do that? Here’s how to do it.

  1. Do a brand audit.
  2. Determine your organization’s values and mission statement.
  3. Determine what your brand’s voice, look and feel would be.
  4. Take steps to create a brand identity.
  5. Analyze and finally refine your brand image.

If you follow these simple steps, you can create a memorable and strong brand image.

Create a memorable visual brand

It is now time actually to design your brand. In other words, you have to create a visual brand. 

The easiest way to do this is by designing your website since this is the first place your customers will come to know more about you. You need to create the look, the feel, and the design of the website consistent with your brand identity. Secondly, create a logo that engages visitors. Remember, your logo is often the first point of contact with your audience. Third, create business cards. Lastly, create a brand style guide that will help you in making the visual brand.

Know your target market

Knowing and developing your brand image is one half of the battle. You also need to know about your target market. Know about your customers more than they know themselves! Research is essential for this. A strong brand image aids in building and maintaining a solid customer base. To understand and define your target customers, you need to:

  • Check out your competition.
  • See what you are offering and how it solves customer’s problems.
  • Consider the demographics of your ideal customer.
  • Consider psychographics, including the personality, values and attitudes of your ideal customer.
  • Create a customer profile and be consistent with that.  

When you know who you are targeting, you can fine-tune your marketing efforts. 

Create and develop a vibrant online community

If yours is a small business, having a vibrant online community centred on your brand is essential. Having such a community enables your customers to interact, reach out to you, and, most importantly, know and share news about your company. It creates a sense of brand loyalty, given enough time and effort. Building a community paves a road for your customers to become a part of your company’s brand and, in time to spread the news about your brand. In short, through this, you get brand loyalty and increased customer success.


To create such a community, follow these steps: 

  1. Take time and make an effort to create a community around your company or business.
  2. Create a team and tell them of your vision for creating such a community. 
  3. Support some social causes as it is seen as customer impact and CSR.
  4. Create social media strategies to offer value to your target audience.
  5. Give your target audience more information about your company or brand through blogs or emails.

Write a blog every day

Publishing a blog every day drives more traffic to your website and attracts relevant customers. Blogging is inexpensive and can generate the majority of your leads. Publish blogs on your website, but also share them on social media. Blogging creates and enhances your online brand visibility, establishes you as an industry expert, and improves your search engine ranking. 

To sum up

In this article, you have seen a list of just the inexpensive things you can do to develop your company’s brand. Yes, you can do many other things, but those require both time and money. You may want to start with these 5 Effective Branding Tips for Small Business.

Contact us for effective and powerful branding of your business that brings results.

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OREO YouTube Ad: “Fiercely Together”

OREO YouTube Ad

The OREO “Fiercely Together” advertisement, with the 2021 Olympics theme, may only be 30 seconds long. Still, it packs a punch in each of those 30 seconds. But at the end of the video, you’ll feel like you have run a marathon yourself. The advertisement has a fast and furious pace. Keep up with it if you can!

Back to school

It begins with the words, “The more we play together”. 

It seems like the very feel of the words, the echo and the atmosphere, will take you back to your school days when you loved to share with your friends and play with them. So music-wise, there is no music. However, there is this pure, evergreen, sing-song choir tune. The viewer will be transported back to their school days, of innocent playfulness and sharing of the best things in life.

The tension

Now, at the beginning of this ad, this line is often repeated ““The more we get together, together, together…”. At precisely 0.08 seconds of the advertisement, the viewer sees two girls on the playing field, looking or glaring at each other, perhaps with hostility. Their parents and the audience in the gallery watch with anticipation. Will the two girls be friends? Will they learn to share? 

“…the happier we’ll be!”

That’s when the two girls are shown sharing Oreo cookies. It is indeed a sweet and kind gesture between them, the feeling of which is enhanced since they are not fighting!

“Your friends are my friends, and my friends are your friends.”

The overall feeling from the ad

As the ad progresses, it shows sportsmen from various sports like rowing, wheelchair basketball and more. In a gist, the choir, the actions on screen, and the fast-paced movement leave a pleasant feeling, a sense of belonging and togetherness. 

Viewers may not mind watching the ad repeatedly since it brings a joyful feeling while showing the role of Oreo in all the joy. And with the theme of the 2021 Olympics, the ad is certainly timely and brilliant in execution.

If you are looking for advertising your business on social media, contact us today!

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Latest Buzz: Facebook Building Instagram For Kids

Facebook Building Instagram For Kids

Facebook is all set to woo its younger audience with an Instagram app for kids below 13 years. Yes, kids like and learn by copying their parents and others around. But, unfortunately, Instagram smites the adults. It’s the latest fad; even a critic cannot avoid it. 

