Brand strategy

Brand strategy

How real-time marketing materials elevate your social media strategy

Papirfly
4 minutes read

So what makes a good social media strategy? The buzzword is responsiveness – reacting quickly and positively. Social media goes at pace – news breaks on Twitter, in particular, far faster than it will reach other media, and it enables the audience to respond to what’s happening.

High-profile celebrities can get into hot water when they comment on current affairs, for example, and the rise of the citizen journalist has been very evident on this channel – which puts brands in the firing line. 

As a brand, you need to react – fast. When this happens, you need a robust social media strategy that will dictate how (and why), and where you react, so that you can develop marketing materials that resonate with your audience. This is when turning to brand management software that enables you to develop that response in real-time is not just a nice-to-have. You need effective marketing materials at your fingertips, and templates you can use to create new ones. Everyone is watching – which has its pros and cons.

Why you need responsive digital content

Say you’re a B2C brand and a customer, who is a key influencer with a significant following, gives a damning tweet about one of your products. How do you respond? Firstly, if you don’t have a good social media strategy in place, you risk being inconsistent in your language or imagery, which is a mistake for brand recognition. Secondly, if you’re too slow, or don’t respond at all, you will potentially be seen as obstructive or lacking in customer empathy. This can also make way for your competitors to step into the limelight and gain advantage if their response is more favourable. 

In this instance, you won’t have days, or even hours, to reflect and create – so you need to plan ahead for this as part of your social media strategy as this will help you save time. This strategy should contain the blueprint – everything from your goals, audience, channels and content, right up to how you will listen, engage and measure your performance.

You need to create a detailed content plan for proactive work. Our whitepaper will show you in more detail how to create a social media strategy, as we outline the difference between organically growing your social media followers and using paid-for solutions. We also demonstrate how you can use social media marketing in the B2C and B2B spaces.

As a proactive aside, creating marketing materials at speed also benefits your employer brand as it empowers your employees to share their experiences of what it’s like to work for you in real time. When you consider a brand management platform that enables fast on-brand social media images and videos as part of their messages, you come across as a responsive employer too – consider future talent working for your brand as your customers.

Listen and respond

It’s not all about the planning. You need to ensure that you’re listening to your audience as much and as often as possible. There are tools out there to help you with this, and this will enable you to be as responsive as possible, as you will pick up on the chatter around your brand – good and bad – and react accordingly. Social media is all about nurturing conversations, and a two-way approach is best for all communications.  

What else can you do to achieve success with your social media strategy? If you use Papirfly’s brand management platform, you can have all of your planned content ready to go at the click of a button, as well as the ability to create professionally designed printed and digital assets in-house. 

Speed is necessary in this digital age, as stories move fast in the media and if you want to capitalise on something relevant to your brand, you want to be able to move quickly with your content. However, also relevant is nurturing a sense of community amongst your audience, prompting the positive emotional response you seek to trigger in them, from the conversation that emerges. Creating such a following demonstrates true customer resonance – the ultimate aim when building brand loyalty and reaching the all-important goal of brand equity.

Making multichannel marketing a priority

Social media marketing remains an essential, targeted way to share the message of your brand, with multiple channels you need to consider. This can be time-consuming for marketers who are typically time-pressed, so any brand management platform that can empower your people to support your strategy is a win-win. The social media, and media landscape generally, is ever-changing and unpredictable, and if you don’t have a plan, your competition could capitalise on that. Marketing experts need to be ready for the next shift in focus.

However, what’s universal across all media is the need to foster a conversation, and by doing so, a community. Therefore it’s imperative that marketers keep an eye on the latest trends and learn the language of these media, whether that’s in video, memes, audio and so on, so that you can use the right language to connect with your audiences. 

By using Papirfly’s brand management platform you can create social media posts with ease enabling you to keep up with the conversation. Multichannel marketing materials create powerful customer journeys – and if you can build brand equity, your customers will stay with you and continue to follow and support your brand on every step of the journey.

