When you buy toys, do you search for Lego or plastic blocks? When you are shopping for office items, do you search for Post-It Notes or sticky paper? These brands have effectively embedded their product names in our brains by persuading consumers that they’re the best at what they do – and they did all that through marketing.
And that’s how you build your brand image!
Brand image is everything in today’s cutthroat world of marketing. It’s common sense: the more popular you are, the more of your service or product you’ll end up selling. And, digital marketing is a vast pool, full of interesting tools and tricks to help boost brand awareness.
Digital marketing covers many aspects of showcasing your brand or service. There are tools such as PPC (pay per click), social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), and email marketing. Each tool combined with another is known as the marketing mix and plays its role in building an unstoppable brand.
So how do you tell the world you exist? How do you grab the attention of the millions of potential clients roaming around social media?
1. Leveraging Influencer Relationships
Have you ever wondered about the concept of celebrity endorsements? The most prominent brands in the world find celebrities to become their brand ambassadors because it encourages people to buy into a service or purchase a product. Attaching a celebrity or an influencer to a service or brand is a way of selling, and it is very effective.
Influencer marketing is one of the best methods to promote a brand in this digital era. Influencers influence their fans and followers like no one else. They can be YouTubers, Musicians, film stars, TikTok artists, or maybe even sports personalities. All of them have countless fans and followers who listen to whatever they say and do whatever they’re doing.
If an influencer uploads a video using some service/product, all their followers will check it out. This behavior improves prospects for any brand. Hence, the primary point of brand awareness is fulfilled. The entire procedure is detailed and takes months, if not, years of research. Then, a plan is initiated that delivers results. It is up to a digital marketing agency to do whatever is needed to get the ball rolling.
A digital marketing agency houses experienced marketing professionals with years of experience in promoting brands on various channels. These marketers have years of experience elevating brands and know what it takes to promote brands in creative and effective ways.
2. SEO – Search Engine Optimization
No matter what form of online marketing you’re into, SEO will forever be a relevant tactic.
Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches every day. That probably doesn’t come off as a shocker since online search has become a go-to solution for almost every problem or question we have. If your website is one of the first things that pop up in search when searching for answers to a query, it can translate into millions of new people learning about you.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how you get your online business to show up on search engines. Undoubtedly, SEO is a viable digital marketing channel that gives your website to show up on the first page of Google (or other search engines); it pays significant dividends in building brand image.
SEO helps you achieve excellent brand consciousness with keyword targeting to build your site’s authority and increase its ranking.
3. Original Content – is King
In the internet era, marketing isn’t enough. Nowadays, customers are clever, more educated, and vigilant when you’re trying to sell something and pick up on it. To get their attention, you should think differently, and the best way to understand your customers is by producing original content that isn’t copied or plagiarised.
Why content? Because you want your customers to make a well-versed decision. To begin with, consumers felt under control and empowered when making the right buying decision. This reduces the number of turn-backs or negative assumptions that customers would possibly develop about the service/product.
Now, the question is: how does digital marketing aid in educating consumers? The thing is, content marketing is the pedestal of digital marketing. It deals with creating relevant content on topics that customers are searching for before making a purchase-related decision. Original content helps the brand generate leads without having to incur severe costs for paid advertising. Additionally, this content remains valid for years, also called evergreen content.
4. Organic SEO Vs. PPC
Here’s an interesting fact – 80 percent of shoppers ignore paid search results, relying only on organic citations. However, 64.6 percent of shoppers who click on Google ads are preparing to make an online purchase. That said, both organic SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing strategies are essential for your brand-building edges, and each has its pros and cons.
PPC can offer an incredible boost in online visibility, increase traffic, and create brand awareness within a short period. Organic traffic, on the other hand, will pay off in the long haul. Therefore, it is acceptable to run some paid campaigns if there’s a need.
For instance, you might have a special bonus offer or want to launch a new item right away. Regardless of what you’re doing, invest time in creating original pieces of content relevant to your product or service. It could be case studies, an e-book, or just an experience. Creating content like this helps improve your SEO strategy.
5. Building Customer-Loyalty
Tailored content is just the start of creating a long-term customer relationship. If you continually create content that interests customers and leads, you can bring them back to your website and retain them to help build loyalty.
- Content on social media is a method to delight customers and entice them back into the sales funnel for future buy-outs. Learn what channels your consumers are on and the type of content they desire, and then put tailored, consistent content on those channels.
- Map email campaigns based on the products/services customers are interested in or where they exist in the sales funnel. The more personalized and tailored content, the greater the value of the email to the consumer.
Lastly, you must remember that customers are your best allies when building brand image. In a connected world where insight determines your businesses’ value, having customers on your side gets you the approvals, social proof, and reviews you need.
Wrapping Up
Digital marketing isn’t going anywhere. This is, of course, not a thorough list because there are numerous ways to boost brand image (both good and bad). However, these strategies are as good as any. Just remember; don’t rely on quick fixes to improve brand awareness, and don’t take routes that will eventually harm your reputation in the industry. Think long term, and the benefits will be worth the hustle.