How To Establish Brand Identity Using Content
Business to business (B2B) marketers say that blogging and social media are key to their campaigns, with 80% saying they include blogging as one of their techniques. Content writing is a large part of achieving consistency and accuracy for your brand. It should help the audience to build a relationship with you and your small business, ensuring they remain loyal. Take a look at how to establish your brand via your content writing.
Know Your Audience
Branding is about targeting a market of people who are likely to buy your product or service. You should keep audience in mind whenever you approach a blog article on your site, and aim to answer a question that they may have. Website visitors scan a new page for interest first. In fact, it has been found that only 16% of people read pages word for word, showing that you must hook your reader in with your content writing immediately. Adapt your tone to suit your brand. If you are a fun and quirky website aimed at younger people, a relaxed approach may work best. However, if your branding is aimed at professionals, remain professional in tone, and remove any casual language or cuss words.
Copywriting As Content
Content writing and copywriting are not the same, but are both important when delivering your brand message. Copywriting should show what your competitive edge is (i.e. you are cheaper or are faster at providing your service than other brands). It converts leads into sales, and is often the type of writing found on a website’s landing page. Headlines are also key to copywriting, as they hook the reader in. It has been found that 59% of shared articles on social media were only shared on the basis of the headline copy. Copywriting is more focused on calls to action than in delivering an emotional response but should still be engaging to ensure your readers connect with your message. Copywriting also focuses on tone of voice, consistent colors and key messages to deliver the purpose of your small business.
Social Media Branding
This content should have a relatively similar style and tone as your blog or website content to keep in with your brand. The average person spends approximately 2.5 hours on social media daily; therefore, it is essential that you keep them engaged in your posts. Unlike your blog content, posts should be short, punchy, ask a question, or give an answer. You can then post a call to action. Address world events, events happening on your site, or events happening in your community if it fits in with your brand. Building a cultural identity on social media will encourage followers to engage and share your content with others. Your social media accounts can also be linked in with your other content writing campaigns such as email marketing.
Email Subscriptions
Adding an email subscription option to your website ensures that you gain loyal followers and repeat visitors to your website. Stick to your signature style of writing to reinforce your brand. Brands which personalize their emails and target them to a key demographic of the audience gain an average of six times more transactions than those who don’t personalize according to an Experian Marketing survey. The email can be in the form of a newsletter detailing recent activities of your small business (e.g. events, fundraisers) or it can be a ‘tips’ based email with links to new content and advice available on your website. You can also use the email to advertise any new products or services and add buttons to encourage subscribers to share content on social media. Turn your readers into email subscribers by offering them something upfront such as a promotional discount or a free product like a video course or eBook.
EBook Writing
Many small businesses can benefit from selling an eBook as part of their content writing and marketing strategy. It could be focused on a niche aspect of your business or it could be a collection of questions and answers commonly asked by your audience. It has been found that 63% of consumers would only buy from an authentic brand according to the Digital Marketing Institute. Ebooks will help you to build authenticity and trust with your audience and allow you to solve a problem for them. Keep the tone and style of writing seen on your website, your emails and on your social media to ensure continuity with your brand and its message. You can offer the book for free as part of your strategy to gain customers or you can sell it as part of your business model.
Content is key to delivering your message to an audience. Branding is not as simple as having a logo or a website: it is about showing what your company has to deliver and how it will deliver it. Content writing can be boosted by adding videos, podcasts and infographics to ensure it is accessible to a wide range of consumers in your target audience.
