Love it or hate it, social media has changed the marketing landscape as we once knew it. It has become increasingly more difficult for marketers to reach a client’s target audience via traditional methods. With the election coming up, you can see how candidates are using more and more aggressive digital campaigns to convince you to vote for them. Businesses are doing the same thing to try to get your attention.
The unfortunate thing is that instead of trying to “shock” an audience businesses could be focusing more on creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to engage with their consumers and influence their buying habits. It is no surprise that more and more businesses are spending more of their marketing budgets on building content to build their brand equity.
Is brand equity a marketing buzzword?
Every business, large or small, seems to understand the significance of brand equity, although not many of them can define the idea properly. Did you ever try asking someone what their definition of brand equity is? Go ahead and give it a whirl. When you look it up on Google, you will find more definitions of brand equity than the number of brands trying to build it. Crazy!?
Well lets all get on the same page with what brand equity is. Simply put, its it is how people see your brand. How they recognize you? What makes you different from the others?
In its essence, brand equity is all about how people feel about you and your products/services. It is built on the customers’ repeated experiences with your business, which in turn, create your brand value. The more they like your brand, the better your brand equity. It also creates loyalty, something that motivates your existing customers to recommend your brand to others.
Sounds like something you as a business owner would want to put your money into building, right?
In order to do this, you need to create a strategic plan to position your company, your people and your products/services properly in the marketplace. The good news is there are many different routes you can take that will lead you to greater brand equity. And almost all of them involve the content you create and share. Compelling content that engages your audience will always enhance their brand experience. Always think of your audience and their needs.
How Content Helps in Building Brand Equity
Content is king. It plays are huge role in building your brand value by telling your brand story, positioning yourself as a thought leader, growing your audience and engaging them, building your SEO, and so on. And the great news is that as you build your brand equity, more people will be sharing your message and continuing the story that you created. Not one that they made up.
Here are 3 ways your content can help you build brand equity.
1. Your brand story is brought to life
All businesses have a story to share; a story that is unique to your business and that no one else shares. How was the business created, who works for the business, etc. If you want to share your story and insights into your business and your people, your audience is ready and excited to read about it. In fact, brand storytelling is one of the hottest content marketing trends these days as it doesn’t require a lot of money but the right amount of imagination and creativity combined with your company’s founding insight. It can be anything from a big product breakthrough to a simple customer service story – as long as you have something compelling to tell, people are going to listen. Just be sure to make your story align with your corporate identity.
2. Earning Trust and Building Loyalty
You can never build brand equity without earning the trust of the people. But the question is: How to earn trust? Content is the best way to do achieve this goal. When you write insightful and relevant social media posts or blog articles that are attached to your business your audience begins to view you as a thought leader. The more people that come across your content and enjoy it, the more trust you build up.
But don’t just focus on blogs and articles. There are a ton of other places to put your content that you can invest time and money into. Places like videos, tutorials, infographics, Linkedin posts, YouTube, and many more.
If used correctly, your content marketing can become your new sales strategy. But remember, your content marketing is not about you. Rather, it is about the customers you are serving. What interest them? What kind of information are they looking for? Your content must benefit them and if you can do it, you will earn your customers’ trust and loyalty in no time.
Such content marketing strategy only marks the beginning of a long term relationship. When you create content that interests your target audience on a regular basis, they keep coming back to your brand for more and this, in turn, builds loyalty.
Even better, your audience begins to voluntarily share your content on their social profile, helping you to expand your market reach by means of word-of-mouth marketing.
3. Establishing Your Thought Leadership
If you have read this blog this long, you must already get the idea that content is one of the best ways to communicate your brand story and brand value. But it can do more than just two things, it can begin to establish you as a thought leader in your industry. Again, strategy will be the key to executing versus just putting out topics and distributing them wherever seems to work that specific day.
One key element of this type of strategy is authenticity. The more genuine and accurate your approach, the more people will want to read your content. This means you cannot just write it in between meetings and hope it will entice readers. This willy nilly approach will do you more harm than establishing you as an authority in your field.
A better approach is to do your background research and gather the necessary knowledge purposeful and practical advice to your target audience. In doing so, you will not only build trust and long-term relationship but also influence their purchase decisions.
One last item to consider: The Internet is already filled with blog posts, white-papers, case studies, e-books and so on. Your competitors too are probably trying to establish themselves as thought leaders. You will therefore need to stand out in the crowd, and it is your content that can help you go a step further.
In conclusion, when it comes to creating content that helps you build brand equity, there is no shortcut. You must be ready to put in the required time and effort. The focus needs to be on creating more meaningful content that your customers find valuable and compelling. And for that, you need to tell a better story, which in turn, helps you build value into your brand.