The Importance of Consistency in Your Digital Marketing
We all like brands that are consistent. When you patronize them, you know that their product or service is consistently going to be good. Whether it’s a big company or a small mom-and-pop shop, any business that receives your hard-earned dollars should be a place where you know what you’re getting.
But this kind of trust and loyalty, in many cases, starts before a customer even makes their first purchase. Because part of establishing your brand is not only about consistency in your products and services; it’s also about consistency in your digital marketing.
In short, if your digital marketing isn’t consistent, you’re not going to be able to garner a following.
So, what does it mean to be consistent in this case? There are two important keys to consistency in digital marketing. You need to be consistent in the quantity of the content you’re putting out in the digital world as well as consistent in the quality.
Consistency in Quantity
When we talk about a consistent quantity of content in digital marketing, this means you’re posting to social media on a regular basis. You’re not inconsistent in the quantity of material you share. This is important both for getting people’s attention and then turning them into followers.
Posting consistently to social media is important because it gives you repeated exposure every day, ideally throughout the day. You can’t post just once or twice every so often and expect people to notice you.
Some business owners are reluctant to post frequently because they think too much content will make it seem as if they’re spamming their followers. But this consistent exposure is what makes you memorable. Most people won’t even notice or pay attention to you until they see you for the 10th or 15th time.
Think about it this way: If you’re trying to break a bad habit or establish a new good habit, do you think you’ll be able to alter your behavior to the point of second nature after only a day or two? Or even a week? No, you need to avoid the bad habit or practice the good habit routinely for at least two or three weeks before it becomes natural for you. It’s the same way with recognizing a brand — seeing it once or twice won’t leave an impression. People need to see your content regularly for an extended period.
Consistency is also important because once you’ve caught a person’s attention on social media, you want to ensure they follow you. If they look at your page and see that you post inconsistently, they might think to themselves, “Eh, what’s the point?” There’s no sense in following your page if you don’t post all that often.
What exactly qualifies as consistent when it comes to quantity? It’s going to vary from business to business, but in general, here’s a minimum number of times you should post to major social media platforms:
Twice or three times a day for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
At least five times a day for Twitter (but more frequently if there’s real-time information being released relevant to your industry — in this case, you could go as often as five times an hour for as long as the information is being released)
Once a week for YouTube
Consistency in Quality
Posting a consistent amount of content to social media won’t do you any good if your content is inconsistent in its quality. In fact, it can hurt you. That’s because having consistency in your content quality is a vital part of establishing your brand and showing your followers that you are reliable.
Consistency in quality is about more than just having your content be good. Yes, it should be good content, but more importantly, it should all have a similar look and feel to it. In other words, your brand shouldn’t seem different from post to post.
This means that images and graphics should have the same aesthetic. Your text should all have the same tone and voice to it, whether that’s laid-back, spunky, polished or something completely different. Using buzzwords in your text, filters for your photos, and specific emojis and hashtags will all help demonstrate consistency.
Why all this attention to detail? Well, you want people to instantly recognize you and know what sets you apart, even across different media platforms. Sure, you’re going to tailor to a different audience when you post to LinkedIn versus Instagram. You just need to make sure that the message is the same and it sticks to your brand’s values. Inconsistency in your web presence suggests unreliability.
Let’s imagine it this way: You’re following a brand on social media. One day, they post an artistic black-and-white photo. The next day, they post some with pixelated clip art. Or maybe the tone to one of their posts is very conversational, whereas the next day it is very refined and professional. You start to wonder what’s going on behind the scenes with this business and why it isn’t consistent in the image it’s putting forth. Is the quality of their product and service going to be inconsistent in the same way?
Help your marketing team create consistency in the quality of your posts by defining the attributes of your brand in a guide everyone can refer to. This guide can explain whether your tone is conversational or formal, what buzzwords or phrases you often use, what emojis or hashtags you can include in your posts, what filters you frequently use on photos, and what general impression you want to leave on your followers with each post.
By paying close attention to these details, you’ll demonstrate to your followers that yours is a brand they can count on to be the same in every interaction — you’ll establish trust and reliability. And that will turn your followers into loyal customers.