One of the most important aspects of any business, apart from providing a quality product or service, is to get your brand in front of the eyes of your target audience. Otherwise, your business might as well not exist if nobody knows about it. But, distinguishing your brand is definitely easier said than done, especially in today’s market which is incredibly competitive. To illustrate how important brand promotion is, we only need to take a look at the stats, since 89% of B2B marketers list brand awareness as their main goal, ahead of sales and lead generation.
Also, 70% of brand managers place more value in building an audience than making direct sales. However, the brand isn’t is something that exists within your company. It is an intangible impression of your business inside the minds of your audience. Ultimately, it all boils down how they perceive you. That isn’t to say that you don’t have any say in the matter, because you do, and the best way to change or form the perception of your brand is digital marketing. With that in mind, here are top marketing tips for effective brand promotion.
1. Do SEO
Despite all the seemingly contradictory opinions on it, there is only one real truth when it comes to SEO: it is as relevant as ever, perhaps even more so. In order to promote your brand, you need to reach your target audience, and whether you’re running a local brick-and-mortar business or you are one of the many online writing services, you need to be visible inside the search engine results and preferably ranked as high as possible. In order to áchieve that, you will have to do SEO. And there are at least two reasons why.
The first reason is because it’s basically a collection of methods which allows search engines to understand what your business is about, so that they can match it to relevant keywords entered by users. This includes covering all the relevant keywords, building links, and producing great content. The second reason why SEO is necessary is because it’s a strategy that produces the best long-term results. Sure, you might be able to achieve similar results by relying on paid methods alone, but their effects would be short-term. Not to mention that your budget may not allow for such an approach.
2. Start a Blog
In the previous paragraph, we have mentioned that one of the three most important SEO signals Google, as well as other search engines, looks at when determining the ranking for your official website is great content. While you may be able to do with your brand’s website, it is only limited to a few pages, since it would otherwise become hard to navigate. Adding new pages and content to your blog is a much better option. The more content there is, the more opportunities there will be for your business to target all the relevant industry keywords.
Also, link building is much easier when you have an active blog. That way, you will have some leverage when reaching out to authority websites and blogs in your niche and asking to write a guest post for them and build a backlink. This will not only boost your authority in the field, but also expose your brand to a new audience and drive more traffic to your blog, website, or one of your landing pages. By writing in-depth blog posts featuring how-to guides, case studies, research, as well as useful and applicable tips, you will be able to position your brand a lot better on the market.
3. Cultivate an Active Social Media Presence
It’s pretty much impossible to come across a brand nowadays that isn’t present on social media today, no matter how big or small. Even local businesses are starting to jump on the bandwagon. There is a good reason for that, too. Regardless of what industry you are in, social media is a place where your target audience hangs out. But, the tricky part if figuring out which social media platforms they are using. In all likelihood, you will have to address them using more than one.
But, we also advise that you create an account on social media platforms that you don’t plan on using in order to claim your brand’s name and to prevent anyone from posting content under that name that might damage your reputation. As for which social media platform to use, it all depends on your niche. But, the key takeaway is to use your social media presence to communicate with your audience and engage them, as opposed to just advertising your brand.
4. Host Contests and Giveaways
We have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like to get stuff for free. You can use this to your brand’s advantage by hosting contests and giveaways. While it may seem counterintuitive to give away your product or service for free or at a fraction of the cost, it can actually help promote your business and enable your brand to gain better traction on the market, which is worth more than money, as we have pointed out in the intro.
However, if you really need the money, you can give away something that isn’t going to set you back a lot financially. This includes stuff free ebooks, free trial of your product, access to a members-only section of your website, and so on. You can also use this method in combination with social media. For instance, you can reward followers which have opted to join your Facebook group by giving away your products or promotional items which have value, such as USB drives, t-shirts, keychains, mousepads, and other stuff, all featuring your brand’s logo and visuals.
5. Make Use of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is all the rage nowadays and there is a good reason for that. Today’s audiences are tired of being pitched to all the time, which means they will reject brands and businesses with overly salesy and pushy strategies. This is where influencers come in. Influencers are people who have a large following on social media, and whose recommendations and endorsements of products, services, or brands hold a great deal of weight with their audience. This phenomenon is especially visible on Instagram and YouTube, with brands lining in order to get influencers on their side.
Now, in order to make this work for your brand, you need to identify which influencers address the same audience as your brand, as well as those which are able to tell a good story. As for compensation, you can either reward them financially or provide them with free products. Having an influencer as your brand’s ambassador also provides significant social proof that your brand is putting out quality products which are worth their audience’s money. Endorsements can come in the shape of YouTube videos, blog articles, online reviews, or even simple social media posts.
6. Create a Podcast
Podcasts are hugely popular nowadays, which may be surprising since today’s audience are mostly interested in visuals. However, some of the most popular podcasts out there, such as Joe Rogan Experience, are even broadcast live in video form. There are also plenty of niches that haven’t been covered by podcasts yet, so the market may not be too saturated. Another advantage of having your own podcast is that you can really go in-depth when it comes to industry-related topics, which will bolster your authority even further.
Podcasts are a good marketing option for another reason. You don’t have to look at them. If you are only listening to them, that means you can do other stuff, such as clean the house, make dinner, or drive to and from work. That way, your audience will not have to set aside more of their time in order to pay attention to your brand, and you will still be able to get your message across and then some. And you don’t even have to come up with new podcast ideas all the time. Simply use your existing content as a base upon which you will elaborate further. You will never know if podcasts will work for your brand if you don’t give it a shot.
7. Run a Remarketing Campaign
If people have visited your brand’s website and/or one of your landing pages and they haven’t become your customers, that doesn’t mean you should give up on them. In fact, you should target them on other platforms, such as social media, blogs, other websites, YouTube, or podcasts. One of the reasons why remarketing works is because when your brand appears in multiple places, so people will start to think that it’s bigger than it really is, which in turn helps your authority and inspires audience’s trust. Instead of creating a brand new marketing campaign from scratch, you can boost your conversion rate using a remarketing campaign.
Final Word
Instead of spending all of your marketing budget on ads, try and implement some of these methods. Not only are they more affordable, and in some cases free, but they also have a much better long-term impact. Good luck!