A company’s brand is how they are portrayed to the wider community. A strong brand image is linked with high customer satisfaction, traffic and revenue. Whereas a poor brand image has the exact opposite effect. Today technology has allowed for a reduction in barriers to entry to many marketplaces making competition between companies far more competitive than previous decades. This had led to an increased need for distinction between brands. Which brands are linked with consumers values and ideals? Those brands with a strong and reputable image shine above the competition, even if the services/products they offer are similar.
So how do brands acquire this strong, reputable and shiny brand image? The answer is through good quality products/services and smart marketing. Unfortunately, we can’t help you with producing the products/services that customers will flock to. However, there are a number of tested and proven digital marketing strategies that can have this effect. These include Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation, all of which not only build a company’s online brand but also it’s following. So let’s dive into each of them:
Social Media Marketing
The power of social media is already well known with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest being just some of the household names in the industry. Each of them has their own distinct audiences and culture all of which play a key role in your marketing strategies through each. But each of them also boasts a considerable audience base that can be reached through little to no advertising spend. Also due to it’s very “social” nature, it brings together friends and families on these platforms that are designed for sharing. Part of this sharing is around products and services. Companies can place articles and other content into these environments and interact with these communities creating and building brand recognition, brand awareness and ultimately positive brand image.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a set of tools and strategies to help companies rank their websites higher on search engines. For instance, whenever you search for a phrase on Google the results presented to you and the order they are presented is in fact based on Google’s algorithm. Google takes factors such as customer traffic, the authority of the website and which results are most related to the search query. Brands which have greater brand image usually have more customer traffic to their website and therefore more authority, leading them to rank higher in these results. However business can always look to improve their ranking on google search results through a number of SEO strategies such as smart content creation, increasing of backlinks, updated and user-friendly webpages etc. All of this can be done through a trusted marketing agency and has the same effect with improving the brand image (more customers = more authority= higher rankings).
Email marketing
Email marketing is an older form of digital marketing, but its usefulness is still highly undervalued. Email marketing allows for companies to regularly provide potential customers with informative and tailored marketing material. This ability to produce highly targeted material and individually send it to each potential consumer is unavailable through many of the other marketing mediums. This form of marketing also allows companies to see how individuals people respond to an email campaign and tweak them based on individual preferences/circumstances. When it is conducted properly email marketing can build customer trust and affinity and add greatly to the brand image of a company.
All of these strategies only work however when they are used wisely in the right hands. If you don’t feel comfortable undertaking these yourself, there are also trusted and experienced digital marketing firms that can leverage these strategies to help you achieve the right results for your company.