Brand Awareness: are you doing it right?

Keeping your brand top of mind is usually one of the number one goals for any marketer across all industries. You want others in your industry to recognize you; more importantly, you want to set yourself up as a reliable and knowledgeable resource for current and future clients. There are a lot of ways you can promote your brand – but we have some ideas on ways you can do it most effectively, with better results and a smaller budget. Read on to learn more.

SEO or promotional campaigns?

You have two basic choices when it comes to increasing your brand awareness: you can work on it organically, or you can create a paid promotional campaign. While there are good points to both strategies, you also have to consider the bad – which includes the cost and opportunity for growth.

For instance, paid promotional campaigns seem like the obvious answer to many marketers seeking to raise brand awareness. You can tailor your message to a specific audience and create a new story around your brand.  But the problem with promotional campaigns really comes down to cost versus benefit. You can certainly create a campaign that raises your brand awareness exactly how you envisioned and pull it off without a hitch – until you consider the cost for the actual promotion. No matter how well your campaign is crafted, you are only going to get clicks and results as long as you can pay for it. When your budget it gone, your visibility is, too.

Promotions also tend to grow old and stale to your audience rather quickly. Think about how many times you’ve seen the same Instagram ad over and over. After a while, you don’t even read the words or see the image. You just scroll on by, because it has become part of your daily landscape. So while paid campaigns can certainly bring you results, those results can leave just as quickly, leaving you with less traffic and a spent budget.

On the other hand, many people look to SEO (search engine optimization) as the best way to get their message and brand out to their potential clients. We hate to pick sides, but we agree – SEO reigns supreme when it comes to increasing brand awareness. One of the biggest pros of SEO is cost. You won’t blow your budget by focusing on SEO; it’s all built into your content. Essentially, you are promoting your brand with every website update, social media post, blog, or email campaign you send. You’re spending your money on talent instead of on yet another Facebook ad.

It is important to note that SEO results won’t happen overnight – you need to build your brand awareness through SEO in a way that establishes your expertise and gives valuable resources to others. That takes time. But it also gives you a tailor-made brand awareness strategy that is sure to get you more results in the long run, especially as you become more of a SEO expert.

How do I use SEO to grow my brand?

Now that you know where we fall on the SEO vs promotional campaign argument, we have some ideas for you to get started.

• Make a SEO plan. This may seem like an obvious point, but the last thing you want is to jump into a new brand awareness strategy without having a plan in place. Make goals to check for progress and look for organic options that can help your specific industry.
• Get your team on board. Not everyone is familiar with SEO, and that’s okay – this is the perfect time to learn. Work through some questions together and help everyone on your marketing and even your sales teams gain an understanding of why SEO is so useful.
• Start with the basics. When is the last time you revamped your website? How often do you send emails to loyal clients? These are just a couple of ways you can start to incorporate SEO as you begin your new plan.
• Find an expert. You’re busy. Learning a new method of brand awareness, creating a plan, teaching others how to understand it, and then executing the plan may just not be part of your timetable right now. Find an industry expert who can help you navigate the ins and outs of SEO so you can continue to do your job without losing your SEO opportunities.

Need Help?

Your time and budget are valuable – use them well. Reach out today to ask how we can help you develop a SEO plan that will save your bottom line while bringing you fresh business and ensuring that everyone knows exactly why you’re the best at what you do.

Our approach to content marketing revolves around the development of relevant content delivered in a journalist style.   Many companies use their blog to toot their own horn and promote accomplishments within the company.   While this is important it is necessary to have a good balance of quality journalistic content, white papers, and call to action opportunities relevant to your industry – along with the moments your company is proud feature.

Focal Point focuses your content marketing around a key word strategy.  We develop a editorial calendar to insure we deliver the right content at the right time of the year.  This allow us to have a plan in place so we can push content out on a consistent basis and keep the content fresh and relevant.

Need help understanding how to develop a content marketing campaign? 

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