But few people know how to create one that actually accomplishes anything for their business.
Here’s a good question.
What is a “good About Page” really supposed to accomplish?
Copyblogger says that it should answer three questions for your visitor:
What’s in this for me?
Am I in the right place?
Can this person help me with my problem?
The first thing that you should notice here is that, while your About Page is about your business, it needs to be catered to your visitors.
You don’t want to turn your reader off by talking about yourself too much. Make them interested in a natural conversation with you.
To answer these three questions and get your readers to pull up a chair and stay a while, there are a few steps that you will need to follow through on.
Let’s take a look at what they are.
How to Write an Amazing About Page: Focus on Your Reader
As you go through each step, the importance of focusing on the reader cannot be overstated.
While your initial thought may be that your About Page should be about you, the fact of the matter is that your readers aren’t there for you. They’re there for them.
By understanding that your reader should be your main focus you can avoid producing an information-littered About Page that doesn’t accomplish anything for your business.
Go ahead and tell your story. Just don’t get so lost in telling it that you forget why you’re doing it in the first place.
Step #1 – Tell Your Story With Your Customers in Mind
There are thousands of examples of stale About Pages that tell weakly put together stories about the history of a company and what they offer to customers.
The thing is, people already know most of these things. They’ve made it to your page because they feel you might have the potential to solve their problems.
As Entrepreneur contributor Aaron Agius is quick to point out, “So many companies focus on business specifics in their About Page content, such as types of services and products offered.”
Agius wants you to look away from this boring strategy.
His recommendation is that, “Your About Page should illustrate your business’s humble beginnings and highlight the positive attributes of your team that helped you get where you are today.”
Here’s a good overview of the elements of a compelling B2B story:
All six elements outlined above play an integral role in ensuring that businesses see you as someone that they’d like to work with.
Make your About Page about your customers. Relate to them. Be memorable. Give them a reason to trust you.
Do these things and you’re well on your way to making a strong first impression with the people who matter.
Step #2 – Utilize Visuals to Strengthen
Visuals are a necessary part of any great About Page. And they’re especially effective when you’re attempting to tell your brand’s unique story.
Now, we’re certainly not saying that your About Page needs an infographic.
What we are saying, however, is that, if 90% of information that comes to the brain is visual, your page needs more than just words.
Visuals can include anything from images and videos to infographics and photographs.
MailChimp is one of many B2B companies that effectively utilizes photographs on their About Page.
When you see this photo, you immediately think of community. This isn’t a coincidence.
As you scroll down their page, they have a section about Community Investment and how they’re helping cities like Atlanta become, “better, weirder, and more human.”
They also feature a visual-rich section on their employees that looks like this:
When you see these photos, the word “fun” comes to mind. Now we know, without even reading a single word, that MailChimp identifies themselves as a fun, community-driven company.
They’ve told their story through photos and use words to supplement it. This is the power of visuals.
And it’s why they need to be implemented, and featured, on your About Page.
Video content is an excellent choice to consider for your About Page. Here’s how we did it on our About Page (our video story was filmed professionally and told by our founder, Julia McCoy):
And if you scroll down, you’ll learn about each of the creators that make up a core portion of our team:
Step #3 – Use Social Proof
The power of social proof in the marketing world is astounding.
And while there are dozens of examples of how social proof can help you market effectively, it can also be leveraged on your About Page to build a strong first impression about your reputation.
But with so many different ways to show that others trust your brand, which one works best for your About Page?
The type that will work best for your brand is, plain and simply, the one that will be seen as most powerful to your customers.
Gummisig, a freelance web designer, identified that listing popular clients that he’s worked with proved most effective.
Ikea is a Fortune 500 company. Showing potential customers that a company like that has trusted his services provides immediate, and incredibly effective, social proof.
But maybe you haven’t had the pleasure of working with a client with that type of name recognition.
No problem. Use the customers you do have.
Providing quotes from testimonials is a powerful way to generate effective social proof. Including actual data about what you’ve accomplished for your clients can also work incredibly well.
Use what you have to provide social proof that your unique readers will understand and appreciate.
Step #4 – Give Readers a Next Step
If they like what they see, what are they supposed to do next?
This is one of the most overlooked aspects of creating a strong B2B About Page. After all, isn’t the objective of your entire website to convert users?
To answer the question of what you want them to do next, your focus should be on what stage of awareness the reader is in when they get to your About Page.
Since they’re attempting to learn more about your business, your potential customer is likely already in the product or brand aware stage.