Table of contents:

  1. Why you need responsive digital content
  2. Listen and respond
  3. Making multichannel marketing a priority
Brand Communication, Brand identity, Brand strategy

How to communicate your brand

Papirfly
3 minutes read

Branding is all about communicating your brand – building a strong brand presence that creates desire and attracts customers. Successful branding = Business growth. Consistency and brand experience are two of four key qualities consumers value and that keeps them coming back for more. How effective is your brand communication? Are you attracting the right customers, and are they loyal?

Factors that impact your brand communication are your colleagues, available resources and manpower, the number of channels and platforms that require your brand presence, your competitors, and your audience to mention a few. As always, there are some dos and don’ts that affect your success rate.

Here’s a short list on how to successfully communicate your brand

1. Establish brand identity guidelines

A key goal for any brand should be to achieve consistency. Consumers expect your brand to be consistent and it is connected to the growth potentials of your company. This is not an impossible task, but it does require effort and dedication in addition to a real plan.

For brand consistency to happen, you need brand rules. Proper brand identity guidelines that concern everyone who is communicating your brand. These brand guidelines need to set the standard for all employees and external stakeholders on how to use and apply your brand across any and all channels.

Also read: Create branding guidelines with a brand management platform

2. Establish internal brand guidelines and align your branding processes

Employees are the central participants in your brand communication. It’s impossible to communicate a brand if you don’t have your employees on your side. Think of it as a football team playing a game. If the team isn’t aware of the purpose and goal of the game, and no one knows what position they play or how to do it, you will have a team scattered all over the football field, running in different directions. It’s safe to say that team won’t win the game.

The same applies to branding. Everyone in the company needs to know why branding is important and what role they play on the team. Therefore, make sure your brand guidelines include internal brand strategies and align your external and internal branding processes.

Also read: This is internal employee branding and how you get started

3. Establish proper brand asset management

Having brand identity guidelines in place is unfortunately not enough to achieve brand consistency. In fact, 95% of organizations have branding guidelines, but only 1/4th have formal guidelines that are consistently enforced. One step in the right direction is to establish brand asset management.

Brand asset management is the system that connects the dots between your brand guidelines and your brand assets. This is the system that enables seamless and intuitive user workflows, making it effective and easy to apply your brand regardless of who’s in need, or which channel or platform is utilized. By having this in place, growing and developing your brand becomes easier, and everyone who needs to use your brand can do so effortlessly and quickly from one single location.

Also read: What is brand asset management?

4. Create a brand communication strategy

To win the football game, or in this case, win against the competitors by achieving brand consistency and building a strong brand identity, your employees need to be included and informed about the strategy.

It’s not enough for them to know that they are a part of the plan and their role. They also need to know what is required from them. This part is essential in brand communication. Although a customer service representative and a receptionist represent the same company, their role and how they need to interact with the audience is different. To succeed, this needs to be accounted for in your brand communication strategy. By adapting the brand communication strategy to each role individually, you’ll have a better chance of realization.

5. Develop and grow your brand continuously and meet market expectations

There’s no resting when it comes to branding. How you communicate your brand today, might not fit or be sufficient tomorrow.

The market changes and so do consumers. On one hand we have a fast-growing Martech space that puts pressure on marketing teams and our ability to follow our own brand communication strategy. It’s not easy to deliver on demand when deadlines are behind us, and resources are short. On the other hand, we have consumers. How they search for information, what they value and how they engage with your brand varies between them. When communicating your brand, you need to adapt at the same speed and meet these expectations.

Communicate your brand with digital solutions

Just as you digitize your private life to simplify and increase your own efficiency, you need to do the same for your work life and your brand. By digitizing your branding processes, following the above steps will be easy. Everything about your brand can easily be maintained, developed, and communicated from one single solution.

No second guessing. Everyone will know everything they need to know to communicate your brand with ease.

Brand management, Brand strategy, Branding processes

How to make your brand stand out?

Papirfly
5 minutes read

A brand is your company’s most valuable asset, it’s the asset that attracts attention and when done correctly, it’s what establishes loyalty and engagement. When you master your brand, your business will grow. 