Social media and its superpower to engage people are not new, but Instagram is an entirely fresh experience. As a “no strings attached” thing, you are treated with visual delights, almost in even click. 

After its phenomenal success with adults, Facebook is working on the kids’ version of Instagram. It has already triggered a buzz among its target audience, and parents are a bit worried about it. However, to set things clear from the beginning and avoid resistance, Facebook has already clarified that it is bringing a parent controlled Instagram.

Facebook has grown much beyond a social networking site; it has been working on building additional products to enhance the brand experience. The latest product is for people under the age of 13.

Facebook Building Instagram For Kids

Facebook Building Instagram App For Kids Under 13

As Adam Mosseri confirmed, the idea of Instagram for kids is being worked on, broke to the public, it spread like wildfire. It even got parents worrying about children’s involvement with the photo-sharing app. However, Mosseri has clarified that it will be a parent controlled experience for kids below age of 13.

Why Instagram For Kids?

Looking at the developments and coming to the bare fact, it is business. As kids watch their parents and other adults around engaging with the app, they get drawn to it as well. It is pretty usual. It is how the demand for Instagram among kids grew. Markets supply what’s in demand. So, Facebook planned to launch Instagram to help kids in connecting with friends, discover new hobbies and interests.

The social media app is compelling to inspire the audience, follow a line of action, set trends and be highly entertaining. Millennial kids have risen above the usual child’s play and engaging in what grownups do. It brings them to Instagram and other apps. Facebook is building an Instagram for kids. Joe Osborne, a spokesperson for Facebook, mentioned to one of the reputed news websites that kids ask their parents if they can join apps like Instagram. It has pushed the social media giant to build a version for kids under 13. The content and user norms will be for kids that are suitable for them.

Facebook Building Instagram For Kids

Critics Ask: How Safe Will Instagram Will Be For Kids?

Social media and its penetrating influence gave birth to multiple controversies. You cannot even ignore some. Instagram views this opportunity as an essential benchmark for the company and will be trying every means to make it happen. However, they will be doing so while ensuring it’s safe for the kids and everyone related. They have options for parents. It will be a parent controlled experience to Instagram. 

Often data is fished out from such platforms and are feed to different marketing objectives. Children are its target audience. It is what sparks the security concern for kids. In 2019, Facebook’s add-free Messenger kids app ran into a mess. The app developed a bug that allowed kids to join groups with unknown people. It was highly criticized in different circles, and children’s health advocates even urged Zuckerberg to take it down. 

We Leave You With A Thought To Ponder

Entertainment or infotainment, you are the best person to evaluate a platform for your kid. Children under the age of 13 are too young to decide for themselves. So, parental guidance and control are compulsory and will be there. They have been exploring bringing a parent on board to make it a fool-proof venture. 

Instagram or no Instagram, your child should collect the best of experiences of their childhood. They should have memories to cheer and stories to share when they grow up.

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Augmented Reality(AR) in the Marketing World

Augmented Reality

The new kid on the block 

In our day-to-day lives, we may overlook the rapid developments of technology. Since the turn of the century, our lives have changed drastically with countless new devices and systems. Even in the world of marketing, modern technology has been implemented and used to significant effect.  

With an ever-growing list of companies vying for your precious attention and, more importantly, your money, marketers have turned to the latest innovations for help. Today, the shiniest tool in a shed is Augmented Reality (AR).

Augmented Reality

AR in marketing

AR in marketing brings endless possibilities and solutions to a wide range of industries. These benefits are countless, especially for creative brands that choose to use this frontier technology in attracting and engaging their target audience. With the ease of application, AR can demonstrate to potential customers how to make full use of specific products and services without spending time on user manuals.

AR technology has been used on particular social media such as Instagram and Pinterest. On those platforms, brands can use the AR filter feature to showcase their product. But when brands want to start their AR campaign on Instagram for example, they need a particular strategy, so they can reach their goal.

Furthermore, AR creates a semblance of ownership of the product for its users before they purchase it. It enables users to see how they would look in a t-shirt or a pair of pants through their smartphone or laptop screen without having to be in the physical store itself. 

This process is already occurring with brands like Ikea enabling AR technology in their app whereby users can place pieces of furniture in their room to gain a better feel for how the product would fit.

With AR now being possible on virtually all web browsers, the entry barriers for users are incredibly low. They do not need to purchase expensive equipment or have the deep technical know-how. All a user requires is their smartphone’s camera, and they are ready to step into the world of AR.