They understand their problem, know that there are solutions, and are now on your brand’s page because they see you as a potential solution.
The goal of any copywriter is to get customers to the most aware stage and convert them when they get there.
So, in order to convert them, you need to think like a copywriter.
When customers are on your About Page, and they’re intrigued by your story and the social proof that you’ve provided, they’re only steps away from being most aware.
Take advantage of this by implementing a call-to-action at the bottom of your page that provokes them to take the next step NOW.
Digital strategy firm Nerdery provides a great example of how to do this.
Their CTA is simple:
Their goal is to start a conversation with potential customers so they can eventually follow through and bring them on as a client.
And they’ve made it easy for readers of their About Page to start that conversation.
Find out what you want readers to do next and ask them to do it. It’s really that simple.
Conclusion
In the end, there are a lot of elements that go into creating an amazing About Page.
You want to tell your unique story and use visuals to tell it in a more compelling manner.
You also want to show readers, through social proof, why they should trust you over the dozens of other brands that offer what you offer.
What you don’t want to do, however, is get so caught up in doing these things that you lose sight of the fact that your About Page is about your reader, and what they’re looking to get out of it.
And while the line between telling your story and focusing on the reader is a fine one, it’s one that I’m confident you can overcome by using the steps above.
If you’d like some assistance in walking this line, we have a great team of experts that can help you create an amazing About Page.
This week’s #ContentWritingChat was all about personal branding! We talked about who should have a personal brand, they key steps to creating one, and much more. If you missed the chat or need a refresher on the topics we covered, it’s time to dive right into our recap!
Our guest host this week was Barry Feldman. Barry is a content marketing consultant, copywriter, and author. In fact, he recently wrote a book called The Road to Recognition.
Q1: How do you define a personal brand? Who has a personal brand?
To kick off the chat, we asked everyone to share their definition of a personal brand. What do they think it means to have a personal brand and who actually has one? Check out some of these responses from the chat:
A1: A personal brand is the perception people have of you regarding your professional life. #contentwritingchat
— Barry Feldman (@FeldmanCreative) April 25, 2017
A1: Everyone has, or has the potential to have, a personal brand. Whether they take control of it is the question. #contentwritingchat
As Barry said, a personal brand is the perception people have of you regarding your professional life. People are always going to have thoughts and opinions surrounding you, whether you realize you have a personal brand or not. So, you better make sure it’s a good one!
He also added that everyone has or has the potential to have a personal brand. It’s important that you recognize this and take control of the image you’re portraying.
@ExpWriters A1: I think of a personal brand as your essence, what you stand for, what you won’t fall for. Your mission and values. #ContentWritingChat
— Katie Lewis (@kathryndlewis) April 25, 2017
Katie had a great answer to this first question. She feels a personal brand is your essence, what you stand for, and what you won’t fall for. It’s all about your mission and the values you have. Definitely something worth thinking about!
Maggie said your personal brand is a package of who you are and what you’re about. This package essentially represents you to the world, which is why it’s something everyone should think about.
As Jenn pointed out, everything anyone can see or read about you makes up how you’re perceived. It may sound a little scary, but remember that you can take control of your personal brand overall.
Gabriela said your personal brand is your vibe. It’s all in how you communicate who you are, what you do, and what people can expect from you. Here’s hoping your personal brand gives off an amazing vibe!
A1: First of all, everyone has a personal brand, whether they want to or not! It’s how you represent yourself to others. #contentwritingchat
— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) April 25, 2017
Lexie from Netvantage Marketing feels everyone has a personal brand. This is why it’s so important to consider how you’re representing yourself, especially online.
A1: Everyone has a personal brand, from personality to reputation, what do people think of you when you aren’t around? #contentwritingchat
— Digital Natives Cast (@DgtlNativesCast) April 25, 2017
Ask yourself the following question… What do you want people to think of you when you’re not around? Make sure your personal brand is a reflection of that answer.
Q2: What key steps should someone take when building a personal brand?
Now that you know what a personal brand is, let’s talk about the key steps to building it. It’s likely that you have a personal brand whether you realize it or not and you want to make sure it’s an accurate reflection of you. Here’s what you need to know:
A2: Establish your message (UVP). ID an audience. Concentrate on a niche. Find the right platform. Deliver value. #contentwritingchat
— Barry Feldman (@FeldmanCreative) April 25, 2017
Barry’s key steps to developing your personal brand: establish your message, identify who your audience is, concentrate on a niche, find the right platform, and then deliver value.
