In today’s market, where trends are created overnight and abandoned just as rapidly, it’s becoming increasingly more important for businesses to market their brand, as opposed to simply marketing individual products. More than just advertising, brands convey the business’s credibility, quality and experience – all of which outlive a product – and which make brand awareness the first important step towards the goal of increasing sales.
Here are 10 simple ways to increase your brand awareness.
- Make Your Story Known
Stories help consumers connect with your brand and bring it to a relatable level that they can understand. While no one wants to hear a sob story, a portrayal of a company that was built from the bottom to reach success is one that people generally connect with well.
- Share Useful Tips
You should create a company newsletter and use it to provide useful content such as tutorials, how-to’s and other tips that add value to the consumer without requiring any purchases on their end. You can also use it to advertise discounts or specials, as that is undoubtedly something any customer would appreciate.
- Use Infographics
Studies have shown that using infographics in a newsletter or blog post makes it much more likely that your content will be viewed and shared, which is your goal, naturally.
- Be a Guest Blogger
You can and should have your own company blog, but don’t let that stop you from writing guest posts on other blogs. While other companies similar to yours wouldn’t permit you to post on their site, you can contact people who run industry blogs and request to write a blog post on their site. It will gain you exposure to all of their followers and they get a day off from writing.
- Experiment with Pull Marketing
Pull marketing is essentially any kind of marketing that is non-invasive, which means using marketing techniques that don’t make consumers feel like they are continually being sold to. The idea is to let the customer come to you instead of the other way around. You could opt for providing your content through organic SEO practices, blogging or social media.
- Biddable Campaigns
Although organic SEO is very effective in its own way, it can be less effective in a saturated industry market. If this is the case, using Pay-Per-Click, either through Google AdSense or Facebook can be more effective.
- Write a Book
Writing a book can be time-consuming but, if you’re a regular blogger, it won’t be that difficult and with the arrival of online publishing platforms, it’s easier than ever to become a published author. When you promote or even give your book away free of cost, it will go a long way towards the promotion of your brand.
- Host Your Own Radio Channel
This is easier than it sounds. A topical podcast can be either a great alternative or companion to blog posts. Talk about anything industry-related, such as trends, announcements, news or even a debate with a guest. These podcasts should be uploaded both to YouTube as well as to your company website.
- Wear Your Logo on Your Sleeve
Famous logos of companies like Adidas, Mercedes-Benz or Coco Chanel – which are so familiar to us now – reached that pinnacle of fame through aggressive marketing. When you think about the fact that they accomplished it without the help of the internet or social media, it makes us think: how much easier could it be for us now? Market your logo wherever and whenever possible – online and offline.
- Host an Event
You should consider hosting an event and inviting your target demographic to it, which will get them up close and personal with your brand and far more likely to connect with it. The best part is: promoting your event is also promoting your brand, so it’s win-win.
In closing, building brand awareness can take a bit of time, but, as I’m sure you’ll agree, it will be well worth the effort.
