This post was co-authored by Dechay Watts, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Sprout Content. Follow her on Twitter @Dechay.
The emotion that a brand evokes in someone — or more importantly, in a specific group of people — has a big impact on a company’s success or failure. Emotions play a huge role in how consumers act and react. Emotions drive decisions, prompt actions, and change mind-sets, leading to strong loyalty and a deep personal connection with a given brand that can extend beyond its rational attributes.
These emotional connections are more psychological than logical, and are usually subconscious feelings. Brands that develop distinct personas in people’s minds project an image that people want to buy into. Someone may buy a product because it makes them feel smart, affluent, or sophisticated (e.g., “I’m really stylish and have good taste because I wear these shoes.“) Generally, people buy products that are consistent with their positive, or aspirational, image of themselves. Continue Reading
What’s the first thing you do when meeting someone new? You ask them questions to unveil their story: Where are you from? What kind of work do you do? Do you have children? Do you come here often? Questioning a stranger is more than a polite way to pass time — it’s the core of trying to connect.
As important as a captivating design is to your content marketing, stories (and the words that tell them) are what make people decide if they like you, if you understand their needs, and if they want to do business with you. Brand storytelling can’t be done with visuals alone.
The new Facebook Timeline format will officially be applied to all business pages as of March 30, 2012, but some businesses are already experimenting with the feature. Reactions are mixed, but as content marketers, we are thrilled.
