Today's digital marketing channels are wider than ever. You have the opportunity to reach a wide range of potential customers in a variety of different ways. Your customers are connected. They can find you on social media, check out your emails, and search for you as part of their regular search queries.
Are you exercising consistency across all of those channels?
Consistency in marketing can make a big difference in your success across all the channels you use to market your business. When your brand image is consistent, you'll watch your digital marketing results soar. When you are inconsistent and customers never have any idea what to expect from your business, on the other hand, you may quickly watch your marketing results plummet. Customers appreciate consistency--and with good reason.
Consistency Establishes Brand Identity
What is your business, as a brand? What is it that sets you apart from your competitors? Chances are, you've put a great deal of time and effort into building your brand. You don't want to be simply another face in the crowd that is your market. Instead, you want something that sets you apart: the little things that make your brand different from the others. You aren't just establishing the goods and services you bring to the industry. You're also creating the voice that interacts with your customers. How do you speak to them? Do you have a highly professional customer relationship characterized by efficiency and effectiveness, or do you have a warmer, more personal relationship that invites your customers to interact with you? Your consistency helps establish your brand identity--and that lets customers know what to expect from your business.
Consistency Builds Trust
Customers want to know what to expect when they're dealing with your business. It's not just about using logos and a color scheme, though those things can certainly help establish your brand. Most importantly, it's about your voice.
Are you using the same voice in your emails that you use across your social media channels? When people connect with your customer service team, do they get the same warm reception they've come to expect from the quality content on your blog?
If you are inconsistent from one channel to the next, your customers will never know what to expect from your business. Imagine this: a quick search for content in your industry has brought them to your website, where they find a highly professional, if somewhat generic, introduction to your services. You offer a few brief blogs that clearly and concisely describe the products you deal with on a regular basis, or perhaps an introduction to your company. Then, when they come to your social media page to connect with your business and discover any current deals and promotions, they find a page filled with other people's content: shares of viral videos, personal snippets, and interactions with customers and fans that look nothing like the content they expected from your website. This shift in their initial impression can be enough to chase a customer away before they even get to know your business and what you have to offer!
When you create consistency between your platforms, on the other hand, you increase trust in your business. Your social media page is informal, filled with great information and things you believe your customers will find exciting? Consider extending that aura to your website. Not only will you create better brand consistency, you'll create a warmer environment where you can better get to know your customers, improve your understanding of your buyer personas, and increase your sales as you improve your targeting. Prefer a more formal approach? Keeping it consistent across your platforms will help establish you as a highly professional member of your industry.
Consistency Creates Customer Satisfaction
Here's a little-known secret: if your customers expect slow response times, slow shipping times, and long waits, they will be happy even when those things hold true. Sure, they might complain about them; but when they have a need in your industry, they will continue to turn to your business as long as it delivers consistent service.
On the other hand, if your business is erratic--sometimes, you have fast response times and amazing customer service; other times, you struggle to connect with your customers, and wait times can be extended far more than anticipated--you'll quickly find that even your once-loyal customers disappear.
The secret is consistency. Customers want to know what to expect when they interact with your brand. If you deliver it, they'll continue to be satisfied. On the other hand, if you fail to deliver consistency, they'll turn to another business that will give them a better idea of what to expect.
Establishing Consistency for Your Business
Are you ready to make the leap and establish consistency for your business online? Consider these key steps.
1) Take a look at your digital marketing efforts. Examine your website, your blog, your social media pages, the emails you send to your clients, and even your online reviews--especially your company's response to customer reviews. Consider how you interact with your customers on all of those platforms.
2) Take down content that doesn't reflect your brand. You may not be able to erase online content permanently, but you can remove content that simply doesn't reflect the image you want to create for your brand.
3) Define your brand image. How do you want to interact with your customers? What image do you want to establish? If you've never taken the time to do this, now is the time!
4) Make sure everyone who creates content for your business sticks to that image. Create a guide or establish guidelines that will help anyone who creates content for your business maintain the online presence you're working to build.
Do you have a digital marketing strategy that includes consistency across all of your channels? Are you able to bring all of your channels, from email and social media to your blog and your website, together to create a stunning picture of your company that customers can follow from one platform to the next? If you're struggling with consistency in marketing, contact us. We'll work with you to build an impressive, consistent marketing strategy that will improve your overall results and make it easier for your customers to connect with your business.
