Practical & Tactical

Welcome to our May issue! Last month we introduced the concept of telling your story and its significance as a critical piece of your collective branding efforts. Building upon that, it’s important to think of your story in the context of promotional content that, while not overtly marketing your business, is specifically created to help further spread your messaging across multiple channels.

In a perfect world for the typical business owner whose time is incredibly precious, simply writing a killer piece explaining everything you need your audience to understand about your brand all in one fell swoop would do the trick, but in the modern marketing landscape that will not suffice. Ultimately your brand’s story is to be approached as a marathon and not a sprint; for a campaign to be successful, you’ll need to map out a long-term game plan that incorporates a multitude of different ways you’ll be reaching and interacting with your intended audience. Therefore, when it comes to generating new content and distributing it to the targeted masses, you’ll need to be what I like to refer to as “practical and tactical.”

First, let’s talk about being practical. Your content has to fit a host of different criteria, most notably to be compelling, to be optimized for the platform you’re utilizing and mesh well with it, to be purposeful, to educate your audience in some way or provide something that’s of value to them, and to be provocative, all the while supporting the marketing objectives that you have in place. That sounds like a tall drink of water because it is, so here it’s important to play up your strengths, focus on what you do best and find professionals to come alongside you and fill in the gaps otherwise. With the right team in place, including those in-house and professional collaborations, you’ll be able to plan and execute a campaign with content that fits the bill and adapts well to the channels you’ve chosen for promotion. Thus, being practical in your approach and application will allow you to do more with less.

The conversation between you and your audience will play an important role in how your story unfolds; you’ll need to spark the interest to get things moving and then build upon that momentum to continue the discourse. Capturing the ongoing attention of an audience that has a lot of messages coming in and going out can be tricky, so this is the tactical part.

With all of the working parts that are in motion at any given time, the more tools you have in your bag, the better. Utilizing (and maximizing) your resources is paramount, particularly when it comes to composition and choosing the right platform(s) for each piece of content. Again, the recurring theme is that if you’re not an expert, find someone who is and will assist as much or as little as is required. Also, there needs to be a method to the madness, so as I touched on before, having a strategy in place is the only way to accomplish your objectives as to your vision for how you want to tell your story over time. This will help you to avoid confusion, which in marketing is exactly what you DON’T want – unique and obscure are two very different things.

Essentially telling your story will not only aid in establishing a foundation for all other interaction by way of familiarity, but extends well past that as a means of drawing people in with continued exposition of different facets of your identity that make you unique in the marketplace. As such it will always be evolving, deepening your connection with your audience and directly impacting how your audience relates with your brand. To maintain top-of-mind recognition, you’ll need to engage your audience in a way that inspires them to get on board for the long haul. The best way to do this by and large is to keep them wanting more by delivering something of value on a consistent basis. However, to accomplish this goal, you’ll have to rise to the challenge of extended exposure and resolve to keep up with the pace it requires. As long as you are practical and tactical (and committed!), you’ll find the results of your efforts are well worth it.

To learn more about how Strictly Business can help you, contact me directly at (402) 466-3330 or visit www.strictly-business.com/connect.