In our final installment, we are going to detail why and how to promote your brand. Our previous articles included tactics for building your brand, how to drive brand awareness, and how to develop a strong online reputation. Now we will put together everything we have learned to get your brand in front of your audience to drive traffic and conversions.

Why Businesses Use Paid Tactics to Promote Their Brands

There is a lot to be said for organic growth. Relying on word of mouth and waiting for search engines to index your site is relatively free. The issue is that organic growth takes a very long time, which is leaving potential sales on the table. Since web pages are going to be indexed anyway, there is no problem with giving the process a little push and capturing more targeted traffic in the process. Strategically placed ads on search engines, social media, and other platforms will promote your brand and get you in front of the customers you want much faster than waiting on search engines and the occasional shared social media post.

Understanding Pay-Per-Click Marketing

The two big platforms for promoting your brand are Google and Facebook. Both use the pay-per-click (PPC) model. PPC allows businesses and organizations to set their budgets and define their target audience by using demographics such as location, age, gender, relevant interests, and more. When people click on the ad, money is taken away from the budget until the total amount is depleted. Unlike traditional marketing where an ad is placed in a magazine or on television or radio, PPC gives businesses and organizations more control over who they want to see their ads in order to promote their brands. PPC is one of the more customizable and direct forms of brand promotion available. Another variant of the PPC model is offered by LinkedIn. While LinkedIn is primarily for B2B marketing, their PPC model allows for more personalized messages, which have higher conversion rates than many email campaigns. LinkedIn, like Google and Facebook, also offers carousel and video ad formats. PPC has become the most effective way for businesses and organizations to promote their brands across many platforms.

Advanced Strategies to Promote Your Brand

Marketing is an ongoing process that can shift with demands, trends, and user searches. Try utilizing these tactics:

• Remarketing Content: The good thing about promoting your brand is that strategies do not entirely rely on fresh content. While new blogs, videos, and social media posts go a long way in keeping your brand relevant, you can also remarket older content. The first step is to analyze how people are finding your website. What longtail keywords are they using? Where are those searches originating? Are they finding your brand from a search engine or another platform? You can use this information to create PPC ads directing people to older (but relevant) content to capitalize on the search terms used.
• Add Something to Your Conversion Funnel: A call to action can be very effective, but a free demo, e-book, or interactive preview can multiply your conversions. Getting something for free ahead of a sale can drive traffic and push conversions better than just words.
• Build an All-Purpose Marketing Fund: You cannot predict when something will go viral, or when something tangential to your brand presents the opportunity to go all-in on marketing. In addition to your regular monthly marketing budget, keep a separate all-purpose fund that can be tapped at any time to take advantage of unexpected trends, new products, and more.
• Publish Off-Topic Content: Not every brand has the ubiquity of Coca-Cola, Apple, and other major corporations. Creating brand affinity can be challenging with audiences who may not have heard of your business or organization. By mixing off-topic content or content that is tangentially related to your brand, you are offering an added value to your visitors which will bring new clients and grow a loyal base quickly, which can then be funneled to products and services.

Explore New Areas to Promote Your Brand

While Google and Facebook may be the biggest players on the block, it is smart to promote your brand on other platforms, as well. Look to where your target audience spends a lot of their time. While YouTube is part of Google, the exponential growth in video content over the past few years has made it a great place for digital marketing campaigns. Placing ads in videos to promote your brand can capture a large audience. TikTok – one a haven for Zillennials – is drawing in older people as well, who are creating meaningful content. It never hurts to become an early adopter and promote your brand on a new platform. Remember, the digital arena is fluid, and there are new platforms emerging all the time that can be leveraged to market your brand and get sales.

To learn more about tactics for promoting your brand or any of the finer points we’ve touched on in this series, reach out to the team at Outpace Digital Marketing. We will answer your questions and provide solutions to help you take your brand to the next level.