Story: Reason why I design
©StoryBrand: The Difference Between Marketing and Branding
Donald “Don” Miller is an American author, public speaker, and business owner. He is the CEO of StoryBrand, a company that helps businesses clarify their messages. He made his name as a memoirist, writing deeply personal essays and reflections about faith, God, and self-discovery. – Wikipedia
This video made a buzz on the internet. The Futur, video below, replyed to this video, marketing is more valuable than branding. I cannot completely deny his opinion through my experience. Recently, I heard the quotes, “Sales fixes everything” by Guy Kawasaki. Very radical, but true.
I am working with a small business owner. Almost all business owners struggle with how they find customers. I am glad to help them. First responce is how can I find your business. Then, the project kickstarts.
Which should we apply first, marketing or branding? In my opinion, both, not separate. You must tell an audience about your business. At that point, you have to use own voice. Otherwise, an audience cannot believe you. Let me explain my experience. I used Google Ads without a rebuild client website. Google Ads increased traffic to the website, but people did not contact to the client even they clicked ads, reached to website.
As my hypothesis, a website did not deserve to trust, or ads did not reliable. I thought it’s the former than the latter. Because website did not clear value proposition. No user-focused. No content strategy. Therefore, I cannot 100% use the budget to only marketing to persuade potential audiences.
©EntreLeadership: Storybrand One Liner Exercise | Donald Miller | EntreLeadership Takeaways
Productivity Game: Master Marketing: BUILDING A STORYBRAND by Donald Miller | Book Summary Core Message
Book Video Club: “Building a Storybrand” by Donald Miller – Storytelling – BOOK SUMMARY
The Futur: What Is The Difference Between Branding & Marketing? What’s more important?
I watched this video a while ago. In my discipline, I think marketing is more important than branding if you are in an early stage. You really need sales. Business cannot exist without a stable cash flow even you built a great product.
I am thinking about how I can contribute to client business. In other words, how I can increase value in my design service. I put myself into client shoes. Then, I realized a new mission below.
Reach Target Audience.
It was “building trust through design”. I thought it fits me. However, the new mission is far value to a client more than that. It has much value more than just visual design. I would like to achieve this mission through UX design.
At the same time, I asked myself, how? I know UX principals, but can I really guarantee to reach the target audience? I was not for sure about it. I researched this subject for myself and a lot of freelances who struggle with it.
How do I reach target audience?
It’s Marketing!
What is marketing?
Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. Marketing is the business process of creating relationships with and satisfying customers. Because marketing is used to attract customers, it is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. – Wikipedia
My understanding is that all maketing actions are for sales and make a customer happy, but what actions can we take right now? If we say marketing, there are many categories of marketings. I checked Udemy.com below. It shows so many… There are other topics in each category. It is impossible we cover all of them.
– All Marketing
– Digital Marketing
– Search Engine Optimization
– Social Media Marketing
– Branding
– Marketing Fundamentals
– Analytics & Automation
– Public Relations
– Advertising
– Video & Mobile Marketing
– Content Marketing
– Growth Hacking
– Affiliate Marketing
– Product Marketing
– Other
Please don’t be overwhelmed. As I said, purpose of marketing is just one, sales. That’s it.
4 Principles of Marketing Strategy
©Brian Tracy
Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. Marketing is the business process of creating relationships with and satisfying customers. Because marketing is used to attract customers, it is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. – Wikipedia
– Your competition determined everything, price, how much you charge,
– No strategy and business can be made without thinking about your competition.
4 key marketing principles:
Specialization
This is the product, service, customer market, or area of technology where you focus all your efforts.
Differentiation
Your competitive advantage.
Area of excellent, superiority.
USP(Unique selling proposition): Where are you or could you be your best?
How it is you are different and better than your competitor?
Segmentation
Who are those customers who most appreciate your area of superiority?
Who are the specific customer in the market, who value more my area of differentiation and who will pay more for my area of specialization than anybody else?
Segment and identify customers who are most likely to buy from you the fastest. How would you describe your perfect customer?
What are their demographics?
What is their psychographics?
– Goals, ambitions.
– Whats, needs, motivation.
– Hope, dream, aspiration.
– Fear, doubt, worry
– PTBS(problems to be solved)
Concentration
Once you determine your very best market segment for what you do really well, what you do is you focus all your energies on them.
