You are young, motivated and determined. Only the big stage has not yet been prepared for them: We are talking about companies at the beginning of their growth phase. Despite all the enthusiasm for startups, at some point they have to increase awareness and make their company known. These 10 tips show how to do it.
There is no alternative to a certain brand awareness, because invisibly sells modestly and the exclusive niche is only a special case. The public should be informed in the interest of your company. A brand needs presence in order to clearly communicate the advertising message. Only a really necessary product that is perceived as such remains in the consciousness of the interested party in the long term. Make a directional decision by asking the basics:
- Who should be reached? The focus of the company’s interest is on the buyer persona . She is the ideal customer for whom you have the ideal product ready. Now all she has to do is notice and rate her offer as irresistible.
- Why should someone be reached? Making a company known requires dealing with its products. Clarify their effectiveness and determine the best sales arguments. For most customers, the price, the time or longevity or durability and the reputation of the brand play an important role. For some customers, there is also the aspect of sustainability and social commitment.
- How should someone be reached? Various channels are available to companies for this. Classic PR requires a larger budget than the example of social media channels, which can be included in your own strategy free of charge – but does not have to be. A relatively long range can be achieved with compact software and comparatively little effort .
Contents
- Include friends and acquaintances in your PR offensive. Not to sell something to them, but to be able to use their social proof for the company. The term describes the influence of other people’s experiences on oneself. The principle also works in advertising: the prospect is faced with a purchase decision and examines the offer. Two out of four products are almost sold out. That arouses desires. If these two items are in such high demand, it is likely a special quality. Use this effect for your company!
- Use social media to increase your awareness. Personal assessments are always recommendations . They are an investment in brand awareness. Motivate your customers to post likes. Use competitions to offer discount coupons or small gifts to increase social media activities. Don’t be afraid of criticism! But respond immediately and offer a solution. Communicate this authentically. Users are suspicious of company profiles, but reward every conflict resolution and an unadulterated external image.
Create meaningful content
- Go on the offensive with your own contributions. In addition to comments from customers and followers related to the company, you should also be visible in the networks with your own contributions. Invest in content marketing . Create content that deals with your products and provides the reader – whether actual or potential customer – with clear added value. Avoid empty phrases and advertising, attach importance to professional design. Ideally, content marketing motivates the reader to deal with a certain product and its environment.
- Make sure your content is in good form – it’s the best content. Make sure you give your content a serious and stylish frame – brand awareness is a positive term! Example: Your company brings together regional moving companies and interested parties. Place advice articles on the subject of insurance protection, registration and re-registration formalities or DIY on your website. Provide a density of content in each paragraph that immediately signals to the reader that it is worth reading. In addition, they offer links with additional benefits. Whitepaper or e-book are the means of publication of choice here. You can also place share buttons from the usual social media platforms under your articles. This creates the additional opportunity to win the reader as a multiplier.
- Build your own website. Thanks to modular systems such as WordPress or Joomla, the costs remain manageable. To start with, keep the size of the page slim and let visitors know that you’re just starting out as a smaller business. Go into it in blog posts and collect sympathy points with it.
- Optimize search engine listings. Important: SEO should definitely be done according to measure. Link your posts with intelligent anchor texts. Less is more, refer carefully to your website and only in forums or blog posts that are relevant to the topic. Exercise restraint by politely pointing out your side.
Brand awareness by analog means
- Also consider the possibilities of classic PR. It is still part of the process if you want to make your company known. Use the paths away from the digital paths. Analog PR in the form of advertising campaigns is likely to be difficult for young companies to finance. So try the middle ground and contact a local editorial office in your area. Weekly newspapers or district newspapers have an open ear for new entrepreneurs and are happy to report. If you offer a finished article right away, stick to the quality features of content marketing here as well.
- Increase your level of awareness by being present on site. Trade fairs with a regional character provide an excellent framework for distributing traditional advertising materials. Especially in the age of e-mail, souvenirs such as pens or notepads leave a positive impression, as they are generally useful as everyday objects. Of course, a USB stick with a company logo will do the same. Numerous providers with very different assortments are available through the Internet.
Measure success and increase awareness
- Make contact with other startups or small businesses. A community of interests at the local level increases visibility. Quality instead of quantity – do not collect contacts, but cultivate them. Keep expanding your network, but only with the right addresses. Therefore, when contacting you for the first time, exclude anything non-professional. In the later maintenance of contacts, private topics can then also be broached in order to create a basis of trust.
- Do not fail to analyze your activities. After the first steps have been taken, make sure that you make a meaningful assessment and classification. Making the company known and then leaning back unfortunately does not work. Through surveys of your customers you will get a realistic picture of external representation. You can also use software to question the access rates of your website and to determine metric data. Bring the operational processes together with the support of CRM. Optimize lead management and let the software decide on the quality of the individual leads. Against the background of the CRM analysis, take all further steps to win new customers. Take advantage of that tooE-mail marketing to inform existing customers and to bind them to your company through bonus programs or discount campaigns.
Make your own company known and gradually increase its level of awareness – a challenge, especially for young companies with a small budget. But the chances are almost never. A number of digital tools have made the practice much easier. But even the classic methods do not fail to have an effect of gradually increasing brand awareness.
Author
Selena is a blogger and a guest contributor for a well-known brand that includes MESHEBLE & INTHEMARKET. In her leisure time, she plays tennis.
