How to Avoid Brand Fatigue

Posted on February 12, 2016
By Theresa Chiechi, Designer, Illustrator, Writer

Avoiding Brand Fatigue

Have you ever opened up your email and grimaced as countless irrelevant emails fill up your inbox. You wonder why you even bothered subscribing to all those companies. Like an executioner, you sentence all those attempts at advertising to the trash bin. Those companies whose emails you just discarded without a second of remorse suffer from an unfortunate condition popularly coined as “Brand Fatigue” and chances are you could be suffering from it as well.

Where does it happen?

Brand fatigue affects content shared through email and through social media, like Twitter or Facebook. It’s caused by the quantity and frequency you put out irrelevant content. The “deadly duo” will leave you a victim of being filtered out by the various algorithms, whether it be on Facebook or through email, made to keep clutter away from the user.

When constant poor content bombards the viewer they start to become desensitized to your company. Everything about you becomes numbing and the viewer eventually becomes “blind” to your attempts to get their attention. Much like how Internet users ignore banner ads that clutter their web pages, they will treat your content in the same fashion. This “content blindness” is produced by the apathy consumers feel after being barraged by branded content wherever they go.¹ It happens all the time.

The reason many companies are suffering from brand fatigue is because they don’t have the resources, the time and energy, to put in the hard work. The solutions aren’t easy.

So, here is the part where we tell you how to avoid content fatigue:

1. Know Your Audience

You know this already; this concept has been drilled into you time and time again. You must be one with your audience. Do you know what interests your viewers? You might think your sole job is to put content out there, and a lot of it, but that is an incorrect presumption. Content will go nowhere is if it is not reaching the interests of the intended target. Your job is to put content out there that you know someone will help amplify (spread to others).

For example: lets say your client, Joe, is an avid fan of knitting. If it isn’t knitting, Joe’s not interested. So how should you proceed? Post content about knitting! Joe will respond to this, potentially share your article and this will reach several other “Joes” and your company’s message will start to spread. Or, maybe he just simply opens up your email about knitting; this will tell the email’s algorithms that you are significant and you will continue to be brought to Joe’s attention. The thought process shouldn’t be “Well I think someone will be interested in learning about knitting” but “I know so-and-so likes knitting so they will help to amplify this”. ²

2. Smart Emailing Strategy

An article from Moz, written by Rand Fishkin, recommends a strategy, which is undeniably a little time-consuming. The suggestion is to start conservatively and personally with your email marketing. This means send fewer emails and tailor them specifically to each member you are marketing to. Fishkin even suggests that to your first few hundred users, you personally send out the messages. This will help you to become more familiar with your audience and they’ll know they can respond directly to you.

Many consumers today want a more engaged experience, especially the millennial generation that does not respond to impersonal clutter, and this is a way to create that interaction.

Make sure to watch your open, unsubscribe, and engagement rates through your email program. You can almost always manage these, no matter what email program you use.

With that being said, you have to start somewhere when producing content and it should be with something you know. You’ll draw in a crowd similarly passionate with the same things as you.

3. Segment Your List

To make it easier when dealing with larger audiences, try dividing your viewers into smaller groups, or categories of similar interests. The best practice is to break your list down into smaller groups so it’s easier to cater to the various interests of your consumers. For example, one category could be a group of non-profit organizations, which may be curious on ways to cut expenditures. Another could be a category of small business owners, who will want tactics on how to stand up to big business competitors.

4. Beware of Algorithms

Experimenting has its purposes; it can help you figure out what your audience responds to, but be careful! Email, Twitter, Facebook, and other content platforms have algorithmic systems designed to penalize the poster for putting out content that is consistently ignored.

If your emails are constantly overlooked or you have a high unsubscribe rate, Gmail, or whatever your email of choice is, notes this and lowers your chances of marketing success. It may push your email to the Promotions tab or file you under Spam or Junk.

Facebook and Twitter work similarly. Users should be wary of Facebook because it will note if several of your posts are not being engaged with and will make it harder for people to find your next consecutive posts. Twitter is a bit more forgiving, since it posts in real-time. This means the tweets are viewed by whoever posted last. The trick here is getting your tweet noticed in the short amount of time it remains in a person’s newsfeed.

The Takeaway

Quantity is not better than quality. Post messages that are pertinent to the reader in a smaller quantity rather than a whole bunch of extraneous posts. Know your audience; figure out what they want. Consider taking surveys to see how much your consumer wants to be contacted by email and what exactly they are looking for from your business. Lastly, keep up with the work. Be diligent and put in the due time to keep up with whatever it is you're doing to advertise.

For further reading and more insights, check out our other blog posts that will point you in the right direction to marketing success:

Developing a Content Strategy to Avoid Stagnation

Marketing to Millenials

Capture Your Audience with a Quiz