6 Ways To Find Love For Your Brand This Year
It’s Valentine’s Day again, and love is in the air!
Or maybe it’s just the heat and we’re an overly romantic bunch, but either way we thought it’d be nice to mark the occasion with a bit of love-themed branding advice. After all, whether it’s with your audience, or the apple of your eye, all relationships are built on comparable foundations. Don’t believe us? Well, read on.
Without further ado, here’s Wetpaint’s love advice for brands.
1. Know Your Type
No one likes an indecisive Don Juan – a wishy-washy flake who can’t decide what he wants just makes for broken hearts and sad cherubs. Decide who you want and go all-out in your pursuit of them. Never leave doubt, especially internally, about who your target market is.
You can’t give your audience what they want if you don’t know who they are, and you can’t get your brand the love it deserves if you don’t know who you want it from. Build a detailed profile of your ideal customer or client, so that you know who you are after, and exactly what it is they’re looking for.
That said, don’t be afraid to change tack if you find you’re looking for love in all the wrong places.
There are plenty of fish in the sea, you just have to find the ones that want what you’re offering.
2. Lead With Honesty
No one likes being lied to.
Sure, we all want to make a good first impression so that the one in front of us doesn’t become the one that got away, but while first impressions may last, broken trust is a hard thing to fix.
This doesn’t mean you should make a list of all the ways you think your company could be improved and advertise yourself on the basis of your flaws. It does, however, mean being honest about the services and products you provide, your capabilities and limitations.
Consumers love brands that they feel they can trust.
What if being honest means losing all your business?
Well then – be better.
After all, what’s more romantic than improving yourself for the one you love?
And who do you love more than your customers?
3. Make Them Feel Special
Articles detailing ways to make your consumers feel special are a dime a dozen. The same goes for making your heart’s desire feel like the special someone that they are.
The Internet is just chock-full of naughty, nice, and downright disturbing love advice, but we’re here to tell you that if you’re aiming for special, you’d best be creative.
If you’ve been paying attention, you should know exactly who your ideal consumer is, and you have a pretty good idea about what sorts of promotions, events and specials might appeal to that person.
At the end of the day, the exact means by which you make your audience feel special isn’t as important as the fact that you’ve invested the effort and thought into doing so. Come up with offers and promotions that will appeal in a personal way to the audience you’re looking for love from.
When they feel loved, they’ll love you right back.
4. Listen To Their Complaints
You’ve probably heard before that content is king. Well, in the language of love, that roughly translates to “communication is key”.
This is true even (or especially) if the communication in question is not all the lovey-dovey singing of your praises. Sure, you’ll probably get the occasional Facebook message telling you how gosh-darn amazing your products, services, or employees are but, unfortunately, most of the time, when people reach out to get in touch, it’s because you done messed up.
Don’t take it personally, don’t switch off, and don’t give them the silent treatment. A consumer complaint is not just an indictment of your business, it’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to Lead With Honesty, to Make Them Feel Special, and, yes, maybe even to improve yourself in line with reasonable criticisms.
For better or worse, sometimes it’s also an opportunity to…
5. …Take The Blame
Not every argument needs to have a winner, and not every problem comes with easily aimed blame, but sometimes, for the good of the relationship, you have to know when to shut up, be the loser, and take the hit.
Love and business are not so different after all, and whether someone’s invested in you personally or in your company, your bad behaviour (perceived or otherwise) can feel like a betrayal of that investment.
Appreciate their feelings, hang your head in appropriate shame, say sorry, and then give them something free and pretty.
Something they’ll like. Don’t be cheap.
We’re not saying it (whatever it is) is your fault, but sometimes, for the good of the relationship, it just has to be your fault.
6. Don’t Be Afraid To Love Them First
This is what it all comes down to.
If you want to get love, you have to have the guts to give it first.
Maybe you’ve been burned before – you bought roses and she never called back, or only one person bought that unique software you developed and it ended up free on Pirate Bay a day later – but ultimately, you’ve got to jump back in the saddle if you want that love you need.
Got some more advice for love-hungry brands? We’d love to hear it, so sound off in the comments below!
Need some more advice on how to put the butterflies in your consumers’ stomachs? Contact Wetpaint today!