AR in Pizza

The explosive growth in AR-capable devices has revolutionized how companies can promote their customers’ goods and services. The latest example of that would be Pizza Hut’s brand new campaign dubbed “Newstalgia”. Pizza Hut has launched its new brand campaign to bring back nostalgic memories to its customers. 

They partnered with PAC-MAN to offer a limited-edition PAC-MAN box, which features an augmented reality version of the iconic game printed directly on the packaging that fans can play using their smartphones. 

To participate, one must order a large pizza from Pizza Hut. First, they need to scan the QR code on the limited-edition PAC-MAN box and play the retro Augmented Reality (AR) PAC-MAN game. Next, to enter the competition, follow the instructions on their mobile device to share their score with @PizzaHut on Twitter using #PizzaHutARcade #Sweepstakes. Making it all the more tempting, regardless of your high score, you have a chance to win if you shared it.

This is just the latest example of companies employing cutting-edge AR technologies in their marketing campaigns. In 2014, Pepsi installed AR technology in a London bus stop, making it seem like a lion, UFOs, flying saucers, or other objects were headed straight for Londoners.

 This illustrated Pepsi’s playful personality and left the audience with a memorable and fun experience. Through this campaign, Pepsi demonstrated that they thoroughly understood their audience by trusting them to appreciate the demonstration and thus created excitement around the brand.

Where is AR Marketing in Singapore?

Right now, you may be thinking, AR sounds fantastic, but it is not very popular in Singapore. That’s true. Companies in Singapore, albeit creative, have still not completely embraced the use of technology in their advertising and marketing campaigns. Sure, there are countless creative and memorable marketing campaigns like, for example, Shopee Singapore introducing Phua Chu Kang as their brand ambassador in 2020.

 However, we have not yet seen marketing campaigns like that of Pizza Hut’s Newstalgia. Currently, one of the rare uses of AR is at NUS’s Lee Kong Chian Museum, where they have blended this technology into part of their museum where stories are shown through AR. 

That being said, the change could soon be on the horizon. With the implementation of AR growing easier and cheaper day by day, Singaporean companies could soon be joining the bandwagon. 

How you may ask. 

AR technology in marketing tends to be personal and engaging. In Singapore’s case, our companies would probably integrate it into something that’s part of our daily lives. 

With companies doing their best for viral content generation, AR could be a means to this end. Local companies could create an exceptional AR experience for the user that could be easily spread on social media. These experiences are highly personalized by helping users add virtual objects to their faces or environment. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Imagine being able to visualize Bubble Tea falling from the sky when you are stuck at the bus stop waiting for the rain to stop. 

Future of AR

AR technologies in marketing and advertising continue to develop along with technological infrastructure. Companies will continue to adopt AR into their marketing efforts to provide potential customers with an immersive experience and feel of their goods and services. With the potential to dominate in E-Commerce, companies striving to improve their digital marketing will hopefully one day introduce this mode of advertising to Singapore, enabling us to view the world in a new dimension.

 

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Marketing Disasters and How To Avoid Having One

marketing disaster

Marketing campaigns are part of everyone’s lives. From the massive giants like Apple promoting their latest iPhones to an online entrepreneur asking you for 35 seconds of your time to promote his online investment course, marketing campaigns are omnipresent.

They are vital for the business’s survival regardless of its size. Companies pour millions of dollars every year to devise a strategy that effectively targets their consumer group and stands out from their competitors. 

Creativity is an absolute must, and year on year, businesses try and outdo one another by trying something different. An example of a job well done would be Coca-Cola’s Christmas ad in 2020, a heartwarming and emotional masterpiece that was perfectly executed.

However, this is easier said than done. Even multinational corporations with budgets in the many millions have dropped the ball. Sometimes, ideas that are so sinister and egregious have escaped rigorous testing and been approved to be shown to the public.

Why do marketing campaigns fail?

Frankly, marketers lose track of who they are advertising to. When the goal is purely to be creative or unique rather than target the consumer base, mistakes are made. 

Of course, standing out from the rest is vital in creating a good marketing campaign. However, there is a line in the sand; when being ostentatious is over prioritized, and the target audience is estranged. 

A marketing campaign’s primary goal is to inform potential customers what needs of theirs the company’s service or product can fulfill, why the company can do it better than its competitors, and share its type and brand.

When the campaign forgets about this premise, disasters are bound to happen. 

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the most significant advertisement flops to date and see how to avoid making the same errors in the future.

