Brand perception and customer experience go hand in hand, so brands must do everything they can to form positive first impressions that make consumers feel at ease when purchasing their products or engaging their services. And that’s where the power of excellent whiteboard animation comes in, a style designed to educate and inspire trust in viewers while entertaining them. 

This piece will explore how you can use whiteboard videos to wow your audience and take your branding strategy to the next level!

How Going Digital Has Placed Huge Emphasis on Brand Reliability

After the COVID-19 pandemic, people became more reliant on e-commerce platforms and remote services, taking our culture more profound into the digital age and causing a new generation of consumers to be born. Learned customers now seek concise-but-thorough information as part of their regular buyer’s journey and will not purchase from a brand unless they trust it.

And, can you blame them? How often do we visit websites and add products to our carts, only to abandon them? 

We do this because we’re unsure whether the company will deliver on its promises, and this uncertainty occurs more so when we pursue unfamiliar brands on exclusively digital transactions.

Effective branding revolves around removing doubt from a customer’s mind and allowing your company to build meaningful connections with them. And with digital customer interactions becoming the new normal, your branding strategy has to use tools and practices that make these interactions flow as seamlessly as possible.

Video as the Go-to Medium for Effective Branding

If there are two things every marketer has learned recently about online shoppers, they are impatient and have high expectations. They don’t want to spend hours reading through information that convinces them of a brand’s credibility. They want to be informed in a quick, entertaining, and easy to understand, making video the perfect communication to engage them.

Well-designed marketing video content helps your brand personality stand out while educating prospects without overwhelming them. 

Unlike wordy product guides or in-depth text descriptions, you get to use eye-catching audiovisuals to keep people interested in what you have to say and show that you value their time and experience. 

Building a strategy around optimized video content helps you reinforce their confidence in your brand, products, and services while prompting them to take action. It, therefore, nurtures a more positive brand perception.

Related Article: 7 Key Elements of Succesful Video Marketing Strategy

The Basics of the Whiteboard Video Style 

Whiteboard videos are a specific type of explainer that use whiteboard animation to tell compelling stories while conveying your message and promoting your brand. 

Like other similar marketing videos, most brands use them to educate their audience. However, these videos specifically feature a unique combination of storytelling and hand-drawn visuals that make information delivery engaging. 

Style-wise, there are two main types of whiteboard videos; live-action and animated. Let’s learn a bit more about each.

1. Live-Action Whiteboard Videos

Live-action whiteboard videos showcase an illustrator’s hand drawing on the board as the narrator speaks. The process is usually sped up to match the narrator’s tempo and help the video flow smoothly. Live-action videos are the more traditional variant and were the go-to before whiteboard animations came about. Using a camera to record the drawing process — usually in a stop-motion fashion — helps brands convey a sense of authenticity. However, they can be pretty tedious and time-consuming to produce.

2. Animated Whiteboard Videos

Animated whiteboard videos are more sleek and clean-cut. While they can feature hand-drawn illustrations, the difference is that they have to be animated into separate frames that are later compiled into a single video. 

This Whiteboard style gives companies more flexibility as they can also use computer-generated elements. They’re perfect for brands that seek to educate viewers yet still maintain a sense of professionalism, as animated videos tend to be easier to produce.

What Whiteboard Videos Bring to the Table

Beyond the basics, the whiteboard video formula has been improved and refined for over a decade to produce a style that excels at two key marketing aspects: clear information delivery and generating viewer engagement. 

However, those two only form the core of the style; here are a few other ways this style can overhaul your branding efforts.

1. Showcases Brand Personality

Whiteboard videos are the perfect tool to showcase your brand’s vibe while communicating relevant data points to your audience. By telling key prospects what they need to know, and on top of that, doing it with style,  you get to connect with them in faster and more meaningful ways.

Narration is essential to any whiteboard video, and companies use speakers that best reflect their brand voice and personality. However, this principle goes beyond just narration and should inform every aspect of your whiteboard video.

2. Simplify Abstract/Complex Ideas

Many companies use whiteboard explainers to break down complex data and deliver their audience’s intricate yet relevant info. Thus, the style has been developed around illustrations and transitions designed to engage the viewer’s attention and create clear links between different ideas and concepts, improving information retention. 

Digital marketing lives or dies by how digestible your content is. Even if you are communicating something most of your audience would find of vital importance, you need to do it in a way that most people can get without effort. Whiteboard videos excel at doing exactly that.

3. Adds Zest to Products and Services

Your brand is the story behind your business offerings and how you communicate with the people you are trying to connect with. Through whiteboard videos, you can breathe life into your products and services by presenting relevant information through stories that tie into your company’s image. 

Whiteboard videos are known for their use of creative storytelling, allowing you to showcase ideas in exciting ways that align with your brand personality — and have them stand out even more than usual, given the style’s traditionally black & white nature.

Key Design Elements of Whiteboard Videos

The whiteboard video style comprises distinct design elements that give them their unique feel and animation style. Let’s go over each of them in more detail and see how they can contribute to your branding efforts.

White Background and Black-lined Drawings

Yep, you guessed it. To stay true to the style, all illustrations and graphics must be composed primarily of black lines showcased on a white background. 

Not only does it help them pop, making it easier to focus the viewer’s attention, but it also helps minimize distractions and transform the use of sparing color into a powerful branding tool.

Storyboard

Storyboards include single frames that pan out each key scene in your video. They come in handy during pre-production when you want to create a rough idea of how your video will flow and the elements they’ll feature. Storyboards are essential because they assist with visual continuity, which is vital to the seamless feel of the whiteboard video style. If your video’s message is presented in a way that’s confusing or inconsistent, it won’t sit well with your audience.

Script

A killer script is a foundation for an excellent whiteboard video. It should have a straightforward plot that outlines the introduction, conflict, resolution, and in this case, final call to action. 

Great video scripts stick to the following rules: They use simple language and concepts to avoid confusion. They deliver information in bite-sized pieces and are written in the second person to inform the audience directly. When it comes to whiteboard video scripts, you should include notes on scene transitions and how important drawings and illustrations will flow into the next.

Animated Elements and Characters

Your video must feature characters that fit in with its plot and animated elements that help explain specific concepts. Whether opting for an animated video or live-action instead, you still want to ensure that the experience feels genuine. When it comes to whiteboard videos, the essential visual staples are the drawing hand and a black-and-white theme. Your illustrations should include 2D and 3D elements that aren’t too detailed or distracting, and your animations should flow seamlessly between scenes. 

Narration and Sound Effects

As mentioned before, your video should convey your brand’s personality, voice, and tone. Hence, finding a narrator who can represent your brand well is crucial. 

Another element to consider is sound effects, which can add depth to your visuals and help you focus the viewer’s attention on important info. You can use royalty-free music to find fitting accompaniments to your on-screen visuals and ensure narration syncs flawlessly to your animations to ensure your video flows smoothly, without any random pauses or awkward silences.

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The 4 Essential Stages of Whiteboard Video Production

Having gone through the core elements needed for an excellent whiteboard video, let’s consider how you can combine them to produce a great piece! 

There are different ways you can approach producing whiteboard videos, but we’ve provided a step-by-step guide that explains the most important stages to consider.

Step 1: Establish Your Focus & Objectives

This is the foundation every explainer needs to have to be effective, and whiteboard videos are no exception. When drafting scenes and characters, it is essential to have an outline to refer back to so that you don’t go off on a tangent and keep your overall focus and objectives with the piece present. Before starting, have clear answers to questions like:

• What is the key message of my video?
• What will my audience learn from this video?
• How can I naturally incorporate my brand personality into this message?
• How do I expect my audience to respond after the video?

Step 2: Develop and Polish Your Script & Storyboard

Once you have a solid grasp on your objectives for the piece, you can move to outline your whiteboard video’s script and then develop the core scenes of keyframes tied to each par. 

When writing your script, your focus and objectives will help you develop character discussions and marketing messages that align with your video’s purpose. Don’t worry about getting it perfect right off the bat. Add in what you think will work, then spend time revising and editing it to be more concise. Ask for feedback from people who understand your brand, and look for opportunities to make the message feel yours distinctively. Then you can move on to the storyboard.

Some people feel intimidated by the prospect of developing a storyboard, but don’t be! Designing a storyboard is essentially creating a comic strip that showcases how your video’s scenes will unfold. It doesn’t have to be super detailed, as most storyboards include rough sketches of each scene’s different characters and elements. Any polishing up will be done during the asset development and animation process.

Step 3: Time to Develop Some Assets

Since there are two main ways to approach whiteboard videos, you need to decide on the style you are going for (animated or live-action) so production can commence in earnest.

For live-action whiteboard videos, you’ll need a physical whiteboard, markers, a camera positioned directly above the board to avoid casting shadows, and a talented artist to draw high-quality illustrations with little-to-no mistakes.

On the other hand, animated whiteboard videos use digital illustrations and assets. So most of the tools you’ll need are software to develop digital art assets and later animate them. With this style, everything — from white backgrounds to draw lines, to even the artist’s hand! — is produced digitally and then combined into a seamless piece.

Regardless of how you go, this stage is about producing the building blocks for your video and iterating on them to make them as high-quality as possible before moving on.

Step 4: Edits & Postproduction

Once you’ve reached this stage, you are one step away from finalizing your masterpiece, but there’s still significant work to be done.

Here’s when you get your editor cap on, as you’ll be combining all the elements you’ve worked on into a cohesive video. Once your visuals are top-notch and have been properly animated, you need to establish the scene sequence, then tie it to the sound design of the piece (which includes not just narration or background music but also sound effects), and synch everything to work flawlessly.

Branding Strategies in Whiteboard Videos: Make Your Content Unique!

Before you go, we wanted to take one tiny step further and discuss specific branding strategies that merge well with the whiteboard video style. Strategies that can help you not only make a cool video but one that also feels distinct and interesting.

Position Your Brand as The Solution to a Problem

Looking for an effective way to connect with your audience? Then identify their pain points and show how your brand can help them eliminate them. This is an excellent premise for a whiteboard video because nothing engages better than relatable situations! 

And while you are at it, don’t forget to base your character’s appearance and personality on your audience’s demographics. It’s a great way to generate instant appeal from viewers.

