Following is a guest post from our friends over at Long & Short of It, masters of ideation, customer insights and market research. They like to say they “dig and find lots of data and then turn it into actionable insights.” Following is their guest post.
“What in the world were you thinking when you bought that hat?”
That simple question, what were you thinking?, holds the key to understanding why some marketing campaigns convert and others fall flat. Most companies track what customers do, but few take time to uncover why they do it.
Knowing that someone clicked on an influencer’s post and ended up on your product page tells you very little about how to replicate that success. Were they excited? Curious? Hesitant? Were they just browsing or ready to buy? This is where the real power of a customer journey comes in.
A well-built journey maps what customers are thinking, feeling, and doing at each stage. It helps you see not just the steps they take, but the emotions and motivations behind them.
Let’s go back to the hat. Picture the buyer scrolling through photos, comparing styles, reading reviews, and maybe even asking a friend for advice. They are imagining how it might look on them, if it fits their style, if it is worth the price, and if they will actually wear it. There is a mix of curiosity, excitement, and hesitation. One small moment of doubt, and the tab gets closed.
When you understand what happens in that exploring phase of the journey, you start to see where people get stuck and what might help them move forward.
Now imagine the hat company discovers that most customers feel uncertain right before they buy, maybe about size, style, or quality. With that insight, they can act.
Maybe they add an AI-powered virtual try-on. Maybe they feature detailed sizing guides with real customer photos. Maybe they highlight a no-hassle return policy or emphasize glowing reviews about fit and feel.
Each of these actions addresses an emotional barrier revealed through the journey. Each one turns hesitation into confidence.
And once you understand the journey, it becomes more than a customer experience tool. It becomes input for your marketing plan. When you know what your audience is thinking, feeling, and doing, you can deliver the right message at the right time, through the right channel.
When you connect emotion with action, you stop guessing what drives customers and start creating marketing that truly moves them. That is the real power of a customer journey.
Brand identity refers to different characteristics such as a brands story, personality, communication style and visual identity like logo choice, color pallet, imagery and typography. These visual elements, among many others, are used to curate how a brand is perceived by the public. Therefore, a brands public perception has a direct link to its success on social media.
Brand Recognition
Having consistency with visual elements such as color choice, font, imagery and logo choice creates brand recognition. When people are scrolling on social media, they will start to associate these unique elements with a specific brand. The goal in brand recognition is for consumers to recognize a specific brand and its products from competitors, ideally, they should be able to recognize the brand on social media by visual cues alone.
Trust and Credibility
Consistency is key when creating trust and credibility with an audience. Having a unified brand presence on social media in terms of visuals, communication styles and brand personality signals professionalism to viewers. As opposed to scattered and random posts, the effort shown when creating consistent, professional and visually appealing posts that align with a brand’s identity heightens trust and credibility.
Engagement and Loyalty
Engagement and loyalty for a brand stem from familiarity. When customers and viewers feel confident in what they can expect from a brand, regarding social media presence and brand personality alike, they are more likely to engage with the brand. Also, when a brand stays consistent with its brand identity, customers are more likely to express loyalty because of past experiences and personal alignment with the brand.
Differentiates from Competitors
Having a strong and consistent brand identity is one of the most effective ways for a brand to stand out from its competitors. When posting on social media, a distinct visual identity will differentiate one brand from another. This is especially helpful for brands in saturated markets such as the trades industry.
Marketing Efficiency
A brands social media content creation process is streamlined when sticking to a defined brand identity. From the general aesthetics of a post like color pallet, typography and logo use to a brand’s personality and voice reduces time when creating posts. In addition to saving time, a strong brand identity helps with reducing inconsistency from post to post.
Overall, having a consistent brand identity is essential to using social media successfully. From building trust, credibility and loyalty through a consistent visual brand identity to standing out amongst industry competitors, curating a brand identity is crucial.
The words public relations (PR), advertising and marketing are often grouped together—used synonymously by individuals both inside and outside of the broader communications industry. However, PR, marketing and advertising refer to vastly different practices, each of which provide their own specific and vital contributions to a company’s success. Rather than being three in the same, public relations, marketing and advertising are three separate entities that work together, much like how puzzle pieces fit together.
Below, we will go into a detailed breakdown of what makes PR, marketing and advertising distinct from one another.
Public Relations (PR)
The purpose of public relations is to create and maintain a positive image for an individual, business or organization. Public relations strategists focus on managing communication between the public and an organization, focusing mainly on reputation and credibility. These interactions are planned and purposeful with the goal of influencing public perceptions.
