In the past, the cost of launching a brand awareness campaign kept many fabulous brands and products from growing beyond the local level. How could a small, start-up company compete with national corporations, even if their products were better? This is no longer the truism it used to be. Small companies can and do launch successful ad campaigns by combining their own creativity and access to the Internet with affordable and effective marketing companies like Allegra Marketing and others.
Brand awareness is the reason industry giants like Coca-Cola and Heineken still run million-dollar advertising campaigns. They do this to REMIND their customers of what you need to make your new customers AWARE. Their campaigns were effective in the first place because they were thoughtful about their logos, tag lines, and mood creation over time. Fortunately today, companies like Allegra Marketing can guide you through the process of using the internet to level the playing field. Using their professional experience allows you to strategically maximize the impact of much cheaper markets for advertising such as Pinterest, Facebook, and other on-line platforms.
The Twitter Hashtag: To reach the largest audience, you’ll probably want to choose a combination of two types: 1.) a branded hashtag specific for your brand such as Coke’s #ShareACoke, and 2.) several unbranded hashtags that are common in your industry such #vegetarian, etc. Choosing effective hashtags and tips for making them trend on Twitter. Again, a strong marketing company such as Allegra Marketing can significantly increase your Twitter traffic with their experienced agents.
Blog Outreach: Reaching out to bloggers who are in a common industry by commenting and sharing your hashtag and your own website is a free way to network. This assumes you have a blog for your business that produces quality content. You want content that you can be proud of and that attracts customers to want to know more about your business or service and keeps them coming back! You can also serve as a “guest blogger” who writes invited pieces for free for a company in a complementary but not competing industry. You don’t need to be a professional writer to write a decent, 500-word blog. An advertising firm can also help you with this.
Complementary Partnerships: Put simply, these are collaborations with businesses that provide services or sell products that complement your products and services. For example, airline services complement tourism services because tourists who want to travel will often need to fly. Likewise, people who use airports often need rental cars. Notice the services and products related to yours that would complement but not compete with your business. They can be VERY financially fruitful as well as increasing the profile of your brand.
Podcasting: Youtube and other platforms can provide a great springboard with a little creativity and very little money. Most of us own a cell phone that can record decent video today that’s good enough to get started. The trick is making shot videos that “teach” something users would want to understand about your business.
Native Advertising: These native ads don’t look like typical ads. Instead, these are advertisements that “take the form” of the content on the sites in which they’re placed. Because they blend in with their surroundings, they often get better results than typical online ads. They don’t really look like ads. Since these ads can be a bit advanced for some novices, Allegra Marketing can help you create native ads that pack a punch.
Find a Brand Influencer: Finding a person who has a large following on social media who will share the benefits of your product or service is a very cost effective way to boost your sales and make contacts with others who are interested in your brand. Remember that social media cannot be ignored in 2019. Increasing your brand awareness is limited only by your own creativity.
These cost effective, almost free, suggestions will go a long way to increasing the profile of your brand. Your creativity combined with a professional marketing service–there’s no stopping you!
