Don’t tell potential customers why they should buy from your brand – SHOW them.

Every brand wants to grow, and most senior executives want to be the driver of their company’s growth.

However, the way brands grow has dramatically shifted. Although most senior executives understand this, most aren’t sure what to do differently as there is no longer a consistent, ready-made path to growth.

What Have We Learned From Past Marketing Tactics?

A decade ago, investing in television ads used to be predictable. However, today for a TV or Radio Commercial to impact revenue, viewers/listeners must tune in to the commercial 4-5 times to trigger buying behavior (such as calling your company, coming into a restaurant, going to a website, etc.).

The problem is that the average buyer isn’t watching TV or listening to radio in part because traditional channels have been replaced by subscription-style services such as Spotify and Pandora for radio and Netflix for television, most of which are ad-free.

Today, traditional media no longer presents an acceptable ROI unless a brand is able to invest millions into an advertising budget to ensure there will be enough impressions to motivate a buyer to take action.

Such that consumers don’t tune in to traditional media channels like they did in the past, they DO spend greater than 6 hours per day online in some social/online or digital forum.

A few years ago, a digital advertising budget was a predictable path to growth. Today, that is no longer true as more than 80% of all adults block online advertisements, and there is a growing movement towards spending less time on social media.

It’s No Longer a One-Size Fits All Marketing Model

So, what does work? The truth is…it depends on how you want to position your brand to your buyer.

It depends on your product and on the buyer’s media consumption habits. Buyers may like information and education, some want infographics, some want stories and entertainment.

There are 3 considerations to planning growth strategies today:

1. Education & Entertainment: Buyers want education and entertainment rather than to rely on advertisements for purchasing decisions.
2. Social Engagement: Consumers are decreasing time spent on social media. However, they are prioritizing social media for 3 activities: Entertainment, News/Current Affairs, Product Reviews & Research (link to research)
3. Medium: Video viewership (63%), has surpassed blogging (60%) in usage as a social media marketing.

In addition, mobile video usage has increased by 10 million daily viewing minutes in the last two years. For that reason, there is a way to move to a video-based format, displayed across several social networks to drive ROI more effectively.

Forrester Research stated: “One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.”

What is the Next Big Thing in Digital Marketing?

What IS working is using video to tell your brand’s story in a way that the buyer finds helpful – as in educational, interesting, and entertaining.

Video-based tools include everything from social videos, to Webisode series, to educational animated videos. Social videos tell your story authentically and connect your brand with your target market, which is why video traffic is expected to explode in the next 2 years. Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all internet traffic by 2021.

So, what can you do to reposition your brand and GROW?

• Identify where your buyers are hanging out online, and why they are there. What are they doing with the time they spend online?
• Find out what buyers want to consume in the way of information. Do they prefer stories, facts, research, experts, or entertaining vignettes?
• Figure out how to differentiate your brand in a way that matters to your buyer. Forget about telling your buyer why you’re great. SHOW them why through stories, information, and edutainment.