Top Seven Ways to Show What Sets Your Brand Apart

How do you stand out from your competitors in a crowded market place? You can’t re-invent the wheel, as they say, but often there’s no need to do so. Much can be achieved with a smart approach and a firm belief in your brand’s strength.

 

Take Tesla, for example. Elon Musk’s electric cars aren’t the only battery-driven choices in the auto world. All the big global car firms are busy churning out electric alternatives to their gas-guzzling models. Yet Musk seems to have a monopoly in terms of brand recall when you ask anyone to name an all-electric car manufacturer. It proved so successful for him that in January 2020 Tesla’s market capitalisation reached USD107 billion, bigger than Germany’s behemoth Volkswagen.

So what makes Tesla stand out from the crowd? His cars aren’t cheap or aimed at the mass market –far from it, in fact. His first electric model set out to compete with high-performance luxury sports cars. This immediately gave the brand compelling appeal and heaps of media interest. This gained the brand the traction it needed to get going in the early days.

The way Tesla sold its cars was also different – direct selling avoided traditional franchised dealerships that everyone was used to. Tesla showed off their cars in stylish city centre galleries, gaining eyeballs in the places where wealthy potential buyers went to work. Another important difference was to make the brand supremely practical to use by installing a Supercharger network. This made charging a Tesla appear as simple as filling up at a gas station. No other car manufacturer had such a bold vision and it worked like a dream, overcoming any range-anxiety from sceptical buyers.

 

So what can we learn from Musk when it comes to making your brand stand out from the crowd?

  1. Establish your USP (unique selling point, or unique sales proposition)
  2. Find a single niche in your sector where your brand is the best
  3. Think of “best” in the widest possible sense – for example, the most sustainable, the longest heritage, the most loyal staff, or the most helpful customer service
  4. Offer a service that is different from the rest
  5. Overcome problems faced by your customers
  6. Share these messages via storytelling using content
  7. Be visionary – don’t be afraid to break new ground

Looking for help to set your brand apart, contact the experts at NewBase to see how we can help.

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Top Five Components of Content Marketing Strategies

What is it that drives content of any business? We’ve been looking at the most important basic steps to consider in any content marketing strategy. Get these right and you’ve got the essential framework for success:

 

1. Who’s your target audience?

There might be more than one audience for the content you’re creating. Don’t worry – the great thing about content strategy is that it can be adapted to suit a variety of customers. You can deliver different modes of content – a short video instead of a long-form article, for example – via different channels to engage each type of audience you have identified. In the world of content marketing, nobody is left behind!

 

2. Solve a problem

Think of how you might approach searching for a new television set or washing machine. You probably have a mental list of preferences based on size, functionality and price before you embark on your research. Or perhaps you’re totally confused by the many options, and simply have a simple need – the most easy to use device, for example, or a sturdy machine that will last long-term. If you spot something that clearly meets your needs, you’re more likely to be drawn to it. Perhaps you read a review or watch a testimonial, something that explains how a product solves the problem you have. If the content informs and educates you, then it’s doing a great job as part of a content marketing strategy.

 

3. What’s your USP?

Let’s face it, most products have a competitor offering something similar in market. Sometimes there are multiple competitors fighting over the same ground. To stand out from the crowd, content can prove an invaluable tool. Your content can tell your unique story in so many different ways. Perhaps you have a sustainable manufacturing process, an award for the happiest workforce, or a sales team who love running charity events in their spare time – all make for great source material for original storytelling that pushes the USP of your brand. These stories show your target audience why you’re worth purchasing from, while giving them uplifting, entertaining and informative content.

 

4. How will you present and manage your content?

There are many formats to choose from. Your decision will be based on both your target audience user and your budget. Infographics, videos, blog posts, microsites, podcasts, webinars – what’s the best way to get your storytelling across?

 

 

5. Where will your content appear?

You can publish on your own website or social media pages, or you might want to distribute the content on third-party sites via a programmatic campaign. How will you manage content creation and publication? Another consideration will be timing – when will your content go live.

