Know Yourself to Connect with Others

When it comes to marketing, your message and your vision are at the heart of any successful campaign. Not only is it about what you say, but how you present it to your audience.

When you’re clear on what you stand for, then it becomes much easier to connect with your audience and folks who need to hear your message.

Let’s consider the ways to present a strong and clear message on and offline.

Know Yourself, Define Your Brand

At Thinkubator Media, we take great pride in helping brands highlight their naturally empowering qualities. This can sometimes feel challenging if you’ve been embedded in the research for a long time. We help companies, researchers, and founders pull back and focus on the high-level impacts of their work.

Consider some of the following questions to start defining your brand.

What do I want my brand to represent?
What does the brand stand for?
What are our core beliefs and values?

The simplicity of these keywords and phrases can be helpful when creating content that is targeted toward your desired audience. When you can actively engage and connect with a crowd that is new to your area of expertise, your brand will be unstoppable.

Once you narrow your vision down to a few keywords, you can begin strategizing on how to convey these qualities to your audience.

Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience starts with defining it. Asking yourself or your team a series of questions can help you get a better understanding of who you’re trying to connect with. Consider some of the following questions to get started:

Where are these people online and offline?
What publications are they reading?
What are they watching?
What circles are they in?
What do they engage with on social media?
Which social media platforms do they use, if any?

It can be helpful to define a handful of target groups that can benefit from seeing your content and working with you. Messaging makes it possible to paint a clear picture for anyone who may come across you and your content.

Present Your Unique Perspective

At Thinkubator Media, we are big on bringing out the best, most authentic voice from each of our clients. Don’t be afraid to explore new and exciting ways to express yourself to a wider audience.

As we become more consumed and exposed to multiple channels of content and information, it is crucial (and sometimes hard!) to stand out. Aside from joining trending topics, following the crowd can be detrimental to your online presence.

Rather than being caught in the undertow of endless posts and hashtags, you can strategize the most effective way to present your content by:

Creating clear content pillars that answer, “What do you want to be known for?”
- Start with 2-3 pillars and grow from there
Defining key aspects of your content creation habits
- When to post (day and time, are you launching sales or other deals at a certain time?)
- What to post (blogs, emails, videos, Instagram reels, a silly, informative, or otherwise engaging image, etc)
- How often to post online
Planning and automating your post schedule
Designating a specific person or team to manage your social media communications

Expressing yourself in a genuine, creative, and aesthetically pleasing manner can make your message pop.

Want to Build an Online Presence? Start Here

There are several factors to consider when building your brand.

Working with teams in various stages of growth, we have identified the fundamental aspects to consider in your quest for marketing success.

There are several facets of healthy brand development, including:

Online presence
Messaging
Coaching
Reputation building
Visual branding

For this post, let’s consider the importance of an online presence for your brand. You can follow and adjust these guidelines in a way that feels most natural to you.

Online Presence

In our digital age, online presence has become essential to a brand's success.

Establishing your brand online mainly includes:

A website or blog/vlog
Social media presence

Building an online presence is at the core of any brand’s ability to grow its following and establish credibility. By showcasing your talents, services, and stories, you can appeal to your ideal audience just by being you. Relating to your audience in your own unique way will keep them engaged with you and your content.

There are a few key factors that encompass a well-rounded brand.

Authenticity

Branding comes from an authentic standpoint. You shouldn’t have to change your style or message to reach your preferred audience. In fact, it is a lot easier to find ways to make your product or services stand out when your brand is genuine. Most people can tell if a company is going through a series of gimmicks versus applying themselves in an honest way.

In a time when we are bombarded with content and options, people gravitate towards those who present their authentic selves.

Clarity

Communicating about science and interdisciplinary work can be challenging, leaving the average reader with many unanswered questions. As experts in your field, it is important to glean the most vital information for your audience, translating the intricacies of science into a palatable format for the general public.

Although translating complex scientific information can be tricky, it is important to realize that this is why most brands develop an entire communications division. Having a designated person or team solely focused on making these lasting connections with your audience and sponsors leaves room for the rest of the team to tend to their niches.

Content Creation

Content Creation is a large part of maintaining relevance online. Nowadays, you can scroll content endlessly, finding anything from anyone at any given time.

We are also starting to see the rise of people going viral for short and interesting skits, commentary, and other snippets that leave the audience yearning for more. With constant replays and shares, audience engagement pushes more and more people to the forefront for the digital world to see.

If your team can focus on creating content that leaves your viewers with something new and memorable, you’ll be on the right track toward building a strong brand. If you don’t know where to start, ask yourself, “What do I (or the company) want to be known for?” Answering this question will help you create pillars, or themes, that can steer your content development.

It is also important to maintain the story and content you share so that your audience has a reason to keep coming back.

Consistency

Being consistent with your brand’s style and content not only appears professional, but intentional.

When you design your website and posts, maintaining a visual theme can make your creations easier to engage with and remember.

It is also important to maintain a regular schedule for posts so that you incorporate them into the rest of your brand’s needs. Keeping your clients up to date with your latest thoughts, developments, and progress will make them feel valued and included.

Captivation

Creating content doesn’t have to be as complicated as it may seem. Whether you create short skits, take pictures, or write text posts for content, finding ways to make it captivating is key.

There are millions of posts a day on the top social media platforms. Creating content that stands out will help guide your brand toward success and longevity in our fast-paced online world.

Collaborations

When you are able to partner with other established brands, influencers, and creators, you can expose yourself to new clientele.

Finding partners with similar interests can pave the way for new connections and customers. You can appear as a guest on a podcast, share content, and collaborate in other unique ways to reach each other’s respective following.

Establishing your online presence simply starts with defining who you are and who your ideal audience is.

At Thinkubator Media, we encourage our clients to truly understand their uniqueness so that they can define it in a way that attracts a loyal and engaged audience.