In the digital era, we are perpetually surrounded by buzzing phones and notification alerts. Our consumers are no different from us; they are surrounded by distractions as well. Today, brands have a tough job in catching the attention of prospects. Marketing has never been more challenging, —especially for new brands. Influencing customers and getting their attention takes more than just an excellent product, customer service, catchy headlines, and an appealing value proposition.

The one strategy to rule them all

To win this tricky battle, new-age brands are seen offering exclusive deals and big discounts to outdo competitors. While surely these techniques can help businesses reach their short-term goals, they don’t lead to long-term customer loyalty. For effective brand building, you need to build trust with customers; a one-time discount or steal deal can’t achieve this. If you look at the most renowned and longest-surviving brands, you will realize that they’ve created and nurtured emotional connections with their customers, turning them into devoted followers.

Today, it’s a given that to flourish, it is vital for brands to stay connected with the distracted customer. And how do you establish this connect?

Well, if you look around, you’ll realize that even though there are a million distractions, everyone is craving to be part of something bigger. They’re looking for a deeper meaning; people want to connect, to grow, to make a difference. People who are passionate about having a purpose will automatically be attracted to the idea that your brand has one, too. Therefore, the foundation of your marketing strategies should be your purpose.

If you’re wondering how you could communicate your purpose to impact the distracted consumer, then here are three things that you could do:

Emotional Branding

Emotional branding is about establishing a brand that engages directly with consumers’ emotions, needs, and goals. With emotional branding, brands can trigger an emotional response in consumers. By arousing emotions, brands can create a bond which embeds itself into traditional consumer decision-making patterns. This is highly beneficial because creating an emotional relationship with consumers can boost profits. Brands such as Coca-Cola and Nescafe are examples of how building emotional connections with customers directly impacts sales and increases brand value.

People get to show what they believe through the brands they buy. As it happens, consumers are also willing to pay more and go out of their way to do this. Brands have to position themselves in a way that connects and resonates with their target audience. Research reveals that customer value is maximized by brands that help consumers feel like they belong within the ‘brands’ values. This is done by making customers understand that their interactions with those brands are an extension of their natural beliefs. Apple and Nike are perfect examples of this approach. Apple connects with its consumers by showing how it understands their needs; Nike does so by showing customers’ how their dreams and ambitions are understood and supported.

Conveying an Explicit Message

The clearer you are with your communication, the more impactful your brand communications will be. Instead of creating heaps of marketing material with all sorts of fancy designs and text, focus on making your core message clear and explicit. Do not assume that customers understand what you do or sell. Your audience must know what makes your brand tick through everything that you say and do.

Clarity is a strategy that helps to cut through today’s turbulence and clutter and make your branding activities more effective. A survey revealed that a user only reads 28% of the text on your website before leaving and having a clear message can help reduce your bounce rate by 20-30%. Think of that in terms of the impact of your message -how many people read it and of that, how many understand it enough for it to resonate?

The key here is to be authentic and aligned to your core. A transparent demonstration of your values and a consistent alignment with that across all channels, media, and other strategies will help the message get through even in a chaotic and noisy marketplace.

Humanize Your Brand

As a brand, your focus should always be on providing a memorable customer experience that showcases exactly what your brand represents. Giving a glimpse into the people that make up the brand and connecting with the human motivations of your customers will help you deliver just such an experience.

Often, it’s the little things. Touches like having team-members sign their names on customer-support emails help in showing your brand’s human side. Online makeup stores Colourpop and Kylie Jenner show their human side by doing just this. For each order, they beautifully wrap up the product and write a personally addressed thank-you note to the buyer. Now, who wouldn’t appreciate such thoughtfulness?

In conclusion, when the heart of your brand narrative connects deeply with your customers and nurtures their emotions, it creates a new tone for your marketing strategy. That will help you catch the eye of those customers whose values align with your own. The relationships with those customers will also be more enduring since they will be based on a foundation of shared values rather than something monetary. This will help you to attract customers and convert them into enthusiastic brand ambassadors.

 

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