Last year we bid farewell to recession…
and not a moment too soon, but growing a business remains tough for everyone.
[source: eventbrite.co.uk] Besides traditional advertising, what can you do to help put your brand name on everybody’s lips in 2015? We’ve compiled eight ideas to get people talking:
1. Hold an event
Whatever type of business you’re in, holding a live event is a great way to get the attention of clients and prospects. This could be a purely social summer barbecue or Christmas party, or structured around business development such as the launch of a new product or promotion. You could even run a workshop to share your professional expertise.
1. Check out these business building events to consider in 2015
Holding a live event gives you valuable ╘face time’ with potential customers and offers the opportunity for them to experience the look, feel and personality of your brand. You can always adopt a theme to add interest, such as a 1920s cocktail evening or a vintage tea party. Consider raising funds for charity at your event — it’s the perfect way to give back as you get.
If you’ve never organized a corporate event before, don’t be daunted; Eventbrite makes promoting and managing your event easy. Simply design your custom event page and start pulling in attendees. We’ve even got a 10 step guide to help get you started!
2. Exhibit yourself
Exhibiting can be a highly effective way to showcase your brand to hundreds of people in your target market. However, it can be expensive, so you’ll need to prepare carefully to ensure you realize the best return on investment. It’s not always a case of ╘build it and they will come’, you need to go further to attract people to your stand ╨ and keep them there long enough to discover your brand and absorb your message.
Organizing a competition or giveaway is a great way to attract attention. Who doesn’t like getting something for nothing? Quirky or useful branded gifts such novelty items that can be passed on to the kids, or food and drink, will always be well received. A promotional tote bag is another good idea — turning your recipients into walking billboards.
3. Sponsor something
Sponsorship of an event or product is another proven way to reach a target audience and increase brand awareness. Sponsoring an event can entitle your company to exclusive face-to-face time with attendees as well as overt branding opportunities.
But choose wisely what you choose to sponsor should be relevant to your target market and ‘on message.’ Be sure to steer clear of any PR disasters ╨ Nestlé’s sponsorship of a health conference in 2014 led to the event being cancelled after senior NHS figures urged a boycott over the food and beverage company’s promotion of infant formula in the developing world.
To help you make the right sponsorship choice visit Sponsormonster, a free to use service which matches potential corporate sponsors with sponsorship opportunities that meet their marketing criteria.
4. Organize an experiential stunt
For companies targeting consumers there’s no better way to raise brand awareness than getting out on the street and engaging with potential customers.
Experiential campaigns can leave a lasting impression and buy you valuable user-generated social media coverage. A recent example includes a campaign by ale brand Old Speckled Hen in December, which saw pop-up pubs appear on high streets where punters could settle their bar tab by tweeting a photo of their pint using the hashtag #Oldspeckledhaven, and get Christmas presents wrapped by ‘Ale Elves.’
This month, meanwhile, Lyle’s Golden Syrup has kicked off a tour of UK train stations with its “smile activated” syrup dispenser, which pours Lyle’s Golden Syrup onto free pots of porridge.
5. Take to social media
Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and WordPress offer companies a great free-of-charge platform to promote themselves, build their brand and their audience.
Finding the time to feed your profiles and blog can be a challenge but if you’re going to do it you need to be active, which means posting and interacting several times a day. But what to say? Expertise in a particular area can make for a large following. Stay relevant and on-topic and you will garner a valuable and engaged audience.
Try these 6 Steps To A Better Blog
Don’t forget you need to talk to others to grow your following, which means responding to comments on your Facebook page or blog in a timely manner and engaging fellow Twitter users in conversation. A great way to do this is via Twitter Chat. Twitter chats are focused on a topic that is decided in advance and use a specific hashtag to help users follow along. To discover upcoming chats visit Twubs.
According to research carried out by Hootsuite in December, Starbucks is the best performing brand on social media, closely followed by Chanel, Friskies and Urban Outfitters. So be sure to check out their activity for inspiration.
6. Launch a PR campaign
Gaining press coverage is essentially like getting free advertising. But it’s actually better than that, because editorial has more credibility and is more likely to convince potential new customers to check you out. The hard part is coming up with a newsworthy angle and this will depend on whether you’re targeting local or national media, print, TV or radio.
Perhaps you have a great personal story to tell about why you started your business, maybe you’ve launched a unique new product or have identified an interesting sales trend? Conducting surveys in your specialist field and publishing the results can offer a credible line for journalists or why not try a spot of responsive PR, looking out for relevant journalist requests you can respond to? Search Twitter for opportunities using the following hashtags: #pressrequest or #journorequest.
7. Invest in promotional merchandise
Small corporate gifts are a great way to thank customers for their business and reinforce your brand at the same time. You can provide branded pens for pennies and it will put your company name and contact details at your customers’ fingertips for months to come.
But don’t scrimp too much, cheap and cheerful can be a false economy. There’s no point giving a really cheap pen which is going to run out of ink really quickly — not only will your brand exposure be short-lived, giving low quality items reflects badly on your company.
See how giving away pens played its part in Metro Bank’s growth
The more creative you can be with your gifts the better. Something unusual or personalized will delight the recipient and may lead to them posting about the gift on social media, earning your brand extra glory.
8. Join forces with another business
There’s power in numbers ╨ if you can identify other businesses targeting the same kind of customer as you, but not directly competing there’s an opportunity to join forces for mutual benefit.
How to Implement Successful Marketing Partnerships
For example if you’re a florist you can offer an exclusive discount for customers of the local bridal shop. For you, it’s a great way to attract new customers. For the established business it’s a way to reward their customers at no expense and with virtually no effort.
In conclusion
These are just 8 ways to build your brand awareness in 2015! With a little imagination and an understanding of your customer, the sky (and your budget) is the limit when it comes to getting in front of your target audience this year.