Branding: As marketers and CEO's, we all know how important it is. But do we know the best way to go about it online? The channels are always changing and there are new possibilities and realities every day. Take it from someone who's been around the block a couple of times.
Here are a few "Best Practices" we've put together for you when it comes to branding your credit union...
KNOW THYSELF
Conduct and review research with your employees, customers and prospects. Uncover what makes your organization unique and strong, and determine your voice and personality. For example: are you quick-witted and clever, professional and polished, or down-home and darling? Determining these attributes will help to reinforce internal culture and maintain cohesive interaction with the outside world.
Consult with a third party. As with many things in life, sometimes we need a little outside support to help us take an objective look at ourselves. Seek out a branding expert with experience leading organizations through such a process. Upon completion, you should have a compelling story and brand standards to help guide your social media team, as well as front-line staff and leadership. Win-win!
RECRUIT A DREAM TEAM
Choose people who know your company culture. Too often, social media and web presence responsibilities are delegated to the youngest employee, sometimes even an intern. Instead, find someone who is social, savvy and personable- regardless of age. Anyone can be trained to use the tools of the trade. Though- always hire a trustworthy professional for web development. Trust us.
Avoid ownership squabbles. People from different departments must partner together if the basic structures and processes are going to be beneficial for the brand. Figure out a system and stick with it.
Stay tuned for a couple more best practices and strategies for branding your credit union online...
Showing posts with label credit union branding; Credit Union. Show all posts
Showing posts with label credit union branding; Credit Union. Show all posts
5 Tips For Your Credit Union's Storyful Moment
You're Convinced. And you're ready to create your credit union's storyful moment and start making videos!
Now What?
5 TIPS FOR YOUR STORYFUL MOMENT
If the secret to a good video is finding a storyful moment, then how the heck do you find that moment? Here are some tips to make that process a little easier.
TARGET AN AUDIENCE
A video doesn’t have to go viral to be successful. Appeal to your audience specifically. If there is spillover appeal to the general public, that’s great, but it’s not a primary goal. Always ask yourself, “What would my audience find most interesting?”
CUT TO THE CHASE
“For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” That’s a six-word short story by Ernest Hemingway and proof that you don’t need to pontificate to tell a big story. Keep your video focused on one moment in a larger story. Provide just enough context for it to make sense. Struggling with debt? Planning a wedding? Find that trigger and craft a moment out of it.
"REAL" IS RELATIVE
Don’t sit around with a camera waiting for a candid moment to happen. It’s less important to be literally accurate than to tell a story that your audience can recognize as a part of their own life, too. That’s the difference between “realism” and “authenticity."
THE RIGHT KIND OF RANDOM
If you’re seeking laughs, you might be caught up in the recent “random” humor trend. It’s a sea captain nonchalantly fighting a giant octopus. A guy with a living beard interviewing for a job. Non sequitors still need to be relevant to your brand and story. The “man your man could smell like” appealed because he represented the brand’s masculinity, not just because the tickets are now diamonds.
THINK BEYOND TV
When you produce a video, you can chop it up into 30 second segments for TV ads. You can keep longer versions for your website, use still images for print campaigns and in-branch collateral, and use audio for radio ads and on-hold messages. With text, visuals, and audio all working together, you get three times the branding assets for your marketing budget. Regardless of the format, make sure your storyful moment stays intact.
Now What?
5 TIPS FOR YOUR STORYFUL MOMENT
If the secret to a good video is finding a storyful moment, then how the heck do you find that moment? Here are some tips to make that process a little easier.
TARGET AN AUDIENCE
A video doesn’t have to go viral to be successful. Appeal to your audience specifically. If there is spillover appeal to the general public, that’s great, but it’s not a primary goal. Always ask yourself, “What would my audience find most interesting?”
CUT TO THE CHASE
“For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” That’s a six-word short story by Ernest Hemingway and proof that you don’t need to pontificate to tell a big story. Keep your video focused on one moment in a larger story. Provide just enough context for it to make sense. Struggling with debt? Planning a wedding? Find that trigger and craft a moment out of it.
"REAL" IS RELATIVE
Don’t sit around with a camera waiting for a candid moment to happen. It’s less important to be literally accurate than to tell a story that your audience can recognize as a part of their own life, too. That’s the difference between “realism” and “authenticity."
If you’re seeking laughs, you might be caught up in the recent “random” humor trend. It’s a sea captain nonchalantly fighting a giant octopus. A guy with a living beard interviewing for a job. Non sequitors still need to be relevant to your brand and story. The “man your man could smell like” appealed because he represented the brand’s masculinity, not just because the tickets are now diamonds.
