Effective brand communication starts and ends with integration and differentiation. I’ve already talked a lot about differentiation, so now I’m going to talk about integration.
A great way to pull clients and prospects into your web of influence is by having an integrated online communications strategy. This is a cohesive set of tactics and media/communications vehicles that all tie together into a web or ecosystem of sorts. In this article I’m going to emphasize the online piece mostly.
Similar to a movie theater, grocery store or even McDonald’s, keeping the customer in your sphere of influence as long as possible is the key so you can effectively cross-sell and up-sell them. I would bet that 9 times out of 10 when you walk into a McDonald’s you don’t walk out with just an order of fries.
The idea with your own online ecosystem is to create a far-reaching, integrated sphere of influence that touches clients and prospects several times over and continues to deliver your key messages. Let me give you just a short example of how easy it can be to develop your own web ecosystem:
- Create an area of your site that is devoted to syndicated content that is relevant to your site visitors and enhances the value your site brings to them on a continual basis. At the top of the page include your top-line, yet differentiating, key messages. The content on the page will drive people back to your site again and again, and put your logo and key messages in front of them every time.
- Create a topical-article hub on HubPages (www.hubpages.com) that features your business’s articles with links back to your syndicated content page.
- On your syndicated content page include links to some of your business’s articles – whether published at an industry website or on another page of your site – and also links to your HubPages page.
- Develop an email newsletter that features your articles and others (just the first paragraph or so) with links back to your site and to your HubPages page.
- Feature a banner ad on a key website that promotes your offers but also links to your syndicated content page and your HubPages page
While this is certainly not an all-encompassing web ecosystem, it does give you an idea of how you can effectively brand yourself with the simple repurposing of existing content and by cross-linking your various web destinations.
Liked it. Technically approached yet insightful.
Interesting concept. Never really thought of it that way. Thanks for sharing. Hmmn, now, thinking about my ecosystem. . .