Julia said to know what value you can provide and who your audience is first. From there, you can begin building a content strategy and your unique voice.
A2. Before you start throwing things to see what sticks, get clear on who you’re talking to and why. #contentwritingchat
— pamelahughes (@pamelahughes) April 25, 2017
Pamela knows just how important it is to know and understand who your audience is, so start there by figuring out who you’re targeting.
Sarah’s advice is to know who you are and who your audience is, plus how you’re going to interact with them. It’s also important to be yourself, otherwise you aren’t building your brand on a strong foundation.
Katie suggests starting by creating a mission statement and setting values. This will help give you some direction with your brand so you know what you’re all about and who you’re targeting.
A2: Build a personality around your brand, be human and let people know who you are, what makes you unique? #contentwritingchat
— Digital Natives Cast (@DgtlNativesCast) April 25, 2017
A great reminder when it comes to your brand: be human. Build a personality around your brand that is genuine and true to who you are. That’s what will make you unique and it’ll help others resonate with you.
A2b: Look at the brands you’re inspired by – their mission, values, personality – you may have some of them in common. #contentwritingchat
— Sara Tetzloff (@que_sara) April 25, 2017
If you’re feeling confused about where to get started when building your personal brand, Sara suggests looking to some of the brands you admire and are inspired by. Consider their mission, the values they have, and their personality. Determine what it is about those brands that resonates with you and you can replicate that for yourself, but don’t copy them.
Q3: How can you be sure your personal brand is a true reflection of your personality and who you are?
When building a personal brand, you want to make sure it’s genuine. It should be a reflection of who you truly are if you want it to resonate with others. Here’s how you can do that:
A3: Does it feel true? If you’re faking it, you’ll be found out soon. #contentwritingchat
Q3: Your niche is *unlikely* to be unique. Your challenge is to make your *voice* unique. #contentwritingchat
— Barry Feldman (@FeldmanCreative) April 25, 2017
Barry suggests asking yourself if your personal brand feels true. If you are faking it by pretending to be something you’re not, people will find out soon enough. Although your niche might not be unique, you can always make your voice unique so you can stand out from the crowd.
Gabriela feels personal branding all starts with self-awareness. She said you need to understand who you were, who you are, and who you aspire to be.
@ExpWriters A3 Be true to YOU. When you start being YOU 100%, you attract your ideal clients. Your transparency will shine. #ContentWritingChat
— Julia McCoy ? (@JuliaEMcCoy) April 25, 2017
As Julia said, be true to you. It all starts there by being genuine and true to who you really are.
When you’re genuine, you stand a much better chance at attracting the right audience to your brand.
A3. It may be counter to this chat, but don’t overthink it. Your personal brand should be personal, after all! #contentwritingchat
— pamelahughes (@pamelahughes) April 25, 2017
Pamela’s advice is to not overthink it. That’s something we should all keep in mind!
Q4: How can you get your personal brand noticed online so you stand out as an authority?
Once you’ve built your personal brand and you’re ready to start making connections, you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd. You have to find a way to position yourself as an authority in your niche. Here’s how you can do that for your personal brand:
Q4: Experimentation. Persistence. Collaborative projects with influencers. Media, media and more media. #contentwritingchat
— Barry Feldman (@FeldmanCreative) April 25, 2017
Q4: Master a platform: blog, vlog, podcast, speaking, webinars, courses… something that suits you. #contentwritingchat
If you want to get noticed online, take Barry’s suggestions into consideration: experimentation, persistence, collaborative projects with influencers, and media. He also suggests mastering a platform that suits you. It could be blogging, vlogging, podcasts, or something else. Find your thing and become a master at it.
Varun said to join relevant conversations online. You can connect with people vita Twitter, forums, industry seminars, and other meet-ups. Make sure you’re adding value if you truly want to get noticed.
A4 You’ll stand out more among the crowd the more you engage and engage with value such as in chats. #ContentWritingChat
— Jim Katzaman (@JKatzaman) April 25, 2017
Engage, engage, engage!
A4: Authority is recognized when you have proof. So, hammer out a library of “show, don’t tell” material to illustrate #ContentWritingChat
Maureen knows great content can go a long way to building a reputation for your brand. Produce quality content that shows people what they need to know and back it up with proof.
Know that you aren’t going to see results overnight. As Flavia said, you want to find your people, continue to share content, and being active when it comes to engaging with others.
Q5: In what ways can social media help you build your brand and network with others?
