Creating a Brand Image That Deserves to be Heard

Creating a successful brand is much more than just a logo or a great advertising pitch. It's cohesively bonding all aspects of design, marketing and campaigning together to create some beautiful music. Developing a successful brand has many different components that need to be focused upon. Doing each of these components well will not only help show consistency and increase your brand image, but it will make your story come to life by creating a vision within your customers minds. 

• Create a logo that is visually appealing and easily recognizable to customers
• Establish a memorable tag line. Tag lines that are easily remembered are short and to the point, humorous or emotional and resonate with the product or service you offer.
• Build a marketing campaign that is parallel to your company's value and mission. Make sure that it is organized as well as carefully planned and executed. A good marketing campaign should be thought out 3, 6 or even 12 months in advance. 
• Employees that represent the company are a very big part of your brand image. They must be customer friendly, helpful and presentable.
• Your website should be up to date at all times so customers are aware of all that is being offered. It should be easy to navigate, useful and eye-catching.
• All social media sites must be active and contain content that is valuable for your customer base

By carrying out all of the above and making sure you are representing all aspects of your brand in a positive way, you are showing your customers that you care about them and your business.Going that extra mile, makes all the difference when it comes to your company being first in your customers mind. You don't want to be just like your competition. Who wants to blend in when they were born to stand out?

The 3 E's of an Effective Marketing Campaign

Here at Evoke Creative Group we are all about storytelling and getting your products and services in the minds of your customers by creating a memorable and engaging story people can relate to. But what makes a visual marketing campaign effective? It’s simple, the 3 E’s.

Enduring 

At the end of the commercial, you want people to remember you and what you are trying to sell. The campaign needs to be durable and able to hold a place in your customers mind long-term. Long after the commercial has ended. This can be done by using a tag line (15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance-Geico), a well known icon (Peyton and Eli Manning-Oreos), a humorous character or action that catches people attention (Talking Baby-eTrade).

Emotional

A story that engages a customer’s emotions is another way to create a lasting impact. Actions speak much louder than words, so let the visual do the talking and draw your customers in. Pulling at their heart strings or their funny bone is much more likely to resonate with them because they can feel it. A prime example of an emotional commercial is the SPCA.

Efficient 

An efficient commercial allows each customer to interpret the story for themselves. It allows them to answer the questions: how will this be valuable to me and how will I benefit from this. Any good story will convey a call to action to the viewer. This must be clearly stated in the story in order for the ad to be effective. Nike and their Just Do It campaigns have almost perfected this. Very little words, lots of action with no doubt what they are trying to convey and to whom.

I’d like to end this post with one of the newest commercials in 2012 that specifically touches on all of the above that I find quite ingenious and creative. It uses a celebrity to endorse the issue, the story line is humorous and by the end of the commercial you know exactly what message the commercial is trying to get across. Well done Play 60, well done.

 

Making Your Facebook Fan Page Effective

There is a sea of fan pages currently on Facebook today and most of them are set up just to follow the crowd. However, if used the right way, these pages can be very effective in increasing your business. Here are a few things you must make sure you do in order to achieve the optimal results from your fan page. With millions of people using Facebook each day, these simple little steps can make a big difference.

Choose Your Cover Photo Wisely

This is one of, if not the very first thing that fans see when they come across your page. Use it to show them what you are all about. Show off your products and services in a unique way. This picture should tell the story of why they should choose you above all others. Consider creating a collage to showcase multiple ideas within one photo. Make sure though to follow the Facebook Guidelines'.

Set your URL business name

Setting up your Facebook URL to include your business name is a quick and easy way to bring customer to it. If all your fans have to remember is your business name, it’ll be much more effective to direct traffic to your page.

Highlight Important Posts

 Facebook timeline offers you the opportunity to highlight certain posts. These posts stand out among the rest. This is a great way to catch people’s attention about something important going on with your business. It could be an event, a special offer, introducing a new product, anything that you want your fans to see. Take advantage of this option.

Give fans a reason to come back

Fans will return to your website if they feel that you have useful content. If you only post once a week or rarely post anything actually related to your business, the industry and any benefits to them, they won’t come back. So make sure you are staying up to date with feeding them information. Post pictures of new products, share your blog posts, let them know about a great customer review. These are just some suggestions, but can come in handy when it comes to customer retention. 

Add photos and videos

Visual marketing in today’s fast pace society is a great way to get your message across quickly and effectively. The eye naturally goes to photo and video posts before reading any texts.  

Fill out all information regarding your business

Right below your profile picture is a summary of all your business information for fans to see. For optimum return, make sure it is all filled out completely. Use the about me section to explain fully who you are and what you can do for them. Let them know when you are available and how to find you. The easier it is for them to find all this information the more likely they are to execute it. Having access to this information also shows fans that you are a legitimate business and that they can trust in you. 

5 Reasons All Businesses Should Be Using Twitter

Because Everyone Else is Doing it
I know, it seems cliche, but it’s the truth. If your competitors are on twitter, you should be too. This shows your customers that you are on top of the current trends and continue to stay innovative.

Quick Customer Feedback

This is a fast and easy way to see what your customers are saying about you. You can easily search your company name and read tweets that mention you. Customers can tweet your twitter name out with any comments they might have. Listening to your customers and taking into account what they are saying can help your business understand your market.

Interact with Your Customers

By responding to those who follow you, retweet you and mention you, you are building a rapport. This is an invaluable tool when it comes to growing your business. Customers can ask questions and this is a great chance for you to offer immediate correspondence.

Check Out the Competition

Not only does twitter help you see what customers are saying about you, but it also lets you see what they are saying about your competition. It lets you check out the latest updates from your competitors, how they are interacting with their followers and what type of marketing and promotions they are using on Twitter so you don’t fall behind.

Increase Your Customer Base

Picture this, someone tweets about you using your twitter name. One of their followers sees the tweet and clicks on your user name. They then read your description, become interested in your company and head over to your website. You just drove traffic through twitter and gained a potential customer without doing anything at all on your side!

Visual Marketing: Your Story Deserves To Be Heard

Life is all about experience. It’s about enjoying the ride and discovering something new every day. When we open our eyes, we see amazing things. That is what visual marketing is all about. And with social media consistently on the rise, it’s important to make sure you are telling your story the way it needs to be told.

Just take a look at the latest social media statistics:

·         Every minute 3,600 photos are shared on Instagram

·         300 million pictures are uploaded to Facebook a day (via Instagram)

·         Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month

·         Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube

·         500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook, and over 700 YouTube   

          videos are shared on Twitter each minute

Lives these days are so fast paced that the moments we have to sit down and really enjoy something are few and far between. Think about it. Would you rather sit down and read an article and try to picture what it is someone is talking about or just click a button and be able to see and hear all about it? 

Visual marketing is the newest trend of the 21st century and it is only going to grow in 2013. Jump on the bandwagon. Tell your story and show your customers what you are all about. You only have a small window of opportunity so make the most of it. 

Want to see what we’re talking about? Check out the promotional video we created for Split Second Sound. Put yourself customer right in the middle of the action. Answer the who,what, why and where in an enjoyable, engaging video. Your story deserves to be heard.