Are you struggling to get your business noticed? One of the most common challenges that startups and SMEs face is making their target market aware of their brand. These days, you have to compete with every other brand in your market on the internet, which means it is often the larger and more established companies that stand out and get noticed. Brand awareness is critical to survival for any business, so what are some of the most effective strategies for boosting brand awareness? Fortunately, there are a handful of methods that you can use that will help you to get noticed.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has risen to become perhaps the most effective form of digital marketing in 2023. Consumers are becoming reliant on social media influencers to recommend brands and products/services, so you will want to find relevant influencers to support your brand. Influencer marketing can help you to very quickly reach a huge audience, plus you will also be able to quickly boost your brand credibility. When using Facebook influencer marketing, you will want to make sure that you find a content creator that will suit your brand identity. In addition to this, you will also want to capitalize on video content – this can be a lot more engaging, and Facebook amasses a staggering 4 billion video views daily. In particular, live videos can be effective when it comes to Facebook influencer marketing.
Referral Program
A referral program is always a smart strategy to use if you are struggling to reach potential new customers. This involves incentivizing your existing customers to refer your brand to those in their network, which can help you to extend into new markets and reach people that you might have otherwise never found. Referral programs are also effective because they can help to build credibility – people will always trust the recommendations of people in their network, so you should find that this also helps you to attract new customers to your business.
Social Media Contests
These days, you will always notice social media contests when scrolling on popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Social media contests are highly effective as they can help you to reach a huge amount of new users, and often, these contests have a snowball effect that can help you to increase brand awareness exponentially. “Like, share, and comment” competitions are the most effective type that will help you significantly improve brand awareness. Just make sure that the prize is something that will encourage people to enter.
Engaging Content
Content is the foundation of many digital marketing strategies, but you will find that many brands misuse it. Content can be a great way to increase brand awareness, but this will only happen if you create engaging content that your target market wants to consume. Many brands focus on quantity over quality and will pump out low-quality, high-volume content, which is easy to ignore. Instead, when you create content that will be valuable to your target market, you can stand out online and, hopefully, encourage people to share this content on social media. High-quality content will also be an effective way to improve your brand reputation and keep people coming back for more.
Guest Blogging
Leading on from this, guest blogging can help you get noticed by a much larger audience and generate new traffic to your website. This involves creating content that will appear on a blog that is frequented by your target market. Therefore, you want to identify popular blogs and develop relationships with these blog owners so that you can create regular content for their audience. You can also use the services of a digital marketing agency that will be able to identify and approach these blogs for you.
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to increase your visibility online. By determining keywords and optimizing content, you can improve your search engine ranking to boost brand awareness, increase traffic, and improve brand reputation. SEO is effective because it improves organic traffic, but you need to be prepared for the fact that it can take several months for results to show.
PPC
Leading on from this, PPC is a great option for the short term. While your SEO campaign is underway, you can instantly improve visibility on search engine results lists with PPC advertising. This will allow you to appear in the sponsored section of results lists, which can help to increase brand awareness and will also help to drive new traffic to your website. Combining SEO and PPC is smart because it will deliver short and long-term results.
Media Coverage
Media coverage will always be an effective way to increase brand awareness and reach people on a large scale. It is not always easy, but you will want to strike up relationships with local journalists and position yourself as an expert in the field so that the media will turn to you when covering topics in your market.
Online Communities
You can also increase brand awareness by engaging in online communities related to your industry. Platforms like Reddit are ideal for this and could help you attract new followers and customers from all over the globe. However, you want to be careful with this approach as you do not want to disturb these online communities by being overly promotional. Instead, you should share your expertise in the industry to build trust and establish your brand as a thought leader in the field.
Networking At Events
It may be an old-school tactic, but networking remains a highly effective way to get your brand name out there. You should be looking to network at all times and always carry business cards to distribute among your connections. In today’s digital age, networking in person and exchanging business cards can have a much greater impact and help you to form much stronger connections. This is why you should always be looking for relevant industry events that will help you to connect with your target market. This can help you increase brand awareness, but you also need to nurture these relationships over time, which is what social media is good for.
Strategic Alliances
A smart way for SMEs to increase brand awareness is to work together to promote one another’s business. This is known as a strategic alliance, where you partner up with a complementary brand that is not a direct competitor and advertise and/or run joint promotions that are mutually beneficial. This can help you to reach customers that you might not have reached before, and, again, it is a way to build credibility as you are getting a vote of confidence from another business.
Host Virtual Events
Virtual events have become a major trend since the rise of remote work, and they can be an excellent way to increase brand awareness. Hosting a virtual event that will appeal to your target market, such as a workshop, lecture, or networking event, can attract people to your business without them having to spend any money. Virtual events can be effective because you are not limited by location, meaning you can reach people from all over the globe. These events can also be much easier and more affordable to plan than an in-person event, and people will be more likely to attend as they do not have to travel and make a major commitment to attend.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is something that every brand should be striving for in 2023. Similar to influencer marketing, this can be a highly effective way to reach a much larger audience and build brand credibility. UGC is content that is made by your customers relating to your brand, such as product reviews, unboxing videos, and product demonstrations. You can encourage UGC by creating UGC competitions, starting hashtags, sharing previous UGC, and directly asking customers once they have placed an order.
Flyers & Posters
You should not overlook the impact of traditional marketing strategies when it comes to increasing brand awareness, especially if you are targeting people in your local area. Flyers and posters can be an effective way to get your business noticed locally, but you need to make sure that you have high-quality materials made with an eye-catching design.
Branded Merch
Another traditional marketing strategy that remains effective is branded merchandise. When your customers wear t-shirts or hats or use pens/mugs with your brand name and logo, it will advertise your brand to the people they encounter daily. This is also effective because it turns your customers into brand advocates. As it is such an effective strategy, you might want to consider giving branded merch away as a thank-you gift.
This post should give you a few ideas for ways to increase brand awareness. It is not easy to get noticed in today’s day and age, but it is vital that you are able to stand out and attract the attention of your target market if you are to succeed.