Public relations uses earned media, which is when a brand receives unpaid publicity from a third-party source. This publicity relies solely on relationships, such as media relations and influencer relations, where sending press releases and products to contacts is crucial for outreach. Some examples of earned media include:
New Coverage
Social Media Mentions
Reviews and Testimonials
User-Generated Content
Influencer Endorsements
Word-of-mouth
Advertising
The goal of advertising is to persuade an audience to take a specific action—aiming for direct sales and brand awareness. Advertisers work to create short-term visibility and conversation around a specific product or service.
Advertising uses paid media, where a company pays to have its message delivered to a specific target audience through various channels. Channels such as social media platforms, search engines, display networks and traditional print, television and radio allow for the following paid media:
Pay-per-click Advertising (PPC)
Influencer Marketing
Video Advertising
Print Advertisements in Magazines
Television Commercials
Social Media Advertising
Marketing
The purpose of marketing is to promote a product or service with a specific focus on connecting with a company’s target audience and making sure their needs are met. Marketing encompasses a large variety of responsibilities that marketers must complete to effectively promote products and retain customers. These responsibilities include, but are not limited to market research, campaign planning, brand management, content creation and sales generation.
Marketers use paid, earned and owned media in their marketing strategies. In terms of paid media, marketing intertwines with advertising through paying for advertisements on social media, search engine marketing (SEM) and traditional television ads. Owned media refers to brands directly controlling channels and content such as blogs, social media profiles, websites and email newsletters. Lastly, the earned media that is also used by public relations refers to exposure received from third-party sources, social media interactions, reviews and word-of-mouth are all examples of this.
Public relations, marketing and advertising are important assets for businesses in the trades industry because they help build trust, credibility and brand awareness. Organizations and brands within the trades often rely heavily on customer loyalty and referrals, both of which are born from the trust of their audience. The utilization of all three communication approaches allows for a brand to create an all-encompassing and well-rounded strategy that maximizes reach and impact.
It’s easy to see why social media feels like a go-to marketing move. It’s quick, it’s visual and it’s where everyone seems to be. But using social media alone without a bigger plan isn’t a marketing strategy. It’s just a tactic.
A post here, a reel there, a few likes and comments, that might feel productive in the moment. But without a clear purpose behind it, those posts often disappear as quickly as they land in someone’s feed. If your entire marketing approach revolves around “just post on social,” you’re reacting instead of leading. There’s no path, no progression and no long-term return.
Social media should be part of something larger. It should support a clear brand message, lead audiences toward meaningful action, and connect with other channels like your website, video content or events. Without those connections, your audience might see you, but they won’t truly engage, convert or remember.
A strong marketing strategy starts with knowing who you’re trying to reach, what you want them to understand or do, and how each piece of content plays a role in getting them there. Social media helps deliver that message, it doesn’t define it.
When used well, social media amplifies. It pushes the conversation forward. But if it’s the only thing you’re doing, you’re not building awareness, you’re just filling a feed.
So next time you’re tempted to “just post something,” stop and ask: What’s the bigger picture here? Where are we trying to take our audience, and does this post help get them there?
Because real marketing isn’t just about being seen. It’s about being remembered and that takes more than a post.
Following is a guest post from our friends over at Long & Short of It, masters of ideation, customer insights and market research. They like to say they “dig and find lots of data and then turn it into actionable insights.” Following is their guest post.
While customer feedback is valuable and should be considered, you can’t solely rely on customer input to guide your marketing, process, or development. Best captured by the quote from Steve Jobs, “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them.” Who knew we needed or wanted an iPhone until we saw it?
Customers may not always have a clear vision of what they want or need until they are presented with it. Their understanding or ability to articulate what they want is limited by their existing experiences and familiarity with available solutions. Therefore, solely relying on customer feedback may result in incremental improvements or iterations of existing products, rather than breakthrough innovations.
To create products or solutions that truly meet customers’ needs, it’s important to balance customer input with innovative thinking and a deep understanding of your target market. This requires going beyond surface-level feedback and uncovering the underlying pain points, desires, and unmet needs of customers. By understanding their motivations, challenges, and aspirations, you can identify opportunities for disruptive innovation and develop solutions that surpass customers’ expectations
One way of doing this is by using a variety of research methods. For example, a survey can help you understand what they want when given a choice. And, by adding in-depth qualitative interviews, it can provide you with the why or the reasoning behind what they want. Another example is when a typical brainstorming session is held. The same people get in the same room in front of the same whiteboard and are expected to come up with new ideas – which is not likely to happen. Bring in new people who think differently or know little about the problem you are solving for. Hold the session in a different environment and introduce a variety of different visual or data inputs to help spark new thinking.
Go beyond relying solely on customer feedback, using the same research methods, or generating ideas in the same way. Take a balanced and multi-disciplinary approach by combining customer input with innovative thinking and a deep understanding of your target market. This approach can empower you to drive innovation, anticipate future requirements, and find solutions you may have never thought of – and possibly create something that your customers love and never knew they needed.