Where you focus your time, money and resource?
What are the best possible ways to contact your ideal customer?
what are the best media?
What are the most powerful appeals?
Brian Tracy is a well-known as Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author. Why people look for motive and self-development? It is not hobby. They feel they need it on their business. Business relates to sales. Sales relates to maekrting. I can understand. This is a great lecture about marketing.
Marketing strategy for graphic designer
Before we serve our client, we have to serve ourselves. I considered the principle of marketing strategies above to freelance designers.
Specialization
– UX design (need specific job title, industry)
– Web design (need specific job title, industry or types of website)
– Graphic design (need specific job title, industry or types of graphic)
– Available: Marketing, SEO, UI design, Illustration, Photography, Video
This is the product, service, customer market, or area of technology where you focus all your efforts.
Differentiation (USP: unique sales proposition)
– Customer-focused UX design (Define target audience, create a clear value proposition, SEO friendly website)
– Engaged trusted design with digital marketing, increase traffic and inquiry. The result is to business growth.
Why customers have to buy from you? A customer looks for the high-quality and lowest price.
Segmentation
– Small business owner (Find client online, Receive inquiry through a website)
– Skilled worker(doctor, lawyer, attorney, dentist, realtor, Investor)
– Good results increase the marketing budget.
Concentration
– Reach target audience
– Build trust through design
– Solve client’s problem
The Difference Between Marketing and Branding?
©Thinkr Marketing: The Difference Between Marketing and Branding?
Branding is who you are.
Symbol of core principles, values, mission statement, uniqueness, company culture, characteristics, style.
Marketing is how you build awareness.
Types of marketings are SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, advertising campaigns.
– Need a strong brand to have effective marketing.
– When you start advertising, if your brand is not healthy, chances may be lost.
When the client looks for marketing, but their brand is not ready quite ready for mass exposure, how do you handle that?
Bring research and objective opinion on the table upfront. Understand what result you want to get, where your stage is currently.
Science Of Persuasion
©influenceatwork
This is a good video to know the audience behavior. When we are a seller, we often forget the feeling of the consumer even we are the consumer. If you try to sell more, you lose sales more. So, let’s think about how we are persuaded.
Reciprocity
Obligation to give when you receive.
Be the first to give, personalize and unexpected.
Scarcity
People want more of those things there are less of.
The benefits + what’s unique + what they stand to lose.
Authority
People will follow credible knowledgeable experts.
Expert introduction. Ethical + costless to implement.
Consistency
Voluntary active + public commitments.
Liking
People who are similar to us.
People who pay us compliments.
People who cooperate with us.
Consensus
People will look to the actions of others to determine their own.
OnePercentBetter: Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
HOW TO: Position And Market Your Brand
©Butler Branding Agency
If you’re trying to grow your business you have to get your name out there. You have to position your brand to be in front of right people and let them know your value proposition. – Butler Branding Agency
What is a brand?
A brand is a person’s gut feeling. A brand is not you say it is, it’s they say it is. Therefore, we can influence their gut feeling through engaging brand experiences.
Branding is the technique of influencing people’s gut feeling through experiences.
What is marketing?
Marketing is all about initiating a conversation.
Develop a strategy (help brands connect with their audience) through a structured framework
Business overview: business objective and key performance indicator
User profiles: especially, define challenges, pain points.
Brand attributes: culture, users(personality or voice?), benefits(an advantage that the customer gets from using your products), values(underlying motivations that cause us to want to buy), x-factor
Prioritize goals:
Goals of brand strategy
Define and differentiate the brand
Understand and appeal to its users
Prioritize marketing efforts.
Strategize creative execution
Conclusion: Try and error
Branding and marketing. This is quite a big topic for me. Ideally, I want to guarantee the result for the client. I can increase the traffic to the website, but I cannot promise to increase a profit easily. I am consuming a lot of videos. Any successful people cannot short cut. Of cause, top digital marketing people work efficiently, but they try A/B test a lot.
My conclusion, there is no magic. I will figure out by my experience.
Reference:
Inc.: 5 Steps to Reach Your Target Audience More Effectively
Mary Pomerantz Advertising: Top 10 Ways To Reach Your Target Audience
