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We spend enough time consuming content to know what good looks like. So, making it should be easy, right? Here’s OnBrand’s Tom Roberts to explain the marketing maths you need to have behind every piece of great content and how you can put it into practice today.

First, I’ll clarify that when I say “content” I mean everything. That includes blogs, videos, your social media posts and your on-site copy. Because everything starts with written words! Businesses want to create winning content, but I’m surprised so many miss the mark.

However, creating it can be boiled down to some simple marketing maths.

Brand Personality + Answering Customer Questions = Winning Content

That’s it. Blog done. Best of luck!

I’m kidding, of course. But it really is that simple. Too many businesses create some content because it’s something THEY want to do. Instead, they should be thinking about how it will help their customers.

Maybe it’s just me, but if your business has customers, they must come first. If more of your output is all about you, then what’s in it for your customers?

Find Your Brand Personality

This isn’t just about your branding (although it plays its part), it’s about finding the very fabric of your business so you can translate that into its voice.

Is it just you running the show? Then your own voice is the natural tone for your output. If you’re part of a bigger company, defining how you want the business to be perceived will dictate the personality & tone.

Once you decide how you want to sound, you’ve got your brand personality. This is what needs to come across in every bit of content you create from now on.

Answering Customer Needs

What’s the name of the biggest search engine on the planet? Google. Where do more people ask questions about products, services and life advice than anything else on the planet? Google. Therefore, you must answer the questions your customers are asking in places that can be found by Google.

If you can create useful things that help your customers achieve their goals – a FAQs page on your website, or engaging explainer videos on YouTube – you’ve fought half the battle. Then, getting that in front of your customers on social media is the battle won.

Create Winning Content

Combine those two elements of the Marketing Maths equation together, and you’ll be creating content that is not only useful to your customers, but also recognisably yours.

Standing out from the crowd is all about doing things differently, and what could be more different than your brand’s personality? That’s why injecting your brand’s personality into everything you create is the key to making winning content.

If you enjoyed this blog, head to our main blog page to read more or check out this one all about how 2020 has changed your customers. Or, if you want to find out more about how your business could be creating winning content, why not get in touch with us using the form below?

Innocent know that Instagram can increase sales and generate loyal brand advocates who enjoy engaging with their content. OnBrand’s Rachel Weinberger tells us why she thinks Innocent keeps nailing Instagram and explains how you can do the same.

Innocent are best known for their healthy drinks and brilliant social media strategy. Cutting through the noise and creating your own, distinct space in a very populated market is no easy feat – but Innocent’s distinct tone of voice and hilarious content has helped them grow a legion of brand advocates who love to engage with them.

It’s the kind of magic you wish you could bottle – that’s why I’m picking their social media best practice apart, so you can have a go at using these tried and tested tactics.

Start Conversations That Interest Your Audience

Innocent’s content often uses trending topics, most recently the Euros and Pancake Day. Innocent uses these trends to their advantage by tapping into the minds of their consumers and creating reactive content that’s engaging and relevant. Understanding your audience and creating content that resonates with them – but still fits your brand values – is key.

Innocent may not be the first brand that springs to mind when thinking of the Euros or Pancake Day, but their witty and dry content makes them hard to ignore and forget. What do smoothies have to do with the Euros or Pancake Day? Nothing. But Innocent being at the centre of these conversations simply means more exposure for their brand.

Put Your Team In The Spotlight

Innocent regularly introduces their team on their social media channels through the creation of unique stories or work accolades. Innocent’s workplace culture is unique and the way they put it front and centre on social media gives their followers a fun peek into the goings on at Fruit Towers. Being able to lean into their work culture so effectively really helps them stand out among drinks brands.

Create Shareable Content Your Audience Will Love

Innocent creates humorous, colourful assets to go with their copy, which grab attention in the feed and always look distinctly ‘Innocent’ – even when they do out-of-brand things like changing fonts, packaging or even advertising fake products that Innocent would never produce. In their mind, it’s all great brand exposure.

They’re also well versed in using Instagram’s ‘Highlights’ and ‘Story’ functions. Highlights are often the first impression users will get of a person or brand’s page – they can really bring your brand to life and (pro tip) let you utilise story content for more than 24 hours. Innocent’s stories are all about creating shareable content which they know their followers will interact with and reshare. The content is suitable for all ages and, again, reiterates the fun-loving playful nature of the brand.

