Are you having trouble getting your message out there, trying to build business and brand awareness at the same time? If so, you need to think long and hard about engaging with your audience, this can be achieved to an extent if you have a website by, for instance, writing regular and different blog articles that relate clearly to your products and services.
You may also consider writing, as a real authority, about your own industry, the one that you know best and operate in on a daily basis. In this way, relevant, engaging, educational and fun content can add real value for your potential and existing customers and thus your brand.
In this way, all of this effort will improve your perceived brand awareness, by boosting the websites visibility in the search engines and thus facilitating new customers finding your online presence.
You must always look to let your customers get more involved by providing them with what they want, a regular newsletter or new product release details can go a million miles toward winning them over to you.
Get Social!
If you want to be perceived as being really up to date and trendy, maybe a little edgier than the rest, then you must have a presence on the social networks to augment your website.
There are many Social networks to consider from Facebook for its in depth information to the real time snippets available on Twitter and all the rest in between. Linkedin is great for business connections, Vine for snappy videos, Tumblr for photo sharing and so it goes on, seemingly relentlessly in todays always online 24/7 world.
Do something different, something outstanding and something truly original and you will gain kudos on the social networks for it.
Make sure that you engage with and build relationships with your audience through regular status updates or tweets . This all adds a nice personal touch, it shows that you care, communication is a two way street, between you and your customers, look after your followers, help them to grow to know you and you them.
Finally, have you considered competitions and promotions, look at them as loss-leaders to drive your business forwards. Some social networks have rules in place to control marketing techniques. You should adhere to these rules so that you are not identified negatively by the site owners.
Spread the Word
Talk and listen to your customers, show that you care. Trust is hard to gain and all too easily lost. Charity events such as dinners or live auctions will not only raise valuable funds for those who need it most, they will help to develop your local and online profile, facilitating networking with local and online luminaries.
Finally, consider donating funds towards worthwhile good causes; look after your community online and offline wherever you can.
Petite Handbags, Bulky T-shirts or Twee Pens?
Gifts given away promoting your brand often leave a truly lasting impression with your customers, or potential customers. It could be just a free bag full of goodies or a fresh, new branded and logoed tshirt. It may be an umbrella or pen that they have acquired on a rainy day! Whatever it is they now ‘proudly’ own it and will therefore remember it. You are reinforcing your message to your target audience all the way down the line, this is what you want.
You must think about marketing tactics such as personalised clothing. For instance, consider firms printing t-shirts in bulk as tshirts are, and have always been, fantastic brand promoters. Look at items such as baseball caps, event specific umbrellas and all of the many clothing and other give-aways that can be personalised with your logo and brand.
These marketing techniques will all allow you to promote the companies brand, by proudly showing the company logo off to all and sundry, that pride will surely start to wear off on others in the know. Get physical and get noticed!