Maintaining brand awareness is essential to your business. When your business has strong brand awareness, more consumers are aware of your business and what it has to offer. However, branding is a constant effort. Keeping up your brand awareness takes time and effort. With these strategies, you can help maintain brand awareness for your business.
1. Market Your Business Consistently
You don't have to wait for a specific sale or promotion to market your business. Even if you have certain busy seasons, you should continue your advertising past your seasonal efforts. Instead, make advertising a consistent part of your marketing plans for your business.
Between campaigns around a specific sale, promotion, or event, consider deploying branding campaigns that focus solely on increasing your brand awareness. You want your customers to know who your brand is and what you stand for, not just your latest promotion. Once you create that momentum through marketing, it’s important to maintain it through advertising your business consistently.
2. Advertise on Multiple Platforms
Incorporating multiple types of media can help you connect with your customers more often. Integrated marketing can help your audience have the same experience with your brand, no matter which platform. You can use one platform to lead your audience to another, increasing the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. For example, your radio ads can encourage your audience to visit your website for additional information where you can then ask for their email. Radio is a great tool to drive search, so you’ll want to ensure that your website can both be found and is updated to meet the needs of today’s discerning consumers.
Using multiple platforms such as radio, social media, digital ads, and email marketing can create a more effective marketing plan. The more places that your audience can find you and interact with your brand will be beneficial to increasing brand awareness.
3. Optimize with SEO
Search engine optimization is essential to ensuring that customers can find you. Utilizing SEO best practices can prove to be beneficial in your brand’s favor when consumers are looking for information in the category in which your business falls. Optimize your website and digital ads with SEO keywords.
One of the best practices for finding the most relevant keywords to your brand is to do some research on your industry. Learn more about the keywords your competitors are ranking under by conducting your own research, as well as utilizing the ‘searches related to’ area on Google. Analyze the keywords that are most relevant to your business and the needs of your consumers, and focus on them.
As you connect with your target audience on social media and other platforms, you will get a better understanding of what your customers are looking for. This hands-on interaction with your target audience will also help you decide on what keywords you should focus on to best optimize with SEO.
4. Create a Blog
Building a blog on your website will help increase brand awareness with your customers and prospects who find you through general searches. Your blog should be where you offer relevant, useful information to your audience. This content is a great way to establish credibility within your industry and add value to your customer’s experience with your brand. Consider:
- Having a subscription form so your customers can keep up with the latest updates
- Making it shareable so readers are able to share your blog posts with others
- Inviting experts to guest post to expand your library and your credibility
In addition to publishing your blog posts, make sure you’re distributing them. Utilize your social media platforms, email newsletters, and mobile text clubs to get your blog content in front of your customers.
A blog will allow your business to continuously reach your audience with educational and informative content that is relative to your industry. Publishing blog posts on a consistent schedule can help increase brand awareness as your audience will begin to view your brand as an expert in your category.
5. Start a Referral/Rewards Program
Encourage your customers to refer their friends to your business. Many consumers rely on recommendations from friends and family when making a purchasing decision. Design a landing page for your website that invites customers to send a referral in exchange for a reward or discount for those who participate.
When incorporating a referral program, consumers can feel more inclined to share your business when there is a reward in place. For example, offer your customers a discount on their next purchase whenever they send a referral to a friend and they purchase through that link. Referral programs will look different across industries, but they can be successful in strengthening brand loyalty and increasing brand awareness.
6. Get Involved in the Community
Partnering with local organizations and businesses can increase your community involvement and spread your reach. Search for organizations that are vital to your local community and support the same values that your business encourages.
One way to get involved is by sponsoring events through your local radio station. Radio stations partner with local businesses to provide additional support for upcoming events in the community. This helps build stronger relationships and brand awareness by pairing your business alongside well-known brands in the community. Consider working with a media partner that can help you find a local organization with an upcoming event that targets your same audience. Invite your staff to volunteer to build relationships and put a face to your brand.
7. Start a Podcast
A podcast can build substantial brand awareness with your target audience. No matter the industry or who you’re trying to reach, a podcast can be a lucrative marketing platform for your business. Podcasts are able to be consumed by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Along with radio, it’s one of the easiest and most affordable ways to reach everyone, especially those who are on the go or live a busier lifestyle. Whether you’re offering entertainment, educational content, or business resources, a podcast can help with keeping up your brand awareness while simultaneously building loyal listeners.
8. Host a Sweepstakes
A great way to engage your customers and beyond is by partnering with a local radio station to host a giveaway or sweepstakes. In addition to the on-air spots promoting the contest, advertise across social media and utilize email marketing to encourage more entries. Not only are you able to market the sweepstakes to those who already follow your brand, but you are able to reach the listeners of the radio station as well.
This is a great way to increase overall brand awareness and get listeners interested in your brand. For example, you can give away one of your most popular products or services with the help of the station’s on-air talent and their relationship with their listeners. A sweepstake will encourage the listeners to follow your social media channels, visit your website, or even come into your business. Someone who might not have been familiar with your brand before has the potential to become a customer because of the introduction made on air.
The way you choose to market your business to keep up brand awareness might look different in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. These eight tips are great places to start both now and later on. While you might have to pivot your business as you navigate this time, the marketing decisions you make now will help increase your brand awareness in the future.
