How to Get Inside Someone's Mind and Stay There

Jacky Fitt

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781948198455
• eBook ISBN: 9781948198462
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Small Business
• Index: Business

Exploring and demystifying content marketing and providing proven and practical strategies for promotion and profit, How to Get Inside Someone's Mind and Stay There is for business owners, managers, and anyone with a need to market a product, a service, or even themselves! In this book, you will learn: how to identify your ideal customer; how to identify and create your key marketing messages; the right way to be remembered; and how to write for impact, engagement, and action.

CHAPTER 1

What’s in a Brand?

Brand: n & v—n. 1a a particular make of goods. 1b an identifying trademark, label, etc., 2 a special or characteristic kind (brand of humour), 3 an identifying mark burned on livestock with a hot iron . . .

—Concise Oxford Dictionary

Today, the word brand in business describes so much more than the dictionary definition above. Yes, it is the name for a trademark or label, but in business a brand describes the whole “package,” not just the badge; it’s about what you stand for.

Successful brands make themselves attractive to people who want to engage and buy from them because they respond to the brand’s primary function. This function or purpose is why the business exists; it helps shape its values and it doesn’t change.

In 1925, Henry Ford placed an advertisement for his cars, which summarized his vision of “opening the highways to all mankind.” These words were revisited by President and CEO Alan Mulally in 2012, as through the better use of resources, sustainability, clever design, and a positive contribution to the world, Ford still holds to that vision today and it continues to shape what they do.

People today care about the brands they buy. They want to know about their vision, history, and values, so that they can feel they are making the best buying decisions for themselves, their businesses, and, more and more today, the planet.

Knowing what your brand stands for means you’ll be confident in communicating it to others as a true reflection of your business.

Your Brand Matters

The brand of a business is not simply its logo; through its function or purpose it is also:

• The quality of the product or service
• The feel of the packaging the product arrives in
• The attention to detail of the salesperson
• The speed with which your query or complaint is answered
• The language and tone of voice you use to attract your attention
• The care and support offered after you have made your purchase
• The professionalism of your website and business literature
• The work in the community of the business
• The way you and your employees behave
• You.

Simply put, a brand is a promise. By identifying and authenticating a product or service, it delivers a pledge of satisfaction and quality.

—Walter Landor¹

And by using this promise you can build an audience, extend the reach of your engagement through effective content marketing, and grow your profits. Walter Landor again: “Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.” “Nearly half of respondents (48%) want to purchase from brands that are responsive to their customers on social media.”

Sprout Social Index

Today, brands have to work harder to engage their customers over and above the direct selling and traditional shop front approaches. It’s important to move with the times to compete with the more nimbly minded operations that spot the emerging trends for greater engagement with customers on a range of different platforms and media. That’s what content marketing is all about.

Content is an important piece in all of our marketing efforts . . . extending our messaging through content is a great way for us to continue to convert our customers.

—Walter Frye, Director of Entertainment Marketing and Sponsorships, American Express

Creating shareable content is also making brands think more creatively about what their customers actually want to hear, as a route to creating greater loyalty, trust, and, ultimately, greater sales.

Content is critical for us because it’s the currency that drives our relevance and therefore consumer consideration for our brand.

—Dan Vinh, VP Global Marketing, Renaissance Hotels at Marriott International

Big brands, big bucks you may think, yet the principles that apply to big brands, their brand behavior, and content marketing strategies are exactly the same for smaller businesses and will create greater engagement and growth as a result.

You can’t be everything to everyone but you can be something to someone.

—Andrew Davis, Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships

No matter how small your budget, start thinking like the brand you want to be and let’s begin.

 

 

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¹Walter Landor is an acclaimed designer and pioneer of branding and consumer research techniques.

CHAPTER 2

Drop the Pitch

A Short But Important Chapter

Good content marketing makes people stop and think, then do something in a different way—your way.

Imagine creating customers who look forward to receiving your content—how would that boost your brand loyalty, referrals, and profit?

Can’t Buy Me Love

Now, let’s be clear; content marketing is not direct selling. As we touched on right in the beginning of the book, content marketing is about engaging your customer: connecting with people who are searching for the information you are producing. They want to learn and make sound buying decisions and are, therefore, already interested in what you have to offer.