Wondering how social media can help you build your brand and make connections online? Check out these suggestions from Tuesday’s chat:
Q5: In every way. You’re going to need friends, fans, followers, collaborators. #contentwritingchat
— Barry Feldman (@FeldmanCreative) April 25, 2017
As Barry said, you’re going to need friends, fans, followers, and collaborators for your brand. Social media can help you make those connections to build those relationships.
A5: #socialmedia gives the opportunity to connect globally, not just locally & makes it easy for others to endorse you. #contentwritingchat
It’s clear that Elizabeth knows the power of social media. As she said, it gives you the opportunity to connect with people globally. You just never know who you might meet and where those people will be located.
Jason said social media can connect you with people who are new to your brand and help you stay connected to those who already know you.
A5: There are no limits to how you can engage, share and grow your brand on all social media platforms. #ContentWritingChat
— Lori Anding? (@southbaysome) April 25, 2017
There are no limits on social media. As Lori suggestions, you should focus on growing your brand on all the social media platforms you want to use for your brand.
A5: The weird thing about social media is that YOU CAN BE SOCIAL ON IT! People forget this…a lot! #ContentWritingChat
Social media may provide a lot of amazing opportunities, but there’s also a lot more competition to deal with. Embrace what makes you unique and do what you can to stand out.
Q6: What are the upsides to having a personal brand? The downsides?
What are the advantages to personal branding? Are there any disadvantages? Find out in these responses from the chat:
Being recognizable is certainly a benefit of personal branding, but it’s also a downside. If you mess up, a lot of people may see it. That’s all the more reason to be careful about what you put out there online.
A6: The upside of personal branding is a bond with your community and the audience you attract fits with your narrative. #contentwritingchat
— Jeff Higgins (@ItsJeffHiggins) April 25, 2017
Personal branding can help you form a bond with your community and the audience you’re trying to attract.
A6. Upside = increased reach/audience/potential customers. Downside = misstep in personal life can hurt business. #ContentWritingChat
On the plus side, having a personal brand can give you an increased reach, a larger audience, and help you attract potential customers. On the downside, if there’s a misstep in your personal life and everyone finds out, it can impact you negatively.
Q7: What is the most important thing to remember when building your personal brand?
The most important things to remember when building your personal brand, courtesy of our Twitter chat:
Q7: Remember your objectives. Don’t just chase fame. Earn recognition in line with career goals. #contentwritingchat
— Barry Feldman (@FeldmanCreative) April 25, 2017
Be careful what you put out there online because once it’s out there, it’s public for the world to see. You can’t take it back.
A7: Be yourself and don’t try to be like everyone else. Your audience will value you being yourself and not someone else #contentwritingchat
— Mind of a Diva (@MindofaDiva) April 25, 2017
Be yourself and don’t try to be like everyone else. That won’t help you stand out from the crowd.
Madalyn, Neal, and Sujan are all great! Join us every Tuesday at 10 AM CST for #ContentWritingChat! Follow @ExpWriters and @writingchat to stay updated on topics and guests.
Did you miss #ContentWritingChat this week? Never fear! We have a full recap of Tuesday’s chat where we talked all about honing in on your brand story. Let’s dive in and review some of the tips that were shared this week!
#ContentWritingChat April 5 2016 Recap: Strategies to Hone In On & Tell Your Best Brand Story
Tamara Budz joined us as our guest host this week. She is a marketing consultant and brand storyteller/content marketer who owns the Silver Shade Group.
Q1: Define brand storytelling.
What exactly is brand storytelling? Julia, Tamara, Brittany, and Hannah all chimed in with great answers for our first question.
A1 What does YOUR brand solve for people? What are customers saying? Tell your best authentic story = brand storytelling #ContentWritingChat
As Julia mentioned, you want to focus on what your brand solves for people. What pain points are you helping them with? And what exactly are your customers saying about you and your brand?
Brittany shared a great answer. Your brand story is your past, present, and future. It’s about your reputation and the connections that you make with your audience.
Hannah said brand storytelling is about sharing your message in a meaningful and entertaining way. You need to make sure you’re speaking to your audience.
Q2: What makes a strong brand story?
Now that you know what brand storytelling is, what exactly makes a strong brand story?
Co-Op Social was spot on with their answer. A strong brand story includes authenticity, relevance, and connectivity. You need to be authentic, your story should be relevant to your brand and your audience, and it should form a connection with your audience.
