Don’t risk your long-term brand health for short-term gains. Check out a few time-tested tips from the one and only GaryVee! [Thursdays: FYO!]
In business and marketing, thinking long-term and building a good reputation always plays out in your brand’s favor.
However, one common issue nowadays is some enterprises think getting ahead in the short term is the way to go, just because a lot of companies have been successful that way.
As a result, these businesses are pressured to do things like the following:
- Prioritizing quick sales instead of establishing connections with consumers.
- Trying to convert prospects into customers at the first point of interaction instead of building trust.
- Getting money out of consumers instead of creating a positive experience.
Reminder: Shortsighted efforts to get immediate results in the short term often come at the expense of long-term brand health. If you want your business to thrive in the long run, you should be careful not to fall into any of the traps stated above.
Let’s see what this entrepreneur and digital marketer says about good branding and reputation…
According to Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of the advertising agency VaynerMedia,
“Your personal brand is your reputation.”
In other words, your brand is what consumers feel or think about when they interact with you or your business.
Vaynerchuk says the best companies in the world “don’t just sell―they brand.”
For example:
Apple doesn’t explicitly ask consumers to quickly convert into loyal customers or buy an iPhone.
What it does is paint a picture of the iPhone experience and let consumers decide whether or not they’ll buy the product.
We can see that in the company’s various marketing campaigns such as “Get a Mac” in 2006, “There’s an App for That” in 2009, “Shot on iPhone” in 2014, “Color Flood” in 2018, and many more.
Look where these brand activations got Apple now―it’s one of the most successful and leading tech giants in the world!
So… how can you bring this type of long-term branding and reputation building in the online world?
Vaynerchuk lets you in on a few of his digital marketing secrets!
- Good intent wins in the social media world.
As a business owner or marketer, you have to keep in mind that everything you post on social media has an impact on your brand.
… and when we say “impact,” there are only two options: Positive or negative.
Once you establish your brand’s presence on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms, whatever you publish online can either make or break your brand.
This is why Vaynerchuk said that you can’t have multiple personalities. It’s not realistic to have a different persona for business, family, friends, etc.
You have to be who you are while also considering how you want your brand to be seen online.
By doing so, social media users will see your genuineness and commitment to serve them through your products or services.
Who knows? This might also compel them to help spread the word about your business, thereby boosting your brand’s overall visibility!
- Find a way to promote your brand through ads.
Before establishing his own company, Vaynerchuk grew his father’s liquor business from USD 3 million to USD 60 million per year with the help of Google Adwords even though he spent very little money on it.
According to him, if he had spent more money on the ad platform, he would have grown the business to hundreds of millions.
That’s why every time Vaynerchuk would give advice to business owners and marketers, one of the things he’d mention is this:
“Always find a way to promote your brand through ads.”
It’s up to you on what you think is the best ad platform for your brand―Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Snapchat Ads, etc.
With the right strategies to execute alongside these ads, it will be easier for your target market to FIND YOU online!
- Be smart about how you distribute your brand’s content.
Vaynerchuk has a strategy for distributing content and building his brand online.
He calls it…
The Content Pyramid!
For Vaynerchuk, it’s not just enough to produce long-form content such as podcasts, Q&As, vlogs, and blogs. You also have to recreate these pieces into different types of short-form content that your target market will enjoy consuming and sharing.
These include the following:
Memes
Quotes
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Stories
Images
GIFs
… and many more!
Once you’ve created both long-form and short-form content, distribute these strategically on relevant social media for optimum reach.
By doing so, you’ll have more points of interaction with your target market and you’ll also gain more exposure for your brand!
- Offer high-value content.
In line with the previous point, another thing you have to take note of when it comes to content is value.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re publishing one or 100 pieces of content each day. The bottomline is your brand has to offer something of value to your target market.
So… how do you know what your customers want?
One way is through social listening.
According to Vaynerchuk, it is in listening that you’ll be able to pay attention to and provide what your target market wants and needs.
When you skip this step, you end up deciding what type of content you’d like your target market to see, not what they actually want to see.
In this case, you’re not providing value at all—you’re just giving what you want to give!
If you want to increase your brand’s customer base and expand your reach in the online world, you have to know the importance of social listening and listening to your target market in general.
This will not just help you provide value to your customers but will also enhance your business’ reputation in the online world.
There are a lot of opportunities to establish your brand’s presence online.
However, if your intentions are not aligned with your business’ goals and you’re not taking advantage of online ads and high-value content, those opportunities will pass you by.
Don’t let that happen. Take Vaynerchuk’s branding tips seriously!
As you apply these strategies in your online reputation building, you’ll see how technology, social media, and the Internet will help you grow your brand.
… and not just that!
You’ll also witness how more and more consumers will be able to find your brand online!
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Thursdays: FYO! Find You Optimization”
Why should you stop thinking SEO and start thinking FYO?
We’re not saying that you should abandon Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Don’t get us wrong, of course, we know this is something very important, especially in today’s digital marketing age.
The internet landscape is vast, and a world of its own. You really need to distinguish yourself and make your brand/company/website known and easily searchable.
Better yet, get to the top of page one for Top Results on Google or any other search engine.
However, what is the purpose of SEO? It’s that customers Find You!
That’s what matters. So, while SEO is one factor of FYO… it really is only one, and we ought not to abandon all the myriad of ways digitally and offline for improving your FYO.
How can we look at this from a different and better perspective?
Let’s say you have it in the bag! You and your team are experts in SEO. Awesome. But did you ever wonder what else you could do to push it further and give your SEO skills a boost?
FYO! Find You Optimization!
You need your target audience to FIND YOU—your brand, product, service, or offer. This is SEO plus other tools that increase visibility online (and offline).
Every Thursday, we publish content on how you can get your target market to find you, beyond the typical “type and search.” There are other things you can do along with your SEO to give your online advertising process a boost.
Try considering other tactics beyond it—WOMO (Word Of Mouth Optimization), RO (Referral Optimization), and “All-Other-Means-Of-Getting-Your-Target-Market-To-Find-You” Optimization (AOMOGYTMTFY, if you’d like a long acronym).
Part of a great marketing strategy is knowing how to adapt new methods and make use of different types of marketing and promotion that best fit your business goals and which give you the results you want.
Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Thursday’s FYO!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
Powered by Valens Research
www.valens-research.com
