In this landscape of global challenges and change, companies are transforming to be more differentiated in their marketing efforts. This goes beyond employing repackaged traditional approaches but calls for a deeper brand connection, more effective messaging, and a fresh, differentiated communication strategy. To position your brand for success, consider answering these seven key questions:

1. Q. Are you connecting more meaningfully through messaging and storytelling?
   Ensure your messaging resonates with your audience and is infused with the power of storytelling. Crafting effective messaging starts with building the hierarchy in order of priority importance and communicating it in a narrative that builds a story arc. The end result can be applied to thought leadership, scripts, marketing campaigns, presentations, etc. ensuring your brand value is captured top-down and resonates with people’s needs.
   
   
2. Q. Are you getting impactful results launching products?
   Achieving impact in launching products today is more challenging than ever, and it may require a new, fresh approach to stand apart. To start, research your competition: what are they doing right, and wrong? For a new perspective, you can also find inspiration from how sectors outside of yours are marketing products to get new ideas. When it comes time to put the ideas into action, using video content to capture a viewer’s attention will give you the boost to outshine your competition in creative campaigns, and help achieve measurable, tangible success and ROI.
   
   
3. Q. Are you effectively raising brand awareness and visibility?
   Do your customers know who you are? Maximizing your brand’s presence and visibility through numerous communication channels, from content to campaigns, is instrumental in boosting your brand’s differentiation and recognition. The goal to achieve is: “When my customers think of [product], they need to think of [my company].” Digital marketing and all its strategies over all touch points can amplify and differentiate your brand across all channels, keeping it at the forefront of your customer’s minds.
   
   
4. Q. Are you boosting engagement with powerful social media content?
   Ah, social media, the never ending scroll of content. How are you going to get your customers to stop scrolling and pay attention to you? Is it based on expertise and experience? Features and benefits? Innovation? Price and value? No matter what, elevating your social media engagement with fresh content and creative strategies delivered over organic posts and paid campaigns that captivate your audience is essential for achieving revenue goals. In addition, HubSpot data shows that employing creative video and animation provides higher results in increasing engagement but generating more leads and higher conversion rates.
   
   
5. Q. Are you maximizing your website channel for growth?
   When was the last time you critically audited your main website? While it may contain accurate information, is it effectively building your brand’s value, incorporating SEO best practices, and generating new business? Part of this effectiveness lies in how well your website interacts with other digital marketing efforts. For optimal growth, you may consider creating targeted marketing landing pages that laser focus on unique customer needs with tailored content, videos, case studies, etc. to build the value story. These highly effective pages laser focus on needs and you can drive traffic from email campaigns or social media campaigns for increased engagement and conversions.
   
   
6. Q. Are you informing and educating customers?
   With a new product launch, comes many questions. How does it work? What are all the features? How will it integrate with my systems? Enhance your customer’s understanding of a new product or service by deploying educational content that informs and answers questions allaying fears and the need to call customer service for guidance. Digital tools like articles, infographics, explainer videos, demos, and interactive self-service tools are only some of the strategies available to educate and guide customers to ensure brand satisfaction and loyalty. Ensure that customer education is the last part of a product development timeline.
   
   
7. Q. Are you equipping sales teams with tools that close business?
   As Alec Baldwin so memorably said in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, “Always Be Closing”. Sales teams need effective strategies, engaging content, and practical tools to help close the deal. Developing modular toolkits with sales content, case studies, customizable presentations with compelling storylines is essential. Additionally, incorporating interactive or animated product demos can demystify product functionality and reinforce your value proposition. While not every tool will be used in every engagement, it’s crucial to equip your sales force to excel in today’s highly competitive landscape.