In the past few years we have seen many brands making a shift from investing in so-called above-the-line to below-the-line advertising. In other words, more and more ad spend is being allocated to the fast growing interactive and highly measurable channel such as the internet.
It comes as no surprise. Costs are low and the audience is there, where it once wasn’t: over 60% of the people in the UK access the internet daily, which is more than 30 million folk!
It’s a no brainer for advertisers: they need to be in the digital ad space in order capture the attention of their potential consumer base.
Right, so brands need to promote their products and services in the internet, what next?
Plan, research and have insight as to who your target audience is: where do they spend their time online, which competitors do they use, and what is your strategy in order to become the market leader in your industry.
Consumers nowadays are very savvy. They know exactly what they want, and their expectations of a brand are growing each day. Therefore you should always keep the consumer at the core of your business.
It’s not all about what values and feelings you want your brand to present, or how you can beat your competition in the ad space you are in; it’s about how you engage with your customers, how you get them to be a part of your brand culture and how they can act as spokepeople for your brand.
This is the part where digital marketing can help you to get off to a good start.
If you have a great service you provide, or useful products that you sell, make sure you tell everyone about them and why they should use your brand. Ensure you have a captivating story for each product or service. Might sound silly, however this is what will make the brand and product connect with the potential customer on a more personal level.
After all, have you ever bought an item or booked a service with no reason behind it?
I’m pretty sure every customer would have a story to tell as to why they are looking for what you have to offer!
Some great channels to connect with people are Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, to mention a few.
They are free to join and use. But remember, once you’ve activated your accounts, it’s important to keep them alive and constantly updated. If you don’t have the resource to do that – it is a time consuming responsibility – hire an agency like Azam to do it on your behalf.
Have competitions and product give-aways to attract traffic to your site, let people review and blog about your products and services. Engage consumers in conversation and be spontaneous in starting discussions yourself as well – let your customers feel that they are a part of a family and that they can contribute.
Now that you’ve let your brand loose in the internet, remember to support its journey to success.
It’s not enough just to ‘make noise’ in the social space, even if all positive, you need to drive sales at the end of the day.
Invest in several platforms such as pay-per-click advertising (PPC), email marketing, and perhaps affiliates and display activity too. You need to ensure your website is up to scratch, make sure your content is gold and people will be interested in reading it and sharing it with others. Perhaps let the users generate some of the content too in a form of reviews and so on.
Nothing is more powerful than a positive review and a recommendation from a customer to others when it comes to promoting your business.
Contact Azam to drive more leads and sales for your business. Drop us a line at results [at] azam.net or call +44 (0) 870 870 2222 anytime.