Before anyone can do business with your company, they need to have heard of you, they need to understand what you do, then they need to figure out if what you do is what they want. Awareness is the first part of the process and the internet is a great place to start.
So you want people to hear about you.
Going back to marketing basics, you need to know who these people are, and where they are likely to be looking.
Unless your message is extremely eye-catching and memorable, and you have a massive budget (think John Lewis, and £7 million), it will take at least four mentions before your name sticks in your buyer’s head. Make sure you are visible everywhere they look and don’t be afraid to say the same thing more than once. Think about how many times you have to see a normal (not John Lewis) TV advert before you remember who it’s for. Repetition, repetition repetition.
There are plenty of online marketing tools to use to generate awareness, and you will find more information in our Simple Guide to Online Marketing e-book below.
PR
PR is often considered to be an offline marketing tool, but most publications have online versions and some only exist online. The benefits of PR are well known; the third party endorsement that comes from editorial coverage is unbeatable. When your coverage is online it is even easier to share and reuse, so get as much mileage as possible out of any press publicity you receive.
Advertising
Just like traditional advertising, your choice of media is key to your success. Online advertising has the benefit of very clever targeting, so you can squeeze as much as possible out of your budget with minimal wastage.
Search Engines
If you are looking for something online, what do you do? You Google it. So make sure Google finds your content though effective Search Engine Optimisation. The better your content, the more likely it is to be shared and linked to by other people and that tells Google that it’s worth reading and pushes it higher up their rankings.
Social Media
Social media is a gift to anyone who wants to raise their profile. Choose your channels based on what you already know about your audience. Keep a regular presence and share interesting, useful, entertaining information which is related to your chosen topic. The more valuable your content is, the more likely other people are to share it, and the more your awareness will grow.
To find out more about using online marketing to increase awareness and attract more business, download our free e-book.