Use Your Brand Color Pallet & Logo (Sparingly!)

When using your brand colors for your illustrations, they should be subtle and not take away from the characteristic black-and-white theme of the style. 

This can be done by including a colored border or introducing colored elements at critical points of your video’s story. Another straightforward way to get viewers to associate the video with your brand is by having a small watermark logo on the corner.

Present Your Brand as a Thought Leader

As we mentioned earlier, brand perception is a make or break when building customer trust. What better way to build trust than to showcase your brand’s past accomplishments in a whiteboard explainer? 

This can include successful partnerships, company projects, and initiatives that resulted in excellent results. Each brand is different, so your approach is likely to be unique. The best part about using whiteboard animation to discuss your company’s achievements is that they can be presented as an inspiring visual story instead of a boring, lengthy blog.

Wrapping Up

A solid branding strategy is all about showcasing your brand personality in an exciting and informative way. Whiteboard video functions as a great tool to do this because it is highly engaging and easier for audiences to retain. 

Through the use of eye-catching design elements, whiteboard videos can snag the attention of prospects faster than any other marketing medium. 

Your brand’s personality and ideas can be put into an engaging script that will be presented through relatable characters and real-time situations. Hence, once you’ve established a clear purpose for your whiteboard explainer, it will function as the perfect tool to communicate your brand values and generate brand awareness!

The post Overhaul Your Branding Strategy with Whiteboard Videos appeared first on Desygner.

It may look easy, but getting started with ad design can be quite a hassle. After all, there’s so much to take into consideration. It comes as no surprise that brands and marketers alike feel stumped when it’s time to head back to the drawing board to design the next ad for their marketing campaign.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss the top 10 Facebook Ad Designs to get your brand on the right track to converting as many prospective consumers as possible!

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10 Facebook Ad Design Tips

The following tips will help you optimize your Facebook Ads design to increase conversions and build a solid brand image. 

1. Correct Facebook Ad Sizes 

Once you’ve begun designing your ad, double-check that your images or videos are the proper size and aspect ratio. Images and videos not correctly formatted are distorted, grainy, or difficult to see.

You can fit in all the necessary information with the proper aspect ratio while avoiding wasted space or awkward margins.  The aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and height of a rectangle or other two-dimensional shape. It will make the design more effective and easier to read. It will also keep your audience focused on what they should be paying attention to. The result? A highly professional Facebook ad design that conveys the idea effortlessly.

Keeping track of all the aspect ratios and image sizes is a hassle. Don’t worry; we’ve got your back! Simply bookmark our guide to Facebook ads design size, so you’ll never have to worry about design sizes again!

2. Design Considering the Ads Placement

The placement of your Facebook ads is just as important as the format itself. Ad placement determines the amount of space you have, and designing without ad specs in mind can be disastrous.

You must first understand your options to select the best Facebook ad design placement for your goals. Here is a list of some of the most common ad placements, as well as tips on how to use them effectively:

• Desktop News Feed: Excellent for increasing engagement and generating sales and leads. Longer copy and link descriptions support this kind of format.
• Mobile Newsfeed: Excellent for interaction and discovery. However, the copy here must be concise because it must be shorter.
• Stories: Facebook stories require creative input that is unique, full-screen, and mobile-friendly. Story videos are limited to 15 seconds in length. With over 500 million users watching Facebook stories daily, the realm of Facebook stories for marketing is brimming with potential!

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3. Personalize Your Facebook Ads To Target Specific Audiences

For starters, try to tune your Facebook ad design to match your audience’s vibe. To get to know your audience better, you can use an ad tracking tool such as Voluum that gives you a detailed insight into visitors and conversions.

If you’re targeting youngsters, incorporate bright, catchy colors and focus more on Facebook Stories, which, in this case, are quite popular with the target market.

Make sure your ad message always matches the interests of the audience you’re trying to target. You can also use targeting options to show your ad only in front of people who have shown interest in your niche. If you’re trying to sell products or service that caters specifically to men over 40, then don’t waste money exhibiting them to women between 18 and 25 who are interested in beauty & fashion.  Otherwise, all your hard work is likely to go to waste.

4. Emphasize the Value of Your Offer (Value Proposition)

According to Facebook, mobile users spend an average of 1.7 seconds browsing an individual post. You may think that’s next to nothing, right? However, we’re here to tell you that with the right strategy, even a second is more than enough! What matters is how well you can integrate your value proposition into the design.

When creating your ads, remember that people will only give you a few seconds to impress them. Use that time wisely by emphasizing your value proposition while keeping your clear and actionable call to action. Use a strong headline that has a clear benefit and clearly describes what they will find on their website.

5. Use High-Quality Images and GIFs

According to Facebook, “shorter videos get more complete views.” After all, a fifteen-second video ad is more likely to be seen to completion rather than a minute-long video. This is where high-quality images and GIFs enter the picture. 

See, GIFs are visually appealing. They distinguish themselves from images and do not require the same effort as video, carousel, and lead ads. Similarly, high-quality images pull in all of the benefits associated with GIFs, except that these are comparatively easier to make. 

Last but not least, pre-existing video assets can be repurposed to create eye-catching GIFs and images to boost consumer ad engagement!

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6. Make Your CTA Button Stand Out

Your call to action (CTA) buttons are the lifeline of your online business. They should elicit a sense of urgency and stand out on your page. Each CTA, in essence, asks your visitors to do something about the product or service they like.

Your CTA should stand out from the rest of your content in terms of design. It should be simple to identify and understand; you want visitors to understand what it represents and where it is on your page.

You also want it to be visually appealing. You don’t want visitors clicking away because they don’t like the look of it. This can be achieved by using complementary and contrasting colors and fonts that match your brand identity.

7. Use Simple Text

To put it into simple terms, flowery, over-the-top language will muddle your message. It’s time to cut the jargon and get straight to the point.

Your top priority should be to create a Facebook ad with minimalistic graphic design and language. This way, anyone with a decent understanding of the language can understand. When someone sees your advertisement, they should immediately recognize the following:

• What you’re offering
• How it’ll help them
• What is the next step?

8. Choose a Template that Suits the Objective of Your Ad 

Before you dive into the nitty-gritty of how an ad will look, you must first decide which ad format you will use. Each design caters to different audiences and goals, so you’ll have to choose wisely!

Currently, Facebook has eight main ad formats. Some of the most popular include:

• Photo: The most basic format, compromising a single image with a short header for the copy. Using this approach, you’d be best suited to concentrate your efforts on telling a compelling visual story with a single image.
• Video: Videos formats are quite similar to the aforementioned image format- the key (and only) difference being that, in this case, an entire video is being showcased, giving you more time to showcase your brand.
• Stories: Stories live outside the feed and immerse viewers in a full-screen experience. Capture their undivided attention by using all of the room you can to make an impression.
• Messenger: Facebook delivers these advertisements to your customers via the Facebook messenger app. In our opinion, with Messenger, your best bet is to utilize short sentences and images with a single focus to attract your customers.

Consider how each ad format can be used to maximize the impact of your ads before you begin the design process. For example, if you want to demonstrate how your product works, a video or story ad may allow you to do so. Similarly, you could potentially use Stories to showcase real estate—a popular strategy nowadays!

Explore Banner Ads Templates

9. Make Sure Your Ads Are Mobile Optimized

As of January 2022, Statista reported that nearly 98.5% of users accessed their Facebook accounts from mobile devices. Compare this to a disparaging 1.5% for laptops or desktop computers, and you can see why optimizing your ads for mobile is such a make or break in most marketing strategies. Your Facebook ad design strategy needs to be mobile-first to yield the best returns.

Making your videos and images vertical, so they work better on phones is one of the simplest ways to think mobile-first. Moreover, it’s also best to keep the text to a minimum to allow the videos to speak for themselves.

10. Test, Test, And Test Again!

Use split testing to find the right Facebook ad design. Predicting public response to a specific advertisement always entails a certain degree of risk. After all, you can never correctly gauge the entire audience’s reaction to a particular ad.

With split testing, advertisers can determine which version of an ad performs best. With this information, they can learn and optimize ads for optimality. A/B testing, which is available in Facebook’s Ads Manager, can be used to conduct the split testing.

A/B testing on Facebook

A/B testing is a marketing strategy that compares the effectiveness of two different versions of a website, advertisement, email, popup, or landing page.

Testing, when done consistently, can significantly improve your results. It’s easier to make decisions and create more effective marketing strategies if you know what works and what doesn’t, with evidence to back it up.

Key Takeaways

The success of an ad campaign is determined by approaching and targeting the appropriate audience base, content, creative visuals, and other pertinent factors. All of these lie on Desygner’s playing field. 

Thus, to remain updated with the latest trends in ad designs, follow Desygner on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube today!

The post 10 Facebook Ad Design Tips That’ll Boost Your Ad Conversion appeared first on Desygner.

Things now operate differently. Nowadays, a wide range of individuals—from top management to external teams—can influence what your brand is and isn’t.

There are still principles worth following, but how you protect your brand has to change. Here at Desygner, we call this Embracing Modern Brand Governance.

In this article, we will explore how traditional brand compliance has become less effective and what steps you can take to meet the challenges of today’s modern world using 5 guiding principles in managing your brand.

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What is Brand Governance?

Brand governance refers to all the actions an organization takes to manage how its brand is presented and used in internal and external communications. This includes the brand’s visual identity, tone of voice, messaging, and other assets an organization uses to communicate about itself.

The goal is to build trust and loyalty in the brand by ensuring consistent messaging and customer experience across all touchpoints.

Brand Governance: The Traditional View

The conventional “iron fist” approach to brand management calls for a brand manager to monitor the brand identity, establishing and enforcing brand guidelines across every division and team.

Anytime a brand element — like a logo, color scheme, or brand materials — appeared somewhere, the brand marketing team would have ensured all brand assets complied with the brand guidelines.

The truth is that the old brand management model wasn’t as successful as most companies initially believed. It didn’t stop “off-brand” advertising and left brand managers agitated and exhausted.

In other cases, staff members purposefully produced content that reflected their perception of the brand rather than the actual one because they didn’t clearly understand the brand guidelines.