Proper planning and execution of these five key components can help you achieve your content marketing goals.

 

 

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How to Produce the Best Content Marketing

“Here’s the brief. Tell a good story, use a tone of voice that’s authentic yet on brand, make it engaging and original, check all the facts, describe the benefits in a relevant way, keep the context localised, fully SEO enabled and make it look easy, unforced, with no hard-sell. Then distribute this content to our target audience, get them to share it, like it and ask for more. Oh, and deliver a report analysing its performance, with recommendations for improvement. Can you do this, before the end of the week if possible?”

“Yes, NewBase is on it.”

At NewBase, bespoke storytelling – and multi-tasking – is in our DNA. We’re a hands-on, full-service content marketing agency in Singapore, renowned for outstanding quality and award-winning creativity. Established over four decades ago, we have evolved with the rapidly changing content and media industry, asserting the immense value of content along the way.

NewBase stands out for our breadth of capability, delivering a wide range of corporate and lifestyle B2C and B2B content for both public and private sector clients and brands. We’ve got a strong core business focused on producing high-quality branded content across digital, social, video and print. Our in-house team delivers copywriting, social posts, content calendars, conceptualisation, interviews, websites, eDMs, design, storyboarding, translation, infographics, video production, photography…everything you need for a full 360 campaign, and much more.

NewBase is a content marketing agency in Singapore that takes extra time to listen, using an intelligent approach to come up with bold, surprising solutions. We’re not a content ‘factory’ churning out to order. Our clients see us as strategic partners, creative planners and thinkers who can help develop and deliver campaigns and brand stories from scratch.

 

Award-winning content marketing for high-profile clients

We’ve worked with government bodies such as Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority and Singapore Tourism Board, international consumer brands such as Audi and Fujifilm, and a wide range of healthcare, education, hospitality and lifestyle businesses. We have expanded our content and media business to other parts of APAC, too, working with clients in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand.

Our differentiator is that we have deep insight into, and experience of, the ever-evolving content and media requirements brands have in APAC and the expertise and range of skills to fulfil them. We also have expertise conceptualising and managing 360 media campaigns featuring TV production, PR, events management and OOH (billboards, trains wraps, airport activation and roadshows).

 

World-class media marketing solutions

Alongside our highly successful content business is our NewBase media marketing team in Singapore. We have customised creative formats that can be deployed for all advertisers. Immersive tech-savvy solutions bring creativity to every screen specifically designed to enhance brand experience for the client’s audience.

NewBase media marketing’s fee-based solutions include engaging rich media banners with dynamic content. Meanwhile native solutions are placed in a native environment, immersing your advertisement in relevant content. Our 100% in-feed solution connects your message to the right audience in the right environment at the right time through non-disruptive display solutions that are automatically formatted as content to match any site or device.

Generate conversion and engagement with our social media solutions. Like, comment or share your message with specific target audiences. NewBase gives advertisers access to native Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn advertising through a wide array of formats (mobile, video, audio, etc.), as well as Native data for targeting and analytics.

Online distribution solutions allow clients to talk one-to-one with their audience and be seen on every screen. NewBase’s holistic approach for cross platform media buying makes it easier for you to plan and execute campaigns through one hub. We build your strategy to deliver your brand message across all screens by selecting the right formats, such as video, rich-media and standard IAB. We are able to buy inventory programmatically, via Private Market Places (PMPs) or direct distribution.

NewBase media marketing also has programmatic solutions using multiple data sets to build the right audience for your objectives and deliver your message where it counts. Clients have access to multiple best-in-class trading platforms to deliver their business objectives.

Other media marketing solutions include print media – especially valuable when targeting premium audiences. A key strength is our access to quality print media in EMEA, APAC and the Americas, along with focused verticals such as finance/corporate news titles, daily/weekly/monthly news titles, fashion/luxury titles, property/architecture titles, professional and education titles.