Branding would be easy if there was no competition, but of course unrealistic. Most brands and companies must work hard to get their markets attention, securing a growing customer base and loyal customers. So, what are the factors that will give your brand the outstanding edge? Logo colours? Images? Tone-of-voice? Or your choice of marketing channels?

What’s unique about your brand, why should the consumers choose your brand over your competitor? How do you make sure your brand stands out from the crowd?

There is no simple answer to this, it’s a bit more complex. Before you can build a stunning brand that stands out, you need to know how to communicate your brand, you need to know your audience and you need to know your competition. Let’s take it step by step.

1. Know your competition

One part of brand building is to separate your brand from your competitors. To do that you need to know who you are up against. Who are your competitors, what are their unique selling points and advantages? What marketing channels and to whom do they reach out?

There are a ton of questions to ask and answer, but your competitor analysis is an essential part when you’re going to find your brands identity and finding the gap where your brand can shine.

2. Identify your audience

Without customers you can’t succeed. So, you need to attract them. How? First of all, you need to understand their needs and their buyer journey. Who is your target audience and how do you communicate with them? What channels do they engage with and what are their buying triggers? Why is your brand relevant to them?

Just like a competitor analysis, a customer analysis is just as important. There’s simply no point in communicating your brand before you know what language to speak.

3. Define your positioning statement

Now that you know your competitors and your audience, identify what elements and features that differentiate your brand from the others and how you can take advantage of this to build an unique brand identity that fills the gap in the market.

The key here is to recognize the distinctiveness of your brand, but of course it needs to be appealing for your audience as well. Ask yourself what will make the audience choose our brand over your competitors? Spend some time on this one. It will set the grounds for your next steps in building a brand identity that stands out.

Also read: What part does your brand play in your company? 

Before you start shaping your brand’s identity, investigate market trends that will impact your choices. For example, authenticity is a fairly new concept pushed forward by Millenials, is this also something you have to deliver upon? Trust is another important factor. In other words, you can’t get away with b…shit. Your brand needs to be authentic, reliable, and transparent if you’re going to have any chance of getting noticed. 

Your brand image is not enough by itself. The employees also play a crucial role in making your brand stand out. For example, your customer service representatives have a significant role as they interact with customers and potential new ones on a regular basis. For 73% of consumers the customer experience is an important factor in their purchasing decision.

Also read: Who do you need on your team when building your brand? 

5. Build your brand identity

For many marketers this is the fun part. This is the creative part where your brand comes to life. But let’s not forget that your brand will be your company’s most valuable asset, so as fun as it may be, this is also a crucial step in creating a stunning brand. As you are shaping the life of your brand, you’re also shaping how you want your customers to perceive you. Now thinking back on your audience, it’s a good idea to ensure that the way you want to be perceived lines up with what your audience cares about. If you don’t, you will be shooting blanks.

When shaping your brand’s identity, test different variations of your brand. Dare to be different and evaluate reactions and perceptions. Use focus groups for an external audit, but don’t forget your company and colleagues. Sales and customer service also know your target audience, and you can get valuable insight that could impact how you should shape the identity of your brand.

Also read: 7 steps on how to manage your brand

Elements you need to include in your brand identity are: 

  • Logo: This is your brand’s ID – your fingerprint and passport. Your logo represents your company, your offerings, your employees and more. 
  • Tagline: The short and memorable description that communicates your brand message. This is the element that alongside your brand name, needs to tell your audience in a few words, what you are offering.
  • Colour palette: The power and symbolism of colours is complex. You don’t have to be a colour expert, as luckily you can find information online for this. Nevertheless, do some research to define a colour palette that fits with how you want your brand to be perceived. Never forget that colour symbolism can be very different, and can carry different weight in different countries. And so if your brand intends to have a very wide international profile, you should take this into consideration.
  • Typography: Just like colours, fonts also have a significant purpose when shaping your brand’s identity. Make sure you choose the font that along with your colour palette shapes your intended brand identity. 
  • Brand assets: Illustrations, icons and imagery are visuals that really count when it comes to your brand’s identity. This is where your designers have to create that edge that differentiates your visual brand from the competitors.
  • Tone of voice: How do you want to communicate with your target audience? This can’t be random. You need to carefully choose your voice based on your target audience and how you want to be perceived. 