Beware: Laughably Terrible Advertisement Campaigns Ahead

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi Debacle

Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Debacle

This is an iconic and infamous advertisement. Pepsi launched a two and half minute advertisement called “Live for Now”. The advert featured 21-year-old supermodel Kendall Jenner leaving a photoshoot and showing up at a protest. 

Tensions were growing between police and protestors until she stepped up to offer an officer a can of Pepsi. This fixed the issue. 

The advertisement was branded as “tone-deaf”, and the backlash overgrew, forcing Pepsi to back down and pull the spot and issue an apology.

Dove’s blatantly racist Facebook Advertisement

dove racist Ad campaign

Dove launched a Facebook ad campaign of the above four images. The four-panel image shows a young African American woman removing her shirt. By the time she has done, she has turned into a young white lady.

The disastrous advertisement shows up on Google as “Dove’s Racist Ad”.

To make matters worse, this was the second terrible advertising campaign launched by Dove in 2017, with them having to issue another apology after receiving intense criticism on social media as well as bad reviews on their product.

Volkswagen lies again?

An ongoing disaster, Volkswagen had decided to play a prank for April Fools this year. Volkswagen America changed its name to “Voltswagen”, implying that it sells electric vehicles.

Not too long ago, Volkswagen was caught in the carbon emission scandal; they lied about how much carbon their diesel cars emitted. 

Now, this publicity stunt seems like they are lying about producing electric vehicles. Moreover, VW lied to reporters in a situation where simply saying “no comment” would have been sufficient. 

Now, talks of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cracking down on them, and it looks like Volkswagen is April’s fool.

Wix Slaps Itself

Wix recently launched an attack ad campaign against its competitor, WordPress. This advert portrayed WordPress in an extremely negative light in the context of a web developer seeking help for a mental health crisis. 

Almost instantly, Wix received backlash for their distasteful and insensitive ad. With so many people around the world suffering from mental health issues, especially due to the ongoing pandemic, it seemed like a very poor decision by Wix to greenlight a campaign like this. 

This ad campaign has received and is continuing to receive a lot of criticism over social media and is sure to be one that Wix regrets.

How to Avoid Marketing Disasters

Let’s find some nuggets of wisdom from the abysmal foolishness above and learn how NOT to make these mistakes.

Don’t ever lose touch

As you can see above, Pepsi lost touch with its audience. They came across as tone-deaf. Remember to consider the implications of the marketing campaign. Even when making jokes, remember that to take into consideration other perspectives and angles.

By sacrificing your brand value for a few jokes, you may risk offending your audience. Insensitivity and tastelessness can quickly alienate the audience and result in a marketing disaster.

Keep current affairs in mind

Marketing campaigns take a long time to plan and execute. They require extensive testing, planning, and, for larger companies, a lot of red tapes. This makes it easy to overlook what is ongoing in the real world. 

A campaign that may have been acceptable a few months ago may no longer be so. If the marketing campaign aims to educate consumers about a situation, it needs to understand the issue and its implications genuinely.

Constantly review the campaign and ensure that it is up to date with current events.

How to create a good marketing campaign

If you are running your own business or part of a giant corporation, you understand the need for marketing. It can be an absolute nightmare to navigate the inner working of creating a successful campaign. What would help alleviate this would be someone who could take this burden off your hands.

MIU offers a range of marketing services that will help your company successfully launch and maintain a marketing campaign. With experience and skills, the disasters mentioned above can be avoided with our help. 

Feel free to contact us for a free digital audit or check out MIU’s website to learn more about how we can help you.

 

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Wix vs WordPress: Wix’s Negative Ads against WordPress

wix vs wordpress

On April 6th, 2021, Wix launched series of ads to promote their services on providing website solutions for business. But unfortunately, it did not end up well on some website developers and search marketing communities. Wix’s ads campaign “You Deserve Better” has seen as negative ads against WordPress, and the WordPress community did not feel happy with it.

Who is Wix?

Wix is an Israeli software company, which provided cloud-based web development services. It allows users to create HTML5 websites through the drag and drop tools that already provided.

Wix’s Ads Campaign Caused Anger

Wix’s latest ads campaign causes controversy among search marketing and the website developer’s community. The ads themselves focused on WordPress negatively, and a web developer was coming to a psychiatrist, seeking help for his mental health issues. This portrayal seems caused anger in the WordPress community.

In the ads titled “The Update Button of Doom”, WordPress portrayed as a grotesque person experiencing some glitching during a conversation, and that becomes of the causes that make the web developer experiencing mental health issues. The video ads below have considered typical attack ads.

