7 Ways to Build Brand Awareness with Zero Budget

Oct 22, 2018Online Marketing0 comments

Brand awareness is one significant factor that contributes to the make or break in a competitive market. The product could be a great leap of innovation or a scientific breakthrough of some sort, but it would not matter without the people being aware of it. Catching and maintaining the attention of the target market could either mean generating profit or suffering income loss.

In an ideal setting, you would imagine your brand to be the first among other companies that come to mind when consumers are looking for a certain item they could buy. Although, because of the increasing competitive brands in the market along with the customer’s purchasing power, building your brand could be difficult that’s why you need to be keen with spying your competitors to keep up with the trend.

Because of this, businesses that have relatively low budgets could have it even more difficult to make a name in the market. It’s a good thing that brand awareness does not necessarily always mean the bigger the cost, the more effective it is. Yes, it would be great to have big events and glamorous campaigns however there are still ways to pull this off without going above the budget.

What is Brand Awareness?

The ability of consumers to identify your product is known as brand awareness. Let’s say if someone would want to buy a “Kleenex,” the first mental image that would appear in your head is tissue. Of course, other companies manufacture tissue, but the reach of Kleenex has become large enough that consumers have associated the brand with the item. As the brand becomes more known, the more the people are likely to cling to it and rely on it compared to other brands.

This is why building brand awareness is vital in making the business relevant in the market. The brand could become most known, establish its target market, and acquire more partnerships among others. The more a brand is known would usually mean effectively better income and the security that it would be hard for other brands to penetrate the market.

Why is Building Brand Awareness Important?

What the audience would perceive upon hearing or seeing your brand’s name is what brand awareness is all about. It will help by:

Promoting your business
Introducing new products or services successfully
Building the reputation of the business
Differentiating yourself from other businesses
Finding and maintaining relationships with consumers

Tracking how its audience and the public receive your business could make a great lasting impact when it comes to being the number one chosen brand. It is where the strength of your brand identity would factor into how much people will think about your business. If it seems to be relatively weak, they would not have much to think about. It is why identifying your business brand and strengthening it is important in making the brand successful.

How to Build Brand Awareness on a Budget?

Here are some ways that are guaranteed to make the people talk about your brand with the only little-to-no budget.

01. Optimize your Website for SEO

The digital presence of any brand is on its website. Making the website easier and more convenient to use for the customer is one of the important factors that can decide the number of visitors you get on your website. According to research, 85% of consumers search through the web when they are looking for local businesses. Having your website at the top of Google search results is not easy. However, it is possible to tweak your website into a better rank on the search results. Be sure to add as many keywords that refer to your market and industry as you can, since this could add to having your website on the top of the search results in Google.

02. Find the Right Influencer for your Brand

If you are a startup brand, having someone influential or well-known from a certain industry to talk about your brand could either help build your brand or ruin it. If you’re tapping to influencer marketing for ROI you need to make sure the influencer will add to brand awareness and interaction through social relations and campaigns, you should also take into account the number of followers they have but also how relevant they are to the brand itself.

Finding the right influencer is not always about collaborating with the persons who have the biggest names in the industry. It should also consider if the person would effectively deliver the message to the audience. If you want to find the best influencer to carry the brand name, you should also look at the content they release and see if it would fit the message and brand image you want to deliver to your audience. Looking through their comment sections can also help you determine if their audience will suit the brand.

03. Launch a YouTube Channel

Videos are found to be 74 percent of this year’s online traffic. In only just a month, 8 out of 10 people aged 18 to 49 years old watch YouTube. As the platform increasingly earns billions of subscribers, it has been considered by the people as a reliable source of video content. It is considered the world’s second-largest search engine.

Begin making videos for your brand by following these mindful concepts:

Be consistent. Determine how frequent you will post. The best brands release at least 78 videos a month, so this should mean frequency is important in maintaining a channel successfully.
Maintain your branding. Your videos shouldn’t be overly promotional, but featuring a watermark or logo, along with an end screen, are effective yet minimal branding tactics.
Follow the Overall Marketing Strategy. Your YouTube channel should be connected with your social media accounts as an overall marketing plan. Have your social media accounts release outputs interconnected with the overall marketing plan.

04. Create an Impressive Guest Content

Establishing a name in the market can also be done online by publishing content that is highly interactive and aesthetic enough for other blogs to share. In spite of what some people would say, this is still an effective strategy to become known in the market. Although, you cannot just choose whichever content you would like. It would have to be of high quality. Creating guest post content that is catchy and relevant can expose your brand to new audiences and make your impression last.

05. Make the Most out of LinkedIn

Aside from posting high-quality content, you can also become known through the web by other means such as by publishing content through LinkedIn. If you have been to LinkedIn recently, they have begun letting users post by using the publishing tool. In addition to that, you can also get associated as an opinion leader if you have posts made by your account. You could also start your company’s blog and publish posts there as long as you are sure to have your posts promoted.

06. Introduce a Referral Program

When done right, having referral programs can make your brand powerful. This strategy could build your audience’s trust with you more than any advertisement on the market. People, in general, will most likely try a product or some service if a friend refers it to them. As an example, I only began using Facebook because of a friend’s referral.

Another example is how DropBox created a signup-driven website, and while it made signing up easier, it also encouraged the audience to refer them to a friend. They would even give the audience incentives such as more storage space. It resulted in a 60% rise of their sign-ups.

07. Engage through Social Media

Getting free exposure can also be done by utilizing social media. It includes posting through well-known and heavily used social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter among others. Many more social networking sites focus on certain industries. To maximize your online reach, you should choose which would deliver your business best.

As of April 2017, Facebook remains the best known among all social networking sites with its 1.86 billion users per month. However, it does not necessarily mean it would best suit every brand. The site can bring bad publicity if the number of negative comments by users becomes uncontrollable. To better utilize the world’s largest social networking site here’s a guide to Facebook advertising by Shopify to reach the right audience and generate more sales.

Be sure to keep your account active, whatever social media platform you choose. You should be able to maintain your page activity without it congesting people’s news feeds. Having three to four posts a day can help peak your followers’ interests with your account. Do not stay in one pattern of posting. You can try combining your media and links into one post. Usually, telling a story can work with posts longer than the usual. Most of all, be active in responding to your consumers’ queries.

Remember…

Your brand is your greatest identity online. If your customers cannot meet you personally before doing business, you should be able to establish that you can be trusted.

Even a small mistake could endanger your startup. Although if you can execute these tried and tested steps, it can guarantee your customers that you are a reliable brand.