Earlier this year, LibDib partnered with New York advertising and digital marketing agency, Ruckus Marketing to grow our digital and social marketing efforts. Their work has been tremendous--from effective targeting to branding and lead generation, Ruckus Marketing has proven themselves to be a valuable asset, so we recently asked them to share some of their secrets.
By Stephen Saulpaugh, Ruckus Marketing
Building a digital presence is an integral part of generating brand awareness. Where do you start? How do you effectively position yourself and allocate resources for maximum efficiency?
This is especially when it comes to wine and spirit makers and other alcohol brands. The “lifestyle” that your brand speaks to requires content that compliments these values and ideals.
1. Content is King
Creating a steady stream of quality content is what will give brands a strong foundation. This is why it should be your primary focus. Ideally, a brand’s output speaks to what makes them special, while also providing value to their audience. Defining “value” as it pertains to a customer base is part of this process, but it’s important to remember the “Three E’s of Content Creation”: Educational, Entertaining, and/or Emotional.
Education: This can involve education about a product, service, or can encompass the industry or lifestyle at large. Brands must consider what they want to be associated with. For example, a running shoe company could tweet about new marathon records or new ways to train. Brands should think of ways to position themselves as thought leaders in their space.
Entertainment: Consider content that is interesting or funny, and perhaps even loosely affiliated with the brand. For example, a luxe perfume company may choose to post an image of a woman lounging on a yacht. While there is no direct connection between products and imagery, they may find that customers respond to high-end posts like this. The content speaks to their customers’ lifestyles and desire for luxury brands.
Emotion: This content is meant to elicit a powerful response that could mean any range of emotions from happiness to nostalgia or more... Ruckus Marketing recently partnered with Crayola to produce a series of short-form videos highlighting a unique artist and his struggles. Crayola itself is not in the spotlight here, but this emotional journey is still related to the art world.
2. Show, Don’t Tell
Video content is a key component for modern brands and can very effectively hit on those “Three E’s”. Leverage video to communicate brands’ values, beliefs, and goals. It’s incredibly effective in telling a story. User-generated content is also a great way to do and provides credibility to your brand. Calling for pictures or videos from current customers gives you easy inroads to new content. But most importantly, it’s real, genuine content. The modern consumer is very savvy and won’t respond to content that seems “fake.” Let your customers tell your story.
3. Target the Right Keywords
Once content production is locked down, focus on tackling target keywords, and building more content around them. These keywords should be related to your brand and have a high search volume. There are several factors to consider when finding optimal target keywords:
- What words or terms are people searching to find you?
- What are people searching to find your competitors?
- What terms should people associate with your brand?
Use the answer to these questions to figure out what words and phrases to target and inform the content you produce. Monitor key performance indicators (KPS) to see what’s effective and what can be worked on (or frankly dropped). Use this feedback to tweak and modify as needed
4. Don’t Give Up
This is a marathon, not a sprint. Growing a digital presence takes months, if not years. Your first pieces of content will likely gain very little momentum without a third-party boost or endorsement. That’s normal. The more you produce, the more it will grow. Brands that struggle with digital do so because they don’t see immediate results. They may abandon a strategy too quickly. Continuing to try new things before they’ve gained a foothold will ultimately leave you without traction. The more time and effort spent growing your presence, the better the return.
Visit Ruckus Marketing for more great tips and information on how they can help your brand grow.
Are you looking for wine or spirits distribution?
LibDib can help.