No matter what your brand is – fast-food restaurants, furniture, or airlines – it’s a good idea to regularly check to see if your marketing campaigns are aligned with your target customers and your overall brand promise.
And if you’re like most of the app-addicted world, you probably have some favorite apps that support your brand storytelling. Here’s a list of my “Top 10” helpful and informative marketing apps.
[1] INSTAGRAM
Instagram has become the “go-to” app that appeals to social media users of all ages and demographics. According to Omnicore, as of January 2020, there were one billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active users. The app’s ease-of-use and launch of new capabilities including stories and reels make it a great marketing tool for all brands.
[2] TWITTER
There’s nothing quite like Twitter when you want real time news on any subject. In fact, thanks to TweetChats and hashtags, you can spend hours surfing Twitter, learning about a specific topic and conversing with industry experts. It’s not unheard of for Fortune 500 Presidents to respond to a tweet – I know from personal experience because it’s happened to me. But, if your customers and fans are on Twitter, your brand needs to be too. It’s a great place to engage, address customer service issues, promote new products and services, and showcase a human aspect to your brand.
[3] WORDSWAG
This app provides a diverse array of free images for you to use as backgrounds for a quote. Think testimonial! Simply choose and add your text. Or you can choose any of your branded images as backgrounds for your text.
[4] IMAGEQUOTE
This is another app, similar to Wordswag, that offers simpler backgrounds and fonts – but there are times that you want more emphasis on text, i.e., your message, rather than fancy backgrounds.
[5] LAYOUT
This app offers the opportunity to choose between two and six photos and then create a single image montage so that they tell a complete story.
[6] UNSPLASH
This app offers a vast array of photos that can easily be searched by keyword or topic. Examples of keywords include brand, airline, and school. Examples of topics include architecture, abstract, space, beach, and iPhone wallpapers. Credit is provided for each image, so it can be included wherever an image is used.
[7] KEEP CALM
In the spirit of the British saying “KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON,” this app allows you to customize both the image where the crown appears in the original as well as the words. I’ve used this app many times for images to accompany blog posts: Keep Calm and Provide Service; Keep Calm and Build Memorable Brands; and Keep Calm and Don’t Forget PR. Once you try it, you’ll be amazed at how applicable it can be.
[8] TODAY IN HISTORY
This app showcases events from history that happened each day of the year. Examples include the day that World War II started, a drug company registered its name as a trademark, and a famous reporter retired from a major TV news broadcast. A date or event from history could be an appropriate topic for an email marketing campaign or for social media posts.
[9] HOLIDAY TODAY
This app lists a variety of themed days, referred to as “holidays,” for each day of the year. The holiday may be “Skyscraper Day” or “Read a Book Day” or even “Collect Rocks Day.” You never know when a themed day may align with your brand – and it could easily become the focus of social media posts or the focus of an email marketing campaign or your website homepage’s featured news.
[10] COUNTINGDOWNTO
While not technically an app, this website (www.countingdownto.com) is the best customizable countdown clock. It features the number of days, minutes, hours, and seconds to an event, whose title and website link you can customize – as well as the date. There are also other elements that can be customized, and then the image can be shared across your social channels, email campaigns, and main website.
What are your favorite marketing apps (or tools), and how do they connect with customers and fans AND help tell your brand story?
Image Credit: Yura Fresh via Unsplash.