Part 5, Show Off (Your Experience & Your Expertise)
We’ve made it to Part 5 of our Digital Brand Strategy Blog Series. Part 1 served as a high-level overview of digital brand strategy and why it is important for your business to have and implement one. Part 2 outlined why it is important to Know Yourself as a first step in the Digital Brand Strategy development process. Part 3 looked at why effective Digital Brand Strategy requires Knowing Your Audience. Part 4 examined how and why you must Show Up in your digital brand presence. In Part 5, we will discuss what it means to Show Off as a final step in the Digital Brand Strategy development process.
Trust me, this is the fun part! All the previous stages of the digital brand strategy development process have led to this fourth and final stage, where you get to synthesize all the data and insights you’ve gathered in previous steps and actualize that into something tangible. It’s always fun when your process leads to a product. Your product, in this case, is content. This content, which can take many forms, can be thought of as digital vehicles that exist to demonstrate how effective your business or organization is at solving complex client problems. When conceived and executed effectively, these deliverables help position your business and brand in an advantageous way in your customers’ mind and drive them toward, at the very least, a positive impression of your brand, and at best, a decision to become your customer.
While it’s true that no one likes a “show off”, it is nonetheless important – essential even, that your digital presence accurately and effectively showcases your ability to provide the answers your customers are looking for. Previously, in Part 2 actually, we discussed the importance of not just telling your audience what you can do, but showing them. This is now what users expect. Gone are the days when the brand could say it and people accepted it as true. Whether we are talking about social media, website or email marketing, podcasting, etc., your demonstration of your skills must go beyond verifying adequacy to validating adeptness.
Surely, you remember “show-and-tell” from grade school. You may have even just now thought about an object you brought to school and the story you told about it. Well, when you think about highlighting your team’s value(s), skills and capabilities through your digital brand efforts, don’t think “show off” – think about “show-and-tell”. It’s not necessarily the easiest thing to do, but it is important. We’ve talked many times through this series about how the services market landscape is increasingly competitive. In addition, users are increasingly well-versed in using digital tools, such as various search engines and product or service review sites to conduct their own pre-purchase research. In fact, according to Oberlo, 85 percent of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase online. As access and options increase, this trend here to stay.
Remember this: Impact > Impressiveness. It’s not about bells and whistles, it’s about answering the bell for your clients. People want to see how you set yourself apart by delivering insights and solutions that can meet their needs. There are many important things to keep in mind when thinking about how to capture and convey your brand and its ability to solve customer problems. Here are just a few:
Video is an excellent way to showcase high-value content because it is a digital media that naturally lends itself to storytelling and can be repurposed and repackaged to fit in many digital settings.
Thought Leadership is increasingly important. You don’t need to be a ‘know-it-all”, you just need to be a “know-it-well.” There is a difference between showing off and truly creating or establishing value. Digitally-savvy clients and users can tell the difference. They are often not unwilling to call out those that not credible. All the work you’ve done in previous steps pays off.
Websites used to be primarily about showcasing your business, but now, a primary function they have is demonstrating how your business is consistently and capably meeting your audience’s needs and exceeding their expectations. Users need to know (quickly and convincingly) that you/your firm can provide the solutions that they need and deliver on time and on budget. Case Studies that highlight specific problems and solutions for representative clients and industries are very effective for demonstrating this ability and expertise.
Online Reviews and Testimonials are extremely powerful for showing how you solve client problems. These tools are powerful because they are not in your own words, but rather the words of your satisfied customers. These are people who have already sat in the seat where your current or prospective client is and answer with a resounding “YES”, to the question of whether or not you can deliver similar results for them.
Social Media is valuable, especially for messaging to your audience, but it is important that you remember your purpose for being on any platform. When you don’t meet client expectations, you must respond quickly to address their concerns and use your branded pages to demonstrate your commitment to hearing constructive criticism and improving your operations, product, communication, etc.
Again, it’s not about bragging, it is about demonstrating value. Customers are demanding “don’t just tell me, show me your expertise.” Your digital strategy ensure that you are doing this, along with a healthy balance of showcasing services and providing an outlet for customer engagement. In summary, remember, you want to position yourself as the provider of solutions for the problems they have and don’t want or the results they don’t have and do want. As you think through the entire Brand Strategy Process, these questions are helpful:
- WHO AM I? and
- WHO DO I SERVE?
- WHAT DO I SERVE THEM? and
- HOW DO I SERVE THEM?
There is one last item that I’d like to mention, and it is fitting because it is applicable to each of the key principles we’ve discussed in this series. At each stage of the process, monitor and measure your activity and their results. Try and test, tweak and trash as you work through, setting ideas and approaches aside that do not fit or work well. The process we’ve outlined is a roadmap, but it is not one-size-fits-all by any means.
The beauty of leveraging digital tools is that every one of them has its own built-in tools to monitor and measure activity. They are also always making updates and modifications to provide a better experience and usefulness. The downside is it can easily become overwhelming. The same approach applies here then, as with digital tools for content development or deployment. Start small and become well-versed in one or two tools rather than trying to master everything at once. This approach is efficient, manageable and scalable and allow you room to grow as your operation grows.
Enthuse Creative, LLC is a Northern Virginia (Tysons)-based brand consulting and design firm that specializes in developing brand-focused strategy and creative work for businesses and organizations, from startups to nonprofits. A major focus of its business is providing training and tools to help businesses improve their digital brand strategy and presence.
If your business needs assistance with digital branding, please contact Enthuse Creative for a free consultation.