According to a recent poll, 67% of employees make up for being cut off from their brand team when they develop their own brand rules and utilize those guidelines to govern message, design, and asset usage.

Modern Brand Governance

In this approach, brand consistency is a responsibility that extends beyond the brand manager.

Because every team member and employee becomes a brand ambassador that cares and actively tries to preserve the brand identity, the brand manager becomes more of a facilitator than an authority figure, enabling team members to be creative and innovative while maintaining the brand identity.

One of the good things about embracing modern brand governance is that it allows you to tap into the benefits of employee-generated content (EGC).

It creates an innovative culture where everyone is encouraged to develop new ideas for the brand. This is one of the many ways to strengthen your brand. Your employees are also more engaged in the process, which can help with employee retention.

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5 Management Principles for Adopting Modern Brand Governance 

Implementing employee-driven brand governance doesn’t mean you’ll hand over the reins to your employees. Changing your brand management strategy to maintain a balance between trust and control will require a new approach.

Here are five easy-to-apply principles you can start using today:

1. Set basic guidelines and make them known to everyone 

If your employees aren’t aware of the ideal brand’s aesthetic and tone, they won’t be able to assist you in creating a strong one.

Therefore, it only makes sense to begin by creating digital brand guidelines where all your branding elements (logo, color palette, typography, graphics, and images) are in one place.

Create a simple, user-friendly interface where your employees can have a look and feel of what your brand looks like. In this way, you’re introducing your brand’s guidelines to all of your organization’s employees in a more effective way.

Even if you already use something like a design blueprint or brand management tool, keep in mind that these are the frameworks that your entire organization will use to interpret your brand identity.

As such, they need to be appropriately managed and accessible. Make the brand guidelines accessible to everyone in your organization, and they’ll better understand what your brand should be like.

2. Don’t be a ‘brand police’; be a ‘brand custodian’ instead

Learn to select a few individuals to act as brand custodians. Members of your organization should be able to consult with brand custodians.

By doing this, you’ll prevent a lot of brand assets from being misused and encourage other employees to seek your advice on how to use them effectively.

One more thing you should do is understand that not every part of your branding image has to be sacred and “untouchable.” Be free to allow your staff to express their creativity with the not-so-sacred aspect of your branding image.

This would encourage collaborative thinking much more than group thinking. Everyone is challenged to put in their uniqueness to make the brand better.

3. Define limits 

While every company employee represents your brand, not everyone has the authority or should make decisions about what constitutes your brand.

As much as you want to be inclusive, certain parts of your brand identity must remain constant. Decide what makes up your essential brand image and consider other aspects as flexible or optional.

Setting restrictions on how much you can change and how far you can go will help you avoid getting carried away with the creative process and keep your brand identity intact.

4. Keep communication channels constantly open

Brands change over time, and teams must stay on top of these developments and apply them to their work.

Communicating these changes with your staff doesn’t have to be challenging. It might be as easy as selecting the central communication hub for important company news and updates.

Also, make sure that you’re not the only one talking. Most employees want to share their insights and feel acknowledged and listened to. Communication is a two-way street; create opportunities for them to respond to you.

Practice active listening. Take important notes and actively address concerns.

5. Organize training from time to time

The more your employees know about branding in general and your brand in particular, the more likely they will be able to develop initiatives that support your brand.

Make brand training a must for all employees regardless of their level in the company. The more they understand the fundamentals of your brand strategy, the more they will be able to contribute to its development.

From time to time, hold workshops that cover various topics such as how to use brand guidelines and tailor the training so it is relevant for their particular roles. Document all the training. It can serve as a reference point for staff struggling with brand identity.

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How Desygner Supports Brand Governance

Desygner enables non-designers in your team to independently produce and distribute graphic design collateral that is consistently on-brand. Your creative assets can be cohesive, and marketing will be twice as fast. Here’s how;

• Faster Marketing Time: 

The Desygner brand guidelines enforcer can improve your marketing time and make it ten times faster. The brand guideline enforcer significantly reduces the review and approval of creative and digital assets. Desygner minimizes the back and forth involved with designing non-cohesive items. Since you’ve already stated the guidelines, the creative director doesn’t have to undergo a rigorous onboarding process for new team members.

• Increase Brand Advocates:

 Modern brand governance implies that all members of a brand do brand advocacy. This is easier with Desygner. Employees who may not be in the marketing team can also be brand advocates since they can quickly assess brand assets without going through the hierarchical and stressful process of asking marketing team members. Employee-generated content (EGC) takes center stage, too, as all employees can be involved in brand advocacy.

• Regulate how users interact with work files: 

You can stop users from sending, printing, and downloading designs created using templates. Set limits using simple checkboxes and predefined criteria.

There is no need to employ a complex system or write code to determine what can be modified. You can select precisely what can be changed or added and from which sources, such as free stock photos, corporate assets, individual assets, social media pages, and individual profiles.

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Final Words

The most significant course of action if you want your brand to be the best it can be isn’t to maintain complete control over it, even though it can feel safer and more secure.

You must take a step back and allow staff members more authority over the brand-building process in every department of your company.

The post Brand Governance: 5 Principles To Keep Your Brand Under Control appeared first on Desygner.

Rather than being content that you repurpose, share, or curate from another source or organization, it’s content that you create. In particular, when it comes to social media, the content you share can be a mix of both original and curated material.

Generally speaking, content has different, distinct levels of originality. Blog posts, for example, are often inspired by similar blog posts. Wondering why? It’s because they generally offer a viewpoint on another idea or event. Content-based on original research or thought leadership has a higher level of value. 

Rather than simply repackaging someone else’s ideas in a different wrapping, it showcases unique and high-quality information. The greater the value delivered by the content, the higher swaying potential it’ll encapsulate and thus be promoted more widely, thereby increasing your brand’s prominence.

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Why You Should Focus on Creating Original Content

Data, data, and more data. Information overload is escalating rapidly. At such a time, more and more people are trying to discern between what is true and what is false, what is original, and what is not.

It’s no surprise that original content has become a non-negotiable component of an effective digital marketing campaign in today’s digitally-charged world. 

Not only does original content have a higher chance of moving your consumers, but at the same time, it also improves your search engine rankings and online visibility.

You’ll effectively kill two birds with one stone: improving your brand reputation and establishing your brand as a reliable source of information in your field.

When push comes to shove, your audience will always keep an eye out for genuine effort and creativity. When you provide original content relevant to your audience’s interests, they take notice. Interestingly, 78% of consumers will believe that you’re interested in building a good relationship with them when they see personalized content compared to generic, run-of-the-mill information.

Benefits Of Original Content To Your Business

See, originality is one of the bases of credibility. After all, original content is essential because it makes you appear credible online. For instance, consider an out-of-date website with a slew of random keywords littered throughout the home page.

On the other side of the coin, however, imagine a sleek, easy-to-navigate website that provides valuable information that genuinely sounds like an actual human wrote it. Which one are you more likely to believe?

If you notice the difference between two such sites, it’s only a matter of time before your audience can do the same. Below are a few other reasons why you need great content on your website and social media today.

Credibility Translates To Trust

With the right content strategy, you’re bound to see an increased inflow of customers! Customers want to work with – or hire someone – who knows their industry’s ups and downs and all the underlying intricacies. When your content answers their questions online, you’ll automatically become the go-to person for resolving their problems.

Earn More Backlinks

As your content gains traction online, other blogs will likely begin to link to it when someone links to you as a source, and search engines such as Google factor it into your overall reputation for dependability. This way, you will be able to earn quality backlinks for your content and help it rank better. Do you see what we’re getting at?

If you continue to create high-quality, unique content, you may be able to gain some highly valuable backlinks from other authoritative websites, allowing you to reach the all-mighty, coveted first page of search results.

You Can Get Social Media Shares

When people share your original content on social media, it increases your online visibility. With SEO-favoring content, social sharing, and other components such as semantic keywords, you can’t go wrong with creating shareable content.

Do you want to save time and money by clicking “share” on cool blogs, or do you want to invest and be the owner of the next shareable post? If you ask us, we’d advise the latter – feel the rush of seeing your content being shared and making waves online.

More Website Traffic

Increased exposure naturally means that more and more people will see your brand where ever they go—on social media, in search results, in backlinks, and in other places. Every time a user is presented with a link to your website, the likelihood that they will visit it increases!

More Shares and Comments

Shares are frequently sparked by interesting and excellent content. If your content is widely shared, you will begin to receive more comments from new people. This allows you to meet and interact with more people. Google’s current algorithms also value social media shares, making shareable content a win-win situation for both parties.

Focus on the areas that make your business grow while we handle everything else

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How to Create Truly Effective Original Content

Creating great original content that gets you noticed takes time and effort. Skill, research, and a solid understanding of what your target audience is looking for, all factor into creating meaningful original content.

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you develop your ongoing content strategy.

Audience’s Needs

Talented content creators don’t get all their brilliant ideas out of nowhere: they spend time getting to know their audience. They become acquainted with the issues, concerns, and topics important to them and then provide content that addresses those concerns from a position of authority and expertise.

Therefore, make an effort to meet your buyer personas where they are. Look for ideas for new content on forums and platforms where they hang out. You can also directly ask your audience what they want to see from you. Once you know what they want from you, you can post relevant blog or social media content on different platforms such as Facebook and use a Facebook comment moderation tool to reply to comments to keep your audience engaged.

Investigate The Data

Whether you’re brand new to content creation or simply looking for a way to spruce up an existing blog or content channel, it pays to conduct research and data collection.

If you’re already publishing original content, run the numbers. 

What’s working and what isn’t? How has your audience reacted to previous attempts to shake things up? Asking yourself question’s like these is what will propel your brand forward.

Let Your Experience Speak For Itself

With countless pieces of new content appearing every day, there isn’t much out there that hasn’t been discussed in some capacity before. Almost every subject has been approached from nearly every possible angle. But there is one thing you can bring to the table that no one else can: your distinct perspective and experience.

To that end, incorporating personal stories or lessons learned into your content allows you to present important information from a unique perspective.

Fortify Your Content with Visuals

Your content is unique because of the words you use or how you express them. Videos, images, and audio clips are all important parts of your content.

This is where Desygner comes into play, with its top-of-the-line proprietary content creation tools, allowing you to utilize your digital assets as you choose fit.

