Curran & Connors’ 40-plus years of corporate communications expertise equate to a wealth of knowledge in advertising, marketing and branding practices. Here are some of our best practice tips.

Know your audience

The easiest way to waste your marketing budget is to not fully understand your audience. A message may be sent, but if your audience isn’t “getting” it, your company is not benefiting from the cost of that communication. Who is the buyer of your product? How are they using it? How are they benefiting from it? Target your message to the segment that benefits from your product.

Know your story

Your company’s story should reflect how your product makes your customers’ lives or businesses better. It should also highlight how your product serves your customers’ needs better than the competition. It should be able to be told by all of your employees, in one sentence as well as in one page, in thirty seconds as well as in thirty minutes. It must also stand the test of time.

Develop your brand based on the customer experience

When developing or recreating your company’s brand, start with defining the customer experience, not your product or service. By keeping the end user in mind, your brand will resonate with its intended audience. Also remember that brands represent a company’s differentiators, but differentiators only matter if the intended audience appreciates the differences.

Think frequency and consistency

People get influenced in bits and pieces, not all at once. Your message should be repeated frequently in order to make a measurable impact. In addition, you need to be sending the same message across different platforms so as not to confuse your audience. Your advertising should “say” the same thing as your brochures, your product sheets, your Web site and your sales pitches.

Get the most out of your budget

You have a budget for advertising and marketing. Now you need to make sure you are leveraging those dollars to get the most exposure with the best messaging. Ask your media planner/buyer how they are optimizing the budget with their plan. Your creative message should be easily applied to multiple modes of communication without changing the essence of the message.