A2. Once you know who you are, connect with people, be human, remember your values and be grounded in your integrity. #ContentWritingChat
Julia and Jeremy were on the same page with their answers. Both of them expressed the importance of focusing on your audience. Get them involved in your story and make sure it’s one they’ll feel drawn to.
A2 A deep understanding of your audience. Understand their painpoints, interests, influences & craft content to reflect #ContentWritingChat
Hannah said it’s important to understand the pain points of your audience, as well as their interests. Knowing these things can help you create the right content for them.
A2: The human elements (people) & struggles behind the story of a brand are what make it compelling #ContentWritingChat
Andrew said to focus on the people. Don’t be afraid to share the struggles behind the story of your brand because that can be compelling and relatable for your audience.
Q3: What are the benefits of storytelling for a brand in today’s era?
Developing and telling your story can have some major benefits for your brand. Check out these answers from Kim, Hannah, Michael, and Alberto.
A3: Again, it’s how you connect to people. Marketing today is all about the connection to the individidual. #ContentWritingChat
As Kim from McKinney & Associates and Hannah both said, it’s all about developing a connection with your audience. Your story needs to draw them in and help you start forming a relationship.
Pay attention to what your customers are saying. They can provide you with valuable advice. As Julia said, find out how you’ve been able to help your audience. Tamara agreed. She said your customers will tell you what they need. All you have to do is tune in to what they’re saying or just ask.
A4: Mix of creativity, empathy, and diligent stalking. …I mean listening. (But seriously consumer data really helps) #ContentWritingChat
Pratik suggested not just looking to your customer, but also looking at your competition. Take a look at what they’re doing. It’s sure to help give you some fresh ideas!
Q5: What are some ways to be unique as you tell your brand’s story?
When it comes to telling your brand story, you need to find a way to be unique so you stand out from the crowd.
A5: To start with, find out what clicks with your customers and prospects. #ContentWritingChat
Zlata reminds us that you should never forget your audience. What resonates with them? What are they drawn to? You need to create content with them in mind.
A5 Get creative on all mediums!! Explainer/animated vids are huge. Infographics, gifographics, SlideShares, blogs, etc #ContentWritingChat
As Julia said, make sure you get creative on every medium you use, whether it’s infographics, gifographics, SlideShares, blog posts, etc. Use your creativity and show it off in everything you do.
A5. Tell people about your challenges! Show vulnerability! Just be real & let your voice shine through whenever you can. #contentwritingchat
And finally, Brittany pointed out that we should never get stuck in our ways. We need to be willing to experiment and try new things. Step outside your comfort zone and try something different.
Q6: What are the best mediums to tell your brand story online? (blogs, videos, etc.)
This was another question people in the chat mostly agreed on. To determine which mediums are best for your brand, look to your audience and see what they’re responding to. Here’s what some chatters had to say:
A6: Use the mediums your ideal customers are using and engage with. Not all mediums will make sense for your customer. #ContentWritingChat
Affinio, Pratik, and Zlata all agreed that the mediums you choose will depend on who your audience is. Ask yourself, what are they drawn to? What resonates with them and what are they interested in? Do they prefer reading blog posts or watching videos? It all depends on your customer!
A6. The best mediums are the ones your audience loves the most. To find out what they prefer, just ask! #contentwritingchat
If you aren’t sure which mediums they prefer, take Kristen’s advice and just ask. It really is as simple as that. Don’t be afraid to just reach out to your audience and ask what they enjoy. They’ll tell you.
A6. Where & how you story-tell are reflections of your audience: who are they, where do they hang out? #ContentWritingChat@ExpWriters
As Rachel said, consider who your audience is and where they’re spending their time online. These are two things you need to keep in mind every time you’re creating content.
A6 Videos are key for getting a visual story across best! Copy, too: don’t be afraid of delving into the highly creative #ContentWritingChat
Julia and Sabjan both offered some great suggestions for popular mediums to utilize. Julia said videos are essential for getting a visual story across the best. They also provide a fantastic way to form a connection with your audience.
Sabjan also mentioned videos, but said blogs, infographics, eBooks, and podcasts are all amazing as well. It’s good to try a few mediums and see what works best for both you and your audience.
A6b @ExpWriters I insist on LiveStreaming, at least for trailers or previews of your content and stories #ContentWritingChat
Alberto is another fan of video, as he suggested live streaming. With so many live streaming apps available today, it just might be a great medium to try out for your brand. See how your audience responds!
