8 Killer Brand Awareness Strategies

To have a brand isn't enough, you need to have customers to buy your brand. For this to happen, it's important to make people aware of your brand so that people always associate your brand with a particular need. However, it isn't easy to get fresh customers. 

What you need to do is to create a strategy that gets your brand recognized in its specific category so that your sales go up and you're laughing all the way to the bank. Here are eight strategies you could implement:

1. Give your brand a unique identity:

To get your brand identified by customers and potential customers, give your brand a bright look, something that will make it stand out in a crowd. Once you approve of its look, narrate the story of the people who created the brand. You can do this either through your blog or on your About Us page. When you specify your core values, it will further emphasize your business strategies, so spell them out.

Source: Mack Web Solutions

2. Optimize your website:

If your site is well-optimized, it will bring in the targeted audiences and the traffic inflow will come in and stay on your site for much longer, possibly converting into customers too. For this, you need to consider your website design, the keywords you choose and the title and meta tags you use, the conversion rate methods you employ, etc.

3. Be visible on social media platforms:

You can increase your brand's profile and speak directly to an interested audience through social media networks. These platforms also allow you to forge relationships and get valuable insights into what your customer base wants and are looking for. Social media helps give your brand an approachable feel and make it engaging. Choose from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Choose a different tone of voice for each channel and decide the frequency of your posts. 

4. Personalize your customer's experience:

By personalizing your customer's experience, you make it more enjoyable for him. When you do this, you show your customers that you care for them. This can nurture your relationships and increase your conversion rates.

5. Word of mouth referrals:

The influence word of mouth referrals wield can never be undermined. Now, with the Internet, it has wings as it can reach all across the world. Brands can use social media to gain referrals by engaging with audience through customer service interactions, companies offering incentives, etc. 

6. Competitions to stimulate interest in your brand:

You can generate interest in your brand by setting up a competition, which can open up a whole new audience to you, thereby increasing your potential customer base. Though your aim may be to achieve brand awareness, yet other objectives like newsletter subscriptions and competition entries can also be achieved through a competition. 

7. Don't forget conventional media:

Though print media isn't as preferred as its digital counterpart, yet there are many people who still read newspapers and magazines. Not only can you use this to get a lower advertising rate, but you can also get large spaces for your advertisements that can catch the reader's attention. By getting good deals on target newspapers and magazines, you can increase awareness of your brand or product. 

8. Sponsor events:

You can gain some prominence for your brand by sponsoring a tournament or charity event. This gives you the opportunity to network with important people who may of help to you in spreading awareness of your brand. 

Conclusion

Creating a brand may not be difficult, but making it known to the general public and focused groups could be more time-consuming and demand a lot of you. However, by using these strategies, you can have a widely-known brand that brings in customers.

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13 Small Business Holiday Specials

Before the Thanksgiving turkey’s cold, we’re off to do holiday shopping.

Major retailers like Amazon, Walmart and others already have their holiday sales set.

Small business owners, you can provide service that customers, especially those seeking more than a good deal, want. 

2016 Total holiday retail sales (specifically November and December) will increase to $884.50 billion, up 3.3% from the same period last year, according to eMarketer.

• 2016 Total holiday ecommerce sales will increase to $94.71 billion, 10.7% of total holiday retail sales.
• US retail mcommerce sales will to increase to $115.92 billion, 29.1% of total holiday ecommerce sales.

 How do your small business holiday specials stack up against total ecommerce sales?

Do your small business holiday specials follow the trend?

The key to small business holiday specials success is the relationships you build all year long. It’s not last minute holiday shoppers looking for deals.

The small business holiday specials challenge is: “How do you set yourself apart from the big guys?”

HINT: You can’t compete on price. 

Therefore, small businesses must build on their ability to add extra value.

13 Small Business Holiday Specials

Use these 13 small business holiday specials to get results regardless of season.

When you create these promotions, ensure  you’re targeting your best customers.  Understand how to increase their average order size!!!