Through video ads, the “You Deserve Better” campaign by Wix, along with Bose headphone, shipped to some developers and marketing influencers. Most of them are confused with Wix’s approach because they think Wix only wasted their marketing budget by sending those headphones to those not pleased with the campaign.

 

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On the other video titled “White Screen of Death… Is That You?”, “WordPress” was asked by a psychiatrist for the updates, and suddenly he felt sick and dead. The web developer on the ads mentioned that there could be any problem like plugin issue, hosting problem that caused “WordPress” death.

Maya Grill as the representative of Wix, say, “The campaign shows in a clever way that WordPress users don’t need to be stuck in a bad relationship with their platform, and they should consider the alternative which allows them to focus on their actual work,” Grill said. “Each video in the campaign revolves around user pain points, which also highlight Wix’s strengths.”

But instead of a clever way of a marketing campaign, Morten Rand-Hendriksen, one of the influencers who received Bose headphone, said that the campaign was “All Nuclear Troll-Marketing” and indeed not pleased with that.

Anti-Wix Responses Online

As mentioned before, the new ads campaign by Wix has caused furious and Anti-Wix, not only from website developers but also from the search marketing community. Wix’s ad campaign described as distasteful and bashing.

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Meanwhile, Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress gave his responses on the Wix’s ads campaign as below,

“Wix is a for-profit company… whose business model is getting customers to pay more and more every year and making it difficult to leave or get a refund. (Don’t take my word for it, look at their investor presentations.)

They are so insecure that they are also the only website creator I’m aware of that doesn’t allow you to export your content, so they’re like a roach motel where you can check in but never check out. Once you buy into their proprietary stack you’re locked in, which even their support documentation admits…

So if we’re comparing website builders to abusive relationships, Wix is one that locks you in the basement and doesn’t let you leave. I’m surprised consumer protection agencies haven’t gone after them.”

Wix vs WordPress Tensions

After all negative comment and responses to Wix’s ads campaign “You Deserve Better”, Avishai Abrahami, as Wix’s CEO, given his responses, by mentioning that Matt Mullenweg is angry and not telling the truth and accusing him by being hypocritical for criticizing Wix for negativity by claiming it was Matt that begun the bitter exchanges by being first to go on a damaging attack.

With the open letter by Wix’s CEO, Wix offers a public apology, as long as from the WordPress side, they also clarify regarding the issue mentioned on the Wix’s ads. Avishai Abrahami said in the open letter that they try to make the ads funny, but if the ads ended up offended the WordPress side, he apologized.

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Positive Campaign and Brand Goodwill

Given the example of how Wix marketing their services with their latest ads campaign, we can all agree that the way of Wix advertise it was terrible and it brings negative assumptions about Wix from the audience. Even Wix mentioned the truth about the issues that WordPress has. But by bashing and imposing other brands to make your brand stand out is not a good marketing campaign. Most consumers will choose a brand that gives them positivity and goodwill through their campaigns or their products while not making other brands looks terrible.

Running a good marketing campaign

If you are running your own business or part of a giant corporation, you understand the need for marketing. It can be an absolute nightmare to navigate the inner working of creating a successful campaign. What would help alleviate this would be someone who could take this burden off your hands.

MIU offers a range of marketing services that will help your company successfully launch and maintain a marketing campaign. With experience and skills, the disasters mentioned above can be avoided with our help. 

Feel free to contact us for a free digital audit or check out MIU’s website to learn more about how we can help you.

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Ad Review: NTUC Income

Ad Review: NTUC Income

Some ads are such a masterpiece that they don’t feel like an ad at all.

This film advert by Bartle Bogle Hegarty achieves just that. With a soft rendition of Semoga Bahagia, a well-known Children’s Day song, the ad nestles itself right in the hearts of all parents alike.

Portraying itself from the point of view of a parent, the ad shows a family hanging out together and having fun… all up to the point where the mother suddenly looks sick.

The sudden silence is filled in as the father supports the mother and continues the song where she left off. We then see the father-daughter duo continuing on their familial activities, although without the mother. One such activity was them visiting a piano shop and playing the instrument together, much like they used to before the mother fell ill.

Through this, the ad still holds onto a heartwarming atmosphere, though viewers might harbour a little concern at what would happen to the mother. We find out later that due to the health insurance they bought with NTUC Income, the family was still able to pay for the piano that the girl had an obvious interest in.

Because they were covered, their daughter’s dream and happiness were protected. As parents, your children always come first and this ad nailed that parents’ desire to care for their children. Though languish, it was a clever way to incorporate an ad into such a beautiful storyline.