So whether you’re looking for a brilliant piece of original content to wow your audience, or you need a highly effective media marketing campaign using existing assets, we have one simple response: “Yes, NewBase is on it.”

Get in touch if you’d like to have an initial consultation with our content marketing or media experts.

 

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How Content Marketing Can Drive Sales

Like any marketing strategy tool, Content Marketing can drive sales if it is planned and executed well. There’s no short-cut to success, but with the right preparation, research and high-quality creative, you can boost your results enormously.

Good content marketing is a highly effective tool to increase customer engagement, attract new customers, and foster lasting relationships with existing customers.

 

What does good content marketing look like?

Actually, it’s invisible. Or to put it another way, good content marketing is consumed by the customer without them realising it. That’s because content marketing is all about being “soft-sell” – telling a story, sharing ideas, providing valuable information – rather than the “hard-sell” of pushing a product or service directly.

This is important because it means the content fosters trust. It does so by giving the audience useful information, tips, advice, and ideas. Your brand or product can be weaved into the content subtly, drawing positive vibes from the material surrounding it.

For example, at NewBase we worked with an automotive brand to find a way to get more young couples to test drive their new small sedan. As it was approaching Valentine’s Day, we proposed a photo essay blog article highlighting the five most romantic places to photograph a sunset with your loved one in the city. Each spot was illustrated with a beautiful sunset photo featuring the new sedan subtly in the foreground. The audience was happy admiring the stunning sundown spots, learning where to track them down and getting useful tips in the process. What more, they also got a thorough overview of the new car’s styling from five different angles.

Would this audience have clicked on an advert for the same car and spent so long as this flicking through a set of generic press images? It’s very unlikely. To top it all, even when the audience realises that they are looking at a brand story, they won’t be bothered so long as the content delivers something positive and valuable in return. In fact, they might even think better of the brand as a result of their content experience.

We helped the automotive brand receive a wider audience for their blog post by boosting its distribution via social media and programmatic campaign. The target audience – in this case, young adventurous couples in their 20s and 30s – enjoyed finding ideas for going out, as well as learning more about a new car model to suit their needs and budget.

 

Take Action

One more essential factor to include is the call to action, or CTA. This is how you gain more than brand recognition and start generating leads. In the case of our blog post, the CTA could be to find out more inspiring ideas for going out in the city. A click on the CTA brings the audience to a landing page, or subscription form. Another option is to provide an incentive as part of the CTA, for example the chance to win a photo session with a professional photographer. Or you could ask the audience to share their own sunset photographs, with the chance to win a week’s test drive in the car model shown. In each case, the CTA allows you to capture valuable data about your audience in a trusting, totally authentic manner.

A really successful piece of content marketing will be shared by people with friends, colleagues and family members, boosting the profile and visibility of your brand or product. Content marketing helps you not only to reach more potential customers and increase the awareness of your brand, but also to refine your offerings, and keep your existing customers engaged, enhancing the overall value of your brand.

Get in touch if you’d like to have an initial consultation with our content marketing experts.

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How to Create Compelling Content for Social Media

What’s the secret to creating good social media content? This is a question we’re often asked at NewBase in Singapore. Businesses want to know if our content marketing expertise can deliver an instant winning formula to help transform their latest digital campaign.

 

We understand the pressures and challenges faced by our clients – they need speedy solutions. Yet our answer might seem surprising: don’t think about the social media content at all, at least not at the beginning. That’s because the best starting point for any successful digital campaign is a good social media marketing strategy.

 

Start with the social media marketing strategy

Establishing a social media marketing strategy gives you the firm foundations to enable growth and achieve maximum ROI from your content production endeavours. It allows you to set the marketing goals and bring real focus to your entire digital campaign. Perhaps more importantly, it will provide you with the guidelines for producing pieces of highly effective content. Sounds good, no?