A6) The location (say, YouTube) is secondary to the medium (say, video) which is secondary to the message. #ContentWritingChat@JuliaEMcCoy
Determine the medium that’s right for you. Don’t be afraid to try new things, but once you figure out what clicks for you and your audience, stick to it.
Some great examples from Pratik: Nike, Apple, Cadbury, and Coca Cola. We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM CDT for great chats centered around content writing and marketing!
Brand recognition in the twenty-first century is an uphill battle, but with a bit of forethought, any brand can position itself where the users are. The hardest part is engaging the users and getting their feedback. This is something that GE has managed to do successfully.
Using Reddit (one of the most difficult social media platforms for brand recognition) as its base, GE has managed to woo users to their side by providing high quality content consistently, so much so that their e-zine GE Reports is now considered as relevant and important as older publications in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field. But how exactly did GE manage to do this? How did they place themselves in such a great position compared to their peers? Their strategy is both admirable and inspiring, doing all the things content producers should be doing right.
A Big Secret: Knowing the Audience
When GE set off on the task of making its brand known for something, they first had to figure out the audience they were creating content for. GE is an engineering company at heart and the obvious audience for them would be engineers and other professionals in STEM fields.
The things that interest these types of readers are not what you would consider mainstream content. GE, being a leader in innovation, realized that their audience was made up of people who wanted to know what was going on in science and technology around them.
And so GE’s brand marketing strategy was born.
GE started producing a series of articles that recapped and encapsulated new discoveries in the field of science and technology in a way that was accessible, not only to STEM professionals, but to anyone who had an interest in new discoveries. What they discovered was that although a large percentage of their core audience were STEM professionals, there were as many readers that were laymen tuning into their content since it was so approachable. The key behind this easy entry was the type of writing that was involved to build these articles.
Human Interest Factor: 3 Methods GE Won At Doing
GE Reports doesn’t go the traditional route of science reporting. Rather, they focus on the individuals behind the discoveries. What motivated them? What made them decide to explore this particular field of interest? Dry science writing went out with the 80’s and more science and technology magazines were focusing on a different style of science writing: one that sees the inventors and researchers as people first. Human interest stories always get mileage, but combining it with technological breakthroughs was a master stroke of genius.
Channels of Interaction: Success With Email? Marketing a brand is about marketing its message and for a brand to become recognized, it needs to get its name out there. Paid channels of marketing isn’t usually a major factor for GE Reports. Most of its users know about it from Reddit or from Twitter, thanks to the massive following on the social media sites. Facebook also figures into its equation, but the surprise factor in GE Reports marketing strategy is its use of email subscriptions.GE knows email is old school, but they also know that their impact comes from personal interaction and bringing out the human side of a story. Email allows for far more interaction with an individual on a personal level and goes hand in hand with their article style. Email gives GE Reports personality and that is something a lot of brand marketing seems to lack these days.
Loyalty is a Major Seller. Recently, the thinking behind social media for large marketing companies is to sink a lot of money into a targeted ad campaign. This doesn’t win over an audience, but simply “rents” them. At the end of the campaign it’s unlikely that that same audience would care to purchase from that brand again. It relies heavily on gimmicks and the ability to go for a quick sell. GE’s strategy is the complete opposite. GE Reports focuses on building a community as opposed to simply renting an audience, something that can be very useful to GE in the long run.
Why Are Loyal Users Important?
Going back to the idea of understanding an audience, the more you interact with an audience is the more likely you are to understand them and the more able you are to spot content that would sit well with them. In addition to that, GE serves as a hub for the latest news and opinions on the cutting edge of science. By cultivating a community, they ensure that not only readers are able to get the information they want to read, but that media outlets are clued in to what is the “next big thing”. This makes them as much of an authority site as any other science and technology outlet that has been in existence for years, all because of their dedicated community that shares and adds to the rich tapestry that is their user base.
It’s not about Quantity, It’s About Quality. The thing that sets GE’s brand marketing strategy apart from those of their competitors (and indeed, anyone else in the field of brand marketing) is their dedication to the delivery of quality content. Good content is any entry that enriches the user in some way, either by teaching them something new, informing them of a development or giving them an opinion on something that is worth talking about. GE fulfils this demand admirably, consistently delivering content that appeals to its user base without compromising the usefulness of the content.
Isn’t Brand Marketing about Marketing?