Need an image? Or perhaps a video? Desygner’s got you covered. With a brand portal that’s easily accessible even from your smartphone, you’ll never miss a beat with your assets again!

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Key Takeaways

Original content can move even the hardest heart amongst your audience. To this end, it’s a smart strategy to incorporate Desygner into your content creation strategy. After all, at the end of the day, the most efficient way of connecting with clients is through different graphics.

The post What Is Original Content and How To Use It In Your Business appeared first on Desygner.

As attention spans diminish and online audiences are bombarded with more and more content, video has emerged as one of the most effective ways to engage audiences.

Creating and executing a video marketing strategy can prove to be surprisingly challenging. Moreover, with hundreds of thousands of hours of video content uploaded daily, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the competition. 

We have rounded up seven elements shared by some of the most successful video marketing strategies. Without further delay, let’s jump right in:

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1. Clear Goals

Having a clear vision of what you want to achieve with specific marketing endeavors is critical to the success of any strategy.

Having a clear-cut set of goals will allow you to build and execute a focused video marketing strategy. You will know what “results” look like and will avoid chasing vanity metrics. 

In other words, having a clear set of goals is the only way to later be in a position to measure the success of your video marketing efforts. 

So what do video marketing goals look like? Your goal should be “SMART.”

• Specific: Your goals should not be vague. Instead of thinking, “I need to generate more leads,” think, “I need to generate 50 additional leads with my video marketing strategy.”
• Measurable: What good is setting a goal if it doesn’t allow you to measure success? Most specific goals are automatically also measurable. 
• Achievable: Setting realistic goals will ensure your team’s morale remains high and your video marketing strategy doesn’t fade over time.
• Relevant: Your video marketing goals should be relevant to a particular stage of the buyer’s journey. 
• Time-Bound: Setting deadlines for achieving goals ensures there isn’t a dull moment in executing your video marketing strategy. It also keeps everyone involved in the project accountable.

Here’s an example of a video marketing goal: “To produce 50 additional leads with video marketing in the next 90 days.” Besides deciding on a goal, you must take another important step before beginning to craft a strategy.

2. In-Depth Understanding Of Target Audience

This part is crucial to the success of any video marketing strategy. 

A team that fully understands their target audience with their videos supports every successful video marketing strategy.

Businesses should produce content that communicates a clear message to their audience, which helps them build long-lasting customer relationships that will increase their conversion and retention rates.

Without knowing your target audience, creating and publishing any content is like shooting in the dark. There is very little chance of hitting the target market and, consequently, very little to achieve your SMART goals.

If you have been successfully using other marketing strategies for your business, then there is a good chance that you have a fair understanding of your target audience. 

However, this isn’t always the case.

Many businesses target different audiences, and video may not be suited for all of them. That’s why, even if you know your target audience, reconsider your audience for your video marketing endeavors. 

You can find out by creating a buyer persona if you don’t know your audience.

Define a buyer persona as a semi-fictional representation of your ideal buyer. It outlines their demographic details, their problems, the solutions that they have tried, and any other information that may be relevant to the product or service that you are offering. 

In other words, buyer personas are like imaginary friends of your business. 

You can source all of the required information by analyzing your existing customers. Whatever pieces are missing, you can make educated guesses to fill them initially. As you execute your strategy, the data you collect will help you make your buyer personas more and more accurate over time. 

With buyer personas, it is essential to remember that creating them is not a one-time task. The more accurate your buyer personas are, the better your decisions and strategies will affect. 

A fundamental, data-backed understanding of your ideal buyer will help your business increase sales.

Or, in the case of video marketing, it will generate more interest and engagement for your video content.

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3. An Editorial Calendar

Like most other marketing strategies, achieving success with video marketing demands consistency. You will need a plan to conceptualize, plan, script, shoot, edit, and post videos consistently.

While making high-quality videos has become easier, executing a video marketing strategy is still a lot of work. 

An editorial calendar will ensure all the gears of your video marketing machine keep turning, and it keeps churning out high-quality videos to feed your strategy. 

As you continue to produce videos on a schedule, the production process will become more familiar and, consequently, easier and quicker. This will give you room to conduct creative experiments, improve the quality of your production, and produce better videos.

Moreover, following an editorial calendar makes it much easier to grab moment marketing opportunities.

4. Engaging Stories

30,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s just one platform. The combined amount of video content floating on the web is beyond comprehension.

Yet, some video marketing strategies stand out and achieve success. 

What are they doing differently? Well, in most cases, they aren’t focused on selling. 

Remember, your audience does not consume video content with the expectation of a sales pitch. They seek entertainment. If you create a video that focuses on selling, there’s a good chance they’ll get lost in the noise.

Instead, it is important to view your strategy through an audience-centric lens and delight them with engaging storytelling. 

Storytelling makes it easier for you to show how your product/service solves your audience’s problem and how it makes their lives easier. Make your stories about the specific issues and questions your potential customers face in different stages of your buyer’s journey. Step into their shoes. Help them see you’re the solution, and be relatable. 

This Aldi testimonial video uses storytelling with incredible effectiveness:

It’s a simple idea, but it speaks right to their customer. The same can be done with explainer videos, product demos, creative expert interviews, how-to videos, and almost every other video type.

The best part is that you don’t have to stick to a single story. You can tell a different but equally relatable story every time you launch a new campaign.

                      Source

5. Distribution Strategy

Knowing your target audience will enable you to figure out which platforms you should be targeting with your videos. However, targeting multiple platforms becomes a little more complex with videos. 

This is because each platform is different, not just in its audience’s commannd but in the technical demands of videos. The resolution, size, time limits, and dimensions vary across different platforms. Even now, you can place a CTA depending on the platform. 

On some platforms like YouTube and Instagram, there are multiple types of video formats that you can target, but they have different technical specifications. 

The point here is that simply having a distribution strategy isn’t enough. It would be best if you weaved your distribution strategy into your entire pre-production and production processes.

For instance, knowing about all the platforms and video formats intended for a specific video will enable your editors to create different versions as a part of the standard editing process.

Small snippets can be shot during the shooting stage to introduce shorter versions of longer videos suited for TikTok and Instagram Reels. Similarly, on YouTube, your video may ask your viewers to “subscribe,” whereas, on Instagram, you may want to tell them to “follow” you. 

Your main content can still be largely repurposed across different OTT platforms. 

A sound distribution strategy will enable you to produce customized videos for different platforms. These will delight and engage across platforms, but in a way that matches audience expectations.

6. Data-Backed Decisions

Almost every successful video marketing strategy is built on data-backed decisions. Yet, failing to measure the impact of marketing videos is one of the most common mistakes brands make. 

It is understandable why. Most of us have a very vague definition of success. However, you can easily define success if you have worked on creating your SMART goals. In turn, you can also determine the metrics that let you accurately measure your success.

For instance, if your goal is to generate more leads, the click-through rate may be a good metric. On the other hand, the number of views is an example of a “vanity metric.” Sure, it matters, but it doesn’t communicate your video’s success as a lead generation tool.

What metric is important to you will depend entirely on the goal you are chasing. In a different scenario, the number of views may not be considered a vanity metric. 

It is also important to remember not to get too fixated on the goal-relevant metrics. Remember, you can use data to improve your strategy’s effectiveness in various ways. You can even use data from older campaigns to guide decisions for newer ones. 

To do this, you must collect and routinely analyze the wealth of data videos can collect. Depending on the choice of platform, video marketers can see how their audience engages with their videos. 

This information can also be used to create more detailed and more accurate buyer personas. 

7. Clear Branding

Your business will be expending significant resources and time to create and execute a video marketing strategy. Naturally, you will want your audience to know that the video comes from your brand. Even if they don’t click on the CTA link (or take any other desired action) and watch the video, you want your brand to get noticed.

The only way to achieve this is with consistent branding on your videos. This is a bit of a grey area. 

On the one hand, you have to maintain consistency, but on the other, you may have to customize your branding elements for different platforms and video format types.

An effective way to overcome this problem is to look beyond logos and banners when you think of branding. For instance, you can use a consistent intro or outro as your branding element.

Alternatively, you can always use traditional branding elements and customize them for use on different platforms. There’s a lot of scope for getting creative there as well. You can create customized thumbnails. You can reuse some elements you may have used for your Instagram account profile picture or YouTube channel banner image.

Here’s a look at how Slack maintains consistent branding across videos in specific playlists:

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Having clear and consistent branding on your videos will help brand recognition and recall. However, a relatively little-known effect of branding is creating a sense of community among the viewers. This effect will become apparent with time if you remain consistent with your branding and publishing schedule.

Bonus Tip: Secure Video Marketing Platform

Video marketing requires strong security, and to do so, you can keep domain restrictions,  schedule video delivery, and secure your video URL with an SSL certificate. You need to purchase an SSL certificate to secure the site URL and restrict attackers from altering the content.

Sometimes, it may happen that sensitive content is made for a specific audience, and if hackers access them, they can modify it and harm it. To avoid such a situation, a video marketer can choose any type of SSL certificate that suits the video platform. Moreover, SSL providers can help you to choose the type of SSL certificate.

Conclusion

There you have it, seven elements that you will find in almost every successful video marketing strategy. If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed a pattern. Most of the elements mentioned in this list are not one-time tasks. 

There are ongoing aspects of creating and executing a video marketing strategy. Incorporating these elements in your video marketing strategy will help you optimize it continuously. This, in turn, will help you produce better, more relevant, and more engaging videos and produce the desired results.

Author’s Bio

Piyush Shah is an affiliate marketer and has helped grow multiple businesses from nothing to making insane business figures. He is currently working as Head of SEO at Dukaan – an All-in-one eCommerce platform.

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These days, growing your business past the plateau of a small, local business requires a solid digital marketing strategy that will help you make an impact.

However, to see the desired results, you must consider applying various digital marketing strategies that can help your small business stand out in your industry.

So, in this article, we’ll walk you through 8 digital marketing strategies for small business owners that you must implement to get your growth out of a rut.

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The Importance of Digital Marketing to Small Business Owners

Digital marketing has become an essential tool for reaching customers and increasing sales. But these are not the only two benefits of implementing various digital marketing strategies as a small business. Here are a few more: 

1. It Boosts Brand Awareness

One of the best ways for small businesses to build brand awareness is to implement various digital marketing strategies, such as social media or email marketing.