This ad becomes even more pertinent when you realise that 82% of parents agreed that money is important to their child’s security since they are just starting out and are still financially dependent. However, 73% of the same parents also felt that they had to cut down on expenses due to reasons such as a critical illness or a reduction in income. These studies, conducted by NTUC Income themselves, support the idea put forth in the ad – reminding what parents are able to do to provide their child with financial stability.

Overall, the ad works so well because it understands the concern of parents when it comes to their children. By finding an emotional angle to portray the ad from, BBH Singapore manages to successfully send their message to us – that parents can protect their child with NTUC Income.

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Voice Technologies for Digital Marketing

Voice Technologies for Digital Marketing

The best thing you can do for your brand is to stay ahead of the trends. Following the trend is effective, but it’s not always enough. If you want to stand out, the best thing to do is to predict future trends. We’ve already talked about the upcoming trends in marketing. Still, these are currently happening trends — now it’s time to ask, what will the trends in the near future?

With digital marketing on the rise, it’s essential to keep your eyes on technology and how it’s going to change. This would, after all, impact digital marketing significantly.

Voice technology is one such area that is predicted to grow a lot. Though it has been around for some time (the first digital speech recognition tool dates back to the IBM Shoebox launch in 1961), voice technology has never been developed until recently.

Now, voice technology is beginning to permeate our lives everywhere. From Apple’s Siri to Google Home to Amazon’s Alexa, more and more consumers are starting to use voice technology in their everyday lives. Why not look into this area and figure out how we can incorporate voice technology into digital marketing?

Statistics on voice technology

Google Home

BrightLocal conducted a study in 2018 on how voice technology could impact small businesses. They found that 46% of voice search users look for a local business daily, and 27% of these users visit the business’s website after searching. In fact, 76% of smart speaker users perform local searches at least weekly, with 53% of those searching using such devices daily.

The results above were collected back in 2018, so the numbers would have changed now — most probably reflecting an increase. Many consumers feedbacked that they would like to use voice search to hear business prices and find out which products businesses have.

Campaign Monitor also conducted a survey and found out that consumers use voice technology mainly for music, emails, checking news and blogs, and making purchases. When it comes to voice and audio technology, an area to keep in mind is podcasts.

Podcast Insights has recently updated its website on the latest podcast statistics and will continue to do so, with the most recent update in January 2021. More than 1.7 million podcast shows exist, and within this month alone, 43 million episodes were created.

Marketing statistics for podcasts show that 54% of podcast consumers consider purchasing an advertised product, and brands who engage in podcast advertising witnessed a 14% increase in purchase intent. In 2018, businesses spent almost half a billion dollars just on podcast advertising itself — perhaps it’s time for you to start as well.

How this affects digital marketing

Amazon Alexa is not working

The point is, people, listen to hours of content every day — a perfect opportunity for brands to take advantage of voice and audio marketing. Pandora refers to this as the audio renaissance. As voice technology becomes increasingly omnipresent in the digital marketing landscape, using such platforms to brand and market your business would be a lucrative idea. Here are some suggestions you could adopt for your digital marketing strategy:

1. Podcast marketing and advertising

Previously, we’ve already covered how influential podcasts are in our everyday lives as consumers. To maximise your podcast advertising and branding efficiency, keep in mind these few facts about podcasts.

Podcast-marketing specialists from Income School found out that consumers download the most episodes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. On the other hand, Saturdays and Sundays are when consumers are least likely to download podcast episodes.

Additionally, 60% of all podcast shows are downloaded from Apple, while 43% of podcast consumers use Spotify to listen to podcasts. Whether you decide to publish your podcast on Apple or Spotify, remember that smartphones are the most popular devices amongst consumers for engaging with podcast episodes.

Beyond that, 67% of podcast audiences are made up of people between 18 to 44 years of age, so make sure your podcast content targets that specific demographic. Take all these into consideration when you plan out your digital marketing and podcast strategy.

2. Create branded playlists

Podcasts aren’t the only lucrative platform for digital branding and marketing. One of the most common uses of voice technology is listening to music. Furthermore, according to Pandora, streaming audio has become a mainstream lifestyle activity by 53% of the US population. So why not connect with your audiences via music and playlists?

Create a branded playlist that resonates with your core values, and share them with your audience. You could even use these playlists for your events or on your video content. Allowing your audience to stream your music online will enable you to engage your consumers further and emphasise your brand.

