Roy's Blog
July 27, 2019
6 ways to build your digital brand on a small budget
People research businesses online before deciding to make purchases and therefore creating an appealing digital brand that stands out from competitors is crucial to your success. If you have a modest budget and are overwhelmed by the cost of marketing, don’t panic. It’s possible to build brand awareness and increase exposure without a lot of resources.
Here are six cost-effective marketing techniques that will help you grab and hold the attention of your online customers.
Share compelling human stories
In order to create long lasting relationships with your customers you have to declare what makes your brand different. People drive brands; separate yourself from the rest by revealing something special about your company.
Creating opportunities for more personal interactions with your customers will encourage a sense of trust. People generally feel trust as they get to know someone, and they do this by sharing stories. Other brands will seem like just a logo when your company shares stories that emphasize human elements like vulnerability, honesty and emotion.
Instagram is a great platform for storytelling. Use ‘Instagram Stories’ to share video narratives about why you started your business, testimonials from happy customers or behind-the-scenes footage of your team or product.
You can also try content related to your product. YETI, for example, is an outdoor sporting company whose series of videos highlight human stories with values that align with their company’s lifestyle goals.
Collect and distribute user-generated content (UCG)
Inexpensive and engaging content doesn’t always have to come from you. UCG can promote your business and drive brand awareness. There are many ways to invite UGC, contests are one of the simplest.
Designing an effective online contest is as easy:
1. Identify your goal: what type of content do you need? Customer videos? Photos? Tweets?
2. Pick a prize that is attractive enough to entice people to submit
3. Create a unique hashtag to monitor submissions and the conversation around your contest.
4. Promote your contest and clearly articulate the rules (I.E.: ‘mention the company name and hashtag to enter’)
5. Select the winners and share their submissions on your brand profile
Greeting card company Boomf, asks consumers to capture their loved ones’ reactions for a chance to win as well as be featured online. This means they have an endless stream of content without needing to invest a lot of resources.
Collaborate
Creating co-branded content is a low-cost way to establish a partnership with a new business and, a new audience. Collaborating with a partner allows you to share resources and expand your reach by accessing your partner’s followers while exposing a new audience to your brand.
Working with another company sets you apart from other brands by exemplifying your business’ sense of community, partnership and team-spirit: qualities not always associated with online brands. In addition, collaboration allows both parties to hone their strengths and get help with weaker points.
Vlog
Vlogging is like blogging but better because it features video. Videos resonate more than static photos because they involve action, visuals, sound and information delivered in a personal way.
Vlogs are an excellent way to deliver high quality recorded content that emphasizes your brand’s knowledge (a ‘buyer beware’ video, for example).
If you focus on specific and local information that directly affects your customers, your vlog will be more useful than the brand-next-door who delivers generic, international information. For example, an accountant might vlog about changes to state taxes that directly affect his clients.
Reuse content
Once you have successful content you can repurpose it by presenting it in a fresh new way. For example:
Articles: If you have content with multiple tips, you can repurpose those tips into separate vlog posts.
Infographic: Present information as an image by designing an infographic from your old content.
Video: Make an animated video with narration that mirrors the original.
Facebook post: present tips in individual Facebook posts. Create a call-to-action, driving your fans back to your website.
Twitter tweets: use key takeaways as new tweets, include your website URL and account within the 140 character limit.
Join online conversations
A great way to increase brand awareness is to add value to online conversations by offering your opinion, advice or thought-leadership. To further enhance your credibility within your industry, you can also create and share valuable, relevant content to industry groups on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc… If you can’t find a suitable group for your business, start your own!
While it might seem daunting, with these tips, and a little guidance from a digital branding service, you are ready to begin building a knockout digital brand (without breaking your bank).
— Natasha Ponomaroff is the Senior Marketing Director of Instasize – a content creating tool kit for anyone editing photos and online content on mobile. A weekly contributor on the site’s blog, Natasha tracks social media trends and updates the millions of “creatives” who are currently using Instasize to curate awesome online content. When she isn’t writing up the latest trend, Natasha is overseeing a team of 10 over at the Instasize HQ – ensuring that the marketing content on the app’s various social platforms is ready to go. Visit Natasha on LinkedIn
- Posted 7.27.19 at 04:04 am by Roy Osing
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