Did you know that 46% of consumers in the US only buy from businesses they can trust? Only after they do research and read reviews to get familiar with the company do they consider buying.
The first step in all this is finding out about your brand. The best way to make sure your target audience discovers your brand quickly and smoothly is to increase brand awareness. After all, if nobody knows about you, how can anyone buy from you?
What can you do to boost awareness? Use a smart digital marketing strategy, and talk to your audience through multiple channels.
In this article, we're going to tell you about the most effective channels you can use to improve brand marketing and make more people find out about your business, its product quality, and its values.
Digital Marketing Channels That Can Increase Brand Awareness
The impact of digital marketing on brand awareness is obvious. Internet users spend a lot of time online, so you should be there for them, ready to make an excellent first impression.
To ensure you get the attention you deserve, it's best to approach your target audience through different channels.
Search Engine Optimization
Why? To get your website a higher organic (free) Google ranking and make users see your pages first and click on them. In 2021, the average click-through rate for the first result was 29.17%, compared to 9.3% for the third result.
This means that, with proper SEO, you can reach your target audience and become a relevant, familiar brand for them. Put simply, people look for a solution, and the first one they see is your product. Neat, right?
How? Here are some recommendations on how to achieve proper SEO to increase brand awareness:
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Target proper queries.
Niche-relevant keywords are great, but you should also consider "owning" navigational ones leading to your website and specific category and product pages. A great tip is to "buy" these keywords – launching paid campaigns. You're definitely the leader when you are the first result in both organic and paid searches.
Navigational queries are those leading directly to the brand's website. "Facebook," "YouTube," and the like are considered navigational keywords. -
Keep technical SEO in mind.
Perform website audits regularly to see if there are any technical factors preventing your pages from crawling and indexing correctly. Issues with meta tags, the robots.txt file, nofollow tagged links, etc., can undermine your success. -
Control your rankings.
Using online marketing platforms, it's quite easy to stay updated and see the current state of your page and those of your competitors. For example, SE Ranking's Google rank checker tool provides you with data on how your pages perform for target queries and where your competition is at the moment. You can also track Google Ads rankings, SERP features, Google Maps ranks, and more in any of the five most used search engines for any location, desktop, and mobile devices.
Content Marketing
Why? Because with proper content marketing in your brand awareness strategy, you can reach your target audience with immediate solutions to their problems and answers to their questions. An appealing brand cares enough to provide expert information for free.
How? Here are some content marketing tips you can use to improve brand recognition online:
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Post relevant content.
Research relevant keywords and write content relevant to your industry that your target audience is interested in. This will help you target more suitable queries and keep your site and social media channels updated at all times. -
Write guest and sponsored posts.
To increase brand awareness, reach out to the readers of other relevant websites by writing guest posts and offering sponsored content. High-authority websites related to your niche usually have target audiences similar to yours, which means more referral traffic for your site and more people finding out about your brand.
Social Media
Why? Social media is an irreplaceable part of any digital marketing strategy. More than 4.26 billion people were using SNS (social networking services) in 2021, and that number may rise to almost 6 billion by 2027.
Increasing presence on social media means getting more views, followers, interactions, and potential buyers. Do it wisely to build a community around your brand that will later help you strengthen your brand awareness strategy.
How? Let's see some recommendations on social media marketing:
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Communicate in every way possible.
Mention other brands, repost relevant posts from them, earn mentions of your brand account, and participate in popular industry-specific conversations. Enrich your profiles with helpful information about your brand and other businesses to encourage people to follow you. Once you trigger the process, you can grab your followers' attention and use them to boost recognition. -
Be creative.
With over 4 billion people on social media, imagine how many brands there are already using the best SMM tactics. You have to create a brand identity to stand out. Creating awareness is impossible if your account is identical to thousands of other businesses. Impress your audience and find a way to grab their attention.
Paid Ads
Why? To cover all the first places for targeted keywords in search engines and reach out to your target audience with specific offers. You can also use Search Ads for brand keywords to increase search presence.
How? Let's find out:
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Use PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns.
This type of digital marketing advertising will ensure you're the top pick in search engines without even ranking #1 organically. Although you should try that as well, popping up in both the paid and organic sections will make you more recognizable, as we stated earlier. When using Google Ads, make sure to target not only commercial keywords but branded ones as well because your competitors may do this to steal your traffic. -
Use targeted ads on social media.
If you use Facebook Ads, for example, you can target a specific group of people according to their gender, age, location, interests, and other factors. Thus, you'll get the right messages to the right people, inviting those already interested in checking out your brand. -
Use remarketing.
Use remarketing to keep in touch with your audience. When people visit your website, you can follow them with targeted ads spreading awareness about your philosophy, products, services, special offers, etc. This will help them remember the brand and possibly buy something from it.
Email Marketing
Why? 64.1% of small businesses use email as an effective marketing channel.
Email marketing will help you increase brand awareness through existing clients and new subscribers. Word-of-mouth marketing still works flawlessly in 2022, so having loyal customers talk about your business will effectively draw attention to it. And for newcomers, you can strengthen that first impression.
How? Here's how:
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Adopt consistent branding.
Be consistent with your tone of voice, email structure, colors, the tone of CTAs and subject lines, brand logos, etc. -
Arrange triggered emails.
When someone abandons a cart, for example, they will keep wandering the net, forgetting about your website, and eventually opting for a competitor. You may turn to the SendPulse email marketing tool to set up triggered emails that remind potential customers you're there to offer your best products, show customer reviews, and even offer an occasional discount. If you're seeking additional options, consider using other Mailchimp alternatives like Flodesk, to enhance your email marketing strategy. Flodesk offers a user-friendly interface, beautiful email templates, and powerful automation features to help you engage with your audience and build meaningful connections. -
Utilize personalization.
Consumers are looking for a real, honest relationship with the brand. Personalizing content according to the actions someone takes on your website will help you build trust and allow you to be at the right place at the right time, and with the right products, in the user's inbox.
Summary
This guide has provided information on how to use digital marketing to boost your brand recognition online. We've presented the five most effective channels through which you can reach out to your target audience, make an excellent first impression, and be remembered.
Use the channels wisely to meet your prospects at each step of the buyer's journey. Optimize your website for search engines and eliminate all technical errors. Create and publish high-quality expert content that is relevant to your audience. Utilize social media to build a following and create a strong loyal community around your brand.
Also, don't shy away from email marketing and paid advertising. Both powerful tools can help you establish authority and communicate directly with potential buyers, building trust and nurturing brand advocates.
The first impression is the last one, so make sure your first impression is good.