THINK BEYOND TV
When you produce a video, you can chop it up into 30 second segments for TV ads. You can keep longer versions for your website, use still images for print campaigns and in-branch collateral, and use audio for radio ads and on-hold messages. With text, visuals, and audio all working together, you get three times the branding assets for your marketing budget. Regardless of the format, make sure your storyful moment stays intact.
Video Climbing Even Higher
A CROWDED SPACE
eMarketer estimates that online video advertisement spending grew 48% to $1.5 billion in 2010 and will hit $5.5 billion by 2014. About a third of online retailers offer video on their sites, according to Vovici Corp. Focus your message, your story, on your particular audience. Relevance cuts right through all that background noise.
SOCIAL VIEWING
Facebook has become the third most popular video viewing destination online. Nielsen reports online video viewing on social sites was up 98% in 2009. Videos viewed on Facebook was up 1800% in 2010. Add video to your social media routine, even if it’s just a regular face-to-face update for members.
PLAN AHEAD
Hey, people get camera-shy sometimes. Consult with your HR and marketing team. Figure out a video policy that works for your credit union so everyone is on the same page.
Your Internal Culture Impacts Your.... (Fill In The Blank...)
Your Internal Culture Impacts Your....
EMPLOYEES
Individual and collective employee performance can be affected either positively or negatively by the corporate culture you embrace. (www.kellyservices.com, “Corporate Culture Affect Employees”)
The cost of losing an employee is about 38% of the departing employee’s annual wage. (John Dooney, manager of strategic research at the society for Human Resource Management)
MEMBERS
Industry has discovered the value of loyal customers: they buy more, buy more often, are cheaper to serve, have higher retention rates, and are more profitable than newly acquired customers. (Aruthur Middleton Hughes, “How Customer Service Builds Loyalty and Profits”)
The cost of acquiring new customers is five times the cost of servicing established ones. (referencing analysis by Reichheld, The Gallup Management Journal, “The Constant Customer”)
When a brand inspires both rational loyalty and emotional attachment, customers will continually reward it with their business. (The Gallup Management Journal, “The Constant Customer”)
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
Sustained success has to do with managing culture. Organizations change without an awareness of what drives the organization’s culture may be the reason close to 90% of all projects fail. (Toby Elwin, “The Cost of Culture, a 50% turnover of the Fortune 500”)
Examples from an 11 year Harvard Business School study show a variety of areas in which companies with the “right” culture outperformed their counterparts: revenues were 4.1 times higher, stock price was 12.2 times higher and return on investment was 15 times higher. (www.renovacorp.com, “The Impact of Corporate Culture on Economic Performance”)
According to a study by the Hay Group, failure to consider cultural integration is a common and often disastrous mistake made by merging firms. (Jesse James, “The Importance of Corporate Culture to Merger Success”)
EMPLOYEES
Individual and collective employee performance can be affected either positively or negatively by the corporate culture you embrace. (www.kellyservices.com, “Corporate Culture Affect Employees”)
The cost of losing an employee is about 38% of the departing employee’s annual wage. (John Dooney, manager of strategic research at the society for Human Resource Management)
MEMBERS
Industry has discovered the value of loyal customers: they buy more, buy more often, are cheaper to serve, have higher retention rates, and are more profitable than newly acquired customers. (Aruthur Middleton Hughes, “How Customer Service Builds Loyalty and Profits”)
The cost of acquiring new customers is five times the cost of servicing established ones. (referencing analysis by Reichheld, The Gallup Management Journal, “The Constant Customer”)
When a brand inspires both rational loyalty and emotional attachment, customers will continually reward it with their business. (The Gallup Management Journal, “The Constant Customer”)
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
Sustained success has to do with managing culture. Organizations change without an awareness of what drives the organization’s culture may be the reason close to 90% of all projects fail. (Toby Elwin, “The Cost of Culture, a 50% turnover of the Fortune 500”)
Examples from an 11 year Harvard Business School study show a variety of areas in which companies with the “right” culture outperformed their counterparts: revenues were 4.1 times higher, stock price was 12.2 times higher and return on investment was 15 times higher. (www.renovacorp.com, “The Impact of Corporate Culture on Economic Performance”)
According to a study by the Hay Group, failure to consider cultural integration is a common and often disastrous mistake made by merging firms. (Jesse James, “The Importance of Corporate Culture to Merger Success”)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)