It’s Time to Shape Your Brand Story The Intelligent Way

Hello!

The year is not so new anymore and here at Clearly Blue, we’re still feeling good! Along with all the news and views, we thought we’d set the tone with some great music – if you’ve not already, take a listen to Michael Buble’s interpretation of ‘It’s a New Day’ – sure to set your foot tapping and set the mood for your work day.

If you’re planning your annual brand strategy with ‘digital marketing’ numbers at the forefront, here are some insights to help you.

Marketing beyond Digital

Yesterday’s digital marketing is passé. To capture your audience and make your business grow, you need more than just crunching the PPC/CPC and other numbers of digital marketing. You need Intelligent Marketing. Here are some nuances of this paradigm:

Most engaging content: Written articles (27%), videos (26%), and images (24%) are the three popular types of engaging content on social media (Smart Insights and Clutch, 2017)
How often? 60% of marketers create at least one piece of content each day (emarketer)
Top five B2B content marketing tactics: Social media content (92%); eNewsletters (83%); articles on your website (81%); blogs (80%); in-person events (77%). (IMN Inc.)
Content? Really? Content marketing has become an almost universal tactic, with almost 90% of companies using it in 2016, and even more utilizing it in 2017 (Content Marketing Institute B2B Content Marketing)
Best laid plans! 49% of organizations do not have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy (Smart Insights, Managing Digital Marketing research report, 2017); 48% of marketers planned to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2017 (Linqua, 2017)
The reality! 70% of marketers lack a consistent or integrated content strategy (Altimeter)

The takeaway? Start building an image + video driven content strategy for your org today. Tell your stories engagingly; start conversations with your customers and non-customers!

Brace yourself for another revolution in marketing and embark on an exciting new journey of stamping your brand in customers’ minds!

Source: Smart Insights

The Whiff of Magic

Apart from content marketing, what your brand needs is that extra bit of magic. Plan for some event branding. Explainers can sprinkle the pixie dust required to establish a foothold in the market.

Use a short 1-minute video to tell your story to your community – explainer videos are ‘Whatsappable’ content that make the viewer go ‘wow’. They stick in the mind – a short, snappy story set to great music and awesome lyrics. What’s not to like?
If you’re sweating over events, stop! Grandiose events need lots of preparation, not to mention standees and flyers. Plan for smaller, more impactful events this year – for instance, how about putting up a talk in one of the neighbourhood business centers with cookies and coffee? Showcase your thought leadership and enable networking. Your customers and users will surely appreciate the experience if they can learn something. Sharing is the new selling!

Did you know?

Video will make up 80% of consumer online traffic by 2020 (Animoto, 2017)
Social Media and video viewing are the two most popular online activities, together accounting for more than a third of all internet time (Smart Insights, Q4 2017 Online Marketing Statistics)

eLearning Revolution

We’re excited about the work we’re doing in elearning! From toddlers to mid-career professionals, everyone has a gadget in hand. So, it’s only natural that they are inclined to learn with those too. Sample the reach of this market:

“Employers will be investing more money into their training and development programs in 2018 in order to fill their skills gaps and reach their full capacity.” – read at Forbes. https://elearninginfographics.com/elearning-trends-to-watch-out-for-in-2018/
Global e-Learning Market 2017 to Boom $275.10 Billion Value by 2022 at a CAGR of 7.5% – Orbis Research

If your org is building an elearning strategy or planning a set of informational content to educate your users, let us know. We can help!