You can be sitting in a 5-star building, with an exquisite office and offering affiliate marketing services unmatched by any other firm but unless the audience hears about you, your business isn’t going anywhere!
This is how important the marketing of the brand profile and customer communication is. After all, people buy what people see!
Nowadays, a perfect digital profile is the one capable of engaging customers with a key message, interesting services, or a unique value.
Whether it be for search engines, social media, blog posts, infographics, or any other form of electronic campaign, the content you put out there must be creative enough to project a strong image of your brand to the world.
Does that seem like a tough job? We will make it easier for you!
Continue reading as we talk about what a digital profile can do for you and how you can bring it to the limelight with a perfect content strategy.
What Does a Digital Profile Say About You?
When so much has already moved behind the computer screens, it is time to accept that gone are the days when brands used to publicize their products/services only via billboards and roadside posters.
Now the first thing an employee or an employer looks into is the digital profile of the brand or applicant. This provides a good idea about their behavior, communications, affiliations, and characteristics.
Fun Fact! About 93.7% of unemployed people around the world admit that they look into the digital presence of a firm or company before applying. Some even added, “It seems really shady when they are not anywhere on the internet!”. And if you’re thinking about how to prevent employees from leaving, digital presence may support your employer branding in their eyes and make them want to build a long-term relationship with your company.
We get that!
A digital profile is a hub for all your information that exists online. It can be used for marketing, attracting potential employees, reaching out to the right pool of customers, and what-not.
Here’s what a RIGHT digital profile should be capable of.
- Tell Them Who You Are
The basic purpose of a digital profile is to show the world who you are. This is applicable to both, an individual or an entire brand.
Simply by looking at your profile a user should be able to deduce the background story, current services, and the future scope you can promise.
- Tell Them What You Do
Holding a customer down and explaining what you do will need a considerable amount of time that not many have.
Therefore, a digital profile should make crystal clear the types of services you excel at, your current position in the market, values at the workplace, etc.
Show Them How You Do It Better Than Other
If the digital profile was supposed to do what a resume does, we would have to stick to using paper and pen.
There is more to building a digital image then just putting out content in attractive words. Everything on your profile, from text font to videos, matters!
This is what gives a brand with good digital presence a competitive advantage. They show their audience how they are better than the rest, portfolio their achievements, and present their work in more than just plain words.
Digital Profiling and Content Strategy: Here’s How You Can Put Them To Best Use!
Coming up with the right content strategy is crucial for a well-designed digital profile. There’s a lot you can do to make sure that your brand stays in the limelight!
The Profile Must Show That Your Services Are Unique
Knowing what your brand or services are, is equally important as understanding what they are not.
Therefore, the process of designing a unique content for your profile should begin internally. All the participants should be encouraged to come forward with maximum input.
They can help the brand figure out its pool of audience, the preferred tone with the customers, or key messages that they want to resonate with the target users.
If you are lucky enough to have some creative minds in the room, encourage them to share ideas about imagine or descriptions that go well with the brand voice.
Pro-Tip! Remember that everybody loves a good laugh. That is why some humor is always okay.
Once you have gathered all the observations, content managers should filter the findings and come up with a collection of material fit for use on the brand’s digital profile.
There is no harm in conducting the same process externally as well. A facilitator can help align a good brand strategy by acting as a third-party that can honestly reflect the impression you have on an outsider.
All The Key Messages Should Be Loud and Clear
As a brand, you might have a number of key messages to grab the attention of the customers. However, it is never a great idea to put everything out on the profile.
Instead to make it more effective, stick to using a limited number of messages but ensure that these are well-crafted.
FYI! A key message should highlight the best qualities that your brand has. It should not only connect you with the audience but also encourage them to engage in a conversation.
Some important points that content creators should keep in mind while designing key messages for a brand voice include:
- How are YOU different from others?
- How are you BETTER than others?
- Why should the customer CHOOSE you?
Another important aspect when it comes to designing key messages for the digital profile is something known as “Lead Magnet.”
We will explain that to you in simpler words.
Your organization has provided solutions to the client’s problem over time. Instead of showcasing them as achievements only, the creatives can help design a lead magnet out of it.
Lead magnets can be in the form of simple blog posts for websites hosted on a reliable platform, a 10-15 minute video, a speech, or a comprehensive report.
