Brand Aware
5 Free ways to grow brand awareness online
We all know that it is getting more and more important for new businesses to be recognised online. But how to gain that doesn’t always seem the most clear and many guides online only want to sell you their new shiny software. So here are 5 FREE ways to grow your brand awareness online!
Brand awareness is pivotal for every business in order to grow their presence. With the current trends, the most effective method for businesses at the moment is to gain an online presence. This is because a large amount of people are shopping online and are feeling more confident with it ever since the Covid-19 lockdowns (I know, there were lots of them!). The 5 free methods to grow are: Organic Social Media, Google My Business, Writing Blogs, SEO and Youtube.
1 Social Media (Organic methods)
Organic Social Media is any social media activity that doesn’t require payments. This can be done using any of the social media outlets, the popular ones like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn! These different social media platforms are a great way for communicating and raising awareness of your brand. The use of organic social media is amazing at talking with customers freely, building a repertoire with them and potentially gaining more customers!
With social media platforms being highly popular among people of all ages, it creates a potential for reaching new potential consumers. This is because they can see that their friend likes one of your business’ post and then they can notice your organisation, which in the end, is the main goal for everyone to see how awesome your business is!
2 Google My Business
Google My Business (GMB) is an online tool that allows you to manage how people see your company online! Using GMB, any company can pinpoint where they are based on Google Maps and write a short description about their company. This allows people nearby to identify your business online for free and gives your company free exposure!
With the increase of geographic searches and the new Google algorithm, the use of GMB is becoming more important by the day. A great example is the restaurant market, with hungry people searching places to eat near me. It can display your organisation and increase your brand awareness with a wider range of audiences. Not only that but GMB gives way for your customers to review you, giving your business more recognition. But remember to reply to all reviews, good and bad.
3 Blog Writing (Guest Blogging)
Blog Writing is a free way of communicating with your audience about a certain subject. The subject can interest your selected audience and answer any potential questions that they might have with the subject. Saving you all the effort of having to answer the same questions you get asked everyday! Blog writing on your own website is great at helping potential/current consumers with any questions about your product or service that you provide, although writing on another website as a ‘guest blogger’ is better. Guest blogging is when you write on another person’s website, obviously with permission, about a subject!
Guest blogging gives you a nice link back to your website to help with your SEO as well as getting your name out there, on a blog that may have more readers than your own.
4 SEO – Backlinks
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of gaining online traffic from free, natural searches results in search engines. Or in English terms, it is the way you get more people to see your website when they search a term that relates to your business. The process is aimed at increasing your website’s position in search engine results. The higher the website’s position, the more people will see it, therefore, increasing your brand awareness.
Backlinks are one of the many ways professional SEOs aim to increase the rank of your website. A backlink is a link from someone else’s website to your own. Backlinks are used by search engines to determine the value of your website and therefore rank it higher. The easiest way to get backlinks is through directories.
Directories are the use of another website that allows you to advertise your website for free. For example, using TrustATrader, so when they search a specific term. For example, plumber, it will give the user a direct link to your website and thus increase your brand awareness.
5 Youtube/Podcasts
YouTube is a free media platform that allows the user to upload videos and have them published on their website. Pretty much everybody has used YouTube, so I doubt I need to explain it. It is an exceptional way of increasing brand awareness as it allows you to talk about your website, or about a variety of topics and upload them onto their website. With it being uploaded, audiences search for certain terms, which will display your videos and therefore it will help increase your online brand awareness!
Podcasts are an excellent method of engaging with your target audience. A podcast is an episodic series that a person can either listen to online or download to their device, like their mobile phone. A popular service that has lots of listeners of podcasts is Spotify. Obviously Spotify is a streaming service usually for music, but they have started using podcasts in the past year! Podcasts are used to entertain and educate your listeners about different topics. Being capable of being listened to via a different method will expand your online reach, therefore, increasing your online brand awareness.
Extra tip for E-commerce Business – Google Merchant Centre
An extra top tip for all the ecommerce businesses!
Google Merchant Centre (GMC) is a digital platform that e-commerce businesses can upload product information, which will be used for Google Shopping. This is an opportunity to advertise your business for free, as you can provide information about your online business and link to your website. This is a relatively new method of organically (Without paying for it!) selling your products to users online. With users searching for specific items, it increases the likelihood of them noticing your product/company via GMC. And the more people that see your product/company, the better at knowing your brand and potentially earning you revenue!
For more marketing top tips, and advice follow us on Facebook and Linkedin. Or check out our own blog at https://clockworkmoggy.com/blog/
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