With 2015 right around the corner, there’s no better time to evaluate your current communications strategy and start implementing new ways to create noise for your brand.
A common challenge for many brands is breaking through the clutter to connect with their target audience in a meaningful way. For many small businesses there are also financial limitations that restrict the level of traditional advertising that they can engage in. For those looking for cost effective and credible ways to boost awareness and connect with their audience, here are 5 tips to make noise for your brand in 2015.
Tip 1
Investing in a well-executed PR strategy allows you to get the most value for your money while creating an authentic and trustworthy message. The benefits of PR are that it is far more credible than advertising and often a lot less expensive. PR is effective for businesses of any size and is a cost effective option for smaller brands that don’t necessarily have a large advertising budget. Traditional advertising requires a large outlay of cash upfront before a brand can expect to really reach their audience. Whereas a well-executed PR campaign generates buzz for a brand and has the potential to reach an even greater audience.
Tip 2
Publishing engaging, shareable content that links well to your brand and is topical and appealing to your audience is a fantastic way to generate awareness of your brand.
The key is to avoid creating content that is overly sales-oriented and focus on writing articles that people will want to share with others and that are centred on topics that are current. Online blogs and social media are great platforms to publish content as they are immediate and can be shared across a large audience.
Tip 3
Be careful when using social media not to “social spam” you audience, and really listen to and implement the feedback you receive. Social media only works effectively if it is used as an interactive two-way street between your brand and its audience. Avoid posting too frequently or only posting content that promotes your brand. Experiment with content that may not directly reference your brand, but still fits within your brand ethos and language. Pay close attention to the response you get from you audience and adjust your social media strategy accordingly.
Tip 4
Guerrilla marketing and viral campaigns can spread your brands message to a large group of people and cut through existing noise to gain attention. Just make sure that your campaign still links back to your brand and its message to ensure it leaves a lasting impression and doesn’t get lost in the buzz.
Tip 5
Actively comment and engage in conversations on relevant industry blogs to create valuable link-backs to your site. Ensure that your comments are reflective of your brand language and include a website URL. While this is a great way to raise your profile, be careful to avoid self-promotion or spam messaging and make sure that whatever you are posting is both relevant and insightful to the conversation.
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About the author:
Director of Believe Advertising and PR, Adrian Falk, has been successfully generating national and international press coverage for clients for 13 years.
Adrian has worked with a diverse range of lifestyle, beauty and fashion clients including Seiko, Furla, Vodka O and Coon, and has worked on many high profile PR campaigns, including the viral PR campaign with Novak Djokovic for the worldwide launch of HEAD’s new Graphene Speed tennis racquet, and the international press conference announcing Sekio’s partnership with Novak Djokovic.
