When you entrust your brand with BKN Creative, we treat it like our own. To us, this means there are amazing visuals, the voice matches the brand, the social media experience reflects the personality perfectly, the website loads quickly, the name is easy to recognize, the content is engaging, and so on… We believe in the importance of curating positive experiences throughout every step of the client-interaction lifecycle – for BKN, for our clients, and for theirs! In-house, we refer to this as ‘experience marketing’*.
*Note: Not to be confused with the ‘official’ term, “Experience Marketing” A.K.A. “experiential marketing,” which is a strategy that uses in-person events to promote products.
No matter how new or established your brand is, it is always beneficial to evaluate (and re-evaluate) your marketing experience every step of the way. The best way to do that is to put yourself in the client’s shoes and approach your brand the way a consumer would. This should be easy because you are a consumer already!
Here are some of the ways we go about utilizing experience marketing.
The first thing we consider is—how will we first come in contact with your brand? Through ads on social media? Streaming our favorite show? A partnership with a brand we already follow?
Well, guess what? No matter the answer, the experience should be the same – easy, memorable, shareable.
Thanks to excellent marketing/ a referral from a friend / a well-placed ad, we’ve heard of you! Now what? What happens once a brand gets on our radar? We take a lil’ trip to our favorite search engine to learn more! Your brand’s search presence plays a huge role in experience marketing. Think about the last time you looked up something on google?
How quickly did you find what you were looking for? How high up was your result on the S.E.R.P. (search engine results page)? And that’s assuming your result came up on page 1 because let’s be real…we all know that page 2 is where forgotten websites go to die.
This is where S.E.O., P.P.C. (pay per click), and other digital marketing magic come into play.
Ever asked yourself, “What is S.E.O, and what’s it got to do with my brand?” We got you, boo. The letters S.E.O. stand for search engine optimization and refer to the art and science of improving your website’s visibility on search engines. Simply put, in today’s world, it’s necessary.
Here are a few tips and tricks to improve your S.E.O.:
- Research keywords (and “topic clusters”)
- Optimize your page experience (everything from headings to Backlinks!)
- Repurpose and refresh existing content each year
- Consider paid ads (such as P.P.C—Pay-per-click, for higher rankings)
- Invest in engaging content!!*
*Remember, friends, your website shouldn’t just appeal to algorithms and robots; humans should like it, too!
With our powers combined, we can do all of the above (and more!)
Now, where were we?
Right. So you’ve optimized your site to death, and become #1 on Google’s results page (CONGRATS, by the way.) Time to explore your website!
Hope it doesn’t take too long to load…The average fully loaded speed is 10.3 seconds. Good luck keeping the attention of anyone born after 1985 with anything slower!
Is your load time lagging? We got you! Client touchpoints, like your website, are our top priority; your site our first stop on our tour of your marketing experience. If your site’s loading time is lagging, we can help you fix it. We’ll also help you identify any other UX challenges.
Here are a few red flags that drive away business:
- Not optimized for your screen (make sure your site’s mobile-friendly!)
- Difficult to navigate
- Pop-ups!
- Lack of clear organization (easy-to-find search boxes go a long way!)
- Lack of engaging content (entertain us!!!)
- Uninspiring or outdated visuals (Comic Sans is NOT okay y’all)
Where to next? Whether or not customers look up your website, in 2022, you can bet they’re looking for you on social media. What kind of experience will they have??
Instagram loads up and they type your company name into the search bar. Do you pop up? Are you the top result? Are there ten other pages with names similar to yours? One of the first things you can do to improve your marketing experience is to make sure your handle is relevant and easy to remember.
Found your Insta! What does your feed look like? Is your content indicative of your service? For example—as a designer, is your ability reflected in your social presence? More importantly, does your page reflect your company’s values? There’s nothing consumers hate more than a hypocrite. And it’s easier to tell than you may think.
Applying the above logic to all facets of your marketing lifecycle will elevate your customer experience and significantly impact your brand’s success. It’s easy to test this for yourselves. Start exploring a brand of interest today, note what was easy and challenging, and let that inform your approach moving forward.
All that said, every brand is unique. What works for the fashion industry won’t be the same as what works for the insurance industry. So, finding the right creative marketing agency to work with is key to continued success. You’ll need one that can help you effectively navigate your experience marketing strategy while collaborating to creatively develop your brand identity so you can focus on the administrative tasks of your business. Get you an agency that can do both. That’s where BKN Creative comes in. Let’s grow together! We love meeting new people, sharing stories, and developing strategies to help your adventure succeed. Reach out to us today for inventive ways to improve your experience marketing!