Use Your Brand’s Influence For Good

Innocent are so good at using their influence to raise awareness of lesser-known days of interest, such as Pride Disability Month. This is a great way to use their following for good, but also to highlight their brand values. By celebrating these occasions they’re able to do more than tap in to what’s trending – they’re able to showcase another way they do things differently and promote wide-ranging inclusivity. This attitude ties perfectly into them being legally registered as a B Corporation – another feather in their cap that boosts brand credibility and trust.

So there you go, four key ways Innocent Smoothies smash it on Instagram. Check out their Instagram profile to see more.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out this one about our Top Tips for Content Marketing Success.

It’s Awards season! Move over BRITs, we’re talking about award entries for business.

If you’ve ever toyed with entering awards, but haven’t quite got yourself motivated, here’s a reminder of why it’s important:

• It raises your brand profile for both potential clients and future employees
• It’s a great way of showcasing your credentials and experience
• It creates a positive talking point and shows your credibility within the sector

So when you’re ready to get going, check out our tips to get your award-winning work noticed by all the right people.

Be prepared ahead of the deadline:

• At least 2 weeks before, go through the entry process and understand what needs to be pulled together. Check if it’s online and in what formats you need to provide your entry
• Assume it will take longer. Read, and re-read the entry form – give yourself time to amend

Present your entry form professionally

• Some awards require unbranded entries, but even so, entry evidence should still be presented professionally with the overall goal to wow the judges
• Consider working with a designer or copywriter to help make your story stand out

Showcase your golden nuggets

• Big numbers will shine out – find them and put them upfront so judges want to find out more
• Keep it simple – if your story is too complex, judges will get bored, so simplify your story

Tell an engaging story

• Judges want to hear a little bit of background, understand the challenge, hear how you resolved it and see amazing results
• Where possible, bring to life results with client or customer testimonials

Keep on entering

• If you don’t get shortlisted or nominated the first time, don’t be disheartened
• Like applying for jobs, you’ll get better at telling your story. The more you enter, the more the chance of winning!

It’s been an incredibly tough year for many businesses, especially those in the hospitality sector. So now, as we emerge from (hopefully the last) lockdown, what can you do to make the most of the predicted staycation boom? Discover six things you can do now to get ready for business.

The hospitality sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. Many restaurants, hotels and sporting venues across the UK have stood empty since last December. And employment figures throughout the pandemic have continually shown it to be one of the worst-hit sectors. As of November 2020 — before the latest lockdown — 600,000 hospitality jobs were furloughed and thousands of businesses were forced to shut.

So everyone – businesses and customers alike – are excited about the arrival of May 17th. We’ve started to see some football matches taking place and the crowds really went wild to be back together.

We conducted some research on people aged 20-50, and discovered that the majority of people simply can’t wait to book holidays, be inside their favourite restaurants and just get on with life. However, there is still some nervousness and trepidation.

How do you feel about hospitality being back from May 17th?

According to www.visitbritain.co.uk the 2021 forecast is for a recovery to £61.7bn in domestic tourism spending in 2021 (up 79% compared to 2020). They are also forecasting £18.0bn in domestic overnight tourism spending (82% growth on 2020).

New research has found that 83% of British travellers would prefer a UK staycation than travel abroad this year. The vast majority (68%) want to stay in Britain this due to fears of being stranded abroad, medical issues and quarantine issues on return. And this trend is set to continue into next year, bringing a boost to the country’s hospitality sector.

So as we head into half term and the summer holidays, the UK hospitality market will be getting ready for a huge boom.

How are brands talking about opening up?

Creating the right buzz about being open and ready for business in order to generate energy and excitement needs to be balanced with a sense of precaution and realism around the situation.

We love what these guys have been doing – the tone feels right, full of energy and empathy.

However, we think that some brands have become overly functional, removing the emotion behind the ‘experience’ and have become all about rules and regulation. In terms of customer engagement, they no longer create excitement.

Six things you can start doing now to be ready for business

So what can you do to be ready for the spring/summer staycation boom? How can you be on top of things? Here are six things we recommend doing now.