3. Brand yourself with specific alert tones and notification chimes

Voice and audio technology give us plenty of opportunities to market ourselves in vastly different ways. For instance, imagine creating a notification tone unique to your brand and app. Just as your logo is a visual cue that audiences relate with your brand, your notifications and alerts can be an audio cue for your audience as well.

Even if you do not have an app for your business, you can use such tones for your website to alert visitors to new content, downloads or messages. Again, you can also use such audio cues in your video content, events, and any other platforms that require sound. This will help your audience identify your business aesthetic and develop your audio branding.

Overall, voice technology is still an underdeveloped area. However, with voice assistants becoming more pertinent in our lives, this might soon change. People who use voice technology regularly rather than sporadically don’t dismiss it as an inefficient method for marketing.

While we wait for voice technology to improve and incorporate itself into our lives, we can also take charge by getting ready for what the future voice technology has to offer us. We need to keep in mind that regardless of which strategy you choose to go with is your target demographic and the devices you decide to launch such a strategy. Make sure it is in line with what your consumers are using — you do not want to lose out on a potential audience that you could effectively market too! Contact us for assistance on how you could better brand yourself to your audience — we offer free consultations.

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How to Run A Successful Instagram AR Filter Campaign

How to Run A Successful Instagram AR Filter Campaign

It wasn’t just in 2020 that the trend of digital marketing became immensely popular. Over the past few years, many businesses have started transitioning to the digital realm to offer their products and services there instead.

And it’s not hard to see why. Internet penetration is at an all-time high right now, with the majority of people consuming social media voraciously. In fact, the Digital 2020 report from Hootsuite and We Are Social shows that almost 300 million people came online for the first time over the last 12 months. More than 4.5 billion people use the internet today, with at least 3.8 billion of them on social media.

Not only are there plenty of users on the internet, but they spend a great deal of their time on it as well — a potentially large audience to tap into, so why wouldn’t businesses jump onto that opportunity? Statistics show that we are spending an estimated time of 6 hours and 43 minutes online everyday. To put that into perspective, that’s more than 100 days a year! Of this, the daily social media usage of internet users worldwide averaged out to 144 minutes.

With Instagram being the fastest growing social media platform, many brands are turning towards the app to market themselves in order to stay relevant. Just on Instagram alone, 80% of users follow at least one brand while 60% of users regularly discover new products on the platform. Additionally, 75% of them have taken action (such as visiting the website) after seeing the brand content.

This, alongside the rising popularity of Instagram Stories, means that brands are sure to up their social media game to produce better and more engaging content. Facebook has even revealed that there are 500 million daily active users just of Instagram Stories alone. After all, we know that video posts are more popular with consumers and often receive twice as many comments as image posts.

So what can we do with all this information? Well, perhaps it’s time to take a look at how brands can use Instagram Stories to their advantage. Evolve your online video strategy to stay ahead of the times and remain savvy. What do we mean?

Instagram’s augmented reality filter campaign.

Yes, you heard that right. Instagram recently partnered up with Spark AR to allow users to create their own custom AR filter. Not many brands have made use of Instagram’s AR filter function which is really a pity since it could very well be the future. Want to know how to run your own AR filter campaign successfully? Here’s how.

1. Define your objectives

Are you aiming for more conversions, engagement, or just increased brand awareness? Having a goal guides your creative team and makes it easier for them to settle on a clear design for the filter, depending on what you want to achieve. Remember to also keep in mind which audience you want to appeal to. Build out a persona for this group so that you can provide them the value they seek.

2. Get familiar with Spark AR

Facebook has a free downloadable programme for users interested in making their own AR filter. Brands can use this to experiment and find the best filter that works for them. The app also has plenty of pre-made templates to help beginners who are just starting out.

Alternatively, you can outsource the task to a talented filter creator. As a creative digital agency, MIU has the capability to design for you a captivating filter made specifically for your audience. While it might be more of an investment, the end result would be worth it if your brand manages to stand out amongst its competitors. AR filters or otherwise, we take pride in our work. Click here to contact us for more information today!

3. Include a call-to-action

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The end-goal of every marketing plan, a CTA is important to nudge your audience into taking the necessary next steps you want them to take. Otherwise, you might miss out on reaching the objectives you set.

Ask yourself this: what will your filter enable the user to accomplish, and how does it support your business objective? Whether your CTA is just to raise awareness for a certain issue, your brand, or to increase engagement, you need to keep it in mind so as to push the audience to take a certain action, be it subconsciously or otherwise, and reach your objectives — even if it is just to grow awareness.

