Answering your burning questions around branding

‍

Over the holidays, I gathered your burning questions around branding. And here they are!

1. How to make my IG grid less messy and more inviting? And does having a pretty Instagram really matter that much?

We’re all guilty of this—spending ages ruminating about a post, whether or not to post it, how it looks on the feed. And then possibly never getting round to posting it!

When that happens, revisit what the purpose of social media is for your brand and what you’re currently doing achieving that purpose?

Focus on content creation instead of putting too much time on how everything looks. Current followers won’t even look at your entire feed, and new followers care less about how your feed looks and more about whether your content resonates.

• Keep a consistent theme—like brand colours, look and feel of photos—to make the feed more inviting.
• Don’t let the fear of ruining your feed stop you from posting. It doesn’t need to be complicated.
• Don’t focus so much on the likes count. Move beyond that. Social media has brought us so much more than likes, such as the connections you make.
• Focus on what you want people to do with the content you post. How does it fit into the bigger picture? What’s the call to action?

Do a quick audit of your highlights and your bio link:

• Does your bio link easily direct people to information that they need?
• Is your bio simple and straightforward to understand?
• Does it say who you are + what you do?

2. What are the latest eDM do's / don'ts?

So many non-profits rely on eDM as their main channel for recruiting volunteers, donors, launching campaigns etc, but it's challenging to stay on top of best practices (ie. text vs images, optimal word length, subject lines, best days and times for sending etc).

First think about what content means for you and what the purpose behind all these channels are.

From there, establish content pillars. What are the different types of content you can send out—educational, recent news, behind-the-scenes, useful resources, beneficiary stories?

Segment your audience groups so relevant content is reaching relevant people. Nurture the contacts on your mailing list so that when you do have something important to say, they’re ready to listen.

Make use of the data that YOU have already.

Use of your platform’s free and paid functions to analyse the best times to send your email out and see if your subject line is too long.

Do people view more on desktop or mobile? The answer to that might change how you design the email.

Click maps

Programs like Mailchimp have campaign analytics that allow you to see where people have clicked the most or whether people are more likely to click on an image, button, or link.

It’s a great way to check if there have been any broken links or places where you might not have thought needed to be linked, but you get people clicking and it directs them to nowhere.

Content layout

Make it skimmable. If you have a large chunk of text, make sure you also create subtitles and bold so even just skimming people can get the jist of it.

3. How do you create a brand story when there is none to base off of or it’s just not a very interesting one?

Creating a brand story doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and it’s totally okay if you’re feeling stuck.

A brand story is not actually an external facing thing. It’s only one part of a whole ecosystem of your brand.

What’s a brand story really for?

Personally I feel it’s more for internal alignment. Brands like Uber and Mastercard got to where they are by having a clear path of who they are as a brand and how they deliver to their customers.

Whether you’re a big team, or a pair of founders, or even just one founder, brand stories bring a sense of clarity about who you are and what your focus is, and with that comes confidence.

There is no one formula to creating a brand story

Often purpose-driven brands will have a brand story that revolves around their vision of how they can help make the world a better place, bring better health or deliver better education.

But some brands are really more about the experience or product itself. Sometimes it’s about the founders and how their life story led them to creating the brand.

I even once wrote a poem for an interior designer for her brand story because I was so inspired by the poetic nature of her work. And I felt that that was the best way to represent her culture and values as a designer.

There’s no right or wrong way to create a brand story. The important thing is for YOU to understand it and own it.

4. We can't secure funding because we don't have awareness. But it’s hard to reach those niche markets organically without using paid posts. How do we overcome that catch-22 situation?

When time and resources are stretched, whatever you do, focus on the right things and the right people. This means letting go of feeling like you have to do everything.

Think about depth rather than breadth. How can you achieve maximum results with minimal effort?

We don’t usually suggest paid advertising to clients that are just starting off because the results just don’t really make it worth it.

It’s only when you reach a certain size and already have that awareness in the market that you’ll start to see results with paid posts because people recognise your brand. And that can take years of nurturing.

Look at PR as relationship building. For more on this check out Episode 3: 7 Ways Brand Building is a Lot Like Dating, where we focus on looking at the customer journey as a whole experience.

Effective gorilla marketing techniques and thinking outside the box

There’s so much opportunity nowadays for more exciting and innovative ways to build brand awareness. I recently spoke to a PR partner who was so clever in doing just that.

Remember that phase of the pandemic where everyone was suddenly making banana bread? She jumped on that wave and sent a couple of influencers boxes of cake mix from a brand she represents, with a handwritten note saying that they weren’t looking for any kind of return and this is a little something from us to have fun with the kids.

The response was overwhelming. People were so grateful for the thoughtfulness and they were posting without the brand even asking for it.

This example was a huge success because it really came from the heart and it was relevant, thoughtful, and the best thing is, it barely cost anything.

Intimate experiences and events online and offline

When I was staying at a quarantine hotel in Hong Kong, their spa offered a free 10 minute DIY treatment session. They dropped off sample products for us to try while teaching us live how to do a hand scrub and massage. Not only was it fun, I actually purchased a product because of that.

For NGOs, it’s much harder to create these kinds of experiences, so ask yourself:

• What are some ways you can also get people excited about supporting you and your cause? Think about what’s in it for them too.
• What’s a great way to get people involved?
• What kind of partnerships can you leverage on?
• How can you collaborate with some really cool brands to help get your message out there?

Be intentional about where you’re spending your budget and how you can get the most bang for your buck.

5. What captures someone’s attention when looking at a brand? What should I focus on on my social media or website?

This is a really great question, because I know often we don’t have time to do all the A/B testing and trial and error to see what works and what doesn’t work.

One thing that really works is validation. A lot of times, we think we know what our audience wants/needs, but until we ask them, we don’t actually know for sure.

Again, focus on what’s in it for them?

You can do this through testimonials, product reviews, or ask your audience what their main challenges are, and answer that.

As customers, we want validation that you know how to solve our problems for us.

So yes, your brand story, values, etc. are important. But why would it matter? As collective beings, we want to feel seen and heard, and part of something. FOMO is a real thing!

Post about client success stories and talk about how you’ve helped people overcome their challenges. This will really help them to imagine what working with you or supporting your cause would be like.

Key takeaway

Be authentic, be intentional, and focus more on depth rather than breadth.

‍