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Using Storytelling Marketing To Engage Consumers
Storytelling is not a new concept, but we are seeing it remerge in marketing for some of today’s biggest brands. It is a unique way for brands to influence consumers, using engaging stories about the brand, its products or its consumers.
Recently, Marketing Week published a report on the Top Storytelling Brands, highlighting the companies that have done the best job of captivating consumers with a narrative approach to branding. Their success serves as an example to smaller brands that storytelling marketing is an effective means of communicating their branding message.
Apple ranked as the #1 storytelling brand, while Cadbury, McDonald’s, IKEA and Walkers ranked in the Top 5. Coca Cola, Virgin Media, YouTube, MacMillan and the Red Cross also ranked as successful storytelling brands. Overall, the brands that have the best storytelling marketing campaigns are charities, retail and restaurant chains.
Some of the up-and-comers are telecommunication brands. Three, EE, Talk Talk and HTC have significantly improved their rank over the course of the past year. So, companies in the telecommunications sector may want to consider adopting a storytelling approach to their branding.
Storytelling campaigns can be about any narrative so long as it accurately represents your brand’s values and relates to your consumer. It should have a clear message that is communicated in a way that is engaging and relevant. Apple’s recent iPhone 5s ad is a great example.
IKEA’s Time To Change Marketing takes a more humorous approach to storytelling marketing:
Effective storytelling marketing isn’t just limited to video and television ads. Many leading brands use print ads to tell their stories:
At Win Marketing, we have helped many of our clients tell their story through creative ad campaigns. For example, a health a safety client required new promotional literature. Using the company’s branding, we developed a board game to tell the story of a successful evacuation and teach the best evacuation safety practices.
The narrative was not about the company itself but it was related in a valuable way, and it could serve as an example to other small companies that are considering using storytelling marketing.
If your company has an interesting story to tell, Win Marketing can help you get your message across while increasing brand awareness. Visit our Branding page or give us a call at +44(0)1509 265890.
Marketers Are Starting to Target Wearable Technology
As industry buzz begins to build around the new iWatch from Apple, marketers are preparing strategies for how to tackle advertising on this new platform. According to Bloomberg, advertisers view wearable technology as the ‘next ad frontier’. While it may seem to be jumping the gun, now is certainly the ideal time to begin considering your approach to advertising on wearable gadgets like the iWatch and Google Glass.
Augmented Reality
Wearable technology will really launch augmented reality into mainstream media, and it presents a great marketing opportunity for all types of businesses. Using geotechnology, brands could use push notifications to create sales alerts based on the user’s location. For example, when walking past a music venue, the gadget would alert the user about upcoming gigs and provide a link to ticket sales.
App-Based Marketing
The iWatch and Google Glass will provide users with real-time tools used to carry out everyday tasks on the go. As such, brands should look into developing apps that will be useful on an ongoing basis.
IKEA’s mobile catalogue app is a great example of app marketing, as it provides a useful service while advertising its latest products and promotions. Another functional app is Audi’s battery-saver for smartphones and tablets. Starbucks and GAME also use mobile apps in place of their loyalty cards, which will certainly be attractive to mobile users while reinforcing their branding.
Ikea’s mobile app is functional while increasing brand awareness.
Highlight on Content
It is predicted that there will be a greater emphasis on content marketing on wearable technology platforms. Users will only want to read useful information about their surroundings, the products they are interested in buying and the locations they plan on visiting. As such, it is important for marketers to publish content that will be useful to and sharable by their target audience.
Win Marketing has worked on a number of campaigns that utilise cutting-edge technology. If you want to learn more about using new innovations to promote your brand, visit our Branding page or give us a call at + 44(0)1509 265890.
Optimise Your eCommerce Site to Boost Mobile Sales
The retail market is currently in a state of transition. Years ago, UK retailers saw consumers shift their attention to ecommerce sites. Now, another transition is taking place as more consumers are beginning to show a preference for mobile shopping.
According to eMarketer, 25% of all online sales will take place on mobile devices. So, now is the time to start optimising the marketing strategy for your e-commerce site.
Mobile Optimisation of Website
It’s not enough to have a website that can cater to mobile devices. It should make the most of the mobile platform. Your e-commerce mobile site should use tools that make it easier for users to browse using their phones and tablets. Sliders, photo links and short videos are just a few of the useful tools that will make for better mobile browsing.
