How will you communicate with your audience?
Let's create! All the business of making a thorough Communication Plan is about to pay off. You stated why you need to communicate and identified with whom. You've defined what you need to convey and where. Now, it's time for the how.
Like the other elements in your plan, your Style Guide has been designed to give purpose and direction fo
Let's create! All the business of making a thorough Communication Plan is about to pay off. You stated why you need to communicate and identified with whom. You've defined what you need to convey and where. Now, it's time for the how.
Like the other elements in your plan, your Style Guide has been designed to give purpose and direction for your channel tactics. Like each media channel, the content you create for it should be classified as Paid, Owned, Earned, or Shared content.
The channels in your media mix were chosen for their utilities and your communication objectives. But, as you know, each is unique. The day-to-day tactics on one platform will be different from others. Part of the overall goal is to build brand trust and loyalty with your audiences over time. A thorough style guide helps your managers stay predictable across channels but still agile for various situations.
The tactics for managing a Twitter account, Google Ads account, Amazon Ads account, your website, or otherwise are beyond this overview's scope. The argument here is that the Communication Plan should guide all channel activity.
Setting up an interactive or transactional account on a modern media platform is extremely simple. But beware; due to this, poorly trained users can make mistakes. A blunder with a Facebook post can be corrected relatively easily but potentially have lasting negative consequences. Setting an incorrect budget or targeting the wrong geographic area with Google Ads can waste resources. These are just a couple of misstep examples. Each channel has many moving parts.
As mentioned, your content for each channel, like the channel itself, should be classified based on your level of ownership: paid, earned, owned, or shared. Content is a longterm investment. Here are a few considerations for the content you create.
Consistency. If you've read through these pages sequentially, then the usefulness of the Style Guide should be apparent. Consistent brand messaging across your media mix is a crucial benefit of your guide. Your managers can easily access it as a reference whether they are creating videos, your website, animated explainers, memes, ad copy,
Consistency. If you've read through these pages sequentially, then the usefulness of the Style Guide should be apparent. Consistent brand messaging across your media mix is a crucial benefit of your guide. Your managers can easily access it as a reference whether they are creating videos, your website, animated explainers, memes, ad copy, blog posts, or otherwise. It is an indispensable tool to have in place as your team grows or experiences turnover.
Analytics. For each channel, strategy, measurement must remain top of mind. Each will have its proprietary reporting options. Premium reporting suites have more robust reporting and can track across channels but require additional resources. Regardless of the analytics platform, your managers must be familiar with the tracking protocols, or you won't have data for your activities. No data means no optimization of your program over time. Your historical data can be mined to grow your business.
Ownership. With each channel in your mix, including analytics, you need to consider the owner of your content. I will highlight the distinction between a media channel and its content. Ideally, you will own both. If you're outsourcing your Google Ads management, then you'll want to ensure that you retain ownership of the ad account should you disengage with your manager. The same is true for your analytics account, website, and social media accounts. The cost of quality content can be tricky to balance. It's an investment. For example, professional photographs can be costly, but you'll use them across many platforms. Good content reflects your brand's value and attention to detail. When outsourcing the creation of certain types of content, try to retain ownership of the raw elements: pics, videos, watermarks, logos, etc. You may want to edit them or use the raw elements for different creatives in the future. Collectively, your content and your channels are proprietary wealth investments.
Channel History. Your history with a specific channel and its content are similar to ownership but slightly different. Your historical activity is valuable to your organization. The longer you create content on a particular channel, the more you need to retain both. It's best to consider this whether you are outsourcing the content creation, the management of the channel, or the platform itself. In the latter case, will you lose your content or need to migrate it somewhere if your agreement with the platform is canceled? Don't lose your history.
Target Keywords. Perhaps no other element in your Style Guide is more critical than your target keywords. Your managers should pepper them into all your content (video, copy, pics, descriptions, etc.), whether the content is paid, earned, owned, or shared. We target keywords similar to logos, taglines, or other branded elements. Perhaps n
Target Keywords. Perhaps no other element in your Style Guide is more critical than your target keywords. Your managers should pepper them into all your content (video, copy, pics, descriptions, etc.), whether the content is paid, earned, owned, or shared. We target keywords similar to logos, taglines, or other branded elements. Perhaps no other media channel will benefit your brand more than search engine optimization. But this strategy is a long game. It won't happen overnight. Aside from your branded terms, it can take a very long time; this is another reason why ownership and history of your content are essential. Using your target keywords liberally will indirectly help your brand's visibility for those searching the terms.
Partnering. Generating content for your brand can be costly. The quality of it is a reflection of your brand. Modern platforms make content creation easy, but highend cameras, sound equipment, editing software, and computer hardware are expensive; this is true, whether you're creating ads, videos, blog posts, photographs, or otherwise. Yet, the public perception of your brand is the result of months, if not years, of advertisements, social media posts, public relations efforts, or otherwise. Creating content partnerships can be an effective way of contributing to the perception of your brand at a lower cost. For instance, professional influencers have come a long way over the years. They aren't all the same, but some have cultivated audiences larger than some traditional publications by targeting a specific category and honing their craft. Technically, this wouldn't be considered "creating your own content," but the number of opportunities with content partners similar to this keeps growing.
Ultimately, the content you create for your brand needs to support your overall business and communication goals. Having a Style Guide in place will help your managers communicate consistently on brand across your media mix. Each channel and the content you create should be measured. The history of your content and each channel is a rich set of data that you can use to tweak and grow your business. Contact Vagary if you need help you weighing your content options.
Manage by objectives.
Consider all your audiences.
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