What mum taught you about building a strong digital brand

Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the incredible wisdom, care and guidance that mums provide throughout our lives. But beyond teaching us how to tie our shoelaces and navigate life’s challenges, the childhood lessons our mums shared are also the foundation to solving many of the obstacles we face in later life.

As digital marketers, whether we realised it or not, our mum’s advice holds the key to many of the strategies we implement when shaping strong, resilient and trustworthy digital brands.

At Click Consult, we understand the importance of digital brand-building and how creating an authentic, long-lasting presence online is essential for success. So, in honour of Mother’s Day, we’re exploring some of the most memorable ‘mum-isms’ that directly apply to digital marketing and brand strategy.

"Treat others the way you want to be treated"

Customer-first approach.

Your mum always reminded you to be kind and considerate towards others, and in the world of marketing, this translates to a customer-first approach. When creating content, building brand communities, or engaging with customers, really consider how you would want to be approached by a brand, and apply this to your planning when developing your digital marketing campaigns.

This involves prioritising the needs and experiences of your audience in every aspect of your online presence, including:

• Website optimisation: Ensure fast load speeds, intuitive navigation and mobile responsiveness to enhance usability. Implement AI-driven chatbots for instant customer support and interactive FAQs to reduce friction in user journeys.
• Content: Developing captivating and engaging campaign concepts that resonate with your audience
• User intent: Putting a greater focus on user intent when considering SEO keywords and phrases.
• Personalised marketing: Use data-driven insights to tailor email campaigns, social media content and product recommendations based on individual user behaviour. Implement dynamic content and AI-powered personalisation tools to create a more engaging experience.
• Omnichannel experience: Create seamless transitions across all customer touchpoints, from website interactions and social media engagements to email and live chat. Ensure consistency in brand messaging and user experience across different platforms.

Putting customer needs at the forefront of your strategies allows you to nurture a loyal digital community that trusts and values your brand, and keeps returning time and time again.

"If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all"

Building strong relationships for effective digital PR

Your mum always reminded you to be kind and considerate towards others, and in the world of digital marketing, this translates to building strong relationships with journalists, publishers, and influencers. When creating campaigns, reaching out to journalists, or engaging with your online community, consider how you would want to be approached, and apply this to your digital PR strategy.

This involves prioritising the needs and interests of your audience and the media in every aspect of your outreach and content creation. This means:

• Creating newsworthy content: Develop compelling stories and data-driven narratives that resonate with your target audience and journalists. Offer expert insights, data, and resources that journalists can use in their reporting. Be a helpful and reliable source, building trust and credibility over time.
• Building genuine connections: Focus on building authentic relationships with journalists, influencers, and your online community. Personalise your outreach, understand their interests, and provide value beyond just pitching your brand.
• Engaging in meaningful conversations: Participate in relevant online discussions, respond to comments, and show genuine interest in your audience’s thoughts and opinions.
• Monitoring and responding to feedback: Actively listen to what people are saying about your brand online. Address concerns promptly and professionally, and use feedback to improve your PR strategies and content.

A customer-first approach in digital PR means focusing on people, not just publicity, which leads to more authentic and impactful results.

"Don’t put all your eggs in one basket"

Marketing across multiple channels

Relying on a single marketing channel can be a risky move for any brand. Customers are frequently turning to a diverse range of channels for both research and to purchase products and services; for example, social media channels initially used for entertainment have now become primary channels for search, with users frequently turning to social media to find educational content, news consumption, and shopping.

Mum’s warning “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” can be applied here. Whether it’s social media, email marketing, paid advertising, SEO, or content marketing, each channel offers unique opportunities to connect with potential customers and build brand awareness – so relying on only one is limiting and restrictive for a brand. Diversification ensures that if one strategy underperforms, others continue to drive results.

A well-rounded marketing strategy brings together key elements that enhance brand presence and performance:

• Search engine optimisation (SEO) to improve organic visibility and attract the right audience at crucial moments.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to drive immediate traffic and ensure targeted reach.
• Social media marketing to create meaningful engagement and build a loyal community.
• Email marketing to strengthen customer relationships through personalised communication.
• Content marketing to establish credibility and encourage brand conversations.
• User focused content to provide genuine value and address their needs.
• Analytics and performance tracking to refine strategies and maximise return on investment.

Spreading resources and efforts across various platforms can ensure a more resilient and effective marketing strategy, maximising your reach and minimising the impact of any single channel’s fluctuations.

"Mind your manners."

Maintain a professional and respectful tone in your social media interactions.

Social media platforms are places where users often share honest opinions, experiences, and ideas; it gives brands the opportunity to adopt a more casual and human-like approach to connecting with customers, in a way that doesn’t feel too formal or corporate. While this certainly has many benefits, brands do need to make sure they understand where the line is between casual and professional.