1) Invest in your brand

Your brand is represented by every single touch point – from your booking system, to your menu, to the way your staff present themselves on the ‘shop floor’. So ensure you invest in this. With brand loyalty becoming harder to attain, understanding your brand and being able to communicate this to your customers becomes a priority.

2) Use imagery

Create emotion through imagery. You need to create an all singing, all dancing reflection of what you offer: the best food, service and your personality. Consider using video to showcase your venue and staff, and what there is on offer. Make what you look like on camera part of your planning.

3) Leverage your social media channels with rich content

Alongside using your fab photography, ensure that you use your social media channels to really drive engagement. Consider behind the scenes footage, staff profiles, instagram lives, competitions, polls – the list is endless but your social media is a visual representation of who you are ( and the perception that you want to create). As you open, create your own unique campaign and get customers to upload and share, to continue the great news that you are open again and what your unique offering is.

4) Be ahead of the technology

Digital ordering technology has reshaped the customer journey when it comes to ordering food. Digital ordering is here to stay and investing in your own tech infrastructure is critical. Make sure you are on top of it, and also look into how you can collect data and create or grow your email base.

5) Reinforce your safety procedures

We aren’t out of the woods yet and customers will still be wary. Make sure you are clearly communicating the dos and the don’ts, but please don’t become a record of information without the fun – we can’t wait to be back on holiday, so make us feel excited!

6) Review your Google My Business

Make sure your Google My Business page is optimised and remind customers to leave reviews when they’ve visited you. And don’t forget to monitor the comments and reply.

It’s been a tough year for many businesses. It doesn’t matter whether you are a large multinational, a high street name or a small, local business; virtually everyone has been impacted by the pandemic.

But it’s not all been bad news – and there are good reasons to be cheerful about the rest of 2021.

OnBrand have been gathering inspiring survival stories of local businesses from the past year that have all demonstrated resilience and used both strategic and opportunist marketing to their advantage.

The home and garden sector has thrived during Covid. Hot tub sales in particular have seen a rise by 1,000% and suppliers have struggled to keep up with demand. Daniel Goodchild, owner of Wicked Tubs always had a multi channel marketing approach, but his focus around outstanding customer service has created positive word of mouth around his particular offering which has proven to be a winning combination.

Other businesses have cleverly adapted, listening to what their customers wanted during lockdown and tweaking their business model to keep trading.

Adam Nathan Catering was originally an event catering business. But after events were cancelled across the board, Adam turned his attention back to the kitchen to develop a cost-effective home delivery service to his already loyal catering client base.

To support Adam’s new direction, the OnBrand social media team created ownable and disruptive content to drive engagement and reach, a social media strategy to grow his customer base beyond existing customers, and launched a paid advertising campaign.

The results already speak for themselves: a return on advertising investment of £15 revenue for every £1 spent with new orders, new customers, increased turnover and a massive increased reach and audience.

Giles Fry, owner of Snug Bar told us about how he has been using customer insight to adapt to what his clients need. Through listening to customers via their social media feedback channels as well as regular team meetings, he realised that bar food has become a huge consideration. As part of their planning for opening from end April, they have created regional and bespoke cocktail and food solutions, all managed via QR codes.

Ruffwood Pizza is another example of a business cleverly adapting to the ‘new normal’. He saw all of his corporate and wedding bookings disappear, so he adapted to create ‘pizza take away in the street’. Through the positive impact of word of mouth marketing and existing brand loyalty, the business was adapted with great success.

These are just a few of the heartening business stories we’ve been part of during the past year. And there’s more good news on the way.

Economists predict up to 50% footfall across the entire retail sector from April 2021 and UK brands such as Next, are reinvesting almost £30m into digital marketing. 2021 also sees ad spend set to be 16.6% higher than 2020 across the board, meaning market confidence is there.

There are plenty of opportunities up for the taking as we emerge from lockdown this year, and we’d love to help you make the most of them. The five keys to thriving in a rapidly changing market are:

• Brand loyalty and reputation is still a key driver for small businesses
• Find ways to listen to and stay engaged with your customers
• Think creatively, competition is harder now than ever
• Make digital marketing work harder for you
• Put innovation at the heart of everything you do

And we can help you with all of them. So please get in touch to find out how we can help you join the ranks of the Covid success stories.