1. Provide local delivery

Go the extra distance for the people who live in your trading area. I’m surprised that more small businesses don’t offer this service.

Take a page from florists and delis: create defined delivery areas.

Back when there were independent bookstores in my neighborhood, I decided to send a friend a new novel for her birthday. I called and asked if they could have someone deliver the novel to my friend who lived 5 blocks away. (Note: by NYC standards, this is a very short distance.)

Although the clerk initially told me no, the owner agreed to wrap the book and deliver it for another $5.00. That cemented my customer loyalty! I was surprised that they never added that as a regular service.

2. Give shoppers a place to rest

Holiday shopping can be exhausting, especially if you’re not the born-to-shop type.

Put out a few comfortable chairs where shoppers can catch their breath. Yarn stores have done this for years. It’s a great way to calm waiting partners.

3. Put out the sweets

Give buyers the energy to continue shopping. It’s amazing how far the sugar rush from cookies or cake goes. Trader Joes and William Sonoma are great at offering snacks to entice buyers and fuel their shopping.

4. Discount product that’s not moving

Why wait until you have to severely discount it?

Spotlight slow moving product and call it a “special deal”.

5. Test purchase with second-purchase offers

This is a good way to try to move product that’s not resonating with your customers. For example, ‘Buy these pants, get a belt at half price.” You can do the same thing to encourage people to buy more than one item.

6. Create special shopping hours for your best customers.

Give them the Ritz treatment.

Either open early or close late for your top customers to have a less crowded, more personal shopping experience.

7. Provide child minding

Make a corner in your back room a place where children can stay without being in parents’ way.

Go a step further and have someone read children’s books.

8. Stock up on related necessary products

Don’t make your customers look for things like batteries.

Make them a no-brainer purchase at full price so they don’t need to make an extra trip.

9. Create special, tailored services

Get creative about how you can meet your target audience’s needs.

For example, a food specialty store can offer cooking classes.

Don’t forget to offer these services as a gift item.

10. Collect canned food or other items for donation

Show you care about your community.

At the holidays, people like to support businesses that provide for the less fortunate. This is particularly important among millennials.

11. Cross-promote other local shops

This is a good way to extend your marketing budget. Talk your fellow storeowners. You promote their business and they promote your business.

Note: This doesn’t work with direct or even indirect competitors.

12. Offer customer a special deal for January purchases

Since sales traditionally fall off after the post-Christmas sales. Give shoppers a coupon to indulge during the January slump.

The benefit: people feel good about coupons but often forget to use them. 

13. Remind your customers about birthdays and other special occasions

Holiday shoppers tend to buy for other people. Why not use this opportunity to capture information so that you provide a useful service without promoting them about products they don’t want.

Ask if their purchases are gifts. If so, add their content information to a special email reminder list.

It can be as simple as leaving a pad by your register to capture information such as customer name, email address, reminder (including name, occasion and date.)

The small business holiday specials bottom line:

To maximize your small business holiday specials, test different types of promotions to see what resonates best with your best customers.

As a small business, consider how you can use the holidays to build long-term relationships and provide special service and community.

Ask yourself, “What can I do that my larger competitors don’t?”

What other types of small business promotions would you recommend and why?

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3 Social Media Tactics for Businesses That Struggle With Social

Are you struggling to connect with your audience on social media?

Do you feel like social media won’t work for your business?

It’s not easy to put every business on social media, but the right approach can help even the most difficult cases reach their customers.

In this article, you’ll discover three ways any business can use social media.

Discover three social tactics for businesses that struggle to connect.

#1: Tell an Outside-the-Box Story

Many marketers create content around topics that relate to their value proposition, but that might be difficult to do if you’re in a “boring” industry. The good news is that even if your industry isn’t inherently exciting, you can still create content that appeals to your audience.

Look to Shoulder Niches

Suppose you’re a timber merchant. You might start with content about wood quality, FAQs about timber, and suggestions on what to look for when buying timber. However, these ideas can only go so far.

