Welcome to the final post on branding your e-commerce company. Here, we’re going to talk about creating awareness for your brand. Click here for the previous part on your brand’s online presence and social messaging.
As discussed earlier, social media is a good place to focus your advertising efforts, and you can build up from there. Other methods include partnerships, pay-per-click ads, remarketing, and newspaper and TV ads. But it’s not that you have to do all these at once—pick whatever works best for you and roll with that.
Let’s have a look at the different methods for promoting your brand:
Infographics
Infographics are illustrated content that extensively describe a particular topic, like a trend or a topic in your line of business. If you’re a company dealing with organic produce, you could create an infographic that highlights the benefits of your company, supported by numbers and data.
Make infographics that describe your company, relevant topics to your industry, or any of the pain points that your company addresses. The good thing about infographics is that they work as versatile marketing material that you can deploy in many different contexts.
Partnerships
Partnerships go a long way towards promoting your company to your target audience. Participate in local events and trade shows, and bring something exciting to the discussion. Hand out brochures, flyers, t-shirts, and actively advertise your company.
For example, if you’re a company that makes craft beer, music festivals and food fairs would be a good place to have your brand represented.
PPC advertising
If your budget allows you to spend on advertising, don’t hesitate to go for pay-per-click ads. These ads help your company get discovered by potential customers, and give you an edge over your competitors. Make sure to do keyword research before you make decisions on your campaign.
A simple way to do research is to search for your business’s domain on Google and make a note of the suggestions that appear. You can also find suggestions at the bottom of the results page.
Remarketing
Remarketing or retargeting is the process of showing your ads to people who’ve already browsed on your site, with specific links to products they’ve viewed. Google Ads helps you do remarketing by just integrating a piece of their code onto your website. For remarketing on social media, each platform comes with its own set of guidelines, which you can find on each of their platforms.
Paid social advertising
Paid advertising on social media is a great way to get on the radar of your target demographic and showcase your products. Ads with a “Buy” button are becoming increasingly common and can drive good traffic to your website.
Influencers
Influencers are people who are generally well-known in their social circles and boast of a considerable number of followers. Getting influencers to promote your brand will help you with your reach and influence as a brand.
While choosing an influencer, do a check on their personality type and niche, and research for appropriate hashtags.
Traditional media
Traditional media typically involves advertisements on TV, radio, and magazines, and also includes physical media like billboards, brochures, and business cards.
While newspaper ads are more of a short-term approach, magazine ads have a longer shelf life and hold more appeal, simply in terms of gloss and color content. The same way, getting company merchandise like t-shirts, hats, and stationery is a relatively simple way to promote brand awareness.
Conclusion
Even while operating on a shoestring budget, don’t skimp on promoting your brand and your online store. You don’t necessarily have to start right after launch—find your footing, and get the bare minimum in place. This includes blogs, videos, social media, SEO, and all your website essentials. With just a little bit of effort, you’ll be able to get these up and about.
…and with this, we’ve come to the end of the branding blog series. Tell us how you liked the posts, and leave any comments or thoughts below!