I know I've talked about this before (if you've read some of my other blog posts, you might know this already), but I love Taco Bell's marketing.
The quick-wit on Twitter, the upheaval in their branding a few years ago … I love it all.
The main reason I admire their corporate marketing is because it has a real brand story that I can relate to as a customer.
As a marketer, we should all strive to achieve that result from our messaging. That's why we're going to discuss corporate marketing today.
Below, let's review what corporate marketing is and how to improve your strategy.
When corporate marketing is working correctly, it'll keep the flywheel spinning. It should attract new customers, while engaging leads, and delighting current customers.
Usually, the corporate marketing team will decide what type of messaging tactics to use to appeal to your target audience. Those tactics could include a corporate newsletter, blog, email campaign, ad, radio spot, direct mail campaign, or even just your social media channels.
Ultimately, the main goal of corporate marketing is to improve your brand image, while strengthening relationships with your customers so they become brand advocates.
To be successful, your messaging should clearly communicate your unique value proposition. For example, brands like Tesla have a strong, recognizable brand that differentiates the company from its competitors.
Now that we know more about corporate marketing, let's dive into eight tactics you can use to improve your corporate marketing strategy.
8 Ways to Help Improve Your Corporate Marketing Strategies
1. Alleviate pain points.
One of the main ways to improve your corporate marketing strategy is to alleviate your customer's pain points with your content offers. If your brand is known for being helpful in this way, your customers will surely become brand advocates.
For example, your content can include free ebooks, educational YouTube videos, or bootcamp style lessons.
These types of offers will help people get to know your brand better and convince them that they need to use your product.
Additionally, it can help establish you as an authority in your industry, while building trust with your audience, and obtaining new leads.
2. Focus on your customers.
At the center of your corporate marketing strategy should be your customers. You have to understand your target audience to deliver what they want and communicate with them effectively.
In fact, if you don't truly understand your audience, it'll be harder for you to come up with corporate marketing objectives. Once you have a clear understanding of your audience, you can figure out what your goals are, whether that's generating traffic or raising brand awareness.
One way to get to know your audience better is to send customer satisfaction surveys. This will help you learn more about your audience and what they like and dislike about your product. With this information in hand, you'll be able to market your product in a way that differentiates you from your competitors, which brings us to our next tip.
3. Be unique.
Your corporate marketing strategy should include a plan for how you're going to stand out among your competitors. You need to know your unique value proposition and communicate that through your messaging.
If you aren't sure what makes you unique, do a competitive analysis and look for the gaps in your competitor's marketing strategy. What do you offer that they don't? Figure out what makes your brand special, and talk about that.
4. Know your brand.
Not to reiterate the point above, but you need to know who you are as a brand. Customers like to make purchases from brands that align with their lifestyle.
For example, Trader Joe's is known for carrying organic, fresh products. If buying organic products is important to a consumer, they're always going to choose Trader Joe's over another grocery store option that doesn't have a clearly defined brand or lifestyle.
Your corporate marketing isn't just selling your company as a whole, but a lifestyle as well.
5. Be intentional with your brand's voice.
Your brand should have a voice that's apparent in every form of communication your company puts out. The language and words you choose to use are important. Speaking the same language (literally and figuratively) helps people connect with your brand.
For example, when TheSkimm, a daily newsletter, was created, the founders decided to create a fictitious persona of the "Skimm Girl" that was sending the newsletter. This helped them define their brand's perspective and voice.
Ultimately, having a strong brand voice will help people personify your brand. Additionally, it can help set you apart from the crowd with your own unique style.
6. Provide great customer service.
Corporate marketing isn't just about the messages your marketing department delivers. It's about your brand identity as a whole.
That's why your customer service shouldn't be forgotten when you're thinking about your corporate marketing strategy.
Providing excellent customer service will delight your customers so they become brand advocates.
When people experience good customer service, they talk about it. People might even know you have great customer service, even if they aren't a customer.
For example, I know that Zappos provides great customer service, even though I've never bought anything from the site because their customers talk about it.
That's a great reputation to have and great messaging for potential customers to hear.
7. Have a social media presence.
Social media is one of the main channels you'll use to communicate with your audience. That's why you need to have a strong social media presence as a part of your corporate marketing strategy.
On social media, you can let your brand personality shine. People can truly get to know you as a brand.
Additionally, social media can help strengthen your relationships with your customers and understand their needs better since it's a form of two-way communication.
8. Write a blog.
Are you looking for a way to establish trust with your audience? Creating a blog is the best way to do this.
On a blog, you can provide free, helpful, educational content for your customers. Doing this will help you create a brand identity that's authoritative in your industry.
Before you get started with these strategies, it's important to consider whether you have the right tools. Enterprise marketing software, like HubSpot's Marketing Hub Enterprise, can help you implement these corporate marketing strategies.
Corporate marketing is the way that your company communicates with your audience as a whole. It's how you build brand awareness, and establish credibility, and trust with your audience.