This way, businesses can inform potential customers of the products or services, raise brand awareness, and build trust by showing off their expertise in the industry.

2. It Helps You Reach New Customers

Another benefit of digital marketing is that it allows you to reach new customers who may not have heard of your company.

It’s a good way for small businesses that don’t have brick-and-mortar locations — such as restaurants, cafes, or retail shops — to connect with potential customers.

3. It Helps You Engage With Existing Customers

Digital marketing is an excellent way for you to keep your existing customers engaged. It can be as simple as sending them an email with a special offer or an update on new products.

When customers feel like they’re being heard and taken care of, they’re more likely to stay loyal and continue purchasing from you over time.

Reach customers beyond the limits of your storefronts

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8 Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners 

Now that you’re fully aware of the importance of digital marketing, it’s time to discover some of the most effective digital marketing strategies for small business owners.

1. Content Marketing 

Digital content is a powerful tool to influence your audience. An effective content marketing strategy should be divided into pillars based on where your customers are in their buyer’s journey. This way, you’ll be able to inform, educate, and guide them towards eventually converting into customers. 

You can then repurpose content across various marketing touchpoints, for example, converting your blog posts into YouTube videos and Instagram captions. 

Another great content strategy is motivating your existing customers or fans to create user-generated content – because what’s a better way to promote your brand than when your happy customers promote it for you by posting about it on social media?

2. Influencer Marketing 

Influencer marketing is a relatively new area of digital marketing that’s gaining in popularity and importance. In short, it’s a digital marketing strategy that uses social media influencers to promote your products or brand. 

It’s similar to affiliate marketing, but instead of using bloggers or other writers to promote your products, you use individuals with a large social media following — sometimes millions — to do the same thing. The influencers are paid for their posts or reviews, and this compensation can take the form of cash or free products. Make sure that the post design matches the style so it stays on brand.

For small businesses, it’s a highly effective way to get new eyeballs on their products and gain recognition fast.

3. Email Marketing 

Even though many people think email is an obsolete communication tool, email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach your prospects and convert them into customers regardless of whether you run an online coaching business or a large eCommerce store. It’s also one of the most cost-effective ways to generate sales.

Emailing your audience lets you reach customers directly, and it’s a great way to engage with them on a personal level – but don’t forget to design an email signature that shows off your professionalism and personality!

But there’s more to it than just sending out mass emails. You should use email as part of a larger email marketing strategy — one that includes automation, segmentation, and testing.

4. Online Event Marketing 

Online event marketing is an excellent way to build your brand, generate leads and create new business opportunities.

You can raise more awareness about your products or services by creating an automated webinar, launching a podcast, or hosting live events on your social media platforms.

It’s also a great way to serve your audience by discussing a topic important to them or educating them on how to solve a problem they’re facing.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Since half of the world’s population is now using Google as their primary search engine, SEO has become a must-have digital marketing strategy for any business.

Well-implemented SEO strategies will help you get discovered by your target customers who are already searching for what you’re selling on Google. 

However, SEO is a long-term game. Many techniques, such as link building and using targeted keywords in your content, can take months to show results. Having a strong strategy from the start is important, and working with an SEO and link-building consulting agency can help.

But a long-term game is better than no game at all! And it’s easy to see that if you’re not putting any effort into optimizing your SEO strategy, you’re missing out on thousands of potential customers!

6. Pay-per-Click (PPC) Marketing 

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the most popular and effective digital marketing strategies for small businesses. PPC ads are placed on search engines, social media sites, and other websites participating in the advertising network.

PPC ads are highly targeted, meaning you pay only for people who click on your ad. This type of marketing can be expensive if you don’t have a large budget and don’t know how to optimize your PPC campaigns. But it’s also one of the best ways to raise brand awareness and increase sales quickly.

7. Location-based Marketing 

If you advertise, you might as well make it as targeted as possible. That’s the thinking behind location-based marketing, which means using GPS or other tracking technology to send ads only to people who have recently visited your store or website.

The ads are based on the products your customer looked at while in the store or the products they added to their shopping cart when browsing your website.

Location-based marketing is a great way to get more bang for your buck out of advertising because it allows you to target people who have already shown an interest in your brand or products.

8. Social Media Marketing 

Social media marketing is currently one of the most effective digital marketing strategies for small businesses. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer business owners countless opportunities to reach broader audiences at no cost. 

The key is knowing which social media platforms are most likely to reach your target audience and using those platforms skillfully to drive organic traffic to your accounts and website. 

With that said, if you want to be successful with your social media marketing efforts, you need to learn how to use each social media platform effectively – and that means paying attention to different social media image sizes, algorithm requirements, and best practices.

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Bonus Tip: Use a Software

One of the main issues when using various digital marketing strategies as a small business is the money and time needed to implement them. In that scenario, using software like Desygner can be the optimal solution to the limited marketing budget and time. 

Desygner is a one-stop-shop platform for managing and creating content, as well as protecting your brand assets and identity. With Desygner’s flexible subscription plan, you’ll be able to create any kind of design without graphic design skills and keep your brand, marketing, and content assets in one place. 

In addition, you’ll have access to the Guest User feature, which allows you to invite guests to collaborate on your brand assets and marketing materials. Your guests can be influencers you’re paying to promote your brand, occasional content writers, or podcast guests. 

So, instead of spending hours designing your marketing materials and storing them on multiple platforms, you’ll save time and money on production costs.

This, in turn, will help you market and grow your business. And as your business and content creation demand grows way past your current plateau, you’ll be able easily to upgrade to Desygner’s Enterprise Solution to cover those rising needs.

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Wrap Up

Hopefully, by now, you have a pretty good idea of what you need to be doing to market your business effectively. The great thing about digital marketing is that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach.

All businesses are different, and they need marketing strategies that are tailored specifically to them. So, don’t be afraid to experiment with different strategies! After all, that’s the best way to find out what works for you.

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Your brand image can affect your business in several ways. You’ll need to read on if you have been searching to uncover the best way to create a strong brand image for your business.

This article explores how much impact rebranding can make in your business.

Creating a strong brand image can be a tedious process that demands thorough planning and proper execution. You may have to consider rebranding your business to create a strong brand. 

Whether you own a big or middle-size brand, your brand image is your business’s most valuable asset, and you should deliberately cater to it to guarantee the growth of your business. 

Customers love to stay loyal to brands that meet their needs and connect with their values. Forty-six percent of consumers say they prefer to pay more to buy from brands they can trust. 

Hence, rebranding can have a tremendous impact on your business. However, you must be sure your brand needs a revamp before you proceed. If the rebranding strategy is poorly executed, consumers may not connect with the new brand.

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What is Rebranding?

Rebranding is a marketing strategy involving an existing company changing or modifying its brand image or some aspect of its brand to build a new identity. It includes reshaping how a brand is perceived by its partners and customers. 

Some elements of a brand’s image include logo, market, mission, customers, target audience, vision, and name.

Most companies rebrand their business to enable them to attract new customers, make improvements, and compete effectively with competitors. It seeks to paint a new picture of a brand to its target audience and shareholders. 

However, the approach to rebranding is limitless. A company can rebrand its business to meet its new goals and objectives in different ways.

When Should You Consider Rebranding? 

1. When you want to connect with a new audience

This can be considered a primary motive for most brands. Most businesses choose to rebrand their business to connect with a new audience.

Rebranding helps businesses to pull the attention of a new or profitable audience. It enables you to design your brand to connect with potential customers through products that suit the needs of your target customers and keep them loyal to your brand.

2. When you want to attract top talent

Quality talents love to work with great companies. You need quality talents to make good employees.

When you notice it’s difficult or impossible for your company to find qualified candidates for your job openings, it indicates that your company needs revamping.

Rebranding lets you reshape your brand and attract better talent for optimum productivity, growth, and an excellent working culture.

3. When you want to stand out from competitors

Every business likes to stand out from its competitors. 

Rebranding your business can help you figure out how to use your competitive advantage to stand out from other similar brands. 

Your business must uncover what makes your brand superior to other competing brands.

A great way to stand out from competitors is to improve brand recognition. Colors can affect how your brand is perceived. Adopting a signature color can boost brand recognition by 80 percent.

4. When your business model or strategy has changed

Another indication of a need to rebrand your company is a change in your business strategy.

As your brand expands, your business strategy changes, and rebranding becomes necessary to retain growth and progress.

It can start by changing some fundamental elements in your business to suit your new business strategy.

5. When you’ve outgrown your brand

Sometimes, people outgrow their brands, and it becomes necessary to consider rebranding. You outgrow your brand when you discover that your brand appears too small for your new objective. 

You can run a brand overhaul to reshape your business to suit your new mission and vision instead of leaving the brand.

When rebranding to adjust for growth, you mustn’t put aside all your brand elements. You can eliminate your brand’s possible weaknesses while you maintain the strengths as you move forward.

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Reasons Why a Brand Should Not Consider a Rebrand 

Here are some reasons that shouldn’t warrant you rebranding your business. 

1. Crisis management 

A brand faced with business crises may consider rebranding its business to help solve its problems. It may not effectively help fix a business crisis. Instead, it can backfire and add to the existing issues. 

Your business can bounce back from a crisis by developing a crisis management plan and assuring customers of better services in the future.

2. New or young business

A lot of things get better with time, including brands. New brands take time to grow and develop, and rebranding may not give you the speedy growth you imagine. 

Your brand should be up to 3 years before you consider rebranding. The process can be expensive and time-consuming. Having a different approach to marketing or starting a new campaign can help.

3. Personal ego

Avoid rebranding your business to suit your ego. It might be initially fulfilling but can have negative consequences. 

Rebranding to suit your ego leaves your company with little to offer your customers and stakeholders. Ensure you have a valid business reason and not solely for personal motives.

4. Loss of older customer’s trust

Every brand highly values a loyal customer base. Older customers like to buy from brands they trust and are comfortable with.

When you have customers consistently purchasing your products and services, you may like to skip rebranding to retain their loyalty and trust in your brand. 