Mum’s advice to “mind your manners” applies here. Maintaining a professional and respectful tone in all social media interactions is essential for building a positive brand image. Brands can, and should, still adopt a casual more sociable language on social media channels – but should always remember to:

• Respond to comments thoughtfully: taking the time to understand the message and craft a relevant and considerate reply
• Address concerns politely: even if the issue is frustrating, showing respect is key to maintaining a positive brand image
• Avoid engaging in arguments or negativity: brands should make a conscious effort to avoid engaging in arguments or negativity online, as this can quickly escalate and damage their reputation

"Put yourself in their shoes."

Understand your audience’s needs and create content that addresses them

To truly engage your audience and build lasting relationships, you need to create content that is genuinely centred around their needs, challenges, and desires. User focused content goes beyond simply providing information; it aims to connect on a human level and provide real value. To create effective user focused content, you’ll need to:

• Conduct thorough audience research: Dive deep into your target audience’s demographics, interests, and online behaviour. Use analytics, surveys, and social listening to gather data. Analyse industry trends and competitor content to identify gaps and opportunities. This research will provide a solid foundation for understanding what kind of content will truly resonate with your users.
• Actively gather user feedback: Don’t assume you know what your audience wants. Actively solicit feedback through polls, surveys, comment sections, and social media interactions. Use this feedback to refine your content strategy and ensure you’re addressing their specific questions and concerns.
• Develop deep user empathy: Try to truly understand your audience’s pain points, aspirations, and motivations. Put yourself in their shoes and consider their perspective.

Stepping into the user’s perspective, or “putting yourself in their shoes” as your mum might say, allows you to move beyond generic content and create materials that truly connect with. This means producing content that is not only relevant and informative but also genuinely helpful and valuable to your users. A user focused content approach ensures that your content is not just seen, but also appreciated, remembered, and actively used by your audience.

“Money doesn’t grow on trees”

Be mindful of budgets, especially in PPC campaigns to maximise ROI

Mum’s practical wisdom, ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees,’ is a vital reminder when managing digital marketing budgets, especially in PPC campaigns. Every penny spent must be strategically allocated and meticulously tracked to ensure a strong ROI.

To achieve this, brands can:

• Conduct careful keyword research: identify terms that are highly relevant to your target audience and have a good balance of search volume and competition. This ensures your ads are shown to the people most likely to be interested in your offerings, preventing wasted ad spend on irrelevant traffic and maximising the efficiency of your budget.
• Apply targeted ad placement: leverage options like demographic targeting, location targeting, and device targeting. This precision allows you to focus your budget on reaching the most valuable segments of your audience, ensuring your ads are seen by the right people at the right time and reducing the risk of spending money on clicks from unqualified prospects.
• Continuously monitor and optimise campaigns to avoid wasteful spending: pausing ineffective campaigns, refining ad copy, or reallocating budget to higher-performing areas is a proactive approach that helps avoid wasteful spending and ensures your PPC budget is used efficiently to achieve the best possible return on investment.

It’s not just about tracking performance; it’s about taking action on what the data reveals. A robust reporting system allows brands to spot trends, respond to changes in customer behaviour, and optimise campaigns to deliver the best possible results. This constant cycle of evaluation, optimisation, and reporting is key to ensuring that every marketing pound spent delivers maximum value.

"Clean your room before you go out!"

Keeping your technical SEO organised and consistent

Just like your mum always warned you to tidy your room before leaving the house, your technical SEO needs to be clean and consistent before you can truly focus on optimising content for search rankings. A well-organised technical SEO foundation establishes reliability and ensures search engines can effectively crawl and index your site. When every technical element is in place, it provides a strong base for content to perform optimally.

To achieve this, websites should regularly audit their technical SEO and check key elements, including:

• Site structure: Ensure a clear and logical website architecture, including proper use of headings, internal linking, and URL structure, to help search engines understand and navigate your site.
• Site speed: Optimise website loading times by compressing images, leveraging browser caching, and minimising code. Faster sites improve user experience and are favoured by search engines.
• Mobile friendliness: Ensure the website is fully responsive and provides a seamless experience across all devices. Mobile-first indexing prioritises mobile versions of websites.
• Crawlability and indexability: Check for and fix crawl errors, broken links, and ensure robots.txt and sitemaps are properly configured. This helps search engines access and index your content effectively.
  HTTPS implementation: Ensure the website is secure with HTTPS. Security is a ranking factor and protects user data.

Regular technical audits keep websites aligned with best practices and ensure they are accessible to search engines, allowing websites to adapt to algorithm updates and ensuring they are always providing a solid foundation for content strategies.

BONUS: “It takes a village to raise a child”

It takes a ‘village’ to build a strong digital brand

The phrase, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ illustrates the collaborative nature of building a strong digital brand. Just as raising a child requires the support of a community, building a successful brand involves a multitude of efforts and contributions from various teams and individuals.

From content creators and SEO specialists to social media managers and paid media experts, each role plays a vital part in creating a captivating and engaging brand experience. This ‘village’ approach emphasises the importance of teamwork, shared goals, and collective effort in achieving brand success.

This Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate not just the incredible women who raised us but also the wisdom they imparted that continues to guide us in business and beyond. After all, mum always knew best!