Brand marketing isn’t simply about marketing, and that’s where a lot of brand marketers fall woefully short. GE goes about brand marketing via another more traditional route. They include their marketing into their content, but their content comes first and the marketing aspect comes after. The idea of a marketing blog should be to inform and enrich your readers before you start working on them as potential customers. This is another interesting point when it comes to user loyalty (as mentioned above). A user that is loyal to GE because of GE Reports is more likely to put money on a GE product than any other brand, simply because of the enrichment GE Reports brings to his or her life.
GE’s Impact on the Population
So how do we know that GE is getting through to this mass of users that they claim are reading their posts? Although it may seem as though GE Reports is getting a lot of traffic, the numbers of subscriptions also measure up to scrutiny. GE sends out more than fifteen thousand emails to subscribers every time a new article is posted. As far as reach is concerned, that’s huge in terms of organic numbers. When you factor in how many of those people share, like and tweet those stories and the branching effect of social media relationships the reach is immense in scope.
The other way that GE can measure its population impact is from their newsworthiness. News agencies turn to GE Reports as an authoritative site on the news of the STEM world. By getting the leads from GE Reports, these sites can then go on to research and create their own content (yet another benefit of a community of loyal readers). By seeing their own stories covered in the mainstream STEM news, GE can safely say that it has quite an impact on the world today.
Through the middle of January, GE Reports was seeing three hundred thousand unique visitors. For any type of brand marketing site that is a huge number and although that represents a single month, GE has the potential to do it again, since they have done it before. Their power comes both from the way they build their content and the places they market it. Maybe email marketing isn’t such a thing of the past after all.
What Does GE Do That Others Don’t?
GE has forgotten about the old-style press release that so many larger brand marketing professionals stick to as the gospel. By avoiding this method of interaction with the audience, they are able to reach further and to capture a larger, more attentive readership. Their style of writing is different, more engaging than that of their competitors. The information they present is accurate and timely. All of these contribute to having a loyal readership with thousands of subscriptions and hundreds of thousands of readers on a monthly basis. Whatever they are doing, even though it’s not traditionally brand marketing, is certainly working for them, according to Contently.
4 Things that GE Does You Can Do, Too
If you’re looking to build a better brand marketing image then you should really consider how these have worked for GE so far:
Know your audience and write for them.
Create high quality content.
Don’t confine your marketing aims to social media, but rather branch out.
Build a loyal readership and user base to fall back on.
By building on their success and patterning yourself after them there is no way that you can fail to achieve the same sort of results. All it takes is dedication to the goal and the time to see it through.
Marketing and branding are two of the major buzzwords that we use in the industry. The confusing part is that non-industry professionals often mix up branding and marketing and use the terms interchangeably. There is a distinct difference between marketing and branding that can be easily explained. Before we jump into the differences we need to understand what each term means on its own. Both of them are powerful means of spreading information, but both have their own specific uses. Let’s clear up some misconceptions about the terms before we delve any further into their inherent differences.
What is Branding?
Branding is the process by which you reduce a company’s reputation to a single word. A brand is an easily recognizable representation of the particular company. Something that resonates with the user so that at a glance they know what they’re dealing with. Branding gives personality to a company and attaches an attribute to the company that appeals to the demographic of its core audience. Thus, companies such as Toyota are known for their reliability or Volvo is known for their safety records. Each of these brands have built their brands into easily recognizable traits that allow them to appeal to their customers in a unique way. It makes their business into more than just another faceless entity.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is a blanket statement that covers all forms of interaction with the customer as well as utilizing models in order to develop targeted advertising to reach out to a specific type of consumer. Marketing incorporates all forms of advertisement. In addition to this, marketing also deals with understanding the consumer or the audience and developing ways to utilize this deeper understanding.
Where do Branding and Marketing Meet?
Because these two disciplines are concerned with getting information out to the customer, they must meet at some level. Marketing and branding are both different facets of the overall content development strategy for a company. Your marketing should incorporate branding into it in order for you to cultivate customer loyalty. Branding allows you to represent your company in a certain light and build off the information that is gained by marketing. On the other side of the coin, marketing allows you to build a rapport with your audience and introduce them to your branded theme. These concepts go hand in hand, but they are not interchangeable.
What is the Major Difference between Marketing and Branding Then?
In a word, marketing is tactical whereas branding is strategic. I know what you’re thinking. “Isn’t tactical and strategic the same thing?” No, they aren’t, as Kissmetrics points out. Marketing is where the brand is presented and it contributes to overall branding. However, long after the marketing campaign has been exhausted the brand loyalty will remain. This is where branding and marketing part ways.