4. Promote your filter

Once your filter is completed, it will be published directly to your profile and you can use it on your own Stories and Highlights. It can also be accessed via a dedicated filter tab found under your Highlights reel once it goes live. When you use said filter in your Stories, you can add a ‘Try It’ button for your viewers to test out the filter themselves. Anyone who uses your filter will automatically have a button linked to your filter so that their followers can easily try it out for themselves as well.

If you have a branded AR filter, your business partner can also promote your AR filter through their Stories! Branded AR filters also gets access to metrics (including impressions, captures, and shares) to allow brands to keep track of how their filters are performing. Furthermore, every Instagram AR filter has its own unique URL that can be found inside your SparkAR hub or from Instagram itself. Post this link across your social media channels and website to drive even more engagement.

Another efficient and effective way to promote your filter is by entering into a partnership with Instagram influencers. Reach out to those who are popular in your industry and you could work something out! Otherwise, you could also set up a paid promotion which allows brands to partner with influencers as business partners as well.

5. Check your ROIs

Even as your filter has been officially launched, your work is not done. Measuring your metrics and watching analytics is but part of the job. In order to know what works and what doesn’t, it is important to keep track of how your filter is faring and if it’s meeting the objectives you’ve previously set. This will allow you to better optimise your filter for future reference and improve on your marketing strategy.

That said, the world of social media is evolving ever more rapidly with new techniques and tools constantly being introduced every single day. It is up to you, as a brand and a business owner, to learn to stay with the times and keep your brand relevant. Hopping onto new trends early not only expands your marketing possibilities but also gives you a competitive advantage.

With the wide variety of tools that Instagram offers, it is the perfect platform for launching new social media campaigns. From Stories to Highlights to filters and so much more, these functions allow your brand to be even more interactive with your audience. Always keep a close eye on new innovations that surface to boost your business performance and craft a successful social media strategy.

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Brand Story: The What and The Why

Brand Story: The What and The Why

Building a business means you have to make sure that your business has a brand that is easily recognised by people. An easy-to-recognise brand not only relies on the name, logo, or tagline but the story as well. A brand story is not something that is just created by yourself as the business owner.

Rather, a brand story is a cohesive narrative that encompasses the facts and the feelings evoked by your brand.  A brand story should inspire emotional reactions, unlike the traditional business advertisements that only shows and tells. Product, price, history, quality, marketing, in-store experience, purpose, and values are all points that can influence and drive the brand story. A brand story grabs people’s attention, elicits emotions and engages with the audience.

Apple is one of many companies that can deliver a successful brand story. Most people around the world know their products, have high enthusiasm when for their launches, and willingly recommend them to other people who are not yet familiar with Apple. These show just how Apple became such a huge brand with a successful brand story.

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There are 5 keys to building a successful brand story:

  1. It is meaningful. A good brand story has to be interesting and relevant to the people we are trying to reach.

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  2. It is personal. If there is no place for the audience in our brand story, there is no reason for them to pay attention to it. A brand needs to spare places for the audience to become part of the brand story. Always remember, the brand owner is not the only author of the brand story.

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  3. It is emotional. A strong brand story is all about stimulating people’s emotions and sympathy. By gaining the audience’s sympathy, you are creating the doorway for them to feel attached to your brand.

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  4. It is simple. Less is more. It is better for the story to tell itself and maximize emotional attachment while still being simple.

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  5. It is authentic. Be open, honest and transparent, and let the brand personality shine through. This can make people recognize your story much more easily.

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A successful brand story is more than content and narrative. It is beyond what is written on the brand website or on the advertisements shown on public media. A brand story is a complete experience made up of facts, feelings and interpretations.

A brand without a story is just like any other commodity with the possibility to be replaced. Without a story, the customers cannot define your product and distinguish it from your competitors. Building a brand story is not just simply about making your brand stand out and getting noticed. It is about making a brand that people care about and want to buy from. 

Susan Gunelius in her article in Forbes define brand story with this statement:

“Brand stories are not marketing materials. They are not ads, and they are not sales pitches. Brand stories should be told with the brand personality and writer’s personality at centre stage. Boring stories won’t attract and retain readers, but stories brimming with personality can.”

 

At the end of the day, every business needs a brand story to stand out and market themselves successfully. In the current state of consumerism, your brand is most likely one of millions out there. What can you do to make sure you are remembered?

Customers will feel more attached to a brand with a story behind it, but we cannot create and shape it ourselves as the brand owner. A successful brand story will build the foundation of trust with the customers, shaping a seamless story that will keep them loyal for a long time. With MIU, we will help you spark the tiniest details and nurture it into a wonderful story for your brand.