You could be selling the best product in the world, nobody will buy it if they don’t know about its existence. It should be your aim to be the leader in your industry and to have your brand name engraved into your client’s minds. Make it your goal to become the new Microsoft, Coca Cola or Facebook in your field by increasing brand awareness. We’ve listed the 5 best ways to help you do this.
1. Referral programs
Having customers refer their friends to your product or service is a very effective way to grow a loyal customer base. Research has shown that recommendations from friends have more credibility than any other method of advertising. By rewarding anyone that refers a friend, you let customers do the marketing for you.
A great example of the referral technique is the program launched by Airbnb in 2011. The idea of the program was to have people who have already used the site, explain to their friends how the service works.
Having a friend tell you in person about his experience of renting a room on Airbnb, will resonate a lot better than seeing a commercial ad. Referred customers are also much more likely to be loyal to the brand and refer others.
2. Guest writing
Guest writing on high-traffic websites can raise brand awareness in a number of ways. By showing that you’re the expert on a certain topic, you will imprint your brand’s name into the reader’s minds. However, you need to be selective about the sites you’re guest writing on. You’ll want to focus mainly on high quality authoritative sites attracting readers who fit your client profile.
The content that you’re writing should be fresh and offer something of value to the readers. Don’t just copy what competitors are writing about but ‘wow’ the audience by showing them your professionalism and expertise in a unique way. Guest writing is a great way to gain customer trust and it doesn’t have to take you a lot of time to do it.
3. The internet
The quickest and easiest way to reach new people is through the internet. Make sure that your website looks great and that it explains exactly how your product or service can solve your customer’s problems. Work on your website’s SEO rating or hire a company to do it for you. Make profiles on social media that link back to your site so that customers have the ability to share it with their friends.
You can use the internet to reach out to large groups of customers at once but you can also connect with them on a personal level. Twitter chat is a great way of having personal conversations in which you can react directly to questions and remarks.
Write useful articles that show your expertise to potential clients and take the time to respond to questions and comments. This creates a strong connection with your audience and keeps them engaged with your product.
4. Events
By sponsoring or even hosting an event, you’re connecting your brand with a positive feeling. It gives you the opportunity to interact with visitors that you might not be able to reach otherwise and to showcase your product.
The event that you’re going to sponsor should match with your brand’s image and have a similar target audience. A local charity event that’s held in your area is a great way to show that you feel connected with your community. Not only will it put your product in the spotlight, you’ll also get to expand your network and form relationships that can be fruitful later on.
Hosting an event doesn’t require a large budget. By teaming up with another company in your field, you can split the costs and divide responsibilities. You can also choose to attend events hosted by others, for the networking opportunities. With the help of internet you can host podcasts or webinars at relatively low costs. It can help your company tremendously to become established as the expert in your field.
5. Video showcasing
Not that long ago, producing a video that showcases a product would be a very pricy endeavor. Not to mention the costs included to have it broadcasted on regional or national television stations. The amount of video editing tools available today, have changed this completely. It doesn’t cost you anything to have your videos hosted on the world’s biggest and fastest video hosting site that is Youtube.
By creating videos that are fun or interesting to watch, you’ll create curiosity for your products without forcing anything onto the viewers. A great example of this is the funny BIC advertisement video in which a person is used as a device to play a game of curling with. Creativity pays off and it will definitely help to make you stand out from the competition, here is another great example the Dollar Shave Club video that helped them to tremendously increase their brand awareness.
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