The Benefits of Data-Driven Brand Strategy
Your company can improve marketing and communication when you use data to measure the effectiveness of your mission and customer perception of your brand.
I don’t necessarily mean big data (the current trend and buzzword). I mean anything observable and measurable: small data, patterns of behavior, feelings, and triggers; stated and unstated motivation.
Insight is gleaned from what you measure, and from what you hear in your community’s voices and feedback. This feedback is referred to as the voice of the customer. Your customers are buyers, supporters, donors, and more.
Glean insight from everything. Numbers are part of our language of communication.
Numbers have the power to persuade and inform. Data can be your friend and what better way to welcome a friend than with an embrace? She will help you tell your story in ways that cannot be argued against, and show you and others the results of your hard work.
Every person perceives your cause and your organization in a different way, filtering their interpretation and reception of its identity, messaging, and mission to create a unique perception that’s all their own.
You’re not in control of your brand, your audience is. You can manage your brand, but you can’t control your brand, and you can influence the perception of it.
You can manage your identity, but those who interact with your company and brand will form a perception of it, whether it’s true or not. Even if an individual hears one thing about your brand, they will begin to tell themselves a story about your brand and how it fits into their belief system.
Use your available data, observation resources, and information to help you create clear messaging that informs, speaks to impact, and progress toward outcomes.
Think of it this way: You understand your organization’s character, purpose, mission, and culture. Your goal is to help your followers and prospects understand it in the same way you do, and use compelling facts and figures to make a connection between your community and your cause or company.
Information is the knowledge that can help guide and give insight into mission-driven design choices and communication. Data can be the foundation of a very compelling story.
While numbers, and data, and information may seem tedious at first—consider them part of your narrative that will help you compellingly connect your story with the hearts and minds of your audience.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin says of numbers, “I am advising you to grow to love numbers, not in themselves, but as a language of communication that can bring intimacy with the inanimate.” (Follow Rabbi Lapin at @daniellapin).
The inanimate can also be considered the intangible, one of the key dimensions we measure when we assess an organization’s brand personality.
Join the movement of business leaders using data and insight to create compelling brand narratives that sell more products.
In the storytelling tradition, these are pathos (emotion), logos (rationality), and ethos (credibility). Emotion and rationality, woven into the narrative, build credibility. (Storytelling isn’t effective when it's isolated from the narrative. It’s your voice that connects stories and events).
Powerful storytelling for business has three elements: Empathy, authority, and credibility.
- Empathy demonstrates your understanding for who your customer is and what they want. It shows your brand understands their problems and how they feel when they can’t solve them without your products and services. It reveals that you understand, “People like us do things like this.”
- Authority proves to your customer that your company has the experience and expertise to help them, because you’ve done it for people like them. Authority creates trust.
- When a brand delivers on a promise where the customer feels empathy and accepts your authority, your brand earns credibility.
Inform your audience by educating them.
Inspire your audience by appealing to them from your heart to their heart.
Tell them why yours is a meaningful brand with facts and information that speak to their mind.
To build credibility, project your identity and voice consistently and authentically, to convey a powerful image of the impact your brand can make in the customer’s life and for what they care about.
What is there to love about your brand? Can you powerfully tell that story to inspire people? How do people feel about how when your brand helps them overcome a challenge, grow, or have a better life?
How do you use the insights you glean from these customer experiences to further influence the perception of your brand and company?
Do you have a hard time explaining what your company does or why your brand matters to people?
If you struggle to grow your business, you’re not alone. Aespire can help you create a clear message and brand that helps you grow your business. Contact us today for a consultation with a StoryBrand Certified Marketing Guide.
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Aespire Branding
North Ridgeville, OH 44039
Phone: (440) 322-5142
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Aespire is a Woman-Owned Small Business Enterprise (WBE)
Many essential services companies struggle to explain how their expertise helps customers solve problems and achieve their goals. Aespire guides leaders with brand strategy, design, and marketing so they can start, grow, and sustain high-performing teams and profitable businesses.
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