If you think marketing is about crafting showy, syrupy stories about your brand for a consumer audience, think again. Marketing is about finding the true stories that make your brand unique and using them to engage employees and consumers, blogs Brett Virmalo of digital agency Tippingpoint Labs. Ready to ramp up your marketing? Virmalo suggests focusing on these five areas.
•Product design and development. To market a product, build your messaging around the problem that your team set out to solve when they developed it.
•The post-purchase experience. Don't spam your customers with the next product you want them to purchase. Figure out what they are buying and how you can help them use it, so you can provide them valuable, relevant content.
•Customer support.When a customer has a problem or complaint, focus on how you can help them solve it as quickly and as painlessly as possible instead of explaining what went wrong.
•Product reviews. Are you engaging in online ratings and review spaces like Yelp, GetSatisfaction and the like? If not, you should be. Seize any opportunity to set the record straight when an unfair review is posted.
•Employees and CEOs. Think of every employee as a brand ambassador and encourage them to promote your brand through their social networks. Give CEOs a platform to blog or Tweet about your brand or position them as experts who are willing to speak at conferences, to reporters, ect.
