We asked AI how it can help brands grow. Here's what we got...

Leveraging AI can provide numerous benefits to help grow your brand. Here are some ways it can be utilized:

1. Customer Insights: AI can analyze vast amounts of data to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. This information can guide your marketing strategies, product development, and customer engagement initiatives.

2. Personalization: AI enables personalized experiences by utilizing customer data to deliver tailored recommendations, content, and offers. This level of customization enhances customer satisfaction and increases engagement and loyalty.

3. Chatbots and Virtual Assistants: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle customer inquiries, provide support, and assist with sales. These automated systems can offer 24/7 availability, quick response times, and personalized interactions, enhancing customer service and freeing up human resources.

4. Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms can analyze historical data to predict future trends, customer behavior, and market dynamics. This allows you to make informed decisions, optimize marketing campaigns, and identify new opportunities for growth.

5. Content Creation: AI can assist in generating content, such as blog articles, social media posts, and product descriptions. Natural language processing capabilities enable AI to produce relevant, engaging, and optimized content, saving time and effort for content creators.

6. Social Media Analysis: AI tools can monitor and analyze social media platforms to gather insights about brand sentiment, engagement levels, and competitor activity. This information can guide your social media strategy and help you make data-driven decisions.

7. Marketing Automation: AI can automate repetitive marketing tasks, such as email campaigns, ad targeting, and lead nurturing. This streamlines workflows, improves efficiency, and allows marketers to focus on strategic initiatives.

8. Voice Search Optimization: With the rise of voice assistants, AI can help optimize your brand's online presence for voice search queries. By understanding and incorporating natural language processing techniques, you can improve your brand's visibility and accessibility through voice-enabled devices.

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(Canopy talking now)

Remember, successful integration of AI into your brand's growth strategy requires careful planning, data privacy considerations, and continuous monitoring to ensure ethical and effective implementation.

That said, the value of AI versus humans is still debatable. The foundational insights and info it provides are handy and efficient. However, brands, marketers, and agencies alike should not rely entirely on it being the final answer but more used for inspiration and thought starters.  

Does Your Brand Need a Makeover? Five Signs that it’s Time for a Change

Photo by Andre Mouton

Have you ever put on your favorite pair of jeans, and they seemed a little too snug? What was once a trendy hairstyle ten years ago is now aging. Sometimes a change in style is warranted, and for brands, it’s no different. If your brand is dated or has grown too big for the shoes it once filled, then it’s time for a change. Unsure if your business requires a rebranding? Check out these top five signs that it’s time for the brand to change.
 

1. Handing out your business card or sharing your website makes you cringe.
This is a major sign that changes and rebranding are in order. It’s probably the most significant indication that your brand has gotten too big for its britches. When you, deep down, feel that your brand is stale, unoriginal, or outdated, you need to reach out to a branding agency. When the brand is modern, and you believe in it, you won’t feel embarrassed to share your business cards and website. You know what they say - listen to your gut. 

2. You’ve run out of ways to differentiate.
At the core of an effective branding strategy is having the ability to differentiate the business from your top competitors. If you think your brand has the same look and feel as the rest of your market, then it’s time to rock the boat. Reposition your brand with cutting-edge value propositions, and you’ll stand out from a sea of Stepford companies.
 
3. It’s complicated.
Is your messaging scatterbrained? Would it be easy for someone to get confused about what exactly you do if they come across your website? When your business becomes a complicated jumble of offerings with no narrative to unify it all, then it’s time for a change. When branded messages make the audience cross-eyed and confused, you’ll need to retrace your steps, simplify, and focus your messaging. Complexity in branding means less cohesion, and a tougher time capturing and holding onto market share.
 
4. What’s in a name? Reflection.
Ten years ago, your brand name may have been avant-garde and cutting edge. But most importantly, your brand name was an accurate reflection and representation of your vision for the company. Today, your brand name may no longer serve this vital purpose. Changes in the cultural context and business growth can change the implications and meaning of your brand name. If this has happened to you, then change it. Stale names shouldn’t hold back great brands.
 
5. The brand’s strategy has already changed.
When your brand was founded, you had excellent, strategic objectives, and you were able to meet them. But things change. Emerging market opportunities or technological innovations can cause you to pivot strategy. When your business objectives, models, and strategies change, then your brand should reflect these differences as well. The way your customers are served should align with the way your company operates under the hood.
 
When a change is needed, the signs may be everywhere. If you’re wondering if a rebranding is in order, look for these top indicators and if your brand has outgrown its original mission. With the right strategy, a rebranding investment can pay off exponentially.

WHY GREAT CREATIVE REQUIRES A HUMAN TOUCH

In a post GDPR world, brands, agencies, and publishers are starting to take advantage of data-driven technology. While an ad's visibility is a crucial element of effective marketing, it’s not the holy grail that many businesses think it is. With the abundance of easily accessible data on their hands, brands and digital marketers have gotten away from creating engaging ads. In essence, they’ve forgotten about the importance of resonating with their viewers.

In today’s world, consumers are becoming savvier to marketing techniques and crave creative ads that resonate with them on a human level. Data and visibility don’t speak to your customers. If you want to differentiate yourself from the competition, your ad campaigns need to include an engaging, creative element. .

To what extent does visibility matter? 

An ads visibility only matters if the person seeing it is a qualified target. If you sell winter clothing, you don’t want your ad displaying to people who live on the equator. But, if you get your ad in front of a targeted member of your ideal audience, if the ad doesn’t have an engaging, creative element, it will fall flat.  

So, visibility is only one element of your campaign’s effectiveness, but many brands will make the mistake of thinking that visibility is the only means to an end. The right people can see your ad, but if those people don’t find the ad engaging, the campaign has failed. The ad’s reach isn’t enough to drive the campaign's effectiveness. You must provide a creative element that encourages the viewer to interact with the ad and take the desired action.

How can you increase the creative element of an ad campaign?

The most effective and engaging ads have the brand’s objective at their core. For an ad to reach maximum effectiveness, you need in-depth knowledge of your target audience to get the ad to resonate with them. If the goal with your ad is to drive sales, that needs to be the focus of your campaign. Don’t do both. 

While technology is becoming more accessible and sophisticated, brands don’t want to make the mistake of pigeonholing their ad into the latest digital trend because everyone else is doing it. Data is crucial to ensuring that your target market is reached. And ad technology enables it to be delivered as quickly and accurately as possible. But to drive engagement, your ad needs to be creative. It requires a human touch. 

To sum it up…

The advertising spectrum is complex. While it’s true that no single element should take precedence, the business’s objective and the creative must be the focus of the campaign to ensure maximum success. The world we live in is becoming increasingly isolating and commercialized. Consumers crave branding and advertising that is creative and resonates with their desires and pain-points. Visibility can’t do this. Collaboration with the goal of delivering a creative ad will.