When the above is defined and neatly put together, you have your brand’s identity.

Make your brand stand out

The expression “one does not exclude the other” complies with brand building. It’s a process and it takes time. Most importantly, you can’t ever take your eye off the ball. Your audience will change, the market trends will change, and you need to make sure your brand changes with them. 

To make your brand stand out, you need to pay attention and preferably stay in front of your competitors 24/7. Yeap, managing a brand is hard work, luckily there are tools available that can help ease your brand management burdens significantly.  

Also read: What you need to establish proper branding processes

Create a home for your brand

What good does any of it do, if all of the above ends up in a drawer, never to be looked at again? If no one knows how to communicate your brand or apply your brand correctly, the harder it will be to manage your brand building with ease. 

Remember that branding is not a job for marketing alone, you need everyone in your company to move in the same direction if you’re going to have any success with your brand building. 

At this point you should look into a brand management platform and how that can help you establish a brand that stands out. 

  • Collect everything about your brand in one single place
  • Make your brand usable and self-serviced
  • Keep your brand relevant and updated

Also read: Where does your brand live? 

Brand management, Brand strategy

How to manage a brand? You need brand management.

Papirfly
5 minutes read

In marketing, brand management is an extensive field of expertise and a full-time job. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon that marketers have to combine lead generation, communication, content creation, website administration and social media with building a strong, long-lasting brand. If you’re one of those who manages to do this with success, then hats off to you.

Luckily, many of the abovementioned tasks are digitalized and thus easier to carry out and manage. Let’s look at how you can also digitize and automate how you manage your brand through proper digital marketing tools

1. Centralize your brand

Your brand consists of multiple elements and rules. Your brand’s personality, it’s voice and appearance along with a ton of brand assets outline your brand.

Continue reading “How to manage a brand? You need brand management.”

In marketing, brand management is an extensive field of expertise and a full-time job. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon that marketers have to combine lead generation, communication, content creation, website administration and social media with building a strong, long-lasting brand. If you’re one of those who manages to do this with success, then hats off to you.

Luckily, many of the abovementioned tasks are digitalized and thus easier to carry out and manage. Let’s look at how you can also digitize and automate how you manage your brand through proper digital marketing tools

1. Centralize your brand

Your brand consists of multiple elements and rules. Your brand’s personality, it’s voice and appearance along with a ton of brand assets outline your brand.

Continue reading “How to manage a brand? You need brand management.”

In marketing, brand management is an extensive field of expertise and a full-time job. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon that marketers have to combine lead generation, communication, content creation, website administration and social media with building a strong, long-lasting brand. If you’re one of those who manages to do this with success, then hats off to you.

Luckily, many of the abovementioned tasks are digitalized and thus easier to carry out and manage. Let’s look at how you can also digitize and automate how you manage your brand through proper digital marketing tools

1. Centralize your brand

Your brand consists of multiple elements and rules. Your brand’s personality, it’s voice and appearance along with a ton of brand assets outline your brand.

Continue reading “How to manage a brand? You need brand management.”

Brand Asset Management / BAM, Brand strategy

What are brand assets?

Papirfly
3 minutes read

Brand assets are the visuals and elements that define a brand’s identity and create value for your company. As simple as that? Yes, but not quite. Brand assets can have a different meaning to different brands, this article will look at the diversity of brand assets and best practices related to how to protect them.

Digital asset or brand asset?


It’s easy to mix up the two. Digital assets are any digital file or document a company owns regardless of who created it or what purpose it serves. Brand assets however are directly related to the brand and marketing. Whereas a digital asset excludes nothing, a brand asset excludes everything but the brand.