Regardless of the shape they take, lead magnets are cheap to build and can stay active spreading awareness about your brand long after you have forgotten about them.
Pro-Tip! Tell a Story That Readers Will Pass On
How do we turn strangers into friends? That’s right! We share stories with them in order to build a personal connection.
The same rule of thumb applies to digital profiling. A brand can connect better with its audience if it gives them something to relate to or simply put a human face on the impression they are trying to build.
What’s a better way of doing than telling a story?
Bedtime stories were always meant to motivate or inspire kids, show them values, or teach them the importance of something.
A story with good content can have the same impact on your digital marketing strategy. It can help you build links, generate larger traffic, and spread social awareness.
A story unique to your brand voice could be about the challenges you have faced during the journey or the experiences you have learned from.
Tip! Whatever you do, make sure the story is always relevant to the pool of audience you are trying to target. For example, when attracting new customers, it is best to tell them stories about how your solutions changed the lives of previous clients.
Can a Good Content Strategy REALLY Set Your Brand Apart?
Answer: IF you do it in the right way.
A well-designed digital profile is enough to put all the spotlight on your business and content strategy. The only prerequisite is that you should be doing it in the right way.
Differentiation is Important
There are many creative minds around the globe that can come up with good content let alone producing content merely for filling out profiles.
How are you any different? The key to setting your voice apart is innovation.
Your digital profile should be informative, interesting, and unique. Ofcourse, there are extra marks for well-written, proof-read content but sometimes that is not enough to cut through all the clutter.
Therefore creativity should be encouraged. In this aspect, it is best to know what your competitors are doing so you can avoid ending up with a similar approach.
Don’t Stick To The Basics!
Some basic rules of designing content strategy or digital profiles are often taught to newbies. However, there is no hard and fast rule that you need to stick to them throughout your career life.
If the goal is to set your business apart then you will have to take some risks.
Your content strategy should be ahead of its time. For example, there are different portals to communicate with clients. If one of them has not created a hype yet, that does not mean it never will.
It is important to look into graphs and exponentials of how one channel is on the rise.
There were times when a Facebook post or banners were used to get things done. However, now more people are into stronger connections such as a video or audio link to the brand. Therefore, you need to make sure you are putting enough of these out there.
You should also be quick to adjust to sudden changes as that ensures a competitive advantage over others. For example, webinars never seemed as important before Covid-19 took the world by storm.
Currently, video communication and webinars have become a primary portal for interacting with customers.
Thus it is crucial to stay informed and keep on researching how the change in strategy would affect future forms of content and the platforms for sharing it.
Choose Your Channels Carefully
Once Lamborghini owners were asked why they never did commercials,
“Our customers aren’t the one sitting around watching TV,” they replied.
As kinky as it may sound, it’s true! It is the same as finding a teenager for babysitting by posting an ad in the newspaper. You won’t get many applicants. Try Instagram!
You need to make sure you are using the right channels for reaching out to your target audience.
A general approach is to create a website page with the “About Us” section. Almost all sorts of customers nowadays like to look into services via the internet.
Another good strategy is to come up with interesting blog posts. This is a reliable way to attract traffic to your page. You can couple these with videos and webinars.
Videos can be used to come up with fun BTS for your company and show the customers how you look behind the curtains.
Similarly, webinars have become increasingly relevant as more and more people gain interest in “hearing” about the services rather than reading about it.
Final Verdict: It Is All About How Well Your Digital Profile Cuts Through The Noise
It is always a good idea to ponder on how a good strategy can help your business grow. The best to do is this by designing an accessible, unique, and informative digital profile.
You don’t need to start things off with a storm. Typically, you have to begin with a brand process and a basic scheme for the profile.
Later on, as the budget grows, you can think about formulating brand values, coming up with mission statements, or utilizing different channels to increase the reach of your content.
It is common for many businesses to not include all the elements in the first few years of their start-up. Within this period, it is more important to figure out the target audience and work on the business model from within.
With time as your services align, you can continue to work with blogs, vlogs, and other channels to build an audience. In most cases, coming up with new interesting content on these channels on a regular basis is enough to attract potential customers.
We hope this article was helpful in finding answers to content strategy related questions that you had in mind.
author: Faisal Rehman