When we say that marketing is tactical, we mean that it deals with getting its payload of information delivered. It doesn’t try to shape the user’s long-term feelings towards the product, it simply gets in and convinces the customer of the benefits. Branding, on the other hand, seeks to embrace a more long-term view of the customer. By strategic leverage of the brand, we can eventually call upon the customer’s loyalty to the brand in order to close a sale. But this is something that requires you to give back to the customer. You need to cultivate your brand image in such a way that the customer associates an idea with your brand.
How Marketing Works Alongside Branding To Build Business
Do you remember those old TV shows where there would be a sleeper agent that needs a secret code to “activate” them? Marketing is a little like that. It discovers and “activates” buyers, encouraging them to close sales. Branding goes one step further by making those buyers into loyal customers. One of the most common examples of this is the market for Apple products. Apple has made an art out of branding and this has carried over into products in many different branches of the electronics industry.
Taking a look at the Apple target demographic, we see that their aim was to produce a product that was sold solely for its importance as a status symbol. Thus, their marketing spread the message that apple products are available, but the branded apple product was joined by its numerous sister products that fall under the brand. When the consumer sees Apple now, then it’s understood that they are paying for Apple’s reputation as something that the cool, the chic and the hip use.
Building brand loyalty is what branding does and by making loyal customers out of your one-time buyers, you develop a ready market and audience that are willing and eager to receive your content.
Which One is a Better Investment?
Both marketing and branding are good investments and have their own type of returns. Marketing can easily be done wrong and if so, it can become a money sink into which a lot of cash if poured but the returns are mediocre. Well-researched marketing gives great returns on investment but the success of the campaign depends as much on the amount of effort put into it as the amount of money. The returns are, of course, seen in conversions and sales. Branding, because of its status as a long-term investment, is usually easier to adjust as time goes by. Catastrophic failures in branding do occur, but these are usually due to bad planning as opposed a lack of funding. The return you get from branding is customer loyalty, something that can be leveraged over and over again. Marketing is necessary to make branding work, but your real benefit comes from having a loyal customer base to call on when releasing new products.
Development of a User Base
Not so far back, probably less than five years ago, a large volume of the marketing community was involved in “renting” their target demographic. They worked from the start of their campaign and then built it to the point where their customers would be converted through their methods. This method had middling success, but at the time was hailed as revolutionary. No need to hang around after the sale, no need to contact the client after the sale is done, and no follow up action to ensure that the client buys from the company again.
We have changed out outlook on how we interact with customers. Having a loyal following is far better for a company than simply renting an audience. Borrowing your audience means you have to return them to oblivion someday and that makes whatever effort you throw into a marketing campaign targeting these customers a moot point. Combining branding along with your marketing is how you retain these customers as a loyal following.
In addition to this, when you have a retained customer base, you create a series of customers that help to spread your brand. That’s utilizing earned media to its fullest. When a customer makes a statement that you put onto your website or blog about a particular product, the consumer has learned to take these with a grain of salt. However, when such a statement is made directly to them, it carries a whole lot more weight and can even convince them to buy your product. What you’re doing by cultivating a brand is creating a series of “brand evangelists” that spread the word about your products without you having to invest any extra time into getting the word out.
Giving Back To The User
The number one thing that you should be looking at from your branding and marketing perspective is to give back to the user. Recently, GE’s blog, GE Reports, was featured as one of the leaders in branding because of their unique approach. What GE does is to provide information to the clients, thereby focusing on a target demographic of people interested in science. This ties in well with GE’s vision of itself as a leader in technology and innovation. By providing content that appeals to their target demographic, GE is tapping into this set of users and cultivating them as a ready market for new, innovative products.
Interspersed with their scientific updates and news in the field of technology, GE Reports also allows GE to tap directly into their fan base with their advertising. GE has always been considered a leader in the world of technology and innovation, but it’s only recently that the everyday person could look at GE and associate their brand with something like this. That’s the power of what GE Reports does, and what targeted blogging in the name of branding can do for your business.
Branding Is The Way To Go
Marketing is necessary, we don’t doubt that. However, marketing by itself can’t develop an audience that is receptive to your message. Branding is what makes your audience interested in your message and prevents you from having to reinvent the wheel every time you develop marketing content. Use your marketing to develop your branding but don’t ever forget the distinction between them. This difference is important to define both terms as well as to figure out what you plan to accomplish with each. There are many companies out there that are skilled in creating content for both marketing and branding purposes. If you intend to develop your branding professionally, this is the direction you should be headed.