This is where “shoulder niches” come in. Consider niches that are related to your industry. For example, you might create detailed blog posts and videos that show how to build different kinds of furniture. This type of content will attract top-of-funnel traffic and encourage social sharing to boost your reach.

To generate content ideas for your business, grab a pen and paper and jot down your industry in the middle of the page. Then add related keywords and topics around your industry keyword until you find an idea you can research further. For the timber example, you might end up with something like this:

Brainstorm content ideas for your business.

Craft a Unique Narrative

Another way to appeal to your target audience is to tell a story. Zendesk effectively transformed the “boring” customer service space with their story of support ticket #24.

This lighthearted video shows the blossoming connection between a support rep and his customer. The video generated a huge amount of media attention and social shares, but most importantly, it attracted Zendesk’s ideal customers.

Measuring results for this type of content depends on the format. If you’ve created a video, you’ll want to measure views, engagement, and referral traffic. For a long-form blog post, track engagement metrics such as time on page and number of users. Make sure to include the all-important call to action, and track the conversion rate of readers to subscribers and leads.

#2: Deliver a Quick Call to Action Via Micro-content

People have short attention spans. Studies show that 50% of users stay on a website for less than 10 seconds. Short-form educational and entertaining content, called micro-content, can help appeal to a distracted audience.

How do you create micro-content that has a high chance of going viral? Make the content short, keep text to a minimum, and be sure to accompany it with visuals.

Always include a call to action as well. The connection you make with your audience should be the first step to tangible business goals. Micro-content should lead to a micro-yes, whether that’s clicking a link or providing an email address.

This Books-A-Million Instagram post grabs attention with a creative visual, the text is easy to digest, and it has a clear call to action.

Grab attention with bite-sized, consumable content.

With your calls to action in place, it’s easy to measure performance. Use UTM codes and shorten links to track each campaign. You can do this in Google Analytics under Acquisition > Campaigns > All Campaigns.

#3: Connect in Real Time With Live Video

Live video is a powerful addition to the customer retention toolbox that makes one-to-one connections even stronger. While Periscope is a key player, Facebook Live is becoming increasingly popular. Whenever you go live on Facebook, your existing fan base is notified.

What content should you stream live? Hold live Q&As to give customers a platform to post questions and get answers in real time. Broadcast product launches live to give your audience a sneak peek at new releases and features, making them feel part of something exclusive.

You can also show customers what your business looks like behind closed doors. Allow employees to express their personalities so they can form connections with customers. This is the foundation for increasing customer loyalty on social media.

General Electric has adopted the full nature of Facebook Live, sharing what happens behind the scenes with their audience. They used Facebook Live for “Drone Week” during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Through the eyes of a drone, they gave Facebook Live viewers a rarely seen perspective of how GE’s infrastructure helped make the Olympic Games run.

Give your fans a behind-the-scenes look at your business.

Measuring live video engagement on platforms like Facebook is easy, and the viewer count is displayed within the content.

Conclusion

Social media marketing requires patience if you’re trying to gain traction organically. That’s why many business owners and marketers supplement those efforts with paid social media advertising.

There are several ways to test ads on a small budget before scaling up. The first is to amplify your best-performing content. Look through your Google Analytics reports and run your domain through BuzzSumo. Set up campaigns that distribute the content with the highest engagement and conversion rates.

The second approach is to go beyond content and test campaigns that focus on bottom-of-funnel goals. Sharing free trials or discount coupons via Facebook or Twitter can help you generate qualified leads at all stages of the sales cycle.

Ad targeting is an area that many small- and medium-sized businesses underestimate. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all offer granular demographic and psychographic targeting information. For instance, to welcome remote workers into their store, a coffee shop could advertise to people ages 16 to 30 who like business and startup thought leaders.

Be sure to A/B test different approaches and rotate your ads regularly. See what copy, calls to action, and designs work best, and then double down on those with high conversion rates.

What do you think? How do you create content to appeal to your target audience?Please share your thoughts in the comments below.