Part 3 – Thinking More Is Always Better

Today’s marketplace is cluttered and noisy. Consumers are exposed to thousands of ads and marketing messages each day, so it’s important for your company’s brand to stand out in the crowd. How you attract the attention of your target audience should be strategic and carefully executed. You may not need long, complex blogs or a daily presence on all social media platforms to achieve your company’s marketing objectives. More is not always better and often the greatest impact can be achieved through quality and simplicity!

From content development to visual design, applying a minimalist approach to your efforts can lead to maximum results. If you’re ready to create efficiencies in your company’s marketing efforts and produce materials that won’t overwhelm your target audience (and yourself), you’ve come to the right place.

 

Content is King, But It Doesn’t Have to Be Cumbersome

In the marketing industry, the phrase “content is king” is used often because developing strategic, high-quality content has many benefits for companies, like increasing brand awareness, improving search engine optimization (SEO), boosting industry thought leadership, generating leads and conversions, and more. Many marketers know content creation is important. In fact, 80% said they prioritize this area of marketing and 76% said that content marketing has become more important to their organization over the past year.

With more businesses producing content at an astonishing rate, it’s important to take a step back and evaluate your company’s content marketing strategy to ensure the material you’re producing (i.e., blogs, social media posts, newsletter articles, etc.) are manageable and effective among your intended target audience. At GRIT, we believe it’s better to produce a few pieces of exceptional content than create numerous pieces that are mediocre. When evaluating your content creation process and existing pieces of material, consider the following:

  • Do Not Create Content for The Sake of Creating Content – As a content marketer, there may be times where you run low on topics to write about. Instead of fishing for ideas that are slightly related to your services, products, and/or industry, pause and think about your next steps. Spending time writing and publishing content that’s not on point with your brand could lead to wasted resources, attracting irrelevant consumers, or bad leads. Don’t force new content! Instead consider how you could repurpose old marketing pieces until new content ideas and topics arise.

 

  • Update or Repurpose Existing Content – Don’t feel like you always need to create content from scratch. An efficient way to freshen up your website or social media feed with different content is to evaluate what you have previously published. Do you have a top-performing blog that could be updated to include new data and insights? Do you have a video that could be used to create a newsletter article? Or how about an industry event presentation that could be referenced to write informative social media copy? Maintaining existing content and repurposing the pieces could help streamline your content development efforts.

Whether creating a new, relevant piece of content or repurposing existing content, it’s important to have a solid reason for taking action. Always ask yourself why you’re producing that specific piece of content, how the topic will resonate with your target audience, and if it’s in tune with your brand’s writing style and voice. Ensuring your content marketing efforts align with your larger business objectives and focusing on quality over quantity will benefit your brand.

 

Bid Farewell to Crowded & Excessive Designs

According to PR Newswire, 94% of consumers believe their first impression of a company is design related. While designs that are full of color, text, and visual elements could grab the attention of consumers, it may not be in a positive or effective way.

In the cluttered and noisy marketplace, having visual designs that are clean and functional can have a major impact on your target audiences’ brand experience as well as the lifespan of your designs.  According to Medium, there is a profound interest in elegant websites, classy Instagram feeds, and simple and effective UI/UX interfaces. Before designing your company’s next logo, packaging, print marketing materials, or other pieces, consider the following tips:

  • Color Selections – The use of color is important in graphic design. Selecting colors that align with your brand standards will be key, but that does not mean you must use them all. Pick one, two, or three colors and consider how they can work together to highlight the most important elements of your design.

 

  • Font Choices – Often, brands have a standard typeface that they consistently use throughout all their designs and marketing materials. The typeface you decide to use should be consistent across all brand materials and be easy to read. If the font is difficult to read or too small, it may not be effective.

 

  • Design Elements – Regardless of your design preferences or creative direction, elements such as shapes, lines, or text should never sacrifice clarity, usability, or readability.

 

  • White Space – White space (also referred to as negative space) should be thoughtfully considered in visual designs. While you don’t want too much white space, using it to balance or highlight hierarchical elements could be beneficial.

 

  • Additional Formats – Consider how the graphics you create would translate in motion, video, and animated mediums.

The next time you consider adding text or design elements to your visuals, think about what your target audience wants to see. In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, many individuals prefer things that are quick to read and simplified. Ensuring that your designs are functional on all devices and emphasize key information or elements is important.

Creating designs that are streamlined and clutter-free may not appear too difficult, but according to Medium, it takes years of exploration and practice to polish the skills needed to tell a lot by showing and saying a little. If you’re looking for support enhancing your existing visual designs or creating more effective graphics for your brand, get in touch with GRIT today to learn how our experienced and knowledgeable design professionals can support you!

 

When It Comes to Communication Channels, Be Choosy

From social media and e-newsletters to digital ads and billboards, there are so many channels your company’s brand can use to reach consumers. When it comes to communication channels, you don’t need to have a daily presence on all platforms. Instead, you should be choosy and focus on the channels that your target audience utilizes regularly. Understanding your target audience and reaching them via the channels they actively use will help increase engagement and the success of your initiatives, while saving time and resources on the less effective channels. Every brand and target audience is different, but here are some impressing, top-level stats to kick start your planning and research:

  • Facebook has 2.91 billion active monthly users with the largest group being those ages 25 to 34 (Sprout Social).
  • Instagram has 2 billion active monthly users with the largest group being those ages 25 to 34. Users ages 18 to 24 are a close second (Sprout Social).
  • LinkedIn has 810 million active monthly users with the largest group being those ages 25 to 34. 63% of LinkedIn users access the professional networking site weekly (Sprout Social).
  • TikTok has 1 billion active monthly users with the largest group being those ages 10 to 19. Users spend approximately 89 minutes each day on the platform (Sprout Social).
  • YouTube has 2+ billion active monthly users with the largest group being those ages 15 to 35. Users spend approximately 30 minutes on the platform per session (Sprout Social).
  • 55% of consumers say email is their preferred digital channel for business communication (Constant Contact).
  • More than any other generation, Baby Boomers say they would be very disappointed if they stopped getting mail, at 57%, compared to 45% of Gen X, 41% of Millennials and 37% of Gen Z (USPS).
  • Consumers crave a personalized advertising experience and 71% of respondents prefer digital ads tailored to their interests and shopping habits (Marketing Dive).

More is not always better when it comes to the number of communication channels your company uses. The channels in which you choose to have a presence should align with the platforms your target audience is active on to ensure your efforts are successful. Dedicating time and resources to these few channels will streamline your strategy and be much more effective.

For additional tips on researching your target audience and gaining insights on their communication preferences, check out part one of our blog series, Assuming You Know Your Target Audience.

 

Get Highly Focused Marketing Support

Simplified yet effective marketing efforts must start with a strategy. Thoroughly researching your target audience to understand the content, visual designs, and communication channels they prefer will be your ultimate guide to identifying where you should focus your efforts and areas you can streamline. You don’t have to do it all but ensuring that what you’re doing is reaching your target audience and resonating with them to achieve your larger business objectives is the goal.

If you’re ready to revamp your marketing strategy and begin to focus your time and resources on the areas that will have the most impact, contact our team of marketing experts. As a full-service marketing communications agency based in York, Pennsylvania, we have the resources and knowledge to take your marketing initiatives to the next level.

To read previous blogs in this series, click here. Then, be sure to stay tuned for part four of The 7 Sins of Marketing blog series, which will focus on the importance of relationships.