Once your customers are engaged, content marketing is about changing their behavior through consistently creating and communicating relevant and valuable information to them. Helping your customer make more intelligent choices earns their trust, and, in turn, you will be rewarded with their business and loyalty. Ultimately, you are creating not just a customer, but also an unpaid ambassador for your brand.

Turn Up the Volume

It’s time to turn up the volume on what you can offer your customers. Integrated into an overarching marketing strategy, content marketing gives you greater authority within your sectors, raising your profile and the ability to attract and retain more of what matters most: loyal customers who love what you do.

CHAPTER 3

Nobody Understands Me

Think Like Your Customer

The main focus of content marketing is not the hard sell; it’s to help inform your customer, and in order for it to do that, you must understand them, their needs, and their “pain,” and be able to think like them. You need to tell them what they need to hear, which in general terms means consistent, valuable information relevant to their lives. Working out what you need to deliver is about empathy and “walking in their shoes.” Because when you understand how someone feels and why—their motives for arriving at a certain set of values or opinions—you’re a good way to knowing what content will interest and inspire them to take action.

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you insult them, you’ll be a mile away and you’ll have his shoes.

—Jack Handey

Often quoted, also true but not, I think you’ll agree, very empathetic.

Your content marketing will be doing its job when it inspires interest and loyalty and reinforces your brand’s reputation, all of which build trust. Intangible, yet important for brand profile good word of mouth and a strong reputation, brands live or die by trust. Good content marketing can also go a long way to repairing trust if it is damaged.

Content marketing is not new; it has been successfully used for many years. In 1895 U.S. agricultural machine manufacturers John Deere launched The Furrow, a magazine for farmers on how to become more profitable. It is widely regarded as the first “customer publication” and is currently read in 27 countries and in 14 languages; it’s still going strong today.

The Michelin Guide is another early content marketing hero. Developed by the Michelin tire company in 1900, the guide was developed to give the growing number of car owners’ information and tips on maintenance and travel. Why? Because Michelin had the simple aim of wanting new car owners to drive more; if they drove more miles they would need to change their tires more often. And who would they turn to when they needed new tires? To those lovely, helpful people at Michelin, of course. The Michelin Guide is also still going strong, and from tires to tiramisu, their early system of giving good “stop-offs” star ratings has developed into the global recognition of some of the world’s best places to eat.

Focus your sights firmly on your customer: their needs, their lives, their issues; what matters to them will attract them; what attracts them and satisfies their need or desire, they will buy.

If what you are saying offers no value to your market—no insight, interest, or help, it will be ignored. If what you say is inconsistent in its quality, tone, and/or how often it appears, it can create frustration and be mistrusted. This mistrust will act upon your brand, and your investment in content marketing will, at best, be pointless and, at worst, create a bad impression.

So, it pays to do your research, plan your strategy, roll it out, and review it regularly.

You need to create content that is:

• Focused on your customers’ needs
• Valuable
• Consistently delivered
• Relevant
• Accessible
• Easily found

Checking on how your competitors do things is all part of forming your pl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• What Is This Book Going to Do for You?
• Chapter 1 What’s in a Brand?
• Chapter 2 Drop the Pitch
• Chapter 3 Nobody Understands Me
• Chapter 4 What, Who, Why, How, and When?
• Chapter 5 Give to Get
• Chapter 6 Less Is More
• Chapter 7 What Makes Us Share?
• Chapter 8 Setting the Tone and Delivering the Goods
• Chapter 9 The Long and Short of It
• Chapter 10 Sticky Straplines
• Chapter 11 The Business Card
• Chapter 12 Successful Sales Copywriting Starts Here
• Chapter 13 Brochures
• Chapter 14 Press Releases and How to Write a Headline
• Chapter 15 Newsletters
• Chapter 16 Advertorials
• Chapter 17 Emails and Email Marketing
• Chapter 18 Websites
• Chapter 19 Social Media
• Chapter 20 Testimonials
• Chapter 21 Spit ‘n’ Polish
• Chapter 22 Ideas Factory
• Chapter 23 Que?
• Chapter 24 Briefing a Copywriter
• Chapter 25 A Word about Design
• Last Words
• Further Reading
• About the Author
• Index