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The most remarkable people of our lifetime have persistence and consistency to thank for their success. Beethoven became deaf at the age of 30, yet it was after this age that he produced most of his beloved works, delivering the same incredible quality of music. James Earl Jones, the iconic, booming voice behind favorite characters like Mufasa (Lion King) and Darth Vader (Star Wars), had first to overcome his stutter, taking incredible focus and dedication. No matter the adversities these individuals faced, they became successful in their own rights, and their works are still remembered and enjoyed today.
Now, apply the idea of consistency and persistence to marketing. Can similar ideals contribute to a successful marketing campaign and branding strategy? They absolutely can! Persistence and consistency prove essential for making a name for yourself, attracting new customers, and retaining clients. If you aren’t consistent with your brand and persistent in your marketing efforts, it’s easy to lose your audience’s attention. To avoid this with your marketing and brand, 309 Marketing Group can be your guide!
As a business owner, you’re looking for results. You want to continue attracting new customers and capturing new leads with a successful marketing campaign. However, if that campaign doesn’t produce immediate results, switching gears and trying something else is tempting. While it’s good to be aware of what is and isn’t working for an advertising direction, it’s also important not to immediately jump off when results are less than expected.
Take search engine optimization (SEO), one of 309 Marketing Group’s primary digital marketing services. SEO is a popular marketing technique that incorporates creating organic content, external and internal linking, and on-page optimization to have your business’s website appear at the top of popular search engines. 309 Marketing and other agencies have seen incredible success in building a business’s brand and acquiring leads via SEO, with 49% of marketers saying organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel. Yet, SEO takes time to work, as Google and other search engines don’t analyze and index websites every day; we tell our clients it can take about six months before seeing website rankings move. This delay between the start of an SEO campaign and its producing results scares off clients and has them try other marketing approaches.
However, as we tell all of our SEO clients, it’s a marathon, not a sprint! Those of our clients that stick with SEO see incredible results, with many producing as many as 3x more leads than standard paid search advertising. However, those that quickly abandon SEO never see the fruits of this labor come to fruition. The moral of the story: persistence for any marketing effort, such as SEO, is crucial to its success.
While maintaining persistence requires continued effort, consistency involves keeping the same over time. Both are related in that persistence and consistency in marketing mean not giving up on an idea, strategy or brand. For consistency’s sake, it’s also about not confusing your audience and setting a tone that doesn’t differ from your business’s purpose and goals. This especially rings true when it comes to establishing your brand.
When first establishing your business’s identity, a lot must go into those decisions. From creating a logo to adhering to your business’s mission statement, ensuring everything you say and produce agrees with what you do and represent is essential. In other words, you don’t want to say one thing and do something else. If a customer pulls into a drive-thru expecting to be happily greeted, only to be met by an autonomous recording, it can be off-putting and cost you that customer’s trust.
Let’s go a bit further with our examples. Consider the logos of popular soda brands Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The rivalry between these two carbonated beverages has been nothing less than legendary, as they have continually competed for the largest share of the market for over a century. Yet, when you consider the changes in these brands over the years, Pepsi’s logo and branding underwent six different iterations (with degrees of variations in between logo changes). Coca-Cola, on the other hand, has only changed its logo TWICE in the last 135 years. Now, look at the market share of each company: in 2023, Coca-Cola brands held 69% of the US soft drink market while Pepsi brands only held 27%. That’s a huge difference!
Although not changing its logo alone did not directly influence Coca-Cola’s success, it says something else about the company and its commitment to consistency. Coca-Cola wanted consumers to instantly recognize its logo and branding, regardless of the specific products it was used for. Hence, Coca-Cola stayed consistent, from its use of imagery (the Coca-Cola polar bears) to the quality of its product (that same great crisp taste). This consistency has helped maintain customer trust and loyalty over the many years Coca-Cola has stayed in business and has kept the company at the top of its industry.
Your brand’s consistency should extend beyond just logos and slogans; it should also be reflected in your social media presence, website design, and content marketing strategy. Make sure all elements align with your overall brand identity and messaging. This will help create a cohesive image that customers can easily recognize and identify with for your business.
Consistency and persistence are crucial when it comes to both marketing campaigns and branding strategies. Like James Earl Jones had to stay persistent in his speech therapy, businesses must stay consistent with their messaging and branding to succeed. Remember, marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, so stick with it and stay consistent in your efforts for long-term success! For help establishing your brand and advertising your company, 309 Marketing is the number one choice for Central Illinois business owners. If you are interested in our digital marketing or web design services, call 309-213-9398.