It’s important to stay true to your existing brand to avoid confusing your customers, 

Types of Rebranding

There are different types of rebranding for various purposes. Brands can choose to employ the kind of rebranding that suits their business. 

Rebranding can be done differently -from a simple logo change to an overhaul of a company’s mission, brand image, and advertising strategy.

Some of the most common types of rebranding include:

1. Brand Refresh

This type of branding entails changing minor aspects of your brand. Nonetheless, a brand refresh can have a significant impact on your brand. 

It involves changing minor aspects of your brand, like your company’s logo design when it gets outdated, changing your company’s mission focus and objective, or selecting a new tagline. 

The modification of Apple’s logo is an exciting example of a brand refresh.

2. Partial Rebranding

Partial rebranding involves changing or modifying some aspects of your brand while maintaining other elements. 

A typeface redesign is classified as a partial rebranding. Other components are maintained as they were before the rebrand.

The partial rebrand is suitable for well-established businesses to update their services or identity.

3. Brand Overhaul

A brand overhaul will affect every aspect of the brand: a new logo, a new color palette, a new brand strategy, new visual elements, new marketing materials, and, in some cases, a new name. This is the most significant rebranding regarding investment and overall risk and reward.

It is an intense type of rebranding and should be done when necessary. This is the most effective and significant type of rebranding in terms of risk, reward, and other factors.

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A Step By Step Guide to Rebranding

Step #1: Define the reason for rebranding 

What is your goal for rebranding? What do you seek to achieve?

Before embarking on a rebranding process, define the significant reason for rebranding. You can consider rebranding as starting a new business with a well-written vision, goal, values, and objectives. It is vital to clearly define your goal for rebranding before pushing through with the process.

Step#2: Research and determine your target audience

Perform proper research to determine your target audience before rebranding. The research is vital to help target and connect with the right audience. 

State what distinguishes your company from similar brands and what you can offer to potential customers to make them choose your brand. 

It’s necessary to consider the demographic you’re trying to communicate with and the current one to determine your target audience.

Step #3: Build a team 

You should build a team that is focused on your rebranding plan. This would ensure that the work is appropriately distributed and handled by professionals. Your team should include a creative director who directs the rest of the team and enforces the rebranding strategy. 

Cooperating with the individuals connected to your company, both internal and external, can help achieve outstanding rebranding results. 

Agencies can help you find the best talents for your rebranding. You can even hire freelance graphic designers to help with the rebranding process. All you need to do is ask for experienced freelancers with whom it will be simple to collaborate and give them access to tools like a time tracker tool.

Step #4: Create an action plan 

This is the crux of your rebranding. You have to create a strong rebranding strategy. Ask questions that would direct your rebranding. What needs to be rebranded? What should remain the same? You may need to evaluate your previous brand elements. 

Define the new brand messaging. Decide if you’re changing the tagline, brand voice & personality. Design the new brand visual identity —logo, color palette, video, and gifs.

You should communicate your rebrand strategy internally to partners, employees, stakeholders, and investors. This will help keep your team on the same page.

Step #5: Update old brand guidelines and create new ones as needed

You have to do this as soon as possible, especially if you’ll be working with external or new talents. Update the brand guidelines with the new branding elements.

 If you’re changing a lot of things, you might need to just create a new brand guideline.

 Your brand guideline should be detailed. A great brand guideline would ensure cohesive and consistent branding and designs irrespective of who is designing and on any media outlet.

Step #6: Share with the world

Put out a sneak peek at first to spice up the unveiling process. This will give the world an idea of what to expect before the brand is revealed and make your launch more successful. 

Share your rebrand with the external audience, including your customers, Influencers, the media, and brand ambassadors. Rebranding your business is majorly to satisfy your customers.

Pay attention to your customer’s feedback to confirm their perception of your new brand. Seek to uncover how they feel about your brand modification. 

Empower Your Team Through the Desygner Enterprise Solution

Nothing beats easy solutions to the challenges you may face during your rebranding. The Desygner Enterprise Solution is a hive of the best solutions and excellent help for your team during rebranding. 

Using the Desygner Digital Asset Management Software can save you the trouble of updating, transferring, and storing your media files while you rebrand. 

You can store, organize and distribute your media files without hassle. Working with freelance graphic designers can be easier than you think with all-in-one digital asset software.

You can also achieve cohesive branding using a Brand Guideline Enforcer. Since rebranding may mean overhauling your guidelines and working with new individuals, you’ll need more supervision and crosschecking. 

However, with the brand guideline enforcer, you don’t need to do manual checking and overseeing. You can regulate your team’s work efficiently and seamlessly.

If you are targeting a new audience with your rebrand, it may be challenging to reach out to them, especially if they are a local or emerging target market. There’s a solution. 

The Desygner Localization Engine makes local, on-brand marketing a lot easier. You can create ready-to-market campaigns and watch them get to every nook and cranny of your target market.

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Final Thoughts

You value your brand and put in the work to ensure its success. A great brand can skyrocket your business and expand your reach.

Generally, companies choose to rebrand their brands for several reasons. Although, a significant factor in rebranding is to connect with potential customers.

Rebranding helps you stay unique and stand out from competitors. Improving and enhancing your brand is vital to retaining your customers and staying active in the business.

When you rebrand your business, you pull new customers, stay relevant, stand out from similar brands, and increase your brand awareness.

The post Rebranding: When You Should Consider and How To Do a Rebrand appeared first on Desygner.

From figuring out the right business idea and fundraising to establishing an effective marketing strategy, you’ll need to put in a lot of work.

Most importantly, you must pay attention to digital content marketing if you’re looking to launch an online brand. 

Generally, startups face many marketing-related challenges like competition, multiple digital marketing options, limited marketing resources, competing priorities, and the confusion of not having a digital content strategy. 

However, a solid digital content strategy can be cost-effective and efficient in achieving the primary marketing goals of your digital content marketing.

You can always adopt or switch to content strategies that work, whether you’re just starting out or still figuring out what’s best for your startup.

This article explains the easy and simple steps to get your digital content strategy up and running. Let’s dive in.

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Why You Need a Digital Content Strategy For Your Startup

A well-prepared content marketing strategy enables startups to achieve essential goals like:

• Attracting traffic to a new website
• Generating productive leads
• Creating engagement for new leads 
• Creating a unique niche within the target market
• Building a unique brand among existing competitors

8 Steps To Creating a Digital Content Strategy For Your Startup

Digital marketing is an ongoing process, and developing a digital marketing content strategy is critical for your startup. Your digital content strategy can have an impact on your company’s success.

Plus, 70% of marketers are energetic about investing in their content marketing, so you must develop a good content strategy to compete in your industry. Here’s how you can start;

1. Outline your mission and your goals

This is primary in creating a digital content strategy. It’s crucial to outline what your business is about and what its goals are. This outline makes it easier to focus on achieving the company’s goals without interfering with irrelevant factors to ensure your digital marketing strategy is effective and on track. 

It’s also important to note that you can have different goals per time.

At first, you may want to increase your lead conversion rate by 15%, and at the same time, you also want to increase your visibility and drive product and service traffic.

2. Evaluate your existing digital marketing presence  

After you’ve concluded what you want to achieve, it’s time to evaluate how your already existing digital content strategy is working. If you are an entirely new business, you can skip this step.

Observe the performance of your main marketing channels. These include your social media pages, email marketing, website, and SEO. Find out what’s working, what improvements, and what you should change. This helps you define where your focus is needed the most. 

If you’re unsure of the channels to adopt, check out what your competitors are doing. That would get your business in front of your target audience.

 3. Choose nurture channels for your digital content strategy

How do you intend to nurture your audience till they become customers? Your nurture channels are the channels or platforms you’re having a conversation with your audience and getting to become potential customers.

Nurture channels include social media, blogs, podcasts, email newsletters, videos (long and short), and so on. Create a specific digital content strategy for each channel you choose and stay consistent.

You might not get this right every time. You may find that your chosen channel doesn’t resonate with your customers. Nonetheless, keep trying and doing experiments till you find what works.

4. Build buyer personas  

The next step is to create buyer personas—an imaginative figure of who your customer is. Imagine your customer’s age, preferences, values, and more. This will help you understand your audience and how you can reach them. 

Establishing a buyer persona is beyond identifying a target market. Your buyer personas should be specific, just like the goals discussed earlier. 

5. Determine the type of content that fits your approach

Once you’ve put everything together and created a digital content strategy for each channel, determine what types of content can help you achieve your goals.

For example, if you want to increase your visibility on your social media pages, you might need to ask your audience for their concerns and needs to help you actively create and publish content that suits their needs. Such content can include short video clips or written content. Or, if you’re looking to gain more engagements on your website, you’ll want to ensure you have well-written blog posts on relevant topics. 

Desygner’s guest user feature allows flexibility in creating branded content for your brand. The prices are reasonable for startups, and you can use templates to easily create content and involve your team.

6. Focus and stay consistent 

It’s important to stay consistent across all platforms with the digital content strategy you decide to adopt. Define how you want your brand to be perceived, tone of voice, and other unique features. Ensure that every digital content created truly reflects your brand.

Creating great content consistent with your brand values and up-to-date information and regulating your social media posts to avoid unauthorized posts or materials is crucial and all possible with Desygner. 

Focus on your goals and ensure your content is valuable to your audience.

Consistency is vital in helping you connect faster to your audience. To gain the trust of your audience and make them your customers, you must understand them and offer solutions to their problems.

What are they in need of? What questions do they have? What answers are they demanding? How can you help?

7. Keep track of your results

Now that you’ve set your digital content strategy, it’s time to monitor and keep track of its performance. You can always make improvements. Consistently keep track of the performance of your project. Evaluate the best performing strategies and those you can improve, then make changes accordingly. 

Establish key metrics that can help you track up-front. Knowing what metrics matter can help you quickly identify and avoid problems.

8. Choose a strategy that suits your limited Marketing Budget and Time

Because you may not have unlimited resources to fund all your marketing plans, you’ll need a cost-efficient strategy.

Desygner’s Business plan offers you a one-stop-shop platform for storing, creating content, and protecting your brand identity.

The Guest-user feature allows you to save on production costs. The pricing model will enable you to pay per use and/or user. This means you can get licenses for users who are constantly creating content for your brand and invite others who will only need to create content a few times.