Photo-heavy content
Like all internet users, mobile device users are not very keen to be confronted with a wall of text. So, it is important for your content to be very visual. Use plenty of photos and infographics to keep your users interested and engaged. However, ensure that your images are not so large that they slow down loading times. Never forget – most mobile users will leave a page if it doesn’t load within 6 seconds.
Content on social media
Did you know that 40% of mobile purchases are made after being shared or favourite on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest? That’s just one of many good reasons to use social media to get in touch with mobile users.
So, don’t let your content just sit there on your website. Get it out there on social media. When you reach out via social media, mobile Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest users will be notified on their phones and tablets.
Get on mobile apps like Snapchat and Instagram
One of the most effective ways to reach mobile customers is to use mobile-based apps like Snapchat and Instagram. Even if your product isn’t particularly visual, you can use these tools in unique ways that encourage them to share related content with you while will also help with brand awareness. These apps are also useful for creating unique promotions.
Win Marketing has developed many effective mobile sites, and we can optimise your site for mobile tablet and smartphone users. For more information, visit our Web Design page or call +44(0)1509 265890.
Win Marketing Celebrates Health and Safety Week
16-20 June is Health and Safety Week, celebrating the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) in 1974. Since then, there has been an 80% decline in fatal workplace accidents. At Win Marketing, we are celebrating Health and Safety Week to commemorate the UK’s impressive safety record.
Win Marketing MD Ann Goodwin has spent the past 20 years working with clients in the health and safety industry. Over the years, she has seen plenty of positive changes due to the introduction of the Health and Safety At Work Act.
Ann has noted that working conditions have vastly improved since the passing of HSWA. The Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations lawhas placed priority on issues that affect the comfort and wellbeing of workers, such as ventilation, temperature, lighting, cleanliness, washing and water. Restrictions have also been placed on the types of equipment and products that can be used in the workplace to keep workers safe, such as spray mount.
Health and safety measures have also evolved along with workplace technology. In 1992, the Display Screen Equipment Regulations law was passed as part of HSWA, which require employers to ensure that display screen equipment and visual display units (VDUs) are suitable for workers. Of course, we now refer to ‘VDUs’ as ‘monitors’ – and, the law was created before the advent of smartphones and tablets.
While there was some scepticism towards the HSWA when it was first passed, health and safety awareness is now a part of everyday life in workplaces across the UK. Both workers and managers are conscious of the best practices to keep their working environments safe.
“Over the years, I’ve seen a maturing towards ensuring that the best health and safety practices are used in the workplace,” Ann says. “In the future, I’d like to see more acceptance and application of safety measures to keep our workers safe”.
At Win Marketing, one of specialities is marketing in the health and safety market. Read more about our work in the sector on our Health and Safety page.
Panda 4.0: Has Google’s New Update Affected Your Site?
Last week, Google started to roll out its latest update, Panda 4.0, and webmasters are only just catching wind of the enormous effects that the update will have on their sites. Panda is supposed to produce monthly rolling updates, but Panda 4.0 is a bigger update that will have a significant impact on website rankings.
Google hasn’t provided very much information about the update, but Matt Cutts, Google’s Head of Search Spam, offered some insight via his twitter account:
“Think of it like P4 is a new architecture. Brings in some of the softer side, but also lays groundwork for future iteration,” he tweeted.
Based on Panda’s past updates, SEOs believe that 4.0 is a further push for high-quality content. So, if you have noticed a significant change in your rankings or traffic this week, your content is likely to blame – or applaud, if your site’s rankings have improved.
According to Business Insider, some big brands have experienced a drop in visibility thanks to the new update. Ebay.com has experienced a 33% decline this week, due to its thin content. The sites that saw the biggest increases are known for producing original and interesting content. Buzzfeed saw its visibility increase by 25% while ShopStyle was boosted by 250%.
The bottom line is that now is the time to start optimising your website’s content. It’s not just about selling your product or using the right keywords. It is about producing high-quality content that will be of value to your readers. You want your branded to be associated with sharable content that shows readers – and Google – that you know what you’re talking about.
Win Marketing’s team of experienced web copywriters can help you optimise your content. To find out how, visit our copywriting page, or give us a call at: 44(0)1509 265890.