And with that out of the way…

Physical brand assets establish brand recognition

Colors, typeface, logo, slogan, packaging, illustrations, patterns, icons, and more including the actual company name, are all elements that define the look of your brand. Designed to distinguish your brand from everyone else with the purpose of establishing successful brand recognition, creating a competitive advantage.

Examples of brands that have successfully achieved brand recognition with brand assets are Dunkin Donuts with their pink and orange letters, or McDonald’s yellow arch. These are perfect examples of how colors are powerful brand assets. For Adidas, it’s their distinctive shoe patterns, and let’s not forget the famous apple icon by Apple. These brands have spent years building their brand consistently, creating that unique identity that makes people instantly think of their brand when they see the physical brand elements, both in and out of context.

Non-physical brand assets establish emotional brand connections

There is more to a brand than what you can see and touch. How your brand is communicated through the voice of your employees is just as important as the physical parts of your brand. Every day, employees are in contact with external stakeholders, whether it is potential or existing customers, vendors or investors. How your employees represent your company and your brand shapes the stakeholder’s interactions and can mean the difference between a long-term relationship or a non-existing one.

Rules of engagement, code of conduct and social media rules are brand elements without a physical form, yet crucial for your brand identity. It is essential that how to communicate is controlled and established across your entire company to ensure unified and consistent brand building.

Also read: This is internal employee branding and how you get started

Brand assets create brand value

The purpose of brand assets is as stated earlier to define and create the uniqueness that puts you in front of your competitors and helps you become the preferred brand. Your brand’s value will be the reflection of how successful you are at establishing this competitive advantage.

Manage your brand assets

Knowing how important brand assets are to a brand, how you manage them can mean the difference between success or failure when it comes to establishing brand recognition

  • Make sure your assets are available: If you want colleagues to use the correct assets, you need to make sure they are easy to find. Establish a single location where everything is searchable.
  • Make sure your brand assets are understandable: Don’t expect everyone else to understand your brand like you do. Asking colleagues to read pages of information on how to use the brand before getting hold of the brand assets is not realistic. Instead, make your brand rules are bulletproof with the help of digital brand guidelines.
  • Make sure your assets are usable: It’s not uncommon that brand assets need adjustments before use. By transforming your assets into digital templates, you allow your colleagues to be self-sufficient. There is no need to involve a bunch of people and they can quickly get hold of the assets they need.

Curious to learn more about how you can manage your brand assets? Download our free whitepaper for more valuable insight

 

 

Brand management, Brand strategy

How to succeed with your brand development strategies

Papirfly
4 minutes read

Having a brand development strategy is an essential part of company growth. In fact, as much as 77% of B2B marketers say branding is crucial for company growth. But how do you ensure success? 

First, you need to start with a plan – where you are going and how will you get there? And knowing that branding is more than just one task, your plan also needs a line of attack on how to overcome the obstacles and challenges that lie ahead.  

Planning is easy, execution is hard. Let’s have a look at what we believe are essential steps in succeeding with your brand development strategy.  

Continue reading “How to succeed with your brand development strategies”

Having a brand development strategy is an essential part of company growth. In fact, as much as 77% of B2B marketers say branding is crucial for company growth. But how do you ensure success? 

First, you need to start with a plan – where you are going and how will you get there? And knowing that branding is more than just one task, your plan also needs a line of attack on how to overcome the obstacles and challenges that lie ahead.  

Planning is easy, execution is hard. Let’s have a look at what we believe are essential steps in succeeding with your brand development strategy.  

Continue reading “How to succeed with your brand development strategies”

Having a brand development strategy is an essential part of company growth. In fact, as much as 77% of B2B marketers say branding is crucial for company growth. But how do you ensure success? 

First, you need to start with a plan – where you are going and how will you get there? And knowing that branding is more than just one task, your plan also needs a line of attack on how to overcome the obstacles and challenges that lie ahead.  

Planning is easy, execution is hard. Let’s have a look at what we believe are essential steps in succeeding with your brand development strategy.  

Continue reading “How to succeed with your brand development strategies”