You can also upgrade or move to the Enterprise Solution when your business grows and has a more significant demand for creating content.

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Wrapping Up

As said earlier, content marketing is a continuous process. It’s something that businesses keep building to increase their lead generation, turn leads into customers, and retain existing ones. 

It is essential for both small and large brands to put a strategy in place to consistently meet customer needs.

You may not get your content strategy up and running in a day. But consistency is vital, even in digital content strategy.

The post How to Create Digital Content Strategy For Your Startup in 8 Steps appeared first on Desygner.

It’s simple: with the use of brand guidelines. A brand guidelines document, also called a style guide, brand book, or brand manual is a set of rules anyone in your company should use to apply your brand identity to all your digital assets consistently.

Traditionally, brand guidelines come in the form of PDF documents or printed brand books. However, in the digital age, more brands are switching to digital branding guidelines. 

So, in this article, we’ll show you why traditional brand guidelines are giving way to digital brand guidelines. And in case you’re wondering how you can make the switch as well, we’ll discuss how to build your digital brand guidelines (spoiler: you can do it with Desygner).

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6 Reasons Brands Choose Digital Brand Guidelines 

Digital branding guidelines are taking over the branding space. If you’re wondering why, here are six reasons brands choose digital brand guidelines over traditional ones. 

1. All Branding Elements Are In One Place 

When most of us think about brand guidelines, we think about logos, colors, and other visual elements. However, a thorough brand book should also include other components, such as the brand’s mission statement, personality, and promise. Plus, in the age of digital content, your brand assets can also include videos, GIFs, or other dynamic elements. 

With a brand hub, you can keep all of these elements under one roof and keep everything clearly laid out for everyone to see. This means that everyone on your team can access all the necessary branding elements, such as logos, color palettes, fonts, your brand’s mission statement, and the do’s and don’ts.

Related Article: Your Ultimate Guide to Digital Asset Management

2. Easy To Access 

The main benefit of digital brand guidelines is that they can be accessed by anyone, from any device, and at any time. Keeping all your brand assets in a brand hub can also help with distribution issues. This way, you’ll ensure that everyone on your team has instant access to the brand guidelines.  

In addition, digital brand guidelines allow for better collaboration among teams. They make it easy for your team members to work together without having to rely on emailing files back and forth or spending time locating them on local hard drives.

3. All Branding Elements Can Be Downloaded Instantly

A traditional brand guidelines document is just that: a document. It’s usually a PDF or a glossy, printed paper. While these formats are easy to make and look good, they have a significant drawback: you can’t download anything. 

And in today’s digital age, being able to download the necessary branding elements at any time and from any device can be a lifesaver. 

Imagine it’s 2 am, and you urgently need the company logo to finish a PowerPoint presentation due by 8 am. Unfortunately, you don’t have it at hand, so you’ll need to wait until the office opens and someone can send it to you. But if you could download it from a brand hub, you wouldn’t have to wait, and you’d be able to finish your presentation in time.

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4. Digital Brand Guidelines Are Cost-Effective

Digital brand guidelines might be an investment in the short term, but they are relatively inexpensive to develop and maintain long-term. While there’s usually a fee you need to pay to build your digital brand guidelines or brand hub; the benefits greatly outweigh the costs. The real benefit is the efficiency they bring to your team.

Digital guidelines reduce the time spent on rework and distribution. They also cut down on unnecessary emails and meetings between departments, reducing the time spent on communication between teams. In the long term, this can help you avoid costly mistakes.

5. Easy To Update 

Another reason why digital brand guidelines are becoming more and more popular amongst brands is that they’re easy to update. Changes are hard to make with traditional brand guidelines, such as PDF documents and printed brand books. 

That’s mainly because implementing a change means you must redo the whole process: change the document, print it, and distribute it all over again. The main issue with that is that you have no way of knowing if everyone on your team has got the latest issue of your style guide, nor if they bothered to read it. 

But with digital brand guidelines, this problem goes away. Once you update an asset in the brand hub, the system will notify everyone instantly.

What’s more, having digital brand guidelines allows you to keep track of any changes made, so there are no inconsistencies within your visual identity or messaging. You can also ensure that every piece of content published by each department follows your company’s style guide and tone of voice rules.

Related Article: 3 Key Strategies to Ensure Brand Compliance

6. Add More Guidelines As You Grow 

Digital branding guidelines allow you to build on them as your company grows. They allow you to add more policies as needed without having to redo the entire document from scratch. 

In addition, by adding new guidelines, you can keep your branding consistent while keeping up with recent changes or trends that may emerge over time.

How to Build Your Digital Brand Guidelines 

While there are many ways to create digital brand guidelines, the most efficient and cost-effective solution is hosting your brand guidelines in a brand hub. 

That’s why you need a solution like Desygner’s Corporate Marketing Hub – an all-in-one Marketing Hub where you can keep all your marketing, brand, and content assets in one place. It can be accessed on any device, mobile or web, by anyone, at all times. 

Sometimes, the issue with having a centralized platform that everyone can access is losing control over who edits what. With Desygner’s Corporate Marketing Hub, you can distribute your brand and marketing assets across multiple teams and departments while controlling permissions. You can define user roles, such as Administrator, Member, or Guest, and decide who can access, edit, or update which asset. 

In addition, you may need different branding assets for various purposes if you work with many departments, external agencies, and partners. Desygner’s Corporate Marketing Hub allows you to set up multiple asset libraries so that each department, account, or partner can access the correct library with specific assets.  

In short, if you’re looking to build your digital brand guidelines, Desygner is your best solution. It provides unparallel control and customization that will help you maintain efficiency and cohesiveness when applying your brand guidelines.

Final Thoughts 

Digital brand guidelines help you create digital experiences that feel cohesive and professional. Whether you are a small startup (with a smaller budget) or a large corporation with extensive branding and communication needs, digital brand guidelines are indispensable for maintaining a consistent brand image across all touchpoints.

Sure, it may seem like a lot of work, especially if you’re a small company to create a digital brand style guide, but trust us: the benefits you will reap from having one will be well worth the initial effort. And if you feel that Desygner is the right solution to help you go digital with your brand guidelines, contact our sales team now.

The post Why Brands Prefer Digital Brand Guidelines (And You Should, Too!) appeared first on Desygner.

UGC or user generated content is content created by your users that you can repurpose for your marketing campaigns. That content gives you relevant material you could use to make your brand more approachable and credible. 

But, it takes a lot of work to make UGC work for your brand. We created this guide to help you build your UGC campaign and scale it, so keep reading!

What is User Generated Content 

User generated content is content produced by your users. However, there are two things to clarify when we talk about UGC. First, you must understand UGC as a form of content and how it fits in content strategy and brand marketing. 

Take a swimsuit brand for example. Here, an image your customer sends to you could be a UGC. But, just because someone took a pic in your swimwear doesn’t mean it’s UGC in a marketing sense. 

The marketing team must put effort into giving that customer image a context. Posting the photo on Instagram with the customer’s profile tag isn’t UGC. Instead, the post, as a whole, requires context, messaging, and brand relevance before you consider it user generated content. 

Now, imagine that you are a realty company selling mortgages. Here, a customer can’t send you an image showing them using a mortgage. The customer may create a photo or a video describing how the mortgage impacts their life. It could be a review of what they did with the mortgage, which could work as a testimonial for your business. 

UGC is more than a video, photo, or text. What matters is how you use it, why you use it, and what you want to achieve with it. When you know these things, you get content to promote your business, increase brand awareness and connect with your users. 

Once you get the content from your users, think about how you will use it in marketing campaigns, curate it, and use it later. Also, the content you get from customers is more than social media content. It’s content you may use across all social networks. 

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Importance of UGC for Brands

Desygner is a set of tools helping you organize, automatize and create visual content. It excels when it gets in the hands of marketers and content creators who understand content marketing. 

Over and over again, businesses fail to become brands because they use generic templates, stock photos, and undefined content strategies. They try to promote their website and social media network as a part of their brand but lack the content that tells their brand’s story. And their brand story should be about empowering their customers to change their lives through their solutions. 

No template or stock photo entices the users by asking them to participate in the content creation process. Involving the customers in content creation gives them a feeling you care to make them feel like an integral part of the business. 

Caring about how they feel about your business is the essence of a powerful brand. That’s the context’s purpose since it’s why your customers want to work with you. 

Try to imagine how this transaction looks from the customer’s point of view. You’ll ask them to share their images, videos, and privacy to help you promote your business. That’s a lot to ask for, but they’ll give it to you if they care for your brand.  

Let’s summarize it this way. The content, whether image, text, or video, is crucial for user-generated content’s success. But what matters more is the story you want to tell through UGC.

Sources of User Generated Content 

Imagine you have the context down. It’s time to mine your UGC. 

Let’s return to the mortgage company example. We know we can’t take a photo of a person using the mortgage as they would use swimwear. What’s not impossible is to take an image, video, or text of a user explaining what the mortgage helped them buy. 

Let’s say you sell mortgage packages for first-time home buyers to supplement our example. The first thing you want to do is to look for existing customers that bought the mortgage package. 

Then, you have to contact them, send them a brief about what you want to do, and ask them to participate. If you don’t have access to their contact details, you can use a people search tool to find their social media accounts and email.

In this case, you could ask for a picture of their new home and a short description of why they bought the mortgage package. But also, what was the reason they took your mortgage package instead of going with competitors. The answer may seem simple like they want to own a property. However, consider the current market conditions, geo-location, and housing market.

Together, these aspects help you paint a picture of why buying your first home with that mortgage package was so relevant. With content ready, it’s time to create landing pages, emails, and collateral.

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Types of User Generated Content

Now you know how to mine user generated content. It’s time to look at the types of user generated content. The three general types of UGC are: 

• Images
• Videos
• Text 

From these three types, you may generate dozens of content types. For example, video UGC may include: 

• Reviews
• Testimonials 
• Webinars 
• Personal stories 
• Video editorials 

An image UGC may include: 

• Personal images 
• Images of product or service use 
• Image editorials 
• Images of interaction with your business 
• Employee-generated images 

Finally, there is text UGC, and it includes: 

• Reviews
• Testimonials 
• Personal stories
• How-to’s from users 
• User experience briefs

However, the most critical part is to know why you want to use a specific UGC type. If we use the mortgage example again, it’s evident that the video is an excellent choice. But is it a viable choice? 