NewBase begins every social media marketing strategy by researching the target audience. We also decide on the most important metrics that will be required – the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), in other words – to help us understand if we’re achieving our goals. These metrics will vary according to the specific campaign objectives – if you are seeking conversions, wanting to grow brand awareness or hoping to build a bigger community, for instance. Analysis via your chosen metrics will later help you evaluate whether a piece of content is “good” and working effectively in your digital campaign.

 

Review your competitors

Spend time doing market research before embarking on your own content production. One of the simplest yet most productive pieces of research is analysing your competitors’ output on social media. What type of content is working best for them? Which pieces generate the best responses, the most shares? This competitor review will also help you develop a list of good keywords and hashtags.

So what else marks out “good” content. Thanks to, many years building up our content marketing expertise, NewBase knows how to guarantee quality. Is the tone of voice and personality right for your audience, for example? There’s no point using jargon or slang terms that nobody reading will understand. Likewise, formal language might put off your audience. The choice of photography can make a difference – highly polished professional imagery works for some, while others prefer a more raw, home-made feel.

A successful digital campaign has to get the balance just right. Today, the most viewed and shared content tends to be video. Yet even here, there are many options in terms of length, format, creative style and tone. Another factor we consider at NewBase is whether the best content for a brand campaign might be user-generated content. This can deliver authenticity and resonate better with some audiences.

 

Be prepared to adapt and change

When rolling out a digital campaign, NewBase recommends staying nimble and open to evolving your strategy if it’s not generating the desired results. Constant review and flexibility enables you to adapt to the metrics and correct the audience response. Long-term success in social media requires a lot of trial and error.

To sum up, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for creating “compelling” content for a digital campaign. Neither can you expect an instant overnight fix. Good content requires good analysis, good planning, good research, good ideas and a good deal of effort. And, a good partner with brilliant content marketing expertise is essential too, of course!

Get in touch if you’d like to have an initial consultation with our content marketing experts.

 

 

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Why Content Marketing?

We all want content. From the moment you switch on your smartphone first thing in the morning, you’re seeking new content. What’s new? What’s the best? What’s recommended? What’s the hot topic of the day? From cute cat videos to smart investment tips, we’re often consuming content way before tucking into our bowl of breakfast cereal.

 

So from a marketing perspective, packaging your brand and sales messaging in the right sort of content is a great way to get that consumed too.

 

Get it right

How you plan and execute this process requires a content marketing strategy. This incorporates the creation, publication, and distribution of your content to a target audience to drive traffic to your business or organisation. Breaking that down further, you’ll require analysis and research to identify your target audience. You need to know what this specific group – or groups – prefers to consume and in what formats and on which platforms and channels.

 

Know your audience

Don’t always assume you have to use the latest marketing fad. A chain of retirement villages that produces a fun TikTok campaign might have success amusing the grandchildren, but their actual target audience of 50-somethings will fail to consume the message. However, a series of video diaries by current retirement village tenants, showing their incredibly active lifestyles and unusual pastimes could connect perfectly as part of a targeted programmatic or Facebook campaign, for example.

Audiences like to be entertained and informed. Thrusting your product in the face of a customer isn’t a very effective marketing tactic. Ideally, you want to show how your brand, product or service can solve a problem for your target audience. Content that educates your audience in an entertaining, creative or original manner is more likely to be consumed.

 

Engage them right

Content marketing isn’t only useful to attract new customers, but can help boost loyalty from existing fans. If you know what challenges are being faced by your existing customers, you can tailor content to overcome these challenges.

Think of what else your target audience is consuming in terms of content – most of what they enjoy is from quality sources with high production values. That means engaging storytelling, compelling copywriting, beautiful photography, smart infographics, slick video production, and the rest. If you believe in the quality of your brand, product or organisation, you need to make sure that the content you put out reflects those same values of excellence.

So where do you go to seek content marketing expertise? One of the best solutions is finding an agency that can deliver a complete content marketing solution, from target audience research to content strategy, creative execution to digital distribution and measurement.

Get in touch if you’d like to have an initial consultation with our content marketing experts.

 

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