The word ‘advertise’ comes from the French word ‘avertir’ meaning “make aware; call attention; remark; turn; turn to”;
and the Latin word ‘advertere’ meaning “to direct one’s attention; to give heed”.
But the act of advertising today means so much more than that.
Advertising isn’t simply about calling a product or service to people’s attention anymore. It can’t be. With all the noise out there in the digital marketplace, advertising needs to be something much bigger. It needs to be inextricably tied with branding and marketing.
There’s no two ways about it. Build a long-term relationship with your prospects using a solid branding strategy and your advertising initiative has a chance of hitting its goals. Ignore this step and your advertising falls into the black hole of cacophony created by millions of other advertisers competing for the same short spans of attention.
So how do you win the advertising war? The first thing to remember is that to be successful in advertising is a marathon, not a sprint. Even if you’re selling a magical potion that bestows immortality on those who imbibe it, you still won’t achieve sales nirvana without a long-term strategy. Why? Because humans have been turned into skeptics by the flood of sales jargon they get hit with every day. You can’t sell a product or service anymore without building trust with your audience. Trust comes from delivering on your promise (time and time again), word-of-mouth referrals and social proof to carry the authenticity of your brand.
And when your competitors also figure out how to make magical immortality potions of their own, you’ll be glad that you grew such a diehard tribe of brand loyalists that they wouldn’t even think of switching. That’s extremely hard to do unless your brand stands for something very powerful.
Ok, so you’re probably thinking, “Be more specific. Give me some actionable steps”. Right?
1. Start Trust-building (aka Content Marketing)
Blogs, videos, live streaming, podcasts, webinars – build up a quality repertoire of these types of content to show you’re an expert in your industry. Talk about your offering in language that your target audience understands and relates to. Make it clear what you’re selling and why it’s unique. Give your audience the helping hand, advice, mentorship or guidance they’re looking for. Communicate this via storytelling. Make them the hero of the story (not yourself). Have meaningful conversations with them.
This step will take some time to mature – a year or more at least. Don’t expect customers to flock to you after a few blog posts or videos. Once it has matured, though, you’ll notice your message starts spreading all by itself like a catchy tune that people can’t help but humming after they’ve heard it.
2. Be Unique and Create a Natural Buzz
Do something that none of your competitors do. It can (and should) be something subtle, but also relevant to your offering. Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin unpack this at length in their book Talk Triggers.
Memorable examples are The Doubletree Hotel who, for years, have been offering a warm cookie to guests as they enter the lobby. Every guest gets one. It’s synonymous with their brand.
Or The Cheesecake Factory, whose menu is almost 6,000 words long, which has created a talking point that almost every guest shares with their friends. This unique trait does the talking for them. So much so, they hardly need to advertise.
Or what about Five Guys who never advertise the fact that they always give you a HUGE (overly generous) helping of fries whether you order a small or large portion. Another unique part of their brand that gets people talking.
3. Be Consistent in Your Offering and Brand Promise
There’s nothing more reassuring than a brand that is consistent in its calibre of product, core values, customer service, online engagement, frequency and quality of content generation. From online response times to daily Facebook posts to weekly blog posts to delivering your promise on time, every time, makes your audience so much more receptive and willing to act on your advertising messages. Consistency across channels – Facebook, YouTube, email, search, blog, website, programmatic, TV etc. – is a key characteristic of iconic brands.
Think Nike, Dove, Amazon, Apple, Warby Parker…
4. Keep Optimizing Your Marketing Funnel
Using ads to feed the hopper of your marketing funnel with no strategy for the rest of the funnel will deliver short-term results and frankly be a waste of time and money.
Instead do this:
- Start a plan for constantly testing and iterating your messaging and audiences
- Continually optimize your website and landing pages for lead generation
- Nurture your leads with content crafted for where they are in their journey with your brand
- Educate your sales team with an intimate understanding of the journey your hot leads have experienced thus far so they can convert them more effectively
- Understand your customer lifetimevalue and put programs in place to retain loyal clients and generate referrals
5. Play the Long Game
Think of your branding effort as a long-term investment that will add fuel to your advertising fire. Just as content building takes time to flourish and reap rewards, building your reputation and loyal client base should be seen as the ultimate end goal. There’s no such thing as growth hacking. No startup has ever become an iconic brand by growth hacking. The reason for this is that growth hacking focuses solely on profit and growth and ignores factors such as company culture, brand equity and loyalty.
These are just some of the foundations on which to layer your advertising efforts to create a lasting and valuable impact.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