Yet, asking for all this content may be too much for the users. With a mortgage example, you must consider whether users want to take a personal video. What if it is a private matter for them, and they want to hide the fact they have a mortgage? 

Then, asking them to take a video may result in an outreach campaign with little success. But, asking them to share a testimonial may be another story. Either way, you must communicate with them properly and ask them to work with your brand.

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User Generated Content Best Practices

Now, look at how you could launch a UGC campaign for a mortgage product. Imagine the following situation: 

At the moment, you: 

• Struggle to create relevant content
• Struggle to engage users 
• Struggle to increase brand awareness 
• Struggle to sell specific products or services

Most of the time, marketing aims to make your digital presence look seamless. You win if users consume content, interact with your brand, buy, and become brand advocates. User generated content is a perfect vehicle for that. 

Start the campaign by defining a context. Let’s say you want to create a campaign about the common objections to taking a mortgage to buy a home. Then, contact recent customers for the mortgage and ask them for a short text testimonial and an image of them in their new home. 

Collect their data and feedback with the help of a product feedback tool. Develop social media design and strategy and select relevant KPIs. Create visuals and repurpose them for blog posts, social media, web pages, and email. 

Start the campaign and tell your user’s stories through content. If you want to create another campaign later, you already have enough content.

And, Desygner is a perfect tool to help you create user generated content.

Creating User Generated Content with Desygner 

To better understand how Desygner could help you, imagine that you already gathered the content for users. For the next step, learning about digital asset management and content governance would be helpful. Also, you should learn more about building content governance models. 

These ideas will give you a new perspective on storing content, distributing content assets with your team, and keeping your brand consistent. Or, in this case, how you could use user generated content for current and future campaigns.

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Manage User Generated Content 

Digital Asset Management Software will help you to keep all content in check. You can store and manage content with DAM, including text, images, visuals, videos, and even icons.

Also, you could store visuals and text to create testimonials in the mortgage product example. Since Desygner gives you access to dozens of templates, you could combine user generated assets to create campaign content.

Once you have the content, store it for later and browse it through a set of galleries. Then, use Desygner to share these galleries among your marketing departments and provide them with content or branded templates.

These perks reduce the time for the content creation process. If your content creator team decides to re-use the content for landing pages, they could use the whole collection or its parts.

Deliver Quality Content with Marketing Hub 

Corporate Marketing Hub is another tool to help you with content production. The purpose of a corporate marketing hub is to have a centralized view and full control of your marketing content, information, and assets. A single place to manage your marketing workflows to deliver quality content across your channels.

Again, with a mortgage product example, you would have to create a landing page for the product on your website. But also, you have to create visuals for social media posts and social media ads. 

You could create content in advance if you have an editorial calendar and track your content strategy. Then, once you are ready to launch the campaign, let the junior members of your marketing team execute the campaigns, post on social media networks, and launch a paid campaign.

Also, Designer allows you integration with tools like Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. That gives you so much advantage when you run complex marketing campaigns. We also have an Adobe InDesign alternative available that helps with importing and editing files online bridging the gap between designers and everyone else.

Keep Brand Consistency 

A massive issue with user generated content is that sometimes it prevents you from keeping brand consistency. Sure, you’ll use the content you got from users, but it still has to be on brand guidelines. Brand Guidelines Enforcer helps you solve that problem. 

The brand has to stay consistent on all platforms. Especially with UGC, you want to keep content aligned regardless of the format. 

Brand Guidelines Enforcer allows you to set limitations for content creators on how much they can edit content assets. If you already have a template for the visual and have to change the image in the template and text, allow your team member to only change that. 

If you have a small marketing team, it’s much easier to control the content production. However, if you were to operate a franchise with dozens of companies, it becomes a much more demanding task.

Customize for The Local Market 

UGC campaigns are more than sharing a photo of your users. Potentially, it’s a vehicle to drive engagement, increase brand awareness and create advocates for your business. And Marketing Localization Engine could help you with that, primarily if you operate as a franchise or in several geo-locations. 

Let’s revisit the mortgage example one final time. If you have several realty offices across the United States, it doesn’t make much sense to use a single piece of content for all franchises.  

With Marketing Localization Engine, you can localize content in no time. Distribute the content among franchises or departments, appropriate them for the local market and launch the campaign. Track your success and keep the content for the next year to create more content or launch a new campaign.

Launch User Generated Content Campaigns  

All that is left is to create a content strategy, give it context, and mine user generated context. With the right approach, and a tool like Desygner, creating UGC will be a simple task. 

After all, tools are just tools. It’s ideas that matter, and you can bring them to life if you give Desygner a try. 

The post What is User Generated Content: A Marketer’s Guide To UGC appeared first on Desygner.

That’s why marketing automation has come to the forefront in 2022. 

Marketing experts predict that by the end of 2023, global marketing automation will reach a 25.1billion dollar market size. Already, 90% of marketers use about two marketing automation software daily. 

The results are mind-blowing. The prospects are enormous, and in a world of a million strategies, marketing automation is a marketing strategy that has come to stay and is growing as rapidly as ever. 

This article will address the new trends in the marketing automation industry. We will discuss how businesses keep up with these trends and adjust to these changes to achieve their marketing goals. It will also outline how Artificial intelligence and machine learning are providing solutions to the marketing industries’ challenges and enhancing customer experiences.

Learn how marketing automation works for your business

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What is Marketing Automation and Why is It Important

Marketing automation refers to using software to automate routine and repetitive marketing tasks. These software applications help to achieve the seamless experience that makes marketing effective. 

You can use them as stand-alone software or integrate them with your CRM, CDP, and other enterprise software. They can also be used collaboratively with human input. 

The goal is to turn the complex and monotonous processes involved in marketing into repeatable, consistent, and easier operations. 

Marketing automation does not replace human input in organizations. It augments and improves human efforts, freeing employees to focus on other tasks. You can automate marketing tasks, as well as input employee time tracking to increase your team’s productivity.

Marketing automation Is essential because it boosts productivity and decreases the errors and shortcomings of human input.

Top 5 Marketing Automation Trends in 2022

2022 is the year of brand awakening. Customer-centric brands are at the forefront of B2B and especially B2C companies. People want seamless service. The stakes are high, and there is an influx of innovations with every waking moment. 

Let us explore the trends in marketing automation and why your business should adopt them as part of your marketing strategy.

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1. ChatBot Automation

Marketers have seen the dangerous consequences of not paying attention to customers. Allowing them to go through the stress of poor communication is bad for business. Prompt communication, along with the best business phone systems and the right automation tools, means more conversion rates as they can move quickly from each stage of their buyer journey to the other. AI-powered chatbots can make the process easy and fast. Thirty-five percent of customers love chatbots. Building a global customer base would mean responding to customers round the clock, especially as a B2C or SaaS company. Using chatbots improves user experience considerably. Your bot can be an omni channel marketing platform to accommodate customers on various platforms, even social media. The Desygner Enterprise bot doesn’t just aid in a prompt response. It makes sure to respond to customers in a personalized tone and could be set to multilingual to enable the engagement of customers from around the world. Because there is less intervention, it’s easier to avoid human errors and track information for analysis and more user-generated content. The result is that the average response time is improved significantly as the chatbot can respond to lots of clients at once.

2. Voice-Activated Automation

Voice-based marketing is ideal for most product-based companies. It’s also really great for other kinds of companies. Voice-based marketing can help with recording, tracking, and managing phone conversations. It can also help with call transcriptions and receiving voice commands. Big brands like Dominos, Uber, and PayPal have launched voice-based marketing features. Voice-activated automation enables brands to have two-way conversations with their customers and avoid the monotony of one-way voice recordings. Voice automated chatbots remove the technical bridge in the information that comes with text conversations.

3. Digital Marketing Content Automation

Content marketing is a vital part of any digital brand to thrive. Content marketing is consistent, cohesive content strategy and content curation. This is made quite easy using a digital marketing content automation tool. In 2022, marketers will be using these content automation tools to achieve excellent results in their content marketing. The algorithm of most social media platforms supports constant engagement and content posting. Desygner’s digital marketing content automation tool can enable marketers to create and repurpose content. It even allows them to use the algorithm tools that would help them reach their target audience.

4. Hyper-Personalisation Automation

Things have evolved from the bare minimum personalization to the need for hyper-personalization. Customers do not just want their names tagged in every paragraph of an AI-written email. They want more. They don’t want generic, rigid messages and content. They want the kinds of things that resonate with them. They want you to sound human. People are not just buying a product or using a service. 

Customers want a feeling of acceptance, love, and support. Hyper personalization helps you achieve that. And marketing without this personalization would not work in 2022 with the excessive competition in every industry. This automation could be done using an SMS marketing service for two-way conversational chats or personalized product tours. It may even include voice features for customers to express themselves better.

5. No-Code Adaptations

The complexity of many marketing tools has greatly hindered productivity and led to several frustrating stops. No-code automation is getting more popular because of the need to accommodate team members who may not be tech-savvy. No-code tools save money, time, and effort. Websites can be quickly built, content can be adequately managed, and data can be better analyzed using no-code tools. No-code is a revolution that has started happening. Technical knowledge can no longer stand as a hindrance to marketing operations. No-code apps and software can enable marketers to create customized and beautiful landing pages. They can also post their blogs themselves and track their data.

6. Collaboration Automation Tools

Remote working has taken over the world, especially after the pandemic and the aftermath of the great resignation in 2021. New collaboration methods have become top-notch in marketing automation. Marketing Teams now seek means for effective collaboration with teammates. The impact of good teamwork on the business’ productivity cannot be overemphasized.

 Marketing automation tools would help in content marketing, advertising, analytics, and customer support.

Wrapping Up

Marketing automation is evolving. Marketing Teams would always have to update and keep up with the trends. This would make for effective, sustainable marketing. 

Creating a marketing automation strategy will help put all these trends in place. Also, using the right automation tools will ensure effective marketing automation. The Desygner digital marketing content and bot are the best tools to achieve your marketing automation goals.

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