Great brands are memorable, but they only got that way by focusing on the basics of branding. Regardless of what a brand does to establish its place in the market, there are five fundamental actions a brand must perform consistently and persistently across content development and other branding activities to make sure they’re staying relevant to its audience.

Know your customer

Every aspect of marketing begins with knowing your customer, which means identifying your niche and knowing everything you can about the people who make up that niche. It means knowing who they are, what matters most to them, where you can find them, if they’re on mobile, how to get their attention, and when is the best time to put your message in front of them.

To learn these things, you must engage with your customers over and over to truly understand them (including talking directly to them). What you know about your customer must be continually updated, so don’t be deceived into thinking this is a one-time event. However, once you really know your customers, not only is it easier to acquire new ones, it is also easier to keep the ones you have.

Know your “why”

Your “why” is your purpose for being in business. From your customers’ perspective, your purpose is not the product or service you provide, nor is it how you conduct business or what values guide your organization. From the customer’s perspective, your purpose must be to resolve some fundamental discomfort they are experiencing.

Your “why” is the foundation of your brand messaging and must resonate with your customer segment in a fundamental way. Look to loved and cherished brands like Apple and Starbucks as examples: they both have plenty of competitors, but they also stand head and shoulders above their competitors.

Many people will argue that Apple’s products are not worth the price people pay. Other people will say the same about Starbucks’ coffee–that it really isn’t that good. And yet, these brands continue to prosper and grow because they know their customers intimately and make it their job to deliver what matters most to their customers. This is their “why.”

When you know your customers so well that you know what matters most to them, you will be close to knowing your “why.”

Make a promise

Customers are not really that interested in your product or service alone. They are not inherently enthralled in your story unless they are part of that story in some way. This means you must show them how you can help them be the hero in their own story.

Customers are most interested in themselves and whether or not you can provide an experience they are willing to pay for at a price they deem reasonable. Memorable branding is promising to deliver an experience that is so compelling and so alluring that your customers cannot ignore it. Promise the right experience, and your brand will be irresistible.

Make sure you can deliver the experience

But, before you make the promise, make sure you can deliver the experience you have promised. People don’t like to be misled and they will never forget if they believe they have been deceived.

Stay on track

There are two aspects to staying on track.

The first is being consistent. Consistency is the hallmark behavior of a brand. Your customers want you to be predictable in your messaging and predictable in your capacity to deliver the experiences they expect from you–the experiences you have promised them.

The second aspect of staying on track is to measure and track what is working and what is not. This will take you back to the first item on this list and help you achieve a better understanding of your customer. A better understanding of your customer will help you find better ways to articulate your “why” and help you refine the experiences you promise to your customers. Just make sure you deliver. And stay on track.

Once this branding cycle is put in place, it can be applied to your web presence, your content strategy, and your social media plan. And remember: it’s a cycle, not a one-time activity. Always be ready to rinse and repeat so you can stay up to date who your customer is and how your brand can best serve them.

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For companies who need to share, access and provide information in a fast-paced environment, social media platforms are often the best way to that. These websites are the new wave of marketing, and they are great for boosting one’s self-narrated “life story,” where photos can be shared or hidden, friends made and lost.

But for businesses looking to network with other organizations, these websites are missing one important element: the ability to share and exchange ideas with personalized, self-selected audiences.

Thanks to the mega-empire Google has created, information can be targeted to specific audiences a la Google Plus. The business-friendly social platform has all the benefits of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, plus it allows users to publish, post and share their thoughts, favorite articles, and latest business schemes – all under their own discretion.

With Google Plus, businesses can personally target certain ‘circles’ to see and share information with – a great way to amplify business-to-business marketing content. Whether you’re just getting started, or looking to increase engagement on an established page, here’s a how-to to get started with Google Plus:

The post Amplifying B2B Marketing Content with Google Plus [Infographic] appeared first on Relevance.

The importance of mobile isn’t something you can worry about in the distant future; it’s something you need to focus on now. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, there’s a good chance you are losing potential customers. Research suggests that 40 percent of users will abandon a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load. If you are struggling to get more customers, it might be that your site isn’t mobile friendly.

Many companies struggle to understand what exactly makes a site mobile friendly. Just because you can view your site on a smartphone or other device doesn’t mean it’s optimized; it might take too long to load or your navigation buttons might be too small for touch-based gadgets. Of course, mobile has its own set of challenges, such as different screen sizes, network capabilities, processing powers and even operating systems.

As daunting as all this might sound, there is a solution that can not only improve your mobile usability but may also improve your Google page ranking: responsive design. Responsive design automatically changes the layout of websites to fit the device on which they’re being viewed.

Of course, responsive design isn’t a magic bullet. Even with a responsive website, it’s imperative to keep mobile at the forefront of your mind when creating content. High-resolution images might look nice, but they will slow down page load time. Also, make sure that any content that appears above the fold is compelling enough that visitors keep scrolling.

If you are just starting to incorporate mobile into your strategy, the following infographic can provide more information on responsive design and tools for mobile design.

The post Tools and Tips for Mobile Responsive Design [Infographic] appeared first on Relevance.

Unlike other social ads, promoting your content through +Post ads will display your ads across the Google Display Ad network (commonly known as Adsense). This means that instead of littering Google Plus with ads, the +Post ads are located on third party websites that already utilize Google Adsense.

Despite Facebook’s large membership base, your ads are limited to that platform’s audience. On the other hand, Google Plus ads can potentially be seen by an unlimited number of people.

What sets these +Post ads apart from traditional online ads is its interactivity. +Post Ads are actual, live Google Plus posts from an advertiser’s page, not just static copy.

Site visitors can easily share, like or even read the full post all without leaving the site where the ad appears. It’s a whole new level of web advertising that focuses on providing an immersive content experience.

And it’s proven quite successful. Toyota was able to see a 50 percent increase in ad engagement with their +Post ads and other companies have experienced similar success.

Not all companies can take advantage of the +Post ads, only those that have over 1,000 followers can. If you do have the following and want to increase your visibility, this infographic can provide tips on how to optimize your ads.

The post Why Google Plus Ads Could Be The Best New Paid Social Tool [Infographic] appeared first on Relevance.