AI is capable of some incredible things. In particular, it excels at analyzing vast data repositories and finding the deep patterns that drive events. However, it’s still at the point where it is suited to particular tasks.
The rise of cognitive AI tools over the last few years, such as Generative AI, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), speech recognition, and so on, has been impressive. These technologies hint at a future where AI will be capable of something approaching intelligence and creativity.
For all the talk about the power of AI, the actual use cases and applications that governments and organizations trust are mainly related to data analytics and machine learning. To put it another way, AI is still best suited for narrow tasks, and that is reflected in the broader market.
One of those tasks is performance marketing. AI is perfectly suited to this task for three main reasons:
(i) It can analyze massive data sets
(ii) It can find meaningful patterns and make predictions based on this data
(iii) It can automate complex tasks at speed.
When taken together, these qualities are among the reasons why Amanda AI can outperform humans in digital marketing.
However, there are lots of elements of advertising that still need a human touch. One of these is branding.
Why branding is important
Branding is a critical part of a successful business. We’ve previously covered why branding is an important part of performance marketing. In short, it has a strong effect on conversions because of trust and familiarity.
However, it’s worth widening the scope of this topic and looking at ways that you can improve your branding and exploring some of the tools that can help with that task.
As any business owner knows, branding is about more than just conversions. It’s also about having an identity, developing customer relationships, driving loyalty, and communicating your unique selling point (USP).
5 great tools for branding
Great branding requires a human touch, but that doesn’t mean you can go it entirely alone. Here are five great tools for different branding tasks.
Social listening: Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a social media management tool. It helps you manage your social media platforms from a centralized hub. You can publish and schedule posts and content, and it has excellent analytics and reporting tools to help you boost your marketing.
However, perhaps one of the tool’s best features is its social listening and monitoring features. They help you stay on top of your brand perception and make changes and adjustments based on data.
Logos and visuals: Canva
Canva has changed the graphic design game. It wasn’t too long ago that designing logos, visuals, website content, posters, infographics, and more required the skills (and the expense) of graphic designers.
Tools like Canva have totally democratized the discipline by offering great templates, customizable designs, background separation, and a wide range of fonts. Best of all, it’s really quick to use, even for nontechnical employees.
Email marketing and newsletters: Mailchimp
Email marketing is still here, and it’s still producing results. Applications like Mailchimp allow you to automate your newsletters and marketing emails and collect essential performance metrics. It’s user-friendly, comes with tons of templates, and integrates with your CRM. It also has a limited free plan to help get you going.
Video marketing: Synthesia
Synthesia is part of a new era of AI-assisted video generation tools. You feed it a script, and it returns a video with an Avatar talking to the camera. Sure, the tech is not quite at maximum fluidity, and there is a touch of the uncanny valleythere, but compared to hiring actors and video editors, it’s quick and inexpensive. Tools like this allow brands to generate video content for social media, onboarding, product demonstrations, and so on.
User onboarding and retention: Usetiful
Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) like Usetiful are a great way to ensure your users know how to get maximum value from your app or website. These no-code tools allow you to create in-app overlays that use tooltips, hotspots, product tours and demos, and more to help show off the products and features that make your product special.
There are several big-name tools that provide similar services, but Usetiful offers the same features at a bargain price and even has a free option.
5 great tips for branding
A great brand comes from the perfect fusion of purpose, values, attitude, and visual impact. Here are 5 tips to help you define your business.
Have a sense of purpose
Great brands have a sense of purpose. People use products because they have a pain point that they want to solve. Your job is to position yourself as their indispensable guide towards a new, easier life, no matter what that is.
Think about your audience and the problems they have. Speak to them in their language about how your mission is to help them reach their goals, simplify your niche, be kinder to the environment, or whatever is appropriate.
Embrace consistency
Omnichannel marketing is essential if you want to reach your target audience. However, just because distribution is fragmented, that should not affect the unity of your message. So, keep things consistent.
That said, slightly modulating your message for different platforms is essential. For example, the TikTok and LinkedIn audiences are different demographics. Use a different tone but keep the core message on point.
Focus on storytelling
Humans love stories. We are hardwired to absorb information within the bounds of narrative. There are lots of different ways that you can approach this. For starters, you can make your brand the hero of the story.
Or you can take the popular StoryBrand approach and make your prospect the hero and write yourself into the narrative as the wise, trusty guide who is here to help them realize their potential.
In other words, you can be Luke, or you can be Yoda; just be someone!
Accentuate your USP
Your USP should be front and center of your branding. Whether you’re faster, cheaper, cooler, more innovative, relatable, or sustainable, it needs to be part of your message across all points. Good branding is about enforcing that point and never letting your customers and prospects forget what makes you great.
Define your visual identity
A visual identity is more than just a logo. It’s also about font, color, and how you compose your website and marketing materials. Ensure you have a distinct visual identity if you want recognition. Tie it into your purpose, if possible. Study color theory too, so you find tones that set the right tone.
Final thoughts
Performance marketing tools like Amanda AI are great at getting your brand in front of the right people at the right time. However, if you want to optimize your conversions, you need to think about branding.
When you get branding right, it positions you as the trusted go-to person for solving a particular problem. So, use our list to take care of the little details and Amanda AI can take care of the big data.
